Sea levels may rise three times more than first thought

Steve Connor in the Independent (UK): Sea levels may rise three times faster than the official predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the global average sea level may increase by as much as 1.9 metres (6ft 3in) by 2100, scientists said yesterday. The new assessment comes just one week after another international scientific body concluded that the IPCC had been too conservative in estimating a maximum of 59 centimetres of sea level rise this century as a result of global warming.
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Scientists believe earlier estimates failed to take into account gaps in the knowledge of how melting ice sheets will affect sea level, as well as technical errors in the calculations which have now been corrected, giving a much higher figure for estimated sea level rise than those published by the IPCC in its 2007 assessment.

A sea level rise of 1.9m would result in large tracts of eastern England being inundated with seawater, and would wipe out many low-lying island nations as well as making large parts of Bangladesh uninhabitable. It would also increase the chances of storm surges flooding major coastal cities, such as New York and London, even with the protection offered by the Thames Barrier.

The latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that global average sea levels are likely to rise by between 75cm and 190cm by the end of the century, due to the thermal expansion of the warmer oceans and the melting of mountain glaciers and polar ice sheets.

Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, and Martin Vermeer of Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, said sea levels are rising faster as a result of temperature increases, especially at the poles, which are warming at a faster rate than many other parts of the world….

The Brighton Jetty, shot by Adina Levy, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

Rice an unlikely global warming culprit

Seed Daily via Agence France-Presse: Asian rice farmers typically do not fly around the world on holidays or own big-engine cars but scientists say they have an important role to play in helping cut the world's output of greenhouse gases. While much of the globe's focus in the climate change fight is on the burning of fossil fuels and the logging of rainforests, water-logged rice paddies are also a major source of global warming-causing methane.

"If you step through a rice field, there is a lot of gas bubbling out and the large bulk of that is methane," said Reiner Wassmann, a biologist specialising in climate change at the International Rice Research Institute. While carbon dioxide is the most famous of the gases that cause global warming, methane is at least 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere.

In an interview with AFP from the institute's headquarters in Los Banos, a farming area on the Philippines' main island of Luzon, Wassmann explained that methane was responsible for one fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. About 10 percent of the methane comes from rice farming, while other sources include the flatulence of cows and decomposing landfill garbage dumps.

Wassmann said it was essential that rice farmers in Asia and the rest of the world did their bit to tackle climate change, but lumping them in with more obvious, fossil-burning culprits of climate change was wrong…..

A rice paddy in Damyang, shot by yong chern lee from seoul, korea, Wikmedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

In Bangladesh, climate change refugees flee to cities

Ian Williams in NBC News: If climate change does lead to a 3-foot rise in sea levels around Bangladesh by mid-century, as some scientists predict, … It's an aspect of global warming that's only now being more fully appreciated, but which Atiq Rahman, the country's leading environmentalist, calls one of the biggest threats facing not only Bangladesh, but the world. "There will be global destabilization of populations," he told me. "The poor will be the most affected. They'll have very little to lose once they've lost their land."

Rahman heads the Bangladeshi Centre for Advanced Studies and was also an author of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. In Dhaka, the impact is already being felt, with some half a million migrants arriving in the city each year. That's about the population of Washington, D.C., pouring mostly into squalid slums. The biggest reason for moving is environmental degradation.
"People are moving, being displaced forcibly, because of climate factors," according to Rabab Fatima, the Dhaka-based representative of the International Organization for Migration.

The crowded and gridlocked capital, home to at least 12 million people (probably more, but nobody knows for sure) is already under stress because of the explosive rise in population. The number of people living in Bangladesh’s capital has doubled in a decade.

"Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in the world, the frontline state of climate change," Rahman said, pointing to a large map on his wall, a thick black line across the delta, cutting off a fifth of the county. "Anything south of this line is going to under water."

More than half of Bangladesh is less than 20 feet above sea level. Experts say it faces a double threat: Rrising sea levels as a result of the melting ice caps and glaciers, and more extreme weather, like cyclones and heavy rain. Taken together this could generate more climate change refugees than anywhere else on earth….

An 1814 painting of the Lalbagh Fort, Dhaka, by Charles D'Oyly

Bahrain 'facing climate threats'

Rebecca Torr in the Gulf Daily News: Urgent action is needed if Bahrain is to offset the alarming affects of climate change, an environment conference was told yesterday. Bahrain is at higher risk than most countries from threats such as rises in sea levels, Foreign Ministry director of bilateral relations Ambassador Dr Dhafer Alumran told delegates at Banyan Tree Desert Spa and Resort, Al Areen.

However, he warned efforts to safeguard the country's future could prove futile unless business leaders and members of the public started taking responsibility for their own actions. He issued the stark warning at the opening of the Second Global Environment Conference and Exhibition, which was timed to coincide with the start of the biggest climate talks in history in Copenhagen, Denmark.

World leaders are coming together in Denmark for two weeks of talks aimed at reaching a global consensus on tackling climate change. But Dr Alumran said it was vital that Bahrain took action now and set an example for the rest of the world, rather than waiting for a unanimous international agreement.

He added that environmental protection should be seen as an opportunity, rather than a problem, that could be used to develop the economy. "The time to act is now, particularly given our country's exposure to the effects of climate change," he said….

Bahrain's coat of arms

Are scientists underestimating earth's sensitivity to CO2?

Scientific Blogging: A study appearing in Nature Geoscience this week claims that Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than previous estimates suggest, and the effects of this increased sensitivity could make climate change an even bigger threat than it already is.

The results of the study show that the models currently used to forecast climate change often neglect components of the Earth's climate system that vary over long timescales and have an important effect on temperature sensitivity--such as land-ice and vegetation.

The researchers compared results from a global climate model to temperature reconstructions of the Earth's environment three million years ago when global temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations were relatively high. The temperature reconstructions were derived using data from three million-year-old sediments on the ocean floor.

"We found that, given the concentrations of carbon dioxide prevailing three million years ago, the model originally predicted a significantly smaller temperature increase than that indicated by the reconstructions. This led us to review what was missing from the model," said Daniel Lunt, one of the study's co-athors.

