First we might decide that effective campaigning on climate might have more per dollar effectiveness in medium and long term than local action. Jim Hanssen himself, or WWF, or EIA, or Operation Noah, or COIN, or Plane Stupid might therefore be better causes even if they cant demonstrate short term carbon reduction.
Second, carbon is not the only or even the most powerful warming gas, so in the long term, we might think organisations like WWF and EIA (UK) working on super-powerful greehouse gases like HCFCs have done more than most of the 200 year time scale.
There are other climate forcings such as Black Carbon, reduction of water in landscapes (ref NASA’s GLACE study and UK’s AMMA 1 & 2), urban albedo and so on, any of which could be more tractable currently.
Mass behaviour change and local action has been singularly ineffective against climate chage in the face of massive industrial devlopment and government pro-growth policies, so clearly some action is needed at government level. And again, governments have been ineffective because of powerful lobbying and effective “the science is uncertain” campaigns by the coal lobby, using lobbyists like Fred Singer who previously worked for Big Tobacco.
COINnet.net is a small Oxford NGO that has done a lot of work on this, and George Marshall now works directly with big corporate type people to try to establsh a communication bridge.
It may be that our political and econmic systems are so structured that nothing truly effective can be done on climate until people in wealthy countries are much more impacted. In that case, research on recovery, restoration and geoengineering (ie things that can be implemented in 20 / 40 / 60 years time) might be more on-point, so that we are ready to act effectively when the will is really there?
That leaves us with a gap of time, in which there may be severe consequences. ALLFED.info has an approach to try to mitigate such consequeces, by recovering food systems as fast as possible. (Declaring an interest: I co-founded and work for ALLFED.)
I think a step back might help.
First we might decide that effective campaigning on climate might have more per dollar effectiveness in medium and long term than local action. Jim Hanssen himself, or WWF, or EIA, or Operation Noah, or COIN, or Plane Stupid might therefore be better causes even if they cant demonstrate short term carbon reduction.
Second, carbon is not the only or even the most powerful warming gas, so in the long term, we might think organisations like WWF and EIA (UK) working on super-powerful greehouse gases like HCFCs have done more than most of the 200 year time scale.
There are other climate forcings such as Black Carbon, reduction of water in landscapes (ref NASA’s GLACE study and UK’s AMMA 1 & 2), urban albedo and so on, any of which could be more tractable currently.
Mass behaviour change and local action has been singularly ineffective against climate chage in the face of massive industrial devlopment and government pro-growth policies, so clearly some action is needed at government level. And again, governments have been ineffective because of powerful lobbying and effective “the science is uncertain” campaigns by the coal lobby, using lobbyists like Fred Singer who previously worked for Big Tobacco.
COINnet.net is a small Oxford NGO that has done a lot of work on this, and George Marshall now works directly with big corporate type people to try to establsh a communication bridge.
It may be that our political and econmic systems are so structured that nothing truly effective can be done on climate until people in wealthy countries are much more impacted. In that case, research on recovery, restoration and geoengineering (ie things that can be implemented in 20 / 40 / 60 years time) might be more on-point, so that we are ready to act effectively when the will is really there?
That leaves us with a gap of time, in which there may be severe consequences. ALLFED.info has an approach to try to mitigate such consequeces, by recovering food systems as fast as possible. (Declaring an interest: I co-founded and work for ALLFED.)