Time for change

Setting the record straight: Climate change experts respond

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Do you consult your dentist on your heart condition? In science, as in any area, reputations are based on knowledge and expertise in a field, and on published, peer-reviewed work. If you need surgery, you want a highly experienced expert in the field who has done a large number of the proposed operations. On January 27, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed on climate change by the climate science equivalent of dentists practicing cardiology. While accomplished in their own fields, most...
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Storm over climate change among weather forecasters

Reuters: You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. But weather forecasters, many of whom see climate change as a natural, cyclical phenomenon, are split over whether they have a responsibility to educate their viewers on the link between human activity and the change in the Earth's climates. Only 19 percent of U.S. meteorologists saw human influences as the sole driver of climate change in a 2011 survey. And some, like the Weather Channel's founder John Coleman are vocal in their...
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Why Barack Obama will have to talk about climate change

Mother Jones: In his State of the Union address on January 24, President Obama largely avoided the topic of climate change. He talked about it once, in passing, as a topic on which "the differences in this chamber may be too deep" to enact new legislation. Its less-controversial cousin, "energy," on the other hand, got a whopping 23 mentions as an area where Republicans and Democrats should be able to find agreement. It became clear well before that address that the president and his administration don't think...
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End of the road for dirty biofuels

"Palm oil-diesel. Extinction and climate disaster."

It’s been a bad few weeks for biofuels produced from food crops: first, the US Environmental Protection Agency said that biodiesel made from palm oil will not count towards the country’s renewable fuels mandate because they are damaging to the climate. Rainforest is destroyed and carbon-rich peatland drained in the production of palm oil and this destruction is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate change. In the same week, figures from the EU were leaked showing that greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels produced from palm oil, soybean and rapeseed are higher than those for conventional fossil fuels, like oil, when their indirect effects are taken into account.

According to the EU study, the CO2 emissions of these biofuels could even be compared to those derived from Canada’s tar sands, usually referred to as the world’s dirtiest fuel. In 2009, the EU ruled that renewable energy sources such as biofuels should make up 10% of Europe’s transportation energy mix by 2020. But the legislation failed to take into account the indirect land use changes which are caused by biofuels: when existing agricultural land is taken up to produce crops for biofuels, then more land is needed to produce food or animal feed, causing environmental destruction such as deforestation.

This spring will be decisive for the future of biofuels: will the EU and the US choose a truly sustainable path for the transport sector or will they continue to support dirty biofuels that actually make things worse? Take soy, which has turned large swathes of Argentina into one vast monoculture, causing deforestation, displacement of people and pollution of water resources because of the intensive use of herbicides. In spite of this, Argentinian soy is still accepted by the EU as a ‘climate-saving’ biofuel. Indonesia and Malaysia are also preparing major expansions of palm oil plantations in order to cater for increasing EU biofuel demand. And in 2011, Finnish energy company Neste Oil opened its latest massive biodiesel refineries, in Rotterdam, Netherlands - which makes the company potentially the biggest palm oil buyer in the world. Neste Oil won the Public Eye Award as the worst company of 2011 for its production of biodiesel from palm oil that comes from destroyed rainforest in Southeast Asia.

We have precious little time left to save the world from a climate crisis. EU and US policymakers have lost time by promoting unsustainable biofuels. Policymakers over-estimated the contribution of biofuels in the fight against climate change in order to support their powerful agri-business lobbies.

As a result we risk being locked into an infrastructure and the corresponding economic and lobby power of an unsustainable biofuels sector. With mounting evidence of the disastrous environmental and social impact of dirty biofuels, governments must recognise that they were wrong to put all their eggs in one basket – and take action.

Priority should be given to energy saving measures: supporting the production of lighter and smaller cars with more efficient engines, developing public transport and rail transport  (powered with renewables) and reducing overall transport demand. Investments should go into truly sustainable biofuels, such as those produced from waste, which do not require the use of land. Greenpeace will continue to fight for sustainable climate policies, which do not come at the expense of tropical forests and support sustainable agricultural practices.

Kees is a forest campaigner at Greenpeace Netherlands – follow him on Twitter @keeskodde_GP

Wall Street Journal attacked over climate change denial

The Week UK: A GROUP of leading climate scientists has slapped down The Wall Street Journal for publishing an article which claimed that (a) global warming is used by governments to raise taxes and (b) climate change sceptics are like the Soviet scientists who were persecuted in the 1950s for believing in genetics. In a letter published by the Murdoch-owned newspaper yesterday, the climatologists said the 16 scientists who put their names to the climate-sceptic piece are "the climate-science equivalent of...
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Germany, China take lead in environmental policies

China Daily: Strong economic ties drive the Sino-German bilateral partnership. Energy, environment and climate change issues remain at the heart of economic relations. In a joint communiqu by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Premier Wen Jiabao in 2010 as well as during the first Sino-German Government Consultations in June 2011, energy, environment and climate issues were identified as a priority for future cooperation. Both countries implemented structural changes towards a greener economy, although under...
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Australia: Tropical cyclones to cause $109B in damages by 2100

CBC: Tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages worldwide by 2100 with the United States and China being hardest hit, says a new study. The figure includes population and economic growth costs ($56 billion) as well as the effects of climate change ($53 billion). All figures are in U.S. dollars. The estimates are based on a future global population of nine billion and an annual increase of approximately three per cent in gross world product until 2100, according to the study published on...
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Climate change precipitates food shortages, unrest

Zee News: Long-term climate change has often destabilized civilizations through food shortages, hunger, infectious disease and unrest, a study reveals. Historical records foreshadow a grim picture for a future threatened by even greater climate change, says the study by the Australian National University (ANU). Tony McMichael, professor at the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and population Health, examined climate change and its impact over the last 6,000 to 7,000 years, as documented in historical,...
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Climate change should remain at the top of the local government agenda

Guardian: Four or five years ago, if you asked a gathering of local government chief executives what were the top three priorities for their councils over the next decade, a majority would have included climate change. Ask the same question today, and you'll get a very different answer. Climate change seems to have fallen off the local government agenda. A recent Local Government Chronicle poll, based on research by Green Alliance, found that 37% of councils are de-prioritising climate change, and 28% are...
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'Oceans play important role in climate change'

Times of India: "Oceans and climate are linked to each other. Far from the static, Atlantic Ocean contributes a lot to climate change," shared Prof A D Singh, department of geology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He has returned recently from an ocean expedition to Atlantic Ocean. Singh, who was invited by the Unites States Implementing Organisation (USIO) through the Ministry of Earth Sciences India (IODP-India) to participate as one of the shipboard scientists in the International Ocean Drilling Programme...
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Human Activity, Not Solar Activity, Drives Global Warming

redOrbit: A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity - not changes in solar activity - are the primary force driving global warming. The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth`s energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth`s surface and the amount returned to space as heat. The researchers` calculations show that, despite unusually low solar activity between 2005 and 2010, the planet continued to absorb more...
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Israel: Climate Change and Forest Fires Conference

Jerusalem Post: On Thursday, January 26, scientists and foresters participating in the Climate Change and Forest Fires Conference organized by KKL-JNF, in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, visited the Carmel Forest. KKL-JNF Chief Forester David Brand welcomed the participants, many who came from around the world, and provided professional background information during the tour. The group was greeted at a site overlooking Nahal Bustan by KKL-JNF Northern Region Director Dr. Omri Boneh,...
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REDD: Saving the Amazon rainforest

GlobalPost: International negotiators are closing in on a new solution for combating climate change -- and saving the world's remaining forests. Some 20 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions now come from deforestation, especially in the lush, green band of tropical rainforest that circles the earth. That is more than from global transport. So representatives from member states involved in UN climate negotiations are attempting to hammer out a way to make it more profitable to protect forests than...
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Multinationals getting better at cutting emissions — report

Business Day: INCREASING numbers of multinational companies had reduced their carbon emissions in recent years and were beginning to look at their supply chains for further reductions, according to a report published this morning by the global climate change reporting system known as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the global management consultancy Accenture. There was a marked rise in the number of companies with climate change strategies that incorporated procurement guidelines, and more than a third...
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Swiss lose ground over global warming

Environmental groups have slammed a government decision to compensate an increasing share of its greenhouse gas emissions outside Switzerland.
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Romney takes Fla. with variety of weapons, including a climate attack

ClimateWire: Mitt Romney's crushing victory in Florida spoiled Newt Gingrich's southern momentum with a barrage of personal attacks, including one about the former speaker's views on climate change that the son of Ronald Reagan said gives conservatives "cardiac arrest." The strong finish by the former Massachusetts governor, who gained 46.4 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 31.9 percent, rode a wave of aggressive jabs criticizing Gingrich's ethics as speaker, his connections to Freddie Mac and his conviction...
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Canada: Climate change shrinking forests in 3 prairie provinces

Canadian Press: Research shows northern forests in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are drying up and shrinking from drought caused by climate change, while the eastern boreal forest is holding its own. A paper published Monday suggests the forests in those provinces are already emitting more greenhouse gases than they absorb. The finding could overturn assumptions that global warming would improve growing conditions for trees in the North. "We found the boreal east and the boreal west is a totally different...
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Northern Gateway Pipeline review board in focus

Vancouver Observer: With regulatory hearings underway regarding the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project, the three individuals on the government-appointed Joint Review Panel are responsible for making the final recommendation. But who are the panelists, and why were they chosen? With growing worldwide concern over global warming, Enbridge’s controversial oil sands pipeline has now become an international issue. In addition to the oil sands’ contributions to climate change, critics have raised serious...
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Charles beats DiCaprio on climate

Press Association: People in London are more likely to be influenced by the Royal Family, politicians and business leaders, than celebrities when it comes to climate change, according to new research. Prince Charles and Al Gore topped a poll commissioned by Climate Week which asked over 1,000 people to choose who from a list of famous individuals would be most likely to make them act on climate change. Sir Richard Branson came second, followed by Barack Obama and the Queen. Meanwhile Leonardo DiCaprio, one...
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Genetics of Arctic plants under serious threat from climate change, study says

Physorg: While researchers expect that most plant species will lose part of their current habitat as a result of climate change, this new study shows that within a plant species not all plants will experience the same genetic consequences. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. As time goes on, climate change will have an increasingly major impact on biological diversity, and nowhere more so than in Arctic and alpine environments, which are exposed to the most extreme...
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Research shows climate change may shrink wheat crops

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: MARK COLVIN: New research predicts that climate change will have a far greater impact on wheat crops than expected. Scientists from Stanford University found that a two degree increase in temperatures would reduce the growing season by nine days, yielding 20 per cent less wheat. This could have a dire effect on global food security. Meredith Griffiths reports. MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Wheat is the world's second biggest crop and provides a fifth of the world's protein. But it doesn't grow...
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Climate-driven heat peaks may shrink wheat crops

Agence France-Presse: More intense heat waves due to global warming could diminish wheat crop yields around the world through premature ageing, according to a study published Sunday in Nature Climate Change. Current projections based on computer models underestimate the extent to which hotter weather in the future will accelerate this process, the researchers warned. Wheat is harvested in temperate zones on more than 220 million hectares (545 million acres), making it the most widely grown crop on Earth. In some...
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Warm climate spells doom for bread basket

