Are we are about to witness one of the biggest political U-turns in recent years? Rumours are rife in Washington that Bush is about to undertake an astonishing U-turn on global warming. Apparently after years of trying to sabotage agreements to tackle climate change, the Toxic Texan is drawing up plans to control emissions of … Read More
Author: Andy Rowell
Lib Dems Launch Green Tax Offensive
The World Bank may be meeting in Singapore, but in the UK the political party season has begun. First up it’s the Liberal Democrats. The environment and climate change will feature heavily like never before with the Tories and Lib Dems both trying to attract the green vote.
New Report Calls on World Bank to Stop Financing Big Oil
Oil Change International released a report today at the World Bank Annual Meetings in Singapore calling on the World Bank to stop using aid money to subsidize the expansion of the international oil industry – what we call “End Oil Aid”. Read the Reuters story here.
Oil Change in Indonesia/Singapore as Controversy Surrounds World Bank Meetings
Hello from the International People’s Forum on the IMF and World Bank (IPF) on the island of Batam, Indonesia! Batam is a short ferry ride from Singapore, where the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in the process of holding their Annual General Meeting. The IPF has brought together hundreds of social and … Read More
Climate Change Educational Initiative Launched in the US
At last some good news: A major new educational initiative on climate change has been launched on the Net. Called “Focus the Nation” it will involve over 1000 universities, colleges and high schools in the US in a simultaneous one-day symposia that will explore the challenge of “Stabilizing the Climate in the 21st Century”. “Post … Read More
Warning: 90% Carbon Cut Needed to Avoid Disaste
Hot of the heels of the two NASA reports is a further one from British scientists saying that drastic action is needed if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. The government-funded Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, the leading climate change research body, has revised upwards by a massive 50% the cuts in greenhouse … Read More
Disappearing World
The Independent today reports on the story we blogged on yesterday about disappearing sea-ice reported by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. However it is even worse – another NASA study – this time by the Goddard Space Flight Centre, in Maryland, shows that the perennial ice melting rate, has also accelerated rapidly. As the … Read More
“Drastic” Shrinkage in Arctic Ice
A Nasa satellite has documented “startling” changes in Arctic sea ice cover between 2004 and 2005. The extent of “perennial” ice – which remains all year round – declined by 14%, losing an area the size of Pakistan or Turkey. The Arctic is now warming about twice as fast as the global average. September 2005 … Read More
Wither The Traditional English Garden?
The traditional English cottage garden full of roses, delphiniums and hollyhocks may soon be a thing of the past because of climate change, the government warned yesterday. Ian Pearson, the Environment Minister, said that average temperatures would probably increase by 5.4F (3C) by the 2080s, forcing gardeners to move from traditional plants to Mediterranean varieties … Read More
Are you Loyal to Big Oil?
Loyal to Big Oil is a new consortium of oil barons, energy-company CEOs, giddy traders on the energy futures market and the faithful representatives in Congress who deliver the subsidies and tax breaks we love at the expense of consumers and taxpayers who can’t afford lobbyists of their own. Over the weekend, Loyalists in Nevada … Read More