Our Take: Free 2-day Shipping & Climate Change
What does free 2-day shipping have to do with climate change? Quite a lot, actually. It’s inefficient, resulting in more partial-load delivery trucks on the road spewing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing traffic congestion. In Laura Paddison’s report on Huffington Post, she points to a multi-year study by the
Our Take: COP23 and the Urgency for Climate Change by ClimateYou Senior Editor George Ropes
The COP23 Conference in Bonn is mid-way through its second week. Things are going well. Major issues have been (1) the pace of change — small countries complain that big ones aren’t moving fast enough to cut their carbon emissions, and (2) the cost of change — poor
Our Take: Politicians Stop Short of Full Climate Change Agenda
Jerry Brown, the Governor of California and a climate activist, was nevertheless booed at the COP23 Conference in Bonn last week for not going further, faster, then he already has to reduce the carbon emissions that cause climate change. Bill McKibben penned an article in The New Yorker about a
Our Take: Big Oil: Dead Men Walking by ClimateYou Senior Editor George Ropes
Big Oil still doesn’t get it. What will it take to make the majors realize that they are all dead men walking? These guys refuse to see the light. As reported by Rakteem Katakey on Bloomberg news, the oil giant BP Plc is sending their heavy hitters to
Our Take: Ruffle those feathers and Gore the Oxes at COP 23
Can the COP23 Conference, starting next week in Bonn, be a worthy successor to COP21, which produced the Paris Agreement? The Paris conference succeeded in getting near-unanimous support for setting global climate targets. A report on NBC news by Daniel Arkin, says the United Nations is taking an
Vacuum Up that Carbon! by George Ropes, ClimateYou Senior Editor
Learn this new phrase: direct air capture. It’s a process being developed that does what trees do, take carbon dioxide out of the air. Direct air capture is a radical variant of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Several start-up companies are pursuing this technology, and both are out
Our Take: The Sea Level Rise & Coal Connection
Significant sea level rise (SLR) is inevitable. Whatever scenario plays out, we’ll have to take steps to mitigate and adapt to more coastal flooding and higher storm surges. The latest projections, based on new understanding of the potential impact of melting in Antarctica, suggest oceans will rise by
Forests Laying Down on the Carbon Job
Okay, so climate change isn’t all caused by humans, at least not directly. Turns out that tropical forests have a big part too. Usually the world’s rainforests remove carbon dioxide from the air, through photosynthesis. In a recent article on the news magazine site “Quartz,” writer Elijah Wolfson
The New Wave of Climate Refugees From Puerto Rico
An article last week on the dire status of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria said to expect one of the largest mass migration flows to the United States in recent history. Reporters Daniel Cusick, Adam Aton predicted tens of thousands of storm victims will flee the island to start
Our Take: Bury the Power Grid
It ought to be clear to everyone but ostrich Republicans that the climate and the oceans are warming, which means that there are and will be more frequent and more intensive storms. Since 2005 mega-storms have devastated New Orleans (Katrina), New York/New Jersey (Sandy), Houston (Harvey), and now
Our Take: Harvey Home Owners: Stay or Go, Pay or Pray, Rebuild or Relocate?
Harvey flooded Houston, but it is likely to put America’s entire real estate market in turmoil. In an article by Richard Luscombe in The Guardian, he reports on the trend that factors in “environmental threats and climate change to land and property values [which] looks certain to become
OUR TAKE: Cooling Down the Earth
The Guardian recently ran a story by reporter Oliver Milman entitled “Planet has just 5% chance of reaching Paris climate goal, study says.” The headline is stark, and says it all: we have only a 5% chance to keep global warming to 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100. The study
