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March 31, 2008
Posted by elijah v at March 31, 2008 March 31, 2008 Global Warming Talks in Bangkok Today was the first day of the Bangkok climate change talks. This is the first UN negotiation since the Bali conference in December. In Bali, the world decided that a final agreement on the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol would have to be concluded by December 2009 at a conference in Copenhagen. Bangkok will be the start of the tough 2-year road to that final agreement.
The first day of these negotiating sessions is always pretty light on substance, especially the opening ceremony. Typically, high-ranking officials—this one featured the deputy minister of Thailand—give speeches filled with platitudes on the importance of tackling global warming. The opening plenaries are somewhat more interesting, though they usually involve countries reiterating the positions they have already made public through submissions to the UN. Today was no different. The most interesting part of the Bangkok meeting will no doubt be the kick off of the negotiations on what developing countries will take on as obligations in Kyoto II. There has been increased attention—even finger pointing from countries such as the U.S. and Canada—paid to China, India and other "major emitters" in the developing world on what they will do to contribute to the global fight on climate change. Yes, rapidly industrializing countries will have to accept greater responsibility, but expecting the same obligations right now from poor countries like India and rich countries like the U.S., as suggested by the U.S. and supported by Canada's environment minister, is simply not fair or feasible. And then there are the continued talks on what emission targets rich countries will accept. Canada has to decide whether it wants to really and truly get back into the Kyoto game or would prefer to tie itself to a lame duck U.S. president. Bali did not resolve that question. The sense of urgency on global warming is reflected in the fact that there are four UN meetings this year instead of the usual two. Let's hope that this week produces more than just a work plan and schedule for 2008. Two years is not a lot of time to hammer out a very complex and pretty contentious agreement.
Posted by Dale Marshall at March 31, 2008 March 27, 2008 Imagine all the people, sharing all the world… Are you going to be one of them?
Posted by elijah v at March 27, 2008 March 27, 2008
Posted by elijah v at March 27, 2008 March 27, 2008 History, Global Warming and the Future It's funny -- both funny "ha ha" and funny strange -- that one of the most consistently intelligent and engaging news sources is a half-hour comedy program that runs four nights a week. But we shouldn't be surprised at that. Juvenal knew it several thousand years ago when he wrote "It is difficult not to write satire." (Italics ours.) (Although when Juvenal wrote that, it went like this: "Difficile est satiram non scribere.")
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 27, 2008 March 27, 2008 There goes Antarctica; here comes the ocean Scientists are alarmed as a massive chunk of the Antarctic ice shelf melts and breaks off. It's a lot of ice -- a chunk the the size of the state of Connecticut or the frozen equivalent of six Manhattan Islands. No matter how you slice it, it's bigger and happening sooner than anybody anticipated. NBC's George Lewis reports.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 27, 2008 March 27, 2008 Sustainability Goes To College There is a growing demand among university students for courses that will teach them how to take care of the environment. At a lot of schools, that means environmental studies. It also means being able to major in sustainability, as Anne Thompson reported on the Easter Monday edition of NBC Nightly News.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 27, 2008 March 26, 2008
Posted by Jenny Silver at March 26, 2008 March 26, 2008 It's bad enough seeing a Robert Bateman artwork getting smeared with black goo, but it would be far worse if it were a real landscape. The Dogwood Initiative is trying to make sure that doesn't happen. Find out how you can help.
Posted by Ian Hanington at March 26, 2008 March 26, 2008 A few months ago, supporters of the Foundation--Ted Grand and Tara MacLean-- threw a party. But it wasn't just any party. It was a Naked Ape party!
Grand
and MacLean succeeded in raising $25,000 for the Foundation. They've
posted some photos and a short video from David Suzuki's speech on
their website from the event. Check it out!
Posted by Dominic Ali at March 26, 2008 March 19, 2008 Full disclosure: the environment and Bay Street It used to be that environmental damage or destruction was seen economically as an "externality," meaning something that was somebody else's problem; sure, it was the product of economic activity, but not something the person who created it had to pay for or worry about. For example, pollution caused by a factory belching smoke wasn't the factory owner's problem. It was something the people breathing the smoke had to deal with. That's a fundamental shift, and one that will mean an entirely different way of calculating and disclosing every kind of economic activity. Gives an entirely new meaning to the phrase "the cost of doing business."
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 19, 2008 March 18, 2008 We covered this in the Recycle Radar Roundup section of this week's podcast, but it bears fully explanation and detail. There are no Chinook salmon on the American west coast, and that means no Chinook (also known as king) salmon from northern Oregon to Mexico. Normally, the Chinook season opens May 1 and runs for four months. Not this year. As the New York Times story explains, part of what makes this situation so frightening and baffling is the lack of a clear explanation or cause, and the fact that any number of human activities could have made it happen.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 18, 2008 March 18, 2008 Corporate America, the US Congress and global warming Watching TV this morning, we were kind of surprised by this commercial:
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 18, 2008 March 17, 2008 NBC's Anne Thompson finds many faiths adopting environmental stewardship as a way of serving God. That eleventh commandment? Thou shalt reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 17, 2008 March 17, 2008 It's St. Patrick's Day, so you'll likely be drinking Guinness, or perhaps a shot of Jameson's or Old Bushmills.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 17, 2008 March 14, 2008 Betting on solar in Nevada...and California One of the biggest solar power installations on the continent is in the Nevada desert, and its power is keeping the bright lights on in Las Vegas, and keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. NBC's chief environmental correspondent Anne Thompson has the story, preceded by a short VO about solar panels in Long Beach, California.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 14, 2008 March 11, 2008 Water is supposed to be something you take with medicine Not something that medicine comes in. But medicine does come in the water of a number of large cities in the United States. That's what a five-month study by the Associated Press uncovered. The amounts are tiny. But they're in the drinking water of 41 million people, and they're having impacts on wildlife and throughout the ecosystem.
Posted by Justin Smallbridge at March 11, 2008 March 10, 2008 Canadians are facing some complicated choices when they visit their local grocery store.
Posted by elijah v at March 10, 2008 March 06, 2008 Help for Ottawa’s Monarch Butterflies When Paul Dewar, MP Ottawa Central, heard about the plight of the Monarch butterfly along the Ottawa River Parkway from constituent Rachel Plotkin, a policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation, he took immediate action.
Posted by elijah v at March 06, 2008 March 04, 2008 Seeing the forest for the trees People on Canada's West Coast have earned bragging rights when it comes to taking the lead on green issues.
Posted by elijah v at March 04, 2008 |
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“While we focus on global environmental issues like the climate change, it is important that we take steps at the local level,” said Mr. Dewar.