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Kids For A Cool Climate
| Climate Change News 2005 |
Carbon dioxide emissions rise despite climate change pledge
Britain's carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise significantly in 2005 for the third year running and will reach the highest level since 1992, when the UK signed the Climate Change Convention at the Rio Earth Summit and pledged to combat global warming.
US: climate deal complements Kyoto
The US, which accounts for 25% of the world's greenhouse gases, and Australia are the only developed countries that have refused to sign the Kyoto protocol, which runs until 2012.
Greenpeace said the new pact sounded like a "dirty coal deal" that must not be "used by the US and Australia to escape domestic emissions reductions".
With forest fires, failing crops and reservoirs running on empty, southern Europe is in the grip of the worst drought since records began. But why is it happening? Temperatures are blazing but, as John Vidal discovers, other causes are at work too, not least our insatiable appetite for golf, swimming pools and freshly picked salads
Energy-saving targets scrapped
Pledges made by Tony Blair to force housebuilders to improve the energy efficiency of homes to cut Britain's greenhouse gas emissions are to be ditched.
T-shirts on for an Arctic heatwave
These are unusual times for Ny-Alesund, the world's most northerly community. Perched high above the Arctic Circle, on Svalbard, normally a place gripped by shrieking winds and blizzards, it was caught in a heatwave a few days ago.
That they could bask in the sun merely confirms what these scientists have long suspected: that Earth's high latitudes are warming dangerously thanks to man-made climate change, with temperatures rising at twice the global average. Clearly, Ny-Alesund has much to tell us.
A congestion charge for the skies is critical
Food study reveals hidden £9bn costs of transport
Food "miles" have risen dramatically over
the past 10 years, are still rising, and have a significant impact on climate
change, traffic congestion, accidents and pollution, according to a report published
by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) yesterday.
Food miles increased by 15% in the 10 years to 2002. The average distance we
now drive to shop for food each year is 898 miles, compared with 747 miles a
decade ago. Food transport accounts for 25% of all the miles driven by heavy
goods vehicles on our roads. The use of HGVs to transport food has doubled since
1974.
George Bush refused to tackle climate change at the G8 summit, but the world is moving on without him.
UN investigates Everest threat
The United Nations is to set up a task force to investigate the effects of climate change on regions like the Himalayas.
The G8 summit made climate change a priority again, but there is still a long way to go, writes Margaret Beckett
Fresh talks but little hope on climate change
G8 leaders agreed yesterday to start a new series of talks on climate change that will bring together big polluters, including the US and China, with the aim of finding a replacement for the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012.
Air travel accounts for somewhere between 3% and 5% of Britain's total carbon dioxide emissions, but passenger numbers are increasing so dramatically that emissions are almost certainly going to spiral out of control, experts warn. Estimates suggest that by 2030, CO2 emissions will have reached a total of more than 70m tonnes and the government's own white paper on aviation, barring any drastic clampdown, emissions from the industry will account for half to 100% of the country's target CO2 emissions by 2050.
Villagers clean up after flash floods
Yorkshire summer storms cause flooding - another sign of climate change.
More flash flooding 'on the way'
The explanation of why summer storms can cause flooding
Climate 'key to African future'
Why climate change is as important as debt relief for Africa - and another reason to lobby the G8 leaders.
New US move to spoil climate accord
It is more than the US just being ostriches, with their heads buried in the sand, they are deliberately trying to undermine plans by other countries e climate change. Why? Maybe because they have a vested interest in keeping us reliant on oil and the industries it supports.
How high-pressure politics threatens action on climate
Even Sir David King has complained of being aggressively targeted by US lobbyists who have attempted to discredit his view that man-made pollution is behind global warming. 'I have been attacked personally by these people when I have spoken in the US. Interestingly, they never tackle me over the details of the science. They just claim that I give one-sided accounts of climate change - and that's true. It just happens to be the side backed by the rest of the world and America's own scientists.'
Europe fails to cut greenhouse gas emissions - Figures show Kyoto commitment unlikely to be met
Figures from the European Environment Agency show that only France, Germany, Sweden and the UK have any hope of cutting their energy use in time to meet their targets and that most countries are now falling well behind. They also show that Britain increased its total emissions more than all other EU countries except Italy and Finland in 2003/4. The 1.3% increase, equivalent to 7.4m tonnes of carbon, was mainly because people drove more. Britain is expected to only just fulfil its Kyoto obligations but not the government's more ambitious target of a 20% cut in emissions by 2010.
