Links tagged “mkey”

"Degrowth" involves a purposeful contraction of the economy

Some climate-focused economists see the COVID-19 pandemic as an unwitting experiment for a radical strategy to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The concept is called "degrowth." It involves a planned slowdown of economic sectors that emit large amounts of global carbon dioxide. Those sectors would scale down until the broader economy meets "sustainable emissions levels," advancing long-term health and environmental goals.

Natasha Chassagne of the University of Tasmania: There are "opportunities we can take away from the coronavirus emergency." ...

"'Degrowth' involves a purposeful contraction of high-emitting sectors while growing other sectors that produce low or zero emissions." 

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Flashback: Sierra Club Touts Economic ‘De-Growth’: ‘We have to de-grow our economy’ to ‘temper climate disruption, and foster a stable, equitable world economy’ – ‘WORK LESS TO LIVE MORE’

Flashback: Warmist Prof. Alice Bows-Larkin calls for ‘planned recessions’ to fight ‘global warming’: ‘Economic growth needs to be exchanged’ for ‘planned austerity’ – ‘Whole system change’

Flashback: STUDY in Nature: Global wealth redistribution, economic ‘degrowth’ needed to fight ‘global warming’

Flashback: ‘A planned economic recession’: Global warming prof. Kevin Anderson – who has ‘cut back on showering’ to save planet – asserts economic ‘de-growth’ is needed to fight climate change

Now is the time for global leaders to create one world government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged on Thursday. ...

“This is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” he said. “There has to be a coordinated global response.” ...

Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis is hurting humanity, with Covid-19 a ‘clear warning shot’, say experts ...

Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, according to the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen.

Andersen said humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences, and warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves. Leading scientists also said the Covid-19 outbreak was a “clear warning shot”, given that far more deadly diseases existed in wildlife, and that today’s civilisation was “playing with fire”. They said it was almost always human behaviour that caused diseases to spill over into humans.

To prevent further outbreaks, the experts said, both global heating and the destruction of the natural world for farming, mining and housing have to end, as both drive wildlife into contact with people.

Teen activist JAMIE MARGOLIN: "If we can shut the world down to stop a virus, that also means it is possible to do the same for climate change.
Treat all emergencies like emergencies!" (Also see: Former UN Env. Director approvingly cites activist’s message: ‘If we can shut the world down to stop a virus, that also means it is possible to do the same for climate change’)

Margolin in Teen Vogue: "The way the world has been able to mobilize itself and shut down in the blink of an eye to properly respond to the coronavirus is proof that political leaders actually do have the ability to make rapid change happen if they want. So where is that rapid response for the climate crisis?...

For years, climate justice activists like myself have been calling for immediate action on our climate emergency. And for years, that action has not taken place....

Why have there not been coronavirus levels of shutting down and completely rewiring our society? Every time I meet with lawmakers and tell them that we need rapid transformation to halt climate change, they tell me “change that fast just isn’t possible.” But the COVID-19 world response has proven that rapid change and disruption of business as usual is possible! ...

What would it look like when the world actually decides to take on the climate crisis? It would look like what we’re seeing right now. Media coverage of the issue 24/7. Consistent headlines about updated death tolls. Experts appearing on the news daily to update the public on the crisis. Everyone stopping everything and putting the world on pause to deal with the immediate crisis at hand. ...

Pandemic response is simply trying to mitigate a disaster, while urgent climate response is not only mitigating disaster, but actively creating a better world."

Greenland: "Most of the ice loss is the result of receding glacier fronts, but the DMI confirmed in Nov 2018 that glaciers have more or less maintained their area since 2012. There is therefore no evidence of accelerating ice loss since 2003.

The claim that the Greenland icecap has been losing ice at a faster rate than in the 1990s is true, but it is also a red herring and has no bearing on future rates of loss. In 2003, scientists reported that Greenland had cooled significantly between 1958 and 2001. Unsurprisingly during this period of cooling ice loss slowed markedly. Since 2001, temperatures have recovered to levels generally seen in the 1930s and 40s (Fig 2), with a resultant increase in ice loss."

"Globally, sea levels have been rising steadily at a rate of about 2mm a year since the late 19thC, with a slow down between the 1960s and 90s. And, as the IPCC’s latest Assessment Report pointed out, the recent rate of rise has been similar to that between 1920 and 1950."

Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked former UN chief Figueres: "Is there any sense that this could be self-controlling -- that as we see economic growth possibly slowing down around the world, because of coronavirus -- that's actually good for the climate?"

Christiana Figueres replied: "Well, that is, ironically, of course, the other side of this -- right? It may be good for climate. But I think -- because there is less trade, there's less travel, there's less commerce."

Weaponizing Coronavirus: Figueres also said: Expect more disease outbreaks ‘if we continue to deny, delude and delay on climate change’

Figueres also used the coronavirus as an opportunity to plug the UN's campaign to reduce and stop meat-eating around the world. "If we continue to eat animals, we will actually be poisoning ourselves and being the genesis new diseases that we have not seen before," Figueres explained. [See: ‘Food Police’ –UN Meat report: UN seeks ‘massive expansion of the UN’s regulatory power…lifestyle controls’]

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Also see: Climate activists celebrate ‘the benefits of coronavirus’ – ‘It is fantastic for the environment’ – Economic slowdown is ‘good news for the ecologists’

The Week mag touts impact of coronavirus as a ‘win for the environment’ – ‘A significant reduction of…carbon footprints’