NGO slams Vatican’s “inhumane” contraception ban

SINGAPORE ~ The Optimum Population Trust today urged Catholics and non-Catholics alike to protest strongly to the Pope about the ban on contraception and its effect on climate change.
OPT Chairman Roger Martin said: “The Catholic Church does much good in the world, but the effects are nullified by its uniquely inhumane doctrine on, and campaign [...]

Biochar proponents slammed over secret “land-grab” agenda

TOKYO ~ Nineteen groups concerned with climate change have  expressed their dismay at an article by leading biochar advocates.
The groups say the article, published in the science magazine Nature and posted online in the August edition of Nature Communications, proposes that an area larger than the land mass of India could be turned into charcoal [...]

Biochar mitigation 25% better than biomass: report

TOKYO ~ Sustainable biochar production has the technical potential to make a substantial contribution to mitigating climate change, according to a report in Nature.
The report, one of the most objective and scientific ever undertaken, shows that maximum avoided emissions in the order of 1.8 Pg CO2-Ce annually, and of 130 Pg CO2-Ce over the course [...]

Greenhouse mafia active down under

ATTITUDES shown at Copenhagen by the world’s major per capita polluters namely the USA, Australia and China, demonstrated that the core thinking has barely changed since Kyoto 20 years ago.
Sure, the presentation is smoother, the denial less strident, and the opposition to change less aggressive; but behind the scenes it is clear that big [...]

Hope in a Changing Climate

HOPE in a Changing Climate – the groundbreaking BBC documentary that shows how ecological damage can be reversed – may provide one of the key solutions to global warming and climate change, but only if it is adopted as a matter of urgency.
The 22-minute film shows how farming and over-grazing led to soil erosion on [...]

Swiss glaciers rapid melt threatens power supplies

BANGKOK ~ Swiss glaciers are melting away at an accelerating rate and many will vanish this century if climate projections are correct, according to a BBC report based on new studies.
One assessment found that some 10 cubic kilometres of ice have been lost from 1,500 glaciers over the past nine years.
The other study, based on [...]

Obama holds course with promise on green revolution

SINGAPORE ~ Barack Obama has promised to end George Bush’s “twisting” of science to suit “politics or ideology”, reports the UK’s Independent on Sunday newspaper.
And in an extraordinarily outspoken address to the nation on Sunday, the president-elect announced that he was putting top climate scientists in key positions in his administration, the report says. [...]

Gore lays down the gauntlet at ‘climate in peril’ talks

SINGAPORE ~ In a landmark speech to delegates at the crucial climate change talks in Poznan last week, Al Gore had delegates on their feet. He referred to Mahatma Gandhi and to Martin Luther King Jr. and he called for capacity building, not only in developing countries but in industrialised countries as well.
The following is [...]

Alarm bells ring as report shows 2008 among ten warmest years ever

TOKYO ~ The year 2008 is likely to rank as the 10th warmest year on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to data sources compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
In a report issued yesterday, WMO says the global combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature for 2008 is currently estimated [...]

Biochar gets massive boost at Poznan climate change talks

TOKYO ~ The United Nations has accepted a proposal to give serious consideration to new biochar technologies that have the potential to slow down carbon emissions and reverse global climate change.
The biochar proposal to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was submitted by the International Biochar Initiative (IBI) at a sideline event at [...]