Future of Life institute 31 Oct 2016
Robock: It’s really hard to get people’s attention, though. It’s a really depressing topic. When I’m asked to go give a talk somewhere I say I want to talk about this. “Well, could you maybe talk about something else?” And, as Mark Twain said, denial ain’t just a river in Egypt. It’s really hard to listen to this, it just hurts and people pretend it doesn’t exist and somebody else is going to take care of the problem. But I work a lot on global warming, which is a real problem that’s threatening us, much more slowly than this, it’s not instant climate change, it’s gradual climate change. We’ve got to solve this nuclear problem so we have the luxury of worrying about global warming.
Le blog de Ben Cramer, un chercheur sur les guerres et les paix qui a repris l'enseignement de Bouthoul le père de la polémologie (une spécialité très française) " Si tu veux la paix, connais la guerre". Son dada : la géopolitique du développement durable, l'éco-politique internationale et l'insoutenable légèreté des adeptes de la destruction durable.
Building the capacity for renewable energy involves the extraction of resources such as cobalt, lithium and nickel from the global south. The green revolution will be dirtier than we think
Asad Rehman, Independent Saturday 4 May 2019
Scratch the surface of the current plans to decarbonise the economy and replace it with renewable energies and beneath it lays the same logic that has made the UK the 6th richest country in the world. Britain is planning to go green through a new phase of resource and wealth extraction of countries in the global south. At the heart of our economic system fuelled by the City of
GND Plus is a five-point plan that gives shape to an essential, additional dimension to all existing Green New Deal discussions and plans - that of not just green prosperity, but peaceful green prosperity.
av Arash Gelichkan 24 jan 2020
"Ett förnybart energisystem förutsätter planering, kollektivt samarbete och framförallt gemensamt ägande."
"Vi lever inte i människans tidsålder, antropocen, utan det är kapitalismen som formar världen idag."
By By Barry Saxifrage in Opinion | National Observer, July 31st 2019,
Global fossil burning keeps rising relentlessly as the world sprints away from climate safety. Here are ten charts from the latest data to show you what's happening and who's doing it.
A small footnote here: since 1990 -- stop a second to take this in -- humanity has burned approximately half of all the fossil fuels it’s ever consumed. As my father used to say to me, “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.” And by the way, in the age of Donald Trump, U.S. carbon emissions are once again surging (as they are globally as well).
... Fight with the truth Skewed and partial e-mails do not disprove anthropogenic climate change. Gavin Schmidt of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studi...
Reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions is one of the greatest challenges of this century. How are emissions changing over time? How are they distributed across the world? Which countries are doing well and poorly in decarbonization? See global and country-level data on CO₂ emissions.
All quantities are presented in units of gigatonnes of carbon (GtC, 10[upphöjt]15 gC), which is the same as petagrams of carbon (PgC; Table 1). Units of gigatonnes of CO2 (or billion tonnes of CO2) used in policy are equal to 3.664 multiplied by the value in units of GtC.
by Nafeez Ahmed Oct 24 2019
The report says a combination of global starvation, war, disease, drought, and a fragile power grid could have cascading, devastating effects.
The report, titled Implications of Climate Change for the U.S. Army, was launched by the U.S. Army War College in partnership with NASA in May at the Wilson Center in Washington DC. The report was commissioned by Gen. Milley during his previous role as the Army’s Chief of Staff. It was made publicly available in August via the Center for Climate and Security, but didn't get a lot of attention at the time.
Bizarrely for a report styling itself around the promotion of environmental stewardship in the Army, the report identifies the Arctic as a critical strategic location for future US military involvement: to maximize fossil fuel consumption.
Jan Öberg 25.9.19: "...entire systems approaching existential breakdown – and not because of foreign adversaries but because of their own morally corrupt actions and policies – or system fatique: systems so worn out and tired (of itself, too) that the don’t have the energy needed for re-vitalization.
Article in the Intercept 15 Sept, 2019, features Rabindranath Tagore and Neta Craword's (Boston university) study "Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change, and the Costs of War"
Neta C. Crawford1 Boston University
The company is attracting attention by talking up a favorite cause célèbre for companies and utilities: resilience in the face of climate change.
What stands in the way of Bloom's progress? The most obvious obstacle is the company's current reliance on natural gas as a fuel source. Not only are its installations dependent on the availability of distribution infrastructure, but Bloom also likely will be called upon more often to discuss how it handles methane, a super pollutant associated with natural gas and biogas that is a more potent contributor to global warming than carbon dioxide.
by Brian Cloughley March 22, 2019: “I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost. I refuse to do that, but it is beautiful” — President Trump. According to NATO, the cost of its new building in Brussels was 1.1 billion Euros (1.23 billon dollars). 2019 is a year of interesting commemorations, among them the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
October 2010: The US military is responsible for the most egregious and widespread pollution of the planet, yet this information and accompanying documentation goes almost entirely unreported.
