Climate Challenge: Earth’s future is in your hands

A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office.

Play the game.

(It’s a bit confusing but the help button gets you through) 

About the game:

Currently there is a growing consensus amongst climate researchers that Earth’s climate is changing in response to man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The main debate amongst scientists is focussed on the amount of climate change we can expect, not whether it will happen. With the current level of debate in mind, the BBC decided a game might be a good introductory route into climate change and some of the issues this creates for governments around the world. The producers’ primary goal was to make a fun, challenging game. At times it was necessary to strike a compromise between strict scientific accuracy and playability. For this reason, Climate Challenge should not be taken as a serious climate change prediction. Wherever possible, real research has been incorporated into the game. This document describes the scientific sources used to create Climate Challenge and some of the compromises made by the producers. These sources are a good starting point for someone interested in learning more about climate change. This document also describes some of the compromises the producers made for the sake of playability.

Game focus and aims

Apart from the primary goal of creating a fun game, Climate Challenge’s producers aimed to:

• give an understanding of some of the causes of climate change, particularly those related to carbon dioxide emissions.
• give players an awareness of some of the policy options available to governments.
• give a sense of the challenges facing international climate change negotiators.

Players must respond to catastrophic events caused by climate change as well as natural and manmade events, which may or may not be linked to climate change. This aspect of the game is meant to give some idea of what could happen as the Earth’s climate changes and also introduce the unpredictable nature of some natural events.

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Photo: ARM Climate Research Facility on flickr, Licence: Creative Commons

Citizen Science: Climatology for Everyone is a great post over at Skeptical Science listing projects that aspiring Citizen Scientists (that is, you, me and anyone) interested in Climatology can take part.

“With recent posts addressing personal action in the fight to combat global warming, I thought it would be interesting to dedicate a post to ways in which the average citizen can help global warming by directly contributing to our scientific understanding of it. That is, becoming a ‘citizen scientist’.

Citizen science projects date back hundreds of years, with many of the first projects involving citizens keeping track of wildlife populations. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is perhaps the most famous in the United States and dates back to 1900. With help from the internet, and a growing recognition of the value that citizens are capable of contributing, citizen science projects have been rapidly growing.

The range of subjects that are covered by citizen science projects is vast. Here are just a few of them, which directly relate to climate change:”

Read the full article by Dawei.

Also have a look at recent posts by the writers on the site about their own personal action and approaches in regard to climate change issues. The actions of individuals who are charting the changes and challenges of climate change link research and action and illuminate personal responses to the current situations which are usually missing from other sources of media, especially for climate scientists.

The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges invites you to participate in a competition that aims to select an extraordinarily good way of communicating the issue of man-made climate change. The competition aims to inspire participants that have the ability to communicate a complex message in a way that might surprise or even awaken people.

If you can illustrate man-made climate change, its causes or consequences in a way that brings the response:

• Aha!
• So this is what it is all about!
• Something has to be done about it!
• We have to reduce our emissions of CO2!

Then please, consider participating in our competition and share your submission with us!

The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges is a non-profit foundation that supports information and public-opinion-forming aimed at limiting human induced climate change. The foundation recognizes that there is a need for downloadable graphic presentations available on the Internet which can be used for communicating the climate problem to the general public. Many organisations working with the climate issue have their own sets of graphs, diagrams and slides with their own logos used by their representatives during presentations. The foundation wishes to provide similar tools, but free to use by anyone who is interested and who wants to help spread knowledge about human-made climate change – its causes, effects and the fact that we have means to combat climate change. Main focus should be put on explaining the fundamental knowledge on man-made climate change.

The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges is envisioning a set of graphic, electronic presentations that can be downloaded for free. The presentations may contain static displays of graphs, figures, diagrams or other visual representations that explain different aspects of the issue. Animations, interactive applications, and formats open for the user to modify are also relevant. There are certainly many thinkable and unthinkable ways of creating such graphics, and in line with the Foundation’s general policy, we are open for new, experimental ways of communicating the causes and challenges related to climate change. Conventional or radical in form and content – we welcome proposals for the development of graphic presentations that would be applicable to – and have effect on – a wide audience. Any text – written or spoken – should be in English, as this is an international competition with an international audience.

