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Climate change media to 13 January 2009
ENERGY & INNOVATION-------------
Ethanol to 'eat into grain crop'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24872431-11949,00.html
Greg Roberts, The Australian, 5 January 2009
The new ethanol mandate for unleaded petrol in NSW will chew up 20 per cent of the state's grain crop, raising the prospect of food price hikes nationally and the possibility that grain may need to be imported.
The staggering cost of new nuclear power (3 parts)
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/1/5/163027/5088
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/1/7/103256/5726
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/1/8/135714/0734
Joseph Romm, Gristmill, 05-08-09 January 2009
A new study puts the generation costs for power from new nuclear plants at from 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour -- triple current U.S. electricity rates!
REPORT (PDF)
http://climateprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/nuclear-costs-2009.pdf
Green revolution: still possible amid deep recession?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0107/p05s01-wogn.html
Mark Rice-Oxley, Christian Science Monitor, 7 January 2009
Economic retreat could hamper green investment – but it could also spur a drive to move economies away from fossil-fuel dependencies.
Can technology clear the air?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126901.200-can-technology-clear-the-air.html
Robert Kunzig and Wallace Broecker, New Scientist, 7 January 2009
THREE hundred and eighty-five parts per million: that's how much carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere now.
International Energy Agency 'blocking global switch to renewables'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/08/windpower-energy
David Adam, the Guardian, 9 January 2008
International Energy Agency accused of consistently underestimating potential of wind, solar and sea power while promoting oil, coal and nuclear as 'irreplaceable' technologies
Coal-fired power blamed for rise in emissions
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/global-warming/coalfired-power-blamed-for-rise-in-emissions/2009/01/12/1231608600431.html
Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2009
Queensland's dependency on coal-fired power stations is to blame for a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, a new report has found.
POLITICS & POLICY-------------
It will take more than goodwill and greenwash to save the biosphere
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/06/oil-business-climate-change
George Monbiot, The Guardian, 6 January 2009
Shell may boast about tackling climate change, but companies tend always to sacrifice good intentions for hard cash.
Defence warns of climate conflict
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/global-warming/defence-warns-of-climate-conflict/2009/01/06/1231004021036.html
Jonathan Pearlman and Ben Cubby, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 January 2009
Rising sea levels could lead to failed states across the Pacific and require extra naval deployments to deal with increases in illegal migration and fishing, a Defence Force analysis says.
This is indeed a class war, and the campaign against the Aga starts here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/13/heathrow-campaigners-environmentalism-brendan-oneill
George Monbiot, the Guardian, 13 January 2008
Climate change allows the richest on earth to trash the lives of the poorest, no matter how Furedi's cult spins it
•• UN Climate Conference: The countdown to Copenhagen
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/un-climate-conference-the-countdown-to-copenhagen-1242601.html
Michael McCarthy, The Independent, 9 January 2008
In 331 days' time, 15,000 officials from 200 countries will gather in the Danish capital with 1 goal: to find a solution to global warming.
Giant plasma TVs face ban in battle to green Britain
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/giant-plasma-tvs-face-ban-in-battle-to-green-britain-1299665.html
Geoffrey Lean and Jonathan Owen, The Independent, 11 January 2009
Energy-guzzling flatscreen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change
Climate change is more than abstract idea
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climate-change-is-more-than-abstractidea/2009/01/09/1231004283349.html
Tanveer Ahmed, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 January 2009
When my family migrated to Australia, we settled near a creek in Sydney's western suburbs.
SCIENCE & IMPACTS----------
•• Tibetan Plateau in Peril
http://www.feer.com/international-relations/20098/january58/Tibetan-Plateau-in-Peril
Michael Zhao, Far Eastern Economic Review, 11 January 2009
Climate change is usually discussed as tomorrow’s problem. But the world’s most elevated land, the Tibetan Plateau, is already feeling the effects of warming temperatures, melting glaciers and permafrost, and degrading pastoral ecosystems. Put simply, the Tibetan Plateau is melting, endangering much of Asia and the world's population.
VIDEO
http://www.asiasociety.org/chinagreen/origins-of-rivers-omens-of-a-crisis
http://www.asiasociety.org/chinagreen/climatic-changes
•• Unprecedented heat will trigger global food crisis
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090109.CLIMATE09/TPStory/Environment
Martin Mittelstaedt, Globe & Mail, 9 January 2009
Simultaneous crop failures throughout the world will be the most immediate threat from rising temperatures, scientists warn
RESEARCH
Historic warnings of future food insecurity with unprecedented seasonal heat
David S. Battisti and Rosamond L. Naylor, Science 323: 240-244
http://science-mag.aaas.org/cgi/content/abstract/323/5911/240
Ocean acidification - the other CO2 problem
http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/features/story.aspx?id=265
Planet Earth feature, 5 January 2009
Climate change has many dangerous consequences, but few of them have risen to prominence as quickly as the threat of ocean acidification. Tom Marshall explores the problem.
Sea absorbing less CO2, scientists discover
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/12/sea-co2-climate-japan-environment
David Adam, The Guardian, 12 January 2009
Scientists have issued a new warning about climate change after discovering a sudden and dramatic collapse in the amount of carbon emissions absorbed by the Sea of Japan.
Is geo-engineering an answer? The Independent survey
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/what-can-we-do-to-save-our-planet-1221097.html
The Independent, 2 January 2008
AND
Ocean fertilization experiment draws fire
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090109/full/news.2009.13.html
The mystery of Antarctica's speeding glacier
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/4126979/The-mystery-of-Antarcticas-speeding-glacier.html
Richard Gray and Richard Alleyne, UK Telegraph, 5 January 2008
The 30 trillion litres of the Pine Island Glacier are melting far faster than the rest of the western Antarctic. Now a British team are sending a robot submarine under the ice to discover precisely why.
Note: Here's what we said about the Pine Island Glacier in "Climate Code Red":
"Another vulnerable place on the West Antarctic ice sheet is Pine Island Bay, where two large glaciers, Pine Island and Thwaites, drain about 40 per cent of the ice sheet into the sea. The glaciers are responding to rapid melting of their ice shelves and theirrate of fl ow has doubled, whilst the rate of mass loss of ice from their catchment has now tripled. NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot has studied the Pine Island glacier, and his work has led climate writer Fred Pearce to conclude that ‘the glacier is primed for runaway destruction’. Pearce also notes the work of Terry Hughes of the University of Maine, who says that the collapse of the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers — already the biggest causes of global sea-level rises — could destabilise the whole of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Pearce is also swayed by geologist Richard Alley, who says there is ‘a possibility that the West Antarctic ice sheet could collapse and raise sea levels by 6
yards [5.5 metres]’, this century.
Massive Greenland meltdown? Not so fast, say scientists
http://news.smh.com.au/world/massive-greenland-meltdown-not-so-fast-say-scientists-20090112-7egz.html
Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2009
The recent acceleration of glacier melt-off in Greenland, which some scientists fear could dramatically raise sea levels, may only be a temporary phenomenon, according to a study published Sunday.
ACTION-------
•• How I became an eco-warrior
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/12/carbonemissions-theairlineindustry
Rebecca Frayn, The Guardian, 12 January 2009
Yes, we all need to play our part in reducing carbon emissions. But the government must lead by example
MORE ON HEATHROW CAMPAIGN
'Heathrow is a monster. It must be fed'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/10/interview-john-stewart-heathrow-campaigner
The aviation industry will keep bluffing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/12/heathrow-third-runway
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