Fatalistic Friday: Climate treaty still stalled, catastrophic climate change forecast, more

categories: Arctic & Antarctic, Environmental Justice, Fatalistic Friday, Food & Agriculture, Greenhouse Gas, International Action

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)

Doctors warn on climate treaty failure: Failure to agree a new UN climate deal in December will bring a "global health catastrophe", say 18 of the world's professional medical organisations in the journal The Lancet. In a world likely to have three billion new inhabitants by the second half of this century, "Effects of climate change on health will affect most populations in the next decades and put the lives and wellbeing of billions of people at increased risk." (BBC News)

ZAMBIA: Climate extremes already costing millions every year: Extreme changes in rainfall and temperature in the past 10 years have already lowered Zambia's gross domestic product by 0.4 percent every year. The southern and central regions of the country, where people were experiencing climate shocks such as droughts and floods, could be among the worst affected. Ongoing extreme changes in Zambia's climate could bring losses of more than $4 billion in agricultural income in the next 10 years, driving hundreds of thousands into poverty and food insecurity. Agriculture contributes 21 percent to Zambia's gross domestic product of $14.3 billion. (IRIN News)

Climate change threatens national parks, report warns: From the Everglades in Florida to Denali in Alaska, America's national parks are at risk of disappearing or being fundamentally changed as seas rise, glaciers melt, trees die and animal habitat changes as a result of climate change. The report from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization and the Natural Resources Defense Council says that the most important action needed to protect parks is to reduce the emission of heat-trapping gases, mostly from burning fossil fuels such as coal and gasoline. It also calls on the federal government to take other steps - such as expanding parks and creating wildlife migration corridors. (McClatchy Newspapers)

Climate change is affecting Colombia's glaciers and public health: Colombia's glaciers are melting so fast that within 25 years they are all expected to disappear, a leading government environmental official has said. Glacier retreat in the Andean nation, caused by rising temperatures, is a growing concern as modelling and data collected from satellite imagery and weather stations show that Colombia's glaciers are consistently shrinking at an accelerating rate.

Ten percent of world's major species at threat: Almost 10 percent of the world's mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish are in danger of extinction due to climate change and other factors, according to an Australian report released Tuesday. The "Number of Living Species in Australia and the World" study found 0.9 percent of the world's 1.9 million classified species were at threat, including 9.2 percent of major vertebrate species. "We need this essential information to do a better job of managing our biodiversity against the threats of invasive species, habitat-loss and climate change," said Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett. (AFP)

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Comments (7)

A few thoughts: I've heard that NASA recently put out something that's less optimistic than the UK Met's. Also, do such reports take into account Methane and the inceases in its release as the Earth heats up? I'm sure you recall hearing about the methan plumes in the North Atlantic. And how about the increasing industrialization in countries like China and India?

Posted by josh musket on 10/02/2009 @ 05:46PM PT
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Something *less* optimistic than the Met Office's report? Short of predicting that the Atlantic current grinds to a halt and puts Europe and the mid-Atlantic into deep freezes, does it get more pessimistic than this!?

Posted by Emily Gertz on 10/03/2009 @ 08:30AM PT
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Global Warming?

[link farm removed]

Posted by Mark Gillar on 10/03/2009 @ 07:33PM PT
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Emily, it will be good for the Polor Bears.

Posted by Mark Gillar on 10/03/2009 @ 07:35PM PT
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Mark, please don't post laundry lists of links on this blog. If you want to discuss the issues addressed in this post, do so with your own words.

Posted by Emily Gertz on 10/04/2009 @ 09:19PM PT
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While there has been a 2% drop in emissions because of worldwide slowdown/recession we must not let up to insure that we save our icecaps and glaciers !

Posted by berry lee on 10/08/2009 @ 02:50PM PT
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Hi Emily, Gillian Hubble suggested that I ask you for advice on this question. The other day I was having a discussion with a friend about global warming and how its impact was being so strongly felt already. My friend responded that she wasn't too concerned because for the last few seasons the number and severity of hurricanes hitting the U.S. had actually declined. She also argued that global temperatures had really decreased over the last 10 years.

I was really at loss about what to tell her to help her understand the urgency. Any advice???

Posted by Lawrence Mazzuckelli on 10/17/2009 @ 05:53PM PT
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