Beneath the Wisteria: agreement

Showing posts with label agreement. Show all posts

17 January, 2019

‘Drought, climate change and mismanagement': What experts think caused the death of a million Menindee fish

The sight of more than a million fish floating belly up on the Darling River at Menindee has thrown doubt over the management of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Piles a dead fish have been removed from the river at Menindee.

Experts say irrigators are taking too much water from the system, and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority has mismanaged water flows.

But New South Wales Water Minister Niall Blair says drought is to blame.

With more fish likely to die, here's what we know about the mass deaths and what some independent experts have had to say.

Read the story from ABC News by Nick Kilvert - “‘Drought, climate change and mismanagement': What experts think caused the death of a million Menindee fish.”

12 November, 2017

The seven megatrends that could beat global warming: 'There is reason for hope’

Everybody gets paralysed by bad news because they feel helpless,” says Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief who delivered the landmark Paris climate change agreement. “It is so in our personal lives, in our national lives and in our planetary life.”

Solar panel installation.

But it is becoming increasingly clear that it does not need to be all bad news: a series of fast-moving global megatrends, spurred by trillion-dollar investments, indicates that humanity might be able to avert the worst impacts of global warming. From trends already at full steam, including renewable energy, to those just now hitting the big time, such as mass-market electric cars, to those just emerging, such as plant-based alternatives to meat, these trends show that greenhouse gas emissions can be halted.

“If we were seeing linear progress, I would say good, but we’re not going to make it in time,” says Figueres, now the convener of the Mission 2020 initiative, which warns that the world has only three years to get carbon emissions on a downward curve and on the way to beating global warming. “But the fact is we are seeing progress that is growing exponentially, and that is what gives me the most reason for hope.”

A wind farm off the coast of Sussex.

No one is saying the battle to avert catastrophic climate change – floods, droughts, famine, mass migrations – has been won. But these megatrends show the battle has not yet been lost, and that the tide is turning in the right direction. “The important thing is to reach a healthy balance where we recognise that we are seriously challenged, because we really have only three years left to reach the tipping point,” says Figueres. “But at the same time, the fact is we are already seeing many, many positive trends.”

Read The Guardian story by Damian Carrington - “The seven megatrends that could beat global warming: 'There is reason for hope’.”.”

11 June, 2017

China and California sign deal to work on climate change without Trump

China and California have signed an agreement to work together on reducing emissions, as the state’s governor warned that “disaster still looms” without urgent action on climate change.

Chinese president Xi Jinping meets visiting California
governor Jerry Brown to discuss a climate deal.

The governor of California, Jerry Brown, spoke to reporters at an international clean energy conference in Beijing about Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Paris agreement, saying it would ultimately prove to be only a temporary setback.

For now, he said, China, European countries and individual US states would fill the gap left by the federal government’s decision to abdicate leadership on the issue.

“Nobody can stay on the sidelines. We can’t afford any dropouts in the tremendous human challenge to make the transition to a sustainable future,” Brown said. “Disaster still looms and we’ve got to make the turn.”

Read The Guardian story - “China and California sign deal to work on climate change without Trump.”

02 April, 2017

Climate Progress, With or Without Trump

President Trump’s unfortunate and misguided rollback of environmental protections has led to a depressing and widespread belief that the United States can no longer meet its commitment under the Paris climate change agreement. But here’s the good news: It’s wrong.

Artwork: MIKEY BURTON

No matter what roadblocks the White House and Congress throw up, the United States can — and I’m confident, will — meet the commitment it made in Paris in 2015 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. Let me explain why, and why correcting the false perception is so important.

Those who believe that the Trump administration will end American leadership on climate change are making the same mistake as those who believe that it will put coal miners back to work: overestimating Washington’s ability to influence energy markets, and underestimating the role that cities, states, businesses and consumers are playing in driving down emissions on their own.

Though few people realize it, more than 250 coal plants — almost half of the total number in this country — have announced in recent years that they will close or switch to cleaner fuels. Washington isn’t putting these plants out of business; the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan hasn’t even gone into effect yet.

Read Michael Bloomberg’s story in The New York Times - “Climate Progress, With or Without Trump.”