Major Wildfires On Canary Islands

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
31 July 2007
Tenerife, Canary Islands

Fires on Canary Islands force thousands to flee

More than 11 000 people have been evacuated from two of Spain’s Canary Islands – Tenerife and Gran Canaria – as firefighters try to get the blazes under control, according to local authorities.

Fires have burned some 14 000 hectares on the western part of Tenerife since Monday, while some 10 000 hectares of woodland in the southwest of Gran Canaria have been charred since Friday, Paulino Rivero, head of the regional government, said.

Winds of 65 kilometers per hour and temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius have hampered efforts to smother the blazes, authorities told the Associated Press.

There are seven islands in the Canary Island archipelago, located some 95 kilometers from the northwest coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. Tenerife is the biggest island in the region, while Gran Canaria is the most populated.

Direct Actions at UK Camp for Climate Action a resounding success!

378990.jpg

The 24 hours of direct action against climate change which began on Sunday 19th August at noon has culminated in a flurry of direct actions throughout England. As previously stated, none of the actions were intended to disrupt passengers, but instead, targeted the corporations who profit from climate chaos. Meanwhile, the mass siege of BAA national headquarters has forced its closure for the day. Pictures

During the week there have been over 71 arrests and a dozen actions, covering a broad range of issues.

Find below details of all the actions throughout the week…

Sunday the 19th and Monday the 20th August

Carbon offset companies were occupied by protesters dressed as red herrings. Fifteen have occupied the offices of Climate Care in Oxford. Ten have leafleted the offices of the Carbon Neutral Company in London. Carbon offsetting is a scheme allowing companies and consumers to pay in order to supposedly neutralize their carbon emissions. ‘Carbon offsets are ineffective, based on dubious science and lead people to believe they are helping when they are not – the concept and the practice are a con,’ said Sophie Nathan, who is taking part in the Carbon Neutral Company action.

Five protesters are in a concrete lock-on outside Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations. Their banner declares, ‘Nuclear power is not the answer to climate chaos.’ Twelve protesters have superglued themselves to the entrance at BP headquarters. They are highlighting BPs essential role in the aviation industry. Protester Stanley Owen said ‘We cannot sustain infinite growth on a planet with finite resources.’ Eighteen protesters occupied the office of the owners of Leeds airport, Bridgepoint Capital, on Warwick Street in London.

In Harmondsworth village a group of 500, consisting of locals as well as climate camp participants, gathered to listen John McDonnell Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington. He told the government that the third runway will not be built:

‘Even with the latest, more efficient aircraft, the climate change imperative demands that air travel growth be severely curtailed. The government can no longer have its cake and eat it. If it’s genuinely serious about climate change it must show meaningful leadership to rein in aviation expansion.’

Protesters wore copies of the Tyndall Report on their hands during the mass action, carrying a banner reading, ‘We are armed….only with peer-reviewed science’.

Late on Sunday evening, BA World Cargo depot was blockaded for about four and a half hours by eight protestors locked to each-other.

Saturday 18 August

Children and their parents blockade the World Freight Centre at Heathrow in protest at the damage to the climate caused by unnecessarily flying food around the world.

60 people occupy Carmel Agrexco’s Heathrow warehouse in Hayes, where produce is air freighted in from territories occupied by Israel, highlighting the issues of food miles and the unjust and unlawful distribution of natural resources in the Middle East.

Friday 17 August

The doors of six London travel agencies are chained shut and plastered with signs saying ‘Closed, gone to the Climate Camp.’ Ten people occupy the office of private charter company XL, which has a contract with the Home Office to deport rejected asylum seekers, exposing the connection between climate change and forced migration.

Activists superglue themselves to the front doors of the Department for Transport’s London headquarters. A tourist spontaneously joins the protest by chaining himself to the doors.

Thursday 16 August

Farnborough and Biggin Hill airports, both exclusively used by private executive jets, are blockaded by two teams of climate activists in disgust at the obscenity of the super-rich using planes as a taxi service.

Wednesday 13 August

A group of activists set up a climate camp on the wing of an Airbus A380 on its way to be assembled in France, pledging to stay until government ministers come up with a ‘safe’ aviation policy.

Dr. James Hansen speaks on reticence within the climate-science community

————————————————————-
“Reticence is fine for the IPCC. And individual scientists can
choose to stay within a comfort zone, not needing to worry
that they say something that proves to be slightly wrong. But
perhaps we should also consider our legacy from a broader
perspective. Do we not know enough to say more?”

“Almost four decades ago Eipper (1970), in a section of his
paper titled ‘The Scientist’s Role’, provided cogent advice and
wisdom about the responsibility of scientists to warn the public
about the potential consequences of human activities. Eipper
recognized sources of scientific reticence, but he concluded
that scientists should not shrink from exercising their rights as
citizens and responsibilities as scientists.”
————————————————–

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Environ. Res. Lett. 2 (2007) 024002 (6pp) doi:10.1088/1748-9326/2/2/024002

Scientific reticence and sea level rise
J E Hansen
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880
Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA

Received 23 March 2007
Accepted for publication 3 May 2007
Published 24 May 2007
Online at stacks.iop.org/ERL/2/024002

Abstract
I suggest that a ‘scientific reticence’ is
inhibiting the communication of a threat of a
potentially large sea level rise. Delay is dangerous because
of system inertias that could create a situation
with future sea level changes out of our control.
I argue for calling together a panel of scientific
leaders to hear evidence and issue a prompt
plain-written report on current understanding of
the sea level change issue.

Continue reading

U.S. Climate Policy a “Disgrace!”

————————————————————————————————-
“In countries like Burundi, you can hold children who are starving and
dying because of weather changes that many experts believe are driven
by our carbon emissions.”

“Not only is the U.S. not leading on climate change, we’re holding
others back,” said Jessica Bailey, who works on climate issues for
the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. “We’re inhibiting progress on climate
change globally.”

” … that’s our national policy toward climate change, and it’s a disgrace.”
———————————————————————————————–

The New York Times
August 16, 2007

The Big Melt

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

If we learned that Al Qaeda was secretly developing a new terrorist
technique that could disrupt water supplies around the globe, force
tens of millions from their homes and potentially endanger our entire
planet, we would be aroused into a frenzy and deploy every possible
asset to neutralize the threat. Continue reading