Inspiration to Act
Backyard cookouts are a hallmark of Memorial Day. Inevitably, this means burning gas or charcoal, each of which emits significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Yet according to a new projection in the New York Times, large-scale melting of ice in the Antartica is now almost inevitable, and this phenomenon could cause “enough sea-level rise that many of ..
According to a new projection in the New York Times, large-scale melting of ice in the Antartica is now almost inevitable, and this phenomenon could cause “enough sea-level rise that many of the world’s coastal cities would eventually have to be abandoned.” However, preventive measures are proposed in a separate new article in the journal Global Change Biology. These measures would involve reforesting as much as possible of the 45% ..
Inspiration to Act
To maximize the potential of Earth Day, we’re told to prioritize actions that can yield the most environmental improvement. We’re told this means that reducing greenhouse gas emissions should be our priority, as our civilization is uniquely imperiled by greenhouse gas that generates climate change. So for many years, our priority on Earth Day has generally been to reduce greenhouse gas, and the key recipe has been to ..
Updated Analysis
(This article by Robert Goodland [1] is adapted from the Climate Institute’s January 2014 Climate Alert) According to two UN entities, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency, the concentration of greenhouse gas (GHG) in our atmosphere may rise to irreversibly catastrophic levels by 2020 – or at latest 2026 – if nothing is done ..
By Frank De Giacomo (in photo at left) Dr. Robert Goodland has been referred to as “the conscience” of the World Bank, which recruited him to be its first full-time ecologist. He took a lead role in drafting the World Bank’s first environmental and social policies, which essentially served as environmental and social standards for countries that lacked appropriate regulatory frameworks to ..
Robert James Appleby Goodland was born at home in Brigg, Lincolnshire (in the east of England) on the 26th of September 1939, the second son of Arthur and Cynthia Goodland. He spent the war years with his family in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire and subsequently received his primary and secondary education at Taunton School in Somerset (in the South West region ..
Robert Goodland trekked in the Himalayas every year, and on his way home last week to Washington, D.C. his health took a turn for the worse, so he never made it home. Robert co-founded the “Chomping Climate Change” website, years after he grew up with a special interest in nature. Robert earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1960 from McGill University in Canada. For ..
Updated Analysis
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a report today claiming that the world should expect a 70 percent increase in livestock production by 2050. The report says that if all the efficiencies it claims can be made would actually succeed, then greenhouse gas emissions from livestock might drop by as much as 30 percent –- but since ..
Updated Analysis
(Excerpted/adapted from a speech by Robert Goodland on September 7, 2013 at The McDougall Conference in Santa Rosa, California; see full speech at http://www.chompingclimatechange.org/uploads/8/0/6/9/8069267/happiermeals.pdf) There’s an accidental environmental aspect to the location of this conference; that is, it’s being held near Silicon Valley, which is largely responsible for revolutionizing the world by replacing brick and mortar with digital and virtual processes. That can ..
Inspiration to Act
by Robert Goodland President Obama’s re-election competed for attention with Superstorm Sandy, which cost at least 200 human lives and US$70 billion. If storms increase in number and strength with climate change, then much higher costs may result – yet the topic of climate change was glaringly absent in recent political campaigning. Perhaps that’s because candidates couldn’t think how climate change might be addressed alongside the ..