Blog for a Better World

A handful of the world’s largest agricultural biotechnology companies are seeking hundreds of patents on gene-altered crops designed to withstand drought and other environmental stresses, part of a race for dominance in the potentially lucrative market for crops that can handle global warming. Three companies — BASF of Germany, Syngenta of Switzerland and Monsanto of St. Louis — have filed applications to control nearly two-thirds of the climate-related gene families submitted to patent offices worldwide.  Many of the world’s poorest countries, destined to be hit hardest by climate change, have rejected biotech crops, citing environmental and economic concerns.

A group of 1,700 leading scientists called on the US government last June to take the lead in fighting global warming. Citing the unprecedented and unanticipated effects of global warming, the scientists, including six Nobel prizewinners, presented a letter calling for an immediate reduction in US carbon emissions. The letter warns if emissions continue unabated, the nation and the world will face more sea level rise, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, flood risk, and public health threats, as well as increased rates of plant and animal species extinctions.  The scientists call on the government to reduce emissions on the order of 80% below 2000 levels by 2050; but as a first step, the scientists call for a 15-20% reduction on 2000 levels by 2020.

Most of us accept the need for a more sustainable way to live, by reducing carbon emissions, developing renewable technology and increasing energy efficiency. But a growing band of experts think that these efforts to save the planet are doomed and futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth; that is, if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy. To most economists, however, economic growth is as essential as the air we breathe. They see no limits to that growth.  In recent weeks it has become clear just how terrified governments are of anything that threatens growth, as they pour billions of public money into a failing financial system.  So the question is: how do we square Earth’s finite resources with the fact that as the economy grows, the amount of natural resources needed to sustain that activity must grow too?

Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to an unprecedented study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting the world’s ecosystems. Scientists examined published reports dating back to 1970 and found that at least 90% of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures.  Big falls in Antarctic penguin populations, fewer fish in African lakes, shifts in American river flows and earlier flowering and bird migrations in Europe are all likely to be driven by global warming, the study found.  This is the first to formally link some of the most dramatic changes to the world’s wildlife and habitats with human-induced climate change.

James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has co-authored a paper saying that future global warming is likely to turn out worse than most people think. The most recent major report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 projects a temperature rise of three degrees Celsius, plus or minus 1.5 degrees—enough to trigger serious impacts on human life from rising sea level, widespread drought, changes in weather patterns, etc.  But according to Hansen and his nine co-authors, the correct figure is closer to six degrees C.  Although the full impact of this temperature increase will not be felt until the end of this century or even later, Hansen says, the point at which major climate disruption is inevitable is already upon us.  To preserve humanity, CO2 levels will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.

An international climate change task force warned that global warming is approaching the point of no return, after which widespread drought, crop failure and rising sea levels will be irreversible.  It called on the group of 8 leading industrial nations to cut carbon emissions, double their research spending on technology and work with India and China to build on the Kyoto Protocol for cuttings emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.  According to the report, urgent action is needed to stop the global average temperature rising by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the level of the year 1750 — the approximate start of the Industrial Revolution, when mankind first started significantly adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Congressional Democrats, led by Senator Barbara Boxer, called for the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen Johnson, to resign, saying they lost all confidence in his ability to follow the law.  Johnson is the agency chief who went against his scientific staff’s recommendations to allow California to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions in advance of any potential federal regulations. An agency deputy head has in recent weeks claimed that Johnson was actually leaning toward granting California its waiver until the White House pressured him otherwise.  Other emails that the White House didn’t like - notably the one saying that greenhouse gases endanger the public - it simply refused to open.

Russian scientists have abandoned their polar research base after the ice it was floating on started melting faster than expected.  The 20 polar researchers and their two dogs climbed on board a research icebreaker and all scientific programs at the station have been stopped.  The research base was set up in September on a five kilometers by three kilometers ice flow which averaged 1.5 thick. By the time the scientists abandoned base on Sunday, it was just 600 meters by 300 meters. This year’s Arctic melt started early than usual and there’s a bit of a trend for less Arctic ice.

