Wearing a hair-shirt can make us feel good by making us feel bad. In environmental terms, this can mean going without certain comforts for little or no benefit. Yet if we're going to avoid the greater discomfort of catastrophic climate change, it looks like we're all going to have to suffer – this according to the UK government's scientific and policy advisers.
The UK has pledged to reduce CO2 emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050. It's an ambitious target, but an important one if we are to avoid the most damaging effects of climate change. Other governments have signed up to other targets, some more ambitious, some less. Now, however,... See entire blog item
It may seem obvious that nature and the climate know no borders, but is this true? And if it is, why do environmentalists sometimes talk in nationalistic terms?
The first state probably arose when one man suggested a scheme to a group of his friends. "If you support me in my ridiculous claim that this land is mine," he said, "I'll give you a share of the spoils." The second state came about when someone saw the scheme work and copied it. These early states were small, but grew when one local ruler claimed suzerainty over his neighbours. "If you swear... See entire blog item
A round-up of recent environmental news from around the world.
In Australia, the New South Wales government has approved two new power stations which will emit greenhouse gas equivalent to almost three million cars. Greens say renewable alternatives were not properly evaluated. The stations are apparently needed due to rising demand for electricity.
Satellite pictures of India suggest Himalayan glaciers have shrunk 16% since 1962. The glaciers,... See entire news item
The Enlightenment had gone to our heads. My, that was one heady brew! We staggered out of the Rural Idyll after three pints of the stuff, George the grammar school boy, Anthony the son of the local lord, and Tom and me, mere apprentices. I guess we were all too young to drink, but the barman... See entire story
With the climate changing, natural resources dwindling, politicians procrastinating, workers idling and bankers receiving bonuses for their ruinous activities, it's easy to imagine we're on the brink of something.
In an interview Naomi Oreskes, author of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, describes how right-wingers, fundamentalis... See entire blog item
The orangutan is humanity's closest living relative. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped us wiping them out, currently at a rate of about 5,000 a year. Once widespread in South-East Asia, wild orangutans now survive on just two islands: Borneo and Sumatra. By the year 2018 they may only exist in zoos. The main threat to this intelligent creature is the production of an oil which shows no sign of peaking. Palm oil.
Palm oil is cheap and versatile. It increases a food's shelf life. And it's used in hundreds of products. Bread, biscuits, cereals, chocolate, cooking oil, cosmetics, crackers, crisps,... See entire blog item
By Marmian Grimes
A section of the Arctic Ocean seafloor that holds vast stores of frozen methane is showing signs of instability and widespread venting of the powerful greenhouse gas, according to the findings of an international research team led by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov.
The research results, published in the March 5 edition of the journal Science, show that the permafrost under the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, long thought to be an impermeable barrier sealing in methane, is perforated and is leaking large... See entire news item
Times Square and Piccadilly Circus without their famous lights? Newspapers and magazines a fraction of their current thickness? Fifty minute television programmes over in … fifty minutes?!
Modern life would be very different without advertising. Is it the sort of life we'd want to live? Could it be achieved?
Banning advertising should not be ruled out, though such a path would not be easy. Any politician wanting to ban advertising would find herself up against powerful lobbies. She may even be told her idea is in breach of one interpretation of her country's hallowed constitution. Advertising, after all,... See entire blog item
For years inequality has been a political issue. Some people have been willing to fight against it; for others, ending or reducing it has been low on the agenda; others still saw it as a non-issue, a fact of life and perhaps even something positive. No longer can we afford to debate this. If we are to tackle global warming, we must also tackle inequality.
Most arguments for reducing inequality are not new. There are selfish reasons: the poorest people understandably want what those better off than them can enjoy; and for richer people, lower inequality... See entire blog item
It was around twenty years ago that the Soviet system collapsed. I remember the Western journalists poking around Russia's towns and reporting on what they found. They found factories producing substandard goods nobody wanted, while basic needs went unmet. The journalists found a broken system. They wondered why it hadn't collapsed sooner.
The flaws in the Soviet system seemed obvious to the Westerners, but to those who had been working... See entire blog item
Fossil Fuel
