In Climate Change News

The Radical Republican Party, or GOP(R), has denounced president Obama for stating that climate change presents a severe threat to America.

“The strategy subordinates our national security interests to environmental, energy and international health issues, and elevates ‘climate change’ to the level of a ‘severe threat’ equivalent to foreign aggression. The word ‘climate,’ in fact, appears in the current President’s strategy more often than Al Qaeda, nuclear proliferation, radial Islam, or weapons of mass destruction. The phrase ‘global war on terror’ does not appear at all and has been purposely avoided and changed by his Administration to “overseas contingency operations.’”

It remains unknown from which hurricane shelter the Repugs issued this statement.

Swiss mountain guides are signing the global warming blues.

When mountain guide Walter von Ballmoos led a small group south of the Swiss border via the Maloja Pass to reach a hut in Bergell, Italy, everything went according to plan. It was on the way back that he experienced the shock of his career.

In Italy, he picked up a new group to lead back along the same route - or so he thought. Just one week later, it had drastically changed.

“A 100-metre long section of ice that I had just walked across was practically gone. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if we had been on that slab when it started to slide. There are some things you just can’t prepare for,” he said.

...Thawing permafrost is another consequence of climate change impacting mountain guides. Under the surface, year-round frozen temperatures keep the ground rock-solid. When it thaws, the ground becomes less stable, erosion can start and the chance of rockfall increases.

...More and more climbers are turning their backs on the challenge during the traditional summer season in July and August. Rather, they prefer to take it on in the winter or spring when loose rocks are held in place by ice.

And one of the last covens of climate change denialists, America's TV weathermen, have a new problem in the form of their own professional body, the American Meteorological Society. 


Saying that the warming climate is a direct result of human activity, the American Meteorological Society released a revised statement on climate change today. The new statement, adopted by the organization without a vote by its members, puts the organization at odds with much of its membership.

The AMS informational statement on climate change was last revised in 2007. The 2012 update draws much stronger conclusions about human influence on the Earth’s climate and the resultant global warming.

Oopsie, this won't go down well with the TV weathermouths.

In parts of the world where you don't need to convince them of the reality of global warming because they're living with it, big time, measures are underway to advance education on climate change.

Pacific nations have designated climate change as the  “most serious long-term threat” to the region’s future development and survival of its culture and people."

[Kosi Latu, Deputy Director of the Pacific Regional Environment Program said]  that “when bigger countries talked about climate change, it was really about changing their economy from being a fossil fuel-based economy to a renewable energy-based economy because the burning of fossil fuels was the primary contributor to climate change.

“But for us here in the region, it’ s much more than that. It’s about our survival,” Latu added.

The University of Nairobi in Kenya is now offering masters and doctorate degrees in climate change studies.

According to Professor Shem Wandiga, acting chairman of the newly-established Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, the university is proud to pioneer such a program.

"We found that there were a lot of gaps – nine gaps or areas – which needed tacklin," he explained. "For these reasons, we are putting all of these into a course which will address basically the gaps that are in Africa, ranging from agriculture and food security to human dimensions of climate change, and areas of policy gaps and gender gaps."

Professor Wandiga says the institute will offer Master’s courses in Climate Change and Adaptation beginning September. He said that the university board approved the degree program last December after realizing that climate change is a devastating reality in Africa.

In the Philippines, the government is training officials designated "climate change champions" to help the country cope with the impacts of global warming.

Being trained as climate change champions are key officials of local government units, state colleges and universities, and research and development and related institutions who go through the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Program (CChAMP).