Arquivo da tag: Enquadramento

Is it time to retire the term 'global warming'?

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By Leo Hickman – Thursday 5 August 2010 – guardian.co.uk

As its 35th ‘birthday’ approaches, is it now time to drop the politically charged and scientifically limited term ‘global warming’ for something else?

Melting Icebergs, Ililussat, Greenland
Melting water streams from iceberg calved from Ilulissat Kangerlua Glacier in 2006 Photograph: Paul Souders/Corbis

Anniversaries are always a fairly arbitrary (yet media friendly) reason for discussing any subject. But given the fact that some people, such as the folk at RealClimate, are already “celebrating” the 35th anniversary of the coining of the term “global warming”, which is marked this Sunday, it seems as good a time as any to assess whether the term is still fit for purpose.

Names are important (just witness the “sceptic” vs “denier” hoo-ha), so it does seem a valid question to ask. I strongly doubt whether Wally Broecker realised that when his 1975 Science paper was titled “Are we on the brink of a pronounced global warming?” he knew that the term would go on to gain such international traction.

I doubt, therefore, that he gave it much thought whether it would withstand the rigours of intense scrutiny and debate that it would attract over the coming decades. (Some of the comments beneath the RealClimate piece do note that other earlier papers used the term “global warming trend”, such as this one from 1961.)

The term is still near-universally used in the US, whereas “climate change” is more commonly used here in the UK. I’m not too sure why this should be the case (reader thoughts most welcome, but it seems likely that James Hansen’s use of the term “global warming” during his famous 1988 testimony to the Senate influenced the US media, and perhaps Margaret Thatcher’s use of ‘climate change’ in her famous 1989 speech did the same here). But the two terms are largely interchangeable in common discussion, even though climate scientists will rightly argue there are subtle, but important distinctions.

One often-heard criticism is that “climate change” was invented by “warmists” to hide a perceived inconvenient truth that global temperatures aren’t actually warming. In other words, “climate change” is a clever sleight of hand that acts as a catch-all for a bevy of climactic phenomena. This ignores the inconvenient truth that the term “climate change” actually pre-dates “global warming”. After all, the full title of Broecker’s paper is “Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?”

There’s a nicely turned history of the two terms’ usage here on the Nasa website written by Erik Conway, a historian at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. It includes a paragraph on how, in the 1970s, the term “inadvertent climate modification” was common parlance. Thankfully, this was abandoned in 1979 when the National Academy of Science published its first decisive study of carbon dioxide’s impact on climate and chose to adopt the terms we still use today:

In place of inadvertent climate modification, Charney [MIT’s Jule Charney, the report’s chairman] adopted Broecker’s usage. When referring to surface temperature change, Charney used “global warming.” When discussing the many other changes that would be induced by increasing carbon dioxide, Charney used “climate change.” Within scientific journals, this is still how the two terms are used.

There have been some subtle tweaks made over the years, though. For example, on the blogosphere in particular, you will often see “AGW” used as shorthand, which adds the all-important clarifying prefix “Anthropogenic” to Global Warming.

There are also some prominent voices in the climate debate who do not particularly like the terms “global warming” or “climate change” because they don’t exude the urgency and reality of the subject they describe. For example, James Lovelock prefers the term “global heating”, whereas George Monbiot has argued that the term “climate breakdown” is a more accurate description.

Equally, on the other side of the fence, there are those who dismissively label the subject – or, rather, what they see as the mainstream reaction to the subject – as the “climate con”, “climate hoax”, “climate alarmism” or “climatism”.

Personally, I’ve never much taken to the term “global warming” (perhaps, it’s my British roots, or that, yes, it seems too narrow in its scope) so I’m happy to stick with “climate change”. I think we’ve reached a point now when we all know what we are talking about, even though the world will always be populated by the predictable pedants who love to crow that “the climate has always changed” when they know full well that what is being discussed is anthropogenic climate change. But, more importantly, to change the name now to something entirely new would only feed those conspiratorial minds that believe “climate change” is being intentionally used in some quarters in order to usurp “global warming”, in the way a corporation might undergo a rebranding to help dissociate itself from a previous mishap.

