Highways buckled in Illinois and Wisconsin, water use was cut back in Indiana and those who had power in the mid-Atlantic were urged to conserve it, but the heat gripping much of the country was only expected to worsen Saturday.
Temperatures of more than 100 degrees were forecast in Philadelphia, authorities warned of excessive heat in the Midwest and the power outages surpassed a week in the mid-Atlantic, where extreme heat was expected into the weekend.
A major storm in the area last week left behind damage, which combined with the high demand for power to stress the electrical system's capabilities, a Washington-area utility said.
Hundreds of thousands remained without power Friday night in the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic, mostly in West Virginia.
Tens of thousands were still without power in the Midwest as well after storms there this week. Utilities hoped to restore service over the weekend in Michigan, where temperatures were forecast in the 90s.
The heat was blamed for at least 23 deaths.
Nine people in Maryland have died of heat-related causes in recent days, the state said. Authorities in Chicago said heat was a factor in six deaths there, mostly among older people.
Three deaths in Wisconsin and two in Tennessee were also reported to be heat-related.
In Ohio, a man in his 70s and two women -- one in her late 60s, the other in her 80s -- were found dead this week, said Dr. Jeff Lee, a deputy county coroner in the central part of the state.
He said all three were suffering from heart disease but died from stress caused by high temperatures in their houses.
Temperatures inside were stifling, recorded in the 90s in two cases, with windows shut and no ventilation. The houses lacked electricity because of recent power outages.
"If they had gotten cooling, we would have expected them to survive," he said.
Record temperatures were set Friday in the Indiana cities of Indianapolis, South Bend and Fort Wayne, where temperatures could reach 106 degrees but feel more like 114.
In central Arkansas, Russellville reached 106 degrees, breaking a record set in 1964.
Relief was on the way in the form of a cold front as the weekend ends, but forecasters expected it to bring severe weather, too.
The rain should help dry spells in many places.
Much of Arkansas is enduring brown grass and seeing trees lose their green, and farmers in Ohio are growing concerned about the dry conditions, considered among the worst of the past decade.
People in a huge swath of the United States are being urged to seek out shelters as needed on Sunday as a historic heat wave continues to bring sizzling temperatures -- including to some who have lost power.
Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States.
Twenty states were either partially or entirely under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were expected in much of the Southeast.
New York City was among the sites in the Northeast facing heat advisories.
The National Weather Service said the advisory would be in effect from noon until 7 p.m. ET for the city, with temperatures expected in the mid-90s. When combined with humidity, it could feel like 100 degrees.
Over the past week, nearly 1600 high temperatures have been broken -- including 140 all-time highs, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Statistics for Saturday, when more records were broken, were not yet available.
Meanwhile, a derecho -- or massive storm -- that moved across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast on Friday left 12 people dead and millions without electricity.
Some residents in the affected areas, particularly between Chicago and Washington, were likely to see high temperatures in the 90s or even 100 on Sunday, said CNN Meterologist Sarah Dillingham. "Even with areas seeing temperatures in the 80s to low 90s, no air conditioning will still pose a major threat."
"Residents who have no air conditioning are urged to find local cooling shelters or other air conditioned establishments to keep cool. It is imperative people do anything they can to try and beat the heat."
Cities throughout the affected regions opened cooling shelters and sites offering water.
"I'm very concerned with the problems created by the combination of power outages and severe heat," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who said it could take up to a week to get the power back up to everybody in the state.
Kasich also called out the Ohio National Guard to check on and help the state's most vulnerable, primarily the elderly and the ill.
While crews worked around the clock to restore power, hundreds of thousands of customers remained without electricity on Sunday.
FirstEnergy said four of its utility companies combined still had well over 300,000 customers without power Saturday night. AEP Ohio said it had more than 500,000 customers without power Saturday night.
BGE said Sunday morning it had more than 300,000 customers in Maryland still without power.
The deaths from Friday's storm stretched from Ohio to New Jersey. Most were the result of downed trees and power lines, according to officials.
The destruction prompted state of emergency declarations by governors of Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.
"This is not a one-day situation; it is a multiday challenge," said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who called it the largest power outage unrelated to a hurricane in the state's history.
In West Virginia, power outages forced the closure of a large number of gas stations after pumps were rendered inoperable.
Brian Duckworth waited in line for gas for nearly two hours in Vienna, along the West-Virginia-Ohio border.
