Human caused climate change is pretty clear – except to Americans
Only in the United States, among industrial nations, is the reality of
global warming or its causes questioned by large segments of the
population.
2012 was a tough year for planet Columbus Dispatch 23 Dec 12This year
has brought plenty of concern to nature appreciators, those who
realize that, as nature goes, so eventually goes humankind:
Devastating storms erupted last spring in the wake of a mild winter,
drought and heat baked the land throughout the spring and summer, and
an epic November blow assaulted population centers. Weather-related
deaths reached 349 in the United States. The repair bill, the federal
government reported, will be the second-highest since 1980, behind
2005, a year that spawned four mainland hurricanes, including Katrina.
The upper Great Lakes and the Mississippi River have had news-making
low-water problems in the wake of widespread drought more intense than
anything seen since the 1930s.
The year is expected to go down as the warmest or second-warmest since
data has been recorded. The warmest occurred in 2008. Continue reading
USA’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission not keeping up with new flood dangers
Nuclear power plant flood risk: Sandy was just a warm-up Remapping Debate, By Heather Rogers Dec. 20, 2012 “……..Are nuclear power plants becoming more exposed to flood risks?
While climate scientists, including Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, the director of the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University, currently project that the frequency of tropical cyclones such as hurricanes will stay the same, or even decrease, the severity of these storms is expected to rise. This is the result of warming ocean surface temperature, due to increasing atmospheric temperatures. “There will be a shift from less intense, say, Category 1 and 2 hurricanes, toward more intense hurricanes,” Oppenheimer said.
Amplifying the effect of these more powerful storms will be a rise in sea level. “So there are two things expected to happen simultaneously which will increase surge levels in the future,” explained Oppenheimer. Consequently, he said, “Planning for any [nuclear] installations along the coast needs to keep that in mind.” Continue reading
Nuclear power: factor in all aspects, and it contributes to global warming
Wishful thinking on nuclear power
By Dr. Dale Dewar, The StarPhoenix December 21, 2012 Dewar is
executive director of the group Physicians for Global Survival.
” What’s to like about nuclear power?……….Is it green, as a Dec. 7 editorial suggests? Those who promote nuclear
as a rescue to global warming get mixed up about the proportion of the
world’s energy that is actually provided by nuclear power. The fact is
that nuclear power represents less than three per cent of the world’s
total energy use. Increasing its share of electricity production would
not make a dent in preventing climate warming.
Nuclear power accounts for only 11 per cent of the world’s total
electrical production, down from its peak in 1995 of 17 per cent. At
the current rate of new builds versus old power plants reaching their
end dates, the IAEA estimates a 2040 share of 6.7 per cent.
Factor in the mining, transportation, carbon costs of construction,
security, waste management and decommissioning all at the greatest
cost of any source and nuclear power is only green at best when it is
up and running at 90 per cent or better efficiency a figure rarely
reached by most reactors.
The cost to our pocketbooks and to the environment is incredibly
important. At a time when Saskatoon city council is trading off
improved bicycle paths for fixing potholes in streets, doesn’t it make
sense to invest in conservation and sustainable energy sources .
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Wishful+thinking+nuclear+power/7729997/story.html#ixzz2FnvtztHi
Kyoto – a poor thing for global climate action, but it’s all we’ve got
the Kyoto protocol covers only 15 per cent of the world’s emissions. Basically we’re back to the European Union and Australia operating with binding targets. Take in Ukraine, Switzerland and Norway and it’s a grand tally of 35 countries out of nearly 200. The
US is still not on board. And fellow non-signatories India and China, with 37 per cent of humanity, are industrialising their way back to the dominance they held in the world economy two centuries ago……
The road to a living planet still passes through Kyoto
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-road-to-a-living-planet-still-passes-through-kyoto-20121216-2bhgo.html December 17, 2012 THE world won’t come to an end this Friday, despite the Mayans’ prognostications. Not only that, it will be reborn 11 days
later. Yes, on January 1, the second phase of the Kyoto protocol comes into force.
