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air pollution, Alternative Energy, Alternative Fuels, cap and trade, climate change, Climate Change Conference 2009 Geneva, Cricket House Studios, cricketdiane, Ecology, Global Warming, pollution, water pollution
Knowing they probably can’t stop the bill in the House, Republicans are doing what they can to slow its progress — and to make the process as painful as possible for vulnerable Democrats.
A slew of Republican amendments has delayed committee consideration of the bill. During five hours of markup Tuesday, members made it through only two amendments; Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Republicans could offer about 400 amendments — 70 to 80 of which could require committee consideration.
My Note – that is a quote from this article in Politico which describes how the Republican Party is working overtime to defeat the bill focused on climate change measures – however, as much as that might now be in progress, when are the Republicans going to get in the business of creating solutions that will slow or halt global warming and climate change?
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Barton has offered his own alternative to the Democrats’ bill, but supporters of the Waxman-Markey effort says his proposal contains the same sort of corporate giveaways the Republicans have accused the Democrats of providing.
“Joe Barton’s alternative energy bill is full of more handouts to big oil companies that made $650 billion in profits over the past eight years,” said Daniel J. Weiss, a climate director at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Republicans could offer about 400 amendments — 70 to 80 of which could require committee consideration.
[etc.]
“Business is not always going to be a good friend of the Republicans, and that needs to be reflected in our strategy,” said MWR Strategies President Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist. “The GOP business model is probably busted forever. It started to break apart on TARP, and it could permanently break apart on climate change.”
While the GOP tries to hold the line against a massive climate change bill, a number of major corporations — including Duke Energy, Johnson & Johnson and Shell Corp. — are backing cap-and-trade proposals by the United States Climate Action Partnership coalition, a group of environmental groups and businesses advocating legislation to reduce greenhouse gases.
U.S. CAP members include the Natural Resources Defense Council, General Electric, Ford Motor Company, and other environmental groups and Fortune 500 companies.
The GOP memo accuses USCAP members of “blatant rent-seeking.”
[ . . . ]
A climate change bill sponsored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is expected to clear Waxman’s committee this week. A number of Republican leaders, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, have long argued that such cap-and-trade legislation would raise energy costs for consumers and do damage to an already fragile economy.
“House and Senate Republicans are clearly working together to develop the best strategy to defeat a national energy tax that will increase energy costs, raise taxes in the middle of a recession and drive good-paying jobs overseas,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “The only constituency that’s important to us is … the American people.”
The GOP memo focuses on the Democrats’ work with USCAP, calling the group a collection of “polluters” who are “writing significant portions of the Waxman-Markey bill.” There’s no dispute that the group has worked closely with the Democrats; a source who attended a committee markup on the climate change bill Tuesday said that Waxman’s staff had reserved a front-row seat for the group.
[ etc. ]
Knowing they probably can’t stop the bill in the House, Republicans are doing what they can to slow its progress — and to make the process as painful as possible for vulnerable Democrats.
A slew of Republican amendments has delayed committee consideration of the bill. During five hours of markup Tuesday, members made it through only two amendments; Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Republicans could offer about 400 amendments — 70 to 80 of which could require committee consideration.
[more about climate change, global warming, cap and trade legislation, etc. – is available through UNESCO and the current climate change conference, but not in this news story which focuses on the Republicans’ typical nasty behavior against changing anything . . . ] – my note
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22734.html
[from – ]
Climate change: GOP turns on business to fight measure
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Ice sculptures made from glacial meltwater at the Temple of Earth in Beijing mark the start of the 100-day countdown to the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen
Lu Guang / Greenpeace International / EPA
Climate-Summit Agreement Still Far Off
By Bryan Walsh Monday, Aug. 31, 2009
But civil society has a role to play as well, by mobilizing the public to push politicians ahead. The Climate Group — a global nonprofit — is sponsoring events in the U.S. and China in the lead-up to Copenhagen, trying to build a wave of public support for more-ambitious carbon cuts. “This is the moment,” says Steve Howard, the Climate Group’s CEO. “If we lose this chance, we may not get it back.” That dripping sound could be our last opportunity to fix the climate.