"I wouldn't even be here because I have plenty of gas in my truck," Duckworth told CNN affiliate WTAP. "But I have to get gas for my generators and some backup gas."
The storm also affected Amtrak service, including shutting down service between Washington and Philadelphia on Saturday.
Those most inconvenienced were aboard a train that ended up grinding to a halt Friday night in Prince, West Virginia, after trees blocked tracks both in front of and behind it, Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said.
By late Saturday night, the 232 passengers -- who stayed aboard the Chicago-bound train, which had air conditioning and food -- had been taken off and put on buses so they could reach their final destinations, according to Kulm.
The storm's deaths included six in Virginia and two children in New Jersey, cousins who huddled with their families in a tent in Parvin State Park when strong winds felled a pine tree, crushing them.
Their relatives all survived relatively unscathed, said Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection.
In Washington, a couple was electrocuted after they went outside to check on downed power lines. The husband was killed while the wife -- who is in critical condition at a local hospital with burns -- is expected to survive, said police spokesman Araz Alali.
Emergency rooms in Prince George's County, Maryland, filled up over the weekend by people looking to escape the heat, said Fran Phillips, deputy secretary for the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
She noted that libraries and community centers across the state would stay open late to act as cooling centers.
Even in places where power was not disrupted, people with no air conditioning were advised to spend the day in a library, a cooling center or some other such place to avoid heat exhaustion.
In Atlanta, where temperatures hit a record-breaking 106 degrees on Saturday and were projected to hit 103 degrees on Sunday, cooling centers were ordered open across the city.
Earthquakes in Chile, China & Haiti, the Worse U.S. Winter in decades, Tsunamis in Hawaii & Taiwan and now Iceland's Volcanic Eruptions all in less than a year's time.
Are these regular "Natural Disasters", signs of "Climate Change" or "End of the World" warnings to Mankind?
Its definitely something to think about.
By the way has anyone seen Al Gore lately?
Perhaps he can enlighten us as to what's happening with this weird weather.
Check out the videos and article about these catastrophes below.
Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars.
Polish officials worried that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, in the southern city of Krakow.
So far, President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are among those coming and no one has canceled. Kaczynski's family insisted Friday they wanted the funeral to go forward as planned but there was no denying the ash cloud was moving south and east.
The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe's flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe.
"The skies are totally empty over northern Europe," said Brian Flynn, deputy head of Eurocontrol, adding "there will be some significant disruption of European air traffic tomorrow."
Air travel grounded
The agency said about 16,000 of Europe's usual 28,000 daily flights were canceled Friday — twice as many as were canceled a day earlier. Only about 120 trans-Atlantic flights reached European airports compared to 300 on a normal day, and about 60 flights between Asia and Europe were canceled.
The International Air Transport Association said the volcano was costing the industry at least $200 million a day.
Southern Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier began erupting for the second time in a month on Wednesday, sending ash several miles into the air. Winds pushed the plume south and east across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and into the heart of Europe.
Gray ash settled in drifts near the glacier, swirling in the air and turning day into night. Authorities told people in the area with respiratory problems to stay indoors, and advised everyone to wear masks and protective goggles outside.
In major European cities, travel chaos reigned. Extra trains were put on in Amsterdam and lines to buy train tickets were so long that the rail company handed out free coffee.
Train operator Eurostar said it was carrying almost 50,000 passengers between London, Paris and Brussels. Thalys, a high-speed venture of the French, Belgian and German rail companies, was allowing passengers to buy tickets even if trains were fully booked.
London taxi company Addison Lee said it had received requests for journeys to cities as far away as Paris, Milan, Amsterdam and Zurich.
The disruptions hit tourists, business travelers and dignitaries alike.
Germany's Merkel had to go to Portugal rather than Berlin as she flew home from a U.S. visit. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg managed to get a flight to Madrid from New York but was still not sure when or how he would get back home.
Shift in tactics
The military also had to adjust. Five German soldiers wounded in Afghanistan were diverted to Turkey instead of Germany, while U.S. medical evacuations for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are being flown directly from the warfronts to Washington rather than to a care facility in Germany. The U.S. military has also stopped using temporarily closed air bases in the U.K. and Germany.
Aviation experts said it was among the worst disruptions Europe has ever seen.
"We don't have many volcanoes in Europe," said David Learmount of Flight International, an aviation publication. "The wind was blowing in the wrong direction."
