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Malarial mosquitoes flying higher | Climate News Network

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By Tim Radford

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Scientists are finding that malaria carrying mosquitoes can survive in higher regions in warmer periods. With changes in climate that’s bad news.

LONDON, 15 March - Things are looking up for the little parasite that infects 200 million people a year, and kills more than 600,000 of them.

As global temperatures rise, so will the altitude at which the Anopheles mosquito and its plasmodium parasite can survive, and so will the numbers at risk from malaria.

The global war against malaria has always been an uphill struggle, but populations in highland regions have usually been safe, because the parasite cannot replicate at low temperatures.

#climat #paludisme #santé #malaria

Bubble may burst for fossil fuel giants | Climate News Network
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By Kieran Cooke

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The giant corporations powering the fossil fuel industry are warned that they face a damaging backlash if they try to resist the mounting pressures of climate change legislation and high-profile campaigning

London, 7 October − The financial and economic muscle of the global fossil fuel industry’s corporate behemoths will not protect them from the costly effects of negative stigmatisation if they ignore climate change pressures, according to a new academic study.

The influence wielded on world stock markets by such corporations is enormous, with oil and gas companies alone making up about 20% of the value of the London financial index and about 11% of that in New York.

However, if any meaningful action is to be taken on climate change in the years ahead, the activities of the fossil fuel industry will have to be severely curtailed and the bulk of assets frozen, inevitably leading to a sharp decrease in corporate valuations – what some analysts refer to as a bursting of the “carbon bubble”.

#climat #energy

Nuclear power’s ‘myths’ tick no boxes | Climate News Network

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By Paul Brown

The nuclear industry believes it will help stave off the threat of climate change, but a new book says that is a pipe dream.

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LONDON, 6 October – A book entitled The Doomsday Machine leaves little room for doubt in readers’ minds about the two authors’ views on nuclear power.

But just in case you missed the point Martin Cohen, a social scientist, and Andrew McKillop, an energy economist, add in capital letters on the cover: “The high price of nuclear energy, the world’s most dangerous fuel.”

This well-written book is a comprehensive attack on an industry that, despite the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents and an extraordinary history of cost overruns and delays, still has many supporters and continues to plan for worldwide expansion.

#nucléaire #climat

Une excellente synthèse du 5e rapport du GIEC présenté aujourd’hui à Stockholm

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Summary for Policymakers of the Working Group I contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report

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A note from the Climate News Network editors: we have prepared this very abbreviated version of the first instalment of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) to serve as an objective guide to some of the headline issues it covers. It is in no sense an evaluation of what the Summary says: the wording is that of the IPCC authors themselves, except for a few cases where we have added headings. The AR5 uses a different basis as input to models from that used in its 2007 predecessor, AR4: instead of emissions scenarios, it speaks of RCPs, representative concentration pathways. So it is not possible everywhere to make a direct comparison between AR4 and AR5, though the text does so in some cases, and at the end we provide a very short list of the two reports’ conclusions on several key issues. The language of science can be complex. What follows is the IPCC scientists’ language. In the following days and weeks we will be reporting in more detail on some of their findings.

#climat

Climate threat to Southern Africa’s crops

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Communiqués de presse par un groupes de journalistes environnementalistes parmi les meilleurs que je connaisse

By Kieran Cooke

Southern Africa could be among areas hardest hit by climate change. A rapidly expanding population is likely to add to future problems, says a new study.

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LONDON, 11 September - The study, published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and with contributions from scientists in countries across the southern Africa region, uses available data and a variety of models to examine likely agricultural developments, particularly related to crops, in the period to 2050.

Agriculture is the primary source of employment and income for most of the rural population in southern Africa. In Malawi about 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) comes from agriculture. In Zimbabwe, about 80% of the population depends directly on agriculture.

#afrique_australe #agriculture #climat

UK confusion over nuclear future | Climate News Network

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By Paul Brown

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It’s the nuclear closure programme that never was. The UK government insists it needs new nuclear power stations urgently built to replace ageing installations − and yet its safety watchdog is granting lengthy extensions that could see old ones continue for decades

LONDON, 9 September − The UK Government has been telling its parliament and the public that because eight large nuclear stations are scheduled to close over the next 10 years, the country needs urgently to build some new ones to keep the nation’s lights on.

Climate : We’re in the danger zone says James Hansen

Climate News Network
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Au moment même où James Hansen (le père de l’expression "anthropocène") faisait sa déclaration, le Fremkritspartiet, le parti populiste d’extrême droite en Norvège qui tenait son congrès annuel a réaffirmer son soutien à la ligne défendue par les climato-sceptiques. Le FrP reste collé plus que jamais à l’idée qu’il y a « une "grande incertitude" sur les causes du changement climatique » et met en garde contre « l’utilisation aveugle du principe de précaution » (sic). le FrP dénonce l’utilisation de la cause climatique comme alibi pour augmenter les impôts pour les entreprises norvégiennes. Ils ne veulent pas entendre parler de taxes environnmentales.

Source NRK : "Frp tviholder på klimaskeptisk linje"
▻http://www.nrk.no/valg2013/tviholder-pa-klimaskeptisk-linje-1.11044683

By Paul Brown

The first scientist to warn the US Congress of the threat of climate change retired earlier this year. But that has not stopped him continuing to try to alert the world to the dangers he sees ahead.

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LONDON, 26 May – Professor James Hansen, often described as the world’s most prominent climate scientist, has also chosen to be one of its most controversial.

His view that the world has already passed a dangerous threshold for a safe future, because there is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, has led him to step up attacks on politicians and the oil business.

He has been well known internationally since 1988, when he caused a sensation by being the first to warn the US Congress that climate change was a threat to his country and the planet.

#climat #james_hansen #norvège #extrême_droite #climatosceptiques