Climate Change
Main
Science
Beeb ScienceClimate Change
Eco News
Science Daily
Random Feeds
Archives
| Mar 2010 | Feb 2010 | Jan 2010 | Dec 2009 | Nov 2009 | Oct 2009 | Sep 2009 | Aug 2009 | Jul 2009 | Jun 2009 | May 2009 | Apr 2009 | Mar 2009 | Feb 2009 | Jan 2009 | Dec 2008 | Nov 2008 | Oct 2008 | Sep 2008 | Aug 2008 | Jul 2008 | Jun 2008 | May 2008 | Apr 2008 | Mar 2008 | Feb 2008 | Jan 2008 | Dec 2007 | Nov 2007 |Wed, 30 Apr 08
Biofuels Halt Would Ease Food Prices - Ag Group
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48157/story.htm
Reuters: A moratorium on global grain- and oilseed-based biofuels would help ease raging wheat and corn prices by up to 20 percent in the next few years, a leading agriculture research group said on Tuesday. "Our models analysis suggest that if a moratorium on biofuels would be issued in 2008, we could expect a price decline of maize by about 20 percent and for wheat by about 10 percent in 2009-10. So it's this significant," Joachim von Braun, who heads the International Food Policy ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Drought Is Spurring Resource Wars
http://www.alternet.org/water/83796/
Independent: On a warm January afternoon in southern Ethiopia, thousands of ill-tempered livestock stand in groups with the pastoralists who have guided them for dozens of miles to drink. The animals dot an expansive field of Acacia trees, severed bits and pieces of dead grass and dust. Earlier in the day thousands of young goats, sheep and calves took turns to have their fill of water. And the show will not end with the cattle; camels are still waiting in line. For being the best able to resist ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Siphoning Off Corn to Fuel Our Cars
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/29/ST2008042903585.html
Washington Post: Erwin Johnson picks up a clump of the dark, rich soil that he has farmed for 35 years, like his father and grandfather before him. In a few months, this flat expanse of northern Iowa will be crowded with corn ready to be trucked to market. A year ago, that market got a little closer -- and a lot better. Instead of sending his corn to a barge company to be shipped down the Mississippi River for export, Johnson now loads it into an open truck and sends it just two miles up the gravel ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Canada: Alberta seeks exemption from tough U.S. restrictions on oil imports
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080429/world/us_cda_oilsands_2
Canadian Press: Alberta expects a U.S. working group to classify the province's oilsands fuel as a conventional resource to exempt it from tough new restrictions on imports, provincial envoy Gary Mar said Tuesday. A major energy bill passed last year prohibits the American government from buying "alternative" fuels that produce more greenhouse gas emissions over the life of a project than other sources. Right now, oil from the oilsands is considered alternative energy under ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Dumb as We Wanna Be
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=98246
New York Times: It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer's travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Sealing our future by revealing the secrets of the seas
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Sealing-our-future-by-revealing.4032757.jp
Scotsman: PLACID and adorable, the Weddell seals are the most well-known and appealing of all the Antarctic seals, and are considered one of the "must-sees" by tourists on wildlife voyages to the frozen region. But the seals are more than just cute sea creatures – they have been invaluable in helping Scottish scientists reveal the secrets of climate change, with the latest data suggesting the ocean around the Antarctic is becoming less salty, which could have major implications for ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
UN taskforce to tackle global food price crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/30/food.development
Guardian: The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, yesterday called for world leaders to attend a summit in June to tackle the food price crisis that has triggered global social unrest. In the run up to the summit in Rome, a UN taskforce headed by a British diplomat, Sir John Holmes, will try to develop a coherent international response to the crisis, at a time of sharp international divisions over food exports, genetically modified crops and biofuels. The plans for a taskforce and summit were ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Weather modification: The rain makers
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/weather-modification-the-rain-makers-818023.html?r=RSS
Independent: Whether it is the Chinese firing weapons into the sky to make it rain, or the Thai government setting up a "royal rainmaking project", the science of weather modification has always had a touch of the sci-fi about it. So it is perhaps little surprise that the effectiveness of such an eccentric area of research has always been a little foggy. Indeed, no matter how hard you try – say, through launching silver-iodide particles into clouds to make them rain – it's hard to tell how ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
World Bank Tackle Food Crisis, Bush Backs Ethanol
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48171/story.htm
Reuters: UN agencies and the World Bank on Tuesday pledged to set up a task force to tackle soaring global food prices, while US President George W, Bush said high crop prices should not slow biofuel efforts. The international bodies called on countries not to restrict exports of food to secure supplies at home, warning that could make the problem worse. "We consider that the dramatic escalation in food prices worldwide has evolved into an unprecedented challenge of global ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Greenland's tropic phase hard to pin down
http://www.oregonlive.com/science/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/science/1209513322175140.xml&coll=7
Oregonian: For years, climate researchers puzzled over a long hot spell about 90 million years ago, when tropical breadfruit trees flourished in Greenland, crocodiles slithered above the Arctic Circle and at least a few dinosaurs roamed Antarctica. It's a serious concern because the warmth came at least in part from greenhouse gases. Climate scientists say they need to understand that period to better forecast how rising carbon dioxide levels affect our climate. Computer models that ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Waste Management To Make Vehicle Fuel From Landfill Gas
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48167/story.htm
Reuters: Waste Management Inc said on Monday it would open the largest-ever facility to turn landfill gas into vehicle fuel, which will then be used in its own California collection trucks. The project will help the largest US trash hauler develop a source of low-carbon fuel, which is expected to be in wide demand when states such as California begin requiring drivers to cut their carbon dioxide emissions. "We think there's going to be a very significant demand for the ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Federal judge orders polar bear decision by May 15
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080429-1320-wst-polarbears.html
Associated Press: It's been more than three years since a California conservation group asked the federal government to protect polar bear habitat threatened by global warming. The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups pushing for federal action to climate change could get an answer in about two weeks. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland, Calif., late Monday ordered the Bush administration to decide by May 15 whether polar bears should be listed as threatened under ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
'Biofuels frenzy' hits grain market
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=326b8d8e-4ea2-4cb2-a041-040b46efff1b&k=12412
Agence France Presse: A "biofuels frenzy" and other misguided policies have led to the global food crisis in which rice consumption is outpacing production, threatening one billion people with malnutrition, experts said today. International agriculture researchers warned that farmers will need to double global food production by 2030 to meet rising demand and said countries should impose a moratorium on grain-based ethanol and biodiesel to rein in skyrocketing prices for corn, rice, soybeans and ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Canada: Ottawa must reconcile oilsands' riches, environmental challenges: Expert
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=63909bdb-f74d-4201-82cb-3a6e21a67fdc&k=52189
Canwest News Service: The distinguished Canadian researcher who pioneered the development of the country's oilsands is warning Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the industry touted to make Canada an energy superpower will "hit a wall" unless the Conservative government urgently injects funding into projects aimed at solving the huge environment problems associated with the resource. Clement Bowman, a former top Imperial Oil scientist and a key adviser on energy issues to Alberta premier Peter ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Brown wants profits poured into North Sea
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/30/oil.commodities
Guardian: Gordon Brown stepped into a growing row about oil company profits yesterday, calling on BP and Shell to spend more of their combined £7bn first-quarter earnings on activity in the North Sea. The prime minister's comments came as lorry drivers took a protest on the soaring cost of petrol to central London, while other motoring organisations and environmentalists accused the oil industry of profiteering at the expense of car drivers and the planet. "We do need the oil coming ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Higher energy costs from climate bills
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpasaDPWF0iAt1i5rdvunWtVkbrAD90BQLEG0
Associated Press: People will be paying higher energy prices under a Senate bill to limit greenhouse gases, but how much will depend on how well the country can shift away from burning fossil fuels, an Energy Department analysis said Tuesday. The Energy Information Administration said annual energy costs could increase on average of as little as $30 or as much as 10 times that much by 2020. The projected cost increases per household ranged from $76 a year more to as much as $723 a year more by ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
United States: Judge sets deadline for Interior Dept. to make decision on listing polar bear
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/29/BAQA10DR7F.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: The Interior Department has violated a legal deadline for deciding whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of global warming and must act by mid-May, a federal judge has ruled, putting species protection on a collision course with the Bush administration's push for oil drilling off Alaska. In her decision Monday, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said oil industry operations in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, where one-fifth of all polar bears live, "could ...
Wed, 30 Apr 08
Methane to power vehicles, not pollute air
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/29/BUTS10DSNP.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Methane percolating out of the Altamont Landfill near Livermore could soon fuel the garbage trucks that dump trash at the site. Waste Management, North America's largest garbage hauling company, today will announce plans to turn gas from the landfill's rotting contents into a transportation fuel. A system designed and installed by German engineering company Linde will purify the gas and chill it to 260 degrees below zero, cold enough for the gas to turn into a liquid. Waste ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia to spend $2.9 billion to buy water from farmers
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hg-P9S4-XjJL7QGmXLpdF9pUJyIgD90BELP82
Associated Press: Australia's government promised Tuesday to spend about $2.9 billion to buy river water from farmers in a bid to address the country's worst drought in a century. The spending is the most expensive component of a $12.1 billion, 10-year plan to reduce water waste and improve water efficiency on Australian farms and in cities. "Climate change means most Australian cities and towns have less water and we can no longer rely on local rainfall to supply all our drinking ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Climate change could force 1 billion from their homes by 2050
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-could-force-1-billion-from-their-homes-by-2050-817223.html
Independent: As many as one billion people could lose their homes by 2050 because of the devastating impact of global warming, scientists and political leaders will be warned today. They will hear that the steady rise in temperatures across the planet could trigger mass migration on unprecedented levels. Hundreds of millions could be forced to go on the move because of water shortages and crop failures in most of Africa, as well as in central and southern Asia and South America, the ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Gas emissions worse than gravest scenario: report
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/gas-emissions-worse-than-gravest-scenario-report/2008/04/28/1209234762226.html
Age: GLOBAL greenhouse gas emissions are growing far more rapidly than even the most pessimistic estimates developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Government's adviser on global warming warned. Professor Ross Garnaut has projected that by 2030 annual greenhouse gas emissions would be 14% higher than the panel's worst-case scenario. In a yet-to-be-finalised academic paper, Professor Garnaut and three colleagues estimate that annual emissions of carbon dioxide ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Global warming: What can we do?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0429/p14s03-bogn.html
Christian Science Monitor: Writing about global warming has changed a lot in the past few years. This is not because the science itself has changed – but because political reaction to it has. It seems that we have, at long last, moved beyond denial and inertia. The time for books that explain what global warming is and why it matters has come and gone. The need now is for answers to the one question that really mattered all along: What do we do about it? Two current books examine the evidence and come ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Rockefellers urge action on climate change
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3835693.ece
Times: One of America's most powerful families will call tomorrow for a sweeping shake-up at the top of ExxonMobil, the world's largest company. A group of descendants of John D. Rockefeller, who founded its predecessor Standard Oil in 1870, will begin a campaign to split the role of chief executive and chairman of the board at Exxon, a role held by Rex Tillerson. Last night the family group issued a statement saying that the company's leadership was "failing to address the future ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Canada: The Beetle Factor in a Carbon Calculus
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=98129
New York Times: Trees have been fighting climate change for ages, using photosynthesis to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequestering it for the long term in their tissues. Most forests are considered net sinks of carbon dioxide, meaning they store more carbon than they give up. But natural events can upset a forest's carbon calculus. Big fires, for instance, spew plenty of CO2 into the atmosphere, and the dead trees that remain eventually decompose by microbial action, releasing more ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Warming 'affecting poor children'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7372137.stm
BBC: Climate change is already affecting the prospects for children in the world's poorer countries, according to Unicef. The UN children's agency says that increases in floods, droughts and insect-borne disease will all affect health, education and welfare. While richer societies can adjust, it says in a new report, poorer ones do not have the resources. It is asking western governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions swiftly and provide money to help poor nations. ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia: $3billion to make rivers run again
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/3-billion-to-make-rivers-run-again/2008/04/28/1209234761895.html
Sydney Morning Herald: IN AN attempt to restore the health of Australia's major river system, the Rudd Government will set aside more than $3 billion to buy back water from irrigators in the Murray-Darling basin and use it for the environment. The money represents almost a quarter of the government investment in water over the next decade. Today, the Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, will announce the final breakdown of $12.9 billion - including about $1.5 billion in new funding - to be spent on the ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
'Climate change will hit vulnerable children'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/29/eachild129.xml
Telegraph: The world's poorest and most vulnerable children are being hit hardest by climate change, according to UNICEF. They face a world in which disasters, violence and disease will become more intense. A new report from UNICEF UK, formerly the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, says access to clean water and food supplies will become harder, particularly in African and Asia. It calls on the Government to make children a priority and says UK companies must ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
As Clinton Seeks Gas Tax Break for Summer, Obama Says No
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=98171
New York Times: As angry truckers encircled the Capitol in a horn-blaring caravan and consumers across the country agonized over $60 fill-ups, the issue of high fuel prices flared on the campaign trail on Monday, sharply dividing the two Democratic candidates. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton lined up with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, in endorsing a plan to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for the summer travel season. But ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia splashes A$13 bln to secure water supplies
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSYD168643
Reuters: The Australian government outlined plans to secure water supplies and repair ailing rivers on Tuesday, to protect the nation's drought-hit food bowl, which produces about A$22 billion ($21 billion) worth of food exports. The A$13 billion 10-year water plan includes A$3 billion to buy river water back from irrigators in the Murray-Darling River basin, which produces 41 percent of Australia's agriculture, as well as money to secure water for the nation's thirsty ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia: Climate change will hurt poor and elderly most
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-will-hurt-poor/2008/04/28/1209234761937.html
Sydney Morning Herald: WILD weather caused by climate change will hit Sydney's poor, elderly and least-educated hardest, according to a new study mapping the city's most vulnerable coastal regions. Of 15 council areas, Rockdale and Botany Bay were identified as the most at risk from climate change impacts, including extreme heat, rising sea levels and flash flooding. Wealthier areas, such as Woollahra, Waverley, Warringah and Mosman, were the most capable of dealing with the dramatic effects. The ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
United States: Climate think tank created on shaky legal grounds, Legislature's attorneys say
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-institute29apr29,1,3137820.story
LA Times: California utility regulators overstepped their authority and can't force electricity and natural gas customers to pay for the recently approved $600-million global-warming think tank, according to an opinion issued Monday by the state Legislature's attorneys. The 14-page opinion was requested by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland), who disagreed with the California Public Utilities Commission's decision this month to create the California Institute for Climate Studies ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Floating turbines may join Norway's offshore rigs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7490336
Reuters: Giant turbines the size of jumbo jets bobbing on the North Sea may soon become as common off Norway as oil and gas platforms. At least that is the ambition of Norwegian authorities and industry, eager to splash some green on their oily image and use their offshore expertise to corner a potentially lucrative new market -- floating wind farms in deep sea waters. Norway's government is contemplating licensing "blocks" for offshore wind generation, and Norwegian oil ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Monitoring Of Carbon Dioxide Will Require Global Data Collection Ten Times Larger Than Current Set Up
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080424141929.htm
Science Daily: Monitoring Earth's rising greenhouse gas levels will require a global data collection network 10 times larger than the one currently in place in order to quantify regional progress in emission reductions, according to a new research commentary by University of Colorado and NOAA researchers appearing in the April 25 issue of Science. The authors, CU-Boulder Research Associate Melinda Marquis and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Pieter Tans, said with atmospheric ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Most at risk: Study reveals Sydney's climate change 'hotspots'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/29/2229801.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Botany Bay and Rockdale have been identified as areas considered most vulnerable to climate change in the Sydney region. A new study by the CSIRO, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and WWF Australia, looked at the effect of rising sea levels, extreme rainfall, and storm surges across 15 areas either on the ocean front or on major estuaries The Sydney Coastal Councils Group will use the information to improve their planning and development on low-lying level areas and ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Preserving Arctic Fisheries Before Harvesting Them
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=preserving-arctic-fisheries-before-harvesting-them
Scientific America: In the wake of dramatically dwindling populations of salmon and other fish, U.S. officials are grappling with ways to cut their losses–and stave off future damage. Overfishing and environmental damage have decimated ocean inhabitants–and climate change threatens to hurt them even more. Just this month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council in Portland, Ore., closed the coasts of California and Oregon to salmon fishing after observing an alarming drop in the species population there, which ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Renewables policy under attack
http://www.smh.com.au/news/energy-smart/renewables-policy-under-attack/2008/04/28/1209234761946.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE nation's biggest oil and gas lobby group has attacked the Rudd Government's renewable energy policy, citing a consultant's report that says the policy will cost $1.8 billion to the economy and 3600 full-time jobs. The attack comes from the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association, which represents some of the biggest fossil-fuel companies in Australia, including Shell, BP, Chevron, Woodside and AGL, which produce and supply almost all the country's oil and ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Sweden's carbon-tax solution to climate change puts it top of the green list
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/29/climatechange.carbonemissions
Guardian: If there's a paradise for environmentalists, this Nordic nation of 9.2 million people must be it. In 2007 Sweden topped the list of countries that did the most to save the planet - for the second year running - according to German environmental group, Germanwatch. Between 1990 and 2006 Sweden cut its carbon emissions by 9%, largely exceeding the target set by the Kyoto Protocol, while enjoying economic growth of 44% in fixed prices. Under Kyoto, Sweden was even told it could increase ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Sydney's poor, elderly hit hardest by climate change
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33292520080429
Reuters: Climate change will hurt Sydney's poor and elderly the most, as many live in low-lying coastal areas vulnerable to rising sea levels and cannot afford technologies that protect them from life-threatening heatwaves. This is the conclusion of a new study, backed by the Australian government, which looked not only at the environmental factors in climate change but also at how socio-economic factors determine vulnerability. The study, by the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
UK homes 'failing to cut energy consumption'
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2008-04-29-UK-homes-failing-to-cut-energy-use
24 Dash: UK households are failing to cut back on their energy use and remain among the highest consumers in Europe, according to research out today. Domestic energy consumption has increased by 9% since 1995 compared with a fall of 4% in the industrial sector, according to the study by management consultants Roland Berger. Figures show the amount of gas and electricity used in UK homes is 100% higher than in Sweden, and significantly greater than Italy (38%), France (40%) and Germany ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
UN, World Bank to Coordinate Task Force Efforts in Food Crisis
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3300141,00.html
Deutsche Welle: The United Nations, with the help of the World Bank, intends to form a task force to deal with the unprecedented rise in global food prices, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced on Tuesday, April 29. The heads of UN agencies will be brought together to provide a coordinated response on the issue of rising food prices while the World Bank plans a rapid financing facility to help poor and fragile countries in particular and provide quicker, more flexible financing for ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia: $3bn for Murray-Darling water buyback
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23615759-5005961,00.html
Herald Sun: THE Federal Government will allocate $3 billion to buy back water from irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin, Climate Change and Water Minister Penny Wong has announced. She also said $1.5bn in new funding would be provided to ensure cities had secure water supplies. The announcement of a revamped water plan and a new body to oversee it follows a deal with the states giving the Commonwealth control over the Murray-Darling Basin - covering an area from Queensland to South ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Act now to prevent climate change or rehabilitate 12.5 crore people, Greenpeace warns
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/act-now-to-prevent-climate-change-or-rehabilitate-125-crore-people-greenpeace-warns_10043268.html
Asia News International: In a dramatic action early this morning, singer Rabbi joined Greenpeace activists who have occupied "prime real estate" and set up a "migrant colony" of hutments 35 feet above the Delhi Noida toll bridge. This occupation will continue all day and will highlight the urgency of creating a National Climate Action plan (NCAP) that focuses on taking action now to prevent climate change. Indications are that the government's approach to the NCAP is to wait and deal with the nightmarish ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia to spend billions on water projects
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200804290910/bbd35b3
Radio New Zealand: Australia plans to spend just under $A13 billion on water projects over the next 10 years. The ABC reports that part of the plan is the $A10 billion Murray-Darling Basin deal recently agreed to by the states. Federal Water Minister Penny Wong says the plan, contained in next month's budget, also includes $A1.5 billion to secure urban water supplies. "This is a substantial investment, an investment that recognises that we need to deal with climate change," she ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Ban Ki-Moon to Chair UN Task Force on Food Crisis
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a93psqCxUq64&refer=home
Bloomberg: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he will chair a new UN task force to counter the effects of soaring food prices that are putting basic foods beyond the reach of the poorest people. The food crisis is an ``unprecedented challenge'' that has ``multiple effects on the most vulnerable,'' Ban told a press conference in the Swiss capital Bern today. ``We must feed the hungry,'' and ``full funding'' is needed, he said, referring to the $755 million appealed for in February ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Bring on the right biofuel crops
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/opinion/opinion/bring-on-the-right-biofuel-crops/1233084.html
Canberra Times: Fads come fast and furious in our viral age, and the reactions to them can be equally ferocious. That's what we're seeing right now with biofuels, which everyone loved until everyone decided they were the worst thing since the Black Death. Where fuel distilled from plant matter was once hailed as an answer to everything from global warming to the geo-strategic power balance, it's now a scam and part of the problem, according to Time magazine. Ethanol has turned awful. The ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
California wildfire forces mass evacuations - Summary
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/201952,california-wildfire-forces-mass-evacuations--summary.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: High temperatures and strong winds hampered firefighters Monday as they tried to gain the upper hand on southern California's first major wildfire of the season. More than 1,000 residents in the town of Sierra Madre were evacuated from 400 homes in the forested foothills on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Fire crews had the blaze 23-per-cent contained Monday and prevented the 200-hectare fire from burning any homes, despite a flare-up that prevented them containing the blaze further. ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia: Canberra meeting for farmers to discuss emissions
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200804/s2230094.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: It appears farmers will be part of the Federal Government's future emissions trading scheme. That's the understanding of the NSW Farmers Association after a climate change and industry meeting in Canberra on Monday with the Agriculture and Climate Change Ministers. Association president Jock Laurie says he's confident any scheme won't damage agricultural industries. "People need to understand the government position, that there will be an emissions trading ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia: Govt wants urgent action to buy water
http://news.theage.com.au/farmers-question-focus-on-water-buybacks/20080429-2963.html
Age: Farmers fear the federal government's $3 billion irrigation water buyback will slash food production and threaten rural communities. Water Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday announced the government would spend $3.1 billion purchasing water rights from irrigators as part of a 10-year, $13 billion plan to secure the nation's water. The Howard government's scheme to restore the Murray-Darling Basin has been rejigged to add $1.5 billion in funding for urban water initiatives which ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
India, China should be part of climate change policy: US
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/PoliticsNation/India_China_should_partake_in_policy/articleshow/2993451.cms
Press Trust of India: The US has said post-Kyoto protocols to tackle climate change will not make any sense if India and China are given a "pass" and that Washington will not be a signatory to any such framework if the two Asian giants are not on board. "... the international community has got to come up with a new plan. And if we give a pass, again, to India and China, these major rapidly growing economies -- if we don't get them on, whatever measures we take are going to be totally ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
N.Sea CO2 store at 10 million tonnes-StatoilHydro
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSL2915061620080429
Reuters: A store for greenhouse gases under the seabed off Norway, the first such industrial project in the world, has stashed away 10 million tonnes since it began in 1996, operator StatoilHydro said on Tuesday. StatoilHydro said there were no signs of leaks from the porous rocks beneath the seabed at the Sleipner gas field. It was looking at the possibility of receiving carbon dioxide from other sources, including from the mainland, for injection. "Ten million tonnes of carbon ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Australia: Penny Wong announces $13b national water plan
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/04/29/Penny_Wong_announces_13b_national_water_plan
Live News: Plans for the Murray Darling have been officially announced at a special water summit in Sydney. The federal government has detailed to the summit the importance of securing the nation's water supply. Climate change minister Penny Wong has listed key issues including taking action servicing water supplies, supporting healthy rivers and securing existing resources. Nearly $13 billion will be spent by the government over the next decade, including about $3 billion buying ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Shell Examines Carbon Capture Project at Its Canadian Refinery
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=alqIPwDUYRN4&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, said it's examining a carbon capture project at its Scotford refinery and upgrader in the Canadian province of Alberta. The company is studying a plan nicknamed ``Quest,'' which would capture carbon at the 155,000-barrel-a-day upgrader and ``transport it to a mature field for sequestration,'' Chief Financial Officer Peter Voser said today on call with reporters. ``We are looking into that and we are working on that.'' The ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
UN chief orders task force to tackle food crisis
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoi2sZ15pKwscBX9It0lqm51vH3A
Agence France Presse: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday ordered a top level task force to take on the global crisis caused by rising food prices and urged key producer nations to end export bans. The UN chief said the immediate priority must be to "feed the hungry" and called for urgent funding for the World Food Programme. Ban said after a meeting of the heads of 27 key international agencies that the new task force would be led by the UN's top humanitarian official, deputy ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
UN holds food crisis meetings
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200804/s2229955.htm?tab=asia
Radio Australia: The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, is meeting key development agencies to discuss the crisis of food and fuel prices. Ahead of the meeting in the Swiss capital Berne, Mr Ban said it's hoped the two days of UN meetings will produce a battle plan of emergency measures. It will also explore long-term measures intended to resolve the global food crisis. Attending the meetings are officials from the World Food Program, the World Bank, and the Food and ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Activists Opposed to Rebuilding Amazon Highways
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42158
Inter Press Service: Nearly four decades after they were first planned, three highways through the jungles and swamps of Brazil's Amazon region are being rebuilt. Neglected in the past when they became economically obsolete, they are once again a focus of environmental criticism. "BR-319 is being restored in response to demand from Amazonian communities and towns," according to Aluisio Braga, cabinet chief for the Transport Ministry and a regular advocate of the highway in public debates. ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Bill Gates uses 10,000 times the energy of the average American, MIT says
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37159/113/
TG Daily: Time to start the finger-pointing again. A class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has begun to track the carbon footprint of different lifestyle in different nations. And the picture painted for the U.S. isn't pretty: Even the most power conscious people in this country use more than twice the energy of the average person around the world. If you are looking for people with the worst carbon footprint, look among the super-rich such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, MIT ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Brown Scientists Say Biodiversity Is Crucial to Ecosystem Productivity
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-108874.html
Innovations Report: In the first experiment in a natural environment, Brown University scientists have shown that greater plant diversity significantly enhances an ecosystem's productivity. The finding, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscores the importance of biodiversity to an ecosystem's value, such as capturing the global warming gas carbon dioxide. In the first experiment involving a natural environment, scientists at Brown University have shown that richer ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Climate change to hit poor children
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/climatewatch/article.html?in_article_id=145136&in_page_id=59
Metro: Millions more of the world's poorest children are facing hunger, disease and death due to climate change, a UN report says today. Ten years to the day since Britain signed up to the Kyoto Protocol, Unicef warns Western governments are failing to meet targets on both poverty and climate change. Researchers called for greater focus on the risks to children, who 'face a future in which disasters, violence and disease will be more frequent'. Unicef UK executive director ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Peru: Disappearing Andean glaciers could affect 30 million people
http://www.livinginperu.com/news-6274-environmentnature-peru-disappearing-andean-glaciers-could-affect-30-million-people
Living in Peru: Over the past 27 to 35 years, twenty-two percent of the surface has been lost of the 18 currently existing mountain glaciers in Peru, says World Bank engineer Walter Vergara, in his new report, "The Impacts of Climate Change in Latin America." In his report, Vergara notes that 99 percent of the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia has already disappeared, explaining that 70 percent of the world's tropical glaciers are in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador's high Andes ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Displacements Set To Increase
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42147
Inter Press Service: Climate change is likely to lead to an increase in conflicts and forced migrations of poor people in the south, a new report warns. Developing countries can reduce this impact by adopting preventative measures now, while international law and human rights principles need to be updated. Most so-called 'climate refugees' will be displaced both by gradual environmental degradation, slow-onset disasters such as drought, and sudden disasters such as floods or storms, while rising sea ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Melting Andean Glaciers Could Leave 30 Million High and Dry
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-28-01.asp
Environment News Service: About 99 percent of the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia has disappeared since 1940, says World Bank engineer Walter Vergara, in his new report, "The Impacts of Climate Change in Latin America." One of the highest glaciers in South America, Chacaltaya is one of the first glaciers to melt due to climate change. Although the glacier is over 18,000 years old, it is expected to vanish this year. "The greenhouse gases are the main driver," says Vergara. "The ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Poor children main victims of climate change - UN
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33288220080428
Reuters: Millions of the world's poorest children are among the principal victims of climate change caused by the rich developed world, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, calling for urgent action. The UNICEF report "Our Climate, Our Children, Our Responsibility" measured action on targets set in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, aimed at halving child poverty by 2015. It found failure on counts from health to survival, education and gender equality. "It is ...
Tue, 29 Apr 08
Potent greenhouse-gas methane has been rising
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0428/p01s04-wogi.html
Christian Science Monitor: After nearly a decade of holding relatively steady, levels of methane in the atmosphere appear to be rising, and scientists are trying to find out why. The uptick is tiny, especially compared with the growth in carbon-dioxide emissions from industrial activity and land-use changes. But the shift has still raised eyebrows. Pound for pound, methane is 25 times more effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So powerful is its effect that some experts have proposed that ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Chance Of US Drought Seen; Food Squeeze Feared
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48129/story.htm
Reuters: The US Midwest has enjoyed nearly 20 years without a major drought but forecasters worry the corn belt's luck could dry up this year, further squeezing tight global supplies amid soaring food prices. With its last major drought in 1988, the Midwest has reached its average span of 18.6 years between droughts. Considering that statistic and current weather conditions, Iowa State University extension climatologist Elwynn Taylor said the corn belt has a one in three chance of ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Desertification: How to stop the shifting sands
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/25/es.desertification/
CNN: When a 'Yellow Dragon' roars, Beijing listens. These huge, sky-blackening dust storms sweep across Asia in March and April, bringing with them millions of tons of sand from inner Mongolia and depositing it in China and on across the Korean peninsula to Japan. During the past few years the storms have grown in ferocity and scale, and they are at the vanguard of an advancing Gobi desert that threatens more than 400 million people in the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang, Inner ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
March warmest on record over world land surfaces
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C04%5C28%5Cstory_28-4-2008_pg6_21
Associated Press: Planet Earth continues to run a fever. Last month was the warmest March on record over land surfaces of the world and the second warmest overall worldwide. For the United States, however, it was just an average March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said high temperatures over much of Asia pulled the worldwide land temperature up to an average of 40.8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.9 degrees Celsius), 3.2 degrees (1.8 ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Six years of Australian drought making it worse
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr282008/eb2008042765015.asp
New York Times: Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety," he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped." The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to satisfy the daily needs of 20 million people. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Sparks fly over ethics of air travel
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0428/p13s01-wmgn.html
Christian Science Monitor: Travelers troubled by rising airfares, canceled flights, and overcrowded tarmacs are hearing yet another reason to reconsider air travel. Some say it's unethical to fly. Earlier this month, neighborhood and environmental activists staged events across Britain to dramatize concerns about commercial aviation. Donning masks of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and waving cardboard airplanes, they called on government to keep track of carbon emissions from planes and raise fees to ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Forestry policies should aim to fight poverty, says Asia-Pacific commission
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=98099
Jakarta Post: Delegates from the Asia Pacific ended a meeting here Saturday calling for forestry policies to focus on people-centered development to help alleviate global poverty. They said the now much-debated climate change issues had been one of the vehicles to return forestry affairs to the top of the world's agenda during the past two years. "A key recommendation from the Asia Pacific Forestry Commission (APFC) is to continue efforts to enhance community-based forest management ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
US Environment Groups Target Senate Races On Climate
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48132/story.htm
Reuters: US environmental groups joined forces on Thursday to target Senate candidates in Colorado, New Hampshire and New Mexico, aiming to elect a 60-vote majority to deal with global warming. Environmental measures have failed to clear Congress by "a handful of votes in the Senate" in recent years, the groups' leaders said, noting the legislation to fight climate change is set for debate by the full Senate this year. "This issue is too great for half-measures," ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Canada: Air travel becomes latest eco-cause
http://www.canada.com/topics/travel/story.html?id=0985e06c-a8a8-41f3-a3b1-898e5ad33c3e
CanWest News Service: I'm flying to Alberta next week and starting to feel more than a tad guilty about it. Not because I'm abandoning my work, loved ones and responsibilities in order to fish. I never feel guilty about fishing. No, the reason for my angst has to do with the unintended consequences of my flight, specifically, my contribution to global warming via carbon dioxide emissions. Air travel, you see, has become the latest cause celebre of the eco-set, including such august, ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Australia: Ban new freeways: transport
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ban-new-freeways-transport-group/2008/04/27/1209234656186.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIA must halt construction of freeways if drastic cuts in emissions from vehicles are to be achieved, a submission to the Garnaut Climate Change Review has said. The Public Transport Users Association has backed its recommendation with a document showing that expansion of freeways does nothing to alleviate congestion. Instead, the report says, new freeways encourage car use and worsen gridlock. "The existence of congestion indicates high latent demand, so an increase ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Belarus Rally Chides Nuclear Plan On Chernobyl Date
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48128/story.htm
Reuters: Opposition protesters marched through the capital of Belarus on Saturday to mark the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and denounce plans to build an atomic power station in the ex-Soviet state. Belarus was the country most affected by the world's worst nuclear accident and the anniversary is traditionally the year's biggest rally for opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of violating fundamental human rights. A modest crowd of ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Carbon emissions may be immaterial to global warming in future
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/carbon-emissions-may-be-immaterial-to-global-warming-in-future_10042719.html
Asia News International: While climate change and carbon emissions are considered to be strongly associated, a new study report suggests that this relationship will perhaps no longer persist in the future. The report published in BioMed Centrals open access journal Carbon Balance and Management, however, makes it clear that it may be some time before this saturation point is reached. Russian researchers Igor Mokhov and Alexey Eliseev, from the Moscow-based A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Cars now no more efficient than '60s
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cars-now-no-more-efficient-than-60s/2008/04/27/1209234655207.html
Sydney Morning Herald: CARS are no more fuel-efficient today than they were in the 1960s, a transport expert says. In research for the Garnaut climate change review, Paul Mees, of Melbourne University, has used Bureau of Statistics figures to show fuel efficiency has remained practically unchanged since 1963. The average Australian car then used 11.4 litres of petrol to travel 100 kilometres. In 2006, the bureau's Survey of Motor Vehicle Use shows, it was unchanged. Dr Mees said boasts from ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Australia: Coalition calls for 'solar continent'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23607840-11949,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA must invest far more heavily in solar power, including it as a mainstream energy source in the national grid, Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt has said. In a speech to be delivered to a climate change conference today, Mr Hunt will spell out the Coalition's vision for a "solar continent", in which the energy source could be stored and sold on the market like coal-generated, baseload power. "In short, we want to set Australia on a path to ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Australia: Extreme weather is here to stay
http://www.smh.com.au/news/water-issues/extreme-weather-is-here-to-stay/2008/04/27/1209234655241.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SOMETHING strange is happening to our weather. Sydney has endured the most sodden school holidays in living memory, including the longest unbroken spell of April drizzle for 77 years, a month after some state capitals sweated through the worst continuous period of baking heat ever recorded. And unseasonably early snow fell in the mountains at the weekend. "The weather's been anything but normal over the last six months," said Dave Williams, a senior forecaster at the ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Australia: Forests 'best option' for providing carbon offsets
http://business.theage.com.au/forests-best-option-for-providing-carbon-offsets/20080427-28ve.html
Age: AGROFORESTRY and reforestation are the best option for providing carbon offsets in the initial phase of an emissions trading system, according to Australian researchers. Soil carbon sequestration also holds potential, but more research is needed to gauge the impact of management practices on long-term changes in soil carbon, they say. The research was presented to an agriculture, greenhouse gases and emissions trading conference on the Gold Coast. The Australian Farm Institute ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Australia: Global warming slows weed invasion
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/28/2228740.htm?site=idx-tas
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Tasmanian scientists have discovered a possible benefit to global warming. In 50 years, it is expected our climate will be two degrees warmer with elevated levels of carbon dioxide. The School of Plant Science at the University of Tasmania has simulated those conditions so they can see how global warming will affect important biosystems. The seven-year study by the University of Tasmania has found climate change can slow the invasion of some types of weeds threatening ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Russia: Japan PM Meets Medvedev To Push Climate Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48127/story.htm
Reuters: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda focused on a new global climate change initiative and a decades-old dispute over a group of Pacific islands when he met Russia's two leaders on Saturday. Japanese officials had said Fukuda would urge Russia to accelerate talks aimed at resolving the territorial row over the islands, a running sore in relations that has prevented the two states from signing a peace treaty ending World War Two. "We are continuing dialogue on the peace ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Latin America's Poorest Seek Food Price Respite
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48124/story.htm
Reuters: Farm ministers from some of Latin America's poorest countries met on Saturday to seek a regional solution to soaring food prices that have sparked violent protests in the Caribbean. Farm ministers from Central America, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela held talks in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua to boost corn, rice and bean production, as well as lifting output of the animal feed sorghum. Central America hopes to spend about $630 million to increase the ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Scientists accuse tabloids of fuelling climate ignorance
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/science/science/scientists-accuse-tabloids-fuelling-climate-ignorance-$1220449.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: Leading scientists have accused Britain's tabloid newspapers of misrepresenting climate change issues and fuelling ignorance on the subject. Researchers say the matter is particularly worrying as consensus around human contributions to climate change has grown and the need for action has become increasingly urgent. The accusations from researchers at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Institute follow their study of nearly 1,000 tabloid articles from the Daily ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
US air force calls for mission to combat climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/28/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange
Guardian: The US air force will this week call for the world's top scientists to come together in a 21st-century Apollo-style programme to develop greener fuels and tackle global warming. It wants universities, governments, companies and environmental groups to collaborate on a multibillion-dollar effort to work out greenhouse gas emissions of existing and future fuels. William Anderson, an assistant secretary of the air force, said the project aimed to calculate the overall carbon footprint ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Australia: Water trading plan 'feudal'
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/opinion/opinion/water-trading-plan-feudal/1232111.html
Canberra Times: As a result of the Water Act 2007 taking effect on March 3, 2008, the Minister for Water, Senator Penny Wong, has referred the issue of the sale of water and trading in water licences in the Murray Darling Basin to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Submissions from interested parties have been called for. The process being entered into by the minister and the ACCC implies that there is no alternative to trading in water and that it is both desirable and ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86305/c-ford-runge-benjamin-senauer/how-biofuels-could-starve-the-poor.html
Foreign Affairs: Summary: Thanks to high oil prices and hefty subsidies, corn-based ethanol is now all the rage in the United States. But it takes so much supply to keep ethanol production going that the price of corn -- and those of other food staples -- is shooting up around the world. To stop this trend, and prevent even more people from going hungry, Washington must conserve more and diversify ethanol's production inputs. C. Ford Runge is Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Human warming hobbles ancient climate cycle-study
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7488158
Reuters: Before humans began burning fossil fuels, there was an eons-long balance between carbon dioxide emissions and Earth's ability to absorb them, but now the planet can't keep up, scientists said on Sunday. The finding, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, relies on ancient Antarctic ice bubbles that contain air samples going back 610,000 years. Climate scientists for the last 25 years or so have suggested that some kind of natural mechanism regulates our planet's temperature ...
Mon, 28 Apr 08
Merkel urges Germans to buy greener cars
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL2725511120080427
Reuters: Germans should buy more fuel-efficient cars, Chancellor Angela Merkel said, even though her government is fighting European Union efforts to force down carbon dioxide emissions. Merkel, who regularly defends Germany's powerful luxury car industry against European Commission plans to clamp down on CO2 emissions, said more efficient cars could provide an answer for two problems: higher energy prices and climate change. "We've got to use every chance available to save ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Asia's rainforests vanishing as timber, food demand surge: experts
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h72gB_2XhOnj9oCJpuhMULEpCcoQ
Agence France Presse: Asia's rainforests are being rapidly destroyed, a trend accelerated by surging timber demand in booming China and India, and record food, energy and commodity prices, forest experts warn. The loss of these biodiversity hot spots, much of it driven by the illegal timber trade and the growth of oil palm, biofuel and rubber plantations, is worsening global warming, species loss and poverty, they said. Globally, tropical forest destruction "is a super crisis we are facing, ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
India on brink of water crisis
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/India_on_brink_of_water_crisis/articleshow/2986960.cms
Times of India: The per capita water availability in India is projected to decline to about 1,140 cubic metres per year in 2050 from 1,820 cubic metres per year recorded in 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated in a report released recently. While the figures are not new, the IPCC has put out a warning specifically on the impact on freshwater sources for the world by culling all the scientific data it has earlier assessed. The warning comes at a time when the country is already ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Australia: Carbon price 'to cost poor $1000pa'
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23605767-5005961,00.html
AAP: THE introduction of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) in two years could cost poor households up to $1300 a year, mainly through higher fuel costs, a report says. The research released today by the Brotherhood of St Laurence found a price on carbon would add an average $938 a year to low-income households in Victoria, or $18 a week. Assuming a carbon price of $35 a tonne and no government benefits or changed behaviour, poor rural residents would be hardest hit, with household ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Go for veggies to curb the perils of global climate warming
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/go-for-veggies-to-curb-the-perils-of-global-climate-warming-re-issue_10042551.html
Asia News International: Go for veggies if you want to do your bit to prevent greenhouse gas emissions, researchers have suggested, claiming that it is the dietary choice, not food miles, which most determines a households food-related climate impacts. With increasing focus on food milesthe distance that food travels from farm, where it is produced to the consumers plate Carnegie Mellon researchers Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews ask people to follow the age-old saying We are what we ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Individual versus social solutions to global warming
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/748/38700
Green Left: There is, by now, virtually unanimous agreement among scientists and activists, and increasingly among millions of ordinary people, about the seriousness of climate change and the time frame we have to make fundamental changes to address it. The main "solutions" being offered by the capitalist class, its politicians and the corporate-dominated mass media – and endorsed by some key peak environmental organisations – are consciously designed to shift the responsibility for, and the ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
United States: Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Muta Maathai speaks at ecological awakening event in L.A.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nobel27apr27,1,3379094.story
LA Times: The greeting outside Ward African Methodist Episcopal Church on Saturday was meant to send a clear message that their special guest and keynote speaker could feel at home. Wangari Muta Maathai, the founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, received fresh bouquets of flowers as she walked to the church, down a street filled with the musical sounds of ululating women dancing to the rhythms of African drummers. In Los ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
100 homes evacuated as Calif. wildfire burns out of control
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080427/ap_on_re_us/socal_wildfires_8
Associated Press: A wildfire in Southern California that has scorched 270 acres and forced the evacuation of about 100 homes in neighborhoods might not be under control for days, officials said Sunday. Firefighters originally had hoped to have the blaze contained Sunday, but gusting winds late Saturday night kept the fire burning out of control and creeping toward nearby homes, said Elisa Weaver of the Arcadia Fire Department. The mandatory evacuation order came shortly before 11 p.m. The fire ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
REI explores the environmental cost of eco-tourism
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004375890_sundaybuzz27.html?syndication=rss
Seattle Times: It's easy to see how a person might develop a deeper appreciation for Mother Nature by hiking the Alps or climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Then again, that traveler would contribute to global warming by getting on an airplane and flying across the world. What to do? It's a question that REI, the Kent-based retailer of outdoor gear and apparel, asked itself after examining its impact on the environment. The retailer's REI Adventures unit sells vacation packages to people who ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
'Climate change is hurting India's crops'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Climate_change_is_hurting_Indias_crops/articleshow/2984125.cms
Times of India: R K Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on Friday took on the government, saying that climate change is affecting Indian agriculture unlike what 'some leaders' had claimed. His warning came while addressing MPs in a lecture organised by the Bureau of Parliamentary Studies and Training. Pachauri, who is the director-general of the Energy Resource Institute and also heads the Nobel-winning IPCC, said that studies clearly showed that agriculture would be ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Cities so busy planting they can't see the forest for the trees
http://www.startribune.com/nation/18299229.html
Washington Post: Spurred by visions of their cities frying in a warmer world, mayors around the nation have grasped a green solution: trees. Like Johnny Appleseed, they have vowed to sow their seeds in great profusion, promising millions of new trees in the coming years. Arbor Day, that old fusty holiday, is getting a makeover. Cities once planted trees because they were beautiful. Now trees are part of the "green infrastructure" managed by "urban foresters" to work as powerful ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Greenhouse gases increased sharply in 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Green_gases_increased_in_2007/articleshow/2984984.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: Global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of climate change, increased by 0.6 per cent or 19 billion tonnes last year. Additionally methane rose by 27 million tonnes after nearly a decade with little or no increase. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists released these and other preliminary findings as part of an annual update on agency's greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites worldwide. The burning of coal, oil ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Texas seeks U.S. ethanol cutbacks; cites corn costs
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2547879120080425
Reuters: Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday asked the U.S. government to cut "skyrocketing" food prices by waiving half of the renewable fuel standard for ethanol made from grain. The Republican governor from the oil-producing state said in a statement that such a waiver was "the best, quickest way" to ease rising food costs before lasting damage was done. "We're diversifying our state's energy portfolio at a rapid rate, but this misguided mandate is significantly ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
The Food Chain Movable Feast Carries a Pollution Price Tag
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97959
New York Times: Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe's peas are grown and packaged in Kenya. In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to "All year!" now that Italy has become the world's leading supplier of New Zealand's national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere's winter. ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Canada May Add Polar Bears to Protected List as Habitat Melts
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aOQRAisf8w2s&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Canadian Environment Minister John Baird said he may add polar bears to a list of animals protected under federal law, after scientific advisers said their habitat is threatened. ``It's important to act on this great iconic species,'' Baird, 38, told reporters in Ottawa today when asked about a listing. ``Canada has a special responsibility to look out for its future. I'm not interested in a two- or three-year-long process which simply punts this off to another minister.'' ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Canadian panel: Climate change is threat to polar bears
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSJfwRY1EFc3c0VPEGH_mZ6lQGrwD90979204
Associated Press: A scientific committee that advises Canada's government on endangered species said Friday that climate change is a threat to the survival of the polar bear, but the species does not face extinction. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada determined that the polar bear was a "special concern species" because evidence wasn't strong enough to recommend elevating the polar bear's status to threatened or endangered. "That's not to say that it's ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
China in plea on 'green' technology
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5im-Q6av-2gPlRnvQWFbMpt6LPn_g
Press Association: China has called on the international community to increase the flow of technology to developing countries to help them fight climate change. Wan Gang, minister of science and technology, said developed nations "need to establish a mechanism for technological transfer" of environmentally friendly technology so developing countries can afford them. China - which rivals the US as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases - has pledged to raise energy efficiency ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Congestion fee fuelling mayor race in London
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/418678
Toronto Star: It is a rare political contest that draws the ire of Madonna, Porsche, big bankers, radical Muslim clerics and climate-change gurus. But next Thursday's mayoral vote is shaking up London, even as it helps solidify the hot button question of road congestion charges in the British capital. If "Red Ken" Livingstone, London's famously unorthodox far-left mayor, manages to eke out victory for a third four-year term, the Labour party maverick vows to steer his city far ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Drought a major cause for food crisis: UN agency
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200804261322.htm
Press Trust of India: Addressing the problem of drought is essential in resolving food crisis that is being faced by several countries, the United Nations agency, tasked with minimizing the threat posed by natural disasters, said on Saturday. Both drought and unsustainable water management have played a key role in the current problem, and managing drought risk is essential in finding a long-term solution to the crisis, the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) said. Reports of ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Drought could mean climate change
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080426-1241-wst-southwestdrought.html
Associated Press: The Southwest's current drought could be the start of the Dust Bowl-like future that some scientists have already predicted will come from human-caused warming. Or, it could just be another in the long line of natural, cyclical droughts in this region dating back 1,000 years. But one of the nation's leading climate scientists, the University of Arizona's Nobel Prize-sharing Jonathan Overpeck, says he's coming to believe there's "a real likelihood" the drought is caused by ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Extreme Ocean Storms On the Rise, Tremors Show
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080425-ocean-storms.html
National Geographic: Extreme ocean storms have ramped up in frequency over the past 30 years, according to new research based on small tremors. The faint tremors, called microseisms, are periodic movements of Earth's surface that can last anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. Unlike earthquakes, which are caused by movements of Earth's tectonic plates, microseisms are created by the incessant beating of waves along the coasts. The phenomena are usually dismissed as background noise by scientists ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
IEA warns against retreat on biofuels
http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=453443
Money: Biofuel production is critical to meeting current and future fuel demand in spite of its possible role in driving up food prices, the west's energy watchdog has warned. Amid signs of a growing backlash against biofuels in the wake of the worst food price spike since the 1970s, the International Energy Agency said that the crop-based fuel was vital to meeting current and future demand. Biofuels already make up about 50 per cent of the extra fuel coming to the market from sources ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Malaysia, Indonesia agree to counter anti-palm oil propaganda
http://enews.mcot.net/view.php?id=3980
Bernama: Malaysia and Indonesia today agreed to carry out joint scientific research to counter anti-palm oil propaganda among Western non-governmental organisations. Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui said the findings would then be tabled at international conferences as well as to the European members of parliament. This was aimed at correcting inaccuracy about palm oil which tainted the image of industry, he said. "We will present accurate ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Narwhals more at risk to Arctic warming than polar bears
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6OhKt7hhu7e6WfTgGH8mm_Sj7cQD9092AE00
Associated Press: The polar bear has become an icon of global warming vulnerability, but a new study found an Arctic mammal that may be even more at risk to climate change: the narwhal. The narwhal, a whale with a long spiral tusk that inspired the myth of the unicorn, edged out the polar bear for the ranking of most potentially vulnerable in a climate change risk analysis of Arctic marine mammals. The study was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Ecological Applications. Polar ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Scientists say polar bears at risk, but threat not imminent
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ib5O29ZKoCYf3fPUUQvJvGbSdY-g
Agence France Presse: A scientific panel Friday urged Canada to act to safeguard the Canadian polar bear, which it recommended designating as a species "of special concern" but not one imminently threatened with extinction. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) "has reassessed the polar bear as a species of special concern ... a species at risk in Canada ... (and) in trouble," said panel chairman Jeffrey Hutchings. "This is a species that is ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Sting - Styler Defends Huge Carbon Footprint
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/styler%20defends%20huge%20carbon%20footprint_1066914
Contact Music: STING's wife TRUDIE STYLER has conceded to allegations the couple is "hypocritical" in their stance on global warming, but insists her husband's tour with THE POLICE is to blame for their huge carbon footprint. Sting - real name Gordon Sumner - and Styler have long been criticised for claiming they are eco-friendly, despite using private jets to fly between their numerous homes in England and Italy. But Styler was forced to face the facts during an interview in London ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Study: Bio-plastic goods not eco-friendly
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/04/26/study_bio-plastic_goods_not_eco-friendly/9284/
United Press International: Bio-plastic goods can still damage the environment by emitting gases that can impact climate change, a study by a British newspaper found. The Guardian reported Saturday that its study determined the plant-based goods being embraced by supermarkets worldwide can cause environmental problems and add to the world's food crisis. The replacements for oil-based plastic goods have been found to increase greenhouse gas emissions when placed in landfills, the British newspaper ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
World Bank Carbon Plan 'A Protection Racket'
http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/160150/1/3319
OneWorld UK: A World Bank-backed carbon-reduction programme in which concessional loans would be offered to developing country governments was compared to a "protection racket" by Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper at a meeting in London at the weekend. He said it would be like smashing the windows of a car and then demanding money to stop further damage. "A deep injustice in the development model is being put together," he said of the plan. Speaking at a meeting called to ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Canada panel declines to say polar bear threatened
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN25336919
Reuters: The polar bear, a symbol of Canada's far north as well as the effects of climate change on the sensitive Arctic environment, is in trouble, but it is not endangered or threatened with extinction, a Canadian advisory panel said on Friday. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada gave the the polar bear its weakest classification, that of "special concern", but the Canadian government would nonetheless have to develop a management plan to protect the ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Japan PM to push G8 climate agenda on Russia visit
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSNL25667332
Reuters: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will seek Moscow's support for a new global initiative to curb greenhouse gases on Saturday when he has his first meeting with Russia's outgoing and incoming presidents. Japanese officials said a territorial dispute over four islands in the Pacific -- a running sore in relations since World War Two -- will be touched on only briefly. Japan will host this year's Group of Eight summit on its northern island of Hokkaido and has placed finding a ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Japanese PM meets Russia's leaders to discuss G-8 climate initiatives
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/26/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Japan.php
Associated Press: Japan's leader met with Russia's outgoing and incoming presidents Saturday, seeking Moscow's support for global environmental initiatives before the Group of Eight summit. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda discussed Japan's initiatives against global warming, as well as ways of mending ties with Russia, during his meetings with President Vladimir Putin and his president-elect Dmitry Medvedev. At the opening of talks, Putin said: "In the last two or three years, we managed to ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Kansas Supreme Court puts coal-plant cases on hold
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5731112.html
Associated Press: The state's highest court has put on hold indefinitely its review of a regulator's decision blocking two coal-fired power plants in southwest Kansas. The Supreme Court plans to wait until legal challenges to the decision are considered first in district court and in administrative hearings involving the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Sunflower Electric Power Corp. wants to build the two plants outside Holcomb, in Finney County. It applied for an air-quality permit ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Polar bears 'at risk' in Canada
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7368484.stm
BBC: Polar bears in Canada are at risk from climate change but not threatened with extinction, a panel of experts has advised the Canadian government. The government should develop a plan to protect the country's estimated 15,000 polar bears, the panel said. The plight of the polar bear has long concerned environmentalists. The animals face loss of habitat on two fronts, the panel said - hunting, and melting ice in the Arctic, which is widely blamed on climate change. ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Vietnam manages forests to deflect climate change
http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/life/260408/life_v.htm
Nhan Dan: In an effort to fight climate change, Vietnam will continue to work to increase forest coverage and importantly, ensure the quality of forest, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said on April 23. Apart from boosting preservation of biodiversity, Vietnam will strengthen silvicultural methodology, said Deputy Director of International Cooperation Department under the MARD, Tran Kim Long, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Week and the 22nd session of the ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Arctic Getting "Wetter" Due to Human-Driven Warming
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080425-wet-arctic.html
National Geographic: In addition to heating up faster than almost anywhere else on the planet, the Arctic has gotten wetter and snowier because of global warming, according to a new study. The extra precipitation could freshen ocean water in the Arctic and North Atlantic, researchers say, which might disrupt the so-called ocean conveyor belt, a current that runs through the Atlantic and carries warm water northward from the Equator. The new study is the first to show that changes in precipitation ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Green giants: Our love affair with trees
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/green-giants-our-love-affair-with-trees-815329.html
Independent: On the way to work tomorrow, as you hurry, head bowed, to the crowded bus-stop or station, or pause in the car at the red traffic light, feeling your blood pressure start to mount as you see that, on the other side of the junction, the traffic still isn't moving, do yourself a massive favour: look up. What may swim into your line of sight is greenery. We've been without it for five months, do you realise? And now it's back. Those things called trees, those tall roadside posts that for ...
Sun, 27 Apr 08
Chile: Environmentalists Withdraw Backing from Government
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42137
Inter Press Service: Twenty-three environmental groups in Chile withdrew their support from President Michelle Bachelet, complaining that she had failed to live up to an agreement they had signed with her during her election campaign. They also accused the centre-left government of persecution against the environmental movement. Environmentalists "have the right to take the decisions that they please," government spokesman Francisco Vidal told foreign journalists Friday. "But this ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
China: Food prices dim biofuel glow
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD26Dj03.html
Asia Times: Studies debunking the environmental benefits of ethanol have made little impression in China, which is betting on biofuels as the green answer to coal and oil to help clear its increasingly smog-filled skies. But economic realities of surging food prices and global inflation are beginning to disturb the ethanol dream. Prices for cassava and other non-grain feedstock promoted in China as a safe alternative to the conversion of precious corn into ethanol fuel are quickly rising. ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
Biodiversity significantly enhances ecosystem's productivity
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/biodiversity-significantly-enhances-ecosystems-productivity_10041886.html
Asia News International: A new study, conducted by scientists at the Brown University , has shown that more plant diversity notably enhances an ecosystem's productivity. The scientists, who conducted the first experiment in a natural environment, say that their finding highlight the significance of biodiversity to an ecosystems value, such as capturing the global warming gas carbon dioxide. Researchers including Osvaldo Sala, director of the Environmental Change Initiative said that the results ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
China to tie up with Chicago carbon emissions bourse
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSJMdnpUiXOwJvD8b22yRKiiW49Q
Agence France Presse: China will join up with the US Chicago Climate Exchange to establish a carbon emission market in the city of Tianjin near Beijing, state media reported Friday. Tianjin authorities, oil giant PetroChina and the Chicago Climate Exchange will sign an agreement for the exchange, the first in the nation, as early as this month, the 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing unnamed sources. The exchange, part of government plan to develop the Binhai New Area in Tianjin, will ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
British temperature climbs to hottest this year
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/25/nweather125.xml
Telegraph: Britain is expected to bask in Mediterranean warm weather on Saturday as temperatures climb to their hottest so far this year - but the long-awaited appearance of the sun is sadly only a blip in the gloomy weather. Forecasters say a warm wave drifting up from Spain have helped temperatures climb as far as 70F (21C) in East Anglia, the Midlands and the south coast, making it feel more like June than April. The hottest it has been so far this year is a springlike 67F (19.5C) ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
Climate 'fix' could deplete ozone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7365793.stm
BBC: Research has cast new doubt on the wisdom of using Sun-blocking sulphate particles to cool the planet. Sulphate injections are one of several "geo-engineering" solutions to climate change being discussed by scientists. But data published in Science journal suggests the strategy would lead to drastic thinning of the ozone layer. This would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by decades, and cause significant ozone loss over the Arctic, say US ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
Canada: Climate change and forest fires
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1001464
Sault Star: Forest fires are a significant, natural and necessary element of Canada's boreal forest, yet when they threaten our values, such as our communities and timber resources, they become unwanted and we try to limit their extent through suppression activities. Fire's occurrence, spread and suppression are strongly linked with day-to-day weather. The changing climate will cause many complex effects throughout the world, increasing temperatures, changing precipitation amounts and frequencies, and ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
Hunger Plagues Haiti and the World
http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3773/32/
Atlantic Free Press: Consumers in rich countries feel it in supermarkets but in the world's poorest ones people are starving. The reason - soaring food prices, and it's triggered riots around the world in places like Mexico, Indonesia, Yemen, the Philippines, Cambodia, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania, Egypt, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Peru, Bolivia and Haiti that was once nearly food self-sufficient but now relies on imports for most of its supply and (like other ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
India: Malaria epidemic likely due to climate change
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/malaria-epidemic-likely-due-to-climate-change/63933-17.html
CNN-IBN: Malaria kills over a million people around the world each year. Children in Africa are the worst sufferers. With one death reported every 30 seconds, they account for nearly 75 per cent of all global deaths from the disease. Back home in India, the situation is no less grim. Unofficial reports put the number of annual deaths to 30,000, but with rising temperatures, the death rate will only shoot up. Director, National Institute of Malaria, Professor A P Dash says, "Places ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
UN body chief bats for India on climate change
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/UN_body_chief_bats_for_India_on_climate_change/articleshow/2981322.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: Backing India's position in climate change negotiations, Georg Kell, executive director of the UN body Global Compact, has said emerging markets should be allowed to have the same standards of living as developed nations. "You can't deny emerging markets the right to the same living standards as OECD countries," says Kell, the first head of a UN body to publicly back India's position on the issue. The chief of the New York-based body that is the UN's interface with ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
World focus back on malaria
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/160125/1/
OneWorld South Asia: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will announce a global initiative Friday that steps up the fight against malaria – seeking to eventually wipe out a tropical scourge blamed for killing a million people a year. In a video message for a World Malaria Day event at UN headquarters, Ban said the initiative would offer indoor spraying and bed nets treated with long-lasting insecticide "to all people at risk, especially women and children in Africa." It will also ensure that ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
Arctic is thawing faster than expected, report says
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080425.CLIMATE25/TPStory/National
Canadian Press: Differences in everything from sea ice to permafrost show the Arctic climate is changing even more rapidly than scientists had predicted, says a new summary of the most recent research. The report, produced for the World Wildlife Fund and presented this week to the Arctic Council, adds that there could be factors contributing to climate change that were not even considered until recently. "What we see out there happening is already a much stronger response than any of the ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
India spent 410 mln rupees on alternative fuel research
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-33239520080425
Reuters: India has spent about 410 million rupees on research and development on alternative fuels during the last three years, junior minister for new and renewable energy, Vilas Muttemwar, said on Friday. The ministry has been given the responsibility for preparing the national policy on bio-fuels and setting up of a National Bio-fuel Development Board, he told lawmakers in the lower house of parliament, an official statement said. The draft policy, aims at promoting the cultivation, ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
Maryland considers exemptions from carbon-credit auction
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-md.environment25apr25,0,5951495.story
Baltimore Sun: Maryland regulators are considering exemptions for a proposed Calvert County power plant and other generators from a regional auction of carbon credits that is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The idea of granting free carbon credits to potential polluters had rankled some environmentalists and state lawmakers, but Maryland's projected energy shortage is so acute that many now support the idea as a way to get new electricity online and to head off potential rolling ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
NTR buys stake in U.S. wind power firm, shuts unit
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSL2579918720080425
Reuters: Irish renewable energy and waste management company NTR Plc has bought a controlling stake in American wind energy developer Wind Capital Group (WCG) for an investment of $150 million, it said. "NTR has also signed an agreement for the supply of 150 megawatts of GE (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) wind turbines on behalf of WCG for delivery in 2010 to accelerate the build out of WCG's portfolio of development projects," NTR said in a statement late on ...
Sat, 26 Apr 08
The slippery politics of carbon emissions
http://money.uk.msn.com/investing/articles/nicklouth/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8169916
MSN: More than 15,000 journalists, lobbyists, reporters and technicians from 180 countries descended on the Indonesian Island of Bali in December, and in a week-long orgy of first-class flights, air-conditioning and limousine travel emitted about as much carbon dioxide as a country like Malawi produces in a year. What were they there to do? It was a United Nations conference to discuss ways of lowering the world's carbon emissions. The organisation was rightly pilloried for this ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Carbon output goes off the chart
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/carbon-output-goes-off-the-chart/2008/04/24/1208743154045.html
Sydney Morning Herald: TWO KEY greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere rose sharply last year, and carbon dioxide levels this year are showing an alarming increase, the US Government has reported. In its annual index of greenhouse gas emissions, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global climate change, rose 0.6 per cent, or 19 billion tonnes, last year. The amount of methane rose 0.5 per cent, or 27 million tonnes, after ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Australia: Carbon tax adds 10c a litre to petrol
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/carbon-tax-adds-10c-a-litre-to-petrol/2008/04/24/1208743154230.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE country's largest oil refiner, Caltex, has stepped up its calls for the Federal Government to quarantine motorists from its proposed carbon-trading scheme, warning it could add an extra $1.4 billion or 10 cents a litre to the nation's fuel bill each year. In an abrupt U-turn on the 10-cents-a-litre carbon tax the refiner advocated several weeks ago, Caltex yesterday said the Government should "not impose a carbon cost on motorists". With unleaded fuel prices ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Panic as global food crisis reaches America
http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/25/stories/2008042556221800.htm
Hindu: The global food crisis reached the U.S. on Wednesday as big retailers began rationing sales of rice in response to bulk purchases by customers alarmed by rocketing prices of staple foods. Wal-Mart's cash and carry division, Sam's Club, announced it would sell a maximum of four bags of rice a person to prevent supplies from running short. Its decision followed sporadic caps placed on purchases of rice and flour by some store managers at a rival bulk chain, Costco, in parts of ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Humans had brush with extinction: Study
http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/04/25/Humans_had_brush_with_extinction_Study
AAP: A new genetic study suggests human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70 thousand years ago. The study says number of early humans may have shrunk as low as two-thousand before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age. Spencer Wells, a National Geographic Society explorer in residence says the study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species. "What could have led to that drop in ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Climate quick fix could destroy ozone layer
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1953
Cosmos: A plan to inject sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere, as a quick fix to counteract global warming, may drastically increase Arctic ozone depletion and slow the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, researchers warn. A number of 'geoengineering' schemes have been proposed in recent years as possible ways for us to deflect the Sun's heat or reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Infeasible and costly Examples include positioning giant mirrors in orbit ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
United States: 3 developers interested in offshore wind farms on Lake Michigan
http://www.startribune.com/local/18105924.html
Associated Press: Three developers are interested in building hundreds of wind turbines offshore on Lake Michigan, the state said. The developers have concepts but they haven't submitted formal plans, said Steve Ugoretz, lead wind energy analyst with the Department of Natural Resources. The projects are being discussed as a study group of the Public Service Commission, state Department of Natural Resources and the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands looks at offshore generation in Lake ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
After Near Extinction, Humans Split Into Isolated Bands
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080424-humans-extinct.html
National Geographic: After nearly going extinct 150,000 years ago, humankind split into small groups–living in isolation for nearly a hundred thousand years before "reuniting" and migrating out of Africa, a new gene study says. At one point our species may have been down to as few as 2,000 individuals, probably due to climate change–a longstanding theory bolstered by the new findings. The research fills a gap in our understanding of what was happening in Africa before humans first left ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
China will go further in climate change talks, UN official says
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ghMYOnPwBtI_pLXsna-KhdwyUypg
Agence France Presse: The impact of climate change on China's environment will likely lead Beijing to make greater concessions in negotiations on a new global warming pact, a senior UN official said Thursday. But developed nations must also put forward more equitable positions if talks for the new pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol can be finalised by next year, argued Yvo de Boer, the UN's top official on climate change. "I've seen major changes in Chinese policies on climate change in recent ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Philippines: Climate change to aggravate food crisis: PAGASA official
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=116062
ABS CBN: Changing weather patterns as a result of climate change could lower agricultural production in the Philippines and aggravate rising food prices, an official of weather bureau PAGASA said Thursday. Lourdes Tibig, chief of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) climate data section, said the increase in greenhouse gases, which then affects weather patterns, is already having an effect on crop yields in some parts of the country. ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Global warming fix could damage ozone
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/04/24/sciatmos124.xml
Telegraph: A climate "fix" to curb global warming would have a serious side effect, damaging the Earth's protective ozone shield. Scientists have put forward several proposals to reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the planet's surface, including the use of light-reflecting sulphate particles in the atmosphere and putting mirrors in orbit around the planet. But there have been warnings that using these radical "geoengineering" techniques to cool our overheated planet could well ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Greenhouse gas levels rose in 2007: US agency
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWQzGPVOi1jaokoAG24HLH2tU61w
Agence France Presse: Global greenhouse gas emissions including main offender carbon dioxide rose in 2007 despite efforts to curb them, a US government agency said. Atmospheric CO2 increased by 0.6 percent or 19 billion tonnes over 2006 levels, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in preliminary data from its annual update to its greenhouse gas index. "Viewed another way, last year's carbon dioxide increase means 2.4 molecules of the gas were added to every million ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Hints of methane's renewed rise
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7364679.stm
BBC: Levels of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere seem to be rising having remained stable for nearly 10 years. Data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in the US suggest concentrations rose by about 0.5% between 2006 and 2007. The rise could reflect melting of permafrost, increased industrialisation in Asia or drying of tropical wetlands. The rise in carbon dioxide levels was significantly higher than the average annual increase ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
How to End the Global Food Shortage
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1734834,00.html
Time Magazine: The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a looming hunger crisis in poor countries and a looming energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years, and oil prices have more than tripled since the start of 2004. These food-price increases combined with soaring energy costs will slow if not stop ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Parched US states could start water wars: experts
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080424/water_wars_080424/20080424?hub=SciTech
Canadian Press: Parched U.S. states could start "water wars" in the years ahead and fight for access to Great Lakes resources as they become more desperate to meet growing needs, Canadian and American experts said Wednesday at a water conference. Southwestern U.S. states are already concerned about dwindling water resources, and the impacts of climate change are exacerbating their problems, said Environment Canada's Linda Mortsch, who worked on the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Pine Beetles May Affect Climate Change - Study
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48108/story.htm
Reuters: Mountain pine beetles that are destroying forests along much of the Rocky Mountain range are doing so much damage that they may affect climate change, Canadian researchers reported on Wednesday. The damage is nearly equivalent to the polluting effects of forest fires, they report in the journal Nature. "In the worst year, the impacts resulting from the beetle outbreak in British Columbia were equivalent to 75 percent of the average annual direct forest fire emissions ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Run on rice makes its way to U.S.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rice24apr24,1,3902221.story
LA Times: The global run on food that has led to shortages and riots in Egypt, Haiti and other nations has made its way to U.S. shores. Concerned about rising prices and limited supplies of staples such as rice and flour, customers across the country have been cleaning out the shelves at big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Sam's Club and Costco Wholesale Corp. stores. On Wednesday, Sam's Club said customers would no longer be allowed to purchase more than four bags of ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Survey Finds Bush Administration Interfering with EPA Scientists
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-24-10.asp
Environment News Service: The Bush administration has frequently meddled with scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a survey released today by a scientific advocacy group. The Union of Concerned Scientists reports that nearly two-thirds of the 1,586 staff EPA scientists who responded to a questionnaire complained of recent political interference with their work. The reported interference is greatest in offices where scientists write regulations and conduct risk ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
US Environment Scientists Report Political Meddling
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48113/story.htm
Reuters: Nearly 900 scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency have experienced political interference in their work in the last five years, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported on Wednesday. The non-profit environmental organisation said its investigation of EPA was in line with previous probes of other US agencies which found "significant administration manipulation of federal science." A government spokesman denied this, and said scientific findings were ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
South Africa: 'Demand for meat, biofuels main culprits'
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=139&art_id=vn20080424091957493C545094
Daily News: The demand for agricultural products to produce biofuels is partly to blame for soaring food prices worldwide, but many other factors play a part. One of the other major factors affecting prices is the rising standard of living in the Far East, countries such as China and India, which has led to an increased consumption of meat and growing demand for animal feeds. The demand for feeds has pushed up the price of grains, the staple food of people in many countries. This ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42111
Inter Press Service: Having been hit by three hurricanes and 25 tropical storms in less than 10 years, Nicaragua is looking ahead to the next rainy season, due to begin in May, with wariness and trepidation. The government is alarmed by forecasts of an active cyclone season ahead. Colorado State University in the United States has forecast that during the North Atlantic hurricane season from June to November this year, there will probably be 15 named tropical storms, eight of which will become ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Allergies, Asthma on the Rise in Asia
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-24-voa23.cfm
Voice of America: Adopting modern lifestyles, urbanization and even climate change are among some of the factors being blamed for an alarming rise in asthma in Asia. From New Delhi, VOA Correspondent Steve Herman has a preview of an upcoming first-of-its-kind medical report that details the seriousness of the problem. The prevalence of allergic diseases in Asia is nothing to sneeze at. The World Allergy Organization is preparing to release its first ever global study, the "State of the World ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Analysis: Energy's water demands worrisome
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/04/24/analysis_energys_water_demands_worrisome/5920/
United Press International: Add another requirement to the clean-energy checklist: low water usage. Two Virginia Tech researchers released a study this week examining the water-use requirements for 11 different energy sources, ranking them in terms of efficiency. One of the most important aspects of the study was to raise awareness of the role water plays in energy production, said Rachelle Hill, a recent Virginia Tech graduate who co-authored the study. "We need to do more research and really ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Anticipated - WWF
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48107/story.htm
Reuters: Arctic ice may be melting faster than most climate change science has concluded, the conservation group WWF said in a report published on Thursday. It found that ice in Greenland and across the Arctic region was retreating "at rates significantly faster than predicted in previous expert assessments". The Greenland Ice Sheet -- with an ice volume of about 2.9 million cubic kilometres -- is shrinking at a fast pace and "could contribute much more than previously ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Artificially cooling Earth may prove perilous: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVrzr6O-TXzZjTxhlskoDd08EpLA
Agence France Presse: Radical proposals to inject sulfur particles into the Earth's stratosphere to cool it down and battle global warming could instead badly damage the ozone layer, a study warned Thursday. "Our research indicates that trying to artificially cool off the planet could have perilous side effects," said researcher Simone Tilmes from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "While climate change is a major threat, more research is required before society attempts ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
China seen committing to environmental targets; seeking technology transfer - UN
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/04/24/afx4927182.html
Thomson Financial: China will offer to commit to environmental targets in the current round of climate change negotiations, in exchange for technology transfer from developed countries, according to the head of the United Nations secretariat on climate change. China is seeking technology from developed countries that will help it deal with global warming and reduce carbon emissions, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN's Framework on Climate Change, said. Speaking at a news briefing here, ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Climate change could lead to another war: study
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200804241840.htm
Press Trust of India: Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars and last for centuries unless adequate measures are taken to deal with it, a leading defence think thank has said. A ten-fold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be required if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures, the Royal United Services Institute said in a report. Conflicts across the globe due to the climate ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Global Warming Is Affecting Arctic Faster, WWF Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=afoaNpuF4BcM&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Global warming is hitting the Arctic harder and faster than scientists expected, causing unforeseen changes to the frigid region's ice, wildlife, atmosphere and oceans, the conservation group WWF said. The most prominent differences observed over the last three years include a ``massively accelerated'' decline in summer sea ice and ``much greater'' shrinking of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the environmental campaign group, known in the U.S. as the World Wildlife Fund, said in a 123-page ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Group says wind energy an economic boon in Ohio
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5727020.html
Associated Press: Environmental advocates are seeing dollar signs in the hundreds of windmills they envision sprouting on the Ohio landscape, thanks to the commitment to renewable resources in the state's new energy plan. Gov. Ted Strickland proposed that Ohio utilities be required to have 12.5 percent of their total power portfolio come from renewable resources, such as wind, solar and water, by 2025. The House version of Strickland's bill spells out the percentages each utility must achieve each ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Hardiness Zone Maps Shifting With Climate
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/hardiness-zone-map-47042401
Daily Green: You can grow Southern magnolia in Pennsylvania and kiwis in Oklahoma, but you wouldn't know that from the USDA's old hardiness zone map that gardeners use to plan their plantings, as USA Today details. They haven't been updated since 1990, and the past two decades have been marked by increasingly obvious climate changes. In 2006, the Arbor Day Foundation took it upon itself to update those hardiness zone maps, and the results were shocking in their breadth, even if many gardeners had ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
China: High on Ethanol Despite Rising Food Prices
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42108
Inter Press Service: Studies debunking the environmental benefits of ethanol have made little impression in this country, which is betting on bio-fuels as the green answer to coal and oil to help clear its increasingly smog-filled skies. But even as the ethanol dream survives unscathed, economic realities of surging food prices and global inflation are beginning to bite. Prices for non-grain feedstock as cassava promoted here as a safe alternative to the conversion of precious corn into ethanol ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Indigenous Leader Warns of Effects of Climate Change
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-04-24-voa27.cfm
Voice of America: In New York, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is holding a meeting this week – the first since the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was finalized last September. One of those addressing the forum today is Kiplangat Cheruyot, a leader of Kenya's Ogiek people. The Ogiek live mostly in the Mau Forest overlooking the Rift Valley and are among the few remaining hunter-gatherers in East Africa. From New York, he spoke to VOA English to Africa Service reporter ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Jeb Bush: Climate change proponents = religious zealots
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2008/04/jeb_bush_climate_change_propon.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed7
Boston Globe: Chill out on climate change, Jeb Bush says. In comments that have stirred the blogosphere, President Bush's little brother said yesterday that those who advocate action to limit climate change are acting out of something like religious zeal. "I don't think our policies should be based on emotion; they should be based on sound science," The Associated Press quoted him as saying. Jeb Bush's comments stand in contrast to those of Charlie Crist, his successor as Florida ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
United States: Local officials lag on preparedness for climate-created crises
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/888915.html
Sacramento Bee: While California leads the nation's charge against global warming pollution, local health officials lag on preparedness for the expected fallout of more frequent and more severe heat waves, bad air days and disease epidemics. Sacramento County officials interviewed Thursday said they have yet to define their roles as first responders to climate-related illnesses and deaths. "We are starting the gather the data on what to expect and how to respond," said Val Siebal, ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Ozone hole recovery may reshape southern hemisphere climate change
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/uoca-ohr042408.php
EurekAlert: A full recovery of the stratospheric ozone hole could modify climate change in the Southern Hemisphere and even amplify Antarctic warming, according to scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA. While Earth's average surface temperatures have been increasing, the interior of Antarctica has exhibited a unique cooling trend during the austral summer and fall caused by ozone depletion, said Judith Perlwitz of the ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Plan to reverse global warming could backfire
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2435161220080424
Reuters: proposed solution to reverse the effects of global warming by spraying sulfate particles into Earth's stratosphere could make matters much worse, climate researchers said on Thursday. They said trying to cool off the planet by creating a kind of artificial sun block would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by 30 to 70 years and create a new loss of Earth's protective ozone layer over the Arctic. "What our study shows is if you actually put a lot of sulfur ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Canada: Province bans clothesline bans
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/parkdale/news/article/46476
Inside Toronto: The province of Ontario and Toronto Hydro have partnered to ensure that clean clothes do not preclude green practices. Premier Dalton McGuinty dropped by the Toronto Hydro offices near Yonge and Carlton streets last Friday to announce an end to restrictions preventing some Ontarians from using outdoor clotheslines. Toronto Hydro met the announcement by announcing their own Take A Load Off Toronto program, which will see 75,000 free retractable clotheslines distributed at select stores ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Scientist says New Zealand's biggest glacier shrinking
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYkvL5d73RMikT3tBJ76iutvTlOgD908GDLG2
Associated Press: New Zealand's biggest glacier is melting at its fastest pace in recent history, a scientist said Thursday. The Tasman Glacier on South Island was 18 miles long in 1990, with virtually no lake at its front edge, Massey University glacier expert Martin Brook said. New measurements last week showed the glacier was 14 miles long, he said. Meanwhile, a lake that has formed next to the glacier is now 4.4 miles long, 1.2 miles wide and 800 feet deep, he said. Despite global ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Scientist slams spread of climate change 'misinformation'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/24/2227109.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A leading climate change scientist says there is too much misinformation being spread about the theory. Professor Barry Brook from the University of Adelaide says those who deny climate change often have ulterior motives. He has published an article calling for scientists to step up and support the research being done in the field. Professor Brook says it can take just a few minutes for popular opinion to undermine years of scientific research. "Anyone can ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Scientist: New Zealand's biggest glacier shrinking fast
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/24/asia/AS-GEN-New-Zealand-Melting-Glacier.php
Associated Press: New Zealand's biggest glacier is melting at its fastest pace in recent history, a scientist said Thursday. The Tasman Glacier on South Island was 29 kilometers (18 miles) long in 1990, with virtually no lake at its front edge, Massey University glacier expert Martin Brook said. New measurements last week showed the glacier was 22 kilometers (14 miles) long, he said. Meanwhile, a lake that has formed next to the glacier is now seven kilometers (4.4 miles) long, two ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Sun Cycles Not Key To Recent Global Warming - Expert
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48111/story.htm
Reuters: Satellite data show that changes in the sun are contributing to global warming but to a smaller extent than human activity, a space scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington told a group of petroleum geologists Wednesday. "The sun is playing a role that you can detect, but it's not the dominant role," Judith Lean told a crowded session at the 2008 convention of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in San Antonio. Climate-change sceptics ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Top scientist objects to coal-based power plant
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/18161109.html
Star Tribune: Gov. Tim Pawlenty won't speak out against a new coal-burning power plant on Minnesota's western border, despite a request from one of the nation's most prominent and controversial climate scientists. Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, cited Pawlenty's leadership on greenhouse gas reduction in a letter this week that asked the governor to take a strong stand against construction of the proposed Big Stone II power plant in Milbank, ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
U.N. says Bush climate plan just a "first offer"
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK34403320080424
Reuters: The top UN official on climate change said on Thursday that he sees a U.S. plan to cap rising emissions by 2025 as only a "first offer", adding that all three presidential candidates had promised a tougher stand. Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, also said that as the fight against climate change gets more urgent, the world will have to embrace nuclear power and provide more support to developing nations. "I see this very much as a first ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
UN Climate Change Official: More Incentives Needed for Developing Countries
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-24-voa26.cfm
Voice of America: The top U.N. official on climate change says industrialized countries need to offer more incentives to China and other developing countries to reduce gas emissions. Daniel Schearf reports for VOA from Beijing that China is fast overtaking the United States as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, believed by many scientists to be warming the planet. The U.N. official in charge of the framework convention on climate change, Yvo de Boer, says wealthy nations need to offer ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
UN official: China has 'ambitious' strategy to address impact of climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/24/content_8044477.htm
Xinhua: Yvo de Boer, the United Nation's(UN) top climate change official, said here on Thursday that China's national climate change strategy announced last year was "ambitious" and driven by the impact of global warming. China has a very ambitious renewable energy target, said de Boer here at the Forum on Climate Change and Science and Technology Innovation. The country had also set ambitious goals in terms of improving industrial energy efficiency, and phasing out ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Using chemicals to cut global warming may damage ozone layer
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h5CQfSiJc_9wjkfyu2qdipRKwdEgD908CNF81
Associated Press: The rule of unintended consequences threatens to strike again. Some researchers have suggested that injecting sulfur compounds into the atmosphere might help ease global warming by increasing clouds and haze that would reflect sunlight. After all, they reason, when volcanoes spew lots of sulfur, months or more of cooling often follows. But a new study warns that injecting enough sulfur to reduce warming would wipe out the Arctic ozone layer and delay recovery of the Antarctic ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Watch for climate flaws in fixes, experts warn
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24296008/
MSNBC: Be careful – be very careful – when tinkering with Mother Nature. That's the lesson from two new studies that involve climate change, ozone holes, the Arctic and Antarctica. One study warns that the idea of "geoengineering" a warming solution by injecting sulfur compounds into the air could wipe out the Arctic ozone layer and delay recover of the Antarctic ozone hole by as much as 70 years. The other study warns that recovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica – a ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
WWF warns Arctic ice melting faster than predicted
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iaMHpcGLw4cAzOpvSviI65CkKL8A
Agence France Presse: Arctic sea ice is melting "significantly faster" than predicted and is approaching a point of no return, conservation group the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned in a new study. The volumes of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ice in the Arctic Ocean were estimated at 2.9 million and 4.4 million cubic metres respectively in September 2007 -- the lowest ever levels recorded, the organization said Wednesday. The sea ice shrank to 39 percent below its 1979-2000 mean volume, it ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Business Books: Time for CEOs to face climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0120249320080424
Reuters: Chief executives can no longer brush off concerns about climate change but need to start figuring out how global warming -- and regulations intended to curtail it -- will affect their businesses. So asserts "Climate Change: What's Your Business Strategy?" (Harvard Business Press, $18), a new book due out May 1. "You can remain completely agnostic about the science of climate change but still recognize its importance as a business issue," write authors Andrew ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
Canadians among biggest polluters: study
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=b03e762a-64f1-49ba-b075-c25a4bb97001
Canwest News Service: Gas-guzzling vehicles are one of the key factors behind the notorious environmental record of Canadians, who are among the highest per capita polluters in the world, according to figures made public yesterday by Statistics Canada. Each Canadian produces an average of 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per year, trailing people in the U.S., who create an average of 24.4 tonnes of emissions per year, and Australians, with an average of 27.7 tonnes of emissions per year, ...
Fri, 25 Apr 08
China calls for technology transfer, fund to address climate change
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/china-calls-for-technology-transfer-fund-to-address-climate-change_10041560.html
Xinhua: A senior Chinese official Thursday called on the international community to evolve a mechanism for technology development and transfer to address climate change problems. Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said, "the core of the mechanism is technology transfer, including sufficient funds to support the transfer". Xie made the remarks at the two-day forum on climate change and science and technology innovation which opened here Thursday ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Administration Seeks a Quicker Increase in Fuel Standards
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97669
New York Times: The Bush administration, acting as gasoline prices are setting records, proposed on Tuesday to raise car and truck fuel economy standards substantially faster than required by the energy law passed by Congress last December. But in calculating how long it would take drivers to recoup the added cost of more-efficient vehicles, the Transportation Department used a price projection made by the government several months ago that looks cheap today: $2.26 to $2.51 a gallon in ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Biofuels contributing to food crisis
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2225758.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: MARK COLVIN: Governments that were quick to switch to biofuels are just as quickly having to think again. Biofuels were promoted as an effective weapon in the battle against climate change, but some blame the increased demand for them for a world crisis in the cost of food. Earlier this month a doubling in the price of rice caused riots in Egypt and Haiti, and the World Bank has warned the increased cost of food will push 100-million people deeper into poverty. But aid ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Canada Led G8 In Greenhouse Gas Emissions Growth
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48101/story.htm
Reuters: Canada's greenhouse gas emissions increased by 25 percent from 1990 to 2005, the highest amount of any G8 nation, according to government figures released on Tuesday. Canada has only about 0.5 percent of the world's population but contributes about 2 percent of global emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide that are linked to climate change, according to Statistics Canada. Energy use for transportation and oil and gas production in areas such as Alberta's oil sands were ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
China Lights Way For Huge Efficient Bulb Subsidy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48099/story.htm
Reuters: China, the world's biggest light bulb maker, on Tuesday unveiled a massive subsidy programme to promote energy-efficient bulbs and cut pollution. Beijing plans to usher in about 50 million low-energy bulbs in the first stage of the plan, phasing traditional incandescent lighting out of the market, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on its website. The light bulb programme is a showpiece of government efforts to shift to a cleaner model of development, away from ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Europe Turns to Coal Again, Raising Alarms on Climate
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97656
New York Times: At a time when the world's top climate experts agree that carbon emissions must be rapidly reduced to hold down global warming, Italy's major electricity producer, Enel, is converting its massive power plant here from oil to coal, generally the dirtiest fuel on earth. Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 percent from 14 percent. Power generated by Enel from coal will rise to 50 percent. And Italy is not alone in its return to coal. Driven ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Former UN Boss Annan Warns Of 'Hunger Disasters'
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48102/story.htm
Reuters: Climate change is aggravating the global food crisis and many poor countries could be facing the start of major hunger disasters, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. Agricultural production worldwide must be revamped over time but poor farmers in Africa and elsewhere need help now to meet the spiralling costs of fertiliser, which has prevented them from planting more crops, he said. Severe drought in Australia, one of the world's major bread ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Japan, EU leaders call for 'highly ambitious' climate goals
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQyUJPLEaN_UonXUZxt6rmWsccsg
Agence France Presse: Leaders of Japan and the European Union called Wednesday for "highly ambitious and binding" global targets to fight climate change, seeking a breakthrough at July's Group of Eight summit. In an annual meeting, the two sides also called for urgent action to cope with rising global food prices, warning that they could worsen poverty in developing countries and drag down the world economy. The talks come ahead of the July 7-9 summit of the Group of Eight rich nations in ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Airline Industry Aims For 'Carbon Neutral Growth'
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48098/story.htm
Reuters: Aircraft makers, airlines, airports and air traffic controllers pledged on Tuesday to work towards "carbon-neutral growth" and reduce their industry's contribution to global warming. The declaration committed commercial players including Embraer, Bombardier, Boeing and Airbus to support cleaner fuels, improve fuel efficiency, better manage air routes, and work "to achieve greenhouse gas reductions wherever they are cost-effective." "We are committed ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Canada: Carbon study shows beetle-killed forest is pumping out carbon dioxide
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxxqtnTiAeofTtkegYFDdL6MHeKA
Canadian Press: British Columbia's pine-beetle devastated forest is belching out enough carbon to equal Canada's average annual forest fire emissions, says a new report from scientists at the Ministry of Natural Resources Canada. Instead of manufacturing oxygen as it should, the damaged forest is becoming a source for global warming, putting more pressure on the need to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. The study, released Wednesday, calculates it will be much harder for ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
China aims for first zero emission power by 2015
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKPEK31729520080423
Reuters: China plans to build a major emissions-free coal burning power station by 2015, the project chief said on Wednesday, putting it at the front of a tight global race to build the first commercial scale plant. GreenGen president Su Wenbin said he has escaped the funding and planning problems that have delayed similar ventures in the U.S. and Europe because tackling climate change is a top priority for Beijing. "In China our system is different. When we decide to do something ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Climate change escape route for animals
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/23/easevern123.xml
Telegraph: An escape route is to be built for birds and animals fleeing the effects of climate change. As temperatures rise the wildlife highway will help them find the habitats they need to survive. The ambitious £500,000 five-year project is aimed at ensuring creatures such as the otter, water vole and wading birds can survive in a changing environment. The Severn Vale Living Landscape project will be developed at the Severn Vale in Gloucestershire, which is one of the country's ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Corn, Rice Surge As Global Food Tensions Mount
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48104/story.htm
Reuters: With global tensions over food supplies mounting, prices of world staples rice and corn surged on Tuesday amid strong demand and concerns over slow planting of the new US corn crop. Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank warned Asian countries against export controls, and the Inter-American Development Bank said the food-versus-fuel debate had changed the way it evaluates financing of biofuel projects that could siphon off staples like corn or soybeans. Even in the United ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Germany torn on EU climate plan as car lobby bites
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL2368721920080423
Reuters: Germany's powerful car lobby has trained its gas-guzzling fire-power on European Union plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, putting the grand coalition governing in Berlin under strain. German Chancellor Angela Merkel won plaudits across Europe last year when she presided over the adoption of ambitious EU targets to fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions. But now it comes to pursuing those goals by making car makers clean up their act, Merkel's government is waging ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Maldives Wants Emissions Cuts But Not From Tourism
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48100/story.htm
Reuters: The Maldives, worried about rising seas from climate change, wants steeper cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions but is unwilling to curb its tourism industry, which is reliant on polluting international flights. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in Singapore promoting his book "Paradise Drowning" at an environmental business summit, said cutting back on tourism was not the answer even though the country's survival was more important than development. "I don't ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Report Confirms Ozone Pollution Can Kill
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48094/story.htm
Reuters: Even breathing in a little ozone at levels found in many areas is likely to kill some people prematurely, the National Research Council reported on Tuesday. The report recommends that the US Environmental Protection Agency consider ozone-related mortality in any future ozone standards, and said local health authorities should keep this in mind when advising people to stay indoors on polluted days. "What impressed me was the consistency of the findings that ozone clearly ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Response to climate security threats 'slow and inadequate'
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gEXK7gz8SJJNewjBb0tajD7aupTQ
Agence France Presse: The international response to security threats posed by climate change has been "slow and inadequate", according to a report published Wednesday. According to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British security think tank, a failure to adequately prepare for this is on a par with neglecting the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation or terrorism. "In the next decades, climate change will drive as significant a change in the strategic security ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Scientists: Alps largest glacier gone within 20 years
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10505856
New Zealand Herald: Climate change will see most of the Tasman Glacier in the Southern Alps melt away over the next 20 years, scientists say. "In the past 10 years the glacier has receded a hell of a lot," said glaciologist Dr Martin Brook. "It's just too warm for a glacier to be sustained at such a low altitude - 730 metres above sea level - so it melts rapidly and it is going to disappear altogether". The Tasman Glacier is the largest in the Southern Alps and at 29km ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
U.N. expert: Food crisis 'a silent tsunami'
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/22/food.biofuels/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail
CNN: Those battling global warming by promoting biofuels may unintentionally be adding to skyrocketing world food prices, creating what one expert calls "a silent tsunami" in developing nations. The rising prices are "threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every continent into hunger," Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations' World Food Program, said on the agency's Web site Tuesday. Sheeran is one of the experts attending a Food ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Canada: $1.4B allocated for climate, water issues
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2008/04/23/5363586-sun.html
Edmonton Sun: Alberta will spend nearly $1.4 billion over the next three years to address climate change and water issues, but critics say the plans accompanying that spending will leave the province playing catch-up. "We will pursue a leading role in responding to climate change through carbon capture and storage, saving energy, and greener energy production," said Finance Minister Iris Evans. Program spending will more than double in 2008-2009 to $403 million, from $183 ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
'Ambitious' climate approach urged
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDpw6KiF4m_3neVuOQsvYV2ATOnA
Press Association: Japan and the European Union have called for a "highly ambitious and binding" approach to battling climate change in a new international agreement to be concluded by 2009. The two sides, after an annual summit in Tokyo, also said they would explore a Japanese proposal to set different energy efficiency levels for different industries - an idea that has drawn opposition from some developing countries. The United Nations is leading climate talks aimed at crafting a ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
China High hopes to catch wind power wave
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKHKG26444220080423
Reuters: China High Speed Transmission Equipment Group Co Ltd (0658.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), the country's top maker of gears for wind power transmission, plans to nearly quadruple capacity over the next two years to feed a robust global appetite for renewable energy as oil prices skyrocket. China High, which vies with Belgium-based Hansen Transmissions International (HSNT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and the business Siemens (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) inherited when it bought ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Clergy stage global warming demo
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jf--dsU0gYo-oUTA91w8gKS3izaQ
Press Association: Almost 300 nuns, monks and other clergy urged the Government to strengthen its commitment to tackle global warming as they demonstrated outside the Houses of Parliament. They also took their message to MPs and Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, arguing there is a moral case for raising the carbon emissions reduction target from 60% by 2050 to 80%. Organised by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (Cafod), they marched up to Parliament with placards saying "Stop ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
EU must create carbon storage incentive, says UK adviser
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7480660
Reuters: The European Union will not get its planned 12 carbon capture and storage (CCS) fitted power plants by 2015 because it is trying to do it on the cheap, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's environmental adviser said on Wednesday. Michael Jacobs said Britain was pushing ahead with its competition to get a CCS demonstration plant up and running by the end of 2014 and was willing to put "10s of millions of pounds of taxpayers money" in place to do so. The EU, on the other hand, ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
Japan, EU eye new framework for global efforts on energy efficiency
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/23/content_8037638.htm
Xinhua: Japanese and European Union leaders agreed on Wednesday at a regular meeting to help establish a new international framework aimed at promoting energy efficiency to better tackle with global warming. According to a joint press statement released after the meeting, the Japanese side and the European Union called for the establishment of the International Partnership for Cooperation on Energy Efficiency (IPEEC) at a Group of Eight energy ministers meeting slated for June in ...
Thu, 24 Apr 08
'Tenfold R&D rise needed for climate change'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/22/easecurity122.xml
Telegraph: Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two World Wars which will last for centuries unless it is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned. The Royal United Services Institute said a tenfold increase in research spending, comparable to the amount spent on the Apollo space programme, will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst effects of changing temperatures. However the group said the world's response to the threats posed by climate change, ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Forestry officials ignoring PNG law
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23584521-30417,00.html?from=public_rss
Australian: PAPUA New Guinea has admitted its forestry sector is riddled with corruption as a high-powered delegation of Australian frontbenchers arrives in the country for talks that will focus on deforestation. Nine Rudd government ministers and parliamentary secretaries will front the first PNG-Australia Ministerial Forum since 2005, in Madang, PNG's second city, with the new forest carbon partnership between the two nations the main topic for discussion. The parties are expected to ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Climate change can stoke Africa conflicts-scientist
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL22658148.html
Reuters: Climate change in Africa could leave 250 million more people short of water by 2020, spurring conflicts and threatening stability on the world's poorest continent, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner said on Tuesday. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations panel of climate experts who shared the prize with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore last year, said the responsibility lay with wealthy developed nations to curb their carbon emissions. "If the situation in ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Climate change failure would be 'mankind's biggest': UN
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/22/2224545.htm?section=world
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The head of the United Nations environment program has warned that global climate change talks must progress if the planet is to avoid "deep trouble". The head of the UN's environment program, Achim Steiner, has told a meeting of business leaders in Singapore that international negotiations on climate change are at a difficult stage and the corporate sector must work with governments to set in place the momentum for action. "The business community in Asia is ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Climate change talks 'heading for trouble'
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iM8QOT6rbN8p-wx1uTeuMw2tQ6bQ
Agence France Presse: Governments negotiating a new climate change treaty, due next year, remain far apart on many issues, and this should be a "warning sign" that the world is facing trouble, a top UN environmental official said Tuesday. Talks in Bangkok earlier this month to thrash out firm commitments to battling global warming made little ground and this does not bode well for the 2009 meeting, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), told ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Emission caps won't hurt economy, study finds
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004364737_climatecost22.html
Seattle Times: Americans won't pay huge electricity and heating bills, unemployment won't skyrocket and the U.S. economy won't be damaged in the decades ahead if Congress passes legislation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a study released Monday. The Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group that supports a mandatory cap and a substantial reduction of emissions, conducted the study by examining peer-reviewed economic models from academic and government groups. The models looked ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Greenpeace wants moratorium on oil palm expansion
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/tue/apr22b1.htm
Agence France Presse: Greepeace called for a moratorium yesterday on the expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands, warning that soaring world demand is creating an environmental crisis. It said a two-year investigation into the health of the country's rainforests and peatlands showed "wholesale" destruction driven by demand from food, cosmetic and biofuel companies. "Given the urgent nature of the crisis the only solution for the global climate, the ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Kleiner Perkins Venture To Sell Electric Car In US
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48084/story.htm
Reuters: Kleiner Perkins is joining hands with another clean technology-focused venture capital firm and a Norwegian company to bring electric cars to the United States, signalling a Silicon Valley push to make American driving greener. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Boston-based RockPort Capital Partners and electric car maker Think Global will create a new Menlo Park, California-based company called Think North America. The deal was announced on Monday at the Fortune Brainstorm Green ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Norway Gives Tanzania $100 Mln For Forests
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48087/story.htm
Reuters: Norway will give Tanzania $100 million over five years to cut deforestation in the east African country and try to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change, according to a deal signed on Monday. Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, plans to make its economy "carbon Neutral" by 2030, partly by buying emissions quotas abroad to offset its own greenhouse gas production. As part of the agreement with Tanzania, Norway will support research, education ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Indonesia: Palm Oil Protests Target Unilever Sites
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48086/story.htm
Reuters: Environmental demonstrators targeted Unilever on Monday, entering plants and scaling walls, including those of its London headquarters. About 40 members of Greenpeace entered the multinational's factory in Wirral, Merseyside, while about a dozen dressed in orang-utan outfits demonstrated outside its London headquarters, with some climbing its front walls. About 20 demonstrated outside the Rotterdam offices of the Anglo-Dutch corporation, while protests also took place at ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Reinventing energy
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeffrey_sachs/2008/04/reinventing_energy_.html
Jeffrey Sachs: The world economy is being battered by sharply increased energy prices. While a few energy-exporting countries in the Middle East and elsewhere reap huge profits, the rest of the world is suffering as the price of oil has topped $110 per barrel and that of coal has doubled. Without plentiful and low-cost energy, every aspect of the global economy is threatened. For example, food prices are increasing alongside soaring oil prices, partly because of increased production costs, but also ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Scientists help plan climate change treaty
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2008/04/22/scientists_help_plan_climate_change_treaty/5333/
United Press International: Scientists are offering suggestions to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee concerning an international climate change treaty. Purdue University Assistant Professor Kevin Gurney, an associate director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, appeared before the committee Tuesday. His approach, entitled "Preservation Pathway," would provide carbon credits for developing countries that both set aside a portion of existing forests and slow the rate of ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
U.S. hybrid sales up 38% in 2007
http://www.statesman.com/services/content/business/stories/technology/04/22/0422hybrid.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=3
Associated Press: Kim Fenske drives a bus in Colorado, but when he's not working, he zooms around the mountains in a 2007 Toyota Prius. Fenske, an attorney by training who has also worked as a forest ranger, was an environmentalist long before hybrid cars like the Prius hit the market. In the early 1990s, he ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin Legislature on a renewable energy platform. But he recently decided to go one step further and make an environmental statement with his car. ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Arctic ice more vulnerable to sunny weather
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bericht-108369.html
Innovations Report: The shrinking expanse of Arctic sea ice is increasingly vulnerable to summer sunshine. Unusually sunny weather contributed to last summer's record loss of Arctic ice, while similar weather conditions in past summers did not appear to have comparable impacts, new research concludes. The relative importance of solar radiation in the summer is changing," says Jennifer Kay of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., who is lead author of the study. ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Aviation chiefs pledge climate action in the face of government pressure but not targets
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/22/business/EU-FIN-ECO-Aviation-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: Aviation chiefs pledged Tuesday to address the industry's impact on climate change but shied away from concrete targets to reduce carbon emissions. A declaration signed by trade bodies and aircraft makers commits the aviation industry to develop new technologies with the eventual aim of achieving carbon-free travel. The signatories included trans-Atlantic rivals Boeing and Airbus, engine makers Rolls Royce and General Electric, as well as industry groups such as the ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Awash in eco-dilemmas
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=5b7d985c-9e3d-408f-adfa-a74ac6e3605e
Montreal Gazette: The supper dishes are piled up in the sink and Jason Hughes and Jen Auchinleck are debating how to wash them without harming the planet. Him: "I refuse to use the dishwasher. The dishwasher soaps all have phosphates in them." Her: "I don't feel any guilt. Are you going to spend an hour doing the dishes or spend an hour with the kids?" Who's right? The answer might surprise you. Using a dishwasher is a better environmental choice, ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Bolivia Morales: Biofuels Serious Problem To Poor
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48083/story.htm
Reuters: Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday criticized "some South American presidents" for supporting the use of biofuels, which he said are responsible for high food prices and global hunger. Visiting the United Nations while fighting autonomy referendums called by the opposition at home, the Bolivian president said the increased use of farmland for fuel crops was causing a "tremendous increase" in the price of food -- especially of wheat, which has made bread more ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
EU Commission Says Not Dropping Biofuels Goal
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48081/story.htm
Reuters: The European Commission is not starting to backtrack on its target of getting 10 percent of its road transport fuel from crops and biomass by 2020, a spokesman said on Monday. The January proposals have become increasingly controversial amid soaring world food prices and fears that farm land in developing countries is being diverted away from food crops towards others that can be distilled into vehicle fuel. Asked by reporters whether media reports that the Commission was ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Germany falls behind in wind turbine installations
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL2234115920080422
Reuters: Germany was replaced by the United States as the world's No.1 market for newly installed wind turbines last year due to falling subsidies, the German wind energy federation BWE said on Tuesday. While new installation of wind turbines worldwide rose about 31 percent overall to 20,076 megawatt (MW), new installations in Germany slumped 25 percent to 1,667 MW last year, the association said in a statement. Germany, which is still the world's largest wind market overall, fell ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Incentives are needed to boost renewable energy in UK, campaigners say
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/opinion-former-index/opinion-former-index/environmentalists-disappointed-by-uk-s-renewables-record-$1219756.htm
Politics.co.uk: The UK's renewable energy performance is a "national disgrace", environmental campaigners claim today. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Enoughsenough.org say the UK is flagging behind Germany in terms of renewable resources. They argue that Germany has 200 times more solar power and more than ten times more wind power installed than the UK. The three groups have placed an advert in national newspapers today highlighting the differences between the two ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Maldives president seeks help for 'paradise drowning'
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hULNt_1Dmy3xyZGEcVABqoMh6I5Q
Agence France Presse: Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom made an impassioned plea Tuesday for a cut in global greenhouse gas emissions, warning that rising sea levels could submerge his paradise island chain. He launched a book at the UN-backed Business for the Environment conference to highlight the threat to his South Asian tropical island chain favoured by tourists for its white sandy beaches, clear waters and swaying palm trees. "My people are blessed with one of the most beautiful ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Merrill and ICF to offer carbon offset service
http://www.reuters.com/article/etfNews/idUSL2259575720080422
Reuters: U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has partnered with consultants ICF International (ICFI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) to offer a service to measure companies' carbon emissions and offset them, they said on Tuesday. Investment banks are moving into a growing, 40 billion euro ($63.36 billion) carbon market, seeing profits from selling greenhouse gas emissions permits to corporate clients. For example, regulated markets under the U.N.-run Kyoto ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Norway to assist Tanzania in forest and climate program
http://www.norwaypost.no/cgi-bin/norwaypost/imaker?id=145021
Norway Post: Stoltenberg made the announcement in Dar es Salaam on Monday, saying experience from such a partnership will be a vital contribution in the process towards a new international climate agreement. Deforestation in Tanzania is among Africa's largest in extension, only surpassed by deforestation in Sudan and Zambia. Emissions caused by this deforestation have been estimated to represent 100 million tons per year, corresponding to approximately twice as much as Norway's total annual ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Oil World expects states to cut back biofuel plans
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2111778820080422
Reuers: Governments worldwide are likely to reduce their targets to increase biofuel use because of rising food prices, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World forecast. "The biofuel targets are too ambitious and cannot be achieved without severe repercussions on tightening food supplies and skyrocketing prices - to the disadvantage of consumers in developing countries," it said. "A fight for acres (hectares) is underway between energy crops and food ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Scientists study Arctic haze for clues to rapid melting
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-arctic0423,0,7072049.story?track=rss
Associated Press: Visitors to Alaska often marvel at the crisp, clear air. But the truth is, the skies above the Arctic Circle work like a giant lint trap during late winter and early spring, catching all sorts of pollutants swirling around the globe. In recent weeks, scientists have been going up in government research planes and taking samples of the Arctic haze in hopes of solving a mystery: Are the floating particles accelerating the unprecedented warming going on in the far north? While ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
UN food chief urges crisis action
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7360485.stm
BBC: The head of the UN World Food Programme has said urgent action is required to stimulate food production and help the poor cope with soaring food prices. Josette Sheeran told the BBC that an additional 100 million people, who did not need assistance six months ago, could not now afford to purchase food. Her warning came ahead of a meeting in London to discuss the rise in prices and an EU policy encouraging biofuels. Biofuels are intended to tackle climate change but ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
UN: Businesses should seek climate solutions, spur governments to act amid economic downturn
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/22/business/AS-FIN-Singapore-UN-Green-Business.php
Associated Press: Businesses should spur governments into greater action against global warming and not let a global economic downturn derail efforts to tackle climate change, U.N. officials said Tuesday. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said businesses should take the lead in finding solutions to global warming even as international climate negotiations grind on with many countries unwilling to make the first move. "Business prides itself on being able to ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Aviation Chiefs Pledge Climate Action But No Targets
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804220646DOWJONESDJONLINE000252_FORTUNE5.htm
Associated Press: Aviation chiefs Tuesday signed a declaration that pledges to address the industry's impact on climate change but shuns concrete targets to reduce carbon emissions. The declaration was signed by 16 industry groups as well as aircraft makers Boeing Co. (BA) and Airbus. It commits aviation companies to develop new technologies with the aim of achieving carbon-free travel. Airlines contribute more than 2% of the carbon dioxide emissions that drive global warming. The ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Britain May Push For Changes In EU Biofuel Targets
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48088/story.htm
Reuters: Britain will push for changes in European Union biofuels targets if a review of British policy shows rising biofuels production drives up food prices and harms the environment, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday. Brown is due to meet development experts and retail and farmers' representatives later on Tuesday to work on a plan to tackle rising food prices. His government ordered a review of the environmental and economic effects of biofuels production in February. ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Brown urges international action on 'world food crisis'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/22/development.internationalaidanddevelopment
Guardian: The head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) today called for global action to tackle the "silent tsunami" of the world food crisis. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the WFP, said international action is needed to respond in the same way nations reacted to the boxing day tsunami in 2004. If nothing is done, 100 million people face being plunged into hunger, Sheeran warned. Speaking ahead of a summit on food prices, she said: "This is the new face of ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Call for 'world food crisis' action
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTGrp0EYuBzqvYQNapDYiFOev0ng
Press Association: Global action was demanded to tackle the "silent tsunami" of the world food crisis amid warnings that more than 100 million people faced being plunged into hunger. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said the international community needed to respond like it did to 2004's giant Indian Ocean wave which killed 250,000 and left 10 million destitute. She is in London for a food prices summit which will be joined by Prime Minister Gordon ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Carbon curbs will need to get tougher, warns Benn
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23479656-details/Carbon+curbs+will+need+to+get+tougher,+warns+Benn/article.do
This is London: Global warming is even worse than realised and may require tougher action to curb carbon emissions, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn warned today. "I think the science is getting clearer and clearer," he said in an exclusive Evening Standard interview. "We have less time to act than was thought to be the case." Mr Benn's comments will alarm motorists already fuming at higher taxes on gas-guzzling cars. They come before tonight's debate on the Government's ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
United States: Cleaner coal technology was too risky, Alliant says
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/BUSINESS/804220376/-1/ENT05
DesMoines Register: Before deciding to build a conventional coal-fired generator at Marshalltown, Alliant Energy took a long look at a different coal-burning technology that holds the potential to emit less carbon dioxide pollution. Alliant executives visited two Integrated coal Gasification Combined Cycle, or IGCC, generators, in Florida and Indiana, that turn the coal into a gas that feeds the generator's boilers rather than burning coal to fire steam generators. Advocates of the technology ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
EU heads for climate, trade talks with China
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7478028
Reuters: The European Commission's biggest-ever delegation to China heads for Beijing this week, hoping to progress from words to action on China's soaring greenhouse gas emissions and its tense trade ties with Europe. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will have to tread a careful line because he also intends to raise the handling of pro-independence unrest in Tibet and human rights in general in China in the meetings with the country's leadership. "We want to get into ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Heat wave make public life miserable in Bangladesh
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/22/content_8028769.htm
Xinhua: A heat wave amid frequent load shedding sweeping across Bangladesh made public life miserable in capital Dhaka and elsewhere of the country. The high temperature that soars up to 40 Celsius degree over the last few days is aggravating the plight of the commoners who are suffering from frequent load shedding. Hassan Shahriar, president of the Commonwealth Journalist Association and also a senior journalist of Bangladesh, told Xinhua Tuesday that his life has been greatly ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
United Kingdom: London summit to tackle food price 'tsunami'
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmOrrlNsq91JgRERInIgzRXDagzg
Agence France Presse: The UN food agency said the world faced a "silent tsunami" of soaring food prices ahead of a summit here Tuesday aimed at developing a plan to tackle a potential hunger crisis. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said high food prices threatened to plunge more than 100 million people into hunger, ahead of the summit of policymakers and experts being hosted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "This is the new face of hunger -- the millions of people who were ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Rising food prices 'a silent tsunami'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/22/nfood122.xml
Telegraph: Rising food prices are a "silent tsunami" which threaten to be as devastating as the worst natural disasters, an international conference has been warned. Josette Sheeran, of the World Food Programme told Gordon Brown and other political and business leaders that the international community needed to respond as effectively to the hunger crisis as it did to the 2004 tsunami which killed 250,000 and left 10 million destitute. "This is the new face of hunger - the ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Say no to meat and save the planet: McCartney
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080422.wxbuzzbreakout22/BNStory/Entertainment/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080422.wxbuzzbreakout22
Globe and Mail: Former Beatle Paul McCartney is urging the world to go vegetarian in a bid to fight global warming, and is surprised that more green groups don't promote it. In an interview with the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), McCartney said the global meat industry was a major contributor to global warming. "The biggest change anyone could make in their own lifestyle would be to become vegetarian," said McCartney, a long-time vegetarian ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Study: America's jet stream is heading north
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/22/content_8028594.htm
Xinhua: America's jet stream is heading north and getting weaker, which may mean less rain in the drought-stricken South and Southwest and more storms in the North, new research reveals. The northern jet stream "is the dominant thing that creates weather systems for the United States," said study co-author Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California. "Basically look south of where you are and that's probably a good guess ...
Wed, 23 Apr 08
Study: Montana has great renewable energy potential
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/OPINION01/804220306
Great Falls Tribune: In its almost four decades, Earth Day – today – has become a catalyst for cleaning up the environment and, in a world inhabited by more than 6.6 billion people, living more responsibly. In modern parlance, the term is "reducing your environmental footprint" – and more specifically of late, reducing your "carbon footprint." What that means is living in a way that leaves less of a mark on the world, whether through the modern Three Rs of reducing, reusing and ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Stop waiting for 'leaders' to act on global warming
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0422/p09s01-coop.html
Christian Science Monitor: The success of the environmental movement in calling attention to the dangers of global warming has led to an ironic outcome: It's become easier for the public to adopt a passive approach as we wait on world leaders to sign emissions treaties or huge corporations to "go green." This Earth Day, stop waiting! There are new ways for you to fight climate change in your own backyard. One of the most promising models is called "Community Choice Aggregation." CCA is the ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Co-op clashes with organic group over CO2 and food miles
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/22/carbonemissions.carbonfootprints
Guardian: Two leading voices in the fight against climate change were at loggerheads last night over the weight given to "food miles" in a labelling system designed to encourage consumers to choose low-carbon products in shops and supermarkets. The Co-operative group says it makes "no sense" for the Soil Association to focus so much on air freight, which is often a relatively small part of the total environmental impact of a product and risks increasing poverty in places ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Global warming threat to native dragonfly species
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/global-warming-threat-to-native-dragonfly-species-813331.html
Independent: Britain's dragonflies, which date back to the dinosaurs but are increasingly threatened by habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, are to be the subject of a major national survey. The five-year project, to be launched on Thursday, will result in a new atlas of the 39 species of dragonfly and damselfly that breed in Britain – which are soon likely to be joined by several others. As it warms up, the climate is bringing new species into the UK from continental ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
The dilemma of global warming
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-dilemma-of-global-warming-813345.html
Independent: The difficult decisions in life are not between right and wrong but between two, or more, conflicting rights. Nowhere is this better illustrated than by the case of the massive onshore wind farm for which the Scottish Government has just refused planning permission on the Isle of Lewis. The decision required the striking of a balance between a number of issues, all of which could be said to point persuasively in countervailing directions. The need of a remote rural community for ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Basin water crackdown to expand
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23578237-2702,00.html
Australian: TOUGH limits on water use in the Murray-Darling Basin will spread nationwide after the Rudd Government ordered the CSIRO to establish how much river water could be extracted without damaging the environment. The Government also concedes a critical skills shortage in water management could stall efforts to improve water use. News of the problems emerged yesterday with the release of documents presented to the Council of Australian Governments examining progress towards improved ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Australia: Garrett deflects coal hijack claim
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23578344-11949,00.html
Australian: ENVIRONMENT Minister Peter Garrett has defended the 2020 Summit amid accusations the climate debate was hijacked by the coal industry. Australian Conservation Foundation climate change manager Tony Mohr said: "There probably wasn't a strong enough voice for the 90 per cent of Australians really worried about climate change ... There weren't any really big ideas on climate change that could galvanise and inspire people." His comments were echoed by delegate Anna Rose, ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Iceland's answer to global warming comes naturally
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/22/renewableenergy.alternativeenergy?gusrc=rss&feed=technology
Guardian: For tourists relaxing in the hot springs of Iceland's famous Blue Lagoon, just outside the capital Reykjavik, the issues of climate change and energy security are not likely to be occupying most bathers' minds. But what many visitors may be surprised to know is that the hot water they are sitting in is part of a remarkable journey by one country from oil dependence to a world leader in harnessing renewable energy. Iceland's stunning scenery, with its bare, lava-strewn flats, ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Biggest onshore wind farm plan rejected
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/biggest-onshore-wind-farm-plan-rejected-813320.html
Independent: Plans for Britain's biggest land-based wind farm were turned down by the Scottish government yesterday, in a landmark decision with wide implications for the future development of renewable energy in the UK. The 181-turbine development on the Hebridean island of Lewis was vetoed by Scottish ministers because it was at odds with tough protection for wildlife sites afforded by European law. The site was designated as the Lewis Peatlands special protection area under the EU's ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Migrating bird numbers plummet in UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/21/eabirds121.xml
Telegraph: The number of birds which migrate to the UK every Spring to breed is plummeting, a new study reveals. The fall in birds completing the annual journey from Africa has been so dramatic that scientists fear it is part of a seismic environmental change. The spotted flycatcher, turtle dove and tree pipit numbers have declined by more than 80 per cent while once familiar small songbirds such as the willow, marsh and garden warblers have declined by as much as 75 per cent. The ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Indonesia: Unilever accused over rainforest destruction
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/21/eauni121.xml
Telegraph: The company behind brands such as Flora, Persil, Dove, Knorr and Walls has been accused of one of the greatest environmental crimes ever committed by contributing to the destruction of the orang utan's last forest habitat in Borneo. The campaigning group Greenpeace published a report accusing Unilever, the huge multinational, and its suppliers of spearheading the clearance of forest in Kalimantan, Indonesia, and contributing to global warming. Protests by Greenpeace at a ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
US Leads World in Wind-Power Growth
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080421-wind-power.html
National Geographic: As Earth Day approaches, a new report finds that the United States is on track to breeze past Germany within two years as the world leader in installed capacity to spin the wind into electricity. Globally, wind-power capacity rose 27 percent in 2007 to 94,100 megawatts, according to the report from the Washington D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute. The U.S. led the charge with a record-breaking 5,244-megawatt increase for a total of 16,818 megawatts–enough to power 4.5 million ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Al Gore to make a sequel to his Oscar-winning documentary
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200804211940.htm
Press Trust of India: Saying little has changed regarding global warming, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore has said he would make a sequel to his Oscar-winning documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The former US Vice President said: "I will make a sequel to the 2006 documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' and despite earths 'rising fever', I am hopeful for a happy ending". However, he admitted that the situation had instead got worse since his documentary hit cinemas in 2006. Gore ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Britain's biggest wind farm ditched
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/climatewatch/article.html?in_article_id=144038&in_page_id=59
Metro: Britain's hopes of greener energy were dealt a huge blow yesterday as a bid to build the biggest wind farm in Europe was thrown out by planners. The Lewis wind farm would have produced 650 megawatts from its 181 turbines – enough electricity for a million people. But it was shelved to stop rare birds flying into the rotors. The Barvas Moor area in Lewis in the Western Isles is listed under two European directives on birds and habitats, which meant the Scottish government felt ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Bolivia: Capitalism harms planet - Morales
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7359880.stm
BBC: Bolivian President Evo Morales has told a UN forum that capitalism should be scrapped if the planet is to be saved from the effects of climate change. "If we want to save our planet earth, we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system," he said. Opening an UN meeting in New York on the rights of indigenous people, he also said the development of biofuels harmed the world's poorest people. The forum's theme is the global impact of climate change on ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Carbon market exchanges ripe for consolidation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7476392
Reuters: A cut-throat battle is emerging to dominate trade in permits to emit greenhouse gases, which could grow to rival the $3 trillion oil trade, with dominant exchanges eventually expected in Europe, the U.S. and Asia. Emissions exchanges are the hubs of a growing, $60 billion carbon market, where companies buy and sell permits to emit harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and are expected to consolidate as a global market emerges, analysts say. London will remain the ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Climate Change Effects on Africa
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2008-04-21-voa26.cfm
Voice of America: Africa's climate, more than that of any other continent, is generally uniform. That's the result of the position of the continent in the tropical zone, the impact of cool ocean currents, and the absence of mountain chains serving as climatic barriers. But across Africa, the landscape is changing. The snowy caps of Mount Kilimanjaro are melting and the shorelines of lakes Chad, Tanganyika and Victoria are receding. The once mighty Lake Chad is half the size it was 35 years ago. These ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Climate projects prevented 135 million tonnes of CO2: agency
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i__TikPRW7WjnEEbKJFsUoukybTQ
Agence France Presse: Projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in developing countries have prevented 135 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering Earth's atmosphere so far, the Norwegian classification group Det Norske Veritas (DNV) said on Monday. The projects, known as Clean Development Mechanisms (CDMs) and defined in the Kyoto Protocol, allow industrialised countries and their companies to finance projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases in developing countries. In return the ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Global Warming May Have Shifted Jet Stream
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/jet-stream-global-warming-47042103
Daily Green: In a change that is consistent with global warming computer models, the jet streams that govern weather patterns around the world are shifting their course, according to a new analysis by the Carnegie Institution published in Geophysical Research Letters. From 1979 to 2001, "the jet streams in both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward the poles. The jet stream in the northern hemisphere has also weakened," the institution reported. The jet stream ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
High oil prices here to stay, energy forum hears
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gcoqYf3Q4NeQeZDsLDZjp-rj69dA
Agence France Presse: High oil prices are here to stay, but they cannot be blamed for the current global food crisis, an international forum heard on Monday. Biofuels, once seen as a key factor in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, lie behind the stunning rise in food prices worldwide, participants at the International Energy Forum suggested. "A conflict (is) emerging between foodstuffs and fuel ... with disastrous social conflicts and dubious environmental results," outgoing Italian Prime ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Indian renewables generate 11449 MW
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/04/21/indian_renewables_generate_11449_mw/7523/
United Press International: Renewable energy sources in India account for 11,449 MW of grid-interactive power generation installed capacity, junior Power Minister Jairam Ramesh said. The figures were current as of Jan 31. "This comprises of 7,939 MW wind power, 2,062 small hydropower, 1,446 MW biopower and 2 MW solar power," he said in a statement to Parliament. "This apart, a large number of off-grid/decentralized renewable energy systems are making a significant contribution to ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Canada: New study warns of water shortages in summers
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=f0632c0c-5069-4e2b-9147-5dc5b21087bb&k=25067
Canwest News Service: Albertans should prepare for shorter, warmer winters and longer, dryer summers as climate change progresses, says a report by scientists who warn of declining water supplies on the Prairies. The report suggests the Prairie provinces will continue to struggle with drought. It warns that water scarcity in some years will affect all sectors and communities and "could ultimately limit the current rapid economic growth," including oilsands development. "The major ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Norway gives Tanzania funds to fight climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iwtmql_AShau_ylTubtLOejPSh7Q
Agence France Presse: A Norwegian aid package will give 500 million kroner (100 million dollars, 63 million euros) to Tanzania over five years to tackle climate change and deforestation, Norway's government said Monday. Tanzania has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in Africa, which aggravates climate change, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement released in Oslo. News of the aid package coincided with Stoltenberg's visit to Dar es Salaam, where the two countries agreed to join ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Poll: US not panicked by global warming
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/21/poll_us_not_panicked_by_global_warming/4407/
United Press International: A new Gallup Poll shows a high level of awareness among Americans about global warming, but a far lesser degree of worry about the phenomenon. The survey released Monday reported that while 80 percent of Americans said they understood the issue, only 40 percent believed it would become a serious threat in their lifetimes. About a decade ago, a poll showed that 25 percent feared climate change would be a serious problem in their lifetimes. Two-thirds of Americans say they ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Canada: The new gold rush: Energy from the air
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=461679
Financial Post: Stephen Cheeseman has cashed out 20 years of savings, left a successful career as a uranium and base metals geologist and begged his friends and family for as much money as they would invest in him. All to chase the breeze. Mr. Cheeseman is, like dozens of others in British Columbia, a wind prospector who is making it his life's work to grab hold of the choicest mountain ridges with the stiffest gusts before anyone else does. Over the past several years, it is a play that has ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Canada: Top native leader wants more action on climate
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080421/fontaine_climate_080421/20080421?hub=SciTech
CTV: Phil Fontaine, grand chief of the Assembly of First Nations, will tell a United Nations committee today that the government needs to engage natives more on climate change. "We're witnessing dramatic changes in the environment," he told Canada AM on Monday. The Arctic has received a great deal of attention over the changes occurring there due to a climate changing as a result of global warming, but Fontaine said his group is particularly concerned about the boreal ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Using Food to Make Fuel Is `Criminal,' Venezuela's Ramirez Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aVWkvzDDYy3I&refer=news
Bloomberg: Using crops to produce fuel is ``criminal'' as the world suffers a food shortage, Venezuela's oil minister said in Rome where energy ministers from around the globe are meeting to discuss investment plans. ``Look at the effect it has, the craziness,'' Rafael Ramirez told reporters today in the Italian capital, where he is attending the three-day International Energy Forum. ``All countries, and particularly in Latin America, have problems with food stuffs. It is such a bad idea to use ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Want To Reduce Your Food-related Carbon Footprint? What You Eat Is More Important Than Where It Came From
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421161338.htm
Science Daily: The old adage, "We are what we eat,'' may be the latest recipe for success when it comes to curbing the perils of global climate warming. Despite the recent popular attention to the distance that food travels from farm to plate, aka "food miles," Carnegie Mellon researchers Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews argue in an upcoming article in Environmental Science & Technology journal that it is dietary choice, not food miles, which most determines a household's ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Norwegian PM faults developed countries on climate change
http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/norwegian-pm-faults-developed-countries-on-climate-change-200804212222.html
Afrique en ligne: Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has said rich countries should bear the primary responsibility in the fight against climate change, which they have induced. "Industrialised countries must take measures by cutting emissions in their respective countries and by funding the adjustments recommended in developing countries," he said in an address at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state and government summit here Sunday. Suggesting the ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
Starving The Poor By Pandering To Big Ag
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-24666092.htm
Investor's Business Daily: Not a day goes by without some big leader warning the world of the coming food crisis. A week ago, it was U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's turn in the race to the microphone and camera. "The rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions," he said, repeating pretty much what World Bank President Robert Zoellick and President Bush had said just a little earlier. But it doesn't matter who gets to the microphones in ...