In Iceland, torrents of water carried away chunks of ice the size of small houses on Thursday as hot gases melted the glacier over the volcano. Sections of the country's main ring road were wiped out by the flash floods.
More floods from melting waters are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting — and in 1821, the same volcano managed to erupt for more than a year.
Small amounts of ash settled in northern Scotland and Norway, but officials said it posed little threat to health.
But Europeans were urged to stay indoors if ash started to rain down from the sky, the World Health Organization said on Friday. WHO spokesman David Epstein said the microscopic ash was potentially dangerous for people if it started to "settle" on the earth because inhaled particles can reach the lungs and cause respiratory problems.
The ash cloud, drifting between 20,000 to 30,000 feet high and invisible from the ground, initially blocked the main air flight path between the U.S. east coast and Europe. On Friday, the cloud's trajectory was taking it over northern France and Austria and into eastern and central Russia at about 25 mph.
Fearing that microscopic particles of highly abrasive ash could endanger passengers by causing aircraft engines to fail, authorities shut down air space over Britain, Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belgium. That halted flights at Europe's two busiest airports — Heathrow in London and Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris — as well as dozens of other airports, 25 in France alone.
Air space restrictions were lifted, imposed or extended Friday as the cloud moved.
Flights were suspended at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third-busiest terminal, and at other German airports including Duesseldorf, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.
Irish aviation authorities reopened airports in Dublin and Cork and France allowed some planes to land in Paris. Sweden and Norway declared skies in the far north to be safe but kept a lockdown on flights to both capitals — Stockholm and Oslo.
Britain's National Air Traffic Service said the air over England would remain closed to flights until at least 7 a.m. (0600 GMT, 2 a.m. EDT) Saturday, although some flights were being allowed in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Switzerland, Slovakia, Croatia and Hungary closed their airspace, and Poland expanded its no-fly zone to most of the country, excluding Krakow. Belgium extended its flight restrictions until late Saturday morning.
Iceland, a nation of 320,000 people, sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic's mid-oceanic ridge and has a history of devastating eruptions. One of the worst was the 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano, which spewed a toxic cloud over Europe, killing tens of thousands.
As international climate talks appeared in danger of disintegrating, Al Gore arrived to a rock star’s welcome in Copenhagen today.
If Copenhagen is the enviros' Woodstock, then Gore is The Who, the Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival as a one-man band. The former vice president drew such a big crowd that security had to shut down access, with hundreds of unhappy activists left outside.
Inside the mobbed room, Gore watched as Danish and Norwegian officials presented a new scientific report that the sea levels are rising much faster than previous estimates.
“We can feel that global warming is coming to Copenhagen,” joked Jonas Gahr Stoer, Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, alluding to the heat in the crammed room.
Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig Moeller said the event, organized jointly by Denmark and Norway, delivered a “forceful message. . . that the time for collective action is now.”
Moeller also quoted the 19th century conservative British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, saying that “to be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge,” drawing a chuckle from Gore who, last week, traded barbs with Sarah Palin, describing her as a global warming “denier.”
The former vice president has scrapped a $1,200-a-head fundraiser for 3,000 guests scheduled for later in the week, to the dismay of Danish organizers.
After a boycott led by African nations early on Monday, the Copenhagen climate-change talks have resumed. The point of contention was over whether or not to keep the Kyoto protocol as part of a new deal or replace it with a new treaty.
The developing countries, including china, India, and Brazil, want to keep Kyoto because it requires poor nations to cut emissions less than developed ones; developed countries want to bind emerging economies to targets “We can never accept the killing of the Kyoto protocol,” said the chief delegate for Mali.
Black police vans, with sirens screaming and occupants clutching semiautomatic rifles, barreled past the iconic Marble Church here Sunday, rattling the nerves of climate change conferees trying to enjoy a final break before this week’s intense finale.
That collective flinch — after a weekend of mass protests and arrests — summed up the unsettled mood heading into an unpredictable week of negotiations, demonstrations and speeches by a diverse group of leaders including Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hugo Chavez, Mike Bloomberg, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Barack Obama.
Nearly every international conference concludes with a flurry of backroom talks and cliffhangers — but the United Nations Climate Change Conference has more than its share of looming drama, making for an anxious final week at the big green summit in the big gray Danish capital.
“There really hasn’t been anything resolved during the first week, so this is the week where everything will happen,” said Nick Berning of the Friends of the Earth, a climate reform group critical of President Obama for not adopting more aggressive climate change targets.
“A lot of times they settle the negotiations behind closed doors and wait for the ministers, Cabinet [members] and heads of state to finalize the deals, but not this time,” added Berning. “They have a lot of unsettled issues to resolve, so there will be real negotiations right up to the end.”
The conference, with its 15,000 delegates and media horde, seems to be built on a foundation of sand, shaking with every lowering and heightening of expectations — exemplified by Obama’s on-again, off-again plans for the two-week confab.
With seven inconclusive days on the books, virtually everything of importance remains up in the air.
There’s no agreement yet on binding targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, despite productive pre-conference talks among the United States, India and China.
There’s no deal on how much aid the United States is willing to pay poor countries most harmed by global warming, with Obama seeking $1.2 billion from a recalcitrant Congress despite demands for much more.
Even basic logistics remain undecided. As of Sunday night, key members of the House and the Senate, who hold the fate of any deal in their hands, were unable to commit to prying themselves free from the intensifying health care debate on Capitol Hill.
There’s a very real possibility that congressional climate change heavyweights — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) — won’t make it to Denmark or will stay for only a few hours.
Last week, Democratic House members joked that Inhofe’s presence would be more important than their own, in that the world could see what Obama had to deal with.
But European Parliament delegate Dan Joergensen expressed real disappointment when told that key members of the Democratic delegation might not attend, describing Kerry as a “front-runner” on the issue whose presence at previous climate conferences in Bali and Poznan had moved things along.
“He builds momentum by being there,” Joergensen said. “It’s sad [if] he can’t come.”
Still, only one Democrat really matters, and Obama’s decision to attend the talks this week — as opposed to the sleepy kickoff session — “overshadows everything else,” Joergensen added.
And that raises another big question: Will Obama leave Copenhagen with his “American Idol” status among Europeans, Asians and Africans intact, at a time when his approval rating back home is sagging?
“He has a tremendous challenge of managing expectations this week,” said Jason Grumet, a former Obama environmental adviser who runs the Bipartisan Policy Center, a moderate Washington think tank.
“Most other nations don’t appreciate that our legislative process was built for comfort and not for speed,” Grumet said. “They don’t appreciate the razor’s edge he has to walk with the Senate back home, so there’s a real effort under way just to help countries understand the American legislative process.”
Inhofe, a fiery global climate skeptic from oil-pumping Oklahoma, gave the international community a taste of that process on Sunday by questioning Obama’s right to offer the conference a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
“The president can’t do that,” Inhofe told “Fox News Sunday.” “The emissions reductions he has talked about are what you would find in [the bill passed by the House], and that isn’t going to happen. Of course that bill is dead; it will never even be brought up again.”
But Obama’s team, Grumet said, won’t sacrifice its own agenda to answer critics or appease international admirers. At the top of lead negotiator Todd Stern’s wish list is selling China and, to a lesser extent, India on international monitoring of their emissions, regardless of what the agreed-upon targets turn out to be.
“China’s willingness to accept any kind of verification is far more important than the target. ... Creating a long-term process for oversight is in many ways more important than superficial agreements on emissions or funding because it’s something that provides a foundation for future agreements,” he added.
Hovering over the whole conference are the short-term worries about safety and the possibility that disruptions outside the massive Bella Center on the south side of town will overshadow progress inside.
More mass protests are planned during the critical final days of negotiations, and a handful of violent activists on Friday splintered off from a much larger peaceful demonstration, spurring a major crackdown that led to the arrest of more than 1,300 activists.
On Sunday, convoys of Politi vans raced through the narrow cobblestone streets, pinning tourists on sidewalks, as Danish police raided a second residence they said was being used by “troublemakers” to hoard gas masks, stones and paint.
Still, authorities released all but a handful of the 968 protesters detained Friday, sparking complaints by civil libertarians that the overreaction is worse than the threat.
“We have already said that we cannot avoid that some innocent people will be detained,” said Lars Borg, a spokesman for the Copenhagen police, adding: “We are very sorry about that.”
A much-anticipated global meeting of nearly 200 nations — all seeking what has so far been elusive common ground on the issue of climate change — got under way here on Monday with an impassioned airing of what leaders here called the political and moral imperatives at hand.
“The clock has ticked down to zero,” said the United Nations’ climate chief, Yvo de Boer. “After two years of negotiation, the time has come to deliver.”
