COP20 : la « contribution » de Lima aggrave la crise climatique. This was an epic year for droughts, floods, and extreme weather. Stick your hand over a lit stove and you can get a feel for 2014’s overall climatic situation: scorching heat.
For months, experts have been predicting this will be the hottest year in recorded history, and while in the end it might not quite achieve that ignoble record, it will be way up there (perhaps at No. 3). The thermostat could’ve seemed low in your neck of the woods — meaning America’s East Coast and Midwest and the Falkland Islands — but temperatures were sweltering in the rest of the planet. Take a look at these abnormally high and record-hot readings, which represent a 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit deviation above the historical average. We wrote (and sang!) these climate apocalypse holiday carols just for you. Getting sick of all the holiday cheer?
Want to stick it to your climate-change-denying relatives and celebrate our impending doom this season? The Grist Family Singers are here to help. I know that we, at least, feel a little better now. Huge hat-tip to the talented Sam Bliss for these inspiring lyrics! And if you’re so inclined … raise a glass of egg nog and sing along: Samedi-sciences (156): la fluorescence des plantes révèle l'absorption de CO2. Letter from Lima: What's Wrong with the Climate Movement? The People’s Climate Summit, Lima, Peru, December 11, 2014 : Marching and chanting (“Change the System, not the Climate!”)
, an energetic and colorful corps of indigenous people, campesinos, students, union members, and climate activists make our way through the traffic-clogged streets of Lima, from the Campo de Marte to the Plaza San Martin. Today’s “Mega-March,” 15,000 strong, is both invigorating and frustrating. Fossil fuel companies grow nervous as divestment movement grows stronger. LIMA, Peru — Though fossil fuel companies may wave their hands dismissively at the divestment movement, some nervous actions of late show more concern than they let on.
Consider this curious incident here in Lima, as the United Nations climate talks entered their second week. Shell’s chief climate change advisor was slated to present a panel, cosponsored by Chevron, entitled, “Why Divest from Fossil Fuels When a Future with Low-Emission Fossil Energy Use Is Already a Reality?” COP20 : la « contribution » de Lima aggrave la crise climatique. A Lima, l'opposition entre pays riches et pays pauvres a empêché un vrai accord. Il y a deux semaines, le monde entier semblait d’accord : la 20e conférence des parties (COP20) de la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC), qui s’est déroulée pendant deux semaines à Lima au Pérou, devait aller le plus loin possible dans l’élaboration de l’accord de Paris en 2015.
Avec un objectif, limiter le réchauffement climatique à 2°C à la fin du siècle. Mais cet élan s’est heurté à un vieux démon des négociations onusiennes : les divergences entre pays développés et pays en voie de développement. Ce n’est donc qu’à Une heure dimanche matin (sept heures à Paris) qu’une décision, « l’Appel de Lima pour une action climatique », a finalement été adoptée. Rarement une conférence des parties aura accusé pareil retard. Télécharger le texte (en anglais) : Au cœur du blocage, le principe de « différenciation » entre pays développés et pays en voie de développement.
Page. Climat : avis de gros temps sur Paris Climat 2015. Lima, Pérou - La multiplication des événements climatiques extrêmes continue de laisser de marbre les négociateurs de l’ONU sur le climat.
L’accord trouvé sur des éléments annexes à Lima ne ferme pas la porte à un accord plus large à Paris mais il ne donne aucun signe que l’ambition nécessaire sera au rendez-vous.« Les négociateurs ont évité le naufrage sur les côtes péruviennes, mais un avis de gros temps est annoncé sur la route de Paris climat 2015 », affirme Romain Benicchio d’Oxfam France. « La faiblesse des résultats de Lima est un appel à continuer la mobilisation. Les gouvernements ne mettront pas en œuvre les solutions nécessaires sans que des voix ne se fassent entendre. La mobilisation doit redoubler en 2015 pour s’opposer aux intérêts particuliers qui profitent du statu quo ». ‘L’appel de Lima sur l’action climatique’ comprend un premier jet pour l’Accord de Paris qui ne règle néanmoins aucune des questions politiques sur la table depuis des années. « Changeons le système, pas le climat » : 20 000 personnes manifestent à Lima.
