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North America gets its first carbon tax
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0228/p04s01-wogi.html
Christian Science Monitor: Taxing carbon-spewing machines to slow global warming certainly has an eat-your-peas aspect to it: "Trade your SUV for a hybrid or we'll make you pay!" Then again, tax policy can have a huge and positive impact on individual and group behavior. In part, high cigarette taxes explain why rates of smoking among Americans have plummeted. The Canadian province of British Columbia last week became the first jurisdiction in North America to enact a consumer-based tax on ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Brazil Police Force To Combat Amazon Deforestation
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47206/story.htm
Reuters: Brazil's federal police said it launched an operation on Monday aimed at fighting deforestation in the Amazon, a week after townspeople clashed with local police over illegal sawmills. About 300 federal police agents and troopers from the paramilitary national security force arrived in northern Para state in helicopters and a caravan of vehicles. The operation dubbed Arch of Fire should have a total of 1,000 agents on the ground when it is in full force, the agency said. ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Indonesia's Riau province major greenhouse gas emitter
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/188367,indonesias-riau-province-major-greenhouse-gas-emitter.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The transformation of tropical forests and peat swamps into plantations in Indonesia's Riau province is generating more carbon emissions each year than the Netherlands and almost half of Australia's, the World Wildlife Fund revealed Wednesday. The WWF study revealed that in Sumatra's Riau province nearly 10.5 million acres of tropical forests and peat swamp have been cleared in the last 25 years. "Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition and fires are behind average ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Rich Nations Should Agree 2020 Carbon Targets - UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47208/story.htm
Reuters: The world's rich countries should set a goal of cutting planet-warming gases by 2020, not by 2050 as some have suggested, so businesses can get a clearer signal on actions they need to take to fight global warming, the UN's top climate change official said on Monday. In UN climate talks in Bali late last year, Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations as part of a roadmap to work out a new global pact to fight climate change. The new pact would ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Indonesia: Sumatran deforestation driving climate change and species extinction, report warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/27/climatechange.forests
Guardian: The destruction of Sumatra's natural forests is accelerating global climate change and pushing endangered species closer to extinction, a new report warned today. A study from WWF claims that converting the forests and peat swamps of just one Sumatran province into plantations for pulpwood and palm oil is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands, and is endangering local elephant and tiger populations. The fastest rate of deforestation in Indonesia ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
UN Panel Mulls Carbon Rule Tweak To Curb Profits
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47207/story.htm
Reuters: A UN panel which supervises trade in carbon offsets under the Kyoto Protocol is probing tweaks to the rules as there is evidence of attempts to make excessive profits, its vice-chair Lex de Jonge said. Rich countries can meet their binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions by funding emissions cuts in developing countries under the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) through a currency of carbon offsets. The scheme has attracted speculators who establish ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Eroding Alaska town sues oil and power companies over global warming
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Global-Warming-Erosion.php
Associated Press: A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean is suing oil, power and coal companies, claiming their contributions to global warming threaten the community's existence. The city of Kivalina and a tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, is suing Exxon Mobil Corp. and nine other oil companies. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco also names 14 power companies and one coal company. Kivalina is an Inupiat Eskimo community of about 390 people about ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: In Doomed Heathrow Village, Activists Await Fight
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47191/story.htm
Reuters: Sitting in a wood-beamed pub that would be buried under London Heathrow's proposed third runway, locals Geraldine Nicholson and Linda McCutcheon say they do not intend to give up their homes without a fight. Britain's government, business leaders and airport operator BAA say the world's busiest international airport must expand or lose out to continental rivals, damaging the country's economy. A consultation on the proposed expansion concludes on Wednesday. The government ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Noah's Ark For Crop Seeds Opens In Arctic Norway
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47192/story.htm
Reuters: Norway launched a Noah's ark of the plant kingdom on Tuesday to protect crop seeds, among mankind's most valuable resources, from cataclysm inside an Arctic mountainside. Blasted out of icy rock 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the air-locked vaults would stay frozen for 200 years even in the worst-case scenario of global warming and if mechanical refrigeration were to fail, officials said. Initially 100 million seeds from more than 100 countries have been sent for ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Top China Plastic Bag Maker Closes Amid Green Drive
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47186/story.htm
Reuters: China's largest plastic bag maker has closed following a state-led environmental campaign discouraging plastics use, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. China launched a surprise crackdown on plastic bags in January, banning production of ultra-thin bags and forbidding its supermarkets and shops from handing out free carrier bags from June 1. Suiping Huaqiang Plastic Co, owned by Guangzhou-based Nanqiang Plastic Industrial Ltd. and employing 20,000 workers stopped production ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
China's Olympic Water Province Faces Severe Drought
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47195/story.htm
Reuters: The north Chinese province of Hebei, which will supply arid Beijing with much of its water for the summer Olympics, is suffering severe drought, with half a million residents likely to face hardships with drinking water. Hebei lies next to China's national capital and has long provided the city's 16 million residents with most of their water. With Beijing's water demand during the Olympics expected to spike by up to 30 percent above average, reaching 2.75 million cubic metres ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Australia: Mega solar-station to cut Australian emissions
http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/331538/cs/1/
Malaysia Sun: Work is likely to begin soon in Australia on the world's biggest solar power plant. The premier of the state of Victoria, John Brumby, said an investment for a 154-megawatt power station, nearly double the size of the largest US solar plant, had been pledged by an affiliate of Hong Kong-based CLP Group. The investment followed grants of US$46 million from the Victorian state government and US$70 million dollars from the federal government. By using mirrors to track the ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
France: Sarkozy given emissions challenge
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7204d946-e4d8-11dc-a495-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, yesterday challenged Nicolas Sarkozy to use his European Union presidency to push through ambitious environmental targets. Mr Barroso told the Financial Times at a meeting in Svalbard, Norway, that the French presidency of the EU, which begins in July, would have to ensure the ambitious -targets were agreed by European member states and -parliament. The targets - to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent, generate 20 per ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Alaska town sues 24 energy cos on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7342022
Reuters: An Alaskan village north of the Arctic Circle has filed suit in a U.S. District Court against 24 energy companies, in an attempt to link erosion damage from global warming to the defendants' actions. Residents of Kivalina, a village of about 400 native Inupiat located on the tip of a barrier reef between the Chukchi Sea and two rivers, filed suit on Tuesday against the companies in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The suit is one of many global warming cases that have been ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: BP CEO says no gain from green investment
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSWLB778620080227
Reuters: BP Plc's Chief Executive said the oil giant's shares have received little, if any, uplift from its investments in renewable energy and hinted the company may sell some of its wind, solar and biofuels operations. In his first strategy presentation as CEO, Tony Hayward said BP's strong asset base of hydrocarbons could support production of 4 million barrels per day to 2020, and that he was making good progress in turning around BP's troubled refinery division. However, Europe's ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Carbon credits market set to grow 56% this year
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/ET_Cetera/Carbon_credits_market_set_to_grow_56_this_year/articleshow/2820661.cms
Reuters: Global trade in credits representing reductions of planet-warming gas emissions should rise 56% this year as Europe tightens its flagship programme to tackle greenhouse gases, a carbon analysis group said on Tuesday. Greenhouse gas trade should grow to 4.2 billion tonnes from 2.7 billion tonnes last year as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme's second phase launched this year tightens allowed emissions levels and adds new members, according to the 2008 annual carbon market outlook from ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Government study finds pesticides, other contaminants prevalent in West's national parks
http://www.startribune.com/science/16050252.html
Associated Press: Pesticides, heavy metals and other airborne contaminants are raining down on national parks across the West and Alaska, turning up at sometimes dangerously high levels in lakes, plants and fish. A sweeping, six-year federal study released Tuesday found evidence of 70 contaminants in 20 national parks and monuments – from Denali in Alaska and Glacier in Montana, to Big Bend in Texas and Yosemite in California. The findings revealed that some of the Earth's most pristine ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Heathrow protesters scale Commons roof
http://uk.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKL2769586820080227
Reuters: Climate protesters scaled the roof of parliament in a major security breach on Wednesday and threatened further direct action as a public consultation into the expansion of Heathrow airport came to an end. Three men and two women from the "Plane Stupid" group spent around two hours on the Commons roof after hanging banners down the side of the building. The demonstration followed another serious security breach on Monday when Greenpeace activists climbed on top of an ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Japan and Russia take steps to trade emissions rights
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT9532520080227
Reuters: Japan on Wednesday stepped up its plans to buy greenhouse gas emissions rights from Russia, to help Tokyo meet its emissions limits under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. The U.N.-run Kyoto treaty allows industrialized countries to meet greenhouse gas targets between 2008 and 2012 by buying emissions rights from each other or from developing nations. Two such trading schemes force the buyer to fund emissions cuts in return for receiving the carbon offsets. A third, ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Life Under the Macroscope
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41379
Inter Press Service: Free, authoritative and online: 1.8 million species. That is the ultimate goal of the Encyclopedia of Life project, which put its first 30,000 species on the Internet this week. This ambitious global project will provide the details of every known species -- habitat, range, lifecycle, pictures and more -- and archive everything online so anyone can access this important information about life on Earth. From sharks to mushrooms to bacteria, the Encyclopedia of Life will provide ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Anti-airport demo on parliament roof ends
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0_HhhcdzqC4_ZWZSp93Nmc3RJ1g
Agence France Presse: Demonstrators opposing the expansion of Heathrow airport climbed on to the roof of the Houses of Parliament and stayed there for three hours Wednesday, just days after a similar protest on a jet at the airport. Five activists from campaign group Plane Stupid draped two banners over the roof, one saying "No Third Runway", and the other, referring to airport operator BAA, reading "BAA Headquarters", an AFP photographer at the scene said. They ended their ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Environmentalists hold protest action on U.K. parliament roof
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080227/100185304.html
Ria Novosti: Activists from the climate action group Plane Stupid climbed onto the roof of Britain's Parliament on Wednesday in protest against the construction of a third runway at London Heathrow Airport. The environmentalists, three men and two women, who spent three hours on the roof before leaving during a traditional session of Prime Minister's Question time, were arrested by police. They said the airport expansion would inevitably lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and could ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Environmentalists Look At Mercury Emissions To Derail Coal Plants
http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2008-02-27-0030.html
Associated Press: Duke Energy's newest coal-fired power generator will pump more than 5 million tons of carbon dioxide into the North Carolina sky every year. And environmentalists are outraged because of concerns over global warming. But their fight now centers on a few dozen pounds of toxic mercury that the plant will emit. Mercury can damage the brains of developing fetuses and very young children. And environmentalists see mercury as an undisputed threat to the public's health. They hope the ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
EU renewables targets demand radical change-Vestas
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2781348020080227
Reuters: Endless debate over climate change and ways of dealing with it means Europe will miss its carbon cutting without a radical change in approach, the chief executive of the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer said on Wednesday. The European Commission's plan to get a fifth of all energy from renewable sources by 2020 is welcome, Vestas Wind Systems CEO Ditlev Engel said in an interview. But the goal will be missed if politicians continue to argue over how to cut emissions of the ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
New York City's black taxis going green
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2746004920080227
Reuters: New York City unveiled new fuel emissions standards for the city's 10,000 black taxis on Wednesday that will compel the town car owners to switch to hybrid technology within five years. The move -- part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to decrease the city's carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030 -- comes less than a year after Bloomberg announced the city's 13,000 yellow taxi cabs will go hybrid by 2012. Black town cars service mostly corporate clients and are responsible for ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Radiohead singer says band tries to cut carbon emissions from concerts
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/27/europe/EU-GEN-EU-Climate-Change-Radiohead.php
Associated Press: Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke said Wednesday that the band has tried to cut carbon emissions from its concerts by cutting down on flights and only playing places with a good public transport network. "We are doing as much as we possibly can, as I can say with my hand on heart, other than not going out on tour at all," he told reporters as he joined environmentalists campaigning for tougher EU climate change goals. "We are only flying when we have no choice at ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Radiohead's Thom Yorke: We face wartime-style energy rationing
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/27/earadiohead227.xml
Telegraph: People face wartime-style rationing of energy consumption and strict restrictions on travel unless the European Union takes new powers to enforce climate change targets, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has warned. The rock musician was in Brussels to launch "Big Ask Europe", a Friends of the Earth campaign urging a beefed up Brussels powers to implement sweeping measures to cut CO2 emissions by 2020. Mr Yorke, a seasoned campaigner against global warming, predicted that ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
UK Protesters Climb Onto Parliament Roof
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5juudxAmCZRkYmCQda04rMkIXyV5AD8V2MP3G0
Associated Press: Demonstrators climbed onto the roof of Britain's Houses of Parliament on Wednesday and unfurled a banner protesting plans to build a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport. Protesters from the group Plane Stupid reached the roof despite tight security at Parliament, including armed police guards. Protesters threw paper airplanes from the roof, and the banner – which was later cut down – said "No Third Runway." Police said five people later were led down from the ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Australia: ACT Govt defends solar power plan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/27/2174370.htm?site=science&topic=latest
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: An environmental lawyer has accused the ACT Government of not following through with its proposal to boost solar power use in Canberra. Australian National University (ANU) lecturer, Doctor James Prest has supported a discussion paper to introduce a higher rebate for home owners who sell their solar energy to the grid. Doctor Prest says it is a better approach than the Commonwealth's plan to set mandatory renewable energy targets, but he thinks the ACT Government will go back ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Alaskan village sues major oil firms
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/02/27/alaskan_village_sues_major_oil_firms/6688/
United Press International: An Alaskan village is suing 24 major energy firms including ExxonMobil and BP over charges that greenhouse gases they emit threaten its existence. The village of Kivalina, home to Inupiat Eskimos and located in the Arctic Circle, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco alleging the village faced imminent destruction from global warming because of greenhouse gas emissions by the firms. The lawsuit says climate change ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Canada: Inside BC's carbon tax revolution
http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/16026872.html
Salmon Arm Observer: B.C.'s new carbon tax has been characterized as everything from green camouflage for business handouts to the most important policy since Tommy Douglas socialized medicine. It's revolutionary all right, but not in the way you might think. It's part of a fundamental shift from income taxes to consumption taxes, one in which fuel tax is only a part. For instance, those concerned about business subsidies may be interested to know that the Gordon Campbell government has just advised B.C. ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Stop penalising consumers for climate change
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f60665ba-e556-11dc-9334-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: T he campaign for a sustainable, low-carbon future is not going well. A Norwegian Arctic measuring station last week reported that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere had reached a new peak, at 394 parts per million, heading for the danger levels at which we are told violent climate change will set in. Meanwhile, an FT/Harris poll tells us that two-thirds of western European consumers are reluctant to pay more on their sky-high energy bills to cut emissions and subsidise ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Thom Yorke launches green campaign
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCWpHqNXR90h66PJblwHCgCZIhxg
Press Association: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has launched a Europe-wide campaign to get governments and the EU to commit to year-on-year climate change emissions cuts. The Friends of the Earth's Big Ask Europe campaign is also calling on the European Union to commit to more stringent emissions targets of at least 30% reductions by 2020 and 90% by 2050. Campaigners from 17 countries are calling on their governments to sign up to legally-binding annual targets to make sure progress can be ...
Wed, 27 Feb 08
Wind variations may spur climate change
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/02/27/wind_variations_may_spur_climate_change/9118/
United Press International: A team of Spanish and German scientists has simulated the Earth's climate during the Last Glacial Maximum, which occurred about 21,000 years ago. Such simulations, the researchers said, are a challenge for climate modeling, especially for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or AMOC, that regulates climate by distributing heat to the world's oceans and involves deepwater formation in the North Atlantic. To characterize the AMOC during the LGM, models must accurately ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Australia Says Carbon Emissions Keep Growing
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47170/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's carbon emissions would continue to grow due to a heavy reliance on coal for electricity, a government report said on Monday, although the country would meet its Kyoto emissions targets by 2012. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said emissions would grow by 108 percent of 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012, meeting commitments under the Kyoto Protocol which sets binding Greenhouse gas targets for developed nations. Wong said the figures were good for Australia, and ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Rich nations should agree 2020 carbon targets -UN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7336472
Reuters: The world's rich countries should set a goal of cutting planet-warming gases by 2020, not by 2050 as some have suggested, so businesses can get a clearer signal on actions they need to take to fight global warming, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Monday. In U.N. climate talks in Bali late last year, Washington rejected stiff 2020 targets for greenhouse gas cuts by rich nations as part of a roadmap to work out a new global pact to fight climate change. The new pact would ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
China: Staring At Grain Imports
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41345
Inter Press Service: With global food prices on an upward spiral, China is facing renewed fears that its growing demand for grain to feed the world's largest population may lead to imports from international markets, driving prices higher and spurring further food inflation. The resurging "threat of China's food security" may have induced more fatigue than alarm if it was not coming at a time of unprecedented scarcity of arable land, which is increasingly being converted to grow biofuels, and ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
United States: Cantwell seeks tax breaks for wind power
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/352600_energy26.html
Seattle Post Intelligencer: It's renewable energy vs. the oil industry in the halls of Congress, where lawmakers are weighing whether to shift billions of dollars in tax incentives from oil and gas to wind, solar and biomass. The House is expected this week to approve an energy package that would repeal $17.6 billion in tax breaks for the largest oil companies and use that money for tax incentives for renewable forms of energy such as wind and solar, as well as conservation. Renewable energy has received ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Coral Reefs and What Ruins Them
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=93486
New York Times: Researchers who studied a string of Pacific Ocean atolls are painting the first detailed picture of pristine coral reefs and how they can be disrupted by people – particularly, they said, by fishing. The researchers, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and elsewhere in the United States and abroad, surveyed every form of life last summer in the northern Line Islands, a chain south of Hawaii. Their survey encompassed everything from microbes to sharks and other big fish at the ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
France, Germany Warn EU Climate Plan Risks Jobs
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47167/story.htm
Reuters: Brussels risks sacrificing European jobs with its plans to cut industrial greenhouse gas emissions, the euro zone's big two economies France and Germany said on Monday. Europe should lead by example but must not "change the competitiveness of our economy and our companies" by adopting tougher pollution measures than in other parts of the world," said Herve Novelli, France's junior minister for industry. The European Commission announced proposals in January for ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Australia: Govt to buy $50m of Murray-Darling water
http://campbelltown.yourguide.com.au/news/breaking/general/govt-to-buy-50m-of-murraydarling-water/1190738.html
AAP: The federal government begins a process to buy $50 million worth of water from irrigators in south-east Australia on Wednesday. The move is part of the $10 billion national water plan aimed at reviving the parched Murray-Darling Basin. Federal Water Minister Penny Wong said the public tender process allowed irrigators who wished to sell their water entitlements to submit offers at a fair market price. She said the water would be used to preserve the environmental assets ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Australia: Greenhouse gases to grow 20% by 2020
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/greenhouse-gases-to-grow-20-by-2020/2008/02/25/1203788254450.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIA will meet its Kyoto Protocol emissions targets but greenhouse pollution is growing, mainly due to heavy reliance on coal for electricity. A report from the Federal Government's Department of Climate Change shows that although the rate of growth is slowing, Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are likely to increase by 20 per cent by 2020. The Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, said the figures were good for the country, and showed a cut in expected emissions: ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Lack of lines for transmission trips up wind energy
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2008-02-25-wind-power-transmission_N.htm
USA Today: As wind farms sprout across the country, they're kicking up a new quandary: how to zap the electricity to homes and businesses that need it. The USA's wind-power boom, especially in rural parts of Texas, the Midwest and California, is poised to outstrip the capacity of high-voltage lines to send the electricity hundreds of miles to population centers such as Dallas, Chicago and Los Angeles. The transmission-line shortage is threatening to slow wind energy's breakneck growth and ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Nature's in bloomin' chaos as global warming turns the seasons on their head
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=518671&in_page_id=1770
Daily Mail: Mother Nature is like a beloved aunt who occasionally gets slightly tipsy and does something outrageous to catch us off guard. She enjoys testing our nerves with her teasing games. We've had snow on Derby Day in June, hailstones in August and shirtsleeve days in March. British weather has always thrown up the unexpected - and that is why it is our national obsession. Our weather is anything but boring. But instead of behaving oddly every now and then, Nature is being erratic ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Objectors unite on Heathrow plan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7264038.stm
BBC: Thousands of residents, politicians and environmentalists have pledged to resist plans to extend Heathrow. Organisers said 3,000 people attended a meeting at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was among the speakers from all three major political parties who voiced their opposition. He said "no, no, no" to plans for a third runway and a sixth terminal. Earlier, Greenpeace activists staged a protest at the airport. Among ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Promised green revolution still seems a long way off
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/26/food.climatechange
Guardian: Climate change will have a profound impact on agriculture in the coming decades, either directly or indirectly. An increase in extreme weather will lead to poor harvests - a trend that has already started - and demand for biofuel will take land away from food production. Other factors such as urbanisation and increased demand for meat and dairy products in developing countries will also increase demands for food. "The pressures on the land and on agriculture are now much ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
UN warns of new face of hunger
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/26/food.unitednations
Guardian: The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a "new face of hunger". "We will have a problem in coming months," said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP). "We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
China's listed firms forced to submit environmental data: report
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hphFATZNUZOBgmQMZRiWU0aErjng
Agence France-Presse: China's heavily-polluting and energy-intensive companies will be forced to make full disclosures of their environmental impact, state media reported Tuesday. All companies, not just those seeking to list on the stock market, will be required to make the disclosures, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a regulation released by the State Environmental Protection Administration. The government will enforce the regulations and make sure that inspections are carried out before ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
China: CLP To Develop World's Largest Solar Power Station
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47175/story.htm
Reuters: An Australian subsidiary of CLP Holdings Ltd, the larger of Hong Kong's two power utilities, has agreed with Melbourne-based Solar Systems to develop the world's largest solar power station. TRUenergy will contribute an initial A$7 million ($6.5 million) to develop a 2-megawatt heliostat concentrated photovoltaic pilot plant, subsequently investing up to A$285 million to build the remaining stages of the 154 megawatt project in northern Victoria, Australia, CLP said. The ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
English countryside could be changed forever
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/26/eaeng126.xml
Telegraph: The traditional English countryside will be changed forever unless the Government acts swiftly on climate change, a new report warns. Landscapes which define England - village greens, country gardens, carpets of bluebells and ancient woodland - could all disappear because of the changing climate. Traditions and pastimes such as village cricket, football, gardening and golf could all be wrecked by hotter weather, a coalition of environmental protection groups warn. The ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Canada: Ontario rejects carbon taxes
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/02/25/ontario_rejects_carbon_taxes/7446/
United Press International: Ontario won't join British Columbia in creating a carbon tax, Premier Dalton McGuinty said. McGuinty made the announcement his province won't be part of the plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He vetoed the idea in favor of other alternatives to tackle climate change. The tax, a North American first, is "well-suited to B.C., its economy and the direction it's pursuing," McGuinty said. "But we're doing something differently here in Ontario that suits our ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Indonesia: Destruction Of Sumatra Forests Driving Global Climate Change And Species Extinction
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080226193141.htm
Science Daily: Turning just one Sumatran province's forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and palm oil plantations is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands and rapidly driving the province's elephants into extinction, a new study by WWF and partners has found. The study found that in central Sumatra's Riau Province nearly 10.5 million acres of tropical forests and peat swamp have been cleared in the last 25 years. Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition and ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
EPA staff had advised OK of California's stricter emissions rule, probe finds
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-waiver27feb27,1,4953433.story
LA Times: Before the head of the Environmental Protection Agency denied California permission to implement its own global-warming law, his staff advised that there was "no legal or technical justification" for turning down the state's request. That was among the findings of congressional investigators probing internal EPA documents to determine whether EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson was swayed by political pressure in his decision to refuse to allow California to enact emission ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Memos Show Pressure on EPA Chief
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4TNaA2ck0rw-HHcAv-8THuMzZaAD8V24AP80
Associated Press: Some career staffers concerned about the reputation of the Environmental Protection Agency believed that Administrator Stephen Johnson would have to consider resigning if he turned down California's request to reduce vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, newly released documents show. Johnson denied the waiver request in December. In doing so, he blocked California and at least 16 other states from implementing the reductions. The internal discussions were a part of transcripts ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Rising energy prices create global climate conundrum
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2648352120080226
Reuters: The price of carbon is rising, which is what governments wanted in the fight against global warming, but now it is here no one is quite so sure anymore. Energy prices have risen sharply in recent months, driving up domestic gas and electricity prices, an effect governments had said would help promote increased energy efficiency and therefore reduce emissions of climate warming carbon gases. But demand has barely twitched, fuel poverty has mushroomed and instead of carbon ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Staff warned US EPA head on Calif CO2 waiver rule
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2633826820080226
Reuters: Staff of the Environmental Protection Agency warned the agency's head that he might have to resign if he blocked attempts by California to set first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, according to internal agency documents released by Congress on Tuesday. On December 19, 2007, the EPA rejected California's bid for a waiver from U.S. law that would allow it to impose emissions restrictions on heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, which account for about ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
U.S. Remains Cool to Warming Pact
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1717317,00.html
Time Magazine: Read quickly, the latest White House statement on climate change may have sounded like news – good news. On Monday, Daniel Price, the Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economic Affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. would be willing to accept mandatory international limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Coming from an Administration that has steadfastly resisted mandatory caps, withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol and effectively derailed any serious global effort to slow ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Canada: Alberta To Wait On Call For Oil Sands Moratorium
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47196/story.htm
Reuters: Alberta will not immediately rule on a call for a temporary halt to issuing new land leases in parts of the Canadian province's vast oil sands region, a government spokesman said Monday. The Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), an umbrella group that includes industry, government, aboriginal and environmental groups -- and includes companies already operating in the region -- has asked the Alberta government in a letter for a moratorium on leases in three areas ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Costs of climate fight loom over Europe's last wilderness
http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/business_english/:Business%20English%20Costs%20Europe/321444.html
Financial Times: Villagers shell almonds in the evening shade as a pensioner wends her way home on a donkey laden with food from the market. Overhead, a rare Bonelli's eagle soars as church bells summon the faithful to mass, a sound that has echoed through centuries. Welcome to the Sabor river valley in north-east Portugal, Europe's front line in the battle against climate change. While attention has focused on the effect of cutting greenhouse gas emissions on the steel foundries and blast furnaces ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Global warming sceptics bouyed by record cold
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/26/eaice126.xml
Telegraph: Global warming sceptics are pointing to recent record cold temperatures in parts of North America and Asia and the return of Arctic Sea ice to suggest fears about climate change may be overblown. According to the US National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the average temperature of the global land surface in January 2008 was below the 20th century mean (-0.02°F/-0.01°C) for the first time since 1982. Temperatures were also colder than average across large swathes of central Asia, ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Canada: Italy ENI's interest waning in oil sands, CEO says
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN2632867220080226
Reuters: Italian energy company Eni's (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) enthusiasm for the Canadian oil sands sector is waning, its chief executive said on Tuesday, citing high costs and environmental concerns. "While a year ago, we would have told you that we are looking deeply into it, now we are somewhat cooling off," Paolo Scaroni told reporters after Eni entered into a research agreement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Canada's ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Next President Better Than Bush on Climate - Barroso
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47171/story.htm
Reuters: Any of the top three US presidential hopefuls would be better than President George W. Bush at combating climate change, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday. "The trend is on the right side, but there is a lot of work to do," Barroso said of the outlook for US policy on fighting global warming during a seminar on climate change and energy security in the Norwegian capital. Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Canada: Quebec frogs join other amphibians in global population crisis
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdTknwXyFGxEES1lNi-bVdZ4hsgA
Canadian Press: Quebec aquariums and zoos are leaping to the defence of an animal that is increasingly threatened with extinction in La Belle Province and around the world - frogs. The Quebec croaker and its amphibious friends are disappearing at a massive rate, with scientists estimating that up to one-half of species worldwide are in danger of disappearing. Some 120 species of amphibians have gone extinct in recent years, scientists say. "It's not later, it's now," said Caroline ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
United States: Soybean groups withhold money from U because of study
http://www.minnpost.com/brianvoerding/2008/02/26/1005/soybean_groups_withhold_money_from_u_because_of_study
MinnPost: While a recent University of Minnesota study on biofuels and global warning was garnering attention across the country, some folks closer to home were fuming about its implications. The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotions Council voted jointly late last week to hang onto the $1 million to $2 million they give annually for soybean-related research at the university. The decision is tied directly to the study co-authored by four ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Top water utilities to study climate change
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2636284020080226
Reuters: Eight of the top U.S. water utilities are joining forces to study how rising sea levels, droughts and other effects of global warming are taking a toll on supplies of drinking water, they said on Tuesday. The coalition, known as the Water Utility Climate Alliance, said water agencies need access to the best possible climate change research as they prepare to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure over the next 15 years. "Our systems are facing risk due to ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Australia: 'Bizarre timing' for pulp mill wood supply deal: Greens
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/27/2173588.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Tasmanian Greens say the timing of a new wood supply contract for the Bell Bay pulp mill is bizarre. Forestry Tasmania has agreed to supply the mill's developer, Gunns, with 1.5 million cubic metres of timber each year, for 20 years. Last week the Premier Paul Lennon asked the Commonwealth's main climate change advisor, Ross Garnaut, to examine how forestry affects global warming. The Wilderness Society says that makes locking in a long-term wood supply deal ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Cargill suspends plans for Kansas ethanol plant
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-02-26-cargill-ethanol_N.htm
Associated Press: Cargill has suspended plans to build a $200 million ethanol plant outside Topeka, citing poor market conditions. "The economics are not at a point where we see fit to move forward," company spokesman Bill Brady told The Topeka Capital-Journal. "The economics are not where they were a year and a half ago." Asked when the company might reconsider its decision, Brady said, "Unless market conditions turn around, we have to remain ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Designers show bare legs as climate change erodes winter
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGDGU6aQIEdDn_vMmClEsr54Moug
Agence France Presse: Bare legs and disposable paper dresses in the depths of winter? That was part of the vision at the Issey Miyake ready-to-wear show on Tuesday, dubbed "apocalypse point". Not so much pret-a-porter as pret-a-jeter, the sequence of crumpled and puckered summery frocks in snow white were touted as one of the ways forward in a planet grappling with pollution and climate change. Fashionistas could salve their consciences as they consign last season's clothes to landfill ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
United States: Federal agencies to study climate change in Sequoia National Park
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_8371525
Associated Press: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are teaming up with three federal agencies to study the effects of climate change on the ecosystems of the southern Sierra Nevada. Federal scientists are already investigating how giant sequoia trees and Ponderosa pines are adapting to climate change. On Tuesday, the agencies announced they'll hold a symposium in the fall about global warming's impact on snowpack, water tables and other natural features. The research will be ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
New York State Reaches for Green Power, Green Jobs
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-26-092.asp
Environment News Service: Increasing the renewable energy supply across New York to meet 25 percent of the state's electricity demand by 2013 - and fully funding the Renewable Portfolio Standard to make it happen - is just one of many recommendations offered Monday by a renewable energy task force chaired by Lieutenant Governor David Paterson. Developing new business incentives to attract renewable energy technology companies that would build industry clusters in solar, wind, biomass and other technical areas ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
Indonesia: Pulp and palm oil the villains in Sumatra's global climate impact and local elephant losses
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=125780
WWF: Turning just one Sumatran province's forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and palm oil plantations is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands and rapidly driving the province's elephants into extinction, a new study by WWF and partners has found. The study found that in central Sumatra's Riau Province 4.2 million hectares of tropical forests and peat swamp have been cleared in the last 25 years. Forest loss and degradation and peat decomposition and ...
