Climate Instability

Like many people, I am extremely concerned about climate chaos. I started a blog to document my attempts to reduce our carbon footprint. In addition, here are some links to a few useful sites related to climate change and recycling.

Recently it seems that political activity is more important than individual action. Consequently I joined Just Earth, a coalition for environmental justice. I also joined the Liberal Party of Canada because I thought they were our best bet for more effective environmental policies. I was optimistic when Stéphane Dion was elected leader but unfortunately he was unable to generate enthusiasm within his party or the electorate. His Green Shift plan was so slandered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that it will never be reintroduced (at least not in time to do any good.) Under the current leadership, the Conservative Party is a lost cause.

I like many of the policies of the Green Party but we do not have enough time for them to become the opposition never mind the government. (I subsequently changed my mind on this, resigned from the Liberal Party and joined the Green Party.)

We are probably past the tipping point and have only a few years (maybe three or four) to reduce our carbon dioxide output sufficiently (25% from current levels by the end of 2012 has been suggested by George Monbiot) to prevent the worst of the environmental impacts.

That requires committed and effective leadership ... where is it?

"If multibillion-dollar rescue packages can be put together at the click of a finger in the wake of a banking meltdown, why shouldn't politicians press the panic button in response to a threat that is infinitely graver than that?"

One method of reducing GHGs in the atmosphere is known as Cap and Share. A variation of this is Feasta. It appears to be very simple to implement. There is a link to their paper describing Cap and Share on Feasta's site. Another variation is Levy and Rebate as proposed by James Hansen.