Nuclear Reactors, Dams at Risk Due to Global Warming
Christine Dell'Amore; National Geographic News; February 26, 2010
This story is part of a special series that explores the global water crisis. For more clean water news, photos, and information, visit National Geographic's Freshwater Web site.
As climate change throws Earth's water cycle off-kilter, the world's energy infrastructure may end up in hot water, experts say.
(more...)
Global Warming Brings More Snow to some, More Rain, not Snow, to Others
Global warming causes an increase in moisture evaporating into the atmosphere, and more snow and rain falling in the, overall, warmer winters and summers, something that is easy for the news media and politicians to forget and to lie about when informed:
"Scientists have been warning for decades that global warming would increase the severity of winter storms.” And a recent National Wildlife Federation report has found that winter storms are getting fiercer even as the season gets warmer."
When you see lawmakers like Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina tweeting that "it is going to keep snowing until Al Gore cries 'uncle,'" or news that the grandchildren of Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma are building an igloo next to the Capitol with a big sign that says "Al Gore’s New Home," you really wonder if we can have a serious discussion about the climate-energy issue any more. - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, February 17, 2010, NYTimes
[how much have the oil co.'s been paying theses elected idiots? -editor]
American oil money is now pumping Global Warming denials world-wide
Climate Change Deniers Without Borders
American oil money is pumping up climate change skeptics abroad. Could they kneecap a post-Copenhagen accord?
By Josh Harkinson, Tue Dec. 22, 2009 3:59 AM PST
Writing two weeks ago in Poland's most popular tabloid, the Super Express, an economic analyst named Tomasz Teluk [funded by ExxonMobil] claimed that a potential climate agreement in Copenhagen might double Poles' electricity bills, hobble his coal-dependent country, and even lead to one-world government. "Fortunately," he wrote, the "global warming scare" has been hugely overblown: "As each of us learned in elementary school, carbon dioxide is a gas essential to the development of life, not a poison, so you do not have to eliminate it at any price."
(more...)
“First Step”, Obama hails Copenhagen deal
"First Step" Obama hails Copenhagen deal as "unprecedented breakthrough"
The Los Angeles Times 12-19-2009
President Obama found Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in a room that surprisingly also included the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa, some of whom the United States had believed to be headed for the airport in defeat. Together, the leaders found compromise on key issues, chiefly a system to subject developing nations to scrutiny of their pledges to limit emissions as a share of their economies. Under the system, nations would self-report their emission progress every two years, and other countries could ask to examine the data.
(more...)
IOM: Climate change to force 1 billion people to migrate
Wednesday, Dec 09, 2009; Copenhagen: International Organisation for Migration (IOM) report
Climate change and environmental degradation will force as many as one billion people to migrate over the next four decades to southeast Asia, central America and parts of west Africa, world's leading migration agency has said.
Small island states have already disappeared under water forcing international migration. Elsewhere, large numbers of displaced people have moved to already-crowded cities, putting extra pressure on the poorer countries at highest risk from environmental stress and degradation associated with climatic shifts, it added.
"In 2008, 20 million people were made homeless by sudden-onset environmental disasters that are set to amplify as global warming increases," the report released yesterday on the sidelines of climate change talks here said.
(more...)
Schwarzenegger on U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Ruling
12/07/2009 California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final ruling that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are a public health threat:
"For years California has taken the lead in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions and taken action against the threat they pose to the health and safety of our communities. Climate change is real and it is welcome news to see that the U.S. EPA is taking its head out of the sand and moving towards addressing this threat at the national level."
(more...)
Arctic ice cap to vanish – in a decade
Most Arctic sea ice "gone in decade"
By Tom Lowe, Press Association - Thursday, 15 October 2009 Arctic-shipping-no-ice.jpg
The Arctic Ocean will be an "open sea" almost entirely free from ice within a decade, the latest data released today indicates. "The ice in summer will be shrinking back to it's last bastion north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island, so within a decade we will see a largely ice-free Arctic Ocean in summer.
Drilling and observation figures obtained during a 450km route across the northern part of the Beaufort Sea suggest the area is almost entirely made up of young, "first-year" ice, whereas the region traditionally consists of older, thicker "multi-year" ice.
Furthermore, ice cover during the summer months will have entirely disappeared within 20 years, but most of the decrease will happen before 2020, leaving the Arctic Ocean clear for even the largest ships. {no ice breakers needed!}.
(more...)
‘Scary’ climate message from past
Saturday, 10 October 2009 13:02 UK; By Richard Black; Environment correspondent, BBC News website
A new historical record of carbon dioxide levels suggests current political targets on climate may be "playing with fire", scientists say.
Researchers used ocean sediments to plot CO2 levels back 20 million years.
Levels similar to those now commonly regarded as adequate to tackle climate change were associated with sea levels 80 feet to 130 feet higher than today!
(more...)
Climate Summit: China Commits, Obama Not So Much
By Kate Sheppard, September 22, 2009 9pm
"For the last few months I have been very concerned by the slow pace of the global negotiations," said Ban. "But I listened carefully to the discussions today and I sensed that something that has been missing for the past few months has returned. It is a sense of optimism, urgency, and hope that governments are determined to seal a deal in Copenhagen."
