Addressing Sanitation as a Climate Justice Issue
Three Degrees Warmer received a small grant from the Environmental Projection Agency's Environmental Justice Grants Program to train residents in Kivalina on how to operate the Kivalina Biochar Reactor, a nonsewered, mobile sanitation system designed by...
Relocation Archive to Be Exhibited in Morocco
In collaboration with Re-Locate, Three Degrees Warmer co-developed the Kivalina Archive, a digital platform that places the “official” history of Kivalina’s relocation, such as government geological surveys, alongside a relocation history told by the Kivalina people, including their experiences with the relocation process as well as photographs and videos documenting their everyday lives.
Three Degrees Warmer Presents to Center for Health and the Global Environment
Please join the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE) for its monthly Breakfast Seminar. The November meeting will feature Professors Lauren Sancken and Jennifer Marlow from the UW School of Law, who also work with Three Degrees Warmer, a non-profit climate justice project.
Relocation in the Alaskan Arctic
Three Degrees Warmer President Lauren Sancken and Executive Director Jen Marlow will be presenting their paper “Relocation in a Regulatory Void” about Kivalina’s climate displacement in the Alaskan Arctic next Tuesday, March 6, at UW School of Law in Seattle (12:30 to 1:20 pm).
Watch Kivalina Community Center Renovation In Progress
Watch videos from the Kivalina Community Center Renovation.
Relocation in a Regulatory Void: Three Degrees Warmer Publishes Article in Climate Law Journal’s Special Issue on Climate Displacement
In November, Three Degrees Warmer Co-Director, Jen Marlow, and Board President Lauren Sancken, co-authored an article published in Climate Law, an international peer-reviewed journal for lawyers and legal scholars on the “many legal issues that arise internationally and at the state level as climate law continues to evolve.”
Three Degrees Warmer Awarded EPA Environmental Justice Grant to Support Kivalina Biochar Project
Kivalina has developed the first human waste biochar reactor for the Arctic.
Renovation of Kivalina Community Center Underway
This September, Re-Locate is working with carpenters from Kivalina and JADE Craftsman Builders to renovate the Kivalina Community Center.
Three Degrees Warmer Supports Kivalina Youth to Petition the State of Alaska to Protect Youth’s Fundamental Rights
Three Degrees Warmer is working to support the participation of 16-year-old Solomon Sage, a young leader from Kivalina, in the petition for rulemaking filed by youth across the state of Alaska asking the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (AKDEC) …
The Kivalina Archive: Data Sovereignty and Relocation
Over one hundred years ago, the Inupiaq whaling community of Kivalina, Alaska, began discussing plans to relocate their village.
Re-Locate and Three Degrees Warmer host Global Citizen in Kivalina
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/SxzipQsf82c Read the full article here.
Climate Displacement Symposium
We’re excited to share a summary of the Symposium on Climate Displacement, Migration, and Relocation that took place December 12–13, 2016.
Three Degrees Warmer Files Amicus Brief with Supreme Court on National Climate Change Case
On November 6, 2014, Three Degrees Warmer partnered with Our Children’s Trust to file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court yesterday arguing the national importance of a federal public trust doctrine climate change case…
Supreme Court Will Not Hear Public Trust Case
Three Degrees Warmer, in partnership with Our Children’s Trust and its national network of legal supporters, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last month. Today, we learned that the Supreme Court declined to hear the case…
Three Degrees Warmer and Re-Locate Kivalina Partner on ArtPlace America Grant
RE-LOCATE KIVALINA RECEIVES 2015 ARTPLACE AMERICA GRANT. $500,000 Grant Will Fund Village-Based Territorial Planning Process in KIVALINA, ALASKA…
Social Art and Three Degrees Warmer
In 2009, when Jeni and I started Three Degrees, global international climate policy was failing to achieve measures to mitigate climate harms and to support impacted communities to adapt…
Youth Sue Government for Failing to Protect the Atmosphere for Future Generations
Our Children’s Trust (OCT), a nonprofit law firm in Eugene, Oregon, is representing youth who are alleging that the government, by failing to protect the atmosphere, is denying their constitutional rights…
Open Letter
Read an open letter from the Human Rights Council to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate...
Three Degrees Partners, Re-Locate and the Climate Foundation, Win International Award
Kivalina, Alaska – On March 4, the international Commission for Environmental Cooperation awarded funding to the Climate Foundation and Re-Locate to work with the Tribal and City Councils of Kivalina to develop a shovel ready project to provide biochar sanitation to...
Three Degrees Files Amicus in Youth’s Public Trust Case
Faith Groups Support Youth Appellants’ Federal Climate Change Case Washington, D.C. – Today, Three Degrees Warmer, a climate justice project based in Washington State, helped six faith-based groups file an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the U.S. Court...
Three Degrees Warmer Partners with Re-Locate Project
Three Degrees is partnering with the Re-Locate Project, an international group of partners working with Kivalina to support a culturally specific and community-led relocation process. Together with the city and tribal councils, the people of Kivalina, and...
Three Degrees to Give Humboldt State Sustainability Series Lecture
Three Degrees is presenting a talk at Humboldt State University's Spring 2013 Sustainable Futures Speaker Series. Jen Marlow will speak on Thursday, May 2, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Building room 166 (BSS 166) on the HSU campus. The...
Jen Marlow Awarded Helton Fellowship
The American Society of International Law awarded Jen Marlow a Helton Fellowship in international law and human rights. The Fellowship honors Arthur Helton—an advocate for refugees and the internally displaced who was killed in the August 2003 bombing of the UN...
Three Degrees Partners with Facing Climate Change on Recent Film Series
Three Degrees is excited to announce a partnership with Facing Climate Change, a project of multimedia artists Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele. Facing Climate Change just released a series of four, five-minute films that tell the story of global climate change...
Arctic Info
Sign Up for UW Spring Quarter Arctic Studies Courses Taught by Visiting Scholars Visiting scholars in Arctic Studies, Law, Indigenous Rights, and Resource Development will teach two exciting courses in spring quarter: 1) Business in the Arctic—Working with Law and...
Wild & Scenic
Just returned from the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Nevada City, California, in the foothills of the Sierra. The Film Festival is the annual fundraiser for South Yuba River Citizen's League. Over 800 volunteers worked to pull off the festival smoothly for over 4,000...
State AG’s Office Files Answer to Amicus Brief in Atmospheric Trust Case
Yesterday, the Washington State AG's Office filed its Answer to the Amici Brief filed by seven Washington faith-based groups in Svitak et al. v. State of Wash. et al. Three Degrees represented Amici on the brief. Youth in Washington (represented by Our Children's...
Reflections on Rio+20
The following strikes me as I sift through my thoughts on the flight home from the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development and the People’s Summit for Social and Environmental Justice in the Defense of the Commons in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 19–22, 2012....
Three Degrees Works with Faith-based Communities to File Amicus Memorandum in Washington Atmospheric Trust Case
A functioning atmosphere is perhaps the most basic element of life on Earth. Before we ever sip a drop of water or consume a bite of food, we humans take that first vital breath. Our continued alteration of the chemical composition of the atmosphere threatens our very...
GBN Scenario Training Seminar Debrief
In April, I attended a scenario training workshop hosted by the Global Business Network for one week in Berkeley, California. About 20 participants from backgrounds as diverse as the CIA, Royal Dutch Shell, LG, the Brazilian postal service, and UC Berkeley attended....
Jen Marlow to Attend Rio+20
Jen Marlow will be attending the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, June 20–22, 2012, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jen will be attending as a delegate of the American Society of International Law. Rio+20 will be, in the words of the UN...
Hanging on at the Top of the World
Join Billy Frank Jr., Emmy-award winning Producer Michael Harris, and Journalist Kevin Ely for a special premiere of "The Iñupiat: Hanging On at the Top of the World," part of the This Is Indian Country film series.Wednesday, May 30, 7 p.m. Kane Hall, UW. Professor...
The Island President: A Must-See Film Premiers Friday at SIFF in Seattle
Please join Three Degrees for this Friday's premiere screening of The Island President. Part of Seattle's International Film Festival, The Island President is a film about a remarkable man, the Maldives' President, Mohammed Nasheed. At 1.5 meters above sea level, his...
