Thursday, April 28, 2005

"Smoking Gun" on Humans and Climate Change Claimed

MSNBC.com
Using ocean data collected by diving floats, U.S. climate scientists released a study Thursday that they said provides the "smoking gun" that ties manmade greenhouse gas emissions to global warming.
The researchers, some of them working for NASA and the Energy Department, went a step further, implicitly criticizing President Bush for not taking stronger action to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.
They said the findings confirm that computer models of climate change are on target and that global temperatures will rise 1 degree Fahrenheit this century, even if greenhouse gases are capped tomorrow.
If emissions instead continue to grow, as expected, things could spin “out of our control,” especially as ocean levels rise from melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the NASA-led scientists said. "The climate system could reach a point where large sea level change is practically impossible to avoid."
The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, is the latest to report growing certainty about global warming projections.
© 2005 MSNBC.com

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  • Germana Canzi's COMMENT: Nobody has yet tried to calculate a monetary value for a large global sea level change. The damages could clearly be incalculable and far more costly than any of the solutions, and the technologies, currently at our disposal.

    Wednesday, April 27, 2005

    Climate Change Poses Threat to Food Supply, Say Scientists

    THE INDEPENDENT (UK)
    By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
    Worldwide production of essential crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soya beans is likely to be hit much harder by global warming than previously predicted, an international conference in London has heard.
    The benefits of higher levels of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, will in fact be outweighed by the downsides of climate change, a Royal Society discussion meeting was told yesterday. It had been thought that the gas might act as a fertiliser to increase plant growth. Rising atmospheric temperatures, longer droughts and side-effects of both, such as higher levels of ground-level ozone gas, are likely to bring about a substantial reduction in crop yields in the coming decades, large-scale experiments have shown.
    The two-day meeting, entitled Food Crops in a Changing Climate, is focusing largely on tropical countries where most of the world's food is grown, and where people are most vulnerable to climate change.
    It is bringing together leading scientists in the fields of meteorology, climate science and agriculture to report on the latest research, including growing crops in experimental conditions in the open air that simulate advanced global warming. Previously, such experiments had taken place in closed chambers, and these had suggested that the "fertilisation" effect of rising CO2 would offset the detrimental effects of rising temperatures and drought incidence on crop production.
    But, a new technology known as Face (Free-Air Concentration Enrichment) is allowing treatment of large areas of crop with elevated levels of CO2 and ozone, and these experiments have painted a very different picture.
    "Growing crops much closer to real conditions has shown that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will have roughly half the beneficial effects previously hoped for in the event of climate change," said Steve Long, from Illinois University.
    "In addition, ground-level ozone, which is also predicted to rise but has not been extensively studied before, has been shown to result in a loss of photosynthesis and 20 per cent yield loss. Both these results show that we need to seriously re-examine our predictions for future global food production, as they are likely to be far lower than previously estimated," Professor Long said.
    Additionally, studies in the UK and Denmark show that just a few days of hot temperatures can severely reduce the yield of major food crops such as wheat, soya beans, rice and groundnuts, if they coincide with the flowering of these crops.
    These results suggest that there are particular thresholds above which crops become very vulnerable to climate change.
    On a more positive note, the meeting also highlighted new developments in forecasting techniques, the basis of which can act as early warning systems of famine.
    The techniques incorporate a climate prediction model with a model that simulates crop growth under varying environmental conditions.
  • The Independent
  • Wednesday, April 13, 2005

    US Power Companies Should Urgently Address Climate Risk

    United States power companies will face significant global-warming related financial risks if they fail to reduce their emissions, according to a new report released today by CERES, a coalition of 85 investors and environmental groups.
    The report analyzes climate risks reports that three of the country's largest power companies - American Electric Power, Cinergy and TXU - prepared at the request of investors. These three companies collectively emit over 250 million tons of greenhouse gases every year.
    Despite these warnings, US companies are planning to build 100 new coal-fired stations in the coming years. These investments are set to become liabilities when the US will regulate greenhouse gases in the future, which CERES said is "widely expected".
    The report was released at CERES's annual conference, which started today in Boston.

  • CERES website
  • Friday, April 08, 2005

    "Kyoto Effect" Boosts European Renewable Energy Stocks

    London, England [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] New Energy Finance's Global Energy Innovation Index (GEIX) has completed the first quarter since its launch. GEIX tracks the performance of the largest 50 pure-play quoted renewable and low-carbon energy technology companies worldwide.
    "It's too early to tell whether the very marked 'Kyoto Effect' is a one-off, or whether it will drive a sustained divergence in the value of new energy stocks in Kyoto and non-Kyoto countries," said Michael Liebreich, CEO/Founder of New Energy Finance
    Although as a whole the index is up only 0.25% since the beginning of the 2005, a closer analysis of the fund shows what the company believes is very significant "Kyoto Effect," based on the recently enacted national policy to control global emissions of carbon dioxide.

    Read the whole story
    http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=24776

    Thursday, April 07, 2005

    Duke Energy CEO proposes 'carbon tax'

    Posted on Thu, Apr. 07, 2005
    PAUL NOWELL
    Associated Press

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Duke Energy Corp. will lobby for a tax on carbon dioxide emissions that would reduce fossil fuel consumption and begin dealing with the global warming problem, the company's chairman said Thursday.
    "Personally, I feel the time has come to act - to take steps as a nation to reduce the carbon intensity of our economy," Paul Anderson told several hundred Charlotte business and civil leaders at a breakfast meeting. "And it's going to take all of us to do it."
    Anderson acknowledged a national carbon tax would mean bigger utility bills and higher prices at the gas pump. But unless industry leaders take the lead, he said, the long-term outcome could be even more disastrous.
    "If we (the U.S. energy industry) ignore the issue, we would be the easy target," he said. "The worst scenario would be if all 50 states took separate actions and we have to comply with 50 different laws."
    Anderson's speech was a follow-up to a letter he wrote last week to shareholders that accompanied the Charlotte-based company's annual report. In the letter, Anderson vowed to be proactive in shaping national policy on global warming and climate change.
    In his letter, Anderson said political leaders must break through the congressional stalemate on multi-pollutant legislation and formulate a new national energy policy.
    Duke Energy, which ranked 86th in the recent Fortune 500 list, is not the only large U.S. energy firm to address global warming as a key policy concern. Cincinnati-based Cinergy Corp. also addressed the issue in an annual report issued last week.
    "As a major coal-burning utility, some might expect us to duck this issue," wrote Cinergy Chairman James Rogers. "But avoiding the debate over global climate change and failing to understand its consequences are not options for us."
    Duke Power Co., Duke Energy's regulated utility, relies heavily on coal and nuclear energy to produce nearly all its power.
    After his speech, Anderson acknowledged he does not expect to see a carbon tax enacted under President Bush. Bush withdrew the United States from participation in the Kyoto Protocol, an international global warming treaty that took effect in February.
    The Kyoto Treaty requires more than 30 industrial countries to reduce their emissions of six greenhouse gases by a combined average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.