Climate Code Red « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Friends o

f the Earth Australia released an excellent new report this week called “Climate Code Red: The case for a sustain ability emergency”. Reports like this are starting to become more common around the world, as new science (like James Hansen’s fantastic research) shows that the ‘mainstream’ climate NGO asks are simply not enough to mitigate dangerous climate change and achieve climate justice.

This is what Friends of the Earth’s new campaign to ‘Fix or Ditch Lieberman- Warner Global Warming Bill’ is about. I personally am very glad Carbon Equity released this report and that FOE US is running the Lieberman-Warner campaign. It’s an ongoing debate (online and offline) about making our campaigns politically realistic vs. actually asking for the solutions that are needed to halt the climate crisis, and these decisions are hard - because we know we do need to bring people along with us in our campaigns and not leap-frog ahead of them by starting to talk about 350 parts per million and people are left scratching their heads going ‘parts of what and millions of what and what does this have to do with reducing pollution?’ This issue is one of the most pressing facing us climate activists today.

It’s been getting great reports in the Australian media and a great recommendation from EcoEquity which I’ve pasted here:

“if you’re a “pragmatist,” and especially if you wish to avoid any inconvenient temptations to “face the facts with brutal honesty” … then you should not read this report. For even if you’re quite certain that there’s no viable alternative to politics as usual, Climate Code Red will bring you doubt. And it will not be doubt that you can set easily aside. “–Tom Athanasiou, executive director, EcoEquity.

Summary of Climate Code Red: “Climate policy is characterised by the habituation of low expectations and a culture of failure. There is an urgent need to understand global warming and the tipping points for dangerous impacts that we have already crossed as a sustainability emergency, that takes us beyond the politics of failure-inducing compromise. We are now in a race between climate tipping points and political tipping points.”

Please read it, download climate code red right here. You can reach the authors of the report at info@carbonequity.info

About Anna

Anna Rose, 25, founded the Australian Youth Climate Coalition in November 2006. The coalition unites a diversity of youth organisations to build a generation-wide movement to solve climate change. Anna was a National Organiser for the National Union of Students in 2005 and is past National Convenor of the Australian Student Environment Network. She is a former editor of the Sydney University student paper, member of the United Nations Pacific Youth Environment Network, Sustainability Team Leader for Project Australia, holds a 2008 Fellowship from the International Youth Foundation, and comes from the biggest coal export port in the world - Newcastle, Australia.

3 Responses to “Climate Code Red”

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1 R Margolis Feb 7th, 2008 at 11:05 am

Interesting report. Their discussion of sequestration in top soil reminded me of a recent interview with Freeman Dyson who is a strong advocate of topsoil sequestration.
2 Danny Bloom Feb 7th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

http://climateclock350.blogspot.com

a climate clock here, please blog on this too.
3 Danny Bloom Feb 7th, 2008 at 10:36 pm

Also, since you are the climate youth group, here is a blog directed directly at youth: a graduation speech for the class of 2099, take a look:

and blog on this too: if you like it:

http://tufts2099.blogspot.com/