There's really no point in climate change talks

This year's climate change talks will be held in South Africa, and by the current looks of it everything will remain only on talks. This is because many political analysts believe that it is almost impossible to expect international climate deal to be agreed given the current political situation in the world.

Last year's climate change talks in Cancun ended with some fairly modest advancements, and it looks like the same scenario could happen once again because of the difference in opinion between the developed and developing countries.

The major players, and world's largest CO2 polluters China and United States are still not prepared to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, and without these two countries showing the example everything else is pretty much useless.

As said before the gap in opinions between the developed and the developing world is still a too big obstacle to any success in reaching the international climate deal. Developing countries believe that rich industrialized countries should make legally binding commitments to deeper cuts in the emissions of the greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2).

Rich countries believe that deeper CO2 cuts would hurt their economies too much, especially if developing countries such as China and India would be left out of it.

Basically, it is status quo situation with none of major players ready to show the will to actually do something about climate change issue. Top polluters are anything but ready to legally commit to emission cuts, and if you look at these things more closely there's really no point in climate change talks. Just a high expectations resulting in one big disappointment.

Climate change issue - Ten things that need to be done

1. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions on global level. In order to do so countries must agree new international climate deal, at this point this looks to be impossible because of difference in opinions between the developed and the developing world.

2. Help animals and plants to adapt to climate change or else many species will go extinct. The biodiversity loss is already huge, and climate change has the potential to make things even worse.

3. Develop strong renewable energy sector on global level. Strong renewable energy sector would mean less need for fossil fuels, and less fossil fuels burning means less CO2 emissions.

4. Improve energy efficiency. Together with developing renewable energy sector world also needs to improve efficiency of currently dominant energy technologies.

5. Protect our oceans and forests. Our oceans and forests are our planet's largest absorbers of carbon dioxide, and maintaining this extremely useful ability of theirs is crucial thing in fight against climate change.

6. Adequate environmental and renewable energy legislation, both on national as well as international level.

7. Create funds for poor countries because poor countries do not have enough money to adapt to climate change. After all, these countries are the least responsible for ongoing climate change phenomenon, and they certainly do not deserve to suffer the most because of it.

8. Create more funds for climate change research. Much of climate change is still in sphere of predictions and scientific research will play a key role in developing a best possible strategy in our fight against climate change.

9. Stop deforestation. Deforestation not only destroys forests that sink lot of carbon dioxide but it is also responsible for around one fifth of total world's carbon emissions.

10. Green development of our entire society. People need to develop ecological conscience, and change their current system of values where everything resolves around the money. We need to know that we need nature much more than nature needs us.

What is the key to success in tackling climate change?

Climate change presents a huge threat to human well being. There are many people wondering why are world leaders doing so little to save us from seeing the worst of climate change. International climate talks are always just talks and nothing else, and such strategy will definitely not be enough to tackle climate change. What we need is an immediate action, and not more talks and false promises.

Many scientists will agree that the best way to tackle climate change is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2 emissions). In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions we need to first identify the main cause of these emissions.

The main cause of greenhouse gas emissions is fossil fuels burning. World economy still heavily relies on fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), and as long as fossil fuels remain dominant sources of energy we won't have any chance to successfully tackle climate change.

What's the alternative to fossil fuels? The answer is quite simple, namely the renewable energy. If world would to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources this would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that end up in earth's atmosphere, and stop climate change from going totally out of control.

So what's the problem then? Well, besides the fact that some people still do not believe in climate change there is also the problem regarding the reliability of renewable energy, namely renewable energy technologies are still not developed enough to reliably deliver enough power needed to satisfy a global economy.

Renewable energy is also more expensive option compared to fossil fuels, and not many people are willing to pay higher energy bills, because to many people money is still more important than saving our planet from huge environmental catastrophe.

The key to success in tackling climate change is basically in changing the ethical values of our society. World has to stop its blind faith in money because there are things much more important than money like for instance our environment, or in general our planet.

Climate change has the potential to completely destroy our way of life and people should be really asking themselves what's the use in having all the money in the world if you don't have nothing to spend it on?

Indian ocean sinks huge amounts of carbon emissions

Our oceans are the largest absorbers of carbon dioxide (CO2), and they (together with forests) play a vital role in global fight against climate change. Are all oceans equally important in sinking the carbon emissions from the atmosphere? Well, if the results of the latest international study are true, then the answer is no they're not.

According to the latest study resulting from the joined work which included 400 scientists from 10 countries Indian Ocean absorbs three times more carbon dioxide than the Atlantic Ocean.

Why is that? Professor Carlos Duarte explained this by saying that this is because of the proliferation of a particular kinds of algae called diatoms. Diatoms are one of the most common types of phytoplankton which contribute up to 45% of the total oceanic primary production.

Many scientists across the globe have been lately putting more efforts into ocean research because they are aware that oceans are our most important ally in fight against climate change.

World must gain a better knowledge about natural defense systems against climate change such as oceans and forests because climate change impact is constantly growing in strength.

Improving our knowledge is the only way to success in fight against climate change, and so the scientists around the world need to share their data and work together in order to find the adequate solutions against climate change.

Climate change is global issue that can be solved only at global level, and world leaders need to be aware of that. Sadly, when it comes to politics individual interests still outweigh global interest, and world leaders will continue to care very little about the carbon sinking ability that our oceans posses.

Invasive species entering Antarctica because of climate change

The extremely cold weather served for many years as the natural protection for Antarctica's native species. Invasive species didn't stand the chance to survive in Antarctica simply because the weather was too cold. But the impact of climate change is constantly growing, the temperatures are rising, and with these changes invasive species are looking more and more like a huge threat to Antarctica's native ecosystems.

The Swedish scientists have already spotted large populations of red king crabs over a 30-mile stretch of deep-sea habitat along the western Antarctica Peninsula during the recent Antarctic summer. Up until recently the weather was too cold for crabs to survive but in the last ten years or so the average ocean temperature around Antarctica has increased by around 1 degree Fahrenheit. Not that big increase, but big enough for king crabs to expand their territory.

The rise of king crab population in Antarctica waters could spell serious trouble for species such as mussels, brittle stars, and sea urchins. The problem is that these species haven't developed effective defense systems against predators since up to now cold weather managed to isolate them from predators.

The isolation period could soon come to an abrupt end for many species in Antarctica, and sensible ecosystems of Antarctica will find it extremely hard to survive the invasion of foreign predatory species.

Their isolation has lasted tens of millions of years but climate change could change all of this in only couple of decades time.

The uniqueness of species in Antarctica is under great threat. These species will not only have to withstand climate change but also hordes of invasive animals that are slowly but surely making their way to once impenetrable kingdom of ice.

Climate change science - More about predictions than actual facts?

Is climate change science really more about predictions and possible scenarios than dealing with actual facts? Well, it certainly looks that way though there are two things that most scientists agree upon as the valid facts. The number one is the fact that climate change is really happening, and number two the climate change impact will become much stronger in years to come.

Why is climate change science still based mostly on predictions and possible future scenarios? The answer is because climate change is extremely complex phenomenon of which we currently know very little of.

There are so many different factors that influence the climate change that science is practically each day learning something new. There is pretty much a global scientific consensus about greenhouse gases being the main cause for ongoing climate change phenomenon. And that's about it.

But there are many other factors that also play a significant role in climate change phenomenon, and this gives climate change science an enormous complexity. Not only scientists have to be aware of all these factors when making climate change predictions, they also have to understand the interactions between all these factors, and this is pretty much impossible, even with the latest computer technology.

Don't get me wrong here, scientists are working really hard, collecting and analyzing different data from all corners of the world in search for answers. But despite their hard work they can still not offer exact answers, they can only predict possible outcomes.

Most of these possible outcomes, alias future climate change scenarios, are anything but comforting, and if these scientific predictions are true world is heading towards a disaster of enormous proportions in form of very frequent extreme weather events, droughts, flooding, new diseases, sea level rise, water and food shortages.

Sure we can always hope for the best and discard these future scenarios as scary scientific inventions, and keep telling ourselves that scientists do not know what they are talking about. Ignorance vs science? Is this really the best way for our society to go forward?

How is climate change affecting corals?

Climate change is already having negative impact on many species, and in years to come things will likely become even worse. Among the species most sensitive to climate change are definitely corals, and if the world fails to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions corals could in years to come totally disappear from our seas and oceans.

Professor Ove Hoegh Guldberg from the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland has already warned world leaders about this issue by saying that climate change is making coral bleaching far more frequent than ever before.

He also pointed out that the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef system, with its variety of colorful corals, could be gone within four decades unless world reduces greenhouse gas emissions to acceptable levels.

The excessive carbon emissions are the main reason behind the increasing ocean acidification that is currently one of the biggest threats to survival of corals. If world continues with current levels of carbon emissions corals will soon become unable to cope with it, and will forever perish from the face of the earth.

By continuing current levels of greenhouse gas emissions we could very soon reach the point of no return where we won't be able to limit further temperature increases which will lead to not only extinction of corals but many other species too, both in land as well as in seas and oceans.

Corals play extremely important role in marine food chain, and their extinction would no doubt create huge marine biodiversity loss. It's definitely the time for action but are world leaders finally ready to go beyond the talk and actually do something to protect our planet from climate change?

Climate change will likely threaten crop yield

Climate change will not only bring more frequent extreme weather events and cause significant sea level rise but is also very likely to threaten crop yield which could in years to come lead to even more hunger in the world. This is because climate change will likely make plants more sensitive to infectious diseases.

Many scientists such as Dr Newton from the James Hutton Institute, Dundee, Scotland, are warning the world that fighting these infectious diseases will be the key in avoiding more hunger in years to come. Dr Newton believes that the best option to avoid the major threat to crop yield in years to come is to exploit diversity in crops because this increases resilience to microbes and other stresses caused by climate change.

In order to exploit diversity in crops scientists need to learn the complex interaction between microbes and plants and to "understand the dynamics of complex microbial communities and their interactions to be able to predict the likelihood of disease".

Knowing these interactions will be a key in improving the future crop production and probably the only way to reduce the climate change's negative impact on the price and availability of food.

According to the latest reports a successful pest and disease management was a main contributor in doubling the food production in the last 40 years, but on the other hand 10-16% of the global harvest is still lost because of different plant diseases. The increased climate change impact will likely give significant boost to micro-organisms that cause these diseases so science will no doubt have an extremely hard task to keep these pests away from the crops.

The well known climate change indicators such as higher temperatures and increased levels of carbon dioxide will not only affect existing plant microbes but also create the ideal conditions for the appearance of new microbes. Reliable crop production will likely be put under great jeopardy in years to come.

UK not worried about climate change

The science is warning us that the climate change is the biggest environmental issue of our time. Though there is no reason for scientists to lie to us many people are still not worried about climate change as they do not consider it to be a serious environmental threat.

According to the latest survey conducted by Ipsos MORI only a quarter of Britons believe climate change is one of the most important environmental issues facing the UK today.

Britons are more worried about the energy security, waste disposal and overpopulation than climate change, and consider these three to be more important environmental issues.

The experts believe that the main reason why so little Britons consider climate change as a big environmental threat is because of last year’s extremely cold winter in Britain. The people, as usual, fail to think on the long run, forgetting that the climate change is a long-term phenomenon with the ever-increasing impact.

The situation in Britain clearly shows that science is still not doing enough to show the people that climate change is indeed a serious environmental problem that needs to be taken care off as soon as possible. It certainly looks like the ice melting on Earth's poles and more frequent extreme weather events are not enough for people to take climate change seriously.

Dr Simon Buckell, from the Grantham Institute for Climate Change said that "Science needs to show how current climate change affects economies and what that can mean going forward. Until people understand if there is, or isn’t a problem, people will be reticent to make a financial commitment."

The main downside is that convincing people takes time, and time is definitely not one of the luxuries we have at our disposal in fight against the climate change.

Climate change issue is just a political game for Obama?

In his Earth Day proclamation the U.S. president Obama said "The United States can be a leader in reducing the dangerous pollution that causes global warming and can propel these advances by investing in the clean energy technologies, markets, and practices that will empower us to win the future."

Sadly the words (even coming from the most powerful man on our planet) are of no use without the appropriate action, and actual climate change action still looks like the thing Obama is seriously afraid off. Has there been some evident progress in U.S. efforts to tackle climate change since Obama took control of the White House from Bush? Nope. Still no international climate deal, and still no cap and trade legislation.

So what can we really expect from Obama in regards to climate change issue? More useless talks that have no effect whatsoever?

These kind of talks may be of no use to actually create some meaningful action against climate change but they could become quite useful from political point of view. Why? Because Obama's administration has started its 2012 re-election campaign, and climate change issue looks like the excellent political topic to create an early contrast with Republican candidates.

Obama is green, Obama loves and cares for our environment and Republicans don't; this is basically just a part of one big political game. The Republicans as well as the Democrats care very little or none whatsoever about our environment if and when environmental issues are in contrast with their political interests.

Obama is no exception. He's far from being an environmentalist some people think it is because he's first of all politician, and politics is as usual the game of interests, the game where economic issues always outweigh environmental issues. I'm sorry Mr Obama but words will this time not suffice.