Environ 20 000 jeunes, femmes, paysans, populations autochtones, employés et syndicalistes, ont manifesté le 11 décembre dans les rues du centre-ville de Lima, au Pérou, qui accueille la conférence annuelle sur le climat.
Ce pays, l’un des plus touchés par les dérèglements climatiques, a connu ce qui est sans doute sa plus grande manifestation pour la justice climatique de tous les temps. Le slogan « Changeons le système, pas le climat », a été repris par l’essentiel des organisations et mouvements sociaux et écologistes. Les revendications étaient nombreuses : luttes locales contre les projets d’extraction de ressources naturelles, de Conga (voir notre enquête) à Yasuni, bataille contre les fausses solutions, exigences de transformations et de mise en œuvre d’alternatives, protection des terres et de l’eau...
Quand la finance se branche sur la nature, par Razmig Keucheyan (Le Monde diplomatique, mars 2014) En novembre 2013, le « supertyphon » Haiyan s’abattait sur l’archipel des Philippines : plus de six mille morts, un million et demi de logements détruits ou endommagés, 13 milliards de dollars de dégâts matériels.
Clean air and recycling laws at risk in EU. 12 December 2014Last updated at 05:25 ET By Roger Harrabin BBC environment analyst Paris was blanketed in suffocating smog in March - and the new mayor has blamed diesel cars The EU may scrap plans for legislation on air pollution and waste in a drive to boost the economy, according to a leaked document seen by BBC News.
In its draft workplan, the European Commission says the priorities are creating jobs, reducing public debt and increasing industrial competitiveness. Even Australia is joining the climate fight. The prime minister of Australia is called Abbott.
His deputy, Bishop. And together they head a group of ministers who are running an anti-climate campaign with an almost religious fervor. No one sucks on climate change like Australia, mate. Australia has been named the worst-performing industrial country in the world on climate change in a report released at international negotiations in Peru. The climate change performance index ranked Denmark as the best-performing country in the world, followed by Sweden and Britain.
Among the world’s top 10 emitters, Germany was ranked the highest at 22. Australia was second bottom overall, above Saudi Arabia — which was not classified as industrial. A BP spill’s worth of methane is leaking from the ocean off of Washington every year. You know how ocean temperatures have been on the rise lately? Well, it might mean a more comfortable day at the beach, but if you’re in the Pacific Northwest, I have some bad news for you: According to a new study, because of the temperature rise, we could see a huge release of deep-sea methane off the coast of Washington state.
One of the researchers compared the amount of methane currently being released to the amount of oil that gushed from the BP oil spill. “We calculate that methane equivalent in volume to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is released every year off the Washington coast,” said Evan Solomon, a coauthor of the study, which was published in Geophysical Research Letters. And if the water in the region warms by 2.4 degrees C by 2100, the size of that annual methane release could quadruple. Methane is leaking out all over the damn place, thanks to the oil and gas industry. Methane, the second most common greenhouse gas emitted by the U.S., is a scary, scary thing. Thanks to two new studies, we just found out a bit more about how, through drilling for oil and gas, it leaks into the air. Compared with CO2, methane is frighteningly potent — it’s 86 times more effective at trapping heat than CO2 over a 20-year time period. Even though the EPA estimates that methane is only 9 percent of the greenhouse gas cocktail the U.S. is tossing into the sky, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates that methane is responsible for around 25 percent of the human-made global warming we’re experiencing.
The biggest source of methane emissions? Mettons les pollueurs à la porte des négociations climatiques de l’ONU. Le Danemark, meilleur élève de la lutte contre le réchauffement. 13.pdf. 3 Days to Lima: UN Technical Papers Open New Frontiers for Local and Subnational Action. Food for decisions in Lima to scale-up actions towards and beyond Paris Ahead of the UN Lima Climate Change Conference (COP20/CMP10), the UNFCCC Secretariat has released a comprehensive Technical Paper (TP), together with four addendums on land-use, urban environment, carbon capture use and storage, and non-CO2 gases. The documents summarize over two years of intensive and rich dialogue and interactions through the Technical Expert Meetings (TEM) of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), under the guidance of the ADP Co-Chairs, with the engagement of all Parties and stakeholders and the technical support provided by the UNFCCC Secretariat.