But, if anything, the public-facing side of the summit didn't offer much hope. Barack Obama's speech offered nothing in the way of specific policy directives and did little to put pressure on Congress to deliver him a bill that he can take to Copenhagen. And there were no major breakthroughs on agreements between leaders.
For those determined to find signs of progress, one might have been the speech by Chinese President Hu Jintao. His promise that the country would reduce greenhouse emissions by a "notable margin" below 2005 levels within a decade was hailed as a breakthrough -- though he didn't clarify whether that would be a binding goal. Chinese leaders said they are still discussing what the actual target will be.
(more...)
Now China lays down challenge to Obama on climate
UN hopeful that Beijing initiative will kick-start talks on deal to curb emissions
By David Usborne US Editor, in New York, Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Beijing will raise the stakes in the race to agree a global climate change treaty by using a summit of world leaders in New York today to announce that China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, is ready to take new measures to cut pollution.
Although more than 100 leaders will attend today's conference, the focus will be on China's premier, Hu Jintao, and US President Barack Obama, who together may hold the fate of the treaty in their hands.
(more...)
OIL money and morals in such dramatic inverse proportions
"Negligent Homicide" : 15+ deaths reported
British trading giant agrees to pay millions to victims maimed and scarred by dumping of polluted sludge
By Cahal Milmo, Chief Reporter Thursday, 17 September 2009
Thousands of west Africans besieged local hospitals in 2006, and a number died, after the dumping of hundreds of tonnes of highly toxic oil waste around the country's capital, Abidjan. Official local autopsy reports on 12 alleged victims appeared to show fatal levels of the poisonous gas hydrogen sulphide, one of the waste's lethal byproducts.
Trafigura has been publicly insisting for three years that its waste was routine and harmless. It claims it was "absolutely not dangerous". -- Greenpeace
A British oil trading giant has agreed to a multimillion-pound payout to settle a huge damages claim from thousands of Africans who fell ill from tonnes of toxic waste dumped illegally in one of the worst pollution incidents in decades.
Trafigura, a London-based company which bills itself as one of the world's largest oil traders, said it was in talks to reach a "global settlement" to the claim by 30,000 people from Ivory Coast, who brought Britain's largest-ever lawsuit after contaminated sludge from a tanker ship was fly-tipped under cover of darkness in August 2006.
(more...)
the World Bank urges climate action now
Bank urges climate 'action now' Tuesday, 15 September 2009
By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Climate change will be a serious barrier to growth in poorer nations and must be curbed, says the World Bank. The bank's World Development Report (WDR) urges a rapid scaling-up of spending on clean energy research and protection for poorer countries. Even a warming of 2C (3.6F) - the G8's target - could reduce GDP in poor nations, the report concludes.
The bank urges governments to conclude an "equitable deal" at December's UN climate summit in Copenhagen. That "equitable deal" should involve industrialised countries paying for the damage that their historical emissions have caused and will cause in poorer parts of the world, it suggests.
"Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change - a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared," said World Bank president Robert Zoellick. "For that reason, an equitable deal in Copenhagen is vitally important." Part of that deal, the report says, involves industrialised countries making rapid cuts in their greenhouse gas output, creating "emissions space" to allow for rising fossil fuel use in poorer societies.
(more...)
Arctic: Warmest in 2,000 years
Thursday, 3 September 2009,
By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Arctic temperatures are now warmer than at any time in the last 2,000 years, research reveals.
Changes to the Earth's orbit drove centuries of cooling, but temperatures rose fast in the last 100 years as human greenhouse gas emissions rose.
The result is a "hockey stick"-like sudden 90 degree turn, in which the last decade - 1998-2008 - stands out as the warmest in the entire series.
(more...)
Military Analysts Say Global Warming Is A Threat To Our Security
Jay Yarow; Aug. 8, 2009, 7:35 PM; New York Times
The military analysts the Times spoke to say that climate issues could destabilize regions, increase terrorism, and destroy governments. With extreme weather comes displacement. As people have to leave their homes, the government steps in with aid. Further, as new groups of people are forced to live together there's a risk of warfare.
(more...)
“cash for clunkers” program an overwhelming success
August 4, 2009
Spurring Sales, Car Rebate Plan Is Left Up in Air
By MATTHEW L. WALD and NICK BUNKLEY, New York Times 
The short-term tonic of the first billion dollars was evident, in sales figures that automakers reported Monday. New-vehicle sales rose last month to the highest level in nearly a year, and in the final week of July, cars and trucks were rolling off dealers` lots at almost the same rate they had before the recession began.
Dealers estimated that they sold a quarter-million cars with the rebate money.
And the Transportation Department reported that the average gas mileage of the vehicles being bought was significantly higher than required to qualify for a rebate of $3,500 to $4,500. Of 120,000 rebate applications processed so far, the department said the average gas mileage of cars being bought was 28.3 miles per gallon, for S.U.V.`s, 21.9 miles per gallon, and for trucks, 16.3 miles per gallon.
(more...)
contact Obama! 