China, reducing “carbon intensity”, not carbon emissions

posted to Nature.com-climate feedback and Dot Earth

 

Maybe this is a break in the log jam… in disguise, a real opportunity to ask the tough questions.

Take China’s promise to slow carbon release by decreasing its economic carbon intensity. The strange fact, that points to our need to deeply rethink how we’ve been trying to slow down ALL kinds of environmental impacts, is that reducing carbon intensity does not reduce carbon emissions. Continue reading China, reducing “carbon intensity”, not carbon emissions

Recent additions to Concept and Comment list

List of short articles on main website: Concept and Comment.  Here are some recent additions – Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Peak Zucchini – 11/20/09 The story of overabundance and when to give it away for our Thanksgiving…
What in the world is really going on here? – 11/15/09 How our work ethic accidently pushes us up an ever steeper learning curve
How we get out of this – 11/11/09 What to do when it’s your solutions that become the main cause of your problems
Inside Efficiency – 11/10/09 The mystery of why doing tasks ever more efficiently multiplies their services and impact growth
The Missing Variables in Thermodynamics – 10/24/09 The unhidden but missing energy that builds energy flow systems
Lines of Sustainability – research notes on defining the limits of sustainability and points of vanishing returns.
Economies That Become Part of Nature – how we can, why we have to
When = becomes a sign of change – The real “millennium bug” is all the = signs becoming ? marks.
Efficiency Mistake – the main unwanted reverse effects of efficiency & productivity 5/27/09

 

To end the “rat race” – Chasing our own tail & falling behind

Steve asked on 11/16/09:

Dear Phil and Andy,

If we could choose in this moment to will one thing, that is to say, to take a single step along a new path to a sustainable future (recognizing that one step will be only the first of many more to come), what would that step be?  Other ways of asking this question are, “How do we take the first step forward in a new direction? What does taking that initial step look like? Precisely what first step is required to begin anew?

Steve,
Any new path appears to be a learning process, usually one we may have already taken many steps on but don’t see it. At the beginning of a learning process there’s a period when all you seem to have to show is your mistakes.

It’s those loose ends that you eventually find a way to connect.  The path is through the unexpected connection of loose parts, so stay open to questioning .  It would help things if more people were willing to question their own beliefs, though.  Not knowing which ones are truly reliable, and which beliefs “just ain’t so”, is one of the main problems. Continue reading To end the “rat race” – Chasing our own tail & falling behind