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Climate change Crunch time for the climate by Avaaz Team - posted 25 November 2012 12:18 Tweet Youth speaks to power about the climate crisis (Liam Moriarty) You didn't have to go far to find extreme weather this year. North America experienced both brutal drought and a record-setting storm. Extreme weather in Africa, southeast Asia and Europe also caused widespread damage and cost many lives. In fact, as New York state governor Andrew Cuomo noted, extreme weather seems to be the "new normal".With delegates from around the world converging on Doha, Qatar, this week for the 18th UN conference on climate change (COP18), the need for real progress on global warming has never been more urgent. And while there are many obstacles to progress on this crucial problem, there are hopeful signs as well.

Climate and Security 101: Why the U.S. National Security Establishment Takes Climate Change Seriously April 25, 2012 by Francesco Femia & Caitlin Werrell In a 2007 report by the CNA Military Advisory Board, General Gordon R. Sullivan stated: “People are saying they want to be perfectly convinced about climate science projections…But speaking as a soldier, we never have 100 percent certainty. If you wait until you have 100 percent certainty, something bad is going to happen on the battlefield.” The national security establishment in the United States, including the U.S. military and the U.S. intelligence community, understand that climate change is a national security threat, and that we cannot wait for 100% certainty before acting to mitigate and adapt to its effects. But not only do they understand it, they plan for it – considering it’s implications in strategic documents like the Quadrennial Defense Review, and setting up an office within the CIA called the Center for Climate Change and National Security. But why? Why do those organs of government that the public normally associates with fighting wars, devote time and effort to an issue that is branded as hogwash by many on the right of the political spectrum, and the exclusive domain of environmental activists on the left? The simple answer: climate change is, actually, a national security threat.

Three Climate Change Actions For Obama’s Second Term By Climate Guest Blogger on Nov 12, 2012 at 11:39 am by Kevin Kennedy, via WRI Insights With President Obama’s re-election, he has the opportunity to extend his legacy and take on big challenges. Climate change stands high on the list of issues that need to be addressed. As the President said in his acceptance speech: “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.”

HuffPost Social Reading Some error occurred Login with Facebook to see what your friends are reading Enable Social Reading i Settings Read Share Settings Share everything I read Share only things safe for work Dont share what I'm reading Read Share History Learn More Michael Brune Executive Director, The Sierra Club GET UPDATES FROM Michael Brune Like 137 Bicoastal Clean-Energy Leadership Posted: 12/10/2012 12:20 pm

By Monday night, the debate about "climate silence" was in full voice. Al Gore weighed in, tweeting during the course of the debate: "Where is global warming in this debate? Climate change is an urgent foreign policy issue."The Green party's presidential candidate, Jill Stein, who went so far as to label Obama a climate change denier in an interview with the Guardian for his failure to discuss the issue on the campaign trail.Other commentators argued allowances should be made for Obama's failure to discuss climate on the campaign trail, and his middling support for environmental concerns while in the White House.Since the rise of the Tea Party conservatives in 2010, energy and climate change have emerged as among the most contentious issues dividing Republicans and Democrats.

Climate Justice Advocates Slam Doha's Emerging 'Sham of a Deal' 'Sluggish' climate talks missing essential ingredient—Urgency—as COP18 climate summit in Doha nears end - Jon Queally, staff writer With terms like "sluggish" "tough-going" and "extremely sour" used to describe the tone and progress of the UN climate talks in Doha on Friday, the hope for an agreement that could actually meet the ever-escalating challenges of global warming caused by human pollution was seemingly at an all-time low. On what was scheduled to be the conference's final day, campaigners say the climate agreement being generated in Doha is "an empty shell" and "an insult to our futures." Climate campaigners and civil society groups are convinced that the commitments being exchanged among the international delegates are not nearly enough, exposing the ongoing futility of trying to get rich nations to take responsibility for their outsized carbon footprints or increase their meager financial commitments to developing nations.

Last week the UK Guardian published a bombshell piece on the origins of the fatefully dreadful decision to try to sell the climate bill without talking about the climate The story describes a March 2009 meeting at the Old Executive Office Building, the White House informed the leading environmental groups that it had decided climate change was not a winning message. The blunt headline: Revealed: the day Obama chose a strategy of silence on climate change

Crisis And Opportunity In The Environmental Century: Inspiring A Generation To Greatness In The Classroom By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 30, 2012 at 9:11 am by Stephen Mulkey, via Climate Access As an ecologist, I know that we have precious little time to prepare a generation to respond to the ecological crisis of our planet in peril. As the president of Unity College, I am alarmed by how little progress has been made in focusing higher learning on what is undoubtedly the most important challenge facing humankind. Given the overwhelming scientific evidence of imminent climate disruption, failure to make climate literacy a requisite part of any undergraduate curriculum is inexcusable. Recent papers in the journal Nature show that we have transgressed the boundaries of a safe operating space for humanity with respect to several key environmental factors. Chief among these is climate change, which amplifies the effects of all other critical factors such as freshwater depletion, nitrogen pollution, biodiversity loss, ozone depletion, and changes in land use. There is now mounting evidence that sometime during this century we will reach a state shift in the planet’s ability to support us. Climate change will affect every facet of the academy and change the practice of essentially all fields of study.

I see climate silence as a failure of the mainstream media; a politico-media complex too enthralled by the story lines pitched to them by the campaigns to force either to address an infinitely pressing issue that falls outside its comfort zone. There were no efforts at all to examine the candidates' positions on climate policy in light of the record drought and heat temps, to press either for substantive answers. Climate silence is a product of failed leadership, to be sure, but also of our professional information gatherers and storytellers.

Growing Clamor About Inequities of Climate Crisis

To help the candidates answer a “what will you do about the climate” question, the Presidential Climate Action Project will release the latest of its reports next week on what the President and his Administration can do, with or without Congress.  Among its proposals will be how the next Administration can launch America’s deliberate and historic transition to an advanced energy economy. The bottom line is this: The American people are finding they can’t run and can’t hide from the insidious impacts of global warming. Political candidates should not be allowed to hide from the issue, either.

IEA acknowledges fossil fuel reserves climate crunch Nov12 Lorne Stockman The International Energy Agency released its annual flagship publication today, the World Energy Outlook. The IEA made an historic statement in the executive summary. It said, “No more than one-third of proven reserves of fossil fuels can be consumed prior to 2050 if the world is to achieve the 2 °C goal”, the internationally recognized limit to average global warming in order to prevent catastrophic climate change. Let me rephrase that.  Over two-thirds of today’s proven reserves of fossil fuels need to still be in the ground in 2050 in order to prevent catastrophic levels of climate change.

How is science underpinning the climate talks in Doha? 26 Nov 2012, 16:15Roz Pidcock Could laptop models help negotiators imagine the impacts of climate change? How could emissions accounting be improved to include land use? With the UN's COP18 international climate talks starting today, we look at some recent developments in science and political research that can play a part in helping countries cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Change Report Warns of Dramatically Warmer World This Century

‘Invest, Divest’: Obama Goes Full Climate Hawk In Speech Unveiling Plan To Cut Carbon Pollution

Hurricane Sandy: Is Climate Change to Blame?Some of the nation's most outspoken scientists on human-caused climate change were active on twitter explaining how global warming influenced hurricane Sandy. Well-known skeptics were tweeting as well, some denying the hurricane-climate link.

As I write this, President Obama and Governor Romney are preparing for their final pre-election debate in Boca Raton. Though Governor Romney has used climate change as joke material, it is no laughing matter in Florida, a place that has been called "ground zero when it comes to sea level rise." More than 120 city and county officials, scientists and concerned citizens are calling on the candidates to discuss their policies on this issue, so it's safe to assume that both candidates are rehearsing a response to the climate question.

Leaked draft of top climate change report predicts bleak future