Clima: “L’ITALIA BLOCCA LA PROPOSTA UE”?

L’Ue ha proposto un aumento delle riduzioni di gas serra dal 20% al 30%, ma l’Italia frena. Intanto la conferenza delle Nazioni Unite è diventata un G8 per soli capi di stato. “Le delegazioni vanno a negoziare in un contesto poco trasparente” denuncia Alessandro Giannì.

“L’Unione europea sta cercando un accordo interno per passare dal 20% al 30% della riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra. Peccato che l’Italia stia bloccando quest’iniziativa” racconta Alessandro Giannì, responsabile delle campagne Greenpeace da Copenaghen, dove sta seguendo i lavori del vertice sul clima. Nell’ultima giornata di lavori ” l’Italia sta rischiando di far fallire una gran fetta del negoziato” continua Giannì. Fino a poco tempo fa anche la Polonia appoggiava quest’impegno visti gli enormi interessi legati alle miniere di carbone presenti sul suo territorio. “L’Italia avrebbe tutto l’interesse a svincolarsi dalla dipendenza dei combustibili fossili e avviare una rivoluzione energetica, soprattutto per le future generazioni” dice l’esponente di Greenpeace.

A meno di 12 ore dalla  conclusione del vertice di Copenaghen, i 120 leader mondiali riuniti al Bella Center della capitale danese hanno ancora molti nodi da sciogliere prima di concludere i lavori e siglare l’intesa contro il cambiamento climatico. “Al momento c’è sul tavolo più di una bozza su cui discutere. Il puzzle verrà composto alla fine per decisione dei capi di stato, ma ci sono premese interessanti – spiega Giannì – per esempio c’è un accordo sulle missioni che derivano dalla deforestazione con impegni ragionevoli per una riduzione della deforestazione del  50% entro 2030″. Un passo avanti rispetto alle premesse. “Quello su cui non è possibile negoziare è questo parlare di principi e norme non legalmente vincolanti – aggiunge Giannì – un trucchetto che col protocollo di Kyoto  ha funzionato malissimo riguardo alla partita di riduzione delle emissione del trasporto aereo e navale su cui si è fatto pochissimo. Non ci casca piùà nessuno. C’è bisogno di premesse per accordi seri e vincolanti”.

Mentre il mondo attende di sapere quale sarà la strada per salvare il pianeta dal cambiamento climatico, le associazioni non governative denunciano l’estromissione dai negoziati nel momento decsivo. “Una conferenza delle Nazioni Unite è per definizione un’arena dove il confronto avviene in pubblico. Il vertice è diventato di fatto un G8 dove che rappresenta interessi generali non può partecipare. Il risultato è che le delegazioni vanno a negoziare in un contesto poco trasparente” denuncia Alessandro Giannì.

CNRmedia – 18/12/2009

I video più visti dell’anno

Il video più cliccato e visto del 2009? Quello di Susan Boyle, la signora di mezza età, non proprio bellissima, ma dalla voce meravigliosa, rivelazione di “Britain’s got talent”, che ha ottenuto più di 120 milioni di visualizzazioni. Il video musicale più cliccato in assoluto, invece, è stato quello di Pitbull, il rapper statunitense che con “I know you want me” ha sbancato le classifiche di mezzo mondo nel 2009.

Questi i video più visti:
1. Susan Boyle (oltre 120 milioni di visualizzazioni)
2. David dopo il dentista (oltre 37 milioni)
3. Matrimonio Musical di Jill e Kevin (oltre 33 milioni)
4. Trailer di New moon (oltre 31 miloni)
5. Evian roller babies (oltre 27 milioni)

Video Musicali più visti:
1. Pitbull - I know you want me
2. Miley Cyrus – The climb
3. Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA
4. The Lonely Island – I’m on a boat
5. Keri Hilson – Knock you down

E’ morto Igor Man…

…e sì, sono commosso davvero. Lo ricorda La Stampa

Che ne sa Schifani di intenet? Poco e forse niente

Confidential document on climate

(Da The  Times of India):

Confidential document reveals industrialized countries cheating the world on climate

COPENHAGEN: The industrialized countries are cheating the world. A confidential document of the UN Frame Convention on Climate Change secretariat

prepared on December 15 shows, contrary to what the rich nations might claim, even if they come true on their current pledges to reduce emissions the world is headed towards a 3 degree temperature rise by 2050, not two degree Celsius – the tipping point. ( Read confidential initial draft )

The document, an authoritative assessment by the UN itself, still kept a secret from the 192 country delegates presently at Copenhagen says, “Unless the remaining gap (of the emissions required to be reduced) is closed and parties (countries) commit themselves to strong action prior and after 2020, global emissions will remain on an unsustainable pathway that could lead to concentrations equal or above 550 ppm (parts per million of carbon dioxide in air) with the related temperature raise around 3 degree Celsius.

