A Green Degree Blog: New Angles On Sustainability

November 26th 2012

The London Climate Forum: The Best Bits (Inc. Talk Of Treason!)

The London Climate Forum, not something I can honestly say I’d ever heard of prior to joining Imperial College just over 2 months ago, but in many ways, I’m unsure as to how I never got wind of it in the first place. In short, it is a fascinating, insightful and cutting-edge forum which anybody interested in climate and sustainability, even those who aren’t, should endeavour to get involved with.

For those, like me initially, who are not clued up at all on this project, let me provide a brief summary. The London Climate Forum is an entirely student-led and organised conference based within Imperial College, and is the biggest in London, and quite possibly the country in terms of size, attendance and speakers welcomed to the stage. It runs over just two days, Saturday and Sunday, but offers up some serious clout with it’s multiple leading thinkers in the worlds of sustainability, business, policy and academia, all of whom grasp the opportunity to reach out to the new generation of green ‘ecowarriors’ in an attempt to inspire the next big thing(s).

The Forum’s goal? To speak directly to those who are on the frontier of the climate agenda across a wide variety of sectors, whilst entertaining the chance that through events like these, the solutions we so desperately seek in solving climate change may be nurtured within it’s walls. So it’s a modest goal to say the least…but one which we are all highly invested in, and one which was in full swing this weekend as the Forum was expertly carried out.

I wanted to, as succinctly as I feel possible doing, summarise some of the major talking points and stances which the stage was party to over the weekend just past, just to scratch the surface of some of the subjects covered. And trust me, there were many, so bare with me!

Day One

The first day was mostly focused on the present; what the current climate is doing, why it is doing this, what we are currently (mostly not) doing to mitigate it, and how business is adapting to tackle the myriad new challenges such change is bringing about. Two eminent and, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me saying this, highly outspoken campaigners filled the morning, in the form of Tony Juniper and Tom Burke, the latter part of a panel trio who, combined with the director of our very own Grantham Institute, painted a rather desperate and somewhat depressing picture of a story we all have unfortunately come to know intimately.

Bow Down & Worship A New Religion: Environmentalism

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Well this is certainly the next step of many in what is becoming a sinister and highly damaging movement against the entire environmental sector and it’s advocates, one which threatens in all seriousness to completely derail the impressive progress made over the recent decades; environmentalism is now being branded as ‘a new religion’. Yep, you read that right, if you’re green, you’re simply a sheep following the crowd into the abyss.

When I first read of this moronic idea a good few months ago, I wrote a blog piece on how enviromentalists were akin to satanists in their worship of Mother Earth, and that any who avidly follow it to the point of speaking out against the normal flow of things should be ignored on the grounds of simple heresy. Back then, I wasn’t too angered by the premise, and I actually couldn’t help but laugh at the entire ordeal, which to me felt like a badly visualised attempt at attacking the science of sustainability and the environment, which bombed like a lead balloon. I’m sure many of you who knew of it at the time laughed along with me, and didn’t give it much of a second thought.

However, history has come back around, and this time it carries some real bile and the potential to cause extreme disruption to the entire green movement. Anti-environmentalists and climate deniers have spewed some wonderfully abstract and pointless words in the past in their vein attempts to collapse the industry before it gets fully rooted, and for the most part the wider public has been sane enough to see through these attacks and to focus on the bigger picture, where science and evidence prevail, not the blind punches dealt by the radical haters. Think of the Heartland Institute or fossil fuel lobbies - not the smartest of cookies, but rich enough to fool us into thinking it.

So then, what about environmentalism as a religion? That could actually mean something, something powerful, and the idea truly angers, scares and deeply worries me.

Religion as we know it is the following of a deity or faith, not often based upon evidence or solid fact, but something higher, a sometimes irrational belief that our world and lives are affected at every level by a force outside our control. This faith is stronger than any science can even attempt to rationalise, and can grow like wildfire into the wider public through simple preaching of the belief, with any counter argument shot down in the blink of an eye.

Now, we combine this with environmentalism, the crucial and utterly scientific understanding of our natural surroundings, how we consume and use them, what direction they’re headed in, how we can sustain them and simply put, how completely important they are in our everyday life. This field covers everything from sustainability, to renewable energy, climate change and food security, all of which are issues constantly debated on the global stage and described as the very defining problems of our time.

In recent years, environmentalism has grown in popularity and political attention greatly, but it has divided a good amount of people at the same time. Climate science, model simulations and renewables in particular have come under constant fire from the other side for being unreliable, expensive, unconstitutional and even backwards, all the while we continue to pump out carbon and pollute our only home. I for one consider myself a relatively open advocate of this movement, although the word movement degrades environmentalism to a simple fad, and am a complete atheist, which I should note does not come into this subject, which shouldn’t involve religion at all.

By placing environmentalism well within the realms of religion, you instantly take away all of the endeavour and scientific rigour that accompanies it. There is a clear divide - environmentalism is purely scientific and relies entirely on evidence from multiple fields coming together under one umbrella. Religion is purely faith-based; evidence does not come into it. Herein lies the crucial issue with this comparison. In effect, environmentalism is reduced from an evidence battle, to one which must be believed on faith alone, despite the mountains of data available.

No longer can those who speak out for the science side be seen as professionals or well-informed individuals, but instead as radicals and extremists who are akin to religious zealots, who everyone quickly learns to ignore. The public will become accostomed to viewing new advances in the environmental sector as nothing but a faith in science, and soon popularity will rapidly drop off the cliff.

Alongside this, those who come out as against environmentalism will feel secure and protected by those around them harbouring the same feelings. No more will climate deniers and skeptics be viewed as uninformed or illiterate, but as individuals with faiths in other things, a heretic if you like to the new green religion, and this is a much safer place to be than outside of the scientific crowd.

This entire idea is driven by the one thing that is becoming more and more evident as time goes on; those against sustainability and science are rapidly becoming the outsiders, and must be increasingly vocal in their attempts to shout us down and make themselves known. Branding their enemy as a religion is by far their most inventive way to do this, and proves their desperation in quelling it once and for all.

What’s more worrying is that some major names have begun to think and talk along these lines, including the very creator of the Gaia Hypotheis, James Lovelock, someone who could be viewed as a founding father of the green ideology from which environmentalism has stemmed. Even if his and others mention of religious comparisons was purely incidental and meant as a warning rather than a message, it is not a stones throw away to warp their words into evidence that even these great thinkers have cottoned onto the premise.

We cannot let this idea latch on and multiply like a virus, that is the simple truth. This could be far too damaging to everyone involved in the field and, to humanity as a whole. You may think I’m being over dramatic there, but think of it this way. Bringing the environment to the forefront of our thoughts is more crucia than ever, and finally it may actually be gaining some serious momentum, even despite the failings at Rio+20. To let it be ripped apart and have its reputation tarnished because it was morphed into a ‘faith’ and not a science would be, in my eyes, one of the greatest injustices committed against our intelligence in our entire history.

Environmentalism can be many things; a political agenda, a global convention, an individual hobby or a simple ideology, but to compare it to any form of faith, religion included, is just plain insanity. I almost can’t swallow it.

Posted at 10:26am and tagged with: Climate, Science, Religion, Faith, Environmentalism, Evidence, Carbon, Renewable, Gaia, Mother earth, Worship, Heretic, Politics, Rio+20, Green, Denial, Climate change, Sustainability,.

June 27th 2012

With Rio+20, We’ve Finally Realised That Global Conventions Just Don’t Work

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Well there it is, Rio+20, done and dusted; three days of intense talks and intricate decision-making, being carried out by the most important people on the entire planet, with the rest of the entire planet at their heels desperate for a concrete, smart response on how to change the way we ravage our blue marble. Some story eh? A tale almost too lofty to consider, and yet we went and did it anyway.

Many of us hailed the latest UN +whatever talks as the moment the globe had been waiting on for over 20 years - our leaders would finally, once and for all, stand as one and vote to save this fledgling home we have, the only thing we lowly humans can trust in the darkness of space in which it floats. After the poorly constructed and ultimately pointless convention of 1992, it seemed like Brazil might actually be able to bring forth a new era of sustainability and usher in the ‘Future We Want’. This 20 year anniversary would be the winning moment, a historical event.

