Category Archives: Global warming

Greece’s Shortening Negotiating Runway and Possibly Erroneous Assumptions

Le Monde published a defiant op ed by Alex Tsipras over the weekend. The wee problem is that Greece is well past the point where political appeals will work.

Gaius Publius: The Constant Cost of Carbon — Another California Oil Spill

The climate/political nexus behind the latest California oil spill.

How Much Longer Can The Oil Age Last?

I suspect readers will draw suitably concerned environmental conclusions from this forecast, that the oil era has at least another 30 years to run.

Maine Farmers and Climate Change, Part II

Systems theorists, who study how organizations and systems change, offer some insight into farmers’ minimal recognition of climate change, and their lack of advocacy for climate-mitigation policy. Management scholar Connie Gersick describes systems—such as the farming sector—as being in equilibrium until fundamental factors change.

The Gulf of Maine: Poster Child for Global Weirding?

Who believes the Gulf of Maine is warming, and reasons to believe that it is.

The Cost of Delaying Action to Stem Climate Change

The cost of delaying climate action has been studied extensively. A one-decade delay in addressing climate change would lead to about a 40% increase in the net present value cost of addressing climate change.

Is All Growth Good? The Case of China

Growth versus “groaf” had become a favorite topic of the NC commentariat. This article sets forth some of the ways for differentiating between them, using China as an example.

Green Growth or No Growth?

Many readers have taken the position that we need to put a brake on growth in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce consumption of other resources.

In a Real News Network interview, Robert Pollin goes through the math of carbon output and shows why a no growth approach is inadequate.

Michael Klare: How Big Oil Is Responding to the Anti-Carbon Movement

Yves here. It should be no surprise that Big Oil is not about to go down without a big fight. And they continue to copy from the playbook used by Big Tobacco. Behind the scenes, they go to great lengths to trying to undermine the already strong and ever-increasing evidence of the connection between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, including openly offering bribes to scientists to attack the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. In addition, frontally, they try to present their products and their social role as positive.

Bill Moyers’ Last Show: Our Children’s Trust Climate Litigation

Yves here. We will all miss Bill Moyers, who in an important act of public service came out of retirement twice at viewer request. I was lucky enough to appear on his show twice. Bill is both a gentleman and a true pro, and went to great lengths to make his interviewees look good. His […]

Obama Administration Muzzling Its Climate Scientists

Yves here. The fact that Team Obama is gagging its climate scientists should come as no surprise. First, the Administration is obsesses with secrecy and image-management, as its extremely aggressive posture on classifying records and prosecuting leakers attests. Second, Administration climate policy is founded on a Big Lie. As Gaius Publius has written at length, its greenhouse gas measures exclude methane, the most potent greenhouse gas. That omission favors fracking, which fails the “clean green” test when you factor in methane releases. And that’s before you factor in contamination of water supplies.

Michael Hoexter: Naomi Klein’s “Hard-Money” Ideas Undermine Her Laudable Climate Action Goals

A review of “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate,” with special attention to Klein’s “polluter pays”/Robin Hood funding mechanisms.

Michael Mann Interview: Very Little “Burnable Carbon” In Our “Budget”; Emissions Ramp-down Must Start Now

One of my hats is as a climate interpreter to the interested lay person. I have something of a science background and can read the papers “in the original.” Another hat is as an occasional interviewer for Virtually Speaking. This month the two hats merged on the same head, and I got to interview the “Hockey Stick graph” climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann.

For this interview I focused on the basics:

▪ Can humans burn more carbon, create more emissions, and still stay below the IPCC’s “safe” +2°C warming target?

▪ Is the IPCC’s +2°C warming target truly “safe” at all?

▪ We’re already experiencing warming of about +1°C above the pre-industrial level. Even if we stop now, how much more is “in the pipeline,” guaranteed and unavoidable?

▪ How do we defeat the Big Money ogre that stands in our way?

And my personal favorite:

▪ Will the answer to global warming come from the “free market”?

350.org’s Bill McKibben, His Parachute, and His Bubble

I know, I know. Criticizing Bill McKibben is like kicking a puppy.