[Graeme]

Thanks AD, Many recognize the problems we face but collectively humanity so far is not making the changes necessary fast enough. I expect that the pace of change will quicken though over the next few decades or even years as our environment continues to deteriorate. That's why I have such an interest in the news on energy, economy and the environment because I can see that change is indeed coming sometimes good and sometimes not. I can see a bizarre resistance to maintain the status quo.

[americandream]

Thanks AD, Many recognize the problems we face but collectively humanity so far is not making the changes necessary fast enough. I expect that the pace of change will quicken though over the next few decades or even years as our environment continues to deteriorate. That's why I have such an interest in the news on energy, economy and the environment because I can see that change is indeed coming sometimes good and sometimes not. I can see a bizarre resistance to maintain the status quo.

The capitalist system is on track for massive and catastrophic turmoil, whether you wrap it in greenfoil or not. However, preserving modernity in a fully socialised set of relations may work for the long term. Whether others agree with you or not is irrelevant. Get your head around that and you could make a difference....the power of one. Continue to placate the masses and history will reach the terminus for humankind.

[dohboi]

ad, I'm seeing more and more cracks in capitalism's facade. Where do you see the next fissures erupting and how do you see the denouement playing out?

[ennui2]

Thanks AD, Many recognize the problems we face but collectively humanity so far is not making the changes necessary fast enough. I expect that the pace of change will quicken though over the next few decades or even years as our environment continues to deteriorate. That's why I have such an interest in the news on energy, economy and the environment because I can see that change is indeed coming sometimes good and sometimes not. I can see a bizarre resistance to maintain the status quo.

You are on track for being the last remaining optimist within the PO doomer set. I'm glad people like you are out there but I find it impossible to feel as you do.

[ralfy]

Warnings regarding global warming, environmental damage, etc., have been given for years.

[dohboi]

Taking it to the next step: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/0 ... t-protest/

[dohboi]

More from Klein: http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepic ... ate-change

We Must Demand the Impossible to Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change

...But what should we do with this fear that comes from living on a planet that is dying, made less alive every day?

First, accept that it won't go away, that it is a fully rational response to the unbearable reality that we are living in a dying world, a world that a great many of us are helping to kill, by doing things like making tea and driving to the grocery store and yes, okay, having kids.

Next, use it. Fear is a survival response. Fear makes us run, it makes us leap, it can make us act superhuman. But we need somewhere to run to. Without that, the fear is only paralyzing. So the real trick, the only hope, really, is to allow the terror of an unlivable future to be balanced and soothed by the prospect of building something much better than many of us have previously dared hope.

Yes, there will be things we will lose, luxuries some of us will have to give up, whole industries that will disappear. And it's too late to stop climate change from coming; it is already here, and increasingly brutal disasters are headed our way no matter what we do. But it's not too late to avert the worst, and there is still time to change ourselves so that we are far less brutal to one another when those disasters strike. And that, it seems to me, is worth a great deal.

Because the thing about a crisis this big, this all-encompassing, is that it changes everything.

It changes what we can do, what we can hope for, what we can demand from ourselves and our leaders.

It means there is a whole lot of stuff that we have been told is inevitable that simply cannot stand.

And it means that a whole lot of stuff we have been told is impossible has to start happening right away.

(my emphases)

And don't miss her TED talk: "Addicted to Risk"

http://www.ted.com/talks/naomi_klein_ad ... anguage=en

[kuidaskassikaeb]

http://www.thenation.com/article/181621/climate-change-peoples-shock#

If anybodies interested I linked to her story in Today's nation. It's an intelligent read, but she definitely has a prexisting agenda to apply.

[americandream]

There is no other viable resolution to the problem other then communism. For that we would have to understand systems and how they work and why a circular modernity is the only solution. If however we go off at a tangent wanting to give everyone a car and macmansions like those numbskulls in Beijing have gone about, dont even bother to try as that is bullshit dressed up as bullshit. Communislm is a return back to the older pre hierarchical systems other than the presence of the inventions since the advent of the modern age. It is needs based and resource marginal. The USSR was on the way there until they decided to play catch up with the West. The Asians never got it right from the start and have basically been playing silly buggers with the idea. Ideally, we should try and understand its modes of production etc etc before going further into activism. And for crikeys sakes sixstring; get the brain into gear for once in your life.

