LIFE ON PLANET AT STAKE?
PARIS: France's top diplomat, who will preside over a
year-end Paris summit tasked with inking a climate rescue pact, warned Sunday
of looming planetary "catastrophe" if negotiations fail.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius's remarks came as separate
reports warned of the devastating effects of global warming on the poor and
those living in megacities around the world.
- "It is life on our planet itself which is at stake," Fabius told journalists as ministers and climate envoys from 70 countries met for pre-summit talks to iron out tough political questions.
- With the key UN conference just three weeks away, he also announced that Russia's President Vladimir Putin would attend the November 30 opening.
- Russia, a major oil producer, is seen as a deal-maker or -breaker in the years-long attempt to negotiate the world's first truly universal pact to curb climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.
- "There is absolute urgency," said Fabius, to achieve the UN goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
The UN's climate science panel has warned of an average
temperature rise of "four, five, six degrees, if we do not act extremely
quickly," he said.
"This would have catastrophic consequences because
there would be drought... and colossal migration problems, including problems
of war and peace."
A World Bank study warned that global warming could elevate
levels of disease, ravage crops and push 100 million more people into poverty.
levels of disease, ravage crops and push 100 million more people into poverty.
"The poor are more vulnerable to climate-related shocks
than wealthier people because they are more exposed, lose more in relative
terms, and lack the financial systems and social safety nets that would allow
them to better prepare and cope," it said.
Source: Tribune...More...
GLOBAL WARMING 96% LIKELY TO BE MANMADE?
Top climate scientists blamed mankind more clearly than ever as the main cause of global warming in a report on Friday meant to guide governments in dealing with rising temperatures, delegates said.
"It's been accepted," Jonathan Lynn, spokesman for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told reporters.
Delegates said the report raised the probability that most global warming was man-made to 95 per cent, from 90 per cent in its previous report in 2007.
The report also says that a recent slowdown in warming is unlikely to last.
Source: CBC News
MAJORITY OF CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS, STORIES FOCUS ON UNCERTAINTY?
LONDON, U.K. - The uncertainties of climate change science have become a
major focus of media coverage on the subject, a new study shows.
About eight in 10 stories on climate change and related scientific research
contain some discussion of uncertainties and risk, according to a report from
Oxford University. Roughly eight in 10 also refer in 
some way to the disasters
that are likely to result from unchecked global warming and greenhouse gas
emission rises.
some way to the disasters
that are likely to result from unchecked global warming and greenhouse gas
emission rises.
The remaining uncertainties such as the sensitivity of the climate to
increases in carbon dioxide concentrations, and the roles played by major parts
of the Earth’s systems such as the absorption of carbon and heat by the oceans
will come under the spotlight next week, when leading climate scientists gather
in Stockholm to hammer out the final details of the long-awaited fifth report
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This will be the most comprehensive report on climate science ever
published, following the previous report in 2007.
- It is expected to show that scientists are 95 per cent certain that the climate is changing under human influence, but may suggest that the climate is marginally less sensitive to carbon than thought, as long as concentrations are held to a fairly low level.
- The Oxford study, from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, is an analysis of 350 articles about climate change published between 2007 and 2012 by three different newspaper titles in six countries (the UK, France, Australia, India, Norway and the US) including the Guardian and the New York Times.
- But the study found only one-quarter of the articles included a discussion of the explicit risks of the policy options available to combat climate change, and a similar number discussed the positive opportunities presented by climate change.
- The articles covered the first two reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of 2007; the interim IPCC report on weather extremes published in 2012, and pieces that described the melting of Arctic sea ice.
- Articles predominantly about “uncertainty” were judged to be those that included the voices of climate sceptics; that cited a range of projections for future effects on the climate, or used the words “may”, “possible” or “uncertain”.
- The researchers found that journalists often followed the prompts given by scientists and their reports. Around 70 per cent of the articles covering reports by the IPCC, and nearly 60 per cent of all the articles in the sample, included quotes from scientists or scientific reports that the researchers coded as “disaster narratives”.
Nearly half the articles included a quote
indicating some aspect of uncertainty. More than 60 per cent of pieces quoted
scientists or scientific reports.
James Painter, lead author, said: “There is plenty of evidence showing that
in many countries, the general public finds scientific uncertainty difficult to
understand and confuse it with ignorance.
"We also know that disaster messages
can be a turnoff, so for some people risk may be a more helpful language to use
in this debate. For policymakers, this should shift the debate away from what
would count as conclusive proof towards a more helpful analysis of the
comparative costs and risks of following different policy options.”
Source: Agency
GREENHOUSE GAS LEVEL HITS MILESTONE AS CO2 LEVEL SET RECORD
WASHINGTON, U.S.A. - Worldwide levels of the chief greenhouse gas that causes
global warming have hit a milestone, reaching an amount never before
encountered by humans, federal scientists said.
Carbon dioxide was measured at 400 parts per million at the oldest
monitoring station which is in Hawaii sets the global benchmark. The
last time the worldwide carbon level was probably that high was about 2
million years ago, Pieter Tans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration said on Friday.
That was during the Pleistocene Era. “It was much warmer than it is
today,” Tans said. “There were forests in Greenland. Sea level was
higher, between 10 and 20 metres.”
Other scientists say it may have been 10 million years ago that Earth
last encountered this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The first
modern humans only appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
The measurement was recorded Thursday and it is only a daily figure, the
monthly and yearly average will be smaller. The number 400 has been
anticipated by climate scientists and environmental activists for years
as a notable indicator, in part because it’s a round number — not
because any changes in man-made global warming happen by reaching it.
Source: Yahoo News...More
100 MILLIONS WILL DIE IF WORLD FAILS TO ACT ON CLIMATE REPORT
LONDON, U.K. - More than 100 million people will die and global economic growth will be cut by 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change, a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday.
As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions,
the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather,
drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and
livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organisation
DARA.
It calculated that five million deaths occur each year from air
pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and
carbon-intensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six
million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue.
More than 90 per cent of those deaths will occur in developing
countries, said the report that calculated the human and economic impact
of climate change on 184 countries in 2010 and 2030. It was
commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20
developing countries threatened by climate change.
Source: Reuters...More... 
GLOBAL WARMING PRESENTS HISTORIC DISASTER RISK?
WASHINGTON — Global warming is leading to such severe storms, droughts, and heat waves that nations should prepare for an unprecedented onslaught of deadly and costly weather disasters, an international panel of climate scientists said in a new report issued Wednesday.The greatest threat from extreme weather is to highly populated, poor regions of the world.
The report warns, but no corner of the globe — from Mumbai to Miami — is immune. The document by a Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists forecasts stronger tropical cyclones and more frequent heat waves, deluges, and droughts.- The 594-page report blames the scale of recent and future disasters on a combination of man-made climate change, population shifts, and poverty.
- In the past, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, founded in 1988 by the United Nations, has focused on the slow, inexorable rise of temperatures and oceans as part of global warming. This report by the panel is the first to look at the less common but far more noticeable extreme weather changes, which have been costing about $80 billion a year in damage.
- The report specifically points to New Orleans during 2005's Hurricane Katrina, noting that "developed countries also suffer severe disasters because of social vulnerability and inadequate disaster protection."
In coastal areas of the United States, property damage from hurricanes and rising seas could increase by 20 percent by 2030, the report said. And in parts of Texas, the area vulnerable to storm surge could more than double by 2080.Already, U.S.-insured losses from weather disasters have soared from about $3 billion a year in the 1980s to about $20 billion a year in the last decade, even after adjusting for inflation, said Mark Way, director of sustainability at insurance giant Swiss Re. Last year that total rose to $35 billion, but much of that was from tornadoes, which scientists are unable to connect with global warming. U.S.-insured losses are just a fraction of the overall damage from weather disasters each year.
