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Using moderate projections on the pace of possible adoption, and conservative calculations of atmospheric impact, the Drawdown experts conclude that levels of CO2 can be made to decline starting in or so — a little later if efforts lag, a little faster if they accelerate. It is difficult to summarize the 80 options on the Drawdown list, but a look at the top 10 — ranked high to low by potential to reduce atmospheric CO2 — will give you a sense of the range the Hawken team endorsed:. But, down the road a bit, who knows?
Also in this set: A fair Q that produced a provocative A, excerpted here:. So people feel guilt or shame inside. When you mix fear and doom with guilt and shame, you get apathy. People who are literate in the science may feel disempowered or think that what they do to address the issue is meaningless in terms of making an impact. On the other hand, our approach was not about engendering hope. From my point of view — which, I suppose, is informed by Buddhism — hope is the pretty mask of fear.
What we need to be is fearless, not hopeful, because to be hopeful means that our actions are based on fear. No action based on fear — except running away from a bear — has a good outcome. If so, read this book — not just as an antidote to fear and despair but as foundation for understanding and supporting the kinds of change that really could be coming, and at every scale from your household to your company, your community, your county and state and national government. The Earth has heated and cooled throughout its history — climate change is a natural phenomenon. Humans have had nothing to do with it in the past, this current warming is just a natural fluctuation.
They point to the fact that CO2 emissions also come from other sources such as volcanoes, and that high levels are naturally controlled by plants and the permafrost cycle. The problem is that our greenhouse gas emissions disrupt the existing balance, whereby the planet is unable to absorb and release the CO2 as it normally would. This problem is made even worse due to increased deforestation.
Since , the concentration of CO2 has increased by 40 percent, and methane by percent. Although skeptics also often try and highlight the 3 percent of scientists who are not certain that human activity is driving climate change, these researchers are frequently from conservative think tanks such as the Cato Institute, which is funded by companies such as Volkswagen and other groups that rely on the CONTINUED USE of fossil fuels. For continuing to bring forth the important information well beyond the shiny object of the day.
WE can accomplish this, it has been known for a long time now how simple things like family planning can have giant impacts on our Earth. Cheap clean energy became a reality faster than anyone expected, let that be an example of what can be accomplished when WE just push ahead toward a unified goal. Nothing should be done out of fear — I have been talking about that for a while. There are some interesting concepts highlighted in this article, some that I have been dabbling with myself as I experiment with scaling back my own personal footprint on the planet. However, in and of themselves, I have to hold onto my pessimism that they can change the trajectory we are on when it comes to reversing scary things like climate change.
This substitution logic ignores the reality that the substitute will also impact the ecosystem in some way as well. Perhaps it will not be in the same way that the original method did, but it will have an impact. And as the economy continues to grow, the impacts will grow proportionally. And increasing efficiency usually means more to invest in growth needed to produce more stuff. And converting sunlight to electricity via a solar panel in and of itself does not release greenhouse gases, but building the new solar infrastructure will require mining of materials like sand, aluminum and copper, which will more than likely still require the use of fossil fuels to power the mining equipment and convert the raw materials into usable panels.
Building the solar farms will require land to place the panels on, and this land will not be available for the plants and animals or people that used to live or grow there. How many solar panels will we need and how much land will be needed to place them on and where will all this land come from? I also think it is an error to assume that releasing large amounts of propane or ammonia into the atmosphere to replace fluorocarbons would not have some future affect; in the same way it is naive to assume that releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide or methane into the atmosphere would not have an effect on climate.
Satellites measure Antarctica losing land ice at an accelerating rate. The vast majority of climate papers in the s predicted warming. CO2 didn't initiate warming from past ice ages but it did amplify the warming. Net positive feedback is confirmed by many different lines of evidence.
Worry about global warming impacts in the next years, not an ice age in over 10, years. Ocean acidification threatens entire marine food chains. Recent studies agree that recent global temperatures are unprecedented in the last years. A number of investigations have cleared scientists of any wrongdoing in the media-hyped email incident.
There is increasing evidence that hurricanes are getting stronger due to global warming. Al Gore's book is quite accurate, and far more accurate than contrarian books.
A local cold day has nothing to do with the long-term trend of increasing global temperatures. Extreme weather events are being made more frequent and worse by global warming.
A variety of different measurements find steadily rising sea levels over the past century. Globally averaged temperature now is higher than global temperature in medieval times. Thick Arctic sea ice is undergoing a rapid retreat. The strong CO2 effect has been observed by many different measurements. Ancient natural cycles are irrelevant for attributing recent global warming to humans.
The natural cycle adds and removes CO2 to keep a balance; humans add extra CO2 without removing any. Rising CO2 increases atmospheric water vapor, which makes global warming much worse. Polar bears are in danger of extinction as well as many other species. The benefits of a price on carbon outweigh the costs several times over. There are many lines of evidence indicating global warming is unequivocal.
Other parts of the earth got colder when Greenland got warmer. Greenland on the whole is losing ice, as confirmed by satellite measurement. There are multiple lines of direct observations that humans are causing global warming. Mars and Jupiter are not warming, and anyway the sun has recently been cooling slightly. There is long-term correlation between CO2 and global temperature; other effects are short-term.
Mid-century cooling involved aerosols and is irrelevant for recent global warming.
Global temperature is still rising and was the hottest recorded. When CO2 was higher in the past, the sun was cooler. Early 20th century warming is due to several causes, including rising CO2. The most recent satellite data show that the earth as a whole is warming. Aerosols have been masking global warming, which would be worse otherwise. A cold day in Chicago in winter has nothing to do with the trend of global warming.
El Nino has no trend and so is not responsible for the trend of global warming. Most glaciers are in rapid retreat worldwide, notwithstanding a few complicated cases.
Multiple sets of independent observations find a human fingerprint on climate change. We see a clear "short-term hot spot" - there's various evidence for a "long-term hot spot". Weather and climate are different; climate predictions do not need weather detail. The 2nd law of thermodynamics is consistent with the greenhouse effect which is directly observed. The greenhouse effect is standard physics and confirmed by observations. Those who contribute the least greenhouse gases will be most impacted by climate change. Evidence is building that net cloud feedback is likely positive and unlikely to be strongly negative.
Sea level rise is now increasing faster than predicted due to unexpectedly rapid ice melting. The oceans are warming and moreover are becoming more acidic, threatening the food chain. Direct measurements find that rising CO2 is trapping more heat.
Humans emit times more CO2 than volcanoes. When Greenland was 3 to 5 degrees C warmer than today, a large portion of the Ice Sheet melted. Methane plays a minor role in global warming but could get much worse if permafrost starts to melt. Excess CO2 from human emissions has a long residence time of over years. CO2 levels are measured by hundreds of stations across the globe, all reporting the same trend.
Multiple lines of independent evidence indicate humidity is rising and provides positive feedback. Jupiter is not warming, and anyway the sun is cooling. Hundreds of flowers across the UK are flowering earlier now than any time in years. CO2 is increasing rapidly, and is reaching levels not seen on the earth for millions of years. The 'decline' refers to a decline in northern tree-rings, not global temperature, and is openly discussed in papers and the IPCC reports.
Warming leads to increased evaporation and precipitation, which falls as increased snow in winter. The sun has not warmed since and so cannot be driving global warming. The ocean is absorbing massive amounts of CO2, and is becoming more acidic as a result. Monckton used the IPCC equation in an inappropriate manner. An Independent Review concluded that CRU's actions were normal and didn't threaten the integrity of peer review. The actual data show high northern latitudes are warmer today than in Antarctic sea ice has grown in recent decades despite the Southern Ocean warming at the same time.
Humans are small but powerful, and human CO2 emissions are causing global warming. Microsite influences on temperature changes are minimal; good and bad sites show the same trend. If the dropped stations had been kept, the temperature would actually be slightly higher. Scientific studies have determined that current technology is sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid dangerous climate change.
Albedo change in the Arctic, due to receding ice, is increasing global warming. This is a detail that is complex, local, and irrelevant to the observed global warming trend. Soot stays in the atmosphere for days to weeks; carbon dioxide causes warming for centuries. Spencer's model is too simple, excluding important factors like ocean dynamics and treats cloud feedbacks as forcings. Jim Hansen had several possible scenarios; his mid-level scenario B was right.
This is a complex aerosol effect with unclear temperature significance. This argument ignores the cooling effect of aerosols and the planet's thermal inertia. Arctic sea ice loss is three times greater than Antarctic sea ice gain. The 'OISM petition' was signed by only a few climatologists. Volcanoes have had no warming effect in recent global warming - if anything, a cooling effect. Weather is chaotic but climate is driven by Earth's energy imbalance, which is more predictable. An independent inquiry found CRU is a small research unit with limited resources and their rigour and honesty are not in doubt.
Tuvalu sea level is rising 3 times larger than the global average. Benny Peiser, the Oreskes critic, retracted his criticism. Trenberth is talking about the details of energy flow, not whether global warming is happening. A number of independent measurements find extensive ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland.
An independent inquiry went back to primary data sources and were able to replicate CRU's results.