Growth is not sustainable

Is climate change just dog's doo-doo?

2012-02-11T11:56:00.001-08:00

Guernica / Karen Charman: Fukushima: Why We Should (Still) Be Worried

2012-02-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

Guernica / Karen Charman: Fukushima: Why We Should (Still) Be Worried

Steroids, baseball, and climate change

2012-02-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

Global Warming Climate Change Report via facebook

Tomgram: Bill McKibben, Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet | TomDispatch

2012-02-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

Tomgram: Bill McKibben, Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet | TomDispatch

Caricom Countries - Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change

2012-02-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

Politicizing Climate Change

2012-02-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

Politicizing Climate Change

Responding To Growing Disasters, States To Require Insurers To Disclose Climate Change Plans

2012-02-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

Responding To Growing Disasters, States To Require Insurers To Disclose Climate Change Plans: pFollowing the most damaging year of climate disasters in the United States in history, the insurance regulators in three states – California, Washington, and New York – announced that all major insurance companies operating in their states will be required to assess and publicly disclose the climate-change related risks they face, both in their underwriting [...]/p

CSR & Sustainability Videos

2012-02-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

HT JustMeans via Facebook

'Confused Wildlife' and unique plants growing in Philadelphia region are some issues local environmental experts say are coming from the warm winter temperatures « CBS Philly

2012-02-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

'Confused Wildlife' and unique plants growing in Philadelphia region are some issues local environmental experts say are coming from the warm winter temperatures « CBS Philly

Economic growth without population growth?

2012-02-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

Watch January 30, 2012 on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

30 minutes in....

Count how many times Margret says "growth". It is amazing to me that nobody is talking about the lack of population growth in Europe. Think Japan.

Following story is about Hans Rosling’s and his GAPMINDER project.

Fukushima pets in no-go zone face harsh winter

2012-01-31T17:26:00.001-08:00

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Dogs and cats that were abandoned in the Fukushima exclusion zone after last year's nuclear crisis have had to survive high radiation and a lack of food, and they are now struggling with the region's freezing winter weather.
"If left alone, tens of them will die everyday. Unlike well-fed animals that can keep themselves warm with their own body fat, starving ones will just shrivel up and die," said Yasunori Hoso, who runs a shelter for about 350 dogs and cats rescued from the 20-km evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant.
The government let animal welfare groups enter the evacuation zone temporarily in December to rescue surviving pets before the severe winter weather set in, but Hoso said there were still many more dogs and cats left in the area.
"If we cannot go in to take them out, I hope the government will at least let us go there and leave food for them," he said.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami on March 11 triggered the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years and forced residents around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to flee, with many of them having to leave behind their pets.
More than 150,000 people from Fukushima prefecture still cannot return to their homes, with nearly half of them from the exclusion zone.
While Japan focuses on containing the nuclear accident and protecting people from radiation, Hoso, representative director of United Kennel Club Japan, has been trying to save as many dogs and cats from the no-go zone as possible, or keep pets for those who are living in shelters where pets are not allowed.
Toru Akama, an engineer working at the Fukushima nuclear plant, asked Hoso to look after his 14 dogs when an entry ban was imposed on his town.
"I was really happy for my dogs. They are part of my family. There was no way I could abandon them," Akama said.
Hoso said he aims to carry on until the last dog in his shelter is returned to its owner or finds a new home.
"When dogs are returned, many owners are really grateful and a limited few are not so grateful. But when it comes to dogs, all of them, without exception, become really ecstatic when they get reunited with their owners," Hoso said.
"That is what keeps me going, what makes me determined that I have to push ahead until the last one goes back to its owner."

NASA Solves Mystery of Earth's 'Missing Energy'

2012-01-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

NASA Solves Mystery of Earth's 'Missing Energy'

Peak Oil and the economy

2012-01-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

Even with large supplies of coal and natural gas, the world faces a potential energy shortfall, one reason that the U.S. Department of Energy suggested in a 2005 report (pdf) that a "crash program" to cope with any decline in oil supplies be instituted. The report argued this program should start 20 years before peak global production to avoid "extreme economic hardship." That's because it will take decades for any kind of energy transition to occur, as evidenced by past shifts such as from wood to coal or coal to oil.

In fact, King and Murray argue that global economic growth itself may be impossible without a concurrent growth in energy supply (that is, more abundant fossil fuels, to date). "We need to decouple economic growth from fossil-fuel dependence," King adds. "This is not happening due to industrial, infrastructural, political and human behavioral inertia. We are stuck in our ways."

