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Tue, 30 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Delegates welcome Tory plan for high-speed rail link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/29/toryconference.conservatives4
Guardian: Delegates at the Conservative conference cheered today as Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, said a future Tory government would say no to a third runway at Heathrow and instead give the green light to a £20bn 180mph rail link between Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London. "This is one of the hardest decisions we've faced as a party and we will not run away from it," she said. A high-speed link from St Pancras to Heathrow, connecting the north, could replace ...

Tue, 30 Sep 08
Vietnam: Heeding Climate Change Warnings
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44046
Inter Press Service: With a predicted sea level rise of one metre by 2100, Vietnam may end up being one of the nations worst hit by climate change. Such a rise would affect five percent of the land area, 11 percent of the population and seven percent of the agriculture. With worsening storms and flooding already lapping at its shores, this South-east Asian country is heeding the dire warnings. A report released by World Vision on Sep. 18, 'Planet Prepare', focused on the multi-faceted climate ...

Tue, 30 Sep 08
Tories signal support for UK high speed rail
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2227083/tories-signal-support-uk-speed
Business Green: The Conservative party will today seek to reinvigorate its environmental agenda with a high-profile pledge to ditch plans for a third runway at Heathrow in favour of a TGV-style high-speed rail network linking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. The party said that the 180mph line would aim to cut 66,000 flights a year from Heathrow by tempting domestic travellers onto trains capable of travelling from London to Birmingham in 45 minutes; London to Manchester in 80 minutes; and ...

Tue, 30 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Are the Conservative party's plans for a high speed train really that green?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/29/travelandtransport.toryconference
Guardian: So the Tories want a high speed rail line rather than a third runway at Heathrow. Leaving aside the fact that Boris Johnson wants a new airport in the middle of the Thames Estuary which suggests that the party is not quite singing from the same hymn sheet, there are lots of reasons to be sceptical about whether a high speed line – called HS2 in the business, as HS1 is St Pancras to the Channel tunnel – will ever be built. Politics first, though. It is commendable that the Tories are ...

Tue, 30 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Conservative conference: Tories unveil plans to encourage energy-efficient homes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/29/toryconference.conservatives5
Guardian: Businesses that improve the energy efficiency of their employees' homes will be able to offset the savings against the company's own carbon footprint under radical Conservative proposals unveiled today. Grant Shapps, the shadow housing minister, said that the scheme would make real reductions in Britain's overall carbon emissions and help companies take their corporate social responsibility seriously. He told Conservatives at the party's autumn conference in Birmingham: ...

Tue, 30 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Tory transport plans received mixed response
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/29/toryconference.transport1
Guardian: Rail groups hailed but business criticised Conservative plans, unveiled today, to scrap the third runway at Heathrow and build a £20bn rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. John Stewart, the chairman of Heathrow anti-expansion group Hacan, said the Tory plan was "a bold one fitting for the 21st century". He said: "The Conservatives realise that business is not clamouring for a third runway. What they desperately want is a better rather than a bigger ...

Tue, 30 Sep 08
Big oil sands: In remote northern Alberta, bitumen industry is booming
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/09/28/business/biz84.txt
Billings Gazette: They say everything is big in Texas, which is still the major producer of crude oil in the United States. Well, you might say everything is bigger in the Canadian province of Alberta, the site of the fastest-growing oil-extraction project on earth. There, giant shovels scoop up 100 tons of oil-saturated sands in one pass and dump them into 33-foot-high trucks that carry 400 tons. Tens of thousands of workers swarm over billions of dollars' worth of construction ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Canada PM Oil Sands Plan Puzzles Industry, Greens
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50380/story.htm
Reuters: Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday he would ban exports of tar-like bitumen from Alberta's oil sands to countries that do not match Canadian efforts to cut carbon emissions, a campaign promise that perplexed both the oil industry and environmentalists. The policy could affect Asian countries that are the target of a proposed Enbridge Inc pipeline that would move oil sands-derived crude to Canada's West Coast to be shipped across the Pacific Ocean by tanker, Harper ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
China's the biggest carbon polluter
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\09\29\story_29-9-2008_pg6_17
Agence France-Presse: China has leapfrogged the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter and India is heading for third place, scientists said on Friday in a report that warned global greenhouse-gas levels were scaling record peaks. The report, by a research consortium called the Global Carbon Project (GCP), confirms an estimate that China has become the biggest producer of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal gas that causes global warming. Until 2005, rich countries emitted most of the world's ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Obama Says Wall St Bailout May Cut His Energy Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50393/story.htm
Reuters: US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday that if elected he might have to scale back his plan for energy investment to help pay for a proposed US$700 billion financial industry bailout. "I want to make sure that we are investing in energy in order to free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil. Now, that is a big project. That is a multi-year project," Obama said in a televised debate with Republican rival John McCain. "I'm not willing to give up the ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
One More Chance on Energy
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/opinion/29mon2.html
New York Times: Last December, Congress passed a useful energy bill that ratcheted up fuel economy standards for the first time in decades. That seems a long, long time ago. Since then, Congress has gone steadily and sadly backward on energy policy. One reason is the bitter partisan divide, especially in the Senate, where Republicans have made it impossible for innovative ideas to achieve a filibuster-proof 60 votes. Combine that with Republican pandering (joined by a fair number of Democrats) on ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Tories plan £20bn 180mph rail link instead of Heathrow third runway
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/29/toryconference.transport
Guardian: A third runway at Heathrow airport would be scrapped by a Tory government that would instead build a £20bn TGV-style high speed rail link between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. In one of David Cameron's boldest moves on the environment, the party will today unveil plans to cut 66,000 flights a year from Heathrow by tempting passengers on to the first new rail line north of London in more than a century. Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, told the ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
US climate debate may be sidelined
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/us-climate-debate-may-be-sidelined-20080928-4pno.html
Age: AN INCONVENIENT truth, rarely mentioned in Australia's climate change debate, is that the effectiveness of any state-led response to the greatest challenge of the 21st century rests in the hands of two countries: America and China. Unless the two powers, which together contribute almost half the world's carbon dioxide emissions, can reach agreement on obligations to slash their emissions, there is scant hope that the international community will be able to stabilise atmospheric ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Aussies put jobs 'before climate change'
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=638529
AAP: Australians are putting their jobs before climate change, a new poll shows. The 2008 Lowy Institute Poll revealed that Australians want action on climate change, but not if it costs jobs or hits them in the back pocket. A telephone poll of 1001 people conducted between July 12 and 28, 21 per cent were not prepared to pay anything extra on their electricity bill to help solve climate change. Another 32 per cent favoured paying only $10 per month extra on their electricity ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Aussies want renewables not coal - poll
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24417572-26103,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIANS want the Government to invest profits from an emissions trading scheme (ETS) in renewable energy not the coal industry, a Newspoll shows. The poll, commissioned by Greenpeace Australia, found 84 per cent of respondents didn't want profits to be used to compensate the coal industry. And just 10 per cent think coal-fired power generators should be compensated under the scheme. Greenpeace spokeswoman Trish Harrup called on the Federal Government to amend its ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia Carbon Plan May Chill Investment Climate
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50385/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's plans to protect its climate from global warming, by cutting greenhouse gases, could end up playing havoc with its investment climate instead. The government has promised to make polluters pay for their carbon emissions within two years, but there is still confusion and controversy over how the system should work. Even a very modest reduction target could wipe out billions of dollars in profits from listed firms, such as steel-makers and mining companies, without ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia Could Get 35% of Power Supply From Waves, Study Shows
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aY782IUv3oGU&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia could economically get 35 percent of its needs for continuous power supply from energy generated by waves, helping cut greenhouse gases, said Carnegie Corp., an Australian clean-energy technology company. The country has a wave energy resource in near-shore areas where water is less than 25 meters deep of about 171,000 megawatts, Perth-based Carnegie said today, citing a report. That's about four times total installed power generating capacity, it said, citing research from ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Britain explores the supply chain as a carbon target
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24415280-5005200,00.html
Australian: WHILE the Australian Government continues its consultations on the proposed emissions trading scheme, companies in Britain have begun looking for creative ways to reduce their carbon footprint by reducing energy use in their supply chains. Booz & Co Sydney-based consultant Greg Lavery said several British companies had been examining more energy-efficient supply chains as a "hidden source of emissions reductions". "In a carbon-constrained environment, energy-efficiency ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia: Climate changes on how we rank economy
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/climate-changes-on-how-we-rank-economy/1284879.aspx
Canberra Times: The worldwide economic turmoil has led Australians to move the economy ahead of the environment on their priority list, according to a new poll. Last night, the Lowy Institute issued extracts of its 2008 poll, to be published today, showing that tackling climate change has dropped from equal first place along with protecting the jobs of Australian workers to equal fifth, when considering the country's most important foreign policy goals. Two-thirds of Australians now ranked ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia: Climate fight only worth $10 to Aussies
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24416711-2702,00.html
AAP: AUSTRALIANS have put a price on what they're prepared to pay to help fight climate change -- $10 extra a month on their electricity bill. The 2008 Lowy Institute Poll reveals that Australians want action on climate change, but not if it costs jobs or hits them in the back pocket. In a telephone poll of 1001 people conducted between July 12 and 28, a majority of 32 per cent favoured paying only $10 a month extra on their electricity bill to help solve climate ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Climate heats up lawsuits
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/29/climate-heats-up-lawsuits/
Washington Times: Climate change spilled over into the nation's laws and policies in recent days, giving environmentalists plenty of fodder for public interest lawsuits. Part of the problem is that everyone has a different idea on how the laws should be applied. One of the disputes contributed to the firing of former D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer in December. She filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a lawsuit by several states against the Environmental Protection Agency. The states want the ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia: Don't go soft on climate, PM warned
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/dont-go-soft-on-climate-pm-warned/2008/09/28/1222540246989.html
Sydney Morning Herald: IN A move that will test the Rudd Government's climate credentials, Australia's leading climate scientists have written an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to impose deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and back a tough global agreement that will avoid dangerous climate change. The 16 scientists, who all worked with the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warn "there is no time to lose" and call on Mr Rudd to slash Australia's emissions by at least ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
France Plans to End Biofuel Tax Breaks by 2012
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50382/story.htm
Reuters: The French government said on Friday it will phase out tax breaks for biofuels by 2012, arguing that higher oil and grain prices have removed the need for fiscal support. In its draft 2009 budget, the government said it will remove in stages from January reductions given to biodiesel and ethanol on France's national fuel tax (TIPP). "The cost price of biofuels is no longer structurally disconnected from those of standard fuels," the government said, stressing that crude oil ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut review to show way on emissions trading
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24415199-664,00.html
Herald Sun: CORPORATE Australia will tomorrow get the clearest picture yet of how emissions trading will affect its bottom line. It is the day Federal Government adviser Ross Garnaut releases his final Climate Change Review. The completed report will for the first time include detailed modelling from Treasury forecasting the financial impact on the business community, which could run to billions of dollars. Under Prof Garnaut's preferred carbon reduction scenario, outlined in his ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Japan to Subsidise Solar Equipment Home Use - Nikkei
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50378/story.htm
Reuters: Japan plans to provide a subsidy of about 200,000 yen (US$1,887) to households that buy a solar power system to promote its use and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday. The subsidy represents 10 percent of the cost of a standard solar power system, which is about 2 million yen, it said. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry hopes the subsidy will help stimulate mass production of such solar power systems and lower ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Scotland to build world's first 'wind farms under the sea'
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Scotland-to-build-world39s-first.4536146.jp
Scotman: SCOTLAND has taken a major step towards leading the way in marine renewable energy with the announcement that the world's first tidal farms could be built within three years. Two tidal projects, each with up to 20 turbines, could be installed on the seabed in the Pentland Firth and the Sound of Islay. A third is planned off the North Antrim coast in Northern Ireland. The aim is that all the underwater turbines would be coADVERTISEMENTnstructed in Scotland, kickstarting the renewables ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Spain Ratifies New 500-MW Solar Subsidy Cap
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50395/story.htm
Reuters: Spain's Cabinet has ratified proposals to set a new limit on subsidised solar power at a capacity level of 500 megawatts, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said on Friday. The approval ends weeks of wrangling over the new subsidy cap, which is far below the 1,200 MW fixed in a current subsidy scheme expiring on Monday that helped make Spain the world's third-largest solar market after Germany and the United States. A statement from the Cabinet office said ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
EU Eastern States Fear Carbon Plan Empowers Russia
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50384/story.htm
Reuters: Eastern members of the European Union said on Friday its tough plans to tackle global warming could force them to rely more on Russian gas and the bloc should be equally ambitious in ensuring their energy security. The EU is pushing through measures aimed at cutting CO2 emissions by a fifth by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, in hopes of averting the worst effects of climate change. But ex-communist EU members such as Warsaw fear such targets will increase their reliance on ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Australia: Hip pocket a bigger worry than climate
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/hip-pocket-a-bigger-worry-than-climate/2008/09/28/1222540247028.html
Sydney Morning Herald: FEAR about the outlook for the economy and jobs have overtaken climate change as the top foreign policy concerns for Australians, according to a new poll to be released today. The Lowy Institute survey also found that 51 per cent were not confident in the Rudd Government's ability to deal with climate change and people were less convinced about the need to take immediate action to tackle the future effects of global warming. Those favouring action dropped from 68 per cent to 60 per ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Scottish Power Plans $184 Million Spend on Tidal Power Turbines
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a3HCt5SyVWFk&refer=europe
Bloomberg: Scottish Power Ltd., Iberdrola SA's U.K. unit, plans to invest more than 100 million pounds ($184 million) on tidal-power developments as the utility develops energy-production that doesn't add to carbon-dioxide emissions. Scottish Power is studying two sites in Scotland and another in Northern Ireland for deploying underwater turbines capable of generating a combined 60 megawatts of electricity, enough for more than 40,000 homes, the Glasgow-based company said today in a statement. ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Tidal power scheme to launch in Scotland
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/29/eatidal129.xml
Telegraph (UK): An experimental tidal power scheme is to be launched in Scotland. Underwater turbines which harness the power of the tides to generate electricity will be placed at three sites. The Lànstrøm tidal turbine, which will be used at the three Scottish tidal energy generation sites The Lànstrøm tidal turbine, which will be used at the three Scottish sites ScottishPower Renewables has identified the Pentland Firth, the Sound of Islay, and the North Antrim coast off ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Carbon capture and storage - should Europe invest 12bn?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/28/utilities.carboncapturestorage
Guardian: It used to be called Stinky Town - a smoke-belching, coal-burning industrial powerhouse in what was once the heart of East Germany. But the old folk of Spremberg no longer have to check which way the wind is blowing before venturing outside. Earlier this month, Spremberg, or 'Stink-Stadt', made history. It is now host to the world's first power plant that collects emissions from coal burning and pipes them deep underground. Built by Swedish power firm Vattenfall, it emits up to 90 per ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
China: Clogged Beijing unveils new traffic controls
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/38276
Reuters: Flushed with the success of Olympic traffic controls and struck by the painful return to congested normality, Beijing on Saturday unveiled plans for smaller-scale but permanent controls on its drivers. Cars will be banned from the roads one out of five weekdays, in a system based on the number of their license plate, and 30 percent of government cars will be taken off the road entirely, the official Xinhua agency reported. The new rules will kick in for a six-month trial on ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Europe warms fast: Med drier, north ever wetter
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48R4GU20080928?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Europe is warming faster than the world average and governments need to invest to adapt to a changing climate set to turn the Mediterranean region arid and the north ever wetter, a study showed on Monday. Europe's mountains, coasts, the Mediterranean and the Arctic were most at risk from global warming, according to the report by the European Environment Agency and branches of the World Health Organization and the European Commission. "Global average temperature has increased ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
How the green path can lead to a stronger, wealthier nation
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/books/20080928_How_the_green_path_can_lead_to_a_stronger__wealthier_nation.html
Philadelphia Inquirer: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America By Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus and Giroux 438 pp. $27.95 Much is at stake when a new Thomas Friedman book comes out. He is one of our most influential writers; people read his books to feel for the pulse of the moment. In 1999, The Lexus and the Olive Tree introduced thousands to the notion of globalization; it was like the gun that went off to signal that word and idea had arrived. When The World Is Flat ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Return to the Good Life is the solution to the food crisis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3097160/Return-to-the-Good-Life-is-the-solution-to-the-food-crisis.html
Telegraph (UK): Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, urged people to follow the example of the 1970s sitcom The Good Life starring Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers, by cultivating their own food in their back gardens or in allotments. Prof Lang, who advises the Government on the crisis, said that people who relied on the large supermarkets for their food did so at their peril. "Ultimately people have to take more control of their food systems," he said. "If you ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Netherlands: Scientists work with algae to see if it could become the fuel of the future
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQ3sAwA4Lwa15Z-fIiZyWJejgRUg
Canadian Press: Set amid cornfields and cow pastures in eastern Holland is a shallow pool that is rapidly turning green with algae, harvested for animal feed, skin treatments, biodegradable plastics - and with increasing interest, biofuel. In a warehouse about 200 kilometres southwest, a bioreactor of clear plastic tubes is producing algae in pressure-cooker fashion that its manufacturer hopes will one day power jet aircraft. Experts say it will be years, maybe a decade, before this simplest ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Solar Cell Sets World Efficiency Record at Over 40%
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1570520/solar_cell_sets_world_efficiency_record_at_over_40/
redOrbit: ENERGY Scientists at the U.S. Dept. of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8% of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date. The so-called inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell was designed, fabricated and independently tested at NREL. The 40.8% efficiency was measured under concentrated light ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
The Yup'ik Eskimos are the world's first climate-change refugees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/28/alaska.climatechange
Guardian: Peter John has known for years that the change was coming. The elders had foretold it. As a young Eskimo boy he would sit at the feet of his father and grandfather, uncles and great uncles as they arranged themselves in a circle in the qasgiq, the house built of sods dug deep into the tundra and reserved only for the men. Outside, snow would lay thick on the ground and the sea would be a single block of ice. Inside, the heat of the men's bodies would keep young Peter warm. An elder would be ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Africa awash in sunlight, but not solar energy
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMM7je0c_5HgWo2_K64Ptt-BRdyg
Agence France-Presse: From household solar panels to thermal generators big enough to power a town, sun power has enjoyed explosive growth around the world. Everywhere, that is, except on the sun-drenched continent of Africa. With an average daily dose of five-to-seven kilowatts per hour (kWh) for every square metre (10 square feet), Africa has more potential for producing energy from the sun than almost anywhere on Earth, with the possible exception of northern Australia or the Arabian ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Al Gore calls for civil disobedience against new coal plants
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0928-gore_hance.html
Mongabay: Former Vice President and Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore, told the audience at the Clinton Global Initiative that the moment had arrived for civil disobedience against new coal plants. 'If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done,' Gore said, according to Reuters. 'I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Kiribati: Climate change 'sinking Pacific nation'
http://news.theage.com.au/national/climate-change-sinking-pacific-nation-20080928-4pm1.html
AAP: An immigrant from a tiny Pacific Ocean nation is appealing to the Australian government to assist in evacuations because she says her homeland is sinking under rising sea levels. Currently bedridden with pneumonia, Kiribati Australia Association member Wanita Limpus in a statement told the Climate Emergency Week rally outside Queensland's Parliament House how climate change was destroying her home nation. Ms Limpus said since she left Kiribati in 1976 to marry her Australian ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Canada: No-emissions house takes builder from zero to eco-hero
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=74137e43-7ebc-4d5f-8908-e486090985a9
Edmonton Journal: Peter Amerongen was a self-described hippie building log houses in the 1970s when the energy crisis hit. That's when he started designing decidedly more airtight and insulated houses -- a baby step towards his latest project, a hyper-efficient duplex that produces at least as much energy as it consumes. "Then it was about scarcity. I was convinced nothing was infinite and that we needed to save energy for future generations." View Larger ImageThe Riverdale NetZero ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Greenland: Roar of melting glacier sounds
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Entertainment/28-Sep-2008/Roar-of-melting-glacier-sounds-climate-change-alarm
Agence France-Presse: Flying low over the vast expanse of Greenland's Ilulissat glacier, one of the world's biggest, the effects of global warming are painfully visible as the ice melts at an alarming rate. The helicopter lands on a granite cliff overlooking the Ilulissat ice fjord, or Kangia in Greenlandic, offering a magnificent, panoramic view of elaborate ice formations as they float towards the sea at a rate of two metres (yards) an hour, spilling massive icebergs into the open water. Off in ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
United Kingdom: The Queen tackles climate change by buying world's biggest wind turbine off North East coast
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063549/The-Queen-tackles-climate-change-buying-worlds-biggest-wind-turbine-North-East-coast.html
Daily Mail: The Queen's estate has purchased the world's biggest wind turbine in a bid to tackle climate change. The 100-metre high turbine will supply 7.5 megawatts of power to the national grid when it is installed off the North East coast of England. It is hoped the Queen's involvement will speed up the development of specialist deep water turbines and encourage energy firms to invest in renewable energy. The Queen's estate has bought the 100-metre off-shore wind turbine, which ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Wind power is blowing our way
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpwind285861517sep28,0,1172749.story
Newsday: The winds of change may be returning to New York's energy landscape. There were three signs this month that things are starting to blow in the right direction for clean and renewable energy. The optimism began with the announcement last week that the Long Island Power Authority and Consolidated Edison have started a joint study for an offshore wind project in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the Rockaways. This follows a Public Service Commission ruling allowing a major ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
United States: As emissions grow, so does opportunity
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1269560.html
Editorial: In recent weeks, the crisis in the world's financial markets has eclipsed concern over climate change. That's understandable. When your house is on fire, it's hard to get worked up about a hurricane on the horizon. But the hurricane is still coming, and a study released last week by the Global Carbon Project, a consortium of scientists based in Australia, suggests that the storm is building faster than expected. According to the report, the world's nations set a record for ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Cities can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Cetera/Cities_can_help_reduce_greenhouse_gas_emissions/articleshow/3536785.cms
Economic Times: A new study has determined that cities are being unfairly blamed for most of humanity's greenhouse gas emissions and this threatens efforts to tackle climate change, as cities are part of the solution and not the problem. The study, which appears in the October 2008 issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization, says cities are often blamed for 75 to 80 percent of emissions, but that the true value is closer to 40 percent. It added that the potential for cities to help ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
End of offshore oil drilling ban signals shift of US energy strategy
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/28/content_10126969.htm
Xinhua: U.S. Senate on Saturday approved the lifting of a quarter-century ban on offshore oil and gas drilling, a move analysts say marks a major shift in U.S. energy strategy. Senators approved a 630-billion-dollar spending bill by a 78-12 vote. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the same bill which dropped the offshore drilling bans. The move indicates that the United States has shifted from heavy reliance on imports to a balance between imports and self-reliance in ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Japanese make post-Kyoto plan
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=d805baaf-efc5-4b95-a776-b1d06473ccd0
McClatchy-Tribune: The Japanese government plans to propose setting more than one base year in the post-Kyoto Protocol framework, in a bid to improve the current system believed to be disadvantageous to Japan as it has already made progress in energy saving, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. In the proposed framework that will succeed the Kyoto accord in 2013, the government also will call on the United Nations to impose obligations on countries considered by Japan as newly industrialized countries, such ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Motorists seek more green cars
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvnYlItos6luWLfRd1BmpAd3U9OQ
Press Association: Environmental considerations are driving more motorists to seek green alternatives when considering a new car, it was revealed. Three in four buyers would look for a vehicle with low carbon dioxide emissions when making their next purchase, a survey for the Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA) found. Two in three of the 2,665 people polled would change their choice of car to reduce their emissions, while 51% were prepared to pay more for low-emission technology. The survey ...

Mon, 29 Sep 08
Gore Warns of Sub-Prime Carbon Catastrophe
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-27-01.asp
Environment News Service: "I believe we've reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction [applause] of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Al Gore declared at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting this week at the Sheraton New York. Coal-fired power plants emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that is joining other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, blanketing the planet and raising the global ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Uganda: Path to progress; why cutting down Mabira is not an option
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/sun_business/Path_to_progress_why_cutting_down_Mabira_is_not_an_option_72204.shtml
Sunday Monitor: Jeffrey Sachs has a new book out. The renowned author and economist, in a follow-up to his 2005 best seller, "The End of Poverty," continues his assessment of the global economy and what it will take to meet the challenges of the 21st century. In the book titled, "Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet," Sachs argues that unless the world comes together to face the four major challenges of global poverty, stabilising the global population, narrowing the gaps between the rich ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Climate talks
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/climate-talks/2008/09/27/1222217588636.html
Sydney Morning Herald: CALIFORNIA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he planned to invite politicians from around the globe to try to find solutions to the problem of climate change. The Governor said yesterday he would invite officials from Australia, as well as from Europe, China, India and other countries, to California, in the hope of forming an international alliance of community and regional leaders. He is planning the conference for November, a month before the United Nations holds its next ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Gore Says Climate Change Deserves Attention The Bailout Is Getting
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10577439
San Jose Mercury News: Al Gore said in San Jose Saturday that the climate crisis deserves the same type of attention and money from Washington that the financial meltdown is getting. "Instead of a focus only on a bailout, we need to bail in renewable energy," Gore said during a 50-minute speech at the Civic Auditorium. Gore, who turned 60 this year, was a three-term U.S. Senator from Tennessee, vice president for eight years and narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George Bush. But it was ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Celebrities embark on climate change voyage
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/25/cape.farewell/?iref=intlOnlyonCNN
CNN: If the craggy, icy west coast of Greenland doesn't inspire them, perhaps Vanessa Carlton's vodka infusions will. British comedian Marcus Brigstocke aboard the Cape Farewell ship in 2007. He's back again this year. On Friday, the American singer-songwriter and self-professed "expert infuser" will join an unlikely ensemble of 40 artists, scientists and musicians aboard the 10-day "Cape Farewell" expedition to Disko Bay. Musicians Jarvis Cocker, KT Tunstall, Martha ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Climate change and allergies a bad mix
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/1189163,CST-NWS-allergy28.article
Chicago Sun-Times: If you have respiratory allergies, you have an environmental problem: Something in the air is making you sniffle, sneeze, feel stuffed up or wheeze. And growing evidence suggests your problem might be linked with the biggest environmental problem of all: global climate change. That could be especially true for pollen sufferers. Tree, grasses and weeds -- including the ragweed tormenting many people right now -- churn out more pollen over more weeks when temperatures and carbon ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
United States: Global warming unites outdoor groups
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080927/NEWS/809269872/1062&title=Global%20warming%20unites%20outdoor%20groups
Rocky Mountain News: Too little snow to track elk; water too warm for trout's liking; birds at higher elevations than they were a decade ago. Global warming is real enough to Colorado's anglers and hunters that they've embraced an idea by an environmental group to hold workshops on how to deal with changing and dwindling habitat where they hunt and fish. "Wildlife at a Crossroads: Conserving Colorado's Wildlife Heritage and Promoting a New Energy Future" is holding workshops Thursday in Denver, ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Study says methane from ocean floor is "time bomb"
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080927/Methane_Climate_20080926/20080927?hub=Canada
Canadian Press: New research suggests there may be a methane "time bomb" on the ocean floor threatening to catastrophically warm the climate and Canadian scientists wonder what effects this may have on people's efforts to combat global warming. Preliminary findings from an international study suggest that significant amounts of methane gas -- a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide -- are being released from the ocean floor off Russia's north coast. Permafrost on the ocean ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
The UK needs to show commitment to renewable energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/27/renewableenergy.energy
Guardian: The government is committed to massive new nuclear build in Britain. We do not yet know the details of Gordon Brown's nuclear plan, least of all how all the new nuclear power stations are to be paid for. But substantial public subsidy is definitely part of the deal, as described by David Lowry on Commentisfree and David Burke, writing in Prospect. After all, EDF would hardly have paid £12.5bn for British Energy if it did not have a clear promise of jam tomorrow. But while the Brown ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Lebanon: Climate change, fuel prices cutting into Lebanon forests
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=28080
IRIN: Devastating fires caused by climate change are threatening forests in Lebanon, in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, an environmental activist has warned. "We are witnessing a rise in temperature which leads to the dryness of forest soil and pushes it towards desertification," Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, director-general of the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC), a local NGO, told IRIN from Beirut. The country is witnessing forest fires earlier ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Govt wants aviation excluded from renewables target
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/economy-and-finance/energy/govt-wants-aviation-excluded-from-renewables-target-$1242447.htm
Politics.co.uk: Environmentalists have reacted with outrage after it emerged the government wants aviation to be excluded from an EU-wide renewables commitment. The government has admitted it does not approve of aircraft being subject to the EU's target of taking 20 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2020 because it believes the sector would struggle to meet this goal. The news was condemned by Friends of the Earth's (FoE) energy campaigner Robin Webster, who said the government ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
In praise of ... toads
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/27/endangeredspecies.wildlife
Guardian: As moths are to butterflies, so toads are to frogs - close biological cousins who fair very differently in the popularity stakes. The taxonomy tables reveal great physical overlap in what passes for a frog and for a toad; culturally, however, a chasm divides the two. Toads are not blessed with princess kisses, nor are children encouraged to pay loving attention to toad spawn. Instead, their name is used in vain as a particularly contemptuous insult. Kermit has picked up prizes including an ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
United States: More federal wildfire money approved
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10577490?source=rss
LA Daily News: An additional $910 million in emergency federal funding for fighting wildfires has been approved by Congress and sent to the president, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's Los Angeles office announced today. The federal firefighting budget has been depleted by an unusually-active fire season this year, including the worst rash of lightning-caused fires in California history, the senior senator from the Golden State said. "This year California was hit by wildfires in a scale that was ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Canada: Rally calls for investment in "green-collar" jobs
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2008/09/27/6904401.html
Canadian Press: Alberta activists held a rally in Edmonton to call for an investment in what they're calling "green collar" jobs. Members of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition were expected to gather in an Edmonton park to demand the provincial government turn away from things like the oilsands and start investing in alternative energy. Mike Hudema, a Greenpeace activist, says such an investment could create about 200,000 ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Rich nations pledge 6 billion dollars to fight climate change
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/science/news/article_1433434.php/Rich_nations_pledge_6_billion_dollars_to_fight_climate_change
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Ten of the world's richest countries have pledged 6.1 billion dollars to help poor countries deal with the effects of global warming, the World Bank said Friday. The money will be part of two new investment funds to be run by the World Bank and other development banks to finance projects that help poor nations cut their greenhouse-gas emissions and tackle some of the already-existing consequences of a warming planet. Countries will get the funding through a combination of loans and ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Arctic Saw Fastest August Sea Ice Retreat On Record, NASA Data Show
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926194613.htm
ScienceDaily: Following a record-breaking season of arctic sea ice decline in 2007, NASA scientists have kept a close watch on the 2008 melt season. Although the melt season did not break the record for ice loss, NASA data are showing that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before. Each year at the end of summer, sea ice in the Arctic melts to reach its annual minimum. Ice that remains, or "perennial ice," has survived from year to year and ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Don't Blame Cities For Climate Change, See Them As Solutions, New Study Says
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926100629.htm
ScienceDaily: Cities are being unfairly blamed for most of humanity's greenhouse gas emissions and this threatens efforts to tackle climate change, warns a study in the October 2008 issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization. The paper says cities are often blamed for 75 to 80 percent of emissions, but that the true value is closer to 40 percent. It adds that the potential for cities to help address climate change is being overlooked because of this error. "Blaming cities for ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Financial turmoil no bar to climate deal: U.N.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P3YT20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Global financial turmoil should not hamper a new world climate deal because high energy prices remain an incentive to improve energy efficiency, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Friday. Some analysts have said the current crisis sweeping financial markets may leave no money for investments in limiting greenhouse gas emissions amid U.N.-led talks aimed at clinching a new international deal to tackle global warming. "I have personally not seen an economic analysis that ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
House OKs extending renewable energy tax credits
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P64P20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The House of Representatives approved legislation on Friday to extend billions of dollars in tax credits for renewable energy but the bill faces an uncertain future with opposition in the Senate. The House measure, passed by a margin of 226-166, is similar to the bill that cleared the Senate earlier this week, except that the House bill includes measures to pay for the tax breaks, which are opposed by most Republicans. It is unclear whether the House and Senate will be able to ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Ireland: Radical change needed to meet CO2 targets
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15374
Edie: Ireland will have to take drastic steps in order to meet EU greenhouse gas emissions targets, according to a major report. As one of the highest per capita emitters in the world, Ireland will face an uphill struggle to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent (compared to 1990 levels) by 2020, according to the Irish Institute foe European Affairs' report. Not meeting the legally-binding targets could mean that as well as accelerating and increasing the likelihood of climate ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Rich nations' greenhouse gases fell in 2006: survey
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P6OL20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Rich nations' greenhouse gas emissions dipped for the first time in five years in 2006, easing 0.1 percent despite robust economic growth, a Reuters survey of the latest available information showed Friday. The figures were less gloomy than a report this week, based on scientist estimates to 2007, which said world emissions were surging, led by rocketing growth in poor countries such as China and India twinned with a tiny rise by industrialized nations. The Reuters survey, of ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Wind power dollars pour into west Texas economy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P77T20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Millions of dollars in new tax revenue generated from the wind power boom sweeping rural west Texas have helped fund a rash of school building projects, the first signs of an expected economic revival. "It's the greatest thing that has happened here," said James Bible, superintendent of the Blackwell Consolidated Independent School District, where the shell of a new school is rising, financed mainly by tax revenue from windmills. "It's like day and night for the school ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
California invites countries to carbon cap meeting
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P8MX20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: California plans to host a meeting of several countries in November to discuss ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Friday. The governor's office has invited China, India, European countries, Australia, Canada and Mexico to a meeting ahead of international climate talks the following month in Poland. Details still are being worked out. Schwarzenegger aims to reach out to certain Chinese states, for example, on emissions limits because the ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Clean tech start ups dogged by funding gap
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/1f95161/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0C2226999/story01.htm
Business Green: The failure of many investors to appreciate the specific requirements of clean tech startups is contributing to a "funding gap" that is threatening to undermine Europe's ability to establish itself as a clean tech hub. That was the stark warning from a panel of clean tech investment experts speaking at the Library House Essential Cleantech conference in London yesterday, who argued that while firms are keen to invest in clean tech companies, they are often ill equipped to provide the ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Combating climate change requires a reduction in energy consumption
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/26/climate.change.gore.clinton
Guardian: The Clinton Global Initiative sets itself up with an impressive challenge: collecting the most wealthy and powerful world actors to tackle the world's most pressing problems. Among the four issues on this year's agenda is energy and the environment. But a visit to the Wednesday and Thursday morning plenary sessions exposed an underlying timidity in the seemingly bold rhetoric on climate change. While many speakers urged major investments in renewable energy to replace fossil fuels, hardly ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Donors pledge $6.1 billion to climate change funds
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P8AQ20080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Industrialized countries pledged more than $6.1 billion on Friday to international investment funds aimed at helping developing countries adopt cleaner technologies and mitigate growth in greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank said. The first projects to benefit from grants, highly concessional loans and loan guarantee instruments from the Climate Investment Funds are expected to be announced in early 2009, the World Bank said. Representatives of 10 countries -- Australia, ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Kicking oil habit harder than they say
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-anxiety-energysep26,0,1297430,full.story
Chicago Tribune: Barack Obama and John McCain are promising voters a Tomorrowland of electric cars and high-speed trains and solar panels, a vision of American life without a drop of imported oil. But their plans to get there look more like Fantasyland. A host of energy policy experts agree that true "energy independence"--a key catch phrase of this presidential campaign--would be far more expensive and disruptive than either candidate is telling you. Our oil addiction hamstrings ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Solar Winds, Crucial To Life On Earth, Decreasing
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95086000&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Solar winds -- invisible gas plasma emitted by the Sun -- protect the solar system from cosmic rays that are hostile to terrestrial life. But new data from the Ulysses NASA probe indicate solar wind output is lower than has ever been previously documented. David McComas, principal investigator for the Ulysses Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles of the Sun (SWOOPS) experiment, explains what this development might mean for the solar system.