President Nasheed at Columbia University
Last week, I was in New York City for my brother-in-law's wedding. While I was there, I had the lucky fortune to hear President Mohammed Nasheed speak to an audience at Columbia University. President Nasheed is a climate justice hero, so despite the wedding...
Headed to Global Business Network Scenario Planning Training
In April, Three Degrees is excited to attend the Global Business Network's upcoming scenario planning training in Berkeley, California. Global Business Network has worked over many decades to mainstream and popularize scenario planning from a military tool to one...
Punishing Protest: Tune into Orion’s Live Web Event
How do we change the legal system when the legal system protects the status quo? Can we as lawyers create social change without a strong grassroots movement that insists on change, and if not, how can we best serve these movements? And when grassroots leaders, like...
Relating Climate Change and Migration in the Asia-Pacific and Alaska
The Carteret Islands in the Pacific and Alaska Native Villages in the Arctic share the very real challenge of permanent resettlement due—at least in part—to climate change. Last November, Dr. Jane McAdam, a climate change and refugee law scholar at the University of...
Scenario Workshop on Climate Adaptation in Juneau
The Juneau World Affairs Council invited Jeni and I to speak at its 2011 summit on the Politics of Global Climate Change last month. During the opening session on Thursday, November 10, ecologist Dr. Terry Chapin and biologist Dr. Brendan Kelly of the National Science...
What Is Radical at COP 17?
NOAA Arctic Report Card: Less Ice, Warmer
2011 Report Card highlights (quoted from NOAA Press Release, available here): Atmosphere: In 2011, the average annual near-surface air temperatures over much of the Arctic Ocean were approximately 2.5° F (1.5° C) greater than the 1981-2010 baseline period. Sea ice:...
Kivalina Argued Before Ninth Circuit but Relocation Still a Hurdle
The 2011 Bering Sea Superstorm battered Kivalina’s coastline on November 9, 2011, just a few weeks before attorney Matt Pawa argued Native Village of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil[1] on a sunny morning in San Francisco on November 28. The National Weather Service sent...
Three Degrees’s Initial Assessment of Lead Agency Candidates for Guiding Alaska Native Village Relocation Efforts
Last spring, a multidisciplinary team of eight professional and graduate students enrolled in our Climate Justice Seminar co-authored a paper titled "Initial Assessment of Lead Agency Candidates to Support Alaska Native Villages Requiring Relocation to Survive Climate...
Bureaucratic Obstacles to Planned Relocation in Alaska Native Villages
As a necessary addition to the paper completed by our Climate Justice Seminar students last spring on relocation, I highly recommend Robin Bronen's article, "Climate-Induced Community Relocations: Creating an Adaptive Governance Framework Based in Human Rights...
Recent Happenings and Musings
November has been a busy month for Three Degrees. Early in the month, Jeni and I participated in The Global Washington Conference on a panel examining the role of law in international development. The questions raised about the value of law in any development agenda...
Climate Change: A Reader
Our mentor and admired professor, Professor Bill Rodgers, has heroically completed his most recent book. It's called Climate Change: A Reader (William H. Rodgers Jr., Michael Robinson-Dorn, Jennifer K. Barcelos & Anna T. Moritz eds., Carolina Academic Press 2011)....
Advocacy Training
This weekend, Jeni and I will attend an Advocacy Training at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. The training is hosted by the Women's Earth Alliance in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network. The purpose of the training is to build capacity among...
The EU’s Position Going into Rio
The EU just passed a non-binding resolution proposing a common EU position in anticipation of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The EU's position is incredibly holistic, reflecting integrated...
Human Rights in 2084
Yesterday, Jeni and I guest lectured in Professor Wolcher's International Human Rights Law class at UW Law. Naturally, the topic was on the subject of climate change and human rights. In preparation for class, we asked the students to read Climate Change and Human...
Ethics at the Heart
Three Degrees Advisor and project collaborator Stephen Gardiner has an written an excellent post for Yale 360. In it, Steve lays out his argument for why climate change is a perfect moral storm, with the powerful convergence of global, intergenerational, and...
Three Degrees to Speak at the 2011 Global Washington Conference
Three Degrees is honored to be speaking at the 2011 Global Washington Conference: Opportunities and Obstacles in Turbulent Times. Microsoft is hosting the conference at its Redmond campus on October 31 and November 1, 2011. The conference brings together diverse...