Tue, 26 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Radiohead join battle against climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/27/earadiohead127.xml
Telegraph: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has urged Europe to commit to yearly targets to reduce its carbon emissions. Launching the Friends of the Earth's Big Ask Europe campaign, the musician called on the European Union to set stringent emission targets - 30 per cent reductions by 2020 and 90 per cent by 2050. The campaign brings together Friends of the Earth groups from 17 countries which have urged their governments to sign up to legally-binding annual targets so commitments were ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Energy Storage Nears Its Day in the Sun
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47141/story.htm
Reuters: Energy storage is an unglamorous pillar of an expected revolution to clean up the world's energy supply but will soon vie for investors attention with more alluring sources of energy like solar panels, manufacturers say. "It's been in the background until now. It's not sexy. It's the enabler, not a source of energy," said Tim Hennessy, chief executive of Canadian battery makers VRB Power, speaking on the sidelines of a "CleanEquity" technologies conference in ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Ethical investing: Funds that favor planet savers
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0225/p13s02-wmgn.html
Christian Science Monitor: One day in late January, a few creative Californians dramatized the onset of climate change by filling a stretch of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills with snow and letting snowboarders show off in the sunshine. Organizers of the stunt, however, weren't looking to inspire lifestyle changes or environmental activism. Their goal was to attract investment in the DWS Climate Change Fund, a five-month-old mutual fund that aims not to fight climate change but simply to profit from it. ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Australia: Garnaut inquiry into climate change a step forward
http://business.theage.com.au/garnaut-inquiry-into-climate-change-a-step-forward/20080224-1ueg.html
Age: THE interim report on climate change by Professor Ross Garnaut is excellent . Garnaut argues convincingly that Australia has more to lose from global warming than other developed countries, is well placed to profit from effective global mitigation policies and therefore concludes it is in Australia's interests to seek international agreement based on the most feasible global mitigation target. Garnaut's preferred option of limiting carbon dioxide emissions to 450 parts per million ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Australia: Garnaut Review heralds an economic revolution
http://www.financialstandard.com.au/index.php?id=11886
Financial Standard: Climate change to date has largely just been a political weapon but the Garnaut Climate Change Review presents a picture that could revolutionise how Australia's economy operates. The first challenge to conventional thinking is that despite Australia being an extremely low net producer of greenhouse gases (GHG) in absolute terms, we may be much more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than we thought requiring a proportionally more intense response than other countries, argues ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
GM Exec Stands by Calling Global Warming a 'Crock'
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47140/story.htm
Reuters: General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles. Lutz, GM's outspoken product development chief, has been under fire from Internet bloggers since last month when he was quoted as making the remark to reporters in Texas. In a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said those "spewing virtual ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Australia: Variation is genetic key to survival
http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/variation-is-genetic-key-to-survival/2008/02/22/1203467395770.html
Age: THE black-footed rock wallaby. The northern hairy-nosed wombat. Gilbert's potoroo. What is the common link between these animals? All are endangered Australian marsupials and all suffer from a lack of genetic variation. It is this lack of variation that is contributing to their potential extinction. A genetically "healthy" population is defined as having a large amount of genetic variability. The information for each of an organism's characteristics is carried on a ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Branson's coconut airways - but jet is on a flight to nowhere, say critics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/25/biofuels.theairlineindustry
Guardian: A little after 11.30 yesterday morning, a Boeing 747 running on jet fuel and the oil from 150,000 coconuts parted company with the runway at Heathrow and slipped into a hazy blue sky. Forty minutes later, the first commercial aircraft to be powered partly by biofuel touched down at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, paving the way for what some claim could be a revolution in environmentally responsible aviation. The experiment was the brainchild of the Virgin Atlantic boss, Sir ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Brazil's Lula Urges Rich To Fund Environment Reform
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47146/story.htm
Reuters: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged developed countries on Thursday to finance measures by poor nations to protect the environment and reduce emissions that cause global warming. Lula was speaking to lawmakers from major industrial nations and emerging countries gathered in Brasilia, Brazil's capital, to discuss global warming and give direction to a post-Kyoto Protocol accord. "Kyoto (protocol) cannot be a fiction piece. It's easy to sign a document and ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Fivefold Dust Increase Chokes US West, Study Finds
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47131/story.htm
Reuters: In the 1930s, fierce dust storms created by drought conditions and farming techniques that led to soil erosion swept the prairies of the western United States, causing widespread ecological calamity. But this so-called Dust Bowl period was just a small example of a huge increase in dustiness in the US West in the past 150 years due to human activities such as settlement, farming and livestock grazing, scientists said on Sunday. The researchers drilled into lake-bed sediments ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Is There a $500 Billion Hurricane on the Horizon?
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47135/story.htm
Reuters: A hurricane that hit Miami in 1926 would cause up to $157 billion in damage if it were to strike today, according to a study published this week. US storm costs are rising because of higher populations and wealth on the coasts, not a spike in the number or power of hurricanes, the study said. Its conclusions run counter to the notion that the $150 billion in damages caused by the destructive Atlantic hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 might be linked to global warming, which ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Life expectancy will decline without action: experts
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/life-expectancy-will-decline-without-action-experts/2008/02/24/1203788147700.html
Sydney Morning Herald: LIFE expectancy could begin to decline for the first time in more than a century if the world does not tackle an epidemic of chronic diseases, experts have warned. An international summit in Sydney will be told today that four preventable conditions - heart disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease and some cancers - are responsible for nearly 60 per cent of the world's deaths. Ruth Colagiuri, an associate professor of public health at the University of Sydney, said 4 million ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Solar Sector Set To Shine Through Credit Crunch
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47152/story.htm
Reuters: Solar power will be a bright investment prospect as the appetite for green energy grows, even though the global credit crisis is making banks more wary of providing financing. In the short term, the sector will also have to contend with a shortage of silicon, a key ingredient for solar cells that turn sunlight into electricity, and possible changes in political support as elections take place. "This year will be a very volatile year," said Sven Hansen, chief ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
World emissions protocol on way
http://business.theage.com.au/world-emissions-protocol-on-way/20080224-1ueb.html
Age: AN INTERNATIONAL protocol for carbon auditors is to be developed this year, with climate change experts saying there is an urgent need to adopt a uniform approach to the "hotchpotch" of methods in becoming carbon neutral. Only months after releasing its Voluntary Carbon Standard for carbon offsets, The Climate Group has revealed that it will soon begin work on a guide for auditors to follow when calculating the carbon footprint of business and households. Rupert ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Australia on track to meet Kyoto targets
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=462494
AAP: Australia is on track to meet its targeted reduction in greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. Senator Wong on Monday released a report card showing the federal government's policies would trigger greater emissions reductions than had been forecast under the former government. "By 2020, Australia's emissions will be 120 per cent of 1990 levels," Senator Wong said. "That is a reduction of 38 million tonnes on the 2006 ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
British Government Names Climate Committee Members
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47143/story.htm
Reuters: The British government on Friday named the first five members of the climate change committee that will be created to monitor carbon cut progress when the Climate Change Bill becomes law later this year. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, who has already named Adair Turner to head the committee, said scientists Brian Hoskins and Robert May, technologist Jim Skea and economists Sam Fankhauser and Michael Grubb would make up the new committee. The climate change bill will set a ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Greece Faces Bleak Climate Future - EU Commissioner
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47136/story.htm
Reuters: Greece will face droughts, higher temperatures and sea levels, and desertification that will damage agriculture and tourism because of climate change, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Friday. "The problem of parched land and drought will intensify and desertification will speed up (in Greece)," Dimas said in a speech. "Areas in seaside towns like Thessaloniki and Messolongi, will most likely find themselves under water." Dimas said the ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Australia: Murray-Darling stand-off far from over
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23270995-5005961,00.html
AAP: IT will take several months yet to end the stand-off between Victoria and the Federal Government over the Murray-Darling Basin, Victorian Premier John Brumby says. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is to meet Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding today for the second time, in an effort to reach a deal to which other states have already agreed. Queensland, NSW and South Australia last year agreed to hand over to the Federal Government their responsibilities for managing ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Japan: Tokyo Eyes Pioneer Emissions Trade Scheme For 2010
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47144/story.htm
Reuters: Tokyo could set up a pioneering emissions trading scheme by the end of the decade, a city official said, potentially adding to pressure for a nationwide exchange but also providing a model for the country. The ambitious city government hopes, by 2020, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to three-quarters of 2000 levels through Japan's first major venture into the cap-and-trade system now supported by most rich nations. It would follow in the steps of local authorities ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Canada: Carbon tax could generate $50B a year: Suzuki
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080225/carbon_suzuki_080225/20080225?hub=Canada
CTV: The David Suzuki Foundation has released a report extolling the virtues of a federal carbon tax as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "Millions of Canadians are taking steps each day to conserve energy, whether by taking public transit, changing their light bulbs or turning down their thermostat. These Canadians should be rewarded," David Suzuki said in a news release issued Monday. "Meanwhile, carbon-intensive industries and activities severely damage our ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Climate protesters arrested after scaling Heathrow jet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/25/climatechange.transport?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: Four Greenpeace activists were arrested today after climbing on top of a British Airways jet at Heathrow airport in a climate change protest. A Greenpeace spokesman described the stunt at terminal 1 as an "incredible security breach". Protesters unfurled a banner over the plane's tailfin that read: "Climate emergency - no third runway." The spokesman said the incident took place at 9.45am, shortly after the plane had landed from ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Deforestation a greater threat to the Amazon than global warming
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0225-mayle_amazon.html
Mongabay: If past conditions are any indication of future conditions, the Amazon rainforest may survive considerable drying and warming caused by global warming, argue researchers in a paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Examining charcoal and fossil records from across the Amazon basin, Francis E. Mayle and Mitchell J. Power of the University of Edinburgh report that Amazon forests appear to have been "remarkably resilient to climatic conditions ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Easing concerns about pollution from manufacture of solar cells
http://www.physorg.com/news123154874.html
Physorg: In a finding that could help ease concerns about the potential environmental impact of manufacturing solar cells, scientists report that the manufacture of solar cells produces far fewer air pollutants than conventional fossil fuel technologies. Their report, the first comprehensive study on the pollutants produced during the manufacture of solar cells, is scheduled for the March 15 issue of the ACS' Environmental Science & Technology. Solar energy has been touted for years as a ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Expert urges joint approach on obesity and climate change
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/medizin_gesundheit/bericht-104131.html
Innovations Report: The Oxford Health Alliance summit in Sydney has been told that urban environments and workplaces must be designed to encourage physical activity in order to combat obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The summit Building a Healthy Future: Chronic Disease and our Environment has brought together a unique alliance of activists to tackle the explosion of preventable chronic diseases which are responsible for nearly 60-per cent of the worlds deaths. Prof Tony Capon, Project ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Follow Germany's lead, invest to save energy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/25/eawarren125.xml
Telegraph: This April, the new flagship scheme to improve the energy performance of existing UK homes, the Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT), is launched. The scheme places the entire onus for delivering improvements upon the six big energy companies. For the average householder, there will be no Government grants available. No low interest loans. No options to increase or decrease local council tax, depending upon the relative efficiency of the building. No stamp duty incentives for those ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Heathrow expansion sets business against environment
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2283703320080225
Reuters: Four environmental campaigners breached security at London's Heathrow airport on Monday, climbing aboard a parked aircraft and unfurling a banner protesting against runway expansion plans. Police later arrested the four from Greenpeace who walked through security at one of the world's most policed airports. "Climate emergency. No 3rd runway" read the banner they hung on the tailfin of a passenger plane that had just landed after a domestic flight from the northern ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Saving the globe is going to cost
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/02/25/11657_opinion.html
Geelong Advertiser: ROSS Garnaut's interim report to the Federal Government on climate change highlights one thing that has not enjoyed great exposure to date and something that will be a critical influence in how Australia tackles global warming: Higher energy prices. Much higher. Fifty per cent, plus inflation, is the conservative estimate at this early stage. This from a base where wholesale electricity prices are tipped to at least double as they incorporate more sustainable energy sources such as ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
US ready for 'binding' reductions of greenhouse gases - official
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/02/25/afx4691077.html
Agence France-Presse: The United States is ready to accept 'binding international obligations' to reduce greenhouse gases, which could be announced as soon as July, a senior White House official has said. 'The US is prepared to enter into binding international obligations to reduce greenhouse gases as part of a global agreement in which all major economies similarly undertake binding international obligations,' said Daniel Price, assistant to US President George Bush for International Economic ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
US to set 'binding' climate goals
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7263225.stm
BBC: The US is ready to accept "binding international obligations" on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, officials say, if other nations do the same. The comments came in a news conference in Paris given by James Connaughton and Daniel Price, environmental and economics advisers to President Bush. The US hopes the world's major economies will conclude a "leaders' declaration" before the July G8 summit. There was no indication of how much the US might be ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Kingdom: 'Greenagers' Want Climate Change Action
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1306701,00.html
Sky News: British children, well versed in the effects of climate change, are putting pressure on older generations to act now to halt environmental decline. Children fear for globe's futureNew research shows 95% of children aged between 4 and 15 were 'concerned' by global warming, with more than half 'very concerned'. And three out of four respondents believed they were more fluent on the subject than their parents. The eco-conscious youngsters, dubbed 'Greenagers', now want to ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Arctic oil bonanza worries Alaska natives
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN2522945120080225
Reuters: Modern technology and surging oil prices have suddenly made the prospect of drilling in the remote, icy Chukchi Sea irresistible to the world's oil giants -- and that is worrying the Inupiat people who have lived at the sea's edge for centuries. With drilling opportunities dwindling elsewhere, oil companies earlier this month bid an astonishing $2.66 billion for drilling rights in the Chukchi, a stretch of water off Alaska's northwest coast that is frozen half the year and is a major ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
As Urban Populations Swell, New York Offers a Model for Smart Growth
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2008-02-25-voa16.cfm
Voice of America: For the first time this year, more people will live in cities than anywhere else on the planet. Speaking to a gathering of urban planners at the World Bank in Washington, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg urged policy makers and the public to confront the challenges of urban life with a new vision. More than eight million people live in New York City. America's largest metropolis will add another million residents by 2025. Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the World Bank audience that ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Canada: Climate change plan could trigger tax cuts: Suzuki
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080225.wsuzuk0225/BNStory/National/home?cid=al_gam_mostemail
Reuters: David Suzuki is trying to speak Stephen Harper's language, releasing a report Monday that argues a strong climate change plan could produce deep income tax cuts. The well-known environmentalist and Simon Fraser University economist Mark Jaccard released a report Monday morning on Parliament Hill that outlines various options for Ottawa to implement a carbon tax or other ways of forcing polluters to pay for their environmental impacts. The report argues that making polluters pay ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Eco-protesters climb atop plane at Heathrow Airport
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/25/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Plane-Protest.php
Associated Press: Four environmental activists were arrested after they climbed atop a plane at London's Heathrow Airport on Monday and unfurled a banner protesting climate change. The airport said it was investigating the security breach. The group Greenpeace said four of its members walked across the airport tarmac and climbed onto the British Airways Airbus A320 after it landed on a domestic flight from Manchester. The two men and two women wrapped a banner around the tail fin reading: ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Environmentalists climb on Heathrow jet in airport protest: officials
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hB4n8161ljXGTBrPbLdLCe6XPZLQ
Agence France-Presse: Four activists from environmental campaigners Greenpeace breached security at London Heathrow to stage a protest on top of a jet against the airport's planned expansion, the group said Monday. The activists climbed on top of a British Airways Boeing 777 plane which had just landed from Manchester at around 0945 GMT and unfurled a huge banner across the tailfin reading: "Climate Emergency -- No Third Runway". Their action came two days before the end of a government ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
United Arab Emirates: Global warming could displace millions in the Middle East
http://www.ameinfo.com/148002.html
AME Info: The study analyses the impact of global warming on the Arabian Gulf over the coming years. It is predicted that temperatures will rise between 1.8 and four degrees Celsius, which would melt ice caps and submerge coastal areas, forcing those living in such regions to flee inland. To help understand the impact of changes in global temperatures, research is needed to seek the best approaches to combat future problems. This includes the need to reduce carbon emissions. The UAE, ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Greenpeace Protesters Climb Atop Plane at Heathrow
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aYXT6XpFGqkc&refer=uk
Bloomberg: Four protesters from the Greenpeace environmental group climbed atop a British Airways Plc Boeing 777 aircraft at London's Heathrow airport to protest climate change and plans to build a third runway. Police responded and flights weren't affected, airport operator BAA Ltd. said today in an e-mailed statement. ``All of the protesters have now been safely removed and arrested by the police,'' the company said. In November, the U.K. government joined other carriers and business ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
High-efficient lightbulbs come with mercury risk
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2008/02/25/high_efficient_lightbulbs_come_with_mercury_risk/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed3
Boston Globe: Compact fluorescent lights -- those energy-efficient bulbs popular as a way to combat global warming -- can pose a small risk of mercury poisoning to infants, young children and pregnant women if they break, two reports concluded today. But the reports, issued by the state of Maine and the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project, urged homeowners to keep using the bulbs because their energy-saving benefits far outweigh the risk posed by mercury release from any broken light. They said ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Mexico sets 25 percent renewable goal
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/02/25/mexico_sets_25_percent_renewable_goal/1953/
United Press International: Within four years, Mexico wants to produce 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, the country's energy secretary said. "The goal is that in 2012 renewable energy sources will account for more than a quarter of total capacity," said Georgina Kessel. One of the Mexican government's priorities is to promote renewable energy as a means of ensuring the country's energy security, Spanish news agency EFE reported. An important part of that strategy ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
NY Plans to Encourage Renewable Energy
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml
Associated Press: New York would rely more on wind, solar and other renewable energy sources while adopting new conservation measures, under a proposal released Monday. The recommendations to Lt. Gov. David Paterson came as a deal to build a solar energy manufacturing plant in the Hudson Valley was announced. Prism Solar Technologies Inc. will use almost $1.5 million in public money to build a research and development plant in Ulster County. The company estimates that it will create more than 140 jobs ...
Mon, 25 Feb 08
Canada: Ottawa urged to fire up a carbon tax
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=c959962b-c8ea-418a-adf9-54888c7694d0
Ottawa Citizen: A carbon tax of $30 a tonne, a hike in the newly reduced GST and a higher tax rate for Canada's wealthiest residents would be part of tomorrow's federal budget if the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has its way. The left-leaning think tank also says in its alternate budget being issued today that the Conservative government should be prepared to go into deficit if necessary to keep the economy humming in tough times. "If there was a major economic slowdown, then ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Mission to save Britain's wilderness
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Environment/article/306319
Toronto Star: "You see there, where all the earth has been disturbed?" asks Tracy Pepler, pointing to a patch of soil at the base of a grove of chestnut trees. "That was made by wild boar. We haven't seen them yet, but we know they're here. Maybe if we're lucky we'll see one today." She continues up the trail, along the border of a small woodland in East Sussex, England. The sun is shining, the ground mossy and moist, and the air hovering around a balmy 12 degrees Celsius. It's ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United Kingdom: The plight of the bumblebee
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2068717.0.the_plight_of_the_bumbleee.php
Sunday Herald: INDUSTRIOUS AND affable, the humble bumblebee heralds the arrival of springtime and is a harbinger of long, hot summers. But they have been spotted earlier than ever before this year, prompting fears that climate change could be the last nail in the coffin for the endangered insect. Intensive farming and habitat destruction have already caused populations to crash. Now experts fear that global warming could finish off the bumblebee. Usually queens awake from hibernation in ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Amazon nuts help fuel first biofuel flight
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL2451986620080224
Reuters: Nuts picked from Amazon rainforests helped fuel the world's first commercial airline flight powered by renewable energy on Sunday. A Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet flew from London to Amsterdam with one of its fuel tanks filled with a bio-jet blend including babassu oil and coconut oil. "Today marks a vital breakthrough for the whole airline industry," Virgin founder Richard Branson told reporters in a hangar at Heathrow airport prior to the flight's ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Biodiversity 'doomsday vault' comes to life in Arctic
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5izIzmsTWvwZgTh_in2rM4wgzwDmw
Agence France-Presse: Aimed at providing mankind with a Noah's Ark of food in the event of a global catastrophe, an Arctic "doomsday vault" filled with samples of the world's most important seeds will be inaugurated here Tuesday. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Nobel Peace Prize winning environmentalist Wangari Matai will be among the personalities present at the inauguration of the vault, which has been carved into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, just some 1,000 ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Britain's year zero: UK to leap from 'laggard to leader' on carbon dioxide emissions
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/britains-year-zero-uk-to-leap-from-laggard-to-leader-on-carbon-dioxide-emissions-786534.html
Independent: Every new building put up in Britain will have to be zero carbon, emitting none of the pollution that is the main cause of global warming, the Government will announce this week. Caroline Flint, the new housing minister, will commit herself on Wednesday to setting an "ambitious target" for eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from "non-domestic" buildings, ranging from schools to supermarkets, health centres to hotels, and from libraries to light manufacturing ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Brother, can you spare a carbon credit?
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/02/24/brother_can_you_spare_a_carbon_credit/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4
Boston Globe: GLOBAL WARMING IS a planet-sized problem, so policy solutions tend to aim for the grandest possible scale. The signatories of the Kyoto Protocol have pledged to cut their greenhouse gas emissions at a national level, while laws in various countries and states seek to reform entire industries. For individuals, the picture is very different. Environmentalism often boils down to small lifestyle choices, like turning down the thermostat and screwing in the squiggly light bulbs - gestures ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Folding green: the investment boom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/24/greenbusiness.renewableenergy
Guardian: Money is pouring into the clean energy sector, which includes renewable forms of electricity generation such as wind, biomass and solar as well as companies involved in energy efficiency and waste treatment. According to research firm New Energy Finance, investment in the sector increased globally by 41 per cent last year to $117bn (£59bn), just over half of which went on new projects. Fund managers say the green investment boom began about 18 months ago. Al Gore's eco-documentary ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Food shortages loom as wheat crop shrinks and prices rise
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3423734.ece
Times (UK): THE world is only ten weeks away from running out of wheat supplies after stocks fell to their lowest levels for 50 years. The crisis has pushed prices to an all-time high and could lead to further hikes in the price of bread, beer, biscuits and other basic foods. It could also exacerbate serious food shortages in developing countries especially in Africa. The crisis comes after two successive years of disastrous wheat harvests, which saw production fall from 624m to ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Poll: Global warming is fact to most Alabamians
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1203850000310630.xml&coll=3
Press-Register: More than three-quarters of Alabamians believe global warming is a reality, but they are split on whether human activities are responsible, the findings of a new Press-Register/University of South Alabama poll suggest. And while many scientists regard climate change as the gravest environmental threat confronting the Earth, barely one in six Alabamians feels that way. Even so, more than half of those surveyed are willing to make at least a minor financial sacrifice to help stop it, ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
The wings of (climate) change
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-wings-of-climate-change-786527.html
Independent: A Red Admiral butterfly rests among flowering snowdrops in a Dorset churchyard. It is a sight that would have been impossible just a few years ago. Until about 15 years ago, Red Admirals were summer migrants to Britain. But, with a warming climate and earlier springs, they have increasingly over-wintered in the south. This picture, taken by Dr Martin Warren, chief executive of Butterfly Conservation, is, he says, "real proof that the climate is changing". The species ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Virgin test flight for biofuel-powered jumbo jet
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iViVGfeC9fW0OBzuHgGJj8DRNeZw
Agence France-Presse: The first flight by a commercial airline to be partly powered by biofuels took off Sunday from London on a short trip to Amsterdam billed as heralding a new eco-friendlier era of airline travel. The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 jumbo jet, carrying biofuels mixed with traditional kerosene, departed London around midday with no passengers on board. The plane was using a biofuel blend of babassu oil -- extracted from nuts of the babassu tree -- and coconut oil. Both products are ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United States: With aid, more roofs could catch rays
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/feb/24/aid-more-roofs-could-catch-rays/
Las Vegas Sun: While the Las Vegas Valley's two large new solar power plants are celebrated as an ideal solution to the nation's energy needs, the future of solar in Nevada also lies in tapping the sun on a smaller scale – provided the government and the energy industry cooperate. Nevada is a prime locale for installing solar collectors on homes and at businesses. But at the moment, here and nationwide, the technology is expensive and the regulatory hurdles are daunting, industry experts – and a man ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Australia on track to meet Kyoto target
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/australia-on-track-to-meet-kyoto-target/2008/02/24/1203788146629.html
Age: AUSTRALIA is back on track to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. A Department of Climate Change audit of greenhouse gas emissions, obtained by The Age, indicates that Australia will meet, but not beat, its Kyoto target of 108% of 1990 emissions during 2008-2012. This represents a marginal improvement on the 2006 audit, which predicted emissions would hit 109%. The news is better over the medium term. The new report card indicates Rudd Government policies, ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Biofuel flight 'a publicity stunt'
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ggcTaxK0GwTDWmiyavVYFGgffl8A
Press Association: The world's first commercial aircraft to be powered partly by biofuel flew into controversy as environmental campaigners denounced the inaugural flight as a publicity stunt. The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew from London Heathrow to Amsterdam, with one of the four main tanks carrying 80% standard jet fuel and a 20% mix of coconut and babassu oil. Virgin Atlantic President Sir Richard Branson said the passenger-less test flight was a "historic" step towards using ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
EPA needs to let California find its course on emissions
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080224/OPINION01/802240315/-1/NEWSFRONT
Desert Sun: As California Sen. Barbara Boxer says, it's not the "Environmental Pollution Agency." It is the Environmental Protection Agency, but its officials are denying California the license to regulate its own greenhouse gas emissions, which would be more stringent than federal standards. Still, Boxer, a bipartisan coalition and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - along with 15 other states - are pushing back and rightly so. California deserves a waiver to control its own tailpipe auto ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United States: Largest wind farm shaping up
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080224/NEWS01/802240304
Great Falls Tribune: Construction of the state's largest wind farm to date will begin this spring 85 miles north of Great Falls in Toole County, the developer said this week. Naturener, the Spain-based developer of the project, has selected Mortenson Construction out of Minnesota, one of the nation's leading builders of wind farms, as the general contractor. In the first phase, 69 towers capable of producing 103 1/2 megawatts will be erected in Toole County. The second phase includes land located ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Australia: Murray-Darling woes
http://www.skynews.com.au/eco/article.aspx?id=219253
Sky News: Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong will meet her Victorian counterpart, Gavin Jennings, in a bid to resurrect the state's commitment to the $10 billion Murray-Darling rescue plan. Victoria is the only state that is yet to hand over their responsibility for the Murray River to the federal government. Meanwhile, a new report has found the rescue plan is being undermined by water theft, through flood plain harvesting. The year long study claims levee banks, ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Olympics - Six China Provinces Ordered to Cut Pollution
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47145/story.htm
Reuters: China has ordered Beijing and five surrounding provinces to cut industrial pollution for two months from late July to ensure clean air for the Olympics and Paralympics, an official said on Friday. The Chinese capital and its neighbouring municipality Tianjin as well as the provinces of Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and Shandong will all have to cut emissions under a plan approved by China's cabinet, the state council, last September. "The air quality of Beijing is ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
Polar bears on thin ice
http://torontosun.com/News/OtherNews/2008/02/24/4872255-sun.html
Toronto Sun: How deceptively gentle she appeared, as she gnawed lazily on the grass and gazed curiously at her fleet of human company. During a trip to the north, I had the privilege of befriending the animal crowned as Lord of the Arctic. She struck a queenly figure, even though all she did was poke her nose in the air, offended by the foreign smell of gumbo soup, and snoozed with her beautiful snowy face resting on her paw. There's no hint of savagery in 'ol Fluffy's carriage, ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United Kingdom: The Faithfully Green Try a 'Carbon Fast' for Lent
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/21/AR2008022102604.html
Washington Post: Penance for Lent traditionally has meant abstaining from meat or forsaking chocolates. In light of climate change, however, two Church of England leaders are calling on congregants to curb their energy consumption instead. Bishops Richard Chartres of London and James Jones of Liverpool recently partnered with the U.K.-based nonprofit organization Tearfund (Jones is a vice president) to promote a Lenten "carbon fast," a plan that prescribes a household energy-saving tip for ...
Sun, 24 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Virgin Atlantic due to fly jumbo jet powered by biofuel
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/24/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Biofuel-Flight.php
Associated Press: Virgin Atlantic is conducting the world's first commercial aircraft flight powered with biofuel Sunday. The goal is to show biofuels will produce less carbon dioxide than normal jet fuels during the London-to-Netherlands flight, and that airlines could one day use biofuels to reduce their damage to the environment. Some analysts praised the Boeing 747 test flight as a potentially useful experiment. But others criticized it as a publicity stunt by Virgin entrepreneur Richard ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
China's green race against urban surge
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JB23Cb01.html
Asia Times: Every year for the next 20 years, up to 10 million people will move from China's countryside to urban areas. This unprecedented migration will place huge demands on existing cities, and on the environment. On average, Chinese city dwellers use three times more energy than their rural counterparts, and by 2020 China will account for 16% of the world's total energy consumption. This is a prospect that is causing serious concern, both inside and outside China. If China follows the ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Australia: Climate change report exposes deep divisions
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/climate-change-report-exposes-deep-divisions/2008/02/22/1203467387136.html
Age: ROSS Garnaut's interim report on climate change has opened up divisions at both ends of the political spectrum. On the left, the Greens are attacking the Government for not embracing the need for more ambitious greenhouse reduction targets, while on the right, backbenchers are expressing dissent from the Coalition's official position of keeping an open mind on targets. The report, by Canberra's top adviser on climate change, suggests the Government's pre-election promise of a ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Australia: Fears grow over green web 'scams'
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/fears-grow-over-green-web-scams/2008/02/22/1203467387132.html
Age: THE Federal Government will reform the unregulated carbon offsets market by the end of the year, in a move it hopes will restore credibility to the burgeoning but contentious sector. With this week's interim report from Ross Garnaut spelling out the need for emissions cuts, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has revealed the Government may buy offsets to neutralise its carbon footprint, a move adopted last month by the South Australian Labor Government. In an interview with The ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Australia: Squabbles, obfuscation and resignation as the world warms
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/squabbles-obfuscation-and-resignation-as-the-world-warms/2008/02/22/1203467388868.html
Sydney Morning Herald: PHIL KOPERBERG'S decision to pull the plug as NSW Minister for Climate Change the day the Garnaut review was released is a telling sign that the urgency of the global warming challenge has escaped the Iemma Government. Well before Koperberg's resignation, the vital decisions affecting the state's rising greenhouse emissions were being made by the Treasurer, Michael Costa, a proclaimed climate sceptic, not the climate change minister. The most important decision is the ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Australia: Climate control
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23259382-5006549,00.html
Mercury: AUSTRALIANS can have few illusions about climate change after the release of economist Ross Garnaut's interim report this week. His full report comes out later this year but already it is clear that sceptics, procrastinators and wishful thinkers will get no comfort from the recommendations. The independent study concludes that climate change is likely to cause far-reaching damage unless the world makes big cuts in emissions. With its fragile, arid environment, Australia ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Amphibians under threat of extinction
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2008/02/23/2008-02-23_amphibians_under_threat_of_extinction-2.html
Daily News: Scientists say amphibians - cold-blooded animals that include frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and the lesser known caecilians - are under grave threat of decline and extinction worldwide, and it is time to act now to save them. "It's a huge warning sign that we should pause and take notice," said Jennifer Pramuk, the Bronx Zoo's curator of herpetology, and lifelong amphibian enthusiast. While climate change, habitat destruction and pollution are factors in their rapid ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Canada's water crisis 'escalating'
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=1d324e25-0a20-4e3e-b1ba-ea2f35386bb0
Vancouver Sun: Canada is crisscrossed by innumerable rivers, some of which flow into three oceans. Yet Canada's fresh water isn't as abundant as you may think. And it's facing serious challenges and the looming menace of climate change, which is expected to exacerbate Canada's water problems and leave more of the world thirsting after our precious liquid resource. "They say you need a crisis before people get jerked into taking responsible action," says Chandra Madramootoo, a water ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
China Sets Target to Boost Energy Efficiency to Meet 2010 Goal
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aD.JGiBH4gOU&refer=asia
Bloomberg: China aims to cut energy consumption this year by 5 percent for each unit of gross domestic product, its top economic planner said today. The central government faces intensifying pressure to improve energy efficiency after missing its goal for 2006, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in Beijing. By 2010, China, the world's second- biggest energy user, intends to cut the amount of power consumed per unit of gross domestic product by 20 ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Governors: Include Coal in Energy Debate
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5giGyNMdOuDMPhOKFDjLWJbcKzHLgD8V0AA600
Associated Press: Governors pushing alternative energy development are not shying from coal, a major culprit in global warming but also a homegrown energy source and an economic lifeline for many states. Leaders of coal-rich states say clean-coal technology is a must. Governors from states without coal want more evidence the technology works. "There's no doubt there's a tension and there's no doubt there is very rapidly growing public opposition to coal," said Gov. Jim Doyle, D-Wis. ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Ocean acidification threatens underwater ecosystems
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3423465.ece
Times (UK): Scientists studying Australia's Great Barrier Reef may have detected the first signs of impact of ocean acidification after finding a sharp cut in growth rates in some corals. Oceans become acidic when carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by humanity dissolves in sea water. This increase in acidity makes it harder for marine organisms to grow and maintain their shells. The researchers studied a common coral species called porites, growing along the northern end of the Great Barrier ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
UK lags behind on eco energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/24/greenbusiness.waveandtidalpower
Guardian: Almost two years ago, cranes loaded three red 'Pelamis' wave machines - named after a species of sea snake - on to container ships in the Orkneys. Their destination: the coast of Portugal. Nothing could be more symbolic of how the UK has fallen behind in the race to embrace renewable energy. The bizarre-looking devices, developed by Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power, use the force of the sea to generate renewable and clean electricity. They are the product of Caledonian engineering ...
Sat, 23 Feb 08
Victory Near for Utilities in Kansas Coal Battle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202878.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: The Kansas legislature is on the verge of passing a law that would clear the way for two new coal plants just four months after a state agency took the unprecedented step of blocking their construction because of concern about greenhouse-gas emissions. The struggle over the $3.6 billion project, proposed for a remote town in western Kansas, has become a symbol of the uncertainty over coal's future, caught between rising fears about climate change and powerful coal and utility ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
As South American Rivers Dry Up, Miners Tap Ocean
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47097/story.htm
Reuters: Vast mines in Peru and Chile that supply the world with crucial metals have started to pump water from the Pacific Ocean high into the Andes Mountains because of chronic water shortages exacerbated by climate change. Tapping seawater allows miners to avoid relying on unpredictable rivers, which may run dry as glaciers melt, and avert clashes with farmers who draw their water from creeks in poor mountain villages. "Water always generates conflicts between mines and ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Canada Cool To Carbon Tax, Despite Province's Move
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47108/story.htm
Reuters: The Canadian government is not very interested in implementing a national a carbon tax, despite a decision by its third largest province to adopt one, federal Environment Minister John Baird said on Wednesday. British Columbia's plan, unveiled on Tuesday, is the first of its kind in North America and its supporters say is among the world's most comprehensive tax programs aimed at curbing emissions of greenhouse gases, blamed for climate change. Baird said British Columbia had ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Australia: Garnaut sets the bar high on climate change
http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/garnaut-sets-the-bar-high-on-climate-change/2008/02/22/1203467294200.html
Age: THERE is no doubt that global warming is the world's greatest crisis, the real weapon of mass destruction against which a workable defence strategy must be found, and found soon. It is on every agenda of every major meeting of world leaders from G8 to APEC to the European Commission. Indeed, EU President Jose Manuel Barroso last month described the management of climate change as "the great project of our generation". Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's laudable ratification of the ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Chile Government Hands Out Water In Major Drought
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47104/story.htm
Reuters: Chile is suffering its worst drought in decades, and the government is handing out emergency drinking water along a quarter of the Andean nation's length as wells dry up. Farmers in small towns in south-central Chile have lost crops and livestock in the drought blamed on the weather phenomenon La Nina. Rainfall records show the semi-arid region got one of its lowest levels of precipitation in half a century, and some specialists say its been 80 years since the weather got so ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Australia: Climate change: act now
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-act-now/2008/02/21/1203467281202.html
Age: DEEP in the daily combat of last year's federal election campaign, climate change was a potent political weapon Kevin Rudd used against John Howard and his riven government to devastating effect. Now, to use one of Rudd's favoured metaphors, we've reached a fork in the road. Climate change is no longer a convenient rhetorical device used in a political contest to frame the future and decry the alleged failures of the past - it is a profound and challenging problem for a new ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Cut gases or be the big loser
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/cut-gases-or-be-the-big-loser/2008/02/21/1203467286230.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE world is hurtling towards dangerous levels of climate change at an increasingly fast pace requiring much greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the Federal Government's architect on global warming policy has warned. Professor Ross Garnaut's interim report on climate change said Australia could be the "biggest loser" among developed countries if aggressive action was not taken. But the Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, said the Government was not ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Growing world aircraft fleet and increasing pollution
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10493778
New Zealand Herald: As competition among airlines around the world intensifies, more and more people find it convenient to travel by air for business and leisure. But the rapid growth of commercial aviation is having a significant impact on global warming and the Asia-Pacific region, the world's fastest expanding market for air travel, is starting to feel the heat. In its latest forecast of aviation growth, European aircraft maker Airbus said this month that the world's fleet of large passenger jets ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Humans may help forests flee warming
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082202-16939-2.html
Science Alert: A leading international forest scientist has warned the wholesale relocation of the world's temperate forest tree species may take place under climate change. However, today's trees may have to migrate a lot faster that the 100 metres a year which forests achieved naturally as the earth's climate warmed towards the end of the last Ice Age - if they are to keep up with currently changing conditions, says Professor Sally Aitken of the University of British Columbia's Centre for Forest ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Australia: Oppn offers conditional climate support
http://news.smh.com.au/oppn-offers-conditional-climate-support/20080222-1trj.html
Sydney Morning Herald: The federal opposition has offered the government bipartisan support on tackling climate change if it adopts several coalition policies. The opposition last week tentatively accepted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's offer of joining a joint policy commission on improving the lives of indigenous people. Asked if the opposition would also be part of a climate change "war cabinet", coalition frontbencher Greg Hunt said the government would first have to scrap its renewable ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Renault, Suez To Announce Car-Recycling Venture
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47115/story.htm
Reuters: French carmaker Renault and the Sita waste management firm of Suez will on Thursday announce a joint venture company to recycle old passenger and commercial vehicles, a spokesman said. The companies will hold a news conference at 1700 GMT at Renault's marketing offices in Boulogne-Billancourt. Suez confirmed such a joint venture was being discussed. Recycling allows the re-use of materials including precious metals, prevents dangerous liquids from seeping into the ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
UK's Brown Calls For EU Carbon Bank
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47102/story.htm
Reuters: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Thursday for the creation of an independent European carbon bank to improve the functioning of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme and help combat global warming. He also urged international agreement among wealthy states on a World Bank fund to finance investments to help poor countries make the transition to a low-carbon economy. On a visit to Brussels in which he contrasted his support for the European Union with the scepticism ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Eurostar: climate change concerns drive double-digit rise in high-speed rail travel
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/22/europe/EU-GEN-EU-High-Speed-Rail.php
Associated Press: The head of Eurostar, the high-speed rail service linking London to Paris and Brussels, said Friday that climate change worries helped make 2007 a banner year and urged the EU to rein in the "unsustainable" growth of airline carbon emissions. "We see a 30 percent growth in the number of business travelers on the Eurostar in the last two years," Richard Brown, Eurostar's chief executive, told a climate change conference of European business leaders. "A ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
United States: Low-oxygen events unprecedented, disrupt ocean ecosystem
http://www.bendweekly.com/Science/13693.html
Bend Weekly: A review of all available ocean data records concludes that the low-oxygen events that have plagued the Pacific Northwest coast since 2002 are unprecedented in the five decades prior to that, and may well be linked to the stronger, persistent winds that are expected to occur with global warming. In a new study to be published Friday in the journal Science, researchers from Oregon State University outline a "potential for rapid reorganization" in basic marine ecosystems and the ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Climate change threatens world's fish stocks, UN group finds
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/187537,climate-change-threatens-worlds-fish-stocks-un-group-finds.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The rising emissions of greenhouse gases and the resultant climate change are adding to the threats to the world's dwindling stocks of fish, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report made public on Friday. The main problem is the changes in circulation brought on by the fading and falling of the ocean's natural pumping system, which may "seriously impact" three-fourths of the globe's key fishing grounds. "These natural pumps, dotted at sites across the ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Europe's truffle harvests drying up amid drought that farmers blame on global warming
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/22/europe/EU-FEA-GEN-Europe-Truffle-Trouble.php
Associated Press: Philippe Daniel opens a slim briefcase so buyers can glimpse his wares, then snaps it shut with a wary glance over his shoulder. Daniel is not dealing in drugs, counterfeits or other illicit goods, but in truffles aromatic tubers prized for their heady fragrance and rich, earthy flavor. One of the world's most sought-after gastronomical treasures, truffles fetch astronomical prices, and sellers like Daniel are always alert for spying competitors. Daniel used to deal in big ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Insure poor against extreme weather events, say experts
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/158150/1/
Inter Press Service: Demands for humanitarian assistance will grow significantly, and the biggest cause is likely to be climate change rather than wars and internal conflicts, say experts. In 2006 the world experienced 427 natural catastrophes that affected about 143 million people, and the trend is rising, says Ulla-Maija Finskas, director of the department for humanitarian assistance in the Finnish ministry for foreign affairs. These included 254 floods and related disasters, 43 percent higher ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Australia urged to take lead on climate change
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13367-australia-urged-to-take-lead-on-climate-change.html
New Scientist: Australia is more vulnerable economically than most wealthy nations to the effects of climate change, according to a new report. The document, released in Adelaide on Thursday, is an interim report by the Garnaut Climate Change Review, which is assessing the impact of climate change on Australia's economy. In light of the Bali climate conference, the report recommends that Australia play a leading role in international negotiations on mitigating climate change and be ready to ...
Fri, 22 Feb 08
Denmark sets renewable energy target at 20 percent by 2011
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=6562956&subject=general&action=article
Thomson Financial: Denmark aims to increase its use of renewable energy to 20 percent of its overall energy mix by the end of 2011, up from 15 percent today, the government said Friday. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's liberal-conservative government, along with most other parliamentary parties, agreed late Thursday on the new target, the Climate and Energy Ministry said in a statement. "With its new energy agreement, Denmark takes the (global) lead in terms of offensive efforts" ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australia: Cuts needed now to curb warming: report
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cuts-needed-now-to-curb-warming-report/2008/02/20/1203467183543.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SIGNIFICANTLY larger cuts in greenhouse gas emissions will need to be made almost immediately if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, the Federal Government's architect on greenhouse policy will say in a report to be released today. Ross Garnaut's interim report will recommend to the Commonwealth and state governments a much tougher and speedier response to climate change, arguing that the cost of action is much less than the cost of inaction. "The world is ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Garnaut Reports on Climate-Change Impact on Australian Economy
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aW5so89sYamc&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australian professor Ross Garnaut will today release an update on his report on how climate change will affect the national economy. Garnaut, based at the Australian National University, will release an update on the report to state premiers today in Adelaide, his spokeswoman said. The final draft will be released in June and the official report in September, Anna Freeman said. ``The report is about the impacts of climate change and the opportunities for the Australian ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australia: Labor must act to save the Murray
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23249010-5006336,00.html
Advertiser: IN April, 2003, then Labor opposition leader Simon Crean said the River Murray was dying. If we did not restore the health of the Murray, he said, there would not be a river system capable of supporting farmers into the future. It was time for action – not passing the buck, he said. That was five years ago. Since then Labor has been claiming it can save the Murray, that it can do better than the $10 billion Coalition plan to restore the river system. In more recent times ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australia: Tax offsets needed to encourage green investment
http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/Articles/Tax-offsets-needed-to-encourage-green-investment_0c0543e2.html
Money Management: The Federal Government needs to provide more incentives to superannuation funds to invest in the energy sector or risk failing to meet its 2020 renewable energy targets, according to emerging energy market adviser and fund manager Bakers Investment Group. Bakers Investment Group has sent a submission to the Garnaut Climate Chance Review in which it has claimed that significant investment and technological advancement will need to be achieved in a very short time-frame – something that ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
United States: Abengoa Solar plans world's largest solar power plant
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/02/18/daily39.html
Denver Business Journal: Abengoa Solar will build what it calls the largest solar power plant in the world, the company reported Thursday. Denver-based Abengoa Solar is a subsidiary of Abengoa S.A., a $4 billion multinational company based in Spain. The plant would be located 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, Ariz. It's scheduled to go into operation by 2011. Abengoa Solar said the plant will sell the electricity it produces to Arizona Public Service Co. and bring in a total of $4 ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australia should make deeper greenhouse cuts: adviser
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSYD14322220080221
Reuters: Australia's top climate change adviser urged the government to make deeper-than-planned cuts in greenhouse emissions, to set an example for developing nations on the need to fight global warming. Professor Ross Garnaut, who is advising the government on how to curb carbon pollution without harming the economy, said on Thursday Australia needed to go further than its plan to slash emissions by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2050. But Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australian report recommends cuts in carbon emissions of more than 60 percent
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/21/asia/AS-GEN-Australia-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: Australia needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 percent by mid-century as part of an international effort to fight global warming, a report said Thursday. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who asked economist Ross Garnaut to prepare the report on the economic consequences of global warming last year before winning elections in November, has set a target of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by the year 2050. But in a 63-page interim ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Brazil Plans Fund to Help Finance Amazon Conservation
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a8mplk223ua4
Bloomberg: Brazil's government plans to set up a donation-based fund to help finance conservation of the Amazon after illegal logging increased last year. The government is seeking to raise $200 million from Norway and corporate sources in the first year, said Tasso Azevedo, director of the country's forestry services. The fund, to be established in May, will seek to raise as much as $1 billion annually to help slow deforestation of the Amazon, he said. ``Everybody says they want to help ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Brazil President Defends Biofuels
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080221/brazil_climate_change.html?.v=2
Associated Press: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted Thursday that rich nations must bear most of the cost of fighting global warning. He also blasted critics who fear Brazil's expanding biofuels industry could threaten the Amazon rain forest. Speaking at an international conference on climate change and deforestation, Silva said industrialized countries are to blame after polluting the planet for centuries. He said they have failed to make meaningful efforts to reduce ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Canada's Polar Bears Beset on All Sides
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41297
Inter Press Service: Melting sea ice caused by climate change and government inaction is putting polar bears at extreme risk in Canada as a species over the next 50 years, according to local environmental groups. In northern Canada and Alaska, drilling for potential oil and gas is also drawing criticism from civil society organisations. Rachel Plotkin, a biodiversity policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, told IPS, "The main threat is the melting of sea ice which affects the hunting ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Canadian Province Plans Comprehensive Carbon Tax
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47077/story.htm
Reuters: Canada's westernmost province said on Tuesday it plans to impose a comprehensive carbon tax, dismissing fears voiced by the federal government as well as some business and labour leaders that the fees to fight climate change will hurt the economy. British Columbia said the tax on fossil fuels used by businesses and individuals will raise C$1.85 billion ($1.82 billion) over the next three years, but officials were quick to describe the plan as "revenue neutral" because it ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
China and India speed climate change - report
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20080221090103285C130341
Agence France-Presse: The economic rise of China and India means climate change is occurring faster than previously thought, making efforts to fix the problem more urgent, an official Australian report found Thursday. The government-commissioned report called for stronger international commitment to addressing climate change, saying current efforts "still fall far short of getting deep cuts in global emissions underway." The report written by economic professor Ross Garnaut was ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
China's carbon dragon
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0222/p08s01-comv.html
Christian Science Monitor: Try this statistic on for size: If China's economy continues to grow at its current pace, and the Asian giant doesn't cut its rate of energy use, by 2030 it could be emitting as much carbon into the atmosphere as the entire world does today. And here's another: As you read this, China is bringing on line coal-fired power plants – major sources of greenhouse-gas emissions – at the mind-boggling rate of two per week. Yet China's No. 1 mandate isn't environmental protection, ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Dark Side of Solar Cells Brightens
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=solar-cells-prove-cleaner-way-to-produce-power
Scientific American: It takes power to make power–even with a solar grand plan. From the mining of quartz sand to the coating with ethylene-vinyl acetate, manufacturing a photovoltaic (PV) solar cell requires energy–most often derived from the burning of fossil fuels. But a new analysis finds that even accounting for all the energy and waste involved, PV power would cut air pollution–including the greenhouse gases that cause climate change–by nearly 90 percent if it replaced fossil fuels. Environmental ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Brazil: Large-scale Amazon deforestation or drying would have dire global consequences
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0221-hance_amazon.html
Mongabay: A new study shows that large-scale degradation of the Amazon, either through drying or continued deforestation, would have global consequence, including worsening climate change, causing regional vegetation shifts, and increasing dust in the atmosphere. Deforestation of the Amazon began in the 1960s when small farmers used slash and burn techniques to establish lands for crops. According to the study, by 2001, 13 percent of the Amazon was gone, a total of 800,000 square kilometers ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Obama,Clinton top McCain on environment votes-report
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN21464356
Reuters: All three top U.S. presidential contenders tout their environmental credentials, but Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton cast far more "green" votes in Congress than John McCain, a conservation group reported on Thursday. Sen. McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican nominee, rated a zero out of 100 for his votes on environmental issues last year, the League of Conservation Voters said in the group's national environmental scorecard. Over the course of his Senate career, ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Risk Of Permafrost Thaw A "Wild Card" In Warming - UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47071/story.htm
Reuters: A thaw of Arctic permafrost is a "wild card" that could stoke global warming by releasing vast frozen stores of greenhouse gases, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday. More research was urgently needed into the possibility of a runaway release of methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas trapped in frozen soils in Siberia, Canada, Alaska and Nordic nations, it said in a 2008 yearbook issued at 154-nation talks in Monaco. "The unknowns about the ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Shell says cheap renewable energy still far off
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2181214020080221
Reuters: The world faces a doubling of energy demand by 2050 but renewable sources are still too expensive and will take decades to make a big impact, Royal Dutch Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said on Thursday. In a speech on "Shell scenarios for the 21st century," van der Veer said one of the three hard truths facing the world was a big rise in demand as the global population rose from around six billion to nine billion by mid-century. He told the EastWest Institute ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
The sea is becoming more acidic. That is not good news if you live in it
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10717954
Economist: EVERY silver lining has its cloud. At the moment, the world's oceans absorb a million tonnes of carbon dioxide an hour. Admittedly that is only a third of the rate at which humanity dumps the stuff into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, but it certainly helps to slow down global warming. However, what is a blessing for the atmosphere turns out to be a curse for the oceans. When carbon dioxide dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid. At the moment, seawater is naturally alkaline–but ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
AfDB gives $814 mln for Central Africa forests
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN151078.html
Reuters: The African Development Bank (AfDB) will provide $814 million over the next two years to help safeguard Central African forests threatened by war, poverty and poor governance, the bank said on Thursday. Bank President Donald Kaberuka told reporters the money would go to 13 projects aimed at improving the management of natural resources in 2008-2010 in the Congo Basin, home to 37 percent of the world's remaining tropical forests. "Forests (in the Congo Basin) have an ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
American scientists favor turning a greenhouse gas back into gasoline
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/21/healthscience/22carbon.php
International Herald Tribune: If two scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are correct, people will still be driving gasoline-powered cars 50 years from now, churning out heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and yet that carbon dioxide will not contribute to global warming. The scientists, Jeffrey Martin and William Kubic Jr., are proposing a concept, which they have patriotically named Green Freedom, for removing carbon dioxide from the air and turning it back into gasoline. The idea is ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Climate change 'poses drought risk for Africa'
http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=4249&language=1
SciDev.Net: Climate change could pose a new threat to food-insecure Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the USAID Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET). Christopher Funk, a geographer-climatologist from the University of California Santa Barbara and member of FEWS NET, presented their draft Climate Change Impact Report at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston, United States, last week (15 February). The warming of the Indian ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Do polar bears belong on the endangered species list?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004192499_polarpro21.html
Seattle Times: These days the news is full of beautiful – and wrenching – images of polar bears, often swimming in unending open water, or standing on tiny ice floes. Although polar bears swim readily, ice is the habitat to which they are best suited – where they hunt the seals that are their prey. And the ice is shrinking. Even those only vaguely familiar with polar bears know they are heading into troubled times. Scientists now know enough about climate change to model future sea-ice conditions. ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
EU ready to cut energy-intensive industries some slack from climate change package
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/21/business/EU-FIN-EU-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: The European Commission, bowing to industry concerns, said Thursday it was ready to exempt Europe's steel, chemical and power sectors from having to compensate for the environmental damage they cause – at least for a while. The EU was keen to see a global deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, until a deal was in place, the EU would hold back on plans to force more companies to pay to pollute from 2013, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told European business ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Four nations, four cities take 'climate neutral' pledge
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmzc7GYOUUXhueY1J84qV3MfdH5Q
Agence France-Presse: Four nations and a clutch of cities and corporations unveiled a Web-based information hub on Thursday to help meet a pledge to radically cut carbon levels in their economies in coming decades. The Climate Neutral Network was unveiled at an international meeting of environment ministers, gathered in Monaco for a special session of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) focussing on global warming. Costa Rica, Iceland, Norway and New Zealand are the founding nations of ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
German Biodiesel Plants Find US, Canada Buyers
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47073/story.htm
Reuters: Three German biodiesel production plants were recently sold to the United States and Canada and more are up for sale after biodiesel sales collapsed, a German renewable fuels industry leader said on Wednesday. "I estimate that 30 percent of Germany's biodiesel plants are now up for sale," said Peter Schrum, president of the German renewable fuels industry association BBK. "Three have recently been sold to the US and Canada and I believe that more will ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australia: Not so gently down the stream
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10727977
Economist: MICHAEL VEENSTRA'S 60-berth marina at Goolwa has room for only 30 boats: half the moorings are now on dry land. Over the past 18 months, the water level has dropped and its salt content has risen. Goolwa faces the mouth of the Murray River. Yet drought, climate change and more than 100 years of irrigation have left the Murray in one of its worst crises. The Murray and its main tributary, the Darling, are Australia's longest river-system and the lifeblood of its crop farms. It ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Canada: Provinces free to tackle climate, Ottawa says
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080221.BCCAMPBELL21/TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: Faced with British Columbia's groundbreaking new comprehensive carbon tax, Ottawa has reversed its opposition to a piecemeal approach to regulating greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Both Environment Minister John Baird and Resource Minister Gary Lunn yesterday declared that each province is free to chart its own course on tackling emissions. In January, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty raised the perils of such an approach: "Generally speaking, the ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Restoring soil carbon can reverse global warming, desertification and biodiversity loss
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0221-soil_carbon_lovell_interview.html
Mongabay: Restoring the ability of soil to store carbon by promoting native grasses and vegetation can help reverse global warming, desertification and biodiversity loss, says an Australian researcher. Land use change – including deforestation, bush fires, and soil degradation – accounts for roughly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but land management practices can be used to reduce emissions. While reforestation and avoided deforestation have garnered a lot of attention of late, ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Canada: The federal government has a tarsands mess on its hands
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=77a856c0-bd22-48d4-afd1-f262d0261a01
Ottawa Citizen: Canadians are becoming familiar with the scale of destruction in the tarsands, something that First Nations of the region have known for some time now. And people around the world are learning why our country has taken such an obstructionist role on global warming. Canada and the Bush administration stand alone against the rest of the world because with the tarsands we are housing the single most destructive project anywhere on Earth, and the Americans are getting the oil. But ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Thrown back
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.mercury21feb21,0,4743024.story
Baltimore Sun: The Bush administration received a judicial rebuke long in the making this month when an exasperated panel of federal appeals judges held that the Environmental Protection Agency's weak-kneed approach to mercury pollution failed to follow the law. The court killed the rules and sent them back to the EPA for revision. That will almost certainly buck the decision about mercury standards to the next president - a sad situation for a nation that should be leading the fight against global ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
UN's de Boer says investors tackling global warming while governments spar
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/21/europe/EU-FIN-Monaco-Green-Finance.php
Associated Press: Private companies will soon be investing more than governments in cutting the production of greenhouse gases, the U.N.'s top climate change official said Thursday. Yvo de Boer said business efforts were good but also not enough – and that only a binding international agreement on cutting carbon emissions will make private sector efforts financially viable. "Business is really beginning to take climate change into account," de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
US moving to protect dying coral off South Florida coast
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-221coral,0,5237484.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: As pyramids rose in the Nile valley and the monuments of Greece and Rome went up and fell into ruin, two species of coral patiently built reefs off the coasts of Florida and the Caribbean islands. These vast undersea structures, often compared to tropical rain forests, support a rainbow of fish, crabs and other creatures. But in the past few decades, elkhorn and staghorn coral have declined in many areas 90 percent because of global warming, ship groundings, storm damage, pollution ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Canada: Activists say BC carbon tax is far too modest
http://www.straight.com/article-132976/activists-say-carbon-tax-is-far-too-modest
Straight: A Vancouver climate-change activist is pleased the provincial government has introduced a carbon tax but argues that the levy is too low to make much of a difference. Kevin Washbrook, director of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, told the Georgia Straight that Finance Minister Carole Taylor's budget announcement on February 19 of a revenue-neutral tax to be levied on virtually all fossil fuels–including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home-heating fuel–is "good ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
EU climate change goals 'should not damage industry'
http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200802/d4d1c89d-74a1-469b-8053-68453c25a648.htm
EU Politix: Europe's business leaders say the EU's climate change policies need to be "better reconciled" with its goals on growth and employment. They insist that European industry should not be "unduly" affected by EU plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. The demand comes in a letter timed to coincide with the start on Thursday of the two-day European business summit which, this year, is focusing on climate change and energy issues. The letter was sent by ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Australia: Govt could 'be convinced' on tougher emission cuts
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/22/2169347.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government faces difficult decisions on climate change policy after its leading adviser yesterday advocated tougher cuts on greenhouse gas emissions. The Federal Government is sticking to its election commitment of a 60 per cent cut in emissions by 2050, despite Professor Ross Garnaut's view that cuts of up to 90 per cent are needed to halt dangerous climate change. Professor Garnaut says he thinks the Government could be convinced to make bigger cuts if countries ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Japan industry opens door to carbon cap-and-trade
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7326225
Reuters: Japan, the world's fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, moved closer on Thursday to adopting a cap-and-trade system with mandatory emissions limits after a powerful business lobby softened its staunch opposition. Acquiescence from the Japan Business Federation, which has argued that quotas would be unfairly distributed and hurt growth, could allow Tokyo to push through a trading scheme as it seeks to become a global leader in tackling climate change. Currently, it relies on ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Japan to consider carbon cap-and-trade system: officials
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iooNqKALvbhybDyUJPjGVF5__vyw
Agence France-Presse: Japan will study introducing a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Thursday, as the business community hinted it will back down on its opposition amid global pressure. Japan, despite its advocacy of the Kyoto Protocol named after its ancient capital, is far behind on meeting its own obligations under the treaty as its economy recovers from recession in the 1990s. Japan is hoping to show its role as a leader in the fight against global warming when ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Olympics - Harsh Spring Sandstorms Forecast For North China
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47079/story.htm
Reuters: Northern China is likely to be hit with more frequent and more severe sandstorms this year, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday, posing a challenge to Olympics organisers hoping for blue skies over Beijing. Sandstorms were forecast to increase this spring in the northern provinces of Inner Mongolia and Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, Xinhua said, citing the China Meteorological Administration. Eastern regions would be prone to drought, which could raise the risk of ...
