The Global Climate Coalition, a group of representatives of the oil, auto and coal industries, spent years telling the public that the link between human activity and climate change was too uncertain to justify U.S. participation in the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 treaty aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. They have been accused of doctoring information prepared by their scientific experts before releasing it to the public.
Al Gore former US VP accused the coalition of committing fraud and telling lies to people who trusted them, in order for the industry to make money. This he highlighted before the House Energy and Commerce Committee where he equated the cause of global warming legislation with the civil right legislation of the 1960s and the Marshall Plan of the 1940s.
John Kerry pointed out on the need to be wary of some of the industry studies and analyses that will come out in the months as Congress debates whether to impose a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions.
Industry Group Excised Own Experts’ Climate Findings From Report – washingtonpost.com.
While carbon dioxide may be the No. 1 contributor to rising global temperatures, scientists say, black carbon has emerged as an important No. 2, with recent studies estimating that it is responsible for 18 percent of the planet’s warming, compared with 40 percent for carbon dioxide. Decreasing black carbon emissions would be a relatively cheap way to significantly rein in global warming — especially in the short term, climate experts say. Replacing primitive cooking stoves with modern versions that emit far less soot could provide a much-needed stopgap, while nations struggle with the more difficult task of enacting programs and developing technologies to curb carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel.
By Degrees – Third-World Stove Soot Is Target in Climate Fight – Series – NYTimes.com.
But the awareness of black carbon’s role in climate change has come so recently that it was not even mentioned as a warming agent in the 2007 summary report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that pronounced the evidence for global warming to be “unequivocal.” Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of environmental engineering at Stanford, said that the fact that black carbon was not included in international climate efforts was “bizarre,” but “partly reflects how new the idea is.” The United Nations is trying to figure out how to include black carbon in climate change programs, as is the federal government.
Do women have any power in African society? Under what circumstances? These questions are asked because I am an African woman who in my personal experience, is aware that the studies that posit the automatic powerlessness of women as a group vis a vis all men do not explain my own experience. They also may indicate the existence of a very real human situation, but do not give any idea of the richness and vibrancy of life as it exists, and as I know it. To demonstrate what I mean, let me quickly make the following observations
We are trying to compile an assortment of video at Africa Climate’s videos. If you have a good video on Africa, please share it!
Using modeling global warming has been shown to contribute 37 percent drop in rainfall and set to increase.
According to Prof. Peter George Baines, his analysis revealed four regions where rainfall has been declining linked to climate change. The affected areas were the continental United States, southeastern Australia, a large region of equatorial Africa and the Altiplano in South America. This work was based on the examination of reanalysis and satellite-based rainfall data, coupled with dynamical interpretations.
Mexico is currently experiencing one of the worst water crisis ever. This great city was once a lake before being drained to make way for the metropolis. It is now on the verge of disaster.
Meanwhile, according to a report featured by the National Geographic, 22 African countries are experiencing their worst wet seasons in decades, and climate experts say that global warming is to blame.
Devastating rains and flash floods have affected 1.5 million people across the continent, killing at least 300 since early summer.
West Africa has seen its most severe floods in years, as torrents swamped the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s capital of Kinshasa last week, killing 30 people in less than 24 hours.
In northern Ghana, more than 300,000 people have been uprooted by devastating downpours.
In East Africa, meanwhile, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and scores killed in Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia (see map).
This map below from ClimateHotMap.org shows some areas which are impacted differently by the variability in local, regional and continental climate.
Pictures of World Water Crisis from Time.com
Dried Up Seabed
The Aral Sea has lost two-thirds of its volume because its source rivers were diverted for cotton irrigation during the Soviet era. Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, it is now a dusty graveyard of rusting shipwrecks.
WASHINGTON, Apr 9 (OneWorld.net) – “If fundamental climate change mitigation and adaptation goals are to be met, international climate negotiations must include agriculture,” appeals an international food policy think tank.
Farmers in Haiti. © FrizzText (flickr)“We are at the point where the negotiations are going to put in place new mechanisms for the next five to 15 years and it’s critical that agriculture be included this time around,” said Gerald Nelson, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).via Global Climate Talks Must Address Agriculture | OneWorld.net (U.S.).
It is January 2010, after years of negotiation and attrition, we now have a new Global Climate Deal. The deal will come into effect on expiry of the Kyoto protocol in 2012. Everyone is optimistic but the world is in a panic. The global temperatures have not changed much over the last 12 years, but the sun has been exhibiting some very odd behaviour. There is new emerging evidence that, besides carbon dioxide, there is another factor that is leading to the dramatic change in the climate.
It is supposed to be summer, it is cold and strangely the ice in the poles is all but gone. Places where the sun is shining, it is not producing enough heat to promote the fast growth of plants. The sea level has risen by 7 meters. The small island states have been deleted from the global map, parts of the US coast are under the sea. Mozambique, Cape Town, Mombasa, Malindi, Abidjan are no longer in the global map. Somewhere in the Kalahari, the wet conditions have given rise to an ecological boom closely mimicking the biblical garden of Aden. A natural new world order has emerged.
During the years of negotiation, politics dominated the discussions, now the word is faced with new challenges. The focus is on how to deal with; the global climate catastrophe.
