Just Transition Requisites

Transition to a clean energy economy is the subject of 350Missoula’s current campaign .The following  articles, documents, and websites  provide  information that describe requisites driving this campaign.

Era of Megafires
north40productions.com

Megafires, wildfires over 100,000 acres, and the destruction caused by them is a serious and growing issue to our region. Our communities, homes, businesses and our very way of life are threatened. If we are going to make effective progress towards increasing fire resiliency, we must increase awareness and stimulate conversation about this important issue across all levels of society. Through education, we firmly believe we can change the way we receive fire and smoke.

 

ice flows graphicRecalculating the Climate Math
newrepublic.com (09/22/2016)
Bill McKiibben

“… how much more new digging and drilling can we do?
Here’s the answer: zero.
…If we’re serious about preventing catastrophic warming, the new study shows, we can’t dig any new coal mines, drill any new fields, build any more pipelines. Not a single one. We’re done expanding the fossil fuel frontier. Our only hope is a swift, managed decline in the production of all carbon-based energy from the fields we’ve already put in production.”

 

blue cut fireChanging Climate Leaves People Homeless
(washingtonpost.com 8/18/2016)

“You’d find no scientist would disagree with the fact that a changing climate is and will continue to put people out of their homes,” said Greg Holland, a hurricane and climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Holland said that far and away the most obvious reason for this is rising seas swallowing coastal zones, as in the case of Shishmaref. “As far as sea level rise is concerned, there’s zero doubt about it,” he said.

Climate WarA World at War
(newrepublic.com 8/15/2016)
Bill McKiibben

‘In the North this summer, a devastating offensive is underway. Enemy forces have seized huge swaths of territory; with each passing week, another 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice disappears. Experts dispatched to the battlefield in July saw little cause for hope, especially since this siege is one of the oldest fronts in the war. “In 30 years, the area has shrunk approximately by half,” said a scientist who examined the onslaught. “There doesn’t seem anything able to stop this.”’

 

toy carClean Energy Won’t Save Us⮷
(theguardian.com July 15, 2016)

“When it comes to climate change, the problem is not just the type of energy we are using, it’s what we’re doing with it. What would we do with 100% clean energy? …
“The climate movement made an enormous mistake. We focused all our attention on fossil fuels, when we should have been pointing to something much deeper: the basic logic of our economic operating system. After all, we’re only using fossil fuels in the first place to fuel the broader imperative of GDP growth.”

 

power meterHow Utilities are Fighting Back⮷
(Consumer Reports August, 2016)

“With Americans starting to see savings from solar, many traditional electricity suppliers are working to retain their profit margins.”

 

boy looks at smogStrengthening the Climate Movement⮷
(interfacejournal.net May, 2016)

“Keeping fossil fuels in the ground and accelerating a just transition to a sustainable energy system remain essential in addressing the climate challenge. Despite the common aspirational goals agreed upon by nearly 200 countries at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, it is clear that climate activism still needs to be strengthened.”

 

fracking texasIs Natural Gas Really a Bridge?⮷
(thenation.com 03/23/2016)
Global Warming’s Terrifying New Chemistry
Bill McKibben

“Our leaders thought fracking would save our climate. They were wrong. Very wrong.”

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leap mainifesto posterLeap Manifesto⮷
(leapmanifesto.org 2016)

“There is no longer an excuse for building new infrastructure projects that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard. That applies equally to oil and gas pipelines; fracking in New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia; increased tanker traffic off our coasts; and to Canadian-owned mining projects the world over.

 shorter showers
Forget Shorter Showers⮷
(orionmagazine.org 2009) (YouTube 8/25/2015)
An article by Derrick Jensen converted to a film.
 .
“Would any sane person think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday; or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons; or that dancing around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”? Why are these “solutions” not sufficient? But most importantly, what can be done instead to actually stop the murder of the planet?”
 .
“Economics  has  much  to  say  about  assessing and  managing  the  risks  of climate change,  and  about  how  to  design  national  and  international responses  for  both the reduction of emissions and adaptation to the impacts that we can no longer avoid.  If economics  is  used  to  design  cost-effective  policies,  then taking  action  to  tackle climate change will enable societies’ potential for well-being to increase much faster in the long run than without action; we can be ‘green’ and grow.  Indeed, if we are not ‘green’, we will eventually undermine growth, however measured.”
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exponential growth
Arithmetic, Population, and Energy⮷
(Dr. Albert Bartlett, Univ of CO, 2002)
Billed on YouTube as “The Most IMPORTANT Video You Will Ever See”,   “Professor Bartlett often explained how sustainable growth is a contradiction. His view was based on the fact that a modest percentage growth will equate to huge escalations over relatively short periods of time”