Global warming means melting glaciers. And in the small mountain kingdom of Bhutan, this means that glacial lakes are filling to capacity. For the farmers who live and work in the valleys below, this means sudden, unpredictable, and potentially deadly flooding. Here is a video from the UN about an effort by Bhutanese to adapt to this scary new reality.
Fight Club star Edward Norton becomes the newest member of the UN family, joining as a Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity.
UN Foundation President (disclosure) and former Colorado Senator Timothy Wirth will address the annual conference of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association at approximately 11a.m. MDT today. The theme of the conference is the “Global Dawn of the Unconventional Natural Gas Age.” Sen.
Agriculture researchers in Bangladesh have released a new report on climate change. They predict that if nothing is done, rice production will dramatically decline by 2050, just as the nation’s population is peaking. As a hot, low-lying, agricultural nation, Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to climate change.
In a speech delivered at the 21st Annual Energy Efficiency Forum, held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C, Tim Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, exhorted policy-makers and legislators to tackle the question of clean energy with great urgency. Mr. Wirth's remarks addressed this year's Forum theme, "Energy Efficiency: Innovative Approaches, Proven Solutions." He spoke of the necessity to address the U.S.'s clean energy needs with pragmatism: “my belief is that we have one more chance at this now. And that chance is enormously important,” said Wirth.
The forever "riveting" Don Cheadle was named a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP. With the appointed, Cheadle joins about 180 global stars as Goodwill Ambassadors (which are named by UN agencies) and "Messengers of Peace," (which, like his Oceans 11 co-star George Clooney, are named by the Secretary General himself.)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just released this map of the Gulf. The bit inside the red lines is being shut down to fishing as of 6pm today.
Presumably, with 19,000 additional barrels of oil spewing out of the ocean floor every passing day, that boundary will grow, and grow, and grow, and grow.If that were not reason enough to worry, hurricane season began yesterday.
David Roberts has a powerful essay up at Grist.
I'm curious to see how the public's mood shifts once it becomes clear that we are powerless in the face of this thing. What if there's just nothing we can do? That's not a feeling to which Americans are accustomed.
Reuters is reporting that Ban Ki Moon will nominate veteran Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres as executive director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The outgoing chief, Yvo de Boer, announced his retirement a few months ago, setting off an international race to become the next top climate diplomat. Here's what I wrote of that race at the time: