Archivo etiqueta «Medio ambiente»
By Dennis Byrne, a Chicago writer who blogs in The Barbershop chicagonow.com (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 31/01/12):
It’s bad enough when politicians and true believers distort scientific findings for their own purposes. But when scientists do it, we’ve reached a dangerous point in intellectual discourse.
Such is the case with the widespread belief that evidence of global warming is incontrovertible. Thankfully, some scientists courageously have decided to publicly challenge this numbing, politically correct dogma.
Among them isNobel Prize-winningphysicist Ivar Giaever, who recently resigned from the American Physical Society because he couldn’t accept the group’s policy statement that the “evidence is … Seguir leyendo
By Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history at UC San Diego and the coauthor of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 22/01/12):
Recently I had jury duty, and during jury selection something remarkable occurred. Early in the proceedings, the judge posed a hypothetical question to the 60 or so potential jurors in the room: “If I were to send you out now and ask you to render a verdict, what would it be? How many of you would vote not guilty?” A few … Seguir leyendo
By Bjørn Lomborg the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and Cool It, head of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, and adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School (Project Syndicate, 10/01/12):
Dressing up failure as victory has been integral to climate-change negotiations since they started 20 years ago. The latest round of talks in Durban, South Africa, in December was no exception.
Climate negotiations have been in virtual limbo ever since the catastrophic and humiliating Copenhagen summit in 2009, where vertiginous expectations collided with hard political reality. So as negotiators – and a handful of government ministers – arrived in Durban, expectations could … Seguir leyendo
Por Lindiwe Mazibuko, Parliamentary Leader of South Africa’s Democratic Alliance (Project Syndicate, 26/12/11):
The United Nations’ recent 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) in Durban, South Africa succeeded in renewing the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. But the meeting also highlighted the two major problems that plague international environmental negotiations. The first, unscientific skepticism, has an impact on the second, collective-action failure. Ultimately, only legislative bodies have the power to overcome this failure.
Skepticism regarding the need for environmental action arises from the relationship between environmental degradation and per capita income. According to the environmental … Seguir leyendo
By Justina C. Ray, a wildlife biologist, executive director and senior scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 24/12/11):
Christmas is tied to the magical north and to the reindeer — creatures of mythical power that fly through the night across the world, helping to distribute happiness and good will. But reindeer do exist — we call them caribou in North America — and these animals and their home in the boreal woodlands and on the barren-ground tundra are in trouble.
For the past decade, I have been conducting aerial surveys of caribou herds. As … Seguir leyendo
Por Manana Kochladze, activista de CEE Bankwatch Network, organización no gubernamental que supervisa las actividades de las instituciones financieras en la Europa central y oriental. En 2004 obtuvo el premio Goldman de medio ambiente. Traducido del inglés por Carlos Manzano (Project Syndicate, 23/12/11):
En los cuatro últimos años, el Banco Europeo de Inversiones, el banco institucional de la Unión Europea, ha prestado 48.000 millones de euros (62.000 millones de dólares) para proyectos energéticos en todo el mundo. De hecho, el BEI presta más al sector de la energía que a ningún otro, exceptuado el del transporte (y con sus … Seguir leyendo
Por Bjørn Lomborg, autor de The Skeptical Environmentalist y Cool It, director del Centro para el Consenso de Copenhague y profesor adjunto de la Copenhagen Business School (Project Syndicate, 13/12/11):
Muchas veces se dice que el tiempo extremo es una de las principales razones para tomar medidas firmes respecto del calentamiento global. Hoy en día, ningún huracán ni ola de calor pasa sin que un político o activista lo presente como evidencia de la necesidad de un acuerdo sobre el clima global, como el que se acaba de posponer hasta fines de la década en Durban, Sudáfrica.
Estas afirmaciones … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Jacobs, a special adviser to Gordon Brown from 2004-10, is a visiting professor on climate change at the London School of Economics (THE GUARDIAN, 11/12/11):
UN climate change conferences don’t of themselves cut greenhouse gas emissions. Negotiations about targets and texts cannot do that; only government policies that incentivise and require business investment in low carbon technologies and other emission-reducing activities can.
So the standard by which UN talks should be judged is whether or not they make such policy and investment more likely or less. And from that perspective the conference that has ended in Durban… Seguir leyendo
By Emma Marris, the author of Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World; Peter Kareiva, the chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy; Joseph Mascaro, a postdoctoral associate at the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Erle C. Ellis, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 08/12/11):
Scientists interested in drawing attention to the human transformation of planet Earth have begun calling the current geological epoch the Anthropocene — the age of man. Naming an epoch is serious … Seguir leyendo
By Rachel Marsden, a columnist, political strategist and former Fox News host. She is the author of American Bombshell: A Tale of Domestic and International Invasion (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 30/11/11):
Global leaders are meeting in Durban, South Africa, in an attempt to figure out how to continue their fight against “climate change” when the first Kyoto Protocol commitment period ends in 2012. Since I’m sitting here in the dark with the heat off, perhaps they’d grant me the temporary moral authority to offer a few suggestions for their agenda.
•Don’t waste any time fiddling with the planet’s thermostat. So the … Seguir leyendo
By Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and President of the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice., and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and a Nobel Peace Laureate (Project Syndicate, 30/11/11):
Before the Copenhagen climate-change summit two years ago, the two of us sat together in Cape Town to listen to five African farmers from different countries, four of whom were women, tell us how climate change was undermining their livelihoods. Each explained how floods and drought, and the lack of regular seasons to sow and reap, were outside their normal experience. Their fears are … Seguir leyendo
By Jagdish Bhagwati, professor of Economics and Law at Columbia University and Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (Project Syndicate, 30/11/11):
The 17th conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, popularly known as COP-17, is taking place in Durban, South Africa, at a critical moment, as the historic 1997 Kyoto Protocol is set to expire next year. But, like the climate-change conferences in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancún in 2010, COP-17 can be expected to spend much and produce little.
Indeed, the extravagance of these conferences seems to grow, rather than … Seguir leyendo
By Craig Rucker, executive director of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (THE WASHINGTON TIMES, 29/11/11):
It’s that time of year again. Another holiday season and another United Nations climate conference is getting under way in some remote corner of the world.
The good news for those of us skeptical of global warming fear-mongering is that the chance of U.N. delegates now gathered in Durban, South Africa, agreeing to a revamped global warming treaty is slim. The bad news is that much remains at stake.
Global warming has become the ultimate means for anyone lacking a beneficial product … Seguir leyendo
By Praful Bidwai, a political analyst, an activist and a regular columnist for the Hindu. He is the author of The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future (THE GUARDIAN, 28/11/11):
As crucial climate talks begin in Durban, attention is focused on the likely role of the major country groupings. The outcome of the UN climate conference will be largely decided by the interplay of forces between the Basic (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) group formed two years ago, the EU, and the umbrella group of developed countries, led by the US … Seguir leyendo
By Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement (THE GUARDIAN, 25/11/11):
This article was written by Nobel peace prize winner Wangari Maathai in September, shortly before her death. It addresses some of the main issues she and the Green Belt Movement were intending to raise at the UN climate summit, which starts in Durban, South Africa, on Monday
In 2011 the worst drought in 60 years engulfed the east of Africa, forcing millions into a desperate struggle to survive. Poor governance intensified the consequences: a drought, not unusual for this part of … Seguir leyendo