See TIME’s video “Bill Clinton on the Environment.”
With little more than three months till the U.N. summit, however, things are in doubt. To be sure, the Obama Administration is pushing for a global-warming deal, and a cap-and-trade bill that was passed by the House and is now up for debate in the Senate would finally commit the U.S. to real carbon reductions. But under the new law — if it passes — U.S. emissions would fall only 13% from 1990 levels by 2020.
The European Union, meanwhile, has pledged to make cuts of 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, meaning there is still considerable daylight between what seems politically feasible in the U.S. and E.U. And while governments at last month’s G-8 meeting pledged to keep the global-temperature increase from climate change to 3.6°F (2°C) or less, that would require emissions cuts from developed nations of as much as 40% by 2020.
No leader in the world seems willing to go that far. “There’s no doubt we can and should be doing more,” says Meyer.
[etc.]
Quotes of the Day »
World Climate Conference-3
31 August to 4 September 2009, Geneva, Switzerland
World Climate Conference-3
* Treat her with love and respect
Director-General to address WCC-3; UNESCO is part of the International Organizing Committe and has organized several thematic events
UNESCO and its IOC are members of the International Organizing Committee of World Climate Conference-3 (WCC-3), which has its theme Climate prediction and information for decision-making: focusing on scientific advances in seasonal to interannual timescales, taking into account multi-decadal prediction . WCC-3 follows the first two World Climate Conferences; WCC-1 led to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Climate Programme and the World Climate Research Programme, while WCC-2 led to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Global Climate Observing System. UNESCO has long been involved in supporting all of these. WCC-3 is the largest gathering of scientists interested in climate change prior to UNFCCC’s COP 15 to be held December 2009.
UNESCO’s Director-General will speak at the High-level Segment of the Programme and UNESCO will also make a formal statement in the Opening Session.
The IOC is chairing the important Working Session on the Climate of Oceans and Coasts. The user-focused Session will address the special vulnerability of coastal regions to climate change and risk, by reviewing the coastal ocean information needs, and will discuss the capabilities of global ocean programmes to inform climate services, by making recommendations on how the ocean observing systems ought to be enhanced to best contribute to the urgent questions posed by science and policy.
WCC-3 will propose a strategy for developing climate services through establishing a Global Framework for Climate Services. One component of the Framework will be a new World Climate Services System (WCSS), which would be expected to develop and deliver sector- and user-targeted services, build capacity in developing countries and develop policies to support application of climate services for economic and societal benefit. It is on this outcome that UNESCO aims to focus. To this end, UNESCO has organized two fora and a side event which address aspects of the WCSS as well as the Framework, in addition to the working session previously mentioned.
UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector has organized, in collaboration with the International START Secretariat, a Capacity-building, Education and Training Forum. This Forum aims to elucidate the scope of a WCSS, lessons learned from previous and current efforts at developing capacity in meteorology, climate science, disaster risk reduction and for policy-makers and user-groups of climate information, and action points going forward.
UNESCO’s Division for Gender Equality in the Bureau of Strategic Planning has organized, in collaboration with partners FAO, GGCA, IUCN, UNDP, UNEP and WMO, a Forum on Gender and Climate Change. In order to be effective and meaningful, the new Framework needs to be closely linked to the needs and expectations of communities and societies at every level. This implies the need to understand the gender dimensions of climate change. The Forum will explore linkages between gender and climate issues, particularly in relation to the role of women as effective agents of change, and enhancing women’s capacities to address climate change.
Finally, the Water Sciences Division in the Natural Sciences Sector has organized a side event, Groundwater and Climate. It will contribute directly to the conference sub-themes of Climate impacts and adaptive strategies, and Advancing climate prediction and information science. Groundwater is not well represented in global climate models due to the difficulty of measurements and scarcity of data. Yet groundwater will play a major role in society’s ability to adapt to future change. It is imperative that dialogue between groundwater and climate scientists be improved at the global level.
Related links:
:: WCC-3 Website (More)
* Source:UNESCO SC
* 31-08-2009
http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=7604&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
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Fire Weather
NOAA’s National Weather Service provides daily fire weather forecasts, fire weather warning products, and forecasts designed to assist wildland Fire Agencies’ assessment of fire danger every day of the year. Most NWS Weather Forecast Offices provide fire forecasts twice a day and provide warnings in close partnership with local, state and Federal fire control agencies. Every year, fire weather forecasting experts provide over 8,000 Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches for protection of the public and safety of fire fighters on the ground. Also, Weather Forecast Staff provide vital, site-specific spot forecasts for wildfire, prescribed fire projects, all-hazards incidents, marine incidents and search and rescue. Spot forecast requests have been increasing tremendously, with the NWS now providing over 19,000 Spots every year.
The National Weather Service has a cadre of around 70 meteorologist that are specially trained to go to wildfires and other incidents and give weather briefings and forecasts to the incident responders and command staff. The meteorologist’s forecasts ensure the safety of operations and allow responders to plan operations taking into account one of the most changeable aspects of an incident, the weather. This group, known as the Incident Meteorologists (IMETs), has been protecting the nation’s incident responders for nearly 90 years.
http://www.noaawatch.gov/themes/fire.php
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2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
G-20 Leaders’ Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy Information
Date September 24-25, 2009
Location Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Participants G-20 + Spain, the Netherlands, NEPAD, ASEAN, the EU, the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO and the FSF
The next G20 summit is due to take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 24–25, 2009.[1] Announced shortly after the April 2009 G-20 London summit, U.S. President Barack Obama volunteered to host this summit, initially planning to hold it in New York City and coordinating it with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. However, due to coordination issues, on May 28, 2009, the Obama Administration announced a change of venue to Pittsburgh in order to highlight the city’s economic recovery following the collapse of its manufacturing sector in the latter half of the 20th century. In response to the Global credit crisis, a G20 summit in one year was proposed shortly after the London summit in April 2009. The second G20 2009 summit will hopefully evaluate the measures taken in April 2009 in London and implement new policies which will stimulate the global economy.
Amongst the issues to be discussed is a proposal to radically reform the International Monetary Fund.[2] French President Nicholas Sarkozy also suggested that there would be an evaluation of measures already taken.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit
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http://www.pittsburghsummit.gov/
Official G20 Pittsburgh website
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wildfire maps with current info from USGS
http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/wildfires/
Map illustration: caption below
This map shows locations that experienced wildlfires greater than 250 acres, from 1980 to 2003. Map not to scale. Sources: Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and the USGS National Atlas
(Hi-res | Low-res)
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Desertification
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ship stranded by the retreat of the Aral Sea
Goat husbandry is common through the Norte Chico of Chile, however it produces severe erosion and desertification. Image from upper Limarí River
Desertification is the degradation of land in arid and dry sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from man-made activities[citation needed] and influenced by climatic variations. It is principally caused by overgrazing, overdrafting of groundwater and diversion of water from rivers for human consumption and industrial use, all of these processes fundamentally driven by overpopulation.
A major impact of desertification is biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity, for example, by transition from land dominated by shrublands to non-native grasslands. In the semi-arid regions of southern California, many coastal sage scrub and chaparral ecosystems have been replaced by non-native, invasive grasses due to the shortening of fire return intervals. This can create a monoculture of annual grass that cannot support the wide range of animals once found in the original ecosystem. In Madagascar’s central highland plateau, 10% of the entire country has been lost to desertification due to slash and burn agriculture by indigenous peoples. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent will be able to feed only 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU’s Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.[1] Globally, desertification claims a Nebraska-sized area of productive capacity each year.[2]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Causes
* 2 Prehistoric patterns
* 3 Historical and current desertification
* 4 Countering desertification
* 5 Mitigation concepts
* 6 Desertification and poverty
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 Further reading
* 10 External links
[edit] Causes
Sand dunes advancing on Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania.
