Democracy Now! at the UN Climate Summits. Warsaw Climate Summit 2013. Global Forest Change. Arctic storms speed up release of methane plumes - environment - 24 November 2013. A stormier Arctic could fast-track the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, potentially accelerating global warming. "Significant quantities of methane are escaping the East Siberian Shelf as a result of the degradation of submarine permafrost," says Natalia Shakhova of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
She and her team collected data – at a great cost – to show that vast areas are releasing plumes of methane gas, which is escaping into the atmosphere. In August 2010, 11 sailors aboard a tug boat drowned in the Laptev Sea while trying to rescue a fishing boat in the Arctic waters north of Siberia. What didn't emerge at the time was that they were attempting to rescue a team of Russian researchers probing whether storms that stir up the ocean will increase the release of methane from the sea bed as the Arctic warms. From their fishing boat, the researchers drilled into the bed of the Laptev Sea – a hotspot of methane emissions – and used sonar to analyse gas bubbles in the water. Super typhoon Haiyan is climate wake-up call. It seems these days that whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines.
This year the messenger was Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda. Yolanda: the Messenger By Walden Bello Hello Warsaw, this Is Haiyan calling It seems these days that whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. For the second year in a row, the world’s strongest typhoon barreled through the Philippines, Yolanda following on the footsteps steps of Pablo, a.k.a Bopha, in 2012. That it was climate change creating the super typhoons that were taking weird directions was a message from Nature not just to Filipinos but to the whole world, whose attention was transfixed on the televised digital images of a massive angry cyclone bearing down, then sweeping across the central Philippines on its way to the Asian mainland.
COP 19: Another Deadlock? Dangerous Gap Unorthodox Tactics 10 November 2013 Mr. Arctic Seafloor Releasing 17 Teragrams of Methane Every Year, Study Finds. Nov 26, 2013 04:14 AM EST The Arctic seafloor might have a larger methane time-bomb than previously assumed. A new study has found that the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is releasing 17 teragrams of methane each year, about twice as much as previous estimates. One teragram is about 1 million tons. What's worse is that climate change might be accelerating its release. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks and colleagues.
Methane is the second-most prevalent greenhouse gas in the environment, according to Environmental Protection Agency. In the seabed, the greenhouse gas is stored as methane hydrates. The East Siberian Arctic Shelf is three times larger than the nearby Siberian wetlands, which was once considered to be a primary source of methane. Shakhova and Igor Semiletov, both researchers at the UAF International Arctic Research Center, have found that the subsea permafrost in the area has thawed much more extensively than previous estimates. U.S. Le Sénat discute d'une loi visant à limiter la liberté des semences. La Confédératiion paysanne occupe ce soir mardi 21 janvier les locaux du GNIS (Groupement national interprofessionnel des semences). Le syndicat entend protester contre une loi en discussion au Parlement.
Cette proposition de loi "sur la contrefaçon", vise à contrôler davantage la liberté de semer. Si vous faites du jardinage, il vous est sans doute déjà arrivé de conserver les graines produites par vos fleurs pour ensuite les ressemer l’année suivante. C’est ce que font encore beaucoup d’agriculteurs : on appelle cela les "semences de ferme".
Mais cette pratique n’est que tolérée par la loi : depuis le début des années 1960, les semenciers peuvent protéger leurs variétés grâce à un "certificat d’obtention végétale" (COV). "Cela concerne 90% des semences utilisées aujourd’hui par les agriculteurs", indique Guy Kastler, délégué général du réseau Semences Paysannes. Mais dans les faits, de nombreux agriculteurs gardent une partie de leur récolte pour la semer l’année suivante. Photos : . Canada reveals climate stance with praise for Australian carbon tax repeal - 14 Nov 2013. Canada has dropped any remaining pretences of supporting global action on climate change by urging other countries to follow Australia's example in gutting its climate plan. In a formal statement, the Canadian government said it "applauds" the move by Australia this week to repeal a carbon tax on the country's 300 biggest polluters.
"Canada applauds the decision by prime minister Abbott to introduce legislation to repeal Australia's carbon tax. The Australian prime minister's decision will be noticed around the world and sends an important message," the formal statement from Paul Calandra, parliamentary secretary to Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, said. The Harper government withdrew from the Kyoto protocol on climate change in 2011 and Canada has failed to meet its own international emissions to cut greenhouse gas emissions - almost entirely because of its mining of the carbon-heavy Alberta tar sands. This article first appeared at the Guardian. Emissions of Methane in U.S. Exceed Estimates, Study Finds. The analysis also said that methane discharges in Texas and Oklahoma, where oil and gas production was concentrated at the time, were 2.7 times greater than conventional estimates. Emissions from oil and gas activity alone could be five times greater than the prevailing estimate, the report said.
