Activists: Developing World Needs Assistance Fighting Global Warming

20/03/२००८ CHIBA, Japan (AP) - The world's wealthy countries need to pump more money into financing poorer nations' efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with climate change, environmentalists said Friday ahead of a global warming conference.

Representatives of 20 countries - including the United States, European nations, Japan and China - were to hold a weekend meeting outside Tokyo to focus on developing clean technology and financing the race to stave off possible environmental disaster caused by rising world temperatures.

Environmentalists were taking aim at the U.S.-backed clean technology fund to which Washington announced a US$2 billion contribution in January.

The U.S. government says the fund, which is seeking donations from other countries, would speed up the development of cleaner, more efficient technologies, in developing nations, especially up-and-coming polluters like India and China.

Japan, meanwhile, has pledged US$10 billion over five years for a similar fund, and Britain last year announced its own fund.

To be effective, funds such as the U.S. one need more money. They hould be formed with full consultation with the countries receiving the funds and should continually generate additional money, said Jennifer Morgan, with the E3G environmentalist group.

"Unfortunately, none of these criteria have been met," she told reporters.

http://mnweekly.rian.ru/world/20080320/55317557.html

UN chief's Antarctic climate tour

The UN chief saw first hand scientific evidence of global warming

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described his alarm at the pace of climate change after wrapping up a two-day fact-finding trip to southern Chile.

Mr Ban, who has vowed to make the fight against global warming a key issue during his tenure at the UN, went to Antarctica on Friday where he heard from scientists how rising temperatures have caused huge ice shelves to collapse into the sea.

He was the first head of the UN ever to visit the frozen continent.

On Saturday the secretary general visited the majestic mountains of the Torres del Paine national park, one of Chile's top tourist attractions.

He flew over the Grey glacier, the facade of which is covered in cracks, which experts blame on changes in the weather.

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US regulators consider global warming in power plant case

Sept. 1, 2007, 1:52PM

By PEGGY HARRIS Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK — A change in climates over the generations has the Arkansas Public Service Commission taking a hard look at a proposed power plant for southwestern Arkansas. Is the use of low-cost coal worth the greater amount of carbon emissions from the 600-megawatt unit?

Southwestern Electric Power Co. acknowledges the proposed $1.3 billion John W. Turk power station will have a larger "carbon footprint" than plants powered by other fuels, but say complaints can be boiled down to "Not in my back yard."

Plant opponents say they don't want the power station in their back yards for a good reason: industrial activity and increased pollution will damage prime hunting grounds near Fulton, and contribute to global warming.

While scientists say Earth's climate has changed, so has the regulatory climate. With increased worries about global warming, PSC chairman Paul Suskie said last week that state environmental agencies must do their jobs while the PSC does its: making sure consumer costs are justified. Read More

Global Warming Will Bring Violent Storms And Tornadoes, NASA Predicts

NASA scientists have developed a new climate model that indicates that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common as Earth's climate warms.

Clouds over North America on August 2,
2000, as measured by GOES-11. (Credit: NASA/NOAA)

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Previous climate model studies have shown that heavy rainstorms will be more common in a warmer climate, but few global models have attempted to simulate the strength of updrafts in these storms. The model developed at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies by researchers Tony Del Genio, Mao-Sung Yao, and Jeff Jonas is the first to successfully simulate the observed difference in strength between land and ocean storms and is the first to estimate how the strength will change in a warming climate, including "severe thunderstorms" that also occur with significant wind shear and produce damaging winds at the ground. Read More

A Climate Change Wiki

24 August, 2007

By Bill Henderson

Building a wiki could be the democratic innovation we need to finally adequately address the climate change problem - a wiki could at least put us all on the same page - and may be a very useful tool in managing man so that a sustainable future is possible. Read More

The 11th Hour

Leonardo DiCaprio's "The 11th Hour" is a feature length documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. The 11th Hour documents the cumulative impact of these actions upon the planet's life systems and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity.

The 11th Hour opens in Los Angeles and New York on August 17th, in select markets on August 24th, and nationwide on August 31st.

First Short-Term Global Warming Forecast: Record Heat

EXETER, UK, August 10, 2007 (ENS) - Get ready for the heat. In the world's first near-term global warming forecast, British climate scientists say the planet's temperature will plateau for two years and then rise sharply through 2014.

Using powerful computer models, scientists at the British meteorological service's Hadley Center predict that at least half of the years after 2009 will exceed temperatures during 1998, the warmest year currently on record.

Wildfires will increase as the planet heats up. Here, firefighters battle a blaze in California. 2007. (Photo credit unknown)

The year 2014 is likely to be 0.3°Celsius (.5°Fahrenheit) warmer than 2004, the Met Office scientists predict.

This forecast means that while it has taken a century for the global temperature to rise 0.8°C (1.44°F) it will take only 10 years for the planet to heat up half again as much.

