Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda had made it clear that Environment and Climate Change would be a top priority for the G8 summit held from July 7 to 9 in Hokkaido Toyako

Global warming is a huge challenge, and humanity has no time to lose.

(quote from his welcome speech)

On the webpage of the japanese Ministry of foreign affairs it is possible to find the final summit leaders declaration as well as the Declaration of Leaders Meeting of Major Economies on Energy Security and Climate Change . In the first document, the fabulous 8 declare

We seek to share with all Parties to the UNFCCC the vision of, and together with them to consider and adopt in the UNFCCC negotiations, the goal of achieving at least 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050, recognizing that this global challenge can only be met by a global response, in particular, by the contributions from all major economies, consistent with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

This is good news in a sense, because it is the first time that the Bush White House publicly backs an explicit long-term target for eliminating polluting emissions. However, this sounds like a missed opportunity to environmentalists. As noticed by Olive Heffernan (Climate Feedback)

Despite the inclusion of a goal for 50% cuts by 2050 in the G8 declaration, it’s not at all clear what this alledged target means. If, as suggested by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, they are intending to cut emissions by 50% of current levels, then that’s not nearly as ambitious as cuts based on a 1990 baseline.

The statement, which seems purposefully vague, also fails to clarify which nations would have to make the deepest cuts in emissions to reach this global target of 50% and whether the target would be legally binding. Responding to the offer, Mexico, Brazil, India, China and South Africa said yesterday that G8 nations should slash their emissions by 80% by 2050 and set firm nearer term targets if they are to agree on a global deal.

Fortunately, our beloved world leaders didn’t miss the opportunity to offer us some unforgettable anectodes, such as Berlusconi blowing kisses , and Bush joking about the U.S. being the world’s biggest polluter.

Illustration: Red Nose Studio for TIME magazine (btw, check out the beautiful Red Nose Studio portfolio here)

The launch of the gamma-ray satellite GLAST on June 11 from Cape Canaveral, in Florida, marked the end of a 16-years long period of designing, construction and preparation, and the start of the most exciting phase: the analysis and interpretation of data. As the satellite goes through commissioning (see some event displays here) the first scientific results are flowing in.

There are big expectations for what GLAST will be able to do. In particular, the community working on extensions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, hopes to find some hints for the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPs, which are among the favorite candidates to explain the Dark Matter (DM).

With its unprecedented sensitivity and its very large energy range (20 MeV to more than 300 GeV) the main instrument on board the GLAST satellite, the Large Area Telescope (LAT), the LAT might in fact be able to detect an indirect DM signature for a large class of WIMP models.

Our group has studied the prospects for indirect detection of WIMP DM with a variety of different strategies, including gamma-rays and synchrotron emission from the Galactic center, DM clumps and Intermediate Mass Black Holes.

Image above: The Delta II rocket carrying the GLAST spacecraft lifts off
(NASA/Jerry Cannon, Robert Murray)

An amazing exhibit is currently on display at the Guimet Museum of Asian Arts in Paris. It is the first retrospective dedicated to Katsuhika Hokusai (1760 – 1849), indisputably among the most famous and talented Japanese painters, and a specialist in Ukiyo-e. This is what Hokusai wrote in the postscript to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji: « Since the age of 6 years old, I have had a passion for drawing the shapes of objects. By about 50, I had published innumerable drawings, but I am dissatisfied with everythingI produced before the age of 70. It’s now, at 73 years, that I have just about understood the form and true nature of birds, fish, plants, etc. So, by the time I am 80, I will have made much progress, I will reach the bottom of things; and by 100, I will decidedly have attained a higher state, indefinable, and by the age of 110 everything – whether it be a line, or a dot – will be living. I ask those who will be alive with me then to see if I keep my word. Written at the age of 75, by me, formerly Hokusai, now Gakyo Rojin, the old man crazy about drawing.» Check out the website of the exhibit here.

Welcome to my blog. I am a researcher in the Theoretical Physics group of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and I plan to post here news about the “Dark & Otherwise” Universe, and a collection of random thoughts.