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. 

  • Climate negotiators urged to meet monthly to reach binding deal

     

     

    Countries were setting out their positions at the re-opening of climate talks in Bonn in Germany, the first time countries have met after the UN climate summit in Copenhagen failed to reach a legally binding deal in December.

     

     

    But rich countries were noticeably cool on their proposals, suggesting that only one more meeting would be held and that the talks could take another year to reach a binding agreement.

     

    In a noticeable U-turn since Copenhagen, when rich countries expressed urgency and tried to push through a legal agreement over the heads of the majority of countries, diplomats lined up to back the slower but more trusted UN system of reaching agreement by consensus.

     

    “In Copenhagen we saw a text put together by a few and a blatant attempt to disregard the Kyoto protocol. This broke the trust of developing countries. Any attempt to exclude the majority will only obstruct the outcome,” said a Congolese spokesman for the African group of nations.

     

    “Developing countries want a result in Mexico. They are now asking why they cannot have one. They are saying ‘let’s keep talking’,” said Martin Khor, director of the South Centre, a Geneva-based thinktank for developing countries.

     

    In a series of short statements, the African bloc was backed by groups representing the small island states (Aosis), the least developed countries (Ldcs) and many Latin American and Middle Eastern nations.

     

    Many strongly opposed the Copenhagen accord, the weak deal that countries “noted” but did not legally adopt at the end of the Danish talks. This called for countries to “aim at” holding temperatures to 2C, and a transfer of $100bn a year by 2020 to developing countries to help them to adapt to climate change.

     

    “The reduction in emissions proposed [in the Copenhagen accord] would be only 13-17% yet if we are to go below the 2C rise in temperatures it should be 25-40%. If these are the best figures that countries can manage then mother earth is in great danger,” said a Bolivian spokesman.

     

    But Australia, speaking on behalf of the US, Canada, Iceland, Russia and others in the “umbrella group” of rich countries, strongly backed the accord as the way forward in the negotiations. “Copenhagen gave us vital political direction. This has the support of 120 countries who between them represent 80% of global emissions. We are committed to realising this agreement,” a spokeswoman said.

     

    India, one of the powerful group of developing countries which includes China, Brazil and South Africa, sought a middle way. Its delegates said it backed the accord, but also the bottom-up approach demanded by most small countries.

     

    “Consensus has come to be questioned. It’s a dangerous trend. The accord is only a political document. It has the power to build consensus but cannot substitute for the [UN] process,” said a spokesman.

     

    However, the US and China, the world’s two largest emitters of CO2, both declined to make individual statements.

  • Climate sceptics are on big-oil payroll

     

    In a hard-hitting report, which appears to confirm environmentalists’ suspicions that there is a well-funded opposition to the science of climate change, Greenpeace accuses the funded groups of “spreading inaccurate and misleading information” about climate science and clean energy companies.

    “The company’s network of lobbyists, former executives and organisations has created a forceful stream of misinformation that Koch-funded entities produce and disseminate. The propaganda is then replicated, repackaged and echoed many times throughout the Koch-funded web of political front groups and thinktanks,” said Greenpeace.

    “Koch industries is playing a quiet but dominant role in the global warming debate. This private, out-of-sight corporation has become a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition. On repeated occasions organisations funded by Koch foundations have led the assault on climate science and scientists, ‘green jobs’, renewable energy and climate policy progress,” it says.

    The groups include many of the best-known conservative thinktanks in the US, like Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Foundation for research on economics and the environment. All have been involved in “spinning” the “climategate” story or are at the forefront of the anti-global warming debate, says Greenpeace.

    Koch Industries is a $100bn-a-year conglomerate dominated by petroleum and chemical interests, with operations in nearly 60 countries and 70,000 employees. It owns refineries which process more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day in the US, as well as a refinery in Holland. It has held leases on the heavily polluting tar-sand fields of Alberta, Canada and has interests in coal, oil exploration, chemicals, forestry, and pipelines.

