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Greenpeace activists arrested after abandoning occupation of Arctic oil rig

Guardian energy - 2 September 2010 - 8:43pm

Severe weather forces campaigners to give up their perilous position on British-owned rig off the coast of Greenland

• Greenpeace 'shuts down' Arctic oil rig

Four Greenpeace activists who halted drilling by a British-owned oil exploration rig off Greenland have been arrested after they abandoned their occupation because of severe weather.

Greenlandic police arrested the four after high winds buffeted the Stena Don drilling rig overnight, forcing them to abandon mountaineering-style platforms they had suspended by ropes underneath the platform less than 48 hours earlier.

Morten Nielsen, deputy head of Greenland police, said the four men were rescued between 8pm and midnight local time last night using baskets and ropes lowered from the Stena Don's deck after severe winds and waves up to 6m (18ft) battered the platform.

He said it took about four hours to retrieve the protesters, who have now been arrested under Greenlandic regulations for breaching the 500m safety zone around the rig and under Danish criminal law for trespass.

"Basically we were readying ourselves for any eventuality but it worked out, what needed to be done was a rescue operation," said Nielsen.

He also revealed that the police seized Greenpeace's helicopter, which had flown from its protest ship the Esperanza to photograph the rig and Cairn's operations to stop nearby icebergs, yesterday in the town of Qertarsuaq.

He said the helicopter had been impounded as evidence, and also to ensure Greenpeace paid any fines or liabilities for its protests in Baffin Bay, which began 11 days ago. The four protesters will make their first court appearance in about 24 hours, after being transferred from the rig to the town of Aasiaat. The four could also be deported, instead of being prosecuted.

The activists' retreat is a setback for Greenpeace, which believed a longer-term occupation of the rig would be a serious blow to attempts by the Edinburgh-based exploration firm Cairn Energy to strike oil or gas before the intense Arctic winter sets in.

However, sources in the region had predicted when the four protesters clambered on to the platform at dawn on Tuesday that severe weather forecast for early this morning would cut short their occupation.

Greenpeace has warned that if Cairn strikes oil or gas, it will provoke an "oil rush" in the vulnerable and unspoilt waters of the Arctic as the world's largest oil firms exploit one of the world's largest untapped reserves.

Cairn Energy said drilling had resumed as soon as the four were arrested. Industry experts had denied the campaigners' claims that a delay of four or five days would have seriously damaged the drilling operation; the company had built delays and unscheduled stoppages into its schedule.

The four are now expected to be prosecuted by Greenlandic police, but Greenpeace said said it would now widen its campaign against deep sea drilling by taking the British government to court.

The group has sent the government a "letter before action", accusing ministers of issuing new licenses for deep sea drilling in British waters before they had found out exactly what caused the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

John Sauven, Greenpeace UK's executive director, said: "Our climbers have stopped this rig from drilling in the fragile Arctic for two days, and this is just the start of a long campaign. The world needs to go beyond oil, but here in the UK the government is waving through applications for new drilling as if the Deepwater Horizon explosion never happened.

"The Gulf of Mexico disaster was a game changer, so ministers should suspend new deep water licences and companies like Cairn Energy must stop dangerous drilling in the Arctic and start investing in clean alternatives instead."

Severin Carrell
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Letters: Still wary of Bjørn Lomborg's pronouncements on climate change

Guardian climate feeds - 2 September 2010 - 9:05am

Bjørn Lomborg's change of mind on climate change is welcome, and some of his suggestions good, but your glowing review of his new book failed to examine deeply his shift in position (Top climate sceptic calls for $100bn fund to fight warming, 31 August).

Dr Lomborg last year began to call for an investment of $100bn per year on research and development for low-carbon technologies, instead of the $25bn he was advocating 18 months ago. He now proposes that this should be raised through a carbon tax of $7 per tonne of carbon dioxide, rather than the $2 per tonne for which he previously argued.

However, his strategy is alarmingly risky – invest heavily in R&D and hope that this alone will keep atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases low enough to avoid the risk of serious and damaging impacts from climate change. This might work, but it might not.

A more robust approach to managing the risks of climate change would be not only to invest in R&D, but also to use a carbon tax (or cap-and-trade) to discourage greenhouse gas emissions in the short run. The latter, not raising revenue, would be the primary purpose of introducing a carbon price. But to encourage enough emissions cuts in the next few years to keep greenhouse gases at low enough atmospheric concentrations, a carbon price considerably higher than Dr Lomborg's $7 per tonne is required.

