This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.
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First, a mix of climate change news from dire to hopeful.
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The Guardian reports Climate change disaster is upon us, warns UN. Sir John Holmes, the United Nation’s emergency relief coordinator, “said dire predictions about the impact of global warming on humanity were already coming true.”
“We are seeing the effects of climate change. Any year can be a freak but the pattern looks pretty clear to be honest. That’s why we’re trying … to say, of course you’ve got to deal with mitigation of emissions, but this is here and now, this is with us already,” he said…
Two years ago only half the international disasters dealt with by [the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] had anything to do with the climate; this year all but one of the 13 emergency appeals is climate-related. “And 2007 is not finished. We will certainly have more by the end of the year, I fear,” added Sir John, who is in charge of channelling international relief efforts to disaster areas.
More appeals were likely in the coming weeks, as floods hit west Africa. “All these events on their own didn’t have massive death tolls, but if you add all these little disasters together you get a mega disaster,” he said.
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Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post reports China is having a Green Awakening. For nearly 30 years, Wuxi “had welcomed some of the world’s biggest polluters.” But, after industrial pollution had “poisoned the province’s vast network of lakes, rivers and canals… City officials decided they’d had enough. In a series of radical proclamations that sent shudders though the business community, Wuxi declared itself a newly reformed green city.”
“Last week, China’s State Council approved an environmental plan that includes reducing major pollutant discharges by 10 percent by 2010. Plagued by water shortages, choking on dusty air and alarmed by a sharp increase in pollution-related diseases and deaths, China has been searching for years for a way to fix its environment without hurting its economy.”
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Terry Macalister of The Guardian that World’s largest offshore wind farm is given government approval for Kent, England. “The world’s largest offshore wind farm, which will occupy a site of 90 square miles off the coast of Kent, has been given the go-ahead by the government and should be ready to provide clean power for a quarter of London’s homes by 2010… The consortium developing the wind farm, which is led by Shell and Eon, is reluctant to comment on the ambitious plan for up to 341 turbines until it has tied up a range of commercial contracts and received approval from National Grid to provide new high- powered overhead cables.”
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Kevin Siers / The Charlotte Observer (October 5, 2007)
Siers’ editorial cartoon pretty much sums up the Bush administration this week.
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A profile of a French priest that roams Ukraine’s back roads and forgotten fields to document the Nazis’ murder of 1.5 million Jews.
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Today’s round-up of all things Blackwater in the “Guns of Greed” focusing on the people of Blackwater – guard and guarded.
Four at Four continues below the fold, including stories on:
And a double-shot bonus below the fold: 1) zebra mussel invasion and 2) is this the next bridge in Portland, Oregon? Find out, below the fold…
