Attempts have been made to break into the offices of one of Canada’s leading climate scientists, it was revealed on Saturday. The victim was Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria scientist and a key contributor to the work of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In one incident, an old computer was stolen and papers were disturbed.
In addition, individuals have attempted to impersonate technicians in a bid to access data from his office, Weaver said. The attempted breaches, on top of the hacking of files from UK climate researcher Phil Jones, have heightened fears that climate-change deniers are mounting a campaign to discredit the work of leading meteorologists before the opening of the Copenhagen climate summit today.
“The key thing is to try to find anybody who’s involved in any aspect of the IPCC and find something that you can ... take out of context,” Weaver said.
The prospect of more break-ins and hacking has forced researchers to step up computer security.
Fears of further attacks by climate-change deniers have also put Copenhagen delegates under increased pressure to reach a comprehensive deal to limit carbon emissions, with Britain’s chief negotiator, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, saying last week that there was no certainty that a deal would be reached.
“We need to have our foot on the gas all the time,” he told said. “We should not be complacent about getting a deal.”
It was crucial that Britain, and Europe, show ambition in setting an agenda for a tough, binding agreement and not let the efforts of climate skeptics derail negotiations, he said.
“Our children will hold us in contempt if we fail now,” he said.
Analysts say the key to success at Copenhagen would be the establishment of a treaty in which developed countries agree to make major carbon emission cuts while developing nations make lesser, but nevertheless significant reductions of their own. Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that the world’s output of carbon dioxide begins to decline by 2020. If this is not achieved, temperatures will rise by more than 2˚C and take the world into uncontrollable global warming.
In addition, the Copenhagen summit will also have to establish a mechanism by which the West will pledge to pay billions of dollars in aid to the developing world to introduce renewable technologies and other climate-control measures. So far, there is little sign of rapprochement, particularly over the issue of cash aid from developed countries.
“Rich nations tell us they are going to Copenhagen to seal a deal, but we say not an unfair deal. We will never give way,” Sudanese Ambassador to the UN Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said.
Bangladesh’s senior delegate was equally robust, describing the US$10 billion so far offered by the west as “peanuts.”
However, there was more encouraging news last week when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced he would attend the summit, joining British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama on the final day of the meeting.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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