Comments on climate code red: Why emissions need to drop off a cliff

May I offer a plan for emissions to drop off a cli...

2012-01-19T22:41:51.349+11:00

May I offer a plan for emissions to drop off a cliff (rather than civilisation). The climate policy solution space is too small for the scope/urgency of the problem, so reframe in 3 ways:
1. Address the economic growth roadblock at source with a new replacement growth vision. Use markets as the emissions-cutting-mechanism by correcting externalities. Solve multiple interconnected crises as a whole. http://climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/4/planId/15101
2. Use local economies as carbon-sequestering mechanisms by legalising biochar as backing for issuing debt-free local currency. Creates local, national and global liquidity (bottom-up quantitative easing). Underpins food security and ecosystem expansion. http://climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/4/planId/14637
3. Resolve all outstanding interconnected global imbalances that act as positive feedbacks on accelerating damage/corruption and diminishing hope. This is not as hard as we've made it look over the past 40 years. http://bit.ly/7switches

Thanks for an excellent post as usual, David. Th...

2012-01-18T07:47:57.491+11:00

Thanks for an excellent post as usual, David.

This speaks to the failure of the entire political class (sadly, including the Greens) to address the realities of the situation with their acceptance of the idea that "something" (here a "carbon price") would be better than "nothing". We've been locked in a debate over market non-solutions for YEARS now, and it looks very clear we won't even appreciably slow emissions let alone reverse them.

What a disaster.

Unless we start today in making cuts in emissions ...

2012-01-17T22:18:47.375+11:00

Unless we start today in making cuts in emissions the chance of avoiding 2 degrees is close to zero. Emissions globally will likely peak around 2035- when by then the increasingly violent and disruptive weather will leave Governments no other alternative but to 'do something'. This could change if we begin to see increasingly erratic weather this decade- meaning we could see emissions peak in 2025. At this point we are likely to see 3 degrees by 2050- and 3.5 degrees is a likely scenario.

Since some of this info has been sourced from Kevi...

2012-01-17T21:20:11.015+11:00

Since some of this info has been sourced from Kevin Anderson, Uni of Manchester, UK, I would have like to have seen some exploration on his message about what is possible within the time frames. He sees that we have an outside chance of achieving 2dgC if we fully consider the impact of 4dgC and identify who is capable of making changes IMMEDIATELY. He identified a figure of 50% of C02 being emitted from 1% of the pop. and thought many people who fly once a year as fitting this category. He thought immediate demand reduction strategies on energy consumption and car usage could make immediate and massive C02 reductions by 2020. Our hope is in grasping the full horror of what we can avoid if we act NOW. We need to dramatically increase information about immediate action being required.