Indonesia:
Carbon credits for forest conservation
concept faces challenges
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of Greenland ice melting at faster rate NASA-backed study: High altitude melt at 150 percent of 2-decade average MSNBC (September 25, 2007) |
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worry about warming? Think rising seas Scenarios for U.S. coastlines help focus on what to protect and at what cost MSNBC (September 24, 2007) |
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and Developing Countries Agree:
Action Needed on Global Warming World Public Opinion Poll (September 24, 2007) |
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| Sea Level Rise
on O`ahu The School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) University of Hawaii, Manoa A look at how sea level rise would alter the island of Oahu Introduction. Examples of what rising sea level would look like on Oahu through pictures and graphics. Maps illustrates a meter by meter encroachment of water onto the shores of Oahu. IPCC 4th Assessment Maui Weekly April 20, 2007 Prius vs. Potato Debra Lordan, Editor Reduce greenhouse gas production three times a day. The results from the six-year U.N. study on global warming came in last Friday, telling us that, yes, indeed, the sky is falling. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) drew on research by 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries, and they concluded that there is a 90 percent probability that we are responsible for climate change due to the greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere. In response, a few members of our government want to take action, but some continue their crusade of denial, some begrudgingly accept the study conclusions and some want to continue conversations about this “serious challenge” (doesn’t that only add to CO2 production?). And considering the U.S. is responsible for 25 percent of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, how long should we continue to just talk about it? While our country’s leaders decide which “reality” they are willing to accept, here is something that you can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and you can do it at breakfast, lunch and dinner. I read a thought-provoking article called Straight to the Source that was sent to me by one of our readers. It begins: “President Herbert Hoover promised ‘a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.’” With warnings about global warming, many of us are having second thoughts about all those cars, but what we should consider in addition, are all those chickens, the article stated. According to a U.N. report published last month, raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity—and global warming. The report said almost a fifth of global warming emissions come from gases produced by the digestive processes of livestock—more than are produced from all the world’s transportation combined. “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner,” right? Our primordial quest for meat may have gotten us out of the trees (I know, the jury is probably still out on that for some, too), but now we are slashing and burning more and more of them to grow more meat, decreasing our CO2 sink and increasing methane and nitrous oxide gas production. The report also states that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing about ten times more crops than we would need if we just ate the plants instead. I’ve had a copy of Diet For a Small Planet since the book came out in the ’70s. This is not a new concept, but one I certainly migrated away from as my love for animal protein grew (along with my waistline). If we include animal transportation, refrigeration and meat distribution, producing a calorie of animal protein will spew more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide as does a calorie of plant protein. I guess it would be smart for us all to eat our vegetables—then, still buy a Prius if you can afford it. While our government leaders debate the results of the U.N. study, anything we can do as individuals to decrease pollution will be a step in the right direction. I’m really not about to tell you what to eat, but it’s certainly food for thought. Honolulu Advertiser (Friday, April 20, 2007) The green team By Loren Moreno The University of Hawai'i-Manoa has launched the “Sustainable Saunders” project with the goal of turning Saunders Hall, the home for social sciences on campus, into a “green” building. Here are a few of the ideas that the student sustainability team, also known as HUB (Help Us Bridge), has come up with. Every Tuesday afternoon, a group of eight University of Hawai'i students get together over organic food to dream up ways to make Saunders Hall a model for sustainability on the Manoa campus. Waterless urinals, solar panels, roofs lined with native plants, recycling, worm bins — these aren't just pie-in-the-sky ideas. The students, UH officials and faculty are forging ahead on these plans, which will create a pilot "green" building on campus. "We definitely think Hawai'i should be the leader for the world for sustainability. We think the university should be to sustainability what Johns Hopkins (University) is to medicine," said Shanah Trevenna, a UH graduate student and sustainability coordinator. The project, "Sustainable Saunders" is an effort born of the university's recent focus on rising energy costs. The university is the second-largest consumer of electricity on O'ahu, after military services, and UH officials predict that the university's electricity bill could reach $18 million this year. The students, who call themselves the HUB (Help Us Bridge), have been conducting extensive studies on the energy and water usage at Saunders in preparation for the conservation experiments they plan on conducting within the building. To