Thu, 21 Feb 08
Power users warn EU investment stalls over climate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7327462
Reuters: Energy-intensive industries in Europe warned on Thursday that big investment decisions are being put on hold until the European Union hammers out its plan for fighting climate change after 2012. A month after the EU's executive announced proposals to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the 27-nation bloc, executives from some of Europe's biggest companies said they could not afford to wait long for details of how the system will work. Juha Rantanen, chief executive of Finnish ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Canada: B.C. carbon tax first in North America
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=b503b08e-74ce-4e9b-bd92-f80be31f27cc
Vancouver Sun: Driving and other fuel-dependent activities are about to get more expensive in British Columbia as B.C. becomes the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce a consumer-based carbon tax. However, B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor vowed Tuesday that all money collected through the new tax will be returned through a package of tax cuts and credits. "We have to find a way that we can work toward improving our environment, but at the same time do it in a way that ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Climate Change Threatens Human Rights Of Millions - UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47054/story.htm
Reuters: Climate change threatens the human rights of millions of people who are at risk of losing access to housing, food and clean water unless governments intervene early to counter its effects, experts said on Tuesday. At a conference on climate change and migration, United Nations officials said rising sea levels and intense storms, droughts and floods could force scores of people from their homes and off their lands -- some permanently. "Global warming and extreme weather ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Food Supply Fears Heighten UK Debate On GMO Crops
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47053/story.htm
Reuters: Rising food prices due partly to soaring demand in China are increasing pressure on Europe to boost harvests and could help turn the tide in favour of genetically modified crops despite widespread public opposition. Opponents have cited concerns that GMO crops could have a negative environmental impact and could even pose a risk to human health. European Union governments have been unable to reach a consensus to speed up authorisations. GMO crops met a hostile response when ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Scientists blame ocean dead zones on climate change
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/20/MNQNV50EU.DTL
LA Times: Peering into the murky depths, Jane Lubchenco searched for sea life, but all she saw were signs of death. Video images scanned from the seafloor revealed a boneyard of crab skeletons, dead fish and other marine life smothered under a white mat of bacteria. At times, the camera's unblinking eye revealed nothing - a barren undersea desert in waters renowned for their bounty of Dungeness crabs and fat rockfish. "We couldn't believe our eyes," Lubchenco said, recalling ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Smoke, soot dims China, India climate prospects
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL20648823
Reuters: Air pollution is blotting out a tenth of China's sunlight and a similar amount in India, a leading U.S. climate scientist said on Wednesday. The soot, called black carbon and produced by burning coal, dung, wood and diesel, rises in the upper atmosphere, where it traps the sun's heat and blots out the light, raising the temperature at higher altitudes but cooling the earth below. Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, said that as a ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Attack on 'disastrous' plans to regulate carbon offsetting market
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/20/carbonoffsetprojects.greenbusiness
Guardian: The government's move to regulate the growing carbon offsetting industry yesterday ran into immediate criticism from the Co-op which said its strategy was "disastrous" for the developing world. The environment secretary, Hilary Benn, this week outlined plans to introduce a code of practice and kitemark for properly accredited products that he believed would give faith to consumers that they are funding genuine schemes to help counter climate change. But he said the ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Canada: Carbon tax focus of British Columbia budget
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080220.BCBUDGET20/TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: The B.C. government introduced North America's first full-fledged carbon tax yesterday, an attempt to engineer a social movement aimed at getting British Columbians to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions. The new tax will be tempered with matching income-tax cuts plus what is likely the province's largest-ever dividend to taxpayers. "We promised you green and today we delivered green," said Finance Minister Carole Taylor, who presented the changes as a way of ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Carmaker Porsche Challenges London Gas Guzzler Tax
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47057/story.htm
Reuters: Luxury carmaker Porsche said on Tuesday it planned to legally challenge London mayor Ken Livingstone's decision to help fight global warming by taxing gas guzzling cars driving in the city centre. Porsche said on Tuesday the 25 pound ($48.74) daily charge was unfair, would not cut emissions of carbon dioxide and would deter businesses from moving to the city. "A massive congestion charge increase is quite simply unjust," said Andy Goss, Managing Director of Porsche Cars GB. ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Canada: Feds won't follow BC lead on carbon tax: Baird
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080220/carbon_tax_080220/20080220?hub=QPeriod
Canadian Press: The federal government prefers environmental regulations to new taxes to fight climate change and won't be following British Columbia's lead when it comes to a carbon tax, says Environment Minister John Baird. British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce a carbon tax on consumers when Finance Minister Carole Taylor tabled her provincial budget on Tuesday. But Baird said such a tax is not on the federal table. "We're not looking at ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
United States: Groups vow to fight carbon emissions cap-and-trade plan
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-envirojust20feb20,1,168040.story
LA Times: Low-income community groups in five California cities launched a statewide campaign Tuesday to "fight at every turn" any global-warming regulation that allows industries to trade carbon emissions, saying it would amount to "gambling on public health." The 21-point "Environmental Justice Movement Declaration" challenges the stance of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a national advocate of a cap-and-trade program that would allow heavy polluters, often located ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Japan Considers Launch of `Cap-and-Trade' Emission Structure
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aksNMTy7WtHs&refer=japan
Bloomberg: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's government is considering introducing a cap-and-trade system to set limits on greenhouse gas emissions for companies and encourage trading in carbon credits. ``The government will form a panel to look into the mechanism on the prime minister's initiative,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters in Tokyo today. ``Emission trading will definitely be a discussion topic.'' Japan, a signatory to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Lawmakers Gather In Brazil To Discuss Climate Change
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47050/story.htm
Reuters: Lawmakers from the world's major industrial nations and five emerging economies gather in Brazil from Wednesday to discuss a global climate change treaty currently under consideration. This will be the first gathering of legislators from wealthy and developing countries to help shape the post Kyoto Protocol agreement, World Bank Vice President for Latin America, Pamela Cox, told Reuters. "Legislators are more than just another voice," Cox said. "In many countries they are the ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
UK Sets CO2 Offset Code, Excludes Voluntary Credits
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47065/story.htm
Reuters: The British government launched a Code of Best Practice for carbon emission offsets on Tuesday, but said the code will initially apply only to United Nations-approved credits. Credits issued under the UN's Kyoto Protocol, known as CERs and ERUs, allow companies in rich countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing offsets from clean energy projects in developing nations. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn announced the final structure of the code, which will ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
United Kingdom: CO2 targets 'bad for trade... and useless'
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/business-news/2008/02/20/co2-targets-bad-for-trade-and-useless-55578-20497234/
Daily Post: EMPLOYERS in Wales are warning that moves to set a three per cent annual target for carbon dioxide emissions will hinder rather than advance efforts to combat climate change. The employers organisation Wales CBI says the best way to make a difference on emission is action at a global or European Union level. It said that is why Welsh companies have been early to sign up to the EU Emissions Trading Schemes and to develop their own corporate action plans. Wales CBI ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Finnish Luvata to invest in solar panel wires
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2047318020080220
Reuters: Finnish copper products maker Luvata said on Wednesday it would invest 20 million euros ($29 million) in production equipment for solar panel wires, hoping to benefit from renewable energy boom. Solar panel makers are demanding thinner photovoltaic wires as panels become smaller, and Luvata's thinner wires minimise shadowing on the energy-capturing cells, it said. Luvata, owned by venture capital firm Nordic Capital, would expand production in its plants on Finland and the ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Fortum buys emissions credits from Russia's TGC-1
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2060851220080220
Reuters: Finnish utility Fortum (FUM1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) has signed a deal to buy more than 5 million carbon dioxide (CO2) emission credits from Russian electricity producer TGC-1 (TGKA.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), Fortum said on Wednesday. The market value of the credits -- to be created under the Kyoto Protocol's Joint Implementation (JI) scheme -- is about 70 million euros ($103 million), making it the largest such deal in Russia, Fortum said in a statement. Fortum said ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Iberdrola Net Rises 75% After Buying Scottish Power
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAcOy563hjSc&refer=home
Bloomberg: Iberdrola SA, Spain's second-largest utility, reported fourth-quarter profit rose 75 percent because of last year's purchase of Scottish Power Plc and said savings from the acquisition will be more than forecast. Net income climbed to 741 million euros ($1.09 billion) from 424 million euros in the year-earlier period, the Bilbao, Spain- based utility said today in a filing. Full-year profit fell 38 percent at the company's renewable-energy unit, the world's largest owner of wind ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Investors yet to spot McCain's U.S. carbon dividend
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKHKG36862720080220
Reuters: John McCain's emergence as the Republican front-runner in the U.S. presidential election has sown the seed of a carbon dividend which investors have yet to appreciate, Simon Webber, the manager of the Schroder ISF Global Climate Change Equity fund, said on Wednesday. Webber told a media briefing in Hong Kong that all three senators remaining in the race for White House - McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - had similar policies on climate change and favoured an absolute ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Japan considers emissions caps for industry
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/20/2168209.htm?section=world
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Japan is considering European-style caps on carbon dioxide emissions in what would be a significant shift in policy for the world's second largest economy. Japan's powerful industry lobby has had the Government approval for any greenhouse gas reductions until now to be voluntary and industry-driven. But the Trade and Industry Ministry says a so-called cap-and-trade system, imposing limits on carbon dioxide output, is something it will consider. The Ministry says it is ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Australia: Murray must not die urges Kennedy Jr
http://news.theage.com.au/murray-must-not-die-urges-kennedy-jr/20080220-1tdu.html
AAP: The River Murray is the Mississippi of Australia and must not be allowed to die, environmental activist Robert F Kennedy Jr says. Speaking after his address to the Solar Cities Congress in Adelaide, the environmental lawyer said it would take federal leadership and money to resolve the impasse between upstream and downstream water users and between competing states. While admitting he did not have a strong knowledge of the problems facing the Murray and the political and legal ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Progress Energy To File Nuclear Plant Application
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47066/story.htm
Reuters: Power company Progress Energy Inc said Tuesday it intends to file an application with federal regulators to possibly build two nuclear reactors in North Carolina. Progress Energy will file its combined operating license application with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) later in the day, said the company. The proposed reactors would be constructed at its existing Harris Nuclear Plant site, located 20 miles southwest of Raleigh. Still, the final decision to build ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
India: Survival roadmap for climate change
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080221/jsp/calcutta/story_8929914.jsp
Telegraph India: Calcutta is to have a "detailed, scientific plan" to combat the effects of climate changes, courtesy a World Bank initiative. A three-member team from the bank was in town recently to kick off the project, which will use a simulated model to predict Calcutta's vulnerability to climate changes till 2050 and prepare a survival roadmap. "Calcutta is among the 10 cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate changes. The Bengal government has okayed a World Bank proposal ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
US, EU In Talks To Solve Biotech Crops Dispute
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47040/story.htm
Reuters: The United States and European Union are in talks to resolve their dispute over the EU's ban on genetically modified (GMO) crops, diplomats said on Tuesday. But Washington reserved its right to seek sanctions against Brussels by restarting a suspended arbitration process if the talks fail to make headway, the United States told the dispute settlement body (DSB) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). "The arbitration will resume, at the request of the United States, if ...
Wed, 20 Feb 08
Australia to set example in world climate change
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/02/20/Australia_to_set_example_in_world_climate_change
Live News: The architect of the federal government's climate change policy says Australia should make early, deep cuts in greenhouse pollution and press other nations to follow suit. Economist Ross Garnaut will release the interim report of the government's climate change review tomorrow. Professor Garnaut has told a solar power function in Adelaide the government may need to go further than its target of cutting emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
Tue, 19 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Livingstone urges bottled water boycott
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKMOL95789220080219
Reuters: Londoners should boycott bottled water in favour of cheaper, better-tasting and more environmentally friendly tap water, Mayor Ken Livingstone said on Tuesday. Bottled water served with meals in London costs 500 times more than tap water and is 300 times more damaging to the environment, he claimed. Launching his "London on Tap" blitz on Tuesday, Livingstone said using fewer bottles would help climate change. Bottled water, he added, left a higher carbon ...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Climate Bill Target To Be Reviewed By Year End - Benn
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47023/story.htm
Reuters: Britain's goal of cutting emissions of climate warming carbon dioxide by 60 percent by 2050 will be reviewed by the end of the year and may be raised, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said on Monday. The goal is at the heart of the Climate Change Bill currently going through parliament which is expected to become law within three months. "The scientific evidence has moved rapidly, and as part of a new global climate deal, developed countries may have to cut their ...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Kan. lawmakers weigh coal power plants
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/02/19/afx4670579.html
Associated Press: Senators and House members are preparing to bargain over the final version of a bill to allow two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas, hoping whatever they draft can survive a potential veto by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. But doubts remain about their chances for success. The House planned to take final action Tuesday on a bill dealing with the proposed plants. The Senate approved its own measure last week. Sebelius' administration is blocking plans by Sunflower Electric ...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Oregon House approves renewable energy tax credit
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-23/120344305618610.xml&storylist=orlocal
Associated Press: The Oregon House has unanimously approved new tax breaks for renewable energy to help attract more manufacturers of energy equipment. State revenue officials estimated earlier this month that existing renewable energy tax credits will grow from $10 million this year to nearly $100 million a year by 2013. The Legislature increased the maximum tax credit for a qualifying project to $10 million last year, up from $3.5 million. The new proposal would increase the ceiling to ...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Plankton kills iron fertilization project due to environmental opposition
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0219-planktos.html
Mongabay: Planktos, a California-based firm that planned a controversial iron-fertilization scheme in an attempt to qualify carbon offsets, announced that it failed to find sufficient funding for its efforts and would postpone its project indefinitely. The announcement came as welcome news to environmentalists who feared the plan would be damaging to marine life. Planktos had planned to dump tons of iron dust in waters near the Galapagos islands. Planktos claimed it was a victim of "a ...
Tue, 19 Feb 08
Saudi, Norway Back Carbon Capture For CDM - Paper
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47025/story.htm
Reuters: Oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Norway will cooperate to get carbon capture and storage (CCS) -- burying greenhouse gases -- recognised as a way for rich countries to offset their emissions, a Norwegian daily reported. CCS involves trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial processes, such as power generation from fossil fuels, and storing it underground or below the seabed. The technology is still in a pioneering phase and is not yet commercial. Norway's aim is to get CCS ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Google's latest search: Renewable energy
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10492714
Reuters: Google is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in finding cheaper, cleaner alternative energy sources. Dan Reicher, director of climate and energy initiatives for the company's philanthropic arm, Google.org, says he has already committed US$20 million ($25.4 million) to funding start-up firms that research and develop solar, thermal and wind power. He is also looking at investing in a firm that creates energy through geothermal systems. "We arrived at these ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Growing trend: Scientists help boost cities' tree efforts
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/environment/2008-02-17-tree-canopy_N.htm?csp=34
Associated Press: Increasingly, trees are the new must-have for American cities, including Boston. City leaders, prodded by environmental awareness or regulatory edict, are stepping up tree plantings in hopes of improving air quality, reducing energy consumption and easing storm water flows. A four-man team of scientists at the University of Vermont is helping urban planners and foresters gauge the existing "tree canopy" – or cover – in their cities and set realistic goals for ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Australia: Heat on Lennon climate strategy
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23231512-3462,00.html
Mercury: THE State Government has been blasted by the opposition parties for being slow to act on climate change. Premier Paul Lennon said yesterday the Government was serious about addressing climate change and Cabinet would be making policy recommendations in coming weeks. But Liberal leader Will Hodgman said Tasmania's climate change efforts paled into insignificance alongside other states'. "This Government promised a long time ago that there would be a strategy, but ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Aussies: Kyoto Should Have Been Ratified
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ifBMHC4gb_0feGDdeoXcktKtphngD8USLB701
Associated Press: Australia should have ratified the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions years ago instead of becoming isolated on the issue along with the United States, two former Cabinet officials said. Peter Costello, who was former Prime Minister John Howard's deputy in the Liberal Party which ruled Australia for 11 years, said in a television interview broadcast Monday that Australia should have ratified the U.N. agreement when it was first signed in 1997. "The time ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Climate Fight Must Enlist Biodiversity And Communities
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/157927/1/
OneWorld US: UN-led efforts to address climate change, conserve biodiversity and fight poverty could cancel each other out unless the close links between these global challenges are given more attention, says a paper published today (18 February) by the International Institute for Environment and Development. It warns that many efforts to mitigate climate change have paid scant attention to biodiversity conservation and the world's poor. The paper shows that biodiversity has a key role to ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Corals May Get Help Adapting to Warmer Waters
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021701687.html
Washington Post: No one doubts that human-induced climate change has been killing corals across the globe. The question is whether humans can help save them before the devastation is complete. For decades, rising sea surface temperatures have been driving out and killing the algae, called zooxanthellae, that give reefs their often-spectacular color. That has left behind the lifeless, bleached skeletons built by clustered colonies of thousands of corals. Meanwhile, the oceans' growing acidity, caused ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Investment dollars flow to climate change, clean tech
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/billions-investment-dollars-flow-climate/story.aspx?guid=%7B56392E46-6F49-4751-8D49-1CE5C7558B68%7D
Market Watch: Institutional investors are committing billions of dollars to investments in climate change and are embarking on a bold new action plan to raise the profile of energy efficiency and clean technologies around the world. Nearly 50 leading U.S. and European investors representing more than $8 trillion of assets met on Feb. 14 at the United Nations to lay out a timetable for their commitments to global climate change and to call on governments and other investors to act with their money ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
US retreats on cleaner coal
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/18/opinion/edcoal.php
International Herald Tribune: The best way to cut down on the greenhouse gases produced by power generation is to reduce America's appetite for electricity. Renewable energy sources like wind power and biomass have a helpful role to play. Yet, dependable base sources will remain necessary, and coal-fired plants will probably be part of the mix for a long time. Minimizing the impact of such plants is vital. That is why it is so discouraging that the Bush administration pulled the plug on a project for using coal to ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Breathing Dirty Air May Lower Kids' IQ
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46995/story.htm
Reuters: Kids who live in neighbourhoods with heavy traffic pollution have lower IQs and score worse on other tests of intelligence and memory than children who breathe cleaner air, a new study shows. The effect of pollution on intelligence was similar to that seen in children whose mothers smoked 10 cigarettes a day while pregnant, or in kids who have been exposed to lead, Dr. Shakira Franco Suglia of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, the study's lead author, told Reuters ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Don't be biofooled about biofuels
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpbio185582310feb18,0,373591.story
Newsday: The nation's enthusiastic embrace of biofuels as a greener alternative to imported petroleum has run afoul of the law of unintended consequences. Two authoritative studies show that ethanol and other biofuels actually hurt the environment. When the full emission costs of producing these "greener" fuels are considered, they create more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. Global warming, the studies demonstrate, is increased by the destruction of natural ecosystems - ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Efficiency Now Ahead Of US Carbon Rules: Utilities
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46994/story.htm
Reuters: US utilities are focusing on energy efficiency to lessen the need to build new power plants while they await what they see as inevitable carbon regulation, executives said at the four-day CERA conference in Houston that ended Friday. Uncertainty over the form and cost of regulation of carbon dioxide emissions has many utility executives hedging their bets on new power plants while consumer conservation programs are viewed as a safe way to give consumers more tools to control energy ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
German scientists warn of changes in Arctic Ocean circulation
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/186402,german-scientists-warn-of-changes-in-arctic-ocean-circulation.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Marine scientists in Germany have issued an alarming warning about the radically alteration of the circulation of water in the Arctic Ocean. The findings by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM- GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, have dire implications for climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. Hitherto, the circulation of the Arctic Ocean was driven by the formation of sea ice rather than the inflow of North Atlantic deep water. Recently, however, the shrinkage of sea ice ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Global warming is rapidly transforming the world's oceans
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/217150.php/Global-warming-is-rapidly-transforming-the-worlds-oceans
Asian News International: A report by a panel of scientists has suggested that climate change is rapidly transforming the world's oceans by increasing the temperature and acidity of seawater, and altering atmospheric and oceanic circulation. "The world's oceans are undergoing profound physical, chemical and biological changes whose impacts are just beginning to be felt," said Jane Lubchenco, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Chair of Marine Biology at Oregon State University, who moderated the ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
How will global warming affect marine food chains?
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0217-acidification.html
Mongabay: Rising temperatures and acidity of the world's oceans due to human emissions of carbon dioxide is putting marine food webs at risk warned a researcher speaking at a press briefing at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. Gretchen Hofmann, associate professor of biology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said that pteropods, tiny organisms that play a critical part in marine ecology, are likely to suffer from higher ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Ignoring climate change risk could put you in hot water
http://www.financialweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080218/REG/411155238
Financial Week: After a stuttering start, the green revolution appears to be steadily making its way into corporate boardrooms. An increasing number of businesses–IBM, for one–are now conducting annual surveys of carbon dioxide footprints. Some, such as Nike, are filing C02 inventories with national or private registries. Others, including power producer Entergy, are purchasing greenhouse gas credits. And a few businesses are actually tying executive bonus pay to environmental targets (see "The Greener the ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Laughing Gas Causes Food, Global Warming Dilemma
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47005/story.htm
Reuters: The world needs to find smarter ways to feed a rising population while cutting emissions of laughing gas, a widely forgotten greenhouse gas that is stoked by the use of fertilisers, a researcher said on Friday. Nitrous oxide, best known for its mirth-producing qualities, is 310 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Mainly emitted by farmed soil and intensified by fertiliser, it accounts for 9 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
London mayor comes out against Heathrow expansion
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZOiiCRQ9EucG55vlOpBA6QoZbaA
Agence France-Presse: London's mayor came out Monday against plans to build a third runway at the city's main airport at Heathrow, saying it should be scrapped for environmental reasons. Ken Livingstone, who is running for re-election in May, said he opposed expansion at Heathrow and elsewhere in southeast England to protect "generations who will come after us." "Rather than more runways and plane journeys, we must cut carbon emissions by using energy more efficiently," ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
South Australian government to be carbon neutral by 2020
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23232962-5005961,00.html
Herald sun: THE South Australian government will become carbon neutral in all its operations by 2020, State Premier Mike Rann announced today. Opening the third international Solar Cities Congress, Mr Rann outlined a timetable to offset all the greenhouse gas emissions produced by government activities. "This government is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the state," he said. "By ramping up its purchase of green power, the government will encourage demand ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
The Senate's changing climate
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/18/EDQ4V1MUV.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: One of the risks to passing AB32, California's groundbreaking climate-change bill, was that the state would be locked into a lonely and expensive fight while the rest of the nation polluted, happily and without hindrance, for years. And while it's true that major action at the federal level is highly unlikely until at least 2009, it's also true that California's law has emboldened the U.S. Senate to push further on climate change than it ever has before. For the first time, national ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
UK farm chief urges science to fight global warming
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1853871620080218
Reuters: Britain must overcome an aversion to new technologies in parts of society as it seeks to combat the menace of climate change and help feed a rapidly growing world population, farmers' leader Peter Kendall said on Monday. "It is acutely painful to me to see how we have allowed our science base to run down. Part of the problem is the aversion to new technology and risk that has been fostered by a section of our society," Kendall, president of the National Farmers Union, told ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
UK Risks Being Left Behind In Wind Surge - GE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47009/story.htm
Reuters: Britain risks missing its renewable energy targets as wind power developers struggle with planning objections and grid connections, according to a senior executive at GE Energy, a major maker of wind turbines. As part of European Union efforts to fight climate change, Britain must get 15 percent of its total energy supply from renewables such as wind by 2020. Although Britain has huge wind power potential, local opposition and sluggish issuing of permits have left at least ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
US Should Speed Up Energy Efficiency Plans - IEA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47003/story.htm
Reuters: The US government needs to move more quickly on plans to boost automobile fuel efficiency standards, improve efficiency of power plants and take hard action on heat-trapping greenhouse gases, the International Energy Agency said Friday. The IEA, energy advisor to 27 industrialized countries, applauded the US Congress for passing a law in December that boosts the fuel efficiency for cars and trucks for the first time since 1975. However, the IEA pointed out many European ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Will North Atlantic threshold response to ocean changes be enough?
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-103634.html
Innovations Report: "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability of less then 10 percent," says Klaus Keller, assistant professor of geosciences. "However, this should not be interpreted as an all clear signal. There can be a considerable delay between the triggering of an MOC collapse and the actual collapse. In a similar way, ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Canada: BC to table 'green' budget to fight climate change
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/National/2008/02/18/4856138-sun.html
Canadi: It won't actually be printed on green paper, but the budget B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor tables tomorrow might as well be. The green hue to the budget will reflect the Liberal government's plan to fight climate change, unveiled last year in a throne speech that warned climate change is "threatening life on Earth as we know it," she said. "Certainly, the theme for ... budget 2008 will be climate change," said Taylor. "We've made it quite ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Cameron warns of global food crunch
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iUJlN6QkqxYQgOlPru4HjXWkSPtg
Press Association: David Cameron is to warn of Britain's vulnerability to a "global food crunch" as he sets out a package of measures to support home-grown farming. With increasing competition for farm produce from the growing economies of China and India, the growing market for biofuels to provide "green" energy and the threat of global warming, the Tory leader will say that the era of abundant food supplies may be drawing to an end. He will tell the centenary conference of ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Climate Change May Have Implications for Bangladesh: EU
http://au.biz.yahoo.com/080218/17/1m1lk.html
Asia Pulse: Bangladesh is one of the countries where climate change could have substantial implications for development and it needs urgent action to adapt to the effects of unavoidable climate change, a European Parliament delegation observed. The delegation of EPs committee on climate change visited Dhaka February 6-7 to appreciate the effects of climate change on a country already under threat of global warming. "We're aware that many people in this country are endangered by both, ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Climate change sparks shipping boom in Canadian Arctic
http://www.barentsobserver.com/climate-change-sparks-shipping-boom-in-canadian-arctic.4458672-16149.html
Barents Observer: Within 10 years, the tiny port of Churchill in the Canadian Arctic could be transformed into a hub of world trade, newspaper The Times writes. Most climatologists outside the Bush administration now concur that the Arctic is melting like a candle, and a good deal faster than anyone expected, the newspaper writes. "It is beyond our worst-case scenarios, says Michael Byers, professor of global politics at the University of British Columbia, "and quite terrifying in terms ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
EU seals landmark climate change deal with Taiwan
http://www.eupolitix.com/EN/News/200802/81b3af21-c143-41ec-adfa-7d1d9a3d17bd.htm
EU Politix: The EU has joined forces with Asia in an effort to forge new links in the fight against global warming. On Monday, it signed a pioneering pact which is designed to provide better quality data on air pollution. The agreement, with Taiwan, is funded under the so-called 'Iagos' project (in-service aircraft for global observing system), part-funded by the commission's FP6 and FP7 schemes. The latest agreement is specifically aimed at measuring greenhouse gas emissions above ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Australia: Kyoto Kev 'slashes climate programs'
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23234859-5005961,00.html
AAP: THE Federal Government has undercut its Kyoto commitment by slashing $50m from climate change programs, the Opposition says. Coalition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt today said the measures were contained in Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner's list of spending cuts unveiled earlier this month. They included taking $42m from a renewable remote power generation program, $5m from the Asia-Pacific Network for Energy Technology and $2.2m from a low emissions technology and ...
Mon, 18 Feb 08
Norway mall offers shoppers greenhouse gas credits
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7318371
Reuters: Half a kg of salmon; two kg of potatoes; a tonne of greenhouse gas reductions -- shoppers at one Norwegian mall can now buy cuts in their carbon footprint as they pick up their weekly groceries. The Stroemmen Storsenter shopping centre outside Oslo began selling the certificates on Saturday, at 165 Norwegian crowns ($30.58) per tonne, to people who feel bad about contributing to climate change. By midday on Monday, its second day of offering the U.N.-approved Certified ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Climate Change Has Major Impact On Oceans
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080217102140.htm
Science Daily: Climate change is rapidly transforming the world's oceans by increasing the temperature and acidity of seawater, and altering atmospheric and oceanic circulation, reported a panel of scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston. "The vastness of our oceans may have engendered a sense of complacency about potential impacts from global climate change," said Jane Lubchenco, the Wayne and Gladys Valley Chair of Marine Biology at ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
EU urged to clarify emissions trading reforms
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a78799fe-dd6d-11dc-ad7e-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: Heavy industries in the European Union must be told as soon as possible whether they will continue to receive pollution permits for free, France and Germany have warned. Paris and Berlin are among seven capitals to have written to Brussels urging clarity on the overhaul of the union's emissions trading scheme. The move marks the latest controversy in the EU's efforts to fight climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions. The letter, sent on Friday to both the European ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Rich, poor and climate change
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/02/17/eco.class/
CNN: The general dialogue on adapting to a world affected by climate change by definition excludes the world's poorest people. And yet it's the world's poorest who are often put forward as the ones who are likely to feel the affects of climate change the most and are likely to be deal with them the least. Around half of the world's population -- slightly fewer than 3 billion people -- survives on less than $2 a day. None of them are likely to go shopping for an automobile any time soon in ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Southern Ocean rise due to warming, not ice melts
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SYD100332.htm
Reuters: Rises in the sea level around Antarctica in the past decade are almost entirely due a warming ocean, not ice melting, an Australian scientist leading a major international research programme said. The 15-year study of temperature and salinity changes in the Southern Ocean found average temperatures warmed by about three-tenths of a degree Celsius. Satellites also measured a rise of about 2 cms (about an inch) in seas in the southern polar region over an area half the size of ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Surge in rain forest loss alarms Brazil
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/amazon-rain-forest-47021802
Chicago Tribune: As deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rain forest declined over the past three years, the country's leaders crowed that they'd found the recipe for stopping the destruction of the world's most diverse ecosystem. By expanding the area of protected rain forest by more than 60 percent while allowing controlled logging, Brazil's government said it had cracked down on the illegal clearing that has consumed a fifth of the rain forest. Last month, however, satellite images revealed ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
United States: The Demise of FutureGen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021503186.html
Washington Post: PRESIDENT BUSH announced in 2004 and then continually promoted a public-private venture he hoped would usher in an era of clean coal and be a cornerstone of U.S. efforts to address global warming. The FutureGen plant would have created electricity by stripping coal of harmful carbon dioxide and pumping the gas underground. The result would be power generation with zero greenhouse gas emissions. In December, Mattoon, Ill., was selected as the site for the coal plant. And then, on Jan. 30, ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Adapting local ecosystems can soften impact of global climate change
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/asu-ale021508.php
EurekAlert: "Think globally, act locally" makes for a nice bumper sticker – but is it an effective policy for coping with global climate change? Can local actions make a difference in a process principally driven by worldwide trends? The short answer is "no," according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We cannot do much locally to lessen the effects of global drivers; therefore, our local policies must focus on adaptation. There is more to the story, however, according to ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Bush retreats on cleaner coal
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/02/17/bush_retreats_on_cleaner_coal/
Boston Globe: THE BEST way to cut down on the greenhouse gases produced by power generation is to reduce the nation's appetite for electricity. Renewable energy sources like wind power and biomass have a helpful role to play. Yet, dependable base sources will remain necessary, and coal-fired plants will probably be part of the mix for a long time. Minimizing the impact of such plants is vital. That is why it is so discouraging that the Bush administration pulled the plug on a pilot project for using coal ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Emissions report paints grim picture
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_8288797
Contra Costa Times: If man-made carbon dioxide emissions continue at their present pace, they will alter ocean chemistry enough to threaten the survival of corals and other marine organisms, scientists reported Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. By burning fossil fuels, humans are on track to add 5 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over the next 400 years. The last time so much carbon dioxide flooded the atmosphere ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Global warming 'may soon wipe out marine life in Antarctica
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200802171740.htm
Press Trust of India: Antarctica's marine life will be wiped out by an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists have warned. "Sharks are going to arrive in Antarctica as long as the warming trend continues, a bit more slowly than crabs -- crabs are going to get there first. But once they do get there they are capable of eating the organisms that live there," Prof Cheryl Wilga said. Prof Wilga of the University of Rhode Island in the United ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Has An Ocean Circulation Collapse Been Triggered?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080217102148.htm
Science Daily: Predictions that the 21st century is safe from major circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be as comforting as they seem, according to a Penn State researcher. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability of less then 10 percent," says Klaus Keller, assistant professor of geosciences. ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Huge study gives wake-up call on state of world's oceans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/15/biodiversity.scienceofclimatechange
Guardian: A global map of the overall impact that 17 different human activities are having on marine ecosystems. Insets show three of the most heavily impacted areas in the world, and one of the least impacted areas. Fishing, climate change and pollution have left an indelible mark on virtually all of the world's oceans, according to a huge study that has mapped the total human impact on the seas for the first time. Scientists found that almost no areas have been left pristine and more than 40% ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
United States: Legislators can't avoid national debate over CO2, warming
http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/493851.html
Associated Press: Some might shy away from it, but Kansas legislators can't avoid the national debate over global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. Leaders of the Republican majorities in both houses want to guarantee that Sunflower Electric Power Corp. can build two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. The Senate passed a bill last week, and the House expects to take final action on its own measure Tuesday. The $3.6 billion project has been blocked by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Polar bears set to join US at-risk list
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3382278.ece
Times (UK): THE American government is to add the polar bear to its list of endangered species. Even though the world's polar bear population is stable, the US Geological Survey predicts that it will fall by two-thirds by 2050 if the Arctic ice where the animals live continues to shrink. The US Interior Department said an announcement would come "sooner rather than later". The plan was welcomed by environmentalists such as Andrew Wetzler, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Southwest lakes may dry up, study says
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_8288804
Associated Press: Climate change and a growing demand for water could drain two of the nation's largest man-made reservoirs within 13 years, depriving several Southwestern states of key water sources, scientists warn. Researchers at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography said Wednesday that there's a 50 percent chance that lakes Mead and Powell will dry up by 2021, and a 10 percent chance the lakes will run out of usable water by 2013. "We were surprised that it was so soon," ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Carbon offset projects to get code of conduct
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/17/carbonoffsetprojects.carbonemissions?gusrc=rss&feed=politics
Guardian: The government will announce details this week of a code aimed at ensuring the carbon offset industry is properly managed. Those running offset projects will have to agree to a voluntary code of conduct. The move follows recent reports of carbon offset projects that have failed because of poor financing and staffing. One forest plantation, for example, failed because no money was committed to its upkeep - as a result, its trees died. Individuals who had spent hundreds of pounds to pay for ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Australia: Climate change strategy preparations
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/18/2165001.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The State Government says it's still gathering information needed to finalise a climate change strategy for Tasmania. Both opposition parties have accused the government of neglecting the issue by failing to include climate change in its priorities for 2008. But the Premier, Paul Lennon says a new Climate Change Office will soon be operating and provide recommendations on climate change to Cabinet. Mr Lennon says the state government also plans to lead by example by ...
Sun, 17 Feb 08
Managing Uncertainty Important In Ecological Balance
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080217102125.htm
Science Daily: The balance of nature looms prominently in the public mind these days. Climate change, genetically modified plants and animals, and globally declining fish stocks are but a few of the issues that remind us that ours is a fragile world. Or is it? It depends on whom you ask, says Ann Kinzig, an Arizona State University associate professor in the School of Life Sciences specializing in biology and society. According to her research, ideas about nature's balance diverge across lines of ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
China: Rich `culprits' on Climate Change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTjewaSVBHqU3bSz_EksG-1TNoIwD8URAEFO2
Associated Press: Negotiations on a new treaty to fight global warming will fail if rich nations are not treated as "culprits" and developing countries as "victims," China's top climate envoy said. The whole world must take action to confront climate change, but developed countries have a "historical responsibility" to do much more because their unrestrained emissions in the past century are responsible for global warming, said Ambassador Yu Qingtai. "The ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
Warming risks Antarctic sea life
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7248025.stm
BBC: Unique marine life in Antarctica will be at risk from an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists warn. Crabs are poised to return to the Antarctic shallows, threatening creatures such as giant sea spiders and floppy ribbon worms, says a UK-US team. Some have evolved without predators for tens of millions of years. Bony fish and sharks would move in if waters warm further, threatening species with extinction, they say. ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
Canada: Alta. oilsands cause acid rain
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/story.html?id=b11f8829-467c-4d67-a13d-83c29e655738&k=66051
Star Phoenix: Acid rain caused by Alberta oilsands production is pouring down on Saskatchewan and if governments don't take note, any oilsands development in this province will contribute to the "most destructive project on Earth," the Environmental Defence organization warns. A report released Friday by the group says 70 per cent of the sulphur entering Alberta's air ends up in Saskatchewan. Acid rain is produced by the interaction between water, sulphur and nitrogen ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
Antarctic marine life threatened by crab invasion
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/antarctic-marine-life-threatened-by-crab-invasion-782989.html
Independent: An army of shell-crushing crabs is poised to invade parts of the Antarctic Ocean that were off limits to the crustaceans for millions of years because of the intensely cold water. Scientists believe that, as global warming causes sea temperatures in the region to rise, the unique shallow-water habitat of the Antarctic Peninsula will be transformed by the mass arrival of killer crabs. Crabs are one of the top predators of the seabed but their enforced absence from the cold ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
Beijing orders tighter emission rules on cars
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKPEK32840920080216
Reuters: Beijing will ban sales of new cars that fail to meet new emission standards starting from March, state news agency Xinhua said on Saturday, in another move to clean up its air before the August Olympic Games. All new cars are required to meet the new national standards that are equivalent to Euro IV standards, Xinhua said, citing Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the city's Environment Protection Bureau. The tougher emission standards will extend to heavy vehicles used for ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
Energy crisis making way for 'nuclear renaissance'
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/5546778.html
Houston Chronicle: Like it or not, the nukes are coming. Driven by soaring energy demands, the high cost of gas and oil and worries about global warming, an expansion of peaceful nuclear power increasingly appears to be inevitable. "I believe very strongly that new nuclear plants will be built in the U.S. in the coming decades to address problems with respect to higher energy demand, high prices and global warming," said Sudarshan Loyalka, a professor of nuclear engineering at the ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
The new climate science: Governments gamble with our survival
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/740/38310
Green Left: Almost universally, governments are refusing to recognise the scope and urgency of the changes demanded by global warming. The menace, however, is real, and the time available for concerted action to combat it is frighteningly brief. There is something counter-intuitive here, when most of us are still experiencing climate change only as near-imperceptible shifts in average temperatures. But nature is gradualist only up to a point. The smooth curves that describe "linear" processes can ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
United Kingdom: We throw away ten billion bottles a year; we have GOT to think again, says environment minister
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=515238&in_page_id=1770
Daily Mail: We've all been there, thinking about whether to ask for tap water in a restaurant: "Will the waiter refuse me? Will he accept, but grudgingly, with a raised, slightly superior, ego-bruising eyebrow?" Worse perhaps: "Will the person I'm with think I'm being tightfisted, willing to sacrifice quality just to save some money?" We Brits pride ourselves on our common sense. Yet, paradoxically, even though our drinking water is some of the best in the world, and ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
West pressurising India to adopt expensive coal technologies
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=130270
Merinews: KABIL SIBAL, union minister for science and technology, earth sciences, said that the Western world was putting pressure on India to adopt very expensive clean coal technologies. These technologies would be feasible only after 15 -20 years, he said in his address on the 'Bali Climate Change Summit and its Implications for India' at the plenary session of the 80th AGM of FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry). Sibal said for the next 20 years, India would have ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
Global warming brings crabs to Antarctic
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/02/16/global_warming_brings_crabs_to_antarctic/5890/
United Press International: Global warming has allowed predatory crabs to threaten the Antarctic's fragile marine ecosystem, scientists said. Predatory crabs, sharks and rays have begun extending their domain towards the Antarctic continental shelf in the Southern Ocean because of increasing sea temperatures, The Times of London reported. Cold temperatures previously kept predators out of the region that has allowed unusual sea creatures including sea snails, large sea spiders and isopod crustaceans to ...
Sat, 16 Feb 08
United States: Senator's attempt to utilize more renewable energy is knocked down
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695253652,00.html
Deseret Morning News: Proposed legislation that would have required big utility companies to provide a percentage of their power from renewable energy sources failed in a Senate committee Friday. SB173, sponsored by Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake, outlines a plan that would require a utility to provide 25 percent of its power output from renewable sources by 2025. The bill also provides options, in the form of energy certificates, to achieve targets and an "off-ramp" clause that allows companies ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Sea's thermostat protects reefs, study finds
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23155328/
Associated Press: Some coral reefs may be protected from global warming by a natural thermostat that regulates sea-surface temperatures in the open ocean, researchers said Wednesday. The research team led by reef specialist Joan Kleypas studied a region of ocean northeast of Australia where surface temperatures have risen little since 1980. Reefs there suffered fewer episodes of bleaching, which is when corals expel the colorful, microscopic algae that provide them with nutrition. Bleaching ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Asia's tigers eye nuclear future
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JB15Ae03.html
Asia Times: The 2005-07 spike in petroleum prices topping out at US$100 a barrel has prodded economic planners across the globe to reconsider their energy options in an age of growing concern over global warming and carbon emissions. The Southeast Asian economies, beneficiaries of an oil and gas export bonanza through the 1970s-1990s, now find themselves in an energy crunch as once-ample reserves run down and the search is on for new and cleaner energy supplies. Notably, regional leaders at the ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Britain's Prince Charles Urges Rainforest Funding
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46970/story.htm
Reuters: Britain's Prince Charles, called on Thursday for a global fund to preserve tropical rainforests from destruction. "In the simplest of terms, we have to find a way to make the forests worth more alive than dead," the heir to the British throne told the European Parliament in an address. "The doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight", he said. He called for a public-private partnership of banks, insurance companies and ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Coal's Time Is Up In US, Environmentalist Warns
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46967/story.htm
Reuters: The United States should leave its estimated 200 years' supply of coal in the ground and invest in wind farms and solar technology for its power-generating needs, a leading environmental analyst said on Thursday. Wall Street, politicians and public opinion have all turned so dramatically against coal in the last year over climate concerns that it is probably "the beginning of the end of the coal industry," said Lester Brown. He claimed in a conference call with ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Energy Saving Most Effective In CO2 Cutting - Report
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46968/story.htm
Reuters: Squeezing more productivity out of the energy that industries, homes and vehicles burn is the most economical way to stifle rising energy demand and control output of planet-warming gases, according to a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute. For decades, many countries have mostly invested in finding more supplies of oil, gas and coal to meet the rising energy needs of growing populations, but as energy costs and global warming concerns rise, interest in investing in ways to ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Thailand worries over food shortages amid palm oil debate
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/02/14/afx4659303.html
Agence France-Presse: Thailand has started requiring that all its diesel fuel include a component made from palm oil, a move that could reduce costly energy imports but is driving up prices for the commodity, experts say. From February 1, the kingdom began requiring that diesel vehicles run on a blend that includes 2 percent biodiesel, and is considering raising that to 5 percent within five years. The switch has sent prices for palm oil soaring, leading to shortages of the commodity that is widely ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
US investors pledge $10 bln for renewable energy
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN526300.html
Reuters: U.S. institutional investors pledged at a U.N. summit on Thursday to invest $10 billion over two years in technologies that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to pressure companies to disclose their risks associated with climate change. The plan "reflects the many investment opportunities that exist today to put a dent in global warming pollution, build profits and benefit the global economy," said Mindy Lubber, the president of Ceres, a coalition of investors and ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Britain third worst in EU for use of renewable energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/15/renewableenergy.solarpower
Guardian: The scale of the renewable energy challenge facing Britain was revealed yesterday by figures showing Britain installed about 270 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on houses in 2007, compared with 130,000 in Germany. Britain is the worst performer behind Malta and Luxembourg in the EU in its use of renewables and produces only 2% of its energy from them. Last month the EU said Britain must raise that share to 15% by 2020. Malcolm Wicks, the energy minister, acknowledged last week ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Business chiefs vow to lead fight against global warming
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iONz7_yuSgyjMdb4sOEd_uF108Uw
Agence France-Presse: Some of the world's top companies vowed Friday to step up their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, saying governments were failing to show sufficient leadership in the fight against global warming. The declaration reflects a growing trend by global corporations waging war on climate change by taking steps to reduce or offset the amount of carbon dioxide belched out by their offices and factories. A dozen corporations including Sony Corp., Nokia Corp., Nike Inc. and ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Firms will act on CO2 only if its cost triples, says Shell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/15/royaldutchshell.oil
Guardian: A carbon price close to $100 per tonne of CO2 - more than three times higher than it is today - is needed before industry will invest in the thousands of carbon-capture-and-storage (CCS) schemes needed for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Shell warned yesterday. Jeremy Bentham, the vice president of business environment at the company, also called on the EU to quicken the pace of regulatory change and take vital decisions "within five years" that would largely shape the ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Heavy rainfall on the increase
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-103502.html
Innovations Report: Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have found that winter precipitation – such as rain and snow - became more intense in the UK during the last 100 years. Anzeige Similar increases in heavy rainfall have now also become evident in spring and, to a lesser extent, autumn. A previously reported reduction in heavy summer rainfall appears to have ended during the 1990s, with observations for the last decade indicating a return to more typical amounts of intense ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Japan Hopes G8 Will Set Emission Peak Goal
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46973/story.htm
Reuters: Japan hopes rich nation leaders will agree a goal for mid-century cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and a target year when they should peak, at a key summit it hosts this year, a senior official said on Thursday. Koji Tsuruoka, Director General for Global Issues at Japan's Foreign Ministry, said climate change would be a central issue at the Group of Eight (G8) gathering in the northern island of Hokkaido in July, with national emissions targets and funding to help fight warming and ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
McKibben: Local activism is key to fighting climate change
http://www.reformer.com/localnews/ci_8268386
Brattleboro Reformer: Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben told a group of roughly 100 people Thursday night that activism needs to be acted out on a local level. The Brattleboro activist community that gathered at the School for International Training seemed to get the message. One of the first questions asked was what McKibben felt about nuclear power. With Vermont Yankee nearby, activism in Windham County means protests against nuclear power. However, the focus is not something all ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Nearly every corner of seas damaged by human activity: study
http://news.smh.com.au/nearly-every-corner-of-seas-damaged-by-human-activity-study/20080215-1sji.html
Agence France-Presse: Nearly every corner of the world's oceans have been damaged in some way by human activity and some 41 percent of those waters are heavily affected, a study released Thursday has found. Coastal areas are polluted by runoff. Oyster beds and fisheries are disappearing. Floating islands of trash the size of small states clutter what used to be open water. Birds and whales are struck by ships which leave a trail of oil and waste in their wakes. But the biggest damage is from climate ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Oceans in peril
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/bal-te.md.ocean15feb15,0,414222.story
Baltimore Sun: In one of the most comprehensive looks yet at the oceans, researchers say that humans have "strongly" fouled 41 percent of the high seas with everything from storm water runoff to shipping waste and that only small polar regions are still untouched. "Almost half of the oceans are in a fairly degraded state, based on what we found," said Benjamin Halpern, the report's lead author and a marine biologist at the California-based National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Only 4 per cent of world oceans 'undamaged by human activity'
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200802151755.htm
Press Trust of India: Only four per cent of world's oceans are undamaged by human activity, according to a study of man's impact on marine life. A team of international researchers has found that almost half of the world's marine regions have been seriously affected by over-fishing, pollution and climate change, the British media reported on Friday. "For the first time we have produced a global map of all of these different activities layered on top of each other so that we can get this big picture of the ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Prince urges companies to save forests
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92ef202e-db39-11dc-9fdd-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: Prince Charles took his campaign to save the world's rainforests to the heart of Europe on Thursday, urging the private sector to join forces with governments and international financial institutions and halt deforestation. In a speech to the European parliament the prince praised the European Union's ambitious plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions and boost the use of renewable energy sources. "Surely this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created? ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Sony leads charge against climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/15/technology.sony
Guardian: Sony and other big multinationals today committed themselves to drastically reducing their carbon footprint and urged other businesses to join the fight against global warming. Twelve companies, including Nokia, Nike, and Hewlett-Packard, signed up to the Tokyo declaration, promising to "take all necessary action" to limit the increase in the global average temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. Scientists have warned of horrific ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
British prince calls for greater EU efforts on climate change
http://www.france24.com/en/20080214-british-prince-calls-greater-eu-efforts-climate-change
Agence France-Presse: Britain's Prince Charles urged the European Union Thursday to show even greater leadership in the fight against global warming as the "doomsday clock of climate change" ticks down. In a speech to members of the European Parliament in Brussels, the prince urged the EU to strive to unite the public and private sectors and non-governmental organisations to help save the world's rain forests. "Determined and principled leadership has never been more needed. Surely ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Canada: Environmentalists' report to call for Ottawa to act on oil sands
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080215.woilsands15/BNStory/National/home
Globe and Mail: Alberta's oil sands are the most destructive project on Earth, causing environmental damage well beyond provincial borders, a new report says. From acid rain falling in Saskatchewan to toxic pollution spewing from Ontario oil refineries, a report to be released this morning by Toronto-based Environmental Defence calls on Ottawa to act where Alberta will not. The environmentalists will be joined by two Alberta native leaders, who will describe first hand how oil sands pollution ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Germany Says Won't Meet Carbon Permits Deadline
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46971/story.htm
Reuters: Germany will probably miss a February deadline to issue carbon emissions permits to its industry under the next phase of Europe's carbon trading scheme from 2008-12, a carbon registry spokeswoman said. Reuters reported earlier this week that Hungary would not meet the end-February deadline to issue carbon emission permits, called European Union Allowances (EUAs). The European Union's executive Commission will take four to six weeks to approve member states' planned ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
India, China to keep lower greenhouse gas
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=134099
Today's Zaman: Climate envoys from India, China and other major developing nations offered Wednesday to hold the line on their contributions to global warming, based on the amount of pollution each person produces when compared with the United States and other, richer nations. A recurring theme during the UN General Assembly's debate this week on climate change was that climate change produces victims and culprits, and that the United States and other rich nations bear a greater historical ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Investment fund giants demand 90% reduction in carbon emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/15/investmentfunds.economics
Guardian: Some of the largest institutional investors in the world yesterday called on the US Congress to introduce a mandatory national policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% below 1990 levels by 2050. It is the latest move that underlines the way business leaders have dramatically seized the environmental agenda and are now pushing politicians to tackle global warming. The group of 40 investors, which includes F&C Asset Management in London and controls $1.5tr ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Japan business lobby rejects carbon cap pressure
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK168652
Reuters: Compulsory caps on carbon emissions by big firms are not a proven tool to fight climate change, despite their mounting popularity among other rich nations, an official at Japan's top business lobby said on Friday. The country's industry has used a voluntary scheme to keep emissions below levels of three decades ago and critics should look at results rather than fixating on methods, said Masami Hasegawa at the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren). He rejected the warning of a ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Oceans Are Suffering At Hands Of Humans, Scientists Say
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-oceans0215.artfeb15,0,7930108.story
Bloomberg: Fishing, pollution and climate change have damaged more than two-fifths of the world's oceans, according to scientists who produced a map of the human toll on marine life. Every single square mile of the oceans is affected by something man-made, and 41 percent of the seas has a "medium high" or "high" impact, the scientists, led by Ben Halpern at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in the study Thursday in the journal Science. The researchers ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Prince urges international action on climate change
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14206&channel=0
Edie: The prince said an alliance between public, private and non-governmental organisations needed to come together to work on the crisis. "For me, the crux of the problem is - and I only pray I will be proved wrong - that the doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight," he said. "We are simply not reacting quickly enough. We cannot be anything less than courageous and revolutionary in our approach to tackling climate change. ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Study: U.S. expected to be $1 trillion carbon trading market by 2020
http://mathaba.net/news/?x=581883
Xinhua: The United States will be home to a 1 trillion U.S. dollar carbon emission market by 2020 if its federal and state policymakers continue on their current path towards a comprehensive "cap-and-trade" program that is confined to domestic trading only, a latest analysis released on Thursday said. The new analysis was released by New Carbon Finance, a division of New Energy Finance, the world's leading provider of information and analysis in the renewable energy and low-carbon ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
The climate is big business
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/exclusions/supplements/carbonaction/nosplit/table.xml
Telegraph: Climate change is going to transform the way businesses operate and it's a change that will happen globally. That was the theme of a round-table meeting of key company executives organised by the Carbon Trust as part of its mission to accelerate the move to a low-carbon economy. Neville Isdell, chief executive of Coca-Cola, told senior executives from companies including Cadbury Schweppes, Centrica, Boeing and Marks & Spencer that climate change is a scientific reality and the ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
Canada's oil sands a massive disaster: green group
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1558859820080215
Reuters: Canada's massive oil sands are "the most destructive project on earth" and the federal government must intervene to clean up the mess, a leading green group said on Friday. Environmental Defence said excavation of the oil sands in the western province of Alberta -- home to the richest petroleum deposits outside the Middle East -- is producing vast amounts of greenhouse gases and poisoning local water supplies. "This is Canada's problem -- our federal elected ...
Fri, 15 Feb 08
CERA sees a dozen U.S. reactors by 2015
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1561241920080215
Reuters: Challenges facing a nuclear revival in the United States seem only to increase, but industry experts at the CERA conference expect to see a dozen new reactors under construction in the next decade, they said Friday. "It's execution time," said Jone-Lin Wang, a senior director of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, host of the annual conference in Houston. "There's a strong possibility we will see a dozen reactors under construction by 2015," said ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Exchanges merge to create spot market for carbon
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1336229620080214
Reuters: Two European carbon trading exchanges are merging their platforms to offer spot trading in European Union and United Nations credits, they said on Thursday. Spot trading platforms New Values and euets.com, owned by Budapest-based Vertis Finance, will merge into a single electronic exchange, called Climex, where traders will be able to buy and sell EU Allowances (EUAs) and credits issued under the Kyoto Protocol (CERs and ERUs). The platform, to begin trading on February 18, ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
United States: US misses second deadline to protect polar bears
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31932720080213
Reuters: The United States has missed its own postponed deadline to decide if polar bears need protection from climate change, and critics link the delay to an oil lease sale in a vast swath of the bear's icy habitat. "When it comes to the survival of the polar bear, the Bush administration is putting the 'dead' back into 'deadline,'" said Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads a House of Representatives panel on climate change. "Now that the Bush ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Australia's Worst Drought Ending After Rains
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46934/story.htm
Reuters: It is finally raining in eastern Australia, turning outback dustbowls into inland seas and beginning to end the country's worst drought in 100 years. Dams are filling, farmers are hoping for their best crops in years and food prices are stabilising as a La Nina weather pattern washes away drought which has persisted since 2002. A senior weather official told Reuters that recent rains had already ended the drought in some areas -- the closest the bureau has come to declaring ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Climate change may dry up US water source
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Climate_change_may_dry_up_US_water_source/articleshow/2782192.cms
Times of India: Man-made factors, including climate change, could dry up a key source of water for millions of Americans living in southwestern United States. Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, have predicted that there is a 50 per cent chance that Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, will be dry by 2021 if climate changes as expected and future water usage is not curtailed. Aqueducts ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Climate change may kill thousands in UK by 2017
http://uk.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUKL1283826220080212
Reuters: There is a 25 percent chance that a severe heat wave will strike England and kill more than 6,000 people before 2017 if no action is taken to deal with the health effects of climate change, a report said on Tuesday. The report for the Department of Health estimated more than 3,000 people could die in an intense summer hot spell in southeast England, with just as many more dying from heat-related deaths over the summer. Until 2012, when London stages the summer Olympic Games, ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
United States: Coal-fired plants advance in Senate
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/feb/14/coalfired_plants_advance_senate/?city_local
Journal-World: The Kansas Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that essentially would require the state to approve two 700-megawatt coal-burning power plants in southwest Kansas. After more than three hours of debate, the Senate advanced the measure on a voice vote to set up a final vote today. The bill is expected to pass. However, the key will be whether it gains a two-thirds majority – 27 votes in the 40-member Senate – which would be sufficient to overturn a ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Developed countries urged to lead emissions cuts efforts at UN debate
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/14/content_7602400.htm
Xinhua: Delegates at a UN high-level debate on climate change Wednesday urged developed countries to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the major contributor to global warming. The thematic debate, which started Monday and was originally planned for two days, dragged on into a third day because of the vast number of intended speakers from more than 100 countries and international organizations. Addressing the event, Iran's UN Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said that ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Investors Eye Climate Role at UN
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iUmC_lsSj3pcOSeh0FE9ADT-H5iQD8UPVHDO0
Associated Press: Hundreds of investors controlling $20 trillion in capital were set to gather Thursday for talks on financial risks and opportunities from limiting carbon emissions that scientists blame for global warming. The gathering of 480 investors and other Wall Street types was organized by groups supporting U.N. efforts such as the U.N. Foundation, Ceres and the U.N. Fund for International Partnerships. Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres' investor coalition, called it the largest meeting ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Modern investors turn into sun worshippers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/02/14/ccenergy114.xml
Telegraph: Saving the planet is busy work. When Mark Shorrock came to update investors in his clean-tech incubator fund Low Carbon Accelerator recently, he was amazed to see that he had investigated 448 alternative energy hopefuls in the last year. From greener fridges to concentrated solar power, even biofuels from algae, LCA is at the sharp end of an explosion in technological innovation against which the dotcom years pale. It's not just a techie thing either - the money men are ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Nevada doesn't need coal-fired plants, 'green' report says
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/feb/14/nevada-doesnt-need-coal-fired-plants-green-report-/
Las Vegas Sun: Nevada's largest utility could meet the state's growing energy demand without coal-fired power plants, according to a California environmental group. Sierra Pacific Resources, parent company of Nevada Power, could keep the lights on with energy efficiency improvements and by developing renewable energy, long-distance transmission lines and natural gas plants, according to a report released Wednesday by The Energy Foundation in San Francisco. The report was completed by Aspen ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Australia: Renewable energy target 'unachievable'
http://news.smh.com.au/renewable-energy-target-unachievable/20080214-1s9z.html
AAP: The federal opposition predicts the government will be forced to abandon its renewable energy target and include clean coal technology in a new scheme. Labor went to last year's election with a target of renewable energy making up 20 per cent of power generation by 2020. But opposition climate change spokesman Greg Hunt believes the government will be forced to adopt the coalition's clean energy target by next year. The coalition's target of about 15 per cent by 2020 ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Research paper confirms suspected hurricane activity link
http://www.lloyds.com/News_Centre/Features_from_Lloyds/Research_paper_confirms_suspected_hurricane_activity_link_140208.htm
Lloyd's: According to new research by the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre (BUHRC), sea surface warming contributes significantly to increased Atlantic hurricane activity. In the study – published in the scientific journal Nature – Professor Mark Saunders and Dr Adam Lea from BUHRC and based at the Department of Space and Climate Physics at University College London, reveal the current sensitivity of tropical Atlantic hurricane activity to sea surface warming is large, with a 0.5°C increase ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
UN urges Japan to push for G8 emissions targets
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT30963120080214
Reuters: The United Nations' top climate change official on Thursday called on Tokyo to push for ambitious midterm emissions targets at the G8 summit to be held in northern Japan in July. Yvo de Boer, in Tokyo for an official level climate change conference, told reporters that Japan faces the task of reaching a consensus among industrialized countries on 2020 targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. "As chair of the G8, Japan could lead the discussion by moving forward ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Against The Grain: It's hard to see why nuclear is the favoured route'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/against-the-grain-its-hard-to-see-why-nuclear-is-the-favoured-route-781785.html
Independent: The two core arguments made by the nuclear industry are security of supply and global warming. Let's take global warming first. If we were to rebuild our entire nuclear stock we would mitigate only 4 per cent of our CO2 emissions, so how can it be about global warming? If you're serious about CO2, then get serious about transport, or other forms of energy. In terms of supply, the fear is that Russia will turn off the gas. Unfortunately, half our gas is directed to domestic heating ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Flood-risk homes 'may be uninsurable'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/feb/14/homeinsurance.insurance
Guardian: Many new homes could be uninsurable and unsellable unless the government introduces tougher planning controls, the insurance industry warned today. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said a third of the 3m homes set to be built by 2020 could be on a floodplain, and warned its members may not continue to offer flood cover as standard on home insurance policies. Speaking at the Architects' Journal conference today, Justin Jacobs, the ABI's assistant director of property, ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Palau urges UN action on climate change
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s2163111.htm
Radio Australia: The world's small island nations wants the United Nations Security Council to help protect their lands and resources by demanding reductions of carbon dioxide emissions. They are calling for penalties for nations that fail to comply. Palau's ambassador, Stuart Beck, has told delegates attending a two-day General Assembly meeting on climate change in New York that it is the Security Council's obligation to prevent an aggravation of the situation. Mr Beck says many people ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Pentagon faces a battle on climate change
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07098218-daa1-11dc-9bb9-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: In the run-up to the United Nations climate change conference in Bali, businesspeople implored political leaders to take bold steps to combat global warming. They insisted that their ability to undertake effective long-term planning was undermined by uncertainty about the future cost of carbon emissions. Yet their calls for action were ignored. Perhaps the outcome would have been different if the world's single largest organisation - the Pentagon - had joined the chorus. After all, it ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
After the coal rush
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/5543590.html
Houston Chronicle: When natural gas prices soared in recent years, long-range planners for American utilities increasingly turned to coal-fired plants as the most economic way to address rising consumer demand for electricity. Because the U.S. has extensive deposits of coal, it was also touted as one way to help achieve domestic energy independence from foreign sources. As a result, dozens of new coal plants are on drawing boards around the country. Unfortunately, the cheap coal they are premised on may ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
First map of threats to marine ecosystems shows all the world's oceans are affected
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/uonc-fmo021308.php
EurekAlert: As vast and far-reaching as the world's oceans are, every square kilometer is affected by human activities, according to a study in the journal Science by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and others. The international team of scientists integrated global data from 17 aspects of global change – from overfishing to global warming – that threaten 20 different marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs and continental shelves. Similar to an online satellite map ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Time is up for coal: environmental analyst
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1445731320080215
Reuters: The United States should leave its estimated 200 years' supply of coal in the ground and invest in wind farms and solar technology for its power-generating needs, a leading environmental analyst said on Thursday. Wall Street, politicians and public opinion have all turned so dramatically against coal in the last year over climate concerns that it is probably "the beginning of the end of the coal industry," said Lester Brown. He claimed in a conference call with ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Venture to Use Sea to Fight Warming Runs Out of Cash
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=92999
New York Times: Planktos, a California company that is trying to turn a profit by fertilizing the ocean with iron dust, canceled planned field tests on Wednesday, citing a lack of funds. At the company's Web site, planktos.com, a notice blamed a "highly effective disinformation campaign" for the cancellation. The business plan had been to sell carbon offset credits earned by creating blooms of phytoplankton that, in theory, would absorb a certain amount of the climate-warming gas carbon dioxide ...
