Climate & water - July 7
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Australian climate report like 'disaster novel': minister
AFP
Heatwaves, less rain and increased drought are the likely prospect for Australia, according to a new report on climate change which the agriculture minister said read like a "disaster novel".
The report, by the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, found that the world's driest inhabited continent is likely to suffer more extreme temperatures due to climate change.
(6 July 2008)
Only seven years left for global warming target: UN panel chief
AFP
The head of the UN's Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists on Friday said only seven years remained for stabilising emissions of global-warming gases at a level widely considered safe.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), delivered the bleak warning at a gathering of European Union ministers where he pleaded with the EU to take the lead in global talks on tackling climate change.
(4 July 2008)
A Word To The Water Wise
Vivian Song, The Edmonton Sun (Canada)
Well known in Canada for a variety of causes, Maude Barlow has become the Al Gore of the water world
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Maude Barlow is a surprisingly soft-spoken, humble presence.
After reading her book Blue Covenant -- 218 pages of water scarcity stats that will scare the beejeezus out of you -- I'm half expecting to meet a Joan of Arc-hetype crusader, riding high atop a ridge on horseback, eyes darting wildly below for aquatic injustices.
Instead, I meet a woman whose written words speak louder than their author and whose maternal warmth comes from a wellspring of sincerity that can't be feigned.
Barlow is described as the Al Gore of water, an internationally renowned water champion who, this month, was invited by the driest continent on earth, Australia, to address their water crisis. Last year, a man was killed in an incident of water rage in that country -- the first known water murder in the developed world -- after a passerby rebuked him for watering his lawn.
Like Gore, Barlow is welcomed both as a Canadian hero -- gracing the pages of Australia's foremost daily newspaper The Age in a lengthy, flattering profile piece -- and a left-wing idealogue, dismissed as an anti-business dissenter.
(6 July 2008)
Also at Common Dreams.
