Wealthy nations pledged billions to help the poor adapt to climate change. Where did it all go?
One of the cruel ironies of climate change is that the poor countries that have contributed the least to the problem are expected to get hit the hardest. A woman and her children walk to the Transit Center to find water in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia. More than 300,000 refugees fled severe drought, conflict and famine in southern Somalia in 2011 into Ethiopia and Kenya (William Davies / AFP/Getty Images) That's why, in recent years, many of the world's wealthier nations — including the United States, Germany, Britain, and Japan — have promised billions of dollars in aid to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of global warming and switch over to cleaner energy sources. In 2009, these nations pledged $30 billion in "fast start" climate finance over the next three years, with a promise to scale that up to $100 billion per year in aid from both public and private sources by 2020. So it's worth asking: What does this climate aid actually look like? (Credit: Overseas Development Institute)
Warmer in Southern Europe, wetter in the North
The Norwegian parliament in a light rain. Politicians need to do more than pay lip service to green goals. (Photo: iStock) Research Director Øystein Hov of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute in Oslo has led the efforts of a European research group which pooled their research-based knowledge about what global warming will bring in the way of more extreme weather in Europe. Here are some of the most probable changes the scientists expect in the course of the 21st century: In Central and Southern Europe it will get warmer and more arid. The report Extreme Weather Events in Europe: preparing for climate change adaptation was presented at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo last week. “The clearest conclusions we have reached involve temperatures, droughts and precipitation. Hot and cold The researchers also think Central and Southern Europe can expect more heat waves. Europe will generally be warmer. Winds are harder to predict. Adapting to the climate changes
Medical breakthroughs missed because of pointless drug bans
In 1632 the Catholic Church convened a case against Galileo on the grounds that his work using the telescope to explore the nature of the heavens contradicted the church’s teaching - the culmination of a long fight that had lasted 16 years. Galileo was put under house arrest and his research stopped. Some of his inquisitors refused even to look down a telescope, believing it to be the work of the devil. With his life under threat, Galileo retracted his claims that the earth moved around the sun and was not the centre of the universe. Three centuries later we have an equivalent case of scientific censorship. However, another major impact of these laws – restriction of research - has hardly been discussed. A research black hole Two of the most limiting areas have been in the fields of research into cannabis and psychedelics, both of which were put into the UN’s most restrictive lists, deemed to have no value to medicine. The ban was largely driven by political concerns. What can be done?
'Debate on Science is Over, Time to Act Is Now': World Reacts to IPCC Report
The new report further states that greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would induce changes in the oceans, ice caps, glaciers, the biosphere, and other components of the climate system. (Underlying photo: UNEP)Following the release of the IPCC's first installment of its fifth assessment report (AR5) on climate change in Stockholm on Friday, environmental groups, experts, and activists from around the world were reacting to the findings contained in the report and commenting on the implications it will or should have as the planet faces the "unprecedented" rate of global warming and the irrefutable consensus by the world's scientific community. For most, the report's findings represent only a more precise and updated affirmation of what has been known to most experts for decades. What follows is a sampling of those reactions and perspective from those on the frontline of the climate issue. Climate campaign movement leader 350.org: Canada's David Suzuki Foundation: P.J.
Obama signs executive order to prepare the U.S. for climate change
“The impacts of climate change — including an increase in prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification and sea-level rise — are already affecting communities, natural resources, ecosystems, economies and public health across the Nation,” reads an executive order signed this morning by President Obama. The order’s purpose is to coordinate federal agencies and help communities increase resilience to these events, as the New York Times first reported last night: For instance, when federal money is being spent on projects like roads, bridges, flood control and many others, the plan would encourage greater attention to the likely climate conditions of the future, which might require making the structures stronger or larger. It also sets up a Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience to advise on federal policy.
How to encourage moral behavior.
Suppose a high school student cheats on a test. How harshly should a parent or teacher treat this offense? The efficacy of punishment in such situations has been controversial, and a new study sheds some light on the consequences of punitive control in moral matters. When someone behaves immorally, a psychologist would typically say that the individual has not internalized the moral norm; that is, she may profess that an action is morally wrong, but she has not really taken that information to heart. How can a parent or teacher encourage such internalization? Attribution theories have been quite influential in how psychologists think about this matter. Doing so will gain compliance because the child will want to avoid punishment, but the child will not internalize the norm. That theory would predict, then, that once the threat of punishment is removed, these children will engage in the forbidden behavior. But another prediction of the theory is wrong. That's the theory.
Citizens Climate Lobby
Abandoned Russian farmland soaks up 50 million tons of carbon every year
When the USSR collapsed, the communal farming systems that helped feed the union’s citizens collapsed with it. Farmers abandoned 110 million acres of farmland and headed into the cities in search of work. New research by European scientists has revealed the staggering climate benefits of that sweeping change in land use. New Scientist reports that’s equivalent to 10 percent of Russia’s yearly fossil fuel carbon emissions: “Everything like this makes a difference,” says Jonathan Sanderman, a soil chemist at CSIRO Land and Water in Australia. The finding is a stark reminder of how Earth does a bang-up job of soaking up carbon if we leave more of it undeveloped and un-farmed. Correction: This post previously understated the amount of land abandoned by farmers following the collapse of the USSR — by a factor of more than 100.
