sduford on May 09 2009 | Filed under: Global Warming, Politics, Sustainable Dev., The Denial Machine
Here’s a thought provoking analogy, comparing what’s happening with climate-change denial to what has happened with the cod fisheries in Newfoundland.
The tragedy of climate commons
Share on Facebooksduford on Apr 24 2009 | Filed under: Global Warming, Politics, Scientists
From The New York Times
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: April 23, 2009
Share on FacebookFor more than a decade the Global Climate Coalition, a group representing industries with profits tied to fossil fuels, led an aggressive lobbying and public relations campaign against the idea that emissions of heat-trapping gases could lead to global warming.
“The role of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood,” the coalition said in a scientific “backgrounder” provided to lawmakers and journalists through the early 1990s, adding that “scientists differ” on the issue.
But a document filed in a federal lawsuit demonstrates that even as the coalition worked to sway opinion, its own scientific and technical experts were advising that the science backing the role of greenhouse gases in global warming could not be refuted.
“The scientific basis for the Greenhouse Effect and the potential impact of human emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 on climate is well established and cannot be denied,” the experts wrote in an internal report compiled for the coalition in 1995.
The coalition was financed by fees from large corporations and trade groups representing the oil, coal and auto industries, among others. In 1997, the year an international climate agreement that came to be known as the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated, its budget totaled $1.68 million, according to tax records obtained by environmental groups.
sduford on Apr 24 2009 | Filed under: Environment, Politics, Sustainable Dev.
sduford on Apr 22 2009 | Filed under: Environment
Today is Earth Day and here is a classic video by Carl Sagan to help put things back in perspective…
Share on Facebooksduford on Apr 12 2009 | Filed under: Environment, Politics
Here’s an excellent and thought provoking essay from Environment360:
Consumption Dwarfs Population As Main Environmental Threat
sduford on Dec 16 2008 | Filed under: Environment, Global Warming, The Science
More than two trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming.
More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA’s GRACE satellite, said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke. The water melting from Greenland in the past five years would fill up about 11 Chesapeake Bays, he said, and the Greenland melt seems to be accelerating.
Share on Facebooksduford on Dec 15 2008 | Filed under: Environment
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised its World Energy Outlook report, and it’s not pretty. They admitted to having finally done some research, and as a result, have moved their peak-oil date a lot. 2020, that’s in 11 years my friends.
sduford on Dec 02 2008 | Filed under: Environment
The development of the tar sands could lead to the loss of more than 160 million birds over the next 30 to 50 years because of the elimination of habitat and deaths from drowning in tailings ponds, according to a report being released today.
The impact of the oil sands on birds has been in the spotlight, especially since a flock of 500 mallards landed in a Syncrude Canada Ltd. tailings pond near Fort McMurray, Alta., in late April. Images of the dead ducks spread around the world and became a public-relations nightmare for the petroleum industry and the Alberta government.
But the new report, compiled by the Natural Resources Defence Council and the Boreal Songbird Initiative in the United States, and the Pembina Institute in Canada, says relatively few birds are likely to be lost because of accidental drowning in the ponds, perhaps only 8,000 to 300,000.
The far greater threat arises, the report says, from the destruction of habitat due to tar sands strip mining, along with habitat fragmentation and degradation in areas where the thick bitumen will be extracted in situ using wells.
The estimate of bird losses, when habitat effects are included, ranges from a low of six million to a high of 166 million, spread over the 30- to 50-year period of oil extraction. The oil sands lie within what is known as the boreal forest, the vast band of wilderness that stretches across northern Canada. About half of all birds in the U.S. nest in the boreal forest and depend on it for their survival. Estimates of breeding pairs in the forest are as high as 500 birds in every 2.5 square kilometres.
sduford on Oct 26 2008 | Filed under: Global Warming, Politics, Renewable Energy
An excellent article by Dan Gardnerколи под наем.
The jist of his message? Even if you don’t “believe” in anthropogenic climate change, there are many good reasons to get off our addiction to fossil fuels, and do it fast.
Share on Facebooksduford on Sep 27 2008 | Filed under: Global Warming, Scientists
This article: New global warming threat as scientists discover massive methane ‘time bomb’ under the Arctic seabed discusses an actual observation of this very dangerous climate feedback mechanism. The title is misleading because this is no a “new” global warming threat, but something scientists have been predicting for years. Now it has actually been observed, and it is extremely worrisome as it could greatly accelerate global warming.
Share on FacebookGlobal warming could rapidly accelerate as millions of tons of methane escape from beneath the Arctic seabed, scientists warned today.
Huge deposits of the greenhouse gas – 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – are rising to the surface as the Arctic region heats up, according to preliminary findings.
