Tag Archives: Climate Emergency

Climate Solutions, Sustainable Energy

First there was Doom scrolling, then Greenwashing now we have HopeFishing.

Yes, it’s a thing.

Possibly even worse than greenwashing, HopeFishing is when bad actors exaggerate and accelerate the fantasy of how we can solve the climate crisis, using solutions that either don’t yet exist, or that may actually be harmful if they were ever implemented.

There are entire web sites, which we will not link to for obvious reasons, that publish stories every day about a new invention or discovery that is “sure” to save the world.

Not all of the featured solutions are totally bogus, the clever publishers add in just enough “real” information to keep you guessing, but our informal research showed that 8 out of 10 were either total speculation or something that has been tried in a tiny sample in a lab and would, if ever, come to market in perhaps decade, for example.

Why is this so bad, you say? Because when these faux solutions, always hyped to the hilt, are so outrageously fantastic, that when taken at face value, can overshadow any real solution that might be available today, right now.

An example of this is hyper-efficient design of homes and buildings combined with sustainable energy generation and storage. A perfect combination of existing design techniques and currently available advanced technology these solutions are reedy to activate immediately.

This incredible mix is available and should be, must be, implemented worldwide as fast as possible. Doing so would reduce the cost of shelter, at a time with the affordable housing crisis is exploding worldwide, and at the same time lower carbon and greenhouse gas emissions for all structures built this way to beyond zero (in other words, using less energy than is produced, all from clean renewable sources).

This Climate Solution is a Sleeping Giant

Unfortunately, stories about such realistic and practical ideas will not be published by HopeFishing sites. The all-to-real situation is that a bias toward “deep-tech” and intellectual property generating solutions already exists and many of these are also still in R&D and might never actually work in the general marketplace.

Worse, those who are led to believe that these exaggerated claims and world rescuing solutions are going to be ubiquitous “any day now” are lulled into a state of apathy and complacency. And, all this at a time when the precise opposite is so urgently needed. HopeFishing. As deadly or more deadly than climate denial.

At the same time, those profiting off these “happy” non-news stories can tell themselves they are the good guys, just pointing out how wonderful humans are for inventing a world saving solution every day, sometimes multiple times per day.

Partial HopeWashing is also not ideal which makes things harder to understand

Some, such as Elon musk, “innocently” introduced products and services like the Tesla Semi EV, which is, finally, set for a product launch on December 1, 2022. Five years after it was first announced. As for the Cybertruck, which has yet to see the light of day, or for example, the full self driving feature, which has been announced, over and over and over, yet still has potentially years until it will be fully functional.

This all seems harmless enough but when taken to the next level, where say, a remedy is put forward that claims all electric cars will have batteries that can run for thousands of miles and take seconds to charge, and then, upon deeper research, it turns out this idea is simply a thought, or even a projection of an imaginary claim: at that point it becomes HopeFishing.

Another example of a partial level of this is Cement and Steel. These two materials, heavily used for building and construction, produce some of the highest levels of “embodied” carbon – meaning to manufacture them for use, a large amount greenhouse gasses must be released into the atmosphere. (causing and worsening global warming)

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were alternative versions of these materials that do not harm the environment during manufacture? Sure it would. But it would also be a gold-mine, or like all the world’s gold mines combined, to whoever figures out how to to this with little or no added costs.

Here are just a few companies that have been heavily funded to solve this problem already:

Key Companies Profiled by Fact.MR:

  • CarbiCrete
  • Carbon Cure
  • Cemex
  • CeraTech
  • Ecocem Ireland Lt
  • Heidelberg Cement
  • Holcim
  • Kiran Global Chems Ltd.

This is an old list, there are many, many more that have been formed since this list was published. And that is not including the same scenario for steel.

Again, what’s the problem here? For one, it is an example of how “racing forward to recreate the past” dominates the climate solutions marketplace. Instead of looking for different ways to build our infrastructure with less of these materials, we are desperately trying to find a way to imitate the cheap, massively subsidized growth patterns of the last 150 years.

An alternative building material, and there are some out there, that does not require a patented invention just to exist will very likely be minimized while these highly supported “lottery tickets” will be touted and exaggerated back and forth as they all try to dominate a future market in the trillions of dollars.

Secondly, the partial HopeWashing effect comes into play. How should someone who does not spend the time or have the expertise to research the claims of these companies ever hope to grasp just how close they actually are (or aren’t) to removing billions of tons of high carbon producing materials from the supply chain?

And if the answer, after arduous research and due diligence and sober calculation, is that the solution is certain to be too late? Once again the money and effort spent chasing happy unicorns and rainbows (and the past) will already be gone.

Therefore, the funding and attention that should be paid to immediately viable less obviously obscenely-lucrative solutions will be passed over, potentially for years or decades.

And if that happens, HopeFishing will turn out to be far deadlier than climate denial, GreenWashing or any other nefarious game of self-deception humans play on themselves.

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation

Rebellious Climate Scientists Have Message for Humanity: ‘Mobilize, Mobilize, Mobilize’

In face of the “escalating climate emergency,” the advocacy group Scientist Rebellion warns that IPCC summary to global policymakers remains “alarmingly reserved, docile, and conservative.”

Amid a weeklong global civil disobedience campaign to demand climate action commensurate with mounting evidence about the need for swift decarbonization, Scientist Rebellion is highlighting specific gaps between what experts say is necessary and what governments allowed to be published in a summary of the United Nations’ latest climate assessment.

“We need a billion climate activists…The time is now. We’ve waited far too long.”

The landmark report on mitigation by Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—part of the U.N.’s sixth comprehensive climate assessment since 1992 and possibly the last to be published with enough time to avert the most catastrophic consequences of the planetary crisis—was compiled by 278 researchers from 65 countries.

The authors, who synthesized thousands of peer-reviewed studies published in the past several years, make clear over the course of nearly 3,000 pages that “without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach.”

Meanwhile, a 64-page Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the report—a key reference point for governments—required the approval of all 195 member states of the IPCC and was edited with their input.

Following a contentious weekend of negotiations in which wealthy governments attempted to weaken statements about green financing for low-income nations and fossil fuel-producing countries objected to unequivocal language about the need to quickly eliminate coal, oil, and gas extraction, the IPCC document was published several hours later than expected on Monday.

“Despite the escalating climate emergency and the total absence of emissions cuts, the framing of the final version of the SPM is still alarmingly reserved, docile, and conservative,” Scientist Rebellion, an international alliance of academics who are advocating for systemic political and economic changes in line with scientific findings, said Tuesday in a statement.

“The science has never been clearer: to have any chance of retaining a habitable planet, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut radically now,” the group continued. “Limiting warming to 1.5°C and responding to the climate emergency requires an immediate transformation across all sectors and strata of society, a mobilization of historic proportions: a climate revolution.”

“The IPCC [has] avoided naming the major culprits for 30 years, which is one reason for the absence of real emissions cuts,” the group added. “Facts detailing the complicity of the world’s richest countries in fueling the climate crisis have been watered down by the IPCC’s political review process.”

Scientist Rebellion proceeded to contrast the final version of the SPM—”the document that garners almost all attention”—to an early draft of a summary of the Working Group III report on mitigation that IPCC authors associated with the group leaked last August out of concern that their conclusions would be diluted by policymakers.

Peter Kalmus, a Los Angeles-based climate scientist and author who is participating in this week’s direct actions, told Common Dreams that the shortcomings of governments and policymakers have driven him to act.

Kalmus said he was willing to engage in civil disobedience and risk arrest this week, “because I’ve tried everything else I can think of over the past decade and nothing has worked. I see humanity heading directly toward climate disaster.”

With humanity “currently on track to lose everything we love,” he said, the scientific community must intensify its efforts.

“If we don’t rapidly end the fossil fuel industry and begin acting like Earth breakdown is an emergency, we risk civilizational collapse and potentially the death of billions, not to mention the loss of major critical ecosystems around the world,” said Kalmus. “This is so much bigger than me. Expect climate scientists to be taking such actions repeatedly in the future and in large numbers.”

On Wednesday, direct actions by scientists took place in Berlin, Germany; The Hague, Netherlands; Bogata, Colombia, and other cities.

https://twitter.com/wirereporter/status/1511705115517935617?s=20&t=LlCjWCRAmgFIMD1RfOn4uw

In its Tuesday assessment, Scientist Rebellion documented how the political review process weakened or eliminated language about carbon inequality and the need for far-reaching socio-economic transformation to slash greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in the final SPM:

Example 1: Section B6 of the report originally stated that “institutional inertia and a social bias towards the status quo are leading to a risk of locking in future GHG emissions that may be costly or difficult to abate.” This has been replaced with “global GHG emissions in 2030 associated with the implementation of nationally determined contributions… would make it likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C during the 21st century.” The final version also no longer mentions that “vested interests” and a focus on an “incremental rather than a systemic approach” are limiting factors to ambitious transformation.

Example 2: The leaked SPM stated that “within countries, inequalities increased for both income and GHG emissions between 1970 and 2016, with the top 1% accounting for 27% of income growth,” and that “top emitters dominate emissions in key sectors, for example the top 1% account for 50% of GHG emissions from aviation.” Neither statement appears in the final version.