Project Drawdown is the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming. We gathered a qualified and diverse group of researchers from around the world to identify, research, and model the 100 most substantive, existing solutions to address climate change. What was uncovered is a path forward that can roll back global warming within thirty years.
Olli Tammilehdon arvostelu kirjasta James Hoggan & Richard Littlemore: Climate Cover-up, The Crusade to Deny Global Warming. Greystone Books, Vancouver 2009, 250 s.
By M.V.Ramana, the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at UBC, 7 Nov, 2018. Ottawa is pushing a new smaller, modular nuclear plant (SMR) that could only pay off if mass produced.
Michael Mann, TRNN 10.10.18 "So yeah, you know, there are no arguments that can be made that it would be great if we were to see maybe more action when it comes to policies on natural gas and pipelines. But you know, first we have to tackle this problem one piece at a time. And Jerry Brown has taken on a huge challenge in putting forward policies that have the potential to make the largest dent in this problem, putting a price on carbon so we level the energy playing field so renewable energy can compete compete fairly against fossil fuel energy in the marketplace. And if we do that, we know that we’re going to further accelerate this transition that is already underway away from the continued burning of these dirty fossil fuels towards a clean renewable energy future."
Ledare. Andreas Gustavsson. Etc 9.10.2018. "Varför inte investera tungt direkt? Rensa energi från fossila bränslen, bygga transportleder med minimala utsläpp, organisera ett mindre destruktivt jordbruk. Allt det där är rätt, tycker William Nordhaus. Men hans strategi utgår från att vi har mer välutvecklade finansiella muskler imorgon jämfört med vad vi har idag, så bättre att skjuta tills imorgon. Inte allt, men mycket. Det är hans nödutgång. Eftersom att ekonomiska resurser är begränsade kan de inte uteslutande användas för kommande generationers räkning. Dessutom kommer våra barn och barnbarn att ha andra förutsättningar. Ja, han tänker sig givetvis fortsatt tillväxt. The Economist sammanfattar:
”Eftersom framtida generationer sannolikt kommer att bli mycket rikare än vi är, är det inte mer meningsfullt för oss att offra vårt välbefinnande för dem än att förvänta sig att bönder från 1800-talet skulle gå utan välling så att vi kan köpa fler datorer.”
William Nordhaus räknar baklänges. Tre procent i diskonteringsränta, så mycket ska vi idag betala för framtiden. Som vore kalkylen ens möjlig. Det här är ett extraordinärt tossigt sätt att hantera klimatkrisen. Eller inte hantera."
Resumé of Leggett's lecture by Nafeez Ahmed (June 2018) "Late last year, Dr. Jeremy Leggett — solar energy entrepreneur, former oil man and government advisor — gave an eye-opening talk where he for the first time laid out his vision for two possible futures facing human civilisation. Speaking at an event hosted by Resurgence & Ecologist magazine, he told a gripped audience that the world had approached a major convergence point in which our choices would rapidly close off either one of these possible futures. One scenario heralds the promise of a successful transition to a new, more evolved kind of civilisation. Another scenario warns of a future plunged increasingly into scarcity, despotic chaos and conflict."
Climate change is real Letters: If ‘balance’ means giving voice to those who deny the reality of human-triggered climate change, we will not take part in the debate, say Jonathan Porritt, Caroline Lucas, Clive Lewis and 57 other writers, politicians and academics
26.6.2017. "Tiede edistyy, mutta politiikka edistyy joskus hitaammin. Olin tyytyväinen kun huomasin, että presidentti Sauli Niinistö korjasi tässä suhteessa tilannetta nostamalla esiin mustan hiilen, black carbonin, eli fossiilisesta polttamisesta syntyvän noen osuutta jäätiköiden sulamisen kiihdyttäjänä. Olen vuosia kysynyt, miksei tätä tekijää nosteta ilmastosopimusten agendalle, sillä kyseessä olisi huomattavasti helpommin teknologian avulla kontrolloitava ongelma kuin elämän olennainen sivutuote, hiilidioksidi. Ongelmaa on pidetty esillä kymmenkunta vuotta mutta se ei ole lyönyt läpi, luultavasti poliittisen paineen vuoksi. Uusimman tutkimuksen mukaan sen rooli arktisella alueella on kuitenkin vähintään yhtä merkittävä kuin hiilidioksidin. Se voisi selittää myös sen, miksi sulaminen jatkuu vaikkei lämpötila nouse."
