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Public bored by climate change, says IPPR
The Ecologist
Government and business face a big challenge in changing the public’s use of energy at home and reducing the UK’s overall carbon emissions, according to report
The general public are resentful, cynical and resigned when it comes to the issue of climate change, according to an IPPR report.
Unless they can be persuaded to adopt lower-carbon lifestyles, it will be impossible to meet new emissions targets, says the report.
An approach based on saving the public money, and giving them greater control over energy bills and independence from suppliers would be more effective, say report researchers…
(17 Sept 2009)
The report can be accessed here.
Will world leaders hear this global wakeup call?
Kami Naidoo, The Independent
Next week President Obama and more than 100 world leaders gather at the United Nations in New York for the Climate Summit, in what will be an intriguing precursor to December’s crucial climate talks in Copenhagen.
The backdrop to the New York talks paints a picture of intense public pressure as citizens around the world continue to call on heads of state to attend December’s climate change talks in Copenhagen. United under the banner of the TckTckTck campaign their message to world leaders is clear: secure a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal.
Throughout this weekend and into next week mass participatory global wakeup calls will be witnessed in more than 1,400 unique events in 962 cities spread across 103 countries across the world. Celebrities, political leaders and thousands of individuals concerned about climate change will be involved in more than 1,400 TckTckTck climate change events. In London, people will gather in Parliament Square on Monday to send a message to Gordon Brown. Around the globe some of the world’s best known NGOs, trade unions and individuals have organised similar events. Avaaz, Oxfam, WWF, Greenpeace, Christian Aid and others are working tirelessly with their members and through their spheres of influence to ensure next week’s global wakeup call will be heard….
(18 Sept 2009)
Important week for global warming
Jake Schmidt, Grist
Today begins a week dubbed because of all the high-level climate discussions that are occurring. And they just all happen to be occurring in the U.S. at an important time for the domestic debate to pass a clean energy and climate bill in the Senate.
The high-level events begin on Tuesday (Sept. 22) with the U.N. Secretary General hosting an all day session on global warming for Heads of Government from around the world, it continues with a session on deforestation for Heads of Government on Wednesday (Sept. 23), and ends with the G20 Summit in Pittsburg—with a lot in between.
Heads of Government from these key countries don’t meet often to discuss global warming pollution, so every event where this is on the agenda for Heads of Government is an important opportunity to make progress. And as I’ve discussed, here, bringing in Heads of Government is critical at this stage of the negotiations if we are to have any chance of securing a strong global agreement in Copenhagen. Last time Heads of Government from key countries met at the G8 and Major Economies Forum in Italy, some progress was made on a number of important benchmarks of the global effort (as I discussed here). So there is hope of more to come at these key events.
Time is short before Copenhagen—about 3 months to the day are left—so there is a notable sense that things aren’t coming together fast enough—dark clouds appear to be hanging overhead. Accordingly expectations were high that these high-level events could provide a much needed boost to international efforts—start to part the clouds and let some sunshine appear.
What gives me a sense of optimism—besides the fact that regardless of the fluctuations in the political climate the need for clean energy and global warming solutions will remain—are four things about international efforts on global warming that are important to keep in mind.
25th hour (and maybe 26th) is when these negotiations often come together. This is a high stakes negotiation where everything is intimately woven together…
…The U.S. is making progress domestically to curb global warming pollution.
…Developing countries are taking action to curb emissions and providing hints of more to come.
…Almost all developed countries have proposed deeper emissions cuts…
(21 Sept 2009)
Politicians on climate: a failure of wit, will and imagination
Peter Boyer, Climate Tasmania
Our politicians are failing us. Our administrations are failing us. Our corporate leaders are failing us. In unison, they are marching ever deeper into a mire.
They have no idea now to escape; some don’t even seem to know the mire exists. Mention the danger ahead or offer possible escape routes and you’re met with mindless reassurances and dead clichés.
Like a slow-motion march of the lemmings, we are witnessing a failure of leadership on a massive scale. And like failed leaders back through the centuries, today’s leading players still seem to think we should put our trust in them, close our eyes and follow them down their path to oblivion.
With the physical reality of climate change now upon us (if only they knew it), our leaders can’t see that the behaviour that served them so well in times past — spin, political deal-making, time-honoured delaying and diversionary tactics — is a dangerous mistake…
(22 Sept 2009)
Sent in by EB reader John Charles Evans.
Buy ‘Climate Change’ — Now With Added Warming Power
Emily Badger, Miller-McCune
Sometime in the last decade, as mainstream science has outlined the man-made causes of climate change and as much of society has begun to accept that view, global warming has turned into a people problem as much as a technical and scientific one.
People have fed the increase in greenhouse gases, and people can reverse that trend through consumption choices large and small. One of the central paradoxes of climate change is not why the world is warming, but how people are handling it: If polls show so many believe a crisis is unfolding, why are so few doing anything about it?
NASA physicists probably couldn’t answer that question. The people who can have rarely been asked. They are the behavioral experts, the psychologists who have long studied the disconnect between our attitudes and our actions, and who are now realizing themselves they have a role to play in climate policy…
(22 Sept 2009)
Collapse or survive: the stark choice facing our species
Johann Hari, The Independent
We are – at the same time – thrillingly close and sickeningly far from solving our planetary fever. The world’s leaders huddled in New York City yesterday to discuss man-made global warming, in a United Nations building that will soon be underwater if they fail. They all know what has to happen: their scientists have told them, plainly and urgently.
As man-made warming rises by up to 2.4C, all sorts of awful things happen – whole island-states in the South Pacific will drown, for example – but we can stop it. If we turn off the warming gases, the temperature will stabilise. But if we go beyond 2.4C, global warming will run away from us, and we will have lost the “Stop” button. The Amazon rainforest will dry out and burn down, releasing all the carbon stored in the trees; the vast amounts of warming gases stored in the Arctic will be belched into the atmosphere; and so 3C will turn ineluctably to 4C, which will turn to 5C, and the planet will rapidly become a place we do not recognise.
To stay the right side of this climatic Point of No Return, global emissions need to start falling by 2015 – just six years from now – and drop by 85 per cent by 2050. Our leaders need to agree this at the climate talks in Copenhagen in December. The scientific debate is over. The answer is in sight. Indeed, each one of the leaders could feel the solution on their skin and in their hair yesterday: it lies in the awesome power of the sun…
(23 Sept 2009)
