Articles & Essays Archive

The chief executive of Shell Oil talks with some urgency on the problem of climate change

What happend to easter island?
Some lessons from history we might want to consider. Jared Diamond again. Read this, it is very good!

Global warming is worse threat than terrorism
John Houghton comments in the Guradian

An end to infinity
The Kyoto climate change treaty, which comes into force next week, is a start to realising Earth's limits Says Meacher

Nuclear Power is the only green solution
James Lovelock's climate change warning

The Great Taxer
last thoughts on Ronald Reagan

Time to call time on cheaps flights Hypocrasy
Guardian comment on the global impact if cheap travel

Civic Science, Porrit argues for a change
Some powerful reasoning from JP
Energy price is a red herring
TSW argues for a new attitude to energy costs
Tony talks about it before the Jo'berg summit
Our glorious leader talks up the Earth summit
Gains of going green
Pasquale Pistorio says that protecting the environment can bring rewards for companies as well as the planet
Sustainable building
TSW on the New Information Centre building at CAT

The Population explosion
Paul Erlich is a brilliant commentator and acedemic on sustainability, plus more stuff he's written with others
Energy Questions
This was a live web debate on Worldwatch with a world expert on energy - very interesting
The Eco Sceptic
Bjorn Ljumberg really pissed off the greenies with this extract from his book - well worth a read if you dont suffer from high blood pressure already
Climate change
A very weighty piece from THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT but well worth reading if you really want to know more details of the climate change scenarios

Introduction
This column is dedicated to talking about responses and issues around the big problem of climate change and other big environmental issues. Such a big and far reaching problem that it staggers me that we are not talking and writing about it a whole lot more. Nothing is simple about this issue, the science of climate change is still evolving and the political implications of how we understand this are massive.

Even now few people seem to really understand this problem and its implications fully and we are going to need some clarity and agreement if we are to make any progress before it is seriously too late.

Scientific opinion largely concurs that we have between 10 - 30 years before we bring a about irreversible damage to the atmosphere to the extent that it will disrupt life way beyond anything we could easily tolerate. Some are already saying we have gone beyond that point already, that we simply cannot slow down in the timescale required.

One view of how to respond to this is still to deny that this is happening, or that it is really a problem. A second view is that technology will save the day - things like Nuclear energy, genetic technology, space exploration and migration etc.
The third view is that we will have to fundamentally rethink our whole attitiude and relationship with each other and the planet and its resources.

Essentially it is an ecological problem and needs an ecological response, technology might help us ameliorate our impact in the immediate term, but the required responses are much more profound. We have essentially burned up a lot of our environmental capital, and need to learn to live on revenue only. I feel like mankind has hcked the family jewels, the house and the furniture to feed a runaway system that is simply not sustainable.

I am interested in exploring some of longer term ramifications of a broadscale shift to a sustainable economy, but there is the more immediate problem of potential run away climate change. This could really spoil everything. The scientists are on the case as are the policy makers perhaps (see IISD, IPCC, etc.), but is this reality in any way connecting to the people at large in anything like the way required to bring about a significant enough change.