Deccan Herald: India's bread basket faces a serious threat from rising temperature due to climate change, according to a new study that suggests a sharp dip in wheat productivity in India if mercury goes north. Extreme heat can accelerate wheat aging, an effect that reduces crop yields. The overall decline could be as much as 50 per cent with two degree increase in temperature and is way above than what has been anticipated in existing crop forecasting models. The new research implies that climate warming...
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Cutting Climate Change is Simple: Just Stop Subsidising Fossil Fuels

Forbes: I knew that this was true but I didn`t realise the effect was so great. The simple way to cut climate change is to stop subsidising fossil fuels. According to IEA research, 37 governments spent $409bn on artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels in 2010. Critics say the subsidies significantly boost oil and gas consumption and disadvantage renewable energy technologies, which received only $66bn of subsidies in the same year. Birol and the IEA said that a phase-out would avoid 750m tonnes...
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City cuts its greenhouse gas emissions

North Shore News: THE City of North Vancouver's efforts to grapple with climate change are starting to pay off, achieving real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. "I have some very good news this evening, and I also have some sobering news to share," Caroline Jackson, the city's community energy manager, told council Monday night. "We are gaining some traction and starting to see some considerable reductions, both in terms of our city operations but also as a community. "The other news is that there is...
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Louisiana scientists working on plan to save coastline, fight global warming

Times-Picayune: A team of Louisiana scientists is laying the groundwork for creating a new carbon storage industry that could both reduce the effects of global warming and rebuild wetlands along the state`s coastline. Sarah Mack, founder of New Orleans-based Tierra Resources, and Louisiana State University wetlands scientists John W. Day and Robert Lane have come up with a method for measuring the molecules of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the soils and plants that are created with coastal restoration projects....
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Climate change deniers: The science of intimidation

Advertiser: According to an old legal adage, when the law is against you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law. And when neither is on your side, pound the table. Today, conservative climate change deniers, faced with a growing and increasingly persuasive body of evidence supporting the theory of anthropogenic global warming have adopted a version of this approach. Except, lacking a table, they are pounding the scientists instead. In the words of one climate scientist, Dr. Katharine...
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Scientists Aboard Iberian Coast Ocean Drilling Expedition Report Early Findings

Agence France-Presse: Mediterranean bottom currents and the sediment deposits they leave behind offer new insights into global climate change, the opening and closing of ocean circulation gateways and locations where hydrocarbon deposits may lie buried under the sea. A team of 35 scientists from 14 countries recently returned from an expedition off the southwest coast of Iberia and the nearby Gulf of Cadiz. There the geologists collected core samples of sediments that contain a detailed record of the Mediterranean's...
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MSG talks climate change

Fiji Times: THE Melanesian Spearhead Group has successfully completed a three-day ministerial meeting on climate change and environment issues. Director of Environment Jope Davetanivalu said the Nadi meeting discussed environmental and climate change programs, and the need to improve relationships with regional and international organisations and create a clear understanding of the partnership with developed countries. "The meeting was for the ministers to get their acts together on these two important...
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Climate Insurance to Protect Our Food Supply?

Common Dreams: I feel uneasy sleeping in a house without functioning smoke detectors. I lock my doors at night. I salt my sidewalk when it's icy. I always wear my seatbelt. Like most people, I prefer to minimize my chances of getting hurt or wrecking my car or house, despite the fact that my house, my car, and my health are all (thankfully) insured. When it comes to agriculture and climate change, I'd like to see our nation take the same approach. Even though most farmers have crop insurance, we should make...
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Australia: Debate rises on sea levels as businessman brings in experts

Newcastle Herald: AM BELMONT businessman Jeff McCloy is taking the rising sea debate to another level with three scientific experts to deliver their findings to Lake Macquarie residents. The millionaire developer has organised professors Ian Plimer, David Archibald and Robert Carter to address a free information night on climate change at Belmont 16 Footers on Tuesday. Debate has raged for many years over rising sea levels in the Lake Macquarie area and the council adopted a climate change policy last year that...
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Zimbabwe farmers turn back to tradition as rainfall changes

