Water, Water

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

The theme for February will be Sustainability, addressing food and water shortages due to population growth and environmental damage. Sustainability is a problem even without climate change, and climate change will make matters far worse. Here is a TED Talk which calls this problem, The Other Inconvenient Truth.

For the next two meetings, we will focus on water. Tim will lead the discussion.

Can National Governments Fix Climate Change?

Thursday, January 29, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We have seen how the capitalist model can create climate solutions, but it can also lead to increased inequality. Naomi Klein said that a climate solution based on capitalism cannot be trusted and called for a people's movement to force bold government action. But can government, particularly at the national level, really fix climate change?

When Obama took office in 2009, there was massive federal spending on clean energy as part of the stimulus bill. According to this 60 Minutes episode, thing did not work out as advertised.  But was this because government is inherently inept, or was it because the US federal government is broken? We may find the answer in this talk by Al Gore about China's energy policy.

-------------------------------- Update 1/31/15 ----------------------

1) Here is a link to Al Gore's website, 24 Hours of Reality, where you can find videos of the other 23 reasons for hope on Climate Change.

2) Here is a link to the video that was shown at the meeting about China's conventional nuclear power program.

3) Here is an article about China's research into the Thorium Molten Salt Reactor, TMSR. China is funding the research, but US scientists are participating. This may be the best hope yet that there is a solution to Climate Change.

Climate Change Activism

Thursday, January 22, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

In our last meeting, McKenzie Funk provided several disturbing examples of businesses that will profit from the misery of climate change, but he avoided making any conclusions. In our next meeting, we will hear from Naomi Klein, who concludes that capitalism is fundamentally incapable of solving climate change. She recasts climate change as yet another example of social inequality. Here is a quote from her book, This Changes Everything:

For a long time, environmentalist spoke of climate change as a great equalizer, the one issue that affected everyone, rich or poor. It was supposed to bring us together. Yet all signs are that it is doing precisely the opposite, stratifying us further into a society of haves and have-nots, divided between those whose wealth offers them a not insignificant measure of protection from ferocious weather, at least for now, and those left to the mercy of increasingly dysfunctional states.

Klein not only attacks capitalism, but also the billionaires and scientists who are proposing technical alternatives to stalled efforts to reduced carbon emissions. She rails against these "self-appoint saviors" in this 2014 pep-talk to other climate change activist.

As a bonus, here is a Naomi Klein 2010 TED Talk which places climate change in the broader context of risky behavior. The women in our discussion group will be please to discover who she blames.

-------------------------------- Update 1/22/15 ----------------------

Here are the links to the websites and videos shown during the meeting:

1) Virgin Earth Challenge, Richard Branson's $25M prize for a technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

2) Video on why Naomi Klein disagrees with James Hansen on nuclear power.

3) Video on Naomi Klein being interviewed by Bill Moyers

Surviving and Profiting from Climate Change

Thursday, January 15, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

We will discuss adaptation to climate change which is unavoidable. The first TED Talk covers how we have adapted after climate disasters, like storms and heat waves, to minimize the damage from future events. The second TED Talk covers how some enterprises are planning to profit from climate change (and I don't mean renewable energy).

-------------------------------- Update 1/15/15 ----------------------

Here is a link to the book that was mentioned in the second talk above, Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming. In this book, McKenzie Funk uncovers plans to profit from the misery of climate change. As with his talk is is quite disturbing and he proposes no solutions.

Schedule for 2015Q1

Here is the agenda for January to March of 2015:

• January - Climate Change: Time for Plan B?
• February - Sustainability: Will we run out of food or water?
• March - Open Discussion

Climate Engineering

Thursday, January 8, 2015, 10am to 11:30 in the Meeting Room (behind the fireplace)

For the first meeting of 2015, we will look at Climate Engineering, also called Geo-Engineering, which some call the last hope to save humanity from climate change, while others call nuts. The first video will explain that geo-engineering is an umbrella term which includes many strategies with little risk, like agriculture and forest management.

However, Climate Engineering also includes controversial strategies of solar radiation management, SRM. The second video will explain the proper use of SRM. 

-------------------------------- Update 1/8/15 ----------------------

Here are the links to the websites and new videos presented at the meeting:

1) Website for CEC14, the first global inter-discipline Climate Engineering Conference. 

2) Video for Nathan Myhrvold interview on CNN

3) Video for David Keith interview on BBC