March 16, 2016 The Mayan Lesson Human nature does not change; it only repeats itself. The ancient Maya, a singularly gifted civilization that peaked, declined and collapsed almost simultaneously with the Roman Empire, left a vast historical record. It is the tale of an unholy alliance of kings, priests, and … Continue reading
Category Archives: Admonishments
COP21 And Nuclear War
January 3, 2016 The Doomsday Clock Last year, on January 22, 2015 to be precise, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists advanced the Doomsday Clock to 3 minutes before midnight, a metaphor to indicate how close our species is to extinction. Among other things, the scientists are (correctly) concerned with … Continue reading
COP21 And The Distribution Of Wealth
January 1, 2016 Background COP21 is a pragmatic face-saving agreement for politicians, nothing more. Essentially, signatory nations have agreed only to commit individually and severally to maximum annual carbon emissions. Reporting the results is mandatory, but unlike global lending institutions that routinely force helpless quasi-bankrupt governments into painful austerity programs … Continue reading
Making COP21 Work
December 15, 2015 President Obama and Secretary Kerry have made the case that developing nations account for 65% of carbon emissions, and that consequently even if industrialized countries were to stop using fossil fuels instantly, now, that would not bring global warming under control. Statistically they are correct, but that’s … Continue reading
Making Paris 2015 Successful
December 11, 2015 As at Copenhagen, the sticking point in Paris is money –who is going to pay how much so the entire world won’t look like Beijing during a red-alert smog storm. The real issue is not money per se but that the world’s powers are reluctant to simply … Continue reading
The South China Sea & Climate Change
11/24/2015 Background So what does the South China Sea have to do with climate change, the yawning gap in the distribution of wealth and income and the approaching water crisis? In a word, everything. In “Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea And The End Of A Stable Pacific,” Robert D. … Continue reading
Financing Climate Change
October 30, 2015 Background At the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Convention an impasse emerged. Nonetheless, wealthy nations finally committed to provide poor nations with $100 billion by 2020. So far, little or no cash has actually been disbursed, and as it now stands the world’s temperature is on track to increase … Continue reading
Last Chance in Paris
An Impending Crisis A tsunami of methane –a greenhouse gas 27 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2)- of El Niño proportions may soon be released into the atmosphere, and no one can prevent that. If and when it happens, the concentration of greenhouse gases will exceed current projections by … Continue reading
Halting Global Warming
October 3, 2015 Exactly two months ago President Obama announced a plan to limit the amount that carbon power plants dump into the atmosphere, the single biggest pollutant contributing to climate change. Likewise, at the United Nations, President Putin announced plans to reduce by 2030 Russia’s greenhouse emissions to 70-75% … Continue reading
Native American Elder on The Environment
09/29/2015 Here is a transcript (of this video) by a wise Native American elder explaining why we must live in harmony with the environment. “The leadership that we’re looking for has to come from business. Very, very important now because business carries more authority and they carry the economics of … Continue reading