The Power of Scenario Thinking for Climate Adaptation
The Three Degrees Project received a Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) grant to leverage the power of scenario planning to build more healthy, prosperous, and beautiful communities in climate vulnerable places around the world. The grant supports a three-day...
Three Degrees Mourns the Loss of Shannon Beebe
Three Degrees friend, mentor, and partner Lt. Col. Shannon Beebe died in a plane crash last Sunday, August 7, 2011. Shannon was scheduled to come to Seattle in a few weeks to participate in our upcoming scenario planning workshop and to keynote a few major speaking...
CANCELLED: True Security Post–9/11
Three Degrees, along with Seattle's Town Hall and the UW Bookstore, co-present "True Security in the 21st Century," a talk by Lt. Col. Shannon Beebe at Town Hall on September 11, 2011, at 7:30 p.m. Lt. Col. Shannon Beebe has spent most of his military career in...
Democracy School and No Coal Campaign
In June, I attended the Daniel Pennock Democracy School in Bellingham, WA, the site of a newly proposed coal export terminal. (Daniel Pennock died in 1995 at 17 after being exposed to toxic sewage sludge applied to land in Berks County, PA.) Democracy Schools are a...
Why “Three Degrees?” Significant increase in CO2 in 2010
As lawyers working for climate justice, we created the Three Degrees Project based on the IPCC projection that global average temperatures will rise three degrees Celsius over the course of the 21st century. We've received push back that three degrees isn't an...
Ethiopia: Our visit in photographs
In April, Jeni and I traveled to Haramaya University, in the dry eastern Ethiopian highlands. Haramaya's College of Law invited us to present on the work of Three Degrees, and organized a Saturday climate justice workshop. Over 100 people attended, joining us for our...
Three Degrees Woven into UW Fabric
The University of Washington is celebrating its 150th year by publishing 200 short stories about its history. The Three Degrees Project is one of UW's historical stories, featured for 2009—the year we hosted the Three Degrees Conference on the Law of Climate Change...
Down the Road in Athens, Alabama
My parents live in Athens, Alabama. My mom took this photo of her neighborhood after tornados struck ground 1/4 mile from her house last month. Here's what my friend and mentor Bill McKibben has to say about the recent string of "isolated, unpredictable, discrete"...
Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future Hosts Three Degrees Lunch June 16
Register now for a unique lunch hosted by UW Law, connecting the law school and the business school at UW over topics such as women's leadership, social entrepreneurship, and climate justice. Women's Network for a Sustainable Future's mission is to advance...
Threatened Island Nations Conference: One Perspective
[Jeni and I just returned from Columbia Law School's Threatened Island Nations Conference, where we presented a poster on climate adaptation schemes. Here are my thoughts after attending.] Sea level projections for the year 2100 exceed a 1-meter rise. If a nation of...
Cambodian Prime Minister Reverses Decision on Mine!
Here is the latest news from Wildlife Alliance on the decision to halt the titanium mine: "In a huge reversal, Cambodian Prime Minister Sandech Hun Sen has announced that a strip mine previously approved in the heart of an elephant corridor in the Southern Cardamom...
Carbon Pricing Conference at UW May 21
What do Rex Tillerson (CEO, Exxon Mobil), Michael Bloomberg, James Hansen, and T. Boone Pickens have in common? They all support carbon pricing. Carbon pricing is one way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and spur clean energy development. Come learn more about...
Our Paper Makes SSRN’s Top Ten Download List
Our recent paper, "Global Warring and the Permanent Dry: How heat threatens human security in a warmer world," recently made the SSRN top ten download list for the International Cooperation topic. The top ten list (updated daily) reflects papers submitted...
Upcoming Event: a3 Climate Justice Conference
We will be traveling to U.C. Irvine later this week to give a presentation at the a3 Climate Justice Conference. We are looking forward to reuniting with many of our Three Degrees Conference panelists, and we are thrilled that the students at U.C. Irvine's brand new...
Vote for Alex
Our friend and Seattle carbon star, Alex Steffen, needs your help. He's raising support via Kickstarter to write, edit, design (with design firm Open), and publish a short book on carbon-neutral cities by this Earth Day. Support "Carbon Zero: A Short Tour of Your...
