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Tourism set to suffer from the climate change it generates: UN
AFP
A booming worldwide tourism industry could prove its own worst enemy by contributing to the global warming that threatens some of the planet’s most prized destinations, UN agencies warned Monday.
If no measures are taken, tourism’s impact on climate change is set to more than double in the next 30 years, according to advance data from a report by the UN tourism, environment and weather agencies.
“The tourism industry is both challenged by climate change and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions,” UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said at an international conference in Davos, Switzerland.
Coastal, mountain and nature destinations, especially in poor countries or island states like the Maldives, are likely to be the most affected by weather shifts and rising sea levels or temperatures, according to extracts from the report on climate change and tourism.
(1 October 2007)
The devil will be in the details of Campbell’s climate change plans
Vancouver Sun
Premier Gordon Campbell’s dramatic call to arms in the war against climate change issued Friday before the Union of British Columbia Municipalities left little doubt about how seriously he takes the issue.
He described the challenge as no less than the equivalent of the First and Second World Wars — not in the sense of the sacrifices required of our forebears in those conflicts — but in the opportunity we have to make a difference in the world that will be inherited by our children and grandchildren.
His stirring rhetoric was backed up by the first glimpse of some of the elements of the plan to reach the ambitious goals he set in the Throne Speech in February for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
(29 September 2007)
Climate change top issue, CEOs declare
Steven Chase, Globe and Mail
OTTAWA – Canada’s top chief executive officers have reached an “unprecedented consensus” on the need to combat global warming and their obligation to do more to help.
Monday morning, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives is releasing a declaration calling climate change “the most pressing and daunting issue” today, and acknowledging the need for “aggressive” action including “absolute” emission cuts. It’s the clearest signal ever sent by a broad coalition of Canadian businesses that they embrace the fight against climate change and accept the need for emission cut targets.
Even more significant: the CEOs acknowledge a necessary part of the battle will be government intervention to raise energy prices as a means of influencing consumption. “We share the goal of slowing, stopping and reversing the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions over the shortest period of time that is reasonably achievable,” the 150 CEOs announce in a declaration obtained by The Globe and Mail.
They say they’re confident that technology investment – spurred by incentives – could help Canada become a leader in trimming emissions output. But the CEOs acknowledge that governments must step in with an emissions trading market or even something most of them don’t welcome: environment taxes.
(1 October 2007)
Human Behavior, Global Warming, and the Ubiquitous Plastic Bag
Peter Applebone, New York Times
When she moved to the United States from Germany seven years ago, Angela Neigl brought with her the energy-conscious sensibilities of life in Europe. You drove small cars. You recycled every can, lid and stray bit of household waste. You brought your own reusable bags or crate to the market rather than adding to the billions of plastic bags clogging landfills, killing aquatic creatures on the bottoms of oceans and lakes, and blowing in the wind.
But, alas, there she was Friday morning, lugging her white plastic bags from the Turco’s supermarket, like everyone else, figuring there was no fighting the American way of waste.
“When I was first here, I brought my own bags to the market, but they would stuff the groceries in the plastic bags anyway. Finally, I gave up,” she said. “People are very nice here. It’s more relaxed. But the environmental thing is a little scary.”
You could have learned a lot, I guess, about the politics of global warming from the lukewarm response President Bush received last week from skeptical delegates at his conference on climate change and energy security. But in the most micro of ways, you can learn plenty any day of the week at the Turco’s or the Food Emporium in Yorktown Heights, the Super Stop & Shop in North White Plains, the A.&P. or Mrs. Green’s Natural Market in Mount Kisco or just about anywhere Americans shop in Westchester County and beyond.
And the lesson for now pretty much seems to be that no matter how piddly the effort, no matter how small the bother, well, it’s too much bother.
(30 September 2007)
Japan Trades in Suits, Cuts Carbon Emissions (Audio and text)
David Kestenbaum, All Things Considered, National Public Radio (US)
Two years ago, the Japanese government – essentially with the stroke of a pen – instituted a new policy that has so far trimmed more than two million tons of greenhouse gases from the country’s growing emissions.
The feat is particularly impressive because it required overturning a decades-old tradition.
When Yuriko Koike was Japan’s environment minister, one of her jobs was to figure out how to deal with climate change. So she hit on what – in Japan – was a radical idea: Get men to stop wearing suits. That way, office buildings could ease up on the air conditioning.
Showing up with no tie and no jacket was seen as rude in many circles. But Koike had the support of the charismatic prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi.
(2 October 2007)
One of the fastest and cheapest ways to reduce energy usage is cultural change, as shown in this article. There are still lots of low-hanging fruit to be picked. -BA
