Skip to main content

Home/ zenwrit/ Group items tagged climate change

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Kathy Chu

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math | Politics News | Rolling Stone - 0 views

www.rollingstone.com/...s-terrifying-new-math-20120719

environment climate change warming

shared by Kathy Chu on 18 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • If you told Exxon or Lukoil that, in order to avoid wrecking the climate, they couldn't pump out their reserves, the value of their companies would plummet
    • Tara Picudella
      Tara Picudella on 18 Oct 13
       
      consequence---cost$$$$$$
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      it's a consequence, sure, but it's one that's would happen if we did the exact opposite of what this article is telling us to do
    • Brian Walsh
      Brian Walsh on 18 Oct 13
       
      It always goes back to money. It seems like businesses and corporations are more preoccupied with how much money they will lose than how much polar ice will melt.
  • Germany is one of the only big countries that has actually tried hard to change its energy mix; on one sunny Saturday in late May, that northern-latitude nation generated nearly half its power from solar panels within its borders. That's a small miracle – and it demonstrates that we have the technology to solve our problems.
    • Tara Picudella
      Tara Picudella on 18 Oct 13
       
      possible solution to the problem? are there any bad results/is this good enough if implemented everywhere?
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      I don't know if it can be implemented everywhere. to be honest, there are probably some places that don't get enough sun for this to be a viable option. it's also not as immediate, you have to wait for that. people like what they don't have to wait for and what they know works, i.e. carbon.
    • Yi Jin
      Yi Jin on 18 Oct 13
       
      I feel that Iceland should have been mentioned instead as its energy is 99% natural, but then again this shows how left back the rest of the world is
  • Green groups, for instance, have spent a lot of time trying to change individual lifestyles: the iconic twisty light bulb has been installed by the millions, but so have a new generation of energy-sucking flatscreen TVs.
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • it's as if the gay-rights movement had to be constructed entirely from evangelical preachers, or the abolition movement from slaveholders.
    • Tara Picudella
      Tara Picudella on 18 Oct 13
       
      brings it personal for some of the audience to relate to
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      take the case of slavery. some people benefited from it, but a lot didn't. those that didn't were the ones who protested. but with fossil fuels, most people, especially the ones with the most power to stop it, benefit from it a lot. that's the difference here.
  • A more efficient method, of course, would be to work through the political system, and environmentalists have tried that, too, with the same limited success.
    • Tara Picudella
      Tara Picudella on 18 Oct 13
       
      the leaders have the power to change everything...relates to the other reading
  • According to the Carbon Tracker report, if Exxon burns its current reserves, it would use up more than seven percent of the available atmospheric space between us and the risk of two degrees. BP is just behind, followed by the Russian firm Gazprom, then Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell, each of which would fill between three and four percent.
  • we might well burn all that carbon, in which case investors will do fine. But if we do, the planet will crater.
  • you can't have both.
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      it seems really unfair that it has to be money vs. a planet to live on in the long run. people aren't going to want to make that decision, either way it makes them super unpopular with people.
  • time is precisely what we lack.
  • conceivably
  • he explained on the stump in March, "You have my word that we will keep drilling everywhere we can... That's a commitment that I make
  • Producing more oil and gas here at home has been, and will continue to be, a critical part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      i kind of feel like this is being severely misquoted.... wasn't he saying that more about the fact that this was to try and not have us by from the middle easy and spend ridiculous amounts of money on foreign oil? this was a solution for an economic crisis, not an environmental one. wow this actually makes me really mad.
  • In December, the Canadian government withdrew from the treaty before it faced fines for failing to meet its commitments.
  • hypocrisy
  • In December, the Canadian government withdrew from the treaty before it faced fines for failing to meet its commitments.
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      i feel like that shouldn't be allowed. it should have been more binding than that.
  • hypocrisy
    • Nikki Schmeling
      Nikki Schmeling on 18 Oct 13
       
      all these leaders keep talking about the problem, but won't do anything about it. you know, "talk the talk, but don't walk the walk"
  • A rapid, transformative change would require building a movement, and movements require enemies
  • They're clearly cognizant of global warming – they employ some of the world's best scientists, after all,
  • Barack Obama, for instance, campaigned more aggressively about climate change than any president before him
  • climate change is undoubtedly the most devastating environmental problem of this century."
    • Kathy Chu
      Kathy Chu on 18 Oct 13
       
      Large companies have found loopholes. I believe companies that emit carbon dioxide or any other air pollutant into the air has a limit, but smaller companies that doesn't emit as much sell the remaining amount to other companies. In a way, larger companies have found a way to burn as much carbon as they want because they can just buy from smaller ones.
  • environmental efforts to tackle global warming have failed. The planet's emissions of carbon dioxide continue to soar, especially as developing countries emulate (and supplant) the industries of the West. Even in rich countries, small reductions in emissions offer no sign of the real break with the status quo we'd need to upend the iron logic of these three numbers.
kurt stavenhagen

When Will Climate Change Make the Earth Too Hot For Humans? - 0 views

nymag.com/...-hot-for-humans-annotated.html

shared by kurt stavenhagen on 04 Oct 17 - No Cached
    • kurt stavenhagen
      kurt stavenhagen on 04 Oct 17
       
      rhetoric!
    • kurt stavenhagen
      kurt stavenhagen on 04 Oct 17
       
      Does plausibility work for this topic? Sharing of fear that paralyzes?
  • set of propositions that animated the project from the start: that the public does not appreciate the scale of climate risk; that this is in part because we have not spent enough time contemplating the scarier half of the distribution curve of possibilities, especially its brutal long tail, or the risks beyond sea-level rise; that there is journalistic and public-interest value in spreading the news from the scientific community, no matter how unnerving it may be; and that, when it comes to the challenge of climate change, public complacency is a far, far bigger problem than widespread fatalism — that many, many more people are not scared enough than are already “too scared.” In fact, I don’t even understand what “too scared” would mean. The science says climate change threatens nearly every aspect of human life on this planet, and that inaction will hasten the problems. In that context, I don’t think it’s a slur to call an article, or its writer, alarmist. I’ll accept that characterization. We should be alarmed.
  • But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • But no matter how well-informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough
kurt stavenhagen

Did that New York magazine climate story freak you out? Good. - Vox - 0 views

www.vox.com/...climate-change-doom-journalism

shared by kurt stavenhagen on 06 Oct 17 - No Cached
  • He simply says that there’s lots of carbon buried in the permafrost and, as the ice melts, the carbon is released as methane, which is 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (on a short- to mid-term basis). That is true.
    • kurt stavenhagen
      kurt stavenhagen on 06 Oct 17
       
      Partly correct appraisal here. The carbon is not likely to be released as methane!
  • One set of satellite data was updated, it falls in line with the rest, and warming is happening roughly on the schedule models predicted (which, as Mann notes, is plenty fast enough).
  • So that’s one close call and one error, which together constitute, by my rough calculation, about a fiftieth of the factual claims in WW’s piece. The rest, as far as I know, stands.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • But Wallace-Wells’ piece was not about that. It was about what will happen if we keep on as-is.
  • He’s merely describing what could happen if we cease to act, which no one wants ... except one of the two major political parties in the world’s most powerful country, including the man in charge of the executive branch and military
    • kurt stavenhagen
      kurt stavenhagen on 06 Oct 17
       
      Kairotic here? Given the situation politically, does Wallace-Wells have more latitude to explore the worst case scenario?
    • kurt stavenhagen
      kurt stavenhagen on 06 Oct 17
       
      Intriguing shift to the social dynamics. 
  • There’s been a sort of general failure of imagination that means we’ve accepted what’s the median-likely outcome as a worst-case scenario. As a result we’ve been a bit handicapped in thinking about how much action needs to be taken.
  • Things stay roughly as they are” is just as improbable as the worst-case scenario he lays out, yet I’d venture to guess it is believed (or more importantly, envisioned) by vastly more people. Part of that is because envisioning the best-case scenario is easy — it looks just like now! — while envisioning the worst-case scenario is very difficult. It’s especially difficult because the worst-case scenario is treated by the very few people who understand it as a kind of forbidden occult knowledge to which ordinary people cannot survive exposure. Nobody can talk about it without getting scolded by the hope police.
  • it’s just weird for journalists and analysts to worry about overly alarming people regarding the biggest, scariest problem humanity has ever faced.
  • When there are important things that people don’t understand, journalists should explain those things. Attempts at dime-store social psychology are unlikely to lead to better journalism.
  • nobody really knows anything. Even if there are accurate statements about how people in general respond to messages in general, they won’t tell you much about how you ought to communicate with the people you want to reach.
    • kurt stavenhagen
      kurt stavenhagen on 06 Oct 17
       
      Yes! Applied rhetoric: no longer do general bromides apply; context and timing is everthing; if as the saying goes all politics are ultimately local, then all rhetoric is ultimately local.
  • Similarly, the dry, hedged language of science is not the only serious or legitimate way to communicate, though climate scientists often mistake it as such.
  • consciously pitched to reach and inspire some mythical average reader (as encountered in social science studies filtered through popular journalism) tends to be flavorless and dull.
  • engineering
  • a climate system that will now go to war with us for many centuries, perhaps until it destroys us.
  • it is another thing entirely to consider the possibility that we have only provoked it
  • I just try to communicate like I would like to be communicated to, frankly and clearly, as though I’m talking to a friend in a bar.
kyle kirby

Global Warming's Terrifying New Math | Politics News | Rolling Stone - 0 views

www.rollingstone.com/...s-terrifying-new-math-20120719

shared by kyle kirby on 17 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • June broke or tied 3,215 high-temperature records across the United States.
  • That followed the warmest May on record for the Northern Hemisphere
  • the odds of which occurring by simple chance were 3.7 x 10-99, a number considerably larger than the number of stars in the universe.
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • "largest temperature departure from average of any season on record."
    • Gabriel Kerbs
      Gabriel Kerbs on 18 Oct 13
       
      Odd occurrences are becoming the norm.  The earth is talking to us, warning  us
  • it had rained in Mecca despite a temperature of 109 degrees,
    • Brett Sherman
      Brett Sherman on 18 Oct 13
       
      Rain in the middle of a desert at 109 degrees, that's insane! If that's not evidence I don't know what is.
  • the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 would have marked the culmination of the global fight to slow a changing climat
  • George H.W. Bush, who flew in for the first conclave, Barack Obama didn't even attend.
  • I can say with some confidence that we're losing the fight, badly and quickly – losing it because, most of all, we remain in denial about the peril that human civilization is in.
    • Gabriel Kerbs
      Gabriel Kerbs on 18 Oct 13
       
      This is because global warming hasn't physically moved us yet... just wait till the first city gets engulfed
  • you just need to do a little mat
    • Gabriel Kerbs
      Gabriel Kerbs on 18 Oct 13
       
      Quantitative data has power
  • Last month the world's nations, meeting in Rio for the 20th-anniversary reprise of a massive 1992 environmental summit, accomplished nothing.
  • Sir Nicholas Stern of Britain, called the "most important gathering since the Second World War
    • Aadil Khetani
      Aadil Khetani on 18 Oct 13
       
      The issue of global warming is considered so high and people need to notice what the problem is and identify the true source. 
  • "This is our chance. If we miss it, it could take years before we get a new and better one. If ever."
  • Neither China nor the United States, which between them are responsible for 40 percent of global carbon emissions, was prepared to offer dramatic concessions, and so the conference drifted aimlessly for two weeks until world leaders jetted in for the final day
    • Aadil Khetani
      Aadil Khetani on 18 Oct 13
       
      The US and the Chinese must take responsibility in resolving the issue or providing an effective solution. 
  • COPENHAGEN: THE MUNICH OF OUR TIMES?
  • "the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below two degrees Celsius."
  • "we agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required... so as to hold the increase in global temperature below two degrees Celsius."
  • about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit – the accord ratified positions taken earlier in 2009 by the G8, and the so-called Major Economies Forum.
    • Gabriel Kerbs
      Gabriel Kerbs on 18 Oct 13
       