From now until Dec. 18, delegates will attempt to hammer out some of the most vexing details attending the pursuit of a global climate deal. Among these: Broad cuts in greenhouse gas emissions — particularly from big polluters like the United States and China — and a commitment from wealthy nations to deliver what could ultimately be hundreds of billions of dollars in financing to poor countries, who argue that they are ill-equipped to deal with a problem they did little to create.
Several countries announced new emissions goals in the days leading up to the meeting here, including China, Brazil, the United States and more recently India and South Africa — though many conference participants have noted that these remain far too low to keep rising temperatures in check over coming decades.
The pledges so far are “not going to get us as far we need to go, to really stay within the two-degree limit,” said Koko Warner, an observer with the United Nations University in Bonn who specializes in adaptation issues. “We don’t want to admit it, because the consequences are so bad,” she said.
Still, speakers at the opening plenary — which began with a slickly-produced video appeal from children across the world to save them from what looked like an apocalyptic future of deserts and rising seas — aimed to spur negotiators forward.
After several hundred delegates and observers settled in the main conference hall to music from a trumpeter, a harpist and the Danish Girls Choir, Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister presiding over the conference, highlighted the recent string of emissions commitments.
“Every positive announcement will improve our chances of staying below the two-degrees Celsius target,” she said, “But as we all know only too well,” she added, "we are not there yet.”
“This goes for financing as well,” Ms. Hedegaard said, noting that arriving at consensus on that issue “may be an even bigger challenge” than emissions cuts.
Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, addressed the delegates and spoke of the urgent need for action, and had pointed remarks for those who “find it difficult to accept” climate change science -- particularly after e-mail messages and files allegedly stolen from a British climate research center three weeks ago raised questions about data manipulation among some leading climate scientists.
Dr. Pachauri ticked down a list of independent trends that robustly reflect the warming of the global climate. “Internal consistency from multiple lines of evidence strongly supports the work of the scientific community, including the individuals singled out in these e-mail messages,” he said.
Both outside and inside the plenary, the mood among negotiators and other participants was one of cautious optimism. Jonathan Pershing, the State Department’s special envoy for climate who was representing the United States at the opening plenary, said he saw strong evidence that the conference would prove a critical juncture in efforts to get traction on curbing emissions and helping poor countries limit vulnerability to climate hazards — particularly given the decision by more than 100 leaders, including President Obama, to attend.
He also said he saw no indication that efforts could be blunted by Saudi Arabia and other countries that have raised concerns about climate findings based on the e-mail scandal.
Outside the Bella Center, pressure — and some criticism — was mounting on conference participants to overcome differences and deliver results during the coming days.
An open letter from the environmental group Friends of the Earth condemned what it called “undemocratic practices adopted by the Danish Presidency of convening small and exclusive groups of countries before the Copenhagen meeting” — a reference to the rumored existence of an “alternate” treaty document being readied by some big players in the negotiations, including conference organizers, should efforts to sort out differences on the current text be fruitless.
Other blocs — including China — are rumored to be working on similar alternative documents of their own.
Meanwhile, in what appeared to be an unprecedented action, 56 newspapers around the world published the same editorial calling for “decisive action” in Copenhagen.
“In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage,” read the editorial, which was spearheaded by Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.”
Continued inaction, the authors asserted, would ravage the planet and wreak havoc on economies and livelihoods.
“The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it,” the editorial concluded. “We implore them to make the right choice.”
Could Obama actually return from Copenhagen with a deal? The White House is suddenly feeling a gust of optimism. Richard Wolffe on how he might earn that Nobel Prize after all. Plus, read our user's guide to the state of the climate-change debate.
The last time President Obama made a late schedule change to travel to Copenhagen, the gamble failed badly: Despite a spirited speech, he returned empty-handed as his hometown of Chicago lost the contest to host the 2016 Olympics.
But late Friday afternoon, the White House repeated the gamble. Less than two months since their last Copenhagen debacle, the president’s staff moved his plan for travel to the Danish capital back a week—from the start of the U.N. climate talks, to the end of the tortured process.
It could turn out to be another reckless wager risking the president’s prestige. But the White House is betting this one turns out differently. Obama’s aides seem confident that several months of patient diplomacy is about to pay off.
The mood inside the West Wing late Friday was cautiously, but palpably, optimistic about securing a Copenhagen deal. By pushing back Obama’s arrival date, the president’s aides have significantly recalculated the risks involved in the talks. A summit that seemed, just a week ago, doomed to failure is suddenly suffused with a burst of hope.
