EcoRadio

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. 

  • Central cause of bushfires is climate change

    Statement by Geoffrey Heard to the Greenleap list 

    The very first statement that the Commission needs to make is that these fires were not the result of “prolonged drought” or a “ten year drought”, which implies exceptional departures from the norm. Nor were they “once in 100 year events”. Instead, they are the result of climate change. We are not in drought, we are not experiencing weather as exceptional as “once in 100 year event” suggests. We are in a well forecast and well documented general drying of the south-east of our country due to climate change. We are in times that are normal for the future or even relatively moderate compared with future forecasts.

    To respond to the bushfires, then, we must respond on a massive scale to climate change.

    So the major macro level change would be:

    *  Take all appropriate steps to to attack the causes of climate change and ameliorate its effects.

    As I see it, one of the major macro problems highlighted by the fires is the threat to our water supply. Our water catchments are just too damned small. A major fire IN CLIMATE CHANGE CONDITIONS can wipe significant parts of our catchments out in a couple of days.

    So it is an absolute necessity that we act to safeguard water:

    *  Enlarge all water catchments immediately (aim: double them within next 10 years, treble within 15 years).

    — Buy more abandoned farmland and plant to mixed forest.

    — Make private landholders ‘water farmers’ by paying them to plant and grow mixed forest in catchment areas.

    *  Move immediately to fully recycling of water.

    *  Move immediately to harvest high quality water at source in cities, ie. support the installation of LARGE tanks to harvest water from every roof.

    *  Move immediately to retain water that falls to the ground in cities, i.e. instead of draining Melbourne out to sea, drain it to wetlands, holding basins, existing aquifers, and in the sandbelt areas, straight into the ground.

    *  Stop all logging of native forests immediately. (There is more than enough plantation wood available.)

    The desalination plant? Relying on brown coal? We must attack the sources of global warming. We don’t need it anyway if we take all other steps.

    And, of course, the emissions trading scheme must be abandoned forthwith and a proper emissions reduction taxation system put in place.

    In the micro area, brave stuff needs to be said about house sizes, the building code, and so on.

    Geoffrey Heard is the Publisher, Editor & Business Writer for The Worsley Press

  • UK should commence coastal retreat say engineers

    Ministers should prepare the British people to “adapt” in the longer term to a landscape devastated by climate change, including the possible abandonment of parts of London and East Anglia, a leading industry body warns today .

    Action to curb carbon emissions is failing, so the UK should immediately change the way it designs buildings, transport and energy infrastructure in preparation for aworld potentially characterised by extreme heat and high sea levels, argues the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in a new report.

    The institute said it wanted its latest research to provoke serious action for future planning “not just for the sake of our planet but also for the human race. Yes, we need to mitigate [emissions] – but the evidence shows this is not working alone.”

    Even with significant global commitment to avert climate change it could be many centuries before average temperatures can be stabilised, says the document, Climate Change: Adapting to the Inevitable?, which was described by environmentalists as a “wake-up call” for government.

    IMechE said that sea levels are predicted to rise by 2m by 2250 and 7m by the end of that century.

    “A seven-metre rise in sea levels would impact on vast areas of the UK, including parts of London which border the Thames,[such as] Canary Wharf, Chelsea and Westminster, all of which would need to be abandoned,” the report argues.

    Although they were long-term predictions, the authors say Britain should be preparing for change today and they questioned whether Britain should be considering new nuclear power stations at places such as Sizewell on the Suffolk coast.

    Tim Fox, head of environment and climate change at the IMechE and one of the authors of the publication, denied the institute was being alarmist or seeking to undermine actions against greenhouse gases. They were merely trying to be “pragmatic” engineers who needed to prepare for extreme scenarios, he said.

    The action the members of IMechE want includes:

    • Building new railways because many of the existing routes use valleys that could be flooded

    • Building reservoirs underground to prevent evaporation

    • Spending heavily on researching new forms of energy such as fusion

    Environmentalists said the report was prescient. “If we don’t take action quickly to reduce carbon emissiosns we could be facing catastrophic change. This could have long-term implications but the action needs to take place in the next few years, ” said Robin Webster, energy and climate change campaigner at Friends of the Earth.

    Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the government’s Meteorological Office , said she agreed with much of the IMechE report. “We clearly must continue with action against carbon emissions but adaptation is also important. The Climate Change Act puts into place policies which support people to assess risk and take action on adaptation,” she added.

    The climate change modelling used in the IMechE report was developed by the University of East Anglia and was in line with current international thinking, Fox said, claiming that politicians and others tended to be more focused on short-term actions without considering longer term consequences and solutions.