But what are you thoughts – which term do you prefer? Or perhaps you have a brand new moniker you wish to introduce to the world? And does anyone know when the term ‘climate change’ first emerged?

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Wildlife conservation projects do more harm than good, says expert

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New book claims western-style schemes to protect animals damage the environment and criminalise local people

Amelia Hill
The Guardian
Thursday 29 July 2010

A new book claims that schemes to protect habitats of endangered animals, such as the Sumatran tiger, often end up criminalising local communities. Photograph: Bagus Indahono/EPA

Ecotourism and western-style conservation projects are harming wildlife, damaging the environment, and displacing and criminalising local people, according to a controversial new book.

The pristine beaches and wildlife tours demanded by overseas tourists has led to developments that do not benefit wildlife, such as beaches being built, mangroves stripped out, waterholes drilled and forests cleared, says Rosaleen Duffy, a world expert on the ethical dimensions of wildlife conservation and management.

These picture-perfect images all too often hide a “darker history”, she adds. Her new book, Nature Crime: How We’re Getting Conservation Wrong, which draws on 15 years of research, 300 interviews with conservation professionals, local communities, tour operators and government officials, is published today.

When wildlife reserves are established, Duffy says, local communities can suddenly find that their everyday subsistence activities, such as hunting and collecting wood, have been outlawed.

At the same time, well-intentioned attempts to protect the habitats of animal species on the edge of extinction lead to the creation of wild, “people-free” areas. This approach has led to the displacement of millions of people across the world.

“Conservation does not constitute neat win-win scenarios. Schemes come with rules and regulations that criminalise communities, dressed up in the language of partnership and participation, coupled with promises of new jobs in the tourism industry,” claims Duffy, professor of international politics at Manchester University.

A key failure of the western-style conservation approach is the assumption that people are the enemies of wildlife conservation – that they are the illegal traders, the poachers, the hunters and the habitat destroyers. Equally flawed, she says, is the belief that those engaged in conservation are “wildlife saviours”.

Such images, she argues, are oversimplifications. “The inability to negotiate these conflicts and work with people on the ground is where conservation often sows the seeds of its own doom,” she adds.

“Why do some attempts to conserve wildlife end up pitting local communities against conservationists?” she asks. “It is because they are regarded as unjust impositions, despite their good intentions. This is vital because failing to tackle such injustices damages wildlife conservation in the long run.”

Duffy stresses that her intention is not to persuade people to stop supporting conservation schemes. “Wildlife is under threat and we need to act urgently,” she acknowledges. Instead, she says, she wants to encourage environmentalists to examine what the real costs and benefits of conservation are, so that better practices for people and for animals can be developed.

“The assumption that the ends justify the means results in a situation where the international conservation movement and their supporters around the world assume they are making ethical and environmentally sound decisions to save wildlife,” she says. “In fact, they are supporting practices that have counterproductive, unethical and highly unjust outcomes.”

Duffy focuses on what she says is the fallacious belief that ecotourism is a solution to the problem of delivering economic development in an environmentally sustainable way.

This is, she says, a “bewitchingly simple argument” but the assumption that such tourism necessarily translates into the kinds of development that benefits wildlife is far too simplistic.

“Holiday makers are mostly unaware of how their tourist paradises have been produced,” she says. “They assume that the picture-perfect landscape or the silver Caribbean beach is a natural feature. This is very far from the truth. Tourist playgrounds are manufactured environments, usually cleared of people. Similarly, hotel construction in tropical areas can result in clearing ecologically important mangroves or beach building which harms coral reefs.”

But the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, one of the four biggest environmental NGOs in the world, maintains that the loss of wildlife is one of the most important challenges facing our planet. As such, a powerful focus on conservation is necessary: “Conservation is essential so let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater,” says a WWF-UK spokesman. “There are examples out there where ecotourism is working and has thrown a lifeline to communities in terms of economics and social benefits, as well as added biodiversity benefits.

“Let’s have more of those projects that are working for everybody and everything,” he adds. “There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to ecotourism and conservation.”