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Climate Change Conference Warns of Accelerating Warming

By Lisa Bryant Paris 12 March 2009

Some of the world's top scientists are wrapping up a three-day, climate-change meeting in Copenhagen with a grim warning that global warming is
arriving faster than previously expected.

The Copenhagen meeting drew about 2,000 scientists from around the world, and the news they delivered was not encouraging as they warned of an
increasingly warmer world with more frequent droughts, and food and health problems.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri summed up the fallout if temperatures increase.

"Even for a range of zero to one degree celsius [annual rise in temperature], we have problems with water availability. We
also have problems with ecosystems," he said. "Food security would certainly be at growing risk. Coastal areas are
particularly vulnerable, and human health would also be affected by the impact of climate change."

Rajendra Pachauri (File) Scientists warn the impact of climate change is hitting the world faster than previous predictions by Pachauri's IPCC, which
amounts to a more conservative consensus of top world researchers.

Climate change expert Konrad Steffen, of the University of Colorado in the United States, explained the impact of
climate-induced sea level rises to coastal areas.

"The key finding of this meeting is that we have up to one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, based on our new insight of
glaciers. And that will affect up to 600 million people that are living close to the coastline and it will include major
cities like New York," he said. "We already know that New Orleans is in the same way, but also areas like
Bangladesh or smaller areas of islands that will be flooded within that one-meter sea level rise." Red shows areas where
temperatures have increased the
most during last 50 years. Dark
World leaders of the top 20 economies are expected to discuss climate change during talks on the global economic
blue shows areas with lesser degree
downturn next month in London. Late this year, scientists and politicians are to gather in Copenhagen for a key of warming (in Celsius). (NASA/
global climate-change summit in an effort to thrash out a consensus on cutting heat-trapping greenhouse gasses. GSFC Scientific Visualization
Studio)

US Students Lobby for Clean Energy, Carbon Caps


By Julia Ritchey Washington 03 March 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama set aside more than $30 billion for several renewable energy projects in the government's massive economic stimulus
package. And this week, thousands of students from across the nation descended on Washington for a youth summit on climate change and energy
policy. Many of them went to Capitol Hill to demand action on preserving the environment.

Hundreds of students donned green construction helmets and crowded onto the snow-covered lawn in front of the U.S.
Capitol on Monday to call for legislation to curb carbon dioxide emissions and for so-called "green" jobs to jump-start the
economy.

Called "Powershift," the four-day event was organized by the Energy Action Coalition, a group of 50 organizations that
advocate clean energy such as wind and solar power. After rallying on Capitol Hill, students visited congressional offices to
push for comprehensive global warming legislation.
Young activists gather in
Washington, 02 Mar 2009 University of Albany student Rohan Parikh traveled with a group from New York to meet with an aide for Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand.

"We lobbied a legislative assistant for energy and environment issues, and we had a big crowd," said Rohan Parikh. "We met with him in the hallway
right outside the office; we couldn't fit in the office itself. I believe there were 50 to 80 people for Gillibrand. It's heartening to see that all these
people are here to lobby our new Senator and get her on the right path with these issues."

Parich says that because Gillibrand is on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, he hopes she and the chairwoman, Democrat
Barbara Boxer, can move clean energy legislation out of the committee and onto the Senate floor.

University of California at Berkeley senior Sophia Rios is a political science and environmental policy major. She says that she and some of her
classmates flew cross-country to show that California, a state that often leads the nation on environmental issues, can help mobilize change.

"We can't be known as the generation that knew what was going to happen and knew the effects of what global warming was going to do and then
didn't do anything about it," said Sophia Rios. "So even though we didn't cause it, we're going to feel the effects of it, and we have to do something
about it."

Rios says she hopes that if the United States enacts tough standards to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, it can play a leading
role at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December.
UN Official Calls for Investment in Climate Technology
By Ron Corben Bangkok 24 February 2009

A senior United Nations' official in Asia says the financial crisis hitting regional economies is an opportunity to boost investment in "green"
technologies to impact climate change. The comments by U.N. Undersecretary General Noeleen Heyzer, head of the U.N. regional economic and
social commission, comes amid fears Asia is failing to present a strong profile in climate-change talks and faces outcomes dictated by richer Western
nations.

The executive secretary of the United Nation's economic commission for Asia and the Pacific, Noeleen Heyzer, says investment in new climate
change technologies in Asia and the Pacific needs to be stepped up, despite the economic slowdown.

In an interview with VOA, Heyzer says the issue of climate change needs to be addressed, given the consequences from the impact of climate change
on economies struggling to recover from the global slowdown.

"The climate-change agenda is real. We are already experiencing it in terms of more severe weather patterns, in terms of cyclones, in terms of
extreme heat in many areas, in terms of drought, in terms of flooding," she said. "And, all this, in fact, will affect our economy. So you cannot, in a
sense, de-link the climate change agenda from the economic growth and sustainability agenda."

Recent reports have raised fears climate change is threatening or could reverse decades of social and economic progress across Southeast Asia.

The Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for South East Asia says the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Sumatra
and Indonesia are all countries at risk to the impact of severe climate changes.

Heyzer says that, as countries put in place economic stimulus packages to revitalize economies, they also needed to generate
what he calls "economies of the future". She says Asia and the Pacific needed to promote more private-sector investment in
climate-change technologies.

"We need to upscale it [investment] and its financing. It needs innovative financing to move this forward," said Heyzer. "The
state will have to be brought in, in order to provide the policy framework that allows the transfers of these technologies and
to open up new markets, in terms of the new carbon trading." Dr. Noeleen Heyzer

Heyzer says the crisis should be viewed as an opportunity to promote economies where growth is more sustainable, in the longer term.

"Every crisis provides an opportunity. It is time to rethink the foundations of the economic strategy that we have built on and shift it to the economy
of the future that is more sustainable and that can generate growth but at the same time value the gifts that earth has given us in terms of the many of
the ecological resources which we have, from water to climate," she added. "These are all global goods."

The call comes amid growing pressure on Asia to take a higher profile in U.N. climate change talks under the Kyoto protocol. A new deal on climate
change is expected to be agreed to in Copenhagen in December.

Analysts says Asia needs to ensure the outcome from the international climate talks is as broad based as possible, rather than determined by positions
taken by wealthier nations.

Japan, India and China are seen as being among the world's top five emitters of greenhouse gases, with China having surpassed the United States as
the world's major carbon polluter.

US Jobless Claims Rise; GE Rating Falls


By VOA News 12 March 2009

There was another flurry of grim news for the U.S. economy Thursday, with rising jobless claims and a falling credit
rating for a huge company.

The number of U.S. workers who have been collecting unemployment aid for more than a week has hit another record-
high as the recession forced companies to slash jobs to cut costs.

The Labor Department says more than 5.3 million Americans were getting long-term jobless help last week, while first-
time unemployment claims also rose slightly by 9,000 to a total of 654,000.
Job seekers fill forms at a
job fair in Omaha,
The recession is also causing problems for one of the world's largest and strongest companies, General Electric. Standard
Nebraska, 11 Mar 2009
& Poor's, a rating agency, cut GE's credit one notch down from the top level from AAA to AA+ because of concerns
about potential losses from the company's lending operations.

Besides loans, GE makes everything from jet engines to television programs, so investors see the company as a gauge of the overall economy.
Other reports from the government said business inventories fell more than one percent in January as firms cut stock to cope with falling demand. It
was the fifth month in a row for declining inventories.

Reduced inventories can also signal additional layoffs.


Another report said a key driver of the U.S. economy also declined in February, as retail sales fell one-tenth of a percent.

Obama Confident In Economy And His Recovery Plan


By Kent Klein The White House 12 March 2009

President Barack Obama greets attendees prior


to addressing White House Recovery and
U.S. President Barack Obama says he is optimistic that the economy's long-term future is strong if Reinvestment Act Implementation Conference,
officials can solve structural problems with the global economy. The president shared his views on the 12 Mar 2009
state of the economy with the leaders of some of America's biggest companies.

President Obama expressed guarded confidence to business leaders gathered in Washington, as he promoted his economic plan. "I do not think
things are ever as good as we say and they are never as bad as they say. Things, two years ago, were not as good as we thought, because there were a
lot of underlying weaknesses in the economy, and they are not as bad as we think they are now," he said.

Mr. Obama said the United States still has the best industry and workforce to guide it out of economic trouble. And he said banks will survive and
investors' savings will be protected.

The president spoke at a meeting in Washington of (the Business Roundtable,) an association of leading U.S. companies' chief executive officers.

There were other small signs of optimism Thursday. General Motors said it will not need a $2 billion government loan for this month. Bank of
America's chief executive officer said his company will not need additional financial help from the government. The government reported that retail
sales fell far less than expected in February. And the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained almost 240 points.

However, Mr. Obama warned against the false confidence that he says led to many of the current problems in the economy. "We cannot continue to
base our economy on reckless speculation and spending beyond our means; on bad credit and inflated home prices and overleveraged banks," he
said.

The president also defended his efforts to reform other areas, including health care, education and infrastructure. "I am not choosing to address these
additional challenges just because I feel like it, or because I am a glutton for punishment. I am doing so because they are fundamental to our
economic growth, and to ensuring that we do not have more crises like this in the future," he said.

Earlier, Mr. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden warned officials from most of the 50 states to spend their share of the federal government's
economic recovery package wisely. "If the verdict on this effort is that we have wasted the money, we built things that were unnecessary, or we have
done things that are legal but make no sense, then, folks, do not look for any help from the federal government for a long while," he said.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner faced tough questions from senators of both parties on Capitol Hill. Geithner defended the
administration's new budget, saying its spending increases are short-term and will later have to be sharply reduced.

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