The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states.
OK, I've actually known about this for some time, since they replaced their site with a blank maintenance page last month. But the new Drupal Weekly Dig site is finally up and running! Drupal perks include: user blogs, user contact forms, personalized signature, and commenting on all print articles. I never particularly liked the old site and the new one still has some kinks in it but I'm glad to see my favorite local culture rag is now running on the community-centric open source software that is Drupal.
Reuters is carrying an article with the headline, Study blames climate change for hurricane rise. The paper is also available online (0.4 Mb pdf). The science journalist, Chris Mooney, has a done a good job at putting this story in the context of an ongoing debate within the climatology/meteorological scientific communities.
“Deforestation in the tropics accounts for nearly 20 per cent of carbon emissions due to human activities,” Dr Canadell says. “This will release an estimated 87 to 130 billion tonnes of carbon by 2100, which is greater than the amount of carbon that would be released by 13 years of global fossil fuel combustion. So maintaining forests as carbon sinks will make a significant contribution to stabilising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.”
Further evidence that the IPCC has been conservative in it's conclusions. From Reuters:
The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said Tuesday.
This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 2 made this presentation on April 6, 2007. Each clip is about ten minutes long for a total of an hour.
I don't usually post breaking news but this is a big ruling for climate change policy. Here's the AP report:
The Supreme Court ordered the federal government on Monday to take a fresh look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars, a rebuke to Bush administration policy on global warming.
In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars.
On Wednesday, a debate sponsored by IQ2US was held on the subject, "Global warming is not a crisis". One of the participants, NASA climatologist, Gavin Schmidt, has posted his thoughts on the debate at RealClimate. The transcript is now available for download and a podcast will be released next week. Personally, I am not so sure that the format of this debate was a good idea, given the equal weighting given to climate scientists and professional "skeptics". Nor do I think that this kind of forum is conducive to an accurate presentation of the science. One can talk in bombastic circles about a topic without ever fully getting to the bottom of it in a way that can be done with simple visual examination of the data. A perfect example of this is Michael Crichton's sarcastic proposal to ban private jets.
Prodded by fears of global warming and surging electric bills, corporate computer users are demanding more energy-efficient machines, and the federal government is preparing to issue tough new standards for greener machines. Tech Networks of South Boston is ready.
Susan Labandibar gave up a career in environmental activism in 1994 to launch Tech Networks of Boston, which supplies computer networks to small businesses and non profits. But Labandibar never abandoned her ideals, and she was always troubled that the electricity needs of the powerful computers she sold were flooding the air with greenhouse gases.
The main goal of the bipartisan RGGI is to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. As part of the program, the states are set to begin charging power plants fees for carbon dioxide emissions beginning in 2009.
As part of the agreement, states are given "allowances" for emissions. Electricity generators like power plants will need the allowances for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Each state has the discretion to distribute the allowances however it wants.
