By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted October 23, 2009. The who, what, where, when and why about COP 15, which strangely means: the “Council of Parties.” There’s a lot of buzz about COP15, the big climate-change meeting coming up — what exactly is all the hype about, and why should you care? Here’s a simple breakdown. [...]

Here is the good news on the climate front: The Europeans have ratcheted down their emissions targets, the Chinese are getting serious about solar power and energy efficiency, and Washington is lumbering toward a carbon cap. These are steps toward the long-held goal: cutting global warming pollution 80 percent by 2050. Such cuts would stabilize [...]

Facing climate disaster, African countries are calling for a fast greenhouse gas reduction to 350 parts per million ahead of the global climate protests this Saturday The battle over carbon emissions has so far been fought mainly between big and powerful players. In countries like Australia, the coal industry has battled environmentalists and taken on [...]

The political method has not worked so well. In fact it’s lurching toward something between abject and embarrassing failure. Let’s try something else. I didn’t make the trip to Thailand for the pre-Copenhagen negotiating session last week, and I’m glad I didn’t. For one thing, the weather was doing its best to remind delegates what [...]

Editor’s Note: This is the kickoff to a series of pieces as a Copenhagen Primer about climate change that we will be running in the lead up to the international climate talks in Copenhagen beginning on December 7. Stay tuned. They say that everyone who finally gets it about climate change has an “Oh, shit” [...]

For OpEdNews: Andrew Glikson – Writer Climate change is tracking toward levels which transcend the planetary boundaries which allowed the development of humans over the last 3 million years1. These limits have already been crossed in terms of the rise in greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, Nitric oxide) and extensive loss of species1. Given lag effects, [...]

You would have to go back at least 15 million years to find carbon dioxide levels on Earth as high as they are today, a UCLA scientist and colleagues report Oct. 8 in the online edition of the journal Science. “The last time carbon dioxide levels were apparently as high as they are today — [...]

The US and other developed countries are attempting to “fundamentally sabotage” the Kyoto protocol and all-important international negotiations over its next phase, according to coordinated statements by China and 130 developing countries at UN climate talks in Bangkok today. As 180 countries started a second week of talks, the developing countries showed their deep frustration [...]

Narrated by Al Gore this introduction to the Google climate chnage presentations to come, is well worth the time to view. Google has launched an interesting tool in preparation for GOP15 that allows users to explore what the world might look like if various levels of warming, sea rises, and so forth occur. You’re able [...]

ClimateWire, 28 September 2009 – When it comes to fighting climate change, pick a number — any number. Nearly 200 countries have signed a U.N. treaty pledging to avoid “dangerous” climate change. But lately, it seems, “dangerous” is lost in translation. Fifteen years since that agreement took effect, scientists and governments are still grappling with [...]