Lethal Heating: 10/17/16

17/10/2016

World Food Day

UN Food & Agriculture Organization

One of the biggest issues related to climate change is food security. The world's poorest - many of whom are farmers, fishers and pastoralists - are being hit hardest by higher temperatures and an increasing frequency in weather-related disasters.
At the same time, the global population is growing steadily and is expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050. To meet such a heavy demand, agriculture and food systems will need to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change and become more resilient, productive and sustainable. This is the only way that we can ensure the wellbeing of ecosystems and rural populations and reduce emissions.
Growing food in a sustainable way means adopting practices that produce more with less in the same area of land and use natural resources wisely. It also means reducing food losses before the final product or retail stage through a number of initiatives including better harvesting, storage, packing, transport, infrastructure, market mechanisms, as well as institutional and legal frameworks.
This is why our global message for World Food Day 2016 is "Climate is changing. Food and agriculture must too."
It resonates with the crucial time in which the day will be observed, just before the next UN Climate Change Conference, COP 22, from 7-18 November 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco.
FAO is calling on countries to address food and agriculture in their climate action plans and invest more in rural development.
By strengthening the resilience of smallholder farmers, we can guarantee food security for the planet's increasingly hungry global population also reduce emissions.

2016, a year for action

At the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015, 193 countries pledged to end hunger in the next 15 years. With unprecedented speed, the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change is set to enter into force, just in time for the next climate change conference, COP22, from 7-18 November 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco.

The global goal for achieving Zero Hunger is 2030 – an ambitious goal and one that cannot be reached without addressing climate change.

Our collective task is now to turn commitments into action on the ground.

What can you do?

Everyone has a role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change. Countries need to invest in smallholder farmers and sustainably increase food production, but there are also a number of actions that you can take to help. By being conscientious or ethical consumers and changing simple day-to-day decisions, for example, by wasting less food, or eating less meat and more nutritious pulses, we can reduce our environmental footprint and make a difference.

Find out more about what you can do.

Did you know?

Livestock contributes to nearly two thirds of agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and 78% of agricultural methane emissions. FAO is working with countries to improve livestock management and mitigate the effects of climate change. See here how livestock diversity can help us to cope with climate change.

Climate change's negative impact on natural resources, from declining global water supplies and quality to soil degradation, underlines the increasing importance of using these resources sustainably. Good soil and forestry management, for example, can lead to the natural absorption of carbon dioxide, thereby decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

FAO estimates that agricultural production must rise by about 60% by 2050 in order to feed a larger population. Climate change is putting this objective at risk but FAO and its member countries are working on various solutions.

Over 1/3 of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted. That amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. Methane is emitted by rotting food and is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

By 2050, catches of main fish species are expected to decline by up to 40% in the tropics, where livelihoods, food and nutrition security strongly depend on the fisheries sector. FAO's Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries guides governments and private actors in conserving and managing the world's oceans, rivers and lakes.

Deforestation and forest degradation account for an estimated 10 - 11% of global GHG emissions. FAO provides a toolbox for forest owners and other stakeholders to manage forests sustainably.

The world aims to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030; climate change is a challenge that must be addressed in order to continue the fight against hunger and achieve this goal. FAO is helping countries to improve the global food system and achieve this goal.

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Electric-Powered Cars On Display In Melbourne A Taste Of Vehicles Of Future

ABC News - Iskhandar Razak

Electric cars from Tesla can cost more than $100,000. (ABC News: Iskhandar Razak)

High-class luxury cars, family four-seaters, dirt bikes and commercial buses have been put on display to try to convince Victorians that electric-powered vehicles are not just science-fiction playthings for the rich.

A battery for an electric-powered car. (ABC News: Iskhandar Razak)

Dozens of vehicles were on show at Swinburne University over the weekend as part of the fourth annual electric vehicle expo.
"This is the way of the future," electric vehicle advocate Mario Gianattilio said.

"It is about educating the public, it drives like a normal car, the only difference is you are not polluting."

Display cars included models from Tesla, BMW, Toyota and Mitsubishi, as well as a 1990 Ford Capri, which Mr Gianttilio and his son converted to electric as a pet project.
"The second gear from zero to 60, it'll throw you back in the seat," Mr Gianattilio said.

Non-polluting cars costly, owners say
But while modern electric cars may be as fast as internal combustion models, they remain expensive.
Electric cars from Tesla can cost more than $100,000, and electric motorbikes on average cost about $25,000.
Mr Gianttilio's conversion cost him $27,000, but he said over the long run it was worth it.
"The short answer is there is no comparison, the electric vehicle is far cheaper," he said.

An electric-powered bike on show in Melbourne. (ABC News: Iskhandar Razak)

"I calculated on a weekly basis, it cost me $4 something, or $1.65 a day, so you can't do that, not even with diesel."
Cost, however, is not the only consideration that has held back electric vehicle uptake in Australia.
Electric cars require long charging and have had limited range.
But auto training consultant Neil Hunichen said that was not the issue it once was.
"The technology is developing," he said.
A commercial bus that could travel more than 1,000 kilometres on one charge was also there for public inspection.

Safety issues and lack of charging stations an issue
Mr Hunichen conceded electric vehicles did have some safety issues, but said there was no danger when driving an electric car in heavy rain.
"It would be most unlikely for let's say a battery to explode, as has happened in hover boards or Samsung phones," he said.

"But it is very quiet. I've found that at the shopping centre for example, that people just walk out in front of the car because they can't hear it."

To combat the problem with a lack of public charging stations in Australia, dedicated electric vehicle drivers have built renewable charging stations at home, which can be another set-up cost.
But Mr Gianttilio said again, the costs were minimal in the long run.
He also said costs aside, it was the right thing for Australia to do.
"We have just such great resources for renewables in the world in terms of solar, thermal, wind and we are lagging so much in the world," he said.

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Climate Change Play Tackles Elephant In The Room

Fairfax

In the face of cataclysmic climate change, the women of a new Australian play are ready to do their bit: burn more fossil fuels; write more blog posts; eat endangered animals. It's crazy, but it just might work.

Just eat it: Belinda Giblin stars in The Turquoise Elephant at the Griffin Theatre. Photo: Edwina Pickles

Playwright Stephen Carleton's absurd black comedy The Turquoise Elephant won the Griffin Award in 2015. He is part of a growing and urgent movement of artists around the world determined to tackle environmental issues and climate change denial head-on.
"I wrote the first draft of the play in the lead-up to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015, spurred on by the malodorous denialism wafting out of the Murdoch press at the time," Carleton says. "another year on … we find ourselves with a federal Senate peppered with conspiracy theorists and anti-climate science nutters running with their whacky ideologies as formal policy."
Carleton's story sees three generations of women from a privileged political family observe the unfolding of a climate disaster from their hermetically sealed, temperature-controlled home.
Augusta is a campaigner for the reinstatement of global reliance on fossil fuels. Her sister Olympia believes the best way to save species at risk of extinction is to eat them. Their niece, Basra, thinks social media might be the answer.
But when Visi, an activist, enters the fray, the atmosphere turns even more unpredictably stormy.
Lee Lewis, Griffin's artistic director, says she programmed The Turquoise Elephant because audiences are hungry for stories about the "biggest crisis facing the planet".
"Australia has a strong tradition of drought plays, and now we're in transition to climate change plays," Lewis says. "But they are tricky to write because you don't want them to be didactic or to include science that isn't great. It still has to be an interesting story."
Climate change theatre is relatively rare in Australia. Griffin staged Ian Meadows' Between Two Waves in 2012, the story of a climate scientist concerned about rising sea levels and extreme weather events.
Stephen Sewell's end-of-the-world drama It Just Stopped played at Belvoir in 2006. Andrew Bovell's 2008 drama When the Rain Stops Falling has played widely, and Malthouse staged the "extinction gut-punch" They Saw a Thylacine, in 2015.
In June, Ensemble Theatre and ATYP co-produced The Big Dry, adapted from the novel by Tony Davis. In Melbourne, David Finnigan's Kill Climate Deniers, a hostage satire about an eco-terrorist attack on Parliament House, has been turned into a concept album, a radio play and a short film.
Internationally, the artistic response to climate change has been fuelled by arts funding set aside by bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation focused on health and science issues. Similar funds exist in the United States. Locally, the Australian branch of the UK group Tipping Point, is committed to empowering artistic responses to climate change.
"A lot of the climate change theatre happening in other countries verges on agit prop because they are trying to convince their audiences the issue is real and important, which can lead to dreadfully dull drama" says Tim Roseman of Playwriting Australia.
"Here, we are already living directly beneath the hole caused by climate change. We don't need or want to preach."
At Carriageworks this month, as part of the LiveWorks Festival of Experimental Art, a number of visual and performance artists will present climate change-inspired works.
Ecosexual Bathhouse is a large-scale artwork where viewers are invited into a series of spaces for "eco-play" experiences. A pollination lab will allow the audience to help orchids spread their seeds; a sauna invites visitors to relax and listen to recorded eco-stories; a nature table has them digging through worm farms and dipping fingers into ponds, and a rainforest room hosts a "storm". Audiences will be invited to wear a "grass mask".
"The work looks at climate change as something that is inevitable, so why not embrace a new way of living," says artist Loren Kroneymeyer, from the Perth-based artist collective Pony Express. "We are trying to tackle the subject matter in a way that is less obvious and a little more progressive with this proposition of integrating our hedonistic desires into a climate change reality."
Also at LiveWorks, Sydney-based artist Tina Havelock Stevens has created Thunderstorm, an imposing large-scale video installation of a violent super-cell storm she filmed during a road trip through Texas.
"When it first played at Dark Mofo in Hobart, some people said it was foreboding and others said it made them feel safe," Havelock Stevens says. "We run to nature to get grounded and to feel better.
"So it is interesting that we are destroying nature, this thing that we need so much, and we're very much in denial about it. Looking out at that storm, you cannot help but meditate on the state of the contemporary world and where we are now."
The Turquoise Elephant opens at Griffin (Sydney) on October 21. LiveWorks plays at Carriageworks (Sydney) from October 27-November 6.

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