The image of a lonesome polar bear on an ice flake is used so often to illustrate global warming that it is almost becoming a cliché. Still, new evidence puts the fate of polar bears in focus as the bears, loosing their hunting grounds, are driven closer to habitation.
”Hungry bears don’t just lie down – they go looking for an alternate food source. In many cases this brings them into human settlements and hunting camps,” Ian Stirling, zoologist at the University of Alberta, Canada, tells New Scientist.
In the West Hudson Bay the total polar bear population has declined by 22 percent since the late 1980s, but even so the number of attacks on humans has more than tripled. Global warming has reduced the period where the bears are able to hunt their natural food source, seals, by three weeks.
”Previous research has postulated that climate change will boost numbers of problem bears. This is the first evidence for the link,” comments Andrew Derocher, a scientist in Stirling’s team.
New data from US National Snow and Ice Data Center reports this year’s Arctic summer ice cover to be the third-smallest on record
Sunday, September 20, 2009
WWF: White biotech is a hidden solution
Not so long ago you had to wash at 60 degrees Celsius the least, if you wanted your clothes to be clean, but today you can put your laundry machine to 30 degrees and achieve the same thing. This thanks to washing powder with enzymes developed in biotechnology.
This is just an example of how the so-called ”white biotechnology” – or industrial biotechnology – can help reduce energy consumption and thus global warming.
According to a report by the Danish branch of the global conservation organization WWF, white biotechnology has the potential to reduce the world’s carbon dioxide emissions by between 1 and 2.5 billion tonnes per year by 2030. This is equivalent to more than Germany’s total emissions in the Kyoto baseline year, 1990.
”Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easy to overlook for policymakers, investors and companies,” says John Kornerup Bang, head of globalization program at WWF Denmark.
This is just an example of how the so-called ”white biotechnology” – or industrial biotechnology – can help reduce energy consumption and thus global warming.
According to a report by the Danish branch of the global conservation organization WWF, white biotechnology has the potential to reduce the world’s carbon dioxide emissions by between 1 and 2.5 billion tonnes per year by 2030. This is equivalent to more than Germany’s total emissions in the Kyoto baseline year, 1990.
”Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easy to overlook for policymakers, investors and companies,” says John Kornerup Bang, head of globalization program at WWF Denmark.
UN chief hoping for a breakthrough
Gather a hundred heads of state in the same place, get them talking privately among themselves and hope a global climate pact starts to gel.
That's the gamble the UN chief is taking, organizing an unusual high-level summit next week intended to build momentum for striking a deal this year on mandatory worldwide cuts in greenhouse gases.
"The very fact that more than 100 leaders from all around the world are gathered in one place — have you ever seen in climate change negotiations that such a large number of heads of state are gathered together at one place at one day?" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday while taking questions at a monthly news conference.
Less than three months remain before 180 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and negotiations are proving difficult. The Kyoto accord has had mixed success in binding 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Rather than hold actual negotiations, Ban's one-day event encourages world leaders to chat informally in round-table sessions and try to collectively leapfrog beyond the confines of nationalist interests.
Adding to the heightened expectations is that US President Barack Obama's first speech to the United Nations will come at this summit and deal solely with climate change, one day before he and other heads of states and ministers begin delivering their broader messages to the 192-nation General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York.
"Now, I believe that almost all the leaders of the world, they realize that this an issue of great urgency," Ban said. "I expect even though this is not a negotiating forum, the leaders will really demonstrate their strong political will."
That's the gamble the UN chief is taking, organizing an unusual high-level summit next week intended to build momentum for striking a deal this year on mandatory worldwide cuts in greenhouse gases.
"The very fact that more than 100 leaders from all around the world are gathered in one place — have you ever seen in climate change negotiations that such a large number of heads of state are gathered together at one place at one day?" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday while taking questions at a monthly news conference.
Less than three months remain before 180 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and negotiations are proving difficult. The Kyoto accord has had mixed success in binding 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Rather than hold actual negotiations, Ban's one-day event encourages world leaders to chat informally in round-table sessions and try to collectively leapfrog beyond the confines of nationalist interests.
Adding to the heightened expectations is that US President Barack Obama's first speech to the United Nations will come at this summit and deal solely with climate change, one day before he and other heads of states and ministers begin delivering their broader messages to the 192-nation General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York.
"Now, I believe that almost all the leaders of the world, they realize that this an issue of great urgency," Ban said. "I expect even though this is not a negotiating forum, the leaders will really demonstrate their strong political will."
Friday, September 11, 2009
China signs deal with US firm to build world’s largest solar power plant
When finished by energy giant First Solar from Arizona, the solar facility will supply power to three million Chinese homes.Energy giant First Solar from Arizona has won a deal to build the world's largest solar power plant in the Mongolian desert, AFP reports.
The US company will construct the two-gigawatt plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed Tuesday with Chinese officials.
The solar facility will be built in four stages over a decade and will eventually supply power to three million Chinese homes, the company said in a statement.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but First Solar said that if a similar plant were to be built in the United States, the cost would be about five to six billion dollars.
"In China, due to lower labor costs and other factors, we expect the plant cost would likely be lower," Lisa Morse, First Solar spokeswoman, told AFP.
The first phase of the Ordos solar power plant will be a 30-megawatt "demonstration" project that will see construction begin by June 1, 2010, officials said
The US company will construct the two-gigawatt plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed Tuesday with Chinese officials.
The solar facility will be built in four stages over a decade and will eventually supply power to three million Chinese homes, the company said in a statement.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but First Solar said that if a similar plant were to be built in the United States, the cost would be about five to six billion dollars.
"In China, due to lower labor costs and other factors, we expect the plant cost would likely be lower," Lisa Morse, First Solar spokeswoman, told AFP.
The first phase of the Ordos solar power plant will be a 30-megawatt "demonstration" project that will see construction begin by June 1, 2010, officials said
Wind could cut a third of China's emissions
China could cut its emissions by 30 percent in the next two decades if it switches to wind power to meet about half of its electricity demands, US study says.
China's energy needs are expected to double by 2030, but the country could reasonably meet half of those needs with wind, a study in the journal Science says.
Using meteorological data to assess the potential for wind power in China - world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide — the researchers also say wind could theoretically supply all of the giant's energy, though it only laid out the figures for meeting half its needs.
“The world is struggling with the question of how do you make the switch from carbon-rich fuels to something carbon-free,” lead author Michael McElroy, a professor of environmental studies at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said in a statement. “The real question for the globe is: What alternatives does China have?”
Coal currently supplies 80 percent of China's electricity, and hundreds of coal-fired power plants are built every year to keep pace with demand, but Beijing is also investing heavily in renewable energy.
It plans to build seven large wind-power bases over the next decade, and already ranks fourth in the world in terms of installed capacity, at 12.2 gigawatts — about equal to the energy produced by two dozen average-sized coal-fired plants.
China's energy needs are expected to double by 2030, but the country could reasonably meet half of those needs with wind, a study in the journal Science says.
Using meteorological data to assess the potential for wind power in China - world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide — the researchers also say wind could theoretically supply all of the giant's energy, though it only laid out the figures for meeting half its needs.
“The world is struggling with the question of how do you make the switch from carbon-rich fuels to something carbon-free,” lead author Michael McElroy, a professor of environmental studies at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said in a statement. “The real question for the globe is: What alternatives does China have?”
Coal currently supplies 80 percent of China's electricity, and hundreds of coal-fired power plants are built every year to keep pace with demand, but Beijing is also investing heavily in renewable energy.
It plans to build seven large wind-power bases over the next decade, and already ranks fourth in the world in terms of installed capacity, at 12.2 gigawatts — about equal to the energy produced by two dozen average-sized coal-fired plants.
Greenpeace: EU is trying to get away with leaving a tip
Greenpeace and Oxfam International criticize the EU Commission for not being ready to pay Europe’s share of the climate bill.
It is not enough. EU has to pay more than 15 billion euro (22 billion US dollars) a year to developing countries to fight climate change and its consequences, Greenpeace and Oxfam International agreed in their comments on the EU Commission’s financing proposal, published yesterday.
"The EU is trying to get away with leaving a tip rather than paying its share of the bill to protect the planet's climate," Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken said to Reuters.
Elise Ford, head of Oxfam International's Brussels office, noted in the Financial Times that the proposal would "in effect, rob tomorrow's hospitals and schools in developing countries to pay for them to tackle climate change now".
The 15 billion euro is the maximum proposed by the Commission’s proposal that ranges from two billion euro to 15 billion euro. At the presentation, the Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas stressed that "the level of funding will depend on how ambitious the Copenhagen agreement turns out to be." EU wants the developing countries to rein in their emissions growth in return for greater financial aid, Financial Times reports. Stavros Dimas also urged the US and other wealthy countries to come up with their financing proposals.
"As I have said before: no money from developed nations - no deal in Copenhagen," he said.
According to the Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard it was “high time” for the proposal to arrive. "It is good that the European Commission finally has mentioned the financing of a climate treaty," Hedegaard said to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, DPA.
EU estimates that the developing countries need a total of 100 billion euros a year in 2020.
It is not enough. EU has to pay more than 15 billion euro (22 billion US dollars) a year to developing countries to fight climate change and its consequences, Greenpeace and Oxfam International agreed in their comments on the EU Commission’s financing proposal, published yesterday.
"The EU is trying to get away with leaving a tip rather than paying its share of the bill to protect the planet's climate," Greenpeace campaigner Joris den Blanken said to Reuters.
Elise Ford, head of Oxfam International's Brussels office, noted in the Financial Times that the proposal would "in effect, rob tomorrow's hospitals and schools in developing countries to pay for them to tackle climate change now".
The 15 billion euro is the maximum proposed by the Commission’s proposal that ranges from two billion euro to 15 billion euro. At the presentation, the Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas stressed that "the level of funding will depend on how ambitious the Copenhagen agreement turns out to be." EU wants the developing countries to rein in their emissions growth in return for greater financial aid, Financial Times reports. Stavros Dimas also urged the US and other wealthy countries to come up with their financing proposals.
"As I have said before: no money from developed nations - no deal in Copenhagen," he said.
According to the Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard it was “high time” for the proposal to arrive. "It is good that the European Commission finally has mentioned the financing of a climate treaty," Hedegaard said to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, DPA.
EU estimates that the developing countries need a total of 100 billion euros a year in 2020.
Australians produce the most CO2
Australia has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest greenhouse gas polluter per capita, a study shows. China leads as the world’s biggest overall polluter.
Australians have overtaken Americans as the world's number one individual producers of carbon dioxide, British risk consultancy Maplecroft says.
The firm’s study places Australia's per capita output at 20.58 tons a year, some four percent higher than the United States and topping a list of 185 countries.
Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia are next in the top five. However, China remains the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter, followed by the United States.
Australia has high transport costs for goods and people due to the country’s vast size and isolation. It has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent by 2020 compared to 2000 levels.
However, emissions trading legislation was defeated in the Senate last month, leaving the target in doubt.
Australians have overtaken Americans as the world's number one individual producers of carbon dioxide, British risk consultancy Maplecroft says.
The firm’s study places Australia's per capita output at 20.58 tons a year, some four percent higher than the United States and topping a list of 185 countries.
Canada, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia are next in the top five. However, China remains the world's biggest overall greenhouse gas polluter, followed by the United States.
Australia has high transport costs for goods and people due to the country’s vast size and isolation. It has committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 percent by 2020 compared to 2000 levels.
However, emissions trading legislation was defeated in the Senate last month, leaving the target in doubt.
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