I had the opportunity to listen to Tim Flannery speak last night in
person. If you get the opportunity, recommended. Tim is travelling the
globe promoting his new book, Atmosphere of Hope (my son got a signed
copy, and we're looking forward to reading it).
Some take-aways. In 2014, we witnessed the decoupling of economic
growth from fossil fuel consumption. Small efforts (e.g., switch to
efficient lighting by many people) is making a difference. China
reduced it's use of coal by 2.5% in 2014 (in a single year). Industrial
scale carbon capture from fossil fuel power plants as practiced today is
a dead-end. There are a wide range of viable options available - the
Virgin prize on climate change competition has received over 11,000
entries. Growing specific types of seaweed in the near off-shore can
absorb massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, while producing
protein for feeding a growing human population. A technology for
producing carbon fibre from carbon captured from the atmosphere, instead
of from burning other material, at a lower over-all cost.
The event was sponsored by the Broadbent Institute and Mowat Centre to
announce their ideas for moving to a low carbon world.
http://mowatcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/publications/112_StepChange.pdf
In a following conversation with Paul Beckwith (professor and abrupt
climate change researcher at University of Ottawa), I learned he is now
writing a book on the subject.
I think there may be a new sense of freedom in the federal public
service. I saw faces at the session last night I have not seen at
public events around environmental issues for years.
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