Tag: climate change

Governments meeting in Bonn embark on next steps Governments meeting in Bonn embark on next steps following historic Durban Climate Change ConferenceBonn, 14 May 2012 - Building on the historic results of the Durban Climate Change Conference last year, governments on Monday embarked on the next essential steps required to curb global greenhouse gas emissions and help developing countries adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change.The meeting will be the first opportunity to assess and to continue to implement the results of the Durban conference, and is also designed to prepare decisions for adoption at the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha at the end of 2012."Durban was a turning point, where governments agreed tasks and timelines that give the best chance of avoiding the worst of future climate change. We now need to maintain the momentum, to constantly keep turning political decisions into action," said Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary.Ms. Figueres said that the meeting in Durban had put the world on a clear path towards greater ambition, yet a gap still remained between the agreed goal of a maximum 2 degrees Celsius global temperature rise and the current, global effort to stay below that level. According to ...

BC emissions may be responsible for half or more of the warming in the Arctic The US Environmental Protection Agency concluded in a report to Congress that targeted strategies to reduce black carbon "can be expected to provide climate benefits within the next several decades," based on black carbon's strong warming potential and its short atmospheric lifetime of days to weeks.EPA concluded that black carbon was likely to be causing more warming than any climate pollutant other than CO2, although there was remaining uncertainty about the effects of black carbon on clouds, which still need to be resolved.The EPA report found that "currently available scientific and technical information provides a strong foundation for making mitigation decisions to achieve lasting benefits for public health, the environment, and climate."It highlights that cutting "BC emissions can halt the effects of BC on temperature, snow and ice, and precipitation almost immediately."Reducing BC will also provide significant public health and environmental benefits that "often exceed the costs of control.""Cutting black carbon is a triple win," said Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Washington, DC. "Cutting black carbon reduces climate change, cleans the air, and saves lives.""And we can make ...

Carbon War Room Video

Marine species have been on the move Marine protected areas (MPAs) may turn out to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a result of changing conditions, marine species have been on the move with observed shifts of as much as three kilometres per year over the past 50 years, and forecasts of shifts of as much as 300 kilometres in the coming 50 years.Decisions on where to put MPAs weren't always made with a changing climate in mind. That has researchers asking how these areas-meant to protect biodiversity-can stand the test of time.Static MPAs, or limited areas, may not work as ocean conditions change and as species shift their distribution in response to climate change. These changes will require our design and management of these ecologically rich zones to be more flexible, and will require greater collaboration and foresight.At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Brad deYoung of Memorial University of Newfoundland will present a review of technological advances in ocean modelling and observing, and show how integration of these new tools and greater collaboration will make MPAs more effective today and in the future."While climate change adds ...

Global warming and its impact on Arctic

As a result of climate change about 125,000 years ago Scientists say a research drilling project in the Dead Sea suggests its waters dried up almost completely as a result of climate change about 125,000 years ago.Drilling efforts to 300 yards deep in the center of the sea recovered sediments revealing information about ancient climactic conditions both in the Dead Sea region and in areas as far as the Arabian and Sahara deserts, researchers said."We think that the Dead Sea is a key locality to reconstruct and establish the variations of the regional climate of this area of the Mediterranean," Mordechai Stein of the Geological Survey of Israel and the Hebrew University told The Jerusalem Post.The information will allow scientists to model the effects of global warming for the future, he said.A preliminary analysis of cores from 250 yards below the seafloor found thick layers of salt covered by rock pebbles, indicating a period in which the sea had almost entirely dried up, researchers said."In order to deposit such a thick sequence of salt, the conditions in the drainage area were very arid -- there was no supply of freshwater," Stein said. "Then the layer of pebbles on top of ...

Climate balancing Engineering our way out of global climate warming may not be as easy as simply reducing the incoming solar energy, according to a team of University of Bristol and Penn State climate scientists. Designing the approach to control both sea level rise and rates of surface air temperature changes requires a balancing act to accommodate the diverging needs of different locations."Basic physics and past observations suggest that reducing the net influx of solar energy will cool the Earth," said Peter J. Irvine, graduate student, University of Bristol, UK, and participant in the Worldwide Universities Network Research Mobility Programme to Penn State. "However, surface air temperatures would respond much more quickly and sea levels will respond much more slowly."Current solar radiation management approaches include satellites that block the sun, making the Earth's surface more reflective or mimicking the effects of volcanoes by placing aerosol particles in the upper atmosphere."These solar radiation management approaches could be cheaper than reducing carbon dioxide emissions," said Klaus Keller, associate professor of geosciences, Penn State. "But they are an imperfect substitute for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and carry considerable risks."How well they work at reducing sea level rise or surface air temperatures depends on ...

Launch of Green Fund and a Climate Technology Centre and Network The outcome from the Durban Climate Conference appears to have moved a step ahead in what is a difficult struggle to reach an international deal with which to handle the issue of climate change. The positive of it all is that all participating governments are committed to what could be regarded as a new platform for negotiations.In short, it was agreed that:a)the Kyoto Protocol should be extended for a number of years (2018)b)a new agreement should be concluded by 2015 and to be enforced by 2020c)a Green Fund and a Climate Technology Centre and Network should be launched.However, the tasks ahead are still challenging as all these projected agreements would need to be defined and agreed upon.The prolonging of the Kyoto Protocol is not a simple formality. Parties, including the 35 industrialised countries which also decided to be parties to this second period, will have to turn their economy-wide targets into quantified emission limitation or reduction objectives and submit them for review by May 1, 2012.There seems to be another challenge, too, namely that some of the current parties to the Kyoto Protocol, particularly Canada, indicate they may not ...

Increasing temperatures will affect the habitats of animals and plants, New international research suggests that increasing temperatures will affect the habitats of animals and plants, as several will be forced to leave their surroundings and find new environments; some marine species will have nowhere to go. The findings of the study, published in the journal Science, indicate how it will be difficult for marine species to keep up with the changes.Scientists led by the Scottish Association for Marine Science, Scottish Marine Institute in the United Kingdom compared changing temperatures for both land and sea and from across regions in the period from 1960 to 2009. The data helped the researchers project the speed at which both terrestrial and marine species populations would be forced to move in order to deal with the changing temperatures. Their results show there is no significant difference between movement rates in the environments.'When temperatures rise, plants and animals that need a cooler environment move to new regions,' explains Dr Mike Burrows from the Scottish Association for Marine Science. 'The land is warming about three times faster than the ocean, so you might simply expect species to move three times faster on land, but that's not ...

Canada becomes the first nation to announce its withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol