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The Last Father’s Day

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

– This post from over on the Climate Progress Blog is well worth a read. Do the fathers in our Baby Boomer generation deserve a Father’s Day? I agree with the author – I’m beginning to think we don’t.

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So when will the last Father’s Day be?

Proposed nearly a century ago to honor the “strength and selflessness” of fathers, the underlying premise of the holiday is that fathers selflessly work hard to ensure their children have a better future than they did. Interestingly, “the holiday was not officially recognized until 1972.”

Certainly it made sense to honor the fathers who came from the Greatest Generation, with their grit and determination to win WWII. But on our current path, for the first time in US history, we know with high confidence that thanks to our actions (and our inactions) our children will not face a better future, quite the reverse (see “Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 0: The alternative is humanity’s self-destruction.”)

No books will be written labeling the Baby Boom generation, the “Greatest Generation” or even the “Second Greatest Generation.” Right now, we’re not even in the top 10.

Selflessness? Try selfishness. We appear unwilling to shift even 1.1% of our fabulous wealth toward the clean energy investments needed to avert catastrophe….

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Worries Mount as Farmers Push for Big Harvest

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

GRIFFIN, Ind. — In a year when global harvests need to be excellent to ease the threat of pervasive food shortages, evidence is mounting that they will be average at best. Some farmers are starting to fear disaster.

American corn and soybean farmers are suffering from too much rain, while Australian wheat farmers have been plagued by drought.

“The planting has gotten off to a poor start,” said Bill Nelson, a Wachovia grains analyst. “The anxiety level is increasing.”

Randy Kron, whose family has been farming in the southwestern corner of Indiana for 135 years, should have corn more than a foot tall by now. But all spring it has seemed as if there were a faucet in the sky. The rain is regular, remorseless.

Some of Mr. Kron’s fields are too soggy to plant. Some of the corn he managed to get in has drowned, forcing him to replant. The seeds that survived are barely two inches high.

At a moment when the country’s corn should be flourishing, one plant in 10 has not even emerged from the ground, the Agriculture Department said Monday. Because corn planted late is more sensitive to heat damage in high summer, every day’s delay practically guarantees a lower yield at harvest.

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– Hat tip to Survival Acres for this story

– This article is from the NY Times and they insist that folks have an ID and a PW in order to read their stuff. You can get these for free just by signing up. However, a friend of mine suggests the website bugmenot.com :arrow: as an alternative to having to do these annoying sign ups. Check it out. Thx Bruce S. for the tip.

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National Academies call for 50% CO2 cut

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

The National Academies of 13 countries told the leaders of the biggest polluting countries that “immediate large-scale mitigation action is required.”

While objections have been raised by a few people (well, one person anyway) to these leading scientific groups inserting themselves into the climate debate, the rest of us should be glad they are counseling the world — especially their own countries — toward sanity. The statement is clear on what actions will be needed:

The transition to a low carbon society requires: setting standards; designing economic instruments and promoting energy efficiency across all sectors; encouraging changes in individual behaviour; strengthening technology transfer to enable leapfrogging to cleaner and more efficient technologies; and investing strongly in carbon-removing technologies and low-carbon energy resources: nuclear power, solar energy, hydroelectricity and other renewable energy sources.

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Hints of methane’s renewed rise

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

– And why would a rise in Methane levels be important?:

“Methane is the second most important gas causing man-made climate change. Each molecule causes about 25 times more warming than a molecule of CO2, but it survives for shorter times in the atmosphere before being broken down.”

 – As the world’s temperature rises, vast amounts of Methane trapped in the permafrost will be released as the permafrost melts.   In addition, there are vast amounts of Methane trapped in deep ocean sediments as Methane Clathrates and scientists fear that given sufficient warming of the oceans, these will be released into the atmosphere as well.   More warming, more releases, more releases, more warming.   It’s not a pretty picture.

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Levels of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere seem to be rising having remained stable for nearly 10 years.

Data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in the US suggest concentrations rose by about 0.5% between 2006 and 2007.

The rise could reflect melting of permafrost, increased industrialisation in Asia or drying of tropical wetlands.

The rise in carbon dioxide levels was significantly higher than the average annual increase for the last 30 years.

Noaa figures show CO2 concentrations rising by 2.4 parts per million (ppm) from 2006 to 2007. By comparison, the average annual increase between 1979 and 2007 was 1.65ppm.

Concentrations now stand at 384 ppm, compared to about 280 ppm before the era of human industrialisation began

Upwards curve?

The rise in CO2 is not exceptional compared with the previous few years, but does add more evidence that concentrations are rising faster than they were a decade or so ago.

The methane figure is more interesting, and potentially of more concern.

Concentrations have been more or less stable since about 1999 following years of rapid increases. Industrial reform in the former Soviet bloc, changes to rice farming methods and the capture of methane from landfill sites all contributed to the levelling off.

But the 2007 figure indicates that levels may be on the rise again.

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US climate change bill is blocked

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

– “It’s a huge tax increase,” said Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate Republicans, most of whom opposed the bill.

