ECOSANITY IN THE MEDIA
STELMACH HECKLED IN TORONTO
Edmonton Sun, Jeremy Loome, September 25, 2007
See video in the vidSanity section of our homepage or on our YouTube channel seeactinspire. ecoSanity.org 'Green Defender', Paul Kitz (no, not Glenn MacIntosh, as the caption under the picture suggests), protests Alberta Premier, Ed Stelmach, and the runaway development of the Alberta Tar Sands at an Empire Club of Canada luncheon in dowtown Toronto.
TORONTO GETS IN ON THE BIG (LIVE EARTH) ACT
Toronto Sun, Rosalyn Solomon, July 8, 2007
ecoSanity.org quoted in last 4 paragraphs of this page 3 article. "It isn't just about changing light bulbs, Live Earth is about a revolution, a revolution in energy, a revolution in thinking, a revolution in society -- and that message needs to be heard."
MCGUINTY LIBERALS PROMISE TO SHUT COAL-FIRED PLANTS BY 2014
CityNews, June 18, 2007
Watch ecoSanity.org in video news story, read quotes in paragraph 5. See our video in the vidSanity section of our homepage or on our YouTube channel seeactinspire. ...Protester Glenn MacIntosh of ecoSanity.org interrupted McGuinty's announcement to criticize how the government has acted on climate change...
ONTARIO PROMISES TO CLOSE COAL PLANTS BY 2014
CANOE CNews, Chinta Puxley, June 18, 2007
ecoSanity.org quoted in last 2 paragraphs. Glenn MacIntosh, founder of the group ecoSanity.org, interrupted McGuinty's speech saying people have heard enough talk...
MCGUINTY LAYS OUT PLANS TO CUT EMISSIONS
Globe and Mail, Karen Howlett, June 18, 2007
ecoSanity.org quoted in last 2 paragraphs. Eight minutes into his speech, the Premier was interrupted by a protester, yelling "we need a moral vision now."
4 ARRESTED AT 24 SUSSEX
Edmonton SUN, Canadian Press, March 21, 2007
Four Greenpeace environmental demonstrators were arrested Monday after they chained themselves to the gates of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive.
CANADIAN PM'S HOME BLOCKED BY GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS
National Post, Reuters, March 20, 2007
Five Greenpeace activists blockaded the main gates at Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's residence on Monday, in protest of his failure to support the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
GREENPEACE TARGETS HARPER FOR CLIMATE CRIMES
Greenpeace, March 19, 2007
Watch video and slideshow at bottom of link. From CNN to Paris's Le Monde newspaper to Croatia and Bulgaria, stories ran about putting Prime Minister Harper under house arrest. We'll continue to pressure on all Members of Parliament to deliver the kind of Kyoto plan that Canada needs, and which Canadians want.
GREENPEACE TARGET 24 SUSSEX DRIVE
CBC, Canadian Press, March 19, 2007
Five Greenpeace activists were arrested Monday in Ottawa after chaining themselves to the front gates of the prime minister's official residence.
4 ARRESTED AFTER TORY ENVIRONMENT POLICY PROTEST
CTV, Canadian Press, March 19, 2007
Four Greenpeace environmental demonstrators were arrested Monday after they chained themselves to the gates of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's official residence at 24 Sussex Drive.
GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Javno, Reuters, March 19, 2007
Five Greenpeace activists blockaded the main gates at Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's residence.
GREENPEACE PEOPLE: GLENN MACINTOSH - THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK
Greenpeace Canada, Jane Story, March, 2007
People play a wide variety of roles at Greenpeace and volunteer Glenn MacIntosh has been cast as a number of colourful and controversial characters.
ECO-PILGRIMS GATHER TO 'HEED THE GORACLE'
Globe & Mail, Anthony Reinhart, February 22, 2007
Outside the frantic, sold-out lecture by Al Gore in Toronto, Canada, ecoSanity representatives with "HEED THE GORACLE" banner inspire high profile headline and quotes from group Founder, Glenn MacIntosh.
DON'T FOLLOW U.S. LEAD ON CLIMATE CHANGE
National Post, Joseph Brean, February 22, 2007
…after taking the Porter Airways afternoon commuter flight to Toronto, he (Al Gore) gave a sold out lecture at the University of Toronto, where he was greeted by a throng of supporters, two of whom (ecoSanity representatives) displayed a bedsheet with the slogan "Heed the Goracle" (ecoSanity.org).
IPCC REPORT RELATED
A WORLD DYING, BUT CAN WE UNITE TO SAVE IT?
The Independent, Geoffrey Lean, November 18, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world's governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process, thought to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years, is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change worse...A report by the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific body, concludes that, as a result, of the pollution, the world's oceans are probably now more acidic than they have ever been in "hundreds of millennia", and that even if emissions stopped now, the waters would take "tens of thousands of years to return to normal".
U.N. CLIMATE REPORT: ALREADY OUT OF DATE?
Agence France-Presse, November 10, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! "Over the past several years we have realized...that the speed at which changes can occur -- such as ice sheet disintegration and resulting sea level rise -- is much faster than IPCC has estimated," leading climatologist James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, told Agence France-Presse...French scientist Jean Jouzel, who has been deeply involved in the IPCC report, acknowledges that its estimates about rising sea levels -- which could affect hundreds of millions of people -- are half of what more recent studies indicate.
CLIMATE CHANGE HAPPENING FASTER, SCIENTIST SAYS
Toronto Star, Associated Press, October 9, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Flannery, whose recent book "The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth," made best-seller lists worldwide, said the data showed that the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions had reached about 455 parts per million by mid-2005, well ahead of scientists' previous calculations. "We thought we'd be at that threshold within about a decade, that we had that much time," Flannery said. "I mean, that's beyond the limits of projection, beyond the worst-case scenario as we thought of it in 2001," when the last major IPCC report was issued.
'TOO LATE TO AVOID GLOBAL WARMING,' SAY SCIENTISTS
The Independent, Cahal Milmo, September 19, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! A rise of two degrees centigrade in global temperatures, the point considered to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change which will expose millions to drought, hunger and flooding, is now "very unlikely" to be avoided, the world's leading climate scientists said yesterday.
GRIM OUTLOOK FOR POOR COUNTRIES IN CLIMATE REPORT
The Guardian, David Adam, September 18, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought...Professor Parry, co-chair of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us."...The experts involved warn that the consequences of rising temperatures are already being felt on every continent, and sooner than expected. It is "probably too late" to avoid some impacts in developing countries because about 1C of warming is already in the climate system, they warn. If it is not kept below 2C which "currently looks very unlikely to be achieved" up to 3.2 billion people will face water shortages and up to 600 million will face hunger, they have predicted.
GLOBAL WARMING 'IS THREE TIMES FASTER THAN WORST PREDICTIONS'
The Independent, Geoffrey Lean, June 3, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! The study, published by the US National Academy of Sciences, shows that carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing by about 3 per cent a year during this decade, compared with 1.1 per cent a year in the 1990s. The significance is that this is much faster than even the highest scenario outlined in this year's massive reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - and suggests that their dire forecasts of devastating harvests, dwindling water supplies, melting ice and loss of species are likely to be understating the threat facing the world...On the ground, a study by the University of California's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows that Arctic ice has declined by 7.8 per cent a decade over the past 50 years, compared with an average estimate by IPCC computer models of 2.5 per cent.
A PRICE WORTH PAYING
The Guardian, David Adam, May 4, 2007
ecoSanity essential! To limit that rise to 2.4C, the report says, our emissions must peak by 2015 - an unlikely scenario, particularly given they are increasing at record levels in many parts of the world. Peaking just five years later in 2020 would bring an extra 0.4C rise; by 2030 that climbs further to a full 3C over pre-industrial levels. If pollution continues to worsen until 2060, then we face a full 5C rise at best. All of these estimates, a key footnote to the report warns, are probably underestimates.
ECONOMICS OF TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE
BBC News, May 4, 2007
This graph shows the IPCC estimates for the reductions in emissions that could be achieved cost-effectively from various sectors with a carbon price of $50 per tonne of CO2-equivalent. Below it is a guide to the key areas where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) believes the reductions can be achieved.
CLIMATE CURBS: WHO WILL BUY?
BBC News, Richard Black, May 4, 2007
ecoSanity essential! You might think that by endorsing this IPCC report, the very governments which are involved in the annual UN climate change negotiations have committed themselves to some concrete action...Perhaps a more accurate view can be deduced from changes to this report's wording made during the week's discussions in Bangkok, where a reference to a "global" carbon market became merely an "international" market, and a reference to the importance of "regulatory and financial incentives and international co-operation" in climate policy was removed altogether, with approval for the effectiveness of "voluntary agreements" inserted instead.
CLIMATE CHANGE 'CAN BE TACKLED'
BBC News, May 4, 2007
"If we continue to do what we are doing now, we are in deep trouble," observed Ogunlade Davidson, a senior author on the report.
BEATING GLOBAL WARMING NEED NOT COST THE EARTH: U.N.
ABC News, Reuters, David Fogarty, May 4, 2007
Humans need to make sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next 50 years to keep global warming in check, but it need only cost a tiny fraction of world economic output, a major U.N. climate report said on Friday.
2015 SET AS GASES DEADLINE
Toronto Star, Associated Press, May 4, 2007
Under the most stringent scenario, the report said the world must stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2015 - eight years from now - to keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.
