Climate Change

Scientists Outline The Paths To Survival

October 7, 2018 By Eric Holthaus, Grist Create! Climate Change, Environment, IPCC

This week, scientists and representatives from every country on Earth are gathering in South Korea to put the finishing touches on a report that, if followed, would change the course of history. The report is a roadmap for possible ways to keep climate change to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels. Anything beyond that amount of warming, and the planet starts to really go haywire. So the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — a U.N.-sponsored, Nobel Peace Prize-winning assemblage of scientists — wants to show how we can avoid that. To be clear, hitting that goal would require a radical rethink in almost every aspect of society. But the report finds that not meeting the goal would upend life as we know it, too.

The U.S. Defense Department Is Losing The Battle Against Climate Change

October 6, 2018 Daniel Ross, Ecowatch.com Educate! Climate Change, Department of Defense

A rock seawall protecting the Air Force's Cape Lisburne Long Range Radar Station on the North East Alaska coast is under increasing duress from extreme weather patterns affecting Arctic sea ice—nearly $50 million has been spent replacing vulnerable parts of the wall already. In 2013, a late summer monsoon rainstorm struck Fort Irwin, in California, flooding more than 160 buildings and causing extensive damage that took weeks to clean up. Some buildings were out of commission for months. The 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in Colorado's history, only narrowly missed Peterson Air Force Base. The fire cost some $16 million to battle.

Beyond Laughing At Trump, What Happened At The United Nations Last Week

October 1, 2018 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Climate Change, Iran, Trump, United Nations

The 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly is taking place right now. President Trump spoke before the General Assembly and chaired a session of the Security Council last week. While the media has mostly focused on the laughter that arose when Trump claimed his administration has done the most of any president, there is much more going on both openly and behind the scenes. We speak with James Paul, who has monitored the UN for two decades, about the current meeting, the state of the world and what we must do.

What Will it Take to Avert Collapse?

September 28, 2018 By Richard Heinberg and David Fridley, Resilience.org Strategize! Clean Energy, Climate Change, New Economy

A lot of people are asking the question these days—including serious folks who work full-time on climate and energy policy. How can the world’s nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to forestall climate catastrophe, without undermining either the global economy (which is still 85 percent dependent on fossil fuels) or the hopes of billions of people in poorer countries to raise their economic prospects through “development”—which historically has depended on increasing per capita energy usage? The United Nations has passed this vexing question along to the global climate science community as a formal request to write a Special Report providing “feasible” pathways to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius while supporting economic growth and meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Climate Change Will Cost U.S. More In Economic Damage Than Any Other Country But One

September 26, 2018 Stacy Morford, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, New Economy, United States

The United States stands to lose a lot more from climate change than it realizes. In a study published Monday, scientists estimate for the first time how much each country around the world will suffer in future economic damage from each new ton of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere. What they found may come as a surprise: the future economic costs within the U.S. borders are the second-highest in the world, behind only India. The results suggest that the U.S. has been underestimating how much it benefits from reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and that the country has far more to gain from international climate agreements than the Trump administration is willing to admit. "Our analysis demonstrates that the argument that the primary beneficiaries of reductions in carbon dioxide emissions would be other countries is a total myth," said lead author Kate Ricke...

Why Sustainability Is No Longer Enough, Yet Still Very Important On The Road To Regeneration

September 24, 2018 Daniel Christian Wahl, Medium.com Create! Climate Change, Crisis, Sustainability

For many people achieving sustainability might seem already like a visionary goal that is difficult to reach. Yet, we need to do even better to respond adequately to the converging crises ahead. Just looking at the situation with regard to climate change alone, we have to now face the reality that we are in the midst of dangerous run-away (self-reinforcing) climate change. The window of opportunity to avoid catastrophic irreversible climate change is closing. In reality there are already many climate catastrophes affecting people and biodiversity around the world. Maybe we should speak of ‘irreversible cataclysmic climate change’ as that is what we are rushing towards if we do not fundamentally redesign the human presence and impact on Earth.

Climate Change Made Florence A Monster—But Media Failed To Tell That Story

September 21, 2018 Jim Naureckas, Fair.org Educate! Climate Change, Hurricane Florence, Hurricanes, Media

That Hurricane Florence broke rainfall records for tropical storms in both North and South Carolina shouldn’t be surprising, as global climate change has increased extreme precipitation in all areas of the continental United States. One analysis released before the massive storm hit, by researchers at Stony Brook, Berkeley National Lab and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, projected that warming would cause Florence to bring twice as much rain compared to a similar storm with normal temperatures. But news audiences were rarely informed about the contribution of human-caused climate disruption to the devastating storm, according to a study of hurricane coverage by Public Citizen. Less than 8 percent of Florence stories in the 50 top-circulation US newspapers (9/9–16/18) mentioned climate change—and only 4 percent of segments on major TV outlets.

