Workshop on climatic changes on June 5
A one-day workshop on
A one-day workshop on
India has once again informed developed nations that it is ready to contribute to the global efforts against climate change in accordance with the principles of common "but differentiated responsibility'.
The government is considering the introduction of carbon footprint labels for food and other daily products as early as next fiscal year as part of its efforts to fight global warming, officials said Monday. The labels would display the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the production, marketing and distribution of the items. Carbon footprint labels have already been attached to about 75 products sold in the British market and there is growing interest in the system from other industrialized countries, including Japan, the officials said.
"Political appointees" in NASA's press office "marginalized, or mischaracterized" studies on global warming between 2004 and 2006, the space agency's inspector general said in a report released today. The IG called the deliberate distortions "inappropriate political interference," and "found no credible evidence suggesting that senior NASA or Administration officials directed the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs to minimize information relating to climate change."
Even before debate began Monday on the first comprehensive climate change bill to reach the Senate floor, the White House said President Bush would veto it in its current form. Bush himself slammed the bill, saying it would cost the US economy $6 trillion. His estimate drew quick denials from those who support the legislation, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and long-time environmentalist.
The primary contributors to the sharp rise in global temperatures are humans in a sea-ice region of the Arctic Ocean, scientists have observed polar bears stalking, killing and eating other polar bears. Many species of plants across the middle and higher latitudes of the northern hemisphere are now flowering earlier than a few years ago. Migratory birds in Europe, Asia and Australia are arriving early. And the population of Emperor Penguins in parts of Antarctica has dropped by half over the past 50 years.
If the devil is in the details, climate change negotiators are about to enter purgatory. On Monday, some 2,000 delegates from 162 countries and dozens of specialist agencies open a two-week conference, the first to get into the nuts and bolts of a new global warming agreement meant to take effect after 2012. The meeting builds on a landmark accord reached last December on the Indonesian island of Bali which, for the first time, held out the promise that the USA, China and India will join a coordinated effort to control carbon emissions blamed for the unnatural heating of the Earth.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed Sunday to send out
Watchdog groups often single out the Four Corners plant in New Mexico, which burns coal, as an egregious polluter. The discussions have often been tense. Pinned on a wall, a large handmade poster with Rolling Stones lyrics reminds everyone, "You can't always get what you want.'
Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda left for Europe on Sunday for talks with fellow leaders on the global food crisis as he prepares to host the Group of Eight summit in July, officials said. Fukuda, facing slumping approval ratings, hopes to use the G8 summit of world leaders to boost Japan's diplomatic clout and highlight its efforts to help tackle global warming and food shortages in developing countries. On the first leg of his five-day European trip, he is to arrive in Berlin late Sunday to hold talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel, a government official said.
The possible economic cost of confronting global warming
- A bill going to the US Senate next week seeking deep cuts in US greenhouse gases by 2050 is a "first step" but not enough to avert damaging climate change, the head of the UN Climate Panel said on Friday. Rajendra Pachauri also said that even tougher plans by some other developed nations to rein in emissions were insufficient to head off some projected impacts of global warming, ranging from more heatwaves and droughts to rising seas.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday he would seek to convince world leaders gathering in Rome this week that ethanol is not to blame for global food inflation threatening millions with hunger. Brazil is the world's largest ethanol exporter and a pioneer in sugar-cane based biofuels, making it a target of critics who say ethanol is behind increases in world commodity prices.
A bill going to the US Senate next week seeking deep cuts in US greenhouse gases by 2050 is a "first step" but not enough to avert damaging climate change, the head of the UN Climate Panel said on Friday. Rajendra Pachauri also said that even tougher plans by some other developed nations to rein in emissions were insufficient to head off some projected impacts of global warming, ranging from more heatwaves and droughts to rising seas.
The Boston GlobeAmid concerns the planet is warming, the market for clean, green technology is beginning to show signs of overheating, too. "I call it the global warming bubble,' said Bob Metcalfe, who knows something about bubbles. An inventor of the ethernet and founder of Marlborough, Massachussets networking company 3Com Corporation, the stock of which plummeted when the tech bubble burst in 2000, Metcalfe now serves as chief executive of Cambridge biofuel start-up Green Fuel Technologies Corporation.
This paper uses annual variation in temperature and precipitation over the past 50 years to examine the impact of climatic changes on economic activity throughout the world. It find three primary results. First, higher temperatures substantially reduce economic growth in poor countries but have little effect in rich countries.
This report gives a brief account of the available studies on possible impacts of climate change on India
Stop Trashing the Climate provides compelling evidence that preventing waste and expanding reuse, recycling, and composting programs
Martin Kennedy and colleagues searched the Australian outback for clues to the transition out of Snowball Earth. The answer, as it turns out, was much closer to home.