So, we’re like a college sophomore continuing to party and play video games instead of study in preparation for the final exam!
And we’re sophomoric with hubris and a singular focus on a panacea like “if we could just ...”
<<“phase out” of fossil fuel—which, after all, is what is required to have some hope of bringing climate change under control.>>
and
<< If this were a normal political problem, that might be okay: slow but steady progress counts.>>
This is an admission that we’re that sophomore in the middle of the final exam with the clock ticking down the final precious seconds and the critical answers to the test are MIA from our brain.
No super-hero or savior is going to intervene.
We needed to have several contingency plans, well-thought strategies with tactics to assure we pass the test with an A+ to offset out miserable semester grade average in order to graduate.
The sophomore would need a Time Machine to back up and redirect (Dooms Day cometh), but if we get cracking, we can strategize parallel paths to assure we cross the finish line and brake in time not to plunge over the precipice into the abyss (apologies for multiple mixed metaphors).
While we struggle to decarbonize, let’s initiate urgent extraordinary emergency triage interventions—like CPR and tourniquet—to save the patient in the near-term as the ultimate “true zero” objective is achieved.
To reduce global temperature requires we #RemoveCO2 #RemoveCH4 and #CoolTheArctic to curtail subsea methane release, lower atmospheric and oceanic concentrations, restore albedo, restore phytoplankton, fisheries and whale population (think carbon sequestration), restore jetstream and polar vortex normalcy, curtail Greenland, Himalayan, Antarctic and AMOC collapses.
Reducing emissions will not address these. Reducing the trillion tons of legacy excess accumulated emission already in the biosphere is what is needed, along with emergency direct cooling.
But few of us understand the physics. Especially those in charge (John Kerry and Joe Biden to name two very key individuals). I’m doing everything I can strategically to get to them. Let’s talk strategy.
Totally agree. The people who go to the next COP should be focused on forward looking. What can be done to fix/help this problem. We have a huge problem with legacy excess. I think it is essential that we stop putting CO2 and methane into the air as what we put into the air today becomes legacy tomorrow, but that doesn’t affect at all your argument that we also need to deal with the tidal wave of what we have already put into the atmosphere with will (and is) hitting us now. We need an actual world wide blue print from world leaders of who we are going to deal with these problems as they come because we all know (or should know) that how one country acts affects others. At this point I think there should be a study group made up of a delegate from each country as they are the people who have the power to implement the recommendations , scientists (more than one as there are so many aspects to climate change the working group will need to be briefed constantly by experts), someone representing NGO on the ground working with people to keep the group grounded , a few international lawyers to advise the group of what can be done and what cannot be done and with the chair being from the UN. Then have those people come up with a resolution to come to the next COP on how to move forward with mitigation and adaptation. Leave out industry because we know that industry will try to delay change. Make the change and then tell industry to come up with plans to fill the need. That is after all what happens in a capitalist economy which is what they preach all of the time. “They don’t have to be regulated as the market sets the rules. “ So let the market decide what they will provide. Hopefully that group would have a proposal for the COP and then at least discussion could start from a place of a well thought through plan.
Why aren’t the billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry revoked? Why do we continue to financially support what we know puts a livable future in peril?
We're trying to overcome inertia with public understanding of ground-truthed environmental damages here in Minnesota.
While the Minnesota DNR has only made public three of the deep water breaches Enbridge created during construction of their New Line 3, Waadookawaad Amikwag has evidence for almost 4 dozen sites! We revealed two of them in a noon webinar last week: https://youtu.be/BExeBIFFkLM?t=161
Waadookawaad Amikwag outlined one of the reported breaches that remains un-remediated.
Though Enbridge reported it fixed last November, the DNR were forced to admit - in August, following our press release - that Enbridge had told them in July, the water was still unrelentingly flowing. We'd known for months meaning the state was informed about this situation by Enbridge far later than made sense. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPVOKLFMFoAwr-YImR-Rz4LLkt5YlUYOc17i8OPKoB0/edit?usp=sharing
The State of Minnesota has now reached agreements - largely giving them no penalties or fines - with Enbridge which we feel are far too premature as environmental damages are STILL ONGOING along their corridor. Enbridge continues to struggle to remediate the unrelenting water flows they've created in the landscape. This includes the newly released site where there is now a 4' x 6' HOLE in the ground above their pipeline, in an unsteady glacial till valley no less. A hole so large you can even see it on Google Maps. 47°28'32.2"N 95°17'03.2"W
As we watch now, it seems Enbridge may have more plans to inject concrete grout into the land to try to stop the water. This hasn't worked in the other locations where they've tried it but it seems Enbridge's only response.