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Energy And The Economy: An Overview
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95085986&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Between environmental concerns and rising gasoline prices, energy use has never seemed more entwined with the economy. Guests discuss how oil prices are tied to economic growth, and give a roundup of the latest energy news. Guests: Martin Hoffert, professor emeritus of physics at New York University Amy Myers Jaffe, a Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in energy studies and associate director of the energy program at Rice University

Sun, 28 Sep 08
GE and Google Call for Clean Energy Policies
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/38268
Worldwatch Institute: The recently announced alliance between technology giants General Electric and Google may provide the lobbying arsenal necessary for the U.S. to overhaul an outdated electric grid widely considered as a barricade to a low-carbon future. The collaboration brings together two industry leaders with significant investments in U.S. renewable energy. Their focus on electricity infrastructure may stimulate improvements in transmission efficiency and utility access to clean energy sources, ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Haiti warns hurricanes set country back years
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48P6S920080926?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Recent hurricanes have devastated Haiti, killing hundreds and destroying years of fragile economic progress in the hemisphere's poorest nation, President Rene Preval said on Friday. Around 700 people were killed when the Caribbean country was battered by tropical storms Fay and Hanna and hurricanes Gustav and Ike in just a few weeks. "The damage caused by the passage of these four successive hurricanes in less than two months has set Haiti back several years," Preval told the ...

Sun, 28 Sep 08
Ireland: 20 times more land needed for bio-energy crops
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15368
Edie: More than 20 times the amount of land currently growing bio- energy crops will have to be dedicated to the plants if Ireland is to meet its 2015 renewable heat and electricity targets, according to advisory body Teagasc. The body, which unveiled the "energy-crop calculator" at the National Ploughing Championships, said over 70,000 hectares of bio-energy crops such as willow and miscanthus were necessary. Currently only 3,500 hectares are planted with energy-crops and ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Brazil unveils deforestation plan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7637070.stm
BBC: The Brazilian government has pledged to end net deforestation by 2015. It is one of the key commitments in a draft climate change plan, which stops short of setting specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan - setting out how Brazil will help prevent climate change, and how it will adapt to it - was promised nearly a year ago by President Lula. But the environmental group Greenpeace criticised it for simply highlighting existing proposals. It ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Europe's amphibians at risk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/sep/26/conservation.wildlife1?picture=337988267
Guardian

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Australia: Clean coal plan divides green groups
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24404241-2702,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has split green groups by placing new emphasis on clean coal technology to combat climate change, telling the UN its development has to be at the "forefront of the agenda" to cut global carbon pollution from power stations and not destroy the coal industry. In a move that will avoid strife with the powerful Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, but stir growing divisions in the environmental movement, the Prime Minister has joined former US president Bill Clinton ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Leak shows UK is lobbying to remove aviation from EU renewable energy targets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/26/biofuels.climatechange
Guardian: Britain has been accused of trying to wreck Europe's plan to tackle climate change by lobbying to remove aviation from renewable energy targets. Leaked documents from the council of the European Union show that the UK is exerting strong pressure on other EU governments. The argument being used is that biofuels made from plants or algae will not be ready for use as commercial aviation fuel until after 2020. EU leaders pledged last year to generate 20% of all energy from renewable ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Met Office slams climate sceptics
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226987/met-office-slams-climate
Business Green: The UK's Meteorological Office has issued a damning attack on climate change sceptics, arguing that recent slow down in warming trends is entirely in line with scientists expectations. "Anyone who thinks global warming has stopped has their head in the sand," said the organisation in a brochure published last week. The Met Office was responding to suggestions that global warming is a myth because of slower warming in the past decade, and recent years that have been ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
UN predicts green job boom, but warns developing world could miss out
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2227026/un-calls-careful-move-low
Business Green: The shift towards a low carbon economy will create millions of jobs and could help accelerate the development of poorer economies, according to a wide ranging report from the UN. The study predicts that a raft of new jobs will be created in sectors such as energy supply, transportation, basic industries, agriculture and forestry. It also estimates that a worldwide transition to energy-efficient buildings would create millions of jobs, as well as "greening" existing employment ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Rising solar output could hit producers' margins
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7827049
Reuters: Solar companies' success in ramping up new production lines and factories could leave the fast-growing renewable energy market awash in solar panels next year, driving down prices and profit margins in the nascent industry. The recent move by this year's hottest solar market, Spain, to cut its cap on subsidies for new solar panels has sparked fears that big producers may see their selling prices drop by as much as 20 percent as they scramble to sell out their production. Those ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Desertification - World Bank to Assist Country On Tree Planting
http://allafrica.com/stories/200809250396.html
Daily Trust: The World Bank will assist Nigeria in its quest to plant one billion trees across the country's six geopolitical zones to reduce the negative impacts of desertification and climate change, the Bank official, has said. Dr. Herbert Acquay, Programme Coordinator, Environment and Natural Resources, Africa Region of the Bank, said this in Abuja, Tuesday when he paid a visit to the Minister of Environment, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Halima Tayo Alao, in her office. He said ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
EU Parliament Panel Backs Plan to Cap Car CO2 in 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aFb6TEKi0l44&refer=germany
Bloomberg: The European Parliament's environment committee voted to cap carbon dioxide from all new cars in 2012, rejecting German demands to ease costs for automakers such as Daimler AG and Porsche SE by excluding part of their fleet. The committee in the European Union assembly decided to impose the emission curbs in one step rather than bow to German demands for a phase-in over three years until 2015. The verdict endorses a proposal by the European Commission, the EU's regulatory arm, and ...

Sat, 27 Sep 08
Angola: Tourism Sector Warns About Consequences of Climatic Changes
http://allafrica.com/stories/200809250140.html
Angola Press Agency: Angola's Hotels and Tourism Ministry on Tuesday here held a workshop on impact of climatic changes, aimed at warning about unstable conditions of the climate and the need to adopt preventive measures to face challenges of this problem. According to the incumbent minister, Eduardo Jonatão Chingunji, who was speaking during the workshop's opening ceremony, said that every sector of the society should work together in order to reduce the negative impact of caused by climatic changes to ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Amphibians facing a wipeout by 2050
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4828032.ece
Times (UK): Half of Europe's amphibian species could be wiped out in the next 40 years. Scientists from the Zoological Society of London say that the combined force of climate change, pollution, disease and habitat loss and degradation has left many with 'nowhere to run'. After assessing the amphibians' prospects, they predicted that more than 50 per cent of the 81 species native to Europe faced extinction by 2050. Even surviving species, they said, were likely to suffer a decline in ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Global Warming Pollution Increases 3%
http://www.nysun.com/national/global-warming-pollution-increases-3-percent/86670/
Associated Press: The world pumped up its pollution of the chief man-made global warming gas last year, setting a course that could push beyond leading scientists' projected worst-case scenario, international researchers said yesterday. The new numbers, called "scary" by some, were a surprise because scientists thought an economic downturn would slow energy use. Instead, carbon dioxide output jumped 3% between 2006 and 2007. That's an amount that exceeds the most dire outlook for emissions from ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Carbon Is Building Up in Atmosphere Faster Than Predicted
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092503989.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: The rise in global carbon dioxide emissions last year outpaced international researchers' most dire projections, according to figures being released today, as human-generated greenhouse gases continued to build up in the atmosphere despite international agreements and national policies aimed at curbing climate change. In 2007, carbon released from burning fossil fuels and producing cement increased 2.9 percent over that released in 2006, to a total of 8.47 gigatons, or billions of ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Frogs and toads face extinction
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Frogs-and-toads-face-extinction.4531048.jp
Scotsman: MORE than half of Europe's frog, toad and newt species could be wiped out by the middle of the century, scientists have warned. Amphibians across the world are at risk of extinction as a result of climate change, habitat destruction and disease, according to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). At a lecture at London Zoo last night, Dr Trent Garner, a ZSL research fellow, warned that UK species, such as the common toad, were among those increasingly under threat. With less ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Wal-Mart to Cut Global Plastic Shopping Bag Waste
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50365/story.htm
Reuters: Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Thursday it will cut its worldwide plastic shopping bag waste by an average of 33 percent per store by 2013, an effort the world's biggest retailer said could eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste globally. To meet that goal, Wal-Mart stores will give out fewer bags and encourage shoppers to use reusable ones. The announcement is part of the discount retailer's overarching goal of one day creating zero waste. It also comes ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Australia's greenhouse emissions rising
http://news.theage.com.au/national/australias-greenhouse-emissions-rising-20080926-4o8k.html
AAP: Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are still rising by about two per cent a year, international research conducted partly by the CSIRO has found. Pep Canadell, a CSIRO carbon specialist who spearheaded the research, said Australia was unique as a developed country which had rapidly growing emissions. "Every year of continuing growth makes the future reduction requirement even steeper," Dr Canadell said. Climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has called for Australia to ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Cabinet split on Kingsnorth power station
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cabinet-split-on-kingsnorth-power-station-942811.html
Independent: The Cabinet is split over whether to approve a controversial plan for a £1bn coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent which has become a key test of its green credentials. John Hutton, the Business Secretary, wants to approve the project even if it is not chosen for an experiment in which its carbon emissions would be "captured" and stored under the sea. But his position is strongly opposed by Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, and his predecessor David Miliband, now ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
First Auction of Pollution Rights
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=107248
New York Times: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an effort by 10 Northeastern states to combat climate change, held its first auction of pollution rights on Thursday. The program caps the amount of carbon dioxide that power plants can emit, forcing utilities to buy allowances to pollute. Not all utilities participated in the auction. The prices and number of allowances sold will not be known until Monday. Critics have charged the program will have little benefit in the near term, ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Global Carbon Emissions Soar
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50370/story.htm
Reuters: Global carbon emissions are rising rapidly, an international study says, with production of carbon dioxide in 2007 up sharply from the year before through the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and cement making. Following are highlights from the Global Carbon Project's 2008 report "Carbon budget and trends 2007". The project is a programme supported by the International Council for Science. CARBON DIOXIDE GROWTH Annual mean growth rate of atmospheric CO2 was 2.2 ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Greenhouse emissions rise by 2pc a year
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/greenhouse-emissions-rise-by-2pc-a-year/1283238.aspx
Canberra Times: Greenhouse gas emissions are still rising by about 2 per cent a year, according to international research conducted partly by the CSIRO. A CSIRO carbon specialist who spearheaded the research, Pep Canadell, said Australia was unique as a developed country that had rapidly growing emission levels. ''Every year of continuing growth makes the future reduction requirement even steeper,'' Dr Canadell said. Climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has called for Australia to cut ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Greenhouse gases a lot worse: study
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=99720
West Australian: Humans added almost 10 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases last year, according to a report which shows that world carbon emissions are growing four times faster than in the 1990s. Michael Raupach, who co-chaired the survey led by CSIRO scientists, said yesterday that Australia was the only developed country whose greenhouse emissions were still growing rapidly. The chief executive of the Global Carbon Project, Pep Canadell, said the findings highlighted a worrying trend in ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Lloyd's of London braced for tide of claims as storms rip into profit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/26/lloydsoflondon.insurance
Guardian: A ruptured gas pipeline in Australia and damaging Caribbean hurricanes were among catastrophes that halved profits at Lloyd's of London in the first six months. Lloyd's, the world's oldest insurance market, said yesterday a sharp decline in investment income was also responsible for its first interim profit decline in two years. It reported pre-tax profit in the six months to June 30 of £949m, down 47% from £1.8bn in that period last year. Chief executive Richard Ward said the ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
United States: Solar panels are new hot property for thieves
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/26/solarpower.renewableenergy
Guardian: Glenda Hoffman has an answer for the thieves, should they choose to return to her home in Desert Hot Springs, California. "I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow." Hoffman was the victim of a theft that one industry professional has dubbed "the crime of the future". Another observer has come up with the term "grand theft solar" to describe the spate of recent burglaries in sunny California. In May Hoffman lost 16 solar panels from her roof in three ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
China biggest carbon polluter, world levels at record: scientists
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUsBKvXulUVKSeD__EVrPPkthyrw
Agence France-Presse: China has leapfrogged the United States as the world's biggest carbon emitter and India is heading for third place, scientists said on Friday in a report that warned global greenhouse-gas levels were scaling record peaks. The report, by a research consortium called the Global Carbon Project (GCP), confirms an estimate that China has become the biggest producer of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal gas that causes global warming. Until 2005, rich countries emitted most of the ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Denmark, Norway Grapple with Growing CO2
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43999
Inter Press Service: Even as Scandinavian leaders have assumed a prominent role in international efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change, both Norway and Denmark have failed to reduce their own emissions. In Denmark, emissions of CO2 from road transport went have actually increased 36 percent since 1990, according to the National Environmental Research Institute. In Norway, emissions from greenhouse gases have never been higher, growing 3 percent last year alone, according to ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Does Al Gore think he's too old for civil disobedience?
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/09/25/does-al-gore-think-hes-too-old-for-civil-disobedience/
Christian Science Monitor: Speaking at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York Wednesday, former vice president and climate activist Al Gore called for 'civil disobedience' to stop the construction of conventional coal-fired power plants. Here`s what he said, according to Reuters : 'If you`re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
ECONOMY: It Pays to Go Green
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44011
Inter Press Service: A new report shows how a greener economy could eradicate poverty by creating tens of millions of new jobs. But it will not happen solely through the market's "magic hand". "We are sending signals that low-carbon, energy-efficient and less polluting technologies and production processes will be the winners in the new emerging economy," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), told IPS. Together with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Environment Agency calls for carbon-capture on all new coal power stations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/25/carboncapturestorage.climatechange
Guardian: The UK government's own environmental watchdog has called for a halt to the construction of a new generation of coal-fired power stations unless they are built with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology installed from the outset. The comments, made as part of the Environment Agency's official response to the government's consultation on CCS, also urged faster progress in proving that the technology was commercially viable. "Building a new generation of coal fired power ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Global carbon emissions rising rapidly: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48O3KZ20080925?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Global carbon emissions rose rapidly in 2007, an annual study says, with developing nations such as China and India now producing more than half of mankind's output of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming. The Global Carbon Project said in its report carbon dioxide emissions from mankind are growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the 1990s, despite efforts by a number of nations to rein in emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions from ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
House to vote on extending energy tax credits
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48O6VR20080925?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The House of Representatives will try to take up legislation extending renewable energy tax credits before lawmakers head out of town in the next few days for the November elections campaign trail. The House tax package, which may be voted on later on Thursday, is slightly different from legislation passed by the Senate Tuesday, throwing into question whether there is time to reach a final deal. With Congress expected to adjourn in the next few days for the November elections, ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Carbon goes on the auction block in Northeast
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hjn2nTv5FL2iEzbyIev3nuTHX-fAD93E08O82
Associted Press: Greenhouse gases went on sale Thursday as 10 Northeastern states held the nation's first auction of pollution credits aimed at curbing global warming. "It is time really to turn the tide on global warming," said New York Gov. David Paterson, who opened the auction by ringing the ceremonial bell at the New York Mercantile Exchange. "And we hope that we've done this today." The program puts a price on carbon dioxide pollution, giving power plants a financial incentive to cut ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Cities get too much blame for global warming: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48O9V120080925?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Cities often blamed for producing most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions actually generate just two-fifths or less, according to a study published on Friday. U.N. agencies, former U.S. President Bill Clinton's climate change initiative and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have all said that 75 to 80 percent of total emissions come from cities, the paper in the journal Environment and Urbanization says. But using data from the U.N. climate change panel, it estimates the ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Cleantech urged to embrace "policy wonks"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226957/clean-tech-urged-embrace-policy
Business Green: Climate change entrepreneurs and investors were today advised to increase their engagement with policy makers or risk having their business models undermined by "wrong-headed" legislation. Speaking to about 400 attendees at the Library House Essential Cleantech conference in Central London earlier today, former speaker of the California legislature and cleantech entrepreneur Robert Hertzberg warned that green businesses had to improve the level of dialogue with the legislators who ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
First U.S. greenhouse cap-and-trade market opens
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48O91C20080925?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Ten states in the U.S. Northeast kicked off the country's first cap-and-trade market on greenhouse gas emissions on Thursday, gaining accolades from environmentalists and many businesses but also eliciting concerns about how the states will spend the money the plan raises. The states from Maryland to Maine formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants in the absence of guidance from the Bush administration on regulating ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Government's own watchdog voices opposition to coal plans
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226900/government-own-watchdog-voices
Business Green: The government's plans for a new generation of coal-fired power stations received a major blow today after its own green watchdog, the Environment Agency, recommended that no new coal power plants should be built without carbon capture and storage (CCS) capabilities. Earlier this week, business secretary John Hutton reiterated the government's plans for a new fleet of coal-fired power stations, claiming that "I will not turn my back on another critical source of energy security for ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
There are many tiger widows here'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/25/conservation.climatechange
Guardian: Tarak Babu could have seen or heard little in the seconds before he died. His village of Jelepara in the far south-west of Bangladesh is desperately poor and has no electricity, and the young fisherman was walking back with food for his family at about 8.15 in the evening. It was June 20 - monsoon season. Tarak was walking along the high earth embankment that protects Jelepara from the river Chunkuri, and had just passed a small Hindu temple with its gaudy, painted wooden effigies of ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
UN: Tackling climate change will boost - not destroy - jobs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/25/climate.jobs
Guardian: Far from destroying jobs, tackling climate change will boost employment, claims a major new report published today by the UN and the international labour movement. The Green Jobs study goes even further than the British government's Stern report in 2006, which urged countries to invest money in reducing emissions and adapting to climate change to avoid much greater costs later. The latest report has been hailed as crucial to overcoming global resistance from the labour ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Biden coal gaffe turns up heat on democrats
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226909/biden-coal-gaffe-turns-heat
Business Green: The media jumped on Senator Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate, after he seemed to fly against the democratic platform by condemning clean coal technology this week. Biden, on the stump in Ohio, was responding to a question from a young environmental campaigner. 'Wind and solar are flourishing here in Ohio, so why are you supporting clean coal?' she asked. 'We're not supporting clean coal,' he said, before arguing that China was polluting with its coal, and proclaiming his support ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Calif. initiatives boost renewable power
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/25/politics/p165252D69.DTL&type=health
Associated Press: With 32 years in the solar business, Gary Gerber should be one of the biggest fans of an initiative to increase California's production of renewable energy. But he and hundreds of other small business owners say an alternative energy initiative on the November ballot could force them out of business at a time California is struggling to boost its production of clean power. Proposition 7, one of two alternative energy ballot measures, would require California utilities to ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Clinton confab discusses poverty, climate change
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8B1-PwJBy-WAKKzvQQClqRjT4mwD93E1O3G2
Associated Press: Global warming and poverty are intertwined because the world's poorest people are the ones hardest hit by changes in the climate, and solutions for both problems need to be found, panelists said Thursday at the second day of an annual conference spearheaded by former President Bill Clinton. "We need programs to match public policy to empower the poorest people and at the same time public policy to fight climate change," President Felipe Calderon of Mexico said at the panel Thursday at ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
EU lawmakers snub big carmakers over carbon curbs
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48O2SD20080925?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European Union lawmakers rejected a bid to delay planned limits on carbon dioxide emissions from cars in a surprise backlash on Thursday against the motor industry's efforts to ease its burden in the fight against climate change. "This was a big surprise," German Green group member Rebecca Harms said. "There was a big fight with industry and governments, and the Germans and French were adding a lot of pressure." German conservative lawmakers led the efforts to soften plans by ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
EU panel resists pressure to water down car emission targets
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jlxxJoIiJlcjfQRAy4mTjFC6ogyA
Agence France-Presse: An EU environment panel resisted pressure on Thursday from Europe's powerful car-making industry to water down plans to force automakers to slash carbon dioxide emissions. A majority in the European Parliament's environment commission voted down efforts to weaken European Commission plans to fine car-makers for failing to meet emissions targets, a spokesman said. The two biggest political groups in the parliament, the conservatives and the Socialists, had supported a watering ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Half of Europe's amphibians could be extinct by 2050
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/25/eafrogs125.xml
Telegraph (UK): More than half of all amphibian species in Europe could be extinct by 2050, scientists have warned. They face threats from pollution, disease and loss of habitat caused by climate change. A Majorcan midwife toad, which was thought to be extinct until 1977 (left) and a Sardinian painted frog Scientists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) who have been carrying out research into the decline said Europe faces losing half of its 80 species of frogs, toads, ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Labour's shocking CO2 admissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/25/carbonemissions.climatechange
Guardian: Last week a leaked government document revealed that Labour ministers are lobbying the EU to allow Britain to meet up to half of its 2020 emissions reductions targets by buying credits from the developing world. It is true that a tonne of carbon dioxide pollution saved in Bangalore is the same as a tonne saved in Birmingham – but by paying others to make carbon reductions for us, Labour are selling Britain short by subsidising abroad the efficiencies and savings we need to make at ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Tax breaks in the House: battle with Senate awaits
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iEeZHDYihRxri_aauxdnC9kCTONwD93E0N304
Associated Press: The House on Thursday introduced a $57 billion measure to extend and expand tax breaks, putting it on a collision course with the Senate. The upper chamber moved its own version of the tax bill earlier this week. At stake in the waning hours of this congressional session is tax policy affecting billions of dollars in business investment and millions of taxpayers, including more than 20 million exposed to the alternative minimum tax. The House, steered by fiscally ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
UK opposes green aviation target
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7636780.stm
BBC: The UK government is lobbying for aviation to be excluded from an EU target to increase renewable energy. Documents passed to BBC News reveal that Whitehall wants the industry exempted from a general target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. It also wants interim targets leading up to 2020, and targets on clean energy in new homes, to be optional. The government says the targets on aviation are pointless while there is uncertainty over the use of biofuels. But green ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Booming, Shifting East, Researchers Report
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080924162938.htm
ScienceDaily: Despite widespread concern about climate change, annual carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels and manufacturing cement have grown 38 percent since 1992, from 6.1 billion tons of carbon to 8.5 billion tons in 2007. At the same time, the source of emissions has shifted dramatically as energy use has been growing slowly in many developed countries but more quickly in some developing countries, most notably in rapidly developing Asian countries such as China and India. These ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Congress to let offshore drilling ban expire
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48N6AF20080924?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The offshore drilling ban that became a flash point in the U.S. presidential election looks set to expire next week after Democrats decided to drop the prohibition from a temporary spending bill that would keep the government running. The end of the ban will not lead to a rush of new drilling any time soon, but it would be a big win for Republican Presidential nominee John McCain who has made opening most U.S. offshore areas to drilling a key part of his campaign. His Democratic ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Gore urges civil disobedience to stop coal plants
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48N7AA20080924?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon. The former U.S. vice president, whose climate change documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award, told a philanthropic meeting in New York City that "the world has lost ground to the climate crisis." "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Republicans Boycott Senate Review of Bush Environmental Record
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-24-02.asp
Environment News Service: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing today to review the Bush administration's record on public health and environmental matters, but it was conducted in the absence of Ranking Member Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican and former chair of the committee. Senator Inhofe was not ill or out of town, he boycotted the hearing, and he asked the two government witnesses scheduled to honor his objection. Neither one attended the hearing nor did any of ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
Severe Climate Change Costs Forecast For Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Tennessee, North Dakota, And ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080924125045.htm
ScienceDaily: The economic impact of climate change will cost a number of U.S. states billions of dollars, and delaying action will raise the price tag, concludes the latest series of reports produced by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). The new reports project specific long-term direct and ripple economic effects on North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. In most cases, the price tag could run into billions of dollars. The ...

Fri, 26 Sep 08
U.N. launches program to cut deforestation emissions
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48N91C20080924?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The United Nations launched a program on Wednesday that it hopes could be the foundation for a system in which rich countries would pay poor ones to slow climate change by protecting and planting forests. The new program, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Program, or UN-REDD, will assist nine developing countries, including Bolivia, Indonesia and Zambia, in establishing systems to monitor, assess and report forest cover. "Forests are worth more ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Australia: Coastal development ruling overturned
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/coastal-development-ruling-overturned/1282108.aspx
Canberra Times: A CONTROVERSIAL proposal to build about 200 houses on a headland at Sandon Point, near Wollongong, is back on the agenda after a landmark climate change ruling was overturned yesterday. The former planning minister, Frank Sartor, since ejected from that portfolio, had a win of sorts when he successfully appealed against a Land and Environment Court decision that blocked approval for the development. The ruling, handed down last November, meant the Planning Department might have ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
"Green" energy should create 20 mln jobs by 2030: UN
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE48N48O20080924
Reuters: Development of alternative energy should create more than 20 million jobs around the world in coming decades as governments adopt policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a U.N. report released on Wednesday. Some 2.3 million people already work in green energy jobs with half of them in biofuels, said the report "Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World," commissioned and funded by the U.N.'s Environment Program. Creation of the jobs ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Barack Obama's campaign has rushed to proclaim his support for 'clean coal' technology
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/24/energy.uselections2008
Guardian: Barack Obama's campaign yesterday rushed to proclaim his support for "clean coal" technology after remarks by running mate Joe Biden cast doubts on Democratic friendliness to the coal industry. In a videotaped exchange with an environmental campaigner in Ohio, Biden allowed Republicans to change the subject from the financial gloom that has put John McCain on the defensive this week. Asked why he and Obama backed the expensive prospect of capturing and storing carbon dioxide ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Crisis no reason to dilute climate plan - EU
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7822607
Reuters: The global financial crisis is no reason to water down the European Union's flagship plan to fight climate change, the bloc's environment chief said on Wednesday. Even before the current financial meltdown, many EU companies said the programme, involving cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, would hurt them by boosting costs. Some EU officials now say privately the economic downturn highlighted by bankruptcies and takeovers in the financial sector may lead the bloc to adopt a less ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
House takes up Senate-passed tax break package
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1181584,CST-NWS-tax24.article
Associated Press: Major tax legislation that would save 20 million people from the clutches of the alternative minimum tax and renew dozens of popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals is being taken up in the House, where its fate is uncertain. The tax package passed the Senate on Tuesday on a 93-2 vote, but faces obstacles in the House, where fiscally conservative Democrats object to tax relief that is not paid for with an increase in revenues elsewhere. The House plans to offer a ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Solar stocks set to shine after Senate measure
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE48N4JH20080924
Reuters: Solar power companies' shares rallied in early trading on Wednesday, the day after the U.S. Senate voted to extend tax credits worth $18 billion for renewable energy sources. The measure, which the House of Representatives and President George W. Bush are expected to approve, would give businesses a 30 percent tax credit to offset the development costs of solar and other clean energy projects. Among the top gainers on Wednesday was Yingli Green Energy, which rose 9 percent to ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Africa: Continent 'Worst Hit By Convergence of Crises'
http://allafrica.com/stories/200809240507.html
This Day: As the world, especially African heads of state convene to discuss continental compliance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), experts have decried the grim food situation on the continent. According to ActionAid International, it is clear that the sudden massive rise in food prices has added up to 25 per cent to the cost of food imports for poor countries in Africa and is driving millions of poor people in to hunger. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) arm of ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Ahead of the Bell: Alternative energy tax credit
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/00397fbf47eb5e8469f80ff03e3d184f.htm
Associated Press: Wind and solar companies could be poised for a big day on Wall Street Wednesday after the Senate passed a bill that provides more than $17 billion in renewable energy tax incentives. The energy legislation extends for eight years, through 2016, investment tax credits for the solar power industry. Jefferies & Co. analyst Paul Clegg said the long-term commitment could help the U.S. become a significant solar photovoltaic market force. Clegg said in a client note that ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Brown hints at tougher carbon targets
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226795/brown-indicates-stronger
Business Green: Environmental groups have welcomed the clearest signal to date that Gordon Brown is prepared to strengthen the carbon emission reduction targets included in the upcoming climate change bill. Speaking at the Labour Conference in Manchester, Brown reiterated his desire for the recently formed Climate Change Committee to examine the feasibility of an 80 per cent cut in emissions rather than the previously proposed 60 per cent cut by 2050. "I am asking the climate change committee ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Climate change demo cost police £6m
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZoRZo7OIXIGBkFuXpGXNjDKR7oQ
Press Association: The estimated cost of policing a week-long protest against climate change stands at just under £6 million, it has been disclosed. Around £5.9 million has been spent policing the Camp for Climate Action event which was held last month close to Kingsnorth Power Station near Hoo, Kent. The money, revealed to BBC South East following a Freedom of Information Act request, was spent on officers, accommodation, air support and planning. But Kent Police expect the figure to rise ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Climate scientist warns severe carbon cuts needed in shipping and aviation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/24/carbonemissions.emissionstrading
Guardian: Carbon trading will not solve the problem of soaring emissions from the aviation and shipping industries, a new analysis shows. Future carbon cuts must be so severe, that both sectors will have to curtail future growth to tackle global warming, according to research presented at a climate change conference at Exeter University today. Emissions from international aviation and shipping are growing rapidly, but are excluded from existing plans to cut carbon. Faced with ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
EU lawmakers plan to make climate goals cheaper
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE48N4HP20080924
Reuters: EU lawmakers will vote next month on steps to lower carbon penalties for industry and funnel billions of euros annually into climate change-fighting technologies, a European Parliament document shows. The European Union's emissions trading scheme puts a cap on carbon emissions from industry, and forces factories and power plants to pay for carbon permits above a certain free quota. The European Parliament's environment committee will vote in two weeks on the suggested changes ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Giant Mirrors Tap Sun, Subsidies in Europe's Clean Power Bid
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aESker8lE5B4&refer=europe
Bloomberg: As the sun rises over Seville in southern Spain, its blinding light bounces on a field of 624 mirrors surrounded by sunflowers. The moving mirrors reflect sunbeams onto a 115-meter-high white tower that uses the concentrated heat to boil water, making steam that spins an electric turbine 97 times a second. This is Europe's first commercial solar-thermal-electricity plant, at the forefront of a growing movement for green power. ``Look! Look!'' exclaims plant manager Valerio ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Is US renewable tax credit saga finally nearing its end?
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226816/renewable-tax-credit-saga
Business Green: Fears that growth in the US renewable energy sector was about to be halted by the failure of legislators to extend a package of tax breaks that was due to expire last year alleviated somewhat yesterday after the Senate approved plans to extend $18bn in tax credits for using renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. The proposals, which include measures to provide generous tax incentives for firms installing solar energy systems and purchasing electric cars, still ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Millions of Green Jobs Possible With Right Investment: UN
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/green-collar-47092404
Daily Green: Transforming the economy of the world to run on renewable energy can create millions of jobs, but even staving off the worst consequences of global warming won't prevent the loss of jobs in agricultural and tourism sectors, according to a new United Nations report. In other words, acting to curtail global warming can create jobs, but we'll lose some jobs to climate change whether we act or not. The only way to add jobs is to act. Among the report's findings: The global ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
New Push to Tap the Oceans for Electricity
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1566055/new_push_to_tap_the_oceans_for_electricity/
International Herald Tribune: For years, technological visionaries have painted a seductive vision of using ocean tides and waves to produce power. They foresaw large installations off coastlines and in tidal estuaries that could provide as much as 10 percent of U.S. electricity needs. But the technical difficulties of making such systems work are proving formidable. Last year, a wave-power machine sank off the Oregon coast. Blades have broken off experimental tidal turbines in the turbulent East River in New ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Report: EU carbon market will not raise power prices
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/report-eu-carbon-market-raise-power-prices/article-175667
EurActiv: "The auctioning of allowances in the [EU Emissions Trading Scheme] market in 2013 and beyond is unlikely to have a material impact on power prices," says the report, prepared by New Carbon Finance, a carbon-market consultancy based in the UK. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is the cornerstone of EU efforts to tackle climate change. New rules proposed by the Commission for the period 2013 to 2020 call for 100% auctioning of emissions permits for the EU power sector, after ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Senate Renews Alternative Energy Tax Credits
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/renewable-energy-tax-credit-47092402
Daily Green: The Senate renewed a $17 billion tax credit that benefits renewable energy developers, a piece of legislation that environmental and energy advocates have said is fundamental to weening the nation off foreign oil and fossil fuels. The House and Senate still have to reconcile spending bills before the tax breaks, and President Bush sign off on it, before they become law. The tax break alone won't achieve such far-reaching results, but without it, even stepwise investments in that new ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Solar Panels Are Vanishing, Only to Reappear on the Internet
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=107182
New York Times: Solar power, with its promise of emissions-free renewable energy, boasts a growing number of fans. Some of them, it turns out, are thieves. Just ask Glenda Hoffman, whose fury has not abated since 16 solar panels vanished from her roof in this sun-baked town in three separate burglaries in May, sometimes as she slept. She is ready if the criminals turn up again. 'I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow,' Ms. Hoffman said. Police departments in ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Solar stocks set to shine after Senate measure
http://www.enn.com/business/article/38261
Reuters: Solar power companies' stocks appeared set to climb on Wednesday ahead of the market open following the U.S. Senate's passage of a bill that would extend $18 billion in tax credits for renewable energy for eight years. The measure, which is expected to be approved by the House of Representatives and President George W. Bush, gives businesses a 30 percent tax credit to offset the development costs of solar and other clean energy projects. Industry experts had warned that failure ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Type Of Plankton -- A Food Source For Many Fish -- Has Ability To Survive Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080924075311.htm
ScienceDaily: Billions of Calanus finmarchicus, a plankton species, which are just a few millimetres in size, live in the waters of the North Atlantic where the research was carried out. It showed they responded to global warming after the last Ice Age, around 18,000 years ago, by moving north and maintaining large population sizes and also suggests that these animals might be able to track the current change in habitat. The effect of global climate change on the planet's ecosystems is one ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Vegetarian shift seen helping climate, not poor
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnLO486181.html
Reuters: Eating less meat can help rich nations to combat global warming but may not work for poor countries where people depend on livestock for survival, a leading expert said on Wednesday. U.N. reports show that the livestock sector accounts for about 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming -- more than the transport industry. Eating less beef, pork or chicken is often advocated as a way to cut emissions. "We agree that the world as a whole could eat less ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Will saving a forest save us money?
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/38260
Environmental News Network: How much is a forest worth? And how do we calculate that value? Do we simply count the trees and figure out how much we could get for them if we were to cut them down and turn them into logs, lumber, and pulp and paper? That's been the traditional approach, but it hasn't served us well. A forest is much more than the timber it holds. A forest provides habitat for wildlife, recreational opportunities for hikers and hunters, a place for quiet contemplation, and filtration and storage of ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Wind turbines would harm 'wilderness of park'
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/Wind-turbines-would-harm-39wilderness.4522431.jp
Yorkshire Post: PLANNERS from the Peak District National Park Authority have objected to plans for a five-turbine wind farm on the border of Sheffield and Barnsley. The Peak District planning committee has told Barnsley Council that the proposed wind farm on Sheephouse Heights, between Penistone and Stocksbridge, would be a "visual intrusion" that would harm the landscape and impact on the rural economy. Anne Ashe, who chaired the committee, said: "Members of the committee felt that having ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United States: Berkeley eyes carbon tax
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/24/BA21133LE9.DTL&tsp=1
San Francisco Chronicle: The revenue proposals, as well as dozens of energy-saving goals for residents and businesses, are part of the Climate Action Plan the City Council considered at a special meeting Tuesday night. The plan is not scheduled for final approval until January. A carbon tax would have to be approved by the voters before implementation. The 183-page plan is meant to help Berkeley meet its Measure G goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. "It's probably ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
British official: Climate Change Bill set to become law
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/24/content_10104687.htm
Xinhua: The Climate Change Bill introduced by Britain's ruling Labour Party is about to become law, British Secretary of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Hilary Benn said here Wednesday. Paying tribute to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "strong leadership" on the last day of the Labour Party Conference, Benn said Britain's carbon dioxide emissions fell by over 10 million tons last year and the country is considering raising its 2050 carbon emission reduction target to 80 percent from the ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Canada: City called ecological disaster
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2008/09/24/6859841-sun.html
Sun Media: Green crusader David Suzuki took a swipe at Calgary's environmental record yesterday, slamming the city as an ecological disaster. In attendance at the Canadian Urban Forest Conference in Sherwood Park, the broadcaster-turned-activist took aim at Calgary when asked by reporters how Alberta compares to other provinces when it comes to dealing with climate change. "Calgary is an ecological disaster -- the urban sprawl there is crazy," he said, training his sights on ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Climate caused extinction of Pakistan species
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Earth/Climate_caused_extinction_of_Pak_species/articleshow/3520148.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: Many of giraffe, rhino and elephant species, along with a multitude of rodents, bush pigs, horses, antelope and apes, once roamed northern Pakistan. But climate change eight million years ago radically altered the vegetative profile, resulting in the extinction of most species, when they could not adapt to the new ecosystem, said a long-term study of mammal fossils spanning a five-million-year period. Michigan University paleoecologist Catherine Badgley said: "The climate is ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Climate change 'must remain priority'
http://www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/climate-change-must-remain-priority/
ePolitix: Fighting climate change must remain a priority despite the economic downturn, the environment secretary has said. Hilary Benn told the Labour Party conference in Manchester on Wednesday that a low-carbon economy would create a million jobs. And commending Gordon Brown's "strong leadership" on climate change, he pointed to government measures to help people cope with rising fuel bills, such as winter fuel payments and funding for loft insulation. "But, conference, as well ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley up carbon investments
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226824/deutsche-bank-morgan-stanley
Business Green: They might no longer be certain what the future holds for the financial sector but two of the world's largest banks have this week signalled their on-going support for the carbon market. DWS Investments, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank's asset management division, announced yesterday that it is setting up a new carbon fund that is expected to invest in the burgeoning global carbon market. The fund, which will be aimed at retail customers, is seeking to raise around ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Canada: Dion pushes his own carbon tax on Vancouver stop
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080924.BCELECTION24/TPStory/National
Globe and Mail: Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion made a campaign stop in the Vancouver area yesterday to try to win converts to his Green Shift carbon-tax proposal despite B.C. voter anger over a similar levy the province has already slapped onto fuel. He offered no special breaks for B.C. consumers, who started paying the provincial carbon tax in July, but instead reminded voters that the $15-billion Green Shift plan includes income-tax breaks to offset his proposed federal levy. "We will give ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
EDF Agrees to Buy British Energy for $23 Billion
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a4Sgev4VLqsA&refer=uk
Bloomberg: Electricite de France SA, the world's biggest nuclear utility, agreed to buy British Energy Group Plc for a sweetened 12.5 billion pounds ($23 billion) as the U.K. turns back to atomic power after decades of neglect. EDF will pay 774 pence a share for the country's biggest electricity producer, according to a statement today. That's 35 percent above British Energy's closing price on March 14, the last trading session before the East Kilbride, Scotland-based utility said it may receive ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
EDF completes UK nuclear line-up
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7532542.stm
BBC: Less than two months after British Energy shareholders walked away from an earlier deal, EDF has bagged the UK nuclear power generator in a £12.4bn deal. Britain's nuclear future is expected to be dominated by French firms Selling British Energy to EDF is about more than just a handover of physical assets. The deal also completes the line-up of participants in a nuclear race that will lead to the creation of two essentially new branches of Britain's nuclear ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Evergreen Solar, Energy Conversion Surge on Tax Bill
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aVjpIIMqWY0M&refer=us
Bloomberg: Energy Conversion Devices Inc., Evergreen Solar Inc. and Akeena Solar Inc. surged after the U.S. Senate passed a bill that would extend tax credits on solar power installations through 2016. Energy Conversion, based in Rochester Hills, Michigan, climbed $7.64, or 14 percent, to $64.10 at 9:31 a.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Marlboro, Massachusetts-based Evergreen rose 58 cents, or 10 percent, to $6.33, and Los Gatos, California-based Akeena gained 93 cents, or 22 ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
French utility set to buy British Energy for $23.18 billion
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/24/business/25edf-fw.php
International Herald Tribune: Électricité de France will buy British Energy for $23.18 billion in a deal that gives the French company a dominant role in the British nuclear power industry, the companies confirmed Wednesday EDF raised its offer to 774 pence a share, according to a statement, from an initial 764 pence that was tendered in July for the utility. That appeared to be enough to bring on board two large British Energy shareholders, the fund managers Invesco and M&G, who had previously opposed the ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Industry committee MEPs not interested in tackling dangerous climate change
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/news/index.cfm?uNewsID=146081
WWF: Climate Action Network Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and WWF have heavily criticized the outcome of today's vote by the European Parliament's industry (ITRE) committee on 'effort sharing'(1) . Environmentalists slammed the committee's opinion that countries should be able to buy their way out of real emission cuts in the EU by being able to purchase an even greater quantity of offsets than originally proposed by the European Commission. The ITRE committee vote would ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Kent cops eco protest bill will cost us £3 million
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news/Kent-cops-eco-protest-bill-will-cost-us-%C2%A33-million-newsinkent16445.aspx
Kent News: Around half the estimated £6m spent policing the Climate Camp protest at Kingsnorth Power Station is to be paid by the Government. The Home Office has confirmed it is willing to contribute £3.2m to the bill which will most likely rise as other costs are factored in. A Home Office spokesman said: "We have offered Kent Police £3.2m and Kent Police have asked for more. We are considering that request." About 1,400 officers policed the event and 1,000 activists attended the ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Poland's coal miners protest 'climate package'
http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/news/?id=92075
Thenews.pl: Around 300 coal miners and power engineers from the Solidarity trade union will protest in Brussels on Thursday against the European Commission's 'climate package,' which is to limit carbon dioxide emissions. The trade union warns that introducing the new regulations might spell disaster for Polish coal mining and the power industry, which is based 95 percent on coal. Miners from collieries from all over Poland - Silesia, Belchatow, Konin, Kalisz and Szczecin - will take part ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Police bill for Kingsnorth protest could top £6m
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=48604
Kent: The Home Office today announced it will pay £3.2 million towards the £6 million bill for policing the Camp Climate protest at Hoo. A spokesman for the Home Office said:"Kent Police have asked for more money and this request is currently being considered." Kent Police revealed this week that the bill for for officers, accommodation, air support and planning during the week-long protest in August was £5.9 million, though the total could rise. Up to 1,400 officers from 26 ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Rising cost of oil will not derail climate strategy, says Hilary Benn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/24/labour.greenpolitics
Guardian: Hilary Benn today defended the government's measures to help people with domestic fuel bills and pledged that the rising cost of oil would not derail its efforts to tackle climate change. In his speech to Labour party conference, the environment secretary said he still believed the best way to reduce bills was through loft and cavity insulation rather than one-off payments. Benn also pledged that the government would work to increase its carbon dioxide emission targets. It is ...

Thu, 25 Sep 08
Solar wind blows at 50-year low
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7632331.stm
BBC: The solar wind - the stream of charged particles billowing away from the Sun - is at its weakest for 50 years. Scientists made the assessment after studying 18 years of data from the Ulysses satellite which has sampled the space environment all around our star. They expect the reduced output to have effects right across the Solar System. Indeed, one impact is to diminish slightly the influence the Sun has over its local environment which extends billions of kilometres ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Green idealists most likely to take long-haul flights, says study
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/24/ethicalliving.recycling
Guardian: People who believe they have the greenest lifestyles can be seen as some of the main culprits behind global warming, says a team of researchers, who claim that many ideas about sustainable living are a myth. According to the researchers, people who regularly recycle rubbish and save energy at home are also the most likely to take frequent long-haul flights abroad. The carbon emissions from such flights can swamp the green savings made at home, the researchers claim. Stewart ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Vegetation Expansion Minimises Global Warming - Expert
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_world.php?id=360952
Bernama: The main cause of global warming is the high level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Therefore, to reduce it, extended green plants area is needed, experts said. "Lately, the green plants existence in the world has decreased, mostly because of human's action. This results in the increasing of the temperature," Antara news agency quoted Professor of the Faculty Mathematics and Physics (MIFA) University of North Sumatra (USU) Retno Widhiastuti, as saying here ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Australia's Wong Warns of Ongoing Water Shortage
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50334/story.htm
Reuters: Farmers in Australia's food bowl Murray-Darling river basin need to adapt to ongoing water shortages as climate change prolongs the worst drought in a century, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday. The basin, which covers an area the size of France and Germany, accounts for 41 percent of Australia's agriculture and provides A$21 billion (US$17.6 billion) of food exports. "We can and must adjust for a future where there is likely to be less water," Wong told ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
British public 'unwilling' to pay for environmental agenda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/24/climate.change.science.ofclimatechange
Guardian: Public confusion over the environmental agenda appears to be as high as ever, with a majority in the UK calling for more action to tackle climate change while at the same time saying they are not willing to pay more to help. Nearly two-thirds of people told a poll by Opinium they thought recent government measures to boost energy conservation needed to go much further, and half said they were doing their bit by installing insulation or turning down the thermostat. However more ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Spain Eases Plan to Slash Subsidy for Solar Power
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50341/story.htm
Reuters: Spain has decided to ease proposed sharp cuts in a generous subsidy scheme to solar power producers in one of the world's hottest markets, Energy Secretary Pedro Marin said on Tuesday. Marin said the proposed limit on total capacity of new solar power panels entitled to subsidies in 2009 will be 500 megawatts, which compares to an earlier draft proposal to set the cap at 300 MW. "We have approved an additional 200 MW for ground-based installations to soften the change," Marin ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
U.S.-Canadian Group Plans to Curb Emissions
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=107126
New York Times: An alliance of seven Western states and four Canadian provinces unveiled a blueprint on Tuesday for the most far-reaching effort in North America to curb emissions linked to climate change. The draft of the proposal by the alliance, the Western Climate Initiative, is intended to achieve a 15 percent cut in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020. It cuts emissions from industries across the economy and from transportation and housing; a plan being put into effect by 10 northeastern states ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Australia Govt Says No Carbon Trade Delay
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50333/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's plan to impose a carbon emissions trade scheme on its US$1 trillion economy within two years will not be affected by global financial turmoil, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday. Wong, in an interview with Reuters, said the cost of doing nothing or delaying the regime's planned mid-2010 introduction would rapidly spiral with Australia already in the grip of long-term drought and climate change. "The costs of failing to act on climate change will be ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
EU Has Little to Show From Energy Scheme - Court
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50331/story.htm
Reuters: A European Union energy saving programme used up 250 million euros (US$366 million) of taxpayers' money but ended with little proof of progress, the European Court of Auditors said on Tuesday. The report by the external auditor of the EU comes as the bloc gears up to spend billions of euros overhauling buildings and industries to make them more efficient and to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in its fight against climate change. A European Commission official defended the ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Japan to Buy Excess Czech Emissions Allowance
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50332/story.htm
Reuters: Japan has signed an agreement with the Czech Republic to buy surplus allowances for greenhouse gas emissions, helping it achieve its reduction goals under the Kyoto Protocol, the Czech Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. Japan, the world's fifth-biggest emitter, is seeking emissions credits overseas after lagging behind in its obligation to cut emissions to 1.19 billion tonnes in carbon dioxide equivalent by 2012, or 6 percent below 1990 levels. It emitted 1.340 billion tonnes in ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
US Presidential Campaigns Debate Climate Issue
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50336/story.htm
Reuters: Senior advisers to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain debated how the United States should tackle climate change at a conference in New York on Monday. The debate between Dan Esty, an Obama adviser and an environmental law professor Yale University, and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a McCain adviser and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, focused on the auctioning of permits for the right to pollute greenhouse gases. Both candidates support a cap and ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
'Climate-proof' crop hunt begins
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7622920.stm
BBC: A global search has begun for food crops with traits that are able to withstand changes to the climate. The project, co-ordinated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is searching national seed banks for "climate proof" varieties, including maize and rice. The team will screen seeds for natural resistance to extreme events, such as floods, droughts or temperature swings. They hope the strains will help protect food production from the impacts of climate change. The ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Chicago latest US city to unveil comprehensive climate plan
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226692/chicago-becomes-latest-city-put
Business Green: Chicago has announced a climate change action plan designed to reduce the city's carbon emissions to three quarters of 1990 levels by 2020. The goal, which goes well beyond the requirements of the Kyoto protocol, has been praised as aggressive by environmental commentators. The plan, which is part of a longer-term goal to cut carbon emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, consists of 35 separate actions spanning five broad categories: building efficiency, clean and ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Exclusive: The methane time bomb
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html
Independent: The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists. The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats. Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Methane release off Siberian coast prompts concern over runaway climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/23/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange1?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Scientists claim to have discovered evidence for large releases of methane into the atmosphere from frozen seabed stores off the northern coast of Siberia. A large injection of the gas - which is 21 times more potent as an atmospheric heat trap than carbon dioxide - has long been cited by climate scientists as the potential trigger for runaway global warming. The warming caused by the gas could destabilise permafrost further, they fear, leading to yet more methane release. But ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Modest Carbon Dioxide Cutbacks May Be Too Little, Too Late For Coral Reefs
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080922155914.htm
ScienceDaily: How much carbon dioxide is too much? According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) greenhouse gases in the atmosphere need to be stabilized at levels low enough to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." But scientists have come to realize that an even more acute danger than climate change is lurking in the world's oceans--one that is likely to be triggered by CO2 levels that are modest by climate standards. Ocean ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
California activates drought water bank for first time since 1992
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_waterbank24.12f9bdd.html
JANET ZIMMERMAN: Facing the third dry winter in a row, the state is activating a plan to transfer water supplies from Northern California to areas farther south, possibly staving off mandatory rationing, water officials said Tuesday. Consumers could get higher water bills as a result. This would be the first use of the state's drought water bank since 1992, the end of six dry years that killed lawns and fish populations, drove down agricultural land value and forced severe rationing in some ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Climos aiming for first "ocean fert" project in late 2009
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226690/climos-aiming-first-ocean-fert
Business Green: US-based geo-engineering specialist Climos has revealed that it is planning to undertake its first ocean fertilisation pilot project within the next 18 months, despite continued opposition to the practice from some green groups. In an exclusive interview with BusinessGreen.com, company chief executive Dan Whaley said the firm was currently putting together the research team to work on the project and was looking for feasible sites most likely in the Southern Ocean. He added ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Companies must lead climate change fight: consumers
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48M8XI20080923?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Most consumers want companies to do more to protect the environment and reckon that firms should play a leading role in fighting global warming, a worldwide survey showed Tuesday. The poll, of 28,000 Internet users in 51 nations by The Nielsen Company, showed that corporate commitment to green ethics is playing "an increasingly influential role in consumers' purchasing behavior," Nielsen said. The survey showed that 51 percent of respondents considered it "very important" for ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Environment chief lied to Congress: Sen. Boxer
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48MAIS20080923?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lied to Congress about his rejection of a request from California meant to curb global warming emissions, Sen. Barbara Boxer said on Tuesday. Boxer, a California Democrat who has called for EPA chief Stephen Johnson to resign, made the statement at a hearing on regulation of greenhouse gases under the U.S. Clean Air Act. "You've shown that what Mr. Johnson told us is not the truth," Boxer told Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
EU carbon price climbs as oil soars
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226705/eu-carbon-prices-climbs-oil
Business Green: The price of carbon credits in the EU's emission trading scheme climbed again this morning to 25.10 after the cost of a barrel of crude for October delivery soared yesterday to $120.92, an increase for the day of more than $16. The price of EUA credits had fallen to 23 last week after oil prices slumped amid fears that the turmoil afflicting the world financial markets would result in a deep recession. The price of carbon credits is linked to that of oil as lower oil prices ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
EU lawmakers set to halt carbon curbs
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48MA1O20080923?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European Union lawmakers are set to slam the brakes on plans to curb carbon dioxide emissions from cars, easing the burden on the auto industry in the fight against climate change, documents circulated on Tuesday showed. A draft European Parliament resolution would delay and soften the mandatory emissions limits proposed by the executive European Commission, reduce the fines for non-compliance and give carmakers a freer hand on how they achieve the cuts. A vote by parliament's ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
On Texas prairie, wind power is resurgent
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48MBQ420080923?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Fewer people curse the ever-present breeze that sweeps the treeless West Texas landscape these days, where the flat horizon has been overtaken by hundreds of wind turbines that produce electricity for distant city dwellers and new income for rural residents. "Now we love the wind," said Max Watt as she signed her name on the side of a 98-foot-long turbine blade to commemorate the opening of wind farm about 200 miles west of Fort Worth. "We say, 'blow, blow, blow.'" Wind farms ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Through better town planning we could make better lives for children
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/23/children.architecture?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: A new study has shown that our addiction to the car doesn't just harm the atmosphere, it also hits much closer to home. Researchers at the University of the West of England have found that people who live in busy roads have fewer friends and acquaintances nearby, and feel worse about their neighbourhoods, than those in socio-economically similar but less traffic-filled streets. As John Vidal reported in last Friday's Guardian, the consequences could be far-reaching, given the links (pdf) ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Bring on the carbon army
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/23/climatechange?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: As the economic crisis deepens, the worsening state of the environment is predictably losing prominence in politics, the media and public debate. It always happens: when times are good, green is good. When times get tough, out goes the green stuff. This time, however, it is different. The science has moved on. Climate change is no longer a matter of speculation and no longer can it be seen as a long-term concern to be ignored while we deal with more pressing economic shocks: although ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Australia: Carbon in soil wont be in trading scheme
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200809/s2371666.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says carbon stored in farm soils won't be included in the emissions trading scheme before agriculture is fully covered. The Government's independent climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, says soil carbon should be included as soon as possible to encourage farmers to improve practices. However Tony Burke says the Government is encouraging that by investing research money, and it wont commit to anything else until ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Western States, Provinces Set Climate Emissions Trading Program
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-23-04.asp
Environment News Service: The Western Climate Initiative governments today announced the design of their new regional market-based cap-and-trade program. The emissions trading program is intended to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The program recommendations met with support from environmental groups and criticism from the coal industry. The WCI partners say the program is expected to encourage growth in new green technologies, help build a ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Arctic ice at 'lowest ever levels'
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15337
Edie: Arctic sea ice may have reached its lowest ever levels, according to environmental campaigners. WWF said 2008 could be the lowest year of summer ice coverage on record, and said that declining thickness among the ice that remains means it may have reached its lowest levels in terms of total volume. Figures are expected to show that Arctic sea ice coverage is similar to last year's record low of 1.59m square miles. "If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Coal price hikes likely if mine ruling sticks
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48M1XZ20080923?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The price of coal will rise sharply if a U.S. appeals court upholds a ruling restricting surface mining in the Appalachian mountains, analysts and industry observers say. The battle over surface, or mountaintop, mining resumes in a Virginia court on Tuesday, and one expert said there could even be power shortages and brownouts if the judge sides with environmentalists over the miners. At the least, several mining companies -- Massey Energy Co, International Coal Group, Alpha ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Congress Could Pass Renewable Energy Tax Credits This Week
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-22-092.asp
Environment News Service: "There is an old saying," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus on Thursday, "If it were not for the last minute, a lot of things would not get done. Well, God willing, we are nearing the last minutes of this Congress. And, God willing, we are close to getting a lot of things done." One thing that the Senate is expected to accomplish quickly this week, before Congress recesses for some election campaigning, is pass an extension of tax credits for renewable energy, ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
EU panel urges more CO2 offsets, no east-west deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48M1OC20080923?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European Union lawmakers rejected an attempt on Monday to overhaul emissions curbs in favor of eastern states, and they were split on whether to allow more carbon offsetting through payments to developing countries. Environment groups were angered by the move toward increased carbon offsets, which allow countries, companies and individuals to pay others to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their behalf. The European Parliament's influential industry committee rejected an attempt ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
Senate to vote on extending energy tax credits
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE48M0QI20080923
Reuters: The U.S. Senate will vote on Tuesday on legislation to extend tax breaks for using renewable energy sources and taking steps to save energy. The energy tax breaks will be part of a bigger bill that continues other tax credits for businesses and also includes a one-year fix to the Alternative Minimum Tax so millions of Americans won't be subject to higher income taxes. Under the bill, the tax credit for producing electricity from wind would be extended for one year. The credit ...

Wed, 24 Sep 08
U.S. National Labs Probe Abrupt Climate Change
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-22-02.asp
Environment News Service: Abrupt and rapid climate change is a threat that the federal government has just decided to take seriously. Scientists from six national laboratories have been assigned to a new project that will undertake to define possible mechanisms of abrupt climate change well enough to build comprehensive computer models and make accurate predictions before the climate changes abruptly. Most people think of climate change as something that occurs gradually, with average temperatures rising two ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
United States: After Hurricane Ike, Finding the Coastline Rearranged, Again
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=107068
New York Times: From the plane flying over the Gulf Islands National Seashore, scientists from the United States Geological Survey were scanning the ocean, trying to find Ship Island. Their maps and G.P.S. system told them they were over its eastern end, but there was no sign of it. 'I don`t see Ship anywhere,' said Asbury H. Sallenger, a oceanographer at the Geological Survey who was sitting in the co-pilot`s seat and had the best view. "On the map we see it, but all I see is breakers. There is just ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Crisis must be turned to green benefit, scientist says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/23/climatechange.carboncapturestorage?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Governments need to show the same boldness to intervene in the markets to kickstart a move to a low-carbon economy as they did when they helped the banks stave off financial crisis last week, a leading academic has demanded. "Both require strong regulation for efficient economic outcomes," said Terry Barker, a climate change expert at Cambridge University, who fears the Lehman Brothers and HBOS problems foreshadow a global economic downturn. Barker's concerns were backed up by ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Investment could dry up for carbon trading reforms
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200809/s2371937.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A carbon trading company says the Wall Street money crisis will make it harder to get investment funding for new climate change projects. Australian Carbon Traders says as money dries up, or becomes more expensive to borrow, a timetable for an emissions trading scheme will be pushed back and venture capital will evaporate. Managing Director Ben Keogh says his business, and others like it, are expecting to take a significant hit... "The tightening credit market out there ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Nuclear power and coal crucial to UK, says Hutton
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/23/nuclearpower.fossilfuels?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Britain needs to undergo a "renaissance in nuclear power", and coal will continue to be a "critically important fuel" for the country, the business secretary, John Hutton, said yesterday. In a speech which drew immediate criticism from environmental groups, Hutton said that the two controversial sources of energy were crucial to ensure that Britain retained a secure energy supply. The international battle for energy security poses a threat to Britain's competitiveness and its ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
CARIBBEAN: The Stormy Face of Climate Change
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43952
Inter Press Service: The devastation wrought by hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike in the Caribbean has fuelled concern about the effects of global warming on the formation and intensity of tropical storms, an issue that has divided the scientific community and is causing alarm among island nations and coastal communities. While the debate continues among climate experts, international bodies are studying the economic and social effects of the catastrophes caused by cyclones in the Caribbean basin, with the ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Global warming sceptics have their 'heads in the sand' according to the UK Met Office
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/22/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Climate sceptics such as Nigel Lawson who argue that global warming has stopped have their "heads in the sand", according to the UK's Met Office. A recent dip in global temperatures is down to natural changes in weather systems, a new analysis shows, and does not alter the long-term warming trend. The office says average temperatures have continued their rising trend over the last decade, and that humans are to blame. In a statement published on its website, it says: ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Indigenous Groups Criticize Climate Talks
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/38244
Worldwatch Institute: As international climate negotiations move closer to including forests in the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, indigenous and traditional peoples realize they have either a lot to gain or everything to lose. If industrialized countries are allowed to purchase the carbon rights of forests, groups from the Americas, Africa, and Asia fear their ancestral lands may be taken away. They worry that the benefactors of the carbon market will be governments or wealthy landholders, and ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Canada: Oldest Ice in North America Hints at Hardy Tundra
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080922-permafrost.html?source=rss
National Geographic: The oldest ice ever found in North America shows that ancient permafrost withstood periods of warming, a new study says. Scientists fear that modern permafrost--soil that remains frozen in the polar regions--may melt and release potentially huge reservoirs of carbon that would speed global warming, scientists say. (See story.) But the new study suggests that such a thaw could take much longer than previously believed, according to study leader Duane Froese, a geology professor ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Palin, McCain Disagree on Causes of Global Warming
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092202894.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: No one, including Gov. Sarah Palin, questions that Alaska's climate is changing more rapidly than any other state's. But her skepticism about the causes and what needs to be done to address the consequences stands in sharp contrast to the views of her running mate, Sen. John McCain, and place her to the right of the Bush administration and several other Republican governors. Although Palin established a sub-cabinet to deal with climate change issues a year ago, she has focused on how ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Parched Beijing runs out of freshwater
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3382
People and Planet: Municipal authorities in Beijing have announced that the parched city will receive 300 million cubic metres of water from neighbouring Hebei Province until March 2009. Most of this water will come from dams and underground reservoirs, already stressed from the inefficient use of water for irrigated agriculture. Beijing, China's capital, has essentially run out of freshwater. The city, with 16 million people – China's second largest – has been facing critical water shortages for over a ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
World's crops to be screened for climate traits
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/world-s-crops-to-be-screened-for-climate-traits.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: An international foundation is funding a drive to screen thousands of crops for traits that will be useful in adapting food production to climate change. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing around US$300,000 of funding this year for researchers in 21 agricultural institutions in 15 countries across the developing world. Around US$200,000 will be spent next year with a continued commitment in the long term. Crops from banana to sweet potato will be screened to identify ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Arctic sea routes opening up with climate change
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3383
People and Planet: A remarkable shipping shortcut is opening up between Europe and Asia, because of the changing global climate. The year-round ice in the Arctic has dramatically diminished, meaning that the Arctic Ocean is now open for ship traffic for at least part of the year. The result is a reduction in the journey beetween Asia and Europe from 11,500 miles to 6,000 miles -- almost half the distance. The newly accessible Arctic is particularily significant for the United SAtates. "Explorers have ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Burying CO2 could pay for itself by 2030: report
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKLM57702920080922
Reuters: Trapping and burying carbon dioxide from power plants could become viable without public funding by 2030, helping nations reduce their dependence on energy imports and meet climate goals, a report said on Monday. But that could happen only if obstacles to the technology are removed and polluters are forced to pay more to emit CO2 in cap and trade schemes, it added. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen by industry as a potential silver bullet to curb emissions from ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Hutton says coal-fired power stations key to energy security
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/09/22/bcnhutton122.xml
Telegraph (UK): Britain is likely build more coal-fired power stations under a controversial move that John Hutton, the business and enterprise secretary, said was necessary to avoid serious energy shortages over the next decade. Greater use of coal, along with building more nuclear power stations, was essential for Britain's energy security in a world where most resources were in "unstable" regions, Mr Hutton told the Labour Party conference. Committing Britain to more coal-fired stations ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
Pollution: Number of firms reporting on emissions targets falls
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/23/carbonoffsetprojects.carbonemissions?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: The number of top 500 global firms reporting their carbon emissions reduction targets to the investment community has fallen, but climate change is still rising fast up the corporate agenda, a new report claims. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a scheme developed by 385 of the world's biggest investors holding assets worth $57tn (£31tn), says only 74% of leading companies have reported their strategy for reducing emissions this year, down from 76% a year earlier. And while ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
U.S. conservation win -- in Canada
http://www.enn.com/climate/article/38243
Environmental News Network: It may be the biggest conservation victory for the US in decades. It ensures that massive amounts of greenhouse gases won't be released to add to global warming. It ensures an abundance of birds for generations of Americans to enjoy. And you may not have heard anything about it. That's because it just happened in Ontario, Canada. Over the summer, Ontario's premier, Dalton McGuinty, announced that at least 55 million acres -- half of the province's boreal forest -- will be off ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
World Consumption Exceeds Resources After Today
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/ecological-debt-47092203
Daily Green: two weeks earlier than last year -- the world will have consumed all the natural resources the Earth will provide for this 12-month calendar year. We're building up "ecological debt" from there on out. That's according to the calculations of the Global Footprint Network, which measures "how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what." (How much we use: 1.4 planet's worth, though by all accounts we only have one at our disposal.) Think of this like the financial ...

Tue, 23 Sep 08
McCain pledges climate, China push with Australia
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE48M0WM20080923
Reuters:

Mon, 22 Sep 08
China still wary of putting emissions cap in place
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/china-still-wary-of-putting-emissions-cap-in-place/1278796.aspx
Canberra Times: China's top legislature has just approved a new law designed to put production in what is now one of the world's four biggest economies on a more sustainable foundation. When the law comes into force in January, it will add weight to government efforts to get industry to use energy and other resources less wastefully and curb emissions that harm health and the environment. Dubbed the ''circular'' economy by officials, this is China's latest effort to go green by raising efficiency and ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Climate Change, Human Activity And Wildfires
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080921162046.htm
ScienceDaily: The study by a nine-member team from seven institutions -- led by Jennifer R. Marlon, a doctoral student in geography at the University of Oregon -- appeared online Sunday ahead of regular publication in the journal Nature Geoscience. The team analyzed 406 sedimentary charcoal records from lake beds on six continents. A 100-year decline in wildfires worldwide -- from 1870 to 1970 -- was recorded despite increasing temperatures and population growth, researchers found. "Based on the ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Economic Slowdown Won't Ease Carbon Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50305/story.htm
Reuters: Tumbling factory output following an economic slowdown will not be enough to curb rising industrial carbon emissions in Europe, analysts said on Friday. That means no bright lining to a credit crisis which at the same time has pressured political commitment to fighting climate change. And in the medium term, a combination of higher-priced debt plus investor nervousness could cut the supply of renewable energy projects in both developed and developing countries, potentially ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
EU Biofuel Panic Threatens Planet - Brazil Envoy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50306/story.htm
Reuters: Europe's heated debate over biofuels risks weakening one of the world's best tools to fight climate change and one of the developing world's best hopes for economic growth, Brazil's ambassador to the EU said on Friday. "What I fear is the debate over biofuels has taken on a very emotional character and we have somewhere got lost in this emotion," said Maria Celina de Azevedo Rodrigues. "Once, biofuels were seen as the salvation, and all of a sudden they are the ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
First US greenhouse gas auction set for Thursday
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/22/business/NA-US-Carbon-Auction.php
Associated Press: A coalition of 10 northeastern states this week will take steps to check global warming when it conducts the nation's first carbon auction, taking the same approach that curbed lake-killing acid rain. Environmental groups, energy producers, and government leaders will be watching closely as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative sells carbon credits Thursday in the first of a series of quarterly online auctions. The cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program, which aims to ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Push for Biofuels Losing Energy
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43950
Inter Press Service: The European Union's only directly elected body has urged that a contentious target for using agricultural crops to meet one-tenth of the bloc's transport demands should be reduced. Since leaders of the EU's 27 governments formally set an objective last year that biofuels should account for 10 percent of all fuel used by cars, trucks and buses on the Union's roads by 2020, it has encountered a storm of protest from environmentalists and human rights activists. Even the EU's in-house ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Beijing Returns to Congested Normal After Olympics
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50299/story.htm
Reuters: Beijing was grinding back to its congested normal on Saturday after two months of traffic restrictions and factory closures which kept the city's notorious pollution at bay for the Olympic and Paralympic games. The Chinese capital is one of the world's most polluted cities and there has been widespread debate about whether the traffic control measures should be retained. Although the Olympic regulations do not officially expire until midnight on Saturday, cars with both odd and ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Economic crisis threatens EU measures on climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-09/22/content_7046077.htm
China Daily: The recent economic downturn could push the European Union to adopt more modest ambitions in its fight against climate change. Although the European Commission has said it wants to cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, business leaders oppose the use of fines to oblige industry to reduce its emissions, especially in the current economic crisis. The cost to industry is estimated at some 44 billion euros per year between 2013 and 2020, with a tonne (1.1 US tons) of C02 ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Investors weigh risks of not fighting climate change
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/181e160e-883e-11dd-b114-0000779fd18c.html
Financial Times: Investors are using information on companies' carbon dioxide emissions to manage their portfolios, according to an annual survey of the world's leading businesses. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), backed by hundreds of institutional investors, asks the world's biggest companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions. This year, almost two-thirds of the 385 institutional investors behind the project, whose findings are published today, said they used the survey to identify ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Australia: Quest to feed food shortage
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2008/09/22/8685_latest-news.html
Weekly Times: A LEADING CSIRO scientist has called on Australia's agricultural scientists, educators and industries to rise to the emerging global food security challenges. In a keynote address to the Australian Society of Agronomy Conference, CSIRO Agricultural Sustainability Initiative director, Dr Brian Keating, said there was evidence that rates of increase in agricultural productivity were easing in Australia and abroad. 'This is happening at a time when demand for additional food and ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Small wind turbine installation to double during 2008
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226601/small-wind-turbine-installation
Business Green: The UK is set to install twice as many small wind systems in 2008 than it did in 2007, according to the renewable energy trade association BWEA. According to the BWEA Small Wind Systems UK Market Report published last week, the market for small wind systems which generate less than 50kW of power will see 7,844 installed this year, compared with just 3,459 in 2007. The jump comes particularly in building-mounted small wind turbines as high energy prices and renewable incentives ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Ancient reef found in Australia's outback
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24382482-5009760,00.html?from=public_rss
AAP: AN ancient underwater reef discovered in Australia's outback could unlock the secrets of the world's climate change history, scientists said. Located in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, the 650-million-year-old reef existed during a period of tropical climate between two major ice age events, scientist Jonathan Giddings said today. "This reef is an internationally significant discovery because it provides a significant step forward in showing the extent of climate change in ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
EPA OKs Clean Gasoline Waivers for Maryland, D.C.
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50308/story.htm
Reuters: The US Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it waived federal clean air regulations for gasoline sold in Washington D.C. and parts of Maryland because of fuel disruptions caused by hurricanes Ike and Gustav. The EPA said the waivers "will allow greater flexibility for fuel distribution systems." Both Maryland's and Washington D.C.'s gasoline waivers last through Oct. 7.

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Firms warned over low carbon plans
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hdcQKVbxEAgUFGhti9dPOH9QGsXw
Press Association: Failing to prepare for the shift to a low carbon economy could put a company's value seriously at risk in sectors such as car and aluminium production, according to a study. But the report from the Carbon Trust said there were also major opportunities to increase a business's value by as much as 80% by taking positive steps to tackle emissions and develop new technology. The study, based on research by McKinsey & Co, looked at six sectors - aluminium, automotive, oil and gas ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
India: Live Earth show to help boost solar energy
http://www.enn.com/energy/article/38237
Environmental News Network: India will host the next Live Earth concert to raise funds for lighting homes with solar energy in places where people do not have access to electricity, organizers said. The December event will see rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Bollywood's biggest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan share the stage, and is described by organizers as one of the biggest events held in India. The concert will be held in India's financial capital Mumbai on December 7, Live Earth founder Kevin Wall said in ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
India: Live Earth Show to Help Light Homes With Solar Energy
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50301/story.htm
Reuters: India will host the next Live Earth concert to raise funds for lighting homes with solar energy in places where people do not have access to electricity, organisers said. The December event will see US rocker Jon Bon Jovi and Bollywood's biggest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan share the stage, and is described by organisers as one of the biggest events held in India. The concert will be held in India's financial capital Mumbai on Dec. 7, Live Earth founder Kevin Wall said in ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Australia: PM should not talk up coal to UN: Greens
http://news.theage.com.au/national/pm-should-not-talk-up-coal-to-un-greens-20080922-4lbj.html
AAP: The Australian Greens have attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plan to talk up the future of clean coal at the United Nations this week. Mr Rudd, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, intends telling other nations about Australia's push for burying under ground pollution from coal-fired power stations. Greens climate change spokeswoman Christine Milne has accused Mr Rudd of letting down the environment for the sake of the coal industry. "For ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Three quarters of firms embrace emissions reporting
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226609/three-quarters-firms-embrace
Business Green: The vast majority of the world's largest firms are now committed to cutting carbon emissions and are reporting their carbon footprint on an annual basis, but business leaders remain convinced that more guidance from government is required if they are to deliver deep cuts. That is the finding of the latest annual report from the Carbon Disclosure Project, an initiative backed by 385 institutional investors and designed to encourage firms to report on their carbon reduction ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
US Agriculture Squeezed by Demand, Climate
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50311/story.htm
Reuters: US agriculture faces the daunting task of growing enough crops to meet the demands of both a hungry world and the booming new biofuels industry while reducing its impact on climate change. That formidable challenge hung over discussions this week at a US soybean industry conference that chewed over topics from biodiesel fuels to agriculture's own greenhouse gases. Agriculture was seen by some as a boon, producing alternative fuels that can reduce the man-made emissions of ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Warren Buffet snaps up US nuclear player
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226602/warren-buffet-snaps-nuclear
Business Green: An applicant for a new nuclear reactor in Maryland was last week purchased by a subsidiary of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway group. Constellation Energy Group agreed to sell all its outstanding shares to Buffet's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company (MEHC) in a deal worth $4.7bn in cash and $1bn in stock. Constellation had applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to install a third reactor at its Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, nuclear power plant. The application was lodged ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
World Vision calls for investment in natural disaster protection
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200809/s2370452.htm?tab=latest
Radio Australia: The global charity organisation World Vision says large investments are needed to protect millions of poor people living in Asia-Pacific coastal areas who are vulnerable to increasingly deadly natural disasters. It says the investments could run into tens of billions of US dollars, and should focus more on preparing communities for calamaties cause by climate change rather than waiting for them to happen. World Vision says tens of millions of people are vulnerable to rising sea ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Birds on decline around the world
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/09/22/eabirds122.xml
Telegraph: Some of Britain's favourite birds are at risk of dying out, according to a new report that has compiled extensive evidence of a global decline in birds. Some of the British birds whose habitat is under threat. Clockwise, from left: corn bunting, common cuckoo and turtle dove The cuckoo, turtle dove, grey partidge and corn bunting have all seen large declines in their populations. Birdlife International brought together all the latest data on state of birds around the ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
US companies see climate risk, but lack plan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7815790
Reuters: U.S. companies judge climate change a risk to their business, but lag global companies in setting targets to cut emissions, according to a global survey. "We're seeing the U.S. play catch up here, but they've got a way to go," Paul Dickinson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, which administers the annual survey, said in an interview ahead of the formal release of the 2008 CDP survey in New York on Monday. Dickinson said the gap demonstrates the difference ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Can rubber ducks help track a melting glacier?
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1746514020080921?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: To help figure out what's happening inside the fastest-moving Greenland glacier, a U.S. rocket scientist sent 90 rubber ducks into the ice, hoping someone finds them if they emerge in Baffin Bay. The common yellow plastic bath toys are one part of a sophisticated experiment to determine why glaciers speed up in the summer in their march to the sea, said Alberto Behar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The Jakobshavn Glacier is very likely the source of the ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Firms warned about climate change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7628312.stm
BBC: Companies that fail to tackle climate change could lower the value of their businesses, a report by the UK's Carbon Trust suggests. The report said firms, together are worth £3.8 trillion ($7 trillion) globally, could boost market value by taking steps to tackle emissions. The research covered six sectors of the economy including car manufacturing, brewing and consumer electronics. Automotive firms stood to gain the most by adopting greener strategies. But the car ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
South Africa: Warming has a hand in recent wild weather
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn20080921082444968C598054
Sunday Independent: The severe weather conditions experienced in South Africa in recent weeks are partially due to climate change. But the effects of climate change on weather patterns, and the intensity of severe weather events, are still being researched, experts said this week. What is evident, however, is that climate change is contributing to the intensity of weather events. Western Cape residents have experienced serious flooding, KwaZulu-Natal coastal residents suffered serious losses last ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
World's Largest Corporations Seek Clarity On Climate Change Regulation
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080921201714.htm
ScienceDaily: Regulatory uncertainty is delaying investment decisions and corporate managers want greater transparency related to climate change policy development, according to the CDP annual report. CDP offers exclusive data on corporate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change-related strategies. Global corporations view climate change as a driver of risk and opportunity and have cited clear regulation as key to managing the impacts, in this year's findings from the Carbon Disclosure Project ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
United Kingdom: It's official: the summer was a total washout
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/21/weather.flooding?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Observer: Summer officially ends today, with the Met Office confirming it as one of the wettest and least sunny of any on record. With the September equinox tomorrow heralding the start of autumn, figures show an average of 327.3mm (nearly 13in) of rain fell in the UK between 1 June and 31 August, and this month is also proving to be one of the worst. With floods causing six deaths and tens of millions of pounds of damage, forecasters say an average rainfall of 81.6mm was recorded by 15 ...

Mon, 22 Sep 08
Life in suburbs drives emissions higher
http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/38232
Australian: WORKING families living on the edges of Australia's urban sprawl are generating up to 10 times more greenhouse emissions in their cars than those from the inner city, according to new research. The study by Parsons Brinkerhoff and Curtin University shows the same outer suburbs that put Kevin Rudd into power are increasingly expensive to build and service, driving worseningeconomic, environmental and social costs. With transport accounting for around half of an average ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia: Water plan to help small farmers and boost Murray
http://www.theage.com.au/national/water-plan-to-help-small-farmers-and-boost-murray-20080920-4knf.html
Age: SMALL farmers in the Murray-Darling Basin will be able to sell their water entitlements to the Commonwealth for up to $150,000 under a plan to return 48 billion litres to the river system. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the scheme -- open to farmers on blocks of up to 15 hectares -- would allow eligible small irrigators affected by drought and climate change to quit farming, while remaining on their blocks. "This program will provide struggling small irrigators, many of whom have been ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Pollution Scores, in Plain Sight
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/automobiles/21STICKERS.html?ref=automobiles
New York Times: FIFTY years after an Oklahoma senator, Mike Monroney, made sure that all automakers put labels on their cars with detailed price information, California`s regulators are following suit with a label that reflects modern values. Instead of telling buyers the car`s retail price and the cost of its options, the labels, which must appear on all new cars in California dealerships on Jan. 1, indicate how much pollution the car produces. Following the specifications laid out in a 2005 ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
UK Small-Scale Wind-Power Turbine Installs May Double in 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aOdh06gPebkc&refer=uk
Bloomberg: U.K. installations of small-scale wind-power turbines may more than double this year as the government aims to meet renewable-energy targets and as consumers face rising electricity costs, an industry group said. Private turbine installs may reach 7,844, compared with 3,459 in 2007, the British Wind Energy Association said yesterday in a report, using projections from manufacturers. The number of installs last year in Europe's windiest country climbed 80 percent from 2006, it ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Canada: A carbon-tax-fuelled recession: Nothing but hot air?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080920.GREENSB20/TPStory/National
Globe and Mail: Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has tried to gain the upper hand in the debate on climate change this election campaign by charging that the Liberal solution to this problem - a carbon tax - would push Canada into a recession. Mr. Harper never produced any research to support this assertion, but his accusation raises the question of what kind of an impact the Tory and Liberal plans would have on Canada and how effective they'd be. Experts such as the Pembina Institute ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Global warming fight could hurt the poor
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/environment/28678544.html
Express-News: The looming battle against global warming will likely cost hundreds of billions of dollars as Congress and the next president look for ways to limit the amount of greenhouse gasses industry and vehicles pump into the air. But those who could be hurt the worst are in low-income communities where rising prices for electricity, gasoline and consumer goods will hit the hardest, said Bob Greenstein, director of the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Canada: Great on climate change, but not much else
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080919.wcosimp20/BNStory/politics
Globe and Mail: Since the last election, only one party has improved significantly its standing: the Greens. Without seats in the last Parliament and their largely unknown policies, they have roughly doubled their poll numbers to 10 per cent from 5 per cent. Can they sustain these gains, or build on them, by voting day? New Democrats and Liberals had better hope not, since Greens attract voters from these established parties. But they also bring into politics some citizens for whom electoral politics ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Green light for investing in energy efficient companies
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4a7766ac-86ac-11dd-959e-0000779fd18c.html
Financial Times: Gordon Brown's recent pledge to invest £1bn in making thousands of homes more energy efficient provided some relief for householders struggling with soaring gas and electricity bills. But they are not the only ones who could benefit from this initiative. Investors are also being encouraged to plug into the potential of the energy efficiency sector. Energy efficiency companies include those making "greener" lightbulbs, batteries, fans and lightweight motors. So, measured as a sector, ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Greenland: land of ice goes green as warming turns the cabbages into kings
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4791047.ece
Times (UK): Climate change has brought new opportunities to Greenland that could secure its independence from Denmark Lasse Bjerge lives in a remote, sub-Arctic valley that is flanked by barren mountains, 20 miles by boat from the nearest town and perishing cold even on a bright September day. There, for the past two years, he has cultivated one of the world's most improbable market gardens. As a bitter wind whistles past his red wooden cottage, Greenland's first commercial vegetable ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Canada: Ontario eyes bigger focus on renewable energy to meet power needs
http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1209877
Canadian Press: Ontario's newly minted energy minister wants to review the role of renewable energy and other non-carbon sources to help secure a reliable supply of power for the province when coal-fired plants come off-line in 2014. "The foundation of the energy supply mix in Ontario is nuclear and Niagara Falls, but that gives us the confidence to be able to examine more fully the opportunities to enhance renewable in the balance,'' George Smitherman said in an interview Thursday. "We do ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia: Rudd promises $100m for clean coal
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/political/rudd-promises-100m-for-clean-coal/1278023.aspx
Canberra Times: The Federal Government hopes to seize the lead on the world stage over the contentious issue of clean-coal technology, pledging $100 million to establish a global institute on carbon capture. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the funding yesterday with Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who said Australia, as a resources ''superpower'', was perfectly placed to be the frontrunner among 20 nations working in the area. Mr Rudd said that all major models of how the world could ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia: Scientists float water cuts to save our rivers
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/environment/scientists-float-water-cuts-to-save-our-rivers/1278025.aspx
Canberra Times: A group of Australia's leading scientists has called for a 50 per cent cut in water use across the drought-stricken Murray Darling Basin to secure its future. The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists also wants the Federal Government to scrap its recent $5.8 billion investment in improving irrigation efficiency on farms across Australia's main food production region. They suggest the funds be reallocated to the $3.1 billion water buyback program, allowing the Government to ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia to launch ambitious global carbon capture scheme
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5irR9rLMHOSfS2pXqg9q1T3_wgTUA
Agence France-Presse: Australia will launch a multi-million dollar international carbon capture and storage institute to fight global warming, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Friday. Rudd said the plan would be the centrepiece of his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, adding that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had already offered his support. The institute would promote research and investment to help meet a G8 commitment to have at least 20 industrial ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Can 'small wind' reap big rewards?
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/18/micro.turbine/?iref=intlOnlyonCNN
CNN: Micro wind turbines are beginning to pop up all over our urban and rural landscapes. But is it worth investing your hard-earned cash in your very own wind machine? In short, it depends. Take a look at our quick guide to see if "small wind" could help you reduce your energy bills and your carbon footprint. In the long-term a micro wind turbine could be a very sound investment. What is available? There are plenty of small wind turbines on the market. Most are the more ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Brazil: Norway offers up to USD 1 billion to save the rainforest
http://www.norwaypost.no/cgi-bin/norwaypost/imaker?id=193858
Norway Post: This makes Norway the first contributor to the Amazon Fund. The size of Norway's contribution will depend on how successful Brazil will be in reducing deforestation. 'Efforts against deforestation may give us the largest, quickest and cheapest reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Norway has to reduce its own emissions, and at the same time we have to contribute towards reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in other parts of the world,' says Prime Minister Jens ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Senate to vote next week on energy tax credits
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1953774920080919
Reuters: The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote next week, possibly as early as Tuesday, on legislation that would extend tax breaks for renewable energy production and energy-efficiency measures. Negotiators hammered out the extensive tax package to continue investment credits for solar, wind, and geothermal energy. It also creates a new tax credit for purchasers of plug-in hybrid vehicles. Under the bill, the tax credit for producing electricity from wind would be extended for one year ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Tackling the 'triple crunch' with a green new deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/creditcrunch.marketturmoil
Guardian: It's 4am in the morning. You're lying awake in the worry hour. You know that, even if there was nothing to fret about, your brain would come up with something. But this time, the anxieties are thundering past, like delayed trains chasing the clock. Can I trust the bank to look after my money? Clickety clack. How much has my house fallen in value? Clickety clack. Will high fuel prices mean I can't keep my car on the road? Can I afford to buy enough food for the family? Clickety clack. ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Cool discovery lifts global warming outlook: researcher
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hhTx33DaiT4B6rouUO4ejSampipA
Agence France-Presse: Ice unearthed in Canada that stayed frozen for 700,000 years, even in warmer times, should allay fears of melting permafrost venting its vast carbon stores to hasten global warming, a study said Friday. Permafrost, or subsoil that remains frozen year-round, underlies a quarter of the land in the Northern Hemisphere and is estimated to hold twice as much carbon as is in the atmosphere. When it melts, some experts fear it will quicken the pace of global warming ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
EU carbon trading: tropical forests poised to win credits
http://www.climatechangecorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=5649
ClimateChangeCorp: The exclusion of tropical forests from the world's largest carbon market could soon be reversed as European policy-makers consider amendments to the current rules. The European Parliament's Environment Committee's review of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is scheduled to discuss the inclusion of forest-related credits on October 7. Forest conservation groups and forest-rich developing countries are lobbying for forest-based carbon credits. They already scored an early ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Firms Line Up to Get in on Brazil Oil 'Gold Rush'
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50283/story.htm
Reuters: The discovery of huge offshore oil reserves has made Brazil one of the world's hottest energy markets, with firms that make everything from planning software for wells to floating "hotels" for platform workers clamoring for a piece of the action. More than 35,000 people are attending this week's Rio Oil and Gas conference, the first since state firm Petrobras shocked the oil world last November by announcing the world's second-biggest oil find in 20 years. As financial markets ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
In Montana, coal's future enters governor's race
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hgvacpus0TVkqkfvIVq2_9Pfg1UwD939NA300
Associated Press: Republican Roy Brown has promised a more aggressive energy policy for Montana if elected governor -- with expanded coal mining, a new power plant and fewer barriers to oil and gas exploration. Brown, a state senator from Billings, said this week that placing a large tract of state-owned coal in southeastern Montana up for bid would be among his first actions as governor. Brown said the Land Board has been seeking an appraisal of the Otter Creek coal tracts' approximately 1 ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Paulson takes on China and climate change
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/19/news/economy/gunther_paulson.fortune/?postversion=2008091916
Fortune: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has careened from crisis to crisis lately, backing the Bear Stearns rescue, engineering the government takeover of Fannie Mae, refusing to commit taxpayer money to save Lehman Brothers, and Friday announcing a massive program to help banks offload mortgage-related assets. When he hasn't been fighting fires, Paulson, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), and his team at Treasury have been working on two big, long-term issues that ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Tackling climate change could create millions of new jobs: ILO
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/17763
Newstrack India: Early global efforts to avert dangerous climate change are already generating new jobs, and could produce millions of new employment opportunities, according to a new study to be launched globally by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). The study, entitled 'Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World', will be ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Wood heating can be green -sometimes
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1207390
Expositor: Firewood is the best of all heating fuels and it's the worst of all heating fuels. The reality of your experience depends on exactly how the wood is burned and what your expectations are. I know because I've spent the last 20 years heating with environmentally harvested wood in one form or another while also researching developments in the field and writing about them. This winter promises to be the most expensive Canadian heating season of all time, and I suspect that homeowners everywhere ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia poised for prime role in carbon capture
http://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-poised-for-prime-role-in-carbon-capture-20080918-4jf6.html
Age: PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is today expected to outline a leading role for Australia in a new international effort, involving about a dozen countries, to finance and develop carbon capture and storage technology. Industry and environmental leaders have been summoned to Canberra for an announcement on clean coal technology. It is believed Mr Rudd will also announce Government backing running into tens of millions of dollars for three or four carbon capture and storage ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia To Establish Global Clean Coal Institute
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=360188
Bernama: Australia will spend A$100 million to establish a global clean coal institute, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today. The Institute For Carbon Capture And Storage will be the centrepiece of Rudds' speech to the United Nations general assembly in New York next week. The government will also provide up to A$100 million annually for the running of the institute. "Australia is the world's largest coal exporting country. Therefore, Australia must provide global leadership ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
California expected to benefit from anti-global warming plan
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/19/content_10076624.htm
Xinhua: California's ambitious anti-global warming plan would boost the state's expected 2.6-trillion-dollar gross product by 4 billion dollars, the Los Angeles Times said on Thursday. The plan would also create 100,000 additional jobs and increase per capita income by 200 dollars, the state Air Resources Board said in a report published by the paper. "These are good-news numbers," board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said. "We are not claiming this is the way to economic salvation. But ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Chris Osborne: water and fuel. . . who will arbitrate in scramble for resources?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4790091.ece
Times (UK): London is already a centre for international commercial arbitration. Companies come from around the world to have disputes settled in a jurisdiction offering a service that is fair, quick and confidential. Now there are attempts to create an International Court of the Environment in London, 'the supreme legal authority for settling issues regarding harm to the environment', as Labour MP Nigel Griffiths described it in Parliament this summer. The member for Edinburgh South ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Clean Up The World Maps Activities Online
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-19-01.asp
Environment News Service: A new online tool will track environmental protection activities across the planet as part of the annual Clean Up the World Weekend, the United Nations Environment Programme announced today. Clean Up the World Weekend, celebrated globally on the third weekend in September, starts today. Clean Up the World is a global environmental campaign held in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme, which assists through distribution of media materials and endorsement of ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia: Kevin Rudd's $100m clean coal plan
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24368848-2702,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has summoned mining and industry chief executives, environmentalists and union leaders to Canberra this morning to unveil a $100 million clean coal research institute aimed at making Australia the world hub for the climate-change-fighting technology. The launch is the start of a major diplomatic effort to win international support and funding for the plan, aimed at realising the goal set by the G8 at its recent meeting in Hokkaido of having 20 carbon-sequestering coal-fired ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Millions of motorists to be hit by green parking taxes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2990657/Millions-of-motorists-to-be-hit-by-green-parking-taxes.html
Telegraph (UK): The new charges are hitting not only the drivers of 4x4s and sports cars, but in many cases ordinary family saloons as well. An initiative started by Liberal Democrats in Richmond-upon-Thames, which saw the cost of some annual permits hitting £300 two years ago, is sweeping across the country. At least a dozen councils have either introduced or are considering introducing sliding charges aimed at penalising the owners of "environmentally unfriendly" cars. They are being ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Australia: Rudd to announce clean coal institute
http://news.smh.com.au/national/rudd-to-announce-clean-coal-institute-20080919-4jj2.html
AAP: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will announce a $100 million clean coal research institute at a meeting with business and union leaders and environmentalists. Executives from mining and energy giants such as BHP and Santos, conservationists and union leaders, have been invited to the roundtable meeting in Canberra where the prime minister will make the announcement. The aim of the institute is to make Australia the world hub for the climate-change-fighting technology. The ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Russia stakes claim on oil-rich Arctic
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24367497-2703,00.html
Australian: RUSSIA triggered a fresh scramble for the oil wealth of the Arctic yesterday when President Dmitry Medvedev called on his security chiefs to establish a border in the region. Mr Medvedev laid claim to a vast tranche of the Arctic, telling the Russian National Security Council the area was of great strategic importance. The US Geological Survey estimates the region contains 90 billion barrels of oil, as well as gas reserves -- all increasingly accessible as global warming ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Canada: Saskatchewan premier warns against carbon tax
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1936713220080919
Reuters: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said on Friday that his province, which has been riding a commodity-driven boom, should not be saddled with new environmental taxes as prices for oil and grain fall from their highs of a few months ago. Wall warned against carbon taxes or cap-and-trade schemes -- now being pushed by opposition parties in the federal election campaign -- that would not put money directly into a home-grown fund aimed at developing technology for cutting greenhouse ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Abrupt Climate Change Focus Of U.S. National Laboratories
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918192943.htm
ScienceDaily: Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn't received much attention. That's about to change. Through its Climate Change Prediction Program, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) recently launched IMPACTS -- Investigation of the Magnitudes and Probabilities of Abrupt Climate Transitions -- a program led by William Collins of Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division (ESD) that brings together six national laboratories to attack the ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Arctic sea ice at second lowest extent ever recorded
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/18/poles.endangeredhabitats?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Arctic sea ice has reached the second lowest extent ever recorded, according to the US national snow and ice centre, and a new map shows how far the 2008 melt has receded compared to the historical average. Map of the Arctic region showing how far the ice has receded in just over 20 years, with the former area dotted in yellow and the present area dotted in red. Image: Collins Maps The map, produced by Collins, illustrates that the area of ice that is at least five years old ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
United States: Chicago outlines plan to slash greenhouse gases
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/18/america/NA-US-Chicago-Climate-Change.php
International Herald Tribune: The mayor of Chicago announced a plan Thursday to dramatically slash emissions of heat-trapping gases as part of an effort to become one of the greenest cities in the United States. The plan calls for greenhouses to be cut to three-fourths of 1990 levels by 2020 and to one-fifth of 1990 levels by 2050 by making buildings more energy efficient, finding clean and renewable energy sources, improving transportation and reducing industrial pollution. Richard M. Daley was one of 800 ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
European cleantech on track for record quarter
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/1ea9716/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0C2226414/story01.htm
Business Green: Venture capital investment in European cleantech firms could reach record levels this quarter, according to research firm Library House, which today released its annual list of the top 100 cleantech firms in Europe. The company said that a number of big deals, including €85m (£67m) of fresh backing for German solar giant Sulfurcell Solartechnik, meant that this quarter could break the previous record of €260m achieved in the fourth quarter of 2007. Richard White, ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Google and GE allies in quest for clean energy
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j31FGWHW_TXJL6xBoOumhxBOor-Q
Agence France-Presse: Internet titan Google and technology colossus General Electric said Wednesday they are joining forces to promote a "smart" US electric power grid and clean energy. The companies said they will work together on green energy technologies and lobby US political leaders to support "visionary policies" on renewable energy. "Both companies believe that our economic, environmental and security challenges require that we use electricity more efficiently, generate it from cleaner ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Leaked papers show Britain trying to weaken plan for EU carbon cuts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/18/carbonemissions.climatechange?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Britain is trying to weaken European proposals to make governments and companies cut their carbon emissions by 2020 to tackle global warming, the Guardian has learned. Leaked documents show Britain wants Brussels to offset more domestic carbon savings through investment in clean projects in the developing world. The move would let firms and countries import more carbon credits to count against their pollution targets. It would allow Europe to make less effort to cut its pollution, ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
UK seeking CO2 trading increase
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/science/nature/7621724.stm
BBC: The UK government wants the right to buy its way out of half its CO2 reduction targets, according to a leaked document. It says EU nations should be allowed to trade away 50% of their emissions reductions - up from the 30% currently allowed by the European Commission. Defra said the details need finalising but the deal would help clean energy projects in developing countries. But environment groups say some of the schemes would have gone ahead anyway. European ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Israel: Water shortage cripples Palestinian farming
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKLA43722220080918
Reuters: In the plains around the village of Bardala, the Israeli-Palestinian tug-of-war over land and water plays itself out in vivid colour -- largely brown Palestinian farms border green fields owned by Jewish settlers. Israel and the occupied West Bank have both been hit hard by drought, but Palestinian farmers say Israeli restrictions on their water supplies have made conditions far worse for them than for farmers in nearby Jewish settlements. In many homes in the West Bank city of ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Affordable electric cars are many years away
http://www.reuters.com/article/Autos08/idUSN1853705720080918
Reuters: General Motors Corp's plug-in Chevy Volt and other electric vehicles have generated widespread consumer fervor for cleaner, less fuel-dependent cars, but the high battery cost means it will be years before those cars are affordable to most Americans. Executives attending the Reuters Autos Summit this week agreed that low-emission electric cars are critical to the future of the U.S. auto market due to sky-high gasoline prices and increased concerns about global warming. But at ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Billions of dollars needed to protect Asia's poor from disasters - report
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/20316/2008/08/18-160552-1.htm
Reuters: Governments must invest billions of dollars in preparing for disasters rather than spending aid cash on responding to emergencies, development agency World Vision said in a report released on Thursday. It warns that tens of millions of people in the Asia Pacific region are in danger from rising sea levels and climate change-related disasters, which are predicted to become more frequent, severe and costly. Only 4 percent of the estimated $10 billion allocated to humanitarian ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Britain Must Dump Unreachable Climate Goals - Report
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50273/story.htm
Reuters: British climate and energy policy is incoherent and needs an overhaul, dumping carbon targets and building more coal and nuclear power stations to stop the lights going out, a pro-nuclear scientist said. A report entitled "A Pragmatic Energy Policy for the UK", by Professor Ian Fells and Candida Whitmill, said renewables would not fill the impending energy gap so old nuclear and coal plants had to be kept going while new ones were built urgently. "Current UK energy policy is ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
California Air Board says there's dollars in green
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1749174620080918
Reuters: California's landmark legislation to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 will help the state's economy in the long run, according to a report issued on Wednesday by the state agency charged with implementing the cuts. A macroeconomic analysis of a California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed plan to implement the emission cuts estimates that in 2020 the state's productivity will be increased $27 billion over what would be realized if the state doesn't cut its ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Carbon dioxide levels depended on ocean
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/research/35850
Environmental Research Web: During the last ice age, roughly 20-100,000 years ago, there were a number of abrupt changes in climate. Now researchers from Oregon State University have found out more about the role of carbon dioxide in these transitions. "The most interesting findings are firstly that atmospheric carbon dioxide is strongly correlated with Antarctic temperature and secondly that it begins to increase a few thousand years prior to large abrupt warming events in Greenland," researcher Jinho Ahn told ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
CEO: Google Searching For Energy Solutions
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94756055&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio:

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Congress inches towards renewables-offshore drilling deal
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/1e9bfa5/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0C2226382/story01.htm
Business Green: The House of Representatives took Congress a step closer to extending renewable tax credits while also allowing further offshore drilling this week, passing the Comprehensive American Energy Security & Taxpayer Protection Act. The legislation opens up 319 million acres on the outer continental shelf for drilling, and also makes 85 million acres closer to the shores open to drilling subject to state-level agreement. However, the Act also provided a sweetener for ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Democrats' Drilling Bill Angers Environmental Purists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/17/AR2008091703425.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: All summer long, House Republicans staged weekly news conferences outside the Capitol calling for more offshore oil drilling. And they were usually met by an assortment of environmental protesters chanting in unison, trying to drown out the GOP's pro-drilling voices. Some even wore polar bear costumes to protest Arctic drilling proposals. But then Democrats approved a bill Tuesday that could lead to drilling just 50 miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, reversing the party's ...

