one.point.zero - Colin O'Brien's weblog
April 20 2008
Michael Pollan, first-class as always.“Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and it's not an easy one to answer.”
April 13 2008
That's exactly what's happening“It doesn't take a student of psychology to tell us that if you keep moving the goal posts and offer little in the way of hope, then most people will simply give up trying”
March 08 2008
selfishness v altruism on climate change“if it's clear that the risk is high, people will work together to reach a common goal. But if it's in the balance, then selfishness takes over”
November 25 2007
It's all about the message“if you care about climate change forget about saving the planet”
October 28 2007
Thought-provoking profile of James Lovelock and his definitely funereal outlook for the planet.
October 19 2007
How it all ends
October 14 2007
How can branding help (or hinder) climate change?
September 19 2007
Little efforts do not big changes make“it is a serious distortion to imply, as the top ten lists usually do, that there is any equivalence between these lifestyle preferences and the serious decisions that really reduce emissions”
August 31 2007
Black Balloon
July 27 2007
Geoengineering could work to control climate change but could never stop. A single mistake and things would be worse than when we started.
June 25 2007
Wise words“Companies that are polluting in China are owned by American, European, Japanese and others. They are benefiting from the cheap labour, from the resources and at the same time accusing China of pollution.”
June 19 2007
The only way to survive may now be extraction of greenhouse gases from the air.
June 12 2007
California is pioneering what could be the next battleground against global warming: filing suit to hold cities and counties accountable for greenhouse gas emissions caused by poorly planned suburban sprawl.
June 05 2007
Catastrophic Warming: Is It Too Late?
June 02 2007
Incompetence is everywhere, so I guess it’s no surprise that it’s present in the carbon monitoring processes supposed to help in fighting climate change.
May 18 2007
Ocean Levels
May 17 2007
The 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.
May 14 2007
major damage from rainforest clearing“In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York.”
May 06 2007
Interesting summary of the current dangers of biofuel use as well as future, more sustainable, directions the industry might take.
May 04 2007
Goverments know they have false figures“The rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie”
May 03 2007
Oh The Irony! Global warming tourism.
May 01 2007
Why was The Great Global Warming Swindle so persuasive? Indeed, I regularly see people using that show as an excuse to keep the energy squandering utopia alive.
Interesting interview with James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute, concerning the causes and consequences of global warming.
April 22 2007
The latest issue of The Nation focuses on climate change. There are quite a few interesting articles in there, some require a subscription though.
March 27 2007
competition between cars and people“The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless.”
March 15 2007
Climate change engenders climate change
The mild winter pushed down heating costs in Belgium this year resulting in a record number of people going on holiday during the Easter break thanks to the money saved.
So, basically, warm weather brought on by climate change pushes people to fly and drive long distances, thereby emitting more greenhouse gases than ever which in turn further affect climate change.
I doubt that’s one of the positive feedbacks in the climate system that scientists were fearing, but the outcome is alike.
March 13 2007
March 11 2007
From next month's climate report“Tropical diseases like malaria will spread. By 2050, polar bears will mostly be found in zoos, their habitats gone. Pests like fire ants will thrive.”
March 07 2007
It’s 2056 and the planet is saved. I just laughed watching this, probably not the expected reaction.
March 04 2007
Sterling on technology as saviour“Green will never get any sexier than it is in 2007. Because, after this, brown will start going away.”
March 01 2007
Well I hadn’t thought of that one to fight climate change, let’s use the secret technology from Roswell.
February 28 2007
Are we all in denial?“The technology exists, perhaps, but the political will and the economic reality doesn't. That reality dictates that stopping climate change is nigh on impossible”
February 24 2007
Climate change scepticism still exists in Brussels
February 19 2007
Fighting the new defeatism on climate change
February 18 2007
As if things weren’t crazy enough, some people are installing snow-making machines in their gardens.
February 11 2007
Flying, your patriotic duty.
February 10 2007
A sobering if not downright alarming view from Dmitry Orlov of the possible future that awaits us in a world of resource depletion and global warming
February 03 2007
The semantics of climate change“When a scientist talks about reducing greenhouse gas emissions ... he or she means just that; actually reducing them. But what it is coming to mean in the political lexicon is something very different”
February 02 2007
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by an Exxon-funded lobby group to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
January 31 2007
Head, meet sand
Thanks to all the people who’ve been endlessly forwarding me an invitation to switch off the lights tomorrow for a few minutes before 8pm in order to “create global awareness of the climate and energy situation”. You can stop now, really.