Proposals should be submitted through a dedicated web form at www.minor-foundation.no by May 1 2011.

A jury will pick three concepts from the submitted ideas that will have the opportunity to be developed, through receiving a sum of 100.000 Norwegian kroner each from The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges. The winner in this competition will receive a sum of 500.000 Norwegian kroner that is meant to finance the completion and implementation of the idea.  The Minor Foundation for Major Challenges will be copyright owner with the rights to distribute and communicate all final three submissions.
To learn more: http://www.minor-foundation.no/competition/

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The report of the Victorian Food Supply Scenarios: Impacts on Availability of a Nutritious Diet project has been released. This VEIL-led research project was funded by VicHealth and undertaken in partnership with the CSIRO, Deakin University and the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development.

The purpose of this project was to develop and demonstrate a new methodology to link land and resource use with availability of a nutritionally adequate food supply for Victoria’s population.

To do so, it has built the capability of the CSIRO stocks and flows model as a platform for on-going ‘what-if’ investigation of Victorian and Australian food supply security.

The full report and a summary version are available for download on the VEIL website. www.ecoinnovationlab.com

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Zero Carbon by 2030 – Britain’s dream or reality?

Technology says we can. Science says we must. Is it time to say we will?

SPEAKER: Peter Harper, Centre for Alternative Technology (UK), Coordinator Zero Carbon Britain

Two public lectures by UK scientist Peter Harper, from the Centre of Alternative Technology (CAT), in Wales on ZeroCarbonBritain 2030 – a plan offering a positive realistic, policy framework to eliminate emissions from fossil fuels within 20 years. Zero Carbon Britain(ZCB) brought together leading UK’s thinkers, including policy makers, scientists, academics, industry and NGOs to provide political, economic and technological solutions to the urgent challenges raised by climate science.

Governments and businesses seem paralysed and unable to plan for a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy. ZCB shows what can be done by harnessing the voluntary contribution from experts working outside their institutions. The ZCB report,released in June 2010, provides a fully integrated vision of how Britain can respond to the challenges of climate change, resource depletion and global inequity, with the potential for a low-carbon future to enrich society as a whole.

During lectures in Melbourne and Sydney, Peter will explore how we can ‘Power Down’ demand in the built environment, transport, land use and institute behavioural change, then ‘Power Up’ the energy system with renewables. He’ll outline the key thinking behind the report, including why a low carbon economy is an investment in the future, and look at the ways sustainable community based and multi-lateral initiatives will concurrently inform a global energy infrastructure.

Sydney, Tuesday 19 April, 6.30-8pm, Vestibule, Sydney Town Hall

Please register your attendance by Friday 15 April to amrit.gill@britishcouncil.org.au

Presented by the British Council, VEIL (Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab), Banksia Environmental Foundation, Key Message and the City of Sydney.

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Peter Harper is the Research Director of the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales UK and one of the three coordinators of the Zero Carbon Britain (ZCB) 2030 project.

ZCB 2030 is a positive, realistic vision for an energy progressive society free from fossil fuels. At a time when governments appear to be paralysed and unable to act, ZCB 2030 has demonstrated that alternative plans for the future can be developed through the cooperation and good will of volunteer researchers and experts. ZCB 2030 completed its three years of work in mid 2010, presenting the plan to the UK parliament. It provides political, economic and technological solutions to the urgent challenges raised by climate science.

“The great transition to a zero-carbon Britain is not only the most pressing challenge of our time, it is also entirely possible. The solutions needed to create a low-carbon and high-wellbeing future for all exist, what has been missing to date, is the political will to implement them.” _{Dr Victoria Johnson, New Economics Foundation}

Peter will deliver lectures about the project in Melbourne on April 13 and in Sydney on April 19. These lectures will be surrounded by other smaller events to examine the ZCB plan and to compare its approach and conclusions to that for Australia being developed by Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) in the Zero Carbon Australia project.