Sun, 21 Sep 08
Ethanol makers hit by cash crunch
http://www.enn.com/business/article/38217
Reuters: Shares of U.S. ethanol makers took a beating on Wednesday as they wrestle with unpredictable corn prices and dwindling cash piles at a time when capital markets look unlikely to provide easy financing. Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc said on Wednesday it could seek to issue new debt and shares or delay construction of some plants to shore up its cash position, and its shares tumbled 22 percent to $3.94 in afternoon trade. That came a day after industry leader VeraSun ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Australia: Solar power use doubles in a year
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24357062-2682,00.html
Advertiser: THE number of South Australians who have solar panel systems in their homes has more than doubled in the past year, figures show. ETSA Utilities figures provided to The Advertiser show 3700 homes have a solar system and are generating power for the electricity grid. This is 2000 more systems than at the same time last year. ETSA is receiving an average of 300 applications a month for systems to be connected to the grid, compared with 30 applications a month last ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Arctic ice melts to second-lowest level: scientists
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1630231020080916
Reuters: Arctic sea ice melted to its second-lowest level this summer, rising slightly from 2007's record but still showing a downward trend that is a key symptom of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday. The ice slipped to its minimum extent for 2008 on September 12, when it covered 1.74 million square miles (4.52 million square km), and now appears to be growing as the Arctic starts its seasonal cooldown, the National Snow and Ice Data Center said. This is 33 percent below ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Carbon markets to be left "more or less unscathed" by financial turmoil
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/1e5f3e0/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0C2226196/story01.htm
Business Green: The price of carbon credits in Europe's emissions trading scheme slipped today as the financial crisis gripped the world's money markets and renewed fears over a deep recession drove down demand. However, experts insisted that the carbon market would remain relatively well insulated against the problems afflicting the financial sector in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and sale of Merrill Lynch, predicting that the price of a tonne of carbon in the EU's cap-and-trade ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Chemical Lobby Weakening Ozone Treaty
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43888
Inter Press Service: In hard economic times, protecting the environment is often seen as a luxury -- or ignored completely. But had that attitude prevailed 20 years ago when it came to taking action to protect the ozone layer, skin cancer rates would have soared and climate change would be even more dramatic than it is today. "We forget that things could have been far worse without international action in the form of the Montreal Protocol," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday as part of the ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
China to become world's largest investor in green energy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/16/eachina116.xml
Telegraph (UK): China is on the verge of becoming the world's largest investor in green energy as it struggles to reverse the catastrophic effect its industry has wreaked on the environment. Last year, China spent £6 billion on renewable energy projects, just slightly short of Germany, the world leader. This year, the Communist Party has vowed to redouble its efforts. Iron and steel works in Shandong - the province is to cut energy use by 22 per cent Li Junfeng, an energy expert at the ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Mediterranean forests are a burning issue
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3370
People and Planet: From Lebanon to Lisbon, the Mediterranean summer produces more than just suntans; the dry heat so beloved of holidaymakers also creates the perfect conditions for forest fires. On average, some 400,000 hectares of forest go up in smoke each year in the region, notably in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, creating billions of euros worth of damage and all too often taking human lives. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that there are over ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Norway donates up to one billion dollars to save Brazil rain forest
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jEs9956qrGDAfDIQKOdaqzw6NDJA
Agence France-Presse: Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg announced Tuesday that Oslo will donate up to a billion dollars to a government fund here devoted to rescuing the Amazon rain forest. "The government of Norway has decided to contribute as much as a billion dollars to the Amazon Fund," Stoltenberg said, adding that the first tranche of funds would be disbursed to Brasilia before the end of the year. "To win the battle against global warming, we have to win the fight against global ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Brazil: Norway pledges up to US$1B for Amazon preservation
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPLBXbMWFoI6rs4dfjeEmYay3nuAD937VEMO0
Associated Press: Norway will give Brazil US$1 billion by 2015 to preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest nation keeps trying to stop deforestation, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday. The promised donation is the first to a new Amazon preservation fund Brazilian officials hope will raise US$21 billion to protect nature reserves, to persuade loggers and farmers to stop destroying trees and to finance scientific and technological projects. "Efforts ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Australia: Animal farts to help Kyoto targets
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24355834-5005961,00.html
AAP: UNTIL now, the problem of animal flatulence just seemed to hang around like a bad smell. It has lingered for as long as humans have farmed animals. Now researchers in Queensland have come up with a solution for rural-industrial areas that may knock out bad smells as it reduces greenhouse gases and cuts micro-organisms. All that animal gas could even be turned into power to warm the animals' homes. Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries principal ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Arctic sea ice at its lowest level
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/Arctic_sea_ice_at_its_lowest_level/articleshow/3490382.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: Arctic sea ice may have reached its lowest volumes ever, as its summer ice coverage looks like replicating last year's record lows. Final figures on minimum ice coverage for 2008 are expected shortly, but they are already flirting with last year's record low of 1.59 million square miles, or 4.13 million square kilometres. "If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic this year than in any other year since monitoring began," ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Arctic sea ice melt comes close, but misses record
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5io8-mhR216BbP-65r8IrK1C6y8ZQD9380F601
Associated Press: Crucial Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level on record, continuing an alarming trend, scientists said Tuesday. The ice covered 1.74 million square miles on Friday, marking a low point for this summer, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. Last summer, the sea ice covered only 1.59 million square miles, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1979. Arctic sea ice, which floats on the ocean, expands in winter and ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Arctic Sea Ice Melt Reaches Second-Lowest on Record, Data Shows
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aRhvA4TFw0O4&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Arctic sea ice shrank to the second- smallest area on record this year, U.S. scientists said in the latest measurement used to gauge the impact of climate change. Polar ice covered 4.52 million square kilometers (1.74 million square miles) on Sept. 12, the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, said today in a statement. The agency, part of the University of Colorado, releases the figures annually at the lowest level the sea ice reaches before cooling ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Greenland: Biggest Melt Comes From Smallest Glaciers
http://www.livescience.com/environment/080916-small-glaciers.html
LiveScience: The big glaciers of Greenland get most of the attention in terms of global warming's impact on melting and rising sea levels, but it's actually the little glaciers that count the most, a new study finds. Satellite observations of the Greenland Ice Sheet indicate that nearly 75 percent of the ice lost there actually comes from the island's small coastal glaciers. The study's authors say that this finding means small glaciers should be better-observed than they currently are in ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
California mulls world's greenest train
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2226167/california-run-speed-train
Business Green: A new high speed train system planned for California could be run with zero emissions, according to a leading US energy consultant. The report by Navigant Consulting for the California High Speed Rail Authority found that generating the 3,380 Gigawatt hours a year of energy needed to run the Sacramento to San Diego link from renewable sources is "well within the capabilities of the state". "Integrating renewable energy into the high-speed train project would be neither cost- ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Cambodia pioneering world's first carbon trading cooperative
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008091621686/National-news/Cambodia-pioneering-world-s-first-carbon-trading-cooperative.html
Phnom Penh Post: AS a rule, the world of carbon credits is dominated by large-scale industrial projects backed by international companies with deep pockets. But Cambodia is proving to be the exception by playing host to the first-ever carbon cooperative of NGOs and other small groups hoping to increase their clout over climate change reform. It has taken more than three years for the French NGO Geres (Groupement Énergies Renouvelables, Environnement et Solidarité) to prove that it could be an ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Australia: Consumers facing unknown in carbon offset jungle
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/16/2365749.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Australians are spending more than $44 million a year to offset the carbon pollution from activities such as flights and road trips. While the Rudd Government has promised to introduce a national standard for carbon offsets by the end of this year, consumer and environment groups have developed their own ranking system. Dozens of companies sell carbon offsets to consumers in search of a clearer conscience. For a price, the companies promise to plant trees, or invest in ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Ice cover at 'second lowest level'
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gGvHnpta7alAho04_con_8oZ0GRQ
Press Association: Ice cover at the Arctic is at its second lowest level since records began 30 years ago, scientists said. Only last year's summer melt reduced the ice cap to lower levels than were reached this year, researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) said. The NSIDC in the US said this year's results reinforced the "strong negative trend" in the extent of ice cover seen in the summer at the Arctic over the past 30 years as a result of climate change. The ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Lawmakers Clash Ahead of Oil Drilling Bill Vote
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106728
New York Times: Democrats and Republicans clashed over energy issues on Tuesday as the House prepared for a vote later in the evening on a bill to relax a ban on offshore oil drilling for the first time in a quarter-century. The vote would be on a Democratic measure to allow oil rigs 50 miles off the shores of states that welcome drilling and 100 miles off virtually any section of the United States. But parts of Florida`s Gulf Coast, where large natural gas deposits have been found, would be off ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
More than 60 per cent of climate envelope studies maybe wrong
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/more-than-60-per-cent-of-climate-envelope-studies-maybe-wrong_10096374.html
Asian News International: A new research has cast doubts on the value of climate envelope models, saying more than 60 per cent of such studies maybe wrong. According to a report in Nature News, estimates of the impact climate change will have on wildlife may be much less reliable than thought, with a research that is reopening debate over a widely used modelling method endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate envelope models use current distributions of species to ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
No 2008 record for Arctic sea ice
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/science/nature/7619770.stm
BBC: Sea ice in the Arctic appears to have passed its minimum extent for 2008 without breaking last year's record. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says the ice covered 4.52 million sq km (1.74 million sq miles) at its low on 12 September. Last year's minimum was 4.13 million sq km (1.59 million sq miles). This summer's ice cover was the second lowest since satellite records began 30 years ago, which NSIDC says emphasises the "strong negative ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Oil CEOs asked about Interior Department sex scandal
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-briefs16-2008sep16,0,5834896.story
LA Times: Royal Dutch Shell Group, Chevron Corp. and Gary Williams Energy Corp. are being asked what senior executives knew about gifts and inappropriate relationships with Interior Department officials. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent letters to the companies' chief executives, Markey's office said. The CEOs are asked in the letters whether senior executives knew that employees were providing gifts and ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
The Energy Challenge States Aim to Cut Gases by Making Polluters Pay
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106679
New York Times: Ten states from Maryland to Maine are about to undertake the nation`s most serious effort yet to tackle climate change, putting limits on carbon dioxide emissions from utilities and making them pay for each ton of pollutants. The program is due to get off the ground in nine days, but already there are worries that it may fail to reduce pollution substantially in the Northeast, undermining a concept that is being watched carefully by the rest of the country, by Congress and by European ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Arctic Ice Retreat May Be Harbinger of Climate Change
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aFLKxIyTHX8Q&refer=canada
Bloomberg: The shrinking of Arctic sea ice to its second-smallest size on record signals greater changes in the Earth's climate as it opens previously frozen shipping routes. The polar ice, which melts from March to September each year and expands again as winter approaches, was only smaller in 2007, according to satellite data collected since 1979 and released today by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. The trend of reduced ice dates to even before 1979, according to measurements from ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Grasshoppers offer climate change clues
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/09/15/Grasshoppers_offer_climate_change_clues/UPI-82721221532824/
United Press International: British researchers are establishing a public monitoring system to record sightings of 27 native grasshoppers and crickets. The system, which has been used successfully to record the spread of invasive harlequin ladybirds, will help researchers determine how climate change is affecting grasshoppers, The Times of London said Monday. Researchers said global warming is allowing crickets and grasshoppers to expand their habitats. "These insects are the foremost indicators of ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
International conference set to open in Kenya on climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/16/content_10037737.htm
Xinhua: An international conference is due to open in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday to discuss the impact of the climate change on Africa, organizers announced here Tuesday. A statement from the Africa Commission said the conference will bring together experts on climate change, representatives from the private sector, academia, government and the civil society, as well as youth organizations. "Climate change is likely to have a major impact on economic growth, employment ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Japan Bank, India to Sign Climate Cooperation Accord
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aJkecIUaU3_c&refer=japan
Bloomberg: The Japan Bank for International Cooperation and a New Delhi-based think tank that conducts research in energy and the environment will sign an agreement tomorrow to cooperate in tackling climate change. Koji Tanami, the governor of the state-owned bank, known as JBIC, and Rajendra Pachauri, who heads India's Energy and Resources Institute, will take part in the signing ceremony in Tokyo, the bank said in an e-mailed statement today. Pachauri shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Polar bears 'could become extinct' because of melting ice, scientists claim
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/38204
Environmental News Network: Polar bears and other rare species are in danger of dying out, scientists fear, as latest figures show the Artic sea ice is at record lows. Scientists from the World Wildlife Fund, who are recording the ice cover over the North Pole, said less ice is predicted in the Arctic this year than in any other. Experts say this not only means a loss of habitat to species like polar bears and loss of livelihood for indigenous peoples but could speed up global warming as water absorbs ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Pushing the modelling envelope
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/38206
Nature: Estimates of the impact climate change will have on wildlife may be much less reliable than thought, according to research that is reopening debate over a widely used modelling method endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 'Climate envelope' models use current distributions of species to construct an idea of the climatic conditions that suit them. This 'envelope' can then be used to see where species could live under predictions of future climate. Use ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Reliance Power Plans Atomic Plants After Rules Change
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=a4rfLlIuANhU&refer=india
Bloomberg: Reliance Power Ltd., the energy company controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, is in talks with General Electric Co. and Areva SA to build nuclear plants after India changes rules to allow companies to invest in atomic energy. The utility plans to build nuclear stations at two sites, Chief Executive Officer Jayarama Chalasani said by telephone in Mumbai. Reliance Power is also in talks with Toshiba Corp.'s Westinghouse Electric Co. and Russia's Rosatom Corp., he said. India may ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Ruling leaves legal basis for green car rules in doubt
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/1e5d617/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0C2226182/story01.htm
Business Green: The European Union's planned vehicle emission standards could be under threat of further delays after the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee raised questions over the legality of the current proposals. The new rules, which would require car makers to cut average CO2 emissions to 130g/km by 2013, have been proposed under Article 95 of the EC Treaty covering single market issues. However, last week the Legal Affairs Committee issued an opinion claiming the proper legal ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Arctic Sea Ice At Lowest Recorded Level Ever
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915162428.htm
Science Daily: Arctic sea ice may well have reached its lowest volumes ever, as summer ice coverage of the Arctic Sea looks set to be close to last year's record lows, with thinner ice overall. Final figures on minimum ice coverage for 2008 are expected in a matter of days, but they are already flirting with last year's record low of 1.59 million square miles, or 4.13 million square kilometres. 'If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic ...

Wed, 17 Sep 08
Carbon targets too low to ensure a stable, long-term climate, expert warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/15/climatechange.carbonemissions?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Guardian: Scientists may have to turn back time and clean the atmosphere of all man-made carbon dioxide to prevent the worst impacts of global warming, one of Europe's most senior climate scientists has warned. Professor John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, told the Guardian that only a return to pre-industrial levels of CO2 would be enough to guarantee a safe future for the planet. He said that current political targets to slow the growth ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Arctic ice could be thinnest ever amid fears climate is 'low priority'
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Arctic-ice-could-be-thinnest.4494049.jp
Scotsman: AS ANOTHER report reveals the vanishing state of the Arctic ice, scientists have raised fears that the message about the urgent need to act on climate change is not getting through fast enough. The director of WWF Scotland has said only nuclear war or an asteroid hitting Earth should be considered more of a crisis than climate change. New data has revealed this summer could have seen the lowest Arctic ice cover on record. Dr Richard Dixon admitted that, with concerns over house ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Lehman Brothers Shuts Carbon Trading Desk
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50239/story.htm
Reuters: Lehman Brothers shut down its carbon emissions trading desk after the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, a source close to the company told Reuters on Monday. "Everything's stopped, blocked ... it's a bit anarchic," he said. Lehman declined to comment on the matter. The US investment bank filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday while Merrill Lynch, also plagued by toxic, mortgage-related debt, agreed to be bought by Bank of America Merrill's carbon desk was open as ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Brussels Would Allow State Aid for Carbon Capture
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50243/story.htm
Reuters: Brussels would look favourably at member states giving financial support for plants to test almost carbon-free power production, which could help fight climate change, a European Commission official said on Monday. German utilities are among those worldwide that are seeking to pilot carbon capture and storage (CCS), which supporters hope can clean up the burning of coal for power generation by separating off carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and burying them. "CCS is identified as ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Getting to 'yes' on more offshore drilling? Not yet.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0916/p03s04-uspo.html
Christian Science Monitor: To get to "yes" on sweeping new energy legislation, US lawmakers this week will first have to neutralize "poison pills" that both sides acknowledge could yet scuttle passage of any bill. Foremost among these are big caveats top Democrats want in return for relaxing a decades-old moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling in most US waters, including rolling back $17 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil and cutting states out of any royalties from new lease sales off their ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Japan Carbon Trade Targets to be Voluntary - Paper
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50244/story.htm
Reuters: Japanese companies taking part in a trial carbon trading system to be launched next month will work to voluntary reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions, rather than mandatory ones, a newspaper reported on Monday. The domestic scheme will allow companies exceeding their target to buy credits from companies below their limit, but steer clear of binding limits that have been opposed by big emitters such as steelmakers. Targets will be set either as a company's total volume ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Australia: Farmers want out of emissions trading
http://news.smh.com.au/business/farmers-want-out-of-emissions-trading-20080915-4gzg.html
AAP: Farmers have suggested they be permanently kept out of emissions trading, saying there may be better ways to tackle climate change in the bush. The National Farmers Federation (NFF) is worried emissions trading, due to start in 2010, could put farmers out of business and favour cheap imports. Agriculture is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia after energy. The federal government has proposed agriculture be exempted from emissions trading ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Health care providers 'won't cope' with emissions trading costs
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/16/2365443.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A group representing hospitals and aged care services says the Federal Government will need to provide additional funding to help the sector cope with costs associated with an emissions trading scheme. Catholic Health Australia, which accounts for 75 private and public hospitals and 550 aged care services, says it supports the Government's proposal to establish limits on carbon emissions. But the organisation's chief executive Martin Laverty says without help to meet the extra ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Australia: Waste adds $344m to carbon cost
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/waste-adds-344m-to-carbon-cost/2008/09/15/1221330747969.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE Australia Institute estimates that the Federal Government's plan to include landfill in its carbon pollution reduction scheme will cost councils $344 million a year. This would be passed on to ratepayers in higher rates, fees and charges, the Australian Local Government Association says. The estimate is based on a figure of $20 a tonne for emissions from waste and does not include the cost of measures to adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change. The ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Credit crisis hurting clean energy sector -bankers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7799586
Reuters: The renewable energy sector will see a 21 billion euro ($29.43 billion) shortfall in debt finance by 2020, following the credit crisis and a brake on lending, a senior banker said on Monday. Investors at a renewable energy finance conference in London tried to digest the implications of a banking hiatus following Lehman Brothers' filing for bankruptcy and Bank of America's acquisition of Merrill Lynch. The European Union has set a target of getting one-fifth of its energy from ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Earth already committed to 2.4-dgree C rise from climate change
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0915-hance_co2.html
Mongabay: As of 2005 the Earth was already committed to rise of global mean temperatures by 2.4°C (4.3°F), concludes a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The conclusion is significant because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that a rise in global temperature by 1 to 3°C will lead to catastrophic consequences, including "widespread loss of biodiversity, widespread deglaciation of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and a major ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Migratory waterbird populations in decline in Europe
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0915-waterbirds.html
Mongabay: 41 percent of 522 migratory waterbird populations on the routes across Africa and Eurasia show decreasing trends, reports a new study released at the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement meeting in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Waterbirds using Western and Central Asian Flyways are even worse off -- 55 percent of populations with known trends are currently declining. The report, titled "Conservation Status of Migratory Waterbirds in the African-Eurasian Flyways" and ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Oil palm plantations are no substitute for tropical rainforests
http://www.physorg.com/news140693440.html
PhysOrg: The continued expansion of oil palm plantations will worsen the dual environmental crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, unless rainforests are better protected, warn scientists in the most comprehensive review of the subject to date. Lead author, Emily Fitzherbert from the Zoological Society of London and University of East Anglia said: "There has been much debate over the role of palm oil production in tropical deforestation and its impacts on biodiversity. We wanted to ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Old growth forest must no longer be ignored in carbon balances
http://www.innovationsreport.de/html/berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/growth_forest_longer_carbon_balances_118140.html
Innovations Report: An international study involving a team from LSCE (CNRS-CEA-UVSQ) has revealed that ancient forests, which accumulate large quantities of carbon over the centuries, should be taken into account in global carbon balance assessments. However, such old growth forests were not included in the Kyoto protocol. The results of this study are published in the 11 September 2008 edition of Nature. In the carbon cycle, forests help to slow down the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide by ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Papua New Guinea to Resettle Islanders Facing Rising Sea Level
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1555148/papua_new_guinea_to_resettle_islanders_facing_rising_sea_level/
National: The Carterets Islanders will be relocated to Tinputz on mainland Bougainville, 10 families at a time. The Autonomous Bougainville Government had endorsed the atolls development policy to relocate the islanders starting next year. It is expected to be completed by 2020. The Catholic church of Bougainville gave 81 ha of land in the Tinputz area to accommodate the 3,320 Carterets islanders who feared they would be losing some of their basic human rights, especially land ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Wealthy nations' failure to mitigate climate change violates rights in developing countries
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/special-report/09/15/08/wealthy-nations%E2%80%99-failure-mitigate-climate-change-violates-rights-developing-
ABS CBN News: Human rights abuse does not only happen in times of conflict. In its report 'Climate Wrongs and Human Rights' released recently, a major civil society group Oxfam International said that the lackluster response of industrialized countries to climate change mitigation is another ticking bomb for human rights violations in developing nations. 'In failing to tackle climate change with urgency, rich countries are effectively violating the human rights of millions of the world's poorest ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
White House Cut China Reference from NASA Talk
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/09/the_heavy_editing_of_a.html
Washington Post: The heavy editing of a NASA administrator's prepared comments before Congress is evidence of the latest dispute between government scientists and White House policy makers. The White House Office of Management and Budget deleted a passage from Michael Griffin's prepared testimony about China's space ambitions that read: "A Chinese landing on the moon prior to our own return will create a stark perception that the U.S. lags behind not only Russia, but also China, in space." The ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
With renewable energy, rural towns find relief
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/09/15/0915rural.html
Austin American-Statesman: Renewable power, at times criticized as pie in the sky because of its high costs, is now cropping up as an energy resource in places with the narrowest of financial margins. Rural communities and nonprofit businesses, often with the help of state and foundation grants, have turned to solar panels and wind turbines to power their buildings and cut their energy costs. Without the financial help, it would be difficult for those entities to afford the upfront capital costs of the ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
WWF: Melting Arctic adds urgency to climate deal
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jRNBmvGpJIvxFp1jkrh-oizrhvOgD9373NM00
Associated Press: Data showing Arctic sea ice may reach its lowest level on record this summer underscores the need for governments to speed up talks on a new climate pact, the Worldwide Fund for Nature said Monday. The WWF said observations on ice coverage and thickness pointed toward a record low for the second year in a row, continuing a "catastrophic" trend that could threaten polar wildlife and accelerate global warming. "If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Carbon regulation could hit 1 million US firms: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN1529571120080916
Reuters: The prospect of U.S. regulation of climate-warming carbon dioxide has sparked a pre-emptive outcry from the Chamber of Commerce, which warned of bureaucratic gridlock if proposed limits are put in place. In a report to be released on Tuesday, the pro-business organization projected such regulation would affect more than 1 million U.S. businesses and create such a regulatory backlog that it could stall economic development. But a former Environmental Protection Agency attorney ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Chicago debate: Facing up to the challenges of climate change
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106618
CNN: Tackling climate change and its consequences is the challenge of our generation. Principal Voices final debate of 2008 will take place in Chicago on September 29. As the world moves beyond the debate around climate change's existence to what its effect will be, our Climate Change Principal Voices will gather in Chicago on September 29 to discuss what we can do to protect our environment and our future. Consensus might be growing that the planet is in a perilous state, ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
United States: Expert: Criticism of Gore doesn't matter
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/15/Expert_Criticism_of_Gore_doesnt_matter/UPI-19301221499340/
United Press International: Ex-vice president Al Gore, criticized for his large Nashville home, energy use and travel habits, an afford to just shake it off, a political expert says. The head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, said while critics have attacked the outspoken environmentalist for his apparently non-environmentally friendly lifestyle, such comments should have no effect on someone outside of the political limelight, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Honda, Citing Battery Limits, Avoids Rush to Plug-Ins
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a1gUi10kXBsM&refer=japan
Bloomberg: Honda Motor Co., first to lease hydrogen autos to U.S. drivers, said batteries haven't advanced enough to make rechargeable cars a good replacement for gasoline models and isn't following rivals who plan to sell plug-ins. ``For battery-powered vehicles to become more widespread, more popular in the market, we feel battery technology needs to advance further,'' said Masaaki Kato, president of Honda's research unit, in an interview at the Tokyo-based company's U.S. headquarters. ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Lib Dems clash with climate protestors
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/conferences/lib-dem-conference/lib-dems-clash-with-climate-protestors-$1240755.htm
Politics: The Liberal Democrats suffered their first real protest today, as a fringe meeting about climate change descended into farce. Two protestor's conducted a citizen's arrest on Sarah Vaughan, group regulatory and sustainable development director at the power company Eon at a debate about the future of coal fired power stations and specifically Kings North power station at the Lib Dems self styled "Climate Clinic". The arrest didn't last long however after a number of delegates ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Lithium battery for many vehicles seen a ways off
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7799848
Reuters: Vast improvements are needed to extend the life and lower the cost of lithium batteries before they can efficiently power vehicles, a U.S. government official who tracks high-power battery development said on Monday. Lithium-ion batteries are widely predicted to replace nickel metal-hydride batteries currently used in most hybrid vehicles, such as Toyota Co's <7203.T> <TM.N> hot-selling Prius. But among the challenges to overcome are extending the life of high-power lithium ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
New York scheduled to join December carbon auction
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1529610720080915
Reuters: New York state is expected to sell carbon credits in the United States' second greenhouse gas auction, which is scheduled for Dec. 17, after a state agency approved final rules on Monday. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of 10 northeast and mid-Atlantic states that formed the first U.S. carbon market in an attempt to slow global warming, will hold its first carbon credit auction on Sept. 25. New York, which founded RGGI under previous governor George Pataki, did ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Peru's potato farmers adapt to climate change
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/business-monday/story/685831.html
Miami Herald: For the first half of his life, Gregorio Huanuco farmed to a rhythm that dictated the survival of his grandparents and ancestors for thousands of years. He waited for the rains to fall on his small parcel of land in this village at 11,000 feet in the Cordillera Blanca, or White Range, of the Andes in central Peru, and planted native varieties of potatoes as well as cereal crops like quinoa. When the crops ripened, Huanuco, 45, harvested what he needed and sold what he didn't in the city of ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Renewable energy may dim if tax break ends
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=794584
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Green is in these days. From large-scale wind farms to solar panels on homes, schools and businesses, the renewable-energy industry is experiencing rapid growth in Wisconsin and elsewhere. But that growth could stall next year if lawmakers in Washington fail to extend key energy tax credits that have helped fuel a rise in wind and solar power across the country in recent years. With just two weeks to go before Congress' targeted adjournment, renewable-energy officials worry the tax ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Renewables: Solar power sees light at end of tunnel
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106640
Financial Times: Wind power has long been the big beast of the renewable energy jungle. The technology to generate electricity from wind has been established for more than two decades, and in the past five years has been refined and expanded towards much larger and more powerful turbines including ones that can be used at sea, and towards very small turbines that can be fixed to office buildings or houses. Last year, the US led the world in wind power installations for the third consecutive year, ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Small glaciers -- not large -- account for most of Greenland's recent loss of ice, study shows
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/osu-sg-091508.php
EurekAlert: The recent dramatic melting and breakup of a few huge Greenland glaciers have fueled public concerns over the impact of global climate change, but that isn't the island's biggest problem. A new study shows that the dozens of much smaller outflow glaciers dotting Greenland's coast together account for three times more loss from the island's ice sheet than the amount coming from their huge relatives. In a study just published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Airport expansion policy needs to be reviewed, say Government advisers
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/2964207/Airport-expansion-policy-needs-to-be-reviewed-say-Government-advisers.html
Telegraph (UK): The Cabinet is currently considering a number of key decisions on airport expansion, including whether to build another runway at Heathrow. However the Sustainability Commission, the Government's independent adviser on sustainability issues, said no decisions should be made until the evidence has been looked at again. In a review of all the arguments around aviation, including climate change impact, economic benefit and noise pollution, the SDC found the position has changed so ...

