CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING

Paris Hilton vs Global Warming

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, economics, Media , ,

Global warming (climate change) is the most pressing issue humanity has EVER faced.

And yet mainstream media devote nearly all of their time and attention to Paris Hiltonesque celebrity culture, Iraq or some other conflict zone and any political controversy no matter how trivial.

Sure there is a bit of ‘green’ coverage but it is thin, inconsistent and rarely examines the roots of this growing global crisis.

This chart from a University of Oxford study shows how world-wide media coverage of global warming has DECLINED in the 2008 even as the science is clear that its affects are coming faster (happening right now) and with much bigger impacts than expected. news-coverage-gw-oxford

Fortunately there are some alternative news media working extremely hard to cover the truly important issues that are shaping our future and our children’s future. What most people may not realize is that precious few of these alternative media can afford pay journalists and writers a living wage.

Here’s what you can do:

truth-over-fear

1. Spread the word. Circulate these stories to everyone on your email list — and ask them to pass them on.

2. Write a letter. Contact Canadian and US media outlets asking them to use stories published by media outlets like IPS.

[Remarkably while 200 million people read IPS stories in the newspapers and magazines published in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa but they are rarely published in North America.]

3. Become a supporter. Financial support is important if this work is to continue. Here is a safe and convenient way via PayPal or Credit Card:

Or contact Stephen

Burning Down Our House

Stephen Alaska, arctic, CANADA, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Energy ,

chilee28094the-fury-of-chaiten-volcano-nat-geoAnalysis by Stephen Leahy

QUEBEC CITY, Canada, Dec 15 (IPS)

The roof of our house is on fire while the leaders of our family sit comfortably in the living room below preoccupied with “political realities”.

That was essentially the message from 1,000 scientists from around the world along with northern indigenous leaders gathered in Quebec City for the International Arctic Change conference that concluded last weekend.

“Climate change and its impacts are accelerating at unexpected rates with global consequences,” delegates warned in a statement.

Presenting data from hundreds of studies and research projects detailing the Arctic region’s rapid meltdown and cascading ecological impacts, participants urged governments to take “immediate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

By happy coincidence, 190 governments were meeting at the same time in Poznan, Poland to do just that: reach an agreement on how much to reduce emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Except that they decided to do nothing. Continue reading →

Climate Change: ‘Things Happen Much Faster in the Arctic’ – Summer Sea Ice Could be Gone Soon

Stephen arctic, Biodiversity, CANADA, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Indigenous People , , , ,

polar-bear-leap-wwwfirstpeopleus-sml

By Stephen Leahy

“We’re going to see huge changes in the Arctic ecosystem“

QUEBEC CITY, Canada, Dec 13 2008 (IPS)

In just a few summers from now, the Arctic Ocean will lose its protective cover of ice for the first time in a million years, according to some experts attending the International Arctic Change conference here.

A summer ice-free Arctic wasn’t due for another 50 to 70 years under the worst-case climate change scenarios examined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“Things are happening much faster in the Arctic. I think it will be summer ice-free by 2015,” said David Barber, an Arctic climatologist at the University of Manitoba.

Such a “dramatic and serious loss of sea ice will affect everyone on the planet,” Barber told IPS. Continue reading →

Carbon-Credit Gold: Who is going to get rich?

Stephen Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, developing world, economics, Forests, Indigenous People

forest-fireBy Stephen Leahy

Paying the poor to conserve forests through a market scheme is the new star among initiatives in climate talks.

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Dec 15 (Tierramérica).- Climate experts meeting in Poznan, Poland, promised to create a new pot of carbon-credit gold for the rural poor as guardians of rural lands and forests.

But there are many who warn that the gold will flow only to corporate interests.

One of the most effective ways to combat climate change, caused by gases like carbon dioxide that trap heat in the atmosphere, is through biological sequestration of carbon in plants, trees and soils. That means reducing deforestation, increasing reforestation, and utilizing sustainable agriculture and grazing practices that conserve soil and water.

If these activities become part of a multi-billion-dollar global carbon finance regime, under a new 2009 climate treaty, there could be extraordinary benefits for the rural poor and the environment, according to Olav Kjørven, the former director of the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Energy and Environment Group. Continue reading →

The Best Green Radio/Podcast

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ENVIRONMENT, Media

radio-eco-header1

Radio Ecoshock is a brilliant weekly one-hour roundup of the big environmental and social issues of our time. Alex Smith collects the best podcasts, conference recordings and original interview from a refreshing diversity of leading experts and authorities.

Many great ideas and fascinating commentary that you won’t hear anywhere else:

* “the business model of the auto industry is broken” — Dr. Peter Morici, Professor of International Business at the University of Maryland

* coal-fired power plants are dumping thousands of tonnes radioactive waste such as thorium and uranium into the air and on the land

* London-based Gwynne Dyer columnist, author, military historian on extreme climate change and resulting wars

* Dec 8 show — includes shameless but hilarious, twisted XMAS songs from the coal industry: “Ho Ho Ho Clean Coal for the Holidays” and “Frosty the Coal Man”.

Lots of supplemental information on the RE blog — Ecoshock Program Notes.

