Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) in the newsroom of the Daily Express in Val Guest’s 1961 film, “The Day the Earth Caught Fire”. Stenning and Bill McGuire (Leo McKern), the science editor of the Express, investigate the disastrous consequences of US and USSR strategic experiments. The images of London straining under severe weather disruption are stunning.

The Independent’s Cahal Milmo wrote today that Prof Phil Jones of the Climate Research Unit at UEA is predicting that 2007 will be the warmest year on record. The combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system are poised to combine their effects this year. Prof Jones said,

El Niño makes the world warmer and we already have a warming trend that is increasing global temperatures by one to two tenths of a degrees celsius per decade. Together, they should make 2007 warmer than last year and it may even make the next 12 months the warmest year on record.

“The Day the Earth Caught Fire” was picked out as a neglected classic in one of the Independent’s holiday supplements.

Bookmark to:

A report from a Hong Kong based think-tank decribes the threat to industry on the Pearl River Delta and in Hong Kong posed by increases in flooding and typhoons associated with climate change. The report also highlights the knock-on effects of damage to this region for global trade. [source:BBC]

We could yet see the Chinese government volunteering cuts in Greenhouse gas emissions and thereby removing the biggest bar to emissions restrictions for the largest liberal economies. If the perception of immediate risk from climate change overwhelms debates about fair competition then the current bars to international cooperation could be removed.

Bookmark to:

Camille Parmesan has published a review of more then 800 papers documenting an acceleration in the rate of species extinction [source]. Species adapted to cold climates and a narrow range of temperatures have shown the largest increase in extinctions.

Bookmark to:

Sunshields may seem to be absurdly speculative but technological fixes are probably the only tactics with a reasonable chance of implementation. International agreement to limit carbon emissions relies on states agreeing that:

1. There is a problem
2. That a particular set of values comprises a solution
3. That the proposed solution doesn’t disadvantage any particular state

The sciences of complex systems stand little chance of generating consensus amongst advisors, let alone executives. Technological fixes are probably all we can reasonably expect in the time available.

Bookmark to: