Science Panel Calls Global Warming “Unequivocal”

February 5th, 2007

– Over the last few days, while I’ve been traveling, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has released its fourth report and you will probably have been living under a rock to have not heard about it. The report, which draws on the expertise of 2500 scientists, worldwide simply makes no bones about it. Global warming is real, humans are the cause of it and we haven’t much time to do something about it if we want to leave anything better than a disaster to our children.

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PARIS, Feb. 2 – In a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet, the leading international network of climate scientists has concluded for the first time that global warming is “unequivocal” and that human activity is the main driver, “very likely” causing most of the rise in temperatures since 1950.

They said the world was in for centuries of climbing temperatures, rising seas and shifting weather patterns — unavoidable results of the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.

But their report, released here on Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said warming and its harmful consequences could be substantially blunted by prompt action.

While the report provided scant new evidence of a climate apocalypse now, and while it expressly avoided recommending courses of action, officials from the United Nations agencies that created the panel in 1988 said it spoke of the urgent need to limit looming and momentous risks.

“In our daily lives we all respond urgently to dangers that are much less likely than climate change to affect the future of our children,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, which administers the panel along with the World Meteorological Organization.

“Feb. 2 will be remembered as the date when uncertainty was removed as to whether humans had anything to do with climate change on this planet,” he went on. “The evidence is on the table.”

More… ➡, ➡ and ➡

research thx to John P, & Lisa G.

– The first two of the articles linked to, above, are 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, recently, a friend of mine suggested 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.

– You can also find a PDF based copy of the full IPCC report here: ➡

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070203 – Saturday – In the Pacific Northwest

February 3rd, 2007

I arrived at the airport in Christchurch at about 1:30 PM Saturday local and landed in Seattle this evening at 6:00 PM Saturday local. Elapsed time was 25.5 hours – end to end with all the adjustments in place. That’s a lot of sitting-in-airports-time in addition the the hours in the sky.

So, I’ve had two beers, eaten some fine bread. olive oil and diced garlic (thanks to my fine wife) and watched a movie called Resurrection from 1980, petted a dog and six cats and now I’m getting ready to shut down for the day and take a real snooze. Tomorrow, when I awake, I will ‘really’ be here. It’ll be winter, which may take some getting used to.

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070202 – Friday – Last Day in New Zealand

February 1st, 2007

8:30 PM and I’m tearing things down in preparation for flying back to the US tomorrow. Always a strange feeling to be in the edge of a big trip. A bit of neither here nor there feeling.

Cheers, my friends. My next post will be from the other side of the planet in the Pacific Northwest.

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Can Humanity Survive? Want to Bet on It?

January 31st, 2007

Sixty ago years, a group of physicists concerned about nuclear weapons created the Doomsday Clock and set its hands at seven minutes to midnight. Now, the clock’s keepers, alarmed by new dangers like climate change, have moved the hands up to 11:55 p.m.

My first reaction was a sigh of relief. After all, the 1947 doomsday prediction marked the start of a golden age. Never have so many humans lived so long — and maybe never so peacefully — as during the past 60 years. The per-capita rate of violence, particularly in the West, seems remarkably low by historical standards. If the clock’s keepers are worried once again, their track record suggests we’re in for even happier days.

But there’s one novel twist that gives me pause. When the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced two weeks ago in Washington that it was adjusting the clock, it was joined in a trans-Atlantic press conference by scientists at the Royal Society in London. One of them was the society’s president, Martin Rees, a new breed of doomsayer.

Dr. Rees, a cosmologist at Cambridge and Britain’s astronomer royal, doesn’t just issue gloomy predictions. He doesn’t just move the hands of an imaginary and inscrutable clock. (Its keepers have never explained what one of their minutes equals on anyone else’s clock or calendar.)

No, Dr. Rees is braver. He gives odds on doomsday and offers to bet on disaster. In his 2003 book, “Our Final Hour,” he gives civilization no more than a 50 percent chance of surviving until 2100.

Dr. Rees is not a knee-jerk technophobe — he expects great advances as researchers around the world link their knowledge — but he fears that progress will be undone by what he calls the new global village idiots. He’s sure enough of himself to post an offer on Long Bets, a clever innovation on the Web that Stewart Brand helped start with money from Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com.

More… ➡

– 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, recently, a friend of mine suggested 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.

– Research thx to Lisa G.

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Panel warns on Great Barrier Reef

January 31st, 2007

Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef could be dead within decades because of the effects of global warming, according to a leaked report. The report, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warns that the reef’s coral could be bleached because of warmer seas.

