CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders

By Stephen Leahy*

BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 4 (IPS) - The evidence is piling up that climate change threatens to bring a chaotic future unlike anything ever known. Taking collective action in time to avert the worst means rewarding climate-safe behaviour, punishing climate transgressors and publicly praising those who are trying to protect the environment, a new study suggests.

The nations of the world will come together to set a target and timeframe for reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels at the end of 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Scientists have repeatedly stated the 2020 target must be 25 to 40 percent emission reductions from the 1990 emission baseline. Can the global community reach this collective target through individual efforts when everyone suffers individually if the target is missed?

The short answer: No.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Game With Too Many Free Riders

This is the last in a four part series:

Part One - CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now
Part Two - CLIMATE CHANGE: The Fault Lies Not in Our Cars but in Ourselves
Part Three - CLIMATE CHANGE: A Vision Worth Fighting For

climate catastrophe has already begun to reshape human civilisation.

Annual emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) are three times higher today than in the 1990s. Even if the impossible could be done -- cease all CO2 emissions today -- the average global temperature will continue to increase from the present 0.8 degrees C above normal to 1.6 - 1.8C, data shows. And that new global average temperature would remain higher than normal for the next 500 years because of the time it will take for the warming oceans to cool.

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Future Is Now

Biotech groups desert international agriculture project | Environment | guardian.co.uk

"The draft report says there is a 'wide range of perspectives on the environmental, human health and economic risks and benefits of modern biotechnology, many of which are as yet unknown'. It says it is not clear whether GM crops increase yields and warns that use of the technology in the developing world could concentrate 'ownership of agricultural resources' in the hands of the companies involved, as well as causing problems with patents." Read more at Biotech groups desert international agriculture project | Environment | guardian.co.uk:

A New Economic Engine: Energy in the 21st Century

Excellent overview that outlines the approach that American needs to address future energy needs and be part of the global warming solution not the problem. Pricing CO2 emissions to account for the risk of not changing is absolutely vital to the success.

Cap and Trade is really a band aid way to do it according to leading economists. Replacing income taxes with carbon emissions tax ultimately will have to be done one way or another as income taxes provide the wrong kind of incentives and modifying the code to provide incentives only tends to reward the status quo high carbon emission economy instead of building a new low carbon economy.

Read more about progressive growth at the

Center for American Progress

Saving the Planet, Saving the Economy | OurFuture.org

Discussion is going to heat up this year over what is ailing the economy and how we should change the past seven years of failed conservative policies. That economic discussion should not happen separately from discussion of global warming. Because how we tackle global warming directly affects, and potentially fortifies, our national and global economy. Read more

Climate change: The real New Hampshire story - Telegraph

Climate change: The real New Hampshire story - Telegraph

The press hasn't reported on it but the real story from last night's election may be how important global warming was for the voters of New Hampshire and in particular, for John McCain's turnaround win.

	Protesters signs in the snow outside the state house in Concord, New Hampshire

He's a pro-Iraq war Republican whose campaign was all but written off six months ago, but alone among the Republicans he has a passion for the climate issue and a plan to address it.

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The world and climate change: all together now | openDemocracy

The world and climate change: all together now | openDemocracy:

"A planetary crisis calls for clear thinking and shared action towards a global deal, says Tom Burke. "

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- China said Friday it will not consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States and other industrialized c

Wired News - AP News

BALI, Indonesia (AP) -- Wired News- AP

China said Friday it will not consider mandatory cuts on greenhouse gases, saying the United States and other industrialized countries should take the lead in fighting climate change by embracing a less-extravagant lifestyle.

This a start of discussion that must lead to a zero CO2 emission human culture. It is not us/them anymore but "how do we get it done?" Lifestyle changes we have not dreamed of but need to make none-the-less!

OPEC to put carbon capture at heart of new green agenda - Yahoo! News UK

OPEC to put carbon capture at heart of new green agenda - Yahoo! News UK

Whatever it takes to sell oil.

It has won support from the United States and the oil industry because it potentially offers a partial solution to the climate change problem without reducing dependence on oil or curbing consumption.

