Quotes

The climate emergency: key points

Ten-point action plan

Civil disobedience?

✖

Calculators

Carbon footprint calculator
Carbon budget calculator by country

Recent Posts/Updates

The climate situation, at the end of 2024 Carbon budget calculations for the average country Carbon budget calculations for the UK Zero Hour: Climate urgency denial UKHACC: Climate urgency denial: Correspondence

Previous Posts

Reasons to be very concerned

Key points on the climate emergency

Human activity has changed the climate

The climate has changed: The physics Mankind has changed the climate

Mortality from climate change

Mortality and other costs of climate change

Time is running out

The UK's share of the global carbon budget runs out in 2 years The global carbon budget runs out in 7 years

System failures

UN Secretary-General: "Government leaders are lying" The UK Net Zero 2050 strategy would take three times the UK's share of the global carbon budget

Pleas from those most affected

Young people are pleading for action: 10 key messages Greta Thunberg's "blah blah blah" speech, Milan 2021 Pleas from the world's poorest

Action needed

UN Secretary-General: "A grassroots movement that cannot be ignored"

Actions needed

Climate emergency ten-point action plan

1. Overall aim and priority

International commitments given Why 1.5°C? Why climate action is an overriding priority

2. Global strategy: Limit further emissions to 400 billion tonnes CO2

Global strategy: Limit further emissions to 400 billion tonnes CO2

3. Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries

Allocation of the global CO2 budget between countries
The maths of staying within the UK's carbon budget: Halve emissions every 3 years Why count consumption rather than territorial CO2 emissions Double digit percentage annual emission cuts "Zero carbon sooner" CO2 budget report from CUSP

4. Reviewing progress against the CO2 budget

Global emissions are still rising

5. Identifying reasons for lack of progress on climate change

Why progress has been so poor: Summary What should have happened? The UK's Seven Principles of Public Life Decision making has not followed the science All sections of society are failing It is a system failure rather than a failure of individuals Cognitive biases, flawed reasoning, fallacies and denial dominate opinions and decision making Climate denial: literal, interpretive and implicatory Climate urgency denial Checklist for auditing consistency with the IPCC Auditing consistency with the IPCC: Summary for selected groups

5a. Governments

UK Climate Change Committee: Not consistent with the IPCC UK Government fallacy: overclaiming the reduction in UK CO2 emissions

5b. Media deficiencies

The BBC: Climate denial The Guardian: Climate denial The British Medical Journal: Climate denial

5c. Campaigning deficiencies

Ineffective campaigning Friends of the Earth: Climate denial 1: Court case 2022 Friends of the Earth: Climate denial 2: Response to CCC annual report 2023 Fridays for Future: Consistent with the IPCC Climate Uncensored: Consistent with the IPCC Campaign against Climate Change: Consistent with the IPCC Ethical Consumer Magazine: Climate denial Climate Emergency UK: Climate denial Client Earth: Climate denial Sustrans: Climate denial

6. Improving decision making

Reliable (safe system) decision making and policy making

7. Actions by sector

Specific actions needed: Summary National governments Local government

False solutions to be avoided

'Offsetting' Planting trees Tree planting claims by Zurich scientists were withdrawn Electric vehicles: not an immediate solution

8. Individuals

Individuals Reduce your carbon footprint: at least 10% per year

9. Ensuring good decision making

Challenging fallacies

Common climate fallacies

UK Government

The 'Net Zero 2050' UK Government fallacies

Ethical Consumer: Inconsistency with the IPCC in the Climate Gap reports

Critique of report methodology Correspondence with Ethical Consumer

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience in a democracy: Q and A

Technicalities

UK average GHG emissions International comparisons

Emissions by sector

Home energy "Green electricity" Cars Food Health, education, etc emissions Bus travel Train travel Aviation
Calculator version information

Quotes

Links

About

About us

Posts in 2022:

Consistency with the IPCC

Climate urgency fallacies

Action needed

Passivhaus home standards

Challenge fallacies and malpractice

Challenge fallacies, incompetence and malpractice

Ensuring good decision making

Assessing performance on the climate emergency Climate Urgency Realism or Denial score Climate urgency denial in UK Government scientists

About

Why trust this website?

Posts in 2020-2021:

Action needed

'Hydrogen power' is not the answer

Ensuring good decision making

Civil disobedience and the law Extinction Rebellion

Technicalities by sector

Basic UK energy and greenhouse gas statistics References

Posts in 2019:

The climate crisis and what to do about it

Climate change: the basics Simple solutions for the climate crisis, which should have been implemented already

Action needed

Local government: Make walking safe Organisations

Awareness raising

Leaflets, video

Reasons for optimism

Decline in UK domestic aviation Decline of domestic aviation in Sweden

Standards of administration in a democracy

Effective planning

Performance assessments

BEIS is not telling the truth on carbon emissions Transport for the North: Failing on the climate crisis Steve Rotheram: failing on the climate crisis Wirral Council's emission reduction trajectory

Quotes

On the urgency of action

Abdalah Mokssit

Unless there are immediate rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting global warming to 1.5°C will be beyond reach.

(Abdalah Mokssit, Secretary of the IPCC, Aug 2021, IPCC press conference https://un-spbf.org/event/ipcc-press-release-climate-action-cannot-wait/)

On denial

Paul Simon

A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

(Lyrics of The boxer)

On personal action

Ghandi

Be the change you want to see in the world.

Nelson Mandela:

If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?

Barack Obama:

Yes we can.

David Attenborough:

Now is the time to act.

William Wilberforce

Having heard all of this you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.

Ghandi:

Live simply so that others may simply live.

George Bernard Shaw:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

First published: 2007
Last updated: 19 Sep 2023