October 2008 Archives

The UK is poised to pass a Climate Change Bill [search] that has been described as "radical" [ark], making it the first country to enact legally binding national targets for reducing the emissions [search] which lead to climate change. Yesterday it passed the British Commons. The legislation includes first of its kind demanding targets for emission reduction (including by aviation [ark]) of 80% by 2050. Further, the bill would require the government to publish carbon budgets every five years and to set up carbon trading schemes. Yet as we know, governments and particularly the UK have had much more luck setting targets than actually achieving them -- as China is correct that reducing greenhouse gases is quite difficult [ark].

For a moment lets forgive the fact that 2050 is much too long of time window, and commitments of these sorts need to be global to really matter. Now let's cherish the occasion of the nation and peoples that unleashed the industrial revolution upon the Earth taking responsibility for the industrial pollutants they pioneered and which are destroying the Earth.

Two wonderful commentaries today are worthy of merit for communicating well the urgency of climate and global ecological change, while proposing sufficient solutions (both to which Ecological Internet is committed). The Yale Environment360 site notes the "urgency of the current situation cannot be overemphasized" and thus urges the next President of the United States to immediately wield powers under the clean air act [ark] to regulate carbon dioxide [search].

And environment heavy-hitters including Thomas E. Lovejoy and Tim Flannery note that while atmospheric carbon levels at 387 are already past the dangerous level [ark] of 350, that tremendous potential exists to ecologically restore degraded lands [search], returning carbon to safe levels while staunching hemorrhaging of biodiversity. There is much more work to be done on the social incentives and policies necessary to make it equitable and just, but it is a global ecological necessity that we strongly and immediately commit to an era of ecological restoration.

Indeed, we did it -- destroyed the Earth's life giving ecosystems -- and we can (will and must) undo it or being ends. Finally leading scientists and institutions are thinking big and proposing ecologically based policy prescriptions that matter and provide some measure of hope when implemented. Now we need nations, leaders and global citizens to lead. It is up to all of us -- global citizens committed to global ecological sustainability, loosely coordinated through the Internet -- to make it happen no matter what. Global ecological restoration is the ultimate truth for all remaining time.

A powerful greenhouse gas [search] produced largely through the manufacture of flat-screen TVs and solar cells has been found to be four times more prevalent in the atmosphere [ark | more\ark] than previously thought. Nitrogen trifluoride [search] warms the atmosphere 17,000 times more effectively than an equal mass of carbon dioxide. Though not changing climate much yet, we now know there are 5,400 metric tons rather than 1,200 of this anthropogenic super-climate changer in the atmosphere, and with the solar and electronics boom, to be growing at 11% a year.

Here is yet another example of unintended consequences associated with technological solutions to climate change [search] and unfettered consumption. At some point the answer to the world's ecological crises has to be less of everything -- people, consumption and technology -- rather than dangerously thinking we can manage the ecological impacts of billions of super-consumers upon global ecosystems. Both personal and societal sacrifice and transformation are required to achieve just and equitable global ecological sustainability. We need to return to nature's fold, not falsely think we can manufacture a biosphere.

WWF has released a new report entitled "Climate Change: faster, stronger, sooner", which concludes what many of us have known for some time, that "global warming is accelerating [ark] at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted".

Ever since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [search] (IPCC) released their Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, the latest science shows the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice 30 years earlier than expected, sea level rise is double the previous maximum estimates, and temperature increases are already leading to a reduction in global yields of wheat, maize and barley. WWF notes that "even with a 2°C target, the IPCC says that emission reductions between 25 and 40% compared to 1990 are needed by 2020 from developed countries." Abrupt climate change is happening now and the world is no where near these short and mid-term targets.

Incredibly, WWF sounds the alarm on abrupt, run-away climate change while actively supporting FSC's stamp of approval for ancient forest logging. First time logging of primary forests accounts for at least 20% of atmospheric carbon releases. New science finds old-growth forests are "carbon sinks" and when logged release 40 percent of their carbon. This discredits decades of thought strongly advocated by WWF that primary forests can or should be "sustainably" logged.

Given WWF's new found sense of urgency, it is astoundingly reckless for them to continue their support for Forest Stewardship Council's [search] logging of ancient forests. It is long past due for WWF to join Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth in reviewing and/or ending their greenwashing of FSC's ancient forest logging. Meanwhile, we are left to ponder whether WWF's failure to work to stop carbon releases from ancient forest logging is because of corporate corruption or just ignorance?

Climate change and the bad economy are both symptoms of the same growth-based "ecological bubble". Tell governments to urgently address climate change despite the economic downturn, as both Wall Street and Main Street must realize that without ecosystems there can be no economy

TAKE ACTION! Wall Street's sickness of growth at any cost, and its damage to both the world economy and global ecosystems, is bad news for already faltering efforts to craft a new international climate change treaty [search]. Tighter budgets and worries about jobs will surely be used at upcoming UN talks as excuses by governments hesitant to make the sacrifices necessary to avoid looming abrupt and run-away climate change. Current global economic difficulties must not stop urgent ecological measures -- like dramatic emissions reduction and natural habitat protection and restoration -- necessary to maintain a habitable Earth. The global growth machine [search] is seizing up because it is hitting ecological and economic limits, and because of its own greed.

We must demand world leaders not ignore looming apocalyptic global ecosystem collapse [search], in a vain effort to return to unsustainable and inequitable economic growth which caused the problems in the first place. This is a last warning, after which all men and women of good conscience and clear minds must commit to escalating "people power" resistance to bring about the necessary changes to ensure a continuation to being and a livable Earth. Tell world government below that climate change is a deadly fact, action cannot be delayed and its solution will help, not harm the economy. TAKE ACTION!

Amongst scientists, James Hansen [search] has long been one of the clearest voices for strong action against climate change including ending the use of coal [ark | search]. Yet now he advocates replacing coal with wood from vast tree plantations [ark | more\ark], burning the wood and capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide. It is saddening that such an ecologically short-sighted proposal comes from the man who rightly warns that we are already 'beyond safe levels' of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. It is understandable that he and other scientists are looking at ways of reducing the fast increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. Unfortunately, most of the proposals put forward for 'cooling the planet' involve either using vast amounts of energy for still unproven technologies (air capture of CO2) or, even more worryingly, sacrificing biodiversity and ecosystems.

Scientists who have developed the idea of using biomass power plants with carbon capture and storage in order to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels have made it clear that at least 500 million hectares of plantations would be required, which is over one and a half times the size of India. Replacing all coal burnt today with wood would require far more land and would almost certainly be impossible, although that may go beyond Hansen's proposal.