Clipmarks | papananook's 'climate' clips

Climate Report Calls For Green “New Deal”

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:22:14 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Sounds utterly sensible to me.

LONDON - The world needs leaders with the vision to forge New Deal-type policies to tackle the potentially disastrous combination of climate change, high inflation and economic slowdown, a British think-tank said on Monday.

“A New Green Deal“, a report issued by the New Economics Foundation, uses the convergence of the credit crunch, climate change and booming food and fuel prices to make the case for a new economics for the 21st century.

Key points in the report are that every home must generate its own power, an oil legacy fund must be set up using windfall taxes on oil and gas firms to help pay for green transformation, and carbon should be priced according to its climate impact.

“A credit crisis, coupled with high and rising oil prices and long-term climatic upheaval, are conspiring to create the perfect storm,” said NEF director Andrew Simms.

“Instead of desperate baling-out, we need a comprehensive plan and a new course to navigate each obstacle in this new phenomenon.

The Timeline For 21st Century “Climate Change Events”

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:17:15 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: See the link for the timeline--it's pretty interesting, if grim for the future of our grandkids. By the time my son is my age in 25 yrs., the world will be in many crises. I'm such a person as to not want to see it.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reported that there is a 90 percent likelihood that humans are significantly contributing to the change.

Scientist Stephen Hawking described climate as a greater threat to the planet than . Hawking made the remarks earlier this spring as other prominent scientists turned the giant hand of the Doomsday Clock — a symbol of the risk of atomic cataclysm — closer to midnight. The move marked the fourth time since the end of the Cold War that the clock has ticked forward and Hawking warned that "as citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day."

The international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could anywhere from 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by 2 feet.

The following is a predicted timeline for events that will likely occur this century:

The Day the Seas Died

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:10:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: But the permafrost melting is probably more dire. All that methane imbedded will be released and accelerate the climate's disruption.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The Day the Seas Died: What Can the Greatest of All Extinction Events Teach Us About Climate Change?

The "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian period, some 250 million years ago, was the most catastrophic of the five mass extinctions in Earth’s fossil record. More than half of the families of living things died out, and as many as 95 percent of the planet’s marine species were lost. At the same time, perhaps 70 percent of the land’s reptile, amphibian, insect, and plant families became extinct

What caused the calamity has long been a source of scientific controversy, due both to the extreme remoteness of the event, and to an absence of geological evidence – the world’s seas retreated at the same period, reducing the amount of sedimentary rock entering the geological record.

In 1991, scientists reported that the largest known volcanic event in the past 600 million year -known as the Siberian Traps (image above)- occurred at the same time as the end-Permian extinction.

"Do Humans Have 23 years to Go?" Play Superstruct and Find Out -Invent the Future!

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:22:20 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The Institute sees super-threats are "massively disrupting global society as we know it. There’s an entire generation of homeless people worldwide, as the number of climate refugees tops 250 million. Entrepreneurial chaos and “the axis of biofuel” wreak havoc in the alternative fuel industry. Carbon quotas plummet as food shortages mount. The existing structures of human civilization—from families and language to corporate society and technological infrastructures—just aren’t enough. We need a new set of superstructures to rise above, to take humans to the next stage."

The Institute says: "You can help. Tell us your story. Strategize out loud. Superstruct now."

Twitter that, Galaxians. Kind of makes Malthus look like a children's book.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The Institute for the Future is inviting the world to play Superstruct,the worlds first massively multi-player forecasting game. It’s not just about envisioning the future—it’s about inventing the future, creating superstructures to solve and counter super threats facing the planet.

Developed by the Palo Alto-based non-profit think tank, it will launch on September 22 for six weeks. Superstruct allows participants to use their “collective intelligence” to create solutions that can apply to real-world problems. Everyone is welcome to join the game.

Based on the results of a year-long supercomputer simulation, the Global Extinction Awareness System (GEAS) has reset the "survival horizon" for Homo sapiens - the human race - from "indefinite" to 23 years.