Play “Three Degrees in Cambodia:” A Trailer
With generous support from the Tamaki Foundation, Three Degrees recently traveled to Cambodia along with film producer Michael Harris and photojournalist Kevin Ely. We worked together with local partners to produce a long-format documentary about environmental threats...
Is There a Graduate Education Market Inefficiency? Students Demand Multidisciplinary Opportunities in Grad School
By Guest Blogger and Three Degrees Graduate Student Fellow, Jesse Burns. Jesse is currently examining the individual, team, and organizational learning challenges inherent in public-private partnerships as a part-time MPA candidate at the Evans School of Public...
Climate Justice from the Bottom-Up: Case Studies from Indonesia
By Guest Blogger and Climate Justice Seminar Student Linda Sulistiawati. Linda is a PhD Student at the University of Washington School of Law, visiting the US on a Fulbright. Back home in Indonesia, Linda is a Lecturer at the Universitas Gadjah Mada, Faculty of Law....
Climate Justice in Cambodia
With generous support from the Tamaki Foundation, Jeni and I, along with producer Michael Harris and photojournalist Kevin Ely, recently traveled as an investigative team to Cambodia. Our mission was to document the impacts of a proposed titanium mine on 20,000...
Gus Speth on Climate Change & Human Rights
Some relevant and wise words from one of our mentors (and Advisory Board Members), Gus...
Alaska Forum on the Environment: What I Heard
Jeni and I just returned from Anchorage, Alaska, the host of the Alaska Forum on the Environment, an annual conference examining issues important to the environment and peoples of Alaska. On Monday afternoon, we attended a panel session titled “Tribal Perspectives on...
Egypt Uprising: Climate Change, Food Security, and Political Stability
By Guest Blogger Hilary Palevsky (Oceanography) Climate Justice Seminar 2011 Student The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 4th assessment report in 2007 projected an increase in food prices as global temperatures warmed, though with considerable...
We Used to Sing
We Used to Sing: An Arctic Elegy from Phillip Djwa on Vimeo. Listen to lawyer advocate and Iñupiaq leader Victoria Hykes Steere describe the challenges of being human in a warming...
Global Warring and the Permanent Dry
The Seattle Environmental Law Journal launched last week. Our essay, "Global Warring and the Permanent Dry: How Heat Threatens Security in a Warmer World," was one of four articles published in the journal's first edition. The essay focuses on how heat increases...
Three Degrees Awarded WUN Grant to Host Scenario Planning Workshop
The Worldwide Universities Network has just announced that the Three Degrees Project has been awarded a total amount of $40,000 to complete its proposed workshop on scenario planning. The project, titled "Imagining a Warmer World: Using Scenario Planning to Create...
Top 10 Environmental Watch List
Vermont Law School selected the 10 most important law and environmental policy issues of the day. Vermont Law chose the final 1o after perusing more than 75 judicial, regulatory, and legislative actions that showcase the importance of the law in "tak[ing] action on...
Procedural Posturing
The Supreme Court declined to hear review of Comer v. Murphy Oil, a public nuisance lawsuit filed by property owners seeking damages from Hurricane Katrina. The property owners alleged that the defendants intensified the damage of Hurricane Katrina by contributing...
Geoengineering and scalpels?
Yesterday, we attended a talk by Dale Jamieson, Director of Environmental Studies at NYU, on the ethics of global engineering. During his talk, he paraphrased UW Philosophy Professor Stephen Gardiner, on the topic of whether geoengineering is "cheap." Professor...
Four Degrees and Beyond
A September, 2009, conference at Oxford examined the climate impacts of a global mean four degree (C) temperature rise, and compares those impacts with impacts of a two degree (C) world. The Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy in existence and home to some of...
Learning from Our Students
Think big. Think smart. Make change. That's the subtitle to UW School of Law Professor Debbie Maranville's recent post on the "Best Practices for Legal Education" blog. Debbie's post drew an analogy between our work with Three Degrees and efforts to transform legal...
