For decades, environmentalists and many earth scientists have been warning that humans are exceeding the earth’s carrying capacity, that our numbers (7 billion and counting) and the way we farm, fish, and live is overwhelming the ecosystems we depend on. In 2009, Johan Rockström and two dozen colleagues proposed a new approach to global sustainability in…Continue Reading…
Last week, we received this scary bulletin out of Berkley, California: A prestigious group of scientists from around the world is warning that population growth, widespread destruction of natural ecosystems, and climate change may be driving Earth toward an irreversible change in the biosphere, a planet-wide tipping point that would have destructive consequences absent adequate preparation…Continue Reading…
It’s a shame that our public discussions of energy and environmental issues are so narrowly (and ideologically) framed by politicians, industry, and interest groups. For example, to listen to Republicans, you wouldn’t know there’s an energy drilling boom underway in the U.S. This ambitious NYT piece unwinds how that boom happened, and where it is…Continue Reading…
Is Mark Lynas, the author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, downgrading global warming in his hiearchy of environmental concerns? In a recent post, he writes that biodiversity may well qualify as a more important planetary boundary even than climate change itself. By way of reminder, the “planetary boundary” concept was laid…Continue Reading…
One of these days, I’m going to figure out a way to talk about “global change,” not just climate change. You know, because it’s such a catchy term that rolls off the tongue. Sarcasm aside, to lots of smart people, “global change” is where the serious action is at. Right now. As Jonathan Foley wrote…Continue Reading…
My issues with Joe Romm aside, he has written a post today that is spot-on. (My rule is to play the argument, not the man.) Riffing off this superb Ezra Klein piece, Romm writes: In the climate bill debate of the past two years, Obama and the Democrats embraced Republican ideas in an effort to…Continue Reading…
A leading scientist whose work intersects with climate science charts a pragmatic path forward. Here’s an excerpt from my Q & A with Jonathan Foley: I’m not interested in getting in the middle of the long-running war between climate skeptics and climate activists. I’m tired of the whole thing, and am looking for some pragmatic…Continue Reading…
If you thought assigning attribution of individual weather disasters to global climate change was tricky business, imagine trying to establish a causal link between specific ecological problems and global warming. In this commentary in Nature Climate Change, ecologist Camille Parmesan and her co-authors suggest not going there. It’s not that they think global warming doesn’t adversely…Continue Reading…
**UPDATE: Stuart Pimm, the highly respected conservation biologist at Duke University, emailed me his thoughts on the climate change/global land use dichotomy that is implied by my post. It’s an important perspective. Stuart has given me permission to publish his email in its entirety. You can find it below at this comment.** Perhaps the biggest…Continue Reading…