climatechangescotland

The end of January 2012. News Round up!!!

2012-01-29T20:03:00.001Z

A round up of the most recent Climate Change Related Press Articles from around the world ...

2012-01-21T16:40:00.002Z

Republican Presidential Candidates

2012-01-09T17:53:00.002Z

I cane across this article about the views of the prospective Republican Presidential Candidates .... I don't know about you but I found this scary reading ............................

This election season, Republican candidates’ environmental views range from “drill, baby, drill” to dismantling the EPA. No one in the primaries seems to embrace the values of green Republicans. But a movement among anti-abortion Christians who see a link between environmental toxins and birth defects, may force candidates to soften their positions. Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood speaks with the president of Republicans for Environmental Protection, Rob Sisson, and Rev. Richard Cizik, president of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good.

Transcript

GELLERMAN: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, it's Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman. The GOP presidential primary season is in full swing, and the top issues among the candidates are: the economy and jobs, taxes, the deficit and family values. Far down on the list are environmental concerns.

When Republican candidates do talk about the environment it’s often in the context of “job killing EPA regulations.” Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood invited two Republican environmental activists to discuss the party politics of environmental issues.

CURWOOD: I’m here now with, with the President for Republicans for Environmental Protection- Rob Sisson. Hi there, Rob.

SISSON: Hello, Steve, nice to be here.

CURWOOD: And the President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, Reverend Richard Cizik. Hello there Reverend.

CIZIK: Hello, Steve.

CURWOOD: And I want to start with you Rob. Which of these Republican candidates running for president is seeking your organization’s endorsement?

SISSON: At this point, none of them have sought the endorsement. I think as we’ve seen with the candidates so far, they’ve kind of tiptoed around the environmental issues and conservation issues. And in many cases, have changed positions they’ve held in recent years.

CURWOOD: So, lets go down the ballot, Rob Sisson, and just see how green is the Republican primary field. Lets start with Mitt Romney.

SISSON: Well, I think Governor Romney has some very good qualities and experience that would indicate he would be a good conservation-minded president. You know, some of the campaign rhetoric now- you know, talking about America’s energy resources, paring back the EPA’s purview.

[CLIP OF MITT ROMNEY SPEECH: My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try and reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.]

SISSON: I think a President Romney would approach the issues in a very business-like manner if those of us in the conservation movement do our job and show a need, I think he would weigh that very carefully and would be very pragmatic about it.

CURWOOD: Texas Congressman Ron Paul - how green is he?

SISSON: He is going to be the least green candidate in the mix right now. His brand of conservatism, it really differs from the traditional conservatism that our organization espouses. It’s free enterprise all the way, individual liberty all the way and there’s not really a role for government to help provide balance to that.

CURWOOD: And how does he view climate change?

SISSON: Uh, doesn’t think it’s an issue, doesn’t think man causes it and has no desire to address it.

CURWOOD: What about former House Speaker Newt Gingrich? I recall he wrote a book called “A Contract with the Earth,” you know, very much about the environment. How green is he today?

SISSON: He has backed off from some of the philosophies he articulated in that book. Now he has come out and said that he doesn’t believe climate change is an issue anymore, or isn’t one that he thinks the government should address. He is very centered on entrepreneurialism and thinks entrepreneurialism, given the right incentives and the right environment, can help solve a lot of our environmental problems.

CURWOOD: And how green do you think former Utah governor John Huntsman is?

Rev. Richard Cizik testified in front of the EPA on behalf of evangelical support for stronger mercury regulation. (photo: New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good)

SISSON: You know, of all the candidates, I think that he has the strongest resume for conservation and environmental protection. But he’s also talking about balancing that with current economic realities, competition from global trading parties like China and India, so he also takes a pragmatic approach. So he is the one candidate that has come out and said: listen, we have the best scientists in the world here in the United States. We need to throw a problem at them and ask them for solutions and advice on how we approach it.

CURWOOD: Governor Rick Perry - Evangelical guy from an oil-patch state…how green is he?

SISSON: Again, not very green. You know, you go down to Texas and Texans see green in that black liquid that bubbles up out of the ground down there. He’s a product of his environment. He doesn’t see any issues with expanding offshore drilling in the Gulf and up in the arctic on public lands that we currently have preserved for future generations. So he’s going to be at the lower end of the green spectrum of these candidates.

CURWOOD: Let’s talk about Rick Santorum. He’s from western Pennsylvania, coal country guy, global warming skeptic. He’s also strongly faith-based in his politics and resonates with the Evangelical community and the pro-life community - what do you think they expect from him along the lines of the environment, Rob?

SISSON: In researching Senator Santorum, I find that most of his public service, most of his statements can be traced back to his faith. And Reverend Cizik can certainly speak to this better than I do, but recently he made a comment of condemning the EPA for recent mercury rules, which he thinks will increase costs for consumers for energy. When that hit the newswires, my inbox and telephones rang up in the office with people saying: Hey, you know, Senator Santorum is probably the best pro-life candidate in the field, or the one that’s making pro-life a centerpiece of his campaign, yet he doesn’t get the connection to environmental protection with clean air and clean water and how that’s a pro-life issue.

CURWOOD: And I want to bring in Reverend Richard Cizik at this point. Distill for me why this question of toxic exposure and pro-life is coming to the fore now?

CIZIK: Well, it’s coming to the fore because we have now made the connection between the environment and our pro-life convictions. And what is occurring, we know the National Academy of Science estimates that each year over 60,000 children are born at the risk of adverse neurological effects due to in-utero exposure to methyl-mercury that comes from coal-burning utility plants. And so regulating mercury emissions is just common sense to protect consumers and the unborn. So, that’s what makes Senator Santorum’s blast against the EPA so absurd. Look, I personally think that Senator Santorum is a believer, I respect him, but he needs a conversion.

CURWOOD: So, so far, how many folks who’d identified themselves as being pro-life advocates in the electorate are concerned about mercury? How big a deal is this?

CIZIK: Well, I haven’t seen any numbers, but when you have, at the recent announcement by Lisa Jackson, our EPA administrator, you had scores of faith-based groups who came out in support for a variety of reasons. Ranging from a belief that humans have a biblical mandate to protect nature, to a commitment protecting fetal health. And they ranged from the National Association of Evangelicals to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and many, many groups in between.

So hundreds of leaders signed a letter calling for stricter mercury regulations. So I would say to all of those Republicans who are running for the nomination - who think they can, as Santorum did - just throw out this language…that the agency’s cost benefit analysis wasn’t done and the rest…and expect Evangelicals and Catholics to just buy it, are living in a dream world because times have changed.

CURWOOD: To what extent to do you think Christian conservatives are going to get more involved with environmental health issues?

CIZIK: They already are. But it’s a slow-moving earthquake. They’re waking up but they’ve not yet rousted themselves as a whole from their slumber. But they are waking up - that is, the Evangelicals - and they’re making these connections and the Republican party is 40-50 percent Evangelical by all estimations. And, when that coalesces in such a fashion that you have a forest fire: the conditions are right and a spark is lit - boom - it takes off and nothing can stop it. We’ve not yet reached that point but we will, and at that point all of the Republicans will then see the light.

SISSON: Steve, if I might add on to that - I'm really witnessing a real grassroots bottom-up effort here where that connection between faith and the environment has been made. And again, as Reverend Cizik says, I am hopeful that over the next couple of years, this trend will continue to grow and we’re going to see the Evangelical and Judeo-Christian base of the Republican party force their leaders to address these issues seriously because it’s an important priority for them.

CURWOOD: Rob Sisson is the President of Republicans for Environmental Protection, thank you, Rob.

SISSON: Thank you, Steve.

CURWOOD: And thank you Reverend Richard Cizik.

CIZIK: Thanks Steve.

CURWOOD: Reverend Richard Cizik is the President of New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. And for Living on Earth, I’m Steve Curwood.

17 December 2011 News Digest

2011-12-17T16:43:00.002Z

The digest of today’s Daily Climate news review … and I would highlight 3 of the headings.

The first is the article in the New York Times that draws attention to the quantity of carbon frozen in the thawing permafrost and the reality that we haven’t a clue what will happen when it thaws completely.

The second is the Climate Central report about the effect of the Thai floods on the cost of Computers and hard drives. It drives home the whole interconnectedness of the human family and the global environment.

The third article is National Geographic’s warning about the effect of drought in Africa. Yes, our lives may be “inconvenienced” by having to pay more for electronic gadgetry. This will be nothing compared to the “inconvenience” that, probably millions, of Africans will experience when they have no water …. unless of course we welcome them into our communities.

Ha!!!!!!!!!!!

Europe’s clogged arteries drive up transport costs and uncover old bombs. Germany’s driest November has shrunk Europe’s rivers, creating month long delays for oil- and ore-carrying barges, while uncovering the continent’s deadly past. Bloomberg News

As permafrost thaws, scientists study the risks. A recent estimate suggests that permafrost, which underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. Temperatures are warming across much of the region and signs are emerging that the frozen carbon may be becoming unstable. New York Times

Despite delay, the 100-watt bulb is on its way out. On Friday, the House voted to delay enforcement of the new light bulb standards until at least Oct. 1, with the Senate expected to agree, as part of a last-minute budget deal to keep the government operating through the rest of the fiscal year. Republicans have vowed to press for a full repeal of the new rules. New York Times

Carbon dioxide offsets used to be a hot topic. What happened? Just a few years ago, it seemed carbon offsetting might be one of the best responses to society's emissions-heavy habits. Winnipeg Free Press

Breakthrough could double solar electricity ouput. A new discovery from a chemist at the University of Texas at Austin may allow photovoltaic solar cells to double their efficiency, thus providing loads more electrical power from regular sunlight. Los Angeles Times

China's growing share of solar market comes at a price. If Chinese solar companies are eating our lunch, they’re also choking on it. Growth in global solar manufacturing capacity is outpacing global demand, and prices of solar energy products are plunging. Chinese solar companies are suffering from some of the same ills afflicting their U.S. competitors. Washington Post

Thai floods give high-tech sector a climate primer. If a new PC or hard drive is on your holiday wish list, you may be in for a rude surprise: Supplies are running low and prices have skyrocketed, all because of an extreme weather event that took place halfway around the world. Climate Central

Endangered reindeer. Reindeer – also called caribou – are ubiquitous in the world’s northern latitudes, but the populations closest to the North Pole are dwindling because of climate change. Now there is a push to list the large deer as endangered. Living On Earth

Africans must adapt to drought in warming world: Report. Flexible farming methods and the ability to quickly change tactics to deal with unpredictable swings in rainfall will be vital if African nations are to survive climate change in the coming decades, scientists say. National Geographic News

Egg gas finding a rotten result for free-range hens. Eggs from caged hens produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than free range eggs, a new report has found, prompting calls for carbon footprint labelling to be used on all food products in Australia. Sydney Morning Herald

China to unveil new energy consumption strategy. China is set to unveil a plan to impose controls on total energy consumption, said Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission on Friday. China Daily

WWF: Asia Pulp & Paper misleads public about its role in destroying Indonesia's rainforests. Asia Pulp & Paper continues to mislead the public about its role in destroying rainforests and critical tiger habitat across the Indonesian island of Sumatra, alleges a new report from a coalition of Indonesian environmental groups. But APP is sharply contesting the claims. Mongabay

Greens call out Keystone XL deal. Senate Democrats accepted a provision Friday forcing a decision in two months on the Keystone XL oil pipeline as part of the must-pass payroll tax cut package, leaving the White House on the brink of a meltdown with environmental groups. Politico

Europe's plan to 'decarbonize' by 2050 will use natural gas as a bridge. Renewables, more energy efficiency and greater electrification will be the backbone of any future low-carbon E.U. energy mix, although natural gas will also pay a pivotal transitional role, the European Commission said yesterday. ClimateWire

California 'levels playing field' for oil. Oilsands producers will have an easier time exporting their crude to California under stringent climate change policy following a regulator's decision Friday to apply the same scrutiny to all refinery feedstock, regardless of origin. Calgary Herald

O Canada, O Canada

2011-12-14T16:36:00.005Z

I subscribe to a daily news briefing about Climate Change. It carries articles from some of the major global media outlets. Today – 14 December 2011 – as Canada withdraws from Kyoto, here are the headlines

Disasters doom Texas oyster crop. A monstrous bloom of toxic algae looming across the Texas coast has shut down oyster season. The size of the current bloom coupled with the state's ongoing drought and lack of rain could make it one of the biggest and most destructive in history. USA Today

Scrubbing carbon dioxide from air may prove too costly. One of the seemingly ideal and direct solutions to climate change is to efficiently vacuum up greenhouse gases straight from the atmosphere. But a new study finds that such a proposal is very far-fetched and tremendously expensive. ClimateWire

Most Americans link bad weather to climate change. More than half of Americans believe that weather in the United States has gotten worse over the past several years, and even more say they believe that global warming is affecting U.S. weather, a new report finds. LiveScience

Cap-and-trade gives Massachusetts economy critical boost, defying naysayers. New report on a ten-state initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions shows the program is a success after three years. Inside Climate News

Biofuel aspirations spur 'land grabs' that hurt the poor, says report. More than 40 million hectares of land has been acquired in developing countries for biofuel production in the past decade, reports a new study published by the International Land Coalition. Mongabay

Delaware wind project put on hold by N.J. company. New Jersey-based NRG Energy says it is putting on hold a project that would have created a wind farm off Delaware's coast. The company cannot find an investment partner. Associated Press

Mexican farmers despair over record drought. Dust blows across once fertile fields in north Mexico, where the worst drought in 70 years has left thousands of cattle dead and destroyed more than two million acres (almost one million hectares) of crops. Agence France-Presse

Cranes overstaying their welcome as weather grows warmer. As a result of warmer autumn temperatures, cranes are remaining in Germany longer than usual, causing damage to crops and sparking conflicts between farmers and environmentalists. Tierramérica

Warm spike in 2010 caused Greenland to rise. Unusually high temperatures last year caused a spike in the melting of Greenland's glaciers, which in turn caused large portions of the underlying bedrock to rise nearly a quarter of an inch. OurAmazingPlanet

Dirty power plant rules abandoned. The Gillard government has dumped an election promise to introduce rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. Sydney Morning Herald

Closing brown coal plants would help meet target. Almost half of Victoria's 20 per cent emissions reduction target could be met through a federal government program paying to shut heavy-emitting power plants, think tank ClimateWorks says. Sydney Morning Herald

Recovery boosted pollution by 3.9 percent. Greenhouse gases equivalent to 1.256 billion tons of carbon dioxide were emitted in Japan in fiscal 2010, up 3.9 percent from the year before and the first surge in three years amid an economic recovery, the Environment Ministry said Tuesday. Kyodo News

Durban just the start of fight for EU climate chief. European climate chief Connie Hedegaard, who salvaged Durban talks on global warming, has a next-to-impossible task ahead of striving to shame the world's biggest polluters into real action and tackling the EU's own environmental shortcomings. Reuters

Wind, biodiesel subsidies now on the line. With subsidies for corn ethanol set to disappear at the end of the month, the rest of the renewable-energy industry is lobbying lawmakers to keep government incentives going. Des Moines Register

China and India lead condemnation of Canada's Kyoto withdrawal. The countries that Canada pegged as the barriers to a better climate-change deal are leading international criticism over the Harper government’s move to withdraw from the Kyoto accord. Toronto Globe and Mail

To view the source go to The Daily Climate

Paul Vallely: Climate change - what's your excuse? Only a psychologist can explain why most of us believe global warming is man-made

2011-12-11T19:50:00.004Z

I read this today and I think that everyone should read it and think!!! It is from the UK Independent Newspaper

I was putting the rubbish out the other day. Beside the green bin and the grey one I had a half-broken plastic Batman tower that been discarded in a seasonal room-tidy. As I picked it up to put it in the bin a man sped by on a bike – it had to be a bike, of course – and shouted at me: "Citizen of Planet Earth, 2011!"

I was duly stung. I like to think I do my bit for the planet, sorting into the four recycling bins and taking the batteries and fluorescent tubes to the appropriate recycling centre. But to see ourselves as others see us ....

The same thing, writ large, has been true of the wider world at the climate change summit in Durban. Outside eyes have been turned upon the ponderous attempts by world leaders to find an international agreement on how to combat climate change. Local communites, meanwhile, have been more exercised by their efforts to attract Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May to choose their city to be home to the Top Gear festival for the next three years. There's the rub. We want to save the planet but we want the thrill of fast cars and their high-octane greenhouse gas emissions.

A jaded campaigner at the summit, Peg Putt of the Ecosystems Climate Alliance, put it thus: "Countries want to turn up and say stuff that sounds all right when you skip across the surface of it, that plays well to an uninformed audience at home. But they're in no way going to take on vested interests or change direction to do anything real."

This is the real climate change conundrum. If the science is so convincing that humans are melting the ice, acidifying the oceans and making sea levels rise, why is everyone dragging their feet about doing something? And repeatedly so – remember the farce of the previous eco-summit at Copenhagen in 2009, when Hopenhagen slid into Hopelesshagen, disappointment and failure.

A chap named Geoffrey Beattie was bugged by the same question last year and wrote a book called Why Aren't We Saving the Planet?. Beattie is not an environmentalist; he is professor of psychology at the University of Manchester. He concludes that we all have explicit and implicit attitudes to such matters, and that the two do not always coincide. Politicians are no different here. Because we are social creatures we do not want the opprobrium that would go with ignoring the overwhelming scientific consensus. That's the explicit level. But we have deeper instincts, formed over time, so that we still see gas-guzzling cars as the status symbols they have been for decades, or red meat as a treat. "People cannot change their emotional valence that quickly," he says.

What the good prof has done is set up a series of experiments that focus, not on our words, but on our gestures or even eye movements as people in a supermarket pick up items which bear a carbon footprint information label. "Our eye-tracking methodology shows that people spend between five and seven seconds choosing a product," he says. "Choices are determined by implicit values. Products have an emotional impact on us."

There are psychological barriers at work. One is a straightforward lack of adequate information. We know that every time we switch on a light, get into a car or reach to a supermarket shelf we are casting an ecological vote of some kind. But most of us are confused about the relative merits or demerits of those choices.

Another problem is that we live in skewed short-term time frames. That is clear on health. When Beattie asks his students why they smoke, the women most often say it is to keep their weight down. But there is also the youthful delusion of immortality; cancer will happen to an older self who is somehow not them.

Then there is the business of free riders. Some eco-practices, such as recycling, make us feel good about ourselves. But others make us feel bad about others. China, India and the US between them produce almost half of the world's annual carbon emissions. None of them is committed to the Kyoto protocol. So why should they be given a free ride on the efforts of the rest of us to cut carbon use?

"The free rider problem creates a lot of psychological pressure," says Beattie. One of his experiments has been to cut Al Gore's climate film An Inconvenient Truth into sections and to measure reaction to them. "The clip showing the increase in the output from Chinese power stations had the reverse effect of other clips. It induces a shift of responsibility away from ourselves."

There are other complex psychological factors. Greenness can become part of your identity. Beattie has observed that by filming people's facial expressions as they recycle. But it can induce two different ways of thinking. One is that if people do small things, such as recycling, that will lead them on to bigger things, like not flying. But with others it gives them a moral licence to do the opposite: "I deserve a reward after all that recycling so I'm flying off on a city break" or "I've bought a Bag for Life so it doesn't matter what I fill it with". Most of us are adept at finding ways to let ourselves off the hook. All of these forces have been at work in Durban, with added calculations of national interest vs the common good.

The way forward is in finding ways to change those underlying implicit values. At the personal level, Fair Trade labels pioneered a way to overcome the information problem; carbon footprinting needs to do the same. Campaigners should look to their vocabulary. Global warming sounds nice and cosy, as if we are all going to live in the Med. Planetary overheating might be a better term.

We need to curb the extremes of the optimism/pessimism spectrum. Neither "It'll all be sorted by technology" nor "We're all doomed so I'm going down the pub" are helpful.

Without changes in our individual psyches there will not be real change at the political level that will turn aspirations into action. Psychology can help us to diagnose the problem; now we must bring it to bear on the solutions.

Durban

2011-12-11T19:42:00.003Z

Are the Durban Climate Change talks a success or a failure??

It is far too early to tell but sadly I guess history will regard all our efforts as failures when the generations of tomorrow have to live with the restraints caused by the excesses of today.

We are too selfish and too self centred and tomorrow's world looks very grim - and that is so sad.

Maybe human civilisation as we know it does not deserve to survive!

Fear is not the answer

2009-09-10T15:11:00.000+01:00

I have never been one to want to reinvent the wheel, as the saying goes and so I include the following article from the Guardian Newspaper which I think is excellent .......

The chances are, if you are reading this, that you might also have seen either The Age of Stupid or An Inconvenient Truth. To those who fight to get climate change to the top of the agenda, these two movies are essential campaigning tools. Now I don't dispute their power and Messrs Gore and Postlethwaite are to be credited for sticking their heads above the parapet, but I have a problem with them: they left me feeling numb and overwhelmed. Gore stacks up the evidence of the momentum towards dangerous tipping points so effectively that by the time he gets on to "solutions" very near the end of his hundred minute presentation, you feel you are about to be demolished by a juggernaut.

I had a similar reaction when I first saw The Age of Stupid. At the end of a packed screening earlier in the year, one of my Operation Noah colleagues stood up and bluntly asked the audience: "So having seen that, who wants to get involved in campaigning?" There was a chilled and muted response. It may be me, but a very large amount of the film left me thinking that all the images of flooding, drought and destruction which Postlethwaite uncovers in his film archives are inevitable. From his futuristic vantage point of 2055, he shows a world that, in a mere 40 to 50 years, has gone to the dogs. And in a world where denial is still very much a factor, it's amazing how quickly people switch from denying the scientific evidence for human-induced global warming, to embracing the view that it's all too late and we're all doomed. Of course, that "flip" still allows you to go on behaving as before. "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die."

