Tag Archives: Paris 2015

The Role of Oil Companies in the Energy Transition

In last week’s blog, I included a citation from Nicholas Kusnetz’s article, “What Does Net Zero Emissions Mean for Big Oil?” which pointed out: Most glaring is that none of the companies has committed to cut its oil and gas … Continue reading

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The Math of the American Commitment

A short entry appeared in the Scientific American journal in the middle of the COP26 meeting: “Doing the Math on Biden’s Climate Pledge.” The author was trying to explain how the Biden administration—only three months after assuming control from an … Continue reading

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Conclusions From COP26

This semester, I am teaching two courses directly related to climate change. I start both with an exploration of the basic science involved. It’s a multidisciplinary topic that requires using first principles to address the overlap of the physical, natural, … Continue reading

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Production Gap: Actual Emissions vs. Paris Promises

Figure 1 – Relative country contributions to total global carbon emissions and percentages of emissions over time, 2017 The new administration and the accompanying new leadership of many federal offices have strongly signaled a renewed and strengthened dedication to confront … Continue reading

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The Green Climate Fund

President Biden signed 15 executive orders and two agency directives on the day of his inauguration (January 20th). Most of this activity was targeted at trying to reverse President Trump’s previous directives. One of the new executive orders that attracted … Continue reading

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D-Day Anniversary: 75 Years Later and What I Mean by Self-Inflicted Genocide

A photo from a meeting of WWII liberators and survivors (I am in the middle of the back row) The 75th anniversary of D-Day was on Thursday. The celebration was not about me. It was about the soldiers that took … Continue reading

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Insanity at the Helm: Are We Steering the Wrong Way to the Future?

The last two weeks have seen a great deal of heavy breathing and crying. I summarized much of it in last week’s blog. The climax in this week’s news was probably Thursday’s testimonies of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine … Continue reading

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Conflict and Confusion

The Trump administration’s approach to climate-related, policy becomes clear from the following: The administration gave “official” indication to the UN that it will abandon the Paris 2015 international agreement: WASHINGTON — The White House formally notified the United Nations on … Continue reading

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America First and American Sovereignty

I have cited President Trump’s withdrawal speech a lot in my previous two blogs so I will restrict myself to the directly relevant paragraphs. Below is the part of his speech on American sovereignty: At what point does America get … Continue reading

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Saving the World Through the Pursuit of Self Interest

I took part in the March for Science on Earth Day in New York City, where I live. The photograph above is my introduction to the next two blogs, which will both focus on the march. This week I want … Continue reading

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