FUTURISM NOW is now CLIMATE FILES
It’s official! Futurism Now has now MOVED and is renamed CLIMATE FILES RADIO.
Visit the Climate Files website and you can find all the podcasts there and subscribe too. No more podcasts will be posted here. They are all at Climate Files Radio from now on.
If you want it, go there! Thanks to all listeners for your patience. And please re-subscribe.
The new website will soon also contain a collection of other talks and climate audio that don’t make it into the podcast that you can download for free.
•••• All new for 2010! ••••
FN/CF Podcast #56 / Answering Skeptics
Dead coral and sea shells washed up on beach, Mexico, 2007.
We know that CO2 causes climate change, but how? Believe it or not, credit card debt can help explain how CO2 causes global warming, even if the graphcs show CO2 kind of non-synchronized with temperatures, at times. Hear Richard Alley talk about CO2 causing global warming at the AGU Annual Meeting. (Full video with graphics is here) Also hear Stephen Colbert talk about mountaintop removal with Dr. Margaret Palmer, and the latest crock of the week, the claim of a petition with 32,000 signatures on it from scientists. It’s a hoax, of course. From Peter Sinclair of the Greenman’s Climate Crock video series. Sinclair is a longtime advocate of environmental awareness and energy alternatives and he runs Greenman Studio from his home in Midland, Michigan.
Richard Alley is an American geologist and Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University. He has authored more than 170 refereed scientific publications about the relationships between Earth’s cryosphere and global climate change, and is recognized by the Institute for Scientific Information as a “highly cited researcher.” (wikipedia)
More information on how to speak to deniers and skeptics that should be useful to everyone is here and here.
New climate change meetings/conferences after COP15:
In Abu Dhabi, the World Future Energy Summit.
Another climate change meeting is coming up on January 24th. Read about it here.
“…key groups of developing countries will meet to try to explore ways to get to agree a legally binding final agreement. As the dust settles on the stormy Danish meeting, environment ministers from the so-called “Basic countries” – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will meet on January 24 in New Delhi. No formal agenda has been set, but observers expect the emerging geopolitical alliance between the four large developing countries who brokered the final “deal” with the US in Denmark will define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and seek ways to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen accord that emerged last month.”
You have to wonder what the carbon footprint is of all these meetings, especially given what they accomplish.
Transportation emissions information from Science Insider:
“. . . . projections spelled out in a new report reviewing the issue by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change suggests that by 2050 the total amount of carbon pollution from these sources could increase tenfold, depending on population, economics, and technology trends. Were that to happen, emissions would be as high as the entire transportation sector, which takes up 14% of global greenhouse emissions, currently dominated by pollution from cars and trucks.
You can download this episode here listen here, or subscribe on the right.
Music dedicated to all skeptics and deniers at the end: Pants on the Ground, by ‘General’ Larry Platt.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN/Climate Files 55 / Drop the Bias on Nukes
Being antinuclear is like a religion to many environmentalists. But solving climate change will be a compromise of what is possible and needed. We are not going to get a green utopian world to emerge and solve climate change with windmills. Even environmentalists want to be able to charge their cell phones and laptops. Should we throw it all away, or find out a realistic way to power it all once the coal plants are gone? We should be supporting nuclear plants over CCS any day. The last thing we want to do is spend billions locking in coal for another 50 years, something that could kill us all.
The Clean Air Act is under attack by Republicans with new legislation trying to block EPA again again. You can help save it by contacting your Reps. here.
Some news discussed in this episode includes information on
and quotes from the books Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen and the Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock. Hansen’s letter to Obama is here (PDF). The UK must raise its CO2 emissions target to a 42% cut, says a new report. Read why our endless consumerism needs to be replaced with sustainable living here. The story about Bell Labs greening the internet by 2015 is here. There is a lot more in this episode including an audio description of what a thorium reactor is and how it works.
Read another interview with Stewart Brand, whose interview is played in this episode, here at e360.
More info on thorium reactors:
- How a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) works
- Energy from Thorium blog
- Uranium is so Last Century
Contact CF using the contact form at the top or email CF at news @ climatefilesradio (dot) com
Download this episode here Listen here, or subscribe on the right.
Music at end: Nuclear Power Plant by Zen Eyes
Remember: Futurism Now Radio posts end in February! Please visit Climate Files Radio in the future for the podcast.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN/Climate Files 54 – Sound the Alarm
MOVING on with news and politics about global warming in the new year. Let’s forget COP15 even happened. Look ahead, what else can we do? Today Climate Files includes a recent short interview with climate scientist James Hansen partly about his book Storms of my Grandchildren.
Remember: sounding the alarm is not alarmism — it’s realism and a hope that people will listen and act on climate change. It’s our job to educate, because not everyone knows about climate change, and they may not “believe in it” for all the wrong reasons. An email exchange regarding a denier’s claims is something everyone can do (and I read mine). We have to keep educating the deniers and maybe one of these days they’ll give up the Dark Side.
News covered in this episode includes:
U.S. Car Fleet Shrinks For First Time in 50 Years, Report Says. It might be bad for business, but it’s good for the climate when people drive less and own less vehicles. Sorry, GM.
Climate Pledge Tracker Compares Nations’ CO2 Emissions Limits. You can see the new climate pledge tracker site here.
EPA is working with the Spruce No. 1 mine on their new permit, but there are a lot of problems and the mine may threaten water and over 2,000 acres of forest. Bad news, but it’s not likely to be approved. Read more here.
Storing CO2 in basalt is a new idea but not a very practical one, at least not now. Read the article here at Futurism Now. The study I mentioned is actually two studies. Here is an excerpt from FN news:
A July 2008 study by the same researchers found that 208 billion metric tons could be stored in the offshore basalt formations of the U.S. Northwest’s Juan de Fuca tectonic plate — that is as much as 150 years’ worth of U.S. emissions. . . . . In a study released Monday, ABI Research predicted that new CCS projects will keep 146 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Their estimates are based on markets for carbon emissions allowances encouraging firms to seek out technologies like CCS to limit their emissions.
The problem with that claim is that the U.S. emits about 7.1 billion metric tons carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) of greenhouse gases per year, (my estimate of 5.7 billion metric tons in the podcast was low) and that means only about 34 years of U.S. emissions could be forced into basalt, if the procedure even works.
The CIA is sharing data with climate scientists. Australia is baking hot this summer! All of this and more is discussed in this episode. download this episode here You can subscribe on the right or listen right here.
(The old RSS feed from FN is going to be gone in February!)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN53 / Copenhagen Was Not a Failure
How did Copenhagen go? To hear some tell it we are now doomed, but don’t believe it. A COP15 accord was agreed upon by 192 countries, and was impressive for many reasons, with COP15 bringing together leaders from all over the world in an unprecedented marathon work session fitting for its serious nature. It was not a failure, but the Copenhagen Accord was also not legally binding. (Download the accord here. PDF ) Does the accord have to be legally binding?
Expectations (including my own) were far too high, so the conference seemed like a failure to many who were disappointed that super-human feats were not accomplished. These are human beings we are dealing with, after all, not Hollywood movie characters. In addition, many countries tried to stop the proceedings from reaching an agreement entirely.
In this episode, hear the final press conference which was an assessment of the entire COP15 by the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, and also hear a skeptics presentation (humorously done) by the Age of Stupid’s Franny Armstrong with George Monbiot. Armstrong broadcast the Stupid Show from Copenhagen every day the last week of the conference.
Enormous negativity from some activists, some media and some environmental groups who expected too much from the conference should not be taken seriously . . . it’s counter-productive and it discourages people from getting involved. We need more people involved doing more than ever. The next COP is in Mexico, next November, and there is one after that, and one after that, already planned. Hysterical pronouncements of doom are premature! Bill McKibben’s sad article is here.
Ed Miliband accuses China and other countries of trying to prevent an accord agreement.
US Airlines are already suing the UK, read here . . . and so it starts.
Global warming temperatures have been grossly underestimated.
Happy Holidays — and re-subscribe to the new podcast feed on the right-hand column. The Futurism Now website will eventually be retired and from now on, no more will be added to it.
Download here. Listen to this podcast here or subscribe on this page — not here! This is the last podcast that will appear on this page. In the future they will be on the Climate Files Radio website.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN52 / Eco Rock Stars
Bill McKibben at Klimaforum09
Some news from Copenhagen, some of it kind of surprising and disturbing.
Bill McKibben of 350.org and President Nasheed of the Maldives, both Eco Rock Stars, are featured in this episode. Their main message: 350 ppm is a necessary target, and it needs to be reinserted into the text of the international agreement that is being written in Copenhagen.
So there will be a lot of work to do after Copenhagen is over because the negotiators won’t arrive at the decision that is necessary, which is topping out at 1.5C in temperature rise and 350 ppm.
President Nasheed at Klimaforum09
The way it stands now, some of the developed country representatives believe we can survive 450 ppm but there is no historical precedent for humans surviving on a planet with that type of atmosphere.
