Extreme Weather Hits Record High in 07

According to Reuters, the world experienced a series of record-breaking extreme weather events early in 2007. Here is an exerpt of the article.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heatwaves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than average for those months.
There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heatwaves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said.
"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate Program told journalists in Geneva.
While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring.
"It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year," he said.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are likely to intensify.
South Asia's worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands, livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the densely-populated region.
Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the WMO said.
England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than $6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901 to its wettest May on record.
Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February, followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan.
Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May.
Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May, resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.
Temperature records were broken in southeastern Europe in June and July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded.

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 22 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.htm

Climate Change: Case Studies

The New York Times continues reporting on how poor nations are paying the price for the greenhouse gases produced by wealthy nations (chiefly the US and Western Europe.

“We have an obligation to help countries prepare for the climate changes that we are largely responsible for,” said Peter H. Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security in Berkeley, Calif. His institute has been tracking trends like the burst of new desalination plants in wealthy places running short of water.
“If you drive your car into your neighbor’s living room, don’t you owe your neighbor something?” Dr. Gleick said. “On this planet, we’re driving the climate car into our neighbors’ living room, and they don’t have insurance and we do.”
Around the world, there are abundant examples of how wealth is already enabling some countries to gird against climatic and coastal risks, while poverty, geography and history place some of the world’s most crowded, vulnerable regions directly in harm’s way.

Follow this link to read about four fronts in the fight against the effects of climate change. (Free) registration is required.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Light and Power. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

The Rich Pollute, The Poor Pay

Wealthy nations contribute about 2/3 of the greenhouse gases that are leading to climate change, while poorer nations will suffer the brunt of the consequences, according to a New York Times article.

The world’s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas.

But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most vulnerable regions — most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Light and Power. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

UK Christians to Discuss Climate Change

According to Christian Today,

The Ecumenical World Development Consultation 2007 will take place at the Hayes Conference Centre from 21 to 23 March 2007 under the theme “Lifestyles”. Delegates will discuss the impact of the lifestyle choices of those living in affluent countries like the UK on the lives of those living in the Global South.

The conference is aimed to educate Christians of all levels of knowledge on climate change and sustainable living and a number of workshops will be led by eco experts including Paula Clifford from Christian Aid, David Pickering from Operation Noah, Jo Rathbone from Eco-Congregations, and Benedict Southworth of the World Development Movement.

They will also address the impact of our lifestyle choices on climate change and explore the possibility of Gospel-based alternative lifestyles.
“This year’s theme emerges from the growing awareness within the churches of our choices’ impact on the world, and addresses the relationship between care for creation and care for humanity,” said organisers.

IREJN is Connecticut's Interfaith Power and Light. Visit us at www.irejn.org.

Kenya provides Climate Change Clues

Past changes in Kenya's climate yields important information about the changes global warming will bring, according to a new study. Read about it here.

Climate Change in Africa

Weather patterns in Kenya are far different than they were a generation ago. There's less snow on the mountaintops, lakes are much lower, and the rainy season has been arriving late. And when the rain finally comes, it falls too hard and fast and sweeps away the precious topsoil that farmers need to plant their harvests

Listen to the NPR story here.