|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 26th, 2010 ![]() ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 24th, 2010 Chinese Traffic Jam Extends 60 Miles and Nine Daysfrom INHABITAT by Cameron Scott
If ever there were a case for the importance of good urban planning that includes mass transit, this is it: a 62-mile traffic standstill on a road leading to Beijing is now in its ninth day, with individual drivers caught in it for as long as three days. The cause of the jam — beyond the skyrocketing number of drivers in China — is heavy use of the route, the Beijing-Tibet expressway, by trucks bringing construction supplies into Beijing. The trucks don’t just add to traffic; they also damage the road, necessitating repair crews.
======================== UPDATED - http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/24/… 60-Mile Traffic Jam in China May Last Weeks.Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 60 miles long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say. It’s a metaphor for a nation that sometimes chokes on its own breakneck growth. In the worst-hit stretches of the road in northern China, drivers pass the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors. Many of the trucks that carry fruit and vegetables are unrefrigerated, and the cargoes are assumed to be rotting. On Sunday, the eighth day of the near-standstill, trucks moved just less than a mile on the worst section, said Zhang Minghai, a traffic director in Zhangjiakou, a city about 90 miles northwest of Beijing. China Central Television reported Tuesday that some vehicles had been stuck for five days. No portable toilets were set up along the highway, leaving only two apparent options — hike to a service area or into the fields. But there were no reports of violent road rage, and the main complaint heard from drivers was about villagers on bicycles making a killing selling boxed lunches, bottled water to drink and heated water for noodles. A bottle of water was selling for $1.50, 10 times the normal price, Chinese media reports said. The traffic jam built up on the Beijing-Tibet highway, on a section that links the capital to the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The main reason traffic has increased on this partially four-lane highway is the opening of coal mines in the northwest, vital for the booming economy that this month surpassed Japan’s in size and is now second only to America’s. Although wages remain generally low, auto ownership and gridlock have grown so commonplace that Inner Mongolia authorities restrict cars’ movement to alternate days, based on odd or even numbers in their license plates. The car invasion is widely felt; Guo Jifu, head of the Beijing Transportation Research Center, told a symposium Monday that vehicles on Beijing’s roads multiplied by 1,900 per day on average in the first half of this year, Xinhua, the official news agency, reported. The immediate cause of the traffic jam that began Aug. 14 is construction on one of three southbound highways feeding into Beijing. Authorities are trying to ease the snarl-up by letting more trucks into the capital, especially at night, said Zhang, the traffic director. They also asked trucking companies to suspend operations and advised drivers to take the few alternate routes available. “Things are getting better and better,” he said, but he added that the construction would go on until Sept. 17. Alan Pisarski, author of “Commuting in America,” said the worst traffic jams in U.S. history tend to be associated with natural disasters, such as people fleeing Hurricane Katrina or the collapse of the upper deck of a freeway in Oakland, Calif., in the 1989 earthquake. “It took some people days to get home after that one,” Pisarski said. Traffic arrangements built up over generations in the U.S. are lacking in much of China, said Bob Honea, director of the University of Kansas Transportation Research Institute, who has visited China. “We’ll see this problem more and more often. It’s true of every developing country,” he said. Honea said the U.S. has never experienced a traffic jam as big as the one now bedeviling northern China, but he noted that traffic in Los Angeles “is pretty bad. It’s not a highway, it’s a parking lot.” ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 24th, 2010 The conclusions to what we ought to do in the present situation that holds no promise for a global agreement on climate change, and for that matter on Sustainability in general, the best we can do is to work on efficiency, sustainable energy and renewables, on a National level – and I would add through mutually beneficial bi-lateral agreements. Eventually, a network of such agreements is then formed, and can become the basis for multi-lateral agreements. This is a realistic common-sense approach. ———————————————————–
You may be interested in a recent paper, International Law and Sustainable Energy: A Portrait of Failure available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1648906 Abstract:
Despite energy’s critical role in achieving nearly sustainable development and in mitigating climate change goal, internationally, sustainable energy remains a homeless orphan. In May 2007, after years of preparatory work that was thought to have produced consensus on fundamental sustainable energy policies and principles, the Commission on Sustainable Development met at CSD-15 to adopt a concrete set of specific policies and actions to make the world’s energy system more sustainable and accessible to the world’s poor. Tragically, the CSD-15 not only failed to produce agreement on any new ideas, but the pre-existing consensus on basic principles dissolved. Internationally, not a single substantive issue left hanging after CSD 15 has been resolved in the CSD or other fora, as high-level meetings, such as the UNFCCC December 2009 Copenhagen Conference of the Parties, continue to avoid concrete discussion about how to shift to a more sustainable, low carbon world economy, international talks increasingly become disconnected from real-world policy, science and law.
In the absence of international agreement, sustainable energy must be pursued through domestic laws that identify and implement policies that promote energy efficiency and renewable energy investment.
