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Fri, 30 Nov 07
A Fifth of UN Carbon Credits May be Bogus - WWF
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45644/story.htm
Reuters: One in five carbon credits issued by the United Nations are going to support clean energy projects that may in fact have helped to increase greenhouse gas emissions, environmental group WWF said on Thursday. The United Nations runs a scheme under the Kyoto Protocol that allows rich nations to invest in clean energy projects in developing countries and in return receive certified emissions reduction credits (CERs) to offset their own emissions. But WWF said in a report that ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Asia likely to remain dependent on coal
http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Economics/2007/11/30/analysis_asia_likely_to_r emain_dependent_on_coal/2299/
United Press International: New research by the World Wide Fund for Nature highlights three negative effects of the heavy dependence on coal as an energy source in Asia. These include social distress, environmental degradation and carbon dioxide emissions that accelerate global warming. The WWF report released this week, "Coming Clean: The Truth and Future of Coal in Asia Pacific," highlights the need to limit excessive dependence on polluting coal -- a major challenge for Asian countries that rely ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Bush clings to anti-Kyoto stance ahead of climate talks
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGHBZiCFIbskaz8RWdJ7QpOYgrFQ
Agence France-Presse: US President George W. Bush, who rejected the Kyoto protocol, remains opposed to international constraints on curbing carbon emissions despite growing isolation ahead of a world climate summit. "Energy security and climate change are two of the important challenges of our time," Bush said this week ahead of a world meeting on global warming which starts Monday on the Indonesian island of Bali. "The United States takes these challenges seriously and we are ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
China Says Will Curb Emissions if Gets Tech Help
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45637/story.htm
Reuters: China would "definitely do more" to cut its contribution to climate change if rich nations were willing to share clean energy technologies, its chief climate negotiator Yu Qingtai told Reuters on Thursday. The stance may smooth talks to agree a global deal on climate change, which kick off in Bali next week and are balanced on how far developing nations should join rich countries' efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "Particularly with regard to the more ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Climate worse than we thought
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/climate-worse-than-we-thought /2007/11/29/1196037108423.html
Brisbane Times: CLIMATE change is already more advanced than the world realises, and tackling it will present "diabolical" policy challenges, says the head of Labor's climate change review, Professor Ross Garnaut. In his first speech since starting his policy review for state governments and Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd, Professor Garnaut indicated that he would recommend a stronger framework to secure rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions than that proposed by the Howard ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Indonesia: For peat's sake - stopping the rot in logging industry
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/for-peats-sake--stopping-the-rot-in-loggin g-industry/2007/11/30/1196394619054.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Lashed together four abreast, a raft of illegal logs seems to take forever to snake down a winding, peat-stained stream in Borneo. More than 100 metres wide and guided with a pole by a sullen logger, it drifts through a tropical peat forest, past ramshackle logging camps, the silence broken by a distant chainsaw buzz and occasional tree fall. Here is the dark heart of the plunder of Indonesia's forests. Loggers have ravaged the trees, farmers have fire-cleared, and palm-oil companies ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Japan, Spain, Italy Face $33 Billion Kyoto Payments
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aktImREihjy0&re fer=home
Bloomberg: Japan, Italy and Spain face payments of as much as $33 billion combined for failing to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions as promised under the Kyoto treaty. The three countries are the worst performers among 36 nations that agreed to curb carbon dioxide gases that cause climate change. The 1997 Kyoto accord designed to slow global warming demands that polluting nations buy credits for their excess emissions from other industrial polluters or investors. ``They're looking at a ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Micro-wind turbines often increase CO2, says study
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/30/windpower.carbonemissions
Guardian: It has become the home improvement of choice for the environmentally aware, but erecting a wind turbine on the side of your house could create more carbon dioxide than it actually saves, a study into their performance will reveal today. David Cameron led the trend for "micro-wind" this year when he installed a turbine on the side of his west London home. But he may have been wasting his time and money. The Building Research Establishment Trust, which advises the government ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Options for saving the Amazon forest in the face of climate change
http://www.physorg.com/news115649387.html
Physorg: A review, led by an Oxford University scientist, claims that intact parts of the Amazon forest are resilient to climatic drying and are unlikely to disappear if they can be sufficiently protected. However, in the review published today in Science online, Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystems Science and Jackson Fellow from the Environmental Change Institute, explains that in parts of the forest where fragmentation and clearing has occurred, the forest is more vulnerable to the ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Study: U.S. could cut 28 percent of greenhouse gases
http://www.news.com/Study-U.S.-could-cut-28-of-greenhouse-gases/2100-11392_ 3-6220828.html
New York Times: The United States could shave as much as 28 percent off the amount of greenhouse gases it emits at fairly modest cost and with only small technology innovations, according to a new report. A large share of the reductions could come from steps that would more than pay for themselves in lower energy bills for industries and individual consumers, the report said, adding that people should take those steps out of good sense regardless of how worried they might be about climate change. But ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
South Africa: Warming blamed in die-offs
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/world/bal-te.infocus30nov30,0,3196429.stor y
Baltimore Sun: High in the Silvermine nature reserve, proteas here and there unfurl skyward like floral fireworks in soft pink and yellow. Guy Midgley's eye is drawn elsewhere, though, to ugly brown lesions on the otherwise green landscape - dead protea plants. "Nobody's quite sure what's going on," says Midgley, a plant scientist, scanning the bushy vegetation. But he suspects global warming is behind the recent protea "die-back," in which one-third of the plants have shriveled ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Australians want more than Kyoto: survey
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5inyzBKutK1YkSsQQpNw-mz0RfrNQ
Agence France-Presse: Australians want their new government to do more than just sign up to the Kyoto Protocol with over 80 percent supporting a reversal in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, a survey released Friday showed. Research conducted for the Climate Institute, an independent body established to promote awareness about global warming, found that environmental concerns were a key issue in last weekend's election. Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd swept to power in a landslide after campaigning on ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
China Sets Guidelines for Coal Projects
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45631/story.htm
Reuters: China has drawn up guidelines for new coal projects, the latest move to control expansion, raise efficiency and cut emissions by the industry, the country's top planning body said on Thursday. The guidelines, published on the Web site of the National Development and Reform Commission, also support development of large-scale coal miners and consolidating medium and small-sized miners, as well as encouraging long-term contracts among coal miners, transporters and consumers. The ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Energy-hungry India eyes role as "wind superpower"
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKSP194320071130
Reuters: India might be painted as a pollution-spewing, global-warming economy of 1 billion people but it is also one of the world's biggest wind power users, part of a focus on renewable energy mostly unnoticed in the West. Years of tax incentives have helped make India one of the fastest-growing markets for wind power, a major component of renewable energy that will be high on the agenda of the Dec. 3-14 UN climate change meeting in Bali, Indonesia. The Bali conference comes as ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Fossil Fuels' Free Ride Is Over
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2007/2007-11-30-02.asp
Environment News Service: A diverse group of investment bankers, energy executives, government officials and clean energy advocates has agreed that the environmental cost of producing energy should be factored into its price, and that Congress must develop energy policies that move away from fossil fuels. At the American Council On Renewable Energy's fourth annual conference, which opened in Washington on Thursday, money managers on Wall Street, self-described conservatives, a Bush administration official, ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
India, EU to give top priority to climate change issues
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/30/asia/AS-GEN-India-EU-Summit.php
Associated Press: The European Union and India will give top priority to an international agreement for countries to reduce their global-warming emissions after the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, officials said Friday. World leaders will start negotiations next month on the resort island of Bali for a replacement for the Kyoto protocol, which requires 35 industrial nations to cut their global-warming emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, when the accord expires. EU and Indian officials ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Investors Bet on China's Clean Energy Race
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45628/story.htm
Reuters: Beijing-based clean energy investors are enlisting foreign and local interest, as financiers show increasing faith in China's ability to meet tough goals to clean up its coal-based economy. The China Environment Fund, for example, has just tapped foreign investors to top up its clean energy fund to US$250 million. It counts Beijing's Tsinghua University, famous for its engineers, as a significant shareholder. China is in the spotlight for its much dirtier, coal-based power ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Japan firm announces first carbon spot trade
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h7NMDaA32ri-apgwtv4w-qBnJ44Q
Agence France-Presse: A Japanese company said Friday it had conducted the world's first spot trade in carbon credits, predicting the nascent market will grow as countries step up efforts to tackle global warming. Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrial countries must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 but can earn credits by buying from those who have met their targets or by supporting environmentally friendly projects overseas. Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. said it had sold the equivalent of ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Japan to Propose New Climate Forum With US, China
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45630/story.htm
Reuters: Japan wants to involve China and the United States in talks over a new pact on climate change by launching a working group that will bring together all countries, including the major emitters that oppose existing plans. The foreign ministry said on Thursday that Japan would propose forming such a group at a meeting in Bali, Indonesia, next month to discuss long-term climate targets, research and development of emission-reducing technology and other issues. Delegates from about ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Kan. Court Takes Coal Plant Dispute
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5341978.html
Associated Press: The Kansas Supreme Court is taking over two appeals filed in lower courts contesting the state's denial of an air-quality permit for two proposed coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. Chief Justice Kay McFarland signed an order Tuesday transferring to the high court cases filed with the state Court of Appeals and Finney County District Court by Sunflower Electric Power Corp. The appeals seek to overturn a decision by Rod Bremby, secretary of health and environment, to ...

Fri, 30 Nov 07
Negotiators in Bali Set New Course for Global Climate Treaty
http://www.voanews.com/english/Science/2007-11-30-voa25.cfm
Voice of America: Twenty thousand delegates, observers, business leaders, and government ministers from 190 countries meet in Bali, Indonesia, from December 3-14. They are gathering to discuss life after the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. treaty on climate change, which expires in 2012. The Bali meeting will engage delegates in dozens of technical, scientific and financial discussions relating to the current climate change protocol. But they are also meeting to consider the building blocks and a timetable ...

Mon, 26 Nov 07
In Texas, Climate Creeping onto Agenda
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16511614
National Public Radio: Texas emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other state. And if Texas were a country, it would be the seventh-largest carbon dioxide polluter in the world. Texas's high carbon dioxide output and large energy consumption is primarily a result of large coal-burning power plants and gas-guzzling vehicles, both of which contribute to the pollution problem. But while many Texans think bigger is better, there are signs of an attitude change on energy ...

Mon, 26 Nov 07
Buying a way out of Armageddon
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anjana_ahuja/article294 3260.ece
Times (UK): Gordon Brown has delivered his first big speech on the environment, and Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, has given warning that if humanity doesn't tackle climate change it will be "on the verge of a catastrophe". But does such high-level agonising encourage citizens to push for collective political action? No, according to Andrew Szasz, professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Instead, he suggests that repeated pronouncements have bred a "strange, new ...

Mon, 26 Nov 07
Australia: Climate heat on indigenous: study
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/climate-heat-on-indigen ous-study/1092750.html
Canberra Times: Australia's northern Aboriginal communities will bear the brunt of climate change, with increases in water-borne diseases and loss of traditional food sources, an international report says. In the Torres Strait Islands, at least 8000 people will lose their homes if sea levels rise by 1m. Community leaders have already reported increased storm surges with "metres of beach disappearing every week". The report, by Friends of the Earth International, says ...

Mon, 26 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Carbon price must rise in order to hit emissions target, warns CBI
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/support_ser vices/article2943503.ece
Times (UK): The CBI is set to use the opening of its annual conference in London today to call for urgent action by businesses, consumers and government on climate change as the employers' body tries to reposition itself on the issue. Once happy to be seen as sceptical about the risks of global warming, the CBI will give warning today that the Government is likely to miss its medium-term target of cutting carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 – but could meet a later 2050 target. The ...