The authors argue that the increased temperatures indicated by the reconstructions can be explained if factors that vary over long timescales, such as land-ice and vegetation, are included in the model. This is primarily because changes in vegetation and ice lead to more sunlight being absorbed, which in turn increases warming.

Including these long-term processes in the model resulted in an increased temperature response of the Earth to carbon dioxide, indicating that the Earth's temperature is more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously recognized. Climate models used by bodies such as the IPCC often do not fully include these long-term processes, thus these models do not entirely represent the sensitivity of the Earth's temperature to carbon dioxide…..

The earth seen from Apollo 17

Yellowstone a petri dish for climate change

Julie Cart in the Los Angeles Times: …In some cases, [climatic] changes are imperiling the very features that define some of the nation's most-beloved parks. …Yellowstone's 2.2-million carefully managed acres are among the few places left in North America to retain a virtually intact ecosystem, in a landscape where the hand of man remains light. The park's strict federal protections have maintained a refugium -- a kind of Noah's Ark of plants and animals whose lives are largely unmolested by localized industrial pollution.

"We are fortunate here to have a natural laboratory that is mostly in its original state," said Kerry Murphy, a Yellowstone wildlife biologist. "It's one of the few places in the United States where natural processes are allowed to operate."

That approach has support in Washington from newly installed park service Director Jon Jarvis. "Climate change is going to be the most significant challenge to the fundamental premise and foundational management of our national parks that we have ever faced," he said.

As more and more climate research originates in the park, subtle changes are coming into focus. Yellowstone officials are quick to say that not all of the unexplained transformations here have a direct link with climate change. Scores of effects have yet to be extensively studied, they say. But park managers point to a host of worrisome changes.

…Yellowstone's complex water network also shows signs it has been thrown out of kilter, initiating a host of concerns about rippling effects as the course of the park's lifeblood is altered. Many of the park's dwindling creeks and rivers are no longer draining into Yellowstone Lake, cutting off native fish from their spawning grounds.

…Not long ago it was impolitic for scientists in the National Park Service to consider climate change in their analysis of park problems. "We were advised not to use 'climate' and 'change' in the same sentence," said Tom Olliff, chief of the Yellowstone Center for Resources. But the Obama administration has made climate-change science a priority, Olliff said, so now the issue is at the forefront of staff discussions about resource protection….

Yellowstone Lake seen from space

Melting Himalayan glaciers threaten 1.3 billion Asians

Claire Cozens in Agence France-Presse: More than a billion people in Asia depend on Himalayan glaciers for water, but experts say they are melting at an alarming rate, threatening to bring drought to large swathes of the continent. Glaciers in the Himalayas, a 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) range that sweeps through Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, provide headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, lifelines for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream.

…"Scientists predict that most glaciers will be gone in 40 years as a result of climate change," said Prashant Singh, leader of environmental group WWF's Climate for Life campaign. "The deal reached at Copenhagen will have huge ramifications for the lives of hundreds of millions of people living in the Himalayan drainage systems who are already highly vulnerable due to widespread poverty."

…Nepalese mountaineer and environmental campaigner Dawa Steven Sherpa said he first became interested in climate change after a close call when part of the Khumbu icefall above Everest base camp collapsed during an expedition in 2007. … "Every time I go to the mountains the older Sherpas tell me this is the warmest year yet," Sherpa, who will take part in a special "summiteers' summit" in Copenhagen, told AFP.

… In China, studies have shown that the rapid melting of the glaciers will result in an increase in flooding in the short term, state news agency Xinhua has reported. In the longer term, it said, the continued retreat of glaciers would lead to a gradual decrease in river flows, severely affecting large parts of western China. …Even in low-lying Bangladesh, prone to severe floods, the IPCC has said rivers could run dry by the end of the century.

But research on the impact of global warming on the rugged and inaccessible Himalayas remains sparse, with the IPCC describing the region as a "blank spot" due to a lack of scientific data….

Tibet's Midui Glacier, shot by Jan Reurink, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, d under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Insurers assume that the future will be like the past. Now, it may not

Ian McGugan in Kelowna.com: …Insurance companies in the property and casualty sector are the firms that will be most directly affected by climate change. If global warming is as frightening as some people expect, insurance companies are the guys who will be picking up the tab for damages caused by floods, hurricanes and wildfires. They are also the ones who will also be making big bucks writing insurance against such disasters.

No wonder that buttoned-down insurers such as Allianz Group, Lloyd's of London and the Association of British Insurers are at the forefront of the green brigade clamouring for a deal on carbon emissions at the Copenhagen summit. You won't find any more sincere advocates for environmental awareness. Insurers know that if global warming results in a string of natural catastrophes, some of them will not survive.

Especially horrifying to many insurers is the unpredictable nature of what lies ahead. Evan Mills, a scientist with the U.S. Department of Energy and a long-time researcher into the connection between insurance and climate, argues that there has been a dramatic increase in extreme weather events in recent years. "Extremes are becoming the norm," he writes. He points to the European heat wave of 2003, which he calculates was a once-in-10,000-year event by historical standards.

…Insurers are rushing to introduce new products. The simplest of these products are innovations such as home insurance that provides money to rebuild or renovate homes to green standards. More complex products let customers bundle carbon offsets in with standard auto insurance or insure carbon-storage sites against the danger of leakage.

…One method is through catastrophe bonds, or cat bonds, that shift the risks of natural disasters away from insurers and on to investors. A catastrophe bond typically offers to pay investors a premium rate of interest. The catch is that if a specified disaster occurs, investors lose part or all of the money they've invested….

Hurricane Wilma, October 19, 2005

As climate changes, Soviet environmental ills felt once again

Antoine Blua in Radio Free Europe: The Nenets, an indigenous people living in Russia's Arctic, are traditional nomads, decamping every year to seek out fresh pastures for their reindeer herds. But that unique lifestyle is threatened. Nenets herders in the remote Yamal Peninsula complain that a steady rise in temperatures in recent years is making it harder to predict the weather. That in turn has affected the tundra's vegetation, the only source of food for the reindeer.

