Start here Filed under: IPCC FAQ Climate Science — group @ 4:43 PM - () () We've often been asked to provide a one stop link for resources that people can use to get up to speed on the issue of climate change, and so here is a first cut. Unlike our other postings, we'll amend this as we discover or are pointed to new resources. Different people have different needs and so we will group resources according to the level people start at. For complete beginners:

"There is nothing like WiserEarth. Its' community directory, made by us and for us, has over 100,000 organizations working for just and lasting change." Jon Ramer, USA

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has done a lot of admirable work protecting California's wild desert lands from development, but her latest plans for the Mojave threaten to split the state's environmental community and could stall clean- energy projects whose construction should be among the nation's highest priorities.

The most recent UN report on climate change predicts that greenhouse gases already in circulation have committed the planet to a warming of 2.5 degrees. “No matter what we do today to reduce emissions, the planet will still heat up,” says Ramanathan. But, through a quirk that Ramanathan has spent 10 years uncovering, the planet actually manifests only ¼ of the warming it should based on these climate models. Air pollution, specifically brown clouds from burning biomass, Ramanathan has learned, act as a global warming mask, reducing sunlight on the ground. “On the one hand, it has protected us, but also prevented us from seeing the full blast of the greenhouse effect,” he says. “One of the dumbest things we can do is to reduce sunlight,” because it reduces ocean evaporation, which cuts down on rainfall, and shifts weather systems everywhere, shrinking harvests and glaciers.

We are left with “Faustian bargains,” says Ramanathan. If we cut airborne pollutants such as sulfur, the mask will drop, temperatures rise rapidly, and climate tipping elements come into play. Curing one ill causes another. Any plan for “dismantling the experiment we have done with blankets, mirrors and dust must be done as carefully as dismantling a nuclear device.”

My task is to translate, photograph, film and get permission to accompany the Brasilian government's Mobile Group on a rescue mission to release men, women and children being forced to work in sub-human conditions...[by] unscrupulous land owners...since 1995, 30,000 slaves have been freed. Sandy and I were given permission to follow a group in Boca do Inferno...a sugar-cane plantation near to Cuiabá (MT)...home to Usina Itamarati, the largest sugar refinery in the country, owned by...Olacyr de Moraes...Slave labour is mainly found on the borders of the deforested Amazon Jungle. This type of work force [is] used...by major landowners and businesses that aim to cut down on production costs...Cattle breeding and the production of soya, cotton and sugarcane are the...biggest culprits...As soon as the workers arrive at the ranch, they're already in debt...Workers spend two, three months, sometimes up to a year, and never earn a penny...500,000 people working on the cane fields...spend hours out in the blazing sun to produce ethanol and sugar...[T]he government's 2nd Plan to Eradicate Slave Labour...aims to...increase the government's "black list" of establishments involved in slave labour, punishing these organizations by preventing them from drawing up new financial contracts with a range of Brasilian state-run banks.

California's climate blueprint would slash the state's emissions about 15% below today's level at a time when a consensus of scientists say that global warming is shrinking the state's water supplies, intensifying wildfires, and stressing plant and animal populations.

Now that the Democratic Party has a presumptive nominee, it’s time to take a closer look at Sen. Barack Obama’s energy plan and how he intends to use the office of the president to accelerate our transition to a greener economy. We profiled Sen. John McCain’s energy plan earlier, and since energy will almost certainly not get as much debate time as Iraq, health care or the economy, we encourage you to compare McCain’s and Obama’s plans and comment below. (The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on the comparison this morning.)

“Environment is not a special, short-term project, not a fad or flavor of the month,” says Balta. IBM pursues opportunities in and out of the company, including “making brown green:” reducing waste in its business and industrial processes around the world; designing intelligent networks to improve the efficiency of electrical utility operations; developing systems for mitigating traffic congestion in cities; launching a Big Green innovation business unit; and creating an Eco Patent Commons, enabling users the free and unrestricted use of IBM technologies that help solve environmental challenges.

“We’re trying to find the sweet spot between social, economic and environmental areas that define sustainability, because at the end of the day if any one of those three legs of the stool aren’t available then the model itself falls down.” says Mark Buckley.

British Telecom is tackling three interdependent areas, says Kevin Moss: sustainable economic growth, climate change and creating a more inclusive society.

How much would it cost to convert the entire U.S. fleet of passenger cars, which collectively burn 40 percent of the oil that we use, to electric cars? Let’s look at some numbers:

Change the Incentive Structure    Sean at 11:46 am, December 13th, 2007 Via Climate 411, through the intermediaries of Matthew Yglesias and Bradford Plumer, here’s a dramatic example of the government driving innovation — the number of patents granted for sulfur-dioxide control technologies per year, with major air-quality legislation marked.

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