Mon, 26 Nov 07
Australia: Greens call for Garrett to step down
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22819551-2,00.html
Australian: PETER Garrett should not be environment minister if the Rudd Labor government is serious about elevating climate change and water policy as core economic issues, the Greens said yesterday. Prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd yesterday again refused to back his environment spokesman, fuelling speculation that the former rock star may be moved out of the portfolio when the new front bench is announced later this week. Senior Labor sources say Mr Garrett's lack of experience and ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Debating the Merits of Energy From Air
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=88415
New York Times: THE tiny Greek island of Serifos, a popular tourist destination, depends on its postcard views of sandy beaches, Cycladic homes and sunsets that blend sea and sky into a clean wash of color. So when a mining and energy company floated a plan earlier this year to build 87 industrial wind turbines on more than a third of the island, the Serifos mayor, Angeliki Synodinou, called it her "worst nightmare." She imagined supersize wind towers looming over the island, destroying romantic ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Australia's new PM Rudd acts swiftly on climate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7101556
Reuters: Australia's new prime minister, Kevin Rudd, made climate change his top priority on Sunday, seeking advice on ratifying the Kyoto pact and telling Indonesia he will go to December's UN climate summit in Bali. Rudd, who swept aside 11 years of conservative rule by John Howard in Saturday elections, also spoke to U.S. President George W. Bush by phone, but would not say when he planned to start a promised withdrawal of 500 Australian combat troops from Iraq. "I emphasised to ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Carbon price vital but inadequate in climate crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7102088
Reuters: Achieving a high and stable price for carbon is vital but inadequate on its own in the bid to beat climate change, British business leaders said in a far reaching report published on Monday. Governments had to use regulation and taxation to reinforce the move from a high to a low carbon economy, and consumers had to be given much more information to help them make product and lifestyle choices, the Confederation of British Industry said. "The carbon price is essential but ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Climate change blamed for weather disasters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/25/2100626.htm
BBC: International humanitarian agency Oxfam says the number of weather-related disasters has increased four-fold over the past 20 years and the world should do more to prepare for such events. Oxfam says that due to big increases in population, millions more people are being affected by more irregular weather patterns. The agency says the increase in weather-related disasters is a result of global warming. Oxfam spokesman John McGrath says these growing populations often ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Facing Climate Threats To Global Food Supplies
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=e2d4e098-06fc-4269-b9a2-b420a9ba5f67
Washington Post: Climate change may be global in its sweep, but not all of the globe's citizens will share equally in its woes. And nowhere is that truth more evident, or more worrisome, than in its projected effects on agriculture. Several recent analyses have concluded that the higher temperatures expected in coming years – along with salt seepage into groundwater as sea levels rise and anticipated increases in flooding and droughts – will disproportionately affect agriculture in the planet's lower ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Meat, poultry, vegetables feel heat from global warming
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbBUa0y3N3IMSt7aelHUeI3PTlAA
Agence France-Presse: From meat, poultry and milk to potatoes, onions and leafy greens, everything consumed on the world's dining tables is feeling the heat from climate change, scientists say. Researchers are trying to establish the extent to which global warming will affect livestock, plant life and staple crops such as rice to bolster their resistance to disease and breed stronger varieties. The world's billion poor, whether producers or consumers, will bear the brunt, warned scientists who ended ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Australia: Rudd gets early start on climate change
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/rudd-gets-early-start-on-climate-change/20 071125-1co2.html
Brisbane Times: Kevin Rudd has immediately begun preparations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and attend next month's climate change talks in Bali. Labor's election victory was welcomed internationally as a shot in the arm for global greenhouse talks. Mr Rudd said he would be discussing with the prime minister's department the administrative steps required to ratify Kyoto. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, in a call to Mr Rudd after his election victory, formally invited him ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Sea Shepherd vows to stop Planktos ship Weatherbird II
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22814583-401,00.html
Sunday Mail: FROM the deck of the research ship Weatherbird II, a California company hopes to prove the controversial theory that putting iron dust in the ocean can produce enough plankton to help save the Earth. The mission of the company behind the ship, Planktos Corp, is to research whether "iron seeding" or "iron enrichment" - dumping tonnes of pulverised iron ore into the ocean - can catalyse the growth of microscopic algae that will then suck carbon out of the atmosphere. ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Want to go green? Easy doesn't do it
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071125/OPINION05/71 1250303/1006/OPINION
Washington Post: Thanksgiving nicely focused our attention on things of lasting importance: family, friends, community, a rich harvest. None of these blessings comes without cost or sacrifice. We should consider what we must give of ourselves to preserve such abundance in the face of increasing climatic instability. One needn't ponder this question in a vacuum. Several best-sellers offer advice about what we must ask of ourselves and one another. Their titles suggest that we needn't break much of a ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Australia's PM-elect gears to ratify Kyoto
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/147662.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Australia's prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd has begun preparations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and attend next month's climate change talks in Bali, leaving US President George W. Bush isolated in his battle against international action on climate change. This is in marked contrast to outgoing premier John Howard, who sided with the US for 10 years in fighting the international process. Meanwhile, congratulatory messages were flowing in for Rudd from various heads of state or ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Barroso warns against "climate fundamentalism" before Bali
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1376225.php/Barroso_ warns_against_&quotclimate_fundamentalism%22_before_Bali
Deutsche Presse Agentur: EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has called for the use of modern technology to counter global warming and warned against 'fundamentalism' on climate issues, in an interview with a mass-circulation German newspaper published on Sunday. 'It is important to use energy sparingly. Thanks to modern technology, saving energy does not automatically doing without modern comforts,' he told the Bild newspaper. 'We don't want to go back to the Middle Ages. We want further ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Candidates slow to warm up to climate issue
http://www.mercurynews.com/nationworld/ci_7554222?nclick_check=1
Mercury News: Climate change transforms an election campaign. Extreme weather and water restrictions galvanize voters. Both political parties scramble to propose mandatory limits on carbon emissions. That's happening now, but not in the United States. It's Australia. There, the impact of global warming has shaken up a national election, with climate change issues a major factor in Saturday's defeat of longtime Prime Minister John Howard. In the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, "going ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Commonwealth steers clear of binding emissions cuts
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jRfphOteP-858XRand4nAq_FxCpQ
Agence France-Presse: Commonwealth leaders failed to agree Saturday on recommending binding emissions cuts ahead of next month's climate conference in Bali, opting instead to send a "very strong political statement." "There are clearly some (Commonwealth leaders) who are clearly not ready to use the term binding at this stage," Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon said following talks between the group's leaders in Uganda. "The objective was to make a very strong ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
How China is eating the world
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn200711 25085443872C833064
Sunday Tribune: Economists are notorious for being unable to reach consensus on many issues, but talk to any of them about the outlook for the global economy and before long the word "China" starts to dominate the conversation. And it is true that the robustness of Chinese economic growth - around 10 percent forecast for 2008 - is picking up the pace being lost by faltering Western economies. Trouble is, they're also eating the world - literally, in the case of food ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Still Fiddling While The Planet Warms
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-curry1125.artnov25,0,2478 036.column
Hartford Courant: Ten years ago I got caught unawares during a TV debate on global warming. Midway through the show, the industry-funded science deniers I was debating unveiled a new argument. It was so daft I mistook it for a joke, thus appearing disrespectful when I meant to be congenial; proof again you can't be too careful on TV. The global warming debate is now two decades old. In 1988 the United Nations drew worldwide attention to it by forming the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Many ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
British companies band together to tackle climate change
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/25/business/25climate.php
International Herald Tribune: The largest British companies, including BP, Tesco and BT Group, pledged to offer greener products and invest in research and technology as part of a wider push to reduce carbon emissions and serve as models for other countries. In a concerted effort, 18 of the top British top companies – ranging from carmakers and airlines to retailers and banks – were to publish a report Monday in which they promised to develop new products and services that would allow customers to cut their carbon ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Canada's climate stand disappointing, says Malaysia PM
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/279694
Toronto Star: Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Sunday expressed disappointment that Canada scuttled attempts by the Commonwealth to take strong measures to attack global warming. "In some way I do feel a little bit disappointed," Badawi told reporters at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). "We would like to see the developed countries taking a lead role," he said. However, Badawi said he was delighted to hear that Australia new prime ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
United States: Group opposing wind farm off Cape saw big drop in contributions in '06
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/25/group_opposing_wind_fa rm_off_cape_saw_big_drop_in_contributions_in_06/
Boston Globe: Times are tight for opponents of a Nantucket Sound wind farm: Last year, contributions to the cause were less than half the amounts raised in each of the two prior years. The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the group fighting the development of a 130-turbine wind farm off the Cape and Islands, raised little more than $2 million in 2006, according to federal tax filings required of the nonprofit and submitted this month. Glenn G. Wattley, chief executive officer of the ...

