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| Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Thu, 28 Feb 08
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-maj
or-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-R
adiohead.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/earadiohe
ad227.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/alaska
n_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_cl
imate_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/ontari
o_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-waiver27feb27,1,495343
3.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_withho
ld_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/earadiohe
ad127.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-fo
rward/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-su
rvival/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.theairlineindust
ry
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-ac
tion-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?g
usrc=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-1
04131.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/eawarren1
25.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/BNSt
ory/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-Prote
st.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&re
fer=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_lightb
ulbs_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_pligh
t_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/idUSL2451
986620080224
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.renewableenerg
y
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_res
ources/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-climat
e-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/OPINION01/80224
0315/-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/AR200802210
2604.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-Fli
ght.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-d
ivisions/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-a
s-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-b1
ba-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&re
fer=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.waveandtidalpo
wer
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/AR200802220
2878.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-climat
e-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/2008/0
2/21/1203467286230.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/20080222-1tr
j.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-wor
lds-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=g
eneral&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&re
fer=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-Cha
nge.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=nw2
0080221090103285C130341
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-produc
e-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
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