Fatalistic Friday: 'We're waiting for our climate speech, Mr. President', major Arctic melt, more

by Emily Gertz

categories: Activism, Arctic & Antarctic, Fatalistic Friday, Greenhouse Gas, International Action, Policy & Legislation, Politics, Science, Wilderness, Wildlife & Biodiversity

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)

New York City Braces for Risk of Higher Seas: Sea level may rise faster near New York than at most other densely populated ports due to local effects of gravity, water density and ocean currents, according to four new forecasts of melting ice sheets. The city has become an urban experiment in how -- or if -- coastal cities will be able to adapt to changing sea levels during the 21st century. (The Wall Street Journal)

Carbon offsets don't work, sez group: Advocacy group Friends of the Earth is calling carbon offsets -- say, planting trees here to soak up the carbon equivalent to power plant emissions there -- "dangerous distractions." They don't deliver as promised, says a new FOE report. "It is suicide to base our future on offsets," said Michael Despines, one of the report's authors. Carbon offsets are among the centerpieces of the House climate and energy bill that passed in June.

Move over, USA: Australians the 'world's worst polluters': A report by a British risk analysis company says Australians have overtaken Americans as the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluters. Australia's heavy reliance on coal makes for an average output of 20.58 metric tons of C02 per person per year, compared to 19.78 metric tons in the USA. (ABC News Australia)

Brazil says U.S. climate goal unacceptably poor: Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said on Wednesday that U.S. targets for greenhouse gas emissions are unacceptably weak. Brazil will place new restrictions on its huge farm sector to cut deforestation, and will soon announce targets to substantially curb carbon emissions. Criticizing the U.S. administration's stated target of returning to its 1990 level of emissions by 2020, Minc said: "We don't accept that, it's very poor. They have to come closer to something beyond a 20 percent reduction," he said.

U.S. climate envoy notes "difficult" global talks: Todd Stern, President Barack Obama's special envoy for climate change, said on Thursday said international talks to cut carbon emissions were "difficult," adding that the U.S. Senate must pass a domestic bill to fight global warming to give the talks a boost. (Reuters)

Related:

• Nations Remain Divided on Global Warming Policy, U.S. Negotiator Says (The New York Times)
• UN climate talks could fail, EU ministers warn (AFP)
• Five EU states vow to step up climate diplomacy (Reuters)
• September U.N. summit seen key to climate deal (Reuters)