Gas is well over $4 a gallon, the president has lifted a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, and Americans are upset about high electricity bills.  Al Gore, the former vice-president turned climate guru, outlined his latest vision in a speech in Washington DC recently.  He wasted no time in trying to amp up the urgency factor, saying early on that the future of human civilization is at stake. Gore then gave examples, from melting Greenland glaciers to national security implications, in calling for Americans to shift entirely to renewable energy sources within a decade.  Texas oil magnate T. Boone Pickens has taken out television and print advertisements for his Pickens Plan to boost the use of renewables, particularly wind.

America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a stark warning on the nation’s coral reefs recently.  US reefs near human populations face intense threats while even the most remote reefs are troubled, it says. The massive 2008 state of coral reef ecosystems report says a conservative message would be that nearly half of reefs are not in good condition and are in long-term decline.  The report shows that this is a global issue.  While the report indicates reefs in general are healthier in the Pacific than the Atlantic, even remote reefs are subject to threats stemming from climate change, as well as illegal fishing and marine debris.

Jim Hansen, the director of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York City, recently has been talking about how the current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, 385 parts per million, is far too high – and that we should be aiming instead for a maximum level of 350 parts per million. This raised eyebrows among climate analysts who think even 450 parts per million is an optimistic scenario for what society can achieve.  Hansen claims that we are now at the point of a ‘planetary emergency’ and that climate tipping points such as shrinking Arctic sea ice and the potential extinction of species as reasons to act now to curb the increase in greenhouse gases.

According to one prominent family, big oil companies are not doing enough to cut carbon emissions. The Rockefeller family has a bone to pick with Exxon Mobil, the company that grew out of their ancestor’s oil giant Standard Oil, over its failure to give greater backing to alternative energy. They said that the oil companies are fighting the last war and they’re not seeing they’re facing a new war.  Although the Rockefellers don’t own a huge amount of Exxon, their attack is likely to cause some embarrassment to the company, given the weight that still attaches to their name.   It’s been said that the name gives a lot of credibility to what they’re doing, and it’s significant that the family has a historic equity stake.

Apparently there is a growing problem of food shortages across the world and climate change may be the culprit.  Kandeh Yumkella, director-general of the UN International Development Organization, claims that climate change will impose great stresses on the world’s ability to feed ever-growing populations.  This challenge brings new threats to arable land areas, livestock rearing and fisheries through droughts, water shortages and pollution of land, air and sea.  Last month it was revealed that the UN’s World Food Program was begging for $500 million to deal with a ‘food crisis’.  Yumkella believes that there is a full blown crisis now, with problems in India and Bangladesh, riots over rice in Haiti and Africa, and Thai farmers guarding their rice paddys to prevent theft.

Some scientists seem to think so while others are not so sure.  Some scientists have suggested that throwing sulphate particles into the atmosphere could block sunlight and offset global warming. Now research by Simone Tilmes, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, suggests this would mess up the ozone layer.  She states that their research indicates that trying to artificially cool off the planet could have perilous side effects.  Sulfate could cause a drastic increase in the extent of Arctic ozone depletion during the next century and would cause a considerable delay, between 30 and 70 years, in the expected recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole.  While climate change is a major threat, more research is required before society attempts global geoengineering solutions.

Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 0.6% last year according to NOAA.  Last year, according to new figures from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, saw the third highest rise in global carbon dioxide concentrations since measurements began in 1998. NOAA says 2.4 molecules of carbon dioxide were added to every million molecules in the air, totalling around 19 billion tons and taking concentrations to 385 parts per million.  NOAA states that it’s a gloomy picture. With carbon dioxide emissions, they think that we’re on the wrong track and are fully convinced that we’re in actually quite a dangerous situation for climate.