Tue, 22 Apr 08
UN chief doubts Africa will meet 2015 development goals
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iq9-0Ml2tCSoKsaUZ8_bpfLfbqTQ
Agence France Presse: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon cast doubt Monday on whether sub-Sahara Africa will meet a 2015 deadline for eradicating extreme poverty, despite an economic boom linked to higher commodity prices. "Many countries are falling behind," Ban told the ongoing UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Ghana's capital Accra, which opened Sunday and runs through Friday. "This region, sub-Saharan Africa, is most at risk here. Not a single country is on track to ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Democratic Republic of Congo: Banks meet over £40bn plan to harness power of Congo river and double Africa's electricity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/21/congo.water
Guardian: Seven African governments and the world's largest banks and construction firms meet in London today to plan the most powerful dam ever conceived - an $80bn (£40bn) hydro power project on the Congo river which, its supporters say, could double the amount of electricity available on the continent. G8 and some African governments hope that the Grand Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo will generate twice as much electricity as the world's current largest dam, the Three Gorges in ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Beijing Pressures Automakers to Improve Efficiency
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97425
New York Times: The Chinese government is putting pressure on automakers to improve energy efficiency, but consumers are increasingly interested in large sport utility vehicles and full-size luxury cars, auto executives said on Sunday at the opening of the Beijing auto show. The shift of the Chinese market toward larger vehicles will probably push up the country's already voracious demand for imported oil and make China an even bigger emitter of global warming gases. The trend toward big vehicles is ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
McCartney Urges Vegetarianism To Fight Climate Ills
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48066/story.htm
Reuters: Former Beatle Paul McCartney is urging the world to go vegetarian in a bid to fight global warming and is surprised more green groups don't promote it. In an interview with the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), McCartney said the global meat industry was a major contributor to global warming. A transcript of the PETA interview was given to Reuters. "The biggest change anyone could make in their own lifestyle would be to become ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Australia: Protesters halt Styx logging
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23572571-3462,00.html
Mercury: FOREST campaigners have halted logging in the Styx Valley this morning after staging a mock visit from Federal politicians in the Weld Valley near Huonville at the weekend. Activists from the Huon Valley Environment Centre paraded 6m-high cut-outs of Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong in the Lower Weld Valley to coincide with Forestry Tasmania burn-offs in the area. Meanwhile, 11 forest activists halted logging in a forestry coupe ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Habitat loss and climate change hit dragonflies
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/21/eadragon121.xml
Telegraph: Britain's dragonflies are on the move from a twin threat posed by habitat loss and climate change. The survival of some species is in doubt mainly because they have been ousted from their traditional haunts by human activity. The British Dragonfly Society (BDS) says 36 per cent of the 39 dragonfly species are in decline. And three species - Dainty damselfly, Norfolk damselfly and Orange spotted emerald - have disappeared altogether in the past 50 years. Increasing ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Protestors stop work at Australian coal site
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200804/s2222521.htm?tab=australia
Radio Australia: In the Australian state of New South Wales about 50 protesters have walked onto the construction site of the state's third coal terminal on Kooragang Island at Newcastle, forcing work to stop. The group is protesting the expansion of the coal industry and its contribution to climate change. Georgina Woods from the climate action group, Rising Tide, says it's demanding the Federal Government stop the expansion of coal exports from Newcastle. She says they are calling on ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Australia: Greens split over 'wicked witch' coal
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23570350-30538,00.html
Australian: FINANCE Minister Lindsay Tanner has been scouring the national accounts for months looking for opportunities to make deep cuts in government spending. He will surely be heartened by the advice from the Greens and Greenpeace that Australia's fossil fuel industries, principally coal, are receiving nearly $10billion a year in wasteful government subsidies. Except for one slight problem: the subsidies don't actually exist. Greens senator Christine Milne and Greenpeace have again ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Australia: More climate change protests promised
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/21/2222320.htm?site=newcastle
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A Newcastle lobby group says it is preparing for more protests against coal exports, despite a large number of arrests during a weekend demonstration on Kooragang Island. Sixteen members of the Rising Tide group were arrested by police on Saturday morning after disrupting construction work on Newcastle's third coal loader. Rising Tide spokeswoman Georgina Woods says the arrests highlight the group's commitment to raise awareness about global warming. "People are ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Smoke Cloud Engulfs Argentine Capital For 5th Day
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48070/story.htm
Reuters: A thick cloud of smoke covered Buenos Aires for a fifth day on Saturday, the fallout of field burning that has forced the closure of highways, flight delays and traffic congestion. The smoke started to appear over the Argentine capital more than a week ago, but visibility deteriorated considerably in the city on Friday and Saturday, with an acrid smell pervading homes and causing watery eyes and sore throats among city residents. Visibility downtown was barely 500 yards (225 ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Biofuels under attack as world food prices soar
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g-Ne1sszDrfWVIbhtdxhkIb_tGdQ
Agence France Presse: Hailed until only months ago as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming, biofuels are now accused of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor. Billions have been poured into developing sugar- and grain-based ethanol and biodiesel to help wean rich economies from their addiction to carbon-belching fossil fuels, the overwhelming source of man-made global warming. Heading the rush are the United States, Brazil and Canada, which are eagerly transforming corn, wheat, ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Coal boom or bust? New power plants face challenges
http://www.dothaneagle.com/gulfcoasteast/dea/local_news.apx.-content-articles-DEA-2008-04-20-0001.html
Media General News Service: Global warming fears have led to the cancellation or indefinite delay of dozens of proposed coal plants in recent months in almost every corner of the country because of the fuels commonly used to run power plants, none releases more carbon than coal. But with a few notable exceptions, the debate over coal's role in global warming has had much less of an impact in the Southeast, which is more dependent on coal than much of the rest of the country and where some state regulators remain ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Australia: Dispute over new coal-fired power stations
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/dispute-over-coal/2008/04/20/1208629717530.html
Sydney Morning Herald: A ban on new coal-fired power plants has been left out of recommendations by the 2020 summit despite widespread support among environment delegates. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong cited a lack of consensus in not including a moratorium on building plants which did not capture and store carbon. Stream participant Tanya Ritchie pushed for its inclusion in the final group session after it was left off the draft document. "I would like to propose ... making ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Bhutan: In the Himalayas, a climate-change calamity builds
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-floods20apr20,1,7051722.story
LA Times: High in the Himalayas, above this peaceful valley where farmers till a patchwork of emerald-green fields, an icy lake fed by melting glaciers waits to become a "tsunami from the sky." The lake is swollen dangerously past normal levels, thanks to the global warming that is causing the glaciers to retreat at record speed. But no one knows when the tipping point will come and the lake can take no more, bursting its banks and sending torrents of water crashing into the valley ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
March the warmest on record over world's land surfaces
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-420marchheat,0,7080646.story
Associated Press: Planet Earth continues to run a fever. Last month was the warmest March on record over land surfaces of the world and the second warmest overall worldwide. For the United States, however, it was just an average March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday. NOAA's National Climatic Data Center said high temperatures over much of Asia pulled the worldwide land temperature up to an average of 40.8 degrees Fahrenheit (4.9 degrees Celsius), 3.2 ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
No improvement in climate fight since 2006 film: Gore
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_-j4yX3xQCgeRBRaPbWBJHe7Gog
Agence France Presse: Nobel Peace Prize-winner Al Gore said in an interview published Monday that there had been no improvement in the fight against climate change since his Oscar-winning film on the issue was released. Speaking to The Sun tabloid, the former US vice-president said that the situation had instead gotten worse since his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" hit cinemas in 2006. "I have to say the situation has not improved since I made the movie in 2006," Gore told ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Survivalists get ready for meltdown
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/20/survival.feat/
CNN: Derek is compiling a survival guide on how to cope after the total collapse of society. It is, as you can imagine, a big job. Already he has 58.8 gigabytes of material stored on his computer, he tells me impressively. Derek (this is not his real name -- he says he doesn't want me to use his real name "for obvious reasons" that he never gets round to explaining) considers himself a survivalist. The survivalist movement grew up in America in the 1960s. Encouraged ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Biofuels won't solve world energy problem-Shell
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7474498
Reuters: Biofuels will not solve the world's energy problem, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell said on Sunday, amid growing criticism of their environmental and social benefits. The remarks follow protests in Brazil and Europe against fuels derived from food crops. Food shortages and rising costs have set off rioting and protests in countries including Haiti, Cameroon, Niger and Indonesia. "The essential point of biofuels is over time they will play a role," Jeroen van ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Cities Promote Green Living for Residents
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4689929&page=1
ABC News: The "go green" mantra is trumpeted throughout the nation's cities and towns as they try to deal with climate change on a local level. Big cities, like New York, and smaller ones, like Greensburg, Kan., have made strides toward making their communities more eco-friendly. Check out how the following cities are helping residents become more green about their thinking. New York City Amid the city's steel and concrete oasis lies a neighborhood at the southernmost tip of ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Canada: Glacier's retreat evident in a lifetime's measure
http://www.boston.com/travel/getaways/canada/articles/2008/04/20/glaciers_retreat_evident_in_a_lifetimes_measure/
Boston Globe: I had always considered global warming an alarming, but strangely abstract concept, until the phenomenon took on a human dimension here in the Canadian High Arctic. Known as one of the great breeding grounds of northern seabirds, much of this eastern island is covered with a tongue of ice that remains from the Wisconsin glaciation, which gave up its grip on most of North America some 15,000 years ago. But here the glacier lives on, indistinguishable from the permanent polar ice. Six ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Philippines: Global warming to cause famine in RP by 2020
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/apr/21/yehey/top_stories/20080421top3.html
Manila Times: Scientists warned the Philippines could experience famine by 2020, as the adverse impact of global warming takes its toll on natural resources. One of those scientists was Lourdes Tibig, climate data chief of the central office of the national weather agency, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pag-asa). She and others attended the roundtable discussion of scientists and community development practitioners on disaster and climate risk ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Governors Unite to Cut Emissions
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42053
Inter Press Service: U.S. state governors say they are fed up with the George W. Bush administration's foot-dragging on climate change and will go ahead -- and around -- the White House to reduce greenhouse gases. On Friday, 18 states signed a declaration committing themselves to "the effort to stop global warming" during a series of discussions and a ceremony at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. "In the absence of federal leadership the states have stepped up," said ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
United States: Interior wants more time on polar bear listing
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24228006/
Associated Press: The Department of the Interior wants 10 more weeks to decide whether polar bears should be listed as threatened or endangered, a delay conservation groups condemned as tied to the transfer of offshore petroleum leases in one of the animals' two U.S. habitats. The Interior Department on Jan. 9 missed a deadline for a final decision, and three conservation groups sued. In the government response Thursday, Assistant Interior Secretary Lyle Laverty said the department needed until June 30 ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Oil running out as prime energy source -world poll
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7474889
Guardian: Most people believe oil is running out and governments need to find another fuel, but Americans are alone in thinking their leaders are out of touch with reality on this issue, an international poll said on Sunday. On average, 70 percent of respondents in 15 countries and the Palestinian territories said they thought oil supplies had peaked. Only 22 percent of the nearly 15,000 respondents in nations ranging from China to Mexico believed enough new oil would be found to keep it a ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Canada: Saving the Earth's forests, 25 million acres at a time
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004356030_footkallick20.html
Seattle Times: MEET Steve Kallick, director of Seattle-based International Boreal Conservation Campaign. Recent coup: Canada agreed to preserve 25 million acres of boreal forest and wetlands. "Audacious" goal: 1.5 billion acres of Canadian boreal kept partly wild, partly sustainably developed, despite pressures from uranium, gold and diamond mining and oil and gas booms. What's boreal? The planet's largest land-based carbon storehouse; Canada's boreal is the world's largest ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Canada: Shell, Exxon Face Higher Costs on Carbon Limits
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGFnQKjmJL0s&refer=home
Bloomberg: Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and the rest of the oil industry may face higher costs to exploit Canada's tar sands, the biggest deposit outside of Saudi Arabia, because of efforts to rein in climate change. A Canadian mandate to bury carbon dioxide emitted during the process of extracting the oil may add between $2 and $13 a barrel to production costs, according to Pembina, an Alberta-based environmental group. Mining crude from the area now costs around $60 a barrel. ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
United States: Will solar panels save you money?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/20/ED8Q107P18.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: California has made a significant commitment to support the development of a vibrant solar industry. In 2006, SB1 established the California Solar Initiative. The initiative's ambitious goal is to place solar electric systems on a million California roofs by 2016, with a total generating capacity of 3,000 megawatts, equivalent to the peak output of three large nuclear reactors. Initiative critics claim that solar electricity is too expensive, and that the money spent on solar ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Australia: 'Clean' coal is a dirty lie, say protesters
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/747/38639
Green Left: A snap protest was held outside the Sydney office of World Wide Fund for Nature on April 16 after WWF announced it was joining forces with the Climate Institute, the Australian Coal Association and the mining and energy division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union to push the federal government to make "clean" coal the centrepiece of its climate change abatement plan. Twenty-five environmentalists joined the protest, chanting "Clean coal is a dirty lie, solar and ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Austria rethinks environmental policy in bid to meet Kyoto target
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5huif4mW9W39NgoEF2oaigYanW_oA
Agence France Presse: Austria has been forced to reconsider its environmental policy after two reports indicated the renewable energy leader will likely fail to meet its Kyoto greenhouse gas emissions targets in 2012. The reports issued last week by the Federal Environmental Protection Bureau and the Austrian Court of Audit said Austria was running considerably above its benchmark 1990 emissions rate instead of having achieved reductions and warned that this could lead to billions of euros worth of ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Canada's polar bears in dire straits: WWF
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-p6y5bD53wSKe8fWsF4ZkDVJYig
Agence France Presse: Some of Canada's polar bear populations risk being wiped out within four decades because of climate change and human activity including hunting, the World Wide Fund For Nature warned Sunday. Canada, whose frozen north is home to two-thirds of all polar bears, is contributing to the creatures' decline by failing to take action to curb its emissions of greenhouse gases, WWF-Canada official Peter Ewins said. "There is rapidly mounting evidence that many polar bear populations ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Not just for peat's sake
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jonny_hughes/2008/04/not_just_for_peats_sake.html
Guardian: The last time I took the ferry from Ullapool to the Isle of Lewis, the weather was glorious. I sat up on deck with my colleagues from the Scottish Wildlife Trust enjoying the sunshine, and the crystal clear views of the astounding landscapes of Scotland's north-west coast. One of the things that struck me about my fellow passengers was the sheer number with binoculars slung around their necks. It reminded me just how popular wildlife watching has become in recent decades and, in turn, how ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
PM needs to act to prevent regional polar bear extinctions: WWF Canada
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnll0Vtdj75ca-A9aFV_cyOlxkbQ
Canadian Press: A conservation group is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to quickly act to prevent regional extinctions of polar bears. The call from WWF Canada comes as the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada plans to deliver its recommendations to the federal government on Friday. Dr. Peter Ewins says there is rapidly mounting evidence that polar bear populations are in crisis as a result of sea-ice habitat loss, over-hunting and industrial development ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Thousands march in Spain over climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4GERdcmqZX2kbFCL2XVMdu5lE6A
Agence France Presse: Thousands marched through Madrid on Sunday to demand that the Spanish government adopt concrete measures to fight climate change, organisers said. "We demand a law against climate change that calls for an increase in the use of renewable energy and that favours saving energy," Raquel Monton, a spokeswoman for the Spanish branch of Greenpeace, told Cadena Ser radio. Greenpeace was one of about 40 green groups that backed the protest in the Spanish capital, two days ...
Mon, 21 Apr 08
Australia: Coming clean on 'nice' coal
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/747/38638
Green Left: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technique to remove carbon dioxide from industrial pollution – and especially from power stations – and compress, transport and store it perpetually in secure underground structures such as expired gas and oil fields and other geological formations. CCS is experimental, unproven technology at the scale required and, if it works, the majority of CCS deployment will not occur until the second half of this century, according to the 2005 ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Gov't to press info drive on population control
http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Headlines&p=49&type=2&sec=24&aid=20080419112
Philippine Star: Amid a growing food problem, Malacañang yesterday admitted that there is a need to raise public awareness of population control. The admission came on the heels of former health secretary Alberto Romualdez's warning that if the rapid population boom is not properly addressed, the country's population will hit the 100-million mark within the next five years. The burgeoning population is seen as a main contributor to the country's food problems and the government is hard pressed ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
The Big Thirst
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97349
New York Times: Oil prices rose above $116 a barrel last week, setting another record for the world's most indispensable energy commodity. What was striking about this latest milestone was what didn't happen: there was no shortage of oil, no sudden embargo, no exporter turning off its spigot. The weak dollar, worries about terrorism and speculation on commodity markets certainly played a role. But, of course, so did demand. Producers are struggling to pump as much as they can to quench the thirst not ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
India: 'Climate change could worsen our existing social problems'
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/--Climate-change-could-worsen--our-existing-social-problems--/299063/
Financial Express: Think Earth Day and issues like pollution, greenhouse gases, water shortage, energy conservation and climate change can't be far. But when you meet the father of the green revolution in India, Professor MS Swaminathan, around this day, it is climate change that dominates the discussion. One of the best brains that Indian soil has ever produced, Swaminathan is the recipient of 56 honorary doctorate degrees from universities across the globe and has been a strong presence in India's Upper ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
18 states commit to take action on climate change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5giGyNMdOuDMPhOKFDjLWJbcKzHLgD904KLAO0
Associated Press: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger predicted Friday that an international deadlock over how to deal with global warming will end once President Bush leaves office, while a leading expert warned of dire consequences if urgent action is not taken. Schwarzenegger spoke at a conference at Yale University in which 18 states pledged to take action on climate change. He noted a dispute over whether the U.S. should commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions before China and India do ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
A Worsening Food Crisis
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/19/AR2008041901601.html
Washington Post: THE WORLD'S most dangerous conflicts stem from religion and ideology -- tragic proof that man does not live by bread alone. But when bread is hard to get, that, too, causes unrest. And lately, it has been very expensive indeed: The World Bank estimates that global food prices have risen 83 percent in the last three years. Hence, food riots in Haiti, Egypt and Ethiopia and the use of troops in Pakistan and Thailand to protect crops and storage centers. Many countries are banning or limiting ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Be prepared: how to deal with the food crisis
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=9eeac375-c5ba-43d2-b365-1d94122135a3
Vancouver Sun: With rioting over food shortages in the developing world and stratospheric prices at the gas pumps, a new book on the world's woes provides insight into what on earth is going on. In Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, Jeffrey Sachs, a UN activist and Columbia University economist gives context to an array of inescapable challenges facing Planet Earth, and proposes courses of action. The book ought to be read by every Canadian politician, whose thinking currently ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Climate activists storm coal terminal
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23564253-29277,00.html
AAP: CLIMATE change activists have stormed the construction site of Newcastle's third coal terminal and forced labourers to stop work. The group of about 50 people entered the premises just after 8am (AEST) to coincide with the start of the 2020 summit in Canberra this morning. At least 12 police officers have ordered the activists - members of the protest group Rising Tide Newcastle - to leave the site. Group spokeswoman Georgina Woods said they stormed past the entry gates ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Coal Usage Increases Faster than Power Output
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120857134922828371.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: The power industry burned more coal in 2007 to make electricity, bad news for those worried about the utility sector's role in climate change. Since 93% of U.S. coal consumption is related to electricity production, coal sales and electricity demand are strongly correlated. The power industry consumed 1.046 billion short tons of coal in 2007, up 1.95% from the 1.026 billion short tons used in 2006, according to new data from U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Department of ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
EU set to scrap biofuels target amid fears of food crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/19/biofuels.food
Guardian: The European commission is backing away from its insistence on imposing a compulsory 10% quota of biofuels in all petrol and diesel by 2020, a central plank of its programme to lead the world in combating climate change. Amid a worsening global food crisis exacerbated, say experts and critics, by the race to divert food or feed crops into biomass for the manufacture of vehicle fuel, and inundated by a flood of expert advice criticising the shift to renewable fuel, the commission ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Jet stream drifts north
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-briefs19apr19,1,3505922.story
LA Times: The jet stream -- America's stormy-weather maker -- is creeping north and weakening, new research shows. That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North. And it could also translate into more and stronger hurricanes. From 1979 to 2001, the Northern Hemisphere's jet stream moved north on average at a rate of about 1.25 miles a year, according to the paper published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Obama, Clinton woo coal vote in upcoming primaries
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmy4FW3S5j6UxVQ92yoWwjwmUEuwD904QGO00
Associated Press: Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are walking a delicate line as they promise to aggressively tackle global warming while trying to assure voters that they continue to believe in the future of coal. In states like Pennsylvania, where voters will cast ballots this Tuesday, and in West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Montana – upcoming primary states – coal sways voters. While increased mechanization has produced a dramatic decline in coal industry employment, the ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
US carbon emissions to rise 23 percent over UN benchmark: IEA
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iOzaL8WksgX79E66orME73gltflw
Agence France Presse: US emissions of greenhouse gases are poised to rise by nearly a quarter over a key UN benchmark by 2025, the date set by President George W. Bush for stabilising this pollution, an International Energy Agency (IEA) expert said on Friday. The benchmark of 1990 is a closely watched -- and politically sensitive -- measure of commitment for tackling global warming. "With current policies, the greenhouse-gas emissions of the US will increase by 18 percent between 2005 and ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Brazil: With Guns and Fines, Brazil Takes On Loggers
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97326
New York Times: A convoy of six black sport utility vehicles pulled into a lumberyard unannounced here one recent morning. Out popped about two dozen members of Brazil's security and police forces, packing sidearms and rifles. But the weapon the foreman feared most was carried by a separate group of agents of Brazil's national environmental agency: bright yellow tape measures. "Thirty-eight! Seventy!" the agents shouted from the logs clustered in the thick mud as they quickly went to work. One ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
World's biggest polluters stumble over specific emissions cuts
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/19/europe/EU-GEN-France-Climate-Talks.php
Associated Press: Climate negotiators from the world's biggest polluters clashed over how deeply to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases, but decided to hold new talks aimed at reaching an accord. They also agreed on the enormity of their task. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, addressing the negotiators on Friday, warned that global warming is threatening food supplies and risks sparking a dozen Darfur-like conflicts – involving displaced, starving populations – around the world. A South ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Drought produced by climate change drying up Australia
http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080419/OPINION/804190301/1028/OPINION02
Concord Monitor: G'day from Down Under. I am in Australia visiting my sister, a hobby farmer north of Melbourne. Far from my green hills in Bow, New Hampshire, this is quite a different scene - and it isn't pretty. Climate change is plain to see in southern Australia. After 10 years of seriously below average rainfalls, folks have had to adapt: There is a weekly two-hour outdoor water restriction. Residents collect every bit of what little rain they get. They have re-landscaped their yards with ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Fuelling the debate on climate change
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2274734,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming by Nigel Lawson 149pp, Duckworth Overlook, £9.99 Climate change is a highly complex global problem, and one plagued by major uncertainties. Despite much progress in recent years, our knowledge about the physical processes underlying global warming is still far from complete. And its possible economic impact depends on a huge number of unpredictable variables, such as how well society might adapt to change, and at what ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
German Minister Calls for Reversal of EU Agricultural Policy
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3278190,00.html
Deutsche Welle: German Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer has called for a drastic rise in European agricultural production, in a reverse of the bloc's previous agricultural policy, to counter rising world food prices and shortages. "We need a farming renaissance, and an increase in agricultural production in Germany, in the whole of the European Union and, more especially, in the developing countries," Seehofer said in an interview to be published on Sunday, April 20. Speaking to ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
United States: Governor wins states' pledge on emissions
http://origin.mercurynews.com/bizreports/ci_8982546
San Jose Mercury News: Frustrated by the paralysis in Washington over combating climate change, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and officials from 17 other states signed a pledge Friday to pressure Congress and the next president to quickly adopt aggressive limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. "Washington is asleep at the wheel, and we can't wait for them," Schwarzenegger told a large crowd at a Yale University climate conference that included three other governors, the premiers of two Canadian ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Greenpeace Dumps Coal at Philippines Environment Ministry, Wins Review
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-19-01.asp
Environment News Service: Philippines Environment Secretary Lito Atienza has agreed to review the environmental compliance certificate for a proposed coal plant in Iloilo City following a dialogue with Greenpeace representatives. Greenpeace activists dumped half a ton of coal at the entrance of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, DENR, on Thursday and unfurled a banner with the message "Atienza, don't be a climate criminal." The activists are demanding that the environment secretary ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Indigenous people excluded in climate policies: report
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/indigenous-people-excluded-in-climate-policies-report_10039616.html
Indo-Asian News Service: The ingenuity of indigenous people is too often overlooked by policymakers deciding on climate change even though they are among the most vulnerable, according to a report. The report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), points out that indigenous people usually occupy marginal and remote areas, small islands, coastal plains, mountain areas and dry lands, where they are exposed to adverse environmental effects, Scidev.Net reported. The areas liable to the ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Oil too dear, producers must maintain output: IEA
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_3_MOLT/idUSFCA00005220080419
Reuters: Oil at around $117 a barrel is too expensive, especially for developing nations, the International Energy Agency's Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said on Saturday. "The current oil price is too high, especially for the developing countries," he told reporters on his arrival for the International Energy Forum conference from April 20-22 which brings together major energy producers and consuming nations. "We will have common issues and common interests," said ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
The Hidden Battle to Control the World's Food Supply
http://www.alternet.org/story/82632/
AlterNet: The rise in global food prices has sparked a number of protests in recent weeks, highlighting the worsening epidemic of global hunger. The World Bank estimates world food prices have risen 80 percent over the last three years and that at least thirty-three countries face social unrest as a result. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned the growing global food crisis has reached emergency proportions. In recent weeks, food riots have also erupted in Haiti, Niger, Senegal, ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
UN chief calls for int'l action on rising food prices
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ji0pCMJ_-pOustB38PmujtHGlCIQ
Agence France Presse: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for concerted international action on rising food prices ahead of the opening Sunday of five days of talks on globalistion. More than 3,000 delegates from 193 nations are expected to attend the 12th session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which is being held against a backdrop of rising food prices and an economic slowdown. "The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development could not have come at a ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
US climate talks advance, but split on 2050 goals
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33119920080418
Reuters: Major economies made progress in defining the building blocks of a new U.N. deal to fight climate change on Friday but ended split over whether to set a goal of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The U.S.-led meeting of 17 nations accounting for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, ended with common ground on sharing clean technologies, financing and possible sectoral emissions goals for industries such as steel or cement. "In my view we have made ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Warmed Over: President Bush delivers talk, little action on climate
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/national/story/273322.html
Washington Post: President Bush strode to the lectern in the Rose Garden this week and once again passed up an opportunity – perhaps his last – to do something meaningful on climate change. "Today, I am announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025," he said. That pronouncement was a weak and inadequate response to the imperative that the United States provide leadership in combating global warming, a responsibility Mr. Bush has shamefully ducked ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Watching wolves, moose _ and heat _ on Michigan island
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwB_TN-hFoe_OeobwrbczAFTZvMAD9052QOO0
Associated Press: Ignoring our observation plane circling above the frozen Lake Superior wilderness, the eight gray wolves seemed as harmless as your beloved pooch cavorting with its pals in the yard. Trotting along Siskiwit Bay, they playfully nipped and pawed each other, pausing occasionally to roll in the snow. But then the alpha male and female moved purposefully away from the shore. They passed through a clearing and plunged into thick woods, the others strung out behind. They had eaten ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Australia: 16 charged over coal protest
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/19/2221707.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: New South Wales police have charged 16 people with tresspassing after a protest at the construction site of the state's third coal terminal. About 50 people walked onto the terminal at Kooragang Island, north of Newcastle, this morning in favour of a move to renewable energy. Construction was stopped for about 90 minutes before the group was broken up by police. Seven women and nine men have been charged and released on bail. They will face Newcastle local court ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Biofuels threaten agriculture, critics warn feds
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/416259
Canadian Press: Biofuels derived from crops such as corn and canola might have the support of Canadian governments but activists say a growing reliance on the technology represents a real threat to the environment and the global agriculture sector – a warning they plan to take across the county. While the cross-Canada information tour is aimed at the ``dangers" of biofuels, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) fears its message comes too late to influence proposed federal legislation ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
China is taking concrete measures to curb energy pollution
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/19/content_8008899.htm
Xinhua: China has been taking concrete measures to control pollution caused by energy consumption in recent years, and is seeing improvements, NDRC deputy chief Xie Zhenhua said on the sidelines of a conference on energy safety and climate change here. During an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Xie, deputy chief ofthe National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said that China has always been greatly concerned by climate change. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Clearing smog can reveal true extent of global warming
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/clearing-smog-can-reveal-true-extent-of-global-warming_10039662.html
Asia News International: A new study has determined that the true extent of global warming can only be made when the smog of pollution has cleared from the skies. According to a report in New Scientist, the cleaner, clearer skies mean measurements of warming temperatures are not confused by smog. This is the reason why the current measurements of a 0.04 degC warming per year can be taken as the true signal of man-made global warming. As part of the study, a team led by Martin Wild, of the ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Greenhouse gushing
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/19/m10a_bushwarm_edit_0419.html
Palm Beach Post: President Bush capped eight years of inaction on global warming with a meaningless announcement. On Wednesday, Mr. Bush called for ending the growth of greenhouse gases in the United States by 2025. That's five presidential elections from now. He offered no plan to achieve even that halfhearted goal. He merely touted the magic of the free market. Without the actions of some companies and states, the United States would have made no progress on global warming during the Bush ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
Kansas coal dispute seen as important
http://www.dodgeglobe.com/stories/041908/loc_20080419001.shtml
Associated Press: Whatever course the U.S. takes on global warming in the next few years, national groups expect a dispute in Kansas over two proposed coal-fired power plants to play a crucial role. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' administration has blocked the plants' construction since October over their potential carbon dioxide emissions. The Republican-controlled Legislature is trying to clear the way for them and strip her top environmental regulator of some of his power. Nationally, the ...
Sun, 20 Apr 08
United States: Pondering fuels' true carbon costs
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fuels19apr19,1,5312955.story
LA Times: While much of the world argues over whether biofuels made from corn are worsening world hunger, the debate in California is shifting to new state rules that could revolutionize the way fuels are judged. A gathering this week in Sacramento offered a glimpse of a complex "poly-fuel" future that promised substantial environmental benefits as well as wrenching change for California's transportation systems. The two-day conference was the first devoted to California's ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
The Fat Bush Theory
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97320
New York Times: George W. Bush says we're on track to meet the nation's goals for curbing global warming. I see some hands waving out there. Didn't know we had any goals for curbing global warming? Where were you in 2002 when the president put us on the road toward reducing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 18 percent by 2012? So there. Bush held a press conference in the Rose Garden this week to give us a warming progress report or, in his words, "share some views on this ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
All Atmospherics, No Climate
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97321
New York Times: The questioning at Wednesday's Democratic presidential debate has been roundly panned, and rightfully so. The moderators spent about 40 minutes on a trite list of recriminations apparently intended to bait the candidates into a "Jerry Springer"-like brawl. Barack Obama was again asked to address the kerfuffle he caused by labeling rural voters "bitter" and to explain his relationship with the frightening Reverend Wright, and Hillary Clinton was again pushed back on her heels for ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Lighten the load on the planet
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23561874-11949,00.html
Australian: Together, they represent the most challenging streams of discussion at this weekend's 2020 Summit. They also have generated the greatest public response. Of the nearly 10,000 submissions received by the 2020 steering committee, more than 1300 touch on the topics covered by the sustainability stream. Some have been drawn up around the kitchen table. Others are for the technocrats. Some are parish pump. Others have national implications. Together, though, they reiterate the intricacies ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Bush Has 'Understood Nothing, Learned Nothing'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,548288,00.html
Spiegel: When it comes to global warming, much of the world has been resigned for years to waiting out the end of the George W. Bush presidency. Under Bush, the White House has altered climate change reports, spiked global calls for action and maintained that it would simply be too harmful to the US economy to address the growing dangers of a warming climate. With just months to go before Bush makes way for his successor, the US president on Wednesday (more...) once again confirmed that ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Clearing smog reveals true extent of global warming
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn13740-clearing-smog-reveals-true-extent-of-global-warming.html
New Scientist: As the smog of pollution has cleared from the skies, a true measurement of global warming can finally be made. No, it's not good news. The cleaner, clearer skies mean measurements of warming temperatures are not confused by smog. So the current measurements of a 0.04 °C warming per year can be taken as the true signal of man-made global warming. A team led by Martin Wild, of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland, has been monitoring changes in ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Climate change driving Darfur crisis: Sarkozy
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h7l_NjlMjZF-QWDOwxIbibX5AEuA
Agence France Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday said the war in Darfur had been sparked in part by climate change, and warned global warming could lead to "dozens" more conflicts. In a speech at a major conference in Paris, Sarkozy said the conflict in Darfur resulted from "an explosive mixture" in which climate change had affected agriculture, forcing a migratory wave that had then helped to unleash war. "Climate change is already having a considerable ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
France warns climate change driving war, hunger
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jbisWIJJP7g0ldhtFE1NE5AymCpg
Agence France Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday told the world's biggest carbon polluters that global warming was becoming a driver of hunger, unrest and conflict, with the war in Darfur a concrete example. "Climate change is already having a considerable impact on security," Sarkozy said in a speech to ministers from 16 economies that together account for 80 percent of the planet's greenhouse-gas emissions. Water scarcity and rivalry for farmland and fishing resources ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Gaia straits: Planetary doctor says condition terminal
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/04/17/lovelock.spirit/
CNN: James Lovelock refers to himself as a "planetary doctor." "Humans always think of these things in grand terms." Lovelock is philosophical about the climate crisis. As someone who has studied his patient for over 40 years, the 88-year-old scientist and originator of Gaia theory, has reached a bleak prognosis: the world as we know it is ceasing to exist. The impact of humanity has set in train processes that, according to Lovelock, are ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Merrill Lynch's carbon bet
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/17/technology/carbon_farming.fortune/?postversion=2008041808
CNN: The business of "carbon farming" is growing fast -- and Merrill Lynch is the latest big company to bet that it will become profitable. What's carbon farming, you ask? It's a business designed to recognize the value created when trees store carbon dioxide and prevent global warming. So people who plant new trees or prevent existing trees from destruction can get paid for doing so. That doesn't mean that the tree in your backyard or mine will help pay college tuition ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
William Rees-Mogg
http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/thomas-malthus/2008/04/18/
Daily Reckoning: I am almost afraid to say so, but Thomas Robert Malthus, the English economist, is coming back into fashion. As I am the nearest thing there is to being Malthus's publisher, and have a great admiration for his work, I ought to be pleased. However, neo-Malthusianism has a tragic message for the modern world. Thomas Malthus was born in 1766. In 1798, he published "An Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the Future Improvement of Society". Subsequent revised ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
18 states commit to take action on climate change
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--governors-globalw0418apr18,0,809555.story
Associated Press: Eighteen states are making a commitment to take action on climate change during a conference at Yale University celebrating the centennial of a similar event that launched the conservation movement. The governors of Connecticut, California, Kansas, Illinois and New Jersey were at Yale on Friday along with two Canadian premiers. They were there to meet with global warming experts, review state programs and develop a strategy to combat global climate change. "If we ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Abundant clean energy in your backyard
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/17/news/economy/natural_gas/?postversion=2008041810
CNN: Americans are used to hearing that their energy supplies are dwindling. But new discoveries of huge new natural gas fields in the United States and Canada could change that, cutting foreign imports and boosting production of a relatively clean energy source as global warming concerns take center stage. Natural gas is used to generate about 20% of the nation's electricity and heat half its homes. Many people also use it for cooking, and it's seeing a small but growing use in ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Canada: Alberta plans to satisfy world's oilsands concerns
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=6bddc5ac-5674-4fcb-8f68-82c7a7336d5a
Calgary Herald: Alberta must develop its energy resources in a responsible and sustainable way because the eyes of the world are closely watching, Premier Ed Stelmach said Thursday. In particular, they're eyeing the oilsands and how the second-largest reserve in the world is developed. Stelmach noted $20 billion of new investment is projected for the oilsands this year, according to Statistics Canada. "Worldwide energy demand is expected to grow by 50 per cent over the next 30 years, and ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Attenborough ends nature TV cycle, fears for future
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1815767820080418
Reuters: David Attenborough has done more than just about anyone to teach us about our planet. As he marks the end of his sweeping natural history television series, seen by hundreds of millions of people over 30 years, the British broadcaster is fearful of what the future holds for the Earth and its inhabitants. "We've come to an end of a particular genre, a particular type of making programs," Attenborough told Reuters, referring to the series that began with "Life on ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Bush gets mixed reviews at climate change summit
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/17/climate.conference.ap/
CNN: A new U.S. call for curbing greenhouse gas emissions shook up climate talks Thursday in Paris among the world's biggest polluters. U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said Bush's speech became a central topic Thursday in climate talks. While some welcomed President Bush's gesture, others called it too little, too late. Bush said Wednesday that the United States must stop the growth in its emissions of greenhouse gases by 2025, acknowledging the need to head off serious ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Carbon emissions disclosure good for business
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/18/eadisclose118.xml
Telegraph: The only way to tackle climate change is with the might of the financial markets behind you. The House of Lords recognised as much this month with one very clever amendment to the Climate Change Bill. They tweaked the legislation to instruct all UK listed companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions in their annual reports. This is a terrific step forward for the UK in terms of tackling its emissions, and not nearly as onerous as some companies may ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
United States: Creeping sprawl overtakes refugees from cities
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/18/BA0GVRQLO.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Fed up with the encroaching sprawl, Linda Jimenez fled Silicon Valley for Tracy in 1990 in search of more affordable housing and the small-town way of life of her Santa Clara County youth. Eventually, the sprawl caught up. In 1990, Tracy, a friendly agricultural community separated from the Bay Area by the Altamont Pass, had fewer than 34,000 residents. Today, the mushrooming town, located at the western gateway to the Central Valley, has a population nearing 81,000. The town ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
France says climate outlook gloomy, urges action
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7471118
Reuters: French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on all major economies on Friday to act faster to fight global warming, saying new scientific evidence was confirming the "most gloomy scenarios". Sarkozy, speaking at U.S.-led climate talks of 17 nations responsible for 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, said rich nations should lead by axing greenhouse gas emissions to help slow impacts such as droughts, floods or rising seas. He did not refer directly to a plan by ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
French President Sarkozy wants bigger 'green' economy
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDQzyHvXPYzhJsBSImRWB7L1JhpAD9049DM80
Associated Press: French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday the fight against climate change needs massive new amounts of private investment and globally regulated "green" markets to succeed. About 90 percent of the money for fighting global warming will come from the private sector over the long term, Sarkozy said at climate talks in Paris with the world's biggest polluters. Mobilizing a few hundred million euros, or dollars, is not enough, he said, adding that the international ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Freshening of deep Antarctic waters worries experts
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP170649
Reuters: Scientists studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world's climate and ocean currents. The scientists returned to the southern Australian city of Hobart on Thursday after a one-month voyage studying the Southern Ocean to see how it is changing and what those changes might mean for global climate patterns. Voyage leader Steve Rintoul said his team found that salty, dense water that sinks near ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
High food prices spark a political crisis in Haiti
http://www.caller.com/news/2008/apr/18/high-food-prices-spark-a-political-crisis-in-is/
Caller: Over the weekend, the prime minister of Haiti was ousted from office after days of food riots. Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis was fired by lawmakers for his failure to raise food production after seven people died in violence in several cities including the capital of Port-au-Prince. The upheaval in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere ought to be a signal to world leaders that what has become a growing crisis over world food prices must be addressed in a concerted ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
India growing with least energy consumption: Report
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/India-growing-with-least-energy-consumption--Report/298608/
Financial Express: Defying the logic that a growing economy consumes more energy, India has emerged as the most energy efficient country among leading emerging nations including China, Brazil and South Africa. Latest findings from the Emerging Economy Report by research and consulting firm, Center for Knowledge Societies, show emerging economies could play pivotal roles in reducing the growing environmental anxieties worldwide. The findings are based on the fact that these economies have ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Interior Dept. Requests to Delay Decision on Polar Bears in Alaska
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97303
Associated Press: The Department of the Interior says it needs at least 10 more weeks to decide whether polar bears should be listed as threatened or endangered. Assistant Secretary Lyle Laverty replied to a lawsuit filed by three conservation groups. Mr. Laverty said the proposed listing raised "significant and complex factual and legal issues." A decision had been due Jan. 9. Conservation groups petitioned to list polar bears as threatened more than three years ago because many scientists say their habitat, ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Vietnam: Mangroves to defend farms
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02ECO180408
VietNam News: A programme to recover mangrove forests throughout Viet Nam as part of a larger plan to cope with the increasing impacts of climate change on the farming sector will cost the country as much as VND1.9 trillion (US$120 million) by 2015. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc said the programme would be carried out soon, under an Action Plan that hoped to forecast and diminish the effects of climate change on the farming industry. Initial project ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Canada: Ontario set to veto ban on clotheslines
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/415836
Toronto Star: Ontarians will soon be able to air their linen in public. Premier Dalton McGuinty is to announce today that clotheslines can no longer be banned in subdivisions or almost anywhere else in the province. In a bid to curb the use of energy-sucking dryers, the new regulation will overrule neighbourhood covenants – part of the mortgage agreement between many developers and homebuyers – that outlaw clotheslines because they're considered unsightly. The regulation, to take ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Poll: Atlantic Canadians most worried about global warming
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1050385.html
Chronicle Herald: Atlantic Canadians are more scared of global warming than people anywhere else in the country, a new poll says. That 72 per cent of people in this region believe global warming is the single biggest threat to humankind is the most startling revelation contained in a poll of 1,015 Canadians released Thursday. "Let's face it, you guys would probably be the first to be underwater," said Terance Brouse, a spokesman for the Marketing and Research Intelligence Association, ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Artificial Snow Harming Alpine Environment, Researchers Warn
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,548104,00.html
Spiegel: For amateur skier Ulrich Strasser, artificial snow is a good thing. "It's thicker and firmer, and therefore better for carving," he says. But in his role as a scientist, he takes a very different view of the artificial white stuff. Covering entire slopes with manmade powder consumes an enormous amount of energy and water. And for Strasser, a geographer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, that's a mountainous problem in a time of climate change (more...). ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Australian Emissions Trading to Cost Gas Companies, Group Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=apYUluoMDR8k&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia's proposed emissions trading system will cost natural gas pipeline companies ``millions of dollars'' unless they can pass costs through to customers, an industry lobby group said. An emissions trading system, which will place a cost on carbon, won't have been factored into some long-term gas transmission contracts, leaving the pipeline owners facing ``substantial costs,'' the Australian Pipeline Industry Association said today in an e-mailed statement on its submission on ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Bush's lack of leadership on global warming leaves the hard part to next president
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed183x08apr18,0,5765971.story
Orlando Sentinel: It's going to take John McCain, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton for the U.S. to make serious headway in the fight against global warming. All support capping carbon emissions, an approach needed for the U.S. to considerably lessen its release of greenhouse gases causing climate change, but which President Bush in his speech on Wednesday again pilloried. All believe dramatically cutting those emissions will actually help boost the nation's economy. Going green creates new ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
United States: Climate change may alter bay growth patterns
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/18/MNM9107BIC.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: The worldwide issue of climate change has a local twist: It's altering the Bay Area's long-running debate over how and where to grow. Some officials are suggesting that some bayside areas may need to be abandoned in light of studies that indicate San Francisco Bay could rise several feet by 2100 because of sea level changes. Conversely, other areas along the bay could be developed so that new projects shield low-lying existing communities. At the same time, the call to reduce ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Australia: Drought support under review
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/18/2221170.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A national review of drought and exceptional circumstances (EC) policy is to be completed by the end of the year. The Primary Industries Ministerial Council meeting in Melbourne this week discussed the details of the review, flagged last month by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. South Australia's Agriculture Minister Rory McEwen says it will look at the effectiveness of government support for farmers and rural businesses. He says exceptional circumstances declarations have ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Facing up to climate-changed Britain
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_doughty/2008/04/facing_up_to_climate-changed_britain.html
Guardian: Society needs to face up to the stark realities of climate change. We are locked into unavoidable changes for at least the next 50 years; we all know that, not least because all of us have had it drummed into us over the past few years. It's when the examples start to filter through into people's lives that reality hits. Natural England is leading on groundbreaking research to assess the potential impact that climate change may have on England's natural environment. Our research in ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
France to double aid for food crisis
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iepC_BDp9kPFugHDMi_-yvRdtCNQ
Agence France Presse: France will double its emergency food aid this year, spending 60 million euros (100 million dollars), President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, as he warned the world's food crisis was breeding unrest. "We must act urgently to strengthen food security at a time when 37 countries are going through a very serious food crisis," Sarkozy told a major meeting on climate change in Paris. "We cannot remain indifferent to the unrest among those people who, in the developing ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
France: Sarkozy proposes global food scheme
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hsU5KNWkeWR1LoQTVIeCu9k84D1A
Press Association: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested a global partnership to tackle the reasons for rising food prices. He says that greater co-ordination is needed among international financial institutions, governments and the private sector about world farming. He says France is doubling its food aid budget this year to 100 million euro (£79 million) because 37 countries are experiencing "serious food crises." He also says global warming is worsening the food ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
Sarkozy urges West to stop being defensive in climate matters
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/199810,sarkozy-urges-west-to-stop-being-defensive-in-climate-matters.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday urged the large industrial nations to abandon their defensive strategies in the face of climate change, in order to avoid "a catastrophe.""We muct act," Sarkozy told delegates to the Major Economies Process on Energy and Climate Change (MEM) in Paris. Sarkozy also called on emerging nations, such as China and India, to act in the face of global warming. "You cannot want to have the rights of great economic ...
