Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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notes <strong>to</strong> pages 18-28 S 223<br />
7. Walker and King, pp. 49–50.<br />
8. See Broecker and Kunzig (2008), p. 138.<br />
9. Battisti and Naylor’s research (2009) indicates that present trends will similarly<br />
impact agriculture in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Average<br />
temperatures by <strong>the</strong> year 2100, <strong>the</strong>y say, will exceed <strong>the</strong> most extreme<br />
temperatures recorded from 1900 <strong>to</strong> 2006.<br />
10. Paul Epstein (2000); see also Center for Health and <strong>the</strong> Global Environment<br />
(2006).<br />
11. The evidence is sizable; see for example Colin Campbell (2005), Darley<br />
(2004), <strong>David</strong> Goodstein (2004), Heinberg (2003), Klare (2004), Leggett<br />
(2005), Roberts (2004), and Simmons (2005). For a contrary view, see Smil<br />
(2008).<br />
12. James Benson, Charles Chichetti, Herman Daly, Bruce Hannon, Denis<br />
Hayes, Amory Lovins, Eugene Odum, and Cecil Phillips.<br />
13. Energy return on investment is a controversial subject, but <strong>the</strong> long-term<br />
trends for fossil fuels are less so. See Shah (2004), p. 161.<br />
14. See Johnson (2000).<br />
15. The Commission on <strong>the</strong> Prevention <strong>of</strong> Weapons <strong>of</strong> Mass Destruction, Proliferation,<br />
and Terrorism concludes that it is “more likely than not that a<br />
weapon <strong>of</strong> mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in<br />
<strong>the</strong> world by 2013” (2008, p. xv).<br />
16. For analysis prior <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> fi nancial implosion <strong>of</strong> 2008, see Kuttner (2007) and<br />
Phillips (2008).<br />
17. The best analyses are those by Makhijani (2007), Lovins et al. (2005), and<br />
Inslee and Hendricks (2007).<br />
18. Reliable numbers here are hard <strong>to</strong> come by, partly because <strong>the</strong> subject is<br />
complex and partly because <strong>the</strong>y would reveal inconvenient truths about<br />
<strong>the</strong> sanity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> energy system. A full accounting <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> costs <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current<br />
energy system would include, for example, <strong>the</strong> effects <strong>of</strong> <strong>climate</strong> destabilization,<br />
<strong>the</strong> ecological effects <strong>of</strong> acid rain and mercury contamination, whatever<br />
price one might put on <strong>the</strong> tens <strong>of</strong> thousands who die early because<br />
<strong>the</strong>y live downwind from coal plants, <strong>the</strong> costs <strong>of</strong> maintaining a military<br />
presence in <strong>the</strong> Middle East and periodically fi ghting oil wars that fur<strong>the</strong>r<br />
raise <strong>the</strong> prospects <strong>of</strong> terrorist attacks in <strong>the</strong> United States, and subsidies for<br />
oil, gas, and nuclear power insinuated throughout federal and state budgets,<br />
as well as research and development expenditures heavily weighted <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
status quo . . . and so forth.<br />
19. There are cogent arguments and considerable evidence that renewables and<br />
radically improved effi ciency are inadequate without, in Ted Trainer’s words,<br />
a “radical change <strong>to</strong> a very different kind <strong>of</strong> society,” one not organized<br />
around consumption (Trainer, 2007).