One of Yamal's Nenets residents, Yakov Yaptik, told Reuters the changing climate is also affecting the herders' seasonal migrations. "With global warming, the snow started to melt much faster," Yaptik said. "Before, it would start melting in May; now it is all melted by the end of April, and that causes problems for our migration because the deer have trouble walking over the tundra when the snow has completely melted."

As more than 15,000 officials from 192 countries prepared to attend a critical United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen on December 7-18, the World Bank has warned that the former Soviet Union as a whole is already experiencing the consequences of climate change.

The bank's report, titled "Adapting to Climate Change in Europe and Central Asia" and released in June, says the fallout includes increasing irregularity in the weather, warmer temperatures, windstorms, and changing distribution of water resources.

The World Bank says temperatures will continue to rise everywhere in the region, with the greatest changes occurring in the northernmost latitudes. At the same time, water availability is projected to decrease everywhere but Russia. Even as much of the region is faced with possible droughts, floods are expected to become more common and severe. Meanwhile, rising sea levels are set to affect the Baltic and Black seas and the Arctic Ocean….

Members of the Nenets near Krasnoyarsk, shot by Dr. A. Hugentobler, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Malta eyes water shortages and the coast

Caroline Muscat in the Times of Malta: What do tiny Malta and the entire African continent have in common? Their contribution to climate change is negligible but they will be among the hardest hit. Malta lies in the middle of the two most vulnerable regions to threats imposed by climate change, according to a European Commission White Paper published earlier this year. Being a small island state, Malta's threats are exacerbated, a fact acknowledged by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi during a recent parliamentary debate on the subject:

"The impact on small island states - particularly water shortages and sea level rise - is no joke. Because of sea level rise, we could lose a high percentage of our coast." However, the European Environment Agency (EEA) told The Sunday Times that Malta had still not forwarded any plans regarding climate change impact, vulnerability and adaptation, in contrast with other Mediterranean countries that "have prepared quite extensive climate change assessments".

In a report entitled "Impacts of Europe's Changing Climate", the EEA outlines the Mediterranean's vulnerability. The threats include an increased risk of floods and droughts, losses of biodiversity, threats to health, and damage to economic sectors such as energy, transport, forestry, agriculture and tourism.

…As an island nation that draws most of its water supply from the sea through desalination plants at considerable cost, fresh water is a precious resource. The Malta Resources Authority (MRA), the country's regulator, acknowledges that Malta is one of those Mediterranean countries under the 'constant pressure' of water scarcity….

The civil ensign of Malta

Dutch defense against climate change: Adapt

Anthony Faiola and Janet Eilperin in the Washington Post: With the Copenhagen summit starting Monday, chances remain uncertain for a historic breakthrough in the fight to prevent climate change, but the Netherlands is leading a fight of a different kind: How to live with global warming.

As sea levels swell and storms intensify, the Dutch are spending billions of euros on "floating communities" that can rise with surging flood waters, on cavernous garages that double as urban floodplains and on re-engineering parts of a coastline as long as North Carolina's. The government is engaging in "selective relocation" of farmers from flood-prone areas and expanding rivers and canals to contain anticipated swells.

The measures are putting this water world of dikes, levies and pumps that have kept Dutch feet dry for centuries ahead of the rest of the world in adapting to harsher climates ahead.

Critics describe some of the efforts here as alarmist -- perhaps too much, too soon. But other experts see the climate defense system being built in the Netherlands as a model for other nations -- including the United States, where officials are seeking Dutch advice for how to protect New Orleans and other low-lying coastal cities.

As nations from Britain to Bangladesh come up with survival strategies, the Dutch approach underscores a shift in thinking among scientists, planners and politicians, who only a few years ago viewed talk of adapting to climate change as akin to environmental surrender...

Lighthouse at Marken, the Netherlands, shot by Fijnlijn, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Scientist’s Himalayan mission provides unwelcome proof: glaciers are dying

The Times (UK): Inching over the treacherous surface of the Rathong glacier, almost 5,000 metres (16,400ft) high in the eastern Himalayas, Dr Shresth Tayal stooped to inspect a 7m steel rod he buried vertically in the ice six months ago. After a decade studying Himalayan glaciers, he had expected to find at least half the rod exposed — an alarming enough indication of how fast the Rathong is melting — but even he was surprised by what he found last week.

“Six metres in six months,” he cried, breathing hard in the thin mountain air as The Times and the rest of his team stepped gingerly between hidden crevasses and gushing rivulets of freshly melted ice. “It’s pathetic,” he said. “The glacier is dying.”

…But such setbacks are routine for Dr Tayal, one of a handful of intrepid Indian scientists studying a crucial question in the climate change debate: are the Himalayan glaciers disappearing — and with them the biggest fresh water store outside the polar icecaps?

The short answer is yes. There is plenty of anecdotal, photographic and piecemeal scientific evidence to suggest the glaciers — which feed the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers and provide fresh water to two billion people in the dry season — are indeed melting fast….

Goecha peak, near Kanchenjunga, from the Zemathang Glacier, Western Sikkim. Shot by Amar, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

Warming rescue plan doomed, report warns

Adam Morton in the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): The world has little chance of avoiding at least two degrees of global warming this century - the projected threshold for unpredictable and accelerated climate changes - if the emissions targets proposed by rich nations are locked in at next week's Copenhagen summit, an analysis has found.

A report by German-based consultants Climate Analytics says wealthy countries will arrive in Denmark with proposals that would lead to a joint cut in greenhouse gas emissions of between 13 and 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. Australia's contribution is a 5 to 25 per cent cut, with the final figure dependent on the level of international agreement reached.

The industrialised world target is well below the 25 to 40 per cent range that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found would be necessary for a 50/50 chance of keeping the temperature rise near two degrees. Factor in climate policies proposed by major developing nations, including China, and global emissions could increase 35 per cent between 1990 and 2020 - a rise that is said to lock in the inundation of island countries such as Tuvalu, the Maldives and Kiribati.

