Ah! Finally some stand-up comedy that is neither alienated nor plain dumb. Just came across this guy and I like him already – and be sure, I’ll take a Libertarian over a Leninist any day. Here’s a segment from one of his older shows, check out more of his stuff on YouTube
Here’s the piece Lucy wrote for Ha’aretz (English edition) last Friday, summarizing some interesting findings from her pilot survey on Israelis’ attitudes towards climate change.
Climate for Change
by Lucy Michaels
When Al Gore visited Israel this week, he presented compelling arguments for Israelis to address climate change through serious economic and lifestyle changes. But how ready are Israelis to adopt more environmentally friendly behavior, such as car-pooling, and flying less? Or to pay more for gasoline to reduce the use of fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases? How much do they even know about climate change and its causes?
Preliminary research conducted by Ben-Gurion University and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies this past December suggests that, in fact, Israelis are both informed and concerned about climate change. In a telephone poll of almost 300 Israelis, 87 percent of respondents claimed to have at least a basic knowledge of climate change, and 66.7 percent agreed that “major steps” need to be taken “very soon” to reduce the human activities thought to cause the phenomenon. Furthermore, a significant 84.7 percent agreed that this would require individuals to make lifestyle and behavioral changes.
These results may be surprising, but they are consistent with a November 2007 BBC World Service poll of 22,000 people in 21 countries, including China, Nigeria and France, which revealed that on average, 65 percent supported taking “major steps very soon.” While Israel’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions of 73,000 kilotons are tiny when compared to those of the United States and China, it is still ranked 29th globally in CO2 emissions per capita (10.8 tons), above most European countries. In fact, Israel is surpassed only by the Gulf States, the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway and the smallest of developed countries, such as Luxembourg and Singapore.
Advertisement
At least half these emissions derive from everyday activities of private citizens, including electricity consumption in residential and commercial properties, and transportation. This includes the 62 percent of working Israelis who regularly commute to work by car and the average office building, where cooling and heating contribute up to 70 percent of energy consumption.Although the Israeli government has hardly made climate change a priority, these results suggest a highly favorable policy environment for seriously addressing the issue. They also suggests a likely rise in grass-roots activities to reduce emissions, even in the absence of decisive government action.
There is, however, a catch. For, while the survey revealed overwhelming support for “doing something” about climate change, Israelis are less enthusiastic about the more challenging aspects of what reducing emissions would actually mean. Only 24 percent, for example, were willing to fly less. Aviation is a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect: CO2 emissions at high altitudes make this greenhouse gas 2.7 times more potent, and planes release water vapor (contrails), another greenhouse gas. One round trip between Tel Aviv and New York emits two tons of CO2 per passenger, roughly a fifth of the average Israeli’s total yearly emissions.
Furthermore, only half of the Israelis surveyed supported price rises for gasoline and electricity, a measure widely seen as the most effective means to encourage people to switch to less carbon-intensive and wasteful behaviors. This figure, however, would rise to 65 percent if price hikes were accompanied by tax cuts elsewhere, and to 68 percent if the revenue was used to fund renewable energy. It is also revealing that fewer than 30 percent of Israelis take easy but less obvious energy-saving measures, such as unplugging their unused cell-phone chargers. Even when not in use, a charger plugged into the wall continues to draw electricity from the grid, known as a “phantom load.” Although the quantity for a single charger is small, when multiplied by Israel’s reported 7 million mobile phone accounts, the energy wasted consumes the equivalent of 5,000 barrels of oil a year. Any appliance left on “standby” mode also draws a phantom load.
This gap between environmental attitudes and behavior is widely noted in research. Some argue that the popular media’s portrayal of climate change has, in fact, frightened and guilt-tripped people into inaction. Instead, people are more likely to be inspired toward necessary lifestyle changes if these are presented as the means to a safer, healthier and fairer future.
The survey results also suggest that government policy must focus on education to prevent energy wastage. The survey illustrated that only 30 percent of respondents regularly used energy-saving light bulbs, which can increase efficiency by up to 80 percent, and that only 48 percent of respondents regularly put on more clothes when they feel cold, instead of turning the heating on or up. Policy must also focus on transportation and construction sectors. Taking a cue from Europe and the U.S., this could include market-based incentives such as promoting energy-efficient appliances and green building certifications.
Not only do such economic incentives reduce bills, but in the long term, taking action now will be substantially less costly than the eventual price of addressing the impacts of climate change in the future, such as extreme and unpredictable weather and sea level rises on the Mediterranean coast.
Admittedly, Israel’s location will make it hard to address aviation emissions, although it should be noted that the ferry service from Haifa to Cyprus and Greece resumed this month, after a seven-year hiatus.
Let’s hope that Gore’s visit will be the catalyst for government and popular action toward mitigating this dangerous threat facing humanity.
Lucy Michaels is a doctoral candidate at the Desert Research Institute of Ben-Gurion University.
