Earth Environment Underground

American politics. Conservatives and conservative leaders the world over — David Cameron’s Tories in Britain, Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in Germany, and so on — do not shy from the science of climate change. In fact, there’s only one democracy in the world where a prominent political party has made it a point to deny climate science: The United States. But why? … Read ahead

Source: treehugger.com

Latest at treehugger.com

• Tiger Cam Captures the Destruction of a Forest (Video)
• Having Lights On at Night May Be Making You Fatter
• Good News: This Might Repel The Latest Chinese Invaders
• Company Head Arrested for Negligence in Hungary Toxic Sludge Disaster
• U.S. Asian Carp Czar Says Poison, Genetic Engineering Among Solutions
• Why Are The Republicans The World’s Only Major Political Party Denying Climate Change?
• Green Wine Guide: Medlock Ames’ Organic Vineyard Features Mini Cows and a Century-Old Biker Bar

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, a prominent conservative leader in the U.K., was in the U.S. last week, and described climate change as perhaps the 21st century’s biggest foreign-policy challenge,” He added, “An effective response to climate change underpins our security and prosperity.”… Read ahead

Source: blogs.alternet.org

Latest at blogs.alternet.org

• Study Proclaims “Marriage Gap” Gone–But It Never Really Existed for Men or Black Women
• NY Candidate Paladino Adds ‘Homophobe’ to His Resume
• Breast Cancer Awareness: What Are We Buying Into?
• NYC Cops to Get More Powerful Tasers
• Today’s Oxymoron: Alcohol Companies Support Breast Cancer Research
• Eric Cantor Comes Out Against Foreclosure Moratorium
• How Did an Entire Political Party Decide to Reject Climate Change Science?

Rich nations are failing to live up to their promise of giving US$30bn to poor countries to help them cope with climate change, according to a report. The money was pledged at last year's Copenhagen summit in order to build trust between rich and poor nations. The scheme – championed by former UK PM Gordon Brown – is supposed to deliver the funds by the end of 2012. But a report to the German government says much of the money has been taken from other aid budgets. If the findings are correct, it confirms allegations by pressure groups that rich countries are repackaging existing funds and presenting them as special climate finance. Campaigners claim programmes to tackle poverty will suffer if this is allowed to happen. … Read ahead

Source: bbc.co.uk

Bipra Biswambhara, 16, of India. Biswambhara and many of her fellow delegates were “shocked to learn how many people and parts of the world are already affected by climate change”, she told TerraViva. “We youth are committed to taking action in our home communities,” she said. … Read ahead

Source: wp.me

Latest at wp.me

• Rich Countries Trash Their River Systems and Make Things Worse With Expensive Engineering Fixes — Global Study in Nature
• Post Climatic Stress Disorder – Climate Psychology on Radio Ecoshock
• “Do you want an economy, or a planet we can all live on? I don’t want my future compromised by inaction on climate” — 16 year old from India
• “We’re Here to Insert Some Reality into an Unreal Situation” — 350.org Founder Bill McKibben
• Locally-Run Protected Areas Could Reverse Fisheries’ Death Spiral
• “Climate change pits the rich and powerful against the young and unborn” – NASA Scientist James Hansen
• Oil Companies and Special Interests Spend Half a Billion Dollars to Defeat US Clean Energy – Study

There are scattered cranks everywhere, of course, but there’s no other developed democracy in which a major political party is dominated by people who explicitly reject mainstream science. Even conservative parties in most developed nations accept climate change as a crucial challenge. British Foreign Secretary and former Conservative Party leader William Hague last week declared climate change “perhaps the 21st century’s biggest foreign-policy challenge.” The U.K.’s new government, led by conservative David Cameron, has a … Read ahead

Source: grist.org

Latest at grist.org

• The good and bad news from the Tianjin climate change negotiations
• Green fraud is even more harmful than greenwashing
• Telling the truth about climate change is good politics
• Ask Umbra says get out there and party this weekend on 10/10/10
• Maldives leader puts solar on presidential mansion
• Plastic bag bans sweep cities across nation
• Forget the Tea Party. Join a Work Party.