Photos from Three Degrees Reception at Davis Wright Tremaine
Last evening, Davis Wright Tremaine hosted a reception for Three Degrees at its Seattle office. We delivered a version of the Thee Degrees slideshow, "Imagining a Warmer World," and introduced our climate justice work to the Seattle legal and business communities. The...
The Story of Wheat: Food Insecurity in a Warmer World
The warmer world is likely to be a hungry world. Heat can be devastating to crops and climate change will significantly reduce crop yields. In many places, it already is. A recent newspaper headline, ripped from the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle’s business...
Job Opening: Attorney, International Climate Program (EDF)
Dear Friends, The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recently posted a job opportunity to work on international climate law and policy. Job announcements like this are few and far between, especially for young lawyers interested in climate justice work. The job is based...
Climate Justice Seminar 2011
The law school is offering a unique multidisciplinary seminar on Climate Justice this winter and spring quarters. Jeni Barcelos and Jen Marlow, Co- Executive Directors of the law school’s Three Degrees Project (www.threedegreeswarmer.org), will teach the course, along...
Worldchanging’s Future Cities Event Wednesday
Last year's Town Hall talk led to Seattle adopting the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. What will this year's event lead to? Join Worldchanging on Wednesday at Town Hall Seattle! Three Degrees is a non-profit sponsor of this exciting event. Three Degrees sponsored...
Introducing THREE DEGREES
An evening reception to benefit UW School of Law's climate justice project December 2, 2010 5:30–7:00 p.m. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP John Davis Conference Center, 22nd Floor 1201 Third Avenue Seattle, WA 98101 Please join us and University of Washington School of Law...
Back in Action
The Maldives Prioritizes Environmental Rights as a Member of the Human Rights Council
Thanks to our friend, Marc Limon, who sent us this press release from the Maldives. Marc Limon is Counsellor of the Mission of the Government of the Maldives to the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland. Maldives lists environmental rights as a top priority as a...
Climate Scenario for Ecuador
In this hypothetical scenario, we describe in rich detail Ecuador's predicted climate future for 2040. We successfully tested the climate scenario model as a decision-making support tool at the Three Degrees Conference last year, and adapted it for use with students...
Attention Philanthropy
Our friends at Worldchanging just published a feature story on Attention Philanthrophy 2010. "Attention philanthropy," they write, "is a gift of notice. In a noisy world, deluged in advertising, overrun with PR flacks and crowded with the superficial, one of the...
Washington Law Review Publishes Issue on Three Degrees
The most recent issue of the Washington Law Review features scholarship from last year's Three Degrees Conference (Volume 85, Issue 2). The issue features writing on climate change and human rights by Three Degrees Conference scholars Randall Abate, Deepa...
The Cochabamba People’s Accord
Last week, Bolivian President Evo Morales presented the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with the People's Accord —conclusions of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of the Mother Earth, Cochabamba, Bolivia. The People's Accord calls for...
3D: A Story
The Three Degrees Project is a brand new project on climate justice housed at the University of Washington School of Law. Three Degrees projects dovetail with key elements of the law school’s evolving environmental law program, and can help leverage new environmental...
Three Degrees and Re-Vision Labs Join for Digital Media and Learning Competition
Three Degrees has joined forces with local talent pool, Re-Vision Labs, to enter the Digital Media and Learning Competition. The competition is sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, along with other partners. Three Degrees ("3D") and Re-Vision Labs recently submitted...
Reflections on China
China has asserted itself as a world player in the international climate arena. I just heard that Vermont Law School is starting an environmental law clinic in China, which is a fantastic idea that perhaps the UW law school can learn from. Last July, Jeni and I...
Here's the Deal
The "Copenhagen Accord." Hot off the press. A success? Hardly. But a start. The nonbinding political agreement lays out three goals: 1) A political commitment to a 2 degrees Celsius cap on planetary warming. 2) A process for countries to commit, on an individual or...
Climate Justice Isn't Charity: US as polluter not donor
US Special Envoy for Climate Change, Todd Stern, takes the negotiating position that the US will help finance mitigation and adaptation in the developing world (we also need to finance mitigation and adaptation here at home, which seems like another story, but really...
Seattle Vigil
We are busy preparing for the next COP meeting from Seattle instead of from Copenhagen. While we had originally planned in taking part in the conference, we are at home instead. We are working hard on raising money for The Three Degrees Project, a multidisciplinary...
