Term
| Please describe Bush’s reversal of his campaign pledge on CO2. What did he promise, and what did he do instead? |
|
Definition
| to treat CO2 as a pollutant that could then be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Completely did an about face on this in response (apparently) to pressure from Cheney and conservative Senators |
|
|
Term
| How did a stable climate contribute to development of human civilization? |
|
Definition
| The social hierarchies of complex societies require food yields sufficient to support non-food-producing components of society. Almost all of first known population centers date to about 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, when rate of sea level rise slowed. Most human settlements either coastal or riverine. Coastal biologic productivity & fish populations are low while sea level is changing, but increase exponentially when stable. |
|
|
Term
| Please identify two reasons Hansen believes we are unlikely to be able to stop using oil and gas immediately. |
|
Definition
| We need them for the transition to renewables so we don’t have to rely on coal. |
|
|
Term
| Please identify three problems Hansen identifies with offsets. |
|
Definition
| They are hard to verify, they incentivise bad behaviour, they can be very temporary (like reforestation) |
|
|
Term
| Please identify two pieces of evidence Hansen says lead him to conclude that governments are lying about their sincerity in hitting emissions targets. |
|
Definition
| Allowing building of new coal-fired power plants, allowing construction of coal-to-liquids plants that will produce oil from coal, allowing development of unconventional fossil fuels such as tar sands, leasing public lands and remote areas for oil and gas exploration, they are allowing companies to lease land for hydraulic fracturing, allowing highly destructive mountaintop-removal and long-wall coal mining |
|
|
Term
| Hansen says we have all the ingredients we need to phase out coal emissions (by 2020!)—except leadership willing to resist what? |
|
Definition
| fossil fuel companies’ money |
|
|
Term
| What are the ingredients that have put the UK on track to phase out coal emissions by 2025? |
|
Definition
| Based on a popular campaign there in which citizens—activists, mainstream public, scientists, the financial sector, and even some politicians—exposed government greenwash. |
|
|
Term
| How does coal use in India and China compare to coal use in the developed world and what are the reasons Hansen is optimistic India and China can muster political will to act? |
|
Definition
| hey get 75% of their energy from coal - twice as much as most of the rest of the world, tradition of respecting science |
|
|
Term
| Why, in Hansen’s opinion, is clean coal is a myth ? |
|
Definition
| Likely high cost, possible leakage of carbon dioxide from storage sites, and environmental damage from coal mining |
|
|
Term
| Compare and contrast the Hansen’s “fee and dividend” approach with the cap and trade approach. |
|
Definition
| we’ve talked extensively about the cap and trade approach elsewhere. fee and dividend involves fee on carbon at point of extraction. that will be passed along to users. The fee generates a dividend that goes to all citizens, with a little bit to the gov to administer it. |
|
|
Term
| Please identify three components of Hansen’s “declaration of stewardship” |
|
Definition
| Moratorium on coal-fired power plants that do not capture and sequester carbon dioxide, Gradually rising price on carbon emissions, Measures to improve energy efficiency, for example, rewarding utilities based on carbon efficiencies, rather than on amount of energy sold. |
|
|
Term
| Why does Hansen believe the judicial branch may have more potential than other branches? |
|
Definition
| Can take longer view than politicians, who focus on election cycles. A judge may have more time for thoughtful consideration of a complicated issue. |
|
|
Term
| Please state in your own words what Klein means when she argues “the right is right”. |
|
Definition
| our entire way of valuing the world and each other is about to change |
|
|
Term
| Please identify at least one tactic that the Heartland Institute uses against climate scientists |
|
Definition
| hugely negative comments on any online commentary, harassing calls |
|
|
Term
| Why were right wing ideological warriors ready to declare victory at the end of the 1980s? |
|
Definition
| End of cold war; capitalism appeared to have triumphed |
|
|
Term
| Please identify two kinds of climate action that Heartland Alliance members claim are reminiscent of socialism. |
|
Definition
| putting control of public utilities back in public hands, taking more federal control of infrastructure, especially transportation |
|
|
Term
| How does climate change “detonate the ideological scaffolding on which contemporary conservatism rests”, according to Klein? |
|
Definition
| “A belief system that vilifies collective action and declares war on all corporate regulation and all things public simply cannot be reconciled with a problem that demands collective action on an unprecedented scale and a dramatic reining in of the market forces that are largely responsible for creating and deepening the crisis.” Klein, Ch 1 |
