Beyond ‘business as usual’.
ECOLOGY
CLIMATE CHANGE
Avoiding climate apartheid:
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS):
Climate change 'solutions':
Climate change news and analysis:
Decarbonising Australia - a slow transition:
Australia is the world’s third-largest exporter of CO2 in fossil fuels, report finds, Nick Kilvert for ABC Science (Australia), 19 Aug. 2019
Australian climate change policy to 2015: a chronology. Talberg, Hui, & Loynes
Climate Council (2019) Climate cuts, cover-ups and censorship
How to answer the argument that Australia’s emissions are too small to make a difference, Matt McDonald in The Conversation, 18 June 2019
It’s cheap to tackle climate change – but that isn’t the reason to do it, Richard Denniss in The Guardian, 12 June 2019
Superpower: Australia’s Low-Carbon Opportunity (book, release date 28 Oct. 2019) – Prof. Ross Garnaut
Food (contested perspectives - not explored here yet):
Climate Change and Land: an in-depth Q&A on IPCC’s special report on climate change and land, CarbonBrief, 8 August 2019
Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems
Eat less meat: UN climate-change report calls for change to human diet, Quirin Schiermeier for Nature, 8 Aug. 2019
How much does animal agriculture and eating meat contribute to global warming? Skeptical Science
UNFAO on the common but flawed comparisons of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and transport, CGIAR, 19 September 2018
Vegan food’s sustainability claims need to give the full picture, Maartje Sevenster & Brad Ridoutt in The Conversation, 9 August 2019
We can’t keep eating as we are – why isn’t the IPCC shouting this from the rooftops? George Monbiot in The Guardian, 9 August 2019
Yes, eating meat affects the environment, but cows are not killing the climate, Frank Mitloehner in The Conversation, 25 October 2018
Future scenarios - 'radical' perspectives:
Global emissions projections to 2030 and emissions gaps to Paris 2015 target, Climate Action Tracker
Global emissions projections to 2100 and the Paris 2015 target, Climate Action Tracker
How ‘Shared Socioeconomic Pathways’ explore future climate change, Zeke Hausfather for CarbonBrief, 19 April 2018
How to avoid ‘unfair and risky’ climate change scenarios, Joeri Rogelj for CarbonBrief, 18 Sept. 2019
IPCC (2018) Global Warming of 1.5°C – special report
The high-emissions ‘RCP8.5’ global warming scenario, Zeke Hausfather for CarbonBrief, 21 Aug. 2019
The impacts of climate change at 1.5C, 2C and beyond, Interactive by Carbon Brief
Natural Climate Solutions:
WATER
AGRICULTURE
A proposal (from NZ) to remove access to forest sinks for fossil emitters, and to use forestry to offset biological emissions:
ECONOMICS
Climate disruption could trigger economic crisis:
Economic growth is unsustainable:
‘The decoupling delusion: rethinking growth and sustainability’, Ward et al in The Conversation, 13 March 2017
European Environmental Bureau (2019) Decoupling Debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth as a sole strategy for sustainability
Prosperity Without Growth – Foundations For The Economy Of Tomorrow, 2nd Edition (book, 2016) – Tim Jackson
Sustainable Growth: An Impossibility Theorem, from ‘Valuing The Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics’, Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend, MIT Press, 1993, p. 267
Towards a regenerative economy, Daniel Wahl in Medium, 9 May 2017
Economic growth will be reversed without climate action:
POLITICS
Avoiding fascism and totalitarianism:
Encryption and mass surveillance in Australia:
Freedom of the press and civil liberties in Australia:
Obstacles to effective environmental governance:
Strategic nonviolent action:
ENERGY
Decarbonisation: 'mainstream' scenarios. Fossil-fueled development, high energy demand, heavy reliance on CCS and BECCS:
Decarbonisation: a 'radical' scenario. Leave fossil-fuels in the ground, low energy demand, no CCS or BECCS:
Fossil fuels - Coal in Australia:
Fossil fuels - Oil and Gas in Australia:
Fossil fuels - Oil and Gas:
Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (Unconventional Gas and Oil Extraction), Physicians for Social Responsibility, 6th Ed., June 2019
Exxon Knew
Fracking boom tied to methane spike in Earth’s atmosphere, Stephen Leahy in National Geographic, 15 Aug. 2019
Global Energy Monitor: FrackSwarm
InfluenceMap – analysing climate policy lobbying
More natural gas isn’t a “middle ground” — it’s a climate disaster, David Roberts in Vox, 30 May 2019
On its 100th birthday in 1959, Edward Teller warned the oil industry about global warming, Benjamin Franta in The Guardian, 1 Jan. 2018
Renewable Energy - 100% Renewable Energy:
TECHNOLOGY
Environmental impacts of technology:
MYTHS & BLIND SPOTS
Implying that human-caused climate disruption only affects the ‘have-nots’:
Impressive sustainability leadership leading to low relative impacts, but high absolute environmental impacts (in global supply chains):
MISC.
Environmental organisations:
Space colonisation dreaming:
Images above:
Tree roots
Photo by Takashi Watanabe on Unsplash
View from International Space Station
NASA International Space Station
Water
Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash
Industrial agriculture
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
Black and white skyline
Photo by Mark Asthoff on Unsplash
Silhouetted group with flag
Photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
‘Energy’
Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash
Data centre
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611902/google-just-gave-control-over-data-center-cooling-to-an-ai/
Horses with blinkers
Cropped image sourced from Wikipedia, attribution CC BY 2.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkers_(horse_tack)#/media/File:Horses_2.jpg
Gazelles
Photo by Bas Van Brandwijk on Unsplash
[These links cover a range of perspectives – they don’t necessarily represent my opinion. SF.]