New research indicates global warming is intensifying hurricanes and other storms. Major storms spinning in both the Atlantic and the Pacific since the 1970s were found to have increased in duration and intensity by about 50 percent, largely due to increased ocean temperatures but also atmospheric increases as well.

We can stop speaking of catastrophic climate change caused events in the future tense. Climate Change is happening now. Like no other environmental problem (and there are plenty), climate change threatens to swiftly and irrevocably unravel the global ecological system.

Every day without a coordinated urgent international response limits the possibility of averting climate change apocalypse now. Industrial society has eaten the Earth and we shall all pay - with a bit of sacrifice now, or mayhem and global ecocide later.

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Best science indicates that greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 60% before 2050 if we are to have a stable climate that mostly resembles what we have now. There is no way this will be achieved by burning even a fraction of the coal that still remains available. This "clean coal" propaganda is just crap - the whole process of burning coal and then sequestering the carbon, as well as liquid gas made from coal, are untested technologies that at the moment are little more than vaporware. Yet the coal industry is rebounding. The recent announcement of a climate pact between the U.S. and the world's other major coal producers is little more than claptrap, as the coal industry takes a nod from the oil industry on how to squelch the type of energy and climate policies required to save the Earth. Fossil fuel criminals they all are.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (2) | More on coal climate change

It is being reported that the United States will join India, China and Australia in announcing a new pact to limit greenhouse gases as an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol. The new pact focuses upon new technologies to help energy-hungry Asia-Pacific economies such as China and India slash emissions. This is a good idea - but it is largely cosmetic, working at the margins of the problem. The best available science suggests that carbon dioxide emissions need to be reduced by 60% by 2050 to avoid climate catastrophes. This is not going to be achieved through new technologies alone. This may well prove to be a worthwhile agreement, as long as it does not obstruct Kyoto's emphasis upon emissions reductions

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How many more reports are needed before it is accepted unequivocably that climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions is upon us? Apparently at least one more, as a major Australian report has been released. This and previous reports have indicated the potentially cataclysmic impacts upon arid Australia - perhaps making large swathes of the country uninhabitable (even more than currently). It is time for Australians to get their heads out of their pints of beer and realize that continental level ecological sustainability is a stake. As a start, they should ratify Kyoto immediately.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | More on climate change impacts Australia

While climate change is indeed inevitable, the question is whether it will be deadly or manageable is far from resolved. As the science underlying climate change has become indisputable, it is fascinating to witness the new weak rationales of those unwilling to tackle the difficult task of placing modern society on an energy diet. These obstructionists have gone from saying climate change is not happening, to saying it is but we just need to adapt. But with the possibility that climate changes could be much more extreme than ecosystems can handle, this may be deadly to human civilizations. Yes climate change is inevitable, yes we need to adapt, but this does not alleviate the need to embrace ambitious energy conservation, emissions cuts and renewable energy subsidies to ensure the inevitable change falls within the range that is survivable.

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The United States Senate shares the distinction with Exxon Mobil/Esso (a campaign target at http://www.climateark.org/action/alert.asp?id=Exxon ) of being the biggest obstacle to international climate change policy-making. All Senators – both Democrat and Republican – failed to show climate leadership by refusing to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. And with shockingly shallow arguments - it is disingenuous to expect dirt poor countries to limit emissions on the same time table as the super affluent nations. To say so is merely cover for doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. And while increasing numbers of Senators may now understand that the science behind climate change is rock solid, with potentially devastating impacts, there still remains a deadly dearth of policy in response.

Indeed, a core group of conservative reactionary Republicans have gone further – denying, distorting and indeed obstructing well established climate science. Most recently Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas has demanded data and financial records from leading climate scientists. Their offense was authoring a highly rigorous scientific study reporting a sharp rise in global temperatures during the 20th century, based on an analysis of tree rings, glacial ice and coral layers (see http://www.realclimate.org/ for more information). This Congressional intimidation of respected climate scientists smacks of McCarthyism – and comes from an individual deeply indebted to oil companies. This is criminally negligent behavior in the face of climate change that portends possible global ecological collapse.

While almost as many registered and self-described Republicans as Democrats agree that the climate is changing and human activity is responsible, any response that will prove sufficient depends first upon Republicans reigning in their climate denying ideologues. And it is well past time for all Senators to move beyond recognizing the problem, and start producing difficult but essential policy solutions. All right minded and responsible Senators must immediately and urgently support modest existing Democratic and moderate Republican initiatives to set targets to cut emissions, while vastly increasing support for energy conservation and renewable energy programs. While this would just the beginning of steps necessary to reform industrial society in the face of looming climate change, nonetheless a start must be made in these directions immediately.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | More on climate policy US Senate

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There may be no organizational entity on the Earth that has done, and continues to do, as much damage to the Earth's climatic systems as ExxonMobil (except perhaps for the current United States government). ClimateArk endorses and will join the "Exxpose Exxon" boycott campaign recently announced by a dozen major environmental organizations – more information at http://www.exxposeexxon.com/ . The campaign seeks to highlight ExxonMobil's misdeeds, calling for a boycott of the World's largest and most profitable oil company until it cleans up and becomes a responsible energy company.