Sat, 19 Apr 08
A Storehouse of Greenhouse Gases Is Opening in Sibera
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,547976,00.html
Speigel: Researchers have found alarming evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas. The results could be a catastrophic warming of the earth, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But can the methane also be used as fuel? It's always been a disturbing what-if scenario for climate researchers: Gas hydrates stored in the Arctic ocean floor -- hard clumps of ice and methane, conserved by freezing temperatures and ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Billionaire Texas Oilman Makes Big Bets On Wind
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48058/story.htm
Reuters: Legendary Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has gone green with a plan to spend $10 billion to build the world's biggest wind farm. But he's not doing it out of generosity - he expects to turn a buck. The Southern octogenarian's plans are as big as the Texas prairie, where he lives on a ranch with his horses, and entail fundamentally reworking how Americans use energy. Next month, Pickens' company, Mesa Power, will begin buying land and ordering 2,700 wind turbines that will ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
EU Urges Bush To Be More Ambitious On CO2 Curbs
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48052/story.htm
Reuters: The European Commission urged US President George W Bush on Thursday to be more ambitious in tackling climate change while welcoming his acceptance that the United States would need to curb greenhouse gas emissions. A spokesman for the European Union executive said Bush's plan to halt the growth of US greenhouse emissions by 2025, announced on Wednesday, fell far short of the action needed by developed countries to save the planet from potentially catastrophic global warming. ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Wild Fires Likely To Spread Due To Global Warming
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48049/story.htm
Reuters: Wild fires are likely to be bigger, more frequent and burn for longer as the world gets hotter, in turn speeding up global warming to create a dangerous vicious circle, scientists say. The process is being studied as part of work to develop a detailed map of global fire patterns which will be used with climate models to predict future fire trends. The scientists told a geoscience conference in Vienna they already predict fires will increase and could spread to previously ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Forest values rise with warming
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD18Dj03.html
Asia Times: The end of An Inconvenient Truth finds former US vice president Al Gore stumping for the Lorax (a Dr Seuss creation a "mossy, bossy" man-like creature, who speaks for the trees): "Plant trees, lots of trees," reads the screen as the credits roll. Gore is fascinated with the Earth's annual carbon dioxide cycle, which he depicts as the planet breathing. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has been trending steadily upward for the past two centuries, but each year there is also an annual rise and fall ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Olympics - Beijing Economy To Shrug Off Clean Air Push
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48057/story.htm
Reuters: Beijing's economic growth this year will not be significantly affected by plans to shut factories and limit car use to improve air quality during the Olympics, a statistics official said on Thursday. Yu Xiuqin, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, said the impact would not be great because many large factories had already been moved out of the city and those forced to shut would be able to adjust. "In planning their growth, these companies can ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Pluggedin: US Consumers Still Slow To Recycle Gadgets
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48056/story.htm
Reuters: Green may be the new black, but many US consumers are not recycling old electronic gadgets despite promises by multiple organizations for hassle-free ways to get rid of electronic waste. Putting computers, televisions or cell phones in the trash is increasingly frowned on, and states like Massachusetts ban discarding many electronics in garbage cans. As a result, some local authorities arrange free recycling events and companies and charities around the country offer to recycle old ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
US Carbon Market Inevitable - EU's Dimas
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48053/story.htm
Reuters: A US market in greenhouse gases is inevitable and President George W Bush should embrace trading now, so as to sharpen US efforts to slow global warming, European Commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Thursday. Dimas also told Reuters on the sidelines of a 17-nation climate conference in Paris that a plan by Bush unveiled on Wednesday to cap rising US emissions in 2025 recognised a need for ceilings but was not ambitious enough. "I ask myself why the president does not ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
UAE To Give Clean Power Price Boost
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48064/story.htm
Reuters: The United Arab Emirates will guarantee high prices for low-carbon electricity to make sure investments succeed in hydrogen and solar power under the $15 billion Masdar Initiative, said Masdar's Chief Executive. The UAE recently guaranteed higher prices for a huge proposed solar power plant which will generate electricity from the heat of the sun. It would "absolutely" do the same for a hydrogen plant once Masdar had presented a business case, Sultan al-Jaber told Reuters in ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Canada: A Line in the Yard: The Battle Over the Right to Dry Outside
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=97202
New York Times: Rob and Laurie Cook are not prone to breaking the law, but these days they have been given to a regular act of civil disobedience: hanging their laundry to dry out in the backyard. The deed to their home – like most in this upscale suburb – prohibits outdoor clotheslines as eyesores. "I thought people passing by couldn't see it, and the developers wouldn't see it, so it didn't bother my conscience too much," said Mr. Cook, a retired businessman and former officer in the Canadian Air ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush climate plan criticized for lacking urgency
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1743760420080417
Reuters: The world needs tougher action to combat global warming than a plan by President George W. Bush to halt a rise in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions only by 2025, delegates at a climate conference in Paris said on Thursday. South Africa, one of 17 nations at the two-day global warming talks that started on Thursday, called Bush's proposals "disappointing" and unambitious when many other industrialized economies are already cutting emissions. "There is no way ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush rejects emission exemptions for India, China
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Bush_rejects_emission_exemptions_for_India_China/articleshow/2958524.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: President George W Bush has again rejected any international regime that exempts fast-growing India and China from binding emission targets, saying he would not take unilateral action that imperils US industry and jobs. The US supports a post-Kyoto regime that encompasses every major economy "and gives none a free ride," he said in an address on Wednesday on the eve of a meeting of the world's major emitters in France on Thursday and Friday. Ministers from 16 ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush sets climate change goal; scientists cry foul
http://origin1.contracostatimes.com/nationandworld/ci_8952572
Contra Costa Times: President Bush set a new target date Wednesday for stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025, presenting a strategy that the scientific community says is too little, too late to prevent dangerous global warming. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Bush acknowledged that climate change is a problem but called for a slow approach to dealing with it that wouldn't raise taxes, burden American businesses or be run by judges working off the Clean Air Act, which he ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush's call for curbing emissions called too little, too late at Paris climate talks
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/17/europe/EU-GEN-France-Climate-Talks.php
Associated Press: A new U.S. call for curbing greenhouse gas emissions shook up climate talks Thursday in Paris among the world's biggest polluters, with some envoys welcoming the gesture and others calling it too little, too late. U.S. President George W. Bush said the United States must stop the growth in its emissions of greenhouse gases by 2025, acknowledging the need to head off serious climate change. His White House address Wednesday marked the first time he had set a specific target date ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
China out-polluted US in 2006, new study says
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6ca50983-9a8b-4747-a887-3f0f50698541
Ottawa Citizen: China's greenhouse gas emissions have been grossly underestimated, according to a new study released on the eve of a U.S.-led conference in France this week involving major emitters seeking ways to deal with climate change. The University of California study, citing previously unavailable evidence, said China probably passed the U.S. to become the world's top emitter in 2006. The report, to be published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, estimates China's ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Colorado River to Drop to 500-Year Low as World Warms
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ah6hWsIOiDYI&refer=us
Bloomberg: The Colorado River may shrink to its lowest level in at least 500 years because of global warming, threatening water supplies to California and six other states, researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey said. A ``modest'' 0.86 degree Celsius (1.5 degree Fahrenheit) increase in this century could trim the average flow of the river -- the primary water supply for residents in much of the U.S. Southwest -- to the low end of a range marked between 1490 and 1998, USGS scientist Gregory ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
EU moves to fast-track "clean coal" proposals
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1746940520080417
Reuters: The European Union may boost efforts to capture climate-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) and store it underground by pushing forward proposals for a dozen demonstration projects, EU officials said on Thursday. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), designed to trap CO2 emissions from power plants and heavy industry, is seen as a possible silver bullet in the fight against climate change, but it has not yet been proven on an industrial scale. The technology has the capacity to curb ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Germany slams Bush's 'Neanderthal' climate speech
http://www.thelocal.de/11363/20080417/
Agence France Presse: Germany Thursday slammed US President George Bush's blueprint on climate change as "Neanderthal" and accused him of backtracking on earlier pledges to fight global warming. "The president gave a disappointing speech that fails to take account of the global challenges," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a written statement titled "Bush's Neanderthal speech." "His words mark a retreat from Bali, they are even behind what was ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
How to Win the War on Global Warming
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1730759_1731383_1731363,00.html
Time Magazine: Americans don't like to lose wars–which makes sense, since we have so little practice with it. Of course, a lot depends on how you define just what a war is. There are shooting wars–the kind that test our mettle and our patriotism and our resourcefulness and our courage–and those are the kind at which we excel. But other struggles test those qualities too. What else was the Great Depression or the space race or the construction of the railroads or the eradication of polio but a massive, ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
India proposes new steps to combat climate change
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=879ee093-a0c0-45b4-a2ad-1782e2aea2c4&ParentID=219dc81a-7405-4797-9f5d-72e9d3f8e29e&&Headline='We+need+to+combat+climate+change'
Press Trust of India: India has proposed a set of steps, including 'climate proofing' of public infrastructure investments, food security and water resources that the developing countries can adopt to combat climate change. "Governments can start working on key vulnerabilities like 'climate proofing' of public infrastructure investments, food security, water resources and pursue policies to incentivise private actions toward energy efficiencies," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at a breakfast ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Stern admits report "badly underestimated" climate change risks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2214558/stern-admits-report-badly
Business Green: Nicholas Stern has implied that UK and European efforts to cut carbon emissions could prove well short of what is required after admitting yesterday that he "badly underestimated the degree of damages and risks of climate change " in his ground-breaking 2006 report. The Stern Review has been widely employed as the basis of much of the UK government's climate change policy, with ministers repeatedly citing its conclusion that it would be more cost effective to cut emissions ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Stern warns that climate change is far worse than 2006 estimate
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/stern-warns-that-climate-change-is-far-worse-than-2006-estimate-810488.html
Independent: Lord Stern, the economist whose report on climate change helped galvanise world leaders behind the green energy movement when it was published 18 months ago, has admitted that the situation is far worse than the assumptions that formed the basis of his ground-breaking report. "We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change," said Lord Stern in a speech in London yesterday. "All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
The FSC is the 'Enron of forestry' says rainforest activist
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0417-hance_interview_counsell.html
Mongabay: On April 7th, Mongabay printed an interview with FSC International Communications Manager, Nina Haase, in which she defended the FSC against criticism leveled at it by various environmental organizations, such as The World Rainforest Movement and Ecological Internet. The interview drew strong reactions on both sides, and Simon Counsell, director of the Rainforest Foundation UK, requested a chance to respond to the FSC's interview in-depth. In his response, he states that the FSC has created ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
United States: Where are the salmon?
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oew-sydeman17apr17,0,7810667.story
LA Times: Though there has been much reporting on the salmon crisis, like The Times' recent "U.S. halts commercial salmon season" and the New York Times' "The trouble with salmon," no one has yet pointed out that the high numbers in 2002 were actually anomalous or that the increasing variability in salmon, bird and plankton populations all point to climate change as the main driving factor. The crash of salmon populations in California, Oregon and British Columbia this past fall has a ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Asian Development Bank to mobilize funds for clean energy
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/04/17/ap4901331.html
Associated Press: The Asian Development Bank will help establish five private sector funds targeting investments of up to $1.2 billion (750 million euros) for clean energy projects in Asia, the bank said Thursday. The Manila-based bank said it will provide $20 million (euro12.56 million) to each of the five private equity funds, for total seed money of $100 million (euro63 million). "ADB believes the success of these funds will help demonstrate the credibility of private equity in the ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Brazil Lula Defends Biofuels From Growing Criticism
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48006/newsDate/17-Apr-2008/story.htm
Reuters: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazil's production of biofuels on Wednesday, rejecting criticism that they are furthering a surge in global food prices and harming the environment. "Don't tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn't prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat," Lula told reporters. "We want to discuss this not ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush revises greenhouse gas plan
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqUxO6V-_AzjKand0MeYCbTnKijg
Press Association: Revising his stand on global warming, President George Bush has called for a halt in the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and urged other major polluting nations to develop national goals to address climate change. In a speech on global warming, Mr Bush expressed concern that Congress might pass climate legislation that would hurt economic growth. Critics of his energy policy have argued that the Bush administration has dragged its feet in addressing the ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush urges halt of CO2 emission growth by 2025
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1518272120080417
Reuters: President George W. Bush on Wednesday called for halting the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, but drew quick criticism for offering few ideas on how to do so before his term ends next year. While trying to shape global climate change talks in Paris this week and the debate in the U.S. Congress later this year, Bush's cautious approach on global warming falls far short of European goals and lawmakers' proposals. Bush, who leaves office in January, offered broad ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush vision on climate change faces crunch test in Paris
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE7qCIaPbuq5K2SzdXhjW2RLMKTA
Agence France Presse: President George W. Bush's plans for tackling global warming faced a litmus test in Paris on Thursday among ministers representing the world's biggest carbon polluters. Ministers were expected to pore over the speech made by Bush in Washington on Wednesday to judge how the planet's No. 1 emitter intended to address its own contribution to the peril of climate change. But a fiery early response from Africa's leading economy suggested the United States could be in for a rough ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Climate Issues Divide US Chamber
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120839131486621377.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Thomas Donohue built the U.S. Chamber of Commerce into Washington's biggest-spending lobbying group by seizing the opportunities of a pro-business, Republican decade. But as Washington tilts more Democratic, populist and green, some big companies are becoming leery of allying too closely with conservative, antiregulatory institutions such as the chamber. On issues such as climate change, Mr. Donohue is finding his efforts countered by big corporations, several of them chamber members, ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Europe urged to ban building on peat bogs
http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Europe-urged-to-ban-building.3990531.jp
Scotsman: BUILDING wind turbines on Scotland's precious peatland could be catastrophic for the environment, according to a Scottish MEP. Following a seminar given by key scientists at the European Parliament in Brussels, Struan Stevenson, MEP, is calling for action to stop any further building on peatland. At the seminar, organised by Mr Stevenson, who is the president of the Intergroup on Sustainable Development, leading scientists agreed that building on peat bogs could be a ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
G8 business chiefs spar over climate measures
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGnSF-VmJsAbJIp10uz98XvTo2jQ
Agence France Presse: World business chiefs gathered here Thursday to discuss ways to tackle global warming as trans-Atlantic tensions emerged over how far industry should go to reduce emissions. The heads of the business federations of the Group of Eight industrialised nations agreed that climate change needs serious attention. But in a joint statement issued after the one-day meeting they said companies should not be "unduly penalised by unbalanced policy measures that would divert resources ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
German Minister Attacks US Climate Policy
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3273751,00.html
Deutsche Welle: German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel harshly criticized US President George Bush's policies to combat climate change, calling them "losership instead of leadership." "The president has made a disappointing speech that does not match up to the global challenge," Gabriel said Thursday, April 17, in reference to Bush's announcement a day priop on US emissions policy. In his speech, Bush called for the growth in US greenhouse gas emissions to be stopped by ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Global-warming chutzpah
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/04/17/global_warming_chutzpah/
Boston Globe: IF President Bush had unveiled his goals for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions at the beginning of his administration instead of in its waning months, he might have actually played a role in linking the United States to global efforts to curb climate change. But the proposals he made yesterday, which in 2001 could have been a starting point for negotiations with advocates of stronger action in Congress, are now too belated and too weak to be more than a historical footnote. All three ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Hunger crisis looming in Horn of Africa if rains fail this month
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/217440/120843576342.htm
Reuters: An estimated 14 million people in the Horn of Africa are facing a food emergency just two years on from the height of the worst drought in decades, CARE International warned today. Without significant rain this month, millions of people, already left devastated and vulnerable by the 2006 emergency, risk further loss of their livelihoods and possible starvation as water and pasture rapidly diminish. Parts of Somalia are already facing emergency and CARE staff are responding widespread ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Japan to boost its nuclear capabilities
http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Security/2008/04/17/japan_to_boost_its_nuclear_capabilities/6270/
United Press International: Amid skyrocketing oil prices and growing fears of global warming, Japan has decided to step up the promotion of nuclear power as a solution to both problems. "Nuclear power, which does not produce carbon dioxide, is a trump card for global warming measures," said Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Tuesday at an international conference held by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum in Tokyo to discuss peaceful uses of nuclear power. It was the first time for Japan's ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Greece: Mediterranean forest fires set to become 'norm': green group
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080417/sc_afp/greececlimatenaturefireenvironment_080417170528
Agence France Presse: Greece's lethal forest fires of last year are set to become the norm across the Mediterranean thanks to climate change, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warned Thursday. Nearly 70 people were killed and 150,000 hectares (370,000 acres) of forest burnt to the ground in last August's fires, which were exacerbated by failings in the Greek firefighting emergency services. "The most immediate and obvious repercussion of climate change for the Mediterranean forests is an increase ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Oceans Absorbing Less CO2 May Have 1,500 Year Impact
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48010/newsDate/17-Apr-2008/story.htm
Reuters: Global oceans are soaking up less carbon dioxide, a development that could speed up the greenhouse effect and have an impact for the next 1,500 years, scientists said on Wednesday. Research from a five-year project funded by the European Union showed the North Atlantic, which along with the Antarctic is of the world's two vital ocean carbon sinks, is absorbing only half the amount of CO2 that it did in the mid-1990s. Using recent detailed data, scientists said the amount ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Spain wind power expansion faces technical hurdles
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1786215020080417
Reuters: Spain's ambitious plans to expand wind power as part of its renewable energy drive will bring environmental and economic benefits but faces technical problems, an industry expert said on Thursday. Spain's wind parks currently have an installed capacity of some 15,000 megawatts and the government wants to see 20,000 MW in place by 2010 and 30,000 MW by 2030. Spain's wind power manufacturers say they can expand capacity to 40,000 MW by 2020. But national grid operator REE ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Stern review author paints bleaker picture on climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZ2JTeYw3AxrfoDmrSZuPb0RUprw
Agence France Presse: Nicholas Stern, the author of a key climate change report, said in an interview published Thursday that he and his team "underestimated" the risks of global warming. Speaking to the Financial Times, former World Bank chief economist Stern also defended the conclusions in his 2006 report, which has been criticised by some economists and climate change sceptics, including former British finance minister Lord Nigel Lawson. Stern's 700-page report estimated the effects of ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Study backing more water exports to Southern California is nullified
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-salmon17apr17,1,1938847.story
LA Times: A federal judge Wednesday invalidated a plan that justified boosted water exports from Northern California, ruling that it failed to account for the effects on endangered salmon and steelhead. U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger of Fresno found that a 2004 study by the National Marine Fisheries Service didn't adequately address global warming, the loss of habitat and other factors that could hurt the fish. But the effect of his 151-page opinion on water exports for farms and ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
The Toyota push
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.toyota17apr17,0,3989674.story
Baltimore Sun: Gary Convis, 65, recently retired as chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky Inc., the first non-Japanese to lead a Toyota division. Convis began working in the auto industry after graduating from Michigan State University in 1964, when U.S. automakers overwhelmingly dominated the domestic market. First, Convis worked at General Motors' Buick division and later at Ford Motor Co. In 1984, he was recruited to become general manager at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a new ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Warmed Over
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/16/AR2008041603313.html
Washington Post: PRESIDENT BUSH strode to the lectern in the Rose Garden yesterday and once again passed up an opportunity -- perhaps his last -- to do something meaningful on climate change. "Today, I am announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025," he said. That pronouncement was a weak and inadequate response to the imperative that the United States provide leadership in combating global warming, a responsibility Mr. Bush has shamefully ducked ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
A climate anticlimax
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tony_juniper/2008/04/a_climate_anticlimax.html
Guardian: Yesterday, George Bush made another faltering step on the long road to accepting that the US should do something about its contribution to global warming. From outright denial of the science, and deep scepticism about targets and timetables, he has moved on and now accepts that something must be done. He even announced yesterday what sounded like a firm commitment: "I am announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions by 2025". I suppose ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Philippines: Activists dump coal to oppose approval of dirty Iloilo power plant
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/89982/Activists-dump-coal-to-oppose-approval-of-dirty-Iloilo-power-plant
GMA: Greenpeace activists dumped 200 kilos of coal at the entrance of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday and unfurled a banner with the message "Atienza, don't be a climate criminal." The activists are demanding that Secretary Lito Atienza immediately reject all plans to construct a dangerous coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City. Instead of actual coal, the activists used charcoal, which is safer than the coal used in power plants. Coal, ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush misses chance to lead on global climate strategy
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8955739
San Jose Mercury News: President Bush attempted to wrap himself in green with his Rose Garden speech Wednesday outlining his strategy on climate change. But it was another example of too little, too late. The speech by the lame-duck president confirmed that significant U.S. progress on global warming will have to wait for the next administration. After seven years of denial and inaction, Bush called for a halt in the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Allowing emissions to rise for the ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush Seeks Voluntary Curb On Greenhouse Gas Emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/17/ST2008041700037.html
Washington Post: President Bush yesterday called for a national goal of halting the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, mostly by curbing power plant pollution. But his voluntary target fell well short of what most leading scientists say is needed to avoid dangerous climate change and was widely criticized by Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists. Bush's proposal -- which would rely on technological innovation for success -- was the administration's most definite public statement ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush sets new goal to curb emissions
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004354707_bushwarm17.html
Seattle Times: President Bush set a new target date Wednesday for stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025, presenting a strategy that some said is too little, too late, to prevent dangerous global warming. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Bush acknowledged that climate change is a problem but called for a slow approach to dealing with it that won't raise taxes, burden U.S. businesses or be run by judges working off the Clean Air Act, which he said wasn't meant to address ...
Fri, 18 Apr 08
Bush's Toothless Climate Plan
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1731550,00.html
Time Magazine: President George W. Bush stood in the White House's Rose Garden this afternoon, and delivered his strategy for saving the world from climate change. Central was a new goal of stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, through a mix of incentives for lower-carbon power and better energy efficiency, especially for utilities. It wouldn't be a bad plan – if it were the year 2000 and this was candidate George W. Bush speaking on the presidential campaign trail. As it stands, ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush sets greenhouse-gas emissions goal for 2025
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0417/p25s01-wogi.html
Christian Science Monitor: President Bush on Tuesday called on the US to set policies that stabilize greenhouse-gas emissions by 2025. To achieve that objective, the president said, emissions from the utility industry must peak within the next 10 to 15 years. During the Rose Garden speech, Mr. Bush also outlined what he perceives as the right way to craft domestic legislation to deal with global warming, and suggested ways of designing a unified set of incentives to speed the development and deployment of ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
How Earth Day became ... so everyday
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0417/p13s01-sten.html
Christian Science Monitor: At 38 years old, Earth Day seems to be entering a midlife identity crisis. By one estimate, some 1 billion people around the world will do something to observe the anniversary of the first Earth Day in 1970, a landmark in the history of the environmental movement. But attitudes and activities will vary widely. While some celebrate nature's beauty and wonder, others will protest environmental degradation and demand action. Today environmental concerns are aired year-round: ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush emission plan adds to environmental legacy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7467481
Reuters: President George W. Bush's plan to stop the growth of global warming emissions is bound to be part of his checkered environmental legacy, a record roundly criticized by conservation groups and political opponents. The broad outlines of the plan call for letting U.S. carbon dioxide emissions peak in 2025, but offer no specifics on how to get there. Bush rejected new taxes, more trade barriers or abandoning nuclear power while focusing on emissions from the power industry. With ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush revises climate strategy
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/general/view.bg?articleid=1087488&srvc=rss
Associated Press: Revising his stance on global warming, President Bush will propose a new target for stopping the growth of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. The president also will call Wednesday for putting the brakes on greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plans within 10 to 15 years, according to a senior administration official familiar with the afternoon speech Bush will deliver in the Rose Garden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush to Endorse 'Intermediate' Emissions Goal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041502884.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: President Bush will endorse an "intermediate goal" today for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but he will not put forward any specific legislation or proposal on how the goal should be met, White House officials said. In an afternoon address in the Rose Garden, Bush will also reiterate his long-standing opposition to mandatory emissions regulations without simultaneous agreements from large developing nations such as India and China, officials said. "The ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush: US to halt greenhouse gas rise by 2025
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gyeppdLYRfxL6BBt8R-RZNB7Jl3g
Agence France Presse: President George W. Bush Wednesday called for US greenhouse gas emissions to be curtailed from 2025, but was roundly accused of doing too little, too late against climate change. Despite having abandoned the Kyoto treaty on global warming, Bush said the world's biggest polluting nation had shown it was serious about reducing growth in planet-heating gases such as carbon dioxide. "Today, I am announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of US greenhouse gas emissions ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Cameroon's disappearing forests
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/radioprogrammes/earthbeat/080416eb-deforestation
Radio Netherlands: The forests of Cameroon and the other countries of Central Africa are disappearing at an alarming rate. For decades, the forests were cleared for farming and settlements, but increasingly they are threatened by illegal logging. There have been efforts in recent years by the Cameroonian government, environmental groups and consumer countries to combat illegal logging, but it remains a major problem. The reason is quite simple, says Albert Barume, the director of Resource Extraction ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Change in farming can feed world - report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/16/food.biofuels
Guardian: Sixty countries backed by the World Bank and most UN bodies yesterday called for radical changes in world farming to avert increasing regional food shortages, escalating prices and growing environmental problems. But in a move that has led to the US, UK, Australia and Canada not yet endorsing the report, the authors said GM technology was not a quick fix to feed the world's poor and argued that growing biofuel crops for automobiles threatened to increase worldwide malnutrition. ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Energy corridor plan catches flak
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/04/16/state/65st_080416_energy.txt
Helena Independent Record: While agreeing on the need for energy corridors through Western public lands, critics Tuesday ripped federal agencies for proposing routes mostly to coal plants and ignoring renewable energy sources. Critics at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing also said the federal agencies failed to consult with local governments and tribes or to fully consider environmental impacts of the proposed routes for pipelines and electricity transmission lines. Federal officials said they ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
McCain calls for summer holiday from gas tax
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/04/16/mccain_calls_for_summer_holiday_from_gas_tax/
Boston Globe: Senator John McCain laid out a broad economic plan yesterday calling for more than $200 billion in new tax cuts for businesses and families, including a three-month "holiday" this summer from the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline. "The effect will be an immediate economic stimulus - taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer, or trucker stops to fill up," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said of ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
SunPower Profit, Sales May Rise to a Record on Solar Demand
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a8gyGag0QSjU&refer=news
Bloomberg: SunPower Corp., the second-biggest U.S. solar-cell maker, may report a record profit after rising oil and gas costs increased demand for alternative energy systems from Italy to California. First-quarter net income probably rose to $12 million, or 14 cents a share, from $1.2 million, or 2 cents, a year earlier, according to the average of 12 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales likely soared 71 percent to $245 million, the data show. Chief Executive Officer Thomas ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
UN report demands urgent action on soaring food prices
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/un-report-demands-urgent-action-on-soaring-food-prices-809735.html
Independent: The global food crisis became official yesterday when the UN called for urgent intergovernmental action and farming reforms to tackle the soaring prices that are plunging millions of people into potentially deadly poverty. A UN-sponsored study, compiled over three years by a panel of 400 experts, called for more local food production using sustainable, natural and ecological farming methods, as well as safeguards to protect rapidly dwindling resources. Publication of the ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush Officials Defend Ethanol As Food Prices Rise
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47992/story.htm
Reuters: Senior Bush Administration officials reiterated their defence of corn-based ethanol fuel on Tuesday, saying it was one factor in rising food prices but that high energy costs were the main culprit. Ethanol makers will consume about one-quarter of the 13.1-billion-bushel US corn crop this year, according to the Agriculture Department, a forecast that is increasingly alarming world governments and food aid workers. "Certainly, that is a factor as we are seeing the rising ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush Still Doesn't Get Global Warming Science
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bush-global-warming-47041608
Daily Green: President Bush, as predicted, trotted out a new goal for reducing the greenhouse gas pollution that fuels global warming: wait 20 years. The president's speech in the Rose Garden had no hard targets, according to the Wall Street Journal except the goal of stopping the increase of carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. Repeat: Stopping the increase. By that measure, the U.S. may already have achieved the goal. Our 2006 emissions of carbon dioxide were 1.1% lower than in 2005, ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush to set 'realistic' goals to combat global warming
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-warming16apr16,1,1692797.story
LA Times: Under pressure from Congress and the courts, President Bush will unveil a plan today to set medium-range goals for reducing the gases that are blamed for global warming, administration officials said. Bush will speak from the Rose Garden, calling for a general strategy to address climate change rather than a specific proposal to address emissions by industries, motor vehicles and other sources frequently cited in the debate over rising world temperatures. "The president ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
United States: Counties join to cut emissions by 80%
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1208310926186630.xml&coll=7
Oregonian: Multnomah and Clackamas County officials have pledged to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. Each board of commissioners passed resolutions last week codifying the effort, which will begin with an inventory of emissions generated by county operations. With the resolution, the counties became part of the Sierra Club's Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration. The two counties are the first in Oregon to sign onto the initiative. ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Don't spend on more sprawl
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/editorials/story.html?id=091b77be-3076-4573-b904-6eadfd748f03
Ottawa Citizen: Ottawa City Council has an opportunity to make a landmark decision. It can refuse to build a road and make a statement about the future shape of this city. The federal and provincial governments have offered the municipality $40 million each to turn Highway 174 into a freeway from Trim Road in Orléans to Rockland. That's predicated on the city putting $15 million on the table and Prescott-Russell county paying $9 million. A staff report going to transportation committee today ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
India: Global warming threatens Goa's coastline
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=04179
Navhind Times: Goa's coast is under major threat from rising waters due to global warming. With this Goa's main USP, its pristine beaches, and subsequently its tourism industry, which attract millions of tourists will literally sink into oblivion and with it the livelihoods of millions of Goans. Says a scientist from the NIO, Dr Ramesh Kumar, “this is a very dangerous situation and the water levels will keep on rising.†Goa is only 5 feet above sea level. However, Goa is in exalted ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Hopes that surprise Brazilian oil discovery could confound the doom-mongers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/16/oil.brazil
Guardian: Excitement about the potential of Brazil as a massive new source of oil and gas intensified yesterday after a senior energy ministry official declared that the newly found Carioca field could have 33bn barrels in place. The comments by Haroldo Lima, head of Brazil's National Petroleum Agency, that the country was harbouring an oil find that vied with the largest in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, sent the price of shares in BG, the UK exploration company, up 5% and helped lift the wider ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Impact of climate change on marine algae
http://ec.europa.eu/research/headlines/news/article_08_04_16_en.html
EUROPA: Big movie productions and many science fiction writers have again and again painted a very dramatic picture of the consequences of climate change. However, what is often forgotten is that any changes that occur will first be noticed at the micro level. And this is precisely the level at which Dr Björn Rost will be focusing his work. The PhytoChange project will deal with the impact of climate change on marine phytoplankton – micro algae. The ocean's surface micro algae play an ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Australia: More action needed on climate change: expert
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=28&ContentID=68275
AAP: One of the world's foremost climate change experts believes not enough is being done to tackle the problem. But Professor David Griggs, the former director of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in the United Kingdom, said he was encouraged by the progress made in the past 20 years. Prof Griggs, now the director of the Monash Sustainability Institute in Melbourne, said there was unequivocal evidence that the earth had warmed dramatically in the past half a ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
United States: Olympic Coast tribes face rising ocean levels
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417035
Indian Country: Walter Ward swept an arm over a pebbled beach, backed by a tight wall of evergreens and strewn with logs tossed by passing storms. Ward grew up on this piece of northern Washington coast, in a thriving Hoh tribal village that was here ''forever,'' he said. ''The houses used to be along the top of the hill, and all along the beaches.'' Artifacts in the area date back 12,000 years. Today, all that's left of his childhood home are two vacant houses and a road nibbled away by an ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Thailand: Planters intruding further into forests
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/16Apr2008_news01.php
Bangkok Post: The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is deeply concerned about widespread forest encroachment in the South, where land is being cleared for lucrative cultivation of oil palm and rubber. Ministry spokesman Pichet Wongthepanukroh said at least 700 rai of forest had been heavily encroached upon by influential figures and local villagers in the southern provinces, particularly Phangnga, Surat Thani and Ranong. ''We found that both forest and mangrove areas have been ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
President Bush Proposes Targets on Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-16-voa64.cfm
Voice of America: President Bush says the United States will strive to stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports the pledge came as representatives of 17 countries headed to Paris for talks on climate change. President Bush says the United States is already on a path to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases by 2012. He says it is time to set an even more ambitious target. "We have shown that we can slow emissions growth," he said. "Today I am ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Rice May Withstand Climate Change, Top Scientist Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aatNQVnnb3pI&refer=india
Bloomberg: Rice, which rose to a record today, will increase in importance as a source of food because the crop can be grown in different conditions and may withstand the effects of global climate change, India's top agricultural scientist said. ``Rice is going to become more important when temperatures go up and there are more frequent droughts or more frequent floods,'' said M.S. Swaminathan, the architect of India's green revolution. ``You can grow it with less water as well as in deep ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Scientists find bigger, more cracks in Arctic ice shelves
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2008/04/16/arctic-ice.html
CBC: Polar ice researchers who teamed up with Canadian Rangers on a patrol around Ellesmere Island this month say they've found that cracks in ice shelves are worse than they originally thought. The High Arctic ice shelves could all be fragmented in a matter of years, said Derek Mueller, a polar scientist and research fellow at Trent University, who returned this week from the two-week joint sovereignty patrol and research expedition known as Operation Nunalivut. Mueller said he and ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Australia: Speed up carbon capture, alliance urges
http://news.smh.com.au/speed-up-carbon-capture-alliance-urges/20080416-26k5.html
AAP: An alliance of environmentalists and the coal industry has called for urgent government intervention to make carbon capture and storage (CCS) a commercial reality. The grouping wants the federal government to set a 2020 target for power produced using the low-emission technology and find ways to publicly and privately fund its development. It's proposing that a national task force oversee the work in order to bring commercial power plants using CCS on line a decade earlier than ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
The cost of green tinkering is in famine and starvation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/16/biofuels.alternativeenergy
Guardian: Farewell the age of reason, welcome the idiocracy. Only George Orwell could have invented - and named - the government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) that came into operation yesterday. It is the latest in a long line of measures intended to ease the conscience of the rich while keeping the poor miserable, in this case spectacularly so. The consequences of the RTFO have been much trumpeted on these pages. It says enough that one car tank of bio petrol needs as much ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
The rise of the new energy world order
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD17Dj04.html
Asia Times: Oil at US$110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live - trends that, so far as anyone can predict, will only become ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
World's mountains will not remain water towers forever
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/worlds-mountains-will-not-remain-water-towers-forever_10038383.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The world's population and agriculture hotspots are particularly sensitive to changes in the capacity of mountains to store water, geological scientists say. Both naturally occurring and man-made climate factors are affecting the capability of the world's mountain ranges to serve as sources for freshwater for adjacent lowlands. According to a recent study, about 7 percent of the world's mountains are essential for providing downstream supply, said Daniel Viviroli of the University of ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Australia: WWF 'picketed' over carbon sequestration
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/16/2218461.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has defended its position on carbon sequestration technology ahead of protest by other environment campaigners. A group of activists intends to picket the Sydney offices of the World Wildlife Fund today because of its decision to join the climate institute and the construction union in calling for the merits the technology to be investigated. The WWF's chief executive Greg Bourne says it is important to know one way or another whether carbon ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Big Coal needs laws on climate
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0416biz-blogspot0416.html
Arizona Republic: The Washington Times reports that President Bush is trying to secure support for laws that would fight global warming, and those new restrictions could free up the coal industry. Nobody who mines or burns coal for electricity wants to see laws that tax or otherwise charge for pollution related to global warming, but as reported in The Republic on Sunday, they all seem to know that is coming anyway. But utilities are hesitant to invest in new coal-power generation without the ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush offers principles for CO2 emission growth cuts
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1635904020080416
Reuters: U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday unveiled principles for arresting greenhouse gas emissions, months before he leaves office and ahead of a congressional debate on more ambitious goals. Here are the highlights of Bush's announcement: - halt the growth of carbon-dioxide emissions by 2025. - oppose raising taxes, abandoning nuclear power and coal reserves, or imposing trade barriers as ways to reach the goal. - promote electricity production from coal that ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush proposes halt of US greenhouse gas emissions growth by 2025
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/17/content_7992223.htm
Xinhua: U.S. President George W. Bush proposed in a climate change speech on Wednesday that the United States should halt its growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. "Today, I am announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025," he said at the White House, adding that power plant emissions should be slowed so they peak over the next 10 to 15 years and decline thereafter. However, Bush did not mention any mandatory cap on U.S. ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
UN aid agencies feel the heat as food prices soar
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i97FR_AXxzYYmPBhdyI7sCeNG4fw
Agence France Presse: Soaring food prices are causing logistical headaches for aid agencies committed to fighting hunger, not least the World Food Programme -- known to many as the granary of the United Nations. "We distribute four million tonnes of supplies each year, so the 55 percent rise in food prices since June 2007 has an enormous impact on our operations," WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told AFP. Two million tonnes are bought by the WFP in regional markets while the rest is ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
At Least 36 US States Face Water Shortage
http://www.alternet.org/water/82378/
AlterNet: At least 36 states are expected to face water shortages within the next five years, according to U.S. government estimates. Available freshwater supplies are dwindling across the country due to rising temperatures and droughts, while increasing sprawl, population and inefficient resource usage are leading to rising demand. "Is it a crisis? If we don't do some decent water planning, it could be," said Jack Hoffbuhr, executive director of the American Water Works Association. ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush to announce options for reducing US greenhouse emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/16/georgebush.usa
Guardian: President George Bush is planning an announcement today aimed at setting caps on greenhouse gas emissions from US power plants. The White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Bush will "articulate a realistic intermediate goal for reducing greenhouse gases". After spending almost all his years at the White House questioning the scientific basis of climate change and blocking international action, Bush has slowly begun to shift over the last 18 months. Anxious ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush to pitch climate change strategy in Rose Garden speech
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJbf8oA_G6zwKdTKlJJNq_G_g8RQD902J7480
Associated Press: President Bush, stepping into the debate over global warming, plans to announce on Wednesday a national goal for stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions over the next few decades. In a speech in the Rose Garden, Bush will lay out a strategy rather than a specific proposal for curbing emissions, White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday. She did not disclose details of his announcement and would not say whether the president would propose any kind of mandatory cap on ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Global warming has a new battleground: coal plants
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-coalwars14apr14,1,2805749.story?track=rss
LA Times: Every time a new coal-fired power plant is proposed anywhere in the United States, a lawyer from the Sierra Club or an allied environmental group is assigned to stop it, by any bureaucratic or legal means necessary. They might frame the battle as a matter of zoning or water use, but the larger war is over global warming: Coal puts twice as much temperature-raising carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as natural gas, second to coal as the most common power plant fuel. The ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
World sea levels seen rising 1.5m by 2100
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL15778750.html
Reuters: Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people, new research showed on Tuesday. Presented at a European Geosciences Union conference, the research forecasts a rise in sea levels three times higher than that predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last year. The U.N. climate panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Biofuel Rule Will Do More Harm Than Good, Oxfam Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=ahQazSamU6vA&refer=uk
Bloomberg: U.K. fuels for cars and trucks must contain biofuels starting today, a move that may do more harm than good to the environment and drive food prices higher, charities including Oxfam and Greenpeace said. Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, suppliers must ensure that 2.5 percent of fuel sold at U.K. pumps consists of biofuels, which are made from crops and grasses. The requirement will rise to 5 percent by 2010. The Department for Transport says the plan will cut ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush Plans Speech on `Principles' for Addressing Climate Change
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFyJpxM55DQM&refer=home
Bloomberg: President George W. Bush plans to outline his principles on climate change tomorrow as he and lawmakers wrangle over proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions, administration spokeswoman Dana Perino said. In a speech scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Washington time, Bush ``is not going to lay out a specific proposal,'' Perino said. Instead he will set out ``realistic'' goals for reducing pollution that many scientists say is contributing to global warming, she said. The president ...
Thu, 17 Apr 08
Bush to announce intermediate goal for CO2 emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7464572
Reuters: President George W. Bush plans to announce on Wednesday an intermediate goal to limit greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, but will not make specific proposals, the White House said on Tuesday. Bush will "articulate a realistic intermediate goal for reducing greenhouse gasses" and press for incentives for technology aimed at cutting emissions, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "This speech is not going to lay out a specific proposal," she ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Biofuel rules 'could make millions homeless'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/15/eabiofuel115.xml
Telegraph: Millions of people face eviction from their land to satisfy demand unleashed by new rules requiring petrol and diesel from today to include a proportion of plant-based "bio-fuels" according to protesters. The aid charity, Oxfam, has warned that 60 million people in Asia, Africa and South America are threatened with possible eviction to make way for "green" fuel plantations, whether palm oil, soya or sugar cane. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Biofuel: the burning question
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/biofuel-the-burning-question-808959.html
Independent: From today, all petrol and diesel sold on forecourts must contain at least 2.5 per cent biofuel. The Government insists its flagship environmental policy will make Britain's 33 million vehicles greener. But a formidable coalition of campaigners is warning that, far from helping to reverse climate change, the UK's biofuel revolution will speed up global warming and the loss of vital habitat worldwide. Amid growing evidence that massive investment in biofuels by developed countries is ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Biofuels Threaten Food Access In Latin America - UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47962/story.htm
Reuters: A global increase in biofuel production threatens to make food for Latin America's poor less accessible, a United Nations body said on Monday. "In the short term, it is very probable that the rapid expansion of agrofuels at a world level has important effects on Latin America's agriculture," the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said in a paper. Growing biofuel output would compete with food crops for water, land and capital and thereby increase food prices and ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
California Group Seeks Standards For Carbon Market
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47951/story.htm
Reuters: The Climate Action Reserve, officially launched on Monday, seeks to provide more certainty, clarity and transparency to a sometimes opaque voluntary carbon reduction market in the United States. The Climate Action Reserve offers a seal of approval for legitimate carbon reduction projects throughout the United States, said Gary Gero, president of the California Climate Registry. The Climate Action Reserve is a division of the nonprofit California Climate Action Registry, and ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuels
Guardian: Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession that is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. You have probably seen the figures by now: the price of rice has risen by three-quarters over the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices. But I bet that you have missed the most ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Australia: Green groups accused of clean coal 'greenwash'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/global-warming/green-groups-accused-of-clean-coal-greenwash/2008/04/15/1208025140805.html
Sydney Morning Herald: In a public relations coup for the coal industry, its chief lobby group will join forces with two prominent environment groups, WWF and the Climate Institute, and the miners' union, to call on the Rudd Government to set up a national task force to develop "clean coal". The new alliance, led by the Australian Coal Association, will be launched in Canberra today but it has angered the Greens party and rival environment groups who accuse WWF and the Climate Institute of ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
New Ways to Store Solar Energy for Nighttime and Cloudy Days
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96942
New York Times: Solar power, the holy grail of renewable energy, has always faced the problem of how to store the energy captured from the sun's rays so that demand for electricity can be met at night or whenever the sun is not shining. The difficulty is that electricity is hard to store. Batteries are not up to efficiently storing energy on a large scale. A different approach being tried by the solar power industry could eliminate the problem. The idea is to capture the sun's heat. Heat, ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
EU Backs Plan To Clean Up Air, Cut Lung Disease
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47954/story.htm
Reuters: The European Union approved a plan on Monday to clean up air quality in the bloc, setting limits for the first time on fine particles that cut eight months off the life of the average European citizen. "The European Union has today taken a decisive step in tackling a major cause of environmental and health problems," European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said. "European citizens are concerned about air pollution. The new directive on air quality ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Most Australians alarmed at climate change
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/most-australians-alarmed-at-climate-change/2008/04/14/1208025091723.html
Age: NINE out of 10 Australians are worried about climate change, but most are unconvinced Labor will do a better job cutting greenhouse emissions than the Coalition. Despite a perception the ALP won last year's federal election in part by pledging to do more than the Howard government on climate change, including ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, a survey by the Climate Institute found 52% of voters could not distinguish between the major parties' policies. Labor was overwhelmingly ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Over 30 Parties Submit Proposals For UK Nuclear Sites
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47957/story.htm
Reuters: Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said on Monday it had received proposals from over 30 parties interested in land surrounding 18 nuclear sites -- all potential locations for new power stations. The organisation would not reveal the identity of the bidders, although a spokesman for German utility RWE said it had made a pitch for some of the land. "We have responded to their invitation," he said. An industry source added that many of Europe's nuclear ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Wind farms or peat bogs: Scotland's green dilemma
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Wind-farms-or-peat-bogs.3980685.jp
Scotsman: POETS and scientists alike have sung its praises. The vast swathe of peatland that covers much of Lewis is held in high regard for its environmental qualities and the rich wildlife it sustains. Scotland's vast expanses of peat bogs are regarded as our equivalent of the rainforests, and 17 per cent of the world's "blanket bog" is in this country. In all, Scottish peatlands cover some 1.9 million hectares and contain about two billion tons of carbon – roughly four times the ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
World Bank burns credibility
http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD15Dj06.html
Asia Times: A study released by an independent policy think-tank casts further doubts on the World Bank's ability to stay neutral in the global politics of climate change. "It is making money from causing the climate crisis and then turning around and claiming to solve it," charged Janet Redman, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies. In releasing the 79-page report last week, Redman described the World Bank's role in the so-called carbon ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
China's '08 Wheat Harvest Seen Ample Despite Drought
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47960/story.htm
Reuters: China will have an ample harvest of winter wheat in 2008 as higher yields and increased acreage offset the impact of severe drought, industry officials said on Monday. The winter wheat output will grow 1.3 percent this year to 102.6 million tonnes, lifting China's total wheat output, including spring wheat, to 107.6 million tonnes this year, up 2.5 percent from 2007, the China National Grain and Oil Information Centre said. "This year is a normal year for winter wheat ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Olympics - Beijing Targets Top Polluters In Games Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47955/story.htm
Reuters: Beijing will close factories and force 19 heavy polluters to reduce emissions by 30 percent for two months around the Olympics and Paralympics to improve air quality for athletes, a Beijing official said on Monday. The measures, which will run from July 20 to Sept. 20, are an attempt to fulfil the city's commitment to provide clean air for the Games, said Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau spokesman Du Shaozhong. "In case of extremely negative meteorological ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Bush Floating New Climate Proposal
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJbf8oA_G6zwKdTKlJJNq_G_g8RQD901U7R00
Associated Press: The White House has told a group of House GOP conservatives it may be forced to support a limited cap on greenhouse gases and avoid a "train wreck" of regulations involving climate change, sources familiar with the meeting said Monday. A range of options presented at a meeting last week between senior White House officials and a group of Republican lawmakers was aimed at gauging the reaction to a possible shift of Bush administration policy on climate ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Calls grow for EU to 'suspend' biofuels push
http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/calls-grow-eu-suspend-biofuels-push/article-171610
EurActiv: The EU must suspend its target of raising the share of biofuels in transport to 10% until a more comprehensive scientific study on their environmental risks is carried out, the European Environment Agency has said. The warning came as the World Bank joined the chorus of criticism against increased biofuel production. In an opinion made public on 10 April, the Agency's Scientific Committee stressed that the EU's mandatory biofuel quota of 10% is an "overambitious [...] experiment, ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
China 'now top carbon polluter'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7347638.stm
BBC: China has already overtaken the US as the world's "biggest polluter", a report to be published next month says. The research suggests the country's greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007. The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management. They warn that unchecked future growth will dwarf any emissions cuts made by rich nations under the ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Energy crisis meets food crisis amid bio-fuels backlash
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/198641,analysis-energy-crisis-meets-food-crisis-amid-bio-fuels-backlash.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Efforts by industrialized countries to reduce their dependence on foreign energy sources and cut climate-changing emissions has prompted a strong backlash from some developing nations dealing with a worsening food crisis. The problem lies in bio-fuels, an alternative source of energy that is often made from food crops. The World Bank last week said that a boost in bio-fuels production was largely to blame for an 83- per-cent increase in food prices over the last three years. High ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Europe's food supply not at risk from biofuels -EU
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7461197
Reuters: Europeans should not fear a fall in food supplies caused by the European Union's ambitious targets for using biofuels in transport fuels, the EU's executive Commission said on Monday. Last year, EU leaders agreed to get 10 percent of all transport fuel from biofuels by 2020 to help fight climate change. Ministers are now debating how to reach the goal and avoid trade-offs such as diverting land from food production. Concern over meeting the biofuels targets has fuelled fears ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Forests' long-term potential for carbon offsetting
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/bc-flp041108.php
EurekAlert: As well as cutting our fossil fuel emissions, planting new forests, or managing existing forests or agricultural land more effectively can capitalise on nature's ability to act as a carbon sink. Research published online in the open access journal Carbon Balance and Management shows that although planting trees alone is unlikely to solve our climate problems, large-scale plantations could have a significant effect in the longer term. Rik Leemans and colleagues from Wageningen ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Global Hot Spots of Hunger Set to Explode
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41976
Inter Press Service: As food prices continue to escalate worldwide, some of the poorest nations in the developing world are in danger of social and political upheavals. The unrest, which is likely to spread to nearly 40 countries, has been triggered largely by a sharp increase in the prices of staple commodities, including wheat, rice, sorghum, maize and soybeans, according to the United Nations. Following last week's food riots in Haiti, which claimed the lives of four people, Secretary-General ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Melting mountains a "time bomb" for water shortages
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL14759577.html
Reuters: Glaciers and mountain snow are melting earlier in the year than usual, meaning the water has already gone when millions of people need it during the summer when rainfall is lower, scientists warned on Monday. "This is just a time bomb," said hydrologist Wouter Buytaert at a meeting of geoscientists in Vienna. Those areas most at risk from a lack of water for drinking and agriculture include parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, the United States, South America ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Scientists debate the accuracy of Al Gore's documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth'
http://www.physorg.com/news127400413.html
Physorg: There is no question that Al Gore's 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth is a powerful example of how scientific knowledge can be communicated to a lay audience. What is up for debate is whether it accurately presents the scientific argument that global warming is caused by human activities. Climate change experts express their opinions on the scientific validity of the film's claims in articles just published online in Springer's journal, GeoJournal. An Inconvenient Truth is about ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
The Bumpy Road to Congestion Relief
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/13/AR2008041302030.html
Washington Post: Should you have to pay to drive on the Capital Beltway -- and on Interstate 270, the George Washington Memorial Parkway and all the bridges that cross the Potomac? Many economists would say yes. The Bush administration would agree. A federally funded study completed last week lays out how much revenue such a tolling system would generate and how much it could reduce traffic congestion. But if you don't like the idea, don't fire off any angry e-mails just yet. "Road ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
White House weighing new US CO2 proposal-sources
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7461753
Reuters: The Bush administration is debating whether to embrace a mandatory system to control U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and could make an announcement as early as this week, industry sources said on Monday. It was unclear what form the new plan could take, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the fluid nature of the deliberations. "Clearly, the White House is weighing some new options for addressing climate policy beyond the approaches it has taken to ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Beijing Vows To Clean Up Its Air
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/14/world/main4012353.shtml
Associated Press: Beijing will implement a series of temporary measures to stop construction and close heavy industries, all aimed at cleaning the city's notoriously polluted air when the Olympics begin in four months. All digging and pouring of concrete on construction sites will be suspended from July 20-Sept. 20, the city's Environmental Protection Bureau said. Nineteen heavy-polluting companies also have been told to cut their emissions in the same period by a further 30 percent. ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Bush considering global warming bill
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/14/bush_considering_global_warming_bill/8197/
United Press International: U.S. President George Bush may shift his eco-attitude as early as this week, saying he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, aides said. While specifics are being debated, Bush administration officials said they think they need to act now rather than risk more regulation in the future, The Washington Times said. "This is an attempt to move the administration and the party closer to the center on global warming. With these steps, it is hoped that the ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Campaigners criticise biofuel rules
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j21eb5aBUSmU4VacYc_yvsmktOWw
Press Association: New rules which aim to make transport fuels greener are putting millions of people in the developing world at risk of being driven off their lands, it has been claimed. Oxfam said the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO). which requires 2.5% of all petrol and diesel sold at UK forecourts to come from renewable biofuels, was contributing to human rights abuses and rising food prices. The aid agency said the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues had estimated some 60 ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Cleaner Air Means a Warmer Europe
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,547308,00.html
Spiegel: The 1970s were a hazy time: Cars ran on sulfur-rich gasoline, power plants and heavy industry burned sulfur-rich coal. Europe lay under a blanket of fumes filled with sulphate particles. Acid rain brought the particles back to earth, ravaging the continent's forests. That was then. The situation today is considerably different. Auto emissions are low in sulfur, power plants only run with smoke filters and acid rain is no longer an issue. But the success of efforts to restore Europe's ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Climate change affecting UK's coastal wildlife, report warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/14/wildlife.conservation
Guardian: A diverse range of wildlife along Britain's coastline will be affected by flooding and coastal erosion in the next 100 years, conservationists warned today Research from the National Trust forecasts "dramatic changes" that will put at risk native wildlife along Britain's 9,040 miles of coastline and herald the arrival of new foreign species. The trust, which manages 707 miles of coastline in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has compiled a list of "winners ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Climate Reality Bites the Libertarians
http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3707/81/
Atlantic Free Press: Some of my best friends are libertarians. We read each others' papers, we exchange ideas by e-mail, and we invite each other to participate in our seminars and conferences. On numerous occasions, my libertarian friends have treated me with generosity and respect. I've found them to be personable and tolerant of my progressive opinions. And also unyielding in their convictions. My libertarian friends, I have discovered, are like the kindly Catholic bishop, who ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
EU defends biofuel goals amid food crises
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gp1nkJeC-IhlYkVtsvPfp3u7mOWQ
Agence France Presse: The EU Commission on Monday rejected claims that producing biofuels is a "crime against humanity" that threatens food supplies, and vowed to stick to its goals as part of a climate change package. "There is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels," said Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. "You can't change a political objective without risking a debate on all the other objectives," ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Europe Defends Biofuels as Debate Rages
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3266694,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Europe defended biofuels against charges that their production is a "crime against humanity" that threatens global food supplies. Yet pressure continues to mount for the European Union to back off on its biofuel targets. The European Union said it is sticking to its biofuel goals despite mounting criticism from top environmental agencies and poverty advocates. "There is no question for now of suspending the target fixed for biofuels," Barbara Helfferich, ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Fiji governments looks at geothermal
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/04/14/fiji_governments_looks_at_geothermal/2827/
United Press International: Fiji is looking for alternative energy sources in the face of record-high fuel prices. The Ministry of Land and Mineral Resources and other stakeholders announced they are studying three options for alternative energy bases, said Interim Lands Minister Netani Sukanaivalu. The government is studying renewable energy options including geothermal, solar and wind, the Fiji Times reported. Geothermal is the front-runner so far, and two companies, Geothermal Electric Ltd. and ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Japan ups CO2 offset buying as nuclear power slows
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKT21728720080414
Reuters: Japan is stepping up efforts to meet its Kyoto Protocol targets by buying more greenhouse gas emissions offsets from abroad than previously planned as its own emissions rise and nuclear power production dwindles. Japan has become a major emissions credit buyer, using the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) as its agent. Having already bought 23 million in the past two years, the government says it will buy at least 77 million more tonnes of carbon ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Malaysia Concerned About Negative Campaigns On Palm Oil Industry
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080414/3/16gqa.html
Asia Pulse: Malaysia is greatly concerned by the negative campaigns targeted at the palm oil industry especially with regard to the distorting views on carbon debt, said Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Peter Chin Fah Kui. He said it was not fair to arbitrarily specify a cut-off point for calculation purposes and in the process shackle developing countries to incur carbon debt through deforestration. Speaking at the two-day International Palm Oil Sustainability Conference ...
Tue, 15 Apr 08
Rich countries not leading on climate change: IPCC chief
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGFwmfm_h8P3laeaxslwUva_QcFA
Agence France Presse: The head of the United Nations's scientific panel on climate change said in an interview published Monday that developing countries were unwilling to sign up to a global deal on cutting carbon emissions because rich countries were not leading the way. "Looking at the politics of the situation, I doubt whether any of the developing countries will make any commitments before they have seen the developed countries take a specific stand," Rajendra Pachauri of the Nobel ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Bangladesh faces climate change refugee nightmare
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA234479.htm
Reuters: Abdul Majid has been forced to move 22 times in as many years, a victim of the annual floods that ravage Bangladesh. There are millions like Majid, 65, in Bangladesh and in the future there could be many millions more if scientists' predictions of rising seas and more intense droughts and storms come true. "Bangladesh is already facing consequences of a sea level rise, including salinity and unusual height of tidal water," said Mizanur Rahman, a research fellow with ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
China, Australia Agree On Climate Cooperation
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47932/story.htm
Reuters: Australia and China have agreed to hold annual ministerial talks on climate change and to work together to clean up carbon pollution from coal-fired power stations, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Friday. The Mandarin-speaking Rudd made the announcement in Beijing on Friday after talks a day earlier with China's Premier Wen Jiabao, saying both countries needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for global warming. Australia is the world's largest coal ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
China, India Urged To Avoid Obsession With Cars
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47924/story.htm
Reuters: China and other big developing countries such as India need to take steps to avoid being over-reliant on private cars, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN climate panel said. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told Reuters that investing in improving railways and urban public transportation was one way countries such as China could balance the need for fighting climate change with that for economic growth. "This ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Climate change will mean winners and loser around British coastline
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/14/eacoast114.xml
Telegraph: Climate change will produce both winners and losers around our coastline, according to a new report. Some native species are already being threatened by rising sea levels, erosion and harsher, more frequent storms. But as some creatures retreat or disappear they will be replaced by opportunistic new arrivals, according to the National Trust. The report says some birds which have traditionally nested by the sea's edge will have to move further inland to escape the stormier ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Financing Crucial To Next Climate Change Pact - UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47926/story.htm
Reuters: The global fight against climate change after the Kyoto pact expires will fail unless rich countries can come up with creative ways to finance clean development by poorer nations, a UN official said on Saturday. "We are not going to see that major developing country engagement unless significant financial resources and technology flows begin to be mobilized," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in a ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
France Says Food Should Take Priority Over Biofuels
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47929/story.htm
Reuters: Production of food must take precedence globally over biofuels as prices surge and the threat of famine grows, France's farm minister said on Friday, calling for a European Union initiative on world supplies. "Absolute priority must be given to agricultural production for food," French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier told Reuters, saying France would unveil proposals at next Monday's European Union Agriculture council. He urged countries to send their promised ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Leadership lacking from rich countries on climate change: Pachauri
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/Leadership_lacking_from_rich_countries_on_climate_change_Pachauri/articleshow/2950076.cms
Economic Times: The head of the United Nations's scientific panel on climate change said in an interview published on Monday that developing countries were unwilling to sign up to a global deal on cutting carbon emissions because rich countries were not leading the way. "Looking at the politics of the situation, I doubt whether any of the developing countries will make any commitments before they have seen the developed countries take a specific stand," Rajendra Pachauri of the Nobel ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Our global warming rage lets global hunger grow
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/14/ccview114.xml
Telegraph: We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits. "The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said. The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Rich states failing to lead on emissions, says UN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/14/climatechange.carbonemissions
Guardian: Developing countries, including China and India, are unwilling to sign up to a new global climate change pact to replace the Kyoto protocol in 2012 because the rich world has failed to set a clear example on cutting carbon emissions, according to the UN's top climate official. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said too many rich countries, including the US, had failed to take the action needed to convince the developing nations to sign up ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Australia: Aussies ready to tackle climate change
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23532577-953,00.html
Sunday Mail: AUSTRALIAN attitudes towards climate change have crystallised into solid support for action, new research shows. But, equally, there is widespread scepticism about the ability of major political parties to deliver the necessary action. The Climate Institute's Climate of the Nation report details the attitudes of Australians since the November federal election. "In the aftermath of the world's first climate change election, public concern and hunger for action remains ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Australia funds China clean coal
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23534619-5005200,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA is now investing $63 million in developing clean-coal technology in China, our biggest coal buyer, as Kevin Rudd seeks to emphasise the need for developing ways to use the resource and still cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Prime Minister, while declaring that his 17-day world trip was to pursue ways of combating the effects of climate change and pursue a new global agreement after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, dramatically increased his focus on clean-coal ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Bangladesh Introduces Improved Stove To Save Fuel
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47939/story.htm
Reuters: Bangladesh has introduced an improved cooking stove that will consume 50 percent less of the biomass used for cooking in rural areas, a senior official said on Sunday. "About 95 percent of Bangladesh, with 145 million people, uses traditional fuels like cow dung, agricultural wastage and wood totalling 60 million tonnes most inefficiently, worth 100 billion taka ($1.46 billion)," said Erich Otto Gomm, programme coordinator in Bangladesh of German Technical Cooperation ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Biofuels: a blueprint for the future?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/14/biofuels.energy
Guardian: Ruth Kelly Our cars and other forms of transport are the third-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK and the only one likely to have increased by 2020. Any serious attempt to tackle climate change requires us to dramatically step up our efforts to reduce these emissions. So a clean, renewable energy that can be mixed with fossil fuels to power our cars has great attraction. This is exactly what supporters of biofuels believe they offer. They say they are one of the ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Food riots 'an apocalyptic warning'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/14/2215873.htm?section=world
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Basic access to food is slipping out of reach for many people in developing countries. The cost of the rice has risen by more than three-quarters in two months and the price of wheat has more than doubled in the same time. The desperation in dozens of countries has turned deadly of late. In the past week alone there have been violent, food-related riots in Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cameroon. World Vision Australia head Tim Costello says the situation is ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Australia: Steep rise in power station gas emissions
http://www.smh.com.au/news/global-warming/steep-rise-in-power-station-gas-emissions/2008/04/13/1208024990538.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE state's greenhouse gas emissions from power stations have leapt sharply in the past three months, putting the Iemma Government under further pressure to improve its environmental performance. The rising emission figures come as a report found the majority of Australians want to cut greenhouse gas emissions by using renewable energy, cutting their use of electricity through energy efficiency and spending more on public transport. NSW power stations and vehicles pumped out ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
US Says OPEC To Earn Almost $1 Trillion From Oil
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47936/story.htm
Reuters: OPEC member nations are expected to rake in almost $1 trillion this year from their oil exports due to record crude prices, according to the US government's top energy forecasting agency. Net oil export earnings from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries were forecast to soar 45 percent from last year's record $676 billion to $980 billion this year and then fall to $880 billion in 2009, when oil prices are expected to be lower, the Energy Information Administration ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Australians want climate change action
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200804/s2215745.htm?tab=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A new report has found that most Australians believe the Federal government needs to take urgent action to deal with climate change. The report, published by the Climate Institute, reveals that almost 90 per cent of Australians are concerned about climate change, while 78 per cent believe serious cuts to emissions are needed by 2012. Climate Institute chief executive John Conner says most people want the government to quickly embrace clean energy sources. "They're ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
France, Germany Say Car Emissions Talks Continue
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47938/story.htm
Reuters: France and Germany are continuing talks on how to share between car makers an EU-proposed mandatory target on carbon emissions from cars, French and German government officials said on Saturday. The head of Germany's VDA carmakers' lobby, Matthias Wissmann, said on Friday the talks were deadlocked, confirming unnamed German government officials. But bilateral talks were continuing between France and Germany, said Germany's environment minister Sigmar Gabriel on the fringes of ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Soaring food costs risk 'starvation and unrest'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/14/wfood114.xml
Telegraph: The world's poorest countries face starvation and civil unrest if global food prices keep rising, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said. Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in Washington that "hundreds of thousands of people will be starving". "Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives," he said. He predicted that increasing food prices would push up the cost of imports for poor countries, leading to trade ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Global crisis grows as food prices soar
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-food-prices-global-crisis-story,0,3603827.story
Chicago Tribune: To support his family of six, Raju sells plastic packets of chilled water to commuters on a New Delhi roadside. Like many Indians, he normally spends more than half of his monthly income to buy food. But over the past year, as world food prices have soared and inflation began creeping up, the rice, lentils and wheat his family needs have begun to take as much as 70 percent of his meager monthly salary of $77. With the other 30 percent of the family's income committed to rent, they ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/13/food.climatechange
Guardian: It is the constant sensation of hunger that makes Kamla Devi so angry. She argues with shopkeepers in New Delhi over prices and quarrels with her husband, a casual labourer, over his wages - about 50 rupees (60p) a day. 'When I go to the market and see how little I can get for my money, it makes me want to hit the shopkeepers and thrash the government,' she says. A few months ago, Kamla - who is 42 - decided she and her husband could no longer afford to eat twice a day. The couple, ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
United States: Add 3 cent fee to gas prices to fund climate protection
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8910025
San Jose Mercury News: Over the last year, the scientific consensus on global warming has gone from highly probable to unequivocal. In less than a century we may double the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. No scientist or climate model can predict the exact consequences but we do know one thing: Our current path is a high-risk, uncontrolled experiment on the only home we have. California has become a national leader on reducing electrical consumption, saving families money while reducing our carbon ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
As Climate Changes Threatens U.S. Gulf States, Federal Agencies Twiddle Thumbs
http://www.alternet.org/environment/81122/
AlterNet: In late 2006, as I was completing my second book, Storm World-which concerns the relationship between hurricanes and global warming-there was one pesky outstanding piece of information that never seemed to fall into place. Considering the strong grounds that we have for thinking that hurricanes will change in some way due to global warming (and probably worsen, and definitely coast atop higher seas), it seemed obvious to me that relevant government agencies should be taking that fact into ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Biofuels One Factor in Rising Food Prices
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-13-voa3.cfm
Voice of America: Soaring food prices are causing big problems in many parts of the world today. One factor in the ballooning costs may be the increasing global demand for biofuels - vehicle fuels made at least partly from corn (maize) or other food crops. From Washington, VOA's Kent Klein looks at the problem and some possible solutions. Some critics of biofuels contend that using food-based fuel to power vehicles amounts to a competition for food between people and automobiles. World Bank ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Climate change-related diseases kill 150000 yearly in Indonesia
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/13/content_7969011.htm
Xinhua: Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Sunday climate change-related diseases kill about 150,000 people annually in the country, calling on the people to help reduce the impact of climate change. "We are reminding people of the need for them to heed their environment and help reduce the impact of climate change on health," the minister was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying, while addressing a function held to observe the World Health Day here on ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Extended Forecast: Bloodshed
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96841
New York Times: Here's a forecast for a particularly bizarre consequence of climate change: more executions of witches. As we pump out greenhouse gases, most of the discussion focuses on direct consequences like rising seas or aggravated hurricanes. But the indirect social and political impact in poor countries may be even more far-reaching, including upheavals and civil wars – and even more witches hacked to death with machetes. In rural Tanzania, murders of elderly women accused of ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Global CO2 emissions continue to accelerate in 21st century
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/global-co2-emissions-continue-to-accelerate-in-21st-century-re-issue_10037444.html
Asia News International: If estimates are to be believed, carbon dioxide emissions are continuing to accelerate rapidly in the 21st century. According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), the estimates are in contrast to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) projections in 2000 of how greenhouse gas emissions were likely to evolve during the twenty-first century. The high-end scenario combined rapid economic growth and globalization with intensive fossil fuel use and is used as ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Group cites climate change in fight for frog protections
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080412-1443-wst-climatechange-species.html
Associated Press: Environmentalists are suing the federal government over protections for a threatened frog found only in New Mexico, Arizona and a small part of Mexico, arguing that the amphibian is just one of many species facing increasing pressures due to climate change. Once found at hundreds of moist sites across the Southwest, the Chiricahua leopard frog has disappeared from more than 80 percent of its range as a result of disease, nonnative predators, habitat loss and climate change. ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Hungry for oil, starving for food
http://www.bangkokpost.com/130408_Perspective/13Apr2008_pers17.php
Bangkok Post: Supplying the world's growing energy needs while at the same time improving food security for the poor and needy is no easy task. And if it can be done, it will probably involve developing new energy sources to replace fossil fuels while addressing the spiralling cost of food. This seems to be the case for biofuels, which are being promoted in many countries, including Thailand, to reduce CO2 emissions and help in energy security. However, if more arable land is used to ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
New coal-fired power plants opposed in Michigan
http://www.mlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/04/new_coalfired_power_plants_opp.html
Associated Press: In the battle over global warming, front lines are forming in places like Bay City and Midland -- proposed sites for Michigan's first large coal-fired power plants since 1984. If given the go-ahead, the plants could operate for 50 years. That's an eternity to environmental groups upset that existing coal plants pollute the air and emit greenhouse gases linked to climate change. "Why would we make a 50-year commitment to such very old technology?" asked Suzette Zelenak ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Study warns of wildlife "losers"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7345681.stm
BBC: Wildlife will increasingly be divided into winners and losers as the impact of climate change is felt along the UK coast, the National Trust has warned. The habitats of numerous plants and animals will be damaged by rising sea levels, coastal erosion and flooding. But warmer temperatures will be good news for some. Basking sharks, little egrets, and the Celtic sea slug stand to benefit, but wading birds, the grey seal and Sandhill rustic moth could suffer. ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
UN Climate Chief: US Election May Help
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080411-ap-gw-un.html
Associated Press: The U.N. climate chief said Thursday he is encouraged by the climate views of the three contenders in the U.S. presidential election. Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have all expressed support for some form of mandatory controls on carbon emissions, usually involving a "cap-and-trade'' system that allows polluters to buy and sell allowances. "I'm really encouraged to see that all three of the presidential front-runners ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
US urged to invest in clean energy
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/5695331.html
Bloomberg: U.S. labor and environmental groups are cooperating on a campaign calling for more government investment in renewable energy that they say will create thousands of new manufacturing jobs. The United States could add more than 820,000 new "green-collar" jobs, building wind turbines, solar-power equipment and other clean-energy products, the groups said. The 850,000-member United Steelworkers Union, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council have ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Wind Turbines Barred On State-Owned Land
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/12/AR2008041201807.html
Washington Post: Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) announced yesterday morning that he will bar commercial wind turbines from state-owned land, satisfying Western Maryland opponents of the turbines but disappointing supporters of the wind energy industry. Speaking at a scenic overlook in the Savage River State Forest in Garrett County, O'Malley said the state remains committed to exploring renewable energy sources but said the wind energy industry should look to other land for large-scale wind farms. ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Biofuels scheme 'may damage environment'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/14/eabiofuel114.xml
Telegraph: New rules requiring the inclusion of biofuels in vehicle fuels come into force this week, amid calls from environmentalists to find more sustainable ways to cut emissions from transport. The introduction of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) on Tuesday will mean that all petrol sold in the UK will have to include at least 2.5 per cent biofuels, rising to 5 per cent by 2010. But some scientists and green groups fear that biofuels do more harm than good. They say ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Meat consumption reduction urged for better environment protection
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/13/content_7969665.htm
Xinhua: Several participants of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference 2008 （BFA）Sunday called on the public to reduce meat consumption in order to cut down carbon dioxide emission. Gerard Kleisterlee, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Philips Electronics Group, urged the public to eat less meat and take part in the green action of environmental protection at a plenary session of BFA entitled "Climate change: change business, change us." According to ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Unlocking the warming Arctic's secrets
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Science/article/413998
Toronto Star: For our understanding of the Arctic environment and its fate as the climate changes, one relationship is more important than all the others being studied by scientists aboard the Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker converted into a floating polar research base. It's not the complex chemical exchanges between air, snow, ice and water. Not the intricate biology and zoological web which connects plankton to polar bears. Not even the powerful physical forces which power tides and ...
Mon, 14 Apr 08
Are You Unhappy? Is It Because of Consumer Addiction?
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/82013/
AlterNet: "An addict is someone who uses their body to tell society that something is wrong." --Stella Adler (1901-1992) In last year's powerful independent documentary, What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire, producer Sally Erickson pulled from her 20 years working as a therapist in private practice to attempt to explain why so many people, perhaps even you, are so unhappy. The film from writer-director TS Bennett is an epic exploration of a Middle American, middle-class ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Tiny Saves Gas, but Big Can Save Lives
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96784
New York Times: WITH gasoline prices having settled past $3 a gallon and increased talk about global warming, one of those darling little fuel-efficient cars like the Smart Fortwo, Toyota Yaris or Honda Fit may seem more attractive than ever. But are they safe? Knowing for sure is an enormously and perhaps hopelessly complex task. One problem is human ingenuity. People find so many ways to crash that one can't test for all of them. Then there are variations in engineering. Also, cars of different ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Climate change could cause floods, droughts
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/newstoday/article/266021
Associated Press: Scientists predict that climate change in coming decades will cause more flooding in the Northern Hemisphere and droughts in some southern and arid zones. In addition, they said that some areas around the Mediterranean, parts of southern Africa, northeastern Brazil and the western U.S. region will likely suffer water shortages. Rajendra Pachauri, the chief United Nations climate scientist, said at the end of a meeting in Budapest that the rising frequency and intensity of ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Clouds still hang over post-Kyoto framework
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080412TDY04303.htm
Daily Yomiuri: The lack of major achievements at the first meeting of a U.N. panel of climate change experts to create a post-Kyoto Protocol framework indicated that the path ahead is likely to be filled with a host of tough challenges before the target is accomplished. The first meeting was held March 31 to April 4 in Bangkok and attended by delegates from more than 160 countries. On the final day, which lasted until before dawn last Saturday, one of the exhausted Japanese delegates said, ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Decisive rich nation action needed on crisis, says G24
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN230421.html
Reuters: Developing countries on Friday called for "decisive" policy actions by rich industrial nations to ensure financial turmoil originating in the United States did not spread and cause their economies to falter. The Group of 24, which brings together developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, also called on the International Monetary Fund to "urgently" improve its monitoring of the United States and other advanced economies. So far, emerging ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Hunters, anglers worry about warming
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/04/12/news/wyoming/0d59cd9044743837872574270079b2bc.txt
Associated Press: Global warming could force elk and mule deer from much of the American West. Wild trout could disappear in lower Appalachian streams. Two-thirds of the country's ducks may disappear. A new assessment of the threat to fish and wildlife habitat has hunters and anglers calling for action. Groups representing nine major hunting and fishing organizations planned to meet Thursday with the House committee chairman who hopes to write legislation to curtail greenhouse gases linked to ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Market alone can't halt CO2 emissions: British climate official
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNqd2WPZht4rWnVHYFWsyc238mCg
Agence France Presse: A top British climate change official backed an embattled European Union scheme Friday to tax industrial carbon emissions, but also allowed for exceptions in highly competitive sectors. Adair Turner, the newly-appointed head of Britain's Climate Change Committee, also expressed skepticism toward the reliance on industry-wide agreements and new technology favoured by the United States for reducing the greenhouse gases that drive global warning. "My commission and the ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Protection of biodiversity or more wood for bio-energy?
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-107464.html
Innovations Report: As the EU promotes renewable energy with clear targets for 2020 and the wood markets show increasing demand of raw material, the present political discussions are focussing on availability and mobilization of wood in Europe. On the other hand, policies are being developed to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010 and beyond. Protecting biological and landscape diversity has resulted in various protection regimes across Europe, which affect the economic exploitation of ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Scientists Ask EU to Drop Biofuel Targets
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41961
Inter Press Service: Scientists tasked with advising the European Union's policy-makers have called for a target on promoting the greater use of biofuels to be dropped. As part of a battery of measures officially aimed at addressing climate change, the EU's governments agreed in 2006 that 10 percent of the bloc's transport needs should derive from agricultural crops by 2020. In a new paper, the European Environment Agency's scientific committee describes the goal as "overambitious" and ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
U.N. Effort To Curtail Emissions In Turmoil
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120796372237309757.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: A multibillion-dollar experiment designed to curb global warming is stumbling as regulators question whether the program is doing enough environmental good. The United Nations is the main global policeman in an effort by wealthy nations to reduce the impact of their own pollution by paying for cleanups in the developing world. The program, known as the Clean Development Mechanism, is one of the most important coordinated efforts to attack global warming. In recent months, ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Warmer seas, over-fishing spell disaster for oceans: scientists
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=166031
Agence France Presse: The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world's oceans, marine scientists warned this week. The two-thirds of the planet covered by seas provide one fifth of the world's protein -- but 75 percent of fish stocks are now fully exploited or depleted, a Hanoi conference that ended Friday was told. Warming seas are bleaching corals, feeding algal blooms and changing ocean ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Wisconsin Feels Turbulence Over Pulling Power From Air
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041103647.html
Washington Post: Given Wisconsin's reputation as a "green" state, it would seem that a proposal to construct wind farms in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior off the state's shores would easily be approved. But opposition to land-based wind farms and the slow development of wind power in the state have some wind power advocates gearing up for a fight with those expressing concern about humming noise, flickering shadows and ruined views. "Anytime you talk about putting anything in ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Calif. OKs Think Tank on Global Warming
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iSlEUuO5iaxv6_Md2BIu5TtobN_wD8VVQQPO5
Associated Press: California will create a $600 million think tank to fight global warming, funded by a 25- or 30-cent surcharge on customers' electrical and gas bills, the state Public Utilities Commission has decided. Commission President Michael Peevey pushed the plan approved Thursday to create the California Institute for Climate Solutions. It is envisioned to bring together academic and private laboratories to quickly find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Electric and gas utilities ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
EU can hit biofuels goal without conflicts: Germany
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1224779320080412
Reuters: The European Union can achieve its 2020 target to get 10 percent of all transport fuel from biofuels without adding to soaring food prices and harming rainforests, Germany's environment minister said on Saturday. "We can meet the 10 percent target through biofuel production in the European Union (and imports of) raw materials, which do not lead to a conflict with food or rainforests," Sigmar Gabriel told reporters on the fringes of a meeting of EU environment ministers in ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Food crisis is real, and it's spreading around the world
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8901674
San Jose Mercury News: These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there's another world crisis under way - a food crisis that's hurting a lot more people. Over the past few years the prices of wheat, corn, rice and other basic foodstuffs have doubled or tripled, with much of the increase taking place just in the last few months. High food prices dismay even relatively well-off Americans, but they're truly devastating in poor countries, where food often accounts for more than half a ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Get With It, Builders and Buyers: A Scaled-Down Dream Home
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/11/AR2008041101842.html
Washington Post: Large, lavishly furnished demonstration homes are built to whet the appetites of consumers, but such homes are beyond the financial reach of most families. Given today's economic and ecological realities, shouldn't the building industry demonstrate something else? How about showcasing artfully designed houses that are compact yet livable, that are reasonably priced and environmentally sustainable? The subprime-triggered mortgage crisis and rise in foreclosures have painfully ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Hibernating grizzlies emerge early from dens
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=7cb0042b-d8cf-4788-8506-d79e7905ae76
Calgary Herald: American scientists are hoping to determine if climate change is causing grizzly bears to hibernate later each fall and emerge from their winter slumber much earlier. It's a trend that has been noticed on both sides of the border. Researchers in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem want to know if shifting weather patterns may be influencing the denning behaviour of some of the area's 500 to 600 grizzlies. Their findings, based on data collected from 1975 to 1999, show ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Australia: Kayaker makes epic trip in dam protest
http://news.smh.com.au/kayaker-makes-epic-trip-in-dam-protest/20080412-25oz.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Environmental campaigner and kayaker Steve Posselt on Saturday began a 29-day trek from Brisbane to Maryborough to protest against the building of the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam. A crowd of onlookers cheered as Mr Posselt started his journey which involves him paddling up the Mary River to Hervey Bay before taking to the ocean on the return leg. The Queensland government has proposed building the dam on the Mary River, near Gympie, to supply water for the state's ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Oil, environment, lifestyle fuel Asia's two-wheeler boom
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRlIfWfvZJ-hwxftDp5-UCpnApVg
Agence France Presse: Record high oil prices, environmental concerns, affluent lifestyles as well as the need to dodge city traffic are driving a boom in Asia's motorcycle and bicycle market, industry figures say. The rediscovery of cycling as a way to keep fit is also helping to boost demand for two-wheelers, those at a bicycle and motorcycle exhibition which runs in Singapore until Sunday said. Asia is already the world's biggest market for two-wheelers but there is still room for growth, said ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Scientists: Warming could sap Great Lakes
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080412/GPG0101/804120603/1207/GPGnews
Detroit Free Press: Lower lake levels, less ice cover, more algae, more invasive species and more waterborne diseases linked to sewer overflows after severe storms. Those are among the dire forecasts about the impact of global warming on the Great Lakes from scientists who concluded two days of presentations at Michigan State University this week. Some changes already are dramatic. Consider the speedy warming of Lake Superior, where water temperatures are rising twice as fast as air ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Australia: Shock report on resource-hungry Queenlanders
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/report-slams-resourcehungry-queenlanders/2008/04/12/1207856905741.html
Brisbane Times: A new report into the environment has found Queenslanders are using their natural resources much faster than the world average. The State of the Environment Queensland 2007 report shows Queenslanders are living a lifestyle which is depleting the earth's resources at a rate almost three and a half times higher than the world average. The report is released every four years and based on research by independent scientists, government and academics. Queensland Minister for ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
The coming hunger
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ideas/article/413769
Toronto Star: The warning bells are ringing, furiously. This week, food riots paralyzed Haiti, with angry marchers outside the president's palace shouting "We are hungry!" Five people were killed in the chaos. In Egypt, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed this week in two days of violence over food shortages. Last month, a two-week protest at government-subsidized bakeries ended with the deaths of 10 Egyptians in clashes with police. Rice is the staple food of 4 billion ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Canada: What to Do About Water
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=6c0eced8-6326-4a53-9606-0be501bd6682
Vancouver Sun: DRY SPRING The Coming Water Crisis of North America BY CHRIS WOOD Raincoast Books, 370 pages ($23.95) - - In the spring of 2005, David Suzuki and I met in Calgary with the CEOs of Canada's major oil companies to talk about solutions to global warming. Our visit coincided with two weeks of rain and melting snow that swept unprecedented volumes of water over the Elbow River's Glenmore Dam and into the city, driving 1,500 people from their homes. ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Australia: Wong discusses clean coal with China
http://ararat.yourguide.com.au/articles/1221433.html?src=topstories
AAP: Australia and China have a common interest in finding a lower carbon solution for coal, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. That means developing a carbon capture and storage mechanism. The two countries have agreed to work together on a post-Kyoto agreement as well as research into clean coal technology. Senator Wong, who is in Beijing, says the government has already stated its intention to play an active and constructive role in the international ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Australian PM proposes co-op with China in tackling climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/12/content_7965906.htm
Xinhua: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Saturday that China and Australia should cooperate in dealing with climate change. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference, the newly-elected Rudd said climate change was a common issue facing the whole world. "Every country has its own challenges, but climate change is believed to be the biggest moral and economic one," he said. "The starting point for the ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Changing US Climate Tone Boosts Trans-Atlantic Energy Project
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3256003,00.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Shifting attitudes in the US have helped make a trans-Atlantic energy initiative possible, said the project's co-director. Germany's foreign minister will kick off the venture on the sidelines of his US visit. Roland Schindler is co-director of a fledgling US-German cooperation between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Freiburg-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System. The project focuses on sustainable energy systems and is being launched on Saturday, April ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Climate change protest at airport
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/nottinghamshire/7344019.stm
BBC: Dozens of people dressed as Prime Minister Gordon Brown are set to protest against climate change at East Midlands Airport. East Midlands Friends of the Earth group wants the government's new Climate Change Bill to include carbon emissions for the aviation industry. In its current form, the law will cover most business sectors but not aviation. Friends of the Earth's Callie Lister said it was "crazy to leave out emissions from planes and ships". ...
