Military Leaders Label Climate a Major Threat

Senior US military and national security experts demand “robust” strategy to tackle climate change, labelling it a major threat to US and international security A bipartisan group of 25 senior military leaders and national security experts have described climate change as a "significant risk" to national security and issued a joint call for a "comprehensive policy" response. The group, which includes the former security advisers to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W Bush, said in a letter published yesterday that it is critical the US address climate change at a scale appropriate to the risk it presents. They called for a "robust agenda" to prevent and prepare for climate change risks - and warned a failure to do so would amplify risks to national security. Related articles "There are few easy answers, but one thing is clear: the current trajectory of climatic change presents a strategically-significant risk to US national security, and inaction is not a viab…
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Report: Climate Change will leave only a handful of cities able to host the Olympics in 2084

Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures and soaring humidity could make it impossible for athletes to compete in many major cities around the world, study warns. Rising temperatures will radically limit the number of cities able to host the summer Olympics by 2084, according to a study by the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), published last week in The Lancet. Just eight Northern Hemisphere cities outside of Europe will have a cool and stable enough climate to host the games in 70 years time, with just three cities in North America - San Francisco, Calgary and Vancouver - deemed suitable for hosting the Games in 2084. "Climate change could constrain the Olympics going forward," Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, said in a statement. "And not just because of rising sea levels." The study focused on the Northern Hemisphere, which is home to nearly 90 per cent of the world's populatio…
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Pacific ​​Islands Nations Consider World’s First Treaty to Ban Fossil Fuels

Treaty under consideration by 14 countries would ban new coal mines and embraces 1.5C target set at Paris climate talks. The world's first international treaty that bans or phases out fossil fuels is being considered by leaders of developing Pacific islands nations after a summit in the Solomon Islands this week. The leaders of 14 countries agreed to consider a proposed Pacific climate treaty, which would bind signatories to targets for renewable energy and ban new or the expansion of coalmines, at the annual leaders' summit of the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF). Related articles Mahendra Kumar, climate change advisor to PIDF, told the Guardian the treaty proposal was received very positively by the national leaders. "They seemed convinced that this is an avenue where the Pacific could again show or build on the moral and political leadership that they've shown earlier in their efforts to tackle climate change," he said. The PIDF was formed in 2013, s…
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Our Real Carbon Footprint is Still Rising

Bioregional's Nicholas Schoon confronts the thorny issue of the UK's consumption-based footprint The UK's ‘real' carbon footprint -emissions of climate-changing gases caused by our consumption of goods and services - are rising, according to government figures published this week. Usually we think about UK carbon emissions in terms of tonnes of gas generated within our own island borders, chiefly from burning fossil fuels in cars, power stations, industrial plants, central heating boilers and so on. Related articles These ‘territorial' emissions have been falling for quarter century. They are the ones covered under the UK's carbon cutting targets and its world-leading Climate Change Act. Happy days. But the story of our other, ‘real' footprint - the consumption-based one - is not so happy. Between 2011 and 2013 emissions of these greenhouse gases rose by 4 per cent. Here are the two footprints, territorial and consumption-based, travelling through time together…
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Revealed: What businesses, MPs, and the British public think about climate change

For many across the UK, the devastating flooding that has battered northern England over the last month has been an unwelcome taste of how climate change threatens livelihoods not just on remote Pacific islands, but in communities up and down the UK. But while the flooding may have caused a spike in awareness of climate risks in recent weeks, confusion remains over climate issues, with many uncertain where the bulk of the UK's carbon emissions come from and what can be done to tackle them. A new YouGov poll, commissioned by WWF and released last week, questioned 104 MPs, more than 1,700 members of the public and 265 large UK businesses in an attempt to take the pulse of the nation on climate issues. It provides a revealing snapshot into the concerns - and confusion - felt by many about climate change. More than 37 per cent of the UK public believe the recent floods are a result of climate change, according to the poll - a view echoed by leaders of the UK's m…
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The Effect of Climate Change on Global Electricity Production

Fossil fuel power plants are one of the main causes of climate change, responsible for pumping out polluting greenhouse gasses as they provide the world's electricity supply. But they could also be extremely vulnerable to the dramatic impacts of climate change, as rivers and streams used to cool power plants dwindle and waters grow warmer, according to a new study published today in Nature Climate Change. According to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), over 98 per cent of the world's electricity production comes from hydropower and thermoelectric power - nuclear, fossil-fuelled, biomass-fuelled power plants - all of which could face major disruption from increasing water scarcity. Using data from tens of thousands of power plants around the world, the study found heatwaves and droughts caused by climate change could reduce global electricity capacity by 60 per cent between 2040 and 2069. The potential shortfall in water supplies c…
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