The initial plan allowed for Obama to leave early if it looked like the talks were heading for deadlock. That scenario seemed fraught—raising the very real prospect that close on the heels of the widely criticized Asia trip, the president could once again travel abroad only to return home empty-handed. But as of late Friday, the mood shifted; a deal once considered out of reach might now be in sight.
The details of such an accord remain elusive at this hour. And any climate deal coming out of Copenhagen is likely to be seen by environmentalists as an inadequate disappointment. But by the same token, any agreement will be hailed as a significant change from the deadlock that marked the Bush era. It could also change the complexion of the debate over whether Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize he’s slated to accept next week in Oslo. So what changed?
While the Washington press corps and much of the country was obsessing over the party crashers and Tiger Woods’ transgressions, the White House was quietly building momentum toward a deal. Obama returned home from his much-maligned Asia trip to announce specific targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions—pledging to cut them 17 percent below 2005 levels by the year 2020. China followed with pledges of its own. While the cameras were trained on the Salahis, Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were carrying on off-air talks. The results: India promised to cut carbon intensity (relative to India’s economic growth) by 20 to 25 percent below 2005 levels over the next decade.
The second step came among the richer nations this week, in Obama’s face-to-face sessions with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as well as his phone calls with the British, German, and French leaders. Together, they negotiated an arrangement they hope will effectively silence the complaints of the poorer countries of the developing world, who could still stymie any deal in Copenhagen.
Their offer: $10 billion a year by 2012 to help developing countries deal with and adapt to climate change. The promised cash amounts to a big boost in development aid, and was justified by the White House on humanitarian and security grounds to mitigate the impact of climate change.
The aid also represents a dramatic effort to secure the support of smaller, less-wealthy countries in Copenhagen. Those nations form the G-77 group of developing countries, an unwieldy and unpredictable bloc currently chaired by the government of Sudan.
For all the optimism, the risks of a Copenhagen collapse remain real. At the same time, the White House cannot afford to invest too much attention on yet another foreign-policy challenge—so close on the heels of the Afghan speech—while most Americans are focused on the still-weakened state of the U.S. economy.
After this week’s jobs summit and a surprising decline in the unemployment rate, Obama’s aides are determined not to let this month’s European travel eclipse a focus on U.S. jobs.
So the president will deliver a speech on the economy before departing for Oslo next week. And during the Copenhagen talks, the administration will highlight the presence of American businesses that seek to profit from—and create jobs in—the clean-energy economy that Obama hopes to jump-start.
When the president returned from Asia two weeks ago, many pundits panned the trip as an epic failure that effectively doomed the climate talks. One Politico headline read: How Copenhagen Died During Obama’s Asia Trip. Now Obama hopes he can resurrect Copenhagen before Christmas, and enjoy not one but two victory laps in Europe.
Is the Climate Change/ Global Warming agenda all about true, proven Science or a Hoax for the purpose of imposing a Global Energy Tax on world citizens?
Recent news reports of hacked e-mails about manipulated Climate Change Data has caused heated debate. These e-mails are supposedly helping to prove Climate Change to be a Hoax and that Climate Change Researchers have been spinning data to the Media.
The controversy surrounding the global warming e-mail scandal has deepened after a BBC correspondent admitted he was sent the leaked messages more than a month before they were made public.
Paul Hudson, weather presenter and climate change expert, claims the documents allegedly sent between some of the world's leading scientists are of a direct result of an article he wrote.
In his BBC blog three days ago, Hudson said: 'I was forwarded the chain of emails on the 12th October, which are comments from some of the world's leading climate scientists written as a direct result of my article "Whatever Happened To Global Warming".'
That essay, written last month, argued that for the last 11 years there had not been an increase in global temperatures.
It also presented the arguments of skeptics who believe natural cycles control temperature and the counter-arguments of those who think it's man's actions which are warming the planet.
The leaked files - which show 4,000 documents which have allegedly been sent by scientists over the past 13 years - were apparently taken from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, which is a world-renowned centre focused on studying climate change.
They were then uploaded on to a Russian server before being published on a blog called Air Vent.
The e-mails apparently show researchers discussing how to "spin" climate data and how that information should be presented to the media.
However, Hudson does not explain why he sat on the controversial information for so long, but added: 'I do intend to write a blog regarding the CRU being hacked into, and the possible implications of this very serious affair.'
The leak comes ahead of inter-governmental talks in Copenhagen next month which campaigners have argued is a last opportunity to prevent irreversible climate change.
