James Hansen Arrested in West Virginia Coal Mining Protest

Hansen and Hannah Arrested in West Virginia Mining Protest

Actor Daryl Hannah and Nasa climate scientist James Hansen were among 31 people arrested [on June 23] as they protested against mountaintop removal mining in southern West Virginia.

State police sergeant Michael Baylous said all were released after being cited for impeding traffic and obstructing an officer after they blocked a road near a Massey Energy subsidiary's coal processing plant.

Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, criticised President Barack Obama's administration for not banning the practice, although the administration does plan to tighten regulations.

for complete article:

2009/06/24
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/24/james-hansen-daryl-hannah-mining-protest


James Hansens remarks at Coal River Mountain, and the Declaration of the demonstrators, are available at:

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2009/20090625_CoalRiverMountain.pdf


A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining

Tighter restrictions on mountaintop removal mining are simply not enough. Instead, a leading climate scientist argues, the Obama administration must prohibit this destructive practice, which is devastating vast stretches of Appalachia.

for complete article:

by James Hansen
2009/06/22

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2168#comments

Obama Urges Congress to Move Swiftly on Climate Change Bill

Obama Urges Congress to Move Swiftly on Climate Change Bill

Barack Obama put his presidential prestige on the line to urge Congress to pass climate change legislation today, using the high visibility of a White House press conference to take on widespread concerns about the costs of moving to cleaner sources of energy.

The intervention from Obama comes on the eve of a high stakes vote in Congress on a climate change bill. Democrats in Congress have called on Obama to make a personal appeal for the bill which is on a high stakes course this week.

The Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has taken a gamble on moving up the date for a vote on the bill to Friday - despite near total resistance to the reform package from Republicans and strong opposition from farm state Democrats.

The presidential intervention crowns a carefully coordinated effort by the White House, administration officials, environmental organisations and major corporations to build support for a bill that is at the heart of Obama's agenda.

In the press conference, Obama rejected the argument that getting America off oil and coal would put additional pressure on the federal deficit. He also directly took on critics who say the sweeping climate change bill would inflict high costs on ordinary American families.

for complete article:

2009/06/23

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/23/obama-climate-change-congress

UK Climate Change Policies 'Dangerously Optimistic'

UK Climate Change Policies 'Dangerously Optimistic'

Professor Kevin Anderson, the director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the government's planned carbon cuts – if followed internationally – would have a "50-50 chance" of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2C. This is the threshold that the EU defines as leading to "dangerous" climate change.

Anderson also said that the two government departments most directly involved with climate change policy, were like "small dogs yapping at the heels" of more powerful departments such as that run by the business secretary, Lord Mandelson. He said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc), run by Ed Miliband, should be given more power.

Anderson was speaking to MPs on the environmental audit committee as part of an inquiry into the UK's carbon budgets. These are legally binding caps on emissions set over five years by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the independent body set up to advise the government on how big the cuts should be.

In April, the CCC's proposed cut of 34% by 2020 relative to 1990 levels was adopted by the chancellor in his budget, making Britain the first country in the world to pursue legally binding emissions reductions. The CCC hopes that the government will adopt a higher intended budget (a 42% reduction in emissions by 2020) within the next two years, once a global deal on climate change has been agreed. But Anderson said that the UK should show leadership before the Copenhagen summit and raise the target to 40% now.

for complete article:

2009/06/23

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/23/anderson-climate-change-uk-emissions

Todd Stern Rejects Calls for 40% Cut in US Emissions

Todd Stern Rejects Calls for 40% Cut in US Emissions

President Barack Obama's climate envoy has rejected calls for the US and other rich nations to make radical greenhouse gas cuts over the next decade.

Speaking at the end of a ministerial level meeting of the world's most polluting countries in Mexico yesterday, Todd Stern dismissed the idea that the US might comply with calls for industrialised nations to cut carbon emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2020.

"In our judgment [this kind of cut is] not necessary and not feasible given where we are starting from," he said. "So it is not on the cards."

Stern had earlier showered praise on the flagship US climate change bill expected to be debated by Congress this week calling it "an enormously ambitious proposal for the United States." The bill calls for a 17% reduction in US emissions from 2005 levels by 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050.

for complete article:

2009/06/24

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/24/us-carbon-emissions-stern

Scottish Parliament Agrees to Cut CO2 Emissions by 42% by 2020

Scottish Parliament Agrees Tougher 42% Target to Cut Emissions

Scotland has set itself the world's most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets after the Scottish parliament voted today to cut the nation's CO2 emissions by 42% by 2020.

In a rare show of unity, all political parties at Holyrood unanimously agreed to fix the target as part of a radical climate change bill which also requires the Scottish government to set legally binding annual cuts in emissions from 2012.