Those in the environmental movement and everyone who cares about this issue has a lot of work to do as soon as Copenhagen’s climate summit ends.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
This is the probably the last episode until after Copenhagen’s conference because the eco-elves just can’t keep up with everything, so we will sum up the speeches of the world leaders later, as soon as we can.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN51 / The Geek Files
This episode contains talks by the delegates from Stanford University and a talk by Steven Chu, a pretty geeky guy, from last weekend. Monday was Oceans Day at Copenhagens COP15, and the guys from Stanford discussed the health of the oceans and why that 350 number is so much better than that 450 number that Todd Stern seems to think is OK.
It’s impossible to keep up with everything that is going on in Copenhagen. There are groups doing interviews everywhere, press conferences, side events, Youtube debates and lots more. My hope is that everyone is keeping informed by going to the COP15 website, or the ENB report.
Presented Monday: New estimates of sea level change including the dynamics of the big ice sheets are way higher than the IPCC 2007 estimate.
Also discussed: UN Carbon-Capture Decision Faces Delay to Next Year.
Coal gassification explained.
Remember: 350 ppm is OK, 450 ppm is not OK. Bill McKibben and Al Gore also spoke, and now the heads of state are beginning to arrive. Even Prince Charles already spoke too. You could listen to speeches all day and still not hear them all.
Pictured: Sea level rise in Australia, happening now.
Music at the end is a fun song by that guy from Minnesota, Bob-something.
This podcast is soon to be renamed the Climate Files, which still isn’t really there, but will be soon.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN50 / Climate Files
Here is your Copenhagen climate summit summary from Week 1.
Recorded clips include Naomi Klein, Nnimmo Bassey from Klimaforum09, and James Hansen from an interview with The Guardian on December 2nd. Hansen discussed nuclear power and how this climate summit isn’t going to be adequate. Naomi Klein discusses mainly the same things, but from her economic justice perspective. Bassey is a well-known Nigerian climate activist.
Here is the main, official Copenhagen draft text as of December 11th,(PDF) and here is the (better) Klimaforum Declaration (opens new page).
Climate Files is the new name of this podcast and it will be gradually changing to that in the next week or two. Mainly it needs the word “climate” in it because that’s what it’s about, climate and politics, so that people can more easily find it, and it more accurately reflects what it is. Also, I need to get it consolidated with the articles website, which will also be renamed Climate Files, and get them off the old podcastliberally domain name. Yes, the RSS feed will change so you will have to change your subscription, sorry about that. Please come back to check on when this will happen. (The old RSS feed will be rerouted for a month after the new one is made.) Please stay subscribed or I have no way of knowing how many people are tuning in. The new websites are called Climate Files Radio and Climate Files, but at this point, there is nothing there. Links and much of the info that is now on FN will be there eventually. All FN podcasts will be migrated to the new site.
Also, send comments to admin @ climatefiles.com from now on.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN49 / The Climate Olympics Begin
The Copenhagen climate summit COP15 has begun, and it seems like most of the world is there.
That’s the biggest news. Coinciding with that, the EPA has passed an endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act. Could we ask for anything more? Yes, a binding legal treaty to reduce emissions, in Copenhagen. That’s what we really need. But now we know that if Congress doesn’t act on climate change legislation quickly enough, the EPA now has an obligation to regulate or otherwise stop harmful GHG emissions from hurting the health of Americans.
The finding was time to strengthen the U.S. negotiating position in Copenhagen. Good for them. In this episode you can hear two introductory press conferences on days 1 and 2 of the climate conference and also the U.S. delegate, John Pershing, stating the U.S.’s preliminary positions. They all also smack down the climate scientist emails that were illegally obtained, stating that it just won’t make any difference. There is an enormous amount of scientific data in the U.S. and from all over the world that has been independently arrived at and supports global warming claims. Watch the EPA announcement video here and you can download the Finding’s segments there too.
The mysterious Danish Text story. If you have better information please contact FN through the contact form here.
LinkTV climate change videos are here.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN48 / Climate Summit Anticipation
The world's most important climate summit starts on December 7th
This is your Copenhagen Climate Summit introduction. In this episode you will find out some basic answers to: why is the summit important? What can we expect?
President Obama will be attending the Copenhagen climate summit on December 9th.
UPDATE: The White House reported on Friday December 4th that President Obama will be attending the Copenhagen summit on December 18th. Source.
