Category: Uncategorized
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CO2 and Climate Change, Old and New
Ocean out west. Photo by Manuel García, Jr. How long has science known about CO2-induced climate change, and are we clever enough today to geo-engineer our way out of cooking ourselves to extinction? In brief: a long time, and most likely no. Clive Thompson has written engagingly about the 19th century scientists…
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O Christmas Tree, Toxic Christmas Tree!
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"166","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"319","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"480"}}]] Christmas tree farm in Iowa (public domain photo from USDA) In early December in Portland I saw my first live Christmas tree of the season strapped to the top of a car. I was saddened. Not because I don’t celebrate Christmas (even though I don’t) but because the Christmas tree industry is so harmful.…
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Paul Volcker’s Long Shadow
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called Paul Volcker “the most effective chairman in the history of the Federal Reserve.” But while Volcker, who passed away Dec. 8 at age 92, probably did have the greatest historical impact of any Fed chairman, his legacy is, at best, controversial. “He restored credibility to the Federal Reserve at…
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Climate: from Catastrophe to Cataclysm
Please watch the 23-minute video, linked below, to completion. It shows an interview of Dr. Peter Carter (Director Climate Emergency Institute, IPCC expert reviewer, Co-author in 2018 of Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival). This interview was conducted at COP25 (“this is set up to fail”) currently underway in Madrid, Spain,…
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Permafrost Hits a Grim Threshold
For tens of thousands of years the Arctic’s carbon sink has been a powerful dynamic in functionality of the Earth System. However, that all-important functionality has been crippled and could be permanently severed. According to new research based upon field observations conducted from 2003 to 2017, a large-scale carbon emission shift in the Earth System…
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Climate Talks in Madrid: What will it take to prevent climate collapse?
The two-week marathon of the annual UN climate conference is underway in Madrid, and the world’s expectations have perhaps never been lower. The Amazon is burning and unprecedented storms are raging worldwide, but the world’s climate diplomats are still mostly talking business-as-usual. Never mind that this year’s 25th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN…
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A Plan for The Plan to Beat Climate Change
There is no shortage of plans for how to beat climate breakdown before it breaks down civilization. There is no shortage of action in the form of demonstrations. There is a shortage of action around a single realistic plan. Most demonstrators are demanding that governments take action – governments that are bought and sold by…
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China’s Renewed Coal Boom
China’s failure to kick a long-standing addiction to coal has thrown a knockout punch to the Paris Agreement of 2015, including its 195 signatories. Suddenly, out of the blue, the world has turned upside down! Sixteen months ago July 16, 2018: “China and the European Union on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris climate…
