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Yesterday’s House passage of cap-and-trade legislation designed to confront climate change is a landmark achievement, the first tangible step taken by the country that emits more greenhouse gas per capita than anyone in the world.
The bill itself still faces a tough test in the Senate. Passage is far from assured, and without similar actions by other major emitting countries, it won’t mean much. But it does finally demonstrate to the rest of the world that the United States is prepared to do its part, which puts the pressure on them to follow suit.
The bill itself, the product of a thousand political compromises, also isn’t perfect. But it also isn’t what its hysterical opponents claim it is. As Bryan Walsh acknowledges in Time:
… critics have vastly overstated the likely cost. In fact, they’re all but lying. During the House debate, Republican whip Eric Cantor, using numbers from an American Petroleum Institute study, said that the bill would eventually cost more than $3,000 per family per year — but those numbers assume that billions of tons worth of inexpensive carbon offsets won’t be available under the bill, which would significantly inflate the overall cost. That’s not going to happen. A more reliable study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast that the bill would cost the average U.S. household $175 in higher energy costs annually by 2020 — and other studies estimate that the energy-efficiency provisions in the bill might even save Americans money over time.
When opponents are forced to lie so blatantly — in this case exaggerating the likely cost 17 times over — they don’t have much of an honest argument.
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GEF and UNEP Launch Global Platform for Efficient Lighting
25 September 2009: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have launched the “Global Market Transformation for Efficient Lighting Platform,” a public-private partnership directed at reducing global energy demand for lighting.
The Platform aims to transform lighting markets, primarily in developing countries, by fostering the usage and production of energy efficient lighting while gradually discontinuing use of incandescent lighting, and substituting traditional fuel-based lighting with modern, efficient alternatives such as solid-state lighting (SSL) and Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps. It is hoped that, through these efforts, global demand for lighting energy can eventually be reduced by up to 18 percent.
In attendance for the event was UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, who noted that “in terms of climate change, this is among the lowest of low-hanging fruit. Eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked with lighting; this project can by 2014 make a big dent in these while saving people money too.” [UN News Centre] [GEF press release]
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Reversal of fortune
To unlock the vast, untapped potential of the world’s drylands, we must learn from the people who live in them, says Dr Jonathan Davies.
Drylands are a major global biome, home to a great diversity of species and some of our most treasured natural heritage. They are also home to over 2 billion people and in the developing world in particular they are associated with poverty and social inequity. Global development and environment goals are not being met in the drylands: by 2015 many dryland regions are set to fail to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, whilst progress towards the goals and objectives of the UN environmental conventions (the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity in particular) is generally poor.
Recent experiences in the drylands of emerging countries, such as China and India, illustrate that economic development in drylands can outpace that in areas that are usually considered “high potential”. Although development is often associated with degradation, experiences in Sub Saharan Africa illustrate that economic development can be greatly enhanced through protection of biodiversity as a source of income. By taking an even broader, global view of drylands and examining industrialised dryland countries, it becomes clear that for every seemingly-insurmountable challenge we are able to find evidence of a viable solution somewhere in the world.
To address the challenges of the drylands, we need to understand their unique features and how these have to be managed. Perhaps the most important of these is climate unpredictability: the amount of precipitation varies enormously between areas, between seasons and between years. The sheer magnitude of this uncertainty is hard to grasp, but in many drylands the normal range of rainfall, drought-years aside, can be plus or minus 50% of the average. Yet development in many water-deficit areas continues to favour agricultural practices that expose farmers to huge risks whilst simultaneously degrading the natural resource base on which they depend.
Climate change is a cause for concern in dryland areas, but also an opportunity for new approaches and new learning that illustrate the value of dryland areas. Dryland ecosystems and people are highly adaptable and can survive in their uncertain climate.. Whether drylands become wetter or drier as a result of climate change, they will almost invariably become more unpredictable and their adaptive capacity will be vital to their future. Drylands more than any other ecosystem have the capacity to deal with that unpredictability and we have a great deal to learn from them.
Contrary to popular perception, drylands are not necessarily poverty traps. Dryland ecosystems and their goods and services already contribute significantly to national and international economies. The vibrant tourism sector in Eastern and Southern Africa relies heavily on the biodiversity of drylands. Globally-important dryland commodities include grain, meat and milk and dryland goods like Gum Arabic, Henna, Aloe, and Frankincense. Recent years have seen the commercial development of natural medicines from drylands, and untold numbers of medicinal plants remain un-researched, known only to the dryland inhabitants who have used and conserved them for centuries.
Local knowledge of the drylands is rich and is a powerful resource to be harnessed. There has been a tendency to dismiss this knowledge, because local dryland practices have been portrayed as backward or inappropriate and in need of replacing. The current emergency in the Horn of Africa graphically illustrates the outcome of this attitude: populations are exposed to insupportable risk as a result of losing their traditional strategies and being pushed into new ways of life that simply don’t work. Where people are driven towards catastrophe it is almost guaranteed that the environment will face similar consequences. Customs and cultures that are intimately connected to biodiversity become contorted into a system of pure survival where respect for the environment becomes an unaffordable luxury.
The scientific explanation of the rationale behind traditional strategies has been known for long enough to develop innovative new approaches to sustainable drylands management. Development support has to enable management of the extreme climatic uncertainty of drylands and needs to be built on understanding of the drivers of continuous change in dryland ecosystems. These are dynamic ecosystems in which adaptation and flexibility are pre-requisites for survival. We need to learn from past failures and successes and ensure that development and humanitarian interventions recognize dryland characteristics and build on local knowledge and capacity to turn the existing opportunities into equitable and sustainable wealth creation. In particular we need to generate greater awareness of the tremendous opportunities for strengthening biodiversity-based livelihoods to diversify dryland economies and strengthen resilience.
IUCN’s vision 2020 emphasizes the need to strengthen the Union’s work on conserving the diversity of life while also connecting nature conservation to wider societal objectives such as security and poverty reduction. This vision cannot be reached if we fail to understand and address the unique challenges of the drylands. IUCN, with its great diversity of members and commission members, has a vital role to play in securing effective global action to address dryland issues and in enabling dryland communities to develop their nature-based solutions to risk management and sustainable development.
Dr Jonathan Davies is Coordinator of IUCN’s Global Drylands Initiative.
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Creator: Gust, Iris
Description: The brochure promotes urban transportation policy to increase the use of renewable energy to 100%. Seen globally, transport is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet fossil fuels are becoming scarce, will become increasingly expensive and will eventually stop being viable as transport fuels. Before this happens, climate change will have begun to have a serious impact on human lives. The authors believe that it is crucial to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy as soon as possible, especially in the transport sector. Making urban transport independent of fossil fuel is a great challenge, but the authors cite growing evidence that it can be achieved.
Contributing Partner: UNT Libraries
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Fewer rare sea turtles will die on the swordfish industry's longlines in Hawaii under an agreement between environmental groups and the government. The agreement settles a lawsuit challenging the federal government's plans that would have dramatically increase the number of turtles that could be killed. The Turtle Island Restoration Network, Center for Biological Diversity and KAHEA sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for allowing 46 imperiled Pacific loggerhead turtles to be hooked last year. The new court-ordered settlement caps the number at 17 per year. Meanwhile the National Marine Fisheries Service is weighing whether loggerheads need more protection under the Endangered Species Act.
"It made absolutely no sense to have one arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service increasing the lethal capture of loggerheads, while the other arm is in the process of determining whether loggerheads should be uplisted from threatened to endangered," said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. "With extinction looming, these animals need more protection, not less."
"With this decision, Hawaii's public-trust ocean resources can be better managed for our collective best interest, and not just the interests of this commercial fishery," said KAHEA program director Marti Townsend. "This is a victory not just for the turtles, but for Hawaii's people who rely on a healthy, functioning ocean ecosystem."
Conservation groups represented by Earthjustice filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 2009 rule allowing the swordfish fleet to catch nearly three times as many loggerhead sea turtles as previously permitted. This settlement freezes the number at the previous cap of 17 while the government conducts additional environmental studies and decides whether or not to classify the loggerhead as endangered, rather than its current, less-protective status of threatened. For leatherback turtles, the bycatch limit remains at 16 per year. In 2010, eight Pacific leatherbacks and seven loggerheads were caught in the longline fishery, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. There have already been 4 loggerheads captured in 2011, which has sea turtle conservationists concerned.
"Sea turtles have been swimming the oceans since the time of dinosaurs. But without a change in management, they won't survive our voracious quest for swordfish and tuna," said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "If loggerheads are going to survive in the North Pacific, we need to stop killing them in our fisheries."
"Pacific loggerhead sea turtles are nearly extinct, so this bycatch rollback helps right a serious wrong," said Teri Shore, program director at Turtle Island Restoration Network. "We can't allow these rare sea turtles to disappear for a plate of swordfish. It's tragic that it took a lawsuit to correct this fishery problem."
Swordfish longline vessels trail up to 60 miles of fishing line suspended in the water with floats, with as many as 1,000 baited hooks deployed at regular intervals. Sea turtles become hooked while trying to take bait or become entangled while swimming through the nearly invisible lines. These encounters can drown the turtles or leave them with serious injuries. Sea birds such as albatross dive for the bait and become hooked; marine mammals, including endangered humpback whales and false killer whales, also sometimes become hooked when they swim through the floating lines.
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Rodrigues, A.S.L., Andelman, S.J., Bakarr, M.I., Boitani, L., Brooks, T.M., Cowling, R.M., Fishpool, L.D.C., da Fonseca, G.A.B., Gaston, K.J., Hoffmann, M., Long, J.S., Marquet, P.A., Pilgrim, J.D., Pressey, R.L., Schipper, J., Sechrest, W., Stuart, S.N., Underhill, L.G., Waller, R.W., Watts, M.E.J. and Yan, X. (2004) Effectiveness of the global protected area network in representing species diversity. Nature, 428 (6983). pp. 640-643. ISSN 0028-0836Full text available as:
The Fifth World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa, announced in September 2003 that the global network of protected areas now covers 11.5% of the planet's land surface. This surpasses the 10% target proposed a decade earlier, at the Caracas Congress, for 9 out of 14 major terrestrial biomes. Such uniform targets based on percentage of area have become deeply embedded into national and international conservation planning. Although politically expedient, the scientific basis and conservation value of these targets have been questioned. In practice, however, little is known of how to set appropriate targets, or of the extent to which the current global protected area network fulfils its goal of protecting biodiversity. Here, we combine five global data sets on the distribution of species and protected areas to provide the first global gap analysis assessing the effectiveness of protected areas in representing species diversity. We show that the global network is far from complete, and demonstrate the inadequacy of uniform—that is, 'one size fits all'—conservation targets.
|Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:||© 2004 Nature Publishing Group|
|Academic Units:||The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biological Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (Sheffield)|
|Depositing User:||Repository Officer|
|Date Deposited:||12 Jan 2005|
|Last Modified:||08 Feb 2013 16:47|
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World’s poorest on front line in climate change fight
24 July 2008 | News story
Climate change is already happening – and it hits poor people most. The effect of more frequent hurricanes, floods and droughts on developing countries is devastating, as this year’s cyclone Nagris proved again in southern Myanmar, leaving over 130,000 people dead or missing.
To protect the world’s poor against today’s more frequent extreme weather events, some US$ 2 billion is required according to the Internacional relief agency Oxfam. However, commitments so far only total US$173.
The need for innovative means to mitigate climate change impacts and help poor countries adapt is high on the agenda of the World Conservation Congress, held by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature from 5-14 October in Barcelona.
- In 2007, there were 950 natural catastrophes in 2007 compared with 850 in 2006, according to Munich Re, one of the world’s largest insurance companies. This is the highest number recorded since the company started compiling annual disaster reports in 1974.
- The burden of the disasters fall on the poor who are least to blame for climate change. Benin, and Bangladesh, for example, are at particularly high risk from rising sea-levels and storm surges, yet their per capita contribution to greenhouse gas output is one eightieth that of the United States, according to the British Institute of Development Studies.
- “What worries us the most is the impact on the poorest countries which have the least capacity to respond to the challenge,” said Yvo de Boer, secretary of the Convention on Climate Change.
- A healthy environment can help people survive. Healthy mangrove forests and coral reefs, for example, can serve as barriers and prevent coastal erosion; a solid forest cover prevents flooding in times of heavy rainfall.
- “There are positive examples of local level adaptation to the impacts of climate change, such as replanting mangrove forests that can serve as buffers against more frequent storms. But to implement these solutions on a larger scale, substantial financial support is required,” says Ninni Ikkala, Climate Change Officer at IUCN.
Upcoming media products:
6 August – International Press Release – Primates Red List update
12 August – International Press Release – Cetacean Red List update
Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN’s Director General.
Ninni Ikkala, IUCN Climate Change Programme
Brian Thomson, IUCN Global Communications, m +417972182326, e email@example.com.
Carolin Wahnbaeck, IUCN Global Communications, m +41 79 85 87 593, e firstname.lastname@example.org
World Conservation Congress, Barcelona (5-14 October)
The World Conservation Congress (WCC) brings together 8,000 leaders from the public sector, government, business and non-governmental organizations for what is the premier summit on sustainable development in 2008. Over ten days they debate the best ways to tackle environmental and development challenges. They share pragmatic solutions to pressing issues. And they commit to collaborative action.
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color="#FFFFFF" size="2">Back to Regional News Digest
Saturday, September 19, 1998 Last modified at 3:24 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, 1998
State gets more rain, except in plains
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Slightly higher averages of rain in New Mexico this summer masked big differences in precipitation levels statewide, the National Weather Service said.
The state's June-through-August average was 5 percent wetter than normal. But while summer rains fell on the western and northern parts of the state, the eastern plains were dry, said Charlie Liles, head of the weather service's Albuquerque office.
Liles said you could draw a line south from Clayton and Las Vegas, N.M., through Cloudcroft to see the demarkation: It mostly was dry to the southeast and wet in the northwest. Part of weather systems that steered rain away from Texas did the same to eastern New Mexico.
"The dry east and southeast plains shows the westward expansion of the Texas drought that has taken place the past three to four months," Liles said.ce
Clovisn got 61 percent less rain this summer, he said.
Monsoons caused an unusually wet July across the rest of the state but then stopped in August, said Dave Gutzler, a climate researcher at the University of New Mexico.
Jal, in the southeast, was the driest spot for the three-month period, with just 1.43 inches of rain, 72 percent below normal. The wettest spot was Black Lake near Angel Fire, with 14.53 inches, Liles said.
Albuquerque was two percent below normal with 3.42 inches, while Socorro was nearly 50 percent above normal with 5.6 inches. Santa Fe had 33 percent more rain at 7.15 inches, while Las Cruces was 47 percent below normal at 2.37 inches.
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Arctic meltdown not caused by nature
Rapid loss of Arctic sea ice - 80 per cent has disappeared since 1980 - is not caused by natural cycles such as changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, says Dr Karl.
The situation is getting rather messy with regard to the ice melting in the Arctic. Now the volume of the ice varies throughout the year, rising to its peak after midwinter, and falling to its minimum after midsummer, usually in the month of September.
Over most of the last 1,400 years, the volume of ice remaining each September has stayed pretty constant. But since 1980, we have lost 80 per cent of that ice.
Now one thing to appreciate is that over the last 4.7 billion years, there have been many natural cycles in the climate — both heating and cooling. What's happening today in the Arctic is not a cycle caused by nature, but something that we humans did by burning fossil fuels and dumping slightly over one trillion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere over the last century.
So what are these natural cycles? There are many many of them, but let's just look at the Milankovitch cycles. These cycles relate to the Earth and its orbit around the Sun. There are three main Milankovitch cycles. They each affect how much solar radiation lands on the Earth, and whether it lands on ice, land or water, and when it lands.
The first Milankovitch cycle is that the orbit of the Earth changes from mostly circular to slightly elliptical. It does this on a predominantly 100,000-year cycle. When the Earth is close to the Sun it receives more heat energy, and when it is further away it gets less. At the moment the orbit of the Earth is about halfway between "nearly circular" and "slightly elliptical". So the change in the distance to the Sun in each calendar year is currently about 5.1 million kilometres, which translates to about 6.8 per cent difference in incoming solar radiation. But when the orbit of the Earth is at its most elliptical, there will be a 23 per cent difference in how much solar radiation lands on the Earth.
The second Milankovitch cycle affecting the solar radiation landing on our planet is the tilt of the north-south spin axis compared to the plane of the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. This tilt rocks gently between 22.1 degrees and 24.5 degrees from the vertical. This cycle has a period of about 41,000 years. At the moment we are roughly halfway in the middle — we're about 23.44 degrees from the vertical and heading down to 22.1 degrees. As we head to the minimum around the year 11,800, the trend is that the summers in each hemisphere will get less solar radiation, while the winters will get more, and there will be a slight overall cooling.