“While the SPM—being approved line-by-line by all governments—is reserved, docile, and conservative, the situation is clear,” said Scientist Rebellion.

The group went on to quote U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who said Monday that “we are on a fast track to climate disaster.”

As Common Dreams reported Monday, more than 1,000 scientists in at least 25 countries on every continent in the world are expected to participate in strikes, occupations, and other actions this week to highlight “the urgency and injustice of the climate and ecological crisis,” and several demonstrations are already underway. 

Guterres, for his part, said Monday that “climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals, but the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.”

For his part, Kalmus acknowledged it was going to take much more than a series of direct actions by scientists to turn the tide against inaction.

“We need a billion climate activists,” Kalmus said. “I encourage everyone to consider where we’re heading as a species, and to engage in civil disobedience and other actions. The time is now. We’ve waited far too long.”

“Mobilize, mobilize, mobilize,” he said, “before we lose everything.”

Originally published on Common Dreams by KENNY STANCIL and republished under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Climate Solutions, Coronavirus, News, Observation

Climate Emergency, Vaccine Monopolies, and Fiscal Blindness: The Fight Against Inequality Is the Only Way Out

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If we are failing to meet our commitments, it is because of a handful of the richest people on the planet refuse to pay their taxes.

2021 will perhaps be remembered as the year when the great powers demonstrated their inability to assume their responsibilities to prevent the world from sinking into the abyss. I am thinking of course of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. After having used up the available atmospheric space to develop, the industrialized countries reaffirmed their refusal to honour this climate debt, even though global warming has become an existential issue.

And this is not all. I also refer to the calamitous management of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rich countries have monopolized and hoarded vaccines, and then locked themselves in surreal debates about third doses or the comparative merits of this or that vaccine. This strategy sows death and hinders economic recovery in vaccine-deprived countries, while making them fabulous playgrounds for the proliferation of more contagious, more deadly and more resistant variants that do not care about borders. 

If we add the tax evasion of the ultra-rich using tax havens, we arrive at a total loss of US $483 billion.

Finally, I also want to talk about another agreement imposed by the Northern capitals, apparently more technical, but which symbolizes their selfishness and blindness: the one on the taxation of multinationals. Concluded in October, it is a gigantic undertaking, the first reform of the international tax system born in the 1920s, totally obsolete in a globalized economy. Thanks to its loopholes, multinationals cause States to lose some US $312 billion in tax revenue each year, according to the “State of Tax Justice in 2021” just published by the Tax Justice Network, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice and Public Services International.

If we add the tax evasion of the ultra-rich using tax havens, we arrive at a total loss of US $483 billion. This is enough, the report reminds us, to cover more than three times the cost of a complete vaccination programme against Covid-19 for the entire world population. In absolute terms, rich countries lose the most tax resources. But this loss of revenue weighs more heavily on the accounts of the less privileged: it represents 10% of the annual health budget in industrialized countries, compared to 48% in developing ones. And make no mistake, the people responsible for this plundering are not the tropical islands lined with palm trees. They are mostly in Europe, first and foremost in the United Kingdom, which, with its network of overseas territories and “Crown Dependencies”, is responsible for 39% of global losses.

In this context, the agreement signed in October is a missed opportunity. Rich countries, convinced that complying with the demands of their multinationals was the best way to serve the national interest, put themselves behind the adoption of a global minimum corporate tax of 15%. The objective, in theory, is to put an end to the devastating tax competition between countries. Multinationals would no longer have an interest in declaring their profits in tax havens, since they would have to pay the difference with the global minimum tax.

In reality, at 15%, the rate is so low that a reform aimed at forcing multinationals to pay their fair share of taxes risks having the opposite effect, by forcing developing countries, where tax levels are higher, to lower them to match the rest of the world, causing a further drop in their revenues. It is no coincidence that Ireland, the European tax haven par excellence, has graciously complied with this new regulation.

Taxation is the very expression of solidarity. In this case, the absence of solidarity. A global tax of 15% on the profits of multinationals will only generate US $150 billion, which, according to the distribution criteria adopted, will go, as a priority, to rich countries. If ambition had prevailed, with a rate of 21% for example, we would have obtained an increase in tax revenues of US $250 billion. With a rate of 25%, tax revenues would have jumped by US $500 billion, as recommended by ICRICT, the Independent Commission on the Reform of International Corporate Taxation, of which I am a member, along with economists such as Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman and Jayati Ghosh.

Making multinationals pay their fair share of taxes, fighting climate change, dealing with Covid-19 and future pandemics: in reality, everything is linked. While the virus is on the rise again with the arrival of winter in the northern hemisphere, the boomerang effect of the vaccine monopolies no longer needs to be shown or explained. As for the climate emergency, we know from a recent study by the World Inequality Lab that the map of carbon pollution is perfectly in line with that of economic disparities. The richest 10% of the world’s population emit nearly 48% of the world’s emissions—the richest 1% produce 17% of the total!—while the poorest half of the world’s population is responsible for only 12%.

This gap is obvious between countries, but also within them. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, the emissions levels of the poorest half of the population are already approaching the per capita targets for 2030. If we are failing to meet our commitments, it is because of a handful of the richest people, the same people who do not pay their taxes. It is time for our elites to realize that fighting inequality on all fronts—health, climate and tax—is our only way out. Otherwise, there is no salvation for humanity—and it is no longer a hyperbole.

Originally published on Common Dreams by EVA JOLY and republished under under Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

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Climate Solutions, News, Observation

Latest UN Climate Report Delivers ‘Another Thundering Wake-Up Call’

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“Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem,” said the UNEP executive director. “The clock is ticking loudly.”

Countries’ current climate pledges put the world “on track for a catastrophic global temperature rise” of about 2.7°C, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned Tuesday, calling a new report released ahead of a key summit “another thundering wake-up call.”

“The era of half-measures and hollow promises must end.”

The Emissions Gap Report 2021, an annual assessment from the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), comes as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday for COP 26. They are set to discuss efforts to meet the Paris climate agreement, which aims to keep global temperature rise this century “well below” 2°C, preferably limiting it to 1.5°C.

However, countries’ latest Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), along with other commitments made for 2030, suggest the international community will blow past both of those targets without more ambitious action to slash emissions, according to the UNEP report.

“The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap,” Guterres declared in his Tuesday address, noting that the report “shows that countries are squandering a massive opportunity to invest Covid-19 fiscal and recovery resources in sustainable, cost-saving, planet-saving ways.”

“Scientists are clear on the facts. Now leaders need to be just as clear in their actions,” he said. “They need to come to Glasgow with bold, time-bound, front-loaded plans to reach net-zero.”

“To decarbonize every sector—from power, to transport, farming, and forestry. To phase out coal,” the U.N. chief continued. “To end subsidies for fossil fuels and polluting industries. To put a price on carbon, and to channel that back to creating green jobs. And obviously, to provide at least $100 billion each year to the developing world for climate finance.”

“Leaders can still make this a turning point to a greener future instead of a tipping point to climate catastrophe,” said Guterres. “The era of half-measures and hollow promises must end.”

Various assessments released before the summit in Scotland have underscored the necessity of bold and immediate action, including the latestfrom the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as the World Meteorological Organization’s announcement Monday that carbon dioxide concentrations in 2020 hit levels not seen for roughly three million years.

Reflecting “a world of climate promises not yet delivered,” the new UNEP report also serves as a call to action, particularly for rich nations most responsible for the climate emergency.

The report details how parties to the Paris agreement have put forth “insufficient” climate plans. The NDCs for 2030, if continued throughout this century, would still lead to a global temperature rise of 2.7°C beyond pre-industrial levels. Achieving nations’ net-zero pledges “would improve the situation, limiting warming to about 2.2°C” by 2100.

However, Group of 20 (G20) nations—the world’s top economies—”do not have policies in place to achieve even the NDCs,” the report says, and making changes to meet the 2030 commitments would not be enough to put countries on a “clear path towards net-zero.”

Meanwhile, this year “thousands of people have been killed or displaced and economic losses are measured in the trillions,” the report highlights, pointing to “extreme weather events around the world—including flooding, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, and heatwaves.”

As Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, put it: “Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem.”

“To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts,” Andersen said. “The clock is ticking loudly.”

“The world has to wake up to the imminent peril we face as a species,” she added, calling on countries to urgently implement policies to meet existing commitments. “It is also essential to deliver financial and technological support to developing nations—so that they can both adapt to the impacts of climate change already here and set out on a low-emissions growth path.”

The report factors in new or updated NDCs from 121 parties, responsible for just over half of planet-heating emissions, submitted by the end of September as well as pledges from China, Japan, and South Korea—though countries continue to put forward plans in the lead-up to the summit.

Alok Sharma, incoming COP 26 president, noted Tuesday that previous analyses projected “commitments made in Paris would have capped the rise in temperature to below 4°C.”

