For any first time visitors here because of Tom Friedman’s column in the Sunday New York Times, “The Inflection Is Near?” this post is intended as an introduction to Climate Progress. I will blog later Sunday about the column itself, where I call the global economy a “Ponzi scheme.”
Tom describes me as
Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org.
I am a Senior Fellow at the Washington, DC think-and-act tank run by John Podesta, the Center for American Progress, whose Action Fund sponsors this blog. You can read my full bio at Wikipedia.
I try to inform and entertain here — and be a one-stop-shop for anyone who wants the inside view on climate science, solutions, and politics. A key goal is to save readers’ time, save you from wading through the sea of irrelevant information — or outright disinformation — on climate and energy that pervades the media and blogosphere.
I write from what I call a climate realist perspective — the emerging scientific view that on our current greenhouse gas emissions path we will will destroy the livability of the climate for 1,000 years. Good posts that lay out that case are:
- Hadley Center warns of catastrophic 5–7°C warming by 2100 on current emissions path
- M.I.T. joins climate realists, doubles its projection of global warming by 2100 to 5.1°C
- Startling new sea level rise research: “Most likely” 0.8 to 2.0 meters by 2100
- NOAA stunner: Climate change “largely irreversible for 1000 years,” with permanent Dust Bowls in Southwest and around the globe
I also spend a lot of time describing the solution(s), having run the federal program that helps develop and deploy virtually all of the key technologies. Fundamentally we have most of the needed technology now (or soon will), and avoiding catastrophe requires only a small fraction of the nation’s and world’s wealth:
- An introduction to the core climate solutions
- Is 450 ppm (or less) politically possible? Part 2: The Solution
- McKinsey 2008 Research in Review: Stabilizing at 450 ppm has a net cost near zero.
- Must read IEA report, Part 1: Act now with clean energy or face 6°C warming. Cost is NOT high — media blows the story
And I also spend a lot of time keeping readers up on the politics of energy and climate action:
- Swing-vote Snowe on Reid ‘mega-bill’ strategy: “You give people plenty of reasons to vote against this” by combining energy and climate legislation
- Hill conservatives reject all 3 climate strategies and embrace Rush Limbaugh — what does that radicalism mean for Obama, progressives, and humanity?
- The first sustainable budget in U.S. history: Obama invests in clean energy, projects cap-and-trade revenue, seeks repeal of fossil industry subsidies
And then there is the offbeat stuff:
- Jack Bauer becomes first-ever carbon-neutral torturer as Rupert Murdoch says “Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats”
- I just learned two shocking things
- How to be as persuasive as Abraham Lincoln, Part 1: Study the figures of speech and Shakespeare
Oh, and peak oil stuff:
- Normally staid International Energy Agency says oil will peak in 2020
- Merrill: Non-OPEC production has likely peaked, oil output could fall by 30 million bpd by 2015
And here’s my best written recent post:
Perhaps my readers will also offer their thoughts.
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