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Archive for March, 2014
Heatwaves hurt disadvantaged Australians hardest
Posted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Greg Foyster on March 31st, 2014
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: SIXTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD Bill McKenzie stands in the corridor on the eighth floor of the government housing complex where he lives, pointing accusingly at a thermometer fastened to the wall. He explains that at 4pm on January 17, as Melbourne sweltered through one of south-east Australia's worst heatwaves, the thermometer read 43 degrees — hotter than it was outside. A short, wiry man with a shaved head, McKenzie is wearing a brown long-sleeved T-shirt, reading glasses strung around his neck. In his apartment,...
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Chart: Climate change means we need to cut back three-quarters of our meat and dairy consumption
Posted by Business Insider: Chris Pash on March 31st, 2014
Business Insider: Greenhouse gas emissions from food production may threaten the UN climate target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, according to new research The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is due to present its latest report on the impacts of climate change today. Carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and transportation sectors currently account for the largest share of climate pollution but the new study shows that eliminating these emissions would not guarantee...
UN warns world unprepared risk from climate change
Posted by Deutsche Welle: None Given on March 31st, 2014
Deutsche Welle: The UN's expert group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published the second part of its broader Fifth Assessment Report on Monday, containing updated climate forecasts and a stronger warning to governments. It assesses the impacts of climate change, and how vulnerable and adaptable human and natural systems are to it.
The latest report warns that rising carbon emissions will increase the risk of conflict, hunger, floods and migration. The impact of climate change, the IPCC...
Think new climate report is scary? The food-pocalypse is already upon us
Posted by Guardian: Richard Schiffman on March 31st, 2014
Guardian: The mother of all climate reports is so scary that one of its authors resigned from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in protest. "Farmers are not stupid," the Sussex University economist Richard Tol said this past week, as hundreds of researchers cloistered away in Yokohama, Japan, hammering out the final wording of a document that he called "alarmist" when it comes to the many threats of global warming. The people who grow our food will find ways to adapt, said the rogue climate...
Climate change: UK faces ‘more extreme events and floods’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Telegraph: Jim Hall, a Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, has come out in support the IPCC's climate change report. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that flooding, droughts, heat waves and wildfires will pose a massive threat to humans in the future as climate change worsens. Professor Hall said that the UK will see increasing temperatures and more extreme events. "What we've seen this winter is consistent...
UN report on climate change rings alarm on warming polar regions
Posted by Toronto Star: Raveena Aulakh on March 31st, 2014
Toronto Star: The world is warming up and the impact of climate change is already being seen across the globe, an authoritative new UN climate report says.
But in this part of the world, which is barely out of the clutches of a long and wicked winter, the report sounds like a conundrum.
Make no mistake, the world is warming up, especially the Arctic, said John Stone, an IPCC lead author and adjunct professor at Carleton University.
“What we have experienced this winter is just weather,” said Stone. “It...
Climate-hit fisheries ‘can still meet demand in 2050’
Posted by SciDevNet: None Given on March 31st, 2014
SciDevNet: Fish catches will need to increase by only 3.4 per cent to meet global dietary demand in 2050, according to a study predicting how climate change will affect marine ecosystems.
The authors warn that achieving this will require the wider implementation of sustainable harvesting, such as technological developments to reduce dependence on wild stock for farmed fish feed, and more-effective distribution of wild fish products from regions with a surplus to those with a deficit.
This means that changes...
Costs of climate change steep but tough to tally
Posted by Associated Press: Elaine Kurtenbach on March 31st, 2014
Associated Press: The economic and financial impact of global warming is complex and not well understood. In some scenarios there would be economic benefits for countries that get warmer and wetter and consequently more fertile agriculturally. Drier weather in some regions would result in sharply lower crop yields.
Overall, changes in climate are expected to cause significant disruptions that also exact an economic toll. Advisers to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that the world economy may suffer...
Climate change report ‘should jolt people into action’ says IPCC chief
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Guardian: The head of the United Nations climate panel said he hoped its report on the rising threat of climate change would “jolt people into action”.
The report, released on Monday, is a 2,600-page catalogue of the risks to life and livelihood from climate change – now and in the future.
Rajendra Pachauri, who has headed the IPCC for 12 years, said he hoped it would push government leaders to deal with climate change before it is too late.
“I hope these facts will - for want of a better word - jolt...
To Fight Climate Change, Eat Less Meat
Posted by Atlantic Cities: None Given on March 31st, 2014
Atlantic Cities: Serious about battling climate change? Then you might want to consider going vegetarian. That's because it's looking like world temperatures will continue to climb unless people stop chowing on so much meat and dairy, according to new research from Sweden.
The United Nations believes it's imperative to keep future warming from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To meet that target, there will have to be a sharp decrease in greenhouse-gas emissions by the end of the...