Dear Mr Barroso, have you ever heard of practicing what you preach? Obviously not.
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.
A complete list of things caused by global warming
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.
Truly amazing: the oil industry pays for dumb/boring viral video smearing Al Gore. They must feel extremely threatened.
Removing CFCs from aerosol cans has led to their replacements contributing to climate change. We’re like a snake eating its own tail.
This guy tells it exactly how it is: Honey, We Killed the Planet
Eco-fatalism is for wimps (but I still wouldn’t call nuclear power one of the solutions).
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.
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.
And the first victim of climate change is… the frog.
And the first victim of climate change is... the frog.
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.
How close is runaway climate change? Way too close for comfort.
The full text of the Stern Report.
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][3].
[3]: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/10/ocean-circulation-new-evidence-yes-slowdown-no/ (RealClimate - Ocean Circulation: New evidence (Yes), slowdown (No) [site language: English])
Ignoring global warming won’t make it go away.
The thirteenth tipping point.
An opposing view to the Stern Report. It’s authored by Bjorn Lomborg, who’s no stranger to controversy.
We’ve got 10 years to avoid dangerous climate changes. At the moment, it’s not looking too great...
Thought-provoking article from the BBC’s John Humprys on global warming, his parents, and the paradoxes in trying to be green.
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.
Car advertising takes itself down another notch.
Hollywood is the second largest polluter in the Los Angeles area. The full report is online. (thanks Dimitri)
SNCF Travel in France have added a CO2 emissions comparison tool to their booking site.
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.
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
Flying, your patriotic duty.
As if things weren’t crazy enough, some people are installing snow-making machines in their gardens.
Fighting the new defeatism on climate change
Climate change scepticism still exists in Brussels
Well I hadn’t thought of that one to fight climate change, let’s use the secret technology from Roswell.
It’s 2056 and the planet is saved. I just laughed watching this, probably not the expected reaction.
The latest issue of The Nation focuses on climate change. There are quite a few interesting articles in there, some require a subscription though.
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.
Oh The Irony! Global warming tourism.
Interesting summary of the current dangers of biofuel use as well as future, more sustainable, directions the industry might take.
The 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions.
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.
Catastrophic Warming: Is It Too Late?
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.
The only way to survive may now be extraction of greenhouse gases from the air.
Geoengineering could work to control climate change but could never stop. A single mistake and things would be worse than when we started.
How can branding help (or hinder) climate change?
Thought-provoking profile of James Lovelock and his definitely funereal outlook for the planet.
More evidence that we’ll only end up closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.
How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room.
This has been seriously under-reported: Greenpeace Unmasks Koch Industries’ Funding of Climate Denial Industry.
Nearly every media story concerning the current heatwave and climate breakdown is illustrated by photos of people playing in fountains or on beaches like it's some kind of fun holiday. Pictures of dead crops, forest fires or old people suffering would be closer to reality and might help give a few more readers a nice big kick in the ass about our future. It's irresponsible.
The graphs in this article are terrifying. Our energy use is constantly growing while simultaneously pushing the percentage of renewables in use to insignificance. We are definitely on the path to catastrophe.
I recently watched a BBC interview with Extinction Rebellion's co-founder Roger Hallam where he mentions six billion people could die from starvation and war before the end of the century.
My future outlook as far as the coming climate emergency is downright bleak and even I was a bit surprised at the numbers he was throwing out. Well, it turns out there are scientists out there who believe exactly that.
While we busy ourselves greening our personal lives, fossil fuel corporations are rendering these efforts irrelevant.
They've pulled off the best trick ever: making it all about personal responsibility while they happily destroy the planet in the background. We need to attack the issue from all sides: personal change but, more importantly, system change.
It’s like being inside the gigantic worm in The Empire Strikes Back. For a while, you can kid yourself that you’re not inside a gigantic worm, until it starts digesting you. Because the worm is “everywhere” in your field of vision, you can’t really tell the difference between it and the surface of the asteroid you think you landed on.
I really like this term "hyperobject" used to describe things you can mentally picture or think about but can't see as such. Like, for example, climate change.
A perfect analogy for how climate change will affect us: by wearing us down, not through some singular event.
I'm not always a fan of Tim O'Reilly's views from the Silicon Valley bubble. Even so, his article on the "post-covid future" is worth putting some time aside for.
So, when you read stories—and there are many—speculating or predicting when and how we will return to “normal”, discount them heavily. The future will not be like the past. The comfortable Victorian and Georgian world complete with grand country houses, a globe-spanning British empire, and lords and commoners each knowing their place, was swept away by the events that began in the summer of 1914 (and that with Britain on the “winning” side of both world wars.) So too, our comfortable “American century” of conspicuous consumer consumption, global tourism, and ever-increasing stock and home prices may be gone forever.
Douglas Rushkoff on the ultra-wealthy trying to figure out how the world will end (because of them) and how to dominate through it. Quite depressing, if unsurprising.
Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.
From the "what could go wrong?" department:
A startup claims it has launched weather balloons that may have released reflective sulfur particles in the stratosphere, potentially crossing a controversial barrier in the field of solar geoengineering.
Concrete is the second-most consumed substance in the world and causes much environmental damage. Despite this, it's needed for essential infrastructure and, paradoxically, will be needed even more to protect against climate change.
Alongside all of this, it has a lifespan of about 100 years, which means much of our infrastructure is hitting that age limit and starting to rot.
This is a fascinating article on our addiction to concrete and the harms that come with it.