Which raises all sorts of questions that lobbyists and campaigners have been grappling with for years now on all this: what is the best way to engage the human imagination on the issue of our time? Guilt and fear are very limited in their appeal and, more often than not, only induce a greater desire to turn away and carry on as before. What's encouraging is to come across so many schoolchildren who are getting more and more familiar with the notion of stewardship. It's a term that has both appeal to religious and secular mindsets: namely that because of our lofty status in terms of biological and intellectual complexity compared to other species, this carries with it a responsibility to cherish our surroundings. Man's intelligence, as we have seen from history, can be put to a variety of creative and destructive uses: compare lunar landings and the discovery of penicillin with war and genocide. Ahead of December's UN climate summit in Copenhagen, we are now facing an epic collective decision as a species: business as usual and sleepwalking towards all sorts of potential horrors, or reverting back an understanding that sees ourselves not as usurpers of nature as a commodity, but as protective guardians of a wondrous world that is threatened – uniquely, by its own most intelligent life form. Fossil fuels which took millions and million of years to be formed by slow natural processes are being released into the biosphere at a dizzying rate with destabilising consequences which are there for all to see.

I believe virtue and example are contagious. Look at what happened recently with the launch of the 10:10 campaign, which the Guardian is backing. No sooner had Ed Miliband signed up to cut his own carbon emissions by 10%, than we were being told the whole Tory front bench were getting ready to endorse the pledge. Within 24 hours, the entire cabinet had also jumped on board and Liberal Democrats announced they were looking at moves to make this a resolution which would bind the whole party. Cynical politicking? Maybe in part, but this is all about momentum and taking the notion of stewardship beyond the perceived domain of the elite middle classes into society as a whole.

We are gnawing away at the very womb that sustains us. Reversing that trend needs as big an army of stewards as we can possibly muster.

More from Paul Elrich

2009-09-06T16:45:00.001+01:00

Dear Friends,

There is growing consensus among environmental scientists that the scholarly community has adequately detailed how to deal with the major issues of the human predicament caused by our success as a species – climate disruption, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, toxification of the planet, the deterioration of the epidemiological environment, the potential impacts of nuclear war, racism, sexism, economic inequity, and on and on. I and my colleagues believe humanity must take rapid steps to ameliorate them. But, in essence, nothing serious is being done – as exemplified by the “much talk and no action” on climate change. The central problem is clearly not a need for more natural science (although in many areas it would be very helpful) but rather a need for better understanding of human behaviors and how they can be altered to direct humanity toward a sustainable society before it is to late.

That’s why a group of natural scientists, social scientists, and scholars from the humanities decided to inaugurate a Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB — pronounced “mob”). It was so named to emphasize that it is human behavior, toward one another and toward the planet that sustains all of us, that requires rapid modification. The idea is that the MAHB might become a basic mechanism to expose society to the full range of population-environment-resource-ethics-equity-power

humanity's collision with the natural world

2009-09-06T16:42:00.001+01:00

Paul Ehrlich, citing 'humanity's collision with the natural world,' launches a new forum to direct human activity toward a more sustainable future.

5 September 2009

By Douglas Fischer
Daily Climate Editor

Frustrated by society's inability to tackle pressing environmental dilemmas, Stanford University ecologist Paul Ehrlich on Friday announced a new endeavor aimed at rapidly turning human behavior toward a more sustainable future.
In essence, nothing serious is being done – as exemplified by the 'much talk and no action' on climate change.

- Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University

Called the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior, or MAHB (pronounced "mob"), the venture seeks to link a broad array of seemingly unrelated human activities that endanger humanity's future - from racism to climate change, loss of biological diversity, water shortages, declining food security, economic justice and pollution.

The hope, Ehrlich said, is that by making these larger connections, more effective solutions can be found.

"Basically, absolutely nothing is happening," he said. "We don't need more scientific evidence that we're screwing ourselves. We need to get beyond the cultural discussions we're having now."

The problem, Ehrlich said, is clearly not a need for more natural science. Rather, it is the need for a better understanding of "human behaviors and how they can be altered to direct humanity toward a sustainable society before it is too late."

Organizers envision the MAHB as a global conference, involving scholars, politicians and a diverse spectrum of stakeholders – from media and industry to religious communities and foundations. Organizers also hope to encourage a "global discussion" about human goals and to explore ways to steer cultural change toward creation of a more sustainable society.

Ehrlich said he would partially model the MAHB after the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, where hundreds of scientists from nearly every nation and representing diverse disciplines sort the scientific validity of claims and attempt to find equitable solutions.

Another model is the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, developed by environmental and social scientists to assess the condition of Earth's life-support systems, he said.

But the IPCC derives its power and authority from its governmental mandate, noted Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

Governments signing on to the United Nations' climate framework have asked the scientific community to provide a clear consensus on the science and then endorse those findings via policy, said Huq, lead author of the adaptation and mitigation chapter in the IPCC's most recent assessment.

It's not clear - yet - who the MAHB is meant to inform.

For the IPCC, "the governments are the ones who have asked for the information, and they are the ones who endorse the information," Huq said. "If scientists just produce a report, and ... there isn't really anyone in a position to take it up, nothing happens to it."

"We are just preaching."

Still, Huq agreed with the premise, adding that the endeavor is something "we certainly need."

But for now, the MAHB is just 10 big thinkers, among them Stanford climatologist Steve Schneider, Science editor and Stanford president emeritus Donald Kennedy, Washington State University sociologist Eugene Rosa and University of Oslo philosopher Nina Witoszek.

Ehrlich, president of Stanford's Center for Conservation Biology, is considered a pioneer in the study of popoulation science. He was one of the first scholars to alert the public to the problems of overpopulation and to raise issues of population, resources and the environment as matters of public policy.

Ehrlich has floated earlier visions of this venture before, losing funding at Stanford for what he described as a "short try-out." He's thinking bigger this time: He hopes to officially kick-off the MAHB in 2011 with a "world mega conference" akin to the 1992 United Nations "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro.

That 1992 summit remains the UN's largest environmental gathering, with 172 governments, 108 heads of states, 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organizations and another 17,000 attendees at a parallel global forum. It led to the adoption of a wide-ranging blueprint for action on sustainable development worldwide. The Kyoto Protocol and the upcoming Copenhagen negotiations in December are two products.

It is unclear whether the MAHB will achieve such a level of success or is destined to the same obscurity as earlier efforts. For now it is little more than a website with a mission statement and a blog.

But finding a way to make climate science more relevant to policy makers has become an increasingly pressing question in academia, and Ehrlich is pressing forward.

"A global consensus on the most crucial behavioral issues is unlikely to emerge promptly from the MAHB – or any other international forum," he said. But "if the scientific diagnosis of humanity's collision with the natural world is accurate ... what alternative is there to trying?"

Action all drivers can take

2009-09-06T16:21:00.002+01:00

Last weekend I drove to Edinburgh and back - two in car - which is a 1.3 Vauxhall Corsa Diesel.

A round trip of over 160 miles which involved some rural driving, motorway driving, stop start around Dundee and similarly into the very centre of Edinburgh.

I used cruise control wherever possible and did not go above 60 on the motorway except on one occasion for safety reasons.

I returned 72 miles to the gallon!

It seems to me that a very first step that we could take to combat the impact of Climate Generations on the generations to come is set and rigorously enforce a 50 to 60 mph motorway speed limit!!!

A taste of what is in the Press

2009-07-28T14:38:00.000+01:00

This week, after nine years of leading the Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathan Porritt left his post. So what now for Green party member and Treasury antagonist who was brought into government as a 'critical friend'?
* John Vidal
* The Guardian, Saturday 25 July 2009

Vestas dispute: Red and green coalition forms to fight wind plant closure
* Terry Macalister
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 July 2009 20.32 BST

Who's behind the plan to pave Central Park and build an airport?
Is the hoax campaign to concrete over NYC's favourite green space and build an airport a satire on incompetent transport policy or another product viral? Watch this space
Posted by Leo Hickman Friday 24 July 2009 11.21 BST

Nature will never be spent if we act to save our countryside
An integrated world view sees the value in the natural world beyond its aesthetic beauty - it also has an economic value as a carbon store
* Nick Herbert
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 July 2009 14.39 BST

Bruce Parry: Your planet needs your film-making talents
'Anyone can deliver a short but powerful message to the world about the most important issue of the day,' says the Tribe presenter
* Bruce Parry
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 July 2009 07.00 BST

One minute to save the world competition
Have something to say about saving the environment? Then why not enter our One minute to save the world short film competition
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 July 2009 07.00 BST

Small-scale irrigation schemes are key to food security in Uganda
Irrigation seems to have been left off the agenda when it comes to discussing food security in Uganda. It needs to be added now, argues Richard M Kavuma
Posted by Richard M Kavuma Friday 24 July 2009 11.55 BST guardian.co.uk

Send a message to Copenhagen
Got something to say to those deciding the world's fate? Get your voice heard by sharing your message with our Flickr group, A Message to Copenhagen and we'll feature the best here
Posted by Adam Vaughan Wednesday 22 July 2009 13.17 BST guardian.co.uk

Meet Belcha - Europe's biggest carbon polluter (and it's about to get even bigger)
Polish facility pumps out 30m tonnes of CO2 a year
Activists say giant plants undermine climate fight
* Terry Macalister
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 July 2009 21.52 BST

Greenwash: easyJet's carbon claims written on the wind
EasyJet says its flights have a smaller carbon footprint than a Toyota Prius hybrid car. Let's do the maths:
* Fred Pearce
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 July 2009 08.00 BST

Why Vestas closed Isle of Wight plant
* Letters, The Guardian, Friday 24 July 2009
Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of state for energy and climate change

A force of nature: our influential Anthropocene period
What humanity does has important consequences, so we must manage our global life-support system
o Simon Lewis
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 July 2009 20.00 BST

Climate insurance: what kind of deal can be made in Copenhagen?
One key challenge on the climate change agenda is a fairer system to protect the world's poorest farmers from failing crops and extreme weather variations. From Climate Feedback part of Guardian Environment Network
* From Climate Feedback part of Guardian Environment Network
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 July 2009 11.32 BST

Outer-city, out of mind?
Ecotowns are all well and good, but we ignore the problem of suburban England at our peril
Peter Hetherington Posted by Peter Hetherington
Thursday 23 July 2009 10.59 BST guardian.co.uk

Great Western train line to be electrified
Electrification will reduce carbon dioxide emissions and will mean faster and more reliable services for millions of passengers
* Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 July 2009 08.29 BST

Police at Kingsnorth: hiding badges, searching kids, blasting music and suffering bee stings
Catalogue of complaints over tactics used against both protesters and media
* Paul Lewis
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 22 July 2009 18.15 BST

LEDs and efficient TVs point the way towards my dream green home
It's the final push to bring our 1920s house into a modern, low-carbon age – this week, we focus on the last few touches - appliances and rare light bulbs
Posted by Andy Phipps Wednesday 22 July 2009 17.25 BST guardian.co.uk

Sermon from 28 June 2009

2009-06-29T12:21:00.004+01:00

Sermon

It has been a momentous week, and I am not referring to the death of Michael Jackson - sad though that may be. And not even the bonus salary of the new head of RBS, although it does seem that altruism certainly does not exist in the higher echelons of banking management.

No, today I am referrering to the environmental legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament, announced by the UK Government and passed by the US House of Representatives, all within the space of one week. Legislation that is going to radically alter how we live. Legislation, that I believe, churches ~ schools ~ community organizations and communities themselves should begin to enact without delay.

This morning though, I want to move beyond the legislation and look for spiritual foundations for environmental care. We’ve just sung for the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the earth
for the beauty of the skies
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies
Christ, our God, to thee we raise
This our sacrifice of praise

We’ve just sung these words and I wonder as we did, did we sing them with integrity? Did we sing them as if we actually believed the words and the sentiments, or were we just muttering the sounds and thinking either what a pretty tune or the music of this jars?

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. [Genesis 2]

And if your faith is traditional then this was an act of trust on the part of God. And if your faith is traditional then we are the inheritors of that trust. And if your faith is honest I think that you can only but conclude that we have squandered that inheritance - almost to the point of no return, but not quite yet. And that is why I believe that the churches must show the lead in welcoming, supporting and enacting the legislation and intention of the past week.

But there is another reason as well and that is where I want to go this morning. But for Church politics the Christian Church in Britain might have been radically different, and who knows, given the ability of Scots men and women to influence the developments of the past centuries, we might now be a completely different Church. I am of course referring to the marginalisation of the Celtic Church in the 7th Century at the Synod of Whitby and the subsequent rise of Catholicism and the hierarchical, religion focused, Church of Rome.

I believe that our attitudes to the environment need a spiritual foundation, as well as an ethical, practical and economic foundation. And I believe that that foundation is found in Celtic Christianity and Celtic Spirituality. And I want to remind you of the Celtic way to God. The way of our past. The way of our heritage.
But before I do, let me add another layer to what I am saying and this is from 21st Century Spirituality. Ken Wilber argues that human beings intrinsically possess 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person perspectives of the world, and that we possess those same perspectives in our experience of spirituality.

God is 1st person when we have direct experiences of God, mystical, I am moments. The times when we have felt touched by God. God is also 2nd person ~ the one to whom we talk. And God is 3rd person, the spirit of God in the great interconnected web of humanity. Wilber also argues that it is a human failing to focus on one perspective of God. That is our nature but our nature reduces our experiences of God. And so all three perspectives are important. Now I am saying this because if we think of Celtic Spirituality just in terms of looking after creation then important as that is, we miss the point ~ we miss the depth ~ we miss the potential.

So what is Celtic Spirituality, Celtic Christianity and why do I think it so important? What is the essence of Celtic Spirituality? Hilary Musgrave is an Irish Sister of Charity and she describes it as
• seeing the energy, the life and the flow of God’s love in all of creation
• seeing the potential of God in the earth, in the people,
• seeing God as all around, surrounding us and in us.

There is a focus on daily life in the prayers of Celtic Spirituality with these prayers rooted in the ordinary events of life ~ the everyday events that touch ordinary everyday people. There is a huge community focus in Celtic Spirituality. God was experienced in the community. And of course respect for the earth, humanity working in harmony with the earth.

Ray Simpson of the Northumbrian Community of Hilda and Aiden writes ….
'The essence of Celtic spirituality is a heart wide open to God in every person, in all the world. It is to do with crossing frontiers, not erecting barriers. It goes so deep that, without losing what is distinctive, it becomes universal.'

Closer to home Iain Bradley, from the University of St Andrew’s believes that Celtic Christianity does seem to speak with uncanny relevance to many of the concerns of our present age. It was environmentally friendly, embracing positive attitudes to nature and constantly celebrating the goodness of God’s creation. Like the religions of the Australian Aboriginees and the Native American Indians it takes us back to our roots and seems to speak with a primitive innocence and directness which has much appeal in our tired and cynical age.

Let me draw to a close by summarizing why I personally see the Celtic way to God as being so 21st century relevant.

Firstly, the focus on Community. We must maintain the sense of community in the congregation and in the parish. The sense of belonging that a sense of community can bring is a key building block for the next few decades of change.

Secondly, seeing the energy, the life and the flow of God’s love in all of creation, seeing the potential of God in the earth, in the people, If we see God in all of creation then we can only but want to nurture that Creation.

And of course thirdly, the sense of harmony with creation, its care and its stewardship.

If we can take, even these three reasons to heart then we will indeed turn the tide and honour the trust that God placed in us in the Garden of Eden. If we do not, then may God forgive us.

In God’s name

Unwanted mailing

2009-06-29T12:00:00.001+01:00

Today I saved a leaf

It's an age thing but sadly I appear to be on the SAGA mailing list. I get monthly invitations to enquire about SAGA Motor Insurance and every month I shake my head, recycle the paper and put the envelop in the bin.

That is apart from this month when I decided that enough was enough and so I phoned SAGA and asked to be removed from their mailing list.

Result .... a gracious lady and no more motor insurance letters!

It can only get worse and it will be our fault!

2009-05-29T12:22:00.003+01:00

Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year — more than the all present world aid. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year.

Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: "Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters ... bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability".

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies . "Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030. ".

The study says it is impossible to be certain who will be displaced by 2030, but that tens of millions of people "will be driven from their homelands by weather disasters or gradual environmental degradation. The problem is most severe in Africa, Bangladesh, Egypt, coastal zones and forest areas. ."

The study compares for the first time the number of people affected by climate change in rich and poor countries. Nearly 98% of the people seriously affected, 99% of all deaths from weather-related disasters and 90% of the total economic losses are now borne by developing countries. The populations most at risk it says, are in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia and the small island states of the Pacific.

But of the 12 countries considered least at risk, including Britain, all but one are industrially developed. Together they have made nearly $72bn available to adapt themselves to climate change but have pledged only $400m to help poor countries. "This is less than one state in Germany is spending on improving its flood defences," says the report.

"The world is at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. This is a call to the negotiators to come to the most ambitious agreement ever negotiated or to continue to accept mass starvation, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale," said Kofi Annan, who launched the report today in London.

Annan blamed politicians for the current impasse in the negotiations and widespread ignorance in many countries. "Weak leadership, as evident today, is alarming. If leaders cannot assume responsibility they will fail humanity. Agreement is in the interests of every human being."

Nobel peace prizewinner Wangari Maathai, said: "Climate change is life or death. It is the new global battlefield. It is being presented as if it is the problem of the developed world. But it's the developed world that has precipitated global warming."

In today's Press

2009-05-28T16:12:00.002+01:00

I was looking at a review of what is making the news of the Climate Change front.

[1] NATURE MAGAZINE WRITES ABOUT BIOCHAR ....

The bright prospect of biochar

Enthusiasts say that biochar could go a long way towards mitigating climate change and bring with it a host of ancillary benefits. But others fear it could do more harm than good.

Tilling charcoal into the soil can promote lush plant growth as well as sequestering carbon, say biochar enthusiasts.

Jim Fournier wants to help save the planet, though in a most unlikely way: by burning biomass. At the forefront of a carbon-sequestration technology that proponents say offers a rare 'win-win-win' environmental opportunity, Fournier's company Biochar Engineering in Golden, Colorado, manufactures machines that turn biomass into charcoal, or biochar.

Spread on soil, biochar can keep CO2 out of the atmosphere while improving soil fertility and boosting productivity. In addition, gases released in the charcoal-making process can be used to make biofuels that are more sustainable than those currently on the market. "Char happens to be the one thing that represents a solution to all of these factors together. It's a unique opportunity," Fournier says.

But while enthusiasts are pushing to have biochar recognized as an official means of offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, others remain cautious. At best we know too little, say critics, and at worst using biochar to sequester carbon could ultimately lead to unintended consequences, including the destruction of virgin forests to make way for plantations.

[2] REUTERS runs a piece on changes to the environment caused by rising temperatures

Tree-munching beetles, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are three living signs that climate change is likely to exact a heavy toll on human health.

These pests and others are expanding their ranges in a warming world, which means people who never had to worry about them will have to start. And they are hardly the only health threats from global warming.

The Lancet medical journal declared in a May 16 commentary: "Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century."

Individual threats range from the simple to the very complex, the Lancet said, reporting on a year-long study conducted with University College London.

There will be more heat waves with "direct temperature effects" which will hit the most vulnerable people hardest, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, especially those with heart problems and asthma, the elderly, the very young and the homeless.

People who live within 60 miles (97 km) of a shoreline, or about one-third of the world's population, could be affected if sea levels rise as expected over the coming decades, possibly more than 3 feet (1 metre) by 2100. Flooded homes and crops could make environmental refugees of a billion people.

As it becomes hotter, the air can hold more moisture, helping certain disease-carriers, such as the ticks that spread Lyme disease, thrive, the EPA said.

A changing climate could increase the risk of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and various viral causes of encephalitis. Algae blooms in water could be more frequent, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera. Respiratory problems may be aggravated by warming-induced increases in smog.

Other less obvious dangers are also potentially devastating. eg …

Pine bark beetles, which devour trees in western North America will be able to produce more generations each year, instead of subsiding during winter months. They leave standing dead timber, ideal fuel for wildfires from Arizona to Alaska.

[3] China Is Said to Plan Strict Gas Mileage Rules

HONG KONG — Worried about heavy reliance on imported oil, Chinese officials have drafted automotive fuel economy standards that are even more stringent than those outlined by President Obama last week, Chinese experts with a detailed knowledge of the plans said on Wednesday. The new plan would require automakers in China to improve fuel economy by an additional 18 percent by 2015,

... some people are obviously taking Climate Change very seriously indeed.

Press Release

2009-05-19T15:58:00.002+01:00

Yesterday, the Rev Malcolm Rooney spoke to some of the Congregations of the Glens and Kirriemuir Old about MPs allowances on the one hand and the current Church debate about homosexuality on the other.

Calling for a radical revision of the MPs allowances system, Mr Rooney said that two decades, and more, of the quite appalling way MPs spoke about each other on the media had resulted in the erosion of their standing. They were now getting the comeuppance they deserved.

Mr Rooney also said that for the record he hoped that the Rev Scott Rennie would be allowed to move to Aberdeen without delay.

Mr Rooney said that stable and loving relationships can be physical, but they can also be deep friendships to the level of soul friendships.

He recognizes that others may think differently and he respected their views and the integrity with which they are formed. However he was concerned about what would happen is Scott looses.

Would there be a move against the ordination of women ministers and elders on the grounds that such ordination was not Biblical? Would he be forced to preach that the world was made in 6 days, because the Bible says so?

Will all ministers need to sign a contract that says that they believe in the Virgin Birth, Original Sin, Hell, Bodily Resurrection and so on?

Mr Rooney asked his members to wonder what Jesus would say or do. He suggested that Jesus would be more concerned with the big issues of the day.

