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Legal actions against oil companies on effects of global warming?

Playing the climate blame game, New Scientist 11 November 2011 by Fred Pearce A claim that global warming caused the 2010 Russian heatwave could bring closer the day when climate victims can sue oil firms Editorial: ”Climate blame: send for the lawyers“  BLAMING climate change for extreme weather events, like the 2010 heatwave that set the Moscow region of Russia alight in 2010 or the floods that have ravaged the UK since the 1970s (see “Atmospheric rivers cause the UK’s worst floods“), is one of the hottest topics in climate science. The Russian fires are currently the subject of debate, and the stakes are high. Solving the issue could bring closer the day when disaster victims can successfully sue oil and coal companies. Continue reading →

November 13, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, Legal | 1 Comment

Climate Change has cost $14 billion in health toll

Health Tab for Climate Change: $14 Billion, Mother Jones, —By Kate Sheppard  Nov. 8, 2011  Climate change-related disasters caused $14 billion in health costs in first decade of the 2000s, according to a new paper published this week in the journal Health Affairs. The paper looks at six case studies of weather events in the US, all of the type predicted to increase or grow more severe as climate change progresses, like hurricanes, floods, and heat waves. It then determines the cost of disease, injury, and death related to those events…..

The US has already seen a record number of billion-dollar weather disasters in 2011. And those tallies don’t include the kind of health-related costs that these public health experts discuss in the paper. Meanwhile, the forthcoming IPCC report anticipates more extreme weather down the line… http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/11/health-tab-climate-change-14-billion

November 13, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Time running out for action on Climate Change

Five years to act on climate: report The Age , Tom Arup and David Wroe November 11, 2011THE world has just five years to make ”urgent and radical policy changes” or lock in dangerous climate change, the world’s leading energy agency has warned, sparking a debate about whether Australia should shift to gas or renewable energy.

The 2011 World Energy Outlook – released by the International Energy Agency late on Wednesday night – finds the world is on track to build enough fossil-fuel power stations, energy-intensive factories and buildings by 2017 to close the door on keeping climate change to a safe level…… The outlook says coal consumption needs to peak well before 2020 if the world wants to halt global warming at a 2 degrees rise, which scientists say is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

If energy and climate policies currently proposed by all world governments – including Australia’s carbon tax – are put in place, temperatures will rise by 3.5 degrees. If the world remains on its current path of growth in fossil fuels global temperatures will rise by 6 degrees, the outlook says.

Agency chief economist Fatih Birol said if by 2017 there is not a start to major new clean infrastructure investments ”the door to 2 degrees will be closed”. ”I am very worried,” he said, ”if we don’t change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum. The door will be closed forever.”

The outlook comes as nations prepare to converge on the South African city of Durban later this month for the next round of global climate change negotiations, but there is almost no expectation significant progress on a global pact will be made.

The agency’s report says emissions from existing fossil-fuel power plants, factories and buildings have already locked in 80 per cent of the emissions allowed by 2035 to keep carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million, the maximum possible to keep temperature rises to 2 degrees. The other 20 per cent will be eaten up by 2017 on current development trends the outlook says….  http://www.theage.com.au/national/five-years-to-act-on-climate-report-20111110-1n9he.html#ixzz1dRh1PZbd

November 11, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, Reference | Leave a comment

Nuclear energy is in no way a solution to climate change

Is Nuclear Energy a Fuel with a Future?, Huffington Post, Andy Mannle, : 10/28/11 “………the nuclear industry needs to do more than build a few plants a year to be a true low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels. A hard look at the science of reducing atmospheric carbon to 350ppm shows why.

To get the world off coal, which produces roughly half of the world’s power, would require 7-8 terawatts of energy. One nuclear power plant yields a gigawatt of power, meaning 8000 nuclear power plants would be needed to produce 8 terawatts. To do this by 2050, 200 plants would need to be built a year, which is roughly one every 1.5 days. Since nuclear plants only have a lifespan of 50 years, by the time the required amount is built, early plants would have to start being decommissioned. After that, new plants would need to keep being built at the same pace just to replace retiring ones.

So if the world goes nuclear, supplying half the power we need would require building a new plant every other day forever.

Even if this rate of growth were feasible, it is clearly unsustainable. Of course, no single strategy is going to wean us off coal in several decades. We will need a combination of carbon reduction strategies — what Princeton researchers Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala call “stabilization wedges” that each reduce a billion tons a year for the next 50 years. The “wedges” include efficiency, renewables, carbon sequestration, reforestation, and replacing coal plants with natural gas. But even for nuclear to generate a single wedge would require tripling our current nuclear capacity.