Kyoto is still the world’s only climate change treaty but, while only seven years old, it already looks a bit old hat…. Russia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand declined to agree to a second
commitment period under the protocol. Yes, even Japan doesn’t love Kyoto. Continue reading
Democratic and Republican lawmakers seek better tax code for renewable energy
US lawmakers to push tax code change for renewable energy in 2013 Climate Spectator, 13 Dec 2012 Reuters WASHINGTON, A group of U.S. lawmakers said on Wednesday that they plan to push ahead in the new year to change the tax code so renewable energy projects could qualify for beneficial tax structures commonly used by pipelines and other energy-related companies.
Democratic and Republican sponsors of proposed legislation said they think momentum is growing for their idea to allow wind, solar, biofuel and other renewable projects to structure as “master limited partnerships” (MLPs).
The structures allow companies to raise money in the stock market, while having income taxed only at the unit holder level, thus avoiding corporate income taxes.
“Small tweaks to the tax code could attract billions of dollars in private sector investment to renewable energy deployment,” the 29 lawmakers said in a letter to President Barack Obama, asking for the administration’s support…… http://www.climatespectator.com.au/news/us-lawmakers-push-tax-code-change-renewable-energy-2013
Climate Change Denialists twist and distort message of latest IPCC draft climate report
Professor Sherwood says research has effectively disproved the idea that sunspots are more responsible for global warming than human activity.
IPCC draft climate report leaked by sceptics
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-12-14/ipcc-draft-climate-report-leaked/4429036 A draft of the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been leaked on climate sceptic websites. Continue reading
Doha – a weak and ineffective agreement on Climate Change
“The solutions to climate change are becoming very good investments,” Jennifer Morgan, from the World Resources Institute, told RenewEconomy at the close of the conference. “Whether it is CSP or wind, you have incentive to invest in these technologies for a range of reasons. Then you can build the political Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save
the planet
Doha saved 250 trees, but it couldn’t save the planet http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/doha-saved-250-trees-but-it-couldnt-save-the-planet-54848 REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 10 December 2012
DOHA: As the stalemate on the plenary floor in the climate change negotiations in Doha reached its tortuous 10th hour on Saturday evening, members of the French delegation gathered in a tight knot in the main aisle and expressed their alarm at the course of events. “We cannot allow this to happen in Paris in 2015,” I heard one of them say. “That would be a disaster.” Continue reading
Coal Seam Gas – its “fugitive” greenhouse gas emissions are not measured
the sources, and perhaps also the volumes, of fugitive methane releases may differ from those associated with conventional gas production, and that consequently different approaches to the measurement of fugitive emissions may be required.”
CSG worries hinge on timing of climate change, ABC News 10 Dec 12 by Wendy Carlisle for Background Briefing “……..Fugitive emissions Professor Hultman’s paper was cited by the oil and gas lobby group APPEA in their submission to the Federal Government’s review into the way in which fugitive emissions from coal seam gas are measured.
APPEA has consistently said coal seam gas is 70 per cent cleaner than coal.
But in September the Government released a report which found that the absence of published information about fugitive emissions – greenhouse gases that leak into the atmosphere during the extraction process – was a matter of “public policy concern”. Continue reading
Vague and ineffective – climate change agreement at Doha
Green groups and scientists say while a global treaty to address emissions by 2015 has been agreed upon, it does not go far enough.
“[It’s] a million miles from where we need to be to even have a small chance of preventing runaway climate change,”
Troubled UN climate talks spill over ABC News by Sara Phillips for ABC Environment Dec 8, 2012 International talks aiming to address global climate change have been extended amid fears they may collapse altogether. Continue reading
Runaway global warming will bring climate disasters
Chronic droughts and floods would bite into farm yields, violent storms and sea-level rise would swamp coastal cities and deltas, and many species would be wiped out, unable to cope with habitat loss.
