Paper from PNAS: Expert credibility in climate change
97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field surveyed in this report support the tenets of ACC outlined by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers.
Long Term Effects of Global Warming Will Be Far Worse than Gulf of Mexico Catastrophe
Although the BP oil spill seriously threatens those who live along the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. intransigence on climate change threatens the entire world; a fact that is causing rising anger around the world. Yet the U.S. Congress continues to resist action on climate change on the basis that it will harm some U.S. economic interests, while ignoring our duties, responsibilities, and obligations to others to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to the U.S. fair share of safe global releases. For this reason, while the BP oil spill can be rightfully be understood as a disaster, U.S. Congressional inaction on climate change must be understood as a huge moral failure leading to an even greater disaster.
Audio: Climatologist Professor Andrew Weaver Answers Questions About “Glaciergate”
Anna Maria Tremonti hosts CBC Radio’s “The Current“. Here’s her program for Wednesday, February 10th. Dorothy’s note: Click on “Listen to Part One,” which after some teasers and commentary, leads off with Tremonti in a challenging interview with Professor Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria, BC. She notes the erroneous IPCC prediction that by [...]
Has a “Convergance of Catastrophes” Already Begun?
James Howard Kunstler examines the critical importance of oil in our global economy and then anticipates the cascade of catastrophic consequences when – not if – supply fails to meet demand. After a century of profligate use of this energy-dense resource, he contends that we are within a decade of experiencing an oil shortage: for transportation, industry, heating, plastics, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and all the countless products essential to our modern lives. In other words, our energy-devouring civilization has been accelerating entropy.
Final Episode of BBC World’s “Hot Cities” Available
Los Angeles is one of the most polluting cities in the world thanks largely to its love affair with the car. It is a city built on consumption. Each person produces around 20 tonnes of emissions per year – twice as much as anyone else. Now they are about to reap what has been sown. In LA there has been a big increase in wildfires, water supplies are under threat, rising sea levels could have a massive impact on LA’s huge port and destroy thousands of homes. “Hot Cities” goes to LA just as the city launches its adaptation strategy.
In Copenhagen, an Absolute Necessity to Peak CO2 Emissions Within Just a Few Years to Keep Within Our Carbon Budget
The cuts in greenhouse gas emissions being proposed at the Copenhagen climate conference, which opens today, are completely inadequate to stop dangerous climate change, one of Britain’s leading climate scientists warns. Current proposals, including recent ones from major emitting nations such as the US, China and India, are “little more than token gestures”, compared to what the science deems necessary to give even a 50-50 chance of staying below the danger threshold, says Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester.
The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science
On the eve of the Copenhagen conference, a group of scientists has issued an update on the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Their conclusions? Ice at both poles is melting faster than predicted, the claims of recent global cooling are wrong, and world leaders must act fast if steep temperature rises are to be avoided.
“Hot Cities” from BBC World News – Entire Eight-Part Series
We highly recommend these powerful and informative videos of the documentary, Hot Cities, aired this fall on BBC World News TV. This is an excellent eight-part series about the present effects of global warming in cities around the world. If you haven’t caught these segments on television, you can watch them on your computer. Each runs about 45 minutes.
The effects of dangerous climate change are already happening, and people everywhere are finding ways of dealing with the changes this is causing in their lives. Witness the courage, tenacity and ingenuity of people suffering from disease, heat and lack of water, as well as high winds. You are certain to be amazed and inspired.
Tipping Point, After Tipping Point…
Another disturbing milestone was passed on November 6. The graph below shows that although extent of the Arctic sea ice this past summer was greater than that of 2007, it is now less, a record low for its date. Ice covered the Arctic Ocean in a smaller area on November 6, 2009 than in any other year on November 6 since observations began in 1979.
Australian Professor Writes of the Likelihood of Runaway Climate Change
Rather than decarbonising, the world is carbonising at an unprecedented rate, and it is doing so at precisely the time we know we have to stop it. 2.5 degrees Celsius is likely by the end of the century in spite of our childlike belief that climate change can be averted; the cost will prove incalculable.
