The IEA’s “plea to slow the damage” appears to be a call for help postmortem. I would find such stories of America’s omnipotent surveillance state much more disconcerting if not for the unfolding global ecocide.
According to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), world CO2 emissions hit an all-time high last year at 31.6 gigatons. This means that only a 532 gigaton cushion now remains between pushing the world above the dangerous 2 degree Celsius Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity threshold. At the current rate of emissions, we will run headlong into this threshold within a little more than 16 years. So before 2029, without major changes in the world’s energy structure, a civilization-endangering global warming of at least 2 degrees Celsius will be locked in.
In order to attempt to buy time to respond to this growing crisis, the International Energy Agency has published a policy paper containing recommendations for a path forward that is less damaging than the current one. The agency paper noted that the current emission path brings us to 3.6 to 5.3 degrees warming by the end of this…
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Unfortunately, the 2oC supposedly safe warming threshold is severely wrong.
We now know that 0.8oC warming results in triggering numerous climate positive feedbacks (most of which are probably unstoppable, whatever humanity might attempt). And we know that the fossil fuel sector will go after and extract any ‘ancient sunlight’ they can extract at a profit.
So, we have a decade or so of increasing climate chaos to look forward to as the economic system implodes, due to declining net energy, after which it all gets rapidly worse.
I’ve got a top bar beehive to construct and some garden projects to finish off. Might as well try to enjoy the next couple of years..
National Party slogan: ‘A better brighter future’.
Kevin said: “…Might as well try to enjoy the next couple of years..”
Brutus on his blog summarized quite well the vapid habitual way in which so many in modern society go about their lives. Living without really living. I say we should at every opportunity stop to ‘smell the roses’, live ‘in the moment’, and relinquish all that is not genuine. We have precious little time left.
Perhaps I should have been more specific. The vast majority of things I intend to enjoy over the next couple of years involve very little fossil fuel use, or none.
As a general rule, the more fossil fuel involved, the less fun it is.
Walking
Cycling
Gardening
Playing bridge
Dancing
Playing piano
Wine-making…..
We, here on this blog, may see the future with far greater problems than the media generally reports, but there are many who are very convinced that predictions of dire climate changes are now seen to have been greatly exaggerated. I think this is the new denier strategy, and it seems quite successful. Basically it says that, since warming has slowed, “scientists” now feel that global warming will only reach moderate levels which will not pose any real danger to society.
Read this: http://o.dailycaller.com/thedailycaller/#!/entry/nyt-global-warming-halted-because-were-lucky,51b74533da27f5d9d0dd25a7/1
I see this kind of thinking as the greatest indicator that our future is hopeless. With this kind of thinking on the part of millions of people, it will be impossible to make difficult policy changes in our energy strategy that will mean sacrifice on the part of voters, and all policies aiming to reduce fossil fuel use do require sacrifice, especially those that could truly be effective in slowing global warming to any significant degree.
So, I see much the same going on for many more years, and CO2 going through the roof. I honestly can not see any cause for optimism. Sure would like to, but what I want and what appears to be reality are two very different things.
What we are talking about here is a radical reconfiguration of the economy and political system, the use of land in a sustainable manner, a transition from industrial monoculture to small scale polyculture food production, a complete retooling of society to live more locally, a redefining of what is a good life, etc…
In other words, we must make a 180 degree turn.
Capitalist industrial civilization(CIV) is not flexible enough to allow such changes. CIV is programmed to convert all of Earth into money. The ecological crisis is simply another barrier to be overcome, i.e. the corporatization of environmental groups into feel-good businesses, the degeneration of the words “green” and “sustainable” into meaningless jargon used by so-called ‘environmentally friendly’ corporations, the public misinformation campaign on climate change by big industry, and the criminalization of eco-protesters by the corporatocracy.
Just remember that capitalism has occupied the entire planet as well as the consciousness of humanity. This is what is meant when Cory says our minds have been polluted and boxed-in from thinking about any alternatives to the current system.
In the documentary “Somewhere in New Mexico Before the End of Time”, Captain Charles Moore, a noted oceanographer studying the plasticizing of the oceans, said something which really describes quite well one of the primary reasons why there is very little possibility for a society-wide change away from the current dominant paradigm of CIV (capitalist industrial civilization):
Well that’s a great idea, but it’s antithetical to capitalism which is designed to atomize everything and turn every avenue into a profit-seeking scheme. I did a google search on “regional reliance inventory” and the only one in existence as far as I could see is in California.
The Art of Annihilation – Cory Morningstar’s re-vamped site – appears to now be up & running. I like it a lot…well done, Cory. Easy navigation all the way back to her first article from 2010…which brought her to my attention. I will enjoy tonite’s test drive.
http://theartofannihilation.com/
Her entire body of work connects to the above quote by Brutus…
“…the left brain has succeeded in usurping the right brain…”
You’ll need your right brain to see what Cory has to show you…
“The art of propaganda has been nothing less than brilliant. The deceit is so thick – you need a knife to cut through it. The corruption and greed so deep you need wings to stay above it and thigh high boots to wade through it. An alluring tapestry of luminous lies, interwoven with finely textured deception and silk-like corruption – as smooth and seductive as freshly churned butter.”
Your left brain just won’t do…but it will tell you otherwise.
Thanks Mike, Cory and Brutus
‘Capitalist industrial civilization(CIV) is not flexible enough to allow such changes. CIV is programmed to convert all of Earth into money. The ecological crisis is simply another barrier to be overcome, ‘
Capitalism is simply an extension of Norman conquest, whereby a tiny group set themselves up to loot the land and transfer as much wealth as possible from the peasants to themselves. There is no ‘flexibility’ in the mind of the sociopath.. Capitalism is theft and exploitation by the use of force.
The ecological crisis is seen by capitalists as an opportunity to set up systems for further looting and exploitation, e.g. ‘carbon trading, so-called ‘carbon sequestration’, fracking etc., all of which lead to even faster degradation.
They’ll keep doing it till they can’t. .
@Kevin.
Interesting history of how wealth and money forged new laws to serve the interests of the capitalists: