Why We Need to Keep 80 Percent of Fossil Fuels in the Ground
We have to keep 80 percent of the fossil-fuel reserves that we know about underground.
climate change
Toward a new rhetoric of political ecology: Can religion teach us something?
The effectiveness of religious rhetoric suggests that environmentalists ought not to discard it, but rather figure out how to harness it even more effectively. Environmentalism is, in fact, now emerging as a nonsectarian religious movement embraced by congregants as different in their religious beliefs as Pope Francis, the Creation Care movement of evangelical Christians, Jewish environmental activists, the Dalai Lama, and Islamic leaders and clerics.
Sustainability is Complex: There is no Single Diet Solution
We face huge challenges in feeding the world sustainably. But one thing is certain: grazing ruminant livestock – and the high-quality food they produce – can and should play a key role.
The US: A Nation In Dire Need of Energy and Climate Policy
A new Harvard University study finds that world methane emissions have recently spiked, and that the US appears to be the site of most of the increase.
Exxon’s Never-Ending Big Dig
Here’s the story so far. We have the chief legal representatives of the eighth and 16th largest economies on Earth (California and New York) probing the biggest fossil fuel company on Earth (ExxonMobil), while both Democratic presidential candidates are demanding that the federal Department of Justice join the investigation of what may prove to be one of the biggest corporate scandals in American history.
Europe’s Struggle to Switch on Low-carbon Heating
Heating and cooling is the unglamorous consumer of half of the EU’s energy, with 75% of this generated from fossil fuels. Only 25% is generated from low-carbon sources.
Cowspiracy: Stampeding in the Wrong Direction?
There’s much to admire in Kip Andersen’s viral documentary, but its political framing – and a head-slapping statistical error – threaten to undermine its core message.
El Niño and Climate Change: Wild Weather May Get Wilder
This year’s El Niño phenomenon is spawning extreme weather around the planet. Now scientists are working to understand if global warming will lead to more powerful El Niños that will make droughts, floods, snowstorms, and hurricanes more intense.
Beyond Paris: Avoiding the Trap of Carbon Metrics
Until recently terms like “carbon accounting,” “carbon footprint,” and “carbon offsetting” would have raised some quizzical eyebrows among the general public. Today, such carbon-based metrics are everywhere, but are they helpful or unhelpful in motivating the necessary action on climate change?
Sandra Postel: Repairing the Water Cycle
El Niño has been dropping much-needed rain this winter on a parched American West. But it’s making little difference to the greater water scarcity issues the US as well as the rest of the world is increasingly facing.
If the World’s Soils Keep Drying Out that’s Bad News for Microbes (and People)
Deep beneath our feet, out of sight and out of mind, millions of tiny communities of microbes are working together to perform key functions for the ecosystem.
The Path Ahead from Paris
We need to work together to create a “biosphere smart” economy
