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Thu, 31 Jul 08
Birds Fly North in Climate Change Vanguard - Study
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49587/story.htm
Reuters: Birds have been moving north in Europe over the past 25 years because of climate change in the vanguard of likely huge shifts in the ranges of plants and animals, scientists said on Wednesday. A study of 42 rare bird species in Britain showed that southern European bird species such as the Dartford warbler, Cirl bunting, little egret or Cetti's warbler had become more common in Britain from 1980-2004. And species usually found in northern Europe, such as the fieldfare, ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Congo Launches Review of Logging Contracts
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49593/story.htm
Reuters: Congo, home to the world's second largest tropical forest, launched a review of all timber contracts on Wednesday in an effort to clean up a business rife with corruption and to recoup millions of dollars in lost taxes. The World Bank-sponsored initiative will look at 156 deals. Most were signed during a 1998-2003 war and subsequent interim government accused of awarding numerous dubious logging and mining contracts. In 2002, with the country partially under the control of ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Environment: Climate activists occupy proposed site for coal-fired power station
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/31/activists.fossilfuels
Guardian: Climate change activists yesterday occupied the proposed site for Britain's first coal-fired power station in 30 years, claiming the development will cause huge damage to the environment if it goes ahead. More than 150 protesters descended on the site near the village of Kingsnorth in Kent ahead of next week's Camp for Climate Action, which is expected to attract thousands of environmentalists. Activist Connor O'Brien said: "The purpose of the climate change camp is to ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Future threats to the Amazon rainforest
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0801-amazon.html
Mongabay: Between June 2000 and June 2008, more than 150,000 square kilometers of rainforest were cleared in the Brazilian Amazon. While deforestation rates have slowed since 2004, forest loss is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Here mongabay.com takes a look at past, current and potential future drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Past drivers of deforestation in the Amazon Most deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has occurred since the late 1960s when ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Market Remedy to Climate Change Stalls
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49594/story.htm
Reuters: The world's biggest source of private sector investment to fight climate change in the developing world has stalled pending complex global climate talks and uncertain demand. The US$13 billion trade in carbon offsets has also come under withering attack over profiteering and scam projects to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon offsets allow people and businesses to pay others to cut emissions of planet-warming gases on their behalf, and is meant to cut the cost of fighting ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Arctic Ice Bigger Than 2007, But Thawing Long-Term
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49595/story.htm
Reuters: Arctic sea ice is unlikely to shrink below a 2007 record low this year in a reprieve from the worst predictions of climate change even though new evidence confirms a long-term thaw is under way, experts said. The 2007 record raised worries of a melt that could leave the North Pole ice-free this year, threaten indigenous hunters and thaw ice vital for creatures such as polar bears. It would also help open the Arctic to shipping and oil and gas firms. "Most likely there ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
China Readies Tougher Olympic Pollution Measures
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49589/story.htm
Reuters: China is mulling emergency plans to keep Olympic skies clear and may push more cars off the road in Beijing and nearby cities if wind or rain do not disperse smog build-ups, government pollution advisors said on Wednesday. Scientists blamed a sultry haze that shrouded the host city over the weekend on an unusually long bout of hot, humid weather and say the combination is unlikely to be repeated during the Games, which start August 8. But they are readying back-up plans for ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Climate Change Could Hit Lebanon's Dwindling Cedars
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49586/story.htm
Reuters: Sturdy cedars perched high in the mountains stand for many Lebanese as symbols of their fractured land's survival. But some environmentalists worry that the trees face a new threat from global warming. "The biggest challenge now for the cedars of Lebanon is climate change," said Nizar Hani, scientific coordinator of the Barouk Cedar Nature Reserve in the Shouf mountains. Only murmuring insects and breezes rustling through cedar branches disturb the stillness of the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
United Kingdom: How to go to Climate Camp - and enjoy it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/31/activists.climatechange
Guardian: 'We don't want people who are thinking of coming for the first time to feel intimidated," says Peter McDonnell, a spokesperson for the Climate Camp, the week-long protest camp starting this Sunday at Kingsnorth in Kent which aims to highlight the "climate madness" of plans to build the UK's first coal-fired power station for 30 years near to the site. "That's really, really important. People mustn't be put off by scare stories." It's easy to see why the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
China: Its green medal hopes are lost but Beijing must race on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/31/olympicgames2008.pollution
Guardian: Beijing made many promises to secure the 2008 Olympics - hostages to fortune, as it turned out, as the date approached. Some greater press and political freedoms, for instance, have clearly not been honoured: as Amnesty International pointed out yesterday, there has been more, not less, repression as the games approach. But other promises that may remain unfulfilled do not reflect bad faith so much as the scale of the task. When the world's most polluted country promised a green Olympics, it ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
United Kingdom: New coal stations 'threaten emissions goal'
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/science/new-coal-stations-threaten-emissions-goal-$1234167.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: If plans to build new coal-fired power stations get the go-ahead then Europe's main climate policy could be in danger of collapsing, a thinktank claimed today. The European Union has set a goal of reducing emissions from the power sector and heavy industry by 21 per cent by 2020 through its emissions trading scheme (ETS). This scheme has been in place since 2005 and puts a price on carbon that businesses use and creates a market for carbon. A report from the IPPR ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Oceans to take center stage at int'l climate conference
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103999
Jakarta Post: The first world conference in Manado next year will address the impact of climate change on oceans and the degradation of marine resources, an official says. "All this time, discussions and focus on climate change have been dominated by issues such as forests and alternative energy," secretary for the office of the coordinating minister for people's welfare, Dwisuryo Indroyono Soesilo, said here Tuesday. "In fact, oceans have a significant correlation with ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Offshore oil drilling more palatable to Californians
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=104005
New York Times: The United Nations has long been accused by its detractors of generating hot air. Starting in August, a glance at the thermostat in the Secretariat building will provide confirmation. To set an example in the effort to curb energy use that contributes to global warming, the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has approved a one-month pilot project to raise the thermostat throughout much of the landmark building to 77 degrees from 72 degrees. The thermostats in the often windowless ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Australia: Should we wait for other nations?
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/should-we-wait-for-other-nations/1231593.aspx
Canberra Times: Few now seriously doubt the enormity and gravity of the climate change problem. In the Australian context, it seems as though the issue of climate change is finally receiving the attention it deserves. The Rudd Government clearly regards the issue of climate change as one of national priority. Accordingly, it has proposed that an emissions trading scheme be implemented no later than 2010. Earlier this month, the draft Garnaut report proposed a similar time frame for the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Trade Failure Clouds Climate Talks and Beyond
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49596/story.htm
Reuters: The collapse of world trade talks deals such a blow to international negotiations that the prospect of agreeing effective solutions to global warming or the spread of nuclear weapons seems more remote than ever. "If we cannot even manage trade, how should we then find ourselves in a position to manage new challenges like climate change?" said European agriculture chief Mariann Fischer Boel after talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva fell apart on Tuesday. ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Australia: CSR Sees Potential for Expansion in Renewable Energy
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=adkcMITOjSq4&refer=australia
Bloomberg: CSR Ltd., Australia's biggest sugar refiner, said it has scope for a ``significant'' expansion of renewable energy generation to tap expected increases in prices. The outlook for higher prices for both electricity and renewable energy credits supports investment in plants generating power from waste sugar products, Sydney-based CSR said today in a presentation sent to the Australian stock exchange. The viability of projects is being assessed, it said. The Australian ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Looming Turf War May Stymie Aussie CO2 Storage Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49590/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's ambitious plan to bury its carbon dioxide emissions under the seabed could be constrained by a potential conflict between petroleum companies and government entities seeking offshore sites to test carbon storage technology, industry leaders said on Wednesday. Australia, one of the world's biggest per-head polluters, is planning to establish a legislative framework for carbon capture and storage (CCS) under the sea in a bid to combat climate change. CCS could keep ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Australia: Nelson 'worse than Howard' on climate
http://news.theage.com.au/national/nelson-worse-than-howard-on-climate-20080731-3noq.html
Age: Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson is even worse on climate change than former prime minister John Howard, the Rudd government says. Dr Nelson has said the coalition is committed to introducing an emissions trading scheme "probably" by 2012. His refusal to commit to a firm starting date prompted Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner to say the coalition was in the climate change denier camp. "Dr Nelson is hostage to the deniers in his own ranks," he told ABC ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Australia: Sydney should be 'carbon trading hub'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/31/2319801.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: New South Wales is calling on the Federal Government to make Sydney the base for the National Carbon Market. The State Government says Sydney should be the hub for carbon trading once the emissions trading scheme is up and running. The Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Verity Firth, says the state is an ideal base. "Not a lot of people are aware but the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme, which was introduced in 2003, was one of the world's first ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
3 West Coast governors oppose new offshore oil drilling
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-ocean30-2008jul30,0,840601.story
Los Angeles Times: West Coast governors urged the federal government Tuesday to keep new oil drilling rigs out of their waters and to spend more money on programs to restore the health of the Pacific Ocean. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, joined with Democratic Govs. Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Chris Gregoire of Washington to reaffirm their opposition to opening undersea oil fields to new drilling, as part of an elaborate action plan for preserving coastal waters. The 116-page ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Big Coal's Campaign of Lies
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/21918521/big_coals_campaign_of_lies
Rolling Stone: It took Congress more than three decades to consider a major initiative to ward off global warming, but only a few days to kill it. In June, the Senate rejected the Climate Security Act, which would have put America on track to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 71 percent by 2050. The bill was specifically crafted to soften the blow to the nation's coal industry – coal generates more than a third of all carbon-dioxide pollution – by providing coal-burning power companies with $300 billion in ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Biofuels Major Driver of Food Price Rise - World Bank
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49574/story.htm
Reuters: Large increases in biofuels production in the United States and Europe are the main reason behind the steep rise in global food prices, a top World Bank economist said in research published on Monday. World Bank economist Don Mitchell concluded that biofuels and related low grain inventories, speculative activity, and food export bans pushed prices up by 70 percent to 75 percent. The remaining price rise reflected a weaker US dollar, higher energy costs and related rises in ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
California considers ban on plastic bags to protect marine life
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_10039462?source=rss
San Jose Mercury News: Should California become the first state to ban plastic bags? One of the state's top environmental officials embraced the idea Tuesday, citing the devastating impact on marine animals, which die after ingesting plastic bags or becoming entangled in them. Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman is head of a cabinet-level panel - the California Ocean Protection Council - that is mulling over a list of proposals, including the bag ban, to improve the health of the ocean. While the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
California to sue EPA on greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073003437.html
Reuters: California will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for "wantonly" ignoring its duty to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, and construction and agricultural equipment, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said on Wednesday. Brown said the lawsuit, to be announced at a news conference at the Port of Long Beach on Thursday and filed in Washington after a 180-day waiting period mandated by the Clean Air Act, was meant to force the EPA into action. ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
China Unveils Emergency Pollution Plans for Games
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=104014
Reuters: China has announced a slew of emergency measures in and around Beijing in case air pollution remains poor during the Olympics, including taking more cars off the roads and slashing production at more than 220 factories. The radical plan would be carried out if air quality was forecast to be short of acceptable standards for the upcoming 48 hours due to "extremely unfavourable weather conditions", the Ministry of Environmental Protection said. A sultry haze has ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Climate fear as giant ice sheets break off Arctic shelf
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4430931.ece
Times (UK): Giant sheets of ice measuring over seven square miles have broken off the largest remaining ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic, in a development consistent with climate change predictions. Officials said that the chunks of ice split off the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off Ellesmere Island last week, forming two floating islands of 1.9 and 5.4 square miles. More could follow later this year, they warned. It was the largest fracture of its kind since the nearby Ayles ice shelf - roughly ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Giant Chunks Break Off Canadian Ice Shelf
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49572/story.htm
Reuters: Giant sheets of ice totaling almost eight square miles (20 square km) broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic last week and more could follow later this year, scientists said on Tuesday. Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming. The ice broke away from the shelf on Ward Hunt Island, an small island just off giant Ellesmere Island in one of the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Global Warming Skews Fish Sexes
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1827881,00.html
Time Magazine: Once scientists began studying the impact of global warming on everything from tourism to asthma, it was only a matter of time before they got around to sex. Now two biologists at Spain's Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) have done just that, at least when it comes to fish. You may have missed it in biology class, but in some finned species like the Atlantic silverside – as well as in many reptiles – sex is determined not by genetics, but by temperature: the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
GOP blocks action on tax, renewable energy package
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5icrolgbXr0mlnZQmLr-1svIyNDpwD9289B8O0
Associated Press: For the fourth time this summer Republicans stopped the Senate from taking up wide-ranging legislation that extends tax breaks for teachers, businesses and parents and provides tax credits to an array of renewable energy entrepreneurs. Major business groups, usual GOP allies, have implored Congress to act on the tax credits, many which expired at the end of last year or will run out at the end of this year. But for many Republicans, it's a matter or principle and politics: many oppose ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Oceanic Acidification - The Scenario In 100 Years' Time
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37799
Environmental News Network: A new study by scientists into the future effects of acidic sea water shows that the reduced pH value of the oceans' surface waters will have drastic results in around 100 years' time. The scientists, from Sweden and Australia, carried out the world's first research into how a lowered pH of the sea's surface water affects marine animal life. In their project, they allowed sea urchins of the species Heliocidaris Erythrogramma to fertilize themselves in water where the pH has been ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Report finds US is world's top wind producer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/30/windpower.energy
McClatchy Newspapers: The American Wind Energy Association is expected to release a survey next month that says the US has become the world's leading wind producer, and that the industry expects rapid growth to continue in places like Texas, the Great Plains and California. The survey calculates that the US wind industry now tops Germany in terms of how much energy is being produced from wind. Germany still has more installed capacity - 22,000 megawatts compared with 17,000 in the US at the end of ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Three senators call for EPA chief to resign
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/37796
Reuters: Democratic senators called on Tuesday for the resignation of Stephen Johnson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, saying he sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming and other ecological problems. The three senators, all active in the climate change debate, also asked the U.S. attorney general to investigate whether Johnson has made false or misleading statements in sworn testimony before the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee. "Mr. ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
5 states threaten to sue EPA to get emission rules
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jodZQcJBOZExjk-mC8fnZQmsde7wD928IND02
Associated Press: Five states intend to sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it does not act soon to reduce pollution from ships, aircraft and off-road vehicles. In a letter that California Attorney General Jerry Brown was to send Thursday to the EPA, the five states and New York City accuse the Bush administration of ignoring their requests to set restrictions. "It's a necessary pressure to get the job done," Brown said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press. ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Canada: 7-Square-Mile Ice Sheet Breaks Loose
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080730-arctic-photo-AP.html
Associated Press: A chunk of ice spreading across 7 square miles (18 square kilometers) has broken off a Canadian ice shelf in the Arctic, scientists say. The sheet broke away last week from the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf off the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's far north. (See map.) Large ice segments–including this 1.5-square-mile (4-square-kilometer) chunk, above–were seen drifting near the ice shelf. Derek Mueller, a researcher at Trent University in Ontario, was careful not to ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Australian opposition to support carbon emissions trading
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2319627.htm?tab=australia
Radio Australia: The Australian opposition's climate change spokesman says public wrangling over the coalition's stance on emissions trading has produced a "sharper" policy. The coalition partyroom yesterday approved a policy to support an emissions trading scheme in principle, along with the development of clean energy sources. Opposition leader Brendan Nelson says a Coalition scheme would "probably" start in 2012, and the speed of emissions cuts would depend on other ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Australians Strongly Back Carbon Trade Scheme - Poll
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49566/story.htm
Reuters: Australians overwhelmingly back government plans to introduce one of the world's biggest carbon trading schemes, a poll found on Tuesday, despite a lack of detail about how much it will cost and how it will work. More than eight in 10 people supported carbon trading, with 60 percent backing the introduction of a scheme even if other major polluting countries refused to cut their emissions, a Newspoll in The Australian newspaper showed. The poll of 1,200 people, the second in ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Beijing Says "Sauna" Haze Will Not Last Over Games
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49570/story.htm
Reuters: Beijing authorities said sauna-like weather trapping hazy pollution in the Olympic host city will not last throughout the Games, state media reported on Tuesday, as organisers consider more pollution controls. The Chinese capital's skies remained grey on Tuesday morning, but a breeze overnight had scattered some of the sultry haze that has Olympic organisers worried the city's restrictions on vehicles and industry have not done enough to staunch pollution. Officials have ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Beyond the carbon tax
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/northernsentinel/opinion/26099904.html
Northern Sentinel: British Columbia's carbon tax holds the potential to inspire a new vision: to transform the economy from the brown, carbon-based solutions of the past to the clean, green sustainable solutions of the future. The citizens of British Columbia understand how crucial this transformation is. Poll after poll confirms that British Columbians and Canadians are worried about global warming and want action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution. British Columbians want to change; they just need ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Bush calls on Democrats to allow drilling
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/30/georgebush.usa?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: President George Bush today called for Democrats to open American coastal waters to oil drilling, urging Congress to allow a vote on the matter before its members leave Washington for their August break. Although Bush's White House is winding down, Washington's and Congress is unlikely to overturn a decades-old policy within the next several days, Bush nevertheless took the podium to browbeat legislators he sees as blocking action that would lower fuel prices. "American ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Canada is melting
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/infocus/features/in-focus/canada-melting-$1234123.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: A chunk of ice more than seven square miles has broken off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic, according to scientists. The ice broke free from the Ward Hunt ice shelf, a small area off the larger Ellesmere Island. Scientists have warned that further splitting could occur later this year. Derek Mueller, a researcher at Trent University, told the Associated Press that global warming is not necessarily to blame and said the event was consistent with the theory that the ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
China Coal Shortages Strain Shanxi Environment - Media
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49568/story.htm
Reuters: China's worsening coal shortages have exerted unprecedented pressure on Shanxi, the country's top coal-producing region, to push output beyond approved levels and worsening environmental strains, official media reported on Tuesday. Demand from users who normally get their coal from Shanxi is expected to exceed its output by more than 200 million tonnes this year, despite the region's all-out efforts to boost production, the official China Securities Journal said. Shanxi ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Climate change health problems foreseen
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2008/07/30/Climate_change_health_problems_foreseen/UPI-71741217466649/
United Press International: Most U.S. health department directors believe their cities or counties will have serious public health problems because of climate change, researchers said. Researchers at George Mason University in Washington reveal that the majority of health department directors believed that threats such as heat waves or heat-related illnesses, reduced air quality and reduced water quality or quantity were most likely to become more common or severe as a result of climate change. The study, ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Coal protesters at power station
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7533719.stm
BBC: Up to 100 activists have arrived at a power station in Kent where environmental campaigners are holding a climate camp next week. A week-long protest is getting under way on Monday against plans to build a coal-fired plant on the Hoo peninsula. Activist Phil Thornhill said the camp at Kingsnorth was the start of a global fight against burning coal. E.On UK has said it will demolish the existing power station and replace it with a 20% cleaner coal-fired unit. ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Democratic senators call for investigation of US environmental agency
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/usa.carbonemissions
Guardian: Amid intensifying scrutiny of the US environmental protection agency's (EPA) refusal to act on climate change, four Democratic senators today asked federal prosecutors to investigate the EPA chief for alleged perjury and obstruction of Congress. The call for a justice department probe of EPA administrator Stephen Johnson – coupled with a plea for his resignation from Democrats – follows a darkening cloud of controversy surrounding the agency. "Johnson's EPA has shown an ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Driscoll: US needs renewable energy
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/07/30/news/local/news03.txt
Missoulian: John Driscoll, the Democratic challenger to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said Tuesday that America needs a crash course to wean itself from oil as its main energy source, switching to resources like solar, wind and nuclear power. "It's time to break an addiction," he said. "And there's only one way to do it, and that's to stop. (Petroleum) is not the mainstream any more." Driscoll, who uses solar energy to help power his Helena home, said he opposes calls by Rehberg and ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
United States: Farmers can cut carbon for cash
http://gazettextra.com/news/2008/jul/30/farmers-can-cut-carbon-cash/
Janesville Gazette: It's like a commodity you can't see or feel. But it's still worth cash, and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau wants farmers and foresters to get in on the ground floor of this emerging market. The product for sale is carbon credits. Major manufacturers want those credits to supplement their attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers using some environmentally friendly practices naturally create carbon credits by sequestering, or holding, carbon in fields and ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Firefighters Combat Blaze Near Yosemite
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49582/story.htm
Reuters: More than 2,500 firefighters struggled in hot summer weather and across rugged terrain on Monday to prevent a wildfire that has charred more than 26,000 acres (10,522 hectares) from advancing toward world-famous Yosemite National Park. The so-called Telegraph Fire's northwest flank is approaching Coulterville, while its southeast flank threatens Mariposa, towns along rural roads leading to Yosemite in north-central California, fire officials said. Working in 90-degree ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
China: In Beijing, Blue Skies Prove Hard to Achieve
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103948
New York Times: Less than two weeks before the Olympics, Beijing's skies are so murky and polluted that the authorities are considering emergency measures during the Games beyond the traffic restrictions and factory shutdowns that, so far, have failed to clear the air, state media reported on Monday. For the past five days, Beijing has been a soupy caldron of humid, gray skies. Local pollution ratings have exceeded the national standard for acceptable air since last Thursday, despite a temporary air ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Japan Tackles Global Warming, Skeptics In Tow
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93079196
National Public Radio: Japan's government and Japanese companies are touting efforts to make their country one of the most energy-efficient, low-carbon places in the world. But some critics dismiss the publicity as "greenwash" that paints a deceptive picture of Japan's environmental status. The country's cabinet approved a trial plan Wednesday to trade carbon credits in an effort to lower emissions and fight global warming. And at a show at the G-8 Summit in Hokkaido this month, plug-in cars, ...

Thu, 31 Jul 08
Mass. House approves bill to curb greenhouse gases
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/2008_07_30_Mass__House_approves_bill_to_curb_greenhouse_gases/
Associated Press: House lawmakers raced to approve a pair of bills designed to help slow global warming and increase the number of so-called "green jobs" in Massachusetts. Approval of the two bills came on the second to last day of the Legislature's formal session and follows the recent passage of bills designed to increase the use of biofuels and require the state to boost its reliance on renewable energy sources. The global warming bill would require the state by the year 2020 to ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Alaska forests hit with more wildfires, infestations as climate changes
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/29/alaska-forests-hit-more-wildfires-infestations-cli/
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: It was just getting cool when Glenn Juday went out to see his trees. The leaves were still on the birch and aspen, and the summer growing season was lingering. But it was already October, and gathering data would be much harder once it snowed. So Juday had to hurry. "I'll work till dark," he had declared that morning in his office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he teaches forest ecology. "We're seriously behind." Now Juday was about 20 miles from the university – ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Japan adopts action plan against global warming
http://www.livemint.com/2008/07/29162430/Japan-adopts-action-plan-again.html?h=B
Agence France-Presse: Japan's cabinet on Tuesday adopted a plan to slash carbon emissions up to 80% by 2050 by starting carbon trading and stepping up research on carbon-capture technologies. "Japan must continue showing leadership on the issue of environment," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told the cabinet meeting. "To lead the world, Japan must take the initiative by achieving a low-carbon society." Japanese industry leaders, particularly steelmakers and the power industry, have strongly opposed ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Suppressed climate change report turns up heat on US lawmakers
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2222697/suppressed-climate-change
Business Green: Details of a suppressed US government report on the effects of climate change surfaced last week, just days after the agency that wrote it published another damning report linking carbon emissions to detrimental effects on human health. California Senator Barbara Boxer, chairing the Senate Environment Committee, was allowed to see a draft report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that had been submitted to the White House in December. According to Boxer, who was not ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
United Nations to raise thermostats
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/29/united-nations-raise-thermostats/
Washington Times: <body>Everyone worries about climate change and now the United Nations is doing something about it -- beginning Friday the temperature inside U.N. headquarters in New York will rise by five degrees. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who made global warming a top priority at the beginning of his five year term, has ordered the official U.N. "In House Climate Change Initiative." Officials said the August-long experiment -- also dubbed "Cool UN" -- will allow ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Australian carbon costs to hurt food exports: farmers
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSYD8884420080729
Reuters: Australian food production and exports could be cut when carbon trading starts from mid-2010, Australia's biggest farmers' group said on Tuesday, with the price of carbon to add to already hefty price rises for fuel. The farmers' disquiet follows fears expressed by big business this month that Australian firms, particularly large energy companies, could lose out to global competitors or be forced to shelve projects due to the country's cap-and-trade carbon plan. "Any more ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Insubstantial Shadows
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43347
Inter Press Service: Amidst the cacophony of discussions and negotiations within the international climate change caucus, one particular group, the G8, had held out hope for effective implementation -- more than the United Nations Kyoto Protocol (KP), which remains bogged down in various degrees of non-compliance. Currently there is, along with United States' outright rejection of the KP, acrimonious debate on the 'common but differentiated' principle which sets differing emission-reduction targets on ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Japan says to start trial carbon trading in October
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKT8025920080729
Reuters: Japan, under pressure to meet emission reduction targets set by the Kyoto Protocol, approved an October start for the trial trading of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. "We'll set down rules in September on how to take part in (a trial carbon trading scheme) and in October we'd like to get started," Hiroshi Kamagata, director for the cabinet secretariat at Cabinet Office, said at a briefing on Tuesday. Tuesday's cabinet agreement takes forward ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
Japan to start trial carbon trading in October
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT8025920080729
Reuters: Japan, under pressure to find other incentives than government spending to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, approved an October start for the trial trading of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming. "We'll set down rules in September on how to take part (in a trial carbon trading scheme) and in October we'd like to get started," Hiroshi Kamagata, director for the cabinet secretariat at the Cabinet Office, said at a briefing on Tuesday. Tuesday's ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
More problems from climate than pollution, say Spain
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL931904420080729
Reuters: Heat and humidity levels will be of more concern to competing athletes at the Beijing Olympics than pollution levels, according to Spanish athletics chief Jose Maria Odriozola. "I was there two years ago at almost exactly the same time as the Olympics will be held for the world junior athletics championships," Odriozola told a news conference on Tuesday after announcing the Spanish athletics team for the Games. "My eyes didn't water and the athletes did not ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
United States: Truckers sue LA ports over anti-pollution program
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2825718620080729
Reuters: The American Trucking Associations filed a federal lawsuit in a California court on Monday morning against the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to stop plans intended to reduce diesel fuel pollution. The Arlington, Virginia-based trade group estimates over 10,000 independent truckers will be prohibited from the Los Angeles port, which is banning independent truckers as of October 1 to tighten control over emissions. The ATA charged that the plans are unfair for ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
U.S. beach warnings drop in '07 but still high: group
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2933136420080729
Reuters: The number of days U.S. beaches were declared unsafe for swimming due to pollution declined by 12 percent in 2007 from the previous year but was still the second highest in 18 years, an environmental group said on Tuesday. The National Resources Defense Council said it recorded 22,571 closures or advisory days at the nation's 3,516 most popular beaches last year, down from the record 25,643 in 2006. A decline in rainfall in areas of Hawaii and California appeared to be behind ...

Wed, 30 Jul 08
US environmental agency silences employees on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/usa.climatechange
Guardian: Amid intensifying scrutiny of its failure to act on climate change, the US environmental protection agency (EPA) has ordered employees not to talk to internal auditors, Congress or the media, according to a leaked email released yesterday by green campaigners. The EPA has refused repeated requests from Congress to explain its December denial of California's request to regulate greenhouse gas emissions - a move that overruled the agency's own career scientists. Three Democratic ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Oil: Campaigners seek an end to production of CO2-intensive 'unconventional fuels'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/29/oilandgascompanies.royaldutchshell
Guardian: Shell, BP and other oil companies at the centre of the tar sands revolution in Canada are facing a backlash from the Co-operative and other members of the ethical investment community determined to bring a halt to these operations for environmental reasons. A joint report from Co-operative Investments and the wildlife charity WWF released today will be followed up in September by a meeting of the UK Social Investment Forum (UKSIF) to press for an end to this carbon-intensive ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: A heated grab for climate control
http://www.smh.com.au/news/gerard-henderson/a-heated-grab-for-climate-control/2008/07/28/1217097144498.html
Sydney Morning Herald: It's not often that the media is more interested in the policy, or potential policy, of an opposition rather than a government. Especially when the government in question is not even a third of the way through its inaugural term. However, this seems to be the case in the lead-up to today's shadow cabinet deliberations and tomorrow's meeting of the Coalition parties. These get-togethers have been given greater attention due to the success (so far) of the merger of the Liberal and National ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia's shaky hold on greenhouse infamy
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24093591-5013871,00.html
Australian: IT is not a list you want to top, but the reality is set out in the Garnaut report: Australia is the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. However, the title is misleading. Australia does top the emissions table, excluding land-use change and forestry emissions. But include that measure and the Republic of the Congo is propelled right out in front, followed by Malaysia, Canada and then Australia. It is also apparent that a year or two can change these ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
China: Beijing Shrouded in Haze 11 Days Before Olympics
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49544/story.htm
Reuters: Olympic host city Beijing was shrouded in haze on Monday 11 days before the Games begin, raising anxieties about whether it can deliver the clean skies promised for the world's top athletes. The city's chronic pollution, a sometimes acrid mix of construction dust, vehicle exhaust and factory and power plant fumes, has been one of the biggest worries for Games organisers. Beijing has ordered many of its 3.3 million cars off roads and halted much construction and factory ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: Don't wait for world on climate: poll
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24093601-5013871,00.html
Australian: AS the Coalition meets in Canberra today to forge a climate change policy that would delay an emissions trading scheme beyond 2010, it will be confronted with evidence that most Australians support the Rudd Government's position. Brendan Nelson is expected to adopt a policy with his shadow cabinet colleagues that opts to delay an ETS until greenhouse gas giants such as India and China act to cut their emissions. But the latest Newspoll survey has confirmed widespread public ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: Wong stands by 2010 carbon trading start-up
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/29/2317310.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Federal Government remains committed to its election commitment of a 2010 start-up date, despite the likelihood of tough opposition in Parliament when the laws are introduced. The laws will face tough opposition in the Senate from those who do not support any start-up date before 2012. Senator Wong has told Lyndal Curtis on ABC Radio's AM the issue demands attention by all governments. "Obviously these are matters which ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Athletes Face Mental Problem With Pollution Says Coach
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49543/story.htm
Reuters: Athletes competing at the Beijing Olympics will face bigger mental issues than physical problems coping with China's pollution, Netherlands soccer coach Foppe De Haan said on Monday. De Haan told a news conference his players had undergone a rigorous training programme to get themselves in the best physical shape to handle the heat and humidity. But he said nothing could prepare them for the psychological challenge of playing under a thick blanket of haze. "This ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia must take lead on emissions trading: Lib backbencher
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/29/2317224.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: An Opposition backbencher has spoken out against the plan for the Coalition to make its support for an emissions trading scheme conditional on India and China signing up to a similar scheme. The federal Coalition begins two days of meetings in Canberra today, which will focus on the Opposition's climate change policy. Western Australian Liberal Mal Washer chairs the Coalition's environment committee and says the shadow cabinet should not make any changes without consulting his ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australian Athletes Free to Withdraw Over Pollution
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49546/story.htm
Reuters: Australian athletes will be allowed to withdraw from their events at the Beijing Olympic Games if pollution poses a threat to their health and safety, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said on Monday. AOC vice president Peter Montgomery said athletes had the freedom to pull out of events if pollution levels remained high but doubted whether anyone would withdraw from their events. "For us the athlete's attitude to the event is paramount," he told reporters. ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: Coalition to thrash out climate policy
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24094322-12377,00.html
Australian: THE Coalition frontbench will meet in Canberra today to thrash out its climate change policy. The Opposition is hoping to settle a split over whether emissions trading should start by 2012, or be delayed until big-emitting nations take action. Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson is pushing for delay. Shadow cabinet will discuss the issue today ahead of a party room meeting tomorrow.

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: Solar rebate rules unplug electricians
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/solar-rebate-rules-unplug-electricians-20080728-3mb0.html
Age: A DOWNTURN in the solar energy market is already clear just two months after the Rudd Government changed the rules over rebates, according to the Electrical Trades Union (ETU). The claims that job opportunities were being "killed off" by the rebate changes were presented to a Federal Parliamentary committee hearing in Melbourne yesterday. Eligibility rules for the $8000 solar panel rebate were tightened in this year's federal budget, meaning that people earning more ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Alternative fuels 'risk disaster'
http://news.scotsman.com/world/Alternative-fuels-39risk-disaster39.4332637.jp
Scotsman: A DRIVE to get oil from unconventional fossil fuel sources in the face of soaring prices could have catastrophic effects on the Earth's climate, a report warned yesterday. With oil prices hitting record highs, the extraction of fuels from tar sands and oil shale is an increasingly attractive option. But according to a study by WWF and Co-operative Financial Services, the fuels are massively energy intensive – creatADVERTISEMENTing as much as eight times as many carbon emissions in ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
As Ocean Warms, Coral Loses Anchor in Acidic Waters
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coral-reefs-lose-grip-under-global-warming
Scientific American: new study confirms that coral reefs could become yet another casualty of climate change if something is not done to cool the warming globe. The reason: marine cements that bind together reefs can't form in waters full of dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2). Those off the west coast of Central America, particularly around the Galapagos Islands, are kept soft by the more acidic waters in that region–and may provide an early look at how coral reefs will fare in the rest of the world as ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
China: Beijing's Air Pollution: It Isn't The Cars
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-seligsohn/beijings-air-pollution-it_b_115484.html
Huffington Post: On July 20, half of private cars in Beijing went off the road in a sweeping attempt to improve air quality in advance of the Olympic games. Commercial and governmental vehicles, taxis and buses are all running as usual, but traffic is moving noticeably faster. I've been watching the plates, and drivers really are obeying the regulations. Furthermore, the Chinese have suspended tourism and visas for anyone not attending the Olympics, which is improving traffic even more. There are noticeably ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Climate change enables spread of disease worldwide
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=223436&src=120
Bloomberg: Climate changes that enable Asian Tiger mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects and animals to flourish in Europe threaten the region's residents, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said. Climate changes and the environmental alterations they cause may lead to an increase in the outbreaks of diseases such as hantavirus and dengue, West Nile and chikungunya fevers, which the animals carry and which have posed little, if any, threat to public health in the ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Canada: Deadline for a deal on Clayoquot old-growth is midnight tonight
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=ee530b9a-dc9d-4fa3-a328-fa523390c3d8
Vancouver Sun: A deadline set by environmentalists for a moratorium on logging in a pristine watershed in Clayoquot Sound is set to pass at midnight tonight. Environmental groups Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Clayoquot, the Wilderness Committee and Forest Ethics have given Ma-Mook Natural Resources and its Port Alberni based partner Coulson Forest Products until midnight tonight to agree to a deal or face disruptions to logging operations and unspecified attacks on their markets around the ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
EPA tells its staff: Don't answer watchdogs' queries
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/45773.html
McClatchy Newspapers: The Environmental Protection Agency has told its staff not to answer questions from the agency's internal watchdog, news reporters or the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, according an internal memo that an environmental group released Monday. The June 16 memo to the staff of the EPA's enforcement division told them that if they're contacted by the EPA inspector general's office, an independent internal watchdog that monitors the agency, or by the Government Accountability ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Oil From Sand: Canada Cashes In
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5464319&page=1
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The earth beneath Fort McMurray's pine and spruce trees holds as much oil as the United States, Russia and the United Arab Emirates combined. In this booming Alberta, Canada, town, the rush to get that oil becomes obvious a couple hundred miles north of Edmonton, where the forest disappears into the largest industrial zone in the world, crawling with some of the largest trucks ever made. Jennifer Sims, who drives one at the Muskweg River Mine, north of Ft. McMurray, said it's ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
South African says it will shift energy policy from coal to combat climate change
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/28/business/AF-South-Africa-Energy.php
Associated Press: The South African government said Monday it would move away from cheap coal – long the engine of its economic growth – and embrace nuclear and renewable energy in a bid to combat climate change. South Africa relies on its coal mines for 90 percent of its energy and has sought to attract electricity guzzling industries such as aluminum smelters as a key plank of its foreign investment policy. But Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said that would now change under a ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
U.S. should find way to price carbon emissions, say execs
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2850849720080728
Reuters: Two top executives from U.S. industry told a congressional panel on Monday that the country should assign a dollar cost to carbon emissions to encourage investment in efficiency and tackle climate change. "We need to reaffirm the principle of predictability," George David, chairman of United Technologies Corp, told the House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. "We need to say to our world that we are going to have a cost ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Climate change affects ecosystems in northern Bering Sea
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/28/content_8828355.htm
Xinhua: Latest research shows that in the last 20 years climate change has affected ecosystems in the northern Bering Sea which may threaten the life of apex predators, such as gray whale, walrus, seal in that region. The changes in the northern Bering Sea have coincided with a reduction in sea ice, and increases in air and ocean temperatures, said Cui Xuehua, a Chinese predoctoral student from University of Tennessee, U.S., who is one of the science party in the 3rd Chinese National Arctic ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
India: Climate change awareness yet to translate into action
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Corporate_Trends/Climate_change_awareness_yet_to_translate_into_action/articleshow/3299193.cms
Economic Times: Climate change is an important issue for most Indian businesses, but more than half of the firms surveyed in a report on the matter said they do not have a clear strategy in place to tackle the challenge. Despite awareness, among 83% of the business leaders that consulting major KPMG spoke to, only 21% said they have measured carbon footprints. Measuring footprints is one of the strategies used to deal with the issue. The report says that the global market for low carbon energy ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Climate change will increase the erosion of coral reefs
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0728-hance_reefs.html
Mongabay: Coral reefs are particularly susceptible to climate change. Warming waters have been shown to bleach coral, killing off symbiotic algae that provide them with sustenance, and often leading to the death of the coral itself. Much attention has been placed on bleaching coral, but now scientists have discovered an additional danger to coral reefs in a warming world: erosion. A study published in this week's issue of PNAS has shown that coral reefs in the waters off Panama and Galapagos, ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: Coalition 'dinosaurs' putting off climate action: Garrett
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/28/2316889.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has again ridiculed the Opposition's climate change policy. Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson says the Government's preferred 2010 start date for an emissions trading scheme is too early. The Shadow Cabinet will meet tomorrow to discuss its policy. Mr Garrett says the Opposition is not united and has an irresponsible approach to climate change. "It is extraordinary, when the climate change challenge is so evident, ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Customers face having to pay for plastic bags
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2466178/Customers-face-having-to-pay-for-plastic-bags.html
Telegraph (UK): In a move that could see customers paying up to 10p a bag, new legislation is expected to be passed which will ensure shops no longer hand out single-use plastic bags. Climate Change minister Joan Ruddock said she hoped the supermarkets would follow the example of Marks and Spencer, which has cut plastic bag usage by 80 per cent by introducing a five pence charge. The Republic of Ireland has also reduced the number of plastic bags by 90 per cent with a charging system that has ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
EPA analysis on global warming should be public
http://www.standardspeaker.com/articles/2008/07/28/editorial/hz_standspeak.20080728.a.pg10.hz28edit_epa_s1.1837575_edi.txt
Standard Speaker: How the United States reacts to rising global temperatures should be based on science rather than political ideology. So action requires a dispassionate assessment. Apparently, however, the Bush White House doesn't want to know about such an assessment. According to Sen. Barbara Boxer, who reviewed such an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency, White House officials declined to open an e-mail containing the assessment when they received it in December. Opening the ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
EU Backs Away From Agrofuels
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43332
Inter Press Service: EU ministers for energy and the environment have revised their targets for renewable energy in the face of abundant new evidence that increased production of agrofuels is partly responsible for the worldwide increase of food prices. The EU has had a declared objective of increasing the share of agrofuels used in transport by 10 percent by 2010. This objective was announced during the spring of 2007, as part of the European Commission (EC) plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Europe hot on the heels of wind power development
http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=29701
Cordis: The European Technology Platform for Wind Energy (TPWind) has unveiled in its latest Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) that wind power has the potential to meet 28% of the EU consumer's demand for electricity by 2030. Before this objective can be met, however, the TPWind Secretariat says that both policy-makers and sector players must establish and implement strategic action in technology and policy research. TPWind outlines in its SRA that wind power development will occur in three ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
High oil prices breed bad ideas
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/07/28/high_oil_prices_breed_bad_ideas/
Boston Globe: THE AMERICAN Automobile Association reported last week that summer gasoline prices may have peaked – news that will be particularly welcome if it takes the steam out of two wrong-headed energy proposals from Washington. Democrats have rallied around a plan to raid the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, while the Bush administration has proposed a special rule to spur exploitation of oil shale in the West, a petroleum source that requires large quantities of water and energy to develop and will not ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Canada: Living off the grid: 'It was like camping at home'
http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=685950
Canwest News Service: The idea to go a month without electricity, car or tap water came to Don Bissonnette on a road trip last fall. During one of those long silences that come up as the kilometres click by, the retired Quebec Court judge turned to his wife and said, "Maybe we should go off the grid for a while." There was a long pause. And then Deane Brebner, a retired CEGEP teacher, upped the ante: they should also eat only locally grown food. And that was how they found ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
United States: New meters find power hogs and limit how much they use
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/27/BUN211VSNH.DTL&type=tech
New York Times: While we all worry about where we're going to get more energy in an increasingly energy-obsessed world, there's also another alternative: Use less power. That may soon be simpler, thanks to the introduction of a bevy of inexpensive devices that let homeowners monitor how much energy appliances, TVs, PCs, and heating and cooling systems actually use. Even energy-conscious people can go only so far in managing their home energy use. Sure, we can fiddle with our thermostats, shun ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Oil prices and climate change fuel green gold rush
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15022&channel=0&title=Oil+prices+and+climate+change+fuel+green+gold+rush
Edie: Modern day prospectors are embarking on a "green gold rush" to invest in renewable energy in the face of rising oil prices and climate change. Fossil fuel prices, rising temperatures, the support of world governments and energy security concerns drove a record-setting year of renewable energy investment in 2007, according to a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report. Achim Steiner, head of UNEP and UN under-secretary general, said: "Just as thousands were drawn ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
France: Paris eyes plan for drivers to share electric cars
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hXxRwpfrAI6jY5V2p1UOpCG9HUvgD9270CS00
Associated Press: Parisians and tourists so eagerly embraced a citywide bike sharing plan launched a year ago that the mayor is setting his sights on a four-wheeled version: electric cars. Under the plan, a driver could pick up a car on the Left Bank, snake up the slopes of Montmartre, then drop it off – and only pay for the minutes spent behind the wheel. But cars, even electric, are already proving more divisive than bikes. With the price of gas steadily rising and Paris parking a permanent ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Australia: Poll show support for emissions trading
http://news.theage.com.au/national/poll-show-support-for-emissions-trading-20080729-3me9.html
AAP: A big majority of voters supports the federal government's plan for emissions trading and a 2010 start-up date, a poll shows. A Galaxy survey found 80 per cent backed the emissions trading scheme and just 13 per cent opposed it. And more than two-thirds of respondents wanted emissions trading to start in 2010 or before. The poll commissioned by the Climate Institute comes as the federal opposition's shadow cabinet on Tuesday considers abandoning its policy of a 2012 ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Solar panel means test 'killing industry'
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24090566-5005961,00.html
AAP: THE Electrical Trades Union (ETU) says the Federal Government's means test is killing the solar panel industry. Giving evidence at a Senate Committee Inquiry in Melbourne today, ETU research officer Imogen Schoots said the industry had been damaged by the test introduced in the Federal Budget. In May the Rudd Government announced that families earning more than $100,000 would be ineligible for the $8000 rebate for installing solar panels. Ms Schoots told the committee ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
South Africa to Set Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Targets
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aGTQw.PNqz40&refer=africa
Bloomberg: <body>South Africa's government said it will set targets for reducing emissions of climate-altering gases and may impose a carbon tax to limit the country's contribution to global warming. Greenhouse-gas emissions ``must stop growing at the latest by 2020 to 2025, stabilize for up to 10 years, and then decline in absolute terms,'' Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Martinus van Schalkwyk told reporters in Cape Town today. The aim is to ``limit global temperature increases to ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
South Africa Unveils Plan to Combat Climate Change
http://voanews.com/english/2008-07-28-voa42.cfm
Voice of America: South Africa's government says it will move away from coal and promote use of wind and nuclear energy in an effort to fight global warming. Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told a news conference Monday that options being considered include mandatory energy efficiency targets and a possible tax on carbon dioxide emissions. South Africa generates most of its electricity using coal, a major source of the so-called greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Van ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
South Korea to up alternative energy spending
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSEO8173820080728
Reuters: South Korea plans to raise its investment in alternative energy development by 60 percent this year to $193 million, the government said on Monday, as the resource-hungry nation seeks to diversify its energy sources. It plans to spend 194.4 billion won ($193 million) on alternative energy technologies, including solar and wind power as well as biofuels, the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy said in a statement. "The decision is to increase the domestic supply of renewable ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Academic criticises Govt's renewable energy policy
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/28/2316526.htm?site=northcoast
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A Southern Cross University academic says governments are not doing enough to encourage people to switch to renewable energy. Michael Christie from the Graduate Research College says countries like Australia will be judged on how quickly they put in place efficient public policy to take the pressure off fossil fuels. Professor Christie is critical of the Government's recent imposition of a means test on the solar rebate, which excludes those with a household income of $100,000 ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
African experts seek reforms in maize seed sector
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/28/content_8826929.htm
Xinhua: African policy experts on Monday called for reforms to be introduced in maize seed sector in order to meet farmers' needs. Senior policy makers from 13 sub-Saharan Africa countries meeting in Nairobi to deliberate ways to improve farmers' access to new maize seed including an increasing number of forthcoming drought tolerant maize varieties said at issue are policies that constrain the production, release and marketing of improved seed varieties. Citing a study undertaken in ...

