The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
Environmentalists contend that shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century, according to an article in The Australian (14/6/2006, p.8). Petition for polar bear protection: In February 2005, the Centre for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree, California, Petitioned the Federal Government to Continue Reading →
The new conservative government in Canada has cut spending on addressing climate change and labelled its existing targets as "unrealistic". This decision was announced at the same time as a new report outlined ways in which the government could acheive its existing targets using bioenergy. … more
Mayors from around the world were being invited to Kyoto, the ancient
capital of Japan and the birthplace of the Kyoto Protocol, in February
2007 to discuss global climate change, reported United Press
International on 22 February.
Connection with UNFCCC meeting: The Second World Mayors Council
on Climate Change was being organised in connection with the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (UNFCCC).
First mayoral conference in Montreal in December 2005: The first
mayoral meeting was held in Montreal last December following a proposal
from Mayor Yorikane Masumoto of Kyoto. It brought together mayors from
15 cities in 11 countries, including Seattle, Bonn, Germany, and
Geneva, Switzerland.
Trading of emission credits on agenda: Next year’s Kyoto
meeting, which the organisers expect would assemble about 500
specialists from around the world, was set to discuss measures on
climate change by local governments, including trading of carbon
dioxide emission credits.
Trading in greenhouse gas emissions was thriving one year after the
Kyoto Protocol came into force on 16 February, reported Agence
France-Presse.
Source erisk.net
Under Kim Beazley, Labor has already committed itself to a dark,
expensive, energy-less future for all Australians, brought about by the
introduction of a quasi, ill-conceived emissions trading program, said
Federal Industry, Tourism and Resources Minister, Ian Macfarlane in a
media release.
Costly Kyoto: The Beazley Blueprint will advocate a future where
electricity and petroleum costs more and jobs will be sacrificed in the
name of a short-sighted protocol on greenhouse emissions arrest.
Electricity up 50pc and 15,000 jobs gone: The ABARE Outlook
2002 report on Climate Change found that if Australia were to ratify
the Kyoto Protocol, Australian electricity prices could be 50 per cent,
about A6 cents a kilowatt hour, higher than they would otherwise be by
2015. Labor’s own research shows that the introduction of their carbon
tax would cost Australia more than 15,000 jobs.
LABOR’S left-wing powerbroker
Martin Ferguson has urged the party to renounce the Greens and support the
Howard Government’s Asia-Pacific climate
partnership, reported The Australian last
week. The Opposition resources spokesman said it was time to abandon
the “political correctness” of the environmental movement and recognise
the role of Australian business in providing jobs.
“It is extraordinary that
the Greens could place the economic security and jobs of their constituents at
risk,” Mr Ferguson said. “Let’s be real – without getting business on board we
cannot achieve anything.”