If I hear one more person talk about “putting our brightest people toward solving climate change”, I will scream.
Climate change is not some deep mystery waiting for a scientific breakthrough: we know exactly what causes it and how we address that. We have SOLVED climate change.
The problem is not “finding the solution”, the problem is convincing literally anyone in power that the solution is better than building billionaire bunkers in new zealand.
The organizations said they would publish researchers’ work even after the Trump administration decision to dismiss all authors on the project.Rebecca Dzombak (The New York Times)
For more than 60 years, hundreds of unclassified reports from the US defense and intelligence community have assessed the threats to the US from environmental, #water, and #climate risks.
Those reports are disappearing from government websites and the military is being ordered to cancel, and censor, these security analyses.
I've documented, annotated, and linked to them on my website in three blog posts. The first one is here (the next two are there as well):
gleick.com/blog/climate-change…
Summary: For more than half a century, U.S. intelligence and defense communities have worked to understand the threats to national and international security from a range of enviroClimate Change, Water, the Environment and National Security: An Annotated History of U.S. Defense, Intelligence, and Security Assessments (Part 1: to 2010)
Global warming has accelerated. Earth’s climate is heating up faster today than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
That’s not doomism. It is reality.
If we do not end capitalism, capitalism will end us.
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism
Dutton goes full Trump on climate, energy and industry as Albanese sets May 3 election date
reneweconomy.com.au/dutton-goe…
#Australia #ClimateChange #GlobalWarming #IrreversibleOverheating #GlobalBurning #ClimateDestruction #ClimateSuicide #MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate
There was a moment in Peter Dutton's pitch to voters when the full Trumpian catastrophe of his climate, energy and industry policies should have been exposed.Giles Parkinson (RenewEconomy)
Canada has about 10 billion tons of Oil, burned that's 45 billion tons of CO2.
At the lowest hoped for price in the future of - "several hundred dollars a ton" it would cost Canada two trillion dollars to capture that carbon.
No daycares, no jobs, no new energy, just transferring all the $$$$ from your house to Exxon's owners.
SCAM #EXXON #EXXONScam #Climate #Capture #Carbon #NewEnergy
Build the new energy, end carbon fuels, directly.
Remember this important comparison when reading an article about a new breakthrough in carbon sequestration and storage:
Check whether the price per unit of atmospheric carbon stored is better than buying some coal and putting it in a hole.
Pro tip: It never is, and will never be. CSS is a scam. Coal in a hole wins every time. Hell, it STARTS in a hole. Just leave it there! Win/win!
‘If a billionaire disappears, does the world lose a scientist? No.
An artist? No.
A healer? No.
A teacher? No.
A farmer a horticulturist? No
The world loses nothing of value.
Because billionaires produce nothing.
They consume.
They extract.
They pollute.
They destroy nature.
They build empires on suffering.
Their existence is not a triumph of the system.
It is proof of its failure.’ of Economic Growth (GDP)
There’s a vital alternative system it’s called a #WellbeingEconomy
North Dakota Sued the Interior Department at Least Five Times Under Gov. Doug Burgum. Now He’s Set to Run the Agency.
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The state was hostile to Interior Department policies during the Biden administration. A review of its lawsuits under Burgum reveals an aggressively pro-fossil fuel agenda.
propublica.org/article/doug-bu…
#News #NorthDakota #Government #FossilFuels #Energy #Oil #Gas #Climate
A review of lawsuits filed by North Dakota while Burgum was governor reveals an aggressively pro-fossil fuel agenda.ProPublica
That time in 2009 when Donald Trump took out a full-page NYT ad with other business leaders calling on President Obama for aggressive #climate action:
“If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic & irreversible consequences for humanity & our planet.”
Human-caused climate change is intensifying Atlantic hurricanes, with rising ocean temperatures adding an average of 18 mph to wind speeds, according to a new study by Climate Central.Liz McLaughlin, WRAL Climate Change Reporter (WRAL)
What is "Amoc" and why is it so important?
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The dangers of a collapse of the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, known as Amoc, have been “greatly underestimated” and would have devastating and irreversible impacts, according to an open letter released by 44 experts from 15 countries.
There are indications that Amoc has been slowing down for the last 60 or 70 years due to global heating. The most ominous sign is the cold blob over the northern Atlantic. The region is the only place in the world that has cooled in the past 20 years or so, while everywhere else on the planet has warmed – a sign of reduced heat transport into that region, exactly what climate computer models have predicted in response to Amoc slowing as a result of greenhouse gas emissions.
Another indicator is a reduction in the salt content of seawater. In the cold blob region, salinity is at its lowest level since measurements began 120 years ago. This is probably linked to Amoc slowing down and bringing less salty water and heat from the subtropics.
