User:Peter Campbell/Climate change links

From Greenlivingpedia, a wiki on green living, building and energy

These are recent links on Climate change (from Delicious) that I have bookmarked:

Melbourne's spring drought set to send rainfall records to a new low | theage.com.au

MELBOURNE is closing in on a number of unwelcome records, as the severe lack of spring rain continues to worry scientists and water officials. The city could yet achieve the lowest rainfall for the first two months of spring, and in an extreme case, could still record its lowest yearly rainfall result. The dry conditions are reviving debate about how the Government can best secure Melbourne's water supply. [?]

International Energy Agency

Renewable Energy News - IEA Report Favours Renewable Energy - Says Era Of Cheap Oil Over : Solar Power & Wind Energy : solar panels, wind generators, batteries, inverters - Energy Matters

World Energy Outlook 2008 report [?]

Green Left - Thousands ‘walk against warming’

On November 15, thousands of people took to the streets across Australia to demand that governments take much more urgent and serious action to stop the global warming that is threatening life on Earth. On November 15, thousands of people took to the streets across Australia to demand that governments take much more urgent and serious action to stop the global warming that is threatening life on Earth. [?]

The energy revolution has already begun; it's time to march | theage.com.au

The energy revolution has already begun; it's time to march | theage.com.au

Climate-change action could well lift us from this economic slump. WHEN the world's environment ministers gather in the Polish city of Poznan next month to discuss the new global climate deal, the Federal Government will announce its long-awaited short-term targets for reducing greenhouse emissions. This will give the world an opportunity to assess the scope of Australia's climate change credentials and ambition. The latest World Energy Outlook from the conservative International Energy Agency underlines the fundamental choice before the Government: introduce strong targets and policies to help stimulate multitrillion-dollar investments in creating a clean energy system or, in the words of the energy agency, face "catastrophic and irreversible damage to the global climate". [?]

[0804.1126] Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim?

Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3 deg-C for doubled CO2, including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6 deg-C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO2 fell to 450 +/- 100 ppm, a level that will be exceeded within decades, barring prompt policy changes. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm. [?]

zero2green - CO2 101

easy to explain to anyone with a bit of grade five math and grade nine physics. And we can in moderation, CO2 is a good thing. It is naturally in the air we breathe and plants need it. At the turn of the last century, there was 350 parts per million (PPM) concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere. Today there is 450 PPM and it is projected that by 2050 there will be 650 PPM. CO2 is one cause of global warming. Where does all that CO2 come from? [?]

Worldchanging: 350 ppm

"The evidence indicates we've aimed too high -- that the safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 is no more than 350 ppm," says Jim Hansen. 350: That is the level to which Hansen believes we need to reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide (and by implication, other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere if we want to avoid a series of catastrophic climate tipping points. [?]

Cash can't quell the flames as fires ravage exclusive haven | theage.com.au

JOHN and Jacqueline Kennedy honeymooned there. Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bridges, John Cleese, Rob Lowe and Ivan Reitman live there. Ellen DeGeneres used to, before she sold her estate earlier this year for about $US20 million to Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive. Once populated by grizzly bears and wolves, Montecito, a verdant enclave in Santa Barbara County, Southern California, for decades has been home to celebrities and corporate titans residing in luxurious estates. [?]

Thousands walk against warming - Environment - Specials - smh.com.au

Tens of thousands have gathered in Sydney's CBD to urge the Federal Government to adopt a swifter response to the climate crisis. Despite grey skies, a colourful crowd showed up in Martin Place today to support the Nature Conservation Council of NSW's fourth Walk Against Warming march. [?]

Arctic update II at Larvatus Prodeo

Since we last looked at the Arctic ice coverage the equinox has been passed, the sun has set and the sea is icing up again quite nicely considering the ice loss fell just short of the 2007 record. [?]

Clean coal aim a dirty deal for WA : thewest.com.au

An oxymoron is not an idiot who likes clean air. It is simply the name for a combination of contradictory or incongruous words. And the biggest oxymoron you are likely to hear these days is the phrase clean coal. Coal is environmentally dirty and no one has yet succeeded in proving it can be economically burnt to make energy in a clean way. However, plenty have already failed trying to make coal clean, mainly by burying its waste gases deep underground. Even right here in WA, a project to sequester CO2 was quietly scrapped because the geological formations would have allowed it to escape. [?]

States revolt over Rudd's carbon plan | The Australian

PREMIERS are in revolt over Kevin Rudd's plans for an emissions trading scheme, urging changes to the proposed formulas for compensating export industries to ensure they are not pushed offshore. The premiers of South Australia and Tasmania have written to the Prime Minister raising specific concerns about the design of the scheme, its impact on major industries and expressing fears that the ETS will spark major losses of jobs and revenue. Queensland, Victoria and the West Australian Liberal Government have raised concerns about the effects on emissions-intensive trade-exposed industries. [?]

Carbon permits face pressure on price from global crisis | The Australian

THE global financial crisis could force up the price of the developing-country carbon permits that the Rudd Government is hoping will provide a cheap source of greenhouse gas reductions for Australian companies under its new emissions trading scheme. Recently released Treasury modelling calculates that overseas-purchased carbon permits will deliver 20 per cent or more of the greenhouse gas reductions demanded of Australian businesses by 2020, because they would be cheaper than many of the options to cut emissions in their domestic operations. [?]