Five nations under threat from climate change
From New Scientist
While the world dithers about tackling climate change, in some parts of the world people are running out of time. In Florida sea level rises can be worked around to some extent – condos can be put on stilts and moved away from the shoreline. But on some islands you can only move back so far before you have to start worrying about the water at your back door as well as the water in front.
Here are five islands whose inhabitants are going to need a new home soon:
Herald panders to skeptics
SMH has given a lot of publicity to climate-change sceptics recently, starting with Michael Duffy’s mischievous troll of 8 November, and continuing with the letters of 12 and 14 November.
The sceptics complain of lack of evidence yet none acknowledge that the greenhouse effect has been tried and tested for centuries.
Govt must set tough targets
Environmentalists call on the government to adopt greenhouse targets of betwee 25 and 40% by 2020
The reasons are that:
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the world target has to be 25% and Australian emissions are the highest in the world
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Australia must show leadership if it is to be in a strong negotiating position
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this leadership will future proof Australian industry
Acid Oceans studied in detail
Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) through human activities have a well known impact on the Earth’s climate. What is not so well known is that the absorption of this CO2 by the oceans is causing inexorable acidification of sea water. But what impact is this phenomenon having on marine organisms and ecosystems? This is a question to which researchers have few answers as yet.
That is why the European Union has recently given its support to EPOCA, the European Project on Ocean Acidification, which will be launched in Nice (France) on 10 June 2008.
Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal
By Michelle Nichols from Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon. The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Continue Reading →
Arctic 5degrees hotter than usual
AUTUMN air temperatures have climbed to record levels in the Arctic due to major losses of sea ice as the region suffers more effects from a warming trend dating back decades, a report says.
The annual report issued by researchers at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other experts is the latest to paint a dire picture of the impact of climate change in the Arctic.
It found that northern autumn air temperatures are at a record 5C above normal in the Arctic because of the major loss of sea ice in recent years that allows more solar heating of the ocean.