Carbon Brief weekly update 8 November 2012
- 08 Nov 2012, 14:00
- Carbon Brief Staff
Obama's back. So, is climate change?
Media outlets and commenters got excited about an early, albeit
brief, mention of climate change in President Barack Obama's
victory speech this week. Obama said:
"We want our children to live in an America that isn't [...]
threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet".
This was heady stuff compared to
almost complete silence on the climate from both presidential
candidates during the election. It prompted speculation that Obama,
freed from concern about re-election, might be able to
put climate change back on the agenda - or even push for a
carbon tax - in the US.
Talk about possible links between
hurricane Sandy and climate change - and its impact on US
climate politics - also rumbles on in the
US media and the
blogosphere.
Wind power: highs, lows and media blows
The Financial Times highlights a report by
ratings agency Moody's showing that increased supply of cheap
power from wind and solar plants is having a "profound negative
impact" on Europe's gas and coal generators.
It also reports that orders for offshore wind turbines in the UK
have come to an "
abrupt halt" as a result of uncertainty about government
policy. The heads of trade industry bodies RenewableUK, the Carbon
Capture & Storage Association and the Nuclear Industry
Association have written a
joint letter calling on the government to agree a
legally binding decarbonisation target for electricity
generation to help incentivise investment in renewables.
And hostility to wind power in parts of the media continues apace.
The
Telegraph reported new research on the impact of wind turbines
on the landscape and
health. Carbon Brief discussed the current state of research on
this a
couple of weeks ago - and it's worth noting we talked about
one of the new study's authors and one of the reviewers in our
piece. Meanwhile, the Scottish versions of the Sunday Times and the
Express reported on claims that that wind energy would add £400
to Scottish consumer energy bills by 2020 - a figure
Carbon Brief looked at.
Also on our blog:
Hurricane Sandy coverage: Do Fraser Nelson's arguments for dropping
carbon cutting policies stack up?
The editor of the Spectator Fraser Nelson argues in the Telegraph
that New York's response to the Hurricane Sandy shows that humans
are already adapting successfully to the effects of higher
temperatures. But how accurate are Nelson's comments about
projections of future climate change and the ability of different
countries to adapt to its impact?
Melting Arctic ice triggered the "Big Freeze"
New research suggests that Arctic meltwater triggered an abrupt
return to glacial conditions in Europe thousands of years ago. Can
the study tell us anything about the role of Arctic meltwater in
future climate change?
PwC report: current government ambitions won't stop temperature
rise
We take a look at a new report from consultancy
PricewaterhouseCoopers which says global carbon intensity must fall
five per cent each year, every year, to 2050 in order to limit
global temperature rise to two degrees.
How well have the media covered hurricane Sandy? Scientists have
their say
As millions of people on the US east coast remain without power in
the wake of hurricane Sandy, the media are still speculating over
how far the storm can be linked to climate change. We asked climate
scientists how satisfied they are that the media got it right this
time.