{"id":60153,"date":"2021-10-30T06:05:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T11:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60153"},"modified":"2021-10-30T06:05:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T11:05:04","slug":"cop-26-stopping-climate-change-and-other-illusions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=60153","title":{"rendered":"COP-26: Stopping Climate Change and Other Illusions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elx5_article_header\">\n<div class=\"elx5_zero\">\n<h3 class=\"elx5_article_h1i\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.buildingsandcities.org\/insights\/commentaries\/cop26-illusions.html\">COP-26: Stopping Climate Change and Other Illusions<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"elx5_content_imagebox elx5_content_imageboxlr\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.buildingsandcities.org\/media\/images\/articles2\/atmosphericCO2.jpg\" alt=\"Measured atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory.  Note: red = the monthly mean values; black = the same, after correction for the average seasonal cycle. \" \/><figcaption>Measured atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory. Note: red = the monthly mean values; black = the same, after correction for the average seasonal cycle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Do not expect significant progress from COP-26 on climate change mitigation.\u00a0 There are fundamental barriers that prevent the deep and rapid changes that scientists advocate.\u00a0 Most countries adhere to economic growth policies &#8211; which create ecological overshoot.\u00a0 Unless and until we accept that we must live within ecological limits, then climate change will not be adequately tackled. Energy and resource consumption must be addressed through controlled economic contraction.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The world in 2021 was buffeted by an unprecedented barrage of extreme weather events. This is the leading edge of the climate catastrophe that lies ahead should world governments remain fixed on our present global \u2018development\u2019 trajectory.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that the recent uptick in violent weather has increased pressure on participants in COP-26 finally to implement the kind of determined measures that will dramatically lower GHG emissions and put global heating on hold; the bad news is that whatever is agreed to at COP-26 is unlikely to make any positive difference.<\/p>\n<p>There have been 25 COP meetings on climate change since 1995 and several international agreements to reduce carbon emissions, including the \u2018legally binding\u2019 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement of 2015. Nevertheless, atmospheric GHG concentrations have\u00a0\u00a0increased unabated during this entire 25 year period \u2014 CO<sub>2<\/sub>, the principal anthropogenic GHG, has ballooned exponentially from ~360ppm in 1995 to almost 420 ppm in 2020 \u2014 and mean global temperature has risen by ~1\u00a0<sup>o<\/sup>C.\u00a0\u00a0History suggests that\u00a0<i>what should emerge<\/i>\u00a0from COP26\u00a0<i>cannot emerge<\/i>\u00a0from COP26.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COP-26: Stopping Climate Change and Other Illusions Measured atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory. Note: red = the monthly mean values; black = the same, after correction for the average seasonal cycle. Do not expect significant progress from COP-26 on climate change mitigation.\u00a0 There are fundamental barriers that prevent the deep and rapid changes that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[32042,141,32040,386,391,475,14354,17076],"class_list":["post-60153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-buildings-and-cities","tag-climate-change","tag-cop-26","tag-greenhouse-gases","tag-growth","tag-kyoto-protocol","tag-paris-agreement","tag-william-rees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60154,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60153\/revisions\/60154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}