Sorry, Climate Change is Still Dangerous, No Matter What Nonsense Trump Emits (with Michael Mann)
As important as it is to acknowledge progress, it is equally important to counter the disinformation that says we no longer need to worry about the climate future—whether that disinformation comes from the president or from purported climate experts … 3 degrees Celsius, the 2100 outcome of the medium-emissions scenario, would amount to catastrophic, civilization-threatening […]
Another COP Wrecked by Fossil Fuel Interests and our Leaders’ Cowardice – But There is Another Way
It is remarkable that at the very moment the EU was supposedly fighting to include a roadmap to fossil fuel phaseout in the COP decision, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, was telling a press conference at the G20 that “we are not fighting fossil fuels, we are fighting the emissions from fossil fuels.” Not […]
The Point, However, Is to Change It
But would it really threaten the global ruling class if the world phased out fossil fuels? The answer to this question—Malm and Carton’s exegesis of the wealth lost if we stopped using coal, oil, and gas—lies at the core of Overshoot. Insofar as people think of “stranded assets” in relation to global decarbonization, they often assume […]
Trump’s Climate Denial Is A Gift To China
Called the “1+N” framework, China’s climate policy is an all-of-government, all-of-society blueprint for the country’s decarbonization. Its foundational documents — the “1” document and the first “N” document (the first of a series of directives for the practical applications of the laws in the “1” document) — were released in 2021. As this framework is built […]
Climate Change Could Cut the Economy in Half. We’re Not Ready for It.
Mainstream economic ideas about the relationship between the biosphere and the economy are founded on assumptions, conjectures, and stipulations that have contradictory evidence, or no evidence, to back them up.
The Fossil Fuels Conversation Needs a Hard Reset
The world’s climate scientists say that already existing fossil-energy infrastructure is projected to emit the total carbon budget for halting global heating at 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial temperatures. This statement means … that the world cannot develop any more coal, oil, or gas, if we want our planet to remain relatively livable.
Democrats are Letting Trump’s Climate Lies Take Hold
Those who live not in conspiracy but reality must offer voters a story, grounded in facts and pointing to America’s loftiest ideals, about the threat of climate change, the villainy of those who are making it worse, and the new, clean-energy economy that can be built with hope and ingenuity, which will bring immediate benefits […]
How Harris Can Put Trump on the Defensive Over Fracking
Instead of getting baited into a he said, she said dispute about a fracking ban, Harris should simply say that she’s for “freedom of energy choice.”
The New Climate Denial Is Based on These Six Terms
“Fossil-fuel propaganda is spun out of six key terms that dominate the language of climate politics: alarmist, cost, growth, ‘India and China’, innovation, and resilience. Together these terms weave a narrative that goes something like this: ‘Yes, climate change is real, but calling it an existential threat is just alarmist. And, anyway, phasing out coal, oil, and gas would cost […]
The Secret Weapon of Climate Negotiations: Language
“Moving forward, journalists—and citizens as well—should recognize that oil and gas producers increasingly sound like climate advocates, using the same words and phrases that call for the end of the fossil fuel era. This is their new greenwashing strategy. It is all the more important never to take anyone’s words at face value, but to […]