The world’s need to face up to the reality of Climate Change

...As the world discusses mitigating climate change at the UN climate conference in Cancun, starting today, what is really needed is for the world to face the truth, which may then foster our capacity to act……

Do we have the mindset to save the planet?UN Climate Change Conference In Cancun, The Age Lyn BenderNovember 29, 2010 Where were you when you first realised that climate change was happening? Were you caught up in the horror of the worst bushfires in Victoria’s (Australia) history on Black Saturday 2009? Or moved by images of distraught parents in the aftermath of record monsoons that had flooded Pakistan? Or did you know sooner when Hurricane Katrina submerged 80 per cent of New Orleans?

……..As the world discusses mitigating climate change at the UN climate conference in Cancun, starting today, what is really needed is for the world to face the truth, which may then foster our capacity to act……

Avoidance is a response summoned to defend against reality. It takes a lifetime to grasp mortality. The death of the planet leaving a dead legacy to future generations is inconceivable. Perhaps that is why concern about climate change has waned since 2007

2007 was the year in which a tsunami wave of concern swept the climate sceptical party from many of its seats and installed the Rudd government — on a promise of attention to “the greatest moral challenge of our time”. Three years later no constructive action …..

How can this be when there are truckloads of evidence regarding our imperilled planet? Without radical remedies Earth is on a path to becoming uninhabitable or hostile for most species other than, ironically, jellyfish and cockroaches.

It can be difficult to imagine a different way of life. Eventually we change either because disaster strikes or we cannot dispute the facts any longer. Former US vice-president Al Gore states we risk moving from denial to despair. We mourn, rage, plead, panic and bargain; with God or science. We seek Faustian pacts with risky technological solutions, such as geo-engineering a cloud of sulphur dioxide. We propose nuclear energy, with its unresolved waste solution. We promote “clean coal” and cling to the burn, bury, extract, grow and consume paradigm. But of necessity we must reduce emissions and ultimately adapt to a new model of sustainable, renewable life on Earth.

UN Climate Change Conference In Cancun

1.This Month

PETITION

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Energy efficiency – theme for July 2019

Energy efficiency represents the single largest potential contributor to global emissions reduction, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA 2017). It should be a key part of the global energy strategy, for several reasons:

It could reduce global electric demand by more than 20 per cent, based on current rates in the U.S. power sector, while maintaining high levels of services such as heating and lighting.
It avoids the need for increased energy, capacity and grid services, making it the least expensive way to decarbonise at scale.
It can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by billions of tonnes.

A dramatic example of the power of energy efficiency is lighting. In 2017 the United States passed the milestone of 1 billion LED and CFL lights installed, avoiding 142 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions, at a cost of about $7 per ton of avoided carbon dioxide. In contrast, the cumulative installed capacity of rooftop solar reached 8,000 MW in 2017, saving 8 million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide, at a cost of $360 per ton. Lighting efficiency thus yielded almost 18 times the avoided carbon dioxide, at about 2 per cent the cost per ton of rooftop solar.

Google provides another example of the power of energy efficiency. Its data centers now use 50 per cent less energy than the average data center, according to the company. Google also developed an improved chip, the TPU, which performs 83 times better than standard CPUs. The new chip allowed Google to reduce power consumption at its data centers by a factor of 30—far exceeding the effect on Google’s carbon footprint of all of the company’s renewable energy purchases. ” – John Woolard, Eco Business, 10 June 2019

nuclear-news

The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope