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Tonight's editor: ellinorianne
DailyCancun: Applying the lessons of Copenhagen in Cancun by boatsie
David Turnbull is Executive Director of the Climate Action Network - International, a network of over five hundred NGOs in dozens of countries working to develop and advocate for global solutions to the climate crisis. He joins DailyCancun this evening to reflect back on the failures of COP15 and forward as he presents a vision of what we've learned and a vision of realistic goals we can hope to achieve at COP16 in Cancun.
What a difference a year makes
Applying the lessons of Copenhagen in Cancun
by David Turnbull
In preparing for the upcoming climate talks in Cancun less than two weeks away, I can't help but look back at where things were a year ago.
One year ago, the world's leaders couldn't stop talking about solving climate change. The media was in a frenzy, tallying up commitments from presidents and prime ministers to attend the Copenhagen negotiations, which would eventually lead toward perhaps the largest-ever gathering of heads of state.
With all the attention, expectations were high. Leaders from Obama to Jintao to Chavez to Zenawi to Merkel had committed to reaching an agreement in Copenhagen that would put us on a path toward solving the climate crisis.
...
Climate Talks are important, we need to talk and talk and talk ourselves into real action. Talk is not enough, but something has to give. As Turnbull notes, it's not the process, it's the politics.
Read this diary!
Caribou Tracks deeply etched on coal seams from centuries of migrations, Utukok River Uplands. Photo by Subhankar Banerjee, 2006.
5 Mining Projects That Could Devastate the Entire Planet
Alternet has a disturbing story about the continued mining of fossil fuels that will continue to devastate our planet that are here in North America. They rely on age old "technology" that contaminate water supplies, destroy habitats and ecosystems and lead to the continued pollution that's been the cornerstone of the industrial revolution.
I’ll tell you about five Godzilla-scale fossil-digging projects in North America that if approved will set us on a course to repeat our past with grave implications for the future of our planet. You may have already heard about some of these projects individually, but the urgency to stop them collectively is more than ever before.
I’m not talking about fossil-digging projects that tell us something about our ecological past or our cultural past. I’m talking about digging for coal and oil. I remember reading somewhere that “the largest profits are made by making and selling products that go up in the air.” Throughout the twentieth century digging for coal and oil, and then burning it to send carbon into the air was enough to ensure astronomical profits for a handful of fossil-fuel corporations.
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Coal in Appalachia
In late September, leading climate scientist Dr. James Hansen and more than 100 activists from Appalachia Rising were arrested in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., for protesting mountaintop removal coal mining in the Appalachia. Jeff Biggers reported, “Appalachian residents are calling on the EPA to halt any new permit on the upcoming decision over the massive Spruce mountaintop removal mine.” The Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County, West Virginia, would be a gigantic mountaintop removal mine that would bring great devastation to the region by destroying thousands of acres of forests, burying 7 miles of streams, and ending the way of life of many Appalachian families.
Coal in Appalachia is just one example of the environmental devastation that alone is bad enough, but collectively they spell disaster for not only our Country but our entire planet. We have to push to stop these projects.
To learn how to do more you can visit ClimateStoryTellers.org and to keep up-to-date on their coverage of these projects and how to stop them.
Coral bleaching goes from bad to worse
Raised ocean temperatures result in severe damage to reefs in the Caribbean.
The year 2005 was devastating for coral, with unusually warm waters in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea causing one of the worst bleaching events on record. Researchers who monitored the event have now catalogued the full extent of the disaster — and they warn that 2010 is shaping up to be even worse.
Mark Eakin, coordinator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch programme based in Silver Springs, Maryland, and his colleagues performed an extensive coral survey to record the effects of unseasonally high temperatures on reefs in 2005. The project involved more than 250 collaborators from 22 countries, and compared satellite data with field surveys to determine how heat stress affected the coral in different places.
Confused African Pelicans End Up in Siberia: Thanks, Global Warming.