editor

Press Clippings and articles Al Gore's LAtest speech The man who would (not) be president makes a very clear case for a massive economic response to climate change and suggests America might be best placed by leading the way Worse than fossil fuel This is pretty worrying stuff, environmental journalist George Monbiot reveals the devastating impact that bio diesel development is having on the rainforests. This is a real wake up call to all people concerned about climate change, there are no easy ways to produce more energy, biodiesel is perhaps the worst fuel yet invented! Government sets out challenge for greener Britain Review says current measures are insufficient Ministers risk losing international credibility. David Adam, environment correspondent Monday November 14, 2005 The Guardian. This piece in interesting as it evaluates our available options to reduce emissions, Britain is in danger of losing its credibility as leaders on emission control as we are failing to reach our targets, what would you do? Rude awakening Sir Jonathon Porritt has spent more than three decades highlighting green issues, from the 'in-yer-face' days with Friends of the Earth to advising today's government. Here he tells the Guardian's John Vidal why, now, capitalism is the agent of change I was first greatly influenced by Porritt's thinking when I read his seminal work 'Seeing Green' , back in the early 80's when still at FOE. Althought often controversial, I think he has consistently remained ahead of the game, moving from campaigning to advocacy, to political reform as government advisor and as teacher and writer. He is still a leading voice on the environment in the UK. Its captilism or a habitable planet A well written call to arms, examining the degree to which society and economy will need to shift to accomodate the end of oil Faced with this crisis Monbiot comment after G8 Instead of denying climate change is happening, the US now denies that we need proper regulation to stop it After G8 at Gleneagles Margaret Beckett is the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs: this is just the beginning, the Uk government has worked to put climate change on the international agenda, and now they intend to keep it there Monbiot vs Bellamy. Botanist and environmentalist David Bellamy has enraged the green community with his published views of climate change - flying in the face of the rapidly growing global coalition of climatoligists, saying that human induced climate change is a myth and not the problem it is being presented to us as. Here is a log of the flurry of correspondence between the two. Esprit de Gore Piece in www.grist.org Grist magazine Ex vice presifdent of USA Al Gore is transforming into fiery climate evangelist - see the reaction to his speeches. SE development under scrutiny, is it sustainable, how will it be funded? Cheap flights spark runway chaos Expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick is condemned by planners as 'unnecessary and environmentally unsustainable' Worldwatch debate on Climate change Visit Worldwatch for a very informative questions and answers session, with Janet Sawin, a leading resercher on Climate change Links to recent studies quoted in the debate: http://www.seen.org/PDFs/Wrong_turn_Rio.pdf. The World Bank’s perspective on its work and climate change is available at: www.worldbank.org/climatechange. Its time to talk about climate change, says Ian McEwan on opendemocracy.net Bury it under the sea! Short Observer piece advancing the view that our best solution is to bury liquified CO2 under the North Sea in the old oil fields. Personally I hate this idea, it makes it sounds like its alright to do this - oh fine so we can carry on polluting can we? - but it does accept the increasingly immediacy of the problem we are facing - and we do need to start activating if not solutions, then responses to this huge problem. Sir John Houghton Speaks: Global warming is now a weapon of mass destruction This guy is one of the World's authorites on the subject - and ex chair of the Intergovernmenatl Panel on Climate Change - the biggest global coalition of scients the world has yet seen. Here is a cautiously optimisitc view of our plight, as put by Anthropologist and all round really clever geezer, Jared Diamond. What happend to easter island? Some lessons from history we might want to consider. Jared Diamond again. Read this, it is very good! Erosion of topsoil - already a serious problem in Australia, China and parts of the US - threatens modern civilisation as surely as it menaced societies long since vanished, researchers warned yesterday Latest Climate Change indicators Scientists have linked the warming trend that took off in the twentieth century to the buildup of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping gases. By burning fossil fuels, people released some 6.44 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in 2002, a 1-percent increase over the previous year, raising atmospheric CO2 concentration to 372.9 parts per million by volume. 4 (See Figure 2.) Measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii show an 18-percent increase in CO2 levels from 1960 to 2002.5 Scientists estimate that levels have risen 31 percent since the onset of the Industrial Revolution around 1750.6 The current concentration has not been exceeded in at least 420,000 years—and likely in 20 million years. (source, Vital Signs 2003, pub. Worldwatch.org) Some key Environmental indicators Taken from WorldWatch Vital Signs 2003 (the 2005 edition is available to buy in downloadable pdf's format or printed from http://www.worldwatch.org The data from previous editions is available to download for free from the same site. (thats where i got these)

International Institute for Sustainable development (Climate section)

Guardian Climate change section
Guaridan newspaper has good coverage of the issue

Environmental News Service (ENS): Comprehensive daily environment news available by email
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risingtide.org.uk
grassroot action on the causes of climate change

www.carbonweb.org
In depth analysis of the fossil fuel industry

Climate change central
Canadian Site looking at national responses to the issue

www.peopleand planet.org
Student campaign for environment UK

www.eraction.org
Nigerian campaign focussed on the impacts of oil extraction in Niger delta

Planet Ark: Reuters environmental news, again available as a daily email. Moreover.com: Another excellent source of environmental news, available as a daily email service. Greenbiz:
US-based web site focussing on green business issues. Regular email newsletter. Financial Times: Excellent source of sustainability related business articles. Fully searchable story archive and a series of daily email updates available.
(The Economist is also a good source, but much of it is restricted to subscribers.) Fast Company: Monthly business magazine from the USA. Always interesting. Email updates available. Green Futures Magazine: Bimonthly magazine on sustainable solutions. Published in the UK and available in its entirety on-line.
Edie.net:
Useful weekly email newsletter with an interesting selection of environmental stories from around the world.
E-volve:
The fortnightly E-volve newsletter is worth reading. Greenleap: Philip Sutton's listserv is by far the most useful I've come across, despite having an Australian slant. Highly recommended. Worldwatch: Global statistics and well informed comment, very good site

Risc ReadingRoom
resource area with links to bulletin boards and chat rooms

Frank Recommends good books on sustainability: