Published on YouTube Aug 20, 2013 About the Speaker: One of the world’s top climate diplomats, John Ashton is now an independent commentator and adviser on the politics of climate change. From 2006-12 he served as Special Representative for Climate Change to three successive UK Foreign Secretaries, spanning the current Coalition and the previous Labour Government. He was a cofounder and, from 2004-6, the first Chief Executive of the think tank E3G. From 1978-2002, after a brief period as a research astronomer, he was a career diplomat, with a particular focus on China. He is a visiting professor at the London University School of Oriental and African Studies, and a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College.
About the Talk: If you are under 30 today, you are on track to find out in your lifetime what unmanageable climate change will be like. Business,politics and economics seem to have no response. What is going wrong and how can you use your voice if you want this fixed in time to fix your future?
Makes me feel like dropping out of high school all over again, if only I could.
get the facts:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/
well said. I wish more people would listen to talks like this one.. thanks for the talk.
Yes, we should be very angry with climate ‘skeptics’ who are only skeptical because climate change threatens their economic, political and cultural views. Fuck the planet, let’s make more money!
I commend this gentleman for his calm and reasoned anger and his respect for and trust in the ability of the younger generation to use their intellectual and fiscal influence to get done a job that ought to have been done a long time ago.
Change can indeed take place, and the technology to implement it exists already. Let cooler heads prevail: the ranting and raving and stunning self-centeredness shown by both political extremes in all Western countries these days must give way to the truly non-partisan efforts of those who have the scope and perspective to change the way in which we use and produce our energy from now onward.
No, I mean like we use irrigation now. We use underground aquifers to irrigate crops. You can’t count on rainfall, it’s too erratic and there’s a substantial amount of capital investment in crops, so part of your costs include transporting water by pump, which is seriously depleting our stores. We’re drawing down glacial meltwater to grow food faster, but once the aquifers are depleted, we’ll have to rely on rainfall and then we’ll be in serious trouble.
No farmer is counting on the rain to water his crops… he’s counting on irrigation. you man like the Egyptians, Romans, Chinese etc used Irrigation in the past.
No farmer is counting on the rain to water his crops… he’s counting on
irrigation. The Arab Spring was the result of a sudden sharp increase in
food prices, mainly due to the fact that the area suddenly became a net
energy importer. An increase in food prices means that more farming becomes
economically viable. When food prices rise economic profit is possible,
which means that he can afford to pay higher water rates.
and the actual skill of the farmer himself. The cost of farming is
expensive enough in a western country, to start opening up land in remote
eastern regions and in Africa comes with a new set of problems, transport
to markets has its own problems. The fact that farmers are willing to open
up new land shows a confidence in the weather, the no 1 enemy of many
problems involved in farming.
Excellent link: “In the 2012/2013 season, the global corn harvest plunged
to 855 million tonnes from 883 million tonnes a year earlier.” you proved
my point very nicely that at least ONE of the major grains was devastated
by the drought in 2012/2013. “This upcoming season, however, the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) is FORECASTING [emphasis mine] a
harvest… ” “Everybody EXPECTS [emphasis mine] it to be a record high
harvest on a global level” You claim expectations are evidence?
The European’s thought the earth was flat because the church said the earth
was flat. Religious doctrine holdover to provide a simple answers for the
little children in grade school. Grade school was the last time the global
climate change denier’s paid attention in school.
What you’re really talking about is cost structure. Farmers are using more
equipment, more petrochemicals, and more inputs in general in order to grow
crops. Since the number of farms has increased so much it can produce a
glut, prices fall. Anyone who fails to keep up can find themselves priced
out of the market.
news.howzit.msn.com/analysts-see-bumper-harvest-for-corn-after-devastating-2012-2
took a look a the first and third link but as it was January 2013 and
February 2013 a lot changed and as it turned out the US had a bumper
harvest for 2013 as did Canada and pretty much the whole world so not very
helpful.
since you asked so nicely here are some further references, all from this
year: cnb. cx/ZDe4fX cnb. cx/VevRby on-msn. com/1czCLWz bit. ly/H9pQMP
CONT… World food prices fell for a fifth month in September to the lowest
level in three years, with grain prices sliding as production of corn and
rice is expected to exceed demand. An index of 55 food items tracked by the
FAO fell to 199.1 points from a revised 201.4 in August, the Rome-based
United Nations agency wrote in an online report today. The gauge is down
from a record 237.9 points in February 2011 and at the lowest level since
September 2010.
I gave you direct links; why not cite the articles you claim directly? The
USDA site I linked clearly shows the impacts of the drought on global
prices. I am very sure not even you will deny direct claims by the USDA.
But if you feel like it go ahead. But start linking relevant sites/articles
if you want to be taken seriously. Dates and claims are not citations, you
at least need the author as well as the publication and date.
Everywhere. In a world increasingly plagued by drought, even the markets
can’t keep playing the specious speculation game indefinitely, and the poor
will always bee the first to suffer for it. cnn. it/RsXsaQ 1. usa.
gov/1fes8Ge bit. ly/NDhq13
where, tell me where for 2013!!
Wow, it’s almost like there is a global market for products…. That is
definitely a great reason to ignore the effects of pronounced drought on
crop yields and it’s affects on the impoverished of the world.
reuters, wow who is keeping the prices high, 23 Oct 2013 – With next year’s
wheat output seen matching 2013’s strong 92.46 million … producer of
wheat would be a bearish factor for global prices which …
strange how the cooky crumbles!! Corn futures tumbled, capping the biggest
weekly loss in more than a month, after the government said U.S.
inventories will double as farms recover from the drought in 2012 to
produce the biggest crop ever……..
The definitive sign of a good climate would be falling food prices.
Excellent talk: thank you.
Climate Change: Why you should be angry and why anger isn’t enough: John
Ashton at TEDxBedfordSchool http://buff.ly/1exVvEc
Climate Change: Why you should be angry and why anger isn’t enough: John
Ashton at TEDxBedfordSchool http://buff.ly/19xLOlp
Climate Change: Why you should be angry and why anger isn’t enough: John
Ashton at TEDxBedfordSchool http://buff.ly/19xLOlp