[ennui2]

Even if there is a solution, it's pointless to even offer it up, because there's no way in hell everyone would go along with it. And you'd need just about everyone to comply for it to have a hope of working. Again, considering how many more mundane issues are mired in gridlock, what hope could we possibly have of all nodding our heads and walking in sync? It's impossible. We all sink or swim together at this point.

[americandream]

Even if there is a solution, it's pointless to even offer it up, because there's no way in hell everyone would go along with it. And you'd need just about everyone to comply for it to have a hope of working. Again, considering how many more mundane issues are mired in gridlock, what hope could we possibly have of all nodding our heads and walking in sync? It's impossible. We all sink or swim together at this point.

Possibly. Nonetheless, its useful keeping the issues in focus even if one is not inclined to talk about them. It helps me anyways....avoids the time wasting nonsense such as localisation, green capitalism, alternative communities and such like. One should continue to engage with capitalism as only from within is it possible to bring about change. Of course, if one has no interest in change, then the other options are possible the way to go.

[americandream]

ad, I'm seeing more and more cracks in capitalism's facade. Where do you see the next fissures erupting and how do you see the denouement playing out?

Whoops.....missed this db

Capitalism is fundamentally circumscribed by infinite growth even if greenified in some bits. Thus it must globalise and with that globalisation take its tendencies including climate impacts to the next level of dynamism. As we approach this decisive level, the current set of problems will attain a significant daily impact to the extent that there will rise a general clamour and effort for remedies. Unfortunately, ideas such as those promoted by Graeme will only exacerbate the final showdown which I remain on target for mid century when I foresee sudden shifts in climate ranges as well as failures of capitalism in the key financial nodes of London and NY. Deflation will of course have crippled profits as all the world matches Chinese costs in a bid to compete.

[dohboi]

So we have to wait till mid century? That's kind of a long wait, it seems to me.

[americandream]

So we have to wait till mid century? That's kind of a long wait, it seems to me.

That's my reasonable estimate going by the nature of the forces at play. Obviously some of the issues are playing out such as the Arctic.

[Graeme]

These teens are taking their climate lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court

Those feisty, litigious climate-hawk kids just won’t go away. Back in 2011, we wrote about a group of witty whippersnappers that filed a lawsuit against the federal government. The premise: The government must take action to protect the atmosphere for future generations.

On Oct. 3, those same five teenagers, represented by Oregon-based nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a legal lifeline to keep the case alive.

Let’s be clear: The petition is a crazy longshot. The Supreme Court grants about one percent of such petitions, leaving the decisions of lower courts to stand without review in the other 99 percent of cases. And in this case, the lower court ruled against the teens: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found in June of this year that there is no “federal constitutional foundation” for the suit — protecting natural resources is a matter of state law.

So, even while trying to push its federal case to the Supreme Court, Our Children’s Trust is also now pursuing similar legal action in every state of the union. And the basic idea behind the kids’ lawsuits — that the government must protect the atmosphere as it would other natural and cultural resources — has the potential to change how we think about ownership of nature and the climate crisis. Ecological economist Bob Costanza even coined a catchy name for it: “claim the sky.”

grist

[Graeme]

4 Legal Battles This Year That Were All About Climate Change

With every passing year it becomes increasingly clear that climate change is not just an environmental issue. It’s damaging to public health. It’s a drag on the economy. And, more and more, it’s become the foundation for legal battles. As the far-reaching impacts of climate change are more immediately apparent, efforts to increase mitigation and adaptation — and push-back from those that depend on the status quo — are rising correspondingly, and ending up in court.

Here’s a look at some of the year’s biggest climate court cases and the legal battles that await us in 2015:

The Necessity Defense Makes Its First Successful Climate Debut

In September, two guys, a lobster boat and a district attorney made climate history by first blocking a coal freighter from reaching port and then successfully arguing that they had no choice but to act because the consequences of climate change are so dire.
Defendants Jay O’Hara, 32, and Ken Ward, 57, accepted all charges for blocking a 40,000-ton shipment of coal from reaching New England’s largest power station last May. They thought they were facing jail time. Instead, Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter asked them to pay $2,000 each in restitution.

“Climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced,” Sutter said at the time of the decision. “In my humble opinion, the political leadership on this issue has been gravely lacking.”

thinkprogress

[Graeme]

Teens Take Politicians To Court Over Climate Change

For politicians who fail to act on climate change, Kelsey Juliana has a few words.

