Get Energy Smart! NOW!

This is an expanded discussion, with some revisiting, of something written a week ago trying to step back and consider the Chinese approach to climate negotiations in Copenhagen and elsewhere. I have, since reading it, been “assured” that Copenhagen failure was China’s fault. That “assurance” and assessing of “blame”, in my opinion, glosses over the […]

[Read more →]

This guest post comes from scientist rb137. Many of us are disappointed about the results coming from COP15, and we’re concerned that the world isn’t addressing climate change fast enough. We’re afraid that by the time we get enough people on board it will be too late. One of the problems we face is that […]

[Read more →]

The Washington Post / ABC News 13 Dec 09 poll had both some gloomy and some bright news when it comes to Americans’ perspectives about climate change and how/whether we should act in response to them. The Post/ABC poll and The Post‘s 18 Dec 09 reporting of it in On environment, Obama and scientists take […]

[Read more →]

That is, the Chinese climate agenda … Many are reporting that the Chinese represented the most serious stumbling block inhibiting meaningful progress at COP15.  As per David Robert’s excellent discussion of impressions of COP15 if there’s a party to blame, it’s China. It’s China that was off meeting with India and Brazil, trying to avoid […]

[Read more →]

Dr Seuss’ Lorax remains one of the most powerful works re the implications of placing “environment vs economy” rather than understanding how they are intrinsically combined along with a powerful indictment of placing economy over environment in terms of the devastating implications for health, quality of life, and other issues. Here is the clearest summary […]

[Read more →]

When it comes to achievements in Copenhagen, the flowery rhetoric issued from (some) world leaders isn’t matched by the substance of accomplishments. And, from the other angle, physical reality and the necessity for serious action to mitigate (and, sadly, adapt to) climate change is unaddressed by the reality of what derived from Copenhagen. As President […]

[Read more →]

While Sarah Palin might be able to see Russia from her front porch, evidently Representative Joe Barton can’t see the polar ice cap from his.  Throwing aside the adage that politics ends at the water’s edge, Barton and some Republican global warming denying colleagues traveled to Copenhagen to try to undermine the COP15 talks. As […]

[Read more →]

Another day, another leak from COP15. As final (???) negotiations go on, from the outside it seems clear that there is no possibility that world leaders can leave Copenhagen having put in place a fair, aggressive, and binding (FAB) that would provide a good deal of assurance (insurance) that the world community will successfully act […]

[Read more →]

In a recent Politico OPED, Representative John Linder calls on the US to not jump off the cliff for climate. Looking at his truthiness-laden and error-filled opinion piece drives to the conclusion that Linder doesn’t want Americans to jump off the cliff, but more simply to wear blindfolds and walk over the cliff into catastrophic […]

[Read more →]

A leaked document from COP15 negotiations shows that the concept of putting civilization on a path toward survival simply isn’t even on the table. Until a few years ago (including in the IPCC reports), the ‘consensus’ seemed to be that flattening CO2 levels at 550 ppm might be acceptable in terms of the planetary system’s […]

[Read more →]