Category Archives: Carbon Tax

“Allocating a 2° C cumulative carbon budget to countries”: Gignac and Matthews

Abstract Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2° C. This raises … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, chance, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, education, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, humanism, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, mitigation, open source scientific software, physical materialism, physics, population biology, prediction, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, solar power, sustainability, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, wind power | Leave a comment

The United States Clean Power Plan … It’s time.

“There is such a thing as being too late.”

Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, destructive economic development, ecology, economics, energy, engineering, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, oceanography, physics, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, statistics, sustainability, Tamino, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, UNFCCC, UU Humanists, Westwood, wind power, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Professor James Hansen responds and explains:

The recent paper by Hansen, Soto, and others has caused a stir, as I suspect it was intended to do so. I posted about this paper earlier. Now Professor Hansen has responded to the critics of his team’s work and … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, arXiv, astrophysics, bifurcations, biology, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate models, COP21, denial, disingenuity, dynamical systems, ecology, education, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, James Hansen, maths, meteorology, NASA, NCAR, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, oceanography, open source scientific software, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, probability, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sea level rise, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, WAIS, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Welcome to the Hyper-Anthropocene

The anticipated paper by J. Hansen, M. Sato, P. Hearty, R. Ruedy, M. Kelley, V. Masson-Delmotte, G. Russell, G. Tselioudis, J. Cao, E. Rignot, I. Velicogna, E. Kandiano, K. von Schuckmann, P. Kharecha, A. N. Legrande, M. Bauer, and K.-W. … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, astrophysics, bifurcations, Boston, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Cauchy distribution, chance, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, engineering, environment, exponential growth, finance, floods, forecasting, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, Hyper Anthropocene, ignorance, investing, IPCC, living shorelines, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, seawalls, temporal myopia, the right to know | 2 Comments

Spectra Energy (and others) Plan to Expand Pipeline to Feed Gas to DownEast LNG (Maine) for Export! – Natural Gas Watch.org

Spectra Energy (and others) Plan to Expand Pipeline to Feed Gas to DownEast LNG (Maine) for Export! – Natural Gas Watch.org. This would not occur if the natural gas had been assigned a stiff Carbon Tax.

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, denial, economics, environment, ethics, finance, geophysics, global warming, methane, natural gas, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, statistics, temporal myopia, the right to know | 4 Comments

References Regarding the 450 ppm CO2 Ceiling

Updated 23rd July 2015 J. Hansen, M. Sato, P. Hearty, R. Ruedy, M. Kelley, V. Masson-Delmotte, G. Russell, G. Tselioudis, J. Cao, E. Rignot, I. Velicogna, E. Kandiano, K. von Schuckmann, P. Kharecha, A. N. Legrande, M. Bauer, and K.-W. … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Antarctica, Anthropocene, Arctic, arXiv, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate models, compassion, conservation, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, geophysics, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, risk, science, sea level rise, solar power, statistics, sustainability, the right to know, WAIS, wind power, zero carbon | 2 Comments

disruption to global electricity production during the next 25 years

I am a huge fan of Tony Seba’s writings and work, primarily because I am an engineer, and I simply cannot accept that the situation with the impending climate catastrophe is hopeless. Engineers are eternal optimists. Not everyone will be … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, dynamical systems, economics, energy, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, fossil fuels, fracking, global warming, history, investment in wind and solar energy, mathematics, maths, methane, microgrids, natural gas, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, sociology, solar power, statistics, stochastics, sustainability, taxes, the right to know, Tony Seba, transparency, wind power, zero carbon | 6 Comments

Climate Justice

December 2015 will see the definitive meeting of the UNFCCC COP 21 intended to set targets and commitments under the UN treaty establishing UNFCCC and the IPCC, one approved and ratified by the United States (*). Before then, a good … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, Anthropocene, bifurcations, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, climate justice, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, dynamical systems, economics, education, energy, energy reduction, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, games of chance, geophysics, global warming, history, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sociology, temporal myopia, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists, zero carbon | 1 Comment

Bill Nye on BIG THINK: Fracking, renewable energy storage, and climate deniers

Posted in Bill Nye, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, ecology, economics, efficiency, environment, fracking, geophysics, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, physics, politics, rationality, reasonableness, science, temporal myopia, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

Why decentralized electrical power has to win, no matter what Elon Musk says, and utilities are doomed

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, compassion, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, diffusion processes, dynamical systems, ecology, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, ethics, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, living shorelines, mass transit, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, microgrids, natural gas, NCAR, NOAA, nor'easters, obfuscating data, oceanography, open data, optimization, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, solar power, state-space models, statistics, temporal myopia, testing, the right to know, time series, wind power, zero carbon | 3 Comments

“Time to take out the trash”

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, compassion, conservation, decentralized energy, denial, ecology, economics, education, energy, environment, ethics, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, living shorelines, meteorology, physics, politics, population biology, public transport, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, sociology, zero carbon | 2 Comments

One year, and ten years of carbon dioxide concentration readings, Mauna Loa

From NOAA.