Tue, 29 Jul 08
Ancient Ocean Cooling Sparked a Biodiversity Boom
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080728-ancient-cooling.html
National Geographic: More than 400 million years ago, Earth's dramatically warmer sea temperatures plummeted to almost present-day levels, opening the door for a boom in biodiversity, new research shows. The cooler seas–which occurred during the Ordovician period–created a more hospitable environment for a range of species, researchers say. The find might also foreshadow a biodiversity crisis if the planet continues to warm due to climate change. "It's a warning of what happens to life ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Congress deadlocked over offshore drilling
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0728/p02s01-usec.html
Christian Science Monitor: As Congress heads into its last week before August recess and political conventions, there's one big item on the must-do list: Action to ease energy costs for American families. With a gallon of gas hovering at $4, energy prices are the No. 1 issue on voters' minds. But congressional leaders are increasingly deadlocked over what to do. In response, frustrated rank-and-file members on both sides of the aisle are stepping up efforts to find common ground. Last week, Republicans ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Subsidies help Germany stay top of world's solar power league
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e600cc6a-5c3d-11dd-9e99-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: Germany has reinforced its status as the world leader in solar power generation, after less stringent cuts in renewable energy subsidies than had been anticipated. Although not the world's sunniest country, Germany is among the global leaders when it comes to the number of solar panels adorning household roofs. Germans have cashed in on generous government incentives to boost the country's reliance on the sun's energy. Yet the industry needs to adapt to growing ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Why we never need to build another polluting power plant
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103800
Salon: Suppose I paid you for every pound of pollution you generated and punished you for every pound you reduced. You would probably spend most of your time trying to figure out how to generate more pollution. And suppose that if you generated enough pollution, I had to pay you to build a new plant, no matter what the cost, and no matter how much cheaper it might be to not pollute in the first place. Well, that's pretty much how we have run the U.S. electric grid for nearly a century. The ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
African famine threat to 14.5 million people
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/2463508/African-famine-threat-to-14.5-million-people.html
Telegraph (UK): More than 14.5 million people living in five countries across east Africa need immediate help, according to the United Nations. Donors may be forgiven for asking whether these appeals will now become annual events. Aid workers fear they might be, due to rising food and fuel prices, as well as more frequent droughts caused by climate change. "The British public always responds generously to emergency appeals but they might be asking, "Why does this happen year after ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Australia: Choice praises solar systems, but admits they take years to pay for themselves
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24086770-661,00.html
Herald Sun: Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said research showed a solar hot water system - which cost from $4000 to almost $10,000 - would take between four and six years to pay for itself. "Electric hot water systems are very inefficient and thirsty beasts when it comes to the power bills. "Solar hot water can substantially reduce household power consumption, but initial high outlays mean systems can take several years to pay for themselves," Mr Zinn said. ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Cut carbon emissions before its too late: Pachauri
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/28/stories/2008072850420900.htm
Hindu: R.K. Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has asked the developed nations to get serious about reducing carbon emissions before it is "too late." "Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to further [global] warming of 1.8 degree Celsius to 4 degree Celsius over the 21st century," he said while speaking at a seminar on "Global Warming and Climate Change Challenge – Issues and Challenges for India," organised by the Union Personnel, ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
East Europeans fear climate policy pinch
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKMUD44860920080728
Reuters: Many pensioners in the Bulgarian village of Gorno Osenovo, who go to bed with the sunset and wake up at sunrise, have never heard of carbon dioxide. They don't get electricity either. But a new plan by Brussels to make European Union energy companies pay for the carbon dioxide they emit from 2013 threatens to lift energy costs to the point where building grids to remote places like Gorno Osenovo would be impossible. Perched on the hillsides of the Rila mountain in south-western ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Australia: Greenpeace begins coal protest off Qld
http://news.smh.com.au/national/greenpeace-begins-coal-protest-off-qld-20080728-3lvm.html
AAP: Environmental activists say they are spray-painting a queue of almost 50 coal ships at a central Queensland port to protest against the country's coal exports. Greenpeace spokesman Simon Roz on Monday said 10 activists in four inflatable boats began painting slogans such as "Barrier Reef Gone" and "Stop Coal Expansion" on the ships at Hay Point port at Mackay at 6am (AEST). He said nine ships had been painted by 7.30am with those aboard the coal ships only ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Australia: Greenpeace Paints Anti-Coal Slogans on Ships Off Queensland
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a_KakjBFtPHE&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Greenpeace environmental activists painted anti-coal slogans on the sides of coal ships queuing outside Hay Point port in northeastern Australia, the largest export harbor for the fuel in Queensland state. The activists early today painted messages including ``Stop Coal Expansion,'' ``Barrier Reef Gone'' and ``Stop Exporting Coal'' on 10 carriers waiting outside the port to load, Greenpeace Australia Pacific said on its Web site, where it posted photographs of the vessels. ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Australia: Liberals gutless on climate change: Swan
http://news.smh.com.au/national/liberals-gutless-on-climate-change-swan-20080728-3lva.html
AAP: Treasurer Wayne Swan has branded the opposition "gutless" on climate change, saying the issue has become a tool for leadership jostling. Coalition MPs are meeting in Canberra on Tuesday and Wednesday to formulate a policy response to the Rudd government's carbon emissions trading model. Division among Liberal MPs has exacerbated lingering leadership tensions. Mr Swan said on Monday the opposition should face up to the problem of climate change. "The ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
United States: Pedal power challenges car culture as cyclists seize Los Angeles freeways
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4412809.ece
Times (UK): Of all the least-expected consequences of soaring fuel prices, this has to be near the top of the list: swarms of cyclists are taking to the intimidating, multi-lane thoroughfares of Los Angeles, some even defying the law and whizzing between the stationary cars on the gridlocked freeways. The result is a city of diehard motorists in need of some anger management. Criminal charges have already been filed against one driver accused of deliberately braking in front of two cyclists in ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Women more anti-coal than men, says poll
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/07/28/Women_more_worried_about_climate_change_than_men_poll
LIVENEWS.com.au: A new poll shows women are more worried than men about climate change and they're more anti-coal. The poll comissioned by Greenpeace shows 40 per cent of women think Australia's coal exports should be cut compared to 27 per cent of men. The burning of coal to generate electricity is considered a key driver of climate change and the largest source of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace campaigner Simon Roz says it's contradictory and immoral for Prime ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
United States: Change in the land of frozen ground, fish and hardy trees
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/27/change-land-frozen-ground-fish-and-hardy-trees/
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Alaska is changing, and not just in the booming suburbs or shrinking villages, but in the trees on the hillsides, the fish in the oceans, and the climate itself – the very things that make Alaska what it is. The spruce and birch of the boreal forest are struggling with warm summers, and shrubs are moving into the tundra. Grizzly bear, moose, and king salmon are showing up in places they haven't been seen before, and subtropical fish are taking fishermen's bait in the Gulf of ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Few homes using renewable energy
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/26/MNF311T63S.DTL
Associated Press: Even as more Americans look to shrink their carbon footprints, relatively few have switched to providers of electricity generated by wind, water and sun. Green power programs allow consumers to purchase renewable energy, usually at a premium, without having to go through the far greater expense of erecting a windmill or installing a solar panel. The programs are widely available, yet there are estimates that fewer than 1 percent of residential consumers nationwide receive their ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Ice Free
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103769
New York Times: Greenland's ice sheet represents one of global warming's most disturbing threats. The vast expanses of glaciers – massed, on average, 1.6 miles deep – contain enough water to raise sea levels worldwide by 23 feet. Should they melt or otherwise slip into the ocean, they would flood coastal capitals, submerge tropical islands and generally redraw the world's atlases. The infusion of fresh water could slow or shut down the ocean's currents, plunging Europe into bitter winter. Yet for the ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601891.html
Washington Post: Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling. Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Market meltdown? Carbon trading is just warming up
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/market-meltdown-carbon-trading-is-just-warming-up-877996.html
Independent: Is the carbon market a success or not? If you were to look at the share prices of companies involved in generating carbon credits, you would conclude that this was a business to steer clear of. Analysts New Energy Finance reported in May that shares in the carbon credit groups EcoSecurities, Camco International and Trading Emissions had plummeted 75 per cent, 50 per cent and 20 per cent respectively from their highs last year, while Agcert, once a leader in Clean Development Mechanism ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Scientists fear climate change tipping points
http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/07/27/news/news05.txt
Garden Island: A year ago James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, published a study in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics concluding that just 10 more years of business as usual emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas will make disastrous global results all but impossible to avoid. The study described various climatic possibilities called tipping points. These tipping points, also called nonlinear events, both accelerate climate change and are ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
UK scientists hit out at new coal station plans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/27/carboncapturestorage.activists
Observer: British scientists have called on the government to deploy speedily a new technology which will almost completely eliminate carbon emissions from power stations. In a letter published in The Observer today, they say failure to capture emissions from dirty coal plants planned for Britain will have catastrophic environmental consequences. In addition, the group - which includes scientists from Imperial College London and Cambridge, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bristol and Nottingham ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Unsettled tax credits stymie renewable laws
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_10002233
Denver Post: The renewable-energy industry is the darling of Congress, with plenty of suitors and pledges of devotion. But there's trouble getting a long-term commitment. Tax credits that renewable companies say they rely upon expire at year's end, and Congress has failed to pass an extension despite repeated votes. Another effort is expected this week. But it's unclear whether lawmakers can get past partisan differences and agree on legislation. "No growing industry is ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
India: 'Treat climate change tech as public'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Treat_climate_change_tech_as_public/articleshow/3286258.cms
Times of India: Shyam Saran, PM's special envoy on climate change as well as his key nuclear deal negotiator, back from convincing Ireland to support India's bid at the Nuclear Supply Group, on Saturday said India wants climate change technologies to be treated as public and common goods. Speaking in the capital, Saran said that India was keen to see technologies that could make substantial impact in reducing climate change should be dealt with in the same manner as HIV drugs. Under the ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Actions speak louder than a lot of government hot air
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/27/carboncapturestorage.activists1
Observer: There was a cleverly staged moment during last week's BBC eco-drama Burn Up, when oil company workers started poking holes in the icy Canadian tundra. To their consternation, flames of burning methane promptly whooshed out of the melting permafrost. It was a striking moment of television that demonstrated, vividly, how our warming world might soon change in uncontrollable ways. Melt our ice-caps and you release forces you cannot control: in this case, permafrost methane that would ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Baseball Team Clashes With Environmentalists Over Oil Company Advertising
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103770
New York Times: When the Washington Nationals' season opened in March, the team unveiled a stadium any environmentalist could love – the country's first certified green major professional sports stadium, with energy-conserving lights and water-conserving plumbing. Now, the team is the focus of protests from environmentalists who say their issue is not with the stadium, but with the Nationals' advertising relationship with the oil giant ExxonMobil. The company's logo appears prominently on the ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Combating global warming could cost upto $3 trillion: Expert
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200807271010.htm
Press Trust of India: The combating of global warming could cost upto a whopping USD three trillion. However, given that the GDP of the world today is over USD 65 trillion , the amount is affordable, a top expert on global warming has said. Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman of industry body Indian Merchant Chambers' committee on 'Combating global warming' in a note said there are various estimates made on what might be the cost of achieving the 2050 target of 450 parts per million of CO2. These estimates ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
GlobalWarmingSolution.Org: Aiming for the big 3-5-0
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/07/26/news/local/news03.txt
Missoulian: 350. Three. Five. Oh. That's an important number for a Missoula nonprofit called GlobalWarmingSolution.Org. In fact, it's a figure the group's members hope will be shouted at Washington, D.C., and here's why. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is somewhere around 385 parts per million - and climbing like the thermostat. According to the membership network, it needs to be pushed down to 350 ppm at the most. That's low compared with the 450 ppm ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
United States: Governor vetoes climate change curriculum
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_10010291
San Jose Mercury News: California public students will stick to reading, writing and arithmetic, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decided as he vetoed a bill late Friday that would have required climate change be added to schools' curriculum. The measure, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, also would have required future science textbooks to include climate change as a subject. In January, the state Senate approved the bill, SB 908, by a 26-13 vote. Only two Republicans supported the ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Invest in water for farming, or the world will go hungry
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sun_business/Invest_in_water_for_farming_or_the_world_will_go_hungry_68824.shtml
Daily Monitor: A long list of factors have been blamed for the global food crisis which along with the energy crisis has hit developing countries, and the poor in particular, hardest. Prices of staple foods have risen by up to 100 per cent. A growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanisation, dietary changes, biofuel production, climate change and regional droughts are all responsible, and commentators point to a classic pattern of price increases caused by high demand and low ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Legendary oilman Pickens sees wind as way out of energy bind
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/business/epaper/2008/07/27/sunbiz_pickens_0727.html
Palm Beach Post: Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is pushing an energy plan he calls vital to America's security - and its centerpiece is not drilling for more oil. "We've got $700 billion going out of the country every year" to pay foreign oil suppliers, Pickens said in an interview. "We can't afford to do that. ... The security of the country is in grave danger." The Pickens plan 1. Private industry funds the installation of thousands of wind turbines in the U.S. ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Liquid Assets: Why water is become a commodity
http://www.newsday.com/business/yourmoney/ny-bzcov275777632jul27,0,1208554.story
Newsday: Battles over water rights for survival and economic growth were dramatically depicted in the films "Chinatown" about Los Angeles and "The Milagro Beanfield War" about the American Southwest. The present-day story unfolding over water's future may offer opportunities for investors able to envision it as a valuable commodity that benefits companies involved in its sale, distribution, purification and infrastructure. Corporate raider and oilman T. Boone Pickens ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Living 'off the grid' is an achievable goal
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/072708/opinion_2008072700280.shtml
Online Athens: This week, I visited a family so concerned about the environment that it lives a radically different life than most Americans. This family's lifestyle doesn't look much different. The family has a wife, a husband and a 10-year-old boy who loves to ride his bike and play in his treehouse. They live in a beautiful home amid a lovely garden. Like most people in this country, this family has a washing machine and a mixer, a chest freezer and a DVD player. The big difference between ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
More federal coal eyed by energy companies
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2008/07/27/news/state/161013.txt
Associated Press: Energy companies are eyeing federal coal in North Dakota, possibly for gasification or coal-to-liquid plants over the next two decades. The Bureau of Land Management is holding meetings this week in Bismarck, Beulah and Dickinson to gather comments about the future management of the federal coal in the state. "We're asking coal companies to give us a 20-year look at their crystal ball," said John Hartley, a BLM project manager in Dickinson. "We're hopeful to get ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Oil May Become GOP's 2008 Issue
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/26/ST2008072602046.html
Washington Post: Four-dollar-a-gallon gas has done something that few Republicans thought possible just a few months ago: given them hope. United behind a renewed push for offshore oil drilling, Republican members of Congress and the party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, think they have found their best political issue of the 2008 campaign. McCain strategists and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill say the issue, which polls suggest Americans favor by healthy margins, lets ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Australia: Renewable energy for north-south pipe
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/renewable-energy-for-northsouth-pipe-20080726-3lfa.html
Age: THE energy needed to pump water over the Great Dividing Range to Melbourne in the north-south pipe – equivalent to powering 10,000 homes each year – will be offset by investments in renewable energy. Melbourne Water is also looking at harnessing the hydro power of the water, which may be used to help pump the water up the mountain. There will not be a wind farm or solar plant to "plug in" to the water pumping stations. Melbourne Water will instead negotiate with power ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Republicans See Oil Drilling As Plus For McCain Campaign
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/jul/27/na-republicans-see-oil-drilling-as-plus-for-mccain/
Associated Press: Four dollar-a-gallon gasoline has done something few Republicans thought possible a few months ago: given them hope. United behind a renewed push for offshore oil drilling, Republican members of Congress and the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, think they have found their best political issue of the 2008 campaign. McCain strategists and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill said the issue lets Republicans demonstrate their plans to address the anger caused by ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
United States: Scientist raises interest in seawater farming
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2008/07/27/scientist_raises_interest_in_seawater_farming/
LA Times: A few miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants sprout from the desert floor. The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a manmade canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles, and slow global warming. He is Carl Hodges, a Tucson-based atmospheric physicist who has spent most of ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Tech giants rush to solar power
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2008-07-27-solar-chips_N.htm
USA Today: Semiconductor companies are rushing into the solar power business faster than a Pentium-driven computer, promising to turn a niche form of renewable energy into a mass-market product. Since May, computer powerhouses Intel (INTC), IBM (IBM) and National Semiconductor (NSM) have barreled into solar energy, joining hundreds of fellow technology mainstays. Virtually every chipmaker is weighing a solar play, says Rhone Resch, head of the Solar Energy Industries Association. ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Carbon credits' dirty secret
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Goldstein_Lorrie/2008/07/26/6275421-sun.php
Toronto Sun: At the bottom of the house of sand on which the Kyoto accord and world carbon trading markets are built, there's a leaking foundation. Otherwise known as a carbon credit. A carbon credit is a permit or, alternatively, a unit of currency, allowing a country or corporation to emit one metric tonne of carbon dioxide, linked to man-made global warming. Carbon credits are the main mechanism by which Kyoto transfers wealth from developed nations like Canada to developing ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Canada: Carbon tax plan boosts Dion's image, if not Liberal fortunes
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h8NNB-v2T-W4b67yOyG4A_2QUV0g
Canadian Press: Stephane Dion's risky proposal to impose a carbon tax hasn't rocketed the Liberal party to the top of Canada's political charts, but it does seem to have given the leader's image a much-needed boost. During a swing through eastern Ontario last week to sell his "green shift," Dion met with criticism from farmers and truckers who fear a carbon tax on diesel fuel will put them out of business, notwithstanding the offsetting tax cuts and tax benefits the Liberal leader is ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
China sends research expedition to Arctic Ocean
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKPEK27118620080727
Reuters: China plans to install its first long-term deep-sea subsurface mooring system in the Arctic Ocean, to monitor long-term marine changes, the Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. The system will collect data on the temperature, salinity and speed of currents at various depths around 75 degrees north in the Chukchi Sea, where Atlantic and Pacific currents converge above the Bering Strait. That will allow studies of the impact on China's climate of changes in the Arctic, Xinhua ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Australia: Coalition signals climate policy shift
http://news.smh.com.au/national/coalition-signals-climate-policy-shift-20080727-3ljb.html
AAP: The federal coalition has foreshadowed a change in its climate change policy as MPs prepare to meet in Canberra to thrash out the issue. The coalition has been split over emissions trading, sending out mixed messages on whether to wait for other nations to act first. The current policy appears to be to forge ahead with emissions trading by 2012 - but Liberal treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull has paved the way for a shift. "Inevitably our policy will change," ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Growing energy field creates a windfall of opportunity
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008075135_windjobs27.html
Seattle Times: Oskar Villalobos was tired of telling people he worked at Les Schwab. He wanted a job that sounded more impressive and paid better. Part of him dreamed of making a global impact. So when he read about the renewable-energy-training program at Columbia Gorge College in The Dalles, he signed up. And after graduating from the six-month pilot program, he landed a job at the Biglow Canyon wind farm as a technician. Now Villalobos is a hot commodity. Several other wind-energy ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Scientists who study the Earth's climate say humans are making it warmer
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/27/scientists-who-study-climate-say-humans-are-making/
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Twenty thousand years ago, it was so cold in North America -- and had been for so long -- that much of the continent was covered by ice two miles thick. A hundred and five thousand years before that, it was so warm that giant ice caps melted and the oceans rose 15 feet above their current levels. The climate has been changing on its own since long before coal-fired power plants and SUVs. In the last 150,000 years, the Earth as a whole has been a few degrees warmer than it is ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
China: Smog in Beijing becomes overwhelming
http://www.foxsports.com.au/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24085024-5016791,00.html
Fox: Beijing Olympics organisers denied manipulating pollution statistics today as thick smog worsened in the Chinese capital with just 12 days before the opening ceremony. The first batch of Australian athletes were due to arrive in Beijing tomorrow night to be greeted by a wall of pollution that has built up in recent days. Australian Olympic team officials who arrived in China several days ago confirmed visibility had worsened around the Games precinct with the Main Press ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
US Army works to cut its carbon "bootprint"
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN26414212.html
Reuters: What if cutting greenhouse emissions could also save the lives of soldiers in Iraq, where fuel-laden convoys make them targets? The U.S. Army says it is happening now in a push to reduce its carbon "bootprint." From forward areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to training ranges in the United States, the Army has been working to limit its use of fossil fuels and make its operations more environmentally sustainable. The goal is to bring Army emissions of climate-warming ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Botanists sound the alarm as rare species face extinction
http://www.miamiherald.com/163/story/615849.html
Miami Herald: Six years ago, ecologists at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden painstakingly gathered the seeds of a vine found only in eight wild spots from Palm Beach County through Miami-Dade so they could be grown in a nursery and then reestablished in their natural habitat. But as seas rise with climate change, the beaches may be inundated and the dozen patches of beach jacquemontia, or clustervine, nourished with so much care may be lost. As climate change affects everything from human ...

Mon, 28 Jul 08
Climate change: market failures spread like wildfire
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/760/39249
Green Left: Less than a fortnight after the release of the Rudd government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme green paper, the potential losers are howling at the spectre of lost profits while the potential winners - global investment banks, hedge funds and commodities traders - are rubbing their hands at the thought of making millions from the permits to pollute that the scheme will create. Most importantly, as the detail of the scheme sinks in, it is clear that it will create a whole new ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
United States: As wildfires get wilder, the costs of fighting them are untamed
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wildfires27-2008jul27,0,4093174.story
LA Times: It was day 42 of the zaca fire. A tower of white smoke reached miles into the blue sky above the undulating ridges of Santa Barbara's backcountry. Helicopters ferried firefighters across the saw-toothed terrain and bombed fiery ridges with water. Long plumes of red retardant trailed from the belly of a DC-10 air tanker. Bulldozers cut defensive lines through pygmy forests of chaparral. A few miles south, in a camp city of tents and air-conditioned office trailers, commanders ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Gore, Pickens now have common goal
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=706738&category=OPINION
Albany Times Union,: Former Vice President Al Gore has navigated his crusade on behalf of environmental change into heavy waters, getting lots of attention but no credible nonpartisan denial of what he is saying. We have to listen up. He paints a grim picture of our national and global future if we don't face the pending change in the weather. He has already won an Oscar for his efforts on global warming and a shared Nobel Peace Prize to boot. The Supreme Court should be hanging its head in shame – five ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
United States: State bid to limit emissions hits court snag
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/26/BA2111VLHU.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: California's effort to limit vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming hit a snag Friday when a federal appeals court ruled that the state and environmental groups acted too early when they sued the Bush administration in January for blocking the law. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California, 15 other states and five environmental groups over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Australians Willing to Act to Curb Climate Change
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/31355/australians_willing_to_act_to_curb_climate_change1
Angus Reid Global Monitor: The vast majority of Australians want their government to introduce policies to tackle climate change without waiting for consensus with other countries, according to a poll by AC Nielsen published in the Sydney Morning Herald. 77 per cent of respondents say Australia should begin cutting its greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other countries do. Additionally, 68 per cent of respondents say they are prepared to pay more for goods and services as a result of the new ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Ireland: Biofuel targets abandoned
http://www.herald.ie/world-news/biofuel-targets-abandoned-1441599.html
Herald: ENERGY Minister Eamon Ryan has said the Government has abandoned targets to have biofuels make up almost 6pc of transport fuel by 2010. Mr Ryan's predecessor Noel Dempsey set the ambitious targets of making biofuels 5.75pc of total transport fuel just 15 months ago. However, the plans have been dropped after growing doubts about the benefits of biofuels, which have been blamed for steep rises in global food prices as well as for exacerbating climate change rather than ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Developed nations should get serious on emissions cut: Pachauri
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/ET_Cetera/Developed_nations_should_get_serious_on_emissions_cut_Pachauri/articleshow/3283010.cms
Press Trust of India: Developed nations should pull up their socks and get "serious" about reducing carbon emissions before it was "too late", R K Pachauri, Chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. "Continued greenhouse gas emissions will lead to further (global) warming of 1.8 degree Celsius to 4 degree Celsius over the 21st century," the noted environment expert said. "The world can at best allow emissions to increase upto ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Ethanol carries huge costs to the environment, people
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5908297.html
Houston Chronicle: For years, Congress has promoted corn ethanol, touting its purported environmental benefit. Mounting data now suggest these assumptions were wrong. Expanded use of food for fuel is exacerbating environmental threats, including pollution in U.S. waterways. New data out this week on the growing "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico starkly highlight this concern. Dead zones are created when large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous run off into warm waters, spawning algae ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Making a climate crisis into a drama
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/26/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange
Guardian: The BBC's two-part global warming thriller Burn Up, which concluded last night, brought imaginary sex and murder to the real-life world of the climate negotiations. Along the way, writer Simon Beaufoy did his level best to weave real-life climate science and politics seamlessly into the fictional drama. Most people who have spent any time at climate negotiations will conclude that he did a credible job. Those who have been influenced by the more effective pieces of contrarian propaganda, ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Scientists use latest technology to examine aerosol particles that influence clouds
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/scientists-use-latest-technology-to-examine-aerosol-particles-that-influence-clouds_10076057.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Scientists are using instruments like an aerosol mass spectrometer to examine the life cycles of atmospheric aerosols that can absorb and scatter light and influence the lifetime of clouds. Chemists from Aerodyne Research Inc. and Boston College (BC) have designed the instrument. According to Chemistry Professor Paul Davidovits and Aerodyne Principal Scientist Timothy B. Onasch from BC, the novel spectrometer allows researchers to better understand what happens to the ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Airport protesters plan next move
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7524141.stm
BBC: Anti-Heathrow expansion protesters are to discuss their next move if the airport gets the go-ahead to build a third runway and sixth terminal. Local residents, trade unionists and MPs will meet at a conference in Harlington, west London, on Saturday. They will be joined by green protesters from the Camp for Climate Action. The Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan) said plans could range from "mass letter-writing to mass direct ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
United States: County looks to become electric car-friendly
http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_10005295
San Jose Mercury News: Your stop for gas and a candy bar could soon give way to an occasional shot of electricity. At least that's the thinking of a panel of county-appointed environmental leaders who see electric cars in our not-too-distant future. Planning for a network of vehicle charging stations is one of the projects that the county Commission on the Environment is considering as part of its charge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "We know that the technology is coming forward. Let's ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Canada: Problem of population growth needs to be met
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=7f9a4538-3d67-4e83-b32c-73618f27fe9bc
Vanouver Sun: The most frightening -- and fascinating -- thing I know is a graph of human population growth over the past millennium. Starting in about 1800, the curve suddenly spikes almost straight upward, and this incredible growth in human numbers continues today. In my lifetime alone, population has increased by over four billion people. And thanks to technological innovations and cheap oil, the impact of each person on the globe has increased even faster. Under this onslaught, Earth's vast ...

Sun, 27 Jul 08
Report says West suffering from fed apathy
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/25/reuteman-report-says-west-suffering-from-fed/
Rocky Mountain News: The folks from the Brookings Institute were in town this week to unveil their new study on the intermountain West: "Mountain Megas." Five "megapolitan" areas - the Front Range, Phoenix/Tucson, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque/Santa Fe - are experiencing the fastest growth in the country. The federal government had better start paying more attention to our growing needs, the report says. "The federal government is largely impervious to the ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Ninety billion barrels of oil revealed in fragile Arctic
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10523555
Independent: The future of the Arctic will be less white wilderness, more black gold, a report on oil reserves in the High North has signalled this week. The first comprehensive assessment of oil and gas resources north of the Arctic Circle, carried out by American geologists, reveals that underneath the ice, the region may contain as much as a fifth of the world's undiscovered yet recoverable oil and natural gas reserves. This includes 90 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply the world ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Northern Wildfire Smoke May Cast Shadow On Arctic Warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724220104.htm
ScienceDaily: The Arctic may get some temporary relief from global warming if the annual North American wildfire season intensifies, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Colorado and NOAA. Smoke transported to the Arctic from northern forest fires may cool the surface for several weeks to months at a time, according to the most detailed analysis yet of how smoke influences the Arctic climate relative to the amount of snow and ice cover. "Smoke in the atmosphere ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Philippines: Protecting our forests
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/july/26/yehey/opinion/20080726opi7.html
Manila Times: In summary, the reasons for the urgent need to pass the Sustainable Forest Management Act are obvious. Forests are essential for mitigating global warming, preventing the loss of lives, the loss of the cultural heritage of Indigenous Cultural Communities and Indigenous Peoples and the loss of biodiversity resources unique to Philippine forests. Forests are valuable in themselves. The law should reflect this reality. The only way that this can be done is to incorporate the following ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Canadian elections likely to focus on carbon tax
http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAN2549502220080725
Reuters: Elections to fill three seats in Canada's House of Commons will be held on September 8 with the major issue likely to be the opposition Liberal Party's proposal to introduce a carbon tax. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the date of the elections on Friday. Two of the seats had been held by the Liberals, one in Ontario and one in Quebec, and another in Quebec held by the separatist Bloc Quebecois. The outcome will not affect the balance of power in the House ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Democrats: White House must publish 'chilling' climate change document
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/25/carbonemissions.climatechange
Guardian: The row over US inaction on carbon emissions reached new heights yesterday after the White House allowed Congress to look at last year's government proposal to officially deem climate change a threat to public health – a plan that aides to George Bush refused to acknowledge or read. The climate plan was finished in December by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in response to a supreme court ruling that required the Bush administration to state whether carbon emissions ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Indonesia: Last-Frontier Forest Is at Risk From Boom
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121695067248683475.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: The global resource boom is threatening one of the world's last tropical-forest frontiers: the Merauke region of Indonesia's remote Papua province. Indonesian companies are lining up to develop pulp-and-paper mills in Merauke; investors from South Korea want to expand palm-oil plantations; and Indonesian officials have tried to persuade International Paper Co to invest in the region. Merauke lies on the southern shore of Papua province, a California-size land of virgin forests ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Nigeria: 'Global Food Crisis is Effect of Climate Change'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807250507.html
Leadership (Abuja): Architect Halima Tayo Alao, the Minister of Environment, Housing and Urban Development is a committed community leader who has served Nigeria in several professional and administrative positions before attaining her present status. She studied architecture at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, from where she graduated with a Master of Science (M.Sc) degree in 1981. After participating in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Ibadan, Oyo State, she commenced a distinguished civil ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
France: 'It feels like a sci-fi film' - accidents tarnish nuclear dream
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/25/nuclear.industry.france
Guardian: Sylvie Eymard's Provence farmhouse kitchen should be the picture of French rural calm. But the stockpiles of bottled water, disinfectant rinse and disposable paper plates hint at something strange. For the past two weeks, Eymard, 41, and her children, 13 and seven, have had a phobia of taps. To wash up, they go out to the yard and fill a bowl from a specially delivered plastic tank of purified water on a fork-lift tractor. They carry the water up to the bathroom to wash. Even the dog ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
California dealt setback in greenhouse-gas fight with EPA
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/25/BA2111VLHU.DTL&tsp=1
San Francisco Chronicle: A federal appeals court dealt a setback to California and environmental groups today in their battle with the Bush administration over the state's efforts to restrict vehicle emissions of gases that contribute to global warming. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states in January over the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to let the state enforce its limits on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
In India growth trumps sustainability
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2008/07/25/lawrence-solomon-in-india-growth-trumps-sustainability.aspx
National Post: India loves the UN's climate change policies and so does India's representative at the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri. Why the love-in? The Indian government's new "National Action Plan on Climate Change," which Pachauri helped craft, plainly explains why: The UN formally establishes that global warming is a matter of secondary importance to India, allowing the world's largest democracy to pursue its own best interests. As the National Action ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Pickens pitches plans to shift US away from oil
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080725-9999-1n25pickens.html
San Diegno Union-Tribune: Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens became one of the world's richest people by drilling for petroleum. But these days, he's spearheading a multimillion-dollar push to wean the nation from oil and onto wind power and natural gas. T. Boone Pickens Personal: Born May 22, 1928, in Holdenville, Okla. With a $3 billion net worth, Pickens is the 117th-richest person in the United States and 369th-richest in the world, according to Forbes magazine. Pickens' wife, Madeleine, ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Population growth in developing countries
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/07/26/news0712.htm
New Nation: The world's population reached six and a half billion in 2006, and is quickly approaching 7 billion. It appears to be increasing at a rate of about 6.5 million a month or 78 million a year. From a purely mathematical point of view, at the current growth rate of 1.16 per cent per year, the world's population will double in 60 years. However, it is being projected to grow to 9 billion by 2050 (as per the United Nations). If this projection holds, it would be an improvement over an earlier ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Report: Warming a threat to skiing and Colorado's economy
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080725/NEWS/379637438/-1/rss03
Aspen Times: If greenhouse gas emissions aren't curtailed, climate change will reduce the snowpack in Eagle County – home to the ski resorts of Vail and Beaver Creek – by 57 percent by 2085, according to a new report. "The state's most popular tourist activity is at risk from climate change," said the latest report to address the impact of climate change on skiing. It was published Wednesday by the Center for Integrative Environmental Research at the University of Maryland in College Park. ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Australia: Coal-fired power stations to be redundant within decades: Wilson
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/25/2315055.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Queensland Energy Minister Geoff Wilson says an emissions trading scheme will see the state's coal-fired power stations made redundant within decades. He says producing cleaner, greener energy will increase the cost of electricity to consumers, but it is a fair price to pay to combat global warming. Mr Wilson says although Queensland's power stations are among the most advanced in Australia, they are earmarked to be closed down within 20 years. "The extent to which ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Deadly jellyfish spotted in UK waters
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/25/eajellyfish225.xml
Telegraph (UK): Deadly Portuguese Man O' War jellyfish have been spotted off the British coast, prompting warnings to holidaymakers. The creature, one of the deadliest in the world, was identified near Land's End, Cornwall. Commonly thought of as a jellyfish, it is actually a siphonophore - a colony of organisms resembling jellyfish. Incapable of propelling itself, using the wind or current to move, it usually floating on the surface with its tentacles, on average one metre long, ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
EPA Chief Warned White House On Global Warming, Senator Says
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-epa0725.artjul25,0,5584555.story
Hartford Courant: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency told the Bush administration in December that high levels of man-made heat-trapping gases are causing global warming and endanger the American people, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said Thursday after she reviewed the EPA finding, which has not been made public. The document is important because the Supreme Court ruled last year that if the EPA administrator finds greenhouse gases endanger the public, then the government must regulate ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Canada: Federal environment minister calls federal carbon tax proposal 'pay and pollute?
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gU7UKCUXyzreb-ED96wteAqu-iYw
Canadian Press: Federal Environment Minister John Baird says a Canada-wide carbon tax would be akin to a "pay-and-pollute" system. Baird was slamming Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Dion says shifting to a carbon tax on polluters is the right thing to do for the country, even as consumers are facing much higher energy costs than they did a year ago. But his plan won't be getting Baird's vote. "A company could simply buy their ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Canada: Feds must prepare for climate change health effects
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080725/climate_change_080724/20080725?hub=CanadaAM
CTV: The federal government needs to put more resources into both preparing for and preventing the health effects of changing weather, says one of the authors of an as-yet-unreleased Health Canada report on climate change. Nobel Prize-winning climate change scientist Gordon McBean told CTV's Canada AM on Friday that the federal government needs to have a co-ordinated national warning system for potentially hazardous weather patterns such as extreme hot or cold temperatures. ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Scientists search for answers from the carbon in the clouds
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/bc-ssf072408.php
EurekAlert: An aerosol mass spectrometer developed by chemists from Aerodyne Research Inc. and Boston College is giving scientists who study airborne particles the technology they need to examine the life cycles of atmospheric aerosols – such as soot – and their impact on issues ranging from climate change to public health. BC Chemistry Professor Paul Davidovits and Aerodyne Principal Scientist Timothy B. Onasch say their novel spectrometer allows researchers to better understand what happens to ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Tiny Fossils Reveal Warm Antarctic Past
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080725-antarctica-fossil.html
National Geographic: Hundreds of fossils of crustacean-like animals no bigger than a pinhead have been found in Antarctica, scientists say. The 14-million-year-old called ostracods were found recently in an ancient lake bed in the Dry Valleys region in the continent's interior. The well-preserved fossils are likely the last remnants of a warmer Antarctica, before a massive and intense climate cooling millions of years ago set in, new research suggests. (Read: "Ancient Seal Remains ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Who Do We Blame For Killing Our Salmon?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/chrongreen/detail?&entry_id=28547
San Francisco Chronicle: The plight of California salmon has become almost an obsession among environmental groups and fishermen in California and Oregon, but nobody seems to know what is ailing the scaly critters. What is known is that the pink fish are disappearing from our waters so fast that all ocean fishing was banned this year in California and Oregon for the first time ever. Riley Smilth, of Fort Bragg, climbed into the mouth of a fiberglass salmon at Pier 39 in San Francisco in April. The ...