Well, after all the hype, hope and hysterics, what do we have? It’s fair to say, absolutely squat. In fact, I tell a lie; we have some things, things which amount to grains of sand in the grand scheme, which I shall come to a little later, but it’s safe to assume from this point onwards, that Rio+20 stunningly failed to prove anything, or provide even the slightest of substantial changes on the global agenda that is our collective future.

As I wrote in my previous post, when you put so many powerful, influential people into one single room, hold up a draft text detailing multiple deadly serious issues and their consequences on our entire society and expect that text to be signed by each and every one of them, it requires more than a stretch of reality to believe it will succeed. Our leaders are simply too individual in their decision-making, too tied to their own domestic motives, and in most cases, not the proper voice of their people.

So when you have Rio+20 going in with the expectations of a world on its shoulders and literally the most pressing matters of perhaps our entire history to address, we must have been mad to think that anything inspiring would come of it; it’s just too big a deal for something so short-lived and small-minded to conquer. With this in mind, I actually retract some of my prior negativity towards the likely outcomes of this process in my earlier post, as in fact, I was unfair in shooting it down so readily. No single stage should be burdened with such a monumental bodge job to fix, however many ‘leaders’ turn up.

But enough of that for the moment, time to list what Rio+20 actually managed to achieve amongst all the bickering and political jousting, even if it did take plenty of waiting and digging to find articles detailing such things. Over $500bn was pledged to to several issues, such as energy, food and water and ocean management, but no specifics were mentioned, whilst a seemingly arbitrary number of 800,000 tons of PVC was agreed to be recycled, whatever recycled truly meant.

Alongside this, the planting of over 100 million trees around the world was decided upon, though how this compares to the current deforestation rate which I have yet to see addressed in the talks is unknown, and gender equality a key basis for many development strategies. Apologies for seeming so cynical and judging for the sake of it, but these are simply the first thoughts running through my mind when I read these apparent successes initially, and believe that to get excited over such things is premature and nothing but setting yourself up for a fall.

Rio+20: One Big Melee Of Motives & Morals Going Nowhere

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Let me just start this post by explicitly stating my views on the upcoming Rio+20 convention, set to kick off later today in Brazil, which may hold the keys to a future radically different from our current one, either for the bad or good. I wholeheartedly hope and wish that something good comes from this meeting of leaders, that a proper binding agreement, with goals, punishments and harsh realities, one that actually kicks our lazy society into gear truly does rise from the ashes and usher in a new day; I would love nothing more than for this to be accomplished, and I have always thought this.

However, whilst hoping for this, I believe in an entirely different outcome - that nothing useful, meaningful or optimistic will result from Rio+20, or any future global event, and that not only will it simply prove to be a stage for multiple nations to bicker and fight for three days straight, but will also prove to give nothing towards to the future we want.

I nurture this gut feeling from past experience and current knowledge of the structure of such conventions on environments, energy and development. Most, if not all of the past +whatever conventions have resulted in absolutely squat, with the Kyoto Protocol the only real agreement I’ve seen which may have actually made a difference to our global society, and even that is set to die this winter without any hope of a successor. Add to this the fact that multiple powerful nations, of which I feel I do not have to name, have continually proven to be like children stubbornly refusing to go to bed, blocking all hope of a unifying agreement on anything from carbon emissions to green job investment. None of this has changed this year.

In my opinioin, when Rio+20 finally opens it’s door to its many leaders and closes it behind them, all that will proceed will be a mad scramble to see who can shout the loudest, point the straightest finger and pull the angriest face. Think of it this way; when you have some of the most powerful people in the current political and economical sphere, all whom harbour untold morals, ethics, hidden motives and plans under their bonnets, and who have all their life grown up not listening to others but actively seeking to control them, it is daft not to think nothing whatsoever will be accomplished. Continuing with this notion, it is not hard to stretch the imagination to the point where it is simply children fighting over a candy bar.

