Climate change tougher than Sydney roofs

Great!

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) called on the Federal and State governments to toughen the Building Code of Australia and address the problem of "brittle buildings".

It seems research conducted by Professor Alan Jeary, a structural design specialist from the University of Western Sydney's school of engineering, concludes that roofs tiles will not withstand the onslaught of a summer storm season. Sydney's present roofing materials - up to 75 per cent ceramic tile and 10 per cent slate - were easily damaged by relatively minor hail storms.

In the past 20 years, Sydney has been hit by five significant hailstorms, which have caused more than $6 billion damage. Climate change research indicates that the problems could get much worse.

Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Great tits adapt to global warming

And British tits cope much better than Dutch ones.

Rain in Spain falls mainly on the forest

It's a good thing Spain is developing wind energy and concentrated solar power, because they are facing emissions levels of 37 percent above their 1990 levels. They are allowed only a 15 percent increase under the Kyoto Protocol agreement. So they plan to sink 20 percent of the excess carbon dioxide by re-foresting.

clipped from www.smh.com.au Two of Spain's regional governments and its capital city plan to plant millions of trees to help offset the impact of the country's spiralling greenhouse gas emissions, environment officials said on Thursday. Spain's emissions in 2006 were 48 percent above their level in 1990. It aims to offset 20 percentage points of that via United Nations-approved clean energy projects in developing countries, and a further 2 points by planting trees. Castilla-La Mancha, an extensive, rural region on Spain's central plain, has already increased its forested area by 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) to 5 million hectares. It now plans to plant 20 million trees in the next four years. Madrid is also planting. "We will also plant 1.5 million trees, which will absorb 9,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year," Ana Botella, the head of the city hall's environmental department, said. 10,000 new trees will also be planted in the Basque Country. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Arctic plants can survive climate change

Expanded north-south habitants of plants and ranges of animals is going to be one of the features of a shift to a warmer world.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Arctic ice no barrier for plants Arctic plant species can travel vast distances, researchers suggest Arctic plants are able to migrate the distances needed to survive changes to the climate, scientists have suggested. Habitats are expected to shift further north as the planet warms, and plants' inability to move quickly enough has been a cause for concern. But researchers, writing in the journal Science, suggest seeds can be carried vast distances by the wind and sea ice. The biggest challenge, they added, was likely to be their ability to establish themselves in the new habitat. Researchers from Norway and France analysed more than 4,000 samples of nine flowering plant species found on the remote Svalbard islands inside the Arctic Circle. By analysing the genetic fingerprints of the plants, the team reconstructed past plant colonization and decline in the area. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Global warming survival guide

Just in Time.

clipped from www.time.com The Global Warming Survival Guide GLOBAL WARMING 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment Can one person slow global warming? Actually, yes. You—along with scientists, businesses and governments—can create paths to cut carbon emissions. Here is our guide to some of the planet's best ideas. Enter the Time Magazine Survival Guide More Stories Graphic: Effects of Climate Change by 2020 A forecast of how climate changes will impact the environment and society by mid century. Graphic: The Earth Friendly Home Are you wasting energy? There are ways you can alter your lifestyle to reduce your carbon footprint, the measure of carbon you produce What Now? On the Front Lines Of Climate Change By Mark Hertsgaard Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Bookmark this page and tell your everyone you care for about it.

100 things YOU can do to save the environment

clipped from www.seql.org Conserve Energy Reduce Toxicity If you have central air conditioning, do not close vents in unused rooms. Wrap your water heater in an insulated blanket. Turn down or shut off your water heater when you will be away for extended periods. Turn off unneeded lights even when leaving a room for a short time. Set your refrigerator temperature at 36 to 38 and your freezer at 0 to 5 . Purchase appliances and office equipment with the Energy Star Label; old refrigerators, for example, use up to 50 more electricity than newer models. Use an electric lawn- mower instead of a gas-powered one. Shut off electrical equipment in the evening when you leave work. Burn seasoned wood - it burns cleaner than green wood. Use solar power for home and water heating. Ignite charcoal barbecues with an electric probe or other alternative to lighter fluid. Shop with a canvas bag instead of using paper and plastic bags. Buy rechargeable batteries for devices used frequently. Compost your vegetable scraps. Create Less Trash Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Climate change will bring menu change

Please, not lamb or chicken!

clipped from www.smh.com.au Dietary guidelines should take into account the levels of nutrients needed for optimal health while maintaining the natural environmental systems required to produce our food, according to expert advice. The recent findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that in the next 20 years, crop yields could decrease by up to 30 per cent in some parts of Asia. "We can't just assume that the world is going to continue to produce the types of food that are the preferred sources of nutrients for practising dietitians," Professor McMichael said. He said there was a growing global interest in finding ways to achieve nutritionally sound diets, based on locally-produced food. "We have been kidding ourselves for a long time that the costs of carting food around the world are negligible when in fact …that is a true environmental cost that the world cannot afford," he said. Professor Tony McMichael is the director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University. Global Warning Climate Change Energy

Latest global warming first: Climate refugees face mass exodus

Last year we heard of Shishmaref, an Alaskan Inuit village that had to relocate, and Puvirnituq, in Northern Quebec where igloos are no longer viable, but Bangladesh has 140 million people

"Bangladesh is nature's laboratory on disaster management," said Ainun Nishat, Bangladesh representative of the World Conservation Union and a government adviser on climate change. As temperatures rise and more severe weather takes hold worldwide, "this is one of the countries that is going to face the music most," he said.

Bangladesh is hardly the only low-lying nation facing tough times as the world warms. But scientists say it in many ways represents climate change's "perfect storm" of challenges because it is extremely poor, extremely populated and extremely susceptible.

clipped from www.chicagotribune.com ANTARPARA, Bangladesh -- Muhammad Ali, a wiry 65-year-old, has never driven a car, run an air conditioner or done much of anything that produces greenhouse gases. But on a warming planet, he is on the verge of becoming a climate refugee. In the past 10 years the farmer has had to tear down and move his tin-and-bamboo house five times to escape the encroaching waters of the huge Jamuna River, swollen by severe monsoons that scientists believe are caused by global warming and greater glacier melt in the Himalayas. Now the last of his land is gone, and Ali squats on a precarious piece of government-owned riverbank -- the only ground available -- knowing the river probably will take that as well once the monsoons start this month. "Where we are standing, in five days it will be gone," he predicts. "Our future thinking is that if this problem is not taken care of, we will be swept away."

Global Warming: Historical data confirms it

Global warming... not all bad...

clipped from www.thehumorarchives.com

Global Warning Climate Change Humour

Climate change front & Centre in Queensland politics.

In September 2006, the Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, promised Queenslanders a headquarters from which to fight climate change, if they re-elected him: :::[ABC News]

Mr Beattie says a re-elected Labor government would offer $10 million over four years to water safety initiatives and would bring together a panel of experts to set up a climate change centre of excellence.

They did, and today he started delivering on this promise. :::[SMH]

A new centre which hopes to put Queensland at the forefront of climate change technology has opened.

Premier Peter Beattie, who opened the Queensland Climate Change Centre, said its scientists would tap into the latest knowledge from around the world to help plan for and adapt to the state's changing environment.

One of its first projects will be to investigate the effectiveness of cloud seeding in Queensland.

Another will be pinpointing which parts of the state would be more affected by climate change, and how they would be affected, Mr Beattie said.

Natural Resources and Water Minister Craig Wallace said Queensland's annual average temperature was projected to rise by up to two degrees Celsius by 2030, and rainfall to drop by around 13 per cent.

But other parts of the state could experience more storms and increased rainfall, he said.

"With more intense droughts and heat waves and less frequent but more intense rainfall the centre is an important step in the right direction to help plan for and adapt to our changing climate," he said.

The centre has an annual budget of $7.5 million and was an election promise.

Climate change is greening politics, like a spreading algal bloom, across the world. Recent examples are the Climate Change Bill passed in the UK giving the British the lead in constructing a framework for enforceable emissions reductions, and the Chinese Premier announcing that they Chinese will forsake 2% of projected economic growth in order to align their economies with the emerging carbon economy.

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