“So there has been progress, but not enough,” he said, referencing the new report. “That is why we especially need the biggest emitters, the G20 nations, to come forward with stronger commitments to 2030 if we are to keep 1.5°C in reach over this critical decade.”

Originally published on Common Dreams by JESSICA CORBETT and republished under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

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Climate Solutions, News, Politics

Breaking: Firefighters battle the Caldor Fire as it races into Lake Tahoe

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Above: Photo Credit / Fabian Jones / Unsplash

The Caldor Fire had burned 204,390 acres and 20%-contained 

The raging Caldor Fire that has already forced thousands of people to evacuate, is now becoming a critical threat to the popular tourist location, South Lake Tahoe. Reports of more than 34,000 structures are at risk.

There are approximately 4,000 firefighters and 1,000 California National Guard members that are helping to fight off the growing fires.

A spokesperson for California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services told CNN that over 53,000 people have been placed under evacuation orders.

The fire has already burned more than 300 square miles and destroyed hundred of residential structures. The city is facing wind gusts blowing at 35 miles per hour and stronger which continues to help the fire spread further down into the Tahoe basin.

Devastating Wildfires – continued reminders of the Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg, the vocal climate crisis activist retweeted the below the video of the fires in California. There is so much confusion over the question of exactly which of the many, many “extreme weather events”
as they are now called, are directly attributable to climate change, global warming and Co2 in the atmosphere.

This is, for Greta Thunberg and anyone reading this with an ounce of sense, a moot point. The larger overarching point is that the threat of total world destruction as a result of buying fossil fuel and other human impacts on the environment has been long settled as a very dangerous and rapidly worsening reality.

Splitting hairs by constantly questioning alternative origins for extreme events, that clearly are increasing in their number and severity, is a kind of “climate denial-lite” that is as ridiculous as it is dangerous. Ultimately it is the perspective of those like Greta, that must be adopted and understood by the millions (billions), before it is too late. Only then, when the threat is faced head on, is there a chance we might prevent a rapid slide into oblivion.

Thunberg tweeted this week “Wildfires, floods, droughts, heatwaves and other (un)natural disasters rage all over the world. Many now ask “What will it take for people in power to act?”. Well, it will many things, but above all it will take: massive pressure from media and massive pressure from the public.”

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Climate Solutions, Politics

A Green American Future? Joe Biden’s Plan to combat Climate Change

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Biden pledges immediate action and calls climate change the #1 issue facing humanity

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President-Elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump disagreed on many points during their respective 2020 campaigns, but their most divisive opposition might have been on climate change. While Trump is an open climate denier who rolled back environmental regulations and posed no plan to combat the issue, Joe Biden vows to make it a central focus of his presidency.

Biden ambitiously promises to work towards 100% clean electricity in America by 2035. He also aims for carbon neutrality by 2050, which will keep global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-Industrial averages.

Further, he has vowed to reenter the Paris Climate Accords, likely immediately following his inauguration. Getting back into Paris will rekindle America’s clean energy aspirations on the international scale, reopening conversations with other carbon emitting powerhouses like China and the European Union as we strive for a healthier planet.

On that same international note, Biden also plans to follow up on (and perhaps inflate) an Obama Administration pledge of $3 million to the Green Climate Fund— a U.N. project helping developing nations create clean energy infrastructure. The first billion was already paid while Obama was in office, but since Trump came to power in 2017, the U.S. has not contributed a single penny.

This demonstrates that many of Biden’s environmental plans are contingent upon political cooperation now and in the future. Surely, he can set the seeds for fifteen or thirty year plans, but in order for them to have longevity, he will need consensus with his colleagues and successors, many of whom reside across the aisle.   

Restoring environmental safeguards Trump abolished is Job 1 but may prove an uphill battle

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Similar to the Obama Administration, Biden will have to work with and through a Republican Senate to pass environmental laws. While the President-Elect can enter international agreements and revoke many of Trump’s deregulation policies from a solely Executive standpoint, his overall plan involves creating green jobs, decreasing dependency on fossil fuels, and investing in sustainable clean energy. The whole lot will cost $1.7 trillion and need approval from Congress.

Luckily, for all of its turmoil, the 2020 election taught America that climate change is no longer a superfluous issue in the minds of voters. According to the Sierra Club, tangible heat waves linked to global warming may have swayed Arizona to go blue this year.

Meanwhile, even capitalistic institutions are seeing the economic viability in green energy, as several automakers have backed California’s push for electric vehicles. Independents, Republicans, and Democrats alike are all starting to notice the unavoidable scientific evidence. For politicians to remain relevant, they can no longer ignore or deny such a bipartisan topic.

Of course, this is an optimistic viewpoint. After all, it was just four years ago when America elected Donald Trump. Since then, he’s managed to retract over a hundred environmental regulations.

He retained heavy support even as he left the Paris Accords, championed the fossil fuel industry, allowed for drilling and mining on public lands, lifted protections on endangered species, and left vulnerable communities around the world even more susceptible to ecological crises.

Evidently, Biden’s election does not mean that America immediately becomes a nation united in conservation efforts. However, it’s a clear step in the right direction. Unlike many other presidents before him, Biden has a plan for climate change, and his election suggests that prioritizing the environment will be a political priority for many campaigns to come.

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Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Movies

“Kiss The Ground” Documentary Offers Hopeful Remedy to Climate Change by Focusing on Soil Regeneration

The answer lies in the dirt, or as the movie’s tagline states, “The Solution Is Right Under Our Feet.”

At a time when so many existential, even extinction level issues  [climate change] loom and threaten mankind, it is easy to feel helpless and even hopeless. And, yet, in the most unexpected way imaginable, a simple act such as opening up the Netflix app and choosing a documentary could be the first step towards a new way of thought and, indeed, action. 

The new documentary “Kiss The Ground” does not minimize climate change, or downplay the fact that it is persistent and would bring terrible catastrophes looming on the global horizon, it does not fixate on the negatives. Instead, it offers a rare and amazing thing: solutions to solve the problems and rebalance Earth’s ecosystem. And it does so in a direct, simple and amazingly uplifting manner.

Click photo for more on “Kiss the Ground”

“Kiss The Ground” emphasizes regenerative soil usage and smart agriculture as the keys to saving the planet. Taking the audience to farms and ecosystems all across the world, the doc illustrates how humans have squandered the Earth’s natural bounty by over-tilling the land and drenching crops in pesticides.

Contrary to popular belief, these conventional farming tactics are not only damaging the environment, but they are also hurting the agricultural economy, leaving crops vulnerable and unsustainable in the event of a disaster. The film explains that these tactics are depleting fertile land, and if we don’t change our methods, the planet will only have sixty more years of harvests left.

Salvation is not beyond reach, though. As aforementioned, the bulk of the documentary is optimistic, and it offers a solution in an unlikely place. Namely, carbon.

[Carbon dioxide] is usually the enemy in [environmental documentaries], as we have far too much of it trapped in our atmosphere and the [fossil fuel industry] pumps it out at alarming rates to our planet’s detriment. Although an excess of carbon in the air could be the planet’s doom, “Kiss The Ground” suggests that increasing carbon in the ground could be a solution.

Through extreme close ups, microscopic images, and a few animations, the documentary shows how healthy soil is rife with living things. These things (worms, bacteria, microbes, etc.) all need carbon to live and play a vital part at the base of the food chain.

Unfortunately, the pesticides and over-tilling actively destroy these organisms, rendering the land naturally defenseless. The movie thus calls for a shift towards using soil with increased organic matter that sucks in and sustains carbon. According to one farmer in the film, every one percent increase in the dirt’s organic matter equals ten tons of carbon per acre. This means cleaner air, healthier ecosystems, and a more sustainable form of agriculture that could combat [global warming].

Many farmers have already endorsed this organic method on macro scales. “Kiss The Ground” even brings audiences to China’s [Loess Plateau], a once luscious place rendered a desert through centuries of depletion. With a rejuvenated focus on land management and organic prioritization in recent decades, however, the Plateau has effectively rebounded. Now the brown landscape is once again an Edenic green.

The change does not only have to happen on farms and distant, rural lands, though. The documentary also takes viewers to [San Francisco] and [Haiti] to show how urban hubs are playing their part, stressing the importance of composting and not letting anything go to waste. Seemingly everything—right down to human feces—can be reused and repurposed for a more sustainable world.

In the end, the people of this film – the farmers, scientists and concerned celebrities, come across almost as walking, talking, living, breathing testimonials for the solutions they are proposing. 

In a world where the future will almost certainly hold either oblivion and human extinction, or, if we join together to create it, an almost Utopian rebirth they are the rare exception and point clearly toward a better way for us to live on this planet. 

Seeing those who made and collaborated on this film and how they live and interact during their quest to save themselves and all of us,  it becomes possible to believe in these solutions, and more importantly in human-kind’s ability to choose the right path for a future. 

Tying together the sound, simple yet incredibly powerful ideas of recreating Soil health and Regenerative Agriculture, together with sustainable energy and transportation, the road to survival and hope has never looked so feasible. However, with sustainable energy being more widely known and understood as a priority, it is the ideas in “Kiss The Ground” that most need to be shared and disseminated most urgently. Watch it, then pass the word. 

Environmental authors, activists, and documentarians Josh and Rebecca Tickell directed and produced “Kiss The Ground.” The duo also wrote the film with help from Johnny O’Hara. Meanwhile, actor [Woody Harrelson] narrates and celebrity appearances include [Tom Brady], Gisel Bündchen, Ian Somerhandler, Jason Mraz, and California Governor [Gavin Newsom]. There are also dozens of farmers, scientists, and notable environmental scholars featured in the picture.

Watch Trailer for Documentary ‘Kiss the Ground’:

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Climate Solutions

Devastating West Coast wildfires and the tangible effects of the Climate Crisis

Video

An Inextricable Relationship with an Ominous Outlook

The sky is a solid orange haze. Ash fills the air as flames chase residents from their homes and smoke blocks the city’s outline upon the horizon. No, this is not the beginning of a post-apocalyptic novel— it is an accurate description of what is going on right now in the Western United States.

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For the past month, California (as well as other Western states) have been experiencing devastating wildfires. Unprecedented in magnitude, heat, and frequency, these fires have already taken several lives, destroyed hundreds of structures, and have caused thousands of people to flee their homes in terror.

Read More: “The Uninhabitable Earth”: an Apocalyptic Climate Study that Just might Shock you into Action

Perhaps the most devastating aspect of these fires, however, is the fact that they may be a ‘new normal’. According to several scientists, these fires may be just the beginning of an era where climate change starts reaping very tangible effects on our planet.

National Geographic’s coverage of the fires explains that wildfires require three things to come about: the right weather, the right fuel, and a spark. While the spark can evidently come from anything from a fallen cigarette to a miscalculated gender reveal, the weather and fuel depends heavily on the surrounding environment, something that is changing for the drier in California right now.

Wildfires burn quicker and more fiercely in dry weather. Given that much of California is a desert, it is no surprise that the state is frequently at a higher risk. However, climate change has been rendering the state even hotter than usual. While the world’s average temperature has gone up about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit since pre-Industrial times, California’s temp has accelerated to almost 3 degrees hotter, rendering the Golden State and its neighbors even more vulnerable.

These hotter average temperatures create weather conditions conducive to burning. The hot air thirsts, and thus evaporates what little water the environment gets. It also messes with the seasons, creating longer dry seasons, and hotter Springs and Summers. For this, California and other Western states have experienced some of their hottest years on record within the past decade.

In such a scorching dry environment, California’s vegetation inevitably becomes more flammable, creating ideal fuel for the fire. The longer dry season limits these already-parched plants’ hydration needs. Likewise, the soil loses necessary nutrients to self-regulate. Consequentially, the forest loses a degree of biodiversity necessary for naturally containing the fires.

While wildfires are oftentimes natural and even ecologically helpful phenomena, the current crises that scalds the West Coast is inseparable from human interaction. However, the relationship is not necessarily immediate. Instead, these fires are able to grow so intensely due to centuries of industrialization and disregard for anthropocentric infringement on the environment.

The problem is global and unprecedented

California’s situation is very similar to the Australia wildfires that gripped the Oceanic nation at the beginning of the year. The unparalleled blazes may seem like anomalies on the surface, but science suggests something far more complex, systemic, and foreboding at hand.

Now, brave firefighters are rushing into the flames on a near constant basis, but nature is wading through the numbers effortlessly. Meanwhile, President Trump blames the fires on natural elements as well as forest management issues rather than addressing climate change. In fact, he blatantly denies climate change as a cause, or even as a reality.

The sad truth is that we can send as many firefighters into the crisping forests as possible. We can sweep the landscape and redirect our management techniques time after time again.

But if we really want to change things. If we really want to save people and put out the fires for good. Then we may have to address the bigger picture— climate change, global warming, and a culture that has sidelined nature for profit and human activity far too many times.

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Breaking News, Earth and Ecology

West Coast in Excessive “Record-Setting” Holiday Heat – Rest of Nation not spared

Video

Climate Change is potentially responsible for creating scorching temperatures and health hazards

A record-breaking heat wave is coming. Moving in today and peaking to coincide with the upcoming Labor Day weekend, excessive heat watches and resulting warnings are ready go into effect. From Friday, September 4th, throughout the Southwest and particularly on the West Coast temperatures are expected to range from 104 to 117 degrees, especially in cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix.  These all-time high seasonal temperatures will last throughout the holiday including Monday. 

Read More: 2020 likely to be Hottest Year on Record Despite Isolation and Economic Slow-down Lowering Emissions

With excessive heat, the National Weather Service’s in Los Angeles posted an official warning that it “is not recommended to spend any extended period outside during the heat of the day.”

The Weather Service also warned residents that there is higher risk for heat illnesses along with heightened fire weather concerns during this time. Near normal temperatures are likely to return by the end of next week. 

Southwest States not alone as entire Nation in climate crisis crosshairs

The increased temperatures are said to be worse than the recent heat wave, in August, that hit California and which also resulted in widespread destructive wildfires.  These extreme hot and dry conditions will further complicate matters for firefighters that continue to battle active fires. To date th current rash of fires have been responsible for more than 7,000 fires that have burned nearly 1.4 million acres of land.

The extreme changes to the climate make for heat waves to last longer and be more intense. It’s not just the West and Southwest effected by the weather. Other regions of the United States are also set to face extreme weather in the next coming days, with approximately 20 million people in the mid-Atlantic facing threats of severe storms.  Those in parts of the South and Midwest that make up nearly 4 million people will be under flash flood advisories. 

“From a hazards perspective, it is the Desert Southwest and throughout California’s Great Valley that stand out most with record breaking high temps likely this weekend and into early next week.”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

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Climate Solutions

Greta Thunberg Wins 1 Million Euro Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity

Video
https://video-lynxotic.akamaized.net/Greta-1-million-prize.mp4
Video CLip Posted to Twitter by Greta Thunberg

Immediately vows to donate all through her foundation to organizations and projects “on the front lines” of Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg, Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2019 has acquired another prize for her humanitarian efforts. The global pandemic has, to some degree, taken attention away from the climate crisis and, by extension, it’s most famous spokesperson. There have also been signs of a backlash, potentially due to overexposure, but more likely stemming from various actors, backed by the fossil fuel industry and its proponents, trying to drum up support for a dying business model.

For example, a brief attempt to champion an “anti-Greta” figure, Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old from Münster, Germany, who gained some media attention in February of this year for her “climate skeptic” stance. Reports surfaced that she was being paid by a group associated with the Tump administration and was being put forward as an unofficial spokesperson for Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank.

The massive crash in the price of oil in April and the aforementioned pandemic seems to have derailed her budding career as a solution for the fossil fuel industry to the “Greta problem”.

In the video (above) released via twitter, Greta pledged to give away all the funds “as quickly as possible”. Her first recipient was named, along with the amount to be given; 100,000 Euros to the SOS Amazonia Campaign known via @FridaysForFutureBrasil. A second award, also in the amount of 100,000 Euros, will go to the Stop Ecocide Foundation

Read more: The Rise of Climate Activism, Jane Fonda, Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion

Further grants will be awarded to those fighting for climate crisis solutions and for “a sustainable world”.

”Also, to help organizations and projects who are fighting for a sustainable world and who are fighting to defend nature and the natural world.”

The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity

Based on twitter reactions, the prize is not well known in the US. Based in Portugal, The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has established an international jury to choose the prize recipient. The Prize is awarded annually for “contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change”.

“The Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, awarded annually, in the amount of 1 million euros, aims to recognise people, groups of people and/or organisations from all over the world whose contributions to mitigation and adaptation to climate change stand out for its novelty, innovation and impact.”

The Foundation’s goals, which the prize seeks to highlight, are an acceleration to a carbon neutral society and to mitigate negative effects of climate change on people, the environment and the economy.

Read more: Wildly Optimistic Assumptions for a Post-Pandemic Future: Sci-Fi Doomsday or Utopian Dream?

Though fewer headlines have been seen relating to current events surrounding the climate crisis, they are sure to return as the problem is far from over. Temperatures worldwide continue to shock and break records. Greta Thunberg putting her fame and award proceeds to good use is a bright spot on the horizon during an admittedly difficult year for our planet and species. Below are the original tweets

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Climate Solutions

Sustainable Energy is Now Essential to Rescue Economy and Planet: Earth Day 2020

Photo / Lynxotic / Unsplash

A Sense of Urgency is Only the First Step

This year’s Earth Day will be a little different than last year. Because of social distancing precautions, most of the events tied to the national environmental teach-in will have to be done remotely, with supporters engaging through virtual platforms with activities promoting ecological education and activism.

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While the COVID-19 pandemic might render Earth Day 2020 a less engaging experience compared to its predecessors, it does not reduce the occasion’s importance. In fact, Earth Day is incredibly pertinent for everything the world is going through right now, and as of recent economic developments, it is taking place during an era rife with the winds of change.

Economic conservatism is often one of the biggest things standing between passionate activists and true environmental progress. Obviously, many proposals for how to combat climate change, slash emissions, or protect ecosystems are seen by many as throwing wrenches and regulations into conventional capitalism. For people profiting off of fossil fuels and carbon subsidies, most environmental prerogatives seem fiscally backwards.

Photo / Lynxotic / Unsplash

A Major Shift is already Underway in Every Aspect of Life and the Economy

Right now, however, the winds of change are at hurricane strength. Monday’s oil crash saw the largest drop in crude oil value ever. For the first time, the price per barrel went under $0, and had plummeted all the way to $-37.63 by the end of the day. Although some predict that this drop is a temporary situation that will be solved with the natural economic cycle, many take it as a sign of the fossil fuel industry’s eventual collapse. If there was ever a time to investigate renewable energy as a sound investment, it would be now.

The International Renewable Energy Agency further qualifies this assertion in a recent report. In it, the Agency suggests that investing in green energy right now might be the economy’s best chance at recovery.

Because of the coronavirus, the stock market has plummeted and many people have lost their jobs. Recovering from this crash will take time and many fundamental changes in policy. The process could be expedited, even as the larger problem of climate change is improved, if people invest in renewable energy, as a largely under-tapped sector with virtually unlimited potential.

According to The Guardian’s coverage of the above mentioned report, investing in renewable energy now could add $98 trillion to the GDP by 2050, returning $3-$8 on every dollar invested today. The report also suggests that buying into renewable energy could create 42 million jobs over the next generation, as a green economy would require construction workers for new infrastructure, planners, designers, technicians, and skilled people in all new kinds of trades.

The ecological incentives of investing in renewable energy have always been there, and they always will be. Economic incentives have also been persistent and wise, for saving the world will always be more lucrative than destroying it in the long run. However, the world is in a unique state right now, with circumstances somehow rendering renewable energy potential life saving investment even in the short term.

Highlighting the need to capitalize on this economic opportunity could and should be Earth Day’s top priority. It is almost poetic that on April 22nd, 2020, fifty years after America observed its first Earth Day, now, at a time when the entire world is combatting a disease together, the very urgency and unprecedented extremes we face daily could inspire us to find the precise catalyst needed to ignite a shift toward change for the better.

Of course, many have already pointed out the ecological benefits of so many people staying at home—pollution is down, wildlife is replenishing, and the ozone is redeveloping—but these upsides are temporary. Getting people to invest in and commit to a new kind of energy promises far more longevity, and the spirit of Earth Day, could be our first best hope to save our tiny blue planet.

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Climate Solutions, Politics

Saving Animals Saves Ourselves: Trump’s Covert Attacks on Endangered Species are Eco-Assaults on Humanity

Assault on our Wildlife thanks to Trump

The Endangered Species Act (ESA)—federal law that protects and preserves some of America’s most vulnerable plants and animals—has been pretty unanimously celebrated and upheld since it went into action in 1973. Passed by the 93rd U.S. Congress during the Republican Nixon Administration, the ESA is an environmental policy that has sustained nonpartisan support over the decades. Politicians and citizens on all sides of the political spectrum seem to realize the Act’s importance and want to help the country’s most susceptible creatures.

After all, who wouldn’t want to support Bald Eagles, Polar Bears, Sea Turtles, Seals, and Whales? Leaving these magnificent animals out to dry when their species are on their last legs would seem utterly heartless.

Nevertheless, the Trump Administration has somehow found a roundabout way to assault these creatures. While the President has hardly suggested direct amendments to the ESA, his environmental policies regarding climate change as well as his push-back approach to federally protected lands are unlawful attacks on Endangered Species all the same.

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Over the past four years, President Trump has encouraged opening up National Parks, Forests, and Wildlife Refuges for privatization and extractive industries. He claims that this will stimulate the economy and create jobs. However, it does so by negating some of our country’s most steadfast conservation movements, and sacrificing some of our most sacred landscapes.

While beautiful, these landscapes are not just picturesque backdrops for human indulgence. Federally protected lands are vital spaces for many rare and endangered species. National Parks and Forests, with their strict hunting and fishing regulations, often serve as the final secure habitats for animal and plant populations that once covered the countryside.

When Trump gives companies the OK to drill or develop in these spaces, he creates ecological damage that jeopardizes these species.

On other occasions, the President has actively subverted wildlife protection when creating policies. On a recent trip to California, he supported giving out “Endangered Species Act permits” under the “Trump Administration Biological Opinions.” These BiOps allow developers to bypass ESA guidelines when pumping water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. Given that the estuary provides a protective haven for salmon and other fish species, these permits severely threaten the aquatic ecosystem. The American Fisheries Society along with several scientific groups and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service have urged Trump against granting these permits, but the President seems to pay little mind to such environmental coalitions (or science as a whole for that matter).

This would not be the first time that Trump ignored the Fish & Wildlife Service. Back in 2016, the FSW created a list of 500 species awaiting protection decisions. For four years, this list has gone unobserved under Trump and each day that it gets brushed aside, the vulnerable species in question grow weaker.

The Animal Kingdom and Caring Humans Fight Back

Now the Center for Biological Diversity is actually suing the Administration for inaction. The ESA states that decisions over whether or not to protect a species should take no more than two years. Thus, Trump’s response to the list is long (in fact, criminally) overdue.

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It should really come as no surprise that Trump is against championing the Endangered Species Act. An open climate change denier since his campaign, Trump has passed countless egregious environmental policies during his term. He pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Accords, refuses to limit carbon emissions, and encourages a boom in the fossil fuel industry when the planet needs a switch to renewable energy. The large-scale, apocalyptic consequences of these decisions are palpable. In the short term, however, one can easily overlook the fact that through these policies, Trump is quietly subverting the long-loved, perseverant, and environmentally crucial Endangered Species Act. By refusing to fend off global warming, he is contributing to mass extinction, destroying habitats, and suffocating creatures in dire need of a balanced ecosystem to survive.

While protecting animals and plants might not seem like a top priority when current environmental catastrophes are putting humans at risk, one must remember that humans too require a natural ecosystem to subsist here on Earth. When wild species die out, it affects the entire chain of being and will eventually work its way up to mankind. Therefore, a sense of respect, security, and salvation for our fellow living organisms is essential for the human race to flourish.

Now, the Department of the Interior under Trump wants to make direct cuts to the ESA, finally facing the enshrined act head-on rather than obstructing it under the cowardly guises of other eco-political monstrosities. Upholding the ESA is about far more than just saving a few cute critters, though. It is about combatting the climate crisis, preserving the ecosystem, preventing disease, and making sure future generations get to grow up in a healthy world. It is about humans not taking the planet for granted, and not abusing it at the expense of those we share it with.

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Books, Climate Solutions

“The Uninhabitable Earth”: an Apocalyptic Climate Study that Just might Shock you into Action

Photo / Adobe Stock

Even if you’re Already Convinced of the Danger, this Book could propel you into Accelerated Action

In 2017, climate change journalist David Wallace-Wells published an essay titled “The Uninhabitable Earth” in the New York Magazine. The essay outlined in grave, uncompromising detail, the effects that climate change will have on the planet. Far beyond just talking about temperature increases and sea level rises by the numbers, Wallace-Wells dug into harrowing specifics about global warming, dissecting everything from the scientific to the socio-political impacts this unprecedented phenomenon will throw back into the face of humanity.

Now, Wallace-Wells has expanded his groundbreaking essay into an entire book, with the full title “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.” Like the essay before it, Wallace-Wells’ new book looks deep into the climate crisis, sparing not a shred of honesty in explaining how the human race will suffer from this ongoing environmental catastrophe.

The book is far beyond defining or describing the causes of climate change. As its subtitle explains, “The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming” centers on the horrifying consequences of climate change and paints a truthful image of what the planet will look like once this behemoth comes to irreversible fruition.

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That image is grim, almost dystopian. The future Earth that Wallace-Wells describes feels like something out of “The Hunger Games,” “Wall-E,” or “Children Of Men.” Ecosystems collapsing, civilizations running amuck, and planetary ecocide leading to mass extinction are all likely climate change aftermaths according to the author, and his rationales are backed with extensive research and scientific evidence.

Even the aspects of climate change that seem most commonplace at this point, Wallace-Wells analyzes with an unparalleled degree of depth and severity. Semi-palatable effects such as melting ice sheets or rising temperatures have profound interconnected layers. As Wallace-Wells explains, a warmer planet will not only create inescapable heat-waves, but it will also lead to heightened illnesses, lethal air quality, biodiversity loss, and migration disruption for humans and other species.

Likewise, while a rising ocean will tragically submerge many of our coastal cities, the book further explains how moving inland will not solve all of the problems, for with an eroding coastline, humanity will lose massive amounts of its food supplies, and our global race will cease to be a people of plenty.

Hope is still Possible but Our Hourglass is Running Out of Sand

This leads to many of the political aftermaths that Wallace-Wells covers in the book. He argues that with climate change displacing, infecting, and literally suffocating so many people, class divides will become sharper (the poor suffering insurmountably more), the nation-state ideology will shift, and more wars will break out. Likewise, economic systems will collapse, as entire markets will disappear and capitalistic gains will lose relevance in the face of Armageddon—a hard-to-swallow reality for those who prioritize fiscal profits over environmental reformation right now.

This is just the surface of what “The Uninhabitable Earth” covers. The book is truly a wide-ranging, almost all-encompassing study of the modern environmental world and where it is heading. Wallace-Wells follows in the esteemed footsteps of eco-critical writers such as Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, Alan Weisman, and Amitav Ghosh.

The Economist, The Washington Post, and The New York Times amongst other review publications have heaped high praise on the book, and several critics listed it as one of the best books of 2019. The overarching consensus is that Wallace-Wells’ book is insightful, impactful, and absolutely terrifying, frightening the reader with its unbending image of reality and its harsh truth about where the planet is heading, short a total immediate commitment to counter the threat.

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Climate Solutions

Antarctic Heat is just the Tip of the Iceberg: Thoughts on Climate Challenges and Bright Spots…

Above: Photo / Adobe Stock

Another Month, another High Temperature Record Smashed

Not only was another dismal record set when the Antarctic hit nearly 70º but, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 145 years of record keeping, the month with the highest average temperature was January 2020. Additionally, the “departure”, in other words the amount that it was above the average, was the largest on record, excluding years where an “El Niño” was recorded as well.

Adding to the extreme nature of the record, and to illustrate the trend, it was also the 44th consecutive January that was above the 20th century average. The 10 warmest Januarys ever recorded were in this century, all since 2002. The four Januarys that were the warmest on record all occurred since 2016.

Across the globe record-warm temperatures were recorded in parts of Asia, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, Scandinavia, the central and western Pacific Ocean and Central and South America. There were zero land or ocean areas having record-cold January temperatures.

Starting in 2020 the theme is no longer Affirm or Deny but Rather Commit to Action or Impede and Obstruct

Last year we reported record high temperatures, massive floods, climate influenced wildfires and many more obvious indicators that the crisis is growing at an alarming pace. And, other than a US President who is clearly a shill for the Fossil Fuel Industry, there are very few in positions of power that would attempt to deny the danger and reality of the unfolding crisis.

At the same time, bright spots can already be seen in the rise of the EV and generally in sustainable energy development as a whole. Some regional and International governments have at least set goals for reductions in carbon emissions or an outright carbon neutral emission status, also known as a net zero carbon footprint.

Early in 2020, at the dawn of what is likely to be the decade of climate crisis and responses thereto, three major themes are emerging that show promise of an increased resolve to fight back and find solutions.

First, as mentioned above, the world transportation infrastructure and in particularly the auto industry are finally accepting the challenge of a total transition to sustainable methods of propulsion.

In a second thread – and this has only very recently become a trend – powerful financial industry leaders, often referred to collectively as “Wall Street”, are stating unequivocally that they see fossil fuel investments as unsustainable (no double entendres intended) and “Green” investments as absolutely fundamental to the future of the world economy.

An example is the CEO of BlackRock, an asset management firm with $7 trillion in assets, is pushing his firm toward sustainable investment options and at the same time demanding that all companies disclose potential risks posed by the reality of a world with a rapidly changing climate.

Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of successful asset management firm GMO, who is known for having predicted both the 2000 and 2008 bear markets, has been speaking out about the dangers of climate change for more than a decade. He says that the tide has now turned, and people in his industry are starting to pay attention. Quotes below are from a recent interview in Barrons.

The last two years have been very encouraging. The previous eight were a nightmare. I used to talk about climate change, and my clients would roll their eyes and ask why I was wasting their time. But now everyone is at least talking about it.

– Jeremy Grantham, Grantham, Mayo, & van Otterloo (GMO), in barrons interview

While he is optimistic about the potential to solve the problems using advanced technology, it is essential that the transitions start immediately.

The problem is, it’s all talk. Last year more carbon-dioxide molecules went into the air than any single year in history. We must try harder.

– JEREMY GRANTHAM

And, ultimately, the outlook for asset managers and others such as venture capitalists is shifting quickly:

Obviously, chemicals, oils, fossil fuels in general are looking pointless on a long horizon. Decarbonizing the system is a massive move that permeates every industry in the end.

– JEREMY GRANTHAM

Above: Photo / Adobe Stock

”Too Little Too Late” would not be a great Phrase for the Tombstone of the Earth

And this leads to the third thread – the eventual exposure of the fossil fuel industrial complex as a destructive, greed based system that must be forced into “retirement” since it will not quit or change fast enough voluntarily. On this topic Grantham does not mince words:

Capitalism has a way of taking perfectly reasonable human beings who play at the weekend with their grandchildren, who are occasionally altruistic, and turning them during the workweek into Milton Friedman zombies working to maximize short-term profit.

If you said, “My only objective as a human being is to maximize my own advantages,” that’s a workable definition of a sociopath.

– JEREMY GRANTHAM

For a deeper look into this rampant ethos, one that permeates the world’s most powerful industry, read “Blowout” by Rachel Maddow (yes, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow). A mind blowing exposé of the inner workings of fossil fuel oligarchs and Oklahoma Wildcatters, it is a must read for anyone wanting to delve into the challenges we face as a species in adapting our own behavior (and particularly the behavior of the worst of us) in order to survive the climate crisis and all its evolving dangers.

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Breaking News, Climate Solutions

Greta Thunberg Nominated For The Nobel Peace Prize for the Second Year in a Row

Incredibly Effective Teen has been Raising Issues and Confronting Power across the Globe

Jens Holm and Hankins Svenneling, two Swedish lawmakers, have nominated Greta Thunberg for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. The two nominators chose Thunberg because of the international awareness she has raised about the climate crisis and the peace she has created by pressuring countries to lower emissions and stand by the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.

The Nobel Peace Prize is a Scandinavian-based award that annually recognizes a single individual for his or her accomplishments or commitments towards bringing nations together and nullifying global violence. Started in 1901, the tradition has lasted nearly 120 years. Any international lawmaker can nominate someone for the Peace Prize and the five-person Norwegian Nobel Committee decides the winner. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes alongside the Literature, Physics, Physiology/Medicine and Chemistry Prizes.

At just seventeen years old, Greta Thunberg is one of the youngest people to ever get nominated for the prestigious award. Three Norwegian lawmakers also nominated her for the last year’s Prize, but she did not end up winning. Usually the award is given to a politician or a member of an international organization (or the organization itself). Thunberg, however, is far from a politician and acts more-or-less independently in her mission.

Thunberg dropped out of school at age fifteen to protest climate inaction outside of the Swedish parliament building. She has since inspired many other young people to follow in her footsteps and produce additional school strikes in the name of environmental activism.

No Nonsense or Self-Aggrandizement Needed

Over the span of just a couple years, Greta’s message has spread around the planet, and she herself has also traveled far and wide, meeting with world leaders and influencing them to prioritize fighting the climate crisis with progressive policy. She spoke at the 2019 U.N. Climate Summit in Madrid and has the endorsement of many international figures.

Collaterally, Greta has garnered a quasi-celebrity reputation. However, she is far from hedonistically seeking attention or hollow gratification for her movement. Focused on tangible results, Thunberg renounces symbolic gestures and has even turned down several awards. Her bitingly direct rhetoric used at public events is a testament to this.

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All the same, though, a Nobel Peace Prize is the prime filet of social justice recognitions. The title has gone to the likes of Barak Obama, Martin Luther King Jr, and esteemed institutions such as the EU and the Red Cross. By acknowledging the nomination alone, Thunberg could greatly benefit her cause, raising greater awareness political momentum than before. At the same time, the concept of receiving any award runs contrary to Greta’s “less-talk-and-more-action” agenda.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee choses the annual winner in November, and he or she receives the Prize at a ceremony in December. Nominations were due on the first of February, but not all submissions become public knowledge. Thus, there could be more than just two votes for Thunberg.

As of this writing, Thunberg herself has not commented on her nomination.

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Climate Solutions

2% Beneath The Surface is Big: Report Shows Oxygen Levels in the Ocean are at Severe Risk

At the Climate Summit in Madrid, the International Union for Conservation of Nature recently released a report stating that the amount of oxygen in the ocean has decreased by two percent between 1960 and 2010. The report was penned by 67 scientists from 17 countries, nearly all of whom found evidence linking this deoxygenation to climate change and other human activities.

A two percent reduction in oxygen over fifty years may not seem like a lot, but it is an unprecedented rate of decline for the ocean, causing the sea to warm and acidify at a record speed. Being a body of salt water, the oceans respond to such elemental losses differently than the surface would. Dr. Dan Laffoley, one of the report’s editors, explained to The New York Times that if the heat absorbed by the ocean in the last fifty-five years went into the atmosphere instead, then the surface world would experience a roughly 65 degree (Fahrenheit) increase in global temperatures.

Furthermore, the two percent figure is only an average; oxygen levels are not uniform across the entire ocean. Some areas have a healthy amount of oxygen, but it is not evenly distributed. According to the journal Science, certain tropical waters have found a 40 to 50 percent drop in oxygen.

