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	Eldis \| Climate change

	ClimateChangeCorp \| News

	Desertification \| Web log

	The Economist \| Environment

	Reason magazine \| Global warming

	SciDev \| Climate change \| News

	The Independent \| Climate change \| News

	The Politics of Global Warming \| News

Eldis / Climate change

Informing the development of a future research programme on energy planning in developing countries
16 09 2009 This report presents the findings of a research scoping study undertaken for DFID, with the overall objective of informing the development of a future ...

Framework for an agreement on adaptation to climate change
16 09 2009 In view of the climate change challenges, this paper aims to outline a possible framework for an agreement on adaptation. It highlights several issues ...

Future prospects for Joint Implementation
16 09 2009 This paper looks at the likely future of Joint Implementation (JI) in the fight against climate change. It also compares JI to the Clean Development Mechanism ...

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Desertification / Web log


Desertification and poverty, agriculture and horticulture in the drylands

VIDEO ON DESERTIFICATION : YOU TUBE in French (Google)
04 09 2010 Read at : Google Alert – desertification YouTube – La Desertification – Le dessous des cartes présenté par Jean-Christophe Victor, est un magazine hebdomadaire de géopolitique produit et diffusé par ARTE, en collaboration avec le Lépac.

World Currency Tax To Fund Development Aid (Kaiser Family Foundation)
04 09 2010 Read at : Kaiser Family Foundation http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/September/03/GH-090310-Financial-Transaction-Tax.aspx At U.N. MDG Summit, Ministers Will Propose World Currency Tax To Fund Development Aid “A group of 60 nations, including France, Britain and Japan, will propose at the U.N. [summit on the Millennium … Continue reading →

Desertification: ‘Nigeria is losing over 35,000sqkm of forest landmass every year’ (Google / Peoples Daily)
04 09 2010 Read at : Google Alert – deserification http://www.peoplesdaily-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13687:desertification-nigeria-is-losing-over-35000sqkm-of-forest-landmass-every-year&catid=57:special-report&Itemid=137 Desertification: ‘Nigeria is losing over 35,000sqkm of forest landmass every year’ In 1950, over 100 million hectares of the world’s forests had been cleared for industrial purposes. At that time, according to … Continue reading →

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The Economist / Environment

Climate change: The ways of a warmer world
03 09 2010 Books about how people can and will adapt to climate change need not be Panglossian—as these two show Climatopolis: How Our Cities Will Thrive in the Hotter Future. By Matthew Kahn. Basic Books; 288 pages; $26.95 and GBP16.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk Turned Out Nice: How the British Isles Will Change as the World Heats Up. By Marek Kohn. Faber & Faber; 368 pages; GBP14.99. Buy from Amazon.co.uk ...

Monitor: Ruses to cut printing costs
03 09 2010 Office technology: All kinds of technological tricks are being used to reduce the cost and environmental impact of office printers THE dream of the paperless office has been around for years, but it has remained just that, despite the rise of e-mail and the web. True, paper consumption in American offices peaked in 2001, but since then it has declined only slightly from its high of around 150 pounds (68kg) of paper per worker per year. In Europe, meanwhile, each worker prints an average of 31 pages a day, seven of which were not even wanted, according to recent research by Lexmark, a printer manufacturer. The cost of all that paper, toner and ink quickly adds up. Which is why, earlier this year, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay adopted a novel strategy to save money on print supplies: it changed its fonts. Programs like Microsoft Outlook default to Arial, but a thinner-lined typeface such as Century Gothic requires less toner or ink to form its characters. A study in 2009 showed that switching to Century Gothic could save businesses as much as $80 per printer per year. The university predicts that this year it will reduce its $100,000 print-supplies bill by around 10% by making this simple change. ...

Climate-change assessment: Must try harder
03 09 2010 A call to reform the IPCC IF THIS week’s report into the workings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by a council of national academies of science were the sort of report children take home from school, its main themes would be expressed as “could do better” and “needs to show workings”. Stern parents might read it as calling for a Gradgrind-like clampdown; more indulgent ones as an inducement for the little darlings to try a little harder. At a meeting in Busan, South Korea, this October, the parents in question—the representatives of the IPCC’s member governments—will decide which sort they want to be. Read in detail, the report suggests that if they want credible climate assessments, a firm hand will be required. ...