Climate Scoreboard
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Proposal to Maintain and Strengthen Human Rights Language in Negotiating Text
A human rights working group has issued a thorough proposal for maintaining and strengthening human rights language in the draft negotiation text leading up toward Copenhagen. Martin Wagner, an EarthJustice attorney and Three Degrees Conference Panelist, is one of the...
Declaration of the Climate Vulnerable Forum
The Maldives, and ten other climate vulnerable countries, last week adopted the Declaration of the Climate Vulnerable Forum. The Declaration voices alarm at the rapid pace of climate change, concern that climate change poses an "existential" threat to their countries...
Our Trip to Bergen, Norway
The UN Association (UNA) of Norway asked Jeni and I to make some brief remarks on stage at the city's UN Day of Action / 350.org event. Here's a picture of us on the Bergen city stage with the mascot for Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, UNA staff, and University of...
Watch Mary Robinson's Three Degrees Keynote
Watch the video. View Mary Robinson's Keynote on the Principles of Climate Ethics, filmed by TV...
Are Human Rights Coming Up at All in Climate Talks?
The most recent public draft of the proposed Copenhagen agreement refers to "human rights" three times. Back in May, my search for "human rights" rendered zero hits. So while a celebrated improvement, the mention of "human rights" in the (unwieldy) negotiating text...
Kivalina Case Thrown Out of Court
Dismissed: Native Village of Kivalina and City of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corporation Issue: The Native Village of Kivalina is part of northwest Alaska, comprising 1.9 miles of land that is home to approximately 400 residents. Melting sea ice and rising sea level have...
Kids in Copenhagen
From the Age of Stupid documentary series, hear what an empty negotiating room sounds like when kids take it over and claim the space before the diplomats arrive in...
Alex Steffen LIVE in Seattle!
Our friend and green hero, Alex Steffen, will take the stage at Seattle's town Hall for two back-to-back talks on November 11 and 12. Alex is one of the world's most sought after green futurists. Traveling the globe constantly to share his bright green vision of a new...
Climate Justice
Climate Justice is what Three Degrees is all about. We are very excited to report that the Global Humanitarian Forum just released a working paper titled "Key Points on Climate Justice," with a forward by Three Degrees keynote speaker and President of Realizing...
Resilient People + Climate Change Conference
The "Resilient People + Climate Change" Conference is happening October 21–22, 2009, in Vancouver, BC. Part of the "Gaining Ground Resilient Cities" Summit (with guest speakers including Paul Hawken and Majora Carter), the Resilient People Conference will explore the...
The Bergen Charter
In October, Jeni and I will be traveling to Norway to present ideas emanating from the Three Degrees Conference. The City of Bergen invited us to talk at a conference it's convening to develop the "Bergen Charter of Climate Change and Human Rights." The Charter is...
Missing: Institutions fit for the challenge
The world's institutions are not fit to handle the compounding crises facing the world's community, says an article recently published in Science called "Looming Global Scale Failures and Missing Institutions." The article holds up the example of the Montreal Protocol...
George Monbiot interview of Yvo de Boer
Watch Monbiot's fascinating interview of UN Climate Secretariat Yvo de Boer. The interview personalizes the tension we're seeing as negotiators prepare for Copenhagen in...
Video of Intergenerational Equity and Ethics Panel
Watch the video of Stephen Gardiner and Carolyn Raffensperger's inspiring presentations on why and how we should protect the rights of future generations against climate harms. Climate Change and Intergenerational Equity and Ethics from Jennifer Marlow on...
Rise Up
Please join us in congratulating our friends, Climbing Poetree, for completing their month-long Hurricane Season tour at the National Black Theater in Harlem, New York City! Hopefully you were lucky enough to catch it. If not, or even if you did, watch the trailer and...
Shanghai, China
Jeni and I recently returned from a trip to Shanghai, China. We were invited to China by Mickey Glantz--of the Consortium for Capacity Building at the University of Colorado, Boulder--to participate as speakers in an international climate and society conference at...
Climbing Poetree Clips
Watch Climbing Poetree's Three Degrees performance, "Hurricane Season: The Era of Unnatural Disasters." Part One Part Two Part...
