|
InterAcademy Council Asked to Review Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Amsterdam, March 10, 2010 -
The InterAcademy Council (IAC), a multinational organization of the world's science academies, has been requested to conduct an independent review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) processes and procedures. The study comes at the invitation of the United Nations secretary-general and the chair of the IPCC, and will help guide the processes and procedures of the IPCC's fifth report and future assessments of climate science.
> www.interacademycouncil.net: InterAcademy Council Asked to Review Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
World leaders, top academics selected for Ban’s climate change advisory group
New York, March 4 2010 -
Philanthropist George Soros and prominent British academic Nicholas Stern are among the 19 members of the high-level advisory group set up by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeking to mobilize financing to help developing countries combat climate change, it was announced today.
Last month, Mr. Ban launched the Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, which will be headed up by the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and Ethiopia, Gordon Brown and Meles Zenawi.
It was also revealed in February that President Bharrat Jagdeo of Guyana and Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg of Norway will participate.
> www.timesonline.co.uk: World leaders, top academics selected for Ban’s climate change advisory group
Climate change report sets out an apocalyptic vision of Britain
London, February 26 2010 -
Mass migration northwards to new towns in Scotland, Wales and northeast England may be needed to cope with climate change and water shortages in the South East, according to an apocalyptic vision set out by the Government Office for Science.
Heathrow would be converted into a giant reservoir by 2035, there could be severe restrictions on flying and driving and farmers would be forced to sell their land to giant agricultural businesses. Greenhouse gas emissions would be controlled by carbon rationing for individuals, which would lead to “significant shifts in lifestyle as everyone tries to stay within budget”.
> www.timesonline.co.uk: Climate change report sets out an apocalyptic vision of Britain
> Apocalyptic Warnings: "The Medea hypothesis": Life is out to get you
IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri to face independent inquiry
Nusa Dia, February 26 2010 -
Rajendra Pachauri, the 'controversial' Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to face an international inquiry into the performance of his organisation.
> www.telegraph.co.uk: IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri to face independent inquiry
> www.e360.yale.edu: The IPCC Needs to Change, But the Science Remains Sound (25-02)
UN weather meeting agrees to refine climate data
Geneva, February 24 2010 –
World weather agencies have agreed to collect more precise temperature data to improve climate change science, officials said Wednesday, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged environment ministers to reject efforts by skeptics to derail a global climate deal.
The whole of the world's instrumental temperature record – millions of observations dating back more than 150 years – is to be re-analysed in an attempt to remove doubts about the reality of global warming.
> www.independent.co.uk: World's temperature record to be re-analysed
> www.guardian.co.uk: Reject sceptics' attempts to derail global climate deal, UN chief urges
> www.metoffice.gov.uk: New global temperature analyses
Climate wars damage the scientists but we all stand to lose in the battle
London, February 23 2010 -
So the case is closed. The release of private emails between climate scientists at the University of East Anglia that show malpractice and conspiracy have had their effect. Public acceptance of the reality of global warming has dipped, politicians are retreating and changes to how science is done and scientists behave are required.
I do not accept this. I believe this seductively simple narrative is based on ignorance, scientific illiteracy and hypocrisy. Worse, it is dangerous and will erode the very public confidence it seeks to restore.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Climate wars damage the scientists but we all stand to lose in the battle
Whaling body proposes compromise
Bali (Indonesia), 23 February 2010 –
The working group set up by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has proposed allowing a limited return to commercial whale hunts, in exchange for a reduction in the number of whales killed annually.
The proposal would allow Japan to continue its hunt of the mammals on a quota basis, while suspending its hunts for the purposes of "research".
The proposal, developed but not endorsed by a 12-nation IWC working group, calls for the suspension of "scientific whaling" - a loophole which Japan uses to circumvent the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.
> english.aljazeera.net: Whaling body proposes compromise
More Ambition Needed if Greenhouse Gases are to Peak in Time, Says New UNEP Report
Bali (Indonesia), 23 February 2010 –
Countries will have to be far more ambitious in cutting greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to effectively curb a rise in global temperature at 2 degrees C or less.