It is an amplifying feedback: as Amoc gets weaker, the oceans gets less salty, and as the oceans gets less salty, then Amoc gets weaker. At a certain point this becomes a vicious cycle which continues by itself until Amoc has died, even if we stop pushing the system with further emissions.
The big unknown here – the billion-dollar question – is how far away this tipping point is. It is very difficult to answer because the process is non-linear and would be triggered by subtle differences in salinity, which in turn depend on amounts of rainfall and cloud cover over the ocean as well as Greenland melting rates. These are hard to model accurately in computers so there is a big uncertainty relating to when the tipping point will be reached.
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FULL ARTICLE -- theguardian.com/environment/20…
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by #Climate Migration?
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#HurricaneHelene was the latest in a generation of storms that are intensifying faster and dumping more rain as the climate warms. It's precisely the kind of event expected to drive more Americans to relocate as climate change gets worse — leaving behind those who are older, poorer and more vulnerable.
#News #ClimateChange #Hurricane #ExtremeWeather #Migration #Science #Flood
Only 7 days left in the European Citizens’ Initiative to tax the ultrarich to finance the climate transition.
Over 340,000 people have signed the petition so far. We need more than double that to send a clear message.
It takes less than 5 minutes.
Human composting should be a third option after burial and cremation.
My wife, Tui Davidson, spent her volunteer energy to provide a not-for-profit funeral service for Canberra. Five years later, they are a successful operation.
On Thursday, I was honoured and proud to attend her graduation from a social entrepreneur course called GRIST from Mill House Ventures. Earthly Remains is her human composting initiative and, as well as working with partners to develop the technology, she is lobbying the ACT government to create legislation to allow it, as 13 US states have done.
The GRIST program supported the creation of a short video which explains it better than I can.
She is also looking to collect data about community attitudes and would appreciate your input on a survey found at the website below.
#HumanComposting #environment #climate #cremation #burial #NaturalOrganicReduction #death #canberra
We know — and our rulers certainly know — that if we are to have any hope of preserving even a limited version of today’s complex modern society, greenhouse gas emissions MUST go down, swiftly and urgently.
But instead, emissions continue going up and up and up. It is literally suicidal.
So, WHY haven't we stopped burning fossil fuels?
Because there are profits to be made. Huge, massive, irresistibly tempting profits.
In a sane world, these actions would be seen as criminal.
Perpetrators like fossil fuel executives, their financiers, and the politicians who enable them, would be arrested, charged, tried, and convicted, with assets forfeited to pay for mitigation and reparations.
But we do not live in a sane world.
#Politics #Economics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateJustice #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #Degrowth
What a set of headlines, can't get any more dystopian than that. The rich go into vanity trips into space, while the common people down below drown.
#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #climate #space #spacex
Devastating review of the degrowth literature (561 studies):
- 'few studies use quantitative or qualitative data...'
- [those that do] 'tend to include small samples or focus on non-representative cases'
- 'large majority (almost 90%) are opinions rather than analysis'
This & similar cartoons often pop up on social media.... but that doesn't make them any less telling about our political leaders current & continuing attitudes to climate change.
So here it is again; our short-term thinking will be the end of us
#climate #environment #politics
The new Starbucks CEO, Brian Niccol, is going to commute to the office 3 days a week by private jet.
Don't forget to take your reusable cup to the coffee shop!
#climate #ClimateCollapse #environment #EatTheRich
edition.cnn.com/2024/08/23/bus…
Roger Hallam is one of the founders of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, and a leader in the fight against global climate change. I would like you to read this statement he posted yesterday… 🧵1/4
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I've just been sentenced to 5 years in prison.
The longest ever for nonviolent action.
The 'crime'?
Giving a talk on civil disobedience as an effective, evidence-based method for stopping the elite from putting enough carbon in the atmosphere to send us to extinction.
I have given hundreds of similar speeches encouraging nonviolent action and have never been arrested for it. This time I was an advisor to the M25 motorway disruption, recommending the action to go ahead to wake up the British public to societal collapse.
I was not part of the planning or action itself.
In the trial, I swore before God to tell the truth. The truth is the science. The science is clear. We're heading for billions of deaths and ecological collapse. To prove this, I presented the jury with a 250-page dossier of leading scientists' research as evidence in my defence. This was denied by the judge as an invalid - climate science is now illegal in the British courtroom.
I then began to speak about the apocalyptic conditions humanity faces - floods, wildfires, mass heat deaths - and was silenced by the judge. He sent out the jury and threatened to arrest me if I didn't stop. Instead, I stayed in the dock and argued that until I was given the right to complete my defence – I would not move. Even the prosecution tried to argue in my defence and the judge let me continue.
