Climate Change Archives – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Will DC Break Free of Its Methane-Gas—and Economic-Growth—Shackles?

January 9, 2025/7 Comments/in Alix Underwood, Climate Change, Corporate Reform, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Politics, Pollution, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Alix Underwood

by Alix Underwood

How do we stop climate change? One decommissioned fossil-fuel pipe at a time, via hard-fought local battles to change energy infrastructure and decrease energy consumption. Who do we fight these battles against? Profit-hungry corporations that monopolize energy markets and back-pocket politicians that help them guard the fossil façade.

In the U.S. capital, the climate-change rubber hits the road as activists pressure an obscure and unelected decision-making body,

Hitting the Pause Button in Colorado Springs

October 4, 2024/5 Comments/in Climate Change, Dave Rollo, Democracy, Governance, Limits to Growth, Population, Steady State Herald /by Helene Langlamet

By Dave Rollo

El Paso County is in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in a region known as the “Front Range,” the mountains first encountered by settlers traveling westward from the Great Plains. The Front Range includes such wonders as Mount Blue Sky and Pikes Peak. But it also refers to a chain of cities and the urban spatial expansion between them that has propagated within and along the foothills.

A Steady Stater’s Response to the Harris-Trump Debate

September 12, 2024/15 Comments/in Brian Czech, Climate Change, Democracy, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Governance, Limits to Growth, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Alix Underwood

by Brian Czech

“Harris wiped the floor with Trump.” At least that’s how today’s Washington Post kicked off a discussion among in-house columnists. But for voters who prioritize Planet Earth for present and future generations, the 2024 presidential election is a classic example of seeking the lesser of two evils. Neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump is a student—much less a champion—of sustainability. They probably think “limits to growth” pertains to poll results or crowd size.

Two Degrees: Guardrail? Or Guide Rail to Disaster?

June 6, 2024/8 Comments/in Climate Change, Environment, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Kent Peacock

The idea that 2⁰C is a safe guardrail against global heating was a guesstimate by an economist almost fifty years ago, and it had a sketchy scientific basis even at that time. In November 2023, a consortium comprised of many of the top glaciologists and climate scientists in the world published a report entitled “The State of the Cryosphere 2023—Two Degrees is Too High.” (See also the review on Carbon Brief.) The only hope of preventing catastrophic sea-level rise,

We Asked for Science. We Got Sustain-a-Babble.

May 2, 2024/11 Comments/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

Editor’s Note

CASSE encourages members and readers to hold their government agencies to account on the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. Last week, Brian Czech presented Gag-Ordered No More to the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome, concluding with recommendations for engaging agency directors. We follow up this week with a letter from the Qualicum Institute (British Columbia) to Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change,

Climate Engineering: Doubling Down on Bad Habits

March 28, 2024/9 Comments/in Climate Change, Environment, Gary Gardner, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Social psychologists tell us it takes about 66 days to form a new habit. In my experience that’s only half true. Sixty-six days to form a good habit, yes, but about 66 hours to form a bad one. If I reach for a donut at breakfast, then do the same the next two days, I seal the deal and establish a habit of bad eating.

A New Papal Statement Hits—and Misses—the Mark

October 12, 2023/10 Comments/in Climate Change, Economic Growth, Gary Gardner, Religion, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Religious groups have long been players in movements to create a better world, from the anti-apartheid and civil rights movements to initiatives on arms reduction, debt forgiveness, and divestment from fossil fuels. It makes sense that they are involved in the sustainability movement as well. Sustainability, including the effort to create a steady state economy, requires a shift in one’s worldview and values,

Three Telling Takeaways from Climate Week in New York City

September 28, 2023/5 Comments/in Climate Change, Daniel Wortel-London, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

New York City was busier than usual last week.

The occasion was Climate Week, a host of events devoted to charting and increasing environmental progress. Hundreds of sold-out summits, covering everything from biodiversity to energy, could be found across the metropolis. And within those halls, would-be thought leaders discussed the challenges of sustainability with both earnestness and self-congratulation.

There was a tension,

Suing for the Steady State

August 17, 2023/1 Comment/in Climate Change, Daniel Wortel-London, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

On August 14, Montana’s Supreme Court ruled that in light of Montanans’ constitutional right to a clean environment, the failure of state agencies to take climate change into account when considering new projects is illegal. This ruling, resulting from a lawsuit by 16 young people, is being followed up by a similar trial in Oregon—and another is pending in Hawaii. At a moment of legislative disappointment across the sustainability policy landscape,

A “Final Warning” on Climate

March 30, 2023/6 Comments/in Climate Change, Corporate Reform, Corruption, Environment, Gary Gardner, Politics, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued what Greenpeace International called the “final warning” in the global effort to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. After three decades of increasingly insistent wake-up calls, the Panel laid out the sobering reality: Meeting the temperature goal set by the global community in 2015 is impossible without an immediate response, “a quantum leap in climate action,” in the words of United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.