Environment activists who have blockaded the UK’s energy department in London say 22 people have been arrested during the protest. The Met Police confirmed at least eight protestors have been detained. The UK is seen as a leader in policies to reduce greenhouse gases and will soon be considering tougher targets. But the protesters say research suggests the chance of keeping the global temperature rise under a 2C danger threshold is just one in 20. The demonstrators blocked entry to the offices by lying chained together on the pavement, while some glued themselves to the doors of the department building. Further protests are planned through the week and the demonstrators believe the public will take them seriously, as they are willing to go to jail for their cause. They compare themselves with the suffragettes , the anti-apartheid movement, the followers of Gandhi, and the US civil rights movement, although their critics point out that these groups didn’t have the vote. They have declared Saturday as Extinction Rebellion Day – the day they’ll commit acts of civil disobedience in the hope of jolting governments round the world into stronger action.
BBC 12th Nov 2018 read more »
Guardian 12th Nov 2018 read more »
As wildfires claim lives and destroy homes in California, we must not let Trump distract us from delivering urgent climate action, writes Carline Rance of Friends of the Earth Scotland. The scenes of wildfires blazing across California this week are shocking and saddening, and they bring home an uncomfortable truth – climate change is here. For too long the warnings about dangerous weather events didn’t hit home and many people, many governments, felt climate change was something that wouldn’t affect them. It was a far off problem, something that might happen in the future, but wouldn’t visit their homes and lives. Here in Scotland, with MSPs currently weighing up a new climate law, we need to ensure that law delivers the action urgently needed within the next decade to tackle climate change. We’ve read the warnings, we’re seeing the impacts, now it’s time to significantly increase our action. That would be the best response to Trump’s hot air and deliberate misdirections.
Scotsman 13th Nov 2018 read more »
Even if anthropogenic warming were constrained to less than 2 °C above pre-industrial, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will continue to lose mass this century, with rates similar to those observed over the past decade. However, nonlinear responses cannot be excluded, which may lead to larger rates of mass loss. Furthermore, large uncertainties in future projections still remain, pertaining to knowledge gaps in atmospheric (Greenland) and oceanic (Antarctica) forcing. On millennial timescales, both ice sheets have tipping points at or slightly above the 1.5–2.0 °C threshold; for Greenland, this may lead to irreversible mass loss due to the surface mass balance–elevation feedback, whereas for Antarctica, this could result in a collapse of major drainage basins due to ice-shelf weakening.
Nature 12th Nov 2018 read more »