Late last night we were sent two links.
The first is a video describing “How to use the Internet to make $1m in 18 months”.
The second is a page describing how the latest CO2/climate data shows that the 2 degrees climate change we thought was ‘safe’ isn’t, Continue reading
As a further post-script to the Kübler-Ross piece earlier today, we ask you to think back one year to December 2010 and imagine that you are living in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, or Syria.
If someone had told you that within 12 months Mubarak and Gaddafi would be gone, Osama bin Laden would be dead, that thousands would demonstrate on the streets of Syria and Tunisia, and that thousands more in Greece and America would be inspired by their example and also take to the streets, would you have believed them? Continue reading
During the last 20 years, global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels have increased by almost 50 per cent in the last 20 years.
The rate is accelerating — in 2010 they increase by just under six per cent.
This is dramatic news for the ability of Earth to support life.
In the light of today’s earlier post, will your response to this news be denial or anger; will you try to bargain with the situation or slip into depression; or can you feel acceptance the facts, and move to do what needs to be done?
Over the weekend we reflected on some of the stories posted last week: increasing levels of methane from melting permafrost; the rising costs of climate change events; the fact that investments in renewable energy last year passed those in fossil fuel energy; and the fact that companies can now make plastic cups out of plants.
We realised that each of these stories brought out a different emotion in us. So this week we’re going to start with a review of the “Kübler-Ross model”.
We’ll summarise it briefly and then focus on the implications for permabusiness and you. Continue reading
This plastic cup may not look like much but to me it is a symbol of hope.
Because rather than being made from oil it is made from plant fibres. It is renewable and compostable.
And what that means is that even though the world is changing, we will be able to find new ways to create the things we really value and take them with us — even things as apparently insignificant (and as fossil-fuel-dependent) as a plastic cup.
The company that produced it is called London Bio Packaging.
Six years ago they didn’t exist.
Now they are an example of the opportunity that exists for every business to become a permabusiness.
Bosnia, Serbia and other parts of the Balkans are facing their worst drought for decades.
The river Danube, usually one of eastern Europe’s busiest transport routes has eighty or more cargo ships at a standstill. Traffic on the river is “practically non-existent”.
In Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria crop production for 2012 is in jeopardy .
Bosnia is facing water shortages. In Bosnia and Serbia power supplies are running low because river levels are too low for the hydroelectric plants.
Shipping companies and ports are making losses.
“Meteorologists say they are not sure why the region has had far less rain than average since August – but they don’t see any more coming quickly.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/balkans-drought_n_1125528.html
Anybody still unsure why climate change is an issue for business can read this story where the recent floods in Thailand were cited by Sony as one of the three reasons for turning their $0.6bn profit forecast turned into a $0.8bn loss.
The entire country of Thailand’s growth forecast was slashed from 4.1% to 2.6%.
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ges 8 and 9 of this 2003 report by Swiss Re show how storm losses and flood losses (see diagrams, right) have been growing exponentially since the early 1980s and by 2002 were around ten times their pre-1970s level.
In 2002 UNEP’s climate working group said that “Worldwide economic losses due to natural disasters appear to be doubling every 10 years and next decade will reach $150bn“.
The impact on insurance industry was considered significant enough to impact reserves, ratings, and solvency.
And without a strong insurance industry, the risks would pass back to business.
Fast forward to 2011 and the reality is that “once in a thousand year” storm surges are expected to happen every 30 years by the end of the century. (Once in 30 year events will also happen more often.) Continue reading
At Permabusiness we like to maintain a positive attitude, so we hesitate to share this story. But we also know that it is important to face reality as it is, not as it once was, or how we would like it to be.
Accelerating amounts of permafrost methane and CO2 are beginning to be emitted into the atmosphere. They won’t have as much impact on climate change as our burning of fossil fuels does, but will have more impact than deforestation. They are expected to accelerate climate change by around “20 to 30 per cent.”
You can read more here.
From the Los Angeles Times:
“Electricity from the wind, sun, waves and biomass drew $187 billion last year compared with $157 billion for natural gas, oil and coal.
“The findings indicate the world is shifting toward consuming more renewable energy even without a global agreement on limiting greenhouse gases. Delegates from more than 190 nations converge in Durban, South Africa, on Nov. 28 to discuss new measures for limiting emissions damaging the climate.”
Looks like we have passed the tipping point.
More: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-renewables-20111125,0,2421278.story
It doesn’t matter whether climate change is man-made or even if it is 100% proven.
My house didn’t burn down last year. It didn’t burn down the year before. It probably won’t burn down next year either, but it is still worth taking out insurance against the possibility that it might.
We can’t take out insurance against climate change — but we can take action to reduce the manmade emissions that almost certainly are causing it. And we should.
Because the likelihood that it is happening, and the impacts it will have, are both far, far worse than if our houses were to burn down.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation agrees:
http://www.jrf.org.uk/focus-issue/climate-change