Professor David R. Hodas ### | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 24th, 2010 Fareed Zakaria discusses CC with Jeff Sachs (Columbia), Pat Michaels (Cato, ex-UVA) & NASA’s Gavin Schmidt. Pat Michaels says he is 40% funded by Petroleum Industry. There is no need to fight global warming. Gavin Schmidt says he thinks we’re too sane not to do something about global warming. Jeffrey Sachs says – if we do not act we will end up with a catastrophic planet. Is it clear? =============== Fareed Zakaria talks to Hirsi Ali who rejected Islam and Irshad Manji who wants to reform Islam. Hirsi Ali, African Black, born in Mogadisho, Somalia and immigrated to Holland where she went to university and after 9/11 left Islam to become an atheist that says if you need a God take Christ. Her family says she risks hell for leaving Islam. She says don’t lock 1.57 billion Muslims in a book written in the 7th century. She wrote “Nomad” about her leaving Islam. She worked with Teo Van Gogh on a movie “Submission” about women in Islam, when he was killed. She was a member of the Netherlands Parliament, and now lives with security in the US and is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She says that most Americans are unaware of Saudi Funded proselytizing in America. ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 21st, 2010 PLEASE SEE: .eco
The name eco is a proposed top-level domain for the Domain Name System of the Internet. There are two prospective applicants for the eco top-level domain:[1] Big Room Inc.’s Dot Eco[2] currently proposes the following elements in its application: Big Room’s Dot Eco policies are being developed in collaboration with a multi-stakeholder council. These policies are now in their third draft (as of April 2010) after having been through two rounds of public comment. Consultations have been held in Sydney, Vancouver, Washington DC, Cape Town, Essen, and Lund.[3] The process is seeking to follow the ISEAL Alliance Code of Good Practice for Setting Environmental and Social standards. Participation on the council does not require or imply endorsement of Big Room’s Dot Eco application. A number of partners are collaborating on technical elements of this application, as follows: Former US Vice President Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection support the Dot Eco organization.[5][6][7] Proceeds from registration fees would be used to fund research in environmental issues[5] and promote awareness of climate change.[8] ===================================================================== What attracted our attention was an e-mail that called us to support above new domain “.eco”: http://www.supportdoteco.com/ It tells us that Dot Eco LLC is dedicated to promoting the acceptance and implementation of the .eco top level domain, and is backed by leading ecological and philanthropic groups, environmentally conscious high-profile individuals, and leading scientific voices. Read the background in this Green Paper from Dot Eco. Or, learn more by watching these Dot Eco videos. Be sure to check out our green blog for other news from the environmental community. And that Dot Eco has partnered with Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection to bring the “.eco” top level domain to life. The Alliance’s mission is to persuade the American people—and people elsewhere in the world—of the importance and urgency of adopting and implementing effective and comprehensive solutions for the climate crisis. Over 2 Million people have joined the Alliance’s “We can solve it” effort. and offers Watch the video. =================== Further links gave us: Dot Eco LLC today announced its support of 350.org, the international campaign to fight dangerous climate change by getting carbon levels back to 350 parts per million in the atmosphere. In order to unite the public, media, and political leaders behind the 350 goal, 350.org is harnessing the power of the internet to coordinate a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009. 350.org today also announced that it has joined Al Gore, the Alliance for Climate Protection and Surfrider in supporting Dot Eco LLC’s application to create a new “.eco” top level domain. “Dot Eco LLC and 350.org share a similar mission – to get carbon levels back to 350 parts per million in the atmosphere and organize a global movement to solve the climate crisis. Dot Eco has our full support for its application to ICANN for the .eco top level domain. We wish we could be 350.eco already,” said Jon Warnow, 350.org’s Internet Director. Website and email addresses ending in .eco will enable individuals to express their support for environmental causes, companies to promote their environmental initiatives and environmental organizations to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions. By charter and mission, over 57% of the profits of the .eco initiative will be distributed to support environmental causes. “We fully support 350.org, their mission to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis is of utmost importance. We are going to do everything we can to help them coordinate a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009,” said Fred Krueger, CEO of Dot Eco LLC. The advisory board of Dot Eco LLC includes Davis Guggenheim (director of An Inconvenient Truth), Roger Moore (renowned actor and Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF), Richard Muller (Author of Physics for Future Presidents and contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and Jim Dufour of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Earlier this week, Dot Eco LLC also announced that renowned activist, Mark Massara, is joining the initiative as its Chief Policy Officer to oversee policy development and legal concerns for the new top-level domain. This comes shortly after Jim Dufour, Associate Director at Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Instrument Development Group, joined the initiative as the group’s Chief Environmental Officer. About Dot Eco LLC Dot Eco LLC was founded by Fred Krueger, Clark Landry and Minor Childers to secure, operate and promote the .eco top level domain in order to promote environmental initiatives and awareness. Dot Eco LLC will be applying for the .eco top level domain through the ICANN gTLD application process in late 2009. For more information visit: www.supportdoteco.com. About 350.org 350.org is an international campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate crisis–the solutions that justice demand. In order to unite the public, media, and our political leaders behind the 350 goal, 350.org is harnessing the power of the internet to coordinate a planetary day of action on October 24, 2009. 350.org hopes to have actions at hundreds of iconic places around the world – from the Taj Mahal to the Great Barrier Reef to your community – and clear message to world leaders: the solutions to climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they must meet the scale of the crisis. ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2010 It is all about real time information that can be used via computers for all kind of purpose – the FAO is specific about fires, but the visit at the GRT headquarters convinced us that uses can range from CIA work, natural resources mapping, to every single aspect of climate change – be those fires or floods.
