Planting Seeds So Something Bigger Might Emerge: The Paris Agreement and the Fight Against Climate Change

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Notes

2 Kevin Anderson, “Talks in the City of Light Generate More Heat,” Nature, Vol. 528, December 24–31, 2015: 437; http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/1.19074!/menu/main/topColumns/topLeftColumn/pdf/528437a.pdf

3 A study released on April 21, 2016, the day before the signing of the Paris Agreement at the United Nations in New York, finds “substantial differences in impacts between a 1.5°C and 2°C warming.” Among the impacts, the ½ degree increase in average global temperature, the authors assert, dangerously “marks the difference between events at the upper limit of present-day natural variability and a new climate regime, particularly in tropical regions.” It also has “decisive” implications for the future of coral reefs. See Carl-Friedrich Schleussner et al., “Differential Climate Impacts for Policy-relevant Limits to Global Warming: The Case of 1.5°C and 2°C,” Earth System Dynamics, Vol. 7, 2016: 327–351; http://www.earth-syst-dynam.net/7/327/2016/esd-7-327-2016.pdf

4 Research published after the Paris Agreement suggests that radical cuts to fossil fuel consumption must take place at a rate much faster than previously estimated. See Joeri Rogelj et al., “Differences Between Carbon Budgets Unravelled,” Nature Climate Change Vol. 6, Issue 3, 2016: 245–252.

5 See “Adoption of the Paris Agreement,” December 12, 2015; https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/l09.pdf

6 For a strong critique of carbon offsets, see Kevin Anderson, “The Inconvenient Truth of Carbon Offsets,” Nature, Vol. 484, Issue 7392, April 4, 2012: 7; http://www.nature.com/news/the-inconvenient-truth-of-carbon-offsets-1.10373#auth-1

7 See “Draft Paris Agreement,” December 5, 2015; https://unfccc.int/files/bodies/awg/application/pdf/draft_paris_agreement_5dec15.pdf

8 See Joseph Nevins, “Academic Jet-setting in a Time of Climate Destabilization: Ecological Privilege and Professional Geographic Travel,” The Professional Geographer, Vol. 66, Issue 2, 2014: 298–310.

9 Kevin Anderson, “Hypocrites in the Air: Should Climate Change Academics Lead by Example?” kevinanderson.info (blog), April 12, 2013; http://kevinanderson.info/blog/hypocrites-in-the-air-should-climate-change-academics-lead-by-example/

10 Increasing climate change may exacerbate global inequality. See Eli P. Fenichel et al, “Wealth Reallocation and Sustainability Under Climate Change,” Nature Climate Change, Vol. 6, Issue 3, 2016: 237–244.

11 Regarding historical emissions, see Eric Holthaus and Chris Kirk, “A Filthy History,” Slate, May, 28, 2014; http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/carbon_dioxide_emissions_by_country_over_time_the_worst_global_warming_polluters.html. See also S. Chakravarty et al. “Sharing Global CO₂ Emission Reductions Among One Billion High Emitters,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 106, No. 29, 2009: 11884–11888; and David Satterthwaite, “The Implications of Population Growth and Urbanization for Climate Change,” Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 21, Issue 2, 2009: 545–567.

12 According to Oxfam, the lowest 50 percent of the world's population in terms of income is responsible for about 10 percent of today's global carbon emissions; the richest 10 percent is responsible for almost half of the world's emissions. See Oxfam, “Extreme Carbon Inequality,” Oxfam Media Briefing, December 2, 2015; http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/25/fossil-fuel-use-must-fall-twice-fast-thought-contain-global-warming?CMP=share_btn_tw See also Chakravarty et al. 2009 and Satterthwaite 2009 (both cited in note 11).

13 See Denise Oliver Velez, “Ordinary People Who Made a Difference: The Dunne Stores Strikers,” Daily Kos, April 12, 2015; -Ordinary-people-who-made-a-difference-The-Dunnes-Stores-strikers

14 See Corinne Le Quéré et al., “Towards a Culture of Low-carbon Research for the 21^st Century,” Working Paper 161, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, March 2015; http://tyndall.ac.uk/sites/default/files/twp161.pdf

15 See http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/travel-strategy

16 See Róisín Moriarty, “The Tyndall Travel Tracker: Cumulatively Changing our Travel Behavior One Flight at a Time,” Future Earth blog, January 19, 2016; tyndall-travel-tracker-cumulatively-changing-our-travel-behavior-one-flight-time