Eco-Economy Indicator: Past Decade the Hottest on Record
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Earth Policy Institute
by Amy Heinzerling, Earth Policy Institute
The first decade of the twenty-first century was the hottest since recordkeeping began in 1880. With an average global temperature of 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.1 degrees Fahrenheit), this decade was 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than any previous decade. The year 2005 was the hottest on record, while 2007 and 2009 tied for second hottest. In fact, 9 of the 10 warmest years on record occurred in the past decade.
Temperature rise has accelerated in recent decades. The earth’s temperature is now 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it was in the first decade of the twentieth century, and two-thirds of that increase has taken place since 1970.
Even with these seemingly small increases in global temperature, natural systems are already starting to respond, as evidenced by melting ice sheets and glaciers, shifting weather patterns, and changes in the timing of seasonal events. If temperatures continue to rise on their current trajectory, by the end of the century they will have left the narrow range in which human civilization has developed and flourished.
Comments (0)Posted on: January 14, 2010
The Looming Food Crisis and the ‘Food 2030′ Report
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Peak Oil, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Craig Mackintosh
It can’t go on like this….
Not long ago I was standing in a bookshop, minding my own business, when a book title leapt out in front of me. The book was "History’s Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them". It documents the sorry tales of dozens of people throughout history who, with the best of intentions, made some fascinatingly terrible choices.
Comments (1)Posted on: January 6, 2010
Anupam Mishra: The Ancient Ingenuity of Water Harvesting (Video)
Conservation, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Irrigation, Population, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Water Contamination, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh
India is a country where water shortages have become so acute that the failed monsoon rains in 2009 had people literally killing each other over buckets of water, and tensions are still rising. (See this video also.) In many places cities are receiving less than half the water their populations need to meet basic requirements, and the constant bickering between individual states often breaks down into violent clashes.
Comments (0)Posted on: January 4, 2010
Ice Melting Faster Everywhere
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Earth Policy Institute
By Alexandra Giese, Earth Policy Institute
From the Arctic sea ice to the Antarctic interior and the mountainous peaks of Peru, Alaska, and Tibet, ice is melting at an alarming rate. The accelerating loss of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers is one of the most powerful and striking indicators of a warming climate.
The most notable ice loss in recent years has been the shrinking of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. From the beginning of the satellite record in 1979 through 1996, ice area decreased at a steady rate of 3 percent per decade in response to rising temperature. In the following decade, ice area decreased by 11 percent, reaching a dramatic minimum in 2007. In September of that year, sea ice occupied only 3.6 million square kilometers, an area 27 percent smaller than the previous record low (in 2005) and 38 percent smaller than the 1979–2007 average. Summer sea ice coverage has increased slightly in the last two years, but it is still far below the long-term average.
Posted on: December 23, 2009
Introducing the Wondrous CO2 Knob
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Marcin Gerwin
 Upsala Glacier: William L. Stefanov, NASA-JSC |
It may seem that the Earth has always looked like it does now. It didn’t change much over the last centuries. How can one tell what the climate was like on Earth thousands and millions years ago? Was it hotter or cooler than now? What do the ice cores tell us? Was carbon dioxide involved in any way in shaping the climates of the past? Or, are the emissions of greenhouse gases changing the climate only now? What was driving climate change since humans were not burning fossil fuels? Where did the CO2 come from at that time?
Comments (0)Posted on: December 21, 2009
The Tricks of the Human Mind
General, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by Thomas Fischbacher
Editor’s Note: Thomas Fischbacher has been a valued commenter on this site for a while now. Today Thomas makes his PRI post debut, with a great piece on why sometimes logic and facts are neither logical nor factual in the context of our cherished beliefs. Others that would like to contribute articles are very welcome to do so.
When studying the human mind, one of the most fascinating – and at times startling – insights is that there is sometimes a serious discrepancy between the tale the human mind spins to itself, and actual reality.
One especially striking demonstration of the extent of the distortions introduced by the brain’s data pre-processing was given by Edward Adelson, MIT professor of vision science, with the "checkershadow illusion":
The squares marked A and B are the same shade of gray
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This innocent illusion is so extremely appealing because it conveys its profound message in the most direct, most immediate, most rapid way possible: Your eyes lie, and much more than you actually might ever have imagined.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 19, 2009
Frank’s Shovel, and Day 8 at Copenhagen Update
Comedy Break, Global Warming/Climate Change — by Marc Roberts
Editor’s Note: This is a repost from Marc Roberts at Throbgoblins. Be sure to comment and encourage our Frank in his permaculture ambitions. We’d certainly love to see him taking regular breaks from his passionate activist endeavours to recharge in nature and build some resiliency for himself against these troubled times. (But please, please, no making fun of his thirty five year old singlet….)
Click for larger view
Courtesy: Throbgoblins
This cartoon was a response to a suggestion by Craig Mackintosh of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia – who has been a valued supporter of Frank over the years. Craig points out that what should be on the negotiating table at Copenhagen is:
Comments (0)Posted on: December 15, 2009
In Transition – the Movie
Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organizations, Community Projects, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Peak Oil, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh
In Transition 1.0: from oil dependence to local resilience, available now!
The title says it all. Sit back and enjoy the latest work from the Transition Towns movement. You can watch in parts via YouTube below, or if you prefer, catch the whole thing in one hit on Vimeo.
‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. – TransitionCulture.org
Part I
Comments (0)Posted on: December 14, 2009
The Biology of Global Warming
Deforestation, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Global Warming/Climate Change, Plant Systems, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Structure, Trees — by Craig Mackintosh
 What Manhattan may have looked like… |
Often, as I’ve travelled and lived in different parts of the globe, I’ve stood on mountains and beaches and looked around, somewhat wistfully, trying to visualise how those landscapes would have looked a few centuries ago. I’m sure you’ve done it too.
Many, if not most, of these places were once vast tracts of old growth forest, with rich diversity in flora and fauna. Natural biological water cleaning systems were in place, as the hydrological cycle was efficient and largely unmolested by man. Most places still had rich, dark soils and no chemicals had yet been employed to stamp out soil life.
These were the days of 280ppm. We lived then with respect, if not even fear, for a nature wide and wonderful – never for a moment thinking we could one day be the cause of these vast and mysterious systems collapsing wholesale.
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Carbon Trading – and What Should Be On the Negotiating Table at Copenhagen
Consumerism, Economics, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by Craig Mackintosh
The Story of Cap & Trade
(From the makers of Story of Stuff)
There is a lot of hubbub going on at the moment – with eyes focussed on Copenhagen. Demonstrators and activists are pushing and pulling and urging politicians to ‘do something’ about climate change. Whilst most activists are sincere in their desire to see a future for their children, I think many are failing to see the economic trickery inherent in the ’solutions’ being negotiated.
The old saying is apt here – be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 12, 2009
How to Repair the World
Aid Projects, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, News, People Systems, Plant Systems, Project Positions, Rehabilitation, Trees, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh
The video embedded in this page spotlights the excellent work of Willie Smits I profiled a little while ago, where rainforest restoration in Borneo not only restored biodiversity and gave increased livelihood opportunities to local people, but it also increased cloud cover and rainfall as well. It’s well worth a watch:
We’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with the makers of the video above, WeForest, to help establish self-replicating permaculture reforestation demonstration sites in accordance with our Permaculture Master Plan, in several worldwide locations – starting in Zambia in the first instance. Our Geoff Lawton has just agreed to be on their advisory board, and we’ll be working to supply guidance, knowhow and staff to pioneer these projects.
This is just one example of the many encouraging collaborative results we get as people boil current events down to their only logical conclusion – discovering we need to quit battling nature and get busy harnessing biological synergies to repair the earth and rebuild sustainable community interactions.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 8, 2009
The Real Climate Scandal
Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by George Monbiot
Shocked by the hacked emails? Wait till you see what the other side’s been up to.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
When you survey the trail of wreckage left by the climate emails crisis, three things become clear. The first is the tendency of those who claim to be the champions of climate science to minimise their importance. Those who have most to lose if the science is wrong have perversely sought to justify the secretive and chummy ethos that some of the emails reveal. If science is not transparent and accountable, it’s not science.
I believe that all supporting data, codes and programmes should be made available as soon as an article is published in a peer-reviewed journal. That anyone should have to lodge a freedom of information request to obtain them is wrong. That the request should be turned down is worse. That a scientist suggests deleting material that might be covered by that request is unjustifiable. Everyone who values the scientific process should demand complete transparency, across all branches of science.
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A Hotter Planet Means Less on Our Plates
Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contamination — by Earth Policy Institute
In the Sunday November 22, 2009 issue of Outlook in the Washington Post, Lester Brown discusses the significant implications of food security in the upcoming Copenhagen Conference.
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
 China walks a tightrope between feast and famine. |
As the U.N. climate-change conference in Copenhagen approaches, we are in a race between political tipping points and natural ones. Can we cut carbon emissions fast enough to keep the melting of the Greenland ice sheet from becoming irreversible? Can we close coal-fired power plants in time to save at least the larger glaciers in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau? Can we head off ever more intense crop-withering heat waves before they create chaos in world grain markets?
These are all climate-change issues, but they have something else in common: food. Copenhagen will be about climate, of course, but in a fundamental sense, it must also be about whether we will have enough to eat in the decades to come.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 4, 2009
The Localization of Agriculture
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, News, Social Gatherings, Society, Village Development — by Earth Policy Institute
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
In the United States, there has been a surge of interest in eating fresh local foods, corresponding with mounting concerns about the climate effects of consuming food from distant places and about the obesity and other health problems associated with junk food diets. This is reflected in the rise in urban gardening, school gardening, and farmers’ markets.
With the fast-growing local foods movement, diets are becoming more locally shaped and more seasonal. In a typical supermarket in an industrial country today it is often difficult to tell what season it is because the store tries to make everything available on a year-round basis. As oil prices rise, this will become less common. In essence, a reduction in the use of oil to transport food over long distances—whether by plane, truck, or ship—will also localize the food economy.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 1, 2009
Back from the Brink, and the Climate Slamdown
Comedy Break, Global Warming/Climate Change — by Craig Mackintosh
 Click for full view Courtesy: Throbgoblins |
I don’t know about you, but I was getting quite concerned about the health and whereabouts of our good friend Cantankerous Frank. We haven’t seen him around these parts for a few months now. A couple of times I thought I saw him lurking in the shadows, but it was probably just my wishful thinking and some branches moving in my periphery.
If he was alive – why didn’t he call?
But, look what the cat (or fox, as the case may be) dragged in (see above).
Despite his unruly appearance, the cartoon genius Marc Roberts quickly got Frank cleaned up and back to work. I am astonished at the comeback. The Copenhagen climate shenanigans are made all too real in the following ‘Climate Slamdown’ – a comic masterpiece of almost epic proportions. And there’s our Frank in the thick of it….
It’s like he never left.
Welcome back Frank – hero of people and place.
Click for full view, and for subsequent parts (big files, so be patient)
