* SAN DIEGO, MARCH 3, 2014 – An aggressively-priced carbon tax in California, with revenue returned to the public, would actually grow the state’s economy and increase jobs, according to a new study released by Citizens Climate Lobby. The study, prepared for CCL by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI), looked at the economic impact of […]
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Anybody with the ability to reason realizes that anthropogenic climate change is happening – and it’s happening in an unpredictable but faster way than previously imagined. The fact that fools argue against this infuriates me as they are essentially arguing against reality. Recently, two acclaimed scientific bodies (The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences) concluded that human caused climate change is occurring. This adds to a chorus of institutions that have reached the same conclusion years ago. So what is possibly good about anthropogenic climate change? I have no idea if there is anything positive about it (Read more…) * The recent extreme flooding in the UK and Ireland has highlighted the devastating effect our changing climate can have; but if we do not take action fast, future generations will experience weather shocks on a far greater scale. Our planet is warming to a catastrophic extent, and the human race must step up. The […] BuzzFeed, of all places, as a great and simple way that explains why the weather of 2014 has been so extreme. In North America it has been more cold than the new “normal,” the UK has been hit hard by flooding, and in the South Pacific there has been above average rainfall. Crazy people think this is evidence that global warming (AKA climate change) isn’t happening. Those people clearly don’t live in reality. This awful weather is a result of something that’s been predicted for quite some time: the loss of power in the jet stream. Why is this good (Read more…) The controversial Keystone XL pipeline has received a big bolster of support by a US State Department report finding that the pipeline won’t create a significant increase in greenhouse gases, effectively ensuring that Barack Obama will OK the proposal. A huge amount of momentum in the environmental movement was tied up in this project and it should rightly be thought of as a significant loss in the fight. However, for a variety of reasons, pipelines are simply not the best elements of our society for the environmental movement to target and it is a mistake, I think, to have (Read more…) The people of Uummannaq are trying to adapt in order to survive. Photo: Mark Brooks My documentary on the impacts of climate change in the Greenlandic village of Uummannaq aired in December on the Deutsche Welle international radio program Living Planet. I recorded and produced this report while working as the on-board journalist during the 2013 Students on Ice Arctic Expedition. Located on a small island off the Greenland coast, 600 km (372 miles) north of the Arctic Circle, Uummannaq is one of many Inuit communities in the North that are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. Not only (Read more…) The unholy trinity of the Alberta tarsands industry, the Conservative Party and the right-wing media has gone all-out in its attacks on Neil Young for his stance against their destructive policies and actions. One thing that these corporate wolves and subservient sheep overlook is that, of course, Neil Young is right. The main arguments by the Conservative tarsands mob are that: 1) Young hasn’t lived in Canada for a long time, so he has no right to talk about anything that happens in Canada. 2) He’s a rich rock star, so he has no right to talk (Read more…) 
 Alberta, alberta government, Alberta News, Alberta Politics, Canada, Canadian environment, Canadian government, Canadian news, Canadian Politics, climate change, Enbridge, global warming, Harper, keystone, Neil Young, Northern Gateway, oil sands, oilsands, pipelines, stephen harper, Tar Sands, tarsands While Neil Young very publicly feuds with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and its ally the Canadian government, tar sands production continues to systematically advance Alberta’s position as the country’s pollution province. Already producing more greenhouse gasses than Ontario, despite having less than 30 per cent of its population, tar sands expansion will have it producing London, Ontario (The Skwib) — The first schism within the Pastafarian religion has appeared in the sleepy Canadian city of London, Ontario, and it is led by the charismatic preacher Dr. Maximilian Tundra. “Other worshipers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster … Continue reading → Canadian soldiers, summoned by Mayor Mel Lastman, clean up the streets of Toronto after the big dump of 1999. Below: Mr. Lastman. (Photos grabbed from the Toronto Star.) More days of silence from the prime minister of Canada have passed while the citizens of Toronto continue to dig themselves out from under a catastrophic sheet of ice. While putative leader of the country says nothing, 32,000 Torontonians remain without electricity today. The Globe and Mail now reports that a forecast of high winds means that number may increase again. With Stephen Harper working the levers behind the green curtain (Read more…) The Joint Review Panel has ruled on the viability of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline and the result is as expected. The panel, established by the National Energy Board and the federal environment minister, has determined that the pipeline, which would carry bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to the B.C. coast for tanker export, would be in Canada’s best interests and has recommended it Well I see Stephen Harper got an early Christmas present, courtesy of the Big Oil gang at the National Energy Board. A polarizing debate over the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline heated up Thursday after an independent panel from the National Energy Board recommended the federal government approve the pipeline with conditions.Because he needed something to cheer him up eh? And now the scam is on, and the fix is in.Read more » Prime Minister Harper once announced that the greatest threat to global security was