Posted on 04/15/2011 7:25:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PARIS (AFP) – A planned fund to channel hundreds of billions of dollars to poor countries exposed to climate change has overcome an early obstacle, the UN said on Friday.
Members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have agreed on the make-up of a 40-seat transitional committee to design the Green Climate Fund (GCF), an issue that had been debated for weeks, the UNFCCC said.
Established at the UNFCCC's conference in Cancun last December, the GCF aims at administering aid, potentially worth 100 billion dollars a year by 2020, to developing countries at risk from rising seas, worsening drought, flood and storms.
The task of drawing up the GCF's terms of reference was entrusted to a transitional panel of 25 developing and 15 developed countries.
Important details are at stake, including the scope of a registry to record financial pledges and climate-mitigating action and whether non-governmental groups, the private sector and international organisations should be allowed to take part.
The committee had been scheduled to hold its maiden meeting in Mexico City on March 14 and 15, but the talks were snagged by discord over how to allot seats among the UNFCCC's geographical blocs.
This problem has now been resolved, and the first meeting will take place in the Mexican capital on April 28 and 29, the UNFCCC said in a press release.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Europe faces drought and flood burden: climate scientist
AFP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110412/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingipcceurope_20110412175632
GENEVA (AFP) – A leading climate scientist warned Tuesday that Europe should take action over increasing drought and floods, stressing that some climate change trends were clear despite variations in predictions.
“There are some robust areas like Siberia, we know what the climate will be, another robust area is the Mediterranean, because the models tell the same story,” said Zbigniew Kundzewicz, review editor of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) chapter on freshwater resources.
“Climate change will pose two major water challenges in Europe: increasing water stress in southern Europe and increasing floods elsewhere,” he added during a workshop organised by the UN Economic Commission on Europe.
“Current water management practices may be inadequate to reduce adverse impacts of climate change.”
The Polish scientist said southern Europe would be more affected than northern Europe, with evidence already of hotter weather and longer drought leading to water shortages, harm to agriculture, a 20 to 50 percent decrease in hydro-electric power and denser water pollution.
People walk on a platform on the flooded Piazza San Marco (St Mark's square) in Venice in 2009. A leading climate scientist warned Tuesday that Europe should take action over increasing drought and floods, stressing that some climate change trends were clear despite variations in predictions. (AFP/File/Andrea Pattaro)
Although the media has done a great job of covering this up, the inconvenient fact is that all seven glaciers on California’s Mount Shasta are growing. This includes Whitney Glacier, the state’s largest.Yes, growing. Not melting.
Not only are Mt. Shasta’s glaciers growing, two have nearly doubled in size.
On 15 July 1942, its squadron was forced to make an emergency landing en route to the British Isles during Operation Bolero and subsequently rescued. Glacier Girl, along with five other P-38 fighters and two B-17 bombers, was eventually buried beneath 270 feet of ice. Fifty years later, in 1992, the plane was brought to the surface after years of excavation and transported to Middlesboro, Kentucky, where it was restored to flying condition.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_girl
Venice has been slowly sinking into the mud for centuries. Enjoy your trip!
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