Climate in Cambridge

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

We’ve been up visiting in Cambridge Mass. and have had the opportunity to see a couple of exhibits about climate change in our peregrinations. The photo here is from GlacierWorks, an organization founded by David Breashears, a documentary filmmaker who is on a mission to highlight the stunning loss of glacial mass in the Himalayas over the past hundred years. There is an exhibit now at the MIT Museum, Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya, that illustrates what’s happening there. It’s all pretty arresting. Continue reading →

John Kerry at State

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

John Kerry is on track, with no significant US Senate opposition on the horizon, to become the next US Secretary of State. President Obama formally announced his nomination yesterday at the White House. In his remarks, Obama said: “…we’ve got to harness all elements of American power and ensure that they’re working together — diplomatic and development, economic and political, military and intelligence…” Of course, those tools need to be brought to bear on the pressing issues of climate change and sustainability. The Department of State has an awful lot in its portfolio and increasingly that has included taking these matters of the health of the planet and its people much more seriously than ever before. Continue reading →

In Scientific American

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

Following on the book excerpt the other day in Salon, I’m pretty tickled to have one today in the venerable Scientific American. Do You Accept the Science of Climate Change? is how they’ve titled my excerpt on the disinformation campaign fueled, as it were, by certain special interests, how the media has played it, and how the scientific community has fought back. By the way, if for some reason you haven’t sampled the excellent coverage on Energy and Sustainability that Scientific American has on offer, please do yourself a favor and subscribe to their feed. Better yet, subscribe to the magazine itself. A good bit of the reason for SciAm’s superb coverage is attributable to their world-class writer and editor David Biello.

Doha Climate Gateway

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

What is being called the “Doha Climate Gateway,” more formerly the 18^th Conference of the Parties (COP18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), wrapped up this past weekend in Doha. It was the first conference of the parties to take place in the Middle East and, according to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin of the venerable IISD, the conference drew around nine thousand folks, including 4,356 government officials, 3,956 representatives of UN bodies and agencies, intergovernmental organizations and civil society organizations, and 683 members of the media. Continue reading →

On Salon

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

Here’s a nice bit of buzz for the book: There’s a long excerpt today in Salon. I’m truly delighted to have my book excerpted in Salon. (Update: This thing has gotten a lot of play with nearly 700 Facebook “likes” and over 200 tweets. I’m not really sure what that all means – sorry, I’m a bit of a social media illiterate – but I think it spells the fact that people are enthusiastic.)

Carpe Diem

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

Carpe diem. Seize the day. That’s what some American university students are realizing needs to be done. I was in the streets in the early ‘70s protesting the war. I even wound up in jail a couple of times. One of the proudest things I can say about that time is that I was in jail with the legendary peace activist Dave Dellinger for three days. It’s good to be young and to know what’s at stake. Continue reading →

Carbon Emissions Going Up

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

As reported yesterday by the Global Carbon Project in its Carbon Budget 2012 report, the top four emitters of carbon from fossil fuel combustion and cement production in 2011 covered 62% of global emissions: China (28%), United States (16%), EU27 (11%), and India (7%). These four entities emitted about 5.62 billion tons of carbon. (Multiply by 3.67 to get the carbon dioxide output which then equals about 20.6 billion tons.) You can see that the US and the EU have stabilized and even lowered their emissions in recent years. Continue reading →

A Newer World

on the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

Monthly Archives: December 2012