The measures are tougher than the 34% target set in the UK government's climate change act last year, which has no statutory annual targets. In common with UK government aspirations, the new act also commits Scotland to an 80% reduction on 1990 levels by 2050.

The campaign coalition Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, which claims its 60 member organisations represent two million people, said this "hugely significant" vote set a new "moral" standard for the rest of the industrialised world.

It comes the day after the US stated that a 40% cut by 2020 was "not on the cards": developing nations have demanded this level of cut from rich nations.

for complete article:

2009/06/24

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/24/scotland-climate-change-bill

Hopenhagen: UN Supported Global Marketing Campaign for the Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty

Copenhagen Climate Change Treaty Backed by 'Hopenhagen' Campaign

UN and international coalition of advertising agencies launch global campaign at Cannes Lions festival

The United Nations and an international coalition of advertising agencies today launched a global marketing campaign for the climate change treaty to be ratified in Copenhagen later this year.

Launched under the umbrella strapline "Hopenhagen", the campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of the UN meeting in Denmark in December. The meeting aims to secure a new global climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol.

UN representatives unveiled the campaign, in conjunction with the International Advertising Association, at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival today.

The aim of the campaign is to try and get the public to move from "coping" with climate change to one of "hope" that action can be taken to tackle the issue.

"Hopenhagan" aims to be an "open source" campaign using a central website, hopenhagen.org, to drive the debate and awareness and allow users to send messages to the 192 UN delegates attending the meeting.

An "aggressive" consumer launch of the "Hopenhagen" initiative has been planned for September.

The first ads will be displayed this week at the Cannes Lions festival in France and at London Heathrow airport, Los Angeles airport and John F Kennedy International airport.

"Climate change is one of the epic challenges facing this and future generations. It is time to seal a deal. We need a global movement that mobilizes real change," said UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

"[Hopenhagen] is about global action for a global climate treaty and a better future for humankind," he added.

Strategy and creative ads for the campaign have been developed by WPP-owned ad agency Ogilvy & Mather. Digital ads have been developed by Colle+McVoy. Global PR will be handled by Omnicom's Ketchum.

The initiative has been supported by a host of the world's advertising agency groups including Dentsu, Omnicom, IPG and Publicis Groupe.

2009/06/24

for complete article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/23/hopenhagen-climate-change-campaign

UK Climate Projections

Here is the Weather for 2080: Floods, Droughts and Heatwaves

The UK government today issued the most detailed assessment yet of how global warming will unfold across the nation

And now for the weather. The 2020s are looking warm and dry, with occasional heavy winter showers. The 2050s should be sunny and warm, with scattered deaths due to heatwaves across London and the south-east. And looking ahead to the 2080s, temperatures could reach 41C, so be sure to pack the suncream for your picnic. And watch out for those great white sharks!

Scientists today issued the most detailed assessment yet of how global warming will unfold across Britain. In a range of possible scenarios published by the government, the experts painted a picture of a very different UK, with soaring summertime temperatures and dwindling rainfall.

The new predictions follow a similar exercise in 2002, that produced maps of likely changes across Britain for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. They showed the UK faced drier, warmer summers and wetter, milder winters. Experts say the new results are more powerful, because they present the relative probabilities of a range of possible outcomes. They also cover three different possible futures, in which carbon emissions are low, medium or high. Benn said the world was currently heading along the medium scenario, but that there was a risk that emissions could increase towards the high pathway.


download "UK Climate Projections":

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/adapt/index.htm


UK Climate Projections website:

http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/


for complete article:

Here is the weather for 2080: floods, droughts and heatwaves
2009-06-18

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/18/climate-change-report

Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States

Obama Targets US Public With Call for Climate Action

The impact of a changing climate is already being felt across the United States, like shifting migration patterns of butterflies in the West and heavier downpours in the Midwest and East, according to a government study to be released on Tuesday.

Even if the nation takes significant steps to slow emissions of heat-trapping gases, the impact of global warming is expected to become more severe in coming years, the report says, affecting farms and forests, coastlines and floodplains, water and energy supplies, transportation and human health.

The study was prepared by the United States Global Change Research Program, a joint scientific venture of 13 federal agencies and the White House. Under a 1990 law, the group is required to report every 10 years on natural and human-caused effects on the environment. The current study, which began in the George W. Bush administration, builds on the findings of the 2000 one.

The study, overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, will be posted at www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts.

“What we would want to have people take away is that climate change is happening now, and it’s actually beginning to affect our lives,” said Thomas R. Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a principal author of the report. “It’s not just happening in the Arctic regions, but it’s beginning to show up in our own backyards.”


download "Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States"
from the U.S. Global Change Research Program:

http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts


for complete articles:

Government Study Warns of Climate Change Effects
2009-06-16
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/science/earth/16climate.html?scp=4&sq=climate%20change&st=cse

Obama targets US public with call for climate action
2009-06-16
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/16/obama-climate-change-impacts