Whether or not ministers who state they are homosexual by orientation, but about whom there is absolutely no tangible evidence regarding their sexual practices, should or should not be allowed to serve God, may be important to some.

However Climate Change and human caused Environmental Degradation, Refugees and issues caused by Human Migration, Poverty and being able to live in peace, one with another all seemed far more important.

These are the issues that should be preoccupying the Church of Scotland. Mr Rooney wondered why there were no petitions about these issues.

When asked about the reaction of his congregation to what he said, Mr Rooney said he was overwhelmed by support for his views and for the Rev Scott Rennie.

Climate Change and the Scottish Parliament

2009-05-11T14:41:00.002+01:00

As I listened to the Scottish Parliament debate the Climate Change Bill, first reading, I had a picture in mind.

Imagine if you will, the bridge of the Titanic.

The Captain is aware that there are icebergs ahead and so he has a discussion with his senior staff … we should alter course … yes, but when and by how many degrees … well, let’s think about it and ask for opinions and then make a decision - CRASH!!!!

You see, I think I heard every party agree that

[a] we are heading for the proverbial iceberg

[b] we do need to take action

[c] we will decide within 12 months what action to take,

Quite frankly I do not think that that is good enough. We need action now, because even now is probably becoming too late as far as future degradation of quality of life is concerned.

I am sad to say that I conclude that the words of Burns apply to our MSPS because as far as Climate Change is concerned they are indeed

Wee, cowrin, tim'rous beasties

This is a time for real leadership with no eyes on the ballot boxes!

And more hope

2009-05-04T17:12:00.002+01:00

Again from the US Press ...

Global warming strongly divides Christian clergy
By Bob Smietana • THE TENNESSEAN • May 1, 2009
When the Rev. James Merritt wants to talk about the environment, he does what any good Baptist preacher would do. He picks up the Bible.
"The first assignment that God gave to Adam was to take care of the Garden," said Merritt, who was president of the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention from 2000-02. "As far as I know, that job has never been revoked."
While most Christian ministers agree that human beings are to care for creation, they disagree on the details. That's especially true about the topic of global warming .
A new survey from Southern Baptist-owned LifeWay Research found a split between mainline ministers, like Episcopalians and Methodists, and evangelicals like Southern Baptists. Mainline ministers believe that climate change is manmade and want to take action. Evangelical ministers, on the other hand, remain skeptical.
People in the pews disagree, according to a new poll from the public policy group, Faith in Public Life. It found that "over 60 percent of Americans, including majorities of white evangelical Protestants and Catholics" want to tackle climate change now.
Next month, Merritt will host a green evangelical gathering at Cross Pointe Church in Duluth, Ga. Called the Flourish Conference, it's part of the so-called Creation Care movement.
Merritt says evangelicals have been too slow to act on environmental issues, just as they were slow to act on civil rights. "Once again we've been the caboose instead of leading the train," he said.
The Flourish conference, organized by Merritt's son, Jonathan, will focus on theology, not the politics or causes of global warming. Instead, they'll talk about biblical ethics and caring for the earth.
"We are really going to focus on the theology of ecology," Merritt said. "If anybody should be sensitive about the world and taking care of God's creation, it ought to be believers.

WHAT DO SCOTTISH EVANGELICALS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE? NOW THERE IS AN ISSUE THEY COULD PROFITABLY ADDRESS ...........................

Climate Change and the USA Church

2009-05-04T17:07:00.002+01:00

This is an article which appeared in the US Press just recently. It illustrates the problem and also the hope ....

Conservative Christians launch green awakening
By YONAT SHIMRON
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Monday, May. 4, 2009 - 5:06 am

WAKE FOREST, N.C. -- For years, some conservative Christians regarded environmentalists as little more than nature worshippers. But on April 24, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., hosted its first conference on what it calls "creation care," or honoring God's good Earth.

The one-day "Creation Care Symposium" was the seminary's first effort to go green, and, no surprise, it came two days after Earth Day.

Southeastern President Danny Akin said his denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, needs to do more to combat pollution and the degradation of the planet. But he added, "We're not jumping on the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Al Gore bandwagon. We're using a more cautious, responsible approach."

That Southeastern is even interested in caring for the planet represents a milestone in the environmental movement. While mainline Protestant Christian denominations, Roman Catholics, Jews and Muslims have made strides in raising awareness among adherents of the challenges of climate change, pollution and degradation of natural resources, conservative denominations have thus far relegated the issue to the back burner.

Only two years ago, Southern Baptists passed a resolution urging the government to "reject mandated reductions in greenhouse gas emissions," and to "proceed cautiously in the human-induced global warming debate in light of conflicting scientific research."

Last month, Richard Land, president of the denomination's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, urged Baptists to write their U.S. senators to oppose global warming legislation that would tax firms for global emissions.

And in a recently released poll, only 47 percent of Protestant pastors said they believe global warming is real and man-made. Among evangelical denominations, only 32 percent of pastors agreed.

Yet a group of younger evangelicals is challenging those views and pushing churches to audit their energy use, analyze their impact on the environment and adopt cost-saving measures.

Leading the charge is Jonathan Merritt, a graduate of Southeastern and the son of former Southern Baptist President James Merritt. Now an Atlanta-based writer, Merritt said the environment is no longer the exclusive domain of the liberal left.

"In the last few years we've seen many conservatives say this is a moral issue, and Christians have an answer for it," Merritt said.

He points to pastors such as Rick Warren, the Southern Baptist megachurch minister who has shown an environmental awareness. And he notes comments by Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, who in a recent issue of Newsweek calls for energy independence from foreign oil. (Although Gingrich approves of drilling in Alaska.)

A letter to parliament

2009-05-04T13:14:00.000+01:00

CLIMATE CHANGE BILL

I am writing to urge you to take rigorous, and if necessary unpopular, action to respond to the challenge of Climate Change.

As a nation we must reduce our consumption of, and dependence upon, carbon. I do not believe that Carbon Capture is a tenable option because it simply signals business as usual.

I believe that the challenges of Climate Change move far beyond partisan politics and I would urge consensual action.

In practical terms I suggest

[a] 2010 reducing national speed limits … built up areas to 20mph

… A roads to 50 mph

… Dual carriage / Motor Ways 60mph

2011 reducing Dual carriage / Motor Ways to 50mph

[b] Identification of wave power as the Scottish bench mark

[c] Encouragement of locally produced food and a return to seasonality in food

[d] Introduction of a 2p in the pound Climate Change levy with all funds being reinvested in public transport infrastructure

[e] Serious engagement with secondary school pupils to foster a climate aware ethos among young people – and to give these youngsters a real say in the future of their Scotland

[f] An assessment of the implications of sea level rise for homes, businesses and transport infrastructure.

[g] Government sponsored advertisements drawing attention to the issues of Climate Change

[h] An assessment of fishing, farming and general environmental management to promote sustainability

It seems to me that the first two decades of the 21^st Century will be the defining years as far as the nature of the final two decades of the 21^st Century and beyond are concerned.

More than any other group, Politicians will be judged by their efforts to tackle Climate Change.

Will you lead us to a point where the following will be our epitaph

When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,

For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today

Holiday Over

2009-04-30T12:19:00.002+01:00

Hey I have had a new lease of life - a link to the Eco Congregation Blog - Thank you Victoria!!!

So - where are we now? What has happened in the last 6 weeks or so???

[1]
UK Budget that is borrowing more and more - I suppose that is in keeping with how we are treating the planet. We simply borrow more and more of creation. The trouble is we are creating a debt that will simply be unpayable and will be borne by the next two or three generations. After that life will be so radically different.

[2]
In the USA commentators seem to agree that President Obama is acting faster than any previous President in his efforts to address Climate Change. Maybe he is just looking at his daughters and realising just how much his actions will affect their futures.

[3]
Tesco Supermarkets will display the Carbon Footprint of Toilet Paper. Apparently 200 sheets of toilet paper = one carton of orange juice as far as carbon footprints are concerned. Well now you know - but will it make any difference?

[4]

Facing rising sea levels, extreme weather patterns, and lower crop yields, countries in Southeast Asia are slowly waking up to the impact of climate change. Coastal towns in Vietnam are strengthening their sea walls. Communities in Thailand are replanting degraded mangroves. Forest practices are being overhauled in the Philippines. But economists warn that these reactive efforts don't go far enough to tackle the threat to agrarian-based economies, which face potentially huge losses from failed crops and disaster relief. Far better to invest now, they argue, in adapting to more volatile weather before the full impact crashes through the region.

The end of the line???

2009-03-13T15:06:00.003Z

Rick Warren,in his introduction to the Purpose Driven Church, talks about how surfers will swim out from the beach, spot a wave, ride it in and then swim out again for a new wave. He laments that many churches are single wave organisations and are dying on the spot because of that fact.

After some thought and watching the hits on the blog counter I have decided to look for a new wave because I feel that there are perhaps better outlets for my time and effort.

In a nutshell the blog is not being accessed and so with reluctance I am not going to post any more articles of interest unless there is a great cry of PLEASE.

I suggest that you access the Guardian and Independent newspaper sites for ongoing information.

It is my intention to add a Blog link to the web site of the Glens and Kirriemuir Old --- www.gkopc.co.uk where I will address a variety of issues including Climate Change.

Thanks for visiting this blog.

Is it all a load of PANTS???

2009-02-20T17:32:00.001Z

Sometimes I find myself at a loss in knowing exactly how to respond to Climate Change and what to do or say about it. Maybe it is indeed easiest to bury one’s head in the sand – and sand will be a very common commodity in decades to come. But then I think stuff it and get re-enthused and start off a fresh in my campaign to encourage people to KNOW <> CARE <> ACT.

I had two encouraging e mails recently both saying that folks enjoyed reading the climate change blog and the associated press articles.

I also received one e mail that exposed pants! Did you know that
• there is 18kg of CO2 in a pair of cotton pants
• $2 billion is spent on pesticides for cotton
• less than 1p is actually paid to the cotton grower per pairs of knickers
• 20,000 litres of water is required for 1kg of cotton [that’s partly why the Aral sea dried up]

Have a look at the video about PANTS

http://www.morethanprettyknickers.com/

This past week Cadburys Chocolate has been in the news with dairy herds being accused of belching 60% of the CO2 in a bar of chocolate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/17/cadbury-dairy-milk-

Supermarket packaging was under attack
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/feb/20/recycling-waste-local-government

And the following link is worth looking at and reflecting upon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/feb/20/coal-protest-power-shift

And all the while the Arctic continues to melt in a manner which nobody really seems able to understand or predict.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/18/arctic-ice-melt

SO ………… what have you done this week that might delay catastrophic Climate Change by even one hour???

KNOW <> CARE <> ACT

PLEASE

What do the papers say about Climate Change

2009-02-16T18:57:00.001Z

The Guardian is excellent and has a wealth of resources – articles <> photos <> points to Blogs and so on.

Essential visiting ….. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment

And the Times is just as good and has a similar wealth of resources

Essential visiting … http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/

The Independent is slightly more compact but it too is in the premier league for resources

Essential visiting … http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/

You have to dig in the Telegraph and that is a pity.

Only visit after the first three… http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/

The Daily Mail hides Climate Change in Science and Technology and is not worth the effort

Don’t visit …. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html

The Herald has no overt mention of Climate Change so …

Don’t visit …. http://www.theherald.co.uk/

And equally, don’t waste time with the Scotsman …. parochialism gone mad!

So don’t visit ….. http://www.scotsman.com/

Knowing <> Caring <> Acting

2009-02-16T18:32:00.000Z

The Second Week [and a day] in February 2009

What’s in the Climate Change window? A summary …….. Click the links if you want to read more.

Sunday 8^th

[1] Gordon Brown is not green enough says the chair of the UK Environment Agency as he warns that Government policy will leave us lagging behind the rest of the world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/08/gordon-brown-environment

[2] We are urged not to waste food and to conserve every scrap

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/08/food-waste-environment-gm-crop

[3] James Dyson, the Hoover man, wants us to promote engineering as a career and to focus on environmentally friendly schemes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/08/james-dyson-engineering-britain-railways

[4] President Obama has become to undo some of the Bush Governments anti climate change actions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/06/epa-lisa-jackson-mercury-coal-environment

Monday 9^th

[5] UK homes are to be offered a green make over …. well an eco refit

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/09/eco-homes-refit-

[6] Scientists from across the glove are to meet to warn politicians that they are too timid as far as climate change is concerned

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/09/scientists-summit-

Tuesday 10^th

[7] The Northern Ireland Environment Minister, who is a climate change sceptic caused outrage, but kept his job, after he banned a UK Government add about Climate Change

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/10/climate-change-sceptic-

[8] The Government and Environmentalists are at loggerheads over plans to create a tidal power generator on the River Severn. It will destroy the mud flats, but then will rising sea levels not do that anyway

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/10/severn-barrage-

[9] The apocalyptic Australian Bush Fires are a wake up call both for the nation and global community because they indicate just what will happen when temperatures rise and rainfalls move elsewhere – but then Australia refused to ratify Kyoto on the one hand and cause appalling pollution on the other … read Fred Pearce’s Confessions of an Eco Sinner

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/10/australia-bush-fires

The effect of the fires re CO2 is also highlighted on Saturday 14^th

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/13/carbonemissions-australia

[10] In recent years Spain has built a huge number of wind farms and in recent days has had a huge surge in clean electricity due to very strong winds. The technology is there – we just need the will

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/09/windpower-spain

[11] The Scottish Government claims to have the most ambitious Climate Change legislation in the world – so why is it about to build another Coal Fired Power Station? Can the money not be invested in tidal power???

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/10/waveandtidalpower-

[12] A British firm has developed a removal truck that runs on battery power and will cover up to 150 miles on one charge and takes 45 mins to be 75% recharged. Interested in green motoring, then Google … What Green Car …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/feb/10/transport-

Thursday 12^th

[13] Sir David King brands the Second Iraq War, the first resource war

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/12/king-iraq-resources-war

[14] There is a call for £277 billion pounds to create clean power, insulate homes and create jobs. Well there goes a couple of bankers bonuses!!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/11/stern-climate-change

[15] The Met office are concerned that there should be a balanced debate about Climate Change and are worried about sensationalism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/11/climate-change-misleading-claims

[16] Relationships between the USA and China took a step in the right direction as far as tackling Climate Change is concerned

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/11/network-us-china-climate-change

This was also addressed on Saturday http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/14/hillary-clinton-china-climate

[17] B&Q have built a new store that harvests green technology

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/11/kingfisher-builds-green-store

[18] The potential to carbon neutralise ordinary homes is revealed and we are encouraged to visit www.sustainable-energyacademy.org.uk/ for more information

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/12/eco-homes-energy-efficiency

Saturday 14^th

[19] There is a call for environmentalism to become part of mature political debate

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/14/activism-green-politics

[20] The complications of water consumption are under the spotlight, especially where the water has to be pumped electrically. People are urged to save water!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/13/network-water-efficiency-climate-change

[21] Looking ahead a number of decades extreme concern has been expressed about the effects of rising sea levels on transportation and communication routes – many of which will be submerged. Action must be taken now to plan for such an eventuality argues the Institute of Mechanical Engineers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/13/climate-change

Sunday 15^th

[22] Did you hear about the Irishman who said that Climate Change was NOT man made and that publicity about it was “New Labour Propaganda”? Oh well ………

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/13/sammy-wilson-northern-ireland

[23] On coal, coal and more coal …………

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/15/carbon-capture-emissions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/15/james-hansen-power-plants-coal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/15/carbon-capture-coal-energy

Monday 16^th

[24] There is very real concern that rising temperatures and drought will dry out tropical forests and leave them vulnerable to fires similar to the one that has caused such damage in Australia

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/16/chris-field-wildfires-

[25] Global Warming is warming the oceans and causing dramatic changes in the distribution and diversity of food sources for animals higher up the food chain … just watch a polar bear trying to catch seals in the ice free Arctic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/15/climate-change-

[26] And just because it is cold does not mean that Climate Change has gone away …. ask the Australians!!!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/16/climate-change-global-temperatures-january

And there you have a taste of what is in the media in the past week about Climate Change.

Do you KNOW …. Do you CARE …. Will you ACT?

A Spiritual Response

2009-02-04T17:04:00.000Z

It's all doom and gloom. The headlines tell it all. "British economy in recession". "No growth expected for 12 months". "Recession to get worse". "Deep in the mire of recession". So opinion shakers and movers from politicians to stockmarket traders take fright, share prices plunge, pensions plunge, spending dips, our charity giving may come under pressure, recession gets worse. But does the way recession is defined mean that we talk ourselves into something because of unrealistic expectations?

Recession, as decreed by the authorities, is defined as negative growth in a country's national income (gross domestic product) for two consecutive quarters of the year, six months in all. In other words, a country produces less in these months than it did in the months before. No matter that an economy may have been growing by say 3%; if it registers a fall in growth of 0.1% it is in recession. Doom and gloom all around.

But what right have we to expect economic growth to just keep on going up? There is a lot of talk about sustainability. Sustainable growth, sustainable output, sustainable development - these are the buzz terms. If we are to take sustainability seriously then in a world of finite resources we surely need to live within the limits of our resources, not to expect that economic growth will rise all the time. That's just greedy.

Time to revisit John Taylor's classic work Enough is Enough, and to look at recession from a wider perspective. In this book Taylor develops the theology of enough. The dream of the Biblical Hebrew people, he points out, is summed up in the word shalom, "something much broader than peace, the harmony of a caring community, informed at every point by its awareness of God".

"At every point" is a key phrase. It speaks of a "wholeness that is complete because every aspect of life is included", says Taylor. Economically and socially, the dream of shalom finds expression in the theology of enough, he adds: "There are many reference in the Old Testament to covetousness and greed ... ordinary covetousness is simply a persistent longing for something that isn't yours."

In the New Testament, a word that is commonly translated as covetousness, pleonexia, means excess or wanting more and more, says Bishop Taylor. Mark's gospel speaks of greed as an evil which makes a person unclean. In Colossians, Paul urges that greed be "put to death". He warns in Ephesians that no greedy person "has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God".

Other writers and theologians have taken up the theology of enough. For example, Michael Schut, the author of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, says it "allows us to move away from worshipping the gods of consumption and material need. In living out a theology of enough we will no longer expend our physical resources in consumption and our emotional resources in worrying over status."

The theology of enough has implications for jobs. Employment in industries that make goods that go well beyond "enough" may fall. But encouragement from government could stimulate more jobs in industries that make socially useful products - green technologies, for example. It is surely time to embrace a way of life which elevates socially useful products rather than one based on the expectation of more and more across-the-board economic growth.

In such a world we would take it in our stride when the economy grows by 1% this quarter and falls by 1% in the next. Politicians and the public would stop giving ourselves such a hard time about it. We would see sustainability as meaning a steady but changing economy.

The stockmarket might learn to accept that as normal, instead of having a nervous breakdown. It might even stop reacting in a way that makes things worse. We all stand to gain from a change in the way that we view recession. And accepting that enough is enough might, into the bargain, allow us to reduce our carbon emissions.

• John Madeley is an economic journalist and former lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England

Global Weather .... Global Warming ... Climate Change

2009-02-04T17:03:00.001Z

The past week has seen a north-south divide on a global scale. While cold and snow have held parts of the northern hemisphere in their thrall, drought and record-breaking heat are gripping some southern regions.

In Europe, Britain is not shivering alone. Periods of heavy snow last week in Austria, Slovenia and Hungary caused power cuts over large areas and caused some roads to collapse. The US was even more badly affected: a storm developed over Texas and the southern plains states and moved east and north, bringing snow and ice storms all the way to the north-east US and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Major snow and ice accumulations left over a million people without power.

Australia, meanwhile, was sweltering in its worst heat wave in decades. On Wednesday, the city of Adelaide, South Australia, recorded a maximum temperature of 45.6C, its highest for 70 years. Neighbouring Victoria had its hottest few days since 1908, and the Tasmanian town of Scamander reached a record high of 42.2C on Friday.

Persistent drought in Argentina prompted its government to declare an agricultural emergency last week. Rainfall has been below average since March, particularly around the Pampas region, where conditions are not dissimilar to those of the Dust Bowl of 1930s America. Meanwhile, heavy rain from Thursday onwards brought floods to southern Brazil.

A sign of things of things but will people stay, fry and die or will they migrate

2009-02-03T17:18:00.003Z

Parched: Australia faces collapse as climate change kicks in

Leaves are falling off trees in the height of summer, railway tracks are buckling, and people are retiring to their beds with deep-frozen hot-water bottles, as much of Australia swelters in its worst-ever heatwave.

On Friday, Melbourne thermometers topped 43C (109.4F) on a third successive day for the first time on record, while even normally mild Tasmania suffered its second-hottest day in a row, as temperatures reached 42.2C. Two days before, Adelaide hit a staggering 45.6C. After a weekend respite, more records are expected to be broken this week.

Ministers are blaming the heat – which follows a record drought – on global warming. Experts worry that Australia, which emits more carbon dioxide per head than any nation on earth, may also be the first to implode under the impact of climate change.

At times last week it seemed as if that was happening already. Chaos ruled in Melbourne on Friday after an electricity substation exploded, shutting down the city's entire train service, trapping people in lifts, and blocking roads as traffic lights failed. Half a million homes and businesses were blacked out, and patients were turned away from hospitals.

More than 20 people have died from the heat, mainly in Adelaide. Trees in Melbourne's parks are dropping leaves to survive, and residents at one of the city's nursing homes have started putting their clothes in the freezer. "All of this is consistent with climate change, and with what scientists told us would happen," said climate change minister Penny Wong.

Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth, is regarded as highly vulnerable. A study by the country's blue-chip Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation identified its ecosystems as "potentially the most fragile" on earth in the face of the threat.

Many factors put Australia especially at risk. Its climate is already hot, dry and variable. Its vulnerable agriculture plays an unusually important part in the economy. And most people and industry are concentrated on the coast, making it vulnerable to the rising seas and ferocious storms that come with a warmer world.

Most of the south of the country is gripped by unprecedented 12-year drought. The Australian Alps have had their driest three years ever, and the water from the vast Murray-Darling river system now fails to reach the sea 40 per cent of the time. Harvests have fallen sharply.

It will get worse as global warming increases. Even modest temperature rises, now seen as unavoidable, are expected to increase drought by 70 per cent in New South Wales, cut Melbourne's water supplies by more than a third, and dry up the Murray-Darling system by another 25 per cent.

As Professor David Karoly, of the University of Melbourne, said last week: "The heat is unusual, but it will become much more like the normal experience in 10 to 20 years."

If you are in doubt --- read on ............

2009-01-27T17:00:00.003Z

"Tipping point"

As Barack Obama becomes the 44th president, one of his toughest challenges is also his greatest opportunity. The global environment is rapidly reaching a tipping point, much like our global economy. Once it passes that point, it will be all the more difficult to pull it back to stability. Our Earth is being altered to the point where it cannot sustain much of the life that has thrived for millennia; species extinctions today are occurring at an estimated 1,000 times the normal rate. When our landscapes, rivers and coral reefs can no longer sustain robust species populations, humans are also in trouble. People depend on healthy ecosystems for the very fundamentals of survival: clean air, fresh water, soil regeneration, crop pollination and other resources that we often take for granted until they are scarce or gone.

Just as the current financial crisis reveals how the world's economies are interconnected, we also must recognise the fundamental links between human well-being and Earth's ecosystems. When we abuse and degrade the natural world, it affects our health, our social stability and our wallets.

Natural capital

How great is the challenge? Well, today, 25% of wild marine fisheries are over-exploited, while another 50% are highly degraded.

West African fisheries have declined by 80% since the 1990s, resulting in thousands of fishermen searching for jobs in Europe.
When the Newfoundland cod fisheries collapsed in the early 1990s as a result of overfishing, it meant the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and cost $2bn (£1.4bn) in income support and retraining.
Tropical deforestation and land degradation contributes more global greenhouse gas emissions than all the world's cars, trucks, planes and trains combined.
What is lost in Indonesia or the Amazon affects the climate in New York, Paris and Sydney.
More than a billion people lack access to safe drinking water. In the poorest countries, one in five children dies from a preventable water-related disease.
This is a crisis that is worsening as ecosystems are damaged, increasing droughts and floods.
Mismanagement and corruption tied to natural resource exploitation have fuelled violent conflict in many countries including Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Violence linked to natural resource loss and degradation has led to unimaginable human suffering in such places as Darfur.
Tensions in the Middle East are fed by conflict over water and oil, as well as religion and politics.

Under pressure

Now, climate change exacerbates the threats posed by over-consumption, pollution and habitat destruction. We are already witnessing rising oceans, spreading disease, reduced freshwater sources and myriad other serious threats. Recent studies show half of the world's population could face a climate-induced food crisis by the end of this century. Yet as overwhelming as the global environmental crisis has become, it offers some of today's greatest opportunities. First, we must make conservation of nature a core principle of development; they cannot be separated. Often an unintended consequence of development projects is the depletion or degradation of natural systems. We must recognise the value of nature and invest to protect it.

Ecosystem destruction costs our global economy at least $2 trillion (£1.4 trillion) every year. That is the value forests provide by storing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, cleansing fresh water supplies, and preventing soil erosion. It includes the value oceans and coral reefs provide in food security for millions who rely on fisheries as their primary source of protein. Overall, global ecosystems services have been assessed to be worth as much as $33 trillion (£22.6 trillion) a year. Every home owner understands that restoring and replacing a plumbing system, or a heating unit, is far more expensive than taking care of the system properly. Well, the same is true for nature's ecosystems. Restoring a forest costs 10 times as much as maintaining what we have. Building a reservoir and filtration system is far more expensive than preserving the intact forest systems that naturally filter and cleanse our drinking water.

Traditional measures of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) do not reflect changes in the quality and quantity of a nation's natural assets. Imagine measuring your personal financial condition without factoring in a dramatic and ongoing decline in your assets.

The world needs US leadership to begin honestly accounting for the state our natural assets. The Obama administration can bring these issues into the mainstream during this critical time of reorienting the US's national priorities. Initiatives to advance natural resource conservation in other countries have typically lacked strong political support and received only a small fraction of the total resources dedicated to international engagement. Mr Obama and his team should fully integrate and fund ecosystem conservation priorities within US national security considerations, as well as foreign policy and development assistance. By helping restore and protect developing nations' natural heritage throughout the world, the US will strengthen the bonds of friendship and trust through sustainable collaborations. The stakes are high, and the benefits of bringing ecosystem conservation to the forefront of our foreign policy will be enormous.

As 2009 begins, we face a new era of unprecedented global economic, health and security challenges. Confronting these challenges requires a bold new commitment to protect our most valuable joint asset - planet Earth.

Peter A Seligmann is chairman and chief executive of US NGO Conservation International

The week ending 24 Jan

2009-01-27T14:56:00.000Z

Those of you who subscribe to Climate Change alerts will know that they come in think and fast.

In the past few days there have been warnings that most of the planet’s Glaciers will disappear by the middle of the century and quite apart from all the other implications of their disappearance, the key issue will be for all who rely on them as sources of drinking water.

The implications of the lack of water can only mean climate change refuges as people migrate [millions of people – maybe even billions] in search of water. South America and the countries [India and China] dependent on the Himalaya glaciers being most badly affected.

There are growing concerns about energy security which all add up to one central theme – energy independence and the need for our governments [Scottish and British] to set politics aside and act now.

Tony Blair is urging government leaders not to let the current economic crisis divert from Climate Change initiatives.

Hi tec detector vans are checking on the thermal efficiency of houses.

The world watches and waits as President Obama begins to paint America green. In early statements he has announced measures at curtailing America’s greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the US consumption of imported oil – pity about imported, should be oil, full stop!!!

The UK government believes that off shore wind power could meet the total UK electricity need by 2020.

Former London mayor, Ken Livinsgtone, has attacked the Labour Government record on Climate Change and in particular the third runway at Heathrow. Maybe it is time to do the unthinkable and vote Tory!!!

There are warnings that Climate Change may be irreversible, but maybe we can mitigate the effects???

There is concern that Emperor Penguins are heading towards extinction – just them???

And one for the sceptics from the Independent of 23 January 2009

2009-01-23T15:37:00.001Z

The cable news network CNN has sacked its science team, and one of the consequences has been a number of embarrassing programmes about how the exceptionally cold weather in North America this winter contradicts global warming and supports the idea that we are actually due for or a period of global cooling, if not a full-blown ice age.

"And tonight, last year, one of the coldest years in American history. Is it evidence that global warming is being overstated? Or are we headed toward a new ice age? Or none of the above. We'll be joined by three of the world's leading authorities on climate change and physics," said CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs before being joined by some of the best-known climate sceptics in American history.

There is of course a heap of difference between weather and climate, and no scientist worth his or her research grant would dare to suggest that any one bout of extreme weather is the result of climate change, unless it was so extreme and prolonged that it bounces out of the statistical ballpark of natural variability – which is what happened with the hot summer of 2003 in France and Italy.

But a recurring theme among climate sceptics is that there is a genuine division of opinion among mainstream scientists over the reality or otherwise of climate change. Anyone listening to Radio 3's otherwise erudite Nightwaves last Tuesday night, for instance, would have heard a scholarly voice stating that scientists disagree over climate change, with some believing we are about to enter another ice age.

Well it depends what you mean by "about to". In another 10,000 years or so, another ice age may be upon us, as a result of longer-term cycles such as the way the Earth tilts, rather than atmospheric changes. But in the meantime we will have to cope with a predicted rise of between 2C and 6C by 2100 – the same sort of temperature difference between now and the last ice age. We are indeed heading for another ice age, but the question is whether we can survive an intervening period of possibly intense global warming.

Suggesting that there is a division of opinion among experts is a tried-and-trusted method of questioning the orthodoxy. It was done for the discredited idea that HIV doe not cause Aids, and has been practised by creationists to undermine Darwinist evolution.

For the record, there is little division among experts over global warming. Peter Doran of the University of Illinois in Chicago has published a study in Eos showing that 97 per cent of scientists engaged in climate research believe human activity has played a role in the increase in average global temperatures over the past 200 years. That's a pretty convincing consensus.

Two reports to read

2009-01-18T22:41:00.003Z

A major part of the ethos of this site is to impart knowledge about climate change .... what you then do with that knowledge is between you, your conscience, your children and your grandchildren.

I encourage you to visit the following two sites ...

www.withouthotair.com

www.climatesafety.org

Malc

A bleak outlook

2009-01-18T14:56:00.002Z

Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. Crucially, that action will have to be taken within Obama's first administration, he added.

Soaring carbon emissions are already causing ice-cap melting and threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major disruptions of weather patterns in the near future. "We cannot afford to put off change any longer," said Hansen. "We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead."

Hansen said current carbon levels in the atmosphere were already too high to prevent runaway greenhouse warming. Yet the levels are still rising despite all the efforts of politicians and scientists.

Only the US now had the political muscle to lead the world and halt the rise, Hansen said. Having refused to recognise that global warming posed any risk at all over the past eight years, the US now had to take a lead as the world's greatest carbon emitter and the planet's largest economy. Cap-and-trade schemes, in which emission permits are bought and sold, have failed, he said, and must now be replaced by a carbon tax that will imposed on all producers of fossil fuels. At the same time, there must be a moratorium on new power plants that burn coal - the world's worst carbon emitter.

Hansen - head of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies and winner of the WWF's top conservation award - first warned Earth was in danger from climate change in 1988 and has been the victim of several unsuccessful attempts by the White House administration of George Bush to silence his views.

Hansen's institute monitors temperature fluctuations at thousands of sites round the world, data that has led him to conclude that most estimates of sea level rises triggered by rising atmospheric temperatures are too low and too conservative. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says a rise of between 20cm and 60cm can be expected by the end of the century.

However, Hansen said feedbacks in the climate system are already accelerating ice melt and are threatening to lead to the collapse of ice sheets. Sea-level rises will therefore be far greater - a claim backed last week by a group of British, Danish and Finnish scientists who said studies of past variations in climate indicate that a far more likely figure for sea-level rise will be about 1.4 metres, enough to cause devastating flooding of many of the world's major cities and of low-lying areas of Holland, Bangladesh and other nations.

As a result of his fears about sea-level rise, Hansen said he had pressed both Britain's Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences to carry out an urgent investigation of the state of the planet's ice-caps. However, nothing had come of his proposals. The first task of Obama's new climate office should therefore be to order such a probe "as a matter of urgency", Hansen added.

Of course maybe the real point about the above article from the Observer of 18 January is not that one man has 4 years but that the human race has four years to work together to address Climate Change .... so what are you going to do in the next four years that will make a difference???