This is the conclusion of a new greenhouse gas modeling study, based on the estimates of researchers at nine leading centres, compiled by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
> www.unep.org: More Ambition Needed if Greenhouse Gases are to Peak in Time, Says New UNEP Report
> www.climateactiontracker.org: Ambition of only two developed countries sufficiently stringent for 2°C
First round of formal UN climate change negotiations to take place
in April in Bonn
Bonn, 23 February 2010 – The next round of formal UN climate change negotiations under the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is scheduled to take place
in April in Bonn, Germany. The meeting will be held from Friday, 9 April through
Sunday, 11 April 2010 at the Hotel Maritim in Bonn, Germany.
> unfccc.int: First round of formal UN climate change negotiations to take place in April
> unfccc.int: Copenhagen Accord: Decisions adopted by COP 15 and CMP 5
> unfccc.int: Copenhagen Accord: Appendix I - Quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020
CU-Boulder prof speaks on mass media role in climate change skepticism
February 22, 2010 -
Mass media have been a key vehicle by which climate change contrarianism has traveled, according to Maxwell Boykoff, a University of Colorado at Boulder professor and fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES.
Boykoff, an assistant professor of environmental studies, presented his research today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego. He spoke during a panel discussion titled "Understanding Climate Change Skepticism: Its Sources and Strategies."
> www.physorg.com: CU-Boulder prof speaks on mass media role in climate change skepticism
Cars Emerge as Key Atmospheric Warming Force: Study
Hampton (VA/US), February 19, 2010 -
For decades, climatologists have studied the gases and particles that have potential to alter Earth's climate. They have discovered and described certain airborne chemicals that can trap incoming sunlight and warm the climate, while others cool the planet by blocking the Sun's rays.
> www.physorg.com: Cars Emerge as Key Atmospheric Warming Force: Study
Yvo de Boer's resignation compounds sense of gathering climate crisis
unfccc.int: Executive Secretary leaves UNFCCC secretariat
London, February 18 2010 -
How can everything have gone so wrong so quickly? A year ago, the prospects for successful climate change regulation were bright: a new US president promised positive re-engagement with the international community on the issue, civil society everywhere was enthusiastically mobilising to demand that world leaders "seal the deal" at Copenhagen, and the climate denial crowd had been reduced to an embarrassing rump lurking in the darker corners of the internet.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Yvo de Boer's resignation compounds sense of gathering climate crisis
> www.reuters.com: U.N. climate chief de Boer to quit in July
See also:
> unfccc.int: Executive Secretary leaves UNFCCC secretariat
> unfccc.int: Press release
Setting the climate record straight
London, February 17 2010 -
Climate researcher Martin Parry at Imperial College London co-chaired the second working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the group charged with assessing the effects climate change is likely to have and how these might be mitigated — for the IPCC's fourth assessment. During the past month, the IPCC has corrected an error about the amount of melting anticipated for the Himalayan glaciers and defended its estimates of the financial costs of damage caused by natural disasters. Nature talks to Parry, who has been busy juggling writing up his own research with investigating queries about the 2007 report.
> www.nature.com: Setting the climate record straight
On the brink of extinction – 25 of our closest relatives
Blue eyed lemur
Washington, February 16 2010 -
Governments around the world need to take drastic action to save the most endangered primate species, a new report is demanding.
> www.independent.co.uk: On the brink of extinction – 25 of our closest relatives
> www.guardian.co.uk: Meet the world's endangered primates (15 pictures)
Climate skeptics exploiting 'scandal': US envoy
Washington, February 16 2010 -
The US pointman on climate change on Tuesday accused vested interests of exploiting recent scientific scandals, saying there was an overwhelming case for the world to take action.
Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate issues, downplayed recent revelations about a landmark 2007 study by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that warned of dire consequences from global warming.
> www.yahoo/afp.ocm: Climate skeptics exploiting 'scandal': US envoy
Whatevergate
London, February 16 2010 -
It won’t have escaped many of our readers’ notice that there has been what can only be described as a media frenzy (mostly in the UK) with regards to climate change in recent weeks. The coverage has contained more bad reporting, misrepresentation and confusion on the subject than we have seen in such a short time anywhere. While the UK newspaper scene is uniquely competitive (especially compared to the US with over half a dozen national dailies selling in the same market), and historically there have been equally frenzied bouts of mis-reporting in the past on topics as diverse as pit bulls, vaccines and child abductions, there is something new in this mess that is worth discussing. And that has been a huge shift in the Overton window for climate change.