Sat, 26 Jul 08
Paying to save tropical forests could be a way to reduce global carbon emissions
http://www.newkerala.com/topstory-fullnews-716.html
Asian News International: A new research has suggested that wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about 1 billion dollars annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year for the next 25 years, which can put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world. If adopted, this type of program could have potential to reduce global carbon emissions by between 2 and 10 percent. The calculations, based on three different forestry and ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Doctors' advice to Britons: have fewer children and help save the planet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/25/population.health
Guardian: British couples should consider having no more than two children to help reduce the environmental impact of the rising global population, doctors have said. An editorial in the British Medical Journal today calls on GPs to encourage the view that bigger families are as environmentally dubious as owning a patio heater or driving a gas-guzzler. Writing in the journal, John Guillebaud, professor of family planning at University College, London and Pip Hayes, a GP based in Exeter, ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Riches in the Arctic: the new oil race
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/riches-in-the-arctic-the-new-oil-race-876816.html
Independent: The future of the Arctic will be less white wilderness, more black gold, a new report on oil reserves in the High North has signalled this week. The first-comprehensive assessment of oil and gas resources north of the Arctic Circle, carried out by American geologists, reveals that underneath the ice, the region may contain as much as a fifth of the world's undiscovered yet recoverable oil and natural gas reserves. This includes 90 billion barrels of oil, enough to supply the world for ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Call to dub climate change 'a catastrophe'
http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Call-to--dub-climate.4324444.jp
Scotsman: THE government should stop talking about global warming and start using the term "climate catastrophe", a leading scientist said yesterday. Dr Richard Pike, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry, also called for a commitment to deliver a large-scale use of renewables and nuclear power, rather than encouraging "trivial solutions" such as washing clothes at low temperatures. Dr Pike said global warming conjured up a gradual, gentle process in which the real problems ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
China: Melting glacier leaves world's worst polluter with no room for doubt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/25/glaciers.climatechange
Guardian: Up close, the sound of global warming at the face of the Urumqi No1 Glacier is a simple, steady drip, drip, drip. Just 30 metres from the main wall, the flood of meltwater becomes so powerful that it cuts a tunnel under the floor of grey ice, leaving only a blotchy, wafer-thin crust on the surface. Compared with the collapse of ice shelves in the Antarctic, the melting of the mountains in China's far west is one of the less spectacular phenomena of global warming, but it is a more ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Climate change: feed it and weep or lead and reap
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climate-change-feed-it-and-weep-or-lead-and-reap/2008/07/24/1216492637218.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia will reap important benefits from the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Properly, the Government has left itself considerable flexibility on several points, which will depend heavily on what other countries do. But the value of the scheme lies not in the details but in three more basic considerations. Australia can now lead economically, technologically and diplomatically in the global effort that lies ahead. A global climate control regime is on its way. It will almost ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Energy in China: 'We call it the Three Gorges of the sky. The dam there taps water, we tap wind'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/25/renewableenergy.alternativeenergy
Guardian: In the vast natural wind tunnel that is Dabancheng, the gales that roar between the snow-capped mountain ridges get so strong that trains have been gusted off railway tracks and lorries overturned. Such is the ferocity of the elements that police sometimes have to stop the traffic that passes through this arid, six-mile-wide plain on what was once part of the Silk Road. That used to be bad for business in Xinjiang, the most westerly region of China, which formerly depended on the ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Limit families to two children 'to combat climate change'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2454215/Limit-families-to-two-children-'to-combat-climate-change'.html
Telegraph (UK): The world's population increases by 1.5m each week and babies born in the UK will use more greenhouse gases during their lifetime than those born in the developing world. Two doctors, writing in the British Medical Journal, suggest that doctors should talk to their patients about climate change and encourage them to think about the consequences of having a big family. Investing in contraception would help in the fight against climate change, they argue. John ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Smaller families 'could help the planet'
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/health/autocodes/countries/ethiopia/smaller-families-could-help-planet-$1233283.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: People should consider having fewer children in a bid to help the planet, two doctors said today. Family planning and reproductive health expert Professor John Guillebaud and Dr Pip Hayes, a GP from Exeter, argue that doctors should highlight the link between population, family planning and climate change. Writing in the British Medical Journal, they say that the biggest contribution UK couples can make to combating climate change would be to only have two children or at least ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
The next colonial scramble
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-the-next-colonial-scramble-876674.html
Independent: The news that massive deposits of oil and gas have been found in the Arctic confirms what geologists, oil companies and governments have believed for decades: that these icy wastes house vast fossil fuel resources. But the precise estimate now made by the United States Geological Survey – suggesting that the region contains about one-third of the world's undiscovered gas and about one-sixth of its undiscovered oil – is bound, at a time of high oil prices, to accelerate what could well be the ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Australia: Climate change proves more than a challenge to the Coalition
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/climate-change-proves-more-than-a-challenge-to-the-coalition-20080724-3kh7.html
Age: EVERYONE in the Opposition needs to take a deep breath. Things could get a little sticky in the next week. Brendan Nelson, apparently inured to political pain, wants to toughen the Coalition's policy on emissions trading. In a nutshell, he would like the Opposition to shift from saying the Coalition believes Australia should start its scheme by 2012 regardless of what other countries do, to a position that links Australia's start more to when countries such as China, India and ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
United States: A Mono Lake success story
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-mono24-2008jul24,0,4376108.story
Los Angeles Times: There was a time when it was hard to find yellow warblers at Rush Creek. But on a recent bright and sunny morning, a yellow warbler plunged through a gap in a stream-side cottonwood forest, flying back to the nest where her chicks were hiding. Suddenly, she was stopped in midair, tangled in a mist net. Field biologist Chris McCreedy found the bird in his snare a few minutes later. "Hi there, sweetie," McCreedy said as he set to work. He untangled the bird, recorded its vitals ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Australia and climate change: Greens and the black stuff
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11793340
Economist: COALMINERS in New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state, boast that they export enough of the black stuff to supply New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore with all their electricity. Along with Queensland and Victoria, the state also digs up enough to provide Australia as a whole with 83% of its power. This dirty energy has turned Australia into one of the world's highest per person emitters of greenhouse gases. With more than 200 years' supply of black coal left, Australians have ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Hypermiling: Driving Tricks Stretch Miles Per Gallon
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080724-hypermiling-drivers.html
LiveScience: Some days on her morning commute, Rani Cardona feels like the stars are aligned. With the green lights timed just right, and a slight tail wind at her back, her Honda Civic Hybrid can really fly. On fumes. "When you see the gauge springing up toward 100 miles per gallon and you've got your foot just perfectly situated and you hold it there, you know, it's just a great feeling," she said. "It's an indescribable feeling, like your car is almost defying the laws of ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
India firms lag in climate action: report
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSP16033920080724
Reuters: India's top firms face little stakeholder pressure to combat climate change with only about 40 percent of the companies surveyed setting voluntary carbon emissions reduction goals, a report said. A survey by KPMG consultants of 70 CEOs found their response to climate issues was driven largely by the need to comply with expected regulations, while leaving the leadership role in tackling global warming to the government. The survey included top companies from power, automobile, ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Invasion of the jellyfish: Mediterranean on alert as hundreds suffer from stings
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/invasion-of-the-jellyfish-mediterranean-on-alert-as-hundreds-suffer-from-stings-875787.html
Independent: As thousands of tourists head to the Mediterranean, the spectre of jellyfish ruining holidays looms large after French emergency services received more than 500 calls for help in a single day along a 10-mile stretch of coast from Nice to Cannes. Paddlers suffered painful stings and wanted something to treat the pain while swimmers reported that they had found themselves totally surrounded by a species commonly known as the mauve stinger. It is a pattern being repeated along the ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Link Between Crop Failure and Climate Change Often Missed
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43295
Inter Press Service: Climate change has a profound effect on food security in Africa, as increasing temperatures and shifting rain patterns reduce access to food across the continent. This transpired at a conference on global warming and climate change that started in Cape Town, South Africa, on July 21 and ends today. The discussion was organised by South Africa's Fynbos Foundation, which aims to realise investment in the media, publishing, arts and culture sectors, and the Nieman Foundation for ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Living Without a Car: My New American Responsibility
http://www.alternet.org/environment/92528/living_without_a_car:_my_new_american_responsibility/
New America Media: For the first time in nearly two decades, I am no longer a driver. A few months ago, facing spiking gas prices and much-needed repairs, I donated my car to an organization that takes care of foster kids. It's an odd feeling to be on this side of being green. Without a car, my sense of time and space have been immediately altered. What was once a matter of expediency is now an effortful navigation. "I'll be there in 15 minutes!" I used to tell a good friend who once ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
New plan would pay tropical countries for saving forests, regardless of level of threat
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0724-forest_carbon.html
Mongabay: Deforestation and forest degradation account for around a fifth of global carbon emissions from human activities, but new policy measures are focusing reducing such emissions as a cost-effective way to fight global warming. While the concept – known as REDD for "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation" – has found wide support from politicians, scientists, and environmentalists, there are lingering concerns over how to compensate countries that have extensive forest ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Pedaling the Local Food Movement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/23/ST2008072301683.html
Washington Post: Where do gardening, small-scale agriculture and the future of planet Earth converge? For three Washington women, it's on a road less traveled, on byways unseen from the gotta-get-there, high-speed chaos of the interstate. It has been a year since Lara Sheets, 26, Liz Tylander, 25, and Kat Shiffler, 24, climbed on their bicycles in Mount Pleasant and pedaled north, eventually to Montreal. Along the way they visited thriving inner-city gardens, innovative suburban farms and rooftop ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Population policy needed for the UK in order to combat climate change
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-07/bmj-ppn072308.php
EurekAlert: The biggest contribution UK couples can make to combating climate change would be to have only two children or at least have one less than they first intended, argues an editorial published on BMJ.com today. Family planning and reproductive health expert Professor John Guillebaud and Dr Pip Hayes, a GP from Exeter, call on UK doctors to break their silence on the links between population, family planning and climate change. They point to a calculation by the Optimum Population Trust ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Re-cycling effort
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/07/24/re_cycling_effort/
Boston Globe: Getting on a bike for the first time since she was 16 years old, 42-year-old Priscilla Power rode 5 miles to her Wakefield office as part of her company's "Bike to Work Day" last month. Though she remembered how to pedal, the inexperienced biker detoured through a Dunkin' Donuts' parking lot to avoid a busy intersection. So last week Power took an hour away from her desk to attend a bicycle-commuting workshop offered by her employer, the Wakefield-based environmental ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Solar Thermal Power Coming to a Boil
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43286
Inter Press Service: After emerging in 2006 from 15 years of hibernation, the solar thermal power industry experienced a surge in 2007, with 100 megawatts of new capacity coming online worldwide. During the 1990s, cheap fossil fuels, combined with a loss of state and federal incentives in the U.S., put a damper on solar thermal power development. However, recent increases in energy prices, escalating concerns about global climate change, and fresh economic incentives are renewing interest in this ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Texas grid owners join forces to build wind lines
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2420840020080724
Reuters: Several Texas transmission owners have formed a consortium to build the $5 billion in new power lines to take advantage of the state's abundant wind generation, the companies said in a regulatory filing Thursday. The consortium, comprised of existing transmission operators, includes Dallas-based Oncor, the state's largest power delivery company, Electric Transmission Texas (ETT), units of American Electric Power Co (AEP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the Lower Colorado ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
US blocks Brazil's biofuel plans
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4523482
Agence France-Presse: Brazil hopes to gain better market access for exports of ethanol to the United States and Europe as part of global trade talks but is facing resistance from Washington. "Ethanol should be part of a deal this week," said Carlos Conzendey, head of the economic department at the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. "For the moment, the United States has said 'no'," he told AFP. Brazil is one of the world's leading ethanol producers, with the bulk of its ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
West `to blame for china's co2 emissions`
http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/latest-york-and-humberside-news/West-to-blame-for-china39s.4322724.jp
Halifax Evening Courier: The West may be largely to blame for China's growing CO2 emissions because of our demand for consumer goods, researchers from Leeds University have said. An international research team found that while China's CO2 emissions have nearly doubled in five years, much of this pollution was caused by industry feeding the country's huge export drive. Dr Klaus Hubacek, of the University of Leeds, said about a third of Chinese emissions of this key greenhouse gas came from the production of ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
14 countries win REDD funding to protect tropical forests
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0724-fcpf.html
Mongabay: Fourteen countries have been selected by the World Bank to receive funds for conserving their tropical forests under an innovative carbon finance scheme. The initiative, known as the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), was unveiled last year as a way to kick start Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), a proposed mechanism that would reward countries with carbon credits for preserving their forest cover. Globally deforestation accounts for nearly ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
7 Western states, 4 Canadian provinces have plan to cut emissions
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/34980
Sacramento Bee: Your carbon emissions will soon be good in Quebec. This week, officials from California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces released the draft of a plan to set up a vast market for greenhouse-gas emissions that aims to ease the burden of the war on global warming. Starting in 2012, according to the plan, the members of the Western Climate Initiative would issue annual permits to firms that emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The total supply of ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Australian economy under threat as climate change bites
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2222399/australian-economy-under-threat
Business Green: The economic risks presented by climate change have been further highlighted with the publication by the Australian government of a new report showing that drought was threatening the water supply of more than a million Australians. A six-year drought across the country has left its main water system – the Murray-Darling river system, which stretches across four states from southern Queensland to Victoria – severely depleted. Speaking at the release of the report, Australia's ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Britain tries to block green energy laws
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/24/renewableenergy.greenpolitics
Guardian: Britain is trying to water down tough new European legislation to boost the uptake of renewable energy, despite a pledge by Gordon Brown last month to launch a "green revolution" based on clean technology. Documents obtained by the Guardian show the UK wants to block attempts to give renewable electricity sources such as wind farms priority access to the national grid. The European official who drafted the legislation accused Britain of "obstructing" EU efforts on ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Britain trying to water down EU green energy plans
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hThc83eoEBRxhtLwm7vH92RpGpUQ
Agence France-Presse: British negotiators are trying to water down European Union plans to give priority access to green energy sources on national energy grids, The Guardian newspaper reported Thursday. Citing documents it had obtained, the daily said Britain had proposed amendments to an EU directive, from its original draft which says that the bloc's member states "shall" give priority to renewable energy, to saying instead that they "may" do so. The documents showed that ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
California joins big carbon-trade partnership
http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/37742
San Francisco Chronicle: California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces launched plans on Wednesday for one of the world's largest carbon-trading systems, a sweeping effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The North American program, like a similar market-based system in Europe, focuses on heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities. Environmental groups immediately questioned whether the ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Climate change will cost US billions of dollars: study
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/ET_Cetera/Climate_change_will_cost_US_billions_of_dollars_study/articleshow/3273398.cms
Economic Times: Climate change will carry a price tag of billions of dollars for some US states, researchers have said. Combining existing data with new analyses, researchers at the University of Maryland studied some states in the US and projected the long-term economic impact of climate change on them. For example, the study said, Colorado would lose more than $1 billion due to the impact of a predicted drier and warmer climate on tourism, forestry, water resources and health. ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Canada: Culture of consumption
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=33982927-c71f-4278-a0de-2d00d5e07193
Ottawa Citizen: You want a free cellphone? Take it. How about a gadget offering free broadband access for your laptop? It's yours. And if you desire a solar-powered wrist watch as well as enough books and DVDs to fill a huge suitcase, this is the place to be. Never have I seen hosts anywhere near as generous as the Japanese at this month's summit of the Group of Eight nations. You could barely move for gifts and glossy informational leaflets, which was great for all of five seconds, until you ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Don't be fooled by the climate change bill. Carbon trading torpedoes it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/24/climatechange.carbonemissions
Guardian: For the past two years I have been fretting over a mystery. Although Labour seems to have done everything possible to ensure that it stays out of office, there remains a possibility that it might form another government at some point between now and 2050. This means that its climate change bill, which will become law in the autumn, could come back to haunt it. Despite its evident flaws, this is radical and unprecedented legislation. It imposes a legal obligation on future governments to cut ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
EPA: Few volunteering to cut greenhouse gases
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i-lOmxMbhkcjhlBMhsV2feMUji3gD924GA6G1
Associated Press: Voluntary pollution-reduction programs touted by the Bush administration as part of the solution to global warming have "limited potential" to reduce greenhouse gases, according to an internal government watchdog. The Environmental Protection Agency's Inspector General's Office said industry's unwillingness to participate and unreliable data that casts doubt on claimed reductions are hindering efforts to control some of the most potent greenhouse gases from aluminum ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Gassing Up With Garbage
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103630
New York Times: After years of false starts, a new industry selling motor fuel made from waste is getting a big push in the United States, with the first commercial sales possible within months. Many companies have announced plans to build plants that would take in material like wood chips, garbage or crop waste and turn out motor fuels. About 28 small plants are in advanced planning, under construction or, in a handful of cases, already up and running in test mode. For decades scientists have ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Microgrid power stations can ensure uninterrupted supply
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14722728
Sify: Microgrid based power stations with their own energy source and independent control could ensure uninterrupted power supply even after hurricanes or natural disasters. Texas University professor Alexis Kwasinski has formulated a new plan to de-centralise power architecture that would have kept the lights and phones on in town and cities in such an eventuality. Kwasinski argued that microgrid-based power would be more dependable, efficient and cost effective than traditional ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Rainforest conservation could offset 500m tons of CO2 emissions at $2/ton
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0724-redd.html
Mongabay: Industrialized nations could collectively offset 500 million tons carbon of dioxide emissions at roughly $2 per ton by protecting tropical rainforests, according to estimates published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The calculations, based on three different forestry and land-use models, provide an estimate of what developed nations would need to spend to participate in an "avoided deforestation" program to cut global carbon ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Report: States ranked on 'oil addiction'
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080723/LIFESTYLE05/354127586&title=Report__States_ranked_on__oil_addiction__
Press Democrat: According a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, California topped the list of states trying to reduce their oil dependency. The nonprofit's second annual report, "Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States' Oil Vulnerability and Solutions for Change," considered the implementation of alternatives to oil and solutions as well as states' vulnerability to high oil prices. Other states which made the top 10: New York, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Rising food prices pushing east Africa to disaster, warns Oxfam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/24/food.kenya
Guardian: More than 14 million people in the east Africa region require urgent food aid due to drought and spiralling cereal and fuel prices, aid agencies say. In an emergency appeal launched today, Oxfam warns that millions of people in Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Djibouti and Kenya are fast being pushed "towards severe hunger and destitution". Earlier this week the UN said it needed £200m to avert a humanitarian disaster. The hunger crisis is worse than the last regional emergency in ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Democratic Republic of Congo: Southern African wetland region to become world's largest protected freshwater site
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=141881
WWF: An area of the Democratic Republic of Congo containing the largest body of fresh water in Africa has been added to the Ramsar Convention's list of Wetlands of International Importance, making it the largest region ever to be designated as such. At more than six-and-a-half million hectares, the Ngiri-Tumba-Maingombe area is twice the size of Belgium and has one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity anywhere in the world. It is also a major carbon sink. "WWF is ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Study warns of water problems
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9975234
San Jose Mercury News: A new study predicts that climate change will create devastating drought in this state and throughout the Southwest and continue to drop the levels of already low Lake Mead and Lake Powell, threatening the water supply for 2 million Nevadans. The prediction came as part of a study released Wednesday by the National Conference of State Legislatures and the Center for Integrative Environmental Research. The study, paid for in part by the Environmental Defense Fund, analyzed the ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
UN database can aid climate, food issues
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/23/UN_database_can_aid_climate_food_issues/UPI-33451216855574/
United Press International: A new, downloadable database on the world's soils can help tackle climate change and food production, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said. "The more information we have about soil properties, the more we can evaluate the quality of our natural resources all over the world and their potential to produce food now and in future scenarios of climate change," Alexander Muller, the Food and Agriculture Organization's assistant director general for natural ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
US-Canada carbon trading group eyes 2012 start
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2350125820080724
Reuters: A coalition of U.S. states and Canadian provinces that have banded together to cut greenhouse gases will launch their carbon cap and trade system in 2012, according to a draft plan released on Wednesday. The Western Climate Initiative's system will be phased in starting with industrial process emissions, with emissions from transportation and other fuels added to the system in 2015. It also will include emissions from electricity imported from sources outside of the group. The ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Vast oil, natural gas reserves estimated in Arctic
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iqFTXQrBae9cLeomASPVQZFBwbdgD92498701
Associated Press: Some 90 billion barrels of oil and a third of the world's undiscovered natural gas lie beneath an area north of the Arctic Circle, government scientists estimate in the largest-ever survey of the energy resources there. The U.S. Geological Survey, which announced the findings Wednesday, called the region, which includes parts of the United States, Russia and Canada, "the largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on Earth." All told, the area accounts ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Western governors offer greenhouse emissions plan
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iqGMrzmNKuHg8Hmz_YBFYQvY4J4AD92440QG0
Associated Press: Seven Western states are joining four Canadian provinces to propose a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions through use of a "cap and trade" system. The draft plan, made public Wednesday by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski's office, is aimed at gradually reducing carbon emissions across Oregon, Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Washington. The plan, which also would extend to British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in Canada, is keyed to a cap and ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Arctic holds up to 22 % of world's untapped energy reserves: U.S. study
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=6d05bd93-3b65-42f5-818e-7190d513a8e2
Canwest News Service: Nearly a quarter of the world's undiscovered petroleum resources lie in the Arctic, confirms a U.S. study that should only intensify pressure on countries such as Canada to stake their claims to the Far North. The U.S. Geological Survey has previously offered a rough estimate of the Arctic's vast oil and gas resources. On Wednesday, the state-funded agency released a study that refines its estimates for the entire Arctic region. According to the new assessment, the Arctic holds ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Coral grief
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/jul/24/biosciences.climatechange
Guardian: A climatologist who is trying to explain why even the most immediate and drastic steps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions may not save the coral reefs, has embarked on a metaphor for climate change. "The climate is like this big ship, right? We are all on this big ship and the problem is once you hit the brakes it takes a long time for the ship to actually slow down and stop," says Simon Donner of the University of British Columbia. "In our case the ship is the Titanic and we are ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Pakistan: Deforestation reason behind global warming: Gilani
http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46342&Itemid=2
Associated Press of Pakistan: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that deforestation is the basic reason for global warming, water scarcity and food shortage in many parts of the world including Pakistan. The Prime Minister said this while talking to Tohru Kuroha, President Environmental Measurement Services (EMS) Inc., Japan who called on him at the PM's House Thursday morning. The Prime Minister said Pakistan is a water scarce country and requires modern technology capable of holding moisture for a ...

Fri, 25 Jul 08
Drought is now the norm in the deprived north of Kenya
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/feature-news/2008/07/24/drought-is-now-the-norm-in-the-deprived-north-of-kenya-91466-21393743/
Wales Online: Jonathan Tench has just returned from a two-week trip to Turkana, Kenya where he saw first-hand how Oxfam is working to help the people in a humanitarian crisis driven by drought and rising global food prices. THINGS are getting worse. The rains have failed again. It's a curse, maybe we've wronged God." This is how Philip Aemun, a native of the Turkana region in northern Kenya and who works for Oxfam there, explained how he and local people talk about the latest in a series of ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
A recession will give ecological development a new life
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/conservation.greenbuilding
Guardian: The show homes at the end of a winding, unfinished road feel isolated, stuck in a corner of what remains of Telford's fragmented countryside. The rain is pouring down and there are few builders working. The infrastructure of a major housing development is uncannily silent, and so too is the building site further up the road - and the ones after that. It's not the weather that's holding up work, it's the slump. This story is being repeated on hundreds of development sites around ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
Western governors offer emissions plan
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080723-1328-wst-greenhousegases1stld-writethru.html
Associated Press: Seven Western states have joined four Canadian provinces to plan limits on greenhouse gas emissions. It would cover up to 90 percent of the global warming emissions across Oregon, Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Washington and would extend to British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec in Canada. The plan was drafted by the Western Climate Initiative, a group created by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
Arctic's oil could meet world demand for three years
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN2344549320080723
Reuters: The Arctic Circle holds an estimated 90 billion barrels of recoverable oil, enough supply to meet current world demand for almost three years, the U.S. Geological Survey forecast on Wednesday. The agency's forecast comes as Russia is competing with Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States to grab a chunk of the Arctic's huge energy resources as the area becomes more accessible due to global warming that is melting the region's ice. The government agency also said the area ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
California joins major North American effort to curb greenhouse gases
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/23/BAF511TSGO.DTL&tsp=1
San Francisco Chronicle: California, six other Western states and four Canadian provinces will launch a market-based carbon trading system in a major North American effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, according to a draft proposal released today. When it officially begins in four years, the program would first target heavy polluters such as electric utilities, oil refineries and large industrial and commercial facilities, which would be required to begin reporting emission levels ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
China's Climate Change Playbook is Worth Reading
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-lash/chinas-climate-change-pla_b_114558.html
Huffington Post: In a few weeks, elite athletes from around the world will gather in Beijing. Press coverage of the Games is likely to highlight competition between America and China about which will win the most medals. Media coverage will also -- as it has already -- focus on air quality and environmental conditions in China. As we compete on the playing fields, China and the U.S. should not lose sight of where our interests coincide -- climate change. And looking beyond the recently sooty skies of ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
First-Ever Climate Change Vulnerability Index Identifies the Most and Least Vulnerable Countries and Companies
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/first-ever-climate-change-vulnerability-index/story.aspx?guid=%7B011C4E07-2427-48F2-A8B8-C15CE88B90FB%7D&dist=hppr
Market Watch: The newly released Maplecroft Climate Change Risk Report includes the first-ever climate change vulnerability index and a set of best-to-worst rankings for more than 168 countries worldwide. It identifies the world's highest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters as well as those countries most and least vulnerable to climate change. The report finds many of the world's biggest CO2 emitters are also the countries least vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Despite being the biggest emitter, ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
Missouri Town Powered Entirely by Wind
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/37735
ENN: Missouri's a pretty tough place to grow most crops. But there's one thing they've got plenty of: wind. So a small town, Rock Port, has decided to use the powerful breezes to its advantage, building four wind turbines to provide power to their town. "That's something to be very proud of, especially in a rural area like this – that we're doing our part for the environment," an area engineer, Jim Crawford, told LiveScience. Though the state may not be great for growing wheat or ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
New California law allows cities to give loans for energy-saving improvements
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-solar23-2008jul23,0,5610957.story
Los Angeles Times: Berkeley and Palm Desert may be poles apart when it comes to politics. But the two cities are pioneering a new path to solar energy. Pushed by these unlikely municipal bedfellows, California on Monday enacted a law that allows cities and counties to make low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses to install solar panels, high-efficiency air conditioners and other energy-saving improvements. Participants can pay back the loans over decades through property taxes. And if a ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
Pickens sees answer to energy crisis in the wind
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-pickens23-2008jul23,0,993562.story
Los Angeles Times: He spent much of his life drilling for oil, taking over other companies and using his vast wealth to fund Republicans. Now, T. Boone Pickens champions wind energy, has a Facebook profile and passes the time with grateful Democrats. On Tuesday, the legendary oil tycoon made his Capitol Hill debut to promote his new cause: using American wind to alleviate the nation's energy crisis and wean itself from dependency on foreign oil. He testified before a Senate committee and held ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
World Bank Criticized on Environmental Efforts
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/science/earth/23enviro.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin
New York Times: The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report. The review, released Tuesday, examined some of the $400 billion in investments in nearly 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007. It found that recent pledges for environmental sustainability by the bank and sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, were often not put ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
United States: Environmental group: Ritter forest plan backfired
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20080723/NEWS/764114369/-1/rss04
Associated Press: A proposed rule expected next week from the Bush administration would allow approximately 100 new oil and gas leases to be developed in Colorado national forests currently protected from drilling under a plan backed by Gov. Bill Ritter that backfired, according to an environmental group. A report by the Pew Environmental Group to be released Wednesday says the plan recommended by a state task force and backed by Ritter was intended to be an "insurance policy" to protect the forests ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
Fossils date Dry Valleys' origin
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7519614.stm
BBC: Tiny fossils have helped refine the timing of the climate shift that gave rise to Antarctica's remarkable Dry Valleys, a landscape akin to Mars. The famously ice-free terrain enjoyed more benign, tundra-like conditions 14 million years ago - but then flipped to the intensely cold setting seen today. Scientists tell a Royal Society journal that ancient lake-living shrimp-like creatures can pinpoint the big switch. The ostracods would not have coped with a harsh, dry ...

Thu, 24 Jul 08
United States: L.A. City Council votes for ban on plastic shopping bags
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-plastic23-2008jul23,0,3282727.story
Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic carryout bags in the city's supermarkets and stores by July 2010 -- but only if the state fails to impose a 25-cent fee on every shopper who requests them. Council members said they hope an impending ban would spur consumers to begin carrying canvas or other reusable bags, reducing the amount of plastic that washes into the city's storm drains and the ocean. "This is a major moment for our city, to bite the bullet and go ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
£37bn plan to power EU with the Saharan sun
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/solarpower.windpower1
Guardian: Vast farms of solar panels in the Sahara could provide clean electricity for the whole of Europe, according to EU scientists working on a plan to pool the region's renewable energy. Harnessing the power of the desert sun is at the centre of an ambitious scheme to build a 45bn (£35.7bn) European supergrid that would allow countries across the continent to share electricity from abundant green sources such as wind energy in the UK and Denmark, and geothermal energy from Iceland and ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Ex-EPA Official Says White House Pulled Rank
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072202683.html
Washington Post: A former Environmental Protection Agency official yesterday contradicted EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson's congressional testimony on one of the administration's key global warming decisions, saying the White House ordered Johnson to block California's bid to regulate vehicles' tailpipe emissions. On Jan. 24, Johnson told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under oath that he had made the decision on his own after determining there was no compelling evidence to ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Immigration must be cut to tackle climate change, says study
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24064539-662,00.html
Herald Sun: IMMIGRATION must be slashed if Australia has any chance of seriously tackling climate change, says a Monash University study. The report said Australia's high population growth would be a major driver of greenhouse emissions, and would counter tough government measures to reduce carbon output. But the Rudd Government and its climate adviser Ross Garnaut were ignoring the population issue at their peril, said the study, entitled Labor's Greenhouse Aspirations, by Monash's ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Lack of funds limits potential of carbon capture
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/22/business/greencol23.php
International Herald Tribune: There is such a buzz around renewable energy that you might think these technologies are developing fast enough to meet the majority of our power needs in coming decades. Think again. The use of wind, solar and geothermal energy is growing rapidly, but from very low levels in many of the most energy-hungry nations. Fossil fuels make up two-thirds of the global energy mix and would still make up almost half by midcentury - even under scenarios where annual emissions are kept at the ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Population time bomb ticking on
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/population-time-bomb-ticking-on-emissions/1174368.aspx
Canberra Times: A TWO-THIRDS cut in household greenhouse gas emissions would still not achieve Federal Government carbon targets because the population is growing too fast, a study into immigration policy and climate change contends. By 2050, when Australia plans to have cut its total emissions by 60 per cent, the population will have risen to just over 30 million unless immigration policies change radically, said Bob Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Monash ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Solar power from Saharan sun could provide Europe's electricity, says EU
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/solarpower.windpower
Guardian: A tiny rectangle superimposed on the vast expanse of the Sahara captures the seductive appeal of the audacious plan to cut Europe's carbon emissions by harnessing the fierce power of the desert sun. Dwarfed by any of the north African nations, it represents an area slightly smaller than Wales but scientists claimed yesterday it could one day generate enough solar energy to supply all of Europe with clean electricity. Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
World needs 515 million hectares for food
http://www.thetidenews.com/article.aspx?qrDate=07/22/2008&qrTitle=World%20needs%20515%20million%20hectares%20for%20food&qrColumn=NATION
Tide: The world will need a minimum of 515 million more hectares by 2030 in order to grow food, bioenergy and wood products, according to studies. This is almost twice the amount of land that will be available, equal to a land mass 12 times the size of Germany. The two studies were released recently by the United States-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), an international coalition comprising the world's foremost organisations on forest governance and ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
California green energy proposal has thin support
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN2234634520080723
Reuters: Awareness is low, but 63 percent of those who had a view on it favor a California ballot measure that would require half the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025, a Field poll issued on Tuesday shows. Voter awareness of Proposition 7 on the November ballot is extremely low -- 82 percent of those interviewed said they did not know of the measure. Phone interviews of 672 likely voters were conducted last week, Field Research said. Voters were asked opinions ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
California Pursues Ambitious Electricity Conservation Plan
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807221852DOWJONESDJONLINE000685_FORTUNE5.htm
Dow Jones: Amid concerns about meeting growing power demand and fighting climate change, California regulators and utilities are working to cut electricity use in amounts that would power millions of homes. Under state law, the state's three largest electric utilities are mandated to try to reach a goal of saving 23,183 gigawatt-hours per year of electricity from 2004 to 2013, or enough electricity to power about 2.3 million homes. A draft plan issued earlier this month by the California ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
EPA Decision Making Is Criticized
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121677807243775795.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: A former Environmental Protection Agency official stepped up criticism of a decision by the EPA's chief to deny California's request to implement its own, tougher regulations on automotive greenhouse-gas emissions, a denial that he said appeared to be the result of pressure from the White House. When the EPA made known that it was leaning toward allowing California to go ahead in some fashion, "the response was clearly articulated that the president had a policy preference for a ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
French Firm Cashes In Under U.N. Warming Program
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121677247656875573.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: A French chemical maker is reaping a potential billion-dollar windfall under a United Nations program intended to spur climate-friendly investment in the developing world, highlighting the challenges of using market forces to tackle global warming. The company, Rhodia SA, manufactures hundreds of tons a day of adipic acid, an ingredient in nylon, at its factory here. But the real money is in what it doesn't make. The payday, which could amount to more than $1 billion over seven ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Immigration levels driving emissions: researchers
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2311605.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: TONY EASTLEY: While the Coalition urges caution with the introduction of any emissions trading scheme and unions press their particular case, demographers at Melbourne's Monash University say the Rudd Government has little chance of meeting its 2050 greenhouse gas emissions targets if immigration remains at current levels. They argue that population growth is the main driver of emissions but it's being largely ignored by the Government. Samantha Donovan reports. SAMANTHA ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
United States: In trees vs. solar, trees win
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_9963385
Mercury News: In Silicon Valley's famous "trees vs. solar panels" battle, the trees have won. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed into law a bill that guarantees if California property owners plant a tree before a neighbor installs solar panels on their roof, then the neighbor can't require the tree to be cut or trimmed, even if it grows to cast shade on the panels. State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, wrote the bill in response to a Sunnyvale case that made national news ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
California ports' pollution plan proves a big haul
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN18461195
Reuters: A short drive from the sandy beaches of Malibu rise two sprawling ports, where goods from around the world enter the United States before fanning out by road and rail to stores from coast to coast. The adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the United States' biggest, see nearly half of the nation's container traffic and are key to insuring goods made in China make it to retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But the ports hold another, less honorable distinction: They are ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Cartoonists use humour to tackle climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/climatechange.art
Guardian: Can you laugh at global warming? Indeed, should you? The Ken Sprague Fund has organised a competition that set out to answer those awkward questions - so if you think that cartoons about climate change could be in poor taste, look away now. Around 150 artists from more than 50 countries submitted entries. The results, says John Green, secretary of the fund that was set up in memory of cartoonist Ken Sprague, were "bitingly satirical, outrageously funny or exceedingly bitter, and ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Australia: Climate 'pawn in Libs leadership battle'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24064270-12377,00.html
Australian: THE critical issue of climate change has been caught up in the leadership politics of the Liberal Party, says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Mr Rudd also slammed comments from Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, who today said it would be unlikely that a carbon emissions trading scheme would be up and running before 2012. "On something as critical as climate change which affects our economy, our river systems and our jobs and our kids we have a clean-cut course of ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Domestic energy costs: Energy-saving pilot project cuts carbon emissions by a fifth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/23/energy.alternativeenergy
Guardian: Britain could cut its domestic fuel bills by £4.6bn a year if it adopted a series of energy saving measures, according to a report out today. An energy saving trial involving 64 households across eight cities organised by British Gas and monitored by the thinktank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), also found that families cut their carbon emissions by a fifth. British Gas managing director, Phil Bentley said: "Reducing energy consumption is the single most ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Australia: Emissions target 'excluded population'
http://news.theage.com.au/national/emissions-target-excluded-population-20080723-3jmf.html
AAP: The Rudd government has little chance of meeting its 2050 greenhouse emission reduction targets if Australia's population continues to grow, a demography expert says. Population growth was the main contributor to emissions, but had been overlooked by government, Dr Bob Birrell from Monash University said. He forecasts Australia's population will reach 31.6 million by 2050, causing carbon emissions to rise to 800 million tonnes, four times the 2050 target. The government ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Indonesia: Experts doubt feasibility of govt goals to shift to renewable energy
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103572
Jakarta Post: Experts doubt the government will be able to realize its plan to shift to renewable energy to reduce its dependency on depleting oil reserves and to deal with soaring global oil prices. The barriers to developing renewable energy still exists despite the government having already launched the energy mix policy two years ago, said Zuhal, professor of electricity engineering at the University of Indonesia (UI). "We are still facing financial and market barriers and other ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Australia: Give workers carbon permits: union
http://news.smh.com.au/national/give-workers-carbon-permits-union-20080723-3jik.html
AAP: Workers should be given pollution permits as compensation if companies move off-shore as a result of an emissions trading scheme being introduced, the Australian Workers Union (AWU) says. Under the Rudd government's proposal big emitters who export much of their product - such as aluminium smelters - will be handed free carbon trading permits. But the AWU says some trade-exposed companies could take the permits and leave Australia anyway. "It has happened before in ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Australia: Science critical to climate change action
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200807/s2311821.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A leading soil scientist is urging governments to listen to the experts on climate change, and act now. Dr Ian Porter is an advisor on the Montreal Protocol - the panel that has successfully tackled the hole in the ozone layer. Dr Porter says scientific advice has been crucial to healing the ozone, and in beginning the work on climate change. "Now under the Montreal Protocol, the HCFCs are being regulated for phase out and that work has done six times more than the ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
White House nixed Calif. emissions rule, ex-EPA official says
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/244/story/45181.html
McClatchy Newspapers: The Environmental Protection Agency told the Bush administration that by law California should be able to set air-quality standards that were tougher than federal law, but President Bush rejected the advice and made clear that he wanted a single national standard, a former EPA official said Tuesday. The testimony from whistleblower Jason Burnett came as the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee's chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is investigating what she charges is ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Australian politician calls for 'meaningless' carbon trading
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hbuxbtqeMziP9GrWCKhiZjJAWbkw
Agence France-Presse: A top Australian politician said on Tuesday the country should introduce "meaningless" carbon trading if big polluters in the developing world do not agree to reduce emissions. Opposition leader Brendan Nelson said he was committed to introducing emissions trading by 2012, but if big polluters like China and India do not make commitments to reduce emissions it should be deliberately toothless. "Our policy has not changed, and that policy is we would implement an ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Biofuels can reduce emissions, but not when grown in place of rainforests
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0722-biofuels.html
Mongabay: Biofuels meant to help alleviate greenhouse gas emissions may be in fact contributing to climate change when grown on converted tropical forest lands, warns a comprehensive study published earlier this month in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The new research looks at the "carbon payback time" or "carbon debt" of various biofuel feedstocks including oil palm, sugar cane, and soy. Carbon payback time refers to the number of years it takes for the ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Coal-Fired Power Plants in UK Need Deadline to Catch Carbon
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aSRY94AfHQ4s&refer=uk
Bloomberg: U.K. coal-fired power plants must be given a deadline to capture carbon dioxide and store it underground, or government energy policy will be environmentally ``catastrophic,'' a multiparty committee of lawmakers said. While some new generators are required to be ``carbon capture and storage-ready,'' or built to allow so-called CCS technology to be installed later, there's no guarantee the equipment will be fitted, the Environmental Audit Committee said today in an e-mailed report. ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Don't offset your CO2 emissions, retire them
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7669493
Reuters: At the age of 25, Dan Lewer is going into retirement -- carbon emissions retirement that is. Lewer is co-founder of a new online carbon offset company called Carbon Retirement (www.carbonretirement.com), which launched on July 15. Carbon Retirement offers consumers and companies a novel approach to offsetting their carbon footprint by letting them dip into the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, the 27-nation bloc's flagship weapon in fighting climate change. Now ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Scientists in Brazil call for urgent action to protect wetlands
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/22/america/LA-Brazil-Threatened-Wetlands.php
Associated Press: The ongoing destruction of the Earth's wetlands could have a disastrous effect on rainfall patterns, scientists said Tuesday. The impact will become apparent within 10 to 20 years, with sharply reduced rainfall in many regions, said Wolfgang Junk of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology. In tropical climates, dry seasons will become drier and rainy seasons wetter, he said. "Actions have to be taken now on the local and regional level because the impact ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Why your happiness matters to the planet
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/22/why-your-happiness-matters-to-the-planet/
Christian Science Monitor: Overall, people around the world have grown happier during the past 25 years, according to the most recent World Values Survey (WVS), a periodic assessment of happiness in 97 nations. On average, people describing themselves as "very happy" have increased by nearly 7 percent. The findings seem to contradict the view, held by some, that national happiness levels are more or less fixed. The report's authors attribute rising world happiness to improved economies, greater ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
World Bank overstated money for environment-report
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2228710120080722
Reuters: The World Bank overstated its commitment to environmental projects since 1990, possibly by billions of dollars, an internal watchdog group reported on Tuesday. The bank's official estimate for commitments to programs specifically aimed at helping the environment is $59 billion from fiscal 1990 to 2007, according to the Independent Evaluation Group. But the watchdog group, established by the bank to monitor its activities, found only $18.2 billion allocated by the ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
World Bank should improve environmental record, review says
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/22/business/23bank-revkin.php
International Herald Tribune: The World Bank and its partners need to do a far better job of considering the environmental effects of projects they finance in poor countries, its internal review group concludes in a new report. The review, released on Tuesday, examined some of the $400 billion in investments in nearly 7,000 projects from 1990 to 2007. It found that recent commitments to environmental sustainability by the bank and sister institutions, including the International Finance Corporation, were often not ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
"Humans Are Now the Primary Drivers of Our Climate"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43272
Inter Press Service: Humanity faces enormous challenges at the start of the 21st century, says Sir David King, Britain's former chief scientific advisor and now director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University in England. The crises surrounding climate change, population growth, water, food and land are deeply interconnected, Sir David said at the opening of the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Friday. The Forum, known as ESOF, is a biannual gathering of ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Activist tries to superglue himself to Gordon Brown
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1037391/Activist-tries-superglue-Gordon-Brown.html
Daily Mail: During these turbulent economic times, Gordon Brown is keen for the country to stick by him. However, this probably wasn't quite what he had in mind. Dan Glass, of the climate change pressure group Plane Stupid, today tried to superglue himself to the Prime Minister at a Downing Street reception. As Mr Glass, 24, was introduced to the Premier, he laid a glue-covered hand on his sleeve. He also took the opportunity to urge Mr Brown to change his mind on the ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Arctic lake a laboratory for studying climate change's effects on ecosystem
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jul/22/scienceofclimatechange.climatechange
McClatchy Newspapers: Scientist Anne Hershey paddled a small inflatable raft across an arctic lake, pausing in her stroke to consider how the melting permafrost caused a landslide of mud and sediment spilling down the bank into the water. Since the bank collapsed two years ago, the water has grown cloudy with sediment, providing scientists a natural laboratory for studying how warmer temperatures may play out in ecosystems far and near. Global air and water temperatures are inching up, causing seas ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Brazil harnesses space tech to monitor deforestation
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37722
Environmental News Network: Brazil will launch a satellite in 2011 to monitor deforestation and urban expansion around the world, it has been announced. AmazÃ´nia-1 will carry a UK-made high resolution camera. The United Kingdom–Brazil collaboration was announced last week (14 July) at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for Progress in Science. It is part of the continuing UK–Brazil Partnership in Science and Innovation, and stems from discussions between governments and research partners ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Clean deadline call on coal power
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7518311.stm
BBC: The government should set a deadline for coal-fired power stations to adopt "clean" technologies or close, according to a parliamentary committee. The Environment Audit Committee says the government is wrong to believe that a carbon market alone will persuade companies to invest in "clean coal". Its report warns that progress in this area is "extremely disappointing". A coal-fired station produces about twice as much carbon dioxide as a gas-burning facility of equal ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Cool on Coal
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article4380640.ece
Times (UK): If plans to build new coal-fired power stations go ahead in Britain, it will be rather like building palaces to burn caviar. The cost of coal and construction are rocketing up. Most of the coal will be imported, mainly from Russia. The carbon dioxide emissions created will be about twice those produced in gas-burning facilities of equal power. With the looming threat of climate change, and growing concerns about energy security, waving through a new generation of dirty coal plants would be ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Court bans power station protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7520376.stm
BBC: An energy company has been granted an extended injunction to keep environmental campaigners away from a power station during a planned protest. E.On UK, the owners of the Kingsnorth station in Kent, made the request at the High Court to restrict the Climate Camp's planned direct action in August. The injunction was extended to the jetty where coal is delivered to prevent rafts accessing the site. Organisers said it would not stop them protesting about plans for a new ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Energy efficiency schemes 'could save British business £2.5bn a year'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/22/greenbusiness.energy
Guardian: British businesses could save themselves £2.5bn over the next 12 months if they implemented energy efficiency schemes that would also cut 22m tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, according to new analysis out today amid soaring oil and gas bills plus fears of recession. The £7m a day of savings - the equivalent of 100,000 staff salaries - have been calculated by researchers working for the government-sponsored Carbon Trust which says companies are finally waking up to energy ...

Wed, 23 Jul 08
Global Heating: Why We Must Shift to Carbon-Free Fuel: The Doers (Part II)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-hoffmann/global-heating-why-we-mus_b_113903.html
Huffington Post: One of the best hands-on examples of far-sighted thinking is provided perhaps by the folks who are frequently denigrated as dragging their heels when it comes to innovations -- the car-makers. With billions of dollars in future sales and their very survival at stake, almost all the major ones believe hydrogen is the long-term key to reducing the global warming threat by avoiding putting CO2 into the atmosphere in the first place. Manufacturers such as GM, BMW, Daimler, Chrysler, ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Brazil: Amazon River Powers Tropical Ocean's Carbon Sink
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080721173759.htm
Science Daily: Nutrients from the Amazon River spread well beyond the continental shelf and drive carbon capture in the deep ocean, according to the authors of a multi-year study. The finding does not change estimates of the oceans' total carbon uptake, but it reveals the surprisingly large role of tropical oceans and major rivers. The tropical North Atlantic had been considered a net emitter of carbon from the respiration of ocean life. A 2007 study estimated that ocean's contribution to the ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Britain Must Set Deadline to Close Dirty Power Plants
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49439/story.htm
Reuters: The British government must set a deadline for closing all coal-fired power stations whose smokestack emissions have not been slashed by carbon capture technology, a parliamentary report said on Tuesday. The Environmental Audit Committee also warned against the government allowing coal-fired power plants to be built that were "CCS ready" -- able to be fitted with carbon capture and storage technology once it is commercially proven and available. "Carbon capture ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Energy: Coal-fired power stations will lock UK into a high-emissions future, say MPs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/22/carbonemissions.carboncapturestorage
Guardian: The government will come under increased pressure today to ban new coal-fired power stations such as the one planned for Kingsnorth in Kent unless they are equipped to trap and store carbon pollution underground, as a committee of MPs publishes a critical report. The environmental audit committee urges ministers to make it clear that coal power plants that do not fit carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment will be closed down. It says the government must set a deadline, after ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Full speed ahead on new energy
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0722/p08s01-comv.html
Christian Science Monitor: T Boone Pickens and Al Gore have proposed bold plans to radically reduce America's addiction to fossil fuels. These two gadflies just might provide enough bite to provoke the next president to swifter action. Mr. Pickens argues that using wind power for electricity and powering vehicles with domestic natural gas can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports within 10 years. If nothing is done, the conservative Texas oilman says, the US will send $10 trillion out of the ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Population bomb 'ticks louder than climate'
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/population-bomb-ticks-louder-than-climate/1173782.aspx
Canberra Times: Global population growth is looming as a bigger threat to the world's food production and water supplies than climate change, a leading scientist says. Speaking at a CSIRO public lecture in Canberra yesterday, UNESCO's chief of sustainable water resources development, Professor Shahbaz Khan, said overpopulation's impacts were potentially more economically, socially and environmentally destructive than those of climate change. ''Climate change is one of a number of stresses ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Uganda NFA Says Won't Allocate Mabira Forest For Sugar Cane
http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=20080721004519
Dow Jones: Uganda's state-run National Forestry Authority won't allocate part of the Mabira natural forest reserve to Sugar Corp. of Uganda Ltd., or SCOUL, for sugar cane growing because it's a threat to the environment, NFA executive director said Monday. Akankwasa Damian said Mabira's biodiversity maintains the water levels of Lake Victoria and the River Nile and cutting the forest down for sugar cane growing would endanger Africa's largest fresh water lake. "We have made our ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Britain 'imports more illegal timber than any EU country'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/22/eatimber122.xml
Telegraph (UK): Britain imports more illegal timber than almost any other country in Europe, a new report claims. Almost one-fifth of wood imported into the EU in 2006 came from illegal sources, according to WWF. And the UK imported 3.5m cubic metres of illegal wood making it the second biggest importer behind Finland. This included the biggest quantities of furniture, finished wood products, sawn wood and plywood of all EU states. WWF claims that in total the EU imported between 26.5m ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: C4's climate change documentary 'was unfair but not misleading'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/c4s-climate-change-documentary-was-unfair-but-not-misleading-873753.html
Independent: A Channel 4 documentary which claimed that the idea of man-made climate change was a fraud and a conspiracy has been censured by the broadcasting regulator. Ofcom. The Great Global Warming Swindle, written and directed by Martin Durkin, misrepresented the views of the Government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, Ofcom said yesterday in a long-awaited judgement. The programme was further found to have unfairly treated Sir David, the American oceanographer ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Carbon capture deadline 'vital' for coal stations
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/politics/science/carbon-capture-deadline-vital-coal-stations-$1232769.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: The government should set a deadline by which coal-fired power stations must have adopted carbon capture and storage (CCS), a committee of MPs said today. In its report on CCS, the environmental audit committee (EAC) says stations that do not meet this deadline should no longer be allowed to operate. CCS is a technique that could prevent up to 90 per cent of damaging carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations entering the atmosphere. But the EAC claimed that unless ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Climate Film Draws a Rebuke
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103480
New York Times: A controversial British documentary called "The Great Global Warming Swindle" unfairly portrays several scientists and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Britain's television watchdog agency ruled on Monday. The agency, the Office of Communication, issued a report rebuking Channel 4 in Britain, which broadcast "Swindle" last year. But the report said the film, while "intemperate" in its characterizations of the dominant scientific view that humans are the main force in ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Draughty companies said wasting $5 billion
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2193713220080722
Reuters: British businesses are wasting 2.5 billion pounds a year in energy bills swollen by inefficiencies such as draughty windows or leaving lights and computers on, the Carbon Trust said on Tuesday. Racing oil prices have added to the cost of wasted energy but businesses are not responding far enough according to the private, government-funded agency whose mandate is to drive cuts in UK carbon emissions and so help fight climate change. "We're talking about money that could be saved ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Icebergs Digging Deep, With Implications for Life on the Bottom of the Sea
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103513
New York Times: As the Titanic found out, icebergs can cause a lot of destruction. But it isn't just ships that can be damaged; close to the coast the seafloor can take a pounding as icebergs are moved around by currents, wind and tides. This "ice scour" occurs along coastlines at high latitudes in water up to about 1,600 feet deep, depending on iceberg size. It disturbs the ocean bottom just as a forest fire or flood disturbs the landscape. But scientists know much more about the ecological impact ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
In US, Solar Panels Get Aesthetic Designs
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49447/story.htm
Reuters: Bulky and obtrusive rack-mounted solar panels may be a thing of the past. Spurred by recent advances in technology, solar panel makers are scrambling to come up with neater and cleaner products that will overcome the aesthetic objections of home owners to traditional solar panels. They are building their technology directly into different kinds of roof tiles, hiding them in walls and lining the tops of patio awnings with them. "Bottom line, people don't want ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
New Solar Thermal Plant Buoys Spanish Investors
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49446/story.htm
Reuters: Spain's Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian buoyed hopes in the country's solar power industry on Monday just days after announcing a dramatic cut in subsidies. Madrid last week announced plans to cut by almost 90 percent its subsidies for solar photovoltaic (PV) power after a stampede for support left Madrid with a multi-billion euro liability. But the cuts will not apply to solar thermal, a technology that concentrates the sun's light to produce heat and steam which in turn ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Renewable energy: European utilities acquire Shell's stake in world's largest offshore wind farm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/22/renewableenergy.windpower
Guardian: The world's biggest offshore wind farm was put back on track yesterday as the UK energy minister boasted that the technology could attract £3bn investment to the north-east of England alone. A host of wind schemes have been hit by planning delays, cost-inflation fears and opposition from the Ministry of Defence over concerns that turbines damage the efficiency of local radar. The German-based energy group E.ON and the Danish utility Dong Energy have agreed to acquire Shell's ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Smoke From Wildfires May Block Warming of Arctic, Study Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=alYnovfZgjk0
Bloomberg: Smoke spreading across the sky from intense wildfires in North America could act temporarily to blunt the effect of global warming in the Arctic, climate researchers said. The Arctic may cool for weeks or months at a time as smoke from northern wildfires drifts into the region, said researchers at the University of Colorado and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The cooling effect was observed above the snow-free tundra, and to a greater extent over the darker, ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
UK Moves Three Steps Closer to Green Energy Goals
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49437/story.htm
Reuters: One of Europe's largest onshore wind farms has won Scottish planning approval and the world's largest offshore wind project now has two committed backers, boosting Britain's chances of reaching its ambitious green energy goals. Scottish & Southern Energy PLC has been granted planning permission to build a 456-megawatt wind farm in southern Scotland, while Denmark's Dong Energy and Germany's E.ON will buy Royal Dutch Shell's unwanted stake in the 1,000 MW London Array offshore ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Australia: A start's been made -- now for some action
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,24058513-5006550,00.html
Mercury: GOVERNMENTS in Australia have been fiddling around the edges of climate change for well over a decade -- years of window-dressing here, a small reform there, and an awful lot of talk. But last week, something changed. In the Green Paper released last Wednesday, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong outlined a scheme to make major emission source industries like coal power companies and oil refineries pay for each tonne of carbon released into the atmosphere, either directly or by users ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Carmakers need extra help to cut down on carbon emissions
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/22/ccview122.xml
Telegraph (UK): Britain's carmakers, which assemble 1.7m vehicles a year and employ 800,000 people, will this week commit themselves to cutting oil dependence and reducing CO2 emissions as senior executives from the global motor industry converge on London for its biannual motor show. Few outsiders think the motor industry is leading the way in developing and bringing to market technologies to cut emissions dramatically. But the array of low-emission vehicles on show in London - featured in the first ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Australia: Electricity campaign for world's poorest
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200807/s2310508.htm
Radio Australia: An Indian energy research institute has launched a campaign to provide lighting to over a billion people who don't have access to basic electricity. Presenter: Girish Sawlani Speakers: Dr RK Pachauri, chairman of the Energy Research and Resources Institute and head of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. SAWLANI: Some 1.6 billion people from some of the world's poorest countries have no access to electricity, with nearly 25 per cent living in India's cities. For ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Energy: Scottish site for Europe's largest windfarm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/22/windpower.renewableenergy
Guardian: Europe's largest windfarm is to be built alongside the M74 in south-west Scotland after Scottish ministers approved plans to erect more than 150 turbines on surrounding moors. The £600m project is likely to produce enough electricity to power more than 250,000 homes by the time it is completed in 2011, and is well over twice the size of Europe's largest existing windfarm, at Guadalajara in Spain. The approval was announced yesterday by Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, at a ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Amazon powers Atlantic Ocean's carbon sink: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6iouPXXHhRNPU1U3gL8SaUCYs-w
Agence France-Presse: Nutrients carried by the Amazon River help create a carbon sink deep in the Atlantic Ocean, a study released Monday has found. The key ingredients transported by the river are iron and phosphorus. These elements are all that an organism called a diazotroph needs to capture nitrogen and carbon from the air and transform them into organic solids that then sink to the ocean floor. Researchers from the United States, Greece and England found that the Amazon carries these ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Climate report calls for leaders with vision
http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKL204610020080720
Reuters: The world needs leaders with the vision to forge New Deal-type policies to tackle the potentially disastrous combination of climate change, high inflation and economic slowdown, a British think-tank said on Monday. "A New Green Deal", a report issued by the New Economics Foundation, uses the convergence of the credit crunch, climate change and booming food and fuel prices to make the case for a new economics for the 21st century. Key points in the report are that ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Destruction of wetlands will release massive greenhouse gases
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/destruction-of-wetlands-will-release-massive-greenhouse-gases_10074020.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Destruction of wetlands will release a staggering 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, with devastating consequences. Meeting in Cuiaba at the edge of South America's Pantanal wetland on Monday, 700 experts from 28 nations at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference will prescribe measures urgently needed to manage these vibrant ecosystems. Global warming is speeding both rates of decomposition of trapped organic material ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Global warming is a brutal truth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/21/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange
Guardian: There is just one party which doesn't seem to care about the controversy created by The Great Global Warming Swindle. That is the company which broadcast it: Channel 4. In fact it seems rather proud of the fuss, and I suspect that Ofcom's damning verdict won't cause its executives a moment's lost sleep. The channel boasts that the programme generated a huge response, and that favourable comments outweighed hostile remarks by six to one. Though the programme was 90 minutes of ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Gore: Make All US Electricity From Renewable Sources
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49420/story.htm
Reuters: Al Gore, the Nobel Prize-winning crusader on climate change, challenged the United States on Thursday to commit to producing all US electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind power in 10 years. "Our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges -- the economic, environmental and national security crises," the former Democratic vice president and presidential candidate in 2000 told a meeting in Washington. ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
It's argued that deforestation has made climate change worse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7511356.stm
BBC: The town of Cherrapunjee, in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya, is reputed to be the wettest place in the world. But there are signs that its weather patterns may be being hit by global climate change. "Not without reason has Cherrapunjee achieved fame as being the place with the heaviest rainfall on earth," wrote German missionary Christopher Becker more than 100 years ago. "One must experience it to have an idea of the immense quantity of ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Kenya Sugar, Biofuel Project Stirs Controversy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49409/story.htm
Reuters: In a clearing on Kenya's coastal grasslands, a group of nomadic herders shout down government officials who have flown in from Nairobi to explain the benefits of a proposed US$350 million sugar project. "If the delta is planted with sugar, we will run out of grazing land for our cattle," local community leader Bile Bundit says. Others wave placards at the flustered officials sitting in a makeshift tent made from wooden poles and sack-cloth. Hoping to plug Kenya's annual ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Lightning Strikes: Get Used to Catastrophic Wildfires and Worse
http://www.alternet.org/environment/91757/?page=entire&ses=2c78538e9842d1eb231a6e1b2eccd055
AlterNet: "This is a specter against which grand inquisitors and wars against terrorism are powerless to protect us," Mike Davis wrote in a 2003 essay titled "The Perfect Fire," which was composed against the backdrop of a massive firestorm that callously rampaged across Southern California, burning thousands of homes and billions of dollars in its wake. "It is, of course," he added, "the right time of the year for the end of the world." It still is. In ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Massive Greenhouse Gases May Be Released As Destruction, Drying Of World Wetlands Worsen
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080720150209.htm
Science Daily: Leading world scientists convene in Brazil July 21-25 amid growing concern that evaporation and ongoing destruction of world wetlands, which hold a volume of carbon similar to that in the atmosphere today, could cause them to exhale billows of greenhouse gases. Meeting in the city of Cuiaba on the edge of South America's vast Pantanal, the largest wetland of its kind, some 700 experts from 28 nations at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference will prescribe measures urgently ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
New coal plants in Michigan draw fire
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080721/NEWS05/807210329/1007/NEWS05
Detroit Free Press: Michigan electric companies say the voracious appetite for energy-sucking gadgets like plasma televisions, which use four times the power of old-fashioned screens, are pushing them to build the first new coal plants in the state in 20 years to satisfy the demand. Environmental groups say the sudden rush to build coal plants calls on a 19th-Century technology to solve 21st-Century problems. They oppose the plans, arguing that new coal plants will add global-warming gases at a ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Politics aside, Latin America biofuels loom large
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN21439447
Reuters: Latin America is emerging as a key global producer of biofuels as nations across the region seek to use competitive advantages such as fertile land and tropical weather to tap into unprecedented energy prices. The region invested more than $8 billion in biodiesel and ethanol in 2007 and has already launched new projects that could increase global energy production as demand from emerging-market economies outstrips growth in oil and gas production. The efforts contrast sharply ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Record growth in renewable energy systems
http://www.ukenergydigital.co.uk/Record-growth-in-renewable-energy-systems_6770.aspx
Energy Digital: Last year saw record growth in global renewable energy and energy efficiency investment, according to new figures published by the UN's environment programme (Unep) last week. Spending on clean energy projects rose to almost 94bn worldwide in 2007, up 60 percent on 2006, according to the "Global trends in sustainable energy investment" report. Sustainable energy accounted for 23 percent of total new power generation added worldwide last year, with 31GW of ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Self sufficient 'smart homes' promised by 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/21/greenbuilding.ethicalliving
Guardian: The world's first commercially available "smart" homes, which will be virtually self-sufficient in energy terms by using cutting-edge efficiency and microgeneration technologies, will be available by the end of 2009 for rent in Barcelona and Paris, developers told a conference in Spain yesterday. The Smart Energy Home (SEH) consortium, a collaboration of university researchers, chemical and construction companies, hope that the homes will demonstrate the potential for ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Study reveals air pollution is causing widespread and serious impacts to ecosystems
http://www.physorg.com/news135874248.html
PhysOrg: If you are living in the eastern United States, the environment around you is being harmed by air pollution. From Adirondack forests and Shenandoah streams to Appalachian wetlands and the Chesapeake Bay, a new report by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and The Nature Conservancy has found that air pollution is degrading every major ecosystem type in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. The report, Threats From Above: Air Pollution Impacts on Ecosystems and ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: The public has been swindled
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/21/ofcom.channel4
Guardian: As the former chair of the IPCC, I welcome Ofcom's ruling today, which states that The Great Global Warming Swindle was unfair in its treatment of the IPCC and leading scientists such as Sir David King and Professor Carl Wunsch, and that it was in breach of due impartiality on matters of major political and industrial controversy and major matters relating to current public policy. However, I am very disappointed that Ofcom did not find that the programme materially misled the ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
The value of China's carbon market
http://upiasiaonline.com/Economics/2008/07/21/the_value_of_chinas_carbon_market/5387/
United Press International: Carbon finance is a significant tool that can drive China's transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, according to a study released Monday. The study, commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature of Hong Kong, said China's interest in carbon finance was triggered by the Clean Development Mechanism. This arrangement, under the Kyoto Protocol, allows industrialized countries that have committed to reducing their greenhouse gases to invest in projects that reduce emissions in ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Japan: Toyota to Make 100,000 Units of Hybrid Car - Paper
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49428/story.htm
Reuters: Toyota Motor Corp plans to produce 100,000 units a year of a new hybrid-only model slated for release in 2009 at a subsidiary in southern Japan, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday. The new car, which will be Toyota's second dedicated hybrid model after the hot-selling Prius, will have a 2- to 2.5-litre engine and will also be sold under the company's luxury Lexus brandname, the paper said. Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc, in Fukuoka prefecture, currently builds a ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Unnecessary flights killing the poor says Tutu
http://www.enn.com/business/article/37701
Reuters: Businessmen who take flights rather than use video conferencing are adding to global warming that is condemning millions of the world's poorest people to death, according to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. The former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town said developed countries had caused global warming and must therefore take the lead in slashing emissions of climate changing carbon gases. "It is the countries which are the least responsible for causing climate change that are ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Warming Alters Predator-Prey Balance
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/21/ST2008072100198.html
Washington Post: For six decades since they loped across frozen Lake Superior to reach this rocky island, wolves have roamed 45-mile-long Isle Royale, the nation's least-visited national park. The wolves survived the extermination efforts by the island's few inhabitants, who in the 1950s and '60s saw them as mortal enemies. And they survived an outbreak of deadly canine parvovirus in the 1980s. Now, scientists tracking the wolves in the world's longest-running "single predator-single prey" ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Warming West is ground zero for wildfires
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/21/MNSC11Q7RD.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: California has been hit by 2,000 fires this year, and climate scientists are predicting that the situation will worsen as temperatures rise. The American West has been warming dramatically during the past 60 years at a rate surpassed only by Alaska. This year has been particularly dry for California, with less snowfall, earlier snowmelt and lower summer river flows. Some of the state's top scientists say the changing water picture is caused by humans producing greenhouse gases, ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
Britain moves closer to green energy goals
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL2103373820080721
Reuters: One of Europe's largest onshore wind farms has won Scottish planning approval and the world's largest offshore wind project now has two committed backers, boosting Britain's chances of reaching its ambitious green energy goals. Scottish & Southern Energy has been granted planning permission to build a 456-megawatt wind farm in southern Scotland, while Denmark's Dong Energy and Germany's E.ON will buy Royal Dutch Shell's unwanted stake in the 1,000 MW London Array offshore wind ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
British TV watchdog rebukes Channel 4 over climate film
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/21/healthscience/21climate.php
International Herald Tribune: The British television watchdog has rebuked Channel 4 for "unfair treatment" of several scientists and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in "The Great Global Warming Swindle," a controversial documentary that was aired last year and has been seen around the world on in the Internet and DVD. But the agency, the Office of Communications, concluded in a report issued on Monday that the film, while containing "intemperate" ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Channel 4 ruled 'unjust and unfair' in climate change documentary
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/21/channel4.ofcom?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: Ofcom has ruled that Channel 4 breached broadcasting codes on impartiality and was "unjust and unfair" in the way it represented individuals in its controversial documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle. Ofcom has ordered Channel 4 to broadcast a summary of its adjudication on the programme, which was aired on Channel 4 and E4 on March 8 last year. The show challenged the theory that human activity is the major cause of climate change and global ...

Tue, 22 Jul 08
United States: Clean Energy Needs Transmission
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews+articleid_2418362~title_EDITORIAL--Clean-Energy.html
Wisconsin State Journal: High-powered transmission lines don 't produce energy. They simply move it around to help keep people 's lights on. Big transmission lines also can transfer clean energy just as easily as they can carry power from the dirtiest coal-fired generators. Those are points many opponents of a 32-mile to 55-mile, 345-kilovolt line from west of Middleton to eastern Dane County seem to be missing. Higher energy use in Dane County doesn 't have to increase pollution or the carbon ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
'100 months to save the planet'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7513635.stm
BBC: A "Green New Deal" is needed to solve current problems of climate change, energy and finance, a report argues. According to the Green New Deal Group, humanity only has 100 months to prevent dangerous global warming. Its proposals include major investment in renewable energy and the creation of thousands of new "green collar" jobs. The name is taken from President Franklin D Roosevelt's "New Deal", launched 75 years ago to bring the US out ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Urgent action needed on climate change
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200807/s2309368.htm
Radio Australia: A new book says even that is not enough, warning that the global warming threat to the planet has been drastically under-estimated. Presenter: Sen Lam Speaker: David Spratt, co-author Climate Code Red: The case for Emergency Action LAM: David Spratt, first of all, is it to little to late? SPRATT: The Australian Government scheme certainly is. If we contrast that which has made no promises about emissions and when they'll be cut, the prime minister was asked on ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australians Support Plan to Reduce Carbon Emissions, Poll Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=ad45xo_0c1_w&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Most Australians want to reduce carbon emissions and are willing to pay more for goods to achieve it, a Nielsen opinion survey shows. Sixty-seven percent of people said Australia should reduce emissions and 68 percent are willing to pay more, according to the poll of 1,400 people published in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper today. Seventy-seven percent of people polled July 17 to 19 said Australia should reduce emissions regardless of what other countries do, the poll said. ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: Big tick for emissions cuts
http://www.theage.com.au/national/big-tick-for-emissions-cuts-20080720-3i8y.html
Age: AUSTRALIANS overwhelmingly say they are willing to pay more for goods and services to help reduce emissions, in an Age/Nielsen poll that also shows Kevin Rudd has popular support for how he is handling climate change. People want Australia to tackle emissions regardless of what other countries do, and they back the Government's proposed trading scheme, while admitting they have little or no understanding of it. The strong endorsement for climate change action comes as ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: Canberra to help exporters offset impact of carbon emissions scheme
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10522563
Bloomberg: The Australian Government will work with exporters to limit potential losses under its carbon emissions trading plan, Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday. Australia will introduce trading from mid-2010 to help tackle climate change and meet an emissions limit to be set later this year. The plan will affect 1000 businesses that produce an annual equivalent of more than 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, with the Government to compensate power producers and households while issuing ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: Climate researchers not convinced by emissions scheme
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200807/s2309370.htm
Radio Australia: The Australian government's long-awaited green paper on carbon emissions trading scheme is now the subject of intense scrutiny from business and climate experts. It's already been criticised by some industry sectors, including liquid natural gas producers and the aviation industry, who argue it fails to penalise Australia's biggest carbon emitter, coal. And climate researchers say they're not convinced the new scheme goes far enough to achieve its overall goal of fighting climate ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: Rudd sails through greenhouse test despite lack of green flagellation
http://business.smh.com.au/business/rudd-sails-through-greenhouse-test-despite-lack-of-green-flagellation-20080720-3ias.html
Sydney Morning Herald: The Rudd Government is never going to win a medal for political bravery. It's not in the same league as Hawke-Keating Labor. Even so, it's done a better job with its first step towards a carbon pollution reduction scheme than many people accept. Last week's green paper has been criticised on three fronts. First are industry vested interests intent on scaring the public and the Government into giving them an easier ride than they've been promised. There's no law against rent-seeking, ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Ruling expected on climate film
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7512916.stm
BBC: Media regulator Ofcom is due to decide whether a Channel 4 documentary broke rules on accuracy and fairness. The Great Global Warming Swindle attracted various complaints, including claims it misled contributors. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the former UK government chief scientific adviser Sir David King were among the complainants. Channel 4 said it aired the documentary to demonstrate that the debate on climate change was not over. ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Shifting species as fast as climate
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20082107-17678.html
ScienceAlert: University of Queensland researchers believe we need to consider the radical step of moving plants and animals to help them survive the impact of climate change. Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Director of UQ's Centre for Marine Studies and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, is lead author on an article in the Policy Forum section of the prestigious scientific journal Science that sets out the principles of "assisted colonisation" to help save ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
China: Wind power fans new investment
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/6454360.html
Xinhua: Wind-power plants are drawing increasing investment in China, statistics from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have shown. Investment in the country's sustainable energy sector grew by 91 percent last year to a record high of $10.8 billion, most of which has flowed to wind-power generating units, UNEP report Global Trends in Substantial Energy Investment 2008 showed. The large investment doubled China's capacity for wind power to 6,000 mW last ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Aussies want climate change action: poll
http://news.smh.com.au/national/aussies-want-climate-change-action-poll-20080721-3ic7.html
AAP: Most Australians believe we should be pushing ahead with a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme regardless of whether other countries do the same, according to a poll. While 77 per cent of Australians are behind Kevin Rudd's drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 60 per cent have little or no understanding of how an emissions trading scheme would work, according to the latest Nielsen poll published in Fairfax newspapers on Monday. Sixty-eight per cent of people said they ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Small Talk: Modern Water aims to clean up by osmosis
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sharewatch/small-talk-modern-water-aims-to-clean-up-by-osmosis-872919.html
Independent: As the world faces the incontrovertible truth of climate change, so politicians search for ways of protecting sources of water. In the UK, people could be forgiven for wondering why this is such a big issue in a country which is, after all, surrounded by the stuff. The problem, of course, is that sea water is as useful as a chocolate teapot unless the salt is extracted first. Indeed, President Kennedy was once quoted as saying: "If we could ever competitively, at a cheap rate, get fresh ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
A Disappointing Truth
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103374
New York Times: Al Gore gave a big speech about global warming last week. He was thunderous and prophetic. He said "the survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk." He implored the nation to stop burning dirty coal, gas and oil – in just 10 years. In a policy context, that's like sending the nation to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. So here's a question: If the job is so huge and urgent, why is the ad campaign so pedestrian? Mr. Gore is spending ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Drought threatens drinking water for a million Australians
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxq8dUmvmPWKBopq7LMRs4EqkWow
Agence France-Presse: Up to a million people in Australia could face a shortage of drinking water if the country's drought continues, a report on the state of the nation's largest river system revealed Sunday. The report said the situation was critical in the Murray-Darling system, which provides water to Australia's "food bowl", a vast expanse of land almost twice as big as France that runs down the continent's east coast. "We are in real trouble in the Murray-Darling basin," ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Drought threatens water supply of more than a million Australians
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/20/eaausdrought120.xml
Telegraph (UK): The bleak report into the future of the Murray-Darling river system found the situation had become "critical". The system, which runs from Queensland in the country's north east to Victoria in the south, irrigates Australia's vast food bowl and drinking water to more than a million people. However, due to rising temperatures and a desperate lack of rain, inflows to the basin are at their lowest ever recorded levels. Climate change minister Penny Wong ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Greenhouse gases could spark fires in West
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/20/MNSC11Q7RD.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: California has been hit by 2,000 fires this year, and climate scientists are predicting that the situation will worsen as temperatures rise. The American West has been warming dramatically during the past 60 years at a rate surpassed only by Alaska. This year has been particularly dry for California, with less snowfall, earlier snowmelt and lower summer river flows. Some of the state's top scientists say the changing water picture is caused by humans producing greenhouse gases, ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Growing Western cities at crossroads, report says
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-west20-2008jul20,0,6835418.story
LA Times: As outlying sagebrush was quickly devoured by starter homes and chain stores, Las Vegas began grappling with the kinds of problems that long have vexed California: Crowded classrooms. Packed freeways. Not enough water. Immigrants who struggle to learn English. Rising poverty. Similar issues have bedeviled the areas around Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque. By 2040, Las Vegas and its four brethren will grow by nearly 12.7 million people. While a booming population ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Scientists to discuss climate risk posed by wetlands destruction
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gXT2kks5f0nZfEkigXUVeWW_TMmA
Agence France-Presse: Moves around the world to drain marshes and other wetlands to make space for farming could be hastening climate change, scientists gathering in Brazil from Monday will be hearing. Around 700 researchers from around the world are to descend on the central western town of Cuiaba for a four-day conference to discuss ways to preserve wetlands, the UN University, a grouping of scholars, said in a statement. They are concerned that evaporation from warmer global temperatures and ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Wetlands could unleash "carbon bomb"
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN1745905120080720
Reuters: The world's wetlands, threatened by development, dehydration and climate change, could release a planet-warming "carbon bomb" if they are destroyed, ecological scientists said on Sunday. Wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, one-fifth of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the scientists said before an international conference linking wetlands and global warming. If all the wetlands on the planet ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Destruction of wetlands worsens global warming
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0720-wetlands.html
Mongabay: Destruction of wetland ecosystems will generate massive greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, warn experts convening at an international wetlands conference in Brazil. While they cover only 6 percent of the world's surface, wetlands – marshes, peat bogs, swamps, river deltas, mangroves, tundra, lagoons and river floodplains – are estimated to hold 771 gigatons of greenhouse gases , or 10-20 percent of the globe's terrestrial carbon. Beyond carbon storage, wetlands provide a range ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Goals for emissions cuts rely on dictators
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/19/INA811PERK.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: When leaders from the Group of Eight nations agreed last week to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050, all the commentary debated their failure to set shorter-term goals. But all of that chatter ignores the iceberg in the room: How on earth will those nations or any others meet even that relatively modest goal? The scientific community argues that by 2050, carbon emissions must be reduced 80 percent below the level in the year 2000, if serious global warming is to be averted. I would ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Gore Says He Can Do More for Environment as Private Citizen
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1mRvc.Y0vS8&refer=home
Bloomberg: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said he can do more to fight global warming as a private citizen than he could working as a government official even if Barack Obama wins the presidency. ``My own best role is to try to bring about a sea change in public opinion,'' Gore said today on NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' ``Policy makers who know the right thing to do run up against a wall set up all around them by the lobbyists and the special interests,'' he said. James Carville, a ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Gore: Time is right for energy change
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/20/Gore_Time_is_right_for_energy_change/UPI-82641216589892/
United Press International: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said Sunday the time is right to change from an oil-based energy economy to alternative energy sources. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Gore said that between the rising cost of coal and oil and the declining cost of alternative energy sources, it is time to make a drastic change to stop further environmental damage. "So now it is competitive to switch over," Gore said. "At the same time, we're seeing our national ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Hundreds of baby penguins found dead in Brazil
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g_jZd6veTghFPzh4IsyX7y6kQpjwD921Q4QO0
Associated Press: Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday. More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state over the past two months, according to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio. While it is common here to find some ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Pope urges Australian youths to spurn materialism
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQWrOpONrX_Zx5OMn4NLysrBsDWgD921I4K00
Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday a "spiritual desert" was spreading throughout the world and he challenged young people to shed the greed and cynicism of their time to create a new age of hope for humankind. Speaking at a Mass before some 350,000 Roman Catholic pilgrims and a likely television audience of millions more, Benedict wrapped up the church's six-day World Youth Day festival. He urged the young people in his more than 1 billion-strong flock to be agents of change ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Report Analyzes Booming Megapolitan West
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/report_analyzes_booming_megapolitan_west/C35/L35/
New West: A new report by the Brookings Institution assesses the dramatic population growth and economic and demographic shifts redefining the southern Intermountain West. As all eyes turn to the West for the Democratic National Convention, now exists "a teachable moment for the region itself and us to convey the new realities on the ground," said Mark Muro, fellow and policy director at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program. "The region is perpetually ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: Report reaffirms Murray-Darling crisis
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/20/2308851.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A new report to the Federal and state governments has reaffirmed the dire conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin. The eighth report from senior officials to the Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers has found that water availability in the basin is serious and deteriorated earlier this year. It says based on current levels there will be enough water for critical human needs over the next year, but further contingency measures might be required if levels drop more than ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Scientists achieve chemical breakthrough that converts sawdust into biofuel
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/scientists-achieve-chemical-breakthrough-that-converts-sawdust-into-biofuel-re-issue_10073629.html
Asian News International: A team of Chinese scientists has made a chemical breakthrough that efficiently turns the lignin in waste products such as sawdust into the chemical precursors of ethanol and biodiesel. In recent years, the twin threats of global warming and oil shortages have led to growth in the production of biofuels for the transportation sector. But as the human digestive system will attest, breaking down complex plant molecules such as cellulose and lignin is a tricky business. The ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
So far, hydrogen-powered cars are fuel for future thoughts
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2008-07-20-hydrogen-cars_N.htm
USA Today: Taken your hydrogen-powered FreedomCAR out for a spin lately? Nope? Well, there is plenty of time to sign up for one, suggests a National Research Council report that pegs 2020 for the arrival of the mass-market fuel cell vehicle. That's the best case scenario, of course, assuming technology, government, industry and the public all cooperate on bringing hydrogen cars to the nation's highways. "The use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can achieve large and sustained ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Soaring food prices felt around the globe
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/19/MNTU11JLOR.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: People around the world are experiencing sticker shock at the grocery store, the result of runaway economic forces that show no signs of abating. Here in the United States, the price of eggs jumped 29 percent last year. Dairy products are up more than 7 percent. And the price of corn has tripled in the past four years. It's even worse worldwide. Globally, the food price index calculated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations rose by nearly 26 ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: We're not hiding behind the Pope, says Penny Wong
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24048386-12377,00.html
Australian: CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong says the release of the Government's green paper on emissions trading was not deliberately timed to coincide with the historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI. The paper was released last Wednesday, when much of the country - and the media - was distracted by the Pope's visit to Sydney and by World Youth Day events. "To be honest that certainly wasn't top of (our) mind, Laurie, when we set the date,'' Senator Wong told the Nine Network's ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australian government urged to fund research into climate change
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2309000.htm?tab=latest
Radio Australia: Australia's Federal and state governments are being urged to substantially increase their funding for post-graduate research into climate change, energy resources and salinity management. The new president of the Geological Society of Australia, Professor Peter Cawood, says the country will face major economic and environmental consequences if adequate research isn't undertaken. He says universities are suffering enormous funding squeezes and can't entice students to stay ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Evangelicals often clash over global warming
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/stcloud/orl-heavwarm08jul20,0,2897837.story
Orlando Sentinel: When Orlando-based missionary and author Grady McMurtry talks about science and the Bible today at St. Cloud Church of the Nazarene, one question is bound to come up: How should evangelicals respond to the burning issue of global warming? Relying as much on his degrees in agriculture and environmental science as on his theological education, McMurtry uses Scripture to argue his case that there is no global warming, no thinning of the Earth's ozone layer. In lectures devoted ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Australia: Govt ads to push carbon trade plan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/20/2308747.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government is beginning an advertising campaign about its carbon trading policies, as it continues to reassure businesses and families about the effect of the changes. The Government released its discussion paper on an emissions trading scheme last week, and is now consulting with industry and community groups before the draft legislation is released at the end of the year. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told Channel Nine that Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
McCain proposes $2B for clean coal
http://www.timeswv.com/westvirginia/local_story_201234248.html
Times West Virginian: When Sen. John McCain's plane landed at the Tri-State Airport in Huntington July 9, it wasn't because the Republican presidential candidate had any plans to stay long in West Virginia. Rather, McCain and his staff quickly unloaded from the plane and hopped on his waiting campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express. The bus took the candidate across the Ohio River to a rally in Portsmouth, Ohio, a state that he made clear in an interview along the way he thought was critical in the ...