The reality is global CO2 emissions are rising, not falling. And we can’t build enough nuclear alone to stop them. As such, nuclear’s benefits as a low-carbon alternative would only materialize in the context of a global war on carbon. Absent that, nuclear becomes just another low-carbon energy source competing on the open market with cleaner renewables and cheaper natural gas. Ironically, the current slow growth of nuclear and the possibility of an actual nuclear retreat after Fukushimacould mean an acceleration in our rising CO2 emissions, cautions the International Energy Agency…..   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-mannle/nuclear-energy-a-fuel-with_b_1032727.html

 

October 29, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, Reference | Leave a comment

Compelling evidence that global warming is real

He and his fellow researchers examined a huge data set of observed temperatures from monitoring stations around the world and concluded the average land temperature has risen 1 degree  since the mid-1950s. This agrees with the rise estimated by the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Muller and his colleagues looked at five times as many temperature readings as did other researchers,  a total of 1.6 billion records, and now have put that merged database online

It is the know-nothing politicians — not scientists — who are committing an unforgivable fraud

Chilling news for climate sceptics, The Age, Eugene Robinson, October 28, 2011 Research by a former poster boy for doubters makes it much harder to deny warming.

FOR the clueless or cynical diehards who deny global warming, it’s getting awfully cold out there. The latest icy blast of reality comes from an eminent scientist whom climate-change sceptics once lauded as one of their own.

Richard Muller, a respected physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, used to dismiss alarming climate research as “polluted by political and activist frenzy’’. Frustrated at what he considered shoddy science, Muller launched his own comprehensive study to set the record straight.

Instead, the record set him straight. Continue reading →

October 29, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Nuclear power as cure for climate change- the big con

The Big Con Is Nuclear Power Really a Trump Card Against Global Warming?, CounterPunch, by TAKASHI HIROSE OCTOBER 19, 2011 In recent years there seemed to be a nuclear power renaissance. One reason for this has been the adoption by its promoters of the theme of global warming, and their claim that nuclear power is clean energy because it does not produce carbon emissions.  But is nuclear power in fact the clean-energy solution its promoters claim? Continue reading →

October 23, 2011 Posted by | climate change, Japan, Reference | Leave a comment

Australia joins international initiatives to address climate change

The passage of this initiative is still hugely important, if for no other reason than that it shows Big Coal can be rolled.  The coal industry is an even larger part of the Australian economy than it is of the American, and it has an enormous amount of political power.  And just like here in the U.S., there are plenty of shrill politicians in Oz who claim that any new tax will lead to economic ruin.  

Gillard told Members of Parliament that they would be judged on their vote by every Australian, “because the final test is not are you on the right side of the politics of the week, or the polls of the year.”

“The final test is this: are you on the right side of history?“
 Australian Carbon Tax Vote: A Very Big Deal,  ROLLING STONE, : OCTOBER 13,   By JEFF GOODELL    So maybe there is hope for us yet.   After what one Aussie columnist calls“the dirtiest and most dishonest campaign ever waged before the Australian public,” with millions of dollars spent on media ads and climate skeptics flown in from around the world, Australia’s House of Representatives voted yesterday, 74 to 72,to levy a tax on carbon pollution.  Continue reading →

October 15, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, climate change, politics | Leave a comment

Cook Islands must develop renewable energy

The Cook Islands lacks major natural resources and regularly experiences natural disasters. Climate change spurred on by rapidly increasing levels of greenhouse gases is expected to heavily impact the region, with salt intrusion into ground water from rising seas a major concern.

Renewable Energy An Imperative For The Cook Islands, Renewable Energy News, by Energy Matters, 4 Oct 11 The Cook Islands, Japan and Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat have stated renewable energy is no longer an optional energy solution for the Pacific region, but an imperative.

Speaking at a signing ceremony for the Rakahanga $1m PV Project, a project designed to reduce the need for generator fuel, Cook Islands Prime Minister Hon Henry Puna, the Forum Deputy Secretary General and Ambassador of Japan said the region must invest heavily in renewable energy – and that investment must be backed by strong political will. Continue reading →

October 4, 2011 Posted by | climate change, OCEANIA, renewable | Leave a comment

Rich countries delay action climate change, Pacific Islanders the losers

The proposal will prove divisive for poorer countries.

None more so than nations most vulnerable to climate change, such as low-lying islands that face ever rising sea levels, flooding and shrinking fresh water supplies. They want faster action by big polluters and feel Kyoto is the way to go.

World divided on new plan to combat global warming, Reuters  David Fogarty, SINGAPORE,  October 2, 2011  A new plan to curb global warming risks becoming a battleground between rich and poor nations and could struggle to get off the ground as negotiators battle over the fate of the ailing Kyoto climate pact.

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol covers only emissions from rich nations that produce less than a third of mankind’s carbon pollution and its first phase is due to expire end-2012. Poorer nations want it extended, while many rich countries say a broader pact is needed to include all big polluters. Continue reading →

October 3, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Nuclear power cannot cope with climate change

 nuclear cannot take the heat… rather than being a solution to climate change, nuclear is actually significantly undermined by climate change. .

Australian Parliament, Senate speech, Senator Christine Milne, 21 Sept 11“……..On climate change, there is this ridiculous assertion that nuclear energy is required to address climate change. It is actually the opposite. In this report [UN Report on Nuclear safety ]  it states that the assumptions that need to be reviewed are regarding the types of accidents that are possible. The report says that an assessment of those accidents was way too modest and that they need to look at the possible effects of climate change in relation to nuclear energy. Continue reading →

September 22, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change | Leave a comment

Climate Change: US politicians bought by fossil fuel industries

Al Gore: Climate Science “Reality” Versus Republicans, Planet Ark,  15-Sep-11 Deborah Zabarenko For Al Gore, the choice is obvious: Either accept scientific reality about climate change or believe what the fossil fuel industry is paying some Republican candidates to say.