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are the same levels are higher than those recorded in the 1990. However, the temperatures have plunged to an all time low. It is no longer clear why the world has moved from the balanced and predictable, the global warming carbon dealers have all gone into hiding from angry street crowds baying for their under-performing carbon credits stocks.
The New Deal, New Kyoto or …the Copenhagen something had promised to deliver the world from the global crisis by dealing in Carbon, but now, the mechanisms have all but collapsed and the cause of the global change seems no longer to point at only Carbon dioxide as the only culprit, there are many other factors.
The New Copenhagen Climate Deal had delivered a deal where the rich nations had accepted to make deep, mandatory carbon cuts and pay tens of billions of dollars in aid to help developing countries combat global warming.
China, India, Brazil and Russia had committed to taking extreme measures to help mitigate future new carbon emissions in the decade ahead.
New investments had been committed to support renewable energy technologies both in Developed and Developing nations etc… but now…
To be continued
The global economic, food and climate change crises have hit African women the hardest, according to a report from a delegation of African and United Nations female officials attending a conference on gender equality.
“When we look at the GDPs of all African countries, they are between five and seven per cent [in the recent past… but this present crisis is going to erode all those gains that have been made,” Isatou Njie Saidy, Vice-President of Gambia, told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York.
Africa is said to be one of the regions most vulnerable to the effects of climate change although it contributes minimally to the problem. The difficult social and economic situation of most Africans, especially women and children, worsens the situation, in Ghana for instance, women constitute about 51% of the population and about 30% of them are heads of households. . “They constitute 52% of the agricultural labour force, contribute 46% to the total GDP and produce 70% of subsistent crops. They play major roles in production and distribution” according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.
A wide variety of literature is available on the importance of agriculture to economic development in Africa and on the critical role that rural women play within this sector. Increasing attention is also being given to the role of smallholder subsistence agriculture in ensuring the food security of the continent, as 73% of the rural population consists of smallholder farmers (IFAD, 1993:6). In Sub-Saharan Africa, agriculture accounts for approximately 21% of the continent’s GDP and women contribute 60-80% of the labour used to produce food both for household consumption and for sale (FAO).
Climate Change and its impact on women
At the household level, the ability to adapt to changes in the climate depends on control over land, money, credit and tools; low dependency ratios; good health and personal mobility; household entitlements and food security; secure housing in safe locations; and freedom from violence. As such, women are often less able to adapt to climate change than men since they represent the majority of low-income earners, they generally have less education than men and are thus less likely to be reached by extension agents and they are often denied rights to property and land, which makes it difficult for them to access credit and agricultural extension services. Click on this link to get the full report (IDS 2008).
Role of Women in Agriculture
Benin
70% of the female population live in rural areas, where they carry out 60-80% of the agricultural work and furnish up to 44% of the work necessary for household subsistence.
Burkina Faso
Women constitute 48% of the labourers in the agricultural sector.
Congo
Women account for 73% of those economically active in agriculture and produce more than 80% of the food crops.
Mauritania
Despite data gaps, it is estimated that women cover 45% of the needs in rural areas.
Morocco
Approximately 57% of the female population participates in agricultural activities, with greater involvement in animal (68%) as opposed to vegetable production (46%). Studies have indicated that the proportion of agricultural work carried out by men, women and children is 42%, 45% and 14% respectively.
Namibia
Data from the 1991 census reveals that women account for 59% of those engaged in skilled and subsistence agriculture work, a and that women continue to shoulder the primary responsibility for food production and preparation.
Sudan
In the traditional sector, women constitute 80% of the farmers. Women farmers represent approximately 49% of the farmers in the irrigated sector and 57% in the traditional sector. 30% of the food in the country is produced by women.
Tanzania
98% of the rural women defined as economically active are engaged in agriculture and produce a substantial share of the food crops for both household consumption and for export
Zimbabwe
Women constitute 61% of the farmers in the Communal areas and comprise at least 70% of the labour force in these areas.
African women bear brunt of global crises, warn delegates at UN conference.
As the climate talks are about to start in Bonn, already there are signs that a deal in 2009 beyond Kyoto is far from obvious.
Brazil’s environmental minister says a “climate apartheid” between rich and poor nations could hinder a global warming deal this year. Brazil, India and China have been at the center of a global negotiation which they deem not fitting to their emerging economies.
Carlos Minc says the world “unfortunately is far from reaching an agreement” because of differences in the positions of rich and poor countries.
Brazil minister skeptical of global warming deal – International Herald Tribune.
This article is one of the many appearing in the net lately from America questioning the impact of CO2 on global temperatures. The argument is based on reviewing CO2 data over a longer historical/geological timeline.
Black cars absorb more heat than lighter-colored cars in the California sun. Therefore, the AC has to work harder to cool off the car after your trip to the multiplex to see the latest summer blockbuster. If the AC has to work harder, your vehicle will consume more fuel. Consuming more fuel means spewing more CO2 into the atmosphere. And despite the fact that CO2 does not cause global warming, the California legislature passed a bill requiring that the state reduce its CO2 emissions 25 percent by 2020.
Opposing Views: OPINION: Would Calif. Really Ban Black Cars to Fight Global Warming?.
