For those of you in the area of economy and investment this blog from the Wallstreet Journal might be of interest to you: Environmental Capital.

Admittedly, I don’t like that title. I like to think that we want to safe our environment because we understand that we are dependent on a healthy environment for our own survival, and because we love the nature that surrounds us.

Unfortunately, that is nowadays a rediculously naive way of thinking. Many people need to be able to make money to be willing to work on environmental issues. And whereas I used to judge this as despicable intentions, I now realize that of course we need to be able to make money from what we invest our energy in, otherwise we will not be able to sustain our efforts (except for people who are independendly rich).

So, go ahead and explore how you, too, can make money from our environment, and why this is important (BTW, in the future we will also include a lot more articles on this subject).

Maiken Winter

Today a study was published in Nature which hopefully will ring the alarm bells loud enough for people to understand what we are up against:

Climate change is an extremely serious threat, and we will loose if we do not act now.

Malte Meinhausen and colleagues have demonstrated for the first time how much CO2 can still be emitted until 2050 if we want to avoid a global warming by more than 2°C.

Their result: the world can emit about 1000 billion (= 1 trillion) tons of CO2 by 2050 if we want to have a 75% chance to stay below 2°C warming. Between 2000 and 2009 the world has already emitted one third of that amount. (more…)

This is a commentary to “What are we aiming for?”

Would you buy a present that has a 25% chance of breaking at first use?

Would you step into an airplane that has a 25% chance of crashing?

Would you acccept the building of a nuclear factory that has a 25% chance of exploding?

Silly questions! Of course not! And at least the latter would cause world-wide uproar, demonstrations, and laying off all responsible people.

Now let’s assume that earth has a 25% chance that it will warm by more than 2°C even under stringent emission reduction schemes. A warming by more than  2°C will likely trigger tipping points that might render our beautiful planet more or less uninhabitable for human civilization as it is today. Would you accept such a risk as fact and go on with your life as usual?

Silly question! Of course not! This would cause world-wide uproar, demonstrations, and laying off all responsible people.

Will it?

Maiken Winter

This picture does not need any explanation. It was taken by Greenpeace during their action in D.C. today to increase the awareness of the worlds largest polluters that are currently meeting at the State Department in D.C. An expression from a friend of mine fits to this banner: “We need to get too connected to fail.”

Let us improve our connections and focus on a single clear goal: create a global low carbon society within the next decades. It does not matter what efforts it will take. The alternative is unacceptable. - Maiken Winter

Source: Thanks to Joshua Trust who referred me to Greenpeace

From an interview with the CEO of Duke Energy, Mr. Rogers, on 60 minutes, it again became distressingly clear that some people are not able to “connect the dots”, as the US-based climatologist Jim Hansen calls it.

Even though Mr. Rogers admits that his company is one of the largest CO2 emitters of the states, that the US needs a federal law to limit CO2 emissions, and that we urgently need to act on climate change, he does not draw the immediate consequences for his own company from that. (more…)

Unnoticed by most, small in financial amount, but enormous in its symbolic meaning: German students acted while the world is waiting for each other.

Last week, during the UN climate talks in Bonn, Stuart Scott, member of Al Gore’s Climate Project (TCP), gave a presentation to 300 German students about climate change. The students were so moved that they spontaneously collected 131 Euro to be donated to the adaptation fund. (The picture shows Stewart, the students, and the head of the adaptation fund at a press conference in Bonn; courtesy of Steart Scott).

Of course, 131 Euro will not safe the world. Of course, none of the students gave all their savings, but just a little bit of their weekly allowance, maybe just 1 - 3 % of it? (more…)

In an interview with Yale Environment 360 (Yale360), Bill McKibben explains why he’s now focused on organizing a citizens movement around climate change — and why he believes this effort is critical for spurring world leaders into action.

Author Bill McKibben first warned about global warming and its implications for the planet in his 1989 book, The End of Nature. But in the last few years, it has become the focus of his work as an organizer of 350.org, an advocacy organization promoting global action to tackle climate change. A global citizens movement on global climate action is urgently needed to push for an effective climate treaty this December in Copenhagen.

Here in Germany, we are trying to get Bill - also a fantastic public speaker - to give a talk in Berlin in June; if anybody wants to help arrange his visit, then please contact us.

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Guest article by Stuart Scott (stuart.h.scott@gmail.com) from the UN climate meetings in Bonn

While we debate and negotiate, let’s not forget what is really at stake here.  There is a growing possibility humanity will trigger runaway climate change, ‘the Venus Syndrome’, by which we may render the Earth unable to support life.  If triggered, no level of privilege or material wealth will protect any individual or nation.  No technology can isolate a sustainable bubble of life in a world of runaway climate change.  In the words of Dr. James Hansen (December 2008), “Now the danger that we face is the Venus Syndrome. There is no escape from the Venus Syndrome [once triggered]. Venus will never have oceans again.”

The survival of our children, of humanity, and of all life on Earth is at stake.  Ultimately, there will be no separate winners and losers in these negotiations.  Ultimately we all win, or we all lose.  Let that recognition advise us in all we do here in Bonn, in our consultations with our governments, in our work when we return home, and in everything we do to ensure the strongest possible climate protection treaty this year in Copenhagen.