We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, February 20, 2012

“No time to waste” on transition to green energy

Click here to access article by Kate Ravilious from Environmentalresearchweb. 
If the entire world adopted ‘green’ forms of energy tomorrow, how long would it take for global temperatures to stabilize? The answer is a good 50 years: even if we "pull out all of the stops" there is little we can do to diminish the impact of climate change during the first half of this century. But choosing to adopt the right technologies now should stabilize the climate by the second half of the century, according to a new study.
And, of course, we are seeing more and more extreme weather all over the world. See this, this, this, this, and this.

Because of the extremely long delay from cause to effect and the addiction of capitalist ruling classes to the continued use of fossil fuels, I am very concerned that humans are capable of recognizing the threat of climate change in time to do anything effective about it.
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