This time they don’t mean that harmless trace gas, carbon dioxide. They mean real pollution, i.e. particulates and toxins. This looks like it might be another desperate tactic to blackmail governments into tackling CO2 emissions by linking it with reducing pollution.

We’re all in favour of cleaner air, but would we spend billions of dollars on marginal improvements on air quality? Surely we’re spending billions of dollars to “save the planet” from “dangerous climate change”? Be warned – usual Age alarmism alert:

Countries could speed up their action against climate change if they tackled air pollution as well as carbon dioxide emissions, the UN Environment Program says.

UNEP executive director Achim Steiner says there’s strong evidence that the world’s climate is changing faster than initially expected [really? Show me – Ed], adding to the urgency for concrete measures against global warming.

“It is… becoming clear that the world must also deploy all available means to combat climate change,” Steiner said on Friday. [No exaggeration there, clearly – Ed]

“At this critical juncture, every transformative measure and no substance contributing to climate change should be overlooked.”

Troubled negotiations on emissions targets in climate change talks are focusing on carbon dioxide, but scientists estimate that nearly 50 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions come from other compounds, according to UNEP.

The agency believes that national efforts to control the pollutants – such as black carbon or soot, low level ozone or smog, methane and nitrogen compounds – could simultaneously generate health and economic savings as well, and address other environmental concerns.

Read it here.

And given they are building one humongous coal-fired power station every week for the next god-knows-how-long, it’s only going to get bigger. I wonder how this will affect their enthusiasm for legally binding emissions targets at Copenhagen?

Western governments pushing China to use clean-coal technology may need to lower their expectations for the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases.

Costs will total as much as $US400 billion ($474 billion) over 30 years to install systems to capture carbon dioxide from power plant smokestacks in China and bury it underground, said Richard Morse, a Stanford University research associate and author of a study on the technology. China has little incentive to invest because it will raise power prices and it’s unclear if wealthier nations will pick up the bill, Morse said in an interview.
…
While China is developing pilot projects for carbon capture, it has balked at throwing full support behind the technology.

“Carbon capture and storage, particularly for China, is not one of the priorities — the cost is an issue,” Su Wei, director-general of the climate-change unit at China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said in an Aug. 4 telephone interview from Beijing.

The cost of adding the devices would undercut China’s “non-negotiable desire for cheap power to fuel economic development,” according to the report.

At least they have their priorities right, unlike most Western governments…

Read it here.

Why would the Daily Telegraph print this utter nonsense? Wait, I know! Maybe it’s because the Tele, which used to be a serious conservative broadsheet, is now the daily version of Hello, whose editors will print any old rubbish if it will sell:

Looks more like a runny nose to me

Marine photographer and environmental lecturer Michael Nolan captured the pictures while on an annual voyage to observe the largest icecap in Norway Austfonna on July 16.

He said the image looked just like mother nature in tears, “as if she was crying about our inability to reduce global warming”.

Yeah, right.

Read it here.

There has been a flurry of stories recently about the Arctic “reversing a 2000 year cooling trend” and that temperatures are “higher than at any time since 1 BC” – no emotive language there, you will note (source). The WWF has weighed in with a similar report, see here.

Just a taste of what’s to come, when [if – Ed] Penny Wong’s new carbon trading economy kicks off and the ETS is introduced in Australia:

As always, a great read!

Check out the video on Watts Up With That to see the despicable depths to which WWF has sunk in order to promote its blinkered environmental agenda. From WUWT:

My sentiments exactly.

Hands up those of you who are surprised by this. If you just put your hand up, go to the bottom of the class. India, sensibly, puts economic growth and the living standards of its population ahead of feel-good gestures to “tackle climate change”, which will cripple the economy and send its inhabitants back to the Dark Ages:

INDIA is digging in against legally binding caps on carbon emissions, ahead of December’s climate change talks with the US and Europe in Copenhagen.

The Indian government yesterday released a report that showed the country’s per capita greenhouse-gas emissions – the cause behind global warming – will be lower over the next two decades than the global per capita emissions in 2005. These levels will also be lower than those of Western countries for about the same period, the report said.

The findings aim to rebut concerns that India’s quest to become a global economic power will transform it into a leading emitter of greenhouse-gasses. Still largely agrarian and poor, India has bristled at suggestions from industrialised countries, such as the US, that it should do more to cap emissions even if it means curbing growth.

Just some headlines this morning. All the usual hysteria, recycled and republished to brainwash the unsuspecting public, falling into the categories of (a) all happening faster, (b) all worse than we thought, (c) action required NOW, or (d) crazy alternative “solutions”. We’ve added a handy label to each, so you can choose which one to avoid:

Australia should wake up pretty quickly to what is happening in the UK, and stop the madness before the lights go out: