Skip to main content

This Sucks

Experts have been saying it's too late to avoid climate change for some time now. Today's news (it's Groundhog Day, for goodness sake!), is kind of obvious then.

Janos Pasztor, the UN Secretary-General's point person on climate change, has come out with the not so surprising statement that:
"It is likely, according to a number of analysts, that if we add up all those figures that were being discussed around Copenhagen, if they're all implemented, it will still be quite difficult to reach the two degrees."

At issue is the so-called two-degree (that's Celsius) target set at Copenhagen. If the earth's average temperature goes above this level (using pre-industrial 18th century temperatures as a baseline), we will be in deep, hot doo-doo.

Read the referenced material for the details. Suffice it to say that a botched and pathetic campaign in Massachusetts, the Haitian earthquake crisis, the health insurance reform debacle, and the coming Super Bowl are all in league to distract us (immensely) from job one which is immediate and continued reduction of fossil fuel emissions worldwide.

In the words of Ross Perot, I hear a giant sucking sound.

Who the heck is in charge here anyway? You?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Short-Sighted Buffoonery: Send me in coach!

I'm getting ready to re-enter the fray. I recently agreed to take on a job in the City of Philadelphia that I can't provide details on, but it's not soon enough apparently. Leaders in Washington and state governments all over the country are doing their best to turn solving the climate change problem into another example of oafish, mercenary, short-sighted, buffoonery. Check out the rather direct posting at the Center for American Progress today, "Facing Reality." I'm fighting mad. You should be too. Personally, I've been on the sidelines way too long and I'm itching to get back in the game. Yesterday, I listened to the news that President Obama is authorizing $54 billion in loan guarantees for the nuclear power

Bashing Recycling for Confusion and Profit

The following essay is a work in progress. I invite all readers to give me criticism and direction. --------------------------------------------------------------- Recently, the ABC show, Good Morning America , ran a segment interviewing columnist and author Stephen Dubner (co-author of the book Freakonomics ) on whether recycling works. You can watch it by clicking here . While Dubner's basic argument about recycling turns on the idea of market economics (which is sensible), he also says some really weird things that drew me back into the good old early 1990s when bashing recycling was the sport of kings. In particular, Dubner says that plastic water bottle recycling doesn't make sense because it costs more to recycle water bottles (they aren't as valuable as aluminum cans) than it does to make new ones. He also says that old newspapers have such a low value that cities often simply landfill them after they go to the recycling center. He doesn't really provide us with...

MIT Future of Solar Energy Study Launch Event

This is a one-hour-plus presentation of what is probably the most important energy document to come our way since the 2007 Stern Review climate study. Never forget that job one as an American is building the future of the world. The more you know, the stronger we are as a nation and the more likely it is we will be coming through this 50-year nightmare of global conflict over oil into a better, stronger world. The Future of Solar Energy Study Launch Event Related articles Paris climate summit: Carbon pledges to fall short of warming goal, Stern warns Divesting in Trustee Wussyness: College Campuses and Climate Change Action What is the Role for Business in Addressing Climate Change? Take the time. Watch the launch event and download the PDF for summer reading.