Climate Change
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Indigenous Summit Shows the Way on Climate Change By Diana Bronson
The main sources of controversy were whether or not an immediate fossil fuel moratorium should be called for, and whether or not indigenous peoples should support the UN REDD programme (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries). Continue reading
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Bolivia: Rich countries must pay their `ecological debt'
The countries most vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change are developing countries. Climate-induced disasters, water stress, adverse impacts on agriculture, threats to coastlines, ecosystems and infrastructure, and altered disease vectors are already imposing substantial and rising costs, damages and setbacks in development -– undermining developing countries’ rights and aspirations to development. Continue reading
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Climate Wars: Reviewed by Zane Alcorn
Climate Wars uses an exciting format whereby a series of interviews with military, political, climate and renewable-energy specialists is punctuated by fictional projections of a future devastated by climate change. Continue reading
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"Getting to the Bottom of Sea-level Rise"
The new projections in sea-level rise, caused by accelerating rates of loss from ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica on account of higher global temperatures, even prompted the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Year Book 2009 to warn that important tipping points leading to irreversible changes in major earth systems ‘may already have been reached or… Continue reading
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Climate: ‘We are facing the worst case scenario’
Surging global greenhouse gas emissions mean the world now faces likely temperature rises of up to 5-6C this century, according to the scientist leading the international Climate Congress in Copenhagen this week. Continue reading
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Karl Marx the ecologist By Simon Butler
One of the key goals of socialism is to liberate the natural world from the anti-environmental impacts of corporate greed Continue reading
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David Adam: Too late to save the climate? Why Scientists Say We Should Expect the Worst
The cream of the UK climate science community sat in stunned silence as Anderson pointed out that carbon emissions since 2000 have risen much faster than anyone thought possible, driven mainly by the coal-fuelled economic boom in the developing world. Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘Living Our Values’: Guardian News & Media And The Climate – Part 2
Earlier this month, the Observer smeared climate activists by highlighting police warnings of a “growing threat of eco-terrorism”. The alleged threat is presented by a group called Earth First!, which the paper claimed “has supporters who believe that reducing the Earth’s population by four-fifths will help to protect the planet”. Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘Living Our Values’: Guardian News & Media And The Climate – Part 1
MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media November 25, 2008 PART 1 – IN THEORY Last week, Guardian News & Media (GNM) published ‘Living Our Values’, an independently audited account of the company’s annual performance on sustainability issues. GNM, which encompasses the Guardian, the Observer and guardian.co.uk, claims to have strong Continue reading
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Media Lens: Propping Up Propaganda IRAQ, CLIMATE AND THE CORPORATE MEDIA’S FEAR OF THE PUBLIC
October 22, 2008 Since starting Media Lens in 2001, we have learned that corporate journalists are very often ill-equipped, or disinclined, to debate vital issues with members of the public. In 2004, the esteemed Lancet medical journal published a study showing that 98,000 Iraqis had most likely died following the US-led invasion. John Rentoul, chief Continue reading
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The Methane Time Bomb By Steve Connor
24 September, 2008 The Independent The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists. The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane Continue reading
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Media Lens: Hawking The Technofix – Business As Usual And The Ultimate Genocide
What would a 4C rise mean for the planet? According to the 2006 Stern review on the economics of climate change, up to 300 million people would be affected by coastal flooding annually. Water availability in Southern Africa and the Mediterranean could drop by half, and agricultural yields in Africa may be cut by up… Continue reading
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Media Lens: ‘Red Herring’ – Al Gore, The Climate Sceptics And The BBC
On October 10, the BBC’s Ten O-Clock News led with the story that a High Court Judge had found nine ‘errors’ in Al Gore’s climate film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, which the UK government has been sending to schools around the country. As a result, by way of ‘balance’, the government will now be required to… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Invisible Corporate Shadow
14 September 2006 — Media Lens The Australian social scientist Alex Carey summed up the evolution of political power in the last century as follows: “The twentieth century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a Continue reading
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Media Lens: Beyond Propaganda – Climate Change, BP Greenwash and the Press
On May 25, one of us spent several minutes laughing on the phone with a friend of ours, an environmental journalist. We were looking at the homepage of the Independent website – a newspaper that has made huge efforts to present itself as a radical campaigning force for action on climate change. A February 17… Continue reading