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Join Publishing Director Matt Lloyd in celebrating Earth Day, 'Stay Educated with Cambridge' and help to spread scientific knowledge on issues in ecology, the environment, policy and governance. Join in the discussion with #EarthDay and maybe join a #MarchForScience in your area.
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Robert L. Wilby, author of Climate Change in Practice, considers the culture of 'alternative facts' and discusses the legacy of Earth Day, the 'demise' of the Blue Whale and the importance of checking the details.
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Professor David Walton, Cambridge author, Editor of Antarctic Science and Emeritus Fellow at the British Antarctic Survey talks about climate change in the polar regions and what opportunities there are to address climate change holistically. Come back next Monday to hear more from other top scientists in polar and climate science!
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Author Edward B. Barbier explores the connection between worldwide debt and global warming.
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In Saturday’s New York Times, Justin Gillis spoke with several scholars – including Cambridge authors Don Worster (co-editor of our Environmental History series) and Ted Steinberg – on the subject of where the Gulf Oil Spill places on a hierarchy of environmental disasters. Could it really be the worst yet? The consensus seems to be that there is no definitive answer. The depth of our assessment appears to correlate more to a disaster's impact on the lives and livelihood of those affected, and less to the environmental ramifications of the event. Read more over at the NYT for a fascinating take on the “shades and complexities” of natural and man-made environmental disasters. While on the subject, here’s an excerpt from Myrna Santiago’s award-winning The Ecology of Oil: Environment, Labor, and the Mexican Revolution, 1900–1938 - discussing the disastrous social and environmental consequences of oil extraction. This detailed case study finds unique overlaps between labor and environmental concerns, taking a snapshot of history through the lens of the 1938 expropriation debate in Mexico. Santiago argues that oil production generated major historical and environmental transformations in systems of land use which, in turn, revolutionized the social organization of the country.
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From Copenhagen to ClimateGate, the context and controversy surrounding any discussion of global warming has proven a significant handicap. This week, a group of distinguished climate scientists, economists, and policy experts published The Hartwell Paper - the outcome of a meeting convened by The London School of Economics. Fundamentally re-framing climate policy, these experts argue for a radical change in approach, insisting that progress in confronting climate change is now possible because of the epic failure of international cooperation on policy in 2009. (Contributors to the Paper include the Press's own Professor Mike Hulme - who had been featured prominently in the coverage of the ClimateGate scandal and is author of Why We Disagree About Climate Change.) The Hartwell Paper proposes a three-pronged approach in objectives: ensuring energy access for all; ensuring that we develop in a manner that does not undermine the essential functioning of the Earth system; ensuring that our societies are adequately equipped to withstand the risks and dangers that come from all the vagaries of climate, whatever their cause may be. Learn more about their thesis on the LSE's homepage here. Delving into the discussion, Cambridge author Bjorn Lomborg aligns their findings with his own approach to climate change on The Project Syndicate. -------- TALKING SENSE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING Bjorn Lomborg LONDON - In February, 14 distinguished climate scientists, economists, and policy experts came together to discuss how to tackle global warming. This week, the London School of Economics and Oxford University are publishing their conclusions. They are worth considering.
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Last week, Bolivian President Evo Morales hosted a four-day summit on climate change - the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. Attracting more than 35,000 delegates from social movements and organizations from 140 countries, this alternative summit gathered indigenous groups, scientists, activists and delegations from lower income countries - a sharp contrast from the diplomatic representatives of December's Copenhagen Accord. Craig Collins, author of Toxic Loopholes: Failures and Future Prospects for Environmental Law, weighs in on the mission, message, and political expediency of the Bolivian Accord. ----- The message delivered by the poor nations and climate activists gathered in Bolivia this week is undeniably just: The world desperately needs an effective climate agreement. Rich countries are primarily responsible for causing this problem and have reaped most of benefits of two centuries of fossil-fueled industrialization. Therefore, they must bear most of the costs of responding to climate change and overcoming the world’s addiction to fossil fuels. Only the callous or ethically challenged would dispute this position on moral grounds. But even though the South’s case for climate justice is ethically sound, it may be politically doomed. Power, not morality, is the currency of international politics. In the corridors of power, the moral high ground is nearly worthless without real leverage to back it up. And, when it comes to climate change, the South has very little leverage to wrest justice from the North.
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Some say climate change is a farce. Some say the sky is falling. Now, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist tells the real story… Listen here to Dr. Burton Richter talk about Beyond Smoke and Mirrors on The Jim Bohannon Show and check out the book’s website for a video interview that goes beyond smoke and mirrors […]
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