How Britain went from a drought to a deluge as south-west is drenched again | UK news | The Observer. The view through the windows of the packed 11.55 London Paddington to Penzance train was of burst rivers and drowned fields. Those on board were the lucky ones. On Friday, the train was the first to make it through to the west country for days after torrential rain plunged large parts of the UK into chaos. Rising water levels threatened to swallow the track as passengers grew increasingly bewildered. "We were told one thing at Paddington," said Chris McColm, 70, who was trying to get to Totnes in Devon with her husband Tony. "I looked on the internet and it was so confusing. Respite from the wet weather is some way off. According to the Environment Agency, places at risk include all of Wales, Herefordshire, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, North Yorkshire, Lancashire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
The Met Office says that just 46mm (1.8in) of rain needs to fall before the month is out for 2012 to be the UK's wettest. It’s the CO<sub>2</sub>, stupid! – voorproefje van klimaatdebat in 2013. Dank zij ene Alec Rawls kregen we aan het eind van het jaar een voorproefje van wat ons in 2013 te wachten staat. Op ‘stopgreensuicide’ publiceerde hij het tweede concept van het IPCC-rapport, waar de betrokkenen nog aan zullen sleutelen tot de definitieve versie komend najaar wordt gepubliceerd. Getuige de titel van de website waarop hij de teksten heeft gepubliceerd, moet Rawls tot de ‘ontkenners’ gerekend worden. Een beetje googelen (hier en hier) leert inderdaad dat hij niet zomaar een ontkenner is. Rawls is van de hardnekkige, neoconservatieve soort, voor wie (de invloed van de mens op) klimaatverandering niet waar kan zijn, omdat die slecht is voor de economie. Rawls had zichzelf opgegeven als ‘expert reviewer’ van het vijfde assessment van het IPCC.
Het IPCC had kunnen verwachten dat Rawls zich niet aan de spelregels zou houden. Wat was dan die systematische fraude? Begrijpelijk leek daarom Rawls’ enthousiasme, toen in het tweede concept ineens de volgende zinnen opdoken: Needlogin?type=login&redirecturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.delawareonline. Needlogin?type=login&redirecturl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.delawareonline. The World Bank's climate hypocrisy | Environment. It's enough to give you whiplash. Last month, the World Bank put out a devastating new report on why 4 degrees Celsius of global warming "simply must not be allowed to occur. " This month, the Bank is considering whether to provide financing for a new coal-fired power plant in Mongolia. The World Bank Group's private funding arm, International Finance Corporation, is considering support for the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine project in the South Gobi Desert, a project that also includes a 750 megawatt coal plant.
Mining giant Rio Tinto is behind the venture, which is expected to cost $13.2 billion. The power plant would be used to run the mining and processing operations at what has been billed as the "world's biggest new source of copper. " As NPR has reported, mining is booming in Mongolia. This plant would only intensify that trend. While the groups cite concerns about access to water supplies and local nomadic herders, the climate concern is probably the biggest. Ontnuchterende feiten over effect klimaatverandering in Europa. Wereldwijd 1200 nieuwe steenkoolcentrales gepland - Groen.
Business chiefs call for emissions targets in power sector | Environment. The heads of major UK companies joined calls on Monday for the government to bring in a target to slash emissions from the power sector by 2030. In a letter to the prime minister, the companies criticised the split in the government over the future of energy supplies, including possible questions over the UK's commitment to its targets to tackle climate change. The uncertainty over the government's plans was paralysing investment and undermining growth prospects in the country, they warned. The government's advisers on climate change have called on ministers to introduce a target to decarbonise the energy sector by 2030, so emissions are just a fraction of current levels, to drive investment in low-carbon infrastructure.
But while the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, Ed Davey, has indicated support for a low-carbon target, backed by a range of environmental groups and businesses, the Treasury has been pushing an agenda to promote new gas supplies. Aanpassing aan klimaatverandering: strategie en beleid. Niet alle klimaatrisico’s afgedekt door beleid De kabinetten van de afgelopen jaren hebben stappen gezet om Nederland aan te passen aan het veranderende klimaat. Maar het ingezette beleid (waaronder het zogenoemde Deltaprogramma) richt zich hoofdzakelijk op waterveiligheid en ruimtelijke inrichting. Het beleid dekt zodoende niet alle terreinen af die kwetsbaar zijn voor klimaatverandering. Er worden regelmatig risico- en kwetsbaarheidsanalyses uitgevoerd naar de zwakke plekken in de klimaatbestendigheid van ons land. Klimaatadaptatiebeleid niet gecoördineerd, gemonitord en geëvalueerd Het klimaatadaptatiebeleid als geheel wordt, met uitzondering van het Deltaprogramma, niet gecoördineerd door één minister.
Kosten lopen op bij uitstel van maatregelen Wij signaleren daarnaast een financieel risico. Aansluiting met Europa: aandachtspunt. Climate change already harming the global economy - environment - 26 September 2012. By Michael Marshall Never mind what’s going to happen in 2100: climate change is already shrinking the global economy. According to the Climate Vulnerability Monitor – a report by Spanish non-profit organisation DARA – in 2010 climate change shaved 1.6 per cent off global gross domestic product. The figure was calculated by adding the harmful effects of climate change to the problems of the carbon-based economy, such as air pollution. Previous studies, such as the 2006 Stern Review, concluded that climate change would not become a net cost for decades. But they had not considered climate’s impact on productivity. Climate change now costs more than the emissions cuts that are needed to tackle global warming. More on these topics: In The 'Crazy' World Of Carbon Finance, Coal Now Qualifies For Emission Reduction Credits.
By Stephen Lacey on September 19, 2012 at 12:30 pm "In The ‘Crazy’ World Of Carbon Finance, Coal Now Qualifies For Emission Reduction Credits" A coal train, or a load of CDM carbon credits? In a decision criticized as “unfortunate” and even “insane” by onlookers, the United Nations has decided that new coal plants are eligible for carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM is a trading platform set up by the UN that allows developed countries to obtain verified emissions reduction credits through renewable energy, energy efficiency, power plant fuel switching, and sustainable transportation projects in developing countries in order to meet Kyoto Protocol targets. Now the UN has added coal to the list of eligible projects.
At a CDM Executive Board meeting last week, the organization approved new rules that allow more efficient supercritical and ultra supercritical coal plants built in developing countries to obtain carbon credits. Australian and EU carbon markets to be linked | Environment. Emissions are released from a factory chimney at an industrial park in Sydney. Photograph: Reuters Australian and European carbon markets will be linked in 2015, creating the world's biggest emissions trading market. Under the deal struck by Canberra and the European commission, Australian liable entities will be able to buy up to 50% of their carbon permits in Europe from 2015.
In 2018, European entities will also be able to purchase credits from Australia. "Linking the Australian and EU systems reaffirms that carbon markets are the prime vehicle for tackling climate change and the most efficient means of achieving missions reduction," said Greg Combet, Australia minister for climate change and energy efficiency.
"It means the EU price will drive the Australian price and that will effectively be the floor price in our system too," he said. The European commisioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, welcomed the announcement. Is Another Dust Bowl Coming. John Nielsen-Gammon, a professor of atmospheric sciences, is cautious: At this point, we still have a ways to go before things dry out enough over a long enough period of time to give us another Dust Bowl. The impact of rising temperatures is still relatively modest, and the current drought could be finished as early as this winter by effects from the developing El Niño. Nonetheless, rising temperatures make an extreme and prolonged drought more and more likely. Along those lines, Joe Romm cites studies that "project 'extreme drought' conditions by midcentury over much of the most productive and densely populated areas on Earth": [H]uman adaptation to prolonged, extreme drought is virtually impossible.
Historically, the primary adaptation to dust-bowlification has been abandonment. The word "desert" comes from the Latin desertum for "an abandoned place. " (Chart from The Weather Channel) Klimaatverandering en (andere) complottheorieën - Groen. Climate science: the gathering storm | Editorial. After the driest winter on record, Sir David Attenborough wouldn't be the only Briton to blame the wettest English summer ever on global climate change, on some inexorable shift in the planetary machinery that upsets all reasonable expectation. There is a connection, although no single meteorological episode in any locality could ever be directly linked to global warming: this flood or that cyclone might have happened anyway.
Even the increasing frequency worldwide of climate-related disasters, along with the lives, homes and harvests lost, cannot be entirely blamed on the steady increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Population growth and economic development each year deliver more potential victims, with more to lose. So much for the caution: now for the observed reality of atmospheric physics. If average temperatures increase, so will temperature extremes.
As temperatures increase, so will evaporation. As evaporation increases, so will precipitation. Environmental Policy news: EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases Survives Another Challenge. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to regulate greenhouse gases have been under attack ever since the 2007 Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court ruling that confirmed its authority to do so. In 2010, just before efforts to pass a cap-and-trade climate bill were abandoned in the Senate, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski sponsored failed legislation to nullify the Supreme Court decision and block EPA from moving forward with greenhouse gas regulations. Attempts to undermine EPA's regulatory authority were once again thwarted last month when the U.S. First, a bit of background to explain how EPA began regulating greenhouse gases. In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Massachusetts, mandating that EPA determine whether greenhouse gas emissions "endanger public health or welfare.
" Since the endangerment finding, EPA has taken steps to act on this authority. Article continues at ENN affiliate, Worldwatch Institute Image credit: www.cadc.uscourts.gov. Residents face devastation with neither flood defences nor respite from the rain | Environment. The river Yarrow has been a friend to Croston in Lancashire for centuries, with St Michael's church and its old school built close to the banks, along with the rectory, smithy and farms which saw no need to retreat to higher ground.
But three times since 1987, the sought-after village near Preston has been swept by flooding, most recently in June when 70 houses were damaged, some very seriously, by a sewage-laced torrent. Engineer Peter Thomas stands in the wreckage of his family's living room, with plaster scraped from four feet of brickwork and stud walls hacked out. The devastation will cost an estimated £80,000. On the other side of Town Road, pretty with its Jubilee bunting, Tom and Jo Burke face similar chaos on their ground floor, with a dirty tideline showing where the water peaked.
In 2010 Croston was in line for funding for a £1.27m flood defence scheme to be completed this year and which would have increased protection for 406 homes. Insurance premiums may increase to ensure flood-hit homeowners get cover | Money. UK householders face higher home insurance premiums so that those in high flood risk areas can still get cover. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says that the insurance industry and the government are discussing a scheme to ensure that 200,000 households affected by flooding will be able to renew their policies next year.
The scheme, proposed by the ABI, means a cap on premiums. Any house that would normally incur a much higher premium because of flood risk will have the extra paid out of a levy on every home policy in the UK. Insurers agreed a statement of principles with the government in 2008 to renew cover – usually at a very high premium and with an even higher excess – for flood victims. But this agreement runs out on 30 June 2013, and householders then face being refused insurance unless the government and the industry come to a new agreement. He added: "There are policies being written now that will not be offered renewal next year unless the government acts soon. " For those in the northeast, I would suggest moving to North Carolina where sea level rises of this magnitude will soon be against the law. Sea levels on the East Coast are rising three to four times faster than the global average, putting several major U.S. cities at increased risk of flooding and storm surges, according to a new study by the U.S.
Geological Survey. The findings were published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The dramatic acceleration in sea-level rise, which is driven by climate change, poses an enormous threat to Boston, New York and other urban centers, as well as to coastal wetlands, beaches and other vulnerable ecosystems, according to scientists with the Center for Biological Diversity. While scientific experts predict that global average sea levels will rise by 2 to 4 feet or more by 2100, sea levels along a 620-mile East Coast “hotspot” could increase by an additional foot, according to the USGS study.
“This is an alarming study that shows just how fast climate change is transforming our planet. Via www.enn.com. Geoengineering by Increasing Aerosols Could Make Blue Skies a Thing of the Past. P.Gordon/CC BY 2.0 Of all the geoengineering methods proposed to either stop or slow climate change, spraying aerosols into the atmosphere has consistently been judged in studies to be one of the most risky in terms of unintended consequences and one of the hardest to implement politically. Now, a new study has taken a closer look at one of those unintended consequences.
Published in Geophysical Research Letters, the study by Ben Kravitz and Ken Caldeira from the Carnegie Institution, finds that injection sulfate particles in the atmosphere sufficient to block 2% of the incoming solar radiation would make the sky 3-5 times brighter, as well as whiter (Science Daily). Their models show that while the sky would still be blue, it would be much lighter than what people are used to now, with skies everywhere looking like they now do in a hazy day over urban areas.
And then there is of course the basic fact that we would be eliminating blue skies. Global Warming is a Hoax, and Wind Turbines are Causing It. Dalende CO2-uitstoot in rijke landen is slechts papieren werkelijkheid - Groen. Heartland Institute calls on Oxford to ban Peter Gleick from giving lecture | Environment. UK greenhouse gas emission reductions – interactive | Environment. Michael Mann on climate wars: 'the hockey stick did not suddenly appear out of left field' | Environment.
Republikeinse kandidaten negeren eigen klimaatwetenschappers - Groen. Why does climate change get described as a 'stock-flow' problem? | Environment. Michael Mann: 'I've been subjected to a crescendo of attacks' – video | Environment. The Great Carbon Bubble: Bill McKibben on Why the Fossil Fuel Industry Fights So Hard Against Climate Action. How the 'windfarms increase climate change' myth was born | Leo Hickman | Environment.
In Must-Read WSJ Letter, 3 Dozen Top Climate Scientists Slam Murdoch's 16 Posers: "Dentists Practicing Cardiology" Panic Attack: Murdoch's Wall Street Journal Finds 16 Scientists to Push Pollutocrat Agenda With Long-Debunked Climate Lies. ThinkProgress. The Coming Shift to 'Climate Preparedness' Weatherwatch: Winters in northern hemisphere set to get colder | News. P-plus. New EPA Data Brings Home the Reality of Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Environment. Study Reveals That Climate Change is Now a Factor for Investment Bankers. Climate Change, Migration and Conflict: Addressing Complex Crisis Scenarios in the 21st Century. Why Can We Bail Out the Banks, But Not Our Planet? Monbiot Lets Loose. AskAMEE is like Google meets WolframAlpha for carbon footprints. Australian Green Party Leader: U.S. Climate Denial Machine “Being Directed Straight into Australia” Via Murdoch's News Corp.
Global warming will boost solar power in Europe but cause losses elsewhere | Duncan Clark | Environment. In Durban, Growing Criticism of Canada's Position on Kyoto and Push for Tar Sands. Western nations 'used bullying tactics' at climate talks | Environment | The Observer. Failure to catch climate email hacker is the real scandal | Environment. It's time scientists set an example by reducing their carbon footprint | Jens Rolff | Science. International Energy Agency Warns of Irreversible Climate Change in 5 Years. Greenhouse gases rise by highest amount on record | Environment. Russian Heat Wave Statistically Linked to Climate Change | Wired Science.
Groundbreaking data tracks carbon emissions back to their source | Duncan Clark | Environment. Evidence Builds That Scientists Underplay Climate Impacts. Investors Worth $20 Trillion Call For Urgent Action on Climate. Europeans fear climate change more than financial turmoil, poll shows | Environment. Changing the Climate Conversation to Conservation. OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted - environment - 28 July 2011. Nservative, white men more likely to be climate change sceptics, study shows | Environment. Symbolic Climate Policies, part II: why exempt coal exports?
Researchers link massive atmospheric carbon injection to end-Triassic mass extinction. Sulphur from Chinese power stations 'masking' climate change | Environment. Food Supply Under Strain on a Warming Planet. Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink | Environment. Rohrbacher suggests trees cause global warming « Climate Progress. Scientists Release Report Stressing Urgent Need to Act of Climate Change. Tough action on climate change is 'cost-effective', report shows | Environment. Fox News chief enforced climate change scepticism – leaked email | Media.
Google Earth Engine, A Powerful Tool to Monitor Climate Change. Carbon and energy hack weekend: A geeky sleepover to save the planet | Environment. Climate Change is One of Top Three Concerns Globally. Op-Ed Columnist - Who Cooked the Planet?
Co2. Europa. Milieuinformatie. Ecorio: Tracking Your Carbon Footprint via Mobile Phone - ReadWr. EU's Barroso hits back at critics of climate plan. Big Brands Form Climate Change Business Coalition · Environmenta. 20100507 Blogdiscussie klimaatverandering: Wetenschapper versus.