The third Milankovitch cycle that affects how much solar radiation lands on our planet is a little more tricky to understand. It's called 'precession'. As our Earth orbits the Sun, the north-south spin axis does more than just rock gently between 22.1 degrees and 24.5 degrees. It also — very slowly, just like a giant spinning top — sweeps out a complete 360 degrees circle, and it takes about 26,000 years to do this. So on January 4, when the Earth is at its closest to the Sun, it's the South Pole (yep, the Antarctic) that points towards the Sun.
So at the moment, everything else being equal, it's the southern hemisphere that has a warmer summer because it's getting more solar radiation, but six months later it will have a colder winter. And correspondingly, the northern hemisphere will have a warmer winter and a cooler summer.
But of course, "everything else" is not equal. There's more land in the northern hemisphere but more ocean in a southern hemisphere. The Arctic is ice that is floating on water and surrounded by land. The Antarctic is the opposite — ice that is sitting on land and surrounded by water. You begin to see how complicated it all is.
We have had, in this current cycle, repeated ice ages on Earth over the last three-million years. During an ice age, the ice can be three kilometres thick and cover practically all of Canada. It can spread through most of Siberia and Europe and reach almost to where London is today. Of course, the water to make this ice comes out of the ocean, and so in the past, the ocean level has dropped by some 125 metres.
From three million years ago to one million years ago, the ice advanced and retreated on a 41,000-year cycle. But from one million years ago until the present, the ice has advanced and retreated on a 100,000-year cycle.
What we are seeing in the Arctic today — the 80 per cent loss in the volume of the ice since 1980 — is an amazingly huge change in an amazingly short period of time. But it seems as though the rate of climate change is accelerating, and I'll talk more about that, next time …
Published 27 November 2012
© 2013 Karl S. Kruszelnicki Pty Ltd
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The transportation sector is responsible for an enormous amount of pollution, from fuel extraction and processing to greenhouse gas emissions and smog. Thankfully, old and new technologies alike can help us clean up our footprint as we get from here to there. Here are three options to consider.
1. Cargo Bike
A cool trend in green transportation is the use of cargo bikes (sometimes called pedicabs), mainly in cities. The idea is that pedal power transports people or bins of cargo (see photo above) — meaning goods can be delivered and people can get around without the use of fuel. Some companies that operate locally are even delivering their goods with bike power.
You can create your own cargo bike by hooking a small cart to the back of your bicycle. You can take your recycling to the recycling center or take trips to the store or farmers market and transport your goods home without relying on a vehicle.
To learn much more about this trend, see Cargo Bikes and Pedicabs.
2. Commuter Bicycle
To make your daily commute to work — or even your weekly commute around town to run errands — there are many great bike options. Biking is a win-win: You get great exercise, enjoy fresh air, and can feel great about using a green form of transportation.
If you’ve thought about commuting by bike, but aren’t sure which bicycle is right for you, check out the tips in What the Right Bike Can Do for You.
3. Green Car
If the distance between point A and point B is too great for a bicycle or walking — and mass transit isn’t an option — a car can be a necessity. There have been many great strides made in green car technology over the past decade, and your options (check out Best Green Cars for some of them) now extend far beyond the well-known Prius hybrid. New all-electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, are getting great expert and driver reviews.
While the upfront cost of a hybrid or electric vehicle may be prohibitive, the car can pay for itself over time in fuel cost savings and maintenance cost savings (think no oil changes for an electric car!). Plus, you can take advantage of a $7,500 federal tax credit for the purchase of many green cars — and be sure to look into what state tax incentives may also be available in your area.
You may have heard some common arguments against green cars. Probably the most common is that if an electric car runs on electricity generated by a coal-fired power plant, it isn’t actually cleaner than a regular gas car. The math has been crunched on this issue, and you can find the answers in the article Why Electric Cars Are Cleaner.
There have also been some recent concerns about the safety of electric and hybrid cars; rumors on this issue were fueled by a Chevy Volt catching on fire. The green cars on the market today actually have excellent safety ratings, and you can read much more about this issue in The Truth About Electric Car Safety.
If you do drive a gas-only car, you can still make driving it as clean as possible by hypermiling (using driving techniques that help you get better gas mileage). Learn how in Save Gas with Hypermiling.
What are your favorite means of green transportation?
Photo by Metro Pedal Power
Read more: Conscious Consumer, Eco-friendly tips, Green, Technology, Transportation, bicycles, Bikes, care2 earth day, cargo bikes, cars, commuting, electric cars, green cars, green transportation, hybrid cars, hybrids, pedicabs, vehicles
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
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NOAA scientists agree the risks are high, but say Hansen overstates what science can really say for sure
Jim Hansen at the University of Colorado’s World Affairs Conference (Photo: Tom Yulsman)
Speaking to a packed auditorium at the University of Colorado’s World Affairs Conference on Thursday, NASA climatologist James Hansen found a friendly audience for his argument that we face a planetary emergency thanks to global warming.
Despite the fact that the temperature rise has so far been relatively modest, “we do have a crisis,” he said.
With his characteristic under-stated manner, Hansen made a compelling case. But after speaking with two NOAA scientists today, I think Hansen put himself in a familiar position: out on a scientific limb. And after sifting through my many pages of notes from two days of immersion in climate issues, I’m as convinced as ever that journalists must be exceedingly careful not to overstate what we know for sure and what is still up for scientific debate.
Crawling out on the limb, Hansen argued that global warming has already caused the levels of water in Lake Powell and Lake Mead — the two giant reservoirs on the Colorado River than insure water supplies for tens of millions of Westerners — to fall to 50 percent of capacity. The reservoirs “probably will not be full again unless we decrease CO2 in the atmosphere,” he asserted.
Hansen is arguing that simply reducing our emissions and stabilizing CO2 at about 450 parts per million, as many scientists argue is necessary, is not nearly good enough. We must reduce the concentration from today’s 387 ppm to below 35o ppm.
“We have already passed into the dangerous zone,” Hansen said. If we don’t reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, “we would be sending the planet toward an ice free state. We would have a chaotic journey to get there, but we would be creating a very different planet, and chaos for our children.” Hansen’s argument (see a paper on the subject here) is based on paleoclimate data which show that the last time atmospheric CO2 concentrations were this high, the Earth was ice free, and sea level was far higher than it is today.
“I agree with the sense of urgency,” said Peter Tans, a carbon cycle expert at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration here in Boulder, in a meeting with our Ted Scripps Fellows in Environmental Journalism. “But I don’t agree with a lot of the specifics. I don’t agree with Jim Hansen’s naming of 350 ppm as a tipping point. Actually we may have already gone too far, except we just don’t know.”
A key factor, Tans said, is timing. “If it takes a million years for the ice caps to disappear, no problem. The issue is how fast? Nobody can give that answer.”
Martin Hoerling, a NOAA meteorologist who is working on ways to better determine the links between climate change and regional impacts, such as drought in the West, pointed out that the paleoclimate data Hansen bases his assertions on are coarse. They do not record year-to-year events, just big changes that took place over very long time periods. So that data give no indication just how long it takes to de-glaciate Antarctica and Greenland.
Hoerling also took issue with Hansen’s assertions about lakes Powell and Mead. While it is true that “the West has had the most radical change in temperature in the U.S.,” there is no evidence yet that this is a cause of increasing drought, he said.
Flows in the Colorado River have been averaging about 12 million acre feet each year, yet we are consuming 14 million acre feet. “Where are we getting the extra from? Well, we’re tapping into our 401K plan,” he said. That would be the two giant reservoirs, and that’s why their water levels have been declining.
“Why is there less flow in the river?” Hoerling said. “Low precipitation — not every year, but in many recent years, the snow pack has been lower.” And here’s his almost counter-intuitive point: science shows that the reduced precipitation “is due to natural climate variability . . . We see little indication that the warming trend is affecting the precipitation.”
In my conversation with Tans and Hoerling today, I saw a tension between what they believe and what they think they can demonstrate scientifically.
“I like to frame the issue differently,” Tans said. “Sure, we canot predict what the climate is going to look like in a couple of dcades. There are feedbacks in the system we don’t understand. In fact, we don’t even know all the feedbacks . . . To pick all this apart is extremely difficult — until things really happen. So I’m pessimistic.”
There is, Tans said, “a finite risk of catastrophic climate change. Maybe it is 1 in 6, or maybe 1 in 20 or 1 in 3. Yet if we had a risk like that of being hit by an asteroid, we’d know what to do. But the problem here is that we are the asteroid.”
Tans argues that whether or not we can pin down the degree of risk we are now facing, one thing is obvious: “We have a society based on ever increasing consumption and economic expectations. Three percent growth forever is considered ideal. But of course it’s a disaster.”
Hoerling says we are living like the Easter Islanders, who were faced with collapse from over consumption of resources but didn’t see it coming. Like them, he says, we are living in denial.
“I think we are in that type of risk,” Tans said. “But is that moving people? It moves me. But I was already convinced in 1972.”
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Indonesia is known for being prone to natural disasters of all kinds, ranging from climatic (floods, drought) to geologic (earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc.), biological (avian influenza) to man-made (deforestation, mining, conflicts). With an already high level of food insecurity, households' vulnerability to shocks is high as the assets and structures of communities are jeopardized by these complex emergencies and a general lack of disaster risk reduction and management. Over the past five years, more than 1,500,000 people have been directly affected by natural disasters, primarily in West Sumatera, West Java, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua. Following the tsunami of 2004, the government of Indonesia has become more aware of the risks, both real and potential, affecting the provinces, and has taken steps to build the capacity of its staff in disaster risk reduction.
Emergency preparedness and response has also become a priority for the Indonesian Church, specifically the national Caritas office—KARINA—and a growing number of dioceses. Various disasters over the past five years offered opportunities for the dioceses in those areas to contribute to the disaster responses and increase their response and management capacities. This has provided Catholic Relief Services Indonesia with greater opportunity to work with and support the local Church and other organizations to improve their capacity in emergency response programming.
Latest Stories From Indonesia
View all stories »»
See all the different ways your support helps people around the world after disasters strike. »»
The latest eruption from Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano killed 70 people and forced thousands to flee from their homes. »»
When Sumatran villagers were left homeless after an earthquake, a CRS program helped them build 11,000 houses in just a few months. »»
|Population:||248,645,008 (July 2012 est.)|
|Size:||735,358 sq. mi.; slightly less than three times the size of Texas|
|People Served:||863 (2012 est.)|
Since 1957, Catholic Relief Services has been helping rural communities in Indonesia alleviate human suffering, eradicate poverty and become self-reliant. Over the past five years, CRS in Indonesia has responded to various disasters and helped more than 60,000 people rebuild their lives. Our response to the West Sumatera earthquake in 2009 through cash grant for transitional shelter has been widely appreciated by the local government and donor community as the most effective strategy to provide timely, appropriate, accountable and high quality interventions.
PartnersKARINA (Caritas Indonesia)
CORDAID and Caritas Australia
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
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the energy [r]evolution
The climate change imperative demands nothing short of an Energy [R]evolution. The expert consensus is that this fundamental shift must begin immediately and be well underway within the next ten years in order to avert the worst impacts. What is needed is a complete transformation of the way we produce, consume and distribute energy, while at the same time maintaining economic growth. Nothing short of such a revolution will enable us to limit global warming to less than a rise in temperature of 2° Celsius, above which the impacts become devastating.
Current electricity generation relies mainly on burning fossil fuels, with their associated CO2 emissions, in very large power stations which waste much of their primary input energy. More energy is lost as the power is moved around the electricity grid network and converted from high transmission voltage down to a supply suitable for domestic or commercial consumers. The system is innately vulnerable to disruption: localised technical, weather-related or even deliberately caused faults can quickly cascade, resulting in widespread blackouts. Whichever technology is used to generate electricity within this old fashioned configuration, it will inevitably be subject to some, or all, of these problems. At the core of the Energy [R]evolution there therefore needs to be a change in the way that energy is both produced and distributed.
4.1 key principles
the energy [r]evolution can be achieved by adhering to five key principles:
1.respect natural limits – phase out fossil fuels by the end of this century We must learn to respect natural limits. There is only so much carbon that the atmosphere can absorb. Each year humans emit over 25 billion tonnes of carbon equivalent; we are literally filling up the sky. Geological resources of coal could provide several hundred years of fuel, but we cannot burn them and keep within safe limits. Oil and coal development must be ended. The global Energy [R]evolution scenario has a target to reduce energy related CO2 emissions to a maximum of 10 Gigatonnes (Gt) by 2050 and phase out fossil fuels by 2085.
2.equity and fairness As long as there are natural limits there needs to be a fair distribution of benefits and costs within societies, between nations and between present and future generations. At one extreme, a third of the world’s population has no access to electricity, whilst the most industrialised countries consume much more than their fair share.
The effects of climate change on the poorest communities are exacerbated by massive global energy inequality. If we are to address climate change, one of the core principles must be equity and fairness, so that the benefits of energy services – such as light, heat, power and transport – are available for all: north and south, rich and poor. Only in this way can we create true energy security, as well as the conditions for genuine human wellbeing.
The Advanced Energy [R]evolution scenario has a target to achieve energy equity as soon as technically possible. By 2050 the average per capita emission should be between 1 and 2 tonnes of CO2.
3.implement clean, renewable solutions and decentralise energy systems. There is no energy shortage. All we need to do is use existing technologies to harness energy effectively and efficiently. Renewable energy and energy efficiency measures are ready, viable and increasingly competitive. Wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies have experienced double digit market growth for the past decade.
Just as climate change is real, so is the renewable energy sector. Sustainable decentralised energy systems produce less carbon emissions, are cheaper and involve less dependence on imported fuel. They create more jobs and empower local communities. Decentralised systems are more secure and more efficient. This is what the Energy [R]evolution must aim to create.
To stop the earth’s climate spinning out of control, most of the world’s fossil fuel reserves – coal, oil and gas – must remain in the ground. Our goal is for humans to live within the natural limits of our small planet.
4.decouple growth from fossil fuel use Starting in the developed countries, economic growth must be fully decoupled from fossil fuel usage. It is a fallacy to suggest that economic growth must be predicated on their increased combustion.
We need to use the energy we produce much more efficiently, and we need to make the transition to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels quickly in order to enable clean and sustainable growth.
5.phase out dirty, unsustainable energyWe need to phase out coal and nuclear power. We cannot continue to build coal plants at a time when emissions pose a real and present danger to both ecosystems and people. And we cannot continue to fuel the myriad nuclear threats by pretending nuclear power can in any way help to combat climate change. There is no role for nuclear power in the Energy [R]evolution.
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Located above the surface of our planet is a complex mixture of gases and suspended liquid and solid particles known as the atmosphere. Operating within the atmosphere is a variety of processes we call weather. Some measurable variables associated with weather include air temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind, and precipitation. The atmosphere also contains organized phenomena that include things like tornadoes, thunderstorms, mid-latitude cyclones, hurricanes, and monsoons. Climate refers to the general pattern of weather for a region over specific period of time. Scientists have discovered that human activities can influence Earth’s climate and weather producing problems like global warming, ozone depletion, and acid precipitation.
Widespread urban development alters weather patterns
Research focusing on the Houston area suggests that widespread urban development alters weather patterns in a way that ...
Laptev SeaLast Updated on 2013-05-14 at 14:23
The Laptev Sea is a saline water body, lodged between the Kara Sea and East Siberian Sea. The chief land boundary of this marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean is the Siberian... More »
East Siberian SeaLast Updated on 2013-05-14 at 14:09
The East Siberian Sea is a saline marine body, which is a southern marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean.
To the east is found the Chukchi Sea and to the west beyond the New... More »
Baffin BayLast Updated on 2013-05-14 at 12:11
Baffin Bay is a margibnal sea of the North Atlantic Ocean located between the Canada's Baffin, Devon and Ellesmere islands and Greenland.
To the south the Davis Strait... More »
Andaman SeaLast Updated on 2013-05-13 at 23:06
The Andaman Sea is a body of marine water in the northeastern corner of the Indian Ocean that lies to the west of the Malay Peninsula, the north of Sumatra, the east of the... More »
Molucca SeaLast Updated on 2013-05-13 at 23:02
The Molucca Sea (also Molukka Sea) is a semi-enclosed sea, surrounded by a variety of islands belonging to Indonesia, most significantly the island of Sulawesi (Celebes)... More »
Levantine SeaLast Updated on 2013-05-13 at 22:31
The Levantine Sea is most eastern unit of the Mediterranean Sea, and also the most saline portion of the Mediterranean Basin.
The Levantine Sea, also known as the Levant... More »
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Bali Climate conference has a message for rural community
The world leaders recognised that 20% of the global emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) can be contained by forestation. The programme, Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) aims to compensate the developing countries in the tropical region to maintain their forests and discourages deforestation. It allows developing countries to sell carbon offsets to rich countries in return for not burning their tropical forests from 2013.
REDD initiative is the need of the hour when largescale deforestation is taking place across the world for urbanisation, oil palm, soyabean and bio-fuel crop plantation.
The Bali conference also stressed upon the urgent need to cut carbon and methane emissions from tropical forests.
The Bali conference also adopted a resolution on adaptation fund to help poor nations to cope with damage from climate change impact like droughts, extreme weather conditions or rising seas. The Adaptation Fund now comprises only about $36 million but might rise to $1-$5 billion a year by 2030, if investments in green technology in developing nations surges. The fund distinguished the responsibilities of the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank. The fund would have a 16-member board largely from developing countries and would start operating from 2008.
Senior researchers of the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) had urged the developed countries to urgently discuss adaptation funds as the key to solution of the problems. The Lead author of the recent UNDP report, Kevin Watkins said that as per estimate $86 billion annually. "The figure looks large, but actually it is only 0.2% of the rich countries GDP," he said and added that adaptation fund sourced from multilateral funding in the last two years was only $26 million—the amount spent by UK alone on flood control for a week.
A group of small island communities led by Biotani Indonesia Foundation has urged that the adaptation fund should include a special corpus to cover their initiatives.
The Bali conference succeeded in adopting a resolution on technology tranfer and also Its monitoring. It, however, failed address the vital issue of cut in GHG emissions and deferred it till 2009.
It also postponed until next year any consideration of a plan to fund an untested technology which captures and buries the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, emitted from power plants that burn fossil fuels.
It also failed to agree whether or not to allow companies to sell carbon offsets from destroying new production of powerful greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Benefiting factories have been the biggest winners under a UN scheme to reward companies which cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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India's rice output expected at 100 mn tons in 2012-13: FAO
The global body on the farm sector had earlier forecast the rice output in India, the world's second largest producer, at 98.5 MT. This was due to late onset of monsoon rains leading to deficit in key northern and southern growing areas.
FAO in its latest 'Food Outlook' report said that output prospects in India were marred until August by below-normal precipitation, but have since been bolstered by a revival of the monsoon rains.
"As a result, the country is predicted to harvest 100 MT in 2012-13, 4 MT less than its outstanding 2011-12 season, but still the second best result in history," FAO said.
The country had harvested a record 104.32 MT of rice in the 2011-12 crop year (JulyŅJune).
"While the resulting replenishment of water reserves should foster an expansion of secondary rabi (winter) crop, the rains may have come too late for the main kharif (summer) crop to be unscathed," it added.
The past few months of the 2012 season were dominated by concern over a possible recurrence of an El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather anomaly and slow progress of the monsoon rains in India, it said.
"However, in August and September, India's fears were tempered by more generous pattern of the rainfall, and meteorological centre's predictions reverted back to a weak
or neutral ENSO," it added.
According to the
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Australia's “exceptional” heatwave has produced record-breaking temperatures, with at least six of the first seven days of 2013 among the top 20 hottest days in the past century.
The extreme January heat has prompted the Bureau of Meteorology to issue a special climate statement, with further updates planned as the scorching temperatures continue.
Data for Monday is still to be fully analysed by the weather bureau, but it may be the hottest of the series and could generate a record average maximum beyond the 40.17 degrees reached on December 21, 1972.
Such a result would make it six days in a row when the national average has been above 39 degrees; tomorrow is expected to make it seven. Prior to this series, the longest run of 39 degrees or more was four days, in 1973.
“This event is ongoing with significant records likely to be set,” the bureau statement said. “A particular feature of this heatwave event has been the exceptional spatial extent of high temperatures.”
The final four months of 2012 were the hottest on record for Australia and January is making an early run at adding to the sequence of especially hot weather.
“Australia-wide, and for individual states, we are currently well above average by many degrees,” said Aaron Coutts-Smith, the bureau's NSW manager for climate services.
Sydney is set to cop its first major blast of the searing heat that has grilled much of Australia for the past week, with 43 degrees forecast.
Today's 40-degree prediction for Perth is one sign that any relief for the bulk of central and southern Australia from the current sweltering temperatures will be shortlived.
“We are seeing that re-intensification” of the heat, said Dr Coutts-Smith.
Melbourne, which is expecting 31 degrees today will feel chilly on Wednesday with a maximum of just 20 degrees before the mercury starts climbing back to 37 degrees on Friday, the bureau predicts.
The data for national averages shows the maximum reached 39.2 on January 2, 39.6 on January 3, 39.3 on January 4, 39.3 on January 5 and 39.6 on January 6.
Interestingly, none of the states has broken individual maximum highs, at least in the data until January 6, underscoring how large in size the overall weather pattern is. The weather bureau's manager for climate monitoring, Karl Braganza on Monday described the event as a "dome of heat" over the continent.
NSW, which is likely to endure extreme temperatures today, has to exceed 44.1 degrees on average to beat the record set on January 14, 1939. This year, the hottest day was on January 5 when maximums averaged 41.1 degrees, with Hay Airport hitting 47.9 degrees, according to data up until January 6.
For Victoria, the hottest day on record was 44.5 degrees on Black Saturday, February 7, 2009, when bushfires left 173 people dead. In the current spate of heat, the hottest day was January 4 when temperatures across the state averaged 41.2 degrees.
Up until January 6, Yarrawonga had posted the hottest temperature in the state at 45.7 degrees on January 5, while Portland's 42.1 on the previous day was a new daily maximum for that location, the bureau said.
Nationwide, the hottest single temperature recorded during the heat - up to January 6 - has been the 48.6 degrees reached at Red Rocks Point in WA on Jauary 3. That's about 2 degrees below the 50.7 degrees all-time record set on January 2, 1960.
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In fact, the United States apparently just emerged from the hottest spring on record.
The period between June 2011 and May of this year was the warmest on record since NOAA record keeping began in 1985. Aside from Washington, every state experienced higher-than-average temperatures during that period, which also featured the second-warmest summer and fourth-warmest winter in almost 28 years.
The nation's average temperature during those 12 months hovered at 56 degrees Fahrenheit, reportedly 3.2 degrees above the long-term average, surpassing the previous record, which was just set in April, in an analysis of temperatures between May 2011 and April 2012. The warmer-than-average conditions persisted through the winter and spring, resulting in a limited snowfall that the Rutgers Global Snow Lab reports was the third-smallest on record for the contiguous U.S.
The rising temperatures may have altered precipitation patterns as well, according to NOAA. While the country as a whole actually experienced a drier spring than usual, the West Coast, Northern Plains and Upper Midwest regions were simultaneously wetter than average.
On a more concerning note, the prevalence of natural disasters, such as the disastrous tornado in Joplin, Mo., and the massive, hurricane-caused flooding in Vermont, that plagued the country over the past year were also far form usual. The U.S. Climate Extreme Index, which tracks extremes in temperatures, precipitation, drought and tropical cyclones, reached 44 percent this past spring. That's twice the average value.
The NOAA report is not the only recent analysis to note the prevalence, and consequences, of rising temperatures. On Thursday, NASA reported that scientists have discovered unprecedented blooms of plant life beneath the waters of the Arctic Ocean. While that certainly does not seem like cause for concern, NASA noted it was likely caused by a thinning of the Arctic Ocean's three-foot thick layer of ice, allowing the sun to penetrate that ice to foster plant life under the sea.
A continuous rise in summer temperatures is expected to triple the number of heat-related deaths in the U.S. by the end of the century, the Natural Resources Defense Council reported last month. In an analysis of peer-reviewed data, the organization said summer temperatures could rise by 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by that time due to human-induced climate change, which could increase the number of summer heat-related deaths from 1,300 to 4,600 a year.
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The satellite images displayed are infrared (IR) images. Warmest (lowest) clouds are shown in white; coldest (highest) clouds are displayed in shades of yellow, red, and purple. Imagery is obtained from the GOES and METEOSAT geostationary satellites, and the two US Polar Orbiter (POES) satellites. POES satellites orbit the earth 14 times each day at an altitude of approximately 520 miles (870 km). As each orbit is made the satellite can view a 1,600 mile (2,700 km) wide area of the earth. Due to the rotation of the earth the satellite is able to view every spot on earth twice each day. Data from multiple orbits are mosaicked together to provide wide scale global and full earth views in a single image. Occasional dark triangular areas that occur on POES images are a result of gaps in data transmitted from the orbiters.
A weather satellite
is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather
of the Earth. These meteorological satellites, however, see more than clouds
and cloud systems
. City lights, fires, effects of pollution, auroras, sand and dust storms, snow cover
, ice mapping, boundaries of ocean
currents, energy flows, etc., are other types of environmental information collected using weather satellites.
Weather satellite images helped in monitoring the volcanic ash cloud from Mount St. Helens and activity from other volcanoes such as Mount Etna. Smoke from fires in the western United States such as Colorado and Utah have also been monitored.
Other environmental satellites can detect changes in the Earth's vegetation, sea
color, and ice fields. For example, the 2002 oil spill off the northwest coast of Spain was watched carefully by the European ENVISAT, which, though not a weather satellite, flies an instrument (ASAR) which can see changes in the sea surface
El Niño and its effects on weather are monitored daily from satellite images. The Antarctic ozone hole is mapped from weather satellite data. Collectively, weather satellites flown by the U.S., Europe, India, China, Russia, and Japan provide nearly continuous observations
for a global weather
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Information contained on this page is provided by an independent third-party content provider. WorldNow and this Station make no warranties or representations in connection therewith. If you have any questions or comments about this page please contact email@example.com.
SOURCE Ford Motor Company
DEARBORN, Mich., March 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Ford reduced the average amount of water used to make each vehicle by 8.5 percent between 2011 and 2012 – putting the company more than halfway toward its current goal of using an average of just 4 cubic meters per vehicle globally by 2015.
Since 2000, Ford has reduced the amount of water it uses in everything from cooling towers to parts washing and paint operations by 10.6 billion gallons, or 62 percent. That's equal to the amount of water used by nearly 99,000 U.S. residences annually, or enough to fill 16,000 Olympic-size pools. Ford's reduced consumption rates mean even more to regions around the world struggling with water-related issues like drought and extensive population growth.
Ford's water reduction success is a result of the company's commitment to reduce the amount of water it uses by aggressively monitoring and managing just about every drop of water going into and out of its facilities and properties, says Andy Hobbs, director, Environmental Quality Office.
Since 2000, Ford decreased the total amount of water used around the world annually from 64 million cubic meters to 24 million cubic meters.
"That's about 10.6 billion gallons of water that was conserved and went to use somewhere else," says Hobbs.
Ford voluntarily launched its Global Water Management Initiative in 2000, putting in place ways to manage water conservation, quality and reuse of storm and process water. Ford's water strategy complements the company's overall Code of Human Rights, Basic Working Conditions and Corporate Responsibilities.
"Ford recognizes the critical importance of water, and is committed to conserving water and using it responsibly," says Robert Brown, vice president, Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering. "Many vehicle manufacturing processes require water and the resource is used at every point in our supply chain."
Ford aims to use an average of 1,056 gallons of water to make each vehicle globally – consistent with its overall goal of a 30 percent reduction in the amount of water used per vehicle between 2009 and 2015. That is slightly more than the 1,000 gallons fire engine tankers in the U.S. are required to contain in their tanks. One cubic meter of water is equal to 264 gallons.
Continuing the progress
Ford had a positive impact on the world's water supply in many ways during 2012. The Ford Fund, for example, supported 19 different water-related projects in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, India, Germany and South Africa.
One project in arid Southwest China, for instance, involved 60 Ford employees from Nanjing, who helped eight families build water cellars designed to capture water during the rainy season to store and use during drier times of the year.
At the same time, Ford's biggest water-related projects were within its own facilities and included:
These accomplishments reflect Ford's overall approach to water use, which emphasizes several goals:
More information about Ford's water use-related efforts can be found in the company's annual sustainability report that is released annually every June. The most recent version can be found here.
About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F), a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 171,000 employees and 65 plants worldwide, the company's automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford and its products worldwide, please visit http://corporate.ford.com.
©2012 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved.
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The aviation sector is renowned as a carbon intensive business, but an increasing number of airports are looking to change that by integrating the latest green-tech into their daily operations.
Air travel and transport accounts for two percent of all human generated greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- with airports contributing five percent to the overall aviation figure.
By adapting clean energy policies and technologies, eco-conscious airport operators hope to make a dent in these numbers and boost the industry's environmental street-cred.
"We are making our airports greener, while balancing the tremendous economic impacts they deliver for our region," says Amy Malick, deputy commissioner of sustainability for the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), which will host the fifth annual Airports Going Green conference this November.
The conference provides a platform for over 400 airport executives and green thinkers from around the world to present programs, strategies, and lessons-learned regarding airport sustainability.
"(We are) committed to implementing sustainable initiatives at our airports that enhance the quality of life for citizens," she adds.
Malick highlights how the CDA has installed over 230,000 square feet of vegetated roof space at Chicago O'Hare and Midway International Airport, ensured all Chicago airport trucks are fueled with ultra-low sulfur diesel gas and insisted recycled materials are utilized in all airports when possible.
As a result, the CDA has saved 76,000 tons of CO2 from being pumped out by Chicago's airports alone, she claims.
Across the U.S. like-minded schemes are taking off with increasing regularity. Airports such as Boston Logan and Denver International now generate a small percentage of their energy requirements from renewable energy sources (such as on site wind and solar).
In Europe meanwhile 64 airports have joined the Airport Carbon Accreditation program, which recognizes innovative eco-airport efforts. A further five sites have signed up to the scheme in Asia.
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On February 1st, the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the “Convention”) announced the pledges made by countries under the Copenhagen Accord (the “Accord”). Developed country parties to the Accord pledged greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets to be achieved by 2020. Most notably, developing country parties to the Accord also pledged mitigation actions. By the January 31st deadline, pledges had been provided by countries representing approximately 80% of global GHG emissions.
pledges made under the Accord
Adhering to legislation passed in its House of Representatives, the U.S. pledged a 17% reduction from 2005 levels.1 Canada also pledged a 17% reduction from 2005 levels, “to be aligned with the final economy-wide emissions target of the United States in enacted legislation.”2 Like Canada, many parties made pledges contingent on action by others. The European Union, for example, pledged to reduce its emissions 20% below 1990 levels, or by 30% should other parties make comparable commitments.
As an example of a mitigation action pledge of a developing country, China pledged to lower its carbon intensity (per unit GDP) by 40-45% by 2020, to increase to 15% the share of non-fossil fuels used in primary energy consumption, and to increase its forest coverage and forest stock volume.3 In comments following the announcement of the pledges, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, Todd Stern has made it clear that the U.S. expects of developing countries, stronger mitigation actions than those contained in the Accord.4
the 2009 UN climate change conference
The Accord was the outcome of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties (the “Conference”) to the Convention,5 attended by yours truly. In an unprecedented display of the prominence that climate change is gaining on the world stage, the Conference was attended by 115 heads of state and over 40,000 delegates.
The stage that was the Conference was not without its share of theatrics. When the leaders arrived in the final days to find that little progress had been made, the drama moved behind the scenes. In a telling moment, frustrated by negotiating only with Chinese Premier Wen’s aides, U.S. President Obama walked in on a private meeting between Wen and the leaders of Brazil, India, and South Africa.6 It was largely these five major economies that would go on to produce the Accord, which calls for any global temperature increase to be limited to two degrees Celsius.7
However the parties to the Convention’s Kyoto Protocol (the “Protocol”), the first commitment period of which ends in 2012, were unable to agree to its extension. The lack of consensus leaves in suspension the status of the Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the value of the Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) generated by thousands of projects thereunder. The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), which held a parallel conference, nevertheless remains optimistic: “an international injection of increased demand remains a strong possibility over investment timescales but still has to be treated as an upside rather than a given.”8
back on the home front
As mentioned above, Canada’s climate change policy is explicitly tied to that of the United States. 2009 saw in the U.S. the passage in the House of Representatives of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (“Waxman-Markey”). Waxman-Markey calls for a 17% reduction of emissions below 2005 levels by 2020 and provides for the trading of allowances.9 Debate in the U.S. Senate of the similar Kerry-Boxer bill is nominally scheduled for debate this spring, though it may be 2011 before it comes to a floor vote. Tri-partisan senators John Kerry (D), Lindsey Graham (R) and Joe Lieberman (I) have taken it upon themselves to ensure passage of a climate (or “energy independence”) bill.
For many U.S. senators, any climate legislation must be accompanied by developing country emissions reductions and the international verification thereof. As China and others are less keen on international monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), the Accord features compromise language. Countries will communicate their actions “with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines that will ensure national sovereignty is respected.”10 In any case, with more than two thirds of Americans supporting the regulation of GHG emissions,11 the passage of legislation through Congress and, consequently, Canadian federal regulation, may be on the horizon.
International climate change negotiations will occur in a number of fora this year. While the sixteenth Conference of the Parties will occur in December in Cancun, one might now wonder how much can be expected of 192-party negotiations. In June, Canada will host the G8 and G20 summits, and it is rumoured that climate change policy may be included on the agenda.12 Finally, it is likely that a second meeting of the Major Economies Forum will occur later this year to discuss climate policy.13
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My Beef With Meat
If it has a face, it probably gobbles up global resources along with its grass
By Stett Holbrook
Last month, the federal government released a much-anticipated report on global climate change. It paints a chilling picture of what will happen if global warming continues unabated. "This report is a game-changer," said the new director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jane Lubchenco, at a press conference last week. "I think that much of the foot-dragging in addressing climate change is a reflection of the perception that climate change is way down the road, it's in the future and it only affects certain parts of the country. This report demonstrates in concrete scientific information that climate change is happening now, and it's happening in our back yards."
