Most Popular Global Warming Posts
Activists at Barcelona climate talks send loud message to delegates
Published November 11, 2009 @ 07:00AM PT
Last week’s UN climate talks in Barcelona, Spain were the last chance for world leaders to meet before the conference in Copenhagen at the end of the year at which they are supposed to negotiate a successor climate treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. Many, many activists were there on the ground in Barcelona to remind the delegates that the world is watching — and, through creative non-violent direct communications and actions, to remind them that the world is in desperate need of a fair, ambitious, and binding climate deal if we’re to stop runaway global warming.
One of the more interesting bits of activism that went down was the “Adopt a Negotiator” project, run by the folks at the Global Campaign for Climate Action (GCCA), who also brought us Tcktcktck.org (which I wrote about once before here). The program sent a crew of youth activists from 13 different countries to shadow delegates at the talks not just to let negotiators know that the world is watching but also in an attempt to fundamentally change the way citizens engage in the climate treaty-making process:
Why Climate Change Will Hit Women Hardest
Published November 11, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
I wrote the other day over on Change.org's sustainable food blog about the fact that women produce the lion’s share of the world’s food but own only 2 percent of the Earth’s tillable land. Considering that climate change is going to present special challenges to farmers, who depend on abundant resources and stable weather patterns, women are, as they say, in for it. And I haven't even mentioned disease or disappearing drinking water yet.
A new “Gender and Climate Change Manual” from the Global Gender and Climate Alliance rightly states that “the poor, the majority of whom are women living in developing countries, will be disproportionately affected. Yet most of the debate on climate so far has been gender-blind.”
This topic is remarkably important and almost entirely ignored. The issue pops up infrequently and peripherally, as when the 52nd session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women last year took “gender perspectives on climate change” as its “emerging issue.” It's only "emerging" now because no one was paying attention before, but this should have been part of the debate since the beginning.
Vulnerable Nations Make 'Global Survival Pact'
Published November 10, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, is sick and tired of rich countries perched high above rising sea levels doing too little to halt climate change. As host of a two-day conference of the 11 countries most at risk from global warming, he chastised countries with big carbon footprints for failing to act strongly enough, according to Voice of America.
The threatened nations have decided to take matters into their own hands. Nasheed called on his compatriots to join him in a "global survival pact" by taking the lead on climate action.
"It is easy to assume that it can be solved by a messy political compromise between powerful states," VOA reports Nasheed saying. "But the fact of the matter is, we cannot negotiate with the laws of physics. We cannot cut a deal with mother nature."
Thou Shalt Halt Global Warming
Published November 09, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
What does religion have to do with climate change? More than you might think.
Religions around the world own seven to eight percent of the world's habitable land, including over five percent of the forests, according to Environment News Service (ENS). Sustainable land use and forest conservation are major pieces of the climate puzzle.
And these faiths — which claim 85 percent of people on Earth as followers — have huge carbon footprints. In one example, the 16,200 churches and other buildings owned by the Church of England emit about as much carbon dioxide as the entire country of Gambia (PDF). Another example: pilgrimages, which remain the biggest travel events in the world, contribute enormously to our atmospheric carbon.
With realities like these to account for, it looks like religions indeed need to be part of the solution. Thanks to Britain's HRH Prince Philip, who hosted a meeting of faith leaders from around the world last week at Windsor Castle, many of these faiths are are now engaged in addressing global warming as both a practical and a moral issue.
Al Gore: 'Civil disobedience has a role to play'
Published November 08, 2009 @ 04:23PM PT
Al Gore seems willing to try everything to highlight the threat of climate change, and to convince the public that firm action is essential. He likens the hardening tone of criticism by deniers to "the sunset phenomenon, where there's a spectacle just before the subsiding." But his critics are not the only ones hardening their stance. Gore understands that breaking the law in the name of fighting climate change has a role to play in getting legislation passed.
In his new book he explains that "when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable." Is it time to start breaking the law, or does law breaking distract the political process and lose us support? Having come so far, the movement could be easily tarnished by protesters managing to obstruct airports and getting headline news — anything that causes the movement to lose respect amongst those on the margins is problematic.
Gore expects civil disobiedience to increase, and if his change in tone shows anything, it's he's far he has come, losing some faith in politics alone to solve this crisis. Some are already making their voices known — two activists interupted the final plenary at the climate change talks in Barcelona, unfurling banners that read "Markets are the problem not the solution," and "Obama is finishing the job Bush started!" before being stopped by UN security guards, who physcially dragged them out.
Earlier in the day activists climbed a crane in central Barcelona to unfurl a banner. One of the climbers explained later that "We have done this action to express our deep consternation for the lamentable results of the Barcelona Climate Talks. The world and the humanity needs a radical change in the model of production and consumption." It should be the science that's the headline, but activists engaging in civil disobedience do succeed in making people talk and consider the importance of the issue. As long as they aren't destructive, they won't do any harm, but only show their enormous passion, and willingness to risk jail in the fight for tough international legislation on climate change.
Ban-Ki Moon Wants Religious Leaders to Join Fight Against Climate Change
Published November 06, 2009 @ 07:41AM PT
Visiting Windsor Castle in England, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon explained to the gathered crowd of religious leaders from a wide variety of faiths that "you are the leaders who can have the largest, widest and deepest reach." Running half of the world's schools, and being among the world's biggest investors and opinion makers, he explained that religious leaders have the opportunity to make a huge difference in combating climate change, around the world, and in every culture.
The Church of England is already promising to cut carbon emissions by 42 percent by 2020, whilst there are Muslim initiatives to make the Hajj pilgrimage more environmentally sound. But perhaps we're not looking sufficiently far into the nature of belief. A man was recently sacked from his job in England due to his beliefs about climate change. He appealed and will now be allowed to contest the sacking on grounds of discrimination due to “religion, religious belief or philosophical belief.” Religion leaders can help fight climate change and would be a huge ally to have onside, but many already have the feel strongly enough in their beliefs to fight it themselves, even when it puts their job and livelihood at risk.
Global Warming? The Writing's on the Seawall
Published November 06, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It's getting harder and harder to ignore climate change. Now our favorite ocean creatures are confirming what we already know. As the water gets warmer, the fish are moving away, faaar away, to find cooler habitats.
Researchers at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have published a new study that reveals that half of 36 fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean have shifted their ranges to the north over the last forty years, reports Science Daily. Some of the stocks, many of which are commerically fished, have all but vanished from U.S. waters.
Their research, which appears in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, illustrates how changing coastal and ocean temperatures are altering the behavior of fish species that range from North Carolina to the Canadian border. The species in question include Atlantic cod, haddock, yellowtail, winter flounder, spiny dogfish, Atlantic herring and more obscure species like blackbelly rosefish.
