TAKE ACTION: Given the science and evident abrupt climate changes, Kyoto successor agreement must be negotiated now that includes mandatory emissions reductions for all major emitting economies

More than 1,000 government delegates are now meeting in Bonn to try to break gridlock in international climate change negotiations amid widening public concern and widely evident global warming impacts. This is the first time government climate delegations have met since the U.N. sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a spate of reports this year, drawing on the studies of some 2,500 scientists, which predict grim consequences of global warming if swift action is not taken. These climate change policy-makers must be challenged to develop a strengthened Kyoto regime as soon as possible that transitions the world to low carbon societies. Current Bonn talks are preparing for a meeting of environment ministers in Bali, Indonesia, in December. It is essential formal negotiations are launched in Bali to widen and strengthen the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol as soon as possible. With the strengthened science, evident climate impacts now, and the rapidity of their advancement; negotiations must commence immediately, or at the latest in Bali in December, for a strengthened and expanded Kyoto system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This can not wait until 2012 when the present Kyoto protocol expires. As was done to successfully address the ozone hole under the Montreal Protocol, timetables must be advanced and mandatory participation in emission cuts expanded if the world is not to burn. TAKE ACTION

Posted by Dr. Glen Barry | Permalink | Comments (11) | More on Kyoto post

Agreement has just been reached by UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delegates, a grouping of climate science experts, regarding the best ways to mitigate climate change [more | news search]. Importantly, the main conclusion is that the world has what it takes to fight climate change and that such climate mitigation policies are affordable [more | more2]. This Working Group III Report "Mitigation of Climate Change" [official summary] is the third segment of a larger IPCC report. The first concluded global warming is almost certainly human caused and the second warned of the consequences already occurring and yet to come such as massive human death and disease, droughts, floods, and storms. The new climate mitigation [search] report proposes limiting concentrations of greenhouse gases to between 445 parts per million and (gulp!) 650 parts per million (we are at 380 now). China replaced the US as the primary obstructionist, fearing the lower end target would harm its booming economy, yet it appears scientific recommendations emerged largely unscathed by government representatives. Key recommendations for stopping the rise in carbon dioxide levels include not waiting for new technologies but proceeding with the tools and policies we have now. Available policies that it is suggested must be intensified include shifts away from coal, embracing energy efficiency, reducing deforestation, fuel taxes, strengthen Kyoto's binding emission limits, and advances in solar and other renewable technologies. Climate Ark has been advocating these policies for years.There are concerns in the report as well -- an emphasis upon nuclear energy, biofuels and little mention of ancient forest logging. Yet, in balance it is refreshing the report focuses upon real ways to reduce emissions now rather than pie in the sky technology for later.

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Men of courage such as Prince Charles have called for a rapid response to climate change akin to fighting WWII, George Monbiot continues to show through methodical research that dramatic emission cuts are the only way forward, and lesser men such as myself have pointed out the need for serious structural changes in how society is organized to fight climate change; including population controls, carbon taxes, a ban on coal, an end to ancient rainforest logging [alert] and rapid, ambitious renewable targets, if we and the Earth are to survive. Forget about geoengineering proposals including seeding the ocean with iron (plankton blooms = ocean dead zones), orbiting Earth mirrors to reflect radiation, and distant plans to filter and sequester carbon from coal and the atmosphere. Doing so will lead to severe negative and chaotic follow-on effects, and distracts from the obvious - climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions and it will only be successfully addressed by starting to dramatically reduce these emissions now. In addition to the Chinese and American governments, and the UN IPCC process; individuals such as Laurie David, Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Branson and even Al Gore who sell easy, painless chimerical solutions are full of it. Climate change and the whole raft of attendant global ecological emergencies will only be solved through extreme personal sacrifice and learned voluntary simplicity, and major societal restructuring of economics, agriculture, transport and others. Those looking for easy answers that allow continued profligate energy consumption and living large are delaying the hard choices necessary to save being. Cimate change incrementalists do a disservice to truth and the Earth.

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