Watch the Videos
Watch Henry Shue's Keynote Address, Vulnerability and Protection: Climate and Rights. Henry Shue is a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University's Centre for International...
Photographs from the conference
Click on the photos below to see images from the conference. For high-res files or usage contact benj@bendrum.com or 206 599...
MIT Study
Climate change odds much worse than thought. New analysis shows warming could be double previous estimates. "Without rapid and massive action, the problem will be about twice as severe as previously estimated six years ago - and could be even worse than that."...
Three Degrees in Worldchanging
Alex Steffen, a climate visionary whose online magazine, Worldchanging, is based in Seattle, mentioned the Three Degrees Conference in a recent blog post titled: "Latest to Sound the Climate Alarm: Doctors, Lawyers, Generals, Bankers and Diplomats." First, Doctors:...
First Public Draft of Proposed Copenhagen Agreement
Without having time yet to review the 50+ page draft, a quick search for the phrase "human rights" returned zero matches. "Compensation" = two matches "Adaptation" and "technology" both resulted in more than 100 matches. "Responsibility" = five matches (three of the...
Is a Human Rights Approach Useful?
What is the role of a human rights approach to climate change? Will human rights law be useful in situating new law or acting as the "grounds" for new policy? Or, is it only useful in mobilizing hearts and minds? Read Professor Dan Bodansky's response and the reply by...
The Road to Copenhagen
The International Science Congress just released a state of the science in preparation for upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen in December, 2009. The scientists summarized six steps for policy makers. See Step 4, though they are all important. (See full article from...
What Does a 4 Degrees World Look Like?
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Why We Think Adaptation Is So Important
Today leaders met in Copenhagen in advance of the December 9 Convention. What's clear from the meeting is that mitigation is losing its place at center stage. Guardian blogger Ben Caldecott emphasized that leaders are shifting focus to a more holistic climate...
Call for Papers
'Earth System Governance: People, Places, and the Planet' 2009 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Amsterdam, 2-4 December 2009 We would like to notify you of the 2009 Amsterdam Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global...
Too Late?
Ice is shrinking in the Arctic faster than climate computer models have predicted, according to a recent Newsweek article. How much of the shrinking is due to carbon levels in the atmosphere and how much of the ice would have retreated anyway? UW atmospheric...
2 Degrees? The "What's Dangerous" Debate
In its 2007 report, the IPCC concluded that to limit temperature increases to 2.0-2.4 degrees Celsius, global emissions must peak no later than 2015. What does a 2 degrees centigrade rise look like? The following excerpt gets at that question, but essentially the...
Food for Thought
Why Global Warming Portends a Food Crisis Time Magazine By Bryan Walsh It can be difficult in the middle of winter — especially if you live in the frigid Northeastern U.S., as I do — to remain convinced that global warming will be such a bad thing. Beyond the fact...
Human Development Report 2007/2008
Human Development Report 2007/2008: Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World, published for the United Nations Development Program...
Aid Agencies Overwhelmed
POZNAN, Poland, Dec 3 (AlertNet) - "The humanitarian community is overwhelmed by rising weather-related disasters and tens of billions of dollars are needed each year to reduce the risks from global warming, aid officials at U.N. climate change talks said on...
The Climate Time Machine
The Climate Time Machine animates sea level rise for global coastal regions (click on "Sea Level"). The sea level map is provided courtesy of CReSIS. To view more maps please...
A Lasting Contribution
Post-conference, interested participants will be invited to help craft a set of legal recommendations for circulation and comment and eventual distribution at the 2009 November/December COP 15 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Denmark, where the U.S. is expected to...
Who Was Fred Friendly?
Day Two of the Three Degrees conference will feature a Socratic, Fred–Friendly style debate to challenge participants' responses to a fictional disaster scenario. Fred Friendly Seminars have been featured on PBS stations for 25 years. "Focused on topics as...
“When was the last time that a mosquito was a threat to the United States? When was the last time that dirty water was a threat to the United States? When was the last time that someone living on less than a dollar a day was a threat to the United States?… I would contend probably not until now. These challenges are not going to be won at the point of a gun. This is the challenge that we have…our security narrative. The narrative has to change.”
– Lt. Col. Shannon Beebe