The report, issued by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, compiles work from 13 different government agencies. In a refreshing break from the science-averse Bush administration, the report states unequivocally that climate change is human caused. The report details changes scientists are already seeing and predicts how the climate will change if greenhouse-gas emissions aren't curtailed. The report also discusses how decisive policies can roll back the impending doom. (Read the report at globalchange.gov.) Here are two of the key findings:
• Climate changes are under way in the United States and are projected to grow. These include increases in heavy downpours, rising temperature and sea level, rapidly retreating glaciers, thawing permafrost, lengthening growing seasons, lengthening ice-free seasons in the ocean and on lakes and rivers, earlier snowmelt and alterations in river flows.
• Agriculture is considered one of the sectors most adaptable to changes in climate, but increased heat, pests, water stress, diseases and weather extremes will pose adaptation challenges for crop and livestock production.
There have been many reports on global warming and dire predictions from respected scientists. So far not much has changed. I hope that President Obama uses the power of his position to spur the dramatic and speedy action needed to reduce the profound impacts of the crisis. The challenge Obama faces is convincing people that the time to change our ways is today, not tomorrow. The trouble is, we don't usually realize we're in trouble until the roof starts caving in. For example, only when we faced global financial meltdown did world leaders act. A global recession is real and painful, but compared to the apocalyptic effects of unchecked global warming, it's but a pinprick.
What does all this have to do with food? Well, while the U.S. government appears to be finally getting serious about acting against global warming, we the people need to do as much as we can. Food strikes me as particularly target-rich as we seek to reduce global warming. I see reducing our consumption of meat as the single most important action we can take as individuals. I've come to view a double bacon cheeseburger as the culinary equivalent of dumping dirty motor oil into a clear mountain lake. If eating burgers was only detrimental to those who eat them that would be one thing, but the production of meat and dairy across the world is an environmental catastrophe.
I'm a firm believer in spending more for quality, food included. But eating well shouldn't be prohibitively expensive. I guess it's all in how one defines "eating well." For me, that means little or no processed food and plenty of fresh produce in season. Food is of course a necessary expense, but there's a lot of discretion on how to spend your food dollar. But the ironic thing about food when you buy fresh, unprocessed ingredients and cook for yourself rather than opening a can or box, eating well generally costs less. At least that's my belief.
According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases, more than transportation. Animal agriculture is the leading source of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which--combined with carbon dioxide--are the primary causes of global warming. Livestock production accounts for more than 8 percent of global human water use, the FAO says. Evidence suggests that it is also the largest source of water pollution thanks to animal wastes, antibiotics, hormones, fertilizers and pesticides used for feed crops, and sediments from eroded pastures. An estimated 30 percent of the Earth's ice-free land is involved in livestock production. Approximately 70 percent of previously forested land in the Amazon is used as pasture, and feed crops cover a large part of what's left.
Eating organically raised, grass-feed beef is a far better option than the factory-farmed garbage that most of us eat. But organically raised or not, livestock still sucks up scarce natural resources and contributes to global warming. I'm not saying we should give up meat entirely. Just eat less of it. Given the severity of the climate crisis, reducing our consumption of meat is a painless step everyone can take. What if President Obama declared he was willing to go without meat a few days a week for the sake of the planet? I'm not holding my breath for that one, but more often than not I'm going to hold off on eating meat.
Send a letter to the editor about this story.
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http://www.metcruz.com/bohemian/07.08.09/eats-0927.html
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Air pollution health alert and advisory issued through Wednesday, March 10
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued an air pollution health ALERT for today and tomorrow, March 8 and 9 and an air pollution health ADVISORY for Wednesday, March 10 for the Twin Cities and Rochester area. The Air Quality Index values (AQI) in the Twin Cities exceeds the level considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Dense fog overnight, which aids in fine particle production, and calm winds, have allowed fine particle concentrations to build to levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. Fine particle levels are expected to gradually fall this afternoon as the fog dissipates. However, calm winds and high relative humidity will continue to trap pollutants, keeping air quality conditions unhealthy for sensitive groups. Weather conditions are supposed to improve the air quality to good AQI levels by Thursday, March 11.
Those who have respiratory or cardiovascular problems, young children, the elderly, and individuals whom are physically active are considered especially sensitive to elevated levels of air pollution. Be prepared to postpone or reduce vigorous activity. Ozone and fine particles can be drawn deeply into the lungs, so reduce activities that lead to deep or accelerated breathing. Even individuals that are otherwise healthy may experience health effects when air pollutant levels increase.
How you can help:
Residents can take simple steps to help reduce emissions that create smog. Motor vehicle emissions contribute to fine particle pollution. To lower levels of air pollution, the MPCA is urging residents to use alternate modes of transportation such as mass transit, car pools, biking and walking to work or shop.
Other measures that will help reduce emissions on days when the Index reaches 100 and above include:
1. Limit driving - share a ride to work and postpone errands until the next day.
2. Don’t idle your vehicle for more than three minutes**
3. Refuel your vehicle after 6 p.m.
4. Leave your car at home and walk, bike, carpool or take public transportation whenever you can.
5. Postpone using other gasoline-powered engines, like garden and recreational equipment.
6. Postpone indoor and outdoor recreational fires.
7. To reduce the demand on power plants, turn off as many electric items as possible.
8. If you fall in the sensitive group category, arrange to work indoors for the day.
**The City of Minneapolis approved limits on vehicle idling that aim to reduce air pollution in Minneapolis. The ordinance, which was passed in 2008, limits most vehicle idling to three minutes, except in traffic. Reducing vehicle idling in Minneapolis translates into less air pollution, protecting the public health and the environment and saving money in fuel. Vehicle motors release particulate matter, dirt, nitrous oxides, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide into the air.
Published Mar. 8, 2010
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You're using more water than you think
A water footprint is the total volume of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed. Here are some ways to lighten your water footprint.
Fri, Aug 31 2012 at 11:28 AM
Prodded by environmental consciousness — or penny pinching — you installed low-flow showerheads and fixed all the drippy facets. Knowing that your manicured lawn was sucking down an unnatural amount of water — nearly 7 billion gallons of water is used to irrigate home landscaping, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — you ripped up the turf and replaced it with native plants.
You’re still using a lot more water than you think.
The drought of 2012 has generated images of parched landscapes and sun-baked lakebeds. At least 36 states are projecting water shortages between now and 2013, according to a survey by the federal General Accounting Office. Water supplies are finite, and fickle.
Water, we all know, is essential to life. It is also essential to agriculture, industry, energy and the production of trendy T-shirts. We all use water in ways that go way beyond the kitchen and bathroom. The measure of both direct and indirect water use is known as the water footprint.
Your water footprint is the total volume of freshwater used to produce the goods and services consumed, according to the Water Footprint Network, an international nonprofit foundation based in the Netherlands. The Water Footprint Network has crunched the numbers and developed an online calculator to help you determine the size of your footprint.
You’ll be astonished to know how much water you’re using … once you’ve converted all those metric measurements into something you can understand.
The average American home uses about 260 gallons of water per day, according to the EPA.
That quarter-pound burger you just gobbled down? More than 600 gallons of water.
That Ramones T-shirt? More than 700 gallons.
So, adjustments to your diet and buying habits can have a much greater impact on the size of your water footprint than taking 40-second showers.
A pound of beef, for example, takes nearly 1,800 gallons of water to produce, with most of that going to irrigate the grains and grass used to feed the cattle. A pound of chicken demands just 468 gallons. If you really want to save water, eat more goat. A pound of goat requires 127 gallons of water.
We’ve been told to cut down on our use of paper to save the forests, but going paperless also saves water. It takes more than 1,300 gallons of water to produce a ream of copy paper.
Even getting treated water to your house requires electricity. Letting your faucet run for five minutes, the EPA says, uses about as much energy as burning a 60-watt light bulb for 14 hours. Reducing your water footprint also reduces your carbon footprint, the amount of greenhouse gases your lifestyle contributes to the atmosphere and global warming.
So, you could say that conserving water is more than hot air. It’s connected to almost everything you do.
Related water stories on MNN:
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If a powerful hurricane slams the Louisiana coast during the Republican National Convention, the resonances with Katrina will be bad enough. But the storm would also showcase the GOP’s position on climate change, which is, increasingly, to deny the scientific consensus that fossil-fuel pollution contributes to a warming atmosphere and destructive weather patterns—including stronger hurricanes.
Although scientists caution that no single weather event can be attributed directly to climate change, major events such as Katrina and this summer’s drought fire up a debate that has become more incendiary in recent years as more Republican lawmakers doubt climate science.
The question of whether the GOP accepts climate science didn’t come up in 2008, when Hurricane Gustav slammed into the Gulf Coast during the party’s Minnesota convention. That’s because the nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, believed in climate change and professed a desire to solve it.
Since then, the mainstream GOP view is to deny the scientific findings that link man-made pollution to climate change, and Mitt Romney has publicly walked back his onetime position that humans contribute to warming. Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan has also questioned the science.
But stronger hurricanes are among the most serious consequences of climate change induced by the burning of fossil fuels (the Romney campaign favors such burning), and the Gulf Coast is likely to experience the worst effects, according to a 2012 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a 2009 report authored by 13 federal agencies.
Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has authored one of many reports on the increasing frequency of high-intensity hurricanes, said that the data link warming air and water surfaces to stronger, more devastating hurricanes.
“As the temperature of the tropical ocean increases, you see greater intensity and the frequency of intense storms goes up,” Emanuel said.
Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University and a member of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the science shows clearly that reducing oil, coal, and gas pollution could help prevent damage related to climate change. “There’s a risk, which scientists have identified, that it’s likely we’ll have more strong hurricanes, and one of the things we can do to prepare is reduce fossil-fuel emissions,” he said. “It’s just like building levees.”
Environmentalists are targeting Republicans for their views. Around Tampa, the Florida Wildlife Federation has posted billboards of prominent Republicans, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who have acknowledged climate change as a problem and called for solutions.
“We think this is one of the most important policy issues that there is,” said Federation President Manley Fuller. “It’s treated as a partisan issue, and it should not be. The billboards remind Republicans of what well-known Republicans have said about this.”
Last week, the League of Conservation Voters launched a $1.5 million campaign to defeat five House Republicans who deny the science of climate change. The “Flat Earth Five” campaign is the first time the League has targeted a group of lawmakers explicitly because of their positions on climate.
Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM & PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.
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http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/as-isaac-bears-down-little-talk-of-climate-change-20120827
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Oct. 9, 1998 COLUMBIA, Mo.--Ducks, geese and bald eagles soaring over areas the size of small towns are envisioned when talking about federally protected wetlands, not areas that are maybe as big as a small swimming pool and apparently void of life. University of Missouri-Columbia Professor Ray Semlitsch is trying to change that view and explain the importance of smaller wetlands before they are managed out of existence.
"Large wetlands are beautiful and need to be protected, but for some animal species such as frogs, toads and salamanders, it is small wetlands that support greater species diversity," said Semlitsch, who along with his graduate research assistant, Russ Bodie, recently published their research in Conservation Biology. "These smaller, temporary wetlands--because they are dry at certain times during the year--are much harder to appreciate than vast marsh areas. But without these smaller wetlands, it is very possible that much of the animal and plant life that make wetlands rich, productive habitats would not survive. We need to worry about the conservation of smaller wetlands as well as the larger ones."
Small wetlands currently are defined as being less than 4 hectares, or about 8 to 9 acres. The majority of the nation's wetlands are much smaller than might be imagined, closer to 1 to 2 acres and sometimes as small as several square yards. These small wetlands may comprise the majority of wetlands in the United States and help support a vast diversity of wetland species. However, unlike the large wetlands, these smaller areas are not protected to the same extent.
Recently, the Army Corp of Engineers, which manages wetlands of all sizes throughout the United States, drafted regulations that will change the way wetlands are managed in the future. They have put off any change in management regulations until April, but the MU researchers argue that the changes in the regulations could manage these smaller wetlands out of existence.
"Right now we can't detect losses of small wetlands by satellite imagery, a technique used to assess environmental change," Bodie said. "We lose thousands of acres each year in wetlands and these smaller ones are not even taken into account. Yet, they play a vital role in the ecosystem and support a great variety of organisms."
Research done by Semlitsch and Bodie has indicated that when some individuals of a species move between wetlands, this increases their chances of survival. By populating many different wetlands, various species thrive, even during drought years when some wetlands are dry. When smaller wetlands are destroyed, the chances of survival for many species' populations may decrease dramatically because distances between individual wetlands become longer, making movement between wetlands more difficult. These small wetland breeding sites for amphibians are especially critical in light of purported world-wide declines, Semlitsch said.
Wetlands in general also have direct benefits to humans as they filter out chemicals and silt, buffer lands from flooding, and are a favorite of hunters and fishers. They also are very costly and difficult to develop for construction or other purposes.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University Of Missouri, Columbia.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/10/981009081539.htm
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Giant Water Scavenger Beetle
|Geographical Range||North America|
|Scientific Name||Hydrophilus triangularis|
|Conservation Status||Not listed by IUCN|
The name says it all. This large beetle lives in water, where it scavenges vegetation and insect parts. The insect can store a supply of air within its silvery belly, much like a deep-sea diver stores air in a tank.
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http://www.stlzoo.org/animals/abouttheanimals/invertebrates/insects/beetles/giantwaterscavengerbeetle/
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They are not expecting any angry birds, but bird-watchers are already seeing evidence of what is expected to be a major invasion of hungry birds winging through the region.
Normally content to hang out in the deep forests of Canada, grosbeaks, pine siskins, finches, redpolls and other seed-eaters are winging their way south, hoping to find something to eat. The tree seed crop, normally plentiful in the forests of Ontario and Quebec, has in some cases failed completely, causing what is known as a bird irruption.
“The invasion is under way,” said David Small, president of the Athol Bird and Nature Club and one of the Central Massachusetts bird count leaders. “I had redpolls Sunday at the home feeder, which don't show up every year, and often not until January or February.”
Mr. Small, who is a supervisor at the Quabbin Reservoir, said he has been seeing pine grosbeaks at the reservoir headquarters and several locations. Central Massachusetts birders also report seeing white-winged and red crossbills.
“I was at Plum Island and Salisbury in early November and saw 250-plus white-winged crossbills,” he said. “So a big year is upon us. I can't recall a year it started this early with such diversity and large numbers.”
Based on data from ornithologists in Ontario, the National Audubon Society issued a winter bird warning — not really warning of disaster — that because there is so little to eat up north, a bird invasion is under way. The warning was issued more for the interest of those who will take part in the Audubon's Christmas Bird Count, which takes place all over the country from Dec. 14 through Jan. 5. The bird count often offers up data to support what ornithologists are predicting based on climate conditions. The seed crop failure may have been connected to a lack of rainfall. Central and Eastern Canada experienced long-term drought conditions this year.
Over the years, some species of seed-eating birds have been seen in small numbers; some are not seen for several years at a time, but the region saw a flood of pine siskins pass through in October and November. The birds enjoyed what they could get from the limited number of feeders out in Central Massachusetts at the time and headed off, possibly making their way as far south as North and South Carolina.
This year's small bird irruption followed a banner year for the eye candy of wild birds — snowy owls. The large white raptors were seen throughout the country as they, too, went off in search of food.
Irruptions occur regularly when food supplies of various types are disrupted. In the case of the owls, it was a lack of small mammals for them to eat.
Local birders have been keeping close watch on the ebb and flow of species. Recently there have been reports on WPI's Central Massachusetts Bird Update list of pine grosbeaks at Quaboag Pond in Brookfield and Worcester Airport. There have also been large numbers of pine grosbeaks seen in downtown Westminster, Royalston Common and several areas of Gardner and Lunenburg.
Bill Cormier, co-owner of The Bird Store and More in Sturbridge, said bird activity has been very active this early winter.
“There was a big wave of pine siskins that came through here earlier in the season,” he said.
Mr. Cormier said he is interested to see what is collected during the Sturbridge Christmas Bird Count, set for Dec. 18. The count will be led by local bird observer Mark Lynch; after 24 hours of recording birds, volunteers will report their data to compilers at The Bird Store.
Along with bird counts in Athol and Sturbridge, there will be counts in Worcester, Uxbridge and Westminster.
Feeders are an important part of the bird-count effort, and Mr. Cormier said he recommends black oil sunflower seeds with some nuts mixed in.
“Nuts are a major ingredient,” he said.
The birds expected or already seen in this irruption are mostly regular sights in Central Massachusetts, although in smaller numbers, but a few are fairly rare.
“We rarely get a hoary redpoll,” Mr. Small said.
The hoary redpoll's range is mostly no farther south than the Canadian border, but Mr. Small said even it is a possibility this year.
The Athol and Worcester Christmas Bird Counts will be held Dec. 15, Westminster will be Dec. 23 and Quabbin and Uxbridge will be Dec. 29.
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WAKING the GIANT Bill McGuire
While we transmit more than two million tweets a day and nearly one hundred trillion emails each year, we're also emitting record amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Bill McGuire, professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, expects our continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions to awaken a slumbering giant: the Earth's crust. In Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanoes (Oxford University Press), he explains that when the Earth's crust (or geosphere) becomes disrupted from rising temperatures and a C[O.sub.2]-rich atmosphere, natural disasters strike more frequently and with catastrophic force.
Applying a "straightforward presentation of what we know about how climate and the geosphere interact," the book links previous warming periods 20,000 to 5,000 years ago with a greater abundance of tsunamis, landslides, seismic activity and volcanic eruptions. McGuire urgently warns of the "tempestuous future of our own making" as we progressively inch toward a similar climate.
Despite his scientific testimony to Congress stating "what is going on in the Arctic now is the biggest and fastest thing that Nature has ever done" and the "incontrovertible" data that the Earth's climate draws lively response from the geosphere, brutal weather events are still not widely seen as being connected to human influence. Is our global population sleepwalking toward imminent destruction, he asks, until "it is obvious, even to the most entrenched denier, that our climate is being transformed?"
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SEA level rises and climate change are linked, say top scientists as they prepare the next major global climate change update.
More than 250 experts from 39 countries are in Hobart this week to review the latest draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report including a new chapter on sea level.
The co-ordinating lead author on the new chapter, CSIRO's Dr John Church, said sea level is clearly linked to climate change.
"The sea level is rising, the rate of the rise has increased and will continue to increase," he said.
He said the rate had increased from a few tenths of a millimetre a year before the 20th century to more than 3mm a year in the past 20 years.
"It's clear the rate of sea level rise has already increased," he said.
"Whether that 3mm is a further acceleration or not is yet unclear but we do expect a further acceleration during the 21st century and it's clearly linked to greater levels of greenhouse gases."
He said thermal expansion because of ocean warming and the melting of glaciers were two key causes of sea level rise.
CSIRO's Dr Steve Rintoul, who is involved with the report's ocean observations chapter, said oceans were very important for climate because of the amount of heat they absorbed and stored.
He said the temperature of the ocean surface had increased by 0.3-0.5C over the past 50 years.
"There's no disputing the oceans are warming," he said.
"It's clear from the published literature that greenhouse gases as well as natural variability have contributed to this observed warming of the ocean."
He said oceans around Tasmania were changing, with recordings showing that temperatures around Maria Island have increased by 1.5C over the past 60 years.
"It's a very large number compared with other parts of the ocean," he said.
The Hobart conference is the last meeting before scientists prepare the final draft of the IPCC report's physical science section. The final report will be submitted in September.
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At Walmart, we talk a lot about learning from one another and working in partnership to create global change. A recent report, “Smart Moves,” examines some of the best practices by companies working to cut emissions from transportation.
Emissions from freight transportation are no small problem. The report’s author, Jason Mathers of the Environmental Defense Fund, points out that freight emissions are expected “to increase 74 percent from 2005 to 2035” in the U.S. Mathers’ report looks at some of the best strategies and most creative thinking at work today to cut pollution caused by shipping.
Justin Gerdes’ Forbes commentary highlights the report and notes that “any CEO concerned about his or her company’s carbon footprint must account for shipping’s growing contribution to climate change…” As Gerdes points out, the report is loaded with statistics about shipping emissions as well as examples of smart moves by companies that reduced emissions and saved money at the same time. Here’s what he highlighted about Walmart:
Wal-Mart: Direct shipment
Wal-Mart worked with Minute Maid to eliminate one stop in the chain used to deliver Minute Maid’s Simply Orange Juice to Wal-Mart distribution centers. Now, the product moves directly from a production facility in Florida to Wal-Mart distribution centers. Eliminating delivery to Minute Maid’s own distribution centers slashed CO2 emissions by 1,500 metric tons annually and added six days to the shelf life of the orange juice.
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http://www.walmartgreenroom.com/2012/02/forbes-how-nike-wal-mart-and-ikea-save-money-and-slash-carbon-by-shipping-smarter/
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What is Rainwater Harvesting?
Rainwater harvesting is an ancient practice of catching and holding rain for later use. In a rainwater harvesting system, rain is gathered from a building rooftop or other source and is held in large containers for future use, such as watering gardens or washing cars. This practice reduces the demand on water resources and is excellent during times of drought.
Why is it Important?
In addition to reducing the demand on our water sources (especially important during drought), rainwater harvesting also helps prevent water pollution. Surprised?
Here’s why: the success of the 1972 Clean Water Act has meant that the greatest threat to New York’s waterbodies comes not from industrial sources, but rather through the small actions we all make in our daily lives. For example, in a rain storm, the oil, pesticides, animal waste, and litter from our lawns, sidewalks, driveways, and streets are washed down into our sewers. This is called non-point source (NPS) pollution because the pollutants come from too many sources to be identified. Rainwater harvesting diverts water from becoming polluted stormwater; instead, this captured rainwater may be used to irrigate gardens near where it falls.
In New York City, keeping rainwater out of the sewer system is very important. That’s because the city has an old combined sewer system that uses the same pipes to transport both household waste and stormwater to sewage treatment plants. During heavy rains, the system overloads; then untreated sewage and contaminated stormwater overflow into our rivers and estuary, with serious consequences:
Who is Harvesting Rainwater in New York City?
Back in 2002, a drought emergency pushed many community gardens to the brink of extinction. For the first time in twenty years, community gardeners were denied permission to use fire hydrants, the primary source of water for most community gardens. This crisis led to the formation of the Water Resources Group (WRG), an open collaboration of community gardening and environmental organizations. With help from the WRG, rainwater harvesting systems have now been built as demonstration sites in twenty NYC community gardens.
At community gardens that harvest rainwater, rain is diverted from the gutters of adjacent buildings and is stored in tanks in the gardens. A 1-inch rainfall on a 1,000-square-foot roof produces 600 gallons of water. The tanks are mosquito proof, so the standing water does not encourage West Nile virus. Because rainwater is chlorine free, it is better than tap water for plant growth, meaning healthier plants. And it’s free!
What are Other Cities Doing?
Many cities have adopted creative, low-cost ways to stop wasting rainwater by diverting it from their sewage systems and putting it to use where it falls. Here are some examples:
What Can I Do?
Spread the word! Educate those around you on the importance of lifestyle decisions.
Tell people not to litter, dump oil down storm drains, or overfertilize their lawns.
Install a rainwater harvesting system at your home, school, business, or local community center.
Contact your local elected officials, and let them know you support rainwater harvesting!
Supporting rainwater harvesting Jade Boat Loans
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by Bruce Boyers,
Our system of factory agriculture is exacting a great toll on our planet: 40 percent of the land and 70 percent of the fresh water on Earth is devoted to the growing of food, which, in the process, creates some 30 percent of greenhouse gases. Compounding these issues is the fact that commercial produce is often transported thousands or even tens of thousands of miles to its point of sale, consuming tons of fossil fuel. It is evident that our current agricultural model is a failed experiment in search of a more sustainable solution.
In an effort to bring needed fresh produce closer to home with far greater sustainability, a movement in urban agriculture is rapidly gaining momentum. New York City, having such a large and diverse population, is a metropolis ripe for green urban agriculture and is now home to an innovative commercial operation called Gotham Greens.
Gotham Greens has now gone into full production and is providing much-needed locally and sustainably grown produce for the greater New York City area. "My partners and I had a vision for a local farm operation here in New York City that could provide New Yorkers-which would include restaurants, retailers and consumers-with premium quality, fresh, nutritious culinary herbs and greens, salad greens and lettuces," Puri said. "They would be grown year round so that we could reliably and consistently supply our customers with local produce. Obviously our climate in New York doesn't support year-round agriculture of a lot of these crops, so we thought we would try to do something in a greenhouse. A greenhouse climate allows you to potentially grow year round, at the same time protecting crops against extreme or detrimental weather events."
Gotham Greens was founded in 2008 by Puri and Eric Haley; then in 2009 Jennifer Nelkin joined as a partner to head all greenhouse operations. Puri himself had previously developed and managed start-up enterprises in New York City, in Ladakh, India, and in Malawi, Africa, focusing on green building, renewable energy and environmental design. Haley, who is currently employed by a Manhattan-based investment bank and private equity fund, also brought business acumen to the operation. The farm know-how comes from Nelkin, who cultivated her expertise in greenhouse systems and management at the University of Arizona. In addition to greenhouse system design, her skillset includes plant nutrition and crop and pest management. She has managed greenhouses in far more extreme circumstances than New York-namely two different locations in Antarctica, providing fresh vegetables for US research scientists.
House of Greens
The choice of a rooftop was made quite deliberately. "New York City obviously doesn't have a lot of arable or available land, so it seemed to us that one underutilized resource was rooftops," said Puri. "You're seeing more and more innovative uses of the rooftops now in urban areas nationwide."
Getting a rooftop greenhouse up and operational-especially one of this size and scope-was no mean feat. "It was extremely challenging," Puri recalled. "I would say the biggest challenge was just having any real path to follow. There's not a lot of precedent for what we're doing.
"The first thing was finding a building owner who wouldn't mind us building a greenhouse on his or her roof. We also had to find a building that met all the construction criteria, both structurally and for the obtaining of utilities. In addition there had to be access, and the evaluation of how we would get stuff up and how we would get stuff down. On top of that we had to make sure the plan would meet all zoning and building codes."
The Gotham Greens operation, as one might imagine, represents an enormous saving in resource usage. "We employ a recirculating hydroponic technique that actually goes back and captures all irrigation for reuse," Puri explained. "It's the most water-efficient form of agriculture in the world. We use ten times less water than conventional agriculture. Even though we are not in an area that is susceptible to drought, we still think that it's a great demonstration of a technology that is very water efficient." The hydroponic growing environment is sterile as well, which eliminates the risk of pathogens-particularly important in light of the increase in foodborne illnesses, such as E. coli and salmonella, from fresh vegetables.
Puri and his partners have seen to the frugal use of energy too. "We have 55 kilowatts in solar panels that produce electricity to help meet the electrical needs of the facility," said Puri. "Along with that, we've spent a lot of effort here to design our facilities to be as energy efficient as possible. We've installed increased insulation in many areas; the glazing material that we selected helps insulate the greenhouse; and we've deployed heat curtains and heat blankets in the winter to reduce space in the greenhouse that needs to be conditioned." Additionally, a sophisticated computer control system ensures that climate-control equipment operates efficiently to reduce resource consumption.
Perhaps the most significant saving in terms of resources is that of fossil fuels, as the distance from farm to consumer is considerably shorter. "Of course, we sharply reduce the transportation of our product and the associated carbon emissions that are caused because of that," Puri added.
All nutrition and pest control is done naturally and sustainably, which was also one of the goals for Gotham Greens. "We utilize mineral salts that we dissolve in the water," Puri said. "These contain minerals such as nitrogen, magnesium and potassium, along with micronutrients like selenium. In controlling pests, we mostly rely on beneficial insects; there's a whole program in integrated pest management for which a fair bit of monitoring goes on. If we do find a pest in here, we will introduce its natural predator-for instance, we have ladybugs and lacewings to control aphids."
It's in the Taste
Like many others concentrating on great flavor, Puri and his team have found that truly caring for the plants will result in the superiority they seek. "The biggest thing in obtaining that flavor is really taking care of our crops-making sure they have ideal growing conditions in climate, humidity, temperature, and so forth. We're also making sure they're getting all the nutrients that they need, along with the right amount of irrigation, the right amount of dissolved oxygen. The foremost belief is that healthy plants are going to make for tastier plants.
"And then because we are so close to our customers, we never have to harvest anything before it's completely ready. Many conventionally grown crops have to be refrigerated and transported long distances, so they are picked early and then artificially ripened. We don't have to do anything like that; we can harvest crops when they are at their optimal freshness, size, flavor, profile and color. We can harvest any item in the morning and have it to a supermarket or a restaurant in the afternoon."
In addition to supplying locally grown produce, Gotham Greens contributes to the local economy by providing badly needed jobs. All staff are residents from the nearby community. As production expands, they also plan to offer their products to more local areas that have limited access to fresh produce.
They're Buying It
For more information on Gotham Greens, visit www.gothamgreens.com.
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Eighteen years ago, the eminent conservation biologist Gary Meffe warned of what he considered to be the greatest problem in human history – humanity’s inexorable and exponential increase in numbers.
Meffe’s paper, entitled ‘Human Population Control: The Missing Agenda’ published in the journal Conservation Biology, outlined the threats posed by an ever-increasing human population to biodiversity in terms of species extinctions, and to the ecosystem services necessary for our survival. These include water and air purification, hydrologic cycling and food production. Not only is humanity’s deluge drowning the creatures we share the Earth with, but it also runs the risk of submerging itself too. But was this ‘missing agenda’ acknowledged? Was a dam constructed to stem our exponential flow?
Nearly two decades later and we see the publication of the UN’s State of World Population report 2011. It announced that on October 31st we reached the population milestone of seven billion people inhabiting our world. Instead of warning of future population growth and the associated negative impact, it had a more positive tone that encouraged us to ask “What can I do to make our world better?” rather than “Are we too many?” This is the United Nations after all, and understandably it has to take a progressive and reassuring stance rather than one of doom and gloom. But the angle taken is perhaps revealing of the prevailing attitude of the global collective consciousness – population growth is inevitable and cannot be stopped. Of course there’s no such thing as a global collective consciousness, explaining in part why Meffe’s view has been largely ignored, because humanity lacks a collective impetus and so anything that requires mass cohesion, for instance only having one child or reducing carbon emissions, is doomed to fail.
Seven billion people – it’s enough to make you feel insignificant. Except it’s not, it’s just a number. A very big number too large to visualise, grasp or comprehend. Incidentally, if you’re ever having trouble feeling insignificant, then listen to what the ‘Woody Allen’ of science, Lawrence Krauss has to say. In his recent lecture on cosmic connections for The School of Life he stated that “you are much more insignificant than you thought” before going on to compete with Brian Cox for the title of ‘King of making outlandish profound points’, by explaining how we are all quite literally “made of stars”. Every atom in our bodies comes from the remnants of an exploded star. It turns out Moby was right (see video below).
This digression aside, the ineffably large human population will continue to increase and even if we wanted to implement population control, doing so would be unethical and practically speaking impossible. Very few people, not even many devout conservationists, would be willing to sacrifice the right to have children. I for one wouldn’t, it is in our evolutionary spirit.
Instead of tackling the so called ‘root cause’ of the population problem by implementing unrealistic, unfavourable, and unwanted population control, efforts have been directed at addressing offshoot issues such as those relating to overconsumption and overexploitation of natural resources. If we can adopt new cleaner technologies and practices to ensure our impact on the environment is neutral or at least negligible, it will be a step in the right direction.
Just this week the production of a ‘microbial fuel cell’ has been announced which can purportedly produce electricity from human urine! Researchers at the University of the West of England (UWE) have found that by utilising anaerobic bacteria as they metabolise organic waste waters, electrons can be harnessed and useful electricity generated. By ‘useful’ it is meant that enough electricity would be generated to charge a battery say, but presumably not enough to heat a home for instance, yet.
For now, no one is suggesting this is the answer to the world’s problems, but switching to technologies that rely less on finite Earth resources and more on recycling waste products will help ameliorate the effects our species has on the planet. Unfortunately though, those who sing the praises of such advances are often branded with the stigma of being too ‘preachy’. Increasing public apathy to important issues such as clean technology, climate change and biodiversity decline should be at least as worrying to everyone as financial crises or global terrorism.
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Australian Bureau of Statistics
1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2009–10
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 04/06/2010
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FEATURE ARTICLE: HOUSEHOLDS AND RENEWABLE ENERGY
Householders have increased their use of energy saving measures in their homes. In 2008, 59% of households had energy saving lighting installed (up from 33% in 2005) (graph 2.40); and energy star ratings were the main household consideration when replacing refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers and clothes dryers. Counteracting this, graph 2.39 shows more households now own coolers (66% in 2008 up from 35% in 1999) and dishwashers (45% in 2008 up from 30% in 1999) and other appliances, such as LCD and plasma televisions, the latter using almost three times the amount of energy compared to a standard television (End note 6).
Types of energy
Electricity is the main energy source used in people's homes. In 2007-08, about half (49%) of the energy used by households was sourced from electricity. Household electricity consumption rose to 210 petajoules (PJ) in 2007-08, up 48% from 1990-91 (ABARE, 2009).
In March 2008, electricity was the primary source throughout Australia for household cooking (three-quarters of ovens used electricity and more than half (56%) of cooktops) and for hot water systems (46%). There has been a fall in the use of electricity for hot water systems between 2002 and 2008 from 61% to 46%.
Of those homes with heaters, electricity was the main source of energy for space heating (45%), followed by gas (41% for mains gas and LPG/bottled together) and wood (13%).
Natural gas is the second most common source of energy used in the home, used by more than six in ten households (61%) in 2008. In total, households used 137 PJ of natural gas in 2007-08, equivalent to almost a third (32%) of total household energy use (ABARE, 2009).
For almost one in three Australian households (31%), gas (mains or LPG/bottled) was the main source of energy for space heating and 37% used gas for hot water systems. In the main gas-producing states of Victoria and Western Australia, gas was used as an energy source in nine out of ten households (90% and 87% respectively, compared with six out of ten households nationally).
Used primarily as a source of heating, wood use by households has declined 26% in the last 10 years, from 82 PJ in 1997-98 to 60 PJ in 2007-08 (ABARE, 2009).
In 2008, 13% of Australian households used wood as a source of energy in the home. More than one-third (35%) of households in Tasmania used wood as an energy source, a decrease from more than half (52%) in 2002 (graph 2.41). Due to air pollution concerns, households have been encouraged to stop using wood for heating or to convert open fires to slow combustion fires, which are more energy efficient and produce less greenhouse emissions than open fires. Firewood collection can have a detrimental effect on Australia's native wildlife, as dead trees and fallen timber provide habitat for a diverse range of fauna including a number of threatened species (End note 7).
A range of government grants and rebates have been made available to households in recent years to encourage people to use solar energy in the home. In 2008, 7% of households used solar energy to heat water, up from 4% of households in 2005. More than half of all households in the Northern Territory used solar energy to heat water (54%) - a much larger proportion than in Western Australia (21%) and no other state or territory exceeded 10% (graph 2.42).
GreenPower provides an option for people to pay a premium for electricity generated from renewable sources that is fed into the national power grid. GreenPower was first established in New South Wales in 1997 and since then has spread to other states and territories. By March 2009, just over 984,000 households were paying for GreenPower, up from 132,300 customers in March 2005 (End note 8).
There has also been an increase in the awareness of GreenPower products in the past decade. In 1999, less than one-fifth (19%) of households were aware of GreenPower. Nearly a decade later, this had risen to more than half (52%) of all households in 2008, including 5% who reported that they were already paying for GreenPower.
Households in the Australian Capital Territory had the highest rate of GreenPower awareness (71%, including 5% who were paying for GreenPower) while Western Australian households had the lowest awareness (39%) (graph 2.43).
Biomass is plant material, vegetation or agricultural waste used as a fuel or energy source. Biomass can also be processed to produce liquid biofuels (biodiesel) or a gas biofuel (biogas).
Hydro-electric power is electricity produced from the energy of falling water using dams, turbines and generators.
Solar/solar photovoltaic: Photovoltaics (PV) convert sunlight directly into electricity. Photovoltaic systems differ from solar hot water systems that absorb sunlight directly into the water-carrying tubes contained in the panel.
Wind turbines can be used to drive a generator to create electricity.
1. Australian Energy Regulator, State of Electricity Market 2008, viewed 22 January 2009, <http://www.aer.gov.au>
2. Department of Climate Change (DCC), Australia's National Greenhouse Accounts: National Inventory by Economic Sector 2007, last viewed 20 October 2009, <http://www.climatechange.gov.au/inventory>
3. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), Energy Update 2009, electronic datasets, viewed 22 September 2009, <http://www.abare.gov.au>
4. Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), Energy Update 2009, Table f, viewed 22 September 2009, <http://www.abare.gov.au>
5. Department of Climate Change (DCC), Australia's National Greenhouse Accounts: National Inventory by Economic Sector 2007, DCC, 2009, Canberra.
6. Energy Australia, Typical Household Appliance Wattages, viewed 29 January 2009, <http://www.energy.com.au>.
7. Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Land pressures, viewed 28 October 2009, <http://www.environment.gov.au/land>
8. GreenPower, You Can Bank on GreenPower, viewed 26 November 2008, <http://www.greenpower.gov.au>.
This page last updated 21 January 2013
Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.
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Report Highlights Declining Health of Caribbean Corals
7 September 2012: A new International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report highlights that average live coral cover on Caribbean reefs has declined to just 8% of the reef today, compared with more than 50% in the 1970s. The report stems from a workshop held by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panama, from 29 April-5 May 2012.
According to the report, rates of decline on most reefs show no signs of slowing. However, many reefs in the Netherlands Antilles and Cayman Islands have 30% or more live coral cover. The causes of these regional differences in reef conditions are not well understood, beyond the role of human exploitation and disturbance.
Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme, notes that the major causes of coral decline include overfishing, pollution, disease, and bleaching caused by rising temperatures resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.
IUCN has recommended local action to improve the health of corals, including limits on fishing through catch quotas, an extension of marine protected areas (MPAs), a halt to nutrient runoff from land, and a reduction on the global reliance on fossil fuels. [IUCN Press Release] [Publication: Tropical Americas Coral Reef Resilience Workshop: Executive Summary]
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The well-being of people all over the world depends on the various goods and services provided by ecosystems, including food, fuel, construction materials, clean water and air, and protection from natural hazards. Ecosystems, however, are under increasing pressure from unsustainable use and other threats including outright conversion. To address this concern, IUCN promotes the sound management of ecosystems through the wider application of the Ecosystem Approach – a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that places human needs at its centre, through the Ecosystem Management Programme.
The Ecosystem Management Programme works on four key programmatic areas for IUCN:
- Drylands, where the programme aims to demonstrate the importance of dryland ecosystem services for livelihood improvement and for adapting to climate change.
- Climate Change, where the Climate Change Initiative aims to include biodiversity concerns in adaptation and mitigation polices and practice, as well as furthering natural resource management strategies that help biodiversity and people to adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Initiative coordinates Climate Change work across IUCN's programmes, regions, Commissions and member organizations.
- Islands, where the Islands Initiative focuses on addressing integrated management challenges for marine, coastal and terrestrial ecosystems, for the conservation of island biodiversity and the sustainable development of island communities, and facilitates IUCN’s work on islands across the Union.
- Disaster Risk Reduction, where the programme aims to promote integration of ecosystem management, livelihoods, community vulnerability and climate change adaptation to disaster management.
In addition, the Programme provides technical input on integrating wider ecosystem-scale biodiversity issues into IUCN’s programmes globally, regionally and nationally.
The Programme also serves as a focal point in the Secretariat for IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM), a network of more than 800 volunteer ecosystem management experts from around the world. The Ecosystem Management Programme works in close collaboration with CEM to realize the Commission’s objectives in enhancing the implementation of the Ecosystem Approach. CEM members also contribute technical information to the Ecosystem Management Series: a compilation of best practices and lessons learnt in implementing the Ecosystem Approach.
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News tagged with renewable energy
Related topics: energy , wind turbines , electricity , solar panels , fossil fuels
Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which are renewable (naturally replenished). In 2006, about 18% of global final energy consumption came from renewables, with 13% coming from traditional biomass, such as wood-burning. Hydroelectricity was the next largest renewable source, providing 3% of global energy consumption and 15% of global electricity generation.
Wind power is growing at the rate of 30 percent annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 121,000 megawatts (MW) in 2008, and is widely used in European countries and the United States. The annual manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached 6,900 MW in 2008, and photovoltaic (PV) power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA. While most renewable energy projects and production is large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the world's highest household solar ownership rate with roughly 30,000 small (20–100 watt) solar power systems sold per year.
Some renewable energy technologies are criticised for being intermittent or unsightly, yet the renewable energy market continues to grow. Climate change concerns coupled with high oil prices, peak oil and increasing government support are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation, and policies should help the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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Like the Sound of Music‘s Von Trapp family hiding in the Alps, plants may find refuge from a warming climate in the mountains.
Research in the Swiss Alps suggests diverse mountain habitats could act as stepping stones to allow plants to escape into more hospitable hideaways as their usual homes heat up.
A large, flat savannah offers little variation in temperature. If the temperature warms up, the whole area warms up.
But Daniel Scherrer and Christian Körner from the University of Basel, Switzerland found a broad spectrum of habitats in the central Swiss Alps after studying an alpine meadow for two seasons. In the rugged mountain landscape, different conditions existed close together.
The plants growing in those varied conditions were adapted to the particular set of temperatures of the micro-climates, the scientists found. The research suggests that these plants could start growing in neighboring habitats as the temperature increases.
To test this, Scherrer and Körner used a computer model to simulate what would happen if the temperature went up 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. They found that only 3 percent of all temperature conditions disappeared. Some of the cooler habitats shrank or shifted, but pockets remained. This suggests that plants have the opportunity to shift habitats, instead of just dying off.
Preserving mountain habitats is even more new important now in light of this research. A diverse Alpine meadow could save many different habitats, compared to a single habitat in a grassland of equal size.
“It is known from earlier geological periods that mountains were always important for survival of species during periods of climatic change such as in glacial cycles, because of their ‘habitat diversity,’” concluded Körner.
“Mountains are therefore particularly important areas for the conservation of biodiversity in a given region under climatic change and thus deserve particular protection,” Körner said.
Photo: Different habitats exist close together in the Alps. Wikimedia Commons
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Washington, Aug 9 (IANS) The formation in the air of sulphuric acid, which smells like rotten eggs, is significantly impacting our climate and health, says a study.
The study led by Roy Lee Mauldin III, research associate at the University of Colorado-Boulder's atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, charts a previously unknown chemical pathway for the formation of sulphuric acid, which can trigger both increased acid rain and cloud formation as well as harmful respiratory effects on humans.
Sulphuric acid plays an essential role in the Earth's atmosphere, from the ecological impacts of acid precipitation to the formation of new aerosol particles, which have significant climatic and health effects. Our findings demonstrate a newly observed connection between the biosphere and atmospheric chemistry, Mauldin was quoted as saying in the journal Nature.
More than 90 percent of sulphur dioxide emissions are from fossil fuel combustion at power plants and other industrial facilities, says the US Environmental Protection Agency, according to a university statement.
Other sulphur sources include volcanoes and even ocean phytoplankton. Sulphur dioxide reacts with hydroxide to produce sulphuric acid that can form acid rain, harmful to terrestrial and aquatic life on Earth.
Airborne sulphuric acid particles, which form in a wide variety of sizes, play the main role in the formation of clouds, which can have a cooling effect on the atmosphere, Mauldin said.
Most of the lab experiments for the study were conducted at the Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig, Germany.
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DUBAI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- With new oil and gas nations coming up and renewable energy usage gaining global momentum, the fossil fuels-rich Gulf states might run into rough waters in the upcoming decades.
The Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are today synonyms for oil, but that could change soon.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Gulf monopoly of oil supply is contested by the United States which is on the way to become the largest oil exporter throughout the world by 2030.
Meantime, Lebanon and Israel, two old arch-foes in the Middle East technically still at war, started digging deeply off the Mediterranean coast in search for oil and gas.
In addition, the global rise of solar power, wind energy and bio-thermal heat rivals the fossil fuels' monopoly as the only safe and reliable source of energy.
At the 6th World Future Energy Summit (WFES) that was held on Jan. 15-17 in Abu Dhabi, the participants were able to see how the world would function without the use of oil and gas or at least with less fossil fuels.
The Catecar, a Switzerland-based company, presented the Dragonfly, a solar-powered hybrid which does not need to be plugged because the solar panel is fixed on the roof.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi's environmental city Masdar launched a pilot project aiming at running sea-water desalination plants with solar or wind power by 2020 "in order to reduce the very expensive use of oil and gas to run such plants," said Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, the chief executive of Masdar.
At present, half of the world's desalinated water is produced in the Gulf Arab region.
During the summit, the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council presented how we live next in the Estidama-house, a building equipped only with environmentally-friendly installations that secure an efficient use of water and electricity.
Washington's independence on Arab oil till 2030 would have deep implications for U.S. military bases in the region, where two thirds of the world's known oil reserves are located, the German daily Die Welt reported in a secret study which the German intelligence service BND released.
The report estimated that most of Middle Eastern oil would flow to East Asia.
Moreover, the United States is sitting on large shale gas reserves as a source of natural gas. Due to shale gas discoveries, the world's largest economy might also become autonomous in producing its own natural gas.
However, the method to access shale gas through "fracking" is strongly slammed by environmentalists who see huge danger for nature if shale gas is extracted from mountainous regions.
Meanwhile, Lebanon, known so far as the only Arab country without a desert and without oil, held the country's first International Oil and Gas Summit in Beirut.
The summit was held after an exploration company from Norway found huge gas reserves beneath the Eastern Mediterranean Sea offshore of Lebanon, which would have the potential of becoming a second Kuwait once it starts exporting gas.
Lebanon's southern neighbor Israel claims parts of that field known as Leviathan, comprising 17 trillion cubic foot of natural gas.
A Dubai-based economist, who requested anonymity, said that the disputed gas field might lay the foundation for the next Middle East war.
Morten Mauritzen, the president for the Gulf region at U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil, said at the energy summit in Abu Dhabi, which harbors some 7 percent of the world's known oil reserves, that the demand for oil and gas would rise 35 percent until 2040, dampening hopes that renewable energy like wind power, solar energy or thermal earth-heat would play a significant role in the future.
"Oil and gas are reliable, safe and accessible for all, while solar energy is not scalable to satisfy the huge demand," said Mauritzen.
According to ExxonMobil's forecast, world population will grow to 8.7 billion in the next 30 years, up from the current 7 billion.
ExxonMoil currently upgrades together with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company drilling technologies in the Upper Zakum, the world's largest offshore oilfield.
"We are reclaiming land to build four artificial islands in the Upper Zakum in order to build stations for machines and staff," said Mauritzen.
He noted that this was a unique example how oil exploration can be done in a cost-efficient way.
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Warmer temperatures, variable monsoons, and other signs of climate change are a hot topic of conversation among many Himalayan villagers, according to scientific sampling of climate change perception among local peoples.
“This area is cold and it’s often raining. Even during the non-monsoon times there is mist and fog so inevitably conversations here turn to weather,” said Kamal Bawa, biologist at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (UMB), and president of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bangalore, India. “When you stop and have a cup of tea in someone’s kitchen, the conversation invariably turns to the weather. But then they soon start talking about how the weather has been changing.”
Bawa is also a member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration.
Bawa didn’t set out to study Himalayan perceptions of climate change. But after hearing the same themes repeated again and again during household conversations he decided to investigate. With UMB graduate student Pahupati Chaudhary, he surveyed some 500 homes spread across 18 villages in Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal, India and Nepal’s Ilam district. The pair found some surprisingly consistent observations.
Three-fourths of the people surveyed believe that their weather is getting warmer and two-thirds believe that summer and monsoon season have begun earlier over the past ten years. Seventy percent believe that water sources are drying up while forty-six percent said that they think there is less snow on the high mountains.
Many villagers also told Chaudhary they’d noticed shifts in some species ranges and earlier flowering and budding of plants. New pests have also arrived, villagers routinely reported, to plague crops and people—including mosquitoes where none had been before.
Most of these changes were reported by much higher percentages of people living at higher altitudes than by those at lower altitudes. “We’ve shown in earlier research that people at high altitudes seem to be more sensitive to climate change, and of course it’s known that climate change is more severe at higher altitudes, so that’s not a surprise,” Bawa said.
Many Himalayan peoples live in areas where predicted and observed impacts of climate change, like species migration, are more acute. Many of them also live “close to the land,” where agricultural-based livelihoods make them especially attuned to weather patterns.
Listening to Locals Can Help Climate Science
Scientific data on climate change have been hard to come by in the region, Bawa reported. Few weather stations dot remote and high-altitude locales and where they do exist their data are often incomplete.
But where data can be found they seem to corroborate local observations, Bawa said, citing his own research on temperature and rainfall records as well as the work of other scientists listed in recent Biology Letters and Current Science reports of Bawa and Chaudhary’s research.
“Governments in the region are now gearing up towards more research,” Bawa said. “But it will take time to gather this climate data.” That’s why local knowledge can be such valuable human intelligence, he added. It can be gathered quickly and widely and used to “jump start” scientific efforts.
“There seems to be quite a bit of knowledge residing with local communities, in the Himalaya and elsewhere, and we can really use that knowledge to formulate scientific questions for further research and make more rapid assessments of the impacts of climate change.”
Bawa said it’s hard to determine to what extent local peoples are familiar with the global dialogue on climate change, or how much that might have influenced their perceptions. But most of those he spoke with didn’t identify a clear cause for the changes they’d observed.
“We’re saying that people seem to be aware that the climate is changing, but they may not necessarily be aware of why it’s changing. I think when you come to that question people don’t have any ideas—or they may have some very different ideas.”
Bawa pointed to a recent study of this topic in Tibet, where many respondents believed that humans are causing climate change—but not by producing greenhouse gasses as most climate scientists believe. “They seem to think that the climate is changing because the Gods are not happy and perhaps the people in the younger generations are not praying enough.”
This research was supported in part by a Committee for Research and Exploration grant of the National Geographical Society.
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I’ve seen several articles debating when oil production will peak. For those of you who have missed them, oil prices rise due to scarcity (real or not) or increased production costs, and the latter become important sometime around when oil production peaks. Also, the time for us to go through the second half of the world’s oil will be considerably less than the history of oil use to date, and our transportation infrastructure in particular is heavily oil-based.
Among climate change scientists, there seems to be less worry about running out of oil, and considerably more worry about its use. Recent readings have given me some understanding.
