On November 18, with the United Nations Global Warming Conference in Copenhagen fast approaching, U.S. Sen. James R. Inhofe (R–Okla.) took the floor of the Senate and proclaimed 2009 to be “The Year of the Skeptic.” Had the senator’s speech marked a new commitment to dispassionate, rational inquiry, a respect for scientific thought and a well-grounded doubt in ghosts, astrology,creationism and homeopathy, it might have been cause for cheer. But Inhofe had a more narrow definition of skeptic in mind: he meant “standing up and exposing the science, the costs and the hysteria behind global warming alarmism.”
Earlier this month, the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence’s CoLab together with the MIT Energy Initiative, the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, and MIT Sloan Sustainability, sponsored a conference to explore the role new technology-enabled approaches – like crowdsourcing, social media, and big data – could have in combating climate change. The Climate CoLab is an MIT project that seeks to crowdsource citizen-generated ideas on a range of topics related to climate change.
Riel Miller presents one of the keynotes with the title: "Climate Change, Embracing Complexity, and Change in the Conditions of Change." Oxford April 2011.
Almost two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions from industrial sources can be traced to 90 major entities, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, according to a peer-reviewed study.
ClimateWise is the collaborative insurance initiative through which members aim to work together to respond to the myriad risks and opportunities of climate change.
Climate change is so big and pervasive we can hardly see it. There’s almost nothing in our collective lives that is bigger in its implications. The changes it demands of us are the most profound we have ever faced and they are growing increasingly urgent. Among our most radical challenges is building the capacity for whole societies to be smarter and wiser collectively than we are individually…
Last week the Diane Rehm Show on NPR, featured an episode on the natural gas boom in America. After panelists glorified the natural gas revolution, Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, chimed in by saying, "Nobody (on this panel) has mentioned climate change. What we should acknowledge is that production of oil and gas is undermining our goals to achieve a stabilized climate."
Is our relentless quest for economic growth killing the planet? Climate scientists have seen the data – and they are coming to some incendiary conclusions.
So I wonder about our hearts. Have we ignored our emotional and spiritual connections to the planet? Could the noise swirling around climate change—science, politics, media blitzes, as well as the weather disasters themselves—drown out the voice of a loss so profound that it rests unnamed in our souls? Could our breaking hearts be part of the reason we are immobilized?
Citizen science is not a new practice; many of the world’s original naturalists weren’t trained scientists, but regular people with an interest in the outdoors. Gilbert White, who is regarded as England’s first ecologist, was a priest who kept detailed records of the plants and animals in his neighborhood in the 1700s. Those notes were then turned into The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, which is regarded as one of the earliest texts to record phenology.
These new policy initiatives, innovations, social movements, and lifestyle shifts are rarely covered, but with all that's at stake, these responses deserve to be front-page news. We need this sort of reporting to seek out the many solutions, investigate which ones are working, and tell the stories through the media now available. Out of those many stories and many solutions, the answers can emerge. If these answers spread, are replicated, and inspire others, we have a shot at preserving a healthy planet and our own future.
Despite the stubborn resistance of skeptics, the overwhelming majority of scientists, whether they be geologists, climatologists, atmospheric scientists, chemists or biologists, believe we are experiencing – right now – human-induced climate change.
On discovering that their mother tongue is not shared by everyone, tourists have been known to redouble their efforts to communicate by raising their voices. This comical failure to grasp the difference between a message not being heard and not being received also has a tragic side, because we appear to be doing something very similar on climate change.
Investing concurrently in forward-looking measures that over time will reduce the climate-altering carbon emissions contributing to extreme weather is essential to our long-term physical and economic well-being.
The contradictions of world affairs are shifting into sharp relief in Warsaw. As the denouement of the climate conference approaches, political fissures are appearing that even the most diplomatic and experienced of civil service soothers are unable to paper over. The fractured lives and incendiary event of Typhoon Haiyan have been tossed into the most business-friendly COP yet.
With further calculations, the group found that the average rate at which carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere during the end-Permian extinction was slightly below today’s rate of carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere due to fossil fuel emissions. Over tens of thousands of years, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide during the Permian period likely triggered severe global warming, accelerating species extinctions.
A pair of climate scientists are calling for what some may view as a shocking solution to the global warming crisis: a rethinking of the economic order in the United States and other industrialized nations.
The devastation in the Philippines has revived the debate over how to address the disproportionate effects of climate change on poorer countries, an issue that has gained momentum but faces daunting challenges.
Under the presidency of Evo Morales, Bolivia has taken a leadership role in the global climate change negotiations. It did so most recently at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún, but also hosted the World People’s Conference on Climate Change (WPCCC) in Cochabamba in April 2010 and spoke out against the Copenhagen Accord at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference. Among the ideas underpinning Bolivia’s principled position - pushing for the most ambitious agreement to tackle climate change and defend “mother earth” (or Pachamama) - is that of vivir bien or “living well”.
The demand for floating islands rises with the sealevels. Let´s build a low-budget island out of trash and bamboo, then share the island + manual with the world
The most censored story of our lifetime is hiding in plain sight. We humans are disrupting the climate of the planet to the point at which the world our children and grandchildren will inhabit may be unrecognizable.
Solutions to the global challenges of climate change, food security, peak oil and biodiversity loss are within our reach.
Facilitated by the United Nations University, a think tank of the UN, the Our World 2.0 web magazine shares the research, ideas and actions of global citizens who are transforming our lives for the better.
This award-winning web magazine exchanges insight on these pressing topics through videobriefs, articles, debates, photo essays and public events.
Our World 2.0 web magazine reaches a broad cross-section of public, private, and academic audiences. Our key community consists of "influential leaders of the future", predominantly 25- to 45-year-olds, from both developing and developed countries.
We invite you to contribute to this growing global conversation.
'Climate Change, the Sharing Economy & Collaborating for a Brave New World' blog post by Danielle Lanyard. (The 50 gigatonnes of Arctic #Methane from the Eastern Siberian permacrust could cost $60 billion - Who pays the bill?
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