Internews' Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and its partners bring one of the largest cohorts of international journalists to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) summit, COP16, in Cancun this November, linking the high-level global summit to the real impacts of climate change felt by millions around the world.
UN Call for Climate Revolution
Bruce Gellerman - 07-Feb-2011
GELLERMAN: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville Mass, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman. Despite 20 years of UN led negotiations, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, and a new international climate treaty seems a distant hope. Now the Guardian newspaper in Britain reports that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appears to be ending his day-to-day involvement with the climate talks. But he's not going quietly. Former UNFCCC executive...
Moguls from mountains of Trash
Bruce Gellerman - 07-Feb-2011
GELLERMAN: You know what to do when life hands you lemons - but what if it gives you a power plant that burns garbage? Well, if you're architect Bjarke Ingels of Copenhagen - you turn it into a ski slope. His company, the Bjarke Ingels Group, just won first prize in an international competition that challenged architects to design a new incinerator to turn waste into energy in the Danish capital. Bjarke Ingels joins me on the line from Copenhagen - welcome to Living on Earth. INGELS:...
Poo Gloos
Bruce Gellerman - 07-Feb-2011
GELLERMAN: Like a lot of small towns, the village of Gresham, Wisconsin has a big and growing problem: an ever tightening budget and an ever-increasing amount of waste water. So Gresham - population 600 - is trying an experiment for its sewage: a poo gloo. That's "gloo" as in "igloo" and "poo" as in - well, you know. Art Bahr, the Administrator of Gresham, says the makers of the poo-gloo want to see if the igloo shaped device can handle wastewater during a Wisconsin winter. BAHR: Right now...
Green Mission for Blue Carbon: Restored wetland draws attention for its potent emissions-capture capacity
Suzanne Bohan - 23-Jan-2011
Robin Miller winced as she stuck her hand into the frigid waters of an experimental Delta wetland to probe the soft soil below. "I found it," the U.S. Geological Survey scientist called out, pulling from the muck a small packet filled with rotting plants called "proto-peat." In time, that plant matter becomes peat, the rich soil formed by decayed plants that makes the Delta such productive farmland. Though farmers have long prized peatland, scientists are also according it new respect given...
Tribes: The Overlooked U.S. Climate Delegate
Terri Hansen - 21-Jan-2011
This post as appeared in High Country News The Cancun dust has settled, though I can’t shake the images of tourist luxury. As one of 10 Earth Journalism Network U.S. Climate Media Fellows I spent two weeks last December reporting the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change COP16 summit, hosted by Mexico at Cancun’s opulent Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort. Numbed by my own hotel’s surreal landscape, I spent room time on the balcony watching a turquoise surf crash onto the sparkling white...
With Feds Failing, Climate Change Action Goes Local
Laura Paskus - 09-Jan-2011
This commentary, written for Blue Ridge Press, appeared online at: http://njtoday.net/2011/01/07/with-feds-failing-climate-change-action-go... By Laura Paskus In December, the nations of the world agreed once again to do nothing about climate change. And just as the science of climate change is more clear than ever, so too, are the politics: Whether led by President George W. Bush or Barack Obama, the United States is thwarting meaningful action on climate change. As people around...
Putting the puzzle together
Sam Adams - 02-Jan-2011
This originally appeared January 2, 2010, on Going Green in Cancun at http://www.greenindenmark.bloginky.com By SAM ADAMS My wife’s family has a tradition during cold winters. They buy puzzles, spread them on one end of a dining room table made for ten, and start putting them together. It may take weeks, but everybody who walks past feels compelled to put in a piece or two, or sit down to work on the puzzle and socialize for an hour or two. I’ve always been curious, so it was only natural that...
A Global Network Pursuing Climate Clarity
Andrew Revkin - 29-Dec-2010
The climate treaty negotiations that concluded earlier this month in Cancun, Mexico, were largely inconsequential. But they helped forge something new and exciting, to my mind: a globe-spanning network of journalists, brought there through the Earth Journalism Network, who were all eager to work together on fresh approaches to covering the causes and consequences of climate change and the related choices faced by communities from Lagos to Los Angeles. I have a post on my New York Times...
Is Cancún climate deal a pig’s ear?
Alexander Kelly - 28-Dec-2010
An early version of this piece appeared here at OurWorld 2.0, a United Nations University web magazine. Many thanks to Carol Smith for publishing it. Late last Friday I sat before a laptop in a Cancún hotel room with two fellow journalists while delegates from around the world gathered to conclude two weeks of UN climate talks. Through a choppy video feed, we strained to watch and listen as one by one leaders of nearly every negotiating bloc gave a thumbs up to the latest version...
Reforestation agreement plays a crucial role in global pact
Alexander Kelly - 28-Dec-2010
This post originally appeared at InvestigateWest on December 13, 2010. CANCUN — As two weeks of United Nations climate talks wound down this weekend, negotiators emerged with a global agreement they predict will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by limiting deforestation in the developing world. The deal, known as REDD, has held a leading role in UN deliberations since the end of last year’s talks in Copenhagen, but the details of the plan remain unsettled. Simply put, REDD would create a global...
