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Costa Rica Aims to Be a Carbon-Neutral Nation (Audio)
John Burnett, Morning Edition, National Public Radio (NPR)
One of the smallest countries in the world has a big goal. Costa Rica says it wants to be the first developing country to become carbon neutral – that is, to have zero output of carbon dioxide by 2021. But huge challenges lie ahead.
(18 February 2008)
Climate change spurs local action
Judy Keen, USA TODAY
A growing number of communities and states concerned about climate change are planning ways to cope with rising tides, severe weather, less snow and even “climate refugees” from coastal areas.
“We can’t ask, ‘Is there global warming?’ We have to ask, ‘How can we adapt?’ even though it’s scarier than heck,” says county executive Ron Sims, who has incorporated climate-change preparedness into all planning in King County, Wash., which includes Seattle.
At least five coastal states – Alaska, California, Maryland, Oregon and Washington – are working on preparedness plans, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change says.
Many communities focus on cutting emissions and conserving energy, but some planners say that’s not enough. “If we don’t take steps to adapt, we’re missing half the picture,” says Scott Shuford, who is writing a guidebook on “adaptation planning” for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climatic Data Center.
(19 February 2008)
Rich, poor and climate change
Rachel Oliver, CNN
The general dialogue on adapting to a world affected by climate change by definition excludes the world’s poorest people. And yet it’s the world’s poorest who are often put forward as the ones who are likely to feel the affects of climate change the most and are likely to be able to deal with them the least.
Around half of the world’s population — slightly fewer than 3 billion people — survives on less than $2 a day. None of them are likely to go shopping for an automobile any time soon in a bid to reduce on their greenhouse gas emissions; and investing in photo voltaic solar panels to put on their rooftops probably won’t be a priority, either.
Comparing the average annual per capita carbon footprints of the rich and poor certainly makes for unsettling reading: The average American’s annual carbon footprint — 20.4 tons — is around 2,000 times that of someone living in the African nation of Chad. And the average Briton will emit as much carbon dioxide (C02) in one day as a Kenyan will in an entire year.
Overall, the United Nations estimates that the carbon footprint of the world’s 1 billion poorest people (those living on less than $1 a day) represents just 3 percent of the global total.
By contrast, if you look at the cumulative buildup of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, then the responsibility for a whopping 80 percent of the world’s emissions lies with just 20 percent of the inhabitants of the world’s wealthiest nations (at the time this figure was calculated it only included Europe, North America and the former Soviet Union).
(18 February 2008)
24 world cities in ‘Earth Hour’ black-out: organisers
AFP
Twenty-four cities around the world will fall into shadow next month as homes and businesses turn off the lights to raise awareness about global warming, organisers said Tuesday.
The “Earth Hour” initiative started in Australia’s biggest city Sydney last year when an estimated 2.2 million people flicked the switch — leaving the Sydney Opera House bathed in moonlight and the Harbour Bridge blacked out.
Organiser Andy Ridley said Sydney’s 60-minutes of darkness generated huge interest around the world and 23 other cities from the Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and the Middle East had now signed up to be part of the 2008 event.
(19 February 2008)
Juggle a few of these numbers, and it makes economic sense to kill people
George Monbiot, Guardian
Britain’s official approach to climate change puts a price on human lives. And the richer you are, the more yours is worth
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This is a column about how good intentions can run amok. It tells the story of how an honourable, intelligent man set out to avert environmental disaster and ended up accidentally promoting the economics of the slave trade. It shows how human lives can be priced and exchanged for goods and services. The story begins in a village a few miles to the west of London. The government proposes to flatten Sipson in order to build a third runway for Heathrow airport. The public consultation is about to end, but no one doubts that the government has made up its mind.
Its central case is that the economic benefits of building a third runway outweigh the economic costs. The extra capacity, the government says, will deliver a net benefit to the UK economy of £5bn. The climate change the runway will cause costs £4.8bn, but this is dwarfed by the profits to be made.
(19 February 2008)
