During a visit to Henderson Nevada, President Obama explained basic climate science for the people who had gathered to listen to him at the town hall.
“First of all, we just got five feet of snow in Washington and so everybody is like — a lot of the people who are opponents of climate change, they say, see, look at that, there’s all this snow on the ground, this doesn’t mean anything. I want to just be clear that the science of climate change doesn’t mean that every place is getting warmer; it means the planet as a whole is getting warmer. But what it may mean is, for example, Vancouver, which is supposed to be getting snow during the Olympics, suddenly is at 55 degrees, and Dallas suddenly is getting seven inches of snow.
The idea is, is that as the planet as a whole gets warmer, you start seeing changing weather patterns, and that creates more violent storm systems, more unpredictable weather. So any single place might end up being warmer; another place might end up being a little bit cooler; there might end up being more precipitation in the air, more monsoons, more hurricanes, more tornadoes, more drought in some places, floods in other places.”
In an interesting interview during COP15 Amy Goodman from Democracy Now asks Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, about his view of the climate summit in Copenhagen, climate change, USA, and the huge oil reserves in Venezuela. Watch it:
“AMY GOODMAN: What level of emissions are you willing to support reductions of emissions?
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: [translated] One hundred percent. One hundred percent. We must reduce the emissions 100 percent. In Venezuela, the emissions are currently insignificant compared to the emissions of the developed countries. We are in agreement. We must reduce all the emissions that are destroying the planet. However, that requires a change in lifestyle, a change in the economic model: we must go from capitalism to socialism. That’s the real solution.”
Yesterday Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, made a passionate and courageous speech at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Chavez criticized President Obama’s “laughable” promise to help climate change and also said that capitalism will destroy our planet. Watch it:
Jonathan Sundqvist is following the COP15 negotiations in Copenhagen from a Swedish/European perspective and is writing about it on Adopt a Negotiator as well as here on Green Blog.
Today I walked around and asked a number of young people what they expect of Copenhagen and the climate conference. What strikes me is how important young people are. It is we who will take over the world afterwards.
Those who I talk with here in Copenhagen really cares about what happens here on our planet. And they all agree that something must be done about the climate and environmental crisis we are facing as soon as possible. When the world has its eyes focused on the Copenhagen climate conference, it is far too good an opportunity to let it slip out of one’’s hands. It is now we must act for ourselves when we grow older, for our children and our grandchildren. For all farmers, all women, for everyone who are already facing water shortages, for all who live below sea level.
We must not only act, we can act, and if we’ll act we will make a big success!
Obama will abandon complex policies on emissions, clean coal and refocus on achievable goals like applying deodorant daily, learning what to say when you burp.
The annual seal massacre in Canada has started. This year the Canadian government has set a target of over 280000 baby seals to be clubbed to death and skinned to provide coats, hats, handbags and other accessories for the fashion market.
This seal hunt is the largest commercial hunt for marine mammals in the world and has been met with protests from around the world for years now. And this year is no different. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says the hunt should be stopped because it’s cruel, unsustainable and lacks proper monitoring from federal agencies. The European Union is currently being pushed to introduce a ban on commercial trading with seal skin in a few weeks. And just recently Russia decided to close down their seal hunt in the White Sea indefinitely.
Peaceful environmental activists who were protecting an old-growth forest in Tasmania, Australia, have been violently attacked by timber workers as they were blocking the road for them.
The timber workers attacked the car that the protestors were using to block the road using a sledgehammer and kicking in its windows. They later dragged out a 22-year-old protestor and kicked him repeatedly.
The brutal attack was caught on tape by one of the protestors:
Letterman rants about global warming on his show in early September saying “We’re Dead Meat”. He also talks with Thomas Friedman about his new book titled “Hot, Flat, and Crowded – Why We Need a Green Revolution – And How it Can Renew America”.
Both video clips are worth checking out and can be found below:
This 38-year old-video which shows a lion being reunited with his two childhood owners has already been seen by millions on video sites like YouTube. And now it has come to Green Blog (Yes, we are suckers for cute movies).
The lion named Christian was bought from an exotic animals department in Harrods in 1969 by the two Australians John Rendall and Anthony Bourke for 250 guineas. They took him home and raised him in their flat.
The White House has apparently refused to open an email from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a proposed rule that would limit greenhouse-gas emissions from new vehicles. And what is more surprising (!?) is that they managed to get it their way in the end.
I am not even surprised anymore. That’s why I will let John Stewart do the explaining:
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The annual seal massacre in 
