Poor old Lovelock

- is there anybody out there prepared to bet against him - if the earth is going to a dominantly greenhouse state - then most of the planet will be covered with hot steamy clouds ( a venusian climate) - not deserts as James predicts -- that would be a dry, and cold Martian climate ( ie. greenhouse influence free)

'We should be scared stiff'

Renowned scientist James Lovelock thinks mainland Europe will soon be desert - and millions of people will start moving north to Britain. Stuart Jeffries meets him Thursday March 15, 2007The Guardian
If you think Britain is intolerably crowded today, you might well want to brace yourself before reading the next sentence. Because this country is going to become much, much more densely populated over the course of this century as millions of people flee the uninhabitable desert that mainland Europe is doomed to turn into.
Such at least is James Lovelock's fear. The esteemed - if controversial - environmentalist and futurologist (he prefers to be called a planetary physician) also believes that by the middle of this century, the America-sized chunk of floating ice that currently covers the Arctic will melt. As a result, the current habitat of polar bears will eventually be the place where we, or our probably very fed-up descendants, live out their pitiful existences. "Most life will move up to the Arctic basin because only it and a few islands will remain habitable," says Lovelock, who is most famous for coming up with the so-called Gaia hypothesis - the idea that the Earth functions as some kind of living super-organism.

CAN A PORSCHE DIESEL BE FARAWAY?!

Highway speed limit plan irks Germans - Yahoo! News

ERLIN - An EU official called on Germany to give up the famous freedom of its highways and impose speed limits on the autobahn to fight global warming — a demand that drew angry responses on Sunday in a country that cherishes what it calls "free driving for free citizens."

the call came as the German government makes action against climate change a priority of its current presidencies of the EU and Group of Eight.

Still, the German environment minister showed little enthusiasm for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas' suggestion and a group representing the country's auto industry said it needed "no coaching on efficient climate protection from Brussels."

Many stretches of German autobahn lack speed limits — traditionally a cherished freedom in a rule-bound country. However, the growing concern over carbon dioxide emissions is putting that tradition under renewed scrutiny.

"There are so many areas in which we waste energy in a completely senseless way and burden the climate," Dimas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

"A simple measure in Germany could be a general speed limit on highways," he added, according to the newspaper. "Speed limits make a lot of sense for many reasons and are completely normal in most EU states, as in the U.S.A. — only in Germany, strangely, is it controversial."

The commissioner did not suggest a specific speed limit for Germany but in most European countries the highway speed limit is either 75 and 80 miles per hour. Britain, Latvia and Sweden have the strictest speed limit with 70 mph, according to an official EU Web site.

Dimas' comments drew a slew of largely negative responses Sunday on the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Internet site. One respondent described the debate as a "farce" and questioned the environmental record of Dimas' native Greece.

Another demanded "free driving for free citizens" — quoting one of Germany's most popular and well-known slogans.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has said Europe should take a leading role in combating climate change to set an example to the U.S., China and others, last week steered an EU summit to a bold set of measures to fight global warming.

Among several initiatives, the EU is planning to push for an increased use of energy-saving light bulbs to slash energy consumption and reduce the effects of greenhouse gases.

In Britain, the opposition Conservative Party said Sunday it is considering new taxes on air travel. In the Bild interview, Dimas also said that the EU Commission wants to raise the rates for European and trans-Atlantic flights.

However, Merkel has brushed aside previous suggestions — most recently last month — that a general speed limit on the autobahn would help fight climate change.

Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Sunday that he has "nothing against (a limit) for reasons of traffic safety" but argued that the restriction would not encourage manufacturers to produce more environment-friendly engines.

"This is a secondary front and a trivialization of the climate problem," he said at an event in Hamburg.

The German Association of the Automotive Industry, which represents an industry that includes such famous names as Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche and DaimlerChrysler, said Germany needed "no coaching" from Brussels on how to protect the climate — "above all when the proposals are only symbolic."

"The German auto industry will act on climate change where there is real potential for savings" of vehicle emissions, the group said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Transport Ministry, Dirk Inger, said a study by a federal agency had found that an overall autobahn limit of 100 kilometers per hour — or 62 mph — would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only 0.6 percent.

Each 5 mph a car drives over 60 mph reduces fuel economy by 10 percent, according to the U.S.

