Those assets will only be stranded if they don't get monetized by being burned.
Not burning money, getting money by burning carbon. Is this a great country or what? On Nov 11, 2013, at 9:32 AM, Tom Walker wrote: > The past few weeks have seen a torrent of warnings about the stranded asset > "carbon bubble." > > http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304655104579163663464339836 > http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/01/gore-warns-carbon-bubble > http://www.fool.ca/2013/11/08/how-safe-is-your-portfolio-from-the-carbon-bubble/ > http://www.cnbc.com/id/101120966 > http://ensia.com/voices/the-other-reason-for-divestment/ > http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029415.700-an-oil-crash-is-on-its-way-and-we-should-be-ready.html?full=true#.UoArMvnkuR3 > > > > > > On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 7:14 AM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > When, on May 10, 2013, scientists at Mauna Loa Observatory on the big > island of Hawaii announced that global CO2 emissions had crossed a > threshold at 400 parts per million for the first time in millions of > years, a sense of dread spread around the world - not only among climate > scientists. > > CO2 emissions have been relentlessly climbing since Charles David > Keeling first set up his tracking station near the summit of Mauna Loa > Observatory in 1958 to monitor average daily global CO2 levels. At that > time, CO2 concentrations registered 315ppm. CO2 emissions and > atmospheric concentrations have been climbing ever since and, as the > records show, temperatures rises will follow. For all the climate > summits, the promises of "voluntary restraint," the carbon trading and > carbon taxes, the growth of CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations > has not just been relentless, it has been accelerating in what > scientists have dubbed the “Keeling Curve." > > In the early 1960s, CO2ppm concentrations in the atmosphere grew by > 0.7ppm per year. In recent decades, especially as China has > industrialized, the growth rate has tripled to 2.1ppm per year. In just > the first 17 weeks of 2013, CO2 levels jumped by 2.74ppm compared to > last year -- "the biggest increase since benchmark monitoring stations > high on the Hawaiian volcano of Mauna Loa began taking measurements in > 1958."[1] Carbon concentrations have not been this high since the > Pliocene period, between 3 million and 5 million years ago, when global > average temperatures were 3 degrees or 4 degrees Centigrade hotter than > today, the Arctic was ice-free, sea levels were about 40 meters higher, > jungles covered northern Canada and Florida was under water - along with > coastal locations we now call New York City, London, Shanghai, Hong > Kong, Sydney and many others. > > Crossing this threshold has fueled fears that we are fast approaching > "tipping points" - melting of the subarctic tundra or thawing and > releasing the vast quantities of methane in the Arctic sea bottom - that > will accelerate global warming beyond any human capacity to stop it: "I > wish it weren't true, but it looks like the world is going to blow > through the 400-ppm level without losing a beat," said Scripps Institute > geochemist Ralph Keeling, whose father, Charles, set up the first > monitoring stations in 1958: "At this pace, we'll hit 450 ppm within a > few decades." > > "It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster," said Maureen E. > Raymo, a scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a unit of > Columbia University.[2] > > full: > http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19872-capitalism-and-the-destruction-of-life-on-earth-six-theses-on-saving-the-humans > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > -- > Cheers, > > Tom Walker (Sandwichman) > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