In Melbourne: BMW Edge 13th April
In Sydney: Sydney Town Hall 19th April

More details will be announced here as they become available.

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From “Cleaning the Air Would Limit Short-Term Climate Warming“:

An assessment report (Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone) released last week by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization shows that reducing emissions of two common air pollutants — black carbon and gases integral to the production of ground-level ozone — could slow the rate of climate change markedly over the next half-century. For decades, scientists have known both substances harm human health. More recently, evidence has emerged showing the particles also affect climate, yet the magnitude of the impact has remained uncertain. Some studies have suggested reducing the pollutants could have a major and immediate climate impact, while others have shown the impact of such reductions would be minimal. Now a panel of some 70 scientists, led by New York City-based Goddard Institute for Space Studies climatologist Drew Shindell, has reviewed the best available science and concludes that just a handful of measures could yield major benefits in the next fifty years.

A NASA writer caught up with Shindell, who presented findings from the report in Washington, D.C. at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to learn more.

Read the interview here

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On behalf of Sustainable Cities Net, I (Kate) am attending and blogging on the United Cities and Local Governments Congress and the World Mayors’ Summit, held this week in Mexico City. The content will appear here and also on a site created by Siemens, who provided a similar service at COP 15 and will do so at COP 16 next month.  Over three thousand delegates from around the world will attend the presentations from city mayors on the pressures and responses they meet in their own city.  The opportunity to expand the discussion and learn about pressures, models, scales, successes and failures in other cities is unique, and the material from Sustainable Cities Net and Sustainable Melbourne will make its way into my perspective and reports.  Bloggers from other countries will be there too, so keep an eye on all the sites for a diversity of opinion!

About the Congress & Summit:

The UCLG Congress – The Local and Regional Leaders World Summit – is organised every 3 years and it brings together over 3000 local and regional elected representatives and practitioners from around the world.

Since its creation in Paris in 2004, United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) has worked to make the voice of mayors and local and regional officials heard, in order to guarantee that cities and regions take their rightful place in the international community.  The cities and regions, including their inhabitants, that we work for, are being faced with stark challenges from global phenomena and events that demand individual and collective action from local authorities, such as: climate change, shared sustainable development, financial crises, dialogue between cultures.

The Local and Regional Leaders World Summit, November 18 – 21 in Mexico City, which will bring together mayors, presidents of regions, local elected officials and their partners, will be an unprecedented occasion for exchange and debate on the role of local governments in development and in the efforts for greater between citizens and also between cities and regions.

The World Mayors Summit on Climate (WMSC) will be held on November 21, 2010 in Mexico City, so that mayors from different regions of the world can sign a voluntary Pact (the Global Cities Covenant on Climate “the Mexico City Pact”) that sends a clear message to the international community on the strategic importance of cities in the struggle against climate change.

http://www.uclgcongress.com/
(UCLG English programme, Spanish programme, French programme,)

http://www.wmsc2010.org/
(Programmes on the site)

To follow the posts from the Summit follow or bookmark this link, http://www.sustainablecitiesnet.com/tag/mexico-city/.

We will be posting regular Sustainable Cities content as well, so keep adding your articles and photos!

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Rothamsted Research has put an really useful new document up on its website called: Climate Change- a brief introduction for scientists and engineers – or anyone else who has to do something about it.