Scientists have warned that global emissions must peak between 2015 and 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The analysis will add weight to a push by the US and the G77 bloc of developing countries for the Copenhagen talks to set aside proposed 2020 emissions targets, and instead aim for a climate treaty to expire in 2017. This would allow 2020 targets to be reassessed and potentially toughened up mid-decade.

Climate Institute chief executive John Connor, who commissioned the analysis, said it showed that signing up to inadequate 2020 emissions targets would lead to a global warming of 3 degrees, which would destroy the world's coral reefs….

Graphic by Mike Edwards, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License

Flood alert in Mozambique

AllAfrica.com via Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique: Mozambique's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has announced an "orange alert" due to the heavy rains that have fallen in recent days in the basins of the Limpopo, Incomati and Umbeluzi rivers in the south of the country. According to the spokesperson for the National Emergency Operation Centre (CENOE), Belarmino Chivambo, this alert obliges the institutions involved in disaster management to monitor such phenomena as rainfall and winds, in preparation for possible flooding.

The Civil Protection Unit (UNAPROC) has also been mobilised, ready for speedy intervention should any of the rivers break their banks. Chivambo said that the situation is currently under control, and the soils in the river valleys are not yet saturated. Nonetheless, rescue equipment is being positioned in various parts of the country in case it should be needed….

Canadian climate change scientist says hackers targeted him

The forces of unreason are ruthless, well-funded and very active, according to this story by Judith Lavoie in Canwest News Service: Over the last year, there have been two break-ins at Andrew Weaver's University of Victoria office and several attempts to hack into the computer system. The intrusions came as no surprise to Weaver, Canada Research Chair on Climate Modelling and Analysis and a member of the Nobel-winning International Panel on Climate Change.

Like other scientists working in the climate-change field, Weaver says they face a well-orchestrated campaign of harassment by global warming skeptics. The polarized debate over global warming is building to a head as the international Copenhagen conference approaches. The fires have been stoked by thousands of e-mails hacked, leaked or stolen from the climate research unit at East Anglia University in Britain.

While climate-change skeptics say the e-mails show figures have been fudged, Weaver said they don't cast any doubt on the science of climate change. “One of the sad realities of being a scientist working in this area is you get targeted. I have had no end of nasty e-mails and phone calls,'' Weaver said.

…Weaver worries that climate-change deniers, many funded by large oil companies, are succeeding in scaring or confusing people. It comes down to a battle between science and ideology, he said. While science is about explaining all observations, ideology is about using only those observations that support a preconceived notion, he added….

Image of a computer hacker by Lethalman, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Climate catastrophe and Israel's denial of Palestinian access to water

Javier Sethness in Dissident Voice: Amnesty International has recently released two reports on Israeli water policy that present a rather thoroughgoing indictment of the Zionist colonization project broadly conceived. Entitled “Thirsting for Justice: Palestinian Access to Water Restricted” and “Troubled Waters: Palestinians Denied Fair Access to Water,” the reports join many other studies of both more and less recent memory that have provided similar perspectives critical of Israel’s behavior toward the Palestinian people. In the reports, Amnesty finds the Israeli state to be fundamentally violating the right to water of the 4 million Palestinians living under its ongoing military occupation, and hence also to be massively violating Palestinians’ right to an adequate standard of living. It seems important to consider that this aspect of Israel’s active deprivation of the Palestinian people in many ways mirrors and previews the acute deprivation of much of the world’s population that capitalist societies are enacting through their contributions to dangerous anthropogenic interference with the Earth’s climate

For those familiar with the present situation in Palestine, Amnesty’s reports may not prove to be terribly surprising; they are, however, no less offensive and shocking for all that. Amnesty finds that Israelis consume over 80 percent of the water available in the so-called Mountain Aquifer that lies beneath the West Bank, leaving the remaining 20 percent for the 2.3 million West Bank-residing Palestinians.

...The water situation in Palestine, then, is monstrous, just as is much else related to the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine. Indeed, Israeli water policy is reminiscent of what Salih Booker and William Minter refer to in a different context as global apartheid,1 and in this sense parallels many similar horrors of the contemporary world. One of the most pressing such parallels that bears mention here is that of climate change.

… It is in the destruction by Israel of Palestinian cisterns and water-treatment plants as in its rendering of entire Palestinian communities into environmental refugees through the wholesale cutting-off of their access to water that can be seen a few of the likely realities of the totality toward which the world is moving as a result of climate change….

The Gaza Strip in May 2005, NASA

"We are a harbinger of what is to come"

Stephen Leahy in IPS: A small group of indigenous people have travelled here to the historic Copenhagen climate talks to show negotiators dramatic documentary videos they made about the immediate impacts of climate change on their homelands and way of life. "We want to show policymakers what the three-year long drought in my country is doing to our communities," said Stanley Selian Konini, a Maasai from Oltepesi in Kajiado district, Kenya.

"Our animals are all dead. The zebras and the monkeys are dying even in the forests," Konini told IPS. "Leaders need to change policies to help us." The Kenyan video documents the impact of an intense drought hitting the Maasai community. During these extremely hard times, pastoralists have been losing their cattle - their main and sometimes only livelihood.

"It's affecting our culture. There can be no dowry payments because we have no animals," said Konini, one of the young Maasai who made the video. "The elders say they have never seen anything like this drought. It is something beyond their understanding and experience of the Maasai people," he said.

Konini's video is part of a series called "Conversations with the Earth" which features videos created by indigenous communities from four different continents, offering powerful evidence and testimonials of climate change problems in their far-flung home communities.

The series is a year-long collaboration between Land Is Life of Boston, an indigenous rights advocacy group, and Britain-based community video trainers InsightShare, in collaboration with photographer Nicolas Villaume, which provided video equipment and training…..

A Maasai village, shot by Nicor, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Alarm sounded over the wine industry

Kim Hjelmgaard in MarketWatch: Think of the historic winemaking regions of France. Now think of them airlifted approximately 620 miles north of their current location to, say, southern Scandinavia. That is what could happen to the wine industry -- worth close to $300 billion globally in 2009 -- under a worse-case-scenario projection by scientists and climatologists at the University of Bourgogne.