Mon, 21 Jul 08
Coal is in demand, with no end in sight
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-coal20-2008jul20,0,6068490.story
LA Times: Its gray and black walls stretching to infinity, Latin America's largest coal mine resembles a miniature Grand Canyon. The big difference is that the timeless hand of nature has not carved out El Cerrejon mine. Booming global demand has. A fleet of electric shovels runs 24 hours a day scooping up 50 tons of coal at a swipe. The rock is loaded onto 100-car trains that roll nine times a day to a private Caribbean port, where it is placed on cargo ships that deliver it to power ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Australia: Climate won't wait, Mr Rudd
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/climate-wont-wait-mr-rudd/2008/07/19/1216163231976.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE first of Nelson Mandela's eight lessons of leadership is that "Courage is not the absence of fear - it's inspiring others to move beyond it". If ever our planet needed inspiring leadership it is now, as we face the twin threats of climate change and peak oil. Our leaders need the courage to take the bold, far-sighted action we need if we are to survive this challenge and emerge better off. In perhaps as little as two decades we have to radically transform our society and ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Oil sands boom swamps the Canadian wilderness
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/20/oil.canada?gusrc=rss&feed=business
Observer: Todd Dahlman scoops up a handful of oily sand and smiles. 'This is the money - it even smells like money,' says the manager of Shell's Muskeg River oil sands mine in the Athabasca region of North Alberta in Canada. We are standing in the middle of a pit 50m deep that giant diggers have hollowed out of the earth. Some 150m beneath our feet lie almost a billion barrels of oil. With Brent crude at $131 a barrel on Friday, the oil sands frenzy is in full swing. Canada holds ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Australia: 10000 for vigil over dying river
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24047126-5006301,00.html
Sunday Mail: THE controversial Hindmarsh Island Bridge will host a silent vigil on the plight of the River Murray, when up to 10,000 people bear witness to the trickling flow. Organisers are calling for anyone who cares about the Murray to come to the bridge on Sunday, August 10, for a mass visual demonstration of public anger over the river's fate. The bridge, once the focus of indigenous "secret women's business" arguments, now is a graphic symbol of the river's woes with its ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Ministers embrace electric car revolution
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/ministers-embrace-electric-car-revolution-872393.html
Independent: Gordon Brown is to launch the biggest revolution in the way Britons drive since the development of the internal combustion engine. He will meet manufacturers this week to try to persuade them to mass-produce electric cars, and is considering a remarkable plan to sell the cars cheap, together with their fuel, that is modelled on mobile-phone contracts. The scheme, which has already been taken up by Israel and Denmark, would sell heavily subsidised vehicles – or even give them away – in ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Australia: Earth Hour wins top environmental award
http://www.smh.com.au/news/earth-hour/earth-hour-wins-top-environmental-award/2008/07/19/1216163236655.html
Sydney Morning Herald: EARTH HOUR, the campaign that encouraged people to turn off their lights for an hour to raise awareness about climate change, has won a national environmental award. The venture of conservation group WWF, Fairfax Media, publisher of The Sun-Herald, and Leo Burnett for the City of Sydney won the gold Banksia Award at a ceremony in Melbourne on Friday night. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Environment Minister Peter Garrett were among guests at the awards, which recognise ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Global warming: green campaigners blamed for 4x4 attacks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/20/activists.climatechange
Guardian: Green campaigners are being blamed for vandalising a number of 4x4 cars in Marston, Oxford, on Thursday night. The owners of six vehicles found that tyres had been let down and warning letters plastered to the windscreens. 'Driving an SUV is an unacceptably selfish act in the face of this global emergency,' the notes state. 'Your destructive vehicle and scores of others across Oxford have been disabled as part of a wider struggle to avert a global emergency.' A Land Rover ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Australia: Govt climate plan differs from coalition
http://news.theage.com.au/national/govt-climate-plan-differs-from-coalition-20080720-3i0t.html
Age: Labor's plan to spare motorists from rising fuel costs under emissions trading is very different to the opposition's petrol policy, Treasurer Wayne Swan says. Under the government plan, transport will be included in the roll-out of a national emissions trading scheme (ETS), but petrol excise will be cut to compensate for any ETS-related price rise cent-for-cent. The excise will be cut for three years and then the policy will be reviewed. Federal opposition leader Brendan ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Channel 4 censured for programme that said climate change was a fraud
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4361448.ece
Times (UK): A Channel 4 documentary that argued that global warning was a fraud is to be criticised by the media regulator. On Monday Ofcom is expected to publish a long-awaited report that upholds claims by some of the scientists who appeared in the programme last year that they were misrepresented. The Great Global Warming Swindle, which aired in March last year, has been accused of downplaying the threat in the public mind. It sparked an outcry among environmentalists and many ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Channel 4 to be censured over controversial climate film
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/19/channel4.climatechange
Guardian: Channel 4 misrepresented some of the world's leading climate scientists in a controversial documentary that claimed global warming was a conspiracy and a fraud, the UK's media regulator will rule next week. In a long-awaited judgment following a 15-month inquiry, Ofcom is expected to censure the network over its treatment of some scientists in the programme, The Great Global Warming Swindle, which sparked outcry from environmentalists. Complaints about privacy and fairness from ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Climate change puts US way of life at risk
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-07/19/content_6860880.htm
China Daily: The US Environmental Protection Agency, under fire for apparently discounting the impact of climate change, on Thursday said global warming poses real risk to human health and the American way of life. Risks include more heat-related deaths, more heart and lung diseases due to increased ozone and health problems related to hurricanes, extreme precipitation and wildfires, the agency said in a new report. "Climate change poses real risk to human health and the human systems ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Melting Himalayan glaciers set alarm bells ringing
http://thepost.com.pk/IsbNewsT.aspx?dtlid=173219&catid=17
Post: Melting of Himalayan glaciers fills seven of the mightiest rivers of Asia. Various studies suggest that the warming in the Himalayas has been greater than the global average due to which a number of ice packed glaciers are melting or getting displaced from their origin along with reports of glacier sliding due to which the unfamiliar changes are under spotlights in the areas including Northern Areas of Pakistan. The situation is getting worst as couple of months ago it was ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Uganda: NFA officials warn govt on Mabira forest
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/NFA_officials_warn_govt_on_Mabira_forest_68470.shtml
Sunday Monitor: The National Forestry Authority (NFA) on Thursday warned about the dangers of turning part of Mabira forest into a sugarcane plantation. The NFA officials who appeared before the Natural Resources committee said they have been sending reports to the government explaining why Mabira should not be given away for sugarcane growing. The govrnment is keen on parcelling out part of the forest to investors. "We have been engaging the government trying to explain the dangers of cutting ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Premiers seize climate-change initiative
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080718.wpremiers18/BNStory/National
Globe and Mail: The Harper government faced new pressure Friday to adopt a more aggressive climate-change plan after Canada's largest province threw its considerable political weight behind a North American initiative to tackle global warming. The Ontario government announced that it has been accepted into the Western Climate Initiative, a climate-change program led by California that would set limits on greenhouse gas emissions, but allow companies that pollute too much to buy credits from those who ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
World Bank says Asian cities at risk
http://www.bangkokpost.com/190708_News/19Jul2008_news008.php
Bangkok Post: The World Bank has urged Asian cities to come up with climate resilient programmes to safeguard people from natural hazards triggered by climate change and rising sea levels. Coastal cities in Burma, China, Thailand and Vietnam are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, disaster response and climate change experts told a seminar on climate change impact reduction held by the World Bank in Pattaya this week. Extreme weather caused by climate change has threatened many ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
'Drained wetlands hastening climate change'
http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/detail.php?article_id=3632&cat_id=4
Gorkhapatra: Moves around the world to drain marshes and other wetlands to make space for farming could be hastening climate change, scientists gathering in Brazil from Monday will be hearing. Around 700 researchers from around the world are to descend on the central western town of Cuiaba for a four-day conference to discuss ways to preserve wetlands, the UN University, a grouping of scholars, said in a statement. They are concerned that evaporation from warmer global temperatures and ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
United Kingdom: A natural response to hitting renewable energy targets
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2403382.0.A_natural_response_to_hitting_renewable_energy_targets.php
Herald: The news yesterday that rocketing gas prices threaten to force families into paying £1000 a year for heating and electricity will doubtless help to focus the minds of ordinary Scots on how to find cheaper energy sources. They are not alone. The combination of sky-high costs, the need to combat global warming and growing concerns that fossil fuels are running out have been a serious issue for the SNP since it took power last year. Although Scotland's oil is still an asset the ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Al Gore: A sound pick for the environment
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/07/19/al_gore_a_sound_pick_for_the_environment/
Boston Globe: IT IS unlikely that a Nobel laureate, Oscar winner and former vice president of the United States would return to the nuts and bolts of the federal bureaucracy, but it is obvious who Barack Obama or John McCain should make either energy secretary or administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Given the impact each agency has on the other, they could hand both over to Al Gore so the nation has a shot at a coherent energy and environmental policy. This week, Gore called for an ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Appealing to Bloggers' Influence, Gore Asks for Help in Promoting Energy Challenge
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103346
New York Times: Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, was asked a question here at a bloggers conference about energy. Ms. Pelosi glanced at her BlackBerry, noting that she had an e-mail message from a friend on that very subject. With that, the voice of former Vice President Al Gore came over the public address system, as if reading the e-mail message, starting with "Dear Nancy." This left a sea of quizzical looks and then gasps, cheers and a standing ovation as he strode onto the stage. ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Call for renewable energy push
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5godyNleGz-8goXObo88WXeh2im-A
Press Association: An energy expert has said the Government needs to commit to helping the renewable energy industry grow as gas prices looked set to soar. Andrew Cooper, head of on-site renewables at the Renewable Energy Association, said more people would turn to renewable energy as a report warned that gas prices could increase by 70%. But he said the Government needed to help prepare the industry so it did not become overwhelmed. Mr Cooper said: "What we need from the Government ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Australia: Carbon plan more smoke than action
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24042731-16741,00.html
Australian: TWO factors were central to Kevin Rudd's success in wresting government from John Howard. The most important was a feeling that Mr Howard had gone too far with the Work Choices industrial relations laws. Labor offered a return to the middle ground. The second factor was Mr Rudd, a younger version of Mr Howard who promised to be an economic conservative. Labor embellished its more modern image by promising to make the symbolic gestures that Mr Howard could not. These included saying ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Carbon tax will make BC better off, minister says
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=356beb66-04fc-4341-acc0-46c73f3b8631
Vancouver Sun: The B.C. government's climate action plan is not only good for the environment, it's also good for the economy and taxpayers, Finance Minister Colin Hansen told The Vancouver Sun editorial board Friday. The tax cuts that are part and parcel of the government's revenue-neutral carbon tax -- which was implemented July 1 -- mean people will have more money to spend on ways of reducing fuel consumption such as buying a more efficient car, Hansen said. This will allow them to save on the ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Channel 4 to be censured for controversial global warming film
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2307998/Channel-4-to-be-censured-for-controversial-global-warming-film.html
Telegraph: The makers of a Channel 4 documentary which claimed that global warming is a swindle misrepresented the views of some of the world's leading climate scientists, the media watchdog is expected to rule next week. In a judgment at the end of a 15-month enquiry, Ofcom is expected to censure the channel over The Great Global Warming Swindle, broadcast in March last year. The film sparked outcry from environmentalists and led to a complaint from a group of senior scientists about ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Childish games as Earth warms
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article706091.ece
St. Petersburg Times: President Bush and his administration have a long track record of ignoring the causes and effects of global warming. This time, though, they've stooped to childish games and irrational assumptions to punt away their requirement to act. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency had to decide whether greenhouse gases are harmful to the environment. The EPA found them to be harmful, and determined that they should indeed be considered ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Dengue cases increase by 43% in Philippines
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/19/content_8574927.htm
Xinhua: Dengue cases in the Philippines continue to rise with more than 15,000 recorded in the first six months of 2008, or 43 percent more than the same period last year, according to a report by local TV network ABS-CBN online news on Saturday. The report quoted Health Secretary Francisco Duque as saying 15,061 cases of dengue nationwide were recorded from January 1 to June 14 this year, with Metro Manila remaining on top of the list of regions with the most number of dengue cases. ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Diet for a more-crowded planet: plants
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/18/diet-for-a-more-crowded-planet-plants/
Christian Science Monitor: In the first quarter of 2008, grain prices climbed to a 30-year high. On average, food prices are 54 percent higher than in 2007. Grains have gone up 92 percent. Hungry mobs, hard-pressed to afford staples, rioted in Haiti, Mexico, and Bangladesh. Experts point to a "perfect storm" of speculation, hoarding, drought in Australia, and diversion of grain to biofuels as culprits in the global food crisis. But for some, the skyrocketing grain prices fulfill a longstanding ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
McCain backs states' rules on emissions
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080719/POLITICS01/807190394
Detroit News: Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Friday he supports state efforts to limit auto emissions, a stance strongly at odds with the domestic carmakers -- and one his campaign tried to refine later in the day. Appearing before about 500 General Motors workers at the company's technical center, McCain said, "It's hard for me to tell the states they can't set their own standards. ... At the end of the day, I think states should make their own decisions." ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Oil price puts solar in spotlight
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_9926125?source=most_emailed
Contra Costa Times: One of the most insightful comments on the current energy situation comes from Daniel Kammen of UC Berkeley. In a recent speech at an energy futures conference in Mexico (March 2008) he said: "The problem is we are running out of atmosphere far faster than we are running out of dirty fossil fuels to burn "... The overriding consensus is that oil prices will not drop back to the $20, $30, or even the $40 or $50 per barrel range. I think we are much more likely to see $150 per barrel ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Premiers agree to disagree on climate change
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=1864a212-cf12-4590-adc9-5fe0ff39b480
Canwest News Service: With Western and Central Canadian provinces at odds over how to tackle climate change, there could be more bones of contention than consensus when Canada's premiers meet in Quebec City Wednesday. Quebec Premier Jean Charest - who chairs this meeting as host - said it is no secret it will be impossible to secure a national agreement on fighting climate change at the three-day meeting. "We've known that for a long time and it won't change at the meeting," Charest said ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Nepal: Rain intensity up, number of rainy days down: Study
http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/detail.php?article_id=3583&cat_id=4
Gorkhapatra: The depth of the rainfall tendency has been increasing even though the number of rainy days has been decreasing during the last three decades (1976-2005), a joint study of Society of Hydrologist and Meteorologist (SoHaM)-Nepal and Practical Action Showed. The findings were based on the study of 166 rainfall stations and 45 temperature stations across the country. The temperature-increasing trend is 0.41 per decade. Similarly, rainfall-increasing trend is 4.13mm per year. Nepal ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Sustainability as competitive edge
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Guest_Writer/Sustainability_as_competitive_edge/articleshow/3252533.cms
Economic Times: Over the past generation, the calls for virtually all organisations to become better stewards of our natural resources, embrace environment-friendly practices, adopt fair trade policies, and implement "sustainability strategies" have shifted from a small but vocal number of advocates to broad majorities of consumers and governments worldwide. Today, issues such as climate change, energy consumption, labour practices, food safety, pollution, and waste management are strong factors in ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Texas Approves a $4.93 Billion Wind-Power Project
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103314
New York Times: Taxes regulators have approved a $4.93 billion wind-power transmission project, providing a major lift to the development of wind energy in the state. The planned web of transmission lines will carry electricity from remote western parts of the state to major population centers like Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. The lines can handle 18,500 megawatts of power, enough for 3.7 million homes on a hot day when air-conditioners are running. The project will ease a ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
The Ethanol Scam
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18220
ZNet: AT FIRST glance, it seems like common sense. Unless you're delusional or in the pay of the energy industry, you know that the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming and destructive climate change that is already wreaking havoc around the globe. Not to mention that fossil fuels are a limited resource, costly to extract and refine, and increasingly sought-after by competing nations. So if a more environmentally friendly fuel could be derived from renewable ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
US carbon initiative nets key Canadian province
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKPAR87477720080718
Reuters: The province of Ontario, Canada's industrial heartland, will join the Western Climate Initiative, a planned U.S.-based regional carbon credit trading pact aimed at curbing global warming. Ontario is the fourth province to join the effort that includes California and six other U.S. states, and was established by U.S. state governors tired of what they saw as the Bush administration's inaction on climate change. Canadian environmentalists hailed the announcement as evidence that ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: 20% increase in energy efficiency in 12 years, premiers pledge
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/07/18/premiers-energy.html
CBC: Canadian premiers said Friday they have committed to achieving a 20 per cent increase in energy efficiency in their provinces by 2020. "In the context of rising energy prices, which is a very serious concern to all our governments, the council is going to emphasize – as all Canadians should – energy efficiency and conservation," Quebec Premier Jean Charest said at a news conference wrapping up the meeting of the Council of the Federation in Quebec City. Charest said ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Beware of 900 million Chinese driving cars
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/07/19/news/local/doc488172f0e27d1303688014.txt
Pueblo Chieftain: Nothing like pumping $4-a-gallon gas into your car to make one contemplate the skyrocketing cost of energy and its impact on our lives. The rising costs of gasoline, diesel and barrels of crude and their effect on the price of food and other essential goods are sending shock waves throughout the nation. "Since 2000, coal prices are up 400 percent, uranium is up 1,000 percent, natural gas is up 300 percent, and oil is up 600 percent," according to Jigar Shah, founder ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
India: Climate Action Plan
http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/12289
Asian Tribune: 'Civil society groups' have criticised the climate change action plan, presented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 30, over what they said was 'lack of transparency' in preparing the document. Virtues of transparency need hardly be emphasised, but some in the lesser known sections of the 'civil society' would be wondering if the criticism of the plan is not somewhat misplaced when the ones who deserve the largest censure are the governments of developed countries, especially the ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Crisis of clean power
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080720/jsp/calcutta/story_9569070.jsp
Telegraph (India): The current power crisis in the state may trigger off a graver environmental crisis in the not too distant future. With the state reeling under hours of power cuts daily, the government has no option but to ramp up electricity production. The gestation period for hydel power plants at eight years is more than double that of thermal power plants. Hence, thermal power is the government's choice. But it is also a primary cause for climate change. "Every unit of thermal power generated ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Fantasy islands
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/19/climatechange.greenbuilding
Guardian: In the event that it is ever actually built, the Freedom Ship, "the world's first mobile, floating city", will have to be constructed at sea: there isn't a port on the planet that would be big enough to accommodate it. "Imagine a mile-long stretch of 25-storey buildings in New York City; now imagine that floating on the water," one reporter wrote, after detailed plans were released a few years ago. As it turned out, "imagine" proved a well-chosen verb. But there was no denying the ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Malaysia: Perak offers oil palm firm another site
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/7/19/north/21854956&sec=North
Malaysian Star: THE Perak Government is offering an alternative site to Gopeng Bhd to start its oil palm plantation in order to protect the biodiversity of the Ulu Geroh Forest Re-serve. State Health, Environment and Human Resources Committee chairman A. Sivanesan said the matter was discussed at the state exco meeting on Wednesday. "We will meet the company to brief the directors," he said after meeting members of the Malaysia Nature Society (MNS) on Thursday. On where the alternative ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Pickens would OK Gore as 'energy czar'
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/18/Pickens_would_OK_Gore_as_energy_czar/UPI-68911216426168/
United Press International: Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens says if Barack Obama is elected president, "I think I would be for Al Gore for energy czar." Pickens, in an interview aired Friday on National Journal On Air, was speaking about his campaign to promote a national move to domestic energy sources, switching from gasoline to natural gas for vehicles and replacing gas-burning power plants with a variety of sources, including coal, solar, wind and nuclear power. "The problem ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Premiers strike deal on energy efficiency but could not agree on emissions plan
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTAUawl8hm4ccBoxQu4m1VF48bwg
Canadian Press: Canadian provincial and territorial leaders could not cut a country-wide deal on Friday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and instead pledged to fight mounting energy prices. The premiers had been searching for elusive common ground on a universal scheme to combat climate change, but remained divided after a day of closed-door talks at their summit. Alberta and Saskatchewan hailed carbon capture and storage technology, while British Columbia and Central Canada threw their ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Sask. an 'observer' on climate change, says analyst
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=eef7a27e-b52c-4a95-9d74-654ef7bf9423
Regina Leader Post: Saskatchewan's opposition to a "cap-and-trade" system for cutting greenhouse gas emissions remained firm Friday, even as Ontario joined a coalition of three other provinces and seven U.S. states backing the idea. But Premier Brad Wall said Saskatchewan's decision to emphasize carbon capture technology -- where CO2 is stored underground and can be used in enhanced oil recovery instead of being emitted -- doesn't isolate it from provinces in the cap-and-trade ...

Sun, 20 Jul 08
Canada: Struggling ranchers say BC carbon tax could drive them out of business
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGNCilIlMvjsjCtq_N_v82Xqxtww
Canadian Press: The high cost of production and low prices for cattle already had the B.C. cattle industry in trouble when the province introduced its new carbon tax, say ranchers, and the environmental surcharge could be the final straw. Ranchers rely on fuel for their daily operations, said Matt Williams, manager at Nicola Ranch, which operates on over 100,000 hectares in the B.C. Interior. "The cattle industry is in an absolute depression," said Williams. "This business is ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Japan: Airlines stepping up efforts to cut CO2
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080719TDY04303.htm
Yomiuri Shimbun: Airlines are striving to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to tackle global warming. Moreover, soaring oil prices have prompted airlines to consider various ways to reduce fuel costs. The amount of CO2 emitted on a per passenger, per kilometer basis by a commercial jet is about six times higher than that of a train and double that of a bus. In an effort to close this gap, airlines have been lightening their fully loaded aircraft, going so far as to shave grams off ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Britain admits it will miss 2010 CO2 target
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/18/2307331.htm?section=justin
Reuters: The British Government has admitted it will miss its own target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010 by a large margin. New projections from the Department of the Environment (DEFRA) put CO2 emissions in 2010 at only 15.5 per cent below 1990 levels, and note the target had always been intended to be stretching. The UK Climate Change Program annual report to parliament said it expected emissions of CO2, the main climate warming culprit, to ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
California raises standards for green buildings
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-building18-2008jul18,0,2240874.story
LA Times: California issued new building standards Thursday, which state officials said would push developers to reduce the energy use of buildings by 15% and target a 50% reduction in water for landscaping. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hailed the new standards as groundbreaking, adding in a statement that they "will ensure that California remains in the forefront of reducing our carbon footprint and conserving valuable natural resources while also protecting our ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Canada's Ontario joins US carbon initiative
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1835434020080718
Reuters: The province of Ontario, Canada's industrial heartland, will join the Western Climate Initiative, a planned U.S.-based regional carbon credit trading pact, the province's premier, Dalton McGuinty, said on Friday. Ontario is the fourth Canadian province, after British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec, to sign up to the grouping, which includes California and six other U.S. states. The initiative was established by U.S. state governors fed up with what they saw as the Bush ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
EPA issues dire new warning on effects of climate change
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/07/18/20080718climate-risks0718.html
Arizona Republic: Climate change threatens the health and well-being of every American but could widen the divide between people who can adapt to a more hostile environment and society's youngest, oldest and poorest, a new government report said Thursday. No area of the country will escape the effects of rising temperatures, from rising sea levels on the Alaskan coast to deadly heat waves in New England, said the report, released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Arizona and the West ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore Urges Fast Energy Makeover
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/17/ST2008071701337.html
Washington Post: Former vice president Al Gore yesterday called on Americans to convert all electricity generation to wind, solar and other renewable sources within 10 years and end their reliance on fossil fuels for the sake of the U.S. economy and the world's climate. He said that Americans need to "shake off complacency" and "throw aside old habits," and he asserted that the falling cost of solar power, the ample winds of the Midwest and the high price of oil make the shift to renewable energy ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore's Bold Plan to Save the Planet
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1824132,00.html
Time Magazine: When I caught up with Al Gore at his home in Nashville last December, the former Vice President turned green guru was in a pensive mood. I was surprised – he was just finishing his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, which he was due to give in Stockholm a few days later. For a man who had lost the Presidency in the most agonizing way possible, winning the Nobel should have offered some consolation. But when I asked Gore if he felt vindicated, he shook his head. "It's hard to celebrate ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Many In White House Reversed On Greenhouse Gases
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807181626DOWJONESDJONLINE000752_FORTUNE5.htm
Dow Jones: Bush administration officials, including the energy secretary, had originally agreed that greenhouse gases posed a danger to the public and should be regulated under existing clean-air laws but later reversed course amid opposition from Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the oil industry, a new congressional report says. The U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming report offers a look at the breadth of Bush administration support for new regulations ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
OECD: Biofuels Ineffective at Curbing Global Warming
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-17-02.asp
Environment News Service: Government financial support of biofuel production in the world's wealthiest countries is costly, has a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security, and raises world crop prices, finds a new study of policies to promote greater production and use of biofuels in OECD countries. The OECD is the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development based in Paris, which defines itself as "a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Canada: Ontario to sign cap-and-trade climate plan
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=d7f4d1a6-3718-45d8-bbaa-7e401aa3fb99
Ottawa Citizen: Ontario will join a transcontinental environmental network devoted to fighting climate change as early as today, increasing pressure on Alberta and Saskatchewan to ramp up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In a move praised by environmentalists, Ontario will sign on to the Western Climate Initiative, joining seven U.S. states, British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec. The WCI includes plans to establish North America's first transcontinental cap-and-trade system in ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
US government plans to sell oil leases in Alaska this autumn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/17/energy.oil
Guardian: The federal government intends to hold a major oil and gas lease sale this autumn in portions of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, officials in Washington, DC, announced yesterday. The Bureau of Land Management, which acts as landlord for the Indiana-sized reserve on Alaska's North Slope, today issued a "record of decision" spelling out land to be leased. Much of the NPR-A has been the subject of environmental challenges in court. "The rapid increase in energy costs ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Warming Is Major Threat To Humans, EPA Warns
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/17/ST2008071702694.html
Washington Post: Climate change will pose "substantial" threats to human health in the coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday -- issuing its warnings about heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens just days after the agency declined to regulate the pollutants blamed for warming. In a new report, the EPA said "it is very likely" that more people will die during extremely hot periods in future years -- and that the elderly, the poor and those in inner cities ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
At GM plant, McCain calls for an electric vehicle tax credit
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-mccain19-2008jul19,0,264477.story
LA Times: John McCain today called for a tax credit to help American consumers buy electrically powered automobiles as part of an effort to decrease the country's dependence on foreign oil. Speaking to General Motors workers after company officials gave him a tour of the design room for the prototype Chevy Volt, the Republican presidential candidate noted that a barrier to the widespread use of electric cars is their exorbitant cost. "I don't know if you remember, but the first ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
California sets down standards for green construction
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/17/BAMG11R59J.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: California on Thursday became the first state in the nation to approve green building standards to cut energy and water usage, a move that officials say will help the state meet its ambitious goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The plan, adopted by the California Building Standards Commission, requires that all new construction - from commercial buildings to homes, schools and hospitals - reduce energy usage by 15 percent, water use by 20 percent and water for landscaping by 50 ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Climate change migration looming as a major challenge
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200807/s2307494.htm
Radio Australia: The World Bank is warning future climate change refugees present the Australian government with a major policy challenge. Experts suggest there will be many tens of millions of people affected by rising sea levels alone - the bulk of them in the Asia-Pacific region. The World Bank is urging a positive re-think in Canberra about labour migration. Presenter: Karon Snowdon Speaker: Dr Dilip Ratha, Senior Economist at the World Bank and the Manager of its Migration Division. ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Cooling Off on Dubious Eco-Friendly Claims
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103259
New York Times: AT an annual gathering of the advertising industry a year ago in Cannes, the environment was the topic du jour. "Be seen, be green," one agency urged on the invitation to its party at a hillside villa. Al Gore, invited by another agency, delivered a message linked to "An Inconvenient Truth," his book and film about climate change: That the ad industry could play an influential role in encouraging businesses and consumers to change their ways and slow global warming. The sun ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
EPA finds global warming a health threat
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-climate18-2008jul18,0,5786886.story
Los Angeles Times: Climate change will pose "substantial" health threats including heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens in coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. "It is very likely" that more people will die during extremely hot periods in future years, with the elderly, the poor and those in inner cities at the highest risk, an EPA report found. Other possible dangers include more powerful hurricanes, shrinking supplies of fresh water in the West, and the increased spread of ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Global Warming may Threaten Ecosystems and Water Reserves in Western US
http://www.medindia.net/news/Global-Warming-may-Threaten-Ecosystems-and-Water-Reserves-in-Western-US-39434-1.htm
Asian News International: A new study has determined that global warming could lead to larger changes in snowmelt in the western United States than was previously thought, possibly increasing wildfire risk and creating new water management challenges for agriculture, ecosystems and urban populations. Researchers, including a Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, discovered that a critical surface temperature feedback is twice as strong as what had been projected by earlier studies. ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore seeks 100% green energy
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e59b5fa-5454-11dd-aa78-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: The US should aim to generate all of its electricity from zero-carbon energy sources within a decade, Al Gore, the former vice-president, urged on Thursday. In a speech in Washington he argued that only by making such a commitment could the US solve the pressing problems of the high oil price, the export of jobs abroad and climate change. "Our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges – the economic, environmental and national ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore sets energy goal for 2018
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/07/18/gore_sets_energy_goal_for_2018/
Boston Globe: Former Vice President Al Gore challenged Americans yesterday to switch all of the nation's electricity production to wind, solar, and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels. "The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," Gore told a packed auditorium in Washington's historic Constitution Hall. "When you connect the dots, it ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore urges Americans to make total shift to renewables
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/18/2307880.htm?section=world
BBC: Nobel laureate and former United States vice president Al Gore has urged Americans to make a total shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy within 10 years. Mr Gore says his goal, while similar to some of the toughest goals undertaken by man, is achievable and affordable. But the 10-year plan has been questioned by critics. It is an ambitious target, but one that he claims will help solve global warming and at the same time renew America's economy by ending its ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore Urges Change to Dodge an Energy Crisis
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103238
New York Times: Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday urged the United States to wean the nation from its entire electricity grid to carbon-free energy within 10 years, warning that drastic steps were needed to avoid a global economic and ecological cataclysm. Like a modern Jeremiah, Mr. Gore called down thunder to justify the spending of trillions of dollars to remake the American power system, a plan fraught with technological and political challenges that goes far beyond the changes recently ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore: Climate Crisis More Dire Than Terrorism
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=5402328
ABC News: Former Vice President Al Gore, delivering a speech in Washington on environmental issues, said global warming, not terrorism, is the No. 1 threat to America. While he praised both Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain for their stands on environmental issues, Gore challenged the next president to take bold steps to solve the problem. "Both are serious and must be addressed. That having been said, I think that the climate crisis is, by far, the most serious threat we have ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
House Republicans Block Democratic Effort on Oil Leases, Calling the Bill a Sham
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103241
New York Times: House Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to pressure energy companies into drilling for oil on lands they already leased from the federal government, calling the legislation a sham. As the fight over gasoline prices reached the floors of both the House and Senate, the Democratic initiative to spur exploration in areas where drilling has been sanctioned fell short of the margin needed under rules used to bring the measure to the floor even though it drew majority ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Hydrogen Cars Will Need Multi-Billion Dollar Jumpstart, Experts Warn
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-18-10.asp
Environment News Service: It will take massive subsidies from the U.S. government to make hydrogen fuel cell vehicles a significant part of the nation's transportation future, according to a National Research Council report released Thursday. The study finds that even under a best-case scenario only about two million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be on American roads by 2020, less than one percent of the nation's estimated total number of cars and trucks. Achieving that goal would require the government to ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Icebergs sweep clean Antarctic seabed
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/18/2307345.htm?site=science&topic=latest
Agence France-Presse: Shrinking sea ice is significantly increasing the rate at which icebergs scour the Antarctic seabed, taking away large swathes of marine organisms in the process, say British researchers. The study published in the latest issue of Science, says about 80% of Antarctic marine life is found on the seabed, and iceberg scours crush animals and plants living up to 500 metres below the surface. Lead by Dan Smale of the British Antarctic Survey, the researchers say that, the current ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
McCain: Gore's Challenge Is 'Doable'
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7011652066
All Headline News: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) expressed support on Thursday for the goal of producing all of the nation's electricity using renewable energy sources within a decade. The challenge was made earlier by former Vice President Al Gore to current and future elected officials. "I've admired the vice president on this issue," McCain said, according to CNN. "There may be some aspects of climate change that he and I are in disagreement on but overall - I mean, I've always been a ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Canada: Ontario joins US carbon trading clan
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jwp9WeuFD5teuMtjpKCiSpZK0F1g
Agence France-Presse: Canada's industrial heartland is joining a group of US states to launch a North American carbon trading market, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced Friday. The province is the fourth to join the Western Climate Initiative, which includes also California, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. "We're proud to be welcomed into this important organization of climate change leaders across Canada and the United States," McGuinty said in a ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Papua New Guinea: Sir Michael Pushes 'Forest Nations' Initiative In Europe
http://www.pacificmagazine.net/news/2008/07/18/sir-michael-pushes-forest-nations-initiative-in-europe
Pacific Magazine: Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has continued his campaign continued in Austria and the United Kingdom to focus attention on PNG and forest nations' initiatives to combat climate change while pursuing "clean" economic growth. Sir Michael put forward at the European Forum in Austria recently initiatives for developed countries to cooperate with developing countries to reduce carbon emissions while still allowing sustainable development to take place. Also present at ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Canada: Sprawl poses a serious threat to quality of life
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=959f9fff-7b74-484c-82fb-b4f6114379e3
Times Colonist: The quality of life and the economic cost-effectiveness of our region are in serious doubt. Whether we are battling our way up the Trans-Canada Highway, facing the West Shore's lengthening commutes or watching the politics of Bear Mountain and big-box land, we see expensive sprawl. We now face accelerated sprawl from Sooke to Port Renfrew. With what appears to be utter contempt for the region's growth strategy, the provincial government recently released more than 2,500 ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Sun Could Cause 15% To 20% Of Effects Of Climate Change, Researcher Says
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717224333.htm
Science Daily: Global warming is mainly caused by greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities; however, current climatic variations may be affected "around 15% or 20%" by solar activity, according to Manuel Vázquez, a researcher from the Canary Islands' Astrophysics Institute (IAC) who spoke at the Sun and Climate Change conference, organised as part of the El Escorial summer courses by Madrid's Complutense University. In the past, the sun was the main external agent affecting climate ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Texas approves major new wind power project, the biggest ever in US
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h5O2s8yuqq55y2C4swV1b5pVZLig
Canadian Press: Texas, headquarters of America's oil industry, is about to stake a fortune on wind power. In what experts say is the biggest investment in the clean and renewable energy in U.S. history, utility officials in Texas gave preliminary approval Thursday to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines. They will carry wind-generated electricity from gusty West Texas to urban areas like Dallas. "People think about oil wells and football in Texas, but in 10 years ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Texas' $4.83 billion wind-power plan takes big step closer to reality
http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/766521.html
Star-Telegram: State regulators put Texas on course to spend $4.83 billion on power lines needed to carry electricity from wind farms in the Panhandle and High Plains to the state's urban centers. The move Thursday by the Public Utility Commission stopped short of a more aggressive $6.4 billion plan to harness the state's wind potential. But renewable-energy advocates and the electricity-generating industry hailed it as a fair compromise that would go a long way toward ensuring a reliable supply of ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
United States: The distraction of offshore drilling
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-feinstein18-2008jul18,0,4078387.story
LA Times: There is no quick fix to $4.50-a-gallon gas, no way to provide instant relief to consumers we know are hurting. Yet President Bush and others continue to push the false promise of offshore oil drilling. Just this week, the president lifted the executive order banning drilling that George H.W. Bush put in place in 1990. And he's asked Congress to lift its own moratorium on oil exploration on the outer continental shelf -- which includes coastal waters as close as three miles from ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
UN chief calls for sharp hike in world farm output
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5irN477tQ-tbQZmpsxESmVUyjCJ2A
Agence France-Presse: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for a sharp hike in world farm output, warning that high food and fuel prices threatened much of the progress made in reaching global poverty-reduction targets. Addressing a day-long debate of the UN General Assembly on the global food and energy crisis, the secretary general warned: "the double jeopardy of high food and fuel prices threatens to undermine much of the progress made in achieving the Millenium Development Goals ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
UN warns on biofuel crop reliance
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7514677.stm
BBC: United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has warned against investing too heavily in growing crops for biofuels at the expense of food production. Mr Ban was speaking at a meeting of the UN's General Assembly called to discuss the global food and energy crisis. He believes a wholesale shift in government resources towards farming is vital to prevent millions more from suffering malnutrition. He said larger economies had to look at whether they had the balance right. ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
California adopts new 'green' building code
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5imtS7arKsFb9_s3KajDXlBSv338A
Agence France-Presse: California on Thursday adopted a new building code aimed at improving energy efficiency and water consumption in all new construction projects across the state. In what was described as the United States' first statewide "green" building rules, the California Building Standards Commission said the code would help reduce the carbon footprint of every new structure in the state. According to a statement from the California State and Consumer Services Agency (SCSA), the ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Clean and green: Tax credits need to energize industry
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_9914737
Salt Lake Tribune: A ray of sunshine. Winds of change. Our nation's state governors, while undecided about the role nuclear power and coal should play in our energy future, have issued a ringing endorsement of solar and wind power that Washington would be wise to heed. The National Governors Association is urging Congress to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, combat climate change and spur economic growth by renewing tax credits for renewable energy development for the next five years. A ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore calls for quick end to fossil fuel use
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/07/18/0718gore.html
Washington Post: Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday called on Americans to convert all electricity generation to wind, solar and other renewable sources within 10 years and end their reliance on fossil fuels. Gore said that Americans need to "shake off complacency (and) throw aside old habits," and he asserted that the falling cost of solar power, the ample winds of the Midwest and the high price of oil make the shift to renewable energy "achievable, affordable and ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore challenges US to ditch oil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7513002.stm
BBC: The Nobel laureate and former US vice- president, Al Gore, has urged Americans to abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade. Mr Gore compared the scale of the challenge to that of putting a man on the moon in the 1960s. He said it did not make sense that the US was borrowing money from China to burn oil from the Middle East which then contributed to climate change. Critics say weaning the US off fossil fuels is not possible within a decade. ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore launches second campaign
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0717-al_gore.html
Mongabay: In a speech Thursday, Al Gore challenged the U.S. to generate 100 percent of its electricity from zero carbon emission sources within 10 years. Speaking at Washington's Constitution Hall, Gore said America's security, environmental and economic crises are all related, and that measures to rein in greenhouse gas emissions will make the U.S. stronger, safer, and cleaner. "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Gore said. "I don't ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Gore Urges Congress to Maintain Ban on Offshore Drilling
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121633985301764011.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Former Vice President Al Gore urged Congress not to overturn a federal ban on offshore drilling and complained that lawmakers are "being stampeded by lobbyists for special interests" eager to lift the moratorium. In a speech and interview, Mr. Gore called for moving the U.S. toward "zero-carbon" electricity over a decade, and reiterated his support for a carbon tax accompanied by a "sharp reduction" in payroll taxes. "We have to switch from ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Australia: Govt keen for greener energy
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/18/2308176.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Tasmanian Government is pushing for more renewable energy projects around the state. The Water and Energy Minister, David Llewellyn, opened a mini-hydro power station at Derby in the north-east today. The electricity generated by the Winnaleah Irrigation Scheme's mini-hydro station will feed into the grid, and power 450 homes. Mr Llewellyn says it will cut 4,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. "That energy through the national network can ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
McCain changes auto emissions stance
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080718/METRO/807180414/1001
Detroit News: U.S. Sen. John McCain backtracked Friday on a pledge to set national auto emissions standards that would supersede those California and other states want to set. "I guess at the end of the day, I support the states being able to do that," he said at a town hall meeting at the GM Technical Center. The statement appears to contradict a statement McCain made to The Detroit News last month, when he said he hoped to set a national standard that would make state standards ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Nuclear power holds the climate key for Australia
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/nuclear-power-holds-the-climate-key-for-australia/844930.aspx
Canberra Times: Australian industrial leaders as well as domestic consumers of energy are now digesting with apprehension the content and fiscal consequences of the Rudd Government's Green paper on an emissions trading scheme. The apprehension stems partly from the recent remarks of Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University. Sachs has pointed out the sterility and futility of a highly politicized debate on ETS. He proposed, instead that the science, technology and economics of an optimal new ''clean'' ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Canada: Ontario presents plan of permanent protection
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417744
Indian Country Today: The Ontario government has unveiled an ambitious plan for permanent protection from development of half of its share of the boreal forest - some 87,000 square miles, a landmass the size of the United Kingdom. The plan, announced July 14 by Premier Dalton McGuinty, is aimed at fighting global warming and preserving endangered species. It will also address some key issues that have ratcheted up tension between the province and First Nations communities in recent years - failure ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Pickens' plan for gas could fire up drill fights
http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/07/17/071808_1a_Pickens_plan.html
Daily Sentinel: Oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens wants American cars running on natural gas. The idea unites several players in the national energy debate in western Colorado, at least in theory. The Sierra Club ballyhooed the idea, specifically for its emphasis on using wind power to generate electricity. "We currently use natural gas to produce 22 percent of our electricity," Pickens says on his Web site, www.pickensplan.com. "Harnessing the power of wind to generate ...

