Climate Resilience
This is the slide deck I presented at the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Enterprise (APCSE), Griffith University, Open Lecture Series this week.
This is the slide deck I presented at the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Enterprise (APCSE), Griffith University, Open Lecture Series this week.
This TED talk is a useful summary of Paul Gilding’s book, The Great DIsruption. Listening to the first half of his presentation, one could be forgiven for thinking that Gilding has thrown in the towel, based on his projected level of doom and gloom. This is not entirely the case. Yes, things do look grim, but Gilding is not nearly as pessimistic as James Lovelock or Clive Hamilton. The book goes into great detail as why he (and his collaborator Jorgen Randers) believe there is a future for humanity with their One Degree War Plan.
Image source: The Economist
Here is an interesting chart if ever there was one. The Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) — a reliable source, one would think — has published data on the annual rate of deforestation over the past decade which shows that some countries are bucking the trend and have become net reafforestors (if that is a word) between 2000 and 2010. Amazingly, among the largest reafforestors are China and India. Everything I read suggests the opposite should be true. A classic case of misreporting by government agencies perhaps, or have I just become way too cynical? Australia, meanwhile, is in the same bracket as Brazil and Indonesia, which is not something to be especially proud of.
Any more of this left-wing, environmentalist, clap-trap and I might just be forced to subscribe to this magazine!
Seriously, though, having managed to get up my nose for several decades now with its doctrinaire free-market editorial, The Economist is actually starting to talk sense, analysing issues such as the plight of the world’s forests in a manner that would have been total anathema a few years ago. The narrow, neoclassical approach is nowhere to be seen and instead we are treated to some penetrating insights that are extremely timely from a periodical of such standing, given the looming crisis in global biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Brazilian fishermen stand among dead fish along an Amazon tributary
Image source: planetark.com
Just as deforestation has affected rainfall patterns in China, the dramatic images from the drought-stricken Amazon basin this week shows what happens when 6 football pitches of rainforest are cut down every minute. As this latest environmental catastrophe is one of a long line of such incidents around the world recently, it has barely registered with the world’s media, yet it affects 61 municipalities and threatens the livelihoods of millions of people.