The study, which was cited in a recent report on climate change and the wine industry from Greenpeace, highlights the extreme consequences of remaining on a current emissions path that some say could bring about a global temperature rise of 4°C or even 6°C between now and 2100.

"We have seen a drastic change in the attitude of many people in the wine industry. Even up to a year ago most people were still questioning whether global warming was even happening. Now they are ready to listen and to come forward with ideas and suggestions on what to do about this, " said Pancho Campo, one of the world's leading wine experts and the organizer of a number of pioneering conferences analyzing wine in the context of climate change, in an interview.

…"Wine is the perfect example for people when considering the climate problem because in order to make wine you need grapes, and grapes are 100% affected by climate," added Campo on the phone from Madrid, where he is executive director of the Spanish Wine Academy…..

A glass of red wine, shot by André Karwath aka Aka, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

Major impacts of climate change expected on mental health

EurekAlert: Leading mental health researchers are warning that some of the most important health consequences of climate change will be on mental health, yet this issue is unlikely to be given much attention at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen next week. Dr Lisa Page and Dr Louise Howard from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King's College London reviewed a range of recent research by scientists into the potential mental health impacts of climate change.

In an article published in Psychological Medicine online, the two mental health experts conclude that climate change has the potential to have significant negative effects on global mental health. These effects will be felt most by those with pre-existing serious mental illness, but that there is also likely to be an increase in the overall burden of mental disorder worldwide. …Dr Page and Dr Howard identified the following ways in which climate change is likely to impact mental health:

• Natural disaster mortality and morbidity at such times...
• As global temperatures increase, people with mental illness are particularly vulnerable to heat-related death. ….
• Adverse impacts such as psychological distress, anxiety and traumatic stress resulting from emerging infectious disease outbreaks are also likely to increase if the predicted outbreaks of serious infectious diseases become reality.
• Coastal change and increased flooding is expected to lead to forced mass migration and displacement, which will undoubtedly lead to more mental illness in affected population.
• Urbanisation, a phenomenon which will be partially beneficial, for example by increasing opportunities for work and better access to health services, is associated with an increased incidence of schizophrenia in developed countries. …
• The knowledge of man-made climate change could in itself have adverse effects on individual psychological well-being.

Johann Heinrich Füssli (also known as Fuseli), "The Nightmare," 1781

Asian Development Bank to tap $700 million to combat climate change

Siddique Islam in My Town Talks, via AHN: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is planning to combat climate change by channeling around $700 million from two new investment funds for its developing member countries. The Strategic Climate Fund will support pilot programs on climate resilience, forest investment and scaling up renewable energy use in low-income countries. The fund hopes to develop programs that demonstrate effective climate mitigation and adaptation interventions that can be expanded and replicated.

Donor countries, including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States, pledged over $6.1 billion in 2008 for the Clean Technology Fund and Strategic Climate Fund, the ABD said Thursday. The climate investment funds (CIF) are being made available to multilateral development banks, including ADB, for climate change-related investments, according to the bank.

The Clean Technology Fund will support the deployment of low carbon energy technologies, such as wind, solar, hydro and geothermal power, as well as energy efficiency measures for industry, commercial buildings and municipalities.

“The two funds are designed to be interim financing tools and will be discontinued once the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change completes deliberations on a new global program for addressing climate change, and the new financial mechanisms needed to support it,” the bank said in a statement.

Money from the Strategic Climate Fund will be released as grants. The Clean Technology Fund will issue concessional loans with interest on the loans as low at 0.25 percent for up to 40 years. Risk mitigation instruments such as guarantees and equity will also be available. The money can be tapped for both public and private sector initiatives, the bank said….

A rice paddy in Indonesia, shot by Dohduhdah, Wikimedia Commons

Novel carbon-trading scheme could stop large-scale extinctions

Science Daily: A new strategy for saving tropical forest species was published in the journal Science on the eve of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark, by a team of researchers, including William Laurance, senior staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and distinguished professor at James Cook University. The authors state that wealthy countries should adopt a carbon-payment system that explicitly incorporates biodiversity values.

"If we're smart we could combat global warming while saving some of the most endangered wildlife on Earth," said Laurance. "Billions of dollars will be spent on forest-carbon initiatives in the next decade, and this could translate into huge benefits for vanishing species if we focus some of the spending in places where tropical biodiversity is most imperiled."

Destruction of tropical forests causes about 20 percent of human-caused carbon emissions. In strategies to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, carbon-producing nations pay tropical countries to keep some of their land in forest. The authors, mostly researchers working with Hugh Possingham, director of the Ecology Centre at the University of Queensland, evaluated several carbon-based credit scenarios.

"Dollar for dollar, a carbon-focused approach contributes little to slowing biodiversity loss and will save far fewer species than a biodiversity-focused strategy that targets the most imperiled forests," said lead author Oscar Venter, doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland.

A biodiversity-based system would change where carbon funds are spent, resulting in less money for areas like the Amazon where relatively few species are endangered because considerable forest remains. Spending to stem biodiversity loss would favor high-biodiversity nations in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, where most forests have already vanished….

Flooded forest in the Amazon basin, close to the meeting of the Rio Negro and Rio Amazon at Manaus, Brazil. Shot by Phil P Harris, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License

Jeddah flood deaths shame Saudi royals

Ali al-Ahmed in the Guardian (UK): Last week the Saudi city of Jeddah was afflicted by heavy rains that lasted only a few hours but caused massive flooding and the deaths of more than 500 people. To lessen the embarrassment, official reports shrank the number of flood-related deaths to just over 100. Many Saudis are asking how such a catastrophe could occur in one of the world's richest countries and in its second-largest and most cosmopolitan city.

This was the most severe nature-related calamity that the world's largest oil exporter has seen in the past 50 years but the real reason for the death and destruction that occurred last Wednesday is endemic corruption in the Saudi government.

Jeddah is a great example of corruption. This city of more than 4 million people still lacks a sewage system and treatment facility. The rain that fell last week had nowhere to go but to flood the streets and neighbourhoods, creating havoc and death in its path.