As crude oil prices hit $130 today, Paul Krugman has published a piece in the New York Times titled “Stranded in Suburbia” – an obvious reference to the peak-oil documentary “The End of Suburbia”.
we’re living in a world in which oil prices keep setting records, in which the idea that global oil production will soon peak is rapidly moving from fringe belief to mainstream assumption.
Believe it or not, peak oil has hit the mainstream. Now what?
Big props to my great friend and co-conspirator Dan Sieradski of Orthodox Anarchist for the new design for my blog, which he whipped up in a matter of minutes! Hope you like the new banner and colour scheme that are more in tune with the actual book!
Started working on getting together a book tour for Germany, Holland and the UK this summer – details soon!
Here’s the piece Lucy and I published in Haaretz (english editions).
Food troubles are here to stay
By Uri Gordon and Lucy MichaelsThe government sends calming signals and says no dramatic shortages are expected. The Economist says do nothing, market forces will sort it all out. But as the global food-price crisis hit Israel this week, something told us we are not being told the whole story.
Around the world food prices are soaring. Since January 2006, the price of rice has risen by 217 percent. Wheat, corn and soybean prices have more than doubled, and in several countries, milk and meat prices have also doubled.
Food prices and falling wages have sparked riots in more than 30 countries from Bangladesh to Egypt to Haiti – where the prices of rice, beans, fruit and condensed milk have gone up 50 percent over a few months, while the price of fuel has tripled.
The poor are being hit the hardest. The steep price rises make a huge difference in countries like Indonesia, where food purchases alone eat up over half of a family’s disposable income (compared to 7.3 percent in the United States, and close to 20 percent in Israel).
With Israel’s high dependence on food imports, it is no surprise that prices are rising. The country imports over 90 percent of its cereals, 70-80 percent of its fish and beef, and half of its pulses, oilseeds and nuts. We may soon be relying far more on Israeli potatoes, fruit and vegetables, since the present crisis appears to be part of a worrying long-term trend.
The striking fact is that from 1974 to 2005, real food prices dropped by 75 percent globally. So what can explain this sudden and aggressive upturn? Though it has been played down in official reactions, the obvious explanation is staring us in the face: the dramatic rise in oil prices.
In January 1999, crude oil cost $8 a barrel. Today it costs $119. Oil is vital for every stage of industrialized agriculture: from synthetic-pesticide and fertilizer production, to fuel for farm machinery and international freight. All of these have seen steep price hikes, and not surprisingly, food prices have risen with them.
The reality is that we are effectively “eating oil.” The shift to industrial agriculture over the last 60 years has left our food systems dependent on a nonrenewable resource. Now we are paying the price.
The rise in oil prices betrays a genuine market concern about “peak oil.” Most geologists today agree that world oil production is reaching, or has already reached, its point of historical maximum. Like with any other nonrenewable resource, once the peak is passed, oil availability begins to decline and prices rise to reflect the growing scarcity.
Western governments don’t publicly talk about peak oil, but they have been quietly and efficiently subsidizing the massive expansion of biofuels: converting the use of millions of acres of land from food to fuel crops, such as maize and canola, again contributing to rising food prices. Meanwhile, land previously used to grow food is increasingly converted to grow animal feed, as the globalization of the American diet results in an increasing demand for meat worldwide.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization hopes that a projected 2.6-percent increase in world cereal production next year will ease the crisis. But this depends on favorable weather. This year, droughts in Australia and unseasonable rains in India caused crop failures that contributed to the crisis. If these events represent a new era of erratic and unpredictable weather patterns driven by global warming, the projections may fail to materialize.
Between peak oil and climate change, this may be the “perfect storm” that marks the beginning of the end of our civilization in hyperdrive. At the very least, the situation forces us to recognize that our modern industrial food system is extremely vulnerable and cannot be sustained on the current model.
The good news is that around the world, and in Israel, too, people are creating solutions that can make our future less precarious. Intelligent, small-scale and organic-farming methods, together with a resilient local economy, can help us weather the storm. This will require some serious transitions, but it is entirely possible.
Cuba survived its own version of peak oil with the collapse of the Soviet Union – its major source of food and oil imports. In response, the Cubans swiftly turned their gardens over for food production, and switched from industrialized agriculture to cooperatively owned organic farms.
Israel will also need to confront the challenge of self-sufficiency. Connecting the dots, the food and fuel crisis this year will only be exacerbated by the serious water crisis caused by the cold dry winter. Israel’s clever “techno-fix” for the water crisis, desalinization, is not the solution, since it is hugely energy intensive. Breaking the addiction to oil is clearly a necessary step in a transition to a healthier and more sustainable society.
Dr. Uri Gordon teaches at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, and is the author of “Anarchy Alive!” (Pluto Press). Lucy Michaels is a doctoral environmental policy researcher at Ben- Gurion University.