DELEGATES RUSH TO FINISH CLIMATE REPORT
ABC News, Associated Press, Joseph Coleman, May 3, 2007
"The current IPCC debate, the current documents and the fight about this and then about the economic costs are a reflection on the commonly perceived thinking that fighting climate change costs a lot of money, will harm the economy, will burden citizens, and will compromise the necessary economic growth and poverty alleviation in many countries," he said. "That is ... utter nonsense."
CO2 ROW THREATENS CLIMATE REPORT
BBC News, Roger Harrabin, May 2, 2007
Environmentalists fear that a key climate report to be published this week is using outdated science, and will lead to dangerous climate change.
THE RICH WORLD'S POLICY ON GREENHOUSE GAS NOW SEEMS CLEAR: MILLIONS WILL DIE
The Guardian, George Monbiot, May 1, 2007
ecoSanity essential! "Our governments have set the wrong targets to tackle climate change using outdated science, and they know it." "...our governments appear quietly to have abandoned their aim of preventing dangerous climate change. If so, they condemn millions to death. What the IPCC report shows is that we have to stop treating climate change as an urgent issue. We have to start treating it as an international emergency."
CHINESE OBJECT TO CLIMATE DRAFT
BBC News, May 1, 2007
China's emissions are just one-sixth of America's per capita, but the population is so huge that this year the country is due to become the world's biggest polluter.
U.S., CHINA OPPOSE CLIMATE REPORT
Associated Press, April 30, 2007
The United States and China want to change a draft report written by hundreds of the world's leading climate change researchers to downplay its conclusion that quick action can limit the expected catastrophic effects of global warming.
GLOOMY FORECAST AS GREEN EXPERTS MEET
Toronto Star, Reuters, David Fogarty, April 30, 2007
Major polluters such as United States, China and top oil producer Saudi Arabia are expected to seek to water down the report, wary of language that prescribes targets to cut emissions or threatens their oil and gas industries.
LEADING ARTICLE: THE WORLD'S BIGGEST POLLUTERS CAN NO LONGER IGNORE THE EVIDENCE
The Independent, April 7, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Climate change presents one of the most serious threats ever faced by human life on the planet.
SCIENTISTS WALK OUT IN PROTEST AT CHINA'S INTRANSIGENCE
The Independent, Stephen Castle, April 7, 2007
Some of the world's best-informed climate change scientists walked out of an all-night drafting session of yesterday's report on global warming, as tempers flared.
HOW THE WORST EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE WILL BE FELT BY THE POOREST
The Independent, Michael McCarthy & Stephen Castle, April 7, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Humanity will be divided as never before by climate change, with the world's poor its disproportionate victims, the latest United Nations report on the coming effects of global warming made clear yesterday.
EARTH FACES A GRIM FUTURE IF GLOBAL WARMING ISN'T SLOWED, U.N. REPORT SAYS
LA Times, Alan Zarembo & Thomas H. Maugh II, April 6, 2007
A new global warming report issued today by the United Nations paints a near-apocalyptic vision of the Earth's future if temperatures continue to rise unabated: more than a billion people in desperate need of water, extreme food shortages in Africa and elsewhere, a blighted landscape ravaged by fires and floods, and millions of species sentenced to extinction.
EXPERTS WARN WARMING WILL HARM SOCIETY, NATURE
MSNBC News, Associated Press & Reuters, April 6, 2007
An international global warming conference approved a report Friday warning of dire threats to the Earth and to mankind - from increased hunger in Africa and Asia to the extinction of species - unless the world adapts to climate change and halts its progress.
SCIENTISTS, GOVERNMENTS CLASH OVER WARMING REPORT
Reuters, Jeff Mason, April 6, 2007
More than 100 nations in the U.N. group agreed a final text after all-night talks that were punctuated by protests from researchers, who accused delegates of ignoring science and watering down a summary version of the report for policymakers.
SCIENTISTS ISSUE BLEAK FORECAST FOR WARMING WORLD
The Guardian, David Adam, April 6, 2007
A warming world will place hundreds of millions of people at greater risk of food and water shortages and threaten the survival of thousands of species of plants and animals, the scientists said. Floods, heat waves, storms and droughts are all expected to increase, with people in poor countries suffering the worst effects.
A MORAL OBLIGATION
The Guardian, Comment, Andrew Scott, April 6, 2007
Today's report confirms that those contributing the least to climate change are the ones set to suffer most. Rich states must act, and act now.
STARK PICTURE OF A WARMING WORLD
BBC News, Richard Black, April 6, 2007
"The science has come across as so strong and so confident in this report that really governments have nowhere to hide," commented Catherine Pearce, international climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth UK.
BILLIONS FACE CLIMATE CHANGE RISK
BBC News, April 6, 2007
Billions of people face shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding, experts at a major climate change conference have warned.
PANEL: GLOBAL WARMING A THREAT TO EARTH
ABC News, Associated Press, Arthur Max, April 6, 2007
An international global warming conference approved a report Friday warning of dire threats to the Earth and to mankind from increased hunger to the extinction of species unless the world adapts to climate change and halts its progress.
WRANGLING DELAYS CLIMATE REPORT
BBC News, April 6, 2007
Disagreements between scientists and government officials over the predicted effects of climate change have delayed the launch of a major UN report.
WARS OF THE WORLD: HOW GLOBAL WARMING PUTS 60 NATIONS AT RISK
The Independent, Geoffrey Lean, April 1, 2007
Scores of countries face war for scarce land, food and water as global warming increases. This is the conclusion of the most devastating report yet on the effects of climate change that scientists and governments prepare to issue this week.
CLIMATE REPORT MAPS OUT 'HIGHWAY TO EXTINCTION'
MSNBC, Associated Press, April 1, 2007
Dire predictions include loss of species, increasing scarcity of water.
GLOBAL WARMING: THE FINAL WARNING
The Independent, Mark Lynas, February 3, 2007
ecoSanity essential! A brief and shocking summary of the specific anticipated impacts of the predicted potential range of temperature rises by 2100.
WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT
The Guardian, David Adam, February 3, 2007
The IPCC panel stressed that such an outcome was not inevitable. A significant switch to "clean and resource efficient technologies" would cut expected temperature rises by half. But even their most optimistic scenario would see a likely increase in temperature of 2.4C over pre-industrial levels by 2100. The EU has defined any rise over 2C as "dangerous".
UN DELIVERS DEFINITIVE WARNING ON DANGERS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Independent, Michael McCarthy, February 3, 2007
A terrifying leap in average global temperatures of 6.4C with higher figures nearer the poles could occur over the next century, according to the most authoritative report yet on global warming. The rise, which would make agriculture, even life, almost impossible over much of the Earth, was the worst-case scenario envisaged by hundreds of scientists on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They reported yesterday on their three-year study of how temperatures are likely to rise as global warming takes hold.
CLIMATE CHANGE: TIME TO GET SERIOUS
BBC News, Oliver Tickell, February 2, 2007
The Earth's average temperature will almost certainly rise by 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) during this century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report. Thanks to "positive feedback" in the Earth's climate system, it could even rise by 6.4C (11.5F). Temperature rises even at the middle of this scale would mean catastrophe.
TEN YEARS TO AVERT CATASTROPHE
The Independent, Steve Connor, February 2, 2007
Many scientists believe that we have about 10 years left to enact policies that will curb dangerous climate change.
FOSSIL FUEL AND LAND USE BEHIND CO2 RISE
The Guardian, Hilary Osborne, February 2, 2007
By the end of this century, temperatures could be between 1.8C and 4C higher than in 1999, although some of the scenarios considered by the IPCC suggested a rise of as much as 6.4C. In 2001, using a different methodology, scientists predicted an increase of 1.4 to 5.8C.
GLOBAL WARMING: THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
The Independent, Steve Connor, January 29, 2007
ecoSanity essential! A draft copy of the fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that global temperature rises this century of between 2C and 4.5C are almost inevitable. Ominously, however, it also says that much higher increases of 6C "or more" cannot be ruled out.
NEW CLIMATE REPORT TOO ROSY, EXPERTS SAY
ABC News, Seth Borenstein, January 29, 2007
They "don't take into account the gorillas Greenland and Antarctica," said Ohio State University earth sciences professor Lonnie Thompson, a polar ice specialist. "I think there are unpleasant surprises as we move into the 21st century."
GLOBAL WARMING: THE FINAL VERDICT
The Guardian, Robin McKie, January 21, 2007
A study by the world's leading experts says global warming will happen faster and be more devastating than previously thought.
LANDMARK UN STUDY BACKS CLIMATE THEORY
Toronto Star, Peter Gorrie, January 19, 2007
2,000 scientists all but end the debate: Human activity causes global warming.
STERN REVIEW RELATED
COST OF TACKLING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE HAS DOUBLED, WARNS STERN
The Guardian, Juliette Jowit and Patrick Wintour, June 26, 2008
Lord Stern of Brentford made headlines in 2006 with a report that said countries needed to spend 1% of their GDP to stop greenhouse gases rising to dangerous levels. But speaking yesterday in London, Stern said evidence that climate change was happening faster than had been previously thought meant that emissions needed to be reduced even more sharply.
STERN TACKLES CLIMATE CHANGE FOR INDIA
The Guardian, Randeep Ramesh, January 18, 2007
Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the British government's report on climate change, is to advise the Indian government on the issue, arguing that developed countries should bear the burden for a problem they created.
CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT CAN'T WAIT
BBC News, October 31, 2006
A report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern suggests that global warming could shrink the global economy by 20%. But taking action now would cost just 1% of global gross domestic product, the 700-page study says.
JAMES HANSEN
EARTH NEAR TIPPING POINT, CLIMATOLOGIST WARNS
Toronto Star, Tim Harper, June 24, 2008
ecoSanity essential! "We have reached a point of planetary emergency," he [James Hansen] said. ...Yesterday, Hansen warned of greater forest fire risk in Canada, the extinction of polar and alpine species, danger to the coral reefs and the ocean life that depends on them because of carbon dioxide in the oceans, and refugees from melting ice sheets in Greenland and the western Antarctic. ...He also accused corporate America of a "greenwash" in which their environmentally friendly words are not backed by actions and he supported criminal charges against CEOs of corporations...
TWENTY YEARS LATER: TIPPING POINTS NEAR ON GLOBAL WARMING
The Huffington Post, Dr. James Hansen, June 23, 2008
ECOSANITY URGENT! Today I testified to Congress about global warming, 20 years after my June 23, 1988 testimony, which alerted the public that global warming was underway. ...The difference is that now we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb. ...If politicians remain at loggerheads, citizens must lead. ...climate is nearing dangerous tipping points. Elements of a "perfect storm," a global cataclysm, are assembled. ...the oft-stated goal to keep global warming less than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is a recipe for global disaster, not salvation.
PUT OIL FIRM CHIEFS ON TRIAL, SAYS LEADING CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENTIST
The Guardian, Ed Pilkington, June 23, 2008
ecoSanity essential! James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.
BIG OIL'S BIG LIE
The Guardian, George Monbiot, June 23, 2008
If we fail to stop runaway climate change, it will be largely because of campaigning by oil, coal and electricity companies, and the network of lobbyists, fake experts and thinktanks they have sponsored. ...Almost without exception, the scientists who claim to doubt that manmade climate change is taking place fall into two categories: either they are not qualified in the branch of science they are discussing or they have received money from fossil fuel companies.
A CONTROVERSIAL FIGHTER IN THE CLIMATE-CHANGE DEBATE
Christian Science Monitor, Brad Knickerbocker, April 17, 2008
Among those who've started to worry and maybe do something in their lives about global climate change, James Hansen is not exactly a household name. ...He heads a federal government research team that's butted heads with climate skeptics and sometimes with the Bush administration. ...As an outspoken scientist who warns that the earth already has a dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Hansen naturally has his critics.
THE HANSEN (ET AL.) ULTIMATUM
Grist, Joseph Romm, March 20, 2008
Here is the draft [PDF] of the long-awaited defense of why we need an ultimate target of 350 ppm for atmospheric carbon dioxide, by NASA's James Hansen... we should have listened to Hansen two decades ago. The time to act is yesterday.
CLIMATE TARGET IS NOT RADICAL ENOUGH - STUDY
The Guardian, Ed Pilkington, April 7, 2008
One of the world's leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem. Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 - the most stringent in the world - should be slashed to 350ppm. He argues the cut is needed if "humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed".
BACK TO 1988 ON CO2, SAYS NASA'S HANSEN
NY Times, Andrew C. Revkin, March 19, 2008
James E. Hansen, the NASA climate scientist who has long had a habit of pushing past where many colleagues dare go in describing the risks posed by global warming, has done it again. He and eight co-authors have drafted a fresh paper arguing that the world has already shot past a safe eventual atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide... The greatest danger is continued ignorance and denial, which could make tragic consequences unavoidable.
NO MORE CONVENTIONAL COAL AND CARBON STABILISATION BELOW 350PPM
Climate Indymedia, Anonymous, March 7, 2008
Beyond Zero Radio show spoke to James Hansen the world's leading climate scientist about his call for CO2 emissions stabilisation at 300-350ppm, well below todays 385ppm.
CLIMATE SCIENTIST THEY COULD NOT SILENCE
The Sunday Times, Jonathan Leake, Feb. 10, 2008
The White House ordered that Dr. Jim Hansen was to be denied the oxygen of publicity forthwith. He was to be banned from appearing in newspapers and on TV and radio. He was effectively to disappear.
'AVERTING OUR EYES': JAMES HANSEN'S NEW CALL FOR CLIMATE ACTION
NY Times, Andrew C. Revkin, Nov. 28, 2007
In his recent statements and the new one, he warns that the tens of billions of tons of resulting emissions of carbon dioxide, if not captured and stored, will disrupt climate patterns, ecosystems and sea levels that have been remarkably stable through most of modern human history. The result will be an end to "creation" as we have grown to love it, he says.
CLIMATE CHANGE
2050 GREENHOUSE GOALS WILL BE TOO LATE: EPI HEAD
The Japan Times, Jun Hongo, June 7, 2008
ECOSANITY URGENT! Pitches to cut worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by 80 % by 2050 are too leisurely and must be brought forward by decades, Lester Brown, president and founder of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, said Friday at a symposium in Tokyo. "We are going to have to move much, much faster. I think the game will be over long before 2050," the environment expert said at Sophia University... But with the pace of global warming and its link to food prices rising worldwide, the world must "cut carbon emission by 80 percent by 2020," Brown said.
GLOBAL WARMING PREDICTIONS ARE UNDERESTIMATED SAY SCIENTISTS
The Guardian, Ian Sample, May 23, 2006
ECOSANITY URGENT! Climate change models have dramatically underestimated the extent to which global warming will raise temperatures, scientists warned yesterday. ...The flaw means existing predictions for temperature rises are inaccurate and will have to be revised upwards by as much as 2C, suggesting the world could experience a hike of up to 7.7C by the end of the 21st Century.
WORLD CO2 LEVELS AT RECORD HIGH, SCIENTISTS WARN
The Guardian, David Adam, May 12, 2008
Scientists at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii say that CO2 levels in the atmosphere now stand at 387 parts per million (ppm), up almost 40% since the industrial revolution and the highest for at least the last 650,000 years... Martin Parry, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's working group on impacts, said: "Despite all the talk, the situation is getting worse. Levels of greenhouse gases continue to rise in the atmosphere and the rate of that rise is accelerating. We are already seeing the impacts of climate change and the scale of those impacts will also accelerate, until we decide to do something about it."
CLIMATE CHANGE: THE FUTURE IS NOW
IPS, Stephen Leahy, April 1, 2008
ECOSANITY URGENT! To prevent Earth from heating further than 2.0 C, a potentially catastrophic tipping point, carbon dioxide emissions would need to be completely eliminated and soon, say researchers in a new study published in March in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. But the rate of fossil fuel use is skyrocketing. ...Last fall, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that the current growth trend, led by new coal-burning power plants, will drive the global average temperature up 3.0 degrees by 2030 and it could ultimately climb to 6.0 degrees C in the following decades. "What if we were to discover tomorrow that a climate catastrophe was imminent if our planet warmed any further? To reduce emissions enough to avoid this catastrophe, we would have to cut them close to zero -- and right away," said Ken Caldeira, a climate researcher at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University and co-author of the report.
CLIMATE CHANGE 'IS ACCELERATING'
The Observer, David Parsley , March 23, 2008
ecoSanity essential! The growth of developing economies in Africa, Asia and South America has accelerated global warming far beyond official predictions and it is developed nations that must act to halt the potentially catastrophic consequences, according to a new study from the world's leading temporary power supplier, Aggreko. While the International Energy Authority (IEA), states the annual rate of growth in the planet's power consumption will be 3.3% until 2015, the Aggreko study, which studied the growth of developing economies in greater detail than the IEA, puts the figure at 5%.
CARBON OUTPUT MUST NEAR ZERO TO AVERT DANGER, NEW STUDIES SAY
Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, March 10, 2008
ecoSanity essential! "The question is, what if we don't want the Earth to warm anymore?" asked Carnegie Institution senior scientist Ken Caldeira, co-author of a paper published last week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "The answer implies a much more radical change to our energy system than people are thinking about." Although many nations have been pledging steps to curb emissions for nearly a decade, the world's output of carbon from human activities totals about 10 billion tons a year and has been steadily rising.
CLIMATE CHANGE WARNING ISSUED
Toronto Star, Doug Mellgren, March 5, 2008
ECOSANITY URGENT! In two decades, unchecked environmental damage could leave half the world's population without adequate drinking water... "Without more ambitious policies, increasing pressures on the environment could cause irreversible damage within the next few decades," the report said. "The cost of inaction is high, while ambitious actions to protect the environment are affordable and can go hand in hand with economic growth."
WARS DWARF WARMING IN U.S. BUDGET
Inter Press Service, Jim Lobe, January 31, 2008
The study, entitled "Military vs. Climate Security", found that the government has budgeted 647.5 billion dollars for the defence budget in 2008 -- more than the defence budgets of the rest of the world's nations combined - comparted to 7.37 billion dollars for climate-related programmes..."Whle we spare no expense to wage war, we seem to have no money to spare on averting climate diaster," said Miriam Pemberton, the report's author. "The increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists make clear that changing these federal spending priorities can't wait."
PERFECT STORM ON THE GLOBAL HORIZON
The Toronto Star, Cameron Smith, January 26, 2008
The boiling frog syndrome is a grisly metaphor, but it's apt. It refers to the failure to prevent catastrophes when the lead-up is slow and gradual...I'm skeptical about the story, but not about the metaphor...Global warming and "peak everthing" are meshing at every turn, and the list of possible consequences is fearsome.
BYPASSING THE BLOCKAGE OF NATIONS
BBC News, Richard Black, January 15, 2008
In all the organisations designed to solve aspects of global environmental decline, politicians argue our future according to national mandates. I think it is time to ask whether this system is really in the best interests of planet Earth or its people.
PLAN B: HOW TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING
TIME, Bryan Walsh, January 4, 2008
"This is not Plan A, business as usual," Brown writes. "This is Plan B - a wartime mobilization, an all-out response proportionate to the threat that global warming presents to our future."
YEAR IN REVIEW: THE PLANET
The Independent, Michael McCarthy, December 28, 2007
ecoSanity essential! This summer's Arctic melting astonished scientists around the world, and sent a chill down the backs of those who saw the implications. As the head of the Canadian Ice Service said, it wasn't predicted in any supercomputer-generated climate change scenario. The scale was entirely unexpected. It was not just the clearest signal yet that global warming is taking hold; it was an ominous indication that the warming process is proceeding far, far faster than anyone considered possible even five years ago, and that its catastrophic consequences may be upon us much sooner than we have hitherto imagined.
HOORAY! WE'RE GOING BACKWARDS!
Monbiot.com, George Monbiot, December 17, 2007
ecoSanity essential! "After eleven days of negotiations, governments have come up with a compromise deal that could & even lead to emission increases...The highly compromised political deal...is largely attributable to the position of the United States which was heavily influenced by fossil fuel and automobile industry interests. The failure to reach agreement led to the talks spilling over into an all night session..."(1). These are extracts from a press release by Friends of the Earth. So what? Well it was published on December 11th - I mean to say, December 11th 1997. The US had just put a wrecking ball through the Kyoto Protocol. George W. Bush was innocent; he was busy executing prisoners in Texas. Its climate negotiators were led by Albert Arnold Gore.
LATE-NIGHT DRAMA PUSHES U.S. INTO CLIMATE DEAL
The Guardian, Juliette Jowit, Caroline Davies, David Adam, December 16, 2007
Green groups and scientists warned that the agreement was dangerously weak and did not commit countries to the ambitious cuts required. Greenpeace International said it was disappointed. 'The Bush Administration has unscrupulously taken a monkey wrench to the level of action on climate change that science demands,' said its executive director, Gerd Leipold...there was palpable disappointment with the huge concessions made to get America's agreement, mostly over lack of detail about any key pledges. Russia, Japan and Canada also had objected to key elements of the deal. Christian Aid said it was 'dismayed' by the compromises. 'We were expecting a roadmap and we've got one,' said Nelson Muffuh, the charity's senior climate change policy analyst. 'But it lacks signposts and there is no agreed destination.' Disappointment was even stronger among the G77 group of developing countries, many of which claim they are already feeling the effects of climate change in rising sea levels, storms and droughts. 'We are very concerned that there is so little progress,' Kete Ioane, environment minister of the Pacific Cook Islands, told the assembly last week. 'We are merely asking for survival: nothing more, nothing less.'
GORE: U.S. BLOCKING CLIMATE TALKS PROGRESS
ABC News, Associated Press, December 13, 2007
Al Gore said Thursday the United States is "principally responsible" for blocking progress at the U.N. climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
CLIMATE CRISIS REQUIRES URGENT ACTION: SCIENTISTS
CTV News, Associated Press, December 5, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! In the past, many of these scientists have avoided calls for action, leaving that to environmental advocacy groups. That dispassionate stance was taken during the release this year of four separate reports by the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But no more. "It's a grave crisis, and we need to do something real fast", said petition signer Jeff Severinghaus, a geo-sciences professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. "I think the stakes are way, way too high to be playing around."
A WORLD DYING, BUT CAN WE UNITE TO SAVE IT?
The Independent, Geoffrey Lean, November 18, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world's governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process -- thought to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years -- is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change worse...A report by the Royal Society, Britain's premier scientific body, concludes that, as a result, of the pollution, the world's oceans are probably now more acidic that they have ever been in "hundreds of millennia", and that even if emissions stopped now, the waters would take "tens of thousands of years to return to normal".
THE ROAD WELL TRAVELLED
Monbiot.com, George Monbiot, October 30, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! The stone drops into the pond and a second later it is smooth again. You will turn the page and carry on with your life. Last week we learnt that climate change could eliminate half the world's species(9); that 25 primate species are already slipping into extinction(10); that biological repositories of carbon are beginning to release it, decades ahead of schedule(11). But everyone is watching and waiting for everyone else to move. The unspoken universal thought is this: "if it were really so serious, surely someone would do something?"
HUMANS FAILING THE SUSTAINABILITY AUDIT
BBC News, Richard Black, October 25, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Almost everywhere it looks, Geo-4 finds evidence of decline in the years since. From over-fishing and pollution in the oceans to climate-changing emissions in the atmosphere, it concludes that pretty much everything is going downhill.
CLIMATE CHANGE HAPPENING FASTER, SCIENTIST SAYS
Toronto Star, Associated Press, October 9, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Flannery, whose recent book "The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth," made best-seller lists worldwide, said the data showed that the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions had reached about 455 parts per million by mid-2005, well ahead of scientists' previous calculations. "We thought we'd be at that threshold within about a decade, that we had that much time," Flannery said. "I mean, that's beyond the limits of projection, beyond the worst-case scenario as we thought of it in 2001," when the last major IPCC report was issued.
CLIMATE CHANGE DISASTER IS UPON US, WARNS U.N.
The Guardian, Julian Borger, October 5, 2007
Ocha believes that 66 million people were made homeless or were otherwise affected across south Asia. The lives of several million more people were turned upside down across Africa. Sudan, Mozambique, Madagascar, Zambia and Uganda experienced disastrous floods, and Swaziland and Lesotho declared emergencies because of severe drought that reduced harvests by half.
U.N. LEADER ON GLOBAL WARMING: 'WE NEED U.S. LEADERSHIP'
ABC News, Bill Blakemore, September 24, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! When this reporter pointed out that some scientists are writing books and saying in public that they believe this crisis is so serious that if humanity goes on with business as usual -- not significantly cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions -- it could seriously lead to the collapse of civilization, even in the lifetime of today's children, he replied: "I think that is a correct assessment. People say that action should have been taken yesterday. If we take action today, it may not be too late."
'TOO LATE TO AVOID GLOBAL WARMING,' SAY SCIENTISTS
The Independent, Cahal Milmo, September 19, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! A rise of two degrees centigrade in global temperatures, the point considered to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change which will expose millions to drought, hunger and flooding is now "very unlikely" to be avoided, the world's leading climate scientists said yesterday.
GRIM OUTLOOK FOR POOR COUNTRIES IN CLIMATE REPORT
The Guardian, David Adam, September 18, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Professor Martin Parry, a climate scientist with the Met Office, said destructive changes in temperature, rainfall and agriculture were now forecast to occur several decades earlier than thought...Professor Parry, co-chair of the IPCC working group that wrote the report, said: "We are all used to talking about these impacts coming in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren. Now we know that it's us."...The experts involved warn that the consequences of rising temperatures are already being felt on every continent, and sooner than expected. It is "probably too late" to avoid some impacts in developing countries because about 1C of warming is already in the climate system, they warn. If it is not kept below 2C which "currently looks very unlikely to be achieved" up to 3.2 billion people will face water shortages and up to 600 million will face hunger, they have predicted.
CAN THIS REALLY SAVE THE PLANET?
The Guardian, George Marshall, September 13, 2007
ecoSanity essential! It is insulting to assume that people can only be energised with the pint-sized options. We need to present all lifestyle changes as part of a radical vision for a smart, healthy and just 21st century. And let's be clear that voluntary action will never be enough - we will need radical political, economic and social change. So let's start by doing away with that wretched phrase "you can save the planet".
MOVE TO IDENTIFY CLIMATE CHANGE SECURITY HOTSPOTS
The Guardian, David Adam, September 11, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! The MoD project is part of a wider programme of research at the Met Office which marks a change in emphasis from whether climate change is occurring to what the likely impacts will be and what society should do about them...The MoD move marks a growing awareness in recent months that global warming could exacerbate existing conflicts across the world and trigger new flashpoints.
GLOBAL WARMING: MET OFFICE PREDICTS PLATEAU THEN RECORD TEMPERATURES
The Guardian, Ian Sample, August 10, 2007
The forecast from researchers at the Met Office's Hadley Centre in Exeter reveals that natural shifts in climate will cancel out warming produced by greenhouse gas emissions and other human activity until 2009, but from then on, temperatures will rise steadily. Temperatures are set to rise over the 10-year period by 0.3C. Beyond 2014, the odds of breaking the temperature record rise even further, the scientists added.
SOUTH ASIAN MONSOONS DISPLACE MILLIONS
ABC News, Associated Press, Biswajeet Banerjee, August 4, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The death toll rose on Friday to at least 186, as heavy monsoon rains triggered floods across a wide swathe of northern India and Bangladesh, destroying crops, submerging roads and DISPLACING 19 MILLION PEOPLE, officials said!
OIL AND GAS MAY RUN SHORT BY 2015, SAY INDUSTRY EXPERTS
Independent, Geoffrey Lean, July 22, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Humanity is approaching an unprecedented crisis when not enough oil and gas will be produced to keep industrial civilisation running, the world's top oilmen warned last week. The warning which is being hailed as a "tipping point" on both sides of the Atlantic marks the first time that the industry has accepted that it may soon no longer be able to meet demand for its products. In Facing the Hard Truths about Energy, it gives authoritative support to concern about impending shortages, following a similar alert by the International Energy Agency less than two weeks ago...It is also remarkable for the conversion of its chairman, Lee Raymond, the recently retired chief executive of ExxonMobil, who led opposition against action to tackle global warming, and became environmentalists' most prominent bogeyman.
CITEZENS ARREST
The Guardian, Opinion, David Nicholson-Lord, July 11, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The simplest truths are sometimes the hardest to recognise. This month, according to the UN, world population will reach 6.7 billion, en route to a newly revised global total of 9.2 billion by 2050. The latest housing forecasts for England predict that we will need about 5m more homes in the next two decades. The economist Jeffrey Sachs devoted this spring's Reith lectures to a planet "bursting at the seams". And the most recent Social Trends analysis from the Office for National Statistics painted a picture of a Britain driven mad by overcrowding. Meanwhile, Gaia scientist James Lovelock has been warning about ecological collapse and world resources able to support only 500 million people, with many extra millions driven to take refuge in the UK.
LIVE EARTH: ONE BIG GESTURE FOR MAN, ONE BIG PROBLEM FOR THE EARTH
The Independent, Cole Moreton and Geoffrey Lean, July 8, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Live Earth took place on seven continents, over 24 hours. During that time five million people travelled by plane - and nearly 5,000 people died as a result of air pollution. More than 83 million barrels of oil were consumed - and the Antarctic lost a kilometre from its melting ice shelf. The population of the world increased by 211,000 - and the forests of the world decreased by 20,000 hectares.
WILD WEATHER: DISPATCHES FROM AN AILING PLANET
The Independent, David Usborne, July 2, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The world over, people are getting the message that the planet is ailing. Results last week from an unprecedented poll in 46 countries by the US-based Pew Research Centre showed environmental degradation is the number one concern of people around the world, eclipsing worry even about nuclear attacks, ethnic rivalries or Aids.
BURGEONING CITIES FACE CATASTROPHE, SAYS U.N.
The Guardian, John Vidal, June 28, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Humanity will make the historic transition from a rural to an urban species some time in the next year, according to the latest UN population figures. The shift will be led by Africa and Asia, which are expected to add 1.6 billion people to their cities over the next 25 years. The speed and scale of inevitable global urbanisation is so great most countries will not be remotely prepared for the impact it will have..."In human history we have never seen urban growth like this. It is unprecedented." "Most cities [in developing countries] already have pressing concerns, including crime, lack of clean water and sanitation, and sprawling slums. But these problems pale in comparison with those that could be raised by future growth. If we do not plan ahead it will be a catastrophe.
U.N. ISSUES DESERTIFICATION WARNING
BBC News, June 28, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! The study by the United Nations University suggests climate change is making desertification "the greatest environmental challenge of our times". If action is not taken, the report warns that some 50 million people could be displaced within the next 10 years.
DARFUR CONFLICT HERALDS ERA OF WARS TRIGGERED BY CLIMATE CHANGE, U.N. REPORTS
The Guardian, Julian Borger, June 23, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! The conflict in Darfur has been driven by climate change and environmental degradation, which threaten to trigger a succession of new wars across Africa unless more is done to contain the damage, according to a UN report published yesterday.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE FIGHT FOR RESOURCES WILL 'SET WORLD AFLAME'
The Independent, Steve Bloomfield, June 21, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! Climate change has become a major security issue that could lead to "a world going up in flames", the United Nations' top environment official has warned. From rising sea levels in the Indian Ocean to the increasing spread of desert in Africa's Sahel region, global warming will cause new wars across the world, said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
CHINA PASSES U.S. AS WORLD'S BIGGEST CO2 EMITTER
The Guardian, John Vidal and David Adam, June 20, 2007
China has overtaken the US as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world's politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.
THE EARTH TODAY STANDS IN IMMINENT PERIL
The Independent, Steve Connor, June 19, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! ...and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
GLOBAL WARMING TO MULTIPLY WORLD'S REFUGEE BURDEN
ABC News, Reuters, Alistair Lyon, June 18, 2007
ecoSanity essential! People Displaced by Global Warming Could Reach 1 Billion by 2050. "All around the world, predictable patterns are going to result in very long-term and very immediate changes in the ability of people to earn their livelihoods," said Michele Klein Solomon of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). "It's pretty overwhelming to see what we might be facing in the next 50 years," she said. "And it's starting now."
TACKLING ENVIRONMENT COULD SAVE MILLIONS: WHO
CTV, Associated Press, June 14, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Tackling air pollution, contaminated drinking water and other environmental problems could save millions of lives annually around the world, the World Health Organization said in a report Wednesday...The report said as many as 13 million deaths could be prevented yearly by reducing the environmental risks.
GLOBAL WARMING 'IS THREE TIMES FASTER THAN WORST PREDICTIONS'
The Independent, Geoffrey Lean, June 3, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! The study, published by the US National Academy of Sciences, shows that carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing by about 3 per cent a year during this decade, compared with 1.1 per cent a year in the 1990s. The significance is that this is much faster than even the highest scenario outlined in this year's massive reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - and suggests that their dire forecasts of devastating harvests, dwindling water supplies, melting ice and loss of species are likely to be understating the threat facing the world...On the ground, a study by the University of California's National Snow and Ice Data Center shows that Arctic ice has declined by 7.8 per cent a decade over the past 50 years, compared with an average estimate by IPCC computer models of 2.5 per cent.
G-8 PROTESTERS CLASH WITH GERMAN POLICE
ABC News, Associated Press, David Rising, June 2, 2007
Protesters with black hoods and bandanas covering their faces showered police with rocks and beer bottles Saturday, before the heavily armored officers drove them back with water cannon and tear gas during a rally against an upcoming Group of Eight summit.
EU 'MUST WALK ITS CLIMATE TALK'
BBC News, Viewpoint, Caroline Lucas, June 1, 2007
In April, EU ministers adopted a binding target of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20% across the EU by 2020. This target doesn't go far enough, or fast enough, but the real problem is that it is unlikely to be delivered at all. Why? Partly because the EU's policy priorities remain focused on the objectives of greater free trade and international competitiveness rather than becoming a leader in the global fight against climate change and sustainable living.
RUNAWAY CLIMATE CHANGE: AN OBESITY ANALOGY
Countercurrents.org, Bill Henderson, May 30, 2007
Runaway climate change is an insidious evil, an unmarked threshold not a flesh and blood enemy. Perhaps we would already be mobilizing into real action if the climate change danger had a sinister human face...maybe it is how the climate change - global warming story has been told; maybe the disconnect began with a faulted diagnosis that we as patient continue to cling to instead of undertaking life saving change.
NASA: DANGER POINT CLOSER THAN THOUGHT FROM WARMING
ABC News, Bill Blakemore, May 29, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Even "moderate additional" greenhouse emissions are likely to push Earth past "critical tipping points" with "dangerous consequences for the planet," according to research conducted by NASA and the Columbia University Earth Institute. With just 10 more years of "business as usual" emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas, says the NASA/Columbia paper, "it becomes impractical" to avoid "disastrous effects."
G-8 LEADERS FIGHT OVER GLOBAL AGREEMENT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The Guardian, Peter Beaumont and Paul Harris, May 27, 2007
A fierce battle is underway this weekend to rescue a proposed global climate agreement in time for the G8 summit in a fortnight's time in Germany, after sources close to the talks said Washington appeared to be edging away from outright rejection of moves to halt rising world temperatures.
U.S. REJECTS ALL PROPOSALS ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The Guardian, John Vidal, May 26, 2007
The tone is blunt, with whole pages of the draft crossed out and even the mildest statements about confirming previous agreements rejected. "The proposals within the sections titled 'Fighting Climate Change' and 'Carbon Markets' are fundamentally incompatible with the President's approach to climate change," says another red-ink comment. The scene is set for a showdown between the US and other G8 countries who want early action on climate change. Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said the country was prepared to block decisions on other issues unless the US and other G8 members made concessions on the environment. "America doesn't want to commit to firm goals. We can't put the global future of our children at risk because of the narrow-mindedness of individual negotiating partners."
CITIES CAN FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE BEST: REPORT
Toronto Star, Canadian Press, Michael Oliveira, May 23, 2007
Canadians eager to push the government for action on the environment and climate change should stop wasting their time on federal and provincial politicians who are delivering little more than "green rhetoric" and focus on local leaders who have the power to get things done, says a new report obtained by The Canadian Press.
NO, BLAIR! AMERICA'S PARTING GIFT TO BRITAIN'S PM
The Independent, Daniel Howden, May 19, 2007
Less than 24 hours earlier, Mr Blair had basked in the apparent support of President George Bush for his stated aim of avoiding catastrophic global warming. But it seems his appeals have fallen on deaf ears. While Mr Bush was eulogising his friend in the White House rose garden, the President's delegation at a United Nations meeting in Bonn was working to stop any progress on setting up a carbon trading scheme and emissions caps.
DEFORESTATION: THE HIDDEN CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING
The Independent, Daniel Howden, May 14, 2007
ecoSanity essential! In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. Stopping the loggers is the fastest and cheapest solution to climate change. So why are global leaders turning a blind eye to this crisis?
CLIMATE CHANGE TO FORCE MASS MIGRATION
The Guardian, John Vidal, May 14, 2007
ecoSanity essential! A billion people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts. The report, which is based on latest UN population and climate change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, south Asia and the Middle East.
U.S. SEEKS G-8 CLIMATE TEXT CHANGES
BBC News, Richard Black, May 14, 2007
The U.S. is trying to block sections of a draft agreement on climate change prepared for next month's G8 summit, according to documents seen by the BBC.
THE RICH WORLD'S POLICY ON GREENHOUSE GAS NOW SEEMS CLEAR: MILLIONS WILL DIE
The Guardian, George Monbiot, May 1, 2007
ecoSanity essential! "Our governments have set the wrong targets to tackle climate change using outdated science, and they know it." "...our governments appear quietly to have abandoned their aim of preventing dangerous climate change. If so, they condemn millions to death. What the IPCC report shows is that we have to stop treating climate change as an urgent issue. We have to start treating it as an international emergency."
THE GREAT PALL OF CHINA
The Independent, Michael McCarthy and Clifford Coonan, April 25, 2007
In a seismic shift for the world, China will overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases this year, far earlier than thought - and present the problem of tackling climate change in even more difficult terms.
SIX STEPS TO HELL
The Guardian, Mark Lynas, April 23, 2007
ecoSanity essential! By the end of the century, the Earth could be more than 6C hotter than it is today, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We know that would be bad news - but just how bad? How big a rise will it take for the Alps to melt, the oceans to die and desert to conquer Europe and the Americas? Mark Lynas sifted through thousands of scientific papers for his new book on global warming. This is what the research told him...
GENERALS WARN ON WARMING
Toronto Star, Associated Press, April 15, 2007
Global warming poses a "serious threat to America's national security" with terrorism worsening and the U.S. will likely be dragged into fights over water and other shortages, top retired military leaders warn in a new report.
EARTHLY RIGHTS
The Guardian, Stephan Harding, April 3, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The only way to stop us ruining our planet is to give it legal rights.
PREDICTIONS OF ACCELERATED CLIMATE CHANGE
Met Office, The Hadley Centre, March, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The most important graphs in existence! The statements of the February 2007 installment of the IPCC report did not incorporate the estimated impacts of feedback loops. These graphs do. The short version: double all the figures and cut the timeline by half. We must all - act - now!
CLIMATE REPORT WARNS OF DROUGHT, DISEASE
Huffington Post, Associated Press, Seth Borenstein, March 11, 2007
The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say next month at a meeting in Belgium.
BRITISH PUSH ON CO2 AT SECURITY COUNCIL
The Guardian, Ed Pilkington & David Adam, March 8, 2007
The British government is considering putting climate change on to the agenda of the UN security council for the first time to underline the urgency of the issue.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS OUR TOP PRIORITY SAYS UN CHIEF
The Guardian, Hilary Osborne & Agencies, March 2, 2007
"...the danger posed by war to all of humanity - and to our planet - is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming," he said. "I believe that the world has reached a critical stage in its efforts to exercise responsible environmental stewardship."
I-COUNT: "WE NEED TO REACH PEOPLE ON THE FRINGE OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE"
The Guardian, February 21, 2007
"We're stuffed if we leave politics to the kind of people interested in it," reads one of the many irreverent slogans behind I-Count. Launched by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition last October, this ambitious, public campaign is designed to engage the masses in the climate change debate.
THERE IS NO LONGER ANY DOUBT
Toronto Star, Cameron Smith, February 17, 2007
Even the best path would increase Arctic temperatures by 3.6C at the end of the century (two times 1.8C). Sea levels wouldn't rise immediately by four to six metres; it would take a lot longer to reach that height by melting the Greenland ice cap and by warming and expanding ocean waters. The current path, with Arctic temperatures going up 8C, would raise ocean levels much faster.
THE SEMANTICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
BBC News, Richard Black, February 3, 2007
ecoSanity essential! It is a linguistic trick of huge importance to the drought-ridden citizens of Turkana, and to everyone else who is likely to be at the sharp end of some climate-related impact in the coming years. We should all observe its emergence, document its every use, and fear it like the plague.
HAWKING WARNS: WE MUST RECOGNISE THE CATASTROPHIC DANGERS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
The Independent, Steve Connor, January 18, 2007
Climate change stands alongside the use of nuclear weapons as one of the greatest threats posed to the future of the world, the Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking has said.
EU WARNS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHAOS
The Guardian, David Gow, January 11, 2007
The European commission yesterday stepped up the EU's campaign to lead the fight against climate change by warning that global warming was so catastrophic that it could trigger regional conflicts, poverty, famine and migration.
EU: CLIMATE CHANGE WILL TRANSFORM THE FACE OF THE CONTINENT
The Independent, Michael McCarthy & Stephen Castle, January 10, 2007
The ecosystems that have underpinned all European societies from Ancient Greece and Rome to present-day Britain and France, and which helped European civilisation gain global pre-eminence, will be disabled by remorselessly rising temperatures, EU scientists forecast in a remarkable report which is as ominous as it is detailed.
THE BIG QUESTION: HOW QUICKLY ARE ANIMALS AND PLANTS DISAPPEARING, AND DOES IT MATTER?
The Independent, Steve Connor, January 2, 2007
Extinction is as old as life on Earth - about 3.5 billion years - but scientists calculate that we are losing species at a rate of somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural "background" rate of extinction. This means that technically we are going through a period of "mass extinction", the sixth that we know about over the hundreds of millions of years of the fossil record. But unlike the previous five mass extinctions, this one is largely caused by the actions of a single species - Homo sapiens.
LEADING ARTICLE: THE BATTLE TO COME
The Independent, January 1, 2007
The argument has been won, but unless this new consensus produces the kind of leadership necessary to curtail climate change it will prove a hollow victory indeed.
'IF WE FAIL TO ACT, WE WILL END UP WITH A DIFFERENT PLANET'
The Independent, Steve Connor, January 1, 2007
In an interview with The Independent, Jim Hansen, who was one of the first scientists to warn of climate change in scientific testimony to the US Congress in 1988, claimed that we have less than 10 years to begin to curb carbon dioxide emissions before global warming runs out of control and changes the landscape forever.
FRESH ALARM OVER GLOBAL WARMING
Toronto Star, Tyler Hamilton, January 1, 2007
Last week's report of an ancient ice sheet breaking from Ellesmere Island is but one more real-world event bearing out scientists' warnings about global warming.
REVIEW OF THE YEAR: GLOBAL WARMING
The Independent, Steve Connor, December 29, 2006
Our worst fears are exceeded by reality.
THE YEAR THE WORLD WOKE UP
The Guardian, John Vidal, December 20, 2006
Not before time, the west awoke in 2006 to the vast economic, political and social implications of climate change - and twigged that it presented as many opportunities as threats to humanity.
ASIA'S GREENHOUSE GAS 'TO TREBLE'
BBC News, Richard Black, December 14, 2006
ecoSanity essential! Asia's greenhouse gas emissions will treble over the next 25 years, according to a report commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
GLOBAL WARMING CULPRITS: CARS AND COWS
ABC News, December 13, 2006
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in a report called "Livestock's Long Shadow," says, "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."
CARBON EMISSIONS SHOW SHARP RISE
BBC News, Richard Black, November 27, 2006
ecoSanity essential! The rise in humanity's emissions of carbon dioxide has accelerated sharply, according to a new analysis.
ON THE MOVE TO OUTRUN CLIMATE CHANGE
Washington Post, Blaine Harden & Juliet Eilperin, November 26, 2006
In their separate ways, wild creatures, business executives and regional planners are responding to climate changes that are rapidly recalibrating their chances for survival, for profit and for effective delivery of public services.
HONG KONG 'CLIMATE CHANGE THREAT'
BBC News, Vaudine England, November 23, 2006
A leading Hong Kong think-tank has released the first study examining the likely impact of climate change on Hong Kong and the Pearl River delta.
UN CHIEF ISSUES CLIMATE WARNING
BBC News, November 15, 2006
UN chief Kofi Annan has criticised a "frightening lack of leadership" in tackling global warming, at a major UN climate summit in Nairobi.
GLOBAL CLIMATE EFFORTS 'WOEFUL'
BBC News, November 9, 2006
ecoSanity essential! Efforts to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change have been called "woefully inadequate" by a UN-commissioned report.
CLIMATE CHANGE 'HITTING AFRICA'
BBC News, October 28, 2006
Climate change is already affecting people across Africa and will wipe out efforts to tackle poverty there unless urgent action is taken, a report says.
GLOBAL WARMING 'THREAT TO GROWTH'
BBC News, October 27, 2006
Global warming could cut the world's annual economic output by as much as 20%, an influential report by Sir Nicholas Stern is expected to say.
GLOBAL ECOSYSTEMS 'FACE COLLAPSE'
BBC News, October 24, 2006
ecoSanity essential! Current global consumption levels could result in a large-scale ecosystem collapse by the middle of the century, environmental group WWF has warned.
SEEKING EXTRA PLANET BEFORE 2050, INQUIRE WITHIN
ABC News, Bill Blakemore, October 24, 2006
World Wildlife Fund report says humans are consuming more resources than Earth can replenish.
THE LIVING PLANET: FACTS AND FIGURES
BBC News, October 24, 2006
ecoSanity essential! If current trends continue two planets would be needed by 2050 to meet humanity's demands.
SCIENTISTS ISSUE GLOBAL WARMING REPORT
ABC News, Linda A. Johnson, October 4, 2006
Global warming could strain the Northeast's power grid, farms, forests and marine fisheries by the next century unless carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 3 percent each year, according to a report released Wednesday.
TOP SCIENTISTS FEARS FOR CLIMATE
BBC News, Roger Harrabin, August 31, 2006
One of America's top scientists has said that the world has already entered a state of dangerous climate change.
CHINESE DROUGHT AFFECTS MILLIONS
BBC News, August 18, 2006
At least 18 million people have been affected by China's worst drought in 50 years, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
METHANE BURPS AND HEAT WAVES: GLOBAL WARMING MADE VISIBLE
ABC News, Bill Blakemore, August 4, 2006
Super computer predicts rising temperatures as escaping gas bubbles up through the sea.
GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS MILLIONS
ABC News, Associated Press, May 14, 2006
Climate change threatens the health of billions of world's poorest people, charity report says.
GAIA'S LAST STAND
Vitality Magazine, Helke Ferrie, May, 2006
When I was a child, the Earth was incomprehensibly huge, solid and eternal. Now it seems as fragile as a Christmas ornament. Within a hundred years most life forms and human civilization may be completely gone, as if they had never existed at all. As I write this, I cannot believe I am actually doing so.
DIMMING THE SUN
NOVA, TV Program Home Page, April 18, 2006
ecoSanity essential! "Dimming the Sun" investigates the discovery that the sunlight reaching Earth has been growing dimmer, which may seem surprising given all the international concern over global warming. At first glance, less sunlight might hardly seem to matter when our planet is stewing in greenhouse gases. But the discovery of global dimming has led several scientists to revise their models of the climate and how fast it's changing. According to one recent and highly controversial model, the worst-case warming scenario could be worse than anyone has predicted. "Dimming the Sun" unravels this baffling climate conundrum and the implications for Earth's future.
DIMMING THE SUN: THE PRODUCER'S STORY - A TAXONOMY OF SKEPTICISM
NOVA, David Sington, April 18, 2006
Filmmaker David Sington has been making films about the Earth sciences since 1991, but it was a film he made 10 years later called "The Day the Oceans Boiled" that really opened his eyes to the threat from global warming. "Dimming the Sun" is the second film he's done on the subject, and he's working on a third. Here, Sington offers his opinion as to why many people in the U.S., more so than in his native Europe, remain skeptical about how much global warming is due to human activities.
PHOENIX RISES (AGAIN) ON GLOBAL WARMING
ABC News, Bill Blakemore, April 6, 2006
What's happening now? The makings of a change in the zeitgeist - a new cultural map delineating the risk to humanity as the planet gets warmer.
IS IT TOO LATE TO STOP THE WARMING?
ABC News, Ned Potter, March 26, 2006
Scientists talk of possible 'tipping point'.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GLOBAL WARMING: ALARM-IST VERSUS ALARM-ING?
ABC News, Bill Blakemore, December 8, 2005
Journalism has no precedent for a story of the scale or seriousness of global warming.
AVOIDING THE HORROR
EYE Weekly, Gord Perks, August 25, 2005
ecoSanity essential! How'd you like the summer of 2005? We broke the record for smog days by nearly doubling the previous record, had murderous heat waves, a tornado and a flood. In case no one has told you, Toronto's awful summer is partly due to climate change, and it's going to get worse. How much worse depends on what we do in the next five or 10 years. It also depends on a complete reordering of the relationship between the developed world and the developing world. It depends on a new concept of human equity.
ENERGY & INDUSTRY
'THE BIGGEST ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME IN HISTORY'
The Independent, Cahal Milmo, December 10, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! BP, the British oil giant that pledged to move "Beyond Petroleum" by finding cleaner ways to produce fossil fuels, is being accused of abandoning its "green sheen" by investing nearly £1.5bn to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness using methods which environmentalists say are part of the "biggest global warming crime" in history.
GANG'S TERRORIZE NIGERIA'S VITAL OIL REGION
NY Times, Lydia Polgreen, November 9, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The violence that has rocked the Niger Delta in recent years has been aimed largely at foreign oil companies, their expatriate workers and the police officers and soldiers whose job it is to protect them. Hundreds of kidnappings, pipeline bombings and attacks on flow stations and army barracks have occurred in the past two years alone. But these days the guns have turned inward, and open battles have erupted with terrifying frequency on the pothole-riddled streets of this ramshackle city..."What is happening now cannot be separated from politics," said Anyakwee Nsirimovu of the Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Port Harcourt. "The cults are part and parcel of our politics. They have become part of the system, and we are paying in blood for it."
WORLD'S COAL DEPENDENCY HITS ENVIRONMENT
Huffington Post, Michael Casey, November 4, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Taiyuan residents, though, shrug wearily when the talk turns to pollution, fearful that speaking out could get them in trouble. But when pressed, the complaints tumble forth and expose a community held hostage by the soot. Residents seal their windows to keep out the dirty air. Parents are warned not to let their toddlers play outside, for fear of being covered in coal dust. Fruits and vegetables must be washed in detergent. "I'm worried about my children," said a woman who lives in the shadow of a power plant and fertilizer factory. She would only give her surname, Zhang. "We worry about everything. If you get sick seriously, you will die."
PRODUCTION OF BIOFUELS 'IS A CRIME'
The Independent, Associated Press, Edith M. Lederer, October 27, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! A UN expert yesterday called the growing practice of turning crops into biofuel "a crime against humanity" because it has created food shortages and sent food prices soaring, leaving millions of poor people hungry...According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's latest report, 100,000 people are dying from hunger or its immediate consequences every day, 854 million people are chronically undernourished, and every four seconds somebody loses their eyesight because of the lack of vitamins, he said...Currently, he said, thousands of African refugees trying to get to Europe to save their lives are met by battleships and patrol boats and sent home "to situations of hunger that threaten their lives." "The cynicism of the European Community is terrible," Ziegler said. "Their only response is military."
BIG BANKS ARE SELLING US OUT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
AlterNet, Tara Lohan, October 6, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Fortunately, we have the choice to move this country in the right direction by pressuring Citi and BOA to fund clean, instead of dirty, energy. If those banks took the $141 billion they plan to spend on building new coal plants, and instead invested it in energy efficient measures, they could reduce electricity demand by 19 percent by 2025.
CLEANING UP CHINA
NY Times, Editorial, September 24, 2007
ecoSanity essential! China makes more than a third of the world's steel, half of its cement, about a third of its aluminum. It also consumes more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined. Its environmental degradation is a match for Dickens at his bleakest: airborne pollution causes more than 650,000 premature deaths a year.
A BRIGHT ENERGY FUTURE WITHOUT COAL OR NUCLEAR
Toronto Star, Cherise Burda, September 21, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The billions earmarked to build and replace an aging fleet of nuclear reactors or to put scrubbers on outdated coal plants would be better invested in new clean renewable technology of the future. Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are fast to deploy and, if done right, can eliminate the need for coal or nuclear to keep the lights on.
THE GREAT GLOBAL COAL RUSH PUTS US ON THE FAST TRACK TO IRREVERSIBLE DISASTER
The Guardian, John Harris, August 30, 2007
ECOSANITY URGENT! China...is building an average of two coal-fired power stations a week, and in six years has doubled its annual coal production. India will construct more than 100 coal-fired plants over the next decade. Panicked by the possible policy repercussions of George Bush's departure, US power corporations are desperately pushing ahead with plans for about 150 coal-fired stations and leaning hard on presidential candidates - as evidenced by Rudy Giuliani's recent suggestion that the US should "increase our reliance on coal".
AFTER OIL SUPPLIES DRY UP, WHAT'S PLAN B?
San Francisco Chronicle, Erica Etelson, August 26, 2007
ecoSanity essential! At this point, you might be asking yourself: When oil becomes scarce, how will I get food? That's a very good question. Here are a few more: Will my garbage get picked up? How will my water district purify and deliver water and treat sewage without petrochemicals? What if I need an ambulance? What if my home is one of the 7.7 million that rely on oil for heating? Which of my medications are made out of petrochemicals? How will I get to work? Will I even have a job anymore?
NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE WILL DELIVER CHALLENGES
Toronto Star, Tyler Hamilton, August 11, 2007
The issue isn't isolated to the nuclear industry; the entire energy sector is feeling the resources crunch, particularly as China moves aggressively to power its own economic growth. The cost of concrete, steel, copper, nickel and other metals has skyrocketed. Skilled trades workers are harder to find, particularly as a large swath of "boomers" approach retirement. Transportation costs are rising because of increased fuel costs.
OUR CRASS BUSINESS ETHOS CANNOT SURVIVE
Toronto Star, Canadian Press, Dick Smyth, August 6, 2007
A government should exist for the greatest benefit to the greatest number of citizens. In recent years, highlighted by the reactionary regimes of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Brian Mulroney and Bomber "Mike" Harris in Ontario, the goal of government has been to assist business while reviling the common man. The "trickle down" theory quickly was discredited as the rich got richer and the part-time and minimum-wage poor got poorer.
ALBERTA OILSANDS FEVER MOVES INTO HIGH GEAR
Toronto Star, Canadian Press, Judy Monchuck, August 4, 2007
ecoSanity WRONG! An eye-popping $38 billion in deals and development plans announced last week show skyrocketing construction costs haven't dampened interest, only that those intrigued have a blueprint for mining and refining the buried energy treasure.
HARNESSING WAVE POWER
Toronto Star, Tyler Hamilton, July 30, 2007
Wave or tidal power doesn't get much attention in Canada, but technologies for extracting energy from ocean motion could end up following the same growth curves we have seen for wind and, more recently, solar power.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE ALBERTA TAR SANDS
Greenpeace Canada, Geetah Sehgal, August, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Greenpeace has started a campaign to oppose the unsustainable development of the Alberta Tar Sands...Geeta Sehgal, one of our new campaigners, answered a few of our questions about what's going on in the Alberta Tar Sands.
ALBERTA GOV'T WON'T SLOW DOWN OILSANDS PROJECTS
CTV News, Canadian Press, July 25, 2007
ecoSanity WRONG! The Alberta government has reaffirmed its unbending stand against curbing the frantic pace of development in the sprawling oilsands region, despite concerns raised by a government-appointed review group.
VACATIONERS SPENDING $500 ON ONE-DAY OILSANDS TOUR
CBC News, July 25, 2007
ecoSanity WRONG! "Classic Canadian Tours will fly passengers from Calgary to Fort McMurray to get a first-hand glimpse of what is driving the province's economy." So, not only are they supporting one of the most negligent sources of energy on the planet, they're getting there by taking short-haul flights - another one of the worst things for our atmosphere!
OIL AND GAS MAY RUN SHORT BY 2015, SAY INDUSTRY EXPERTS
Independent, Geoffrey Lean, July 22, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Humanity is approaching an unprecedented crisis when not enough oil and gas will be produced to keep industrial civilisation running, the world's top oilmen warned last week. The warning, which is being hailed as a "tipping point" on both sides of the Atlantic marks the first time that the industry has accepted that it may soon no longer be able to meet demand for its products. In Facing the Hard Truths about Energy, it gives authoritative support to concern about impending shortages, following a similar alert by the International Energy Agency less than two weeks ago...It is also remarkable for the conversion of its chairman, Lee Raymond, the recently retired chief executive of ExxonMobil, who led opposition against action to tackle global warming, and became environmentalists' most prominent bogeyman.
JAPAN NUKE PLANT LEAK BIGGER THAN THOUGHT
MSNBC, Associated Press, July 18, 2007
ecoSanity essential! The malfunctions and a delay in reporting them fueled concerns about the safety of Japan s 55 nuclear reactors, which have suffered a string of accidents and cover-ups. Nuclear power plants around Japan were ordered to conduct inspections...This fire and leakage underscores the threat of nuclear accidents in Japan, especially in earthquake zones, said Jan Beranek, a Greenpeace official in Amsterdam. In principle, it's a bad idea to build nuclear plants in earthquake-prone areas.
JAPANESE FEARS OVER NUCLEAR POWER
BBC News, Jonathan Head, July 17, 2007
Despite the acute public sensitivity to nuclear power following the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan has long been concerned over another vulnerability - its lack of indigenous energy resources. Aside from some small-scale geothermal power projects, the country has no other significant sources of energy - no oil, and very little coal.
NUCLEAR EXPANSION IS A PIPE DREAM, SAYS REPORT
The Guardian, John Vidal, July 4, 2007
ecoSanity essential! A worldwide expansion of nuclear power has little chance of significantly reducing carbon emissions but will add dangerously to the proliferation of nuclear weapons-grade materials and the potential for nuclear terrorism, says a leading research group that has analysed the possible uptake of civil atomic power over the next 65 years.
THE PENTAGON V. PEAK OIL
MotherJones.com, Michael Klare, June 14, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Along the way, the American military has been transformed into a "global oil-protection service" for the benefit of U.S. corporations and consumers, fighting overseas battles and establishing its bases to ensure that we get our daily fuel fix. It would be both sad and ironic, if the military now began fighting wars mainly so that it could be guaranteed the fuel to run its own planes, ships, and tanks -- consuming hundreds of billions of dollars a year that could instead be spent on the development of petroleum alternatives.
BLAME COAL: TEXAS LEADS CARBON EMISSIONS
Huffington Post, Associated Press, Seth Borenstein, June 2, 2007
America may spew more greenhouse gases than any other country, but some states are astonishingly more prolific polluters than others _ and it's not always the ones you might expect. The Associated Press analyzed state-by-state emissions of carbon dioxide from 2003, the latest U.S. Energy Department numbers available. The review shows startling differences in states' contribution to climate change. The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.
OUR BLIND FAITH IN OIL GROWTH COULD BRING THE ECONOMY CRASHING DOWN
The Guardian, George Monbiot, May 29, 2007
Motorised transport is a form of time travel. We mine the compressed time of other eras - the infinitesimal rain of plankton on the ocean floor, the settlement of trees in anoxic swamps - and use it to accelerate through our own. Every tank of fuel contains thousands of years of accretions. Our future depends on the expectation that the past will never be exhausted.
GUNMEN KIDNAP NIGERIA OIL WORKERS (AGAIN)
BBC News, May 25, 2007
More than 100 foreign workers and a few Nigerians have been kidnapped so far this year in the swampy creeks of the Niger Delta where the bulk of Nigeria's oil comes from. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer. Although the country's oil money comes from the Niger Delta, most people in the region remain deeply impoverished.
HAS EXXON REALLY SEEN THE LIGHT ON GLOBAL WARMING?
ABC News, Carrie McGourty, Justin Rood, and Clayton Sandell, May 18, 2007
ExxonMobil continues to quietly pump millions of dollars into a network of organizations that deny or question global warming, despite acknowledging such payments had become harmful to the company's image, according to a new report by the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace.
U.N. RAISES POSSIBLE BIOFUEL PROBLEMS
ABC News, Associated Press, Nicole Winfield, May 8, 2007
Biofuels like ethanol can help reduce global warming and create jobs for the rural poor, but the benefits may be offset by serious environmental problems and increased food prices for the hungry, the United Nations concluded Tuesday in its first major report on bioenergy.
SILENCE ON GEOTHERMAL DEAFENING
Toronto Star, Tyler Hamilton, May 7, 2007
Replacing much of this natural gas with clean, emission-free heat under the Earth's crust, a completely feasible option according to a recent research report out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, would go an enormous way toward achieving a halt, and eventually a decline, in Canada's carbon emissions. The problem is, nobody is making noise about it. Not Ottawa. Not the provinces. Not even environmental groups.
NUCLEAR POWER A 'DANGEROUS DISTRACTION' SAYS GREENPEACE
The Guardian, Terry Macalister, May 3, 2007
The average nuclear power station is four years behind schedule and runs three times over-budget, a new report out today says.
LOS ANGELES SUFFERS LONGEST DRY SPELL IN 130 YEARS
Yahoo! News, April 1, 2007
The worst earth-scorching year on record in the United States was in 2006, when fires burned nearly 15.5 thousand square miles (39,957 square kilometers) -- an area close to the size of Switzerland.
GLOBAL WARMING STUDY WARNS OF VANISHING CLIMATES
The Guardian, James Randerson, March 27, 2007
By the end of the century up to two fifths of the land surface of the Earth will have a hotter climate unlike anything that currently exists, according to a study that predicts the effects of global warming on local and regional climates. And in the worst case scenario, the climatic conditions on another 48% of the land surface will no longer exist on the planet at all.
IF WE WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET, WE NEED A FIVE-YEAR FREEZE ON BIOFUELS
The Guardian, George Monbiot, March 27, 2007
ecoSanity essential! Oil produced from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People - and the environment - will lose.
MILLIONS FACE DROUGHT IN SW CHINA
BBC News, March 24, 2007
More than 5.5 million people are short of drinking water because of an acute drought in south-western China, state media reports.
GLOBAL WARMING IS A 'WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION'
The Independent, Geoffrey Lean, March 18, 2007
Climate experts hit back after being accused of overstating the problem.
'BINDING' CARBON TARGETS PROPOSED
BBC News, March 13, 2007
Britain could become the first country to set legally binding carbon reduction targets under plans unveiled by Environment Secretary David Miliband.
SOMEBODY CALL A DOCTOR, EXXONMOBIL IS CHOKING ON HIPOCRISY
Huffington Post, Blog, Laurie David, February 14, 2007
Mr. Tillerson brought out his collection of broken records and played those moldy oldie skeptic's favorites 'uncertainty,' 'more to learn,' and 'don't go too fast,' revealing that his company really hasn't changed its tune at all and continues its morally reprehensible denial of fact.
EXPOSING EXXONMOBIL, PART II
Huffington Post, Blog, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., February 8, 2007
While the WLF claims to be a free-market advocate, it is the opposite -- an advocate for corporate welfare and an apologist for polluters. ExxonMobil and its Board are scoundrels for using public money to finance these deceptions.
ENERGY: INVISIBLE ANSWER TO WORLD'S ENERGY PROBLEMS
ABC News, Lee Dye, February 7, 2007
A growing number of scientists and engineers are betting that a huge part of America's struggle with greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil can be partly solved by returning to one of the first energy sources tapped by humans - wind.
CLIMATE 'TO AFFECT NUCLEAR SITES'
BBC News, David Shukman, January 23, 2007
Rising sea-levels, increased wave height and increased storm surge height must all be considered in the planning of the UK's future nuclear stations.
NEW NUCLEAR POWER 'WAVE' - OR JUST A RIPPLE?
MSNBC, Mike Stuckey, January 23, 2007
How millions for lobbying, campaigns helped fuel U.S. Industry's big plans.
EXXON CUTS TIES TO WARMING SKEPTICS
MSNBC, January 12, 2007
Oil giant also in talks to look at curbing greenhouse gases.
CHINA SURGES TO NO. 2 AUTO MARKET
Toronto Star, Associated Press, Joe MacDonald, January 11, 2007
The announcement highlighted China's lightning evolution from a "bicycle kingdom" into a major auto market where foreign producers are racing to open factories and target a growing urban middle class.
LAGOS PIPELINE BLAST KILLS SCORES
BBC News, December 26, 2006
At least 260 people have been killed and 60 injured in an oil pipeline blast in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, Nigerian Red Cross (NRC) officials say.
THE HIGH COST OF DOING NOTHING
ABC News, Jonathan Silverstein, October 18, 2006
Devices that are off are still using energy and costing you money.
MOST AMERICANS DON'T KNOW CANADA IS THEIR BIGGEST OIL SUPPLIER
CBC News, June 27, 2006
...only four per cent of respondents thought Canada was the country that provided them with more oil than anyone else.