Dickinson to Durban » Archive
Politics and Time
By: Anna McGinn ’14 Janet L. Sawin and William R. Moomaw’s report, “Renewable Revolution: Low Carbon Energy by2030,”offers quite a positive and uplifting assessment of the world’s situation as it pertains to climate change in the next twenty years. Actually, the tone was so encouraging that I started to question the legitimacy of some of the statements they make. But the difference between this article and most other research we have assessed on this topic is that the focus of this report is on what the world is doing well in regards to renewable energy, and not so much the degree to which it is failing. Yet, it makes the transition to renewable resources sound too easy. This report acknowledges the fact that policies are pivotal for their emission projections to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change
Something we can all learn from college students…
In 2007, Dickinson College’s President William G. Durden signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). Over 670 colleges and universities throughout the nation have committed to significantly reducing their greenhouse gas emissions; Dickinson College’s agreement entails climate neutrality by the year 2020. In an attempt to reach this goal, Dickinson College produced a detailed climate action plan (CAP) for exactly how to implement sustainable changes to Dickinson’s daily functioning. By following the implementations of this CAP, Dickinson hopes to reach net zero emissions by 2020. Sawin and Moomaw (2009) have a similar idea for international climate negotiations. What if a custom global climate action plan was assembled and implemented by instigating CAPs for individual country emissions? Sawin and Moomaw compiled a promise for energy efficiency based on sectors of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
How Do You Regulate Carbon Emissions?
The regulating of carbon emissions is not a straight-cut or one-magic-solution issue for the release of the billions of tons of GHGs we as a global community put up into the atmosphere each year. Indeed many possible solutions working in tandem can produce the desired effect of feasible reduction in GHG emissions! So what are these ideas? I will present three of the policies that I see working most effectively and which answer the original question best from three selected readings. These readings act to PARTIALLY aid in the answering of the question of regulating GHG emissions. 1) “Put a price on carbon that increases over time.” Sawin-Moomaw propose that this can be done by, “… to apply a “bottom tax” that sets a floor under fossil fuel prices, and that increases … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
“But it will ruin our economy!”
by Claire Tighe ’13 Does curbing emissions mean compromising potential economic development? In their WorldWatch Report entitled “Renewable Revolution: Low-Carbon Energy by 2030,” Sawin and Moomaw argue that it does not. (Even though simultaneously curbing economic development might not be such a bad thing, considering the effects of the United States’ exponential growth on a very limited aggregation of resources: the natural environment. In fact, less development for industrialized countries might even be preferable considering the projections for dangerous climate change if we continue to function with a “business-as-usual” model for emissions. If you’re curious about the environmental approach claiming that a cap on growth might not be so bad, check out Bill McKibben’s most recent book, Eaarth.) Instead, Sawin and Moomaw claim that “the way forward must be to focus … Read entire article »
Filed under: Carbon Markets, Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
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