David Greene, et al, from (pdf file) Running Out of and into Oil: Analyzing Global Oil Depletion and Transition Through 2050
“It is possible that the world could go partway down the path of developing unconventional oil resources and later reverse direction. But such a strategy would strand huge investments in the more capital-intensive production and refining of unconventional oil. If the transition to unconventional oil is gradual, there might be time to introduce low-carbon alternatives and a reversal might not be too costly. But if the transition to unconventional oil is sudden and massive, the world’s economies might quickly become locked into a high carbon future. Avoiding or even slowing the transition to unconventional fossil resources might improve the world’s chances of successfully dealing with global climate change.”
The unconventional oil sources referred to are coal to liquids (synfuel), for example, or natural gas to liquids (isn’t all natural gas needed for electricity and heating?) Both increase carbon emissions, in part because of the energy needed to convert them to liquid. Both are expensive because they require so much energy for the process.
Oil prices will rise if we hit a peak, but Europeans and others are already living with much higher gasoline prices.
Detour: A vote on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is expected soon. My understanding is that oil companies are not particularly interested in drilling there without some kind of guarantee (a large guarantee, but will that dissuade Congress?), as there is relatively little oil, and it’s relatively far from where it would be used. I’m not sure why anyone would vote for opening up the site to oil drilling, both for practical reasons and because it’s nice to imagine those few places in the world not crowded by us. What I hear is, “got you, you crummy environmentalists”, but perhaps our legislators have other reasons, poorly articulated to date. Certainly these reasons have little to do with oil security, even for the rare person who also votes to increase car mileage standards. That said, the overwhelming concern to the caribou is not the drilling, but the use of oil. Climate change alters the environment at high altitudes faster, and refuge status will not protect ANWR.
Return: From my reading, it is apparent that the rest of the world, as non-OPEC is generally referred to, is running out of oil much faster than is OPEC. Fareed Zakaria in The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad points out that governments that finance themselves without taxes are not as accountable to citizens. Hence there is worldwide discomfort at financing these governments. But the discomfort is not great enough here in the United States to taxing oil in order to encourage us to change our behavior.
We would be much better off raising taxes on oil use today. Even a moderate tax, perhaps as little as $1/gallon, will begin to shift behavior, to help stretch out our current oil supply and allow the transitions away from fossil fuels, so that we don’t finance OPEC governments so heavily.
Oh, I’ve heard many, particularly poor people, say, but we can’t afford it. Perhaps more earned income credit, or some other mechanism, could help the poor in this transition, and let people choose whether to spend the extra money on a car or the bus. It isn’t right to ignore those who will be hurt in a transition. But we are wrong if we do not transition. Some talk about making the carbon tax revenue neutral, an idea I was more sympathetic to until the Bush deficits, and back when I thought roads and bridges are paid for by the current gasoline tax rather than out of general revenue.
We could do more regional planning of mass transit systems. We could use some of the gasoline tax to pay for the roads and mass transit that makes our roads less crowded. We could teach bicycling as a PE option, as those who learn to bicycle and signal correctly are less dangerous to themselves and others and are more likely to continue bicycling as adults. This would leave more oil for those of you who can’t or don’t want to bicycle. There’s lots we can do.
The cost of our transportation continues to increase. The obvious increases in price are accompanied by the continued power of corrupt governments, the costs to agriculture and water supplies and human settlements and peace from climate change. Let’s add some of these costs, or the desire to avoid these costs, to the price of gasoline. The costs will be paid, either as lower costs consciously assumed today or higher costs imposed tomorrow.
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With the worlds energy needs growing rapidly, can zero-carbon energy options be scaled up enough to make a significant difference? How much of a dent can these alternatives make in the worlds total energy usage over the next half-century? As the MIT Energy Initiative approaches its fifth anniversary next month, this five-part series takes a broad view of the likely scalable energy candidates.
Of all the zero-carbon energy sources available, wind power is the only one thats truly cost-competitive today: A 2006 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration put the total cost for wind-produced electricity at an average of $55.80 per megawatt-hour, compared to $53.10 for coal, $52.50 for natural gas and $59.30 for nuclear power.
As a result, wind turbines are being deployed rapidly in many parts of the United States and around the world. And because of winds proven record and its immediate and widespread availability, its an energy source thats seen as having the potential to grow very rapidly.
Wind is probably one of the most significant renewable energy sources, simply because the technology is mature, says Paul Sclavounos, an MIT professor of mechanical engineering and naval architecture. There is no technological risk.
Globally, 2 percent of electricity now comes from wind, and in some places the rate is much higher: Denmark, the present world leader, gets more than 19 percent of its electricity from wind, and is aiming to boost that number to 50 percent. Some experts estimate wind power could account for 10 to 20 percent of world electricity generation over the next few decades.
Taking a longer-term view, a widely cited 2005 study by researchers at Stanford University projected that wind, if fully harnessed worldwide, could theoretically meet the worlds present energy needs five times over. And a 2010 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that the United States could get more than 12 times its current electricity consumption from wind alone.
But impressive as these figures may sound, wind power still has a long way to go before it becomes a significant factor in reducing carbon emissions. The potential is there with abundant wind available for harvesting both on land and, especially, over the oceans but harnessing that power efficiently will require enormous investments in manufacturing and installation.
So far, installed wind power has the capacity to generate only about 0.2 terawatts (trillions of watts) of energy worldwide a number that pales in comparison to an average world demand of 14 terawatts, expected to double by 2050. The World Wind Energy Association now projects global wind-power capacity of 1.9 terawatts by 2020.
But thats peak capacity, and even in the best locations the wind doesnt blow all the time. In fact, the worlds wind farms operate at an average capacity factor (the percentage of their maximum power that is actually delivered) somewhere between 20 and 40 percent, depending on their location and the technology.
Some analysts are also concerned that widespread deployment of wind power, with its inherently unpredictable swings in output, could stress power grids, forcing the repeated startup and shutdown of other generators to compensate for winds variability. Many of the best wind-harvesting sites are far from the areas that most need the power, necessitating significant investment in delivery infrastructure but building wind farms closer to population centers is controversial because many people object to their appearance and their sounds.
One potential solution to these problems lies offshore. While many wind installations in Europe have been built within a few miles of shore, in shallow water, there is much greater potential more than 20 miles offshore, where winds blow faster and more reliably. Such sites, while still relatively close to consumers, are generally far enough away to be out of sight.
MITs Sclavounos has been working on the design of wind turbines for installation far offshore, using floating platforms based on technology used in offshore oilrigs. Such installations along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States could theoretically provide most of the electricity needed for the eastern half of the country. And a study in California showed that platforms off the coast there could provide more than two-thirds of the states electricity.
Such floating platforms will be essential if wind is to become a major contributor to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, says research engineer Stephen Connors, director of the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA) at the MIT Energy Initiative. Wind energy is never going to get big if youre limited to relatively shallow, relatively close [offshore] sites, he says. If youre going to have a large impact, you really need floating structures.
All of the technology needed to install hundreds of floating wind turbines is well established, both from existing near-shore wind farms and from offshore drilling installations. All thats needed is to put the pieces together in a way that works economically.
But deciding just how to do so is no trivial matter. Sclavounos and his students have been working to optimize designs, using computer simulations to test different combinations of platforms and mooring systems to see how they stand up to wind and waves as well as how efficiently they can be assembled, transported and installed. One thing is clear: It wont be one design for all sites, Sclavounos says.
In principle, floating structures should be much more economical than wind farms mounted on the seafloor, as in Europe, which require costly construction and assembly. By contrast, the floating platforms could be fully assembled at an onshore facility, then towed into position and anchored. Whats more, the wind is much steadier far offshore: Whereas a really good land-based site can provide a 35 percent capacity factor, an offshore site can yield 45 percent greatly improving the cost-effectiveness per unit.
There are also concerns about the effects of adding a large amount of intermittent energy production to the national supply. Ron Prinn, director of MITs Joint Center for the Science and Policy of Global Change, says, At large scale, there are issues regarding reliability of renewable but intermittent energy sources like wind that will require adding the costs of backup generation or energy storage.
Exactly how big is offshore wind powers potential? Nobody really knows for sure, since theres insufficient data on the strength and variability of offshore winds. You need to know where and when its windy hour to hour, day to day, season to season and year to year, Connors says. While such data has been collected on land, there is much less information for points offshore. Its a wholly answerable question, but you cant do it by just brainstorming.
And the answers might not be what wind powers advocates want to hear. Some analysts raise questions about how much difference wind power can make. MIT physicist Robert Jaffe says that wind is excellent in certain niche locations, but overall its too diffuse that is, too thinly spread out over the planet to be the major greenhouse gas-curbing technology. In the long term, solar is the best option to be sufficiently scaled up to make a big difference, says Jaffe, the Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professor of Physics.
Connors is confident that wind also has a role to play. This planet is mostly ocean, he says, and its pretty windy out there.
This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Explore further: Study IDs two compressed air energy storage methods, sites for the Northwest
More information: Tomorrow: Vast amounts of solar energy radiate to the Earth constantly, but tapping that energy cost-effectively remains a challenge.
-- Read part 1: "What can make a dent?"
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According to news reports, the recent heat wave in California resulted in about 150 deaths. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming will exacerbate the problem dramatically, doubling or tripling the number of heat-related fatalities in North American cities in the next decade. The UN is dead wrong, because it assumes what climate researchers call the “Stupid People Hypothesis”: that people will simply sit around and fry to death without doing anything to beat the heat.
Global warming or not, our cities are warming, and will continue to do so. Sprawling masonry and blacktop retain heat, and the density of urban construction prevents wind from cooling it off. (Here in D.C., there’s an additional warming effect: waste heat from all the money changing hands.)
But heat and heat-related deaths are not synonymous. In fact, in several refereed papers published in recent years, my Virginia colleague Robert Davis and I demonstrated that heat-related deaths have, in aggregate, declined significantly as our cities have warmed. In fact, in a statistical sense, we have completely engineered heat-related mortality out of several of our urban cores, particularly in eastern cities like Philadelphia.
Considering every decade of mortality data at once is misleading; examining it decade-by-decade is more informative. When looked at sequentially, the data reveals a remarkable adaptation: as cities have warmed, the “threshold” temperatures at which mortality begins to increase have also risen — more than the temperatures of the cities.
For example, in Philadelphia in the 1960s, mortality began to increase once the high temperature exceeded 83 degrees. In the 1970s, the mortality threshold rose to the low 90s. In the last decade, there has been little evidence for any threshold at which mortality increases. In other words, people have adapted to their changing climate.
How? Instead of simmering, people buy air conditioning. Every level of government warns of the danger of excessive exposure to heat, and people seek out cooler places.
Social adaptation can take place very quickly. In mid-July 1995, over 500 people died from an intense weekend heat wave in Chicago. Research by University of Illinois climatologist Michael Palecki, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in 2001, shows that a 1999 Chicago heat wave of comparable intensity resulted in only 15 percent as many deaths.
This summer’s heat is a bit unusual. Usually, when it’s very hot in the eastern U.S., temperatures are normal or below average in the West, or vice-versa. This year it’s hot everywhere.
Is history repeating itself, or is global warming at work? It’s hard to say. Several summers in the 1930s were known for intense heat across the nation. Nineteen-thirty was a scorcher: in rural Virginia, far from Washington’s sprawl, people suffered a total of 21 triple-digit days. Even with the excess heat contributed by the growth of the city, Washington currently averages only one 100 degree day per year.
The fact is that we cannot completely discriminate between repetitive history and prospective warming when it comes to a single summer. The better place to look for warming is in the winter. Greenhouse-effect theory predicts that the coldest temperatures of winter will rise much more sharply than the hottest ones of summer. And indeed, for the last several decades, winter’s lows have warmed out of proportion to summer’s highs.
All of which illustrates the complexity of global warming. Would people accept — even welcome? — climate change that greatly alleviated winter discomfort at the cost of slightly higher summer temperatures?
Clearly, people have adapted to the heat. The evidence shows that, the warmer the city, the more quickly its residents adapt. Heat-related deaths are increasing in only one major American city: chilly Seattle. San Francisco and Los Angeles, two other cities that are relatively cool in the summer compared to those to their east, show no change in mortality.
As the UN’s climatologists should recognize, heat waves are dangerous when they are rare and unexpected, because people are unfamiliar with them and slow to take appropriate actions to minimize their exposure. As heat waves become more common, we will simply be better prepared for them and incorporate them into our daily lives and routines — just as the people of Phoenix and Dallas and Houston and New Orleans do, every summer day. Because they’re not stupid.
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Coral reefs aren't just pretty, they're also vital to marine species and island communities. But they're also facing threats from warming seas. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
More than half of 82 species of coral being evaluated for inclusion under the Endangered Species Act "more likely than not" would go extinct by 2100 if climate policies and technologies remain the same, federal scientists concluded.
The experts cited "anthropogenic," or manmade, releases of carbon dioxide as a key driver of warming seas and oceans absorbing more CO2, in turn making waters more acidic.
"The combined direct and indirect effects of rising temperature, including increased incidence of disease and ocean acidification, both resulting primarily from anthropogenic increases in atmospheric CO2, are likely to represent the greatest risks of extinction to all or most of the candidate coral species over the next century," the experts concluded in a report released Friday by the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The report was part of a process to determine which species, if any, merit protection. The Center for Biological Diversity in 2009 had petitioned for the review of 82 species it considered in jeopardy.
Of the 82 species, all of which are in U.S. waters, 46 are "more likely than not" to face extinction by 2100, while 10 are "likely," the report stated.
The authors did note that the limited science of corals meant that "the overall uncertainty was high."
The fisheries service will next seek public comment as it considers the petition for listing.
The Center for Biological Diversity, which in 2006 petitioned and got protection for staghorn and elkhorn corals, said conditions have only worsened for corals.
"Coral reefs are home to 25 percent of marine life and play a vital function in ocean ecosystems," the center said in a statement. "Since the 1990s, coral growth has grown sluggish in some areas due to ocean acidification, and mass bleaching events are increasingly frequent."
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Baseball-sized hail, 40 tornadoes reported as dangerous storms slam Midwest
- NRA official accuses media of sensationalizing Trayvon Martin story
- Reports: Secret Service personnel accused of hiring prostitutes
- American Nazi Party gets its first lobbyist
- Judge in Zimmerman case cites possible conflict of interest
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“Eau Canada” brings together 28 of Canada’s top water experts to debate Canada’s most critical water issues, and to map out solutions.The diverse range of contributors – geographers, environmental lawyers, former government officials, aquatic scientists, economists, and political scientists – reflects the broad range of issues involved in water management debates. Contributors argue that weak governance is at the heart of Canada’s water problems. The first three sections of the book provide background on Canadian water uses (and abuses), identify key weaknesses in Canadian water governance, and explore controversial debates over jurisdiction, transboundary waters, water exports, and water privatization. Solutions for more sustainable water management are mapped out in the final sections of the book, including a cross-Canada consensus on water policy, water conservation and pricing, and an engagement with the implications of new legal frameworks on Indigenous People’s water rights.
The book is targeted at a broad audience with the objective of promoting informed debate about some of the most controversial and pressing water issues facing Canadians. It will be of relevance to academics and students of geography, politics, economics, environmental studies, engineering, and Canadian studies. It will also be of particular interest to water supply managers, environmental and water policy analysts, government officials, community groups, and politicians from across Canada.
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- Date: January 25, 2011
- In This Story:
Asian tiger reserves can support more than 10,000 wild tigers—three times the current estimate—if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that protect core breeding sites and benefit local communities, according to the world’s leading conservation scientists in a new study published on January 25. This positive news reveals that doubling the number of tigers in the wild is feasible.
“In the midst of a crisis, it’s tempting to circle the wagons and only protect a limited number of core protected areas, but we can and should do better,” said Dr. Eric Dinerstein, Chief Scientist at WWF and co-author of the study. “We absolutely need to stop the bleeding, the poaching of tigers and their prey in core breeding areas, but we need to go much further and secure larger tiger landscapes before it is too late.”
Wild tiger numbers have declined to as few as 3,200 today compared to 100,000 a century ago, due to poaching of tigers and their prey, habitat destruction and human-tiger conflict. “A Landscape-Based Conservation Strategy to Double the Wild Tiger Population” in the current issue of Conservation Letters provides the first assessment of the political commitment made by all 13 tiger range countries at November’s historic tiger summit to double the tiger population across Asia by 2022. The study found that the 20 priority tiger conservation landscapes with the highest probability of long-term tiger survival could support more than 10,500 tigers, including about 3,400 breeding females.
“Tiger conservation is the face of biodiversity conservation and competent sustainable land-use management at the landscape level,” said study co-author Dr. John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. “By saving the tiger we save all the plants and animals that live under the tiger’s umbrella.”
The study also revealed that major infrastructure projects such dams, roads and mines will threaten tiger landscapes in the next decade. However, channeling revenues to communities from wildlife tourism, forest management in corridors and buffer zones, and earning carbon credits will provide new opportunities.
Read the full study
View a map of the 12 best places to double the number of tigers in the wild
Learn more about wild tigers
“Without strong countervailing pressures, short-term economic gains will inevitably trump protection of the critical ecosystems necessary for sustainable development,” said Keshav Varma, Program Director of the Global Tiger Initiative at the World Bank.
The study calls for mainstreaming wildlife conservation to shift to well-funded efforts to protect core areas and larger landscapes, a challenging task that will require innovation through arrangements that benefit the rural communities living in these landscapes. Countries like Nepal are already looking closely at building alliances and partnerships for better landscape management that benefits both people and tigers.
"Following the St. Petersburg Declaration, Nepal has committed to the goal of doubling wild tiger numbers across our country by 2022,” said Deepak Bohara, Nepal’s Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation. “This analysis shows that it can be done, not just in Nepal, but, if done right with careful study and planning, across the entire tiger range. It is also worth noting that the tiger conservation provides carbon credits, protects water resources, and complements community development efforts. Thus, it is important to promote regional cooperation to maintain a healthy tiger corridor between different reserves.”
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The Americas IBA Directory
The conservation of rare birdlife has been the focus of Birdlife International for many years. In 1995 they began a project by the name of IBA, or Important Bird Area Program, to pinpoint areas across the globe that are home to endangered species, identifying the various species and protecting those areas to assist in conserving vital birdlife. At present, more than ten thousand of these areas have been identified, and conservation and environmental initiatives have been implemented. Now a new program has been established, namely the Americas IBA Directory.
Hundreds of bird species will benefit from the Americas IBA Directory, as it will be a guideline for both conservationists and for authorities. The directory covers 57 different countries and has 2 345 of the most significant areas listed that need to be protected at all costs. Authorities will be able to refer to the directory to find out which of their areas are vital to the survival of birdlife, which bird species are located in that area and the biodiversity of the area, to enable them to take the right steps in protecting the natural habitat and the birds. Some areas that have been listed are significant in the migratory patterns of certain species, while others are crucial nesting sites for numerous endangered birds. Due to a number of these areas being inhabited by local communities, also relying on the natural resources such as water, authorities can assist these communities with sustainable development that will not only benefit the communities but the birdlife as well.
Hundreds of organizations have provided support and assistance in the compiling of the Americas IBA Directory. President of Bird Studies Canada, George Finney, explained: “From breeding grounds in Canada, to wintering sites in the south, and all points in between, it is imperative that we understand what is happening to bird populations and the forces that drive change. Bird Studies Canada is proud to work closely with our international partners on this issue, so that better management decisions and conservation actions can be taken.” A large number of agencies will be working together as IBA Caretakers, tracking migratory patterns and data in regard to bird populations, to note changes being made by the birds, and keeping the IBA Directory as up to date and accurate as possible.
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Drive by a local wetland on an early spring evening, and if you're lucky you'll hear a harbinger of the changing season - the clear chirping chorus of tiny frogs known as spring peepers, classified by biologists as Pseudacris crucifer.
Few themes in literature are more alluring than the lost world. Places such as Atlantis, Shangri-La, Conan Doyle's "Lost World", and now the bestselling "The Lost City of Z" conjure up images of strange landscapes, exotic civilizations and hidden treasures.
Ecologists study phenology, which is the orderly progression of seasonal events in nature, such as the springtime arrival of migrating birds, the first chorus of spring peepers in vernal pools, and the development of tree colors each autumn
Despite the fact 60 percent of us in Dutchess County drink groundwater every day, and all of us eat food irrigated by ground water, very few people know where it comes from, where it goes, or that groundwater is full of life
Thankfully, the argument about the reality of global climate change seems finished. The majority of the public now joins the consensus of climate scientists, who have furnished compelling proof that the planet is warming and that humans are at least partly to blame.
What if our children could recognize the birds, plants and insects in their backyards as well as they know the brands of shoes on their feet or the secret weapons they need to get to the next level in a video game?
If you ever saw "Star Wars," you'll remember the trash compactor scene: Trying to escape from the Imperials, Luke and his friends duck into what turns out to be a trash compactor, where things go from bad to worse.
New York state is taking an essential step to deal with invasive species, one of the most damaging and difficult environmental problems of our time, by proposing to limit the importation of ballast water into the state.
Dengue (pronounced DEN-ghee) fever is caused by a virus spread by mosquitoes. It was formerly called "break-bone fever" because it causes excruciating pain to the muscles and joints of its human victims.
We tend to think of nature as having reliable patterns; the leaves turn color each autumn, seasonal birds come and go. But there are also examples of sudden, unexpected changes in the environment around us.
Specific trails and roads on our 2,000 acre research campus have been designated for public access, and our grounds provide visitors with a unique opportunity to connect with nature and view local wildlife.
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Michael Specter has an interesting article in The New Yorker about global warming and how "dazzlingly complex" it all is once you start to take all of the factors into account.
the calculations required to assess the full environmental impact of how we live can be dazzlingly complex. To sum them up on a label will not be easy. Should the carbon label on a jar of peanut butter include the emissions caused by the fertilizer, calcium, and potassium applied to the original crop of peanuts? What about the energy used to boil the peanuts once they have been harvested, or to mold the jar and print the labels? Seen this way, carbon costs multiply rapidly. A few months ago, scientists at the Stockholm Environment Institute reported that the carbon footprint of Christmas—including food, travel, lighting, and gifts—was six hundred and fifty kilograms per person. That is as much, they estimated, as the weight of “one thousand Christmas puddings” for every resident of England.
This passage caught my attention. We need to look at the whole picture and not just the impact of our individual actions. Remember all of the "save the rain forest" campaigns during the 1980's? My 7th grade science class wrote a letter to the Ecuadorian Embassy to encourage them to stop deforestation. It's great that carbon emissions are getting so much attention, but they're just a piece of the overall puzzle.
Just two countries—Indonesia and Brazil—account for about ten per cent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Neither possesses the type of heavy industry that can be found in the West, or for that matter in Russia or India. Still, only the United States and China are responsible for greater levels of emissions. That is because tropical forests in Indonesia and Brazil are disappearing with incredible speed. “It’s really very simple,” John O. Niles told me. Niles, the chief science and policy officer for the environmental group Carbon Conservation, argues that spending five billion dollars a year to prevent deforestation in countries like Indonesia would be one of the best investments the world could ever make. “The value of that land is seen as consisting only of the value of its lumber,” he said. “A logging company comes along and offers to strip the forest to make some trivial wooden product, or a palm-oil plantation. The governments in these places have no cash. They are sitting on this resource that is doing nothing for their economy. So when a guy says, ‘I will give you a few hundred dollars if you let me cut down these trees,’ it’s not easy to turn your nose up at that. Those are dollars people can spend on schools and hospitals.”
The ecological impact of decisions like that are devastating. Decaying trees contribute greatly to increases in the levels of greenhouse gases. Plant life absorbs CO2. But when forests disappear, the earth loses one of its two essential carbon sponges (the other is the ocean). The results are visible even from space. Satellite photographs taken over Indonesia and Brazil show thick plumes of smoke rising from the forest. According to the latest figures, deforestation pushes nearly six billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. That amounts to thirty million acres—an area half the size of the United Kingdom—chopped down each year. Put another way, according to one recent calculation, during the next twenty-four hours the effect of losing forests in Brazil and Indonesia will be the same as if eight million people boarded airplanes at Heathrow Airport and flew en masse to New York.
Read Big Foot In measuring carbon emissions, it’s easy to confuse morality and science. by Michael Specter
Via: The Frontal Cortex
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http://www.design21sdn.com/organizations/197/posts/1466?page=1
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Food systems are often described as comprising four sets of activities: those involved in food production, processing and packaging, distribution and retail, and consumption. All encompass social, economic, political, and environmental processes and dimensions. To analyze the interactions between global environmental change and food systems, as well as the tradeoffs among food security and environmental goals, a food system can be more broadly conceived as including the determinants (or drivers) and outcomes of these activities. The determinants comprise the interactions between and within biogeophysical and human environments that determine how food system activities are performed. These activities lead to a number of outcomes, some of which contribute to food security and others that relate to the environment and other societal concerns. These outcomes are also affected directly by the determinants.
Food security is the principal policy objective of a food system. Food security outcomes are described in terms of three components and their subcomponents: food availability, i.e., production, distribution, and exchange; food access, i.e., affordability, allocation, and preference; and food use, i.e., nutritional and social values and safety. Although the food system activities have a large influence on food security outcomes, these outcomes are also determined directly by socio-political and environmental drivers. These outcomes vary by historical, political, and social context.
To capture these concepts holistically and to allow the analysis of impacts of global environmental change, adaptations, and feedbacks, a food system must include:
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http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art14/appendix1.html
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Satellites are tracing Europe's forest fire scars
Burning with a core heat approaching 800°C and spreading at up to 100 metres per minute, woodland blazes bring swift, destructive change to landscapes: the resulting devastation can be seen from space. An ESA-backed service to monitor European forest fire damage will help highlight areas most at risk of future outbreaks.
Last year's long hot summer was a bumper year for forest fires, with more than half a million hectares of woodland destroyed across Mediterranean Europe. So far this year fresh fires have occurred across Portugal, Spain and southern France, with 2500 people evacuated from blazes in foothills north of Marseille.
According to the European Commission, each hectare of forest lost to fire costs Europe's economy between a thousand and 5000 Euros.
The distinctive 'burn scars' left across the land by forest fires can be identified from space as a specific reddish-brown spectral signature from a false-colour composite of spectral bands from optical sensors in the short wavelength infrared, near infrared and visible channels.
A new ESA-backed, Earth Observation-based service is making use of this fact, employing satellite imagery from SPOT and Landsat to automatically detect the 2004 burn scars within fire-prone areas of the Entente region of Southwest France, within the Puglia and Marche regions of Italy and across the full territory of Spain.
Burn scar detection is planned to take place on a seasonal basis, identifying fires covering at least one hectare to a standard resolution of 30 metres, with detailed damage assessment available to a maximum resolution of 2.5 metres using the SPOT 5 satellite.
Partner users include Italy's National Civil Protection Department, Spain's Dirección general para la Biodiversidad – a directorate of the Environment Ministry that supports regional fire-fighting activities with more than 50 aircraft operating from 33 airbases – as well as France's National Department of Civil Protection (DDSC) and the country's Centre D'Essais Et De Recherce de l'Entente (CEREN), the test and research centre of the government organisation tasked with combating forest fires, known as the Entente Interdépartementale.
"To cope with fire disasters, the most affected Departments in the south of France have decided to join forces to ensure effective forest fire protection," explained Nicolas Raffalli of CEREN. "Within the Entente region we have an existing fire database called PROMETHEE, which is filled out either by firemen, forestry workers or policemen across the 13 Departments making up the region."
Current methods of recording fire damage vary greatly by country or region. The purpose of this new service – part of a portfolio of Earth Observation services known as Risk-EOS – is to develop a standardised burn scar mapping methodology for use throughout Europe, along with enabling more accurate post-fire damage assessment and analysis of vegetation re-growth and manmade changes within affected areas.
"We want to link up PROMETHEE with this burn scar mapping product from Risk-EOS to have a good historical basis of information," Raffalli added. "The benefit is that it makes possible a much more effective protection of the forest."
Characterising the sites of past fires to a more thorough level of detail should mean that service users can better forecast where fires are most likely to break out in future, a process known as risk mapping.
Having been validated and geo-referenced, burn scar maps can then be easily merged with other relevant geographical detail. The vast majority of fires are started by the actions of human beings, from discarding cigarette butts up to deliberate arson. Checking burn scar occurrences against roads, settlements and off-road tracks is likely to throw up correlations.
These can be extrapolated elsewhere to help identify additional areas at risk where preventative measures should be prioritised. And overlaying burn scar maps with a chart of forest biomass has the potential to highlight zones where new blazes would burn the fiercest. Once such relatively fixed environmental elements, known as static risks, are factored in, other aspects that change across time – including temperature, rainfall and vegetation moisture – can be addressed. These variables are known as dynamic risks. At the end of the risk mapping process, the probability of fire breaking out in a particular place and time can be reliably calculated.
The Risk-EOS burn scar mapping service began last year. The intention is to develop further fire-related services by the end of 2007, including daily risk maps combining EO with meteorological and vegetation data.
Another planned service will identify 'hot spots' during fires, and map fire events twice a day, permitting an overall assessment of its development and the damage being done. A 'fires memory atlas' set up at national or regional level will allow the routine sharing of all information related to forest fire events and fire risk.
"For the future I think near-real time fire and hot spot mapping would obviously be extremely useful," Raffalli concluded. "With these products those managing the situation could see where the fire is, as well as the hot spots inside it. They can then deploy ground and aerial resources with maximum efficiency."
Building on ITALSCAR
Italy's National Civil Protection Department is providing advice on the implementation of the Risk-EOS service, based on previous experience with an ESA Data User Programme (DUP) project called ITALSCAR.
Run for ESA by the Italian firms Telespazio una Societá Finmeccanica and Vitrociset, ITALSCAR charted burn scars across the whole of Italian territory occurring between June and September during the years 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000.
For the last quarter of a century, Italian legislation had required that all burned areas be recorded and mapped, as no land use change is permitted to occur on such terrain for 15 years after a blaze, no new building construction for the next ten years, and no new publicly funded reforestation for a half-decade.
However the mapping of burn scars is the responsibility of local administration and their methodologies and overall effectiveness are highly variable. No central cartographic archive of burn scar perimeters exists: the closest equivalent is a cardset index (Anti Incendio Boschivi or AIB) recording fire-fighting interventions by the Italian Forest Guards.
The ITALSCAR burn scar maps were produced across a wide variety of different forest classes. Burn scars were mapped pixel by pixel using an automated software system, followed up with manual photo-interpretation for quality assurance. To ensure confidence in the results they were validated using ground surveys and checked against reports from local fire brigades and Forest Guards' AIB records.
The Risk-EOS burn scar mapping service is based around this same methodology.
Managed by Astrium, Risk-EOS also incorporates services for flood as well as fire risk management. It forms part of the Services Element of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), an initiative supported jointly by ESA and the European Commission and intended to establish an independent European capability for worldwide environmental monitoring on an operational basis.
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http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Satellites_are_tracing_Europe_s_forest_fire_scars
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|"money doesn't grow on trees" = don't waste money because it isn't always easy to come by|
"Watch how much you spend because money doesn't grow on trees."
"have a green thumb" = special ability at making plants grow well
"She has a real green thumb for growing beautiful decorative trees."
More of Randall's Favorite Learning Resources
[ Quiz Script | Text Completion Quiz ]
Recycling and protecting the environment is very important in our world today. Now, you will listen to an award-winning essay on trees in which a girl explains why she loves trees? What ideas would you expect to hear in such an essay?
|I. Pre-Listening Exercises [Top]|
HELPFUL TIP: Deforestation is a serious problem around the world, and planting new trees never seems to keep up with the demand. You can help by recycling paper and even just simply reusing paper for different purposes.|
Listen to the conversation by pressing the "Play Audio" button and answer the questions. Press the "Final Score" button to check your quiz.
|II. Listening Exercises [Top]|
[ Other Audio Options: Play RealMedia | Play Window Media ]
Listen to the conversation again as you read the Quiz Script and do the Text Completion Quiz.
|III. Post-Listening Exercises [Top]|
What environmental problems can you think that pose great danger to nature and our world (e.g., acid rain, deforestation, water pollution)? Are these threats caused by human activity or by natural occurrences? What are some solutions to these problems? Share your ideas on these important issues.
Now, write your opinions on a similar topic at Randall's ESL Blog HERE.
Randall's Sites: Daily ESL | ESL Blog | EZSlang | Train Your Accent | Tips For Students | Hiking In Utah
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With predictions of polar bears being extinct in 50 years, On Thin Ice follows bears as they emerge from their dens and navigate their rapidly changing environment. On Thin Ice shows how the frozen expanses of the Arctic are shrinking at an unprecedented rate, with the very survival of the polar bear literally on thin ice.
Over the last year, producer/presenter Greg Grainger has mounted a series of expeditions across the Arctic to document the plight of the polar bear.
* Researcher Nick Lunn tranquillises polar bears from his helicopter, cataloguing the diminishing health of the Western Hudson Bay bear population and finding the remains of a bear thought to have died from starvation.
* Close and wild encounters with rangers from the Polar Bear Alert team as they chase bears out of the township of Churchill, built in the middle of the bears’ migration route. Follow one family of bears that have to be darted after they attempt to break into a building food for food, while another bold bear becomes trapped inside a garbage truck.
* Hungry bears and husky dogs fighting one another at an isolated weather station north of Norway.
* Polar bears in the wild as they capture seals and devour whale carcasses.
There is no more iconic symbol of strength and adaptation to survival than the polar bear.... an animal so superbly suited to its environment that it thrives in the most hostile corners of the planet – until now.
On Thin Ice - A moving account of Polar bears struggling to survive as climate change melts their summer hunting ground - the Arctic sea ice.
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http://www.graingertv.com/graingerTVDocumentariesWildlifeOnThinIce.php
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