Tue, 16 Sep 08
Congress to debate end of offshore drilling ban
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/MNIP12T0JT.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Congress opens a historic debate this week over lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling, which for nearly three decades has blocked oil and gas development along most of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. In a strange election-year twist, House Democrats will lead the push to eliminate the ban and give states the right to drill off their shores. Most Republicans, who have sought to end the ban, plan to oppose the bill, saying it would still keep too many coastal areas ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Australia: Big dry fire threat
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,24346801-921,00.html
Mercury: FIRE authorities and farmers are bracing for a punishing summer after yet another winter of below-average rainfall. Parts of Tasmania's East Coast are now so dry that nothing short of a torrential downpour will alleviate the extremely high bushfire risk. The Bureau of Meteorology's soil dryness index is one of the tools used to predict the length and severity of the fire season -- and this year the prediction is not good. At zero the soil is fully saturated, with any ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Carbon traders compete in the potentially lucrative market
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-09/15/content_7027881.htm
China Daily: There's $30 billion floating in the air over China, but it won't be easy to grab it. It's China's carbon trading market. The world market for trading greenhouse gas emissions doubled last year to about $70 billion, according to World Bank figures. China accounts for 73 percent of the clean development mechanism (CDM) projects - a major carbon trading business. Until just a few years ago, the idea of making money from emissions trading would have sounded like madness to most ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Eco-activists plan to storm parliament
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=241597&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20
London Evening Standard: Eco-activists are planning to storm Parliament in a mass protest against global warming, the Evening Standard revealed. The demonstration is being led by leading campaigner Tamsin Omond. A member of 'Plane Stupid', Omond occupied the roof of the Palace of Westminster in February to protest against a third runway at Heathrow. Now the 23-year-old Cambridge graduate is plotting a much bigger women-led protest, to mirror the attempted 'Rush of Parliament' by suffragettes. She faces ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Fight Global Warming by Phasing Out Coal Emissions
http://www.medindia.net/news/Fight-Global-Warming-by-Phasing-Out-Coal-Emissions-41828-1.htm
Asian News International: A team of researchers have determined that the ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades. The research has been carried out by climatologist Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen, director of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. According to them, less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
New Zealand: Glaciers shrinking in Southern Alps
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10532203
New Zealand Herald: New Zealand's glaciers are showing the lowest total ice mass on record with more than twice the volume of Rangitoto Island melting away in a year. Research released yesterday by the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research showed the Southern Alps glaciers had lost over 2.5cu km (2.2 billion tonnes) of permanent ice from April 2007 to March this year. That is the fourth highest annual loss since monitoring started, leaving the glaciers with the lowest total ice mass ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Investors press for disclosure of tar sands' climate risk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/15/fcassetmanagement.oilandgascompanies
Guardian: F&C Management, the UK's oldest investment trust, has teamed up with a group of US and Canadian fund managers to halt Wall Street financial regulators softening the rules on tar sands, arguing that new rules should take account of the carbon impact of reserves disclosed by oil and gas companies. The move reflects changing attitudes among mainstream investors to the impact of commercial activities that could worsen global warming and is aimed at discouraging the US securities & ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
'Alarming' decline in Artic ice
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/health/science/alarming-decline-in-artic-ice-$1240633.htm
InTheNews.co.uk: An "alarming" downward trend in summer sea ice in the Artic has led the WWF to predict there will be less ice this winter than during any other year. In response the conservation organisation is calling on the government to take note; reducing carbon emissions accordingly. Commenting on the situation, Dr Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change advisor at WWF International’s arctic programme said: "We are expecting confirmation of 2008 being either the lowest or the ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Australia, China and US in climate talks
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24345939-5013404,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA has brought together the world's two major greenhouse gas polluters, China and the US, to search for common ground on cutting carbon emissions - including clean coal technologies - while protecting security of energy supplies. The top Chinese, US and Australian climate change negotiators will gather for two days this week in Washington at a political and business meeting organised by the Melbourne-based Global Foundation and Georgetown University. The ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Australian carmakers demand subsidies for green vehicles
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/asia/australia/2008/09/15/174797/Australian-carmakers.htm
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Carmakers need a government subsidy to roll out the vehicles that Australians want to buy, an industry lobby group said Sunday. The three local carmakers -- Toyota Motor Corp, GM Holden Ltd and the Ford Motor Co -- only make big, petrol-thirsty cars that have lost their appeal because of higher petrol prices and environmental concerns. Smaller cars, all of them imports, are what the customer wants. Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry spokesman Andrew McKellar said the ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Australia: Call to levy carbon tax on imports
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24345936-5013404,00.html
Australian: A CARBON tax should be applied to imports to protect local manufacturers from competition from nations that do not have emissions trading. The grocery industry has become the latest to lobby for special protection, warning that the Rudd Government's climate change plans will cost employment and investment. Food industry manufacturers are not likely to benefit from thecompensation promised for emissions-intensive sectors that are exposed to trade competition, such as the ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
India Dreams Big on Biofuel But Can it Deliver?
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50236/story.htm
Reuters: India's drive to ramp up biofuels use within a decade offers hope to a struggling biodiesel sector, but without a clear roadmap, commercial production will remain years away, a top trade official said. India agreed on Thursday to lift biofuel blending to 20 percent by 2017, worrying some analysts who fear it may be at the expense of food output but who say it offers a way to trim the country's hefty fuel import bill. But a simple target was no substitute for a detailed policy ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
NZ Election to Focus on Economy, Climate Change
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50228/story.htm
Reuters: New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday called a general election for Nov. 8, hoping to extend her nine-year rule despite being dogged by economic recession and political scandal. Clark's Labour-led minority coalition, which has been in power since 1999, has trailed the centre-right National Party for the past year, and is currently 13 percentage points behind in a Reuters survey of five main polls. "This election is about trust," Clark told a news conference. "It is ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Palin, Alaska and Oil
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50221/story.htm
Reuters: Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential contender Sarah Palin has clashed with big oil but she is also a staunch advocate of expanded drilling. Following are some facts and figures about Alaska, Palin and oil. - About 85 percent of Alaska's revenue comes from the oil. This is distributed to Alaska's roughly 670,00 residents in a range of forms including direct dividends from investment earnings on an oil wealth trust fund. - Alaska is the second-ranked ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
India: Promotion of biofuels won't be at cost of farm produce
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Promotion_of_biofuels_wont_be_at_cost_of_farm_produce/rssarticleshow/3483291.cms
Economic Times: The government has decided not to encourage biofuels at the cost of foodgrain production. While a policy for biofuels has been cleared last week and targets have been set to step up diesel blending, senior government officials are of the view that no foodgrain or oil-seed should be used for producing biofuels. The idea is to prevent a repeat of the American experience where diversion of corn for ethanol production is being blamed for foodgrain price spurt across the globe. Therefore, ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Runny Nose, Itchy Eyes? Blame Global Warming
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1841125,00.html
Time Magazine: One of the few potentially positive effects of climate change, at least in the short term, is that increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may enhance the growth plants. That could be good for agriculture -- though warming temperatures and changing rain patterns in a warmer world might wipe out that advantage. But there are no unalloyed gifts from climate change. Recent research suggests that global warming will also exacerbate respiratory allergies, as higher CO2 ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Veteran climate scientist calls for wood burning in place of coal
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200838/2023/Veteran-climate-scientist-calls-for-wood-burning-in-place-of-coal
Tech Herald: One of the first scientists to draw the world's attention to the threat of global warming has called for an end to burning coal, saying trees should be grown and burnt in their place. The Independent on Sunday reports that Professor James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has called for an end to carbon emissions from coal, replacing them with a massive programme to grow trees, which would absorb carbon from the atmosphere as they grow, then using them in ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Canada Tories Reject Rivals' Fear of Carbon Tariff
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50234/story.htm
Reuters: Canadian Trade Minister Michael Fortier rejected the notion on Thursday that some countries might slap tariffs on Canadian products because of the Conservative government's weak climate change policies. Liberal leader Stephane Dion, campaigning for the Oct. 14 general election, warned on Thursday that Canada could face tariffs on its exports if it did not take tougher action to combat climate change. Dion's major campaign promise is to impose a tax on carbon emissions to cut ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Australia: Carbon action is like watching a car smash
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24345080-30538,00.html
Australian: LAST week submissions closed in response to the Rudd Government's green paper outlining the possible design of an emissions trading scheme from 2010. It's the next crucial step in the highly compressed design of a scheme to reduce Australia's greenhouse emissions over the next generation. Implementation of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme has been like watching a road accident in slow motion: the sudden realisation that something bad is going to happen, the belated scramble to ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Philippines: Carbon trading tagged as band-aid solution
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/120338/Carbon-trading-tagged-as-band-aid-solution
GMA News: The country must not over rely on the carbon credits scheme in pursuing clean energy projects since this is a short-term approach to the problem a study said')">Add to del.icio.us MANILA, Philippines - The country must not over rely on the carbon credits scheme in pursuing clean energy projects since this is a short-term approach to the problem, a study said. The discussion paper, titled "Clean Development Mechanism: New Challenges for the Philippines" and written by Research ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Australia: Fuel guzzling cars may face tax slug to cut emissions
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24344355-953,00.html
Courier Mail: MOTORISTS could be hit with a tax for driving pollution-pumping vehicles under a Federal Government proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A Vehicle Fuel Efficiency discussion paper released by the Rudd Government yesterday laid out a number of "potential measures", which also included reducing the cost of state registration and stamp duty charges for energy-efficient vehicles. The paper comes as the Government has committed to including transport in its emissions trading ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Global warming creating 'environmental refugees'
http://www.hindu.com/2008/09/15/stories/2008091556632000.htm
Press Trust of India: Global warming and consequent rise in the sea level is posing a threat to the population, turning them into 'environmental refugees,` in the Sunderbans, the largest delta region in the world. Ocean scientists say the islands of Lohachara and Suparibhanga have been submerged . Erosion and submergence have been taking place in 12 sea-facing southern islands of the Sunderbans, putting at risk the lives of thousands of people and wildlife. A research team led by Professor Sugata ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
India now a big world player thanks to nuclear nod: minister
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilTuHObxJ9etih9GmkdIRO58ZJQQ
Agence France-Presse: The decision by nuclear supplier nations to end a decades-old ban on civilian nuclear trade with India has vaulted it into the ranks of the world's major global political powers, a key minister says. Ten days ago, the United States finally won approval in Vienna for the one-off waiver for India to take part in civilian atomic trade, a vital step to final approval by the US Congress of a nuclear pact between the two countries. The decision marked "India's arrival on the scene as ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Spain to plant 45 million trees
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Flora__Fauna/Spain_to_plant_45_million_trees/articleshow/3483951.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: The Spanish authorities have decided to plant 45 million trees during the 2009-2012 period as part of a $127-million programme to combat desertification and the impact of man-made climate change, EFE said. The project will generate more than 670,000 workdays, an employment rate equivalent to 2,997 people a year, according to Environment Minister Elena Espinosa. Espinosa said that the planned investment "gives an idea of the government's commitment to the defence and ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Waving White Flag In War On Whaling
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/sep/15/na-waving-white-flag-in-war-on-whaling/
Tampa Tribune: In this season of political polarization, it is rare to find a massive issue on which we all agree. But thar' she blows! From sea to shining sea and across the political spectrum, Americans love whales. Polls conducted over the past decade consistently show overwhelming majorities of Republicans, Democrats and Independents want these magnificent creatures protected for future generations; voters of all persuasions and subgroups - from rural, conservative GOP-types, to urban, liberal ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Algae blooms choking oceans, lakes
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=4afe0ae4-f3aa-430e-93b3-3d07594802b3
Province: Saltspring Island resident Sally Cole got home from a sailing trip in August looking forward to a hot shower. But when she turned on her taps, all she got was slime. "It was almost biblical. It was blood-red," says the Ganges resident. "I turned on the tap and it just flooped. Just a bit of viscous gloop came out. It was really horrible." Otherwise, the taps were dry. "I thought it was a biological disaster or something infectious. We were really quite terrified." View ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Deadly storms a big setback for impoverished Haiti
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N13422652.htm
Reuters: The sight of the Haitian port city of Gonaives sitting in a slick of polluted water is only the most visible symbol of the damage done to the Caribbean nation of 9 million by four consecutive storms this summer. The severe flooding is a major setback for a poor country struggling to pull itself out of a downward spiral. In addition to killing hundreds of people, the storms hurt agriculture production, particularly of the staple crop, rice, and damaged infrastructure throughout ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Offshore Drilling Is Coming to a Vote
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302428.html
Washington Post: Congressional Democrats, balancing political reality against a policy they have long opposed, are on the cusp of approving legislation that would open the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to oil drilling as close as 50 miles offshore. With votes scheduled this week in the House and Senate, Democrats have essentially given up defending the current ban on drilling within 200 miles offshore along both coasts. Instead, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), they are offering a mix of ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Climate-linked disease injures Alaska's salmon
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.salmon14sep14,0,7465452.story
LA Times: With a sickening thud, another hefty and handsome salmon lands in the waste barrel, headed for the dogs. "See, it's all of the biggest, best-looking fish," said Pat Moore. "It breaks my heart. My dogs cannot eat all that. The maggots will get them first." More Alaskan salmon caught here end up in the dog pot these days, their orange-pink flesh fouled by disease that scientists have correlated with warmer water in the Yukon River. With global warming, cold-temperature ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Critics claim deception in Calif. energy measures
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/14/america/California-Alternative-Energy.php
Associated Press: Californians will vote on two ballot initiatives this fall that at first glance would seem shoo-ins for approval in a state long associated with environmental activism. The first would require utilities to generate half their electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar. The second would provide rebates of up to $50,000 for the purchase of alternative-fuel vehicles through a $5 billion bond. Supporters say the measures on the Nov. 4 ballot would help combat global ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Lowest Ever Sea Ice in Arctic-WWF
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/lowest-ever-sea-ice-arctic-wwf/story.aspx?guid={E45F7CD4-8709-495E-A0E4-9A60D66CA539}&dist=hppr
MarketWatch: Declining ice thickness and what is looking like the second lowest coverage on record means that Arctic sea ice may well have reached its lowest levels ever in terms of total volume. The final figures on the minimum ice coverage for this year are expected in a matter of days, but this year's minimum figures are already flirting with last year's record low of 1.59 million square miles, or 4.13 million square kilometres. "If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Carbon capture stations must not be delayed
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d71d6382-825a-11dd-a019-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=70662e7c-3027-11da-ba9f-00000e2511c8.html
Financial Times: Despite the economic downturn and rising prices, global energy demand continues to rise; so do carbon emissions. In 2008 the world will use 50 per cent more oil, gas and coal than in 1980. Emissions from fossil fuels will be 30 per cent higher than in 1990 – the baseline for the Kyoto targets. The atmospheric concentration of carbon is now 387 parts per million – against 280ppm before the industrial revolution. On current trends the figure will pass 400ppm within a decade and will be ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Carbon tax could be key to 'sustainability'
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/letters/bal-ed.le.letters14s10sep14,0,2937902.story
Baltimore Sun: Bob Doppelt's column "Let's think sustainably" (Commentary, Sept. 9) argues that to tackle global warming, we must shift to "sustainable thinking" and should recognize how our choices about what we consume result in direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases. He claims that the climate problem is, at its core, one of vision, not flawed policy. Yet he fails to mention the only policy that could effectively encourage us to think sustainably: a tax on carbon. Under such an ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
Canada: Dion hails Campbell for carbon tax
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=96f17591-5ad8-4c3d-b8ec-0b84503ebf36
Province: During his first campaign stop in B.C., Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has said a spike of up to 13 cents on a litre of gasoline proves that Canadians need to become energy-efficient. "The trend will be up," Dion said Friday, speaking at a housing co-operative on Burnaby Mountain. "Humanity is asking for more and more oil." Dion said that if he's elected into power, he will beef up the Competition Bureau powers to go after price-gouging and collusion among gasoline ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Energy efficient households 'can save £270 a year'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/energy-efficient-households-can-save-pound270-a-year-925839.html
Press Association: The average home can save £270 a year by being energy efficient, according to the Energy Saving Trust. The organisation offers these tips to help people cope with rising energy prices. * Look for cavities - around 33% of the heat lost in an uninsulated home is through the walls, so insulating them can be one of the most cost-effective ways to save energy in the home. Not all buildings are suitable, but if a house was built between the 1920s and 1980s it could be a candidate for ...

Mon, 15 Sep 08
United States: Farmers must monitor, reduce water use
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/13/EDSM12R5QB.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Drought, population growth, global warming, a collapsing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta environment - it's no secret that California's water challenges are only going to get more challenging in the near future. So you'd think, at the very least, that the state would measure how much water farmers - who use about 80 percent of the water drawn from the ailing delta - use each year. And you'd best think again. There's no system to measure or monitor how much of our water is ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Phase out coal and burn trees instead, urges leading scientist
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/phase-out-coal-and-burn-trees-instead-urges-leading-scientist-929889.html
Independent: Humanity must urgently embark on a massive programme to power civilisation from wood to stave off catastrophic climate change, one of the world's top scientists has told The Independent on Sunday. Twenty years ago, Professor James Hansen was the first leading scientist to announce that global warming was taking place. Now he has issued a warning that a back-to-the-future return to one of the oldest fuels is imperative because the world has exceeded the danger level for carbon dioxide ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Staffing crisis 'will hit green energy targets'
http://business.scotsman.com/energyutilities/Staffing-crisis-39will-hit-green.4489686.jp
Scotsman: SCOTLAND's renewables sector is facing a severe staffing crisis which will throw Government targets on green energy into disarray, industry experts are warning. Renewable energy companies have raised the alarm over a chronic shortage of engineers and other staff with enough training to man Scotland's growing army of wind farms, hydroelectric power stations and biomass plants. Industry experts say up to 40% of jobs at some renewables firms are currently unfilled and Scotland will not ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
United Kingdom: The public are ahead of the game on climate change
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/geoffrey-lean-the-public-are-ahead-of-the-game-on-climate-change-929673.html
Independent: Thursday, Ben Stewart feared, would be the day he started a prison term. But instead of being banged up, he found himself "in the green room of The Jeremy Vine Show, next to Cliff Richard". Uncharitable comparisons with frying pans and fires are not for him, however. Greenpeace's communications director -- newly cleared, with five colleagues, of causing criminal damage to Kingsnorth power station in Kent -- was "quite excited", though at the implications of the verdict rather than at ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
China mulls green tax to curb pollution: report
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSHA33802220080913
Reuters: China is studying whether to impose an environmental tax on polluters to cut their emissions, the official China Daily reported on Saturday. The newspaper quoted Pan Yue, a deputy minister for environmental protection, as saying several government agencies had formed a team of experts to research the issue. Pan gave no details of the proposed tax or when it might be introduced. But he said the team was also studying the issues of compensation for environmental damage, and the ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Heat and drought killing Cyprus' forests
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=41365&cat_id=1
Cyprus Mail: THE ISLAND'S ongoing drought is killing trees, which are increasingly drying up, threatening serious ecological damages. The Forestry Department is showing increased concerns about the large number of trees that are drying up. The best hope is that the weather conditions will soon change. What is noticeable around the island is that all kinds of trees, even those which are considered more resistant to drought conditions, such as pines, cypress and carob trees are withering away ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Australia: How to crash a planet: Just follow Garnaut
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/766/39555
Green Left: On September 5, the government's climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut, released his recommendations for medium-term cuts to Australian greenhouse gas emissions. To the outrage of environmentalists, Garnaut's report, Targets and trajectories, calls for reductions by 2020 of just 5% if there is no comprehensive international agreement on emissions reductions, or of 10% if there is. At the Bali climate summit last December many developed countries, although not Australia, ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Wind farms fail to deliver value for money, report claims
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2910739/Wind-farms-fail-to-deliver-value-for-money-report-claims.html
Telegraph (UK): Excessive subsidies make them an expensive and inefficient way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank says. The report comes amid mounting disquiet over the number of wind farms planned for Britain. Energy companies want to erect more than 3,000 turbines over the next five years, leading to fears that hundreds of acres of rural landscape will be blighted. Critics insist that wind energy is too inefficient to ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Australia seeks to lower carbon emissions from cars
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSP26425520080913
Reuters: The Australian government issued a discussion paper on reducing automobile carbon emissions on Saturday, with recommendations such as providing financial incentives for manufacturing low-emission cars. The vehicle fuel efficiency report released by Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Peter Garrett recognized that there was no silver bullet for reducing carbon emissions in the transport sector. The sector accounts for 14 percent of the nation's ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
United States: Palin seems to skirt global warming issue
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/524698.html
Anchorage Daily News: The ABC anchor has plenty of Alaska voters for company. Since entering the governor's race two years ago, Palin has shimmied back and forth on the key question of whether warming trends are natural or a byproduct of human activity. What Palin ended up telling Gibson was this: "I'm attributing some of man's activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the climate right now." That sounds like a change from past statements, her interviewer said. She was sounding more ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Spain 'to fight desertification' with 45m trees
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/13/2363739.htm
BBC: The Spanish Government says it will plant 45 million trees over the next four years to counter desertification caused by global warming. The massive tree-planting scheme aims to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, the cause of global warming. The Spanish Government estimates that in the long term, the trees could absorb more than 3.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The trees will also help to prevent desertification, or land degradation by ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
California's Tighter Green-Energy Plan Advances
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122126695223030891.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: California's two energy agencies Friday endorsed a plan that would require utilities to obtain a third of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. The California Energy Commission, a policy-and-planning agency, and the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities, issued the joint recommendation that, if implemented, would be the most ambitious renewable-energy plan in the U.S. Getty Images A view of wind turbines at the Kumeyaay Wind Project on ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Canada: Carbon tax makes Campbell a 'hero'
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a1e95e3e-cc0c-4c93-a630-697861c5bb8c
Vancouver Sun: Liberal leader Stephane Dion campaigned in British Columbia Friday, unveiling a $575-million energy retrofit plan and declaring Premier Gordon Campbell a "hero" for implementing the first carbon tax in Canada. "I will say that B.C. will be for the fight against the crisis of climate change what Saskatchewan has been for medicare," Dion said. The Liberal leader acknowledged, though, that Campbell's carbon tax has become increasingly unpopular in the province. View Larger ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Canada: Climate-change policies are both flawed
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=b5d58ee5-537b-46f3-8233-2371a0901148
Montreal Gazette: Whatever other issues emerge, one main axis of this federal election campaign is plainly Liberal leader Stéphane Dion's "Green Shift." Let us set aside, for now, the reality that even if Canada's two per cent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions fell to zero, global emissions would keep right on climbing. As an exercise in moral one-upmanship, if nothing else, climate-change policy is a campaign issue. The Liberal goal is to get Canada's annual production of greenhouse gases ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Democrats: GOP should support drilling compromise
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gURfxpLrCKF1OV7Hh2P1jbOVmqMwD935TJOG1
Associated Press: Democrats sought on Saturday to drum up support for compromise legislation on offshore drilling, challenging Republicans to break from Bush administration policies that neglect development of alternative energy sources. "Enough is enough," Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado said in the Democrats' weekly radio address, citing rising energy prices, including $4-a-gallon diesel fuel. Salazar chastised Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, and other Senate Republicans ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Dion grilled over double taxing carbon
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080913.BCELECTIONDION13/TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: Stéphane Dion's so-called Green Shift scheme came under scrutiny yesterday over how British Columbians can avoid being doubly penalized by his environmental plan and their provincial carbon tax. Mr. Dion was at a town hall meeting at the University of Victoria, giving a loose and sometimes humorous performance as he took questions from students. But a constant concern of British Columbians involves the centrepiece of Mr. Dion's campaign platform, as a tax on fuel at the pumps was ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Canada: Dion links his proposals to BC's carbon tax
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=a6f7edec-c1aa-4dc7-a813-275e6f10c826
Times Colonist: Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion told a packed hall at the University of Victoria yesterday that he will be a good partner for B.C. and that the federal Liberals' proposed carbon tax will complement, rather than duplicate, the province's similar tax. "[B.C.] will be for climate change in Canada what Saskatchewan was for medicare -- the first mover," said Dion, before almost 200 people who lined the walls and steps of a UVic lecture hall while others listened outside. B.C. is the first ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Ice expanse growing in Antarctica as Arctic gets warmer
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/09/13/ice_expanse_growing_in_antarctica_as_arctic_gets_warmer/
Reuters: The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers in what could be an unusual side effect of global warming, scientists said yesterday. In the southern hemisphere winter, when emperor penguins huddle together against the cold, ice on the sea around Antarctica has been increasing since the late 1970s, perhaps because climate change means shifts in winds, sea currents, or snowfall. At the other end of the planet, Arctic sea ice is now close to matching a ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Palin now asserts humans contribute to global warming
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5998478.html
Associated Press: Alaska lawmakers voted Friday to subpoena the husband of Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, in a move that transformed a messy state personnel issue into a national campaign controversy. The lawmakers acted at the request of Stephen Branchflower, who is investigating the governor's dismissal of the state's director of public safety. Branchflower said he also wants to interview the governor but omitted her from the 13-person list of subpoena targets he ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
United States: Vineyards struggle to meet carbon neutral pledge
http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/09/15/story9.html
Portland Business Journal: Thirty Oregon wineries made a splash a year ago by committing to a state-sponsored effort to become carbon neutral, pledging to implement carbon-reduction programs within 18 months. The effort has proved challenging for some vineyards in the first year, however. The environmental impact is also questionable, although industry experts point to clear marketing benefits. 'Our facility was built in 1984 with no modern bells or whistles,' said Pat Dudley, president of the Salem-area ...

Sun, 14 Sep 08
Mayors: Towns save by cutting carbon emissions
http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/09/13/news/casper/92c05419df4b692e872574c300009245.txt
Casper-Star Tribune: Only one Wyoming municipality has signed on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, and it may be no surprise that it's the town of Jackson. Jackson Mayor Mark Barron said being a member of the climate protection agreement is not an "us against them" stance against the energy developers that have built a budget surplus for the state in recent years. Rather, saving energy and cutting carbon emissions is very much in line with Wyoming's conservative values regarding financial ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Melting permafrost may hasten global warming
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/melting-permafrost-may-hasten-global-warming/2008/09/12/1220857835026.html
Sydney Morning Herald: TWICE as much carbon is locked away in the frozen soils of the earth's permafrost regions as had been thought, raising the concern that global warming will accelerate faster than expected once the soils start to thaw. A three-year study by an international team of researchers including Pep Canadell of the CSIRO produced the new estimate, based on cores up to three metres deep taken from permafrost regions, particularly across Russia. Dr Canadell said temperatures near the poles ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
A bright future for solar power
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/13/energy.solar.power
Guardian: Fidelity Investments is the world's biggest investment manager. It has more than $1tn in its custody, and its hard-nosed managers scour the world to exploit the best profit opportunities. It believes in the efficiency of free markets. Pinko-lefty Guardian types are thin on the ground. Yet the organisation recently sent five of its top money managers to a solar-power conference in Spain, not because it wants to tackle climate change, but because it believes solar power will be a ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Antarctic ice growth is one of the odd side effects of global warming
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/antarctic-ice-growth-is-one-of-the-odd-side-effects-of-global-warming_10095353.html
Asian News International: In what is being considered an unusual side effect of global warming, the amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown recently. According to a report in New Scientist, in the southern hemisphere winter, when emperor penguins huddle together against the biting cold, ice on the sea around Antarctica has been increasing since the late 1970s, perhaps because climate change means shifts in winds, sea currents or snowfall. At the other end of the planet, Arctic sea ice is now close ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Death of the oceans, death of life as we know it
http://www.theage.com.au/national/death-of-the-oceans-death-of-life-as-we-know-it-20080912-4fi6.html
Sydney Morning Herald: CANADIAN author Alanna Mitchell met Australian scientist Tim Flannery by chance while she was researching a book about the impact of climate change on the world's oceans. An award-winning environmental reporter and author of a previous book about environmental hotspots on land, Mitchell had never met Flannery before. But she was familiar with his writings on the environment, and considered the former Australian of the Year "a prophet" and hero. During their chance meeting ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Experts warn of more floods in northern India
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/experts-warn-of-more-floods-in-northern-india_10095342.html
Indo-Asian News Service: With over 2.7 million people affected by the floods caused by the change of course of the Kosi river in Bihar, researchers have now warned of more floods in northern India in coming years following changing stream flow patterns in the Himalayan rivers. The researchers from Pune University and College of Military Engineering, Pune, found an increase in the number of 'high-magnitude flood` events in four rivers - Chenab, Ravi, Satluj and Beas in northwestern Himalayas in the last four ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Permafrost find adds to climate calamity
http://www.theage.com.au/national/permafrost-find-adds-to-climate-calamity-20080912-4fie.html
Age: THE blanket of permafrost covering a fifth of the world's land mass traps twice as much greenhouse gas as previously thought -- and is therefore much more likely to trigger rapid climate change as it melts, research says. A paper published in the journal Bioscience estimates that more than 1500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane is locked in frozen vegetation at high latitudes. This is more than double the amount of greenhouse gas now in the atmosphere. CSIRO ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Wind-Power Politics
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106477
New York Times: I was having lunch with Mandelstam last fall to discuss offshore wind in general and how he and his tiny company, Bluewater Wind, came to focus on Delaware as a likely place for a nascent and beleaguered offshore wind industry to establish itself. Mandelstam had been running late all morning. I knew this because I received a half-dozen messages on my cellphone from members of his staff, who relayed his oncoming approach like air-traffic controllers guiding a wayward trans-Atlantic flight ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Garnaut's climate report muddle
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24337067-30538,00.html
Australian: THERE'S one blinding flash of clarity and honesty in Ross Garnaut's latest draft report on climate change which fatally undermines the entire report itself. Even more, it undercuts the very own tactical game Garnaut proposes Australia play to achieve the fundamental strategic objective of an international agreement to reduce emissions. And I quote from page 21 of his Target and Trajectories supplementary draft report: "The optimal level of Australian mitigation effort -- the ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Ice core studies confirm accuracy of climate models
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200809131041.htm
Hindu: An analysis has been completed of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000 year period in the most recent Ice Age, showing a remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in climate. The findings, to be published this week in the online edition of the journal Science, shed further light on the fluctuations in greenhouse gases and climate in Earth's past, and appear to confirm the validity of the types of computer models that are used to ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Mauritius-Melting Glaciers
http://www.apanews.net/apa.php?page=show_article_eng&id_article=75095
African Press Agency: Port Louis (Mauritius) The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that parts of Mauritius will be under water by 2100 due to the rapid increase of the melting of the glaciers. The report, which was made public in the Mauritian capital Port Louis on Friday indicates that the annual rate of the melting of glaciers has doubled since the year 2000. The report also adds that the level of the sea has increased by 17 cm during the 20th century and could rise from 18 to ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Palin softens on global warming and melts the hearts of the right
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/race-for-whitehouse/palin-softens-on-global-warming-and-melts-the-hearts-of-the-right-928799.html
Independent: The force of nature known as Sarah Palin was back at work inside America's living rooms yesterday, attempting to wreak havoc with Barack Obama's hopes. In the space of a fortnight, she has transformed the national conversation from the urban and economic issues favoured by Mr Obama to the mythical values attributed to smalltown America. As the public's fascination with the 44-year-old Alaskan Governor grows by the day, she even eclipsed media coverage of the Republican ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Palin under fire after grudging U-turn on global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/13/uselections2008.usa1
Guardian: Sarah Palin, who presents herself as half of a Republican team of maverick reformers, yesterday edged away from her outmoded views on climate change, conceding for the first time that the problem might be man-made. The admission from Palin, during an interview with ABC television, brings the Republican running mate into line with the views of the party's presidential nominee, John McCain. "I'm attributing some of man's activities to potentially causing some of the changes in the ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Tapping Power From Trash
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106476
New York Times: RECOVERY WORK an enclosed flare at the landfill burns off gas that has an insufficient methane content for effective energy production. Buried in airless pockets deep inside landfills, the organic matter in these great mounds of waste is consumed by bacteria that give off gas rich in methane, increasingly used to generate electricity and heat. In fact, power from landfill methane exceeds solar power in New York and New Jersey, and landfill methane in those states and in ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Nitrogen emerges as the latest climate-change threat
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/52362.html
McClatchy Newspapers: Scientists are raising alarms about yet another threat to Earth's climate and human well-being. This time it's nitrogen, a common element essential to all life. For years, people have been bombarded with warnings about the harmful effects of carbon -- especially in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas widely blamed for global warming. Now, it's becoming clear that human activities, such as driving cars and raising crops, also are boosting nitrogen to dangerous ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Palin's statements on climate change at odds
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g-mjfuE-Dz5hpM2uDBVt3Kw6le4AD9356GGG0
Associated Press: Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's assertion that she believes humans play a role in climate change -- made in her first major interview since joining the Republican ticket -- is at odds with her previous statements. Palin said she didn't disagree with scientists that the problem can be attributed to "man's activities." "Show me where I have ever said that there's absolute proof that nothing that man has ever conducted or engaged in has had any effect or no effect on ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Permafrost carbon content double the old estimates
http://www.physorg.com/news140441692.html
PhysOrg: Frozen sediments (permafrost) in Eastern Siberia. Photo by: Sergei Zimov Click here to enlarge image New research indicates that the amount of frozen organic carbon locked away in the world's permafrost regions – a major potential source of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) – is double what has been previously estimated. In a paper published in the latest edition of Bioscience, an international team of scientists says whereas some of the CO2 produced as a result of ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Study finds recent global warming unprecedented in 1300 years
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/684143.html
McClatchy Newspapers: A new scientific study adds evidence that temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere fluctuated a bit over time, but that the sharp increase during the past few decades is bigger than anything in at least 1,300 years. The report was published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Its conclusion is that temperature increased and decreased a little over the centuries, but the fluctuations were small enough that the line was roughly flat, like the shaft of a ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Biofuel-makers denounce target downgrade
http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/biofuel-makers-denounce-target-downgrade/article-175298
EurActiv: European biofuel producers were disappointed by a key vote in Parliament yesterday (11 September), which, though confirming a binding 10% target for renewables in transport fuels by 2020, shifts the focus away from agro-fuels and provides for a "major" mid-term review, which they say threatens investment in the sector. Background: The Commission initially began to consider promoting the use of biofuels for transport in a 2001 its Communication on alternative fuels for road ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Europeans worrry a lot but do little about climate change
http://euobserver.com/9/26731
EUobserver: An overwhelming majority of Europeans - 62 percent - consider climate change the second most serious problem facing the world today, a fresh EU poll has shown. However, they have little appetite for turning green when it comes to their lifestyle. "There is a clear gap between what citizens say and what citizens are doing about fighting climate change," EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said on Thursday (11 September), while presenting the survey. Although 61 percent ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
NZ's carbon scheme expected to survive election
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSWEL34957720080912
Reuters: New Zealand's planned carbon trading scheme, the first cap-and-trade market outside Europe, is expected to survive even if Prime Minister Helen Clark loses a national election on November 8. But the carbon trading scheme, scheduled to start in 2009, would face a host of amendments if the opposition National party, which leads the government in opinion polls, takes office. A National government would likely give key industry sectors more time to reduce emissions, said regional ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
UN Carbon Credit Project Backlog Jumps Sevenfold
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ap4TGyrIJOwk&refer=home
Bloomberg: The backlog of United Nations greenhouse gas-reduction projects seeking emission credits surged more than sevenfold since the beginning of August, undermining efforts to curb climate change. The number of projects awaiting completeness checks before they can be registered jumped by 253, said David Abbass, a spokesman at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC. That compares with 37 projects beforehand, Abbass said yesterday by e-mail. UN emissions trading ``is ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Antarctic winter ice gets bigger; Arctic shrinks
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLC65229120080912
Reuters: The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers in what could be an unusual side-effect of global warming, experts said on Friday. In the southern hemisphere winter, when emperor penguins huddle together against the biting cold, ice on the sea around Antarctica has been increasing since the late 1970s, perhaps because climate change means shifts in winds, sea currents or snowfall. At the other end of the planet, Arctic sea ice is now close to matching a ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Awful August a time of climate chaos in Scotland
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/2824907/Awful-August-a-time-of-climate-chaos-in-Scotland.html
Telegraph (UK): The awful month of August was a period of "real climate chaos" in Scotland, and the dullest since records began for Edinburgh. By Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent Last Updated: 3:45PM BST 12 Sep 2008 Outside the capital, and over most of the country, it was the least sunny August for 30 years and the tenth wettest ever recorded. In England and Wales it was also the dullest August ever recorded as well as the fifth wettest. Throughout Scotland there was far ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Beating Back the Ocean Proves an Enduring Riddle
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122119023684026931.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Lisa Schaeffer spent last Saturday afternoon cleaning up after Tropical Storm Hanna. Her 44-year-old white cottage stood intact -- five yards from the sea. "There used to be a street in front of our house, and then a row of cottages," Mrs. Schaeffer says. "We're fortunate we're still here." Alyssa Abkowitz Sandbags piled in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., are a long shot against erosion. For years, local residents and the city of Ocean Isle, on the border of South and North ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Australia: Buy a farm to save a river in Australia
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=373435&type=World
Shanghai Daily: AN irrigation farm larger than Singapore and sucking up billions of liters of water each year has been bought by Australia's government to help save one of the country's most vital rivers from a slow death and climate change. Toorale Station, a cotton farm covering 91,000 hectares in the west of New South Wales state, was sold to the national and state governments for almost US$19 million, one day before it was set to go to auction. The purchase will allow 20 gigaliters ?? ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Climate change could devastate Philippines: NASA scientist
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i22WUnqj4fH0nhefrFGUVC45kbSQ
Agence France-Presse: Climate change could have a devastating impact on the Philippines, leading to widespread destruction of the country's flora and fauna and flooding the capital Manila, a NASA scientist warned here Friday. The continued melting of Arctic ice caps, brought on by climate change, could cause sea levels to rise by seven metres (23 feet), said National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) physicist Josefino Comiso. He said the country's fish stocks would be depleted and many ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Dutch PM says govt would consider nuclear request
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7793121
Reuters: The current Dutch government would consider an application to build a new nuclear power plant in the Netherlands, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said on Friday, appearing to contradict his environment minister. The minister, Jacqueline Cramer, told a radio station on Thursday that the present cabinet, whose term runs until 2011, would not make decisions on the construction of new nuclear power stations, referring to its coalition agreement. Dutch utility Delta is planning ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Ethanol Is Dream Deferred for Farming Towns Too Late to Biofuel
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=azPOyrCia8Nc&refer=home
Bloomberg: Ford Heights Ethanol LLC applied in June 2006 to build a distillery in the Illinois town that bears its name, promising economic revival to replace abandoned houses and closed stores. Two years later, no work has begun. For Ford Heights and other agricultural towns, the ``green- collar'' job revolution envisioned by federal biofuel mandates is a dream deferred. Knee-high grass and old tires cover the site as record prices for corn, the main ingredient in ethanol, discourage investment ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Exelon chief urges 'energy Marshall Plan'
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-exelon-energy-plan-sep12,0,4686709.story
Chicago Tribune: Com Ed parent Exelon Corp. said Friday that Chairman and CEO John Rowe will urge federal lawmakers Friday to "develop a 21st century Marshall Plan for energy." The Chicago utility holding company said Rowe is slated to appear before the U.S. Senate Energy Committee, where he will tell members that "nothing less than a comprehensive national effort for energy will put us on the right track" to meet future energy needs. Rowe, the company said, will outline thre priorities, ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Australia: Farmer backlash to Murray-Darling gift
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/farmer-backlash-to-murraydarling-gift/1271219.aspx
AAP: Queensland farmers say they are surprised and disappointed by the state government's decision to "gift" 10.6 billion litres of water to the ailing Murray-Darling river system. They also expressed concern the water might not make it through the NSW irrigation system and into South Australia. The Queensland government today announced that the state would provide, without cost, 10.6 billion litres of water to the severely-stressed system, as a gift from Queensland. The ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Gamesa hopeful about renewable energy tax credits
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/business/local_story_256230608.html
Tribune-Democrat: Gamesa, parent company of a thriving new industry in Cambria County, is hoping Congress renews tax credits for renewable energy companies that make such products as windmills, solar panels and biofuels. 'Gamesa supports a long-term extension of the production tax credit because of the vital role it plays in long-term development,' said Michael Peck, director of media relations. Gamesa`s $50-million plant in the Cambria County Industrial Park outside Ebensburg makes 141-foot ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
United States: Global warming affecting state's weather, scientist says
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=793911
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Flooding that ravaged southeastern Wisconsin this spring and summer was a symptom of global warming's impact here - and it could get worse. That was the message Thursday from a scientific researcher whose dire warning marked the opening of a two-day conference aimed at helping people become environmentally friendly. About 200 homeowners, farmers and business owners gathered at the "Going Green" conference to learn how they can conserve energy and protect natural ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Global warming is going to shrink the worlds species
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/global-warming-is-going-to-shrink-the-worlds-species_10095079.html
Asian News International: Ecologists have warned that global warming might result in species shrinking in size. According to a report in New Scientist, Kaustuv Roy, a biologist at the University of California in San Diego, believes that scientists need to think now about how they are going to preserve large species. Our collective actions are negatively affecting body sizes of many living species, said Roy. It is well-known that humans tend to hunt or fish larger animals, creating a selective ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
GOP: Democrats' plan leaves most oil off limits
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imPz0z6szykAL-CAKZDEZOAiDREgD935FR501
Associated Press: House Republicans attacked a Democratic offshore drilling plan Friday for including a 50-mile coastal buffer that they said would leave untouched most of the 18 billion barrels of oil in waters now off-limits to energy companies. A Democratic drilling proposal expected to be taken up by the House next week would allow energy development access to waters 50 to 100 miles from shore along almost all of the country's coastlines as long as a state agrees to drilling off its ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Group: Global warming could cost Ohio its buckeyes
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jRKnY5I58y1rbFj2n9xx8XiclqYwD935FJMO4
Associated Press: It's not the best-researched global-warming theory, but it could be the most horrifying to certain fans of college football: Environmentalists said Friday that climate change might push the growing range of Ohio's iconic buckeye tree out of the state, leaving it for archrival Michigan. Save The Buckeye, a coalition of environmental activists and outdoor enthusiasts, has a billboard in Columbus warning about the fate of the buckeye tree, and backers plan to hold rallies during football ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Hodgepodge of energy, climate plans hurt Canada
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=e1b0606a-9204-4573-9299-e12afaecc05f
Times Colonist: Roger Gibbins certainly doesn't want to call it a national energy policy. The Canada West Foundation head knows invoking memories of the hated old NEP would inevitably raise hackles in Alberta. Instead, Gibbins is calling on Canada to adopt "a national energy strategy" -- one coherent national policy to deal with both greenhouse gas emissions and Canada's energy future. "I know, the legacy of the NEP makes it extremely different for federal politicians to get into this ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
United States: House Democrats oil drilling plan a sham
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-editafoilshamsbsep12,0,4067151.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Call the House Democratic oil drilling proposal what it is, a sham. The "compromise" Speaker Nancy Pelosi is offering is no compromise. It's a cave-in to the very Big Oil interests Democrats have been berating. Just read the trade-off. The oil industry would get rights to explore, and drill, in the Atlantic from Virginia to Florida. In return, the oil companies would give up $13 billion in tax breaks and agree to pay billions in royalties because of an Interior Department error in ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Humans Pose Biggest Threat to Marine Life
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1552236/humans_pose_biggest_threat_to_marine_life/
Journal - Newcastle-upon-Tyn: THE biggest threat to marine life is not global warming but over- fishing and mankind's demand for water, scientists from the North will say today. A study drawing on the expertise of more than 100 top aquatic ecologists looked at the world's water-based ecosystems, including lakes, rivers, tropical waters and Arctic seas. The research, led by Professor Nicholas Polunin of Newcastle University, found man's serious impact on aquatic life will happen long before climate change ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
India to implement 20-per cent consumption of biofuel by 2017
http://www.domain-b.com/industry/oil_gas/20080912_India_implement.html
domain-b: Against the backdrop of a runaway rise in fuel prices and global warming, the union cabinet has approved a proposal to double the amount of ethanol to be blended with petrofuels from 10 per cent, scheduled from October 2008, to 20 per cent by 2017, and a uniform 4 per cent sales tax across the country. The policy also stipulates a certification mechanism for the blending exercise conforming to specifications of the Bureau of Indian Standards. While petrol will be blended wiith ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Love polar bears, loathe Sarah Palin
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/sep/12/uselections2008.sarahpalin2
Guardian: While plenty of people somewhere in the US support Sarah Palin, there are also plenty of us for whom she has inspired new-found depths of loathing. Thank God that Charlie Gibson, in as professional a manner as possible, showed her up for the moron that she is. (As Press Box columnist Jack Schafer so succinctly put it: "Never mind about [Palin] not being ready to be president. She wasn't even ready for this interview." But is that even going to register with the other half of the ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Marine scientists call for protection of Coral Sea
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/marine-scientists-call-for-protection-of-coral-sea_10094927.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Tropical marine scientists, strongly backed by environmental groups, have called for the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia, to be made into world`s largest marine reserve. The researchers said that the whole Coral Sea should become a no-fishing area to protect its immense environmental and heritage values from the escalating threats of overfishing and climate change. 'There is overwhelming evidence that the world`s marine ecosystems have been seriously degraded by overfishing, ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Obama and McCain: Silent on Climate Change
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/betsy-taylor/obama-and-mccain-silent-o_b_125869.html
Huffington Post: Barack Obama and John McCain are ignoring the biggest news event in human history. They aren't alone. Very few media outlets are reporting the news either. On August 31, NASA released photos showing the North Pole has become an island for the first time in the past 125,000 years. (Please read that line again, look at the NASA image, and let it penetrate.) The summer ice cap at the Arctic is melting so fast that Dr. Mark Serreze, a sea ice specialist at the National Snow and Ice Data ...

