Friday, February 02, 2007

UN Report: Climate Change 2007

``Clearly we are endangering all species on earth, we are endangering the future of the human race,'' IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said in an interview. ``We are probably beyond the stage where we could have called it urgent. I would say it is immediate,'' he said, referring to the need for governments to reduce emissions....

...``Climate Change 2007: the Physical Science Basis,'' is the first in a four-volume survey that involves more than 2,500 scientists from over 130 countries. ...


Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Summary for Policy Makers. The full report will be published later this year.


The evidence is unequivocal

The clock is ticking

Rising sea levels


In the meantime our "new government" continues to fiddle.


"... Canadian environment minister John Baird said on Friday he could not guarantee Canada would meet its Kyoto emission targets. Canada is one of 35 rich nations which have accepted binding greenhouse gas emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol but it is way off a target which Prime Minister Stephen Harper says is unachievable. ...

Baird told journalists the report, which predicted more warming at higher latitudes, showed Canada would be affected worse than most.

"We're seeing global warming happening at a greater rate in the northern hemisphere," he said. "We (in Canada) are going to feel a disproportionate burden."

... Canada's emissions are 33 percent higher than the target level it agreed to meet under Kyoto by 2012, and they are widely projected to rise further in the next few years.

He appeared to pour cold water on the prospect of Canada participating in carbon trading, whereby rich countries partly meet their Kyoto targets by funding emissions cuts in poor nations.

"We want to make these investments in Canada, not spend $5 billion (Canadian) in carbon credits on the other side of the world."

A day later John Baird said: "We are going to lead by example"

If it was only so.


Canada signed a treaty.

It should try to meet the targets in whatever way possible. I would also rather see wind generators built in Canada instead of India but if the latter is the only way we can meet our obligations, so be it.