TalkClimateChange

There is a popular body of thought within the climate change debate which says that we would be better off focusing on adaptation to climate change rather than trying to prevent it. Focusing on our current problems, they say, and on those that might be brought about in the future as a result of […]

We’ve had a long cold winter in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, which has got me thinking: what if the world cools off and returns to the temperatures of our great grandfathers, or even worse, we start sliding even lower?
This is purely a hypothetical exercise - I am not saying there is any basis […]

Taking up a precarious perch on the fence between the two sides of the debate, I have decided to select the best and worse from each side in regards to the science, mitigation and lifestyle ideas.
First though I want to just make a quick assessment of the landscape and the ‘climate’ of climate change […]

We talk a lot about ‘predictions’ for global warming, and we tend to think of it in the future tense. But there is mounting evidence each day that climate change is not something that will happen in the future – we are feeling the first real impacts right now.
The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets […]

Civilization is in trouble. So claims president of the Earth Policy Institute Lester Brown according to a recent article in Time.com, writing that demands on mother Earth already exceed capacity by 25% - not considering projected increases in population of 3 billion by 2050 and the increasing demands made by existing populations.
However,  Brown has a […]

 
The Guardian Newspaper has recently published their list of “50 People Who Could Save the Planet” having identified those that their panel believes have done the most to combat climate change.
The list makes some interesting reading, and includes such notables as actor Leonardo DiCaprio for his role in raising climate change awareness, and of course […]

An article in The Guardian newspaper today confirms our long held suspicion that despite being convinced of the risks of climate change (according to a recent poll, 9 out of 10 people believe it is a problem), the majority of people aren’t really prepared to make any kind of sacrifice to deal with the problem […]

 
Two letters were written by two sets of credible scientists last week and addressed to the UN. One letter urged action to combat global warming by reducing Co2 emissions, and the other urged leaders to ignore the previous letter and focus on more pressing priorities instead. (see below for links and highlights)
It is clearly a […]

It’s often hard to be ecologically virtuous. We recently wrote about the things that most people can’t do to prevent climate change, and today we’ve been reading the results of a survey describing the top five sins of climate change.
So once we confess our climate sins, what can we do by way of penance?
We started […]

In the absence of a hot headline from Bali to shout about, we’ve been musing the climate change prevention vs cure debate. Should we focus on preventing the disease by eliminating Co2 emissions as fast as possible? Or should we forget about that, enjoy life, and  focus on ways to enhance the pleasure of living […]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was heavily criticised by Green protestors this week after stating his support for an additional runway at London Heathrow airport. But in this case, we think that Gordon Brown “Climate Change (taxation) Action Man” has got it right, and that an additional runway at Heathrow will do more to combat […]

Geo-engineering – the practice of artificially altering our plants systems to reduce atmospheric Co2 – is seen by many as one of the only practical and feasible methods of fully mitigating climate change.

 But, there are many people  who harbour serious concerns about such schemes. The potential to make things worse is significant, particularly since […]