Category: The environment

Atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, etc – everything about life and the state of this planet

The fourth Toronto350.org executive

Toronto350.org has elected a new executive, with our long-serving director of operations Stuart Basden taking over as president.

It’s a bit tough to be leaving the executive after being so involved with the group, but it’s gratifying that there are people willing to take over and carry on.

Being off the executive should give me more time to focus on preparing for my re-comp, though I will still be helping out with a number of 350 events between now and December, notably our big October 15th movie screening.

I will also be back on campus radio this Friday, talking about our divestment campaign.

From MaddAddam

The people in the chaos cannot learn. They cannot understand what they are doing to the sea and the sky and the plants and the animals. They cannot understand that they are killing them, and that they will end by killing themselves. And there are so many of them, and each one of them is doing part of the killing, whether they know it or not. And when you tell them to stop, they don’t hear you.

So there is only one thing left to do. Either most of them must be cleared away while there is still an earth, with trees and flowers and birds and fish and so on, or all must die when there are none of those things left. Because if there are none of those things left, then there will be nothing at all. Not even any people.

So shouldn’t you give those ones a second chance? he asked himself. No, he answered, because they have had a second chance. They have had many second chances. Now is the time.

Atwood, Margaret. MaddAddam. 2013. p. 291 (hardcover)

Fall term 2013

The year is off to a rapidfire start.

As part of the PhD, I need to do a second core seminar this year. I have chosen to take public policy because it accords well with my interests and experience, and apparently has a less onerous reading load than either comparative politics or international relations. I have been advised against taking courses with excessive reading requirements, given the need to re-take my Canadian politics comp in December.

PhD students are expected to take two courses in each term, so I am also taking an environmental politics and policy course. In addition, I am working as a teaching assistant for a course in U.S. government and politics, with three seminars back to back on Thursdays.

At our termly general meeting on the 25th, I will not be running for re-election to the executive of Toronto350.org. Nevertheless, I have some obligations to discharge with them, including two on-campus workshops on divestment and the October 15th film screening (free tickets still available).

In the background at all times, I should be thinking about and preparing for my re-comp in December. I find that I have already forgotten a lot of what I crammed for it the first time. When I re-take it, I will need to demonstrate both a comprehensive knowledge of the literature and an ability to formulate complex and convincing arguments. Toward the latter objective, I should be building up a database of convincing (and conventional, I’ve been warned off controversy) answers to recent comp questions.

The Economist on China and climate change

Some important and sobering information from a recent article:

China’s impact on the climate, though, is unique. Its economy is not only large but also resource-hungry.

…

The country’s energy use is… gargantuan. This is in part because, under Mao, the use of energy was recklessly profligate. China’s consumption of energy per unit of GDP tripled in 1950-78—an unprecedented “achievement”. In the early 1990s, at the start of its period of greatest growth, China was still using 800 tonnes of coal equivalent (tce, a unit of energy) to produce $1m of output, far more than other developing countries. Energy efficiency has since improved; China used 390tce per $1m in 2009. But that was still more than the global average of 300tce and far more than Germany, which used only 173tce.

Despite a huge hydroelectric programme, most of this energy comes from burning coal on a vast scale. China currently burns about half the world’s supplies. In 2006 it surpassed America in carbon-dioxide emissions from energy. By 2014 or 2015 it will emit twice America’s total. Between 1990 and 2050 its cumulative emissions from energy will amount to some 500 billion tonnes—roughly the same as those of the whole world from the beginning of the industrial revolution to 1970. And the total is what matters. The climate reacts to the stock of carbon, not to annual rises.

These emissions are adding to a build-up of carbon already pushed to unprecedented heights by earlier industrialisations. When Britain began the process in the 18th century, the atmosphere’s carbon-dioxide level was 280 parts per million (ppm). When Japan was industrialising fastest in the late 1950s, it had risen a bit, to 315ppm. This year the level hit 400ppm. Avoiding dangerous climate change is widely taken to mean keeping below 450ppm, although there are significant uncertainties surrounding this figure. At current rates that threshold will be reached in 2037. China is likely to be the largest emitter between now and then.

About a quarter of China’s carbon emissions is produced making goods for export. If the carbon embodied in those goods were marked against the ledgers of the importing countries China would look a little less damaging, the rich world a lot less virtuous. But even allowing for that, China is not playing catch-up any more. It is doing more damage to the stability of the global climate than any other country.

The claim that stabilizing the atmospheric concentration at 450 ppm will be enough to keep temperature increases below 2˚C is dubious. In James Hansen et al. “Target Atmospheric CO2: Where Should Humanity Aim?“, they conclude that: “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm”.

Doing that would require much more aggressive action than what this article suggests.

Environmental Defence on the oil sands

Environmental Defence has issued a new report, explaining why Canada’s oil sands expansion policies risk more than cancelling out efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions in other areas:

“Emissions from the tar sands are projected to double from 2010 levels by 2020, cancelling out all other efforts across the country to reduce emissions and sending Canada soaring past the 2020 climate change target that it shares with the United States.”

Barriers to mitigating the climate impacts of the tar sands (PDF)

Harrison on bureaucrats and the courts

In Chapter 2 it is suggested that even if politicians are inclined to shirk their environmental responsibilities, they could be undermined by zealous bureaucrats in ministries or departments of the environment. The picture that emerges from Chapters 3 through 6, however, is one of conscientious bureaucrats severely constrained by limited administrative resources and political support. Since new regulations require cabinet approval, bureaucrats could only accomplish so much within the confines of hollow enabling statutes. Similarly, when regulations turned out to be flawed, as was the case with the regulations issued under the Fisheries Act, bureaucrats’ hands were tied in the absence of cabinet support for regulatory reforms. (p. 172 hardcover)

…

Thus far, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of the courts. Although historically the courts have been a bit player in Canadian environmental policy-making, in the aftermath of Oldman Dam the role of the courts clearly demands greater attention. As an institution, the courts do not fit neatly within the categories of federal and provincial governments. Moreover, because there are no mechanisms to hold judges accountable to either politicians or the public – indeed lifetime tenure is designed to insulate the court from the whims of popular opinion – the institution of the courts may be especially responsive to institutional or ‘good policy’ motives of its members. ‘Rogue judges’ may ultimately exercise greater influence than ‘rogue bureaucrats.’ (p. 173)

Harrison, Kathryn. Passing the Buck: Federalism and Canadian Environmental Policy. 1996.