When the jury had shuffled in again, I spoke about the legal concept of “equality of arms” – that as the prosecution had had a right to lay facts over a whole week, I also wanted an equal opportunity. I spoke of various cases where juries had acquitted defendants when they had heard the facts, such as the Extinction Rebellion cracking of Shell's windows in 2018 as a reasonable action against criminal destruction. The Dutch Supreme Court has even said that all governments have a legal obligation to prevent the emission of greenhouse gases. Whilst the prosecution accepted that emissions pose an existential threat, for the first time in British history no less, they still tried to convict us for public nuisance rather than praise us for trying to stop those emissions. Given the objectivity of existential threat, there were overwhelming grounds to be involved in a plan to cause some disruption to the M25.
In the British law on public nuisance, there is a ‘reasonable excuse’ clause. Science says there is an overwhelming threat to my life, my children, you and your children. To argue there is not a reasonable excuse directly defies the wish of this legislation. Things are happening that cause harm – people are engaged in physical acts to stop that harm – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a protest or not.
As I began to offer up some case law, the judge kept intervening telling me I was “wasting my time” and ordering the jury to disregard me. To illustrate that I was not talking about my motivations but speaking about real necessity, I referred to a famous case over a decision to operate on conjoined twins with the likelihood that one would die. In this dilemma, I quoted the 19th Century principle that the action was necessary if the threat faced was inevitable and irrevocable, that no more should be done than essential, and that it must be proportionate. I argued that there was a “duress of circumstances” including the objective danger I’ve experienced as a farmer unable to grow food, and the global significance of “food insecurity” – a euphemism for famine and starvation.
There has never been a moment in history where ‘necessity’ has been more supported by objective facts – more than 10,000 scientific and peer-reviewed papers, indicating an outcome of mass starvation and death from man-made climate collapse.
In response, Judge Hehir called for an early lunch and dismissed the jury. He turned to me and warned that I wasn't a lawyer and that “this is not the Roger Hallam show”.
He then gave me just 15 more minutes to put forward my “beliefs” - a totally fucking incoherent statement. This isn’t belief - it’s the objective threat of destruction of property and livelihoods of billions of people and the secondary effects of famine i.e. war, rape, and torture.
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That's Part 1 of 4. Read the next below...
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice
Major tech companies are producing far more carbon emissions than they suggest in their sustainability reports.
They’re lobbying hard to rewrite the rules on how emissions are calculated to show net zero on paper, but not in practice.
ft.com/content/2d6fc319-2165-4…
#tech #climate #emissions #climatechange
“If the bees disappear off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”
#SaveTheBees #ActOnClimate #HumanRights #Technology #ClimateEmergency #Climate #nature #GreenDisability #biodiversity
ECOLOGISTS RISE UP!
Next week, @ScientistRebellion will be at the Nordic #Oikos 2024 conference in Lund, Sweden. We'll hold 2 workshops, discussing ways scientists can change tactics and re-embrace #advocacy and #activism in the #Climate and #EcologicalEmergency. We will also feature an #NVDA training. Everyone is welcome!
Tuesday March 12th at 13:30-15:30, Biology building, Sölvegatan 35, Lund. Room: D215 Cerebrum
Friday March 15th at 13:30-15:30, Ecology Building, Sölvegatan 37, Lund. Room: Heden (G110)
nordicsocietyoikos.glueup.com/…
Imagine a world where you work three or four days a week. In your free time, you play sports, spend time with loved ones, garden, and engage with local politics.
Overnight shipping, advertising, and private jets no longer exist, but health care, education, and clean electricity are free and available to all.
“The Growing Popularity of Degrowth”
See -- grist.org/looking-forward/the-…
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Degrowth
Excerpts from a Q&A with bestselling degrowth author Kohei Saito.Grist
Snowless winter in Himalayas – another sign of climate change
Lack of snow could mean water shortages for millions across Asia
rfa.org/english/news/environme…
#MassExtinction #pollution #ecology #environment #climate #Himalayas
Lack of snow could mean water shortages for millions across Asia.By Subel Rai Bhandari and Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan (Radio Free Asia)
This is the first thing I’ve seen from a major press outlet that even resembles a stick in the eye of conventional economic wisdom. And it is absolutely on point.
We must scream at the top of lungs, and shame any who dare, try to defend the conventional orthodox economic machine that is tearing our children’s future down around their ears. #FUCKNORDHAUS!!!
Please, I beg you, circulate this article as far and wide as you can.
#Climate #ClimateCrisis #economics
theintercept.com/2023/10/29/wi…
How William Nordhaus and an elite clique of math-addled economists hijacked climate policy.Christopher Ketcham (The Intercept)
A large group of scientists has collaborated to produce the "2023 State of the Climate" report. And guess what, it's not pretty...
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Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory.
For several decades, scientists have consistently warned of a future marked by extreme climatic conditions because of escalating global temperatures caused by ongoing human activities that release harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Unfortunately, time is up. We are seeing the manifestation of those predictions as an alarming and unprecedented succession of climate records are broken, causing profoundly distressing scenes of suffering to unfold. We are entering an unfamiliar domain regarding our climate crisis, a situation no one has ever witnessed firsthand in the history of humanity.
In the present report, we display a diverse set of vital signs of the planet and the potential drivers of climate change and climate-related responses. The trends reveal new all-time climate-related records and deeply concerning patterns of climate-related disasters. At the same time, we report minimal progress by humanity in combating climate change.
Given these distressing developments, our goal is to communicate climate facts and policy recommendations to scientists, policymakers, and the public. It is the moral duty of scientists and our institutions to clearly alert humanity of any potential existential threat and to show leadership in taking action.
The effects of global warming are progressively more severe, and possibilities such as a worldwide societal breakdown are feasible and dangerously underexplored. By the end of this century, an estimated 3 to 6 billion individuals — approximately one-third to one-half of the global population — might find themselves confined beyond the livable region, encountering severe heat, limited food availability, and elevated mortality rates because of the effects of climate change.
Big problems need big solutions. Therefore, we must shift our perspective on the climate emergency from being just an isolated environmental issue to a systemic, existential threat. Although global heating is devastating, it represents only one aspect of the escalating and interconnected environmental crisis that we are facing (e.g., biodiversity loss, fresh water scarcity, pandemics). We need policies that target the underlying issues of ecological overshoot where the human demand on Earth's resources results in overexploitation of our planet and biodiversity decline.
To address the overexploitation of our planet, we challenge the prevailing notion of endless growth and overconsumption by rich countries and individuals as unsustainable and unjust. Instead, we advocate for reducing resource overconsumption; reducing, reusing, and recycling waste in a more circular economy; and prioritizing human flourishing and sustainability. We emphasize climate justice and fair distribution of the costs and benefits of climate action, particularly for vulnerable communities. We call for a transformation of the global economy to prioritize human well-being and to provide for a more equitable distribution of resources.
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It's wonderful to see these scientists boldly calling for system change in the face of a planetary overshoot emergency. Now if only someone will listen...
FULL REPORT -- academic.oup.com/bioscience/ad…
#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Degrowth
Life on planet Earth is under siege. We are now in an uncharted territory. For several decades, scientists have consistently warned of a future marked by extremRipple, William J (Oxford University Press)
What if I told you that most promoted actions about climate-friendly software are misguided?
Backing data for that claim and my opinion on the low-hanging fruits:
blog.ltgt.net/climate-friendly…
Key takeaways:
* Pick servers in carbon-neutral or low-carbon datacenters first
* Optimize for the perceived performance and battery life
* Don't be the one that will make your users change their device
* Sometimes, ideas aren't even worth their impacts
#greenIT #climate #sustainability #carbonfootprint #co2
What if I told you that most promoted actions about climate-friendly software are misguided? Here's backing data for that claim and my opinion on the low-hanging fruits.tbroyer's pages
A timely and rather shocking meme, to which I have added #AltText...
#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency
TODAY IN SPAIN!
The northern Spanish city of Zaragoza was inundated by a heavy downpour in less than 20 minutes. The fire brigade had to rescue desperate people from their cars.
#climate #climatechange #weather #ClimateEmergency #GlobalWarming #climatecrisis #Spain
For those who haven’t seen it before, here is my review of The Climate Book, by Greta Thunberg…
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I've read dozens of books about climate change, and this one is easily the best. It's packed with information, written to be accessible for anyone from high school (or a bright middle school student) on up, and most importantly it does NOT shy away from the true severity of our situation and the imperative need not only for individual action but for system change.
It's stunning to me that a young woman who just turned twenty years old was able to pull together such a massive project — coordinating the submissions of more than a hundred scientists, activists, and educators — while also writing a large part of the content herself. A truly amazing accomplishment.
This essential work should be in every school library and in every home. It will remain relevant for years to come, I believe, because although there certainly is plenty of data, mostly it's about *ideas* which will never age.
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bookwyrm.social/user/BreadAndC…
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice
Let’s get this right. Scientists didn’t fail to communicate the risks of #climatechange, they have been warning us for a century. Our policies are failing because after knowing the risks, fossil fuel companies spent billions of dollars blocking meaningful action on #climate.
thehill.com/policy/energy-envi…