WWF Earth Hour

2009-01-15T17:09:00.001Z

It’s as simple as the flick of a switch.

On Saturday 28 March 2009 at 8.30pm, people, businesses and iconic buildings around the world will switch off their lights for an hour – WWF’s Earth Hour.

WWF want a billion people around the world to sign up and switch off their lights for one hour.

They invite you to Sign up to show that you care about people, wildlife and the planet, and that you want the world’s leaders to take action to tackle climate change.

Maybe even switch off the Computer for one hour ... certainly worth promoting

WWF and Climate Change

2009-01-15T17:07:00.000Z

WWF works to create solutions to the most serious environmental problems facing our planet, so that people and nature can thrive.

Climate change is the biggest threat of all. The consequences of changing weather patterns, warming seas and melting ice are devastating people and nature.

We’re already seeing its impacts – from melting Arctic sea ice to flooding and droughts. So we must take urgent global action if we are to safeguard the natural world.

Staying below 2°C
The scientists agree. Average global temperatures must remain less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, or we face irreversible and devastating changes in the planet’s natural systems. WWF seeks cuts in emissions at the UK, EU and global level that will prevent this.

Although significant impacts will occur with average global temperature increases of less than 2°C, once we go above this threshold there will be increasingly severe consequences for people and nature, with the most vulnerable communities and species being hit first and hardest.

We also face rapidly increasing risks of passing a number of ‘tipping points’ – events which lead to sudden and increasingly large changes.

It is possible
Leading research – including WWF’s 2007 Climate Solutions report – shows that it is still possible to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by measures such as rapid development of clean energy production (which would address some 65% of global emissions) and stopping tropical deforestation (addressing around 20% of emissions).

With climate programmes in many key countries – such as the EU, China, India, Japan, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Australia and the US – the WWF global network is well placed to work on this agenda.

Help us achieve a global deal
In December 2009, governments will be gathering at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. At the summit, it is vital that we get an effective international agreement – a global deal – to tackle climate change.

WWF’s Earth Hour 2009 marks the launch of our global deal campaign. WWF will use all our influence, resources and leadership to make sure the global deal is as effective as possible.

Please join us and show world leaders that you care.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment

2009-01-13T14:30:00.002Z

I had a look at today's Guardian web site's section on the environment.

The top story is all about the proposed third runway at Heathrow which I think might not open until 2020. The world is going to change an awful lot before then!!!

Home Turbines are under attack as hopelessly inefficient if in the wrong place. They can recoup energy production costs after 2 years if in the right place or up to 40 years if in the wrong position. In other words they need wind to work!!!

In Spain travellers are turning to the railway instead of flying.

The whole issue of the earth in balance has been illustrated by errant attempts at wildlife management on the sub Antarctic island of Macquarie. Way back cats were introduced to kill rats and mice who were destroying the native bird population. When the rats and mice went the cats turned to rabbits and when the rabbits went the cats turned to birds!!! The cats were killed [the last in 2000] and the rabbits came back in abundance and recently their burrowing caused a landslide that killed a large penguin breeding colony. There are now plans to kill all the rabbits and all the rats and mice that have returned post feline rule.

Finally there is a long tirade against Aga cookers that is generating much heat!!!

Congratulations

2009-01-12T18:52:00.002Z

Congratulations to the Community of Arran Seabed Trust. COAST is a voluntary, not for profit community group which was set up in an attempt to redress the loss of marine life around the island of Arran. It is composed mainly of islanders but has members alll over the world.

In June of 2008, as part of the Observers Ethical Awards, singer Annie Lennox presented the award for Conservation Project of the Year to the group of retired islanders who had set up the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST).

By September COAST had persuaded the Scottish government to create Scotland's first-ever No-Take Zone in Lamlash Bay on the Isle of Arran - decisive action that positively changes the outlook for future generations of fish and islanders.

What can we do in our local communities???

There is hope!!!

2009-01-12T17:31:00.002Z

In the world's largest offshore wind farm the blades stretch as high as the London Eye, and even in a gentle wind turn at 200mph. Quite something, when you're right underneath, says Patrick Barkham in The Guardian on Thursday 8 January [Click to read]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/08/wind-power

It was a brilliant sunny day last summer when I first saw the world's largest offshore wind farm on the horizon. I was on the sand dunes at Holkham in north Norfolk when the sky cleared and suddenly, in the far distance, stood dozens of turbines.

This, it turned out, was a brand new wind farm, Lynn and Inner Dowsing, in the shallow waters of the Wash, just off the coast of Lincolnshire. Completed on time and on budget last year, its 54 turbines have a capacity of 194MW, enough to power 130,000 homes.

Britain is now the world's leading generator of offshore wind power, recently overtaking Denmark (other countries have greater onshore capacity). The power generated by offshore wind is still relatively modest but its potential is enormous. Turbines are quadrupling in size, vastly increasing their efficiency and the power they can harvest. And Britain is the windiest country in Europe, its west coast in particular buffeted by punchy, energy-giving winds.

Wind and tide power along with solar and ground heat exchange must be the way ahead ... Scotland should be leading the way in wind and tide research and application ... but are we???

The view from ... hell ... I mean Shell

2009-01-12T17:26:00.001Z

In the latest of his groundbreaking encounters with the figures whose decisions shape our environment, George Monbiot challenges Jeroen van de Veer, chief executive of oil and gas giant Shell, on ethics, greenwash advertising, renewable energy investments and gas-flaring in Nigeria

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jan/06/george-monbiot-

Click the link and watch -- I was not impressed were you???

95 months left!!!

2009-01-12T17:20:00.004Z

This article is by Andrew Simms and was published in the Guardian on January 1. I let it sit without comment or question ......

From today, based on the best estimates available, we have eight years to head-off potentially uncontrollable climatic upheaval. What can happen in eight years? Quite a lot, actually. A world war can begin, and end. Two, in fact.

Last month there was a lacklustre meeting on climate change in Poznan, Poland. It was talks about more talks set to come later this year in Copenhagen. But that's all it was, talks. Now, on New Year's Day, hangovers and environmental ennui could prove a lethal combination. But squeeze those eyes open to 2009, and history tells us great things are possible. We are still in control. We just need to build, rapidly, new energy and transport systems and change our behaviour.

Only, we seem to have forgotten what we are capable of.

Victorian engineers would have been aghast at our timidity. Within our 8 year time frame, for example, between 1845 and 1852 there were 4,400 miles of railway track laid in Britain.

Today we desperately need to get people out of their cars and on to cleaner transport. But, after a decade of work and around £9bn spent just to upgrade the west coast mainline, it still didn't work properly when "opened" last month.

Skip back to a weekend in1892. By contemporary standards, engineers began a project of breathtaking ambition on the morning of Saturday May 21, and they finished it by 4am on the following Monday morning, May 23. In just those two days a small, perfectly coordinated army of 4,200 workers, laid a total of 177 miles of track along the Great Western route to the south west, converting the old broad gauge lines to the new standard, or narrow gauge.

As Barack Obama waits in the wings to assume the presidency, he must be acutely conscious of the other great, if short-lived, American new dawn that began in 1961 when John F Kennedy became President.

In the first few months of Kennedy's term of office, he announced his nation's intention to put a man on the moon. As fantastic and, literally, other worldly as that must have seemed at the time, only eight years later, in July 1969, the US achieved its goal. By the time that the moon missions were over in 1973, an estimated $20bn dollars had been spent.

For a meaningful comparison of what that would represent today you need to look at it as a relative share of GDP. That brings the modern equivalent figure to a substantial $200bn. It's big. But considering the iconic nature of the project, the virtually standing start it had, and the speed of accomplishment, it looks rather affordable now, compared with the sums thrown at the banking crisis. And, of course, they could say, "Hey, we put a man on the Moon." With the trillions thrown at the financial crisis it can, at best, be said, "Hey, it could've been worse."

The Apollo programme was money spent for a handful of men to become the only people in history to set foot on another celestial body. Now, what price is it worth paying to preserve for the whole of humanity the conditions under which civilisation emerged? In America they are indeed invoking the Apollo programme as a precedent for the overdue climate-response.

There are inverted, negative examples, too, of our ability to mobilise resources. According to Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz the Iraq war has cost the US around $3tn. The war has been going for just under six years, has made an enormous mess, and is far from over.

An increasing number of voices in the climate change debate are beginning to express despair. Among them are concerned, informed and well-motivated scientists and journalists. Fair enough. Comparing the emerging trends on greenhouse gas emissions with the past track record of achievements in energy conservation, increased efficiency, and the introduction of renewable energy options provides little encouragement.

But that is to look in the wrong place for hope. The beginnings of the great transition are already visible in the 1,000 flowers blooming as green energy projects at the local level. But, the clean energy shift has, until now, been nowhere a political priority on the scale of war or the Apollo programme. Neither has it had the wild ambition that the architects of empire brought to building their new infrastructure. The eight years we now have left is time enough if this kind of boldness and vision can be wrestled towards solving the climate predicament. If we build it, they will come, and the great transition will run on time. Happy New Year.

From rhetoric to action!

2009-01-12T16:52:00.004Z

On 2 January one of the world's top climate scientists wrote a personal new year appeal to Barack and Michelle Obama warning of the "profound disconnect" between public policy on climate change and the magnitude of the problem.

Professor Jim Hansen, who heads Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, praised Obama's campaign rhetoric about a "planet in peril", but says that how the new president acts in office will be crucial.

Hansen lambastes the current international approach of setting targets through "cap and trade" schemes as not up to the task. "This approach is ineffectual and not commensurate with the climate threat. It could waste another decade, locking in disastrous consequences for our planet and humanity."

I suppose the key test will be whether or not the President will get the support of the public when he proposes measures that will restrict the "American way of life". I wonder what the US Churches will say ~ I wonder what the UK Churches will say when measures have similar effects here?

The view from January 2009

2009-01-11T20:20:00.003Z

Providing a succinct overview of the progress of, and response to, Climate Change is very difficult. The great unwashed remain stoically ignorant or apathetic ... wait until the water runs out or pours and pours!

The trouble with Climate Change is that it is a creeping condition ... well maybe now crawling!

However if you think back even two years, there is now much greater lip service being paid to it by politicians and the media and in some cases [George Monbiot for example - go the Guardian Website and watch his interview with the head of Shell] real campaigning action. Indeed maybe even our own Scottish Government should be praised for their stewardship of the Climate Change Scotland Bill through the shining alley ways of the Scottish Parliament. Of course the test will be when fine rhetoric and great ideals actually have to hit the road and become policies that demand action.

And of course scientists who know are now united in their cries of concern.

Whatever, my view is that more and more and more is appearing in print, on TV and on Computers about Climate Change and hopefully with the uinuguration of President Elect Barack Obama in a few days time a very real sea change in global political attitudes.

Sea change ... wouldn't it be great to see some real change.

2009-01-11T20:04:00.001Z

Hi folks, the blog kind of lost its way in the Autumn but an Achilles Tendon injury and an enforced 6 to 8 weeks rest mean only one thing ...

THE BLOG IS BACK

Malc

xx