http://westcoastclimateequity.org Climate science and climate change information - West Coast Climate Equity is dedicated to providing facts about the causes of climate change and the evidence for global warming. We report the latest climate science news, information, research and studies to educate about the true impact of dangerous climate change on our world. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:35:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2010/01/07/cleaning-up-the-excess-co2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cleaning-up-the-excess-co2 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2010/01/07/cleaning-up-the-excess-co2/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:43:11 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4191 The other way to reduce the air’s excess CO2 is to unbalance the carbon cycle, typically by preventing some of the CO2 captured by photosynthesis from going back into the air when cells decompose. One has to stash dead biomass where the air can’t get to it. While sealed landfills help, it is only the ocean depths that would appear to have the capacity to draw down all of the CO2 that we have added since 1750.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2010/01/07/cleaning-up-the-excess-co2/feed/ 2 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/18/climate-betrayal-in-copenhagen-gpc-pvc/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=climate-betrayal-in-copenhagen-gpc-pvc http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/18/climate-betrayal-in-copenhagen-gpc-pvc/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:44:04 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4144 “The political statement agreed to with much fanfare in Copenhagen at the 15th Conference of the Parties is not what was needed,” says Elizabeth May, the Green Party of Canada Leader. “With clear warnings from science that greenhouse gas emissions must halt their global rise and begin a steep decline no later than 2015, the leaders gathered in Copenhagen have issued a compromise statement that should never have been written.”

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/18/climate-betrayal-in-copenhagen-gpc-pvc/feed/ 3 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/10/the-physics-of-copenhagen-why-politics-as-usual-may-mean-the-end-of-civilization/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-physics-of-copenhagen-why-politics-as-usual-may-mean-the-end-of-civilization http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/10/the-physics-of-copenhagen-why-politics-as-usual-may-mean-the-end-of-civilization/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:38:28 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4106 In Copenhagen, if the U.S. is willing to treat climate change as politics-as-usual, most of the other major players will simply follow suit. They'll sign some kind of paper in Denmark -- that became all but certain on Friday night when Obama announced he'd jet in for the meeting's close. European leaders and some environmental groups may then call it a “qualified success,” and on we will go through more years of negotiation. In the meantime, physics will continue to operate, permafrost will continue to thaw, sea ice to melt, drought to spread. It’s like nothing we’ve ever faced before -- and we’re facing it as if it’s just like everything else. That’s the problem.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/10/the-physics-of-copenhagen-why-politics-as-usual-may-mean-the-end-of-civilization/feed/ 0 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/09/56-newspapers-around-the-world-in-20-languages-publish-the-same-editorial-calling-for-action-from-world-leaders-on-climate-change/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=56-newspapers-around-the-world-in-20-languages-publish-the-same-editorial-calling-for-action-from-world-leaders-on-climate-change http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/09/56-newspapers-around-the-world-in-20-languages-publish-the-same-editorial-calling-for-action-from-world-leaders-on-climate-change/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:38:18 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4101 Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/09/56-newspapers-around-the-world-in-20-languages-publish-the-same-editorial-calling-for-action-from-world-leaders-on-climate-change/feed/ 1 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/07/in-copenhagen-an-absolute-necessity-to-peak-co2-emissions-within-just-a-few-years-to-keep-within-our-carbon-budget/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=in-copenhagen-an-absolute-necessity-to-peak-co2-emissions-within-just-a-few-years-to-keep-within-our-carbon-budget http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/07/in-copenhagen-an-absolute-necessity-to-peak-co2-emissions-within-just-a-few-years-to-keep-within-our-carbon-budget/#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:30:33 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4068 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.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/07/in-copenhagen-an-absolute-necessity-to-peak-co2-emissions-within-just-a-few-years-to-keep-within-our-carbon-budget/feed/ 1 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/01/a-debate-on-climate-change-the-most-important-topic-of-our-time/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-debate-on-climate-change-the-most-important-topic-of-our-time http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/01/a-debate-on-climate-change-the-most-important-topic-of-our-time/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:22:38 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4036 Be sure to watch Elizabeth May and George Monbiot debate Bjørn Lomborg and Lord Nigel Lawson today beginning at 6:30 PM EST in Toronto.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/01/a-debate-on-climate-change-the-most-important-topic-of-our-time/feed/ 0 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/01/barack-obama-stephen-harper-and-copenhagen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=barack-obama-stephen-harper-and-copenhagen http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/01/barack-obama-stephen-harper-and-copenhagen/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:07:30 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=4028 There is not a single policy in place to reduce global warming pollution since Stephen Harper came into power. And Canada’s emissions are going up, not down. We’re one of the top ten polluters in the world. And we’re one of the only countries—in fact, the worst record of any G8 country in terms of how fast our global warming pollution is going up.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/12/01/barack-obama-stephen-harper-and-copenhagen/feed/ 0 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/27/the-copenhagen-diagnosis-updating-the-world-on-the-latest-climate-science/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-copenhagen-diagnosis-updating-the-world-on-the-latest-climate-science http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/27/the-copenhagen-diagnosis-updating-the-world-on-the-latest-climate-science/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:15:59 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=3987 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.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/27/the-copenhagen-diagnosis-updating-the-world-on-the-latest-climate-science/feed/ 1 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/24/a-outspoken-interview-and-strongly-worded-article-by-naomi-klein-on-the-case-for-climate-debt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-outspoken-interview-and-strongly-worded-article-by-naomi-klein-on-the-case-for-climate-debt http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/24/a-outspoken-interview-and-strongly-worded-article-by-naomi-klein-on-the-case-for-climate-debt/#comments Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:31:26 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=3949 As faith in government action dwindles, however, climate activists are treating Copenhagen as an opportunity of a different kind. On track to be the largest environmental gathering in history, the summit represents a chance to seize the political terrain back from business-friendly half-measures, such as carbon offsets and emissions trading, and introduce some effective, common-sense proposals — ideas that have less to do with creating complex new markets for pollution and more to do with keeping coal and oil in the ground. Among the smartest and most promising — not to mention controversial — proposals is "climate debt," the idea that rich countries should pay reparations to poor countries for the climate crisis.

]]> http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/24/a-outspoken-interview-and-strongly-worded-article-by-naomi-klein-on-the-case-for-climate-debt/feed/ 1 http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/23/more-countries-recognizing-the-importance-of-stronger-targets-at-copenhagen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=more-countries-recognizing-the-importance-of-stronger-targets-at-copenhagen http://westcoastclimateequity.org/2009/11/23/more-countries-recognizing-the-importance-of-stronger-targets-at-copenhagen/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:52:16 +0000 Dorothy http://westcoastclimateequity.org/?p=3926 It hasn't made massive headlines in Europe; in fact it's hardly been noticed. But over the last fortnight, three big countries have made major new pledges to cut their emissions of carbon dioxide from industry, transport and deforestation which is causing climate change. Since 12 November, Russia, South Korea and Brazil have all announced new targets for cutting CO2, leading to a significant improvement in hopes for the outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit, which is now only two weeks away – and which, it was announced yesterday, at least 65 world leaders will attend.

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