      2 degrees seems small, but is actually a drastic change for the environment
  • So far, we've raised the average temperature of the planet just under 0.8 degrees Celsius, and that has caused far more damage than most scientists expected
    • Aadil Khetani
      Aadil Khetani on 18 Oct 13
       
      What was the number of years that the number increased the most and around which time period did it occur? What happens if the number goes over 2?
  • that two degrees is far too lenient a target.
  • All told, 167 countries responsible for more than 87 percent of the world's carbon emissions have signed on to the Copenhagen Accord, endorsing the two-degree target.
    • Alex S
      Alex S on 17 Oct 13
       
      great way to start of with some number. but i can see how briing up all the warmer weather can set the stage.
    • Alex S
      Alex S on 17 Oct 13
       
      this shows how there are still leaders who dont put environment/climate change at the top of their prioritys
    • Alex S
      Alex S on 17 Oct 13
       
      does this # of 2 degree C change with the times (like temp inflation) or will it always be the benchmark?
  • no one paid it much attention,
  • prescription for long-term disaster.
  • Its purely voluntary agreements committed no one to anything, and even if countries signaled their intentions to cut carbon emissions, there was no enforcement mechanism
    • kyle kirby
      kyle kirby on 18 Oct 13
       
      I find it ludicrous that countries can just say they will do something to help the betterment of the world, then just do the exact opposite when it helps the bottom line.
Robert Coady

Beyond environment: falling back in love with Mother Earth | Guardian Sustainable Busin... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...-hanh-buddhidm-business-values

environment

shared by Robert Coady on 30 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • addiction to consumerism
  • stress we are putting on Earth
  • we all suffer and the way to overcome that pain is to directly confront it
  • ...29 more annotations...
  • Move beyond concept of the "environment"
  • Change is possible only if there is a recognition that people and planet are ultimately one and the same.
  • You carry Mother Earth within you
  • Mother Earth is not just your environment
  • Fear, separation, hate and anger come from the wrong view that you and the earth are two separate entities
  • Putting an economic value on nature is not enough
  • We want to be connected. That is the meaning of love, to be at one. When you love someone you want to say I need you, I take refuge in you. You do anything for the benefit of the Earth and the Earth will do anything for your wellbeing
  • When we recognise the virtues, the talent, the beauty of Mother Earth, something is born in us, some kind of connection, love is born
  • Looking deeply, we see that it's possible to work in the corporate world in a way that brings a lot of happiness both to other people and to us ... our work has meaning
  • How mindfulness can reconnect people to
  • Mother Earth
  • Many people suffer deeply and they do not know they suffer
  • They try to cover up the suffering by being busy. Many people get sick today because they get alienated from Mother Earth.
  • The practice of mindfulness helps us to touch Mother Earth inside of the body and this practice can help heal people
  • be awake to the fact that the earth is in danger and living species are in danger
  • Every moment can be a happy moment.
  • Need to deal with ones own anger to be an effective social activist
  • Only if people discover compassion for themselves will they be able to confront those they hold accountable for polluting our seas and cutting down our forests
  • Sometimes something wrong is going on in the world and we think it is the other people who are doing it and we are not doing it.
  • . If you are burdened with anger, fear, ignorance and you suffer too much, you cannot help another person.
  • Touching the "ultimate dimension"
  • We know that we do not have to look for the ultimate outside of ourselves – it is available within us, in this very moment
  • there is a very real risk that we will continue on our destructive path and that civilisation may collapse.
  • When the need to survive is replaced with greed and pride, there is violence, which always brings about unnecessary devastation.
  • If we are able to touch deeply the historical dimension – through a leaf, a flower, a pebble, a beam of light, a mountain, a river, a bird, or our own body – we touch at the same time the ultimate dimension.
  • Remaining optimistic despite risk of impending catastrophe
  • maintaining optimism is essential if we are to find a way of avoiding devastating climate change and the enormous social upheavals that will result.
  • We have constructed a system we can't control. It imposes itself on us, and we become its slaves and victims.
  • In my mind I see a group of chickens in a cage disputing over a few seeds of grain, unaware that in a few hours they will all be killed
1 - 5 of 5
Showing 20▼ items per page