Thu, 14 Feb 08
Arctic Ice Unlikely To See Record Melt In 2008
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46929/newsDate/14-Feb-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Arctic summer sea ice is unlikely to shrink drastically in 2008 beyond a record low set last year even though the long-term trend is a thaw tied to global warming, a leading scientist said on Wednesday. Arctic sea ice, an indicator of climate change as it expands in winter and thaws in summer, shrank last September to a low of 4.1 million sq km (1.6 million sq miles), more than 1.2 million sq km less than the previous recorded low in 2005. "My feeling is that the ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
China Sets Pollution Reduction Targets For 2008
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46910/story.htm
Reuters: China will aim this year to reduce its emissions of sulphur dioxide by 6 percent from their 2005 levels as it steps up efforts to fight pollution, its top environmental official said in remarks published on Tuesday. The official Xinhua news agency cited Zhou Shengxian, head of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), as saying that the government would close many small coal-fired power plants, as well as steel mills and cement plants, to cut emissions of the acid ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
GE Sees 2008 Wind Revenue Approaching $6 Billion
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46918/story.htm
Reuters: US conglomerate General Electric Co expects revenue from its wind turbine business to approach $6 billion, a top executive said on Tuesday. "The wind business continues to exceed our expectations," said John Rice, a vice chairman of the second-largest US company by market capitalization who heads GE's infrastructure unit. "The market has determined that the economics work." Rice said that GE now has wind turbine orders extending into 2010, past the ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Greenhouse Affect
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120286874755264143.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: The ink is still moist on Capitol Hill's latest energy bill and, as if on cue, a scientific avalanche is demolishing its assumptions. To wit, trendy climate-change policies like ethanol and other biofuels are actually worse for the environment than fossil fuels. Then again, Washington's energy neuroses are more political than practical, so it's easy for the Solons and greens to ignore what would usually be called evidence. The rebukes arrive via two new studies in Science, a ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Papua New Guinea: How activists and scientists saved a rainforest island from destruction for palm oil
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0212-hance_woodlark.html
Mongabay: How Woodlark Island's plight went from local to global In mid-January, Mongabay learned that the government of Papua New Guinea had changed its mind: it would no longer allow Vitroplant Ltd. to deforest 70% of Woodlark Island for palm oil plantations. This change came about after one hundred Woodlark Islanders (out of a population of 6,000) traveled to Alotau, the capital of Milne Bay Province, to deliver a protest letter to the local government; after several articles in Mongabay ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
United States: Lake Mead Could Be Within a Few Years of Going Dry, Study Finds
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=92902
New York Times: Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The lake, located in Nevada and Arizona, has a 50 percent chance of becoming unusable by 2021, the scientists say, if the demand for water remains unchanged and if human-induced climate change follows ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
London To Penalise Gas-Guzzling Cars
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46909/story.htm
Reuters: Owners of gas-guzzling cars will have to pay 25 pounds ($50) a day to drive them in central London from October in a push to cut carbon emissions, mayor Ken Livingstone said on Tuesday. Livingstone admitted it would have little immediate impact on emissions but said the lifestyle signal and other moves such as recycling initiatives and new building rules would help cut London's carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025. "I believe that this ground-breaking initiative will ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Mankind can't afford more oil drilling-ex-BP exec
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL052989320080213
Reuters: Known oil, gas and coal reserves may already contain a quarter more carbon than mankind can emit and still avoid dangerous climate change, putting the value of new oil exploration in doubt, said a former oil major executive. The oil industry may be wasting $50 billion annually searching for new fields, said Jan-Peter Onstwedder, formerly BP's most senior risk manager. He left BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) in December. He calculated potential carbon emissions from proven ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
The great green land grab
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/13/conservation
Guardian: Click! I have just bought 10 sq cm of rainforest for a few pennies on the net. Click click! That's 0.2 sq ft of Patagonia coastline saved from mining. Click click click! A friend has just given me as a present 1 sq m of the Palmyra atoll, wherever that is. Saving the world's most beautiful and ecologically important places just got much cheaper and easier. Hundreds of websites run by charities, trusts, and individuals now invite people to buy up forest, field and mountain to save it ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
UN Debate Keys on Rich Nation Emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303099.html
Associated Press: Envoys from India, China and other developing nations offered Wednesday to hold the line on their greenhouse gas emissions, but only as measured against the per-capita pollution produced by the United States and other richer nations. The U.S. emits about 7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases a year. China, with 1.3 billion people, has pulled roughly even with that amount, but its emissions per person are roughly one-fourth that in the U.S., which is home ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Analysis: Big Oil tackles climate change
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/02/13/analysis_big_oil_tackles_climate_change/9818/
United Press International: Climate change was on the agenda at an influential oil industry meeting in Houston with repeated calls for a nationwide regime. "We want to be at the table, want to be an active participant as the U.S. government addresses this issue and comes up with a regime," Red Cavaney, president and chief executive officer of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry's lobby group, told United Press International in an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy confab. ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Bolivians Fear Floodwaters Could Rush Amazon City
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46915/story.htm
Reuters: Floodwater topped a highway protecting the Bolivian city of Trinidad on Tuesday, threatening to inundate 95,000 residents already suffering from severe flooding in the Amazon region. The leftist government of President Evo Morales decreed a national disaster, as residents of Trinidad feared the floods could break the dike and wash away parts of their city. Floods have forced thousands of people from their homes and killed at least 51 people nationwide since November, ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Canada: David Suzuki deals a devastating blow to his climate-change cause
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=d8d435aa-ef76-41a4-bb75-7daebeb155dd
Province: Regardless of what the actual state of climate change may or may not be, Canadians who are adamant that we are nearing the point of no return have a problem on their hands. It would appear their highest-profile spokespeople have serious credibility issues. Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion never misses an opportunity to demand urgent attention to global warming. However, it has been well-documented that greenhouse-gas emissions increased under the previous Liberal government, ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
EU finance chiefs want say over climate change deal
http://euobserver.com/19/25651
EUobserver: In their first discussion about the EU's proposed climate change policies, the bloc's finance ministers have warned that they should focus on market-based and cost-effective instruments, as well as global rather than regional solutions, which could hamper Europe's competitiveness. Finance chiefs from the 27 EU member states meeting in Brussels on Tuesday (12 February) said that although the envisaged policy package would have serious economic and fiscal implications, "the costs ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
EU fuelling human rights disaster in Indonesia
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/newconsumer/20080213/tsc-eu-fuelling-human-rights-disaster-in-6e9f97f.html
New Consumer: Palm oil production for food and biofuels is resulting in wide spread human rights abuses in Indonesia according to a report released this week by a coalition of international environmental groups. In 'Losing Ground' Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch, and LifeMosaic expose the huge social problems being fuelled by EU targets to increase the use of biofuels in transport.The report reveals that oil palm companies often use violent tactics to grab land from indigenous communities with the ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
EU Ministers Urge Caution on Cost of Climate Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46908/story.htm
Reuters: The European Union's move to a low-carbon economy to fight climate change must not harm its competitiveness, the bloc's finance ministers said on Tuesday. The executive European Commission last month proposed an ambitious package of measures to help the 27-nation bloc cut greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, partly by using more green energy sources. "The Council supports the leading role of the EU when it comes to energy and climate change. However we have ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Florida's Largest Solar Power Array Dedicated in Sarasota
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-13-092.asp
Environment News Service: The newest and largest solar power facility in sunny Florida was switched on Monday at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota County. The site is located on a former landfill that was closed in 1998 and is owned by the county. Governor Charlie Crist joined Florida Power & Light president Armando Olivera for the dedication ceremony of FPL's Sunshine Energy Solar Array. "I am thankful for the leadership of the Sarasota County government and Florida Power and Light in partnering ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Lake Mead, source of drinking water for 25 million, in danger of drying up
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIQwxH0Kk74NYVGDKW7tWp_uWKew
Canadian Press: Here's a global warming wake-up call for thirsty people in the southwestern United States: Scientists say Lake Mead is in danger of drying up. The dammed-up lake along the Colorado River spans the border between Nevada and Arizona and is the largest water reservoir in the U.S. West. It and Lake Powell help provide water for more than 25 million people in seven states. But because of a combination of climate change and strong demand, it could be completely drained by the ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
United States: Las Vegas Water Source Could Run Dry By 2021 - Study
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46904/story.htm
Reuters: Chances are about even that Lake Mead, the prime source of water for the desert city of Las Vegas, will run dry in 13 years if usage is not cut back, according to study released on Tuesday. The finding is the latest warning about water woes threatening the future of the fast-growing US casino capital and comes amid a sustained drought in the American West. The study by two researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Nobel laureate urges oil cos to help cut emissions
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN13297165
Reuters: Rejendra Pachauri said he thought he was "walking into the lion's den" on Tuesday when he told oil executives they need to take a lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in order to save the Earth from the consequences of global warming. Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for work on climate change, said the oil industry has been both lion and lamb when it ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
United States: Scientists: Lake Mead May Be Dry by 2021
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDEXdyGntotDdqwVCpys-tbVba1wD8UPDJ000
Associated Press: Changes in climate and strong demand for Colorado River water could drain Lake Mead by 2021, triggering severe shortages across the region, scientists warn. Researchers at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography said Tuesday the West's largest storage reservoir faces increasing threats from human-induced climate change, growing populations and natural forces like drought and evaporation. There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead will run dry by 2021 and a 10 percent chance ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
US House to take up energy tax package after break
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1336698820080213
Reuters: The House of Representatives will wait until after the Presidents' Day recess to take up legislation that would end $18 billion in tax breaks for big oil companies to pay for extending tax credits for renewable energy. The legislation includes tax credits to promote renewable energy production from wind, solar, geothermal, cellulosic ethanol, biofuels and other sources. Many of the tax credits will expire at the end of this year. Democratic leaders said on Wednesday they will ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
US scientists puncture the ethanol biofuel bubble
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/13/science_biofuel_reports/
Register: Good science news (or bad, depending on your point of view) has arrived with two reports on the carbon footprint of biofuels, in the paper edition of Science magazine. They deal serious damage to the belief - which up to now has been driving the biofuel bubble - that stepped-up ethanol production in the US is an answer to global warming. Writing in "Use of US croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions for Land Use or Change," Timothy Searchinger and ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
United States: Better biofuels before more biofuels
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/13/EDGEV10VF.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: It's all about the land, not the crops. While California and the nation pursue biofuels for energy security and climate change, we must ensure that cleaner technologies are the result, not irreversible damages. New research suggests that corn ethanol may have greenhouse gas emissions nearly double the emissions of gasoline. The reason is that the way we make biofuels today increases the global demand for land and accelerates the clearance of wilderness for new farms. For ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Bolivia floods misery continues
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7243970.stm
BBC: The Bolivian authorities estimate that some 60,000 families across the country have been affected by severe flooding, which has followed weeks of heavy rain. The flood waters, which have killed at least 60 people, are threatening to inundate the Amazon city of Trinidad, sparking large-scale evacuations. The government has declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit areas. The rains, which have swept away crops and communication lines, are blamed on the La Nina ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Norway Climate Goals to Rely on Quotas - Researchers
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46917/story.htm
Reuters: Norway will rely on buying greenhouse gas quotas abroad to meet a self-imposed goal of curbing emissions by more than demanded by the UN's Kyoto Protocol until 2012, researchers said on Tuesday. Norway, which says its targets for combating global warming are among the toughest in the world, says it will axe emissions by about nine percent below 1990 levels by 2012 -- tougher than a Kyoto goal of a maximum one percent rise. But scientists at the Center for International ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
Ship CO2 emissions at 3.5 pct of global total: IMO
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1311804920080213
Reuters: Annual carbon dioxide emissions from world shipping reached 1.12 billion tonnes in 2007, about 3.5 percent of total global carbon emissions, a scientific report by the world's top maritime body shows. The report also showed that growing international seaborne trade and related fuel consumption will raise carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from ships by 30 percent to 1.475 billion tonnes by 2020. Shipping and aviation emissions are rising rapidly but are not accounted for in the ...
Wed, 13 Feb 08
True scale of C02 emissions from shipping revealed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/13/climatechange.pollution
Guardian: The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen by the Guardian. It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO², or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas. The report suggests that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming - will ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Billionaires step up at UN to target climate shifts
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-unclimate_swanson_12feb12,1,7507162.story
Chicago Tribune: Invoking symbols as varied as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Allied war effort in World War II, two billionaires helped open a United Nations climate change meeting Monday aimed at promoting global efforts by governments and businesses to slow the gradual warming of the atmosphere. Among the ideas proposed was the need for a "war room" to coordinate actions against warming and replacing New York City's use of hardwoods with plastics and other materials. UN officials hope ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Bloomberg Slams US Energy Law Over Corn Ethanol
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46897/story.htm
Reuters: A new US energy law will cause an increase in global food prices and lead to starvation deaths worldwide because it continues to promote corn ethanol, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday. "People literally will starve to death in parts of the world, it always happens when food prices go up," Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on climate change. The new US law, which came into force late last year, increased fivefold the ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Global energy growth rates exceed expectations
http://thepost.com.pk/BizNews.aspx?dtlid=144313&catid=7
Associated Press of Pakistan: A record 20,000 MW of wind power were installed world-wide last year, with the United States, Spain and China providing the biggest annual increases, the Global Energy Council (GEC) said. World-wide wind power installed capacity stands at a record, 94,112 MW, BBC reported. Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of the Brussels-based Global Energy Council, said that the growth rates in wind energy continue to exceed the council's most optimistic expectations. "Globally, wind ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Global Warming: Sea Level Rise Could Be Twice As High As Current Projections, Greenland Ice Sheet Study Suggests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080211172517.htm
Science Daily: A comprehensive new study authored by University at Buffalo scientists and their colleagues for the first time documents in detail the dynamics of parts of Greenland's ice sheet, important data that have long been missing from the ice sheet models on which projections about sea level rise and global warming are based. The research also demonstrates how remote sensing and digital imaging techniques can produce rich datasets without field data in some cases. Traditionally, ice ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Insect explosion 'a threat to food crops'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/insect-explosion-a-threat-to-food-crops-781016.html
Independent: Food crops could be ravaged this century by an explosion in the numbers of insect pests caused by rising global temperatures, according to scientists who have carried out an exhaustive survey of plant damage when the earth last experienced major climate change. Researchers found that the numbers of leaf-eating insects are likely to surge as a result of rising levels of CO2, at a time when crop production will have to be boosted to feed an extra three billion people living at the end ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Insects ravaged more plants in ancient hot period
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-31888120080211
Reuters: Insects ate more plants, and did more kinds of damage to them, during an ancient hot period that offers hints of what might happen this century if global warming forecasts hold true, scientists reported on Monday. Earth warmed by about 5 degrees C over the course of 5,000 years at the end of the Paleocene Era, some 55 million years ago, sending hordes of hungry insects from the tropics and subtropics into the temperate zone, where the climate was suddenly warm enough for them to ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
London Mayor Announces Major Cycling Scheme
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46898/story.htm
Reuters: London will adopt a bicycle hire scheme similar to a popular initiative in Paris under a $1 billion cycling investment package announced by the mayor on Monday. Under the plan, part of a series of environmental measures due in coming days, 6,000 bicycles will be available for hire from ranks every 300 metres (600 feet) throughout the city centre. London, which accounts for seven percent of Britain's climate changing carbon emissions and is at the forefront of efforts by major ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
London mayor slaps £25 charge on gas guzzlers
http://www.scenta.co.uk/nature/news/cit/1715663/london-mayor-slaps-163-5-charge-on-gas-guzzlers.htm
Guardian: London mayor Ken Livingstone said today that around 30,000 of the worst-polluting vehicles would face a threefold price rise from October, while the most environmentally-friendly cars would be able enter the congestion charging zone free of charge. "The CO2 charge will encourage people to switch to cleaner vehicles or public transport and ensure that those who choose to carry on driving the most polluting vehicles help pay for the environmental damage they cause," ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
London to target 'Chelsea tractors'
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_7yWNcHHAWXNrsFylT-wYEfjdDw
Press Association: A tripling of the daily London congestion charge for gas-guzzling vehicles is expected to be announced by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Transport for London has been consulting on proposals to increase the charge for the highest-polluting vehicles from £8 to £25. In contrast, it is proposed that cars emitting the lowest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions should get a 100% discount from the charge. At County Hall in London, Mr Livingstone will announce his decision on ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Rivers Form Larger Component Of Global Carbon Cycling Than Previously Thought
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080208131147.htm
Science Daily: In the science world, in the media, and recently, in our daily lives, the debate continues over how carbon in the atmosphere is affecting global climate change. Studying just how carbon cycles throughout the Earth is an enormous challenge, but one Northwestern University professor is doing his part by studying one important segment -- rivers. Aaron Packman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, is ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Solar Power Boom Faces First Test
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46901/story.htm
Reuters: Prospects for the solar power sector are puzzling investors juggling on one hand a possible dotcom-style bust and on the other fresh support in Europe, home to a third of the world's market. The solar power industry uses the same silicon raw material as the semiconductor industry and may share a similar boom-bust path, according to some analysts. The semiconductor industry collapsed in 2000 amid a dotcom bust which pulled demand for electronic chips. Solar companies ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
UN Climate Fund Seen Fed By More Sources
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46896/story.htm
Reuters: A fund to help poor countries adapt to consequences of climate change such as rising seas and searing temperatures could soon be enriched by more sources, the UN's top climate change official said on Monday. Recognizing that climate change may be hard to reverse, experts are now examining "adaptation," or protection against potential catastrophes, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations agreed to start an adaptation fund for poor ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
UN Seek New Leaders on Global Warming
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQmBUlYskvnKT0CLHBucXxY5_wKAD8UOEIO00
Associated Presss: Virgin CEO Richard Branson offered Monday to set up an "environmental war room" to lead the world's efforts to find a fix for global warming. The British billionaire, speaking at the start of a U.N. debate on climate change, said it would be run by a world figure in global warming and could serve as "a tool for the U.N." to ferret out good ideas and calculate each nation's costs. "The 'war room' will be independent of politics," Branson said. ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
United Kingdom: 'Thousands may die' in heatwave
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hifwIHDB2P0GlTXJ-yyuSQWJgA_g
Press Association: Thousands could die from a serious heatwave as a result of climate change, a report from the Department of Health has warned. By 2012 there is a one in 40 chance - described by the report as a high risk - that the South East will have experienced a severe heatwave which would cause more than 3,000 immediate deaths. A nine-day heatwave, with temperatures averaging 27C, could cause 6,353 heat-related deaths throughout the year in 2012, the report said. And the study of the ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Bank of America creates environmental banking team
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1225091020080212
Reuters: Bank of America Corp, the second-largest U.S. bank, is creating an environmental banking group focused on finding and financing ways to promote conservation and reduce global warming, Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said on Tuesday. Lewis also called on Congress to create a cap-and-trade framework to limit carbon dioxide emissions and allow the trading of allowances, favoring clear federal standards and a market-based mechanism to set emission values. Presidential candidates ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
United States: Bloomberg: global warming
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0212-bloomberg.html
Mongabay: New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Monday that global warming is as big a threat to humanity as terrorism, according to Reuters. "Terrorists kill people, weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill enormous numbers of people, global warming has the potential to kill everybody," Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on climate change. "This is really just as lethal, it's just that the results are something we ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Climate Warming Threatens Antarctic King Penguins
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46892/story.htm
Reuters: King penguins that feed on fish and squid at the northern edges of Antarctica are threatened by global warming, which is cutting down on their food supply, researchers reported on Monday. King penguins, the second-largest species after emperor penguins, are at the top of the food chain in their sub-Antarctic environment, thriving on small fish and squid rather than the tiny krill and other crustaceans that sea mammals favor. This makes king penguins good indicators of changes ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Congestion charge hike for gas-guzzling cars
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/12/eacharge112.xml
Telegraph: Drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles will have to pay a daily charge of £25 to enter London's congestion charge zone from October this year, the London Mayor Ken Livingstone announced today. Owners of 4x4's and other high-powered sports cars and luxury vehicles will have to fork out an extra £17 a day as part of the London Mayor's plan to reduce the capital's greenhouse gas emissions. Mr Livingstone also unveiled a new congestion charging regime that will offer cars with the ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
EU ministers wary of carbon tariffs
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4ac91cc6-d992-11dc-bd4d-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: European Union finance ministers on Tuesday stopped short of threatening carbon tariffs to defend domestic companies supposedly vulnerable to rivals in countries with lower environmental standards. After a discussion of the financial and economic impact of the EU's climate change policies, ministers said they would consider "any necessary measures" to assist European industry, but did not specifically mention special import taxes or quotas. Diplomats said the vague language ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Global warming brings out the bugs -- study
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080212-118309/Global-warming-brings-out-the-bugs----study
Agence France-Presse: New research into an earlier chapter of global warming in Earth's history suggests the current period of climate change will accelerate crop damage and forest devastation, a study released Monday said. Researchers who studied the impact of this earlier warming period on prehistoric foliage found it coincided with increased damage to the plants due to greater insect feeding. Prehistoric plant life appeared to have been subjected to an intense assault by an unusually abundant and ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Heatwaves and malaria 'could kill thousands in Britain within five years'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=513927&in_page_id=1770
Daily Mail: Global warming could cut the number of winter deaths among the elderly, while claiming more lives in heatwaves and even malaria, says a new report. The "high risk" of a seriously hot summer within the next five years could lead to more than 6,000 people dying, according to the Department of Health (DoH) report. But it says that milder winters will more than offset the rise in heart-related mortality. The new report by a panel of scientific experts sets out ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Ken Livingstone declares war with £25 congestion charge
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/news/article3356455.ece
Times (UK): The Mayor of London confirmed today that drivers of 4x4s and high emissions vehicles will be hit by a £25 charge every time they enter central London (writes Nico Hines). The new congestion charges will be introduced in October with more than 30,000 cars driven every day in London, including high-powered sports and some saloons, joining four-wheel drives in the top bracket of charging. All vehicles emitting more than 225 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/k), as well as those ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
King penguin faces extinction due to climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/02/11/scipeng111.xml
Telegraph: The prospect that the King penguin will go extinct as a result of climate warming is rising inexorably, scientists say today. Second only to Emperor penguins in size, King Penguins - distinguished by their ear patches of bright golden-orange feathers - thrive on the islands at the northern reaches of Antarctica, with a total population of over two million breeding pairs. Because King penguins sit on the food chain in their region, they are sensitive indicators of alterations to ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Morales declares Bolivian floods a national disaster
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSrEmCRF10FZWmiOXFk5DTSmiPTg
Canadian Press: President Evo Morales has declared Bolivia's devastating floods a national disaster. The announcement by Morales frees up more public funds to confront a crisis his government has linked to global climate change. Flooding across Bolivia's eastern lowlands has killed 50 people and affected some 43,000 families since November. Morales' declaration followed pressure from eastern state governors, his fiercest critics, who had accused the populist president of responding too slowly ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
NY Company Buys First Californian Forest Carbon Credits
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46902/story.htm
Reuters: US carbon asset manager Natsource LLC said on Monday it has invested in the first forest-based greenhouse gas emissions reductions under California rules. Natsource paid a private owner of a redwood forest in Humboldt County represented by nonprofit group the Pacific Forest Trust for credits representing 60,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. The company declined to say how much it paid for the credits, but a source familiar with the deal said Natsource bought the credits for ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
UN chief urges rich nations to take lead in curbing climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/12/content_7591388.htm
Xinhua: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged on Monday developed countries to take the lead in a global drive to tackle the challenges of climate change. "Developed countries need to take a clear lead, but success is possible only if all countries act," Ban said at the opening of a two-day General Assembly debate on climate change. He said the Bali conference last December has set a target for the world to reach an agreement by the end of 2009 on action to counter the ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
UN hosts post-Bali ministerial session on climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hz8eS1Dt7YgbhG2qKjYpBR9PdqkA
Agence France-Presse: Developing and rich nations on Tuesday urged speedy UN-led action to seal a new global pact to reverse climate change by late 2009, with special attention to the needs of vulnerable countries. Representatives of 117 countries and regional organizations attended a ministerial session of the General Assembly to take stock after last December's Bali conference in Indonesia. The Bali conference yielded an action plan that set a late 2009 deadline for a landmark new treaty to cut ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Bolivia declares flood emergency
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7241528.stm
BBC: Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared a national disaster as his government tries to cope with the aftermath of widespread flooding. Floods caused by weeks of rain have left 51 dead in the eastern lowlands. Mr Morales on Monday toured the worst-hit province, Beni, where thousands of people have had to leave their homes amid rising floodwaters. It is the second year in a row that Bolivia has seen such floods, which officials blame on climate change. The ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
British report predicts deadly heat waves
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/02/12/british_report_predicts_deadly_heat_waves/3849/
United Press International: Heat waves and consequences of global climate change may kill 3,000 people in southeast England by 2017, a British Department of Health report said Tuesday. The report gives a 25 percent chance of a severe heat wave occurring in the next decade. The report points to skin cancer, malaria and food poisoning as contributing to heat-related health issues, The Guardian said. The report points to the 2003 heat wave in France that was responsible for the deaths of more than 14,000 ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Malaysia: Coal comfort
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/2/12/lifefocus/20232279&sec=lifefocus
Malaysian Star: FOR the longest time, Sabahans have been deprived of the one basic necessity of modern living – reliable electricity. Brownouts and blackouts were the norm. It was only in last July that an integrated grid connecting the west and east coasts was completed to provide a more stable supply. Even then, supplies need to be boosted to ensure socio-economic development of the country's poorest state. Sabah Electric Sdn Bhd (SESB), an 80% owned subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
United States: Coal gasification is a threat to health
http://www.projo.com/massachusetts/somerset/content/EB_Yourturn12_02-12-08_O58VIQA_v9.34864f9.html
Providence Journal: The proposal to convert the Somerset Station power plant to a coal gasification process, including biomass that may include construction and demolition debris, threatens to have devastating effects on our region's public health, environment and climate. The Patrick administration and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have publicly touted their commitments to protect the climate and public health, but allowing this project drastically undermines these ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Heat Wave May Claim 3000 Lives In England By 2017
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010011251
All Headline News: The British Department of Health warned on Tuesday 3,000 deaths from heat waves may likely take place in south east of England if the climate continue to warm. Unless preventive action is taken now, the department estimates a 9-day heat wave with temperatures in the 27 degree range may hit the country and immediately claim 3,000 lives; another 3,350 could perish from heat-related ailments on summer. It includes incidents of skin cancers as people get higher exposures to the sun's ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Canada: Kyoto report card says climate change more than communication issue
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=250b233d-a3e5-4094-a299-8825f5af36cd&k=31969
Canwest News Service: The Harper government should stop treating climate change as a communications problem and recognize it as a public policy issue by dramatically reversing its current plan, says a new report to be released Wednesday. Lead, Follow or Get out of the Way, the third annual Kyoto Protocol report card produced by the Sierra Club of Canada, identified the government's focus on communications as a fundamental weakness in its climate change policies. "The government has deployed ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
United States: Lake Mead drying up in 15 years
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080212-1045-bn12water.html
Union-Tribune: Lake Mead, one of the West's linchpin reservoirs, could go dry in 15 years if climate and water use trends don't change, researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography said Tuesday. Without the reservoir, residents in Southern California and Nevada would be highly vulnerable to yearly changes in rainfall and water deliveries would become "highly unstable," said climate experts Tim Barnett and David Pierce at Scripps, which is part of UC San Diego. The two scientists ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Malaria warning as UK becomes warmer
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/12/eawarm112.xml
Telegraph: The UK is to be hit by regular malaria outbreaks, fatal heatwaves and contaminated drinking water within five years because of global warming, the Government has warned the NHS. Following a major consultation with climate change scientists, the Government is issuing official advice to hospitals, care homes and institutions for dealing with rising temperatures, increased flooding, gales and other major weather events. It warns that there is a high likelihood of a major heatwave, ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Indonesia: Official issues rice production warning
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=92830
Jakarta Post: Prolonged droughts and flooding across Indonesia, due in part to climate change, are likely to cost the nation up to 1.6 million tons of rice per year, an official says. Public Works Ministry's director general of water resources, Iwan Nursyiman, said at a seminar climate change could result in the loss of some 364,500 hectares of active paddy fields, equal to 919,300 tons of rice, due to flooding. In early January, floods inundated thousands of hectares of land in several ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Small islands renew call for protection against climate change
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/185369,small-islands-renew-call-for-protection-against-climate-change.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: A bloc of small islands on Tuesday called for stepped up action to protect them against the force of nature ravaging their habitat as well as economy and agriculture. "Climate change is real for us, it is something that affect us today because of the ferocity of hurricanes," said Angus Friday, the ambassador of Grenada, one of the Caribbean islands hit regularly by hurricanes. Friday heads the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), whose representatives took part in the ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
Taxing the Gas Guzzlers in London
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1712367,00.html
Time Magazine: Sometimes it's hard to muster enough critical detachment to report a subject fairly. Take the changes to London's congestion charging scheme that were unveiled at a ceremony in City Hall this morning. Ken Livingstone, the capital's two-term Labour Mayor – currently campaigning to win a third stint in May 1 elections – announced that from October onward, drivers of high-polluting vehicles will have to pay a punitive £25 or $50-a-day toll for city-center journeys. The chief focus of ...
Tue, 12 Feb 08
US energy groups plan greener future
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b06532be-d9aa-11dc-bd4d-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: US energy companies are already moving towards greener investments in spite of the absence of climate change policies coming out of Washington, according to experts on the industry. Oil and gas investment is typically planned up to 10 years in advance and companies consequently need to begin factoring in the costs of expected future legislation even when it seems far off. Depending upon how legislation is crafted, these companies could have to pay $13 to $40 a ton for carbon ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
United States: 'Carbon-offset' forest registers its biggest sale yet
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/702487.html
Sacramento Bee: The Humboldt County forest that has been one of the country's highest-profile sources of "carbon offsets" has logged its largest sale ever, a deal the forest's managers say demonstrates the market's confidence in the value of their product. Natsource Asset Management LLC, a New York firm that deals in credits for greenhouse gas emissions reductions and renewable energy development, purchased 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions reductions from the Van Eck Forest for an ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
United Kingdom: A nation in bloom as the temperature rises
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article3346310.ece
Times (UK): Barbecues and sunbathing were the order of the day when Britain enjoyed some of its hottest-ever February weather at the weekend. On Saturday the 16.6C (61.9F) heat in London broke records held for February 9 for more than a century. The last time temperatures neared that level on that day was 105 years ago, when it was 16.3C. Yesterday the temperature again broke the 16C barrier at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. Climate experts there expect the blooming of flowers to ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Banks are tightening the lending screws on new coal-fired power stations
http://business.theage.com.au/banks-are-tightening-the-lending-screws-on-new-coalfired-power-stations/20080210-1rd5.html
Age: POWER companies just got another big reason to go green. Three of the biggest investment banks in the US have introduced lending guidelines that could make it harder to finance coal-fired power plants, while encouraging lending for renewable energy plants. Environmental groups applauded the adoption of the "carbon principles" by Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, saying they could spur other lenders into similar action, putting new pressure on power ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Call to scrap planned fuel duty rise
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/call-to-scrap-planned-fuel-duty-rise-780795.html
Press Association: Freight companies will urge Chancellor Alistair Darling today to scrap plans to increase fuel duty by 2p from 1 April. The case for abandoning the planned rise is being put by representatives of the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association at a meeting with Mr Darling. The 2p increase was first announced last year by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown. Both associations believe that the big rise in petrol and diesel prices over the last few months ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Developed nations' 'clean' growth is 'not so clean'
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1150278
UNI: Developed nations, who never tire of preaching 'low carbon economy' to third world countries, presenting themselves as role models, have in fact maintained their present growth, leave alone past, by banishing all polluting industries to these countries. The candid observation comes from Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Yvo De Boers, who has played a crucial role in the formulation of climate change policies and talks. ''They (rich ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Offshore wind farms to generate £100m windfall
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/construction_and_property/article3346258.ece
Times (UK): The Crown Estate will earn windfall profits of at least £100million a year from Britain's booming offshore renewable energy industry. The estate, which owns the foreshore and seabed around the UK, has already signed contracts worth tens of millions of pounds with operators of offshore wind farms. Rents from the siting of wind turbines are only the beginning of a vast new commercial opportunity for the Crown Estate. In addition to a huge expansion in offshore wind power and ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
UN Gathering to Address Climate Change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQmBUlYskvnKT0CLHBucXxY5_wKAD8UO12180
Associated Press: The U.N. General Assembly is bringing together business leaders, activists and government officials for a debate on climate change starting Monday – an effort to keep up the momentum for a new treaty by 2009 to fight global warming. The two-day session is a follow-up to the international climate conference in December on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, where delegates from nearly 190 nations agreed to adopt a blueprint to control global warming gases before the end of next ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
UN systems to gear up to save farm sector from climate impact
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/UN-systems-to-gear-up-to-save-farm-sector-from-climate-impact/271494/
Financial Express: 11The United Nations, apprehending that climate change can take a toll on agriculture, water resources, fisheries, forestry, public health and may increase the frequency of natural disasters. It has geared up to formulate appropriate support systems for the countries facing these challenges. "The UN systems would work in coordination with the national governments and other inter-governmental bodies. We are preparing a work plan in consultation with all these agencies. It will be ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Uncertainty could delay greener energy plants
http://business.smh.com.au/uncertainty-could-delay-greener-energy-plants/20080210-1re2.html
Age: AUSTRALIA could, like Europe, experience a delay of investment in its energy sector unless details of the proposed emissions trading scheme are released quickly, people in the industry say. Uncertainty about the cost of carbon and economical alternatives meant the country could end up with costly energy solutions. Europe faces an energy crisis, with large companies cancelling investments in new power plants because of regulatory uncertainty and difficulties in obtaining ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Australia warned on emissions scheme
http://business.theage.com.au/australia-warned-on-emissions-scheme/20080210-1rd2.html
Age: AUSTRALIA could follow Europe's lead and suffer a delay of investment in its energy sector unless details of the proposed emissions trading scheme are released quickly. Energy experts say Australia could end up with costly energy solutions because investors are unclear about the cost of carbon and the least-cost alternatives. It comes as Europe faces an energy crisis with major energy companies cancelling investments in new power plants because of increased regulatory ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Age of 'Green Economics' is Upon Us - UN's Ban
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46876/story.htm
Reuters: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday the world is on the cusp of "the age of green economics" and called on nations to cooperate to fight global warming and promote the transformation. "With the right financial incentives and a global framework, we can steer economic growth in a low-carbon direction," Ban said in remarks prepared for delivery to a Chicago business group. Ban, who has made the environment a centerpiece of his year-long ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Brazil to Boost Penalties to Pare Amazon Devastation
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=afjJ9RZXTYV0
Bloomberg: Brazil's government plans to curb financing for illegal loggers and farmers and boost penalties to pare deforestation of the Amazon, Environment Minister Marina Silva told reporters in Brasilia. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and executives of state-controlled banks today will discuss ways to restrict financing to individuals and companies damaging the Amazon, the minister said in Brasilia. Devastation in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin accelerated in the ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Brazil's deforestation laws a flop
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/414660.html
Miami Herald: As deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rain forest declined over the past three years, the country's leaders crowed that they had found the recipe for stopping the destruction of the world's most diverse ecosystem. By expanding the area of protected rain forest by more than 60 percent while allowing controlled logging, Brazil's government said it had cracked down on the illegal clearing that's consumed a fifth of the rain forest. The celebration ended cold last month, however, ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Call for 'environmental war room'
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5huvEQ-0Q1W-yCYY3wITEG7VJiMKg
Press Association: Sir Richard Branson has called for an "environmental war room" and urged the world's 20 wealthiest nations to contribute more than £12 million each to help tackle climate change Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Sir Richard said Virgin has put up a 25 million dollar (£12.5 million) prize to encourage scientists and inventors to put their mind to climate change - and called for the 20 wealthiest nations to do the same to create the largest scientific ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Canadian Environmental Guru: Jail Politicians Who Deny Climate Change
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/feb/08021103.html
Life Site: There are very few Canadians who would not immediately recognize the face of David Suzuki, Canada's environmentalist extraordinaire. In Canada the name of Suzuki is almost synonymous with environmentalism, with his fame and reputation having been solidified by years of successful lecturing, activism, and internationally syndicated television programs, including the famous The Nature of Things. He is often described with the words "prophet" or "guru," and is widely ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
GM chief against greenhouse gas limits
http://news.smh.com.au/gm-chief-against-greenhouse-gas-limits/20080211-1rgs.html
Sydney Morning Herald: General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner urged a group of auto dealers to lobby against individual US states trying to set their own limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Wagoner, speaking at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, said several states want to go beyond requirements passed by Congress. If that happens and automakers must focus on state regulations, they won't be able to focus as much on alternative fuel vehicles to reduce oil consumption ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Japan Says Can Meet Kyoto Goals
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46874/story.htm
Reuters: Japan will be able to meet its greenhouse gas emissions limits agreed under the Kyoto Protocol through additional, mainly voluntary, agreements with industry, a government panel said. The measures will help Japan cut 37 million tonnes or more of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent a year, a joint panel on climate change under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Environment said in a final report approved on Friday. That revised upwards by 1-2 ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
New York mayor supports carbon emissions tax, reduces hardwood use
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/185089,new-york-mayor-supports-carbon-emissions-tax-reduces-hardwood-use.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday urged the United States, the world's biggest polluter, to lead the fight against climate change by enacting a tax on carbon emissions blamed for global warming. Bloomberg took part in a UN General Assembly debate on climate change and laid out his own efforts to shrink carbon emissions by 30 per cent from current levels by 2030 in the city of 8 million inhabitants. His much praised programmes include converting the taxi fleet to hybrid cars, ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
Salmon farms destroying wild salmon populations in Canada, Europe: study
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hrPAdRi1kMyaNmxaPNCspc_95ihw
Canadian Press: Salmon farming operations have reduced wild salmon populations by up to 70 per cent in several areas around the world and are threatening the future of the endangered stocks, according a new scientific study. The research by two Canadian marine biologists showed dramatic declines in the abundance of wild salmon populations whose migration takes them past salmon farms in Canada, Ireland and Scotland. "Our estimates are that they reduced the survival of wild populations by ...
