News Roundup
‘WASHINGTON — With intensifying climate disasters and global economic turmoil as the backdrop, delegates from 194 nations will gather in Durban, South Africa, starting Monday to try to advance, if only incrementally, the world’s response to dangerous climate change.’
via Nations Meet to Address Problems of Climate Change – NYTimes.com.
‘FUKUSHIMA, Japan — The Fukushima prefectural government in Japan has announced that radioactive cesium beyond the provisional regulatory limit was detected in unmilled rice harvested at five farms in the Onami district of Fukushima Prefecture.’
‘BEIJING — With global climate talks set to begin next week, China on Tuesday issued the most comprehensive document yet on its plans and negotiating positions on emissions.’
‘(Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, struggling with an ambitious agenda on clean air regulations, said it will delay proposing the country’s first-ever greenhouse gas limits on oil refineries.’
‘(Reuters) – Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise more than forecast to between 6 billion and 11 billion tons above what is needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report showed on Wednesday.’
via Emissions cuts off course to halt global warming: UNEP | Reuters.
‘…After years of recycling, carbon offsetting and light bulb changing, it is obvious that individual action will never be an adequate response to the climate crisis. Climate change is a collective problem, and it demands collective action. One of the key areas in which this collective action must take place is big-ticket investments designed to reduce our emissions on a mass scale.’
‘…Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.’
‘Governments of the world’s richest countries have given up on forging a new treaty on climate change to take effect this decade, with potentially disastrous consequences for the environment through global warming.’
via Rich nations ‘give up’ on new climate treaty until 2020 | Environment | The Guardian.
‘(Reuters) – Africa is leading the push for clean energy policy-making as climate change turns millions of its people into “food refugees,” the head of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP) Achim Steiner said.’
via Africa leads climate push as its people go hungry | Reuters.
‘(Reuters) – Greenhouse gases that cause climate change have reached record levels in the atmosphere and show no sign of receding, despite global awareness of the need to switch to alternative energy sources, the United Nations weather agency said on Monday.’
via Greenhouse gases levels at record, accelerating | Reuters.
‘At least some of the weather extremes being seen around the world are consequences of human-induced climate change and can be expected to worsen in coming decades, a United Nations panel reported on Friday.’
via U.N. Panel Finds Climate Change Behind Some Extreme Weather Events – NYTimes.com.