Sun, 25 Nov 07
Australia: Howard's overboard - but the struggle continues
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/733/37999
Green Left: The Socialist Alliance "Howard Overboard" election night party in Green Left Weekly's offices in Sydney spontaneously spilled into the streets when John Howard conceded defeat. Jubilant activists celebrated with chants, whistles and pots and pans in a lap around the block which drew out people from their homes. A right-wing government that has plagued Australia since 1996 has been defeated and we have much to celebrate. Most of all we have to celebrate the people's power ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
COUNTER VIEW: Go for country-specific targets
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/COUNTER_VIEW_Go_for_co untry-specific_targets/articleshow/2566128.cms
Times of India: India and China cannot follow a common policy even if it pertains to environmental issues. It is unfair to club the two countries just because they are emerging economies and both pose a potential or perceived threat to the developed world. India and China do have a common platform: their refusal to undertake mandatory emissions reduction targets in any international agreement to deal with climate change. The Singapore Declaration at the East Asia Summit recently reiterates this point. ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
The biofuel that spells annihilation for Indonesia's wilderness
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22809652-30417,00.html?from=p ublic_rss
Australian: ELDERLY ethnic Dayak farmer Hussin sits on the raised timber floor of his home, a shack on 6ha of mixed forest, itself nestled in thousands of hectares of oil palm plantation. Hussin ("I'm probably 65 or 70, I'd say") and his wife, Barnian, are holdouts against the relentless march of Indonesia's new boom crop: they settled their little plot in Central Kalimantan just before the surrounding forest's annihilation a year ago. Each year, Indonesia loses an estimated two ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Australia: Climate debate we forgot to have about cap that does not fit
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climate-debate-we-forgot-to-have-about-c ap-that-does-not-fit/2007/11/23/1195753306678.html
Sydney Morning Herald: In all the concern over climate change in recent years, there's a crucial debate Australia pretty much forgot to have. That's the debate over the best way for government to persuade people to reduce their carbon emissions. The Federal Government is in favour of an emissions trading system, also known as cap and trade. There's nothing sinister about this: cap and trade is supported by pretty well everyone else, including many groups far more concerned about climate change than the ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Bush should step up on warming
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_7543178
Denver Post: The science is in. A Nobel prize- winning panel of 2,500 of the world's leading climate researchers last week spoke with one voice in describing the devastation that will be caused if the world continues to spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the current rate. Now, it's time for the politicians to take up the charge. Next month, representatives from 130 nations will meet in Bali, Indonesia, to begin urgent talks about crafting the successor treaty to the Kyoto ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Canada blocking consensus on climate change, source says
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071124.CLIMATE24/TPStory /National
Globe and Mail: Canada was accused yesterday of being the major obstacle to a Commonwealth consensus on climate change as the Harper government resisted the wording of a proposed statement that would bind Canada to cutting greenhouse gas emissions substantially. "My understanding is that there is pretty much unanimous agreement except for Canada and Australia, but Canada is the major objector," said a well-placed Commonwealth government source, adding that he was surprised by the ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Indonesia: Carbon dioxide oozes from damaged peatlands
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2007/11/25/2003389546
Agence France-Presse: V iewed from the air, the vast, cool forests of the Kampar peninsula on Indonesia's Sumatra island are a world away from China's belching factories or America's clogged freeways. But appearances can be deceptive. Most of this 400,000 hectare peninsula is peatland: dense, swampy forest that, when healthy, efficiently soaks up greenhouse gases from the world's worst polluters. When drained, cleared or burned, however, this wilderness transforms into one of the worst ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Early climate-change victim: Andes water supply in peril due to melting glaciers
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8ZEhuPM-u7D4ciqjPJmAYUlnHtw
Canadian Press: Twice a day, Elena Quispe draws water from a spigot on the dusty fringe of this city, fills three grimy plastic containers and pushes them in a rickety wheelbarrow to the adobe home she shares with her husband and eight children. But the water supply is in peril. El Alto and its sister city of La Paz, the world's highest capital, depend on glaciers for at least a third of their water - more than any other urban sprawl. And those glaciers are rapidly melting because of global ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Q&A: Bali Conference "Very Much A Make Or A Break"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40204
Inter Press Service: International negotiations beginning Dec. 3 in Bali are crucial for saving our planet from the devastating effects of global warming, says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Bali is "very much a make or a break" opportunity, according to the UNFCCC chief who hails from the Netherlands. The failure of government ministers and senior officials from around the world to reach an agreement would result in ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
United States: Report slams power plants
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2007/11/24/news/regional/7af796 d5438e0ce78725739c005fc510.txt
Associated Press: Nevada would benefit on many levels from investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy rather than new coal-fired power plants, according to an analysis backed by coal plant foes, environmentalists and alternative energy companies. The ECONorthwest report, commissioned by groups supporting the Nevada Clean Energy Campaign, warns of dire environmental and economic risks if the coal-fired plants are built. Plans for three such plants, by Sierra Pacific Resources, Sithe ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Report: Global Warming Could 'Push Asia into Reverse'
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071123/30199_Report:_Global_Warming_ Could_'Push_Asia_into_Reverse'.htm
Christian Post: Global warming could undo decades of social and economic progress across Asia unless immediate action is taken by the international community, a new environmental report alleges. The "Up in Smoke? Asia and the Pacific" report, which features a foreword by Dr. R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was launched this week following new evidence that the United Kingdom has been failing to stick to targets for renewable energy to tackle climate ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Then there was one: US now alone as Kyoto holdout
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2nu4PvZsB2D2awEXaD82Beb0qxQ
Agence France-Presse: Supporters of the Kyoto Protocol were gleeful on Saturday after Australian elections left the United States in the wilderness as the only major economy to boycott the UN's climate pact. The ouster of Prime Minister John Howard stripped President George W. Bush of a key ally barely a week before a conference in Bali, Indonesia, on the world's response to climate change beyond 2012, they said. "It's great news for the Kyoto Protocol," Shane Rattenburg, Greenpeace's ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Australia Chooses Labor: Kevin Rudd Takes Over
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2007/2007-11-24-01.asp
Environment News Service: The Liberal government led by John Howard, riding high as Prime Minister for the past 11 years, suffered a sharp defeat and Howard may have even lost his own seat. A close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, Howard has kept Australia out of the Kyoto Protocol, perferring to rely on technology alone rather than on the legally binding emissions limits of the protocol. Declaring his victory at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, Rudd said he would be a prime minister for all ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Canada gets its way: Commonwealth climate deal drops binding targets
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jjAEhSzbZc2JeXJ6SIaMuZnASA1Q
Canadian Press: Canada played a pivotal - if controversial - role as Commonwealth countries reached a deal on climate change Saturday. It helped block a draft agreement that almost every country in the 53-member group had agreed to, one which called on developed countries to meet greenhouse-gas targets. The move so frustrated some foreign diplomats that they sought out Canadian journalists to express their disgust at what was happening behind closed doors. Proponents of the draft deal ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Commonwealth issues only vague statement on climate
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL2424537.html
Reuters: The Commonwealth said on Saturday climate change threatened the existence of small island members faced with rising sea levels but failed to back binding targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A statement issued on the second day of a summit of the club of mostly former British colonies said the Commonwealth was gravely concerned about climate change, which was "a direct threat to the very survival of some Commonwealth countries, notably small island ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
EU Leaders Fail Planet - Mary Robinson
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40202
Inter Press Service: Europe is not displaying sufficient leadership ahead of the Bali conference on climate change, according to Mary Robinson, the former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). In March this year, the European Union's governments committed themselves to reducing the bloc's greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. A cut of 30 percent was promised if other industrialised countries agree to similar targets. Robinson, who was also Ireland's first ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Far From Beijing's Reach, Officials Bend Energy Rules
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=88413
New York Time: When the central government in Beijing announced an ambitious nationwide campaign to reduce energy consumption two years ago, officials in this western regional capital got right to work: not to comply, but to engineer creative schemes to evade the requirements. The energy campaign required local officials to raise electricity prices as a way of discouraging the growth of large energy-consuming industries and forcing the least efficient of these users out of business. Instead, ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Australia sweeps Rudd into power
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7111479.stm
BBC: Australia's opposition Labor Party under Kevin Rudd has won a sweeping general election victory, removing PM John Howard after an 11-year term. Mr Rudd said Australia had "looked to the future" and that he would be "a prime minister for all Australians". Correspondents say key changes will be the start of a troop pullout from Iraq and the signing of the Kyoto protocol on climate change. With 75% of ballots now counted, Labor has about 53% of the ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Canada could be Commonwealth's last climate change holdout
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=43f539f1-1e57-422f-b833-2cc 89419188f&k=89583
CanWest News Service: An increasingly isolated Canada is facing pressure at the Commonwealth summit to back a climate change resolution that would force developed countries to adopt a binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada and Australia are the only countries among the Commonwealth's 53 members that oppose the wording of a climate change communique that would specify that all members support a "binding commitment" to reduce emissions by specific targets. Commonwealth ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Fiji joins climate change charge
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=75062
Fiji Times: INTERIM Minister for Tourism and Environment, Bernadette Rounds-Ganilau will travel to Bali, Indonesia to share Fiji's climate situation with leaders of developed countries at a climate change conference next week. Mrs Rounds-Ganilau made the announcement at a 'Wear Red against Warming' rally at Sukuna Park in Suva. The rally was organised by Greenpeace and the Pacific Conference of Churches. To show their support against the effects of climate change and global warming, many ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
Greenhouse gases reached record level in 2006
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071124.WORLDREPORT24-1/T PStory/Environment
Agence France-Presse: Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide that contribute to global warming reached record levels in 2006, the World Meteorological Organization said yesterday. The rise in carbon dioxide emissions is chiefly due to fossil-fuel combustion, such as coal power stations, the WMO said. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the world's atmosphere rose 0.53 per cent from 2005, while nitrous oxide was up 0.25 per cent, the WMO said in its latest Greenhouse Gas ...

Sat, 24 Nov 07
If you really love the planet, hate the oil
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/279371
Toronto Star: The latest report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is explicit: If temperatures rise in the range of 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius above what they were in 1999, up to nearly a third of all species on Earth will likely face an increased risk of extinction. Think of it. One-third of all the different kinds of birds – likely gone. A third of all the various butterflies and wildflowers – gone. Red oak trees might survive, but maybe not the beech; birch trees, but ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
25 million acres preserved as park, refuge in Canada
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071123/NATIONWORLD/711 230424/-1/LOCAL17
Washington Post: Canada's government has set aside 25 million acres of wilderness -- 11 times the size of Yellowstone National Park -- for conservation, a move that environmentalists called one of North America's most important acts of nature preservation. The land in Canada's Northwest Territories is in three huge tracts that will be used to create a national park, a national wilderness area and a conservation area administered by native groups under treaty rights. The areas are wild, scenic ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Australia must learn how to feed itself
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22803745-5001031,00.htm l
Daily Telegraph: THE mood in the bush is that people there don't exist and that people in the city think climate change is only about them. Bush people see all the prosperity of the cities and the full supermarkets in the suburbs and they see that city people don't connect with the providers of that food and prosperity. So while the stockmarket and the financial papers focus on the price of BHP and other top-end stocks, no one is focusing on the task of feeding ourselves. They don't ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Carbon dioxide at record high, stoking warming-WMO
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL23258001
Reuters: Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels, hit a record high in the atmosphere in 2006, accelerating global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday. But concentrations of methane, the number two heat-trapping gas, flattened out in a hint that Siberian permafrost is staying frozen despite some scientists' fears that rising temperatures might trigger a runaway thaw. "In 2006, globally averaged concentrations ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
CLIMATE CHANGE wild swings drove human evolution, scientists report
http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=7268
San Francisco Sentinel: The evolution of our earliest human ancestors was driven by wild swings in eastern Africa's ancient climate, scientists claim this month. The rapidly changing climate reshaped the landscape, leaving once plentiful food and water resources in scarce supply and placing enormous pressure on early humans to adapt. The sustained upheaval drove some species to the brink of extinction, while other better-suited relatives emerged and flourished, the scientists ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
History shows climate changes led to war
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSHKG29302520071123
Reuters: Global warming is one of the most significant threats facing humankind, researchers warned, as they unveiled a study showing how climate changes in the past led to famine, wars and population declines. The world's growing population may be unable to adequately adapt to ecological changes brought about by the expected rise in global temperatures, scientists in China, Hong Kong, the United States and Britain wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Australia: Howard, Rudd Edge Toward Each Other on Greenhouse Gas, Climate
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFTqJIoE_5ho&re fer=home
Bloomberg: For Chris Landon-Lane and his Tamar Valley neighbors on Australia's Tasmania island, one issue matters most in tomorrow's election: ``The environment is the main topic of conversation as you walk down the street or sit at the dinner table.'' That level of scrutiny is affecting the campaigns of both Prime Minister John Howard and the Labor Party's Kevin Rudd, driving each toward the political center. Howard, 68, who is trailing in public-opinion polls after 11 years in office, ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Is permafrost preparing a climatic blast?
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071123/89289055.html
RIA Novosti: The emerging permafrost thaw is causing panic. This is understandable in Russia since a large portion of its land is covered in permafrost. Journalists and scientists are coming up with many hair-raising forecasts of an environmental disaster where millions of cubic meters of marsh gas, or methane, are released into the atmosphere. But is the atmosphere in real danger? Field studies prove that the tundra and Arctic lakes do emit more marsh gas than usual because of the ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
New research shows climate change triggers wars and population decline
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/studien/bericht-96751.html
Innovations Report: Climate change may be one of the most significant threats facing humankind. A new study shows that long-term climate change may ultimately lead to wars and population decline. The study, published November 19 in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), revealed that as temperatures decreased centuries ago during a period called the Little Ice Age, the number of wars increased, famine occurred and the population declined. Data on ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
On election eve, Australia's opposition leader says climate change is No. 1 priority
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1123/p25s05-woap.htm
Christian Science Monitor: On the eve of Australia's landmark federal election, the man widely predicted to become the country's next leader has declared the fight against climate change as his No. 1 priority. Kevin Rudd, a bookish former diplomat who heads the opposition Labor Party, has pledged to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, a move which would leave the US as the only developed nation not to have ratified the treaty. Mr. Rudd, a fluent Chinese speaker, has also promised to withdraw ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Australia: Rudd as PM 'heaven-sent' to climate talks
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/rudd-as-pm-will-be-heavensent-to-cli mate-talks-indonesia/2007/11/22/1195321950373.html
Age: The head of next month's crucial climate change conference and Indonesia's Environment Minister has supported the election of a Labor government, saying its plan to ratify the Kyoto Protocol would be a "heaven-sent" boost to the talks. In extraordinary statements for an Indonesian minister, Rachmat Witoelar said he hoped "good environmental moves" prevailed out of Australia's election tomorrow. "I have become good friends with Mr Howard so I wish him ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Malaysia: Sustaining palm oil markets
http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/Monday/BizFocus/20071123020153 /Article/
Business Times: DESCRIBED as a benchmark event, the Fifth Roundtable Meeting on Sustainable Palm Oil or RT5 attracted a lot of interest globally – from legislators in Europe to the grocery shopper in the UK right down to the simple smallholder eking out a living in a small kampung. Now the challenge is to implement the standard for the commodity – to ensure mechanisms to move the RSPO-Certified Sustainable Palm Oil through the supply chain which will enable consumers to tell the difference between ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
The next Australian election could be the first decided on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/23/climatechange.australia?g usrc=rss&feed=12
Guardian: On an early summer's morning in northern Tasmania, the Tamar valley looks like an Australian slice of Tuscany. There are groves of walnut trees beside white-barked eucalyptus, a lavender farm, apricot orchards and small fields of olives. Vineyards run down to the river and fat black cattle graze the pasture. Yachts are anchored in the winding reaches of the tidal river. The Tamar seems a model of sustainable development - green and welcoming. Except that the Australian government has ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
U.N.: Greenhouse Gases Hit High in 2006
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iqGMrzmNKuHg8Hmz_YBFYQvY4J4AD8T3FOA04
Associated Press: Two of the most important Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere reached a record high in 2006, and measurements show that one – carbon dioxide – is playing an increasingly important role in global warming, the U.N. weather agency said Friday. The global average concentrations of carbon dioxide, or CO2, and nitrous oxide, or N2O, in the atmosphere were higher than ever in measurements coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization, said Geir Braathen, a climate specialist at ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Canada's Inuit facing 'cultural genocide,' says Arctic expert
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=886e1d36-01c8-4ef6-8d60-a94 60b815f62&k=34394
CanWest News Service: Some Inuit believe climate change could bring about a "cultural genocide" as their hunting way of life melts with the sea ice, an Arctic expert told a breakfast meeting of parliamentarians on Thursday. "There's a cultural genocide implied," said Franklyn Griffiths, a retired University of Toronto political science professor and expert on Arctic and Russian affairs. "That is my phrase, not something they'd use." With climate change, the physical ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
China wants rich nations to take lead in climate talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK29909320071123
Reuters: China wants next month's international talks on global warming to focus on future greenhouse gas cuts by rich countries and moving more "clean" technology to poor countries, an official said on Thursday. China is emerging as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from factories, farms and vehicles that traps more heat in the atmosphere, threatening to bring dangerous, even catastrophic, climate change. Next month in Bali, countries will ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
China will be severely tested by rising sea levels, warns expert
http://www.topnews.in/china-will-be-severely-tested-rising-sea-levels-warns -expert-27055
Top News: Rising sea levels and falling river water volumes - as forecast in the latest UN report on climate change - could drastically alter weather patterns and cause huge economic losses in China, a senior meteorological official has warned. The China Daily quoted Luo Yong, deputy director of the Beijing Climate Center affiliated to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), as saying that there would be more typhoons, floods and land subsidence as a result of global warming. The ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Climate change in focus at Commonwealth summit
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071124/tts-commonwealth-summit-environ ment-c1b2fc3.html
Agence France-Presse: Commonwealth heads of state should send a strong message of support to next month's international summit on climate change in Bali, the 53-nation group's chairman said Friday. "There is little doubt that in order to keep the adaptation challenge in manageable bounds we must work decisively towards the aim of reducing greeenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent below 1990 levels, and this to be reached by 2050," said Lawrence Gonzi, outgoing chairman and Maltese prime ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Crop research 'must switch to climate adaptation'
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=4&am p;item=News&itemid=4083&language=1
SciDev.Net: Climate-change and crop experts have called for a paradigm shift in agricultural research to focus on making plants more resilient to global warming rather than on increasing yields. Martin Parry, co-chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and William Dar, director-general of the International Centre for Research in Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India, said the focus of crop research should be reoriented towards adaptation to environmental stress, such as ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
EU Swerves Away From Taxing Car Pollution
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40185
Inter Press Service: European Union governments look set to reject calls for taxing cars based on their contribution to climate change. At a Dec. 4 meeting, finance ministers from the EU's 27 member states are scheduled to discuss a proposal for reshaping taxes imposed on cars so that they take account of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main climate-changing gas, they emit. But Portugal, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, has conceded that a breakthrough on this plan is ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Germany: Europe's CO2 Capital Clings to Power Plants That Put It on Map
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aq0sr3U4IfUk&re fer=germany
Bloomberg: Mayor Axel Pruemm makes no apologies for his town -- the biggest source of greenhouse gases in Europe. The area near Grevenbroich, Germany's self-proclaimed ``capital of energy,'' boasts 27 lignite-fired boilers at three generating stations. The plants and mines that feed them bring jobs and corporate sponsorship. They're also responsible for the largest concentration of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, thrusting the town to the forefront of the climate-change debate. ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Heathrow's third runway: the battle begins