To take us back down to earth once again, consider this approach. Some leaders will want clear goals on emission reductions, such as Europe and Japan, some want advances in renewable energy investment and green sector growth, some want CCS and natural has to take centre stage, whilst others simply want to end the whole thing there and then and go back to their fossil fuel rich lands without legal requirement to stop pillaging them. You cannot expect to put so many powerful voices against one another and expect a resoundingly democratic response to come out of it, and that is the horribly unfortunate truth of the matter, one I’ve tried to ignore for so long.

Thinking along these lines, it staggers me to think how anything ever got done through this mass gathering process, and yet progress of a small calibre has been made in some areas. REDD+ was at least recognised and drafted in the mid-noughties, Kyoto set tough but realistic emission goals and the backing of giants such as US and China finally came on board to at least listen to the rest of the world in the past several conventions. These made future gathering look like ever closer to the final ‘this is it’ moment, when a real, legally binding, sustainable agreement would be ratified by all involved. But here lies the problem. Every time one fails to achieve what it set out to do so, everyone simply shouts that the next one is when it will really happen, and that waiting another year for something to result is perfectly acceptable, despite the ravaging the environment undergoes during this time.

This time however is looking just as bleak as the last, with many nations causing trouble across the entire board. The US has effectively rewritten the initial draft in favour of vague terms and practically pointless prose, whilst the UK has ruined its own climate policies and energy roadmaps with slashes in prices and restrcutrings entirely unnecessary. Couple this with the current economic crisis, elections and Euro woes keeping Obama and Cameron from even attending the talks, and highly destructive logging and fossil fuel practices in Brazil, the host nation for the damn convention, and we have a perfect storm of absolutely zero progress in any direction.

Despite this, there is perhaps a glimmer of hope. This year, the talks are party to the first attempt by a globalised social network of concerned citizens and supporters to actively influence decisions on the global stage. The endfossilfuelsubsidies Twitterstorm, Avaaz, 350, Rio+Social and multiple other outlets have all acted together to slam home how much this means to the global society, and that we desperately want our voices heard by each and every leader.

Alongside this, more and more nations now recognise the extreme threat that warming climates, rising seas, carbon emissions and biome degradation really carry, and with the science only getting stronger, there is less room for them to squirm around in and avoid the real issues. Perhaps, with a determined and combined pincer attack by the socially active public and the obvious knowledge that we have screwed with our planet for too long, something may actually come from Rio+20, just something.

I’m certainly not thinking of anything truly legally binding and goal-setting, but just maybe, a draft which demonstrates that our global leaders, the rich who hold the power to change how we treat this world, have listened for once, and considered what their public have to say. For me personally, a true decision on redirecting fossil fuel subsidies into renewable investment is my highest of priorities. The only thing that rides higher than this, is that we finally realise that by flunking this convention, we cannot hope to believe the next one will be ‘it’, because it won’t be. We are rapidly running out of time for these events to be occurring, so something must be done now.

Posted at 10:17am and tagged with: Rio+20, Rio, Rioplusocial, Debate, Economy, Politics, Ban ki moon, UN, China, US, emissiions, Fossil fuels, Energy, Global, Development, Future we want, Subsidies, Carbon, Future, Sustainability, Twitter,.

May 29th 2012

Explaining My Lack Of Blogging & Finishing My Uni Degree

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To any of you wonderful people out there who actually still read/fall upon this blog, I just wanted to send out a little notice about my lack of action on the blog, both of recent times, and in the next few days.

Basically, I’ve been in the last few weeks of my 3rd year at university, so have been cramming hard for exams and not really having much of a social life, let alone time to blog, although I’ve sorely missed it.

However, tomorrow is my last exam, and with it the end of my degree and the opening of unlimited free time to get back on the Green Degree wagon, especially given the fun stuff happening in the world of sustainability of late. Once I’ve celebrated in the usual student fashion, I should be back on the blog and writing by Wednesday/Thursday, with much more content to come.

Hopefully I’ll be seeing you all again if you stop by, and as always, appreciate any feedback.

http://vulcanvillage.wordpress.com/tag/cramming-for-final-exams/

Posted at 10:22am and tagged with: university, exams, cramming, sustainability, news, blog, degree, social, life, none, freedom,.

April 30th 2012

Has Climate Change & Sustainability Become A Boring, Out-Of-Touch Subject For Us?

