TalkClimateChange

We’ve been preparing ourselves for a big non-story this week as the world’s biggest emitters of green-house gasses meet in Hawaii for more pre-talks about the successor to the Kyoto treaty.
However, it looks as if we are going to have to continue thinking up opinions of our own to fill the pages of TalkClimateChange after […]

Much has been said following the Bali Climate Summit of the dangers to the world economy through emissions cap & trade schemes which threaten to hinder industrial development and cripple the world economy. Many observers are predicting the end of Western economic success as schemes are implemented which will limit growth - the main barometer […]

2007 was a big year in Climate Change, which saw the US u-turn on climate policy (on the surface at least), the emergence of the EU and the UK as world climate leaders, continued climate record breaking as temperatures soared and the North West passage was opened up, the worldwide release of An Inconvenient Truth, […]

 
Two letters were written by two sets of credible scientists last week and addressed to the UN. One letter urged action to combat global warming by reducing Co2 emissions, and the other urged leaders to ignore the previous letter and focus on more pressing priorities instead. (see below for links and highlights)
It is clearly a […]

With the Bali summit finally wrapped up we’ve been reading mixed messages from around the world. Some news outlets are reporting a positive conclusion with the signing of an acceptable deal at the 11th hour, with others taking a more critical view of the results.
So what happened, and what does it mean? Here is our […]

 
Latest news from Bali indicates that a deal may well be possible as the negotiations run in to extra time.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer believes that a deal is certain. ”Absolutely. The only question is how long is it going to take to get, how long we will have to stay up to wait […]

Just as we were getting bored of talking about Bali the European Union has added some additional drama, threatening to boycott further talks if the United States continues to”block progress”. The EU claims that  attending the next exotic climate meeting in Hawaii next month would be pointless if the US continues to reject the current […]

 
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon made a rousing speech at the Bali Climate Summit yesterday, outlining the necessity for urgent action by all nations to combat climate change.
“The science is clear. Climate change is happening. The impact is real. The time to act is now.”
“By being creative, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while promoting […]

 
Yesterday we gave some reasons for giving up on the idea of emissions reductions due to the seeming impossibility of the task.
However, today we read in interesting article by Michael Gelobter at the Daily Grist who points out that too many of us dismiss the idea of change too readily just because it is hard […]

The results of poll were announced yesterday, revealing that two thirds of the UK population have no confidence that world leaders can agree on future solutions to climate change at the Bali summit.
But forget future solutions - the world has proven that we can’t even execute previous solutions; Despite the rhetoric of various national leaders, […]

 
China has insisted that the U.S. and other wealthy nations should bear the burden of curbing global warming, saying the problem was created by their lavish way of life. It rejected mandatory emission cuts for its own developing industries.
Su Wei, a top climate expert for China’s government attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, said the […]

Discussions at Bali got off to a shaky start today after the United States confirmed that it will refuse any mention of emission reduction targets within a draft UN agreement. The agreement is expected to be the focus of this week’s discussion as the Bali conference enters the real negotiation phase.
The draft agreement calls on nations to […]

The outcome of current climate treaty discussions will revolve around the resolution of the current deadlock between the US, China and India. What are the options for resolving this issue, and what’s behind it? We’ve had an idea..
The US rightly says that any action on their behalf is pointless when China opens a new coal […]

With no big headlines emerging from Bali yet - except for doom and gloom stories which are being released to keep the mood right - we’ve been reading the daily press briefings to see if we can find any hints. The briefing for 8th December tells us:
As negotiations on a future climate deal reached the […]

The continued emission of large quantities of Co2 into our Earth’s atmosphere is contributing to the greenhouse effect and threatens to destroy life on this planet. Or does it?

Co2 is plant food, and carbon is the basis of all life on this planet. Having more Co2 in the atmosphere can only be a good thing which will encourage plant growth and therefore food production and everybody will live happily ever after. There is absolutely no credible scientific evidence for the greenhouse theory.

Which of the above are true?