| Schwarzenegger at UN |
7 min 38 sec, uploaded November 06, 2007, Transcript
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited California’s Governor Schwarzenegger to speak at the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
This high level event “The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change” on 24 September 2007 was supposed to galvanize political will for the Bali Conference.
Always good for strong words, Professor James Lovelock will held a lecture this evening at Carlton House Terrace in London at 6:20 pm local time. He is famous for his Gaya theory which considers Earth as a living organism and describes very good the feedback effects of our planet. However, he also supports nuclear energy as a ‘green option’ and even more controvery claims.
The Telegraph had a view into the script and cites: ‘Reducing emissions could speed global warming’. Which according to Lovelock leads to the truth, if industry cuts all emissions so fast that the aerosols will outpower the warming of the greenhouse gases. A theoretical but drastic option.
More interesting may be the part on positive feedbacks and seeing Earth from a holistic point of view. The Telegraph writes:
… Prof Lovelock believes that even the gloomiest predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are underestimating the current severity of climate change because they do not go into the consequences of the current burden pollution in the atmosphere which will last for centuries….
… According to Professor Lovelock’s gloomy analysis, the IPCC’s climate models fail to take account of the Earth as a living system where life in the oceans and land takes an active part in regulating the climate….
The new website works as a one stop to the summary for policy makers and full reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. You’ll find material for the youth and kids plus a calendar of upcoming events.
Opening paragraphs of the address by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the General Assembly thematic debate on climate change, in New York, 31 July:
Madam President, Excellencies, Dear Delegates,
Let me thank the President of the General Assembly, Her Excellency Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, for convening this timely and topical debate.
We meet at a time when climate change - long on the international agenda - is finally receiving the very highest attention that it merits. We have all heard a lot about the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They have unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate system, and linked it directly to human activity.
The effects of these changes are already grave, and they are growing. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average. The resultant melting threatens the region’s people and ecosystems, but it also imperils low-lying islands and coastal cities half a world away. On the other hand, as glaciers retreat, water supplies are being put at risk. And for one-third of the world’s population living in dry lands, especially those in Africa, changing weather patterns threaten to exacerbate desertification, drought and food insecurity. (more…)
Speech was held 31.01.2007 at European Parliament in Brussels:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Climate change is a reality. Scientists have been issuing warnings for a long time. And anyone who reads the newspapers attentively will have noticed that these warnings have become more and more radical. Alarming incidents are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity: floods, droughts, the dramatically accelerating melting of icecaps, disappearing species. (more…)
First time Bush addressed Climate Change in his State of the Union speech. For economic reasons he proposes to highter the supply of alternative fuels, to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and to reform and modernize fuel economy standards.
However he did not see any imperative of joint international action or global control of emissions.
The ‘US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud‘ analyses wording and identifies interests over time.
The energy part of the speech:
… It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply — the way forward is through technology. We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power. (Applause.) We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. (Applause.) We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol — (applause) — using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes. (more…)
Stavros Dimas at launch event of the European Commission and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change co-operation for 2007, London, 11 January 2007
Some quotes:
… The reality of climate change is already with us. In the United Kingdom, 2006 was the warmest year since records began in 1659. On the global level, the ten hottest years have all been occurred since 1990. There can be no issue where results are more urgently needed than in addressing climate change. (more…)
The insurance industrie has natural interests to limit consequences of Climate Change and Global Warming.
Private insurer losses from Hurricane Katrina for damaged, destroyed, or flooded homes and businesses, and for offshore oil and gas platforms that were either damaged, lost or missing and presumed sunk in the Gulf of Mexico, are estimated to be in the range of $40 to $60 billion.
Lord Peter Levene spoke yesterday to the World Affairs Council at the National Press Club in Washington.
Some quotes from his speech ‘Catastrophe trends and climate change: A global insurer’s perspective’:
We live in challenging times. Conflict in the Middle East. Drought in Africa. Terrorism threats to our major cities and airports. Global trade strains. Fifty-dollar barrels of oil. Like much of the policymaking establishment in Washington these days, insurers are paid to worry. And there is no shortage of issues to chew over.
But in recent months I have begun to wonder whether these sizeable dilemmas will, in generation or two, prove minor in comparison to the threat posed by natural catastrophe trends. … (more…)
I thank the Government and people of Kenya for hosting this international conference. You have warmly welcomed thousands of people into your midst, and created excellent conditions for the crucially important work on our agenda. Thank you for yet another strong show of support for the United Nations.
All of us in this hall are devoted to the betterment of the human condition. All of us want to see a day when everyone, not just a fortunate few, can live in dignity and look to the future with hope. All of us want to create a world of harmony among human beings, and between them and the natural environment on which life depends.
That vision, which has always faced long odds, is now being placed in deeper jeopardy by climate change. Even the gains registered in recent years risk being undone.
Climate change is not just an environmental issue, as too many people still believe. It is an all-encompassing threat. (more…)
In her speech Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett,
at the British Embassy, Berlin, 24 October 2006 asks Germany to use its presidency of the European Union as a leader and tackle Climate Change.
Some quotes:
… Today the way we live our lives has changed beyond all recognition. No serious commentator now can hope to make sense of the world if he or she does not grasp how that world has been transformed by rolling news coverage and the instant sharing and transfer of information across borders.
… Today, nowhere is that change more significant and relevant to what we do than the threat of massive and dangerous disruption to our global climate. (more…)
As the General Assembly continued the general debate of its sixty-first session today, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, Margaret Beckett, warned that failure to act on climate change ran the risk of undermining the very basis of prosperity and security, because dealing with climate change was no longer a choice but an imperative.
Concerned that rising sea levels could potentially threaten London, Shanghai, Singapore, Amsterdam and Manhattan, she said no country could protect itself from climate change, unless it protected others by building a global basis for climate security. We must all be ready to find a way to get the agenda moving — beyond Kyoto, she urged. (more…)
