Tiempo Climate Newswatch

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, tales of heroism, stoicism and generosity were mixed with outrage at the failure of the state and federal authorities to respond effectively to the plight of those left homeless and destitute. According to Senator Jesse Jackson Jr, "...Hurricane Katrina exposed the neglected realities of poverty and race in this nation." "This disaster," he continued, "has trapped the poor as a class and African Americans as a caste... The poverty and lingering racism that we see are not natural disasters but man-made disasters, the result of the failure of the federal government to take the necessary and appropriate action to end poverty and discrimination in the richest nation on earth."

Head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, was relieved of responsibility for the Katrina recovery as a consequence of the widespread criticism. More than 90 countries have pledged aid to support the recovery effort. Bangladesh promised US$1 million. Thailand offered doctors and nurses, as well as rice, as a "gesture from the heart." Cuba also offered medical expertise. High-speed pumps from Germany and assistance with levee reconstruction from the Netherlands were promptly accepted.

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The European Union (EU) and China have set up a 'climate change partnership'. Under the agreement, the EU will give China the technology to build coal-fired power stations that produce 'near-zero' greenhouse gas emissions. The partnership has two major goals: first, to develop advanced power stations whose emissions can be captured and stored; and, second, to reduce the cost of "key energy technologies" and promote their deployment. There will be cooperation on renewable energy, hydrogen fuel cells and recovery and use of methane.

"With EU help, China is in a prime position to develop a low-carbon economy and set a model for future development for the rest of the world," commented Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. Meanwhile, four new renewable energy projects have been agreed between China and Australia under the Bilateral Climate Change Partnerships Programme. The new projects total AUD1 million and the announcement coincided with the 21st Century Forum for China, held in Beijing early September.

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Methane trapped in Antarctic ice cores shows that human activity has altered atmospheric methane levels for at least 2,000 years. Separating out the contribution of biomass burning for the first time, Dominic Ferretti, of the University of Colorado at Boulder in the United States and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, and his collaborators revealed wild gyrations in methane levels before the industrial revolution, during a period when it was thought levels would have been increasing slowly.

Methane emissions dropped by around 40 per cent from 1000 to 1700 AD. This may be related to reduced landscape burning as indigenous peoples in the Americas were devastated by diseases brought by European explorers. "The results frankly were a shock," said James White at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research in Boulder. "We can see human fingerprints all over atmospheric methane emissions for at least the last 2,000 years. Humans have been an integral part of Earth's carbon cycle for much longer than we thought."

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