planted city

The “false economy” of delaying action on climate change 

Details here, here, and here.

Thinking Globally: ‘Welcome to the Anthropocene’

From Planet Under Pressure via Vimeo:

A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes.

More here.

(Image credit: IGBP)

From The Times Colonist:

A Canadian researcher is at the centre of a provocative new international study that puts an eye-popping price tag on the damage being done to the world’s oceans and fisheries - a cost that could reach $2 trillion a year by 2100 - from carbon emissions, over-fertilization, over-fishing and other human impacts.

University of British Columbia fisheries economist Rashid Sumaila, a leading critic of international fishing policies, is co-editor of the 300-page Valuing The Ocean report released last week at the high-profile Planet Under Pressure environmental conference in Britain.

The study, touted as a “unique,” monetary assessment of global ocean health and threats, is the latest attempt by ecosystem-conscious scientists to affix financial value to planetary resources taken for granted in traditional models of economic activity.

…

The project was coordinated by the Swedish-based Stockholm Environment Institute, which said in a statement that “the ocean is the victim of a massive market failure,” and that “the true worth of its ecosystems, services, and functions is persistently ignored by policy-makers and largely excluded from wider economic and development strategies.”

Sumaila said that “the combined global and local threats to the ocean are unprecedented in human history. Incremental change and business-as-usual will not suffice.”

But the global ocean crisis “can be rectified,” the UBC researcher added, “if the ocean and the services it provides are placed at the heart of global efforts to build a green economy for the future.”

Check out the rest of the article here.

(Photo credit: Hani Amir via David Suzuki)

‘Fossils from the Anthropocene’

(Source: Planet Under Pressure 2012)

Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Tom Toles highlights the increasing futility of denying the reality of human driven climate change. In this case, the “extremely early blooming of cherry trees” in Washington, D.C. is an example. More here, here, here,here, and here.  

(Cartoon source: Washington Post via Go Comics)

‘NASA Images Depict Rapid Loss of Thick Arctic Sea Ice’, 1980 - 2012

From Yale e360:

A new comparison of satellite images from 1980 and 2012 vividly depicts the rapid disappearance of thick, multi-year Arctic Ocean ice in winter. Over the past three decades, the extent of the Arctic’s thickest ice has declined by 15 to 17 percent per decade, according to NASA climate scientist Joey Comiso.

Details over at Yale e360 and NASA’s Earth Observatory.

It’s also worth noting that a new study has found an important link between melting Arctic sea ice and extreme weather being experienced in some regions of our planet. BBC coverage of the study explains that:

The progressive shrinking of Arctic sea ice is bringing colder, snowier winters to the UK and other areas of Europe, North America and China.

More here.

Climate scientist and Nobel Laureate Michael E. Mann – author of the IPCC’s “Hockey Stick” Report that sparked a bitter controversy between scientists and science deniers.

Hear the real story of the science and politics behind this controversy – and of the campaign to deny the reality of global climate change.

The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions & David Suzuki Foundation are hosting the talk. You can read more about Mann’s fight against climate denial in the Guardian’s ‘The inside story on climate scientists under siege’.

Sustainability: ‘The Story of Bill Rees and the Ecological Footprint’

“Do you know your ecological footprint?”  You can measure it here.

(Graphic credit: Global Footprint Network)

Bill McKibben: ‘Notes on the Climate Fight’ 

From The Terry Global Speaker Series @ UBC:

Though many have come to accept the scientific consensus around climate change, political realities still stifle the hope of real climate action. To help address this political impasse, Bill McKibben will share his invaluable experience mobilizing global grassroots activism. He will share stories from the front lines of the climate fight – from every corner of planet, including our own backyard. Of particular interest to Canadian university students, he will address the Keystone XL pipeline and Alberta Tar Sands development. Some stories are hopeful, some are not, but one thing is certain: we finally have a movement, and Bill would like you to be a part of it.

You can read about his UBC talk and visit to Vancouver here.

From the New York Times:

Perennially frozen ground, known as permafrost, underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere and stores a huge amount of carbon.

ANCIENT PLANTS removed carbon from the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide. When the plants died, much of their stored carbon was trapped and frozen in layers of soil and glacial silt.

OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS  the layers of soil and debris built up to form a deep layer of continuously frozen ground, called permafrost, which now contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere.

CARBON ESCAPES  when organic material in permafrost thaws and decomposes. Carbon dioxide is released in aerated areas, but in lakes and wetlands carbon bubbles up as methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas.

The infographic accompanies the New York Times article, ‘As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks’.