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Amid the dark, millions keep an idea alight
http://www.smh.com.au/news/earth-hour/amid-the-dark-millions-keep-an-idea-alight/2008/03/28/1206207407961.html
Sydney Morning Herald: DOES Earth Hour really work? It depends how you define "work", say organisers, who are honest about the event's symbolic role in the face of a degree of public apathy and scepticism. When the plan for Earth Hour was hatched in World Wide Fund for Nature's Sydney office just under two years ago, no one expected it to spread to 35 countries and be embraced by millions of people who want to play their part in fighting climate change. But there have also been waves of ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Australia: Rudd's emission mission
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/rudds-emission-mission/2008/03/28/1206207412992.html
Age: USING renewable energy to power Parliament House and electorate offices will be among the options explored by a new taskforce charged with finding ways to slash carbon emissions from Government departments. The taskforce, to be announced today, will also investigate using the Government car fleet to drive the market for low-emission cars. It will report to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by June, with initiatives to slash water use and waste production also under ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Global warming felt more in Western US
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-climate28mar28,1,3404768.story
LA Times: The American West is heating up faster than any other region of the United States, and more than the Earth as a whole, according to a new analysis of 50 scientific studies. For the last five years, from 2003 through 2007, the global climate averaged 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than its 20th century average. During the same period, 11 Western states averaged 1.7 degrees warmer, the analysis reported. The 54-page study, was released Thursday by the Rocky Mountain Climate ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Handicapping green investments is no snap
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/28/yourmoney/mgreen.php
International Herald Tribune: The buzz words "climate" and "change" have been appropriated by the funds industry to market a new line of "green" equity products. But is this investment concept hot enough to coax investors back into markets that are buckling under more pressing financial concerns? Allianz, Schroders, HSBC, DWS and Virgin are among the money managers who figure that climate change should influence our investment decisions. Their message is simple: Companies that profit ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Australia: Money needed to buy back allocations, experts say
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/money-needed-to-buy-back-allocations-experts-say/2008/03/27/1206207302403.html
Age: MORE of the $10 billion rescue package for the Murray-Darling Basin should be spent buying back water allocations because climate change makes upgrades to irrigation less effective, environment experts warned yesterday. The Rudd Government yesterday left open the possibility of spending more on purchasing water entitlements than the $3 billion dedicated under the former government's plan. Water Minister Penny Wong's office confirmed Labor was not tied to the funding split ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Possible carbon tariffs could have an impact on growth: report
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=404233
National Post: The West's next weapon in the fight against global warming may be a carbon tariff on imports from the developing world, a strategy that could have a profound impact on the global economy, a new report argues. Not only will new charges for carbon emissions trim growth in developed countries, but carbon tariffs could boost inflation and reverse the march toward offshoring as manufacturers who have relocated to countries like China move to more energy-efficient environments back home, ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
UN climate talks to test US shifts
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2837734020080328
Reuters: Up to 190 nations will start work on a new U.N. climate treaty in Bangkok on Monday, in a test of how far the world has progressed after years of deadlock highlighted by a U.S. outburst about a duck in 2005. "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck," chief U.S. climate negotiator Harlan Watson said in Montreal, denouncing what he called a veiled bid to launch negotiations on a pact to combat global warming. Opposed to the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
US to propose CO2 rules this spring
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSWBT00865620080328
Reuters: The Bush administration, which has resisted regulating carbon dioxide emissions, this spring will propose rules that could affect everything from vehicles to power plants and oil refineries, the top U.S. environmental official told Congress on Thursday. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said the agency will issue proposed rules "later this spring" on "the specific effects of climate change and potential regulation of greenhouse gas emissions ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Carbon tax proposed for China
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/2008/03/28/5127486-sun.html
Canadian Press: Countries such as Canada and the United States may impose a "carbon tariff" on goods from China and other developing countries in the next few years, a move that could bring manufacturing jobs back to North America, CIBC World Markets predicts. The investment bank's report says the economies of China, India and other developing countries have expanded so much they now surpass the established industrialized world in belching out carbon dioxide pollution blamed for climate ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Carbon tax riles northern BC
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080328.wbccarbon28/BNStory/National/home
Globe and Mail: The B.C. government's plan to bring in North America's first all-out carbon tax is facing opposition from northern communities in the province, with some suggesting it penalizes rural residents who need to drive more. The concerns have been outlined in seven resolutions up for debate at the coming annual general meeting of the North Central Municipal Association, representing 41 northern local governments. One of the most pointed resolution, from the Regional District of ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Clean coal plan needs Australian money
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23447793-3122,00.html
Courier Mail: AUSTRALIAN scientists are looking underground to test controversial techniques that aim to find a cleaner future for coal and gas, Kerrie Sinclair writes. Millions embrace darkness tonight to highlight their concern over climate change. But there's no light yet shed on which energy sources can support a plugged-in lifestyle without frying the planet. Annual emissions of carbon dioxide – the most important of the greenhouse gases causing temperature rises – have surged by 80 per ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Israel: Concentrated solar power more efficient than standard technology
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Now_solar_energy_five_times_more_efficient/articleshow/2907712.cms
Economic Times: Rooftops all over Israel look strikingly similar: More than 1 million households in the nation of 7.1 million people have solar panels that produce hot water–a relatively simple technology that gained popularity after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when oil prices shot up sharply. As of the early 1990s, all new residential buildings were required by the government to install solar water-heating systems. Yet despite Israel's sunny climate and early lead in solar heating, it has been slow ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
EPA says it won't rush on emissions
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/28/MNVSVRK88.DTL
LA Times: The federal government made clear Thursday that it will not be rushed into deciding whether to regulate emissions linked to global warming, as the Supreme Court directed nearly a year ago. Such action "could affect many (emission) sources beyond just cars and trucks" and needs to be examined broadly as to other impacts, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency wrote lawmakers. Stephen Johnson said he has decided to begin by seeking public comment on the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Nev.: Senator Pushes Coal Project
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5655968.html
Associated Press: U.S. Sen. John Ensign said he's trying to get the federal Energy Department to consider a project that would help a coal-fired power plant proposed by Sierra Pacific Resources for eastern Nevada. Ensign, R-Nev., on Thursday said he spoke two weeks ago with Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman about adding the Ely Energy Center project to a list of possible locations for a demonstration project on ways to capture carbon dioxide produced by such plants and store it underground. Carbon ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Canada: Oilsands ban may weaken
http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/Local%20News/388015.html
Fort McMurray Today: Even with American legislation defining oilsands as unconventional, there is belief by some the current U.S. administration will find a way to fully exempt the oilsands. But the door hasn't been closed completely to the oilsands based on two provisions in the American law and and interpretation by some. The legislation was not intended to bar federal agencies from entering into direct contracts to purchase fuels that are generally available in the market such as diesel or jet ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Australia: Police your own water restrictions
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/police-your-own-water-restrictions/2008/03/27/1206207300873.html
Sydney Morning Herald: STATE governments have been told to let people decide for themselves how to cut back on water in a report that finds water restrictions cost every Australian household $150 a year. A new research paper by the Productivity Commission, to be released today, is critical of governments prescribing what households can and cannot use water for during times when water is scarce. "Such prescriptive rationing denies households the opportunity to choose how to use and conserve water ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Solar farms to rise on California rooftops
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23830087/
Reuters: Southern California Edison Co. said Thursday it plans to build the nation's largest solar energy installation – an array of collector cells covering two square miles of rooftops that could power about 162,000 homes. The project, which was submitted to state regulators for approval, is an effort to meet the state's mandate that 20 percent of California's electricity be generated from renewable sources by 2010. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger attended the announcement, praising the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Sundance film tells of Texas coal plant fight
http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=8083412
Associated Press: Robert Redford, movie icon, Oscar-winning director and founder of the Sundance Film Festival, knows the power of a good story. So when he heard about the battle being waged in Texas by an unlikely assortment of activists to halt construction of 18 coal-burning power plants, Redford knew there was a powerful story waiting to be told. Not just a manifesto of environmental awareness, not just a screed against pollution and global warming, but a tale of taciturn Texas ranchers, ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
UN human rights body turns to climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2778449820080328
Reuters: Climate change could erode the human rights of people living in small island states, coastal areas and parts of the world subjected to drought and floods, the U.N. Human Rights Council said on Friday. In its first consideration of the issue, the United Nations forum's 47 member states endorsed by consensus a resolution stressing that global warming could threaten the livelihoods and welfare of many of the world's most vulnerable people. They backed the proposal from the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Allergies may grow like weeds as Earth warms
http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=70f9204a-f186-4b4e-a774-ce355665d623
Canwest News Service: Allergies and sniffling will be on the rise because of global warming pollution that is also threatening the agriculture industry, new research indicates. Bringing together a series of recent studies, including work by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a non-profit group of weed experts said that the evidence justifies new policies and spending priorities to protect the public. The increased exposure to carbon dioxide emissions has resulted in larger weeds that can grow ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
California lowers goal for zero-emission vehicles
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/28/zero.emission.ap/
Associated Press: California regulators have drastically cut the number of zero-emission vehicles required to be sold in the state by the year 2014, a decision that frustrated environmentalists but came as a relief to auto manufacturers. The rules adopted Thursday put the number of electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles that automakers sell in California at 7,500 by 2014 -- a 70 percent reduction from the 2003 target. "We are disappointed. We think this proposal doesn't take us on the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
China's 3rd largest wind power plant to complete construction in Aug
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/28/content_7876219.htm
Xinhua: The country's third largest wind power farm should be completed by August, the project manager told Xinhua. The farm, in China's eastern Zhejiang Province, in coastal Daishan County, uses Danish technology but is being built for the provincial government by a Chinese firm. "With nine 81-meter-high rotors set up, the construction work will be finished in August and begin generating electricity by the end of the year", said Xu Jie, the project's construction manager. ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Climate rules deadline vague
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/BUSINESS01/803280339
Detroit Free Press: Federal environmental regulators will propose the first rules designed to limit global warming gases from U.S. vehicles and factories later this spring, a move Democratic critics called an attempt by the Bush administration to avoid setting greenhouse gas limits before the end of President George W. Bush's term. In a letter to two congressional committees Thursday, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency said he had ordered EPA staff to draft the rule after questions were ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
United States: State air board demands more low-emission cars
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/28/MNU8VRLDK.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: The California Air Resources Board, acknowledging that development of air pollution-free vehicle technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells is lagging, moved Thursday to require major automakers to produce more low-emission cars such as plug-in hybrids. The board's decision will play a key part in its mandate to meet California's ambitious goal of reducing air pollution and cutting greenhouse gas emissions as required by landmark legislation, AB32, enacted more than a year ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Canada: In pollution terms, Alberta's wealth is based on dirty dollars
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=6553a92f-6c20-432b-b133-c1004e63f45c
Vancouver Sun: Alberta is a filthy rich, high-spending, pollution-belching piece of property growing increasingly out of sync with other provinces. That's one way of interpreting a flotilla of figures featured in a newly released report titled State of the West, 2008; Western Canadian Demographic and Economic Trends. The analysis points repeatedly to Alberta as being exceptional, in terms of resource bounty, government largesse and attitude toward the planetary crisis known as climate ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Russian, Canadian Winter Days Much Milder - UK Study
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47667/story.htm
Reuters: The coldest winter days in Russia and Canada have become up to 4 Celsius (7 Fahrenheit) milder since the 1950s in an extreme sign of climate change, the British Meteorological Office said on Wednesday. A study of daily minimum and maximum temperatures said that a trend towards warmer nights and hotter days was set to bring more heatwaves and shifts in crop growing seasons. "Minimum temperatures have seen the biggest increases, most notably over Russia and Canada, where ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Japan: Sharp to invest $729 million in new solar cell plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUST2454120080327
Reuters: Japan's Sharp Corp (6753.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it would spend $729 million to build a new solar cell plant in Sakai, western Japan, to better compete with Germany's Q-Cells (QCEG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and other rivals. Sharp said in July it would bring the new plant to production by March 2010 but did not disclose the size of capital investment. Solar companies around the world are expanding production capacity rapidly to meet growing demand for ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
125 million people could face displacement in South Asia
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/159150/1/1893
OneWorld South Asia: Greenpeace alerted the Indian government and people of the subcontinent to the massive humanitarian crisis the South Asian region could face if global warming was not kept below the 2 degree tipping point. Blue Alert – Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions, a paper authored by Dr Sudhir Chella Rajan, professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras, and a climate expert, estimates the number of people who could be displaced from their homes at 125 million ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Calif. Grapples With Auto Emissions Rule
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h1tQjPCsT74RMthzCWeiw8_QKj9QD8VLMGDG1
Associated Press: A major revision proposed to the state's tough auto emissions program would cut the number of battery-powered and hydrogen vehicles that automakers must produce for California and 10 other states. Auto manufacturers say they need more time, but the proposal that the California Air Resources Board is scheduled to take up Thursday has drawn criticism from environmentalists, health advocates and some leading political figures. They question whether the state can afford to relax the rules ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Global warming creates giant Antarctic iceberg
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23437828-30417,00.html
Australian: A VAST iceberg seven times the size of Manhattan has broken away from the Antarctic coast, threatening the collapse of a bigger ice shelf that is now "hanging by a thread". Satellite images have revealed that about 415sqkm of the Wilkins Shelf has been lost since the end of last month, suggesting that climate change could be causing it to disintegrate more quickly than scientists had predicted. "The ice shelf is hanging by a thread," said David Vaughan, of ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Greenland Thaw May Replace Dog Sleds With Oil Drills
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aeu5ZbUSdOkc&refer=home
Bloomberg: In Greenland, locals hunt reindeer for food and use dog sleds to traverse the ice sheet. Soon they may be working on offshore rigs and counting their money. Oil companies have begun looking for crude deposits off the west coast and Joern Skov Nielsen, deputy director of Greenland's Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum, said there may be more oil there than the entire past production of the North Sea. That's about 50 billion barrels, according to figures from Norway and the U.K., the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Irish utility launches 11 bln euro renewables drive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7415917
Reuters: Ireland's Electricity Supply Board (ESB) on Thursday announced an investment programme of 22 billion euros ($34.72 billion), half of which it plans to spend on renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal and biomass. The company aims to halve its carbon emissions within 12 years, by which time it will be delivering one-third of its electricity from renewable generation, and to achieve a "carbon net-zero" by 2035, it said. "This will include over 1,400 megawatts ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
South Africa: Renewable Energy Sources 'Can Provide 5 Percent of Needs'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200803270170.html
Business Day: RENEWABLE energy has the potential to account for 5% of the electricity demand "in the short to medium term," an official of the Energy Development Corporation, a division of the Central Energy Fund (CEF) said yesterday. Electricity shortages have revitalised initiatives to diversify the energy mix -- shifting from an over-reliance on coal. In a bid to encourage multiple players in the generation of electricity, the white paper on renewable energy set a 2013 target of ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Australia: Rudd pledges activist role on eve of trip
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rudd-pledges-activist-role-on-eve-of-trip/2008/03/26/1206207207287.html
Sydney Morning Herald: INSULATING Australia against growing global economic turmoil and deep-seated fears in Canberra that the world is losing the political will to tackle climate change will dominate Kevin Rudd's foreign travels over the next 18 days. And in a swipe at the style of his predecessor, John Howard, Mr Rudd has promised to restore Australia as a middle-power diplomacy by revitalising its engagement with Europe and such bodies as the United Nations, all while staying allied closely to the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Delays, protests as Heathrow's T5 opens
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/27/heathrow.t5/?iref=hpmostpop
CNN: A protest by campaigners opposed to the expansion of London's main airport and luggage delivery delays have overshadowed the long-awaited opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5. Protesters opposed to airport expansion make their views known in the new terminal. A sophisticated luggage system at T5, which finally welcomed its first passengers Thursday after nearly two decades and $8.6 billion, was designed to handle 12,000 bags an hour, dramatically improving the luggage performance ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Australia: Desalination plants in 50-year plan
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/desalination-plants-in-50year-plan/2008/03/26/1206207207296.html
Sydney Morning Herald: ONE desalination plant is on the way and five more may be built to accommodate a booming population and climate change in south-east Queensland. A draft 50-year plan released yesterday seeks to increase the water supply and cut demand to ensure a "sustainable and prosperous lifestyle". The state's Water Commission hopes to relax restrictions and aim for average home use three-quarters of the pre-drought level. A desalination plant is being built at Tugun. After 2028, ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Australia: Garnaut has faith in market forces
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23437829-5013871,00.html
Australian: LABOR'S chief adviser on climate change policy believes the market will resolve most problems arising from the introduction of an emissions trading scheme, while power companies claim market forces are likely to cause the greatest disruption. Presenting his blueprint for an emission trading scheme from 2010 to 800 business representatives yesterday, Ross Garnaut said he favoured a simple and transparent system with minimal intervention from government. While acknowledging the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Ice seals might be endangered species
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/03/27/ice_seals_might_be_endangered_species/5579/
United Press International: The U.S. government has agreed to study Alaska's ice seals for possible listing under the Endangered Species Act. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration accepted a petition from a California environmental group seeking protection for the animals, called "ribbon seals," that inhabit Alaska's Bering Sea. "In addition (to) reviewing the ribbon seal, we are also preparing status reviews on bearded, spotted and ringed seals for possible listing," ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Malaysia Should Wage War On Climate Change, Says Environmentalist
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=323090
Bernama: Malaysia should focus more resources on combating the threat of climate change instead of spending huge sums of money on buying military hardware, says an environmentalist. Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (CETDEM) chairman Gurmit Singh said today at the half-day Climate Change Post Bali Forum held here, that though the situation was not disastrous, it had reached critical levels. "Countries around the world, Malaysia included, should not be ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
NOAA to Assess Whether Melting Ice Endangers Seals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/26/AR2008032602807.html?hpid=sec-nation
Washington Post: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced yesterday that it will evaluate whether four kinds of seals inhabiting Alaska's Bering Sea should be placed on the endangered species list because of melting sea ice. In December, an environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, petitioned NOAA's Fisheries Service to list ribbon seals as facing extinction because global warming has affected the extent of ice cover in both the Bering and Chukchi seas, where the ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Canada: Oilsands not targeted by US green law after all
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=59b9762f-d927-447c-8977-6f3b7e883910&k=57660
Edmonton Journal: A new U.S. law will not, as first feared, prohibit the purchase of fuels that may have come from Alberta's oilsands California Democrat Henry Waxman, in a letter clarifying the legislation he helped write, says the oilsands produce significantly higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional petroleum sources. For that reason, he says, "it is important that the federal government does not subsidize or otherwise support the expanded use of these fuels." The ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Trading Emissions to sell over 5mln offsets in '08
http://uk.reuters.com/article/companyResultsNews/idUKL2730232720080327
Reuters: Trading Emissions PLC expects to sell at least 5 million tonnes of carbon offsets this year as it tries to cash in on an expected shortage in 2008, the company said on the publication of its interim results on Thursday. Trading Emissions PLC (TEP) establishes projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and sells the resulting carbon offsets to developed world countries, companies and individuals. Demand for offsets is increasing as countries and companies ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
UK Greenhouse Gas Emissions On Track to Hit Kyoto Target
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-27-02.asp
Environment News Service: Environment Secretary Hilary Benn today said that the UK is making progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but there is still much work to do. Provisional statistics published today for total UK greenhouse gas emissions for 2007 showed a drop of two percent below the previous year, with 639.4 million metric tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent, down from 652.3 million metric tonnes in 2006. The decrease in CO2 emissions resulted from fuel switching from coal to natural gas ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
UK on track to meet Kyoto emissions targets, says Benn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/27/carbonemissions.climatechange
Guardian: The environment secretary, Hilary Benn, today said that the UK is making progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but he admitted that "major change" across the economy was necessary if the UK was to meet the targets set in the climate change bill. Provisional statistics published for total UK greenhouse gas emissions for 2007 showed a drop of 2% over the previous year, with 639.4m tonnes CO2 equivalent, down from 652.3m tonnes in 2006. Net emissions of CO2 were ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Winter temperatures higher across Canada, British study says
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=959946
Sault Star: Despite heavy snow in many central Canadian cities this year, the coldest winter day in Canada just ain't what it use to be. A study of daily minimum and maximum temperatures released Wednesday by the British Meteorological Office reported that the coldest winter days in Russia and Canada are as much as four degrees Celsius milder since the 1950s. A statement by the Centre said that the largest changes in maximum temperatures were "found across Canada and Eurasia, where ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
'Green collars' becoming a force in US economy
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/26/business/gcollar.php
International Herald Tribune: Everyone knows what blue-collar and white-collar jobs are, but now a job of another hue - green - has entered the lexicon. U.S. presidential candidates talk about the promise of green-collar jobs - an economy with millions of workers installing solar panels, weatherizing homes, brewing biofuels, building hybrid cars and erecting giant wind turbines. Labor unions view these new jobs as replacements for positions lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing. Urban groups view training ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Alliance For Climate Protection Launches $300M Marketing Push
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/03/25/alliance-for-climate-protection-launches-300m-marketing-push/
Environmental Leader: The Alliance for Climate Protection will spend $300 million over the next three years on a global warming marketing campaign, USA Today reports. As a point of reference, U.S. automakers and industry trade associations spent $62.6 million on lobbying in 2007 to counter energy bills and efforts to craft new fuel rules. The Alliance, founded by Al Gore, will buy ads and partner with grass-roots groups to spread the word on how to cut greenhouse gases, according to the article. ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Big chunk of Antarctic ice shelf falling apart
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvgbwRoBCsttrkhOqhvZFlFuT_uw
Agence France Presse: Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming, satellite images by the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center showed. The collapse of a substantial section of the shelf was triggered February 28 when an iceberg measuring 41 by 2.4 kilometers (25.5 by 1.5 miles) broke off its southwestern front. That movement led to disintegration of the shelf's interior, of which 414 square kilometers (160 square miles) ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Climate change could displace 125 million in S Asia: Greenpeace
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnzIuW3BJLG699qtGFlwJHSK4Q6w
Agence France Presse: Rising seas and water shortages could displace 125 million people in South Asia by the end of the century if global warming goes unchecked, a new Greenpeace study said Wednesday. "If greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow under the business-as-usual scenario as projected... the South Asian region could face a wave of migrants," said the report's author Sudhir Chella Rajan, a leading Indian climate change expert. The 125 million people affected would be those living ...
Mon, 31 Mar 08
Climate change threatens Amazonian small farmers
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/iu-cct032508.php
EurekAlert: A six-year study of Amazonian small farmers and their responses to climate change shows the farmers are vulnerable to natural catastrophes and risky land use practices, say Indiana University Bloomington anthropologists Eduardo Brondizio and Emilio Moran. The researchers report in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (now accessible online) that an increase in climate anomalies like El Nino could ultimately drive many small farmers to ruin, forcing them into Brazilian ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Global warming blamed for ice shelf collapse
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/26/eaice126.xml
Telegraph: An ice shelf of 5,000 square miles in western Antarctica has started to collapse, scientists said. The disintegration of the Wilkins ice sheet, the largest on the Antarctic Peninsula to be threatened, is more evidence of rapid climate change on the continent, they claimed. The British Antarctic Survey said the ice shelf was "hanging by a thread". Satellite images from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre showed an iceberg measuring 25.5 miles by 1.5 miles - ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Huge chunk of Antarctic ice shelf collapses
http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/03/26/Huge_chunk_of_Antarctic_ice_shelf_collapses
AAP: A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan has suddenly collapsed, and scientists are putting it down to global warming. The chunk covers 415 square kilometres and has been on the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf for up to one and a half thousand years. Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew a plane over the collapse which they say was like hardened glass being smashed with a hammer. But ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Slab Of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses Amid Warming
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47652/story.htm
Reuters: Satellite images show that a large hunk of Antarctica's Wilkins Ice Shelf has started to collapse in a fast-warming region of the continent, scientists said on Tuesday. The area of collapse measured about 160 square miles (415 square km) of the Wilkins Ice Shelf, according to satellite imagery from the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Centre. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad sheet of permanent floating ice that spans about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Australia: Garnaut throws down the gauntlet
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/03/26/12510_opinion.html
Geelong Advertiser: ROSS Garnaut, architect of the tariff-cutting policies that in the past transformed Australian manufacturing, is once again sending industry _ and government _ into a spin. His carbon emissions trading proposal, critically important as they might be, already has the Federal Government referring to his recommendations as an input. Before the federal election, and Australia's signing of Kyoto, Professor Garnaut was viewed widely as the key player in the Rudd Government's climate change ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Land Deal Could Open Alaska Wildlife Refuge To Oil
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47646/story.htm
Reuters: A controversial land swap proposal could open portions of an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, dividing Alaska natives and stoking opposition from environmentalists seeking to protect the bears, moose and birds that live there. Supporters of the plan to exchange land in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, which lies just south of the more-famous Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, say they would like the plan to be approved by the administration of US president George W. Bush ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Vast iceberg breaks off Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctic
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3621685.ece
Times (UK): A vast iceberg has broken away from the Antarctic coast, threatening the collapse of a larger ice shelf that is now "hanging by a thread". Satellite images have revealed that about 160 square miles of the Wilkins Shelf have been lost since the end of February, suggesting that climate change could be causing it to disintegrate much more quickly than scientists had predicted. "The ice shelf is hanging by a thread," said David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey(BAS). "We'll know ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Arctic ice refreezes 4%, not enough, scientists say
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=956421
Sault Star: U.S. scientists say critical Arctic sea ice has made a tenuous partial recovery this winter, following last summer's record melt. But that is an illusion - like a Hollywood movie set - says scientist Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Washington. The ice is very thin and vulnerable to heavy melting again this summer. Overall, Arctic sea ice has shrunk precipitously in the past decade and scientists blame global warming caused by humans. Last ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Black carbon pollution emerges as major player in global warming
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-106086.html
Innovations Report: Black carbon, a form of particulate air pollution most often produced from biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhaust, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to four times greater than prevailing estimates, according to scientists in an upcoming review article in the journal Nature Geoscience. Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan and University of Iowa chemical engineer Greg Carmichael, said that soot and other ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Australia: Climate law revenue seen as way to cut taxes
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/climate-law-revenue-seen-as-way-to-cut-taxes/2008/03/25/1206207106165.html
Age: AUSTRALIA should use the massive revenue boost from new climate change laws to abolish stamp duty and other "inefficient" state taxes, Opposition Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull will argue today. In a speech to the Sydney Institute tonight, Mr Turnbull will say some of the money reaped from forcing businesses to buy permits to emit greenhouse gas – up to $20 billion a year by 2020, according to lobby group the Climate Institute – should be used to overhaul the tax system and help ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Livingstone puts climate at core of London election
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2526694520080325
Reuters: London's Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone put climate at the core of his re-election campaign on Tuesday, trying for the first time in Britain to make the environment a key electoral issue. With Livingstone and his main opponent Conservative mayoral candidate Boris Johnson being actively backed by the leaders of their national parties, the campaign could have implications for the next general election due by mid-2010. London is seen as the jewel in the crown for both Labour Prime ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Millions seen at risk in South Asia from warmer world
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSP10187020080325
Reuters: Rising seas and water shortages will displace about 125 million people living along the coasts of India and Bangladesh by the turn of the century, Greenpeace said on Tuesday. In a study on rapidly warming South Asia, the global environment group said climate change would also trigger erratic monsoons and break down agricultural systems in the vast and densely populated Gangetic delta. India, whose economy has grown by 8-9 percent annually in recent years, is one of the world's ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Nuclear Power Debate Heats Up
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41728
Inter Press Service: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are about to agree on a new generation of nuclear power plants in London this week, and plan to export the technology to the rest of the world, according to unconfirmed reports. Downing Street has refrained from commenting on news of the deal, which was reported last week by The Guardian, a British newspaper. The move would fly in the face of the opinions of Germany and Spain, which wish to gradually phase out ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Soot may play big role in climate change
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-carbon25mar25,1,2372242.story?track=rss
LA Times: Black carbon pollution, or soot, produced by burning wood, coal, cow dung and diesel fuel, may be a much greater contributor to global warming than previously suspected, according to a study released this week. The report concludes that the atmospheric warming effect of black carbon pollution is as much as three to four times the consensus estimate released last year in a report by the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The findings are of concern to ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Warming seen having immunological consequences
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKPAR56289420080325
Reuters: The first two bee sting-related deaths were reported in Fairbanks, Alaska in the summer of 2006, which researchers suspect was a consequence of global warming; and they predict that this is just the beginning. Honeybees and yellow jackets were rare in the area until the past few years. "The yellow jacket population has increased tenfold and the first two sting-related deaths were reported," Dr. Jeffrey Demain of the University of Alaska in Anchorage told attendees here this ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Western Antarctic Ice Chunk Collapses
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnjYmtmAnaPQ4YWKA6WpWdm2X8yAD8VKMVQ80
Associated Press: A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years. This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Canadians souring on Alberta oil sands
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/25/canadians_souring_on_alberta_oil_sands/7119/
United Press International: Half of Canadians want Alberta's oil sand development slowed over environmental concerns, a poll published Tuesday indicated. The Environmental Defense group commissioned the poll of 1,014 people March 7-10, and 52 percent said expansion of oil production should not be given federal approval until "environmental management issues are resolved," compared with 32 percent who said they should be "permitted so as not to curb economic growth," the Calgary Herald ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Canadians warming to emissions cap: poll
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=398559
Canwest News Service: Four of five Canadians disagree with the Harper government's approach to protect economic growth in Alberta's oilsands sector while allowing its annual global warming-causing emissions to triple over the next decade, a new survey has revealed. The poll found that a majority of Albertans wanted the federal government to get tough with greenhouse gas emissions and that Quebecers were leading the way in calls for no expansion in the booming oilsands sector until environmental issues are ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Climate change could devastate Aust fauna: report
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/25/2198984.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The author of a new report on climate change says even a small rise in temperatures could have a dramatic effect on Australia's native species. The report was commissioned by the Threatened Species Network, and concludes that global warming could produce sweeping changes in bushfire intensity and frequency, vegetation cover, and feral animal numbers. The report's author, Lesley Hughes, says many native species are vulnerable to climate change because they live in small habitats ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Climate change may lead to massive displacement in South Asia
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/S_Asians_under_threat/articleshow/2898556.cms
Times of India: A massive 125 million people may be displaced in India and Bangladesh by a rise in the sea level triggered by a projected four-five degrees Celsius increase in global temperature this century. Painting the grim picture, a report released by independent environment watchdog Greenpeace on Tuesday said that Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have almost 130 million people living in the Low Elevation Coastal Zone who will be the most vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal erosion as well ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Developer plans $45 million solar energy farm in Rhode Island
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/03/25/developer_plans_45_million_solar_energy_farm_in_rhode_island_1206449182/
Associated Press: A former hazardous waste site in Coventry could be converted into the largest solar energy farm east of the Mississippi River. New York-based Allco Renewable Energy says it will sign a letter of intent Tuesday to build the $45 million project on a 100-acre tract of town-owned land that was once home to a pig farm. A portion of the farm was declared a federal Superfund site in the 1980s. The Providence Journal reports that Coventry has agreed to give Allco a 50-year lease ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Environmental campaigners sabotage Edinburgh 4X4s with mung beans
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/03/25/environmental-campaigners-sabotage-edinburgh-4x4s-with-mung-beans-86908-20362106/
Daily Record: GREEN activists are sabotaging motorists' gas-guzzling 4x4s with mung beans. They have vandalised vehicles in Edinburgh using the oriental beans, claiming they are raising awareness about climate change. The eco activists deflate the tyres by putting a bean in the valve before leaving a note on the windscreen explaining their antics. Police have warned they will face charges if caught. The group are thought to be linked to European anarchists The Indians of The ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Ice shrink in Arctic sea may attract oil firms
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2555957620080325
Reuters: Winter sea ice around a Norwegian Arctic island has thinned to less than one meter (3 feet) since the 1960s, according to a study on Tuesday of a region that may be more attractive to oil firms because of climate change. The Norwegian Polar Institute said ice around Hopen island southeast of the Svalbard archipelago had become more than 40 cms (16 inches) thinner in the past 40 years, in what it called the first long-term study of ice thickness in the Barents Sea. "Since ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Kyoto treaty unfair and favours Europe, says Japan
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4318305
Agence France Presse: A senior Japanese official said yesterday that 2005 would be fair for a base year in a new deal on slashing greenhouse gases, suggesting the Kyoto Protocol was slanted towards the European position. The unusually blunt remarks came a week before the latest round of negotiations was due to start in Bangkok on drafting a successor to the Kyoto treaty. The treaty requires major developed nations to slash emissions blamed for global warming by an average of 5% from 1990 levels ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
The response of marine algae to climate change
http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/08032555.htm
Science Centric: A new project at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association dealing with the impact of climate change on marine phytoplankton will be funded by the European Research Council ERC with 1.4 million Euros. The project PhytoChange of Dr Bjoern Rost, who was among the 3% of successful applicants and succeeded against more than 9,000 competitors from all over Europe, will be funded by the EU for 5 years. The Independent Investigator Grant is designed to ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
The very real cost of carbon offsets and trading
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/25Mar2008_news018.php
Bangkok Post: Halldor Thorgeirsson, director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (and organiser of the Bali climate change talks in December 2007), recently remarked that "effective carbon market mechanisms" would be the "key component" of any post-2012 climate change regime. However, relying on market mechanisms such as carbon trading and carbon offsets to fight climate change could create disastrous consequences for the world's poor and the ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Tipping Elements A Global Warning
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/03/24/climate-global-tipping-cx_0324oxford.html?feed=rss_business
Forbes: A recent study, "Tipping Elements in the Earth's Climate System," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reviews 14 earth systems to assess which ones might have policy-relevant tipping points that would constitute a danger to the global climate. Tipping points and mechanisms differ across systems but share characteristics. While minor perturbations tend to be unimportant, slight increases can lead to major changes in the system: -- Arctic ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Wind energy group spent $816K lobbying
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8VKOL6O0.htm
Associated Press: The wind industry's trade group spent nearly $816,000 to lobby last year as wind companies tried to persuade Congress to extend a key tax credit and make power companies use more renewable sources. Despite the efforts of the American Wind Energy Association, neither desire found its way into legislation this past year. The group, whose members include General Electric Co., BP PLC, AES Corp. and FPL Group Inc., is still pushing for the tax-credit extension after lawmakers failed ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Wind power breaks records in Spain
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jb_CljIaxmm-5LbeW4Hb0taAY8VA
Agence France Presse: Wind power is breaking new records in Spain, accounting for just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed during a brief period last weekend, the country's wind power association said Tuesday. As heavy winds lashed Spain on Saturday evening wind parks generated 9,862 megawatts of power which translated to 40.8 percent of total consumption due to low demand during the Easter holiday weekend, AEE said. Between Friday and Sunday wind power accounted for an average of 28 percent ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Biofuels could send emissions soaring
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Planet_SOS/Biofuels_could_send_emissions_soaring/articleshow/2898297.cms
Economic Times: UK's chief environmental scientist has warned that an increased reliance on biofuels could lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. According to a report in The Scotsman, the scientist in question is Professor Robert Watson, who gave the warning just days before Westminster is to introduce a policy dictating minimum levels of the fuels at the pumps. Watson said that it would "obviously be totally insane" to have a scheme aimed at reducing greenhouse gases by ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Black carbon elevates damage to climate
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2859
Newstrack India: A study published in Nature Geoscience indicates black carbon or soot produced by burning coal, wood, diesel and dung elevates damage to the environment by warming the atmosphere by several times. The researchers including atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and Chemical Engineer Greg Carmichael of University of Iowa, said that the black carbon or its other forms could have contributed 60% of the current global warming effect of ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Climate change can be measured daily says researcher
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23429159-3102,00.html
AAP: AN Australian researcher says climate change could be measured on a daily basis, not just in the long term, by monitoring changes in coral. Geoscientist with Brisbane's Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Luke Nothdurft said coral was a good indicator of changes in water temperature over time and the rate of global warming. But conventional measurement techniques studied coral in a similar way to a tree being examined for annual growth rings and this could lead to ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Corals measure climate change
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082603-17098.html
Science Alert: A researcher from Queensland University of Technology has advanced the use of coral to measure the rate of climate change. Studying coral at Heron Island, at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, QUT natural resource sciences PhD researcher Luke Nothdurft has greatly improved the accuracy of coral analysis, keeping it up-to-date with recent advances in technology. "Analysis of coral can tell us about the changes in water temperature over time and the rate of global ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Disagreement On Carbon-Based Tax Breaks For Biofuels
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-106037.html
Innovations Report: New UK legislation coming into effect on 15 April 2008 – the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation – will mean that biofuels must show significantly smaller carbon footprints than their petroleum-based cousins in order to keep their government subsidies. But governments of the UK, the EU, Germany and the US disagree seriously about biofuel footprints, and this could lead to confusion in the fuel markets, says Eric Johnson, editor of Environmental Impact Assessment Review, in an article ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Greenpeace to launch anti-climate change campaign in India
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/greenpeace-to-launch-anti-climate-change-campaign-in-india_10031148.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Global environmental NGO Greenpeace will launch 'Blue Alert', a campaign in the coastal belts of India to make people aware of the impending dangers of global warming. The movement would be launched in all coastal states of the country, including West Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. "We will start this campaign in India in the next one month. The movement would be consolidated by involving people coming from different sections," Greenpeace campaign director Divya ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Livingstone puts environment at heart of campaign
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/25/london08.london
Guardian: Ken Livingstone put the environment at the centre of his campaign to be re-elected as London mayor today, claiming a victory for his Tory rival, Boris Johnson, would be "a disaster" for the fight against climate change. Speaking at the launch of his environment manifesto in Richmond, south-west London, Livingstone said that voters faced a clear choice between a pro-environment coalition of Labour and the Green party, and Johnson when they go to the polls on May ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Canada: PM confirms support for carbon capture technology
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/03/25/carbon-capture.html
CBC: Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated his commitment on Tuesday to spend $240 million to convert an old coal-fired generator in southeastern Saskatchewan to a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage unit. The money was first announced in last month's federal budget. The seven-year pilot project at the Boundary Dam plant near Estevan will cost an estimated $1.4 billion, with the province putting up $758 million. As he toured the plant with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, ...