The technology can be used to help after the Haiti earthquake – and so it did. See please www.GlobalReliefTech.com
What you need is a satellite and cellphones. If you have people on the ground you can work on rescue efforts – people in the field and imagery. You do a field driven real-time assessment of damages and go out as consultants to train the trainers. Very neat indeed!
How about watching the looters after a disaster? The images we saw can help recognize them. We can then move to recognize patterns and predict events before they occur!
–
The hand-held Motorola device that is taken to the field costs now $2500 and will come down to $500. But don’t forget, it must have a distant analytic backup. It is a powerful tool to coordinate military – civilian cooperation in disasters such as Haiti – and to be up-to-date also now in Pakistan. Did they get the Pakistan contract? What they can do is to pass on from the military to NGOs the task of doing the real work after it was drawn by a military-first intervention.
–
For now, we learned, GRT in Haiti works with the UN, it does not have yet direct contracts with the countries. We were told that the UNHCR (The UN Humanitarian and Crisis Relief) throws money at a problem but this analysis can be a tool to create good and spend less.
–
Michael Gray is the CEO of Global Relief Technologies, Chip Peter is the Chief Technology Officer and he went with a team to Haiti.
RDMS is their trademark-ed Rapid Data Management System founded in 2003 to help organizations in remote or disconnected environments report critical information in real time: COLLECT – COMMUNICATE – COLLABORATE.
I got a whole collection of examples of their work – with the American Red Cross, with Hospital Ships, with Raytheon in Afghanistan, with insurance companies in the Wenchuan, China, eartquake, and you bet – forest fires in Maine.
–
=======================================================================
and from the UN DAILY NEWS from the UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE.
11 August, 2010 =========================================================================
as per – http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/44613/icode/
The UN SAYS – “NEW UN ONLINE TOOL DETECTS GLOBAL FIRE HOTSPOTS IN REAL TIME.” The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today unveiled a new online portal to help countries monitor fires and protect property with data from satellites operated by the United States space agency NASA. The new Global Fire Information Management System (GFIMS) shows fire hotspots almost in real time, with a lag of 2.5 hours between when satellites pass over fires to when information is available. Developed with the University of Maryland, it also allows users to receive email alerts, allowing them to react quickly. The launch of GFIMS comes at a time when the incidence of megafires is on the rise, according to Pieter van Lierop, an FAO Forestry Officer responsible for the agency’s activities in fire management. “The control of these fires has become an issue of high importance, not only because of the increasing number of area burned but also because of the relations with issues of global interest, like climate change,” he stressed. The unprecedented heat wave in Russia, which saw temperatures soar to 40 degrees Celsius and winds of up to 20 metres per second, have caused more than 14 million acres to burn. Forest fires have already claimed more than 50 lives this summer in Russia. Globally, vegetation fires affect some 350 million hectares of land annually, with half or more of this area situated in Europe. Until recently, people managing natural resources faced hurdles in obtaining timely and satellite-driven information on vegetation fires. “The information was very fragmented because it was gathered from various sources making it unsuitable for precise analysis and identifying trends,” said John Latham, Senior Environment Office in FAO’s Natural Resources Management and Environment Department. GFIMS, he said, delivers essential data to its users while fires are still burning. ————————
### | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2010 A new paper released by the Canadian International Council asserts that while Canada may need to wait for the United States before deciding on a carbon pricing system, that should not stop it from exploring other initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate Change and Foreign Policy in Canada: Intersection and Influence, written by John Drexhage and Deborah Murphy of the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s climate change and energy program, argues that the Copenhagen Accord has the potential to develop a solid foundation and framework to help countries begin to respond effectively to climate change. The Canadian government must determine what it wants in terms of a climate and energy regulatory regime; work with the provinces and stakeholders to identify the best way of going forward in Canada; and ensure that this plan would complement US actions and legislation. • A First Ministers’ Meeting to address Canadian energy and climate change policy, and Canada’s profile in the North American energy picture. • The federal government should develop a credible and comprehensive plan that lays out how Canada intends to meet its target of a 17-percent emissions reduction below 2005 levels by 2020. • Canada should increase support for adaptation strategies and activities at home in the Arctic and in developing countries through bilateral and multilateral assistance. • Canada’s $400-million contribution under the Copenhagen Accord should create opportunities for bilateral project assistance, including “signature” projects that can be identified with Canada and led by Canadians.
Climate Change and Foreign Policy in Canada: Intersection and Influence can be accessed online at http://www.onlinecic.org/ . ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2010
Please see attached press release regarding the publication of preliminary results of the study on the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) in the Caribbean implemented by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility and regional partners. The results for eight pilot countries (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, and St. Lucia) are presented in a short brochure entitled, Enhancing the climate risk and adaptation fact base for the Caribbean (Preliminary Results). The brochure is available on the CCRIF website at http://www.ccrif.org/sites/default/files/publications/ECABrochureFinalAugust182010.pdf Regards, ### | ||||||||||||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2010
The conference ‘Deltas in Times of Climate Change’ starts 29 September 2010 in Rotterdam. More than 650 people from all over the world have already registered. His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, who is very much engaged in water management and climate change, will give the opening speech at the conference. Also speaking at the opening session will be: Michael Oppenheimer (Princeton University), Ahmed Aboutaleb (Mayor of Rotterdam), Martin Parry (IPCC) and Malcolm Smith (ARUP). A day-to-day overview of Conference events can now be found on our website: www.climatedeltaconference.org. The programme includes 70 challenging sessions of interest to policy makers, practitioners, business people, politicians and scientists. These sessions cover a broad range of issues related to climate change in deltas: flood risk management, fresh water availability, health, climate in the city, land use conflicts, governance, economics and estuarine ecosystems. Registration, travel and hotel reservations: We hope to welcome you at the conference in Rotterdam. Florrie de Pater Organizing Committee: Ottelien van Steenis p/a Wageningen UR, P.O. Box , 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands T +31 317 48 6540 M +31 6 2120 2447 E o.van.steenis@programmabureauklimaat.nl W www.climatedeltaconference.org ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2010 August 19, 2010, before the UN started its meetings, the Asia Society in New York opened the discussion on the Pakistan Flood response by diving right to the bottom truth – the latest mega-disasters have one common cause – human induced climate change. It was Financier George Soros who injected the topic and the media was allowed by Ambassador Holbrooke to follow up. See what you can do when you go outside the UN! Ambassador Dr. Richard C. Holbrooke, former Chairman of the Board of the Asia Society, and now US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, chaired the 8:30 am event at his New York home – the Asia Society – on the day when for 3:00 pm the UN General Assembly scheduled a pledging event for funding Pakistan relief. At the UN, for the US, spoke Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton, and I saw on TV the complete Asia Society American team sitting in the hall. The team included also Judith A. McHale, US Department of State Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Dr. George Erik Rupp, a theologian, President of the International Rescue Committee and former President of Rice University and Columbia University, and Raymond Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America. The opening speaker after Ambassador Holbrooke was Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and the panel included also USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah. Then there was a list of guests that made their comments, followed by questions from the floor and answers from Administrator Dr. Shah and Ambassador Qureshi.
enlarge image
L to R: USAID’s Dr. Rajiv Shah, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke. (Else Ruiz/Asia Society) –
Judith A. McHale, a former media head herself ( President and Chief Executive Officer of Discovery Communications – 1987 to 2006), and now with the US Government, said that information is critical. “We work with the government of Pakistan to provide the critical information on the ground. It is posted on www.State.gov
Among the guests were Financier George Soros, whose Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations work on the ground in Pakistan – he announced that he adds another $5 million to the funds that his foundation will work with in helping directly civil society in Pakistan, Christopher MacCormac of the Asian Development Bank, which is leading the effort to assess the flood damage, said much of the economic infrastructure of the area has been destroyed. 2 million ha. of crops were lost and livestock have been devastated, which has taken a large toll on Pakistan farmers. ADB has said that after the immediate contribution of $3 million from the ASia-Pacific Disaster Fund, it would loan Pakistan $2 billion to help the country rebuild, and Pakistan’s rock star turned political activist Salman Ahmad, known as Pakistan’s Bono, or as Holbrooke pointed out, “Bono is the Irish Salman Ahmad,” pointed out a very important topic: “This is a defining moment in Pakistan,” Ahmad said. “This flood has set back Pakistan in a huge way. Out of 175 million people, 100 million are under 25. Those young people are skeptical, and they feel abandoned by the world. The international community has to win hearts and minds of those 100 million youth in Pakistan.” “If there is a sluggish response the terrorists/extremists win.” He also said that last year he had a concert at the UN to show to the young people in Pakistan that there was hope – he said that he is sure the international community will react positively. Ambassador Holbrooke said that in the catastrophe there is also an opportunity, that we should not miss - the people in Pakistan should see that the world is ready to help. He found that these elements of hope in opportunity were missing in the day’s article in The New York Times. For the US the strategic implications are clear. The US pulled out helicopters from the military effort in order to help in the rescue effort. Will the Taliban take advantage of this? A US transport ship with materials arrived to Karachi, and Japan will now also send helicopters to help in the rescue effort. The meeting was summarized by The Asia Society and there is also the full tape at - Further, Ms. Nafis Sadik from the UN, now a Trustee Emeritus of the Asia Society and Chair of the Pakistan Foundation at the Asia Society called for Ramadan giving to the Foundation. Other Pakistan-Americans spoke and told of their own efforts to raise funds for the Pakistan relief program as the State’s capacity to meet the challenge has been overstretched. Today Pakistan , one fifth of its territory submerged, 68 million of its people affected, and 1,600 people dead, crops, animal stock, and infrastructure devastated – Pakistan is calling – humanity is calling they said. We saw a video proving every point. The Pakistan-American Foundation was inspired by Hilary Clinton’s “Pakistani Peacebuilders.” Oxfam America was joined by “Save the Chidren” NGO representative Gorel Bogarde said the obvious – what children most need is food, clean drinking water and shelter. She is most concerned for the moment about the outbreak of water-bourne diseases, such as cholera. We will not repeat here further figures of loss and the size of the calamity. We assume that these are known by our readers by now – we want rather to point out the blunt comments that resulted from the statement by Mr. Soros who linked what happens to our lack of readiness to do something about the human-made climate change. Pakistan is the biggest of the recent disasters he said and we must deal with the root causes he continued. CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE ROOT CAUSE FOR ALL THESE RECENT DISASTERS. Mr. Soros spoke of the coincidence of the Himalaya glaciers melting and the monsoons getting stronger at the same time. He also said “there is a certain amount of fatigue in responding to these disasters… [but] we have to come to terms with the fact that they are in fact connected, that there is climate change.” At the Q & A part of the program, I asked the last question that was intended to bring the attention back to what Mr. Soros said. Ambassador Holbrooke said Thank You and addressed the question first to Mr. Rajiv Shah. When asked if there was a connection between the floods and climate change, USAID’s Shah said “while it’s very hard to attribute any single event to what we’re doing to our global environment it is very clear that that trend is leading to a greater number of large hurricanes, a greater number of floods, hotter and dryer conditions in places that are dependent on weather and rainfall for agriculture, and it’s making it very difficult for the least resilient, the most lower income communities of the world to survive.” We heard from Mr. Christopher MacCormac that after the Earth Quake of 2005 the rebuilding of houses was done according to higher standards – so what we need here in the response to the present calamity is also to build better – but he did not specify, neither did Mr. Holbrooke. This, with the understanding that the increased monsoon floods, joined with the melting of the Himalaya Glaciers, is indeed not a one time shot – but the beginning of a trend – leaves us with very bad premonitions about the future of Pakistan and other low lying lands of the region. This has clearly left me thinking about what means building better? Are we going to take into account these new phenomena resulting from global use of fossil fuels when going from the immediate reaction to the suffering from the floods to the longer range rebuilding stage? This is clearly an area that will be written up much more in the foreseeable future. Ambassador Qurashi was asked by Mr. Holbrooke to react to the climate change implications. Are there additional run-off from the Himalayas? The answer included: The Glaciers melt and what we have in Pakistan are Monsoon water plus glacier melts combined. We have above normal moisture. He also said that “There are local NGOs in Pakistan that help push back the extremists and you have shown the world that you are a helping Nation.” ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 19th, 2010
August 19, 2010
For your information, the Climate Himalaya Initiative http://www.climatehimalaya.net has a dedicated news portal http://chimalaya.org/ , that updates the Climate Change related news on regular basis from Himalayan Mountains. Those interested in Climate Change related issues and Mountains, can get regular updates by subscribing or becoming member. The ongoing issues includes; Pakistan Floods, Leh Cloud Burst, Climate Change Modeling, Domestic Actions by countries, Actions by Asian countries, Cancun Climate Summit, Criticism of IPCC, etc…..! There are options for subscription, membership, tweeting, facebook, among others….! You can visit and explore at http://www.climatehimalaya.net from – K N Vajpai Climate Himalaya Initiative ### | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 19th, 2010
### | ||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 18th, 2010
We are engaged in a project which seeks to address the problem of climate change displacement. Please find attached a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) about our climate change displacement convention. Our proposed convention would largely operate prospectively; assistance to climate change displaced persons would be based on an assessment of whether their environment was likely to become uninhabitable due to events consistent with anthropogenic climate change such that resettlement measures and assistance were necessary. In other words, displacement is viewed as a form of adaptation that creates particular vulnerabilities requiring protection as well as assistance through international cooperation. If you have any questions about the paper please contact me at d.hodgkinson@hodgkinsongroup.com or on +61 402 824 832. Best wishes ___________________________ David Hodgkinson The Hodgkinson Group +61 402 824 832 (international) 0402 824 832 (within Australia)
### | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 18th, 2010 From: Tek Jung Mahat <tmahat@icimod.org> Date: 16 August 2010. Subject: Youth Forum Empowering Youth with Earth Observation Information for Climate Actions 1-6 October 2010, ICIMOD, Kathmandu. Dear Colleagues, Realising the important role of young minds in ensuring sustainability in the region and to promote application of earth observation systems, particularly on climate change adaptation, we are organising a six-days long YOUTH Forum on ‘Benefiting from Earth Observation: Bridging the Data Gap for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region’, from 1-6 October 2010 in Kathmandu, Nepal. The Youth Forum is managed by ICIMOD together with the Asia Pacific Mountain Network (APMN), Nepalese Youth for Climate Action (NYCA), GIS Society of Nepal and other local partners working on youth capacity building. We are expecting to invite some 30 youth professional to attend this programme from ICIMOD Regional Member Countries, which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. This initiative is being organized in the framework of SERVIR- Himalaya initiative and is supported by USAID and NASA. We would appreciate your support in sharing this announcement with the suitable candidates and encouraging to join the forum. Best, Tek On behalf of the YOUTH Forum preparation committee ——————————————————————————————————————————-
Background: The Youth Forum, 1-6 October 2010, is being organized recognising the far reaching consequences of climate change in the Himalaya and to make aware young professionals in the region about how parts of these problems can be addressed though application of modern day technologies, like earth observation (EO). The Forum will serve as a platform to share and learn experiences regarding climate change issues, for which we will bring about 30 youth climate enthusiasts from the region , who will be familiarised with potential benefits of EO derived information and demonstrated relevant practical actions. The Youth Forum is one of the key attractions of the International Symposium on ‘Benefiting from Earth Observation: Bridging the Data Gap for Adaptation to Climate Change in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan Region’, 4 – 6 October 2010 being organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain development (ICIMOD) together with the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the GIS Development, India. The event will provide opportunity among youths to familiarize with basic RS/GIS skills with practical hands-on sessions, demonstrate case studies related to use of EO in climate actions, internet related resources and project work to take local action in community. This initiative is being organized in the framework of SERVIR- Himalaya initiative and is supported by USAID and NASA. Who should apply? Young climate change enthusiasts, media persons, youth activists, development professionals etc. However you don’t have to be an expert on earth observation, climate change or mountain development, but you should have familiarity with the environmental issues mountains are facing and a strong commitment to contribute towards problem solving process with the use of modern tools and approaches like EO, particularly in the context of changing climate, which has posed serious threats to mountain ecosystems. Young professionals of 18 to 29 years of age (by September 1, 2010) and coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan are eligible to apply. Please use this form to apply for the youth forum. All applications will be reviewed by an international review committee. Based on the evaluation of the quality of the application by the review committee and taking into account the need for a balanced group in regard to scientific discipline, geographical background and gender, about 30 applications will be accepted for participation in the Forum. Accepted applicants will be notified by 6 September 2010. Please note, all the accepted applicants are expected to prepare a poster (hand-made or printed or in any other forms) reflecting their understanding about mountain environment, earth observation and climate change adaptation or any other relevant topics. Further details on this will be communicated later. In case you have any problems in accessing the application form please write to tmahat@icimod.org. Financial support: Participation cost (round-trip airfare, local transport, and food and accommodation in Kathmandu during the Youth Forum will be covered by ICIMOD) Important dates and links: Application deadline 1 September Selection notification 6 September Youth Forum 1-6 October Event details: http://geoportal.icimod.org/Symposium2010/SpecialEvent.aspx Application form: http://bit.ly/defa4g OR https://spreadsheets2.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dC13Qjc2Z3FXU3gyel9Gb0lCYUFSNVE6MQ#gid=0
Tek Jung Mahat, Node Manager Asia Pacific Mountain Network (APMN) International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development GPO Box 3226, Kathmandu, Nepal. Tel +977-1-5003222 Ext 104 Fax +977-1-5003277 Web www.icimod.org AND www.icimod.org/apmn E-mail tmahat@icimod.org ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 18th, 2010
The 170 million people of Pakistan are in serious trouble, Besides the war in Afghanistan and the internal wars of secession, they got stricken also by tremendous floods that covered 20% of the land and made at least 20 million people homeless. Estimates are even higher. The UN says $460 million are needed for an initial reaction and supposedly only $80 million were subscribed according to Luis Morago of Avaaz.org – a good intended western NGO. In this context please read the following: The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) approves $11 million humanitarian package of emergency relief and rehabilitation for Pakistan. Expressing profound sympathy with the Pakistani government and nation on the unprecedented deadly and devastating flooding in the country which shows no signs of abating, the 269th meeting of the Board of Executive Directors of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, approved a humanitarian package of $11 million to provide immediate financial assistance to the victims of the tragic environmental disaster. In addition to that, an IDB mission will leave for Pakistan immediately to assess the situation on the ground and discuss the relevant details of the package. The $11 million humanitarian package, a combination of relief and rehabilitation operations, envisages immediate emergency relief and contribution to the rehabilitation efforts aimed at restoring normal functioning of community services in different sectors in Pakistan, including education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation facilities. It consists of a $1.00 million grant to the government of Pakistan to finance some of the urgent relief activities in the disaster-stricken areas as well as the equivalent of $10.00 million in concessionary loan / soft-istisnaa’ for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of social services and food security facilities devastated by the floods in disaster areas. Long-term reconstruction requirements, meanwhile, are expected to be included under the normal programming cycle in consultation with the government of Pakistan and in coordination with the donor community.
### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 16th, 2010 With his ducks lined up ahead of him – that is the Veto-Club-Wielding Powers having expressed readiness to do something about the suffering by floods of Pakistan, the UN Secretary-General can afford to lead by running after his flock and following up by exhorting them to do what they decided that they will do.That is how the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon goes to Pakistan in order to say from there that Pakistan is in dire need of foreign aid and quote the number of millions of people still in need of help , this as if anyone has helped so far. But in any case, the press release with his statement in it, will be picked up by hungry journalists that will, in unison send the message to their media and justify this way their working at the UN rather then staying with the troops on some front-line. ====================================France proposes EU reaction force for natural disasters.August 16, 2010 French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the EU to set up a joint rapid reaction force to handle natural disasters such as earthquakes, wildfires and floods. In a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso published on Sunday (15 August), Mr Sarkozy addressed the issue of the EU’s ability to react under its own name in connection to the recent floods in Pakistan. “It seems essential, for obvious political and humanitarian reasons, that Europe shows its solidarity with the Pakistani people visibly. The interest of Europe is also to ensure the development and stability of this country,” he wrote.
Following the earthquake in Haiti and wildfires in Russia, says the letter, the EU “must take the necessary measures and build a real EU reaction force … that draws on the resources of the member states.” France is to draw up proposals for the force in the near future, it adds. Last week French junior minister for EU affairs, Pierre Lellouche, said the EU should create a European emergency force representing the “real means of mutual aid in case of emergency.” Paris announced Sunday that a plane with 60 tonnes of humanitarian aid will be sent to Pakistan, with Mr Sarkozy saying France is prepared to use its Nato military forces to help transport the aid. France has already allocated €1 million to Pakistan since the start of the floods, which are estimated to have affected 20 million people. Last Wednesday (11 August), the commission said it would provide Pakistan with €10 million in immediate emergency aid, in addition to €30 million allocated in July. EU foreign ministers are to also discuss a long term aid plan for Pakistan at an informal meeting in September. With wildfire smog returning to Moscow over the weekend, Russia itself indicated it would be interested in joining a multilateral crisis response force. “The United States and the EU have now come to the same conclusion. I think we will come to this, and such capabilities will have to be established,” he told the Ria Novosti news agency. ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 13th, 2010 denver and the west:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.”
Colorado’s Election 2010 – Bike agenda spins cities toward U.N. control, Maes warns.By Christopher N. Osher
The Denver Post Posted: 08/05/2010 02:18:07 PM MDT
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.” “This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial. Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor’s efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes “that’s exactly the attitude they want you to have.” “This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms,” Maes said. He added: “These aren’t just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to.” Maes said in a later interview that he was referring to Denver’s membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States. Denver became a member of the group in 1992, more than a decade before Hickenlooper became mayor. Eric Brown, the mayor’s spokesman, said the city’s contact with ICLEI “is limited.” George Merritt, a spokesman for the Hickenlooper gubernatorial campaign, said the group’s goal is “to bring cities from all over the world together to share best practices and help create the kinds of communities people want to live and do business in. John Hickenlooper believes collaboration leads to smart decisions.” Hickenlooper has often touted bicycling as an environmentally friendly and healthy way for people to commute to work and has said he hopes more people will do so. Last week, Hickenlooper upset some auto dealers on the eve of a fundraiser when he lauded the city’s B-Cycle bike- sharing program at an event and asked: “How do we wean ourselves off automobiles?” Maes, at the rally July 26, took aim at Denver’s bike-sharing program, which he said was promoted by a group that puts the environment above citizens’ rights. The B-Cycle program places a network of about 400 red bikes for rent at stations around the city. It is funded by private donors and grants. Maes said ICLEI is affiliated with the United Nations and is “signing up mayors across the country, and these mayors are signing on to this U.N. agreement to have their cities abide by this dream philosophy.” The program includes encouraging employers to install showers so more people will ride bikes to work and also creating parking spaces for fuel-efficient vehicles, he said. Polls show that Maes, a Tea Party favorite, has pulled ahead of former Congressman Scott McInnis, the early frontrunner in the Aug. 10 primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Maes acknowledged that some might find his theories “kooky,” but he said there are valid reasons to be worried. “At first, I thought, ‘Gosh, public transportation, what’s wrong with that, and what’s wrong with people parking their cars and riding their bikes? And what’s wrong with incentives for green cars?’ But if you do your homework and research, you realize ICLEI is part of a greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty,” Maes said. He said he’s worried for Denver because “Mayor Hickenlooper is one of the greatest fans of this program.” “Some would argue this document that mayors have signed is contradictory to our own Constitution,” Maes said. ——————– Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 13th, 2010 Wally’s World.Thirty-five years ago this week, Wallace Broecker predicted decades of dangerous climate change caused by humans. Unfortunately, he was all too prescient.BY BRAD JOHNSON, THE FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE, AUGUST 3, 2010View a slideshow of Tibet’s melting glaciers On Aug. 8, 1975, geoscientist Wallace Smith Broecker published “Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” in the journal Science, the first time the iconic phrase “global warming” was used in a scientific paper. Broecker — known by all as Wally — was already a prominent scientist by then, having served on Columbia University’s faculty for 16 years. Today, at age 78, Broecker is recognized as one of the fathers of climate science, with more than 450 journal publications and 10 books to his name, ranging from paleoclimatology to chemical oceanography. ![]() The past 35 years have also seen humanity answer Wally’s question in the affirmative, running a radical experiment on the only planet we inhabit. Carbon dioxide levels have risen 40 percent to 392 ppm from preindustrial levels of 280 ppm, and the global mean temperature has risen 0.8 degrees Celsius, on 1.3 trillion tons of carbon dioxide. Humanity has produced 60 percent of that global-warming pollution since Broecker’s paper was published. As a result, the planetary ecosystem has fundamentally changed — weather has become more extreme, seasons have shifted, and global ice and snow are in decline — with more rapid and radical change on its way. Wally’s seminal Science paper built upon decades of earlier work by scientists who had found natural cycles of planetary warming and cooling in Greenland ice cores (Dansgaard, 1973), developed a mean global temperature from meteorological records (Mitchell, 1963), modeled the greenhouse influence of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere (Manabe and Wetherald, 1967, 1975; Rasool and Schneider, 1971), and measured the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels (Keeling, 1973). Synthesizing the work, Broecker accurately predicted “that the present cooling trend will, within a decade or so, give way to a pronounced warming induced by carbon dioxide.” “To those who even today claim that global warming is not predictable,” climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf writes at the peerless RealClimate blog, “the anniversary of Broecker’s paper is a reminder that global warming was actually predicted before it became evident in the global temperature records over a decade later.” In fact, one can even go back to the 1896 work of Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, in which he predicted that the burning of coal could eventually double atmospheric CO2, leading to a temperature increase of several degrees Celsius, though he believed such a day was far into the future. For the next 50 years, most scientists considered man-made climate change an unlikely speculation. In the scientific explosion following World War II, however, scientists began using new measurements and the era’s new digital computers to revisit the effect of humanity’s carbon dioxide pollution on the climate, and our modern understanding of the greenhouse effect developed through the work of pioneering scientists like Gilbert Plass, Hans Suess, Roger Revelle, and Bert Bolin (eventually the first chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988). By the end of the 1950s, Frank Capra had made an instructional film on man-made global warming, and Revelle had testified before Congress about the “large-scale geophysical experiment” humanity was conducting with industrial greenhouse gas pollution. ### |
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 13th, 2010 From the Desk of Dr. James E. Hansen
What Global Warming Looks Like…So Far What Global Warming Looks Like discusses current global temperature anomalies in July 2010; see also summary and full paper accepted for publication in Reviews of Geophysics.
### | ||||||||
|
Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 12th, 2010
Congresso des Convenciones Fortaleza, Brazil Monday, 16 August 2010 As programmed by the United Nations Environment Programme On Monday, 16 August 2010, the city of Fortaleza in the dryland State of Ceará, Brazil, will host the global launch of the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (UNDDD).
The launch will be complemented by regional launches. The launch for Africa Region will take place in Nairobi, Kenya, also on 16 August.
The global launch, in Brazil, will take place during the opening ceremony of the Second International Conference on Climate, Variability and Sustainable Development in the semi-Arid Regions (ICID 2010), taking place from 16-20 August 2010. Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of UNCCD, is heading the Convention’s delegation to the launch in Brazil. Other regional launches will take place in the following months. North America’s regional launch will take place in September, in New York City, on the occasion of the Summit on the Millennium Development Goals. The Asian Regional launch is planned in October in Seoul, Republic of Korea. And the launch in Europe will take place in November at a place and venue to be determined.
The events mark the official start of the annual observance of the Decade declared in 2007 by the United Nations General Assembly.
A complete press kit on the event is available online at: http://www.unep.org/downloads/UNDDD_PressKit.zipThe Decade to Combat Desertification is spearheaded by United Nations agencies. They include the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and other relevant bodies of the United Nations, including the Department of Public Information of the United Nations Secretariat. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification is the focal point of this inter-agency task force. ————————————————————————————————-
For more information, including interviews with experts, contact: Ms. Cadija Tissiani, (+55) 61 9988 9852 or 618220 3406, Email: cadija@gmail.com Ms. Wagaki Mwangi , Tel: (+55) 85 9605 0883, Email: wmwangi@unccd.int. Ms. Yukie Hori, (+49) 228 815 2829, Email: yhori@unccd.int Launch in Nairobi ————————————————————————————————- The interesting thing here is that the global program is launched out of Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil – the city that in 1992, in preparation of the Rio Summit, was the center of a Brazilian activity that, because of Brazilian interest to deflect the full attention to its Amazon region, tried also to bring on board that Desertification is not only a Sub-Sahara African problem, but in effect a second global problem not less severe then the deforestation of the Amazonas. I was involved in the State of Ceara Brazilian effort of those days, and am glad to see Brazil again part of the arid lands focus of the needed change in human behavior in order to decrease human suffering that goes in parallel with environmental destruction. We hope that Brazil will have enough muscle in 2010 so its efforts are not pushed aside by an African onslaught on UN money. Both – there is no money in the bank now, and secondly the need to change man-made Anthropocene is not just a – help Africa effort. ### | |||||||||























David Hodas <drhodas@gmail.com>
![[ Fire Map image ]](http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/firemap.jpg)





