"Conventional thinking will not solve the climate crisis"

[Chris Broome]

I have just been sent a Guardian column from today (on website, at least). It is by Andrew Simms, who is a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, amongst other roles.

It is very clear and concise on the subject in its title –see https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/19/conventional-thinking-will-not-solve-the-climate-crisis?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I would recommend it as good material to show to any politicians you want to engage on the subject of tackling climate change.

I would add a couple of comments. Firstly, even Simms, in his ninth paragraph cannot even bring himself to clearly advocate action to ensure global temperature rise goes no higher than 2C, let alone 1.5C. He says “Scenarios for industrial transition are needed that tell a bolder and more convincing tale, [that] stand a genuine chance of limiting warming to 2C.”

Secondly, in the previous paragraph, he refers to how “key decisions on aviation expansion and fracking look set to lock in emissions-intensive infrastructure.” Yet the same general problem extends wider than that. Perhaps less dramatic decisions are being made in the meantime that lock virtually the whole economy into being too high-carbon. The Government has also announced a new major roads programme and its intention to ensure the building of a million new homes by 2020 – that are not even yet required to meet “zero-carbon” standards.

I hope this is of interest.  

Best Regards

Chris