Can we reach 100% renewable energy in time to avert climate catastrophe? So far the only consensus is that we need to do it.

Renewables can and be scaled up in time to meet the world’s energy demands across the three main sectors (electricity, heating and transportation). Renewables in the transportation and heating sectors will have to expand in the next few years if the worst impacts from climate change are to be avoided. Delucchi’s recent cost analysis of clean energy systems didn’t include options like …

Six Reasons Why Berkeley’s Ban on New Natural Gas Is a Great Idea

by Gideon Weissman, Monday, August 19, 2019 Natural GasElectrificationGlobal WarmingFrackingClean Energy Last month the city of Berkeley, California, banned natural gas infrastructure from new buildings.[1] The most obvious reason for the ordinance is enough to justify it on its own: Natural gas is a fossil fuel, and burning it contributes to global warming. But by getting off gas, Berkeley is doing a whole …

IPCC visuals are largely on threats, framed as distant in time and space, with minimal attention to who was impacted or needed to take adaption actions or adopt responsibility, rather than rather than goals to be achieved

with minimal attention to who was impacted or needed to take adaption actions or adopt responsibility The visual framing of climate change impacts and adaptation in the IPCC assessment reports Climatic Change Figures and graphics in reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “(still) focus primarily on showing that climate change is real and a problem, with little …

Seattle City Council passes resolution advancing Green New Deal

Katie Pyzyk 14 Aug 2019 in Utility Dive The Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for the passage of a federal Green New Deal, which has generated vigorous debate in Congress, and the council committed to developing a local version. The resolution sets the standards for drawing up Seattle’s Green New Deal. It includes eliminating greenhouse gases by 2030; prioritizing low-income communities and communities …

Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes

Berkeley has become the first city in the nation to ban the installation of natural gas lines in new homes. The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to ban gas from new low-rise residential buildings starting Jan. 1. It’s not the first time Berkeley has passed pioneering health or environmental legislation. In 1977, Berkeley was the first in the …

We can’t afford not to decarbonize. Invest 1% of world GDP, the total value of all goods and services in the world = about $85 trillion per year in 2019. 1% of that is $850 billion/yr

From Dr. Scott Denning, Colorado State University, Aug 2019 Economists estimate the total cost of decarbonizing the world economy to be about 1% of global GDP. Academic economists estimate the total cost of saving our descendants from millennia of hellish struggle at 1% of GDP (plus or minus 1% — could actually cost anywhere from nothing to 2%). And yes …

Burning the Gas ‘Bridge Fuel’ Myth: Why Gas Is Not Clean, Cheap, or Necessary

MAY 30, 2019BY OCI TEAMREPORTS, STOPPING CARBON LOCK-IN Published by Oil Change International. Endorsed by 350.org, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Virginia, Earthworks, Food & Water Europe, Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth Europe, Friends of the Earth U.S., Greenpeace USA, NC WARN, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, New York Communities for Change, Rainforest Action Network, and …