Blogs

Has Environmentalism Died? Posted by Jim Hoggan

Margery Moore • January 18, 2012

The Breakthrough Institute's, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, recently revised their 2004 essay "Death of Environmentalism" with the more uplifting "The Long Death of Environmentalism". I do not necessarily agree with their essay, but the authors raise some uncomfortable issues that need to be discussed.

Here is an excerpt:

If in 2004 we argued that environmentalism needed to die, today it's clear that it did. What killed it was neither our essay, nor fossil-funded skeptics, nor this or that tactical failing by green leaders or Democratic politicians. Rather, environmentalism died of old age. The world in which we live, economically...

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2011 Stonehouse Standing Circle Meeting

Margery Moore • January 13, 2012

Communication experts, psychologists, academics, activists, politicians, theologians, bloggers, scientists and corporate consultants in environment/leadership all came together at the 2011 Stonehouse Standing Circle to take a deep dive into the human mind and motivations behind our failure to get climate back on the public agenda.

The formal question was, 'How to get climate back on the public policy/political agenda in Canada?’ a strong follow-on to the question in 2010 "Why is there not a public mandate for climate change?".

Using recent research findings available from Yale, George Mason, polling agencies, behavioural change experts and other organizations on climate behaviour, plus drawing on the amazing experience and insights from...

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Is The Environmental Community More Concerned About Being Right Than Being Effective?

• November 15, 2011

What is the best design for a national climate change engagement, education and communications campaign? How do we encourage Canadians (and Americans) to support local, regional and national policies to reduce emissions through either passive acceptance or vocal demand?

This new paper outlines what leading communication thinkers and social change practitioners have to say about these difficult questions.

The paper (attached below) takes an honest look at the environmental movement’s current strategy to communicate with and engage the public. It discusses internal and external restrainers and drivers of transformative change, and outlines how environmentalists can become more effective messengers and create an ‘environmental culture’, not just...

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"Here comes the Sun" - Paul Krugman (reposted from NYT)

• November 15, 2011

"Let’s face it: a large part of our political class, including essentially the entire G.O.P., is deeply invested in an energy sector dominated by fossil fuels, and actively hostile to alternatives. This political class will do everything it can to ensure subsidies for the extraction and use of fossil fuels, directly with taxpayers’ money and indirectly by letting the industry off the hook for environmental costs, while ridiculing technologies like solar."

This opinion piece is right on point. Time to part the veils and see the truth, the whole truth, about the pros and cons of natural gas as a transition energy source. Only then can we honestly assess the best path forward to a low carbon future. Read...

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ClimateAccess.org Launches!

• October 25, 2011

Those in government and nonprofits trying to communicate to the public about climate change say that they often lack the time and resources to digest the latest research and incorporate it into their campaigns. ClimateAccess.org is a bridge between researchers and practioners. It is timely, and already over 100 people have signed up!

In the fall of 2011, The Resource Innovation Group’s Social Capital Project, in partnership with the Rutgers Initiative on Climate and Social Policy and the Stonehouse Standing Circle, launched Climate Access to...

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Climate Shorts: Picks from the Climate Reality Project

• September 18, 2011

Highlights from Al Gore’s 24 Hour Climate Reality event are available on Treehugger.com and provide a glimpse into the Climate Reality Project. The event reached approximately 9 million viewers who tuned in mostly online from all over the world.

The three videos look at climate issues such as doubt, climate science and understanding, and the civil rights movement.

For more clips and highlights, go to Climate Reality.

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Global Warming along Party Lines: New Report from YPCCC

• September 12, 2011

On September 7, 2011, the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication released a special report from a recent survey of the American public. Politics & Global Warming: Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and the Tea Party shows how members of each political party respond to the issue of climate change.

The report points to many striking and sometimes surprising similarities and differences between parties. It examines members’ beliefs around climate change, their level of support for climate...

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A Conversation with Thich Nhat Hanh and David Suzuki

• September 7, 2011

In August 2011, David Suzuki Foundation Chair Jim Hoggan and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson engaged in conversation with buddhist spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh and environmentalist and scientist David Suzuki. The conversation explored mindfulness, spirituality, love, despair and how to create the public awakening and societal shift needed to overcome the challenges of climate change, sustainability and contribute to a healthy planet.

See the conversation...

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“It is not alarmism; its physics”

• August 5, 2011

A recent report entitled The Costs of Delay, authored by Hal Harvey and Sonia Aggarwal of the ClimateWorks Foundation, uses science to communicate a very clear message: Because the consequences of climate change persist for the very long term, delays in reducing emissions increase the risk that the whole climate system might spin out of control.

In their own words, “This message might be alarming, but it is not alarmism; it’s physics.”

To find out why the next decade is so critical, read on.

The clear and succinct ...

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This will be an extraordinary century: Martin

• July 12, 2011

On July 5, 2011, Dr. James Martin, the founder of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford offered his perspective on what to expect for the 21st century, in a piece entitled Fasten Your Seatbelts, There's Turbulence Ahead.

The School’s 30 research institutes foster innovative thinking, interdisciplinary scholarship and collaborative activity to address the most pressing risks and realise important opportunities in the 21st century. They carry out research on various aspects of our global future...

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