Mon, 11 Feb 08
UN chief, NY mayor urge world action on climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5izqwYUyM_pJIaTiLUGc4SO1ySkLg
Agence France-Presse: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined UN chief Ban Ki-moon here Monday in galvanizing world action to roll back climate change, an issue he described as "just as important" as nuclear proliferation and terrorism. "We are damaging our planet. Nobody knows at what rate but at any rate it is not good," Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on the impact of global warming. "We have to do something about it and we have to ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Renewable energy within reach for many
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.ml.green10feb10,0,4991089.story
Baltimore Sun: It wasn't long ago that powering a home with renewable "green" power meant erecting a windmill in the backyard or covering the roof with solar panels. Either option requires a big up-front investment with an uncertain payoff. But today, a rapidly expanding market in renewable energy has put "green power" within reach of most U.S. homeowners interested in paying for environmentally friendly power. Several marketers in Maryland and nationwide buy and sell ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
UAE starts work on world's first zero-carbon city
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iiaptEiH-DmZ88Trpk_ODa9VKXDA
Agence France-Presse: The oil-rich United Arab Emirates was set to start work on Sunday on construction of the world's first zero carbon emissions city, a spokesman for the project said. "Construction on Masdar City begins today," the spokesman told AFP, adding that the 6.5-square-kilometre (2.5-square-mile) development will cost 22 billion dollars and is set for completion in 2015. Masdar City will house 50,000 people and will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power, ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Ireland: Concern over trout river eco-risk
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZMkyBBjPGIgFp8wTgDYGNHa_yow
Press Association: Ireland's world-famous trout and salmon rivers could be devastated by climate change, experts have warned. The lucrative waterways - worth tens of millions of euro a year to the economy - will be hit with double extremes of winter floods and near-droughts in the summer reducing them to sluggish trickles. Met Eireann said its research forecasts that some of the country's best-known rivers could shrivel to half their current size during the driest months of the year. Fisheries ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Canada: Manitoba adds protection for polar bears
http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAN0849498420080210
Reuters: Manitoba named the polar bear a threatened species on Thursday, enabling it to restrict new development on its Arctic shoreline, where hundreds of the big white bears spend several weeks each year. "We must continue to take action to protect one of our province's most unique species, which is clearly being affected by climate change," Stan Struthers, the province's conservation minister, said in a release. Polar bears hunt seals on Hudson Bay, but move onto land ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
After US pulls plug, future unclear for 'clean coal'
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jA6dH-_0-Hf7d7NgCTVYfBUg3BKA
Agence France-Presse: The US government's decision to end funding for a "zero emissions" coal-fired power plant project has cast doubt over the future of "clean coal" to meet growing global energy needs. The US Department of Energy in late January decided to pull the plug on funding for the FutureGen project launched in 2003 to demonstrate how coal can be burned cleanly, with carbon emissions stored underground in a process known as sequestration. Government officials say they ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
All About: Forests and carbon trading
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/10/eco.carbon/
CNN: Cutting down trees is pretty much one of the worst things you can do when it comes to climate change. Deforestation, by varying accounts, contributes anywhere from 20 percent to 30 percent of all carbon dioxide (C02) emissions -- around 1.6 billion tons. When you cut down trees you get a double whammy. First of all, they are not called the lungs of the Earth for nothing -- we clearly need trees so that we and other animals can breathe. Trees also are in the front line against ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
As Asia food prices bite, analysts warn of worse to come
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080210-117953/As-Asia-food-prices-bite-analysts-warn-of-worse-to-come
Agence France-Presse: Rising food prices have hit Asia's poor so hard that many have taken to the streets in protest, but experts see few signs of respite from the growing problem. An array of factors, from rising food demand and high oil prices to global warming, could make high costs for essentials such as rice, wheat and milk a permanent fixture, they say. "The indications are in general pointing to high prices," Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior grains analyst at the UN Food and ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Beijing says snow storms destroy one tenth of China's forests
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVWUVKqqO5_nUBI1XifdhtC5Uv9Q
Agence France-Presse: China has lost about one tenth of its forest resources to recent snow storms regarded as the most severe in half a century, state media reported Sunday. A total of 17.3 million hectares (43 million acres) of forest have been damaged across China as the result of three weeks of savage winter weather, the China Daily website said, citing the State Forestry Administration. More than half the country's provinces have been affected, and in the worst-hit regions, nearly 90 percent of ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Clean Power or Dirty Coal?
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=92736
New York Times: Opposition to new coal-fired power plants built without new technology – that is, without the capacity to capture greenhouse gas emissions – is rising on both Wall Street and Main Street. Citizen opposition has led companies to cancel some high-profile projects, including a proposed plant near the Florida Everglades. Pressure from environmental organizations has persuaded major banks to begin weighing the risks of global warming when deciding whether to finance new plants. This is ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Climate scientist they could not silence
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3341039.ece
Times (UK): The trap was sprung in February 2006. The White House ordered that Dr Jim Hansen was to be denied the oxygen of publicity forthwith. He was to be banned from appearing in newspapers and on TV and radio. He was effectively to disappear. It was the kind of treatment that might be reserved for terrorists, criminals or, in a totalitarian regime, for political dissidents. Hansen, however, was none of these things. The director of Nasa's renowned Goddard space science laboratories ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Ecuador official: protect Indians from oil drilling
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09556416.htm
Reuters: Ecuador's attorney general on Saturday urged the government to negotiate with oil firms to stop drilling for crude in a protected area deep in the Amazon jungle where Indian tribes hide from the outside world. That recommendation could affect operations of Spain's Repsol <REP.MC>, Brazil's Petrobras <PETR4.SA>, China's Andes Petroleum and Ecuador's state oil company Petroecuador. Those companies have part of their oil blocks inside the 700,000 hectare (1.7 million ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
US suburbs start to watch their carbon
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/10/america/suburbs.php
International Herald Tribune: As a suburban environmentalist, Mike Tidwell, 45, of Takoma Park, Maryland, always felt like a walking contradiction. Though he had quit his job as a journalist to work for environmental nonprofit organizations, Tidwell viewed suburbs (his own hometown is just outside of Washington) as places built "to defy nature," he said, giving everyone "their own little kingdom of grass and space" - not to mention 3,000-square-foot, or 280-square-meter, houses, heated swimming ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
United Arab Emirates: Work starts on $22bn carbon-neutral city
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/023be922-d82d-11dc-98f7-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: Abu Dhabi's renewable energy initiative, Masdar, has laid the cornerstone of its carbon-neutral, waste-free city, saying it will invest $22bn in the hope that the project becomes a blueprint for sustainable development around the world. Oil-rich Abu Dhabi said it was committing $15bn (€10.3bn, £7.7bn) into a broad range of alternative energy projects beyond Masdar City, such as solar and hydrogen power plants and solar panel manufacturing sites. Foster & Partners architects ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
United Kingdom: 'Secret' eco-town plans spark protest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/10/communities.planning1?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Observer: Controversial plans for a string of eco-towns have sparked nationwide protests. Demonstrations against the developments have begun two weeks before Housing Minister Caroline Flint is due to announce the 10 locations she has chosen for the first green communities. Local groups are complaining that they have been kept in the dark about proposals to create the towns, some of which involve building 20,000 homes as well as schools and roads, although developers have already submitted ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Climate Change threatens future power supply from Bhutan to India
http://www.morungexpress.com/index.php?news=1353
Morung Express: Climate Change, caused by Global Warming, is going to affect power supply to India from the neighbouring Himalayan state of Bhutan in a big way in the very near future. Bhutan, whose economy is based on its hydroelectricity projects, earns a lot of revenue by selling power to India, but it is now very concerned over the increase in global temperatures, leading to melting of snow, which would finally result in sharp depletion in the water flow in the country's rivers which powered these power ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
G-7: Global Markets, Global Warming
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1711751,00.html
Time Magazine: There was a lot of talk, but not much action at the Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in Tokyo on Saturday, where finance ministers and central bank governors discussed how to minimize what U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, Jr., referred to as the "spillover of capital markets to the modern global economy" – that is, the global turmoil that has built up in markets since last August. Top finance chiefs talked about the U.S. housing market, rising energy prices, ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Global warming visualized in "Six Degrees"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/television/2004169908_lookout10.html?syndication=rss
Associated Press: New York City under water ... the Amazon rain forest baked by droughts and wildfires ... Himalayan glaciers just a memory.Those could be some of the devastating consequences of an increase in the average global temperature of just 6 degrees Celsius (or 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit), according to scientists' forecasts. Meanwhile, the scientific community is in general agreement that an increase of 3 degrees Celsius would be a tipping point that could irreversibly change life on Earth – and that it ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Japan aims for emissions trade with Russia: media
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT26372920080210
Reuters: Japan and Russia have agreed to start talks on fighting global warming, including possible greenhouse gas emissions trading that would help Tokyo to meet its goals under the Kyoto Protocol, media said on Sunday. Japan is the world's fifth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, and while officials have pledged to meet its obligations under the international pact to fight global warming, critics say this may be difficult. Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
United States: Lawmakers push for "green-collar" jobs as climate change looms
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wst_green_collar_jobs.html
Associated Press: In a town still reeling from the closure of a massive coal mine, dozens of students train each year to work in the energy industry, immersing themselves in the intricacies of power generation and plant design. Many move on to apprenticeships at places like the Bonneville Power Administration or the Grand Coulee Dam, or jobs at power companies like Seattle Steam. The executive director of the Center for Excellence for Energy Technology at Centralia College hopes her graduates ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
London gas guzzler tax decision expected this week
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL07917123
Reuters: Owners of gas-guzzling cars could be paying 25 pounds ($50) a day for the privilege of driving them in central London from October if mayor Ken Livingstone decides this week to go ahead with the plan as expected. Livingstone, who floated the idea over a year ago, is to announce his decision on Tuesday. It is part of a package of measures that Livingstone, who has made the environment a central plank of his tenure and who is facing a tough re-election battle in May, may bring ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
UN body hails trade rise at climate exchanges
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/UN-body-hails-trade-rise-at-climate-exchanges/271413/
Financial Express: The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has expressed satisfaction over the increase in trading volumes on major climate exchanges across the world. But much remains to be done, it said. Underlining the need to make emissions trading more vibrant, the UNFCCC executive secretary, Yvo de Boer told FE, "The Kyoto Protocol, with its binding emission target, created the carbon market. Now, countries need to launch negotiations that would lead to a new treaty after the Kyoto ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
UN official: New technologies must tackle climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/10/content_7584742.htm
Xinhua: New technologies are the only way to tackle climate change, a special adviser to the U.N. Secretary-General said here Saturday. "Rapid economic growth and climate change mitigation cannot go together as long as we stick to current technologies," Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of the Earth Institute told delegates at the valedictory session of the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. "But there are a host of technologies that are close (to breakthroughs), such as ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
United Arab Emirates 'green city' to cost $22 bln
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7298370
Reuters: State-controlled Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co (Masdar) said it would cost $22 billion to develop a "no-carbon" urban district it is planning in the United Arab Emirates. The district, Masdar City, on the edge of the city of Abu Dhabi, will eventually be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses, Masdar said in a statement. No cars will be allowed. Abu Dhabi, capital of the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, will invest $4 billion of equity in the project, and borrow ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Unseasonable sunshine as spring comes early
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/10/nweather110.xml
Telegraph: Thousands of people have spent the weekend basking in unseasonable sunshine and weather forecasters have promised more warm weather to come. According to the Met Office, the UK is currently experiencing an early taste of summer with temperatures up to six degrees hotter than expected for this time of year. London was the principal beneficiary of the unexpected good weather, with temperatures there climbing to 61.9F (16.6C). "Normally this time of year, the ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
Australia: Water will be the next big battleground
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/water-will-be-the-next-big-battleground-says-chief-justice/2008/02/10/1202578600925.html
Sydney Morning Herald: DISPUTES about the nation's dwindling water supplies loom as the next great legal battleground, according to the country's most senior judge, Murray Gleeson. In an interview with the Herald just months before his retirement, the Chief Justice of the High Court said attempts by governments to divide water rights among states, businesses and individuals would inevitably spill into the courts. "There will be increasing regulation of a scarce resource," he said. "If ...
Sun, 10 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Time to put our winter coats on ice?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/main.jhtml?xml=/fashion/2008/02/10/nfash110.xml
Telegraph: 'I used to swap my wardrobe religiously, but I haven't done it at all this winter," says Gill Christophers, the PR director of Claridge's hotel, and a fanatical follower of fashion. "I've continued wearing dresses and medium-weight coats. When I was growing up in Devon, we used to watch the weather and plan what to wear. Now it just seems like the same old same old." For many, hauling seasonal clothes out of storage was a twice-yearly ritual; now it is unnecessary. And ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Biofuels may promote, not slow, global warming: report
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/184666,biofuels-may-promote-not-slow-global-warming-report--feature.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The US rush to plant more corn for biofuel is already being blamed for soaring food prices. Now, two new US studies show that cultivated biofuel crops may actually increase instead of decrease the carbon emissions that ethanol and other biofuels were supposed to reduce. The studies used a worldwide agricultural model to calculate how corn-based ethanol nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years. Planting switchgrass and other wild crops on farm land, as advocated by US ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Australia: Call to end all landclearing
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/environment/call-to-end-all-landclearing/1179243.html
Canberra Times: A national moratorium on all land clearing across Australia is urgently needed to address its critical contribution to climate change, a leading scientist says. University of Queensland senior research fellow Clive McAlpine said new research showed land clearing was changing the circulation of Australia's ocean currents, because of changes in wind speeds, pressure systems and surface roughness of the landscape. "Governments are focusing on carbon as the primary driver of ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Congressman subpoenas EPA files on California ruling
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-waiver9feb09,1,7365649.story
LA Times: The chairman of a key congressional committee issued a subpoena Friday to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to turn over documents on its decision to deny California permission to implement its own global warming laws. Escalating the fight over the decision, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, directed the EPA to provide uncensored copies of its staff recommendation to agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Court rejects Bush's mercury emissions trading plan
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-epa9feb09,1,6644718.story
LA Times: New coal-fired power plants could have to include strict controls to keep mercury out of the air in the wake of a federal court ruling Friday. A three-judge appeals panel struck down a market-based effort by the Bush administration that would have allowed some generators of electricity to buy their way out of meeting their pollution-reduction targets. The Environmental Protection Agency now must either pursue the matter further in court, or go back to the drawing board and write new ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
In Every House, Keys to Fight Climate Change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/08/AR2008020801844.html
Washington Post: I have devoted many columns to sustainability issues in terms of a single house. But every so often I like to pull back for the truly wide shot. From a global perspective, what is the state of our planet, and how might this affect our housing choices? There is no better place to get a sense of this than the book "Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization" by environmentalist Lester R. Brown. His ability to make a complicated subject accessible to the general reader is ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Study: Ethanol may add to global warming
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-02-08-ethanol-study_N.htm?csp=34
Associated Press: The widespread use of ethanol from corn could result in nearly twice the greenhouse gas emissions as the gasoline it would replace because of expected land-use changes, researchers concluded Thursday. The study challenges the rush to biofuels as a response to global warming. The researchers said that past studies showing the benefits of ethanol in combating climate change have not taken into account almost certain changes in land use worldwide if ethanol from corn – and in the future ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
World Bank plans clean technology fund for poor
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World_Bank_fund_to_help_poor_cut_pollution/articleshow/2769140.cms
Reuters: Poor countries will soon receive billions of dollars from a new World Bank fund to help them cut pollution, save energy and fight global warming, the international organization said. Developing countries such as India and China are already trying to reduce their carbon emissions, mainly to save on energy, but have baulked at doing more without technological help from Europe, Japan and the United States. Most carbon dioxide heating the planet now is a result of western ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
China loses one-tenth of forest resources to snow havoc
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/international/2008/02/767988/
Xinhua: A total of 17.3 million hectares of forests, about one-tenth of China's forest resources, have been damaged by the unprecedented snow wreckage in at least five decades, with forests, bamboo and seedlings in some parts of the country seriously destroyed. In its latest report released on Friday, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) confirmed the total losses of forest in 18 provinces in southern China, saying that in the worst-hit region, nearly 90 percent of forests had been ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Clean energy doesn't keep German coal down
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080209/BIZ/802090303
Washington Post: Underneath the marshy ground here is a huge deposit of cheap brown coal – manna for a nearby power plant that is among the biggest emitters of global warming gases in Europe. The presence of the fuel may mean that this village and its 680 residents have to go, moved out by the unceasing demand for dirty fossil fuels. In recent years, Germany has made a large push into clean, renewable energy, and it is among the world's leading suppliers of wind and solar power. But like many European ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Following Two Paths to the Same Destination: Environmental Doom
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=92689
New York Times: Two lavish, cautionary nature documentaries go head to head on Sunday in a fight for the worried viewer. Their messages of ecological doom are similar, but their methods couldn't be more different. "Crash: A Tale of Two Species" on PBS, an installment of "Nature," is quiet, personal and specific, a filmmaker's attempt to show how one tiny thread of the environment is unraveling. "Six Degrees Could Change the World," on the National Geographic Channel, is bombastic, superficial and ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
G7 calls for investment to fight climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gc8JEW4bcoTUnJcCKemRD-iJprWg
Agence France-Presse: Finance chiefs of the Group of Seven rich nations called Saturday for investment in developing countries to help them fight climate change and worked on plans for a World Bank-style fund. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs, in a joint statement after talks in Tokyo, said they hoped to "scale up investment in developing countries to support them in joining international efforts to address climate change." The United States, Japan and Britain have proposed ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Investment banks tighten borrowing for new coal plants
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/content/business/epaper/2008/02/09/a1f_energylend_0209.html
Palm Beach Post: Power companies just got another big reason to go green. Three of the nation's biggest investment banks have introduced an unprecedented set of lending guidelines that could make it harder for energy companies to get financing for coal-fired power plants, while encouraging lending for renewable-energy plants. Environmental groups applauded the adoption of the "carbon principles" this week by Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, saying they ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
National Geographic projects stark global-warming future
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080209/COLUMNISTS15/802090338
National Geographic: Remember when tornadoes used to be something that just happened along about April and we waited for that first 70-degree day in May? Now we have terrible twisters in January and February and 70-degree days to boot. Is it global warming? Who knows at this stage, but something weird is happening. Those huge swings in temperatures are dramatic, but just a little change in the average readings for the planet could cause havoc, as a National Geographic Channel documentary shows ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Biofuel crops may worsen global warming: study
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080209/biofuel_crops_080209/20080209?hub=TopStories
CTV: Converting land for biofuel crops results in major carbon emissions and actually worsens the problem of global warming instead of mitigating it, says a new study. The study by Nature Conservancy, an organization working to protect ecologically important lands and waters, will be published in Science magazine later this month. "Our study found that any biofuel that causes clearing of natural ecosystems will increase global warming," Joe Fargione, a scientist for The ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
California proposes a global-warming fee on businesses
http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_8215767
San Jose Mercury News: In the first such program in California, and perhaps the United States, Bay Area air pollution regulators are proposing to charge an annual fee to thousands of businesses based on the amount of greenhouse gases they emit. The fee - 4.2 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide - would affect everything from oil refineries to power plants, and landfills, factories and small businesses like restaurants and bakeries. The largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the Bay Area, the Shell ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
China's Angang to sell $218 mln of carbon credits
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSPEK26204920080209
Reuters: Anshan Iron and Steel Group, the parent of China's third-biggest steel firm Angang Steel Co. Ltd. (0347.HK: Quote, Profile, Research)000898.SZ, will sell $218 million of greenhouse gas credits to two international carbon credit investors, China's Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The company, based in northeast China, said it would sell 13 million tons of carbon credits to the European Carbon Fund (ECF) and Camco International. Carbon trading under the Kyoto Protocol, worth ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Ministers mull climate change fund for developing countries
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/02/09/afx4635644.html
Thomson Financial: The Group of Seven leading industrial nations is looking at the possibility of establishing a fund to help developing countries get hold of clean technologies in the battle against climate change. In a joint statement following a meeting here, the G7 finance ministers and central bankers said they discussed an initiative by Japan, the UK and the US to create, in collaboration with the World Bank and others, a strategic multilateral investment framework to address ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Ireland: Renewable energy targets criticised
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iPFQyoKuKfkPfN_7s5sWdaKtexPQ
Press Association: Green Party minister Eamon Ryan should have been more ambitious over the setting of renewable energy targets, it has been claimed. The Energy Minister was criticised by Labour's Liz McManus over his decision to set a 33% renewable energy target for 2020 when a recent study by the all-island grid suggested he could have aimed for 42%. Ms McManus claimed Ireland could become a world leader in renewable energy as her party demanded a more comprehensive cross-departmental government ...
Sat, 9 Feb 08
Global warming increases man-tiger conflict
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=189932
Statesman: Global warming seems to have taken its toll not only on the mangrove cover of the Sundarbans, but also on the habitat and food habits of tigers in the area. Wildlife experts have observed that the tigers now prefer to move away from the sparsely populated southern fringes to the densely populated northern parts of the Sundarbans. This movement of the big cats has resulted in an increase in the number of man-animal conflicts and tiger attacks on human beings in the northern villages ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Australia: Climate change an opportunity for innovation and growth
http://business.theage.com.au/climate-change-an-opportunity-for-innovation-and-growth/20080207-1qvi.html
Age: OVER many years, scientists have gathered evidence that makes the case that climate change is real and that people are causing it. For some time, this evidence has been irrefutable. People in Australia and around the world have been calling for action – and in their everyday lives, taking action themselves. Businesses have been looking at the looming threat of climate change – and at the opportunities it presents – and also taking action for themselves. Most of the talk about ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Canada: Expect some short, sharp jabs in BC climate change bout
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080208.RBRETHOUR08/TPStory/Business
Globe and Mail: The oil industry, ever adept at bobbing and weaving on the climate-change issue, has outpunched the opposition in the last two rounds. It first dragged out the Kyoto debate until the environmental pact was irrelevant, if only because events had overtaken it. Then, it scored a neat, if predictable, victory by securing do-nothing greenhouse gas regulations in Alberta. The third round, which starts today, is going to be much tougher. The oil and gas industry sits down this morning ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Passengers to pay for carbon cuts
http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,23179358-5014090,00.html
Australian: Monash University Tourism Research Unit deputy director Peter Forsyth told an aviation environment conference in Sydney yesterday that climate change could be damaging for tourism generally and for Australia's nature-based industry in particular. But he also outlined a scenario where fares could rise sharply under an emissions trading scheme introduced to limit the nation's carbon footprint. The Government has yet to reveal its plans for an emissions trading scheme, which ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Bolivia calls for flood aid, blames climate change
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/02/08/bolivia.floods.ap/
Associated Press: Bolivia's foreign minister says the world has an obligation to send aid to flood-ravaged areas of Bolivia, linking a disaster that has killed 49 people to global climate change. As Bolivia faces a second straight year of devastating floods, David Choquehuanca argues that developed nations who produce most of the world's greenhouse gases are morally obligated to pitch in when the negative effects of climate change strike poorer countries. "The international community has ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Obama says stronger than McCain on climate change
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0853073320080209
Reuters: U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama promised on Friday to start working on an international pact to reduce global warming if he becomes the Democratic nominee, touting his plan to reduce U.S. emissions as stronger than that of Republican front-runner John McCain. Global warming has become a key issue in the race for the White House, with the top candidates in both political parties seeking to put a cap on greenhouse gases blamed for rising global temperatures. Obama, an ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Philippines: Alarm bells rung on rise in number of coal plants
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080209-117730/Alarm-bells-rung-on-rise-in-number-of-coal-plants
Philippine Inquirer: The environmental group Greenpeace on Friday expressed alarm over the increasing number of coal-fired power plants being built in the country, especially in the Visayas. The group said the construction of more coal power plants in the country would worsen pollution at a time when there is rising worldwide concern over climate change caused by global warming. The government has at least eight coal-fired power plants lined up for construction or expansion, said Jasper Inventor, ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Cameroon: Experts Say Climate Change is Malaria Vector
http://allafrica.com/stories/200802081007.html
Post: A 30-year-old woman was restless as she gnashed her teeth in malarial pain at Njinikom Hospital, some 60 kilometres from the Northwest Provincial capital, When The Post arrived at the hospital on January 19, more than half of the patients in the general ward were suffering from malaria, which the Northwest Provincial Delegate of Public Health, Dr. Victor Ndiforchu Afanwi, qualified as the greatest killer. Despite mitigating efforts by health authorities, statistics from the Northwest ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
House could weigh energy tax bill next week: aides
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0852060220080208
Reuters: The U.S. House of Representatives next week could weigh legislation that extends tax incentives to use renewable energy sources like wind and solar and slaps new taxes on big energy companies, Democratic aides said on Friday. Plans have not been finalized, but Democratic leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi want to show their displeasure at near-record high oil prices and record-setting profits recently reported by oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp, aides said on condition of ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Canada: Suzuki talk draws fire for jail suggestion
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=25ce9ba8-8395-48ab-b0bf-94a552146478&k=24195
National Post: politicians who ignore the science behind climate change should be jailed. "It's environmental fascism," said Ontario MPP Randy Hillier, who has previously cast doubt on the theory of global warming, saying he did not see greenhouse gases as a "terrible evil." "It used to be unacceptable to have thoughts that were not politically correct, but pretty soon it will be a crime." Outgoing MP Bob Mills, who called the Kyoto Protocol "a great ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
UN head warns Chicago students about global warming
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-un-secretary_webfeb09,0,2609114.story
Chicago Tribune: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told students at Walter Payton College Prep. High School on Friday that global warming and climate change are the most important international issues facing the world today. Ban was at the school to address students and observe a simulation of a United Nations debate on climate change and global warming involving students from more than 20 Chicago public high schools. Accompanied by Mayor Richard Daley, Ban said he had witnessed the ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Argentina: Ancient trees give clues to climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0631751920080209
Reuters: On the shores of lake Nahuel Huapi, in the wild mountains of Argentina's Patagonia, live some of the world's most ancient trees. Known in Spanish as the alerce, the Patagonian cypress grows extremely slowly, but can reach heights over 50 meters (165 feet) and live for 2,000 years or more, putting some of them among the oldest living things on earth. For scientists who come from around the world to study them, the alerces give an exciting snapshot of years past. Argentine ...
