Sunday, September 28, 2008

Ningaloo Reef

is safe from global warming the Westaustralian reports, unlike the Great Barrier Reef.

Ningaloo Reef

is safe from global warming the Westaustralian reports, unlike the Great Barrier Reef.

Friday, September 5, 2008

nuclear winter and carbon summer

In the 80s it was nuclear winter, now the bogeyman in is the carbon summer.

Was it that the nuclear winter was a genuine threat and through collective awareness we avoided it? Or was it a bogeymen, and we have a need for a bogeyman to satisfy our natural pessimism?

Garnaut says we have high per capita emissions simply because we burn so much coal for electricity.

550ppm Garnaut target

Garnaut says we should cut our emissions to 10% of our year 2000 levels, and achieve that by 2020. That's part of a global target to limit atmospheric gas concentrations to 550 ppm. That means a 25% cut in our emissions which would slice 1.6% of our economy by 2020.

That means no Barrier Reef. 450 ppm would be in Australia's interest as it would lead to far less damage to the environment. China would have to agree to binding emissions targets from 2012 but there's no chance of China agreeing to this.

emissions and recession

The largest recent (only) reduction in greenhouse emissions was when the Soviet Union collapsed So to save the planet do we need a recession? Or even, gasp, a depression? And then how do we come out of it?

Does a reduction in greenhouse gases really mean a reduction in our standard of (material) living?