Canada’s vast forests, once huge absorbers of greenhouse gases, now add to problem
By Howard Witt | Chicago Tribune correspondent
January 2, 2009
Original article

VPO Note: a perfect example of Overshoot. The only good solution to this symptom of the real problem is reduction of human population and consumption.

VANCOUVER — As relentlessly bad as the news about global warming seems to be, with ice at the poles melting faster than scientists had predicted and world temperatures rising higher than expected, there was at least a reservoir of hope stored here in Canada’s vast forests.

The country’s 1.2 million square miles of trees have been dubbed the “lungs of the planet” by ecologists because they account for more than 7 percent of Earth’s total forest lands. They could always be depended upon to suck in vast quantities of carbon dioxide, naturally cleansing the world of much of the harmful heat-trapping gas.

But not anymore. Read the complete Post.

Planning for climate change and rising ocean levels.

The Maldives, a tenuous chain of 1,200 islets southwest of Sri Lanka best known for its spectacular reef-rimmed lagoons, is considered one of the world’s most vulnerable countries in the face of rising sea levels in a warming world. I have a short article in today’s paper on how the Maldives, under its first democratically elected president, will establish what amounts to a global warming relocation fund using revenue from tourism. The idea would be to buy land elsewhere as a new home for the country’s 400,000 citizens should the worst-case scenarios play out.

Some of the atolls in the Maldives. (Credit: NASA/ GSFC
/METI /ERSDAC /JAROS)

For the moment, it relies on sea walls, built with money from Japan, to protect its one-square-mile capital, Malé, which constitutes the world’s most densely populated island. Population growth — taking the Maldives from 200,000 to nearly 400,000 people in just 20 years — is make the real estate problem worse.

The Maldive islanders’ long-term investment in a relocation fund seems smart given the nature of the climate problem. While the near-term rate of sea-level rise remains uncertain, the long-term picture of rising seas in a warming world is crystal clear. The plan reminds me of Abu Dhabi’s investment in a center for energy research — the cornerstone of a nonpolluting car-free “city” in the desert — as a means of building its post-oil economy, even as oil still flows from the ground.

It still seems rare for human societies to invest for the long term, plan for the worst case while hoping for the best, and favor resiliency over last-minute response (any relationship to the financial collapse here?).

NY Times Nov. 11, 2008

“We are an exceptional model of the human race. We no longer know how to produce food. We no longer can heal ourselves. We no longer raise our young. We have forgotten the names of the stars, fail to notice the phases of the moon. We do not know the plants and they no longer protect us. We tell ourselves we are the most powerful specimens of our kind who have ever lived. But when the lights are off we are helpless. We cannot move without traffic signals. We must attend classes in order to learn by rote numbered steps toward love or how to breast-feed our baby. We justify anything, anything at all by the need to maintain our way of life. And then we go to the doctor and tell the professionals we have no life. We have a simple test for making decisions: our way of life, which we cleverly call our standard of living, must not change except to grow yet more grand. We have a simple reality we live with each and every day: our way of life is killing us.”

published Feb. 2002

From economist Mike Nickerson:

Due to the approaching election, it is
timely to introduce a program to advance a Genuine
Progress Index (GPI) for Canada. We are looking
for volunteers to raise this topic with candidates.

For our associates outside Canada, you may
find that the materials offered here are adaptable for
use in your area.

An improved measure of progress is essential.
As long as the costs arising from social and
environmental disasters are added to the GDP,
helping to make it grow, the economic growth
focused establishment will not recognize them as
problems. A Genuine Progress Index (GPI) would
improve our prospects by distinguishing between
regrettable expenditures and positive ones and by
adding measures of social and environmental well-
being to the familiar economic ones. Read the complete Post.

Tue Aug 26, 2008 3:51pm EDT
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent
Original article

VPO note – in addition to perpetuating inefficiencies, fossil fuel subsidies also perpetuate governments. Also note the passing reference to demand destruction. Presumably the rich will get by fine without these subsidies. And instead, the poor will…? Another conundrum of Overshoot.

ACCRA (Reuters) – Abolishing subsidies on fossil fuels could cut world greenhouse gas emissions by up to 6 percent and also nudge up world economic growth, a U.N. report showed on Tuesday.

Subsidies on oil, gas or coal are meant to help the poor by lowering the price of energy but the report, issued on the sidelines of a 160-nation U.N. climate meeting in Ghana, said they often backfired by mainly benefiting wealthier people.

The study estimated that energy subsidies, almost all for fossil fuels, totaled about $300 billion a year or 0.7 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP).

“Cancelling these subsidies might reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 6 percent a year while contributing 0.1 percent to global GDP,” it said. Read the complete Post.

Saturday 23 August 2008
by: Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service
Original article

VPO Note – as alarming as 2048 is as a date when we won’t have enough water globally, remember that water is local – shipping it globally depends on having cheap oil to do so, and cheap oil is likely to be in short supply long before 2048.

Stockholm – A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation.

“It’s the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis,” says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group.

“I believe we are at a tipping point,” he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.

Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water is outpacing supply. Read the complete Post.