"I want to remind them that we are their employer," said Juliana, 18, a native of Eugene, Oregon, and freshman at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. "The government works for us. If you're not doing your job, then I'm going to call you out on it."

Those aren't idle words, either. Juliana is a plaintiff in a potentially precedent-setting court case against Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) and the state. She and co-plaintiff Olivia Chernaik, 14, claim that their government isn't doing enough to protect its current and future citizens from the devastating effects of climate change.

Pre-trial motions were filed in circuit court Jan. 9 and argument on the motions has been scheduled for March.

"This could be a landmark decision on the question: Does government, as trustee over our essential natural resources, have to protect it from carbon pollution and the impacts of climate disruption?" said Julia Olson, executive director of the nonprofit Our Children's Trust, and originator of a suite of youth-led lawsuits since 2011.

huffingtonpost

[Graeme]

On Climate Finance Day: New UN Report Lays Out Financial Reforms Needed to Harness Multi-Trillion Investments towards Insulating Countries, Communities from Climate Shocks and Build Market Resilience

Harnessing the global financial system to deliver climate security, reduce the risks of high carbon assets, and scale up capital for the low carbon transition is possible, but will only happen with a comprehensive, system-wide approach to financing - including the $37 trillion of energy infrastructure - in the next two decades.

Drawing from an array of policy innovations, some of which are already taking place at the country level, 'The Coming Financial Climate', a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), identifies measures that can make climate security an integral part of a sustainable financial system.

These measures cover risk, capital mobilization, transparency and a shift in the financial culture. Each country will need to decide how these options relate to its financial system and priorities for action.

The World Bank estimates that over the next 15 years, the global economy will require US $89 trillion in infrastructure investments across cities, energy, and land-use systems, and US $4.1 trillion in incremental investment for the low-carbon transition to keep within the internationally agreed limit of a 2 degree Celsius temperature rise.

Tackling climate change requires economic transformation and a re-channeling of private finance.

According to the report, the task for those charged with governing the financial system is to enable the orderly transition from high-carbon to low-carbon investments, and also from vulnerable to resilient assets.

The report is available at: www.unep.org/inquiry/Portals/50215/Docu ... nglish.pdf

UNEP

[Graeme]

SIGHTLINE, EARTHJUSTICE SUE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OVER CRUDE OIL EXPORTS AND ILLEGAL SECRECY

Earthjustice, on behalf of Sightline Institute, has filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration today in hopes of daylighting information behind crucial federal energy policy decisions.
The groups had submitted a Freedom of Information Act request in February to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) seeking details on BIS’s criteria for approving multiple significant exceptions to the nation’s 40-year-old crude oil export ban. For the more than four months since that filing, BIS has ignored multiple attempts by Earthjustice attorneys to obtain the requested information or even a response from agency officials.

Today’s lawsuit in the U.S. district court in Seattle asks the Court to order the Obama administration to disclose the BIS rationale and key documents concerning the new loopholes.

In the past year, BIS has issued secret rulings exempting certain crude oil streams from the licensing process. The agency shares its rationale with industry players seeking to exploit the new loopholes, but hides the full extent of the loopholes from the public. By quietly eroding the export ban behind closed doors, BIS is initiating a major change in U.S. energy policy at a time when this very policy is being hotly debated in Congress.

In response to similar past FOIA requests by media outlets, agency officials have invoked the Export Administration Act of 1979 to withhold this information. Yet as Earthjustice points out in today’s filing, that law lapsed in 2001 and no longer provides any pretext for BIS to skirt the issue.

earthjustice

[Graeme]

A Group of Washington Teens Took the State to Court Over Climate Change — and Won

A court in Seattle has handed a legal victory to a group of young petitioners asking that the state of Washington do more to fight climate change.

Eight children, between the ages of 11 and 15, filed a petition last year to the state's Department of Ecology, requesting that the agency initiate a process of rulemaking to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in Washington.

The petition specifically calls for a goal of getting the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere down from the current level of more than 400 to 350 parts per million by the year 2100. The document also references the personal experiences of the plaintiffs, asserting examples of the ways in which the young Washington residents are already seeing the effects of climate change.

"What we asked is that [the Department of Ecology] implement their existing statutory authority to promulgate a rule regulating carbon dioxide emissions," Andrea Harris, of the Western Environmental Law Center, and the plaintiff's attorney, told VICE News.

vice