Why it’s a bad idea to try to balance two elephants on a seesaw. My article with Chris Armstrong, arguing for #narrowconvergence #NetZero
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Duncan McLaren
@mclaren_erc
Research Fellow at UCLA Law, author, prev FoE Scotland CEO. #justice #sustainability #climate #geoengineering duncanmclaren.net
sites.google.com/site/mclarener…Joined August 2009
Duncan McLaren’s Tweets
The drag show bans sweeping the US are a chilling attack on free speech
If Starmer wants a defining policy for government, this is it: childcare, childcare, childcare
You can best tell who someone is by who their friends are … Europe’s far right praise UK’s illegal migration bill
All set for a fantastic day discussing how to ensure #equitable & #just ocean-based #CDR at the #SocioOceanography workshop with and many more!
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⚡ Profits, prices and temperatures are soaring, just as wages and working conditions are plummeting.
Today we’re launching #OurPower, 10 demands devised by offshore workers to transform our energy system.
Help us spread them far and wide!
👇👇
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Scientists say there's a lot we can do to slow speed of climate change. When it comes to "climate solutions", some are real, and some aren't, says Naomi Oreskes, historian of science at Harvard University. "This space has become really muddied," she says.
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Corrupt, much? Boris Johnson ‘nominates father for a knighthood’
A #justtransition means those with the highest incomes & largest emissions have to make the biggest changes to achieve #NetZero In 2021, the top 1% of global emitters had carbon footprints over 50 tonnes, more than x1000 the bottom 1% finds Read more bit.ly/3KXX19j
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There will be more and more such stunts, without even the self-governance and relative transparency of the Harvard effort. Nations need to wake up and address the problem with adequate and enforceable governance.
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So sad for the people of Tower Hamlets. Outcomes will continue to worsen for the ~85% of residents who don't have access to cars, and the borough will be unable to make a meaningful contribution to efforts to avert the climate crisis. Very upsetting
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Holy shit. The frames the global conversation about #GeoEngineering as if it were an "additional approach" to hold warming to the #ParisAgreement targets while the world slowly (and supposedly) decarbonizes.
This potentially normalizes deployment in decades or sooner.
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Dear , you are now 61 days overdue on your promise to publish your tax return. Surely it is time that and followed this up? #FollowBackFriday #SunakTaxReturnReminder
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‘Climate-friendly’ fuel comes with an astronomical cancer risk… imposed on already disadvantaged communities #chevron #environmentalinjustice #greenwashing (this is not #circulareconomy)
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8/8 So the key question is: how can we design a n inclusive international research governance regime that can improve our trans-disciplinary knowledge about solar geoengineering, without triggering mitigation deterrence? Some ideas here...
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7/8 And the latter is critical. Even if field studies validate the impact predictions of the models, geopolitics will determine whether deployment could ever match the idealised configurations of the models
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6/8 I agree strongly with Ricke's other 2 priorities - for diversifying the field and using geopolitically realistic scenarios. The domination of the field by Northern - mainly male - natural scientists is deeply problematic.
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5/8 In particular this means even research might deter accelerated mitigation - which Ricke also supports.
I too think research is desirable, but carefully governed to minimise such political risks. Which means governing modelling work as much as field experiments.
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4/8 Ricke also fails to mention the risks associated with poorly governed research ... that it establishes particular configurations and expectations of its subject (solar geoengineering in this case)
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3/8 Yet the NAS report she cites suggests only a preference for international governance over US-led governance, and explicitly calls for a major research programme regardless ...
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2/8 Ricke says: "Scientists working on solar geoengineering should welcome — indeed, demand — governance" and "scientific governance on solar geoengineering should not be led by the United States. [It] should be international".
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This is a well balanced opinion piece on #geoengineering research from . But for me it doesn't go far enough on specifying the nature and purpose of research governance needed
🧵follows
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Leeds University's pledge to reach '#netZero by 2030' with 'minimal use of offsets' sounds good. I had a quick look.
Spoiler: By 'net zero by 2030' they really mean "72% of our total annual emissions will continue beyond 2030" - but that doesn't sound so great.🧵
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An engaging piece on 'Make Sunsets' - makes clear just what buffoons these 'entrepreneurs' are, and how little they care about anyone else ... but doesn't really expose their greed.
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Very disappointed but not in the least surprised that have lifted my entire story on raw sewage pouring into a lake in Brighouse, including quotes in full, without crediting myself or . I spent two days last week standing it up.
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Apparently and my article received enough citations to be a #topcitedarticle in the journal Global Policy for 2021-22 editions.
It has 1 - or 18 citations!!? depending on the metric used. Metrics..
Let's say we're very happy if it's being noticed 🙂
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🚨 The government is “monitoring” human rights lawyers. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick made the extraordinary statement during a debate in Parliament on Monday, after claiming that human rights lawyers “exploit and abuse our laws” ⤵️
opendemocracy.net/en/robert-jenr
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I don't think we should be engaging soil C sequestration on working lands in the C offset market. Here's why:
1. It takes a lot of samples to accurately detect and quantify SOC change against large spatial heterogeneity. I talk about this in-depth here
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Amazon #greenwashing … tests “carbon removal” with seaweed farming between wind turbines … but fails to specify any carbon storage route. At best this is #CCU, not #CDR
“The national minimum wage, for instance, exists to safeguard workers and to ensure companies can’t undercut others. Yet only six companies were prosecuted for underpayment between 2015 and 2020, although HMRC uncovered 6,500 cases of the law being broken.”
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Spot on
@jennirsl
#BrokenBritain
“Voters will punish this failure to protect us”
thetimes.co.uk/article/voters
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I was reminded by a different social media site that 6 years ago today, this was released ... And today we're still having much the same arguments about #geoengineering
sustainababble.fish/?p=456
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Is carbon neutral shipping really all it’s cracked up to be? interviewed Scholar a Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, for answers. Get the details:
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3) The ECP brakes were recommended in 2014 with the rule requiring them on flammable trains set to start in 2023… but was blocked by in 2018.
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“You Should Feel Guilty for Nothing” says Judge, as he finds Seven Guilty and Aquits Two, for Disrupting Esso Terminal in Birmingham – Just Stop Oil
World risks descending into a climate ‘doom loop’, warn thinktanks
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In praise of the ‘15-minute city’ – the mundane planning theory terrifying conspiracists
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