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MidEast seen on brink of ecological bankruptcy

MidEast seen on brink of ecological bankruptcy | The Glory of the Garden | Scoop.it
Three Middle East countries have the biggest environmental footprints in the world, putting the region on the brink of ecological bankruptcy, according to a new report.

The study released by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) said available natural resources have more than halved during the last 50 years while consumption levels are over twice what local ecosystems can produce.

The report showed that Qatar has the highest ecological footprint in the world, followed by Kuwait and UAE.

It backed up previous findings by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) ng Planet Report in May said Qatar was putting the biggest demand on the earth’s ecological systems.


The latest AFED study said if all humans lived like the average resident of Qatar, 6.6 planets would be required to satisfy this level of consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide.
Via Willy De Backer, David Hulme
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Breaking Global Warming Taboos: 'I Feel Duped on Climate Change' - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Breaking Global Warming Taboos: 'I Feel Duped on Climate Change' - SPIEGEL ONLINE | The Glory of the Garden | Scoop.it

Will reduced solar activity counteract global warming in the coming decades? That is what outgoing German electric utility executive Fritz Vahrenholt claims in a new book. In an interview with SPIEGEL, he argues that the official United Nations forecasts on the severity of climate change are overstated and supported by weak science.

 

Vahrenholt: In the second half of the 20th century, the sun was more active than it had been in more than 2,000 years. This "large solar maximum," as astronomers call it, has contributed at least as much to global warming as the greenhouse gas CO2. But the sun has been getting weaker since 2005, and it will continue to do so in the next few decades. Consequently, we can only expect cooling from the sun for now.

 

SPIEGEL: It is undisputed that fluctuations in solar activity can influence the climate. Most experts assume that an unusually long solar minimum, evidenced by the very small number of sunspots at the time, led to the "Little Ice Age" that began in 1645. There were many severe winters at the time, with rivers freezing over. However, astrophysicists still don't know the extent to which solar fluctuations actually affect temperatures.


Via Alice Ruxton Abler
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