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Ways to reduce and prepare for climate change, while conserving peak natural resources and preventing pollution and waste.

Burning Tar Sands = ‘Unsolvable’ Climate Crisis: Hansen

By May 22, 2013
protesters with anti-tar sands banner

We have a 'tremendously chaotic' climate on the way, climate expert warns Fresh off his resignation from NASA, leading climate scientist James Hansen is making the rounds this week, warning media and lawmakers that not only are we heading for a "tremendously chaotic" climate, but if we dig up and burn Canadian tar sands, the climate crisis will be rendered "unsolvable." Hansen told a a panel of U.K. lawmakers, the Environmental Audit Committee, on Friday that “the potential amount of … [Read more...]

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Republican renaissance through climate change

By May 8, 2013
Image: mariopiperni/Flickr.

The Republicans are a party in crisis. Having lost the election, they're now wracked with internal strife and prospects for a turnaround in the near term appear dim. The primary reasons for this decline are demographic: their values, platform, and policies are now dangerously out of sync with the mainstream, and diverging further every year. Exploring this divergence could fill an article of its own, but it's best summed up by the Republican party's recent "autopsy" of their 2012 election … [Read more...]

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Climate collision course: CO2 levels about to hit 400 ppm

By May 1, 2013
400ppm chart

In a first in human history, "it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400-ppm level without losing a beat." The world is likely days away from a "sobering milestone" in our planetary history. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will likely reach 400 parts per million (ppm) for first time in human history, say scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and unless drastic action is taken, we're on track to hit 450 ppm in the near future. "I wish it … [Read more...]

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The climate change mountaintop

By April 29, 2013
Climbers on Mt. Blanc

These days I tend to beat myself up for screwing around; my biggest time sinks are video games (I never did quite kick my Civilization 5 habit) and television (my beloved Boston Celtics are kind of out in the wilderness). The reason, I think, is that I’ve internalized the threat of climate change. I feel it in my guts, hanging over me, demanding a response…so naturally any leisure time I afford myself ends up feels like a betrayal. It’s not healthy of course. We all need time … [Read more...]

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Waiting for the asteroid, eyes open

By April 15, 2013
Photo: ethermoon/Flickr.

I'm pretty sure you know the drill. You pose the scenario and ask the hypothetical questions: There's an asteroid headed for Earth. We know exactly when it will strike, and it will kill all humans. Do you want to know it will strike? Do you want to know when? Some people want to know everything. Others don't want to know anything. People who want to know when the asteroid will strike cannot fathom that people don't want to know. People who don't want to know the asteroid is headed our … [Read more...]

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For sale, habitable planet, too late

By March 25, 2013
Wave Breaker

According to legend, Ernest Hemingway bet his 1920s-era colleagues he could write a complete story in just six words. Hemingway is said to have considered the resulting piece his best work: “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn.” Making no attempt to keep up with Hemingway, this article provides an overview of the dire climate-change situation in fewer than 300 words. Perhaps even Twitter users will find time for the entire essay. Addition by subtraction Until relatively recently, economic … [Read more...]

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Infographic: How climate change is destroying the Earth

By March 1, 2013
Infographic on climate change

Image courtesy of LearnStuff.com. -- Transition Voice … [Read more...]

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Always the last to know

By February 27, 2013
Climate Change

Quiz time, readers: what do the US Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the Transportation Department, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Interior, the Energy Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce, the Government Accountability Office, and the CIA have in common? It’s a long list of government departments and agencies, and they’re all getting something right. Now brace yourselves. They’re all … [Read more...]

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A fork in the road on dirty energy

By February 22, 2013
Photo: tarsandsaction/Flickr.

This article is taken from a response by James Hansen to an op-ed piece published by Joe Nocera in the New York Times on February 18, 2013, "How Not to Fix Climate Change."  There, Nocera writes "I believe the Obama administration should approve the Keystone pipeline, which would transport oil mined and processed from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. Like it or not, fossil fuels are going to remain the world’s dominant energy source for the … [Read more...]

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Empathy: our strongest weapon against climate change?

By February 18, 2013
Outrospection video screen

Socrates said that the best way to live a good life is to know yourself. In the twentieth century, knowing yourself meant introspection, the practice of looking within popularized by Freudian psychoanalysis. But introspection can easily lead to navel gazing, self love and egoism. Such narcissism is unlikely to help deal with the big problems that threaten human society today, from climate change to global poverty to war in the Middle East. So perhaps what the world needs more than … [Read more...]

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