Published in the journal "Science," today, the forecast indicates that a natural cooling trend in the eastern and southern Pacific Ocean has kept global warming in check, but that trend is about to end.

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Developing World Seeks Funds And Technology To Tackle Climate Change

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by Gerard Aziakou
United Nations (AFP) Aug 01, 2007
Rich nations were challenged Wednesday to make deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions and to provide the developing world with funding and technology to help it tackle climate change. Developed countries "have a specific responsibility" to carry out deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emission "in accordance with the commitments made under the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol," Pakistani Environment Minister Mukhdoom Faisal Hayat told the General Assembly on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.
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UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon Visits California

SAN FRANCISCO -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the United States to take the lead in combating global warming during a visit to California to learn about the state's campaign to curb its greenhouse gas emissions.

"The whole planet Earth is at a crucial juncture," Ban said Thursday at an event organized by the World Affairs Council of Northern California. "Time is of essence. The cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of action."

Ban, who served as South Korea's foreign minister before he became U.N. chief in January, arrived in San Francisco on Thursday for a two-day visit of the Bay Area. Read More

British Prime Minister Blames Floods on Climate Change

LONDON, UK, July 24, 2007 (ENS) - The sun is forecast to shine across much of England Wednesday, illuminating flood waters that have risen to 60 year highs. Prime Minister Gordon Brown blamed climate change for the torrential rains that pounded the British Isles on Friday and through the weekend, inundating vast stretches of southwest England and leaving more than 50,000 homes without power.

In Gloucestershire, up to 350,000 people had no drinking water Monday after a water treatment plant in in the city of Tewkesbury was flooded, local police authorities said.

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Glaciers and Ice Caps Quickly Melting Into the Seas

Environment News Service

BOULDER, Colorado, July 20, 2007 (ENS) - Sea level rise this century may be greater than previously thought, posing risks to hundreds of millions of people who live close to the world's oceans, concludes a new study of ice loss from glaciers and ice caps. The researchers say that in the near future, the giant Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will contribute less to sea level rise than glaciers and ice caps.

Scientists with the University of Colorado-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, INSTAAR, and the Russian Academy of Sciences conclude that glaciers and ice caps now contribute about 60 percent of the ice melting into the oceans and the rate has been accelerating over the past decade.

"One reason for this study is the widely held view that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will be the principal causes of sea-level rise," says lead author Emeritus Professor Mark Meier, former INSTAAR director and CU-Boulder professor in geological sciences.

"But we show that it is the glaciers and ice caps, not the two large ice sheets, that will be the big players in sea rise for at least the next few generations, he says. Read More

Tibet warming up faster than anywhere in the world

Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:41AM EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Tibet is warming up faster than anywhere else in the world, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.
The average annual temperature in Tibet, the roof of the world, was rising at a speed of 0.3 degrees Celsius every 10 years, Xinhua said.
Chinese scientists have long warned that rising temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau will melt glaciers, dry up major Chinese rivers and trigger more droughts, sandstorms and desertification.
The Tibet Meteorological Bureau said the temperature rise was most obvious in the west of the region. Tibet, with its glaciers and high altitude, has been regarded as sensitive to the effects of global warming.
Currently, China's average temperature is rising at 0.4 degree Celsius every 100 years, while a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed the average surface temperature of the globe had risen 0.74 degree Celsius in the past 100 years, Xinhua said.
China is rapidly overtaking the United States to become the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases. It is under rising international pressure to accept mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions from its factories and vehicles.
China has refused to comply, but the government has shown greater efforts in addressing energy and environment issues.

The illness in Planet Earth

Planet Earth is unwell, argues James Lovelock in The Green Room. Emissions of greenhouse gases and other environmental changes have, he says, brought humanity and the natural world to the edge of crisis.

Climate change alarms me, and it should alarm anyone Send us your comments

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, published in 2001, is one of the scariest documents you will ever read.

It talks about changes to the Earth by the end of this century which will be as great or greater than occurred between the end of the last Ice Age and the time when humans started changing the atmosphere; it is huge.

It alarms me, and it should alarm anyone.

Just imagine that you had lived 12,000 years ago, before the last Ice Age ended, in a tropical civilisation somewhere in South-East Asia.

What would have been your reaction if some scientist had told you that within not too many years the sea level would rise by 120m, by 400ft?

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Strong Cyclone Heading for Southern Iran

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

Published: June 6, 2007

The strongest cyclone ever recorded by scientists in the northwestern Arabian Sea churned up the coast of Oman today and was on track to hit land in southern Iran, sending high winds and waves through a region that is used for oil exports and civilian and military shipping traffic.