Dispatch from Cancún: First Week of the UN Climate Talks
Alexander Kelly - 28-Dec-2010
This post originally appeared at Reporting for Duty on December 5th, 2010. CANCÚN — Last week began this year’s United Nations climate summit in tropical Cancún, where the sixteenth Conference of the Parties convened with the expressed aim of delivering our planet and its inhabitants from the horrors of global warming. The negotiations come at the end of a remarkable year, though those suffering the early effects of climate change might put it differently. During a period in...
A Rising Tide
Suzanne Bohan - 27-Dec-2010
CANCUN, Mexico -- When Ulamila Kurai Wragg visited New York in 2009 to speak about the frightening climatic changes taking place in the Cook Islands, some audience members stunned her. "I was hearing, 'There's no such thing as climate change. What proof have you got?' " Wragg recalled. "The experience I had in New York was not easy to forget," said the member of the Cook Islands delegation to this month's United Nations climate summit in Cancun. She described her experience while on a...
EPA announces plan for new carbon rules
Sam Adams - 23-Dec-2010
This originally appeared Dec. 23, 2010, on the blog Going Green in Cancun at http://www.greenindenmark.bloginky.com. By SAM ADAMS The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it plans to write new rules on carbon pollution from power plants and refineries within the next 12 months. Carbon-containing gases such as carbon dioxide are greenhouse gases that have been shown to trap heat energy near the Earth’s surface, contributing substantially to climate change. Fossil fuel power...
Job Well Done? Cancún Agreements Get Mixed Response from Indigenous Peoples
Terri Hansen - 20-Dec-2010
Originally appeared in Mother Earth Journal and Indian Country Today. By Terri Hansen, Today correspondent CANCUN, Mexico – Delegates from 193 countries negotiated a new international climate deal to cut carbon emissions and address mitigation and adaptation at the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change 16th Conference of the Parties. Negotiators emerged from an all nighter Dec. 11 tired, but pleased with the 'Cancún Agreements.‘ They will require that developed and developing countries...
‘Voices’ for Mother Earth ejected from climate convention
Terri Hansen - 20-Dec-2010
Originally appeared in Indian Country Today. By Terri Hansen, Today correspondent Story Published: Dec 17, 2010 CANCUN, Mexico – The U.N. Forum Convention on Climate Change denied entry to Indigenous Environmental Network Executive Director Tom Goldtooth Dec. 8 after a protest with chanting by non-Native participants arose a day earlier in the halls of the Moon Palace, site of the official U.N. climate convention. The convention is hosting 194 countries to further negotiations on the...
Taking the Temperature of The Cancun Climate Talks Program 1 of 2
Bruce Gellerman - 16-Dec-2010
HOSTS: Bruce Gellerman, Steve Curwood GUESTS: Daniel Schrag, Davyth Stewart REPORTERS: Ingrid Lobet, Mitra Taj GELLERMAN: From Public Radio International, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman. CURWOOD: And I'm Steve Curwood, ocean-side at the UN climate summit in Cancun Mexico, where delegates from more than 190 countries hope to find some means of agreement to fight global warming. FIGUERES: Cancun will be successful, if parties compromise, if they make sure that...
Living on Earth from Cancun COP 16 - Program 2 of 2
Bruce Gellerman - 16-Dec-2010
Living on Earth's team produced two-one hour programs from The Cancun Climate Summit. This is week two of two. HOSTS: Bruce Gellerman & Steve Curwood GUESTS: Rosalind Reeve, Jens Stoltenberg, Dan Nepstad, Inger Andersen, Anote Tong REPORTERS: Bobby Bascomb, Bruce Gellerman [THEME] GELLERMAN: From Public Radio International, this is Living on Earth. I'm Bruce Gellerman. CURWOOD: And I'm Steve Curwood at the UN climate summit in Cancun Mexico. Mexico's president tells delegates from...
REDD Path To A Green Planet
Bruce Gellerman - 16-Dec-2010
Climate scientists say preserving the world’s tropical rainforests is the fastest, cheapest way to mitigate climate change. In the first in a special series of field reports, Living on Earth’s Bruce Gellerman explores the Brazilian Amazon. Researchers there are trying to increase the value of the standing forest. They hope to preserve the Amazon’s rich biodiversity and its ability to store carbon. YOUNG: It's Living on Earth. I'm Jeff Young. CURWOOD: And I'm Steve Curwood. When...
Yucatan Forest Farmers
Bruce Gellerman - 16-Dec-2010
While international delegates discuss how to save the world’s forest, host Bruce Gellerman goes straight to the source. Deep in the Yucatan jungle he finds not just trees but an ancient culture struggling to survive. [SOUNDS OF OCEAN] GELLERMAN: Cancun's white, powder beach only seems to stretch forever. Earlier this year 15 miles of sand had to be brought in and the beach completely rebuilt after a storm washed Cancun's sand into the Caribbean Sea. And scientists warn global warning is...
UN climate talks close with countries in agreement
Laura Paskus - 15-Dec-2010
This blogpost originally appeared in the New Mexico Independent: http://newmexicoindependent.com/68331/un-climate-talks-close-with-countr... CANCUN, MEXICO — At Friday night’s closing plenary, delegates to the United Nation’s climate talks emphasized compromise and balance. Following the ceremony, they returned to meetings, and in the early morning hours on Saturday, agreed to continue discussions next year on the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period and the design of a Green Climate...