“The survival horizon identifies the point in time after which a threatened population is expected to experience a catastrophic collapse,” GEAS president Audrey Chen said. “It is the point from which it a species is unlikely to recover.

Naomi Klein: Bush Sees Crises in Fuel, Food, Housing and Banking as Chance to Exploit Us More

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:38:21 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: ... Food, fuel, housing, climate change -- talk about these crises. First, start with oil.

Klein: There really is a kind of a tsunami of shocks facing not just the economy but people's lives, people's real lives. They're all intersecting. They're making each other worse. And I think we really are seeing some very live examples of what a write about in the book, which is how there is a strategy. And this is what I mean by "the shock doctrine." There is a clear political strategy, and has been for several decades, to exploit these moments when people are desperate for quick-fix solutions and more inclined to believe in a kind of a magical cure, to push through very, very unpopular policies that don't actually solve the crisis at hand, that don't actually help people, but are incredibly profitable for multinational corporations.

And I think we are seeing a very vivid example of this with this speech from George Bush yesterday, where he is taking a very real crisis, which is demandi

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

People are desperate for solutions but instead they're handed policies that don't solve the crises, and are highly profitable for corporations.

As the country and the world reel from crises ranging from skyrocketing oil prices and global food shortages to housing and climate change, how best to understand the government policies being pushed through? Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman interviewed Naomi Klein, author of 'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism'

Amy Goodman: President Bush has lifted an almost two-decade-old executive order banning offshore and natural gas drilling. With prices at the pump over $4 a gallon, Bush has been pushing to allow more drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge, amidst strong opposition from environmentalists.

President George Bush: The failure to act is unacceptable.

Cheney's office corrupts EPA regulations

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:09:53 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Officials with the White House and Cheney's office requested the removal of "any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change," wrote Burnett, who declined to tell reporters who specifically called for the changes.

Burnett's letter also details efforts by the administration to influence the EPA's response to the U.S. Supreme Court's April 2007 decision in the case of Massachusetts vs EPA. The ruling requires the agency determine whether greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health. An "endangerment" finding would require the EPA to take action to regulate and limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Clip Source: www.sundancechannel.com

WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2008 (ENS) - Officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office pressured federal health and environmental officials to edit congressional testimony to downplay the public health impacts of climate change, according to a former senior official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Senior Senate Democrats contend the allegations of Jason Burnett, the EPA's former top climate advisor, add to evidence of a concerted effort by the Bush administration to mislead the public about the risks of climate change and to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.

"This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the Office of the Vice President," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "History will judge this Bush administration harshly for recklessly covering up a real threat to the people they are supposed to protect."

Bush: "Goodbye from world's biggest polluter"

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:08:40 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Our Preznut is a jerk.

Clip Source: weblog.greenpeace.org

In the, "too true to be funny" department...

President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.
As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

President Bush made the private joke in the summit's closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry. He had given some ground at the summit by saying he would "seriously consider" a 50 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.

As of posting, 193 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes until Bush finally stops leading my country. Woot!

Cheney Reportedly Wanted Cuts In Climate Testimony

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:24:42 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: If you don't like it, delete. THAT'S THE SCIENCE OF CHENEY

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains.

When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October, the White House insisted the changes were made because of reservations raised by White House advisers about the accuracy of the science.

But Jason K. Burnett, until last month the senior adviser on climate change to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, says that Cheney’s office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC’s original draft testimony removed.

for months to get e-mail exchanges and other documents to determine the extent of political influence on government scientists, but have been rebuffed.

Many changes in the North American climate have already occurred,

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:22:08 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.sundancechannel.com

WASHINGTON, DC, July 1, 2008 (ENS) - Atlanta is thirsty, New York is sizzling, Des Moines is flooded - all these situations have happened this year, and a new federal government report predicts an increasing frequency of the same kinds of extremes across North America as the planet warms.

