Activists around the world welcomed the latest UN climate science panel's report by highlighting its passages on the need for fundamental change of energy systems. The report was greeted by a group of German climate justice activists holding banners and photos of protests and campaigns from the across the world. The campaigns are united by the Reclaim Power initiative, a … [Read more...]
Health professionals worldwide demand urgent climate action
Health and medical organizations from around the world are calling on governments to respond to the major health risks described in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s recent Second Working Group reporting, ‘Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation,’ which was released on Monday. In a briefing document summarizing the IPCC report’s implications for health, … [Read more...]
Governments to increase use of solar power
United Nations climate change experts are expected to call on governments to increase their use of solar, wind and other renewable energies to avoid the devastating impact of global warming. According to The Sunday Times, a leaked copy of a report due from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group on the mitigation of climate change will say that a … [Read more...]
UN Climate Experts: new food crisis looming due to chemical farming
The so-called "green revolution" (read chemical farming) is leaving agriculture vulnerable to climate change. New approaches are urgently needed to enable food systems to adapt, said the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Japan. Speaking during the release of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) in Yokohama, a panel of the world's most … [Read more...]
The cost of coal fired power stations to people and planet
When building new coal fired power stations, are those bent on this path for energy provision factoring in the cost to human health and the environment? In recent years, South Africa has experienced power deficits and load shedding. Subsequently, the SA government had started building new power stations in order to supplement the country’s socio-economic energy demands. This … [Read more...]
New conservation agriculture manual to launch in Kenya
The first manual in conservation agriculture specifically designed for Muslim farmers in Africa will be launched in Nairobi, Kenya, on Thursday March 27 - providing a tool to introduce millions of Muslim farmers to sustainable farming practices for the first time. Islamic Farming: A Manual for Conservation Agriculture is a brand new curriculum that integrates Qur’anic … [Read more...]
Northern Thailand warned to ‘brace for disasters’
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation has issued a warning for summer thunderstorms and isolated hailstorms during Mar 21 - 23. According to Director-General Chatchai Promlert, a medium intense low pressure system is expected to park itself over the Northeast and then the northern region of Thailand on Friday and the weekend, before moving to other … [Read more...]
UN climate talks: toughest negotiations on planet earth
Villagers face a daily struggle against a declining water table, affecting their health and their futures as farmers. “You see the challenges they face over the years in terms of access to water, and linking food security to water and the impact that climate change has on those gives me the energy to really push for climate diplomacy, so that our people can live,” he tells … [Read more...]
Rich countries must make 40% carbon cut by 2020
China’s government says industrialised countries should commit to new 2020 emission reduction targets of 40% on 1990 levels by the end of next month. In a strongly worded submission to the UN’s climate body China also says developed countries must provide $40 billion of low carbon finance in 2014, rising by $10 billion a year to 2020. “The pre-2020 mitigation gap would … [Read more...]
3 endangered wild dogs killed in Limpopo
Three of the only 450 wild dogs Lycaon pictus left in our country were run over by a vehicle and one was shot also on the Beauty gravel road between Vaalwater and Ellisras recently. They were from a critically important group in a species that’s on the verge of extinction. Derek van der Merwe, Conflict Mitigation Field Officer of the EWT’s Carnivore Conservation Programme, … [Read more...]
CLIMATE CHANGE ROLLING IN: Part 1 – Now & going forward
Climate change is a global phenomenon whose impacts have emerged as one of the greatest challenges that humanity is facing today. Scientific evidence proves that climate change exacerbates the frequency of extreme weather events and natural disasters. According to an article in Nature, unpredictable weather events such as drought and floods "accounted for about 90% of the … [Read more...]
Green Climate Fund to allocate funds to adaptation
The board of the fledgling U.N. Green Climate Fund, which is likely to handle billions of dollars in climate finance in the coming years, has decided to aim for an equal "50:50" balance between funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation "over time". It will also aim to allocate no less than half the money it earmarks for adaptation for countries that are most … [Read more...]
Public not keen on climate engineering
As political apathy and inaction on climate change dims hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, scientists are increasing exploring plan B – engineering the climate to avoid the worst of what is predicted to come if emissions can’t be curtailed. A Royal Society of London paper put the issue squarely in the spotlight in 2009 when it issued an influential paper that … [Read more...]
