Climate Change is just a 'happy' little word everyone can live with, it is a devasting event in which is no longer inhabitable.
The European Union has hunkered down to make the concept of Climate Change an enemy. The activists of the world, including Greenpeace which in my opinion 'HAD IT RIGHT THE ENTIRE TIME', is leading an awareness regarding the devastation of the Amazon. Brazil is taking it very seriously and needs the worlds attention to help the people of that country stop that devastation and restore the Amazon to health.
The Native Alaskan are no longer able to function in the footsteps of their heritage. Do you realize what that means? They no longer have their culture to hand down to their children. Do you understand what the negligence of the culture of the mainland USA has done to it's own Native Americans in Alaska? The government that set up protections of these people haven't succeeded because it neglected the fact Global Warming would bring Climate Change and destroy their way of life.
Christy Todd Whitman has not only written a book but is becoming a leading Republican speaking out on the issue encouraging local communities to take control of the issue of Climate Change as related to water supply, severe weather and issues of flooding. Global Warming costs the USA billions of dollars per year and if Congress and the Senate want to save money they need to first address Greenhouse Gas emissions.
The time to 'talk about' the issue of Global Warming leading to Climate Change is over. Do you understand? The education about Global Warming and it's WARNING it is coming is over. The time to act and act emergently is here. The evidence is overwhilming.
Climate change: start of the second European Climate Change Programme
Brussels, 21 October 2005
Climate change: start of the second European Climate Change Programme
On Monday, 24 October, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas will launch the second European Climate Change Programme (ECCP II) at a stakeholder conference in Brussels. In view of the magnitude of the climate change threat, ECCP II will focus on new cost-effective measures and technologies that will allow the EU to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years and to adapt to the climate change effects that are inevitable. The ECCP, which was initiated in 2000, is the umbrella under which the European Commission and stakeholders discuss and prepare measures to fight climate change.
"The recent extreme weather events around the world are consistent with scientific findings about the effects of our changing climate," said Commissioner Dimas. "It is high time that we start preparing new measures to limit climate change. Such measures will create the momentum necessary for reducing our emissions below the Kyoto targets. They will ensure a longer-term perspective, provide for business opportunities and ease the way to the carbon-constrained society of the future. I look forward to the ideas of stakeholders - climate change is a threat to us all."
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/1330&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Amazon drought: deforestation and climate change to blame
(published on 21-October-2005)
The devastating drought affecting the Amazon rainforest is part of a vicious cycle created by the combined effects of global warming and deforestation, according to scientists from Greenpeace and the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia.
Deforestation and climate change are blamed for the crippling drought affecting the Amazon
The findings have been backed up this week by evidence from a joint US and Brazilian team which used satellite images to show that deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has been underestimated by at least 60%.
The worsening drought has forced the Brazilian government to extend emergency warnings across the Amazonas state. The military has been called in to distribute supplies and medicine to tens of thousands of people. The drought is now also affecting towns and cities further downstream.
Large areas of sand and mud have been exposed as rivers and lakes have dried up in the worst conditions for 40 years.
"Brazil is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change because of its invaluable biodiversity. If the Amazon loses more than 40% of its forest cover, we will reach a turning point from where we cannot reverse the savannization process of the world's largest forest," said Carlos Nobre, from the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research and President of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program.
According to the INPE around 17% of the Amazon has been completely wiped out over the past 30 years and even more has been damaged by illegal logging and other human activities.
Deforestation and forest fires account for more than 75% of Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions and place it among the four top contributors to global climate change.
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=10690&channel=0
Climate change a hot topic at AFN
Friday, October 21, 2005 - by Sean Doogan Fairbanks, Alaska
It wasn't the Interior weather that was on everyone's mind at the Alaska Federation of Natives convention. Weather was the hot topic Friday in Fairbanks.
Scientists believe that global climate changes affect the world's polar regions first. Alaska Native people say they are seeing serious changes in the seasons. Elders from the state's coastal regions say the sea is staying ice-free well into December. That can change the migratory patterns of Native staples like whales and seals.
Coastal erosion from frequent and recently more violent storms forced village officials to relocate the community of Shishmaref. Interior Native elders say a plague of beetles and leaf-rolling bugs is devastating trees and berry bushes. Moose, they say, are beginning the rut later and later each year, many times after hunting season is over, meaning many hunters go home with an empty bag.
“It’s been the same thing down in Ruby there. I haven’t been able to get a moose for two years now because the seasons are wrong now for us. They don’t start rutting till later on because it’s so warm,” said Donald Honea, Ruby elder.
“It got to be where there were 50-year storms, and then there were 20-year storms, and then there were 10-year storms. And now they are coming almost annually,” said Patricia Cochran, Alaska Native Science Commission (right).
Many elders said they have had to change the way they teach their way of life to their grandchildren because each new season brings with it warmer and warmer temperatures.
http://www.ktuu.com/cms/templates/master.asp?articleid=1042&zoneid=1
More than 500 to pack King County Climate Change Conference, Oct. 27 in Seattle
County planning ahead for effects of global warming
King County is hosting a conference on global warming Oct. 27 to ensure local and state government agencies are preparing for changes to the world's climate and the potential impacts of more-destructive storms and water shortages on local government services. Christine Todd Whitman, the nation's former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, headlines the prestigious list of speakers at the day-long event.
"The federal government's policies still don't acknowledge what the world's scientists tell us is happening to our climate," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "That makes it even more critical that local governments understand what is predicted and begin preparing for needed shifts in vital services such as water supply and flood protection.
"King County is taking a two-pronged approached, changing the way it does business to reduce its emissions that contribute to climate change, and preparing for such potential changes as water shortages because of less snow pack in the mountains," Sims said. "The more we understand locally what is happening to our weather, the better prepared we can be to deliver the right changes in services including emergency response."
The King County 2005 Climate Change Conference is scheduled from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at the Qwest Field Conference Center in Seattle. The conference is sold out with 500 attendees.
Representatives from a broad cross-section of local governments and state agencies, education, business, the tribes, agriculture, nonprofit organizations and communities are participating in the conference. They will learn about and discuss climate change impacts and potential adaptations of services to expected conditions.
"Obviously, we don't know what the future will hold, but the lesson learned from the Hurricane Katrina disaster on the Gulf Coast is that local governments must be prepared and not depend on the federal government," said Sims. "Through preparation and planning for natural disasters today, we will be better suited to protect people, their property and our natural resources in the years ahead."
King County has taken several actions in recent years to protect and enhance the environment in the face of significant climate change including reducing air emissions at the regional landfill and fleet of buses, adopting sustainable building practices, increasing the use of reclaimed water.
King County has also adopted the Critical Areas Ordinances, is participating in regional salmon recovery work, and continues its efforts to protect and prepare county residents in flood-prone areas.
Conference highlights include:
Keynote luncheon speaker Christine Todd Whitman, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and former governor of New Jersey; Dr. Stephen Schneider, a world-renowned climate expert and lead author for international consensus documents on climate science; Discussion and book signing with John Cox, author of Climate Crash: Abrupt Climate Change and What it Means for Our Future (external link); and Breakout sessions led by local experts on the potential impact of climate change on natural and water resources, agriculture, coastal areas, fishing, forestry, hydropower, water supply (municipal and industrial) and flooding/stormwater. For more information, visit the conference Web site at http://dnr.metrokc.gov/dnrp/climate-change/conference-2005.htm or contact Deborah Brockway at 206-296-1927.
http://dnr.metrokc.gov/dnrp/press/2005/1021Climateconference.htm