Globally, the scientists say that some places, particularly parts of Mumbai in India, could become uninhabitable from floods, storms, and rising seas. In 2005, over 24 hours nearly 3 feet of rain fell on the city, killing more than 1,000 people and causing massive damage. Roughly 2.7 million people live in areas at risk of flooding.- Other cities at lesser risk include Miami, Shanghai, Bangkok, China's Guangzhou, Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, Myanmar's Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon), and India's Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta). The people of small island nations, such as the Maldives, may also need to abandon their homes because of rising seas and fierce storms.
This report — the summary of which was issued in November — is unique because it emphasizes managing risks and how taking precautions can work, Field said. In fact, the panel's report uses the word "risk" 4,387 times.- Field pointed to storm-and-flood-prone Bangladesh, an impoverished country that has learned from its past disasters. In 1970, a Category 3 tropical cyclone named Bhola killed more than 300,000 people. In 2007, the stronger cyclone Sidr killed only 4,200 people. Despite the loss of life, Bangladesh is considered a success story because it was better prepared and invested in warning and disaster prevention, Field said.
- A country that was not as prepared, Myanmar, was hit with a similar sized storm in 2008, which killed 138,000 people.
The study forecasts that some tropical cyclones — which include hurricanes in the United States — will be stronger because of global warming. But the number of storms is not predicted to increase and may drop slightly.Some other specific changes in severe weather that the scientists said they had the most confidence in predicting include more heat waves and record hot temperatures worldwide and increased downpours in Alaska, Canada, northern and central Europe, East Africa and north Asia.
IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told The Associated Press that while all countries are hurt by increased climate extremes, the overwhelming majority of deaths occur in poorer, less developed places. Yet, it is wealthy nations that produce more greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, raising the issue of fairness.- Some weather extremes aren't deadly, however. Sometimes, they are just strange.
- Report co-author David Easterling of the National Climatic Data Center says this month's U.S. heat wave, while not deadly, fits the pattern of worsening extremes. The U.S. has set nearly 6,800 high temperature records in March. Last year, the United States set a record for billion-dollar weather disasters, though many were tornadoes.
Northeastern University engineering and environment professor Auroop Ganguly, who didn't take part in writing the IPCC report, praised it and said the extreme weather it highlights "is one of the major and important types of what we would call 'global weirding.'" It's a phrase that some experts have been starting to use more to describe climate extremes.Field doesn't consider the term inaccurate, but he doesn't use it.
BESIDE HOME, GLOBAL WARMING ALSO HITTING GARDEN?
WASHINGTON, U.S.A. - Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The colour-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.It's the first time since 1990 that the US Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation's 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
The new guide, unveiled on Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogues and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.
It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north. "People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."- The giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now."
- The new guide also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For example, gardeners using the online version can enter their ZIP code and get the exact average coldest temperature.
Also, for the first time, calculations include more detailed factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of nearby bodies of water, the slope of the land, and the way cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas.The map carves up the US into 26 zones based on five-degree temperature increments.
The old 1990 map mentions 34 US cities in its key. On the 2012 map, 18 of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., and even Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones.
HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL WARMING INCREASES WATER VAPOR IN ATMOSPHERE ?
Climate models have confirmed that as a result of human-induced global warming, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is increasing.
The research was done by scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and a group of international researchers.
The research was done by scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and a group of international researchers.
- Global Warming is a serious crisis right now. Not a lot of people are taking any notice to whats going on around them. People take for granted to the things they have and don't take care of the Earth.
- Global Warming is a global issue that involves everything and everyone. The main reason for global warming is something that is called the Greenhouse effect, which is when a gas called CO2 or also known as carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere and with that the suns rays can't escape causing the Earth to warm up.
- One major affect is that natural disasters will worsen such as hurricanes and droughts will become deadly. If people don't react soon and take action the world will suffer.
- Some things that people are doing are looking for energy substitutes such hydro power and wind power for cleaner energy instead of using fossil fuels.
- Global warming is a growing problem that in the future will affect us in many ways. The world is heating up and the arctic ice is melting and the water levels are rising. Many of the world coats will sink in as well as other small islands. Animals are also being affected like polar bears because the land they stand on is disappearing so they have to swim further distances and when they no longer can keep up they drown..