Energy Efficiency Can Address Climate Change, Drive Prosperity, And Strengthen National Security

September 21, 2018 Staff, Rmi.org Educate! Clean Energy, Climate Change, National Security, Nationalism

Rocky Mountain Institute, Basalt, Colorado, 18 September 2018—Distinguished American energy expert Amory Lovins today published what may be the most important findings for climate change since Lord Nicholas Stern published “The Economics of Climate Change” in 2007. Current climate change thinking argues that the world has to use energy at least 3% more productively each year in order to stay below 2 degrees. Amory Lovins argues that the world’s ability to sustain such rapid savings (slightly above the 2015 peak of 2.8%/y) is far greater—and can prove even more profitable—than had been thought. In the paper, titled “How Big Is the Energy Efficiency Resource?”, Lovins shows that the potential for energy efficiency has been massively understated and its cost overstated...

Can California Utilities Burn Down The State And Make The Public Pay For It?

September 18, 2018 Matt Stannard, Occupy.com Educate! California, Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, Utilities

The fossil fuel industry knowingly alters the climate, exacerbating fire risks in the American West, including massive wildfires across California. Energy utilities (presently private corporations) play a more immediate role in sparking fires that, thanks to climate volatility, rage out of control. Then, these private corporations dodge strict liability regulations by getting the California legislature to allow them to charge customers for that liability. The lesson is clear: Oil companies heat and dry up the planet, power companies start fires on the dried up land, and we pay the bills. Once it is signed into law by California Gov. Jerry Brown – who is fresh off the successful Global Climate Action Summit, held last week in San Francisco – that is exactly what new state legislation will do.

California’s Road To Carbon Neutrality Runs Through The State’s Buildings

September 18, 2018 Justin Gerdes, Greentechmedia.com Create! California, Carbon, Climate Change

California must build housing closer to transit and jobs, and wring carbon from new and existing buildings, if the state is to meet its ambitious climate targets. That was the message delivered by a high-level panel at a Global Climate Action Summit side event convened in San Francisco on Wednesday by Climate Resolve, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit. Top of mind for the panel was California Governor Jerry Brown’s signatures earlier in the week on SB 100, requiring the state to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity, and an executive order establishing a carbon neutrality target, both by 2045. The message for California policymakers is clear: Carbon reduction is the end goal. “We’re focused on carbon,” said Andrew McAllister, commissioner with the California Energy Commission.

Our Planet Is Angry

September 16, 2018 By Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig Educate! Climate Change, Hurricanes

“Storm of a lifetime” is how the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C., described Hurricane Florence as it came lumbering across the Atlantic to hurl its ferocious winds and rain onto that coastal state. Pointing to the storm’s unusual path, one meteorologist said, “There’s virtually no precedent for a hurricane moving southwest for some time along the Carolina coast.” Florence is expected to slow down as it hits the coast, dumping a catastrophic amount of water over a small area instead of spreading rain far and wide. What that means for North Carolina’s numerous hog farms, coal ash pits and nuclear reactors is anyone’s guess, but there is a high likelihood of an environmental disaster unfolding.

Protests Disrupt Global Climate Action Summit

September 14, 2018 By Joe Kukura, SF Weekly Resist! California, Climate Change, Climate Justice

Political leaders and delegates attending Gov. Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit had a difficult time getting in to the conference Thursday morning. That’s because several hundred protesters successfully blockaded the summit’s main Moscone Center entrance, decrying what they call “Jerry Brown’s hypocrisy on climate change.” While conference attendees could still use other Moscone Center entrances, the demonstration did block the main Howard and Third Street entrance to the event.

Hurricane Florence’s Unusual Extremes Worsened By Climate Change, Scientists Say

September 14, 2018 Bob Berwyn, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Hurricane, Hurricane Florence

Hurricane Florence lumbered toward the Carolinas on Thursday as a slow-moving giant, churning up a powerful storm surge that could reach 13 feet at high tide and devastate hundreds of miles of shoreline. Adding to forecasters' fears was the storm's potential to bring days of torrential rain to the already saturated region. The hurricane was unusual for a variety of reasons—and it was being made worse by climate change, a team of scientists said Wednesday. The scientists—from Stony Brook University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research—compared the storm's real-time forecasts to what would be expected if the ocean temperature wasn't so warm and the atmosphere lacked today's additional heat and moisture fueled by climate change.

Open Letter From The Indigenous Peoples Of The World

September 12, 2018 Staff, Ienearth.org Resist! California, Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples

Original peoples and Indigenous nations of the world gathered on the Ramaytush and the greater Ohlone territory in California supported by ILO Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (1989) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007) to protest the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) hosted by Governor Jerry Brown and the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF). The GCAS and GCF must not place a market value on the carbon sequestration capacity of our forests in the Global South and North. You cannot commodify the Sacred — we reject these market based climate change solutions and projects such as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD+)...

Fighting Absolutism With Activism

September 12, 2018 Eleanor Goldfield, Artkillingapathy.com Create! Activism, Climate Change

It’s not perfect. It’s not what I recall seeing in the Utopian slideshows at sustainability workshops and green living festivals: where impossibly white towers laced with ivy and peppered with balcony trees rise high above a shimmering green pedestrian footpath, where watercolor people wave to passersby on the bicycle highway next to them. And you just know that somewhere in that picture there’s a cafe serving delicious meat made in a sparkling laboratory powered by solar energy, garnished with freshly picked local sprouts, served by robots because humans don’t work in the service industry anymore. They spend their days playing music, having sex and frolicking. No, it wasn’t like that at all. And don’t get me wrong. That picture of what could be could actually be. But it lies not only on the other side of capitalism.

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