You can make a gift to honor another any time of the year. It’s a great way to give a holiday gift, recognize an achievement or pay tribute to someone on their birthday, anniversary, wedding or graduation.
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While you have probably heard about the increasing frequency of very strong storms, the details below are fascinating.
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Earth Policy Institute
Plan B 3.0 Book Byte
June 9, 2009

A WARMING WORLD MEANS MORE DESTRUCTIVE STORMS

http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch03_ss6.htm

Lester R. Brown

Elevated global temperatures bring a number of threats, including rising seas and more crop-withering heat waves. Higher surface water temperatures in the tropical oceans also provide more energy to drive tropical storm systems, leading to more-destructive hurricanes and typhoons. The combination of rising seas, more powerful storms, and stronger storm surges can be devastating.
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Thanks to Lester Brown for this press release. I heard Lester present this information at the International Parliamentarians Conference on Population and Development in Addis Ababa in late October, and it is very compelling.
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Earth Policy Release
November 10, 2009
THE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON FOOD SECURITY
By Lester R. Brown

For the 193 national delegations gathering in Copenhagen for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December, the reasons for concern about climate change vary widely. For delegations from low-lying island countries, the principal concern is rising sea level. For countries in southern Europe, climate change means less rainfall and more drought. For countries of East Asia and the Caribbean, more powerful storms and storm surges are a growing worry. This climate change conference is about all these things, and many more, but in a very fundamental sense, it is a conference about food security.
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UNFPA has a new blog site at http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/. There is a series of blogs on climate change and women at http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/category/climate-change-and-women/.

Also see http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/2009/10/cashandbabies/, where you can read about women from Singapore debating the “Baby Bonus initiative”, a government plan to raise declining birth rates.

At http://www.conversationsforabetterworld.com/2009/10/teenage-mother/, you can read about teenage mothers in Brazil.

WorldWatch Institute produced a climate change reference guide. It can be downloaded at: Free Climate Change Reference Guide and Glossary (PDF)

The following is from Associated Press. See http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article

Key dates in the story of a warming planet
Dec 5, 2009

1750 — Before Industrial Revolution, atmosphere holds 280 parts per million of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2).

1898 — Swedish scientist Svante Ahrrenius calculates that CO2 from coal and oil burning will warm the planet.
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What follows is a summary of a WorldWatch report, Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use. See http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6126?emc=el&m=255477&l=6&v=a8085f1b07

Summary

Land makes up a quarter of Earth’s surface, and its soil and plants hold three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. More than 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions arise from the land use sector. Thus, no strategy for mitigating global climate change can be complete or successful without reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. Moreover, only land-based or “terrestrial” carbon sequestration offers the possibility today of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, through plant photosynthesis.
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Two news items from opposite ends of the carbon cycle are potentially hopeful signs for our planet’s climate – and in principle could have a positive bearing on the international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December.

The Wall Street Journal on Friday reported on a U.S. Geological Survey report [PDF] suggesting that economically extractable coal reserves in the United States, typically measured at some 240 years’ worth, could be substantially less abundant than previously thought – perhaps only half the estimated reserves.

For full article, visit:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6151?emc=el&m=255477&l=5&v=a8085f1b07

Thanks to Dave Gardner for this article from New Statesman.
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Most (but not all) environmentalists locate themselves on the progressive left. Most (but not all) are therefore extremely apprehensive about contested causes that are not recognisably “progressive”.

Population comes top of that list. Because it is all too easy to caricature concern about population as the prerogative of racist, xenophobic and totalitarian interests, better by far to keep one’s distance. All the more so, as it’s impossible to address population with any integrity in isolation from immigration issues.

For full article, visit:
http://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2009/03/population-keep-efficiency

Many thanks to Howie McCausland for this article.
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Recent research has demonstrated that among the many strategies that need to be brought to bear to reduce global warming, one of the most humane and cost-effective would be meeting the global need for contraception. Two hundred million women worldwide are without it as they try to prevent becoming pregnant.

But if President Obama tries to include family planning in any attempts to address climate change, he’s likely to face another thorny battle with the religious activists who supported his election. Religious leaders, even evangelicals, have jumped on the climate-control bandwagon but remain at best unwilling to admit the important role that family planning could play in achieving a smaller human footprint on the environment. At worst, they are actively opposed to expanding contraceptive possibilities for women in the developing world.

For full article, visit:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature

Thanks to Bob Walker for sending me this column on Copenhagen and population by Ellen Goodman. Letters may be sent to the Boston Globe at letter@globe.com or you can send a supporting note to Ellen Goodman at ellengoodman1@me.com. Please include your full name, address, and a telephone number for confirmation purposes. Letters should be 200 words or less and are subject to condensation. Thanks to Roger Martin for the latest leaflet from the Optimum Population Trust on their carbon offsets plan, referred to in Goodman’s OpEd.

OPT PopOffsets COP 15 leaflet
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The ‘human’ factor is missing in Copenhagen

Yes, there is something more foreign than being offered kippered herring for your breakfast. It’s being offered PopOffsets for your conscience.

After seven hours and 3,325 miles, I arrive here, open the paper, and discover that a British think tank, Optimum Population Trust, is ready to make me a deal. As a good environmentalist, I can offset the 1.1 tons of carbon emissions spewed into the atmosphere from my trans-Atlantic flight by donating $7 to a family planning program.

For full article, visit:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/12