AlertNet: Whether rotating her crops, sowing seed from previous harvests or gathering rainwater, Susan Gama is pulling out all the stops in an attempt to keep her livelihood going. Subsistence farmers like Gama in this southern African nation are reverting to traditional farming knowledge and local experimentation to cope with the challenges of poor and unpredictable rainfall, which experts believe is linked to climate change. That is producing mixed results -- and considerable frustration for government...
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New USDA plant zones clearly show climate change

Washington Post: Plant hardiness zones, an indicator of the coldest winter temperature, have shifted north and northwest since 1990 around Washington, D.C. (USDA; Patterson Clark and Laris Karklis - The Washington Post) Planting zones are retreating north all over the country, but the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) won't state the obvious: the shift is a rock solid indicator of climate change. On Wednesday, the USDA released a new plant hardiness zone map, which contours the nation according to...
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India: Women farmers adapt to climate change

Deccan Herald: The impact of climate change on farming activities in India has been significant. But with training, women farmers across the country are adapting to the change, and growing nutrition gardens and building seed banks, writes Aditi Kapoor Innovative measures by women farmers across India are helping several poor families adapt better to climate change and keep hunger at bay. As Sursati from village Janakpur, district Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, explains, "Earlier, we could not produce enough food...
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Why Biodiversity Loss Deserves as Much Attention as Climate Change

Triple Pundit: Biodiversity loss is probably a challenge that is often ignored as climate change looms. Currently the world is losing species at a rate that is 100 to 1000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, further, it is currently seeing the sixth mass extinction. The previous mass extinction occured 65 million years ago, and was caused by ecosystem changes, changes in atmospheric chemistry, impacts of asteroids and volcanoes. For the first time in history, the current extinction is called by the...
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Wide Variety of Threats Wiping Out World’s Big Trees, Expert Says

Yale Environment 360: A litany of environmental threats, from forest fragmentation and logging to climate change and disease, are wiping out the world’s biggest trees, according to a published report. In forest ecosystems worldwide, research shows that giant trees have become particularly vulnerable to a changing environment, ecologist and tropical forest expert William Laurance writes in New Scientist magazine. Increased fragmentation has left big trees exposed to stronger winds, while dry conditions and warming temperatures...
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Scotland assesses climate change threats

United Press International: British government climate change reports suggest Scotland's fisheries sector and other vital assets could be under threat, the government said. The British government in its Climate Change Risk Assessment determined that changes in water temperatures could result in a relocation of some fish stocks, a key source of revenue for Scotland. The Scottish government said the report means its "essential" for Edinburgh to fully consider the threats posed by climate change. Steps taken by the Scottish...
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The solar industry needs to see the UK government can be trusted

Guardian: This week, the government lost its appeal against a judge's ruling that its move to change the rates for solar feed-in tariffs before the official consultation has ended was "legally flawed". The high court ruling is a real victory for the solar industry and for those households, businesses and community projects in my constituency who would have been left high and dry by the Department of Energy and Climate Change's attempts to apply a retrospective change to the rate. There has always been...
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No chance for climate deal unless firms join push: UN

Agence France-Presse: The world has no chance of sealing an emissions cut deal unless companies lobby their governments for an accord, the UN climate chief told the global business elite in Davos on Thursday. "Even though governments have said in Durban 'yes we're going to dedicate the next three years to negotiating and agreeing by 2015 a new legally binding agreement', let's be very clear, that is not going to happen," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change....
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Wind power: Clean energy, dirty business?