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, consumption, diffusion processes, dynamical systems, ecology, environment, ethics, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, NOAA, open data, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, statistics, sustainability, temporal myopia, the right to know, time series, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“How mankind blew the fight against climate change” (Bill McKibben)

Worth a read. More pessimistic than usual from Mr McKibben. If historians someday need to explain how mankind managed to blow the fight against climate change, they need only point to last month’s shareholder meeting at Exxon Mobil headquarters in … Continue reading

Posted in bifurcations, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, environment, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, microgrids, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, solar power, statistics, temporal myopia, UU Humanists, wind power, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“All large oil companies now use a shadow price of carbon”

See https://plus.google.com/110148824733929465219/posts/cN46vebpUvi.

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, decentralized energy, economics, energy, environment, exponential growth, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, global warming, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, natural gas, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, temporal myopia, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“Clean burnin’ natural gas …”

The carbon dioxide emissions of the United States are increasing again, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration in their Monthly Energy Review. Guess what fuel is heavily contributing to the rise: Of course, clean burnin’ natural gas: A bridge … Continue reading

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, climate, climate change, climate disruption, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, decentralized energy, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, education, environment, exponential growth, fossil fuel divestment, fracking, global warming, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, methane, microgrids, natural gas, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, statistics, sustainability, temporal myopia, zero carbon | Leave a comment

“el Niño and the Non-Spherical Cow”

With the emergence of an el Niño, this post by Tamino about ENSO from 2013 is good to review, as an antidote to the rubbish that will be and is coming from the shills paid by the fossil fuel obfuscation … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, civilization, clean disruption, climate, climate change, climate disruption, climate education, ecology, economics, ENSO, ethics, forecasting, global warming, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, sea level rise, statistics, stochastics, temporal myopia, time series, transparency | Leave a comment

Eli Rabett on the APS “Draft Statement on Earth’s Changing Climate”

This is from Rabett Run. The American Physical Society (“APS”) is working on a draft statement on climate change. Compared to other scientific organizations (and my own primary society, the American Statistical Association), it’s sure taking them a long time. … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, chemistry, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, diffusion processes, ecology, environment, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, meteorology, methane, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, open data, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, sea level rise, solar power, testing, the right to know, time series, WHOI, wind power | Leave a comment

The ShoutROC action on the climate rally, Concord, MA, 19th April 2015.

Album available. Y’think this is play stuff? These start slow, but, in the end, they are overwhelming. Go ahead, try to say “No, we’re gonna consume all we want, and what’s left is YOUR problem” to this citizen:

Posted in Boston Ethical Society, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, compassion, conservation, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, history, humanism, reasonableness, the right to know, Unitarian Universalism, UU Humanists | 1 Comment

We are trying. And the bitterest result is to have so-called colleagues align themselves with the Koch brothers

I attended a 350.org meeting tonight. One group A group presenting there called “Fighting Against Natural Gas” applauded themselves for assailing Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island for his supportive position on natural gas pipelines. Now, I am no friend of … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, astrophysics, Boston Ethical Society, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, chemistry, citizenship, climate, climate change, climate education, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, energy reduction, engineering, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, JAGS, meteorology, methane, model comparison, NASA, natural gas, NCAR, Neill deGrasse Tyson, oceanography, open data, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, Python 3, R, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, Scripps Institution of Oceanography | 4 Comments

Scary Stuff; a Potential Nasty Surprise

If it were to come true, Wally Broecker would earn yet another, deserved scientific accolade: The Great Ocean Conveyor. More from WHOI here. “The climate system is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks,” said Dr. Wallace … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, ecology, education, engineering, environment, forecasting, games of chance, mathematics, maths, meteorology, NOAA, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, science education, sea level rise, sociology, statistics | Leave a comment

“Human activity has nothing big enough to affect Earth”

“Human activity has nothing big enough to affect Earth.” That’s disingenuous and, usually, the speaker knows better but is trying to dissuade an audience from thinking human activity does. Or they parrot someone who is trying to do that. But … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropocene, biology, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, consumption, ecology, economics, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, history, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, methane, natural gas, notes, open data, physics, politics, population biology, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, solar power, statistics, the right to know, time series, wind power | Leave a comment