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Of late, I have been beginning to question the effectiveness of our current communication of climate change issues and all their depressingly apparent relations, and whether the efforts of a global population are actually getting through to those people that really matter. Simply put, is the whole science of man-made climate change just too boring and dire for most people to care for; or is the wonderful buzz-word of the 21st century thus-far, sustainability, actually the trigger for snores all around.

I say this primarily because of the reactions some of my close friends have had to my blog and the issues I try and communicate to them within it, as well as when talking to them directly. Although many have commented on how professional or fancy it looks (sorry to blow trumpets, I honestly think they’re being kind) which is all well and good, but it’s their next comments which worry me - all but one has gone onto say that, it’s basically too damn boring, or ‘sciency’ and rarely worth their time reading for them to invest any effort in checking the actual substance of the blog out. Hmmmm.

Now admittedly, this is likely because the majority of them do not study, or have a real interest in anything to do with environmental science or the state of global energy needs, not least to the level I do, but I am always trying to write my posts and my thoughts down in the most informal and chatty of ways, so as to entice the broadest audience I can. Maybe this just isn’t the case however, and my posts are in fact too wordy or niche for people lacking a knowledge of the topics to get involved. By the way, if this is the case, please please please comment on my blog, send me advice or criticism and help me improve the thing, I’m feeling lonely here.

Moving away from my simple little blog, I remember a post I did a while back surrounding the US youth and their commitment to sustainability issues (I am moving away from it, I promise), in which multiple studies had been carried out assessing this very subject. I was surprised to see that the large majority of US residents were well aware of the problems of climate and concerned, in some cases deeply, about the consequences.

What I was more surprised about however was a study by the Chicago AP on students, or the ‘millennials’, those of us born straight into the climate debate. Here they found that this group has become increasingly un-invested in the environment and concern has been dropping off, with many seemingly admitting defeat or turning their heads to other, more accessible issues. One of the most convincing answers I’ve seen explaining this study, and one I share completely, is that the combined media coverage, doomsaying individuals and countless numbers of studies released daily by the academic circles is literally drowning some people.

Students just cannot handle the multiple directions the information is coming from, and have become fatigued by climate and the science, shutting down their emotional response to it. This is highly worrying, and was brought home to me when my friends commented on my blog, and is the factor I feel most at risk of derailing the entire sustainability effort if nothing is done.

Climate communication has always been one of the biggest issues faced by policy-makers and governmental bodies, but now more than ever I feel we have the technology to elevate it to a global scale. Social media. With the immense social-sphere acting as a voice and a catalyst for literally billions of people around the world, socialising sustainability is pretty much the only option we’ve got left which can be effected quickly and efficiently.

We’ve tried fancy policy, involving public groups in the debate, banging on about how inherently dangerous, petty, greedy and out of control our society is, and last but not least attempting to get each and every country on the same side for many global conventions, and yet emissions still peak and fossil fuels burn.

I think it’s now time for a social, digital approach. Rio+20 is taking the lead, with it’s Social project, the first of its kind, and many more need to follow in its footsteps. If we can, as a global society, empower a network of ‘millennials’ to rekindle their interest in saving this little blue planet, perhaps through the use of a social network style comparing of company CSR or individuals, combined with a platform where effective dialogue can be introduced. This may be a rather grand and fleeting idea on my part, but it has almost got to that stage where we require more than just a kick up the ass. Let’s hope climate tipping isn’t that boot.

Posted at 1:14pm and tagged with: opinion, climate change, sustainability, energy, global, society, humans, boring, youth, millennial, science, technology, personal, fatigue, fossil fuel, students, communication, policy,.

April 11th 2012

US Coal Exports Rise And The Asians Keep On Consuming

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It’s astounding to chart the rise in Asian coal consumption of the last decade, with the graph in the middle of this piece no doubt shocking you as it did me. Obviously I understand there are inherently more people in the Asian states, but that rise is obscene in magnitude and actually seems to pick up in speed in the last 2 years, which I personally find very hard to swallow and rather worrying in terms of our future climate. When this is compared with the progress Europe and the US have made in reducing their consumption, it’s simply wrong.

Now the reasoning, or at least a large part of it, is due to the graph you see above, detailing US coal exports for the past 6 years, which has, as of 2011 reached a peak never before experienced, at an all time high of ~107,000 thousand short tonnes. That means that the US is effectively sending it’s generous deposits of domestically produced coal all the way to the other side of the world, for the Asians, and more than likely China to readily absorb and burn. This also accounts for the strangely large drop in consumption by the US, as they forgo burning for selling.

It’s not hard to see that there is a link between this peak-coal export and increased consumption, and of course there are other trade routes and factors adding to this problem, but the fact that the US have actively moved to coal-dominant exportation and yet still harp on about using renewables for a better world, is a sinister and dangerous happening.

With America offloading it’s fossil fuels to outside parties who welcome the chance to avoid mining their own or tarnishing their environmental reputation, they can happily progress in the knowledge that they are not burning it themselves. What use is introducing green technology if the coal that should be left in the ground is simply making its way round the world, dropping of carbon as it travels?

This is the unfortunate reality these graphs and studies demonstrate, and is no doubt a practice being carried out by many other developed nations. It is likely driven by a more gas-centered economy in the modern world, with oil and coal looked down upon as the dirty and irresponsible fuels that they are; for America to find a way to free up these abundant reserves without actually using them, at the same time making a tidy profit, it’s no surprise they snapped up the chance.

For how long this will go on for is unknown. Other nations may become wise to this trick and begin finger-pointing the Obama administration and America’s fossil fuel industries. However these fingers should also be turned on the receiving end of things, at the Asia’s. Solar and wind are booming in this part of the world, and have been the subject of many headlines, but this importation of coal must be stemmed if real climate progress is to be made. Without a carbon tax, dropping your coal off in another country and letting them deal with the consequences will end up biting all of us in the *** in the end.

http://www.solarfeeds.com/u-s-coal-exports-20-year-high/

http://grist.org/list/chart-the-mind-boggling-rise-in-asian-coal-consumption/

Posted at 11:03am and tagged with: US, china, asia, carbon, coal, exports, fossil fuel, renewable, sustainability, economy, trade,.

April 8th 2012

Rio +20 Goes Social To Communicate With And Involve Public

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The upcoming Rio +20 UN Convention on Sustainable Development, to be held in Rio de Janeiro mid-June is another potential milestone in the green calendar, heralding the chance for a global accord and decision on how best to tackle our biggest issues facing us today.

As I’m sure many of you know, these issues include a wide array of topics, from poverty to overpopulation, all the way to water availability, but the one I am interested in the most involves energy and the future of our climate and emissions. This is where some of the biggest decision needs to made and actively followed through, unlike the relatively weak and non-legally binding Kyoto Protocol which ends as we say goodbye to 2012.

The public has always been mostly left out of these global debates and conventions, with the extent of our involvement being reading constant Twitter updates, articles in newspapers and via particular blogs whose lucky owners have been granted access. Until now, there was never really anyway to actively partake and offer our opinions to the global stage, aside from shouting our views out on the social-sphere for other like minded individuals to follow up on.

This year that changes. A new social media tool called Rio+Social has been introduced through the UN and partner digital deities such as Mashable and 92Y, acting as a planet-spanning forum for us citizens to get heavily and actively involved in the process. The coming together of so many digital bloggers, journos and top dogs will provide the opportunity for questions to be answered and posed which will actually make their way to the people in control of the convention, and in many ways our own future. Neat right?

This is the first time the public will not only be able to follow the Summit closely like before, but be able to get properly involved with the dialogue throughout the few days of discussion. For once, we may actually have a chance to influence something which has a real and tangible effect on our lives, and is crucial to the future of us all.

How this will actually pan out remains to be seen, but given the clout of the above mentioned digital big timers, there’s a real possibility this combination can work. You can sign up to the Facebook and Twitter pages through @Rio+social and I suggest you do whilst it’s young, start throwing in some ideas and tagging with #futurewewant, no doubt you’re just as excited as me about its prospects.

Hope to see some of you there, at our virtual Rio +20.

Posted at 7:58pm and tagged with: rio+20, rio+social, summit, climate, digital, social media, UN, sustainability,.