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UK Parliament unanimously passed the motion to declare environment and climate emergency

Extinction Rebellion Brussels by Nour Livia

Mayday May Day

The first of May is a day of importance every year, by celebrating labourers and the working class. But on the first of May 2019 this day made history with a massive step forward in the fight against Climate Change, as the UK Parliament declared Environment and Climate Emergency.

The votes were unanimous and this is hopefully just the first of many nations to take the same step in declaring a state of emergency. And while this is a thing to celebrate, we must not let our fists down and think this will change anything. We must put pressure on the politicians to make necessary changes. Words have no meaning without action.


But let’s back up a little.

What does it even mean to “declare a state of emergency” for a nation?

A government can declare a state of emergency during a disaster or warfare and gives the government power to take actions that they normally wouldn’t be authorized to.

When a nation declares emergency it also sends a clear signal to the citizens that there indeed is an emergency, and that changes most likely will be made to deal with said emergency.

Nowadays, a lot of legislations and changes takes a very long time to pass.

A state of emergency gives the government freedom to make important decisions faster.

Because no matter how bleak it sounds, we are indeed in the midst of an enormous crisis. The biggest crisis and challenge since the history of mankind. And we need to act fast. The people with the power to make big changes need to be able to act now. Because we are running out of time.

What now?

As mentioned before, without action this declaration means very little. Hopefully it will lead to more nations taking after the U.K. and vote to declare Climate and Ecological Emergency as well.

Extinction Rebellion and other environmental movements and activists need to keep fighting. Keep spreading the pressure on people in power, and gaining more support from the people.

Because even though it’s the people in power who can make the large changes, they won’t do it unless there’s enough pressure from the people.

And we, the people must act now.

Illustration by Ingram Pinn in Financial Times

This post is written by our blogger Evelina Utterdahl. You can read more about her here

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Flight Emissions API

To combat climate change, easy access to data about our emissions are necessary. One of the largest sources of emissions for many individuals is the emissions from flying.

The GoClimate Flight Emissions API calculates an approximation of the amount of CO₂-equivalents a flight emits per person.

We wanted to build the GoClimate.org Flight Emissions API to educate people searching for flights what the environmental impact is per person, and thereby enabling people to choose less environmentally damaging flights or ways of travel.

Read more about our Flight Emissions API here.

Read more about how our flight CO2 emission calculations are made here.

Contact us and tell us more about your use case if you want an API-key.

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To keep in mind for the bumpy and uncomfortable road ahead

A lot of what I will write here on this blog will hit home and will hit you hard. It will bring up things that you probably do, either with or without knowledge of its environmental effect. And I want you to know that this is not to judge anyone, but simply to share facts, ideas and tips. I understand that you can’t do it all.

I understand that some changes are either very hard to make or in some cases basically impossible.

Whether it’s for health, economical or in other ways hard for you to change I just want you to be more aware of your actions and make your choices from a place of deeper understanding of the backgrounds and the consequences, rather than blindingly do what we’ve “always” done.

Because the harsh truth is that our house, the earth, is metaphorically on fire. We can’t keep acting like we have and still are. We need to make drastic changes. And it will be hard. It will mean sacrifices. But we don’t have any other choices. People have already and are currently – dying from the effects of climate change. And it will only get worse.

I also want to point out that most of these posts, if not all, are directed towards the privileged who are living way above a sustainable lifestyle above 2 tons/year.

And while it’s largely because of the society in which we live, we still need to strive to lower our impact as much as possible.

My hope is that you will read this with an open mind and not take it hard or as direct criticism. We all make mistakes and things we can’t fully endorse. Be open to the fact that you’ve made mistakes and don’t beat yourself up about it and instead try to do better from now on. We can’t change what we’ve done in the past, but how we act from the knowledge and insightfulness.

Cause what is life if we don’t evolve and learn from our mistakes and move forward more enlightened?!

So prepare for the ride.

It will be bumpy, it will be uncomfortable and you might want to jump off and just stand still – but we need to get there. We need to arrive to where we can slow down climate change and stay below 2 degrees, or as low as we possibly can.

Buckle up.

Evelina Utterdahl during one of her talks at Bournemouth University about Quitting Flying. Photographer: Roxanne Furman

This post is written by our blogger Evelina Utterdahl. You can read more about her here

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Our best beach reads!

Here are our best summer beach reads if you want to change the world or at least understand it a bit better! What is your best tip?

Henrik
⇒ Factfulness – Hans Rosling. 2018.
“…Factfulness is a new thinking habit that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to challenges and opportunities of the future.”
⇒ No one is too small to make a difference – Greta Thunberg. 2019.
“Everything needs to change. And it has to start today.”

Kalle ⇒ Drawdown, the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming – Paul Hawken. 2017.
New York Times bestseller. This book describes the 100 solutions that makes the biggest difference for climate change.

Cissi ⇒ The history of bees – Maja Lunde. 2015.
A novel that deals with the high-level topic of species extinction in a captivating and easy-to-read format.

Evelina
⇒ How bad are bananas, Mike Berners-Lee, 2011
⇒ The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells, 2019
⇒ Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough, 2009
⇒ This is not a drill, Extinction Rebellion, 2019

Sommarläsning

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Is train a feasible alternative to flying?

As I write this I’m sitting on a train headed back to Sweden, pondering the result of a year’s experimentation with travelling by train instead of flying. Is this an effective way to reduce my carbon footprint? The jury is in! Read on.

One common rallying cry among climate advocates is to fly less (or ideally not at all). I consider myself a climate advocate (here’s my entry ticket), but I’m also a pragmatist. I’ve worked enough with behavioural change to know that it’s unrealistic to expect many people to change their habits unless there is a convenient and compelling alternative. For example, Spotify killed music pirating, not by attacking pirate sites, but by providing a better and more convenient alternative.

So what are the alternatives to flying, if you want to get from A to B?

  • Option A: Don’t go. Stay at A. This option won’t fly (pun intended) with most people. There’s a reason why they want to go from A to B, and only a small number of people will be willing to sacrifice that (kudos to those people though!).
  • Option B: Walk or bicycle. Not feasible. A distance that is long enough to take a flight is usually waaay too long for a walk or bicycle ride, unless you are an enthusiast with LOTS of time on your hands.
  • Option C: Car. This makes sense only if you travel in a group, or if you drive an electric car. If you drive alone in a fuel car, the climate impact is about the same as flying, just takes longer and is more dangerous and clogs up the road.
  • Option D: Bus. I haven’t found any long-distance bus options  to the places I go. Might be more feasible in other countries than mine.
  • Option E: Train. Is train a feasible alternative? Definitely climate friendly, but what about price, convenience, reliability, and time? Read on!

Continue reading “Is train a feasible alternative to flying?”

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Trump Withdraws U.S. from Paris Climate Agreement

Trump withdraws U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and thereby the U.S. role as a leading country towards a sustainable future. America First seems to mean America Alone, and make America Great Again seems not to include solving global problems and making Our Planet Great Again.

So what does this mean for all of us who wants to combat climate change? When the U.S. as the worst CO2 polluting country in history does not take responsibility, the challenge of slowing down climate gets bigger.

But we still have our hopes up; it just means that the rest of us needs to do quite a bit more – if we are to try to slow down climate change at all. So what can we do? It’s awkwardly easy (on a personal level at least): fly less, eat less meat, invest green, commute green and go climate neutral now.

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Connection between Carbon Dioxide and Climate Change from 1912

I found an old newspaper clip from 1912 talking about the possibly dangerous link between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and climate change. But we continued and accelerated the digging up of extreme amounts of coal from the ground and let it out into the atmosphere. The next generation won’t be very happy with us I’m afraid.

Source: A 1912 news article ominously forecasted the catastrophic effects of fossil fuels on climate change