Former Chancellor Lord Lawson has called for an inquiry into the scandal, warning the credibility of UK science is at stake.
It comes amid pressure on the professor at the centre of the scandal to quit from his position at the CRU.
In one damning email, he appears to call the death of a climate change skeptic "cheering news!".
In other messages, researchers appear to be discussing manipulating data and how to dodge Freedom Of Information requests.
Another shows a Climatologist from the U.S. admitting it was a travesty that the lack of global warming in recent years could not be explained.
George Monbiot, a leading environmentalist, said he was convinced the emails were genuine, adding: "I'm dismayed and deeply shaken".
There are some messages that require no spin to make them look bad.
The head of the unit, Phil Jones, should now resign. Some of the data discussed in the emails should be re-analysed.'
However, Professor Jones yesteday told the Telegraph he stands by his findings.
'The facts speak for themselves, there is no need for anyone to manipulate them,' he added.
When posted on the internet, the emails were accompanied by the anonymous statement: 'We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps.
'We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code and documents.
'Hopefully it will give some insight into the science and the people behind it.'
A spokesman for the University of East Anglia said: 'We are aware that information from a server used for research information in one area of the university has been made available on public websites.
'Because of the volume of this information we cannot currently confirm that all this material is genuine.
'We are undertaking a thorough internal investigation and have involved the police in this inquiry.'
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Registered Independent Voter
Original Native of BROOKLYN, NY
Currently reside in CHARLOTTE, NC
I’m Nice but don’t get it twisted because my Mind is Sharp!
Since You’ve Chosen to Visit and Read the Contents of this Blog by Personal Choice, and of Your Own Free Will,
Please don’t ask me to Compensate you for Expressing individual commentary/ Posted Articles, which are protected by the First Amendment, citing Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Expression.
No Intentionally Malicious Slander, Libel or Defamation of Character content will be published and I will always Credit all Sources.
NOTE TO ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS, APPOINTED OFFICIALS & PUBLIC FIGURES:
Per the Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case: 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan………
The Public has a Right to Criticize the People who Govern them, so the least Protection from Defamation is given to Public Officials. When officials are accused of something that involves their behavior in office, they have to prove all of the above elements of defamation and they must also prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice.” (For a definition of actual malice, see the “History of Defamation and the First Amendment, below.”)
People who aren’t Elected but who are Still Public Figures because they are influential or famous — like Actors, Actresses, Movie Stars, Singers & Entertainers, Journalists, TV Hosts, Bloggers, etc., — also have to Prove that Defamatory statements were made with Actual Malice, in most cases.
To the Associated Press and other Media Organizations:
When I use your Content Links., I’m also citing the Fair Use Doctrine (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107) for further Copyright permission.
Posts and Links published on Black Political Buzz are not endorsed by Black Political Buzz Blog Author Laurel’s Employer, nor the Employers of other Black Political Buzz employees.
This includes Links, Posts and Comments posted on Black Political Buzz’s Facebook and Twitter account pages.
Comments, Links and Opinions of site visitors are Independently-Owned and not endorsed by Black Political Buzz employees, Blog Author Laurel or Laurel’s Employer.)
(No Personal Offense intended) Please know that Black Political Buzz is not responsible for nor do I endorse Requests for Donations from Third Parties on this Blog.
I will Only Endorse Requests for Donations made on behalf of BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog for Business Purposes & Operating Expenses.
I will also Only Endorse Requests for Donations on behalf of Legitimate Politicians and Legitimate Political Candidates. PERIOD!!
If anyone else or another Organization wishes to post a link to Request Donations, I am NOT endorsing ANY of those Requests!
Unless I receive a personal Request to do so and I have Professionally Confirmed that the Third Party Organization or Charity is indeed a Legitimate Entity.
NOTE: Anyone who chooses to give to any Third Party Organization NOT Endorsed by BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ is doing so at his or her own risk.
BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ does NOT Discriminate against Politicians, Political Candidates, Organizations or Charities based on Race, Color, Nationality, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Religion, Faith, Disability, Political Affiliation, Creed, Education, Social Status, Age.
This disclaimer applies to ANY and All requests for Donations on this Blog. Thanks for understanding. Again No Personal Offense intended.
For Story Tips….Corrections…….. or Requests for Endorsements:
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Thanks for stopping by
God Bless
Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
LINKS: POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE & INFORMATIONAL SITES
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