Sat, 13 Sep 08
Out of Gas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091103100.html
Washington Post: CONGRESS expended a lot of energy debating how to solve the energy crisis before running off for summer recess for five weeks. It ended up accomplishing nothing. Now Congress is back and seemingly ready for more of the same. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will present an energy bill next week that would expand offshore drilling. But Republicans rejected the legislation on the basis of the outlines Ms. Pelosi released Tuesday. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Climate danger 'justifies power station damage
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24331561-26040,00.html
Australian: The fight for the planet has broken new ground, with a British jury acquitting environmental activists who caused more than pound stg. 35,000 ($76,000) worth of damage to a coal-fired power station. In a decision that will send chills down corporate spines across Britain, the jury decided the dangers of global warming were so enormous that the Greenpeace campaigners were justified in trying to close down Kingsnorth power station in Kent. Jurors at Maidstone Crown Court cleared the six ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australia: Dry climate makes it east v west
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/dry-climate-makes-it-east-v-west-20080911-4es5.html
Age: CLIMATE change should be the catalyst for a radical social re-engineering of Victoria, according to a controversial submission to a State Parliament inquiry that has pitted the west of the state against the east. The inquiry into Melbourne's future water needs has been told that cities in Western Victoria would become drier and government investment on jobs and infrastructure would be better spent in Gippsland. In a twist, Bendigo Mayor David Jones said there was "a little bit ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australia: Emission trading scheme could boost cost of air tickets
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24330645-23349,00.html
Australian: THE federal Government has told industry representatives its emission trading scheme could boost the cost of airline tickets by up to $10 per flight. Transport Minister Anthony Albanese told regional aviation representatives last week that the $10 additional cost per sector was the most the Government expected passengers would pay as the result of its climate change policy. But Regional Aviation Association of Australia chief executive Paul Tyrell said this week the industry ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
House Democrats Unveil Bill to End Drilling Ban
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50206/story.htm
Reuters: Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives unveiled legislation on Wednesday that, if passed, would significantly expand domestic oil production by permitting offshore drilling at least 50 miles from US coasts. The package gives all US states the option to allow drilling between 50 and 100 miles off their shores. Areas further than 100 miles from the coast would be completely open oil exploration. After vigorously opposing calls from Republicans to lift the moratorium ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Industry points out gap in emissions permits allocated as compensation
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24332827-5013871,00.html
Australian: THE Rudd Government's allocation of just 20 per cent of emissions trading permits as compensation to so-called trade-exposed industries is "unsubstantiated and arbitrary" and in breach of Labor's election commitments, according to the peak business lobby group on climate change. The Australian Industry Greenhouse Network says that despite the Government's claim it could not possibly increase the proportion of permits allocated for free dispersal to industries that cannot pass on the ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Malaysia, Indonesia want EU to consider their views
http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=41300
Bernama: Malaysia and Indonesia want the European Union (EU) to consider their views pertaining to its directives on renewable energy and fuel quality, especially on the use of palm oil for the production of biofuel. 'Malaysia and Indonesia jointly account for 85 per cent of global palm oil production. Therefore we hope the EU acknowledges and give us a chance to be heard,' said Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui. Chin said this to Malaysian and ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Mixed Reactions Greet UK Energy Efficiency Package
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50208/story.htm
Reuters: Trade unions attacked British government plans to make utilities cut their customers energy use rather than pay a windfall tax on profits, while analysts said it was a sensible long-term solution to high energy prices. The Energy Retail Association of power suppliers, which has opposed calls for a windfall tax on utility profits, said the policy announced on Thursday was a better idea than taxation. "The investment in energy efficiency measures announced today represents a more ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
EU committee votes to cut biofuels target
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gxEbVKQyLcKC7W2KrfSgvmOEldBwD934GVC00
Assocaited Press: EU lawmakers voted Thursday to cut in half an ambitious target for using crop-based biofuels for 10 percent of its road transport needs by 2020. The vote by the European Parliament's industry committee deals a blow to climate change goals agreed to by EU leaders last year to try to cut carbon dioxide emissions. Environmental and aid groups had criticized the EU's 10 percent biofuels target, claiming it harmed efforts to fight global poverty and effectively tackle carbon ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Europeans drag feet on tackling climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSLB17274020080911
Reuters: A clear majority of Europeans see climate change as one of the most serious challenges facing the world, but have not changed their personal behavior to tackle it, a poll showed on Thursday. Four in 10 complained about a lack of information on what they should be doing, while over three-quarters considered that industry was not pulling its weight. "There is a clear gap between what citizens are saying and what they are doing on climate change," EU Environment Commissioner ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Most Europeans 'very concerned' by climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hj5heL66iD0VGQIYdc1Qg4b0jGKg
Agence France-Presse: Most Europeans are very concerned about climate change though a sizeable minority feel they do not know enough to help counter it, a major EU poll released Thursday showed. A majority of the 30,000-plus people interviewed throughout the EU and candidate nations, believe neither industry, national governments nor the European Unon itself is doing enough to tackle the problem, according to the Eurobarometer study. Global warming/climate change was deemed one of the most serious ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Oil brokers sex scandal may affect drilling debate
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jzUY8OlE6qfQWasH6Fewcq6YfYmwD934FHVG0
Associated Press: A scandal involving sex, drugs and -- uh, offshore oil drilling. It's a strange mix, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for those in Congress pressing to expand oil and gas development off America's beaches while trying to stave off an election-year rush by Democrats to impose new taxes and royalties on the oil industry. An Interior Department investigation describing a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" by workers at the agency that issues offshore drilling leases ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Top Expert's Emissions Target Slammed
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43844
Inter Press Service: The Rudd government's hand-picked climate change advisor's recommended targets for reducing Australia's greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions have been widely denounced by environmentalists and leading scientists. "Accepting this kind of damage to the planet is completely immoral," says Greenpeace Australia-Pacific's head of campaigns, Steve Campbell, referring to proposals contained in the latest report from economist Prof. Ross Garnaut. Released on Sep.5, Garnaut's supplementary ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australia buys huge farm to save dying river
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSSYD32505520080911
Reuters: An irrigation farm larger than Singapore and sucking up billions of liters of water each year has been bought by Australia's government to help save one of the country's most vital rivers from a slow death and climate change. Toorale Station, a cotton farm covering 910 sq km (351 sq miles) in the west of New South Wales state, was sold to the national and state governments for almost US$19 million, one day before it was set to go to auction. The purchase will allow 20 ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Enviros: Tie auto industry loans to fuel standards
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgWq4tYCJeXKscd22Kg5Q_xtTeqgD934PD080
Associated Press: Environmental and consumer groups said Thursday that funding for a federal loan program to help the U.S. auto industry should have some strings attached -- in the form of higher fuel efficiency standards. Consumer watchdog Public Citizen and several environmental groups called the support a "bailout" and in exchange for the loans, urged Congress to push the industry to meet higher fuel economy standards beyond requirements approved last year of at least 35 miles per gallon by ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
House Democrats Expand Proposed Oil, Gas Drilling
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109324329121691.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: House Democrats, some chanting "drill, drill," embraced a plan to open the door for more oil and natural-gas exploration along the entire U.S. coastline, in a shift showing the power of the energy issue in this election. Under a compromise bill hammered out in a series of closed-door meetings Wednesday on Capitol Hill, the House Democratic leadership agreed on a plan that would authorize drilling along the entire coastline, though new production would hinge on states agreeing to ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
McCain Nuclear Energy Revival May Cost $315 Billion
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aRkagygu04Ks&refer=us
Bloomberg: John McCain's plan to revive the U.S. nuclear power industry with 45 new reactors may cost $315 billion, with taxpayers bearing much of the financial risk. The Republican presidential nominee wants the plants built in time to help the U.S. meet a 29 percent increase in electricity demand by 2030. Industry estimates put their cost at $7 billion each. Barack Obama, McCain's Democratic opponent, is less specific about his plans, saying he wants to ``find ways to safely harness nuclear ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Oklahoma campus hopes to be powered by wind by '13
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hQ_XHp6mnc31PoPE2IV5_6GJCbLgD934CII81
Associated Press: The University of Oklahoma wants its main campus to be completely powered by wind by 2013, a plan the school's president calls one of the largest renewable energy commitments ever made by a public university in the U.S. "It is our patriotic duty as Americans to help our country achieve energy independence and to be sound stewards of the environment," University President David Boren said Wednesday. "All of us as Americans should unite in this effort." The university will ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Peace, prosperity revive dream of connecting Asia by rail
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn_zE7TVpQMzMAj1Iiyp2u1nAiHQ
Agence France-Presse: As Asia develops at a whirlwind pace and peace holds in once-warring nations, countries are reviving a decades-old dream of connecting the vast continent with a continuous railway. Like the ancient Silk Road but made of sleepers and track, the route would ferry goods and tourists from Singapore to St Petersburg, Phnom Penh to Pyongyang, creating development wherever the carriages pull in. The idea was born in 1960 but was stalled by decades of conflict and poverty across the ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Prince Charles says hedge funds could save rainforests
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0911-prince_charles.html
Mongabay: Prince Charles renewed his call to protect rainforests for the services they provide humanity. Speaking Wednesday at a black-tie dinner in London, Charles compared the need to protect forests to fighting a war. "I often use the analogy of war because I fear we are engaged in a battle of survival. We must mobilize ourselves, indeed the whole world, with that real sense of wartime urgency and resolve to act together," said the prince, who has become a vocal advocate for forest ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
World carbon standards to relax -CCX head
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7791183
Reuters: World greenhouse gas markets probably will relax their notions of what constitutes a carbon credit to encourage more people to reduce emissions of planet-warming gases, the head of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) said in an interview. CCX Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Sandor said he favors granting carbon credits to clean projects, such as maintenance and planting of trees, even if the actions occurred years earlier, in some cases before carbon markets existed. The ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
'Climate change behind dengue's re-emergence in Southeast Asia'
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/climate-change-behind-dengues-re-emergence-in-southeast-asia_10094872.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Health ministers from Southeast Asian countries Thursday pledged to combat tobacco use and to curb the spread of the mosquito-borne dengue disease, which they claimed was re-emerging due to climate change in the region.Health ministers and health experts from 11 countries, including India, adopted six resolutions - with a special focus on tobacco and dengue - at the conclusion of a World Health Organisation regional committee meeting here. The committee expressed concern over the ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Adapt or die: Climate change and the poor
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12208005
Economist: Environmentalists have long said the world should concentrate on preventing climate change, not adapting to it. That is changing 'I USED to think adaptation subtracted from our efforts on prevention. But I've changed my mind,' says Al Gore, a former American vice-president and Nobel prize-winner. 'Poor countries are vulnerable and need our help.' His words reflect a shift in the priorities of environmentalists and economists. For years, greens said adaptation--coping with ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Africa told to unite over environmental threats
http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnB280336.html
Reuters: African nations at the sharp edge of climate change must unite in talks to strike a new deal in Denmark at the end of 2009 on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, a conference heard on Thursday. "In the forthcoming negotiations African leaders should speak with one voice," former Irish President Mary Robinson told the two-day African Climate Change Forum in Rwanda. "This bargaining power will get the West to commit on targets of carbon emission reductions and to fund adaptation ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Alaska is a Battleground in "Green" Wars
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50179/story.htm
Reuters: Sarah Palin makes some greens see red, not least because her Alaskan home is a battleground in America's "environmental wars." One frontline is the Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, which has been receding so fast that signs mark the years where it once stood -- vivid testimony to climate change. The 1917 sign is now about a mile (1.6 km) from the imposing wall of ice. Alaska Gov. Palin has clashed with environmentalists by favoring shooting wolves from the air and ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Alaska, Russia Forests Overlooked in Climate Fight
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50186/story.htm
Reuters: Old forests from Alaska to Russia soak up vast amount of greenhouse gases as they age and are wrongly overlooked as a weapon in a UN-led fight against global warming, a study said on Wednesday. "New growth continues in forests that are centuries old," an international team of scientists wrote in the journal Nature of old forests outside the tropics that make up 15 percent of the world's total tree-covered area. Plants soak up heat-trapping carbon from the air as they grow and ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australia Being Hit by More "Extreme Waves" - Study
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50182/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's vast coastline is increasingly being battered by destructive "extreme waves" driven in part by climate change, scientists said on Wednesday. Research into wave size changes over the past 45 years showed waves of 3 metres (9.8 feet) in height or more were increasing, hitting Australia's southern coasts as severe storms become more frequent and intense, government experts said. "Extreme wave conditions are greatest south of the Australian continent, associated with ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australian climate science not up to scratch: Garnaut
http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/australian-climate-science-not-up-to-scratch-garnaut/1268318.aspx
Stock and Land: Australian and global research efforts and resources are behind the pace and insufficient to address the climate change challenges ahead, says economist and the climate change man of the moment, Professor Ross Garnaut. Speaking at a forum in Canberra Professor Garnaut told a large crowd of researchers and agricultural policy makers that agricultural research in Australia and throughout the world has declined alarmingly in the past 20 years or so and for farmers to adapt to, and even ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Bangladesh launches climate change action plan
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080911/full/news.2008.1103.html?s=news_rss
Nature: Bangladesh, one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, has launched a strategy to help the nation adapt to threats such as rising sea level, water-logged land and increased salinity. The strategy is aimed at adapting to the local effects of climate change over the coming decade. It was launched at a conference in London on Wednesday with a £75 million (US$132 million) grant from the UK government. Bangladesh called for further financial support to implement ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Canada: Carbon tax threatens country, Harper says
http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/497417
Toronto Star: The Liberals' carbon tax plan will plunge Canada into recession, sparking economic unrest that will revive Quebec's separatist movement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says. Harper revived the ghosts of regional divisions today as he painted the Liberals' greenhouse gas strategy as a costly folly whose impacts will reach far beyond the country's economy. "By undermining the economy and re-centralizing money and power in Ottawa, it can only undermine the progress that we have ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/cleared-jury-decides-that-threat-of-global-warming-justifies-breaking-the-law-925561.html
Independent: The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage. Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Climate change getting the attention of both parties
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/09/11/3432/climate_change_getting_the_attention_of_both_parties
MinnPost: Environmentalists had reason to be encouraged by two developments at last week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul. The convention ended with a presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, who agrees with scientists -- and his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama -- that global warming is an urgent problem calling for major changes in the marketing and use of energy. "The facts of global warming demand our urgent attention, especially in Washington," McCain said in a ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Climate change linked to increased military threats
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/climate-change-linked-to-increased-military-threats/1269362.aspx
Canberra Times: Defence Force chiefs were told last night they could be called on to defend ''Fortress Australia'' from starving outsiders under the worst-case scenarios for global warming. The security implications of climate change were delivered to the military's top brass at the Australian Defence Force Academy by former director of The Australia Institute Professor Clive Hamilton. The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, was present for the speech, along with ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Dinosaur's dominance due to chance, study says
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQeW5yxYUaU1qB1XeVUj53AO0ULg
Agence France-Presse: The age of dinosaurs lasted more than 160 million years, but new research out Thursday suggests their dominance had less to do with their supposed physiological superiority and more to do with blind luck. "For a long time it was thought there was something special about dinosaurs that helped them become more successful during the first 30 million years of their history, but this isn't true," said Steve Brusatte, a researcher at Columbia University in New York and co-author of the ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Environment: Huge increase in spending on water urged to avert global catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/11/water.climatechange
Guardian: Countries across the world will have to dramatically increase investment in dams, pipes and other water infrastructure to avoid widespread flooding, drought and disease even before climate change accelerates these problems, experts have warned. Investment needs to be at least doubled from the current level of $80bn (£45.5bn) a year, an international congress was told this week, and one leading authority said spending needed to rise to 1.5% of gross domestic product just "to be able to ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
EU deputies seek to limit use of biofuels
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5izvUBwu_cGdbuRKbZm7lUvaoKmTg
Agence France-Presse: European parliamentarians on Thursday approved EU plans to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent but called for stricter limits to be set on the controversial use of biofuels. "We have put a stop to this first generation biofuels craziness," argued parliamentary rapporteur Claude Turmes, a Green MEP who would like to see their use stopped altogether. The vote within a parliamentary committee is preliminary but sets the tone for all 785 MEPs to tackle the ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
EU Lawmaker Demands Shipping Included in CO2 Caps
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50188/story.htm
Reuters: A key lawmaker steering reform of the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme through the European Parliament said on Wednesday she had proposed to include the shipping sector in the scheme from 2013. That would be a surprise move, and not a part of earlier proposals made by the EU's executive European Commission. The EU parliament is preparing to vote on changes to Europe's flagship weapon against climate change -- a carbon market which caps the greenhouse gases produced by ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
EU panel votes to bring shipping in EU CO2 trading
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKBRU00673920080911
Reuters: Shipping should be included in the European Union's flagship weapon against climate change, the Emission Trading Scheme, from 2013, a panel of EU lawmakers said on Thursday. The European Parliament's influential industry committee also approved measures to protect European heavy industry from the risk that the cost of permits to emit carbon dioxide would make it uncompetitive against rivals in less regulated regions. The inclusion of shipping in the EU's cap-and-trade system ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Forests 'forgotten' in EU climate policy, MEPs warn
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/forests-forgotten-eu-climate-policy-meps-warn/article-175280
EurActiv: Deforestation is widely considered to be a key driver of global warming since tropical and other forests absorb CO2, thus mitigating the effects of emissions on the climate. But EU policymakers are struggling to define rules to keep trees standing. It is a "major mistake" not to address the issue of forests in the EU's climate package, Swedish Liberal MEP Lena Ek said yesterday (10 September) during a meeting of the Parliament's Industry (ITRE) Committee. Her comments were ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Fuel Emissions From Marine Vessels Remain a Global Concern
http://www.innovationsreport.de/html/berichte/studien/fuel_emissions_marine_vessels_remain_a_global_117931.html
Innovations Report: The forecast for clear skies and smooth sailing for oceanic vessels has been impeded by worldwide concerns of their significant contributions to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that impact the Earth's climate. A new study by professors James Winebrake and James Corbett examines "Emission Tradeoffs among Alternative Marine Fuels: Total Fuel Cycle Analysis of Residual Oil, Marine Gas Oil, and Marine Diesel Oil," in a recent issue of Journal of the Air & Waste Management ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut responds to vocal scientist critics
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/garnaut-responds-to-vocal-scientist-critics-20080910-4dur.html
Age: ROSS Garnaut has written to senior Australian scientists and environmental leaders rejecting their claims that his latest report on climate change is weak. The heads of WWF, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Climate Institute, as well as key UN scientific advisers, confirmed Professor Garnaut - the Rudd Government's adviser on climate change - had written to them on Tuesday, arguing that his advice that the world is not ready to sign a climate agreement that will avoid ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Global warming may worsen pets' allergies
http://www.sunherald.com/living/story/807627.html
Biloxi Sun Herald: Recent research into climate change and plant growth indicates both people and their pets may have a tougher time with allergies in the future. Leaving aside the discussion about what is causing the warming of the Earth's climate, it seems warmer temperatures and increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are helping plants grow faster. This can mean more pollen in the air to stimulate allergies. My nose is telling me the fall pollen season has started, and it may be worse this ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Australia: Govt to fund Indigenous community climate change study
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/11/2361869.htm?site=northwestwa
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government has announced almost $200,000 will be spent on a study into the impact of climate change on remote Indigenous communities. The study will examine the impacts global warming will have on health, the environment, infrastructure, education and employment in outlying communities and is expected to be complete by April next year. The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, says she hopes Aboriginal elders will pass on their traditional knowledge of ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Greenpeace Kingsnorth trial collapse is embarrassing for Gordon Brown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/11/earthlog111.xml
Telegraph (UK): Whatever you may think of the anti-nuclear environmental group Greenpeace, the collapse of the case against its activists for causing criminal damage to a coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent is embarrassing to the Brown Government, for it leaves it looking, well, browner than ever. Six activists admitted trying to shut down the station and painting "Gordon" down the chimney in a protest at EON's plans to build an even bigger coal-fired station next door. But a jury ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Greenpeace Protestors Cleared Over Coal Protest
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50187/story.htm
Reuters: Six activists from environmental group Greenpeace were cleared by a court on Wednesday of causing criminal damage when they closed down a coal-fired power station in Kent last year in a climate change protest. The six scaled the chimney of the Kingsnorth power station and painted "Gordon" on it in large letters, calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to allow new coal plants to be built without the technology to capture their carbon emissions. They had intended to pain the ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Higher Risk of Death for HK's Poor on Bad Air Days
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50194/story.htm
Reuters: Poor people in Hong Kong have a higher risk of death when air pollution is bad, a seven-year study has found. "The finding is that people living in highly-deprived areas had higher risk of mortality after bad air pollution days," Wong Chit-ming, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, said in an interview. "Most deaths occurred a day after the air pollution index showed a rise," said Wong, one of the researchers in the study, which was ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
House Bill Would Loosen Coastal Drilling Restrictions
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106389
New York Times: After months of political assault from Republicans over high gasoline prices, House Democrats are preparing legislation that would relax a decades-old ban on oil drilling along much of the nation`s coastline. The legislation, still being assembled Wednesday for a vote as early as Thursday, would also require utility companies to generate more power from renewable sources, provide tax incentives for alternative energy like wind power and institute new conservation programs. The ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Investors urge SEC on reporting oil climate impact
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKLB8320020080911
Reuters: Major investors from the U.S., Canada and the UK are pressuring the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require energy companies to assess the environmental impact of oil and natural gas reserves. A group of 19 environmental, investor and non-profit groups want the regulators, under new proposals, to ask that oil and gas companies disclose reported reserves that have higher than average greenhouse gas emissions associated with their extraction, production and ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Is 'Green' Fashion Sustainable? Designers Say Yes
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50192/story.htm
Reuters: Fashion trends come and go, but "green" is here to stay, say designers and sponsors at New York's fashion shows this week. Scores of lines boasting biodegradable fabrics, recycled thread or organic materials are sashaying down the catwalks and, if sales of the often more-costly clothing meet expectations, designers and labels will have profitable new revenue streams. But fashion is fickle, and any hot fad risks being pushed to the back of the closet like 1980s' shoulder ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Turkey: Lake Küçük, famous for flamingos, completely dries up
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=152855&bolum=100
Today's Zaman: Erkaya Yirik, the governor of Konya's Kulu district, has said that Lake Küçük, which is home to 186 different species of birds, has completely dried up. Yirik, who joined Kulu Mayor Ahmet Yildiz on a tour of the Lake Küçük region, spoke to reporters about the effects of global warming and said that irresponsible and careless digging of wells in the Lake Düden area threatens one of Turkey's most important water resources. Noting that Lake Küçük had already dried up, Yirik said: "With ...

