5 May 2017, The Guardian, Clive Hamilton, The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it. After 200,000 years of modern humans on a 4.5 billion-year-old Earth, we have arrived at new point in history: the Anthropocene. The change has come upon us with disorienting speed. It is the kind of shift that typically takes two or three or four generations to sink in. Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet in the face of these facts we carry on as usual. Most citizens ignore or downplay the warnings; many of our intellectuals indulge in wishful thinking; and some influential voices declare that nothing at all is happening, that the scientists are deceiving us. Yet the evidence tells us that so powerful have humans become that we have entered this new and dangerous geological epoch, which is defined by the fact that the human imprint on the global environment has now become so large and active that it rivals some of the great forces of nature in its impact on the functioning of the Earth system. This bizarre situation, in which we have become potent enough to change the course of the Earth yet seem unable to regulate ourselves, contradicts every modern belief about the kind of creature the human being is. So for some it is absurd to suggest that humankind could break out of the boundaries of history and inscribe itself as a geological force in deep time. Humans are too puny to change the climate, they insist, so it is outlandish to suggest we could change the geological time scale. Others assign the Earth and its evolution to the divine realm, so that it is not merely impertinence to suggest that humans can overrule the almighty, but blasphemy. Read More here
Category Archives: Global Action Inaction
10 April 2017, Reuters, U.S. scuppers G7 bid to find joint stance on energy and climate. Italian energy minister said the United States is reviewing its strategy on climate change and Paris Agreement. The U.S. administration of Donald Trump on Monday scuppered efforts by the Group of Seven industrialised countries to reach a common stance on energy when it asked for more time to work out its policies on climate change. Trump signed an order in March to undo climate change regulations drawn up under his predecessor Barack Obama, calling into question U.S. support for an international deal to fight global warming. The order’s main target was Obama’s Clean Power Plan, requiring states to slash carbon emissions from power plants – a key factor in U.S. ability to meet commitments under a climate change accord reached by nearly 200 countries in Paris in 2015. At a news conference wrapping up the G7 Energy meeting in Rome, Italian industry and energy minister Carlo Calenda said the United States was reviewing its strategy on climate change and the Paris Agreement. “While this is under way, the United States reserves its position on these key priorities,” he said. “It was not possible to sign a joint declaration since it would not cover the whole range of topics in the agenda.” Calenda, who chaired the G7 meeting, said all other European Union countries remained strongly committed to the Paris accord to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Speaking from Madrid later on Monday, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Europe would “respect everyone’s opinion on the matter but it would not accept making any steps backward with respect to the strategic choices made on climate change”. Gentiloni is due to meet Trump at a G7 summit Italy will host in Sicily next month, with Italy anxious to get public backing from all leaders on the Paris accords. A source close to the G7 talks said the inability of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry to commit showed the isolation of the United States at the ministerial meeting. “The U.S. also wanted to include references to coal and fossil fuels,” the source said. During his election campaign, Trump pledged to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, arguing it would hurt U.S. business. Environmental groups have criticised the administration’s order, arguing it runs dangerously counter to the global trend toward cleaner energy technologies. But Washington has still not spelt out its stance on the Paris agreement and some officials hope there is room for manoeuvre. “The talks were constructive and there was no friction,” Calenda said. The Italian minister is due to hold bilateral talks with Perry on Tuesday. (Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in Madrid; Editing by Francesca Landini and Janet Lawrence) Read More here
28 March 2017, Climate Central, Trump Moves to Dismantle U.S. Climate Rules. President Trump signed a sweeping executive order Tuesday rescinding numerous federal climate policies and calling for the review and replacement of the Obama administration’s most ambitious effort to control climate pollution — the Clean Power Plan. The order is Trump’s most aggressive move yet to dismantle federal climate regulations even as established climate science shows that man-made global warming is a growing threat to human life and the economy. In all, Trump’s executive order targets at least 23 federal rules, regulations, executive orders, memorandums and reports related to energy and climate change, many of which are likely to be tied up in years of legal wrangling before being decided. The total number is likely much higher because the order directs federal agencies to tally up all their rules and regulations that can be interpreted to “constrain” energy production and prepare them to be rescinded if they’re deemed to be a “burden” on energy production and use. Legal experts and climate scientists say the move abdicates U.S. leadership on climate change and incentivizes nearly unfettered fossil fuels development across the country. Those steps could diminish the chances that countries can prevent the world from warming to levels that scientists consider dangerous — 2°C (3.6°F). ….The details of Tuesday’s executive order show the breadth of the Trump administration’s desire to dispense with existing U.S. climate and energy policy. Read More here
21 March 2017, The Guardian, Record-breaking climate change pushes world into ‘uncharted territory’ Earth is a planet in upheaval, say scientists, as the World Meteorological Organisation publishes analysis of recent heat highs and ice lows. The record-breaking heat that made 2016 the hottest year ever recorded has continued into 2017, pushing the world into “truly uncharted territory”, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. The WMO’s assessment of the climate in 2016, published on Tuesday, reports unprecedented heat across the globe, exceptionally low ice at both poles and surging sea-level rise. Global warming is largely being driven by emissions from human activities, but a strong El Niño – a natural climate cycle – added to the heat in 2016. The El Niño is now waning, but the extremes continue to be seen, with temperature records tumbling in the US in February and polar heatwaves pushing ice cover to new lows. “Even without a strong El Niño in 2017, we are seeing other remarkable changes across the planet that are challenging the limits of our understanding of the climate system. We are now in truly uncharted territory,” said David Carlson, director of the WMO’s world climate research programme. “Earth is a planet in upheaval due to human-caused changes in the atmosphere,” said Jeffrey Kargel, a glaciologist at the University of Arizona in the US. “In general, drastically changing conditions do not help civilisation, which thrives on stability.” The WMO report was “startling”, said Prof David Reay, an emissions expert at the University of Edinburgh: “The need for concerted action on climate change has never been so stark nor the stakes so high.” The new WMO assessment also prompted some scientists to criticise Donald Trump. “While the data show an ever increasing impact of human activities on the climate system, the Trump administration and senior Republicans in Congress continue to bury their heads in the sand,” said Prof Sir Robert Watson, a distinguished climate scientist at the UK’s University of East Anglia and a former head of the UN’s climate science panel. Read More here