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Global warming news

30 January, 2007 - 19:42 — juerg
The following articles are automatically syndicated feeds about global warming (climate change) from other sites.

 

Australia: Climate policy to hurt agriculture in short term

Age: THE Federal Government's climate change policy will have a much bigger initial impact on agriculture than climate change itself. That was a key message delivered to a farming and climate change conference by Mick Keogh, executive director of the Australian Farm Institute. Agribusiness Gippsland organised the conference in Warragul. Mr Keogh said the introduction of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2010 would be "a significant challenge in the short to medium ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Australia: NSW power play stirs up a giant of global warming

Age: SOONER or later, some anti-privatisation activist will start doing background checks on China Huaneng Group, which is at the front of the queue to bid for $15 billion in NSW power assets. They'll see that Sydney might soon be powered by the world's biggest corporate contributor to global warming. What's more, according to the company's own glossy hand-outs, Huaneng is "a red company that strives to serve the socialist economy with Chinese characteristics". It is a polluting, ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

A Last Chance for Civilization

In TomDispatch.com, Bill McKibben writes: "Even for Americans, constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start - even for us, the world looks a little Terminal right now."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108H.shtml

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CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS TODAY Civilization's

Last Chance: Major Greenhouse Gas Emission Cuts (and Even Removals) Needed Immediately

Climate Ark a project of Ecological Internet, Inc. http://www.climateark.org/ -- Climate Change Portal

May 11, 2008 OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet

Bill McKibben writes in "Civilization's last chance" (below) the best summing up of the known threats facing humanity now from climate change if major emission cuts are not pursued immediately. His latest campaign efforts highlight the number 350, which he calls "the most important number on Earth" because of scientific understanding that if carbon emissions are not stabilized at 350 ppm, it will not be possible "to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed."

It has been noted here that at 383 ppm we are already well past this threshold, and thus achieving 350 ppm will require gargantuan efforts if we are to survive much less prosper
( http://www.climateark.org/blog/2007/12/have_we_gone_to_far_re_dangero.asp ). The McKibben piece is a clarion call that long predicted limits to growth have arrived and the fate of civilization depends upon urgent massive emission cuts now, tomorrow, next year and certainly for the years and decades well before 2050 as is being proposed. g.b.

To comment: http://www.climateark.org/blog/2008/05/major_ghg_emission_cuts_needed.asp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+McKibben
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Glen+Barry
Read more [twoday.net]

Canada: Global warming tied to Arctic caribou decline

Province: In the summer of 1996, biologist Frank Miller was flying along the coast of Bathurst Island searching for Peary caribou, found only in the High Arctic of Canada, when he spied a dark spot on the sea ice. Flying in for a look, he could see these animals were not the caribou he was looking for. They were muskoxen. The circle of animals didn't bolt. Miller got the pilot to land a few hundred metres away. Even as he approached on foot, the herd didn't flinch. As he moved closer, it ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Economist urges more action on global food shortages

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: An influential economist is among those troubled by the rapid rise in food prices and the social unrest it has caused. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general, says in his book, Common Wealth, that food shortages and global warming are just some of the related menaces to civilisation. He says that when nations get together, they have to do more than talk. "They don't work when they're just talk-shops and boy, are they ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

United States: White House vs white bear: Judge says Bush must decide whether to save the polar bear as the ice melts

Independent: It's a classic stand-off between one of the world's best loved animals and one of its most unpopular leaders, between the planet's largest bear and its most powerful man. And it comes to a head this week. On Thursday, by order of a federal judge, George W Bush must stop stalling on whether to designate the polar bear as a species endangered by global warming. The designation could have huge consequences for his climate-change policies; his administration would, by law, have to avoid ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Climate change key to future food crisis

Economic Times: Is this a price blip? No. A food shortage? Not that either. Farmers across the world produced a record 2.3 billion tonnes of grain in 2007, up 4% on the previous year. Since 1961, the world's cereal output has tripled, while the population has doubled. Stocks are at their lowest level in 30 years, it's true, but the bottomline is that there is enough food produced in the world to feed the population. Yet the price of wheat has gone up by 130% over the last year. Rice has doubled in ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Airline emissions 'far higher than previous estimates'

The aviation industry's failure to curb its soaring carbon emissions could lead to the "worst case scenario" for climate change, as envisaged by the United
Nations.

http://sonnenseite.kjm4.de/ref.php?id=d8741683587ms99



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=carbon+emissions
Read more [twoday.net]

Deforestation: The hidden cause of global warming

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/deforestation-the-hidden-cause-of-global-warming-448734.html


Informant: Jean Hudon



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deforestation
Read more [twoday.net]

United Kingdom: Some birds adjust to rising temperatures, study finds

LA Times: Researchers have found that at least one bird population in England has managed to adjust to global warming. The birds, members of the great tit species, have timed their breeding season over the past five decades so their chicks hatch when their main food source, the winter moth caterpillar, is most abundant, the researchers reported Friday in the journal Science. "It's kind of good news to know that some birds can adjust," said Anne Charmantier, an evolutionary biologist ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Climate change plea from tribe of herders who face extinction

Independent: Olav Mathias-Eira is a reindeer-herder. So was his father. And his father's father. He is a member of the Sami community, one of the largest indigenous groups remaining in Europe, and his family have been herding reindeer in the same stretch of the Norwegian Arctic since the 1400s. But, because of climate change, their lifestyle, unchanged for centuries, is now at risk. So Mr Mathias-Eira, 50, has travelled to Britain to issue an urgent plea in the hope that his people and livelihood ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Enviro-Celebs Big Fuel Fiends

New York Post: THE world's top celebrities are total hypocrites when it comes to saving the environment and stopping global warming . Writing in Britain's Daily Mail, former Page Sixer Tom Sykes details the fuel-guzzling ways of boldfaces who profess great concern for the earth, air and oceans. Madonna's carbon footprint for 2006 was estimated at 1,018 tons - more than 100 times that of the average British resident. For New Year's Eve, Madge, her family and five pals flew to India on a ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

From Bountiful to Barren: Rainfall Decrease Left the Sahara Out to Dry

Scientific American: In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern Africa, went from bountiful to bone-dry over a period of several thousand years. Scientists peered into the Sahara's verdant past by analyzing sediment samples drilled out of the bottom of one of the desert's last living lakes. The samples revealed ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Canada: Getting ahead of world's climate change storm

Welland Tribune: Ahead of the Storm is a City of Toronto report that should be on the desk of every mayor in Ontario. Its authors describe it as "an action-oriented framework that is designed to help members of the public and other stakeholders engage in the process of designing and implementing a climate change adaptation strategy for Toronto." Developed by the city with the assistance of the excellent Clean Air Partnership, it shows a clear understanding of the issues. It is a ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Australian scientists study impact of climate change on Southern ocean

Radio Australia: Australian scientists in Hobart are researching one of the smallest marine animals to find out what impact climate change is having on the southern ocean. Linda Hunt reports, krill play an important role in the food web of the Antarctic ecosystem. "The shrimp-like crustacean is abundant in Antarctic waters and it's an important food source, not only for whales, but seals, penguins and fish. Dr Andrew Constable from the Australian Antarctic Division is researching krill and ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Global cooling theories put scientists on guard

LONDON (Reuters) - A new study suggesting a possible lull in manmade global warming has raised fears of a reduced urgency to battle climate change.
Read more [Reuters]

Tiny krill could help unlock global climate change secrets

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Scientists in Hobart are starting small in their bid to discover the answers to one of the world's biggest problems: they are researching krill in the hope of finding out what impact climate change may be having in the Southern Ocean. The shrimp-like krill is one of the smallest animals in the Antarctic, but Dr Andrew Constable from the Australian Antarctic Division says it could help unlock some of the secrets of one of the world's most complex ecosystems. "Krill is the ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

United Kingdom: Birds make easy weather of climate change

Times: British great tits have proved themselves to be far more adaptable to climate change than their counterparts in the Netherlands. In the past half century the great tits living in Wytham Woods (also known as the Woods of Hazel) near Oxford, have brought forward the date that they lay their eggs by an average of two weeks. The advance is a response to climate change and the timings of the egg-laying showed that the birds tracked the variations in temperature. The ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Australia: Climate change to permanently reduce autumn rain in Murray Darling Basin

Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The latest climate change science suggests Australia's food bowl should plan for permanently reduced autumn rainfall. The Murray Darling Basin Commission's May drought update also shows little prospect of an improvement in the seriously low water availability in the lower basin. Critical urban needs, and rural stock and domestic requirements, are only reasonably assured, after some water was held over by state governments from last year. Commission chief executive Wendy ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Environment Leaders to Meet in Kobe to Speed Post-Kyoto Treaty

Bloomberg: Environment ministers from the Group of Eight nations and nine other countries will meet in Japan this month to speed the crafting of a successor to the United Nations' climate treaty, which expires in 2012. Japan's Environment Ministry today unveiled a discussion paper for the three-day meeting, to focus on climate change and biodiversity, starting May 24 in the western city of Kobe. ``The objective of the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting is to build momentum toward the ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Australia: Koalas Under Threat From Climate Change

Science Daily: New research shows increased temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are a threat to the Australian national icon, the koala. Professor Ian Hume, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and his students from the University of Sydney have been researching the effects of CO2 increases and temperature rises on eucalypts. Professor Hume's group have shown in the laboratory that increases in CO2 affect the level of nutrients and 'anti-nutrients' (things that are either toxic or ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

United Kingdom: Renewable energy plans due

Press Association: Environment Minister Michael Russell is announcing measures to boost Scotland's renewable energy production as he visits a new biomass boiler. He will reveal the results of a year-long project looking at ways to increase the supply of wood for producing renewable energy. The Government set up the task force to boost the biomass sector, which it says will increase rural employment and help tackle climate change.
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

US Micronesian lawmakers push need for plan to combat climate change

Radio New Zealand International: US affiliated-Pacific island lawmakers have ended their three-day general assembly on Guam with a plan to further discuss global warming when they meet again in November. The Association of Pacific Island Legislatures' 27th general assembly addressed a wide range of issues that affect islands in the region. The Association passed more than a dozen resolutions to address issues like human trafficking and the need to train residents across Micronesia in skills required for the US ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Global cooling theories put scientists on guard

Reuters: A new study suggesting a possible lull in manmade global warming has raised fears of a reduced urgency to battle climate change. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of hundreds of scientists, last year said global warming was "unequivocal" and that manmade greenhouse gas emissions were "very likely" part of the problem. And while the study published in the journal Nature last week did not dispute manmade global warming, it did ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

United Kingdom: 'Early Birds' Adapt To Climate Change

Science Daily: Individual birds can adjust their behaviour to take climate change in their stride, according to a study by scientists from the University of Oxford. A study of the great tit (Parus major) population in Wytham Woods, near Oxford, has shown that the birds are now laying their eggs, on average, two weeks earlier than half a century ago. The change in their behaviour enables them to make the most of seasonal food: a bonanza of caterpillars that now also occurs around two weeks earlier due ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Sahara dried out slowly, not abruptly: study

OSLO (Reuters) - The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that may help understanding of future climate changes.
Read more [Reuters]

Broad climate fight best, not just gas cuts: study

OSLO (Reuters) - An assault on climate change on many fronts makes good economic sense but will be money badly spent if the world focuses exclusively on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a study said on Thursday.
Read more [Reuters]

UK climate adviser says flight rationing unwelcome

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain's growing hunger for flights abroad should not be rationed in the fight against climate change, the chief of the UK's new climate change committee said.
Read more [Reuters]

New Zealand: Fury over 'unethical' warming website

New Zealand Herald: New Zealand climate scientists are upset their names have been used by an American organisation wanting to challenge the increasingly accepted view that climate change is human induced. Among the five scientists is Niwa principal scientist Dr Jim Salinger, who said he was annoyed the Heartland Institute was trying to use his research to prove a theory he did not personally support. The institute describes itself as a non-profit research and education organisation not affiliated ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Government clashes with Europe over carbon permit revenue

