Copenhagen Climate Conference

Posted by: Chantal Klaver - 04 November 2009 16:45:00 - 933 days ago

73 messages posted

What books should we be reading to be up to date with everything around COP 15?

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Re: Copenhagen Climate Conference

Posted by: Chantal Klaver - 04 November 2009 16:48:00 - 933 days ago

73 messages posted

A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis by Al Gore

Joseph Romm, Center for American Progress: When your last work led to an Oscar and Nobel Prize, anticipation is high on the sequel. And former US Vice President Al Gore's new book delivers. Our Choice, due out in November, is a wonderfully readable treatise on climate solutions.

Whereas An Inconvenient Truth framed the crisis that climate negotiations are tackling, this followup spells out what needs to be done. Based on 30 of Gore's 'Solutions Summits' as well as one-on-one discussions with leading experts across multiple disciplines, the book aims, in Gore's words, "to gather in one place all of the most effective solutions that are available now". Gore naturally focuses on energy, the source of most anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and discusses many underappreciated strategies such as concentrated solar thermal power and cogeneration. He also devotes a full chapter to soil, a major carbon sink that is gradually degrading. Farming strategies for restoring soil carbon are described, including biochar, a porous charcoal that can potentially enhance the soil sink while providing a source of low-carbon power. And like its PowerPoint-based predecessor, Our Choice is replete with lush photos and simple but powerful charts.

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Re: Copenhagen Climate Conference

Posted by: Chantal Klaver - 04 November 2009 16:50:00 - 933 days ago

73 messages posted

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark Lynas

Tony Juniper, campaigner and former director of Friends of the Earth: Allowing the average global temperature to rise more than 2 °C above its pre-industrial level would be the gravest crime in history. To understand why, climate negotiators — and the ministers who issue their instructions — should read Six Degrees.

The recent climate science tells us that up to 6 °C of warming above pre-industrial temperatures is possible by 2100 if we continue on our current emissions path. Journalist Mark Lynas's accessible book draws on both future projections and evidence from the past to paint a vivid picture of the changes we can expect with each degree of warming. Six Degrees reveals the practical implications of the different emissions reduction pathways that will be argued over in Copenhagen.

With 3 °C of warming, massive feedbacks would occur, rainforest would die back and major rivers would be lost, causing vast economic damage and human suffering. At 4 °C, a very different world would emerge, and it would not be conducive to the maintenance of secure economic and social conditions. Unfortunately, this is the expected outcome from modest emissions cuts, presuming they are actually delivered. Policymakers will have to forge a highly ambitious deal to avoid the crisis.

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Re: Copenhagen Climate Conference

Posted by: Chantal Klaver - 04 November 2009 16:54:00 - 933 days ago

73 messages posted

With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change by Fred Pearce

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Copenhagen Climate Conference

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