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Eliza Barclay in Mexico City
for National Geographic News
September 21, 2007
Climate change is accelerating the spread of dengue fever throughout the Americas and in tropical regions worldwide, researchers say.
More rainfall in certain areas and warmer temperatures overall are providing optimal conditions for mosquitos—which spread the virus that causes dengue—to breed and expand into new territories.
By 2085 climate change will put an estimated 3.5 billion people at risk of dengue fever, the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in March. (Related news: “Dengue Fever: Growing Threat Rivals Malaria, Ebola, Experts Say” [October 18, 2006].)
“Climate change is incurring lots of unintended consequences for health around the world,” said Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard Medical School. Epstein also worked on the IPCC report.
The upsurge in dengue, the world’s most widespread vector-borne virus, is part of this wider trend.
For instance, heat waves and heat-related illnesses and death, an increase in incidence of tropical diseases, and a rise in tick-borne Lyme disease are all becoming a reality, Epstein said.
Dengue in the Americas
Dengue—which is usually not fatal—is most commonly spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a domestic, day-biting insect that favors human blood.
Dengue transmission is largely confined to tropical and subtropical regions, since freezing temperatures kill the mosquito’s larvae and eggs.
Dengue’s burden may be most serious in the American continents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of cases reported in the Americas increased from 66,000 in 1980 to 552,000 in 2006, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Brazil, Paraguay, and the Dominican Republic have all had serious epidemics in recent years.
And in Mexico dengue cases have increased by more than 600 percent since 2001, according to Mexico’s National Center for Epidemiology and Disease Control.
Mexican health officials have begun to acknowledge that climate change may be a factor in the uptick of dengue cases.
Pablo Kuri, director of the center of epidemiology, told reporters last week that he is seeking 1.8 million U.S. dollars (20 million Mexican pesos) to aid seven Mexican states with the highest incidence of dengue.
Andres Flores Montalvo is director of climate change studies at the National Institute of Ecology in Coyoacán.
“There are many factors that could explain the growth in the number of cases of dengue in Mexico, but surely increases in temperature and precipitation are influential,” Flores Montalvo said.
For example, a 2006 study published by both the National Institute of Ecology and the National Institute of Public Health found an increase in the incidence of vector-transmitted diseases—such as dengue and malaria—that were associated with rising temperatures and rainfall patterns. (Related news: “Warming May Spur Extinctions, Shortages, Conflicts, World Experts Warn” [April 6, 2007].)
New Niches
One of the most notable changes is that cases of dengue are now appearing in Mexican states outside the traditional range of the dengue-carrying mosquito, including the northern state of Chihuahua. (See a map of the region.)
Horacio Riojas is the head of the environmental health unit at the National Institute of Public Health and the lead author of the 2006 National Institute of Ecology study.
The combination of higher temperatures and greater humidity is allowing the dengue mosquito to flourish in its native habitat as well as in new regions of Mexico, he said.
“The vector [mosquito] … is generating more and better niches where it can thrive,” Riojas said.
The rise in natural disasters such as hurricanes in Mexico has also indirectly contributed to the spread of dengue, Riojas added.
After Hurricane Stan hit southern Mexico in 2005, public health researchers detected changes in the hydrology of rivers caused by the hurricane’s force—which created new reservoirs for the dengue mosquito to breed.
Both Riojas and Flores Montalvo agree that more research is needed to understand the relationship between dengue and climate change in Latin America
Waxing poetic about the impending environmental crisis is common enough in Hollywood and the political arena, but electronic music is rarely found in the same sentence as phrases like “global warming,” “green lifestyle,” and “carbon neutral.”
Enter techno icon and head of Minus and Plus 8 Records, Richie Hawtin. A quick peek at the label’s site reveals the following message from the DJ and producer:
For the past 17 years, Plus 8, Minus, and myself as a performer have been part of the continued development of electronic music, a music that prides itself in always looking towards the future. So in the spirit of this tradition, I urge us all to look towards the future of our planet and make the necessary steps in our lives to ensure a bright and safe future for our next generations.
Not one to blabber away without backing up his statements, Hawtin has announced Minus’ plan to become a carbon neutral company, with the initial focus resting on artist travel and manufacturing practices.
Hawtin, in a recent press release, cites offsetting CO2 emissions from plane travel as one solution, as well as seeking other means of traveling to gigs (bus, train, bike, etc.). Minus has also implemented the practice of packaging releases in recycled, plastic-free materials and utilizing the digital realm as much as possible.
While these aren’t necessarily revolutionary tactics, the mere fact that a prolific and much-respected figure has spoken out on a topic rarely broached by the electronic music community is pretty heartwarming. So if you see the likes of Matthew Dear, Ricardo Villalobos, and Lindstrom biking to their respective gigs, armed with CD promos packaged in paper, you’ll know electronic music is catching on to the trend. Let’s hope it does.
India’s new national Council on Climate Change met for the first time on Friday, marking the country’s first step towards assessing and controlling its global warming-related greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are five facts on India and climate change.
(For related story see INDIA-CLIMATE/ROADMAP)
* India is the world’s fourth biggest greenhouse gas emitter and produces about 4 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. The 1,884 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent it emitted in 2000 rank after the US (6,928), China (4,938) and Russia (1,952). * Emissions are said to be growing by 2 to 3 percent annually. Its 2000 emissions were 41 percent higher than its 1990 emissions, according to the World Resources Institute. The main contributor is the energy sector, which the government wants to grow significantly by 2012, to link up the half a billion people living without electricity.
* Per capita emissions are small. At around a tonne per person per year in 1998, they were a quarter of the global average of 4 tonnes per year, and way below the US’s 20 tonnes.
* India ratified the world’s only global agreement on emissions reductions, the Kyoto Protocol, in August 2002. As a developing country it is not required to set the specific reductions targets required for developed countries.
* Rising temperatures could provoke more frequent floods and droughts, spur disease and increase water scarcity in India because of the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers. By 2030, glaciers could shrink from 500,000 sq km to 100,000 sq km if current rates of warming continue, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in April.
Sources: Reuters, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) (http://unfccc.int/parties_and_observers/parties/items/2109.php) , World Resources Institute (http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/climate-atmosphere/country-prof ile-85.html), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (www.iaea.org/inisnkm/nkm/aws/eedrb/data/IN-enemc.html)
Story Date: 16/7/2007 Reuters
BEIJING – A Chinese environmental activist, once hailed a hero for protecting China’s third-largest lake, has been sentenced to three years in prison for fraud and extortion, but his wife said she was convinced the charges were trumped up.
Separately, a Chinese court reduced the jail sentence on a dissident by 17 months and he could be paroled before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a rights group said.
A Beijing worker was released after serving 18 years for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, another group said.
China’s human rights record has come under fire from international press and rights watchdogs this month in the run-up to the one-year countdown for the Olympics.
Environment activist Wu Lihong, 39, a candidate in a 2005 national campaign to name 10 people who “moved China” with their service to society, pleaded not guilty to fraud and extortion and will appeal against the verdict meted out by the Yixing People’s Court on Friday.
“The court did not summon any witnesses and ignored the defence’s argument,” his wife Xu Jiehua told Reuters on Saturday.
Wu was accused of extorting 15,000 yuan ($1,900) from a businesswoman, but he argued the money was a commission for selling anti-pollution facilities to factories, his wife said.
Wu was arrested in April after reporting worsening pollution at Taihu lake, which has an area of 2,420 square km (934 square miles) and a shoreline of 400 km (250 miles). It straddles the border of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and is home to more than 60 kinds of fish.
In late May and early June, the lake was covered in a thick foul-smelling canopy of green algae that left tap water undrinkable for more than 2.3 million residents of Wuxi city in Jiangsu province and prompted a run on bottled water for days.
Tap water in Wuxi has been back to normal after the government took out 6,000 tonnes of algae, closed some chemical factories and diverted water from the Yangtze river, but experts said it did not solve key problems.
The court put off Wu’s trial in June to investigate accusations interrogators tortured him to extract a confession.
“Wu Lihong told the court he was physically tormented for five days and five nights… He showed scars from cigarette burns on his hands,” his wife said.
But the court ruled there was no evidence of torture.
Wu’s wife has sued the cabinet’s State Environmental Protection Administration for naming Yixing a model city, but the court refused to take up the case.
PAROLE
The San Francisco-based watchdog Dui Hua Foundation said in an e-mailed statement Hu Shigen, sentenced in 1995 to 20 years in prison for subversion, was given a 17-month sentence reduction this year and may be released before the 2008 Olympics.
Hu was convicted of setting up an opposition party in defiance of a ban, establishing an independent labour union and commemorating the Tiananmen massacre. His sentence was reduced by seven months in 2005.
The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a faxed statement Xi Haoliang, a Beijing worker convicted of arson, was released from prison on Aug. 7 after his sentence was commuted.
Xi was originally meted a death sentence suspended for two years for trying to stop troops tanks from entering the capital at the height of the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
Story by Benjamin Kang Lim
Story Date: 13/8/2007
The US House of Representatives’ energy bill repeals some $15 billion in tax breaks for oil and gas companies and uses the money raised to promote alternative energy sources and energy conservation.
How much some of the tax provisions will raise or cost over a 10-year period are:
REVENUE PROVISIONS:
* Excludes from lower tax rates company income earned from the sale of oil and gas (raises $11.4 billion)
* Limits foreign tax credits for overseas oil and gas extraction income (raises $3.6 billion)
* Companies must take seven years, instead of five years, to write off certain energy exploration costs (raises $103 million)
PRODUCTION INCENTIVES:
* Extends by four years through 2012, tax credit for producing electricity from solar, wind and other renewable sources (costs $6.6 billion)
* Authorizes bonds for public power provides and electric cooperatives to pay for project that generate power from renewable (costs $550 million)
* Removes the cap on the tax credit for installing residential solar panels and fuel cells (costs $89 million)
CONSERVATION:
* Creates tax credits for bonds for green community programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions (costs $1.5 billion)
* Provides $4,000 tax credit for each plug-in hybrid vehicle purchased (costs $1.2 billion)
* Ends tax loophole that allows businesses to expense heavy vehicles that guzzle more gasoline (costs $786 million)
* Extends for two years through 2010 the $1 a gallon tax credit for biodiesel production (costs $279 million)
* Extends through 2010 and increases to $50,000 the tax credit for service stations to install pumps that dispense fuel made from 85 percent ethanol (costs $184 million)
* Extends the energy-efficient commercial buildings deduction for five years through 2013 (costs $901 million)
* Creates tax credit bonds so states can fund programs to provide consumers with loans and grants to buy energy efficient homes or improve existing ones (costs $903 million)
* Modifies and extends tax credit for energy-efficient appliances for three years through 2010 (costs $351 million)
* Employers can offset cost of providing workers that bike to work storage for their bicycles (costs $10 million)
Story Date: 13/8/2007 Reuters
from Herald Sun (australia)
from correspondents 26/07/07OZONE smog will accentuate global warming this century, for it will damage plants and trees that help soak up carbon emissions, a study to be published today said.
Its authors fear a major factor in the climate-change equation has been badly overlooked.
“Carbon sinks” – the famous ability of vegetation to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas – are being damaged by ozone, they said.
As a result, more CO2 will build in the atmosphere instead of being taken up by the land, which in turn will stoke global warming and thus worsen climate change.
In the stratosphere, a thin, naturally-occurring level of ozone is a vital shield for life on Earth, providing a shield against DNA-damaging ultraviolet.
But at ground level, it is a man-made pollutant, brewed in a reaction between fossil-fuel gases and sunlight.
Ozone has long been known to be a risk to health by damaging the airways, but recent research has also highlighted its damaging effect on vegetation.
The gas enters plants through respiratory pores, called stomata, in the leaves. It then produces by-products that crimp efficiency in photosynthesis, leaving a plant that is weak and undersized.
Efforts to figure out how fast-rising levels of ozone will affect forests have been hampered by a nasty confounding factor.
High levels of CO2 and ozone cause stomata to close, which means the plant takes in less of the CO2 that it needs to grow – but also less of the ozone that damages it.
Published in the British scientific journal Nature, the new study seeks to unravel these intertwining factors.
British researchers built a computer model to simulate the response of carbon sinks around the world in response to ozone levels, on a timescale running from 1901 to 2100.
They used two scenarios, depending on whether plants were deemed to have high or low sensitivity to ozone.
These scenarios were vetted for reliability by comparison with an experiment in which trees and shrubs in a Swiss field were exposed to artificially high levels of CO2 and ozone for seven years.
Under the “high” plant-sensitivity scenario, ozone diminished land carbon capture by a massive 23 per cent over the two centuries. Under the “low” scenario, the fall was 14 per cent.
Lead researcher Stephen Sitch of the Hadley Centre, part of Britain’s Met Office, said that the study did not estimate the effect of ozone for the 21st century specifically.
But, he said, it was clear that there would be a major contributory effect to global warming by 2100 as less airborne CO2 will be captured by the land.
“Existing calculations of the carbon cycle haven’t factored in the negative effect of ozone,” he said.
A rough calculation is that ozone could indirectly add “somewhere in the range of 0.5 to 1.25 degrees Celsius” in warming, according to Mr Sitch.
By comparison, global surface temperatures rose by 0.74 Celsius from 1906 to 2005, eroding glaciers and alpine snow cover and forcing permafrost into retreat, according to the latest report, issued this year, by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
By 2100, global average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 Celsius and 6.4 Celsius compared to 1980-99 levels, the IPCC calculates.
But this prediction is based on concentrations of greenhouse-gases and does not factor in the indirect effect of ozone.
Unlike CO2, which spreads around the planet’s atmosphere, ground-level ozone pools nearer to its source, with North America, Europe, China and India high on the list of polluted regions.
In pre-industrial times, ozone was 17 parts per billion (ppb). Today, it is 35 ppb and is on course for 54 ppb by the end of the century, said Mr Sitch.
Damage to plants starts to occur from 40-50 ppb but the levels vary greatly depending on the season, local topography and weather. Observational research in the US grainbelt has found spikes as high as 120 ppb.
The Environmental Protection Department today (July 18) issued the renewed licence for the Castle Peak Power Station.
”The renewed licence under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance will come into effect on August 1, 2007 and remain valid until the end of 2009,” a department spokesman said.
”The emission caps on sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulates, have been further tightened. In 2009, the allowed emissions from the station will be 15-27% lower than the 2005 levels,” he said.
Details of the emission caps in tonnes are as follows:
Aug 1– 2008 2009
Dec 31, 2007
SO2 20,215 41,400 39,400
NOx 12,500 27,650 27,300
RSP 600 1,165 1,115
”Power generation is the biggest local source of air pollutants. It is the Government’s firm policy to impose emission caps on power plants and progressively tighten the caps to ensure that Hong Kong will achieve the 2010 emissions reduction targets,” the spokesman said.
”We have informed the power companies the emission caps for 2010 and made clear that the need to protect our environment will be the focus of the post-2008 Schemes of Control. Their permitted rate of return will be linked to their achievement of the emission caps,” he said.
”Through the licence mechanism and the regulatory arrangements proposed for the post-2008 Scheme of Control Agreement, we are confident that the power companies will take timely actions to achieve the emission reduction required.”
To improve air quality, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government reached a consensus with the Guangdong Provincial Government in April, 2002, to reduce, on a best endeavour basis, the emission of four major air pollutants, namely sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 40%, 20%, 55% and 55% respectively in the region by 2010, using 1997 as the base year.
Ends/Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:15
青山發電廠續發牌照收緊總排放量
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
環境保護署今日（七月十八日）續發青山發電廠的牌照。
環保署發言人說：「根據《空氣污染管制條例》續發的牌照由今年八月一日起生效，有效期至二○○九年十二月三十一日。」
發言人說：「二氧化硫、氮氧化物和懸浮粒子的總排放量會進一步收緊。青山發電廠二○○九年許可的總排放量會較二○○五年減少百分之十五至二十七。」
總排放上限（公噸計）如下:
2007年8月1日 2008年 2009年
至12月31日
二氧化硫： 20,215 41,400 39,400
氮氧化物： 12,500 27,650 27,300
可吸入懸浮粒子： 600 1,165 1,115
發言人續說，發電是香港空氣污染的主要來源。政府會嚴格根據既定政策，訂定發電廠的污染物排放總量上限，並逐步收緊以達至本地二○一○年的減排目標。
發言人說：「政府與電力公司磋商時，已重申二○一○年的排放總量上限，而二○○八年後的管制計劃，重點為環保要求。電力公司的准許回報率會與他們是否超越排放上限掛鉤。」
他說：「透過發牌制度及建議二○○八年後的規管安排，我們有信心電力公司會採取適時的措施，以達至減排目標。」
為改善空氣質素，香港特別行政區政府於二○○二年四月與廣東省政府達成共識，雙方會盡最大努力，在二○一○年或之前把區域內四項主要空氣污染物（即二氧化硫、氮氧化物、可吸入懸浮粒子和揮發性有機化合物）的排放量，以一九九七年為參照基準，分別減少百分之四十、百分之二十、百分之五十五及百分之五十五。
GOV.cn Monday, July 9,
China must improve energy efficiency and upgrade its capacity to deal with climate changes, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at a meeting held in Beijing Monday.
“Cutting energy consumption and pollutant emissions and dealing with climate change are urgent, critically important tasks,” Wen said.
The creation of a task force on energy saving, pollution reduction and response to climate change by the Chinese government was one response to the situation, he said.
Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan also attended the meeting.
The meeting noted the many difficulties the government is facing to meet its energy saving and pollution reduction goals by 2010.
A series of serious pollution incidents have sounded alarms for the government.
A severe algae outbreak at the end of May left tap water undrinkable for a week for half of the 2.3 million residents in Wuxi, a city in the eastern Jiangsu Province.
In mid-June, another algae bloom covered 800 square kilometers of the central-western and northern parts of the Taihu Lake, causing widespread concern in cities along the lake.
Apart from Taihu Lake, blue-green algae outbreaks have been reported in Chaohu Lake and southwestern Dianchi Lake since May, and have threatened local tap water supply.
Water pollution in the lake has aroused the concern of the central government, which has demanded that no more nitrogen or phosphorus discharging industrial projects be approved along the lake.
China has committed itself to improving energy efficiency — its goal is to cut energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of GDP, along with a 10 percent cut in major pollutants, between 2006and 2010.
China’s per unit of GDP energy consumption fell 1.23 percent in2006, well short of the projected target of 4 percent, official figures showed.
Editor:
Xinhua
温家宝主持会议部署节能减排和应对气候变化工作
温家宝主持召开国家应对气候变化
及节能减排工作领导小组第一次会议
研究部署节能减排和应对气候变化工作
国家应对气候变化及节能减排工作领导小组第一次会议9日在北京召开。中共中央政治局常委、国务院总理、国家应对气候变化及节能减排工作领导小组组长温家宝主持会议并讲话。他强调，一定要从全局和战略的高度，充分认识加强节能减排和应对气候变化工作的极端重要性和紧迫性，增强历史责任感和使命感，下更大的决心、用更大的气力、采取更有力的措施，切实把这方面工作抓紧做好。
会议指出，成立国家应对气候变化及节能减排工作领导小组，充分表明中国政府对这项工作高度重视。当前，我国能源消耗高、环境污染重问题突出，实现“十一五”规划提出的节能降耗和污染减排目标困难很多，面临的形势十分严峻，特别是最近一些地方接连出现严重污染事件给我们敲响了警钟。对此，要有强烈的危机感和紧迫感。要充分认识做好节能减排和应对气候变化工作，是贯彻落实科学发展观的要求，是建设资源节约型和环境友好型社会的任务，是关系经济社会可持续发展全局的课题，是对政府执行力和公信力的考验，也是中国对国际社会应该承担的责任。会议认为，从中央到地方各级政府都必须把节能减排和应对气候变化工作摆在更加突出、更加重要的位置，组织和协调各方面力量，努力实现各项目标任务。领导小组主要任务是：研究制订国家应对气候变化的重大战略、方针和对策，统一部署应对气候变化工作，协调解决应对气候变化工作中的重大问题；组织贯彻落实国务院有关节能减排工作的方针政策，研究审议重大政策建议，协调解决工作中的重大问题，统一部署节能减排工作。
会议要求，领导小组各成员单位一定要切实负起责任，严格执行《中国应对气候变化国家方案》和《节能减排综合性工作方案》，建立责任制和问责制，加强协调配合，相互支持，形成合力，共同做好节能减排和应对气候变化工作。
会议听取了发展改革委、环保总局、统计局关于应对气候变化和节能减排工作进展情况及下半年工作安排的汇报，关于节能减排统计指标体系、监测体系和考核体系建设情况和2006年指标完成情况的汇报，审议了《推动落实节能减排综合性工作方案部门分工》、《落实应对气候变化国家方案部门分工》等文件。
中共中央政治局委员、国务院副总理、国家应对气候变化及节能减排工作领导小组副组长曾培炎出席会议并讲了话。国家应对气候变化及节能减排工作领导小组全体成员参加了会议，有关部门负责人列席了会议。
Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:36 AM IST
(Reuters)
By Nita Bhalla
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India was taking the first step towards developing a national plan to tackle the effects of global warming and assess its own greenhouse gas emissions on Friday, amid mounting international pressure.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s new Council on Climate Change was holding its first meeting in a bid to come up with a clear plan ahead of a key United Nations climate change meeting in Bali in December, but will not set any overall emissions targets.