Hundreds of bodies were swept in the current and up to 11,000 people may be missing in the sea, according to a report two days ago by the Saudi newspaper al-Yaum. This figure may be inflated but the number of the missing and dead surely ranks in the hundreds, and could turn out to exceed a thousand. For comparison, hurricane Katrina in the US killed about 1,800 people.

The Saudi government reaction to the disaster in Jeddah followed the usual formula of denial followed by blame of the victims for failing to follow government orders. Instead of taking responsibility, a Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca region, in which Jeddah lies, blamed "arbitrarily built" neighbourhoods, and not the absence of a sewage system. Saudi media, which is mostly owned and fully controlled by the ruling family, followed suit and pointed a finger at citizens who bought land and built houses in unplanned areas….

A map of Jeddah, created by Physchim62 using data from OpenStreetMap, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

UN says reducing disaster risks helps climate change adaptation

VOA News: The United Nations says reducing risks from weather-related disasters such as floods and droughts can help nations adapt to climate change. The United Nations is urging greater action to reduce climate-related risk and vulnerabilities through measures such as early warning. Scientists predict global warming will lead to more intense and frequent extreme weather events, including storms, high rainfalls, floods, droughts and heat waves.

They say the poorest countries and poor people in wealthy countries will suffer first and most, because they have few means to adapt to increasing disasters brought on by climate change. Margareta Wahlstrom is Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. She says nations will make a serious error if they do not take urgent action.

"The disasters are there. There are more of them. More people are affected," Wahlstrom said. "It is costing more money. It is having longer term effects on poverty and on peoples' ability to generate even minimal wealth for improving their lives." In any given year, Wahlstrom says, at least 70 percent of natural disasters are created by climate and weather. For example, she says too much water, which results in severe flooding or too little water, which causes drought, spell disaster for millions of people worldwide.

She notes one billion people live under the poverty line. She says studies show an increase of temperature of plus two degrees could plunge another 400 million into poverty within the next 20 or 30 years. "If nothing is done about global warming, the agricultural output in many countries would drop ... It could drop by 25 percent in some of the main wheat-growing and rice-growing countries today ... That would have a huge impact on livelihood, nutrition and food security issues," Wahlstrom said….

A 1993 flood in Shenzhen, China, shot by Thisisivor, who has generously released it into the public domain via Wikimedia Commons

China should adapt to climate change: meteorologist

Agence France-Presse: China's top meteorologist has warned climate change could cause "incalculable" damage to the country and that efforts should focus on adapting to global warming rather than slowing it. The comments by the head of the China Meteorological Administration appeared to mark a departure from the government stance that has so far stressed both as equally important.

"Global warming is a fact. For a huge developing country like China it's more practical and urgent to adapt to climate change than to seek to slow down the process," said Zheng Guoguang. Zheng was writing in the latest edition of Seeking Truth, a Communist Party magazine, released this week just days before a global conference on climate change in Copenhagen where China is expected to play a crucial role.

China has made both slowing the pace of climate change and adapting to the new environmental challenges official priorities. Yang Ailun, Greenpeace China's climate and energy campaigner, criticised Zheng's comments as "not a very responsible signal" to be sending the world ahead of next week's summit.

"It is crucial for China to adapt (to climate change) because China will be badly affected. However China is the biggest carbon dioxide emitter and has an increasingly important role in tackling emissions," Yang said. Yang added that Zheng's comments were "not in line with the government's position" and may merely reflect a personal view.

It is rare for officials to express views at variance with China's official line. China faces potentially disastrous consequences from climate change, wrote Zheng, who is also a member of a group tasked with developing China's climate change policies. He estimated grain production could slump 37 percent in the second half of this century without "adequate adaptive measures", threatening the country's food security….

A bleak outlook if temperatures rise 7.2 F degrees

Red Orbit via Agence France-Presse: If the Earth’s temperature rises by a mere seven degrees, the planet would become a very hostile environment. Experts are now warning that a 7.2 F increase is indeed a likely scenario. If this occurs, oceans would rise 3.25 feet, submerging several island nations. Polar bears would be extinct in the Arctic. Australia would be regularly ravaged by fires. A huge part of the Amazon forest would be decimated. Asia's Himalayan glaciers would almost be completely melted and a fourth of the globe’s mammals would be headed towards disappearance.

"A 4.0 C, (7.2 F) increase in global mean temperatures has the potential to threaten human security and quality of life in a manner unprecedented in recent history," says Arizona State University professor Pamela McElwee to AFP. Francois Gemmene, a scientist at France's Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), noted that: "At 4.0 C, climate-driven migration redraws the map of population distribution across the surface of the globe."

This is not a fluke, scientists insist. On November 16, a worldwide team of scientists, called the Global Carbon Project, announced that carbon emissions had risen 29% from 2000 to 2008. This is sending the Earth onwards towards a worst-case warming scenario released by the UN's Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Under this scenario, continued use of fossil fuels would result in global warming of 7.2-to-11.5 F by 2100. This would be catastrophic for the Earth's 6.7 billion inhabitants. "The carrying capacity of the planet could fall to one billion people or less," said John Schellnhuber, head of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, to AFP….

A thermometer showing 22 degrees Celsius, shot by Luis Miguel Orta Rial, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

I'd rather not know: the psychology of climate denial

Some thoughts about climate change denial, from Terra Daily via Agence France-Presse: If the evidence is overwhelming that man-made climate change is already upon us and set to wreak planetary havoc, why do so many people refuse to believe it?… [S]urvey after survey from around world reveals deep-seated doubt among the public.

…Experts see several explanations for the eagerness with which so many dismiss climate change as overblown or a hoax. "There is the individual reluctance to give up our comfortable lifestyles -- to travel less, consume less," said Anthony Grayling, a philosophy professor at the University of London and a best-selling author in Britain.

…For Tim Kasser, a professor of psychology at Knox University in Galesburg, Illinois, the reality of climate change impinges on core aspects of our identity. "We are told a thousand times a day, notably through advertising, that the way to a happy, successful and meaningful life is through consumption," he said. "But now scientists and environmentalists come along and say part of the problem is that we are consuming too much or in the wrong way."

Yet there may also be a darker explanation. It is the human instinct to shut out or modify a terrifying truth: that the world as we know it is heading for a smash. "It's a paradox: when it comes to disasters, people do not allow themselves to believe what they know," explained Jean-Pierre Dupuy, a professor of social philosophy at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris.

…Under such circumstances, people are resourceful in finding ways to reassure themselves or turn their backs on the threat posed by climate change. Some applaud their own environmental virtue: "Changing to compact fluorescent bulbs makes people feel good -- 'I've done my bit for today'," said Kasser, describing a common attitude in the United States.

"Blaming China and India is another great psychological defence mechanism." A more sophisticated variant is to conclude, with a sigh of resignation. that individual action isn't enough.

…Hamilton, who is running for Parliament in Australia, said more and more people he meets are having what he calls an "Oh shit!" moment. "It's that moment when you really get it, when you understand not just intellectually but emotionally that climate change is really happening. I think we will see a rush of that over the next couple of years," he said….

The construction of Noah's ark, a mosaic in Monreale Cathedral, Sicily. Wikimedia Commons

Stabilised Bhutan lake a climate change lesson: WWF

Agence France-Presse: An international project that prevented a glacial lake in Bhutan from bursting its banks underlined how climate change can be tackled by adaptation, the environmental group WWF said on Tuesday. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said efforts by local and international agencies earlier this year reduced the risk of the brimming Thorthormi Tsho lake in the Himalayas flooding a valley.

"The story of Thorthormi lake is shaping up to be a story of successful adaptation to climate change," Tariq Aziz, who heads WWF?s Living Himalayas Initiative, said in a statement. "It is also a story of the risks that climate change is building for communities and the costs and complexities of successful adaptation work," he added.

A breach in the lake, perched at 4,428 metres (14,612 feet) above sea level, would be catastrophic, the environmental group warned. "The prospect is frightening," WWF said, recalling a smaller glacial lake burst in the same region in 1994 that left 20 people dead and caused havoc….

A NASA satellite view of glacial lakes in Bhutan

Global warming will destroy Canada's northern infrastructure, says federal report

Shawn Bell in the Slave River Journal (Canada): Global warming will result in major pressures on Canada's northern infrastructure including roads, pipelines and airfields as permafrost melts and shorelines wash away. Yet all levels of government, business leaders and residents are unprepared to deal with these dire effects of climate change in the North, says a new report by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

"Canada's North is on the frontline of climate change," states the report. "Melting permafrost is undermining building foundations and threatens roads, pipelines and communications infrastructure. Storm surges, wildfires, floods, blizzards and changing wind and snowstorm patters all pose risks to remote and vulnerable communities."

The report specifically targets the federal government for a lack of a 'high level signal' that adapting to effects of climate change in Canada's North is a top-priority issue needing quick and decisive action.
It also criticizes the federal government for its lack of a centralized agency to collect information coming from remote areas and for cutting funding to environmental monitoring programs in the North.

Pointing to Tuktoyaktuk, where over $8 million has already been spent relocating a school and the RCMP detachment as the Arctic Ocean shore washes away, the report says the federal government should take these additional infrastructure costs into consideration in its Northern Strategy. Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington said the report clearly outlines the problems facing infrastructure in the NWT. Now it is up to the federal government to create a plan to mitigate those problems, he said….

The Athabasca River railroad track at the mouth of Brûlé Lake in Alberta, Canada, shot by Alcazar Mountain, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Global warming and AIDS

James Hall in the Swazi Observer (Swaziland): On this week that sees the annual observation of World AIDS Day, health workers, policy makers and AIDS groups are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their approach to the disease. They are seeing AIDS from a “holistic” point of view – as a problem interlinked with such issues as poverty, food and water security, general health care, gender and (today’s topic) global warming. Gone are the days when AIDS was addressed as a medical problem to be handled in isolation by the health sector. Climate change is the latest wrinkle to complicate the battle to contain and defeat AIDS.

There is no evidence that the recent heavy rains were a direct result of climate change or that they were merely more of the same heavy November storms that have struck Swaziland and have been written about since the 19th century. However, some observers say the persistent rains would normally be seen in March, and this might be a sign of the climate changing here. More study has to be done.
What is undeniable is that the reality of climate change seems to have been accepted by the world’s scientists, leaders and publics, which is what the upcoming Copenhagen conference is all about. If the recent rains are anything to go by, we can expect more unusual weather, which will impact on people living with HIV and AIDS.

….According to a report just released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the success in defeating AIDS will rely on not only finding ways to destroy the virus itself but also to deal with climate change. The report identifies such climate change complications like food and water shortages, growth in poverty and an increase in natural disasters.

The virus that causes AIDS budding out of a human cell

Slow Atlantic hurricane season comes to a close

NOAA: The 2009 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends today [November 30,] marking the close of a season with the fewest named storms and hurricanes since 1997 thanks, in part, to El Niño. Nine named storms formed this year, including three hurricanes, two of which were major hurricanes at Category 3 strength or higher. These numbers fall within the ranges predicted in NOAA’s mid-season outlook issued in August, which called for seven to 11 named storms, three to six hurricanes, and one to two major hurricanes. An average season has 11 named storms and six hurricanes, including two major hurricanes.

“The reduced activity was expected and reflects the development of El Niño during the summer,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. “El Niño produced strong wind shear across the Caribbean Sea and western tropical Atlantic, which resulted in fewer and shorter-lived storms compared to some recent very active seasons.”

Two systems, Claudette and Ida, brought tropical storm force winds to the U.S. mainland. For the first time in three years, no hurricanes hit the U.S. There were 38 hurricane hunter aircraft reconnaissance missions flown by NOAA and the U.S. Air Force over the Atlantic Basin this year compared to 169 in 2008 – another indication of a less active season.

“El Niño is expected to reach peak strength this winter, and will likely continue into the spring. It is far too early to say whether El Niño will be present next summer,” added Bell. NOAA will issue its initial 2010 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook in May, prior to the official start of the season on June 1….