Spain warns desert is spreading
The deserts of north Africa are threatening to leap
the Mediterranean and creep through Spain, according to government figures made
public as part of a national campaign to halt desertification.
A third of the country is at risk of being turned into desert as climate change
and tourism add to the effects of farming.
Hurricanes are likely to get more extreme as a result of climate change, say scientists. Computer models of the Earth's water cycle suggest that hurricanes will intensify as warmer temperatures draw more ocean water into the atmosphere.
Ministers pledged £25m yesterday to develop technology that captures greenhouse gas pollution from power stations and dumps it under the North Sea. The funds for carbon capture and storage are part of a £40m package to help tackle climate change announced by the energy minister Malcolm Wicks. Experts think the technique, known as carbon sequestration, could dispose of decades worth of pollution in depleted oil and gas fields while allowing us still to burn fossil fuels - emissions from which contribute to global warming.
Desperation, or what? Sounds like it should be our Energy Minister who should be dumped. How much time, money and ENERGY are we going to waste trying to get around the problem of climate change before we realise that there is no shortcut to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate may turn UK Mediterranean
Huge swathes of England could take on a Mediterranean look within 50 years as native woodlands are threatened by warmer, drier summers, say scientists.
Blair will discover how much influence he has in White House
We will all find out for sure at the G8 Summit in Scotland on 6th -8th July - make or break time. Let's hope for Africa's sake, and all others affected by the extremes of weather made worse by man-made pollution, that it is more than we expect.
Remember: "Global warming will inflict the most harm in the parts of the world that are the poorest, the least prepared - and the least responsible for causing it."
Revealed: how oil giant influenced Bush
White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance
US scientists pile on pressure over climate change
"There is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities... "
"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions."
Cheap flights spark runway chaos
Gridlock in the skies should be tackled by persuading people to take fewer flights, not building more runways if greenhouse gases are to be curbed, according to the findings of the public body in charge of planning for south-east England.
'Our view is that it is environmentally unsustainable, inconsistent with international policy and they have got to change it if the Prime Minister is serious about climate change,' said Mike Gwilliam, director of transport and planning for Seera, the South East England Regional Assembly.
Changing
planet revealed in atlas
An atlas of environmental change compiled by the United Nations reveals some
of the dramatic transformations that are occurring to our planet.
Protesters
gear up for G8 summit
While the leaders of the major industrialised nations are preparing to discuss
climate change and aid to Africa, police and protesters are also gearing up
for the 2005 G8 summit.
Make
Poverty History have a rally in Edinburgh on Saturday 2nd July four days
before the G8. I will be there, but unfortunately I can't stay for the Live
8 show - I have an exam on 6th
Huge
rise in Siberian forest fires puts planet at risk, scientists warn
It is not just the forests of the Amazon and Indonesia that are at risk. The boreal forests of Siberia are also disappearing fast.
easyJet chief says green campaigners have a point
The chief executive, Ray Webster, said he would not object to a fuel tax linked to carbon emissions being imposed as long as it was fair and did not "price the industry out of existence".
Support for law on CO2 emissions
The Big Ask calls on the public to ask their MPs to back the climate change bill, which would make it easier and more affordable for the UK to meet the government's long term target of cutting 1990 carbon dioxide levels by 60% by 2050.
Tony Juniper, the director of Friends of the Earth, said Mr Blair was "all talk and no action" when it came to tackling climate change.
Air travel mars UK's green strategy
Emissions from aviation rose from 20.1m tonnes in 1990 to 39.5m last year. During the same period, emissions from private cars rose from 59.6m tonnes to 67.8m, figures that are included in the Kyoto calculations.
Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, said: "These figures show once again that the government's plans for dealing with climate change are failing miserably. Ministers must get a grip on emissions and put new laws in place which force reductions year on year." The plans "are clearly incompatible with airport expansion".
Does global warming kill 150,000 people a year?
US cities snub Bush and sign up to Kyoto - HOPE?
"This campaign has clearly touched a nerve with the American people," said Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle. "The climate affects Democrats and Republicans alike. Here in Seattle we rely on the winter snow for our drinking water and hydro-electricity but it is disappearing; in Florida they have had hurricanes; in California they have had unseasonal heavy rain. Our weather patterns are changing."
Climate change policy in tatters
The government's climate change policy is failing and urgent action is needed in this session of parliament if the UK's targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are to be met, the Royal Society says in a report out today.
North Sea fish on the move to cooler waters
Global warming has forced fish stocks in the North Sea scores of miles north to cooler waters, according to a study by climate change scientists. Major fish species, including cod and haddock, have sought out cooler waters in response to a 1C rise in the temperature of the North Sea over the past 25 years. In the same period, more exotic southern species have encroached on North Sea waters and established themselves.
New Zealand first to levy carbon tax
Mr Hodgson, Minister responsible for climate change,
set the tax yesterday at NZ$11 a metric tonne of carbon emitted. It will come
into effect in two years. "If we are going to tackle climate change, we
need to start taking environmental costs into account in the economic choices
we make. The tax, planned after New Zealand signed up to the Kyoto protocol,
would make polluting energy sources such as coal and oil more expensive than
cleaner ones such as hydro, wind and solar," he said.
Sea
change for Britain's coastline
The National Trust, which owns 10% of the coastline in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, says 60% of its 700 miles of coastline will be affected by erosion this century. Altogether 126 sites are at risk of flooding and 15% will lose more than 100 metres of land over the next 75 years.
Ozone layer most fragile on record
The protective ozone layer over the Arctic has thinned this winter to the lowest levels since records began, alarming scientists who believed it had begun to heal. The increased loss of ozone allows more harmful ultraviolet light to reach the earth's surface, making children and outdoor enthusiasts such as skiers more vulnerable to skin cancer - a disease which is already dramatically increasing.
Research by Cambridge University shows that it is not increased pollution but a side effect of climate change that is making ozone depletion worse. At high altitudes, 50% of the protective layer had been destroyed.
Antarctic glaciers retreat under climate onslaught
"Fifty years ago, most of the glaciers we looked at were slowly growing in length, but since then this pattern has changed. In the last five years, the majority were actually shrinking rapidly," she said.
Temperatures in the region have warmed considerably, with a rise of more than 2C in the past 50 years.
Study highlights global decline
The most comprehensive survey ever into the state of the planet concludes that human activities threaten the Earth's ability to sustain future generations. The report says the way society obtains its resources has caused irreversible changes that are degrading the natural processes that support life on Earth. This will compromise efforts to address hunger, poverty and improve healthcare.
The US plans to wreck a British initiative to commit the G8 states to combatting illegal logging in the world's threatened rainforests, a leaked memorandum revealed last night. The development secretary, Hilary Benn, wants G8 environment and development ministers meeting in Derby tomorrow and on Friday to insist that all timber bought by official bodies in rich nations comes from properly managed forests.
Brown says green is good for growth
Gordon Brown today insisted that promoting economic growth and tackling climate change were not necessarily in conflict, as he addressed 20 of the world's most powerful environment and finance ministers in London. Full text of speech
Himalayan glaciers 'melting fast'
Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people, the conservation group WWF has warned.
"The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers, causing widespread flooding," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF's Global Climate Change Programme. "But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive eco and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India."
The peak of Mt Kilimanjaro as it has not been seen for 11,000 years
Africa's tallest mountain, with its white peak, is one of the most instantly recognisable sights in the world. But as this aerial photograph shows, Kilimanjaro's trademark snowy cap, at 5,895 metres (19,340ft), is now all but gone - 15 years beforescientists predicted it would melt through global warming.
Britain fights greenhouse gas cuts
The government backtracks on climate change pledges.
US gases to 'dwarf world savings'
"The Royal Society has calculated that the 13% rise in greenhouse gas emissions from the United States between 1990 and 2002 is already bigger than the overall cut achieved if all the other parties to the [Kyoto] Protocol reach their targets," said Lord May, President of the Royal Society.
'Denial lobby' turns up the heat
Worried about global warming, but not too worried? Quietly sceptical about the scientists' most apocalyptic claims? Then you've been duped, say environmentalists and political campaigners.