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Inger also contended that, among European countries, only Germany had succeeded in reducing vehicle emissions.

"Symbolic politics doesn't help us move forward on climate protection," Inger said. "That goes for Mr. Dimas too."

Germans may be becoming receptive to the idea, however. Last month, a survey by the Forsa institute for Stern magazine found that 60 percent would favor autobahn speed limits to cut emissions, while 38 percent would oppose them.

The Feb. 1-2 survey of 1,001 people gave a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"I like to drive fast on the autobahn — sometimes I drive up to 200 (125 mph) — but if it is for the sake of the environment, I don't mind slowing down," said Thorsten Einig, 36, an information technology product manager in Karlsruhe who owns a BMW.

"I think anyone with half a brain understands that we all have to change our habits in order to limit the greenhouse gases."

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They are cute -- but are they endangered?

Critics take aim at polar bear listing

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A marked decline in sea ice off Alaska's coast is not enough to take the drastic step of listing polar bears — a species dependent on ice — as threatened, critics said Thursday at the first of three public hearings on the proposal.

warming would be too burdensome, given the unknowns about the future of polar bears, such as the extent of the loss of Arctic sea ice in the next 100 years and whether the animals would face extinction, according to opponents.

"The listing likely will force anyone in America whose business requires the emission of greenhouse gases to go through an additional layer of consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service, creating delays and expenses," said Marilyn Crockett, deputy director of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, a trade group.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking testimony through April 9 on the proposal to list polar bears as threatened, or likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. The more drastic listing under the law is "endangered," in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in December proposed listing polar bears as threatened. His decision to begin the process was forced by a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity of Joshua Tree, Calif., which said polar bears could become extinct by the end of the century because their sea ice habitat is melting away due to global warming.

U.S. Geological Survey report released in November, federal researchers said the Beaufort Sea polar bear population, one of two off the coast of Alaska, has shown significant changes in cub survival.

The report compared data on cubs collected from 1967-89 to data from 1990 to last spring. For polar bears measured during autumn months, the number of surviving cubs born that spring declined from a mean of 61 cubs per 100 females to a mean of 25 cubs per 100 females.

The study also determined that adult males weighed less and had smaller skulls than those captured and measured two decades ago.

Researchers estimated the Beaufort Sea polar bear population at 1,526, down from a previous estimate of 1,800 bears, but did not conclude the population had dropped because the latest study used different counting methods and the two estimates could not be statistically differentiated.

The Arctic has already lost an area of sea ice twice the size of Texas, said Mary Walker with Alaska Conservation Solutions.

"As a result, polar bears are starving to death, drowning and now fewer cubs are surviving," Walker said.

The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has confirmed that human induced global warming is occurring, said Karla Dutton, director of the Alaska program for Defenders of Wildlife.

"There's no way around it — in order to conserve polar bear habitat in the long term, we must act immediately to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the principal cause of global warming and this Arctic meltdown," she said.

Tina Cunning, special assistant to the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the state is reviewing the science on the proposed listing. She said some information may have been omitted.

She said the proposed listing is based on the presumption that sea ice is the most important factor for survival of polar bears, and that sea ice will be significantly diminished.

"Polar bears are adaptable to use land for hunting and to den, and data from several areas indicate that bears are already adapting," she said.

Crockett said the listing would hurt investment in Alaska even though it's not clear how additional restrictions would help polar bears.

She said this is scientific consensus regarding the occurrence of global climate change but no consensus on the reliability of the models used to project future climate.

"The range of uncertainty regarding the timing, extent and location of future climate impacts is enormous," Crockett said.

If the agency decides a listing is warranted, it would be the first to do so for a species that is healthy in numbers and distribution, she said.

Carl Portman, deputy director of the Resource Development Council, said polar bears are abundant, their population is healthy, and they're well managed and protected by international and domestic agreements.

A listing decision should be made on what's known, not on the speculative nature of the climate models and carbon emission scenarios, he said.

"It is virtually impossible to say with any certainty that polar bears are likely to become extinct in the foreseeable future," he said.

Two more public hearings are scheduled, including one Monday in Washington, D.C., and one Wednesday in Barrow, Alaska, America's northernmost community. A decision on listing polar bears is due next January.

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