“India is now responding to the urgency of the situation,” said Sunita Narain, council member and director of the New Delhi-based think-tank, the Centre for Science and Environment.
“We have never been very good at stating our position and it is the right time to articulate all the things that India is doing and plans to do to mitigate and adapt to global warming.”
India, whose economy has grown by 8-9 percent a year in recent years, is one of the world’s top polluters, contributing around 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions as its consumption of fossil fuels gathers pace.
But as a developing nation, India is not required to cut emissions – said to be rising by between 2 and 3 percent a year – under the Kyoto Protocol, despite mounting pressure from environmental groups and industrialised nations.
NO EMISSIONS TARGET
The new national plan will not include any overall emissions target – the country says it must use more energy to lift its population from poverty and that its per-capita emissions are a fraction of those in rich states that have burnt fossil fuels unhindered since the Industrial Revolution.
Instead the 21-member council, which includes ministers, environmentalists, industrialists and journalists, is likely to consider ways to increase energy efficiency without undermining growth and bolster the contribution of renewable energy sources.
It will also ponder ways to combat the effects of global warming, which threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people on the Indian subcontinent – potentially one of the most seriously affected regions in the world.
“Different ministries like environment and industry and agriculture have all been working separately on climate change so it has been difficult to communicate and coordinate one single policy on the issue,” said a senior environment official.
“This council will help us to reach a consensus which suits all sectors and is in the best interests of India.”
Receding Himalayan glaciers could jeopardise water supplies for hundreds of millions of people and rising sea levels menace Indian cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, as well as neighbouring Bangladesh, scientists warn.
Floods and droughts could become more common, diseases more rampant and crop yields lower as temperatures rise, they say.
December’s U.N.-hosted meeting will be the first step towards formulating a successor to the Kyoto plan, which lapses in 2012.
China unveiled its own national plan for coping with global warming earlier this year and has promised to hold down per-capita emissions of greenhouse gases, but has also resisted calls for a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions.
24-hour, seven continent show could raise awareness but at what cost to climate?
Oliver Burkeman and Jonathan Watts in Beijing
Saturday July 7, 2007
The Guardian
The climate scientists have spoken. Now it’s James Blunt’s turn. But if scepticism, even cynicism, is a natural response whenever pop stars promise to change the world, there’s no denying the sheer scale and intensity of Live Earth, their latest attempt.The 24-hour, seven-continent sequence of concerts, will already have begun in Sydney by the time you read this – and the organisers, spearheaded by Al Gore, hope it will reach 2 billion people via 120 television networks, internet and radio, making it the biggest media event in history. At Wembley later today, 80,000 people are expected to watch Madonna, Genesis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, the Beastie Boys, Duran Duran, and Blunt, although last night rumours of an appearance by Paul McCartney remained just rumours.
All this is hardly without its moral complexities. The Red Hot Chili Peppers will be flying in by private jet from Paris, the band’s management confirmed, then leaving by private jet tonight for a gig in Denmark. The Beastie Boys must be in Montreux by tomorrow. Genesis are playing in Manchester tonight, as part of their Turn It On Again reunion tour.