Has the 'Era of Easy Oil' Ended?

Duh

Guernica / Christian Parenti: Why Climate Change Will Make You Love Big Government

2012-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

In the face of an unraveling climate system, there is no way that private enterprise alone will meet the threat. And though small “d” democracy and “community” may be key parts of a strong, functional, and fair society, volunteerism and “self-organization” alone will prove as incapable as private enterprise in responding to the massive challenges now beginning to unfold.

Guernica / Christian Parenti: Why Climate Change Will Make You Love Big Government

Podcast: We Must Address the Climate-Security Nexus

2012-01-27T04:02:00.000-08:00

Podcast: We Must Address the Climate-Security Nexus

Desert Lessons on Adapting to Climate Change

2012-01-27T03:45:00.000-08:00

Global warming: Welcome to the age of mankind

2012-01-25T13:20:00.000-08:00

Global warming: Welcome to the age of mankind

Extreme Weather Roundup

2012-01-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

[Video] 2011 Extreme Weather Roundup

Climate Scientists To Fight Back Against Republican Climate-Change Deniers

2012-01-23T11:44:00.000-08:00

Climate Scientists To Fight Back Against Republican Climate-Change Deniers

Hot Planet

2012-01-22T07:37:00.000-08:00

Mexican Drought

2012-01-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

EcoAlert --NASA Data Predicts Continuing Drought with a Repeating La Nina at Its Peak

2012-01-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

EcoAlert --NASA Data Predicts Continuing Drought with a Repeating La Nina at Its Peak

Jeremy Rifkin: Keynote Address to 2011 Evergreen Brick Works Forum

2012-01-19T06:13:00.000-08:00

Off topic somewhat

2012-01-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

This will be interesting to anyone following the OWS movement.
Slightly wonkish, but stick it out. The question and answer session is pretty awesome.
Simon Johnson, Lawrence Fish discuss 'Financial Services: Prospects for Your Future'

8. Climate Change -- Has the Earth been cooling?

2012-01-17T07:09:00.000-08:00

GreenMonk Energy & Sustainability Show

2012-01-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

greenmonktv on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

How mysterious molecules may help cool Earth

2012-01-14T14:21:00.000-08:00

How mysterious molecules may help cool Earth

Climate change: Up with Chris Hayes, Michael Mann!

2012-01-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

After the Guantanamo segment

Kirk Sorensen: Thorium, an alternative nuclear fuel

2012-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Tim Jackson Economics Of Climate Change

2012-01-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

Deepak, Arianna, & Dylan

2012-01-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

Watch live streaming video from deepakhomebase at livestream.com

Heinberg, Kunstler, Foss, Orlov & Chomsky on A Public Affair | Energy Bulletin

2012-01-11T08:22:00.000-08:00

Heinberg, Kunstler, Foss, Orlov & Chomsky on A Public Affair | Energy Bulletin

Sea Level

2012-01-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

See Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: “An Emerging Hockey Stick”

more here

The Velocity of Climate Change

2012-01-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

The McCormick Climate Change Conference

2012-01-04T13:38:00.001-08:00

Radio Ecoshock IV - audio

2012-01-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

Listen here

The truth might be depressing

Random Rant

2012-01-03T07:01:00.000-08:00

We who follow climate change and the depletion of Earth's resources often decry the fact that the general population of the planet appears to be blithely ignorant of the pending catastrophe.

If we continue BAU we're headed for as much as 7C warming in the next 90 years. That level of warming threatens civilization as we know it. It is as scary as things get.

We think a black swan event will wake them up. But then it occurred to me we might go from an ignorant population to a panicked one. That could be dangerous!

It also occurred to me that if scientists really think we are on the path of destruction of Earth as we know her they would do something more than they are doing. Like taking our full page ads in all the major papers all over the globe:

Get off fossil fuels or else millions will die!

I think in the next two or three decades we'll see farms abandon because of monsoonal rains and subsequent floods happening every year instead of every 100. Here. In the US.

Here's one of the reasons I started this blog. How are we going to pay for this stuff and still pay for other essentials?

Where is the Urgency About Climate Change?

2012-01-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

Jane Lubchenco, Ph D.: Predicting and Managing Extreme Weather & Climate Events

2011-12-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

Union Agency Lecture: Jane Lubchenco, Ph D. from American Geophysical Union on Vimeo.

Ready to live on an alien planet?