ExxonMobil (also known as Esso) has spent $15 million to deny the existence of global warming, paying for junk science to cloud the facts. ExxonMobil is the only major oil company trying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. And while ExxonMobil is making record profits, some $25 billion last year, unlike its competitors BP and Shell, it still will not invest significantly in developing cleaner, healthier energy and supporting greater fuel economy. Indeed, ExxonMobil has still not paid full damages to Alaska fishermen and natives harmed by their major oil spill in 1989 into Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound, killing hundreds of thousands of seals, otters, birds, fish and whales.

Enough is enough. As the world’s largest and most profitable oil company, ExxonMobil needs to shed its past as an irresponsible oil company and move forward as a responsible energy company -- one committed to more than drilling at any price. Visit http://www.exxposeexxon.com/ now, and watch for and participate in ClimateArk's support action to follow soon.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (2) | More on climate change Exxon

The G8 climate change declaration will apparently recognize that global warming is a problem, and is at least partially caused by humans, doing nothing substantive about the problem. Wait. Where the hell have these old men been? This has been known for years - and vast scientific consensus has shown this again and again. Other countries again caved into the United States. A marvelous opportunity to exert leadership on energy conservation, renewable energy and emissions reductions has been lost. My personal favorite G8 summit memory thus far is President Bush asking other countries to conserve oil as the United States continues to guzzle it. I am not sure how much more time we have to talk about rather than act on climate change and overuse of fossil fuels.

What happened in London was absolutely tragic, inexecusable and criminal. Yet it pales in comparison to the death to come from collapsing climatic systems. Indeed, the death toll was a fraction of how many die from bad water each day in Africa. Where is our sense of proportion, and where do our priorities lie? Which country gets invaded next, breeding how many more new terrorists? Lets fight terrorism and climate change with equal vigor and resolve.

G-8 declaration recognizes global warming

Leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations reached a global warming agreement that recognizes the problem as partly caused by human activity but does not set targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Thursday.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | More on climate G8

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The Toxic Texan has arrived at the G-8 meeting, where he has been stating that Kyoto does not work, and that limits on emissions would destroy America's economy - which are nonsense. First and foremost, many of Kyoto's difficulties are due to President Bush's intransigence in not signing the treaty. It is fair, just and equitable that rich countries limit emissions before poor countries. Kyoto was not meant to be the end all of international climate policy. While Kyoto's existing emission cuts are inadequate to stop climate change, it sets important precedents – particularly in the realm of carbon trading and project-based schemes.

The European emissions-trading system has become the leading innovator, with the only officially sanctioned emissions trading system in place. EU emissions trading started in January of 2005, to help members meet commitments to the Kyoto Protocol. Emission trading is market based, and has demonstrated an economically efficient means of providing incentives to cut pollution. It does so by incorporating external costs of fossil fuel use into costs of production. The price of a one-ton carbon dioxide emission allowance started around at about $9 in January and has since surged to $34 on July 4th.

The emissions trading market is not perfect. It needs to expand to include all countries including the United States. European companies are at a disadvantage, and their governments are taking a risk with their economies in order to address what is a global problem. But despite US obstructionism, the market is growing and companies are taking it seriously, and carbon is becoming an expense that is factored into their business decisions.

Implementation of carbon taxes – which further reflect the damage done by carbon to the global environment – has been slower to develop, but would complement emissions trading by sending strong market signals. This need not raise taxes overall, as taxes such as the capital gains and/or income taxes – on something that we want – could be dropped in order to tax carbon, something of which we want less. The ClimateArk has made one such carbon tax proposal called the "Lincoln Plan" at http://www.climateark.org/lincoln_plan/ .

Trading is also slowly picking up in emissions reduction certificates - allowances for emissions related to projects in developing countries - issued by the United Nations under its Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism. The Russian power grid monopoly Unified Energy Systems recently signed Russia’s first projects under the Kyoto Protocol’s investment rules with the Danish government, hoping to raise cash for the country’s aging electricity sector.

The sooner these systems, which assign a cost to carbon ,are made global and are fully up and running, the more chance the Earth's climatic system can be stabilized without dire consequences to economies, societies and ecosystems. The G8 meeting is unlikely to get us there, so our climate change movement must continue to work to establish "political will to make countries around the world develop basic building blocks in parallel so that in future there is enough commonality to converge."

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | More on carbon emissions trading Europe

Very interesting things are happening in the U.S. Senate:

http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=43284

Senators have passed Senator Hagel's plan to develop and adopt climate-friendly technologies.

They've also passed a "sense of the Senate" resolution stating that climate change is a threat, requiring mandatory curbs on emissions.

Now they just need to choose between "cap and trade" proposals, which cap emissions and let costs vary; and carbon charges, which cap costs and let emissions vary around a lowered trend line.

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (0) | More on carbon tax