Wide-ranging adaptations
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Britain’s net zero economy is booming, CBI says
by Damian Carrington 24/2/25 The Guardian
Green sector growing at triple the rate of the UK economy, providing high-wage jobs and increasing energy security
Book Review: How Oak Trees Warn Us about the Limits of Adapting to Climate Change
by Dana Dunham 19/11/24 SCI AM
In many parts of the world, if you take a walk in the woods, you are likely to encounter an oak tree. With 425 species worldwide, their collective abundance may lead one to believe these trees are somewhat unremarkable—a fixture we take for granted. But Andrew L. Hipp, a botanist and research director at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois, reveals that oaks are a dynamic and essential part of the forest.
Calculating the amount companies owe for causing global warming
A pair of sociologists, one with the University of Milan-Bicocca, the other with the Climate Accountability Institute, has used survey data to calculate the amount companies should be paying in reparations to compensate for activities that have led to global warming.
Income-based U.S. household carbon footprints (1990–2019) offer new insights on emissions inequality and climate finance
by Jared Starr 17/8/23 ScienceOpen
Current policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase adaptation and mitigation funding are insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. It is clear that further action is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and achieve a just climate future. Here, we offer a new perspective on emissions responsibility and climate finance by conducting an environmentally extended input output analysis that links 30 years (1990–2019) of United States (U.S.) household-level income data to the emissions generated in creating that income.
Bill Gates made waves with his statements on climate change. Here’s why he’s right–and what most people missed
by Gabriel Labbate 16/11/23 FORTUNE
When Bill Gates speaks, people listen. His contributions to tackling global problems have been nothing short of extraordinary, from funding cutting-edge vaccine development to supporting an array of groundbreaking initiatives on climate change. At New York Climate Week in September, his perspectives on climate change did not go unnoticed–and even made waves.
Bill Gates made waves with his statements on climate change. Here’s why he’s right–and what most people missed
by Gabriel Labbate 16/11/23 FORTUNE
When Bill Gates speaks, people listen. His contributions to tackling global problems have been nothing short of extraordinary, from funding cutting-edge vaccine development to supporting an array of groundbreaking initiatives on climate change. At New York Climate Week in September, his perspectives on climate change did not go unnoticed–and even made waves.
Slow solutions to fast-moving ecological crises won’t work – changing basic human behaviours must come first
by Mike Joy, Phoebe Barnard 18/10/23 The Conversation
As the world grapples with multiple ecological crises, it’s clear the various responses over the past half century have largely failed. Our new research argues the priority now should be addressing the real driver of these crises – our own maladaptive behaviours.
Awesome climate solutions that no one seems to be talking about
Ha Phuong Jul 18 · 9 min read <embed> https://medium.com/@phuonghatrannguyen00/the-most-awesome-climate-solutions-that-no-one-is-talking-about-743bb22aa232 </embed>
The idea is, we find a mineral called olivine, crush it up, and lay it in the beaches around the world. The beaches will turn green as a result (like this one that already exist in Hawaii), and the sand would interact with water from waves and carbon dioxide in the air to form carbon-rich sediments that would be sent to the ocean floor, and stay there for millions of years. Naturally, this happen for thousand of years. With humans’ intervention, the whole cycle takes 1–2 years.
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide readers with an opportunity to reassess their work and life in the face of an inevitable nearterm social collapse due to climate change.
The approach of the paper is to analyse recent studies on climate change and its implications for our ecosystems, economies and societies, as provided by academic journals and publications direct from research institutes. That synthesis leads to a conclusion there will be a near-term collapse in society with serious ramifications for the lives of readers. The paper reviews some of the reasons why collapse-denial may exist, in particular, in the professions of sustainability research and practice, therefore leading to these arguments having been absent from these fields until now. The paper offers a new meta-framing of the implications for research, organisational practice, personal development and public policy, called the Deep Adaptation Agenda. Its key aspects of resilience, relinquishment and restorations are explained. This agenda does not seek to build on existing scholarship on “climate adaptation” as it is premised on the view that social collapse is now inevitable.
Conclusions
Since records began in 1850, seventeen of the eighteen hottest years have occurred since 2000. Important steps on climate mitigation and adaptation have been taken over the past decade. However, these steps could now be regarded as equivalent to walking up a landslide. If the landslide had not already begun, then quicker and bigger steps would get us to the top of where we want to be. Sadly, the latest climate data, emissions data and data on the spread of carbon-intensive lifestyles show that the landslide has already begun. As the point of no return can’t be fully known until after the event, ambitious work on reducing carbon emissions and extracting more from the air (naturally and synthetically) is more critical than ever. That must involve a new front of action on methane.
Disruptive impacts from climate change are now inevitable. Geoengineering is likely to be ineffective or counter-productive. Therefore, the mainstream climate policy community now recognises the need to work much more on adaptation to the effects of climate change. That must now rapidly permeate the broader field of people engaged in sustainable development as practitioners, researchers and educators. In assessing how our approaches could evolve, we need to appreciate what kind of adaptation is possible. Recent research suggests that human societies will experience disruptions to their basic functioning within less than ten years due to climate stress. Such disruptions include increased levels of malnutrition, starvation, disease, civil conflict and war – and will not avoid affluent nations. This situation makes redundant the reformist approach to sustainable development and related fields of corporate sustainability that has underpinned the approach of many professionals (Bendell et al, 2017). Instead, a new approach which explores how to reduce harm and not make matters worse is important to develop. In support of that challenging, and ultimately personal process, understanding a deep adaptation agenda may be useful.
