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.Â
admin /21 March, 2009
New Zealand company, Carbonscape, has announced an indsturial scale process for making biochar using microwaves. The process has been tested in a small scale plant in Blenheim on the South Island of New Zealand and can be quicky scaled to process trees and forestry waste, the company says. Although the process consuimes energy and produces some carbon monoxide, the net effect is a major carbon sink even using tradtional sources of electricity according to the results released by the company. Industries seeking to offset carbon emissions have expressed considerable interest in the technology.
admin /21 March, 2009
By Gerard Wynn
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Big gaps remain in a new U.N. deal on global warming meant to be agreed in December and time is running worryingly short with just 265 days left, the U.N. climate chief said on Tuesday.
Yvo de Boer criticized a meeting of European Union finance ministers last week, which he said put conditions on financial help for climate action in developing countries, contrary to promises at the launch of the two-year climate talks in Bali in 2007.
admin /21 March, 2009
From The Guardian A “perfect storm” of food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration as people flee from the worst-affected regions, the UK government’s chief scientist warned last week. In a major speech to environmental groups and politicians, Professor John Beddington, who took up Continue Reading →
admin /21 March, 2009
The poorer states in the European Union are panicking about the likely commitments to be made at the Copenhagen conference in December this year in the teeth of a global recession. European leaders confirmed their commitment following a tongue lashing from the UN climate chief last week. The world’s leading countries are falling in behind the Obama administration in the US and making renewable energy and energy efficiency an integral part of the economic rescue packages in their own country. There is also increasing political awareness that the science indicates the climate emergency is likely to be many times more catastrophic than the current economic crisis. As developed nations prepare to take the tough decisions to reduce carbon emissions, the leaders of Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary and Latvia have all expressed concern about the economic impacts.
admin /15 March, 2009
The president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, will today unveil a plan to make his country carbon-neutral within a decade. The announcement comes only days after scientists issued stark new warnings that rising seas caused by climate change could engulf the Maldives and other low-lying nations this century. Member of Team Generator and sustainable systems designer, Wayne Wadsworth is involved in the project. “It may be too little too late,” he said. “It is a bit like the canary in the coal mine attempting to stop a rockfall.” The president will formally announce the scheme – and make a plea for other countries to follow the Maldives’ lead – this evening, following the world premiere of The Age of Stupid, a major new climate change film.
admin /8 March, 2009
Visiting Washington last week, UK Climate Secretary, Ed Milibrand said that the changes wrought in US global warming policy had dramatically increased the likelihood of reaching agreement on a new international treaty at Copenhagen this year. “No-one wants to be the nation that wrecks a global deal [on climate change],” he told reporters in Washington. Continue Reading →