IPCC scientists are meeting in Paris, and are due to release the first stage of their findings on Friday.

The Barrier Reef is Australia’s leading tourist destination.

More… ➡

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Tax Leads Americans Abroad to Renounce U.S.

January 31st, 2007

PARIS, Dec. 17 — She is a former marine, a native Californian and, now, an ex-American who prefers to remain discreet about abandoning her citizenship. After 10 years of warily considering options, she turned in her United States passport last month without ceremony, becoming an alien in the view of her homeland.

“It’s a really hard thing to do,” said the woman, a 16-year resident of Geneva who had tired of the cost and time of filing yearly United States tax returns on top of her Swiss taxes. “I just kept putting this off. But it’s my kids and the estate tax. I don’t care if I die with only one Swiss franc to my name, but the U.S. shouldn’t get money I earned here when I die.”

Historically, small numbers of Americans have turned in their passports every year for political and economic reasons, with the numbers reaching a high of about 2,000 during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.

But after Congress sharply raised taxes this year for many Americans living abroad, some international tax lawyers say they detect rising demand from citizens to renounce ties with the United States, the only developed country that taxes it citizens while they live overseas. Americans abroad are also taxed in the countries where they live.

“The administrative costs of being an American and living outside the U.S. have gone up dramatically,” said Marnin Michaels, a tax lawyer with Baker & McKenzie in Zurich.

So far this year, the Internal Revenue Service has tallied 509 Americans who have given up their citizenship, said Anthony Burke, an I.R.S. spokesman in Washington. He said complete figures were still being calculated.

Applications to renounce citizenship are on the rise at the American Embassy in Paris, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. At the embassy in London, the number of applications was reported to be fairly stable over the past two years, though it would be hard to spot a recent surge because applications are taking longer to process there than in past years. Neither embassy would disclose exact figures. A spokeswoman for the American Embassy in London, Karen Maxfield, said Americans living abroad usually took the step “because they do not have strong ties to the United States and do not believe that they will ever live there in the future.”

“All have two citizenships and generally say they would like to simplify their lives by giving up a citizenship they are not using,” she said.

More… ➡

– 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, recently, a friend of mine suggested 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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Queensland to drink waste water

January 31st, 2007

People in the Australian state of Queensland will soon have to start drinking water containing recycled sewage, the state premier has warned.

Premier Peter Beattie said he had scrapped a referendum on the issue, because there was no longer a choice.

He also warned other Australian states might eventually have to do the same because of mounting water shortages.

Water is already recycled in places like Singapore and the UK, but the idea is still unpopular in Australia.

But the country is currently suffering from a severe drought – the worst on record. Last week Prime Minister John Howard declared water security to be the biggest challenge currently facing Australia, and he announced a A$10bn ($7.7bn; £3.9bn) package to tackle the problem.

Mr Beattie said that falling water levels had left his state administration with no option but to introduce recycled water in south-eastern Queensland, starting from next year.

“We’re not getting rain; we’ve got no choice,” he told ABC radio.

“These are ugly decisions, but you either drink water or you die. There’s no choice. It’s liquid gold, it’s a matter of life and death,” he said.

More… ➡

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Climate change warning for Sydney

January 31st, 2007

A new report on the effects of climate change in Australia paints an alarming picture of life in the city of Sydney. It warns that if residents do not cut water consumption by more than 50% over the next 20 years, the city will become unsustainable.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation report also warns that temperatures could rise 5C above the predicted global average.

This would leave the city facing an almost permanent state of drought.

More… :arrow:

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China admits to climate failings

January 31st, 2007

China is failing to make progress on improving and protecting the environment, according to a new Chinese government report.The research ranks China among the world’s worst nations – a position unchanged since 2004.

After the US, China produces the most greenhouse gases in the world.

The Chinese report, prepared by academics and government experts, ranked the country 100th out of 118 countries surveyed.

Some 30 indicators were used to measure the level of “ecological modernisation” including carbon dioxide emissions, sewage disposal rates and the safety of drinking water.

More… ➡

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Melting of glaciers ‘speeds up’

January 31st, 2007

Mountain glaciers are shrinking three times faster than they were in the 1980s, scientists have announced.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service, which continuously studies a sample of 30 glaciers around the world, says the acceleration is down to climate change.

Its announcement came as climate scientists convened in Paris to decide the final wording of a major report.

There is reported to be some disagreement over what forecasts they will make for sea level rise.

But whatever form of words they agree on, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will declare that human-induced climate change is happening and needs to be tackled.

More… ➡

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