“Barking mad”

Today was a big day at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (“NAS”). The Academy released two important climate reports, each dealing with one of two categories of global countermeasures for the effects of dumping unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, demand-side solutions, diffusion processes, ecology, economics, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, games of chance, geoengineering, geophysics, history, humanism, IPCC, meteorology, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, Ray Pierrehumbert, reasonableness, science, science education, sea level rise, the right to know | Tagged | Leave a comment

The B-Team

Yes!! B Team Leaders Call for Net-Zero Greenhouse-Gas Emissions by 2050 About the B Team. See also Track 0

Posted in astrophysics, biology, Boston Ethical Society, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, compassion, conservation, consumption, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, forecasting, geoengineering, geophysics, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, NOAA, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, science, sociology, the right to know, wind power | Leave a comment

The designers of our climate

The blog … And Then There’s Physics wades deeply into the recent Monckton-Soon-Legates-Briggs paper. And, they conclude, what it is saying is that, conditional upon no feedbacks, equilibrium climate sensitivity (“ECS”) needs to be small. Except that they don’t say … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, differential equations, ecology, economics, engineering, environment, ethics, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, geophysics, humanism, IPCC, mathematics, mathematics education, maths, meteorology, methane, NASA, NCAR, Neill deGrasse Tyson, NOAA, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, probabilistic programming, R, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, risk, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, solar power, statistics, testing, the right to know | 1 Comment

Codium fragile, for Saturday, 17th January 2015

With today’s post, I’m beginning a new tradition at 667 per cm, posting a potpourri of short observations collected during the week, not necessarily having dense citations to work which inspired them. (Although if interested, please do ask and I’ll … Continue reading

Posted in art, arXiv, astronomy, astrophysics, atheism, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, Carbon Tax, Carl Sagan, chemistry, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, energy, engineering, environment, forecasting, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, history, humanism, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, methane, microgrids, NASA, Neill deGrasse Tyson, new forms of scientific peer review, NOAA, notes, nuclear power, oceanography, open data, open source scientific software, physics, politics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, reproducible research, science, science education, scientific publishing, sociology, the right to know | Leave a comment

US$60/ton of Carbon

There’s a new paper out, by Frances Moore and Delavane Diaz of Stanford University, on the Social Cost of Carbon. It is “Temperature impacts on economic growth warrant a stringent mitigation policy“, Nature Climate Change, 12th January 2015. The principal … Continue reading

Posted in carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, ecology, economics, efficiency, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, geophysics, IPCC, meteorology, physics, science, science education | Leave a comment

Hestia: A glimpse at greenhouse gas emissions enforcement

Posted in bridge to nowhere, carbon dioxide, Carbon Tax, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate change, climate education, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, ecology, economics, education, efficiency, energy reduction, engineering, environment, ethics, fossil fuel divestment, geophysics, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, IPCC, meteorology, methane, natural gas, NOAA, oceanography, physics, politics, population biology, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, science, science education, sociology, solar power, statistics, wind power | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Atmospheric lifetime of fossil fuel carbon dioxide” (2009)

These basic facts do not appear to be widely known, so it’s a good thing this classic paper is now available in a new, easily accessible form. David Archer, Michael Eby, Victor Brovkin, Andy Ridgwell, Long Cao, Uwe Mikolajewicz, Ken … Continue reading

Posted in astrophysics, carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, chemistry, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, conservation, consumption, demand-side solutions, differential equations, ecology, economics, education, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, geoengineering, geophysics, IPCC, meteorology, methane, natural gas, NCAR, NOAA, oceanography, physics, Principles of Planetary Climate, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education | 3 Comments

Notes on distributed generation of electricity and stability of microgrids

Here are some links on the question. Distributed generation, from Wikipedia Decentralized control techniques applied to electric power distributed generation in microgrids, a doctoral thesis by Juan Carlos Vásquez Quintero Distributed generation and microgrids for small island electrification in developing … Continue reading

Posted in bridge to nowhere, Carbon Tax, citizenship, civilization, climate, conservation, consumption, decentralized electric power generation, demand-side solutions, economics, efficiency, energy, energy reduction, engineering, environment, fossil fuel divestment, investing, investment in wind and solar energy, meteorology, microgrids, optimization, politics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, solar power, wind power | Leave a comment

More on ice sheets and 400 ppm CO2

Posted in carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide capture, carbon dioxide sequestration, Carbon Tax, citizen science, citizenship, civilization, climate, climate education, conservation, ecology, environment, forecasting, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, physics, rationality, reasonableness, risk, science, science education, the right to know | Leave a comment