He is seen as one of Britain’s iconic figures: Sir David Attenborough has graced millions of television screens from many a different part of the world to inform viewers of the beauty and plight of the natural world. Will anyone listen to his latest warning? His message is not new, we have heard it before, … Read More
climate change impacts
Can politicians really tackle the greatest peril to humanity?
It is already being billed as the most chaotic G8 ever. And that’s before it has even started. The Italian host, Silvio Berlusconi is facing a political crisis at home over his private antics as well as questions about hosting the venue in an active earth quake zone. All the back-stage bickering threatens to undermine … Read More
199 Days to Stop Climate Disaster
With less than 200 days to go until the Copenhagen Climate talks, progress is said to be “steadily and slowly” being made. “There is a constructive atmosphere in the negotiations and I’m very encouraged,” Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change said last week. But the “slow and steady” … Read More
Half-Way to Climate Catastrophe
Sometimes you wonder if anyone actually heeds the warnings any more. There have been so many of impending doom about climate catastrophe, that people seem oblivious to the warnings. Two scientific reports released today maybe the ones where people sit up and notice. One of the lead scientists thinks so. “This changes the way we … Read More
Poll: Majority of Scientists Believe 2C Rise Inevitable
For many scientists and politicians a 2 degrees centigrade rise is the threshold which we cannot afford to cross. For example, the IPCC has long argued that climate impacts will significantly increase, if and when, global temperatures rise 2 degrees C or more above pre-industrial levels. Based on the science, the EU’s stated political objective … Read More
A Message from Antarctica
As the politicians pontificate about climate change and the crucial Bonn negotiations come to a close on Wednesday, nature has sent its very own stark message to the conference. An ice bridge that held the vast Wilkins Ice Shelf in place shattered at the weekend. Its collapse could herald a larger break-up of the Ice … Read More
Maldives opts out of pact with the “carbon devil”
Finally one politician has grasped the enormity of the problem facing their nation and us all. Mohamed Nasheed, the new president of the Republic of Maldives has more reason than most to be extremely worried, as his country stands at most 1.5 metres above the sea.
Scientists Warn of Catastrophic Cost of Political Failure
When the world’s leaders finally meet in Copenhagen in December and try and come up with an historic agreement on climate change, they will not be able to use lack of knowledge as an excuse for inaction. In what can only be described as a watershed moment, the 2,500 leading scientists meeting in Copenhagen this … Read More
I am hearing only bad news…
Does anyone remember the song written by the pop group, Latin Quarter, called “Radio Africa”, written in the mid-eighties whose repeated starting line was “I am hearing only bad news on Radio Africa”? That song came back to my mind reading the reports from the climate conference in Copenhagen. I am hearing only bad news … Read More
Its Serious Science Versus the Sceptics
It’s a tale of two conferences in two cities that are both on the science of climate change. One we should take seriously, the other one we should not. One is stacked full of thousands of reputable climate scientists, the other the same old, predominantly right-wing corporate funded climate sceptics with a discredited and out-dated … Read More