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. 

Acid seas could starve 100 million

admin /16 May, 2009

The rapidly rising acidity of the Pacific Ocean is threatening the coral reefs that provide a nursery for seafood that supports 100 million people according to a new report from the World Wildlife Foundation. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said that the report examines the future of the Coral Triangle stretching from Indonesia, through the Phillipines and out into the Pacific Ocean. He said that the region covers one percent of the earth’s surface but accounts for on third of the coral reefs and reef fish. It is also the spawning grounds of commercial fish such as tuna.

 

China exposes Rudd’s 25% climate fig leaf

admin /16 May, 2009

China exposes Rudd’s 25% climate fig leaf

Prime Minister Rudd’s attempt to green-wash his Carbon Pollution
Reduction Scheme with a 25% conditional target has been exposed as
disingenuous by China’s top negotiator, Su Wei, Australian Greens Deputy
Leader Christine Milne said today.
When Prime Minster Rudd announced his climate back-down to the coal
industry earlier this month with a delay in the start date by one year,
a $1.1b increase in compensation for big polluters, and a fixed $10
carbon price in the first year, he tried to cover it with a highly
conditional promise of a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas below 2000
levels by 2020.

Climate change could kill Coral Triangle: WWF

admin /15 May, 2009

Climate change could kill Coral Triangle: WWF

May 13, 2009

Article from:  Agence France-Presse

CLIMATE change could wipe out an ocean wilderness said to be the world’s most diverse by the end of the century if nations do not drastically cut emissions, the environmental group WWF said today.

Rising water temperatures, sea levels and acidity in the vast region threaten to destroy reefs in Southeast Asia’s Coral Triangle, a region labelled the ocean’s answer to the Amazon rainforest, the WWF report said.

Collapse of the reefs would send food production in the region plummeting by 80 per cent and imperil the livelihoods of over 100 million people, forcing many to move from coastal villages to teeming cities, it warned.

“If we don’t do anything, then the reefs are going to be gone by the end of this century and the impact on food security and livelihoods will be very significant,” WWF Coral Triangle Initiative Network head Lida Pet Soede told AFP.

Climate change biggest threat to health, doctors say

admin /15 May, 2009

 

Climate change biggest threat to health, doctors say

Senior doctors today published a report warning that climate change is the biggest threat to global health of the 21st century.

Rising global temperatures would have a catastrophic effect on human health, the doctors said, and patterns of infection would change, with insect-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever spreading more easily.

Heatwaves such as occurred in Europe in 2003, which caused up to 70,000 “excess” deaths, will become more common, as will hurricanes, cyclones and storms, causing flooding and injuries.

Carbon trading won’t stop climate change

admin /11 May, 2009

ONE day renewable energy looks like a sunrise industry, the next, tumbleweeds are blowing around a setting solar panel.  What has changed?  The price of emitting carbon dioxide.
In 2005 the European Union created the world’s first proper carbon market, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which compels highly polluting industries to buy permits to emit CO2.  The number of permits is limited, so the idea is that supply and demand set a price that encourages the development of a low-carbon economy.  A rising price with no wild fluctuations sends an economic signal to invest in clean energy.  But it’s not working.
The price of a tonne of CO2 on …the ETS has had a roller-coaster ride – soaring one minute, plummeting the next.  In the past year it has lurched from over €30 to €8, and now languishes at around €10.  Disastrously, such low and unpredictable prices for CO2 remove the economic incentive to decarbonise economies.

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