The UN global group of scientists – IPCC – has long ago warned that if the global temperatures go more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial era the world would tip over into irreversible natural calamities.

The 2 degree target is considered the beacon for how much emission cuts the industrialized countries and others should undertake. The industrialized countries, such as US and Europe have made some offers and claimed it is enough to prevent disaster. The UN secret document now shows that the targets the rich countries have unofficially claimed they could take are just not enough.

The rich countries have even 12 hours before the heads of the states meet at Copenhagen, refused to put even these numbers as part of their official positions.

The rich countries have taken commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their emissions to keep temperatures stable. While the rich countries are not on track to meet their targets even in the first phase that ends in 2012 they have so far refused to commit to deeper action as required by science in the next phase of the Kyoto Protocol starting 2013. They, instead, want the Kyoto Protocol to be killed completely.

QnA: Will the G77 countries be able to stall the West’s attempts to kill the Koyoto Protocol?

QnA: How can the government sensitize Indians on the alarming levels of pollution in India and help curb it?

LHC ends 2009 run on a high note

(Grazie a Lanfranco Belloni):

Geneva, 18 December 2009. At its 153^rd session today, the CERN[1] Council heard that the Large Hadron Collider ended its first full period of operation in style on Wednesday 16 December. Collisions at 2.36TeV recorded since last weekend have set a new world record and brought to a close a successful first run for the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. The LHC has now been put into standby mode, and will restart in February 2010 following a short technical stop to prepare for higher energy collisions and the start of the main research programme.

The LHC circulated its first beams of 2009 on 20 November, ushering in a remarkably rapid beam-commissioning phase. The first collisions were recorded on 23 November, and a world-record beam energy was established on 30 November. Following those milestones, a systematic phase of LHC commissioning led to an extended data-taking period to provide data for the experiments. Over the last two weeks, the six LHC experiments have recorded over a million particle collisions, which have been distributed smoothly for analysis around the world on the LHC computing grid.

“Council is extremely pleased and impressed by the way the LHC, the experiments and the computing Grid have operated this year,” said President of Council Torsten Åkesson. “The laboratory set itself an ambitious but realistic programme at its February planning meeting. The fact that all the objectives set back then have been achieved is a ringing endorsement of the step-by-step approach adopted by the CERN management.”

A technical stop is needed to prepare the LHC for higher energy running in 2010. Before the 2009 running period began, all the necessary preparations to run up to a collision energy of 2.36 TeV had been carried out. To run at higher energy requires higher electrical currents in the LHC magnet circuits. This places more exacting demands on the new machine protection systems, which need to be readied for the task. Commissioning work for higher energies will be carried out in January, along with necessary adaptations to the hardware and software of the protections systems that have come to light during the 2009 run. Taking advantage of the stop, the CMS experiment will upgrade part of its water cooling system.

“So far, it is all systems go for the LHC,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “This first running period has served its purpose fully: testing all the LHC’s systems, providing calibration data for the experiments and showing what needs to be done to prepare the machine for a sustained period of running at higher energy. We could not have asked for a better way to bring 2009 to a close.”

Among other Council business was the question of geographic enlargement of CERN. Council heard from a working group established in 2008 to examine this question, and accepted a series of guiding principles concerning the geographic enlargement of CERN, with a possible associate status involving balanced benefits and obligations being developed. In parallel, CERN has received five applications for membership over the past 12 months. Council decided to establish a working group to undertake the tasks of technical verification and fact-finding relating to these applications.

This was the last Council meeting to be chaired by Professor Åkesson, who hands over the Council’s Presidency to Professor Michel Spiro, Director of the French National institute of nuclear and particle physics (CNRS/IN2P3).

“It has been a privilege to preside over the CERN Council during this crucial phase in the history of CERN and of particle physics,” said Professor Åkesson, “and I am very pleased to be handing over to my friend and colleague Michel Spiro on such a high note.”

“I am greatly honoured to have been elected President of the CERN Council,” said Professor Spiro. “I will be the Council’s 20^th President, and it is with humility that I take up the mantle of my illustrious predecessors, not least Professor Åkesson, who has made significant progress with the Organization over the term of his mandate. With the first results from the LHC eagerly anticipated, the period ahead promises to be a golden era: it is these results that will shape the future of particle physics and of CERN.”

Further details of the 153^rd session of the CERN Council will be made available on the web at: http://www.cern.ch/council

Contact in CERN:

James Gillies, James.Gillies@cern.ch, +41 22 767 41 01.

Contact in IN2P3:

Christina Cantrel, ccantrel@admin.in2p3.fr, +33 (0)1 44 96 47 60.

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[1] CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, operates the world’s leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.

Vertebrae necklace

(via Boingboing)

La Mosca delle piramidi