climate change

Charting a new course for the U.S. and the environment

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After more than four decades as a leading environmentalist, Gus Speth is disillusioned with what has been accomplished. What’s needed now, he says in an interview with Yale Environment 360, is a transformative change in America’s political economy that will benefit both society and the planet.

Climate – Jan 23

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•Can anyone defuse the ‘Carbon Bomb’? •Point of No Return: The massive climate threats we must avoid •Climate change set to make America hotter, drier and more disaster-prone •Koch-Funded Study Finds 2.5°F Warming Of Land Since 1750 Is Manmade, ‘Solar Forcing Does Not Appear To Contribute’ •Climate Change Reaching Human and Geophysical Tipping Points •Has global warming ground to a halt?

Is MLK of Use to Us Now?

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The main talent of Martin Luther King Jr., among many, was an ability to lift into wide awareness brutality and unfairness that a majority had been willing to ignore. The struggle for racial justice is not over (for example, the same Supreme Court that proclaimed the personhood of corporations is about to consider a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965). But MLK helped lead the way to notable success.

Film review: ‘Chasing Ice’

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I hadn’t heard of James Balog, whose work is the subject of ‘Chasing Ice’, until I saw him give a presentation at TED Global in Oxford in 2008. It was in a session after supper, along with Nigeran novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an evening optional extra for anyone who still had any headspace after a day of back-to-back talks. I didn’t know anything about James’ project, the Extreme Ice Survey. What he shared that night was so powerful that I was unable to sleep. Unlike much that one might read about climate change, the debates, the research, the statistics which appeal to our rational mind, Balog’s work was visceral. You could feel it in your stomach. It haunted you, while at the same time stunning you with its breathtaking beauty. That’s a powerful combination, and it is that combination that makes ‘Chasing Ice’ such an extraordinary and vital film.

Nuclear – Jan 17

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•Britain’s nuclear powered trains •Fukushima: Fallout of fear •On second thought: IAEA re-categorizes the operational status for 47 of Japan’s nuclear reactors •’Nuclear waste? No thanks,’ say Lake District national park tourism chiefs •It’s time to reprocess spent nuclear fuel •Tokyo Electric Sued by U.S. Sailors Exposed to Radiation •Experts okay restart of worrisome Belgian nuclear plants •China blazes trail for ‘clean’ nuclear power from thorium

Q&A: Lester Brown, Author – Full Planet, Empty Plates

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In his newest book, Full Planet, Empty Plates, Lester Brown writes…"The U.S. Great Drought of 2012 has raised corn prices to the highest level in history. The world price of food, which has already doubled over the last decade, is slated to climb higher, ushering in a new wave of food unrest…."

Idle No More rises to defend ancestral lands—and the planet

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I don’t claim to know exactly what’s going on with #IdleNoMore, the surging movement of indigenous activists that started late last year in Canada and is now spreading across the continent—much of the action, from hunger strikes to road and rail blockades, is in scattered and remote places, and even as people around the world plan for solidarity actions on Friday, the press has done a poor job of bringing it into focus.

CO2 Concentration in “Panic and Repent” scenarios

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In Friday’s post, I argued that the likely pattern of human response to climate change would be characterized by very limited action until manifestly serious consequences were clear by looking out the window; then, and only then would serious action ensue. In other words, the pattern would be one of panic and repentance.