But it is only in the development stage and requires massive investment to make it commercially viable.

Engineered weathering process could mitigate global warming | Science Codex

Engineered weathering process could mitigate global warming | Science Codex:

"The innovative approach to tackling climate change is reported in the Nov. 7 issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology by Kurt Zenz House, a Ph.D. candidate in Harvard's Department of Earth and Planninng...


The team cautions, however, that while they believe their scheme for reducing global warming is achievable, implementation would be ambitious, costly, and would carry some environmental risks that require further study."

Scientist: Emissions levels accelerating - Yahoo! News

Scientist: Emissions levels accelerating :

Tim Flannery told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that an upcoming report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will contain new data showing that the level of climate-changing gases in the atmosphere has already reached critical levels. Flannery is not a member of the IPCC, but said he based his comments on a thorough review of the technical data included in the panel's three working group reports published earlier this year. The IPCC is due to release its final report synthesizing the data in November.

"It's a worldwide issue. We've had growing economies everywhere, we're still basing that economic activity on fossil fuels," he said. "The metabolism of that economy is now on a collision course clearly with the metabolism of our planet."

U.S. Climate Emergency Council - No Time for Activism As Usual

U.S. Climate Emergency Council - No Time for Activism As Usual:

"Future Hope column, August 6, 2007 No Time for Activism as Usual By Ted Glick “The Weather Makers,” a book by Tim Flannery, is one of the best sources for those who want to understand the global heating process that is seriously destabilizing the world’s climate. In it, Flannery explains the three main ‘tipping points’ “that scientists are aware of for Earth’s climate: a slowing or collapse of the Gulf Stream; the demise of the Amazon rainforests; and the release of gas hydrates from the sea floor. . . There is some geological evidence for all having happened in Earth’s history. . . Given the current rate and direction of change, one, two or perhaps all three may take place this century.

"Mahatma Gandhi, probably the greatest nonviolent revolutionary of the 20th century, once said that, “Fasting is the sincerest form of prayer.” Beginning now, deepening on September 4th and for some of us for weeks afterward, let us pray and act not just for future generations but for those living right now."

My del.icio.us link log - the latest

Check it out, HERE, or. . . It's in the left column below the Inconvenient Truth.

A 21st century catastrophe - Independent Online Edition > Climate Change

A 21st century catastrophe - Independent Online Edition > Climate Change: "lood-ravaged Britain is suffering from a wholly new type of civil emergency, it is clear today: a disaster caused by 21st-century weather.

This weather is different from anything that has gone before. The floods it has caused, which have left more than a third of a million people without drinking water, nearly 50,000 people without power, thousands more people homeless and caused more than �2bn worth of damage - and are still not over - have no precedent in modern British history."

Compromise Measure Aims to Limit Global Warming - New York Times

Compromise Measure Aims to Limit Global Warming - New York Times:

"The complex measure, sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, would put in place a firm limit on emissions of heat-trapping gases that most scientists say are causing the warming of the planet."

The down side it relies on "cap and trade" strategies that inherently flawed, never-the-less it is a move in the left direction by the right guys.

Pop Goes the Planet

Pop Goes the Planet:

"Startling new research shows that humanity is pushing the Earth to breaking point by devouring the life-support systems that make it habitable. Even before the feared climate change really begins the bite, the planet is already under intolerable strain. An unprecedented study by top ecologists and climatologists, to be published by the US National Academy of Sciences, shows that a quarter of all plant life in the world is being destroyed each year by the demands of just one species: homo sapiens."

How the USA fails its young people

AlterNet: The Making of an American Soldier: Why Young People Join the Military

Just to maintain a gluttonous, consumptive lifestyle that feeds a international corporate war industry that provides arms to the world, all in the name of freedom. It is slavery of the most insidious kind.

Native American Energy

Click here - Watch their Video

...not just the content - be attentive to the integral message!


Carbon offsets are one way to begin a broad based change in our consumer culture. Start now:
1. become carbon carbon neutral and invest in a future where peace is possible,
2. get informed and active in the a race to save the planet , and
3. encourage your friends to do the same!