July 2008 Archives

A new report from WWF-UK warns exploitation of North America’s tar sands [search] and oil shale [search] could increase atmospheric CO2 levels by up to 15%. They release as much as eight times as much carbon as petroleum. Over-reaction to gasoline prices [search] going up a couple bucks in the rich world may lead to the catastrophic embrace of these unconventional and highly-polluting fossil fuels.

Ecological Internet has been working on the issue for years [more]. We are pleased to now join with WWF (so right on climate, so wrong on forests) in their recent call for an end to the production of tar sand and oil shale fuels [ark | more\ark]. These "carbon bomb" fuels can only perpetuate a deadly fossil fuel addiction, delaying transition to clean renewable energy, and ensuring Earth's climate is irreversibly damaged. They must be banned now before we become dependent.

Let the Kenyan government know destroying ecosystems for toxic sugar monocultures is unethical, and ask them to please follow their own environmental laws, and permanently cancel the project

TAKE ACTION! Kenya has recently approved plans to destroy some 20,000 hectares of the globally important and ecologically sensitive Tana Delta for sugar and biofuel production [search]. Covering 130,000 hectares, these wetlands' diverse riverine vegetation -- forests, swamps, dunes, beaches and ocean -- will be forever altered by widespread vast fields of toxic, monoculture sugar cane and biofuel mill. The project threatens 350 species including birds, lions, hippos, nesting turtles, elephants, sharks, reptiles and the Tana red colobus, one of 25 primates facing extinction globally. Biofuel production worldwide continues to destroy crucial natural ecosystems [search] required for local and global sustainability. While hailed as a climate change remedy, this destruction of natural habitats for biofuel production almost always releases more carbon than saved. Using food such as sugar for fuel has raised food prices, leading to riots globally, including in Kenya. Please respectfully request the project be permanently cancelled. TAKE ACTION!

A new report entitled A New Green Deal, issued by the New Economics Foundation, calls for sufficient and long-overdue policies [ark] to truly address related climate change, food and energy prices, and economic and financial crises. They recommend every home generate its own power, taxing oil and gas firms' windfall profits to pay for massive renewable energy investments and other green transformations, and pricing of carbon including through taxes. We have already noted Al Gore's proposal (albeit somewhat belated) to transition to 100% renewable energy in ten years [search]. At last think tanks and public intellectuals are starting to think in terms of bold, ambitious policies adequate to sufficiently address the looming civilization breakers.

After these various proposals are harmonized by a global group of elders, we need to carry out truthful persuasive communication campaigns to get the public and governments onboard. Such doable and clearly widely beneficial proposals (except perhaps to certain sectors of the elite) are welcome and must be pursued with all haste. However, the New Economics Foundation does themselves a disservice with their carefully hedged dire warning that "new analysis suggests that from the end of July 2008 there is only 100 months, or less, to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases [ark] in the atmosphere before we hit a potential point of no return." In fact this is a prediction, and no one knows for sure. We are just as likely to have already passed that point -- and this looming climate tipping point is an actual point, with nothing potential about it.

Coal use is booming [ark], driven by growing populations demanding ever more consumption, which requires ever more energy. How pathetic that post-modern society, which fashions itself so trendy and enlightened, is forced to rely upon this primitive and dirty fuel. Indeed, "growing coal use threatens nothing less than the end of civilization as we know it." Clean coal [search] is an untested myth, with even limited trials continually being put off [ark]. In fact, from its production, where whole mountains and their habitat and waters are shredded, to its burning which releases carbon and toxics, coal is a dangerous mess. Apparently humanity views keeping the lights on, as cheaply as possible, as being more important than maintaining a livable planet. And it is killing us.

The EPA finds climate change will have a "substantial" impact on human health [ark | search] in the coming decades; worsening wildfires, hurricanes, smog and summer heat waves. Perhaps then we should do more than talk about the problem. Thankfully Mr. Gore is doing just that, and has unexpectedly called for the U.S. to produce all its electricity from carbon free and renewable energy [ark | more\ark | more2\ark2] in ten years (sadly seemingly still including untested "clean coal" [search]). Yet this is an ambitious, creditable and worthy goal that would seriously mitigate climate change, and thus should be supported. And frankly, given his prestige and repeated deep expressions of concern, a grand substantive gesture like this was overdue.

Our recent alert, suggesting Mr. Gore was not being ambitous enough in pursuing sufficient climate action, grew from a perception that given all the accolades and positive awareness building, there was more Mr. Gore could do in terms of calling for and organizing tranformative change. Apparently he felt this as well. The timing of the alert and the positive lifting of campaign goals by Mr. Gore are coincidental, yet given this positive development, we have decided to retire the alert. Yet, let's be clear, climate solutions depend on both personal AND social change. Thank you to all that participated in emphasizing the importance of sufficient climate solutions to the climate elite. Ecological Internet took a risk with this alert, like we do when we identify something as being important and under-reported, and perhaps in some small way together we reinforced the need for climate sufficiency [search].

Over-population's key role in causing climate change [ark] is again emerging as a central component of the debate on global warming solutions [search]. Too many people, many of which consume to dreadful excess while others live on $1 a day, are the root cause of virtually every global ecological crisis [search] including food and energy. I agree with Paul Ehrlich and James Lovelock that "we have grown in number to the point where our presence is perceptibly disabling the planet like a disease."

Seven billion people now, when a bit over a century ago there was one billion -- and each needing to be fed, housed, and clothed -- and virtually the whole world embracing democratic conspicuous consumption as the way of life. How could this not possibly be the root cause of ecosystem loss [search], ocean dead zones [search], scarce water [search] and an increasingly inoperable atmosphere? And of course, one American is equal to the environmental destruction of many in the not-yet-over-developed world, as it is not just raw numbers, but aggregate consumption (population x per capita consumption) that matters in terms of resource over-use and resultant ecosystem loss.

Encourage Mr. Gore to tell the full truth regarding the magnitude of actions required for climate change solutions, including advocating for an end to coal and ancient forest logging, and personal sacrifice including reduced consumption

TAKE ACTION! Al Gore is a global hero for the work he has done [search] since leaving government to promote awareness regarding climate change. Yet I am sure he would agree that this and other long-standing awareness building efforts have failed woefully to turn such awareness into sufficient climate policy actions. Mr. Gore's efforts continue to do a disservice to prospects for achieving global ecological sustainability by downplaying the immense social and personal transformations necessary; including personal sacrifice, and adressing over-population and consumption (by some), to build a low-carbon economic system that does not further undermine our shared biosphere. And frankly, it is sad to see someone of Mr. Gore's skills, resources and contacts not choose to lead by example and seek to dramatically reduce his own carbon emissions. Tell Mr. Gore if he really believes climate change is truly a global emergency threatening civilization, he should be leading by example and organizing mass protests in support of a rigorous and sufficient biocentric climate plan. TAKE ACTION!

President Bush's Environmental Protection Agency will not be regulating carbon dioxide [ark | more\ark | more2\ark2] under the Clean Air Act [search] as the Supreme Court has ordered. In typical style, the Bush administration has unveiled a plan for the EPA to do so, meeting court requirements, while disavowing any plans for implemention.This is but the final act in an abysmal string of failures to lead on an issue that threatens massive social dislocation and ecological collapse.

The Toxic Texan promised in his first campaign to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant [search], and quickly reneged when in office. Bush withdrew from Kyoto [search] and then worked for years to obstruct international consensus in his absence. For years his administration has obstructed and censored climate science [search] and policy responses domestically. Bush has recently said he believes climate change is happening while skillfully ensuring all policy of which he is part is the most vague and least possible.

A first of its kind global assessment has found one third of reef-building corals face extinction because of climate change [ark | more\ark]. Climate change brings rising water temperatures and more intense solar radiation, which leads to coral bleaching and disease, often exacerbated by nutrient rich water run-off from denuded lands. Together the result is often mass coral mortality. Add this to acidic oceans [search], ocean dead zones [search] and widespread over-fishing [search] and it is clear we are witnessing the climate-mediated collapse of ocean ecosystems [search].

Death of coral reefs from climate change is not theory or conjecture of what might happen if we continue relentlessly emitting greenhouse gases. This is but the most recent evidence that climate change continues to unravel the biological foundation of existence, acting in conjunction with and magnifying forces such as habitat destruction, water diminishment and ocean decline. This biological homogenization [search] is happening now, in front of our eyes, and the processes and ramifications are known and understood by ecological science. Let us be clear: ecosystems which provide our sustenance are dying because of what we do. What level of destruction will it take to awaken the global consciousness?

The Bush administration has been successfully obstructing climate change [search] science and policy for so long, it probably comes as somewhat of a surprise when they are caught and held to account. The latest, Vice President Dick Cheney’s office removed statements on health risks posed by global warming [ark | more/ark | search] from a draft of a health official’s Senate testimony last year. What sort of man in what sort of government thinks themselves above the law, censoring science at the expense of public health and the biosphere? It is critical these instances are investigated, particularly the cover-up, and if appropriate, criminal charges filed.

The Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial polluters [search] — the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy — have "endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases [ark | more\ark] by 2050." Great news, right? Wrong! This is over 40 years away. What will these G8 nations do tomorrow, next week, next year and by 2010 and 2015? I concur the pledge is worse than worthless [ark].

Continued focusing upon these long-term climate goals [search] wastes time and provides little guidance on how climate sustainability will be achieved. They divert attention from immediate major changes in coal use, rainforest logging, energy efficiency and conservation, and ramping up renewable energy that deperately need to start now. The longer we wait, the more costly and difficult it will be to transition to low-carbon, equitable economies.