Arctic & Antarctic
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Global Movement Demands Action on Climate Change
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North Pole Sea Ice Minimum Third-Lowest Since 1979
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Tusk! Walrus May Join Polar Bear on Endangered List
Fatalistic Friday: Climate treaty still stalled, catastrophic climate change forecast, more
Published October 02, 2009 @ 03:53PM PT
Above: At a press conference held midway through the Climate Change Talks in Bangkok, Yvo de Boer told reporters that progress has been made key areas including adaptation, technology and capacity-building in developing countries. However, progress on rich nation emission reduction targets and financial support for climate change action in developing countries is still elusive.
Grab a stiff drink and take in this week's bad news about global warming:
Climate talks stall on targets, finance: Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday. "Progress toward high industrialized world emissions cuts remains disappointing during these talks. We're not seeing real advances there," Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told reporters. "Movement on the ways and means and institutions to raise, manage and deploy financing support for the developing world climate action also remains slow." (Reuters)
Catastrophic climate change could happen with 50 years: If average global temperatures arc toward a rise of 7.2 deg. F (4 deg. C) by 2100 (over those of the mid-19th century), according to a study released this week by the UK's Met Office, we'd be screwed in diverse ways as soon as 2060: Arctic temperatures would increase by 28.8 deg F (16 deg C), while parts of sub Saharan Africa and North America would be devastated by an increase in temperature of up to 18 deg F (10 deg C); rainfall could decrease by 20 per cent in Central America, the Mediterranean and parts of coastal Australia, causing mass drought; Temperature rises in the Amazon would cause the rainforests to die, while Alaska and Siberia would see the melting of the permafrost causing more carbon dioxide to be released. (The Telegraph)
Fatalistic Friday: 'We're waiting for our climate speech, Mr. President', major Arctic melt, more
Published September 11, 2009 @ 02:37PM PT
Above: Pacific walrus swimming to shore at an Alaskan beach. The Obama administration may give the species special protections under the Endangered Species Act, because it is losing critical habitat to global warming. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Presented for your amusement: our semi-regular horse pill of bad news about climate change. Look out -- there's a signpost up ahead that reads...Fatalistic Friday.
Climate Activists Wait for an Obama Speech to Call Their Own: As President Obama delivered his health care speech this week, climate change activists said they were waiting patiently for a similar rhetorical moment. While there is broad acceptance about the president's decision to push global warming to the back burner for now, Obama needs to grant climate change equal attention on prime-time television in coming months, they say.
With less than 100 days until the Copenhagen talks begin, time is running out. "I don't have a problem with him keeping the climate powder dry for now," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, which is pushing to strengthen global warming legislation that passed the House in June. "But, ultimately, it may take a big goosing from the White House to achieve some resolution in the Congress." (ClimateWire)
Arctic ice meltdown greater than average again in 2009: The Arctic sea ice has retreated to the third-lowest level in recorded history -- the fourth time in the past five years that the annual summer meltdown has been far greater than average. The ice has already diminished this year to less than 5.3 million square kilometres, with a week or two of melting left to go. The all-time biggest retreat was recorded in 2007 at 4.13 million square kilometres, and the 2008 retreat fell just short of that record. (CanWest News Service)
Effects of Arctic warming seen as widespread: The Arctic Circle has been warming faster than other latitudes. And the impacts are showing on the region's plants, birds, animals and insects. "The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past," Eric Post, an associate professor of biology at Penn State University, said in a statement. (Associated Press)
Ohio Enviros Dress as Cavemen to Protest GOP's "Stone Age" Energy Stand
Published September 03, 2009 @ 08:25PM PT
Above: Highly amusing video by Bring Ohio Back about the Stone Age 5 -- GOP representatives who oppose the ACES energy and climate bill.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), an avid opponent of federal climate and clean energy policy reform, got a special welcome yesterday from constituents dressed as cavemen to protest "stone age" GOP energy policies.
Or as the group Environment Ohio puts it, "backpedaling, coal- and oil- promoting alternative to the historic clean energy legislation finally being considered in Congress."
The occasion was a panel discussion in Columbus, where Rep. Boehner was joined by Rep. Steve Austria (R-Beavercreek), Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green), Pat Tiberi (R-Columbus) and Jean Schmidt, (R-Loveland). The five legislators appeared before the public to discuss the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), which passed the House in June; most House Republicans voted against the bill. The public was not invited to comment at the hearing, which according to a local TV station, also featured several invited speakers who supported the Republican position.
