[Poclad] Climate crisis 14

[Wanda Ballentine]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/3569-worlds-biggest-day-of-climate-action-unites-7000-rallies-in-188-countries
World's Biggest Day of Climate Action Unites 7,000 Rallies in 188 Countries
Leading by example, citizens in 188 countries 
joined more than 7,000 climate "work parties" 
over the weekend to get to work installing solar 
panels, weatherizing homes, planting trees, and 
then calling politicians to ask a simple 
question, "We're getting to work, what about you?"
In the days surrounding the work party, U.S. 
President Barack Obama, Maldivian President 
Mohamed Nasheed, and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn 
all committed to install solar on their official 
residences. Mexico City and Parisian Mayors 
committed to cut their city's emissions 10% over 
the next year. Dozens of politicians, from US 
Senators to the President of the Timor-Leste Parliament joined rallies.

http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/grassroots/2010/10/12/-10-20-19-am-ben-kroetz-the-world-gets-t
The World Gets to Work: Photos from 10/10/10
Greenpeace posts many photos fromallover.

http://www.care2.com/causes/global-warming/blog/-10-million-climate-change-ad-sponsored-by-uk-government/
$10 Million Climate Change Ad Sponsored By UK Government (VIDEO)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/08/china-us-blamed-talks-stall
China and US blamed as climate talks stall
Progress on a climate deal is held back by tough 
stances of the world's two biggest carbon polluters

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/10/08-6
Friends of the Earth and Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Experts Warn UN Climate Delegates Against Use of Carbon Markets
Expanded carbon markets endanger food security, 
forests, the broader economy, and the climate
“Including carbon as a commodity in the same 
poorly regulated global markets that so recently 
tore apart developing country economies and 
pushed a hundred million more people into hunger 
is highly irresponsible.  The UNFCCC and AGF 
should consider alternative approaches to climate 
finance that promote sustainable agriculture and protect food security.”

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/10/08-3
Center for Biological Diversity warning
As Climate Talks Wind Down in China, Time Running Out for Global Action
World Leaders Must Act to Reduce Emissions, Avoid 
Disastrous Consequences of Climate Crisis

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/09/climate-talks-china-america-clash
Climate deal is closer, says UN envoy, despite China and US locking horns

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69B0GV20101012
Time short for climate deal: ex-U.N. envoy
A former U.N. special envoy on climate change 
said he doesn't expect any major progress by key 
nations to draw up a new climate pact at a 
meeting next month in Mexico because opinions are still too divided

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE69A1KG.htm
Go green, Hezbollah guerrilla chief tells Lebanese
"The climate threat today," the bespectacled 
cleric told his listeners, "is among the biggest 
threats faced by mankind in (terms of) its peace, 
security, stability and existence."

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all
As the World Burns
How the Senate and the White House missed their 
best chance to deal with climate change.
Acclaimed New Yorker article.

http://www.care2.com/causes/global-warming/blog/california-proves-reducing-emissions-can-grow-the-economy/
California Proves Reducing Emissions Can Grow the Economy
“The California experience demonstrates that 
reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be 
achieved while also growing the economy,” 
declares a study by Study by Next 10, nonpartisan 
organization. California enacted the Global 
Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) in 2006 which sets 
the target of reducing GHG emissions to 1990 
levels by 2020. Titled 2010 California Clean 
Energy Index, the study reports that during the 
first half of 2010 California attracted 40 
percent of global clean tech venture capital, 
totaling over $11.6 billion. For every dollar of 
GDP generated in 2008, California’s economy 
needed 32 percent less carbon-per dollar than it did in 1990.
[can download report]

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-08-telling-the-truth-about-climate-change-is-good-politics
Telling the truth about climate change is good politics

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-10-07-industry-always-wrong-about-cost-of-air-quality-regulations
Industry is always wrong about the cost of air-quality regulations
For decades, every time the EPA proposed a new 
air-quality regulation, industry-funded 
economists and lobbyists wildly overestimated the 
costs, sometimes by up to 1,000 percent.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,721846,00.html#ref=nlint
The Traveling Salesmen of Climate Skepticism

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Chinas-glaciers-may-shrink-27-percent-by-2050-Report/articleshow/6720116.cms
China's glaciers may shrink 27 percent by 2050: Report
  The average area of glaciers in western China 
might shrink by 27.2 percent by 2050 because of 
global warming, damaging crop production and worsening droughts

