众所周知，通过燃烧 化石燃料(比如煤)，石 油和天然气所释放到 大气层中去的二氧化 碳会导致全球范围内 的升温。
这个效应被 称为“温室效应”。 科学家们预测气候只 要比工业革命之前升 高两度（就可称为气 候的危险变化）将导 致大面积的沙漠化和 生态系统（比如亚马 逊热带雨林）的崩溃
。从而更多存储在树 木中的碳将以二氧化 碳的形式释放到大气 层中去。按我们目前 的发展趋势，在未来 几年内这种变化就会 发生。
要避免危险气候的发生，我们必须马上行动起来，向零二氧化碳排放的经济转型比如
Translation by Jiawen Chen & Helen Li
“The Great Global Warming Swindle”: Response by Geoff Wexler
rtf – html
This programme shows that artificially created CO2 is not the cause of global warming. This is a remarkable achievement considering that so much research on the attribution problem points to CO2 as being the main cause of the last thirty years global warming. It had looked as if the alternative explanation based on sunspots was not doing at all well during the last few years because the sunspots had leveled off whereas the temperature had just kept rising. So what was wrong? The idea behind the new approach is quite revolutionary, it involves overthrowing the calendar, the evidence and the physics.
No, it is not 2007 now as you have been told. The date is now 1975 or 1988 depending on which source you use. Applying these corrections has the effect of removing most of the contentious warming from the data. What’s left correlates quite well with the length of the sunspot cycle especially if you start with an obscure set of temperature data , pull it about a bit and attribute it to NASA for the sake of familiarity. Going back in time there was a shortage of sunspot data, so it is convenient for educational reasons to make it up. After all, it makes it easier to see the relationship between the two curves if they coincide completely.
Continue reading “The Great Global Warming Swindle”: Response by Geoff Wexler
The UK Government is committed to addressing both the causes and consequences of climate change and has published its proposals for a Climate Change Bill. We are consulting widely – with a closing date for comments of 12 June 2007.
Our objective is to ensure that all interested parties have the opportunity to contribute their opinions at an early stage of policy development. We are asking important questions about the shape of our policy proposals and what issues we should take into account, when developing the Climate Change Bill.
Several other documents have been published alongside the draft Bill as follows:
The debate on climate change has shifted from whether we need to act to how much we need to do by when, and the economic implications of doing so. The time is therefore right for the introduction of a strong legal framework in the UK for tackling climate change. The draft Climate Change Bill is the first of its kind in any country.
The proposed Bill provides a clear, credible, long-term framework for the UK to achieve its goals of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and will ensure that steps are taken towards adapting to the impacts of climate change.
It is right that It is right that the public, Parliament and a wide range of interested organisations have an opportunity to discuss and debate these proposals – as climate change is an issue which affects us all and this Bill is intended to create a framework that lasts for more than a generation. The Government therefore looks forward to receiving a wide range of views on its proposals.
The consultation document discusses the context and rationale behind the draft Climate Change Bill and sets out the main reasons why the UK Government considers legislation in this area is required. It outlines the background to and the proposed contents of the draft Bill, summarising its key elements and how they are expected to fit together.
As part of this consultation a partial Regulatory Impact Assessment has been produced and provides initial assessments on the impact of the proposals in the draft Bill.
The strategy document, published alongside the Bill, sets out the broader context for the Bill. It highlights some key announcements coming up in the next few weeks and months. And it gives the broader international context, where the UK will continue to press for action through the EU, the G8 and the UN.
The government wants to get our emissions down to from 10 to 4 tonnes
of CO2 per person per year. But 4 tonnes CO2 per person per year is
the CURRENT global average of CO2 from fossil fuel alone…
Where the UK hopes to be in 2050, even if adopted by everyone, would
not reduce global emissions (and certainly not get them to a safe
level).
To keep global warming below 2 degrees, We need 1 tonne per person per
year (by 2030 if possible, but certainly before 2050). (See “how much
CO2 can we emit” attachment)
Anything above 2 degrees and we hit tipping points and we have a mass
extinction event (of plants, animals and the poor). (See “Six degrees
“attachment).
*We need a national campaign for 1 tonne per person per year, a 90% reduction on 1990 levels.
This can be achieved while maintaining a healthy and vibrant low-carbon economy.
China pollution fuelled by heavy industry
By Richard McGregor in Beijing
China’s rapidly worsening pollution is being driven by a surge in
investment in energy-intensive heavy industry caused by cut-throat
competition among cities and provinces, according to a study released
Tuesday.
The study, by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in
Washington, says the huge investment in steel, aluminium, cement and
other plant has begun to reverse almost three decades of gains in
energy efficiency.
“It is not air-conditioners and automobiles that are driving China’s
energy demand but rather heavy industry,” say Daniel Rosen and Trevor
Houser of China Strategic Advisory, the authors. “Consumption-led
demand is China’s future energy challenge.”
China’s huge growth has made its economy a global issue because of
rising exports of steel, in particular, and the impact on
inter=ADnational markets for related commodities.
Greenhouse gases are also under scrutiny; the Inter=ADnational Energy
Agency predicts China could surpass the US as early as this year as
the largest emitter of CO2, a figure Beijing disputes.
Chinese leaders have set tough new targets to reduce the use of energy
per unit of economic output by 20 per cent and pollution by 10 per
cent, between 2006 and 2010. But the rise of heavy industry, which the
study says caught even Beijing by surprise, means China failed to meet
the benchmarks in 2006 and will find it hard to do so by the end of
the decade.
China now accounts for almost half of the world’s flat glass and
cement production, more than a third of steel output and 28 per cent
of aluminium. Heavy industry consumes 54 per cent of China’s energy,
up from 39 per cent five years ago.
A structural bias towards heavy industry, which dominated in the
centrally planned Maoist-era economy, means energy intensity has
worsened even though Chinese steel plants have become more efficient.
“A new steel plant, no matter how much more efficient than its peers,
uses substantially more energy than a garment factory,” the study
says.
The study blames the growth of heavy industry on cut-throat internal
competition. “The rules of competition are set not just by Beijing but
also by local interests, including state-owned heavy industrial
enterprises,” it says. “And regardless of who sets the rules, the
reality of how they are implemented is almost entirely a local
matter.”
The National Reform and Development Commission, the economic planning
agency also responsible for energy, has tried for years to curb
industrial expansion.
Although nominally all-powerful and with the right to stop projects
over a certain size on a range of grounds, the commission has been
largely helpless to stop the flood of new investment.
The commission’s power is not reflected in the size or skill of its
staff or in the research base and industry expertise from which it
operates. Its energy bureau has 100 staff and the State Energy Office
under the cabinet 30-40, in contrast to 110,000 at the US Department
of Energy.
Individual state companies are better equipped than the ministries.
The State Grid, which is responsible for power transmission, has more
research staff than the commission’s energy bureau.
Weak regulation also makes it difficult to cut pollution and
greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer than 15 per cent of coal-fired plants,
which generate 80 per cent of China’s electricity, have systems to
remove sulphur dioxide from emissions, and even fewer use them, the
report says. Most new plants have sulphur scrubbers.
The authors say that China will not make unilateral adjustments in the
absence of changes to US policy. “China is an 800lb gorilla on the
world energy stage that cannot be ignored, but there is a 1,600lb
gorilla in this room too: the US,” they said.