Climate Change Forum Archive


November 4, 2018

Presenter Alberto on over-population, possibly using Population Bomb by Ehrlich as baseline and then Too many People by Lindsey Grant and Too Many People? by Ian Angus, all 3 at once, but each shortened.
The book starts with addressing human population growth as a big challenge posing pressure on natural resources, economic growth and impacts on climate, over increased energy demand with increased human population and economy. It reviews the benefits of a stalled population growth and argues for different scenarios of what optimal or reasonable carrying capacity of Earth may be, exploring, under different arguments, that number somewhere between one and three billion, making it clear we are way over any of those acceptable scenarios. The book is well written with well thought out arguments by making the link between different factors related to climate change and human population growth, something often missed or ignored in meaningful conversations over climate change.
While the book was written in 2000m the principles have not changed much. Perhaps the realities of some of them have simply worsened, highlighting the relevance of the main topic of this book. An updated edition to include recent statistics over climate change and human population demographics is warranted and would make this a unique source to aid the conversations over this highly relevant and yet, very seldom addressed topic.

October 7, 2018

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World—the title of Jeff Goodell’s new must-read book on sea level rise—says volumes. Goodell, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and the author of the excellent 2011 book How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate, argues that there is little we can do to stop the inexorable rise of the world’s oceans due to human-caused global warming–though we may be able to slow the rate of sea level rise later in the century. As one of the experts he interviews puts it, “Sea-level rise is like aging. You can’t stop it. You can only do it better or worse.”Goodell argues that if we want to minimize the impact of sea level rise in the next century, we need to stop burning fossil fuels and move to higher ground. Strong immediate action to implement the Paris Climate Accord of 2015–and to go well beyond those targets, so that we eliminate all burning of coal, oil and natural gas by 2050–might limit sea level rise by 2100 to 2 – 3 feet, instead of 6 – 8 feet. “We would will need to retreat from the low-lying coastlines, but instead of a stampede, it could be a leisurely stroll,” he writes.Goodell is an excellent journalist, and his treatment of a highly technical subject like sea level rise is both highly readable and informative. He relies on story-telling and interviews with a wide range of scientists, developers, civic leaders and politicians involved in the sea level rise issue. He spent several years researching the book, and relates stories from the extensive time he spent in many areas of the world highly vulnerable to sea level rise, including Miami, New York City, New Jersey, Norfolk, Alaska, the Netherlands, Venice (Italy), and Lagos (Nigeria.) He also describes fascinating stories from his trip to the source of about 25% of current global sea level rise—the Greenland Ice Sheet—as well his trip to the Paris Climate Accord.

September 2, 2018

Terry Tremwell will present the following book at the Climate Change Forum September 2 at 1:30pm in the Fayetteville Library.Book: Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship by Andrea Larson (adjunct prof at Stanford). Pub: Flat World Knowledge Press.For ordering, try this link:
Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship
From $29.95 for electronic access, $49.95 for full-color paperback.This is the textbook for my class, “Sustainability in Business”. I have taught the class for 12 of the last 13 years. I will bring about 10 additional relevant books: Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L Hunter Lovins, etc. Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce inspired Ray Anderson and a generation. See photo attached.
The other books Terry mentions to support Larson’s text:Greening Our Built World, Solar Trillions, The Fortune at the Bottom, Competitive Advantage, Good to Great, Natural Capitalism, Capitalism at the Crossroads, The Ecology of Commerce, Ecological Economics, Reinventing Fire

December 2, 2018

Energy Democracy by Fairchild, Weinrub and Horowitz, presenter Shelley.

“A global energy war is underway. It is man versus nature, fossil fuel versus clean energy, the haves versus the have-nots, and, fundamentally, an extractive economy versus a regenerative economy. The near-unanimous consensus among climate scientists is that the massive burning of gas, oil, and coal is having a cataclysmic impact on our atmosphere and climate, and depleting earth’s natural resources, including its land, food, fresh water and biodiversity.

These climate and environmental impacts are particularly magnified and debilitating for low-income communities and communities of color that live closest to toxic sites, are disproportionately impacted by high incidences of asthma, cancer and rates of morbidity and mortality, and lack the financial resources to build resilience to climate change.

