Delegates from 150 nations met in Geneva on Monday to try to plug gaps in climate information to help the world cope with global warming and threats like floods, wildfires and rising sea levels.
The August 31-September 4 World Climate Conference aims to improve everything from weather monitoring to distributing forecasts, especially to help poor nations adapt in areas such as health, agriculture, fisheries, transport, tourism and energy.
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The Met Office headquarters has been named as one of Britain’s worst public buildings for pollution – due to a £30 million supercomputer used to predict climate change.
The giant IBM machine fills two special halls the size of two football pitches and is believed to be the second most powerful system in the UK.
It produces 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and the Met Office HQ, in Exeter, Devon, was named as one of the worst polluters in a new green league table published by the Department of Communities and Local Government.
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Locusts have always been a problem but never to the degree that they are today. As temperatures have increased, Locusts have moved with the climate and are now causing havoc as far north in Europe as France.
When faced with a shortage of crops to eat, Locusts have been known to eat the carcasses of other Locusts and failing that, they have been known to eat the clothes of people’s backs.
The Locusts in Revelation Chapter 9 for 2,000 years have defied explanation until now. Read More / Watch Video »
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Activists launched what they called the world’s biggest campaign to combat global warming on Friday, urging governments to agree a tough U.N. climate pact at talks in Copenhagen starting in 100 days’ time.
Environmental organizations, trade unions, religious groups, scientists, anti-poverty campaigners and others representing tens of millions of people teamed up to put pressure for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.
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Adapting to the effects of climate change such as floods and droughts is likely to cost two to three times more than the United Nations estimates, a report said on Thursday ahead of a major U.N. summit in December.
The U.N. climate change secretariat, UNFCCC, puts the global costs of adaptation, through measures such as building houses higher to avoid flooding and limiting the spread of diseases, at $40 billion (24.7 billion pounds) to $170 billion a year until 2030. Read More / Watch Video »
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Norway’s whale catches are set to fall to the lowest in more than a decade in 2009, a decline blamed by the industry on financial problems and by environmentalists on dwindling demand for the meat.
“The total number of whales … caught so far is 481. We expect to catch 3-4 more,” Svein Ove Haugland, deputy director of the Norwegian Fishermen’s Sales Organization which handles the meat, told Reuters Wednesday.
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The Swiss government on Wednesday committed to cut its carbon emissions by at least 20 percent from its 1990 levels by 2020, but green groups said the target was too modest.
The government’s commitment also fell short of targets sought by a citizens’ initiative which wants Switzerland to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
Under the Swiss constitution, citizens can force a national referendum on an issue if they manage to collect at least 100,000 signatures for the initiative. Read More / Watch Video »
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Old-style 100-watt light bulbs will be banned in Europe’s shops from next week in favour of new energy-saving models, but consumers groups on Wednesday gave the move a guarded welcome.
From September 1, 100-watt versions of the old incandescent bulbs will be banned from Europe’s shops and other bulbs with lower wattage will follow in the ensuing years, under a system agreed by EU experts last December.
New technology light bulbs, such as compact florescent lights (CFL) can save up to 80 percent of the energy used by the worst old-style lights in homes. Read More / Watch Video »
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Climate Change demonstrators are making their way to Blackheath in southeast London after the ‘secret’ location of their protest camp was revealed.
Up to 3,000 protesters had gathered at different meeting points across the capital before their final destination was announced by text message and on Twitter.
The group will pitch their tents on the heath with a view to staying there for a week. Read More / Watch Video »
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Earthquake rattles Cyprus
Cypriot authorities say a moderately strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.5 has shaken the eastern Mediterranean island. No damage or injuries have been reported.
The Cyprus Geological Survey Department says the quake occurred at 9:28 a.m. (0628 GMT; 2:28 a.m. EDT) Tuesday, 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) off the southern coastal resort of Limassol.
The Department said in a statement that the quake was felt in Limassol and surrounding villages, as well as by high-rise dwellers in the capital Nicosia, around 37 miles (60 kilometers) to the north. Read More / Watch Video »
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A huge wildfire fanned by strong winds cut a swathe of destruction near Athens on Sunday, burning houses, razing large patches of forest and sending thousands fleeing their homes, authorities said.
Dark plumes of smoke hung over the Acropolis as the flames, raging unchecked for a second day, reached the Greek capital’s northern suburbs, testing state resources and the conservative government, which is facing a snap election by March.
“The fire is raging, rekindled by the constant change in the wind’s direction,” said fire brigade spokesman Giannis Kapakis. Read More / Watch Video »
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MADRID (AFP) – - Hundreds of firefighters battled to control wildfires in Spain and Portugal Thursday, as a massive blaze raged for a third day in a military zone, officials said.
Some 300 firefighters and soldiers backed by 18 water-dropping aircraft were deployed in Spain’s northeastern Aragon region to control a fire that broke out Tuesday inside the military camp at San Gregorio near the city of Zaragoza.
The head of the forestry department in the Aragon region, Alberto Contreras, said firefighters had halted the advance of the flames on one front that was heading toward a pine forest near the town of Zuera. Read More / Watch Video »
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Video Report: Wild Fires hit Athens
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Mounds of rotting seaweed clogging beaches across northwestern France are emitting a toxic and potentially lethal gas, test results released by the government showed on Thursday.
Tests were ordered on the foul-smelling algae, which green groups blame on nitrates fertilisers used by local farmers, after a horse apparently died from inhaling fumes on a beach in Saint Michel de Greve in Brittany.
Results showed the seaweed in Saint Michel was giving off dangerous levels of hydrogen sulphide (H2S), sometimes referred to as “sewer gas” because it is produced by the breakdown of putrified waste material. Read More / Watch Video »
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China’s efforts to build a low-carbon economy would accelerate if world powers agree to a “practical” global climate change pact later this year, former British prime minister Tony Blair said Thursday.
Blair was speaking ahead of key UN talks in Denmark in December aimed at securing a new global climate change pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
“What we need is getting a solution in Copenhagen that is practical, realistic and objective,” Blair told journalists in Beijing.
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An international cast of politicians, industry leaders and United Nations officials joined forces Monday to improve access to water and halt a tide of deaths in poor nations.
Some 2,000 experts met at a global water summit in Sweden to tackle problems related to the vital natural resource.
Millions of people worldwide die each year of water- and hygiene-related diseases, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation said as she opened World Water Week 2009.
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