Get ready for climate change, says UN panel

The toll from ever-more intense floods, drought, and heatwaves will crescendo this century unless humanity anticipates the onslaught, according to a UN report set to be unveiled on Friday.
In an 800-page assessment, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says global warming will magnify the frequence and force of extreme weather events, and defences must be prepared now to avoid worse misery in the future.
"The character and severity of impacts ... depends not only on the extremes themselves but also on vulnerability and exposure," notes a draft "summary for policymakers" obtained by AFP.
The 20-page document is being vetting this week at a meeting of the 194-nation body in Kampala, Uganda.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon drove home the "be prepared" message at a climate forum in Dhaka on Monday.
"Natural hazards need not cause human catastrophe," he said. "There are many cost-effective remedies that communities and countries can take to reduce the impact of extreme weather events."
Poor countries with scant margin for manoeuvre will be hit first and hardest.
But the 2003 heatwave that killed 70,000 in Europe and Hurricane Katrina's flooding of New Orleans are deadly reminders that rich countries must brace for impacts too.
And beyond a certain threshold, the report cautions, all efforts to adapt may be overwhelmed unless the underlying carbon emissions that drive global warming are held in check.

read more...

Scientists give chilling warnings on climate

New Zealanders have been issued with a stark warning to expect "surprises" by scientists who say they cannot keep up with extreme weather events linked to climate change.
Scientists opened a climate change conference in Wellington yesterday by stating that changes in climate being experienced around the globe were beyond their worst-case scenarios.

read more...

Cloud ships and artificial trees could offer last hope to save climate

Forests of artificial trees, giant space mirrors and sailing ships that create clouds may offer the only hope of saving the world from dangerous climate change, Britain's leading scientists said today.
A report by the Royal Society - Britain's most prestigious science body - said global engineering projects that suck carbon dioxide out of the air or reflect the sun's rays into space had 'useful potential' as a weapon against global warming.
But the authors added that risky and unproven attempts to meddle with the climate could have 'catastrophic consequences for mankind' if they were used irresponsibly and that the priority was to cut carbon dioxide emissions.

read more...

Climate change fueling forest fires in Europe

MADRID - Greenpeace Thursday warned of an imminent “global emergency” as climate change fuels forest fires that have already destroyed tens of thousands of hectares in southern Europe this year.

“Climate change is driving a new generation of fires with unknown social and economic consequences,” said Miguel Soto, Greenpeace Spain forests campaigner.

Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Portugal have been among the countries worst hit by wildfires that swept across southern Europe in July amid sizzling temperatures and fierce winds.

Europe as a whole has lost some 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of forest to fires so far this summer, far more than the whole of 2008, when 158,621 hectares were destroyed, the E.U. said on Monday.

“With climate models predicting increased heat waves in the coming years, we are fast approaching a global emergency.”

read more...

UK maps climate change forecasts

Detailed forecasts of how climate change may affect the UK during this century are to be released by the government later.

The report will predict how temperature and rainfall are likely to change at regional and local scales.

Scientists believe winters will be wetter, particularly in the north, and summers drier, especially in the south.

The projected impacts are "worse than the government had feared," according to a source familiar with the project.

The government hopes the UK Climate Projections 2009 report (UKCP09) will allow citizens, local authorities and businesses to plan better for future decades.

"The picture it paints is an alarming one"

read more...

Amazon hit by climate chaos of floods, drought

SAO PAULO — Across the Amazon basin, river dwellers are adding new floors to their stilt houses, trying to stay above rising floodwaters that have killed 44 people and left 376,000 homeless.

Flooding is common in the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, but this year the waters rose higher and stayed longer than they have in decades, leaving fruit trees entirely submerged. Only four years ago, the same communities suffered an unprecedented drought that ruined crops and left mounds of river fish flapping and rotting in the mud.

Experts suspect global warming may be driving wild climate swings that appear to be punishing the Amazon with increasing frequency.

read more...

Oxfam warns of climate disasters

The number of people hit by climate-related disasters is expected to rise by about 50%, to reach 375m a year by 2015, the UK-based charity Oxfam says.

