Climate change threatens Australia’s coastal lifesyle, report warns.
Climate change threatens Australia’s coastal lifestyle, report warns
Australian government environmental committee report warns that thousands of miles of coastline are under threat from rising sea levels and suggests banning people from living in vulnerable areas in Sydney
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 October 2009 16.50 GMT
- Article history
Some 80% of Australians live along the coast … Photograph: Getty Images
Beach culture is as much part of the Australian identity as the bush and barbecues, but that could have to change according to a government report that raises the unsettling prospect of banning its citizens from coastal regions at risk of rising seas.
The report, from a parliamentary climate change committee, said that AUS$150bn (£84bn) worth of property was at risk from rising sea levels and more frequent storms. With 80% of Australians living along the coastline, the report warns that “the time to act is now”.
Climate change will devestate Africa, top UK scientist warns
Climate change will devastate Africa, top UK scientist warns
Professor Sir Gordon Conway warns continent will face intense droughts, famine, disease and floods
- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 28 October 2009 17.41 GMT
- Article history
One of the main water sources outside Moyale in Kenya runs dry. Photograph: Sarah Elliott/EPA
One of the world’s most influential scientists has warned that climate change could devastate Africa, predicting an increase in catastrophic food shortages.
Professor Sir Gordon Conway, the outgoing chief scientist at the UK’s Department for International Development, and former head of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, argued in a new scientific paper (pdf) that the continent is already warming faster than the global average and that people living there can expect more intense droughts, floods and storm surges.
Clean coal power 20 years away
Much too late to reduce GHG emissions
Clean coal power 20 years away
Posted
Updated
Clean coal power generation not commercially worthwhile unless the carbon price hits $60 a tonne. (ABC TV News – file image)
The vision of clean coal powering our future electricity has taken a blow, with new costings revealing the technology will not be viable for 20 years.
The Federal Government’s own global carbon capture and storage institute says clean coal power generation will not be commercially worthwhile unless the carbon price hits at least $60 a tonne. That is not expected until 2030.
Climate change is a feminist issue
Climate change is a feminist issue
Granting women control over their own reproduction would combat overpopulation and reduce carbon emissions
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- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 October 2009 16.30 GMT
- Article history
When it emerged earlier this year that Obama’s science tsar John Holdren had once, back in 1977, co-authored a textbook discussing possible methods of population control, among them sterilisation, America’s rightwing fury machine triumphantly seized upon it, dubbing him Obama’s “science fiction tsar”.
Europe puts figure on green aid to push climate change deal
Europe puts figure on green aid to push climate change deal
- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 October 2009 20.34 GMT
- Article history
Delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference walk past human-shaped lifesize ice sculptures, featuring slogans calling to stop harming and start helping world’s climate. Photograph: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images
Europe is to breathe life into the faltering search for a new global deal on climate change by pledging billions of pounds in financial support for poor countries, the Guardian can reveal.
Fossil Fuel subsidies More Than Double Those for Renewables
Fossil Fuel Subsidies More Than Double Those for Renewables
The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research from the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, revealed that the lion’s share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases.
The research demonstrates that the federal government provided substantially larger subsidies to fossil fuels than to renewables. Fossil fuels benefited from approximately US $72 billion over the seven-year period, while subsidies for renewable fuels totaled only $29 billion.
More than half the subsidies for renewables—$16.8 billion—are attributable to corn-based ethanol. Of the fossil fuel subsidies, $70.2 billion went to traditional sources—such as coal and oil—and $2.3 billion went to carbon capture and storage.