Tories reject opposition pledge on global warming

OTTAWA – The Harper government has rejected a new pledge taken by opposition leaders to endorse a tough international treaty to fight global warming.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, the Bloc Quebecois’ Gilles Duceppe and the NDP’s Jack Layton all signed the pledge to push for a post-Kyoto Protocol climate change agreement that would prevent average global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees Celsius above 19th-century levels “because scientists have shown that, otherwise, the consequences of global warming are likely to be catastrophic.”

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http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=a18decb6-a686-4d19-9ae2-da17d872b63b&k=39533

Hotter and Drier: The West’s Changed Climate

Human activities are already changing the climate of the American West. This report by the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), drawn from 50 scientific studies, 125 other government and scientific sources, and our own new analyses, documents that the West is being affected more by a changed climate than any other part of the United States outside of Alaska. When compared to the 20th century average, the West has experienced an increase in average temperature during the last five years that is 70 percent greater than the world as a whole. Responding quickly at all levels of government by embracing the solutions that are available is critical to minimizing further disruption of this region’s climate and economy.

Read the study here:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/west/contents.asp 

Climate change now a UN human rights issue

GENEVA (AFP) — Climate change is now officially a human rights issue, as the UN Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution on the subject, recognising that the world’s poor are particularly vulnerable.

The council also gave the green light for a study into the impact of climate change on human rights, describing climate change as a “global problem .. that requires a global solution”.

The resolution, submitted by the Maldives and passed without a vote, also noted that the poor tend to have limited resources to cope with the impact of global warming.

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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqg3m1Zm4lqTW8xT9pGTkTUaPZBw