Climate study predicts 5C warming http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/climate-study-sees-5c-warming/story-e6frf7k6-1226528644170 AAP December 03, LEVELS of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are rising annually by around three per cent, placing Earth on track for warming that could breach 5C by 2100, a new study published says.
The figure – among the most alarming of the latest forecasts by climate scientists – is at least double the 2C target set by UN members struggling for a global deal on climate change.
In 2011, global carbon emissions were 54 per cent above 1990 levels, according to the research, published in the journal, Nature Climate Change, by the Global Carbon Project consortium.
“We are on track for the highest emissions projections, which point to a rise in temperature of between 4C and 6C by the end of the century,” said Corinne le Quere, a carbon specialist at the University of East Anglia, eastern England. Continue reading
Doha – the attitude gap between rich and poor nations, on climate change
Doha Dispatches: Mind the gap… and the science REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson 3 December 2012 DOHA: The first slogan to greet arrivals at Doha Airport in Qatar are as optimistic as those that greeted delegates to the climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009: “Welcome to 12 days that could have an everlasting effect,” it pronounces.
Not real catchy, and possibly a direct translation from Arabic. But worthy all the same. Sadly, judging by the lack of ambition, and the lack of progress of these talks, it’s not a likely outcome.
The second thing that attracted my attention on arrival were two payment booths at the exit of the parking lot. Barely big enough for one person to sit inside, they were each equipped with their own 1kW air conditioning system with a large hose attached, like a deep-sea diver with an oxygen supply.
They probably need it. Doha is a city that thrives because of its fossil fuel riches and it has built a western city of stunning shapes and proportions only because it is air conditioned. It has even promised to air condition the World Cup, which it aims to host in 2022 and will have to do exactly that if the competition is to run in the northern summer, where temperatures average 36°C from June to August and have peaked at 53°C, and could hit goodness-knows-what in a decade’s time. (Even the sea-water reached 37°C in 2008).
Qatar is one of a handful of Gulf states that deprives Australia of a most unwanted moniker – the highest emitting state in the world per capita. Australia gets the gong for the category of developed nations, but even it can’t compete with Qatar. Humankind would need more than two planets if the world lived like Australians do. If they lived like the Qataris – the massive buildings, the labyrinth of four lane highways that seem always often clogged, what must be the highest per capita penetration of Toyota Land Cruisers, and its need to desalinate its water – then we would need around five planets. Continue reading
Doha – the gulf in attitudes to climate change, between rich and poor nations
Unless the negotiators in Doha wake up tomorrow and embrace a new green industrial revolution to rapidly change our energy systems, chances to stay below global warming of 2 degrees Celsius are vanishing very fast, if they are not already gone.”
The greenhouse gas emissions path the world is taking “is not a tenable future for the planet – we cannot be that stupid as a species,”
(Diagram below is now out of date – predictions are worse!)
It’s the end of the world as we know it http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-20121202-2ap4l.html#ixzz2E25ixNBg December 3, 2012 Ben Cubby THE world is on track to see “an unrecognisable planet” that is between 4 and 6 degrees hotter by the end of this century, according to new data on greenhouse gas emissions.
As United Nations climate negotiations enter their second week in Doha, Qatar, an Australian-based international research effort that tracks greenhouse gas output will release its annual findings on Monday, showing emissions climbing too quickly to stave off the effects of dangerous climate change.
The new forecast does not include recent revelations about the effects of thawing permafrost, which is starting to release large amounts of methane from the Arctic. This process makes cutting human emissions of fossil fuels even more urgent, scientists say.
The new data from the Global Carbon Project found greenhouse gas emissions are expected to have risen 2.6 per cent by the end of this year, on top of a 3 per cent rise in 2011. Since 1990, the reference year for the Kyoto Protocol, emissions have increased 54 per cent.
“Unless we change current emissions trends, this year is set to reach 36 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels, we are on the way to an unrecognisable planet of 4 to 6 degrees warmer by the end of this century,” said the executive director of the Global Carbon Project, Dr Pep Canadell.
“Unless the negotiators in Doha wake up tomorrow and embrace a new green industrial revolution to rapidly change our energy systems, chances to stay below global warming of 2 degrees Celsius are vanishing very fast, if they are not already gone.”
Emissions are growing in line with the most extreme climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to a paper in the journal Nature Climate Change that explains the Global Carbon Project’s findings.
The trajectory means a temperature range of between 3.5 and 6.2 degrees by the year 2100, with a “most likely” range of between 4.2 and 5 degrees.Although the climate has changed due to natural influences in the past, human emissions superimposed on top of natural variation is now driving change 20 times faster, according to NASA estimates. Civilisation evolved in a more moderate environment.
The new data is beginning to confirm what scientists had been warning people about for decades, said Andy Pitman, director of the Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of NSW.
“There are papers that should come with a warning: ‘do not read this if you are depressed’, or ‘please have a stiff drink handy as you read this’. [This] paper is one such example,” Professor Pitman said.
The greenhouse gas emissions path the world is taking “is not a tenable future for the planet – we cannot be that stupid as a species,” he said.
Matthew England, a colleague of Professor Pitman and fellow author of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, said: “While the science is clear that emissions reductions are required urgently, each year we are emitting more and more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is like a smoker ramping up the number of cigarettes smoked each day despite grave warnings to stop smoking altogether – sooner or later this catches up with you.”
Thawing of Arctic permafrost leads to irreversible climate change
Where even the earth is melting, SMH, November 28, 2012 Ben CubbyENVIRONMENT EDITOR THE world is on the cusp of a “tipping point” into dangerous climate change, according to new data gathered by 
scientists measuring methane leaking from the Arctic permafrost and a report presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.
“The permafrost carbon feedback is irreversible on human time scales,” says the report, Policy Implications of Warming Permafrost. “Overall, these observations indicate that large-scale thawing of permafrost may already have started.”
While countries the size of Australia tally up their greenhouse emissions in hundreds of millions of tonnes, the Arctic’s stores are measured in tens of billions. Human-induced emissions now appear to have warmed the Arctic enough tounlock this vast carbon bank, with stark implications for international efforts to hold global warming to a safe level. Ancient
forests locked under ice tens of thousands of years ago are beginning to melt and rot, releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the air. Continue reading
USA’s conservative think-tanks out to crush renewable energy
in the United States, the forces of greed, profit, and power are at work with no regard to the consequences of their actions.
Conservatives in U.S. trying to reverse renewable energy standards in the states, Examiner, NOVEMBER 25, 2012 BY: ROBERT BOWEN As world leaders begin discussions in Qatar Monday on an agreement to reduce carbon pollution, oil companies in the United States are out to repeal the renewable energy standards in the 29 states that have them. They are funding conservative groups to do their dirty work according to an article published Saturday in the Washington Post.
The Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank that denies climate change science, has joined with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to write model legislation aimed at reversing state renewable energy mandates across the country. The Electricity Freedom Act, adopted by ALEC’s board of directors in October, would repeal state renewable energy standards (RES) which require utilities to get a portion of their electricity from renewable sources. ALEC and Heartland are using a tried and true tactic calling it “essentially a tax on consumers of electricity’ and bringing in “freedom.” Continue reading
World Bank calls for action on warming planet
World Bank fears 4-degree warmer planet , Nov 19, 2012 (ABC News: Giulio Saggin) The World Bank has warned global temperatures could rise by four degrees Celsius this century without immediate action, with potentially devastating consequences for coastal cities and the poor. Continue reading
1 This Month
22 June – Virtual Event –Climate Change: New Data, New Debate
Monday, June 22, 2026 2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. CT
YouTube. Register here
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- June 2026 (193)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 