Sun, 13 Apr 08
Rise in food prices leads to international crisis
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/globaldevelopment/080412-food-crisis-mc
Radio Netherlands: In countries across the world, from Haiti to Cameroon and from Egypt to Indonesia the authorities are facing riots over the increasing price of basic food staples such as wheat and rice. The disturbances are taking place mostly in large cities in the world's poorest countries. The United Nations says there is an emergency situation in 37 countries. At their annual meeting in Washington this weekend the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which already have to deal with ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
The other global crisis: rush to biofuels is driving up price of food
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/the-other-global-crisis-rush-to-biofuels-is-driving-up-price-of-food-808138.html
Independent: The world's most powerful finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington tomorrow; but as they preoccupy themselves with the global credit crunch, another crisis, far more grave, is facing the world's poorest people. A dramatic rise in the worldwide cost of food is provoking riots throughout the Third World where millions more of the world's most vulnerable people are facing starvation as food shortages grow and cereal prices soar. It threatens to become the biggest ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Australia: Millions down drain in wetlands battle
http://www.smh.com.au/news/water-issues/millions-down-drain-in-wetlands-battle/2008/04/11/1207856832401.html
Sydney Morning Herald: WATER use continues to spin unsustainably out of control in the troubled Murray-Darling Basin, despite millions of taxpayer dollars being spent buying back water entitlements. The most comprehensive hydrological study of the entire basin shows just how much development has reduced vital flooding to important wetlands linked to the Lachlan and Macquarie catchments. Things are set to worsen in the two major irrigation valleys due to climate change and increased pumping from ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Warning of food riots as world cereal prices hit record highs
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Warning-of-food-riots-.3975494.jp
Scotsman: FOOD riots in developing countries will spread unless world leaders take major steps to reduce prices for the poor, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) warned yesterday. World cereal production will rise, but record prices are unlikely to fall, forcing poorer countries' food import bills up 56 per cent and hungry people on to the streets, the FAO's director-general, Jacques Diouf, said. "The reality is that people are dying already in the ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Australia: Officials reverse censor move
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/officials-reverse-censor-move/2008/04/11/1207856836900.html
Age: WATER officials were forced into an embarrassing censorship backdown yesterday, after the leaking of an internal memo revealed plans to give Water Minister Tim Holding control over all staff contact with Opposition members of Parliament. The attempt to give Mr Holding "prior approval" before contact was made with external groups or individuals was made late on Thursday by David Stewart, acting general manager of Goulburn Murray Water. In an office memo sent at 3.33pm, ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Australia: PM makes great leap on China
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23524628-25377,00.html
Australian: LU Kewen, as our Prime Minister is known to tens of millions in Mandarin, is usually no Red Guard. In fact, he is a counter-revolutionary, having written his honours thesis admiringly on the famous Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, who wrote a brilliant large character wall poster on the "fifth modernisation": democracy, which China's leaders have refused to embrace as part of their economic modernisation. But Kevin Rudd this week has produced his own cultural ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Canada: 'Peak oil' crisis, and drastic change, coming our way
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=55d5588b-2e0a-4835-80f7-9546ef7c46e7
Vancouver Sun: In the 1990s the Vancouver Board of Trade's debt clock travelled the nation, delivering a doom and gloom message about Canada's $583-billion debtload. The public's consciousness was raised, allowing politicians to impose change through hardship. Today, the debt is under control and attention has shifted to climate change. In the U.S., Al Gore just launched a $300-million ad blitz to increase awareness about climate change, aiming to have his fellow citizens cut their ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Changing weather to impact harsh on women and children
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/159668/1/
OneWorld South Asia: The impact of climate change could fall disproportionately on women and children, UNICEF cautioned today, on the occasion of World Health Day 2008. The theme for World Health Day 2008 is climate change and health. The annual day commemorates the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO). "Nearly 10 million children under age five die every year of largely preventable diseases," said Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF. "Many of the main global killers of ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Rudd's climate warning
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23526480-2702,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has ended his Beijing visit with a warning to the two global giants of the coal trade, Australia and China, to do more to address climate change or face "alarming" water shortages. At a Beijing coal-fired power plant, which is the first to trial Australian CSIRO technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions, the Prime Minister cited the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, which warns of significant threats to Australia, including an increase ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Analysis: Sens. extend renewable tax break
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Analysis/2008/04/11/analysis_sens_extend_renewable_tax_break/1490/
United Press International: The Senate extended tax credits for renewable energy Thursday, prolonging the economic incentives the renewable industry receives. The legislation mirrors a bill introduced last week by Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who pushed the action through the Senate as an amendment to the Housing Stimulus Bill. The amendment sailed through with a 88-8 vote, and the Housing bill passed 84-12. The Production Tax Credit gives facilities 2 cents for every ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
India: Anti-climate change march in six cities Saturday
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/anti-climate-change-march-in-six-cities-saturday_10036965.html
Indo-Asian News Service: People in six cities of India - five of them on the coast - will hold marches on Saturday to campaign against climate change that threatens to drown parts of their cities. The citizens of Mumbai, Panaji, Kochi, Chennai, Puri and Kolkata will gather on their favourite beaches (riverside in case of Kolkata) to raise people's awareness about climate change that will raise temperatures globally, and see some of these spots vanish as sea levels rise. According to experts, overpopulated ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
California to be home to $600 million global warming research
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8881376?source=most_emailed
San Jose Mercury News: California will establish a high-profile, $600 million research center to devise solutions for global warming, the Public Utilities Commission decided in a 5-0 vote Thursday. The California Institute for Climate Solutions will have a $60 million budget each year for 10 years. The money will come from ratepayers of the state's major utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric, which serves much of Northern California. The new institute, which will seek matching funds to ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Canada Logging May Ignite 'Carbon Bomb' - Greenpeace
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47900/story.htm
Reuters: Canada threatens to ignite a "carbon bomb" that could drastically worsen global warming if it continues heavy logging in areas of its vast northern forest, Greenpeace warned in a report on Thursday. Logging and other developments in the boreal forest release the carbon that the trees have trapped from the atmosphere over decades, potentially producing more greenhouse gases than from burning fossil fuels, the environmental group charged. Greenpeace called for a ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
IT has a huge negative impact on the environment, Suzuki says
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=47927&cid=10
IT Business: When David Suzuki was five-years-old, his parents weren't concerned about the amount of time he spent watching TV or surfing the Web because they'd never heard of a television set or a computer – instead, they worried he'd catch polio. The world has changed since the noted environmentalist was five-years-old. "Now we have too much information," he says. "I don't even know how many TVs we have in our house. We have all this technology and I'm busier than I ever ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Netherlands and Brazil sign agreement to cooperate on biofuels
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilevjaHDW1Vm0neP2bJxQmkWSd7Q
Agence France Presse: The Netherlands and Brazil on Friday signed an agreement to share knowledge about the production and transport of biofuels during a state visit by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to The Hague. The Netherlands sees itself as a potentially key transit point to transport Brazilian ethanol biofuels to rest of the European Union countries. The EU has committed itself to increase its renewable energy use by 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, with biofuels to ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Madagascar: New mapping technique offers hope for Madagascan wildlife
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/11/conservation.wildlife
Guardian: Scientists have used pioneering technology to examine in minute detail one of the world's richest biodiversity "hot spots" and identify habitats that, if conserved, will protect the greatest number of species. High-resolution satellite images have been taken of the entire 226,657 square mile island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, a renowned biodiversity "hot spot" where 80% of its 30,000 known species are endemic – that is, they are found nowhere else ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Australia: The future of solar-powered houses is clear
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/energie_elektrotechnik/bericht-107480.html
Innovations Report: Professor John Bell said QUT had worked with a Canberra-based company Dyesol, which is developing transparent solar cells that act as both windows and energy generators in houses or commercial buildings. He said the solar cell glass would make a significant difference to home and building owners' energy costs and could, in fact, generate excess energy that could be stored or onsold. Professor Bell said the glass was one of a number of practical technologies that would help ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
UN agency says soaring cereal prices threaten peace and security
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTu0vMcBxRip-njhDyLppGQWXrYA
Agence France Presse: Soaring cereal prices are a growing threat to world peace and security and to the human rights of developing countries facing food crises, the head of the UN food agency warned Friday. "I'm surprised I have not been summoned to the UN Security Council, since many problems discussed there do not have the same consequences for peace and security in the world and the human rights of people who need to be fed," Jacques Diouf told a news conference in Rome. At least five ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
US Congress Should Take Lead On CO2 Rules - Lawmakers
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47892/story.htm
Reuters: The task of writing first-ever rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions should fall to the Congress and not federal regulators, key lawmakers in the House said Thursday. Pressured by a landmark 2007 ruling by the Supreme Court that it must reconsider its refusal to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions from new cars and trucks, the Environmental Protection Agency last month started a long process of writing regulations. The process could eventually yield the first rules on ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Chilean glacial lake dries up in global warming
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/chilean-glacial-lake-dries-up-in-global-warming_10036973.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Cachet 2, a five kilometre long glacial lake in the eastern sector of the Northern Ice Field in Aysen area disappeared apparently due to the relatively high temperatures. The disappearance of the lake was discovered Monday when experts observed a heavy increase in the flow of the Baker River that flows through the region. Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the lake and increased pressure ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Drought To Worsen Zimbabwe Food Situation - FAO
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47899/story.htm
Reuters: Drought in several Zimbabwean provinces is likely to damage the main 2008 maize harvest and could worsen an already tight food security situation there, the United Nations' food agency said on Thursday. "The food security situation in Zimbabwe is critical," Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement. "Food insecurity for about one-third of the vulnerable population keeps worsening." Zimbabwe's economy lies in ruins with the world's highest ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Franco-German CO2 emissions talks deadlocked-Berlin
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSL1189485020080411
Reuters: France and Germany are still a long way from finding a common position over proposed binding European Union curbs on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars, German officials said on Friday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a government official told Reuters no progress had been made on key issues. The head of Germany's carmakers' lobby confirmed the deadlock. "(Germany and France) are still a long way apart on the key questions," Matthias Wissmann, president of ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Japan, France PMs want G8 action on warming
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hmI6ALi0k4sV4LuwybunGoBStBJQ
Agence France Presse: The prime ministers of Japan and France said Friday they wanted to put global warming high on the agenda for the Group of Eight summit and hailed nuclear power as a way to reduce carbon emissions. Japan will host the G8 summit in the northern mountain resort of Toyako from July 7 to 9, days after France takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union. "We agreed to jointly tackle various issues facing the international community such as development in Africa and ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Melting glacier causes Chilean lake drain
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/11/melting_glacier_causes_chilean_lake_drain/8510/
United Press International: A lake in southern Chile was suddenly emptied due to a melting glacier experts blamed on global warming, Chilean officials said. The water from the melting Colonia glacier had swelled in Cachet Lake causing it to flow wildly this month into the Bake River -- causing what climate officials called a small tsunami, La Nacion reported Friday. While the lake was nearly drained from the rapid flow of melted glacier waters, it was nearly refilled this week, said observers.
Sat, 12 Apr 08
New York Rejects LNG Terminal in Long Island Sound
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2008/2008-04-11-091.asp
Environment News Service: The New York Secretary of State has rejected Broadwater Energy's proposal to construct a floating Liquefied Natural Gas terminal moored and moor it in Long Island Sound. The proposal is not consistent with six Long Island Sound Coastal Management Program policies. New York Governor David Paterson made the announcement Thursday, saying, "One of my goals as governor is to protect Long Island Sound, by preserving it as a valuable estuary, an economic engine for the region, and a ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
United States: Prison's wood-fired power plant a big loser
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/apr/11/prisons-wood-fired-power-plant-big-loser/
Las Vegas Sun: An $8.3 million biomass plant that was supposed to generate electricity by burning wood at a state prison in Carson City has been a failure so far. The staff at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center is not qualified to run the plant and the prison has not been able to collect enough wood to keep it operating, officials said. When the plant is shut down, the prison loses $200,000 a month – the cost of buying energy and paying off the construction loan. The Legislature's ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
REC expands in downstream US solar market
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSL1142956320080411
Reuters: Norwegian solar industry group Renewable Energy Corporation (REC.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) has bought into U.S. peer Mainstream Energy to boost its presence in the promising market of selling clean solar energy directly to U.S. consumers. REC said on Friday it bought a 20 percent stake in California-based, privately held Mainstream Energy LLC for $40 million. It also has options to take a majority in the group. Already a leading maker of solar energy components and the ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Rhodia says sells 7.9 million CO2 credits to Japan
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1189069320080411
Reuters: A Japanese government agency has bought almost 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions offsets from the Japanese arm of French chemical company Rhodia in the past two years in an effort to help the country meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol, the deals' facilitators said on Friday. The offset credits, called CERs, were bought in fiscal 2006 and 2007 by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in tenders won by orbeo, a joint venture between ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
Suez calls for EU energy policy, single regulator
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL1192116020080411
Reuters: Suez (LYOE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Gerard Mestrallet called on Friday for a common energy policy and a single regulator in Europe, but said this would probably take time. Mestrallet also reiterated his opposition to plans by the European Commission to separate energy production and transport networks. "We need to go further in the creation of a big European energy market. I am in favour of a single regulator. This would be gradual with a common ...
Sat, 12 Apr 08
UK minister won't "preach" on Canada's emissions
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/04/10/europe/OUKWD-UK-BRITAIN-ENVIRONMENT.php
Reuters: Britain's energy minister said on Thursday he will work with Canadian officials on technology for fighting global warming, and steered clear of criticizing Canada's less-ambitious targets for cutting emissions. Unlike the United Kingdom, the governments of Canada and Alberta, the country's biggest energy producer, have resisted moving forward with mandating tough absolute caps on emissions to foster an active carbon trading market. "I'm not here to preach. I'm here to ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Drought a factor in food aid shortage: UN
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23520597-5014046,00.html
Australian: THE UN World Food Program has singled out the drought in Australia as a major factor behind its difficulty in finding food aid for 80 million of the world's hungry. WFP Asia head Tony Banbury told The Australian yesterday that the drought had hit the nation's grain harvest, not only driving up wheat prices but also drying up a traditional source of food for WFP. "The drought in Australia, according to some scientists, could be evidence of the early impact of global ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Greenpeace Warns On Canada's Northern Forests
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47890/story.htm
Reuters: Greenpeace warned on Thursday that Canada's logging practices threaten to turn the country's vast northern forest into a source of global warming, but the forestry industry says it is already taking steps to fight climate change. Logging and other development in the boreal forest release the carbon that the trees have trapped from the atmosphere over decades, potentially producing more greenhouse gases than from burning fossil fuels, the environmental group charged in a new report. ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Shell warns Europe on emissions permit
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23519642-5005200,00.html
Times: ROYAL Dutch Shell, the world's second-largest oil company, has threatened to stop investing in Europe if it is forced to pay for emissions permits that have previously been free. Christian Balme, a Shell France director, told the European Parliament that if the EU moved towards a system in which emission quotas were auctioned, it would destroy Shell's profitability in Europe. In January, the European Commission announced proposals aimed at slashing EU emissions of CO2 by 20 ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Warm welcome for China-Aus climate partnership
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/11/2213793.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Environmental groups have welcomed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announcement of closer co-operation with China on climate change issues. Mr Rudd and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have agreed on a new ministerial level partnership, and funding for a group to develop clean-coal technology. John Connor from the Climate Institute says the agreement reflects the importance countries like China will play in the development of a new global deal to cut greenhouse gas ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Canada: Boreal forest ticking 'carbon bomb' — report
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1048655.html
Canadian Press: Canada's boreal forest is a ticking "carbon bomb" and its continued logging could trigger a massive release of greenhouse gases, says a new report. A Greenpeace study released Wednesday says cutting down trees in the boreal forest is exacerbating climate change by releasing stores of greenhouse gases trapped in soil and vegetation. It also found that logging makes the forest more susceptible to insect outbreaks and wildfires which, if widespread, could cause a spike ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Climate change could lead to global food crisis, scientists warn
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/10/europe/EU-GEN-Hungary-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: Scientists warned Thursday that climate change in coming decades will cause more floods in the Northern Hemisphere and droughts in the south and in arid areas, which may lead to a global food crisis. Areas that will suffer water shortages include the Mediterranean Sea basin, the western U.S., parts of southern Africa and northeastern Brazil. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change chairman Rajendra Pachauri said at the end of a meeting in Budapest that the rising frequency ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Climate experts predict temperature drop
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/10/eaclimate110.xml
Telegraph: Climate experts are forecasting a drop in global temperatures this year. Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organisation, said temperatures in 2008 are likely to be cooler because of the effects of the La Nina in the central and eastern Pacific. He said it was likely that the La Nina phenomenon would continue into the summer. If his forecast is right it would mean temperatures have not risen globally since 1998 when El Nino warmed the world. La ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Global wind power capacity rises 27 percent in 2007
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1088821420080410
Reuters: Global wind power capacity grew 27 percent last year in a market now worth some $36 billion, a U.S.-based research organization said on Thursday. More than 94,100 megawatts of wind energy were produced in 2007, or enough to power around 70 million homes, the Worldwatch Institute said in a statement. Germany remained the world leader in wind energy, accounting for nearly a quarter of global capacity. Its 22,247 megawatts of generated wind energy now makes up around 7 percent of ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Population Set to Double By 2036
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804100908.html
Concord Times: What is rapid population growth? JM: The sub-Saharan population is growing at the rate of 2.5 percent per year as compared to 1.2 percent in Latin America and Asia. At that rate, Africa's population would double in 28 years. The reason for the fast population increase in Africa is the rapid decline in infant and child mortality, whilst fertility levels have remained high and are decreasing only slowly. Today, African women bear 5.5 children on average during their lifetime, ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Senate adds energy tax measure to housing bill
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKWAT00930420080410
Reuters: The Senate voted on Thursday to amend a tax-focused housing market rescue bill with a measure that would extend tax incentives to encourage renewable energy production. The tax credit would be extended for one year for producing electricity from wind, biomass, hydropower and geothermal facilities. A 30 percent investment credit would also be extended for businesses that install solar or fuel cell equipment. Extending the tax credits would ensure that planned renewable energy projects ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Senate extends energy tax credits in housing bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN1035911820080410
Reuters: The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to amend a tax-focused housing market rescue bill to include a measure that would extend tax incentives to encourage renewable energy production. A tax credit would be extended for one year through 2009 for producing electricity from wind, biomass, hydropower and geothermal facilities. Businesses and homeowners would also be able to offset 30 percent of the cost for installing solar or fuel cell equipment with a one-time tax credit. The ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
US Senate Votes For Solar, Wind Tax Credits; Faces Hurdles
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200804101159DOWJONESDJONLINE000914_FORTUNE5.htm
Dow Jones: The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to extend tax credits for wind-power and solar-energy projects, but the measure is unlikely to become law in its current form due to concern it would add to the nation's deficit. By 88-8, the Senate added the renewable-energy tax credits to a major housing bill. Companies such as utility XCel Energy Inc. (XEL), the largest U.S. seller of wind-generated energy, have been calling on Congress to act quickly. The tax credits expire at the end of the year, ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
World Bank "Playing Both Sides of Climate Crisis"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41943
Inter Press Service: A new study released by an independent policy think tank casts further doubts on the World Bank's ability to stay neutral in the global politics of climate change. "It is making money off of causing the climate crisis and then turning around and claiming to solve it," charged Janet Redman, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies. In releasing the 79-page report Thursday, Redman described the World Bank's role in the so-called ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
World Bank Carbon-Reduction Investments Criticized in Report
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aWTJNg3CD1Fg&refer=germany
Bloomberg: The World Bank's support for projects that reduce carbon-dioxide emissions in developing countries encourages polluting industries and fails to promote renewable energy, the Institute for Policy Studies said. The manager of $2.1 billion in 10 carbon funds has invested most in ventures that remove climate-warming gases during industrial processes at coal, chemical, iron and steel companies, said Janet Redman, author of today's report. That created an ``incentive'' to maintain the ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
'Citizen scientists' watch for signs of climate change
http://www.axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/14437
Christian Science Monitor: Kite-flying Benjamin Franklin was one. So was President Thomas Jefferson, who did important work in archaeology at an Indian burial ground. British chemist Michael Faraday, who had only a grammar school education but discovered the principles of electromagnetism, is a prime example. So is Jack Horner, the world-renowned discoverer of dinosaur behavior and adviser to "Jurassic Park," who never finished college. All of them are among amateur or "citizen" scientists ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Britain wants G8 to discuss biofuel link to food prices
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8bS2flFZIOE3Q_UW918fXiie0Xg
Agence France Presse: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged his Japanese counterpart to include the impact of biofuel production on food prices on the agenda of the G8 summit in July, Downing Street said Thursday. "There is growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable," Brown wrote in a letter to Yasuo Fukuda. Food prices have been ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Brown Tells G-8 Biofuels May Cause Food Shortages
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aol9PFPEc8.k&refer=europe
Bloomberg: Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the U.K. government is concerned that biofuels are stimulating inflation and pushing up food prices around the world. Brown, in a letter to leaders of the Group of Eight nations, urged countries to study the impact of using the fuels made from crops including corn and soybeans. The U.S. and other nations are encouraging the fuels such as ethanol to be added to gasoline as a way of reducing damage to the environment. The price of rice, the ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Chaos Spreads as Food Prices Skyrocket
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,546551,00.html
Spiegel: Gunfire in Haiti. Riots in Cameroon. A government crisis in the Philippines. The effects of skyrocketing food prices have reached every corner of the globe. Now, the World Bank has called for world leaders to take action before it is too late. The scenes in Haiti have been dramatic. Gunfire on the streets in the capital Port-au-Prince; thousands parading through the streets; and 9,000 United Nations peacekeepers powerless to stop the violence and the widespread looting. Five people ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
United Kingdom: PM writes to G8 urging action on food scarcity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/10/biofuels.food?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: Gordon Brown raised fresh concerns about the impact of biofuels yesterday, as he put rising food prices on the world agenda by writing to fellow G8 leaders to prepare an international package on food scarcity. He wants the issue to be on the agenda of the G8 summit in Japan in July, and said he had concerns about the way in which the rush towards environmentally questionable biofuels might displace much-needed food production. He is also likely to discuss the issue with US ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Shipping CO2 controls to raise transport costs
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSL0827741820080410
Reuters: The world's shipping industry plans to limit its growing carbon dioxide emissions by taxing marine fuels and signing up to a new climate change deal in moves likely to raise transport costs for raw materials. Experts say the measures, aired at an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) meeting on fuel pollutants in London last week and about a year away from being formally agreed, will be painful but are necessary in the fight against climate change. "If costs go up then ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Canada: The push to electric cars will come with hidden costs
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=99e1c72d-cd35-4812-b034-62f52c14d127
Vancouver Sun: Thirty-five years ago this month, Martin Cooper picked up his phone, dialed a number and changed the world. Cooper was the general manager of Motorola's Communication Systems Division. He was calling a rival at AT&T to gloat. What mattered was not what he said, but how he made the call. Cooper was calling from a street corner in New York City in the first public use of his new invention -- the cellular phone. Today more than three billion cellphones are in use around ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
India: Why we need renewable energy more than ever
http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1332978
MSN: In discussions of the global food crisis, one of the objects of blame has been the diversion of crops for the manufacture of bio-fuels in the US. While land should not be used for fuel crops in a food crisis, it is also true that we need non-conventional energy. In recent years, countries all over the world have been interested in finding non-conventional energy sources because oil, natural gas and coal are not renewable sources (although some efforts to manufacture artifical coal ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Backing for opencast protesters
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/merthyr/2008/04/10/backing-for-opencast-protesters-91466-20741961/
icWales: THE CLIMATE change protest by a group who halted work at Ffos-y-fran has received backing from a global wildlife organisation. Worldwide Fund for Nature Cymru has added its support to last week's protest which saw around 40 activists take over the main entrance of the opencast mine, occupying a digger and scaling a washery tower. A spokesperson for the Welsh branch of WWF, based in Cardiff Bay, said it had "grave concern about the UK's ability to reduce its carbon emissions ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Canada: Enviros seek oilsands ally
http://calsun.canoe.ca/Business/2008/04/10/5244166-sun.html
Calgary Sun: Environmental activists will ask Great Britain's energy minister to pressure the Canadian government to slow development of Alberta's oilsands and enact more stringent environmental targets. Malcolm Wicks, in Calgary today as part of a two-day tour through the province, will meet with representatives of several environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the Sierra Club of Canada, in a private meeting this afternoon. "We're sitting down to give him our take on the ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Haiti food riots just the beginning, UN predicts
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=45d85b6c-b1cf-4387-9f9f-63cb4520c164
Times: The Haitian capital was paralysed by food riots yesterday as the United Nations gave warning that soaring food prices were spurring unrest around the world. Rioters returned to the streets in Port-au-Prince a day after UN peacekeepers had to fire rubber bullets to prevent hungry Haitians from storming the presidential palace. Columns of thick smoke rose over the city as demonstrators, demanding that the government take action over the rising price of foodstuffs such as rice, beans and ...
Fri, 11 Apr 08
Is EPA stalling on greenhouse gas?
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/10/epa_air_pollution
MarketPlace: Scott Jagow: Today in Washington, Congress will hear how the EPA plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this country. John Dimsdale reports. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Dimsdale: One year ago, the Supreme Court ruled the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution. But the agency is still studying what to do, saying it doesn't want to harm the economy. Georgetown University law professor Lisa ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
"Clean coal" elusive as governments balk at cost
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL0391924220080410
Reuters: Governments and the private sector are balking at the expense of kick-starting a technology to bury planet-warming gases underground, casting doubts on "clean coal" plans seen vital to help fight climate change. A handful of nations are developing audacious plans to trap and seal beyond reach the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from burning fossil fuels in power plants. The technology -- carbon capture and storage (CCS) -- may help answer the riddle of ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Brazil's president says biofuel crops are not pushing up food prices
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/10/europe/EU-GEN-Netherlands-Brazil.php
Associated Press: Brazil's president insisted Thursday that crops used for ethanol are not responsible for driving up food prices, and said Haiti – where food riots have erupted recently – could benefit from a biofuel industry. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was speaking after meeting Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende at the start of a two-day state visit during which he hopes to boost Dutch investment in Brazil's biofuel industry. Ministers from both countries were signing an agreement to ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Climate change rises on World Bank agenda
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN048769.html
Reuters: Climate change is now one of the World Bank's top concerns because of its expected impact on health and economic growth in developing countries, the bank's lead environmental economist said. Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are where global warming's damage will disproportionately be felt, and that makes it a key issue for the World Bank and other financial institutions aiming to foster development, said Kirk Hamilton, co-author of the Global Monitoring Report. The ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Floods And Drought To Rise Due To Climate Change
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47871/story.htm
Reuters: Flooding in temperate regions and the tropics and droughts in arid regions are likely to increase over the course of the century due to climate change, according to a study released on Wednesday. The study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body which won last year's Nobel Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore, said changes in fresh water supplies would have a huge impact on humans and on the environment. "The frequency of heavy precipitation ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Rudd to pressure China on climate change
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23515593-2,00.html
AAP: CHINA will need to play an increasingly prominent role in international efforts to address climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Mr Rudd will be discussing the issue when he meets Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tomorrow and President Hu Jintao on Saturday. In a speech at Peking University, Mr Rudd said climate change was the great moral, economic and environmental challenge of the time. "That's why climate change will be an important part of my discussions ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Saudi oil minister predicts fossil fuels to serve global energy needs for at least 50 years
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/10/business/EU-FIN-France-Oil-Summit.php
Associated Press: Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi said Thursday he expects fossil fuels will supply the bulk of global energy needs for at least the next 50 years. To meet future demand, the No. 1 producer, and by far the most influential member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is boosting production, he told delegates at the International Oil Summit in Paris. "Moving from our current sources of energy, primarily fossil fuels, to a dominant new source will require ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
The effect of climate change on the patterns of bird distribution east and west of Wallace's Line
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bericht-107375.html
Innovations Report: Indo-Malayan region is one of the richest bird species areas in the world. Researchers in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak found that sea level and climate changes during the last glacial period played a key role in the diversification of birds in this region where bird species gradually diversified when sea levels were low. This continues until today. The evolutionary processes leading to the development of new species, their extinction, immigration and emigration may be influenced by ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
UN climate change body to prepare new assessment report - Summary
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/198105,un-climate-change-body-to-prepare-new-assessment-report--summary.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has agreed to put out its next major assessment report by 2014, the body's chairman Rajendra Pachauri said Thursday. The IPCC's previous report was largely responsible for last year's award of the Peace Prize, which the organization shared with former US vice president Al Gore for increasing public awareness of man-made climate change. Pachauri, speaking to journalists during the body's 28th ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Soaring food prices swell political unrest
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/soaring-food-prices-swell-political-unrest/2008/04/09/1207420485594.html
Age: RISING food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the United Nations' top humanitarian official has warned after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world. Sir John Holmes, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, told a conference in Dubai yesterday that escalating prices would trigger protests and riots in vulnerable ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Ways of adapting to less water on agenda
http://www.theage.com.au/news/environment/ways-of-adapting-to-less-water-on-agenda/2008/04/09/1207420486462.html
Age: ¡öWhat can be done to help rural and regional economies thrive? ¡öWhat are the options for dealing with increasing areas of marginally productive land? ¡öWhat support do farmers need to prepare for climate change? ¡öHow can the social and health impact of drought on farmers be alleviated? ¡öHow can farmers capitalise on opportunities that climate change presents, such as renewable energy production and carbon credit schemes? FOR two years there has been no ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Windfarm to produce energy for 20000 homes
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/south-wales-news/cynon-valley/2008/04/10/windfarm-to-produce-energy-for-20-000-homes-91466-20734438/
icWales: CYNON Valley firm Pennant Walters says the wind farm it wants to build on the mountainside overlooking the Cynon Valley would produce enough electricity to power around 20,000 homes. It would contribute to targets set by the Welsh Assembly Government to cut dependence on fossil fuels as sources of energy and thus reduce carbon emissions which contribute towards global warming. In a statement, Pennant Walters said: "Interest in renewable energy production, such as that produced ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
As Rice Prices Soar, Asian Governments, Experts Push for Return to Farms
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-10-voa9.cfm
Voice of America: As rice prices soar toward $1,000 a ton, governments across Asia brace for possible unrest as the region's staple food becomes less affordable and less available. VOA's Heda Bayron examines why prices are soaring and what needs to be done to keep millions from starvation, reporting from the leading rice exporting nation, Thailand. Fried or steamed, rice is eaten at almost every meal in Asia. But there could be less rice on the table now, as prices soar and supply ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Business Leaders Unite To Sway UN Climate Talks
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47875/story.htm
Reuters: Business leaders, scientists and policymakers from around the world have joined forces to try to influence politicians negotiating a post-Kyoto deal at next year's UN Climate Conference in the Danish capital. The newly formed Copenhagen Climate Council will include such prominent business leaders as Sir Richard Branson, founder and chief executive of Virgin Group, and Li Xiaolin, chairwoman and CEO of China Power. Anders Eldrup, chief executive of Danish energy group DONG ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Ford Wins Over Critics With Greenhouse Pledge
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47874/story.htm
Reuters: A group of activist investors including the state of Connecticut Wednesday dropped a campaign targeting Ford Motor Co after the No. 2 US automaker detailed plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years. Ford's action made it the first US automaker to spell out how it intends to cut by 30 percent the greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles it sells by 2020, according to the activist investor groups that pushed it to make the pledge. In response, the ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
France, Germany Nearer To Cars CO2 Deal - Diplomats
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47877/story.htm
Reuters: France and Germany are making progress on finding a common position over proposed new European Union limits on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars, diplomats said on Wednesday. "There are signs that they are very near to an agreement," one of the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The European Commission, as part of its plans to fight climate change, has proposed legislation to reduce CO2 emissions from cars and steep fines on manufacturers that ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Solar neighbourhood a first for Canada
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=34ea4c99-84a7-46f2-9e28-7500edd4e1bd&k=12722
Vancouver Sun: Rising energy costs and environmental concerns are giving a higher profile to conservation, leading many people to seek out renewable energy sources. Denise Francis has made the switch to solar energy with the purchase of her two-storey home in the Drake Landing Solar Community in Okotoks, just south of Calgary. Constructed by Sterling Homes, in partnership with Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), EnerWorks Inc. and developer United Communities, it is Canada's first solar ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Warming trends rise in large ocean areas: study
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKHAN29074220080409
Reuters: Warming trends in a third of the world's large ocean regions are two to four times greater than previously reported averages, increasing the risk to marine life and fisheries, a U.N.-backed environmental study said. Overfishing, coastal pollution and degradation of water quality were common in all 64 large marine ecosystems studied by scientists who contributed to the U.N. Environmental Program report presented at an international conference on oceans, coasts and islands in Vietnam ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
"A Collective Ignorance About How Agriculture Interacts With Natural Systems"
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=41919
Inter Press Service: Representatives from countries, civil society and the private sector are meeting this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, to review the findings of the three-year International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). This global initiative has examined agriculture from all angles, to determine how farming might be done more sustainably in the future. At the opening plenary of the Apr. 7-12 meeting, Achim Steiner -- executive director of the United ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Canada: 'Secrecy' in climate-change law under fire
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=81896b46-3998-4106-a1d3-bf1f6f3ac6d9
Vancouver Sun: B.C.'s information and privacy commissioner says the government's new climate-change legislation permits too much secrecy and should be changed before it becomes law. David Loukidelis wrote to Environment Minister Barry Penner and Energy Minister Richard Neufeld last week, saying sections of two pieces of recently introduced legislation represent "a significant encroachment" on freedom of information laws. "This is a matter of significant concern, considering the ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Africa, India Seek Debate, Action on Rising Prices (Update2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a81hOuUoWiv8&refer=india
Bloomberg: Africa and India called for action on the rising prices of commodities by the Group of Seven nations and global institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Inflation was threatening the economies of the world's poorer nations, said Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete at the end of an India-Africa summit in New Delhi today. Record food and fuel prices have stoked global inflation, contributing to strikes in Argentina, riots in Ivory Coast and a ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Japan: Cherry blossoms bloom earlier on average due to global warming
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/features/news/20080409p2g00m0fe021000c.html
Mainichi Daily News: The blooming season of cherry blossom trees across Japan has become earlier by an average 4.2 days over the past 50 years apparently due to global warming, a study by the Meteorological Agency has found. The survey has also found that the blooming season for camellia trees got earlier by 9.4 days over the past half century, while gingko and maple trees start their leaf-shedding process much later than five decades ago. The agency analyzed the data collected at its local ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Disagreeing on pay-to-pollute provisions
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9470.html
Politico: A dirty little question is arising from the Senate's global warming bill: Just how much should companies pay for their pollution? The legislation, up for floor consideration later this spring, would use a cap-and-trade program to cut greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturers and other polluters by 70 percent by 2050. Companies would receive a certain number of pollution credits, and the rest would be auctioned off. Afterward, larger polluters could buy extra allowances from greener ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Global warming may spark worldwide beer crisis: Experts
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/global-warming-may-spark-worldwide-beer-crisis-experts_10036125.html
Asia News International: Global warming may soon spark worldwide booze crisis, experts have warned. Experts say that barley crops could fail in the heat that may lead to the scarcity of one of the key ingredients of beer. It will mean either there will be pubs without beer or the cost of beer will go up, the Daily Star quoted Jim Salinger, a climate scientist, as telling New Zealands Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention. He said that the crisis could be prevented by developing ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Growth fueling more battles over development
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8860848
San Jose Mercury News: California's housing meltdown is wreaking economic and personal havoc, but it won't last forever. The state's ever-growing population will soak up the now-vacant housing units in a year or two, and home building will resume, driven by the inexorable demand. Generally speaking, California needs about 200,000 units of new housing - single-family homes, apartments, condos or mobile homes - each year. During the development lull, however, there's a great debate under way in a ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96603
New York Times: THE next time you stop at a gas station, wincing at the $3.50-a-gallon price and bemoaning society's dependence on petroleum, take a step back and look inside your car. Much of what you see in there comes from petroleum, too: the plastic dashboard, the foam in the seats. More than a tenth of the world's oil is spent not on powering engines but as a feedstock for making chemicals that enrich many goods – from cosmetics to cleaners and fabric to automobile parts. In recent ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
IPCC's work vital to world peace, reinforces need to improve weather and climate observations
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-107268.html
Innovations Report: Prof. Hong Yan praised the IPCC's latest body of work on the impacts of climate change on water, saying it reinforced the need for countries, particularly in the developing world, to strengthen the monitoring and observational capacities of their National Meteorological and Hydrological Services. "The key IPCC messages have now been widely publicized with the support of many nations and of the United Nations, and serve as the basis for an international mobilization in the domain of ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
South Africa: Lifestyle Changes Vital to Achieve 10 Percent Energy Reduction
http://allafrica.com/stories/200804090784.html
BuaNews: Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool has urged individual households and smaller companies in the province to work much harder at cutting back on electricity use. Cape Town and the Western Cape as a whole now needs to "upscale voluntary efforts", Mr Rasool said, pointing out that high electricity usage was "not a lifestyle right", and that South Africans had become spoiled by continuous supplies of cheap and abundant electricity over the years. Mr Rasool was ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Next US president urged to outline climate policy
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSL09504077
Reuters: The next U.S. president should signal a shift in global warming policies before taking office to help a U.N. meeting in Poland in December take steps to work out a new climate treaty, Poland said on Wednesday. Under President George W. Bush, the United States is the only rich nation opposed to the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol capping greenhouse gas emissions until 2012. Many nations expect a shift under Bush's successor, whether a Democrat or a Republican. "The American approach ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Poland sees power prices surging on EU carbon plan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7448656
Reuters: Polish electricity prices could surge 50-70 percent if the European Union goes ahead with plans to force power producers to buy their carbon emission permits from 2013, Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki said on Wednesday. Nowicki said Poland would be particularly hard hit by the rules, proposed in January and contested by Warsaw, because nearly all of its electricity comes from dirty coal and lignite and so its power producers will need a large number of permits. "The ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Canada: Carbon tax worries cement makers
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=87fd56eb-5c4f-4cc7-82e9-bfa83f0504a4
Vancouver Sun: British Columbia's plans for fighting climate change could pose "a significant threat" to domestic cement producers, who fear that new carbon taxes and greenhouse gas emission caps will give offshore competitors a huge price advantage in local markets. B.C. producers expect $66 million in additional costs over the next five years as a result of the carbon tax announced earlier this year by Finance Minister Carole Taylor, according to Jeorg Nixdorf, vice-president of ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
Germany's smallest state introduces general autobahn speed limit
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/197775,germanys-smallest-state-introduces-general-autobahn-speed-limit.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Germany's smallest state, the city-state of Bremen, became the first to introduce a general speed limit on its freeways Wednesday. Signs stipulating a limit of 120 kilometres an hour went up on the last six kilometres of the state's 60 kilometres of autobahn. "Our aim is imposing a general speed limit on all autobahns in Germany," Bremen Environment Senator Reinhard Loske said to mark the occasion. Loske faces an uphill battle. There is widespread opposition to ...
