Climate

New federal climate service would help businesses adapt to change

From Green Right Now Reports

Who says the federal government isn’t moving in response to climate change? A proposed new service is designed to help businesses adapt to global warming and to encourage development of new technologies to cope with it.

“Even with our best efforts, we know that some degree of climate change is inevitable and American citizens and businesses, and American governments … must be able to rise to environmental and economic challenges that lie ahead,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says.

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Global warming threatens ski industry with meltdown

By Bill Sullivan

Anyone who has ever traveled to a big-time ski resort knows that conquering the mountain is a daunting task – and an expensive one, too.

For the 2009-10 season, a one-day lift ticket at Vail (Colorado) is $97 for an adult. Over at Aspen/Snowmass, a two-day advance purchase pass will set you back $191.

Of course, that’s just the beginning. If you’re a flatlander or a relative novice, you’ll probably have to rent equipment. (Plan on $40 a day and up.) If you’ve never skied at all, you’ll want to get a few pointers before climbing onto that lift: At Vail, a one day beginner lesson at Golden Peak Ski and Snowboard School is $165.

Planning to stay close to the slopes? The Vail Plaza Hotel & Club can keep you near all the action. For a mid-March visit, a standard room with two queen beds runs about $539 a night. If you’re bringing a crowd, a three-bedroom condo averages $2,475 each evening you put head to pillow.

Yes, there are less tony accommodations at not quite so chic locales, and rates vary by time of season (Christmas and Spring Break are the most expensive bookings), but you get the point. The ski trade is Big Business backed by even Bigger Businesses, and enormous investments are subject to conditions that can change… like the weather.

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Climate change could wipe out one of world’s largest tiger populations

From Green Right Now Reports

One of the world’s largest tiger populations could disappear by the end of this century, according to a new study published in the journal Climatic Change. The World Wildlife Fund-led study says rising sea levels caused by climate change will destroy the tigers’ habitat along the coast of Bangladesh in an area known as the Sundarbans.

Tigers are among the world’s most threatened species — only an estimated 3,200 remaining in the wild. WWF officials said the threats facing Bengal tigers and other iconic species around the world highlight the need for urgent international action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“If we don’t take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear,” Colby Loucks, WWF’s deputy director of conservation science and lead author of the study, said in a statement . “Tigers are a highly adaptable species, thriving from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropical forests of Indonesia. The projected sea level rise in the Sundarbans will likely outpace the tiger’s ability to adapt.”

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13 ways you’ll experience global warming

Global warming is making hot days hotter, rainfall and flooding heavier, hurricanes stronger and droughts more severe. This intensification of weather and climate extremes will be the most visible impact of global warming in our everyday lives. Here are 13 ways you’ll experience climate change, according to the National Wildlife Federation:

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A cold winter in a warming world

By Barbara Kessler

You’d think in the era of the Weather Channel and 24-hour-news, Americans would be well informed about the difference between “the weather” and “the climate.”

And yet, people seem genuinely befuddled. This winter especially, with the Midwest up to its window sashes in snow and Texas through Florida experiencing protracted periods below freezing, people can be heard questioning climate change and global warming.

How can a warming world be so cold? they ask.

“It’s really confusing to a lot of people,” says climate scientist Brenda Eckwurzel. In particular, the term “global warming” seems to “paint a picture that everywhere on the planet should be hotter.”

But the climate changes do not follow consistent patterns. Some parts of the world, like North Africa and the U.S. Southwest stand to get a lot hotter, incrementally. But other places, like the U.S. Midwest, will not warm as noticeably.

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Kids piece together a massive message of concern for the Earth’s climate

By Melissa Segrest

The little things, we know, can make a difference. Take for example a little square of fabric clipped from something old – a T-shirt, a pillowcase, any old thing that has seen better days.

Take that patch, and let a child decorate it with a personal message about saving the Earth and stopping climate change. Get about 7,000 children around the world – the U.S., Australia, South Africa, China, the Philippines and more — to make a patch

Stitch them all together (if that’s even possible) and the result is a massive message from children everywhere that the Earth’s future is in your – and their — hands.

The result is the Climate Change Quilt, and part of it is in Copenhagen today, waiting to be presented to dignitaries from around the world who are gathered at an international conference trying to find global solutions to the looming threat of climate change.

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2009 will be among warmest years on record

By Barbara Kessler

This past year is expected to rank among the top 10 warmest on record, since record-keeping began in 1850.

The combined global sea and land surface air temperature readings for 2009 (January to October) suggest it will be about the fifth warmest year on record, making the last decade definitively warmer than the 1990s, which was warmer on average than the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

The tentative ranking for 2009, was affected by above-normal temperatures recorded in “most parts of the continents,” the WMO reported in a release on its findings, which also detailed droughts and weather fluctuations around the globe.

The report was released on the second day of climate talks in Copenhagen, providing further evidence that global warming is already having measurable effects.

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Businesses say climate change ‘delay is not an option’

By Barbara Kessler

While environmental activists raise banners and bullhorns demanding action on climate change, the movement to quell climate change has quieter advocates in all corners of society.

Some of these advocates have big names Americans will surely recognize: Addidas, Coca-Cola Company, L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble, Johnson and Johnson, Chevron Ltd., Alcoa Alumnio, Ericsson, Nike Inc., General Electric, Levi Strauss, KPMG International, Gap Inc., Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Starbucks and Yahoo! Inc.

These are not companies that one normally associates with strong environmentalism, and some have carbon footprints that scare the bejesus out of environmental groups. (Though a closer look would reveal that many also have significant green initiatives underway. Fairmont has built green hotels. General Electric is invested in green energy.)

What these companies have in common, though, is a signed commitment asking for progress on climate change. They are signers of the Copenhagen Communique, a message to global political leaders from some of the world’s largest businesses, and some smaller ones.

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Copenhagen Notes: rich and poor

Monday, Dec. 14

The Copenhagen climate talks began with an uneasy feeling for many poor nations. Countries like the Maldives and Tuvalu, resting barely above sea level; Kenya, dealing under drought; Nepal, coping with melting glaciers, face perilous futures under climate change. Indeed, they suffer today.

These nations, and others, came to the table in Denmark wanting help from the developed world, because the developed world is largely responsible for the carbon emissions causing climate change. The U.S. and China together account for more than half of global greenhouse gases.

But the U.S. never signed onto any legally binding emissions via the 1997 Kyoto Treaty, and China, now building coal plants faster than one a week, has promised emissions cuts without verification.

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Google Earth tool helps Californians follow climate impacts

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Natural Resources Agency today announced the launch of CalAdapt, a new Google Earth-based tool designed to help Californians learn more about climate impacts and adaptation. The Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) helped develop the CalAdapt prototype with support from the California Energy Commission and Google.org. SEI has been a leader in developing an international network of interactive climate adaptation tools, as you can see at WeAdapt. CalAdapt is still in beta, but the goal for this interactive tool is to bring science to the people.

The California Climate Change Center is one of the few state-funded climate research programs in the country. The Center provides support for research and collaboration among scientists and resource managers in a series of state-wide climate assessments. Here is Gov. Schwarzenegger’s tour of the new tool:

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