2011-12-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

"This is what we must get the public to understand—that people wouldn't intentionally leave children in a situation guaranteed to have tragic results but that's the pathway we're on," said Hansen. "We have a really sensitive climate system ... and we have only witnessed so far a fraction of the results."

As Climate Change Worsens, Scientists Feel Increasing Pressure to Speak Out

Any SciFi fans out there? Ready to live on an alien planet?
Imagine hurricanes that make it up the Missisiippii River to the twin cities?
Or one that lingers over NY City?
Hailstones the size of cars?

Colbert Mocks Limbaugh, Carlson, Doocy Over Their Global Warming Denials

2011-12-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

How 2011 Became a 'Mind-Boggling' Year of Extreme Weather

2011-12-29T07:26:00.001-08:00

Watch How 2011 Became a 'Mind-Boggling' Year of Extreme Weather on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Pavan Sukhdev: Put a value on nature!

2011-12-26T13:10:00.001-08:00

Dr Richard Milne - Critical Thinking on Climate Change: separating skepticism from denial

2011-12-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

YOU ARE HERE: The Oil Journey (Narrated by Peter Coyote)

2011-12-21T14:09:00.001-08:00

Sen. Franken's Colloquy with Sen. Whitehouse on Climate Change

2011-12-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

HT SL Otto at HuffPo

The anthropomorphic James Howard Kunstler and Duncan Crary discuss the "Glossary of Nowhere."

2011-12-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

IPCC's Extreme Events Report

2011-12-17T08:16:00.001-08:00

Annoying

2011-12-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

We have this

Edward A. G. Schuur, a University of Florida researcher who has done extensive field work in Alaska, is worried by the changes he already sees, including the discovery that carbon buried since before the dawn of civilization is now escaping.

“To me, it’s a spine-tingling feeling, if it’s really old carbon that hasn’t been in the air for a long time, and now it’s entering the air,” Dr. Schuur said. “That’s the fingerprint of a major disruption, and we aren’t going to be able to turn it off someday.”

As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks

And this

And then a so called environmentalist Andrew Revkin posting garbage like this:
Methane Time Bomb in Arctic Seas – Apocalypse Not

Even the links he references in his article contradict his premise. Click on them! You will be annoyed.

Chomsky speaks about Human Destiny

2011-12-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

As in the occupy movement and this piece:

If national commitment is unobtainable, we need to focus on actors who are prepared to provide bold leadership. We have no choice.

James Lovelock A Final Warning by Nature Video

2011-12-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

Note: He says that systems may fail suddenly.

uh oh

2011-12-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Igor Semiletov, of the Far Eastern branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that he has never before witnessed the scale and force of the methane being released from beneath the Arctic seabed.

"Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of metres in diameter. This is the first time that we've found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It's amazing," Dr Semiletov said. "I was most impressed by the sheer scale and high density of the plumes. Over a relatively small area we found more than 100, but over a wider area there should be thousands of them."

Shock as retreat of Arctic sea ice releases deadly greenhouse gas

HT Global Warming Climate Change Report via facebook

Climate Change Impact on Past Civilizations

2011-12-10T11:30:00.001-08:00

Get it done!

2011-12-09T13:56:00.001-08:00

Obama Admin Denounced for "Startling Level of Obstructionism and Defeatism" on U.N. Climate Deal

2011-12-09T13:40:00.001-08:00

Stephen Schneider: Science and Distortion

2011-12-09T13:31:00.000-08:00

HT Climate Denial Crock of the Week

George Monbiot Vs Simon Zadek: Climate Change iq2 Shorts

2011-12-09T08:26:00.001-08:00

Counting the Cost - The cost of climate change

2011-12-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

TEDxPSU - Michael Mann - A Look Into Our Climate: Past To Present To Future

2011-12-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium

2011-12-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to the New York Times it represented "almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution."

What it means, in climate terms, is that we've all but lost the battle to reduce the damage from global warming. The planet has already warmed about a degree Celsius; it's clearly going to go well past two degrees. It means, in political terms, that the fossil fuel industry has delayed effective action for the 12 years since the Kyoto treaty was signed. It means, in diplomatic terms, that the endless talks underway in Durban should be more important than ever -- they should be the focus of a planetary population desperate to figure out how it's going to survive the century.

The Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium

Misunderstanding Climate Change: Science & Public Perception

2011-12-03T11:06:00.000-08:00

Pablo Solon COP17.m4v

2011-12-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

HT mikeburke999 via twitter

Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Academy - 2010-Jan-29

2011-12-01T08:15:00.000-08:00

David Suzuki 4 of 5 (2009)

2011-11-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

Papantonio: Climate Change Leads to Massive Food Shortages

2011-11-28T12:11:00.001-08:00

Climate change and Earthquakes?

