The planet is heating up... climate change and changes needed

June 2010 was the warmest June ever recorded, worldwide, The Guardian/UK reported on July 16th: "US government climate data suggests 2010 on course to be warmest year since records began... The trend to a warmer world is now incontrovertible. According to NOAA, June was the 304th consecutive month with a combined global land and surface temperature above the 20th-century average." article here

Voices from and on Copenhagen: December 2009

Report from Claudia Gimena Roa, Fundaexpresion, Santander - Colombia, January 2010: Women Continue Their Struggle for Good-Living and Climate Justice: Reflections from Copenhagen  (9 page pdf download)

 
"No Climate Justice without Gender Justice"

Vandana Shiva speaks at climate summit

Hopenhagen? No, Thanks: Naomi Klein on COP15 Source, and 5 minute interview here. See Naomi Klein's reporting from Copenhagen.

Women in the forest – no fairy tale on land ownership rights and the need to encompass women’s knowledge and contexts in climate negotiations.

Background: IRIN news: Gathering Storm - the humanitarian impact of climate change.
And from UNIFEM: Facts & Figures on Gender & Climate Change

From our archive

Discretion or Obligation? What Americans need to know about global warming and chances for change in the USA, by environmental professor Mary Christina Wood.

What is global warming?
"The scientific community has reached a strong consensus regarding the science of global climate change. The world is undoubtedly warming. This warming is largely the result of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities including industrial processes, fossil fuel combustion, and changes in land use, such as deforestation. Continuation of historical trends of greenhouse gas emissions will result in additional warming over the 21st century, with current projections of a global increase of 2.5ºF to 10.4ºF by 2100, with warming in the U.S. expected to be even higher. This warming will have real consequences for the United States and the world, for with that warming will also come additional sea-level rise that will gradually inundate coastal areas, changes in precipitation patterns, increased risk of droughts and floods, threats to biodiversity, and a number of potential challenges for public health..."
-- From Global Warming Basics, Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Many additional facts available on that site and at links below.

Global warming describes the "greenhouse" effect, which is created when the sun's heat is trapped by certain gases in the Earth's atmosphere, like carbon dioxide. These gases absorb heat that would otherwise escape from the Earth's atmosphere. So-called "greenhouse gas" emissions have increased since the industrial revolution, caused by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, pollution from cars, methane from animal and other sources. Therefore, an unnatural amount of heat has been trapped which has caused the Earth's surface to warm.

What happened in New Orleans?

Glossary of terms: Global Warming Basics
From "Abrupt Climate Change" to "weather," the Pew Center's website on climate change has the definitions we need.

Drought and Climate Change by the End of the Century
A new study led by British climate researcher Eleanor Burke estimates that by 2100 up to a third of the planet could be unproductive desert due to global warming and related climate change. Major victims will be the poor countries of the Global South, who are already suffering from increased heatwaves, drought and desertification.
» Read the article on the study "The century of drought",  by Michael McCarthy (The Independent, October 4, 2006).
» Read the press release from the Climate Clinic.

Impacts of Environmental Degradation and Climate Change on Women
From a paper by enda (Environment and Development Action in the Third World). Some impacts include:

Water Stress: "Food and water insecurity is becoming a major threat to many people in the developing world and may endanger the lives of thousands of people in particular in Africa, Middle East Asia and South Pacific... Women are mainly responsibility for water collection therefore water scarcity is likely to put women under great environmental stress and force them to migrate."

Health Risks: "Climate change is predicted to cause serious health problems related to cardiovascular, respiratory and other diseases..."

Food Insecurity, Environmental Degradation and Population Displacement, Desertification: "Today, environmental degradation is already affecting women’s right to sustainable livelihoods. Climate change is just a much graver example of the complexity of environmental stress and how it affects women. Women have a multi-dimensional role as mothers, providers, carers and often natural resource managers. A lot of women find themselves in position where they are heading the family. Economic depression and unemployment in many developing countries have forced women into a situation where the bread winning burden is added to their litany of daily chores. Climate change would undoubtedly cause further environmental hazards that would mean loss of revenue for women in agricultural, industry, fisheries industries notably. Poverty, an acute problem amongst women population will further claim more victims especially among the female population in both rural and urban areas of the developing world."