Robert Costanza’s Posts

• Creating an Earth Atmospheric Trust

  A system to control climate change and reduce poverty 19

  Posted 1 year, 10 months ago

  The following is a guest essay.

  -----

  Stabilizing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere at a level that will fulfill the mandate of the UN Framework Concentration on Climate Change to avoid "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system" will require drastic departures from business as usual. Here we introduce one attractive response to this challenge that may seem visionary or idealistic today but that could well become realistic once we reach a tipping point regarding climate change that opens a window of opportunity for embracing major changes.

  No silver bullet exists capable of solving the complex and… Read More

• Some convenient truths

  Scaling back our energy-hungry lifestyles means more of what matters, not less 24

  Posted 1 year, 11 months ago

  The work of recent Nobel Peace Prize winners Al Gore and the IPCC, along with a veritable mountain of other evidence, clearly lays out the reality and potential costs of human-induced climate change. Most analyses have concluded that we can and must keep our economies growing while addressing the climate challenge; we need only reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we produce. We can do this, they say, by using more efficient light bulbs, driving more fuel-efficient cars, better insulating our homes, buying windmills and solar panels, etc. While we agree that these things need to… Read More

All Posts