Cities lead effort to curb climate change as nations lag

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading an effort by 58 of the world’s largest cities to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions while federal governments struggle to meet global targets following two decades of discussions.

The member-cities of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group produce about 14 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Their actions to improve energy efficiency and invest in renewable power will reduce emissions by 248 million metric tons in 2020, Bloomberg said on a conference call. The cities can cut emissions by more than 1 billion tons by 2030, or the equivalent annual output from Mexico and Canada.
Mayors, who have oversight of agencies responsible for more than three quarters of urban emissions, may be able to implement policies faster than federal governments, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on the call. Cities that enact new rules and regulations and share their findings may help nations meet global environmental targets, such as reducing methane emissions from landfills, one of the most potent greenhouse gases.
“We can buy the world another 10 to 20 years from the worst effects of global warming if we go after methane,” Clinton said on the call. “It will improve the quality of life for everyone.”
The C40 group’s effort to reduce methane emissions will start in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the suburbs of Jakarta, Rachel Kyte, vice president for sustainable development at the World Bank, said today at a C40 press conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Garbage Doubling
“The volume of garbage is going to double over the next 15 years,” she said. Taking steps to address emissions from that waste will be a “triple win,” by improving health, curbing climate change and making cities more livable. “Cities are the crucibles of innovation and it’s all going to start here.”

Opposing biotech is crime against humanity - Greenpeace co-founder

Moore

A co-founder of Greenpeace speaks in favor of one of the things the organization has most vehemently opposed over the years. Dr. Patrick Moore was the keynote speaker at this week’s Manitoba Special Crops Symposium in Winnipeg.
Moore served for nine years as President of Greenpeace Canada, and seven years as a Director of Greenpeace International. As the leader of many campaigns Dr. Moore was a driving force shaping policy and direction while Greenpeace became the world’s largest environmental activist organization. You could say since that time his perspective on sustainability and environmental responsibility has changed somewhat.
He was asked about genetically modified crops, something he describes as one of the most important scientific advancements society has made. That’s why he is particularly concerned about Greenpeace’s success in blocking the introduction of Golden Rice, a GM crop.

“Other GM rice varieties are able to eliminate micronutrient deficiency in the rice eating countries, which afflicts hundreds of million people, and actually causes between a quarter and half a million children to go blind and die young each year because of vitamin A deficiency because there is no beta carotene in rice,” says Moore. “We can put beta carotene in rice through genetic modification, but Greenpeace has blocked this.”

Moore says this is a crime against humanity because they are preventing the curing of people who are dying by the hundreds of thousands a year due to vitamin A deficiency.
He says another example of the positives genetically modified crops provide is they’ve allowed agriculture to do things it couldn’t do otherwise, for example growing soybeans that produce omega-3 fatty acids. He says this will be a boon for the aquaculture industry, vastly increasing its feedstock.

“One of the limitations on aquaculture is that fish and shellfish need omega-3 fats, and the best place to get them is from fishmeal, but fishmeal is a limited supply,” says Moore. “But if we can grow soybeans and other terrestrial crops that have the foods necessary for fish production, we can vastly increase aquaculture.”