Archives
Climate Resilience Planning Could Have Averted Southwest’s Christmas Debacle
Southwest estimates the loss from their scheduling system meltdown to be around $825M. Those are just the direct costs of lost revenue from canceling more than 15,000 of its flights starting on Dec. 22. It doesn’t include the costs for fines, brand erosion and systems upgrades which will increase the loss to well over a […]
WHY??? Small Word, Huge Impact
This post was written by Hallie Booth, an 8th grade science teacher and the 2022 Kentucky Middle School Teacher of the Year. I remember the first time I called a corporation to see if they were interested in helping some of my students with a project they were working on. I instruct my students […]
“Net Zero by 2050” is Greenwashing
by Bob Leonard A common sign that complex systems are approaching tipping points is rising volatility. Our climate system is enormously complex, global in size, and interconnected with all facets of our biosphere. The extreme weather in 2021 – the heat domes, droughts, fires, floods and cyclones – is deeply concerning. If Earth systems […]
Our Climate Crisis: from Denial to Disconnection
by David Houle (previously published in the Sarasota Herald Tribune) If you read this newspaper, or any other newspaper, or watch the news on television, you know that we have entered a climate crisis that is deadly real. It can no longer be denied. Here are just a few of the stories […]
Relentless
Three years ago we moved from south Florida to Portland OR. I knew we were vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in Florida where we lived two blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. Sea level rise, increasing heat (it was already HOT), and more severe storms. Hurricane Irma was the last straw. We were […]
Mission 2030: Now is the Time to Set Our Direction for the 21st Century
by David Houle Humanity must change direction and ramp up our efforts to address our climate crisis. The first Earth Day was in 1970 (over 50 years ago) and yet we have done little to alter the trajectory of GHG emissions, pollution and the destruction of our ecosystem. 70% of all the CO2 […]
Why 2030?
by David Houle We here at This Spaceship Earth produced the first #Mission2030 Global Youth Climate Summit on May 3, 2021. So why the year 2030? It has become clear that 2030 is the deadline we must meet to successfully address our climate crisis (to avoid the most damaging consequences). More and more […]
Welcome to the World of Punctuated Equilibrium
by Tim Rumage, Chief Science Officer, This Spaceship Earth and Planetary Ethicist In evolutionary biology, there are two primary pathways for organisms to adapt and evolve: one is gradualism, and the other is punctuated equilibrium. Gradualism is just that – slow incremental changes/variations over long periods of time. Punctuated equilibrium change is pulsed. There […]
You Have the Opportunity to Create a Better World… and Have a Wonderful Life Doing It
by Bob Leonard It may soon be possible for average people to take a ride on a spaceship. Both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are using some of their billions to develop spaceships to transport passengers outside our planet’s atmosphere. What many people don’t realize is that we already are astronauts aboard Spaceship […]
It Takes a Village to Change the System
by Jon Biemer An amazing diversity of actors contributes to the healing of our planet. This became apparent to me as I made the final revisions to my book Our Environmental Handprints: Recover the Earth, Reverse Global Warming, Reclaim the Future. Consider for example the cast of characters who are reviving the Los Angeles […]