Current humanitarian systems are barely able to cope, an Oxfam study contends.
It warns agencies are in danger of being overwhelmed by events such as flooding, storms and drought.
The group called for a radical shift so that humanitarian aid is sent impartially, instead of on the basis of political or other preferences.

read more...

Prepare for longer emergencies due to climate change

The rise of freak weather storms as a result of global warming means that people should add extra water and supplies to their emergency stockpile. Traditionally, homeowners have been warned to keep 72 hours worth of food and water in case they are disconnected from the power grid because of a severe storm or flood. Even if most people were able to sustain themselves for 72 hours that would have given emergency responders the ability to deal with the most urgent cases. But times are changing as the climate changes. Now people should be prepared now to be without power for as long as a week. "We should be thinking about how to be more self-sufficient because we do have a changing climate and we're going to have to adapt." Families should be stocked with food, water, batteries, radio, first-aid supplies and any special items such as medication and baby formula.

read more...

USA ignoring climate change threat

U.S. municipalities and other organizations most at risk of sustaining damage from climate change are not adapting enough to counteract the potential dangers of higher global temperatures. "Despite a half century of climate change that has already significantly affected temperature and precipitation patterns and has already had widespread ecological and hydrological impacts, and despite a near certainty that the United States will experience at least as much climate change in the coming decades just as a result of current atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, little adaptation has occurred." New York City's flood maps are based on historical data and not on climate change modeling data. Increases in sea levels and storm surges associated with stronger storms could inundate JFK Airport and lower Manhattan, including the subway entrances and tunnels into Manhattan. In Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas, where water supply is critical, climate change has not been factored into state agencies’ current water management plans. Municipal public health agencies in Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, among others, have not factored climate change into plans for confronting public health risks, despite the belief that climate change will increase the incidence and severity of vector-borne diseases and respiratory illnesses. (the full report)

Even though parts of the USA have been UNUSUALLY COLD for the past couple of weeks, Nordic ski events in the Czech Republic had to be canceled this week due to the UNUSUAL WARMTH and lack of snow.

read more...

Freak Antarctic Rain Storms Killing Infant Penguins

Antarctica
Tens of thousands of newly-born penguins are freezing to death as Antarctica is lashed by freak rain storms.

Scientists believe the numbers of Adelie penguins may have fallen by as much as 80 per cent – and, if the downpours continue, the species will be extinct within ten years.

Full Story Available at Skywatch-Media Entertainment

read more...

Russia fears climate catastrophe in Arctic

RUSSIA fears climate catastrophe in Arctic - Global warming could bring “terrible destruction” in the Russian North, the country’s Ministry of Emergency Situations admits. He says global warming could bring “catastrophic destruction” in the northern parts of country by 2030. The melting of the permafrost could pose a major threat against northern airports, as well as underground reservoirs of oil and gas. A warming of only one-to-two degrees will reduce the firmness of the permafrost by as much as 50 percent. He adds that already today, the thickness of the permafrost is reduced by about four centimetres per year and that the permafrost zone over the next 20 years is expected to move 80 km north. The climate change will increase the chances of flooding and that major amounts of methane might be released from the ground

read more...

Act on climate change, top scientists warn U.S.

CLIMATE CHANGE

A group of 1,700 leading scientists called on the U.S. government Friday to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the "UNPRECEDENTED and unanticipated" effects of global warming, the scientists presented a letter calling for an immediate reduction in U.S. carbon emissions. The statement came as the Senate prepares to debate a bill next week that would impose economy-wide limits on greenhouse emissions to avert what it describes as "catastrophic climate change". The White House joined in the chorus of gloom when it issued a long-delayed report bringing together research into global warming. The report was issued after environmental groups won a court order last year enforcing a statute that obliges the government to produce an assessment of global warming every four years. Described as a "litany of bad news in store for the U.S.", the report catalogues threats from drought, natural disaster, insect infestation and energy shortages. The scientists call on the government to "put our nation on to a path today to reduce emissions on the order of 80% below 2000 levels by 2050...There is no time to waste. The most risky thing we can do is nothing." Another group of climate scientists warned that a "false optimism" has infused international climate talks. The scientists said the world has lost 10 years talking about climate change when it should have acted. The scientists say that even the most politically feasible target, of a 50% global reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 from the levels of 1990, would still entail "major global impacts".