The document has been written by David Jenkinson, a Rothamsted senior fellow. It provides a detailed but accessible walk-through of the hows and whats and whys and wheres of climate change. Its chapters cover the following:

• Chapter 1 – the science of climate change (solar radiation, the greenhouse effect, radiative forcing etc, long term climate variations etc)
• Chapter 2 – the greenhouse gases (water; sources and sinks of CO2 methane, nitrous oxide; halocarbons, ozone, aerosols)
• Chapter 3 – how people use energy (fossil fuel combustion, reserves, per capita emissions)
• Chapter 4 – using models to forecast future climate (models for temperature, precipitation, sea level, extreme weather etc)
• Chapter 5 – reducing the release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (transport, buildings, industry, electricity generation, carbon capture, agriculture, deforestation)
• Chapter 6 – geoengineering as a way of counteracting climate change (biological and chemical sequestration, solar iradiation measures)
• Chapter 7 – energy from biomass (current
• Chapter 8 – sources of energy that do not depend on carbon (nuclcear fusion and fission, hydroelectricity, wind, wave, solar, tidal, geogrhermal and others)
• Chapter 9 – adapting to climate change (population growth, sea level rise, water, food security)
• Chapter 10 – economic incentives to reduce emissions (economic tools, the Kaya Identity)

To download the document go to: http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk/aen/reviews/Climate_Change_Draft_B03.pdf

Source: Tara Garnett,  Food Climate Research Network

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Image: planestupid via flickr CC

“Direct action played an absolutely critical role in the campaign. Its edginess both dramatised the issues and plied new pressure on the authorities. It was when the Climate Camp came to Heathrow that the campaign literally went global.” John Stewart, local residents group leader.

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From “The crucial role of activism in scrapping Heathrow’s third runway” by Joss Garman

It was more than four years ago when George Monbiot wrote [...] “At last the battlelines have been drawn, and the first major fight over climate change is about to begin. All over the country, a coalition of homeowners and anarchists, Nimbys and internationalists is mustering to fight the greatest future cause of global warming: the growth of aviation.”

Now the frontline in that battle, the third runway at Heathrow, has been officially cancelled, and so too have the new runways that Labour planned for Stansted and Gatwick. What began with a strong campaign by local people in west London whose communities were under threat from demolition and staggering levels of noise and air pollution, turned into a climate movement opposing airport expansion, and ultimately led to victory – and with it an example of Labour getting on the wrong side of the political argument.

[...]

Even before the new Liberal-Conservative government was able to actually scrap the plans last week, the runway’s future already looked more than shaky. The actress Emma Thompson and TV comic Alistair McGowan had joined Greenpeace in buying up the runway land from underneath Brown’s nose in a plan McGowan termed “Operation Baldrick” on account of its cunning nature. Then last month’s legal ruling of the high court judged the government’s entire aviation strategy to be “untenable in law and common sense”, and ordered the then transport secretary Lord Adonis back to the drawing board to come up with a policy that would be compatible with the Climate Change Act. Waiting in the wings just in case, was an army of green activists ready to lie down in front of bulldozers should the need arise.

Indeed, what distinguished this whole campaign was the way in which it mobilised people into repeatedly taking direct action. Who will forget Leila Deen throwing green custard over Lord Mandelson, or those protesters rebranding the House of Commons as “BAA HQ” from the roof of the Palace of Westminster to highlight the government’s collusion with the air industry? John Stewart, the leader of the local residents group, HACAN, and the person who can take more credit than anyone for seeing off the runway says: “Direct action played an absolutely critical role in the campaign. Its edginess both dramatised the issues and plied new pressure on the authorities. It was when the Climate Camp came to Heathrow that the campaign literally went global.”

The most powerful tool in the armory of the critics of the runway was the fact that a movement existed, comprising all sectors of society. From the local residents and their councils, to WWF and the RSPB, through to Greenpeace, Plane Stupid and the Climate Camp. Working together they took on the combined might of British Airways, the CBI, and the government, and won. It was the galvanising of this coalition, which explains the success of the Heathrow campaign. The triumph now surely ranks alongside the stopping of Kingsnorth as one of the biggest victories for the British climate movement so far, and reminds me of something the founder of Greenpeace, Bob Hunter, said in 1978. “Big change looks impossible when you start and inevitable when you finish.”

Read the full article by Joss Garman.

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