International Action
Across the Change-i-verse
Published July 19, 2009 @ 06:04PM PT
Above: President Obama speaks in Accra, Ghana, on July 11, 2009. Via whitehouse.gov blog.
No summer vacations so far here at Change.org, where my fellow editors are keeping up the heat on their beats:
Sudan Is Number One*: "The most recent World Bank report on climate change - Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth - lists the countries most at risk for a range of climate change-related threats," blogs Humanitarian Relief editor Michael Bear, "including drought (Malawi), flooding (Bangladesh), increased storms (Philippines), rising sea levels (all low-lying island states), and greater agricultural uncertainty (Sudan)...Africa as a whole is particularly at risk."
Social Media and Obama's Ghana Speech: Nathaniel Whittemore, editor of the Social Entrepreneurship blog, takes a look at how the "bottom-up" approach to economic development articulated by President Obama's speech in Ghana has resonated -- and how the White House itself used social media to be sure its messages got out.
Living the Animal Life: "There's a bill that's been introduced in Congress that would put sharp limits on Confined Animal Feeding Operations, and Obama supports it. I'm fairly amazed and impressed, which I was getting worried that I'd gotten to cynical to even beIt won't pass," writes Sustainable Food editor Natasha Chart. "Even that's okay I suppose, considering how the discussion is off to such a good start...If you couldn't prevent the conditions of feedlot life itself from killing cattle, they'd have to be raised in lower concentrations, under cleaner conditions, and given a much healthier diet out of sheer necessity...As it is now, most cattle are raised in lots packed deep with nothing but each other's waste. The health hazards of this are, one would think, obvious."
Expect More Katrina Scale Displacement: Despite what would seem to be hard lessons learned on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, the federal government is still not ready to provide emergency housing if there's a repeat disaster on the same scale. And the poor will be the hardest hit, writes US Poverty editor Leigh Graham. "If you weren't yet building your social movement for tenant rights or racial justice or economic equity, I suggest you start now."
What Not to Blog: Alanna Shaikh posts some prudent suggestions for how undergraduates hoping for careers in global health should conduct themselves online. They probably apply to students with earth science or environmental politics aspirations as well.
It's Not About the Stuff: On product placement & blogging: "The Federal Trade Commission is looking closely at "product placement" on blogs and online more generally. Eager to get the word out, companies are only too glad to send out samples of their products to bloggers," writes Kristina, an editor of the Autism blog. She gets a lot of offers, including some from manufacturers of devices to "help" autistic kids, she says, and accepts only books by and large. This is an issue in the world of "green" blogging as well.
Chu & Locke Challenge, Collaborate With China on Global Warming
Published July 16, 2009 @ 07:53PM PT
Above: US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke (2nd from R) and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (1st from R) visit the US Futurehouse Zero-Net-Energy Healthy House in Beijing, July 16, 2009. Via China Daily
Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other Obama administration officials have been in China, talking about energy and climate policy with their Chinese counterparts. Judging from the reports, there are some positive signs that the world's two largest greenhouse gas polluters are talking in earnest about joint efforts to cut carbon emissions and conserve energy.
The New York Times reports that Dr. Chu made some public criticisms of China's global warming stance at a Wednesday speech at Tsinghua University, China’s leading science and engineering school. More Chinese would be displaced by rising sea levels due to global warming than anywhere else in the world, he said, and called upon the country to do more to cut its greenhouse gas pollution. And at another presentation, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke cautioned that “Fifty years from now, we do not want the world to lay the blame for environmental catastrophe at the feet of China.”
Per the Wall Street Journal,
"The developed world did make the problem, I admit that," Mr. Chu said in the speech to students of China's top science and engineering school. "But the developing world can make it much worse."
Clearly this trip won't be the final word in US-China sparring ahead of Decembers climate treaty talks in Copenhagen. As the Journal's Environmental Capital blog notes, "The WSJ headlined its article 'Chu Warns China on Emissions.' China Daily’s headline? 'Steven Chu: U.S. Ready to Lead on Climate Change.'"
Still, announcements coming out of the meeting include a energy research partnership to focus on (per a DOE statement) "building energy efficiency, clean coal including carbon capture and storage, and clean vehicles," and a joint agreement on developing energy efficient homes.
Chu sounded an optimistic note toward the end of the trip, reports Keith Bradsher in The New York Times:
Mr. Chu and Mr. Locke both said on Thursday afternoon that after speaking with senior Chinese officials, they were confident China shared the desire of the United States to address climate change. “We both recognize it’s a long journey,” Mr. Chu said.
He said that China’s broad effort in areas like renewable energy make it more likely that an agreement can be reached in December at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen. The goal of those talks is to negotiate a global treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which imposed no emission limits on China or developing countries. The United States never ratified that accord.
After visiting a power plant that also produces central heat for homes, Mr. Chu said, “I am optimistic of what is going to happen in Copenhagen.”
China Daily's headline: China-US climate teamwork evolving.
Suggest a story to Stop Global Warming
Published July 10, 2009 @ 08:01AM PT
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Discuss: Is G8's "2 degree promise" #climate progress or fail?
Published July 09, 2009 @ 11:27AM PT
President Barack Obama confers with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso at the G-8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 8, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
The Group of Eight industrial nations, meeting for a few days this week in Italy, released a joint statement today on stopping human-propelled global warming. They've agreed that action needs to be taken so that the Earth's surface temperature does not rise more than 2 deg. Centigrade/3.6 deg. Fahrenheit above average temperatures in the year 1900:
The peaking of global and national emissions should take place as soon as possible, recognizing that the timeframe for peaking will be longer in developing countries, bearing in mind that social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities in developing countries and that low-carbon development is indispensible to sustainable development. We recognize the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2 degrees C. In this regard and in the context of the ultimate objective of the Convention and the Bali Action Plan, we will work between now and Copenhagen, with each other and under the Convention, to identify a global goal for substantially reducing global emissions by 2050.
With no firm commitment in there to slash human-created, heat-trapping greenhouse gases 80% by 2050 (which many scientists say is the crucial step to hold off the worst impacts of climate change), it's a lot less than many action advocates wanted. And so far G8 observers India and China, two of the biggest greenhouse polluters in the developing world, won't promise carbon cuts, either.
Is this "2 degree promise" a positive step on the road to December's international climate talks in Copenhagen? Or is it no progress at all? What should political leaders like President Obama be doing between now and December, to get a better, stronger global warming agreement? What should we do as citizens?
After the jump, the full "Declaration of the leaders of the major economies forum on energy and climate."
Update, 10:38 PM ET: I've substantially edited this post from its' earlier state of word hash. Hopefully the improved clarity will help generate some discussion about the G8 statement.
Live: Activists challenge Obama to lead on global warming
Published July 08, 2009 @ 09:47AM PT
In the Change.org spirit of doing actual deeds to improve the world, regular guest blogger Mike G. is reporting live on this global warming direct action. If you'd like to file a first-person report from the scene of a global warming related action, protest, teach-in, or other event, drop me a line: emily [[AT]] change.org.
Three climbers have hung a banner on the face of Mount Rushmore to issue a challenge to President Obama: "America honors leaders, not politicians: Stop Global Warming.” The action is part of a global day of action staged by Greenpeace to urge world leaders, who are currently attending a G8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, to take the actions necessary to avert runaway climate change.
(Above is the live feed from Mt. Rushmore. Follow @greenpeaceusa on twitter for live posts from the side of the monument.)
Take action now, sign Greenpeace's petition on Change.org calling on President Obama to be a leader on global warming, not a politician.
Global warming is an environmental crisis the likes of which we’ve never faced before. Given the powerful forces who are actively working to delay action, addressing it adequately will require bold leadership, not political dealing. The banner hang on Mount Rushmore was intended to press President Obama to be a leader in establishing science-based global warming policy not just here in the U.S., but also internationally at the UN climate change discussions to be held in Copenhagen this December.
The climbers -- all colleagues of mine -- completed a challenging ascent up the back of the mountain, then rappelled down its face and hung the 65' by 35' banner. They took special care not to damage the monument during the climb, using existing anchors set by the park service for periodic cleanings of the rock.
Additonally, other activists peacefully blocked access to the site while the banner was being deployed.
#G8 Global Warming Fail? Sands shift under feet of climate treaty talkers
Published July 08, 2009 @ 09:11AM PT
Word is emerging that the "Group of 8" world's major industrial nations has failed to create a consensus on slashing human-propelled greenhouse gas pollution (GHGs) by 2050.
G8 climate change negotiators, meeting this week in L'Aquila, Italy, have given up on a proposal that would have comitted most nations to cutting GHGs by 50% by 2050, and industrialized nations to 80% cuts by 2050. They're putting off the hard talk until December's international climate treaty talks in Copenhagen.
(Others are framing this as keeping the overall global temperature change by 2100 to no more than +2 deg. Celsius, or 3.6 deg. Fahrenheit.)
A proposal to establish a $400 million fund to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change, including expansion of their own low- and no-carbon energy sources, seem to have been tabled as well, for now.
Is the failure "unraveling an effort to build a global consensus to fight climate change, according to people following the talks," as Peter Baker in The New York Times reports?
Probably not quite so dire. Not yet.
Just as the US previously held back global efforts to stop global warming, we're now a heavy presence in negotiations on how to make progress, and that's shaking up delicate international alliances formed (in essence under fire) during the atmospherically dark days of the Bush-Cheney years.
Now that the Obama administration is on the move on climate action, there's a growing fear that the US and China are forming an action axis. The world's two greatest emitters of GHGs could effectively set the terms for carbon caps worldwide, possibly outside the established international treaty and carbon market system, and possibly at a level that's too weak to do enough good.
Again at The Times,reporter James Kanter blogs some useful context:
Europeans [fear they] could be forced to downgrade the importance of their flagship policies – including their system for capping greenhouse gases and trading emissions permits – if they lose control of the negotiating agenda over the coming months.
To bolster their Emissions Trading System, which has suffered bouts of volatility and has been criticized for ineffectiveness since its creation four years ago, the Europeans want all rich-world nations like the United States join a global carbon market by 2015, and for fast-emerging economies like China to join by 2020.
But the Chinese are fiercely averse to capping their emissions for the foreseeable future, and that has stoked fears among Europeans that the Americans and Chinese would reach a lowest-common-denominator agreement with widely divergent goals for reducing greenhouse gases even among wealthy nations.
That, in turn, could jeopardize European efforts to link its carbon trading system with other cap-and-trade systems under development in countries like the United States and Australia.
As downbeat as the news out of L'Aquila seems to be, there are still reasons to be optimistic:
- It's inevitable that powerful polluters like the US, China, and India are going to play out the time and the situation as long as possible, in order to get the greatest advantages (as they see it) in the end.
- This gives climate negotiators and activists room to maneuver as well.
- The final act of US climate policy has yet to be written in Congress; that will send a huge signal to the rest of the world on whether the US is a strong actor and ally in stopping global warming, or still an mpediment to contend with. And to the Obama administration on just what its parameters for action will be, realistically.
- There's still time for the public and climate action advocates in this country time -- nonprofit and in business and industry -- to influence that outcome. Not that it won't be difficult.
Related news:
What is Obama's international climate strategy? (Grist)
Can Obama Keep Pledge to Lead on Climate? (DotEarth blog - The New York Times)
E&E's Geman, Samuelsohn preview Senate action on climate and energy (E&E -- hat tip to 1Sky for the pointer)
Indonesia Trades Debt for Rainforest Protection
Published July 02, 2009 @ 08:52AM PT
The Obama administration has forgiven Indonesia $30 million in debt payments. In return, the government of the Southeast Asian archipelago nation has agreed to spend the money on protecting the rainforests of Sumatra, the sixth largest island in the world.
The deal was done with the financial and negotiating assistance of the non-governmental organization Conservation International, which announced it yesterday. CI said in a statement that, "The swap means that the Government of Indonesia will pay the nearly $30 million to a trust over eight years which will issue grants for critical forest conservation and restoration work in Sumatra."
Preservation of the world's remaining forests is crucial to blunting the worst impacts of human-propelled climate change. Forests sequester massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, and help preserve soils and other plants that also store carbon. Keeping this climate-disrupting carbon out of the atmosphere may help to keep temperature increases lower over the coming decades.
Deforestation usually results in burning of biomass that releases all that carbon back into the atmosphere, and needless to say destroys any future potential for sequestration.
Much as with the vicious cycle of human-propelled heating in the Arctic (as temperatures warm, more ice cover vanishes, leaving open expanses of water to soak up more solar heat, which in turn warms both ocean and surface temperatures and melts more sea ice...), climate change poses a circular risk to forests. "New findings, announced at last month’s Copenhagen “Congress” to discuss climate issues, estimate that a 3C temperature rise will result in a 75% loss of forests," wrote Sustainablog recently. "The report’s sponsoring organization, the UK Meteorological Office’s climate change research division, has said that a 4C temperature rise - consistent with current human activities - will cause 85% of trees to disappear."
The debt-for-nature swap between the US and Indonesia, the first in Indonesia as well as largest ever under the U.S. Tropical Forest Conservation Act, will hit eco-justice and biodiversity preservation notes:
The debt reduction will help to provide livelihoods for the people of the island and ensure the survival of some of the world’s most endangered species – including the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinos sumatrensis), Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), orangutan (Pongo abelii) and four endemic primates from the Mentawai Islands.
...It will lead to increased protection of 13 important areas of Sumatran rainforest which are home to hundreds of species of important and threatened plants and animals.
CI lists the areas to be preserved and protected as:
- The Northern Sumatra Region:
- Seulawah Heritage Forest
Leuser Ecosystem and Leuser National Park
Western Toba Watershed
Batang Toru Forest Range
Angkola Lowland Wilderness Tropical Forest Area
Batang Gadis National Park - Central Sumatra Region
Siak Kampar Peninsula
Tesso Nilo Ecosystem
Bukit Tigapuluh National Park
Kerinci Seblat Ecosystem
Siberut National Park and the rest of Mentawai Archipelago - Southern Sumatra Region
Way Kambas National Park
Bukit Barisan Selatan Forest Range
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Image: "The Sumatran Tiger, (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is threatened with extinction through poaching and loss of its forest habitat. These tigers are set to receive a boost after the US Government agreed to write off $30 million in debt from the government of Indonesia in return for increased protection of the forests of Sumatra."
Copyright: © CI/photo by Sterling Zumbrunn
