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Archive for December, 2010
Brazil: Q&A: “This Time There Will Be No Noah’s Ark”
Posted by Inter Press Service: Daniela Pastrana on December 28th, 2010
Inter Press Service: "The market is not going to resolve the environmental crisis," says theologian and environmentalist Leonardo Boff, professor at Brazil's State University of Rio de Janeiro. The solution, he says, lies in ethics and in changing our relationship with nature.
Boff, who teaches ethics, philosophy of religion and ecology, is one of the leading figures of Liberation Theology, a progressive current in the Latin American Catholic Church. He has written more than 60 books and has dedicated the last 20...
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Climate Patterns to Help Predict the Next Big Flood?
Posted by National Geographic: Richard A. Lovett on December 28th, 2010
National Geographic: This article is part of a special National Geographic News series about the global water crisis.
Large flooding events, like the deadly Pakistan flood last summer, will be predictable with the next generation of climate-forecasting models, according to scientists.
Flood risk can be predicted by studying climate patterns, Columbia University hydroclimatologist Upmanu Lall said this month at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference in San Francisco.
According to Lall, climate scientists...
CSIRO says climate is warming despite recent weather
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 28th, 2010
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Snow storms in the northern hemisphere and torrential rainfall in parts of drought stricken Australia could have you wondering whether there's been a permanent shift in average temperatures.
According to the CSIRO, the recent extreme weather in both northern and southern hemispheres reflect short-term variability's in climate.
Barrie Hunt, an Honorary Research Fellow with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research , says periodic short-term cooling in global temperatures should not be misinterpreted...
Satellite data reveals fires in region plagued by illegal logging in Madagascar
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Mongabay: New satellite data reveals active burning in Sava, a region in Madagascar that has been ravaged by illegal logging for rosewood and other valuable rainforest timber.
According to data provided by the Fire Alert System, a joint monitoring program run by NASA, Conservation International and the University of Maryland, more than 1,100 fires have burned in Andapa, Antalaha, Sambava, and Vohimarina--districts where the bulk of Madagascar's illegal logging is taking place--since October 1. Roughly a...
Sacrificing the Rainforest on the Altar of Energy
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Inter Press Service: The construction of five hydroelectric dams in Peru as part of an energy deal with Brazil will do considerable damage to the environment, such as the destruction of nearly 1.5 million hectares of jungle over the next 20 years, according to an independent study.
More than 1,000 km of roads will have to be carved out of primary and secondary forests to build the dams and power plants and put up power lines, says the report, carried out by engineer José Serra for ProNaturaleza, a leading conservation...
Liquid gas expands to fill Britain’s energy gap
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Guardian: On a freezing morning, Simon Fairman, manager of National Grid's Isle of Grain liquified natural gas terminal, greets a blue-faced engineer in a control room. The engineer had just come inside after a morning checking nuts and bolts on the windswept new jetty which opened for business at the start of this month. Protruding some 300 metres into the murky River Medway, the jetty can accommodate tankers the size of aircraft carriers to offload their precious cargo of supercooled liquid gas.
The timely...
Of climate change and water conservation
Posted by News Day: PETER MAKWANYA on December 27th, 2010
News Day: From the complex and intricate discourse of carbon emissions and their subsequent cuts, reductions, compliance or simply taking no action at all, to the palliative and massaging of Cancun, where wishes, as usual failed to become horses, climate change issues will remain skeletons in our cupboards for some time.
In fact, just like our shadows, it will continue to mimic its presence. We are together with climate change.
Besides the issue of our desperate attempt to control emissions or imagining...
Unnatural disasters
Posted by Cosmos: None Given on December 27th, 2010
Cosmos: On the night of 13 December 1991, a group of climbers had gathered in a hut on New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook, in preparation for an attempt on the summit. The ascent would mean risking their lives, but that threat was nothing compared with what was about to come. Shortly after midnight, 12 million cubic metres of rock and ice crumbled from the peak and roared down the east face of the mountain, travelling at over 200 km per hour for more than seven kilometres before plunging to the valley...
Climate change: the black, white and grey in the science
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 27th, 2010
Sydney Morning Herald: The rains have come but that is not a reason to ignore the scientific evidence on climate change. The US National Climatic Data Centre issued figures for the year to the end of October that indicate global average surface temperatures for 2010 are heading for one of the warmest years on record. Climate change is about trends that operate on time scales longer than that of individual human memory.
Ever since it became apparent the atmosphere was warming, people have been questioning the evidence...
Asian Megacities Threatened By Climate Change
Posted by World Bank: None Given on December 27th, 2010
World Bank: Asia's coastal megacities will flood more often, on a larger scale, and affect millions more people, if current climate change trends continue, a new report warns.
The report Climate Risks and Adaptation in Asian Coastal Megacities examines the impact of climate change on Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila, under a range of different scenarios through to 2050. The report is the product of a two-year collaborative study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Japan International Cooperation...