Outside the meeting, around 60 protestors from Environment Ohio dressed up as cavemen to protest the GOP's prehistoric energy policies. “We think we need clean energy tax credits, clean energy programs, programs that will drive innovation in wind, solar, geothermal and other clean, renewable energy resources,“ Amy Gomberg of Environment Ohio told NBC 4 Columbus. “We’re suggesting we need to shift our energy policies to actually get us on a path to a clean, sustainable and renewable energy future,“ Gomberg said.
Fatalistic Friday: Storms, heat, drought and double-dealing
Published August 21, 2009 @ 08:14PM PT
Another week's end brings us to another concentrated, hurts-less-this-way burst of the worst of the week's global warming news:
Storm Fells Hundreds of Trees in NY's Central Park: Hundreds of trees in Central Park were damaged and destroyed by severe thunderstorm winds as high as 80 mph. "I've never seen a wind of that velocity in New York City," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "It looks like pictures that I've seen of war zones where artillery shells have shredded trees." (The New York Times)
In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record: The ocean is 72 degrees F in Maine, 88 in Ocean City, Maryland. And all around the world, July was the hottest the world's oceans have been in almost 130 years of keeping records. "The average water temperature worldwide was 62.6 degrees, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the branch of the U.S. government that keeps world weather records. That was 1.1 degree higher than the 20th century average." (Associated Press)
Mexico Hit By Lowest Rainfall In 68 Years: It's killing cattle, threatening millions of tons of crops, and reducing the supply of water to Mexico City. (Reuters)
ConocoPhillips works to undermine climate bill, despite pledge to support climate action: Despite being a member of the pro-business US Climate Action Partnership, ConocoPhillips is now putting its weight behind opposition to climate change legislation. (Grist)
Climate Activist to Stephen Colbert: "We're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb
Published August 18, 2009 @ 12:54PM PT
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
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Related post: Bill McKibben: 'There finally is climate change activism' and anyone can join
350.org founder and co-director Bill McKibben wisely opted to play it straight last night on The Colbert Report.
Colbert's quips and numbnuts neo-con questions were gentler than usual -- but no matter what, it's a rare guest that can out-funny Stephen.
Under Colbert's purposefully obtuse barrage of questions, McKibben described how during the summer of 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrank so dramatically (to a new known low), that to many researchers, it signaled a dramatic shift in the climate.
The situation moved some scientists from abstractions to alarm. In early 2008, NASA senior climatologist James Hansen and colleagues released a draft paper stating that given the climactic instability already being observed, the world needs to get back to 350 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. (We're now at around 390 ppm, and at the anemic levels of current action, we'll be lucky to level out at 490 ppm.)
[[The final version of this paper is available at arXiv.org, an open access repository of scientific research sponsored by Cornell University and the National Science Foundation.]]
350 ppm is a concentration at which the oceans and forests of the globe could probably continue to pull and store enough carbon out of the atmosphere, explained McKibben, to avert the worst impacts of global warming.
Colbert: Can I steal your thunder and start 349.org? Mine's one better.
McKibben: Science isn't like politics, you know. Chemistry and physics don't bargain that way. We know know now what the bottom line for the planet is.
Colbert: Chemistry and physics doesn't bargain?
McKibben: They don't haggle.
Colbert: Well then I refuse to talk to them, until they reconsider their position!
McKibben: And they to you! They're just gonna do what they're gonna do.
And that's why, around the world now, there are people coming together in this 350.org movement, to try to get our leaders to take the steps that we need.
Colbert: Now you're calling for action on October 24. On October 24 you want people to what, screw in florescent bulbs? What do you want people to do?
McKibben: That would be nice. But we're past the point where you can make the math work one bulb at a time.
Colbert: Good, 'cause I hate those things.
Fatalistic Friday (Our 501st Post!): Antarctic glacier thinning at astonishing rate
Published August 14, 2009 @ 06:36PM PT
Here's the latest bad news on how global warming is changing the environment -- super concentrated into one regular weekly burst of woe:
Antarctic glacier 'thinning fast': One of the southern continent's largest glaciers is thinning four times faster than it was 10 years ago. The Pine Island Glacier is dropping at a rate of up to 16 meters (52 feet) a year. "Since 1994, the glacier has lowered by as much as 90m, which has serious implications for sea-level rise," reports the BBC about the research, which is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "This is unprecedented in this area of Antarctica. We've known that it's been out of balance for some time, but nothing in the natural world is lost at an accelerating exponential rate like this glacier," said co-author Andrew Shepherd of Leeds University. (BBC News)
Study looks at warming’s effect on Beartooth glaciers: When Dr. Edward Chatelain first climbed Montana's 12,604-foot Castle Mountain as a teen, in the mid-1970s, he was awed by the size of the glacier and the deep crevasses that sliced into its core. Flying over it two decades later, "We were absolutely aghast to see what was left," he said. The Castle Rock Glacier lost 60 meters (197 feet) of ice from its surface between 1952 and 2003, an average of 1.26 meters (1.434 feet) of melt per year. (The Billings Gazette)
Vast expanses of Arctic ice melt in summer heat: In late July the mercury soared to almost 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada, home of 900 Inuvialuit. Kids were swimming in the ocean. "As of Thursday, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported, the polar ice cap ... shrunk an average 41,000 square miles (106,000 square kilometers) a day in July -- equivalent to one Indiana or three Belgiums daily. The rate of melt was similar to that of July 2007, the year when the ice cap dwindled to a record low minimum extent of 1.7 million square miles (4.3 million square kilometers)..." (AP)
Either way, it was really, really warm: Globally averaged land and sea surface temperatures for July were the second hottest on record, according to NASA (data set here). NOAA calls it the sixth hottest on record, with global ocean surface temperature for July 2009 was the warmest on record.
Why do the same groups oppose health care and energy reform? "Perhaps the best explanation is that great unifier, money." That is, the enormous sums a small but powerful coterie of corporations stand to lose if and when these policies are brought up to date for the conditions the 21st century America. (DeSmogBlog)
Money key stumbling block at UN climate talks: Developing countries will need billions to curb carbon pollution and cope with globl warming's effects on their vulnerable lands and populations. Who will foot the bill was a key hurdle at UN climate talks this week in Bonn. "The five-day negotiating session veered to an end with many participants expressing frustration at the lack of progress only four months ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference slated to deliver a planet-saving climate treaty." (AFP)
Related: India called developed nations' failure to implement the Kyoto Protocol the "single biggest issue" facing multilateral talks. (AFP)
As India water and power dry up, the people revolt: Could be global warming, could be natural cycles that are causing an abnormally light monsoon season this year. Not much comfort to the thousands of Indians whose farm fields are drying up, and hydro-powered electricity supply is faltering. (The Los Angeles Times)
Climate change fueling forest fires in Europe: Greenpeace has warned that climate change is fueling forest fires that have already destroyed tens of thousands of hectares in southern Europe this year. "Climate change is driving a new generation of fires with unknown social and economic consequences," said Miguel Soto, Greenpeace Spain forests campaigner. (AFP)
Intensity of Recent Hurricanes Not Matched Since Middle Ages: The Atlantic Ocean is experiencing the most intense period of hurricane activity in 1,000 years. One of the study's authors says, "We believe a substantial part of the reason for that anomalous recent warmth is in fact the human influence on climate." The research has just been published in the journal Nature. (NPR)
Emissions trading scheme defeated in Australia: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was a ''disappointing day indeed for Australia...Today, Australia had an opportunity to embrace the future on climate change and instead we find ourselves, courtesy of the Liberal and National parties, dangerously anchored in the past,'' he told Parliament. (The Age)
Life's a bleach for Barrier Reef as climate changes: New research into the potential financial cost of climate change to the world heritage-listed wonder puts the present value of the reef at $51.4 billion - approaching $2500 for every Australian alive today - but warns that nearly four-fifths of this value would be destroyed if the coral was totally and permanently bleached. Warming global ocean temperatures are increasing coral bleaching events. (The Australian)
Related: Australia's Green (liberal) and Coalition (conservative) parties have voted down an emissions plan. It's bad news for the environment. (The Guardian)
Mental Health Break: Visions of Arctic light
Published August 12, 2009 @ 10:28PM PT
Above: "Svalbard # 30," by Zaria Foreman, chalk pastel on watercolor paper. See it bigger.
I'm in love with these dreamlike pastels by Zaria Forman of Greenland seascapes, which I discovered quite by accident last weekend, while doing some research about Canadian Inuit artist Kenojuak Ashevak.
They fulfill my most irrationally romantic notions of the Arctic as a remote, otherworldly region of elemental beauty. However unrealistic that is, it's still a source of inspiration for working to save the Earth's coldest places.
Forman (who unsurprisingly mentions the Hudson River School of 19th century landscape painters as one of her earliest influences) exhibits at a couple galleries in New York City, so if you're in the area, check them out.