Bush’s “Midnight Regs” Chains Obama to Anti-Environmental Course

Stephen Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, ECOLOGY, Energy, sustainability

wed-outdoor-disp-low-res_pa1By Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Dec 1 (IPS) – As the world community meets in Poland this week to find solutions to the climate crisis, the George W. Bush White House is chaining the United States’ tiller to prevent a change of course by President-elect Barack Obama by passing new anti-environmental rules and regulations at a furious pace.

Nearly a million hectares of public wildlands in Wyoming and Utah are being opened up to oil shale extraction, the Endangered Species Act is being gutted, as are regulations regarding factory farm operations, the Clean Air Act, and removing mountaintops to dig for coal and more, said a coalition of environmental groups.

“There are many last-minute changes and some are draconian,” said Josh Dorner of the Sierra Club, an environmental NGO. Continue reading →

Much Hotter Days and Nights for Mexico

Stephen CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Mexico, News , ,

chinas-badlandsBy Stephen Leahy*

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 20 (Tierramérica) – Climate change will dramatically increase the number of hot, dry days in Mexico in the coming decades, while coastal regions like the Yucatán, in the southeast, will be swamped by sea levels that are half a metre higher than today, a new study has found.

By 2030, Mexico’s average daily temperature is likely to climb 1.4 degrees Celsius above what has been the average for the past 30 years. By 2090, this increase could rocket upwards by 4.1 degrees, virtually guaranteeing hot days and nights for 80 to 90 percent of the year, says the Oxford University study financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Cold weather will become very rare in Mexico according to data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an umbrella organisation of scientists from around the world and the preeminent authority on climate change.

“Mexico is one area of the world where all the computer climate models agree,” says Carol McSweeney of the School of Geography and Environment at Oxford. Continue reading →

Oceans Passing Critical CO2 Threshold

Stephen Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, Energy, News, OCEAN

a-brittle-stare28094barely-as-big-as-a-nickele28094-crawls-across-the-arm-of-an-18-inch-wide-blue-sea-star-nat-geo

By Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 24 (IPS)

An apparent rapid upswing in ocean acidity in recent years is wiping out coastal species like mussels, a new study has found.

“We’re seeing dramatic changes,” said Timothy Wootton of the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study shows increases in ocean acidity that are more than 10 times faster than any prediction.

“It appears that we’ve crossed a threshold where the ocean can no longer buffer the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere,” Wootton told IPS.

For millions of years, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the ocean were in balance, but the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation has put more CO2 into the atmosphere over the last 150 years. The oceans have absorbed one-third — about 130 billion tonnes — of those human emissions and have become 30 percent more acidic as the extra CO2 combines with carbonate ions in seawater, forming carbonic acid.

Each day, the oceans absorb 30 million tonnes of CO2, gradually and inevitably increasing their acidity. There is no controversy about this basic chemistry; however, there is disagreement about the rate at which the oceans are becoming acidic and the potential impact. Continue reading →

Ten-Year Probe Reveals Oceans in Peril

Stephen Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, News, OCEAN, Science

sea-anemoneBy Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 11 (IPS) – A thousand points of light are being shone into the dark ocean depths as scientists from 82 countries work to complete the decade-long global research effort called the Census of Marine Life.

“It’s been a remarkable time of exciting new discoveries and frightening revelations of how quickly the oceans are changing,” said Canadian deep-sea biologist Paul Snelgrove, a leader of a team integrating findings from all 17 census projects.

“We were startled to discover small crustaceans never seen by scientists before completely blanketing the seafloor at 500 metres in the Gulf of Mexico,” Snelgrove told IPS.

And during the eight years the census has run so far, scientists have documented that more than 90 percent of the oceans’ top predators — large sharks, tunas, swordfish, cod and others — are now gone and those remaining are in serious trouble. “We’re also seeing evidence of climate change with the shifting distribution of species,” he said. Continue reading →

Haiti: “The Most Desperate Enviromental Crisis on the Planet”

Stephen Biodiversity, CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING, developing world, News, sustainability , ,
Haiti hillside - Floresta Brad Lewis
Haiti hillside - Floresta Brad Lewis

By Stephen Leahy*

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Nov 13 2008 (Tierramérica)

The worst natural disaster Haiti has ever suffered requires far-reaching solutions in order to reduce this Caribbean country’s environmental fragility, say officials and humanitarian workers.

Four major storms pounded Haiti in August and September, leaving nearly 1,000 dead and a million people homeless. International relief efforts are keeping people alive and sheltered, but the already degraded landscape has been badly battered, washing away crops, soil and the few remaining trees in many areas.

“I’m not sure if things could get worse here. Haiti must be the most desperate environmental crisis on the planet,” Joel Boutroue, resident humanitarian coordinator and head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Port-au-Prince, told Tierramérica.

Boutroue was referring to the future of the poorest country in the Americas, where U.N. peace-keepers have been stationed since 2004. But he added that “the international response to the disaster is quite good.”

While pockets of severe malnutrition still exist, there is access to clean water and only about 3,000 families were without shelter as of the end of October, he said.

However, it is not possible to feed an entire country of 9.5 million people with international aid for long. Haiti cannot feed itself, and even growing 50 percent of its own food is years away, Boutroue fears. Continue reading →