“Anti-climate lobbyists … give massive campaign contributions and they’re not shy about making it clear to the candidates they support that there’s a quid pro quo. In return for getting their money, these candidates have to pretend that they really believe this nonsense,” the longtime climate change campaigner said on Wednesday in a telephone interview.

Asked whether Republican candidates who have accepted contributions from fossil fuel industries are compelled to toe the skeptical line on climate change, Gore replied: “That is absolutely the case.” Continue reading →

September 16, 2011 Posted by | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

Governor Rick Perry fiddles with Climate Change denialism as Texas burns

It’s time to get real about green policy, Thomas Friedman, The Age, September 15, 2011, EVERY time I listen to Texas Governor Rick Perry and Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann describe climate change as some fraud perpetrated by scientists trying to gin up money for research, I’m reminded of the line that actor Jack Nicholson delivers to the needy neighbour who knocks on his door in the film As Good As It Gets. ”Where do they teach you to talk like this?” asks Nicholson. ”Sell crazy someplace else. We’re all stocked up here.”

Thanks, Perry and Bachmann, but we really are all stocked up on crazy right now. I mean, the Texas Governor rejects the science of climate change while his own state burns after the worst droughts on record propelled wildfires to devour an area the size of Connecticut. As a statement by the Texas Forest Service said last week: ”No one on the face of this earth has ever fought fires in these extreme conditions.” Continue reading →

September 15, 2011 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Sea level rise threatens nuclear reactors

Although two new reactors at Turkey Point are being built at a higher elevation, Florida Power & Light has requested to keep the two current nukes running until 2035. Given that Hurricane Andrew almost inundated them in 1992, what will happen as oceans continue to rise?

“The standards will be 85 years old by then, and that’s a problem,” says Arnie Gundersen, a Vermont-based nuclear engineer and consultant. “If tidal waves knock out the water pumps” — as they did at the Fukushima reactor in Japan earlier this year — “you can have a meltdown.”…..

Global warming could put Turkey Point nuclear reactors under water, Miami New Times By Michael E. Miller , Sep 8 2011 Warning: Global warming is a fact, and the results are already visible. Hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts and floods are more frequent. In South Florida, waters rose roughly six inches between 1930 and 1981. That might not sound like much, but it’s just the tip of a rapidly melting iceberg. “We are the most vulnerable metropolitan area in the world when it comes to sea-level rise,” University of Miami professor Harold Wanless says. Continue reading →

September 8, 2011 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

USA Conservative White Males and Climate Change Denial

Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States, Science Direct Aaron M. McCright  and Riley E. Dunlap  Lyman Briggs College, Department of Sociology, Environmental Science and Policy Program, Michigan State University. Department of Sociology, Oklahoma State University

Abstract  

We examine whether conservative white males are more likely than are other adults in the U.S. general public to endorse climate change denial. We draw theoretical and analytical guidance from the identity-protective cognition thesis explaining the white male effect and from recent political psychology scholarship documenting the heightened system-justification tendencies of political conservatives. We utilize public opinion data from ten Gallup surveys from 2001 to 2010, focusing specifically on five indicators of climate change denial. We find that conservative white males are significantly more likely than are other Americans to endorse denialist views on all five items, and that these differences are even greater for those conservative white males who self-report understanding global warming very well. Furthermore, the results of our multivariate logistic regression models reveal that the conservative white male effect remains significant when controlling for the direct effects of political ideology, race, and gender as well as the effects of nine control variables. We thus conclude that the unique views of conservative white males contribute significantly to the high level of climate change denial in the United States.

Highlights

► Conservative white males are more likely than other Americans to report climate change denial. ► Conservative white males who self-report understanding global warming very well are even more likely. ► Climate change denial is an example of identity-protective cognition. ► System-justifying tendencies lead to climate change denial. ► Climate change denial increased from 2001 to 2010……

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095937801100104X

September 3, 2011 Posted by | climate change, USA | Leave a comment

Science and Climate Change action under attack from Republican presidential candidates

Rick Perry denounces the concept of man-made global warming as “one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight”..

..poll found that 98 per cent of scientists accepted the idea [of globalwarming]…..

GOP presidential hopefuls rush to deny climate change  The Australian, Catherine Philp, Washington  August 23, 2011 “…..In the past week, the Environmental Protection Agency has become the new target for Republican hopefuls, with conservative candidates scrambling to outdo each other over how quickly they would abolish it. The attacks have exposed a sharp split in the field between those who accept the scientific basis of climate change and those who do not.

Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party insurgent, said that on the first day of her presidency, “the EPA will have the doors locked and lights turned off”. Continue reading →

August 23, 2011 Posted by | climate change, politics, USA | Leave a comment

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