Climate Implications for the World’s Oceans
by mouraq ~ October 15th, 2009. Filed under: Carbon Economy.Stunning fact: Oceans are not yet on the agenda for Copenhagen (at least they weren’t on Oct 1.09). I notice quite a bit of web traffic on the need for ocean acidification to be front and centre during the Copenhagen discussions.
This was a break-out session that ended the day on Thursday. Was slightly disrupted by the power going off in the Hyatt for a couple of hours. A message?
The session was chaired by Pete Grannis, Commissioner of the NY State Dept of Environmental Conservation and moderated by Jim Ayers, VP of the Pacific Region of Oceana. The line-up was: Governor Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu, Philippines; John Ginivan ED for Planning and Community Development, Victoria, Australia; Dr. Tony Haymet, Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, California; Bart van Bolhuis, Consult General of Netherlands in LA; and Dr. Dessima Williams, Ambassador of Grenada to the UN.
Highlights:
Because there was no power, there was also thankfully no powerpoints. But Tony Haymet from Scripps was inventive – he drew 3 graphs on 81/2×11 paper to explain 3 sets of data: CO2 (up 39%); Ocean Acidity (up 30%); and Sea Level Rise (1.2m rise by 2100). Powerful message.
Cebu in the Philippines has a great program – the government provides paper, pencils and books for students – in return the students are each requested to plant 10 trees. 3million trees have been planted so far!
Advice from the Netherlands: build with nature, live with water; national policy and inter-regional cooperation essential; and sea level rise needs to be high on the global agenda – a cross-cutting issue.
Next and last blog coming up about the Governors’ Global Climate Summit 2.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
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