According to a report by the BBC:
"It's now "virtually certain" that 2023 will be the hottest year on record. That's something that no major climate science body expected at the start of the year."
We will be looking to COP28 to lead to some serious action...
I saw this article online at the Guardian. Can we come up with a list for here in Guyana?
The article lists acts of kindness which can be done (in the UK) to show kindness to another.
To quote the article:
"But what all these acts have in common is that they will make you feel good: research shows that being kind make us happier. So you can help others and feel better yourself all at once."
Examples that work anywhere:
Be polite, cheerful and friendly.
Give blood.
Being kind to animals.
"Guyana is now closer to launching its first major initiative in renewable energy. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently granted approval for construction of the US$45M Hope Wind Farm Project. This represents the first substantial utility-scale renewable energy initiative to be implemented in the new oil producing South American country.
According to project documents, the 25.2MW wind farm will generate over 80GWh per year, to be delivered to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL)’s grid according to the terms of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and Grid Interconnection Agreement. This wind energy therefore represents over 10% of GPL’s gross total electricity generation, enough to supply 7000 homes with power."
Another article appeared in the Guyana Chronicle.
We look forward to GPL getting a PPA agreed.
Despite reports that global emissions of the potent greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) were almost eliminated in 2017, an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has found atmospheric levels growing at record values.
The world will face irreversible heating unless firms shift their priorities soon, the outgoing head of the Bank of England has told the BBC.Of course Mark Carney is not alone in this view. Some investors are moving in this direction.
Mark Carney said the financial sector had begun to curb investment in fossil fuels – but far too slowly.
He said leading pension fund analysis "is that if you add up the policies of all of companies out there, they are consistent with warming of 3.7-3.8C".
According to the research, the social tipping interventions that could help us do this would be:Of course, many of these mechanisms are already in process and evident in society to some degree, but whether any have yet reached a tipping point leading to a rapid societal transformation is debatable.
- removing fossil-fuel subsidies and incentivising decentralised energy generation;
- building carbon-neutral cities;
- divesting from assets linked to fossil fuels;
- revealing the moral implications of fossil fuels;
- strengthening climate education and engagement; and
- disclosing information on greenhouse gas emissions.
"The climate math is brutally clear: While the world can't be healed within the next few years, it may be fatally wounded by negligence until 2020," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, founder and now director emeritus of the Potsdam Climate Institute.
The sense that the end of next year is the last chance saloon for climate change is becoming clearer all the time.
"I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival," said Prince Charles, speaking at a reception for Commonwealth foreign ministers recently.
"One of the understated headlines in last year's IPCC report was that global emissions of carbon dioxide must peak by 2020 to keep the planet below 1.5C.
Current plans are nowhere near strong enough to keep temperatures below the so-called safe limit. Right now, we are heading towards 3C of heating by 2100 not 1.5."
"South America's second poorest nation is bracing for an oil boom that could catapult it to the top of the continent's rich list - and beyond. But can Guyana avoid the so-called oil curse and ensure that its newfound riches benefit all Guyanese?"
"Even if the present economics of oil added up (and they clearly don’t) the urgent need to halt global warming means oil will cease to be viable within a few years."
"The charity's report identified ten events that cost more than $1bn each, with four costing more than $7bn each.
Scientists have shown that the chances of heat waves in Europe were influenced directly by human-related warming.
Other events, say the authors, are due to shifts in weather patterns, said to be a consequence of climate change.
According to the report the most financially costly disasters linked to rising temperatures were Hurricanes Florence and Michael, with costs said to be around $17bn for the former, and $15bn for the latter."
In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. The fertility rate all but halved to 2.4 children per woman by last year.If the rate is below 2.1 then the population will start to shrink. In some countries the population may be maintained only by increasing life expectancy and immigration each of which have other issues. This finding has huge implications for the future.
But that masks huge variation between nations.
The fertility rate in Niger, west Africa, is 7.1, but in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus women are having one child, on average.
In the UK, the rate is 1.7, similar to most Western European countries.
'The green economy is defined as an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without degrading the environment. It is closely related with ecological economics, but has a more politically applied focus.'It is said to include:
Renewable energyAnd regarding energy (and of special interest to us in Guyana):
Green buildings
Sustainable transport
Water management
Waste management
Land management
"Green economies require green energy generation based on renewable energy to replace fossil fuels as well as energy conservation and efficient energy use."So we have a long way to go in the energy sector.
"For civilization to continue sustainably, human beings must shift from fossil fuels to solar energy—despite the technical problems. And investments are needed in biotic and other low-energy innovations. But in the end, global energy consumption must be reduced by something on the order of 60 percent. This will require a number of profound non-technological changes. Energy equity must be established among the world's nations—people in wealthy countries should not, as they do today, use hundreds of times as much energy as people in the poorest countries."
"The only sound way to appraise the state of the world is to count. How many violent acts has the world seen compared with the number of opportunities? And is that number going up or down? As Bill Clinton likes to say, “Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.” We will see that the trend lines are more encouraging than a news junkie would guess."After examining the statistics the report concludes:
"The world is not falling apart. The kinds of violence to which most people are vulnerable—homicide, rape, battering, child abuse—have been in steady decline in most of the world. Autocracy is giving way to democracy. Wars between states—by far the most destructive of all conflicts—are all but obsolete. The increase in the number and deadliness of civil wars since 2010 is circumscribed, puny in comparison with the decline that preceded it, and unlikely to escalate."
"The world needs a Plan B on climate change because politicians are failing to reduce carbon emissions, according to a UN report.
It warns governments if they overshoot their short-term carbon targets they will have to cut CO2 even faster in the second half of the century to keep climate change manageable"
"At a meeting in Berlin, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Sunday released a report that found that nations still have a chance to fulfill the goal but must aggressively turn away from relying largely on fossil fuels such as coal for energy and replace them with cleaner energy sources such as solar and wind power. To reach their target of 3.6 degrees (2 degrees Celsius) over preindustrial levels, nations must work together to lower emissions 'by 40 to 70 percent' of what they were in 2010, the report said."
"Growing inequality, environmental decline and "teetering" economies mean the world must change the way it does business, a UN report concludes."
"As the report states: "The essence of the circular economy lies in designing goods to facilitate disassembly and re-use, and structuring business models so manufacturers can reap rewards from collecting and refurbishing, remanufacturing, or redistributing products they make.""