The study relies on nearly 12,700 measurements of atmospheric methane in 2007 and 2008. Its conclusions are sharply at odds with the two most comprehensive estimates of methane emissions, by the Environmental Protection Agency and an alliance of the Netherlands and the European Commission. The E.P.A. has stated that all emissions of methane, from both man-made and natural sources, have been slowly but steadily declining since the mid-1990s.
In April, the agency reduced its estimate of methane discharges from 1990 through 2010 by 8 to 12 percent, largely citing sharp decreases in discharges from gas production and transmission, landfills and coal mines. Mr. Brazil says Amazon deforestation rose 28% in a year. Emissions of CO2 driving rapid oceans 'acid trip' 17 November 2013Last updated at 18:13 ET By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News Corals all over the world are threatened by rising rates of acidification in the oceans The world's oceans are becoming acidic at an "unprecedented rate" and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years. In their strongest statement yet on the issue, scientists say acidification could increase by 170% by 2100. The report's co-author said acidification had already caused a 30% loss of species in some ocean ecosystems.
The researchers conclude that human emissions of CO2 are clearly to blame. The study will be presented at global climate talks in Poland next week. In 2012, over 500 of the world's leading experts on ocean acidification gathered in California. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote You don't find a mollusc at the ph level expected for 2100, this is really quite a stunning fact” End QuoteProf Jean-Pierre GattusoCNRS Pickled waters. Warsaw climate talks: the world's poorest cannot wait for a 2015 deal | Environment. We are now at a tipping point that threatens to flip the world into a full blown climate emergency. As the poorest and most vulnerable people of the world endure the increasingly damaging impacts of a warming world, tired excuses and calls to delay action are no longer acceptable.
Economics aside, this is a moral and ethical challenge of the highest order. If ministers leave the UN climate talks in Warsaw this week without a clearly defined roadmap to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon world economy, our window of opportunity will become smaller yet again. Just six months ago, the world entered a new danger zone when concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed 400 parts per million for the first time in recorded history.
It came in a year of furious weather events. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that the debate over climate science is over. But our response to this gathering crisis is falling well short. De nouvelles découvertes accentuent la pression sur la conférence de Varsovie | Monde | Réduction des risques de catastrophes | Alerte précoce | Environnement | Sécurité alimentaire | Migration | Catastrophes naturelles | Politique | Eau et Assainissement. Les sécheresses récurrentes ont obligé certains membres de la communauté Wodaabe de Diffa, dans le sud-est du Niger, à abandonner le nomadisme et donc une partie de leur identité JOHANNESBOURG, 11 novembre 2013 (IRIN) - Selon une nouvelle série d’études, les facteurs de stress climatique comme les sécheresses et inondations récurrentes portent d’ores et déjà atteinte aux moyens de subsistance de certaines populations, affaiblissant leur capacité à s’adapter ou à améliorer leur vie.
Les auteurs ont exhorté les négociateurs qui se réuniront à Varsovie le 11 novembre, conformément à la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC), de redoubler d’efforts pour atténuer les effets du changement climatique. Ils ont également préconisé la constitution d’une « structure institutionnelle » dans le cadre de la CCNUCC pour les « pertes et dommages » causés par le changement climatique. Incapacité à s’adapter jk/rz-ld/amz. Catastrophes naturelles : la facture des dommages a quadruplé en 30 ans. Brésil : nouvelle accélération de la déforestation de l'Amazonie. Au Brésil, la déforestation de l'Amazonie a atteint 5 843 km2 sur un an, en hausse de 28 % par rapport à l'année précédente, a annoncé jeudi 14 novembre la ministre de l'environnement du pays, Izabella Teixeira.
"Nous confirmons une hausse du taux de déforestation de 28 %, de 5 843 km2" de forêt, a déclaré Mme Teixeira lors d'une conférence de presse. Ce résultat encore provisoire couvre la période allant d'août 2012 à juillet 2013. Le déboisement a été particulièrement important dans les états du Para et du Mato Grosso, terres de grands producteurs de soja et de grands éleveurs de bovins. Mme Teixeira a fixé une réunion d'urgence avec les secrétaires à l'environnement des états amazoniens pour leur demander des explications. Lire (édition abonnés) : L'Europe importe massivement des produits liés à la déforestation Malgré cette hausse, il s'agit du deuxième taux le plus faible de déforestation au Brésil après les 4 571 km2 enregistrés en 2012 (contre 6 418 km2 en 2011). Leaked IPCC report must be catalyst for a reassessment of global food system | Guardian Sustainable Business | Guardian Professional. In case it wasn't already clear, there is now consensus that climate change will have a significant impact on the world's food systems.