Thu, 10 Apr 08
White House hopefuls woo Gore, focus on climate
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN08430909
Reuters: Democratic White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak often about green jobs, emissions cuts and renewable energy. But they have more than global warming on their minds when they talk of environmental policy. The long-term goal may be saving the planet, but the short-term one is winning the backing of former Vice President Al Gore. Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work to combat rising temperatures, is also a superdelegate, one of the influential Democratic ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Food price rises threaten global security - UN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/09/food.unitednations
Guardian: Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world. Sir John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief coordinator, told a conference in Dubai that escalating prices would trigger protests and riots in vulnerable nations. He said ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Trillions needed for climate change
http://www.investordaily.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/id/style/4170.htm?rdeCOQ=SID-3F579BCE-3D2CA8BF
Investor Daily: The amount of global capital needed for investment in renewable energy and infrastructure between now and 2030 stands at $25 trillion, according to a climate change expert. Around $210 billion a year is needed to invest in technology that will produce alternative energy sources to traditional fossil fuels, Protiviti global director for climate change Adam Kirkman said. About 86 per cent of that funding must come from the private sector, according to the expert. Kirkman ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
India: 'Need to invest more in agriculture'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Need_to_invest_more_in_agriculture/articleshow/2935906.cms
Times of India: The world is entering a new age of scarcity - of energy, oil, and food. The first two dominate the headlines but it is the surge in food prices that has the most immediate impact on the world's poor. After years of food prices remaining relatively stable, a "perfect storm" is driving them through the roof. Booming China and India are eating more meat, leading to a rapid increase in demand for cereals for food and livestock. High oil prices are pushing up the cost of ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Gore launches climate change ad campaign
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0409/p17s01-sten.html
Christian Science Monitor: Two words, more than any others, are apt to set climate-change skeptics' teeth a-grinding: "Al Gore." The former vice president has been the front man on global warming – winning both an Academy Award and the Nobel Peace Prize last year in the process. The former vice president also refuses to publicly debate the issue with leading skeptics face to face. Last week, Mr. Gore launched a three-year, $300 million ad campaign to raise public awareness about climate change. ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Green Groups Oppose World Bank's India Coal Plant
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47845/story.htm
Reuters: Environmental groups called on the World Bank to delay a decision on Tuesday on funding for a $4.2 billion coal-fired power plant in India until more analyses of costs and environmental impact are done. In a letter to the United States representative at the World Bank, Whitney Debevoise, six environmental groups said the bank could not effectively fight climate change while also funding high carbon-emitting projects, such as the 4,000 megawatt Tata Mundra coal project in Gujarat ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Philippines: Too much focus on 'water-hungry' rice varieties
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/apr/09/yehey/top_stories/20080409top3.html
Manila Times: Because most rice researchers are focused on "water-hungry" varieties, the country will experience a shortage of the staple once the looming water crisis wreaks havoc on the countryside. "Most [rice] technologies developed are for irrigated areas. If we develop technologies for non-irrigated and upland areas, then we will improve rice yields," said Dr. Saturnina Halos, Chairman of the Biotechnology Advisory team of the Department of Agriculture. She explained that the current ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
World Bank approves Indian coalfired power plant
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200804/s2211784.htm?tab=asia
Radio Australia: The World Bank says it will help finance a $US4.2billion coal-fired power plant in India, despite environmentalists' calls for the decision to be delayed until more analysis on costs and impacts is carried out. The Bank's board approved $US450 million worth of loans to help build the Tata Mundra project - a 4,000 megawatt coal plant which will provide better electricity access to five states in western and northern India. Financiers say the plant will be the most efficient in ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
EU To Give Greece 90 Mln Euros For Forest Fires
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47850/story.htm
Reuters: The European Union's executive arm on Tuesday proposed giving nearly 90 million euros ($142 million) in aid to help Greece cope with the damage from last year's forest fires. "I had the opportunity to see the horrific fire damage in Greece for myself, so I know the scale of the needs," EU Regional Aid Commissioner Danuta Huebner said in a statement. The fires caused major damage to basic infrastructure and the environment. The aid still needs to be approved ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Indonesia: Haze Could Worsen This Year - ASEAN Ministers
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47851/story.htm
Reuters: Smog from forest fires, which costs Southeast Asian economies billions in lost tourist dollars, could worsen as changing weather patterns cause an unusually dry spell, the region's environment ministers warned on Tuesday. The effects of the La Nina weather phenomenon are expected to wear off in the third quarter of 2008, which could result in arid conditions, the ministers said, quoting a forecast from the ASEAN Meteorological Centre. "This could lead to drier periods ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Solar Balloons To Power Remote Areas?
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47854/story.htm
Reuters: Giant solar energy balloons floating high in the air may be a cheap way to provide electricity to areas lacking the land and infrastructure needed for traditional power systems, researchers in Israel say. The world is racing to find renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels, and entrepreneurs are scrambling for a slice of a clean energy market that analysts estimate was worth nearly $150 billion last year. Edison International's Southern California Edison utility has ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
US Car Makers Try To Copy Green Halo Of Prius
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47849/story.htm
Reuters: When Tom Weatherbee swapped his minivan for a Toyota Prius hybrid two years ago, he was mostly hoping to save money at the gas pump. But he was pleasantly surprised by both the requests from friends for a test drive and the grins its aerodynamic profile drew at the grocery store, and he basked in the attention. "Even the people who own more expensive cars acknowledge the Prius as being pretty cool," said Weatherbee, 51, an electrical engineer who lives outside ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
'Fossil fuel cos hiding extent of damage'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Fossil_fuel_cos_hiding_damage_extent/articleshow/2936066.cms
Agence France Presse: Global warming has plunged the planet into a crisis and the fossil fuel industries are trying to hide the extent of the problem from the public, Nasa's top climate scientist said. "We've already reached the dangerous level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," James Hansen, 67, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said. "But there are ways to solve the problem" of heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
California voters may toughen renewable targets
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0838447520080408
Reuters: A measure requiring renewable energy sources make up half the electricity in California by 2025 took a step toward making the November ballot on Tuesday, when proponents turned in about 735,000 signatures to county officials in the state. Before the signatures were presented, groups including some environmental groups and alternative energy supporters called the effort well-intentioned but ill-conceived and too costly. Jim Gonzalez, a former San Francisco supervisor and main ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Canada: New northern park will protect caribou, grizzlies, watershed
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=b6027b67-069b-44d9-831f-e34258fc59bd&k=27049
Canwest News Service: e federal government has announced plans to create a new national park reserve in the Northwest Territories. The announcement marks the second major expansion of protected areas since last summer, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to extend the boundaries of the Nahanni National Park Reserve. "It is truly one of the most remarkable places in the world," said Environment Minister John Baird, standing alongside aboriginal leaders and environmentalists at a ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
New York Anti-Traffic Fees Wither Without A Vote
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47843/newsDate/8-Apr-2008/story.htm
Reuters: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to free Manhattan from traffic gridlock by charging rush-hour drivers withered as state lawmakers did not vote ahead of Monday's midnight deadline. A spokesman for Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver confirmed there would not be a vote, saying: "There was no support in the Assembly majority conference to bring the bill to the floor." Last spring the mayor proposed raising billions of dollars for buses and subways ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Study: Small Nuclear War Would Shred Ozone
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/08/tech/main4001130.shtml
Associated Press: American scientists have determined that a regional nuclear war would put the world in havoc for at least a decade by shredding large areas of Earth's protective ozone layer. The countries involved would be devastated as well as fall victim to the ozone disaster, the scientists' analysis says. Massive fires resulting from even a limited conflict would blast enough soot into the atmosphere to create an ozone hole over heavily populated areas, the researchers warned in a paper ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
The Growth in “Green-Collar” Jobs
http://www.newsweek.com/id/131038
Newsweek: Paul McAnally never planned on becoming a "green-collar" worker. A former Navy shipbuilder, McAnally, 47, lost his job with a plumbing contractor when the housing market slumped. The Pennsylvania father of six was on unemployment benefits when he heard about Gamesa, a Spanish-owned wind energy company that two years ago started making turbines at a former U.S. Steel plant near Philadelphia. He was hired to build nacelles, the giant structures that house turbines' ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
World Bank approves funding for India coal plant
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7447513
Guardian: The World Bank on Tuesday approved financing for a $4.2 billion coal-fired power plant in India despite calls by environmental groups to delay the decision until further analysis of costs and environmental impact were done. The World Bank board approved $450 million in loans by the International Finance Corp. (IFC) for the Tata Mundra project, a 4,000 megawatt coal plant, which will expand access to electricity in five states in western and northern India. IFC said the plant ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Cheaper ethanol outselling gasoline in Brazil
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/jlanders/stories/DN-landers_08bus.State.Edition1.c50449.html
Dallas Morning News: Car owners in this giant city of 11 million people are giving the oil companies fits. Ethanol outsells gasoline here by a large margin. This year, it became the most popular fuel throughout Brazil. Petróleos Brasileiro SA, or Petróbras, is trying to hold on to its customers. The Brazilian national oil company has held gasoline price increases to just 10 percent in the last three years. Other gasoline retailers, from ExxonMobil to Shell, have held back as well. ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Climate change can lead to psychiatric illness: WHO
http://68.178.224.54/udayavani/showstory.asp?news=0&contentid=517296&lang=1
Udayavani: Establishing a link between climate change and mental health, the World Health Organisation has said extreme weather conditions like floods, droughts and natural calamities can lead to psychiatric illnesses. "Psychosocial illnesses are a part of the various health issues associated with climate change," Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director, WHO, said. Anticipating that severe flooding may become more frequent due to global warming, a WHO report said that ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Climate Change Impacts On The Health Of Women And Children
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010575318
All Headline News: Around 10 million children below five years old die every year due to preventable diseases that become even more common when weather patterns change. UNICEF highlights the impact of climate change n women and children on the occasion of World Health Day 2008, with the theme climate change and health. According to Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF, "Nearly 10 million children under age five die every year of largely preventable diseases. Many of the main global killers ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
United States: Mayor hits out at congestion veto
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9ZCWBQC5PvhI1P9aKN7X3tZIbiA
Press Association: New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has accused the state Assembly of "a special type of cowardice" for its "shameful" decision to block a London-style congestion charge designed to cut traffic and pollution in Manhattan. Mr Bloomberg said the decision marked a sad day for the city and added: "Even Washington, which most Americans agree is completely dysfunctional, is more willing to try new approaches to long-standing problems than our elected officials in the ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Post-Kyoto Targets May Not Be Same For All - Lagos
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47837/newsDate/8-Apr-2008/story.htm
Reuters: The next deal to combat climate change may not set the same type of targets for developing nations as it does for the big polluting industrialized countries but everyone will have to be included in some way for it to work, a UN envoy said on Monday. Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile and now a special UN envoy on climate change, said targets for smaller emitters of greenhouse gases could conceivably involve commitments to halt deforestation or to achieve greater energy ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Report: At half-way mark, most countries failing in development goals
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/197578,report-at-half-way-mark-most-countries-failing-in-development-goals.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Most countries will not meet targets for reducing poverty and other development goals by 2015 unless governments step up their efforts and the rich economies boost aid and lift trade barriers with poorer countries, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday. In its Global Monitoring Report, the two global lenders said an inability to reduce hunger lies at the core of many countries' failure to drastically cut poverty rates. The report comes at the half-way point of ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Soaring food costs threaten world's political stability: UN official
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/04/08/food-prices.html
CBC: Rising food prices could cause political instability worldwide, the UN's top humanitarian official said Tuesday, as clashes over food costs in Haiti and Egypt continued for a second day. Pointing to a 40 per cent average rise in food costs worldwide since mid-2007, John Holmes, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, said the trend is likely to exacerbate both the incidence and depth of food insecurity ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Study turns up a new climate suspect
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24001896/
LiveScience: Black carbon, the stuff that gives soot its dirty color, could be the second most important contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide and a key to preventing warming, at least in the short-run, a new study suggests. Black carbon is a type of aerosol – a small particle suspended in the atmosphere – that is produced in diesel exhaust and when wood, coal or other types of solid fuel are burned. Like other aerosols, soot particles absorb and scatter the sun's radiation; ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
US wind power advocates see change in the air as oil prices soar
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g5nbkDORnWewTUvYCi_bjWzZhxjw
Agence France Presse: The US economy is still predominantly oil-based, but wind power advocates voiced optimism Tuesday that change is in the air as big states like California seek to boost renewable energy. Barbara Hayes, executive director of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization, said state-backed laws have set "very aggressive" renewable energy goals. Hayes was in Washington with a large delegation of business and community leaders from California seeking to persuade ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Pakistan: Water infections reduce GDP by 4.2pc: WB-IMF report
http://thepost.com.pk/IsbNews.aspx?dtlid=154442&catid=17
Post: Warning that most of countries will fail to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a new World Bank-IMF report finds that water-related infections cause an annual loss in education performance equivalent to 4.2 per cent of the GDP in Pakistan. It says though the world is set to cut extreme poverty in half by then, prospects are the gravest for the goals of reducing child and maternal mortality, with serious shortfalls also likely in primary school completion, nutrition and ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Westinghouse strikes deal to build US nuclear power plants
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hF0tTuwHPDH4TYxgp_nYxL_kT43w
Agence France Presse: Westinghouse Electric, a unit of the Japanese Toshiba Corp., said Tuesday it had struck a deal with Georgia Power to build two nuclear power plants in the southern United States, the first such projects in 30 years. The announcement that two Westinghouse AP1000 power plants would be built at a site near Augusta, Georgia which already had two existing nuclear reactors, came days after the 29th anniversary of a major US nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. Westinghouse chief ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Who caused the world food crisis?
http://www.financialpost.com/news/story.html?id=428913
National Post: We are now by all accounts in the midst of a global food crisis: key grain prices were up 40% to 130% in the last year, people are protesting and hardship is mounting. But it could soon be worse. Governments and agencies all over the world are gearing up for a global "New Deal" on agriculture policy to solve the food crisis, which means the people who brought us the food crisis are the same people who now want to fix it. The World Bank reports that prices of staples have ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Climate change hits beer production
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/08/climate-change-hits-beer
Inquirer: BEERY BOFFINS have warned that global warming could halt lager production. World-wide panic is expected in pubs throughout the world as a decline in the production of malting barley in Australia and New Zealand hits breweries. "It will mean there will be pubs without beer," climate-watching brainiac Jim Salinger told the Institute of Brewing and Distilling convention. Another speaker told delegates that, "in addition to climate change, barley growers are ...
Wed, 9 Apr 08
Minnesota puts teeth into carbon-reduction policy
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/04/08/1424/minnesota_puts_teeth_into_carbon-reduction_policy
MinnPost.com: As governors and presidential candidates ballyhoo their embrace of broad measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, Minnesota is quietly developing a regulatory policy that would make it a national leader in requiring industries seeking air-pollution permits to demonstrate how they would reduce emissions linked to climate change. Over the past several weeks, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Brad Moore has been putting teeth into an emerging policy that could be ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Scientist turns up the heat with new alert on warming
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/scientist-turns-up-the-heat-with-new-alert-on-warming/2008/04/07/1207420309396.html
Guardian: A LEADING climate scientist says the European Union and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem. Dr James Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in carbon dioxide limits. Dr Hansen said the EU target of 550 parts per million of carbon dioxide – the most stringent in the world – ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Asia will bear brunt of climate change-linked deaths: WHO
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iEkyUVr3O7CUzZ3mX-k1y0mEkIEg
Agence France Presse: More than half the annual estimated 150,000 deaths linked to climate change will come from the Asia-Pacific region, officials at the World Health Organisation said Monday. Most of the fatalities will be the result of a greater incidence of diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and malnutrition, as well as and flooding due to changing weather patterns. Shigeru Omi, WHO director for the Western Pacific region based in Manila, said "the impact of climate change will be felt ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Climate change may worsen health crises - WHO
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32898320080407
Reuters: Climate change stands to exacerbate health crises in many countries already strained by inadequate hospitals, too few medical staff and uneven access to drugs, the head of the World Health Organisation said on Monday. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said that new patterns of global rainfall, droughts and storms could accelerate the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever in some regions, creating serious problems for poor nations. "The climate ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Health damage from climate change has already started
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/1264/2008/03/7-085033-1.htm
Reuters: We've already had several sneak previews of how climate change is going to be bad for our health. From mosquito-borne diseases that jump from cows to people in East Africa, to a heatwave that killed thousands of elderly Europeans, to malaria starting to appear in the highlands of Rwanda and Swaziland in abnormally hot summers. And outbreaks of cholera as more floods hit coastal communities with poor sanitation, mixing sewage with drinking water supplies amid fetid heat. So ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Indonesia failing to stop forest destruction: Greenpeace
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jW3yboj1FSvJ3XjTqXVsVVTHrlZA
Agence France Presse: Indonesia is failing to halt the destruction of its peatland forests despite promising to do so during last year's climate change conference in Bali, pressure group Greenpeace said Monday. Greenpeace said its workers had witnessed two palm oil companies illegally clearing government-owned land on Sumatra island in March. "Last month, a Greenpeace team revisited an area of Sumatra's Riau province where it had monitored palm oil expansion in 2007, to find that further large ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Rainforest peoples form alliance to demand payments for forest carbon credits
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0407-manaus_declaration.html
Mongabay: Rainforest peoples from 11 nations have formed a coalition to demand a greater say in future climate negotiations. Meeting in Manaus, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, representatives of forest communities from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela signed an agreement that calls on governments to respect forest dwellers' rights to their land, natural ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Slowing deforestation may be worth $billions - study
http://uk.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUKL06460279._CH_.242020080407
Reuters: A slowdown of deforestation from the Amazon to the Congo basin could generate billions of dollars every year for developing nations as part of a U.N. scheme to fight climate change, a study showed on Monday. Burning of forests by farmers clearing land accounts for 20 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions. A 190-nation U.N. climate conference agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in December to work on ways to reward countries for slowing deforestation. "Even with quite ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
UN talks reach agreement on agenda for global warming pact
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/04/07/eco.bangkok.ap/
Associated Press: Climate negotiators agreed Saturday on an ambitious agenda for talks they hope will lead to a global warming pact, overcoming a heated dispute between Japan and developing countries on how to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The schedule came after five days of talks in Bangkok and requires negotiators to settle contentious issues, including how countries will cut their emissions and how rich nations will help the poor adapt to climate change. "Not only do we have the ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
WHO: Climate Change Threatens Millions
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h1UtC8Jx69E-GrzFraEIaFQ8odlQD8VSVT180
Associated Press: Millions of people could face poverty, disease and hunger as a result of rising temperatures and changing rainfall expected to hit poor countries the hardest, the World Health Organization warned Monday. Malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and floods cause an estimated 150,000 deaths annually, with Asia accounting for more than half, said regional WHO Director Shigeru Omi. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes represent the clearest sign that global warming has begun to impact human ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Act now on climate change
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/gordon_brown_and_kevin_rudd/2008/04/act_now_on_climate_change.html
Guardian: The first act of the new Australian government was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. It was an important signal of Australia's new engagement in international relations. And a vital step in the global effort to combat climate change. It is now critical that world leaders address the challenge of building a consensus for a new international climate change agreement beyond 2012. It is hard to grasp the urgency of this challenge. The time lag between the emissions of greenhouse ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Climate change a factor in deaths from disease: WHO
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSP24314620080407
Reuters: Climate change is one of the factors causing an increase in the incidence of diseases like malaria and dengue fever, the World Health Organization said on Monday. At least 150,000 more people are dying each year of malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and floods, all of which can be traced to climate change, said Shigeru Omi, the head of the WHO's Western Pacific office. More than half of those deaths are in Asia, Omi told reporters. "Malaria-carrying mosquitos are now ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Climate change Minister Wong to join Rudd on China tour
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/08/2210367.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong will fly out to Beijing today, to join Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on the final leg of his overseas tour. Mr Rudd will spend several days in China, and Senator Wong will be discussing climate change issues with business leaders, academics and Chinese Government officials. Senator Wong says the Australian Government needs a closer relationship with China, if it is to make an effective contribution to global efforts to reduce greenhouse ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
European Mountain Top Vanishes
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41882
Inter Press Service: The peak of the Stubai Mountains in the Austrian Alps has vanished. It was around a couple of months back, but since then no one can say exactly when it disappeared. "One day, the mountain top was simply gone," says Gunther Heissel, director of the Austrian Research Centre for Alpine Geology in Innsbruck, about 450km from capital Vienna. Earlier television footage confirmed that the peak was once there, and now is not. "The glaciers on the Alpine mountains flow ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Greenpeace campaigner: Peatland forest destruction continues in Indonesia
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/07/content_7935938.htm
Xinhua: Peatland forests in Indonesia are continuously destructed by palm oil industry, although the government has stopped issuing new permits for new plantations at peatland ecosystem, a Greenpeace campaigner said here Monday. Hapsoro, Greenpeace campaigner for the Southeast Asia, said that the Greenpeace team has found a new plantation opened without permits on peatland forest in Indonesia's Riau province at Sumatra Island. "We investigated a Duta Palma palm oil concession ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Long road after Bali breakthrough
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1136&Itemid=31
Asia Sentinel: Climate talks in Bangkok week reveal signs of a continuing fight over greenhouse gas emissions If Bali provided the roadmap for a new deal on climate change, the talks in Bangkok last week were akin to choosing the car. Climate negotiators will reassemble in Bonn, Germany, in June, and again in August in Ghana. Some real driving might finally start to take place when ministerial-level meetings take place next December in Poznan, Poland. So far, it appears that everyone is at ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Palm oil industry continues to destroy Indonesia's peatland forests
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/197222,palm-oil-industry-continues-to-destroy-indonesias-peatland-forests.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: The destruction of Indonesia's peatland forests is continuing unstopped despite the government's pledge to halt it, according to a report by environmental group Greenpeace's issued Monday. Greenpeace claims an unregulated industry and "toothless government rules" are to blame. A Greenpeace team last month revisited an area of Sumatra's Riau province where it had monitored palm oil expansion in 2007 to find that further large tracts of peatland forest had been destroyed ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Brazil: Petrobras to Spend $15 Billion to Double Oil Output
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aGE9H2keTfkI&refer=latin_america
Yuji Okada and Shigeru Sato: Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, will invest $15 billion on overseas oil projects, aiming to double its crude oil production to capture growing demand in Asia and South America. The Rio de Janeiro-based company plans to expand its oil output to 4.15 million barrels a day by 2015 from the current 2 million barrels, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, president of Petroleo Brasileiro, known as Petrobras, told reporters in Tokyo today. The company will allocate $1.5 ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Shell chief seeks carbon capture subsidies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7443242
Reuters: The European Union must create rapid incentives to promote underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) to achieve its ambitious climate change goals, the head of oil major Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday. "Because CO2 capture and storage adds costs and yields no revenues, government action is needed to support and stimulate investment quickly on a scale large enough to affect global emissions," Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer said in a speech prepared for delivery in ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Climate change hurting human health: WHO
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/07/2210292.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The World Health Organisation (WHO) is marking its 60th anniversary by warning that climate change has already begun affecting human health. In its World Health Day statement, WHO says changing weather patterns are leading to more flooding, higher temperatures and more severe storms, and health services around the world need to be prepared. WHO assistant director-general Dr David Heyman says some effects are already being felt. "For example in East Africa where ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Climate change to hit top holiday spots
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Climate_change_to_hit_top_holiday_spots/articleshow/2932916.cms
Times of India: Some of the best and most desired destinations by travellers will feel the consequences of climate change within the next few decades, a United Nations report has warned. The destinations to bear the brunt of the changing weather include hotspots in Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Australia and New Zealand. In fact, this report has declared that countries, like the Maldives are the most vulnerable to such changes in many aspects as they have "poor" ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Germany Promotes Energy Efficiency to Counter Climate Change
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aRHpdpl9WAOE&refer=germany
Bloomberg: Reducing power usage for heating, lighting buildings and moving vehicles is the ``first step'' to trimming carbon-dioxide emissions and fighting global warming, German government officials and planners said. Cities, home to more than half the world's population, need to become more compact and use energy much more efficiently, Ulrich Kasparick, a deputy minister in Germany's construction and transportation ministry, said during a presentation in Berlin. The European Union ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Officials: China to alleviate, adapt to climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-04/07/content_7935696.htm
Xinhua: China will endeavor to alleviate and meanwhile take active measures to adapt itself to climate change, Chinese officials said here on Monday. The country will continue to implement its policies of reducing energy consumption. It will also try to improve its energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2010 from the 2005 level, and increase its forest coverage by 20 percent, said Gao Guangsheng, an official in charge of climate change coordination under the National Development and Reform ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
Canada: Ontario doctors warn of consequences of climate change on health
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIBU4dpVD4KwtGaK-mgikWNnr5Rg
Canadian Press: An Ontario doctors' group is calling on the medical community to prepare for a variety of health problems directly caused by climate change. The Ontario College of Family Physicians says climate change will increasingly cause such problems as heat stroke and respiratory ailments. It says even a small rise in temperatures could have a "profound effect" on infants and children, the elderly and people with pre-existing diseases. The college says as temperatures ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
UN Body To Slash Ship Fuel Pollution By 2015
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47788/story.htm
Reuters: The world's top maritime body agreed tough new limits on ship fuel pollutants at a week-long meeting that ended on Friday, an industry source said. The United Nations' International Maritime Organisation (IMO) measures will sharply curb harmful sulphur emissions by 2015. The ambitious targets, first reported by Reuters on Thursday, will likely cost the oil and ship industry billions of dollars to implement. They are also set to raise the price of some fuels as the ...
Tue, 8 Apr 08
US Seen Importing Ethanol, But Tariff Uncertain
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47801/story.htm
Reuters: The United States will need to import more sugarcane-based ethanol to meet renewable energy mandates, a top US official said, but he stopped short of recommending that a controversial ethanol tariff be lifted. "If our goal is to reduce hydrocarbon usage and to increase ethanol usage, that is going to happen through cane-based production," Tom Shannon, the top US official for Latin America, said in the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit on Friday. "Even ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Australia Says Stable Food Supplier Despite Drought
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47810/story.htm
Reuters: Australia has demonstrated that it is a reliable, global supplier of wheat and other food, despite up to seven years of drought that has cut deeply into crop production, Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said on Friday. The droughts, particularly bad in the past two years, have prompted concerns within the food industry in Japan, which is heavily dependent on imports, about the reliability of Australia as a stable supplier. "In that time, at no stage have we failed to ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Carbon credits could help save Amazon, blunt warming: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iKAI7X5qFNtiDzZHtvNwLFJrcLDQ
Agence France Presse: Global carbon markets could generate billions of dollars each year for developing countries that tackle tropical deforestation, a major source of global warming, according to a new study. Reducing the rate at which Amazonian rain forests are disappearing by only 10 percent, for example, would yield 1.5 to 9.1 billion euros (2.2 to 13.5 billion dollars), depending on world carbon emission prices, researchers calculated. That money could then be plowed into national conservation ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Climate change debate: push emissions goals or technology?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0407/p03s02-wogi.html
Christian Science Monitor: A long-simmering debate has come to a boil among climate policy specialists over the most effective way to ensure humanity has the necessary hardware it needs to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to virtually zero over the course of this century. At issue is whether the current tack on climate policy, which emphasizes the establishment of binding emissions goals, should take a back seat to an all-out push to develop the technology needed to accomplish that feat. Politicians are ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Climate target is guaranteed catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/07/climatechange.carbonemissions
Guardian: One of the world's leading climate scientists warns today that the EU and its international partners must urgently rethink targets for cutting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of fears they have grossly underestimated the scale of the problem. In a startling reappraisal of the threat, James Hansen, head of the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, calls for a sharp reduction in C02 limits. Hansen says the EU target of 550 parts per million of C02 - the ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Europe's biggest onshore wind farm plugs into the national grid
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2175390.0.Europes_biggest_onshore_wind_farm_plugs_into_the_national_grid.php
Herald: Europe's largest onshore wind farm goes on stream from today, with the first 10 turbines of the planned 140 now producing enough electricity to power 13,000 homes. After a five-year delay in the planning system and 18 months of site preparation, the Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor to the south of Glasgow is finally feeding the national grid. By the end of the month, a further 10 turbines currently going through a two-week test drive will have been switched on, with the ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Fires main threat to Amazon in drier climate: study
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL0646074720080407
Reuters: Fires set by people will be the biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest in coming decades linked to a drier climate caused by global warming, researchers said on Monday. They said swathes of the forest were more likely to be killed by blazes raging out of control than by a more gradual shift towards savannah caused by more frequent droughts predicted by the U.N. Climate Panel in a 2007 report. "Fire associated with human activity and drying is likely to be what eliminates ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Contentious issues clouded climate talks
http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?col=globaltrends&file=/2008/4/7/columnists/globaltrends/20870146&sec=Global%20Trends
Malaysian Star: OLD unresolved issues have re-emerged while new complicated issues have just come up to cloud the international talks on how to deal with climate change. The controversial issues dogged last week's Bangkok climate talks under the UN Convention on Climate Change. It was the first round since the Bali conference last December. Its task was simply to draw up a timetable of work towards key decisions in December 2009. In reality the Bangkok meeting fought over substance, ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
E.ON Plans to Build 300MW Wind Farm Off Northeast England Coast
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=agwIa8mR2DwI&refer=germany
Bloomberg: E.ON AG, Germany's biggest utility, is planning to build a 700 million-pound ($1.4 billion) wind farm off the coast of Yorkshire in northeast England. The planning application for the project was to be submitted today. The proposed Humber Gateway Offshore Wind Farm will have a capacity of 300 megawatts, able to provide electricity for 195,000 homes, Dusseldorf-based E.ON said in an e-mailed statement today. The project ``will displace the emission of hundreds of thousands of ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Australia: Health experts warn climate-related illness 'rising'
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200804/s2209522.htm?tab=latest
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Australian doctors have warned of increased rates of climate-change related illness in Australia and the Pacific. The ABC's Sarah Gerathy reports that the Climate Change Institute has released a report from the agency Doctors for the Environment. It warns that floods, droughts, rising seas and higher temperatures related to potential shifts in climate will bring a wide range of new health problems. The report's co-author, Dr Graeme Horton, says this could include more ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
World fossil fuel energy use growing: study
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/World-fossil-fuel-energy-use-growing--study/293313/
New York Times: Renewable energy is not replacing fossil fuels as quickly as scientists have been forecasting, leading to a serious underestimation of what still needs to be done to stabilise the world's climate, according to a new analysis. "Enormous advances in energy technology will be needed to stabilise atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations at acceptable levels," wrote Roger Pielke Jr, a University of Colorado Boulder political scientists and his co-authors in an article in a recent edition ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
WWF blasts new windfalls for EU coal-burners
http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7441382
Reuters: EU plans for curbing emissions will hand utilities windfall profits of up to 71 billion euros ($111.5 billion) between 2008 and 2012 even as they burn highly polluting coal, environmental group WWF said on Monday. Power companies in five European Union countries -- Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland, which are among the biggest coal burners -- stand to earn windfalls totalling between 23 and 71 billion euros during the second phase of the bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme, WWF ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Australia: Climate change could fuel cataracts boom: Hollows Foundation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/07/2209349.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Fred Hollows Foundation has issued a warning that people around the world are in greater danger of losing their vision because of climate change. The foundation says that decreases in the ozone layer could lead to more exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays, which are one of the most common causes of cataract blindness. Other main risk factors are age and smoking. The foundation's research coordinator Andreas Mueller says many Australians who develop cataract blindness ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
A Shift in the Debate Over Global Warming
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96268
New York Times: The charged and complex debate over how to slow down global warming has become a lot more complicated. Most of the focus in the last few years has centered on imposing caps on greenhouse gas emissions to prod energy users to conserve or switch to nonpolluting technologies. Leaders of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change – the scientists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year with former Vice President Al Gore – have emphasized that market-based approach. All three ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Brazil: Amazon's 'Forest Peoples' Seek a Role in Striking Global Climate Agreements
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96277
New York Times: Some wore traditional headdresses, and some traveled by riverboat or canoe. But the dozens of "forest peoples" who descended on this capital of Amazonas State last week had a common goal of becoming bigger players in global climate talks. A conference here that ended last Friday drew leaders of hundreds of indigenous groups in 11 Latin American countries and observers from Indonesia and Congo, the largest gathering of its kind, organizers said. They came to build a consensus for a ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Brazil to pay Amazon residents for 'eco-services': minister
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hhsx8MBbBewQVtc_HeZgu2RsLuoQ
Agence France Presse: Brazil's government is to pay residents of the Amazon money and credits for their "eco-services" in helping to preserve the vast forested area sometimes called the "lungs of the Earth" for its role its converting carbon dioxide. Environment Minister Marina Silva has presented the measure as a priority and said "keeping the forest going is an important environmental service" for the entire planet. Under the scheme, farmers, ranchers and woodsman who ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Climate debate shifts as many say emissions caps are not enough
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/06/news/climate.php
International Herald Tribune: The charged and complex debate over how to slow down global warming has become a lot more complicated. Most of the focus in the past few years has centered on imposing caps on greenhouse gas emissions to prod energy users to conserve or switch to nonpolluting technologies. Leaders of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change - the scientists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year with former Vice President Al Gore - have emphasized that market-based approach. All three ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Climate Treaty Drafting Put Off, Waits For Next US President
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010553310
All Headline News: Plans to draft an international treaty citing global agendas for the fight against global warming have been postponed until after the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. According to officials, the final decisions on what would be a follow-up to the Kyoto protocol, set to expire 2012, will be made in 2009, after the election of a new U.S. president who, compared to current president George W. Bush, is expected to be a firm supporter of the environmental cause. "We're all ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Duck and Cover: It's the New Survivalism
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96250
New York Times: THE traditional face of survivalism is that of a shaggy loner in camouflage, holed up in a cabin in the wilderness and surrounded by cases of canned goods and ammunition. It is not that of Barton M. Biggs, the former chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley. Yet in Mr. Biggs's new book, "Wealth, War and Wisdom," he says people should "assume the possibility of a breakdown of the civilized infrastructure." "Your safe haven must be self-sufficient and capable of growing some ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Emphasis sharpens on coal in global warming crisis
http://www.contracostatimes.com/animals/ci_8830526
Washington Post: James Hansen -- perhaps the best-known scientific advocate for curbing greenhouse gas emissions -- sent a letter recently to the head of one of the nation's largest power companies calling on him to confront the role that his coal-fired plants play in global warming. Hansen proposed they meet. On Wednesday, James Rogers of Duke Energy accepted Hansen's invitation, though he made clear he does not foresee calling off plans to build more of the power plants that Hansen considers a main ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Food riots fear after rice price hits a high
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/06/food.foodanddrink
Observer: A global rice shortage that has seen prices of one of the world's most important staple foods increase by 50 per cent in the past two weeks alone is triggering an international crisis, with countries banning export and threatening serious punishment for hoarders. With rice stocks at their lowest for 30 years, prices of the grain rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to record highs and are expected to soar further in the coming months. Already China, India, Egypt, Vietnam and Cambodia ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Indigenous groups seeking role in shaping climate policy
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/05/MNPE100PI0.DTL
New York Times: Some wore traditional headdresses, and some traveled by riverboat or canoe. But the dozens of "forest peoples" who descended on this capital of Brazil's Amazonas state last week had a common goal of becoming bigger players in global climate talks. A conference here that ended Friday drew leaders of indigenous groups in 11 Latin American countries, a number unprecedented in size and scope, organizers said, and observers from Indonesia and Congo. They came to build a consensus ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
New Focus on Coal's Part in Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/05/AR2008040501136.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: James E. Hansen, perhaps the best-known scientific advocate for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, sent a letter recently to the head of one of the nation's largest power companies, calling on him to confront the role that his coal-fired plants play in global warming. Hansen proposed they meet. On Wednesday, James E. Rogers of Duke Energy accepted Hansen's invitation, though he made clear he does not foresee calling off plans to build more of the power plants that Hansen considers a ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Kenya: UK biofuel needs 'threaten delta'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/06/biofuels.alternativeenergy
Observer: The lush, muddy wetlands of the Tana river delta, teeming with birds and home to hippos and crocodiles, lions and elephants, are more than 4,000 miles from Britain. But this patchwork of savannah and mangrove swamp on the east coast of Africa is the latest victim of the British thirst for biofuels. To meet the worldwide demand and the regulation that, from next week, petrol and diesel sold in Britain must be mixed with bioethanol or biodiesel as part of a drive to cut the carbon ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
US vote shadows world climate talks: green groups
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjitV1ncwoUrCUO2GAg5qM5PqTIw
Agence France Presse: For all the talk of urgency in fighting climate change, negotiators are putting off the hard part in drafting the next global treaty until the US election, diplomats and environmentalists say. All three major candidates seeking the keys to the White House in January support tougher action on climate change than President George W. Bush, who rejected the Kyoto Protocol as one of his first acts in office. Five days of marathon negotiations in Bangkok ended late Friday with a work ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Bangkok climate talks set programme for Bali Action plan
http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/345224/cs/1/
Indo-Asian News Service: UN-sponsored climate change talks in Bangkok ended with a work programme on a long-term international agreement to be concluded in Copenhagen by the end of 2009, the host of Saturday's meeting said. 'The train to Copenhagen has left the station,' said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that hosted the five-day meeting which involved heated debates about the pending work schedule. The plenary sessions of the five-day ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Drought ignites Spain's 'water war'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/06/spain
Observer: There is a common saying in Spain that during a drought, the trees chase after the dogs. Now it is ringing true as the country struggles to deal with the worst drought since the Forties: reservoirs stand at 46 per cent of capacity and rainfall over the past 18 months has been 40 per cent below average. But months before the scorching summer sun threatens to reduce supplies to a trickle, a bitter political battle is raging over how to manage Spain's scarcest resource - ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
It's About Laws, Not Light Bulbs
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=96286
New York Times: The issue of climate change is now in a sad state of political and legislative suspension, awaiting an election, a new president and a new Congress. The first anniversary of the Supreme Court's historic decision ordering the regulation of greenhouse gases came and went last week without any action by the administration, forcing state governors and other plaintiffs in the case to return to court to compel a response. In the Senate, Joseph Lieberman continued to speak hopefully ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Australia: Koalas may be threatened as climate change makes leaves inedible
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/koalas-may-be-threatened-as-climate-change-makes-leaves-inedible_10035028.html
Asia News International: A new research has indicated that Koalas and other leaf-eating animals may be threatened because of climate change causing eucalyptus leaves to become inedible. The research, carried out in Australia, saw eucalyptus leaves, which are the staple diet of Koalas, turning to leather. Koalas and greater gliders depend entirely on eucalyptus leaves for food, while some other marsupials, including brushtail and ringtail possums and many wallaby species, feed extensively on the ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Labour 'killing Britain's renewables industry'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/labour-killing-britains-renewables-industry-805236.html
Independent: Ministers are strangling the very industry they will need to help them meet ambitious targets for renewable energy and build new ecotowns across the country, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. The number of households installing solar panels and other clean energy systems has slumped by up to three-quarters in England and Wales because grants to make them more affordable have been slashed and rationed. Last week the energy minister Malcolm Wicks rejected widespread pleas to ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Philippines: Rice crisis 'imminent' a long time ago
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/apr/06/yehey/top_stories/20080406top3.html
Manila Times: is quite ironic that the Philippines, with its Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and host to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has never been rice self-sufficient for the most part of the last 20 years. While some argue that the Philippines is not blessed like Thailand, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Bangladesh, with plains and deltas more highly suitable for rice farming, local experts believe the country could still attain rice ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Yellowstone grizzlies denning later
http://www.rockymountainoutlook.ca/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=128&cat=23&id=1188170&more=0
Rocky Mountain Outlook: American researchers are hoping to embark on a study to find out if climate change is playing a role in grizzly bears heading into the dens later each year and emerging from their winter slumber earlier than ever before. Following more than 20 years of data on collared grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, researchers say they have noticed a troubling trend that could suggest grizzlies are changing their winter hibernation patterns. There are concerns the fate ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Australia: Aussie medics warn on health impact of climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_wsCVC5FdNdUxtz0z53w-YkoxhA
Agence France Presse: Climate change is likely to lead to higher rates of some infectious and respiratory diseases as well as more injuries from storms and bushfires, a report by Australian doctors warned Sunday. The Doctors for the Environment Australia report found that over the next decade, the health of children and the elderly would be most at risk from rising temperatures. "In 2020, it is likely that Australian doctors and other health professionals will be seeing patients with a diverse ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
United Kingdom: Companies will have to tell all on carbon emissions
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/companies-will-have-to-tell-all-on-carbon-emissions-805127.html
Independent: All quoted companies will be forced to detail carbon emissions in their annual reports after the Government caved in to backbench pressure. An amendment added to the Climate Change Bill last week is expected to go on the statute books this summer. It requires quoted companies to include carbon emission information as part of their annual business reviews. These would list emissions from company cars, boilers and on-site equipment. Lord Rooker, the environment minister, bowed ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
Australia: Drought Grows Slightly In Eastern Australian Farmlands
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/47797/story.htm
Reuters: A key part of Australia's eastern farmlands slipped further into drought in March but record crops were still expected if good rains fell soon, New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said on Sunday. New South Wales, one of Australia's biggest agricultural states, was hit hardest by the country's worst drought in 100 years before rain began falling early this year. The rain reduced the area of the state in drought to around 40 percent from 99 percent during ...
Mon, 7 Apr 08
E.ON pushes on with offshore UK wind farm
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL0415089820080407
Reuters: E.ON (EONG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) is to apply for planning permission on Monday to build one of the UK's largest offshore wind farms, hoping the Ministry of Defence will drop its objections to the project, the German utility said. The 300-meagwatt Humber Gateway wind farm, which E.ON hopes to build 8 kms off the coast of East Yorkshire, is expected to cost about 700 million pounds ($1.40 billion) to b