climate change

Developing Countries Urge G8 to Impose 40% Emissions Cut by 2020

Developing nations are prepared to make concessions on climate change targets if the G8 fulfils its side of the bargain in the run-up to the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, a key negotiator told the Guardian today.

The developing countries want the G8 nations to sign up to a 40% cut by 2020, but that figure is off the radar of the EU and, given the unwieldy legislation laboriously passing through the senate, not a possibility for the US.

Posted in climate change

Just Fair-Weather Friends of the Environment

As long as it isn't expensive, noisy, inconvenient, uncomfortable or labour-intensive, we're eager to save the environment.

Little wonder our greenhouse gas emissions keep climbing. Little wonder Canada produces more municipal waste per person than any other country. Little wonder we rank among the world's top consumers of fossil fuels. (The oil-rich Gulf states are worse.)

Our 20-year quest to preserve the ecosystem – without changing our lifestyle – has led to a succession of unrealistic plans, missed targets and ineffectual initiatives.

Posted in climate change, consumerism, Environment

G-8 Failure Reflects US Failure on Climate Change

It didn't take long for the counterfeit climate bill known as Waxman-Markey to push back against President Obama's agenda. As the president was arriving in Italy for his first Group of Eight summit, the New York Times was reporting that efforts to close ranks on global warming between the G-8 and the emerging economies had already tanked:

Posted in climate change, Environment, global warming

Environmentalists Protest G8 Summit

ROME - Environmentalists broke into power stations across Italy and shed their clothes in downtown Rome on Wednesday as world leaders discussed a new deal to combat global warming.

Dozens of activists from 18 countries scaled smokestacks and occupied four Italian coal-fired power plants, hanging banners that called on the Group of Eight summit in central Italy to take the lead in fighting climate change, Greenpeace said.

Posted in climate change, global warming, obama

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2009
1:52 PM

CONTACT: Greenpeace
Molly Dorozenski (on site), 917-864-3724, mdorozen@greenpeace.org

Michael Crocker (Washington, DC), 202-215-8989, mcrocker@greenpeace.org

Greenpeace Makes Urgent Call for Climate Action From Face of Mt. Rushmore

Challenges President Obama to lead the world in fighting global warming

WASHINGTON - July 8 - This morning, 11 daring Greenpeace climbers hung a banner on Mount Rushmore challenging President Obama to show real leadership on global warming. The banner, measuring sixty-five feet high by thirty-five feet wide, features an unfinished portrait of Obama with the message, "America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming." The demonstration comes as President Obama meets other G8 leaders in L'Aquila, Italy today to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to UN climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen this December.

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Independent campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Greenpeace Links:

Posted in Activism, climate change, Environment

Gore: Deal on Emissions from Land Useage Change Critical

A global deal to cap surging emissions of carbon dioxide from soil will form a critical part of any successful agreement to tackle climate change in Copenhagen later this year, Al Gore said today.

The former US Vice President and environmental campaigner urged world leaders who are set to gather for a UN meeting in the Danish capital in December to recognise the critical importance of soil carbon: an often overlooked part of the debate on global warming.

Posted in climate change, Environment

New Climate Strategy: Track the World's Wealthiest

WASHINGTON - To fairly divide the climate change fight between rich and poor, a new study suggests basing targets for emission cuts on the number of wealthy people, who are also the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, in a country.

Since about half the planet's climate-warming emissions come from less than a billion of its people, it makes sense to follow these rich folks when setting national targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions, the authors wrote on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Posted in climate change, Environment

Loss of World's Seagrass Beds Seen Accelerating

MIAMI - The world's seagrass meadows, a critical habitat for marine life and profit-maker for the fishing industry, are in decline due to coastal development and the losses are accelerating, according to a new study.

Billed as the first comprehensive global assessment of seagrass losses, the study found 58 percent of seagrass meadows are declining and the rate of annual loss has accelerated from about 1 percent per year before 1940 to 7 percent per year since 1990.

Posted in climate change, Enviornment, global warming

Betraying the Planet

So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement.

But 212 representatives voted no. A handful of these no votes came from representatives who considered the bill too weak, but most rejected the bill because they rejected the whole notion that we have to do something about greenhouse gases.

And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn't help thinking that I was watching a form of treason - treason against the planet.

Posted in climate change, climate legislation, Politics

Friends of Earth Score Energy Bill as 'Step Backward'

The League of Conservation Voters has thrown down the gauntlet in its campaign to win support for the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) when it could see a U.S. House vote as soon as Friday.

Posted in 350, climate change, climate legislation, envir', global warming, lobbyists