[GWSG] S Korea and green growth; Durban accord; Tonga; the US role at Durban; geoengineering

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The BBC’s Richard Black finds South Korea a leader in developing green economic growth.  A 7 minute interview with former prime minister Han takes on the problem of extending their program to other countries.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16086675

2.  Richard Black again with a summary of the Durban agreement.  The agreement will probably not itself avoid the catastrophic feedbacks which lead to runaway climate change (the reality behind the euphemism of “dangerous warming”) and would not lead to action before 2020, which is likely to be too late, but it does commit emitters to some action and provides a base for effective action.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16124670  The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein provides a handy chart of the likely temperature rises this century under three conditions: current path, delayed participation by developing countries, and full participation.  The areas under 2°C (which should be 1.5°, according to best current scientific thought) represent our chance of avoiding Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference, the feedback situation in which we lose any possibility of moderating climate change.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-much-does-climate-policy-depend-on-china-and-india/2011/12/09/gIQARiFgkO_blog.html  I wish the Center for American Progress and the EPA had provided a 1.5° benchmark.  My guess is that we have about a 50% chance of avoiding the DAI point.  James Hansen observes that we are now out of time to begin serious emissions reductions.  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/father-of-climate-change-2c-limit-is-not-enough-6273721.html  Regine Gűnther of the World Wide Fund for Nature agrees that 2020 will be too late.  http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106166

3.  Tonga is “on the front lines of this climate change, we don’t know how long we are going to last.”  http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/12/09/18702312.php

4.  Some feel that the US and Canada are responsible for the weak agreement in Durban.  http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106169  The US is generally seen as the leader of the opposition to an effective agreement.  http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,802828,00.html#ref=rss  A spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council reported a much more constructive role played by the US in the negotiations.  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=climate-talks-consensus-a  For the first time developing nations, led by India and China, have pledged to work toward an agreement to limit emissions.  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-11/china-india-vow-pollution-cuts-in-biggest-move-on-climate.html   Finally, the results of the negotiations in Durban lead me toward hope that we will pull ourselves back from the direst results of our use of oil, natural gas, and coal, though some, human and not, already suffer and countless others are already committed to future suffering through our blinding greed.

5.  The lack of action on climate and rising emissions bring fresh attention to geoengineering.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/09/us-climate-geoengineering-idUSTRE7B81Y820111209?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
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