Climate change
Uruguayan President focuses on climate change, environment in UN Assembly speech
In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, the President of Uruguay today urged the international community to strengthen efforts to preserve the planet for future generations. Speaking to world leaders gathered at the General Debate of the Assembly’s 68th session, President José Mujica said that “the world cries out for global rules that respect the achievements of science.” (altro…)
The 5 stages of climate denial are on display ahead of the IPCC report
The fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is due out on September 27th, and is expected to reaffirm with growing confidence that humans are driving global warming and climate change. In anticipation of the widespread news coverage of this esteemed report, climate contrarians appear to be in damage control mode, trying to build up skeptical spin in media climate stories. Just in the past week we’ve seen: Interestingly, these pieces spanned nearly the full spectrum of the 5 stages of global warming denial. (altro…)
Top climate scientists admit global warming forecasts were wrong
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. (altro…)
Vers une élimination des supergaz à effet de serre HFC
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. (altro…)
The dangerous effects of global warming
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. (altro…)
Climate Change Will Upset Vital Ocean Chemical Cycles, Research Shows
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. (altro…)
Finanziamenti al carbone: Usa e Paesi scandinavi dicono basta
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. (altro…)
Faith in facts? Climate change, spin and the Australian election
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”. (altro…)
Climate change: warm words and cool waters
Last week’s report that the current “pause” in global warming could be linked to cyclic cooling in the Pacific will be interpreted by climate sceptics as evidence that global warming isn’t happening, and by politicians as a reason to forget about climate change and carry on with business as usual. Both responses would be dangerously wrong. (altro…)
Fracking brings climate debate closer to home
Many of those who deny that climate change is taking place reached that position as a result of their opposition to windfarms. This, for example, was the route taken by David Bellamy, who stumbled disastrously into the debate a decade ago.
During one of our discussions, he set me the following challenge:
“Why are the so-called greens backing a cartel of multinational companies which are hell bent on covering some of the best of our countryside with so-called windfarms, which can neither provide us with a sustainable source of future energy nor have any measurable effect reducing the amount of carbon dioxide pouring into the atmosphere? If he [George Monbiot] can disprove the latter – which is the mathematical truth – I will fall into line over global warming”. (altro…)