A major shortcoming of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change was its failure to address the huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the destruction of the world’s rain forests. A proposal that rich nations be allowed to offset some of their emissions by paying poorer counties to leave their rain forests intact was shot down after European environmental groups objected. They argued that it would allow rich countries to buy their way out of their own obligations. The planet has been paying for that colossal blunder ever since.
Global warming dauses 300.000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank
Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank
Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe
- guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 11.03 BST
- Article history
A family wades through flood waters to catch a relief boat, north-east of Patna, India. Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP
Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.
It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.
Gore’s green groups kick into campaign mode to push climate legislation
Gore’s green groups kick into campaign mode to push climate legislation 5
Posted 10:17 PM on 27 May 2009
by Kate Sheppard
Gore and R.K. Pachauri, head of the International Panel on Climate Change, talk with the media at the May gathering of The Climate Project in Nashville.Associated Press photo
Al Gore is drawing lessons from the Obama campaign as he works to rally support for the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill.
While the environmental movement will never have the cash of ExxonMobil and its fossil-fuel friends, it does have legions of grassroots supporters. Gore’s two groups—the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project—are putting thousands of “boots on the ground” in key congressional districts around the country to help build momentum for climate legislation.
“In order to win this struggle, we have to go to the constituents of the Congress,” Gore told Grist recently. “Just laying the facts on the table and playing an inside-the-Beltway game is not going to do it on this issue. We have to win the feelings and opinions of voters in the country as a whole … We have to go to the grassroots.”
Can the US Afford Cap-and-Trade ?
May 28, 2009
Can the US Afford Cap-and-Trade?
by Kristen Sheeran Ph.D., Economics for Equity and the Environment
Many Americans are fearful that if we reduce our carbon footprint, we will compromise our quality of life. This fear, however, is unfounded as evidence from around the United States demonstrates. U.S. states vary only modestly in average incomes, but have widely differing per capita emissions.
States like New York, California, Rhode Island, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have per capita emissions roughly one-half of the U.S. average and comparable to per capita emissions in Japan, German, Belgium, and Denmark. They prove that it is possible to have a US lifestyle, with a European sized carbon footprint! If all fifty U.S. states could emulate the per capita emissions of these states, we would go a long way toward our national emissions goals.
Wong admits mistake
Rudd’s greenhouse target wrong by nearly a century; Wong admits mistake,
but no correction issued
Canberra, Friday 29 May 2009
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has acknowledged that one of the
critical scientific targets in the Prime Minister’s May 4 announcement
on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was wrong. The mistake has gone
uncorrected for 25 days, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.
A family wades through flood waters to catch a relief boat, north-east of Patna, India. Photograph: Manish Swarup/AP
Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.
It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.
Gore’s green groups kick into campaign mode to push climate legislation
Gore’s green groups kick into campaign mode to push climate legislation 5
Posted 10:17 PM on 27 May 2009
by Kate Sheppard
Gore and R.K. Pachauri, head of the International Panel on Climate Change, talk with the media at the May gathering of The Climate Project in Nashville.Associated Press photo
Al Gore is drawing lessons from the Obama campaign as he works to rally support for the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill.
While the environmental movement will never have the cash of ExxonMobil and its fossil-fuel friends, it does have legions of grassroots supporters. Gore’s two groups—the Alliance for Climate Protection and The Climate Project—are putting thousands of “boots on the ground” in key congressional districts around the country to help build momentum for climate legislation.
“In order to win this struggle, we have to go to the constituents of the Congress,” Gore told Grist recently. “Just laying the facts on the table and playing an inside-the-Beltway game is not going to do it on this issue. We have to win the feelings and opinions of voters in the country as a whole … We have to go to the grassroots.”
Can the US Afford Cap-and-Trade ?
Can the US Afford Cap-and-Trade?
Many Americans are fearful that if we reduce our carbon footprint, we will compromise our quality of life. This fear, however, is unfounded as evidence from around the United States demonstrates. U.S. states vary only modestly in average incomes, but have widely differing per capita emissions.
States like New York, California, Rhode Island, Oregon, Vermont and Washington have per capita emissions roughly one-half of the U.S. average and comparable to per capita emissions in Japan, German, Belgium, and Denmark. They prove that it is possible to have a US lifestyle, with a European sized carbon footprint! If all fifty U.S. states could emulate the per capita emissions of these states, we would go a long way toward our national emissions goals.
Wong admits mistake
Rudd’s greenhouse target wrong by nearly a century; Wong admits mistake,
but no correction issued
Canberra, Friday 29 May 2009
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has acknowledged that one of the
critical scientific targets in the Prime Minister’s May 4 announcement
on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was wrong. The mistake has gone
uncorrected for 25 days, Australian Greens Leader Bob Brown said today.