> www.realclimate.org: Whatevergate
New enzymes turn waste into fuel
Bagsvaerd (DK), February 16 2010 -
Novozymes launches the first commercially viable enzymes for production of biofuel from agricultural waste. Breakthroughs in enzyme technology enable cellulosic biofuel as a competitive alternative to gasoline.
Novozymes’ new Cellic® CTec2 enzymes enable the biofuel industry to produce cellulosic ethanol at a price below USD 2.00 per gallon for the initial commercial-scale plants that are scheduled to be in operation in 2011. This cost is on par with gasoline and conventional ethanol at the current US market prices.
> www.novozymes.com: IPCC errors: facts and spin
IPCC errors: facts and spin
London, February 14 2010 -
Currently, a few errors –and supposed errors– in the last IPCC report (“AR4?) are making the media rounds – together with a lot of distortion and professional spin by parties interested in discrediting climate science. Time for us to sort the wheat from the chaff: which of these putative errors are real, and which not? And what does it all mean, for the IPCC in particular, and for climate science more broadly?
> www.realclimate.org: IPCC errors: facts and spin
The Two Faces of Agriculture
Berlin, February 14, 2010 -
The challenge of the 21st century is to transform agriculture into a good administrator of biodiversity and reverse its destructive capacity, without restricting its mission to feed a growing world population, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Like the Roman god Janus, whose two faces look in opposite directions, agriculture can either protect the planet's biodiversity, or decimate it with the irrational use of chemical inputs and the reduction of soil fertility.
According to the U.N., some 150 species disappear every day, victims of human activities - including rural production - that cause climate change and transform ecosystems.
Tierramérica spoke with the head of UNEP in Berlin, on the occasion of the launch of the International Year of Biodiversity, which is calling attention to the urgent need to protect and conserve the great variety of flora and fauna on Earth.
> www.tierramerica.info: The Two Faces of Agriculture
Report: El Nino fueled record global warmth in January
Global temperature anomalies for the lower troposphere, in January 2010. Below-normal areas (in blue) were restricted to parts of Russia and China, most of Europe, and the southeastern USA. Most of Canada and Greenland were well above normal (red and orange). Lower tropospheric temperature anomalies for one month over a small region don't necessarily match surface temperature anomalies.
Alabama (US) February 12 2010 -
Due to a strong El Nino climate pattern, the Earth's temperature in January 2010 was the warmest it's been in January in 32 years, according to climate scientists from the University of Alabama-Huntsville. El Nino is a periodic natural warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, which also heats the atmosphere to above-average levels, and can affect weather worldwide.
> Report: El Nino fueled record global warmth in January
How to Reform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
New York, February 10, 2010 -
Recent scandals have undermined the credibility of the international scientific body, yet the scientific evidence for climate change remains as strong as ever.
> www.scientificamerican.com: How to Reform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster
(Physorg), February 9, 2010 -
A new University of California, Davis, study by a top ecological forecaster says it is harder than experts thought to predict when sudden shifts in Earth's natural systems will occur -- a worrisome finding for scientists trying to identify the tipping points that could push climate change into an irreparable global disaster.
> www.physorg.com: Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster
> www.news.ucdavis.edu: Climate 'Tipping Points' May Arrive Without Warning, Says Top Forecaster
38 percent of world's surface in danger of desertification
Sevilla, February 9 2010 -
A team of Spanish researchers has measured the degradation of the planet's soil using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a scientific methodology that analyses the environmental impact of human activities, and which now for the first time includes indicators on desertification. The results show that 38 percent of the world is made up of arid regions at risk of desertification.
> www.physorg.com: 38 percent of world's surface in danger of desertification
Soil contributes to climate warming more than expected
(Physorg), February 9, 2010 -
The climatic warming will increase the carbon dioxide emissions from soil more than previously estimated. This is a mechanism that will significantly accelerate the climate change. Already now the carbon dioxide emissions from soil are ten times higher than the emissions of fossil carbon. A Finnish research group has proved that the present standard measurements underestimate the effect of climate warming on emissions from the soil.
