South Church Green Team
Climate Reader
Here
is a collection of articles that serve as a starting point on what you need to
know on the scientific, political and moral aspects of the climate change
crisis, the crisis of our age.
These
articles are a way to help you get started to understand:
1)
The
situation we face (Yes, it’s serious)
2)
Why
the scientific debate is over (Yes, the evidence is unequivocal)
3)
Why
we need to act now (We have only a few decades to make significant cuts in
emissions)
4)
How
it can be solved with today’s technology (We don’t need to give up everything
to solve it)
5)
How
people and countries around the world are already succeeding in the transition
to a low emission economy (How the changes are also making life in their
countries better and healthier)
6)
The
few simple big things that will get us there (Starting first with a fee on
carbon emissions. This uses the free market to find solutions, and taps into
the incredible inventiveness and creativity that we have, and that we’ll need
to solve this)
The
climate change problem is different and more challenging than anything the
human race has faced before. It can and must be solved if we want to have a
stable, habitable planet for ourselves and our children to live on. If we don’t get on a path to solve this, and
act soon, climate change will soon dwarf any other problem we face.
Now is the time to act.
Now is the time to act.
SC Green Team Climate Reader
Table of Contents
1.
What You Need
to Know about Climate Change
- The Big Picture
- The Scientific Guide To Global Warming Skepticism
-
By
Bill Schroeder and the SC Green Team
-
William
D. Nordhaus
-
Bill
McKibben
-
David
Roberts, Grist.org, TEDx talk
2.
What We Need
To Do
-
Elliot
Spitzer, Grist.org
-
Citizens
Climate Lobby
-
Church of New South
Wales, NZ
3.
What Can I Do to
Make a Difference for Myself and My Family, Right Now?
- Go Green: Improve the Energy Efficiency of Your Home
- Go Solar: Install Solar Photovoltaics on your home
- Go Renewable: Choose the renewable energy option from your electricity provider
4.
Success
Stories
- SouthChurch and SC family
Where Can I Find Out More?
Web Sites
|
Best source for the latest science. A
scientific site with references to the latest papers and findings. Good
general science for the layman and also discussions on the latest research. It’s
also a compendium of latest climate news. It has the best up-to-date debunking
of the misinformation by the climate deniers.
|
|
NOAA’s site for climate information
|
|
From the 350.org mission statement:
“350.org is building a global
grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots
organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands
of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries.
“350 means climate safety. To
preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in
the atmosphere from its current level of 392 parts per million to below 350
ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as
a planet.”
|
|
Political group advocating for
climate policy
|
Books
Storms of My
Grandchildren
by
James Hansen, former head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
This
book was written by the man who is perhaps the world’s leading climate
scientist. It’s the best book I’ve read so far because he covers the whole
scientific picture of climate change from millions of years ago through the
changes we’re introducing today in clear and understandable way. Secondly, and
just as importantly, he also tells the story of how the Bush administration played
games with science by attempting to manipulate or block the research that he
was trying to report.
Field Notes from a
Catastrophe
by Elizabeth Kolbert
Online
review comment: “Earlier this year I read The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery.
It was an excellent book full of scientific explanations to nearly all the
questions I had about the issue of climate change. Now I have just finished
Field Notes From a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert. It also is an excellent
book. In fact, I wish I had read it first - not because it is the better of the
two books, but because it is a better introduction to the subject.”
The Weather Makers (2005)
by Tim
Flannery"
“The
author, Tim Flannery, has succeeded in writing one of the most comprehensive
and easy to understand books on climate change and the effects fossil fuel
consumption has on our planet. He lays out the science, the politics and
economics behind the effects greenhouse gases have on our planet. These effects
include mass species extinction, rise in temperature of the Earth's atmosphere,
as well as its oceans, and sea level rise just to name a few. Flannery also
does a wonderful job of laying out some of the practical steps we need to be
taking in order to avoid catastrophe for future generations and possibly even
our own. Highly recommended.
Now or Never: Why We Must
Act Now to End Climate Change and Create a Sustainable Future (2009)
by Tim
Flannery
He
has some significant ways (that were mostly new to me) that we can make changes
to how we live as a species on this planet and how we can take steps to limit
or reverse our impact.
The Long Thaw: How Humans
Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate
by David Archer (2010)
The Climate War
by Eric Pooley
Eric
Pooley has served as managing editor of Fortune and national editor,
chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time.
He is now deputy editor of Bloomberg Business Week.
No Rolling Stone there. A lot of behind-the-scenes reporting on both
sides of the climate change argument. Here you see why the deniers case is not
defensible.
Climate Wars
by Gwynne Dyer
Gwynne
Dyer is military analyst, and he runs through some of the likely/possible
scenarios over the next 50 years, and how countries are likely to react to loss
of water, droughts, constant storms, refugees streaming across their borders. Not
pretty. Think about what WW I was fought over. In that case, millions
died over treaty obligations, colonial rights in Africa and bad feelings?
What happens when countries are in real stress and their neighbor countries
have food and water?
Books for
kids
The kids books are actually good for adults looking
for a fast way to come up to speed on the topic, and make for a quick read!
Our Choice (Young Reader's
Edition) by
Al Gore - aimed at the 6th-8th grade audience.
How We Know What We
Know About Our Changing Climate; Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming Cherry, Lynne and Gary
Braasch. (Grades 4-8)
An
introduction to scientists around the world and their research into global
warming. Also work of citizen scientists, including children. Covers where
clues are found about climate change, combining clues to get the big
picture and how the resulting information is used, and what we all can do. List
of all scientists introduced and their locales at the back of the book.
An Observation
Director James Cameron, speaking at the 2012 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco:
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