Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, biodiversity chair for the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment (and honorary directory of the TREE Foundation headquartered in Sarasota, Florida) recently wrote about his scientific views of climate change in relation to the Copenhagen climate change meetings. This clear and concise editorial encapsulates the salient points about Planet Earth […]
Saturday, December 12 marks the halfway point for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the COP working meetings this morning, the representative from Tuvalu tearfully commented to the President of COP, “Our future is in your hands, Madame President.” He was referring to the fact that his […]
Many participants at COP15 (and others around the world) feel convinced that the value of ecosystems – if calculated in the accounting for business and technology – could provide a new metric that would naturally regulate carbon emissions. Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) integrates the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services into an overall strategy to help […]
The UNFCCC meetings (otherwise known at COP15) are held at the Bella Center, just outside of Copenhagen. The public transport is ideal and should be the envy of every American — frequent trains and an excellent bus system connect this conference center with the center of town and all other periphery. The conference center itself […]
While Ministers mingled and Bureaucrats bungled, the solution to the climate change conundrum was sitting unnoticed just outside the meeting room doors. If we citizens are to take responsibility for our consumption and its impacts on our life support systems by mid century, this can not be a top down solution, rather a bottom up […]
Flying through a thick cloud overhanging Copenhagen, I arrived with awe and trepidation to the Bella Center where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had convened two days ago. Now underway, the COP15 (as it is affectionately called) is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which was ratified by 190 […]
Or, why is climate change a global (not local) issue? For scientists, the challenge of trying to understand the impacts of climate upon the future of life on earth is daunting. Issues such as land use, cloudiness, precipitation, shifts in nutrient distribution, air and water pollution, and our legacy of past disturbance all need to […]
From the UNFCCC: The UN Climate Change Secretariat and the Host Government would like to inform all journalists covering COP 15 of the following: The maximum capacity of the Bella Center, the venue of the UN Climate Change Conference, is 15,000. More than double that number – 34,000 thousand – have asked to physically attend […]
“Destroying a tropical rain forest and other species-rich ecosystems for profit is like burning all the paintings of the Louvre to cook dinner.” EO Wilson REDD is pronounced just like the color in the American flag, and similarly, it may represent the next big patriotic symbol. Most Americans hope to leave the legacy of a […]
One of the few whole-tree herbivory estimates was conducted in Walcha, New South Wales, Australia with Earthwatch volunteers in 1985. Over 100,000 leaves were measured for length, width, leaf area, and insect damage. Over 20 Earthwatch volunteers gave their time and energy to this survey, which was critical in solving the eucaylpt dieback syndrome that […]