    The British canal systems, the Forth Road Bridge and further afield the Panama Canal were projects that were constructed to last up to 250 years and it was time that government considered what kind of infrastructure would be needed post-2100 especially as the Kyoto Protocol against climate change had produced no reduction in carbon output, he added.

    IMechE said that even under less extreme circumstances there would be a need for decisions on the building or enhancement of flood defences, or ultimately whether an area will be no longer fit for habitation.Fox said he realised that the current credit crunch made it difficult for governments to invest, but he said cash spent now would offer future savings.

  • Hansen describes Rudd as an agent of death

    From the UK Guardian

    A year ago, I wrote to Gordon Brown asking him to place a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in Britain. I have asked the same of Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd and other leaders. The reason is this – coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet.

    The climate is nearing tipping points. Changes are beginning to appear and there is a potential for explosive changes, effects that would be irreversible, if we do not rapidly slow fossil-fuel emissions over the next few decades. As Arctic sea ice melts, the darker ocean absorbs more sunlight and speeds melting. As the tundra melts, methane, a strong greenhouse gas, is released, causing more warming. As species are exterminated by shifting climate zones, ecosystems can collapse, destroying more species.

    The public, buffeted by weather fluctuations and economic turmoil, has little time to analyse decadal changes. How can people be expected to evaluate and filter out advice emanating from those pushing special interests? How can people distinguish between top-notch science and pseudo-science?

    Those who lead us have no excuse – they are elected to guide, to protect the public and its best interests. They have at their disposal the best scientific organisations in the world, such as the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences. Only in the past few years did the science crystallise, revealing the urgency. Our planet is in peril. If we do not change course, we’ll hand our children a situation that is out of their control. One ecological collapse will lead to another, in amplifying feedbacks.

    The amount of carbon dioxide in the air has already risen to a dangerous level. The pre-industrial carbon dioxide amount was 280 parts per million (ppm). Humans, by burning coal, oil and gas, have increased this to 385 ppm; it continues to grow by about 2 ppm per year.

    Earth, with its four-kilometre-deep oceans, responds only slowly to changes of carbon dioxide. So the climate will continue to change, even if we make maximum effort to slow the growth of carbon dioxide. Arctic sea ice will melt away in the summer season within the next few decades. Mountain glaciers, providing fresh water for rivers that supply hundreds of millions of people, will disappear – practically all of the glaciers could be gone within 50 years – if carbon dioxide continues to increase at current rates. Coral reefs, harbouring a quarter of ocean species, are threatened.

    The greatest danger hanging over our children and grandchildren is initiation of changes that will be irreversible on any time scale that humans can imagine. If coastal ice shelves buttressing the west Antarctic ice sheet continue to disintegrate, the sheet could disgorge into the ocean, raising sea levels by several metres in a century. Such rates of sea level change have occurred many times in Earth’s history in response to global warming rates no higher than those of the past 30 years. Almost half of the world’s great cities are located on coastlines.

    The most threatening change, from my perspective, is extermination of species. Several times in Earth’s history, rapid global warming occurred, apparently spurred by amplifying feedbacks. In each case, more than half of plant and animal species became extinct. New species came into being over tens and hundreds of thousands of years. But these are time scales and generations that we cannot imagine. If we drive our fellow species to extinction, we will leave a far more desolate planet for our descendants than the world we inherited from our elders.

    Clearly, if we burn all fossil fuels, we will destroy the planet we know. Carbon dioxide would increase to 500 ppm or more. We would set the planet on a course to the ice-free state, with sea level 75 metres higher. Climatic disasters would occur continually. The tragedy of the situation, if we do not wake up in time, is that the changes that must be made to stabilise the atmosphere and climate make sense for other reasons. They would produce a healthier atmosphere, improved agricultural productivity, clean water and an ocean providing fish that are safe to eat.

    Fossil-fuel reservoirs will dictate the actions needed to solve the problem. Oil, of which half the readily accessible reserves have already been burnt, is used in vehicles, so it’s impractical to capture the carbon dioxide. This is likely to drive carbon dioxide levels to at least 400 ppm. But if we cut off the largest source of carbon dioxide – coal – it will be practical to bring carbon dioxide back to 350 ppm, lower still if we improve agricultural and forestry practices, increasing carbon storage in trees and soil.

    Coal is not only the largest fossil fuel reservoir of carbon dioxide, it is the dirtiest fuel. Coal is polluting the world’s oceans and streams with mercury, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals. The dirtiest trick that governments play on their citizens is the pretence that they are working on “clean coal” or that they will build power plants that are “capture-ready” in case technology is ever developed to capture all pollutants.

    The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death. When I testified against the proposed Kingsnorth power plant, I estimated that in its lifetime it would be responsible for the extermination of about 400 species – its proportionate contribution to the number that would be committed to extinction if carbon dioxide rose another 100 ppm.

    The German and Australian governments pretend to be green. When I show German officials the evidence that the coal source must be cut off, they say they will tighten the “carbon cap”. But a cap only slows the use of a fuel – it does not leave it in the ground. When I point out that their new coal plants require that they convince Russia to leave its oil in the ground, they are silent. The Australian government was elected on a platform of solving the climate problem, but then, with the help of industry, it set emission targets so high as to guarantee untold disasters for the young, let alone the unborn. These governments are not green. They are black – coal black.

    The three countries most responsible, per capita, for filling the air with carbon dioxide from fossil fuels are the UK, the US and Germany, in that order. Politicians here have asked me why am I speaking to them. Surely the US must lead? But coal interests have great power in the US; the essential moratorium and phase-out of coal requires a growing public demand and a political will yet to be demonstrated.

    The Prime Minister should not underestimate his potential to transform the situation. And he must not pretend to be ignorant of the consequences of continuing to burn coal or take refuge in a “carbon cap” or some “target” for future emission reductions. My message to Gordon Brown is that young people are beginning to understand the situation. They want to know: will you join their side? Remember that history, and your children, will judge you.

    • James Hansen is director of Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He was the first scientist to warn the US Congress of the dangers of climate change

     

  • Media ignores thousands of mums and dads

    2,000 people surround parliament house

    Around 2,000 people surrounded Parliament House in Canberra last weekend wearing red and carrying banners emblazoned with the slogan Climate Emergency.

    It was the first day’s sitting of Parliament for 2009 and the protestors had travelled to Canberra to let the Australian government know how angy they are about Rudd’s lack of action on climate change.

    The vast majority of the 1.500 people who attended a Climate Summit at the Australian National University over the weekend were ordinary voters, not members of political groups or funded non-government organisations.

    The protest went largely unreported in the press, despite stark evidence of global warming in the worst heat-wave in history, major flooding across northern Australia and significant shifts in climate policy in the United States.

  • Insurers come to grips with climate change

     

    From Money Management

    Climate change is both a threat and an opportunity.

    Most people realise the link between general insurance claims and climate change. The more extreme the weather, the more likely property damage will increase, and the more likely the threat of claims. The opportunity results from more research being conducted in this area, and thus more accurate risk assessment is possible.

    However, there has been far less analysis on how extreme climate change could affect the life insurance industry. Between 1980 and 2004, more than 600,000 deaths occurred because of flood, storm, or other weather-related conditions.

    As the climate changes, different types of conditions will affect the health and wellbeing of the population.

    Climate change may also cause natural disasters that affect water supplies and spread water-borne diseases.

    As the temperature rises, and precipitation changes, the most likely initial risk will be vector prone diseases. These diseases thrive in warm, wet weather, and are often transmitted by mosquitoes or flies. The diseases include malaria, dengue fever, encephalitis and schistosomiasis.

    Malaria causes over 2.7 million deaths each year. Dengue causes severe fevers and reduces a person’s immune system. Encephalitis causes inflammation of the brain. Schistosomiasis is the second most common tropical disease (after malaria).

    These diseases are already prevalent in neighbouring countries like Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. It is suggested that within the next 15 years, the Australian climate will be ideal for the spread of these diseases. And while these diseases are prevalent in third world countries, developed nations are ill-prepared.

    With changes in climate come changes in animal populations. Since 1980, there have been 17 mice plagues in Australia (seven in Queensland, three in New South Wales, three in South Australia, and four in Victoria).

    While mice cause significant destruction to crops, the Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome is far more worrisome.

    This deadly lung infection has a mortality rate of 50 per cent, and no known vaccine. This disease is contracted when people breathe in dust that is contaminated with saliva, urine, or excreta from infected rodents. In the 1800s this was commonly known as the ‘Black Death’.

    The CSIRO believes the next mice plague will hit Australia by 2011.

    As we have recently witnessed in Queensland, changes in weather patterns can result in rains that cause flooding. In severe cases, this may contaminate water supplies with such diseases as pfiesteria, cryptosporidium or toxoplasmosis.

    Pfiesteria is a toxic infection that can result in severe health problems. Cryptosporidium is a small parasitic organism that infects the small intestine, resulting in diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach cramps and fever. Toxoplasmosis affects more than 60 million people globally and is caused by water supplies contaminated by animal faeces (such as livestock manure).

    On the other hand, extreme heat without rain may result in excessively dry conditions that promote the growth of algae in lakes and riverbeds.

    These are the perfect conditions for the growth of vibrio cholera in water supplies. With human infection comes severe diarrhoea, vomiting, leg cramps and rapid loss of body fluids. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.

    Unseasonably high temperatures cause heat stress to individuals. Those who experience breathing problems such as asthma, bronchitis or emphysema will have more difficulty as temperatures continue to increase.

    It is anticipated that an increase of three degrees in average temperature will increase the annual death toll by more than 10 per cent.

    What does this mean to your clients?

    The risks that average Australians face are constantly changing and while mortality/morbidity rates have improved with enhancements in medical diagnosis and treatment, there are many new and long recurring risks lurking in the background.

    Without sounding alarmist, some of these risks – particularly flood, bushfires and some emerging sicknesses – strike without warning.

    Give your clients peace of mind and ensure they have adequate cover in place for term, trauma, total and permanent disablement (TPD) and income protection.

    Jeffrey Scott

    Jeffrey Scott is executive manager, Business Growth Services, CommInsure.

  • White House leaves LA to the desert

    From the UK Guardian

    Unless there is timely action on climate change, California’s agricultural bounty could be reduced to a dust bowl and its cities disappear, Barack Obama’s energy secretary said yesterday.

    The apocalyptic scenario sketched out by Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate appointed as energy secretary, was the clearest sign to date of the greening of America’s political class under the new president.

    In blunt language, Chu said Americans had yet to fully understand the urgency of dealing with climate change. “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he told the Los Angeles Times in his first interview since taking the post. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going.”

    Chu’s doomsday descriptions were seen yesterday as further evidence that, after eight years of denial under George Bush, the Obama White House recognises the severity of climate change.

    Chu is not a climate scientist, and won his Nobel for his work on lasers. But he was well-known at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for his outspoken concern about climate change and his commitment to developing clean energy long before Obama appointed him.

    The language he used yesterday, though stark, was in step with a co-ordinated effort by Obama’s officials and Democrats in Congress to project an image of consensus among policy makers in Washington on the need to move America away from fossil fuels and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

    In the interview, Chu said raising public awareness was crucial to that transformation. “I’m hoping that the American people will wake up.”

    He blamed warmer temperatures for the acceleration in California’s cycle of droughts. Global warming had caused a decline and evaporation of the Sierra mountains snow-pack, which had served as a natural storage system for the spring run-off that helped irrigate California’s valleys and provided water to its cities.

    Chu said up to 90% of the Sierra snow-pack could disappear, eliminating those sources of water.

    Scientists have long cited the declining spring run-off as a contributing cause of California’s wildfires. California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has blamed climate change for making forest fires a year-round threat.

    California’s department of water resources said last week that the state’s snow-pack was at 61% of normal levels. The reduction is especially worrying because of the severely dry spring of 2008, leaving the state with little water in reserve. Two dozen local water agencies have already imposed rationing.

    There are heightened concerns about water shortages in the west and upper midwest as well. Earlier this year, the journal Science warned of worldwide crop shortages because of rising temperatures.

    Obama ran a presidential campaign pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the middle of the century. He made his first move to redeeming that promise last week when he ordered the environmental protection agency to reconsider its refusal, when Bush was president, to allow California and 13 other states regulate car exhaust emissions.

    He also directed the car industry to produce cars that can achieve 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

    In the two weeks since Obama’s inauguration, there have been almost daily meetings and conferences on the environment on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. After the Bush era, when science and concern about the environment took a back seat to business interests, administration officials have taken it almost as their mantra that they put science first in dealing with climate change.

    They also say they will press hard to retain green measures in the economic rescue package now before Congress, and for legislation regulating greenhouse gas emissions this year.

    Barbara Boxer, the chair of the Senate’s environment and public works committee, said on Tuesday she hoped to produce a draft bill reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this year. Henry Waxman, her counterpart in the House of Representatives, has set an even more ambitious target, saying he aims to have a draft out of the committee by the end of May.

    But the extent of public support is less clear, and a number of leading Republicans remain implacably opposed to the idea that global warming exists. Recent opinion polls suggest that the economic recession has eclipsed concern about the environment.

    Democrats insist that the downturn should not prevent action on greenhouse gas emissions. “If you want to fight this recession, do it by mobilising to become energy independent with clean energy and really save this planet,” said Boxer.

    But America’s credit crisis appears to have stopped the growth of the wind and solar power industries in their tracks. Factories building components for wind turbines and solar panels have been letting staff go.