Desertification is induced by several factors, primarily anthropogenic causes, which began in the Holocene era and continue at the highest pace today. The primary reasons for desertification are overgrazing, over-cultivation, increased fire frequency, water impoundment, deforestation, overdrafting of groundwater, increased soil salinity, and global climate change.[3]
Deserts may be separated from surrounding, less arid areas by mountains and other contrasting landforms that reflect fundamental structural differences in the terrain. In other areas, desert fringes form a gradual transition from a dry to a more humid environment, making it more subtle to determine the desert border. These transition zones can have fragile, delicately balanced ecosystems. Desert fringes often are a mosaic of microclimates. Small pieces of wood support vegetation that picks up heat from the hot winds and protects the land from the prevailing winds. After rainfall the vegetated areas are distinctly cooler than the surroundings.
In these marginal areas activity centres may stress the ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in degradation of the land. By pounding the soil with their hooves, livestock compact the substrate, increase the proportion of fine material, and reduce the percolation rate of the soil, thus encouraging erosion by wind and water. Grazing and collection of firewood reduce or eliminate plants that bind the soil and prevent erosion. All these come about due to the trend towards settling in one area instead of a nomadic culture.
Sand dunes can encroach on human habitats. Sand dunes move through a few different means, all of them assisted by wind. One way that dunes can move is through saltation, where sand particles skip along the ground like a rock thrown across a pond might skip across the water’s surface. When these skipping particles land, they may knock into other particles and cause them to skip as well. With slightly stronger winds, particles collide in mid-air, causing sheet flows. In a major dust storm, dunes may move tens of meters through such sheet flows. And like snow, sand avalanches, falling down the steep slopes of the dunes that face away from the winds, also moving the dunes forward.
It is a common misconception that droughts by themselves cause desertification. While drought is a contributing factor, the root causes are all related to man’s overexploitation of the environment.[3] Droughts are common in arid and semiarid lands, and well-managed lands can recover from drought when the rains return. Continued land abuse during droughts, however, increases land degradation. Increased population and livestock pressure on marginal lands has accelerated desertification. In some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land. Nomads typically try to escape the desert, but because of their land-use practices, they are bringing the desert with them.
Some arid and semi-arid lands can support crops, but additional pressure from greater populations or decreases in rainfall can lead to the few plants present disappearing. The soil becomes exposed to wind, causing soil particles to be deposited elsewhere. The top layer becomes eroded. With the removal of shade, rates of evaporation increase and salts become drawn up to the surface. This increases soil salinity which inhibits plant growth. The loss of plants causes less moisture to be retained in the area, which may change the climate pattern leading to lower rainfall.
This degradation of formerly productive land is a complex process. It involves multiple causes, and it proceeds at varying rates in different climates. Desertification may intensify a general climatic trend toward greater aridity, or it may initiate a change in local climate. Desertification does not occur in linear, easily mappable patterns. Deserts advance erratically, forming patches on their borders. Areas far from natural deserts can degrade quickly to barren soil, rock, or sand through poor land management. The presence of a nearby desert has no direct relationship to desertification. Unfortunately, an area undergoing desertification is brought to public attention only after the process is well under way. Often little data are available to indicate the previous state of the ecosystem or the rate of degradation.
