Keeping to a fresh agenda

If you're interested in climate change, you need to be flexible in how you perceive the world around you. It's obvious that there are different realities out there, depending on whom you speak or listen to. So far, almost all the predictions of trends have ended up being too conservative. If anything, the real mistake has been in being too careful about how steep those curves are. While most of the scientific community is now seriously considering a world where the average global temperature will increase by 4 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, many journalists and prominent politicians are still arguing about whether or not we are adjusting to a 2-degree-model. Tonight, on Swedish state television's public affairs program, Agenda, the program's host, Camilla Kvartoft, tried to be impressively aggressive in her interview of the Swedish Minister of Environment, Lena Ek. Kvartoft wasted our time by keeping to her notes that pushed for a discussion based on the 2-degree-mode, whereas Ek seemed interested in talking about concrete climate change response measures. That is, she kept trying to do so, but the show's host kept pushing her into a meaningless 2-degree box. After all, we're heading for 4 degrees, at least, and concrete measures are what we need. In setting our Agenda, Kvartoft is one media star who should get a new scriptwriter. Although she probably meant well, it's too bad she came across as outdated, which weakens her credibility. I'll get my agenda somewhere else, thanks.

It's getting hot in there. The real agenda's in the bag.

Mind the steps

On the charging station for electric cars, at the local Coop Forum food store, here in Lund, Sweden, the instructions for using it are helpfully printed on the cover, in the local language:

1. Unlock
2. Plug in the plug
3. Close cover
Charging starts

Green light = circuit-breaker functioning
Blinking green light = charging underway
Red light = circuit-breaker must be reset
Follow instructions inside the box

The cover of the charging station has a logo that says GAPO. I'm checking that one out. My theory is that this is the name of a Norwegian industrial door manufacturer that has diversified. I'm on the trail. The suspense must increase!

Waiting for Go, though

(Apologies to Samuel Beckett). We keep checking the parking lot at the local Coop food store to see if any electric cars show up. I'm going to go in and do a mini-interview of the manager one of these days, to see if anyone has ever used the charging stations. They have locks on them, so I guess if anyone wanted to use them, they'd have to go in and ask for the key. That's one theory.

The atmosphere was electric

I thought about buying an electric car, and had seen that the local Citroen dealer had an attractive little model on sale in its showroom. It's been there for about a year-and-a-half now. The salesman, who seemed reasonably interested in selling the car, pointed out that the (Swedish) price had been reduced by a quarter, from about 60,000 USD, equivalent, to about 45,000, including the Swedish government's special subsidy for environmentally-friendly car purchases (about 6000 USD). Still, in the time it had been in the showroom, there had been only one serious prospective buyer, who in the end just couldn't make the equation of low range (optimally, about 150 km) between charges, expense and lack of charging stations make sense. A number of people, like me, had shown some interest, but little more. I thanked him for his time and went home "to think about it." I also wrote a letter (now about three weeks ago), to the owner of my apartment building, when I realized that even if I bought an electric car, it would be impossible to charge it at home. My letter was simply to ask for information about their plans for electric car hookups. I still haven't received an answer.

Two electric car charging posts await their occasional users.

The future is next week (3)

We don't need to argue about whether the record-breaking changes in the extent of the Arctic ice pack are because of climate change to try to understand what impact these developments will have. Whether we can do anything about the causes behind the changes in the Arctic ice is an important discussion, sure. My own view is based on the science, so for me, climate change is the driver of much of the new stuff that's going on in the north, and what's going on in the north is what's happening right now. This is not some distant idea of future climate change. Today, and every day until sometime in the next week or two, a new record is being set. The future is still just next week.

The Greenland icecap just visible on the horizon, near Sisimiut. (Photo copyright Richard Langlais)

The future is next week (2)

As we know, the Arctic is melting more almost every year, and breaking all the records. It's a pity that debates about whether or not it is because of man-made climate change or not are blocking any broader public discussion of these new conditions. OK, other things are also blocking that discussion -- the financial crisis, the financial crisis and the financial crisis --but these hard times will move on, and meanwhile the effect of changes in the Arctic will continue to ripple through our societies, financial crisis, or not. Changes in the ocean currents that affect our weather, advances in shipping over the top of Siberia, shifts in the ranges of difference species; these are already significant enough. And those are just a few examples. Nobody really knows how it will affect the Gulf Stream. The uncertainty is making me nervous . . .

To see where the future of the Arctic is heading, today, and every day, you can check out:
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

No more icecap in this part of Greenland, the coast near Sisimiut (Photo copyright Richard Langlais)

The future is next week (1)

The ice is melting faster and faster. The Arctic Ocean is changing fast. Sometime around the middle of September, there will be less ice "up there" than there's been in about 4,000 years. Let's leave the whole climate change debate out of this, for now. Let's just look at this observable change. If you look at that, you can just say, "The ice covering the Arctic Ocean is changing fast." And then you can try to understand what that means. Today, and every day until sometime in the next week or two, a new record in that melting-back is being set. Climate change seems distant, far away in the future. For the Arctic, the future is next week.

To read about the last time such melting occurred, probably about 4000 years ago, you could read this post:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092181811100097X

Near Sisimiut, Greenland (Photo copyright Richard Langlais)