Critical Times

HUMAN-generated climate change is making flowers bloom sooner and autumn leaves fall later and is turning polar bears into cannibals and birds into early breeders, a global study has found.

Hundreds of previous studies had noted specific changes and most suggested a link to so-called anthropogenic (human-generated) global warming, but a new analysis published in the journal Nature correlated earlier studies with changes in temperature, the study’s lead author said.

The study found the early arrival of migratory birds in Australia, declining water levels in western Victoria and a 50 per cent decline in Antarctica’s Emperor Penguin population were linked to rising temperatures.

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By James Kanter
The International Herald Tribune
25 October 2007

Paris – The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage to the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report being issued today by the United Nations. Climate change, the rate of extinction of species, and the challenge of feeding a growing population are among the threats putting humanity at risk, according to the United Nations Environment Program in its fourth Global Environmental Outlook since 1997. “The human population is now so large that the amount of resources needed to sustain it exceeds what is available at current consumption patterns,” Achim Steiner, the executive director of the Environment Program, said in a telephone interview. read more »

May 10, 2007 By John Pilger

On 5 June 1968, just after midnight, Robert Kennedy was shot in my presence at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He had just acknowledged his victory in the California primary. “On to Chicago and let’s win there!” were his last public words, referring to the Democratic Party’s convention that would nominate a presidential candidate.

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An activist skillshare is coming to Adelaide
– woo, and its fast approaching so REGISTER NOW if you are intending to come, or even just thinking about it.

What: A skillshare for people interested and excited in social change of all backgrounds, ages and levels of experience. Come along, meet new people and contribute to building a strong South Australian Activist community,

When: This weekend – evening Friday 17th – late afternoon Sunday 19th Where: Bunker house at Woodhouse in the beautiful Adelaide Hills Program (this is open to change and should only be considered a guide):

Friday
5pm Arrive and movies
7pm Dinner
8pm Movies, chatting, dancing and beer

Saturday
8.

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e world is now on track to experience more catastrophic damages from climate change than in the worst-case scenario forecast by international experts, scientists have warned.

The research, published in a prestigious US science journal, shows that between 2000 and 2004 the rate of increase in global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels was three times greater than in the 1990s.

That is faster than even the worst-case scenario modelled by the world’s leading scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, published over recent months, because the updated emissions figures were not available in time to be included.

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Some Experts Blast Latest Climate Report By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press Sunday 28 January 2007 Washington – Later this week in Paris, climate scientists will issue a dire forecast for the planet that warns of slowly rising sea levels and higher temperatures. But that may be the sugarcoated version. Early and changeable drafts of their upcoming authoritative report on climate change foresee smaller sea level rises than were projected in 2001 in the last report. read more »

Climate Resets “Doomsday Clock” By Molly Bentley BBC News Wednesday 17 January 2007 Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilisation have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind. As a result, the group has moved the minute hand on its famous “Doomsday Clock” two minutes closer to midnight. The concept timepiece, devised by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, now stands at five minutes to the hour. read more »