On August 16, tropical storms Ana, Bill and Claudette on August 16, 2009 during the Atlantic Hurricane season. Image Credit - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Goes East satellite

First comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate

British Antarctic Survey: The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica’s climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published this week (Tuesday 1 December) by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The review — Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment — presents the latest research from the icy continent, identifies areas for future scientific research, and addresses the urgent questions that policy makers have about Antarctic melting, sea-level rise and biodiversity.

Based on the latest evidence from 100 world-leading scientists from 13 countries, the review focuses on the impact and consequences of rapid warming of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Southern Ocean; rapid ice loss in parts of Antarctica and the increase in sea ice around the continent; the impact of climate change on Antarctica’s plants and animals; the unprecedented increase in carbon dioxide levels; the connections between human-induced global change and natural variability; and the extraordinary finding that the ozone hole has shielded most of Antarctica from global warming.

Dr. Colin Summerhayes, Executive Director of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research said, “Antarctica is an unrivalled source of information about our planet. This review describes what we know now and illustrates how human activity is driving rapid climate change. By integrating this multidisciplinary evidence into a single source we will help scientists and policy makers understand the distinction between environmental changes linked to the Earth’s natural cycles, and those that are human induced. The work is particularly important because it puts Antarctic climate change into context and reveals the impact on the rest of the planet.”

Professor John Turner of British Antarctic Survey is the lead editor of the review. He said, “For me the most astonishing evidence is the way that one man-made environmental impact — the ozone hole — has shielded most of Antarctica from another — global warming. Understanding the complexities surrounding these issues is a challenge for scientists — and communicating these in a meaningful way to society and to policymakers is essential. There is no doubt that our world is changing and human activity is accelerating global change. This review is a major step forward in making sure that the latest and best evidence is available in one place. It sets the scene for future Antarctic Research and provides the knowledge that we all need to help us live with environmental change.”…

A summary of the report’s findings are detailed in the following 10 key points:
1. Hole in ozone layer has shielded most of Antarctica from global warming
2. Warming of the Southern Ocean will cause changes in Antarctic ecosystem
3. Rapid increase in plant communities across Antarctic Peninsula
4. Rapid ice loss in parts of the Antarctic
5. 10% increase in sea ice around the Antarctic
6. Carbon dioxide levels increasing at fastest pace in 800,000 years
7. Sea ice loss directly affecting krill levels and penguin colonisation
8. Antarctica predicted to warm by around 3°C over this century
9. West Antarctic ice loss could contribute to 1.4 m sea level rise
10. Improved modelling of polar processes required for accurate predictions

Beardmore Glacier, Antarctica, shot by Commander Jim Waldron USNR (Retired), National Science Foundation

Saudi expert warns of more floods

Ghazzanfar Ali Khan in Arab News: A climate change expert has cautioned Saudis and residents to be vigilant against flash floods, saying that more heavy downpours, cold spells, heat waves and drought are expected because of changes in climatic conditions. Mansour Almazroui, chief of the department of meteorology at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), has blamed “abrupt climate change” for the devastating floods in Jeddah last week.

Almazroui, who called for taking measures against possible floods, landslides, building collapses, and erosion in coastal cities, said, “The amount of rainfall received by Jeddah on Nov. 25 was unprecedented in terms of volume and intensity. It was recorded as 90 millimeters within six hours, causing flash floods, ravaging the city.” According to records, Jeddah has never recorded such heavy rain in such a short period, he said.

“The rainfall came after the Arabian Peninsula suffered from prolonged drought that led to a shortage of water resources and depletion of many wells,” said the meteorologist. He noted that similar rainfall was recorded in the central region last year at more or less the same time. The downpour at that time caused flooding along Wadi Al-Rumah, which is the longest wadi in Saudi Arabia….

A Jeddah street, shot by Thomas Becker, Wikimedia Commons

World set for big drop in annual disaster bill: Swiss Re

Terra Daily: The global death toll and financial cost of catastrophes has dropped sharply this year after reaching near record levels in 2008, initial estimates from reinsurer Swiss Re indicated Monday. With one month of the year left, the total cost to society of natural and man-made disasters had reached 52 billion dollars (34.7 billion euros), about one fifth of the 267 billion dollars in damage wrought in 2008, the reinsurer said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the global death toll fell to 12,000, just five percent of the 238,000 deaths recorded over the whole of last year, according to initial estimates from an annual study by one of the world's biggest reinsurers. The shift halved the bill to insurers, who were set to fork out 21 billion dollars for natural disasters and three billion for man made events compared to a total of 50 billion dollars in 2008, Swiss Re found.

Claims from natural catastrophes and man-made disasters during the first seven months of 2009 were nearly double the average over the last 20 years. "We were lucky, but that may not be the case next year," said Swiss Re chief economist Thomas Hess….

Lancet series finds that cutting greenhouse pollutants will have major direct health benefits worldwide

Green Car Congress covers a major statement about the tremendous ancillary benefits of cutting emissions: Tackling climate change by reducing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions will have major direct health benefits in addition to reducing the risk of climate change, especially in low-income countries, according to a series of six papers on “Health and Climate Change” published 25 November in the British medical journal The Lancet.

The studies use case studies to demonstrate the co-benefits of tackling climate change in four sectors: electricity generation, household energy use, transportation, and food and agriculture.

“Policymakers need to know that if they exert their efforts in certain directions, they can obtain important public health benefits as well as climate benefits. Climate change threatens us all, but its impact will likely be greatest on the poorest communities in every country. Thus, it has been called the most regressive tax in human history. Carefully choosing how we reduce greenhouse gas emissions will have the added benefit of reducing global health inequities.,” [said] Kirk R. Smith, professor of global environmental health at UC Berkeley and principal investigator in the United States for the overall research effort.

Each study in the series examines the health implications in both high- and low-income countries of actions designed to reduce the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. Climate change due to emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel energy sources causes air pollution by increasing ground-level ozone and concentrations of fine particulate matter.

The studies were commissioned by the NIEHS, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in part to help inform discussions next month at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen. The NIEHS is one of the key sponsors of the international event….

A box of lancets, shot by BrokenSphere, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2