Russia's been having a record breaking autumn weather-wise, with temperatures in Altai, in southwestern Siberia, remaining as high as 41° Fahrenheit. And it looks like the balmy weather has attracted some new residents: on Tuesday, a flock of seven African pink pelicans landed in the village of Suslovo, reported Reuters. The birds, which had spend the summer in Kazakhstan, should have been flying south to winter in Africa. But that's where global warming stepped in. Confused by the unnaturally high temperatures to the north, the pelicans, all barely a year old, flew in the wrong direction.
Valley Devastated by Coal Ash Waste (Video)
WarrenS made a New Year's Resolution to write a letter advocating climate action every day. The result is over three hundred letters to congresspeople, newspapers, President Obama, and more. Warren has even had letters published in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Learn Warren's letter writing technique here. Be sure to steal his stuffand visit his blog.
The San Francisco Chronicle runs an AP story on the likely effects of climate change on India:
A new report says India could be 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 F) warmer than 1970s levels within 20 years — a change that would disrupt rain cycles and wreak havoc on the country’s agriculture and freshwater supplies, experts said Wednesday.
More flooding, more drought and a spreading of malaria would occur, as the disease migrates northward into Kashmir and the Himalayas, according to the report by 220 Indian scientists and 120 research institutions.
Saturday’s letter was written mid-morning on Friday; I am getting ready to fly out to Madison, WI to do a lecture-demonstration on Indian music tomorrow, so I won’t have time to write later today.
As we look towards a future in which global warming alters coastlines, sea levels, storm intensity, monsoon patterns, and the availability of groundwater, it’s painfully evident that the Subcontinent is going to be battered as never before in its long history. A drastic change in any one of the factors listed above would be enough to trigger profound effects; when they’re all happening at once, we’ll get a slow-motion disaster that probably won’t end during our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our children. And, of course, it’s not just India; it’s all of us. The upcoming summit in Cancun is crucial for the world’s survival in the coming decades, but you’d never know it from the discussion of the issue in this country. Now that the party of denial assumes the majority in the House of Representatives, the rest of us will just have to assume the position.
Warren Senders
I couldn't just pick one! The photos are amazing...
"Van Gogh" Algae
Image courtesy EROS/USGS/NASA
In the style of Van Gogh's "Starry Night," massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in dark water around Sweden's Gotland (see map) island in a satellite picture released this week by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Meandering Mississippi
Image courtesy EROS/USGS/NASA
The Mississippi River—North America's largest—unfurls like a teal ribbon through towns, fields, and pastures on the Arkansas-Mississippi border in a 2003 satellite picture. (Take a Mississippi River quiz.)
Overall, the Earth as Art collections provide "fresh and inspiring glimpses of different parts of our planet's complex surface," according to the USGS.
Published November 19, 2010
National Geographic
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(All times Eastern!)
eKos diaries from Saturday, November 20, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
Gulf of Mexico Liveblog Digest (Part 2) | Gulf Watchers | 13:52:48 | Gulf Watchers, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Macondo |
Opposition to GE Salmon grows as time ticks down | calalum | 07:02:59 | salmon, fda, obama, genetic engineering, ge |
How many Billionaires can dance on a Pinnacle? | jamess | 06:22:39 | Billionaires, Millionaires, Carrying Capacity, Ecological Footprint, Ecosystems |
eKos diaries from Friday, November 19, 2010 |
Diary | Author | Time (Eastern) | Tags |
DailyCancun: Applying the lessons of Copenhagen in Cancun | boatsie | 20:17:14 | COP16, CAN, UNFCCC, Climate Action Network, tcktcktck |
Gen Y Just Isn't That Into Cars | greendem | 14:54:47 | carfree, green, automobiles, eKos |
Putting Classroom Theory into Practice | NourishingthePlanet | 05:49:37 | ekos, Nourishing the Planet, State of the World, Innovation, Acara |
Gulf Watchers Friday - Criminal Negligence - BP Catastrophe AUV #428 | Lorinda Pike | 04:45:43 | Gulf Watchers, Oilpocalypse, BP, Deepwater Horizon, Macondo |
$100 billion/year: tax cuts for 1% or solutions for all? | A Siegel | 04:20:43 | ekos, clean energy jobs, alan grayson, taxes, messaging |