Records and rains tumble as chaos reigns in Cumbria

Flooding which brought chaos to Britain and saw thousands of people evacuated from their homes may have been avoided if the Government had not cancelled hundreds of defence schemes.

Hundreds of families are spending the night in Red Cross Shelters after Storm Desmond brought record levels of rainfall to the North of England and Scotland, causing already swollen rivers to burst their banks, deluging towns, flooding 2,000 properties and leaving 60,000 homes without power.

In Cumbria water rose to first floor windows and the army was mobilised to rescue trapped householders as David Cameron convened Cobra to deal with the growing crisis.

Read The Telegraph story - “Storm Desmond: Floods 'made worse after hundreds of flood defence schemes shelved'.”

Snow in the 'Sunshine State' attracts international attention

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uly means winter “down under” in Australia. And winter they are getting. “Icy blasts of wind have led to an unusual blanket of heavy snowfall across Queensland—which typically calls itself the “sunshine state”—during some of the coldest winter weather in decades,” reports The Telegraph.

While it’s not uncommon for parts of eastern Australia, including Queensland and New South Wales, to see snowflakes or minor accumulation, there hasn’t been snow or cold like this in a while. The last significant snowfall in this area was a little more than an inch in 2007.

This time some areas saw three inches of snow and recorded their lowest temperatures in more than 40 years. “Cold fronts, caused by blasts of icy winds from Antarctica, are common during Australian winters but this year’s has been much stronger than usual,” says The Telegraph.

Read the Ecowatch story - “Australia’s ‘Sunshine State’ Gets Rare Dumping of Snow During Record Cold Snap”.

Bennett wants FoE to escape 'white, middle-class ghetto'

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he environmental movement needs to escape the “white, middle-class ghetto” and engage more fully with the UK’s ethnic and working class populations, according to Friends of the Earth’s newly appointed chief executive.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday on the second day of his new job, Craig Bennett took a swipe at the environmental establishment as he outlined his plans to reshape the debate.

“The environment cannot be stuck in a white middle-class ghetto. It can’t even be stuck in the environment ghetto. We’ve got to make it relevant to people’s lives,” Mr Bennett said.

Read The Independent's story - “Green movement must escape its 'white, middle-class ghetto', says Friends of the Earth chief Craig Bennett.”

The Pope weighs in an we are in for an 'unholy row'

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eoffrey Lean has warned us that we should “Stand by for an unholy row”.

The environment columnist with The Telegraph in London has written that the Pope is expected this week to come out as perhaps the world's most effective environmental campaigner.

Lean says we should be prepared for an unholy row in his story, “Is the Pope a greenie? You bet”.

 

The Melbourne Age published Lean's column today.

A catastrophe we can do something about - climate change

“The good news is that, unlike with most of the disasters here, we have a chance to do something about climate change now”.

That is the observation about climate change from a story published today in the Melbourne Age.

The story, taken from The Telegraph in London and headed: “Top seven ways the world will end” discusses seven possible catastrophes that could make life n earth rather difficult, or even end civilization.

The seventh point “Climate catastrophe” says:

“Almost no serious scientist now doubts that human carbon emissions are having an effect on the planet's climate. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggested that containing temperature rises to below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average is now unlikely, and that we face a future three or four degrees warmer than today.

This will not literally be the end of the world – but humanity will need all the resources at its disposal to cope with such a dramatic shift. Unfortunately, the effects of climate change will really start to kick in just at the point when the human population is expected to peak – at about nine billion by the middle of this century. Millions of people, mostly poor, face losing their homes to sea-level rises (by up to a metre or more by 2100) and shifting weather patterns may disrupt agriculture dramatically.

Probability: It is now almost certain that CO2 levels will keep rising to 600 parts per billion and beyond. It is equally certain that the climate will respond accordingly.

Result: Catastrophic in some places, less so in others (including northern Europe, where temperature rises will be moderated by the Atlantic). The good news is that, unlike with most of the disasters here, we have a chance to do something about climate change now”.

Climate change commentary calls for action

A climate change advocate, Telegraph
journalist, Geoffrey Lean.

Commentary of every variety has swept around the world since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fifth report on Saturday.

Not surprisingly some of that has been generated by the entrenched climate change doubters, but much has come from enlightened observers who have effectively pleaded with our governments, whether they be local, state or national, to take positive steps to mitigate the continued emissions of greenhouse gases.

Writing in the Melbourne Age, an environmental columnist with the London’s The Telegraph, Geoffrey Lean, wrote in an article headed: “Global warming is screaming at us”, that there is still not enough action from governments.

The reality, and urgency, escapes the understanding of most

The reality of climate change, and the associated urgency, escapes the understanding of most.

It actually kills, disables and desecrates people, things and environments.

It’s a reality few of us have the emotional and physical capacity to face, yet it a change that sooner, rather than later, that each of us is going to confront.

A story in the British newspaper, The Telegraph, headed: “Climate change means catastrophe in UK, not café culture says professor” alerts us, again, to the reality of our changing climate.

The Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Professor Kevin Anderson, said Government and local authorities were failing to grasp the risks to Britain of global warming.

Climate change adaptation idea passes almost unnoticed

An idea that would delay dangerous climate change for about 30 years was discussed at the recent G8 Summit, but passed almost unnoticed.

“The Telegraph’s” Geoffrey Lean reports that G8 members appear to have taken the biggest step in years to combat climate change and, he explains, it is unrelated to carbon dioxide.

He reports in his story headed: “G8: Leaders open up vital new front in thebattle to control global warming” that “The summit's final communiqué, the Camp David Declaration, supports “comprehensive actions” to reduce “short-lived climate pollutants”.

“These substances – including black carbon (soot), methane, ground-level ozone, and hydro-fluorocarbons – are responsible for about half of global warming.”