The Climate Crisis Is Our Third World War. It Needs a Bold Response

Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with climate change and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to evoke the massive response by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States government to the Great Depression. An even better analogy would be the country’s mobilization to fight World War II.

We need World War Two-like mobilization to confront climate change. 

Critics ask, “Can we afford it?” and complain that Green New Deal proponents confound the fight to preserve the planet, to which all right-minded individuals should agree, with a more controversial agenda for societal transformation. On both accounts the critics are wrong.

Yes, we can afford it, with the right fiscal policies and collective will. But more importantly, we must afford it. The climate emergency is our third world war. Our lives and civilization as we know it are at stake, just as they were in the second world war.

Read the story from The Guardian by Joseph Stiglitz - “The Climate Crisis Is Our Third World War. It Needs a Bold Response.”

The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response

Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to evoke the massive response by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States government to the Great Depression. An even better analogy would be the country’s mobilization to fight World War II.

 ‘The war on the climate emergency, if correctly
waged, would actually be good for the economy’

Critics ask, “Can we afford it?” and complain that Green New Deal proponents confound the fight to preserve the planet, to which all right-minded individuals should agree, with a more controversial agenda for societal transformation. On both accounts the critics are wrong.

Yes, we can afford it, with the right fiscal policies and collective will. But more importantly, we must afford it. The climate emergency is our third world war. Our lives and civilization as we know it are at stake, just as they were in the second world war.

Read the story from The Guardian by Joseph Stiglitz - “The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response.”

The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response

Advocates of the Green New Deal say there is great urgency in dealing with the climate crisis and highlight the scale and scope of what is required to combat it. They are right. They use the term “New Deal” to evoke the massive response by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States government to the Great Depression. An even better analogy would be the country’s mobilization to fight World War II.

‘The war on the climate emergency, if correctly
waged, would actually be good for the economy’

Critics ask, “Can we afford it?” and complain that Green New Deal proponents confound the fight to preserve the planet, to which all right-minded individuals should agree, with a more controversial agenda for societal transformation. On both accounts the critics are wrong.

Yes, we can afford it, with the right fiscal policies and collective will. But more importantly, we must afford it. The climate emergency is our third world war. Our lives and civilization as we know it are at stake, just as they were in the second world war.

Read the option piece from The Guardian by Joseph Stiglitz - “The climate crisis is our third world war. It needs a bold response.”

Study: Businesses Vastly Underestimate Costs, Impacts of Climate Change

Despite recent reports that highlight the potentially devastating economic impact of climate change, the business world may not be taking the threat seriously enough, according to a new study.

Businesses are not planning adequately for the impacts
of climate change, a new study shows. 

The researchers looked at more than 1,600 corporate adaptation strategies, concluding that most companies are making only narrow and incremental changes to managing the risks and finding “significant blind spots in companies’ assessments of climate change impacts and in their development of strategies for managing them.” The study was published last week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

“It’s something that not enough companies are paying close enough attention to, and even those that are have room for improvement,” said John Weiss, company network director at Ceres, a nonprofit dedicated to sustainable business practices and investing.

Read the Climate Liability News story by Dana Drugmand  - “Study: Businesses Vastly Underestimate Costs, Impacts of Climate Change.”

The quiet e-bike revolution

It seems every day we are seeing a new highlight in the Electric Vehicle space. Whether it is a new model or another City with a plan to phase out fossil fuelled vehicles, there is no doubt the momentum for EVs and autonomous vehicles is building.

The e-bike revolution.

However, in the background a quiet revolution has been taking place. The fastest growing segment in the transport world now is e-bikes, or electric bicycles.

As with many things, China is the biggest market with an estimated 30 million sold in 2016, compared to the rest of the world selling around 4 million, according to Navagant Research.

In 2017 e-bike sales in much of the EU had double digit growth with the standout, Italy by 50%. Germany had 19% growth for a total of 720,000 sales.

It appears e-bikes are popular across demographic groups with the younger generation possibly eschewing driving or car ownership in favour of an e-bike.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Rod Munro - “The quiet e-bike revolution.”