BRAZIL AMAZON THE WORLD BIGGEST NATURAL DEFENCE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING
Brazil has managed to reduce Amazon destruction to about 7,000 square kilometers (2,702 square miles) a year, the lowest level in decades. But that is still larger than the U.S. state of Delaware.
Source: AP
- The Brazilian Amazon is arguably the world's biggest natural defense against global warming, acting as an absorber of carbon dioxide. But it is also a big contributor to warming because about 75 percent of Brazil's emissions come from rainforest clearing, as vegetation burns and felled trees rot.
- Brazil has an incentive to protect the Amazon because the new global climate agreement is expected to reward countries for "avoided deforestation," with cash or credits tradable on the global carbon market.
- Norway is making payments to give Brazil $1 billion by 2015 to preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest nation keeps trying to stop deforestation.
- The nation was the first to supply cash to an Amazon preservation fund Brazilian officials hope will raise US$21 billion to protect nature reserves, to persuade loggers and farmers to stop destroying trees and to finance scientific and technological projects.
- Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc has said Japan, Sweden, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland are considering donating to the fund.
OVER 100 ANTARCTIC ICEBERGS ARE FLOATING TOWARDS NEW ZEALAND
SYDNEY – More than 100, and possibly hundreds, of Antarctic icebergs are floating towards New Zealand in a rare event which has prompted a shipping warning, officials said on Monday.
Source: AFP
- An Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist said the ice chunks, spotted by satellite photography, had passed the Auckland Islands and were heading towards the main South Island, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast.
- Scientist Neal Young said more than 100 icebergs -- some measuring more than 200 metres (650 feet) across were seen in just one cluster, indicating there could be hundreds more.
- He said they were the remains of a massive ice floe which split from the Antarctic as sea and air temperatures rise due to global warming.
- "All of these have come from a larger one that was probably 30 square kilometres (11.6 square miles) in size when it left Antarctica," Young told AFP.
- "It's done a long circuit around Antarctica and now the bigger parts of it are breaking up and producing smaller ones."
- He said large numbers of icebergs had not floated this close to New Zealand since 2006, when a number came within 25 kilometres of the coastline; the first such sighting since 1931.
CHINA'S BATTLE WITH THE EXPANSION OF DESERTS
China's desert encroaching
One of the many climate issues being blamed on global warming is the expansion of deserts. The United Nations says drought could impact 70 per cent of the world's land over the next 15 years.
In China, overgrazing, irrigation farming, and land degradation, combined with drought, are turning more and more fertile land barren.
A reports from the Kubuqi Desert, China is launching a new project it hopes will stop the sand spreading.
Source: The Agencies
In China, overgrazing, irrigation farming, and land degradation, combined with drought, are turning more and more fertile land barren.
A reports from the Kubuqi Desert, China is launching a new project it hopes will stop the sand spreading.
- So far China has planted 12 billion trees over the past five years in an effort to restore its scarce forest cover and combat flooding and the loss of farmland blamed on excessive tree-cutting. The new trees, many planted by volunteers, covered 80 million acres.
- China has been trying for more than a decade to reverse the rapid loss of what little remains of its forests. Experts blame heavy tree-cutting, spurred by rapid economic growth, for the loss of farmland to deserts and devastating summer flooding in areas where denuded hillsides fail to trap rainfall.
- Tree-planting in northern China has helped to reduce the severity of the spring dust storms in Beijing and other northern cities.
MELTING HIMALAYAS A JEOPARDY TO MILLIONS
The roof of the world is springing a dangerous leak. Accelerated melting of glaciers and changes in rainfall patterns in the high Himalayan mountain chain are posing a growing risk to people’s lives and livelihoods in the 10 river basins downstream.
- When climate-change negotiators meet in Barcelona next week ahead of their gathering in Copenhagen, they should not forget the need for greater attention to the plight of the Himalayas.
- The region is the source of the largest rivers in Asia, a vast hydrological system that supplies water to millions of people and plays an important role in global atmospheric circulation, biodiversity, rain-fed and irrigated agriculture and hydropower.
