Climate report describes dysfunctional US
The Obama administration‘s long-awaited scientific report on the sweeping and life-altering consequences of a failure to act on global warming – Global climate change impacts in the United States – was released on June 19.
It provides the most detailed picture to date of the impacts on the US in the worst case scenarios, when no action is taken to cut emissions. Examples include: floods in lower Manhattan; a quadrupling of heatwave deaths in Chicago; withering on the vineyards of California; the disappearance of wildflowers from the slopes of the Rockies; the extinction of Alaska’s wild polar bears in the next 75 years.
What lies ahead by region
North-east
The winter snow season could be cut in half in southern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine — maybe as short as a week or two, under the higher emissions scenario. This would destroy winter traditions like skiing and skating and outdoor ponds. Native cranberries and blueberries would disappear; dairy herds, the biggest agricultural industry, would decline under the higher emissions scenario.
Australia small-minded on climate change
Debate on climate change in Australia is small-minded and a repeat of the Victorian bushfires is possible if global temperatures do not ease, climate change expert Tim Flannery says.
At best, Prof Flannery says, children who aspire to be firefighters may be alive long enough to avoid severe weather conditions that fuelled February’s Black Saturday and claimed 173 lives.
Prof Flannery expressed his views on Saturday in a speech on extreme climate events at the International WildFire Management Conference in Sydney.
Regulations fail to quiet ETS dissent
Regulations fail to quiet ETS dissent
Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | June 20, 2009
INDUSTRY and green groups have raised serious concerns about draft regulations released yesterday detailing some of the proposed compensation arrangements for heavy polluting industry under the Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government was releasing the “first tranche” of regulations earlier than usual because of the political sensitivities surrounding the emissions trading debate.
“It is unusual that draft regulations be released for public comment ahead of the passage of legislation. The government is taking this extra step to make available as much information as possible to parliament,” she said.
Climate report stresses urgent action
Climate report stresses urgent action
Researchers are warning the planet is facing a growing risk of abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts unless carbon emissions are reduced.
A new report says greenhouse gas emissions and other indicators are closing in on the upper limits forecast by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change two years ago.
The University of Copenhagen released the Synthesis Report overnight which draws on 1,600 scientific contributions to a global climate summit held in Copenhagen earlier this year.
Australian National University Professor Will Steffen was one of 12 researchers who contributed to the report, along with Sir Nicholas Stern.
“The climate system is now moving out of the envelope of variability in which our civilisations have developed,” Professor Steffen said.
Coast residents warned to brace for climate change
Coast residents warned to brace for climate change
A climate research group is warning coastal Queensland communities need to start preparing for the effects of climate change.
Dr John Hunter from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre says it has designed a new web-based program that can predict the risk of flooding in Cairns and other regions based on sea level rises.
He says the program allows planners and policy makers to assess the risk of flooding and determine how high above sea level new infrastructure needs to be built.
Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes
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See also press release and podcast from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (dtd 15 Dec 2008)
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CCSP, 2009: Past Climate Variability and Change in the Arctic and at High Latitudes. A report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research. [Alley R.B., Brigham-Grette J., Miller G.H., Polyak L., and White J.W.C.]. U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, Washington D.C., USA. |