Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Although one yearns for global warming to indeed not exceed 2 degrees Celsius (or less, as African countries demand), the take-home message from the Copenhagen COP meeting is that polluters and growth mongers, large and small, will not let up.
-Copenhagen: a look back at the most striking narratives
-If you want to know who’s to blame for Copenhagen, look to the US Senate
-There is a way ahead after Copenhagen
-Copenhagen: Things Fall Apart and an Uncertain Future Looms
-All over the map: Rounding up editorial reax to Copenhagen
-No One Is Going To Save You Fools
-Copenhagen – Historic failure that will live in infamy
-Terminator 2009
-A Climate Con: Analysis of the Copenhagen “Accord”
It’s the end of the decade 2000-2009, and there has been progress as well as potential disaster for sustainability. In chronological order, I’ve chosen these ten stories to show a range of relevant global and national issues and events on climate, business, government, media, design, technology, language and demographics.
-‘Obama Doctrine’ Edges Toward High Concept
-The Post-Imperial Presidency
-The Great Game: U.S., NATO War In Afghanistan
As ODAC News went to press, hopes of a deal in Copenhagen were finally rising, after two weeks of chaos and acrimony.
For two weeks we’ve been listening to the story of the leaked emails from East Anglia—a media tempest in an English teapot. And all the time the biggest scandal has been directly under our noses.
-President Obama warns leaders over climate summit deal
-Obama’s Copenhagen Speech: Some Reactions
-Copenhagen climate summit: talks to go on overnight
-Copenhagen heading for meltdown as stalemate continues over emission cuts
-Obama as White Knight: Naked Ambition at COP15
-Better to have no deal at Copenhagen than one that spells catastrophe
As many have now written, the Cop15 conference, which is focussed on creating a treaty that will prevent our climate from undergoing a systems state change and re-establishing itself in a new stable state that much less conductive to human survival, seems certain to fall far short of what is needed or fail completely.
The economic troubles and energy concerns of the present invite comparison with the 1970s, the last time industrial civilization had to deal with the limits to growth. The abandonment of the initiatives of those years offers a troubling cautionary tale for the present, in this second part of a three-part series.
This is my last column for 2009. The past year was notable for what didn’t happen.
-Iraq strengthens hand at OPEC with oil deals
-Iraq Auctions Development Rights to Oil Fields
-Majnoon win gives Shell a boost
-Shell, Lukoil to Join Iraqi Top Producers Based on Winning Bids
-Shell’s promise of a bright future turns out to be yet another false dawn
-Dramatic American intervention brings climate deal closer
-Greenland Glaciers: Water Flowing Beneath Ice Plays More Complex Role
-Chimerica Against the World
-Clinton Promises Climate Aid; Leaked UN Report Sees 3 C of Warming