If you want to act, switch the damn things off most of the time and use low-energy bulbs when you can’t. Don’t leave your TV on standby, don’t drive you car to the corner shop, take the heating down a notch, give up on flying halfway across the world just because you can.
You know the story, but you don’t want to hear it. It’s much easier to participate in some feel-good action than actually doing something. The problem with doing something being that you have to sacrifice some of that comfort you’ve gotten so used to.
Have a good answer ready when your kids ask you why you didn’t do anything even though you knew, because that question is coming.
It’s not about going back to the stone age, just making some adjustments. We’re all guilty of not doing enough, but let’s at least do something with a bit more impact than being in the dark for 5 minutes. Every time I get that email I’m reminded of a BMW X5 I recently saw sporting a Greenpeace sticker.
January 20 2007
And now, the weather forecast
The BBC’s distributed climate change experiment is over.
250.000 computers crunched away at the numbers and came up with a scenario for the near future: Summer temperatures will easily reach 40°C and heatwaves will be frequent. Winters will be warmer but also much wetter. Storms will be frequent and intense.
Recent weather patterns seem to confirm that direction.
December 17 2006
A snowball’s chance in hell
Ski resorts across Europe, usually blanketed by snow at this time of the year, are desperately void of the white stuff. Many are blaming global warming.
So what do they go and do? Setup snow canons all over the place to compensate artificially. Snow canons that use massive amounts of energy and huge quantities of water. Talk about the snake eating its own tail…
December 15 2006
The truth about carbon offsets“The idea that you can go out and plant a tree and help reverse global warming is an appealing, feel-good thing”
December 10 2006
Bruce Sterling on climate change denial“Blame nature. Blame lesbians. Blame the Chinese, blame anybody, but not us, not during our lifetime.”
December 07 2006
How low can Exxon go“Texas-based Exxon is trying to influence opinion-makers in Brussels because Europe - rather than the US - is the driving force for action on climate change.”
November 18 2006
SNCF Travel in France have added a CO2 emissions comparison tool to their booking site.
November 15 2006
Hollywood is the second largest polluter in the Los Angeles area. The full report is online. (thanks Dimitri)
November 14 2006
Car advertising takes itself down another notch.
November 13 2006
I try not to go down that road but I’m afraid I tend to agree a lot with this article (apart from the last 2 paragraphs, I think it’ll be nasty, but I don’t wish for it).
Placing a wind turbine on your roof will make a great fashion statement to your neighbours but won’t help much in reducing your emissions. On the other hand, the less sexy option of insulation will have a much stronger effect.
November 10 2006
Thought-provoking article from the BBC’s John Humprys on global warming, his parents, and the paradoxes in trying to be green.
November 09 2006
We’ve got 10 years to avoid dangerous climate changes. At the moment, it’s not looking too great...
November 07 2006
Fear of (climate) change
There’s an argument taking place at the Climate Ark.
This guy’s daughter gets scared by climate change, so he goes ranting against scientists in the comments there. I had a bit of compassion for the guy’s hot-headed reaction until I read his second comment. Sadly, many people think like him.
November 06 2006
An opposing view to the Stern Report. It’s authored by Bjorn Lomborg, who’s no stranger to controversy.
November 03 2006
The thirteenth tipping point.
October 31 2006
Ignoring global warming won’t make it go away.
Monbiot's suggestions for climate survival“The principal costs of climate change will be measured in lives, not pounds”
The full text of the Stern Report.
The Stern report was finally featured on Belgian TV news last night. When asked what Belgium was doing to reduce emissions and curb climate change, the prime minister said they would be taxing packaging and pushing the use of biofuels. I feel so much safer now
In 2004, the North Atlantic drift actually stopped for 10 days. If you aren’t scared yet… (Thanks Kevin) – Update: the story is debunked at RealClimate.
October 28 2006
That’s going to hurt
A report on global warming by the British treasury says it will be cheaper for developed nations to tackle the problem with significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, than to deal with the consequences later. Duh.
With most politicians looking no further than their own noses the next elections, I doubt that will kickstart anything except a few empty promises.
Meanwhile, Belgium is part of the 7 European countries that will exceed their individual emission limits. No big surprise there either, they’re too busy trying to cause a depression down south before climate change does it for them.