- Sometimes called the Earth’s “Third Pole,” the snow and ice in the region constitute the principal river run-off from any single site on the planet. The Himalayan-Hindu Kush mountain glaciers form the water towers of Asia.
- If the melting of the large ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic increases, it will cause ocean levels to rise. The ice and snow melt from the Himalayas, in combination with changes in the nature of precipitation, would have equally large consequences for millions of people.
- Rivers that flow from these mountains wind their way through thousands of kilometers of grazing, agricultural and forest lands, and are a source of irrigation, drinking water and energy for some 1.3 billion people who live in the river basins. But the glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya range are shrinking at a fast pace.
- Any long-term loss of natural fresh- water storage is likely to have severe effects on communities downstream. One relatively recent occurrence is the formation of lakes behind glacial debris that can burst and cause “glacial lake outburst floods,” or Glofs. These can do considerable damage downstream.
- Perhaps even more important are changes in the magnitude and frequency of rainfall, which, in combination with a reduced amount of snow and ice, could have substantial impact on the availability of water. The effect on food production could be catastrophic.
- There are other signs of climate change in the Himalayas. Flies can now be found at Mount Everest base camps. Mountain populations nearly 3,500 meters above sea level are reporting mosquitoes for the first time. In the past, cooler temperatures protected populations from these disease-carrying bugs.
- Himalayan communities need support to monitor and take action to adapt to a changing climate. For example, Tibetan nomads already move yaks to alpine meadows much earlier than was their traditional practice. Farmers in the floodplains of Bangladesh build houses on stilts, and Nepali farmers store crop seeds against potential new disasters.
- Water storage should be developed in the mountain region to deal with the problem of too much water during the monsoon and too little during the dry season. Increased forest recovery and better land management are essential.
- Himalayan institutions and their funding have been inadequate to carry out long-term assessments, and countries in the region have not agreed on ways to share information.
- International models for climate change capture global warming trends on a broad scale, but do not adequately follow the events taking place in the large Himalayan drainage basins. For this, well-equipped baseline stations and long-term monitoring, networking and cooperation within and outside the region are essential.
- Better disaster forecasting and management, coordinated research and data collection and early warning systems all require financial support and greater international attention. As the two biggest countries in the region, China and India should cooperate with other Himalayan countries instead of remaining locked in cold conflict.
- Disaster is not destiny if information, innovation and early warning systems are shared and expanded. But without international support, the “Third Pole” and the millions of people who depend on it are in jeopardy.
WORLDWIDE PROTESTD AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING HELD
From Asia to Europe via the Middle East, activists staged lively events addressing world leaders and to mark 50 days before the UN climate summit.
Source: Press TV
- Kicking off with thousands gathering on the steps of Sydney's iconic Opera House, global warming protests have taken place around the world.
- Many waved placards bearing the logo 350, referring to 350 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere which scientists say must not be exceeded to avoid runaway global warming.
- France's politicians received a "wake up" call from several hundred Parisians who chose clocks as their symbol.
- Protesters who met in a central square had set their alarm clocks and mobile phones to ring at 12:18 p.m. (1018 GMT) in reference to the closing date of the summit, which lasts from December 7 to 18.
- The summit is considered crucial as world leaders will try to thrash out a new treaty to curb greenhouse gas emissions in place of the Kyoto Protocol which will expire in 2012.
- In Berlin, some 350 protesters wearing masks with the face of German Chancellor Angela Merkel came together in front of the Brandenburg Gate in the city center.
- In London, more than 600 people gathered beneath the London Eye Ferris wheel by the River Thames to arrange themselves into the shape of the number five, according to organizers Campaign against Climate Change.
- In the Lebanese capital Beirut, hundreds of activists, many wearing snorkels, held demonstrations at key archaeological sites.
- Environmental activists in Istanbul staged their protest in a boat, unfurling a banner reading "Sun, wind, right now!" under the main bridge linking Asia and Europe over the Bosphorus Strait, the Anatolia news agency reported.
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