Wed, 26 Mar 08
Solar water heating pays off in Hawaii
http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/03/24/daily1.html
Pacific Business News: Solar water heating is cost effective in all parts of Hawaii, according to a recent study. In the sunny areas of the islands, solar water heating can deliver hear at a cost of about 4 cents to 6 cents per kilowatt hour. In less sunny areas the range is 6 cents to 8 cents, said the report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Electric customers in Hawaii pay at least 15 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on utility and customer class. The report said simple payback ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Australia facing threat of wildlife catastrophe
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95489
Independent: From the tiny tree kangaroo via the greater bilby to the quoll, some of Australia's unique and rare wildlife could disappear in the coming decades as a result of climate change, according to a report by the WWF published today. The species, already under threat because of wide-scale land clearance and the introduction of exotic predators, could be pushed into extinction by rising temperatures and the knock-on effects, including drought and more frequent and devastating ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Climate change seen as last nail in coffin for native fauna
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-seen-as-last-nail-in-coffin-for-native-fauna/2008/03/24/1206207012438.html
Age: SOME of Australia's most vulnerable native animals could die out as climate change take its toll on their already fragile existence. The warning is contained in a report that catalogues the risks facing 11 species from the impact of rising temperatures and rainfall decline. The report, produced by environment group WWF and a research team from Macquarie University, says global warming could skew the sex ratios for marine turtles in favour of females, as sex is determined by the ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Drought And Flooding Seen For The US-NOAA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47636/story.htm
Reuters: US farmers in the Midwest and Plains risk drought this summer while those in much of the eastern half of the US could face flooding similar to what has battered the nation this week, government forecasters said on Thursday. There is an "enhanced risk" of drought going into spring and even summer for the Corn Belt, largely because of a fading La Nina, said Doug Lecomte, a meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Australia: No dodging tough choices on climate change
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/no-dodging-tough-choices-on-climate-change/2008/03/24/1206207007576.html
Age: CLIMATE change will be one of the issues that defines the Rudd Government. It is an issue of tough choices, of clashing values and objectives, in which decisions will have to be made in a fog of uncertainty about how serious the problem is, and what is the best way out of it. But those choices must be made. Rudd rode to power partly on concern over global warming. Labor promised to act decisively, not only on the symbolic step of ratifying the Kyoto protocol, but on the serious stuff: ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Top scientists warn against rush to biofuel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/25/biofuels.energy1
Reuters: Gordon Brown is preparing for a battle with the European Union over biofuels after one of the government's leading scientists warned they could exacerbate climate change rather than combat it. In an outspoken attack on a policy which comes into force next week, Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it would be wrong to introduce compulsory quotas for the use of biofuels in petrol and diesel before their ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Biofuels 'could increase carbon emissions'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/25/eabiofuels125.xml
Telegraph: Plans to force motorists to run their cars on "green" petrol could lead to higher levels of greenhouse gases, the Government's leading environment scientist warned yesterday. Professor Robert Watson said it would be "totally insane" to promote the use of biofuels for environmental purposes if it was found that their production contributed to greater carbon emissions through the destruction of forests. He called on the Government to delay the compulsory use ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Biofuels: a solution that became part of the problem
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/25/biofuels.energy
Guardian: Using plant-based materials for fuel in cars and trucks was until recently heralded as the answer to the need to reduce carbon emissions from petrol and diesel fuels. But the alarm expressed yesterday by Professor Robert Watson, the government's highest-ranking environment scientist, that the headlong pursuit of biofuels could accelerate climate change, is the latest in a series of comments from senior figures that have shaken Whitehall. Both Watson and the former chief ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
China Urged To Shift Urban Growth To Supercities
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47623/story.htm
Reuters: Shifting China's model of urbanisation to favour huge supercities could boost per capita output, improve energy efficiency and help contain the loss of arable land, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) said on Monday. Rapid urbanisation has been a major driver of Chinese growth over the past two decades and will become more so over the next 20 years; cities will account for 95 percent of China's gross domestic product by 2025, up from 75 percent today, MGI said. But the ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Link to Global Warming in Frogs' Disappearance Is Challenged
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95493
New York Times: In the scientific equivalent of the board game Clue, teams of biologists have been sifting spotty evidence and pointing to various culprits in the widespread vanishing of harlequin frogs. The amphibians, of the genus Atelopus – actually toads despite their common name – once hopped in great numbers along stream banks on misty slopes from the Andes to Costa Rica. After 20 years of die-offs, they are listed as critically endangered by conservation groups and are mainly seen in ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Biofuels will speed climate change, chief scientist says
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Biofuels-will-speed-climate-change.3909009.jp
Scotsman: FARMERS in Scotland last night criticised a warning from the UK's chief environmental scientist that an increased reliance on biofuels could send greenhouse gas emissions soaring. Professor Robert Watson spoke out just days before Westminster is to introduce a policy dictating minimum levels of the fuels at the pumps. He said it would "obviously be totally insane" to have a scheme aimed at reducing greenhouse gases by using biofuels, which instead led to an increase ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
UAE Says To Explore Nuclear Energy For Electricity
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47637/story.htm
Reuters: The United Arab Emirates says it will establish a $100 million agency to look into developing nuclear energy to satisfy rising electricity demand in the Gulf oil exporter on Iran's doorstep. "Analysis of future domestic electricity demand ... has concluded that peaceful nuclear power generation represents an environmentally promising and commercially competitive option which could make a significant contribution to the UAE's economy and future energy security," a government ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
'The Great Warming': Climate change? Been there, done that
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/24/arts/21book.php
International Herald Tribune: The Great Warming Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations By Brian Fagan Bloomsbury Press. $26.95. 282 pages. If you don't think climate change produces winners as well as losers, consider this: In the 12th and 13th centuries England exported wine to France. Vineyards also flourished in improbable regions like southern Norway and eastern Prussia. A centuries-long spell of mild, predictable weather blessed Western Europe with abundant crops, healthy populations ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Japan wants easier target for greenhouse gas cuts
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/24/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: Japan will push for an easier target for reducing greenhouse gases in the next international pact on global warming than in the previous one, a top bureaucrat said Monday. The Kyoto global warming pact requires nations to cut emissions below 1990 levels, but critics say that is too difficult because emissions in many countries have risen dramatically since then. Instead, Japan will push to set the base year for 2005 in an agreement that is meant to take effect when Kyoto ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
New Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120613138379155707.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Now and then across the centuries, powerful voices have warned that human activity would overwhelm the earth's resources. The Cassandras always proved wrong. Each time, there were new resources to discover, new technologies to propel growth. Although a Malthusian catastrophe is not at hand, the resource constraints foreseen by the Club of Rome are more evident today than at any time since the 1972 publication of the think tank's famous book, "The Limits of Growth." Steady ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Parks in Peril
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95426
New York Times: The country's treasured open spaces are no more immune to air pollution from coal-fired power plants than are its big cities. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain and kills trees. Mercury emissions poison streams. Nitrogen oxides and sulfates create smog and haze. For all these reasons, Congress in 1977 amended the Clean Air Act to require the Environmental Protection Agency to make a special effort to clean the air in national parks, wildlife refuges and other places of "scenic" and ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Scientists warn of soot effect on climate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/24/climatechange.fossilfuels
Guardian: Soot produced by burning coal, diesel, wood and dung causes significantly more damage to the environment than previously thought, according to research published today. So-called "black carbon" could cause up to 60% of the current warming effect of carbon dioxide, according to the US researchers, making it an important target for efforts to slow global warming. Around 400,000 people are estimated to die each year due to inhaling soot particles, particularly because of indoor ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
The Road to a Stronger CAFE Standard
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23778688/
Business Week: Since last December, when President Bush signed an energy bill that requires auto companies to achieve a 35-mpg fuel economy standard by 2020, with substantial improvements by 2015, auto executives have been gnashing their teeth while environmentalists have been flashing the V sign for victory. Three months later, it has become evident the road to greater fuel efficiency is full of potholes. For one thing, the new legislation adds a new level of complexity to the 35-year-old CAFE ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United States: Want to aid climate? Fix land use, groups say
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1206321909135610.xml&coll=7
Oregonian: Three Oregon environmental groups are calling on state transportation and land-use commissions to set goals and adopt policies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by cutting back on car and truck travel in the state. 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Oregon Environmental Council and Environment Oregon recommend increased funding for transit, rail and bicycle transportation. The groups said vehicle operation or emissions taxes should be used to pay for transportation options other ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
'Green' bandwagon is getting a big push
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-03-23-green-behavior_N.htm
USA Today: "The missing ingredient is the force of public opinion." That's the line Cathy Zoi recalls from former vice president Al Gore when he urged her to become CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection. Americans are aware of global warming, "but they don't get the urgency of it and that this is solvable," says Zoi, who took the job last year. The new group is about to launch the most ambitious U.S. marketing campaign ever on climate change, at a cost of ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United Kingdom: 'Jet-setting' government clocked up 300 million air miles last year
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jetsetting-government-clocked-up-300-million-air-miles-last-year-800206.html
Independent: Ministers were accused of hypocrisy and extravagance after the Conservatives calculated that Whitehall departments and major public bodies clocked up more than 300 million "air miles" last year. The Tories said the flights would have been enough to take politicians and civil servants to the moon 1,280 times or make 12,240 journeys around the world. The figures came after the Sustainable Development Commission, an environmental watchdog, warned the Government that it ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
As Biofuels Catch On, Next Task Is to Deal With Environmental, Economic Impact
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120631198956758087.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: The world's economy is acquiring a new energy addiction: biofuels. Crop-based fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are quietly becoming a crucial component of the global energy supply, despite growing concerns about their impact on the environment and world food prices. Biofuels production is rising rapidly, while other fuel sources are failing to keep pace with demand. As a result, biofuels are making up a larger portion of the world's energy-supply gap than many analysts ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Australian wine industry feels heat from climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSYD225086
Reuters: Australian grape growers reckon they are the canary in the coalmine of global warming, as a long drought forces winemakers to rethink the styles of wine they can produce and the regions they can grow in. The three largest grape-growing regions in Australia, the driest inhabited continent on earth, all depend on irrigation to survive. The high cost of water has made life tough for growers. Some say they probably won't survive this year's harvest, because of the cost of keeping ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Black carbon adds the most to global warming
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14629010
Sify: Black carbon pollution - soot, diesel exhaust - is a greater contributor to global warming than believed earlier, according to leading atmospheric scientist V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. And China and India are major culprits, together accounting for between 25 and 35 per cent of black carbon emissions. Produced by biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhaust, black carbon has a warming effect three to four times greater than ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Bangladesh: Climate change battle limps for lack of fund
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=29186
Daily Star: Despite being at the forefront of countries affected by climate change, Bangladesh has received only $10 million in foreign aid over the past decade, even as recent donor estimates put future climate change adaptation bill for the country around $4 billion. Meanwhile, a climate change research centre and a government climate change data centre are in the pipeline to allow Bangladesh to use better models and data for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into government projects and ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Drought-hit Cyprus starts emergency water rations
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2455576320080324
Reuters: Cyprus on Monday ordered emergency water rationing and imports from Greece to cope with a growing shortage exacerbated by a fourth year of drought. The east Mediterranean island faces an unprecedented water crisis which has seen reservoir reserves plunge dangerously low and desalination plants unable to cope with growing demand. On Monday, the island's reservoirs were 10.3 percent full. Rainfall has been minimal since 2003. "Cuts are essential to cover the needs of ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Global Warming: Who Said What -- and When
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120605552237153199.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: It turns out Al Gore was hardly the first one to sound the alarm. Looking back nearly three decades, you can find prominent people warning the public about the danger of rising temperatures. But there have also been a number of skeptics. Here's a selection of quotes on climate change. --Compiled by Beckey Bright 1979 "It is the sense of the scientific community that carbon dioxide from unrestrained combustion of fossil fuels potentially is the most important ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Japan official suggests 2005 as emissions cut base
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jtCBZfzZvZ9NUnyLfd1GYSh-lrfA
Agence France Presse: A senior Japanese official said Monday that 2005 would be fair for a base year in a new deal on slashing greenhouse gases, suggesting the Kyoto Protocol was slanted towards the European position. The unusually blunt remarks come a week before the latest round of negotiations start in Bangkok on drafting a successor to Kyoto, the landmark treaty on fighting global warming. The Kyoto Protocol requires major developed nations to slash emissions blamed for global warming by an ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Japan Wants Softer Greenhouse Gas Target
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTSDuik3ZpDk6LpCSX7fiJv8DPCAD8VJT3U00
Associated Press: Japan will push for an easier target for reducing greenhouse gases in the next international pact on global warming, a government official said Monday. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 requires the industrial nations that ratified it to cut emissions below 1990 levels, but critics say that is too difficult because emissions in many countries have risen dramatically since then. Japan will push to set the base year as 2005 in an agreement that is meant to take effect when the Kyoto ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Move to bio-fuels prompts green revolt
http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/news/display.var.2142657.0.Move_to_biofuels_prompts_green_revolt.php
Herald: The government's drive to reduce carbon emissions from transport was confronted with a co-ordinated revolt among green groups yesterday, as its own chief environmental scientist branded the rush to embrace bio-fuels as "insane". Professor Robert Watson called for new regulations compelling oil companies to supply at least 2.5% of motor fuel at the pumps from bio-fuel to be put on hold until its environmental credentials can be established. His stance was backed by a ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United States: Scientists try to explain dismal salmon run
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/24/MN1BVMR10.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Amid growing concern over an imminent shutdown of the commercial and sport chinook salmon season, scientists are struggling to figure out why the largest run on the West Coast hit rock bottom and what Californians can do to bring it back. The chinook salmon - born in the rivers, growing in the bay and ocean, and returning to home rivers to spawn - need two essential conditions early in life to prosper: safe passage through the rivers to the bay and lots of seafood to eat once they ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United States: Study: Warming May Threaten Lake Tahoe
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDeWvUqhufLyH8rkUh0BEPTldDcgD8VK1VO84
Associated Press: A new study predicts water circulation in Lake Tahoe is being dramatically altered by global warming, threatening the lake's delicate ecosystem and famed clear waters. The University of California, Davis study said one likely consequence is warmer lake temperatures that will mean fewer cold-water native fish and more invasive species – like carp, large-mouth bass and bluegill. "What we expect is that deep mixing of Lake Tahoe's water layers will become less frequent, even ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Tony the climate tiger: Roaring success?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7307698.stm
BBC: Tony Blair rode into Japan on his white horse earlier this month calling for a "global environment revolution" that would see the world's biggest polluters, including China and India, cut their greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. So far, so good; but Blair's credentials on climate change and some of his recent statements show that he needs a revolution of his own mindset if he is to succeed. The same applies to Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda who ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
UN food agency launches 'emergency appeal': report
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hCQJiw06G4wKpuDGKTQ43AeLjU4w
Agence France Presse: The UN agency charged with relieving world hunger has launched an "extraordinary emergency appeal" for at least 500 million dollars (325 million euros), the Financial Times reported on Monday. According to the business daily, which cited a letter sent to donor countries over the weekend that it obtained, the money was required by the end of April, otherwise the World Food Programme (WFP) would have to reduce food rations because of rapidly increasing commodity ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Australia: Warming helps pests at native species' expense
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23423542-2761,00.html
AAP: As cane toads bear down on WA reports claim climate change gives the introduced pests even more of an advantage over native species. Human responses to climate change, such as increased farming in northern Australia, could also harm fragile birds and animals, the WWF report released today says. Species identified as being under threat of extinction due to global warming include bilbies, rock wallabies, quolls, turtles and Gouldian finches. The report - Australian Species ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
100 MPG Vehicles Will Race to Share $10 Million Prize
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-23-02.asp
Environment News Service: The Automotive X PRIZE Foundation will award at least $10 million in privately funded prizes to teams that can engineer clean, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 miles per gallon, or its energy equivalent fuel efficiency, and win a cross-country stage race. Officially launched Thursday at the New York International Auto Show, the independent and technology-neutral competition is open to teams from around the world that can design, build and bring to market high-efficiency ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United Kingdom: 15mph speed limit to force people out of cars
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/24/nroads124.xml
Telegraph: Speed limits of just 15 miles-per-hour are to be introduced on major roads in planned new towns across the country as part of an effort to reduce global warming. Caroline Flint, the housing minister, will unveil the measure when she publishes planning guidelines later this week for up to 15 "eco-towns" across the UK, which will house 100,000 people. The Government wants the towns designed and built to encourage people to stay out of their cars. It will ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
China hopes nuclear will replace coal
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/03/24/china_hopes_nuclear_will_replace_coal/2513/
United Press International: China is pushing to be an energy efficiency leader. A senior state leader said the country could lead the world in energy efficiency by 2050, China Daily reported. By then, nuclear power and renewable energy is likely to account for at least half of the country's energy mix, said Lu Yongxiang, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress. He is urging policymakers to increase their efforts to develop a long-term plan for China's energy ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Australia: Emissions plan may omit petrol
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23421886-2,00.html
Australian: ASSISTANT Treasurer Chris Bowen has left the door open to exempting petrol from a national emissions trading scheme. Mr Bowen confirmed yesterday that Kevin Rudd's concern over petrol prices putting pressure on family budgets would be a consideration in the design of any emissions trading scheme. But he played down reports of Easter price hikes by petrol retailers, suggesting the increases were within normal fluctuations. "Petrol is a very important commodity for ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Australia: Global warming making fish hard of hearing
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=6712e533-2383-4a9e-b5d7-3a6de0d050de&MatchID1=4664&TeamID1=5&TeamID2=2&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1173&MatchID2=4673&TeamID3=4&TeamID4=8&MatchType2=1&SeriesID2=1
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Climate change is dulling the hearing of fish and making it more difficult for them to find a home, Australian researchers say. More carbon in the atmosphere means less calcium in the water and consequently poorer hearing in fish, who use hearing as much as sight to locate a habitat. James Cook University researchers Monica Gagliano and Martial Depczynski says tropical fish on the Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Australia, are growing asymmetrical ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
United States: Global warming may turn Lake Tahoe murky
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0324-tahoe.html
Mongabay: Warming temperatures may cloud Lake Tahoe's legendary clear waters and put the lake's native species at risk, reports a new study from the University of California, Davis. The research projects higher temperatures will alter water circulation in the lake, dramatically altering the conditions for its flora and fauna. "What we expect is that deep mixing of Lake Tahoe's water layers will become less frequent, even non-existent, depleting the bottom waters of oxygen. This ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
India: Heavy summer rains sign of climate change
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Heavy_summer_rains_sign_of_climate_change/articleshow/2894102.cms
Economic Times: The unusual summer rains that pounded Kerala last week, leaving a trail of misery could be a clear indication of climate change, according to experts here. While it was usual for the state to get an average of two cms rainfall in March, this year it has already touched 17 cm, the highest recorded in 25 years, according to the Meteorological office here. Weather experts think that there could be more rains after a breather as the low-pressure in the Arabian sea is likely to ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
We need more nuclear plants to avoid blackouts, say German power chiefs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/24/nuclearpower.energyefficiency
Guardian: Senior German energy executives warned yesterday that Europe's biggest economy faces growing blackouts unless it follows the Franco-British lead in promoting new nuclear power stations. They seized on a weekend report in the Guardian that Gordon Brown and French president Nicolas Sarkozy will unveil an alliance to build nuclear plants and export the modern technology worldwide at their "Arsenal" summit at the Emirates Stadium this week to press the case for Germany to pursue ...
Tue, 25 Mar 08
Ethiopia: A warming world, overuse drain giant lake in a single generation
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/356178_water24.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Chala Ahmed, 26, hit the jackpot eight years ago when he won the U.S. visa lottery in the bustling eastern Ethiopian town of Haramaya. His first thought was that he would build his mother a big, beautiful house. His next thought was that the new home, painted a rosy pink behind a high white gate, should be erected on the shore of Lake Haramaya, the huge stretch of placid water that gave his hometown its name. It took Ahmed almost eight years of long-haul trucking across America ...
Mon, 24 Mar 08
Australia: Power price rises not 'overwhelming'
http://news.smh.com.au/power-price-rises-not-overwhelming/20080323-212b.html
Sydney Morning Herald: An emissions trading scheme will cause a significant but not overwhelming increase in electricity prices, the federal government's top climate change adviser says. Economist Ross Garnaut believes electricity and petrol prices will inevitably rise under emissions trading. Asked on Sunday how much electricity prices would rise, Professor Garnaut declined to put a figure on it. "It'll be significant, it won't be overwhelming, it won't be a doubling, it will be well ...
Mon, 24 Mar 08
Tropical Glaciers Slowly Vanish
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4498640&page=1
Christian Science Monitor: Each Saturday Delia Cascamayta hops on a bus to the colorful produce market in Cuzco, Peru. There she sells the bananas, yucca, potatoes, and oranges that she grows on a 25-acre patch in the Sacred Valley, named by the ancient Incas for its fertile soil. But as one of several farmers dependent on river water that originates from melting glaciers here in Peru, her feelings about her future are far less bright than the intense hues of her fruit display. "What's going to ...
Mon, 24 Mar 08
U.S. coal industry a major player in a hot global market
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/220665/
New York Times: vast reorganization of the global coal trade is making the United States a major exporter for the first time in years and is helping to drive up domestic prices of the one fossil fuel the nation has in abundance. Long a cheap and plentiful fuel source for utilities and their customers, coal has helped keep American electric bills relatively low. But rising worldwide demand is turning American coal into another hot global commodity, and domestic buyers have to compete with ...
Mon, 24 Mar 08
Curbing soot could blunt global warming: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jObvKCK9ZDHzMqfZ9wnE73NBwq5g
Agence France Presse: Sharply reducing the amount of black carbon -- commonly known as soot -- in the atmosphere could help slow global warming and buy precious time in the long-term fight against climate change, according to a study released Sunday. Curbing soot emissions could also be a life saver, said the study, published Sunday in the British journal Nature. Each year, more than 400,000 deaths among women and children in India alone, and 1.6 million worldwide, are attributed to smoke inhalation ...
Mon, 24 Mar 08
Russia in 2007 saw record number of dangerous weather phenomena
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/dangerous-weather-47032302
Itar Tass: Russia experiences steady growth in dangerous weather phenomena, the deputy chief of the national weather watching agency Rosgidromet, Alexander Frolov, told a news conference at Itar-Tass on Friday. According to the official, 2007 saw more of them than any previous year - 436. In 2006 there were 387 dangerous weather phenomena, and in 2005, 361. Frolov attributes the growth in high-risk weather phenomena to climate change, which manifests itself not only "in the trend of ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Climate change 'is accelerating'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/23/climatechange.carbonemissions
Observer: The growth of developing economies in Africa, Asia and South America has accelerated global warming far beyond official predictions and it is developed nations that must act to halt the potentially catastrophic consequences, according to a new study from the world's leading temporary power supplier, Aggreko. The warning, which has shocked environment campaigners, comes from Aggreko's chief executive, Rupert Soames, who said: 'The threat of global warming is far greater than people ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Australia Faces Higher Power Prices on Emissions Plan
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aV3.2zbXnnUw&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia faces a ``significant'' rise in electricity prices because of the introduction of emissions trading which will place a price on carbon, a government adviser said. The increase in power prices won't be ``overwhelming'' and will be less than a doubling, Ross Garnaut, an economics professor who is advising the government on the trading plan, said today on Ten Network Holdings Ltd.'s Meet the Press program. Gasoline prices will also rise, probably proportionally less than for ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
$10 million offered for production-ready 100-mpg vehicles
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/BUSINESS01/803210306/1014/business01
Detroit Free Press: Ten million dollars amounts to loose change for most automakers, but the backers of the Automotive X Prize hope it's enough to kick off a race for better vehicle technology. The foundation behind the X Prize unveiled title sponsor Progressive Insurance on Thursday and said it would begin testing vehicles in New York and other cities next year. The prize goes to the teams that can produce the most production-ready vehicles that get 100 miles per gallon or more and win a ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
More states step in to limit carbon emissions
http://www.kansas.com/news/state/story/349142.html
Wichita Eagle: Regulating greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, could drive businesses away from Kansas, some argue. But others say limits on greenhouse gases are coming, no matter what the state does. Federal lawmakers are considering plans to reduce greenhouse gases, and at least 17 other states are working to limit their state's greenhouse gas emissions. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Friday vetoed a bill that would have allowed two new coal-fired power plants in ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Oil-shale 'rush' is sparking concern
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695263708,00.html
Deseret Morning News: With oil prices surpassing $100 per barrel, talk of extracting the black gold wherever it can be found in Utah and elsewhere is raising red flags for environmental groups. The most recent complaint came this week from 26 conservation groups that accuse the Bush administration of rushing to develop oil shale and tar sands and endangering communities and 2 million acres of wild lands in three states, including Utah. A letter Thursday to the Bureau of Land Management from 26 ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Save the climate by saving the forests
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95327
New Scientist: KEVIN CONRAD was brought up in Papua New Guinea, the son of American missionaries. He spent his childhood "shooting birds, cutting down trees and burning things". His name might not be familiar, but at the Bali climate conference last December he drew applause and worldwide TV coverage for taking on the US. If it wasn't willing to lead the world in combating climate change, said Conrad, head of the Papua New Guinea delegation, the US should "get out of the way". There is more to ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
World Water Day today: 1.1 bn lack access to water
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/topstory/newsdetails.php?id=6614
Commodity Online: As the world celebrates World Water Day on Saturday, nearly 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, it requires 100 tonnes of water to produce one ton of grain and food security is under threat. The UN, which has been celebrating World Water Day for last fifteen years, reported this week that the world's glaciers are melting at "an alarming rate." Like reservoirs, glaciers store water and then release it at predictable rates, around which humans have formed communities ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
China: "When the well is dry we know the worth of water"
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/22/content_7837890.htm
China Daily: It is the 16th World Water Day since it was initiated by the United Nations in 1992 to promote awareness of increasingly serious water problems and press for action by governments worldwide to save and protect water resources. Benjamin Franklin once said: "When the well is dry, (then) we know the worth of water." However, we must know its worth before it is too late and the lack of water, or the want of drinkable water, threatens the existence of human life. ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Air Force Prod Aids Coal-To-Fuel Plans
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDV8DuaNJvKYJk98TvephqrLZWcwD8VICO9G0
Associated Press: On a wind-swept air base near the Missouri River, the Air Force has launched an ambitious plan to wean itself from foreign oil by turning to a new and unlikely source: coal. The Air Force wants to build at its Malmstrom base in central Montana the first piece of what it hopes will be a nationwide network of facilities that would convert domestic coal into cleaner-burning synthetic fuel. Air Force officials said the plants could help neutralize a national security threat by ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Philippines: Consumers urged to cut use of bottled water
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=112695
ABS-CBN: BRINGING bottled mineral water may be the most convenient way to quench your thirst during long trips, but they do have some drawbacks. Aside from being expensive, they cause problem of disposing their plastic containers, which sometimes contribute to the garbage woes–not to mention the pollution caused by producing the plastic containers to meet the ever-increasing demand for bottled mineral water, which greatly contributes to global warming. The EcoWaste Coalition, a waste ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Global warming disturbs seasonal timing changes
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation/story/542673.html
Associated Press: The cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited till around April 5. In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May. And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia. On March 9, when allergist Donald Dvorin set up his monitor, ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
United States: Governor backs an $8 toll to fight congestion, boost mass transit
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nytraffic22mar22,1,2694219.story
Newsday: Gov. David A. Paterson plunged into a divisive regional issue Friday, announcing his support for a plan to charge drivers to enter part of Manhattan. "Congestion pricing addresses two urgent concerns of the residents of New York City and its suburbs: the need to reduce congestion on our streets and roads, and thereby reduce pollution and global warming; and the need to raise significant revenue for mass-transit improvements," Paterson said in a statement. Paterson, a ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
India and China likely to face food shortage due to melting glaciers
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE320080322070158&Page=3&Title=Features+-+Health+%26+Science&Topic=166
Asia News International: A new study has determined that the melting of glaciers due to global warming might trigger food shortages in India and China. According to a report in New Scientist, the irrigation water vital for the grain crops that feed India and China is at risk of drying up, as global warming melts the glaciers that feed Asia's biggest rivers. Rains feed the Ganges, Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in India and China during the monsoon season, but during the dry season, they depend heavily on ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Insecure About Climate Change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102631.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Washington Post: When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, Americans witnessed what looked like an overseas humanitarian-relief operation. The storm destroyed much of the city, causing more than $80 billion in damage, killing more than 1,800 people, and displacing in excess of 270,000. The country suddenly had to divert its attention and military resources to respond to a domestic emergency. While scientists do not attribute single events to global warming, the storm gave Americans a visual image of ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Scientists seek climate clues on Antarctic voyage
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32624720080322
Reuters: Scientists set off on a voyage to Antarctica on Saturday to see if the icesheets at the edge of the vast continent are melting faster and whether the Southern Ocean is soaking up less climate-warming carbon dioxide. The Southern Ocean absorbs a large amount of the CO2 emitted by industry, power stations and transport, acting as a brake on climate change. "Some recent results suggest the Southern Ocean is becoming less effective at absorbing CO2 than it used to be," ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
Canada: Water supply under threat
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2008/03/22/5074606-sun.html
Canadian Press: Most Canadians are blissfully unaware that the water they take for granted is being threatened by overuse and mismanagement, say experts who warn climate change could soon make water shortages an unmistakable reality across the country. The United Nations is using today's World Water Day to warn about the impending dangers of water scarcity -- shortages that could affect two-thirds of the world's population by 2025. Canadian advocates hope the day will also raise awareness ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Woodchip power station 'opened'
http://www.cumberland-news.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=811260
Cumberland News: THE UK'S biggest wood-fired power station was officially opened near Lockerbie this week by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. Steven's Croft will be fuelled by woodchip from surrounding forests and willow grown by farmers throughout the Borders and Cumbria. The £70 million plant has been running at full capacity since December, producing enough power to supply 70,000 homes. Mr Salmond said: "Today we put Lockerbie on Scotland's renewable energy map, as the home of ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
United States: Benefits of solar energy manifold
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/mar/22/speakout-benefits-of-solar-energy-manifold/
Rocky Mountain News: Colorado is facing an energy challenge: can we meet increasing energy demand while reducing global warming pollution? Colorado's Climate Action Plan calls for cutting global warming pollution by 20 percent by 2020. According to a report by the Colorado Energy Forum, the state will need 4,900 megawatts of new generation by 2025. While renewable energy in Colorado is playing a growing role, conventional coal still supplies almost 80 percent of the state's electricity, the source of ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Experts mull future of Thames Barrier
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/03/22/experts_mull_future_of_thames_barrier/9253/
United Press International: Sea levels are rising much faster than when the Thames Barrier was designed, and British officials are looking ahead to new consider flood defenses. The barrier was designed in the 1970s and completed in 1982. At the time, average sea level rise around the world was 1.8 millimeters or .07 inches a year. In the past 15 years, sea-level rise has speeded up to 3.1 millimeters or .12 inches annually -- and it could accelerate with global warming. While experts say the barrier can ...