2011-11-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

George Carlin on Global Warming

2011-11-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

I've posted this before, but it's worth posting again.
Keeping ourselves in perspective is sometimes hard to do.

The End of Suburbia

2011-11-26T10:10:00.001-08:00

John Bruno: Climate Change's Effect on Our Oceans

2011-11-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

Climate Change's Effect on Our Oceans from John Bruno on Vimeo.

Poor quality, but he makes some points we don't often hear.
For one, that we will have to live with the climate change we are already committed to for hundreds and even thousands of years.

Global Natural Symptoms of the Climate Change

2011-11-23T10:49:00.001-08:00

Oil Smoke and Mirrors (Full High Quality)

2011-11-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

Colin Campbell - peak oil

2011-11-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

Amazing!

Over four years ago

2011-11-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

Note that Reagan is credited with dealing with the ozone hole
Note that the issue has become even more partisan even as extreme weather is stressing our infrastucture.
Sad

Civilization Death Spiral

2011-11-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

Dark

Combating Carbon in an Economic Crisis

2011-11-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well worth the time.

Peak Oil & $225 Oil by 2012 Predicts CIBC Economist Jeff Rubin

2011-11-11T11:12:00.000-08:00

I like listening to this guy.

Nic Marks: The Happy Planet Index

2011-11-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

HT US Reality Check via twitter

World facing climate chaos: Suzuki

2011-11-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

Five years

2011-11-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be "lost for ever", according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.

Anything built from now on that produces carbon will do so for decades, and this "lock-in" effect will be the single factor most likely to produce irreversible climate change, the world's foremost authority on energy economics has found. If this is not rapidly changed within the next five years, the results are likely to be disastrous.
*---*
Charlie Kronick of Greenpeace said: "The decisions being made by politicians today risk passing a monumental carbon debt to the next generation, one for which they will pay a very heavy price. What's seriously lacking is a global plan and the political leverage to enact it. Governments have a chance to begin to turn this around when they meet in Durban later this month for the next round of global climate talks."
*---*
Christiana Figueres, the UN climate chief, said the findings underlined the urgency of the climate problem, but stressed the progress made in recent years. "This is not the scenario we wanted," she said. "But making an agreement is not easy. What we are looking at is not an international environment agreement — what we are looking at is nothing other than the biggest industrial and energy revolution that has ever been seen."

World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns

Carbon Capture is our only hope.

Carbon Capture & Sequestration | Sally Benson - Energy@Stanford from Cyperus Media.com on Vimeo.

Impartiality and Reporting Climate Change

2011-11-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

John Ikerd: Dwindling Energy Resources Will Put The Economy at Risk

2011-11-07T10:58:00.000-08:00

Peak Oil over again

2011-11-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

The media loves to announce new seemingly large discoveries of oil as if they are the solution to what is really an unfolding liquid fuels crisis. They point to the Tupi field off Brazil which is purported to have 8 billion barrels of oil in it. And, they point to discoveries in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico thought to contain between 3 and 15 billion barrels. And, they point to the 4 billion barrels in the Bakken Shale in North Dakota. It all sounds like a lot. When I ask audiences how long a billion barrels of oil will last the world at current rates of consumption, I often get replies that range anywhere from three months to 5 years. The correct answer is 12 days. Just multiply these multi-billion-barrel discoveries by 12, and you'll realize right away that they are not going to overcome the constraints we are experiencing in oil supplies.

Read the whole article

Time to Worry: World Oil Production Finishes Six Years of No Growth

HT The Oil Drum via Facebook

Combustible

2011-11-06T08:13:00.001-08:00

Climate Change Initiative "Combustible" from Realm on Vimeo.

And now for something truely depressing

2011-11-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

Where will jobs for young people come from? Certainly not from pie-in-the-sky hopes for renewable energy and sustainables, says John de Bueger.
**...**
It is a truly intractable problem. For those of us on record as having predicted nearly three years ago that the Global financial crisis was unlikely to ever end, one wishes somehow that one had been wrong - or if not wrong, then unduly pessimistic.
**...**
The 7th billion human arrived last week, but it will be a miracle if even half this number exist at the end of this century.

Sounds like it won't be long before youth unemployment isn't the only thing we need worry about

Answer not blowing in the wind

HT The Oil Drum

Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases

2011-11-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the U.S. Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.

