Perestroika and permafrost: Moscow’s new interest in climate change
Perestroika and permafrost: Moscow’s new interest in climate change
A new climate ‘doctrine’ for the first time officially recognises severe risks of global warming and calls for immediate action. From Climate Feedback part of Guardian Environment Network
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 May 2009 12.43 BST
- Article history
If Moscow’s new interest in climate led to more frequent east-west collaborations in science, it would be a boon. Photograph: Franz-Marc Frei/Corbis
Russia has been a rather puzzling actor in the complicated diplomatic game which resulted in the Kyoto protocol, and which will be played out again in Copenhagen in December. Climate warming doesn’t make headlines, and has so far not been a big concern, between Moscow and Vladivostok. What prompted Russian leaders to ratify Kyoto was the prospect of making good money from emissions trading, rather than conviction that man-made climate change is a real phenomenon and a threat to society.
New survey of Arctic’s mineral riches could stoke international strife
New survey of Arctic’s mineral riches could stoke international strife
• Region could contain 30% of the world’s gas reserves
• Fears that study will raise tensions in regio
- The Guardian, Friday 29 May 2009
- Article history
The battle for the Arctic‘s hidden mineral riches is likely to intensify after a survey revealing the energy reserves present beneath the ice.
A map of potential oil and gas reserves in the region, published today in Science, shows that about 30% of the world’s unexploited gas and 13% of oil lie under the seas around the north pole. Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas lie within the Arctic circle, where, until now, permanent ice has prevented drilling.
The report is likely to further stoke international competition for mineral, tourism and shipping rights in the region. Exploration and drilling for oil and gas have become easier as climate change forces the ice to retreat, and all countries with borders inside the Arctic circle are fighting to claim their share. “For better or worse, limited exploration prospects in the rest of the world combined with technological advances make the Arctic increasingly attractive for development,” said Paul Berkman of the Scott polar research institute at the University of Cambridge, who specialises in the politics of the Arctic.
Mass bird death discovery near landfill
Mass bird death discovery near landfill
The Department of Environment and Conservation says the birds including ibis, silver gulls and ravens have been found dead within a one-kilometre radius of the Henderson landfill site, in Perth’s southern suburbs.
Carbon emissions must start falling in 2015 to keep warming to 2C: scientists
Carbon emissions must start falling in 2015 to keep warming to 2C: scientist
Mark Henderson, Robin Pagnamenta | May 29, 2009
WORLD carbon emissions must start to decline in only six years if humanity is to stand a chance of preventing dangerous global warming, a group of 20 Nobel prize-winning scientists, economists and writers has declared.
The United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen in December must agree to halve greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 to stop temperatures from increasing by more than 2C, the St James’s Palace Nobel Laureate Symposium concluded.
While even a 2C temperature rise will have adverse consequences, a bigger increase would create “unmanageable climate risks”, according to the St James’s Palace memorandum, signed by 20 Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry, economics, peace and literature.
The temperature target “can only be achieved with a peak of global emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2015”, the document said. If emissions continue to rise after that date, the required cuts would become unachievable.
700.000 homes at sea rise risk
700,000 homes at sea rise risk : “More than 700,000 Australian homes could be flooded by rising sea levels and up to $150 billion
worth of homes, property and infrastructure were at risk, the Federal Department of Climate Change told a parliamentary inquiry
yesterday. Nearly all Australians would be affected – 80% of the Australian population lives in the coastal zone, and approximately
711,000 addresses are within three kilometres of the coast and less than six metres above sea level, the department said in a
submission to the inquiry into the effects of climate change on coastal settlements. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
has predicted that sea levels could rise between 0.18m and 0.59m over the next 100 years. The department said that even a small rise
would dramatically change Australia’s coastline. It is estimated that erodible coasts will recede one metre for every one centimetre
rise in sea level, the report said. Storm surges will exacerbate coastal erosion.”
NASA’s James Hansen on the IPCC forecast
NASA’s James Hansen on the IPCC forecast: Climate Change News for Business
Climate Change Corp., August 16, 2007: John Shephard
[Professor John Shepherd FRS conducts research at the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, UK, and is deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for climate change research]
Is the IPCC report too optimistic? Prof. Shephard reports on the work of James Hansen. You can read the whole report here:
Sea special report: NASA’s James Hansen on the IPCC forecas
The article is also available below:
“NASA chief climate scientist Jim Hansen is no stranger to controversy. One of the world’s most eminent climate modellers, Hansen is director of the New York-based Goddard Institute of Space Science, run by US government space agency NASA and home to some of the world’s best-known climate models.
As a member of the US National Academy of Science, it was Hansen’s testimony on climate change given to congressional committees in the 1980s that triggered early public awareness of the problem of global warming.