Environmental Stress and Conflict Archives

The Great Transformation: Climate Change as Cultural Change

By vbase / June 8, 2009

A critical conversation about climate change is going on right now through the UNFCCC process; a key stage in this process will be the Copenhagen meeting at the end of this year. This conversation, to the extent that it is prescriptive, generally emphasizes technology and economics. It stresses strategies for dealing with the climate problem that involve technical aspects of, for instance, societies’ energy mix and energy efficiency. I don’t want to disparage these approaches or suggest that they shouldn’t be pursued. But, the fact remains that despite all our efforts we seem to be falling further and further behind.

Clean Coal? Go Underground, Alberta

By vbase / May 4, 2009

Alberta appears to be in a box – an energy box – that constrains policy options in every direction. The province’s wealth is critically tied to exploitation of its vast hydrocarbon resources.

Blocking the Sky to Save the Earth

By vbase / September 12, 2008

To the relief of climate scientists around the world, it appears that the polar ice cap hasn’t shrunk as much this summer as it did last summer.

A Win-Win-Win Situation

By vbase / March 8, 2008

What should we do with the carbon we produce when we burn fossil fuels? Some experts say we should fight climate change by putting the carbon back underground, whence it came.

Positive Feedbacks, Dynamic Ice Sheets, and the Recarbonization of the Global Fuel Supply: The New Sense of Urgency about Global Warming

By vbase / January 1, 2008

A Globally Integrated Climate Policy for Canada, University of Toronto Press, 2008.

With Cracks and Holes in the Greenland Ice Sheet, We May Well Have to “Geo-Engineer” the Climate

By vbase / December 1, 2007

A few years ago, these scientists regarded global warming as a matter of serious concern; now many appear to think that it’s a matter of grave urgency – that we may be running out of time. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports are increasingly viewed as out of date.

A Swiftly Melting Planet

By vbase / October 4, 2007

The Arctic ice cap melted this summer at a shocking pace, disappearing at a far higher rate than predicted by even the most pessimistic experts in global warming. But we shouldn’t be shocked, because scientists have long known that major features of earth’s interlinked climate system of air and water can change abruptly.

The Age of Cheap Oil Is Ending

By vbase / August 6, 2007

On July 18, the National Petroleum Council delivered a blockbuster report to the US Secretary of Energy. The council advises the US federal government on energy issues. The council’s report—entitled Facing Hard Truths about Energy—assesses the “future of oil and natural gas to 2030 in the context of the global energy system.” Its 400 pages reveal a major shift in the energy industry’s publicly stated views about humankind’s energy prospects: We’re running out of cheap oil.

Cause and Effect

By vbase / August 2, 2007

Thomas Homer-Dixon writes here on causality in complex systems, in response to Alex de Waal’s earlier post Is Climate Change the Culprit for Darfur? and to Declan Butler’s June 28th Nature article Darfur’s climate roots challenged.

Terror in the Weather Forecast

By vbase / April 24, 2007

DOES climate change threaten international peace and security? The British government thinks it does. As this month’s head of the United Nations Security Council, Britain convened a debate on the matter last Tuesday. One in four United Nations member countries joined the discussion — a record for this kind of thematic debate.