Independent: The Government is on course for an embarrassing showdown with the European Union, business groups and environmental charities after refusing to guarantee that billions of pounds of revenue it stands to earn from carbon-permit trading will be spent on combating climate change. The dispute follows the publication yesterday of a discussion document by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) outlining how the UK will operate phase three of the EU's Emissions Trading ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Meat in a low-carbon world

BBC: It was easy when "good" meant anything which could have stepped off a John Constable canvas: free range chicken, foraging pigs and grazing cattle. But then climate change came along. No one noticed at first, still concentrating their fire on the obvious targets like 4x4s, long flights and coal power stations; but our meaty diet is laden with greenhouse gases, and trying to reduce them throws up some unpalatable choices. It has prompted the Vegetarian Society to take ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Australia: Plan to create buffer zone for flying foxes

Coffs Coast Independent: WORK is set to begin in mid May on the vegetation management plan designed to create a buffer zone around the Coffs Creek Flying Fox Camp to alleviate its impacts on local residents. The strategy was adopted after extensive consultation with residents and the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) – which is the regulatory body – and issued Council with a licence to carry out the vegetation work. This consultation is ongoing and includes workshops with ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

UK climate adviser says flight rationing unwelcome

Reuters: Britain's growing hunger for flights abroad should not be rationed in the fight against climate change, the chief of the UK's new climate change committee said. Flights out of Britain already account for 6.4 percent of the country's CO2, and Britons were named in a survey last October as the world's worst offenders when it comes to carbon emissions from air travel. Last year, Britain's opposition Conservative party -- which is well above the ruling Labour party in opinion polls ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

German Politicians Unwilling to Get Behind Wheel of Green Cars

Deutsche Welle: According to a study unveiled by German Environment Aid (DUH) in Berlin on Thursday, May 8, many of Germany's top politicians drive cars with twice the level of carbon emissions the European Commission recommends. "Do as I say, and not as I drive," seems to be how most leading German politicians feel about environmental issues. While they all pay lip service to battling climate change, urging the nation to separate their garbage, switch to green energy and cut back ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Broad climate fight best, not just gas cuts-study

Reuters: An assault on climate change on many fronts makes good economic sense but will be money badly spent if the world focuses exclusively on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, a study said on Thursday. A 100-year package costing $800 billion to help people adapt to the impacts of warming -- such as droughts or rising seas -- while also funding research into new technology and curbing emissions could yield benefits of $2.1 trillion, it said. "We've got something that makes sense ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Myanmar: Cyclone 'is a sign of things to come'

Australian: A TOP Indian advocacy group that monitors climate change in south Asia warned last night that the Nargis cyclone that devastated Burma was "a sign of things to come", as climate change caused extreme weather to increase in intensity. Meanwhile, senior Indian officials confirmed that they had warned officials in Rangoon to prepare for a high-intensity storm two days before it hit. Indian Meteorological Department director-general Ajit Tyagi said teams in his ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Government scraps carbon card scheme for fear of ridicule

Guardian: Ministers have scrapped radical plans to test a carbon rationing scheme that would have forced citizens to carry a carbon card to swipe every time they bought petrol or paid an electricity bill. The plan was announced by David Miliband, former environment secretary, in 2006 as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tackle global warming. But officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said today that the idea was too expensive and would be ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Scientists find toxic chemicals in penguins

Telegraph: An alphabet soup of toxic chemicals may be seeping into the oceans as glaciers melt through global warming. They include Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other industrial chemicals which have been linked to health problems in humans. The alarm has been raised after traces of the banned pesticide DDT were found by scientists who tested Adélie penguins. They believe glaciers have been acting as a cold store for DDT which was in worldwide use as an insecticide - ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Canada could be barred from Kyoto carbon trades

Canadian Press: Canada could be barred from an international carbon-trading system if a United Nations investigation finds it broke Kyoto Protocol rules for greenhouse-gas reporting. The UN Climate Change Secretariat says Canada was notified on May 5 that it would be investigated for allegedly violating a Kyoto reporting requirement. Canada and other Kyoto signatories are obliged to keep a national registry of greenhouse gases. The registry tracks holdings of greenhouse-gas credits and shows ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Evangelicals press to fight global warming