Sat, 19 Jul 08
Australia: Senator visits potential 'solar suburbs'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/18/2307925.htm?site=northwestwa
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Greens Senator Scott Ludlum say Karratha in Western Australia's north-west would be an ideal site for a new generation of 'solar suburbs'. Senator Ludlum visited the Pilbara last week, calling for urgent temporary housing and an increase in the zone tax rebate to encourage more investment in the region. He says while short term housing solutions are vital, the different levels of government should also explore long term, green housing in the region. "In an age ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103193
New York Times: Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts. "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. "The future of human civilization is at stake." Mr. Gore called ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia: Pope warns of pillaging world's resources
http://www.examiner.ie/story/world/gbqlgbqlid/rss2/
Irish Examiner: POPE BENEDICT XVI yesterday warned Catholics of the perils of pop culture and pillaging the earth's resources after a rapturous welcome at the world's biggest Christian festival in Australia. Speaking against the backdrop of Sydney's famous harbour, the pontiff told hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that "something is amiss" in modern society. "Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Brazil exec lowers Amazon deforestation forecast
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/107449/Brazil-exec-lowers-Amazon-deforestation-forecast
Associated Press: The environment minister on Tuesday revised downward the forecast for Brazilian Amazon rain forest deforestation in 2008, based on a slight slow-down in May statistics. But independent government experts said the May data were inconclusive because clouds obscured more than half the forest from satellite images. A preliminary analysis by the government's Space Research Institute showed 423 square miles (1,096 square kilometers) of rain forest were cut down in May, down from 440 ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
California Moves To Speed Solar, Wind Power Grid Connections
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807162042DOWJONESDJONLINE000838_FORTUNE5.htm
CNN: The operator of California's electric grid has a plan for improving the way new renewable power facilities can connect to it, but solar and wind power developers say the plan falls short. The California Independent System Operator plans to file with federal regulators later this month a new set of rules for reviewing new power project interconnections. The new rules will streamline the process and cut down the amount of time it takes to make a decision, said Gregg Fishman, a spokesman ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Feds: Climate change to cause 'irreversible' health risks in USA
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-07-17-climate-health-report_N.htm
USA Today: An Environmental Protection Agency report released Thursday warns that global warming will increase disease and other health problems nationwide in coming decades. "Climate change poses real risks to human health," says the EPA's Joel Scheraga. Some of the environmental effects will be irreversible, he says. The report details health impacts ranging from Hantavirus to wildfires to asthma, all increased by climate change. In a statement, Rick Piltz of the Government ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
German expert predicts US solar energy boom
http://news.trendaz.com/?show=news&newsid=1249116&lang=EN
Trend News: There's something incongruous about experts from normally cloudy Germany coming to California, the land of eternal sunshine, to teach the locals about how to harness solar power, dpa reported. But that's was happening this week in San Francisco, where organizers of the world's largest solar exhibition, Germany's Intersolar, launched an American version of their confab amid predictions of a massive solar boom in the ailing US economy. Conference chairman Professor Eicke Weber, ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore: Carbon-free electricity in 10 years doable
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7659644
Associated Press: Former Vice President Al Gore called Thursday for a ``man on the moon'' effort to switch all of the nation's electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources within 10 years, a goal that he said would solve global warming as well as economic and natural security crises caused by dependence on fossil fuels. ``The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels,'' Gore told a packed auditorium in Washington's historic Constitution Hall. ``When you connect the ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore: Relying On Fossil Fuel Threatens US Survival
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92635699
National Public Radio: The United States must commit on the scale of the Apollo moon project to end its dependence on carbon-based fuels for electricity and switch to clean, renewable sources in the next decade, former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday. Speaking in Washington, Gore challenged the nation to find a way, within 10 years, to produce all electric power from renewable sources. "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Gore said. "The answer ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" to Hit Record Size - NOAA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49388/story.htm
Reuters: The Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" -- a swath of algae-laden water with oxygen levels low enough to choke out marine life -- will likely reach record size this year, and the main culprits are rising ethanol use and massive Midwest flooding, scientists said on Tuesday. The dead zone, which recurs each year off the Texas and Louisiana coasts, could stretch to more than 8,800 square miles (22,790 sq km) this year -- about the size of New Jersey -- compared with 6,662 square ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Human rights a 'compass' for climate change policies
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/human-rights-a-compass-for-climate-change-policies.html
SciDev.Net: Human rights can be a "compass" to guide research and policy development for climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, according to a report. The International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) says climate change will threaten – directly or indirectly – almost all human rights, including the right to food, health and a livelihood. But they have received little attention on the policy stage so far. Human rights can be used as thresholds or minimum ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
United States: Interior Dept. Opens 2.6 Million Alaskan Acres for Oil Exploration
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103174
New York Times: The Interior Department on Wednesday made 2.6 million acres of potentially oil-rich territory in northern Alaska available for energy exploration. At the same time, it deferred for a decade any decision to open 600,000 acres of land north of Teshekpuk Lake that is the summer home of thousands of migrating caribou and millions of waterfowl. The decision will open up for drilling much of the northeast section of the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, holding an estimated 3.7 ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Uganda: Mabira Forest Still Safe, Says Forests Boss
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807171074.html
Weekly Observer: There have been renewed concerns that parts of Mabira forest may be given away for sugar cane growing. MOSES TALEMWA talked to the National Forestry Authority Executive Director, DAMIAN BATUREINE AKANKWASA on the matter. Government is calling for a balance between industrialisation and conservation of our forest cover. How is NFA achieving this? First of all, industrialization and conservation can go hand in hand in my view. Because for instance, even when we grow trees, ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Move Species Threatened by Warming, Scientists Say
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080717-species-move.html
National Geographic: People should help species threatened by climate change move to new habitats, researchers argue in a new paper. Warming temperatures have already sent animals and plants inching toward the poles or climbing up mountains to seek out tolerable habitats. But many species aren't able to move far enough or will have difficulty fleeing in the future, researchers say. That's because natural barriers such as mountains and deserts block some species, while others are trapped in pockets ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
New York cancels plans for clean coal plant
http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN1648713620080716
Reuters: NRG Energy Inc (NRG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and New York state on Wednesday canceled plans to build a clean-coal power plant, citing rising costs and calling the project "ahead of its time." In a statement, NRG said the New York Power Authority informed the energy company that it would allow their alliance for a near-zero emissions coal plant to lapse on July 22. "Authority staff is not in a position to recommend to its Board that it enter into negotiations ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Pope says `insatiable consumption' scarring planet
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQWrOpONrX_Zx5OMn4NLysrBsDWgD91VPT6G0
Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday that mankind's "insatiable consumption" has scarred the Earth and squandered its resources, telling followers that taking care of the planet is vital to humanity. The 81-year-old pontiff, appearing rested and in good form, gave his first major speech for Roman Catholicism's World Youth Day before adoring crowds who had traveled from 168 countries to see him in Australia's largest city. As the sun set in the mild chill of the Australian ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Texas approves massive new wind power project
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hAQY5B2Hfjlzga0U53ylElwGbVeQD91VPL68E
Associated Press: Texas officials gave preliminary approval Thursday to the nation's largest wind-power project, a plan to build billions of dollars worth of new transmission lines to bring wind energy from gusty West Texas to urban areas. Texas is already the national leader in wind power, and supporters say Thursday's move by the Public Utility Commission will make the Lone Star State a leader in moving energy to the urban areas consume it. "We will add more wind than the 14 states ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Unique business aims to spread solar power
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/07/17/solar.office/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail
CNN: Blake Jones' business plan for his company, Namaste Solar Electric, was so unusual, he confounded a lot of business experts. Typical home solar systems cost about $12,000 up front, but supporters say they pay off in the long run. "We did have a lot of skeptical, raised eyebrows at the beginning," Jones said of his company, which installs solar power systems in Colorado. "We even have had business schools bring teams of MBA students to come to do a case ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
US Summers to Get Hotter and Deadlier Due to Climate Change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/17/AR2008071701557.html
Washington Post: Climate change will have a "substantial" impact on human health in the coming decades, making wildfires and hurricanes more likely, cooking up more smog, and making summer heat waves longer, hotter and deadlier, according to a new report today from the Environmental Protection Agency. The report details how rising temperatures could slowly but significantly shift the rhythms of nature that Americans are used to -- with disruptive, sometimes even deadly, consequences. In the ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia: 'Greenhouse mafia' running environmental policy
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2306450.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: EMMA ALBERICI: The Rudd Government's Green Paper on an emissions trading scheme for Australia is still being poured over by analysts and those likely to be most affected by the policy. Guy Pearse first documented his account of greenhouse policy under the Howard government in his recently published book, High and Dry. He was a speech writer for John Howard on the area of climate policy. He coined the term "greenhouse mafia" as a catch-all phrase to describe the ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Afganistan: 1.5 million "severely" hit by drought - minister
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79295
IRIN: At least 1.5 million people in 19 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces - mostly farming communities in the north - have been severely affected by drought and are in need of urgent humanitarian relief, an Afghan minister told IRIN. "About 1.5 million people have lost 70-80 percent of their livelihoods - mostly rain-fed agriculture and livestock - owing to the drought," said Ehsan Zia, minister of rural rehabilitation and development. The country has about 1.5 million ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Al Gore: Energy Crisis Can Be Fixed
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/17/eveningnews/main4270123.shtml
CBS News: Former vice president Al Gore laid down a green gauntlet Thursday, challenging the nation to produce all our electricity from renewable sources, such as wind mills and solar panels - and do it within a decade. In Washington CBS News anchor Katie Couric spoke one-on-one with Gore, whose environmental work earned him a Nobel Prize. What follows is a full transcript of the interview. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Couric: ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
All aboard the nuclear power superjet. Just don't ask about the landing strip
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/17/nuclearpower.climatechange
Guardian: Are we witnessing the beginning of a real-life satire, at once amusing and terrifying? Its theme is the smothering of the nuclear power risk by catastrophic climate change and the oil crisis. At the G8 meeting in Hokkaido last week the US president, George Bush, reiterated his plea for the construction of new nuclear energy plants. At the start of this week, Gordon Brown, announced the fast-tracking of eight new reactors and called for "a renaissance of nuclear power" in a ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia Scheme to Compensate Big Carbon Emitters
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49390/story.htm
Reuters: Australia on Wednesday unveiled plans for one of the world's biggest carbon trading schemes, including measures to protect motorists and large companies from higher costs which drew the ire of green activists. The centre-left government, which swept to victory last year on the back of fury among working voters at rising prices under conservative rule, released an options paper for how emissions trading is likely to work from July 1, 2010. "The effect of putting a price ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia to start carbon trading scheme in two years
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2305900.htm?tab=australia
Radio Australia: The Australian government is sticking with its plan to start a carbon trading scheme in two years that will make electricity more expensive. Our reporter, Louise Yaxley, says the government's discussion paper outlines a range of ways to compensate people and industry for the changes. The green paper says if the carbon price is $US20 a tonne then the cost of living would rise by just under one per cent. The climate change minister, Penny Wong, says pensioners and ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia's Carbon Market May Be Worth as Much as A$11 Billion
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a495z1bh7Nnk&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia's proposed carbon trading market may be worth as much as A$11 billion ($10.7 billion) by 2012, assuming similar growth to that in the European Union, according to Point Carbon. Australia may allocate about 540 million metric tons of allowances a year starting in 2010, valued at about A$10.3 billion or A$19 a ton, Point Carbon said today in an e-mailed statement. It would take three years for the value of traded allowances to reach about $A11 billion, it said. The ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australian PM urges support for carbon trading scheme
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2307072.htm?tab=australia
Radio Australia: Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has urged the opposition to dispense with, what he calls, short term politics, and support the government's carbon trading scheme. The opposition has attacked the government's plan, warning it will eventually lead to an extra tax on petrol. The government is expected to introduce legislation for its carbon trading scheme in March next year. Mr Rudd says the coalition should act in Australia's interests and support the ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Britain gets first taste of big tidal power
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL1785205020080717
Reuters: The world's first commercial-scale tidal power turbine has supplied the British grid with its first surge of tidal electricity, Marine Current Turbines (MCT) said on Thursday. The tidal current turbine, known as SeaGen, briefly generated 150 kilowatts of power off the coast of Northern Ireland as part of testing ahead of full commercial operations in a few weeks, the company behind the project said. SeaGen works like an underwater windmill, with the rotors driven by the power ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Burgers to blame for most of the global warming
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Earth/Burgers_blame_for_warming/articleshow/3245129.cms
Times of India: A report by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has stated that 18 per cent of greenhouse gases are coming from animal agriculture - meat and dairy, used in making burgers. According to Environmental News Network , the 408-page report states that what many people are eating is contributing more to global warming than the entire transportation sector of the United States. The report said that the Earth, and all who reside here, are in grave peril like ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Can we engineer a cooler earth?
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/16/can-we-engineer-a-cooler-earth/
Christian Science Monitor: Launch myriad mirrors into space to deflect a fraction of sunlight from reaching Earth. Seed the stratosphere with sulfur or other particles to cut some of the sun's rays. Bioengineer trees to soak up huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. Scatter unmanned self-powered ships to roam the world's oceans funneling sea spray high in the sky to help form protective clouds. Thinkers have posed a number of creative ideas on how to protect the planet from global warming. But they've ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Deporting Plants and Animals to Protect Them from Climate Change
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=deporting-plants-and-animals-to-protect-from-climate-change
Scientific American: As San Diego and Los Angeles have grown, the scrub land of southern California has been paved and built over. That has squeezed out the Quino checkerspot butterfly's habitat, and with the climate changes coming as a result of human greenhouse gas emissions, its listing as an endangered species by the U.S. government may not be enough to save the pretty little butterfly from extinction. But a group of biologists suggest in this week's Science that simply moving the butterfly into ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Canada: Details missing in boreal forest plan
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1118167
Sault Star: If there's one thing industry hates it's uncertainty. Premier Dalton McGuinty created uncertainty this week after he slated half Ontario's boreal forests for conservation. The plan will develop over 10 to 15 years, as scientists, environmentalists and First Nations map out the largest, not-quite- untouched Canadian forest and third-largest wetland in the world. Mining and forestry companies will have to consult First Nations before starting projects in the unprotected half of ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
United States: Environmentalists try to block coal plants
http://www.saljournal.com/rdnews/story/HNS-Sunflower-suit-7-16-08
Harris News Service: A federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., will hear environmentalists argue Friday against a motion to dismiss their case challenging Sunflower Electric's plans for new power plants. The Sierra Club and EarthJustice want the court to reverse the federal Rural Utilities Service's approval of Sunflower's two proposed coal-fired power plants near Holcomb. The groups say RUS accepted the plans without considering environmental damage and possible alternatives, which ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
United States: Failed plant casts doubt on "clean coal"
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/FREE/132542549/1097/information
Crain's New York Business: The New York Power Authority on Wednesday nixed plans for a "clean coal" facility at its Huntley plant in western New York, casting doubt on the financial viability of clean coal technology. NYPA officials say the electricity produced by the Huntley plant, in Tonawanda, N.Y., would be too expensive, requiring some $150 million a year in subsidies to compete with more conventional sources of generation. In a letter to New Jersey-based NRG Energy, which owns the Huntley plant, NYPA ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
United States: For Pelosi, a Familiar Fight Against Offshore Drilling
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=103134
New York Times: Upon entering Congress in 1987, Representative Nancy Pelosi quickly became part of the solid California front against oil drilling along much of the nation's coast. The Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 and the steady push to tap the potential reserves off the state's rugged coast had galvanized Californians and made opposition to offshore drilling part of the political DNA of up-and-coming figures like Ms. Pelosi. She repeatedly resisted oil drilling in marine sanctuaries near ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Fragile Antarctic Marine Life Pounded By Icebergs: Biodiversity Suffering
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717140451.htm
ScienceDaily: Antarctic worms, sea spiders, urchins and other marine creatures living in near-shore shallow habitats are regularly pounded by icebergs. New data suggests this environment along the Antarctic Peninsula is going to get hit more frequently. This is due to an increase in the number of icebergs scouring the seabed as a result of shrinking winter sea ice. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) show how the rate of iceberg scouring on the West Antarctic Peninsula seabed is ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore asks US to abandon fossil fuels
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/17/america/gore.php
International Herald Tribune: Al Gore, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize for his effort against global warming, said Thursday that Americans should rely on the sun, winds and other environmentally friendly sources of electricity, or risk their national security as well as their creature comforts. "The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk," Gore said in a speech during an energy conference in Washington. "The future of human civilization is at stake." Gore, who ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore calls for end of using fossil fuels for electricity in US by 2018
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/algore.energyefficiency?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: The former vice-president credited with rejuvenating America's environmental movement today issued a challenge to its people: End the use of fossil fuels for electricity within 10 years. Al Gore's call to end the burning of carbon for power, delivered before an adoring audience in Washington, was clearly aimed at vaulting renewable energy to the top of the presidential candidates' agenda. "Our dangerous reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all these problems – ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore sets energy goal for next president to heed
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gjptxU3Gttw57CeYvLUZc_r0GTpQD91VNSB81
Associated Press: Just as John F. Kennedy set his sights on the moon, Al Gore is challenging the nation to produce every kilowatt of electricity through wind, sun and other Earth-friendly energy sources within 10 years, an audacious goal he hopes the next president will embrace. The Nobel Prize-winning former vice president said fellow Democrat Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain are "way ahead" of most politicians in the fight against global climate change. Rising fuel ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Gore urges total shift to renewable energy to avert disaster
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jdqKdFfl3ldaDYlqN-b4u4DS5qcA
Agence France-Presse: Nobel laureate and former US vice president Al Gore on Thursday urged Americans to shoot for the moon and make a total shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy to avert a global crisis sparked by climate change. "I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years," Gore told thousands of people who packed into a conference hall near the White House to hear the 2007 Nobel ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Hydrogen future doable, experts tell Congress
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25719194/
MSNBC: A transition to vehicles that run on hydrogen – and independence from oil as well as a sharp drop in carbon emissions – is doable but that best-case scenario requires nearly $200 billion in funding and further breakthroughs, National Research Council experts said Thursday in a report requested by Congress. While stressing the "best-case scenario" nature of their report, the experts concluded that hydrogen could be the key driver of a shift away from fossil fuels and ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Moving species may be only way to save them from climate change
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0717-hance_assisted_migration.html
Mongabay: Desperate times call for desperate measures, according to a new paper in Science. Conservation scientists from the US, the UK, and Australia are calling for the consideration of a highly controversial conservation technique: assisted migration. According to the policy piece, species would be relocated to sites "where they do not currently occur or have not been known to occur in recent history". The scientists believe certain species face such grave threats from climate ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia: PM sells emissions trading scheme to the nation
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24034179-662,00.html
AAP: KEVIN Rudd has defended the emissions trading scheme amid suggestions it does not encourage major polluters to change their ways. Mr Rudd was on radio this morning spruiking the Government's response to climate change, which the opposition has described as a virtual carbon copy of its own policy. "The whole point of the system is to reduce emissions,'' Mr Rudd told ABC Radio. "Nothing's going to be perfect but it certainly beats sticking your head in the sand, ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia: Pragmatist trumps Garnaut's theory
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24032755-5014047,00.html
Australian: ROSS Garnaut's 537-page blueprint for a national trading scheme was inspired by pure economic theory. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has opted for 516 pages of pure political pragmatism. Garnaut's draft report two weeks ago was a black and white description of his vision for the scheme. Wong hastens slowly. Her more cautious approach emphasises the need for an early start but a gradual transition. It shepherds ideas forward but commits to few of them, ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Australia: Rudd eases carbon pain
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rudd-eases-carbon-pain/2008/07/16/1216162959875.html
Sydney Morning Herald: HOUSEHOLDS earning up to $150,000 and the nation's heaviest polluters will be helped to cope with the introduction of an emissions trading scheme in 2010 that the Government says will be "calm and measured". The scheme, which will compensate for household price increases and try to prevent jobs being lost and industries moving offshore, has been attacked by environmental groups as too timid, but defended by the Government as necessarily cautious. The aim is to avoid ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Solar stocks shine after Goldman note
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINL1775204820080717
Reuters: Solar stocks rally after Goldman Sachs says the long-term outlook is sunny for the solar sector thanks to electricity demand and green policies. Goldman upgrades Conergy (CGYG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) to "buy" from "neutral" and Q-Cells (QCEG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Solon (SOOG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) to "neutral" from "sell". They rise between 5 and 7 percent and are some of the top gainers on the DAX Technology stocks ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
United States: Turning the Power Back on in Juneau
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/us/17briefs-TURNINGTHEPO_BRF.html?ref=environment
Associated Press: Juneau's trend toward energy conservation is diminishing now that the price of electric power has dropped. Avalanches on April 16 destroyed transmission lines from Juneau's hydroelectric power plant, forcing the city's power utility to turn to far more expensive diesel power. Residents responded by cutting consumption by more than 30 percent. But in the month since repairs were completed, power use has crept up. A spokesman for the Alaska Electric Light & Power ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
U.N. To Do Global Deforestation Survey
http://www.postchronicle.com/news/science/article_212158666.shtml
United Press International: A global survey to assess deforestation will be conducted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and its partners, the U.N. organization in Rome said. Concern has grown in recent years about deforestation, loss of carbon stored in forests and the role of forests in climate change, increasing interest in forest monitoring and tracking emissions created by deforestation, the United Nations said in a release. The need to improve national forest monitoring is overwhelming ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
UN Reports Rising Energy Prices Spurs Green Gold Rush
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-17-voa20.cfm
Voice of America: Some economists and venture capitalists say the long term rise in gas and oil prices is driving something of a technology boom. In 2007, $148 billion went towards alternative energy development. One report says such investment is expected to triple in the next few years, creating more energy efficient products for use on the road, and in homes and businesses. VOA's Paul Sisco has today's Searching for Solutions report. Billions of dollars were spent on new wind, solar and biofuel ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
US Unveils Plan to Bury Climate-Warming Carbon
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49392/story.htm
Reuters: The United States unveiled plans on Tuesday to bury climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions deep underground to keep the greenhouse gas from further heating up the atmosphere. The burial process, known as carbon capture and storage or geologic sequestration, has long been part of the Bush administration's strategy to combat climate change without imposing any economy-wide limit on carbon emissions. But this is the first time the US government has proposed requirements on how ...

Fri, 18 Jul 08
Wall Street firms eye "green" banking
http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN1640624220080717
Reuters: Wall Street has always followed the money, but this time its weightiest denizens -- the big investment banks -- are eyeing a new kind of green. The billions of dollars being poured into clean energy and other "green" technologies amid global fears of soaring commodity prices, dwindling supplies of traditional energy and climate change have created new investment banking opportunities, from arranging the financing for solar power plants to taking geothermal companies ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Acidifying Oceans Pose Severe Danger to Coral Reefs
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49322/story.htm
Reuters: Like a tooth dipped in a glass of Coca-Cola, coral reefs, lobsters and other marine creatures that build calcified shells around themselves could soon dissolve as climate change turns the oceans increasingly acidic. The carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere by factories, cars and power plants is not just raising temperatures. It is also causing what scientists call "ocean acidification" as around 25 percent of the excess CO2 is absorbed by the seas. The threat ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Bush Urges Congress to Open New Areas to Oil Drilling
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49317/story.htm
Reuters: US President George W. Bush urged Congress on Friday to act before its August break to open new areas for oil exploration in the United States to help ease record high oil prices. "The members of Congress, particularly the Democratic leadership, must address this issue before they go home for this upcoming August break," Bush told reporters after a briefing from his economic advisers at the Department of Energy. "They have a responsibility to explain to their ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Draft EPA Study Links Global Warming to More Smog
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49333/story.htm
Reuters: US environmental regulators quietly published a draft study on Thursday that linked global warming to higher levels of smog that could harm human health, a report green groups said stood in contrast to the Bush Administration's slow movement on climate change. The draft report published by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register said, "Climate change has the potential to produce significant increases in near-surface (ozone) concentrations in many areas of the ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
US Court Rejects EPA Rule on Power Plant Pollution
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49326/story.htm
Reuters: A federal appeals court Friday rejected the Bush administration's plan to reduce polluting emissions from power plants and help states downwind from the facilities meet federal clear air standards. The court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency went beyond its authority to create the Clean Air Interstate Rule, known as CAIR, which used a trading scheme among utilities to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides at power plants in 28 located in the East and ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Australian Climate Activists Delay Newcastle Coal Deliveries
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=anovbpKF0yf8&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australian climate-change activists delayed rail deliveries to Newcastle, the world's biggest coal- export harbor, yesterday as part of a six-day camp protesting against the use of the fuel. Three trains scheduled to deliver about 20,000 tons of coal were delayed when protesters broke through fences and secured themselves to wagons at the Carrington terminal at Newcastle port, north of Sydney, Port Waratah Coal Services Pty operator of the two coal terminals at Newcastle, said in a ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
EPA Head Says Congress Should Regulate Carbon
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49331/story.htm
Reuters: US lawmakers said the Bush administration will reveal it will not take measures to tackle greenhouse gas emissions while the president is in office in a proposal by environmental regulators to be announced Friday. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson will hold a press conference later Friday in which he will release a long-awaited advanced notice of proposed rule-making on greenhouse gases. The EPA has been under pressure since a landmark 2007 ruling by the Supreme Court that ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Kenya Court Halts US$370m Sugar, Biofuels Project
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49316/story.htm
Reuters: A Kenyan court has temporarily halted a US$370 million sugar and biofuels project in a coastal wetland that conservation groups warned would threaten wildlife and local livelihoods. The government and the country's biggest sugar miller, Mumias, wants to plant cane on 20,000 hectares in the Tana River Delta to create jobs and plug an annual 200,000-tonne sugar deficit. But the Malindi High Court ruled on Friday that environmentalists and groups representing local livestock ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Researchers Develop Efficient Solar Power Devices
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49334/story.htm
Reuters: Using sheets of glass covered with organic dyes, scientists have devised an efficient and practical solar power device that they believe can help make this clean, renewable energy source more affordable. Experts eager for energy sources that do not involve the burning of fossil fuels often point to the promise of solar energy -- harnessing sunlight to make electricity. But solar power so far has proven costlier than standard energy sources. Writing on Thursday in the journal ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Limit Oil Price or Face More Nuclear Power - Italy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49336/story.htm
Reuters: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Sunday oil-consuming countries should meet to fix a maximum price they are prepared to pay for oil, warning otherwise they would have to invest heavily in nuclear power. Denouncing the "unfair" movement of wealth from consumer nations to oil-producing countries and the "exponential" rise in prices, Berlusconi issued what he said was a threat to oil exporters, saying his proposal for a meeting had the approval of ...

Tue, 15 Jul 08
Russian researchers 'rescued from melting ice floe'
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ghCixOYzpbZHoUH670X2ppbmt2Hg
Agence France-Presse: Twenty Russian scientists have been rescued from their camp on an ice floe in the Arctic that was melting faster than expected, a spokesman for the expedition told AFP on Monday. "The 20 polar researchers and their two dogs climbed on board the 'Mikhail Somov'" research ship late Sunday, said Sergei Bolyasnikov, a spokesman for Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Institute. "All scientific programmes at the station have been stopped," he added. The ship ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
'Lights will go out' by 2015 if Lords rejects Planning Bill
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lights-will-go-out-by-2015-if-lords-rejects-planning-bill-866957.html
Independent: The lights will go out across the UK in seven years if the Planning Bill coming up for review this week is rejected in the House of Lords, according to a leading business trade body. It estimates the country needs £100bn of investment in major energy plants by 2020. The CBI has urged the House of Lords to pass the Planning Bill, under consideration tomorrow, to help secure the nation's energy and infrastructure needs. It also accused the Conservatives of playing politics in ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Brown calls for eight new nuclear plants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/14/nuclearpower.gordonbrown
Guardian: Britain must build "at least" eight new nuclear power stations during the next 15 years to replace its ageing plants and contribute to a "post-oil economy" that is cleaner and much more efficient than in the era of "cheap energy and careless pollution", Gordon Brown signalled last night. The first new reactors could feed electricity into the national grid by 2017. Ministers want the private sector to make the running, but fear that the parallel ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Brown sets 'no limit' on number of reactors to be built
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brown-sets-no-limit-on-number-of-reactors-to-be-built-866896.html
Independent: Gordon Brown is to fast-track the building of at least eight nuclear power stations to cut Britain's dependence on oil following the dramatic rise in its price. The Prime Minister will set "no upper limit" on the number of nuclear plants that will be built by private companies. That would mean nuclear, which provides about 20 per cent of Britain's electricity, could meet a bigger share after the new generation of nuclear stations come on stream over the next 15 years. ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Carbon credit market hit by UN crackdown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/07/14/cxmktrep114.xml
Telegraph (UK): Chaos theory is often explained in terms of the "butterfly effect", whereby an insect flaps its wings on one side of the world and causes a tornado on the other. At first glance, the global carbon market seems like a pastiche of this model - when a cow farts in Brazil, Britain somehow moves nearer to meeting its requirement to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Unlike chaos theory, this process can be explained reasonably simply: The cow fart is captured and put ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Gordon Brown wants to build 'at least' 8 nuclear power stations
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034766/Gordon-Brown-wants-build-8-nuclear-power-stations.html
Daily Mail: Gordon Brown is preparing to reveal a shortlist of at least eight nuclear power stations to be built within 15 years. But No10 sources indicated the Prime Minister thinks there should be 'no upper limit' on the number of such stations. Mr Brown also claims the North Sea could become 'the Gulf of the future' for wind power thanks to the development of thousands of offshore turbines. Sources say ministers have identified Hinkley Point, Sizewell, Dungeness and Bradwell, ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Government blasted over carbon emissions
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKL1144040020080714
Reuters: The government's record in cutting its own emissions of planet-warming gases was "extremely poor", a cross-party panel of politicians said on Monday. "Central Government must demonstrate leadership by making rapid progress," the report said, finding that a major problem was rising electricity consumption from increasing use of computers. The report cited figures from the independent Sustainable Development Commission showing that the British government was ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Govt encouraged to welcome 'climate change refugees'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/14/2302737.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Some of the most dramatic effects of climate change are being experienced in the Pacific, where small nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu are slowly sinking as seas begin to rise. Aid groups are calling on the largest regional power, Australia, to lend its support to so-called climate change refugees. Charity organisation Make Poverty History is calling for immigration quotas to be increased to allow residents there to flee an uncertain future. James Ensor is the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Green no coal protest shuts Newcastle mine rail link, 37 arrested
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24014251-5006009,00.html
Daily Telegraph: MORE than 1000 protesters shut down the Newcastle coal link yesterday before the police riot squad moved in to arrest 37 environmental activists who were fighting to stop climate change. The protesters boarded a coal train, lay across railway tracks and chanted for the end of coal exports. While organisers said the demonstration would be peaceful, police had intelligence otherwise and kept the force's mobile water cannon on stand-by. Police made 37 arrests and laid charges ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: High petrol prices are good for us, says cabinet minister
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1034810/High-petrol-prices-good-says-cabinet-minister.html
Mail on Sunday: A cabinet minister welcomed spiralling petrol prices last night as an incentive for drivers to make fewer car journeys. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the high cost of oil helps force people off the road and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He also launched a robust defence of road tax rises for more than nine million cars - insisting it was right that they should also apply to second-hand vehicles. Mr Benn's remarks triggered a backlash from motoring groups, ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Protest halts coal train for six hours
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/protest-halts-coal-train-for-six-hours/2008/07/13/1215887451541.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THIRTY-SEVEN demonstrators were arrested after about 1000 people halted trains in Newcastle yesterday in a protest against the coal industry's role in climate change. Police invoked some special powers, not used in a public protest since the Cronulla riots of 2005, enabling them to search vehicles, although organisers maintained the protest was peaceful. Three coal trains bound for Carrington Coal Terminal - one of the ports which make Newcastle the world's biggest export point ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Garnaut Urges Australian Companies to Support Emissions Plan
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aEd.vbQYGLq4&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australian climate adviser Ross Garnaut urged companies to work with the government on emissions trading, saying they couldn't afford to ignore climate change. Garnaut this month released a draft for a ``broadly based'' cap-and-trade emission trading plan, as used in the European Union, starting in 2010. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's biggest miner, noted the report ``with interest'' and Xstrata Plc, the largest exporter of energy coal, said the system should be ``fair and ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Government lagging on CO2 curbs, say MPs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/14/carbonemissions.climatechange
Guardian: The government is "lagging far behind" in its efforts to curb carbon emissions from its buildings and activities, according to a report from a committee of MPs. The report from the environmental audit committee (EAC) said that emissions from government departments had dropped by just 0.7% over the period 1999-2000 to 2006-07, much less than the 8% necessary to hit its target of a 12.5% reduction by 2010/11. This modest performance was highly dependent on a large cut ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Protesters stop coal-loading again
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24015717-29277,00.html
AAP: COAL loading has been disrupted again after four protesters chained themselves to a conveyor belt at New South Wales's Newcastle port to protest against climate change. The protesters launched the action at the Kooragang coal export terminal near Newcastle this morning following a protest at a neighbouring terminal yesterday. Yesterday, police arrested 37 protesters who chained themselves to a train and rail tracks at Carrington terminal at Newcastle port. About 1000 ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
British ministries making little progress in carbon cuts: watchdog
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gKwxTLSNrQ0cvf9l7o8-fyxRXBFw
Agence France-Presse: British ministries are lagging significantly behind government targets to cut their own carbon emissions, a parliamentary watchdog warned Monday. According to a report by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, departments and ministries had lowered their emissions by four percent by 2006-07 compared to 1999-00 levels, against a target of a 12.5 percent reduction by 2010-11. It said that the government was relying too heavily on purchasing carbon offsets, and not ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Bush climate action now? "Bogus": Schwarzenegger
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1336774920080713
Reuters: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Sunday the Bush administration did not believe it should do anything about global warming and that any last-minute action before leaving office would be "bogus." Schwarzenegger, a Republican whose state has pushed unsuccessfully for federal permission to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, said on ABC's "This Week" that any move at this point against climate change would lack sincerity. "If they ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Despite 800 billion barrel potential, oil shale a hard sell
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5885419.html
Houston Chronicle: Along the western slope of the Rocky Mountains lies a possible path toward energy independence. The world's largest deposit of oil shale is hidden here, beneath a landscape dotted by pinyon pines and twisted junipers. If the oil industry can learn how to extract oil and gas from the oil shale in a cost-effective manner, the United States could lay claim to oil reserves totaling, perhaps, 800 billion barrels – three times Saudi Arabia's. With oil prices riding high and ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Forest funding 'could put billions in wrong hands'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/14/forests.conservation
Guardian: The rush to protect forests as a way to tackle global warming could see billions of pounds handed over to corrupt politicians, criminals and polluting industries, experts have warned. The Rights and Resources Initiative, a coalition of groups from around the world, says not enough has been done to address land rights in tropical countries, where much of the money is being directed. Without clearer guidelines on land ownership and involvement by local people, they say, the funds ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Forests to fall for food and fuel
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7503304.stm
BBC: Demand for land to grow food, fuel crops and wood is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests, a report warns. The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) says only half of the extra land needed by 2030 is available without eating into tropical forested areas. A companion report documents poor progress in reforming land ownership and governance in developing countries. Both reports will be launched on Monday in UK government offices in ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Warnings of a global land grab
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/14/earawm114.xml
Telegraph (India): The relentless demand for raw materials will lead to the destruction of the world's forests, a new study warns. The rush for fuel, food and wood will result in a global land grab that will leave millions of forest people impoverished and homeless. And it is possible governments and companies will exploit confusion over ownership in rural areas to evict local people and divvy up their land. The warnings come in two reports from U.S.-based Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
World coral reefs facing extinction
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2008/07/14/feat/world.coral.reefs.facing.extinction.html
Philippine Sun-Star: Coral reef ecosystems are often hailed as the "rainforests of the seas." But unlike their counterparts, they have not given much importance by people since they could not be seen. "When trees are cut and human beings are affected as a result of flashfloods, people rallied against deforestation," explained Dr. Bernhard Riegel, associate director of the National Coral Reef Institute in the United States. "But like forests, coral reefs are also suffering the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Colombia: Andes face glacial meltdown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/13/climatechange.colombia
Guardian: Glaciers in Peru are melting so quickly that by 2015 almost all of them may have disappeared. This is not just a problem for Peru but for the whole Andean Community of Nations, including Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. These countries generate around 73% of their electricity from hydro energy. Ironically, this renewable source of energy risks disappearing because of melting glaciers caused by climate change. The report, Climate change knows no borders, provides a chilling reminder of ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia eyes 1000 polluters for carbon trading
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD11058620080713
Reuters: About 1,000 of Australia's biggest polluting companies will need to buy permits under an emissions trading scheme (ETS) expected to be introduced in 2010 to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the minister for climate change, Penny Wong said on Sunday. Australia, highly dependent on coal for making electricity and generating hundreds of billions of dollars in annual export revenue, is scheduled to release a paper on Wednesday spelling out guidelines for how it intends to implement ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia's major polluters need to buy carbon permits
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2302475.htm?tab=latest
Radio Australia: The Australian Federal Government says about a thousand of the nation's biggest polluting companies will need to buy carbon permits under its emissions trading scheme. The Government's carbon trading discussion paper will be released on Wednesday. It will canvas issues like compensation and coverage. The Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the Government's committed to a 2010 start. And she predicts about a thousand businesses will have to buy credits under the scheme. She ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Aviation industry examines alternative fuels
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/13/business/RAIRBIO.php
International Herald Tribune: Aviation emits 2 percent of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, and 3 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientific body set up by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization to review the evidence on human-induced global warming. And according to environmental advocates, including some scientists, greenhouse gases released at high altitude may trap more heat than the same gases released on the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Biodiversity Defensing Against Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080713183039.htm
ScienceDaily: Climate change is happening, and we must develop ways for all life to be able to cope. WWF Vietnam Programme is looking at this through the development of resilient multifunctional landscapes that also work as forest corridors, assisting with species dispersal and adaptation, by changes in land-use practices. The Central Annamites forests, an area known to have existed as continual forest despite climatic fluctuations of the past, stretches from evergreen forests in Vietnam and to the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Britain urges return to WWII food frugality
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/07/13/britain_urges_return_to_wwii_food_frugality/
Associated Press: Evoking an era of World War II austerity, British families are being urged to cut food waste and use leftovers in a nationwide effort to fight sharply rising global food prices. It's not back to ration books, "victory gardens," or squirrel-tail soup yet, but warning bells are being rung by experts at all levels of Britain's government as well as from the World Food Program. With food and energy prices soaring worldwide, a constant supply of high-quality, affordable ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Bush to G8: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/bush-to-g8-goodbye-from-the-worlds-biggest-polluter-863911.html
Independent: President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit. As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." President Bush made the private joke in the summit's closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry. He had ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Canada: Carbon capture can break the old energy equation
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080713.wcomment0713/BNStory/specialComment/home
Globe and Mail: Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, society has lived with a simple but problematic equation: Economic growth = energy use = environmental impact. Our ability to meet the climate challenge and sustain our quality of life depends on our ability to break that equation. To do so, we must use all of the tools and technologies available, from conservation to carbon credits and nuclear power to renewables. This week, the Alberta government announced a historic $2-billion ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Environmentalists block Australia coal port
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSYD8974720080713
Reuters: Environmental protesters in Australia brought the world's biggest coal terminal to a standstill on Sunday by blocking railway lines and chaining themselves to rail cars. Police said they arrested about 37 people who chained themselves to a train and rail tracks at the port in Newcastle, 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Sydney to protest over the impact of burning coal on climate change. "This caused three trains scheduled for Sunday to stop before getting to the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Environmentalists force way onto coal trains
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/13/2302351.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: More than a dozen environmental activists have broken through the security fence at a coal terminal at Newcastle, north of Sydney. Police shut down the train lines at the Carrington coal terminal in Newcastle before 10:00am this morning. More than 1,200 protesters have rallied at the site calling for urgent action on climate change. Just before 1:00pm, 13 protesters broke through the security fence to the train line and climbed on top of the coal carriages. ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Merkel calls for slower nuclear phase-out in Germany
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxMtHIu9BWxydWrriNkqddR0ZCXw
Agence France-Presse: Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a contentious call Sunday to slow Germany's planned phase-out of nuclear energy, amid growing fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions without it. Germany plans to mothball the last of its 17 nuclear power plants, which emit no carbon dioxide and produce a quarter of the country's electricity, by 2020 under a plan approved under Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder. But soaring energy costs and pressure to slash CO2 ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Malaysia: Tropical rainforest environ least studied: Uggah
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=58685
Daily Express: Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas said the launching of OP3-Danum project demonstrates Malaysia and United Kingdom's readiness to embark on new activities to address environmental issues of global concern, including climate change and biodiversity loss, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. He said though the tropical rainforest was one of the most dynamic forest types on this planet, its environment has been the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: 37 arrests at climate change protest
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24013123-5005961,00.html
AAP: NSW police have arrested 37 protesters who chained themselves to a train and rail tracks at the world's biggest coal export port in Newcastle to protest against climate change. About 1000 people today joined a march to the Carrington coal terminal at Newcastle Port where about 100 protesters scaled or cut through fences to enter the rail corridor, bringing the busy coal terminal to a standstill. Friends of the Earth Australia spokesman Damien Lawson said up to 50 of the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Calls for Australia to accept climate change refugees
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200807/s2302464.htm?tab=latest
Radio Australia: The Refugee Action Coalition has praised calls today for Australia to accept possible climate change refugees from islands across the Pacific. The Make Poverty History group says the Australian government's emissions trading scheme is only part of the solution to the problem facing the region. It says Australia has a moral obligation to help small Pacific nations cope with climate change, and possibly re-house their residents. Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Flood danger 'for half a million'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7501598.stm
BBC: Homeowners need to be more aware of the risk of flooding even if they have never experienced it, says the head of Wales' flood defence strategy body. Some half a million people live in areas which need to "further develop resilience" to flooding, says the Flood Risk Management Wales Committee (FRMW). Chair Geraint Davies said: "Sometimes it's difficult to bring people to believe that they are at risk." His comments came as a Barry school marked a ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Help to save the world, Pope tells Australia
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/help-save-the-world-australia/2008/07/13/1215887451535.html
Sydney Morning Herald: TEN kilometres above the earth, the Pope delivered a message to the people of Sydney: the world is God's creation and humanity needs to safeguard it against the ravages of climate change. His message, unexpected and delivered in Italian, called for a spiritual response to the environmental crisis and asked Catholics - especially young people - to find "a way of living, a style of life that eases the problems caused to the environment". "We need to rediscover our earth in the ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Germany: Merkel calls for slower nuclear phase-out
http://www.thelocal.de/13043/20080713/
Agence France-Presse: Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a contentious call on Sunday to slow Germany's planned phase-out of nuclear energy, amid growing fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions without it. Germany is planning to mothball the last of its 17 nuclear power plants by 2020 under a plan approved under Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder. But the issue has divided Germany's ruling left-right coalition, with conservatives such as Merkel favoring continued use of ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
United Kingdom: MPs criticise government over CO2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7504121.stm
BBC: The government has made "very poor progress" on reaching its own carbon emissions-cutting targets, MPs say. Ministers want departments and agencies to reduce emissions by 12.5% by 2010/11 compared with 1999/2000 levels - and to be carbon-neutral by 2012. But the environment audit committee said a cut of just 4% had been achieved by 2006/07. Chairman Tim Yeo said this damaged the government's "moral authority" on environmental issues. ...

Mon, 14 Jul 08
Australia: Pope to highlight climate and abuse
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hin05Go1clBZs3PaTZ_if3XWTR9g
Press Association: Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Australia on a pilgrimage he says he wants to use to raise awareness about global warming and address the crisis of clergy sexual abuse. Benedict's plane landed in the northern city of Darwin after a more than 20-hour flight from the Vatican. His plane was making a brief refuelling stop before flying on to Sydney, where he will lead celebrations at the World Youth Day festival. Benedict, 81, will spend three days resting at a retreat in ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Antarctic ice shelf collapse 'imminent'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-imminent-866504.html
Independent: Scientists are warning that an Antarctic ice shelf the size of Northern Ireland is on the verge of disintegration, even though it is now the middle of the southern hemisphere's winter. The European Space Agency says new satellite pictures show that the Wilkins shelf – the largest to be threatened so far – is "hanging by its last thread". Extending for approximately 5,600 square miles, it has been held in place by a thin ice bridge connecting it to an island, but this is now ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
The Great Biofuels Con
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/12/eabio112.xml
Telegraph (UK): Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels – the cropping of living plants, such as soya beans, wheat and sugar cane, to generate energy. Two years ago biofuels were still being hailed as a dream solution to what was seen as one of the most urgent problems confronting mankind – our dependence on fossil fuels, which are not only finite but seemed to be threatening the world ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
We've seen the future ... and we may not be doomed
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/weve-seen-the-future--and-we-may-unotu-be-doomed-866486.html
Independent: Humanity stands on the threshold of a peaceful and prosperous future, with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespans and increase the power of ordinary people – but is likely to blow it through inequality, violence and environmental degradation. And governments are not equipped to ensure that the opportunities are seized and disasters averted. So says a massive new international report, due to be published late this month, and obtained by The Independent on Sunday. Backed by ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Indonesia and Brazil to cooperate on biofuel
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200807131019/86d814c
Radio New Zealand: Indonesia and Brazil have agreed to cooperate on biofuels after talks covering climate change and food. The two nations on Saturday signed an agreement for Indonesia to send experts to Brazil to study its biofuel developments. After talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Indonesia can learn from Brazil's research and development. Brazil has been mixing ethanol produced from sugar cane mixed with gasoline for ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
The baby Antarctic penguins being frozen to death by freak rain storms
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1034590/The-baby-Antarctic-penguins-frozen-death-freak-rain-storms.html
Daily Mail: Tens of thousands of newly-born penguins are freezing to death as Antarctica is lashed by freak rain storms. Scientists believe the numbers of Adelie penguins may have fallen by as much as 80 per cent – and, if the downpours continue, the species will be extinct within ten years. And the Emperor penguin – made famous in the Oscar-winning documentary March Of The Penguins – is also under threat. Temperatures on the Antarctic peninsula have risen by 3C over the past 50 ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Why climate change affects women more than men
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2392795.0.why_climate_change_affects_women_more_than_men.php
Sunday Herald: WHEN THE weather turns bad, it's the women that suffer. That, in essence, is the message of a new campaign being launched by Oxfam. The international aid agency is highlighting how women around the world are hardest hit by storms, floods and droughts caused by global warming. And it is stepping up pressure on the Scottish government to agree on tough targets to cut the pollution causing the problems. Women produce most of the food in developing countries. As agricultural ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: 'Dirty' fuel firms split clean energy group
http://www.theage.com.au/national/dirty-fuel-firms-split-clean-energy-group-20080712-3e6t.html
Age: A DAMAGING rift has split Australia's top renewable energy group following an effective takeover of the organisation by fossil fuel companies. At a time when more renewable energy is needed to replace polluting forms of electricity, the Clean Energy Council has been hit with accusations that it is run for the interests of "dirty fuel" companies, including the operators of three of Victoria's brown-coal power stations. The 450-member council faces a bitter legal stoush ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: 1000 polluters forced onto carbon cap
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24012485-29277,00.html
AAP: ABOUT 1000 of the nation's biggest polluters will be required to purchase permits under an emissions trading scheme (ETS), Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has said. The Federal Government will release on Wednesday a Green Paper on an ETS, which is likely to include a proposed model. Senator Wong has said the Government estimated about 1000 Australian business would be required to take part in the scheme. "The government puts a limit on how much carbon pollution ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Big business shows politicians how the planet can be saved
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/13/climatechange
Guardian: Last week, I shared dinner with some of the most powerful men and women in the world. It was a gathering of chairmen and CEOs of major European and global companies, titans from the energy, mining and retail sectors, all there to discuss the greatest challenge facing civilisation - climate change. Almost as one, they spoke of the need for governments to take action to reverse global warming and for the carbon to be taken out of the world economy. For most people faced with images of ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
India: Bollywood goes on tour for climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/13/climatechange.india
Guardian: Bollywood's biggest stars have become the latest celebrities to join the green movement, with a world tour to highlight climate change. Names more recognisable in the Indian sub-continent than Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman will perform eight concerts, culminating in London next month with the biggest indoor Bollywood event ever to be hosted in Britain. Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Shilpa Shetty, who became embroiled in a race row in 2007 while appearing on ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: Demands for more emphasis on climate change education
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/13/2302157.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government is under pressure from the Australian Association for Environmental Education to lift its practices to educate people about climate change. The demand was made at the Australian Association for Environmental Education conference conference in Darwin, which wrapped up yesterday. The Association wants a greater emphasis on educating people to come up with ways to tackle climate change in schools, universities and in the media. Association national ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Warning bells in pole meltdown
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080713/jsp/calcutta/story_9536387.jsp
Telegraph (India): Move over cricket betting, it's time to place a wager on the North Pole becoming ice-free in the next couple of months. And scientists have put their money on the ice melting. According to researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, US, the water of the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole may be ice-free soon. Mark Serreze, a senior scientist at the centre, said the thin sea ice will melt at the geographic North Pole by September this year. "We kind of ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australian Climate Activists Climb Chimney in Protest
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aa0dwY5UsbGA&refer=asia
Bloomberg: Australian climate activists scaled a smokestack at a coal-fired power plant in Queensland, while a separate demonstration tomorrow will seek to block a rail line to Newcastle port in mounting protests against the use of coal. Four activists from the Greenpeace environmental group climbed the 140-meter-high (462 feet) chimney of the 37-year-old coal-fired Swanbank B generator yesterday and today one painted ``Go Solar'' on the smokestack, said Louise Clifton, a spokeswoman for the ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Brazilian president says speculators, not biofuels, to blame for soaring food prices
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/12/asia/AS-Indonesia-Brazil-Biofuels.php
Associated Press: Biofuel production is not to blame for soaring global food costs, Brazil's president said Saturday, calling for incentives for developing countries to grow food crops as a way out of the crisis. "Ethanol for biofuel production is not the villain that threatens food security," Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in Indonesia after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Both Brazil and Indonesia are major growers of crops that are used for biofuel ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Decisions Shut Door on Bush Clean-Air Steps
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/washington/12enviro.html?em&ex=1216008000&en=3115c9ef0aa6542b&ei=5087%0A
New York Times: Any major steps by the Bush administration to control air pollution or reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases came to a dead end on Friday, the combined result of a federal court ruling and a decision by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the morning, a federal appeals court struck down the cornerstone of the administration's strategy to control industrial air pollution by agreeing with arguments by the utility industry that the E.P.A. had exceeded its authority ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Indonesia, Brazil say to cooperate on biofuel
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSJAK162552
Reuters: The leaders of Indonesia and Brazil agreed on Saturday that their developing nations, home to much of the world's remaining tropical forest, would cooperate on biofuels after talks covering climate change and food. The two nations signed an agreement for Indonesia to send experts to Brazil to study its biofuel developments, said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "Brazil has been successful developing bioethanol and of course Indonesia can learn from the ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Pope in Australia will highlight climate change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQWrOpONrX_Zx5OMn4NLysrBsDWgD91SLF680
Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI began a pilgrimage in Australia Sunday, saying he wants to use his visit to raise awareness about global warming and to address the crisis of clergy sexual abuse. Benedict's plane landed in the northern city of Darwin in the morning after a more than 20-hour flight from the Vatican. His plane was making a brief refueling stop before flying to Sydney, where he will lead celebrations at the World Youth Day festival. Benedict, 81, will spend three days resting at ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Population drives energy prices, other global woes
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/120651
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Amid the furor over sky-high oil prices and $4 gasoline, the news media have given minimal attention to an increasingly significant factor contributing to rising energy prices: the relentless uptick in global population. We're adding 77 million energy-consuming people to the planet every year. That increase is more than triple the population of fast-growing Texas, the second-most populous state in the world's third-most populous nation. Click to view a list of the most populous ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
US government delays regulation of greenhouse gases
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h79FmgySnYl8ZPg2bb_LFlmgBKyA
Agence France-Presse: The administration of President George W. Bush has made clear it is postponing any regulatory action on greenhouse gas emissions believed to be responsible for global warning, citing "the complexity and magnitude" of the issue. The decision follows last year's ruling by the US Supreme Court, which said that the Environmental Protection Agency must devise ways to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act. But the EPA said in a ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
White House puts warming threats on back burner
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-greenhouse12-2008jul12,0,2024839.story
LA Times: The Bush administration Friday rejected its own experts' conclusion that global warming poses a threat to the public welfare, launching a comment period that will delay action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least until the next president takes office. The Environmental Protection Agency published a 588-page examination of the issues surrounding greenhouse gases but refused to adopt its staff's finding that such gases could cause disastrous flooding and drought and affect food ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Bush Says Gas Prices Causing Rethinking on Drilling
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aHzSn8poUPB4&refer=us
Bloomberg: President George W. Bush said some opponents of expanded domestic oil drilling and exploration are rethinking their positions amid the rise in gasoline prices. ``If this change of heart is real,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address, lawmakers can ``expand American oil and gas production and eventually relieve the pressure of rising prices.'' Bush is pressing Congress to open more domestic land to oil drilling in an effort to reduce energy prices. He has proposed drilling ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Cutting CO2 Could Save Dying Corals
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43163
Inter Press Service: The rapid decline of coral reefs around the world offers a potent warning that entire ecosystems can collapse due to human activities, although there is hope for reefs if immediate action is taken, coral experts agreed at the conclusion of a five-day international meeting Friday. "Reefs are in serious trouble, but don't write them off," Terry Hughes, a marine ecologist at Australia's James Cook University told 3,000 scientists, conservationists and policy makers attending at ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: Drought Down Under threatens grain harvests
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/733280?UserKey=0
Aberdeen Press and Journal: Government officials in Australia have warned that its main food-producing region – the Murray-Darling river system – may be facing permanent change because of climate change. Continuing drought conditions are causing concerns as are forecasts that indicate the coming year will be a "shocker" in terms of rainfall. Long term, there is a 60-70% chance that rainfall over the next decade will be below average annual levels. The amount of water flowing into the area is ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: Greens to lead on climate change: Brown
http://news.theage.com.au/national/greens-to-lead-on-climate-change-brown-20080712-3e37.html
AAP: Greens leader Bob Brown says his party will lead the national parliamentary debate on climate change, pushing for tougher cuts in emissions and massive funding for public transport. Addressing the Australian Greens national Council meeting in Hobart, Senator Brown said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will have failed to show mature leadership if Labor sets weak targets for emissions cuts or if it delayed implementation of an emissions trading scheme to 2012. He said the Greens wanted ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
NE faces increase in smog warnings
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/12/ne_faces_increase_in_smog_warnings/
Boston Globe: The sweltering temperatures have hardly begun, but unhealthy, smoggy air has permeated parts of New England 18 days already, and many more are in the forecast. It's not that the air suddenly got dirtier. Rather, the federal government in March lowered the threshold for declaring the air unhealthy, based on research showing that smog is far more harmful at lower concentrations than previously believed. As a result, environmental officials say there will probably be substantially ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
No Easy Answers: Coal's Future in Warming World Must Be Addressed
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1474310/no_easy_answers__coals_future_in_warming_world_must/
Charleston Gazette: COAL IS a great fuel in many ways - dirt-cheap, powerful and plentiful. I've spent many long winter evenings basking in the warmth of Preston County's finest "black gold" burning in my basement furnace. But coal has one big negative. When you burn coal, it gives off significantly more carbon dioxide than does any other fuel; and CO2 is the main greenhouse gas that causes planetary climate change, also known as global warming. For this reason, essentially all ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Pope says he wants to wake up consciences on climate change
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/07/12/europe/EU-Vatican-Pope.php
Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI says he wants to wake up consciences on climate change. The pope has told reporters while flying to Australia on a 10-day pilgrimage that people need to be spurred into changing their lifestyles because of climate change. Benedict also said he would use his trip to Australia to work for "healing" with victims of sexual abuse by clergy, as he did during a trip to the United States this year. Benedict called such abuse "incompatible" with ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Taking a new look at our forests
http://old.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20080712.E03&irec=2
Jakarta Post: Following the article on how Indonesia could benefit from carbon trading through use of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanism (The Jakarta Post, June 24, 2008), we need to clarify some underlying problems before we can use the scheme to our benefit. The REDD program is very attractive because of the financial incentives it could provide if Indonesia were to implement measures to reduce its current -- and devastating -- rates of deforestation. ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Coal-generated Carbon Dioxide Captured In Australia -- A First
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710094028.htm
Science Daily: In a first for Australia, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been captured from power station flue gases in a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. CSIRO Energy Technology Chief, Dr David Brockway, said the milestone followed the Garnaut Report's recognition that Australia has an important role to play in developing low emission coal technologies such as PCC. "PCC uses a liquid to capture CO2 from power station flue gases and can ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
EPA won't act on climate, passes onus to Congress
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080712/NEWS07/807120309
Detroit Free Press: The Bush administration, dismissing the recommendations of its top experts, rejected regulating the gases blamed for global warming Friday, saying it would cripple the U.S. economy. In a 588-page notice, the Environmental Protection Agency offered no opinion on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health or welfare, changing an earlier conclusion that it does, at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president and ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: More smoke stack protesters charged
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/12/2302081.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Four Greenpeace activists have been charged over a 33-hour protest at the Swanbank power station, west of Brisbane. The three men and one woman were arrested when they climbed down from a smoke stack where they had spent the night. They painted "Go Solar" on the side of the chimney as part of their renewable energy campaign. Police say they have been charged with wilful damage, unlawfully climbing a structure and trespassing. Nine other protesters ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Oil threatens US security, Obama says
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080712/NEWS09/807120391/-1/NEWS
Toledo Blade: Calling it one of the most dangerous weapons pointed at America, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama yesterday vowed to break the hold the "tyranny of oil'' has on the United States. "Tyrants from Caracas to Tehran use [oil] to prop up their regimes, intimidate the international communities, hold us hostage to a market that is subject to their whims,'' he said. "You know, if Iran decided to shut down the petroleum-rich Strait of Hormuz tomorrow, they believe oil ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Vatican City: Pope expresses worry about climate change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jVVnzdmc99-_-9GYSG_w7DBXUlhgD91S9FHO1
Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday he wants to wake up consciences on climate change during his pilgrimage in Australia. Benedict also told reporters while flying to Sydney to start a 10-day visit that he would work for "healing and reconciliation with the victims" of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy there "just as I did in the United States" earlier this year. Less than an hour after the pope's flight took off from Rome, Benedict walked back to the section ...

Sun, 13 Jul 08
Australia: Protest hasn't helped climate change debate: Bligh
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/12/2302059.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Queensland's Premier Anna Bligh says a Greenpeace protest against coal-fired energy at the Swanbank power station west of Brisbane has not advanced the debate on climate change. Four protestors were arrested this afternoon after spending 33 hours on top of a smoke stack. They broke into the facility yesterday with nine other activists and painted "Go Solar" on the side of chimney. Ms Bligh says it is not an appropriate way to make a point. "I ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
2 Decisions Shut Door on Bush Clean-Air Steps
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/washington/12enviro.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
New York Times: Any major steps by the Bush administration to control air pollution or reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases came to a dead end on Friday, the combined result of a federal court ruling and a decision by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the morning, a federal appeals court struck down the cornerstone of the administration's strategy to control industrial air pollution by agreeing with arguments by the utility industry that the E.P.A. had exceeded its authority ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Scientists surprised by midwinter collapse of massive ice shelf
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/scientists-surprised-by-midwinter-collapse-of-massive-ice-shelf-20080711-3dsy.html
Age: EVEN the depths of winter are proving unable to halt the climate change-induced collapse of an Antarctic ice shelf. When the Wilkins shelf began a runaway disintegration at the end of last summer, scientists thought it unlikely the collapse would continue through the pole's coldest months. But satellite images show losses growing in recent days, so that at last sight, only a thin and fractured ice bridge held the bulk of the giant shelf in place. Its loss would put the rest of ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
The texan oil baron and the winds of change
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-texan-oil-baron-and-the-winds-of-change-865830.html
Independent: Everything is bigger in Texas, even the wind turbines. They stand twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades as wide as the wings on a jumbo jet. Each one can earn hundreds of dollars every year for landowners, a whole wind farm can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's hardly a surprise then that new turbines are popping at a rate of three to four a day. Texas and oil go together like hound dogs and huntin', as the saying goes, but the black stuff that made George Bush ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
To Reduce Greenhouse Gases, Start by Shrinking Buildings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071101581.html
Washington Post: New Mexico architect Edward Mazria has a proposal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. His target: buildings. Most people do not connect the two, but in the United States, buildings are the largest source of greenhouse gases. And half of these buildings are houses. About 25 percent of building-related greenhouse gas is produced on-site by fossil-fuel-burning furnaces and water heaters. The rest is produced off-site by the local utility ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Website of the Week Rainforest Portal
http://www.voanews.com/english/Science/2008-07-11-voa22.cfm
Voice of America: Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations. Our web guide is VOA's Art Chimes. This week it's a site aimed at educating people about some of Earth's most endangered and crucial ecosystems, and urging action to protect them. BARRY: "The RainforestPortal.org is a true portal site, which means that it has a real search engine of the best-reviewed rainforest information. It tracks news, it provides links, it has a ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
White House Disavows EPA Plan on Emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071101703.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: The Bush administration yesterday unveiled but immediately disparaged a proposal to seek public comment on whether the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, declaring at the outset that the proposed approach would be unworkable. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson wrote that he is nevertheless going ahead with the process of seeking comment in order to "respond to our legal obligations in a timely manner." ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Arrests after anti-coal protest
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24008671-29277,00.html
AAP: FOUR Greenpeace activists protesting against coal-fired power have begun their descent from a 140-metre high smokestack where they have spent the past 24 hours. A Greenpeace spokesman said the three men and woman were confident opf getting across their message about the need for renewable energy during their vigil atop Swanbank Power Station, west of Brisbane. This morning two of the men abseiled down the side of the smokestack and painted "go solar". Nine ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Australian Carbon Permits Slip in Price in Latest Trading
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=al9Bez7jDUIc&refer=asia
Bloomberg: Australia's latest trade in carbon emissions has been carried out at a lower price than earlier transactions, reflecting expectations of a ``soft'' start to the market, said Newedge Australia Pty, which brokered the trade. The over-the-counter sale of 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the so-called Calendar 11 contract for settlement Feb. 1, 2012, was priced at A$18 ($17.33) a ton, said Gary Cox, Sydney-based manager of environmental derivatives at the Australian unit of ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Australian Climate Activists Occupy Smokestack in Coal Protest
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aKETCklahuMA&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australian climate activists scaled a smokestack at a coal-fired power plant in Queensland, while a separate demonstration tomorrow will seek to block a rail line to Newcastle port in mounting protests against the use of coal. Four activists from the Greenpeace environmental group climbed the 140-meter-high (462 feet) chimney of the 37-year-old coal-fired Swanbank B generator yesterday and today one painted ``Go Solar'' on the smokestack, said Louise Clifton, a spokeswoman for the ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Coral decline hits rich and poor.
http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=6893
Seoul Times: The gradual disintegration of the world's coral reefs under climate change will have significant impacts on food supplies, international tourism, water quality, and the safety of coastal communities. Marine researchers at the International Coral Research Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this week are exploring the longer term consequences of widespread loss of corals due to global warming and ocean acidification. Chair of the Climate Change session, Professor Ove ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Court rejects smog rule, says EPA went too far
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08194/896619-84.stm
Washington Post: A federal appeals court yesterday threw out a major component of the Bush administration's effort to reduce unhealthy levels of soot and smog in Eastern and Midwestern states, a decision that environmental groups worry will delay action on air pollution well into the next administration. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstepped its authority in instituting a rule ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
EPA chief sidesteps Supreme Court ruling
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/07/12/epa_chief_sidesteps_supreme_court_ruling/
LA Times: Responding to a US Supreme Court order, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that the Clean Air Act was "the wrong tool for addressing greenhouse gases" because it would be too costly for the American public and that instead Congress should move forward with passing legislation to tackle the issue. The high court had ordered the EPA more than a year ago to determine whether greenhouse gases were a danger to the public. If so, the justices said, under the ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Australia: Garnaut speaks out
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/garnaut-speaks-out/809852.aspx
Canberra Times: The solution to Australia's greenhouse gas-belching coal-fired power industry is a long way off, the author of the national Climate Change Review said yesterday. Economist Ross Garnaut told more than 1200 people at a Brisbane address it was yet to be proven whether the nation could find a way to make so-called "clean coal" technology a reality. "We don't know for sure that we can," Professor Garnaut said. "Certainly the technology is available ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
United Kingdom: RSPB warning over seabird colonies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/7646733
Press Association: Seabirds such as guillemots and kittiwakes are struggling to breed again this year, the RSPB said. The conservation charity said early reports of breeding performance of internationally-important populations of seabirds at its coastal reserves indicated continuing problems. The RSPB said annual breeding failures were probably linked to the impacts of climate change on the birds' food sources, with fewer fish available for them to eat. As a result cliffs which should be ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Warming, growth threaten Southeast's water
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/071208/geo_302880007.shtml
Associated Press: A new study says global warming and population growth threaten the Southeast's already precarious water supplies by fueling more extreme weather and degrading water quality. The report's summary says the changes will probably end the region's traditionally inexpensive access to water. The study was commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund and conducted by scientists from the U.S. Forest Service. It looked at four major river basins that run through Alabama, the Carolinas, ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Argentina: Going, going, gone ... dam breaks for first time in winter
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/going-going-gone-dam-breaks-for-first-time-in-winter/809260.aspx
Agence France-Presse: A natural ice dam in southern Argentina broke open spectacularly on Wednesday the first time it has burst in winter, prompting experts to say climate change was the reason. The 60m high wall of ice from the Perito Moreno glacier that usually divides Lake Argentina in Patagonia bursts from time to time under the built-up pressure of the held-back water. The event is one of the prime tourist attractions of Argentina. But until now it has occurred in the warmer ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Judges Toss EPA Rule To Reduce Smog, Soot
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071101476.html?hpid=topnews?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: A federal appeals court yesterday threw out a major component of the Bush administration's effort to reduce unhealthy levels of soot and smog in Eastern and Midwestern states, a decision that environmental groups worry will delay action on air pollution well into the next administration. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in instituting a rule that would have ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Lawsuit filed over Colorado gas drilling plans
http://www.examiner.com/a-1484326~Lawsuit_filed_over_Colorado_gas_drilling_plans.html
Associated Press: A coalition of 10 environmental groups has filed a lawsuit seeking to block a sale next month of oil and gas leases on the Roan Plateau, an area with pristine backcountry that nearby residents, Gov. Bill Ritter and others hope to protect. The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver asks a judge to issue an injunction to stop the Bureau of Land Management from offering the leases in an Aug. 14 auction. About 55,186 acres of public land on the plateau, about 180 ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Australia: Push for 2050 emissions target rejected
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/world/world/general/push-for-2050-emissions-target-rejected/808110.aspx
Canberra Times: LEADERS of the world's emerging economies have rejected a push from the Group of Eight industrialised nations, backed by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to commit to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new international deal to tackle climate change. On the final day of the G8 summit in Japan, a declaration by the world's major emitting economies refused to endorse the rich world's goal of halving emissions by 2050. Mr Rudd, who addressed the meeting between ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Study: Southeast's Cheap Access To Water At Risk
http://www.wapt.com/weather/16855602/detail.html?rss=jac&psp=news
Associated Press: A new study says global warming and population growth threaten the Southeast's already precarious water supplies by fueling more extreme drought and degrading water quality. The report's summary said that the changes will probably put an end to the region's traditionally inexpensive access to water. The study was commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund and conducted by scientists at the U.S. Forest Service. It looked at four major river basins that run through Mississippi, ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Administration rejects regulating greenhouse gases
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ifTIO4F-5F4uJL8wnzMbDs3wSzzAD91S0AR80
Associated Press: The Bush administration, dismissing the recommendations of its top experts, rejected regulating the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming Friday, saying it would cripple the U.S. economy. In a 588-page federal notice, the Environmental Protection Agency made no finding on whether global warming poses a threat to people's health or welfare, reversing an earlier conclusion at the insistence of the White House and officially kicking any decision on a solution to the next president ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Climate change: US environmental agency set to delay emissions regulation until end of Bush term
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/11/climatechange.usa
Guardian: The US environmental protection agency (EPA) is expected today to announce that no action will be taken to regulate carbon emissions while George Bush remains president. The EPA's decision to sit on its hands comes after months of wrangling between government scientists, who pressed for action in the wake of a landmark US supreme court ruling, and White House officials dead set against regulating pollution. The supreme court ordered the EPA in April 2007 to officially rule on ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Depleted fish stocks threaten seabird survival
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/11/easeabird111.xml
Telegraph: Mass nesting failure year after year is threatening the future of world famous spectacular seabird colonies - and climate change could be the cause. The warning signs may not be apparent to the tourists enjoying views of kittiwakes, guillemots and puffins on the cliffs of Sumburgh Head at the southern tip of Scotland's Shetland Isles or at remote Fair Isle, 25 miles out to sea. "Wildlife is a major reason why people take holidays on Shetland and during a short visit ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
EPA Refuses to Regulate Greenhouse Gases
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102777
New York Times: The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday disavowed any obligation to regulate greenhouse gases under existing law, saying that to do so would involve an "unprecedented expansion" of the agency's authority that would have "a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy." The comments by Stephen Johnson, the E.P.A. administrator, reinforced a message that the Bush administration has been sending for months: that it does not intend to impose any ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
EPA Won't Act on Emissions This Year
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/10/AR2008071003087.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce today that it will seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming to human health and welfare -- a matter that federal climate experts and ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Canada: Forest fires, drought, disease
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=9d5b3737-7df0-434c-8ad5-c5d0e080fdf9
Edmonton Journal: More forest fires, unreliable water supplies, volatile farming conditions and the emergence of unfamiliar diseases -- these are among the impacts Albertans can expect from a warming climate, a new report to the provincial government says. The three-year study, one of the first to assess the vulnerability of Alberta's communities and industries to climate change, suggests the province must act quickly with new infrastructure and planning if it hopes to successfully adapt to the ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
G8: India and China tell rich nations to lead greenhouse gas curbs
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4305290.ece
Times (UK): India and China rejected the Group of Eight's declaration on climate change yesterday as leaders of the developing world demanded that rich countries should take a stronger lead on preventing global warming. On the last day of their summit in Japan leaders of the G8 met their counterparts from emerging economic powers in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but failed to reach a collective agreement on reducing the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Their joint statement ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Logging Industry Misleads on Climate and Forest Fires
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/logging_industry_misleads_on_climate_and_forest_fires/C41/L41/
New West: Recent editorials by timber industry spokespersons are a wildly misleading attempt to promote increased logging of western U.S. forests under the guise of reducing wildland fires and mitigating climate change. The timber industry fails to mention, however, that logging is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (Schlesinger, "Biogeochemistry: an analysis of global change", Academic Press, 1997). A recent scientific study found that completely protecting our national forests ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Oil sands: Canada's dirty secret
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/11/fossilfuels.pollution
Guardian: The Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler is the world's biggest truck. It's taller than a four-storey house, as wide as a tennis court and it removes nearly 35,000 tonnes of oily sand a day from a deep open cast mine in northern Alberta in western Canada. Truck number 108 is driven by Norman Johnson, 63, a long-time Shell man who is planning to spend his retirement fishing, camping and "hunting the critters" in the vast boreal forests and bogs that stretch across the region. ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Toyota to Build Prius in US, Slash Truck Output
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49309/story.htm
Reuters: Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it would start building its Prius hybrid in the United States in 2010 and suspend production of slow-selling big trucks for three months in a sharp reversal of strategy forced by slumping sales and high gas prices. The unusual and costly moves by Toyota, now the global auto sales leader, underscored the pressure across the industry as major automakers scuttle truck production and take steps to ramp up output of passenger cars to keep up with a ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
US EPA Chills Progress Towards Regulating Greenhouse Gases
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008/2008-07-11-10.asp
Environment News Service: The Bush administration today asked for public comment on a long list of options for controlling greenhouse gas emissions under existing federal law, but emphasized that it has no intention of pursuing any of them. The announcement confirms that the Bush administration will not move to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and will pass this concern on to the next president and to Congress. The advanced notice of proposed rulemaking released today by the U.S. Environmental ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Antarctic ice shelf 'hanging on by a thread'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/11/2301297.htm?site=science&topic=latest
Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Australia Food-Bowl Drought Worsens, Rains Spare Wheat
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49304/story.htm
Reuters: The prolonged drought in Australia's Murray-Darling river system is worsening and the country's main food bowl may forever be changed by accelerating climate warming, government officials said on Thursday. The drought will hit irrigated crops like rice, grapes and horticulture the hardest, but would have less impact on output of wheat, which depends largely on rainfall during specific periods and is on track to double after two years of shrunken crops. "Regrettably, the drought ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Car Tax Changes to Leave 9 Million Worse Off
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49302/story.htm
Reuters: The drivers of nine million cars, nearly half of all those in Britain, will be worse off under government plans to raise vehicle duty for polluting cars, according to figures from the Treasury. The Conservatives said the news contradicted Prime Minister Gordon Brown's comment in parliament that the majority of motorists would benefit from the changes. Currently, cars bought after March 2001 and registered before March 2006 are liable for a maximum of 210 pounds in car ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Climate deal still remote after US rebuffed
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd86249e-4f5b-11dd-b050-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: The prospect of an international agreement on climate change appears as remote as ever after a week of frantic negotiations in which a US concession met a rebuff from developing countries. Negotiators were on Friday trying to regroup for the next stages of the United Nations negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto protocol, the main provisions of which expire in 2012. In six weeks, they will meet in Ghana to resume talks on the shape of a global agreement which must be ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Coral Reefs Face Extinction
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1821971,00.html
Time Magazine: You don't have to be a marine biologist to understand the importance of corals – just ask any diver. The tiny underwater creatures are the architects of the beautiful, electric-colored coral reefs that lie in shallow tropical waters around the world. Divers swarm to them not merely for their intrinsic beauty, but because the reefs play host to a wealth of biodiversity unlike anywhere else in the underwater world. Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of total marine species. Take out the ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Corals join frogs and toads as world's most endangered
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn14295-corals-join-frogs-and-toads-as-worlds-most-endangered.html?feedId=online-news_rss20
New Scientist: Within one generation, diving on coral reefs could be a very rare holiday opportunity. The first comprehensive review of tropical coral species reveals that over one-quarter reef-building coral species already face extinction. This means corals join frogs and toads as the most threatened group of animal species on the planet. There are 845 known species of corals that build reefs and live in symbiosis with algae. Not enough is known about 141 of these to determine how ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Court Rejects Clean Air Rules
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102776
New York Times: A federal appeals court struck down the regulatory cornerstone of the Bush administration's efforts at controlling air pollution on Friday, agreeing with the utility industry that the Environmental Protection Agency had exceeded its authority when it established the 2005 Clean Air Interstate Rule. North Carolina and some companies that produce electric power opposed some parts of the regulation, creating a rare instance in which President Bush found himself allied with enviromental ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Despite court ruling, EPA won't move on greenhouse gases
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/43988.html
McClatchy Newspapers: Despite a Supreme Court order telling it to act, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that it couldn't propose any regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act because the issue was too complex and there were too many objections from other federal agencies. Critics said the EPA announcement, contained in a 588-page report that calls for 120 days of public comment, was tantamount to the Bush administration refusing to carry out a Supreme Court order. But EPA ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Dutch eye role as CO2 capture and storage hub
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL116761620080711
Reuters: Rotterdam is seeking to extend its role as an energy hub to become a carbon dioxide (CO2) collector for north West Europe, leading players in the Rotterdam Climate Initiative said on Friday. Home to Europe's biggest port, a major hub for oil, coal and biofuels, Rotterdam is counting on plans to capture and store CO2 in old gas fields so it can pursue industrial development and also meet ambitious targets to cut emissions by 2025. The initiative, a platform for local ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Eco Nightclub Set for Launch in British Capital
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49303/story.htm
Reuters: Welcome to Surya -- self-styled "world's first ecological nightclub" where cyclists and walkers get free admission to a club with dancefloor so high-tech it generates its own electricity when people move on it. When clubbers need a rest from strutting their stuff on the dancefloor they can relieve themselves at the latest air flush, waterless urinals and low flush toilets as well as taking the opportunity to freshen up with the club's automatic taps. If Princes Harry and ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
EPA says climate rules are the job of US Congress
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7646135
Reuters: The top U.S. environmental regulator on Friday declined to make rules to regulate planet-warming emissions under existing pollution laws despite a Supreme Court decision that has pressured his agency to act. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson said Congress should make rules to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming. U.S. lawmakers said the Bush Administration has saddled the next president with the ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
EPA: Smog could get worse with global warming
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D91RLMHG2.htm
BusinessWeek: Global warming could worsen smog and stretch what typically is a summer pollution problem into the spring and fall, government scientists predicted Thursday. Smog is most likely to get worse in the Northeast, lower Midwest, and mid-Atlantic regions of the country, where numerous counties and cities are already struggling to clean up the air, according to a draft analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency. But in Texas and Southern California, already among the smoggiest ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Excerpts from greenhouse gas decision documents
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i890tqz0qGk9NpKYZacUe60F2NiAD91RT8A81
Associated Press: Key excerpts from Environmental Protection Agency, White House and other government documents on the Bush administration's decision rejecting regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act: "I believe this Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking demonstrates the Clean Air Act ... is ill-suited for the task of regulating global greenhouse gases. Based on the analysis to date, pursuing this course of action would inevitably result in a very complicated, time-consuming and ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
United States: Feinstein, Schwarzenegger Propose Solution To Water Woes
http://www.hometownstation.com/local-news/schwarzenegger-santa-clarita-2008-07-11-14-32.html
KHTS Radio: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a compromise plan to the Legislature on Thursday to update California's water system by increasing storage, improving conveyance, protecting the Delta's ecosystem and promoting greater water conservation. "There is an urgent need for comprehensive water reform, and this bipartisan plan is offered as a potential compromise that puts us on the path toward restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, expanding water ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
French Uranium Leak Was Low Level-Safety Authority
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49310/story.htm
Reuters: France's nuclear safety authority (ASN) said on Thursday it had provisionally classified a leak of liquid containing uranium on a site in southeastern France earlier this week at level one of the INES nuclear scale. The International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), used to measure the potential danger of incidents at nuclear installation, has seven levels, the lowest of which is zero. Areva said late on Tuesday that 30 cubic metres of liquid containing uranium, which was not enriched, was ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Green architecture's new goal: stylish sustainability
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/07/11/green-architecture%E2%80%99s-new-goal-stylish-sustainability/
Christian Science Monitor: If you're one of many who identify "green" buildings as an ecological necessity but as an aesthetic blight, you're hardly alone. Architect Rebecca Henn, a juror in this year's American Institute of Architecture competition for top environmental designs, noted, "The big box store that could have been an exemplar of sustainability was, frankly, really ugly.... If we don't hold beauty and sustainability as equal cultural commitments, then we might as well hand over our licenses and call ourselves ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Lack of Details in G8 Agreement on Climate Change Brings Criticism
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-07-11-voa2.cfm
Voice of America: Leaders of the Group of Eight met this week on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The G-Eight countries include Britain, Canada, France and Germany. The others are Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. In a statement on the situation in Zimbabwe, the leaders deplored the actions of the government of President Robert Mugabe. They said they will take financial and other measures against those responsible for violence in connection with the recent presidential election. ...

Sat, 12 Jul 08
Australia: Murray River in crisis: Shame of a nation
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24006877-5007132,00.html
Daily Telegraph: IT HAS been celebrated in film, poetry and song, but today the nation's most iconic river is on the verge of collapse - and does anybody care? Exactly 25 years after we rallied to save the Franklin River, The Daily Telegraph today calls on Australians to wake up and act to rescue the Murray River from its long, slow death. With scientists declaring the river is on life support, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is under pressure to drop everything and focus his attention on saving the ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Australia: Grim forecasts as Murray-Darling Basin hits new low
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24001681-2862,00.html
Herald Sun: THE once mighty Murray-Darling is now little more than a creek. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission yesterday revealed that June inflows to the parched river system were the lowest on record. Just 95 gigalitres flowed into the system last month, down from the previous low of 106 gigalitres in June 2006. The average is 680 gigalitres. The report backs up predictions that the Murray-Darling will be dry by the end of the century. Commission chair Wendy ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Malaysia: 19 NGOs Protest Against Proposed Logging In Hulu Muda Forest Reserve
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20080710/tts-logging-protest-bm-993ba14.html
Bernama: Nineteen non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have voiced their protest against the state government's proposal to carry out logging in the Hulu Muda forest reserve. Calling themseles the Coaltion of Friends of Hulu Muda, the NGOs said logging in the forest reserve would only destroy the environment there, including the water catchments which supplied water to Kedah, Penang and Perlis. Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak recently announced that the state government planned ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
A Third of Corals Face Extinction
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43141
Inter Press Service: One third of reef-building corals already face extinction because of climate change, the first-ever global assessment has found. Reefs are made up of hundreds of coral species, and a two-year study to determine the current status of corals has discovered that 231 of the 704 species assessed will be "red-listed" Thursday. This means these 231 species meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Criteria for species at risk of extinction in the near ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
America's Best Places For Alternative Energy
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/09/energy-solar-green-biz-energy-cx_bp_0709atlas.html?feed=rss_news
Forbes: The "cubic mile of oil"--a metric roughly equivalent to the amount of oil consumed worldwide each year--is frequently used to explain the challenge facing solar, wind, geothermal and biomass power. So, what would it take to replace the amount of energy in a cubic mile of oil Roughly 4.2 billion wind turbines, 91.2 solar panels, 2,500 nuclear power plants or 200 Three Gorges Dams, according to Menlo Park, Calif., nonprofit research institute SRI International. In other words, ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
As planet swelters, are algae unlikely saviour?
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ir4Mg2eQ23RPDhBkH2BnulZai-ZA
Agence France-Presse: As the world mulls over the conundrum of how to satisfy a seemingly endless appetite for energy and still slash greenhouse gas emissions, researchers have stumbled upon an unexpected hero: algae. So-called microalgae hold enormous potential when it comes to reining in both climate change, since they naturally absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, as well as energy production, since they can easily be converted to a range of different fuel types. "This is certainly one of ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Biofuels And Biodiversity Don't Mix, Ecologists Warn
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708200621.htm
Science Daily: Rising demand for palm oil will decimate biodiversity unless producers and politicians can work together to preserve as much remaining natural forest as possible, ecologists have warned. A new study of the potential ecological impact of various management strategies found that very little can be done to make palm oil plantations more hospitable for local birds and butterflies. The findings have major implications for the booming market in biofuels and its impact on ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Breakthrough in solar energy: ten times more effective solar power may be available in three years
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0710-hance_solar.html
Mongabay: The breakthrough scientists have been waiting for to make solar power cheaper, more efficient--and therefore a more effective replacement for traditional energy sources--has been made by a group of MIT researchers. The researchers have updated a relic power source developed in the 1970s called luminescent solar concentrator or LSC. An LSC collects light through dyes painted on a transparent surface; the light is then transported across the surface to solar cells at the edge. In the ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Global Warming Talks Leave Few Concrete Goals
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102680
New York Times: Nearly everyone had something to cheer about on Wednesday after the major industrial powers and a big group of emerging nations pledged to pursue "deep cuts" in emissions of heat-trapping gases in coming decades. President Bush, who had insisted that any commitment to combat global warming must involve growing economies as well as the rich nations, recruited China and India to the table and received rare accolades from some environmentalists for doing so. The developing ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
One-third Of Reef-building Corals Face Extinction
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080710142935.htm
Science Daily: A third of reef-building corals around the world are threatened with extinction, according to the first-ever comprehensive global assessment to determine their conservation status. The study findings were published today by Science Express. Leading coral experts joined forces with the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) -- a joint initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) -- to apply the IUCN Red List Categories and ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Reef Corals Face Extinction Due to Global Warming, Over-Fishing
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a2UEl1WOcKnM&refer=australia
Bloomberg: A third of reef-building corals face extinction as global warming adds to other man-made threats including over-fishing and coastal development. A team of 39 researchers assessed the state of 704 coral species and found 32.8 percent are threatened with extinction. The study results, published today in the journal Science, are ``worse than expected,'' said co-author Suzanne Livingstone, a marine biologist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. ``When we began this ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
A low carbon diet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/10/renewableenergy.oil
Guardian: The UK government's renewables consultation called for a green revolution in energy. In doing so, it created a perfect tabloid rod for its own back. The proposed cost-to-consumer calculated by the Department of Business were based on the vanishingly unlikely prospect of an oil price as low as $70 a barrel in 2020. Expected additions to UK energy bills, at that oil price, would be 10-13% for electricity and 18-37% for gas, the government said. Cue outrage. The tabloid press the next ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
A third of reef-building corals threatened with extinction: scientists
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g-ZMAzAk7phx4Ats1UqPERqQsKEA
Agence France-Presse: A third of reef-building corals worldwide are threatened with extinction due to climate change and water pollution, according to the first global assessment on the marine creature by 39 scientists. Destructive fishing and the degradation of coastal habitats also posed threats, said the study published Thursday involving the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International. "The results of this study are very disconcerting," said ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Blowing the whistle on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/10/climatechange.dickcheney
Guardian: While George Bush and other G8 leaders were busy touting their agreement in Hokkaido to halve global emissions by 2050 as "a significant step forward" for climate action, this week's real story on climate flew under the radar back in the US, as a former Environmental Protection Agency official went public with allegations that vice-president Dick Cheney's office interfered directly with information about the threats posed to humankind by climate change. In a letter (pdf) ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Bush concedes need for climate target
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c79375f4-4d4f-11dd-b527-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: George W. Bush, US president, bowed to pressure from other world leaders on climate change yesterday and agreed for the first time to a long-term target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The decision at the Group of Eight meeting of industrialised nations in Japan to set a goal of halving emissions by 2050, in line with scientific advice,is likely to be the US leader's final contribution to the climate change debate. The G8 leaders agreed to "consider and adopt . . . the ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Coral Reef Meltdown
http://www.counterpunch.org/farago07102008.html
CounterPunch: The past few days I've been thinking about Dr. James Speth's call for "civic unreasonableness" and NASA's Dr. James Hansen's appeal for scientists to drop "objectivity" from muting their involvement, communicating to the public the impacts of global warming. Of the canaries in the climate change coal mine, the coral reef is one of the most visible. A listserve for coral reef scientists and professionals is buzzing with comments that US government agencies and ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
G-8 Summit Highlights Disparities About Global Warming
http://voanews.com/english/2008-07-10-voa12.cfm
Voice of America: This week's summit of advanced economy leaders in Japan produced first steps toward a global climate agreement. However, it also spotlighted gaps on the issue both between rich and poor nations and between the world's biggest polluters and several nations who are rapidly catching up. VOA's Kurt Achin has more from Hokkaido, Japan. Tradition and policy prohibit the host country of the so-called "G-8" summit from naming specific leaders when briefing the media about summit ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
GE renewables investment passes $4 billion mark
http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/0710geb.html
Environmental Finance: GE Energy Financial Services has now invested more than $4 billion in renewable energy – taking it two thirds of the way to its target of $6 billion by 2010. "We have reached the $4 billion milestone just five months after hitting $3 billion, confirming that renewable energy is our fastest-growing business," said Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services. The unit of GE is to invest $100 million in three wind farms in New York State, under development ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Greenpeace asks G8 leaders to support forest protection action
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/6446670.html
Xinhua: Greenpeace campaigners in Indonesia asked the country's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono who is attending the G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, to request the seriousness of the G8 leaders in supporting an effective funding mechanism for the forest protection in tropical areas, a release said here. Leaders from Eight Industrialized nations, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia and the United states, met from July 7 to 9 in the annual summit with surging oil and food ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Kofi Annan says G8 pledges must be backed with clear plans
http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/africa-news/kofi-annan-says-g8-pledges-must-be-backed-with-clear-plans-200807108705.html
Afrique en ligne: The Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former secretary general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, Thursday issued a detailed response to the announcements and developments at the G-8 summit which was held in Hokkaido, Japan. He said "The urgent task now must be for the G-8 to follow up the commitments with clear, time-bound plans for implementation." "The forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, presents a critical moment to get this right – ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Canada: Lyme disease risk swells as ticks fan out
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080710.wllyme10/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home
Globe and Mail: The small, blacklegged ticks that cause Lyme disease are popping up in new regions across the country, prompting the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop new maps to educate the public about the spreading risk. The tick population in Canada used to be confined to one region of Ontario, on the Long Point peninsula in Lake Erie. But in the past 10 years, the bugs have spread across the country, carried by the birds on which they feed, and Public Health says doctors should ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
New heatwave threatens to give Calif. fires new life
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wildfires/2008-07-08-california-wildfires_N.htm?csp=34
Associated Press: Firefighters faced worsening weather conditions Tuesday that pushed flames across firebreaks in parts of California and chased residents out of one small community. The change came from a high pressure system setting up over the entire West, said Mike Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "So in addition to the very warm temperatures we're getting, we'll also be getting a little bit of offshore wind ... which keeps the moist marine air from coming ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Redecorate Your Yard and Help Reverse Global Warming
http://www.richfieldreaper.com/articles/2008/07/08/ara/home_improvement/7622.txt
ARA: With the growing popularity of green building practices, more companies are incorporating environmental and sustainability policies. These are all positive steps toward reducing the impact of global warming and caring for our earth. But what do you really know about a product you buy that is labeled green? Is it really environmentally friendly, or is it just a marketing scheme? And how much of a difference is it actually making? "Green and sustainable forestry practices are a ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Researchers in Illinois Study Impact of Environment on Crop Yields
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-07-10-voa23.cfm
Voice of America: The growing demand for food worldwide has helped push the price of many commodities to record levels. Besides demand, prices are influenced by other factors such as weather patterns and pollutants that can affect crop yields. At the University of Illinois in Urbana, researchers are studying the effects pollutants have on crop growth. As VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, the researchers say they can accurately predict future carbon levels in the atmosphere and in the world's farm fields. ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Unsafe abortions kill some 68,000 women annually, says World Bank report
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/10/content_8525830.htm
Xinhua: Some 68,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions, while another 5.3 million suffer temporary or permanent disability as a result, a World Bank report released Thursday said. The report, Fertility Regulation Behaviors and Their Costs, said many poor women turn to abortion as a last-resort means of birth control. Despite a huge increase in contraception globally, 51 million unintended pregnancies in developing countries occur every year to women not using contraception. ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
World climate change commitments a long way off: Rudd
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/11/2300640.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has acknowledged the world is a long way from achieving the consensus he has been calling for on climate change. Mr Rudd says modest progress on commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions was achieved at the G8 major economies meeting on the part of developed countries. But he has told the Australia Network's Newshour program commitments from both developed and developing countries are a long way off. "But you can either sit back ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
'Alarming' plight of coral reefs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7498502.stm
BBC: third of the world's reef-building coral species are facing extinction. That is the stark conclusion from the first global study to assess the extinction risks of corals. Writing in the journal Science, researchers say climate change, coastal development, overfishing, and pollution are the major threats. The economic value of the world's reefs has been estimated at over $30bn (£15bn) per year, through tourism, fisheries and coastal protection. "The ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
1/3 of corals face extinction
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0710-reefs.html
Mongabay: Nearly one-third of reef-building corals are vulnerable to extinction, according to an assessment of 845 species of coral. Rising temperatures, increased incidence of disease, and human disturbance are driving the trend. Assessing the conservation status of corals from around the world using IUCN Red List Criteria, an international team of researchers found that 32.8 percent of reef-building corals are in categories with elevated risk of extinction. At greatest risk are corals in the ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Biggest polluters back deep cuts to emissions
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/23ee8046-4d64-11dd-8143-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: The world's biggest polluters agreed on Wednesday on the need for "deep cuts" in greenhouse gas emissions, but differences between developed and emerging economies kept them from setting specific targets. Climate change has been the most contentious topic at this year's Group of Eight summit in Japan, which the heads of big emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil were invited to join on the third and final day. EDITOR'S CHOICE Bush agrees to target on greenhouse ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
China 'committed to fighting' climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-07/10/content_6834200.htm
Xinhua: The world has to fight climate change together but the responsibilities of the developed and developing countries in this battle has to be different, President Hu Jintao reiterated yesterday. Speaking at the Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change, he said global warming is the common concern of the world. But the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reflects the international consensus on the "common but differentiated responsibilities" of different ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
G8 patches up climate deal, others want more
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL0354034920080710
Reuters: Group of Eight leaders patched together a deal to fight climate change at a summit that wound up on Wednesday, but failed to convince big emerging economies that rich countries were doing enough. Climate change was the most contentious topic at this year's G8 summit in Japan, which also tackled political problems from the crisis in Zimbabwe to worsening security in Afghanistan as well as soaring food and oil prices and poverty in Africa. "There's been no huge breakthrough ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Argentina: Huge ice tunnel collapses into lake
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/10/Huge_ice_tunnel_collapses_into_lake/UPI-64851215696105/
United Press International: A 200-foot ice tunnel on a glacier in Argentina collapsed in a rare winter rupture some park wardens blamed on global warming. The collapse on the Perito Moreno Glacier in the Los Glaciares National Park in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz was "the first time the glacier has broken up in the wintertime," park warden Carlos Corvalan told London's The Telegraph newspaper. The glacier, an important tourist attraction, collapses into Lake Argentino every two to 10 years due to ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Is carbon offsetting pie in the sky?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/07/10/carbon.offset/
CNN: The evidence seems incontrovertible: If you get on a plane these days, you are almost certainly contributing to climate change. Dark clouds still hang over the carbon offset industry. Although arguments vary about the scale of the impact of the aviation industry, scientists, politicians and the industry itself acknowledge airlines are a major source of carbon emissions. The European Union estimates airlines contribute about three percent of all carbon dioxide emissions ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
Suburbs feeling the pinch as fuel prices soar
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/080710/us/usreport_usa_planning_dc_1
Reuters: Ever since the rise of the automobile in the 1950s, the American Dream has featured a home in the suburbs and two cars in the garage. Now the iconic white picket fence comes with a hefty price tag in the form of the cost of the gasoline needed to drive to work and to the supermarket, and the suburban idyll is under review. In different parts of the United States, there are signs of change. While home prices in the suburbs have crashed, apartments in city centers are in demand. ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
UW researchers, others warn of expanding biofuels in tropics
http://www.madison.com/tct/news//295613
Capital Times: Biofuels, by recycling atmospheric carbon, are a potential boon to the world's ailing climate. But efforts in the tropics to significantly expand biofuel production by replacing tropical forests with oil palm, sugarcane and other agricultural biofuels could speed climate change, a new study warns. In Wednesday's issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters, a team of researchers from the UW-Madison and other universities cautions that expanding biofuel crop production in ...