> www.physorg.com: Soil contributes to climate warming more than expected
NOAA Launches "Climate Services" With Website
(Science), February 9, 2010 -
Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as long as 4 years ago, hoped that NOAA would be the home of what they were calling Climate Services. Today, with the launch of a new Web site called climate.gov, NOAA's Climate Services has debuted, albeit modestly.
> NOAA Launches "Climate Services" With Website
> www.climate.gov
Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers
London, February 8 2010 -
An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment experts claimed last night.
The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December.
Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe.
> www.independent.co.uk: Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers
Sceptics have their uses
London, 7 February 2010
The climate change sceptics have done us all a favour. This may seem a curious view for a newspaper so committed to the cause of environmental sustainability. But, by challenging the consensus view of global warming, the sceptics have tested the flabbier assumptions of that consensus and forced the proponents of the majority view to sharpen their arguments.
> www.independent.co.uk: Sceptics have their uses
Climate scepticism 'on the rise', BBC poll shows
London, February 7 2010 -
The number of British people who are sceptical about climate change is rising, a poll for BBC News suggests.
: news.bbc.co.uk: Climate scepticism 'on the rise', BBC poll shows
Tibet temperature 'highest since records began' say Chinese climatologists
Beijng, February 5 2010 -
Average Tibet temperatures in 2009 increased 1.5C, with rises noted in both winter and summer at 29 monitoring sites.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Tibet temperature 'highest since records began' say Chinese climatologists
Indian PM backs UN climate panel
New Delhi, February 5 2010 -
Indian Premier Manmohan Singh on Friday lent his support to the beleaguered UN climate change panel, saying a glaring error in the body's key 2007 report did not change the science of global warming.
> www.terradaily.com: Indian PM backs UN climate panel
> news.oneindia.in: Jairam Ramesh says India working with china on climate change
> moef.nic.in: Jairam Ramesh says India working with china on climate change
US 'climategate' scientist all but cleared of misconduct
Michigan, February 3 2010 -
A prominent US climate scientist at the centre of the "climategate" leaked email controversy has been virtually cleared of professional misconduct by an internal university enquiry.
Michael Mann, of Penn State University, featured regularly in the more than 1000 emails that were hacked from the University of East Anglia in the UK last November. His emails and comments have since then featured in countless blogs and news articles. Some have claimed the emails reveal that mainstream climate scientists have massaged data in order to demonstrate that climate change is caused by human activities.
> www.newscientist.com: US 'climategate' scientist all but cleared of misconduct
As Climate Talks Stumble, U.N. Process in Question
February 2 2010 -
A key deadline for countries to submit emission reduction goals to the United Nations as part of the recently negotiated Copenhagen Accord passed last Sunday. The U.N. received commitments from 55 nations, but 139 countries remain unsupportive of the political statement, leading the international body to push back the commitment deadline indefinitely.
> www.worldwatch.org: As Climate Talks Stumble, U.N. Process in Question
> www.scientificamerican.com: Majority of world's countries miss Copenhagen Accord deadline
IPCC flooded by criticism
London, February 2 2010 -
Just over two years after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the United Nations panel on climate change is undergoing a period of soul-searching.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has always been a target for climate-change sceptics. In recent weeks, however, criticism has mounted and the panel admitted to a glaring error in its last comprehensive report, released in 2007, which says that Himalayan glaciers are likely to melt completely by 2035 (see Nature 463, 276–277; 2010). On top of that, its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, is under pressure to resign because the institute he directs, the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, has ties with companies that could benefit from climate policies.
> www.nature.com: IPCC flooded by criticism
Ed Miliband declares war on climate change sceptics
London, February 1 2010 -
The climate secretary, Ed Miliband, last night warned of the danger of a public backlash against the science of global warming in the face of continuing claims that experts have manipulated data.
In an exclusive interview with the Observer, Miliband spoke out for the first time about last month's revelations that climate scientists had withheld and covered up information and the apology made by the influential UN climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which admitted it had exaggerated claims about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.
The perceived failure of global talks on combating climate change in Copenhagen last month has also been blamed for undermining public support. But in the government's first high-level recognition of the growing pressure on public opinion, Miliband declared a "battle" against the "siren voices" who denied global warming was real or caused by humans, or that there was a need to cut carbon emissions to tackle it.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Ed Miliband declares war on climate change sceptics
> www.independent.co.uk: Miliband warns against climate change cynicism
> www.telegraph.co.uk: Faulty science risks obscuring 'larger truth' of climate change
How the 'climategate' scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics' lies
London, February 1 2010 -
Claims based on email soundbites are demonstrably false – there is manifestly no evidence of clandestine data manipulation.
Almost all the media and political discussion about the hacked climate emails has been based on brief soundbites publicised by professional sceptics and their blogs. In many cases, these have been taken out of context and twisted to mean something they were never intended to.
Elizabeth May, veteran head of the Canadian Green party claims to have read all the emails and declared: "How dare the world's media fall into the trap set by contrarian propagandists without reading the whole set?"
> www.guardian.co.uk: How the 'climategate' scandal is bogus and based on climate sceptics' lies
UN-HABITAT Grants Cities Lecture Award to IPCC Chair
New York, February 1 2010 -
The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), through the Global Research Network on Human Settlements, its advisory board for the global report on human settlements, has awarded Rajendra Pachauri the 2010 UN-HABITAT Cities Lecture Award for his contribution and leadership on climate change and cities.
> www.unhabitat.org: UN-HABITAT Grants Cities Lecture Award to IPCC Chair
'Climate emails hacked by spies'
London, February 1 2010 -
A highly sophisticated hacking operation that led to the leaking of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit in East Anglia was probably carried out by a foreign intelligence agency, according to the Government's former chief scientist. Sir David King, who was Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser for seven years until 2007, said that the hacking and selective leaking of the unit's emails, going back 13 years, bore all the hallmarks of a co-ordinated intelligence operation – especially given their release just before the Copenhagen climate conference in December.
> www.independent.co.uk: Climate emails hacked by spies'
> www.independent.co.uk: We should know who leaked the emails on climate change
As the World Burns
Washington , February 1 2010 -
This was supposed to be the transformative moment on global warming, the tipping point when America proved to the world that capitalism has a conscience, that we take the fate of the planet seriously. According to the script, Congress would pass a landmark bill committing the U.S. to deep cuts in carbon emissions. President Obama would then arrive in Copenhagen for the international climate summit, armed with the moral and political capital he needed to challenge the rest of the world to do the same. After all, wasn't this the kind of bold move the Norwegians were anticipating when they awarded Obama the Nobel Peace Prize?
> www.rollingstone.com: As the world burns
Global deal on climate change in 2010 'all but impossible'
London, 1 February 2010 -
A global deal to tackle climate change is all but impossible in 2010, leaving the scale and pace of action to slow global warming in coming decades uncertain, according to senior figures across the world involved in the negotiations.
"The forces trying to tackle climate change are in disarray, wandering in small groups around the battlefield like a beaten army," said a senior British diplomat.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Global deal on climate change in 2010 'all but impossible'
Bin Laden blasts US for climate change
Cairo, January 30 2010 -
Osama bin Laden sought to draw a wider public into his fight against the United States in a new message Friday, dropping his usual talk of religion and holy war and focusing instead on an unexpected topic: global warming.
The al-Qaida leader blamed the United States and other industrialized nations for climate change and said the only way to prevent disaster was to break the American economy, calling on the world to boycott U.S. goods and stop using the dollar.
> ap.com: Bin Laden blasts US for climate change
EU agrees to make lowest climate offer to UN
Brussel, 28 January 2010 -
The European Union has decided to stick to its lowest offer for cutting carbon emissions under a UN climate accord, but will maintain a conditional pledge to do more if others follow suit, EU diplomats said on Wednesday (27 January).
> www.euractiv.com: EU agrees to make lowest climate offer to UN
Simulated volcanoes and man-made 'sun blocks' can rescue the planet
London, 28 January 2010 -
It would be 100 times cheaper to shield the Earth from sunlight with a man-made "sun block" than to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. This is one of the reasons why the world needs an international project to investigate ways of safely manipulating the global climate in addition to cutting greenhouse gases, scientists have said.
> www.independent.co.uk: Simulated volcanoes and man-made 'sun blocks' can rescue the planet
Can Climate Forecasts Still Be Trusted?
Berlin, January 27 2010 -
First, it was a series of e-mails that led many to begin doubting the veracity of climate scientists. Then, the United Nations climate body itself had to reverse dire predictions about the melting of glaciers in the Himalayan Mountains. Other claims have raised doubts as well.
> www.spiegel.de: Can Climate Forecasts Still Be Trusted?
> Mountain glaciers are melting: The real Himalayan scandal (Jan 20)
A Journalist Reflects on the Rising Heat in Climate Debate
New Haven, January 26 2010 -
Although he writes one of the most popular blogs on the environment, Dot Earth author Andrew Revkin recognizes both the drawbacks and potential of the Web for exploring complex issues. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Revkin explains why the rhetoric surrounding climate change has gotten so hot.
> www.e360.yale.edu: A Journalist Reflects on the Rising Heat in Climate Debate
Icy hunt for old air
Wais Divide Camp, Antarctica, January 25 2010 -
"We're checking out history books made of ice," says Kendrick Taylor. A palaeoclimatologist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, Taylor is the chief scientist of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide drilling project, which is now three-quarters of the way towards pulling up the most temporally precise record of carbon dioxide for the past 100,000 years. The highly anticipated ice core promises to improve climatologists' understanding of the dynamic global climate system, and has already begun to illuminate how humans can affect it.
> www.nature.com: Icy hunt for old air
The real holes in climate science
London, January 20 2010 -
Like any other field, research on climate change has some fundamental gaps, although not the ones typically claimed by sceptics. Nature takes a hard look at some of the biggest problem areas.
The e-mails leaked from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in November presented an early Christmas present to climate-change denialists. Amid the more than 1,000 messages were several controversial comments that — taken out of context — seemingly indicate that climate scientists have been hiding a mound of dirty laundry from the public.
A fuller reading of the e-mails from CRU in Norwich, UK, does show a sobering amount of rude behaviour and verbal faux pas, but nothing that challenges the scientific consensus of climate change. Still, the incident provides a good opportunity to point out that — as in any active field of inquiry — there are some major gaps in the understanding of climate science. In its most recent report in 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted 54 'key uncertainties' that complicate climate science.
> www.nature.com: The real holes in climate science
> www.nature.com: Enduring climate myths
If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Damned Cold?
Figure 1. (a) GISS analysis of global surface temperature change. Green vertical bar is estimated 95 percent confidence range (two standard deviations) for annual temperature change. (b) Hemispheric temperature change in GISS analysis. (Base period is 1951-1980.)
New York, January 18 / 28 2010 -
The past year, 2009, tied as the second warmest year in the 130 years of global instrumental temperature records, in the surface temperature analysis of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The Southern Hemisphere set a record as the warmest year for that half of the world. Global mean temperature, as shown in Figure 1a, was 0.57°C (1.0°F) warmer than climatology (the 1951-1980 base period). Southern Hemisphere mean temperature, as shown in Figure 1b, was 0.49°C (0.88°F) warmer than in the period of climatology.
> www.columbia.edu / Jim Hansen et al: If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Damned Cold? (Revised Version Jan 28 2010)
> www.realclimate.org: If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Damned Cold? (Jan 18)
> data.giss.nasa.gov: Data 2009
Hedegaard eyes tougher emission cuts from transport
Brussels, January 18 2010 -
Connie Hedegaard, the EU's incoming climate policy chief, pledged to tackle transport emissions during a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament on Friday (15 January), saying she would table an integrated legislative package on climate and transport during her mandate.
> www.euractiv.com: Hedegaard eyes tougher emission cuts from transport
Climate Conditions in 2050 Crucial to Avoid Harmful Impacts in 2100
ScienceDaily, January 14, 2010 — While governments around the world continue to explore strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a new study suggests policymakers should focus on what needs to be achieved in the next 40 years in order to keep long-term options viable for avoiding dangerous levels of warming.
> www.sciencedaily.com: Climate Conditions in 2050 Crucial to Avoid Harmful Impacts in 2100
Paleontologist Peter Ward's "Medea hypothesis": Life is out to get you
Scientific American, January 14, 2010 —
At a lecture at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, paleontologist Peter D. Ward laid out the argument that life as we know it serves to make Earth less habitable — a downward spiral that might spell the eventual end of life on the planet.
