Category: IPCC

Deep Adaptation

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Humanity is facing an “inevitable near-term social collapse due to climate change”, according to Professor Jem Bendell at the University of Cumbria in the UK. This is the theme of a paper released in July, 2018 and which has since gone viral. The paper, entitled “Deep Adaptation” argues that the future negative consequences of climate change have been underestimated both in terms of impact, as well as timing. And that a gradual adaptation to these changes will have limited benefits. A complete societal transformation is needed or the world will face “starvation, destruction, migration, disease and war”. Continue reading “Deep Adaptation” →

Geoengineering Climate Change – Part II

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Geoengineering Climate Change has generally been marginalised as a topic of discussion outside the scientific community and rarely mentioned in official political agreements and reports. It has received no specific mention in climate change treaties, though the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) includes the potential application of undefined “innovative” and “environmentally-sound” technologies, and does not specifically exclude geoengineering. Continue reading “Geoengineering Climate Change – Part II” →

Geoengineering Climate Change – Part I

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In 2010, during research for a Master’s Degree in Climate Change at the Australian National University (ANU), I wrote a paper on the potential of Geoengineering as a means to combat the lacklustre political efforts being made to tackle carbon emissions on a global level. This was right after the failure of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), which was intended to demonstrate the political will of the nations of the world to solve what was being touted as the moral imperative of our time and our moral obligation to future generations. Continue reading “Geoengineering Climate Change – Part I” →

Climate Change Fatalism

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Fatalism is defined as a belief that events are fixed in advance so that humans are powerless to change them1. In relation to Climate Change, fatalism is essentially the belief that a changing climate is inevitable, that the path to the worst, most destructive aspects will happen and there is nothing humankind can do about it. In an online survey in late 2017 by Ipsos on behalf of The Climate Group and Futerra, 14% of those surveyed globally believed in Climate Change Fatalism, with the feeling stronger amongst younger demographics (22% in the age group from 16-35). Continue reading “Climate Change Fatalism” →

IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees Celsius

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Since the Paris Agreement came into force in late 2016, the scientific community has been working to compile the latest data on the impacts of Climate Change and the potential future greenhouse gas emissions pathways to put the brakes on global warming. The Paris Agreement’s invitation to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was specific to the impacts of holding global warming to a 1.5oC increase above pre-industrial levels. 1.5oC was (and still remains) the goal agreed to by almost every nation in the world, and thought to be enough to hold off the most dangerous impacts of Climate Change and limit the risk of irreversible changes to the world’s ecosystems. Continue reading “IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees Celsius” →