-Mmmm- what a great reason to put off saving the world from catastrophe.   Bravo. 

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A US attempt to establish a system of caps and tax relief to cut carbon emissions has been blocked in Congress.

The bill was backed by most senators, but did not get the 60 votes needed to stop a delaying tactic – a filibuster – used by the bill’s opponents.

Even if it had succeeded in passing Congress, President George W Bush had pledged to veto the bill.

Lawmakers will now wait until next year – when there will be a new president – before attempting to pass a new bill.

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Posted in Capitalism & Corporations, Climate Change, CrashBlogging, Politics - The Wrong Way, The Perfect Storm | No Comments »

Doomed Kiribati needs escape plan

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Kiribati’s President, Anote Tong, says his country may already be doomed by global warming – and he wants New Zealand and Australia to consider the issue of environmental refugees.

“We may already be at the point of no return, where the emissions in the atmosphere will carry on contributing to climate change, so in time our small low-lying islands will be submerged,” Mr Tong said yesterday in Wellington.

Kiribati’s highest point of land is just 2m above sea level, and under “worst-case” scenarios it will be flooded by the Pacific this century and its 94,000 people will have to be re-settled in other countries.

Mr Tong, a graduate of the London School of Economics, said climate change “is not an issue of economic development, it’s an issue of human survival”.

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Ominous warning oil price rise just starting

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

LONDON – The chief executive of the world’s largest energy company has issued the most dire warning yet about the soaring the price of oil, predicting that it will hit US$250 ($332) per barrel in the foreseeable future.

The forecast from Alexey Miller, the head of the Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom, would herald even more expensive petrol and send shockwaves through the economy.

His comments were the most stark to be expressed by an industry executive and come just days after the oil price registered its largest-ever single-day spike, hitting US$139.12 per barrel last week amid fears that the world’s faltering supply will be unable to keep up with demand.

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Major crop decline adds to food insecurity

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

– This in from Pakistan:

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ISLAMABAD, June 10: The agriculture sector performed poorly and grew by only 1.5 per cent during the financial year 2007-08 against the target of 4.8 per cent, making the nation vulnerable to food insecurity and badly hurting economic growth.

Major crops and forestry declined by three per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2007-08. Livestock, minor crops and fisheries somehow averted an apparent collapse of the entire agriculture sector.

Cotton, which accounts for about 1.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and a major source of foreign earning, grew less than last year. The country produced 11.7 million bales, compared to 12.9 million bales last year.

The survey says that heavy rainfall in May 2007 in Punjab, where sowing was already 2.2 per cent less than last year, caused poor germination. Cotton sowing in Sindh was 6.6 per cent less than last year. A severe attack of the leave curl virus also hit the crop.

Similarly, the wheat production target of 24 million tons was missed by 1.5 million tons. The output was 21.7 million tons — 6.6pc less than last year and 9.9pc less than the target. The reasons were about 40pc less use of fertilisers and availability of 23.3pc less water for the Rabi season. The price of a 40kg DAP fertiliser increased to Rs3,000 from last year’s Rs850.

The survey showed that the country was unable to produce the annual 124kg per capita flour. An analysis of the last 12 years showed that the per capita flour target had been missed for eight years.

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Zuma: Rising food prices a time bomb

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

Cape Town, South Africa

The rising cost of food is a time bomb that could result in uprisings, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma told the World Economic Forum on Africa on Thursday.

“The issue of food prices is actually a time bomb,” he told a plenary of the forum, which is being held in Cape Town.

“With those who have the budgets to adjust, [it] is one thing. But with those who have no money to buy at all, once the food price goes up, they are cut out, even from the possibility of buying food. Then you are sitting with a situation that an uprising would emerge.”

Individual governments cannot solve the problem of food insecurity, said Zuma. “We must have global solutions to global problems.” He said he did not think that there was much that governments could do. “I think the world organisations must do it.”

Zuma was speaking against the background of a global doubling in the price of wheat in the past year, and an almost 80% hike in the African and Asian staples maize and rice over the same period. Soaring food costs have already sparked riots in Egypt, Indonesia, Cameroon, Peru and Haiti.

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“Perfect Storm” in Food Prices Caused by Many Factors

Thursday, June 5th, 2008

Part one of a special series that explores the local faces of the world’s worst food crisis in decades.

In Australia a struggling farmer watches another harvest shrivel under the country’s worst drought on record.

Another new member of the Chinese middle-class finally has enough cash to buy his first steak.

And a U.S. agricultural executive decides to grow corn instead of wheat to take advantage of the growing demand for biofuels.

Alone, none of these events would have been responsible for today’s troubled stock markets, rampant civil unrest, and increasing famine and malnourishment for the world’s poor. (See a video on the world food crisis.)

Together, they’ve caused the world’s worst food crisis in a generation.

“A convergence of factors has led to what is sort of a perfect storm for food prices,” Erik Thorbecke, an economist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, told National Geographic News.

“I can’t think of a time we’ve had this large an increase.”

According to data from the International Monetary Fund, average global food prices have jumped nearly 50 percent since the end of 2006.

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