High-flyers' fund to fight climate change
Shame they are not sending their money to Cool Kids.. but at least this is progress. Why not other government departments?
UK seas 'in peril' - says report
Fishing and climate change are harming UK marine life, according to a report by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The report blames industrial activities, pollution, acidification and warming waters for the decline in certain sea species.
Kyoto - the beginning of a solution, not the end.
The Kyoto protocol represents not only a great victory
for environmental campaigners who have fought for more than a decade to highlight
the threat posed by climate change; it is a victory for everyone who has an
interest in human quality of life.
The very fact that 141 countries from around the world have reached a common
understanding of the threat posed by climate change, and have agreed to work
together to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions shows that international cooperation
is possible and can lead to progress.
Legal threat over UK retreat on greenhouse gases
The government and the European commission clashed
head on yesterday over Britain's plans to allow industry to emit higher than
approved levels of greenhouse gases in a row which threatened to undermine Tony
Blair's claim for leadership in combating global warming.
Despite the threat of legal action from Brussels, the UK insisted on pressing
ahead with revised allocations allowing industry to produce higher levels of
carbon dioxide than initially approved by the commission.
Pressure builds for US climate action
In Congress, Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman are about to reintroduce their Climate Stewardship Bill which narrowly failed to pass in the Senate two years ago.
The legislation would establish a federal ceiling on carbon dioxide emissions and create an emissions trading system that would help companies meet the targets imposed.
Senator McCain expects to fail again this time round, but is optimistic of succeeding before long.
Plea to farmers on climate change
Farmers in the UK are being urged to consider how
they will cope with the effects of climate change.
The government says changing weather patterns could have severe implications
for crops and livestock.
Tony Blair today in effect ruled out introducing a fuel tax on aviation - the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions - just days after leading members of the G7 group of industrial nations backed the idea.
Cross-examined on climate change by a panel of MPs
this morning, the prime minister defended Britain's no-frills airline industry,
saying he would not "slap some huge tax on cheap air travel".
Brown: tax on air travel could fund Africa aid
Gordon Brown last night opened the door to a multi-billion
pound new tax on tourist air travel to raise fresh cash to fund his ambitious
goal to provide debt relief for the world's poorest nations.
At yesterday's G7 summit in London, chaired by the Chancellor, the Treasury
agreed to consider proposals from the French and German governments for a new
tax on aircraft fuel as a way of helping Africa to meet the Millennium Development
Goals of cutting poverty, reducing infant mortality and getting more children
into school.
Scientists warn growing acidity of oceans will kill reefs
Extra carbon dioxide in the air, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, is not only spurring climate change, but is making the oceans more acidic - endangering the marine life that helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Jerry Blackford, another of the authors of a paper presented to a climate change conference in Exeter, has modelled the effect on the oceans. He said: "Some scientists are saying that, in 35 years, all the coral reefs in the world could be dead - it could be less or more. Put it this way, my children may never get the opportunity to go snorkelling on a living reef. Certainly, my grandchildren won't."
The double whammy: the carbon held in coral reefs and the shells of molluscs etc will be released back into the environment (as carbonic acid or CO2) acelerating the problem.
Climate threat to moorland birds
Future climate change could threaten the populations
of moorland birds.
Scientists at Newcastle and Manchester universities have found that golden plover
chicks now hatch on average nine days earlier than 20 years ago.
Scientists say failure of the plover chick's main prey, daddy long legs or craneflies,
to adapt at the same rate could threaten the plover's future.
Climate conference hears degree of danger
A grim assessment of the global cost for each degree
rise in temperature was released yesterday showing how species would become
extinct and cherished habitats destroyed.
Bill Hare, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told a conference
in Exeter on avoiding dangerous climate change that the risks to the natural
world and the human race from rising temperatures were already apparent but
grew significantly with each small rise in temperature. Food and water supplies
were at risk. He said the dangers for civilisation
were great with environmental refugees moving across borders due to lack of
water or food.
Hotter world may freeze Britain
The chance of the Gulf Stream, which brings warm waters around the British Isles, being halted, sending temperatures plummeting by more than 5C, is now more than 50%, a scientific conference on climate change was told yesterday.
Beckett calls for climate action
"What is certainly clear is that temperatures will go on rising," Mrs Beckett told the assembled delegates.
"Most of the warming we are expecting over the next few decades is now virtually inevitable."
Because it takes decades for greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide to break down in the atmosphere, some warming would result even if production of these gases could be returned to pre-industrialised levels overnight.
Flood risk could make 300,000 homes uninsurable
The insurance industry has said the government's
plans to build 85,000 homes in the Thames Gateway must be modified - to include
safeguards such as only occupying homes above first-floor level - due to the
high risk of flooding.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says the Thames Gateway developments
will be uninsurable unless special measures are taken to minimise the flood
threat, making it impossible to get a mortgage.
Climate
change 'disaster by 2026'
Dangerous levels of climate change could be reached in just over 20 years if nothing is done to stop global warming, a WWF-UK study claims.
"Polar bears will be consigned to history, something that our grandchildren can only read about in books."
Temperatures around the world could rise by as much
as 11C, according to one of the largest climate prediction projects ever run.
This figure is twice the level that previous studies have suggested.
Scientists behind the project, called climateprediction.net, say it shows that a "safe" upper limit for carbon dioxide is impossible to define.
Flowers may signal climate change
Records kept over the past two decades show snowdrops are flowering on average 20 days earlier than two decades ago. Daffodils were found to be in flower in Guernsey in December and frogspawn was also spotted. Normally these are evident up to a month later in January.
Arctic rivers 'flowing faster'
The amount of fresh water entering the Arctic Ocean from the rivers that feed it is increasing, UK scientists report. The rise in fresh water entering the Arctic Ocean could change the global distribution of water, the team says. It could also affect the balance of the climate system itself and even possibly alter the behaviour of the Gulf Stream.
UK wildlife inquiry seeks helpers
The BBC are recruiting thousands of wildlife sleuths for an investigation into the effects of climate change on wildlife. Participants, who do not need to be wildlife experts, are being asked to record when and where they first see bumblebees, frog spawn, swifts, Peacock butterflies, seven-spot ladybirds and flowering hawthorn.
Blair tried to ditch green policy
Tony Blair's international credibility on climate change was seriously damaged last night as it emerged that the government tried secretly to ditch key global warming targets. Dated 9 December last year, the internal documents reveal that the government tried to have commitments deleted from key European texts at meetings between September and December 2004. However a final meeting that took place shortly before Christmas saw the UK's attempts to lower targets defeated by other member states. On 8 December, Blair's chief scientist, Sir David King, announced that the target to cut carbon dioxide emissions - the principal cause of global warming - by 60 per cent have to be increased to 80 per cent by 2050 because of the extent of melting on the Greenland ice-sheet.
Bear facts point to global warming in arctic
Russian bears are meant to hibernate in winter and wake up in March. But the weather has been so mild this year that a black bear in St Petersburg zoo has not gone to sleep at all, and a brown bear has already woken up believing it is spring. It's the same story in Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where hunters report that one of the warmest winters ever recorded has woken bears several months early.
Universities urged to go green
Universities are today urged to promote sustainable development in all their activities, from research and teaching to waste recycling and buying "green" energy.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England
strategy sets out a wide-ranging role for higher education, encompassing:
· Preparing students for their future roles as managers and leaders,
so that they understand the issues of sustainability and can make informed decisions.
· Helping society to find social and technical solutions to the challenges
of, for example, diminishing natural resources and climate change.
· Acting as a catalyst for change with local people, businesses, government
bodies and others.
· Reducing the sector's own impact on the environment through improved
use of energy, and transport and waste management.
Outer barrier for Thames floated in river defence plan
The Environment Agency is considering ways to protect £80bn worth of property along the Thames that, in the very long term, could include building a 10-mile second barrier across the estuary.
Ms Lavery said: "Part of the message is that if we do something about climate change by reducing emissions we will not have to lumber our children with these vastly expensive schemes to prevent the city flooding."
An Thames Estuary outer barrier could cost upwards of £20bn.
Aid for vulnerable islands declines
Aid to 45 small island states, home to the people most vulnerable to climate change and natural disasters, has fallen by more than half in eight years, a UN conference will be told today.
