Climate Change

ExxonMobil was the most profitable company in the US in 2012, according to Forbes 500. Ten years ago, it funded research to deny climate change, but now it’s integrating a hefty carbon tax into its financial plans. Tom Carnac, North American president of Carbon Disclosure Project, said that the five big oil companies seem to have determined that a carbon price is an inevitable part of their financial future.

A conference sponsored by a US military official convened experts in Washington DC and London warning that continued dependence on fossil fuels puts the world at risk of an unprecedented energy crunch that could inflame financial crisis and exacerbate dangerous climate change. In addition, the insurance sector is moving rapidly to changing what it insures given the increasing costs of flooding and severe weather events.

June 3, 2013

The video below, Ending the Silence on Climate Change, provides insights on the difficulties in achieving social and political consensus and what the potential communication-based solutions are for moving past these difficulties. Climate change is a widespread and encompassing issue that exerts its effects on the entire planet; however, the planet is comprised of many different belief systems and worldviews.

This recent article portrays some climate change information in a very visual way. After opening the link, click on the magnifying glass to enlarge the graph and see the power of the information it communicates. Surely, this is enough for all of our elected officials to put in their New Year's resolution, to act now.

October 26^th, 2012

What is the possibility of achieving a 2-degree future now? What are the global impacts of continuing low-income industrialization in India and China. India's GDP per capita is presently 1/3 that of China, with a huge scope for very high growth rates. This has fundamental implications for mitigation and adaptation analysis and policy, globally and for all nations. Most likely, we will see a 4-degree future. What are the ramifications for human society?

We have just published A Policy Agenda for Canadian Muncipalities. This is agenda is the result of a series of e-Dialogues held with 19 sustainability planners from across the country, who then identified 6 international case studies that were leaders in implementing sustainable development. We then came together again to discuss the lessons to be learned from these six leaders and their application to the Canadian context.

Often late at night, interesting what the dark brings, I wonder about the meaning of life and what is progress?  I just read an interesting history of the drone program by Professor Derek Gregory at UBC, and his critique of the legal and ethical issues with the U.S. assertion it has the right to deploy drones anywhere in the world.