Explore Our Planet

Info note No.58:

Geneva, 22 January 2010 (WMO) - According to a recent review conducted by a panel of experts in charge of global weather and climate extremes within the WMO Commission for Climatology (CCl) the record of wind gusts not related to tornados registered to date is 408 km/h during Tropical Cyclone Olivia on 10 April 1996 at Barrow Island, Australia.

The previous record was of 372 km/h, registered in April 1934 across the summit of Mount Washington, USA.

more: Global Weather & Climate Extremes, Olivia@digital-typhoon

The Copenhagen Accord asked the Annex I countries to define their emissions reduction goals for 2020 by 31 January 2010. Non-Annex I countries have been invited to send in their mitigation actions. Two major nations — Mexico and Russia - had not submitted plans as of Monday evening.

The feedback of 55 countries - accounting for 78 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally - is now published on the UNFCCC website. Annex I / Non-Annex.

However, if all pledges become real the 2°C goal will not be met. Here I’d like to highlight the letter from Costa Rica.

Fraudsters used fake emails to steal passwords of the German Emissions Trading Authority (DEHSt). Certificates were then transferred to other participating countries and then sold. Some sources report losses of millions of Euros.

The certificates have unique IDs and the DEHSt is working hard to rollback all transactions. In the meantime the register is closed. A spokesperson of DEHSt describes the attack as highly professional and the German Federal Criminal Office (BKA) started an investigation.

You can easily avoid these attacks by checking the sender of emails, not using links inside emails instead trust your bookmarks and in this case by not publishing your email address in the register.

dw-world.de: Hackers steal emissions trading certificates
DEHSt: Preventive Measures of the German Registry

If you don’t know how to fix it, stop breaking it!

more: Michael Archer interviews Severn Suzuki, April 2009

Wikipedia: Earth Summit 1992

Danish design company Diffus has come up with an LED-equipped Climate Dress that responds to the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by glowing accordingly. The dress is powered by an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector.

The Dress was made by a Danish cooperation consisting of design studio Diffus, Danish designer Tine M. Jensen, Swiss embroidery company Forster-Rohner, the Danish research-company Alexandra Institute and finally the Danish School of Design.

completely frozen again.

time machine to 1900@nowthatsnifty.blogspot.com

via Ehrensenf

Update: some replies urge not to mix up a cold winter with climate. This winter intensified by a negative phase of the arctic oscillation and a snow albedo feedback is pretty cold, but not a sign of slower Global Warming.

Of course this is true, but the agent provocateur is nevertheless not wrong. ;)

please read James Hanson’s If It’s That Warm, How Come It’s So Darned Cold, with more pictures of frozen Niagara Falls.

“Our statistics clearly show that the loss burden from weather-related natural catastrophes is increasing.

A year like 2009, with relatively low losses to date, in no way contradicts this”,

said Torsten Jeworrek, member of Munich Re’s Board of Management responsible for reinsurance business.

“Something must be done. Even if an all-embracing agreement does not seem feasible in Copenhagen, at the very least fundamental framework conditions should be established.

We cannot afford a delay at the expense of future generations.”

more: press release

Your flight has an impact. Plane Stupid’s new cinema ad, written and commissioned by London’s coolest agency Mother and made by production company Rattling Stick. Director Daniel Kleinman.

planestupid.com

via: Ehrensenf

Earlier this month the European Environment Agency (EEA) gave access to information on emissions from European industrial facilities. Included are annual data for 91 substances and more than 24 000 facilities in 65 economic activities.

The around 3600 greenhouse gas emitting facilities are now searchable here at ExploreOurPla.net. The initial view lists the 100 top emitter of carbon dioxyde. In 2007 most CO2 has been relased in 50129 Bergheim, Germany by the RWE Power AG - 31300 megatons.

Details about the reporting process are described in the guidance document.

more: EEA Press release, E-PRTR

Picture Credit: freefotouk@flickr using CC

This image was acquired by the Rosetta Orbiter Imaging System OSIRIS from a distance of 350 000 km at 22:28 UTC 12th November. The resolution is 6.5 km/pixel.

The mission is named after the famous ‘Rosetta Stone‘ and refers to an important discovery helped to understand hieroglyphics.

Picture Credits: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

More Antarctica same day at ice-map.appspot.com.

Some when in the future - maybe this century - a apocalyptic event flooded both megacities, water level is around 10m higher, fish is cheap and cellphone still operate. See the full set of pictures released by Studio Lindfors at flickr.

via: BLDGBLOG

UK based Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched this commercial as part of its Act on CO2 campaign.

The Advertising Standards Authority received already hundreds of complains and the placement in TV and cinema will continue a further month.

What kind of discussion would a similar broadcasting raise in your country? Would you like to give the story a happy end?

1938 Ernest Hemingway eternalised Africa’s white peak with “The Snows of Kilimanjaro“. Now researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson estimate the thousands years old glaciers will disappear this century.

PNAS: Glacier loss on Kilimanjaro continues unabated
LIFE Photo (1930)
Photo Credit: paulshaffner using CC

350.org launched an impressive campaign and received feedback from all over the planet.

More viral media is needed to attract global interest.

Featuring: Rachel Alexander, Shannan Click, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Olya Ivanisevic, Alla Kostromicheva, Heidi Mount, Crystal Renn, Rianne Ten Haken, Nicole Trunfio, and Dorothea Barth Jorgensen.

Not everybody was invited to join. :)

Stunning the melt is over scenario. More video formats.

via Ehrensenf.de

The 2009 Arctic melting gained momentum, it is now below 2008 and accelerates. A massive bloom of algae has set up Alaska’s coast guard and Innuits. Nobody remembers that kind of occurrence in Chukchi Sea at any time.

Greenpeace expects the collapse of hundred square kilometers of the Petermann glacier soon. The Arctic Sunrise anchored closely enough to document from helicopters. Cams have been installed on the glacier.

Above image shows east Greenland close to the Jakobshavn glacier with all the melting ponds giving the ice sheet the structure of a sponge. Each pixel equals roughly a few hundred meters.

The average GHG emission associated with a single spam message is 0.3 grams of CO2. That’s like driving three feet (one meter) in equivalent emissions, but when multiplied by the annual volume of spam, it’s like driving around the Earth 1.6 million times.

While checking the gmail spam folder, I decided to count them in miles from now :(

McAffee: The Carbon Footprint of Email Spam Report

We reaffirm the importance of the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and notably of its Fourth Assessment Report, which constitutes the most comprehensive assessment of the science.

We recognise the broad scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2°C.

Because this global challenge can only be met by a global response, we reiterate our willingness to share with all countries the goal of achieving at least a 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050, recognising that this implies that global emissions need to peak as soon as possible and decline thereafter.

As part of this, we also support a goal of developed countries reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in aggregate by 80% or more by 2050 compared to 1990 or more recent years.

Consistent with this ambitious long-term objective, we will undertake robust aggregate and individual mid-term reductions, taking into account that baselines may vary and that efforts need to be comparable.

Similarly, major emerging economies need to undertake quantifiable actions to collectively reduce emissions significantly below business-as-usual by a specified year.

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