un climate summit

It has been difficult to report on what has been going on with the UN Climate Summit, primarily because it has been a negotiation, with no decisions, and many people looking to the U.S. to lead the way… and, we know how that would go with a Bush Administration representative.

That is why I was so pleased today when Bill McKibben posted an essay on Grist.org. I am a big fan of this man, which you know if you have followed this blog for a while. I admire his work, I think he is extremely well spoken, slightly provocative in his ideas, and definitely innovative.

Please take the time to read the article, which can be found HERE. Below are some excerpts:

In writing about the Ptolemaic Universe:

The Greek astronomers invented all sorts of flourishes to make the orbital calculations work: deferents and epicycles, equants and eccentrics, little wheels within wheels that preserved the theory for a very long time, more than a thousand years — till finally Copernicus came along with some new data and blew the whole thing up….In somewhat the same way, we’ve all agreed to suspend disbelief for a long time and keep pretending that the process to do something about global warming is working.

about the negotiations:

The language of these negotiations is numbers, and so the less obvious but more pragmatically powerful way to state it is: These interminable talks are designed to build a machine that would halt the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 to 550 parts per million. They’re so loaded with loopholes, and the timetables are so slow, that they probably wouldn’t accomplish even that, but that’s the goal. The theory is that the world we need is a 450 world, based on the science from five and 10 and 15 years ago.

and then… the truth:

And then, on the last day of the talks, Al Gore gave his speech, which drew everyone into the main conference hall. It was a good talk, but by far the longest and loudest applause came when he formally announced the new reality. “Even a goal of 450 parts per million, which seems so difficult today, is inadequate,” he said, adding that we “need to toughen that goal to 350 parts per million.” People erupted — probably not the Chinese and American delegations, and definitely not the Saudis and the Russians, but all the people who’d spent the last few years struggling with the idea that their work was getting increasingly off-the-point. It was a way of saying: We’ve been engaged in saving the treaty, not saving the world — and we’d rather save the world

and the conclusion:

They’ve said the world circles the sun. Now we have to proceed on that understanding. It won’t be easy — “political reality” says it’s impossible. But political reality is easier to change than scientific reality. Since we can’t change the laws of physics, we’re going to have to try and change the laws of man.

“running the numbers”

Some of you may have seen this before, but if not I wanted to share with you the artist Chris Jordan and his website. Click HERE.

We hear statistics like: we use “one million plastic cups, the number used on airline flights in the US every six hours”, or “two million plastic bottles are used every five minutes” in the U.S. But we also know, as I linked to HERE, that with the Psychology of Global Warming, that without a face we do not get the urgency of our climate destabilization.

Jordan’s artwork helps put a face or picture to the issues so we can see what we are doing to our home.

prevention is the best medicine

HERE is an article with Bill Clinton and Al Gore about how we could have prevented this financial crisis if we had embraced green technology and jobs.

Just food for thought…

from GRIST and CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE

I’m melting…

When he lectures about global warming these days, Schneider often asks listeners about a more familiar risk. “How many of you have had a serious fire in your home?” he begins. In a crowd of 300 or so, usually three or four hands rise.

His next question: “How many of you buy fire insurance?”

Hundreds of hands go up.

To read more go here

I’m melting…

When he lectures about global warming these days, Schneider often asks listeners about a more familiar risk. “How many of you have had a serious fire in your home?” he begins. In a crowd of 300 or so, usually three or four hands rise.

His next question: “How many of you buy fire insurance?”

Hundreds of hands go up.

To read more go here