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. 

The smearing of an innocent man

admin /27 August, 2010

The Smearing of an Innocent man

Posted August 26, 2010

The report we publish for the first time today proves that the serious charges made against Rajendra Pachauri are completely untrue.

 

By George Monbiot, published on the Guardian’s website, 26th August 2010

Has anyone been as badly maligned as Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)?

In December, the Sunday Telegraph carried a long and prominent feature written by Christopher Booker and Richard North, titled: Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

The subtitle alleged that Pachauri has been “making a fortune from his links with ‘carbon trading’ companies”. The article maintained that the money made by Pachauri while working for other organisations “must run into millions of dollars”.

It described his outside interests as “highly lucrative commercial jobs”. It proposed that these payments caused a “conflict of interest” with his IPCC role. It also complained that we don’t know “how much we all pay him” as chairman of the IPCC.

The story (which has subsequently been removed from the Sunday Telegraph’s website) immediately travelled around the world. It was reproduced on hundreds of blogs. The allegations it contained were widely aired in the media and generally believed. For a while, no discussion of climate change or the IPCC appeared complete without reference to Pachauri’s “dodgy” business dealings and alleged conflicts of interest.

There was just one problem: the story was untrue.

Study: Siberian Bogs Big Player in Greenhouse Gas

admin /18 August, 2010

Study: Siberian Bogs Big Player in Greenhouse Gas

 
The Clearing and draining  of Russian Bog areas, together with the high temperatures and disastrous
forest fires recently, could release Vast Methane deposits into the atmosphere.Scientists should be
aware and watching out for this.
 
Neville Gillmore.
 
 
 
James Owen
for National Geographic News
January 15, 2004

Northern Russia’s vast peat bogs may play a pivotal role in regulating greenhouse gas levels throughout the world, according to a new study.

The barren peatlands of Siberia have been a massive methane producer since soon after the last ice age some 12,000 years ago, far longer than previously thought, scientists say. They also found evidence that suggests peat bogs rank among the world’s top carbon stores, absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The future is Green (Crikey)

admin /17 August, 2010

This is the lead story today from this morning’s Crikey.com
 
The future is Green
 
TOP STORIES
 
1. At least Abbott’s honest about willful refusal to buy into global warming
Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:
BERNARD KEANE ON FEDERAL ELECTION 2010, CLIMATE CHANGE, FEDERAL ELECTION 2010, GLOBAL WARMING, JULIA GILLARD, TONY ABBOTT
No person who seriously maintains that “the various measuring organisations” show that the planet is cooling is fit to occupy a position of leadership in public life. Such a capacity to let ideology filter out basic facts on anything, but most especially a critical area of public policy; such a willingness to balance, say Christopher Monckton and the world’s scientific community and prefer the former, is genuinely dangerous in anyone with proximity to power.

Election debate turns to coal

admin /14 August, 2010

  Election debate turns to coal Cathy Alexander, AAP August 14,   The federal opposition has taken the knife to funding to clean up coal, as climate change re-enters the election campaign. Both major parties announced climate policies on Saturday. The Liberals focused on ending what it called the “free ride” for the coal industry, Continue Reading →

Labor to launch carbon credit scheme for farmers

admin /14 August, 2010

Labor to launch carbon credit scheme for farmers

Updated 1 hour 30 minutes ago

The Federal Government will today outline a plan to help farmers earn money for selling carbon credits on the international market.

It estimates the scheme could earn farmers up to $500 million over the next 10 years.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government would set rules to determine what types of greenhouse gas abatement can be rewarded with carbon credits.

World feeling the heat as 17 countries experience record temperatures.

admin /13 August, 2010

World feeling the heat as 17 countries experience record temperatures

2010 sees record highs in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine but also many African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries

Forest fires rage in Russia A forest fire rages near the village of Golovanovo, Russia, last week. Temperatures in Moscow have now fallen to a more manageable 31C. Photograph: Igor Kharitonov/EPA

2010 is becoming the year of the heatwave, with record temperatures set in 17 countries.

Record highs have occurred in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine – the three nations at the centre of the eastern European heatwave which has lasted for more than three weeks – but also African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.

Temperatures in Moscow, which have been consistently 20C above normal, today fell to 31C (86F), and President Dmitry Medvedev cancelled a state of emergency in three out of seven Russian regions affected by forest fires.

Thousand of hectares of forest burned in the fires, killing 54 people and leaving thousands homeless. For days, Moscow was shrouded in smog, and environmentalists raised fears that the blaze could release radioactive particles from areas contaminated in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

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