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101010133630.htm
Huge Parts of World Are Drying Up: Land 
'Evapotranspiration' Taking Unexpected Turn
The soils in large areas of the Southern 
Hemisphere, including major portions of 
Australia, Africa and South America, have been 
drying up in the past decade, a group of 
researchers conclude in the first major study to 
ever examine "evapotranspiration" on a global basis.
....consequences could include reduced 
terrestrial vegetation growth, less carbon 
absorption, a loss of the natural cooling 
mechanism provided by evapotranspiration, more 
heating of the land surface, more intense heat 
waves and a "feedback loop" that could intensify global warming.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/TOE69900L.htm
ANALYSIS-Asia's water scarcity poses economic, political test
.... as recently as April, a fearsome drought had 
shrivelled the Mekong to its narrowest in 50 
years. Water levels were so low that at Guanlei, 
a river town not far from here, dozens of boats 
were laid up for more than three months.  Alarmed 
at the drying up of the world's largest inland 
fishery, the four members of the Mekong River 
Commission -- Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam -- called a special summit.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006141548.htm
Greatest Warming Is in the North, but Biggest Impact on Life Is in the Tropics

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318173/Lucy-ODonnell-photos-polar-bear-jumping-drifting-Arctic-ice.html
Going with the floe: Polar bear hunts for solid 
footing as new study charts continuing decline in Arctic ice

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11514248
2 October 2010 Last updated at 07:24 ET
Population shifts 'substantially influence' emissions
So unemployment is good for cutting 
emissions....  maybe govts should pay folks to 
stay home instead of egging them on to 
spending.  Oldies like me many contribute fewer 
emissions, but we're a drag on the economy so 
some govts. urge increasing the birth 
rate.  Could let immigration handle the need for more workers, but god forbid!

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/10/08-5
'Don't Worry, Be Happy': Canada Sees Climate 
Change Prosperity Instead of Calamity
"How can we (Canada) talk about profiting from 
climate change when most of the world will suffer 
devastating impacts, in part because of our emissions?  It is disgusting."

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/10/population-4x-more-important-than-climate-change-on-water-shortage.php
Population 4x More Important Than Climate Change on Water Shortage
We're well aware of the fact that humans have a 
significant impact on water supplies -- from 
groundwater pumping to altering the course and 
flow of the world's rivers, we are no small 
player in how much fresh water exists on the 
planet. However, would we ever have guessed that 
we were four times more significant than climate 
change on water supplies? A new report shows that 
we really need to focus far more on humans than 
warming temperatures if we want to avoid major 
water conflicts in the near future.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-fish-and-wildlife-service-climate-chage
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Casts for 
Collaboration in Its New Climate Change Response Plan
The plan emphasizes the need to share knowledge 
and scientific capacity, and establishes a new 
type of conservation partnership. But will it work in practice?

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ocean_Conditions_Likely_To_Reduce_Colorado_River_Flows_During_This_Winter_Drought_999.html
Ocean Conditions Likely To Reduce Colorado River 
Flows During This Winter's Drought
After 11 years of drought, water levels at Lake 
Mead are at risk again this winter of dropping further, a UCLA study predicts.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/08/no-more-sea-shells-by-the-sea-shore-%E2%80%93-new-evidence-of-the-impacts-of-rising-co2-levels/
No More Sea Shells by the Sea Shore – New 
Evidence of the Impacts of Rising CO2 Levels
The researchers used the Northern quahog, or hard 
clam, and the Atlantic bay scallop, two 
economically- and ecologically-significant 
shellfish. As the photos indicate, those clams 
and scallops that were grown in preindustrial 
conditions displayed significantly faster growth 
and development and had higher survival rates 
compared to those grown in today’s conditions. In 
addition, the shells of “tomorrow’s shellfish” 
(those grown under conditions scientists predict 
we’ll encounter later this century) were malformed and eroded.

http://www.utne.com/Wild-Green/Will-Climate-Change-Spell-the-End-of-Liberalism.aspx
Will Climate Change Spell the End of Liberalism?
Just add the finishing touches, unless we can 
make a turnaround in addressing it.  When 
Columbia economics professor Robert Brady wrote 
his classic, The Spirit and Structure of German 
Fascism, in 1937,  he warned that the signs of 
fascism were already present in the U.S., and the 
push toward totalitarianism has been gaining 
ground ever since.  When the wars start over water, food and living space.....


“If we do not do the impossible, we shall be 
faced with the unthinkable.”  social philosopher Murray Bookchin
How can a person live a moral life in a culture 
of death?  Charles Bowden  Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing