The Problem Is Simple: Too Many People, Too Much Stuff | Environment | AlterNet

"Our species' negative impact on our own life-support systems can be approximated by the equation I=PAT. In that equation, the size of the population (P) is multiplied by the average affluence or consumption per individual (A), and that in turn is multiplied by some measure of the technology (T) that services and drives the consumption. Thus commuting in automobiles powered by subsidized fossil fuels on proliferating freeways creates a much greater T factor than commuting on bikes using simple paths or working at home on a computer network. The product of P, A, and T is Impact (I), a rough estimate of how much humanity is degrading the ecosystem services it depends upon."

There is no technological change we can make that will permit growth in either human numbers or material affluence to continue to expand. In the face of this, the neglect of the intertwined issues of population and consumption is stunning.

Read the article The Problem Is Simple: Too Many People, Too Much Stuff | Environment | AlterNet:

Devil in the Details: Three Profoundly Disturbing Carbon Scenarios

• The general outlook of the scenarios has been termed “profoundly disturbing” by one participant, climate researcher and author Mark Lynas.

• All three of the report’s scenarios define “success” as a greater than 90% chance of less than 2ºC (3.6ºF) warming above pre-industrial levels, which is the most commonly accepted scientific threshold for successful mitigation of adverse effects of climate change,

• In the words of the authors, “the horse has bolted, but there is still scope to contain the greatest extent of damage [from climate change] through innovative and efficient policy.”

excerpts from Green Car Congress: Devil in the Details: Three Profoundly Disturbing Carbon Scenarios

Siemens to open Colo. wind turbine R&D center | Planetary Gear: a CNET blog on mechanical engineering technology - CNET News.com

The energy sector of the German company made the announcement on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, at Windpower 2008, the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference.

Siemens to open Colo. wind turbine R&D center | Planetary Gear: a CNET blog on mechanical engineering technology - CNET News.com

As part of the plan, Siemens Energy will collaborate with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to install a Siemens 2.3-megawatt (MW) wind turbine at the National Wind Technology Center located just outside of Boulder.

With the announcement timed for just before the last of the presidential primaries, this marks a significant development for wind energy in the US. Germany is the global leader in wind energy development, in my opinion, the location at NREL signals a new era of international cooperation in alternative technologies and a pull back in mindless dedication to industrial era energy production technologies that has been the norm for the current administration.

Under the "you never know" or is is "wishful thinking" department, because of the misguided policies that have lead to a deterioration of USD value against the Euro it will be more profitable to build the wind turbines in the US to meet the demand in Europe. The added market thus enhancing the pace of change in the US.

The God of Consumption = Irrevesible Climate Change

The question is often asked these days if humanity will be able to get its act together to formulate an effective response to climate change.

The transition must be one not only from a fossil-fuel based economy but also from an overconsumption-driven economy.

The end-goal must be adoption of a low-consumption, low-growth, high-equity development model that results in an improvement in people's welfare, a better quality of life for all, and greater democratic control of production.

more from Radical Left :: Capitalist Fundamentalism; The God of Consumption

Peter Schwartz - The Threat of "Abrupt Climate Change"

High school cancels talk on climate, dividing town - International Herald Tribune

Paranoia? You do the math! Maybe he should talk about GMOs ;-> Read the International Herald article

Action of Climate Change is cheap Insurance

Bloomberg.com: News:

"Policy makers, Weitzman argued, should view spending now to slow climate change ``as an issue about how much insurance to buy to offset the small chance of a ruinous catastrophe that is difficult to compensate by ordinary saving.''

How high a probability, after all, must one have that global warming might lead to major environmental, refugee, and water and food-supply crises to see some value in taking preventative measures now?

From this perspective, even congressional skeptics who don't believe that global warming is caused by humans might be persuaded to support a carbon cap-and-trade system just on the chance that the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are right and the skeptics are wrong. They could see it as simply taking out a little Earth insurance."

NDTV.com: Worldwide call to stop climate change

NDTV.com: Worldwide call to stop climate change: "Environmental campaigners called for demonstrations worldwide on Saturday from costume parades in Manila to bicycle protests in London to draw attention to climate change and push leaders to take robust action.

