Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Ending carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 will be necessary to avoid "catastrophic disruption to the world's climate," according to the latest annual review of the state of the global environment from the Worldwatch Institute. State of the World 2009 lists ten challenges that must be adopted in any successful response to the climate problem: thinking long-term; innovation; population; changing lifestyles; healing land; strong institutions; the equity imperative; economic stability; political stability; and mobilizing for change.

"We're privileged to live at a moment in history when we can still avert a climate catastrophe that would leave the planet hostile to human development and well-being," said Robert Engelman, Worldwatch vice president. "But there's not much time left," he continued. "Sealing the deal to save the global climate will require mass public support and world-wide political will to shift to renewable energy, new ways of living, and a human scale that matches the atmosphere's limits."

An Indo-German geo-engineering experiment underway in the South Atlantic Ocean has been suspended following a German environment ministry request that the German research ministry "immediately halt" the trial. The experiment would have involved the discharge of six tonnes of iron sulphate into the ocean to determine effects on phytoplankton. It is believed that iron fertilization on a large scale could cause explosive phytoplankton growth, resulting in a greater uptake of carbon dioxide and limiting the rise in atmospheric carbon concentrations.

There is concern that the release of iron sulphate could trigger algal blooms and de-oxygenate large areas of ocean. It may also increase ocean acidity. The experiment "destroys Germany's credibility and its vanguard role in protecting biodiversity," says environment minister Sigmar Gabriel. Alfred Wegener Institute, based in Bremerhaven, said that the experiment was in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine_Pollution, which regulates ocean fertilization schemes.

Half the world's population may face serious food shortages by the end of this century, according to a new study. "The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures," reports lead author David Battisti from the University of Washington in the United States. Combining observational data with climate model predictions, the analysts concluded that there is a greater than 90 per cent chance that, by the year 2100, the lowest growing season temperatures in the tropics and subtropics will be higher than any recorded there to date.

Collaborator Rosamond Naylor at Stanford University's Program on Food Security and the Environment concludes that "this is a compelling reason for us to invest in adaptation." "It will take decades to develop new food crop varieties that can better withstand a warmer climate," she warns. She says that we also need to be re-thinking agricultural system as a whole, "not only thinking about new varieties but also recognizing that many people will just move out of agriculture, and even move from the lands where they live now." "You can let it happen and painfully adapt, or you can plan for it," comments Battisti. "You also could mitigate it and not let it happen in the first place, but we're not doing a very good job of that."