A leaked draft of the newest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) underscored the serious threat climate change poses for meeting demand for food in the coming decades. The contents of the report – though not a revelation – should be a catalyst for a complete reassessment of the global food system. Increasingly, it is not a question of if or when a changing climate will impact our food, but rather how farms and agricultural systems will choose to adapt. In a warming world there will be bursts of heavy rain and prolonged drought that will, as the UN puts it, exacerbate water shortages and shift growing seasons. What all of this will actually mean for the world's hungry though, and what we can do about it is another story entirely. But this is a false tradeoff. So what can we do? Mass Walk-Out at UN Climate Talks Protests Lack of Progress. By Paul Brown It is first time in 19 years of tortuous annual negotiations over targets and timetables for saving the Earth’s climate from overheating that the non-governmental organizations have felt sufficiently frustrated to take such a step.
Many of the 800 people involved are members of national delegations and are an important part of pushing the negotiations to a successful conclusion. The groups concerned, some of them—like ActionAid, Oxfam and World Wildlife Fund—normally considered moderate, issued a joint statement saying that the climate talks here were set to “achieve virtually nothing.” Enough is Enough The statement said: The actions of many rich countries here in Warsaw are directly undermining the Climate Change Convention itself, which is an important multilateral process that must succeed if we are to fix the global climate crisis.
Many individual statements from experienced campaigners underlined the lack of progress. Nocturnal Negotiations. Japan slashes climate reduction target amid nuclear shutdown. Climat : la conférence de la dernière chance | ARTE Journal | Monde. Australia is on track for its warmest ever year, says study | Environment. Australia is "on track" for its warmest ever calendar year, temperatures in October 1.43C above the long-term average and more than 100 heat-related records broken in the past 12 months, according to a new report. The Climate Council study, called Off the Charts, says that the country has just had its warmest ever 12-month period, from 1 November 2012 to 31 October 2013. This is the third month in a row that this 12-month temperature record has been broken.
The report, drawn from Bureau of Meteorology data, states that the past 12 months have been, on average, 0.22C warmer than any other equivalent period prior to 2013, making it likely that 2013 will be Australia's warmest ever calendar year. October saw a continuation of this trend, being 1.43C warmer than the average set between 1961 and 1990. The month was Sydney's second warmest October on record, at 3.6C above the long-term average. The Climate Council said a number of temperature records have been set so far in 2013, including –
Typhon aux Philippines: probablement des centaines de morts - 09/11. Climate Impacts Poised to Decimate Human and Earth Systems, says Leaked IPCC Draft. The leaked draft paints a bleak vision of the world if mitigation efforts are not dramatically increased and emission reduction targets met. (Photo: Shutterstock)A draft of a global scientific review on how human and natural systems are expected to respond to the growing threat of climate change has been leaked and its contents—though not wholly unexpected to those who have followed climate science news in recent years—are nonetheless both alarming and devastating. Titled, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, the leaked document is the draft version of the second installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest review of the global scientific consensus on the global warming and climate change.
The IPCC's first installment, released in September, focused on assessing the global scientific community's combined research on the causes, pace, and evidence of planetary climate change. The complete version of the leaked draft follows: Coalition turns back on UN climate summit. Parliament trumps climate talks The government says it's more important for Environment Minister Greg Hunt to be in parliament than at international climate talks. Labor disagrees. P 8, 2013 Federal politics: full coverage Australia will not be represented by a senior elected member of the Abbott government at next week's major round of international climate change negotiations starting Monday in Warsaw. It is also unclear whether the delegation of diplomats representing Australia at the talks has been given a final negotiating mandate for the meeting. Greg Hunt. The Abbott government on Wednesday cancelled meetings with business representatives and foreign diplomats to brief them on Australia's stance at the climate talks.
Advertisement The Warsaw climate summit is the first major round of United Nations climate change negotiations since the Abbott government took office. How Science Is Telling Us All To Revolt. La Russie et la Chine refusent de mieux protéger l'Antarctique.