"Hundreds of people rallied in the Philippines' capital wearing miniature windmills atop hats, or framing their faces in cardboard cutouts of the sun. ''We are trying to send a message that we are going to have to use renewable energy sometime, because the environment, we need to really preserve it,'' high school student Samantha Gonzales said in Manila. ''We have to act now.''

"In all, marches were planned in more than 50 cities across the world Saturday, to coincide with the two-week UN Climate Change Conference, which runs through Friday in Bali, Indonesia."

Climate Scientist James Hansen won't be quiet

Independent Weekly: News: Feature: James Hansen won't be quiet:

"Under the Reagan administration in 1981, the U.S. Department of Energy pulled the plug on his funding after he and several colleagues wrote a paper for the journal Science predicting the world would get warmer throughout the 1980s and sea ice would be melting by the 21st century."

Not only ahead of his time but correct. Now that is a tough one to explain.

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!

Climate campaigner's road from 'raving idiot' to Australian of the year - Yahoo! News UK

Climate campaigner's road from 'raving idiot' to Australian of the year - Yahoo! News UK:

"By Neil Sands AFP - Monday, December 3 03:40 am SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian scientist Tim Flannery grew used to receiving quizzical looks in the 1990s as he pounded the corridors of power in Canberra urging politicians to do something about climate change. 'You'd go and see a federal minister and they'd stare at you like you were a raving idiot,' Flannery says of his early lobbying efforts. 'You could see them thinking 'what's this guy spouting on about?'. 'That only changed recently.'"

2years in a FEMA trailer from Current

A report from a acquaintance of mine, Bill Delano, who does citizen jouralism. Pretty well done. Check out Current.com

Climate change: "Carbon footprint" enters everyday vocabulary - Yahoo! News

Climate change: "Carbon footprint" enters everyday vocabulary - Yahoo! News: "Individuals keen on reducing their 'carbon footprint' -- the dangerous greenhouse gas that each of us emit through our purchases and activities -- can now turn to a multiplying panoply of tools to calculate their pollution, reduce it or compensate for it. 'Our daily habits are responsible for 50 percent of greenhouse gas emissions,' says France's Agency for the Environment and Control of Energy (ADEME)."

Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC) Homepage

Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC): "The DESERTEC Concept of TREC is to boost the generation of electricity and desalinated water by solar thermal power plants and wind turbines in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and to transmit the clean electrical power via High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines throughout those areas and as from 2020 (with overall just 10-15% transmission losses) to Europe."

Solution are everywhere it is the criminals that hold the trump cards that are the problem.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Rudd sets new Australian agenda

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Rudd sets new Australian agenda: "Mr Rudd said he would overturn a number of his predecessor's policies, signing the Kyoto Protocol and withdrawing Australian troops from Iraq.

He also promised to attend next month's UN climate change summit in Bali."

Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

Watch this video of why the choice to take action to avoid climate change is unavoidable. There is also an opportunity to refute the argument if you can. You decide or ... well at least be aware of the probable consequences.

Comment is free: Learn to swim

Comment is free: Learn to swim:

"The adaptation argument has become the retreat position in recent months for climate change sceptics who now find climate data and evidence from the poles mounting against them. No longer able to argue that there's no need to act because the climate isn't changing, they now argue against action because it's too expensive, requires too much government leadership (they say intervention) ... but he ignores the fact that climate change could destroy more demand-and-supply chains around the world than new government policies ever could."

AlterNet: Biofuels Could Kill More People Than the Iraq War - Topix

AlterNet: Biofuels Could Kill More People Than the Iraq War - Topix: "If the governments promoting biofuels do not reverse their policies, the humanitarian impact will be greater than that of the Iraq war."

Climate change talks reach agreement - Yahoo! News

Climate change talks reach agreement - Yahoo! News:

"The document, summarizing the scientific consensus on human-induced climate change, will be distributed to delegates at a crucial meeting in Indonesia next month that is intended to launch a political process on international cooperation to control global warming."

Climate report to warn of potentially 'irreversible' impacts - Yahoo! News

Climate report to warn of potentially 'irreversible' impacts - Yahoo! News