PHOTOS: This is what one year's worth of Beijing pollution looks like. Every day, 365 days a week, Beijing resident Zou Yi photographs the same building. Since January 27, 2013, he's been uploading a single picture of Beijing's BTV Tower to his Sina Weibo microblog — every morning, without fail, from the exact same angle at the exact same time. "Like a lot of people," he said in an interview with CEN, "I forget [PM2.5] readings as soon as I read them. " "A picture is worth a thousand words. If you see the same place, at the same time over a full year, the quality of the air becomes perceptible immediately. " Read DoD report: 2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap. WMO Weather Reports 2050 - France. Alarm bells toll for human civilization as world's 12th largest mega-city to run out of water in just 60 days. The city of Sao Paulo is home to 20 million Brazilians, making it the 12th largest mega-city on a planet dominated by shortsighted humans.
Shockingly, it has only 60 days of water supply remaining. The city "has about two months of guaranteed water supply remaining as it taps into the second of three emergency reserves," reports Reuters. [1] Technical reserves have already been released, and as the city enters the heavy water use holiday season, its 20 million residents are riding on a fast-track collision course with severe water rationing and devastating disruptions.
Here’s what your city will look like when the ice sheets melt. Seattle mapmaker and urban planner Jeffrey Linn loves cities. “I spend a lot of time thinking about cities and how people fit into them,” he writes on his website. “I walk. I bus. I sometimes bike. I like trains and cables and pantographs. Recently, while in between jobs, Linn started creating maps of major U.S. cities — underwater. Specifically, his maps show what coastal cities would (will) look like if (when) all the ice caps melt, and the seas rise roughly 80 meters, or 260 feet. Here’s Linn’s (and Grist’s) hometown. Here’s L.A. Also in the collection: Underwater maps of Portland, San Diego, Vancouver, and Palm Springs. À Lima, l'homme qui avait touché le monde entier est écarté de la négociation climatique.
Alors que s’ouvre la 20e Conférence des Nations Unies sur le changement climatique à Lima (COP20), au Pérou, l’absence de Yeb Sano, ce négociateur philipin qui avait marqué la COP19 de Varsovie en exhortant en larmes les pays les plus riches à prendre les mesures adéquates pour répondre à l’urgence climatique, est lourde de sens. Le rôle des Etats-Unis et de l’Europe dans ce limogeage reflète les réticences des responsables historiques du changement climatique à s’orienter vers un accord le plus juste et ambitieux possible pour le climat. Evincé pour vouloir sauver le climat Au sein des négociations sur le climat, les Etats négocient en « blocs » de pays répondant à des intérêts communs. Mais c’est également l’absence de l’emblématique Yeb Sano au sein de la délégation philippine qui marque l’ouverture de cette COP à Lima.
. - La vidéo du discours de Yeb Sano - L’influence des Etats-Unis et de l’Union européenne. La fonte des glaciers 3 fois plus rapide en Antarctique Occidental. Seas are rising in weird, new ways. Here’s a fun fact about “sea-level rise”: The seas aren’t actually level to begin with. Because of predictable, long-term patterns in climate, global winds push more water into some oceans than others.
This leaves the seven seas (not really a thing) divided into six “basins” (actually a thing). Water in these interconnected systems can slosh around to different areas while the overall volume stays the same — much like water in a bathtub. Or so we thought! Last month in the super-sexy-sounding journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists published research suggesting that changes to the Earth’s climate are driving changes in the way sea level rises in some of these ocean basins.
India may be the next big polluter to announce a climate plan. India is poised to unveil a new climate plan as soon as January, an Indian business publication is reporting. That’s yet another bit of good news that makes a 2015 global climate agreement look just a little more likely. Up until now, India, the third-largest annual emitter of greenhouse gases, has been resistant to calls for limiting emissions.
But when the U.S. and China, the two largest climate polluters, announced an agreement to curb their emissions last month, the world’s eyes turned toward the third country in line. Le jeûne pour le climat prend de l'ampleur. Dans les rues de Paris, pour le climat Survey. December 1, 2014 - Tell #COP20 Climate Delegates: If Not Cutting Emissions, You Are Failing. When a composer wins a Pulitzer for a symphony about sea-level rise, we listen. Why this U.N. climate summit is especially important. Climat: les négociations entament à Lima un marathon jusqu'à Paris - L'Obs.