Climate & water - June 6
by Staff
Click on the headline (link) for the full text. Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
What can be done about global warming? The international community is resting much of its hopes on a practice known as carbon trading. And under the main UN scheme, rich countries are able to offset their emissions by paying for projects in poor countries. However, the BBC has unearthed disturbing evidence that the system is fundamentally flawed. In this two-part special investigation, Mark Gregory delves into this multi-billion US-dollar industry and discovers that carbon trading is not working and emissions are not being cut.
Nicholas (Lord) Stern, author of the Government's Stern Review on the economics of climate change, warned that underground aquifers could run dry at the same time as melting glaciers play havoc with fresh supplies of usable water. ... Lord Stern, the World Bank's former chief economist, said governments had been slow to accept the awful truth that usable water is running out. Fresh rainfall is not enough to refill the underground water tables. "Water is not a renewable resource. People have been mining it without restraint because it has not been priced properly," he said. ... Stanford professor Donald Kennedy said global climate change was now setting off a self-feeding spiral. "We've got droughts combined with a psychotic excess of rainfall," he said. "There are 800m people in the world who are 'food insecure'. They can't grow enough food, or can't afford to buy it. This is a seismic shift in the global economy."
President Anote Tong said communities had already been resettled and crops destroyed by sea water in some parts of the country, made up of 33 coral atolls straddling the equator.
If the forecast for the month of June, July and August turns out to be correct, it would be the 19th summer of the last 25 to feature higher than average temperatures, Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said Wednesday. “Whether it's climate change, whether it's cyclical, whatever it is, it's a reality that our summers are warmer than our ancestors put up with,” Mr. Phillips said. The prediction is good news for farmers, since the heat would combine with the potential for above-average rainfall in the country's most fertile regions for what could potentially be a “banner year” for the nation's food producers, he added. |
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