Energy democracy tenders a response and joins the environmental and climate movements with broader movements for social and economic change. Energy democracy is a way to frame the international struggle of working people, low income communities, and communities of color to take control of energy resources from the energy establishment and use those resources to empower their communities—literally providing energy, economically, and politically. Energy democracy is more important than ever as climate and social justice advocates confront a shocking political reality in the U.S.

This volume brings together racial, cultural, and generational perspectives. This diversity is bound together by a common operating frame: that the global fight to save the planet—to conserve and restore our natural resources to be life-sustaining—must fully engage community residents and must change the larger economy to be sustainable, democratic, and just. The contributors offer their perspectives and approaches to climate and clean energy from rural Mississippi, to the South Bronx, to Californian immigrant and refugee communities, to urban and semi-rural communities in the Northeast. Taken together, the contributions in this book show what an alternative, democratized energy future can look like, and will inspire others to take up the struggle to build the energy democracy movement.”

August 5, 2018

Lolly presenter, Unprecedented Crime by Carter and Woodward.
In 2017, the heat waves, extreme wild fires, and flooding around the world confirmed beyond doubt that climate disruption is now a full-blown emergency.

We have entered Churchill’s “period of consequences”, yet governments have simply watched the disasters magnify, while rushing ahead with new pipelines and annual trillions in fossil fuel subsidies.Governments simply cannot say they did not know. The events we are seeing today have been consistently forecast ever since the First Assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was signed by all governments back in 1990, and which has been described as the best evaluation project ever designed.

Unprecedented Crime first lays out the culpability of corporations, governmental, political and religious bodies, and especially the media through their failure to report or act on the climate emergency. No emergency response has even been contemplated by wealthy high-emitting national governments. Extreme weather reporting never even hints at the need to address climate change ― even though it is producing wars and migrations among the world’s poorest, those who have contributed the least to global warming.

Yet, independently of governments, scores of proven zero-carbon game changers have been coming online all over the world. These exciting technologies, described in the book, are now able to power both household electricity and energy-dense heavy industry.

We already have the technical solutions to the CO2 problem. With these solutions we can act in time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero within 20 years.

These willful crimes against life itself by negligent governments, the oblivious media and an insouciant civil society are crimes that everyday citizens can readily grasp ― and then take to the streets and to the courts to protest on behalf of their children and grand-children.

This thoroughly researched and highly-documented book will show them how.

Co-author Dr. Peter Carter is an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

July 1: presenter Joanna, Rebecca Solnit’s Paradise Built in Hell

Communities that Arise out of Disaster. “The freshest, deepest, most optimistic account of human nature I’ve come across in years.”
-Bill McKibben
Chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune
The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster’s grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.

June 3: Fayetteville Food City Plan Revealed

Sunday June 3, 1:30-3:30 – Fayetteville Public Library. Fascinating 2 part forum that includes concluding discussion of climate refugees situation , followed by a review of the Fayetteville Food City Plan. This was developed by the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, directed by Dr. Steve Luoini. The plan is available online, so please take a look at the vision young cityscape architects have compiled. It’s a revisioning of how a city can work together to feed its people. There’s lots here to ponder, as we face monumental changes in our environment and social orders.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/uacdc/Fayetteville_2030-Food-City-Scenario-Plan.pdf

April 8, 2018, The War and Environment Reader

“While many books have examined the broader topic of military conflict, most neglect to focus on damage military violence inflicts on regional—and global—ecosystems. The War and Environment Reader provides a critical analysis of the devastating consequences of “war on the environment” with perspectives drawn from a wide array of diverse voices and global perspectives. The contributors include scores of writers and activists, many with first-hand field experience of war’s impacts on nature. Authors include: Medea Benjamin, Helen Caldicott, Marjoie Cohn, Daniel Ellsberg, Robert Fisk, Ann Jones, Michael Klare, Winona LaDuke, Jerry Mander, Margaret Mead, Vandana Shiva, David Swanson, Jody Williams and S. Brian Willson.”

May 6, 2018, Climate refugees as topic, presenter Alberto Torres

Environmental refugees
What is an environmental refugee? What causes people to leave their homes? What are governments doing to respond (and to adapt) to global warming effects on human population around the world? Is there hope? What options are there?
These questions are addressed at the discussion for our April meeting. We will go through the past, present and future conditions that are considered to play an important role in forcing people to migrate whether within a country or across international borders and the possible links to global warming. Human migration is a phenomenon with multiple causes (social, economic, environmental) and often times difficult to determine the exact cause.  This time, the subject of human migration is discussed with emphasis on the climatic effects that force people to leave their homes. Information from the following books has been selected to feed this discussion. 
• Climate Change and the Health of Nations: Famines, Fevers, and the Fate of Populations. Book by Tony McMichael (2017) 
• Climate Refugees by Collectif Argos (2010) 
• Rising Tides: Climate refugees in the twenty first century, by John R. Wennersten (2017) 
• The Coming Population Crash: and Our Planet’s Surprising Future by Fred Pearce (2010) 
• Too Many People: Case for Reversing Growth. By Lindsey Grant (2000)
• Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence,  by  Christian Parenti (2012) 

March 4 2018, “Energy Solutions”, presenter Terry Tremwell, held in Terry’s home on Mount Sequoyah

Bio for Terry Tremwel, PhD, MBA

Terry Tremwel Chairs the Boards for Picasolar, Inc, and Trem|Wel Energy, LLC. In 2016, Picasolar earned a third SunShot Award, this time at the Tier 3 level, meaning that successful completion in 2018 will result in a commercial product that enhances solar cell performance. Trem|Wel Energy is an energy development and sustainability consulting firm located in Fayetteville, AR. Tremwel holds a PhD in agricultural engineering from the University of Florida, an M.S. in ag engineering from Iowa State University, a B.S. in ag engineering from UC Davis, and an MBA from the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Tremwel and his wife, Margaret, built a 2900 sq. foot home on Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville, AR, that is energy Net-Zero Plus, as an all-electric home with no gas line. Using solar PV, it generates more electricity on site than it consumes for household functions and transportation for their two electric cars. They recognize that a better choice for resource preservation would be a smaller house, but they wanted a home that could be used for various community events and training sessions. The 3-story home has a relatively small area footprint at 900 sq. feet, plus decking, mud room, and garage on stilts.

Dr. Tremwel developed and teaches the Sustainability class in the Sam M Walton College of Business. The Sustainability class has grown from 31 students in its first year, 2007, to 63 students in spring 2011, based on word of mouth and the popularity of the topic. The class emphasizes the triple bottom line (People, Planet, Profits) and other ways to analyze and apply sustainability to business. As former Research Director of the Supply Chain Management Research Center at the University of Arkansas, Tremwel published three logistics case studies that were used in the International Graduate Logistics Case Competition, involving 12 of the best graduate logistics programs in the world by invitation. Each of the cases includes process efficiencies, material conservation, and energy savings. Tremwel published white papers on logistics in the wind industry, reverse logistics, and business scorecard development. Each of these papers has gotten international attention from companies that produce and distribute household name brands. The papers have been downloaded from universities on all continents.

Dr. Tremwel co-founded Trem|Wel Energy to serve businesses and individuals in reducing their consumption of energy, water, and materials, thereby reducing their cost structure and increasing profits. Tremwel analyzes energy consumption patterns and recommends methods to reduce peaks in facilities that are partially billed on their peak consumption. Lighting, efficient HVAC systems, climate control technology, and insulation are favorite tools for reducing facility energy consumption while maintaining comfort. After consumption is optimized, Trem|Wel Energy helps facilities owners weigh options in distributed generation using wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. The firm uses the latest business approaches in helping owners finance and provide environmental comfort and lighting services rather than the mere sale of products.

Tremwel has a background in hydrologic contaminant and transportation network analysis and flow optimization. He has developed numerous physical systems to control and distribute flows. With skills relating to land, air, water, energy, chemistry, transportation, and finance, Tremwel has the ability to integrate solutions to meet a wide variety of needs.

Dr. Terry Tremwel is available at (479) 414-0956 and Terry@Picasolar.com .