71. Climate Memo Mondays, #71, April 18, 2022
IPCC Report April 4, 2022, from ACCL
Mark Schuller. Humanity's Last Stand. Confronting Global Catastrophe
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IPCC calls carbon pricing 'efficient and effective'
The latest installment of the IPCC report focuses on climate mitigation and makes clear that a price on carbon is an efficient, effective policy to reduce climate-changing emissions.
CCL Research Coordinator Dana Nuccitelli analyzes the report in a blog post, highlighting the IPCC’s findings that a carbon price works both in theory:
“Economic theory suggests that carbon pricing policies are on the whole more cost effective than regulations or subsidies at reducing emissions” [13.6.3.3]
And in practice:
“There is abundant evidence that carbon pricing policies reduce emissions. Statistical studies of emissions trends in jurisdictions with and without carbon pricing find a significant impact after controlling for other policies and structural factors. Numerous assessments of specific policies, especially the EU ETS and the British Columbia carbon tax, conclude that most have reduced emissions” [13.6.3.3]
Dana also writes, “While it’s true that the more ambitious 1.5°C Paris target is rapidly slipping out of reach, it’s important to understand that it will never be too late to lessen the impacts of climate change. The climate of a 1.8°C world is more livable than a 2°C world, which would be better than a 2.2°C world, and so on. There will be no point in any of our lifetimes when it will become too late to leave the world a better place for future generations.”
Key Findings From The Latest United Nations Scientific Report on Climate Change
Mark Leon Goldberg April 7, 2022
Every six to eight years the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, undertakes a massive review of the latest science around climate change. Right now, we are near the end of one of these cycles of scientific review.
My guest today, Ryan Hobert, is the managing director of the United Nations Foundations climate and environment team. We kick off discussing the process behind these IPCC reports before diving deep into some of the specific findings of the latest report, released Monday. (Transcript available soon)
Humanity's Last Stand. Confronting Global Catastrophe by Mark Schuller. Foreword by Cynthia McKinney.Rutgers UP, 2021. 272 pages, https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/humanitys-last-stand/9781978820876
Are we as a species headed towards extinction? As our economic system renders our planet increasingly inhospitable to human life, powerful individuals fight over limited resources, and racist reaction to migration strains the social fabric of many countries. How can we retain our humanity in the midst of these life-and-death struggles?
Humanity’s Last Stand dares to ask these big questions, exploring the interconnections between climate change, global capitalism, xenophobia, and white supremacy. As it unearths how capitalism was born from plantation slavery and the slaughter of Indigenous people, it also invites us to imagine life after capitalism. The book teaches its readers how to cultivate an anthropological imagination, a mindset that remains attentive to local differences even as it identifies global patterns of inequality and racism.
Surveying the struggles of disenfranchised peoples around the globe from frontline communities affected by climate change, to #BlackLivesMatter activists, to Indigenous water protectors, to migrant communities facing increasing hostility, anthropologist Mark Schuller argues that we must develop radical empathy in order to move beyond simply identifying as “allies” and start acting as “accomplices.” Bringing together the insights of anthropologists and activists from many cultures, this timely study shows us how to stand together and work toward a more inclusive vision of humanity before it’s too late.
More information and instructor resources (https://humanityslaststand.org)