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Reason magazine / Global warming

California Roundup: PG&E -- Friend of the Environment
04 09 2010 Rich business moguls who don't want to pay their fair share in taxes.

* Bell once again worse thanyou can imagine. Remember all those residents of the city of Bellwho gripedto Reason TV about shady tax hikes? California Controller JohnChiang says residents of the town (where annual earnings averagearound $30,000) overpaid by $3 million on their property taxes over the lastthree years. * The new book California Crack-Up by Joe Mathews andMark Paul gets a thumb-sideways review from Loren Kaye at Fox & Hounds, whoquestions the need for a new constitutional convention, disputesthe belief that Prop. 13 is responsible for the state's troubles,and chides the authors for going too easy on the state's abominablelegislature. * Regulate us harder; we love it! Calbuzz says yes to new online disclosure requirements by California’sFair Political Practices Commission. * Global warming bogosity: Dan Walters suspects Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding off on enforcingthe state global-warming law until after Prop. 23 (a moratorium onthat law) goes down to its expected defeat. * Son of Enron? Speaking of Prop. 23, the notion that theinitiative is backed only by "out-of-state oil interests" is prettypopular. Jon Coupal says if you think the people supporting Prop. 23 arebad, get a load of the opponents -- including irrepressible naturebunny PG&E and politically connected plutocrat Thomas Steyer.

Answer: No
04 09 2010 One Californian confronts the heat.

Question: "Will the only state to enact stiffregulations to limit greenhouse emissions vote in November topostpone the 'cap and trade'-style rules until its economysurvives?" John Gizzi discussesCalifornia's Proposition 23, which would place a moratorium oninstituting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature environmentallaw, Assembly Bill 32 or "California Global Warming SolutionsAct." Proposition 23, "SuspendsImplementation of Air Pollution Control Law (AB 32) [....] UntilUnemployment Drops to 5.5 Percent or Less for Full Year" was put onthe ballot by Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Linda). Gizzi assesses thechances:

[Logue] noted, every Republican member of the California stateAssembly as well as U.S. Senate nominee Carly Fiorina have weighedin for Proposition 23. (To the disappointment of “23” backers, GOPgubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has yet to endorse theinitiative). The most recent Field Poll showed that by a margin of 48% to30%, California voters are against Proposition 23.

Disclosure: Valero, which is by far the largest contributor to Prop 23, is my usual station for cheap gas --but I always pay cash so you can't prove a thing. That Californians believe a statewide global warming policywill make a serious dent in global warming is a measure of ourinflated sense of our own importance. And AB32's potential economiceffects are not worth gambling with at this point in the GoldenState's history. (Here[pdf]is a study for the so-called Union of Concerned Scientists,concluding that AB32 will not hurt small businesses. Here are small businesses themselves begging for relief fromAB32.) But I think those for/against numbers are pretty reliable.There's a lot of opposition to Prop 23, and while much of it --such as thisboutique-state argument (that Prop 23 will be the realjob-killer because it will allow ungreen jobs to compete againstgreen jobs) from one Steve Frisch -- is fanciful and innumerate, itdoes seem to be shared by a majority of Californians.

California Roundup: Climate Clods, High-Living Deadbeats, Gay Marriage and More
06 08 2010 Gays celebrate the right to be as miserable as straights.

Gays celebrate the right to be as miserable as straights.

