April 2008

JOURNALISTS at The Age yesterday condemned management for undermining the Melbourne newspaper's editorial independence, claiming reporters were pressured not to write negative stories about Earth Hour and sports coverage was in danger of being compromised by commercial considerations.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick says a global food crisis demands the immediate attention of world leaders.

In Stalin's Russia any dissenter from the Party Line was guilty. Innocence had to be proved. It's a standard tyrant's trick. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell in England, witchhunters did not have to prove that their victims were guilty. The accused witches had to prove their innocence.

We're in a busy period of hurricane activity that will inflict unimaginable damage, but global warming is not the cause, leading researchers told the nation's foremost forecasters and other experts Friday.

Developing countries and environmental groups accused the World Bank on Friday of trying to seize control of the billions of dollars of aid that will be used to tackle climate change in the next four decades.

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

Greenhouse gas emissions are always the focus of the state climate commissions, with the impact on climate assumed and not to be debated. And economic issues are addressed as well, although the standards and principles implemented have been imported from some alternate universe.

But what is not discussed seriously is technological or practical feasibility of many of the recommendations coming from the state panels. A story from Minnesota Public Radio, linked in my post from earlier today, addresses this:

Another group has studied the report closely and warns that some of its projections may be unrealistic. Dr. Peter Reich, a specialist in environmental change and terrestrial ecosystems at the University of Minnesota, researched the potential for carbon capture in the state's soils and plants.

 

Reich says global warming is a serious problem, and we need to take steps to try to ratchet it down. However, he says the report from the Climate Change Advisory Group relies too heavily on forestry and agriculture to reduce carbon emissions.

For example, one recommendation is to restock 8 million acres of forest land — half the forest land in the state, according to Reich. Even if there were enough money and people to do that, Reich says, the result would be less than the report expects.

"Stands are at less than full stocking for a number of very real reasons … they have poor soils in spots, rocky soil, diseases, competition from mature trees," said Reich.

Meaning, he says, that many of the newly planted trees wouldn't grow well enough to hold much carbon. Reich says there are other examples where the report overestimates how much Minnesota's forests and farms can contribute.

"If we put all our eggs in one basket, so to speak — that this is how we're going to make our major changes in next 17 years — that may keep us from being more focused on making the other kinds of changes that we think are actually much more effective, and cost-effective," said Reich.

Another report said "Minnesota's geology is not appropriate for storing carbon dioxide underground."

Curses! Foiled again!!

After five days of contentious discussions in Bangkok, governments from nearly 200 countries last week agreed to an agenda for further talks to forge a new United Nations global warming agreement. One sticking point has been developing nations' insistence that industrialized countries should take the first steps in reducing emissions and should help finance reductions in developing countries. But this represents a serious misreading of the underlying economic situation.

Reaching an timely agreement on setting up an effective global climate protection system will be "very difficult", a senior UN official said on Wednesday ahead of the Budapest session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Angry protesters, riot police, mass demonstrations, arrests for disorderly conduct — it hasn't  exactly been smooth sailing for the Olympic-torch relay. If people are looking for another reason to be pissed at China, how about this: By the time this pyro parade is over, it will have produced about 11 million pounds of carbon emissions.