Droughts, heavy downpours, excessive heat, and intense hurricanes are likely to become more common as humans continue to increase concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, according to first comprehensive analysis of observed and projected changes in weather and climate extremes in North America.

The federal government's U.S. Climate Change Science Program and its Subcommittee on Global Change Research released the scientific assessment late last month.

The report is based on scientific evidence that a warming world will be accompanied by changes in the intensity, duration, frequency, and geographic extent of weather and climate extremes.

Int'l Whaling Comm. Fails, Threats to Whales Mount, Whaling Nations Dig In

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:39:32 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: A new report on climate change suggested dire consequences for the world’s whales if immediate steps aren’t taken to mitigate the effects of changes in sea temperature, freshening of seawater from melting ice and increased rainfall, sea level rise, loss of polar habitats, and the decline of krill populations. Meanwhile, the IWC’s Scientific Committee continued its important work on assessments of threats to whales from ship strikes, fisheries entanglements, and underwater noise generated by human technology, including energy company exploration, as well as from emerging and recurring diseases.

Clip Source: www.hsus.org

With whales threatened by increasing harm from ship strikes, pollution, underwater noise, and climate change, whaling nations promised no reductions in their take at this year’s International Whaling Commission meeting, which ended Friday in Chile.

No End to the Killing

The biggest whale slaughter in the world will continue, as Japan kills nearly 17,000 Dall’s porpoises. Japan did not even respond to the plea from the United States and other nations at IWC to reduce its killing of the Dall’s to sustainable levels.

Japan’s “scientific” whaling programs, JARPA and JARPN II—barely disguised commercial whaling programs embattled by scandals over crew members’ embezzlement of whale meat and meaningless academic observations by scientists—will also continue. JARPA kills about 1,000 whales per year in the Southern Ocean and JARPN II kills approximately 200 more.

Greenland wants to take 10 humpback whales.

The Sunspot Enigma: The Sun is “Dead”—What Does it Mean for Earth?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:23:12 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks:

And here's the kicker--We may have an ice age while preparing for global warming---are you cackling in glee yet, Willhelm?

Geophysicist Phil Chapman, the first Australian to become an astronaut with NASA, said pictures from the US Solar and Heliospheric Observatory also show that there are currently no spots on the sun. He also noted that the world cooled quickly between January last year and January this year, by about 0.7C.

"This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record, and it puts us back to where we were in 1930," Dr Chapman noted in The Australian recently.

If the world does face another mini Ice Age, it could come without warning. Evidence for abrupt climate change is readily found in ice cores taken from Greenland and Antarctica. One of the best known examples of such an event is the Younger Dryas cooling, which occurred about 12,000 years ago, named after the arctic wildflower found in northern European sediments. This event began and ended rat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Dark spots, some as large as 50,000 miles in diameter, typically move across the surface of the sun, contracting and expanding as they go. These strange and powerful phenomena are known as sunspots, but now they are all gone. Not even solar physicists know why it’s happening and what this odd solar silence might be indicating for our future.

Although periods of inactivity are normal for the sun, this current period has gone on much longer than usual and scientists are starting to worry—at least a little bit. Recently 100 scientists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gathered to discuss the issue at an international solar conference at Montana State University. Today's sun is as inactive as it was two years ago, and solar physicists don’t have a clue as to why.

"It continues to be dead," said Saku Tsuneta with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, program manager for the Hinode solar mission, noting that it is at least a little bit worrisome

Ocean Sucking Up More Ozone than First Thought

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:20:20 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

The day that someone finally manages to create a climate model that accurately predicts the full range of planetary weather systems, I think we will probably be a hundred years too late. It is such a tough challenge, attempting to pin together the whole range of influences that go in to making our planets weather what it is.

More proof of this difficulty is found in a recent discovery by researchers working off the west-African coast of Cape Verde. What the researchers found has totally shifted the thinking concerning two types of greenhouse gases: ozone and methane.