The climate science continues to be very serious. In the new Report: Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment, it is reported that warming will escalate in the Antarctic once the ozone hole is closed, in only a few short decades. You can download the report here. The basic rundown of the summit and brief background is here. The UNFCCC’s 10 frequently asked questions about the Copenhagen deal is here (pdf).
In this episode, the Real News interviews Tzeporah Berman of Canada. She is the Executive Director and one of the Co-founders of PowerUp Canada. Tzeporah is also known for her work in the early 1990s coordinating the largest civil disobedience protest in Canada’s history in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. She discusses Copenhagen and what to expect, as well as the cooperation on climate of the U.S. and Canada. If the US, Canada and China are committed to oil and coal, what can Copenhagen accomplish? Two portions of her interview are played in this episode (1 and 3) and you can find part 2 at the Real News network.
James Hansen has released an article with his thoughts about his grandchildren’s future, emissions caps, and the Copenhagen summit, which is read in this episode. You can read it yourself here (pdf).
For those wanting more media on the Copenhagen summit, here is the Youtube channel for COP15, and here is the main UNFCCC COP15 website. Their Virtual Participation site is here. FN will be doing as many updates during the Summit as we can. It also looks like I will be able to get an exclusive report or two from someone who is already there. More on that later, and on a recent energy committee hearing that got very interesting.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right. Video link for the protest you hear on the end (which occurred in Washington DC) is here.
Music for this episode from David Holmes.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN47 / Are We Lemmings?
Are we climate lemmings?
It was announced this morning that President Obama will attend the climate summit in Copenhagen, and he also announced his emissions targets: in the range of 17% by 2020. This is great news! It’s also bad news. Is this the best America can do? This response to climate change is not adequate for the U.S. when other countries are doing more. There is a phenomenon at work here. Two recordings in this episode address expectations at Copenhagen and why people believe what they believe about global warming, and how to possibly change how the public thinks about it. Maybe we can even influence our politicians.
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), speaks with correspondent Miles Benson in an interview from Earth Focus, discussing UNEP’s sobering recent report that says we will feel the consequences of climate change soon. Are we lemmings, or why don’t we act more decisively on this issue?
The public opinion talk is from the American Meteorological Society, from an Environmental sciences Seminar Series, and it’s on Public Attitudes, Perceptions, and Concerns about Global Warming, evidence from a survey. This survey is not new, it’s actually from late last year. It was presented in Washington DC by Jon Krosnick, PH.D., Stanford University.
The Krosnick talk has been split into two parts and this episode contains the first part. If you want to hear part two and an additional talk by Jon Krosnick you can find that here.
Are we lemmings refers to a question Achim Steiner was asked during his interview. It doesn’t mean we don’t believe in global warming, (75% of Americans do, down from 85% of 3 years ago) it refers to the fact that Americans don’t want to change the status quo or make lifestyle changes unless everyone else in the world does it first.
Other news discussed: Chris Hedges wrote: Refuse Allegiance to Coal. Read it here.
More news: Latest Science Shows Climate Change Outpacing Previous Projections
United Nations program on Climate change is here. The Climate Change Science Compendium is on this page.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
FN46 / Cap and Raid
Earth's damaged climate is a bit BIG to be fixed using capitalism products and trading schemes.
The cap and trade legislation has been “put off” until well after the Copenhagen summit in December. It’s pushed into spring, 2010, if then. If you want to read some better bills than cap and trade, which should be called Cap and RAID, you can check out all the other bills that intend to mitigate climate change. There are a lot of them!
This episode contains recent news and the “Huge Mistake” by the EPA attorneys gone rogue who have lots of information about cap and trade. The same rogue EPA attorneys interview on DemocracyNow here. Many environmentalists are very disappointed with the whole concept of capping and trading permits to pollute. The Carbon Tax Center site has a great list of the other, better bills here.
A Carbon Tax, Not a Cap and Trade
EU emissions trading scheme an ‘embarrassing failure’
Peru is losing its sacred glaciers to climate change. Slideshow of amazing photos is here.
Floods and Droughts: How Climate Change is Impacting Africa.
Also discussed in this episode: The Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle is now on sale at Best Buy.
Click below for the feature:
Initial Report: 2009 Brammo Enertia
One of the new, sneaky greenwash sites: GERrrrr (don’t take it seriously, folks).
Payal Parekh’s blog is here. Her interview on the Real News network, if you want to see it (the entire interview audio is in this episode) is at the Real News network ‘Cap-and-trade won’t cut it’ Pt. 2.
Download this episode here or subscribe on the right.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