We welcome the fact that Dr Lomborg has implicitly acknowledged that his previous arguments about climate change were flawed, but it would be wise to remain wary of his pronouncements, no matter how much publicity they attract.

Dr Alex Bowen, Dr Simon Dietz, Dimitri Zenghelis and Bob Ward

Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE

• What might be of equal surprise to Bjørn Lomborg's "U-turn" is that there are practical solutions available to raise the money that is needed without dipping into cash-strapped treasuries. A Robin Hood Tax on banks, levies on shipping and aviation emissions, money raised from the auctioning of emissions allowances from emissions trading schemes and redirecting fossil fuel subsidies are all realistic options.

Environment ministers from around the world meeting in Switzerland today must consider these options if the world is to move closer to a financial solution in tackling climate change and protecting poor people who are already vulnerable. Meanwhile, the shipping industry, which has faced no restrictions to its emissions so far, must begin to play its part by agreeing to a shipping levy when the International Maritime Organisation meets in London on 27 September.

Phil Bloomer

Campaigns and policy director, Oxfam

• I note with interest that Bjørn Lomborg has changed his mind on global warming. I also note that he has a book to sell.

Rod Shone

Walkern, Hertfordshire


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Climate: Risks loom for China: study

CICERO - 2 September 2010 - 8:59am
Planet Ark (Reuters): Climate change could reduce key harvests in China by a fifth if the gloomiest scenarios prove true, according to a study on Wednesday.

Climate: New talks aim for push on finance

CICERO - 2 September 2010 - 8:59am
Asia One/AFP: Ministers from nearly four dozen countries meet in Geneva on Thursday and Friday, bidding for progress on climate finance, an issue that has bedevilled the quest to roll back global warming.

U.N. To Study Impact Of Incomplete Climate Action

CICERO - 2 September 2010 - 8:59am
Planet Ark (Reuters): The U.N. panel of climate scientists will look at the costs of "second best" ways of fighting global warming amid doubts that all countries will sign up to U.N.-led action, a leading expert said on Tuesday.

The Uneven Energy Playing Field and the Spindoctors who Ignore it

De-Smog Blog - 2 September 2010 - 6:48am

There has been a recent surge in articles from fossil-fuel friendly sources pointing to the inequity of tax credits and government subsidies being directed to the renewable energy sector. 

The latest is by Alan Caruba writing on the industry-backed CFACT website bemoaning a $7 million investment in a wind project in New Jersey. 

What Caruba and others fail to mention in their argument is that the fossil fuel industry - the main competitor to the renewable energy sector - receives more than ten times as much in government subsidies globally.

A recent report by Bloomberg New Finance finds that worldwide, the fossil fuel industry - which is made up mainly of oil, gas and coal companies - receives $557 billion a year in government subsidies while the renewable energy sector receives around $45 billion, or over ten times less support.

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In the United States, government spends two-times more money on subsidies to the fossil fuel sector, with $72.5 billion going to dirty fuels and $29 billion to clean technology. And half of that $29 billion goes into subsidies for corn-based ethanol and not wind, solar and geothermal technology.

Not mentioning the ridiculousness of subsidizing companies like ExxonMobil, one of the most profitable companies in the history of the world, this uneven playing ground in the energy sector between fossil fuels and clean energy is what allows people like Caruba to make his false arguments.

 

'Brain training' may just hide symptoms of dementia

New Scientist Climate - 2 September 2010 - 6:00am
People who engage in mental challenges may stave off symptoms of Alzheimer's, but decline more quickly if subsequently diagnosed

Financing said vital for world climate change deal

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Reuters: A global fund to help poorer countries switch to green industrial technology is vital in any new international pact to battle global warming, Switzerland's top climate change negotiator said on Wednesday. The official, Franz Perrez, was speaking at a news conference on the eve of a two-day gathering of environmental ministers and experts from some 45 countries to discuss how to reach agreement on a funding deal. "An agreement on viable long-term financing is one of the very ...

Feds fail to use land for solar power

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
AP: Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground. Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle. An Associated Press examination of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records and interviews with agency officials shows that the BLM operated a first-come, ...

EPA rejects Texas approach to new plant emissions

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Federal environmental regulators took aim at Texas' rules for air pollution for the third time in five months Tuesday, saying some aspects violate the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rejected pieces of a program known as New Source Review, which dictates when industrial plants must implement additional pollution controls. Under federal guidelines, expanding industrial plants calculate their emissions to determine whether they need new pollution ...

75 months and counting

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Guardian: Twenty five months ago, working with my colleague, a climate scientist, Dr Victoria Johnson, and others, I decided to find out how long it would take before, on the best data available, we would begin to cross red lines where climatic instability and extremes were concerned. A quarter of that time has now passed. To minimise the danger of alarmism, but without hiding from the facts, we set our parameters to assume that humanity would be on the lucky end of the spectrum of ...

India backs embattled IPCC chief Pachauri

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
AFP: India's government said it remained fully supportive of IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri after a damning UN-ordered review called for changes to the Nobel Prize-winning climate change body's leadership. "Pachauri has the full support of the government," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said late Tuesday after a report on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for major reforms in its functioning. The UN-ordered probe said a major overhaul was required of ...

Overhaul of UN climate change body 'could lead to more mistakes'

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Telegraph: In a damning report out earlier this week, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was criticised for making a number of errors about the potential impacts of global warming. The most notable mistake was wrongly predicting that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. The IPCC was also told to stick to the science rather than straying into the politics of climate change. The review, by the InterAcademy Council, called for "fundamental reform', including a more ...

Greenies hail cross-party climate body

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Sydney Morning Herald: Environmental groups have welcomed the formation of a cross-party climate change committee as part of a governance agreement struck between Labor and the Greens. Greens leader Bob Brown announced the deal on Wednesday, under which his party would ensure supply, and oppose any motion of no-confidence in a Labor government from other parties or MPs. Part of the deal is a climate change committee resourced as a cabinet committee, but there is no carbon price at this ...

Calif. Lawmakers Reject Plastic Shopping Bag Ban

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
National Public Radio: California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice. The Democratic bill, which failed late Tuesday, would have been the first statewide ban, although a few California cities already prohibit their use. The measure offered California an opportunity to emerge at the forefront of a global trend, said Sen. Gil Cedillo, who carried the measure on the ...

Gillard gets Greens on-board as post-election talks enter end game

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Business Green: Australia's Green Party today signed a deal formalising their support for Julia Gillard's Labor Party should the prime minister form the next government - in exchange for the creation of a dedicated climate change committee tasked with establishing a price on carbon. The deal gives Labor 73 seats in the 150 member lower house, bringing the party level with the Liberal-led coalition, but still three short of the majority required to form a government. Greens leader Bob Brown ...

UL acquires Terrachoice in green standard consolidation

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Business Green: The messy world of environmental claims certification just got a little less messy with the acquisition by ULC Standards, a unit of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), of Ottawa-based TerraChoice, a green marketing consultancy and the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program. While the acquisition was conducted by ULC Standards, the move serves to bring TerraChoice together with UL Environment (ULE) in a partnership that will expand and enhance both groups' capacities and ...

Australian Leader Wins Support From Greens

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
New York Times: Prime Minister Julia Gillard scored the first victory in the contest to end Australia's parliamentary deadlock on Wednesday, winning a formal assurance from the Greens Party that it will support her bid for a further three-year term. Adam Bandt, the lone Greens legislator in the House of Representatives, agreed to support Ms. Gillard in exchange for a host of demands, including a renewed focus on climate change, a referendum on recognizing aboriginal Australians in the Constitution ...

Climate scientists should not write their own software, says researcher

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Business Green: A study by a computer scientist at the University of Toronto suggests that the computer models used to predict climate change may be undermined due to a lack of programming expertise. Steve Easterbrook, of the University's Department of Computer Science, has had his paper, Climate Change: A Grand Software Challenge, accepted by the 2010 FSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research. In the pape he suggests that, because many climate prediction software modelling ...

Australian PM Julia Gillard signs pact with Greens

Climate Ark - 2 September 2010 - 5:00am
Guardian: Australia's caretaker prime minister, Julia Gillard, has signed a deal with the Greens that will ensure their support for Labor in the country's hung parliament. Two and a half weeks after the election, both Gillard's Labor and the conservative opposition are still three seats short of an overall majority, with four independent MPs yet to decide whom they will support. In return for the Greens' backing, Labor has agreed to a number of concessions on policies and parliamentary ...
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