examine the waste stream of the building, the students put on rubber gloves and literally went Dumpster diving. "Every day at 2 o'clock we put on gloves and went to the Dumpsters and sorted through every piece of garbage that came out of Saunders. We divided it into plastic lids for cups, chopsticks, that sort of thing, just to see what the waste stream was doing. And then we set up recycling for the first time in Saunders," Trevenna said. A major goal of the project is to help reduce the nearly $1 million electricity bill generated by the seven-story building. "Hopefully we can show that we can make a difference and that will encourage other parts of campus to do the same thing," said Bruce Miller, director of the UH Office of Sustainability, one of the people who came up with the idea for the project. "If we're going to be one of the state's largest users of water, energy and other resources, we have to use it responsibly," Miller said. "We have to demonstrate that we're willing to make a commitment to do this. We cannot continue to waste energy." Many of the changes that would take place at Saunders would involve occupants modifying their behaviors — taking the stairs instead of using elevators, turning off lights, shutting down computers, and recycling.Trevenna predicts that if people change their energy consumption habits, that energy usage within the building could decrease by 50 percent. Of course, there are other ways to become more sustainable: "Upgrade the air-conditioning system, install sensor lighting, put up solar panels, a green roof, occupancy sensors for the air conditioning," Trevenna suggested. All of that would cost upwards of $1.2 million. Much of the money for the project will come from the university, donations from local businesses, energy savings from retrofits, money requested from the Legislature and the university's newfound partnerships with Hawaiian Electric Co. As a sort of official kickoff for the project, the students have organized a networking party at Saunders Hall where sustainability experts, activists and like-minded individuals can gather and brainstorm ways to create the model green building. Fifteen rooms across seven floors have been assigned a theme, such as water conservation and recycling, and will be plastered with paper where people can jot down their ideas on the topic. The ideas will then be formulated in a master plan to be implemented within the coming months. "We will probably do a two- or three-year plan with a goal that each year we reduce consumption by 25 percent, 50 percent, so on," Trevenna said. "We want to be a model for the campus, and we also want to be a model for Hawai'i." The Molokai Dispatch (April 17, 2007) Global Warming is a Local Issue: Molokai residents gather to make a difference The world imagines Hawai`i is Paradise, and in many ways, it is. The music of Hawai`i is the music of Paradise - it has no dark side. In the center of the Hawaiian Islands is Molokai, the Friendly Isle, filled with music and beauty and all the complexities of a population of 8000. A small group of 45 concerned Molokai residents gathered together on Saturday, April 14th at Coffees of Hawaii in Kualapu’u to express concerns and begin to share education on the issues related to Global Warming. At least 1400 similar events happened simultaneously all over America, encouraged by a grassroots organization called StepItUp2007. The island of Molokai's populace is becoming aware of the evidence presented earlier this month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) regarding the likely high human costs of global warming. "We are in agreement about one basic principle: we need quick, dramatic cuts in carbon emissions, cuts that will continue for many years to come. In particular, we need legislation that commits the United States and the World to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050, an amount which turns out to be about 2% per year", said Molokai artist and conservation activist, Anna Fuernsteiner. "Even though we are a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, farther away from any continental land mass than any other place on Earth, we know that we are connected to all humanity by the air we breathe, the land upon which we walk and the waters that flow around us. It is our hope to join all humankind in 'unity of purpose', bound by our support of the changes necessary to bring our planet Earth back to health." said one of the rally's organizers. "Because the risk is so high, and the time to act so short, we are very hopeful that our political leaders won’t make unnecessary compromises in the debates and negotiations that lie ahead. It is a time to 'be satisfied' with what we already have, to be 'celebratory' in appreciation of family and friends, a time to 'share' across political, religious, economic and ethnic lines." spoke George Benda for the musical ensemble, Na Ohana Hoaloha. "When I saw it on a bumper sticker in Santa Cruz, California, 'Let's Mend our FUELish Ways!', I thought, that's worth rallying around", remembered Dakota Blair, who is visiting friends here on Molokai. "In Paradise, we share aloha because it's all we really have. It is the lesson of the place and our kuleana." said Pua Naeole, Retail Manager at Coffees of Hawaii and rally organizer. "This is a good turnout for a first rally. Raising awareness will surely be followed by political change, isn't that what democracy is all about!" "It's great that we can have some new ideas on how to conserve based on Reducing Carbon Emissions. We know that the real polluters are the big corporations. But we need to educate ourselves on what we can do as individuals and families", said Herbert Hoe, local educator and activist. Flyers on how to change personal lifestyles to significantly reduce impact on climate are available at Coffees of