Ecocide ALert, Preventing Ecocide, solutions

Can we stop climate change? Infographic claims to reveal the four scenarios awaiting humanity - and NONE of them are great

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

With higher amounts of warming, coffee farming could be virtually impossible in Southeastern Brazil in 2100. Photo Credit: Ben Kaminsky/Flickr

The infographic was created by the World Resources Institute based on data from this year’s IPCC report
It shows what the future might hold in terms of temperature rises, rainfall changes and ecosystem damage
Each of the four pathways also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining carbon budget
The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100
If this happens, the WRI infographic suggests that the world’s carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045

By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD reposted from DailMail.co.uk, Aug 7, 2014

It’s not just polar bears years from now that will be affected by climate change, the dangers of a warming Earth are immediate and very human.

This is according the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which said this year that the impact of climate change is ‘widespread and consequential.’

Yet the impact seen in the future still largely depends on the actions countries take to reduce their emissions today, the report said.

The World Resources Institute has created an infographic, based on IPCC data, that depicts the likely consequences of various emissions pathways. In the low emissions pathway, the IPCC data suggests that carbon dioxide output will peak by 2020 and then drop 66 per cent below 2010 levels by 2020

Now, the World Resources Institute has created an infographic, based on IPCC data, that depicts the likely consequences of various emissions pathways.

Alongside each pathway, it shows what the future might hold in terms of climate impacts - ranging from temperature increases to precipitation changes to ecosystem degradation.

Each pathway also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining carbon budget.

This is the amount of carbon the planet can emit before locking itself into warming of greater than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

The medium emissions scenario suggests that carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2040, but still rise 19 per cent above 2010 levels. Global productivity is expected to drop by 20 per cent by 2100 as a result of heat stress affecting workers. Meanwhille, two-thirds of the worlds coral reefs will experience long-term damage

HOW WILL CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT YOUR

In the low emissions pathway, carbon dioxide output will peak by 2020 and then drop 66 per cent below 2010 levels by 2020.

The world will still face some challenging consequences from climate change. For instance, around 24 per cent more of the projected global population will face reduced renewable water resources by the 2080s compared to the 1980s.

In the 2080s around four times as many people will be exposed to flood water compared with the 1980s.

The medium emissions scenario suggests that carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2040, but still rise 19 per cent above 2010 levels.

This means roughly two-thirds of the world’s coral reefs will experience long-term damage over the next few decades.

In this scenario, the world’s carbon budget will be exhausted is 2056, compared to 2057 under a high emissions scenario.

With temperature increases of three to four degrees, food security could have an impact so widespread that humans will not be able to adapt.

The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100, rising 108 per cent above 2010 levels by 2050.

If this happens, the WRI believes the carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045.

Overall, the IPCC warns that violent conflicts, food shortages and serious infrastructure damage will affect the world if global warming continues at its current pace.

It argues that rising temperatures will exacerbate poverty and damage land and marine species.

It also claims that the world is in ‘an era of man-made climate change’ and has already seen impacts of global warming on every continent and across the oceans.

With temperature increases of three to four degrees, food security could have an impact so widespread that humans will not be able to adapt, the IPCC data claims

Most of the flood damage can be avoided by measures such as flood defences, but the costs of increasing protection will be high.

There will also be a reduction in water availability from rivers and groundwater, while increased heat waves will damage human health and quality of life, crop production, increase air pollution and the risk of wildfires in southern Europe and parts of Russia.

Professor Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at University of East Anglia said: ‘We need rapid and substantial cuts in carbon emissions and a move away from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change below two degrees and mitigate these impacts.’

‘The bottom line is that it’s still possible to limit global temperature rise to 2°C, preventing some of the more disastrous consequences of climate change,’ said the WRI.

The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100, rising 108 per cent above 2010 levels by 2050.If this happens, the WRI believes the carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045. Overall, the IPPCC warns that violent conflicts, food shortages and serious infrastructure damage

biodiversity, Ecocide ALert, Politics, Preventing Ecocide, Remediation and Restitution, solutions

Canada puts oil exploitation before forests

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

A plane drops a water bomb on a forest fire in Ontario, Canada Image: {Per via Wikimedia Commons — A plane drops a water bomb on a forest fire in Ontario, Canada Image: Per via Wikimedia Commons

By Paul Brown, reposted from Climate News Network, Aug 9, 2014

Having repudiated the Kyoto Protocol on reducing fossil fuel use, Canada is still exploiting tar sands for oil − despite accepting that climate change is destroying its forests.

LONDON, 9 August, 2014 − Detailed evidence that Canada’s vast natural areas are undergoing major changes because of climate change is produced in a new report by Natural Resources Canada.

The government body describes problems with disappearing glaciers, sea level rise, melting permafrost and changing snow and rainfall patterns. One of the country’s most important natural resources, the forests that cover more than 50% of its land area, is under pressure because of pests, fire and drought.

There may, the reports says, be some pluses for Canada in climate change − at least in the short term − because some staple cereal crops will also be able to be grown further north because of warmer weather, assuming that the soil is suitable.

The report, Canada in a Changing Climate, concentrates on impacts and adaptation, but does not mention the causes, or the fact that Canada is now an international pariah in the environmental community because of its exploitation of tar sands for oil.

The country does attempt, for economic reasons, to be more energy efficient, but has repudiated the Kyoto Protocol and international efforts to curb fossil fuel use. The country had accepted a target of cutting emissions on 1990 levels by 5% by 2012, but the government backed out in 2011.

Highest emissions

Average greenhouse gas emissions for oil sands extraction and upgrading are estimated to be 3.2 to 4.5 times as intensive per barrel as for conventional crude oil produced in Canada or the US. If Alberta, where the oil is produced from tar sands, was a country and not a merely a province of Canada, it would have the highest per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

The only mention the report makes of tar sands extraction is the problem caused by its large use of water, and it makes the point that the industry is recycling as much as possible.

A tar sands mine at Mildred Lake, Alberta Image: TastyCakes/Janitzky via Wikimedia Commons

Mitigation is not on the agenda, as the country’s politicians are intent on exploiting as much of the country’s oil and gas as possible.

A study of forests says that 224,410 people are directly employed in the sector, although it makes up only 1.1% of GDP. About 5% of the forests are damaged annually because of outbreaks of pests and fire. Temperatures in the forest areas have risen far more sharply than on the rest of the planet, with far-reaching consequences for the future, the report says.

In 2009, over three million hectares of forest were destroyed by fire in a single year. The number of fires is expected to increase, with the area being burned being three to five times as much in Western Canada by the end of the century. Large fires are raging again this year, but the quantity of the damage has yet to be assessed.

Severe outbreaks

One of the pests moving north and devastating mature trees is the mountain pine beetle. The beetle is endemic, but is killed by winter temperatures below 35˚C, thus limiting its numbers from year to year. However, winter temperatures in many areas now fail to drop below this level, leading to larger and more severe outbreaks of the pest.

A report in 2012 concluded that 18.1 million hectares of forest dominated by mature Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) had been affected. Scientists conclude that productivity of the forests will decline rapidly in British Columbia, and thousands of jobs will be lost. Meanwhile, the beetle is continuing to move north and east.

One advantage of the increased temperatures in Canada is that trees can grow further north and higher up mountains than previously, and there is a longer growing season.

Trees that live 100 years cannot migrate fast enough to take advantage, so local governments are going in for assisted migration.

This involves planting the seeds of suitable species 100 to 200 metres above the existing tree line on mountains, and in some cases two degrees of latitude northwards (about 100 miles) of the existing forests into what is currently tundra or scrub. – Climate News Network

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Politics, Preventing Ecocide, Remediation and Restitution, solutions

Get used to toilet-to-tap water, Californians told

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

Drought-hit state plans $140m expansion at world’s biggest treatment facility to recycle more waste water

Senior Plant Operator waits as water is used to push a membrane out from a pressure vessel in the Reverse Osmosis facility, which is part of the Groundwater Replenishing System in Orange County Water District, in Fountain Valley, California. The Reverse Osmosis System removes salts, viruses and pharmaceuticals from the water. — An operator inspects the reverse osmosis facility, part of the groundwater replenishing system in Orange County water district, in Fountain Valley, California. Photograph: Ann Johansson/Corbis

By Suzanne Goldenberg, reposted from The Guardian, Aug 7, 2014

The golden state’s historic drought is forcing once-squeamish Californians to take a new look at “toilet-to-tap” water re-use. Or as they prefer to call it in Fountain Valley, “showers to flowers”.

The town in conservative Orange County is home to the largest water recycling plant in the world and an example during this epic drought of the life-altering changes California will have to make to avoid running out of water.

The first would be to get over the idea that water is an infinite resource, or that it pours out of the tap straight from a pristine, underground spring.

This is the third year of drought in the west. By July end, more than half of California fell into the worst category of “exceptional drought”.

The state has made it illegal to hose down a sidewalk or operate a fountain, punishable by a $500 (£297) fine.

But those measures are largely symbolic, and the state is going to have to do much more to guarantee California a long-term supply of water.

“Our sources of supply are literally drying up,” said Michael Markus, general manager of the Orange County water district, on a tour of the water plant.

The state’s main sources of water, snow melt from the Sierra Nevada, imported water from the Colorado river, and groundwater, are all in decline.

So why not re-use water? Orange County has been doing it for six years, using highly purified waste water to replenish groundwater reserves.

“We consider waste water not a waste but a resource,” Markus said.

“If we didn’t have this water we wouldn’t be able to pump as much out of the basin,” he went on. “The basin would go into a state of overdraft.”

The water re-use plant currently produces 70m gallons a day, turning residential waste water – from dishwashers, showers, washing machines and toilets – into potable water.

In February 2015, that will rise to 100m gallons a day, as a $140m expansion comes on-line. That will be enough to supply 850,000 people, or about one-third of the 2.4 million residents of Orange County.

Markus said the cost was significantly lower than importing water from northern California, and about half the cost of desalinating sea water – and the supply was guaranteed.

The water goes through three stages of purification – filtration through a series of tiny straws to remove bacteria, reverse osmosis to remove dissolved chemicals, and exposure to UV light with hydrogen peroxide. By the time it leaves the plant, it is distilled water.

About half of the water is pumped into injection wells to serve as a barrier against sea water intrusion. The rest is pumped 13 miles to underground basins in Anaheim, where it filters through layers of sand and gravel, gradually becoming part of Orange County’s water supply.

But it could still take some time before Californians get over their aversion to the idea of water re-use, or the notion that they can’t afford to go on dumping waste water.

The state currently dumps some 1.3bn gallons of water a day into the ocean off the coast of southern California.

One of the first attempts to move to water recycling, in San Diego in the 1990s, collapsed because of what water managers call the yuck factor.

Those attitudes are changing, because of the threats to existing supply. California’s department of water resources reported last April that groundwater reserves had dropped 50 feet below historical lows across much of the state.

This picture taken from a helicopter shows a drought affected area near Los Altos Hills, California, on July 23, 2014. One of California's worst droughts in decades could cost the US state's farmers $1.7 billion, a recent study warned. — A drought-affected area near Los Altos hills, California. US farmers could lose $1.7bn because of water shortages, a study has warned. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

California law still does not allow the direct re-use of the water leaving the Orange County plant – even though it is purified to a higher standard than groundwater supplies. But the state regulator was looking to draft new rules to allow direct re-use of water by 2016.

“I think it is inevitable that Californians are going to have to get beyond this notion of just ‘toilet-to-tap’,” said David Feldman, who teaches water management at the University of California at Irvine.

“I think this plant is very important to protecting the strategic reserves of water. If we did not have this groundwater basin we would have to import virtually all of our water.”

He said he expected to see growing water re-use in California and across the west – although not necessarily for potable water.

Other water agencies in California are now actively looking at how to make best use of treated waste water, storm water and agricultural run-off, according to a research project from Stanford University.

Los Angeles and San Diego are actively pursuing their own water re-use facilities. Riverside on the Santa Ana river also operates a water recycling plant that produces water for irrigation. Some 78 water projects have been funded so far, all aimed at putting water back into underground aquifers, the Water in the West researchers found.

Those projects were on the drawing board before the drought – but they could help California get through the next one. SOURCE

biodiversity, Ecocide ALert, Politics, Preventing Ecocide

Deep emissions cuts needed by 2050 to limit warming-UN draft

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

A forest burns in eastern Sierra Leone April 23, 2012. REUTERS

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, reposted from REUTERS, Aug 7, 2014

Aug 7 (Reuters) - Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 40 to 70 percent by mid-century will be needed to avert the worst of global warming that is already harming all continents, a draft U.N. report showed.

The 26-page draft, obtained by Reuters on Thursday, sums up three U.N. scientific reports published over the past year as a guide for almost 200 governments which are due to agree a deal to combat climate change at a summit in Paris in late 2015.

It says existing national pledges to restrict greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, a U.N. ceiling set in 2010 to limit heatwaves, floods, storms and rising seas. MORE

biodiversity, Ecocide, Fascism/Corporatism, Politics

No reason to be confident in environmental protection

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

Missteps give B.C. residents no reason to trust companies or government

Barbara Yaffe: No reason to be confident in environmental protection — The tailings pond dike breach at the Mount Polley mine site. Photograph by: JONATHAN HAYWARD , THE CANADIAN PRESS

By Barbara Yaffe,Vancouver Sun columnist, reposted from Canada.com, Aug 7, 2014

Could there be a worse time in B.C. to have a tailings pond disaster?

Never mind that the salmon are spawning. A wee debate is taking place in this province about whether to sanction a pipeline to the coast and tanker transport of bitumen along B.C.’s coastline.

Albertans, hoping to get their petroleum to the West Coast, must be as distressed as British Columbians at the Aug. 4 breach of the Mount Polley tailings pond. Or they should be.

That is because this environmental catastrophe is bound to have a chilling effect on those in B.C. who otherwise might have been open to being convinced that — should Enbridge comply with the province’s five conditions and the 209 imposed by a federal review panel — well, maybe the job-generating Northern Gateway project would be worth the presumably diminished risk.

Not now. A slurry of metal-laden sand and waste water from that Imperial Metals tailings pond could well be mistaken for bitumen, with its greyish colour and ability to carry timber and other detritus along with it on its determined path.

This is what happens when goop mixes with water. A water ban, barring both drinking and bathing, was put in place in the vicinity of the breach and aboriginal fishers now fear for the season’s salmon run.

A Thursday press release issued by two aboriginal bands in the area had the piercing ring of an I-told-you-so message: “The Mount Polley tailings pond disaster … should serve as a deafening wake-up call for all British Columbians,” said Loretta Williams, chief of the Williams Lake band and Bev Sellars, Soda Creek band chief.

“Our lasting economy is what swims by in the river and lakes, walks on and grows on the land and flies in the air — and this is what can be destroyed by a lust for the temporary dollars mining can provide.”

But the chiefs might just as well said “by a lust for the temporary dollars bitumen can provide.”

B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett has admitted: “I am losing sleep over this. This gives us about the best reason a person could have to really take a step back. Every Canadian has to be concerned about this.

“This will cause everyone in government across the country to re-examine policies.”

The disaster also will reaffirm a widespread belief that corporate entities — which always assure everyone that all necessary safeguards are in place — generally have profit, not safety, as their overwhelming priority. And that when a disaster happens a succession of mistakes usually can be traced back to the company bearing responsible for the mishap.

In this case, sure enough, Imperial Metals had ignored years of government warnings about the level of tailings pond waste water at its gold-copper mine near Likely. It received the latest of five warnings in May for exceeding the permitted height of waste water in the pond.

Also reaffirmed will be a suspicion government is not tough enough on resource development companies that do not play by the rules. In this case, why did B.C. allow Imperial Metals to keep operating through five warnings about its tailings pond?

And then there’s the 2011 report from environmental consultant Brian Olding which cited the tailings pond problem as well as the fact the company had no contingency plan for a tailings pond failure.

But these nuggets always emerge after, rather than before, a disaster.

Mistakes happen. But if issues are foreseen but neglected, if there’s inadequate oversight and no contingency plan, how confident should British Columbians be that the province’s environment is being adequately protected?

Not very.

SOURCE

Politics

Canada launches mission to map Arctic seabed

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

File image of Arctic landscape, Lancaster Sound, Nunavut, Canada The Arctic is believed to hold vast untapped reserves of oil and gas

reposted from BBCNews, Aug 8, 2014

Canada has launched a mission to map the Arctic seabed to support its bid to extend its territory up to the North Pole.

The six-week mission comes in the face of competing claims from other countries, including Russia.

Two ice-breakers are setting out from Newfoundland to collect data from an undersea ridge that starts near Ellesmere Island and runs to the Pole.

The region is believed to include large oil and gas reserves.

Last December Canada filed an application with the UN seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary.

Russia and Denmark have also made competing claims on a vast area of Arctic seabed around the Lomonosov Ridge.

All three countries are seeking scientific proof that the ridge is an underwater extension of their continental shelf.

The area is estimated to hold 13% of the world’s undiscovered oil and up to 30% of its hidden natural gas reserves.

A Canadian government statement said the first icebreaker had left St John’s, Newfoundland, on Friday and the second would depart on Saturday.

“Our government is securing our sovereignty while expanding our economic and scientific opportunities by defining Canada’s last frontier,” said Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.

“This is important to Canadians, especially those in the north, as this is their future and prosperity at stake.”

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a coastal nation can claim exclusive economic rights to natural resources on or beneath the sea floor up to 200 nautical miles (370km) beyond their land territory.

But if the continental shelf extends beyond that distance, the country must provide evidence to a UN commission which will then make recommendations about establishing an outer limit. SOURCE

Fascism/Corporatism, Politics

Tories warn “Everything we’ve fought for is at risk” as radical unions declare war

August 9, 2014 Gaianicity Leave a comment

Minister of State (Democratic Reform)Pierre Poilievre speaks during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday May 1, 2014 . Adrian Wyld / CP

By Len McGregor, reposted from the Ottawa Citizen, Aug 8, 2014

Fresh off a splenetic attack against Justin Trudeau over his terrorism-loving ways, the Conservatives’ fundraising campaign now turns to another enemy of the state: Big Union Bosses™, specifically Sid Ryan of the Ontario Federation of Labour, whom some on the right blame for tipping the scales against the Tim Hudak Progressive Conservatives in the last provincial run-off.

Today’s missive from Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre warns that unions are going to interject themselves in next year’s federal election to advance their “radical union agenda.”

This, to Poilievre, is tantamount to a declaration of war. Five dollars, please!

From: Pierre Poilievre <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 2:06 PM Subject: Sid Ryan declares war To: [removed]

[Conservative Party of Canada logo]

Friend,

I’ll be blunt – the stakes have never been higher.

We’re not just fighting Thomas Mulcair’s NDP and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

This time, we’re also fighting a radical union agenda.

It’s the same one that worked tirelessly (and successfully) to re-elect a party that wasted billions of Ontarians’ money to close half-built gas plants in key swing seats.

Sid Ryan and the Ontario Federation of Labour have openly declared war against Conservatives. Here’s what Ryan had to say on July 28:

“The war room that we had up and running for the provincial election will be initiated, no question about it, for the federal election.”

What does this mean? It means that they will spend millions of dollars attacking our Conservative government – and to reverse all the progress we’ve made together.

We can’t afford to go back to the days of big spending, bigger entitlements, and higher taxes.

Canada is better off with the strong leadership of Stephen Harper. And he’s counting on your support to win the next election.

Please chip in $5 and help us prepare to fight off the big union attacks. Everything we’ve fought for is at risk.

Sincerely,

Pierre Poilievre MP, Nepean-Carleton

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Daily Archives: August 9, 2014