October 20 2006
How close is runaway climate change? Way too close for comfort.
October 19 2006
A student moving to the UK from the US decided to give up flying and get to his destination without planes or cars. His weblog describes how he did it. I admit I’ve been eyeing a transatlantic journey on a cargo ship for a while now although I need to figure out the damage that does.
October 18 2006
Amusing analogy for carbon offset schemes“Just as in the 15th and 16th centuries you could sleep with your sister and kill and lie without fear of eternal damnation, today you can live exactly as you please as long as you give your ducats to one of the companies selling indulgences”
October 13 2006
And the first victim of climate change is… the frog.
October 09 2006
they say the future starts today“the day when we use more than our fair share of the Earth - when 'humanity starts eating the planet' is October 9”
October 04 2006
Some experts are saying one third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100. And, of course, developing countries will be the most affected.
September 29 2006
Asleep at the wheel
A new study from NASA shows that the world’s temperature is reaching a level that hasn’t been seen in thousands of years. Basically, if we don’t change things radically now, we risk being in really deep shit.
The optimist in me keeps hoping lots of us will have a revelation and change our habits drastically, but I fear we’ll just keep on our motoring, flying and general resource-depleting fiesta until we can’t. And then we’ll pull our head out of the sand and blame someone else…
September 24 2006
James Lovelock doesn't see a bright future“By 2020, 2025, you will be able to sail a sailboat to the North Pole. The Amazon will become a desert, and the forests of Siberia will burn and release more methane and plagues will return”
September 22 2006
An ad for Nissan 4×4’s that looks like it was filmed in the future. Barren landscapes, nasty weather, no vegetation… thanks to all that greenhouse gas they contribute to.
Al Gore will be present in Brussels on October 8th to introduce his film: An inconvenient truth.
September 08 2006
Eco-fatalism is for wimps (but I still wouldn’t call nuclear power one of the solutions).
September 05 2006
The Empty Tank (Jeremy Leggett)
Jeremy Leggett is a geologist who worked inside the big oil companies for years before jumping ship to Greenpeace and finally setting up his own renewable energy company. In this book, he lays out his arguments for an early peak in oil production combined with the ongoing climate crisis and their implications on our way of life. He doesn't paint a pretty picture but the facts are there and his insider knowledge tends to confirm the well-held beliefs that changes will not come from above. He sees future energy prices and lack of forward-thinking pushing us back into exploiting coal and other dirty fuels, thus accelerating climate and economic instability. It's not all gloom though, he sees renewable energy setting us back on track but only after crossing a very depressive post-cheap-oil era. Basically: we'll fall right down before we can stand up again. Worth the read if only for the insider oil stories. Note: this book is also sold under the title 'half gone'. [link]
September 01 2006
This guy tells it exactly how it is: Honey, We Killed the Planet
August 31 2006
Climate change will not be gradual“We used to think that it would take 10,000 years for melting at the surface of an ice sheet to penetrate down to the bottom. Now we know it doesn't take 10,000 years; it takes 10 seconds”
August 30 2006
Monbiot on the dangers of geoengineering“the great droughts which had devastated the Sahel region of Africa had been caused in part by sulphate pollution in Europe and North America.”
August 21 2006
Removing CFCs from aerosol cans has led to their replacements contributing to climate change. We’re like a snake eating its own tail.
August 07 2006
The deluded world of air conditioning“We're cooking our planet to refrigerate the diminishing part that's still habitable”
August 04 2006
Truly amazing: the oil industry pays for dumb/boring viral video smearing Al Gore. They must feel extremely threatened.
Stephane Lhomme on the heat wave“Global warming is showing the limits of nuclear power plants, and nuclear power is destroying our environment”
August 03 2006
I guess I’m dealing in climate porn too. Things are so enormous they probably do provoke a fight or flight reaction in most people though.
Could global warming kill the Internet? Yup.
July 31 2006
A complete list of things caused by global warming
June 20 2006
The BBC asks leading experts for their forecasts on cities of the future. Recurring themes are polarisation between those who have and those who don’t, climate change and energy problems.
June 01 2006
Dear Mr Barroso, have you ever heard of practicing what you preach? Obviously not.
May 21 2006
Bristling Badger on climate change“We know that our elected leaders and the corporate interests they represent are not going to lead the way to the change we need; they are in fact our main obstacles. Despite being in full possession of the facts, they want to carry on making it worse.”