Comments on: Copenhagen: The False “Victory”

By: Dan Plesner Henriksen

Dan Plesner Henriksen — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:33:55 +0000

Hi all,

Im Danish, and so sorry for the outcome of the COP15 summit. It went wery wrong, now we all have to hope the very best for the next summit in Mexico COP16

Dan

By: Henri Suyderhoud

Henri Suyderhoud — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:42:41 +0000

Dear Dr. Sachs,
I have followed several of your 1-page essays in the Scientific American regarding global warming. Your last essay made an interesting suggestion, i.e., to engage in a debate on the subject of global warming. I for one, would love to hear such a debate, and my suggestion to you is to invite scientists like Dr Patrick Michaels of UVA, Dr Robert Balling of Arizona State, the Honorable Lord Monkton of the UK, Christopher Horner, author of a book on the subject, Dr Richard Lindzen, well known MIT Climatologist, just to name a few. You must have heard about them, I assume. Then obviously, invite others who staunchly believe in global warming’s immminent dangers of causing great harm to planet Earth. But in any event, keep the politicians out of the debate, if I may be so bold as to suggest. Then perhaps, we will all get a better understanding of what is really happening with this extremely difficult and little understood and utterly complex phenomenon, we call global warming. Thank you, sincerely.

By: Is there hope from Copenhagen? - Climate Matters @ Columbia

Is there hope from Copenhagen? - Climate Matters @ Columbia — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:16:47 +0000

[...] Sachs, fearless leader of the Earth Institute, adamantly opposed such victory proclamation from the President, for his disrespect to the international negotiation process, in exchange for a [...]

By: gecko

gecko — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:21:38 +0000

Jeff Sachs,

Quite dramatic! But, even more productive drama would be accomplished by turning New York City into a true showcase for Urban Ecological Amplification

http://www.livablestreets.com/streetswiki/urban-ecological-amplification

New York City does this already by greatly amplifying the primary natural gift of human intelligence. As you know, Columbia University does this quite well.

NYC also accomplishes this by greatly amplifying the value of natural human mobility using self-propulsion. Cities solve the transportation problem by bringing everything close together and people walk much more in this town than mostly anywhere else in U.S. (except for maybe Disney Land). Rapid development of small vehicle transit would amplify this benefit to high levels of practicality in an extremely short time to produce an easily replicable model for global distribution as low-hanging fruit seriously addressing the climate crisis and other important issues.

And, mentioned elsewhere on this site 3.3 million New Yorkers planting 1 tree per day would plant 1 billion trees in less than a year where many would be on the space wasted on automobiles liberated by the broad deployment of small vehicle transit; and, perhaps a key incentive to jumpstart extensive urban farming.

With the Columbia Earth Institute as advisor to the city on climate change mitigation and adaptation it is extremely important that the city move with military speed to responsibly address the climate change crisis as showcase to the globe from this vibrant iconic center of the world’s third largest economy.

Advocacy for this type of action is quite broad and if you haven’t already please do a quick read of Lester R. Brown’s excellent and very accessible “Plan B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization” downloadable free from

http://www.earth-policy.org/images/uploads/book_files/pb4book.pdf

Or, you can buy it for less than $9 from The Strand Bookstore downtown on Broadway and 12th Street.

By: ab

ab — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:02:09 +0000

If people want a green world.
then stop buying Chinese products.

China frustrated the COP top,
now people of the world decide themselves.

No more “made by china” unless approved by a green label.
We make china transparent! That should be done anyway.
Digital democracy of the third millennium: how can you expect your
government to take responsibility if you do not even bother about a green
label ?

You don’t have to wait till the next top, start yourselves, start today, start small! If governments want to join, they should implement green labels. Imagine a green label, next to “made by china”

By: Richard Gross

Richard Gross — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:32:58 +0000

With great interest I read Dr Sachs’ recent article in Scientific American re. “The Need for Open Process”. Will you please pass on the following comment to him, and if possible respond back.

Dr. Sachs made the comment that “only one third of the U.S. public believes that man-made climate change is even real”. Why is it that the important step of “selling it to the public” been overlooked? The numbers, tables and graphs are important but the public still does not get the basic concepts. This is no wonder considering the amount of slick advertising and disinformation put out by the opposition, i.e. “global warming” has been “swift-boated”.

Can not the major players promoting action on this issue combine their resources and “sell” the reality of this problem? Consider the success of the anti-smoking campaign over the tobacco industry.

Come on let’s get together on this!