By Simon Leufstedt on September 12th, 2009
This week Nicholas Stern, the British top climate economist and academic who is probably most known for the Stern Review, endorsed 350 ppm as “a very sensible long-term target.”
350 ppm, as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. We are currently at 390 ppm and, according to the science, we need to get back to 350 ppm as soon as possible to be able avoid runaway climate change.
In an interview with a German newspaper Stern endorsed the 350 ppm target saying he “think it’s a very sensible long-term target.” Bill McKibben, environmental writer and founder of 350.org, writes:
“I think it’s a very sensible long-term target.” He went on to explain: “People have to be aware that is a truly long-term target. We have already passed 350ppm, we are at 390 ppm of Co2 and at 435 ppm of Co2-equivalents right now. It is most important to stop the increase of flows of emissions short term and then start the decline of flows of annual emissions and get them down to levels which will move concentrations of CO2 back down towards 350ppm.
(more…)
By Dr Gideon Polya on February 3rd, 2009
Southern Australia has been suffering an unprecedented heatwave over the last week. In Melbourne we have experienced successive daily maxima of 43.4, 44.3 and 45.1 degrees Centigrade (corresponding to 110.1, 111.7 and 113.2 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively). The temperature finally reached 45.1 degrees C on Friday 30 January — the first time temperatures had been above 43 degrees for three consecutive days since records began in 1855. The heatwave caused bushfires and blackouts, crippled the Melbourne train network and caused a record number of ambulance operations (the number of people who died will not be known for a week or so).
The human physiological thermostat attempts to keep us at about 37 degrees C or about 98..6 F , the normal range being 97-100 F – which is why we have been struggling in Melbourne in this last week.
Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter and a World leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, threatening billions of impoverished non-Europeans with climate genocide – but the pro-Coal Federal Government still refuses to rake effective action against man-made global warming that acutely threatens the Planet (see “Australia’s “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” endangers Australia, Humanity and Biosphere”) .
Perhaps this shocking heatwave (above 43 C for 3 days, and it will be in the 30s for the next week in Melbourne) will make Australians demand action from their Federal Government which chooses to IGNORE the advice of top Australian, UK and US climate scientists about the acute seriousness of the Climate Emergency.
(more…)
By Dr Gideon Polya on August 5th, 2008
Only a few weeks after the release of the Draft Report of the seriously flawed, pro-coal, Australian Garnaut Climate Change Review (4 July, 2008; see my critique on Green Blog, “Pro-Coal, Australian Garnaut Climate Review Damns Coral, Australia & World”), the Australian Federal Government has released a so-called “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme” Green Paper (16 July, 2008).
Unfortunately the Australian Federal Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) Green Paper is FATALLY FLAWED and if adopted globally would be a DEATH SENTENCE for the planet’s biosphere.
Australia is referred to as “Downunder” by people in the Northern Hemisphere but in so many things Australian mainstream media and politicians turn the truth upside-down as well – and this is outrageously so in relation to man-made climate change. The Liberal-National Party Coalition State and Federal Oppositions and the Labor Party State and Federal Governments (these major parties being referred to collectively as the Lib-Labs) pay public lip-service to the problem of global warming but their de facto policies support Australia’s world-leading coal exports and Australia’s 92% fossil fuel-based power generation.
(more…)
By Simon Leufstedt on February 13th, 2008
Did you know that about 90% of the world’s goods are shipped the water way? About one billion ton of CO2 is emitted by ships, every year. The ships energy demands are expected to rise by 75% in about 15-20 years.
Did you also know that 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from ships? This can be compared to the aviation industry that emits about 2%.
(more…)
By Artemis Mindrinou on January 2nd, 2008
Despite the ban in 1994, radioactive depositions still reach the seas. In french pipes of nuclear facilities Greenpeace’s divers found the waters to have 17.000.000 times more intense radioactivity than clean waters. In Norway, crabs and seaweeds have been polluted by the radioactive substance technetium. Scientists found it comes from old british facilities for nuclear fuels. However, american geologists are thinking of burying under the seabed radioactive materials.
Since 1959 enormous quantities of radioactive waste have been thrown into the Arctic Ocean, including nuclear reactors, while another million of chemical weapons decay onto the sea floor in 400-4500 metres depth. Moreover, Spain has stored 100.000 barrels containing slight radiocative waste, from scientific laboratories. Plutonium from the nuclear trials is detected in the southern seas of the Atlantic ocean. Britain has recorded 57.435 shipwrecks, including nuclear submarines.
The highly dangerous poison DDT harms the marine organisms more than the others, and thanks to the marine currents it is transfered to all seas, affecting every organism. PBDE, a substance used for computer and television construction, has been detected in whales’ fat!
(more…)