Sun, 23 Mar 08
UK and France 'plan nuclear deal'
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h97DFX3u6aPDBguS31NkPqG21ArQ
Press Association: Anti-nuclear campaigners have reacted with dismay to reports that Britain is on the brink of signing a deal with France to construct a new generation of power plants. Downing Street on Saturday declined to comment on claims that the agreement would be sealed during next week's state visit to the UK of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Guardian reported that, as well as committing themselves to using nuclear power to combat climate change, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Mr ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Kansas Governor Vetoes Bill to Allow Coal-Fired Plants
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032102722.html?hpid=sec-business
Associated Press: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill yesterday that would allow construction of two coal-fired power plants in the southwest part of the state and strip some power from the regulator who has blocked them. Legislators who support the bill have been working for weeks to build the two-thirds majorities they need in both chambers to override Sebelius's veto, which had been expected. "Of all the duties and responsibilities entrusted to me as governor, none is greater ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Lofty Pledge to Cut Emissions Comes With Caveat in Norway
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95321
New York Times: Last year, as United Nations scientists were warning of the perils of man-made climate change, this small country of fjords and factories reacted with an extraordinary pledge: by 2050 Norway would be "carbon neutral," generating no net greenhouse gases into the air. Norway's bold promise raised the bar for other nations, which were mostly still struggling to figure out how to reduce emissions, by even a fraction. Then, in January, the Norwegian government went a step further: Norway ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Solving the population problem
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/03/23/bosac123.xml
Telegraph: Thomas Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, published in 1798, had a subtle argument and an alarming conclusion. Improvements in food production would lead to population growth; growing populations would also lead to increases in food production; but of these two lines of growth, one (population) would be much steeper than the other. And once they were far apart, only famine, disease and war would bring them back together. When Malthus wrote his book, the world's population ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Water will be source of war unless world acts now, warns minister
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/water-will-be-source-of-war-unless-world-acts-now-warns-minister-799292.html
Independent: The world faces a future of "water wars", unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, according to Gareth Thomas, the International Development minister. The minister's warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. "If we do not act, the reality is that water supplies may ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
We're all doomed! 40 years from global catastrophe - and there's NOTHING we can do about it, says climate change expert
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=541748&in_page_id=1770
Daily Mail: The weather forecast for this holiday weekend is wildly unsettled. We had better get used to it. According to the climate change scientist James Lovelock, this is the beginning of the end of a peaceful phase in evolution. By 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been culled by floods, drought and famine. The people of Southern Europe, as well as South-East Asia, will be fighting their way into countries such as Canada, Australia and Britain. ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
India: “Restoring degraded forests, major task before us”
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/22/stories/2008032254330900.htm
Hindu: The major task before the country is to rehabilitate degraded forests, increase productivity and enhance the contribution of forests towards poverty alleviation among people living in and around forests, Minister of State for Environment and Forests S. Regupathy said on Friday. Speaking at World Forestry Day celebrations here, he said India was actively participating in different forest-related international processes. Meet on climate change It had highlighted the ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Air support for Africa's organic farms
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3599294.ece
Times (UK): Two of Britain's biggest airlines are joining forces with African farmers to fight environmental restrictions on food transported by air. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, which make millions of pounds from flying food in passenger jets, have given free tickets to representatives of farmers in Ghana and Kenya to visit London to argue their case. The airlines are planning to make a joint submission with the farmers to a review of air freight by the Soil Association, which ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Australia: Bottled water: the new social poison?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/bottled-water-the-new-social-poison/2008/03/21/1205602658558.html
Sydney Morning Herald: FIRST fast food, then plastic bags. Now bottled water is the next alleged social evil to find itself in the crosshairs of pressure groups. Environmentaists lay the blame for a growing mountain of plastic in landfill and the increasing strain on water resources directly at the feet of the large companies that sell bottled water. The problem of our growing addiction to bottled water will come up at a meeting of environment ministers next month where the question of a national ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Britain and France to take nuclear power to the world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/22/nuclearpower.energy1
Guardian: Britain and France are to sign a deal to construct a new generation of nuclear power stations and export the technology around the world in an effort to combat climate change. The pact is to be announced at the "Arsenal summit" next week when prime ministers Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy will meet at the Emirates stadium in north London. Britain hopes to take advantage of French expertise to build the power stations that do not rely on fossil fuels. Nearly 79% of ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Kansas Governor Vetoes Bill to Revive 2 Coal-Fired Plants
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95324
New York Times: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas vetoed a measure on Friday that would have forced the state to approve two coal-fired power plants producing large amounts of carbon dioxide. The veto, which was expected, is unlikely to be overridden in the Kansas House of Representatives, two legislators said. The State Senate passed the measure with a veto-proof majority. The two proposed plants, to be built by the Sunflower Electric Corporation in the southwest corner of the state, would ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Brazil pursues crackdown on loggers
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23742204/
Washington Post: An aggressive crackdown on logging in the Amazon has been launched by the Brazilian government, an operation that pits environmental regulators against people who say they depend on those protected resources to survive. After three years of declining rates of deforestation, satellite images released in January showed that as much as 2,700 square miles of land in the Brazilian Amazon had been cleared in the final five months of 2007 -- a rate that would represent more than a 60 percent ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/21/censoring_science_inside_the_political_attack
Democracy Noew: Dr. James Hansen is widely regarded as the leading climate change scientist in the country. For the past twenty-five years, he has headed NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Just over a year ago, Dr. Hansen went public with a charge that made headlines around the world–that the Bush administration had been trying to silence his warnings about the urgent need to address climate change. Dr. Hansen joins us in our firehouse studio. His story is detailed in a new book by author Mark ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Australia: Compo call for coal-fired energy producers
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/compo-call-for-coalfired-energy-producers/2008/03/21/1205602661781.html
Age: AUSTRALIA'S coal-fired energy industry has won the backing of business and the NSW Government in its campaign for massive compensation under Kevin Rudd's proposed laws to slash greenhouse gas emissions. A heated debate is raging between the electricity generation industry and Government climate change adviser Ross Garnaut, after he argued high-polluting power stations did not deserve a handout to ensure they survived. Under the professor's proposed carbon trading scheme, the ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
EU 'committed' to stiff CO2 cuts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7308036.stm
BBC: Europe's environment chief Stavros Dimas says the EU's leaders are still committed to ambitious CO2 cuts of up to 30% by 2020, despite the appearance of back-tracking at last week's European summit. Mr Dimas said it was natural for national leaders to debate the precise details of how the cuts would be implemented - but that did not suggest a weakening of overall resolve. Green groups gave a shudder last week when they heard Europe's big players - especially Germany - were ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Fight climate change by turning roof green
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/19/technology/rbogroof.php
International Herald Tribune: As climate change raises the alternating risks of urban flooding and drought, cities around the world are seeking better ways to manage water. In Europe and North America, two strategies are becoming increasingly popular: installing "green" roofs covered in vegetation and collecting rainwater for household use. New companies are sprouting to meet this demand, and existing companies are expanding. In Britain, the growth has been especially explosive: Manufacturers say the use ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Kansas governor vetoes plan for coal power plants
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2147013620080321
Reuters: In a big win for environmentalists, the Democratic governor of Kansas on Friday vetoed legislation that would have allowed a huge coal-fired power plant to expand in the state and spew 11 million more tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. The bill, approved by the Republican-dominated Kansas legislature, would have allowed Sunflower Electric Power Corp to add two 700-megawatt units at a facility in western Kansas. Under the bill, lawmakers sought to strip the authority of ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Massive reserves at stake in Arctic oil claim
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=0e151a0a-c5e6-49d7-bfa7-99bc4ff85f57&k=38324
Canwest News Service: A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said Thursday that new geological data suggests a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels. That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser. Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Melting glaciers will shrink harvests in India, China
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/melting-glaciers-will-shrink-harvests-in-india-china_10029810.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Shrinking Himalayan glaciers will turn the Ganga in India and the Yangtze in China into seasonal rivers that dry up in summers, massively reducing grain harvests, and may cause "politically unmanageable food shortages" in the region, a leading US environmental expert has warned. Climate-driven shrinkage of river-based irrigation water supplies in China and India, which produce half of the world's wheat and rice, could be "civilisation-threatening". The scary scenario can become a reality ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Researchers identify new 'biodiversity threats'
http://www.euractiv.com/en/science/researchers-identify-new-biodiversity-threats/article-171102
EurActiv: In an attempt to spot the next GMO-like controversy before it happens, environmental scientists, policymakers and environmental NGOs have, in a joint 'horizon scanning' exercise, drawn up a list of 25 novel threats and opportunities likely to affect biodiversity in the UK between now and 2050. "Horizon scanning is more and more common in government and business, but we should also be using it to help prioritise scientific research," said professor Bill Sutherland of the ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
S Korea to cap emissions for five years
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/054b7b4c-f730-11dc-ac40-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: The new government of South Korea, among the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, plans to cap emissions at 2005 levels for the next five years despite Seoul's exemption from cuts under the Kyoto protocol. The environment ministry presented the proposal to freeze emissions until 2012 on Friday in a report to Lee Myung-bak, president, in an effort to join international efforts to fight global warming. Although South Korea is the world's 12th largest economy, it is ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
South Korea announces plans to freeze emissions
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iADsFkY7BS2QiCO0Z6qvC1-ro84g
Agence France Presse: South Korea on Friday announced a plan to freeze greenhouse gas emissions at 2005 levels for the next five years, sparking cricitism from activists who are demanding more drastic measures. Environment Minister Lee Maan-Ee presented the initiative to freeze emissions until 2012 in a report to President Lee Myung-Bak, a ministry official said. The nation's annual carbon dioxide emissions doubled between 1990 and 2005 to 591 million tonnes. The world's 13th-largest economy stands ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
United States: Amended Bill For Emissions Cuts Approved
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/20/AR2008032003399.html?hpid=sec-metro
Washington Post: The Maryland Senate gave preliminary approval yesterday to an ambitious set of controls on carbon dioxide emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming. With passage likely in the House of Delegates and backing from Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), the Global Warming Solutions Act would make Maryland one of four states to pass laws that mandate caps on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, cars, trucks and other energy consumers. The bill would require carbon ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Arctic Pollution's Surprising History: Explorers Saw Particulate Haze In Late 1800s
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080319085406.htm
Science Daily: Scientists know that air pollution particles from mid-latitude cities migrate to the Arctic and form an ugly haze, but a new University of Utah study finds surprising evidence that polar explorers saw the same phenomenon as early as 1870. "The reaction from some colleagues -- when we first mentioned that people had seen haze in the late 1800s -- was that it was crazy," says Tim Garrett, assistant professor of meteorology and senior author of the study. "Who would have ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Climate Change deepening world water crisis
http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/03/22/fea06.asp
Ceylon Daily News: When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last January, his primary focus was not on the impending global economic recession but on the world's growing water crisis. "A shortage of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future," he told the annual gathering of business tycoons, academics and leaders from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. "Population growth will make the ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
United States: Coal plant legislation vetoed
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/10596
Prime Buzz: Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed legislation to allow a sizeable coal plant expansion in Western Kansas today. The bill would have eliminated the discretion a state regulator used last year to block Sunflower Electric Power Corp.'s plans to add two coal-burning plants to its existing Holcom, Kan. power station. The long-anticipated veto sets up a showdown with the Legislature, where leaders are counting votes to see whether they have the two-thirds majorities needed to override a ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
EU environment chief backs green tax plan - report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7402408
Reuters: The European Union's environment chief on Friday backed a Franco-British proposal to cut sales tax on green products to fight climate change, despite opposition from some countries and within the EU executive. EU leaders this month asked the European Commission to study all fiscal tools that could be used to increase the use of environmentally friendly products, including lower rates of value-added tax (VAT), though some in Brussels were unconvinced. "I support it. I think ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Australia: High cost of climate change
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23412015-3102,00.html
Courier Mail: TAXPAYERS could be forced to prop up Queensland's billion-dollar coal industry amid advice climate-change policies will drain profits and hurt regional communities. The Rudd Government's chief economic adviser on climate change released his blueprint for an emissions trading scheme on Thursday, painting a bitter-sweet road map for Queensland. Ross Garnaut has warned an emission trading scheme would make Australian coal less attractive on a world market. The Australian Coal ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Noah's Ark for salmon
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-pope21mar21,1,5918082.story
LA Times: As global warming bears down on our Western rivers and watersheds, it threatens one of the great symbols of Western abundance: wild salmon. With each passing year, their numbers have dropped precipitously. This decline is believed to be in part the result of warming temperatures in streams and rivers. Just last week, government fishery managers moved toward a ban on salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts because of the diminishing numbers of chinook salmon. If we ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
China's Yellow River floods town: report
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hZPrhBP1LlRYHdtMJGlByNc6ZiRQ
Agence France Presse: Yellow River floodwaters inundated an entire town in northern China on Friday amid frantic efforts to repair breaches to embankments caused by unexpected high water levels, state media reported. At least 10,000 residents of Duguitala in the Inner Mongolia region have been evacuated to a nearby desert area since water began pouring into the town on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency quoted a local official as saying. Embankments began to crumble on Wednesday after soaking in high ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Japan must lead way on nuclear energy, say advisors
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEHaZZKFDHEoZA8hyy2uA7z8qFyw
Agence France Presse: A government advisory body on Friday urged Tokyo to take the lead in promoting nuclear energy worldwide as part of efforts to fight global warming. Japan is struggling to meet its obligations to slash greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol and is also being hit hard by high oil prices as Asia's largest economy has virtually no natural energy resources. The Atomic Energy Commission, which is in charge of setting the country's nuclear energy policies, made the call for more ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Japan's nuclear body: Nuclear energy crucial in fighting global warming
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/21/content_7832802.htm
Xinhua: It is of vital importance to promote the exploitation of nuclear energy as the world is faced with huge challenges of climate change, said Japan's Atomic Energy Commission on Friday. The Japanese government should strive to incorporate the promotion of atomic energy as an important pillar in the global framework to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, said the nuclear body in an annual report submitted to the cabinet. People around the world are becoming increasingly aware that the ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Japanese commission touts nuke power
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/21/japanese_commission_touts_nuke_power/8431/
United Press International: Japan's Atomic Energy Commission said in its yearly report to the Cabinet Friday that increased nuclear energy use is vital to combat global warming. The commission said power suppliers in Japan should be more actively working to improve protection against earthquakes at nuclear plants, Kyodo reported Friday. The report cited increased public fears following earthquake damage last year to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s facility in Niigata Prefecture. The report said there is ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Virginia Law Requiring Use of Virginia Coal May Be Unconstitutional
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-21-094.asp
Environment News Service: A state law passed last year to encourage construction of a power plant in southwestern Virginia requires the plant to burn Virginia coal. This provision makes the law unconstitutional, the Southern Environmental Law Center said in a filing with the State Corporation Commission, SCC, challenging the law. By requiring such a facility to use Virginia-mined coal, the state law violates the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause, the law center contends. The State Corporation ...
Sat, 22 Mar 08
Fish key to reef climate survival
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7306693.stm
BBC: A healthy fish population could be the key to ensuring coral reefs survive the impacts of climate change, pollution, overfishing and other threats. Australian scientists found that some fish act as "lawnmowers", keeping coral free of kelp and unwanted algae. At a briefing to parliamentarians in Canberra, they said protected areas were rebuilding fish populations in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef. Warming seas are likely to affect the reef severely ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Climate Change Deepening World Water Crisis
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10126
Inter Press Service: When U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last January, his primary focus was not on the impending global economic recession but on the world's growing water crisis. "A shortage of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future," he told the annual gathering of business tycoons, academics and leaders from governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations. "Population growth ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Climate Change? Been There, Done That
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95264
New York Times: If you don't think climate change produces winners as well as losers, consider this: In the 12th and 13th centuries England exported wine to France. Vineyards also flourished in improbable regions like southern Norway and eastern Prussia. A centuries-long spell of mild, predictable weather blessed Western Europe with abundant crops, healthy populations and budget surpluses sufficient to finance projects like Chartres Cathedral. THE GREAT WARMING Climate Change and the Rise and ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Is the boom over for alternative energy - or just getting started?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0321/p25s07-wmgn.html
Christian Science Monitor: Everyone it seems has been investing in green energy – from Google to ExxonMobil. But this year the booming sector is suddenly in a serious funk. So is this time to get out – or jump in and snap up some long-term winners? To find out, the Monitor's Laurent Belsie recently talked with three experts who closely follow the field: Matt Patsky, portfolio manager of the Winslow Green Growth Fund, Paul Hilton, director of advanced equity research at Calvert, and Eric Becker, portfolio manager with ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia: Corals adapting to climate change
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082103-17085.html
Science Alert: In the first observation of its kind, a coral community in the southern inshore region of the Great Barrier Reef is showing signs of adjusting to higher sea surface temperature by quickly changing its main algal partners to types that can better cope with the heat. An AIMS field study near Miall Island, part of the Keppel group of 15 islands on the southern Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast near Rockhampton, has revealed a remarkable feat of acclimatisation; the only time ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia: Garnaut plan 'would kill NSW power sell-off'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/21/2196245.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The New South Wales Greens say the State Government needs to re-think its power privatisation plans after leading economist Ross Garnuat recommended against free emissions trading permits for electricity generators. The Federal Government's chief economic adviser on climate change yesterday released his latest discussion paper on how to implement an emissions trading scheme, which said permits should be auctioned. Greens MP John Kaye says the recommendation means the NSW ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
India: Climate Change plan before June: PM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Climate_Change_plan_before_June_PM/articleshow/2886155.cms
Times of India: The PM, responding in Rajya Sabha to a question raised by agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan, said that the government was finalising a National Action Plan on issues arising out of climate change. Swaminathan wanted to know whether the government was drawing up contingency plans to deal with the impact of environment change on specific crops like potato and wheat. The nominated MP said there was a need for crop-specific and region-specific plans to deal with the impact ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Pakistan: Climate change threatening food security
http://thepost.com.pk/IsbNews.aspx?dtlid=151088&catid=17
Post: Shahzad Ahmad, International Union for Conservation of Nature programme officer, has said climate change poses a food security threat and should be taken seriously to save coming generations from its hazardous effects. IUCN has held forums and seminars across the country to discuss the issue and to create awareness among the people, he added. Shahzad said a seminar 'Climate Change: The phenomenon and its impacts' was held on March 18 at Muzaffarabad with collaboration of Environmental ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
At island retreat, Branson and friends seek to save a world 'on fire'
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/business/deal.php
International Herald Tribune: Richard Branson was lounging under the starry midnight sky on this palm-dappled speck of an island recently when he popped a sobering question. "So, do we really think the world is on fire?" Branson, the British magnate and adventurer, asked several guests, as a manservant scurried off to fetch him another glass of pinot grigio. What he wanted to know was whether his high-powered visitors, among them Larry Page of Google, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Tony Blair, the ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia: Climate change rhetoric unsustainable
http://www.financialstandard.com.au/index.php?id=12096#Scene_1
Financial Standard: The reaction to the proposed plastic bag levy and expected energy price rises due to having to pay for carbon output shows Australia may not be as committed to sustainability as we claim to be. Australia is the nation which has the most signatories to the UN principles for responsible investing and we regularly tell countries like the US, China and India to follow our climate change policy lead. But when it comes to practical responses to sustainability our interest quickly ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Coal Can't Fill World's Burning Appetite
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903859.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: Long considered an abundant, reliable and relatively cheap source of energy, coal is suddenly in short supply and high demand worldwide. An untimely confluence of bad weather, flawed energy policies, low stockpiles and voracious growth in Asia's appetite has driven international spot prices of coal up by 50 percent or more in the past five months, surpassing the escalation in oil prices. The signs of a coal crisis have been showing up from mine mouths to factory gates and ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Experts Say Climate Change Drives Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa
http://voanews.com/english/2008-03-20-voa33.cfm
Voice of America: Migration and development in Africa were the themes of this week's conference. Climate change was a major topic. It is being seen as one of the leading causes of migration. Al-Hamndou Dorsouma, with the Tunis-based Sahara and Sahel Observatory, says climate change worsens weather extremes in the region, including flooding, drought, and desertification. He says even if more research is needed, the link between desertification and migration is clear. He says the phenomenon is ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Global Warming Bringing Spring Earlier
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080320-AP-warming-spr.html
Association Press: Washington, D.C.'s famous cherry trees are primed to burst in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited to bloom until around April 5. In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, drab little butterflies, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May. And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On March 9, when ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Suez sees water fuelling investment boom
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7397990
Reuters: A global population boom and climate change will fuel huge investment in water and waste projects around the world in coming decades, the head of the world's second biggest water group said in an interview. "We are at the onset of a revolution," Suez Environnement Chief Executive Jean-Louis Chaussade told Reuters on the eve of Mar. 20 United Nations' World Water Day. "All the issues linked to global warming, water resources, the increase in population, mean that ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
World Bank seeks $5 bln for clean energy fund
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN024972.html
Reuters: Donor commitments to finance a World Bank clean technology fund for developing countries have not yet reached the $5 billion target, the bank's top environment official says. Talks with donors are determining their interest in contributing to the fund and with developing countries on its design, Kathy Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development, told Reuters. She said the fund would accelerate and scale up low carbon and climate-resilient investments in the ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
A carbon-neutral Norway: Fine print in the plan
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/europe/norway.php
International Herald Tribune: Last year, as United Nations scientists were warning of the perils of man-made climate change, this small country of fjords and factories reacted with an extraordinary pledge: By 2050 Norway would be "carbon neutral" - generating no net greenhouse gasses into the air. Norway's bold promise raised the bar for other nations, who were mostly still struggling to figure out how to reduce emissions, even fractionally. Then, in January, the Norwegian government upped the ante ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Algae may help corals withstand warmer waters
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT27365720080320
Reuters: Certain types of algae can help corals withstand higher sea temperatures and prevent them from bleaching, scientists in Australia have found. Coral reefs are vulnerable to climate change and without rapid genetic adaptation, they will not survive projected sea temperature increases over the next 50 years, experts say. But in an article published in latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, the researchers said they may have found an answer to ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia plans carbon storage under sea
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080320.IBCARBON20/TPStory/Business
Reuters: Australia plans to allow greenhouse gas emissions to be stored in the ocean floor around the island continent, with exploration for suitable sites possibly starting this year. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the government would amend the Offshore Petroleum Act this year to allow for seabed storage of carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations. "Australia has significant geological storage potential, particularly in our offshore sedimentary basins," Mr. ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australian carbon should be auctioned: adviser
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSYD30073120080320
Reuters: Australia's farmers, coal miners and power generators should have to bid at auction for carbon permits when carbon trading starts in 2010, the government's top climate adviser said on Thursday. Ross Garnaut, appointed by the government to help work out how to best introduce carbon trading, said giving major polluting industries free carbon permits would make no difference to the higher prices people would pay for energy or goods. "Whether permits are allocated freely or ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Barrier will protect London to 'end of century'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3d75e474-f615-11dc-8d3d-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: The Thames Barrier will continue to protect London from North Sea storm surges for the rest of this century, even if global warming accelerates and sea level rises faster than expected, the Environment Agency says in a new study. Later this spring ITV viewers will be presented with a dystopian vision of the capital submerged by a catastrophic storm surge at a cost of thousands of lives and billions of pounds in damage when the channel shows Flood, its £15m ($30m) disaster ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Canadians don't think water is scarce but climate change a real threat: experts
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5qPIUb0XNhbtjhty3ptbIePLjbA
Canadian Press: Most Canadians are blissfully unaware that the water they take for granted is being threatened by overuse and mismanagement, say experts who warn climate change could soon make water shortages an unmistakable reality across the country. The United Nations is using Saturday's World Water Day to warn about the impending dangers of water scarcity - shortages that could affect two-thirds of the world's population by 2025. Canadian advocates say they hope the day will also raise ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Demand for coal brings multiple worries
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Business/2008/03/20/demand_for_coal_brings_multiple_worries/9473/
United Press International: A soaring demand for coal is outstripping capacity in some regions and causing environmental and economic worries in the United States and abroad. Coal prices have risen 50 percent in the last five months and consumption has increased 30 percent in the past six years, The Washington Post reported. Demand is expected to increase as emerging markets, such as China and India, supply electricity to more people. In China, demand is gaining 10 percent a year. Last year, China ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Dutch Minister Sees No Need For Biofuels Moratorium
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47606/story.htm
Reuters: A national moratorium on the use of biofuels would not stop other countries producing unsustainably and a better strategy would be to develop industry standards, the Dutch environment minister said on Wednesday. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels last year, saying it was a "crime against humanity" to convert food crops to fuel. Britain's transport ministry has said it will review the environmental ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Dutch Opt For Coal With Carbon Capture, Not Nuclear
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47611/story.htm
Reuters: The Netherlands will focus on developing cleaner coal plants and raising renewable energy output to cut carbon emissions rather than expanding its nuclear energy industry at present, the environment minister said. While other European countries like Britain are taking a fresh look at nuclear power due to its credentials as a carbon free energy source, the Dutch government is sticking to an agreement to build no more nuclear plants during its mandate. Despite a recent report ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
India drafting plan to address climate change: PM
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/india-drafting-plan-to-address-climate-change-pm_10029655.html
Indo-Asian News Service: The Indian government is drafting a National Action Plan to address the issue of climate change, including the measures required for mitigating its impact on food grain production, parliament was informed Thursday. Responding to an issue raised in the Rajya Sabha by renowned scientist M.S. Swaminathan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the impact of climate change has "engaged" the government's attention. Towards this, the government was preparing a National Action Plan "to deal with ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Industry lobbies against climate change
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/03/20/afx4799418.html
Associated Press: Energy companies and other business interests have launched a nationwide campaign to undermine climate change legislation pending in Congress, saying it could cost millions of jobs, drive gasoline prices sharply higher and suck thousands of dollars from household incomes. The effort comes as the Senate prepares to take up a bill in the coming months that would impose mandatory emissions reductions. The proposed bill would set a nationwide cap on emissions, and create a cap-and-trade ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Is Carbon Capture a False Hope for Coal Power?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,542508,00.html
Spiegel: Dirty coal power plants could be made environmentally friendly by capturing the CO2 they emit. The technology is currently being tested on a small scale. But will the cost of the new technology make coal power unprofitable? It's not easy being a power plant manager: Noboby wants to talk about the future of nuclear power at the moment. The memories of the public relations disasters that were the accidents at the Brunsbüttel and Krümmel nuclear power stations -- which saw both plants ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Is Carbon Capture a False Hope for Coal?
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2008/gb20080320_350517.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories
Spiegel: It's not easy being a power plant manager: Noboby wants to talk about the future of nuclear power at the moment. The memories of the public relations disasters that were the accidents at the Brunsbüttel and Krümmel nuclear power stations–which saw both plants temporarily shut down last June–are still too raw. Even coal power, which still accounts for half of Germany's electricity production, has a problem: the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). But at least here there is hope–the ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Costa Rica: Rainforest Climate Change Sensor Station Goes Wi-Fi
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=rainforest-climate-change
Scientific American: For more than half a century, the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica has provided researchers with the data needed to study everything from local amphibian and reptile populations to global warming. To meet a growing demand for La Selva's treasure trove of biological and environmental data, the main facilities are getting a $785,000 high-tech makeover that includes wireless access to measurement systems that collect and transmit data and provide a dynamic 3-D analysis of the ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia: Rudd 'must face up' to carbon trading costs
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/20/2196194.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Opposition says the latest report from Professor Ross Garnaut reveals how much costs will rise when the emissions trading scheme starts. Professor Garnaut, who released his latest discussion paper on how to implement a scheme to put a cost on carbon, says low-income earners will be especially affected by the rising costs of power and fuel. He suggests using the profits from auctioning carbon permits to help them cope. The Coalition's environment spokesman, ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Scientists investigate marine photosynthesis
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/bildung_wissenschaft/bericht-105969.html
Innovations Report: Scientists from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex have been awarded £400,000 to study the effects of phosphorous and iron limitation on photosynthetic algae crucial to combating global warming. The project, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, will involve growing two different species of cyanobacteria – photosynthetic algae that are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere – under different conditions. Dr Tracy Lawson and Professors ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
States' Battles Over Energy Grow Fiercer With U.S. in a Policy Gridlock
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95252
New York Times: Utility executives in Kansas were shocked last fall when a state environmental official rejected two coal-fired power plants because of the millions of tons of carbon-dioxide emissions they could produce. In a state where coal generates 73 percent of the electricity, the pro-coal forces were unable to work their will. That ineffectiveness will be underscored as early as Friday if Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, as expected, vetoes an effort by the Kansas State Legislature to ensure the plants ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
The seeds of aridity: Crops for a parched world
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/20/business/rbogscarce.php
International Herald Tribune: Six years ago, Jennifer Thomson, a molecular biologist in South Africa, trekked high into the Drakensberg mountain range seeking ways of cultivating food in an increasingly arid environment. After seven hours on the trail, she spotted an inhospitable-looking rock face dotted with green grassy tufts, a cluster of resurrection plants, so called for their ability to spring back to life after surviving periods of drought in a state of desiccated dormancy. Thomson collected samples of the ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
US election boosts prospects for climate deal: bank
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g__tNslLw-mRvjLF0mRTbWLp0ZKA
Agence France Presse: A global agreement on tackling climate change will be much more likely under a new US president, top US investment bank Lehman Brothers said here Thursday. US leadership is key to reaching a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions, it said, noting that all White House challengers are talking up the need to tackle the issue. Americans go to the polls in November to elect a new president to succeed President George W. Bush, whose Republican administration has refused to ratify the ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia must lead world on carbon trading, says Garnaut
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23408294-5005961,00.html
AAP: AUSTRALIA should establish an emissions trading scheme to tackle climate change before a comprehensive global agreement on carbon trading is reached, the Federal Government's top climate change adviser Ross Garnaut says. Professor Garnaut released a discussion paper on emissions trading in Sydney today. "It is not in Australia's interests to free-ride, nor to act in isolation," the paper, entitled the Garnaut Climate Change Review, said. "We should ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australian Adviser Proposes Emission Permit Auctions
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aRn9AryhRtr0&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia should sell emissions permits for its proposed trading system in competitive auctions rather than allocating them for free to avoid ``handing out money'' to polluting power generators, a government adviser said. Whether emissions allowances are auctioned or freely allocated won't affect how much power prices rise, Ross Garnaut, an economics professor who is advising the government on the trading plan, said today. Auctioning is ``the transparent and economically efficient ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Buying time on greenhouse gases
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/31660
Scripps News: The realists in the global-warming debate have a new mantra: Too Little, Too Late and Too Much, Too Soon. According to Jim Hansen of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, to whom many political and environmental leaders turn on climate-change questions, we must reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent within 12 years or it will be too late to prevent a climate catastrophe. Hansen thinks this won't happen because it simply costs too much. He knows the citizens of the world won't ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia: Emissions trading: expect price pain
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23409593-1702,00.html
AAP: THE Federal Government's top climate change adviser has warned electricity and petrol price hikes are inevitable under emissions trading and recommends using some of the revenue to ease the pain. In a discussion paper released today, economist Ross Garnaut argued against offering free trading permits to big polluting industries which may be hit hard by carbon pricing. Professor Garnaut also advocated allowing permit hoarding, creating an independent "carbon bank'' to ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Renewable energy law signed into effect in Chile
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2040461920080320
Reuters: Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed a new energy law into effect on Thursday that requires electric utilities to invest in and supply nonconventional energy sources (NCES). The vanguard law is an attempt by the energy-poor country to diversify supply as it tries to feed booming industry, particularly its copper mining sector. The law mandates that NCES account for at least 10 percent of the energy supplied by Chile's electric utilities by 2024, and was approved by ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Study: UK to miss renewable energy goal
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/20/content_7828863.htm
Xinhua: Britain is likely to miss targets proposed by the European Union (EU) for renewable energy use "by a wide margin," according to a Cambridge University study. The study by Cambridge Econometrics, a leading economics and industrial forecasting group with Cambridge University, said Britain would not meet the goal put forward by the European Commission for the country to source 15 percent of its total energy needs from renewables such as wind power and biofuels by 2020. ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Twirling blades add power to the push for renewable energy
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/NEWS05/803200441/1007/NEWS05
Detroit Free Press: Up close, they look like tall, graceful dancers doing cartwheels over muddy fields and barns. They mesmerize, their slowly turning blades glinting bright white in the late afternoon sun. "People come all the time and just stop and look at them," said farmer Bob Krohn of the three wind turbines on his land. Harvest Wind Farm's 32 wind turbines near this small Thumb town have proven popular so far, adding $22 million in taxable value to Oliver Township's tax base and ...
Fri, 21 Mar 08
Australia: Wong hails emissions trading reform
http://news.smh.com.au/energy-prices-to-rise-with-carbon-costs/20080320-20pj.html
AAP: The federal government's top climate change adviser has warned electricity and petrol price hikes are inevitable under emissions trading and recommends using some of the revenue to ease the pain. In a discussion paper released on Thursday, economist Ross Garnaut argued against offering free trading permits to big polluting industries which may be hit hard by carbon pricing. Professor Garnaut also advocates allowing permit hoarding, creating an independent "carbon ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
An Export in Solid Supply
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95147
New York Times: These days, people really are taking coals to Newcastle. That flow is part of a vast reorganization of the global coal trade that is making the United States a major exporter for the first time in years – and helping to drive up domestic prices of the one fossil fuel the nation has in abundance. Coal has long been a cheap and plentiful fuel source for utilities and their customers, helping to keep American electric bills relatively low. But rising worldwide demand is ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Europe's Worst Pollution Pocket Found Above Western Germany
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3202143,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Home to Germany's steel and coal industries, the area between Amsterdam and Frankfurt is the most polluted in Europe, scientists said. German researchers in Bremen based their findings on new, unique satellite data. For the first time ever, scientists have been able to measure the regional concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a research team from Germany's Bremen University announced on Tuesday, March 18. The highest concentration of human-generated CO2 can be ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Has Climate Already Passed Dangerous Point?
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/james-hansen-47031902
Daily Green: James Hansen, long an outspoken scientist warning of the dangers of doing nothing to stop global warming, has articulated a new position at odds with the scientific consensus stated by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Rather than seeking to avoid a doubling of carbon in the atmosphere (compared to pre-industrial times) in order to avoid the worst consequences of global warming, Hansen suggests that the world has already passed this point. He says we've ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Investors put their liquidity in water
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/19/business/water.php
International Herald Tribune: As liquidity is drained from credit and money markets and pours into oil and gold, another asset class that could offer long-term returns to the discerning investor is water. Water shortages are on the rise, stemming from soaring demand, growing populations, rising living standards and changing diets. A lack of supply is compounded by pollution and climate change. Investors are mobilizing funds to buy the assets that control water and improve supplies, especially in developing ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Largest wood-fired power station in UK opened
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2132582.0.Largest_woodfired_power_station_in_UK_opened.php
Herald: The UK's biggest wood-fired power station was today formally opened by the First Minister who hailed it as a green energy milestone. The Steven's Croft "biomass" power station at Lockerbie will produce enough power to supply up to 70,000 homes, more than 17 times the population of the Border town. The 44-megawatt station burns forestry left-overs and specially-grown willow, helping jobs and saving up to 140,000 tonnes a year of greenhouse gases. Alex Salmond ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Vietnam 'hub for illegal timber'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7302732.stm
BBC: Vietnam has become a major South-East Asian hub for processing illegally logged timber, according to a report from two environmental charities. The trade threatens some of the last intact forests in the region, say the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Indonesia's Telapak. Because Vietnam has increased measures to protect its own forest, producers are getting timber from other nations. The authors add that some of the timber is reaching the UK as ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Carbon offset schemes "confusing"
http://uk.reuters.com/article/personalFinanceNews/idUKHIL94348220080319
Reuters: Carbon offsetting Web sites are inconsistent and confusing, with costs varying by up to 540 percent, according to a report. A survey by Which? Money found huge variations in how such offsetting schemes calculate people's "carbon footprint" -- and how much they charge. A range of activities affect the carbon footprint of individuals, from driving to work and flying overseas to heating and lighting our homes and buying food from non-local sources; the higher the ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Chinese biofuel 'could endanger biodiversity'
http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?passfrom=enterprisestory&storyid=3116
My News: Using China''s forests and 'idle land' to produce biofuels could pose a threat to biodiversity, warned experts at an international meeting. Spike Millington, chief technical advisor to the European Union-China Biodiversity Programme, raised the problem earlier this month (7 March) at the International Workshop on Biodiversity and Climate Change, held in Beijing, China. In July 2007, China released its middle- and long-term plan for renewable energy. While shunning corn or ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Icy start, but 2008 may be in top 10 warmest years
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32579520080319
Reuters: After the coldest start to a year in more than a decade, spring will bring relief to the northern hemisphere from Thursday. Bucking the trend of global warming, the start of 2008 saw icy weather around the world from China to Greece. But despite its chilly start, 2008 is expected to end up among the top 10 warmest years since records began in the 1860s. This winter, ski resorts from the United States to Scandinavia have deep snow. Last year, after a string of mild winters, some ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Japan can cut emissions 11 pct by 2020-Trade Min
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL19673300
Reuters: Japan can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 11 percent by 2020 below 2005 levels, a trade ministry study said on Wednesday, far below efforts proposed by U.N. officials and the European Union. Japan could achieve the cuts through an overhaul of energy supply including installing solar panels on 70 percent of new homes and a jump in nuclear power-generated electricity to 45 percent of supply from 30 percent currently, as well as a 15 percent improvement in auto fuel ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Japan to Pay Billions to Cut Emissions
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gV2F2od8Tvlf-fxNBMP3ZI_miFdQD8VGEGOO0
Associated Press: Japanese households and businesses could end up paying more than $500 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 11 percent over the next decade, the trade and industry ministry said Wednesday. The report mapped out the changes that consumers and industry would have to make in order to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming below 2005 levels by 2020. The forecast, by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, comes as Japan is struggling to ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Tropical forest changes 'explained by multiple factors'
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/tropical-forest-changes-explained-by-multiple-fact.html
SciDev.Net: Changes in the growth and species composition of tropical forests cannot be fully explained by global environmental changes, say researchers. Recent studies in the Amazon rainforest have suggested that changes such as the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (see Carbon emissions 'may alter forest growth patterns') and other factors such as nutrient deposition, temperature, drought frequency and irradiance are increasing the productivity and biomass of forests. Shifts in the ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Water too cheap in Australia: OECD
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/03/19/Water_too_cheap_in_Australia_OECD
AAP: Australians must pay more for water to conserve the scarce resource and encourage investment in alternative supplies, an OECD environmental report says. The Environmental Performance Review of Australia says the nation should achieve full-cost recovery of delivering water for urban and agricultural use. The recommendation is one of 45 made by the OECD's Environment Directorate in the first such report about Australia in a decade. "Water prices for urban consumers ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
China unveils renewable energy plan
http://www.cctv.com/program/bizchina/20080319/102809.shtml
CCTV: China's top economic planner on Tuesday released the renewable energy development plan for 2006-2010. Under the plan, annual consumption of renewable energy will reach 10 percent of the country's total annual energy consumption by 2010. That target, if reached, will nearly double the 2005 level. The NDRC pointed out that China is facing shortage of petroleum and natural gas resource. It adds that it's difficult to sustain development and protect the environment by relying simply on ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Government delays add to building emissions
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/19/eawarren119.xml
Telegraph: So the introduction of the energy performance certificate package has been delayed yet again. Is this really a cause for celebration? No. It is more a cause for depression, at the continuing number of lost opportunities to improve our building stock. The provision of energy performance certificates is one of the key requirements of the European Energy Performance of Buildings directive. As long ago as 2002, this directive was agreed unanimously by every European government. As ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Minister under fire on renewables
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7304913.stm
BBC: The Scottish Government has come under pressure to increase its funding and planning support for renewable energy. At a conference in Edinburgh, organised by the renewables industry, ministers were told that the journey to a low carbon economy had barely begun. Chairman of Scottish Renewables Alistair Jamieson said more needed to be done to reduce CO2 emissions. Finance Secretary John Swinney said an extra £15.5m of funding had been allocated to community projects. ...
Thu, 20 Mar 08
Australia: Warming will overheat air cons
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082003-17077-3.html
Science Alert: Office air conditioning systems face collapse under the pressure of global warming unless steps are taken now to reduce both the internal and external heat affecting buildings, a QUT engineering researcher says. Dr Lisa Guan, from Queensland University of Technology's School of Engineering Systems, said her PhD computer modelling study of indoor thermal environment and the cooling load faced by air-conditioners in office buildings showed most units would not cope with global warming. ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
China's pollution nightmare is now everyone's pollution nightmare
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0319/p09s01-coop.html
Christian Science Monitor: The emergence of China as a dominant economic power is an epochal event, occasioning the most massive and rapid redistribution of the earth's resources in human history. The country has also become a ravenous consumer. Its appetite for raw materials drives up international commodity prices and shipping rates while its middle class, projected to jump to 700 million by 2020, is learning the gratifications of consumerism. The catch is that China has become not just the world's ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Europe's Renewables Lead Stirs US Concern-Germany
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47583/story.htm
Reuters: The United States' resistance to international efforts to fight climate change is linked to Europe's growing competitive advantage in the renewable energies sector, Germany's deputy environment minister said on Monday. Michael Mueller said he believed that economic interests were playing an increasingly important role in international negotiations aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouses gases. Germany is a world leader in renewables technology. "In the United States there is ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Old King Coal Makes Comeback In Britain
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47580/story.htm
Reuters: Coal mining is making a comeback in Britain as the quest for secure energy supplies chips away at environmental objections and record high prices for the raw material make pits economically viable. For the first time since the 1984 miners' strike that broke the militant colliery unions, saw coal imports surge and mines close, pits are reopening and miners are being recruited. "Coal has never gone away, but with the price having more than doubled in the past year and ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Japan: Govt study finds warming to increase risk of floods
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20080319TDY04304.htm
Yomiuri Shimbun: Rivers will become 50 to 75 percent more liable to flood by the end of the century due to an increase in torrential rains caused by global warming, according to a provisional calculation by the Construction and Transport Ministry. This raises questions over whether the government will be able to sufficiently respond to the problem simply by taking conventional measures such as expanding banks and dams. The government might need to adjust town planning on the assumption of possible ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
China CO2 Emissions Growing Faster Than Anticipated
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080318-china-warming.html
National Geographic: China's greenhouse gas emissions are rising much faster than expected and will overshadow the cuts in global emissions expected due to the Kyoto Protocol, according to a new study. Forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had predicted that China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would rise by about 2.5 to 5 percent each year between 2004 and 2010. But the estimates are two to four times too low, according to new research led by Maximilian Auffhammer ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Cities Around the World Are 'Going Green'
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-03-18-voa1.cfm
Voice of America: VOICE ONE: I'm Steve Ember. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we explore ways in which local governments around the world are working to protect the environment. These "green cities" are working to reduce energy use and pollution in new and creative ways. Such efforts by city governments not only help reverse the effects of climate change. They also help governments save large amounts of money on energy costs. And, ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
NASA data shows thickest and oldest Arctic ice is melting
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN1822988120080318
Reuters: The thickest, oldest and toughest sea ice around the North Pole is melting, a bad sign for the future of the Arctic ice cap, NASA satellite data showed on Tuesday. "Thickness is an indicator of long-term health of sea ice, and that's not looking good at the moment," Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told reporters in a telephone briefing. This adds to the litany of disturbing news about Arctic sea ice, which has been retreating over the last three ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
United States: Tax Breaks Turn Solar Power into Cold Cash
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1301091/tax_breaks_turn_solar_power_into_cold_cash/
Oregonian: Tax breaks and cash rebates have done what the most gung-ho green talk has not: ignited a solar power boom in Oregon. Oregon officials expect the amount of solar power in the state to jump more than eightfold this year as businesses, nonprofits and government agencies install rooftop and ground-mounted photovoltaic systems at record rates. The surge is courtesy of the taxpayer, who foots the bill in this effort to go green. Beefed-up state and federal incentives make ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
New Zealand: Trees from 'energy forests' could solve future fuel needs
http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/Story/tabid/209/articleID/49771/cat/41/Default.aspx
New Zealand Press Association: Trees grown in "energy forests" could provide biofuels to meet all of the nation's future transport fuel and heat energy needs, says a state-owned science company, Scion. The forestry research institute earlier this month showed bioethanol produced from wood and wood waste was a feasible option for transport biofuels. Scion worked with US-based company Verenium Corporation, to use its enzymes to refine the celluose in wood into ethanol and other products. ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Alaska climate impact commission issues findings
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/mar/18/alaska-climate-impact-commission-issues-findings/
Daily News-Miner: The Alaska Climate Impact Assessment Commission released its final report on the impacts of climate change in Alaska on Monday after holding hearings around the state and gathering testimony from hundreds of Alaska residents and experts. The 124-page report describes existing and likely impacts, makes recommendations for dealing with changes and includes assessments of likely impacts by seven state agencies. It mentions the potential benefits of a warming climate but suggests ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Arctic losing long-term ice cover
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7303385.stm
BBC: The Arctic is losing its old, thick ice faster than in previous years, according to satellite data. The loss has continued since the end of the Arctic summer, despite cold weather across the northern hemisphere. The warm 2007 summer saw the smallest area of ice ever recorded in the region, and scientists say 2008 could follow a similar pattern. Older floes are thicker and less saline than newly-formed ice, meaning they can survive warm spells better. Ice more ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Arctic Sea Ice Builds, but Vulnerable
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6qGcE_o2K6yNxUxx4GkiVUl7GfwD8VG22D00
Associated Press: Critical Arctic sea ice this winter made a tenuous partial recovery from last summer's record melt, federal scientists said Tuesday. But that's an illusion, like a Hollywood movie set, scientist Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center said. The ice is very thin and vulnerable to heavy melting again this summer. Overall, Arctic sea ice has shrunk precipitously in the past decade and scientists blame global warming caused by humans. Last summer, Arctic ice shrank to ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Canadians in fog over causes of global warming: poll
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=8ea0dfb3-1fc0-4913-b090-1fe307040e0a&k=28188
Canwest News Service: Four of five Canadians say they understand what is causing global warming but a majority does not seem to know that scientific research blames greenhouse gas pollution from industrial facilities and other human activity for causing the problem, a poll has revealed. Meantime, despite gloomy media reports and warnings about a recession, the environment remains the No. 1 priority of Canadians ahead of both jobs and the economy, according to the survey commissioned by a public relations ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
China unveils renewable energy development plan for 2006-2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/18/content_7815959.htm
Xinhua: China's annual consumption of renewable energy will reach the equivalent of 300 million tons of standard coal by 2010, which would be 10 percent of its total annual energy consumption, under the renewable energy development plan for 2006-2010. The plan was released on Tuesday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planning agency. The plan says 2010 renewable energy consumption will nearly double the 2005 level, which was ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Climate Change: The World's Biggest Security Threat
http://www.alternet.org/environment/79882/
Christian Science Monitor: Rising sea levels are what some nations fear most about global warming. But in Europe, climate change is likely to mean a new flood of immigrants from Africa and other poorer countries, according to a new report. That was one of the issues before the heads of state from the 27-member European Union as they gathered in Brussels Thursday and Friday to address climate change and, in particular, the security threats it raises. Unchecked climate change could not only cause a flood ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Cutting emissions in Japan to be costly - report
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cutting-emissions-japan-costly-report/story.aspx?guid=%7B9B410D93-4BCF-433F-8656-466AF152C51C%7D
MarketWatch: The technologies needed to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Japan by 2020 will cost consumers and businesses a total of 52 trillion yen (about $500 billion), according to a published report citing a new study from the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Dramatically reducing the emissions, which contribute to climate change, is a stated goal of the Japanese government, according to a report in the Wednesday edition of the Nikkei Business Daily. But ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Freak Winter Weather: Fluke or Fuel in Warming Debate?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080318-winter-warming.html
National Geographic: Freak winter weather has struck almost every area of the Northern Hemisphere with bizarre extremes in recent months. Snow fell on usually sweltering Baghdad and paralyzed central China, while the season barely registered in Scandinavia, where some countries have seen the warmest winter in centuries. The unusual season seems to be the result of a "perfect storm" of weather patterns occurring at once, experts say. But what does this mean for the debate about ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Migrating spring birds arriving early
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/18/easpring118.xml
Telegraph: Spring - as far as migrant birds are concerned - began in Britain in mid-March and a week before the equinox this year, at least in the south of England. While the opposite end of the country will have to wait longer to experience such delights, the first real wave of passage songbirds of 2008 appeared on Channel coast headlands such as Portland Bill, Dorset. Martin Cade, Portland Bird Observatory's warden, spoke of fields being "festooned" with wheatears, ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Poor are sidelined on climate change solutions
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/18/business/greencol19.php
International Herald Tribune: The mantra from businesses and politicians in the developed world is that technology will provide a solution to rising global emissions. Indeed, they say, fighting global warming can be good for business. General Electric has rightly staked a claim to be an environmental leader by selling wind turbines. Wal-Mart is going green by asking its suppliers to evaluate their emissions as they manufacture Wal-Mart products. Trading in carbon emissions can certainly be profitable: In a month ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Power Plant CO2 Increases by 3 Percent
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iqPhwOt3wFJGHbVmTpM0XzYlhVrwD8VG3J0G0
Associated Press: The amount of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, released by the nation's power plants grew by nearly 3 percent last year, the largest annual increase in nearly a decade, an environmental group said Tuesday. The analysis of government emissions figures covered more than 1,000 plants including those burning coal, natural gas and oil. The report by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, said that the 2.9 percent increase in CO2 releases ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
World Bank launches new carbon guarantee product
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN823722.html
Reuters: The World Bank on Monday launched a new carbon credit trading guarantee that will allow private-sector firms in developing countries to tap the growing 40 billion euro global carbon market, a senior official said. The International Finance Corp, the World Bank's private-sector lender, said it signed its first carbon delivery guarantee agreements with fertilizer producers Omnia of South Africa and Rain CII Carbon in India. In South Africa, IFC's agreement covers up to 900,000 ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
World's Glaciers Are Melting at Record Rate, UN Report Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a.SMtX2BKH0I&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Glaciers supplying water to millions of people worldwide are thawing at record rates, and some could disappear altogether in the coming decades, a United Nations-funded study found. The average rate of melting and thinning of the ice almost tripled in 2006, to 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), from 0.5 meters in 2005, the UN-backed World Glacier Monitoring Service reported. The measurement that scientists use is the amount of water released by the melting glaciers. The thickness of the ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
EU says targets needed to fight climate change
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT31582820080318
Reuters: A senior European Commission official on Tuesday called again for numerical targets to effectively fight climate change. "We want to frame such a discussion ... as we do in Europe within the context of one numerical target within which emissions reductions would have to be structured," said Jos Delbeke, EU deputy director-general for environment. Delbeke was speaking in Tokyo after taking part in a meeting of 20 of the world's top greenhouse gas polluter nations, ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Government fails to reduce its carbon footprint
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/18/easustain118.xml
Telegraph: The Government is failing to reduce its carbon footprint, a new report reveals. And it needs to take urgent and radical action if it is to meet its own sustainability targets. The findings are made in the sixth annual review of Government operations by its own advisory watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission. (SDC) The report says nearly two thirds of Government departments are still not on track to meet carbon reduction targets of 12.5 per cent by 2010 although ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
India starts solar power generation
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/03/18/india_starts_solar_power_generation/9639/
United Press International: India has unveiled a program to support megawatt-sized, grid-interactive solar power-generation projects up to a maximum capacity of 50 MW. "Any registered company as project developer, would be eligible to set up solar power projects on build, own and operate basis," said Vilas Muttemwar, minister for new and renewable energy. "Proposal from each project developer with a maximum aggregate capacity of 5 MW, either through a single project or multiple projects of a ...
Wed, 19 Mar 08
Japan to host climate change summit
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT26877020080318
Reuters: Leaders from 16 countries including the Group of Eight (G8), China, India and Brazil will gather to discuss climate change on the sidelines of the G8 summit in July, Japan's top government spokesman said on Tuesday. Global warming is at the top of the agenda for the G8 summit and host country Japan is inviting the leaders of Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa and Mexico to attend an expanded gathering on the topic on July 9, Chief Cabinet Secretary ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Carbon capture is turning out to be just another great green scam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/18/fossilfuels.carbonemissions
Guardian: 'Coal is so clean and fresh that the prime minister brushes his teeth with it, Downing Street said last night. Mr Brown said advances in coal technology meant it was now one of the cleanest substances on Earth, and an unrivalled remover of stains and scaling." So says the satirical website the Daily Mash. The real claims are scarcely battier. Ministers are about to decide whether to approve a new coal-burning power station at Kingsnorth in Kent. This would be the first such plant ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Climate refugees
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/3/18/lifefocus/20642838&sec=lifefocus
Reuters: THE islanders of Tuvalu could lose their homes and much of their land in the coming decades. But the world has yet to figure out how it will deal with them, and millions of others, who may be displaced by climate change. It's a problem with immediate resonance in the nine tiny Pacific islands that make up Tuvalu. The group of atolls and reefs is on average barely two metres above sea level. The United Nations climate panel estimates that oceans will rise by 18cm to 59cm by 2100. This, ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United States: In a Warmer Yellowstone Park, a Shifting Environmental Balance
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95019
New York Times: The grassy sweep of the Lamar Valley in the northeastern corner of this park is famous for its wildlife, especially its vast herds of elk and bison and the wolves that hunt them. But while walking across the Lamar last fall, Robert L. Crabtree, chief scientist with the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center in Bozeman, Mont., pointed out a cascade of ecological changes under way. The number of grizzly bears and gophers in the valley has increased, Dr. Crabtree said, an increase ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Melting Pace of Glaciers Is Accelerating, Report Says
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=95014
New York Times: Most of the world's mountain glaciers, many of which feed major rivers and water supplies, are shrinking at an accelerating pace as the climate warms, according to a new report. The report charts changes through 2006. It was issued Monday by the World Glacier Monitoring Service, which is based at the University of Zurich and supported by the United Nations Environment Program. "The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Government 'missing its own carbon targets'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/18/climatechange.carbonemissions
Guardian: The government is in danger of losing credibility on climate change because more than half of all its departments are failing to reduce their carbon emissions enough to reach levels that the nation as a whole is expected to meet. Apart from the Ministry of Defence, which significantly reduced its emissions in 2005/6 following a part privatisation, central government now emits 22% more than it did in 1999, according to the sustainable development commission. The independent ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Japan: Government to purchase carbon quotas from Poland
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20080318TDY02310.htm
Daily Yomiuri: The Japanese and Polish governments have reached a basic agreement under which the Japan will purchase a portion of Poland's greenhouse gas emission quotas, it was learned Monday. It will be the Japanese government's second agreement on emissions trading following an agreement Tokyo signed with Budapest last year to purchase a portion of Hungary's emission quotas. The emissions trading will be done through a method called the Green Investment Scheme, which the country that ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
IEA's Tanaka Seeks Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. Clean Energy Investment
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a__gvyt201DY&refer=japan
Bloomberg: The International Energy Agency wants Middle Eastern nations profiting from record oil prices to invest in technologies that reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. Saudi Arabia is interested in solar power and capturing and storing carbon dioxide, Nobuo Tanaka, IEA's executive director, said in an interview. He will visit Saudi Arabia in April to meet Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, followed by the United Arab Emirates. Oil's 88 percent gain in a year to a record ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Wind power urged for computers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/18/carbonemissions.news
Guardian: The world's computing power should be moved from desktop computers and company servers to remote outposts where renewable energy such as wind and solar power is abundant, according to a Cambridge University computer expert. With carbon emissions from computing set to rise rapidly in the coming decades, he said his idea could significantly reduce the contribution made by computers to climate change. "There's something very special about computing power which is very different from ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
'You need a world carbon bank'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interviews/You_need_a_world_carbon_bank/articleshow/2876050.cms
Economic Times: Is climate change largely a corporate social responsibility issue with corporates or has it become important in business decisions as well? There is a complete change in the way climate change is being perceived by managements in the last 12-18 months. It is entirely out of the CSR bucket, and has truly arrived as a strategic topic. People understand climate change is about the long-term viability of their business. We have done 160 studies over the last 12 months on climate ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Australia: Funds shun renewable energy
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/funds-shun-renewable-energy/2008/03/17/1205602293074.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIAN Government investment funds are putting nearly 50 times more money into the fossil fuel and uranium industries than into renewable energy, a new report has found. Large Government-owned investors, including the Federal Government's Future Fund and state bodies such as the Workcover Authority, are investing in direct conflict with their governments' plans to reduce greenhouse emissions, according to the report, to be released today by the Australian Conservation ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Government 'to miss green targets'
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iHfVz14N91yNPRJYjR-ZjuhhyVvg
Press Association: The Government is set to miss targets to reduce carbon emissions from its own departments' offices and transport, a report has warned. The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) said despite leading the way on climate change on the global stage, the Government needed to take "radical action to put its own house in order" in a number of areas. The sixth annual assessment of Government performance against a series of sustainability targets showed two thirds of ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
China: Olympics-Beijing Pollution No Threat To Athletes-IOC
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47559/story.htm
Reuters: Pollution at the Beijing Olympics poses no immediate threat to athletes' health but could affect world-class performances, the International Olympic Committee's top medical official Arne Ljungqvist said on Monday. "I believe the conditions will be good for athletes although they will not necessarily be ideal," the IOC medical commission chief told reporters in a conference call from Sweden. "There may be some risks," he added. "They would be associated with prolonged high ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Outrage over airlines' empty 'ghost flights'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/outrage-over-airlines-empty-ghost-flights-797125.html
Independent: Airlines that run empty "ghost flights", needlessly pumping hundreds of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, should face heavy fines, environmentalists have demanded. The Government was being urged to clamp down on the practice after it emerged that British Airways had flown three long-haul services between London, Hong Kong and Mumbai last week, even though staff illness meant there were no passengers on board. It is estimated that between them the three ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
"Unheard Of" Super-Cell Tornadoes Strike
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/tornadoes-47031703
Daily Green: Five super-cell tornadoes tore through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina Saturday, in a fit of destruction that one local official called "unheard of." Except, we keep hearing about it. This is only the latest outbreak of tornadoes in the United States this year. Already, the number of tornadoes reported in 2008 dwarfs the typical year-to-date tally, and severe tornadoes have struck at odd times, and in odd places. The Georgia Dome, in Atlanta, was ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Blair Says Global Climate Talks Need New Initiative
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47547/story.htm
Reuters: Former British prime minister Tony Blair urged the world's top greenhouse gas emitters on Saturday to launch a revolution to fight climate change and said he'll work to sell a new global framework to slash carbon emissions. Blair told a gathering of G20 nations, ranging from top carbon emitter the United States to Indonesia and South Africa, that the call to action was clear and urgent and believed part of the solution was a renaissance for nuclear power. "We have ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Blair: Poor Nations Must Cut Emissions
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2008/03/17/ap/science/d8vdmi800.txt
Associated Press: China, India and other developing nations must join industrialized countries in reducing greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to avert a global warming disaster, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at a climate change conference Saturday. An agreement to succeed the Kyoto global warming pact that expires at the end of 2012 will have to find a way to include developing nations, while allowing them to grow their economies, Blair told the meeting of 20 ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Food and fossil fuels
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/eco.food.miles/
CNN: Eating ethically is no easy task these days. One problem is deciding which ethic is more important. Keeping third-world farmers in fair trade jobs by purchasing their produce? Or assuaging your concerns over the environmental impact of getting that produce to your kitchen by shopping locally instead? Up until recently it has been the latter concern -- how food is transported -- that has hogged the limelight when it comes to looking at the role the food chain plays in climate change. ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Thaw Of World's Glaciers Quickens To New Record-UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47546/story.htm
Reuters: A thaw of the world's glaciers has accelerated to a new record with some of the biggest losses within Europe, in a worrying sign of climate change, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Sunday. "Meltdown in the mountains," UNEP said in a statement, saying that a retreat of glaciers from the Andes to the Arctic should add urgency to UN negotiations on working out a new treaty by the end of 2009 to combat global warming. "Data from close to 30 reference ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
The Imminent Threat of Global Water Wars
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=7&no=382102&rel_no=1
OhmyNews: There is no consensus among water analysts on whether there will be global wars over water ownership. According to UNESCO, globally there are 262 international river basins: 59 in Africa, 52 in Asia, 73 in Europe, 61 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 17 in North America -- overall, 145 countries have territories that include at least one shared river basin. UNESCO states that between 1948 and 1999, there have been 1,831 "international interactions" recorded, ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
A Glacial Vanishing Act
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41626
Inter Press Service: Glaciers, the world's freshwater towers, continue their record-breaking meltdown, a new U.N. report shows. The average rate of thinning and melting more than doubled between 2004 and 2006, reports the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), a centre based at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. "The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight," said Wilfried Haeberli, director of the WGMS. The ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Australia to have carbon trading scheme by 2010: minister
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVIqnh-FIQPVRcKBW_xI8_LoOUCQ
Agence France Presse: Australia will have a carbon emissions trading scheme in place by 2010, under a plan released Monday by the minister for climate change, Penny Wong. Senator Wong said the national scheme would "constitute the most significant economic and structural reform undertaken in Australia since the trade liberalisation of the 1980s." Emissions trading schemes place a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas pollution which companies can produce, forcing heavy polluters to buy ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Big polluters demand billion-dollar 'ransom'
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/big-polluters-demand-billiondollar-ransom/2008/03/17/1205602291182.html
Age: AUSTRALIA'S electricity generation industry is demanding massive compensation from the Federal Government in return for its co-operation in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In a challenge to the Government's climate adviser, Ross Garnaut, the power generators have warned of soaring costs to consumers and disruptions to supplies unless they are compensated for the costs of complying with anti-greenhouse laws. With most of Australia's electricity coming coal-fired ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Climate change is latest threat to world's dwindling fish stocks
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/climate-change-is-latest-threat-to-worlds-dwindling-fish-stocks_10028163.html
Asia News International: A new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has suggested that climate change is emerging as the latest threat to the world's dwindling fish stocks. The report suggests that at least three quarters of the globe's key fishing grounds may become seriously impacted by changes in circulation as a result of the ocean's natural pumping systems fading and falling. These natural pumps, dotted at sites across the world including the Arctic and the Mediterranean, bring nutrients ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Climate change: 'Indigenous people can help'
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20080317104924378C568755
Agence France Presse: Honduras' Quezungal farmers have an age-old trick to protect their crops from hurricanes - planting them under trees whose roots would anchor the soil, thereby holding the crops steady. Not just these farmers, but many indigenous people around the world are sitting on a treasure trove of traditional knowledge that could be mined as the world seeks adaptation strategies to deal with climate change, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Demolishing old houses and building new adds to climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/17/eahomes117.xml
Telegraph (UK): Demolishing tens of thousands of Victorian and Edwardian homes and building new ones is adding unnecessarily to climate change, researchers said today. If the 288,000 long-term empty homes in England were used and upgraded to higher efficiency standards, instead of many of them being demolished under Government "Pathfinder" regeneration schemes, it would save the equivalent of three million cars being taken off the roads for a year. Researchers commissioned by the ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
EU official: More rivalry for fewer resources will keep prices high, stunt growth
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/17/business/EU-FIN-ECO-EU-Economy.php
Associated Press: More global rivalry for declining natural resources that industries depend on will likely make it much harder for European economies to keep on growing while maintaining the stability of prices, the EU's top economy official said Monday. Climate change and tension on natural resource markets – caused by growing demand for fewer raw materials such as iron ore and oil – were causing substantial price increases that would pose a tough challenge for Europe in the years ahead, EU Economic ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
G20 Nations Discuss Shape Of Post-Kyoto Pact
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47545/story.htm
Reuters: The world's major greenhouse gas emitters headed into a final session of talks on Sunday on the shape of a post-Kyoto Protocol climate pact, with Japan's aim to promote sectoral caps for industry under fire. Japan is hosting a three-day meeting of G20 energy and environment ministers and feels capping emissions for polluting industries such as power generation is one way to curb rising carbon dioxide emissions. But developing nations in the grouping feel the concept is ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Glaciers Are Melting Faster Than Expected, UN Reports
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080317154235.htm
Science Daily: The world's glaciers are continuing to melt away with the latest official figures showing record losses, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today. Data from close to 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges indicate that between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 the average rate of melting and thinning more than doubled. The findings come from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), a centre based at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and that is ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Global warming is a planetary emergency: Al Gore
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5830&issueid=45&Itemid=1
India Today: In an interview with India Today's Managing Editor Raj Chengappa and Mail Today's Dinesh Sharma, prominent environmental activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former US Vice President Al Gore deliberates upon the issue of global warming. Excerpts: Raj Chengappa: You probably have achieved more in the past seven years than all your years in Government and Legislature that included being twice the vice president of the US. You shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, your documentary movie ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Japan, Peru join hands in fight against climate change
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/192871,japan-peru-join-hands-in-fight-against-climate-change.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Leaders of Japan and Peru on Monday in Tokyo signed a joint statement to strengthen cooperation in the fight against global warming in their first summit talk in nine years. The statement stipulates that Japan and Peru would focus on mitigation and adaptation measures, and pollution issues. Japan promised financial aid to Peru in its effort to fight against climate change. Ahead of a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Peruvian President Alan Garcia, ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Lehman sees U.S. climate move to spur carbon trade
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUST29629420080317
Reuters: Signs the United States will soon respond to global warming and a new climate pact now under discussion are set to drive the carbon market further in the next two years, Lehman Brothers said on Monday. Several states in the United States, the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, have recently moved to choose carbon trading, instead of carbon taxation, paving the way for Washington to take similar moves. "I'm fairly confident that no later than 2010 you'll see a ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Australia: More money urged for green energy
http://news.smh.com.au/more-money-urged-for-green-energy/20080318-200t.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Environment groups have urged governments to spend more taxpayers' money on renewable energy than the fossil fuel industry. Greenpeace released an opinion poll which found a majority of Australians think renewables should receive more subsidies than fossil fuels like coal. The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) issued a report showing federal and state governments are investing nearly 50 times as much on fossil fuels and uranium mining as they do on technologies like ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Price of war: Developing renewable energy may be cheaper
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8606481
Salt Lake Tribune: The United States cannot afford the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not in terms of lives and not in terms of treasure. As if to drive this lesson home, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz estimates in a new book that in 2008, the combined wars in Asia will cost the United States about $12 billion a month. Using various assumptions, which he called conservative, Stiglitz projects that the wars will cost the United States between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion by 2017. ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Renewable Energy files to withdraw IPO plans
http://www.reuters.com/article/newIssuesNews/idUSWNAS512820080317
Reuters: Renewable Energy Group Inc on Monday filed with U.S. regulators to withdraw a planned initial public offering of its common stock, citing current market conditions. The Ralston, Iowa-based company had previously filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $150 million in an initial public offering. The company had planned to apply for listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "RWE."
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Scientists forecast a storm from climate change
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/03/17/mexico.nature2/
CNN: White sand beaches, tropical rain forests and colorful coral reefs -- southern Mexico would appear to have it all. Hurricane Dean hits Mexico in August last year. Experts argue hurricanes are worsening due to human activity. 1 of 3 But it seems that this area of outstanding natural beauty is also unusually susceptible to danger in the form of costly -- both human and financial -- natural disasters. This year alone two maximum strength hurricanes passed over the Yucatan ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
US Requires Trains, Ships To Cut Engine Pollution
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47543/story.htm
Reuters: The US Environmental Protection Agency on Friday issued tough standards to significantly cut polluting emissions spewed from new diesel engines that will power trains and ships. When fully implemented, the new standards will reduce soot by 90 percent, or 27,000 tons, and cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 percent, or nearly 800,000 tons. The cleaner engines would reduce pollutants linked to health problems such as asthma, preventing 1,400 deaths and 120,000 lost workdays ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Australia: Academic wants more research on climate change preparation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/17/2191431.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A Northern Territory academic is calling for more research into how central Australia can prepare for the adverse effects of climate change. Charles Darwin University Professor Rolf Gerritsen says hotter, wetter conditions will lead to greater use of airconditioning. He says this and higher capital costs will make life more expensive. Professor Gerritsen says although it is difficult to predict just how climate change will affect central Australia, more research needs ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Brazil Flex-Fuel Cars Help Tame Gasoline Prices
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47548/story.htm
Reuters: A massive new fleet of flex-fuel cars in Brazil has prevented state oil company Petrobras from charging more for gasoline despite record world oil prices, the company said Friday. Petrobras downstream director, Paulo Roberto Costa, said consumers in Latin America's largest country would stop buying gasoline and switch to cheaper ethanol if the price of the fossil fuel was raised to match world levels after being frozen since late 2005. "It doesn't make sense hiking ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Australia: Energy 'collapse' will force nuclear use, says expert
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/17/2191969.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A professor of geology has warned there will be no option other than embracing nuclear power in Australia when other energy sources collapse. Professor Ian Plimer from Adelaide University has addressed a uranium conference in Adelaide. He says wind and solar power will not be viable to meet energy demands when the electricity grid eventually fails under extreme pressure. "They are straining right now and a few more years of growth, a few more hot summers and a few more ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Australia: Govt to issue paper on emissions trading
http://news.theage.com.au/govt-to-issue-paper-on-emissions-trading/20080317-1zyr.html
AAP: The federal government will offer a much-awaited glimpse of its emissions trading plans when a green paper is released in July. A timetable released said the government would by the end of the year give a "firm indication" of the scheme's trajectory, which would determine the initial price of carbon. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong reaffirmed the scheme - the centrepiece of efforts to curb greenhouse gases - would begin in 2010. The timetable includes ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
India to use biofuels for transportation
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/03/17/india_to_use_biofuels_for_transportation/3528/
United Press International: India has taken steps to use ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen for transportation, New and Renewable Energy Minister Vilas Muttemwar said. "The ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has mandated the use of 5 percent ethanol-blended petrol subject to commercial viability in the entire country," he said in a statement. "As a result, release of 5 percent ethanol-blended petrol has commenced at all locations in 19 states." He said that since Oct. 9, 2007, 5 ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
Indonesia urges G-8 countries on carbon emissions
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/3/17/indonesia-urges-g-8-countries-on-carbon-emissions/
Antara: Indonesia has insisted the advanced countries grouped in G-8 on immediately meeting their commitment to reduce their carbon emission, and fulfilling their responsibility to the developing countries in the handling dealing with climate and environmental change. The remark was made by Masnellyarti Hilman in her capacity as Deputy to the Environment Minister for Natural Resources Conservation Improvement and Environmental Damage Control who led an Indonesian delegation to the Environment ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Protection zones urged for threatened seabirds
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3571669.ece
Times (UK): Dozens of marine zones vital to the survival of seabird species have been identified by conservationists. More than 70 areas where nationally important populations of seabirds can be found were pinpointed in a report by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Specially protected areas are needed in almost a third of national waters but in Britain less than one in every 100,000 square miles has protection, the report said. Among the seabirds most in need ...
Tue, 18 Mar 08
United States: To avoid fights, set rules for windmills now, experts say
http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/03/17/MOREWIND.ART_ART_03-17-08_A1_QV9LQIN.html?sid=101
Columbus Dispatch: As the movement to build more green-energy-producing windmills in Ohio progresses, some officials hope we have learned lessons from the past. It's a familiar story, this windmill debate: It pits neighbor against neighbor, and it leaves government officials scratching their heads over how to regulate something new. Not so long ago, the same things happened with cell-phone towers. In some parts of Ohio, it happened with oil rigs. And way back when, the fights were about the ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Australia confronts cold facts
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/australia-confronts-cold-facts/2008/03/16/1205602195051.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, warns the Government's plan to cut greenhouse gases will produce the biggest shake-up to the economy in decades, and she has promised to set out by July how households and businesses will be hit. Senator Wong unveiled her timetable as the United Nations published an alarming report showing the world's glaciers are melting at a record rate under the impact of climate change, threatening millions of people with water ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
EU Warns of Spat Over Melting Arctic
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/03/17/044.html
Bloomberg: Climate change may provoke conflict between the European Union and Russia as Arctic ice melts, easing access to fossil fuel deposits and opening new sea routes, the EU's top two foreign policy officials said Friday. Warming temperatures may pose "serious security risks" including increased immigration, less secure water supplies in some countries, and diminishing food and fish stocks, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Relations Commissioner Benita ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
India can lead world in renewable energy: Al Gore
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ixuQdiZkFfGPiBiXap4W5u5u1Vcw
Agence France Presse: India, as an advanced developing nation, can help lead the world in renewable energy technologies to solve "the climate change crisis," former US vice president and Nobel Peace winner Al Gore said. "India has proven its capability in sectors like information technology and can be a leader in the world in developing new renewable technologies to combat climate change," Gore told reporters here in New Delhi on the weekend. Gore was speaking at the launch on ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Australia: Climate change scheme two years away: Wong
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/17/2190973.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has revealed details of the Government's timetable for an emissions trading scheme. Senator Wong says a green paper looking at the design of the scheme will be released in July and businesses will be invited to have their say. She says she expects the scheme will be up and running by 2010. "Emissions trading is one of the most far-reaching and significant reforms that this country will undertake and it is at the heart of ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Australia: Timeline for carbon trade scheme unveiled
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23387758-5005961,00.html
AAP: THE Federal Government has announced a detailed timeline for a national carbon trading scheme which could be up and running by 2010. The Government will also determine the impact on low-income earners if the cost of energy rises under any scheme. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said a consultation paper would be released in July and legislation could be drafted by the end of the year. "What I have announced today is a detailed timetable to get us there. We are ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
UN: World's Glaciers Thawing at Record Rates
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-16-voa8.cfm
Voice of America: The United Nations Environment Program says the world's glaciers are shrinking at record rates and many could disappear within decades, in a troubling sign of global climate change. The U.N. agency said Sunday that glaciers shrank by an average of 1.5 meters in 2006, up from just over half a meter in 2005. The agency says further ice loss could have dramatic consequences, particularly in Asia where millions of people depend on seasonal melt water from the Himalayas. The World ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Water everywhere, but not clean enough to drink
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL14483989
Reuters: Following are some facts about strains on the world's freshwater supplies: OVERVIEW: * Seventy percent of the world's surface is covered by water but 97.5 percent of that is salt water. Of the remaining 2.5 percent that is freshwater, 68.7 percent is frozen in ice caps and glaciers. Less than one percent is available for human use. * More than 1.2 billion people, about a fifth of humanity, lack access to safe drinking water, according to U.N. data. About 2.6 billion, or ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Wong Says Australia to Start Emissions Trading System in 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=akDaCZ7U7ZkU&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia's emissions trading system will begin in 2010 and the market will determine the price, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said. The new Labor government, elected in November and which signed the Kyoto Protocol in its first day in office, has started talks with the industry on technical issues for the system and will release a so-called Green Paper on its design in July. Draft regulations will be released in December and the system will start in 2010. ``The ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Activists fight Heathrow expansion
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-heathrow16mar16,1,5215659.story
LA Times: It was a chilly Monday morning at one of the most heavily guarded airports in the world, and Anna Jones was on top of a just-landed British Airways jet, wrapping an outlaw banner around its tail fin. "It felt quite exhilarating and it felt important," said the longtime Greenpeace activist, who was one of four protesters to attach the "Climate Emergency -- No 3rd Runway" banner to the Airbus A320 at Heathrow Airport. "It felt like we needed to make this stand, ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Climate change could turn Ireland's green to brown
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1444055820080316
Reuters: The wearin' of the brown? Forty shades of beige? Climate change could turn Ireland's legendary emerald landscape a dusty tan, with profound effects on its society and culture, a new study released in time for St. Patrick's Day reported. Entitled "Changing Shades of Green," the report by the Irish American Climate Project twins science gleaned from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the musings of a poet, a fiddler, a fisherman, a farmer and others with ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
EU agrees climate plan deadline
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7296564.stm
BBC: EU leaders have agreed to finish talks by the end of the year on an ambitious plan to fight climate change. After a two-day summit in Brussels, leaders for the 27 nations said they hoped new legislation would be enacted in early 2009. The bloc aims to implement a 20% cut in greenhouse gases by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. But EU leaders said they needed to look at the consequences for heavy industry and that could complicate negotiations. The summit also ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
G20 backs climate fight, argues over industry caps
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnSP112775.html
Reuters: A grouping of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters on Sunday backed U.N.-led efforts to forge a global pact to fight climate change but disagreed on a sectoral approach to curb emissions from industry. G20 nations ranging from top carbon emitters the United States and China to big developing economies Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa held three days of talks near Tokyo to discuss ways to tackle rapidly rising emissions. "It's not so much these two groups are at ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Glaciers suffer record shrinkage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7299561.stm
BBC: The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown. Average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimetres per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 metres in 2006. Some of the biggest losses have occurred in the Alps and Pyrenees mountain ranges in Europe. Experts have called for "immediate action" to reverse the trend, which is seen as a key climate change indicator. ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Japan faces criticism over industry-specific emissions targets at climate conference
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/16/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Climate-Conference.php
Associated Press: Japan's push to include industry-specific caps for carbon dioxide emissions in the world's next global warming pact ran into opposition Sunday from critics who charged it could lead to protectionism and hinder the battle against climate change. Japan has been promoting a so-called sectoral approach in which global industries such as steel or cement would set international guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions. Proponents say such a system would set a level playing field for ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Peru to allow Amazon explorations despite protests
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1444962920080314
Reuters: Peru will forge ahead with plans to let oil and gas companies explore remote rain forests, the president of Peru's state oil company said on Friday, despite calls from environmental and human rights groups to stop. The government is auctioning dozens of parcels for petroleum prospecting throughout the county, including the Amazon jungle located some 550 miles east of Peru's capital, Lima. Indigenous people who have shunned contact with the rest of society are thought to live ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Portugal leads rush into green energy
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/16/MNOUVHQVC.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Broad fields of giant solar panels as big as houses tilt toward the sun in this torrid patch of the Iberian peninsula. Arranged in tidy rows, like the vineyards and olive groves that quilt the typical Portuguese landscape, the panels belong to a solar power plant that comes on line this month and is due to be the world's largest when it is completed later this year. Portugal, one of the European Union's least conspicuous countries, is in the vanguard of the continent's rush to ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Rich, poor nations clash at climate talks
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmpNZyQuwQlqi2NscJE4uOVpP7Yw
Agence France Presse: Disagreements between rich and developing countries came into the open Sunday as the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters worked to lay the groundwork for a new deal on climate change. The developed and developing countries, whose greenhouse gas emissions account for about 80 percent of the global total, were wrapping up two days of talks hoped to jumpstart negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. But developing countries voiced scepticism about the meeting, saying ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Top polluters divided on climate change goals
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gu3UCNyDJvYCzwg_GQaFYveO-iSA
Agence France Presse: The world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters agreed Sunday to work together to draft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol but rich and developing nations remained divided on their roles. Envoys from the 20 countries, which are together responsible for 80 percent of the world's emissions blamed for global warming, were trying to bridge gaps on what to do after Kyoto's obligations expire at the end of 2012. "We reconfirmed the principle of common but differentiated responsibility ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
UN warns climate change melting glaciers at alarming rate
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8z_gc1go9Ny4PzfQwMuAQ6ec1WA
Agence France Presse: The world's glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, the UN said Sunday, calling for immediate action to prevent further constraints on water resources for large populations. "Millions if not billions of people depend directly or indirectly on these natural water storage facilities for drinking water, agriculture, industry and power generation during key parts of the year," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Canada: Alberta ponders where to fight pine beetle
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080316/alta_pb_080316/20080316
Associated Press: Alberta is looking to punch the pine beetle as hard as possible in the southern rockies this year while hoping that this winter's cold snaps have been enough to slow the forest-destroying bug's progress in the northwest corner. But one of Canada's top pine beetle experts says the province should do the exact opposite -- throw as many resources as possible into the north to halt the insect's advance into the boreal forest, which stretches eastward right across the ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Climate-change meeting ends without agreement on emissions
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/192637,climate-change-meeting-ends-without-agreement-on-emissions.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The world's 20 major greenhouse gas emitters ended two days of discussions in Japan Sunday without reaching consensus on a concrete plan to tackle climate change. Senior officials and experts from the Group of 20 nations (G-20), which are responsible for 80 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions, however, agreed with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's conviction. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Saturday urged the G-20 members to take collective action to reduce ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
EPA puts climate legislation cost at $2.9 trillion in 2050
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5621926.html
Bloomberg: Climate legislation sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, may cost the U.S. economy as much as $2.9 trillion in 2050, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a report Friday. The costs are associated with developing technology to cut carbon emissions. The report found each ton of carbon may cost $220 in 2050. Electricity prices may rise 44 percent in 2030, and 26 percent by 2050, according to the report. The bill ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Glacier ice loss at record levels
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/glacier-ice-loss-at-record-levels-796623.html
Independent: Glaciers are shrinking at record rates and many could disappear within decades, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said yesterday. Scientists measuring 30 glaciers around the world found ice loss reached record levels in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available. The most severe loss was recorded at Norway's Breidalblikkbrea glacier, which shrank 3.1m (10.2ft). On average, glaciers shrank by 1.5m. "The figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Israel takes stock of its greenhouse gases
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El2022&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Democracy
Israel 21C: Besides the small number of climate change deniers in the world, leaders from most developed nations recognize that taking stock of one's greenhouse gas emissions is the first step in reducing them. Greenhouse gases are believed to be causing global warming. And while Israel ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol in 2004, it has no limit on how much greenhouse gases it can send out into the atmosphere. However, Israeli government and industry recently showed its intent to do its ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Japan Climate Change Plan Meets Doubts at Chiba Talks
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a4KcLp_PgC_Y&refer=japan
Bloomberg: Japan's proposal for cutting greenhouse gasses wasn't immediately accepted by other nations at climate talks near Tokyo, where delegates doubted the plan could form the basis of a new Kyoto Protocol. The Japanese approach is ``very different'' from steps now being taken by Europe to curb emissions, said Jos Delbeke, director of the European Commission's climate unit, referring to the continent's emissions trading mechanism. Japan had proposed a so-called ``bottom-up, sectoral ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Labour's carbon claims too low
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3559767.ece
Times (UK): BRITAIN'S greenhouse gas emissions are 12% higher than claimed by Labour, according to an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO). The report could undermine Gordon Brown's claims to be creating a low-carbon economy. The NAO analysis, published this weekend, says Labour's figures exclude aviation, shipping, British businesses operating abroad and emissions caused by Britons holidaying overseas. This makes Britain's emission figures seem artificially low. It also ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Australia: The future of the Murray-Darling
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/20081703-17055.html
Science Alert: There are three reasons to believe that the central role played by the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in Australian agricultural production is unlikely to continue much into the 21st century. The first is climate change. The second is an increased understanding of the relationships among surface water, groundwater and ecology and the third is an increased awareness of ecosystem services among the public, policy makers and politicians. This increased awareness of ecosystem ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
EU warns water shortage in Central Asia could spark conflicts
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080315/101390412.html
Ria Novosti: The severe impact of climate change in Central Asia is causing water and food shortages that could lead to regional conflicts, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana warned. Solana delivered a climate change and security report from the High Representative and the European Commission to leaders at the European Union summit held on Thursday and Friday. "An increasing shortage of water, which is both a key resource for agriculture and a strategic resource for electricity ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
Warm winters continue globally
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5621678.html
Associated Press: Winter storms and snow notwithstanding, this winter is still warmer than average worldwide, the government reported Thursday. The global temperature for meteorological winter – December, January and February – averaged 54.38 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.58 degrees warmer than normal for the last century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported. Temperatures have been rising over recent years, raising concerns about the effects of global warming, generally ...
Mon, 17 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Blair comes to India on 'green mission'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Blair_on_green_mission/articleshow/2869581.cms
Times of India: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives here March 20 in his new avatar as an eco-warrior to win the backing of India for a new global deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. Blair is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal and discuss with them a host of bilateral and global issues, including his ambitious initiative on climate change and the peace process in the Middle East. Blair, who ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Climate change confuses migrating birds
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/16/easwallow116.xml
Telegraph: The swallows' return to British shores each year symbolises the passing of winter and the approach of summer. But in a sign of the blurring of the seasons brought on by climate change, one of the birds has this year shunned migration to Africa and instead spent all winter in Britain. In what experts say is the first documented evidence of the species "overwintering" here, a solitary swallow has been monitored from November to the end of February in a village near ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Glaciers melt 'at fastest rate in past 5000 years'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/16/glaciers.climatechange1
Observer: The world's glaciers are melting faster than at any time since records began, threatening catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people and their eco-systems. The details are revealed in the latest report from the World Glacier Monitoring Service and will add to growing alarm about the rise in sea levels and increased instances of flooding, avalanches and drought. Based on historical records and other evidence, the rate at which the glaciers are melting is also thought to be ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Melting glaciers start countdown to climate chaos
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/16/glaciers.climatechange
Observer: For centuries, writers, painters and photographers have been drawn to the wild and seemingly indestructible beauty of glaciers. More practically, they are a vital part of the planet's system for collecting, storing and delivering the fresh water that billions of people depend on for washing, drinking, agriculture and power. Now these once indomitable monuments are disappearing. And as they retreat, glacial lakes will burst, debris and ice will fall in avalanches, rivers will flood and then ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
India: Reduce tax on incomes and put tax on pollution: Al Gore
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200803160339.htm
Press Trust of India: Reduce tax on incomes and institute a tax on pollution was a suggestion environmental crusader Al Gore had for India to tackle the issue of global warming effectively. "Reduce tax on employees and employers and put a tax on pollution. The more carbon dioxide one emits the more he pays in taxes," said Gore in an interactive session at the India Today Conclave here on Saturday. Replying to a question by Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, Gore also ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Urgent Need to Protect Tropical Forests as Strategy for Preservation of Global Climate: Dr. Palitha Kohona
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10049
Asian Tribune: Dr. Palith Kohona Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressing a major major discussion on climate changed stressed the need for immediate action. He pointed out that Sri Lanka had proposed a number of initiatives to the world, particularly during the Climate Change Convention in Bali. He said that we proposed that the developed world owes a carbon debt to those countries of the world that have not progressed at the expense of the environment and which are today carbon neutral or ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
"Major emitters" tag upsets poor nations at G20 talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSSP86019._CH_.2400
Reuters: Developing countries urged rich states on Saturday to be clear about funds to fight global warming and said the label "major emitters" for nations like India and Brazil was unfair. Twenty of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters were meeting in Chiba, near Tokyo, to discuss ways to reach a global pact to curb rising carbon dioxide emissions by the end of 2009. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged G20 members to launch a revolution to fight climate ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Blair urges binding gas cuts by all countries
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iICT3hXDM2NNcIvKiGXBGeD1Z22g
Agence France Presse: Tony Blair on Saturday urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible." But disagreements were out in the open as the former British prime minister took on his new role as a mediator trying to help all sides meet a deadline to draft a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol by the end of next year. "We have reached the ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
UN: World's Glaciers Melting Faster
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gvdwrNZyD5bSH03kmJcF2GKaxxVQD8VE6KB01
Associated Press: Glaciers are shrinking at record rates and many could disappear within decades, the U.N. Environment Program said Sunday. Scientists measuring the health of almost 30 glaciers around the world found that ice loss reached record levels in 2006, the U.N. agency said. UNEP warned that further ice loss could have dramatic consequences particularly in India, whose rivers are fed by Himalayan glaciers. The west coast of North America, which gets much of its water from glaciers ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
'Collective action' needed to fight against climate change - Summary
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/192546,collective-action-needed-to-fight-against-climate-change--summary.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: "Collective action" was necessary to meet the target to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050, former British prime minister Tony Blair told a group of international experts from the world's 20 major greenhouse gas emitters on Saturday in Japan's Chiba City, near Tokyo. "In theory, each nation, acting unilaterally, could take action that together amounted to the necessary change. But in practice that is unlikely," he said. Blair was speaking at a round of ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Blair calls for 'environment revolution'
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/15/blair_calls_for_environment_revolution/8640/
United Press International: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged a "global environment revolution" while discussing climate change in Japan, a report said. During a gathering of G8 ministers, Blair discussed why the world is in need of a "global deal," the BBC reported Saturday. He said the deal should be headed by the United Nations and that not taking action on climate change "would be deeply and unforgivably irresponsible." While visiting Japan, Blair is ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Proxy Ballots Feature Human Rights and Climate Change Issues
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/15/AR2008031500112.html
Associated Press: Discussions of the bloodshed in Darfur and issues like climate change occur regularly in the world of politics, but lately these issues have wedged their way into often dry financial disclosures. The proxy voting forms that shareholders of mutual funds or individual stocks receive are often tossed aside as just plain boring. But investors might be surprised by the shadow that politics casts on some ballot items. Shareholders of Fidelity Investments' huge Contrafund, which has ...
Sun, 16 Mar 08
Report warns of Asian water shortages
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/15/report_warns_of_asian_water_shortages/6430/
United Press International: Global climate change could cause water and food shortages in central Asia that could lead to regional conflicts, a European Union report said. The report from the High Representative and the European Commission was distributed this week at the European Union summit, RIA Novosti reported Saturday. The report said "an increasing shortage of water, which is both a key resource for agriculture and a strategic resource for electricity generation, is already noticeable" ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Blair team aims for climate deal
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/blair-team-aims-for-climate-deal/2008/03/14/1205472082086.html
Age: TONY Blair is to lead an international team to tackle the problem of securing a global deal on climate change that would have the backing of China and the US. The former British prime minister believes he can help prepare a blueprint for an agreement to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2050 – and he has the backing of the White House, the United Nations and Europe. He had been working on the project with a group of climate change experts since he left office last year, he said, ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Forests vanishing fast: WWF official
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/03/15/2003405610
Taipei Times: An increasing percentage of greenhouse gas emissions is a result of deforestation and forest degradation, said Fitrian Ardiansyah, climate and energy program director for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). "The current split of greenhouse gas contribution is 80/20, between energy sources and deforestation. However, that percentage may alter if we don't stop chopping down trees," Ardiansyah told the Taipei Times in an interview earlier this month. Deforestation may also be ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Green-Tech Investing Is Red-Hot
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2275576,00.asp
PC Magazine: Environmental interests have typically been viewed as antithetical to those of business and industry. But given recent trends in venture-capital investments, it seems that those days are over. In fact, 2006 saw a 78 percent increase in green-tech investing, and in 2007, U.S. venture-capital firms pumped $2.6 billion into green technology in the first three quarters. Green is in, and this year could see the development and production of technologies that both alleviate environmental impacts ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
The Next Ocean
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080315/bob10.asp
Science News: Terrie Klinger is starting to wonder about the future of kelp sex. It's a delicate business in the best of times, and the 21st century is putting marine life to the acid test. Klinger, of the University of Washington in Seattle, studies the winged and bull kelps that stretch rubbery garlands up from the seafloor off the nearby Pacific coast. These kelp fronds do no luring, touching, fusing of cells or other sexy stuff. Fronds just break out in chocolate-colored patches. The ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Antarctic glacier melted more quickly last year
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1462532420080314
Reuters: A glacier used as a benchmark to measure global warming's impact on the Antarctic Peninsula melted more than usual in the past year, according to an Argentine glacier researcher. For more than 20 years, Pedro Skvarca has studied the Devil's Bay glacier on Vega Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, a part of Antarctica that is warming five times faster than the average in the rest of the world. The whole of Antarctica holds enough ice and snow to raise world sea levels by 187 feet ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
EU Pledges Deeper Emissions Cuts
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1722634,00.html
Time Magazine: Over the past decade, the European Union has shown it can talk the talk on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, as it firmly and loudly backed the Kyoto Accord. But it now needs to show it can walk the walk, since the Union is still lagging badly in achieving its stated goal of a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. On Friday, E.U. leaders ended their two-day Brussels summit by throwing their weight behind a more precise timetable for those goals. Still, not ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
EU says climate plan mustn't cost the earth
http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKL1418506120080314
Reuters: European Union leaders reaffirmed ambitious goals to combat climate change on Friday but stressed they must be affordable for governments and industry at a time of economic downturn and market turmoil. A draft final statement at a two-day summit, obtained by Reuters, called for cost-effective and flexible mechanisms to reach energy and climate policy objectives, adding the tell-tale phrase "so as to avoid excessive costs for member states". The leaders pledged to ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
EU's biofuels target could be amended amid concerns
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1UHdxrunQY6gK9ddDZzHUi4zrRA
Agence France Presse: The European Union's ambitious target on using biofuels in cars could be amended in the face of concerns over rising food prices, the EU's Slovenian presidency said Thursday. "There will be more analysis but we don't have any clear answers," Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa told a press conference after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels. "I'm not excluding the possibility that we will have to revise or amend our goals," he said. The ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Green energy begins to make big money
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/31498
San Francisco Chronicle: The alternative energy business is starting to make real money. Worldwide sales for companies specializing in biofuels, wind farms, solar panels and fuel cells grew 40 percent in 2007 to reach $77.3 billion, according to an annual report issued by Clean Edge, a research firm that studies the green technology industry. That's significant revenue for an industry crowded with startups, many of which don't yet have finished products to sell. But other companies -- including major ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Greenhouse funds gloom hangs over G20 climate talks
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN428843.html
Reuters: Rich nations must come up with billions in new money to help poor countries fight global warming and not just repackage development aid to score diplomatic points, environmentalists at a meeting of top polluters said on Friday. The three-day Japan meeting gathers 20 of the world's top emitters of greenhouse gases and includes rich nations the United States and other G8 states as well as rapidly developing China, India and Brazil. Funding schemes for clean energy projects and ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Melting glaciers bigger cause of rising sea levels
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/158836/1/
OneWorld South Asia: Melting ice from Himalayan glaciers and other global ice sheets has contributed more to the rise in the global sea level over the past 80 years than was previously estimated, increasing the need for an effective global emission control regime. The findings are being released in Friday's issue of journal Science. A G20 meet on climate kicks off in Tokyo on March 14. In their article, researchers from the National Central University in Taiwan report that the contribution of ice ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Canada: Oilsands emissions could triple
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=2b7aa832-0fe3-4a8b-aa7d-e96434cba6e4&k=99181
Canwest News Service: Alberta's oilsands industry will be allowed to triple its annual greenhouse-gas pollution over the next decade, and more than 20 per cent of emissions from the rest of the oilpatch will be exempt from Prime Minister Stephen Harper government's green plan, revealed Environments Canada documents released this week. New provisions introduced into the climate change plan would allow oilsands operations in Alberta and the coal-fired power plants of Ontario to offset 100 per cent of their ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Tony Blair takes on climate change
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1465463520080314
Reuters: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has already taken on an international role as a Middle East envoy, is now tackling climate change with a plan for the world to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Blair travelled to Tokyo on Friday to unveil a climate change initiative and said on his Web site he will go to China and India in the next week to discuss his proposals with the world's two largest developing economies. "There is a consensus now right across the world ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Activists say more money needed to help developing countries cope with global warming
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/14/asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Climate-Conference.php
Associated Press: The world's wealthy countries need to pump more money into financing poorer nations' efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with climate change, environmentalists said Friday ahead of a global warming conference. Representatives of 20 countries – including the United States, European nations, Japan and China – were to hold a weekend meeting outside Tokyo to focus on developing clean technology and financing the race to stave off possible environmental disaster caused by ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Arctic Melt May Trigger Conflict Between EU, Russia, Envoys Say
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=ajMnwf6LKVJE&refer=home
Bloomberg: Climate change may provoke conflict between the European Union and Russia as Arctic ice melts, easing access to fossil-fuel deposits and opening new sea routes, the 27-nation bloc's top two foreign policy officials said. Warming temperatures may pose ``serious security risks'' including increased immigration, less secure water supplies in some countries and diminishing food and fish stocks, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Relations Commissioner Benita ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Booming Oil, Grains To Kill Biofuels
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/03/14/Booming_Oil_Grains_To_Kill_Biofuels
Australasian Investment Review: You wouldn't normally expect President George W Bush to understand irony, especially irony generated by the markets. There he was last week telling the International Renewable Energy Conference in Washington that the US should "get off oil" and again calling for more use of ethanol, despite concerns the corn-based fuel is driving up food prices and isn't more environmentally friendly than gasoline. "We gotta get off oil; American has got to change its habits. It ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Britain and France push EU to look at green tax plan
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1434462620080314
Reuters: Britain and France pushed for the European Union to cut sales tax on green products on Friday even though the head of the European Commission voiced strong reservations about the idea. "We are writing to you today to call upon the European Commission to include provisions for a new reduced VAT (value added tax) rate for environmentally friendly products," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a letter to Commission President Jose ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
CEOs see green energy policies preserving US jobs
http://www.reuters.com/article/ELECTU/idUSN1440647520080314
Reuters: It's not often you hear executives from the biggest U.S. industries and a Republican governor clamoring for stronger regulations on climate change. But that's exactly what they want. Without clear climate change policy, not only will manufacturing jobs be siphoned off to overseas rivals investing heavily in renewable energy sources, but U.S. companies won't have any clear direction on where best to invest their money in new capital projects to keep in line with regulations, top ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Climate Change: Europe Stepping Back
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41595
Inter Press Service: A year after the European Union's governments promised to take the lead in fighting climate change, they appeared to back-pedal on that pledge at a summit in Brussels Mar. 13-14. Whereas a traditional spring meeting of the EU's presidents and prime ministers during 2007 had an air of urgency about it, the most pressing concern on the minds of many leaders attending the same event 12 months later was how to ensure that environmental measures do not hurt those sectors of Europe's ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Controversy grows amid green autos
http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/autos/news/839302,CAR-News-geneva14.article
Associated Press: Car makers are showing off their leanest, greenest mass-market models through Sunday in anticipation of stricter European emissions controls at the Geneva International Motor Show. A host of small cars are celebrating their debut in Geneva, including production versions of Ford Motor Co.'s new, fuel-stingy Fiesta and Toyota Motor Corp.'s three-seater iQ, and a concept version of Fiat's 500 Aria. All three boast carbon dioxide emissions of under 100 grams per kilometer, which ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Developing world 'needs carbon leeway
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=14325&channel=0
Edie: Developed countries should drastically reduce their emissions to allow developing nations more leeway to produce carbon emissions as they industrialise, a leading academic and social campaigner has said. Speaking at a debate organised by the Economic and Social Research Council, Charles Abugre, head of the global advocacy and policy division at Christian Aid, said the need to cut global emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change was limiting development in some parts of the ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Flooding and climate change: invest to save, urges National Trust
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/14/conservation.water
Guardian: The public and private sectors must invest new money in land management in the UK to meet the challenges of climate change and flooding, a new report urged today. Investment now will save public money later in tackling the problems of climate change, flooding, water pollution and poor health, according to the report from the National Trust, which aims to highlight the importance of land management in addressing climate change and flooding. The trust has based the ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Norway may fall short in carbon burial race
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL14746392
Reuters: Norway may fall short of its goal of being first to develop technology for burying greenhouse gases from power plants, a drive Oslo has likened to the 1960s space race, Environment Minister Erik Solheim said on Friday. Solheim told Reuters that Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, was planning to spend billions of dollars on ways to capture heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the exhaust of gas-fired power plants and entomb it to combat global warming. Oslo has long said ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Poll: Support up for solar energy investment
http://washington.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2008/03/10/daily35.html
South Florida Business Journal: Floridians want more solar power, even if it costs a little more, according to a new state survey. High consumer demand has exhausted the state's solar rebate program fund six months early, and lawmakers and solar advocates on Thursday released the new survey showing Florida residents overwhelmingly support spending more money on solar energy. The survey of 625 registered voters, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, showed 85 percent believe the state Legislature ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Warm memories
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c18817c6-ee42-11dc-a5c1-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations By Brian Fagan Bloomsbury $26.95, 282 pages Now that global warming and climate change are established facts, however inconvenient, we are all starting to ponder what will happen to our particular corner of the planet in the next few decades. One approach is through the computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their influential scientific reports. Another is to ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
World's top polluters in Japan amid Blair push
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iAtouKdh4CrhKnz-Uowdr0eOXueQ
Agence France Presse: The world's top 20 polluters gathered here Friday amid hopes that their talks can help break a deadlock and add momentum to negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who launched the so-called Group of 20 (G20) initiative on global warming in 2005, was in Japan as the head of a new team of international experts tasked with securing a climate deal. Blair's team, backed by the United States and Europe, will issue reports on the ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
"Green" energy demand means more jobs: conference
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1442199420080314
Reuters: Growing U.S. demand for alternative energy is boosting job creation and investment in renewable fuels and energy efficiency technology, experts told a national conference ending on Friday. Workers are finding jobs building turbines for wind farms, installing solar panels and retrofitting buildings with stronger insulation as businesses learn to make money while being environmentally conscious, said speakers at the "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference, organized by the ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Blair in Japan for climate talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7295937.stm
BBC: Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has arrived in Japan for talks aimed at ending the "deadlock" over global greenhouse gas targets. He said there was a "consensus" that a deal had to be reached - with a 50% cut in carbon emissions needed by 2050. During his visit to Tokyo Mr Blair will meet climate change experts from China, Japan, Europe and the US. Mr Blair, who stood down as prime minister last year, is also a peace envoy to the Middle East. ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Blair takes on climate change role
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/opinion-former-index/environment-and-rural-affairs/blair-takes-on-climate-change-role-$1212509.htm
Politics.co.uk: Tony Blair is to lead a team of international experts seeking to find the right international agreement on climate change. The former prime minister is travelling to Japan, India and China in the next week to advance work towards a "comprehensive deal" on the issue. He will lead the Breaking the Climate Deadlock campaign and "guide it politically", a statement on his website said, by ensuring technical details do not undercut the competing interests of ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Britain dismisses Japan climate change plan
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnSP68173.html
Reuters: Japan wants major emitters to fight climate change by targeting efficiency of industries, a trade ministry official said on Friday, but Britain dismissed it as the wrong approach. Japan is hosting a three-day meeting of 20 of the world's top greenhouse gas polluters and believes sectoral curbs on major polluting industries such as cement makers and power generators can rein in growing carbon dioxide emissions. Japan, the world's fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, argues ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
EU to consider tax breaks for green products
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/03/14/business/OUKBS-UK-EU-ENVIRONMENT-TAX-STATEMENT.php
Reuters: European Union leaders agreed on Friday to consider at the request of Britain and France how sales tax breaks for environmentally friendly products could help fight global warming, a British official said. The leaders added a clause to their summit declaration inviting the European Commission "to examine how Value Added Tax can play a positive role in combating climate change", even though Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso made clear on Thursday he did not favour the ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
EU Wants to Set Pace in Protecting Environment
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3191117,00.html
Deutsche Welle: European Union leaders continued talks on Friday, March 14, over how to prevent global warming. They were also due to discuss ways to revive their economies during a summit in Brussels. Energy security and global warming also featured prominently with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana telling the heads of the EU's 27 member states that climate change had turned from a threat to a reality. Climate change is now impacting the conflict in Darfur, migration from flood-prone ...
Sat, 15 Mar 08
Lieberman: Religious activism helps global warming legislation
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2008/03/14/lieberman_religious_activism_helps_global_warming_legislation/
Associated Press: Religious activism is helping to generate support for legislation aimed at dealing with global warming, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman told college students Friday. Evangelical Christians, traditionally associated with conservative issues, are supporting efforts to deal with global warming, Lieberman said during an appearance at Fairfield University. He also noted that the Catholic Church this week listed pollution as one of the new areas of sinful behavior. "I think something ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
China's Emissions Rising Faster Than Thought - Report
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47515/story.htm
Reuters: China is producing far more carbon dioxide (CO2) than previous estimates and this will frustrate global aims to stabilise atmospheric greenhouse gases, a group of US economists said. China is the world's second-largest emitter of C02 and some studies suggest it might already have overtaken the United States last year. The report could add to calls for China to sign up to binding cuts, something it has refused to do. Writing in the May issue of the Journal of Environmental ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
GE CEO Says US Moving Too Slowly On Clean Energy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47517/story.htm
Reuters: The United States is in danger of falling behind other nations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions if both the federal government and companies do not move quickly to support sources of clean energy, General Electric Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said on Wednesday. During an appearance at the Wall Street Journal ECOnomics conference in Goleta, California, Immelt said he doesn't understand critics of government tax credits for renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Emissions targets set to be law within year
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/639ea2fa-f168-11dc-a91a-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: European Union leaders, seeking to set the pace for the world, plan to announce today that they will convert their bold promises to fight global warming into law within 12 months. Leaders of the 27-nation bloc intend to conclude a two-day summit with a pledge to adopt binding national targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and raising renewable energy use by March 2009. According to a draft summit statement, the leaders will also address the financial market crisis by ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Ethanol Industry In Sunset? Not So Fast
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47521/story.htm
Reuters: With soaring food prices and mounting criticism, it might seem the nascent US biofuel industry has seen its best days. But don't underestimate the determination of Washington, the farm lobby and science to keep it alive. The corn-gobbling ethanol industry is under fire from all sides, blamed for everything from rising food prices to environmental damage. Ethanol is also driving a wedge in the farm community with grain farmers celebrating record prices while livestock ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
EU Aims To Set Pace In Fight On Climate Change
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47502/story.htm
Reuters: European Union leaders agreed on Thursday on a timetable for action on tackling climate change they hope will enable them to set the pace in global talks next year but some voiced unease about the methods. The EU sees itself as a world leader in the fight against global warming after member states agreed last year to cut emissions by 2020 and increase the share of wind, solar, hydro and wave power in electricity output by the same date. After the first round of a two-day ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
UK considers new coal-fired power station
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/14/2189510.htm?section=world
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The British Government is considering a proposal to build the UK's first coal-fired power station in 25 years. The new plant will become Britain's first clean carbon power station. But at a time when the world is under pressure to find clean, green alternative sources of energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions, opponents of the project argue the new power plant would create more pollution and not less. Energy giant E.ON wants to build the new coal-fired power station, ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
UK Gives Homeowners Green Light For Solar Power
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47507/story.htm
Reuters: Homeowners across Britain will find it easier to make their own renewable power at home from April as part of a government push to cut carbon emissions from the residential sector. From April 6, all homeowners in Britain will be free to install microgeneration equipment like solar panels without getting planning permission for them, as the government tries to cut climate warming gases emitted from coal and gas fired power plants in order to supply electricity. "We want ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
US Toughens Ozone Rule But Irks Environmentalists
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47520/story.htm
Reuters: The US Environmental Protection Agency toughened standards for ozone pollution on Wednesday, but these new requirements are more lax than the agency's own scientists recommended. Stephen Johnson, the agency's chief, said he complied with the Clean Air Act and with scientific data in setting the new ozone standard at 75 parts per billion in ambient air in the United States. The previous standard was 80 parts per billion. The EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Australia: Desalination an option as Denmark carts water
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=146&ContentID=62814
West Australian: A desalination scheme is being considered to supply water in the Albany region as declining rainfall hits what has been one of the wettest parts of the State and supplies are trucked to towns and farms. Drinking water is being carted to Denmark, Walpole and Cranbrook as well as Lake King and Varley farther to the north-east while extensive carting is under way to farms throughout the region. The Water Corporation admits additional supplies have to be found for Albany and ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Japan Climate Talks To Tackle Industrial Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47516/story.htm
Reuters: The world's top greenhouse gas polluters will try to work out ways to curb carbon emissions from industries and fund cleaner energy projects for poorer nations when they gather in Japan from Friday. The G20, ranging from top polluters the United States and China to Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa, emit about 80 percent of mankind's greenhouse gases. Pressure is growing on these nations to work out a global pact to halt and then reverse growing emissions of carbon dioxide, ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Revenue from green taxes near record low
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/budget_2008/article3549359.ece
Times (UK): The Government's commitment to environmental concerns was called into question yesterday as it emerged that revenue from green taxes would remain close to record lows, despite a Budget that claimed to be environmentally friendly. The Treasury is to raise the equivalent of 2.8 per cent of GDP next year from environmental taxes, such as fuel, vehicle excise and air passenger duties, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said. This is fractionally up from last year's 2.7 per cent but ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
UK To Introduce Domestic Carbon Emissions Trading
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47497/story.htm
Reuters: Energy-intensive businesses in Britain including supermarkets, banks and hotel chains will have to buy pollution permits from 2010 under a new government emissions trading scheme, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said on Thursday. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which also includes all central government departments and local authorities, is a mandatory scheme that will help Britain cut greenhouse gas emissions by four million tonnes by 2020, the equivalent of taking one ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
United States: Benefits Of Buying, Eating Local Food Extend Beyond Health
http://www.channel3000.com/entertainment/15587044/detail.html
Madison Magazine: Under gray skies on an early Saturday winter morning, locals seek refuge at the Wisconsin Senior Center at 330 W. Mifflin St for the winter farmers' market. Here, the all-ages crowd is met with the warm, sweet aroma of a home-cooked breakfast, the cheerful sounds of a local bluegrass band and table after colorful table of local produce and food products. Behind one table of sprightly dressed tomatoes and greens stand Mary and Don Uselman. For more than thirty years, the Uselmans have ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Dams mask sea level rise
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0313-sea_levels.html
Mongabay: Water held in man-made reservoirs is masking the true extent of sea level rise from melting ice and thermal expansion, report scientists writing in the journal Science. The researchers, from the National Central University in Taiwan, calculate that sea levels would be 30 mm (1.2 inches) higher without water stored behind dams. The findings are significant in that they increase by a third the annual rise in sea levels observed since 1961, from 1.8 mm to 2.4 mm. Rising sea levels have ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Emissions Solutions Start at Home
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41585
Inter Press Service: Making buildings more environmentally friendly is the easiest and most effective way to cut climate-changing carbon emissions, often slashing energy costs by up to 70 percent. So why isn't there a massive effort to "green up" existing buildings and set green standards for all new construction? North America's buildings are responsible for a staggering 2,200 megatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions -- 35 percent of the continent's annual total. A new report released ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
'Green' buildings could slash CO2 emissions: report
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5je_9O4En7TiwTjD73Erj4y8snHQA
Agence France Presse: Basic changes in building design and construction could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent in North America, said a joint Canada-US-Mexico report Thursday. The report, "Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges," was released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation at an environmental trade fair in this western Canadian city. Politicians and businesses on the continent have focused on the role of transportation and the oil and gas ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
EU's Solana warns of superpower oil rush in Arctic
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/192240,extra-eus-solana-warns-of-superpower-oil-rush-in-arctic.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The melting of the North Pole's ice caps under the impact of global warming could spark a dangerous geo-political oil rush in the Arctic, the European Union's top foreign-policy official warned Thursday. "The increased accessibility of the enormous hydrocarbon resources in the Arctic region is changing the geo-strategic dynamics of the region with potential consequences for international stability and European security interests," EU High Representative Javier Solana wrote ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Manufacturers Oppose Climate-Change Bill
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/03/13/ap4770776.html
Associated Press: Manufacturers on Thursday went on the offensive against mandatory reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, unveiling a study projecting $631 billion in costs by 2020 if Congress institutes a reduction program. A study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation estimated that the economy would have 1.2 million to 1.4 million fewer jobs by 2020 than would otherwise be the case as the effects on coal and other industries ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Solar tower of power coming to Spain, Abu Dhabi
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9893102-54.html?tag=nefd.top
CNet: Spanish renewable energy firm Sener and Abu Dhabi's clean-energy initiative, Masdar, announced a joint venture on Wednesday to build several power plants fueled by the sun's heat. The newly created firm, Torresol Energy, said it plans to build at least two large concentrating solar power plants a year with a goal of generating 320 megawatts over the next 5 years and 1,000 megawatts in 10 years. A large coal-fired power plant typically can produce hundreds of megawatts of electricity. ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
UK may miss renewable energy target
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iExNdSWAcih6PzcdbSb2iZrv8ngQ
Press Association: The UK is likely to miss targets proposed by the EU for renewable energy use "by a wide margin". The study by Cambridge Econometrics said the UK would not meet the ambitious goal put forward by the European Commission for the country to source 15% of its total energy needs from renewables such as wind power and biofuels by 2020. The forecast reiterated earlier warnings that the Government will also miss its targets for cutting carbon emissions by 20% by 2010 and for ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Climate Change Issue Dominates EU Summit
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-13-voa48.cfm
Voice of America: Climate change and a proposed Mediterranean Union top the agenda of a two-day European Union summit opening Thursday in Brussels. Lisa Bryant has more from Paris about the issues involved. Leaders from the 27-member European Union gathering in Brussels are expected to call on countries like the United States and China to commit to a new international agreement slashing heat-trapping carbon emissions. The EU sees itself as a leader in the fight against global warming after ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
EU leaders seek to lead the way on fighting climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwfQozYyN9vw_2nRSdj64mh-m2Vw
Agence France Presse: European Union leaders are set Friday to agree to introduce deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions within a year to tackle climate change, the Slovenian EU presidency said. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, told a news conference after a summit of EU leaders that the proposals drawn up by the European Commission were very ambitious as was the timeline. "It's a very good proposal and I believe that tomorrow we'll be able ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Fast-growing coral may help reefs survive global warming
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0313-coral.html
Mongabay: Two fast-growing coral species may hold the key to Caribbean reefs surviving global warming, report researchers writing in the journal Science. Ken Johnson of the Natural History Museum in London and colleagues found that staghorn and elkhorn coral – species that grow 10 times faster than other Caribbean species – did not become dominant in the Caribbean until about a million years ago when half the region's coral species went extinct. Apparently their fast growth rate and ...
Fri, 14 Mar 08
Russia Says Will Be Strict Approving Kyoto Projects
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47512/story.htm
Reuters: Foreign firms seeking to make money in Russia under the Kyoto Protocol will not have an easy time getting approval from the Russian state, the official in charge of Kyoto implementation in Russia said on Thursday. "The most correct approach is forbidding everything, but allowing certain things to go forward. The worst approach is to approve everything, but say certain things are forbidden," said Deputy Economy Minister Vsevolod Gavrilov. "We are working ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Attack on gas-guzzling cars and plastic bags fails to satisfy environmentalists
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/attack-on-gasguzzling-cars-and-plastic-bags-fails-to-satisfy-environmentalists-794958.html
Independent: A promised tax on plastic bags, a pledge to make all new buildings zero-carbon, higher charges for flights, a crackdown on new gas-guzzling cars and a handout to less thirsty ones – Alistair Darling's budget contained a number of conspicuous green measures yesterday, but they were not enough to satisfy environmental campaigners. The essence of their charge was that while the new moves were welcome, the Chancellor was tinkering at the margins of environmental problems, and the ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Carbon Market Risks Rise In Uncertain Climate Talks
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47479/story.htm
Reuters: The risks of investing in global carbon markets are soaring as the trade in emissions rights between rich and poor countries becomes a pawn in talks to agree a new global climate change deal by 2009. Carbon offsetting works by allowing countries, companies and individuals to pay others to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf, whether to meet binding emissions targets or simply for voluntary reasons. In particular, under the Kyoto Protocol rich countries can meet ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Climate refugees in political pass-the-parcel
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1084229020080313
Reuters: The islanders of Tuvalu could lose their homes and much of their land in the coming decades. But the world has yet to figure out how it will deal with them, and millions of others, who may be displaced by climate change. "It's a game of political pass-the-parcel," said Andrew Simms, policy director at British think-tank New Economics Foundation. "No one wants to be left holding the problem of climate refugees." It's a problem with immediate resonance in the ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Australia: Cut emissions in short-term, too: IPCC
http://www.scopical.com.au/articles/News/3377/Cut-emissions-in-short-term,-too:-IPCC
Scopical: Australia has been told to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 25% by the year 2020, if it is to be taken seriously in defeating climate change by other Kyoto members. The Kyoto Protocol was officially ratified in Australia this week, with documentation being approved by the United Nations for Australia to become a signatory to the pact. However despite its signing, the nation has been told to cut its emissions by at least 25% by the year 2020 in order to avoid ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Brazil: In the Amazon, a forestry cop matches wits with illegal loggers
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0313/p01s05-wogn.html
Christian Science Monitor: Roberto Scarpari hadn't seen his family in nearly a year. So, he expected the Christmas vacation would offer a welcome break from his job of busting illegal loggers deep in the Amazon. But the job followed him home. One warm December evening, Mr. Scarpari, an inspector with Brazil's environmental agency, was visiting his kids in São Paulo when he got a phone call. Illegal loggers were going to stage a robbery and assassinate him, a federal agent told him. Scarpari rushed to ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Mixture of warnings about climate change, backing for airport expansion and delayed fuel tax rise infuriates environment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/13/carbonemissions.travelandtransport
Guardian: Government efforts to live up to what was trailed as the greenest budget yet, were subjected to withering criticism from environmentalists who described a series of measures outlined by Alistair Darling as insignificant, contradictory, and lacking any encompassing vision of how to tackle climate change. The chancellor said he planned to penalise the most polluting cars, raise green airline taxes and boost home energy efficiency. But he antagonised the environmental lobby by delaying a ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Where climate change meets national security
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0313/p16s02-sten.html
Christian Science Monitor: Last year, a group of retired American military officers warned that, left unchecked, climate change could lead to international instability. The problems could include refugees driven by drought, loss of food supplies, and rising sea levels: They might include violent conflicts, these generals and admirals said. The warning was an early sign from senior military leaders that climate change could have a serious national-security dimension. In a report to be presented at a ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Australia 'must commit to 25pc emissions cut'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/13/2188315.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Australia has been told it must commit to at a 25 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 if its to be taken seriously by other members of the Kyoto club. That is the message from a key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Bill Hare, who is currently in Australia. Dr Hare is currently helping the United Nations set up the next climate agreement for when Kyoto Protocol winds up in 2012. He met with economist Ross Garnaut, who is advising ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Australian role in climate genocide
http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=149510&catid=11
Post: Pakistan is acutely threatened by climate and sustainability emergency now facing the world. As a mega-delta country, Pakistan is acutely threatened by the 20-metre sea level rise predicted from paleo-climate data by top American climate scientist Dr James Hansen of NASA: "There is strong evidence that the earth is within 1oC of its highest temperature in the past million years. Oxygen isotopes in the deep sea foraminifera reveal that the earth was last 2oC to 3oC warmer [relative to 2,000] ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
China: Climate change a 'security and foreign relations' issue
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-03/13/content_6531575.htm
China Daily: Climate change has become a worldwide "security" and foreign relations issue, former UN under-secretary-general Maurice Strong said in Beijing on Wednesday. China has its responsibility of tackling global warming, but the real solution lies in cooperation at the highest international level, in which the developed countries should take the lead, he said. Instead, the developed countries are shying away from their responsibility. "What I see today is a tendency ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Deal with climate change or face 'war, bloodshed'
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=cab655a6-88ee-48b3-8d3c-afd59e1b608f&k=14070
Vancouver Sun: If the world cannot deal with climate change, it will be faced with war and bloodshed, Britain's High Commissioner to Canada warned Wednesday at the Globe 2008 conference in Vancouver. "It is the highest priority in the foreign office in Great Britain," High Commissioner Anthony Carey said in explaining why a British diplomat is moderating a panel at the Globe conference on business and the environment. "An issue that was a few years ago seen as a soft ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
EU threatens to punish climate deal rebels
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3542592.ece
Times (UK): America and China face trade protection measures from Europe if they fail to join a global climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, EU leaders will caution at their summit in Brussels today. Nations that refuse to curb greenhouse gases will be told that they face "appropriate measures" – code for trade sanctions – if they try to gain a competitive advantage by continuing to allow cheap, high-pollution production. EU leaders are particularly concerned to try to stop big ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Japan Urges G-8, China to Cooperate on Green Energy Technology
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=adD08A0lUWYM&refer=asia
Bloomberg: Japan plans to urge the Group of Eight industrialized nations, China and India to combat climate change by cooperating on advanced nuclear plants and electric vehicles, a government official said. Japan will propose developing 21 technologies by 2030 at this week's energy and environment meeting in Chiba City near Tokyo, said the official, who declined to be identified before the talks start tomorrow. The technologies include coal- and gas- fired power plants that emit almost no ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Most Vulnerable Left to Sink or Swim
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/10006
Inter Press Service: The world's minorities and indigenous groups are the "silent victims" of the potentially disastrous effects of climate change, says a new study by Minority Rights Group (MRG) International. Although both groups are often disproportionately affected by climate-related disasters, the international community continues to ignore their plight, the London-based human rights organization charges. The report points out that even though climate change has finally made it to ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
No Action on Auto Fuel Economy Despite EPA's Urging
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/12/AR2008031203668.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: Congressional investigators said yesterday that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson recommended raising automobile fuel economy standards three months ago based on a staff assessment that carbon dioxide emissions threaten the public's health and welfare, but the Bush administration has taken no action. Administration officials told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that after the Supreme Court ruled last spring that the government has ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Australia: Save seeds, bank on our future
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23362956-5001031,00.html
Daily Telegraph: MORE than 1000 Australian plant species are known to be at risk of extinction, and climate change adds further pressure. Governments and communities are working hard to protect our environment, but a Seedbank provides a good insurance policy. The Mount Annan Botanic Garden is home to the NSW Seedbank, holding our precious genetic resources. They can be used for replanting, or for research into the plants we depend on for food, shelter and oxygen. The NSW Seedbank ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Shops get a year to cut down or face a levy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/13/plasticbags.waste
Guardian: High street retailers have been given a year to cut down on the number of plastic bags they hand out to customers or face legislation that will force them to impose a charge on every bag they give away. The chancellor said legislation could come into force in 2009 and, based on other countries' experience, it could cut the use of plastic bags by 90%, potentially reducing the number that end up in landfill by 12 billion a year. The charge would apply to all bags, including food ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Asia Shows Way To Fight Dengue As Global Spread Looms
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47467/story.htm
Reuters: Clarissa Poon was one of an estimated 50 million people who contracted mosquito-borne dengue fever last year. She spent an agonising week on a drip in a Bangkok hospital as she battled the potentially deadly disease. "There was not a single moment when I wasn't aching everywhere, dizzy and nauseous. I was so weak I couldn't even stand," said Poon, who caught the illness during a family holiday at a beach resort in Thailand. "My kids were very worried because ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Aviation industry must act fast on climate change: Airbus chief
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g4YgiEFV4OvGmFYvBFo0hRhj-OGg
Agence France Presse: The aviation industry must act quickly to lower its own carbon emissions or face government regulation, the chief executive of European plane company Airbus wrote in a comment piece Thursday. Writing in The Guardian daily, Tom Enders said that this year was a "moment of truth for aviation" where the industry could either take "significant action together ... or as the time we lost control of our destiny and left it to others to 'solve' our challenges for ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Budget 2008: Higher car tax slammed as green smokescreen
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/13/cncars113.xml
Telegraph: Changes to car tax were criticised as a blatant revenue-raising exercise despite the Chancellor's claim to be introducing the measures to help clean up the environment. The higher rates of vehicle excise duty (VED) being imposed on buyers of new vehicles were among a string of changes that Alistair Darling declared would help create "an environmentally sustainable world". But - unlike for all the other main green tax changes unveiled yesterday - the Treasury did not list the ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Green moves fall short of radical change
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6eb3fdde-f0a0-11dc-ba7c-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: Climate change won a mention in the first two minutes of Alistair Darling's Budget yesterday, billed in advance as a "green" Budget that would raise green taxes and curb greenhouse gases. But the measures outlined in his speech fell short of radical change and are unlikely to have much impact on emissions. According to KPMG, the measures announced yesterday would account for a reduction of emissions of about 5 per cent by 2015, which would not put the UK on track to ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
High Winds Lower Europe Wholesale Electricity Prices
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47481/story.htm
Reuters: Powerful winter storms sweeping across Europe have boosted wind power, oversupplying the wholesale market for electricity and driving down prices for day ahead delivered power by some 12 percent since Friday. Even though road, rail and ship travel has been disrupted and insurers facing claims from damage brought by high winds, operators of wind turbines have been able to generate and sell more supply of the renewable energy into the power network. "The additional wind ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Australia: Nation told it must aim to be carbon neutral
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/nation-told-it-must-aim-to-be-carbon-neutral/2008/03/12/1205126011446.html
Age: A LEADING authority on climate change says Australia's greenhouse gas reduction targets are inadequate, and all industrialised countries should be aiming to become carbon neutral. Bill Hare, a lead author on the latest report (2007) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says industrialised countries need to cut emissions by 85% to 95% of 1990 levels by 2050, a far more substantial reduction than the 60% promised by the Federal Government. And the cuts should not ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Pakistan: Water storage capacity to decline by 12% in next decade
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C13%5Cstory_13-3-2008_pg5_3
Daily Times: The Planning Commission on Wednesday warned that the country's water storage capacity will go down further by 12 percent in next decade and stressed on increasing storage capacity to meet the challenge. The country's current storage capacity stand at 9 percent of average annual flows, which is very low, compared with the world average of 40 percent. On average 35 Million Acre Foot (MAF) water flows into the sea annually during the flood season. Increasing storage capacity is thus of ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United States: 'Green' storage in forests may be going up in smoke
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/778649.html
Sacramento Bee: A new study has found that California wildfires emit more greenhouse gases than previously believed largely through the post-fire decay of dead wood, a finding that is raising questions about how effective the state's forests are at storing carbon and slowing global warming. The study by Thomas Bonnicksen, a retired forestry professor at Texas A&M University, found that four major wildfires – from the Fountain fire near Redding in 1992 to the Angora blaze at Lake Tahoe last year – ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Alarming growth in expected CO2 emissions in China
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-105498.html
Innovations Report: The growth in China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is far outpacing previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases even more difficult, according to a new analysis by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Diego. Previous estimates, including those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, say the region that includes China will see a 2.5 to 5 percent annual increase in CO2 emissions, the largest contributor to ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Brazil goes to war against logging
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080312/full/452134a.html
Nature: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) mounted a military-style crackdown on deforestation in the Amazon in January – just a month after the government proclaimed that deforestation rates had dropped 59% over the previous three years. The action was prompted by alarming new satellite data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in São José dos Campos, indicating that clear-cutting is once again on the rise. Brazilian police forces, hundreds strong, are ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
China's CO2 emissions greater than thought
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/03/12/chinas_co2_emissions_greater_than_thought/7667/
United Press International: A study has determined China's carbon dioxide emissions are far outpacing previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing greenhouse gases more difficult. Previous estimates, researchers said, suggested the region that includes China would see a 2.5 percent to 5 percent annual increase in CO2 emissions between 2004 and 2010. But a new analysis at the University of California-Berkeley and University of California-San Diego suggests the annual growth rate for China is at least ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Gas guzzlers set to face £950 tax
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7291643.stm
BBC: The chancellor has set out new plans to encourage the use of less polluting cars in a bid to tackle climate change. The most polluting vehicles will face a £950 "showroom" tax that will come into effect from April 2010. The government is also introducing a new top band for the most polluting vehicles that emit more than 255g of carbon dioxide per kilometre. Transport is the second-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK, accounting for 28% of ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
'One-child' policy aids climate change battle: China
http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8238&Itemid=31
Macau Daily Times: China said on yesterday its battle to rein in soaring greenhouse gas emissions has received a boost from an unexpected source -- the nation's controversial family-planning policy. Since its adoption in the late 1970s, the so-called "one-child" policy has averted the births of more than 300 million people, who would have emitted an additional 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, a government environment report said. If true, the figure would represent more ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Atlantic's Gulf Stream has huge influence on atmosphere
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jz0e0jEW3Ml33vsZWEoHiw8F6GkA
Agence France Presse: The conveyor belt of Atlantic warm water known as the Gulf Stream massively influences the lower layers of the atmosphere, a finding that could shed light on a poorly-understood aspect of global warming, scientists report. The Gulf Stream flows from the western tropical Atlantic to the northeast, bathing coastal western Europe with warmth. Without it, cities such as Paris and London would experience winters as fierce as in Quebec, Canada. Japanese researchers, publishing ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Canada: B.C.'s carbon tax 'complements' Ottawa's green goals, PM says
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080312.BCHARPER12/TPStory/National
Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Stephen Harper outlined his vision yesterday for fighting climate change in Canada, saying the federal government's new regulations can work in co-operation with provincial initiatives, including British Columbia's new cutting-edge carbon tax. "Contrary to some commentary, the national plan and British Columbia's plan complement each other," he told more than 600 people at a lunch organized by the Business Council of British Columbia. "The B.C. ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Budget 2008: Plastic bag charge threat sparks industry fury
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/12/bcnbudget912.xml
Telegraph: UK plastic bag manufacturers could see their turnovers fall by up to 60pc if the Government forces retail chains to charge for plastic bags, a leading bag producer has warned. The Government today threatened to impose legislation early next year forcing retailers to charge for plastic bags unless they make "sufficient progress on a voluntary basis" by the end of 2008. The move was one of the environmental initiatives proposed in the Budget. However the bag supplier to ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
China says developed countries should take lead in fighting climate change
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/12/news/China-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: China insisted that developed countries were chiefly responsible for global warming, saying Wednesday that critics of the country's soaring emission levels must also factor in its massive population. "Climate change is mainly attributable to long-term emissions by developed countries in the past and their current high per capital levels of emissions," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told reporters at the annual session of the National People's Congress, China's ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
China tells developed world to go on climate change 'diet'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/World_should_go_on_climate_change_diet/articleshow/2857210.cms
Economic Times: The developed world should go on a climate change diet rather than lecture China over its rising greenhouse gas emissions, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Wednesday. Yang told reporters that China's per capita emission of the gases linked to global warming remained less than one third the average in developed countries. "It's like there is one person who eats three slices of bread for breakfast, and there are three people, each of whom eats only one slice. Who ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Global warming will reduce crop yield by 30 percent
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/global-warming-will-reduce-crop-yield-by-30-percent_10026823.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Global warming will lead to 30 percent reduction in crop harvest and increase child mortality due to diarrhoea, parliament was informed Wednesday. The fourth report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has projected food, fibre and forest products, coastal systems, and low-lying areas will be affected due to climate change, Minister of State for Environment and Forest N.N. Meena said. "It is projected that crop yields could decrease up to 30 percent in central and ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Indonesia liquidates its forests for a few dollars
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11746&size=A
Asia News: The international commitment of Indonesia - repeated just recently in December, at the climate conference in Bali - to contain deforestation and reduce carbon emissions is not being translated into concrete actions. On the contrary: the government is liquidating the patrimony of the archipelago's forests to mining companies for a few rupiah. The denunciation comes from a few groups for the protection of the environment. They accuse the recent presidential decree 2/2008, by which Jakarta ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
United States: Logging dispute: When is a tree dead?
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1205288706258400.xml&coll=7
Oregonian: When is a green tree dead? That's essentially the question a federal appeals court is deciding in a lawsuit pitting conservationists against the U.S. Forest Service. A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel heard arguments Tuesday in Portland in a case that could decide how the government is allowed to log old-growth conifers burned by fire on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. The three-judge panel took the case under advisement after a brief hearing. The ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Nationalwide Ban on New Power Plants Without CO2 Controls Proposed
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-12-091.asp
Environment News Service: Two powerful House Democrats Tuesday introduced legislation that would require new coal-fired electric generating plants to use state-of-the-art control technology to capture and sequester emissions of carbon dioxide, CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Congressman Henry Waxman of California, who chairs the House Government Oversight Committee and Congressman Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and ...
Thu, 13 Mar 08
Redford worries about 'endangered' Colorado River
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2008-03-12-redford_N.htm
Associated Press: No one had to twist Robert Redford's arm to get him to narrate an IMAX film about a Grand Canyon river trip. Redford, a lifelong environmentalist, previously navigated the Colorado River and has a boat on Lake Powell, a manmade reservoir on the Arizona-Utah border created by a dam. He worries about water conservation as a drought threatens the region – and, visibly, the Colorado. "(The river is) endangered now on a number of fronts," Redford said by phone Monday from ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Fears over pace of next climate deal
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/fears-over-pace-of-next-climate-deal/2008/03/11/1205125911312.html
Age: THE United Nations' climate chief has praised Australia for its leadership on climate change since ratifying the Kyoto Protocol – which officially came into effect yesterday – but warned he is worried about the pace of negotiations to cut a new deal to reduce carbon emissions. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said he was nervous there was less than two years before the deadline to reach a new international agreement to reverse ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Government Reports Warn Planners on Sea-Rise Threat to US Coasts
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=94532
New York Times: A rise in sea levels and other changes fueled by global warming threaten roads, rail lines, ports, airports and other important infrastructure, according to new government reports, and policy makers and planners should be acting now to avoid or mitigate their effects. While increased heat and "intense precipitation events" threaten these structures, the greatest and most immediate potential impact is coastal flooding, according to one of the reports, by an expert panel convened by ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Industry scrambles to find a 'greener' concrete
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0312/p14s01-stgn.html
Christian Science Monitor: We drive our cars on it, we build skyscrapers with it. But concrete, one of the most common building materials in the world, has an ugly secret: It's a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which contribute to global warming. Roughly 5 to 10 percent of global CO2 emissions are related to the manufacture and transportation of cement, a major ingredient of concrete. With cement production expected to grow exponentially in coming decades, the industry is trying ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
India: Make solar lamps not war - Nobel scientist Pachauri
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-32430420080311
Reuters: One billion people can get electricity for the first time for little more than the cost of one month's war in Iraq, said Rajendra Pachauri, the head of a Nobel peace prize-winning U.N. panel of climate scientists. Pachauri is supporting a campaign "lighting a billion lives", led by India's Energy and Resources Institute, to furnish people without access to the grid with electric lanterns powered by solar photovoltaic panels. "Millions and millions of people do ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
World `Squandered' Decade in Climate Debate, Top Scientist Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=acN.KXTYYtkM&refer=latin_america
Bloomberg: World leaders wasted a decade debating whether global warming is happening, and now need to act quickly to limit its effects, a former chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said. The pace of greenhouse-gas emissions risks locking in thousands of years of higher sea levels, as well as damaging marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, melting sea-ice and acidifying the oceans, said Robert Watson, now chief scientific adviser at the U.K. environment ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Arctic Climate Models Playing Key Role In Polar Bear Decision
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311163631.htm
Science Daily: The pending federal decision about whether to protect the polar bear as a threatened species is as much about climate science as it is about climate change. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is currently considering a proposal to list the polar bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, a proposal largely based on anticipated habitat loss in a warming Arctic. Climate models - mathematical representations of the natural processes affecting climate - ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Climate alarmists pose real threat to freedom
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23358915-7583,00.html
Mercury: A WEEK ago, I gave a speech at an official gathering at Prague Castle commemorating the 60th anniversary of the 1948 communist putsch in the former Czechoslovakia. One of the arguments of my speech, quoted in all the leading newspapers in the country the next morning, went as follows: Future dangers will not come from the same source. The ideology will be different. Its essence will nevertheless be identical: the attractive, pathetic, at first sight noble idea that transcends the individual ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Australia: Climate change targets are achievable
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23359377-11949,00.html
Australian: IN the past 12 months climate change has been a major political, economic and - some would say - moral issue. For all the debate, the central question is relatively clear - what can we do in Australia to reduce the output of greenhouse gases without sacrificing our quality of life in the short term? While quality of life comprises many things, for the purpose of this discussion we'll constrain ourselves to maintaining a healthy economy. To answer this question, a fact base is ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Australia: Rising seas stop beachfront homes
http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,23360880-31037,00.html
Australian: IN a portent of how climate change could transform town planning along the nation's coastlines, the South Australian Supreme Court has ruled that predicted sea level rises are a valid reason to reject beachfront housing developments. The rejection of a subdivision on Yorke Peninsula, west of Adelaide, is likely to be repeated across the country as councils progressively write climate change provisions into their planning regulations. The South Australian Supreme Court cited ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Southern Baptists' hallelujah moment on climate change
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/southern-baptists-hallelujah-moment-on-climate-change/2008/03/11/1205125911797.html
Guardian: A group of more than 40 leading Southern Baptists has widened the divisions within the powerful American evangelical movement over global warming, denouncing the denomination's stance as "too timid" and warning that its cautious response to the environment is seen around the world as "uncaring, reckless and ill-informed". A declaration backed by the president of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention, the Reverend Frank Page, argues that the "time for ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
UK Home Power Plants Face 20-Yr Profit Wait
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47456/story.htm
Reuters: The growing number of UK homeowners selling electricity from their rooftop wind turbines and solar panels must wait over 20 years before making a profit and need better incentives, according to a report by energy regulator Ofgem. Britain's big energy supply firm have encouraged more homeowners to sell any extra electricity generated from micro-generation units by offering payments close to wholesale power costs. But the high cost of the turbines and panels, and the limited ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Australian Cemetery To Offer Carbon-Free Funerals
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47455/story.htm
Reuters: An Australian cemetery has unveiled plans to take the carbon out of cremations by offering new green funerals to help combat global warming. On the day Australia's formal ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse emissions comes into force, the Centennial Park cemetery in the South Australian state capital of Adelaide said it had studied the carbon impact of burials and cremations. While cremations initially produce more carbon emissions than a burial, cemetery chief ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Australia: City's record heatwave to drag on longer
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23360879-421,00.html
Australian: ADELAIDE rewrote its climate history yesterday, sweltering through its ninth consecutive 35C-plus day, setting a new mark for the longest heatwave in the city. With searing temperatures expected to continue until Sunday, Adelaide is set to become the new home of the heatwave, easily surpassing Perth's 10-day record among state capitals. Reaching a top temperature of 38.4C shortly after 4pm, Adelaide surpassed the seven other occasions, in 121 years of records, in which the ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
EU wants developing nations to do more on climate
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL11262051
Reuters: The European Union's executive Commission wants developing countries to make more effort to cut their balloning greenhouse gas emissions rather than rely on carbon offset schemes, a Commission official said. The Kyoto Protocol on global warming allows rich countries to meet binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions by funding cuts in developing nations, spawning a multi-billion dollar trade in carbon offsets. The EU has been the biggest buyer of offsets so far but now wants ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Increased carbon dioxide in atmosphere linked to decreased soil organic matter
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/uoia-icd031108.php
EurekAlert: A recent study at the University of Illinois created a bit of a mystery for soil scientist Michelle Wander – increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was expected to increase plant growth, increase plant biomass and ultimately beef up the organic matter in the soil -- but it didn't. What researchers found instead was that organic matter decay increased along with residue inputs when carbon dioxide levels were increased and they think the accelerated decay was due to increased moisture in ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Kill king coal?
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/james_hansen/2008/03/kill_king_coal.html
Guardian: Everyone should be concerned that the UK's energy department wants new coal plants. Gordon Brown must intervene urgently to halt these plans. He must ensure new coal plants are not built on his watch without their carbon captured from the outset. Reserves are hotly debated, but we know that enough oil and gas remain to take global warming close to, if not into, the realm of dangerous climate effects. But coal contains enough carbon to produce a vastly different planet altogether - a ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
United States: Polar Bears in Limbo as Drilling Leases Go Forward
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41550
Inter Press Service: A coalition of environmental groups sued the George W. Bush administration Monday for delaying a decision to protect polar bears threatened with extinction due to the melting ice in its Arctic habitat. Polar bears could be the first species officially threatened by climate change. The huge loss of summer sea ice in 2007 has caused many scientists to project that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer by as soon as 2012. Although excellent swimmers, polar bears are not very good ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Al Gore's fund to close after attracting $5 billion
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/11/business/gore.php
International Herald Tribune: The sustainable investment firm run by Al Gore, the former U.S. vice-president, is about to be closed to new investors, having raised close to its $5 billion target. Generation Investment Management will probably restrict inflows into its main Global Equity Fund next month, Gore and David Blood, co-founder of the company, said at a news conference Tuesday. Blood said the firm could not manage more than $5 billion in assets. While assets under management did not yet correspond ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Amid Water Shortage, Australia Looks to the Sea
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120518234721525073-j6SqmU4EMW4ujS12_PVFs_yGEsk_20080409.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
Wall Street Journal: As global water shortages loom, this remote city on Australia's parched western coast is giving desalination -- the arduous process of removing salt from sea water -- new clout. Opened in late 2006, Perth's $360 million desalination plant sucks in roughly 50,000 gallons of the Indian Ocean every minute. It then runs that water through special filters that separate out the salt, yielding some 25,000 gallons of drinkable water -- enough to meet nearly a fifth of Perth's current ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Biofuels maker says airlines worried about survival, not CO2
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1161357420080311
Reuters: U.S. airlines are too worried about survival to address the big impact their planes are having on the environment, the company behind the world's first commercial bio jet fuel plant said on Tuesday. Solena Group, which is developing a facility in California to make renewable jet fuel from municipal waste, is banking on the European Union's proposal to cap airlines' emissions of greenhouse gases to drive demand for its product. "The U.S. obviously is still struggling with ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada unveils carbon capture plan, ban on dirty coal
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=b8ac19cc-6a09-4c6c-83e9-566a5bb786b0&k=79532
Agence France Presse: Canada on Monday unveiled new environmental rules requiring future oil sands companies to capture and store carbon, and a ban on new construction of dirty coal burning power plants, both as of 2012. The two sectors are key emitters of greenhouse gases linked to global warming, Canada's Environment Minister John Baird said in a statement. The new regulations are needed for Canada to meet its target for reducing greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, he said. "Our ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Clean energy blossoming despite economic headwinds
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9890900-54.html
CNet: Clean energy has moved from the margin to the mainstream, with wind, solar, and biofuels topping a combined $70 billion in revenue last year. Market research firm Clean Edge on Tuesday released its annual report on clean technology and projected continued rapid growth in spending, even though the U.S. economy is slowing down. Revenue from biofuels, wind power, solar power, and fuel cells grew 40 percent to $77.3 billion, compared with 2006. Clean Edge projects that number ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Climate 'threatens' European security
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2b4df7fe-eef5-11dc-97ec-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: Climate change poses serious security risks for the European Union, ranging from sharper competition for global energy resources to the arrival of numerous "environmental migrants", warns a report prepared for an EU summit this week. "The core challenge is that climate change threatens to overburden states and regions which are already fragile and conflict-prone," says the report, drafted by Javier Solana and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's two highest-level foreign policy ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Climate change could snarl US transport: study
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1159583920080311
Reuters: Flooded highways, railroads and airport runways are among the transportation snarls looming as the world's climate changes, and officials should plan with this in mind, a U.S. study says. Modern transportation that runs on fossil fuel has been singled out as a key cause of climate change but the study released on Tuesday by the National Research Council said most transport also is vulnerable to the effects of global warming. "We're not just concerned about gradual changes ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
EU carbon market lagging in climate fight: analysts
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1143650120080311
Reuters: Evidence is slim that the European Union's four-year old carbon market is sufficiently penalizing emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, in the fight against climate change, analysts said on Tuesday. Carbon markets work by placing a limit on carbon emissions and allowing participating countries and companies to trade emissions permits within that cap. The tighter the supply of permits, the higher the carbon price, and the more economic it is to improve energy ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Global Warming to Affect Transport
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jodVbdyGQt6oXxjeYSE4kt9JK4WQD8VB9U900
Associated Press: Flooded roads and subways, deformed railroad tracks and weakened bridges may be the wave of the future with continuing global warming, a new study says. Climate change will affect every type of transportation through rising sea levels, increased rainfall and surges from more intense storms, the National Research Council said in a report released Tuesday. Complicating matters, people continue to move into coastal areas, creating the need for more roads and services in the most ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Global Warming vs. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=4429225&page=1
ABC News: Bridges, roads, coastal runways and railways will all suffer the impacts of a warming climate & and steps should be taken now to find ways to design and adapt, according to a new scientific report. "Climate change will have significant impacts on transportation, affecting the way U.S. transportation professionals plan, design, construct, operate and maintain infrastructure," said the report, "The Potential Impacts of Climate Change on U.S. Transportation," ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Has the Last Dirty U.S. Coal Plant Been Built?
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/coal-carbon-47031111
Daily Green: Democrats in the House have introduced a bill that would outlaw new coal-fired power plants, unless they are built to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise fuel global warming. Under the bill, new plants would have to meet a heretofore unthinkable standard: keeping 85% of carbon pollution out of the sky. United Nations scientists have endorsed the goal of reducing carbon emissions by about 80% to stave off the worst consequences of global ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Minorities the forgotten victims of climate change
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-32411320080311
Reuters: Minorities and indigenous people frequently bear the brunt of the ravages of climate change but also often come last on the aid list because they are on the margins of society, a report said on Tuesday. Some are even the victims of efforts to tackle global warming such as clearing tracts of land and forest for growing biofuels, according to "State of the World's Minorities 2008" report from Minority Rights Group International (MRG). "Climate change has finally ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Minority and Indigenous Groups Hardest Hit by Climate Change, Says New Report
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-03-11-voa56.cfm
Voice of America: A new report says minority and indigenous people are the hardest hid by climate change and often the last to receive aid. The report, from Minority Rights Group International, says unless policymakers pay urgent attention to the effects of climate change, the very survival of these groups may be at stake. It says the close relationship of many indigenous people to the environment makes them especially vulnerable to climate change. David Pulkol is the chairperson of the Africa ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Peru bets on desalination to ensure water supplies
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1161583720080311
Reuters: Peru plans to start desalinating water from the Pacific Ocean to make up for declining supplies from fast-melting glaciers affected by climate change, President Alan Garcia said on Tuesday. The Andean nation relies for fresh water mostly on rivers, some of which descend the dry western slopes of the Andes and are partly fed by large tropical glaciers that are melting at an unprecedented rate. Garcia said Peru must develop an alternate, more secure source by pumping water from ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Rights Group Cites Plight of Minorities Hit by Climate Change
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-11-voa51.cfm
Voice of America: British rights group says ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples across the globe suffer disproportionately from the effects of climate change - and that their plight has not been recognized by the international community. The London-base Minority Rights Group International, in a report published Tuesday, cites evidence from several recent environmental disasters in developing nations to bolster its premise. The document notes the example of humanitarian relief to Dalits ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Scientists target safe-climate future
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0310-code_red_ryanking.html
Mongabay: Friends of the Earth, Australia, working in conjunction with many of the world's foremost climate scientists recently published a report which should have quickly pervaded into mainstream media. It is a detailed, 100-plus page manifesto imploring immediate, radical action beyond not only the proposed climate change responses by the IPCC, mainstream environmental agencies, and world governments but outside the procedures and proceedings of our national and international authorities. Coverage ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada emission rules target new oil sands plants
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=09955705-674a-4319-b56e-e2af747ac3f5&k=80094
Reuters: Canada announced new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Monday, targeting future oil sands facilities and power plants, in a plan immediately derided by environmentalists as too little, too late. Oil sands facilities that go into operation starting in 2012 will be required to capture and store the bulk of their emissions of carbon dioxide, which is blamed for climate change, the Conservative government said. Existing facilities -- which process the tar-like bitumen ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada: Carbon tax fits into federal plan: PM
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f748610b-7975-4910-9554-15ea2d9e5b1e&k=82458
Vancouver Sun: The decision by British Columbia to impose a carbon tax in July complements the federal government's plan to combat climate change through regulations, despite concerns to the contrary, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday. "The B.C. plan, which is tax-based, targets at this point mainly consumer emissions and emissions down the production stream," Harper told the Business Council of B.C. "On the other hand, our regulation-based plan focuses on large emitters ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada: Climate change paves way for rise in infectious diseases: report
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/03/11/climate-change-disease.html
Canadian Press: Rising temperatures and increasing levels of precipitation triggered by climate change may increase the spread of infectious diseases, Canadian researchers suggest in a paper published Tuesday. "Any major change in the nonliving component of an ecosystem will affect living components, including microbes, insect vectors, animal reservoirs and susceptible humans, and change the incidence and distribution of infectious diseases," wrote researchers in the Canadian Medical ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
EU leaders to boost fight against climate change, urge others to do likewise
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iAL9FwQzscM6cLxr_4PhNomYe1vA
Canadian Press: European Union leaders are expected to warn countries such as the United States and China they could face EU trade sanctions if they don't accept a new international accord aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The European Union will begin a two-day summit on global warming Thursday. A draft summit statement speaks of taking "appropriate measures" against industrialized - and industrializing - nations if they prove to be laggards on climate change. The text, a ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Australia: Garrett freed from climate change gag
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23360137-11949,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd appears to have celebrated Australia's official entry to the Kyoto club yesterday by lifting the climate change gag placed on his Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, last year. In December, Mr Garrett was publicly humiliated when Mr Rudd revealed that all questions relating to climate change in the House of Representatives would be answered by his Treasurer, Wayne Swan. But this appears to have been unofficially scrapped after Mr Garrett yesterday was allowed to ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Argentina: Glaciers may be shrinking
http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=77957&videoChannel=82
Reuters: Scientists warn that glaciers in Patagonia are shrinking, and could disappear by the end of the century. Scientists say glacial melting, along with the expansion of water in warmer temperatures, could provoke rising sea levels.
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada: Harper dismisses green plan conflict
http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAN1162889120080311
Reuters: Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed suggestions on Tuesday that Ottawa's new climate change plan conflicts with a more aggressive policy being pursued by British Columbia. The federal government is targeting larger emitters with rules on emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change, while the province's planned carbon tax is aimed more at consumers, Harper said. "Contrary to some commentary, the national plan and British Columbia's plan complement each ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Modern physics is critical to global warming research
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-03/bu-mpi_1031108.php
EurekAlert: Science has come a long way with predicting climate. Increasingly sophisticated models and instruments can zero in on a specific storm formation or make detailed weather forecasts – all useful to our daily lives. But to understand global climate change, scientists need more than just a one-day forecast. They need a deeper understanding of the complex and interrelated forces that shape climate. This is where modern physics can help, argues Brad Marston, professor of physics at Brown ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada: Oil Group to Press Canada to Postpone Emissions Rules
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aZoFADtsJT4U&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Oil-sands producers will ask the Canadian government to delay new greenhouse-gas rules to give scientists time to figure out how to halt their emissions. ``We'll be talking to the government about their timeline for this,'' Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said yesterday in a telephone interview. ``This is going to take a bunch of work.'' Oil-mining operations in western Canada's tar-soaked swamps and valleys that begin operations ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Canada: Permafrost may force Quebec town to move
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=dc23d65c-c3b0-4bc4-a070-e0abfb0dc498&k=36002
CanWest News Service: Officials in one of Quebec's northernmost communities are meeting with regional, provincial government officials and geologists this week to consider whether change to the permafrost will force the town to move in the near future. Salluit, home to some 1,100 native villagers, is located in a basin close to the Hudson Strait and has been plagued by landslides, crater-ridden roads and sinking buildings over the years, says Adamie Papigatuk, the town's representative at the Kativik ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Australia: Qld Govt to force big mines to cut emissions
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/11/2185896.htm?site=tropic
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Nine of Queensland's largest mining operations are being made to meet strict new environmental standards. Most of the state's 1,200 mines have had to comply with provisions in the Environmental Protection Act since 2001. But others, including some owned by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, were exempt at the time because of the costs of compliance. Climate Change Minister Andrew McNamara says he will introduce laws into Parliament today. "What we want to have here ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
China: Smog to Keep Record-Holder from Olympic Race
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/158721/1/
OneWorld US: Air quality concerns in Beijing have prompted the world's record holder in the marathon to pull out of the premiere long-distance running event at this year's Olympic Games. Haile Gebrselassie, who has asthma, announced Monday that he would not risk his health by taking part in the 26.2-mile race in the Chinese capital, which is notorious for its poor air quality. In Beijing, respiratory particulate levels have averaged three to four times U.S. safety levels, according to the ...
Wed, 12 Mar 08
Venezuela to tax oil firms for environmental damage
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1161301720080311
Reuters: Venezuela plans to introduce a new tax on oil companies to help pay for environmental damage and to compensate the Venezuelan people, oil minister Rafael Ramirez said on Tuesday. Ramirez, speaking to reporters at a conference in Edmonton, added that OPEC-member Venezuela was sending to China crude oil that U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil did not want for its Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery. Venezuela has been in a dispute Exxon Mobil over the country's nationalization of a ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
China, Australia to Install Clean Coal Plant in Beijing
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-10-03.asp
Environment News Service: Two of the world's largest coal producing nations - Australia and China - signed a formal agreement for research and testing of clean coal technology Thursday in Beijing. The agreement, between the Australian government research organization CSIRO and China's Thermal Power Research Institute, TPRI, will see TPRI install, commission and operate a post-combustion capture pilot plant at the Huaneng Beijing Co-Generation Power Plant as part of CSIRO's research program. Post ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Environmental groups sue US over polar bears
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1015238320080310
Reuters: A trio of environmental groups sued the U.S. government on Monday for failing to meet a legal deadline to decide if polar bears should be considered threatened by climate change under the Endangered Species Act. "It's up to a federal court to throw this incredible animal a lifeline," said Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the plaintiffs. "We need urgent action from this administration to protect the polar bear and reduce greenhouse gas ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
EU leaders to endorse deeper greenhouse gas cuts
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1083655920080310?sp=true
Reuters: European Union leaders will call on the EU Commission to draw up a road map for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions at a summit this week, going beyond a unilateral target agreed in the fight against climate change. A draft final statement prepared by the EU's Slovenian presidency for the summit on Thursday and Friday urges the bloc to prepare to go beyond the 20 percent unilateral cut in emissions it has agreed to reach by 2020 from the 1990 level. "Stepping up to the ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
US Baptist group urges action on global warming
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1045444220080310
Reuters: Prominent members of the Southern Baptist Convention said on Monday that the church, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination, has been too timid to speak out against global warming and must start taking strong stands. The statement marks a significant shift in the way one of the country's most conservative churches regards climate change. If the membership at large accepts it, there could be political implications since evangelical Christians are a significant base for the Republican ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Climate change poll
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=221773
Sky News: A new poll has found a overwhelming 90 per cent of Australians urgently want the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the next 12 months. The nationwide survey from the Climate Institute also found 78 per cent of Australians want to see significant reductions in emissions before 2012. 88 per cent want action within a year on clean electricity generation and 87 per cent agree a fast solution is needed to cut traffic pollution. The poll also found Australians ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Coal 'key to UK's energy supply'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7287758.stm
BBC: Coal-fired power stations will remain a "key source" of British energy, Cabinet minister John Hutton has said. Mr Hutton, who is considering proposals to build a new coal station in Kent, said fossil fuels were needed to back up nuclear and renewable energy. He said the UK was playing a leading role in "clean coal" power generation. The Lib Dems said without carbon capture and storage technology, clean coal was "a total myth" - the Tories ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
United States: Conservation Groups Sue Over Polar Bears
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j9NGJ0_eVkxqgpEFC6RMHVlvT9qwD8VAOBN81
Associated Press: Three conservation groups sued the Department of the Interior on Monday for missing a deadline on a decision to list polar bears as threatened because of the loss of Arctic sea ice. A decision was due Jan. 9, one year after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the animals as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Agency Director Dale Hall said in January that officials needed a few more weeks to make a decision. But two months later, no decision has been ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Eco-migration threat to UK of climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/10/nclimate110.xml
Telegraph: Climate change threatens Britain with "environmentally induced migration", a top level European Union report has warned. The EU analysis of the security threats posed by global warming predicts social unrest as an influx of immigration sweeps "destination" Europe, following failing harvests and environmental conflicts in the world's poorest countries. "There will be millions of 'environmental' migrants by 2020, with climate change as one of the major ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Emissions from deforestation offset by increased tree growth in the Amazon
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0310-phillips_amazon.html
Mongabay: An increase in carbon sequestration by trees in the Amazon has roughly offset total emissions from deforestation in the region since the 1980s. A new study, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, this trend may slow in the future, causing the world's largest rainforest to become a net source of carbon emissions and therefore contributing to climate change. Under a long-term monitoring project known as 'RAINFOR' (Red Amazonica de Inventarios Forestales or ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Government to approve new coal power station
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/10/eacoal110.xml
Telegraph: A clear signal that the Government intends to approve Britain's first new coal-fired power station since 1984 has been given by John Hutton, the Business Secretary. Mr Hutton said that power generation from fossil fuels would continue to play a "key role" in keeping the lights on in Britain despite the planned expansion of nuclear and renewable power. The Kingsnorth power station in Medway, Kent, is to be shut and another new coal-fired facility built He ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Japan proposes sector-based emissions target
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT20323420080310
Reuters: Japan has proposed that major emitters of greenhouse gases assign near-term emissions targets for each industrial sector, which added up would then form a national target, a foreign ministry official said on Monday. Some 200 nations launched in Bali in December two-year, U.N.-led talks for both rich and developing nations to agree a global agreement to fight climate change to succeed the Kyoto Protocol after 2012. Japan on Monday laid out proposals which could put it on a ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Steel sector battles to cut carbon footprint
http://www.reuters.com/article/GlobalMiningandSteel08/idUSL1048318920080310
Reuters: The biggest challenge for the global steel industry is combating climate change and reducing its footprint as the biggest industrial contributor to carbon dioxide emissions, a senior industry figure said on Monday. "We account for the biggest emissions of any industrial sector, and that's due to our sheer size," Ian Christmas, secretary-general of the International Iron and Steel Institute, told the Reuters Global Mining Summit in London. In the short term, a ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Britain Budgets for Future Low-carbon Economy
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-10-02.asp
Environment News Service: In its budget for 2008-2009, the British government has allocated hundreds of millions of pounds for clean energy technologies over the next three years. Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Hilary Benn, MP, Thursday announced an increase in funding for clean energy technologies, investments and enterprises to over £400 million (US$808 million) over the next three years as part of the department's 2008-2009 budget. "Now is the time to act together ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Darling to Cut UK Energy Bills, Promote Clean Cars
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=atUWbfjGdmRk&refer=europe
Bloomberg: Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will announce measures in his budget to make utilities cut bills for Britain's poorest consumers and give companies tax incentives to buy less polluting cars, a person with knowledge of the plans said. The energy proposals would force companies such as Centrica Plc's British Gas unit and Electricite de France SA to slash extra costs imposed on households who use prepayment meters. The chancellor will also unveil plans to allow companies ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Ocean Deserts Expanding
http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4124
E/The Environmental Magazine: Scientists from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Hawaii unveiled new research last week showing that steadily warming sea surface waters are causing the least biologically productive swaths of the world's oceans–so-called "ocean deserts"–to expand at an unprecedented rate (some 15 percent on average) over a nine-year period ending in 2007. "The warming increases stratification of the ocean waters, preventing deep ocean nutrients ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Queen urges action, not talk, to tackle climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_pvSxp_aBBC1K0GrDazLrz6VRcA
Agence France Presse: Queen Elizabeth II made rare comments on the environment as she issued her Commonwealth Day message Monday, calling for more action to meet rhetoric on tackling climate change. The 81-year-old monarch, who heads the 53-nation global body of mainly former British colonies, said countries that pollute the least -- particularly the least-developed nations -- are often the worst affected by climate change. "If we recognise the interests and needs of the people who are most ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Queen urges climate help for vulnerable nations
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/331804
Associated Press: The Queen is calling on the Commonwealth to help the world's most vulnerable countries deal with the impact of climate change. In her Commonwealth Day message, the Queen says the impact of pollution falls unequally, often putting in most danger those who pollute the least. She adds that environmental choices open to the richest countries may not be available to others. For example, while rich countries can afford to make changes to cut down on fossil fuels, she says the ...
Tue, 11 Mar 08
Seal cubs threatened by global warming, WWF warns
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ju8ePn59RV6AneCYJIaBlsGpRFUg
Agence France Presse: Hundreds of newborn seal cubs risk dying of hunger and cold because global warming is making ice in the Arctic Circle melt too fast, the World Wide Fund for Nature in Germany warned Monday. "In some parts perhaps not a single one of the seal cubs born in the past few weeks will survive," the WWF said in a statement. It said hundreds of the roughly 1,500 ringed seal cubs born this month and last month were in danger. Seal cubs spend the first weeks of their ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Back to black: return to coal power
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/back-to-black-return-to-coal-power-793703.html
Independent: The Government will today anger environmentalists by signalling its support for a controversial new generation of coal-fired power stations and warning that Britain needs to burn more fossil fuels to prevent power cuts. John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Business, will say that "clean coal" has a crucial role to play in filling Britain's energy gap for the future. He will accuse the green lobby of "gesture politics" by opposing any coal-fired plants, putting ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
EU told to prepare for flood of climate change migrants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/10/climatechange.eu
Guardian: In its half-century history, the EU has absorbed wave upon wave of immigrants. There were the millions of political migrants fleeing Russian-imposed communism to western Europe throughout the cold war, the post-colonial and "guest worker" migrants who poured into western Europe in the boom years of the 1950s and 60s, the hundreds of thousands who escaped the Balkan wars of the 90s and the millions of economic migrants of the past decade seeking a better life. Now, according ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
United Kingdom: This foolish rush into the arms of the dirtiest fuel
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-this-foolish-rush-into-the-arms-of-the-dirtiest-fuel-793661.html
Independent: Coal is easily the most carbon-intensive and polluting form of energy generation available. As a society, we ought to be moving in the very opposite direction for ourenergy needs, towards conservation and renewables. It is inconceivable that a government serious about cutting carbon emissions would give the go-ahead for a new generation of coal-fired power stations to be built. Yet this is precisely what the Business Secretary, John Hutton, will come perilously close to doing in a speech ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
African NGOs for moratorium on biofuels
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/03/10/news0836.htm
New Nation: Uproar is slowly spreading among African civil society organisations and scientists, fearing that the biofuel revolution will bring more food insecurity, higher food prices and hunger to the continent. A petition calling for a "moratorium on new agrofuel developments in Africa" has so far been signed by over 30 NGOs all over the continent. Biofuels have already revolutionised agriculture in the US, Brazil and parts of Asia, and if EU energy commitments are lived up to, soon will do ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Australia: Global warming effects tackled in state plan
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/global-warming-effects-tackled-in-state-plan/2008/03/09/1204998283793.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE State Government is ramping up its preparations for the effects of global warming by forming a new state-wide plan, which assumes some local communities will be hit hard by rising sea levels, bigger bushfires and heatwaves. The new "climate action plan" merges new measures with existing strategies and will be launched this morning by the Minister for Climate Change and Environment, Verity Firth. The Government will target local areas, such as low-lying coastal ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Petrol price rises and penalties for gas-guzzlers as Chancellor Alistair Darling goes green
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/budget_2008/article3517088.ece
Times (UK): Alistair Darling will increase petrol duty and impose swingeing penalties on high-emission cars this week in what ministers will call "the green Budget". He will give tax incentives to companies who opt for greener vehicle fleets. And in a further move to show his green credentials Mr Darling will announce that Britain's first five-year carbon budget, setting out the way independent experts believe that the country should meet the target of reducing emissions by 60 per cent by 2050, ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Budget to target cars with new taxes
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget-to-target-cars-with-new-taxes-793698.html
Independent: Alistair Darling will attempt to reassert the Government's green credentials in his Budget on Wednesday by cracking down on high-emission "gas guzzlers" and encouraging the production of more fuel-efficient vehicles. He is expected to make it clear that the battle against climate change is one of the Treasury's key objectives and is thought to be considering a showroom tax of up to £2,000 on the most polluting cars. He may take his lead from a series of radical proposals for ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Climate change may spark conflict with Russia, EU told
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/10/eu.climatechange
Guardian: European governments have been told to plan for an era of conflict over energy resources, with global warming likely to trigger a dangerous contest between Russia and the west for the vast mineral riches of the Arctic. A report from the EU's top two foreign policy officials to the 27 heads of government gathering in Brussels for a summit this week warns that "significant potential conflicts" are likely in the decades ahead as a result of "intensified competition over ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Coal-fired power: 'Clean coal' technology
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coalfired-power-clean-coal-technology-793701.html
Independent: When burnt, coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels but a range of methods – called clean coal technology (CCT) – is being developed to reduce environmental impact of coal-fired power stations. The most important of these is carbon capture and storage (CCS), a process designed to trap carbon dioxide, preventing greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, and storing it deep underground. A range of methods have proved technically feasible but have yet to be shown to be economically ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Japan: Get set for emissions trading
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080310ts.html
Japan Times: The year 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Kyoto Protocol; the 20th anniversary of the release of the report "Our Common Future" by the World Commission on Environment and Development, headed by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland (the expression "sustainable development" was used officially for the first time); and the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change by the U.N. Conference on ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Australia: NSW to release climate change action plan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/10/2184687.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The New South Wales Government is today releasing an action plan for communities around the state to prepare for climate change. The plan has been developed using using data produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the CSIRO. The Minister for Climate Change and Environment, Verity Firth, says the science clearly shows global warming will have a significant impact in NSW over the next two decades. She says as well as an increase in average ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Perks help companies cut emissions
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/64038996-ee2e-11dc-a5c1-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: Businesses are more likely to cut carbon emissions if given government incentives than as the result of tax penalties, according to a committee of MPs. The climate change levy aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by taxing companies on energy use. But the Commons environmental audit committee, in a report to be published on Monday, said the availability of government-funded experts to help companies be energy efficient had led to much greater cuts in emissions than the simple ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030802595.html
Washington Post: The first time Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he couldn't believe what happened. Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they turned around and drove right back through the gates of their compound without a word. This ritual has been going on almost every day for nine months, Li and other villagers said. In China, a country ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Transmission limits hamper renewable energy plans
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2008-03-09-renewableenergy_N.htm
Associated Press: Northern New England is turning to the sun, wind and waste wood for clean, renewable power, but there's a serious problem: the threat of gridlock on electricity "highways." A prime example is New Hampshire's northern Coos County, where there are proposals to build renewable energy plants with roughly 460 megawatts of capacity – two-thirds of the proposed renewable projects in the state – to run over a transmission line that can only handle 100 megawatts. The ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
As world appetite grows, will oil hit $200 a barrel?
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/769574.html
Sacramento Bee: Oil prices bounced to more than $100 a barrel on Jan. 2 and again in February and March. Some Wall Street traders have started to bet on $200 a barrel. Consumers seem be used to the high price of gas. A study by researchers at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, showed that consumers are now less responsive to high gas prices. Another institute study found no evidence of economically rational decision-making about fuel economy when ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Could Arctic ice melt spawn new kind of cold war?
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN0731901820080309
Reuters: With oil above $100 a barrel and Arctic ice melting faster than ever, some of the world's most powerful countries -- including the United States and Russia -- are looking north to a possible energy bonanza. This prospective scramble for buried Arctic mineral wealth made more accessible by freshly melted seas could bring on a completely different kind of cold war, a scholar and former Coast Guard officer says. While a U.S. government official questioned the risk of polar ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
More nuclear plants on way as China cranks up power
http://business.brisbanetimes.com.au/more-nuclear-plants-on-way-as-china-cranks-up-power/20080309-1y8u.html
Reuters: CHINA is expanding nuclear power construction plans faster than planned, a senior energy official has told state media, saying installed power capacity by 2020 could be 50 per cent above the initial goal. China's nuclear energy development plan had called for operating power capacity to hit 40 gigawatts by 2020, enough to power Spain but feeding just 4 per cent of total generating capacity for the voracious Chinese economy. However, Zhang Guobao, a vice-minister of the National ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Solar water heating an untapped resource
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/09/easolar109.xml
Telegraph: Solar water heating has a massive potential to reduce households' greenhouse gas emissions but red tape and uncertain grants mean this is almost entirely untapped, according to a new report. The report, which used Government figures, found that solar water heating could provide around a quarter of the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions required from households over the next 40 years to tackle climate change. This was the equivalent of taking nearly 4 million cars off the road, ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
UN looks east for unused land in face of rising food prices
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/10/food.unitednations
Guardian: Representatives of central and eastern European countries will meet UN officials today to discuss how much redundant agricultural land could be brought back into use to alleviate the worldwide food shortage. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is holding a conference in London with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation as countries such as Russia and Ukraine are seen as having spare agricultural land. The UN's World Food Programme raised the alarm last month ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Amid the debate, energy gets cleaner
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004270167_warming09.html
Seattle Times: Forget the arguments over whether global warming is real. Many American businesses and researchers are well past all that and are scrambling to find ways to make money in a world that must slash its use of fossil fuels. Energy entrepreneurs have sparked an energy revolution that's just starting in the United States but already producing new ideas, more jobs and growing exports. "You have a cavalcade of human intellect springing forth just when we need it," said Rep. ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Australia comes in from the cold on climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jPp0hFY0Ji8T0KE2pYFyIxgRnUSA
Agence France Presse: Australia will end years of chilly isolation on climate change when its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol comes into force Tuesday but remains one of the world's worst polluters for its size, analysts say. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol in his first official act following the election of his centre-left Labor government in November, after his conservative predecessor John Howard refused for more than a decade. Joining Kyoto has been hailed as an important ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Bus-sized batteries may help efficiency of US grid
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0936723320080309
Reuters: The next time some U.S. utility customers collectively pump up their air conditioners on a sweltering summer day, that power may be coming from a battery the size of a double decker bus. U.S. utilities are increasingly investing in super-sized batteries and other forms of energy storage to reduce their dependence on slow, dirty backup plants, put off building new substations, and to store power from wind farms and other growing but volatile sources of renewable energy. "We ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
No Way To Fix Climate Without Private Sector -UNDP
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47406/story.htm
Reuters: The private sector must be encouraged to help developing countries combat climate change now, before it becomes too severe to handle, the head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said. Kemal Dervis said that while public transfers in form of official development assistance should be used to assist in "adaptation", or protection against potential catastrophes, the private sector should help finance long-term solutions. "The shared mitigation costs ...
Mon, 10 Mar 08
Opposition to Calif. tailpipe limits comes from surprising corner
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-emissions9mar09,1,2321821.story
LA Times: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to implement its own vehicle emission standards to fight global warming. At first glance, Congress might seem a likely ally in his efforts to overturn the Bush administration's refusal to let the state do so. After all, global warming is at the top of the agenda in Washington. The three remaining major presidential candidates back California's efforts. And the state's congressional delegation is the largest. But legislation to clear ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Biofuels: Fields of dreams
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3489640.ece
Times (UK): John Anderson is motoring with chip fat. Sir Rob Margetts swears by fizzy drinks and chicken feed. George Bush is banking on corn. Everyone, from pub to parliament, knows we're going to have to do something about transport fuel. Oil prices have already passed the threshold of pain, and emissions targets for greenhouse gases will not be met unless we wean ourselves off petrol. The solution is both easy and obvious. In place of fossil energy – the power of ancient sunlight – we can ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
America's hottest export: Coal
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/F39E69ADF6BB30CB86257406000DC963?OpenDocument
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Crippling snowstorms in China, floods in Australia and blackouts in South Africa might seem like problems a world apart. But they're closer than you think. Since Jan. 1, crises such as these have strained coal markets already stretched thin by soaring Asian demand, and the impact is reverberating to mines in West Virginia and Wyoming, which are being counted on to fill the void. St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. shipped more coal overseas in the first six weeks of this year ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Humanity is consuming over 20 per cent more natural resources each year than the earth can produce
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=100210
News: People are plundering the world's resources at a pace that outstrips the planet's capacity to sustain life, says a report by the Genevas-based environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The "Living Planet Report" examines the "ecological footprint" – or environmental impact – of the planet's 6.4 billion-strong population. The report is the WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems – as measured by the "Living Planet Index" – and the human ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Canada: Top ecology groups issue joint blueprint
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080308.ENVIRO08/TPStory/National
Globe and Mail: Canada's 11 largest environmental groups have jointly issued a blueprint to solve the country's environmental woes, calling for high carbon taxes and at least half of the country's remaining wilderness to be off limits to development. It is the first time since the late 1980s that the country's brand-name conservation organizations, ranging from Greenpeace to the David Suzuki Foundation, have issued such a document. It was unveiled yesterday in Ottawa and presented to the four major ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
U.N. Warns Food Shortage Will Continue Up To 2010
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010270408
All Headline News: United Nations World Food Program (WFP) head Josette Sheeran warns that the agency is already taking precautionary measures by rationing food aid to address worldwide food shortage and the increasing commodity prices which is expected to continue up to 2010. She said that millions of the world's poorest people will buy less food, less nutritious food or be forced to depend on aid if no concrete action is taken. WFP latest data showed that prices of some food rose by up to an ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
China's nuclear power expansion "faster than planned"-Xinhua
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL0868760220080308
Reuters: China is expanding nuclear power construction plans faster than earlier planned, a senior energy official told state media on Saturday, saying installed power capacity by 2020 could be 50 percent above the initial goal. China's nuclear energy development plan had called for operating power capacity to hit 40 gigawatts (GW) by 2020, enough to power Spain but feeding just 4 percent of total generating capacity for the voracious Chinese economy. But Zhang Guobao, a vice minister ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Climate change: the burning issues
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article3508113.ece
Times (UK): Climate change is one of the unfolding calamities of our times. It is our moral responsibility as a country, and as individuals, to address the global threat that may engulf our children. We are compelled to make difficult choices and change our lifestyles. It is essential that we make changes based on reason, but not group-think. There is a danger that the green herd, in pursuit of a good cause, stumbles into misguided campaigns. Analysis without facts is guesswork. Sloppy analysis ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Eat Locally, Ease Climate Change Globally
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702520.html
Washington Post: My farm is in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southwestern Virginia. Like many others who have recently made the transition from tobacco to organic farming, we sell our produce through local and regional channels, including the farmers market in the nearby town of Abingdon, population 8,000. Of late, a number of commentators have disparaged local food economies, based on two claims: First, that shipping food long distances in fully loaded tractor-trailers is more ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
United States: Farm fights global warming, earns some cold hard cash
http://www.centredaily.com/business/story/453285.html
Centre Daily: The rolling fields of corn and hay farmed by the Rosenbaum family in Union Township are indistinguishable from others in Berks County. Over this winter season, the fields have lain dormant, waiting for the thaw and spring planting to come. But this year, the Rosenbaums' 150 acres will start earning money for a new reason: their ability to help the environment by absorbing a greenhouse gas. Eric Rosenbaum is the third generation of his family to work this land. He owns it with ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Inquiry Into Delayed Polar Bear Listing
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=94306
Associated Press: The Interior Department's inspector general has begun a preliminary investigation into why the department has delayed for nearly two months a decision on listing the polar bear as a threatened species. The decision was supposed to have been made by early January. But when the deadline came, the Fish and Wildlife Service, an Interior unit, said it needed another month. That timetable was also not met. A spokesman for the inspector general's office said a case had been opened in response to a ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Scotland 2080: a nation hit by severe drought
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Scotland-2080--a-nation.3858784.jp
Scotland on Sunday: FROM dreich to drought in just 70 years. The most detailed-ever study of predicted rainfall and temperatures in Scotland has revealed precisely where climate change is likely to hit hardest. The maps are the first to pinpoint future drought areas in such detail, and show that by 2080, summer rainfall in many parts of eastern Scotland will have tumbled by around 100 millimetres – one eighth of the annual average. Particularly low-lying areas around cities and towns such as ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Stop the bandwagon now
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/mark_lynas/2008/03/stop_the_bandwagon_now.html
Guardian: The tide of public and expert opinion has been turning inexorably against biofuels in recent months. First news began to leak out about hungry Mexicans protesting about rising corn prices, as more and more of the global harvest was siphoned off for ethanol. Then studies by scientists confirmed that all current biofuels are worse - some by an order of magnitude - in greenhouse emissions terms than conventional mineral petrol and diesel. Now the government's chief scientist has come ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Canada: Emissions move up oilsands agenda
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/calgarybusiness/story.html?id=e26c1642-c399-418d-908a-b3d68fb2433d
Calgary Herald: Wednesday's ruling by a federal court about the Kearl Lake expansion by Imperial Oil over environmental concerns should be viewed as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. A year ago, this ruling might not have been handed down. But today things are different. What's changed is the legislation south of the border, beginning with what's been going on in California -- all of it aimed at Canada's "dirty oil" -- and ending with the hastily passed federal ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Europe's leaders warned of big rise in migration
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/07/europe/migrate.php
International Herald Tribune: Europe's leaders are being warned to prepare for big new flows of migration by 2020 as climate change puts strains on food and water supplies, provokes natural disasters and undermines political stability in poorer, neighboring countries. A report prepared for the European Union heads of government, who will meet Thursday in Brussels, said that the rest of the world could not insulate itself from the impact of changes that could overwhelm regions that already suffer from poverty and ...
Sun, 9 Mar 08
Action Will Prove Much Cheaper
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41511
Inter Press Service: Government inaction will lead to increased climate change, species loss, increased water shortages and health problems by 2030, according to a new OECD report. But key challenges can be addressed at a fraction of the cost of inaction. The report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 'Environmental Outlook to 2030', echoes calls for timely action by other reports such as that by UK government economist Sir Nicholas Stern in October 2006, and last ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Australia: Change in political climate
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23338565-5006549,00.html
Mercury: POLITICIANS are falling over themselves to be seen as far-sighted on climate change. Premier Paul Lennon plans to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. The Greens say that is nowhere near enough. As the debate heats up, the talk is of deeper and deeper cuts but how deep can we go? A few months ago federal Labor's pledge to deliver a 60 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 was considered radical and risky to the economy. Now the Greens say it is already out of date and ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Climate change a new factor in global tensions: EU
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Climate_change_a_new_factor_in_global_tensions_EU_/articleshow/2846351.cms
Economic Times: The risks of climate change have turned from a threat to reality impacting the conflict in Darfur, migration from flood-prone Bangladesh and hopes for stability in the Middle East, according to a new EU report. From Africa to Asia, and from pole to pole, climate change has become "a threat multiplier which exacerbates existing trends, tensions and instability," warns the seven-page report on "Climate change and international security", to be presented to a ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Oceans Turning Into Deserts
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87959035
NPR: The region of the ocean known as "the desert of the sea" has expanded dramatically over the past decade, according to a new study. Scientists looking at the color of the ocean from space have found that vast areas that were once green with plankton have been turning blue, as marine life becomes scarcer. If it's linked to global warming, as they suspect, this could be another blow for the world's fisheries. Just as plants make up the base of the food web on land, tiny green ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
United States: Solar farm to rise over 3 square miles
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23464740/
Associated Press: A Spanish company is planning to take 3 square miles of desert southwest of Phoenix and turn them into one of the largest solar power plants in the world. Abengoa Solar, which has plants in Spain, northern Africa and other parts of the U.S., could begin construction as early as next year on the 280-megawatt plant in Gila Bend – a small, dusty town 50 miles southeast of Phoenix. The company says it could be producing solar energy by 2011. Abengoa would build, own and operate the ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
The Growing Food Cost Crisis
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2008/03/07/the-growing-food-cost-crisis.html
US News and World Report: The troubles erupted early last year. First, there were the tortilla riots in Mexico City: 75,000 angry demonstrators, mostly poor, taking to the streets to protest the surging price of a food staple. Then in Italy, merchants from Milan began clamoring about the cost of pasta. By year's end, protests had broken out in at least a dozen countries: in India over onions, in Indonesia over soybeans, and, last month, in the small African country of Burkina Faso, where hundreds of looters burned ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
'Environment going bust because of too many people'
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C07%5Cstory_7-3-2008_pg12_8
Daily Times: Over population in developing countries and the mishandling of natural resources are the main causes for the rising environmental degradation and global climate changes, said national and international environmental experts. "Managing the urban environment is a particularly serious issue for Asia, as its population is migrating to cities at an unprecedented rate," said Dr Margherita Turvani, associate professor of the department of planning, University IUAV, Venice, Italy. She ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Biofuels, food prices and malnutrition
http://money.uk.msn.com/guides/ethical-money/article.aspx?cp-documentid=7723245
Money: China's booming economy, a spate of poor harvests across the world and the growing trend to turn food into fuel for our cars are causing millions of people to go hungry. The international price of wheat, maize (corn), soya beans and dozens of other foods has at least doubled in the last two years and in some cases nearly trebled. World grain reserves are at their lowest ebb since 1960, and the US stockpile has not been this low since 1948. The granary is almost ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Canada Environment Groups Ask Government to Double Carbon Price
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=ay6RPpxamDJo&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Canada's government should double the price companies pay to exceed limits on greenhouse gases because the current cost won't slow pollution enough, the country's leading environmental activist groups said. Carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming should cost at least C$30 ($30) a ton next year, and reach C$75 a ton by 2020, according to a report today co-written by 11 groups. The price could be set by imposing a tax on carbon or through regulations with ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Climate change reported grim for Canada
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/07/climate_change_reported_grim_for_canada/9164/
United Press International: A coming scientific report on consequences of climate change for Canada is grim, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported Friday. Scientists involved with the study done for the Department of Natural Resources told the broadcaster the country can expect more ice storms, torrential rains and floods, droughts, landslides and more days of extreme heat and smog. Gordon McBean, a geography professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, was one of the authors, ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
EU Report Cites Climate Change Threats
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVNkthqWXZuZD9P6lr9Kh3AxSkBQD8V8P6QO0
Associated Press: Climate change will worsen tensions and instability between nations competing for arable land, water and other resources, according to a European Union report. The report prepared for a meeting of the 27 EU leaders said member nations must lose no time in preparing for the impact of climate change on the security of Western Europe. The report to the EU leaders – a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press – says climate change will trigger humanitarian crises, ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Greener cars in spotlight as carmakers change gear
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0786825620080307
Reuters: When Lamborghini and Hummer try getting in on the action, you know greener cars have come of age. The makers of $400,000 supercars and flashy sports utility vehicles find themselves trying to keep up with tiny, fuel efficient new models at this week's Geneva auto show as toughening pollution laws put the focus on small, light and thrifty. Hummer, the rugged U.S. troops transporter that has become popular with Hollywood stars, is showing a version of its HX concept vehicle that ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
New Research Confirms Antarctic Thaw Fears
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,540059,00.html
Spiegel: New research confirms that ice sheets in West Antarctica are thinning at a far faster rate than in past millennia. Although scientists are divided as to the cause of the melt, many feel it is directly related to climate change. The boom must have been deafening last fall as the gigantic chunk of ice finally broke off from the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica. For almost a year, the creaks and groans from the river of ice had presaged the birth of a new, expansive iceberg. And finally ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Smug eco-preachers a turnoff
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23336429-5001031,00.html
Daily Telegraph: GREEN. Green. Greengreengreengreen greengreengreengreengreen. There. That's my impression of Western creative trends, which presently display an alarming lack of diversity. Get any members of your arts/media/communications/grants community together to work up daring new ideas and they'll quickly settle on something green. Even the usually petrol-scented motorsport magazine F1 Racing has lately published a green edition. I bet sales aren't exactly speedy. Few Greenpeace members ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
UN: Climate danger for Middle East, North Africa
http://www.scidev.net/gateways/index.cfm?fuseaction=readitem&rgwid=2&item=News&itemid=4286&language=1
SciDev.Net: Climate change is likely to cause agricultural losses in the Middle East and North Africa, threatening the food security of many countries, the UN has warned. A report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), released at a conference in Cairo, Egypt, this week (1–5 March), reviews studies and models of predicted climate-change impacts over the period 1980–99 and for 2080–99 – including reports from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Global warming not always to blame for extreme winters
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0307/p02s09-usgn.html
Christian Science Monitor: Whatever global-warming models may suggest about the futures of Earth's climate, one thing is certain: Global warming never promised to eliminate winter, especially for those living outside the tropics. From snowballs in Baghdad to severe blizzards in China, the past three months have seen their share of extremes: •Greece and Turkey experienced severe storms in January. •By some estimates, the storms in China flattened about 10 percent of its forests. •Even ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
Canada: Ontario to add more nuclear muscle to energy mix
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3QRw3851if6ZXkYHktrrrTH0oHA
Agence France Presse: Canada's Ontario province announced Friday plans to build its first new nuclear reactor in decades to meet its burgeoning energy needs and reduce its carbon emissions. Four companies -- France's Areva, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), US-Japanese partnership GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and US-based Westinghouse Electric Company -- have been shortlisted and will be invited to bid on the project, said Ontario Energy Minister Gerry Phillips. Construction would begin within ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Prince Charles: Climate change is alarming
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/07/eacharles107.xml
Telegraph: Prince Charles has criticised climate change sceptics who say that the global temperature rise has been invented as "sheer madness." The Prince has also raised the possibility of setting up a network of environmental campaigners from the business world so ideas and expertise could be shared. He said the facts were "plain" that drastic action needed to be taken in the face of "urgent wake up calls". Speaking at a reception in Trinidad and ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
US pledges to accelerate development of renewable energy
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/07/content_7737962.htm
Xinhua: The United States, as the single greatest energy consumer in the world, unveiled on Thursday its pledges to drive up renewable energy. "The United States pledged to continue its leadership in renewable energy through efforts coordinated by multiple agencies," said Andy Karsner, the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, who laid out the pushing plan at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC). According to the ...
Sat, 8 Mar 08
World's Most Endangered Coastlines
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2008/03/06/travel-sustainable-coastlines-forbeslife-cx_rr_0307travel.html
Forbes: The consequences of climate change in coastal regions include stranded polar bears in the Arctic, a sinking island in the South Pacific and frequent tropical storms that batter the Caribbean. Over-fishing and pollution also significantly harm coastal regions by wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. Many of the changes that occur as a result, like so-called dead zones, where oxygen levels drop to below the amount necessary for aquatic life, and depletion of the fish population, are not ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
Current generation of biofuels cannot save the planet
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3501007.ece
Times (UK): At first sight, biofuels are hugely exciting. They seem to offer a way to wean transport systems off oil. The city of Curitiba in Brazil, for example, has been famously running on sugar cane for years. The dream of a cleaner world, running on plant-power, is deeply attractive. But the current generation of biofuels cannot save the planet. In individual cities and towns, they can make a difference. But at any scale, the dream dwindles. The picture is complicated because there ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
Global Warming Not Cooling Travellers' Wanderlust
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47379/story.htm
Reuters: Global warming's threat to the existence of the exotic resorts and beaches tourists crave has not dented holidaymakers' appetites for pollution-producing, long-haul trips, experts said at Berlin's annual tourism fair. In his opening speech to the International Tourism Exchange fair earlier this week, German Economy Minister Michael Glos said climate change was a serious problem for the future of the travel industry. A Deutsche Bank report demonstrated how the industry would ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
New Book Puts Cost of Saving Planet at $190 Billion
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47385/story.htm
Reuters: What would it cost to wipe out world poverty, guarantee universal health care, stabilise population growth and roll back the ravages of global warming? About $190 billion a year, or the equivalent of a third of US annual military expenditure, a prominent environmental economist says in a new book. "Once you accept that climate change, population growth, spreading water shortages, rising food prices etcetera are threats to our security, it changes your whole way of ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
Rush for biofuels threatens starvation on a global scale
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500954.ece
Times (UK): The rush towards biofuels is theatening world food production and the lives of billions of people, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser said yesterday. Professor John Beddington put himself at odds with ministers who have committed Britain to large increases in the use of biofuels over the coming decades. In his first important public speech since he was appointed, he described the potential impacts of food shortages as the "elephant in the room" and a problem which rivalled that ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
US House Bill Lets California Restrict Car Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47384/story.htm
Reuters: A bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives on Thursday that would overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to prevent California from limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions spewed by cars. The EPA last December turned down California's request for a waiver from federal law that would have permitted the state to cut vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, which when implemented would have likely have raised the required fuel efficiency of cars and also ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
EU Warned of Climate-Induced Polar Security Threat
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47375/story.htm
Reuters: European Union leaders will receive a stark warning next week of potential conflict with Russia over energy resources at the North Pole as global warning melts the ice cap and aggravates international security threats. A report to the leaders by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the executive European Commission describes climate change as "a threat multiplier", which will exacerbate many existing tensions and heighten instability. "A further dimension ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
GE Lands Another $1 Billion Wind Contract
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47389/story.htm
Reuters: General Electric Co said Thursday that it had obtained a $1 billion contract to supply electricity-generating wind turbines to Invenergy Wind LLC, its second billion-dollar contract with that company this year. GE, the second-largest US company by market capitalization, said it would supply Chicago-based Invenergy with 750 megawatts of wind turbines for North American projects to be built in 2010. The turbines would generate enough energy to meet the needs of about 200,000 ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
MMA Renewables Funds Arizona Thin Film Solar Plant
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47386/story.htm
Reuters: Power plant builder and operator MMA Renewable Ventures, Wednesday said it will build a solar electric system in Arizona to power a thin-film solar plant for manufacturer Global Solar. MMA will finance a 750-kilowatt facility, which will power Global Solar's Tucson, Arizona manufacturing plant. Global Solar agreed to buy electricity from MMA for 25 years. "It's sort of like a marketing tool," Global Solar Chief Executive Mike Gering said in an interview. "If ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
Oceans To Fall, Not Rise, Over Millions of Years
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47376/story.htm
Reuters: Sea levels are set to fall over millions of years, making the current rise blamed on climate change a brief interruption of an ancient geological trend, scientists said on Thursday. They said oceans were getting deeper and sea levels had fallen by about 170 metres (560 ft) since the Cretaceous period 80 million years ago when dinosaurs lived. Previously, the little-understood fall had been estimated at 40 to 250 metres. "The ocean floor has got on average older and gone ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
PNG, Aust sign forest carbon partnership
http://www.thenational.com.pg/030708/nation3.htm
National: Papua New Guinea and Australia have agreed to co-operate in reducing greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and forest degradation. Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd signed the Papua New Guinea – Australia forest carbon partnership (FCP) which was later announced at a joint press conference yesterday. Mr Rudd said PNG –Australia FCP is a practical piece of co-operation between the two countries. "If you look at the ...
Fri, 7 Mar 08
UK Signals Nuclear Fast-Track, Offers New Sites
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47387/story.htm
Reuters: Britain said on Thursday it was making up to 18 more sites available for the next generation of nuclear power stations and signalled an acceleration of its plans for new reactors. The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), which owns 18 sites including two with operational reactors, issued a notice giving operators four weeks to pick the assets they wanted. And Business Secretary John Hutton said he expected the new generation of nuclear power stations to supply much ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Can states cut carbon? EPA says no.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0306/p17s01-stgn.html
Christian Science Monitor: The political tussle over whether carbon dioxide is a pollutant subject to government regulation has gone on for years. Early in his first term as vice president, Al Gore pushed a tax on CO2. Democrats and Republicans in Congress were both skeptical. The idea went nowhere. As a presidential candidate, George Bush seemed to think regulating CO2 was a good idea. At least he said so. After his election, then-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Christie ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Reef fish get lost as climate changes
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD15802020080307
Reuters: Climate change might be causing reef fish to get lost, unable to return to breeding grounds from the open ocean, which could have profound implications for the survival of reef ecosystems, Australian scientists say. Climate change-induced environmental stress, including warmer and more acidic seawater, could be hindering the development of the ear bones in young reef fish, which rely on sound for navigation, the marine experts said on Friday. The scientists from the James Cook ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Seeing Forest Biodiversity for the Trees
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/306/2
Science Now: Climate change may not be as serious a threat to tropical forest biodiversity as previously thought, according to a new study. The question of whether rising carbon dioxide levels act as a forest fertilizer remains unresolved, however. Global climate change is likely to be bad news for some humans, but the effect on tropical forests is less clear. Previous work has suggested that higher carbon dioxide levels and warmer temperatures benefit fast-growing trees. As a result, these ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Australia: Alarm at pulp mill 'thirst'
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23327966-3462,00.html
Mercury: THE Gunns Ltd pulp mill would use much more water than originally forecast if dry summers persist. Previously Gunns has said that the 26,000 megalitres a year would be just over 1 per cent of the annual flow through the Trevallyn power station. However, in dry months the pulp mill allocation would comprise up to 45 per cent of daily summer flows in the South Esk basin. The substantial share of available water would occur if the Hydro was forced to reduce water releases ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Australia's Carbon Price May Be Double Forecast, Citigroup Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=ajag6Zu_5KKA&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia's carbon price may be more than double the earlier estimated level as pressure builds on the government to set stricter targets for emissions reductions, Citigroup Inc. said. Carbon may be priced at about A$50 ($47) a metric ton through the planned emissions trading system, rather than about A$20, Citigroup said in a March 4 report. BlueScope Steel Ltd., Iluka Resources Ltd. and AGL Energy Ltd. are among the companies that may be the most affected by higher prices, it said. ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Beware the 'clean' tech bubble
http://www.moneymanagement.com.au/Articles/Beware-the-clean-tech-bubble_0c054954.html
Money Management: Investors in the super industry should "beware the coming clean tech bubble, which will have myriad characteristics in common with the IT tech bubble of 2000", according to Industry Funds Management chairperson Garry Weaven. Speaking at an Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees function in Sydney yesterday, Weaven said that "just as with the IT bubble there will be a lot of hot air mixed up with the advances in renewable energy technology". At the same time, he said ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Canada blasted by own environmental watchdog
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=db9c9915-9627-4298-be35-5bed8f02f0a5&k=60571
Reuters: Canada's environmental watchdog warned on Thursday that the government was not following through on its past promises to improve protection of the environment. A lack of funding and commitment by top officials has resulted in an unsatisfactory job in areas such as wildlife protection and restoring heavily polluted areas of the Great Lakes, according to the report to Parliament. The report by the Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development complained that Ottawa had ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
GM Sees Upgraded Hybrid System on Road by 2010
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47370/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: General Motors Corp said it plans production of upgraded hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles in 2010 using more powerful lithium-ion batteries that promise to boost fuel economy by up to 20 percent. Lithium-ion batteries will be able to provide nearly three times the power of the nickel metal hydride batteries now used in most hybrid vehicles, while weighing far less and taking up less space, the automaker said. Widespread production of hybrid vehicles with lithium-ion ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
United States: Governor's high-flying commute draws flak
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold7mar07,0,2891674.story
LA Times: Like many of the Californians he represents, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now spends more than three hours commuting because he lives so far from the office. But his ride is a private jet. After flirting briefly with buying a Sacramento abode for his family, then living alone for a while in a 2,000-square-foot hotel penthouse across from the Capitol, the governor has decided to stay nearly every night at his Brentwood mansion. The commute costs hundreds of thousands of ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Japan Eyes Technology Upgrades To Halve Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47362/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Japan plans to focus on its efforts to improve 21 technologies to help the world halve greenhouse gases by 2050, a trade ministry official said on Wednesday. The technologies that need to be improved to combat global warming include coal-fired power generation, power generation using natural gas, solar power, vehicles powered by fuel cells or biofuels, and hydrogen-based steelmaking, the official said. Without the envisaged innovative technologies, global greenhouse gas ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
United Kingdom: MPs Call For Higher Aviation Taxes
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47365/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Air passengers should face a "significant increase" in taxes, including a new charge for the longest flights, to help combat climate change, a group of MPs said in a report on Wednesday. The Environmental Audit Committee said higher "green taxes" would cut demand for air travel, help conserve resources and raise money that could be used for environmental projects. "It is vital that tax on aviation is not just reformed but significantly increased, so ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Violent storms, water shortages in store for Canada: report
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/03/06/climate-study.html
CBC: Canada can expect to see more devastating storms and extreme weather because of climate change, a yet-to-be released federal report concludes. The report, prepared by more than 100 Canadian scientists on behalf of Canada's Department of Natural Resources, will be made public soon, but CBC News has learned some of the details it contains from several people in compiling the report. The report focuses on the impact climate change will have on the country, in terms of the weather ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Australia: Warmer waters leave fish floundering
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23334641-5005961,00.html
AAP: CLIMATE change could be reducing fish numbers by causing them to get lost, Australian scientists have found. The stresses of warmer sea temperatures and more acidic seawater may be affecting the development of ear bones in young reef fish, according to fish ecologist Dr Monica Gagliano of James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). Dr Gagliano said the stress in their larval stage could make fish develop asymmetrical ear ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Bush: Renewables can help US reduce dependence on foreign oil
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/06/content_7725646.htm
Xinhua: U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that the United States must strongly push forward the development of renewable energy sources in order to reduce its dependence on foreign oil. "America has got to change its habits. We've got to get off oil," said Bush when he addressed the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC). "Dependency on oil presents a real challenge to our economy," said Bush. It also presents a challenge to the ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
China Rules Out Energy Price Hikes In Near-term
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47369/story.htm
Reuters: China has ruled out increases in state-set gas, power and oil product prices in the near future, despite repeating a long-standing promise to gradually reform the system used to set them, according to key policy papers issued on Wednesday. As Beijing struggles with the "urgent" task of curbing growth in energy consumption, it unveiled a raft of fiscal incentives to cut back on power and oil consumption, including tax breaks for energy-saving products and business ventures. ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Australia: Climate change scheme to end power bills
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23327787-421,00.html
Courier Mail: HOUSEHOLDS will be offered heavily discounted solar power energy systems under a new climate change scheme aimed at wiping out electricity bills. Less than three years after dumping solar hot water rebates, the State Government will bulk-buy at least 1000 solar systems and sell them back to Queenslanders. Households are expected to save up to $3500 under the plan, with each system costing as much as $9500 instead of an average of about $13,000. After the $8000 Federal ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Czechs Oppose EU Carbon Auctioning Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47371/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: The Czech Republic may block the European Commission's plan to auction carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions permits to energy companies after 2012, government officials said on Tuesday. The Commission, the EU's executive branch, introduced a plan last month to cut CO2 emissions after 2012. Under the current trading system, companies are granted some emissions permits for free, but in future they will have to buy all the allowances, increasing their costs significantly. ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Energy giants must act to avoid windfall tax, Brown warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/06/energy.utilities
Guardian: Gordon Brown warned yesterday that energy companies could still face a windfall tax unless they offered a much bigger rebate for the poor and pensioners facing big rises in fuel bills. The prime minister was being questioned in the Commons by David Marshall, Labour MP for Glasgow East, a week before the budget as pressure grows from MPs for action against energy firms. The companies have hit back by warning that a windfall tax could affect their commitment to investment in renewable ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
Italy Approves EU Requested CO2 Cut Plan 2008-2012
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47372/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Italy has given its final approval to a plan to cut annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2008-2012 by the full amount the European Commission has requested, the Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. Brussels said last May Italy must cut the greenhouse gas emissions by companies covered by the bloc's emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2008-2012 to 195.8 million tonnes a year, or by about six percent less than Rome had proposed initially. Italy had agreed to cut C02 emissions from sectors ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
China: Olympics - Smog Measures Must Not Destroy Beijing Life - Official
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47360/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Measures aimed at providing clean air for August's Olympics must not be too disruptive to the city's economy or the lives of the people, organising committee official and Beijing vice mayor Liu Jingmin said on Wednesday. The Chinese capital's notorious pollution is one of the major problems facing organisers of the Aug. 8-24 Games, and many athletes and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have expressed concern over the issue. Beijing and five surrounding provinces will ...
Thu, 6 Mar 08
UK Energy Firms Say Tax Threat Hurts Green Plans
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47373/newsDate/6-Mar-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Britain is considering taxing energy firms to help the country's poorest households cope with soaring gas and electricity bills, but utilities say the vote-winning project will damage investment in clean energy. Public anger has been mounting in recent weeks after five of Britain's six biggest energy suppliers hiked prices by an average of 15 percent, passing on rising wholesale costs. Each hike was met by a chorus of dissent from websites like www.uswitch.com, that make ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Australia: Battling farmers told: quit the land
http://www.smh.com.au/news/water/battling-farmers-told-quit-the-land/2008/03/04/1204402456322.html
Sydney Morning Herald: FEDERAL drought relief is keeping inefficient farmers on the land and it is time to stop the handouts, the Government's top agricultural forecaster declared yesterday. Phillip Glyde, executive director of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, said farmers had to increase their productivity to stay viable in the face of climate change, but drought assistance was allowing struggling farmers to stay when they would otherwise have been forced to leave the ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
United Kingdom: The green betrayal
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-green-betrayal-791323.html
Independent: It is the Great Green Betrayal. With environmental issues becoming ever more critical, the green policies of Gordon Brown's government are standing still or even going backwards, it became clear last night. On the day of a major warning that time is running out to solve the problems caused by climate change, it emerged that Britain's own green policies are stalled or backsliding in three crucial areas. First, environmental taxation, which could help curb greenhouse gas emissions and ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Energy firms tell Treasury: don't bring in windfall tax
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/05/oil.utilities
Guardian: Energy companies last night launched a pre-emptive strike on the government ahead of next week's budget, warning that any windfall tax on the industry would undermine investment in green power projects and other measures to combat climate change. The companies fear ministers are considering a windfall tax on the industry after a public outcry greeted moves to raise household bills by as much as 15% in recent weeks. British Gas, whose Centrica parent group is behind a number of ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Australia: Cut drought aid to farmers, Rudd told
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/cut-drought-aid-to-farmers-rudd-told/2008/03/04/1204402455735.html
Age: FEDERAL drought aid is being wasted on inefficient farmers and the Government should think about cutting back on future handouts, Canberra's top agriculture forecaster has said. In a candid assessment before an audience that included many farmers, Phillip Glyde suggested some drought aid was doing more harm than good by encouraging inefficient operators to stay on the land and accumulate debt, while discouraging necessary rationalisation of the farming sector. Mr Glyde, head of ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Analysis: Chinese coal demand unfazed
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/03/05/analysis_chinese_coal_demand_unfazed/9286/
United Press International: When snowstorms blanketed large swaths of China this winter they aggravated transportation bottlenecks and already-depleted coal reserves, provoking local power cuts and highlighting the vulnerability of China's reliance on coal. But despite such challenges and coal's damaging environmental side-effects, demand is unlikely to wane soon. "The government is very aware of relying too heavily on coal, because it contributes to the energy security issue and the environmental ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Arctic Tundra May Burn as Global Warming Increases Shrub Cover
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=acJANFRPBero&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Arctic tundra may burn more frequently as the warming climate allows flammable vegetation to creep northward, U.S. scientists said. An analysis of Arctic sediments from thousands of years ago showed bigger shrubs were more common -- as were fires that destroyed them, researchers led by Philip Higuera at Seattle's University of Washington found. With plant life again increasing, fires could become more frequent, Higuera said. ``There is evidence of increasing shrub biomass in ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Bush Urges Action on Corn Price Rises Fueled by Ethanol
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=94178
New York Times: President Bush said Wednesday that the national drive toward ethanol production was also driving up the cost of corn and other foods, a problem he said needed to be addressed. The boom in alternative fuels, he said, was "beginning to affect the price of food. And so we got to do something about it." Mr. Bush has previously pointed out that the price of corn has been pushed up by competition from ethanol manufacturers and that this had raised costs for companies that raise beef ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Feds suspend coal-plant loans
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/03/05/state/90st_080305_coal.txt
Associated Press: The federal government is suspending a major loan program for coal-fired power plants in rural communities, saying the uncertainties of climate change and rising construction costs make the loans too risky. After issuing $1.3 billion in loans for new plant construction since 2001, none will be issued this year and likely none in 2009, said James Newby, assistant administrator for the Rural Utilities Service, a branch of the Department of Agriculture. The program's suspension ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Global warming may raise tundra wildfire risk
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13408-global-warming-may-raise-tundra-wildfire-risk.html
New Scientist: Arctic tundra fires may increase significantly as a result of continued global warming, warns a new study examining the relationship between historic changes in climate, vegetation, and wildfires in Alaska. And as about a third of the world's soil-based carbon is locked in high-latitude tundra and boreal forest ecosystems, the release of carbon dioxide from an increase in burning tundra could also play a significant role in fuelling further warming, the study's authors ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
OECD: World Must Act on Climate Change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jC8iqRApRgjAQFXBSvB3FMG8LFRQD8V7I98O2
Associated Press: The world must respond to climate change and other environmental challenges now while the cost is low or else pay a stiffer price later for its indecision, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday. A new report by 30-nation organization looks at "red light issues" in the environment, including global warming, water shortages, energy, biodiversity loss, transportation, agriculture and fisheries. "A window of opportunity to act is ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
On Environment: Pay Now, Or Pay Big Later
http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/16256306.html
Associated Press: The world can respond to such "red light" environmental challenges as climate change at a low cost now, or pay a much stiffer price later for indecision and inaction, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Wednesday. "A window of opportunity to act is now open," the organization said in its Environmental Outlook to 2030. "We need forward-looking policies today to avoid high costs of inaction or delayed action over the longer ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Study: Ocean 'Deserts' Expanding
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080305-ocean-deserts.html
Live Science: The ocean's "deserts," where it is difficult for marine organisms to survive, are expanding faster than predicted and have been linked to warming ocean waters, a new study shows. These barren areas are found in roughly 20 percent of the world's oceans and are within what are called subtropical gyres, or the permanent swirling expanses of water in the middle of the ocean on either side of the equator. But between 1998 and 2007, these expanses of saltwater with low ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Warming Climate May Cause Arctic Tundra To Burn
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080304200902.htm
Science Daily: Research from ancient sediment cores indicates that a warming climate could make the world's arctic tundra far more susceptible to fires than previously thought. The findings are important given the potential for tundra fires to release organic carbon -- which could add significantly to the amount of greenhouse gases already blamed for global warming. Montana State University post-doctoral researcher Philip Higuera is the lead author on the paper, which summarizes a portion of a ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Why Europe torpedoed the REDD forests-for-carbon credits initiative
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0305-carbon.html
Mongabay: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) has been widely lauded as a mechanism that could fund forest conservation and poverty alleviation efforts while fighting climate change. At the December U.N. climate meeting in Bali, delegates agreed to include REDD in future discussions on a new global warming treaty – a move that could eventually lead to the transfer of billions of dollars from industrialized countries to tropical nations for the purpose of slowing ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Philippines: $55M in biofuel deals signed with US investors
http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20080305-123043/55M-in-biofuel-deals-signed-with-US-investors
Philippine Daily Inquirer: The Department of Agriculture has signed two agreements with American firms worth a combined $55 million to help develop the emerging bioethanol and coco-diesel industries in the Philippines, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said. The investments will come from FE Clean Energy and Global Renewable Energy Network (GREEN) Inc., Yap said. "We recognize the indispensable role that private capital play in developing our emerging industries, such as the biofuels sector, which will ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
United States: Adopt Greenhouse-Gas Caps
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-greenhousetwo.artmar05,0,922638.story
Hartford Courant: Obviously, Connecticut isn't going to solve climate change on its own. But by committing now to meaningful cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions – standards that will change the way state agencies, municipalities, utilities, businesses and Connecticut residents use energy every day – Connecticut will reap the rewards in better energy efficiency, lower costs, cleaner air and a healthier environment. There will be another benefit, too. By adopting rigorous standards sooner rather than later, ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Brazil GMO Cane Research Advances, Waits For OK
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47344/story.htm
Reuters: Sugar cane genetically modified for greater ethanol and sugar production could be developed in three to five years but strict Brazil biotechnology regulation could keep it off the market for as much as seven years, companies said on Tuesday. Scientists are field-testing GMO cane varieties with higher sucrose yields than conventional ones, said Brazilian leading biotech companies Alellyx Applied Genomics and Sugarcane Technology Center (CTC). "At this point, (the GMO ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Carbon group seeks to open US to global offsets
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN0562671220080305
Reuters: A greenhouse emissions business group hopes to shape U.S. climate change legislation to include broad use of international carbon offsets, like wind and solar power farms in developing countries, that are not currently in the leading climate bill. In a letter sent on Wednesday to U.S. Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, the International Emissions Trading Association, a carbon business group, said clean project offsets encourage developing countries to participate in international ...
Wed, 5 Mar 08
Australia: Green groups urge 2020 emissions target
http://news.theage.com.au/green-groups-urge-2020-emissions-target/20080306-1xa1.html
AAP: Green groups have released a paper setting out their key tests for a future Australian carbon emissions trading scheme. In a joint paper Greenpeace, the Total Environment Centre and the Climate Action Network say they will support the introduction of a trading scheme only if it is designed to effectively, efficiently and equitably achieve significant emissions reductions. The paper says Australia should aim to reduce its carbon emissions by 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Activists target coal-fire power
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7276681.stm
BBC: Climate change activists are to stage a week of action at the site of a proposed coal-fired power station. Campaigns announced on Tuesday that they plan to set up a Climate Camp at E.ON's Kingsnorth site near Rochester, Kent, from 4 to 11 August. The organisers said they would start the week with an event at Heathrow Airport, the site of the 2007 Climate Camp, before marching to Kent. E.ON said it supported their right to hold a peaceful protest on public ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Climate change's most deadly threat: drought
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0304/p13s02-bogn.html
Christian Science Monitor: Spring is on its way back to northern latitudes. In many locales, it will arrive earlier than "normal," yielding, ostensibly, a longer growing season, a hotter summer, balmier autumn, and future winters will lack their ferocious post-Pleistocene bites. While vineyards are being planned for northern England, millions of residents around desiccated Atlanta are praying for enough rain to flow through their taps. Brian Fagan believes climate is not merely a backdrop to the ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Climate Skeptics Roast Gore On Global Warming
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47323/story.htm
Reuters: Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his environmental advocacy, was the main target on Monday at a conference of dissident scientists skeptical of his views on global warming. Several speakers at the conference on climate change whose theme was "Global warming is not a crisis," took pot-shots at the ex-vice president and his film, "An Inconvenient Truth," which won last year's Academy Award for best documentary. "Whether we like it ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Record Warm Winter for Northern Europe
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMWm8tRfZ5kIIwHx4Sg1JntW-sLQD8V6P5JO1
Associated Press: Icebreakers sit idle in ports. Insects crawl out of forest hideouts. Daffodils sprout up from green lawns. Winter ended before it started in Europe's north, where record-high temperatures have people wondering whether it's a fluke or an ominous sign of a warming world. "It's the warmest winter ever" recorded, said John Ekwall of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. In December, January and February, the average temperature in Stockholm was 36 ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
UN warns of climate change in Mideast
http://www.kdbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=7959915&nav=menu608_2_5
Associated Press: A United Nations agency says climate change is likely to reduce agricultural production and worsen water shortages in the Middle East, threatening the region's poor. A new report says higher temperatures, droughts, floods and soil degradation will add to stresses in areas already suffering from limited water, food price shocks and shortages of arable land. The report says there could be an increased risk of conflict over scarce resources. It finds that hunger and ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Analyst: Carbon markets 'bullish' after EU climate proposals
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/analyst-carbon-markets-bullish-eu-climate-proposals/article-170699
Euractiv: The growing scarcity of CO2 emissions permits expected to result from tighter EU regulation is sending favourable signals to the carbon market, according to Per-Otto Wold, CEO of Point Carbon. Per-Otto Wold is chief executive officer (CEO) of Point Carbon, a market analysis and consulting firm. Despite the uncertainties over an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, how do you see carbon markets developing in the coming years? It depends which markets ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
China's Killer "Yellow Dust" Hits Korea, Japan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47321/story.htm
Reuters: South Korea closed schools on Monday and its factories producing memory chips stepped up safeguards, as a choking pall of sand mixed with toxic dust from China covered most of the country and other parts of Asia. The annual "yellow dust" spring storms, which originate in China's Gobi Desert before sweeping south to envelop the Korean peninsula and parts of Japan, are blamed for scores of deaths and billions of dollars in damage every year in South Korea. It issued a ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
India: Climate change will affect food security: Pachauri
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200803041769.htm
Hindu: The earth is clearly facing a catastrophe of substantial dimension and lack of climate stability can have an impact on agriculture and food security, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr R K Pachauri, said on Tuesday. "Climate change is not smooth and linear. The factors of a fairly balanced climate have been disturbed quite systematically leading to increase in precipitation -- rain and snow -- in the upper latitudes and decline in the lower ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
United States: Confessions on Climate
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=94017
New York Times: The Bush administration has now provided the rationale for its lamentable decision to deny California permission to develop its own stricter rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. The explanation was full of holes, but it was not a total setback for those who want urgent action on global warming. The essence of the administration's reasoning was that California had failed to demonstrate "extraordinary and compelling" circumstances justifying stricter rules. To make ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Cool View of Science at Meeting on Warming
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=94062
New York Times: Several hundred people sat in a fifth-floor ballroom at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square on Monday eating pasta and trying hard to prove that they had unraveled the established science showing that humans are warming the world in potentially disruptive ways. One challenge they faced was that even within their own ranks, the group – among them government and university scientists, antiregulatory campaigners and Congressional staff members – displayed a dizzying range of ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Australia: Corals suffer as acid builds
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23321246-3102,00.html
Courier Mail: CORAL growth on the Great Barrier Reef has plummeted by more than 20 per cent as acidity rises in the world's oceans. Scientists warn warmer sea temperatures and acidity are having an unprecedented impact on coral growth. Townsville-based Australian Institute of Marine Science climate change expert Dr Janice Lough said the findings were extremely worrying. Dr Lough's study, published today in Global Change Biology, found a 21 per cent fall in the rate at which Porites ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Drax Profit Falls on Coal Costs, Lower Power Prices
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aEt_zlN2unGk&refer=uk
Bloomberg: Drax Group Plc, the owner of Western Europe's biggest coal-fired power plant, reported a 24 percent decline in full-year profit because of lower power prices and higher fuel costs. Net income was 353 million pounds ($701 million), or 99 pence a share, from 463.5 million pounds, or 116 pence, in 2006, the Selby, England-based company said today in a statement. The company's finance director will resign later this year. Profit per unit of power produced slid as gains in ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Dutch think tank criticises EU climate change plan
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKwoQhNkXJlThr34z8Htp8iUxXBA
Agence France Presse: The Dutch Environmental Assessment Agency think tank on Tuesday warned that EU plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions using biofuels will increase food prices and threaten biodiversity. In a report presented to the European Parliament, the body, which also advises the Dutch government, was critical of the European Commission which presented plans in January setting targets for EU member states. Under the plans, the use of renewable energies like biomass, wind and solar power ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
EPA Chief Under Fire for Ignoring Scientists
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/158483/1/
OneWorld US: The vast majority of scientists and other specialists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have withdrawn from a key labor-management partnership, citing rising distrust of the agency's chief Stephen Johnson. In a letter to Administrator Johnson, trade unions representing the workers complain that Johnson retaliates against whistle-blowers and union officers, "abuses our good nature and trust," and ignores the agency's Principles of Scientific Integrity. ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
France, Germany Draw Battlelines On Car Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47325/story.htm
Reuters: European Union countries that make heavy cars, led by Germany, clashed on Monday with makers of smaller ones such as France over tough measures to force automobile manufacturers to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In December, the executive European Commission proposed steep penalties for car makers whose fleet exceeds an average of 120 grams per km of CO2 -- the main greenhouse gas blamed for climate change. The EU executive favours fines based on a system of CO2 emission ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Global Warming Polluting World Water Bodies
http://www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/16231
Africa News: A new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has for the first time mapped the multiple impacts of pollution; alien infestations; over-exploitation and climate change on the waters of the seas and oceans. The report entitled "In Dead Water" warns that Global Warming is adding to pollution and over-harvesting impacts on the World's Key Fishing Grounds The report, the work of UNEP scientists in collaboration with universities and institutes in Europe and the United ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Shark numbers increase ten-fold off Spain
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/03/04/easharks104.xml
Telegraph: Spanish scientists have reported a ten-fold increase in the number of sharks spotted off popular tourist beaches in north eastern Spain. At least 20 sharks were recorded in Mediterranean waters off the Catalan coast last year, a figure that far exceeded previous years. In 2003 three were seen, in 2004 five were reported and in 2005 and 2006 only two of the fish were found each year. A report published by the Foundation for the Conservation and Rehabilitation of Marine ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
To save the world, have fewer children
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/153050
Roanoke Times: The evolution of life on this planet took millions of years to reach a state of diversity and relative species harmony. Undisturbed, life in nature's various ecosystems, whether they be desert, ocean or tropical forest, can thrive and remain in a relatively stable biological balance. We now know, or should know, that all life is intimately connected. There are hundreds of examples where species survival, including our own, is dependent on the presence of unrelated species. Where would ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Will global warming increase plant frost damage?
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/biowissenschaften_chemie/bericht-104863.html
Innovations Report: Widespread damage to plants from a sudden freeze that occurred across the Eastern United States from 5 April to 9 April 2007 was made worse because it had been preceded by two weeks of unusual warmth, according to an analysis published in the March 2008 issue of BioScience. The authors of the report, Lianhong Gu and his colleagues at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and collaborators at NASA, the University of Missouri, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Canada's oil-rich Alberta province re-elects Conservatives
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i5Sw701c_c4MmOhuV6N1XgJ4iE4A
Agence France Presse: Ruling Conservatives in oil-rich Alberta won an 11th straight majority late Monday, in the Canadian province's first general election with new leader Ed Stelmach at the helm. The party took 72 of 83 seats in the provincial legislature, up from 60 seats held previously. "Welcome to Alberta's century," Stelmach told supporters in Edmonton, the provincial capital. He replaced long-time premiere Ralph Klein last year. The election campaign pitted energy companies ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Germany seeks relief in EU carbon standard
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/308969
Toronto Star: Germany stepped up its fight against a planned European Union cap on carbon dioxide from cars in a bid to limit the cost for luxury automakers including Daimler AG and Porsche SE of countering climate change. The German government said French and Italian competitors should make deeper emission cuts to lower average CO2 from new cars in Europe by a fifth in 2012. The draft EU law would force German car makers to slash CO2 as much as 49 per cent compared with a maximum 15 per cent ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Italy approves EU requested CO2 cut plan 2008-2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7357135
Guardian: Italy has given its final approval to a plan to cut annual emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2008-2012 by the full amount the European Commission has requested, the Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. Brussels said last May Italy must cut the greenhouse gas emissions by companies covered by the bloc's emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2008-2012 to 195.8 million tonnes a year, or by about six percent less than Rome had proposed initially. Italy had agreed to cut C02 ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Merkel suggests France, Germany deal on car emissions
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jKoctxUYTo_hSp5prqp8EfacLpJg
Agence France Presse: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Germany that the two countries could reach a deal on EU plans to cut carbon emissions from cars. After talks on the margins of the CeBIT IT trade fair in Hanover, Merkel -- whose country has fiercly opposed the plans -- said "a deal is envisaged with France on the European targets to reduce carbon dioxide from cars". She added that a top level working group would be set up ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Canada: Province's forests are in bad shape
http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-189559-Provinces-forests-are-in-bad-shape.html
Nova News Now: "We're at the crossroads in terms of Nova Scotia's natural resources," says Joanne Cook, former coordinator of the Ecology Action Centre's 'Standing Tall: Forests for Life' campaign. That's what she told an audience at the Dr. Arthur Hines School in Summerville last Thursday night, Feb. 28. Around 30 people came out on a wintry evening to attend the Citizen Action to Protect the Environment (CAPE)-sponsored presentation. She said the N.S. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
Stage set for emission trading in the US
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International_Business/Stage_set_for_emission_trading_in_the_US/articleshow/2837131.cms
Economic Times: It is loud and clear now. United States has sought to join the carbon emissions trading game finally. It can be well credited to the event called Carbon Forum America, to set the stage ready for United States to board on. The event was jointly organized between the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and the Chicago-based show organizer Koelnmesse, Inc. More than 1,400 companies, consultants and other delegates, including 80 exhibitors, felt the buzz of this ...
Tue, 4 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Virgin To Use GM Fuel Cell Cars As Limos
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47333/story.htm
Reuters: Virgin Atlantic Airways will start using General Motors Corp zero- emission fuel cell cars as limousines for VIP passengers in the United States, the latest move by Virgin founder Richard Branson to present his airline as the greenest in the market. The scheme, unveiled by Branson and GM in New York Monday, will put three of GM's Chevrolet Equinox hydrogen fuel cell cars into Virgin's limousine fleet in Los Angeles this month, ferrying its first class passengers to and from the ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Australia: Act Now On Climate Change Gov't Warned
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41428
Inter Press Service: An interim report on Australia's ability to combat climate change has called on the government to take action now as a matter of urgency. Developments in mainstream scientific opinion, says Prof. Ross Garnaut (as well as the government-commissioned Garnaut Climate Change Review's work), "suggest that the world is moving towards high risks of dangerous climate change more rapidly than has generally been understood." Ben Pearson, energy campaigner with Greenpeace ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Canada: B.C.'s carbon tax deftly implemented
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/editorial/story.html?id=30c8f2f5-5315-4a19-9790-d8c4e4a06351
Windsor Star: The groundbreaking carbon tax unveiled in the B.C. budget will pale in significance to the changes needed over the next few years to meet Premier Gordon Campbell's ambitious targets for fighting climate change. But before we move on to the difficult decisions ahead, let's recognize just how significant a political breakthrough the provincial government has achieved. Most politicians in Canada have shunned the idea of carbon levies because of the stigma attached to any new tax. ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Brazil Sends in Police, Sacrifices Jobs to Protect Rainforest
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aYtfET3sY_IA&refer=latin_america
Bloomberg: Antonio Laudir Carvalho Lima knows his chances of finding a new job are slim after Brazil began its biggest-ever crackdown on illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest. Lima, 43, is vying with 6,000 other out-of-work laborers who lost their jobs after the Federal Police and environmental inspectors swept through the small Amazon town of Tailandia, seizing wood and fining sawmills and charcoal producers that couldn't prove their products came from legal sources. Environmental ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Brown Gets Tough With UK Retail Over Plastic Bags
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47284/story.htm
Reuters: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday warned retailers they had to start charging shoppers for the 13 billion plastic bags they currently get for free each year or the government would step in to force them. Most bags end as landfill waste or being blown across the countryside, littering the landscape and harming wildlife. They can persist in the environment for centuries. Producing them involves petrochemicals and climate-damaging fossil fuels. "I am convinced ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Brazil: King of soya: environmental vandal or saviour of the world's poor?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/03/environment.brazil
Guardian: Erai Maggi does not look like a villain who is destroying the planet; nor does he look like a hero who is saving the world's poor. Wearing jeans and work boots, he can be found on a typical day driving a battered Fiat car on one of his farms south of the Amazon rainforest. For someone who excites extreme views he seems miscast, neither Darth Vader nor Indiana Jones. But the 48-year-old Brazilian farmer is protagonist in a drama about climate change, globalisation, poverty and ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Oil Smashes Records On Supply Woes, UK Gas Fire
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47310/story.htm
Reuters: Oil prices surged to new record highs this week, smashing through the $100 a barrel barrier and beyond as more supply disruptions and a fire at a British gas import terminal shook an already jittery European energy market. Brent crude oil hit a high of $101.27 and US light crude soared to an all time high of $103.05 on Friday, above the inflation-adjusted high of $102.53 hit in 1980, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries looked set to rebuff calls for more oil when ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
The Senate Shills for Big Oil
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=93938
New York Times: One of the major shortcomings in last year's admirable energy bill was its failure to extend vital tax credits to producers of wind, solar and other renewable fuels. This was entirely the doing of the Senate, which caved in to the oil companies and their White House friends. The House had approved the credits but insisted – under the Democrats' pay-as-you-go rules – that they be paid for by eliminating the same amount in tax credits for oil and gas producers. Industry (which is ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Australia: Water prices to double: expert
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/water-prices-to-double-expert/20080303-1wix.html
AAP: Consumers are more passionate about saving water but instead of being rewarded for their efforts, prices are set to double in the next five to 10 years, a water expert says. Water conservation is "dinner table conversation" and storages are higher than at the same time last year in all capital cities except Hobart, Water Services Association Australia executive officer Ross Young told a drought briefing in Canberra on Monday. Demand for water continued to drop across ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Air suffers as vehicles further supplant feet
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-gettingaround_03mar03,0,2468787.column
Chicago Tribune: Pupils attending Monee Elementary School line up in their neighborhood for school buses each weekday morning, even though many live only a couple of blocks from the school built on the outskirts of the Will County village. The absence of sidewalks, crosswalks, proper school zone signs and road markings on the streets surrounding the school and nearby Country Meadows subdivision in Monee means it's simply unsafe for the kindergartners through 5th graders to walk or bicycle to ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Call for hydrogen fuel stations
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hj4Z87XTTzs9cGBDcMQWKyxQBuWA
Press Association: Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has called on the UK Government to create hydrogen fuel filling stations to help the fight against climate change. The Virgin chairman also appealed to governments world wide to build hydrogen garages. His call came as Virgin announced in New York that it was teaming with car giant General Motors to offer zero-emissions hydrogen fuel cars as part of Virgin's limo service for first class passengers. The first of three of these cars will be ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
China's Tangshan Mulls Move As City Cleans Air
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47289/story.htm
Reuters: China's third-largest steel maker, Tangshan Iron and Steel Group, may be moved entirely to new coastal facilities over the next decade as part of a drive to reduce urban emissions, an official from its home city said. The campaign to cut air pollution was spurred by the upcoming Beijing Olympics but is expected to continue long after the Games end. Tangshan, a city of 7 million people a few hours from Beijing, is home to dozens of steel mills fed by rich iron deposits. It ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
United Kingdom: Climate camp to target coal power station
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/03/climatecamp
Guardian: Climate change activists are to target the site of the proposed new coal-fired power station with a week-long camp in Kent this summer, organisers announced today. The Camp for Climate Action will be held from August 4-11 at the site of Kingsnorth in Kent, where German energy company E.On is proposing to build the country's first new coal-fired power station in 30 years. The protest will begin with a one-day event at Heathrow airport, the site of last year's camp, followed by a ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Computing industry claims climate-change leading role
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/189583,computing-industry-claims-climate-change-leading-role.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Computing industry leaders claimed Monday a leading role in the fight against climate change, arguing that software could cut world energy use. "Green computing" has been adopted as a theme of the CeBIT computing expo which opens in Hanover, Germany on Tuesday. The US-based Climate Savers Computing Initiative is a partner of the trade fair. IBM Germany chief executive Martin Jetter, who is on the board of the German computing trade federation Bitkom, said software and ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Earlier plantings underlie yield gains in northern Corn Belt
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/agrar_forstwissenschaften/bericht-104661.html
Innovations Report: Midwest corn-growers produce three times more corn today than they did a half-century ago. After finding that farmers also sow seeds around two weeks earlier now than 30 years ago, Chris Kucharik, a scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, set out to discover if earlier plantings – and, thus, longer growing seasons – have contributed to the jump in production. In a study published online today (Feb. 27) in the Agronomy Journal, ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
EPA's own study argues for California waiver
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/02/ED4HVBLRS.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: California currently suffers disproportionately heavier air pollution casualties than other states due to global warming, and this problem will become worse as warming increases. The Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to protect human health, including Californians', and, when the state's health risks are more severe than others, it should allow California to address its own air pollution problems. Yet the federal EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson ignored the ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
EU governments broadly welcome climate change package
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/03/europe/EU-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: European Union governments broadly welcomed proposals Monday for the EU to spend billions of euros to fight global warming, and said they could adopt them by year's end. At a meeting, EU environment ministers praised the European Commission for proposals to slash greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020 – or 30 percent if the United States and others join Europe in a global climate accord when the current one expires in 2012. Matthias Machnig, the German delegate, said Berlin ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
EU to adopt climate fight plan despite differences
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7354118
Reuters: European Union environment ministers expect to approve pivotal plans by December to combat climate change, despite differences over plans for energy-intensive industries and the sustainability of biofuels. The 27 ministers broadly backed a blueprint to slash carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least one-fifth compared to 1990 levels by 2020, increase the share of renewables in power production to 20 percent and boost the share of biofuels used in transport to 10 percent. But ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
EU, US must engage emerging powers, UN climate chief says
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/189649,extra-eu-us-must-engage-emerging-powers-un-climate-chief.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The European Union and US must boost their support for emerging states such as China, India and Brazil in the fight against climate change, in order to make an international deal viable, the head of the UN's climate body said Monday. "Europe has to begin thinking now about the kind of financial architecture it can put in place that will make it possible for large developing countries like China, India and Brazil to engage" in a world deal on climate change, Yvo de Boer, head of the ...
Mon, 3 Mar 08
Fuel Cells Make Power for Homes in Japan
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/wireStory?id=4379082
Associated Press: Masanori Naruse jogs every day, collects miniature cars and feeds birds in his backyard, but he's proudest of the way his home and 2,200 others in Japan get electricity and heat water – with power generated by a hydrogen fuel cell. The technology – which draws energy from the chemical reaction when hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water – is more commonly seen in futuristic cars with tanks of hydrogen instead of gasoline, whose combustion is a key culprit in pollution and global ...