Fri, 11 Jul 08
World Bank urges more focus on contraception
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL10417236.html
Reuters: More emphasis is needed on family planning issues in poor countries, the World Bank said on Thursday, citing new data that it said showed 51 million unplanned pregnancies occur because women lack access to contraceptives. In a report released ahead of World Population Day on Friday, the World Bank said another 25 million pregnancies in developing countries occur because contraceptives are incorrectly used or because birth control measures fail. "It's simply tragic that so ...

Thu, 10 Jul 08
G8 deal on global warming inadequate: UN environment chief
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzp4oBX1d676B71ogAhu7JGsw7gA
Agence France-Presse

Thu, 10 Jul 08
'Some plant species seem to defy climate change'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Global_Warming/Some_plant_species_seem_to_defy_climate_change/articleshow/3214612.cms
Indo-Asian News Service

Thu, 10 Jul 08
Bush: 'Significant progress' on climate change
http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/09/news/international/bush_environment.ap/?postversion=2008070909
Associated Press: President Bush on Wednesday hailed the move by G-8 leaders to coalesce behind a broad climate-change strategy, saying in a valedictory to summitry that 'significant progress' has been made on global warming. 'In order to address climate change, all major economies must be at the table, and that's what took place today,' Bush said. Environmentalists said the summit's broad pledge to work toward slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 did not go far enough. In fact, five ...

Thu, 10 Jul 08
G-8 summit ends with heavy focus on climate, action on Africa and Zimbabwe
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080709/tap-as-g-8-summit-d3b07b8.html
Associated Press: Top economies and developing nations joined hands in the fight against climate change Wednesday, vowing support for U.N.-led global warming talks at the conclusion of a sprawling summit that pledged more aid for Africa and condemned Zimbabwe's disputed presidential vote. On the final day of a three-day Group of Eight summit, a U.S.-sponsored group of 16 countries and the European Union said they would set medium- and long-term goals to reduce greenhouse gases to save the planet from ...

Thu, 10 Jul 08
G-8 summit ends without climate-target deal
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25600037/
Associated Press: Top economies and developing nations joined hands in the fight against climate change Wednesday, vowing support for U.N.-led global warming talks at the conclusion of a sprawling summit that pledged more aid for Africa and condemned Zimbabwe's disputed presidential vote. On the final day of a three-day Group of Eight summit, a U.S.-sponsored group of 16 countries and the European Union said they would set medium- and long-term goals to reduce greenhouse gases to save the planet from ...

Thu, 10 Jul 08
United States: Shasta defies melting trend
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080709/wire/807090375&tc=yahoo
Associated Press: Global warming is shrinking glaciers all over the world, but the seven tongues of ice creeping down Mount Shasta's flanks are a rare exception: They are the only long-established glaciers in the lower 48 states that are growing. Reaching more than 14,000 feet above sea level, Mount Shasta is one of the state's tallest peaks, dominating the landscape of high plains and conifer forests in far Northern California. Nearby Indian tribes referred to its glaciers as the footsteps made by the ...

Thu, 10 Jul 08
World ports tackle greenhouse gas emissions
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iGn99UWqCXB6EXc1Z4hThbUBhy8g
Agence France-Presse: Alongside scientists, lawmakers and businessmen, officials from more than 50 ports in 35 countries started a three-day meeting in the home of Europe's largest harbour to talk about regulatory and technological ways of shrinking their contribution to global warming. But the setting of measurable common targets appeared to be a long way off as speakers differed on such basics as the maritime transport industry's contribution to global greenhouse gas emission -- put at anything from 1.4 ...

Thu, 10 Jul 08
Cheney accused of suppressing testimony on climate change's risks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/08/dickcheney.usa
Guardian: The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, intervened to gag a senior official from testifying last year to the public health problems caused by climate change, according to a Bush administration whistleblower. In a letter released today, the former climate adviser at the US environmental protection agency (EPA) said Cheney's office pushed to delete "any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change" from testimony by America's senior disease control ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia Activists to Block World's Top Coal Port
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49259/story.htm
Reuters: Environmentalists plan to block one of two rail lines into the world's biggest coal export port in Australia at the weekend, amid wrangling by rich nations over efforts to combat climate change, they said on Tuesday. Any disruption to coal shipments from the Newcastle port could give another boost to benchmark coal prices that are already near record highs at nearly US$195 a tonne, having more than trebled in a year. Up to 1,000 protesters are planning on Sunday to block the ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Cheney's Office Is Accused of Editing CDC Testimony
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102617
New York Times: Vice President Dick Cheney's office was involved in removing statements on health risks posed by global warming from a draft of a health official's Senate testimony last year, a former senior government environmental official said on Tuesday. The former official, Jason K. Burnett, made the assertion and described similar incidents in a three-page letter to Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who is the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He then ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU States Endorse Steps to Cut Standby Power Use
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49257/story.htm
Reuters: European Union states approved a proposal for dramatic cuts in standby electricity consumption by household and office electrical appliances, the European Commission said on Tuesday. The so-called Ecodesign regulation, due to be adopted by the end of this year, will force manufacturers to cut the power used by computers, printers, photocopiers, televisions and other devices when on standby by 73 percent by 2020. "It is a concrete contribution to reach the EU's energy ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
White House in Climate Change "Cover Up" - Sen Boxer
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49265/story.htm
Reuters: A leading US Senate Democrat accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of a "cover-up" aimed at stopping the Environmental Protection Agency from tackling greenhouse emissions. "This cover-up is being directed from the White House and the office of the vice president," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. At issue is a preliminary finding by the EPA last December that ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
A deal on climate change - but then the backlash
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/09/3
Guardian: A new global deal on climate change heralded by G8 leaders as a significant step forward yesterday ran into trouble within hours as developing nations including China and India rejected it because they believe the commitments are not strong enough. After years of US intransigence, President George Bush finally signed up to a G8 statement vowing to "consider and adopt" a target of at least a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, an agreement described by the prime ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Blow to biofuels expansion
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a57b97a4-4d4e-11dd-b527-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: Contentious plans to raise the European Union's biofuels use have been dealt a blow after legislators called for the brakes to be put on the proposals. EU leaders last year backed a goal of taking 10 per cent of European transport fuel from renewable energy sources by 2020, with biofuels expected to be the main component. But European parliamentarians have voted to lower the target, underling growing concerns over the effects of the EU's plan to turn to plant-based fuels to ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Bush agrees to long-term target for halving greenhouse gases
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a3fddc6-4d4f-11dd-b527-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: George W. Bush bowed to pressure from other world leaders on climate change yesterday, agreeing for the first time to a long-term target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The decision to set a goal of halving emissions by 2050, in line with scientific advice, at the Group of Eight meeting of industrialised nations in Japan, marked what is likely to be the US president's final contribution to the climate change debate. The G8 leaders agreed to "consider and adopt . . . ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Climate shift to hurt species
http://wimmera.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/climate-shift-to-hurt-species/807066.aspx
Wimmera Mail Times: WIMMERA Catchment Management Authority said a hotter and drier Wimmera climate could result in Wimmera flora and fauna species moving south to find suitable climatic conditions. Authority biodiversity projects manager Dean Robertson said north- south vegetation links were important in preparing for climate change. "The climate change variables in the Wimmera are going to move from north to south," Mr Robertson "If it's too dry or hot for particular ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Email Spells Out EPA-White House Discord
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121554228130836473.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: An increasingly open conflict between the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House over how to respond to climate change intensified Tuesday with the disclosure that Vice President Dick Cheney's office sought to prevent a federal official from publicly discussing the health consequences of global warming. The latest in a series of disclosures about internal disputes within the Bush administration came as President George W. Bush was in Japan with other leaders of the Group ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU Transport Chief Eyes Tough Tolls, Less Pollution
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49247/story.htm
Reuters: The European Union's transport chief proposed on Tuesday new measures to make road and rail more environmentally friendly across the bloc, such as higher congestion charges for trucks and reducing train noise. EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani wants increased tolls on heavy goods vehicles according to their air and noise pollution, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and to impose peak-hour congestion charges. Under the plans, Brussels also wants to reduce noise emissions ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G-8 Failure to Set Course on Emissions Threatens Climate Fight
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_KfTR71h.Eo&refer=home
Bloomberg: The Group of Eight's climate-change strategy may fail to contain rising temperatures that threaten to cause more floods, droughts and storms. The world's richest countries, which are responsible for almost half of the world's emissions, yesterday pledged to reduce the production of heat-trapping pollution by at least 50 percent by 2050. They didn't specify how those cuts should be reached or provide intermediate targets. The G-8 will press the rest of the world to adopt the ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 accused of 'failing the world' on carbon cuts
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/g8-accused-of-failing-the-world-on-carbon-cuts-862958.html
Independent: Leaders of the world's richest nations have kept alive hope of a global agreement to combat climate change by agreeing to cut their carbon emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050. Environmental groups said the agreement at the G8 summit in Japan did not go far enough, and the search for a deal moves to the talks about a "son of Kyoto" global agreement in Copenhagen next year. George Bush, who had previously stalled progress by agreeing only to "seriously ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 Wants Broad UN Deal to Halve Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49261/story.htm
Reuters: The G8 rich countries said on Tuesday they want to work with the nearly 200 states involved in UN climate change talks to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The final climate communique agreed by the Group of Eight leaders at a summit in northern Japan also said mid-term goals would be needed to achieve the shared goal for 2050, but gave no numerical targets. The statement puts the focus of fighting global warming on UN-led talks to create a ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Johnson Scraps Plan to Tax London Gas Guzzlers
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49248/story.htm
Reuters: Mayor Boris Johnson has scrapped plans to increase the central London congestion charge to 25 pounds a day for owners of gas-guzzling cars. The CO2 charge, brainchild of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, was due to have come into effect in October. As well as penalising bigger and faster cars, it would have scrapped the normal eight-pound charge for small, fuel-efficient vehicles. Critics of the plan had claimed it would have been expensive to implement and might ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Rudd push for new climate goals
http://www.smh.com.au/news/global-warming/rudd-push-for-new-climate-goals/2008/07/08/1215282835445.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will use Australia's first appearance at a Group of Eight summit to urge all nations, including the big developing economies of China and India, to take urgent action on climate change. The leaders of the Group of Eight rich economies yesterday issued a communique from their Tokyo summit describing a vision to cut carbon emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050. Mr Rudd will have an opportunity today to address an expanded group, including the ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Coal group fears Garnaut Report cost
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/09/2298609.htm?site=southwestwa
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A working group investigating the future of coal says implementing the Garnaut Report will cost the industry millions of dollars. The Federal Government's climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, has called for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2010. Collie Coal Futures Group chairman and Labour MP Mick Murray says it is unlikely a scheme could be introduced in two years. He says producers are only now beginning to investigate clean coal and ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 Papers Over Differences on Climate Change
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49256/story.htm
Reuters: G8 nations, papering over deep differences, said on Tuesday they would work toward a target of at least halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but emphasised they would not be able to do it alone. In a communique released during a summit in northern Japan, the Group of Eight leaders also agreed that they would need to set interim goals on the way to a "shared vision" for 2050 although they gave no numerical targets. Mention of mid-term goals was an advance ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Japan PM: Emissions-Goal Base Year is Current Levels
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49262/story.htm
Reuters: Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday the base year for a goal of at least halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 -- agreed on by Group of Eight leaders on Tuesday -- was "current levels". That would appear to be at odds with the position of the European Union and climate change activists, who insist that base year should be 1990. Fukuda also said the G8 rich nations had agreed to set "ambitious midterm targets" for cutting their own emissions in order ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Proposed carbon tax fails to make the connection
http://business.theage.com.au/proposed-carbon-tax-fails-to-make-the-connection-20080708-3by3.html
Age: THE recently released Garnaut draft report on climate change set out suggestions on the design of an emissions trading scheme (ETS) for Australia. Professor Ross Garnaut reiterated his support for the ETS to cover as many sectors as practicable. In a commendable attempt to produce revenue neutrality, the report advocated auctioning all emissions permits and the return of all money thus raised to households and businesses. Garnaut said: "The cost to consumers of rising ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Roll up, roll up, the Garnaut roadshow is coming to town
http://www.theage.com.au/national/roll-up-roll-up-the-garnaut-roadshow-is-coming-to-town-20080708-3bwh.html
Age: AUSTRALIA has squandered the chance of responding slowly to climate change and cannot wait for other countries to act, according to Ross Garnaut. Speaking in Adelaide yesterday on the second day of a week of nationwide public forums, the author of the draft report on climate change said Australia faced a compressed timetable for introducing an emissions trading scheme in 2010 because it had squandered its opportunity for a staged start-up by not acting six or 10 years ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Airlines flying in and out of Europe must cut CO2 emissions from 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/08/europe.airlines.emissions?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
Guardian: All airlines flying to and from the EU will be forced to cut their carbon dioxide emissions from 2012 under a compromise deal approved by MEPs today. But the initial cut will be only 3% of average 2004-06 emission levels, rising to 5% in 2013, and airlines will be handed out 85% of their pollution permits for free. MEPs also dropped earlier plans for intra-EU flights to be affected from 2011. Even so, angry airlines struggling with higher fuel prices warned that their inclusion ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Canadians want firm action on environment, despite pricey gasoline, says poll
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iUwix-k6atUUekM4euUFn_unfDbw
Canadian Press: Most Canadians still want aggressive government action to fight climate change, in spite of skyrocketing fuel costs, a new poll suggests. The Canadian Press Harris-Decima findings appear to fly in the face of the notion that Canadians, shocked by record-high oil and gasoline prices, won't stomach environmental policies that drive up their cost of living even further. The poll results were published Tuesday as leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations, including ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Caribbean coral reefs only 25 percent healthy: report
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gV_9C_1rXD8Tob-gxrCL2IRCCRew
Agence France-Presse: Global warming and pollution are decimating coral reefs around the world, with only 25 percent in good health in the Caribbean Sea, US experts warned Tuesday. In other areas of the world such as the Pacific basin, nearly 70 percent of the coral reefs are either thriving or in good condition, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a report. NOAA told the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that nearly half of coral ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Cheney reportedly wanted cuts in climate testimony
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hX3jIWodMsIwJRO21Y6IXAimn9AgD91PN4N00
Associated Press: Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation by a leading health official might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials maintains. When six pages were cut from testimony on climate change and public health by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last October, the White House insisted the changes were made ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Cheney wanted cuts in climate change testimony
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hX3jIWodMsIwJRO21Y6IXAimn9AgD91Q0NK80
Associated Press: Seeking to play down the effects of global warming, Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed to delete from congressional testimony references about the consequences of climate change on public health, a former senior EPA official claimed Tuesday. The official, Jason K. Burnett, said the White House was concerned that the proposed testimony last October by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might make it tougher to avoid regulating greenhouse gases emitted ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
United States: Clean technology investment soars, report says
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/08/BUBA11L453.DTL&feed=rss.technology
San Francisco Chronicle: Venture investments in clean technology hit a record $2 billion in the second quarter, up nearly 60 percent from a year ago, according to a new report. The investments defy trends seen in other parts of the venture industry, where the amount of money invested in startups is falling and opportunities for companies to go public have dried up. But startups that can enable new sources of energy, clean water and sustainable agriculture will continue to be hot targets for venture ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Corals Collapsing in More Acid Oceans
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43114
Inter Press Service: Coral reefs need to be put on "life support" if they are to survive climate change, but their ultimate survival is dependant on major reductions in fossil fuel emissions, say experts. "We're going to hear lots of bad news about corals in the next few decades," Rich Aronson, president of the International Society for Reef Studies, told 3,000 scientists, conservationists and policy makers at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU panel votes to lower controversial biofuel goal
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/July/theworld_July450.xml&section=theworld&col=
Reuters: European Union lawmakers took a first step towards lowering EU biofuels targets when a European Parliament panel backed a proposal to draw just 4 percent of road transport fuels from renewable sources by 2015. The 27 EU leaders agreed last year to get 10 percent of road transport fuel from renewable sources such as biofuels by 2020, but the target has been attacked by environmentalists, who say it contributes to rising food prices and deforestation. The first generation of ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G-8 endorses halving global emissions by 2050
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMW9slv8dnUNu4_fa4Wz0-GLsH3AD91PMUMG0
Associated Press: World leaders on Tuesday endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, edging forward in the battle against global warming but stopping short of tough, nearer-term targets. The Group of Eight leading industrial nations – the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy – also called on all major economies to join together to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures. "This global challenge can only be met by a ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G-8 Leaders Pledge to Cut Emissions in Half by 2050
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=102571
New York Times: Pledging to "move toward a low-carbon society," leaders of the world's richest nations endorsed Tuesday the idea of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, but did not specify whether the starting point would be current levels or 1990 levels, and refused to set a short-term target for reducing the gases that scientists agree are warming the planet. The declaration by the so-called Group of Eight – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia – ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 set for showdown with poorer states over climate
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSPEK6617320080708
Reuters: Big emerging economies will come under pressure on Wednesday to respond in kind to an initiative by rich countries to work towards a target of at least halving their global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations want the leaders of eight fast-growing countries to adopt a "shared vision" of tackling global warming in U.N. negotiations due to conclude in Copenhagen in December 2009. "There has been major progress on the climate ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Indonesia Aims to Balance Coal and Forests
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49231/story.htm
Reuters: Indonesia, the world's number one coal exporter and a major greenhouse gas emitter, is struggling with conflicting green and growth aims. It wants to increase coal-fired electricity generation by over 40 percent in the next decade, cut emissions and preserve rainforests at the same time. Analysts doubt it can manage all three. "Indonesia is not in a position to be reducing greenhouse emissions at all," said Brian Ricketts, coal analyst at the Paris-based International Energy ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Tassie forest carbon role
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23987890-3462,00.html?from=public_rss
Tasmania Mercury: A TASMANIAN scientist has proposed a moratorium on the logging of old growth and high conservation forests while the opportunities of carbon trading are investigated. University of Tasmania professor of forest ecology David Bowman said the state's forests could play an important role in any climate change solution. One possibility is that carbon emitting companies could "buy'' green credits in Tasmanian forests to offset their emissions – leading to the possibility that trees ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Whistleblower: Cheney Wanted Cuts in Climate Change Testimony
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=5334536&page=1
ABC: President Bush is in Japan pledging to do his best to put the U.S. on a long-term path to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, but back in Washington a former Environmental Protection Agency official said staffers at the White House pressured him last year to retract an official finding, which was never made public, that those emissions "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public welfare." When he refused, former EPA official James Burnett maintains the White ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Argentina: Argentine glacier calves in dead of winter
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25590432/
Associated Press: Perito Moreno, Argentina's most famous glacier, has begun calving when one would least expect it – the Southern Hemisphere's winter. Officials at the Los Glaciares National Park in Santa Cruz Province said there was no record of such an ice break during the winter months of June through August, although breaks during summer melts happen regularly. Park director Carlos Corvalan said the rupture, which began last Friday, could be caused by global warming. The Perito Moreno ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia Could Delay Emissions Trade Beyond 2010
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49235/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's government said on Monday it could delay introduction of a planned emissions trading system expected to boost fuel and power prices, as polls showed its record recent popularity slipping. The centre-left government's top climate advisor, economist Ross Garnaut, last week unveiled a model for how the trading system could operate after its planned 2010 introduction, warning climate shift could devastate Australia's fragile environment. But the treasurer of the most ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Big emerging nations demand G8 greenhouse gas cuts
http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUST60132
Reuters: Five big emerging economies on Tuesday staked out tough positions on greenhouse gas emissions and food security, ahead of talks on climate change with rich countries in the Group of Eight. In a statement, the five nations urged the G8 countries to shoulder their own responsibilities on climate change by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Mexico, Brazil, China, India and South Africa also urged all developed countries to commit ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Cheney wanted cuts in climate testimony
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hX3jIWodMsIwJRO21Y6IXAimn9AgD91PMAOO0
Associated Press: A former EPA official says Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed for major deletions last October in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change. Jason Burnett, who resigned last month as a senior adviser to the EPA administrator, says in a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that Cheney's office worried that linking climate to public health problems might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases. The letter was obtained Tuesday by ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Eco homes: Doing your bit on the eco-home front
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2008/07/08/pecohome108.xml
Telegraph: I became aware of climate change and its possible causes about a decade ago, when talk of melting ice caps prompted concerns about coastal flooding and the demise of polar bears. I bought a wind-up radio and started recycling. But it wasn't until 2006, when reports on global warming and its effects started coming thick and fast, that the imperative to do my bit hit home. But where to start and what to do? Reducing carbon emissions from our homes, which account for 27 per cent of the ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU alert on biofuel targets
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23991635-11949,00.html
Agence France-Presse: THE European Parliament has called for the European Union to lower its targets for developing biofuels, which are thought to be driving up food prices. The environment committee of the European bloc's parliament recommended the EU aim to make renewable sources account for between 8 and 10 per cent of transport power sources, with biofuels to account for just half of this share. The EU's ambitious energy plan, unveiled last year, says no less than 10 per cent of all the fuel ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU lawmakers approve airlines emissions plan
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gYnABjUcp8GwtDO0gSO176OkkFXA
Agence France-Presse: Lawmakers at the European Parliament voted massively in favour of plans on Tuesday to force airlines to cap their greenhouse gas emissions from 2012 and pay for some of their pollution. Under the draft law, all airlines operating in the 27-nation European Union, including foreign carriers, will have to participate in the bloc's emissions trading scheme, the EU's main mechanism for fighting climate change. The draft law -- a compromise between the parliament, EU members and the ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
EU, Greens Urge Bush to Back 2050 Emissions Target
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49226/story.htm
Reuters: The European Union and green groups piled pressure on the United States on Monday to agree to a target to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century and back the need for rich countries to set 2020 goals as well. Climate change is high on the agenda for the G8 nations meeting at a luxury hotel on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido from Monday to Wednesday. But green groups fear the summit will end in failure by not committing to a pledge to slash emissions by 2050. ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Australia: Farmers depressed by big dry: report
http://news.smh.com.au/national/farmers-depressed-by-big-dry-report-20080709-3c3r.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia's farmers are both poorer and more depressed as a result of the drought, according to a major new report on the impact of the big dry. The new federal government-funded survey of rural and regional Australia shows financial hardship is widespread, suffered by a quarter of all 8,000 households questioned in the past year, but farms are in the eye of the drought storm. Two-thirds of people working on farms in drought-affected areas said their financial position had ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G-8 Approves Plan to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/08/ST2008070801074.html
Washington Post: The United States joined its allies Tuesday in committing for the first time to try to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, as the Group of Eight nations approved a plan aimed at spurring a new worldwide treaty to limit global warming. In a statement on climate change, President Bush and the other G-8 leaders said they would work with other countries to "consider and adopt" the 50-percent reductions as part of a new United Nations treaty to be negotiated in ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 climate agreement ' hopelessly inadequate'
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3324
People and Planet: Leaders from the G8 group of industrialised countries meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, have agreed to set a global target to cut carbon emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2050 to combat climate change. The agreement includes the United States for the first time and goes further than last year's G9 pledge to 'seriously consider' making the cuts. However, the US has refused to consider any interim cuts, and the compromise agreement has been widely condemned by environmental groups as ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 climate statement needs 2020 vision -UN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7637514
Reuters: The United Nations' top climate official said the G8's statement on Tuesday on curbing greenhouse emissions had positive elements but that the lack of mid-term numerical targets was a critical omission. G8 nations meeting in northern Japan said on Tuesday they would work with the developing countries toward a target of at least halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In a communique released during the annual summit, the Group of Eight leaders also agreed that they ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
G8 statement on climate change and environment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/08/climatechange.carbonemissions?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews
Guardian: The leaders of the G8 rich nations have agreed to adopt a goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The communiqué says that mid-term goals will be needed to hit the shared target for 2050, but that it would be up to individual countries to adopt them. Here is the full text of the statement (the numbers refer to the paragraphs' position within the overall G8 document). Climate change 22. We reconfirm the significance of the Fourth Assessment Report of ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
German Tenants Unwilling to Pay for Energy-Efficient Apartments
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a2T.GRvtGBuU&refer=germany
Bloomberg: Most German tenants are unwilling to pay higher rents for apartments that are renovated to make them more energy efficient, according to a study by German real estate Web site Immowelt.de. More than 70 percent of renters in Europe's largest economy aren't prepared to pay more for apartments that use less energy for heating and lower carbon dioxide emissions, Immowelt.de said in an e-mailed statement today. Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet last month agreed to a new law that ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
Global warming will push Russia to destruction: WWF
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL0843839820080708
Reuters: Global warming will sow destruction across Russia and ex-Soviet states, a report said on Tuesday after the world's richest countries issued targets on harmful emissions that environmentalists criticized as too soft. The 52-page report -- written by green group WWF and British charity Oxfam -- described a grim picture of social, ecological and economic collapse in the world's biggest country and its former empire unless the world took urgent action. "This diagram shows ...

Wed, 9 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Gordon Brown fears backbench revolt over climate change bill
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2270843/Gordon-Brown-fears-backbench-revolt-over-climate-change-bill.html
Telegraph: Gordon Brown is facing another significant backbench revolt over his climate change policy, it has emerged. More than 80 MPs are said to be backing an amendment to the Government's Climate Change Bill to make cuts to greenhouse gases far more drastic. The Bill currently calls for a legally enforceable 60 per cent cut in UK carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. However, the rebel MPs say it should be raised to 80 per cent as the 60 per cent goal will not do enough to control ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Australia: People starve because they cannot afford food
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/people-starve-because-they-cannot-afford-food-20080707-3452.html
The Age: The G8 should ensure that everyone has a secure supply of food. THIS week's G8 meeting coincides with the worst global food crisis in half a century. Food security – ensuring supply at a price that allows economic activity and wellbeing to flourish – is now emerging as a key global risk for the 21st century. As a country whose people are well fed, Australia has a particular moral responsibility to aid others who are starving. Living next to the fastest-growing continent on the ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
United Kingdom: Britain to slow adoption of biofuels
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080707/tsc-britain-energy-climate-biofuels-c6db719.html
Agence France-Presse: The British government said Monday it would slow the expansion of biofuels following a report which found they could increase greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to food price rises. Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly said a review had not recommended a temporary halt to the use of biofuels, which are sourced from organic materials such as palm oil and sugar beet. But she said that while biofuels had the potential to cut carbon emissions there were "increasing ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Climate body urges G8 to set binding mid-term goals for emission ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/07/content_8506365.htm
Xinhua: A non-governmental campaign on Monday urged the Group of Eight (G8) countries to set a definite mid-term goal for emission cuts of 25 to 40 percent. The Climate Action Campaign, coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), expressed hope that the G8 club would confirm their commitment to these goals, agreed upon by nations party to the Kyoto Protocol in Bali last December. At a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing G8 summit here, the campaign said the world's ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Food inflation blamed on biofuels
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7493482.stm
BBC: The increased use of biofuels has driven up global food prices, UK government research is expected to say. The Gallagher report will argue that farmers have devoted too much land to crops used for energy, throwing doubt on EU targets to increase biofuel use. The findings come as the European Parliament is to vote on whether its goal should be scrapped. Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is to make a House of Commons statement on the report at about 1630 BST. 'Not ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
G8 wrangles over climate change, aid to Africa
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN756019.html
Reuters: World leaders head into the second day of the annual G8 summit preoccupied by soaring food and oil prices and deeply divided over how to tackle climate change. Senior officials from the Group of Eight rich nations were meeting late into the night in Japan to thrash out wording that would allow President George W. Bush on Tuesday to put aside deep misgivings and sign on to a global goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century. Bush is under strong ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
United Kingdom: High-tech 'Low Carbon Zones' planned for London
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2008-07-07-High-tech-Low-Carbon-Zones-planned-for-London
24dash: The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced the development of 10 high-technology 'Low Carbon Zones' across London by 2012 to deliver 'greener', low carbon solutions to households and businesses. The Low Carbon Zones will help local communities and buildings to become energy efficient to cut energy usage and energy bills. This will involve a range of services and technologies including: home insulation, buildings retrofitted with energy efficient devices, locally generated ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Japan waits on US for CO2 targets
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7493081.stm
BBC: Japan says that it will not negotiate new targets on CO2 emissions until it sees what the new US President has to offer on climate change. A senior Japanese official also told the BBC his country would continue to try to re-negotiate the baseline date against which CO2 targets are measured. Japan's emissions are more than 6% above the 1990 Kyoto Protocol baseline. World leaders are starting the three-day G8 summit in Toyako, on Japan's northern Hokkaido island. ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Japan's Green Gold Mine
http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/2008/07/03/energy-japan-fukuda-biz-energy_cz_crs_0707efficiency_japan.html
Forbes: Tokyo - When the world thinks about environmental technology, Japan wants one word to come to mind: mottainai. It means "don't waste," and it's the concept behind the country's push not only to make Japan green, but also to sell the technology it's developed around the world. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda spent his early career at an oil company when crude was a dollar a barrel. Now he hopes to turn $144 oil into gold for Japan. "The emerging global view that CO2 ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Australia: Less land ruined by bushfires
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/less-land-ruined-by-bushfires-20080707-34ey.html
The Age: VICTORIAN bushfires last summer destroyed about 32,000 hectares, less than a fifth of the land usually burnt out in a bushfire season. An analysis of bushfires on public land by the Department of Sustainability and Environment, obtained by The Age, reveals that the 2007-08 fires burnt 32,368 hectares, or 18.7% of the long-term average (173,152 hectares). Strong fire activity in October put the fire season almost a month ahead of normal and led to dire predictions. With ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Life in the Balance: US Says Coral Reefs Are Declining
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=5321360&page=1
ABC: Coral reefs a key element in ocean ecosystems that provide not only coastline protection but billions of dollars in benefits from tourism, as well as ingredients used in cutting-edge medicines are increasingly threatened from the effects of global warming and other hazards, according to a new U.S. government report. The report estimates that nearly half of the coral reefs in areas from the Caribbean to the Pacific "are not in good condition and are continuing steadily on a ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
New heat wave threatens California
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_World&set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=nw20080707092004879C628782
Reuters: Weary California firefighters braced on Sunday for another heat wave in the next few days as they battled to bring two major blazes threatening towns along the central coast under control. Residents in more than 2 600 homes in the path of a 3 642 hectares fire in the Santa Barbara area were still under evacuation orders. Families who live in another 850 houses were warned to be ready to leave at short notice, county officials said. Cooler weather on Saturday helped fire crews ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
News Analysis: Will G8 leaders achieve breakthrough on climate change?
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/07/content_8506853.htm
Xinhua: Many observers are pessimistic about the outcome of discussions on climate change at the ongoing Group of Eight (G8) summit as the member countries still remain poles apart on the issue. GLOBAL WARMING RISKS Climate change and global warming caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions have posed a grave risk to life on earth in recent years. Scientists say climate change has possibly partly contributed to the recurrent natural disasters in recent years such as ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Australia: Peter Garrett rejects heritage call to protect eucalypt forests
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23985607-30417,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA will defy a call by the 21-nation World Heritage Committee to extend Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area to include tracts of tall eucalypt forests scheduled for logging. The WHC meeting in Quebec called on Canberra to "consider extension of the property to include appropriate areas of tall eucalypt forests". Conservationists immediately urged federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to heed the call, but late yesterday he rejected it. "The ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Profit from Climate Change in Japan
http://www.cnbc.com/id/25565754
CNBC: Environmental and energy companies in Japan look very strong, Makiko Zuercher-Hosaka, fund manager for Japanese equities at Clariden Leu said Monday. Climate change is a hot issue in Japan and because the country is poor in resources it spends a lot of money to improve the alternative energy sector, Zuercher-Hosaka told "Squawk Box Europe". Zuercher-Hosaka suggests investing in Japan Steel Works, which makes nuclear power plant components; Toyo Tanso, which makes ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Australia: Rudd heads to G8 meeting
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/08/2297086.htm?section=australia
ABC: Australia will be aiming to reinforce the importance of world leaders agreeing to a binding target for greenhouse gas emission cuts when Prime Minister Kevin attends the G8 summit in Japan. With Australia already committed to a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent by the year 2050, Mr Rudd will have a chance to discuss the issue with the leaders of the major industrialised nations and those countries which are also major emitters at the G8 summit. Mr Rudd ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Indonesia: Ruthless drought in West Timor puts children in crisis
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/07/06/westtimor.children/?iref=mpstoryview
CNN: Maria's labored breath echoes within the walls of her family's mud hut. Her tiny, bony hands open and close in slow claw-like motions. She's 15 months old, but weighs just 10 pounds -- one of countless children under the age of 5 facing severe malnutrition in Indonesia's West Timor. A typical infant weighs about 24 pounds at 15 months. "Maria sleeps most of the time. Sometimes she cries but not often," her 25-year-old mother Adolphina Fao says softly.Watch how ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
The Most Energy-Efficient Countries
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/07/03/energy-efficiency-japan-biz-energy_cx_jz_0707efficiency_countries.html
Forbes: Next year in Copenhagen, world leaders will assemble and attempt to write the successor agreement to the 10-year-old Kyoto protocol. In order for countries to make dramatic reductions for a greener future, energy efficiency will likely be a big part of the equation. What they'll find is a huge gap between countries with a head start, and those still in the blocks. Not surprising, the countries with the most energy-efficient economies are those who import their energy supplies. ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Japan: Toyota to put solar panels on Prius hybrids
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/07/business/toyota.php
Reuter: Toyota Motor plans to install solar panels on some Prius hybrids in its next remodeling, responding to growing demand for "green" cars amid record-high oil prices, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said Monday. The panels, supplied by Kyocera, would be able to power part of the air-conditioning on high-end versions of the gasoline-electric Prius, the person said. "It's more of a symbolic gesture," said the person, who asked not to be identified ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
Vietnam: Vietnam's children get ready for climate disasters
http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/52403/2008/06/7-120038-1.htm
Reuters: People take preparation for disasters seriously in Vietnam's Tien Gian province. Everyone gets involved, because the country's so vulnerable to disasters - typhoons, flooding and mudslides. Local leaders ensure the village's early warning speaker systems work. Plans are in places for hand-held megaphones to warn hamlets with no electricity. Dirt roads and dykes against rising waters are reinforced. Children help draw maps of the village so everyone knows where safe evacuation points ...

Tue, 8 Jul 08
World's top leaders tackle oil and food prices, Africa aid
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jX2fjgI-A4uqMT39rP0uEx346dTw
Agence France-Presse: Leaders of the world's richest nations Monday opened a summit aimed at battling skyrocketing oil and food prices, as pressure mounted on them to live up to their pledges to help Africa. Leaders including US President George W. Bush gathered in the secluded spa resort of Toyako in northern Japan for a three-day session, with seven African leaders joining them on the first day to take up the plight of the continent. Riot police with shields stood under pouring rain and blocked ...

Mon, 7 Jul 08
Australia's Plan for "Diabolical" Climate Change
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49192/story.htm
Reuters: Australia, one of the world's top carbon emitters per person, will unveil an emissions trading scheme later this year, which it hopes will help cut the country's carbon footprint. The scheme is a major initiative of Kevin Rudd's Labor government, and is due to start operating in 2010. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong will outline the government's options for carbon trading later in July, with the system to be finalised and laws sent to parliament by the end of the year. ...

Mon, 7 Jul 08
Carbon Market Looks Past G8 to US Election
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49199/story.htm
Reuters: Carbon market traders and backers of clean-energy projects aren't holding their breath for a strong statement on fighting change during this week's G8 summit and are more focused on who wins November's US election. Market players say they don't expect any breakthrough agreements on fixed emissions reductions targets at the talks at a secluded Japanese resort on the island of Hokkaido. But some are hoping for the leaders to strongly support renewable energy as a way to fight ...

Mon, 7 Jul 08
Brazil: More than 20% of Amazon deforestation takes place in preservation areas
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/World/STIStory_255380.html
Associated Press: ONE tree out every five cut down in the Brazilian Amazon is being taken from government-protected areas where logging is illegal or heavily restricted, a study published on Sunday showed. About 22 per cent of the defor