We are hopeful for federal investigations into the failings. And that this work will be completed BEFORE CONSIDERING any additional Enbridge permitting, most especially for it's Line 5 Re-route proposals in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Bill, thanks for all of the hard work you do. I feel we need to attack climate change from the ground up. You have mentioned where we hold our assets, avoiding oil driven banks, like Chase, etc. I would also like you, and all other environmentalists who have a soundboard, to employ all of us to reduce our meat intake. By only eating meat one meal a day (or less!), we can reduce the carbon footprint by a large margin. We need a social movement, like smoking cessation and wearing seatbelt, as a form of individual action for the greater good.
Always good to hear from you, Bill, and welcome back stateside. Best of wishes for the throat, and thanks for your work, and perspective. Your work, as always, both chills me to the bone and warms my heart. Live long and prosper, friend.
I have to say that as I followed COP this year I was, and am, incredibly disappointed. We have so little time left every COP is crucial. To see this precious time wasted debating about a fund that is not even funded made me grind my teeth. Of course it is necessary and completely morally obvious, but we should be fighting for our children (and our) lives. We need to get a all hands on deck mentality. Figure out how to transition off fossil fuels now, divest from financing fossil fuel companies, penalize banks et who do not stop the financing of FF companies, tax the living daylights out of those companies, subsidize them (and others) when they come on line with green energy and pay to developing nations to help them move to green energy and recover from climate related disasters. Frankly, it doesn’t matter who caused it, the climate emergency is here and we need to look after each other and get through it. Once we know that we have done everything we could as an earth family and we are still alive, then we can sort out who owes what to whom. Otherwise it’s going to be an interesting convo as we fall off the cliff.
So, we’re like a college sophomore continuing to party and play video games instead of study in preparation for the final exam!
And we’re sophomoric with hubris and a singular focus on a panacea like “if we could just ...”
<<“phase out” of fossil fuel—which, after all, is what is required to have some hope of bringing climate change under control.>>
and
<< If this were a normal political problem, that might be okay: slow but steady progress counts.>>
This is an admission that we’re that sophomore in the middle of the final exam with the clock ticking down the final precious seconds and the critical answers to the test are MIA from our brain.
No super-hero or savior is going to intervene.
We needed to have several contingency plans, well-thought strategies with tactics to assure we pass the test with an A+ to offset out miserable semester grade average in order to graduate.
The sophomore would need a Time Machine to back up and redirect (Dooms Day cometh), but if we get cracking, we can strategize parallel paths to assure we cross the finish line and brake in time not to plunge over the precipice into the abyss (apologies for multiple mixed metaphors).
While we struggle to decarbonize, let’s initiate urgent extraordinary emergency triage interventions—like CPR and tourniquet—to save the patient in the near-term as the ultimate “true zero” objective is achieved.
To reduce global temperature requires we #RemoveCO2 #RemoveCH4 and #CoolTheArctic to curtail subsea methane release, lower atmospheric and oceanic concentrations, restore albedo, restore phytoplankton, fisheries and whale population (think carbon sequestration), restore jetstream and polar vortex normalcy, curtail Greenland, Himalayan, Antarctic and AMOC collapses.
Reducing emissions will not address these. Reducing the trillion tons of legacy excess accumulated emission already in the biosphere is what is needed, along with emergency direct cooling.
But few of us understand the physics. Especially those in charge (John Kerry and Joe Biden to name two very key individuals). I’m doing everything I can strategically to get to them. Let’s talk strategy.
Totally agree. The people who go to the next COP should be focused on forward looking. What can be done to fix/help this problem. We have a huge problem with legacy excess. I think it is essential that we stop putting CO2 and methane into the air as what we put into the air today becomes legacy tomorrow, but that doesn’t affect at all your argument that we also need to deal with the tidal wave of what we have already put into the atmosphere with will (and is) hitting us now. We need an actual world wide blue print from world leaders of who we are going to deal with these problems as they come because we all know (or should know) that how one country acts affects others. At this point I think there should be a study group made up of a delegate from each country as they are the people who have the power to implement the recommendations , scientists (more than one as there are so many aspects to climate change the working group will need to be briefed constantly by experts), someone representing NGO on the ground working with people to keep the group grounded , a few international lawyers to advise the group of what can be done and what cannot be done and with the chair being from the UN. Then have those people come up with a resolution to come to the next COP on how to move forward with mitigation and adaptation. Leave out industry because we know that industry will try to delay change. Make the change and then tell industry to come up with plans to fill the need. That is after all what happens in a capitalist economy which is what they preach all of the time. “They don’t have to be regulated as the market sets the rules. “ So let the market decide what they will provide. Hopefully that group would have a proposal for the COP and then at least discussion could start from a place of a well thought through plan.
Why aren’t the billions in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry revoked? Why do we continue to financially support what we know puts a livable future in peril?
We're trying to overcome inertia with public understanding of ground-truthed environmental damages here in Minnesota.
While the Minnesota DNR has only made public three of the deep water breaches Enbridge created during construction of their New Line 3, Waadookawaad Amikwag has evidence for almost 4 dozen sites! We revealed two of them in a noon webinar last week: https://youtu.be/BExeBIFFkLM?t=161
Waadookawaad Amikwag outlined one of the reported breaches that remains un-remediated.
Though Enbridge reported it fixed last November, the DNR were forced to admit - in August, following our press release - that Enbridge had told them in July, the water was still unrelentingly flowing. We'd known for months meaning the state was informed about this situation by Enbridge far later than made sense. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pPVOKLFMFoAwr-YImR-Rz4LLkt5YlUYOc17i8OPKoB0/edit?usp=sharing
The State of Minnesota has now reached agreements - largely giving them no penalties or fines - with Enbridge which we feel are far too premature as environmental damages are STILL ONGOING along their corridor. Enbridge continues to struggle to remediate the unrelenting water flows they've created in the landscape. This includes the newly released site where there is now a 4' x 6' HOLE in the ground above their pipeline, in an unsteady glacial till valley no less. A hole so large you can even see it on Google Maps. 47°28'32.2"N 95°17'03.2"W
Waadookawaad Amikwag also outlined the timeline of damage at this site - showing how it has degraded over time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ojLKd5Yi1M
As we watch now, it seems Enbridge may have more plans to inject concrete grout into the land to try to stop the water. This hasn't worked in the other locations where they've tried it but it seems Enbridge's only response.
We are hopeful for federal investigations into the failings. And that this work will be completed BEFORE CONSIDERING any additional Enbridge permitting, most especially for it's Line 5 Re-route proposals in Wisconsin and Michigan.
We wouldn't wish this experience on anyone.
Here's more from the Q&A as well. https://youtu.be/IYwq2TVoyjI?t=231
Follow Waadookawaad Amikwag at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQpEkKX9mRvCDYst5Qxvd7g
Bill, thanks for all of the hard work you do. I feel we need to attack climate change from the ground up. You have mentioned where we hold our assets, avoiding oil driven banks, like Chase, etc. I would also like you, and all other environmentalists who have a soundboard, to employ all of us to reduce our meat intake. By only eating meat one meal a day (or less!), we can reduce the carbon footprint by a large margin. We need a social movement, like smoking cessation and wearing seatbelt, as a form of individual action for the greater good.
See We Are the Weather by Johnathan Safran Foer
Always good to hear from you, Bill, and welcome back stateside. Best of wishes for the throat, and thanks for your work, and perspective. Your work, as always, both chills me to the bone and warms my heart. Live long and prosper, friend.
I have to say that as I followed COP this year I was, and am, incredibly disappointed. We have so little time left every COP is crucial. To see this precious time wasted debating about a fund that is not even funded made me grind my teeth. Of course it is necessary and completely morally obvious, but we should be fighting for our children (and our) lives. We need to get a all hands on deck mentality. Figure out how to transition off fossil fuels now, divest from financing fossil fuel companies, penalize banks et who do not stop the financing of FF companies, tax the living daylights out of those companies, subsidize them (and others) when they come on line with green energy and pay to developing nations to help them move to green energy and recover from climate related disasters. Frankly, it doesn’t matter who caused it, the climate emergency is here and we need to look after each other and get through it. Once we know that we have done everything we could as an earth family and we are still alive, then we can sort out who owes what to whom. Otherwise it’s going to be an interesting convo as we fall off the cliff.