The new figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago.

"The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.

The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That's an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries — China, the United States and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases.

It is a "monster" increase that is unheard of, said Gregg Marland, a professor of geology at Appalachian State University, who has helped calculate Department of Energy figures in the past.

Biggest jump ever seen in global warming gases

HT @sustainablearth via Twitter

The end of growth

2011-11-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

The next 20 years are going to be completely unlike the last two decades. How the world works, how stocks grow, the very nature of investing and how our economy functionsall of these are due for fundamental, earth-shaking change. As investors, we have to adjust the way we look at the world.

We want growth. We need economic growth. It's all you hear about when the treasury secretary talks about how we are going to get the economy growing again or when the president talks about jobs. When our money system is growing, things are reasonably happy. When it is not growing, things are very unhappy. As long as everything is growing, our economy functions reasonably well. And when it stops growing, it throws giant fits and gets into trouble. That is why we are always chasing growth. And there is a reason for that: Money. But what is money?
I don't care what color it is or whose picture is on it or what counterfeiting measures you have in place. All money in the world today shares one characteristic: it is loaned into existence. It seems like a simple enough statement, but this has enormous implications. Because it is borrowed, we pay interest on it. That interest drives a peculiar feature in our money system (by "our" I'm referring to all fiat currencies in the world because all of them operate by this same loaning principle). When you loan money into existence, you have to pay both the principal and the interest back. That means there is always more debt than money in the system.
*...*
We have a world where we will face exponentially rising costs if we continue to run our economy in the way it has been running. That is not a great strategy at this point. Our economy must grow by design because of how our money and debt systems operate, but it is connected to an energy system that can't grow. This is the definition of a predicament. No matter what policies we pursue or how clever our technologies get, there are certain things that we just can't undo. When you take oil out of the ground and you burn it, it is gone. And we are burning it up at a faster and faster pace.

Chris Martenson: Peak Oil Could Limit Economic Growth

Well duh

Many Do the Math posts have touched on the inevitable cessation of growth and on the challenge we will face in developing a replacement energy infrastructure once our fossil fuel inheritance is spent. The focus has been on long-term physical constraints, and not on the messy details of our response in the short-term. But our reaction to a diminishing flow of fossil fuel energy in the short-term will determine whether we transition to a sustainable but technological existence or allow ourselves to collapse. One stumbling block in particular has me worried. I call it The Energy Trap.

In brief, the idea is that once we enter a decline phase in fossil fuel availability—first in petroleum—our growth-based economic system will struggle to cope with a contraction of its very lifeblood. Fuel prices will skyrocket, some individuals and exporting nations will react by hoarding, and energy scarcity will quickly become the new norm. The invisible hand of the market will slap us silly demanding a new energy infrastructure based on non-fossil solutions. But here’s the rub. The construction of that shiny new infrastructure requires not just money, but…energy. And that’s the very commodity in short supply. Will we really be willing to sacrifice additional energy in the short term—effectively steepening the decline—for a long-term energy plan? It’s a trap!

The Energy Trap

The Great Climate Change Debate - An Ethical Perspective

2011-11-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

Loved this

2011-10-31T15:29:00.001-07:00

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss And More Talk Higgs Boson, Private Space Ventures And Pluto

TAM Panel - Our Future in Space from JREF on Vimeo.

Treehugger podcast

2011-10-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

Richard Heinberg on Reaching The End of Growth (Podcast)

TreeHugger Radio: Richard Heinberg on Reaching The End of Growth (Podcast) by jacob_gordon

7 Billion

2011-10-31T13:06:00.001-07:00

Climate Change REAL sceptic uses sceptic funds to prove it.

2011-10-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

LOL

Have a laugh

2011-10-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

HT Open Mind via subscription email

Iraq War Vet Hospitalized with Fractured Skull After Being Shot by Police at Occupy Oakland Protest

2011-10-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

I remember Kent State. This resonates like that did.

The population crash will kill our economy – good news for the planet

2011-10-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

And ageing is the new way of the world. You wouldn't guess it from the public debate so far about the seven billion landmark, but the average woman in the world today has half as many children as her mother or grandmother did 40 years ago: 2.5 children, compared to five. And the number keeps on going down. Dozens of countries are already below two, including Iran, Burma, Vietnam, China of course – and much of southern India, too.

In the long run, that's not enough to keep up numbers. Many expect world peak population by mid-century, and decline thereafter. Whether it happens then or later, mass global ageing is now a certainty.

