Political Will // Current

Europeans say US lacks will on climate

As world leaders gather in New York for the highest-level conference yet on climate change, European leaders are expressing growing unease about the United States’ stance in international talks aimed at reaching a global agreement in Copenhagen in December.

Officials of several European countries have cited what they see as a lack of political will on the part of the United States to adequately address climate change. The American reluctance to accept any agreement that would require legally binding and internationally enforceable targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could doom the Copenhagen session, they said.

Ahead of this week’s climate talks at the United Nations, the Europeans also expressed little hope that the United States Senate would act on a climate bill before the Copenhagen talks begin. They said the lack of domestic consensus sows doubt about whether the United States can keep any pledges it makes at Copenhagen, either on the level of reductions in global warming emissions or on financial commitments to help developing nations adapt to a changing climate.

Inaction in the Senate also limits the flexibility of America’s chief climate negotiator, Todd Stern.

The Obama administration is trying to satisfy European demands for firm targets and timetables, while reassuring a wary Senate that it is not signing on to a system that would impose steep economic costs on the United States that are not shared by developing countries like China and India.

Although the administration and its allies in Congress say they are deeply committed to meaningful action on climate change, they do not want to repeat the experience of Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, when the Clinton administration signed an international agreement that was repudiated by the Senate because it made few demands on the developing world. The United States never ratified the agreement, called the Kyoto Protocol.

John Ashton, the British foreign secretary’s special representative for climate change, said several large gaps need to be closed among the major industrialized countries before there could be any hope of success in Copenhagen.

Chief among them, he said, is the “ambition gap” between the United States and the nations of the European Union. While the United States discusses the broad outlines of climate policy, the Europeans have already pledged to cut their emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and more deeply if there is an international agreement.

The Europeans say a bill passed by the House in June showed American goodwill but still fell short of the European target and what scientists say is necessary to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius over the planet’s temperature early in the Industrial Revolution, which means limiting future changes to about 2 degrees Fahrenheit above current temperatures. This limit is the internationally accepted goal.

The Senate has yet to act, but its targets are likely to be less ambitious.

Mr. Ashton said that the path forward is clear, but that politics are hampering movement in the United States and several other large countries. “There is no technological obstacle. There is no macroeconomic obstacle,” said Mr. Ashton, in Washington late last week for a meeting of major industrial countries on climate change. “The barriers are political.”

end of excerptAs world leaders gather in New York for the highest-level conference yet on climate... more

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Scotland to cut emissions 42% by 2020

Hello USA. Not politically feasible?

excerpt:

'As developed nations juggle with the numbers attempting to dodge the issue of agreement on ambitious carbon emissions cuts, the Scottish government has unveiled plans to cut the country’s carbon emissions by a staggering 42 percent, more than the 40 percent recommendation given by IPCC.

This is the most ambitious emissions reduction goal adopted by any country thus far, Germany has plans to 40 its emissions by 40 percent while Britain formally adopted a 34 percent reduction goal this April. Scotland, with its strong renewable energy infrastructure and bold plans to expand the same, has raised the bar even further.

In the recent weeks the developed countries have been in the line of fire of the green groups as they proposed disappointing emission reduction goals. Completely ignoring the IPCC recommendations of 25-40 percent reductions by 2020, Japan and Russia proposed cutting their respective emissions by merely 8 and 10-15 percent. These are only just better than the Kyoto Protocol goals which bind them to cut their emissions by 5-6 percent by 2012 from 1990 levels.

The driving engine behind this highly ambitious goal is the strong renewable energy infrastructure of Scotland. The Scottish government has unveiled numerous clean energy projects in the recent years which has helped the nation make the transition from fossil fuels to clean fuels.

Scotland’s geographic position is a blessing as it harnesses the high speed winds coming from the North Sea to generate electricity through offshore as well as onshore wind energy farms. The total wind energy potential is estimated to be 25 GW. Scotland has quite a few wind farms including one which is the largest onshore farm in Europe.

Last year the Scottish government announced a three fold increase in subsidies on small scale wind and solar energy systems for home owners and small businesses. This shows that the government is serious about promoting renewable sources as reliable sources of energy. Similar efforts from other countries are essential if we want to replace fossil fuels as the major source of power generation around the world.

Scotland has also taken some innovative initiatives in order to conserve and produce energy in a clean manner. The Glasgow City Council was provided with blueprint of a revolutionary idea of harnessing solar power. The plan, developed by Glasgow-based ZM Architecture, calls for deployment of floating lily-shaped solar panels in the Clyde river which will generate electricity & supply directly to the national grid. The company hopes that the city council would approve a pilot project which could eventually result in a large scale implementation of the project.'

end of excerpt.

This is what REAL political will looks like.Hello USA. Not politically feasible? excerpt: 'As developed nations juggle with... more

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Humanity's carbon budget set at one trillion tons

No more than one-quarter: that's the proportion of existing reserves of oil, gas and... more

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Fight against mountaintop coal removal

People are speaking out. Where is this government? Where are the windmills? Where are... more

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Lake Mead Is Drying Up

The combination of a changing climate and a strong demand for the lake’s remaining water has resulted in 100 foot drop since 2000. While that’s just 10 percent under the lake’s high water mark in 1983, Lake Mead is like a martini glass—wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. That 10 percent dip represents a loss of half Lake Mead’s water supply in nine years, from 96 percent capacity to 43 percent.

Anyone who’s gone on a diet knows this simple equation: if you burn fewer calories than you eat, you’ll gain weight. But like a cheating dieter in Superman’s Bizarro world, the Western United States has been sucking more water out of Lake Mead than the dwindling Colorado River can provide to replace it. When output is greater than input, the reservoir shrinks.

And it continues to shrink. Lake Mead’s water level fell 14 feet last year, and the Bureau of Reclamation has projected the level will drop 14 more feet this summer. That will bring it perilously close to 1,075 feet, the point at which the federal government can step in and declare a drought condition, forcing a reduction of 400,000 acre-feet drawn from Lake Mead per year. A typical Las Vegas home uses a half acre-foot of water per year, so such a reduction would be equal toturning the tap off for 800,000 households.

In 2008, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography issued a paper titled “When will Lake Mead go dry?” which set the odds of Lake Mead drying up by 2021 at 50-50. No more water, no more electricity, no more pumping power.

“Today, we are at or beyond the sustainable limit of the Colorado system,” concluded the paper’s authors. “The alternative to reasoned solutions to this coming water crisis is a major societal and economic disruption in the desert southwest; something that will affect each of us living in the region.”

snip

One of the more radical proposals involves pumping water from the eastern United States (where many regions are suffering the consequences of flooded rivers) over the Rockies to the West. In a Las Vegas Sun interview on May 1, Pat Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said, “We’ve taken water from the West now for a hundred years, maybe it’s time to start taking water from the East, rather than from the West.” Another speculative proposal lies beyond the shores of California, where there’s an ocean of water available for desalinization.

End of excerpt from article:
http://www.good.is/post/lake-mead-is-drying-up/?Gt1=48001The combination of a changing climate and a strong demand for the lake’s remaining... more

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Study: Greenhouse gases must be cut 70% to prevent global warming catastrophe

Imagine that. A majority of scientists do not believe politicians will bring us... more

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The carbon tax- a moral issue

Good points made here regarding the moral issue of a carbon tax on industry that would take the place of the payroll tax which would make it revenue neutral. It would then tax what we burn not what we earn and hopefully work to move industries towards moving to alternate energy sources and becoming more responsible regarding their business practices. And it is a moral issue in that those responsible for the most damage to this planet's environment should pay for it. I believe a carbon tax is also easier to mandate and monitor, and does not have to result in higher prices for energy since again, it would be revenue neutral. It holds polluters accountable and responsible for [their] actions.

However, the Obama administration is pushing cap and trade, which is nothing more than a scheme to allow corporations to skirt responsibility for the pollution they create which is also no guarantee that they will ever move towards sustainable solutions, nor guarantee that the cost of it won't be passed on to the consumer as they will continue the same behavior. It would also in my view then be used as a way for this Congress to avoid adequate climate change legislation regarding caps on carbon emissions. It would be hard to monitor and would also not really do much in the end to lower emissions at the rates they must be lowered now to ensure we stay within the range of 350ppm-450ppm.

