Daily Archives: December 25, 2014

ARCTIC METHANE MONSTER’S Insane Level of Disaster – 2014 – Dr. Guy McPherson

ClimateChange12.com

Published on Aug 11, 2014
The Arctic Methane Monster’s “Insane Level of Disaster”

Dr. Guy McPherson pulls no punches as he updates us with the latest news regarding the “Methane Monster” evidently exploding in the Arctic and Northern regions. The “clathrate gun” has been fired he reports, and the methane clathrate melt levels seem to be increasing exponentially.

Methane hydrate gas has 20 times the greenhouse gas effect as CO2. At unexpectedly high levels in the atmosphere, methane hydrate gas could exacerbate global temperature rise at such a highly accelerated rate as to create havoc to all life on the planet.

If this is truly unfolding as Dr. McPherson suggests, steps should be taken immediately to ameliorate emissions with the hopes of mitigating negative repercussions.

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http://GuyMcPherson.com
http://ClimateChange12.com

Interviewer: Reese Jones

Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
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10 years after Indian Ocean tsunami special memorial services are held


euronews (in English)

Published on Dec 25, 2014
It was the most destructive tsunami in history, killing tens of thousands of people in 11 countries and leaving millions homeless.

Now, a decade later, special services are being held in many of the places devastated around the Indian Ocean.

A Muslim worshipper in Banda Aceh, Aulia Rahman, said: “I hope God has taken the brothers and sisters of Islam who passed away to a better place, as God had summoned them to his side.”

The 10th anniversary of the massive quake and tsunami brings back pain…
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2014/12/25/10…

Global Climate Change
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US Political Shift Could Affect Iran Nuclear Talks


VOAvideo

Published on Dec 25, 2014

Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to resolve Iran’s nuclear crisis are continuing into 2015 after Iran and six world powers failed to agree by a November deadline. U.S. domestic politics, however, could complicate efforts to reach a deal in the new year. VOA State Department correspondent Pam Dockins has the story.
Originally published at – http://www.voanews.com/media/video/us…

Global Climate Change
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Why the EPA Should Get Coal Ash in Their Stocking


The Big Picture RT

Published on Dec 23, 2014

Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen’s Energy Program, joins Thom Hartmann. For the first time ever – the EPA has decided to regulate coal ash – the highly toxic byproduct of burning coal. But did the EPA’s decision go far enough to protect the environment and human lives?

Global Climate Change
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Lima climate talks: An insider tells of anger among most vulnerable countries – India Climate Dialogue

http://indiaclimatedialogue.net/2014/12/24/lima-climate-talks-insider-tells-anger-among-vulnerable-countries/
Ramesh Bhushal, 24.12.14

Least developed countries were cut out of the UN climate talks, with decisions made by powerful allies behind closed doors, says a member of Nepal’s negotiating team

At 4 am on the morning of 13 December – about 12 hours after the UN climate meeting was supposed to end – a group of frustrated negotiators from the least developed countries (LDCs) gathered in a small room to discuss the text of the final resolution, produced without their consultation. Many points the world’s poorest countries had objected to remained in the document.

“We were not even consulted before the document was presented and we are embarrassed by the way meetings have been conducted in Lima,” said one LDC negotiator. “Negotiations are done behind closed doors among powerful countries and their allies, which is not fair,” said another.

Those countries worst affected by climate change were so sidelined that they only saw the document after it was distributed in the plenary for consideration.

Negotiators from around 190 countries gathered in the Peruvian capital for two weeks of in December for talks the UN hoped would be decide key elements of a global agreement to combat climate change. The UN wants a deal finalised in Paris in December 2015. However after fierce negotiations, the draft agreement was scrapped at the last minute and the meeting chairs produced a new text on the December 11 – just a day before the meeting was scheduled to close.

Deep divisions between developed and developing countries about how to divide the cost of tackling climate change remained as entrenched as ever at the UN’s Lima climate talks.Developing countries argue rich nations have an historic responsibility to fund our efforts to adopt low carbon technologies and adapt our economies to climate change because they have been the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Rich countries want developing countries to commit to emissions control before finalising promises of money and technology.

After the failure to agree on the original text presented by the co-chairs of the Adhoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action — a mechanism set up in 2011 with a mandate to work out the Paris agreement — the Peruvian president of the UN climate change convention, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, asked ministers from Singapore and Norway to facilitate consultations through the night and agree the final resolution.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
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Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty

https://royalsociety.org/policy/publications/2009/geoengineering-climate/

01 September 2009

The Royal Society has published the findings of a major study into geoengineering the climate.

The study, chaired by Professor John Shepherd FRS, was researched and written over a period of twelve months by twelve leading academics representing science, economics, law and social science.

Man-made climate change is happening and its impacts and costs will be large, serious and unevenly spread. The impacts may be reduced by adaptation and moderated by mitigation, especially by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. However, global efforts to reduce emissions have not yet been sufficiently successful to provide confidence that the reductions needed to avoid dangerous climate change will be achieved. This has led to growing interest in geoengineering, defined here as the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract anthropogenic climate change.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
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BBC News – Geo-engineering: Climate fixes ‘could harm billions’

25 November 2014 Last updated at 20:12 ET
By David Shukman Science editor, BBC News

 

Using aerosols to block solar radiation represents one approach to geo-engineering
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Schemes to tackle climate change could prove disastrous for billions of people, but might be required for the good of the planet, scientists say.

That is the conclusion of a new set of studies into what’s become known as geo-engineering.

This is the so far unproven science of intervening in the climate to bring down temperatures.

These projects work by, for example, shading the Earth from the Sun or soaking up carbon dioxide.

Ideas include aircraft spraying out sulphur particles at high altitude to mimic the cooling effect of volcanoes or using artificial “trees” to absorb CO2.

Long regarded as the most bizarre of all solutions for global warming, ideas for geo-engineering have come in for more scrutiny in recent years as international efforts to limit carbon emissions have failed.

Now three combined research projects, led by teams from the universities of Leeds, Bristol and Oxford, have explored the implications in more detail.

…(read more).

BBC News – Shrinking ship bubbles ‘could counteract climate change’

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30543252
18 December 2014 Last updated at 19:26 ET
By Rebecca Morelle Science Correspondent, BBC News

Related Stories

Getting ships to generate smaller bubbles as they sail across the oceans could counteract the impact of climate change, a study suggests.

Scientists from University of Leeds, UK, say this would create a brighter wake behind a vessel and reflect more sunlight back into space.

However, it could also increase rainfall in some areas.

The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

This is the latest idea from the hotly debated field of geoengineering – manmade global fixes to climate change.

Suggestions for reducing the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the Earth range from installing giant mirrors in space to injecting salt into clouds to make them more reflective.

But Leeds’ Prof Piers Forster said the bubbles idea was a more plausible scheme.

He told BBC News: “A lot of these technologies are completely hypothetical.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change
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