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CLIMATE SCIENCE
No climate breakthrough in Durban: Maldives
by Staff Writers
Manila (AFP) Sept 15, 2011

Nobel physicist quits US group over climate stance
Washington (AFP) Sept 15, 2011 - Norwegian physicist and Nobel laureate Ivar Giaever has quit a major US physics society due to its stance on global warming, a spokeswoman for the group told AFP Thursday.

"I can confirm he has resigned," American Physical Society spokeswoman Tawanda Johnson said, noting that Giaever, 82, sent a letter to that effect to the group's executive director Kate Kirby on Tuesday.

"His reason is that he takes issue with APS's stance on climate change."

The APS, which is a member organization of 48,000, adopted a national policy statement in 2007 which states: "The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring."

Last year another climate change skeptic, University of California professor Hal Lewis, left the group, claiming global warming was a "scam" and a "pseudoscientific fraud."

In a statement issued after Lewis's departure, APS said that "on the matter of global climate change, APS notes that virtually all reputable scientists agree... carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere due to human activity."

Giaever, who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics for his "experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in semiconductors," did not respond to an AFP email requesting comment.

Johnson stressed that Giaever's position represented the minority in the scientific community, and that while APS is "disappointed" at his departure it does not intend to change its position.

"We don't have members resigning in droves or anything like that," she said.

Maldives, an island nation on the frontline of the battle against rising seas, said Thursday it was unlikely a meaningful agreement on fighting climate change would be reached at the next UN summit.

Last year's round of talks in Mexico and the 2009 summit in Copenhagen had largely failed, and it appears this year's event will end the same way, the Maldives' Environment Minister Mohamed Aslam said.

Just two months before world leaders are to meet in the annual UN Framework Convention on Climate Change summit in South Africa's port city of Durban, no-one appears to be in a rush for a new agreement, he said.

"I am not saying that people are not doing anything. But I don't feel the international community is moving on with a sense of urgency to get this done," Aslam told reporters at a climate change conference in Manila.

"No, I am not very hopeful about Durban. The international community is not there yet to reach a global agreement on climate change."

He said the past two meetings had not "made any difference, any change to what we are trying to do" in cutting down emissions.

The November 28 to December 9 talks in Durban are seen as a last chance to renew the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement with binding targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which is due to expire at the end of 2012.

Maldives, with a population of 315,000, is a popular tourist destination off the coast of India with more than 1,100 islands.

But with its highest elevation at only 2.4 metres (eight feet) above sea level, some of its smaller islets are slowly being eroded by rising seas, Aslam said.

The country's uncertain future has become a cause celebre among international green groups, and various efforts have been made to raise awareness on the problem.

Its president, Mohammed Nasheed, was the subject of a film documentary that chronicled his trips to convince other world leaders on emission cuts.

To make his point more emphatic, Nasheed even held a cabinet meeting under water, making him a poster boy for environmentalists.

Aslam said that various predictions made on sea level rise for this century indicate that small islands could vanish if no drastic changes were made.

"I hope the global community will find a solution to this before it is too late for the Maldives and other small developing island states," he said.

"If you cannot save us, ultimately, you can't save yourselves either."

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Al Gore's climate 'reality' campaign kicks off
Washington (AFP) Sept 15, 2011 - An Internet campaign spearheaded by former US vice president Al Gore to raise awareness about climate change began airing its day-long broadcast around the world on Thursday.

The project, called "24 Hours of Reality," features a multimedia presentation viewable online that showcases how extreme weather events like floods, fires and storms are linked to climate change.

By 1300 GMT, the live-streamed broadcasts delivered in 13 languages, viewable at climaterealityproject.org, had drawn more than three million views, organizers said.

The hourly broadcasts are scheduled in various locations around the world, including Beijing, New Delhi, Jakarta, London, Dubai, Istanbul, Seoul and Rio de Janeiro.

They also aim to reveal how money motivates those who deny that human-driven pollution is contributing to climate change.

"Around the world, we are still subjected to polluter-financed misinformation and propaganda designed to mislead people about the dangers we face from the unfolding climate crisis," Gore said in a statement.

Celebrity actresses Renee Zellweger and Fran Drescher were added to the roster of appearances for Thursday beginning at 1600 GMT.

The campaign ends with the final presentation by Gore starting at 7:00 pm (2300 GMT) in New York.

Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on climate change.

A slideshow presented by Gore about the dangers of climate change was the basis of the popular 2006 documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," which grossed 49 million dollars worldwide.





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Australia introduces carbon legislation
Canberra, Australia (UPI) Sep 14, 2011
Australia has introduced its controversial carbon pricing scheme in Parliament. The plan would force around 500 of Australia's most polluting companies to pay $24 for each ton of carbon they emit, beginning next July. It would evolve into a cap-and-trade emissions plan in 2015. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who pledged during last year's federal election not to introdu ... read more


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