Cooler Smarter book provides practical steps for low carbon living

May 17th, 2012 by Island Press

(Please click on book cover to go to publisher's website)

While the routine decisions that shape our days—what to have for dinner, where to shop, how to get to work—may seem small, collectively they have a big effect on global warming. But which purchasing choices and changes in our lifestyles might make the biggest difference to the climate?

The new book, Cooler Smarter: Practical Steps for Low-Carbon Living, is based on a comprehensive two-year study by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

While other green guides suggest an array of tips, Cooler Smarter explains how to make the biggest impact and when not to sweat the small stuff.

The advice in Cooler Smarter can help you save money and live healthier. But its central purpose is to empower you, through low-carbon living, to confront one of society’s greatest threats. Continue reading

Science academies ask G8 to tackle global environmental challenges

May 11th, 2012 by US National Academy of Sciences

National science academies from 15 countries issued joint statements on 10 May 2012 calling on world leaders who are about to meet at the upcoming G8 Summit and other international gatherings this year to give greater consideration to the vital role science and technology could play in addressing some of the planet’s most pressing challenges.

The “G-Science” statements recommend that governments engage the international research community in developing systematic, innovative solutions to three global dilemmas:

• how to simultaneously meet water and energy needs;
• how to build resilience to natural and technological disasters;
• and how to more accurately gauge countries’ greenhouse gas emissions to verify progress toward national goals or international commitments. Continue reading

Antarctic ice sheet may melt more rapidly with thinning of ice shelf

May 10th, 2012 by Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

The edge of the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica (click image to expand - image courtesy of Alfred Wegener Institute ©Ralph Timmermann)

The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, may start to melt rapidly in this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

These predictions are made by climate researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association in the British science magazine “Nature“.

They refute the widespread assumption that ice shelves in the Weddell Sea would not be affected by the direct influences of global warming due to the peripheral location of the Sea.

The results of the climate modelers from the Alfred Wegener Institute will come as a surprise as the majority of experts assumed that the consequences of global warming for Antarctica would be noticeable primarily in the Amundsen Sea and therefore in the western part of Antarctica. Continue reading

Small island nations commit to increase renewable energy supply

May 9th, 2012 by United Nations Development Programme

The Achieving Sustainable Energy for All in Small Island Developing States Conference concluded on 8 May 2012 with the adoption of the “Barbados Declaration” calling for universal access to modern and affordable renewable energy services, while protecting environment, ending poverty and creating new opportunities for economic growth.

The declaration, adopted just weeks before the UN Conference on Sustainable Development ‘Rio+20’, includes an annex with voluntary commitments of 20 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to take actions toward providing universal access to energy, switching to renewable energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

The host country announced their plan to increase the share of renewable energy in Barbados to 29% of all electricity consumption by 2029. Continue reading

Fish responding to climate change

May 8th, 2012 by Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership

(click on report cover to go to MCCIP website)

The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (MCCIP) launched its latest Report Card at the World Fisheries Congress in Edinburgh.

It focuses on how climate change is affecting the fish and shellfish we find in our seas, providing both opportunities and threats, and what the social and economic consequences could be.

Key findings in the 2012 MCCIP Report Card include: Continue reading

Royal Society report frames global challenge facing humanity

May 2nd, 2012 by The Royal Society

(Please click report cover to go to download page)

Consumption levels between developed and developing nations must be rebalanced alongside a stabilisation of the world’s population by voluntary methods, according to a new report from The Royal Society.

The most developed and the emerging economies must stabilise consumption levels, then reduce them, to help the poorest 1.3 billion people to escape absolute poverty through increased consumption.

Alongside this, education and voluntary family planning programmes must be supported internationally to stabilise global population.

The new report, People and the Planet, is the result of a 21 month study by the Royal Society, the UK’s 350 year-old national academy of science, on the issues around global population. Continue reading

Upward revision of greenhouse gas emission projections increases prospect of greater temperature rise

May 1st, 2012 by PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

(click report cover to go to download page)

The United Nations climate negotiations in Cancún in 2010 and earlier in Copenhagen in 2009, called for urgent action to limit global warming to 2° Celsius.

In order to reach this climate goal, 42 industrialised countries submitted quantified economy-wide emission reduction targets for 2020, and 45 developing countries submitted nationally appropriate mitigation actions. All these pledges have been anchored in the Cancún Agreements.

Since the negotiations in Cancún, developing countries have provided additional information, especially on projected emission levels without climate policy (business-as-usual emissions). Continue reading

WorldWatch Institute’s State of the World 2012 outlines what is needed for global sustainable prosperity

April 30th, 2012 by Worldwatch Institute

(click on book cover to go to publisher's website)

Over the last 50 years, the world’s middle and upper classes have more than doubled their consumption levels, and an additional one to two billion people globally aspire to join the consumer class.

The planet cannot maintain such increases in resource demand without serious consequences for both people and ecosystems, concludes the Worldwatch Institute in State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity.

The book, the 29th in a series that Worldwatch began in 1984, stresses that we must act quickly to redefine our understanding of the “good life” and redouble our efforts to make that life sustainable. Continue reading

Greenhouse gases altering patterns of rainfall and ocean salinity

April 27th, 2012 by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

A clear change in salinity has been detected in the world’s oceans, signaling shifts and acceleration in the global rainfall and evaporation cycle tied directly to climate change.

In a paper, ‘The Greenhouse Is Making the Water-Poor Even Poorer‘ published on 27 April 2012 in the journal Science, Australian scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported changing patterns of salinity in the global ocean during the past 50 years, marking a clear symptom of climate change.

Surface salinity changes for 1950 to 2000. Red indicates regions becoming saltier, and blue regions becoming fresher. (Click map to expand. Map courtesy of Paul Durack, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

Lead author Paul Durack said that by looking at observed ocean salinity changes and the relationship between salinity, rainfall and evaporation in climate models, they determined the water cycle has become 4% stronger from 1950-2000. Continue reading

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide

April 23rd, 2012 by C02Now.org

CO2 Data Set: Original data file posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday April 5, 2012

Measuring Location: Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii

Data Source: Scripps CO2 Program UCSD / Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Why is CO2 significant?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the chief greenhouse gas that results from human activities and causes global warming and climate change. To see whether enough is being done at the moment to solve these global problems, there is no single indicator as complete and current as the monthly updates for atmospheric CO2 from the Mauna Loa Observatory. Continue reading