Do And Don't Of Building In Hurricane-prone Areas

ScienceDaily (June 16, 2009) — Better building practices for structures in hurricane-prone regions will be the focus of a paper next month in Caribbean Construction Magazine by NJIT architecture professor Rima Taher, PhD.
Taher has written extensively about best building design and construction practices to reduce wind pressures on building surfaces and to resist high winds and hurricanes in residential or commercial construction.

She is a civil/structural engineer who teaches at NJIT's College of Architecture and Design. Her courses include topics related to wind and earthquakes with guidelines and recommendations for better design and construction in hurricane and earthquake prone areas. More >>>

Pacific Islands pass U.N. resolution on climate change and security

The General Assembly of the United Nations unanimously passed a resolution urging the relevant organs of the U.N. to intensify their efforts to address the security implications of climate change, including sea-level rise.

At right above -H.E. Ms. Marlene Moses for Nauru and PSIDS chair introduced the resolution to the General Assembly.

The passage of the resolution marks the culmination of a year-long campaign by a coalition of Pacific small island developing states (PSIDS) to focus the attention of the international community on the security aspects of climate change and to refer the issue to the Security Council. Though international organizations and many governments have been examining the link between climate change and security issues, this is the first time that the full U.N. General Assembly has made the connection in this type of formal instrument. More >>>

General Assembly Statement: Expressing Deep Concern, Invites Major United Nations Organs to Intensify Efforts in Addressing Security Implications of Climate Change

World Business Leaders Hear Catastrophic Climate Warnings

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 25, 2009 (ENS) - "We meet at a critical moment in human history. Our planet is warming to dangerous levels," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session of the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen on Sunday.

Encouraging world business leaders to create a global economy that is "cleaner, greener and more sustainable, Ban told 700 delegates from the business community that "climate change is the defining challenge of our time."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Photo courtesy Copenhagen Climate Council/Peter Sørensen)

"You and your colleagues have the ingenuity and vision to lead by example where others, including governments, are lagging behind," he said. "With your support and through your example, we must harness the necessary political will to seal the deal."

In Copenhagen in December, governments are expected to conclude negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period for reducing greenhouse gas emissions ends in 2012.
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Guyana and Jamaica urge global approach to climate change at UN conference

GEORGETOWN, Guyana --May 18, 2009 - The United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development concluded its 17th session on Friday with concrete policy options to drive practicable actions on agriculture, rural development, land, drought and desertification.

During a high-level segment last week, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, a climate change activist, said while raising awareness is vital, it is not enough to achieve sustainable development. He says as an international community, we need to turn this awareness into solutions that make the difference we urgently require.

Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Christopher Tufton said climate change is the single most urgent threat confronting Small Island developing States

Tufton speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small island States (AOSIS) said it attached great importance to the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development. More >>>

Hawaii enacts legislation on electric cars, alternative energy

Hawai'i will become one of only a few states that require large parking lots to reserve spaces for electric cars and to provide recharging capacity if a bill passed by the Legislature is signed into law.

The measure would take Hawai'i one step closer to developing a viable electric-vehicle market, supporters say.

"We're definitely on the cutting edge on this," said Robert Harris, director of the Hawai'i chapter of the Sierra Club.

The bill was among a handful of adopted measures that environmentalists applauded yesterday as the Legislature wrapped up its session.

A key one would increase the tax on a barrel of oil by $1 to help the state explore alternative energy and protect local agriculture. More >>>

Q&A: Copenhagen climate change summit 2009

Environment ministers and officials are meeting in at a UN summit Copenhagen in December to thrash out global deal on climate change. What's on the agenda?

What is the Copenhagen climate change summit?
From December 7 environment ministers and officials will meet in Copenhagen for the United Nations climate conference to thrash out a successor to the Kyoto protocol. The conference, held at the modern Bella Center, will run for two weeks. The talks are the latest in an annual series of UN meetings that trace their origins to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, which aimed at coordinating international action against climate change. More >>>

Chu: Climate change 'very, very scary'

April 18, 2009 -PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, April 18 (UPI) -- U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday the prospect of more severe hurricanes and rising sea levels in the Caribbean is "very, very scary."

Chu, who met with government officials from other Western hemisphere nations at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, said it is "a demonstrable fact" that the climate is changing and "very, very convincing evidence -- very high probability it was caused predominantly by greenhouse gas emissions."
Referring to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Chu said there is a reasonable probability that Earth's temperature will rise between 2 and 4 degrees Centigrade or more by the end of this century. More >>>