Group items tagged

Across the United States, cities, towns, and counties are enacting policies and programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Many local governments are motivated by concerns about the impacts of climate change in their communities as well as an understanding that energy and climate solutions can benefit local economies and residents. Their actions reflect a strong history of local leadership in climate protection in the United States. While local governments face a number of limitations in addressing climate change, they can be a key part of the solution. Like states and regions, local governments can demonstrate leadership by implementing strategies to confront climate change and laying the groundwork for broader action at the national and international levels.

This brief is part of a series called Climate Change 101: Understanding and Responding to Global Climate Change, published by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

The American Climate and Environmental Value Survey (ACEVS) is the third application of sophisticated psychographic research on American environmental and climate values. The goal of ACEVS is to increase the leverage, scale, reach, and most importantly, efficacy, of climate and environmental initiatives by empowering the movement with proven research and methodology for authentically engaging Americans in climate and environmental solutions, bringing these Americans to solutions on their own terms, in context of their choosing, and for their personal benefit.

This survey includes a section on what influences people (primarily the media). It also begins with the comment that "cap and trade" is now "toxic." It would be interesting to connect the dots here (as Oreskes & co-author do in Merchants of Doubt), so that we see who was behind the push against cap and trade. Ironically, cap and trade originated as a free market alternative to government regulation of how much pollution could be emitted.

Fred Singer!

Why the Right needs to get invested in the search for climate change solutions. Looks at how the right has been absent from solutions related to climate change. Proposes opportunities to address issue from a conservative ideological frame and still address global warming and climate change.

Participation of experts in working groups, not all citizens. Interesting nevertheless.

An interview between host Terry Gross and journalist Jeff Goodell about the interess behind climate change. Goodell spoke of the efforts of coal and fossil fuel industries to slow the Obama administration's efforts to implement a "cap and trade" program. What is particularly interesting is that Goodell speaks about the strong support the administration has from Wall Street and the large financial firms. The Carbon Market is poised to be the largest futures and derivatives market and investment houses will exact huge profits from processing these market transactions. This is clearly a major interest in promoting carbon emissions and the direness of the climate change debate.

NASA's James Hansen has nothing good to say about cap & trade, and the current regime of carbon offset management: http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/james-hansen. Also, a NY Times op-ed by Berndt Heinrich on the impact of commercial afforestation for globally traded carbon offsets: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/opinion/20heinrich.html -- my comments at http://groups.google.com/group/uml-climate-network/browse_thread/thread/95ccf43784f34532, referring to our own New York - New England Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has a similar forest offset allowance, with the condition of "additionality" -- http://www.rggi.org/offsets, http://www.rggi.org/offsets/offset_requirements. Alex_Brown@uml.edu

Relating natural disasters to climate change, and a prescription for responding (which doesn't hinge on accepting climate change, if the Case knowledge claim is correct). This prescription includes national- and state-level assessments and planning, additional funding, and energy infrastructure improvements.

Orwell, in 1984, wrote, "a ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its own successors. Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchal structure remains always the same".1 Due to industrialisation, even if the countries constituting the groupings change, it does not change the structural power of the Non-Annex 1 countries as the latter, under the framework constructed in the Kyoto Protocol, have secured a position of structural power.

some interesting thinking in this pdf

Short stories from people about how climate change has influenced their lives in Africa.

Graphics and comparison of USDA Growing Zones in the recent past and near future.

Seeing this news item this morning reminded me that, whenever a topic is raised in a course, one then starts to "see" news about it. I put "see" in scare quotes because most likely the topic was in the news before, but now one notices it. On the substance of the news item, it does show that sometimes business picks up on the science even when it remains contested by politics. For example, nuclear power plants are not being built in most part because corporations with millions of dollars cannot see themselves making a profit and bearing the risk.

Peter - Thanks for posting this. It will be interesting to see what they disclose and to consider what thought process they used for preparing these reports.

Mary Douglas's cultural theory proposes that there "a limited set of alternative ways of perceiving and resolving the issues. These contending policy perspectives justify, represent and stem from four different ways of organizing social relations: hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism and fatalism" (or variants of these names depending on the author). Here cultural theory is applied to climate change science and policies.

From Laura T. Thought you might like to listen to the participants in this short 9 min. clip with an ear to discerning threads of the 'four policy perspectives' (heirarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, fatalism) in "Clumsy Solutions" article posted on Diigo. Climate Change : Panel discussion for Editorial Intelligence, London, UK, December 1, 2009. Includes author of "Saving Kyoto," Graciela Chichilnisky, Ph.D. tenured prof. at Columbia in Economics and Mathematical Statistics & Top Ten Most Influential Latinos in America. She created Columbia's Consortium on Risk Management that was funded by six mj. global reinsurance co.'s --- a group which developed new financial instruments called 'catastrophe bundles.' (approx. 9 min.)

This short journalist piece explores the roots of Obama's nuclear policy linking it back to Al Core's quest against global warming and climate change. The policy promotes nuclear as the alternative to fossil fuels. The piece draws a direct link between the nuclear industry, Al Gore, the Clinton administration and even Obama (both as Senator and President)

This might be useful for those of you trying to parse out how climate science is being received by the public -- skeptics are farther between than we think, perhaps?

Highlighted portions are the focus of the Case 4 practicum.

Awesome! I really like their idea of preservation and conservation. I feel that they are thinking about my grandchildren (I don't even have kids and already talking about grand kids) and really caring about future generations. I really appreciate that especially in a world were we seem to consume everything at a tremendously high pace without worrying about the consequences for us and future generations. I am irritated by the irresponsibility of oil companies and by what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico! Now I read the oil will not be contained and will affect Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and obviously the entire world!

''Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World'' is a powerful and original statement on why well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social ills too often derail, and how effective, efficient and broadly acceptable solutions to social problems can be found. It takes its cue from the idea that our endlessly changing and complex social worlds consist of ceaseless interactions between four ways of organizing, justifying and perceiving social relations. Each time one of these perspectives is excluded from collective decision-making, governance failure inevitably results. Successful solutions are therefore creative combinations of four opposing ways of organizing and thinking.

Rhoda, when I click on the link it goes to a login for Swarthmore. I'm thinking this article by the same authors may cover similar ground -- http://psychologyforasafeclimate.org/resources/Clumsy%20solutions%20for%20a%20complex%20world%20The%20case%20of%20climate%20change.pdf

Sorry about the link problem, Felicia. I'll see if I can fix it. Thanks for finding one that works!

This article talks about changing politics in an "age of scarcity", which a number of resources say we're entering now. My thinking is - what role does this play in policy makers resistance to climate change?