Category: Climate chaos

The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity. 

Energy Firms Deeply Split on Bill to Battle Climate Change

admin /19 October, 2009

Energy Firms Deeply Split on Bill to Battle Climate Change

 

By JOHN BRODER and JAD MOUAWAD

 

Published: October 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — As the Senate prepares to tackle global warming, the nation’s energy producers, once united, are battling one another over policy decisions worth hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades.

Producers of natural gas are battling their erstwhile allies, the oil companies. Electrical utilities are fighting among themselves over the use of coal versus wind power or other renewable energy. Coal companies are battling natural gas firms over which should be used to produce electricity. And the renewable power industry is elbowing for advantage against all of them.

US headed for massive decline in carbon emissions

admin /16 October, 2009

US headed for massive decline in carbon emissions

The dramatic reduction in carbon emissions in the US is not only because of the recession. Renewables and energy efficiency have played their part too. From Grist, part of the Guardian Environment Network

Wind farm in the Mojave desert

A full moon sets behind a windfarm in the Mojave desert, California. Photograph: TOBY MELVILLE/REUTERS

For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent. While part of this drop is from the recession, part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

A fairer formula for emission targets

admin /16 October, 2009

A fairer formula for emissions targets

Developed and developing countries argue over their respective climate change duties. There is a way out of the deadlock

 

In the last few months, there have been several significant developments in international climate negotiations. In July, the leaders of the world’s major developed and developing countries made an unequivocal commitment to avoiding a global temperature rise greater than 2C relative to pre-industrial levels. More recently, there has been a marked shift in the positions of both China and India, who have announced that they will undertake new measures to limit the anticipated rapid growth of their national greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades. And the United States, sensing an opportunity to build a new consensus to combat climate change, is pursuing bilateral agreements with both countries that it hopes will serve as stepping stones to a comprehensive global climate agreement.

While these developments are extremely po

Copenhagen negotiaing text: 200 pages to save the world

admin /16 October, 2009

Copenhagen negotiating text: 200 pages to save the world?

Draft agreement being discussed ahead of December’s crucial Copenhagen summit is long, confusing and contradictory
• Datablog: the text as a wordle

Interactive: Beginner’s guide to the negotiating text
Help us interpret the document

Eggborough power station, near Selby. Climate change. Global warming. Environment. Photograph: John Giles/PA

The draft document includes sections on the traditional sticking points that have delayed progress on climate change to date. Photograph: John Giles/PA

It is a blueprint to save the world. And yet it is long, confusing and contradictory. Negotiators have released a draft version of a new global agreement on climate change, which is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of global warming.

Aectic to be ice-free in summer in 20 years

admin /16 October, 2009

Arctic to be ice-free in summer in 20 years

 

Ben Webster | October 16, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

SHIPS will be able to sail in open water to the North Pole in the summer of 2020, according to a study that found a rapid acceleration in the loss of sea ice.

The Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, the study found, while Earth will lose its white cap that can be seen from space.

The Polar Ocean Physics Group from Cambridge University compared measurements of ice thickness recorded by a British Royal Navy nuclear submarine with those taken two years later by explorer Pen Hadow.

The sets of measurements were consistent, revealing the findings by HMS Tireless in 2007 were not an aberration caused by a particularly warm year.

Bangkok climate talks end in recrimination

admin /15 October, 2009

Bangkok climate talks end in recrimination

Bitter delegates say no agreement on money or emissions cuts means a deal at Copenhagen will be weak at best

Bangkok climate change talks

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, covers his face during the closing session of the UN climate change talks in Bangkok today. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPA

 

Global climate change talks came to an end in Bangkok today in an atmosphere of distrust and recrimination, with the rift between rich and poor countries seemingly wider than ever. After two weeks of negotiations there have been no breakthroughs on big issues such as money or emissions cuts.

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