And, well, I write a lot.
But this long piece that just went up at Rolling Stone tries to distill what we now know about climate change into 3 numbers
1) 2 degrees C--that's what the world's nations (even oil states) have agreed is the most we can possibly let temps rise. It's actually too high--but it is the one thing about climate change that the world has agreed on
2) 565 gigatons co2--that's roughly how much more carbon we can pour into the atmosphere between now and 2050 and have a reasonable chance of staying below 2 degrees. It's not much--we burn about 30 gigatons a year, and growing, so at current rates would go by in 16 years
3) 2795 gigatons co2. This is the really scary number. It's how much carbon the fossil fuel industry (and the countries that operate like fossil fuel companies) have already in their reserves. The stuff that props up their share price, lets them borrow money. The stuff they're committed to burning.
What that means is: we now know for certain that the stated business plans of this industry will wreck the planet. It's not even close--they're planning to burn 5 x the carbon that any sane scientist sets as the absolute upper limit.
So stopping them doesn't mean gradual shifts in trajectory. It means taking on this industry with at least as much vigor as we took on companies that did business with apartheid South Africa.
We'll be announcing plans at 350.org to do just that. But for the moment, I'd be most grateful if people could read and share the Rolling Stone piece, and provide feedback. Warning: it's long. (Even longer than the Justin Bieber profile in the same issue)
thanks much--bill