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. 

ETS vote may wait for global talks

admin /23 May, 2009

ETS vote may wait for global talks

Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | May 23, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

KEVIN Rudd’s bid to get his emissions trading scheme through parliament this year could be frustrated after the Greens and the Senate independents said they would consider a Coalition option to delay a vote on the laws until after crucial global talks in Copenhagen in December.

The Coalition, which could finalise its position at a partyroom meeting on Tuesday, is considering agreeing with the Government on the emission reduction targets Australia could sign up to under a new international deal, while delaying legislation setting up the domestic emissions trading scheme, which is now not scheduled to start until mid-2011.

Opposition emissions trading spokesman Andrew Robb said yesterday: “It would be irresponsible to rush this deeply flawed scheme through parliament by the end of June. We can have the debate after the Copenhagen meeting at the end of the year, with all the information on the table, without affecting Mr Rudd’s new start date.”

In landmark vote,House committee approves climate bill

admin /22 May, 2009

In landmark vote, House committee approves climate bill

After months of grueling hearings and deliberations, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill by a vote of 33-25 on Thursday evening.  It’s a landmark occasion, the first time a serious climate bill has made it this far in the House.

The bill would cut greenhouse-gas emissions about 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and about 80 percent by 2050, while promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency.

“We are now one step closer to delivering on the promise of a new clean energy economy that will make America less dependent on foreign oil, crack down on polluters, and create millions of new jobs all across America,” said President Barack Obama in a written statement.

Ross Garnaut tells senators to pass emissions trading scheme laws.

admin /22 May, 2009

Ross Garnaut tells senators to pass emissions trading scheme laws

Christian Kerr | May 22, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

KEVIN RUDD’S climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has changed his position on the emissions trading scheme, telling senators they should pass the legislation.

The Government was forced onto the defensive over its ETS last month when Professor Garnaut said it might be better to drop the proposed model and “have another crack at it and do a better one when the time is right”.

Professor Garnaut has now told a Senate committee that since the Government had changed the scheme earlier this month to aim for a 25 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020 it would “be clearly a positive for this bill to be passed into law”.

Govt blocking witnesses from carbon trade inquiry: Joyce

admin /22 May, 2009

Govt blocking witnesses from carbon trade inquiry: Joyce

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce

Bias claim: Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)

Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce has accused the Federal Government of trying to shut down criticism of its proposed emissions trading scheme.

He says the Government has blocked several of the Opposition’s unfavourable witnesses from appearing before today’s Senate inquiry into the scheme.

Senator Joyce says the Government is trying to make sure the inquiry favours its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Industries are Grappling With New Bill on Climate

admin /21 May, 2009

Industries are Grappling With New Bill on Climate

By JOSEPH B. WHITE

WASHINGTON — The “American Clean Energy and Security Act” is one of the most ambitious efforts to re-engineer American social and economic behavior in decades, presenting risks and opportunities for a wide array of businesses from Silicon Valley to the coal fields of the Appalachians.

The legislation, better known as the Waxman-Markey bill, isn’t yet law and has big hurdles to clear. A critical vote looms this week in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. But even with its chances of passage uncertain, the measure has become the basis for debate in Washington over how the U.S. should respond to pressure to slash its carbon emissions.

Price of doing nothing costs the earth

admin /21 May, 2009

Price of doing nothing costs the earth

MIT scientists forecast a global temperature rise of 5.2C by 2100 – but climate change deniers reject models devised by the world’s finest minds. So what do they suggest instead… seaweed

Seaweed washed ashore after storms in Oban

Seaweed washed ashore after storms in Oban Photograph: JEFF J MITCHELL/REUTERS

What happens if we do nothing? If, in other words, we do as Vaclav Klaus and many other suggest, and let climate change take its course?

Six years ago the climate modellers at MIT suggested that the median probability was a global temperature rise of 2.4C by 2100. Since then they’ve refined the model. Now the median estimate is 5.2C by 2100. This is another way of saying the end of life as we know it.

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