Fri, 8 Feb 08
Fund more climate sensors, scientists say
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8200567
Denver Post: Boulder scientists asked the Bush administration's Arctic Research Commission on Thursday to push for more money for satellites, ocean buoys and other monitoring equipment to track the severe climate changes now happening in the Arctic. The U.S. Arctic Research Commission – six presidential appointees – spent three days in Boulder this week, meeting with a dozen select scientific researchers who presented sobering evidence: • Arctic permafrost is melting and will potentially ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
2 studies conclude that biofuels are not so green after all
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/07/healthscience/biofuel.php
International Herald Tribune: Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the pollution caused by producing these "green" fuels is taken into account, two studies published Thursday have concluded. The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months as scientists have evaluated the global environmental cost of their production. The new studies, published by the journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy. These ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Carbon tax would make China greener and reduce warming risks
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0207-china.html
Mongabay: Driven by booming economic growth and rapid urbanization, China's carbon dioxide emissions are surging. At the same time, forecasts suggest climate change will have an immense impact on the country, with rising sea levels projected to swamp key industrial areas and diminished rainfall reducing agricultural output. Given this outlook, a new policy paper published in Science argues that China will need to embark on a cleaner path to growth, one that is less dependent on coal. The authors say ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Cities 'are like giant contraceptives'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/02/07/scicity107.xml
Telegraph: Cities act like giant contraceptives and could help curb the Earth's explosive population growth that drives climate change, according to two studies. The United Nations estimates that in the past year the majority of the world's population will, for the first time in human history, live in town and cities. Cities are now home to half of the world's 6.6 billion humans and by 2030 that urban fraction will rise to 60 per cent as nearly 5 billion people will live in cities of the ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Clearing Land for Biofuels Makes Global Warming Worse
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080207-biofuels-carbon.html
National Geographic: Growing crops to make biofuels may accelerate global warming, not slow down its effects, a new study says. When farmers clear native ecosystems such as forests or grasslands to grow crops, this gives off substantial amounts of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that fuels climate change. Biofuels such as ethanol from corn and biodiesel from palm oil typically start out with a "carbon debt." Before these biofuels could reduce individual carbon dioxide ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Converting land for biofuel worsens global warming: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOQLqH3pUlwjUEeWivsZy9LK1XEw
Agence France-Presse: Clearing raw land to produce biofuels actually contributes to global warming by emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, researchers warned Thursday. Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new croplands carved into rainforests, savannas, wetlands or grasslands would easily surpass the overall amount of CO2 emissions reduced through the use of biofuels, according to a report in the February 8 edition of Science. "If you're trying to mitigate global ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Destroying Native Ecosystems For Biofuel Crops Worsens Global Warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207140809.htm
Science Daily: Turning native ecosystems into "farms" for biofuel crops causes major carbon emissions that worsen the global warming that biofuels are meant to mitigate, according to a new study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy. The carbon lost by converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands outweighs the carbon savings from biofuels. Such conversions for corn or sugarcane (ethanol), or palms or soybeans (biodiesel) release 17 to 420 times more carbon ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
First rainforest-for-carbon-credits deal becomes a reality
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0207-carbon_conservation.html
Mongabay: Villagers in Aceh, the Indonesian province that suffered through three decades of civil war and lost some 170,000 people to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, could soon see $26 million in carbon credits for protecting rainforests from logging under a deal announced today between conservationists, carbon traders, and the Aceh government. The project – backed by the Government of Aceh, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and Carbon Conservation – will protect the 1.9 million-acre Ulu ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Food-based biofuels can spur climate change: study
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN0716998820080207
Reuters: Alternative fuels made from corn, soybeans, sugar cane and palm trees can in some cases increase the amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. These so-called food-based biofuels can actually hurt the environment if they are produced on land that was formerly grassland, rain forest or savanna, the scientists said in the journal Science. Industry groups took issue with the findings, calling them simplistic and ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Freak weather costs China $7.5 billion
http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/0702fre.html
Environmental Finance: China's worst winter weather for perhaps 50 years has damaged more than a million homes, killed more than 60 people and resulted in economic losses of $7.5 billion, according to the country's ministry of civil affairs. Nineteen provinces in China, almost two-thirds of the country, have been lashed by severe winter storms for the last four weeks. An estimated 100 million inhabitants have been directly affected by the weather, such as through the loss of power and water, said the UN ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Green-Minded Staples Ends Ties With Asia Pulp & Paper
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120240874246651263.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Office-supplies giant Staples Inc. has severed all contracts with Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd., one of the world's largest paper companies, in a move that shows concerns over forest destruction and global warming are having an impact on big U.S. paper buyers. Until recently Staples sourced about 9% of its total paper supply from APP and used the paper for its own Staples-branded stock, mainly photocopy and office paper. Staples had stuck with the company even as ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
India Seeks Climate Technology-Transfer Regime
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a8dy8F8Dm8b4&refer=india
Bloomberg: India called for a transparent regime that will enable the transfer of technology from rich countries to the poor to help reduce heat-trapping pollution and limit the effects of climate change. ``We in the developing world desperately need access to environment-friendly technologies,'' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a summit on climate change organized by the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi today. ``It is in the interests of people living in developed countries to ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
United States: Polar bears threatened by new drilling rights
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/07/energy.conservation
Guardian: The sale of licences to drill for oil and gas rights in Alaska will threaten the future of the region's polar bears, conservationists warned today. The oil and gas rights to drill in 29.4m acres in the Chukchi sea, which were made available by the US government's Minerals Management Service (MMS) yesterday, have attracted record bids of $2.66bn from the likes of Shell and ConocoPhillips. The MMS believes that up to 15bn barrels of recoverable oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Studies Suggest Biofuels Can Worsen Warming
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120241324358751455.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: While the U.S. and others race to expand the use and production of biofuels, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests these gasoline alternatives will actually boost carbon-dioxide levels and thereby aggravate the problem of global warming. A study published in the latest issue of Science finds that corn-based ethanol, instead of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by a hoped-for 20%, will nearly double the output of CO2 and other gases that trap the sun's heat. A separate paper ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Uganda: The carbon offset industry is booming. But how fair is the trade?
http://www.plentymag.com/features/2008/02/roots_of_the_cost.php
Plenty Magazine: Early one morning in 1993, Wilson Turinawe woke up to the crack of gunfire in Uganda's Kibale National Park. Paramilitary park rangers were attacking his village. His thatched hut was set on fire. His wife grabbed their infant child and ran. Turinawe was slashed with a machete. He still has the scars. "They came with guns," he recalls, with a disbelief in his voice that suggests the episode might have taken place just yesterday instead of fifteen years ago. "Everything of my household was ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
UN chief issues water warning
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/autocodes/countries/united-states-america/un-chief-issues-water-warning-$1197911.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: The United Nations secretary-general has warned that climate-driven water shortages are fuelling conflicts worldwide. Ban Ki-moon said many of today's conflicts are being exacerbated by water shortages and that climate change is making the situation worse. "Increasingly, fights are erupting over such basic human needs as water or arable land," he told the general assembly. "I find this trend deeply worrying, especially because such shortages are only ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Alaska sea lease draws bids, protesters
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-22857312.htm
Associated Press: Shell Oil led a handful of petroleum companies in robust bidding Wednesday for outer continental shelf leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest shore. The sale went forward over the protest of conservation and Native Alaska groups plus objections by U.S. congressional members outside the state, who said the Minerals Management Service should have held up the sale until a decision is made on protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Annell Bay, Shell ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Australians continue to be high greenhouse gas emitters
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Feb72008/scroll2008020750970.asp?section=scrollingnews
Press Trust of India: Australians continue to be high greenhouse gas emitters and there has been little growth in the production of renewable fuels over the past 30 years, a national survey by a government agency has revealed. The Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008 Year Book in its annual report on Australian life, people and the economy, found that the non-renewable fuel production has gone up more than 400 per cent with little growth in renewables. The most recent figures show Australians emit ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Biofuel crops 'increase carbon emissions'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/07/eabiofuel107.xml
Telegraph: Ploughing up land to produce crops for biofuels won't help the fight against climate change, a major new survey claims. Digging up valuable agricultural results in major emissions of carbon and wipes out any savings through the use of green fuels. The findings come in a new study - the first of its kind - by The Nature Conservancy and the University of Minnesota which will be published in Science later this month. They are set to reignite the heated scinetific debate ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Biofuel: Bad for the Environment?
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4257226&page=1
ABC News: As the debate over what do about human-caused global warming increases and "green fever" sweeps the nation, many environmentalists and politicians have viewed biofuel as a logical replacement for fossil fuels. But two new studies released Thursday call into question the global movement toward biofuel. According to these researchers, production of biofuel actually contributes to global warming, doing more harm than good. The studies, one conducted by Minnesota-based ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Biofuels are worsening global warming
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0207-biofuels.html
Mongabay: Converting native ecosystems for production of biofuel feed stocks is worsening the greenhouse gas emissions they are intended to mitigate, reports a pair of studies published in the journal Science. The studies follow a series of reports that have linked ethanol and biodiesel production to increased carbon dioxide emissions, destruction of biodiverse forest and savanna habitats, and air and water pollution. Analyzing the lifecycle emissions from biofuels, the first study found that ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Bring down per capita emissions, India to West
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Bring-down-per-capita-carbon-emissions--India-to-West/270304/
Financial Express: India has made clear that if industrialised countries take initiatives to bring down their per capita carbon emissions, it would reduce its threshold for carbon emissions. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurating the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) on Thursday urged for global support and said, "We need technology innovations for reduction of energy use by industry and other user sectors. We need massive action for ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Canada's Oil Sands a Political Hot Potato
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41111
Inter Press Service: Alberta's Parkland Institute and the Polaris Institute have a released a report calling for an emergency strategic petroleum reserve for Canada, as well as for tougher policies to cut fossil fuel consumption and revise the country's oil export regime. The oil-rich province of Alberta is currently in the middle of a provincial election where the environment and oil sands development will be a heated political topic of national importance in Canada. The historically conservative ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Coal's still the one for Aussies
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23174338-5001028,00.html
AAP: AUSTRALIA remains wedded to coal for electricity production with renewable energy accounting for only 2 per cent of energy production in 2005-06. The Australia Bureau of Statistics, in its 2008 Year Book published today, said total Australian energy production amounted to 16,729 petajoules, with another 1549 imported. Black coal accounted to 49 per cent of all Australian energy resource production (most exported), followed by uranium at 28 per cent (all exported). Of ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Coral Reefs May Be Protected By Natural Ocean Thermostat
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207124628.htm
Science Daily: Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain point, helping protect some coral reefs from the impacts of climate change, new research finds. The study, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), finds evidence that an ocean "thermostat" appears to be helping to regulate sea-surface temperatures in a biologically diverse region of the western Pacific. The research team, led by ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Finance chiefs urge support for clean energy fund
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN0763586520080207
Reuters: The finance chiefs of the United States, Britain and Japan on Thursday urged other governments to join their efforts to launch a multibillion-dollar fund to help developing countries switch to clean energy technologies. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, British Finance Minister Alistair Darling and Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said in an opinion piece published by the Financial Times that the fund can help slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions in developing ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
G7 to consider climate change fund: Japan
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gceUV8CNEwNZDGCdE3lRhyL7u47Q
Agence France-Presse: Japan, Britain and the United States will propose a special fund to promote clean technologies as part of efforts to combat climate change, a Japanese official said Thursday. The proposal will be put forward at a meeting of top finance officials from the Group of Seven industrialised nations on Saturday in Tokyo. "Japan, Britain and the United States are currently examining a plan to establish a multilateral clean technology fund in cooperation with the World Bank," a ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Gates grant for climate resilient rice
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/157598/1/1893
OneWorld South Asia: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced a grant to aid the production of stress-tolerant rice varieties. The US$19.9 million grant for the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) will be used to develop suitable rice varieties to help poor farmers in Africa and Asia mitigate the effects of climate change. Announced last month (25 January), the three-year funding is part of a US$ 306 million package of agricultural development grants ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
India Rejects Binding Committment to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-07-voa20.cfm
Voice of America: India is sticking its position that it cannot make any binding commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Anjana Pasricha reports on an international conference on sustainable development being held in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says India will ensure that its per capita emissions of greenhouse gases never exceed those of developed countries. Since the country's per capita emissions are far below those of richer countries, that ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
India's climate change roadmap to be ready in June
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP287306
Reuters: India will unveil in June a national plan to deal with the threat of global warming, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday, but it will not commit to any emission targets that risk slowing economic growth. Singh's Council on Climate Change will look at setting up a venture capital fund to promote green technologies, increasing energy efficiency and combating the possible impact of climate change on millions of India's poor. "India is prepared to commit that our ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Indian PM calls for 'climate justice' to fight global warming
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i-Tqv0XFtIpsYBt9_AsKsHcerVVw
Agence France-Presse: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged rich countries to ensure technology transfers to developing nations to combat climate change under a transparent global regime. Calling for "climate justice," Singh said developing countries such as India needed environment-friendly technologies in various sectors. "We in the developing world desperately need access to environment-friendly technologies, especially in energy, transportation, manufacturing and ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Australia: Move against land clearing
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/move-against-land-clearing/2008/02/06/1202233948047.html
Sydney Morning Herald: IN ITS first decisive move against large-scale illegal land clearing, the Rudd Government is referring an investigation into the destruction of a vital bird breeding wetland in NSW to the federal Director of Public Prosecutions to consider criminal and civil charges. The case involved the bulldozing of one of the country's most significant waterbird breeding habitats on the Yarrol Station property in the Gwydir River floodplain last May during the clearing of more than 500 hectares. ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Panel Backs Heating Efficiency Bill
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/02/06/ap4622147.html
Associated Press: A legislative committee Tuesday approved another bid to set up an energy efficiency utility aimed at cutting use of heating fuels, and lawmakers hope they've made enough changes from last year's version to avoid another veto by Gov. Jim Douglas. The measure, approved by the House Natural Resources and Energy Committee, would set up a new program to promote and manage efficiency efforts aimed at buildings. Supporters cited estimates that Vermonters could cut $300 million off the more ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Scientist IDs ecosystem warming risks
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/02/07/scientist_ids_ecosystem_warming_risks/4637/
United Press International: A U.S.-led study warns that ecosystems and societies are at risk from the ongoing warming of our planet. Elmar Kriegler, a visiting scientist at Carnegie Mellon University from Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, was one of seven scientists who helped compile the study identifying the most vulnerable areas of Earth that are at risk for rapid climate change. "We found that while most global change is perceived to be a slow, gradual process, there are ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
UK warms to climate change aid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/07/climatechange.greenpolitics
Guardian: Britain is to increase its spending on research into the effects of climate change on developing countries tenfold to £100m over the next five years, the international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said yesterday. The move follows a warning in a United Nations development programme report that climate change would have catastrophic effects on poor countries and reverse decades of development gains. Alexander said: "Climate change is a defining global social ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Water meter call in drought areas
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7232670.stm
BBC: Water meters should be introduced in homes in drought-hit parts of England to help save water, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has said. Mr Benn called for "near universal metering" by 2030 in certain areas as part of a wide-ranging water strategy. The government will also conduct a review of water charges across the country in a bid to conserve water. Ministers want to encourage any new garden paving to be porous to ensure rainfall soaks into the ground. ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Wind power can substitute for base-load coal
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/20080702-16867.html
Science Alert: This article is a response to one entitled "Australia: where too much wind will never be enough" by Tom Quirk and published in On Line Opinion. Quirk's article is a critique of an article of mine called "The Base-Load Fallacy" and published in http://www.energyscience.org.au/ as Briefing Paper No. 16. Since most of Quirk's points have already been refuted in "The Base-Load Fallacy" and in my book, Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy (UNSW Press, ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Banks to Consider Climate Before Investing in Coal
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/157609/1/4536
OneWorld US: Environmental campaigners scored a major victory this week as some of the nation's top banks agreed to link energy sector investment with initiatives to combat climate change. Officials at Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley pledged Monday that they would give priority to investment in clean energy businesses and put coal-fired electricity generation to "a rigorous review" process for financing. In order to implement their new approach towards energy sector ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Colo. coal shovels near record in '07
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/07/colo-coal-shovels-near-record-in-07/
Rocky Mountain News: Coal-orado days are back. Almost. After a brief lull, Colorado's coal production posted its third-best year in 2007, slightly behind the highs of 2004 but ranking No. 7 among coal-producing states in the nation. And this year promises to keep up that momentum, according to early estimates from the Colorado Geological Survey. Two new mines scheduled to go online later this year - Northfield, south of Florence, and King II in La Plata County - coupled with higher ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Financial bridge from dirty to clean energy
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/97a1e850-d598-11dc-8b56-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: The first step in confronting climate change is to reduce the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. All countries need to take decisive steps to cut or limit the growth of emissions. Fortunately, we know ways of doing so, by globally deploying the most advanced clean-energy technologies. Unfortunately, without a global investment framework built on market incentives, these technologies are not affordable for many developing countries. To address this the US, UK and Japan are working to ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Group seeks protection for walrus under Endangered Species Act
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004169987_webwalrus07m.html
Associated Press: A conservation group filed today to protect Pacific walruses because of the threat to their northern habitat by global warming. The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list walruses as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because of warming and its effect on sea ice used by the animals as a feeding and resting platform. The group also said oil and gas development throughout the animals' range was a threat. Bruce Woods, a ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
However you cut it, carbon dioxide is a fact of modern life
http://business.theage.com.au/however-you-cut-it-carbon-dioxide-is-a-fact-of-modern-life/20080206-1qnf.html
Age: AS PROFESSOR Ross Garnaut examines ways forward in reducing Australia's carbon dioxide emissions, he will become aware of the enormity of the global task. If burning fossil fuels causes global warming, the prospects of preventing it are slender. In 2004, greenhouse gas emissions (in carbon dioxide equivalents) were 28,790 million tonnes. A little more than 10% of these were from the former Soviet bloc and the rest split fairly evenly between the Organisation for Economic Co-operation ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Tidal power farm plan unveiled
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iuGlXH4BL64Q-JCqJRJbrvNa5cIA
Press Association: A scheme to create one of the world's first commercial tidal energy schemes, off the coast of North Wales, has been announced. Energy giant Npower said it was working with Bristol-based Marine Current Turbines to deliver a tidal "farm", capable of generating power from the sea's tidal currents. The project, off the north west coast of Anglesey, could be completed by 2011, subject to planning consent, supplying enough power for up to 6,000 homes. Studies will ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
UK panel urges stronger push toward wave energy
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5521563.html
Bloomberg: A U.K. advisory panel urged officials from utilities, government and academia to collaborate more closely on wave-energy research to speed the use of new technology that may provide a fifth of the country's electricity. A $97 million subsidy fund for wave and tidal-stream projects was allocated too early, increasing costs and raising expectations too high, the Renewables Advisory Board marine group said today in a statement on the Web site of London's Department for Business, ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Water meters for drought hit homes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/07/eawater107.xml
Telegraph: Water meters will be installed in almost every home in areas worst hit by drought, the Government has announced. Tariffs and metering are at the heart of a new strategy aimed at conserving water and making people pay for the amount they use. The target is to cut every person's average daily water use from the current 150 litres per person per day to 120 litres through charging and more efficient technology. Announcing the Government's new strategy Future Water ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
Wind Patterns Could Mask Effects Of Global Warming In Ocean
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207101333.htm
Science Daily: Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that natural variability in the earth's atmosphere could be masking the overall effect of global warming in the North Atlantic Ocean. Scientists have previously found that surface temperatures around the globe have risen over the last 30 years in accord with global warming. New data, however, shows that heat stored in the North Atlantic Ocean has a more complex pattern than initially expected, suggesting that natural changes in the ...
Thu, 7 Feb 08
World leaders urge action on climate change at Delhi summit
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/184018,world-leaders-urge-action-on-climate-change-at-delhi-summit.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: While slow-moving governments drag their feet, everyone - individuals, communities and businesses - should act now on climate change, according to the consensus at a summit on sustainable development that opened in the Indian capital Thursday. A gathering of leaders from India, the Scandinavian countries, the Maldives, international agencies and sector professionals are attending the three-day summit on climate change and sustainable development India's The Energy Resources Institute (TERI). ...
Wed, 6 Feb 08
United States: Bill would charge car owners a tax based on fuel efficiency
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/350336_carbon07.html
Seattle Post Intelligencer: Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, want car owners to warm to the inconvenient truth of cutting vehicle emissions. And they're aiming for a place all drivers will feel it -- the pocket. Senate Bill 6923 would impose a vehicle excise tax on all passenger vehicles based on EPA ratings of a cars' fuel efficiency. For example, the owner of a hybrid car such as, say, a Toyota Prius, would pay $60 in annual taxes, whereas the owner of a Hummer H3 would pay ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Latest Scientists' Views of Sea Level Rise
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46721/story.htm
Reuters: Following are details of a Reuters poll of 10 leading climatologists about likely rises in world sea levels this century: Six of the 10 experts contacted by Reuters in the last 10 days stuck to projections by the UN Climate Panel that sea levels will rise by between about 20 and 80 cms by 2100. Four said gains could be higher because of likely bigger thawing of Antarctica and Greenland. None thought the IPCC was exaggerating the risks. ------------------ Intergovernmental ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
United States: The climatic costs of rapid growth
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080201.OSMAIN01/TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: Two Fridays ago, a bigwig from the Suncor oil company sat at Wayne Groot's kitchen table, where the window looks out over his cherished potato fields. They chatted about their kids, and Mr. Groot, not being the lawyer-fetching type, served tea. But it wasn't long before the conversation turned to the true reason for the visit: Suncor wants to buy the Groot land - in particular, the patch upon which the family bungalow sits - to build an upgrader that will take the bitumen travelling ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
US sees positive mood shift at Hawaii climate talks
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKB411320080201
Reuters: The Bush administration's environment policy chief sounded optimistic on Thursday about U.S.-hosted climate change talks, noting a mood shift among the world's biggest greenhouse polluting countries. In contrast to grumbling at the fringes of the first U.S.-sponsored conference on the issue in September, representatives of 17 major economies at the Hawaii meeting are now ready to talk about specific things to do to combat climate change, said James Connaughton, head of the White House ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
21st century water management: Calculating with the unknown
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bericht-102469.html
Innovations Report: Climate change is making a central assumption of water management obsolete: Water-resource risk assessment and planning are currently based on the notion that factors such as precipitation and streamflow fluctuate within an unchanging envelope of variability. Anzeige Model-projected percentage change (2041-2060 vs. 1900-1970) in mean annual runoff volume for ice-free land, under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "SRES A1B" scenario. Copyright: Science But ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Australia experiences hottest ever January: weather bureau
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgv7oqio6BuAOCNAajxut81xu9Tg
Agence France-Presse: Australia experienced its hottest January on record this year, with the dry continent heating up as part of the global warming process, the bureau of meteorology said Friday. Temperatures rose by between 1.0 and 2.0 degrees in most parts of the country, with the national average hitting 29.2 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit) for the summer month, said the bureau's head of climate analysis, David Jones. "It's a remarkable number certainly. Averaging, as we did across the ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Climate Conference Ends Without Targets
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hExozDqB-mXGnpa1pMx7yUs6BLmAD8UHFH300
Associated Press: A meeting of delegates from the nations that emit the most pollutants ended without concrete targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, but participants praised what they saw as a new willingness by the United States to discuss possible solutions. Delegates from 16 nations, plus the European Union and the United Nations, gathered in Hawaii this week at the invitation of the U.S. to discuss what should be included in a blueprint for combatting climate change. Among the ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Dutch gas guzzler tax hammers exclusive cars
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL0127569120080201
Reuters: Buying a Hummer just became 19,000 euros ($28,000) more expensive in the Netherlands. A new "guzzle tax" came into force on Friday, penalizing cars that exceed a limit on emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as the Netherlands seeks to reduce its contribution to global warming. Dick Braakhekke, spokesman for General Motors Corp's Cadillac, Corvette and Hummer in Europe, said that of the usual annual volumes of Hummer H2 vehicles sold in the Netherlands, some ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
United Kingdom: Energy firm wants carbon freedom at new coal-fired plant
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/01/fossilfuels.carbonemissions
Guardian: The government is expected to approve the building of a coal-fired power station without insisting that it tries to reduce its climate change emissions, according to emails seen by the Guardian. The correspondence, released under freedom of information legislation, apparently shows that civil servants caved in last month to pressure from German energy company Eon and agreed not to require "carbon capture and storage" technology as a condition for approval of the new ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Global warming crop harm predicted in Africa, Asia
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-31706220080131
Reuters: Agricultural problems caused by global warming in the next two decades could be most damaging in southern Africa, India and Pakistan, according to researchers who urge action now to avert a wave of hunger. Many scientists have predicted that climate change could harm agriculture in many places, fueling hunger and malnutrition. These researchers examined climate predictions and the types of crops grown in various developing regions to figure out which ones would be hit hardest by ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
India asks developed world to walk the talk on climate change
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=65818
Indo-Asian News Service: India has asked developed countries to walk the talk on climate change and stop harping on standards "benchmarks" to let developing countries play their part through agreed flexibility mechanisms. "An absolutely clear imperative is that developed countries walk the talk on GHG (Green House Gas reductions)," R. Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Indian government, told a US-sponsored international climate change in Honolulu Thursday. "There ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Lawmakers: Extend Energy Tax Breaks
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpir6ZaVauHcVXLg7LY3XF7DVeTQD8UHECN00
Associated Press: Unable to extend tax breaks as part of a broad energy bill two months ago, lawmakers are trying to attach some of them to an emergency economic aid package containing rebates for millions of taxpayers. But that strategy may also falter when the Senate votes next week on the $193 billion economic stimulus bill that has been expanded over what already was approved by the House. Both President Bush and Senate GOP leaders have warned against adding to the House-passed bill. But as ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Poorest regions 'facing severe food shortages'
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Poorest-regions-39facing-severe-food.3734489.jp
Scotsman: MANY of the world's poorest regions could face severe crop shortages, famine and hunger in the next two decades because of global warming, researchers warned yesterday. Scientists used 20 computer simulations to determine how changing temperature and rainfall were likely to affect crop yields. They concluded that, by 2030, the average temperature in most of the regions where a large proportion of the world's underfed populations live could rise by 1C. At the same time, seasonal ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Pricey Gas Drives US Shoppers to Fuel Efficiency
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46733/story.htm
Reuters: Pricey gasoline drives US car buyers to more fuel-efficient vehicles, according to a study by industry tracking service Edmunds.com released Wednesday. Shoppers looking at cars and light trucks become more sensitive when prices rise above an average national price of US$2.80 a gallon, according to Edmunds.com Executive Director David Tompkins, who called that level a "psychological turning point for consumers." The average US retail price for gasoline stands at ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
UN Climate Panel Report's Findings
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46729/story.htm
Reuters: The world's biggest emitters of global-warming greenhouse gases met behind closed doors on Wednesday for a US-sponsored conference as protesters pointed up Hawaii's vulnerability to climate change. Here are findings on climate change from a February 2007 report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations. EVIDENCE OF HUMAN CAUSES * "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
US Lawmakers Urged to Lead Global Warming Battle
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2008/2008-02-01-10.asp
Environment News Service: The head of the United Nations scientific climate panel spoke with U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, encouraging them lead the world in cooling the overheated planet. "We really don't have a moment to lose," said Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. The massive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions needed to avoid serious disruptions to Earth's climate system are impossible without U.S. leadership, Dr. Pachauri told members of the ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Warming blamed for snowpack decline in West
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/02/01/warming_blamed_for_snowpack_decline_in_west/
Washington Post: The persistent and dramatic decline in the snowpack of the mountains of the West is caused primarily by human-induced global warming and not the result of natural variability of weather patterns in the region, researchers reported yesterday. Using data collected over the past 50 years, scientists confirmed that the mountains are getting more rain and less snow, that the snowpack is breaking up faster, and that more rivers are running dry by summer. The study, published online ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Water troubles in the West may worsen
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-sci-water1feb01,1,7686108.story
LA Times: Human-caused global warming has been shrinking the snowpack across the mountain ranges of the West for five decades, suggesting that the region's long battle for water will only get worse, according to a computer analysis released Thursday. As temperatures have increased, more winter precipitation has fallen as rain instead of snow, and the snow is melting sooner, according to the study published in the journal Science. The result is that rivers are flowing faster in the ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
World's big polluters note change in US climate stance
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN01379758.html
Reuters: The world's biggest greenhouse polluters applauded the United States at climate change talks on Thursday, but some urged Washington to take the next step by setting goals to reduce its emissions of climate-warming carbon. The United States, alone among major industrialized countries in rejecting the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, noted that the two-day Hawaii meeting addressed the toughest areas of disagreement among the countries that use 80 percent of the planet's ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Achievements at Bali Climate Talks
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46727/story.htm
Reuters: The world's biggest emitters of global-warming greenhouse gases met behind closed doors in Honolulu on Wednesday for a US-sponsored conference as protesters pointed up Hawaii's vulnerability to climate change. In December, officials at climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, agreed to start two years of negotiations to seal a broader pact to fight global warming. As part of the meeting among nearly 200 nations, a range of other pressing issues to aid the developing world were ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
African, Asian crops 'to be hit hard by climate change'
http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=4213&language=1
SciDev.Net: Crops in South Asia and Southern Africa are likely to be worst hit by climate change and need greater investment in agriculture development and adaptation strategies, say US scientists. The conclusions, reported today (1 February) in Science, are based on an analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions. The research team, led by David Lobell from the US-based Woods Institute for Environment at Stanford University, used statistical crop models and 20 climate ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Chinese official urges practical action to slow down climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/01/content_7537027.htm
Xinhua: A senior Chinese official said here Wednesday that all relevant countries should take practical actions to slow down the climate change process. Addressing a closed session at the second "Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change," which opened here Wednesday, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said that to discuss about setting a long-term goal for slowing down climate change requires time. "What matters most ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Climate Change Debate Coins New Jargon
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46728/story.htm
Reuters: The world's biggest emitters of global-warming greenhouse gases met behind closed doors on Wednesday for a US-sponsored conference as protesters pointed out Hawaii's vulnerability to climate change. To understand the climate-change debate, it helps to understand the jargon, a mixture of diplomatese, pundit-speak and techno-talk. Here are some terms used at meetings on global warming. KYOTO - Short for Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Climate change meeting marked by skepticism
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/01/content_7537014.htm
Xinhua: Amid skepticism, representatives from the world's major economies continued discussions on reducing emissions linked to global warming behind closed doors here Thursday. About 160 people representing 16 countries, the United Nations and the European Union are attending the "Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change," the second in a series of talks initiated last year by U.S. President George W. Bush. The talks were "constructive" but ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Australia: Climate change the biggest challenge, Treasury chiefs warn Swan
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/climate-change-the-biggest-challenge-treasury-chiefs-warn-swan/2008/01/31/1201714158880.html
Age: CLIMATE change is the single most pressing challenge Australia faces over the coming decade, according to a confidential federal Treasury brief prepared for the new Labor Government. The brief, delivered to Treasurer Wayne Swan immediately after the November election, also strongly warns of inflationary pressures in the economy. Its release came as Mr Swan last night warned of difficult times ahead, and the US Federal Reserve, for the second time in just over a week, delivered ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Culprits in a hotter West: people
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/120183631850990.xml&coll=7
Oregonian: Climate scientists for the first time have identified rising levels of greenhouse gases as a clear cause of the troubling warming and drying trends gripping the Western United States. They said in a research paper published online by the journal Science on Thursday that the trends are likely to continue and will lead to critical water shortages that the region is not prepared for. The team, based at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California and including a researcher ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
France urges US to do more in combating climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-02/01/content_7545625.htm
Xinhua: The world expects the United States to take the lead in combating climate change, a French representative said on Thursday. The world was waiting for the United States to take the next step in curbing climate change, said Brice Lahonde, French special ambassador for climate change. The EU, along with other developed countries, has agreed to mandatory emission reductions, and the United States should follow suit, Lahonde said at the conclusion of the Major Economies Meeting on ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Australia: Garrett powers back to climate change action
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/garrett-powers-back-to-climate-change-action/2008/01/31/1201714150543.html
Sydney Morning Herald: WHEN Kevin Rudd created a Department of Climate Change the move was widely interpreted as a body blow to the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, who had apparently lost responsibility for the environmental issue of the day. But in the Canberra game of bureaucratic turf warfare Mr Garrett has clawed back considerable ground in recent weeks. The Prime Minister last week quietly changed his allocation of administrative responsibilities, giving Environment carriage of community ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Indonesia to Form New Firm to Tap Geothermal Energy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46731/story.htm
Reuters: Indonesia plans to form a new state company to take over geothermal energy activities in the Southeast Asian country, an official at state oil company Pertamina said on Thursday. Indonesia, dotted with hundreds of active and extinct volcanoes, has the potential to produce an estimated 27,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from geothermal sources. However, the vast potential remains largely untapped because the high cost of geothermal energy makes the price of electricity ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Israeli-Led Venture Develops Auto Hydrogen Fuel Tank
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/46720/story.htm
Reuters: An Israeli-Russian-German venture said it had developed a safe and lightweight hydrogen tank, overcoming a significant obstacle to the mass manufacture of automobiles operated by hydrogen fuel. The venture, known as C.En, has completed a design and test programme aimed at producing the tank for use in cars, Moshe Stern, who leads the investors in the project, told Reuters on Thursday. One of the biggest hurdles to building hydrogen-powered cars has been the safe and ...
Fri, 1 Feb 08
Canada: Think-tank backs carbon tax
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/299482
Toronto Star: Canadian businesses and consumers must pay a hefty price for greenhouse gas emissions, right away, to combat climate change, the Conference Board of Canada says. In a report released yesterday, the think-tank joined a growing list of research and business groups calling for taxes or other financial policies to reduce emissions from coal, oil, gas and other fossil fuels. All companies and individuals should pay a tax that stings enough to make them change their behaviour and ...