Dallas Morning News: When the Senate takes up legislation next month to confront global warming, environmental groups will have some fervent new allies: evangelicals and other Christian activists. Concerned about what they see as a moral and biblical issue, religious groups from the right are joining with environmental organizations from the left in supporting strong measures to fight global warming. Some Christian leaders are using the clout they have built up in Republican circles to lobby ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Canada Facing Kyoto Probe Over Greenhouse Gases

OSLO - Canada will be investigated on suspicion of violating rules for registering greenhouse gases that are the mainstay of a UN-led fight against global warming, official documents show.
Read more [EarthWire]

Clean Air Could Kill The Amazon, Researchers Say

LONDON - Cleaner air due to reduced coal burning could help destroy the Amazon this century, according to a finding published on Wednesday that highlights the complex challenges of global climate change.
Read more [EarthWire]

City proposes climate change plan

People in Cambridge are asked to comment on plans by the city council to deal with climate change.
Read more [EarthWire]

Canada facing Kyoto probe over greenhouse gases

OSLO (Reuters) - Canada will be investigated on suspicion of violating rules for registering greenhouse gases that are the mainstay of a U.N.-led fight against global warming, official documents show.
Read more [Reuters]

Heartland Takes their Skepticism North of the Border

Who could blame them if they sent the Mounties to the border? CMD reported previously on the Heartland Institute's climate change skepticism, and its efforts to cast doubt on the overwhelming evidence of global warming. The Chicago-based, ExxonMobil-funded think tank has taken its case north of the border, sending out "more than 11,000 brochures and DVDs to Canadian schools urging them to teach their students that scientists are exaggerating how human activity is the driving force behind global warming." While Heartland says that the outreach effort is an attempt to introduce "balance" into the discussion, the Sierra Club of Canada disagrees. Spokesperson Emilie Moorhouse said, "It's alarming that an American think tank is distributing misinformation on the most important issue of our time in Canadian schools, to actually create an illusion that there is a scientific debate." Ignoring the consensus reached by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that climate change is "unequivocal" and caused by human activities, "the brochure and DVD said that scientists were 'deeply divided' about 'the notion that climate change is mostly the result of human activities.'" Heartland also sent the information packets to 200 Canadian policymakers.



Read more [PRwatch.org GW]

Women face tougher impact from climate change

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Climate change is harder on women in poor countries, where mothers stay in areas hit by drought, deforestation or crop failure as men move to literally greener pastures, a Nobel Peace laureate said on Tuesday.
Read more [Reuters]

Clean air could kill the Amazon, researchers say

LONDON (Reuters) - Cleaner air due to reduced coal burning could help destroy the Amazon this century, according to a finding published on Wednesday that highlights the complex challenges of global climate change.
Read more [Reuters]

China says industry approach useful in climate fight

TOKYO (Reuters) - China said greenhouse gas curbs for heavy polluting industries like cement and steel are an important tool for fighting climate change, a concession that could bolster talks on a new global deal to control emissions.
Read more [Reuters]

South Africa: Sea 'may swamp parts of Cape Town'

Cape Times: Rising sea levels and increasingly frequent storms linked to global climate change could affect developments proposed for coastal sites in Cape Town. These would affect projects such as the proposed development near the AECI site in Strand and expansions to the Potsdam wastewater treatment works in Table View. A report on a sea-level risk assessment study by the City of Cape Town and consultants warns that the city is "particularly vulnerable" to the effects of ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

Global warming may aggravate India's wheat worries

Hindu: A structural transformation is taking place in the global grains market. The ongoing changes are expected to have far-reaching implication for the market in the coming years. How ready are grain sector stakeholders to meet the emerging market dynamics? The international seminar on 'Wheat and Wheat products: Vision 2020' that concluded a few weeks ago in Bangalore brought together a diverse group of participants, including Indian policymakers as also industry an d trade representatives from ...
Read more [EcoEarth.info]

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