http://www.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/11/23/heathrow.expansion/
CNN: On the one side is business, the economy and growth. On the other is the environment, a village and thousands of local residents. Now that the British government has published consultation this week for a third runway and sixth terminal at London Heathrow Airport, the debate can begin. The proposition is for a 2,200 meter runway to be built north of Heathrow by 2020. This would almost double the number of passengers passing through one of the world's largest airports and increase the ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Methane-eating bacteria could halt warming
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22808426-23109,00.html
AAP: NEW Zealand scientists hope a newly discovered bacterium that eats methane could ultimately help counter a key global warming gas. The bacterium was discovered living about 30cm below the ground in the hot, acidic environment at Hells Gate in Rotorua, a geothermal area. Microbiologist Dr Matthew Stott, who was part of the team that made the discovery, said they had been puzzled as to why methane produced geothermally at Hells Gate did not reach the surface. The answer ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Ottawa's idling leaves Canada lagging on climate change
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/opinion/story.html?id=5acae742-f a72-4363-8e46-5822d8899f91
Ottawa Citizen: Say this for government, Canadian-style: we don't like to rush into anything. Why pass a law, impose a regulation, admit a mistake or make a tough decision when you can strike an inquiry, establish a blue-chip panel and consult endlessly? If you ponder long enough, someone else might solve the problem. It isn't happening with climate change, but the Kyoto accord was nearly scuppered thanks to years of deliberate delay. By failing to act early to meet Kyoto's demanding ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Researcher: Inuit culture in peril
http://www.physorg.com/news115053247.html
United Press International: Franklyn Griffiths, a retired University of Toronto political science professor with expertise on Arctic and Russian matters, told members of Parliament Thursday his interviews of Inuit hunters and eldersds revealed a significant minority have serious concerns about climate change, CanWest News Service reported Friday. "There's a real worry that the physical basis for the culture will be wiped out," Griffiths said. "Hunting will become the equivalent of picnics. It's all over, ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Study reveals impacts of past climates on biodiversity
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=& RCN=28743
Cordis: Past climate may have a stronger impact on biodiversity than was previously thought, according to new EU-funded research published in the journal Ecography. The findings have implications for our understanding of how species are likely to react to the effects of climate change. The question of why some regions are home to more species than others has fascinated scientists for centuries. Over the past 20 years, many studies have indicated that today's distribution of species is ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Sweden Turns to a Promising Power Source, With Flaws
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/business/23wind.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
New York Times: Steadying himself on the heaving foredeck of an inspection ship recently, his face flecked by spray, Arne Floderus pronounced it a good day for his new offshore wind farm. A 30-mile-an-hour wind was twirling the fingerlike blades of a turbine 380 feet above his head. Around him, a field of turbines rotated in a synchronized ballet that, when fully connected to an electrical grid, would generate enough power to light 60,000 nearby houses. "We've created a new landmark," said Mr. ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Tracking greenhouse gases
http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_7538019?nclick_check=1
Associated Press: There's growing worry about global warming, but how much of it is the work of that power plant just outside town? And if Congress limits heat-trapping greenhouse gases, will it affect utility and electric bills? And who's the biggest corporate culprit when it comes to climate change? Answers to these questions may be only a couple of computer clicks away. A new interactive online database unveiled Wednesday provides maps, color-coded categories and detailed information ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Asia to get US$3.6M aid to buffer impact of climate change
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id =102736
Associated Press: Japan and the United Kingdom will provide a US$3.6 million aid package to boost the Asia and Pacific region's ability to respond to adverse effects of climate change, the Asian Development Bank said Friday. "Climate change will have devastating impacts in Asia, and it is the poorest who are likely to suffer most," said Nessim J. Ahmad, an ADB director for environment and social safeguard. "We need to work together with our developing member countries and other ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Campaigners slam aviation emissions trading
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=13839&channel=0
Edie: Members of campaign group London Rising Tide made an impromptu speech to delegates at Emissions Trading Aviation 2007 at Selfridges Hotel, in London, on Wednesday, to highlight their fears that emissions trading will not have a significant impact on curbing aviation emissions. The conference had been organised to help the carbon trading and aviation industries to understand more about plans to include aviation in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2011. ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Industry slow to act on carbon-saving advice, report finds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/23/carbonemissions.climatech ange1?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: An organisation set up to help industry reduce CO2 emissions has only had a limited impact, the government's spending watchdog said today. The National Audit Office (NAO) found that only 12% of large businesses had worked with the Carbon Trust to reduce their carbon emissions, and just 40% of the potential savings identified by the trust between 2003 and 2006 had actually been implemented. Set up by the government in 2001 as a private company, the trust was designed to ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Scientists unravel plants' natural defenses
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/biowissenschaften_chemie/ber icht-96743.html
Innovations Report: A team of researchers, led by the University of Sheffield and Queen Mary, University of London, has discovered how plants protect their leaves from damage by sunlight when they are faced with extreme climates. The new findings, which have been published in Nature, could have implications both for adapting plants to the threat of global warming and for helping man better harness solar energy. Photosynthesis in plants relies upon the efficient collection of sunlight. This process can ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Stinging jellyfish swarm hits Scotland
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKL2313072420071123
Reuters: Millions of stinging baby jellyfish have been spotted off Scotland just days after another swarm wiped out Northern Ireland's only Salmon farm, the Marine Conservation Society said on Friday. The organisation, which said the abnormal swarms of baby mauve stinger and compass jellyfish were due to wind and tidal factors, urged fish farmers and the public to report any sightings to help monitor their progress. "It is quite unusual for this number of juvenile jellyfish to be ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
US$750 million for new Arab climate change fund
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=2&am p;item=News&itemid=4084&language=1
SciDev.Net: Four Arab Gulf states have pledged a total of US$750 million to a new fund for tackling climate change. The announcement was made on 18 November at the end of a two-day summit for leaders of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia will invest US$300 million in the fund, with Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates pledging US$150 million each. The fund aims to support cleaner and more efficient petroleum ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Warning dims German solar sector, heavyweights shine
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2250467920071123
Reuters: Germany's solar industry was shaken this month after Conergy (CGYG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) shocked investors with a profit warning, sparking a sell-off in sun power stocks, but analysts say the sector still offers good opportunities. Germany's OekoDax (.OEKODAX: Quote, Profile, Research), home to the country's major solar, wind and biogas shares, has given back half the year's 40 percent gains since the solar power systems maker said in late October supply problems might lead to ...