* Reactions to the throwing out ofProposition 8: It's rational! It'sirrational! At FlashReport, the Claremont Institute's JohnEastman objects that U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker, whoyesterday struck down the 2008 ballot initiative banning same-sexmarriage, is a homosexual of the opposite persuasion who prefersthe company of men and moreover lives in San Francisco. Is Walker'sargument going to hold water? Read the highlights, which contain plenty of zingers and broad statements, but not a lot of legal-sounding stuff. Thecompleteruling [pdf] islong. At Volokh.com, Dale Carpenter says Walker's "maximalist" approach of defending gay marriageon both due process and equal protection grounds could lead to areversal by the U.S. Supreme Court. An appeal has already been filed and the decision will probably begoing to the SCOTUS one of these years. Reaction to Walker'sruling also suggests how lukewarm President Obama and the Democrats have been in their support for marriage freedom. * Climate gas cleared up: Acourt has ruled that the ballot wording of Proposition 23 --which would delay implementation of state climate-change laws --must be changed. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge TimothyFrawley affirmed a claim from the Howard Jarvis TaxpayersAssociation that the term "major polluters" written by AttorneyGeneral Jerry Brown's office was pejorative and tended to biasreaders of the ballot booklets. In an expression of fair-mindednessthat can only be the work of Robert Greene, the L.A. Timeseditorial board -- never a friend of either polluters or the Jarvisorganization -- agrees with the judge. * More Prop. 23 shenanigans: Opponents of the measure aretrying to get U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to put thescrews to a major donor to the campaign. All this tsouris may befor nothing, as Prop.23 is an extreme long shot that is opposed by the current governor andboth the Republican and Democratic candidates to replace him. * When we go bankrupt in this state, we don't pussyfoot around:New government data show Californians lead the nation in "net scheduled debt" -- theamount you have to pay back after all the bankruptcy proceedings.In the northern part of the state, bad debtors are still carryingan average of $483,410 even after bankruptcy protection. * Did the recession cause the pension crisis? Not a bit of it:David Crane, Gov. Schwarzenegger's advisor for "Jobs & EconomicGrowth," showsthat this is another case of blaming revenues for what isactually a spending problem. Costs have been skyrocketing overprojected levels since the beginning of the century.

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SciDev / Climate change / News

Uruguay to hold ‘public trial’ on nuclear energy
02 06 2010 For the first time, Uruguay will organize a Danish-style consensus conference in which citizens will discuss nuclear energy.

Climate change ‘to affect Mexican GDP’
02 06 2010 The Mexican authorities have said that climate change may cost up to 4.2% of GDP by 2050 if no legislation is approved to deal with its effects.

Sub-Saharan Africa news in brief: 20 May–2 June 2010
02 06 2010 African professionals abroad called home, East and West Africa to benefit from food security programme, new hope for ICTs, and more.

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The Independent / Climate change / News

Car fumes raise spectre of 1980s revival nobody wants...acid rain
23 06 2010

Thirty years ago it was one of the great environmental issues, along with the hole in the ozone layer and CFC chemicals. Now acid rain may be making a comeback – but this time, there's a change in the chemicals responsible.

Disaster is making US think again about cleaner energy
23 06 2010 The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is making Americans think more about a clean energy future – but not yet to the extent of having to pay for it, or to tackle climate change, one of the leading US thinkers on global warming policy said yesterday.

Car fumes raise spectre of 1980s revival nobody wants: acid rain
23 06 2010

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The Politics of Global Warming / News


Living Stories by The New York Times with Google

C.I.A. Is Sharing Data With Climate Scientists
19 01 2010

A satellite image of the East Siberian Sea from 1999-2008. This image has been degraded to hide the satellite’s true capabilities. USGS The nation’s top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government’s intelligence assets — including spy satellites and other classified sensors — to assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests. The collaboration restarts an effort the Bush administration shut down and has the strong backing of the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In the last year, as part of the effort, the collaborators have scrutinized images of Arctic sea ice from reconnaissance satellites in an effort to distinguish things like summer melts from climate trends, and they have had images of the ice pack declassified to speed the scientific analysis.

Fault Lines Remain After Climate Talks - Column
18 01 2010 The recently concluded climate talks in Copenhagen suggested to many commentators and participants that the global community, as represented by the United Nations, was incapable of broad agreement on just about anything. Others argued that such judgments were too swift and praised the outcome — a five-page document — as an historic first-step toward meaningful global action on the climate. Opinions have been as varied and discordant in the aftermath of the meeting as they were at the sessions in the Bella Center in Copenhagen, where thousands of delegates argued and postured — to uncertain ends — in the twilight of 2009...

The Copenhagen That Matters - Op-Ed
01 01 2010 As I listened to Denmark’s minister of economic and business affairs describe how her country used higher energy taxes to stimulate innovation in green power and then recycled the tax revenues back to Danish industry and consumers to make it easier for them to make and buy the new clean technologies, it all sounded so, well, intelligent. It sounded as if the Danes looked at themselves after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, found that they were totally dependent on Middle East oil and put in place a long-term strategy to make Denmark energy-secure and start a new industry at the same time...

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