tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1 2012-05-15T23:09:05Z The personal journal of Al Gore. Movable Type 3.32 tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.570 2012-05-15T23:08:00Z 2012-05-15T23:09:05Z

Another Antarctic Ice Shelf could disappear, raising global sea levels:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ Another Antarctic Ice Shelf could disappear, raising global sea levels: “Scientists are predicting the disappearance of another vast ice shelf in Antarctica by the end of the century that will accelerate rising sea levels.” “A review of decades of satellite data has found West Antarctic ice shelves are increasingly tearing away from stabilizing bay walls.” “The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea on the eastern side of Antarctica has so far not seen ice loss from global warming and much of theobservation of melting has focused on the western side of the continent around the Amundsen Sea. But new research from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany says the 450,000-sq-km ice shelf is under threat.” "According to our calculations, this protective barrier will disintegrate by the end of this century," said Dr Harmut Hellmer, lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature this week.” Source: Christian Science Monitor]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.569 2012-05-13T22:43:59Z 2012-05-13T22:45:24Z

The Associated Press has assembled an incredible timeline demonstrating how flooding in Thailand has impacted the tech industry.

Al Gore http://algore.com/ The Associated Press has assembled an incredible timeline demonstrating how flooding in Thailand has impacted the tech industry. It begins with: “Oct. 12, 2011: Seagate Technology PLC, which makes hard drives, says its factories in Thailand have been operational, but it may have difficulty making hard drives because of constraints in getting parts.” “Oct. 17: Computer hard drive maker Western Digital Corp. says flooding damage to its Thailand locations will have a significant impact on its operations and its ability to meet customer demand the rest of the year.” “Oct. 18: Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says he is "virtually certain there will be an overall industry shortage of disk drives." Cook warns that Apple's Mac lines will be most affected.” “Oct. 19: Data storage equipment maker Emulex Corp. says a subcontracted manufacturing facility in Ayudhaya has suspended operations due to flooding.” Read the full timeline by clicking here.]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.568 2012-05-11T14:26:13Z 2012-05-11T14:27:41Z

Climate change could make your allergies worse:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ your allergies worse: “Watery eyes, runny noses and puffy faces will abound this year as a warm winter, human development and climate change converge to create a brutal allergy season that will likely get worse for years to come, according to experts.” “Plants like ragweed are in pollen overdrive from very favorable weather, while stinging insects like yellow jackets and hornets are findings new homes farther north. More people are becoming susceptible to allergies over time as pollen seasons are getting longer.” Source: E&E]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.567 2012-05-10T17:40:08Z 2012-05-10T17:41:43Z

In an excellent op ed published in today's New York Times, Dr. Jim Hansen lays out the Reality of the climate crisis:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ New York Times, Dr. Jim Hansen lays out the Reality of the climate crisis: "Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk." "That is the long-term outlook. But near-term, things will be bad enough. Over the next several decades, the Western United States and the semi-arid region from North Dakota to Texas will develop semi-permanent drought, with rain, when it does come, occurring in extreme events with heavy flooding. Economic losses would be incalculable. More and more of the Midwest would be a dust bowl. California’s Central Valley could no longer be irrigated. Food prices would rise to unprecedented levels." "If this sounds apocalyptic, it is. This is why we need to reduce emissions dramatically. President Obama has the power not only to deny tar sands oil additional access to Gulf Coast refining, which Canada desires in part for export markets, but also to encourage economic incentives to leave tar sands and other dirty fuels in the ground." "The global warming signal is now louder than the noise of random weather, as I predicted would happen by now in the journal Science in 1981. Extremely hot summers have increased noticeably. We can say with high confidence that the recent heat waves in Texas and Russia, and the one in Europe in 2003, which killed tens of thousands, were not natural events — they were caused by human-induced climate change." I encourage you to read the entire piece at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-climate.html ]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.566 2012-05-08T18:17:04Z 2012-05-08T18:18:47Z

The climate denial group Heartland Institute has launched a disgusting campaign. Joe Romm reports:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ reports: “The right-wing Heartland Institute launched an “experiment” Friday, comparing believers in climate change to infamous figures such as Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), Charles Manson, and Osama bin Laden. After 24 hours, the group pulled down its Chicago billboard but made no attempt to apologize for or retract its stunt.” “Even worse, the image of the billboard is still on their website along with some of the most extremist hate-speech ever seen from a global warming denial group — including this absurd assertion, “the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.” "Now, Heartland is seeing the fall-out: After the latest outcry, the leading drink company Diageo, which owns brands like Smirnoff, Guinness, and Johnnie Walker, told The Guardian it will end its ties to Heartland." ]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.565 2012-05-03T14:51:14Z 2012-05-03T14:53:21Z

Joining the European Union, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, China, and Mexico, the South Korean Parliament has approved a plan to cut industrial carbon pollution in an effort to combat the climate crisis.

Al Gore http://algore.com/ Bloomberg: "South Korea approved a cap-and-trade system to cut carbon emissions as President Lee Myung Bak seeks support from factories and power plants in the fastest-growing producer of greenhouse gases among industrialized democracies." "The National Assembly passed a bill to establish a cap-and- trade system in the country by 2015 with the backing of both ruling and opposition parties, according to the assembly’s webcast of the main session today." “The bill is needed to cope with global climate change and, domestically to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas efficiently,” Kim Jae Kyung, a member of the ruling New Frontier Party, said in the assembly’s plenary session before voting. The bill was passed in a 148-0 vote, with 3 abstentions."]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.564 2012-05-02T23:19:55Z 2012-05-02T23:23:14Z

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institute and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute have written a scathing attack on dysfunction in Washington.

Al Gore http://algore.com/ Republicans are the problem.” “We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and neverhave we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.” “The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” “When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.” Read their entire column by clicking here.]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.563 2012-05-01T20:05:08Z 2012-05-01T20:08:10Z

In a post this weekend, Jason Mraz writes eloquently about how the climate crisis is not a future problem but "a now event."

Al Gore http://algore.com/ short excerpt: "Global warming is no longer a future problem. It's a now event. And it's not a planet problem either. It's a people problem. The rate at which we consume energy through land clearing, factory farming, and the burning of fossil fuels oil and coal, is wreaking havoc on the atmosphere, contributing to the overall, exaggerated warming of the planet. Our very creation of an industrialised system to make our lives convenient and sweet succeeded in the sweetness, but sadly isn't sustainable. The proof is all around us. A billion people live without water. More than that live in extreme poverty. War hasn't found its resolve. And the seasons are only getting stranger." Source: Huffington Post UK]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.562 2012-05-01T02:34:56Z 2012-05-01T02:36:30Z

Maggie Fox writes at the Climate Reality Blog:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ Climate Reality Blog: “Making up the majority of the world’s poor, women are uniquely impacted by climate change. Women in the developing world are most often responsible for food production and the collection of freshwater and firewood. They depend on various types of natural resources that are easily damaged by climate change, through extreme weather and sea level rise.” “Rising sea levels in Bangladesh’s Bay of Bengal, for example, are flushing harmfully brackish waters into nearby agricultural fields and wells, resulting in crop production losses and decreased freshwater availability for Bangladeshi women. With climate change, as more water from Antarctica’s melting ice sheets flows to the sea, this problem is only expected to worsen.” “But women aren’t just impacted by climate change; they’re also critical agents of change. As UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres explains: “We are 50% of the population around the world and we represent more than 50% of the solution.” I think former Irish President Mary Robinson also articulates a critical point: “Women understand the inter-generational aspects of climate change and sustainable development. We women think in time horizons that span the lives of our children and grandchildren.” And even beyond.”]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.561 2012-04-28T00:02:15Z 2012-04-28T00:04:17Z

In India:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ India: “The Indian state of Gujarat has built the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant, a field of solar panels the size of Lower Manhattan. After only 14 months of preparation, they’ve just switched it on, adding 600 MW of power to the grid. That’s enough to power a medium-sized city’s worth of homes.” Source: Grist]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.560 2012-04-28T00:02:15Z 2012-04-28T00:04:11Z

In India:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ India: “The Indian state of Gujarat has built the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant, a field of solar panels the size of Lower Manhattan. After only 14 months of preparation, they’ve just switched it on, adding 600 MW of power to the grid. That’s enough to power a medium-sized city’s worth of homes.” Source: Grist]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.559 2012-04-25T22:16:55Z 2012-04-25T22:22:20Z

The Climate Reality blog points out no matter what deniers say,

Al Gore http://algore.com/ The Climate Reality blog points out no matter what deniers say, the existence of the climate crisis is not controversial: “After the warmest March on record in the United States, even more people are starting to connect the dots between climate change and this weird weather. A new poll was released today which, according the New York Times, “shows that a large majority of Americans believe that this year’s unusually warm winter, last year’s blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming.” “Here’s what the poll found: 69% of Americans believe that global warming is affecting the weather in the United States. A full 82% personally experienced extreme weather last year, and 35% were personally harmed by it.” Read the entire post by clicking here.]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.558 2012-04-24T22:00:16Z 2012-04-24T22:02:27Z

Now our government needs to act:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ Now our government needs to act: "The Mexican legislature passed one of the strongest national climate-change laws so far on 19 April. Mexico, which ranks 11th in the world for both the size of its economy and its level of carbon emissions, joins the United Kingdom in having legally binding emissions goals aimed at stemming the effects of climate change." "After three years of debate and revisions, the bill passed in Mexico’s lower house with a vote of 128 for and 10 against, and was later passed unanimously by the Senate. The new law contains many sweeping provisions to mitigate climate change, including a mandate to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30% below business-as-usual levels by 2020, and by 50% below 2000 levels by 2050." Source: Nature]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.557 2012-04-23T23:30:18Z 2012-04-23T23:32:54Z

A new study from Media Matters showed how under reported the destruction of our climate is by major news networks:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ major news networks: “A Media Matters report released this week found that broadcast news coverage of climate change has dropped significantly since 2009, despite a series of key developments in climate science and politics.” “Last year, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX spent a total of only 47 minutes discussing climate change. The same networks spent more than twice as much time covering Donald Trump's presidential ambitions and his fruitless investigation into President Obama's birth certificate.” See the full report by clicking here.]]> tag:blog.algore.com,2012://1.556 2012-04-23T00:07:20Z 2012-04-23T00:09:23Z

15,000 heat records were set in March:

Al Gore http://algore.com/ 15,000 heat records were set in March: “It’s official. This was “the warmest March on record” since records began in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” “How hot was it? It was so hot that NOAA reports “there were 15,272 warm temperature records broken (7,755 daytime records, 7,517 nighttime records).” Source: Climate Progress ]]>