By Ugo Bardi, The Seneca Effect
What could bring down the industrial civilization? Would it be global warming (fire) or resource depletion (ice)? At present, it may well be that depletion is hitting us faster. But, in the long run, global warming may hit us much harder. Maybe the fall of our civilization will be Fire AND ice.
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
We thought we had decades to avert climate catastrophe. But it's already here.
By Richard Heinberg, Resilience.org
But let’s assume there is indeed enough time, and that we suddenly get serious about planning. What should we do?
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
Acceleration is a common theme in contemporary culture and generally tinged with the connotation of "progress." But acceleration shows itself to be a two-edged sword when applied to the alarming trends in our climate.
By David Crossley, Resilience.org
The message in this book is simple: There are hard physical limits to the growth of available energy to power our civilization and these will probably be seriously in effect by the end of the 21st century.
By Chris Nelder, Energy Transition Show
From ‘natural’ disasters causing property damage, to climate mitigation measures rendering fossil fuel assets unburnable, to potential impacts of climate change on agricultural production, energy, food, insurance, real estate, and other sectors, it’s clear that private sector companies and all kinds of investments stand to suffer significant losses as a consequence of climate change.
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
There remains a hope that once we get past the economic and social effects of the pandemic, all of us will be able to return to something resembling normal life before the pandemic—even if it is a "new normal" marked by heightened vigilance and protection against infectious disease ... But the date for this recovery to a new normal seems to keep getting postponed.
By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
As I sit in 90-degree heat typical of Washington, D.C. in midsummer and a so-called "heat dome" hovers over much of the United States, I am reading the following: "At 11 or 12 degrees [Fahrenheit] of [global] warming, more than half the world’s population, as distributed today, would die of direct heat. Things almost certainly won’t get that hot this century, though models of unabated emissions do bring us that far eventually."
By Elizabeth Sawin, Resilience.org
Four things we can learn from the response to COVID-19 that are critical for climate change resilience.
By Simon Mair, Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
Radical changes are needed if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change: 2 trillion dollars of fossil fuel related capital investment has to go. Without a better understanding of the basic relationships between energy and production it is hard to say how such changes will play out in the wider economy, and almost impossible to prepare to face them.
By William E. Rees, The Tyee
So I present an unpopular but fact-based argument in the form of two “Am I wrong?” queries. If you accept my facts, you will see the massive challenge we face in transforming human assumptions and ways of living on Earth. I welcome being told what crucial facts I might be missing. Even a realist — perhaps especially a realist in present circumstances — occasionally wants to be proved incorrect.
By Albert Bates, Medium
The problem with this warning, and perhaps also why it is shedding supporters, is that it says all the right things but feels like it is speaking to an empty room. It has all been said before. I confess I have the same issue with street protests. At some point, you have to put down the placard and actually do something about the situation.