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Global Warming and the Planetary Boundary
Global Warming and the Planetary Boundary Climate change is on a fast track, a surprisingly fast, very fast track. As such, it’s entirely possible that humanity may be facing the shock of a lifetime, caught off-guard, blindsided by a crumbling ecosystem, spawning tens of thousands of ISIS-like fighters formed into competing gangs struggling for survival. […]
False Solutions? 3 Ways To Evaluate Grand Climate Proposals
False Solutions? 3 Ways To Evaluate Grand Climate Proposals The climate news gets scarier by the day. February obliterated all records as the warmest seasonally-adjusted month since measurements began. At this rate, we’re on a path to blow through the 1.5º C temperature rise the nations of the world set as a goal at COP21, not in decades but […]
Emissions standstill boosts Paris hopes
Emissions standstill boosts Paris hopes Reduced coal use in China will have a positive impact on poor air quality. Image: V.T. Polywoda via Flickr The link between global economic growth and emissions growth has been further weakened as greenhouse gas levels show no increase for the second year in succession. LONDON, 18 March, 2016 – The world continued […]
Does Methane Threaten Life?
Does Methane Threaten Life? The question of whether methane (CH4) in the atmosphere is a threat to life is extraordinarily complex and generally not well understood. But, yes it is a serious threat, very serious and horribly real. Okay, but don’t scientists understand this, and why aren’t they speaking out? They are speaking out but […]
On Pretending That What’s Happening Isn’t Actually Happening
On Pretending That What’s Happening Isn’t Actually Happening “Unbelievable Winter Color” by Albert H. Krehbiel Des Plaines River, 1928 Deep Winter Ruminations In December I found myself sliding into a state of extreme unwillingness to take on new projects, to continue work on those in hand, to write, or do much of anything else, really, […]
The US: A Nation In Dire Need of Energy and Climate Policy
The US: A Nation In Dire Need of Energy and Climate Policy A new Harvard University study finds that world methane emissions have recently spiked, and that the US appears to be the site of most of the increase. Natural gas fracking is the apparent culprit. This finding should be (though I wouldn’t bet on it) the […]
Pipeline Reforms ‘Great Step’ but Don’t Account for Most Emissions, Say Climate Critics
Pipeline Reforms ‘Great Step’ but Don’t Account for Most Emissions, Say Climate Critics Does ignoring downstream impacts export Canada’s responsibilities? Canada’s minister of the environment and climate change Catherine McKenna at the COP21 climate summit in Paris, France in December. Photo by Mychaylo Prystupa. The Trudeau government’s newly announced reforms to pipeline environmental assessments still fail […]
Inside the Paris Climate Agreement: Hope or Hype?
Inside the Paris Climate Agreement: Hope or Hype? It has become a predictable pattern at the annual UN climate conferences for participants to describe the outcome in widely divergent ways. This was first apparent after the high-profile Copenhagen conference in 2009, when a four-page non-agreement was praised by diplomats, but denounced by well-known critics as […]
A State of Confusion
A State of Confusion In the wake of Paris and COP21 both sides are claiming victory. The Greens believe they finally have a treaty that will deliver the dismantling of the fossil fuel industries and capitalism propelling the human race into a renewable idyll. The Sceptics see Paris as toothless mush that will likely deliver […]
Too Little, Too Late
Too Little, Too Late Last week, after a great deal of debate, the passengers aboard the Titanic voted to impose modest limits sometime soon on the rate at which water is pouring into the doomed ship’s hull. Despite the torrents of self-congratulatory rhetoric currently flooding into the media from the White House and an assortment of groups […]
Everyone is the Mother of Victory
Everyone is the Mother of Victory Everyone is the mother of victory; No one is the father of defeat. Do we claim COP21 as a success, and risk watching it being used by fossil fuel failures to carry on burning humanity, and so become complicit in defeat? Do we claim COP21 was a failure, and risk being […]
COP21 and “4 per thousand” – Storing Carbon in the Soil.
COP21 and “4 per thousand” – Storing Carbon in the Soil. It would have been a remarkable oversight, had not our use of the land and its soils featured among the discussions about climate change mitigation in Paris at COP21. However, at the conference was hosted a side-event and official launch of the “4 per thousand” […]
Paris Climate Deal: How Could They Do This to Us?
Paris Climate Deal: How Could They Do This to Us? On Sunday morning, 13 December 2015, the 2015 Paris Climate Summit (COP21) finally wound to close as the last decisions were agreed. At almost 1 a.m. observers representing youth, women, labour unions, research centers, indigenous peoples, and business were asked their opinion. Most media had […]
Renewable Energy After COP21: Nine issues for climate leaders to think about on the journey home
Renewable Energy After COP21: Nine issues for climate leaders to think about on the journey home Download as PDF COP21 in Paris is over. Now it’s back to the hard work of fighting for, and implementing, the energy transition. We all know that the transition away from fossil fuels is key to maintaining a livable […]