The group found that 50% more ozone is being destroyed above the Atlantic Ocean than was previously thought. As a result, through the release of halogens from the seawater, 12% more methane is being chewed up as well.

"But the tropical Atlantic cannot be taken for granted as a permanent sink for ozone. The composition of the atmosphere is in fine balance here."

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Weigh Climate Change Impact on Global Political Stability

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:15:31 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Today, Wednesday the 25th, National Intelligence Council chairman Dr. Thomas Fingar and Energy Department intelligence chief Rolf Mowatt-Larsen will testify to Congress about the 58-page document, "The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change Through 2030," compiled by U.S. intelligence operatives.

"Climate change is a threat multiplier in the world's most unstable regions," a source familiar with the document told the Wired blogs. "It's like a match to the tinder."

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

It seems to be a general rule that any government body will always get to an issue late in the game. For example, it seems that the U.S. intelligence community has just finished up an assessment of whether the changing weather patterns could affect political stability around the world.

This has been a concern that has been raised time and time again by environmental and humanitarian groups. We’ve already seen conflicts and wars arise over natural resources; it only makes sense that the diminishing of these resources – especially water – due to the supposed global warming would cause, and in some cases heighten, political strife.

Without putting a too finer point on things, this is especially a concern for African nations. Not for any increased intrinsic desire to fight, but because Africa is a continent that has been severely affected by climate changes.

areas of Europe and Asia are also going to be suffering, from an increase in drought and floods respectively.

Grim look at state's plant life

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:22:40 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: And it's actually going faster than they think...

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

At its current pace, warming could take huge toll on California's greenery in 100 years, study finds

If temperatures rise rapidly in California this century, up to two-thirds of the state's native plants might lose large swaths of suitable habitat, according to a new study.

Scientists from UC Berkeley, Duke University and other institutions released maps Tuesday showing how 2,300 plants found only in the state might respond to the effects of global warming.

"The pace of climate change in the next 100 years poses a very serious threat to California's native plants," said David Ackerly, a UC Berkeley biology professor and an author of the new study published in the PLoS One, the Public Library of Science.

Scientists know that plants can respond to changing climate over thousands of years, Ackerly said. "But in less than a century, there is very little chance for plants to establish new populations and to migrate to keep up with these dramatic changes."

Earth Near Tipping Point, Climatologist Warns

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:56:34 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: What to do, what to do? That's the question for the average citizen. Do we just inore this brilliant man or get leaders who will listen and act?
During a speech at the National Press Club, he rambled, as if his ideas were sprinting well ahead of his words, but he kept an overflow ballroom audience rapt.

Already, he said, the world’s safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide has been exceeded.

Yet, in the 20 years since he first testified, no major U.S. law restricting greenhouse gas emissions has been passed, 21 new coal-fired generating units have been built at power plants in this country and total U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide have climbed by about 18 per cent.
He also accused corporate America of a “greenwash” in which their environmentally friendly words are not backed by actions and he supported criminal charges against CEOs of corporations such as ExxonMobil who are smart enough to know the situation but are intent on continuing their fossil fuel ways.

“When their d

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON-James Hansen returned to Capitol Hill a hero yesterday, but certainly not a conquering hero.

The soft-spoken scientist, hailed as the “whistle-blower for the planet,” tried to quiet a standing ovation from environmentalists here with a typically blunt admonition.

“It is not a time to celebrate,” said Hansen, 20 years to the day since he became the first leading scientist to warn of the dangers of global warming before a congressional committee.

He returned not to bask in any adulation, but to warn that the Earth is nearing a tipping point, to call for a national carbon tax and to say that CEOs of energy companies may be guilty of crimes against humanity and nature.

On June 23, 1988, by most accounts, the temperature in the committee room hovered at 38C and the U.S. was in the midst of a historic drought when Hansen told a Senate committee he was “99 per cent certain” that humans were warming the global climate.

“We have reached a point of planetary emergency,” he said.