U.S. Military has left its toxic legacy throughout the world in the form of depleted uranium, oil, jet fuel, pesticides, defoliants like Agent Orange and lead
an Johnston Environment Correspondent
Tuesday 20 December 2016
162 comments
"A team of scientists from Arizona State University has now suggested trying to counteract the loss of sea caused by rising temperatures in the Arctic, which has seen increases well above the global average. In Svalbard, winter temperatures have been up to 11C higher than the late 20th century."
Michel Chossudovsky, May 18 2015 on
Weather-modification, according to the US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report.
Officially, the HAARP program has been closed down at its location in Alaska. The technology of weather modification shrouded in secrecy, nonetheless prevails.
Narrated by esteemed actor Emma Thompson, the documentary "The Doubt Machine: Inside the Koch Brothers' War on Climate Science" reveals how the Koch Brothers have used their vast wealth to ensure the American political system takes no action on climate change, and are attempting to buy the 2016 Congressional elections
Chomsky: "It is hard to find words to capture the fact that humans are facing the most important question in their history – whether organized human life will survive in anything like the form we know – and are answering it by accelerating the race to disaster. Similar observations hold for the other huge issue concerning human survival, the threat of nuclear destruction that has been looming over our heads for 70 years, and is now increasing."
Susan George: "Geocide is alas more general: it is a massive assault against nature of which we are only a part, against all earthly life and against Creation as well as the complete denial of human rights; I submit that this ultimate act of destruction is underway and that we need a name for it. Without a name, we have no concept and without a concept we cannot combat it. This is why I searched for a new word."
"The real problem is that we are faced with determined, well-organised adversaries who care nothing about human rights or climate change; who would probably laugh at the very mention of geocide. They want only one thing: business as usual and a world in which they can make endless amounts of money using any and all available resources, no matter what the costs to nature and to human life. Unless we can accept this reality and confront these adversaries, as well as the public and private organisations they serve, I’m afraid we have no hope of ultimately preventing geocide."
I like to make the point that everything that we might oppose on CO2 grounds can also be opposed on more local, tangible grounds. ... The attitude of instrumental utilitarianism toward nature — that is the problem. ... for us to see nature and the material world as sacred and valuable in its own right, we must connect to the deep part of ourselves that already knows that. When we make that connection and feel the hurts of the planet, grief is unavoidable.
We no longer have to conjoin environmentalism with faith in Big Science and institutional authority, implying that if only people had more trust in the authorities (in this case scientific, but it extends to all the systems that embed and legitimize the institution of science) then things would be fine. You know what? Even if the “climate change deniers” are right, it wouldn’t alter my environmental passion one bit. Granted, I am a sample of one person here, but to me that indicates that it isn’t important to win the intellectual debate with the skeptical forces. That isn’t necessary to make people care.
The global warming agenda is a desperate effort to gain greater control over our lives. Political commentator Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) explained that “the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
That’s the political goal of the global warmers.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Skolt Sámi negotiated treaties with successive Russian czars. These agreements—which the Sámi collectively call the Gramota—guaranteed the tribe's access to traditional hunting, fishing, and herding grounds.
In October, UNESCO affirmed that the treaties collected in the Gramota are the first written political recognition of indigenous land rights in human history.
A massive demonstration planned byenvironmental activists for the eve of this month's U.N. climatesummit in Paris is in doubt as organisers weigh the securityrisks - and the propriety - of gathering in huge numbers in acity where attacks killed 129 people.
Gates: "Without a substantial carbon tax, there’s no incentive for innovators or plant buyers to switch.
Since World War II, US-government R&D has defined the state of the art in almost every area. The private sector is in general inept.
The climate problem has to be solved in the rich countries. China and the US and Europe have to solve CO2 emissions, and when they do, hopefully they’ll make it cheap enough for everyone else"
Idén kom i ren desperation. Att lösa världens klimatproblem genom att spruta ut svavelpartiklar högt upp i atmosfären - det ska man göra i absolut sista ögonblicket.
According to Mexican press accounts, the deadly swine-flu outbreak now spreading into the U.S. is linked to large-scale hog operations in Mexico run by industrial-meat giant Smithfield Foods.
"Phil Radford was arrested with six other Greenpeace activists who unfurled a giant banner from a construction crane in Washington D.C. near a state-department meeting of ministers from the largest greenhouse-gas emitting nations. Inside the Major Economi
The Irish Times - Sat, Oct 24, 2009. She said that in recent times she had become increasingly focused on climate change and its negative impacts on the developing world. She added that the issue of climate justice was a topic of extreme urgency and was p
UNGA 2009: What is happening? A basic power shift away from the West. "There will not be any deep multilateral Kyoto style agreement on climate. The whole approach is wrong. Evils are not abolished by consensus among evildoers; slavery was not abolishe