Christian Science Monitor: Like the oil drilling rig that became an icon of the Industrial Age, the giant, spinning wind turbine has become a global image of clean power. No longer a futuristic dream of environmentalists, wind power has become a big business: Since the signing of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in 1998, wind-generated electricity has grown 20-fold: from only enough to power the equivalent of two New York Cities, to 200,000 megawatts today – enough to power six Britains. (In an address today about "American...
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Singapore raises sea defences against tide of climate change

Reuters: A 15-km (10 mile) stretch of crisp white beach is one of the key battlegrounds in Singapore's campaign to defend its hard-won territory against rising sea levels linked to climate change. Stone breakwaters are being enlarged on the low-lying island state's man-made east coast and their heights raised. Barges carrying imported sand top up the beach, which is regularly breached by high tides. Singapore, the world's second most densely populated country after Monaco, covers 715 square km (276...
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Why we're no longer so keen on being green

Daily Mail: Public concern about climate change is on the wane. The number of people willing to alter the way they live in the hope of making a difference to global warming fell by around 10 per cent last year. There was also a sharp drop in those who regarded themselves as 'fairly concerned` about climate change. Green living: The number of people willing to alter the way they live in the hope of making a difference to global warming fell by around 10 per cent last year The figures, released by...
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Singapore raises sea defenses against tide of climate

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A 15-km (10 mile) stretch of crisp white beach is one of the key battlegrounds in Singapore's campaign to defend its hard-won territory against rising sea levels linked to climate change.
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Already on the decline, will global warming hasten demise of big trees?

Mongabay: Already on the decline worldwide, big trees face a dire future due to habitat fragmentation, selective harvesting by loggers, exotic invaders, and the effects of climate change, warns an article published this week in New Scientist magazine. Reviewing research from forests around the world, William F. Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, provides evidence of decline among the world's "biggest and most magnificent" trees and details the range of threats they face....
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UN launches online database for businesses to adapt to climate change

Xinhua: The United Nations launched a new online database on Thursday to showcase successful strategies that businesses and communities are using to adapt to climate change while simultaneously increasing their profits and using their resources more efficiently, said UN officials. The database, which can be accessed through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, features more than 100 examples from companies such as Coca-Cola, Levi's, Microsoft and Starbucks, which share the details...
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Climate Change Report Shows U.K. Impact By 2080

redOrbit: According to the first U.K. climate impact report, climate change poses both risks and opportunities to Britain by 2080. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs` 2,000-page report says that flooding, heat waves and water shortages could become more likely this century. The research was carried out over the past three years and involved studying the possible impacts in 11 key areas, including agriculture, flooding and transport. Authors of the study said that there are still...
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Global warming may raise risk of Pacific fish poisoning

SciDev.Net: Rising sea temperatures caused by climate change may have contributed to a sharp increase in the incidence of a severe form of tropical fish poisoning afflicting people living on small islands around the Pacific region, a study has shown. A 60 per cent increase in the annual number of ciguatera poisoning cases in 18 Pacific island countries and territories between 1998--2008, compared with the period 1973--1983, was among the findings in the study, which was published last month in PLoS Neglected...
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ALEC Model Bill Behind Push To Require Climate Denial Instruction In Schools

On January 16, the Los Angeles Times revealed that anti-science bills have been popping up over the past several years in statehouses across the U.S., mandating the teaching of climate change denial or "skepticism" as a credible "theoretical alternative" to human caused climate change came.

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Flooding is the United Kingdom's biggest climate threat

Nature: Severe flooding that could affect millions of people is the United Kingdom's most pressing climate-change risk, says a study released yesterday by the country's government. The first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA), published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), examines 100 potential consequences of climate change for the United Kingdom. The study draws on climate projection models from 2009, known as the UKCP09, and examines how different levels of greenhouse-gas...
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Britain ranks top risks posed by climate change

Associated Press: Coastlines, working patterns, and even the country's most famous meal are under threat from climate change, Britain said Thursday in its first-ever national assessment of the likely risks. The 2.8 million pound ($4.4 million) study sets out the most pressing problems expected to affect the United Kingdom as a result of climate change, from rising sea levels to more frequent summer droughts. In a gloomy forecast for Britain's environment department, a panel of independent analysts predicted...
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