Irrigated by one of the world’s mightiest river systems, the Murray-Darling Basin yields almost half of Australia’s fresh produce. But the basin is ailing and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited continent its main food bowl could become a global warming ground zero. The2026 … Read ahead

Source: nzherald.co.nz

Latest at nzherald.co.nz

• Flooding forces out 94,000
• China: 94,000 evacuated after fresh floods
• Moderate quake shakes Taiwan
• Oz: a climate change hotspot
• Floods expose civilian-military divide in Pakistan
• Fears of terrorism in wake of floods
• Quake-busting bed

The iconic symbol of the Arctic – the polar bear – is under threat from the twin challenges of climate change and lingering chemical pollutants, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), which are not breaking down in the region’s cold waters. … Read ahead

Source: dw-world.de

Latest at dw-world.de

• Hoffenheim thrash Bremen as Hamburg triumph over Schalke
• Influential German director Christoph Schlingensief is dead
• Dutch teenager starts solo sailing trip around the world
• Russia kills suspected mastermind of Moscow Metro disaster
• Pushing for press freedom in central Africa
• Offices of Love Parade organizers and security firms searched
• German minister urges Google to disclose opt-out numbers

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the Feingold campaign have begun to poke fun at the comments made by U.S. Senate Republican candidate Ron Johnson about climate change. In an interview with the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board, Johnson said that … Read ahead

Source: jsonline.com

Latest at jsonline.com

• Tracking the origins of fake Nikes
• So what’s your reading position?
• No students left on virtual school waiting list
• Maybe ‘raw sewage’ just isn’t evocative enough a phrase
• In DC, reform means teachers can make up to $140,000 a year
• Obama, his lunch and his faith
• Milwaukee homicide suspect arrested in Illinois

UNITED NATIONS — Devastating flooding that has swamped one-fifth of Pakistan and left millions homeless is likely the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change, U.N. officials and climatologists are now openly saying. Most experts are still cautioning against tying any specific event directly to emissions of greenhouse gases. But scientists at the … Read ahead

Source: scientificamerican.com

Cooking stoves aren’t the leading cause of climate change — scientists agree that dubious distinction likely goes to carbon dioxide from fossil fuels (mostly used by rich countries). But cooking stoves used by many poor families contribute to climate change, too, by giving off a noxious and dangerous soot known as black carbon. It’s created from burning wood crops and other organic matter. “It’s a powerful absorber of sunlight,” Rhitu Chatterjee reports for PRI’s The World, “several hundred times more potent than carbon dioxide.” In India, for example, there are an estimated 150 million households, and virtually all of them have cook-stoves. Analysis of air filters from India by Stockholm University geochemist Orjan Gustafson found that about two-thirds of the soot came from biomass and biofuel combustion. Gustafson believes the vast majority of that comes from cooking. Replacing traditional cooking stoves with more efficient ones could have a dramatic effect on black carbon levels, according to atmospheric scientist V Ramanathan of the University of California San Diego. It won’t stop climate change fully, since the biggest source of climate change still comes from carbon dioxide emissions. But it could take effect quickly. Carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for a hundred years, so cuts in emissions now may not have an effect until the distant future. On the other hand, “if you reduce the black carbon today, they’ll be gone few weeks from now,” according to Ramanathan. “So the effect will be immediate.” But behavioral change is difficult, for both carbon dioxide and black carbon. And replacing traditional cooking stoves with more efficient ones is easer said than done. “You see cooking is a very cultural trait,” Ibrahim Rehman, a scientist at New Delhi’s Energy and Resources Institute, told The World. Rehman has tried to get women to use solar cookers for health reasons, but found people resistant to change. He said: … Read ahead

Source: pri.org