    The majority of the group’s assets are owned and controlled by Charles and David Koch, two of the four sons of the company’s founder. They have been identified by Forbes magazine as the joint ninth richest Americans and the 19th richest men in the world, each worth between $14-16bn.

    Koch has also contributed money to politicians, the report said, listing 17 Republicans and four Democrats whose campaign funds got more than $10,000from the company.

    Greenpeace accuses the Koch companies of having a notorious environmental record. In 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined Koch industries $30m for its role in 300 oil spills that resulted in more than 3m gallons of crude oil leaking intro ponds, lakes and coastal waters.

    “The combination of foundation-funded front groups, big lobbying budgets, political action campaign donations and direct campaign contributions makes Koch Industries and the Koch brothers among the most formidable obstacles to advancing clean energy and climate policy in the US,” Greenpeace said.

    Top 10 Koch beneficiaries 2005-2008

    Mercatus center: ($9.2m received from Koch grants 2005-2008) Conservative thinktank at George Mason University. This group suggested in 2001 that global warming would be beneficial in winter and at the poles. In 2009 they recommended that nothing be done to cut emissions.
    Americans for Prosperity. ($5.17m). Have built opposition to clean energy and climate legislation with events across US.
    Institute for Humane Studies ($1.96m). Several prominent climate sceptics have positions here, including Fred Singer and Robert Bradley.
    Heritage Foundation ($1.62m). Conservative thinktank leads US opposition to climate change science.
    Cato Insitute ($1.02m). Thinktank disputes science behind climate change and questions the rationale for taking action.
    Manhattan Institute ($800,000). This institute regularly publishes climate science denials.
    Washington legal foundation ($655,000) Published articles on the business threats posed by regulation of climate change.
    Federalist Society for Law ($542,000) advocates inaction on global warming
    National Center for Policy Analysis ($130,000) NCPA disseminates climate science scepticism.
    American Council on Science and Health ($113,800) Has published papers claiming that cutting greenhouse emissions would be detrimental to public health.

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    John James

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  • Minister unaware of emissions target axing

     

    NB There seems to be a lack of communication within the NSW state govt.

    Could be based on the “Yes Minister” series of the “NEED TO KNOW”
     
    Neville Gillmore.

    Minister unaware of emissions target axing

    ABC March 26, 2010, 9:35

     

    The New South Wales Environment Minister has been caught by surprise by his government’s decision to axe the emissions reduction target for 2025.

    The target has been cut in a revised version of the State Plan that was published on the internet this week ahead of today’s leaders’ debate.

    Greens MP John Kaye says the Government had to make the change after approving two new power stations.

    “The Keneally Government was clearly hoping that nobody would notice that they had dropped the 2025 target of getting back to year 2000 levels,” he said.

    “The Government has given planning approval to two power stations – between them, by their own documents, they’ll produce 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

    “That’s a 15 per cent blowout in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s absolute death to the idea that you could get back to year 2000 levels of emissions by 2025.”

    The Environment Minister Frank Sartor has told the ABC that he was not aware of the decision because it was made last year before he returned to cabinet.

    He admits another target to cut emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 will be a “hard stretch”.

     

  • Ships told to go slow to cut carbon emissions

  • Air pollution death toll could hit 50,000 a year, say MPs

    Air pollution death toll could hit 50,000 a year, say MPs

    Ecologist

    22nd March 2010

    UK’s poor air quality is a bigger killer than passive smoking, road traffic accidents and obesity says parliamentary committee

    MPs have today delivered a damning assessment of the Government’s performance on tackling air quality issues.

    Poor air quality reduces average life expectancy in the UK by an average of seven to eight months and it could lead to up to 50,000 premature deaths every year, according to a report released today by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC).

    The MPs said that the UK should be ‘ashamed’ of its air quality and called for dramatic changes to be made to the UK’s transport policy in order to improve the situation.

    The report said failing to act would result in EU fines, which could total as much as £300 million pounds. 

    Political ‘blame game’

    London was singled out for its continuing failure to meet targets on airborne particles known as PM10, which are particularly harmful for asthma sufferers. 

    ‘Nearly a third of asthma sufferers say that a reduction in air pollution is the single thing that would improve their quality of life in relation to their asthma,’ said a spokesperson for Asthma UK. 

    Experts pinned this lack of effective action in the capital on a ‘blame game’ between different levels of Government. Londoners now breathe the worst air in Europe, said Alan Andrews, a lawyer at Client Earth.

    ‘The Mayor is blaming national government for the failure and the Government is pointing the finger at the Mayor,’ he said. 

    ‘There is inertia in Government on this issue: the health impacts and costs of EU sanctions aren’t being factored into decision making,’ he added.

    Andrews called on the Government set up a national scheme for Low Emissions Zones, promote moves towards electrification and do more to combat ‘dirty diesel engines’ in taxis. 

    Technology failing lungs

    The other main source of air pollution highlighted in the report was nitrogen dioxide, which at times exceeds EU limits by 200 – 300 per cent on busy roads, according to Dr. Gary Fuller from The London Air Quality Network at King’s College London.

    ‘Technological measures are not yielding the necessary results: policy makers need to look at other alternatives which include changing demand for travel,’ said Fuller. 

    The EAC report did not specifically mention air transport but scientists and campaigners have highlighted the area around Heathrow airport as an air pollution hotspot.

    ‘Any third runway at Heathrow is going to make meeting European limits on nitrogen dioxide impossible,’ said Andrews. 

    Useful Links
    Environmental Audit Committee air pollution report

  • Atlantic Rising: How sea level rises are poisoning water in Ghana

    Atlantic Rising: How sea level rises are poisoning water in Ghana

    Will Lorimer

    2nd March, 2010

    In the latest blog the Atlantic Rising team look at how rising sea levels are poisoning local water sources in Western Ghana

    In Western Ghana, a sinister new picture of sea level change is emerging: salt water poisoning. 

    Rising sea levels have polluted the water sources of thousands of inhabitants, polluting their drinking water and creating an unprecedented rise in salt-related health problems.

    Largely ignored in the Ghanaian press, this is a candid portrait of environmental abuse and political mismanagement set to mushroom if current climatic trends continue.

    The Volta River

    The focus of the problem is Ada, a town of 20,000 people on the Volta river below the Akosombo dam. Over the last fifty years, mismanagement of this river system has reduced the flow of water to the town, allowing sea water to encroach upstream and pollute the water purification plants.

    The problem starts at the source of the river in northern Ghana.

    ‘Deforestation has completely removed the canopy layer.  This layer slowed the rate of run off and supplied the spring source,’ says Evans Balaara, head of water quality at the Ghana Water Company.

    ‘Evaporation rates have also increased as there is no vegetation to provide shade. Far less water is now reaching Lake Volta than when I was young.’

    Rising demand

    Rural-urban migration has led to further demands for the lake’s water.

    ‘The [water] infrastructure cannot keep pace with this increase,’ says Mr Balaara. 

    ‘At the moment Ghana Water Company cannot meet the demand from the city.’

    The government is planning to increase extraction with new plants and wider pipes, further reducing the flow in Ada and allowing sea water to infiltrate further upstream. 

    Rising salt levels

    ‘We have results from Ada when there is a spring tide.  The salt levels gets up to 350mg per litre, 150mg in excess of our limit of 200mg per litre,’ confirms Mr Balaara.

    The medical consequences of this have been dramatic.  Dr Philip Narh of Dangme East District Hospital has found that ‘2.7% of Ada residents are suffering from chronic heart related diseases. There has also been a dramatic increase in hypertension and stroke relate cases’.

    Framed within predictions of future sea level rise the prospects look grim. Mr Balaara conceded, ‘If sea level change happens, we are likely to lose Ada. At the moment we don’t have the money to do anything about this.’

    But by the time Ada’s first buildings tumble into the ocean, they will tumble from a land already desertified by the salt.

    In Ada, sea level did not begin with beach erosion or flooding, it began when the first person turned on their tap to taste the salty water infecting their waterways.

    Useful links
    Atlantic Rising