Look on the Bright Side

The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring on the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World
by Paul Gilding
Bloomsbury Press, 2011, 304 pages

“The great disruption” is an odd notion. It suggests that big trouble is on the horizon, but also that it’s not really going to be that bad. A “great disruption” is not anything like, say, a “long emergency” (James Howard Kunstler), or a “collapse” (Jared Diamond), and it’s certainly nothing like “the revenge of Gaia” (James Lovelock). All three are acknowledged here, but Paul Gilding’s opinion is that, after a rough transition,…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – Autumn 2011

Cancun Success or Failure – Compared to What?

Cancun was not a surprise. Nor was it a failure. This much is easy to say. But was it a success? This is a more difficult question. I used to have an irritating friend. Every time you made a strong, implausibly simple…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – December 14, 2010

In Cancun, Begin with the Science

Just before COP16 began, the United Nations Environment Program released The Emissions Gap Report: Are the Copenhagen Accord pledges sufficient to limit global warming to 2° C or 1.5° C? It’s gotten a great deal of attention, and this is a very…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – December 2, 2010

Ecoequity

Who’s to Blame for the Impasse in Global Climate Talks?

The first thing to say about the climate negotiations this December is that they’re teetering at the edge of what, back in the day, we used to call a “legitimacy crisis.” On every side, people are eager to suggest that the negotiations have become a waste of time. It’s gotten to the point that folks are apologizing for going to Cancun, as if it were bad for their image to be seen…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – Winter 2011

Who’s to Blame for the Impasse in Global Climate Talks?

From the upcoming Winter 2011 edition of the Earth Island Journal

The first thing to say about the climate negotiations this December is that they’re teetering at the edge of what, back in the day, we used to call a “legitimacy crisis.” On every side, people are eager to suggest that the negotiations…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – November 5, 2010

You Want Loopholes with That?

The take-away for Progressives from the climate legislation debacle

The bad news is that the climate/energy push just crashed and burned in the Senate.  The good news is that, in the wake of that crash, the US climate community is having a robust Big Think.  The last time we had such an…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – August 12, 2010

Forward from Copenhagen

The Emissions Emergency Is a Crisis of Justice

First, a confession: This is not another enumeration of confident judgments. I will not tell you that Copenhagen was an unmitigated failure. Or that this failure was Obama’s fault. Or that, as is the new fashion, China was the ugliest of them all. I will not say that the South’s negotiators made impossible demands. Or argue that the United Nations’ process is unwieldy and obsolete. I will not claim that only domestic…
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by: Tom Athanasiou – Spring 2010

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