Fri, 23 Nov 07
Greenhouse Gases Rise From Forests Damaged by Katrina
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2007/2007-11-23-094.asp
Environment News Service: Losses inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on Gulf Coast forest trees are great enough to cancel out a year's worth of new tree growth in other parts of the country, according to a new study led by biologist Jeffrey Chambers of Tulane University. "The carbon that will be released as these trees decompose is enough to cancel out an entire year's worth of net gain by all U.S. forests. And this is only from a single storm," says Chambers, lead author of an article detailing the ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
'India's renewable energy capacity to grow eight-fold'
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/146429.html
IANS: India's renewable energy capacity will grow eight-fold to touch 80,000 MW by 2032 and will account for 10 percent of the country's total electricity generation capacity, Renewable Energy Minister Vilas Muttemwar said Thursday. 'We are working for facilitating the implementation of a broad spectrum programme covering the entire range of new and renewable sources,' the minister said in a paper submitted at a seminar on renewable energy organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
China: Global warming a burden for developed countries
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2007-11-22-china-warm ing_N.htm
Associated Press: China sought to head off expected pressure at an upcoming international climate change meeting, saying Thursday that global warming largely remained a problem for richer countries to tackle. With a juggernaut economy and a consumer car-buying frenzy, China is expected to soon surpass the United States as the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. That has made China a growing focus for some foreign governments and activist groups searching for ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
Climate change not priority for India firms: survey
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKDEL15689720071122
Reuters: Most firms in India, one of the world's worst polluters, are yet to plan for the impact of climate change on their businesses, do not measure emissions or have deadlines to curb them, a study said on Thursday. However, many Indian companies are aware of the commercial opportunities presented by global warming, according to the survey by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global agency working towards a low-carbon economy. Only about a third of 110 top companies polled ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
EU to propose renewable energy goal based on GDP
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2241148420071122
Reuters: Wealthier countries in the European Union will have to do more than poorer nations to meet a goal of boosting EU renewable energy usage under proposals being developed by the bloc's executive branch. EU countries' gross domestic product will partially determine how much they will have to contribute to an EU target to have 20 percent of the bloc's energy use come from renewable sources such as wind or solar power by 2020, an official said. EU leaders agreed in March to make the ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
France may cut tax advantages for biofuels
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7096735
Reiters: France may cut tax advantages for biofuels by around a third as part of a review of its 2008 budget, a move which could deal a heavy blow to the sector, a French politician said on Thursday. French firms are exempt from paying 0.25 euros per litre of the TIPP fuel tax for biodiesel, but this could be slashed to 0.18 euros per litre, if government plans transpired, said Stephane Demilly, who heads a parliamentary group on biofuels. Biodiesel is mainly derived from crops such as ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Gas guzzlers to be charged extra for parking in Edinburgh
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1853847.0.0.php
Herald: Motorists who drive gas guzzling cars are to be charged more to park outside their homes in a bid to cut pollution in the capital. The full city council in Edinburgh yesterday unanimously approved proposals to revise parking charges according to vehicle pollution. City officials will now prepare a report on what kind of scheme could be introduced. The move against vehicle emissions, first reported by The Herald last October, will benefit motorists who drive fuel ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
Indonesia seeks international help to protect forests
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iKXfzGEQ-2FNQ2hU34lhgIhkTC0g
Agence France-Presse: Indonesia's environment minister said Thursday his country needed about six billion dollars a year from rich nations to preserve dwindling forests, a key step in fighting climate change. "We need financial assistance for the conservation of our forests. Developed countries must give their support by providing financial assistance to developing countries," Rachmat Witoelar said. Indonesia is gearing up to host a global UN summit on climate change next month in which ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
Japan to start buying carbon credits
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21931742/
Financial Times: Japan will announce as early as next week that it intends to buy carbon credits from Hungary, a move that could foreshadow a much larger purchase from Russia - and one that would provoke criticism as a means of meeting its obligations under the Kyoto protocol. Japan could become the world's biggest buyer of carbon credits because, under Kyoto, it has pledged to cut emissions to 6 per cent below 1990 levels but is currently 8 per cent above. The memorandum of understanding with ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
United Kingdom: Legal action threatened over 'sham' Heathrow consultation
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3187113.ece
Independent (UK): Councils opposed to a third London runway threatened legal action yesterday after Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, provoked fury by signalling a massive expansion of Heathrow. Environment groups accused Gordon Brown of hypocrisy for claiming to be leading the world in combating climate change four days before consulting on an expansion of aviation in his own backyard. The Government's plans were backed in a move that appeared to be co-ordinated by all sides of the ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
New northern protected areas draw widespread applause
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=2804931e-2d28-4baf-8d09-5a5 606e91963&k=42838
CanWest News Service: The Harper government received rare praise from conservation groups, northern aboriginal leaders and opposition parties on Wednesday as it announced a major expansion of protected areas to stop economic activities in the North that threaten forests and wildlife. Environment Minister John Baird said the new protected areas, more than five times the size of Prince Edward Island, demonstrate that his government is committed to finding a balance between conservation and ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hlqp-FN1xJ1am3EDcDnMa-GSFtzA
Agence France-Presse: An agrarian crisis is brewing because of climate change that could jeopardise global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for a billion poorest of the poor, scientists warned Thursday. South Asia and Africa would be hardest hit by the crisis, which would shift the world's priorities away from boosting food output year after year to bolstering the resilience of crops to cope with warm weather, they said. Rice, the staple for billions of people, is most vulnerable to ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
UN climate panel co-head pessimistic about progress in Bali
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g-xRLMFYiSA15hddUqgq0ntJUPqQ
Agence France-Presse: The co-head of the UN climate-change panel that shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize said Thursday he was pessimistic about progress at next month's global environmental summit in Bali. The world may have to wait until the Copenhagen summit two years later before governments summon the political will to budge, said Martin Parry, co-chair of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The body is regarded as the world's top scientific authority on global warming and ...

Thu, 22 Nov 07
Apocalyptic vision of a post-fossil fuel world
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/22/eaoil122. xml
Telegraph (UK): An apocalyptic vision of how the world will look after the oil runs out has been given by a top scientist. Richard Heinberg, one of the world's leading experts on oil reserves, warned that the lives of billions of people were threatened by a food crisis caused by our dependence on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels. Higher oil prices, the loss of farmland to biofuel crops, climate change and the loss of natural resources would combine with population growth to create an ...