A leaked draft of a report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is understood to concede that the computer predictions for global warming and the effects of carbon emissions have been proved to be inaccurate. The report, to be published later this month, is a six year assessment which is seen as the gospel of climate science and is cited to justify fuel taxes and subsidies for renewable energy.
La coalition contre les super-gaz à effet de serre s’élargit. Après l’accord bilatéral intervenu entre les Etats-Unis et la Chine en juin, les pays du G20 se sont quittés, vendredi 6 septembre à Saint-Pétersbourg, en affichant leur volonté de s’attaqueraux gaz à courte durée de vie et plus précisément aux HFC (hydrofluorocarbones). Ces substances, aux pouvoirs de réchauffement plusieurs centaines de fois supérieurs au dioxyde de carbone, le principal gaz à effet de serre, sont utilisées dans les systèmes de réfrigération et de climatisation.
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DID GLOBAL warming contribute to the punishing heat wave much of the country endured during the summer of 2012? How about Superstorm Sandy? A group of 78 scientists led by experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week gave their preliminary answers, releasing a series of peer-reviewed analyses on those and other major weather events from last year. The picture they offer is of a planet in which warming has boosted the chances, in some cases significantly, that certain unwelcome weather or weather-related disasters will occur.
New research from the University of East Anglia shows that rising ocean temperatures will upset natural cycles of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus. Plankton plays an important role in the ocean’s carbon cycle by removing half of all CO2 from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and storing it deep under the sea — isolated from the atmosphere for centuries.
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Basta ai nuovi finanziamenti alle centrali a carbone all’estero, se non “in circostanze eccezionali”. Questa la nuova posizione politica oggi annunciata da USA, Danimarca, Finlandia, Islanda, Norvegia e Svezia, attraverso un comunicato congiunto. Una mossa che allinea le 5 nazioni con quanto già annunciato in questi mesi, prima dalla Banca Mondiale e successivamente dalla Banca Europea degli Investimenti, ossia voler spostare gli investimenti dai combustibili fossili alla transizione verso l’energia pulita e rinnovabile. La notizia ha ricevuto il plauso del WWF che non esita a sottolineare come la nuova tendenza rappresenti un segnale importante, soprattutto in vista dei negoziati internazionali che si terranno a novembre in Polonia.
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Election campaigns are strange rituals. This strangeness is most evident in promises about “the economy” – usually a code word for digging things out of the ground faster than your opponent, and shipping them to the nearest furnace or methane fridge.
In this heady rhythm of deeper, hotter, faster campaigning the wet blankets known as “fact-checking units” have been a striking feature of the 2013 campaign in Australia. These units, most notably those at the Conversation, the ABC and Politifact, claim that they “help restore faith in the political process”.
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