I suspect that the global economic binge of the 20th century was a product of a booming, youthful population. It will die as we age. Japan's lost decade, and its likely repetition now across the western world, is perhaps the first sign. About time too. We all know that we cannot go on as we have. The planet cannot stand it. The party is over.

The population crash will kill our economy – good news for the planet

Previously known as an unknown unknown

2011-10-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

In central British Columbia over the past decade and a half the mountain pine beetles have single-handily devoured half the commercial forests or an astounding 39 million acres (enough wood to build 5 million homes). As if that weren't bad enough as those forests decay they will be releasing 250 million metric tons of greenhouse gases or the equivalent of five years of car and light truck emissions in Canada. Essentially, 39 million acres of British Columbian lodgepole pine forests that once sucked CO2 out of the atmosphere are now dead, decaying and bleeding CO2 into an ever-rising pool of accumulating heat-trapping gases.

The Insatiable Bark Beetle and the Northern Rockies

Climate progress had a post not long ago, asking readers to think about things that might result from climate change that we'd never thought about before. Unknown unknowns

The pine beetle was one... yes?

I watched, via streaming on Netflix, a series, Strange Days on Planet Earth 2, that explored that very thing... surprising side effects of our meddling with nature. I have been haunted by one of the features.
Europe subsidizes the fishing industry to such an extent that European fishermen can range as far as the west coast of Africa... wiping out fisheries there so that the African fishermen, with far more primitive fishing techniques, have little to catch. Fish becomes too expensive for ordinary folks so they eat more bush meat. The native mammal populations plummet. The series explains it better than I. Dangerous Catch

So I'm trying to apply what I learned watching that program to the problem of unknown unknowns associated with our current state of climate change, resource depletion and over population.
I can't think of a single good thing coming out of all this for Earth's current residents... but I do see the possibility of a huge drop in populations... which may be very good for Earth's future residents.

Nicole Foss aka Stoneleigh - A Century of Challenges - Peak Oil & Economic Crisis

2011-10-23T09:30:00.000-07:00

The nuclear option: Should the U.S. invest more, not less, in nuclear energy?

2011-10-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Watch The nuclear option on PBS. See more from Need To Know.

A Way Forward: Facing Climate Change

2011-10-22T09:23:00.001-07:00

World Resources Report 2010-2011

2011-10-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

From World Resources Report 2010-2011 executive summary

I picked out what I thought were the most interesting of their Recommendations:

Governments should convey to the public the scale and range of the risks, including
known uncertainties, and expected impacts of climate change. Many members of the public will not be aware of the risks climate change poses to their livelihoods and safety. Because of this, governments should provide targeted information on the risks facing various sectors, regions, ecosystems and communities. This will help build support for activities undertaken. It will take time for officials and communities to absorb the reality of having to accept some losses, such as the inability to grow certain crop varieties, and even longer to become comfortable entertaining alternatives, such as relocation of certain communities, that will disrupt entrenched patterns of society.

Obama has disappointed many in that he even avoids using the term Climate Change.

Governments and donors should provide targeted and sustained funding delivered through fit-for-purpose mechanisms that respond to the unique challenges of climate change. Because climate change will evolve over decades, long-term financial support from governments and donors will be essential to maintain initiatives and infrastructure and to ensure a return on their investments. Fit-for-purpose mechanisms will be necessary to provide access to longer-term financial support for activities such as the continuous collection of adequate, basic weather and climate data. In addition, countries will need access to secure credit lines that can be tapped quickly for extreme events; they will also need to shift away from “hard” investments to those that build capacity, and support softer investments such as maintaining ecological climate buffers. Current donor trends towards results-based lending may not facilitate such investments. A key challenge for donors and others will be to create incentives for developing countries to integrate climate risks into decision making, so that this integration is seen as an opportunity and not merely another claim on scarce resources. It will also be necessary for donors to strengthen government capacity to implement activities, and create a clear and appropriate exit strategy to ensure government ownership.

Hey guys... don't be looking at the US to help you out. Many of our leaders won't even pay to feed hungry children here on our own soil.

Donors, governments, and the public should take steps to protect and maintain basic ecosystem processes that provide a crucial buffer for adaptation processes. Ecosystems can mitigate many natural hazards.

Well duh. Earth provides our life support system. But I think they're talking about stuff like the loss of the natural Mississippi Delta due to man's interference.

Climate Change: 99 Second Opinions?

2011-10-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

HT Think Progress