And an estimate calculated for the Guardian suggests that spectators travelling to the London and New Jersey concerts alone will generate approximately 5,600 tonnes of greenhouse gases between them – the equivalent of 7,270 people crossing the Atlantic by plane. You can, it seems, be part of the solution and part of the problem, at the same time. Even those watching online will find Live Earth’s website is sponsored by the Chevrolet company, which manufactures SUVs.
These caveats will count for little if the event achieves its twin goals: pressuring politicians to sign an international treaty pledging massively reduced emissions within two years and persuading individuals to make lifestyle changes, such as installing four energy-efficient light bulbs, or taking public transport to work once a week.
“The important thing was not to have no carbon footprint and no acts, but to have really great acts,” insisted Steve Howard, a climate-change consultant who runs We’re In This Together, a UK campaign linked to Live Earth. It was launched earlier this year and has already saved 36,000 tonnes of CO2, Mr Howard said. “Does that save the planet? No, not in itself. But it’s equivalent to 13,000 family cars being taken off the road.”
At the heart of the challenge facing Mr Gore and his organisation, Save Our Selves, is the nebulous concept of “awareness”. The worst-case scenario is that raising awareness about climate-change may not lead to action – and might even instil a sense of fatalism. It doesn’t help that touring stars are among the worst individual greenhouse-gas offenders. Last year, Madonna’s Confessions tour produced 440 tonnes of carbon dioxide in four months, said John Buckley, of the website Carbonfootprint.com, who also provided the estimates for Live Earth concertgoers.
The rock group Arctic Monkeys said this week they had declined to take part in Live Earth, because it would be “a bit hypocritical”. “Especially when we’re using enough power for 10 houses just for [stage] lighting,” said drummer Matt Helders. He added: “There’s more important people who can have an opinion. Why does it make us have an opinion because we’re in a band?”
Risking charges of inconsistency, Bob Geldof, instigator of Live Aid and Live8, said in May that raising awareness was pointless. “Everybody’s known about that for years,” he said. “We’re all fucking conscious of global warming.”
Acutely aware of the need to minimise the event’s own footprint, Live Earth organisers have promised to power all shows with renewable energy, and to offset flights taken by the 150 acts performing in London, New Jersey, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Hamburg, Sydney, and – after a last-minute threat of cancellation – Rio de Janeiro. (Scientists at a base in Antarctica will also perform by satellite, so the event covers all continents.) And Gayle Fine, a New York-based spokeswoman for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, said the band offsets all tour travel, while ground crews use biodiesel fuel where possible.
Offsetting is controversial among some environmentalists, who argue it simply eliminates guilt. But Madonna, organisers noted, lives in London, and generally, bands had been assigned to perform in cities where they lived, or in the continents where they were touring.
Nowhere are climate issues more pressing than China. But far from reaching the masses, fewer than 3,000 people were expected in Shanghai. Most have been invited by sponsors, and the event, headlined by Sarah Brightman, will be broadcast live by only one Shanghai channel. The concert will not raise money because the cost of erecting an outdoor stage will far exceed revenues. Even so, organisers hope to set an example: the start has been moved an hour earlier, so the audience will be able to catch public transport, and there will be recycling facilities.
Shanghai seems to have been chosen in the belief that the climate-change message will make more of a mark on this cosmopolitan, educated city than elsewhere. But, said Michelle Zhang, an invitee, “I don’t think this Shanghai concert is so exciting, because they only have Sarah Brightman as an international star. At first we had very high expectations, We thought big stars like Jay-Z might be coming. I don’t think young people like Sarah Brightman.”
Local media panned the event, saying the line-up would embarrass the nation, but Cindy Wang, the event’s deputy general manager, said that missed the point. “This is the biggest charity concert ever staged in China,” she said. “But it is not just a concert. It is a warning … we want to warn Chinese, not expats. That is why we’re not seeking foreign stars.”
There is another possible interpretation of today’s global events – aside from the hope that they will make all the difference in the world. This is the possibility that it is all a prelude to the announcement of a presidential bid by Mr Gore, an idea he has been denying with less force recently.
You might see that interpretation as the worst kind of cynicism. Then again, Live Earth’s message is that we each should do whatever we can for the climate. And polls increasingly suggest that something Mr Gore could do, besides changing his lightbulbs, is to win the Democratic nomination – and, quite possibly, the White House.
