A Hard Deadline: We Must Stop Building New Carbon Infrastructure by 2018

Posted on November 1, 2015 by GarryRogers

“In only three years there will be enough fossil fuel-burning stuff—cars, homes, factories, power plants, etc.—built to blow through our carbon budget for a 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise.” From: theleap.thischangeseverything.org

GR: This article explains that by 2018, just three years from now, we will have built enough ships, cars, houses, and machines to use enough fossil fuel to take the Earth to the 2-degree temperature increase everyone is talking about. That means we have to stop building ships, cars, houses, and machines three years from now. Read the article and see if you don’t agree that the reasoning is accurate.

Nature News Digests

Posted on October 10, 2015 by GarryRogers

Nature News Digests:

US EPA Q&A for Owners of Diesel Volkswagens

Posted on September 25, 2015 by GarryRogers

“EPA issued a notice of violation (NOV) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) to Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. on September 18, 2015. The NOV alleges that four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars from model years 2009-2015 include software that circumvents EPA emissions standards for certain air pollutants. The software produced by Volkswagen is a “defeat device,” as defined by the Clean Air Act. California is separately issuing an In-Use Compliance letter to Volkswagen, and EPA and the California Air Resources Board have both initiated investigations based on Volkswagen’s alleged actions. Affected diesel models include:

Jetta (MY 2009 – 2015)
Jetta Sportwagen (MY 2009-2014)
Beetle (MY 2012 – 2015)
Beetle Convertible (MY 2012-2015)
Audi A3 (MY 2010 – 2015)
Golf (MY 2010 – 2015)
Golf Sportwagen (MY 2015)
Passat (MY 2012-2015)

From: www3.epa.gov

GR: #EcoCrime: Greed-motivated deceit is such a common human trait, that none of our larger corporations or our government regulators can be trusted. In particular, the U. S. government’s susceptibility to special interest influence forces an incessant tug-of-war between proper and profitable behavior.

See on Scoop.it – GarryRogers NatCon News

Tallying up the climate pledges: How close are current INDCs to reaching the 2-degree goal?

Posted on September 7, 2015 by GarryRogers

“So far, 57 countries have submitted their intended climate contributions ahead of the Paris conference – but their combined pledges aren’t enough to keep global warming in check. Experts say more ambition is needed.
Dried-up seabed in Uzbekistan (Photo: picture alliance / blickwinkel/G. Pohl)

“The climate pledges submitted to the UN by individual countries don’t do enough to reduce global greenhouse emissions and hold warming below 2 degrees, according to Climate Action Tracker (CAT), a consortium of climate scientists and policy experts.

“This week, delegates are meeting in Bonn for some of the last days of talks before the much-anticipated UN climate conference in Paris this December. CAT took the opportunity to underscore that countries must pledge more to make the agreement a success.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.dw.com

GR: Struggling to achieve too little too late.

Shell exec: ‘I have an issue’ with protests, ‘good progress’ in Arctic

Posted on September 2, 2015 by GarryRogers

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – The president of Shell Oil Co. said exploratory drilling off Alaska’s northwest coast is going well despite stormy weather last week that caused the company to halt operati…

Sourced from: exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com

GR: Staying in the same hotel as the President?

Dry Rivers, Low Prices Make a Double Whammy for Tar Sands Oil

Posted on August 25, 2015 by GarryRogers

Let’s hope that Harper’s folly is seen for the disaster that it was. Perhaps a new government can drop the greed act and refocus on protecting the magnificent natural beauty of the country.

(Tar Sands’ hellish landscape of ruined Earth and toxic tailing ponds. Image source Occupy.)

This is Not Cool

Much as water is a critical limiting factor for the supposed infinite fossil fuel development in China and Asia – it’s turning out to be a crimp on Canada’s massive Oil sands projects.

At the same time, slumping global oil prices – which are not projected to recover any time soon, are drying up investments in the expensive “exotic” oils that we’ve been told are going to extend fossil fuel dominance in this century. That story is steadily fraying around the edges…

ClimateProgress:

Dozens of tar sands developers in Alberta’s tar sands have been suspended from taking water — needed for their operations — out of local rivers, after a low flow advisory was issued.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) suspended 73 licenses to temporarily divert water (TDLs) from the Athabasca, Peace, and Wabasca rivers on July 24, after unusually dry weather caused water to fall to at or below…

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Playing Chicken With Hothouse Extinction — Obama’s Shameful Shell Drilling Approval

Posted on August 18, 2015 by GarryRogers

It has seemed all along that Obama lacks background in the natural sciences. He often appears to lack the understanding that would let him fully accept the real dangers of global warming. Instead, he believes the topic is important because of the concerns of his advisers and voters. Thus, it is something that he can use politically for bargaining and negotiations.

robertscribbler

Earlier this week President Obama made one of the worst decisions of his presidency. He decided to ignore the concerns of thousands of protesters and more than 60 percent of the American public over the issue of climate change. He decided to approve a dangerous plunging of new wells into unstable, clathrate-laden seabeds in the Arctic. Effectively, he’s deciding to play a dangerous game of chicken with a natural world that’s been riled and wounded by climate change. And in this game he puts us all at risk.

It’s a bad move that sends all the wrong signals. It demonstrates an attachment to the old, limited resource dominance based, policies that cause so many problems and that keep us dependent on fossil fuels for far too long.