Ward, a professor at the University of Washington, calls this the Medea hypothesis, named for the murderous mother of Greek mythology.
It is a direct challenge to scientist and futurist James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which asserts that life constantly tweaks the dials on Earth's control systems to keep the planet in a nice, habitable homeostasis.
> www.scientificamerican.com: The Medea Hypothesis
See also:
> 'The Revenge of Gaia' Books & Debate (2006)
> Lovelock: "Enjoy life while you can" (March 1 2008)
Leading climate scientist challenges Mail on Sunday's use of his research
London, January 11 2010 -
A leading scientist has hit out at misleading newspaper reports that linked his research to claims that the current cold weather undermines the scientific case for manmade global warming.
Mojib Latif, a climate expert at the Leibniz Institute at Kiel University in Germany, said he "cannot understand" reports that used his research to question the scientific consensus on climate change.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Leading climate scientist challenges Mail on Sunday's use of his research
> www.columbia.edu / Jim Hansen et al: If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Damned Cold?
> www.newscientist.com: Errors and lies thrive in cold weather
Boosting Biodiversity Can Boost Global Economy
Berlin, 11 January 2010 -
2010 is Litmus Test of International Community's Resolve to Conserve and Enhance Planet's Natural Assets.
UN's International Year of Biodiversity Kicks Off in Berlin Hosted by Chancellor Merkel and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon .
> www.unep.org: Boosting Biodiversity Can Boost Global Economy
> www.guardian.co.uk: Biodiversity is not just about saving exotic species from extinction
> More about the International Biodiversity Year
The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'
London, 10 January 2010 -
Ditch the dog; throw away (sorry, recycle) those takeaway menus; bin bottled water; get rid of that gas-guzzling car and forget flying to far-flung places. These are just some of the sacrifices we in the West will need to make if we are to survive climate change.
The stark warning comes from the renowned Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based organisation regarded as the world's pre-eminent environmental think tank.
> www.independent.co.uk: The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'
> http://www.worldwatch.org: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability
Paul Watson: Sea Shepherd's stern 'warrior' defies Japanese whalers
Londom, January 10 2010 -
Environmental campaigner Paul Watson has lost one of his boats in a confrontation but is determined to save the oceans from 'the greed of man'.
> www.guardian.co.uk / Paul Watson: Sea Shepherd's stern 'warrior' defies Japanese whalers
Climate change scepticism will increase hardship for world's poor: IPCC chief
London / Delhi, January 4 2010 -
Climate change scepticism is likely to surge in 2010 and could exacerbate "hardship" for the planet's poorest people, one of the world's leading authorities on climate change has told the Guardian.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Climate change scepticism will increase hardship for world's poor: IPCC chief
UN opens Biodiversity Year with plea to save world's life-supporting ecosystems
New York, 1 January 2010 –
In a bid to curb the unprecedented loss of the world's species due to human activity – at a rate some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression – the United Nations is marking 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, with a slew of events highlighting the vital role the phenomenon plays in maintaining the life support system on Planet Earth.
> www.unep.org: UN opens Biodiversity Year with plea to save world's life-supporting ecosystems
> www.unep.org: Boosting Biodiversity Can Boost Global Economy
Pope Benedict XVI: we must all go green to save the planet
Rome, January 1 2010 -
Pope Benedict XVI used his traditional New Year address to call for a revolution in personal lifestyles in order to safeguard the future of the planet.
> www.telegraph.co.uk / Pope Benedict XVI: we must all go green to save the planet
10:10 - The time for action
London, Januari 01 2010 -
The politicians failed in Copenhagen. Now we must take up the fight. But what has the campaign has achieved to date?
10:10 - The time for action
Top Ten Green Building Trends for 2010
(ENN) Januari 1, 2010 -
Green building is one of the keys to economic recovery. Not only is it a better way to do business, it drives innovation, improves efficiency standards, makes for happier and healthier people and creates new "green collar" jobs.
The trend topics on this list will be no surprise to others who are experts in this area; they are products, systems and concepts that have been quietly percolating. The purpose of this list is to identify those "big picture" trends that we see becoming more mainstream in 2010.
> www.enn.com: Top Ten Green Building Trends for 2010
Archive
|
