Time running out in global warming fight: Charles

ROME: 27 Apr 2009, _ Time is quickly running out in the battle against global warming, and history will judge the world's response to the crisis, Prince Charles of Britain told Italian lawmakers Monday.

"If we are to bequeath to our children a world that is fit to inhabit, then I fear we must act now," said Charles during a visit to Rome. "What on earth is the point of procrastinating?

"History will judge us by how we respond to climate change. Do we want our children and grandchildren to ... see this as the time we allowed a new darkness to sprawl across our future?" he asked Italian lawmakers and other government leaders.

Speaking in parliament's elegant Sala della Lupa, the prince said only 98 months remained before experts predict irreversible effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and "the clock is ticking away inexorably." More >>>

Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate

April 24, 2009 - For more than a decade the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming.

“The role of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood,” the coalition said in a scientific “backgrounder” provided to lawmakers and journalists through the early 1990s, adding that “scientists differ” on the issue.
But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted. More >>>

WikiPedia article on Global Climate Coalition

Summit of Americas Leaders Pledge Environmental Cooperation

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, April 20, 2009 (ENS) - Government leaders of countries across the Americas reached new spirit of friendliness and cooperation at the Summit of the Americas that concluded here Sunday.

Symbolized by the friendly handshake between U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that smoothed a prickly relationship, the leaders signed a declaration with many environment-friendly provisions. Obama proposed a new Energy-Climate Partnership of the Americas, "a voluntary and flexible partnership ... that will enhance energy efficiency, improve our infrastructure, and support investments that can make energy more affordable." More>>>

Expert: Don't 'rinky-dink around the margins' of climate change

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Auden Schendler is blowing a metaphorical raspberry at the kind of hybrid-driving, plastic bag-banning environmentalists for which Seattle is known.

"The problem is, too many Americans are saying: 'I've got my Prius and that's all I need to do,'" Schendler, the executive director of sustainability at Aspen Skiing Co., said during a luncheon in downtown Seattle Friday.

Then, from Schendler's new book, "Getting Green Done," there's this commentary on a Colorado group's effort to eliminate plastic bags in grocery stores.

"The polar ice caps are melting, and the Midwest in the spring of 2008 experienced flooding consistent with 20 years of climate modeling; Denver was experiencing record drought, with only three inches of rain through July 2008; and Grand Junction was about to break a record for consecutive days over 90 degrees. And we're banning plastic bags," he wrote. "To quote John McEnroe: 'You have got to be kidding me!'" More >>>

Progress on Global Warming Remains Elusive

Friday, Apr. 10, 2009 - Yvo de Boer spends most of his time on the move, so it makes sense that he has a predilection for running metaphors. The head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

De Boer was in Bonn, Germany, over the past two weeks, helping to run the latest round of international negotiations on global-warming action, which concluded April 8.

More than 2,700 delegates from 180 countries met for the talks, which are intended to set the stage for the main event: the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December, where nations are expected to hammer out a successor to the expiring Kyoto Protocol. "If this were a marathon, I think I'd say the runners were gathering their stamina for the final sprint," De Boer told reporters on the closing day. More >>>

US Interior Department identifies enormous potential for offshore wind power in Atlantic

Apr. 3, 2009 -A comprehensive government survey of offshore energy resources shows enormous potential for offshore wind power, particularly off the Atlantic Coast, while at the same time identifying major information gaps for offshore oil and gas resources, according to energy and ocean policy experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The survey was released today by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar:
Click Here
A statement follows from Sarah Chasis, Director of the Ocean Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“By outlining the significant potential for offshore renewable energy in America today, Secretary Salazar continues to set us on the path to a clean energy future. This report shows there is enormous opportunity to turn to new energy sources – like offshore wind power – that can’t spill, run out or harm public health. It underscores the need to begin planning for the siting of these facilities in an environmentally responsible way.

“We must move America closer to a clean energy economy that will create new jobs, cut energy costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and curb global warming pollution. Expanded oil drilling will only continue to support our bad habit and risk oil spills off our beaches – without even lowering energy prices. We can repower our country and break our addiction to oil.” More >>>

Source: Natural Resources Defense Council

WWF launches campaign to save Himalayas

Kathmandu (Xinhua): With an aim to raise awareness on climate change in the Himalayas all over the world, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has launched its year-long awareness campaign on "Climate Change in the Himalayas", local media reported on Sunday.

According to eKantipur.com report, at Friday's gathering here, Jon Miceler, Managing Director, Eastern Himalayas Program, WWF-US, handed over a banner with the climate change message "Stop Climate Change, Let the Himalayas Live!" to Apa Sherpa, 18-times Mt. Qomolangma summiteer, to be taken to the top of Mt. Qomolangma in his 19th ascent this year.

This message will be taken to the top of the world during the " Eco Everest (Qomolangma) Expedition 2009" under the leadership of Dawa Steven Sherpa, two-times Everest summiteer. Last spring, he had led the team of "Eco Everest Expedition 2008" which had done scientific research on glacial lakes and melting glaciers.

Sherpa said, "The disastrous impacts of climate change are visible in the Everest region. It is a warning to the whole of mankind to do something before it goes totally wrong."

Anil Manandhar, Country Representative, WWF Nepal, said, "The Himalayas are the youngest and most vulnerable mountains to climate change. Through this campaign, we aim to draw the attention of the world community towards the plight of the Himalayas."

On the same occasion, a 10-day art exhibition "Garbage Out of Thin Air" was opened at the Gallery displaying artistic creations made from garbage and debris collected from Mt. Qomolangma trail and brought down by the team of "Eco Everest Expedition 2008". More >>>

It must be remembered that all the major rivers on the subcontinent originate in the Himalayas, and melting of the glaciers that act as reservoirs that supply water throughout the year. Editor