RELATED NEWS

A record number of tornadoes has ripped through the Midwest this year. In recent years we have already witnessed a greater number of high-intensity hurricanes. Water levels in the reservoirs of the West are so low that water managers are trying to figure how to keep water flowing to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles. Forest fires and insect outbreaks are more frequent. A warmer climate speeds the maturation of crops, such as grain and oil seeds, and the crops are more susceptible to failure. 800 scientific studies have examined the effects of global warming on 1,598 animal species and nearly 60% have already been affected. Climate change is not something happening in the future. It is happening now. Even the Bush administration, which did its best to delay action, now admits as much.

read more...

Red Cross: Up to 128,000 may have died in Myanmar

Myanmar (Burma)
Image: A child is carried by a boy in a village affected by Cyclone Nargis located near the Myanmar capital Yangon May 14, 2008. (Strinnger/Reuters)Another powerful storm is headed toward


New Cyclone Developing



Story: Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta. The Hawaii-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center said there is a good chance that "a significant tropical cyclone" will form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy delta area. The new cyclone would likely not be as severe as Nargis because it is already close to land, and cyclones need to be over sea to gain full strength. "There will be a lot of rain but the winds will not be as strong." So little aid has reached the area that the U.N. warned today of a "second wave of deaths" among an estimated 2 million survivors. U.N. agencies and other groups have been able to reach only 270,000 people so far. Getting to the worst-affected areas was getting more and more difficult, and the impending storm was expected to compound the misery of the survivors. Some survivors of Cyclone Nargis were reportedly getting spoiled or poor-quality food, rather than nutrition-rich biscuits sent by international donors, adding to suspicions that the junta may be misappropriating foreign aid. The news of a second cyclone was not broadcast by Myanmar's state-controlled media.

read more...

Faster climate change fears

Endless summer ... the sun sets at Henley Beach on Friday. PICTURE: JO-ANNA ROBINSON

South Australia
South Australians are being warned to brace for harsher and more regular heatwaves amid fears climate change may be occurring faster than forecast. Meteorologists and researchers say timeframes calculated by organisations such as the CSIRO for climate change impacts of higher temperatures, falling rainfall and rising sea levels are now conservative at best. And they warn the normal four seasons will blur as temperatures increase and summer stretches well into the autumn months. The South Australian Bureau of Meteorology regional director said he was confident the current record heatwave – which Saturday stretched into its 13th day – was a result of global warming, and it was evidence the rate of climate change could be gaining pace. "If we had the same weather pattern 20 years ago, we are confident the temperatures would not have been as high. Because of the greenhouse effect, the atmosphere can now contain more heat than ever before. The rate of global warming could be higher than even the most recent predictions. It's possible it's happening faster than we thought." "Climate change is just not something our children are going to have to worry about, it's something we are already seeing....Based on what we are seeing in the real world – with very rapid increases in temperature, with very large changes in the great ice sheets – this is a much more serious problem than we would have considered a year ago. It's becoming hotter, drier and more extreme. The kind of weather that we have been used to is a thing of the past. The reality is that there is no such thing as natural weather any more. We're heading into very dangerous uncharted territory." "You look at the global scale, things are running at the upper end of what we have been expecting."

read more...

Prince Charles: Domesday clock of climate change ticking

Great Britain
Prince Charles: We are not reacting quickly enough to the problem of climate change

The Prince of Wales has called for a "war" on climate change, warning that the world faces a catastrophe without a "revolutionary" approach to the threat. He delivered an apocalyptic warning that time is running out unless there is concerted action. "For me, the crux of the problem is - and I only pray I will be proven wrong - that the doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight. We are simply not reacting quickly enough. We cannot be anything less than courageous and revolutionary. If we are not, the result will be catastrophe for all of us, but with the poorest in our world hit hardest of all. In this sense, it is surely comparable to war. The lives of billions of people depend on your response and none of us will be forgiven by our children and grandchildren if we falter and fail. I don’t think there is a more urgent issue for any of us to be addressing at work, at home, and indeed in every facet of our lives, than climate change." We are fast drifting towards a climatic disaster that could lead to humanitarian catastrophe, economic recession and dramatic environmental change."

read more...