A carbon tax is simply the moral way to confront the rapacious burning of fossil fuels that is leading us over the climate cliff. However, if we are to pursue this avenue, it must be done with aggresive investment in alternate energies like solar, wind, electric vehicles , etc. that are AFFORDABLE for the average consumer in order to give them a choice to avoid any plans by industries to raise prices of oil and coal to demonize the positive effects of this. If consumers have another way to go, that along with a carbon tax on industries like oil and coal would in the end be a beneficial step in lowering carbon emissions to safe levels.

Of course, politically it is not seen as feasible due to the coziness of industry to our politicians. And that is the one obstacle to doing what is morally right. Politics and morality don't seem to mix regardless of party. Therefore, I think that consumers need to be more aware of exactly what cap and trade entails and actively look to those companies that are currently employed in running their businesses sustainably and giving them their business, and calling on their utilities demanding they switch to solar and wind. This could be one way without levying any tax at all for industries to understand that they will not get business unless they change their ways and lower their emissions. Of course, the best scenario would be that we were all so morally in tune with the crisis we face that we voluntarily adjusted our behavior accordingly. However, we are humans, a species that allows selfishness, greed, and the politics of fear to govern our actions.

In the end however, we will have to understand the immense responsibility that has been placed in our hands which is the continued sustainability of our only home and our survival. And we must also understand as well that it trumps any selfish inclinations we might have to dismiss the urgency of this simply because we are blinded by greed, fear, or political partisanship.Good points made here regarding the moral issue of a carbon tax on industry that would... more

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Climate clock is ticking

To the twelfth hour.

From the article:

In the summer of 2007, a large portion of Arctic Sea ice - about 40 per cent - simply vanished. That wasn't supposed to happen. At least not yet. As recent as 2004, scientists had predicted it would take another 50 to 100 years for that much ice to melt. Yet here it was happening today.

It raised the question: Had global warming suddenly pressed the gas pedal to the floor? If so, the world was in for quite a climate ride - dramatic, jarring changes in climate much sooner than expected. Climate scientists were deeply worried.

"It really caught the scientific community by surprise," Professor James Ford, a McGill University geographer and Arctic expert recalled. "The Arctic system is close to crossing the threshold beyond which we will get dramatic changes in climate."

The sudden mass melting brought an earlier ice event into new perspective. In 2005, scientists at the Canadian Ice Service, the nation's leading ice specialists, were examining satellite images when they noticed that the Ayles Ice Shelf, which is about as big as the island of Montreal, had suddenly broken free from the top of Ellesmere Island and floated away.

Vincent Warwick, an Arctic expert at Université Laval, said at the time: "This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years. We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead."

The ice melt of 2007 seemed to confirm Warwick's fears. Reports since then claim the Arctic ice could be gone by 2013.

We have already crossed some critical climate thresholds. The world not only has to drastically cut back its greenhouse gas emissions but also begin to take steps to deal with the inevitable changes that global warming will cause. The much-feared tipping points - which would cause massive icecap and ice shield melting, and plunge the world headlong into severe weather systems, causing broad devastation and rising seas - seem increasingly probable.

This is why, scientists say, the United Nations climate talks that began this week in Bonn, Germany, and will culminate in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December, are so important. They are a last chance for the world to come to its senses and negotiate an agreement to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists have been warning about these tipping points for decades, but few politicians have listened. Most industrialized countries led by the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe have continued to pump increased amounts of GHGs into the atmosphere despite promises to reduce emissions below 1990 levels.

Developing countries like China and India have taken no steps to curtail their emissions. With a new coal-fired power plant coming on stream every week, China is now the world's biggest GHG producer.

