Category: climate change/deniers

urgent if not too late campaign

BRAZIL ..New Forest Code sellout.

By Clarinha Glock*

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, May 16, 2011 (Tierramérica) – The adoption of a new Forest Code in Brazil could threaten efforts to curb Amazon deforestation, which was reduced 70 percent between 2004 and 2010.

The proposal to amend the current Forest Code, presented in the Chamber of Deputies by Communist Party of Brazil representative Aldo Rebelo, was to be put to a vote on May 11. After hours of heated debate, the vote was postponed until Monday May 16. But on Monday the entire process was once again put off.

In addition to reducing the so-called permanent preservation areas that must be reforested if cleared, it establishes an amnesty for landholders who have illegally cleared forests on their properties. Under the current legislation, they are subject to fines. “This makes it seem as if the law wasn’t made to be obeyed,” said Azevedo.

If this part of the proposal is approved, reforestation would no longer be required on up to 15 million hectares of land, according to the Ministry of Environment.

Race to carve up Arctic as Ice Melts

Secret US embassy cables released by Wikileaks show nations are racing to “carve up” Arctic resources – oil, gas and even rubies – as the ice retreats.

They suggest that Arctic states, including the US and Russia, are all pushing to stake a claim.

The opportunity to exploit resources has come because of a dramatic fall in the amount of ice in the Arctic.

The US Geological Survey estimates oil reserves off Greenland are as big as those in the North Sea.

The cables were released by the Wikileaks whistleblower website as foreign ministers from the eight Arctic Council member states – Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland – me

continued…

via BBC News – Newsnight – Wikileaks cables show race to carve up Arctic.

Climate Change Denial Syndrome –

Climate Change Denial..Heads in The Sand

  is the new book from ecologist Haydn Washington and the founder of Skeptical Science,

To begin with then, the authors recap climate science, talking us through the carbon cycle, the greenhouse effect, the natural changes and the man-made ones……

This is the science as accepted by every academy of science in the world and by 97 percent of climate scientists. That it isn’t accepted by a similar ratio of the general public is due at least in part to a concerted denial movement. Conspiracy theories, fake experts, misrepresentations and cherry-picked data proliferate, much of it sponsored by those with an interest in preserving the status quo. It is well known that Exxon has been a major funder of dissenting climate work, in partnership with the Global Climate Coalition. Koch Industries has since picked up the baton. This is not the truth seeking of true skepticism – it is big business paying millions to protect their own interests, by sowing doubt and kicking up dust..

Lobbying and paid experts are the tip of the iceberg. They’re the obvious villains but denial only takes hold because, fundamentally, it is something we want to believe……

At this point, those looking for another excuse to sneer self-righteously at the climate denial movement might get a wake up call of their own. Washington and Cook are adamant that we are all implicated. ‘We are compelled to conclude that we the people also have something to answer for. We as a society let denial prosper…

When they return from another round of failed talks, we don’t protest. We quietly prefer them to pretend. After all, if they actually paid attention to our petitions, they might take away our cars, holidays, and cheap imports.

via Climate Change Denial – Reviews – The Ecologist.

This blog promotes ‘The Free’, an adventure novel set in the collapse of Capitalism.  free DOWNLOAD page, click HERE 

The Methane Gun

Methane & Warming Oceans (extracts)

Methane (CH4) is a very potent greenhouse gas, 20-30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) on a century timescale. Fortunately, it only occurs in very low concentrations in the atmosphere – about 0.3 to 0.4 parts per million during ice ages and 0.6 to 0.7ppm during warmer periods………

……The description of Stage 2: Very rapid and massive release of carbon with low ∂13C does put one in mind of the Methane Gun hypothesis. This hypothesis states that rising temperature and/or lower sea level causes clathrate at shallow depth to begin melting which in turn causes warming to increase, melting even larger and deeper clathrate deposits. The result: the relatively sudden, massive and catastrophic release of methane into the atmosphere – the firing of the Methane Gun. The recent discovery by Davy et al (2010) of kilometer-wide (ten 8-11 kilometer and about 1,000 1-kilometer-wide features) eruption craters on the Chatham Rise seafloor off New Zealand adds further ammunition to the Methane Gun hypothesis……

……..However, measurements by Shakhova indicate that emissions of methane from the ESA may be as high as 3.5 billion tonnes per annum (if verified, this amount is enough to trigger abrupt climate change), or about 3 times the total mankind artificially adds into the carbon cycle yearly. This methane release is likely coming from sediments previously covered by thin and now melting permafrost at the sea bed as well as melting clathrate, or some combination of both. Even more troubling, the ESA is estimated to hold 1,000 billion tonnes of methane in the form of clathrates alone…

Continued..(long article)

via Wakening the Kraken: Methane & Warming Oceans : TreeHugger.

Climate Change Causing Tornadoes?

Today, the US policy of burning fossil fuels unabated has increased the probability of life-threatening storms.

By the time the link between climate change and any one weather event can be absolutely established, it may be too late to do anything—as horrifically demonstrated in the South last week.

—A NASA study in 2007 predicted climate change would lead to more tornadoes and lethal storms in the United States, and ignoring this warning in light of recent events would seem foolhardy.

Whether or not last week’s tornadoes were caused by climate change, extreme weather is on the rise.

.

Stop nationalist mind control!

Anti-Nationalist Front in Cyprus

First steps in order to establish anti-nationalist front.

Against hysteria and extremism there is only one solution: REVOLUTION!

via Anti-Nationalist Front in Cyprus.

Environmental refugees

The disappearance of Lohachara beneath the waters of the Bay of Bengal created environmental refugees. Dan McDougall reports on other islanders in the Sundarbans delta who have no escape from the rising ocean.

His exhausted body a prisoner to the Bay of Bengal’s violent tides, Dependra Das stretches out his bony arms to show his flaky, ravaged skin. He is covered in raw saltwater sores…. cont

via Environmental refugees – The Ecologist.