Hawai`i. http://www.themolokaidispatch.com/node/638 KHNL 8: Sustainable Saunders Makes UH Energy Efficient By Kristine Uyeno (April 10, 2007) MANOA - Some University of Hawaii students are already thinking of ways to make the Manoa campus more environmentally friendly. The group is called Sustainable Saunders and their main goal is to make Saunders Hall, self sufficient. One way, is to turn the roof, into a green roof. "Which shows if you put a green roof on your roof you cool the building below, so that's energy savings and you're also testing 6 indigenous plants," said Shanah Trevenna, student sustainability coordinator. The group meets daily to talk about ways to curb energy use at the building. Sustainable Saunders is an effort between the students, faculty and staff. "I think it's natural and we look forward to making it a reality," said Mike May, president of Hawaiian Electric Co. HECO also supports their efforts and their goals and presented them with a $6,000 check. Within a year, the students hope to reduce the energy use at Saunders Hall by 30%. There other plans including putting recycling bins on every floor and worm bins out for compost. "I really believe sustainability is equal to a passion for life," said Trevenna. This group plans to implement these energy-efficient ideas in the fall. They hope to become a model for the rest of the campus and the state. Honolulu Advertiser. Sunday March 25, 2007. Focus Section page B1: ''At the center of controversy: The former vice president's campaign isn't about global warming as much as it is about controlling society.'' By Jonah Goldberg. ''I think Al Gore is dishonest and misleading. ... Gore doesn't want to explore geo-engineering (whereby, for example, we'd add sulfate aerosols or other substances to the atmosphere to mitigate global warming).'' The article failed to mention that Mr. Goldberg is Editor of National Review Online and a former researcher at the American Enterprise Institute; his wife is Senior Policy Advisor and Chief Speechwriter to the U.S. Attorney General. Additional quotes by Mr. Goldberg: (1) ''Because one of the most important and vital things the United States could do after 9/11 was to kill people.'' (2) ''The more intellectually consistent and pro-U.N. you are, the less patriotic you are likely to be.'' (3) ''What makes McCarthyism so hard to discuss is that McCarthy behaved like a jerk, but he was also right.'' (4) ''I must confess that one of the things that made me reluctant to conclude that the Iraq war was a mistake was my general distaste for the shabbiness of the arguments on the antiwar side. ... The failure to find weapons of mass destruction is a side issue.'' (5) ''Reducing global carbon-dioxide emissions to 60 percent of 1990 levels before 2050 ... is inconceivable, ill-conceived and also immoral because it would consign generations to poverty.'' (6) ''Let's get one thing straight from the outset: The U.N. sucks''. (1) www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg012903.asp (2) www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg072602.asp (3) www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg022603.asp (4) http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjY2M2M2YmY3YWZhODg5ZTQwYjdlN2MxM2FjNzQ0OTA= (5) http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200604210711.asp (6) www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg091302.asp Honolulu Advertiser. Sunday April 8, 2007, page A-33. ‘‘Hawai`i not finding it easy to tap alternative energy’’ by Mark Niesse. Fossil Fuel utilities could have written the article, which managed to avoid discussing cost-effective, currently available, 24/7/365 non-fossil-fuel solutions: conservation; energy efficiency; energy displacement (sea water air conditioning); and baseload (non-intermittent) renewable energy (ocean thermal energy conversion). The article avoided discussing how the electric grid of the future can contain both intermittent (wind, solar, wave, tidal) and baseload renewable resources. Instead the article used the intermittent nature of intermittent sources as an excuse for Hawai`i’s failure to move away from fossil fuels. Honolulu Advertiser. Friday, April 6, 2007 Editorial: EPA, Bush must step up on global warming ''This week's Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contributing to global warming is indeed cause to celebrate. The court's 5-to-4 ruling turns the heat up on the federal agency and puts the squeeze on the White House to adequately address greenhouse gas emissions.And it's about time. The Bush administration thus far has failed to come up with a meaningful policy to regulate greenhouse gases, with its wrongheaded insistence that such regulation was not part of the EPA's mandate under the Clean Air Act. That inaction underscored a longstanding failure to acknowledge even the existence of global warming and a shameful refusal to take part in the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement signed by more than 140 nations aimed at reducing the effects of carbon dioxide emission. The Supreme Court, in its majority opinion authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, noted: "A well-documented rise in global temperatures has coincided with a significant increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Respected scientists believe the two trends are related." The opinion goes on to discuss the "significant harms" associated with climate change. But is the White House listening? For far too long, the Bush administration has had the nation mired in a sea of excuses and has failed to recognize the impact of global warming. Let's hope this landmark ruling signals a significant change in the tide.'' http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070406/OPINION01/704060330/1105/OPINION Honolulu Advertiser. Friday, April 6, 2007 Global warming report on climate