USA[1] Mitigation: reduction in emissions of major emitters Transparency: UN oversight to be sure countries fulfill pledges Monetary assistance for less-developed countries China[2] Negotiators will do a better job reaching a deal than heads of state (learned from Copenhagen 2009) Would limit warming to 2C or less Encouraging mobilization of $100 billion from developed countries to help less-developed …
Continue reading What’s the Big Deal? : Stakeholder hopes for COP21
“We could have saved [the Earth] but we were too damned cheap.” -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., A Man Without a Country. Recently, I became aware of a Pew Research Center poll that found overwhelming support for requiring better fuel efficiency for vehicles (79%), funding for alternative energy (74%), and strong support for spending more on mass …
Continue reading The Business of Free. Something to learn for climate change?
As many will likely remember, Bubba Gump was a fictional character in a fairytale who's largely oblivious to his surroundings. Unfortunately, after one day in Cancun, I'm coming to the conclusion that sometimes a fictional character can represent reality much more closely than hope. The difference in setting could not be more stark between COP-15 …
Early this morning, I joined a hoard of honeymooners on a Delta flight to Cancun. Unfortunately, however, I wasn’t traveling to Cancun for 8 days of fun in the sun. In fact, I’d argue our collective honeymoon is already over. Don’t get me wrong: our best days can still before us, but my own personal …
I was sitting on a plane from Washington to Johannesburg last July when I struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler sitting across the aisle from me. As any sane person would do on this 18-hour-long flight, I began to inquire about his vocation and why he was heading to South Africa in the …
Continue reading Politicized Vernaculars and the Vernaculars of Politics
I love this short post from James Kwak over at Baseline Scenario. "Nice Economy You’ve Got There . . ." That, I believe, was a line from Nemo in a comment long ago, on how the megabanks were holding the federal government hostage by threatening to collapse and take the financial system with them. The …
Continue reading Limit Mountaintop Removal, and the World Will End…
Ken Cuccinelli might run the 2013 Governor’s seat in Virginia, one year before his tenure as Attorney General would have run its course. As we ponder the bizarre discrepancy between voters’ articulated demand for transparency and surging support for disingenuous, pandering candidates for public office, we would be wise to avoid making firm predictions about …
Continue reading Representing Himself–Why Are We (sort of) Okay With Ken Cuccinelli’s Witchhunt?
"China & India must play a leading role in reducing GHG emissions and develop 'clean' energy economies." This is repeated often by other nations, environmentalists, and anyone who feels like dispensing advice. I take some issue with China & India being put in the same bucket when talking about GHG reductions and the level of …
Here's the latest example of why communicating climate science is so important. From a petition filed by Texas asking the EPA to reconsider its Endangerment Finding that "the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)--in the …
The COP15 was certainly a worthwhile experience all-around for me personally. Before I left I was incredibly skeptical that anything positive would come out of the conference. I left the conference not only skeptical but also angry and fearful; angry that just about any group with an agenda used climate change as an impetus for …
Continue reading Post Conference Thoughts – Altruistic Hubris
Climate Blue 