Copenhagen Talks Last Chance: Gordon Brown
There are now fewer than 50 days to set course of next 50 years and more, PM tells environment ministers from 17 countries responsible for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions
Gordon Brown today warned that the world is on the brink of a “catastrophic” future of killer heatwaves, floods and droughts unless governments speed up negotiations on climate change before vital talks in Copenhagen in December.
Norway Offers 40% Emissions Cut, Biggest Among Developed World
Norway said it may reduce greenhouse- gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, the most ambitious target proposed by a developed nation.
The Norwegian proposal “is the type of political will needed to move the climate talks forward to a strong deal in Copenhagen,” Greenpeace International Climate Policy Director, Martin Kaiser said today in an e-mailed statement.
Wired for Hypocrisy: Why it’s so easy to justify our bad behavior
Since actions cannot be undone, the only option when they conflict with beliefs—which produces the phenomenon called cognitive dissonance—is to alter the beliefs. When people experience cognitive dissonance, it turns out, brain activity causes us to back and fill, mentally. The result is that we change our beliefs so that they are once again aligned with our actions.
Neuroscientists at the University of California, Davism used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of volunteers.
Pennsylvania State Lawmaker: Veterans supporting climate change legislation are ‘traitors.’
As a veteran, I believe that any veteran lending their name, to promote the leftist propaganda of global warming and climate change, in an effort to control more of the wealth created in our economy, through cap and tax type policies, all in the name of national security, is a traitor to the oath he or she took to defend the Constitution of our great nation!” Mr. Metcalfe’s email reads. “Remember Benedict Arnold before giving credibility to a veteran who uses their service as a means to promote a leftist agenda. Drill Baby Drill!!!
As Think Progress notes, the US military has concluded that global warming is inextricably linked to national security, with the potential to “aggravate existing problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions” around the world, which “could increase the pool of potential recruits into terrorist activity.”
Ooops.
The planet is in the middle of an extinction crisis, the sixth great wave in its history. But unlike major extinction events of the past — like the Permian-Triassic event 250 million years ago, in which 70% of all terrestrial species were wiped out, probably because of an asteroid impact or a similar natural disaster — this time human beings are the cause…
Meanwhile, human beings have also been working to counteract the effects of their development and growth as well as man-made climate change… But a new paper in the journal Biological Conservation says we may not be trying hard enough. A team of Australian researchers led by environmental scientist Lochran Traill finds that current conservation policy tends to underestimate the number of individuals needed in a population of endangered species to keep it viable. In the face of environmental fluctuation and potential disasters, says Traill, we need animal populations to number in the thousands for survival — not in the hundreds, which is what most conservationists aim for.
Senate Should Consider Deforestation as Part of Climate Bill
It is imperative that the United States find effective and economically viable solutions to the climate crisis. Our elected officials and business leaders ask how we can afford the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Around the globe, developing nations ask how they can afford to reduce their emissions without sacrificing their hopes for a better life. There is no single answer, but there is one unexpected solution that offers hope on both fronts.
To date, the climate debate has focused on reducing fossil fuel emissions and ramping up crucial clean energy alternatives. Far too little attention has been paid to the role tropical deforestation has in warming the planet. It accounts for 17 percent of global emissions—more than all the world’s cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships combined. This is a serious oversight; if left unaddressed, deforestation will undermine all our efforts to solve the climate crisis.
Moving from Recycling to Zero-Waste
Across the nation, an antigarbage strategy known as “zero waste” is moving from the fringes to the mainstream, taking hold in school cafeterias, national parks, restaurants, stadiums and corporations.
Though born of idealism, the zero-waste philosophy is now propelled by sobering realities, like the growing difficulty of securing permits for new landfills and an awareness that organic decay in landfills releases methane that helps warm the earth’s atmosphere.
32 Exoplanets Discovered, More to Come
Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth’s solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday.
Although only 32 were announced Monday, the team knows of many more exoplanets, although more observation is needed before they are formally announced and papers are written about them. “We have tons of them,” Udry said.
Cycling and The Joys of Autumn
Katie Zezima of The New York Times went biking through Vermont: “Having grown up in Connecticut and now as a reporter in New England, I’ve leaf-peeped my whole life. But seeing the foliage by bike was more visceral — the gust of cool air in your face, the crunch of riding over acorns, the silence punctuated by the shifting of gears, the feel of a bright red leaf. The entire experience felt closer to nature. I melted into the landscape instead of blowing by it at 60 miles an hour.” Better still, the trip proved to be an eco-friendly alternative to the typical resource-consuming getaway weekend. (via Ode: Good News )
