In the 2014 IPCC Report, the urgency of addressing climate change was reaffirmed;
The world is not ready for the impacts of climate change, including more extreme weather and the likelihood that populated parts of the planet could be rendered uninhabitable. The report argues that world leaders have only a few years left to reduce carbon emissions enough to avoid catastrophic warming, which would produce significant sea level rise and large-scale shifts in temperatures that would dramatically disrupt human life and natural ecosystems.
At COP21 Ban Ki-Moon urged that ‘the States to negotiate with a global vision not from specific national interests”.
A global vision is not just ‘recalling” (Paris Agreement) but abiding by articles 2, 3. 4 in the legally binding 1992 United |Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This Convention which has been ratified by all member states of the United has addressed many of the contentious issues at COP21.
In article 2 under the legally binding UNFCCC is the obligation:
….to stabilize of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system
A global vision to address article 2 would be to immediately end all subsidies for fossil fuel, to calculate the carbon budget for each state, to divest in fossil fuels and to reinvest in renewable energy, to conserve sinks, and to avoid all false solutions such as nuclear, geo-engineering and biofuels which would all violate principles within the UNFCCC.
*A global vision would be to abide by legally binding principles under article 3 in the UNFCCC-
Greening practices are being adopted in Rwanda which include the terracing on hillsides to control erosion like here in Rulindo district, Northern Rwanda. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS
KIGALI, Oct 12 2018 (IPS) - In a move to achieve its green growth aspirations by 2050, Rwanda has placed a major focus on promoting project proposals that shift away from “business as usual” and have a significant impact on curbing climate change while attracting private investment.
The latest report published by the Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA) in 2015 states that the country needs to adapt – and keep adapting – so that Rwandans can become climate resilient and be assured that they can thrive under changing climate conditions.
Rwanda is one of a few nations in the world to develop its own climate-related domestic budget to finance mitigation and adaptation projects and leverage international climate finance. Since it was established in 2012, the National Fund for Climate and Environment, commonly known as “FONERWA”, has played a major role in this country’s climate resilient development by financing various green economy projects.
A new study finds that bacteria develop antibiotic resistance up to 100,000 times faster when exposed to the world’s most widely used herbicides, Roundup (glyphosate) and Kamba (dicamba) and antibiotics compared to without the herbicide.
BY Jack Heinemann
A new study finds that bacteria develop antibiotic resistance up to 100,000 times faster when exposed to the world’s most widely used herbicides, Roundup (glyphosate) and Kamba (dicamba) and antibiotics compared to without the herbicide.
This study adds to a growing body of evidence that herbicides used on a mass industrial scale, but not intended to be antibiotics, can have profound effects on bacteria, with potentially negative implications for medicine’s ability to treat infectious diseases caused by bacteria, says University of Canterbury scientist Professor Jack Heinemann, one of the study’s authors.
“The combination of chemicals to which bacteria are exposed in the modern environment should be addressed alongside antibiotic use if we are to preserve antibiotics in the long-term,” he says.
An important finding of the new study was that even in cases where the herbicides increase the toxicity of antibiotics they also significantly increased the rate of antibiotic resistance, which the study’s authors say could be contributing to the greater use of antibiotics in both agriculture and medicine.
Previously these researchers found that exposure to the herbicide products Roundup, Kamba and 2,4-D or the active ingredients alone most often increased resistance, but sometimes increased susceptibility of potential human pathogens such as Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli depending on the antibiotic.[1]
“We are inclined to think that when a drug or other chemical makes antibiotics more potent, that should be a good thing. But it also makes the antibiotic more effective at promoting resistance when the antibiotic is at lower concentrations, as we more often find in the environment” Professor Heinemann says.
The B.C. government, which opposes the expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline because of the potential threat to the Salish Sea’s marine environment and its endangered killer whales, is putting those same waters at risk by approving logging in a sensitive watershed, a coalition of U.S. conservation organizations says.
The Skagit River system flows south from B.C. through Washington State and into Puget Sound, including waters that are critical to chinook salmon – the primary source of food for the southern resident killer whales.
"The climate crisis is here and already impacting the most vulnerable," notes 350.org's program director. "Staying under 1.5ºC is now a matter of political will."
byJessica Corbett, staff writer Common Dreams
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held a press conference on its new report in South Korea on Monday.
IPCC presser
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change held a press conference on its new report in South Korea on Monday. (Photo: @IPCC_CH/Twitter)
Underscoring the need for "rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented" changes to life as we know it to combat the global climate crisis, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—the United Nations' leading body for climate science—details what the world could look like if the global temperature rises to 1.5°C versus 2°C (2.7°F versus 3.6°F) above pre-industrial levels, and outlines pathways to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty.
MEXICO CITY—In early June, evolutionary developmental biologist Elena Álvarez-Buylla received an out-of-the-blue phone call from the campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then the front-runner in Mexico's presidential election, with a question. If López Obrador won, would she consider becoming the next director of the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt), the country's science ministry and primary granting agency? "My first reaction was to say, ‘I can't,’" recalls Álvarez-Buylla, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) here. "I have a great passion for scientific research," and she couldn't imagine leaving the laboratory.
FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017 file picture Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, looks on, as French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during a meeting at Rungis international food market, near Paris, France. France’s high-profile environment minister, former TV personality Nicolas Hulot, has unexpectedly announced his resignation live on national radio, dealing a blow to the lofty green ambitions of President Emmanuel Macron. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)
PARIS (AP) — France’s high-profile environment minister unexpectedly announced his resignation live on national radio Tuesday, lamenting the government’s lack of decisive action on green issues. The move deals a stinging blow to the environmental credibility of President Emmanuel Macron.
Clearly emotional, Nicolas Hulot said he’d not even told his wife, let alone Macron or the prime minister, of his decision to stand down. The long-time environmental advocate lamented France’s slow pace of progress on green issues and his own lack of power to force change.
His on-air resignation on France Inter radio was so out of the blue that the first reaction from an interviewer was: “Are you serious?”
Farmers spray 200m pounds of weedkiller on crops, including corn, soybeans, wheat and oats, every year. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Significant levels of the weedkilling chemical glyphosate have been found in an array of popular breakfast cereals, oats and snack bars marketed to US children, a new study has found.
Tests revealed glyphosate, the active ingredient in the popular weedkiller brand Roundup, present in all but two of the 45 oat-derived products that were sampled by the Environmental Working Group, a public health organization.
Nearly three in four of the products exceeded what the EWG classes safe for children to consume. Products with some of the highest levels of glyphosate include granola, oats and snack bars made by leading industry names Quaker, Kellogg’s and General Mills, which makes Cheerios.
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One sample of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats measured at more than one part per million of glyphosate. This is still within safe levels deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency, although it is currently working on an updated assessment.
GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC RISKS AND THE SCIENCE COUNCIL OF CANADA: THE CASE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Rod Dobell and Joan Russow University of Victoria
March, 1993
Annex to Contribution Number D.1, Version 2 Submission to Social Learning project at the Kennedy Centre, Harvard University
for the project on Social Learning in the Management of Global Environmental Risks.
Please send comments to R. Dobell and J. Russow, Department of Public Administration, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada. Fax-604-721-8849
This work was partially supported by the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Atmospheric Environment Service of the Government of Canada
This Annex examines the treatment of climate change in publications of the Science Council of Canada, identifying for expository purposes five phases:
Phase 1. (1968-1976). In this phase the Council moved from the early formulation in 1968 of goals and policies related to the environment , and early exploration of scientific data related to the global warming issue in 1972, to a Conference sponsored by the Council in 1975 on "Living with Climatic Change" and the publication of the proceedings from this conference in 1976.
Phase 2. (1977) The Science Council published its significant document, Conserver Society: Resource Uncertainties and the Need for New Technologies. In the same year, the Council also published documents related to environmental and health regulations, and the Government of Canada passed legislation requiring environmental regulations to be subjected to Socio-Economic Impact Analysis (SEIA).
Phase 3. (1978-1983) In this third phase, Council documents are more strongly oriented toward economic issues, coupled with a few significant publications on regulation of activities affecting the environment.
Phase 4. (1984-87) Pre-Brundtland: During this period of Brundtland Commission hearings , there was in Council policy documents a continued emphasis on the economy; if there was concern for sustainability it was primarily for economic sustainability.
Phase 5. (1988-1992) Post-Brundtland: In this phase the Council embraced the expansive interpretation which the National Task Force on the Environment and the Economy gave to the concept of "sustainable development".
The largest and most precise study yet done on acid emissions from Alberta’s oilsands suggests they could eventually damage an area almost the size of Germany.
The study finds that in 2013 more than 330,000 square kilometres in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan absorbed acid deposits high enough to eventually damage life in rivers and lakes.
A tailings pond reflects the Syncrude oilsands mine facility near Fort McMurray, Alta. A new study finds that in 2013, more than 330,000 square kilometres received acid deposits high enough to eventually damage life in rivers and lakes.
lakes. (JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)
“This work is a warning,” said Paul Makar, an Environment Canada scientist and lead author on the paper published in the Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
“If emissions continue at 2013 levels, there will be ecosystem damage over a very large area.”
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