Category: Climate Fieldnotes
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The Tipping Points
A “tipping point” in climate science refers to a critical threshold where small changes lead to significant, often irreversible impacts on the environment. As reported by the BBC, research shows six critical tipping points are “likely” to be crossed with current warming trend. Unclear about the planetary impact these tipping points might have? Hear British…
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This is the Critical Decade to Work on Climate
Johan Rockström is a Swedish scientist, internationally recognized for his work on global sustainability issues. He is joint director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and chief scientist at Conservation International. See Johan explaining why this is the critical decade to work on Climate. The Carbon Budget There’s a limited amount…
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The Five Scenarios
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, enabling thousands of scientists and economists to work together to understand the challenge we have in front of us. On of the outcomes of their work is a study of 5 possible outcomes for the…
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How Can You Help?
The Knowledge-Action Gap First of all, there’s something we need to learn from climate change deniers. Climate deniers are congruent, they don’t believe in Climate Change and they act accordingly. But I know a lot of people who do believe in Climate Change and mostly act as if nothing’s going to happen (me included). See…
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Unequivocal Evidence
As reported by Columbia University Climate School, the favored refrain of climate deniers and those who oppose climate policies is that “the science is not settled.” To some degree, this is true. Climate scientists are still uncertain about a number of phenomena. But it is the nature of science to never be settled — science…
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The Real Cost of a Hamburger
I must admit it, I love hamburgers, but these facts make me ponder more what I eat: See this food carbon footprint comparison chart from OurWorldInData.org: A single cheeseburger has the same climate impact as driving a typical car more than 20km/10 miles Check all this data in:The Carbon Almanac And check out more details…
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Prof. Brian Cox: A Galactic Responsibility
Paraphrasing Brian Cox, English physicist and professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester: The Earth is one planet orbiting one star among 400 billion stars in a single galaxy, itself just one of 2 trillion galaxies in a small patch of the universe. We are collections of atoms—some as old as time itself,…
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Gus Speth: The Top Global Environmental Problems
I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought within 30 years of good science we could address those problems, but I was wrong. The top global environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy—and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation,…
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We Don’t Need to Save the Planet
A reflection on humanity’s urgent responsibility to protect life as we know it. “Save the planet!”—it’s a rallying cry we’ve all heard. But does the planet really need saving? The Earth itself is a colossal, resilient ball of rock and metal, formed 4.5 billion years ago. Its 1,086 trillion cubic kilometers of mass includes an…
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An Intergenerational Turning Point
“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it.” Barack Obama
Enrique Quevedo 