gains approval (Associated Press) BRUSSELS, Belgium — An international global warming conference approved a report today warning of dire threats to the Earth and to mankind — from increased hunger to the extinction of species — unless the world adapts to climate change and halts its progress. Agreement came after an all-night session during which key sections were deleted from the draft and scientists angrily confronted government negotiators who they feared were watering down their findings. "It has been a complex exercise," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Several scientists objected to the editing of the final draft by government negotiators but in the end agreed to compromises. However, some scientists vowed never to take part in the process again. The climax of five days of negotiations was reached when the delegates removed parts of a key chart highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and in a tussle over the level of scientific reliability attached to key statements. There was little doubt about the science, which was based on 29,000 sets of data, much of it collected in the last five years. "For the first time we are not just arm-waving with models," Martin Perry, who conducted the grueling negotiations, told reporters. The United States, China and Saudi Arabia raised the many of the objections to the phrasing, often seeking to tone down the certainty of some of the more dire projections. The final IPCC report is the clearest and most comprehensive scientific statement to date on the impact of global warming mainly caused by man-induced carbon dioxide pollution. It said up to 30 percent of the Earth's species face an increased risk of vanishing if global temperatures rise 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average in the 1980s and '90s. Areas that now suffer a shortage of rain will become even more dry, adding to the risks of hunger and disease, it said. The world will face heightened threats of flooding, severe storms and the erosion of coastlines. "This is a glimpse into an apocalyptic future," the Greenpeace environmental group said of the final report. Negotiators pored over the 21-page draft meant to be a policy guide for governments. The summary pares down the full 1,500-page scientific assessment of the evidence of climate change so far, and the impact it will have on the Earth's most vulnerable people and ecosystems. More than 120 nations attended the meeting. Each word was approved by consensus, and any change had to be approved by the scientists who drew up that section of the report. Though weakened by the deletion of some elements, the final report "will send a very, very clear signal" to governments, said Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official. The summary will be presented to the G8 summit of the world's richest nations in June, when the European Union is expected to renew appeals to President Bush to join in international efforts to control emissions of fossil fuels. This year's series of reports by the IPCC were the first in six years from the prestigious body of some 2,500 scientists, formed in 1988. Public awareness of climate change gave the IPCC's work unaccustomed importance and fueled the intensity of the closed-door negotiations during the five-day meeting. "The urgency of this report prepared by the world's top scientists should be matched by an equally urgent response from governments," said Hans Verolme, director of the global climate change program of the World Wide Fund for Nature. "Doing nothing is not an option," he said. During the final session, the conference snagged over a sentence that said the impact of climate change already were being observed on every continent and in most oceans. "There is very high confidence that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases," said the statement on the first page of text. But China insisted on striking the word "very," injecting a measure of doubt into what the scientists argued were indisputable observations. The report's three authors refused to go along with the change, resulting in an hours-long deadlock that was broken by a U.S. compromise to delete any reference to confidence levels. It is the second of four reports from the IPCC this year; the first report in February laid out the scientific case for how global warming is happening. This second report is the "so what" report, explaining what the effects of global warming will be. European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the report will spur the EU's determination to curb greenhouse gas emissions. "The world needs to act fast if we are to succeed in stabilizing climate change and thereby prevent its worst impacts," Dimas said in a statement. For the first time, the scientists broke down their predictions into regions, and forecast that climate change will affect billions of people. North America will experience more severe storms with human and economic loss, and cultural and social disruptions. It can expect more hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and wildfires, it said. Coasts will be swamped by rising sea levels. In the short term, crop yields may increase by 5 to 20 percent from a longer growing season, but will plummet if temperatures rise by 7.2 F. Africa will be hardest hit. By 2020, up to 250 million people are likely to exposed to water shortages. In some countries, food production could fall by half, it said. Parts of Asia are threatened with massive flooding and avalanches from melting Himalayan glaciers. Europe also will see its Alpine glaciers disappear. Australia's Great Barrier Reef will lose much of its coral to bleaching from even moderate increases in sea temperatures, the report said. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Apr/06/br/br2794068351.html |
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