Desertification is both an environmental and developmental problem. It affects local environments and populations’ ways of life. Its effects, however, have more global ramifications concerning biodiversity, climatic change and water resources. The degradation of terrain is directly linked to human activity and constitutes both one of the consequences of poor development and a major obstacle to the sustainable development of dryland zones.[4]
Combating desertification is complex and difficult, usually impossible without alteration of land management practises that led to the desertification. Over-exploitation of the land and climate variations can have identical impacts and be connected in feedbacks, which makes it very difficult to choose the right mitigation strategy. Investigating the historic desertification plays a special role since it allows better distinguishing of human and natural factors. In this context, recent research about historic desertification in Jordan questions the dominant role of man. It seems possible that current measures like reforestation projects cannot achieve their goals if global warming continues. Forests may die when it gets drier, and more frequent extreme events as testified in sediments from earlier periods could become a threat for agriculture, water supply, and infrastructure.
[edit] Prehistoric patterns
Desertification is a historic phenomenon; the world’s great deserts were formed by natural processes interacting over long intervals of time. During most of these times, deserts have grown and shrunk independent of human activities. Paleodeserts are large sand seas now inactive because they are stabilized by vegetation, some extending beyond the present margins of core deserts, such as the Sahara. Many deserts in western Asia arose because of an overpopulation of prehistoric species and subspecies during the late Cretaceous era.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification
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“Egan was a major Republican fundraiser.” – no amount of money could fix
Sources: Billionaire Egan commits suicide
Published: Aug. 29, 2009 at 8:09 PM
BOSTON, Aug. 29 (UPI) — Richard Egan, billionaire co-founder of EMC Corp. and former U. S. ambassador to Ireland, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Boston, police sources say.
Egan,. 73, was battling terminal cancer, a family statement said, as well as diabetes, emphysema and high blood pressure.
Police told The Boston Herald a nurse attending Egan heard a shotgun blast and called 911 at 12:32 p.m. Friday.
An engineer by training and a Marine Reservist during the Korean War, Egan was a major Republican fundraiser. He was often listed in Forbes magazine as one of the richest people in the world.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/08/29/Sources-Billionaire-Egan-commits-suicide/UPI-93731251590949/
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Published: Aug. 31, 2009 at 8:32 AM
JERUSALEM, Aug. 31 (UPI) — A remote-control unmanned armored personnel carrier that can take supplies to troops will be used in future conflicts, army officials said in Israel.
The vehicle, given the temporary name Phoenix, was developed by the army’s logistics and technology department, working with Elbit Systems, Genius and Israel Defense Industries, Maariv said.
Plans are to use the vehicle to aid troops who may be stranded without food or ammunition.
Major General Dan Biton, head of the army’s logistics department, said the vehicle, which is being tested, can transport significant amounts of ammunition to troops.
The carrier, which runs on eight wheels, can maneuver in areas threatened by enemy gunfire without endangering soldiers’ lives, and can operate day or night in difficult terrain, Biton said.
United Press International
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, Particularly in Africa is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs that incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.
The Convention, the only convention stemming from a direct recommendation of the Conference’s Agenda 21, was adopted in Paris on 17 June 1994 and entered into force in December 1996. It is the first and only internationally legally binding framework set up to address the problem of desertification. The Convention is based on the principles of participation, partnership and decentralization – the backbone of Good Governance and Sustainable Development. It now has 193 country Parties to the Convention, making it truly global in reach.
To help publicise the Convention, 2006 has been declared “International Year of Deserts and Desertification”.
opened for signature – October 14, 1994
entered into force – December 26, 1996
Contents[hide] |
// <![CDATA[
//
[edit] Country Parties
The UNCCD has 193 country Parties: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Colombia, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, The Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, the Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, South Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia[1], Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
[edit] References
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document “2003 edition”.
Full text available from: http://www.unccd.int/convention/text/convention.php
- Rechkemmer, Andreas (2004): Postmodern Global Governance. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag.
- ^ Provisionally referred to as the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”; see Macedonia naming dispute.
[edit] See also
- United Nations
- environmental agreements
- International Year of Deserts and Desertification
- Terrafrica partnership
- Hama Arba Diallo
[edit] External links
- UNCCD Homepage
- 2006: International Year of Deserts and Desertification
- Unesco Water portal: UNCCD.
- [1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_to_Combat_Desertification
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