The atmosphere now contains 387 parts per million of carbon dioxide. This is more than the Earth has seen in the last 650,000 years. Pre-industrial levels were about 270 ppm, which remained pretty well constant over the 100,000 years mankind has walked the Earth. Scientists say that because of a delayed reaction, we have yet to experienced the full effect of what we already have put into the atmosphere. That effect will unravel in the decades to come. Meanwhile, we're adding about 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere annually or about 2 ppm. Last year alone, global GHGs increased three per cent.To the twelfth hour. From the article: In the summer of 2007, a large portion of... more

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Warming takes center stage as Australian drought worsens

The Arctic may be the canary in the coal mine regarding warming, but Australia appears... more

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Questions for Earth Day

So many questions, so little time.

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How we can avoid a world without water

There is no more of an insidious killer than drought because of its subtlety and silence. It creeps across the land and air sucking out its moisture and leaving nothing but devastation and hunger in its wake. It robs humans and other species of the sustenance they must have to survive, and it seeks to cast a dark shadow in the background of the raging fires it precipitates. It takes great pleasure in the misery it creates and shows no remorse for the lives it takes.

Too dramatic you think? I think not. Drought has been and continues to be a persistant and severe threat upon the Earth. Only now, it is excelerating and becoming even more of a persistant and severe threat due to our own intervention. Can you imagine that? We by our own hand are exacerbating the very condition that is leading to our own demise due to our own selfish oblivious actions or lack of action regarding it.

And as we see with many parts of the world including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and now even the U.S., the balance between conservation and waste of this life giving resource is dangerously out of balance. The balance between a stable climate that supports life and an erratic climate that destroys life is also dangerously out of balance in concert with actions surrounding water resources. And its remedy now rests with human choices. So what can be done?

Besides an entire shift in consciousness and in how we see water, political will is one important way water policy is fixed from local to the federal level. However, as with consciousness surrounding the climate crisis people must be aware that there is a problem and that it effects their lives. Once that message is clear people seek to move beyond the confortable boundaries they live in to exact change. For many, severe drought in Kenya, China, or Gaza does not phase them as to them it is a world away. However, when we realize how the hydrologic cycle plays into all of our lives and how it is affected by pollution, waste, mismanagement, privitization, and now climate change, those areas of the world do not look so far away anymore.

And this is where we are at now. Looking across the great expanse of our world and seeing the effects of drought and how close to home it is to us and that its effects are not indigenous to just one part of the world. That is the first step towards action.

We need not live in a world without water, but that will mean living in a world without apathy and fear of facing problems head on to solve them. It will not be easy to do now as we already see the relentless shadow of drought moving across the landscape, but it is something we must do in order to save our most precious resource in order to save ourselves.

This article and interview with Peter Gleick gives us good insight into drought, the global water crisis, and the solutions that lie before us now.

How we can avoid a world without water
http://www.alternet.org/water/127703/peter_gleick%3A_how_we_can_avoid_a_world_without_water/?page=1There is no more of an insidious killer than drought because of its subtlety and... more

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Australian PM warned over 'hell to highwater state'

Global warming/climate change is not only moving at an excelerated pace in Australia but on every other continent including the Arctic. To continue to dispute its presence is to be ignorant of the facts. Scientists around the world have been warning us of the repercussions of denial and apathy for years. These warnings can no longer be ignored. The cost of doing so is too great for the planet as a whole regarding the survival of our species and all others.

So this thread is not to once again rehash the same BS about whether it is manmade or not to push a partisan political agenda or grudge. I am SO DONE with that. This thread is for serious people who understand the urgency of this crisis and its effects on this planet and our species who actually want to do something about it.

The recent tragedy in Australia regarding wildfires that were the worst ever there and may not be over, had the ground work for their ferocity and tragedy laid out by years of severe drying and drought resulting from climate change. Climate change one spark made into a hell on Earth. The Murray-Darling River basin is also a stark example of those severe effects. For anyone to look at that dwindling river that was declared dead just a few months ago and still deny that there is something more to this than just a 'usual dry summer' is someone who clearly cannot or will not understand the changing face of this planet due to our neglect and greed.

We cannot claim to be an evolving species if we continue to deny the consequences of our actions and not work to adjust those actions to the perceived outcome. Therefore, if you truly do care for what climate change is doing to this planet and want to do something about it, please respond here and tell Current what it is you plan to do this year to wake up politicians to the urgency of this crisis and demand action.

This is not just some topic people who care cavalierly put here simply to have something to talk about to kill some online time. This is about the world our children will inherit. There is nothing more important than that. We have nothing else without a sustainable planet and there is no more time to waste in that goal.Global warming/climate change is not only moving at an excelerated pace in Australia... more

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The search for clean water in the coming year

I have done this year what I have done every year successively for the last few years; report here on the global water crisis in an attempt to not only inform but to inspire and to move us to action. The need for that action has never been more necessary than it is now. The Earth now sits on a precipice, with man having the power to pull it back or push it off.

Around the world from North America to Africa and beyond, we see water scarcity and drought becoming more a part of daily life for more people. This does not bode well for the future as population continues to rise as the quality of life in the developing world decreases due to war, climate change, pollution, and poverty. Climate change continues to melt glaciers globally at a much more rapid pace than predicted, and man finds himself because of it at a crossroads in a world filled with war, disease, famine, injustice, poverty, and despair. It would be very easy to give up looking at the picture we have painted, but we cannot do so. Our own survival depends on how we treat this planet and our fellow man. How we react to these crises now will determine if the world falls off that precipice or is saved.

I firmly believe that even though we now live in a world of turmoil, this next year will be a year of awakening for many. There are many more organizations that are now bringing awareness and action to the parts of our world in need of potable water and sanitation. There are many more people becoming aware of not only their carbon footprint, but their water footprint as well. This past year saw a surge in activism against the bottled water industry with citizen groups across the world standing up to the corporations seeking to take our water for profit.

These are good signs that point to a more intense activism in the year to come to hold political leaders accountable for policies that seek to fix water infrastructure, restore wetlands, reduce pollution, hold officials accountable for proper water management and efficient agriculture policies, and also hold them to signing a climate treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions that lead to drought and glacier melt this next year.

However, none of these things can happen without us. Without our voices, our hands, our perseverence, and our love for this planet and for the one resource we cannot live without. It is that love and perseverence that carries me into another year of water activism and of reporting to you the stories of our water, it's life, and our contributions to its preservation. May this coming year bring us closer to a world where water is truly appreciated for the beautiful life sustaining source and human right it is.

Water Is Life.I have done this year what I have done every year successively for the last few years;... more

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India loses more people to climate change than any other country

I truly think that before we as a species can confront climate change effectively, we... more

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12 months ago
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Clean energy poised to phase out coal

It is inevitable. Clean energy is coming more into demand not only because of the... more

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12 months ago
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Arctic melting will test our morality

The melting of the Arctic at the excelerated pace it is experiencing is supposedly opening up vast oil, gas, and mineral reserves as well as fish stocks. Of course, this then in turn is setting loose the greedy world upon it. While the melting signifies the failure of man to be adequate stewards of this planet it also opens up an opportunity to make it right. However, as human nature seems to dictate what we as a species will wind up doing is what we always do: give into our baser selfish nature to take it for ourselves and to hell with the consequences.

The Arctic to me is a test. It is a test of the morality of the human species and a test to see how far we have evolved over all of these centuries where the answer was always to plunder and take anything to satisfy our urges over the better good. As reports indicate now, governments of this world are now falling over themselves to get a piece of the melting Arctic pie. Already we see the effects of climate change upon this fragile beautiful part of our world on the wildlife, the landscape, and the people who live there. Can we honestly then believe that multi national corporations and governments will take those effects and the moral weight of what they do into consideration as they race to plant their flags?

This like so many other times in history could be a time when we as a species say enough. When we finally realize our potential and work to restore what we destroyed, not continue to destroy it for a goal that is false in the long run. The more devastation we wreck upon this planet the less the value of any booty taken from it will be. For without a planet to sustain us we have nothing else. The Arctic is the mirror of our planet. It keeps the climate balance in check. To tear it apart for gold bars to take out the oil there to burn it thus precipitating the very climate change catastrophe we should be working to mitigate is illogical, inconceivable, and unconscienable. And if we fail this test we may not get another chance. So, is it to be the Arctic War next? If so, that may just be the war to end all wars.The melting of the Arctic at the excelerated pace it is experiencing is supposedly... more

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Half the world faces water shortage by 2080

Half the world's population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of climate change, experts warned Tuesday.

Wong Poh Poh, a professor at the National University of Singapore, told a regional conference that global warming was disrupting water flow patterns and increasing the severity of floods, droughts and storms — all of which reduce the availability of drinking water.

Wong said the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that as many as 2 billion people won't have sufficient access to clean water by 2050. That figure is expected to rise to 3.2 billion by 2080 — nearly tripling the number who now do without it.

Reduced access to clean water — which refers to water that can be used for drinking, bathing or cooking — forces many villagers in poor countries to walk miles to reach supplies. Others, including those living in urban shanties, suffer from diseases caused by drinking from unclean sources.

At the beginning of the decade, the World Health Organization estimated that 1.1 billion people did not have sufficient access to clean water.

Asia, home to more than 4 billion people, is the most vulnerable region, especially India and China, where booming populations have placed tremendous stress on water sources, said Wong, a member of the U.N. panel.

"In Asia, water distribution is uneven and large areas are under water stress. Climate change is going to exacerbate this scarcity," he told the two-day Asia Pacific Regional Water Conference attended by policy makers, government officials, academics, businessmen and consumer group representatives.

Scientists have said global climate change takes many forms, causing droughts in some areas while increasing flooding and the severity of cyclones in others. Droughts reduce water supply, and floods destroy the quality of water. Rising sea levels, for instance, increase the salt content at the mouths of many rivers, from which many Asians draw their drinking water.

"As human civilization develops, the environment is increasingly affected in negative ways. Floods, drought, changing rainfall patterns and rising temperatures are signs of our misdeeds to nature," said Rozali Ismail, head of a state water association in Malaysia.Half the world's population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of... more

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Five nations under threat from climate change

While the world dithers about tackling climate change, in some parts of the world people are running out of time. In Florida sea level rises can be worked around to some extent - condos can be put on stilts and moved away from the shoreline. But on some islands you can only move back so far before you have to start worrying about the water at your back door as well as the water in front.

Here are five islands whose inhabitants are going to need a new home soon:

1. The Guardian reports today that the new president of the Maldives will be putting part of the country's profits from tourism into a very special - and unusual - fund: one that will be used to buy a new, climate-change-friendly home. With its highest point reaching only 2.4 metres, the Maldives is one of the lowest-lying nations in the world and risks being submerged by rising sea-levels.

2. Tuvalu is another small pacific island state, and after the Maldives the second-lowest nation in the world. At its highest, it is 5 metres above sea-level and could be gone by the middle of this century. In 2002, the government was said to have hired two international law firms to look into suing polluting nations for effectively evicting its citizens.

3. Kiribati is a group of 32 atols and one island that peaks at 6.5 metres above sea-level. The World Bank has been involved in assessing the nation's vulnerability to climate change. I attended a talk by one of the project leaders some years ago in Paris. She quoted a few of the changes which the islanders were noticing. The one that has always stuck with me was "the first line of coconut trees has disappeared". Salt-intrusion was killing off the trees that were closest to the water.

4. The inhabitants of the Carteret Islands of Papua New Guinea may be among the first climate refugees - their home lies just 1.2 metres above the waves. The government of Papua New Guinea adopted a plan in 2005 to evacuate the locals to the neighbouring island of Bougainville. The relocation was initially scheduled for 2007, then delayed. According to this report, there was a trial earlier this year, which created some tension as relocated citizens were used as labourers in coconut plantations on Bougainville.

5. In 1995, 500,000 inhabitants on Bangladesh's Bhola Island were forced to move in when half their island was permanently flooded. Some claim they were the first climate refugees. Scientists predict that 20 million Bangladeshis could suffer the same fate by 2030.
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How many more will it take for urgent action to begin? The longer we wait the more CO2 and other greenhouse gases continue to be spewed into the atmosphere. I recall sitting here last year asking the same question, and still no global treaty on climate change that addresses the true urgency of this, nor any significant bills by this Congress. And Obama still touts the 80% by 2050 line as if we actually have that kind of time. We don't.While the world dithers about tackling climate change, in some parts of the world... more