Just been watching the BBC TV news about the current climate change meeting taking place in the States. George Bush says he won’t do anything about emissions unless China does it too. Average CO2 emissions per person in the USA? 20 tonnes. And China? Just 3.5 tonnes.

Stop pointing to China as the world’s biggest polluter George. Of course it’s big - it’s an enormous country. America is nearly six times as bad when you discount the size difference.

We ALL need to make changes.  Squabbling over who does what first is just a childish waste of time.

That’s how an excellent article in this week’s Spectator describes the way Western countries are attempting to limit the growth of developing nations such as China and India, on the pretext of limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

On 27 September, George Bush - a man who has consistently opposed all attempts to get US emissions reduced - will host a conference in Washington at which he is widely expected to call for the imposition of cuts in emissions in developing nations. 

His call will ignore three key facts:

* Emissions per head of population in developing nations are way below those of developed countries.

* Large chunks of their emissions are due to the fact that they are now producing goods for the West. We’ve effectively shifted our own manufacturing abroad, because it saves us money.

* We have no right to demand that foreigners continue to live in poverty. We had our industrial revolution; now they are having theirs.  

The original Kyoto treaty - from which Bush withdrew - exempted developing nations for these very reasons.

As the Spectator article points out, since 1997, Western efforts to cut carbon emissions have come to almost naught. US carbon emissions are now 15% higher than they were in 1990 - the baseline used for all Kyoto targets. Japan’s emissions have risen by 11%. While EU carbon emissions have fallen by 2.9%, overall greenhouse gas emissions have risen.

In spite of this record of non-achievement, the West is increasingly hectoring the developing world on its carbon emissions.

But look at the facts:

Per head of population, in 2003 the Chinese emitted 3.2 tonnes of carbon and India 1.9 tonnes. The US, on the other hand, emitted 19.8 tonnes of carbon per capita. The UK emitted 9.4 tonnes, Germany 9.8 tonnes and France 6.4 tonnes. And, of course, these figures would have been even higher, had we not outsourced much of our manufacturing to countries such as China. 

I’d encorage you to read the Spectator article. It’s an illuminating and somewhat depressing piece of journalism that points out the utter hypocrisy of Western governments.

Watching the BBC TV news last night, it was obvious that climate change is now having a very real effect on the lives of pretty much everyone around the world.

In mainland Europe, temperatures are soaring way above normal levels in a number of countries, causing devastating firestorms and� consequent loss of crops through drought. Similar stories are unfolding in many other nations, with drought, desertification� and fire affecting regions as diverse as Africa and the USA.

Meanwhile, in the UK we have been enduring rain storms for weeks on end and it looks like we’re headed for the wettest summer on record. Large parts of the country are flooded. We’ve had giant hail stones in the middle of London (interesting, but shovelling six inches of ice off my kitchen roof is not really my idea of fun).� Parts of London have been flooded, and in other areas of the country whole villages have been cut off, resulting in a number of deaths. Floods have inundated water treatment plants. The army is� helping to deliver water to people whose supplies are now polluted.� Meanwhile, flood water and sewage flows through their living rooms.� What a great summer.

Whilst it may be� debatable to link� all these events� directly to climate change,� the evidence is certainly strong. Either way, scientific research has now conclusively proven that human emissions of greenhouse� gases are� bringing about changes in the world’s climate� that are leading to erratic and more devastating weather patterns, coupled with a gradual increase in average global temperatures.�

And now, a scientific� report published in� Nature yesterday states� that� increases in both rainfall and drought are� being caused by human activity.� Ironic, perhaps, that some people are drowning whilst others are dying of thirst, but that’s the way things are going.�

Global warming doesn’t simply mean that it’s getting hotter. It also means that we’re in for much greater devastation from floods, tornados and� mudslides� in many areas.

Anyone want help me build an ark?

Claims that increased solar activity is the cause of global warming – rather than man-made greenhouse gases – have now been comprehensively disproved by a scientific study.

The study was undertaken by Mike Lockwood, a physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Chilton, UK, and Claus Frolich of the World Radiation Centre in Davos, Switzerland.

It shows that, since the mid-80s, solar activity has been moving in the opposite direction to that which would be required to explain global warming. This means that the world should have been cooling over the past 20 years, if the sun were the cause. It hasn’t, of course - in fact the six hottest years ever recorded have all been within the last 10 years. 

Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, described the paper as: “The final nail in the coffin for people who would like to make the Sun responsible for present global warming.”

The Study was reported in Nature on 5 July and made it to mainstream media on 11 July with this report in one of UK’s national newspapers, The Independent.

Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued a stark warning that the threat of global warming is much greater - and nearer - than the UN’s recent IPCC report has estimated (as if the IPCC report wasn’t bad enough).

In the UK, attention was drawn to the story by Tuesday’s front page lead article in the Independent newspaper. The scientists’ paper, “Climate Change and Trace Gases” was originally published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Some of the more important points raised by the report are that:

* Sea levels rises may be as high as several metres by the end of this century.

* We have only around 10 years in which to implement draconian measures to curb CO2 emissions before we reach the dreaded “tipping point”, beyond which events will be beyond our control.

 * The additional heat from global warming may trigger an “albedo flip” - when the sunlight which is normally reflected by white ice is subsequently absorbed by the dark surface of the open ocean, once the ice has melted.

The researchers, from Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the University of California, Santa Barbera, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, were led by James Hansen, the director of the Goddard Institute, who was the first scientist to warn the US Congress about global warming.

This isn’t some trumped up media story, written by a bunch of loony environmentalists with their own agenda. It’s a densely referenced paper from a group of respected scientists who have a real understanding of how we are ruining this planet. And it’s bloody scary.

As far as I can see, the latest G8 meeting was a complete failure in terms of getting George Bush to take action on global warming. Despite saying that he would seriously consider proposals to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, there’s no commitment to actually do anything. Even more worryingly, he says he won’t do anything unless China does it too. 

How Bush can compare the developed economy of America, where under 5% of the world’s population spew out a quarter of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, with that of China, is bizarre, to say the least.

Bush points to the fact that China will soon overtake the USA as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. But, duh, that’s hardly surprising George - it’s the world’s biggest country, with a population over four times larger than yours. A fifth of the world’s population live there!

Sure, all countries need to take action to reduce emisions - and that includes developing economies such as that of China. But China’s per capita CO2 emissions are currently less than a third of those in industrialised nations. China’s view is that it’s the developed economies that should take the lead on emissions reductions.

Action from individuals - both to reduce their own emissions and to put pressure on governments to stop this petty squabbling and get on with saving the planet - is now more important than ever.

Some findings from a poll being conducted by the UK Environment Agency in the run up to World Environment day (which is tomorrow!!):

41% of people surveyed in the UK say they are doing something to tackle climate change.

The remaining 59% of people not taking any action against climate change consists of:

- 37% who say they are not doing anything, and

- 21% who say they don’t know what to do…

Even in a country where global warming is so prevalent in the national press there is clearly still a long way to go to really unleash the power of individuals to make a difference. Again we say get on the EarthFireIce Map and pledge to make a difference. Its free. Its easy and it counts…

By pure chance was watching the BBC tonight when not one but two pieces of TV on the polar bears and the arctic were screened - one which dealt with Svalbard, where Ed and I were a little over a month ago, and where polar bears are struggling to cope with the warming tempaeratures; and the other which talked about this giant 10 mile long sheet of ice which has broken off from the coast and is now floating….alarming more evidence of what we all know is happening. The piece on Svalbard reminded me of the stunning beauty of the frozen wilderness, yet when one of their sleds fell through into a thinner than normal ice, it brought home the very fragile nature of that environment. Let’s hope the melting of the polar ice caps is not accelerating as many experts now fear…

Another day, another report with even more dire predictions about the polar ice and its disappearance….previous studies have indicated that summer ice at the north pole is likely to disappear by 2050. But a new study just released by Peter Wadhams, an oceanographer at Cambridge University, indicates that in fact this thinning process might be taking place much more rapidly than anyone previously thought, and could in fact mean no more summer ice at the north pole within 13 years. That would be truely sad, and a massive loss of a beautiful natural phenomon to the human race.

A revealing articles in today’s independent, that basically most people still are not willing to make any changes to their life, or think that individuals cant make a difference - all the more motivation for us to help spread the word to a few more people. yes, people, each one of us can make a difference without making a huge change to our life! So get pledging…and spread the word…

Welcome. And thanks for stopping by. What, you may ask yourself, is all this EarthFireIce (EFI) stuff about? Good question, let me try and explain. EFI at its core is about climate change and it’s about individuals. It’s about why we as individuals care about the planet we live on. Everyone (we hope!) is aware of climate change. Much is made in the media about what governments should and should not be doing, which companies are polluting and which are making themselves carbon neutral. All very valid, but ultimately carbon offsetting and carbon neutrality will only get you so far. We as individuals need to take some responsibility. We need to reduce the amount of carbon we emit through our daily lives. Oh gosh, i hear you groan. here’s another one rabbitting on about how i need to radically alter my life, never travel again, and generally stop doing all the fun things. Not at all. All it requires is each and every individual to start doing simple things, such as turning out the lights in rooms they are not in, or avoiding products in supermarkets which have excessive packaging when you are presented with a choice, perhaps walking a little more often instead of always driving and so forth. And then we have a significant impact on climate change. So EarthFireice…basically, we’re using two of the most extreme marathons on the planet, in the Sahara and at the North Pole, to kick start our campaign to drive awareness around climate change and individual action using a funky (we hope!) Google Maps integration to encourage people to pledge to make small little changes in their every day life which will help our lovely planet. In addition, you can upload photos and text to show up on your marker on the map with your pledges, an encouragement to express to all why you care about this planet so much (cos we know you do!). So go on people, make a pledge, and take action - now!

Todays Independent newspaper had a great review of facts and figures from yesterday’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

To summarise a few…
- best guess global temperature increases over the next century are 1.8C to 4C
- this hides a massive local variation with the most significant increases at the poles
- worst case scenario is for a 6.4C rise
- temparature in the next two decades will rise by 0.2C per decade
- worst case sea level rise is 59cm by 2100
- scientists are 90% certain that humans are responsible for these changes

The impact of such temparature rises is huge
+ 2.4C: the Great Barrier Reef disappears, massive increase in desertification, disappearance of glaciers and extinction of a third of animal species
+ 3.4C: the Amazon rainforests disappear to be replaced by desert, the arctic ice cap disappears in summer months and polar bears, walruses and ringed seals go extinct. The kalahari desert expands accross Southern Africa
+ 4.4C: melting ice caps displace more than 100m people - especially in Bangladesh, the Nile Delta and Shanghai. More than half of the world’s wild species are wiped out.
+ 5.4C: The West Antarctic ice sheet breaks up eventually adding 5 metres to global sea levels. The entire planet becomes ice free. Monsoon floods and global weather chaos.
+ 6.4C: Most of life is exterminated.

This is a bleak picture and convinces me more than ever that now is the time to act.

On a much less noteworthy scale… my training seems to be going well. Today I did a 28km run - 3 laps around both of wandsworth common and tooting common. I made it, but am totally knackered… hopefully I’ll be able to do the last 14km on race day with a bit of extra willpower!