Howie Chong

Great. More fantastic climate news.

Some scientists now believe that the released weight of millions of tonnes of melting ice may trigger geologic catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis.

A conference in London last September outlined the threat: As humanity continues to produce global warming pollution, the rapidly heating atmosphere melts glaciers and ice fields, creating large displacements of weight as the solid ice masses melt and flow away into lakes and oceans.

The result: changing stress points on the Earth’s crust, which may affect lava and volcanic activity in very unpredictable ways.

(Image: Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland; from NASA)

It’s hot in Toronto.  But that’s not the only place in the world experiencing sizzling weather.

Twillingate, Newfoundland – the self-described Iceberg Capital of the World, isn’t seeing any icebergs floating off of its coasts this summer even though there are usually lots of them this time of year.

Meanwhile, Northern Europe is going through a killer heatwave.  Russia is going through its worst drought in 100 years and roads in the Czech Republic are melting in the heat.

The air conditioning units in some trains in Germany broke down and some poor souls were baking inside at 50ºC.

a granny-friend carbon-free transition (photo by roblisameehan)

Earlier this week, BP announced that it has already spent $3 billion on the Gulf Oil cleanup. Along with the $20 billion fund that the company has promised Obama, the total cost of the oil spill is building dramatically.

Most experts say that this is just the beginning. The Exxon Valdez led to a $4 billion settlement but affected a small fraction of the people that the gushing gulf spill will ultimately effect.  The price tag for this cleanup and the subsequent settlement may rise to the point where people have begun to ask whether or not BP might go bankrupt fixing this egregious environmental disaster.

Some of these people include those who administer the pension plans of millions of ageing workers. It turns out that a significant number of private and public pension funds in the US and the UK hold BP stock. It therefore begs the question: how do we decarbonize our economy if entire generations of retirees are dependent on carbon-intensive industries?

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Despite the economic slowdown (which, by some sources, is actually on the recovery), global levels of greenhouse gas emissions are at their all-time high.

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It’s commonly understood that the reason why we spring forward every year is to save us energy. By waking up closer to when the sun rises during the summer months we can utilize more natural light in the evening and we won’t have to use as much artificial lighting…

…Or so the logic goes.  It may initially make sense to us, but given that the demands on our energy system differs dramatically from when Daylight Savings Time was initiated over 90 years ago, does it still save us power?

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