One of the biggest things the world can do to slow climate change is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, coal and natural gas. As of 2013, the energy sector accounted for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So, you can stop cutting down all the trees in the Amazon or Indonesia, and replant trees across the Sahel, but it won't be anywhere near enough to slow … [Read more...]
Against the specialist, the expert and the technocrat
In these days of ecological overshoot, about the only experts I can abide are climate scientists. Without the facts we get from scientists, what would we say to climate science deniers? So I'm glad to see more climate scientists step out of the ivory tower in the world's hour of need. But sometimes I wish even climate brainiacs would stick to their labs and leave public … [Read more...]
Burning Tar Sands = ‘Unsolvable’ Climate Crisis: Hansen
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 … [Read more...]
Citing mystical vision, Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline
Cutting short a permit review process expected to conclude this summer at earliest, President Obama today announced that he has decided to block the Keystone XL pipeline planned to carry more than 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian tar-sands crude into the country. "After a careful process of deliberation, and a prophetic vision after Easter service on Sunday, I have … [Read more...]
A fork in the road on dirty energy
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 … [Read more...]