The storm, Tropical Cyclone Gonu, had sustained winds over 120 miles per hour and was raising 35-foot-high waves on Tuesday. Today, it had decreased in intensity as it moved northwest, and was expected to weaken over Iran because of its interaction with land, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the Defense Department, which tracks such storms in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Maximum significant wave height was recorded at 28 feet and sustained wind speed was about 75 m.p.h., it said.

[Is this a foretaste of global warming? Editor]
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Nasa News Stories

May 30, 2007

RESEARCH FINDS THAT EARTH'S CLIMATE IS APPROACHING 'DANGEROUS' POINT

NASA and Columbia University Earth Institute research finds that human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth’s climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet.

From a combination of climate models, satellite data, and paleoclimate records the scientists conclude that the West Antarctic ice sheet, Arctic ice cover, and regions providing fresh water sources and species habitat are under threat from continued global warming. The research appears in the current issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Tipping points can occur during climate change when the climate reaches a state such that strong amplifying feedbacks are activated by only moderate additional warming. This study finds that global warming of 0.6ºC in the past 30 years has been driven mainly by increasing greenhouse gases, and only moderate additional climate forcing is likely to set in motion disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet and Arctic sea ice. Amplifying feedbacks include increased absorption of sunlight as melting exposes darker surfaces and speedup of iceberg discharge as the warming ocean melts ice shelves that otherwise inhibit ice flow.
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Himalayas show 'significant sign of global warming'

These Greenpeace-issued photographs show Mount Everest in 1968 (top) and this
year (above), which the environmental group argues show how global warming
has destroyed the field of ice towers on the glacier. Photo: Greenpeace

Mary-anne Toy, Beijing
May 31, 2007

THESE two photographs taken 40 years apart show how one of the world's spectacular ice formations, the field of ice towers or serac forest, around Mount Everest, is shrinking.

Greenpeace, which released the photographs yesterday, says this is global warming in action.

The original picture from 1968 was taken by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Greenpeace has made three expeditions to the the area in the past two years.

Its campaigners were unable to reach the spot where they believed the 1968 picture was taken because a smaller glacier that was there four decades ago has disappeared, making the area impassable.

The season in which the 1968 photograph was taken is also unknown, though there are only two periods when the area is habitable by humans.

Greenpeace says there are two climbing seasons for Everest, April-May and September-October, so it is highly likely the 1968 shot was taken in one of these two seasons.

Global Warming: Who’s To Blame?

By Nicole Colson

30 May, 2007
Socialist Worker

Nicole Colson looks at the facts about the devastating consequences of global warming--and explains why a system that puts profits before all else is to blame.

It’s no secret that the wealth of available scientific evidence shows man-made global warming exists.

But recent studies suggest climate change may be happening at an even quicker pace than previously thought--and the consequences are already proving devastating for the environment and for huge numbers of people across the globe. Read More

Combating Climate Change: Farming Out Global Warming Solutions

Scientific American - Science News
May 25, 2007

Changes to agricultural practice and forestry management could cut greenhouse gas emissions, buying time to develop alternative technologies

By David Biello

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	Image: USDA
	NO TILL?: By avoiding tillage, seen here, farmers can both increase the quality of their soil and sequester greenhouse gases.

Saving the trees could slow climate change, new research shows. Each year, nearly 33 million acres of forestland around the world is cut down, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Tropical felling alone contributes 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon—some 20 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—to the atmosphere annually. If such losses were cut in half, it could save 500 million metric tons of carbon annually and contribute 12 percent of the total reductions in GHG emissions required to avoid unpleasant global warming, researchers recently reported in Science.

Climate Changing Pollution Rising—Again

Despite worldwide concern, carbon dioxide emissions have tripled in the past few years, according to a new study

For years, emissions of greenhouse gases in developed countries—and throughout the world—have been going down while economic activity increased. Even as the economies of the U.S. and European Union continued to grow, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per car built, burger served or widget sold was on the decline. No more. "It appears that the carbon intensity of economic activity has stopped improving," says Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, Calif. "Each dollar of economic activity is requiring more rather than less carbon, which reverses a long-term trend."

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Earth’s Natural Defenses Against Climate Change ‘Beginning To Fail’

By Michael McCarthy

19 May, 2007
The Independent

The earth’s ability to soak up the gases causing global warming is beginning to fail because of rising temperatures, in a long-feared sign of “positive feedback,” new research reveals today.

Climate change itself is weakening one of the principal “sinks” absorbing carbon dioxide - the Southern Ocean around Antarctica - a new study has found.

As a result, atmospheric CO2 levels may rise faster and bring about rising temperatures more quickly than previously anticipated. Stabilizing the CO2 level, which must be done to bring the warming under control, is likely to become much more difficult, even if the world community agrees to do it.

The news may give added urgency to the meeting in three weeks’ time between the G8 group of rich nations and the leading developing countries led by China, at Heiligendamm in Germany, when an attempt will be made to put together the framework of a new world climate treaty to succeed the current Kyoto protocol.

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