Most of the ocean’s oxygen is actually getting condensed towards the surface. In a self-perpetuating cycle, deoxygenation makes the water warmer, and warmer water is more buoyant. Therefore, the O2 floats to the top, but it comes at the expense of deeper waters that end up gasping for air. Likewise, when the water is warmer, marine life actually uses the reduced oxygen at a faster rate because all the creatures are vying for each breath.

Without adequate oxygen in the ocean, its vast species cannot survive. If they want to keep sustaining themselves, they have to change their behavior. This means altering migratory patters, diets, and habitats. When one species deviates from its typical behaviors, it can jeopardize entire food chains and ecosystems. Given the surplus of oxygen near the surface, for example, more animals are moving towards higher waters, oversaturating these environments with competing and invasive life-forms.

The main solution that the scientists offer for this issue principally involves reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world. The ocean is the world’s largest natural carbon drain, but it is now becoming overburdened and overheated, making it incapable of holding as much oxygen or effectively doing its job. As another side effect, warm water also takes up more space through thermal expansion, so deoxygenation in the ocean actually accelerates sea level rise as well.

This report should be a reminder to world leaders at the UN Climate Conference that nature is not expendable in the fight against climate change. Preserving our oceans and forests is an essential element in protecting the human race. These landscapes mean more than just animals and plants. It is these very ecosystems and everything in them that give us the privilege of living in an environmentally sound world. We should not take them for granted, for an ocean ruined by humans will eventually lead to a ruined humanity.

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Climate Solutions, Tech

Dancing to Save the World: Elon Musk’s Infectious Joy is the Real Deal, And he’s Inviting us to Join Him

Video
https://video-lynxotic.akamaized.net/Musk-Dance.MOV
Tesla’s Elon Musk Dancing in Shanghai

The Naked Display of Abandon in Shanghai was a Signal to The Next Generation

It’s not because Tesla’s stock is at a high. It’s not because SpaceX is passing milestone after milestone. Elon Musk is on a mission, and it’s the same one we all need to be on, starting now: to save the world.

There’s a kind of liberation in facing death, like the movie protagonist racing in a stolen car, chased by the killer bad guy, not worried about the tires or how much fuel is being used: it’s adrenaline pumping survival mode, right here, right now.

And yet, with the metaphorical woman of his dreams (who is actually us and the planet) in the passenger seat, the protagonist, and all of us vicariously, feels more alive, in what could be his final moments, than in all his life to this point.

That’s why he’s dancing.

Many say 2019 was the year that the Climate Crisis, formerly known as global warming, could no longer be doubted by any sane or unbiased person. A few dozen catastrophic, clearly anomalous weather events will do that.

And now, as the new decade dawns, Australia burns and #WWIII trends on Twitter, we are all starting to feel like we are in that stolen car.

Elon Musk is a little different from the rest of us. Not because of his money or success or brains or celebrity. Because he has been on this mission for practically his entire life.

And now we need to join him.

Tesla is and always has been on a mission. Not to “dominate” the EV sector of the auto industry, as is so often written. Not to achieve success as measured by profit or cash flow positions. It’s on an energy mission . See it’s stated for all to see on its twitter account:

So many constantly trumpet the refrain that solving the climate crisis is all about austerity and sacrifice, and certainly there will be plenty of that.

And the deniers say that changing the system is not worth it if there is even a minuscule chance that we are not doomed. Really? How much Exxon stock do you own ? But what it will really take is a revolution in thought and the contagious motivation of an entire generation. And humans are not prophylactically inclined !  

It’s Elon Musk and Tesla’s genius, shared with Apple that they understand that you can change the world if people are moved by aspirational, beautiful, sexy dreams of a better life. Not some granola style golf cart of functionality.

An iPhone is the best, most powerful hand held computing device ever imagined and, oh yes, it’s a sexy, sleek fashion statement that you can love with all your heart as well. Ditto on the last part for every Tesla also, from the Model 3 to the Cybertruck. 

That mission is bigger than being a car maker, or battery manufacturer or even tech design firm. It’s a mission to replace the current, suicidal, Fossil Fuel based infrastructure with a sustainable one. Worldwide. Right now. Before it’s too late to matter.

Companies that have a higher mission than just “profit for shareholders” have not just a higher moral ground from which to operate but a true motivation that literally pulses like a beating heart throughout the enterprise. Often overlooked is the mission that Steve Jobs imbued into the soul of Apple and the higher mission of providing the best tools that technology is capable of.

Looking forward, for perhaps the first time in human history, the challenges are sharply defined, as are the methods and players in the game. Massive evil forces, created by humans must be countered by small and also equally massive forces just as human, oriented toward a better world and more, the best of all possible worlds.

In truth, within the total devotion and capitulation to a higher mission lies freedom, inner peace and, ultimately success and prosperity, potentially for us all.

Not a hard choice when compared to pain, suffering and, ultimately the extinction of all life on this planet.

In short, it’s Utopia or Oblivion, folks.

So, thank you Elon Musk, for showing us the steps to the dance, and for having the bravery to show us with those awkward, unselfconscious moves that, you too, are learning as you go.

Now we all just need to apply ourselves, like Greta Thunberg inviting Meatloaf to examine scientific evidence, to the task of finding the joy in changing everything that’s wrong with our world, starting with the energy infrastructure, and replacing it with a better, cleaner, less tainted one.

There is a paradox here, though. See it? If we are running for our lives from the most fearsome danger we’ve ever faced, and we are not concerned about money, power or the trappings of fame, then why does it sometimes seem like a better life is so close we can almost reach out and touch it?

Tesla Roadster – Photo / Tesla

Because that’s the secret. If we did all dance like Elon, devote ourselves to a higher cause, and put aside our worldly squabbles over money, power and fame, maybe, just maybe, we will survive and prosper, beyond all our imaginings. And that stolen car? It’s a Tesla Roadster hitting on maximum torque in Ludicrous mode.

And with every discovery shared, solution compounded and mission surpassed, we can escape together and let go of the past’s villainous errors. With luck to find a future worth all our hopes and dreams.

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Climate Solutions

Oscar Contender Joaquin Phoenix Arrested with over 100 including Martin Sheen in support of Jane Fonda

Photo / Joker / Warner Brothers

Celebrity Voices begin to Come Together on the #1 Issue of the Day

During a Golden Globes ceremony that had no shortage of politically charged dialogue, actor Joaquin Phoenix delivered one of the most memorable acceptance speeches of the evening. After winning the Best Actor in Drama Motion Picture award for his titular role in Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” Phoenix diffidently took to the stage and, before even expressing any obligatory thank yous, he first applauded the event’s efforts to be plant based. He then went on to condemn Hollywood’s egregious carbon footprint, urging his fellow stars to live up to their rhetoric and make tangible changes in their lives for the good of the planet.

Since Phoenix gave this unconventional speech on January 5th, there has been a lot of debate surrounding celebrity activism. Fueled also in part by 77th Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais’ opening monologue where he accused movie stars of hypocrisy, some are questioning weather celebrities actually do their part to combat climate change when the cameras aren’t rolling.

It has been argued, by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) and others that charges of celebrity hypocricy leveled at any who dare to speak up, encourages others to stay silent, thus achieving the opposite of what the climate, and the world actually needs. And cries of “stay in your lane” or “stick to entertaining” and even celebrities lobbing insults at each other, is precisely what the fossil fuel industrial complex needs to keep the movement to raise awareness of the climate crisis from gaining a larger following.

While we can’t speak for all of the winners who addressed the climate crisis in their acceptance speeches, Joaquin Phoenix recently showed concrete solidarity with the ideals he preaches, by getting arrested at a climate action rally in Washington DC.

Jane Fonda’s Leadership continues to Inspire and Energize

The climate rally was held on Friday, January 9th, just four days after the Globes. It was the last in a series of DC rallies led by actress-turned-activist Jane Fonda. Inspired by Greta Thunberg’s environmental campaigns, Fonda has been hosting weekly events, known as Fire Drill Fridays, on Capitol Hill since mid-October.

Fonda has used her own celebrity status and that of her friends to garner attention for the cause. At the final rally, both Joaquin Phoenix and fellow actor Martin Sheen also attended, and they each gave speeches to the crowd. Sheen expressed his admiration for Fonda among other female activists and then read “Where The Mind Is Without Fear,” a modernist poem by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore.

When Phoenix spoke to the audience, his speech echoed that of his from the Globes. He pressed people to make changes in their individual livelihoods and particularly talked about consumption, once again championing plant based diets as the easiest and most effective way a single person can lower his or her carbon output.

As the rally escalated, the Capitol Police soon issued a warning for the protestors to vacate the Capitol Building’s steps or risk prosecution. When the protestors did not comply, the Police arrested 147 of the participants—both Phoenix and Sheen among them. The arrestees were charged with crowding and obstructing before being released.

Due to an increasing number of previous arrests, Fonda has been careful not to end up in handcuffs again herself. Nevertheless, she expressed her appreciation and unity with those willing to get a criminal record for Fire Drill Fridays’ goals. Fonda is now returning to Los Angeles to film the final season of Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie,” so she will not be seen in the capitol as consistently. Nevertheless, she is likely to continue her activism wherever she goes.

