After an expensive and thoroughly negative campaign that failed to mention climate change at all, Barack Obama has been voted another four year term in charge of a nation that pumps a lot of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. According to the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL for short):
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Four years ago Barack Obama was President Elect. Here's a speech he gave at that time:
Notice his concluding remarks:
Once I take office you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in…. negotiations, and help lead the world towards a new era of global cooperation on climate change. Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences too serious. Stopping climate change won't be easy and it won't happen overnight, but I promise you this. When I am president, any governor who's willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that's willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that's willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America.
Stopping climate change hasn't happened overnight, or over the last four years for that matter. The stakes are higher. The consequences more serious. Stopping climate change is now much harder. Whether as a result of Michael Bloomberg's last minute introduction of climate change onto the agenda or not, Mr. Obama has just been voted another four years in office by the U.S. electorate. Here's his 2012 acceptance speech:
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Having spent some days blogging about the effects of Hurricane Sandy, I had intended posting today about some of Sandy's causes. That will have to wait for a while now though, since a post about the politics of climate change has suddenly risen to the top of my to do list. My headline today comes to you courtesy of Bill Clinton, via Michael Bloomberg.
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In their last public advisory bulletin concerning "Super Storm" Sandy the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center said yesterday that:
WINDS, ACCUMULATING SNOWS AND RAIN FROM THE REMNANTS OF SANDY CONTINUE TO DIMINISH. MULTIPLE CENTERS OF CIRCULATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE REMNANTS OF SANDY CAN BE FOUND ACROSS THE LOWER GREAT LAKES.
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Much as we did last year as Hurricane Irene bore down on New York City, we hereby present the surf forecast for the entrance to New York Bay, courtesy of MagicSeaweed:
MagicSeaweed surf forecast for The Cove on Monday October 29th 2012
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The United States' National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC for short) has just issued a press release about the amount of ice in the Arctic at the moment. You may be wondering why on Earth that is relevant to you, but please bear with me as I endeavour to explain, with the help of a few videos. Here's the first one which shows summer 2012 in Sidmouth, a seaside town down here on the not so sunny south coast of Devon:
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It's been strengthening very slowly, but at 11:20 AM CDT yesterday Isaac was officially declared to have become a category 1 hurricane. Whilst still a mere tropical storm, here's what it did to Haiti a few short days ago:
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As the G20 leaders start their deliberations in Cannes today some more famous names have been putting their weight behind the campaign to introduce some kind of financial transaction tax. On Tuesday the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, joined Pope Benedict XVI in calling for the introduction of what he referred to in an article in the Financial Times as
More on United Nations and Rowan Williams Join the "Robin Hood Tax" Campaign
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As we reported last week, the leaders of the G20 nations (plus a few others) are on a jaunt to the Mediterranean seaside in Cannes this week. Amongst other things they are scheduled to discuss the global financial crisis. As luck would have it another item will have added itself to their agenda this morning. According to Yahoo!
More on G20 Meet as Obama's Favourite Corzine Flushes a Few More Billion Down the Pan
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The next summit meeting of the leaders of the G20 nations takes place next week in Cannes, and the global financial crisis is top of the agenda. A variety of people from around the world are pressuring the G20 leaders to introduce a "tax on bankers". Such a tax has been discussed over the years under a variety of aliases, including "Tobin Tax" and "Financial Transaction Tax". However here in the UK currently the most popular euphemism for the idea is "Robin Hood Tax". Here's a video in which the team of Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy (of Love Actually fame) present their interpretation of the concept:
More on Pope Benedict and Bill Gates play Robin Hood for the G20
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