Climate set for 'sudden shifts'

Breaking Earth News
BBC News
Many of Earth's climate systems will undergo a series of SUDDEN SHIFTS this century as a result of human-induced climate change, a study suggests. They argue that society should not be lulled into a false sense of security by the idea that climate change will be a gradual process. "The greatest threats are tipping of the Arctic sea-ice and the Greenland ice sheet, and at least five other elements could surprise us by exhibiting a nearby tipping point." Global warming has begun to affect some aspects of our climate, but that change is THE START OF A SERIES OF MORE DRAMATIC CHANGES if global warming continues. A number of systems that influence the Earth's weather patterns COULD BEGIN TO COLLAPSE SUDDENLY if there's even a slight increase in global temperatures. The nine ecological systems that they say could be lost this century and the time it will take them to undergo a major transition are as follows:

*Collapse of the Indian summer monsoon (about 1 year)
*Melting of Arctic sea-ice (about 10 years)
*Greening of the Sahara/Sahel and disruption of the West African monsoon (about 10 years)
*Dieback of the Amazon rainforest (about 50 years)
*Dieback of the Boreal Forest (about 50 years)
*Collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (about 100 years)
*Increase in the El Nino Southern Oscillation (about 100 years)
*Decay of the Greenland ice sheet (about 300 years)
*Collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet (about 300 years)

read more...

US warns EU on using climate change as pretext

Official (Susan Schwab) says it has been an excuse for protectionism

BRUSSELS - The United States warned the European Union yesterday against using climate change as a pretext for protectionism, setting the stage for trans-Atlantic tension over a new package of EU measures to combat global warming.

The pointed comments by the US trade representative, Susan Schwab, after talks in Brussels, came just two days before the European Commission introduced its proposals for cutting EU emissions at least 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

"We have been dismayed at a variety of suggestions where we have seen the climate and the environment being used as an excuse to close markets," Schwab said after discussions with Peter Mandelson, her European counterpart.

read more...

Climate change threatens N. Ireland's Giant's Causeway

Breaking Earth News

Ireland
Climate Change

BELFAST (AFP) - The Giant's Causeway, the spectacular rock formation on the Northern Irish coast, could soon become difficult to access due to climate change, a report warned Tuesday.

The iconic world heritage site, one of the province's biggest tourist attractions, will be under threat if sea levels rise and storms worsen, said the National Trust conservation organisation, which owns and manages the site.

The report warned that the site was at risk from coastal erosion and flooding over this century.

"In the short term (2020) increasing storminess would require increasingly rigorous hazard management, while in the medium term (2050-2080) slope instability and cliff retreat increase," the report said.

read more...

Changing climate 'is leading to rougher seas'

Huge waves pound the sea wall at Walcott near Great Yarmouth

Breaking Earth News
Great Britain
Earth Changes

Climate change is having a significant impact on the health of the seas surrounding Britain, says a new report.

Britain on alert as floods threaten once more Rising seas, bigger waves, flooding, and more violent storms are already happening as temperatures increase.

2006 was the second-warmest year in UK coastal waters since records began in 1870 and seven of the 10 warmest years have occurred in the last decade, according to the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) report card 2007-08.

The report attempts to assess how much climate change has affected the UK's marine environment and what the consequences may be in the future.

Coastal erosion, which already affects 17 per cent of the UK coastline is expected to increase and more powerful seas will have a major impact on commercial operations in ports and shipping while coastal buildings will be more vulnerable to damage.

Fishing will be also affected by temperature change making worse the problems already caused by over exploitation.

read more...

Japan temperatures could rise five degrees by 2100

TOKYO -- Global warming could cause temperatures in Japan to rise an average of 4.7 degrees Celsius (8.5 Fahrenheit) above normal by the last three decades of the century, an environment ministry panel has warned.

Japan's rainfall may fluctuate widely between a 2.4 percent decline and a 16.4 percent increase compared with the levels recorded in the final four decades of the last century, the panel said in an interim report this week.

The panel is looking to chart out possible scenarios for climate change in a final report to be submitted ahead of the July summit in Japan of the Group of Eight rich nations, where climate change will be a major issue

read more...