Photo / Joker / Warner Brothers

Expect More Celebs to Join and Repeat

As for Phoenix and Sheen, neither have announced any future Hollywood projects just yet—with the exception of a rumored “Joker 2” for Phoenix. Sheen will be appearing in the upcoming “The Adventures of Theo Star” and “12 Mighty Orphans” while Phoenix will be in “C’mon C’mon” later this year. However, all of these films are already in post-production. Therefore, the actors have seemingly free schedules, so we can likely expect to see them at more rallies and events in the future.

Phoenix’s arrest is a testament to the honesty behind his Golden Globes acceptance speech. While cries of celebrity hypocrisy may rise among perma-critics and those that carry water for the fossil fuel companies, Phoenix (and Sheen) are show their true colors and the willingness to put themselves on the front line for environmental justice. For that, they, along with Fonda, Sam Waterston and others can be seen as genuine role models and deserve commendation.

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Climate Solutions

2020 and Beyond: Sustainable Energy Breakthroughs and Deep Dives

2019 Made Clear that the Climate Crisis is a Real and Growing Danger

The idea of Sustainable Energy Infrastructure, a.k.a. clean energy, dates back to the 1970s. As a matter of fact Earth Day, inaugurated April 22, 1970, was founded to raise awareness of environmental issues. The main issue for the first decade or so was pollution, hence clean energy. Although the “hole” in the ozone layer, first discovered in 1985, is not directly related to climate change, the root cause of both is the human release of pollutants into the atmosphere.

In 1969 the Cuyahoga River went up in flames and, when Time Magazine published dramatic photos of the blaze, outrage was ignited nationwide. So exactly 50 years ago, as of June 2019, the so called “Environmental Movement” began, and has now morphed into the Climate Crisis. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), established by, of all people, Richard Nixon, began its operation in the same year as Earth Day, on December 2, 1970. As for Solar Cells and power, the first working solar cell was built in 1883. 1832 there was already experimentation with electric vehicles and then, around 1870 working models were driven on the streets on London.

Sadly, the last 50 years (not to speak of the century plus since solar and EV solutions have been incubating) have been marked more by obstruction and obfuscation on the part of politicians and the government, rather than enough meaningful support for a cleaner, sustainable energy infrastructure.

The Real Truth Regarding Sustainable Energy and Why its Growth has been Blocked

Unfortunately, sometimes the most urgently needed answers are hidden in plain sight. The obvious stands directly in front of us staring us in the face . If someone were to ask what the greatest obstacle is to building a sustainable energy infrastructure to supersede current oil and fossil fuel-based sources? Some might say research and development, or new technology, perhaps EV adoption by the general public.

While all of these sound vaguely plausible there’s a much simpler explanation for what the true impediment is.

Below is a list showing the the top 10 oil producing countries in the world measured by barrels per day of output. Simply by looking at the top three USA, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, it can easily be seen where the real problem lies. Not only is the USA the largest producer of oil in the world, based on the barrels per day measurement, it is also the largest fossil fuel consuming nation on the planet. And those output numbers are growing.

Is it any wonder that the “oil president” has done everything in his power to block any efforts to include the USA in climate change related treaties or negotiations?

Further, the USA has increased its production of oil virtually every year this decade.  Since the price of oil peaked in 2008 which also coincided with the financial crisis, the US has been doing everything in its power to reduce the price of oil in order, presumably, to attempt to create economic stimulus. While this may seem like a valid goal, it has a direct effect on the relative price of sustainable energy sources, which become more expensive in comparison as the price of oil goes down. Without government support, such as gasoline taxes reinvested in clean energy sources, the transition away from fossil fuels simply can not happen fast enough to avoid global catastrophe.

Simply by looking at the list of the top 10 oil producing countries in 2018 it can easily be seen the logic behind the massive and focused resistance to any improvement in sustainable energy generation. There is a massive incentive toward the self-perpetuation of these enterprises, right up until outright extinction is the fate of us all.

(source: Energy Information Administration )

  1. United States – Production: 17,886,000 bpd
  2. Saudi Arabia – Production: 12,419,000 bpd
  3. Russia – Production: 11,401,000 bpd
  4. Canada – Production: 5,295,000 bpd
  5. China – Production: 4,816,000 bpd
  6. Iraq – Production: 4,616,000 bpd
  7. Iran – Production: 4,471,000 bpd
  8. United Arab Emirates – Production: 3,791,000 bpd
  9. Brazil – Production: 3,428,000 bpd
  10. Kuwait – Production: 2,870,000 bpd

It is also no coincidence that countries who have done the most to create a price equilibrium between clean sustainable sources and fossil fuels through taxation of gasoline, primarily, happen to be those countries that produce and own the fewest oil assets. Germany is a perfect example as it leads the world in the increase in capacity of sustainable energy infrastructure.

The meaning and import attached to these simple facts go beyond the rise of EVs, Tesla and public awareness. Beyond the meteoric career of a charismatic wunderkind willing to take on established powers that have exhibited virtually infinite levels of corruption and suicidal stupidity. This issue, how to stop the obstruction of the ultimate and total transition away from poisonous fossil fuels, is the only issue that matters for the decade of the 2020s. The politicians and governments must be forced, not only to stop obstructing, but to support the transition with extreme prejudice.

Below: our top energy breakthrough stories from 2019

Bring It On: Elon Musk & Tesla and the EV Explosion of New Models across the Auto Industry

Above: Photo Link to Article

Los Angeles Aims For 25% Less Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 2028: Electric Vehicles Are The Key

Above: Photo Link to Article

Capitalists to the Rescue?: Automakers follow Tesla in Race for Electric Car Dominance

Above: Photo Link to Article

Extinction Rebellion Video Increases political pressure as Elections Loom and Climate Survival is at Stake

Above: Photo Link to Article

The European Union Sets Its Own Eco Standards With Green Deal

Above: Photo Link to Article

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Climate Solutions

2019 Marked the Rise of Climate Activism, Jane Fonda, Greta Thunberg and the Extinction Rebellion

Greta Thunberg, the hugely influential sixteen-year-old climate activist from Sweden, was recently named Time magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year. Just a teenager, Thunberg holds the honor of being the youngest recipient of the title in history. But Greta wasn’t the only climate awareness activist that was making waves and getting attention in 2019.

Jane Fonda, at the other end of the age spectrum from Greta (she turned 82 on December 21st), was arrested numerous times in civi disobedience demonstrations. Her vocal criticisms and concise quotes related to the press coverage of her activism sum up the reason this is not just any other protest movement:

“I have gotten a lot of publicity because I’m a celebrity, you know. That’s why I’m doing it. If you’re a celebrity, you have a responsibility to use that celebrity. Especially when the future of mankind is at stake.”

– Jane Fonda

Of course, there has been a lot of the usual talk about how celebrities should stay out of politics and that discussion is far from over, with many other celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, who’s been an envronmental activist for many years, continuing to speak out. In the end, this is the fight that, eventually, one way or another, everyone will join, as the very existence of the Earth hangs in the balance.

Jane Fonda Risks Multiple Arrests, joining Greta Thunberg in urging Immediate Action to Stop Global Warming

Takin’ it to the Streets to Save the World: XR uses Saturday Night Fever to Wake up Planet Earth

Greta Thunberg Emerges in 2019: Her Message is being Heard and the Journey has Just Begun

Climate Crisis reaching Critical Mass: Extreme Events, Massive Protests and Celebrity Activism

Leonardo DiCaprio headlines Global Citizens Festival, in Climate Crisis awareness fight

Greta Thunberg: Climate Activist focused on Change now, not hopes for an Uncertain Future

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Climate Solutions

Record Heatwaves, Fires and Floods Signal Global Climate Wake Up Call in 2019

Australia Ablaze: Aussies Endure Hottest Day in History, Deadly Wildfires amid Political Inaction:

Above: photo-link to article

150 year Epic Floods in Venice Foreshadow what’s in store for Coastal Cities as Sea Levels Rise

Above: photo-link to article

Climate Change fuels California Wildfires as Photochemical Smog evolves into Smoke in LA

Above: photo-link to article

October 2019 is the Hottest Month on Record, continuing the Year’s Trend Towards a Climate Emergency

Above: photo-link to article

This Heat is For Real: US and Europe Both Feel the Pain

Above: photo-link to article

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Climate Solutions

Climate Crisis Weekend Update: Unbending Corporate Politics & Scary Scientific Findings

11,258 Scientists sign Foreboding Report that Declares a Climate Emergency for the Planet
Auto Companies Back Trump in Fight against California’s Statewide Carbon Emissions Mandates
October 2019 is the Hottest Month on Record, continuing the Year’s Trend Towards a Climate Emergency
Former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson on Trial for allegedly Deceiving Investors about Climate Change
Climate Change fuels California Wildfires as Photochemical Smog evolves into Smoke in LA
Climate Crisis: Report Reveals New and more extreme Dangers to our Oceans

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