Archive for the ‘global warming’ tag
We Can’t Stop Global Warming – But We Can Prepare For It
The little mermaid of copenhagen will watch sea levels rising and say precisely ntohing about it.
Whatever the reasons for Global Warming, whether it’s cyclical or whether it’s all our fault for pumping the atmosphere with CO2 and upsetting the equilibrium, it really doesn’t matter. Chances are that it’s coming with a vengeance. And there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.
Up until now, the world has talked a good game about “stopping”, “slowing” or “reversing” climate change. But it’s all just hot air. Unless the human race is prepared to make monumental sacrifices that change the course of history in a matter of decades, we’re not going to have any effect. And the chances are very slim that the Chinese, Indians or even the Prius driving Americans will do even 5% of what’s necessary. President Obama’s last trip to Copenhagen to shill for his home town’s Olympic bid was a big disappointment. He’s not going to risk political capital to show up in the Danish capital for a second time in a year to give the headline writers a chance to say “Copenhagen is where President Obama goes to fail”
I’m sure in his private thoughts, Obama, along with Al Gore for that matter know the truth. The train has left the station. Global warming is unstoppable. But that’s not something you can trumpet from the rooftops without making the human race, well, hate you. For example, Obama has virtually trademarked the word “hope”, so he’s hardly going to start telling the truth anytime soon.
Unfortunately, all that hope is misdirected and might be damaging our long-term future. Because instead of concentrating on how to “contain” and “manage” global warming, we’re focusing on beating it. That’s a mistake. Read the rest of this entry »
Global Warming Can’t Be Stopped – Time to Rethink Policy
Global warming is coming. And there’s really not much we can do about it. Sure, there’s plenty of blame and hot air to go around, as well as an endless flow of pronouncements from world leaders that we’re going to corral and control it. But when the President of the United States visits Copenhagen to pitch his home town as an Olympic host city but may not return to attend an important Climate Change conference, it’s not exactly a good sign that the world is actually going to make much headway against this thing.
So here’s a suggestion. Whatever the reasons, human or not, let’s change our approach to this – to damage limitation. Let’s accept that global warming is an inevitability, and shore up and defend what we have – not for our good, but for the good of future generations. Part of that defence is not to add to the problem by developing green energy solutions and building a new infrastructure, as well as finding ways to adapt to that change, in agriculture’ energy’ industry and society.
But were wasting valuable time and creative energy pretending we can stop it. We can’t and we won’t. All we can do is manage it.
What Will it Take For Us to Get Serious About Global Warming? Serious Global Warming
hope y'all like swimming
Let’s start with a little history of something totally unrelated. Cigarettes.
Smoking and global warming have very little in common, except this. They both show that human beings are not too great at getting a message. It was in the early sixties that a definitive link was made between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer. And yet here we are forty-five years later with people dying in their droves the world over. Sure, communication is better than ever, as are the scare tactics, let alone the evidence, but cigarettes are still a very profitable business.
There’s only one reason for that, and it can be summed up in a few very simple words. “It ain’t gonna happen to me”. Humans are eternal optimists. Half a million people a year are dying of smoking-related diseases each year. But it ain’t gonna happen to little old me. Right.
Now let’s take global warming. For years a vast preponderance of experts have been telling us that global warming is coming. Only a few days ago, the Intergovernmental Panel and Climate Change (IPCC) said that they’d got it wrong in their earlier reports which they pretty much said were politically watered-down to make their recommendations even remotely workable. Turns out that they’d figured we’d be more energy efficient by now, and stop with our coal addiction. But efficiencies flattened out and coal is now the fossil fuel du jour for China and India. Their forecasts for serious global warming just got way more dire. Read the rest of this entry »
Green Doesn’t Stop in a Recession
own a prius? cough it up, chump.
In the midst of US preparation for the upcoming Copenhagen Treaty on climate change you’d think that we were all laser-focused on trying to combat global warming for once and for all. Uhh, no.
Despite the fact that the lower fossil fuel demand is a boon for reducing emissions it seems that at lower levels of government, reducing our carbon footprint is thrown out with the bathwater when it comes to paying our lowly state and city bills.
I live in Los Angeles. As I drove to drop off my son at school, I heard two news stories. First, the national story – a stirring presentation at the Senate by Al Gore urging Senate support for the Copenhagen treaty. The second was a local story about how money was so tight that the City of LA would no longer offer free meter parking downtown for Hybrids. The amount of money they’ll save will be negligible, but the message is clear. The City of LA doesn’t care if you buy hybrids anymore. Read the rest of this entry »
Recession Is Good For The Environment
getting kinda hot in here
Houston, and everywhere else in the nation, we have a problem.
In the latest “Direction of Country” Gallup tracking poll, 87% of respondents said we were on the wrong track.
In another recent Gallup poll about the level of environmental concern, 61% said we should be doing more on global warming, and 68% continue to think we should act even if other countries, like China, do less.
Driving less would be one way to improve matters. And yet the recent news from the US Department of Transportation estimates that Americans will drive nearly 80 billion fewer miles in 2008 than we did in 2007 is greeted as a sign the country is on the wrong track, not the right track. Read the rest of this entry »