Tag Archives: climate change

Climate Capitalism

Akshat Rathi makes the optimistic case that a reformed capitalism — shaped by government policy and serving the needs of society and the planet — is our best hope of tackling climate change. In Climate Capitalism he profiles key leaders who are helping to make progress happen. Continue reading →

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Our Fragile Moment

What can we learn from ancient episodes of climate change to help us deal with today’s climate crisis, to help us take the earliest possible off ramp from the global warming highway we’re speeding along? Renown environmental scientist Michael Mann sets out to answer that question in this book. Continue reading →

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Unsolicited Climate News

I’m not quite finished my latest book review so in the meantime here are some recent news reports about climate and clean energy that have caught my eye. 👎 In April, Donald Trump asked oil executives to contribute $1-billion (yes, … Continue reading →

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Washington State’s Climate Commitment Act Explained

In November 2024, voters in Washington State will cast ballots on Initiative 2117 which calls for repealing the state’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA). The CCA is one of seven major laws and programs Washington has enacted to fight climate change. This explainer describes the goals and features of the CCA. Continue reading →

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The War Below

The clean energy transition is forcing countries and communities to make very difficult choices. Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels means we need huge quantities of raw materials: lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, aluminum and other critical minerals. The War Below explores the conflicts around mining for the materials we need to power the clean energy transition. Continue reading →

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A century of reforestation is cooling the eastern US

New research shows that reforestation in the eastern United States has contributed to significant cooling of the region, countering the warming trends of climate change. Continue reading →

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Democracy in a Hotter Time

Democracy in a Hotter Time is a collection of essays about the relationship between climate change and democracy. The contributors do a good job diagnosing democracy’s problems dealing with the “long emergency” of climate change, but few propose practical solutions. I was disappointed by this book. Continue reading →

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Not the End of the World

Not the End of the World is a powerful antidote to climate doom-ism. Hannah Ritchie shows how our situation today, awful as it is, is still far better than the past. And she points to solutions that could make the future even better. Continue reading →

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The Rights of Nature

In 2017, New Zealand’s Parliament passed a law granting legal personhood to the Whanganui River. Granting legal rights and personhood to nature might seem crazy at first. But David Boyd explains in this book that extending rights to non-humans isn’t so strange after all, and could help save the planet. Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Environment, Law and justice | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

A Peek at Peaking

It’s official: 2023 was the hottest year on record. Yet the IEA predicts the world will reach peak carbon emissions before the end of this decade. Can both be true at the same time?

Here’s an infographic exploring the relationship between annual CO2 emissions, atmospheric CO2 concentration and global temperatures. Continue reading →

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