Most Britons ignorant about carbon offsetting

Most UK adults don't know what carbon offsetting is, though some suspect it is a process linked to fizzy drinks, according to an exclusive survey released today to GU Environment by the British Market Research Bureau.
Some 55% of survey respondents had either never heard of carbon offsetting, or had heard the name but didn't know anything about it. When asked which term best described carbon offsetting, 66% were unable to give an accurate definition.
One in five said it was "the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere" while 19% selected "a chemical process which neutralises carbon dioxide gas before it is released into the atmosphere". Some 2% of respondents thought carbon offsetting was a "new technique that eases trapped wind caused by carbonated/fizzy drinks".Only 15% of survey respondents said they knew "a lot" or "a fair amount" about carbon offsetting. Despite high-profile support for carbon offsetting from pop groups such as Coldplay, awareness was lower among 15 to 24-year-olds, with 51% saying they had never heard of it.
Carbon offsetting involves individuals or companies attempting to compensate for their contribution to global warming. Examples include planting trees, pumping greenhouse gases underground and setting up green energy projects abroad. Critics say the schemes are guilt-absolving, but others feel they are important to try to compensate for damage done to the planet.
Only 1% of Britons told researchers they had ever paid into a carbon offsetting programme.
Yet according to the survey most people do seem concerned about the environment. More than 60% of respondents disagreed with the statement "changing our lifestyles will make no difference to climate change, we might as well enjoy ourselves".
Less than a third agreed that "it's the government's job to tackle climate change not mine as an individual". Some 85% said they felt that business should be doing more to tackle climate change.
In addition, 57% of adults said they were either "fairly" or "very" willing to halve their number of car journeys, while 62% said they would be willing to take no more than one flight abroad a year for a holiday or weekend break.
Sue Welland from the offsetting company CarbonNeutral said the findings showed that awareness of green issues had risen considerably over the last 10 years. "[Now] the job is to resist all the jargon that is emerging and to communicate in everyday language how and why carbon offsetting works."
The BMRB survey was carried out among 1,017 people aged 15 and over

Melting ice cap triggering earthquakes

The Greenland ice cap is melting so quickly that it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break off.
Scientists monitoring events this summer say the acceleration could be catastrophic in terms of sea-level rise and make predictions this February by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change far too low.
The glacier at Ilulissat, which supposedly spawned the iceberg that sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago.
Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, said in Ilulissat yesterday: "We have seen a massive acceleration of the speed with which these glaciers are moving into the sea. The ice is moving at 2 metres an hour on a front 5km [3 miles] long and 1,500 metres deep. That means that this one glacier puts enough fresh water into the sea in one year to provide drinking water for a city the size of London for a year."
He is visiting Greenland as part of a symposium of religious, scientific, and political leaders to look at the problems of the island, which has an ice cap 3km thick containing enough water to raise worldwide sea levels by seven metres.
Yesterday Christian, Shia, Sunni, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist and Jewish religious leaders took a boat to the tongue of the glacier for a silent prayer for the planet. They were invited by Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.
Dr Corell, director of the global change programme at the Heinz Centre in Washington, said the estimates of sea level rise in the IPCC report were based on data two years old. The predicted rise this century was 20-60cm (about 8-24ins) , but it would be at the upper end of this range at a minimum, he said, and some believed it could be two metres. This would be catastrophic for European coastlines.
He had flown over the Ilulissat glacier and "seen gigantic holes in it through which swirling masses of melt water were falling. I first looked at this glacier in the 1960s and there were no holes. These so-called moulins, 10 to 15 metres across, have opened up all over the place. There are hundreds of them."
This melt water was pouring through to the bottom of the glacier creating a lake 500 metres deep which was causing the glacier "to float on land. These melt-water rivers are lubricating the glacier, like applying oil to a surface and causing it to slide into the sea. It is causing a massive acceleration which could be catastrophic."
The glacier is now moving at 15km a year into the sea although in surges it moves even faster. He measured one surge at 5km in 90 minutes - an extraordinary event.
Veli Kallio, a Finnish scientist, said the quakes were triggered because ice had broken away after being fused to the rock for hundreds of years. The quakes were not vast - on a magnitude of 1 to 3 - but had never happened before in north-west Greenland and showed potential for the entire ice sheet to collapse.
Dr Corell said: "These earthquakes are not dangerous in themselves but the fact that they are happening shows that events are happening far faster than we ever anticipated."

US deal offers climate change action

Worldwide efforts to put a cap on global warming edged forward yesterday when the United States agreed to participate in a seminar next year to discuss climate issues including the next steps on emission controls.
But the US failed to make any commitments to negotiate mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, a position held since President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001.
The modest deal, reached during the final hours of a two-week UN conference on climate change in Buenos Aires, has been seen as small victory by campaigners. 'It's a finger-hold,' said Michael Zammit Cutajar of Malta, a veteran climate negotiator.

The agreement came only after fierce resistance by the US which said it did not want the seminar to focus on compulsory reduction of emissions. Instead it wants to concentrate on long-term American programmes to develop cleaner-burning energy technologies.
'We think it is premature,' said US delegation chief Paula Dobriansky, the Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs. 'The United States believes that the best way to address climate change is through economic growth that at the same time preserves the environment.'
Bush rejected Kyoto because he said its pre-2012 emissions cuts would damage the US economy and complained that developing countries, such as China and India, would be exempt. His stand has been seen as irresponsible internationally, particularly as the US is responsible for nearly one quarter of the world's carbon emissions.
'They're trying everything possible to discredit any dialogue that would impact on certain economic interests,' said Enele Sopoaga, the delegate for Tuvalu. His Pacific nation of small scattered islands is already losing land to rising seas - one consequence scientists predict from global warming.
Although there was no US commitment to discuss mandatory reductions, delegates viewed the deal as a start. It could also spur talks with developing nations, such as China and India.

Climate Witness : Tara Dillard

Tara Dillard12 Sep 2007My name is Tara Dillard. I am 47 years old and I work as a garden designer and horticultural author. I grew up in Nassau Bay, Texas but have lived in the Atlanta, Georgia area since 1982. Gardening and working with plants has been a life-long passion for me. I began working professionally in the field 23 years ago.Change of SeasonsI grew up in a region of Texas with a semi-tropical climate, which meant we basically had one season all year long. One aspect that I love about Georgia, and partly why I moved here, is the distinction between the four seasons. As a gardener I really appreciate all of the changes that each season brings.One of the main changes I have noticed here is that the winters have been much warmer in recent years than in the past. The winter season is not as long as it used to be, and the cold is not as intense. In addition, the drought situation here has been intensifying. When I first came to Atlanta, we had some very cold winters, but it seems as though it’s been getting milder and warmer ever since.As an example of these warmer winter temperatures, early last November I spied a tiny bud by my front door. This was a big deal to me because it was a Shasta daisy (not something that normally comes out during winter). Over the next few weeks it slowly swelled and on Christmas day it opened up. It was beautiful…but very unusual.It is difficult for gardeners when it warms up so early in the year. It was like we had two springs this year. In January, the temperatures soared and this caused the hydrangeas to leaf out very early. This was problematic because we had a late cold spell around Easter. This lead to a great deal of damage to the plants that had leafed out thinking spring had begun—even some of the oaks were in bad shape. Plants can recover from damage like this. The problem is that we are in a drought cycle as well which puts a huge stress on them. Droughts here are part of a natural cycle, but recently they have been intensifying. Combine this with an early bud break followed by a cold spell and recovery for plants is uncertain. All of these factors lead to greater stress on the plants which can then increase the occurrence of disease and insect problems.A Change in Plant SpeciesIn Atlanta we are at the southern range of the Canadian hemlock. I used to use these trees in my planting designs regularly, but I no longer do because they undergo too much stress during the dry, hot summers and will likely die.On the flip side, there are several plant species thriving now which did not necessarily do so in the past. Plants like Todosporum, dwarf Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis species), and gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides ‘Radicans’) were once considered ‘tender shrubs’, and would usually not make it through a season. Now they appear to be growing well year round. In general, plants do not need to be as hearty in terms of surviving through the winter months anymore.Tough times for Gardeners and LandscapersI think that the biggest impact on my business comes from the water restrictions imposed here in Atlanta. Business dropped off last summer and fall, and this spring I am less busy than normal. It has been quite noticeable across this sector because, overall, the economy has been in an upswing. It is very hard to make a living at gardening alone — it is hard to imagine someone wanting to start out in this profession at this time.For people like me, we are faced not only with the challenges related to global warming and drought, but also to a population of people less in-tune with their environment. People want and expect less and less out of their garden spaces, and there is less of a do-it-yourself mentality. People want decks, patios and outdoor kitchens instead of living gardens. The water restrictions that our region now faces nearly every season also plays a role in this because it makes gardening more difficult.

TIME RUNNING OUT FOR POLAR BEAR

10 Sep 2007Oslo, Norway – A new report on the fate of polar bears in a world of climate change predicts disaster for one of the world's most charismatic species, says WWF.

The report by the US Geological Survey predicts that changes in sea ice will result in the loss of about two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population by 2050.

Scientists estimate that there are 20,000–25,000 polar bears living in the Arctic, including Canada, the United States (Alaska), Russia, Norway (Svalbard) and Greenland (Denmark). Many scientists characterise the report’s conclusions as conservative because even the best available models are believed to underestimate the actual decline in arctic sea ice.

“We now have official confirmation that the largest living land predator is going to go extinct in our lifetime,” said Dr Neil Hamilton, Director of the WWF Arctic Programme.

During a six-month period of intensive analysis of both existing and new data, the USGS team, consisting of US and Canadian researchers, documented the direct relationship between the presence of arctic sea ice and the survival and health of polar bears.

Models used by the USGS team project a 42% loss of optimal polar bear habitat from the Polar Basin during summer, a vital hunting and breeding period, by mid-century.

Polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their primary food. But sea ice is decreasing throughout their arctic range due to climate change.

“The world is still discussing whether or not to take rapid action against climate change," added Dr Hamilton. “Politicians are fiddling at the edges while the Arctic wilderness succumbs to global warming; but in the meantime, they are sending one of the world’s greatest species on its way to extinction.”

Climate Change Redraws World Maps

++ Climate change effects land surfaces.. ++

Thu Sep 6, 9:40 AM ET
Drastic changes to land and water wrought by climate change are forcing cartographers to redraw their maps of the world.
Evidence of the effects of human activities on the Earth's features--through climate change and construction efforts, such as irrigation projects—can clearly be seen in the new edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, its editors say. (The atlas is one of the world's oldest and most authoritative atlases; the new edition was published on Sept. 3.)
"We can literally see environmental disasters unfolding before our eyes," said Mick Ashworth, editor-in-chief of the atlas. "We have a real fear that in the near future famous geographical features will disappear forever."
Shrinking lakes
Many of the changes the map-makers have had to make involve the shrink of lakes and seas and changes to coastlines:
The Aral Sea in Central Asia has shrunk by 75 percent since 1967.
Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk by 95 percent since 1963.
The Dead Sea is 82 feet (25 meters) lower than it was 50 years ago.
Sections of the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers in North America, the Yellow River in Asia and the Tigris River in the Middle East now dry out in the summer and at some times of the year the rivers don't even reach the sea.
The coastline of Bangladesh had to be redrawn because heavier monsoons and rising sea levels are causing more land to be lost to the ocean.
Some Pacific Islands are also under threat from rising sea levels, including Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Melting ice, rising seas
Future editions of the atlas, which typically is researched by a team of more than 50 cartographers, will take into account changes in Arctic sea ice cover and other changes to lake, river, ocean and forest boundaries, as they are affected by the changing climate.
Experts with the atlas are keeping a close watch on the Inupiat village of Shishmaref, Alaska, where temperatures have steadily risen over the last three decades and the sea is encroaching at the rate of about 10 feet (3 meters) per year, which could make it the first U.S. community forced to move due to a warming climate, the atlas makers say.
Villages on the low-lying islands of southeast India and south Bangladesh, called the Sundarbans, are also at risk, and some of the islands have already disappeared under rising seas.
The new edition of the atlas also notes that 40 percent of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed or degraded in recent decades, and that more than 1 percent of tropical forest is cleared every year to make way for farmland.
On a more positive note, the atlas shows that 13 percent of the world's land surface is now within designated protected areas worldwide.

APEC forge deal on climate change

++ World Leaders contributing efforts to curb the global warming that will effect the future CLIMATE CHANGE... ++

8th September 2007

SYDNEY, Australia - Pacific Rim leaders agreed Saturday to curb global warming by improving energy use and expanding forests, laying out a plan they hope will influence future climate change talks but that critics dismissed as too timid.

President Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin, China's Hu Jintao and leaders of other Asia-Pacific economies adopted the program at an annual summit after officials struck a deal between richer and developing nations over targets.
The program's centerpieces are two modest goals — one on energy efficiency, the other on forests. Unlike the contentious, U.N.-backed Kyoto Protocol, it does not set targets on the greenhouse gas emissions which cause global warming, and its' goals are voluntary.
Yet in bringing together the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit's disparate group of countries on a contentious issue, the program may carry weight in upcoming talks in Washington, New York and Indonesia for a new post-Kyoto blueprint.
And unlike the Kyoto agreement, which largely exempted developing countries from targets, China has signed on to APEC's goals.
"APEC leaders have charted a new international consensus for the region and the world," summit host Australian Prime Minister John Howard said, standing outside the graceful, shell-shaped Sydney Opera House where the leaders met.
A massive demonstration that activist groups called for — and that authorities warned could be violent — mostly fizzled in the presence of a show of force by police and threats of arrest.
About 3,000 demonstrators held a festive, mostly peaceful rally, protesting against Bush, the Iraq war and APEC's pro-business policies. Police arrested 17 protesters while two officers were injured. But protesters stayed on the approved route and away from a 10-foot metal fence police erected throughout downtown Sydney to cordon off summit sites.
Aside from their group meeting, APEC leaders also took advantage of the gathering to confer with each other. Bush held a first-ever three-way meeting with Australia's Howard and Japan's Shinzo Abe to discuss India, China and other security issues.
It was on climate change that APEC leaders hoped to break new ground. The grouping accounts for more than half the world's economy and contains most of its biggest polluters.
Under the platform, APEC members will reduce "energy intensity" — the amount of energy needed to produce a dollar of gross domestic product — by 25 percent by 2030. They also pledged to increase forest cover in the region by at least 50 million acres by 2020.
"If you have APEC, especially the largest emitters — the U.S., China, Russia, Japan — sign up to an agreement like that, it would be hard to ignore at the global level," said Malcolm Cook of Sydney-based think-tank the Lowy Institute.
But other climate change experts and environmental activists were dismissive, saying the goals were nonbinding and so modest in scope as to render the program ineffective.
"In practical terms, that will mean almost nothing," Frank Jotzo, an Australian National University expert in climate change economics, said of the plan. "It is very unambitious."
The "energy intensity" goal was particularly weak, Jotzo said, as it sets a rate that most economies are naturally meeting as they get richer and shift out of power-intensive manufacturing.
And while an APEC statement said the added trees were enough to absorb about 11 percent of the greenhouse gases the world emitted in 2004, critics noted the increase does not make up for ever-rising emissions levels.
"If the APEC statement is the platform for future action on climate change, then the world is in trouble," said Greenpeace energy campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick.
While the pact applies to all of the group's mix of developing and industrial countries, the United States and Australia have agreed that richer countries should bear more of the costs in solving global warming.
"That can potentially break this impasse between developed and developing countries," Jotzo said.