|
|
Term
| Please identify two examples of ways that climate change is, in Klein’s words, “stratifying us further”. |
|
Definition
| divided between those whose wealth offers them a not insignificant measure of protection from ferocious weather, and those left to the mercy of increasingly dysfunctional states. |
|
|
Term
| Defenders of the WTO argue that protections like buy-local provisions distort the free market + should be eliminated. But Klein argues there is no free market in energy to be protected from distortion. In what ways is the market in energy already distorted? |
|
Definition
| because fossil fuel extraction is already subsidized since fossil fuel companies rarely clean up their messes or pay to capture carbon, putting these costs on taxpayers instead |
|
|
Term
| On what grounds is government regulation of sale or extraction of particularly dirty fossil fuels challenged in the WTO? |
|
Definition
| that it is a barrier to free trade |
|
|
Term
| Why was the end of the Cold War disastrous for the climate? |
|
Definition
| global trade took off (because those states that had formerly been in the Soviet sphere of influence and therefore compelled to trade mostly with the SU) could now trade with anyone, and many of the regulations on big corporations were loosened. The advent of the internet contributed to the process. |
|
|
Term
| How have parties to the climate regime have ensured that liberalized trade has been protected against trade-restrictive climate policies. |
|
Definition
| it has literally been written into climate agreements |
|
|
Term
| Please identify two items on what Klein calls “the regulatory wish list” of huge multinational corporations like Monsanto & Cargill. |
|
Definition
| unfettered market access, aggressive patent protection, maintenance of their rich subsidies. |
|
|
Term
| hat is at least one of the climate-related effects of this deregulation? |
|
Definition
| helped to entrench and expand the energy-intensive, higher-emissions model of industrial agriculture around the world. This, in turn, is a major explanation for why the global food system now accounts for between 19 and 29 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions. |
|
|
Term
| If the Big Greens had not been so supportive of NAFTA, what different kind of global order does Klein think would have developed? |
|
Definition
| “....might have been blocked or renegotiated to set a different kind of precedent. A new trade architecture could have been built that did not actively sabotage the fragile global climate change consensus. is new architecture could have been grounded in the need to fight poverty and reduce emissions at the same time. So for example, trade access to developing countries could have been tied to transfers of resources and green technology so that critical new electricity and transit infrastructure was low carbon from the outset. And the deals could have been written to ensure that any measures taken to support renewable energy would not be penalized and, in fact, could be rewarded.” (Klein Ch 2) |
|
|
Term
| What are some specific policies Klein says we will need if we are to make degrowth fair, so that the greatest sacrifice is not asked of the people who are already struggling to cover basics? |
|
Definition
| Policies like luxury taxes could be put in place to discourage wasteful consumption. The money raised could be used to support those parts of our economies that are already low-carbon and therefore do not need to contract. Obviously a huge number of jobs would be created in the sectors that are part of the green transition—in mass transit, renewable energy, weatherization, and ecosystem restoration.” (Klein Ch 2) |
|
|
Term
| What are some of the professions in which greater efficiency is not, after a certain point, actually desireable? |
|
Definition
| medicine, teaching, caregiving |
|
|
Term
| Why have the cities of Berlin and Hamburg lagged behind Frankfurt & Munich in making the shift to renewables? |
|
Definition
| utilities were privatized |
|
|
Term
| Please list two benefits of decentralized forms of energy provision. |
|
Definition
| more resilient, more locally appropriate |
|
|
Term
| What are some of the large infrastructure investment projects that Klein argues the private sector is ill suited to addressing? |
|
Definition
| smart grids, light rail, citywide composting systems, building retrofits, visionary transit systems, urban redesigns |
|
|
Term
| Please describe three things that Klein notes the 2009 stimulus package could have been used to do. |
|
Definition
| build the best public transit systems and smart grids in the world. The auto industry could have been dramatically reengineered so that its factories built the machinery to power that transition—not just a few token electric cars (though those too) but also vast streetcar and high-speed rail systems across an underserved nation.” (Klein ch 3). |
|
|