terrorism. That was nonsense of course—every year, malaria kills approximately 660,000 people, mostly children, and AIDS 1,700,000 people. Terrorism is a trivial threat compared to the big killers. And the biggest of all, if we don’t act preemptively with sufficient vigour, will almost certainly be climate Embarrassing our country more than Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would seem to be an impossible task. Yet our prime minister has done just that. On November 12th, the federal government issued a formal statement that included the following remark: “Canada applauds the decision by Prime Minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia’s carbon tax. The Australian Prime Minister’s decision The World Economic Forum (an elite organization in itself) recently released a study, The Outlook on the Global Agenda 2014, based on a survey of 1,592 leaders from academia, business, government, and the non-profit world. The elite group offered their opinion of the top 10 trends for 2014. Number two was “widening income disparities” about which the group concluded, “The difference between rich First the bad news, even if it’s old news. Stanford University scientists report that not only is the Earth undergoing one of the largest climate changes since the dinosaurs disappeared, it is occurring 10 times faster than any other change in that period. Many species will have great difficulty making the behavioral, evolutionary or geographic adaptations necessary to survive that rate of change There is no question: this generation will be held responsible for our actions, and even more, for our inaction. Apathy, complacency and denial are morally unacceptable. In fact, at this time in human history, they are nothing less than complicity in the worst of collective atrocities. We must act now. There are no more excuses. […] Earlier this week, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington and B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced their Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy, “committing their governments, and a region that represents the world’s fifth largest economy, to a comprehensive and far-reaching strategic alignment to combat climate change and promote clean energy.” The plan makes significant As the Earth inexorably warms up due to human folly, one species after another pays the price. The most iconic example is of course the polar bear. And why not—what is cuter and cuddlier than the bear with the thick white coat and the black nose? But less cuddly creatures are also suffering. For example, the ungainly moose, one of nature’s least handsome, but no less precious, beasts. According pablo lopez luz photographs the concrete waves (or carpet, as he puts it) of Mexico City The unbelievably sprawling concrete carpet of Mexico City seen in these photos make me think… Gorgeous country, beautiful culture and people, horrible government, amazing capital city – but utterly unsustainable, as most cities are. Watch for the ruins […]
Activism, alternative, alternatives, analysis, anthropology, collapse, consciousness, conservation, crash, disaster, ecological crisis, Ecology, empowerment, end-game, global warming, Mexico, Mexico City, must-read, photo, political economy, politics, politics of oil, post-carbon, social theory, sociology, sprawl, Sustainability, tipping point, truth This week, Deutsche Welle Living Planet broadcast the first of my audio diaries from the Students on Ice 2013 Arctic Expedition. This first audio postcard captures the reflections of Canadian high school student Gerrit Wesselink as he travels up the western coast of Greenland and across the Davis Strait to Baffin Island and the eastern Canadian Arctic. Gerrit talks about his experiences on the trip, which include polar bear sightings, zodiac cruises in a field of giant icebergs and witnessing first-hand the impacts of climate change in the Arctic. DW Living Planet is an award-winning international program that explores environmental (Read more…) United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calls it the “greatest collective challenge we face as a human family.” He is, of course, referring to climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented the first installment of its Fifth Assessment Report Friday and it has much of interest to say about the “greatest collective challenge.” This includes the stark warning that “ Read this - ”Scientists. A minimal, marginalized lot these days. It’s almost prehistoric the way we’ve become immune to the warnings science offers us. As soon as the System realized that the prognosis was bad, and would make them perhaps look bad in turn, voila; they started an intensive propaganda campaign in the press, fostering as much sarcasm as possible with respect to anything scientific. That was when the scornful expression ‘scientific paranoia’ came into being. Anything could be labeled ‘scientific paranoia,’ Being an illustrious, scientist of conscience became tantamount to being a Jew in Nazi (Read more…) My August Canadian EV car sales stats update went up recently. Which was cool. Cooler still, I had a chance to wax poetic about sustainability, and my new-found optimism that we’ll avoid the worst of our dystopian horrors. I was invited to be a guest lecturer for an engineering course at UBC (APSC 150) where I had the privilege to slightly shape the minds of about four hundred first-year students. And show them how, here in the first world, #WeAreWhales. (The cryptic comment is described in the slide deck, here.) Coolest of all, I’ve achieved a Wiki-immortality of sorts! (Read more…)
APSC 150, Canada, Chevy Volt, coal, electric cars, energy, engineering, EV, EV's (incl. PHEV's), global warming, guest lecture, Hinduism, Indra, Nissan LEAF, nuclear, plug-in electric cars, plug-ins, science, slide deck, solar PV, technology, Tesla Model S, Tesla sales, ubc, Wikipedia, Wind energy * After blogging about climate change from my perspective as a mom for nearly four years, I’m taking a hiatus from 350orbust. For more on this, check out my July 31 blog post, Shift Happens. I would love to meet you in Ottawa in November for Citizens Climate Lobby Canada’s first national conference. Click on […] |
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