Fri, 12 Sep 08
Ministers Call for Arctic Initiative to Fight Climate Change
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3637002,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Experts said the Arctic presents an exceptional environment -- and energy resources International delegates ended three days of meetings in Greenland on the Arctic region's importance in forecasting global climate change. They called for the harmonizing of international Arctic policies. The conference aimed to increase awareness of how European Union policy affect conditions in the Arctic and around the rest of the world, according to Halldor Asgrimsson, Secretary-General of the ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Time to aim high on climate change
http://business.smh.com.au/business/time-to-aim-high-on-climate-change-20080909-4cyj.html
Sydney Morning Herald: The latest report on climate change by the economics professor Ross Garnaut is the most disheartening government report I've read. It tells us how hugely destructive climate change is likely to be, but doubts that the world's governments will be able to agree on effective action to halt it. Now you know why economics is called the dismal science. Garnaut quotes an authoritative American study of the consequences if nothing is done to fight climate change and average temperatures rise ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Carbon Capture Plant Opens in Germany Amid Reservations
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3628912,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Energy giant Vattenfall has launched an emissions-free coal-fired test plant near Berlin using a technology touted as a huge potential breakthrough in the fight against global warming. But critics aren't convinced. Swedish energy utility Vattenfall sees carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a revolutionary answer to global warming which is largely blamed on carbon dioxide released when fossil fuels burn. "This technology will become more important than offshore wind farms," said ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Climate inaction 'costing lives'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7605927.stm
BBC: Failure to take urgent action to curb climate change is effectively violating the human rights of people in the poorest nations, an aid charity warns. A report by Oxfam International says emissions, primarily from developed countries, are exacerbating flooding, droughts and extreme weather events. As a result, harvests are failing and people are losing their homes and access to water, the authors observe. They say human rights need to be at the heart of global climate ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Emissions target criticism may prompt revision
http://www.thecourier.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/emissions-target-criticism-may-prompt-revision/1267894.aspx
Ballarat Courier: THE announcement by Professor Ross Garnaut that Australia should seek to reduce its carbon emissions by 10 per cent by 2020 came as something of a surprise. It was surprising because it was modest, particularly in light of Prof Garnaut's earlier findings in which he said Australia, without a global effort to counter climate change, would be profoundly affected and suffer through reduced agricultural production and increased cost of supplying water to urban areas. So the ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut is wrong, say scientists
http://www.theage.com.au/national/garnaut-is-wrong-say-scientists-20080908-4c9l.html
Age: AUSTRALIA'S most respected climate scientists have condemned the advice of greenhouse adviser Ross Garnaut and urged the Federal Government to take a more aggressive position at global climate change negotiations. Three authors with the UN's climate change panel told The Age Professor Garnaut had made a mistake by advising the Government to accept a deal that would all but guarantee environmental and social disaster. Speaking separately, Dr Bill Hare, Professor David Karoly and ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Germany tests coal plant answer to climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL95271320080909
Reuters: Swedish energy company Vattenfall opened a small coal plant in Germany on Tuesday which will produce almost carbon-free power in a test of technology that could help the fight against climate change. The project will produce enough electricity for a town of 20,000 people to pilot a process called carbon capture and storage (CCS), which supporters hope can tackle both energy security and climate change woes. At 30 megawatts the pilot is still less than one tenth the size of a ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
New bacteria could make cheaper ethanol
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKN0847220620080908
Reuters: Genetically engineered bacteria could make cellulosic ethanol cheaper to manufacture, researchers reported on Monday, in a finding that may unlock more energy from the waste products of farming and forestry. Ethanol from cellulose, the kind of sugar in the likes of cornstalks and sawdust, is being promoted as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels, with the advantage that it does not use food crops such as corn as raw materials. The genetically engineered ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Scientists say Australian carbon targets too weak
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKSYD6703720080909
Reuters: Prominent climate scientists criticized the Australian government's top climate adviser on Tuesday, saying his recommended targets for carbon emissions were too weak and would not help avoid catastrophic climate change. Climate adviser Ross Garnaut has urged the government to cut Australian Greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent on 2000 levels by 2020, and to set a carbon price of A$20 ($16.25) a ton in the first years of carbon trading in Australia from mid-2010. "That won't ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
$10 billion bond for high-speed rail sought
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080909-9999-1n9rail.html
San Diego Union-Tribune: Even in a state known for dreaming big, the idea's a doozy: a train so swift that it could speed from San Diego to San Francisco in a little less than four hours. The idea of building a high-speed rail network in California has been debated, studied, ridiculed, celebrated and studied again for more than a decade. State voters will decide the issue Nov. 4. Proposition 1A asks voters to approve nearly $10 billion in bond sales to spur construction of an 800-mile, ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
'Emissions-free' coal plant pilot fires up in Germany
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hfx2TGZ_bPozS5H3l1QCqu8pUjng
Agence France-Presse: One of Europe's biggest power companies inaugurates on Tuesday a pilot project using a technology that it is presenting as a huge potential breakthrough in the fight against climate change. But green campaigners have denounced the project as a cosmetic operation that does not really address the problem of global warming. At the site of the massive "Schwarze Pumpe" ("Black Pump") power station in the old East Germany, Vattenfall wants to the new method to allow it continue ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Another summer of sodden misery. Is it bad luck - or worse?
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-another-summer-of-sodden-misery-is-it-bad-luck-ndash-or-worse-923475.html
Independent: It's getting wearisomely familiar, isn't it? Last summer's toll of sodden misery is with us again as people are flooded out of their homes from one end of the land to the other and, for the second year running, a famous medieval abbey is an island. You could be forgiven for thinking, is this really all just coincidence? Perhaps it is. But perhaps it isn't -- that's an increasingly real possibility. It may be this is very much the shape of the future as climate change takes ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australians Back Rudd Carbon Plan, Australian Says, Citing Poll
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=afexox6uGGKg&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australians support Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's carbon-pollution reduction plan and are prepared to pay more for fuel as a result, a Newspoll opinion survey published in the Australian newspaper shows. Eighty-four percent of 1,202 people polled at the weekend said Australia should introduce a system to reduce carbon, 58 percent said they would pay higher energy prices and 59 percent said it would help slow global warming, the poll said. It came after government climate adviser Ross ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Climate change policies must be linked to human rights - report
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2008/0909/1220629652765.html
Irish Times: RICH COUNTRIES must start basing their climate change policies on human rights principles and stop using economic excuses to "wriggle out of their responsibilities", says international aid agency Oxfam in a new report published today, writes Frank McDonald , Environment Editor. Oxfam is submitting the report, Climate Wrongs and Human Rights, to the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, South African lawyer Navi Pillay, whose office is reviewing the relationship between human ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
United States: Duke Energy expands renewable energy unit
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/42c222734d6715ca2f3c8fbd35643581.htm
Associated Press: Duke Energy detailed a strategy Tuesday to expand its renewable energy unit by selling 99 megawatts of electricity from a Wyoming wind farm and purchasing wind turbines to produce 150 megawatts of electricity at future projects. The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said it has signed a 20-year agreement to sell all electricity generated at a new wind farm near Casper, Wyo., to PacifiCorp to serve customers in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and California. Duke Energy ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Found after 300m years: rainforest fossils show how climate change could look
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4710608.ece
Times (UK): A series of fossilised forests the size of small cities have provided prehistoric evidence of how tropical rainforests are destroyed by global warming. The fossil remains represent the first rainforests grown on the planet and their demise more than 300million years ago 'points to the future' of the modern-day Amazon. Six petrified forests, dating from 303.9 million to 309 million years ago, have been discovered in coalmines in the United States. Because they straddle a period ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Google Wants US to Use 100 Percent Alternative Energy by 2030
http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Wants+US+to+Use+100+Percent+Alternative+Energy+by+2030/article12900.htm
Daily Tech: Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks to a who's who of the top executives in America at the Corporate EcoForum. He outlined a detailed plan to eliminate all utility fossil fuel dependence and 50 percent of automobile fossil fuel dependence by 2030. He says the plan will save consumers money and will protect the Earth -- all part of not being evil. (Source: Stefanie Olsen/CNET) Google says energy woes the result of "total failure of political leadership" and that alternative energy justification is ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Less meat, less emissions
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Editorial/Less_meat_less_emissions_/articleshow/3460222.cms
Times of India: Almost one fifth of all global greenhouse emissions are accounted for by meat production, according to estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Some are generated during the production of animal feeds. Cattle emit methane, a gas 23 times more potent as a global warming agent than even carbon dioxide. Seen in this light, a suggestion made by Rajendra K Pachauri that people should avoid eating meat at least once a week and scale down meat consumption makes ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Most back Rudd's emissions scheme
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24316293-2702,00.html
Australian: THE majority of Australians continue to endorse the Rudd Government's approach to a carbon emissions trading scheme - even if it means higher costs for them. Most people also endorse the plan to go ahead with an Australian trading scheme regardless of what other nations do, including the big greenhouse gas emitters India and China. But a majority of Coalition supporters believe there should not be any trading scheme, or at least that Australia should wait until other countries ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Most Finns anxious about climate change yet few act -Report
http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=19686&group=Politics
Newsroom Finland: Finns are increasingly better informed about the causes and effects of climate change and are worried about the impacts of the phenomenon but few are prepared to change their lifestyles to combat it, the Finnish government quoted a report as indicating on Tuesday. According to the study, carried out by Demos Helsinki, a thinktank, eight out of ten Finns regard climate change as a threat while two-thirds say they are prepared to act against it. But the government said in a ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
NOAA gets computer time for forecasting
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/09/09/NOAA_gets_computer_time_for_forecasting/UPI-61031220972070/
United Press International: The U.S. Department of Energy announced it will make available more than 10 million hours of computing time to study advanced climate change models. The department's Office of Science will allocate the computer time to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to explore advanced climate change models at three of the department's national laboratories. The project is part of a three-year agreement on collaborative climate research that was signed Monday by the two ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Second river water buyback set to begin
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/second-river-water-buyback-set-to-begin/1266817.aspx
AAP: The Federal Government says its second buyback of water to help revive the Murray-Darling Basin will begin next Monday. The tender for water entitlements in Queensland and northern NSW is the first step in a $400 million program to purchase water in the north of the basin. The Government spent $50million earlier this year buying rights to about 35 billion litres from the parched system. In all, the Government has committed $3.1 billion to buybacks. Climate Change ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
The U.N.'s meatless drive
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-meatless9-2008sep09,0,4449766.story
LA Times: So it turns out that meatless Fridays, which for generations inflicted fish sticks and tuna casseroles on millions of school-age children, Catholic and otherwise, were actually saving the planet. The United Nations is now urging wealthy nations to make a dramatic shift in eating habits, saying the best way to curb climate change is for people to go at least one day a week without meat. And Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- which ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Buyback program enters second phase
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200809/s2359314.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government has announced the next phase of its water buyback program, targeting water entitlements in the northern section of the Murray Darling Basin. But some Queensland irrigators are questioning whether the plan will work. The Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Penny Wong, announced the $400 million tender and has invited property owners in Queensland and northern New South Wales to respond. She says while there's no target for the buyback, ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Councils question Murray water buyback
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2359213.htm?site=southqld
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Councils in areas heavily reliant on irrigation say the Federal Government's proposed buyback of Queensland water will not help the lower reaches of the Murray-Darling Basin. The Federal Government will buy up to $400 million of water entitlements from Queensland and northern New South Wales irrigators. Balonne Mayor Donna Stewart says it will not help the system's lower lakes, and there is no water anyway. "They'll be buying a piece of paper and air space and not going ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Dems' offshore drilling plan comes with catch
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/09/MN1E12QE1Q.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Just three years ago Richard Pombo, the cowboy boot-wearing Tracy Republican lawmaker, faced an outcry from Democrats for pushing a bill to lift the 27-year-old ban on drilling off the East and West coasts and let states choose whether to allow oil rigs off their shores. In a sign of how much the energy debate has shifted in an era of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline, virtually the same proposal that Pombo floated will be introduced on the House floor this month - by Democratic House ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut 'misjudged' his role
http://www.skynews.com.au/business/article.aspx?id=265649
Sky News: Three of Australia's most respected environmental scientists have launched an attack against climate advisor, Ross Garnaut. Bill Hare, David Karoly and Amanda Lynch are urging the government to take a more aggressive approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The three authors, who also belong to a UN climate change committee, claim Professor Garnaut has 'misjudged' his role by advising the government to accept a deal. They say that the deal would guarantee ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut not strong enough on saving Reef
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24312553-27197,00.html
Courier Mail: AT least Ross Garnaut was honest about the cost to our greatest natural treasure in his recent report on greenhouse gases. Saying that Australia should initially aim for a global consensus to stabilise greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at 550 parts per million, he was brutally frank: "The 550 strategy would be expected to lead to the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and other coral reefs." The Australian and Queensland governments have always avoided this point when ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Garnaut report criticism just 'argy bargy': Rudd
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/garnaut-report-criticism-just-argy-bargy-rudd/1267367.aspx
AAP: Criticism by a group of leading climate scientists that the Garnaut report is weak and disappointing is just part of normal debate in the scientific community, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Three Australian authors with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Bill Hare, David Karoly and Amanda Lynch - say Professor Ross Garnaut's advice would all but guarantee environmental and social disaster, Fairfax reported today. Prof Garnaut's latest report released last ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut too soft on emissions target: expert
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2359058.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A leading Australian climate scientist says the greenhouse gas reduction targets proposed by the Government's climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut are too weak. David Karoly is a Professor of Meteorology at Melbourne University and was a lead author on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fourth report. He says Professor Garnaut's proposed emissions cuts of 10 per cent by 2020 is not enough to minimise the dangerous effects of climate change on ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Germany's Gabriel Seeks Carbon-Auction Rules to Spur Investment
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aKAH5lEJbkWg&refer=germany
Bloomberg: German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel is seeking to speed up a European Union ruling on auctioning carbon-emission permits to prevent regulatory uncertainty from halting investment. ``A unified system for CO2 certificates is badly needed,'' Gabriel said today at the Third German Energy Congress in Munich. ``We need the rules now and not later because otherwise an investment freeze will take place as people don't know whether they will be affected or not.'' EU energy ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Govt under pressure to buy Toorale Station
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2359100.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: All eyes will be on the Federal Government this week when a large irrigation station on the Darling River is auctioned. The Government is under pressure to buy Toorale Station and return the water stored there to the Murray-Darling Basin. Graziers downstream and conservationists say it could provide 90 gigalitres of water per year to the river system. Toorale Station goes under the hammer in Sydney on Thursday. But the owners, Clyde Agriculture, are concerned ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Germany: How carbon capture and storage (CCS) could make coal the fuel of the future
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4710941.ece
Times (UK): It has been condemned as one of the main causes of global warming but is coal about to enjoy an extraordinary rebirth as the fuel of the future? The first power plant in the world that will take the toxic emissions from coal and bury them deep in the ground opens today, carrying with it the hopes of scientists and environmentalists around the world. If the power station in Spremberg, eastern Germany, is able to produce affordable electricity without polluting the atmosphere, it ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Majority support carbon trading: poll
http://news.smh.com.au/national/majority-support-carbon-trading-poll-20080909-4cdc.html
AAP: A clear majority of Australians want carbon trading to be introduced, the latest Newspoll data shows, and they're also prepared to pay more for their energy to tackle climate change. The poll conducted last weekend shows 88 per cent of Australians want the Rudd government to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), while 58 per cent said they were prepared for higher energy bills. On the question of whether Australia should act irrespective of the actions of other ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
More brickbats than bouquets for Pachauri after meat eating remark
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/more-brickbats-than-bouquets-for-pachauri-after-meat-eating-remark_10093837.html
Indo-Asian News Service: The observation by Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that people should have one meat-free day a week to cut greenhouse gas emissions has elicited more criticism than support in Britain.Pachauri`s remarks were rejected by health minister Ben Bradshaw, who said in a TV interview: 'I suspect meat consumption is not the biggest contributor to climate change. There are very sensible reasons to have a healthy balanced diet, and I think ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Party politics could stall Alaska oil drilling talks
http://newsminer.com/news/2008/sep/09/party-politics-could-stall-alaska-oil-drilling-tal/
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week with a full plate of issues and little time to digest them. Lawmakers began trickling back to Washington on Monday prepared to take up the energy fight once again. They have roughly three weeks left in a pre-election session to hash out the expiring ban on offshore drilling, spending bills and, possibly, a second stimulus package. The partisan atmosphere in the run-up to the November election threatens to turn the final days of the ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Canada: Political campaigns could leave big carbon trail
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080909/carbon_trail_080909/20080909?hub=CanadaAM
CTV: As the federal election gets underway, one group expects the carbon trail left behind could speak volumes to environmentally-aware Canadians. The David Suzuki Foundation, in partnership with CTV's Canada AM will be tracking the emissions generated as the Conservative, Liberal and NDP leaders travel by plane, bus and train across the country. Dale Marshall, a climate change policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, told CTV's Canada AM it's relatively easy to do the ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Rudd unconcerned by Garnaut report criticism
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/09/2360071.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he is not surprised by criticism of Ross Garnaut's proposed emissions reduction targets. Two Australian scientists who sit on the UN's climate change panel have attacked Professor Garnaut's view that Australia should cut emissions by 10 per cent by 2020. They argue that target is weak and will not minimise dangerous climate change. Mr Rudd says there is always going to be "argy bargy" in the political debate. "It's going to be tough, ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
West Africa Floods Spread Destruction and Misery
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50145/story.htm
Reuters: Floods in West Africa are wrecking infrastructure, homes and crops and spreading disease, adding to the misery of tens of thousands already struggling to cope with high food and fuel prices, the United Nations said on Monday. UN humanitarian agency OCHA called on West African governments to meet to coordinate humanitarian efforts and draw up longer-term solutions to the seasonal flooding threat which strikes huge swathes of the world's poorest continent each year. Heavy rains ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
'Dead Zones' Expand in Coastal Waters Around the World
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2008-09-08-voa3.cfm
Voice of America: VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we will tell about two studies. Both involve the world's oceans. One study examined the health of coastal waters for fish and other sea life. The other study examined the quality of air in coastal cities. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: A device is used to measure the amount of oxygen in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Oregon in a 2006 ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Canada: Arctic Oil and Gas Rush Alarms Scientists
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43826
Inter Press Service: As greenhouse gas pollution destroys Arctic ecosystems, countries like Canada are spending millions not to halt the destruction but to exploit it. Late last August, Canada announced a 93.7-million-dollar prospecting programme to map the energy and mineral resources of the region. There are "countless other precious resources buried under the sea ice and tundra," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during the announcement. The government's mapping effort is expected to trigger 469 ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Biden: Palin will have to defend climate views
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j2bCzwtzLucVsHcjndcBHSbzf2GQD932O66O0
Associated Press: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will eventually have to defend "some fairly extreme views" on climate change when she starts granting interviews as Republican presidential hopeful John McCain's running mate, her Democratic rival Joe Biden said Monday. "Her views on everything from global warming to a host of other things, if they are as presented, they are pretty far out there," said Biden, Democrat Barack Obama's running mate, during a town hall-style meeting. "She's going to have to defend ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
China government adviser urges greenhouse gas cuts
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSPEK19898020080908
Reuters: China should bind itself to international goals to slash greenhouse gas pollution, one of the nation's most prominent policy advisers said, in a striking break with Beijing's official stance. Hu Angang, a public policy professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, warned failure to act could doom global climate change talks. In submissions to leaders and a recent essay, Hu has argued China could emerge an economic and diplomatic winner if it vows to cut gases from industry, ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Congress warms to new oil drilling
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5imPz0z6szykAL-CAKZDEZOAiDREgD932RF400
Associated Press: Senate Democrats promised a series of votes next week on offshore oil drilling as Republicans agreed Monday to let the Senate proceed on a defense bill that had been bottled up because of partisan disputes over the country's energy priorities. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said he is ready to take up two proposals that would allow limited oil and gas drilling 50 miles off Florida's Gulf coast and in the Atlantic off four southeastern states as well as a broader Republican ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Guyana: Global forests
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7603695.stm
BBC: In 2006, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo outlined an offer to place almost the entirety of Guyana's rainforest under international supervision as part of the world's battle against climate change. In the Green Room this week, President Jagdeo sets out his views on how to reduce the 18% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by tropical deforestation. Currently, rainforests are worth more dead than alive Imagine a business which invested 80% of its profits in products with the ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Govt extends Gunns' submission on mill
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=512999
West Australian: The federal government has been accused of granting favours and kowtowing to Gunns Ltd over its controversial Tasmanian pulp mill project. Environment Minister Peter Garrett has granted Gunns a three-month extension on submitting the environmental impact management plan for the approval of its proposed Tamar Valley mill. Gunns had asked for the extension last month after satisfying only four of the 16 environmental modules required by the original October 4 deadline. Mr ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
How Palin Oversaw the New Alaskan Oil Rush
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1547411/how_palin_oversaw_the_new_alaskan_oil_rush/
Independent: Seen from the air, Sarah Palin's state is an environmental wonderland. From Anchorage to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, there is a vast landscape of snow-capped peaks, fjords, crystal glaciers, coastal lagoons, wide river deltas and tundra. The guardian of this wilderness - and Governor of Alaska - has, this week, become one of the most recognisable faces in the world. But behind her beaming smile and wholesome family values is a woman aligned with the big oil and coal firms ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Australia: Mass mailout to calls for forest action
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=513241
AAP: More than 10,000 people have joined a mass letter campaign, calling on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to save native forests. The Wilderness Society has submitted the letters, which included giant signed tree banners, to the GPO in Brisbane's CBD. Wilderness Society spokesperson Vica Bayley said the government needed to act on climate change by protecting native forests. "Any credible policy to deal with climate change must have forest protection as its top priority," Mr ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Permafrost Contains Vast Store of Carbon
http://www.popsci.com/laurie-j-schmidt/article/2008-09/permafrost-contains-vast-store-carbon
Popular Science: With so much focus on sea ice and ice shelves, the role of permafrost in the global climate cycle is often not on the public's radar screen. But according to a new study published last week in the journal Bioscience, permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere contains more than two times the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and rapid thawing could make it a significant contributor to global climate change. Permafrost is defined as permanently frozen ground that remains at or below zero ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Scientists Point to Forests for Carbon Storage Solutions
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/544127/?sc=rssn
Newswise: Scientists who have determined how much carbon is stored annually in upper Midwest forests hope their findings will be used to accelerate global discussion about the strategy of managing forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Newswise -- Scientists who have determined how much carbon is stored annually in upper Midwest forests hope their findings will be used to accelerate global discussion about the strategy of managing forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions. In an ...

Thu, 11 Sep 08
Spain's environmentalists sound alarm
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-boom8-2008sep08,0,2972331.story?track=rss
LA Times: A frayed copy of "Don Quixote" was tucked under the front seat of Roberto Oliveros' battered white truck as he sallied forth through the fast-changing plains of central Spain. Where the addled Cervantes hero tilted at windmills, Oliveros and his environmentalist friends see another towering enemy dotting this La Mancha landscape: construction cranes. An unbridled building boom, which first turned much of Spain's once captivating coastline into a mile-wide belt of shopping ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
UN Plan to Protect Forests Flawed - UK Adviser
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50127/story.htm
Reuters: Plans to pay tropical countries to protect forests under a UN pact to fight climate change are flawed and risk alienating voters in rich nations, Britain's top adviser on forests told Reuters. Clearance of forests to create farmland in developing nations emits about a fifth of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Trees store heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow and release it when they rot or are burnt. "I believe there are real flaws in the whole model of ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Warning over growing fuel poverty
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hXjMYmy53ZTQq_EhcQLOUUKw2SyQ
Press Association: Almost a quarter of the population will be in fuel poverty by next year and those on low incomes will be especially badly hit, new figures have showed. A report published by the National Housing Federation shows that by the end of 2009 5.7 million UK households will be spending at least 10% of their annual income on energy bills - an increase of 100% since 2005. The research, entitled Energy Prices and Debt, written by IPA Energy and Water Economics, says around 5.7 million ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
'India's coal reserves may exhaust by 2040'
http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=333749
Press Trust of India: Stressing the need to employ new mining technologies, a top PSU official said India is likely to run out of its 60-70 billion tonnes of coal reserves by 2040-41 if the demand continues to grow at the present pace. Also Read News Now Paper Specials - Week Ahead: Large gains seem unlikely - DoT starts 3G auction process; pre-bid conference on Monday - 100 million mobile subscribers added in 1 year - DoT may allow spectrum sharing; Scindia convenes meeting - Obama for streamlining H2B ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Britain Meets Biofuels Target But Imports Dominate
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50126/story.htm
Reuters: Britain is meeting its 2.5 percent target for biofuels use in motor fuel but is relying heavily on imports, government data issued on Friday showed. A Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) came into force on April 15. It requires suppliers of motor fuels to ensure a proportion, initially 2.5 percent, comes from renewable souces. A report issued by the Renewable Fuels Agency put biofuels use in the first two months of the programme at 2.53 percent. Britain produced ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Australia: Firms hint at accepting 10pc Garnaut emission reductions
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24309794-11949,00.html
Australian: GREENHOUSE-exposed businesses have suggested they would accept the 10 per cent cuts in emissions urged by Ross Garnaut depending on the final shape of an emissions trading scheme. The hint comes as debate within the cabinet over the final shape of the federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme intensifies, with the suggestion some ministers want business to take a tougher line. Professor Garnaut said on Friday that Australia should aim to cut greenhouse gas ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Germany Engulfed in Row Over Nuclear Waste Sites
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50124/story.htm
Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday called for a decision on where to store radioactive nuclear material after a scandal over leaks at a depot this week sparked a row about what to do with atomic waste. Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said last week his ministry would assume responsibility for the Asse facility in the state of Lower Saxony after he attacked the operators for presiding over years of leaks of radioactive waste. A report showed barrels of waste were ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Honda Banks on Hybrids, Russia for Big Europe Push
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50131/story.htm
Reuters: Honda Motor Co is counting on hybrid cars and the soaring Russian market to enter its next phase of expansion in Europe, where an economic slowdown in Western Europe is hurting sales more than expected, an executive said. Japan's No.2 carmaker sold a record 376,477 cars in Europe last year -- a rise of 22 percent -- with growth in all major markets except Germany as consumers flocked to its diesel cars. But sales growth has slowed this year due to weaker overall demand, and ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Australia: Native plants under threat
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/08/2357914.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens says climate change is starting to take its toll on the state's native flora. It is established a seed bank which now has 12 million seeds covering 600 plant species struggling to survive. The project co-ordinator, James Wood, says Tasmania is rapidly drying out, meaning more plants will end up on the threatened species register. "Things are changing very quickly in this state particularly wet habitats are declining very quickly many ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Warming oceans cause strongest storms stronger: study
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\09\08\story_8-9-2008_pg6_13
Daily Times: As the world's oceans get warmer, the strongest tropical storms get stronger, climate scientists reported on Wednesday as the remnants of Hurricane Gustav spun out over the central United States. "If the seas continue to warm, we can expect to see stronger storms in the future," James Elsner of Florida State University said. "As far as this year goes, as a season, we did see the oceans warm and I think there's some reason to believe that that's the reason we're seeing the amount of ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
World Water Congress to discuss climate, city, sanitation issues
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/08/content_9844424.htm
Xinhua: Climate change, future city development and sanitation services would be the three main topics of the 6th World Water Congress, which opened here on Sunday evening. The traditional mode of water resource management must be changed, and most importantly, water recycling must be realized, stressed Glen Daigger, a delegate representative of the organizer International Water Association (IWA) on a press conference held before the opening ceremony. He pointed out that the ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
GM Aims to Recycle Waste From Most of its Factories
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50121/story.htm
Reuters: General Motors Corp said on Friday it aims to convert all waste from more than half of its manufacturing plants around the world by 2010. The struggling No.1 US automaker, which has posted total losses of US$51 billion in the past three calendar years, currently makes about US$1 billion in global revenue by recycling steel scraps. In North America, GM said, it generated US$16 million from sales of recycled cardboard, wood, oil, plastic and other materials. Currently, the ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Greenhouse Gas Curbs, From Australia to India
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50128/story.htm
Reuters: The following factbox compares national goals for fighting climate change, from the United States to India, after Australia's top climate adviser proposed 2020 greenhouse gas emissions targets on Friday. The data compares the widely varying plans with a 1990 base year in the UN's Climate Convention and its Kyoto Protocol for curbing emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels. The 37 nations bound by Kyoto have agreed to consider cuts of between 25 and 40 percent below 1990 ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Reading climate signatures in the Southern Ocean
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20080809-17920.html
ScienceAlert: When the icebreaker Aurora Australis left Hobart in March this year, the voyage heralded a step-change in science's ability to explore the Southern Ocean -- a vast area of the roughest and wildest waters on the planet. The sailing was part of the Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean project (CASO), the lead in an international cluster of similar projects in the Antarctic Ocean Circulation program of the International Polar Year (IPY). The science of IPY has been driven ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Ross Garnaut recommends focus on greenhouse emissions
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24308684-7583,00.html
Australian: ON Friday, Ross Garnaut recommended a starting price of $20 a tonne on greenhouse emissions, at least until a global deal could be brokered. Three days earlier he recommended that Australians focus more on capturing greenhouse emissions in trees, grassland and soils. Neither idea is new, but they are closely related. Kevin Rudd wants to deliver a swift and decisive policy response to address climate change. But the rumblings from emissions-intensive industries and now Treasury ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
UK gives £50m to Bangladesh climate change fund
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/08/bangladesh.climatechange
Guardian: Britain will give Bangladesh at least £50m to adapt to climate change in the first big attempt by a rich nation to stave off environmental catastrophe in one of the world's poorest countries Other European countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as the World Bank, are expected to contribute to the new Bangladesh fund, which will be launched this week in London at a conference of the Bangladesh government and donor countries. Low-lying Bangladesh suffers from many ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Bangladesh climate victims search for new land
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpAUmV47yVNmBrTbiWXcaPYr-fiQ
Agence France-Presse: Jafar Alam hammers a nail into a rickety wooden boat, repairing the vessel that will help his family earn a living. Although the fisherman depends on the ocean for his livelihood, he has mixed feelings about the water after rising sea levels drowned his plot of land on Kutubdia Island on Bangladesh's southern coast 22 years ago. "Back then this area was barren and we were among the first to find this land," says 50-year-old Alam, one of around 150 people who left the island in ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Canada: Greenpeace and AbitibiBowater battle over Boreal forest
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=34fb62a0-0e39-491c-8649-b9c86e155cb1
Canwest News Service: Ten months of intense negotiations between Greenpeace Canada and logging giant AbitibiBowater broke down last week, and the two sides quickly resumed their very public war over the logging giant's impact on the boreal forest in Quebec and Ontario. Greenpeace says the company's irresponsible logging operations are destroying the last intact boreal forests in Quebec and Ontario, and along with them the habitat of such threatened species as the woodland caribou. But ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Study finds California can cut farm water use
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/07/BA7H12PDTU.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: By growing less thirsty crops and investing in more efficient irrigation technology, California farmers could save billions of gallons of water each year - the equivalent of 3 dams to 20 dams, according to a controversial new report by an influential water policy think tank. In a study to be released Monday, researchers at Oakland's Pacific Institute say that before Californians take on costly new dam and reservoir projects, state and federal policymakers need to build on existing ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Study: California farmers can profit by saving water
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/09/07/news/state/zb54df31ea9bda62d882574bd0077c2eb.txt
Associated Press: California farmers can grow more food more profitably if they switch to water-saving crops and change their irrigation practices in response to the state's ongoing drought, according to a study released Monday. A report issued by the Oakland-based Pacific Institute says farmers in the Central Valley could save enough water to fill up to 20 new reservoirs by making several changes to curb wasted water. About a quarter of the state's water-intensive crops like rice, cotton, corn, ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Thaw of polar regions may need new U.N. laws
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL747871420080907
Reuters: A new set of United Nations laws may be needed to regulate new Arctic industries such as shipping and oil exploration as climate change melts the ice around the North Pole, legal experts said on Sunday. They said existing laws governing everything from fish stocks to bio-prospecting by pharmaceutical companies were inadequate for the polar regions, especially the Arctic, where the area of summer sea ice is now close to a 2007 record low. "Many experts believe this new rush to ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
'Climate crisis' needs brain gain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7603257.stm
BBC: The most brilliant minds should be directed to solving Earth's greatest challenges, such as climate change, says Sir David King. The former UK chief scientist will use his presidential address at the BA Science Festival to call for a gear-change among innovative thinkers. He will suggest that less time and money is spent on endeavours such as space exploration and particle physics. He says population growth and poverty in Africa also demand attention. "The ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Bangladesh seeks billions to fight climate change
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=&id=b70cbb7e-abee-4366-81d3-5e478df4f5f0&&Headline=B%27ladesh+seeks+bn+to+fight+climate+change&strParent=strParentID
Agence France-Presse: Bangladesh wants rich nations to pay the billions of dollars it says it needs to help fight the effects of climate change because they are the biggest environmental culprits. The impoverished South Asian nation, one of the world's lowest emitters of greenhouse gases, will highlight its plight to the British government and other international donors in London on September 10. Bangladesh environment secretary AHM Rezaul Kabir told AFP that a study by the World Bank, leading ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Can capitalism save the Amazon?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7601344.stm
BBC: After years of declining activity, deforestation has been rising It would be easy to think that the rainforest was saved, or at least, that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest is no longer one of the great crises facing a planet finally reaching consensus on the issue of global warming. Sting still does annual concerts, but by and large as a cause - one of the first I ever noticed as a child growing up in the 1980s - has largely disappeared from the public sphere. After ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Click Here to Plant a Tree
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43817
Inter Press Service: It has become fashionable in Latin America to pursue initiatives towards "zero carbon", neutralising the climate-changing greenhouse gases produced by industry, commercial aviation and even the football World Cup -- and along with it, atoning for the environmental sins of polluters. Zero carbon to fight climate change is the slogan in most such marketing campaigns, intended to attract consumers, users, spectators or tourists. In exchange is a pledge to plant trees that would capture ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Experts meet on need for new rules to govern world's fragile polar regions
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/unu-emo090108.php
EurekAlert: A new co-ordinated international set of rules to govern commercial and research activities in both of Earth's polar regions is urgently needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper pressure building on these highly fragile ecosystems, according to several of the experts convening in Iceland for a UN-affiliated conference marking the International Polar Year. Due to climate change, the ancient ice lid on the Arctic Ocean is fast disappearing, creating new opportunities ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Australia: Forests break green ground by selling offsets
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/06/MNQN11LLL6.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: The bigger the fir, the more it would be worth to Smith. But not as lumber - as carbon. Tree 10525 is part of the Garcia River forest in Mendocino County, one of two privately owned California forests that have been recruited into the war against climate change as certified sources of carbon offsets. Carbon offsets - which have become popular among environmentalists over the past several years - are voluntary payments made to initiatives that reduce the level of carbon ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Global Warming Kills Wyoming Forests
http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/27977304.html
KULR: Millions of trees are dying in the forests surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. An epidemic of pine, spruce, and Douglas Fir beetles are killing the trees. They're also threatening a system that supports grizzly bears and other wildlife. Pine Beetles are attacking here in the Union Pass area of the Wind River mountains. Where a lush green forest once stood, an aerial view shows huge patches of red mark dying pines. Most are lodge pole pines. But, the high mountain ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Scientists: Gustav did damage to wetlands
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/27959449.html
Advocate: It's too early to tell exactly how much damage Hurricane Gustav might have done to wetlands in Louisiana, but there was some damage, wetland scientists said. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette flew portions of the Gulf Coast on Thursday and Friday taking photos and video of wetland areas. Finalizing the analyses of these images to quantify the damage will take some time as scientists compare the 'after' Gustav photos to ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Tidal power projects move forward in eastern Maine and around the world
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4_97bK4_urR9AP6zdke1NHyfU4g
Canadian Press: Workers spent the past winter tinkering with high-tech turbines slung beneath a barge in the cold waters off the Maine coast before getting them to produce a modest 20 kilowatts, enough electricity to power a half-dozen homes. Far from discouraged, Ocean Renewable Power Co. is spending the summer preparing to deploy larger turbines capable of producing up to five megawatts, enough electricity to power 5,000 houses. Eventually, the company envisions producing enough electricity ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
UN ties red meat to global warming
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/09/07/UN_ties_red_meat_to_global_warming/UPI-22641220806696/
United Press International: Cutting back on red meat will curb global warming, a Nobel Prize-winning United Nations climate expert says. Even having one meat-free day a week will help cut greenhouse-gas emissions and other environmental problems -- including habitat destruction -- associated with rearing cattle and other livestock, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told The Observer of London. "In terms of immediacy of action and the feasibility of bringing ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Arctic countries shouldn't have sole control over North, conference to hear
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iaimsswoQZey99JD4wMdgtdXIINQ
Canadian Press: Arctic countries such as Canada shouldn't have sole jurisdiction over the protection of northern waters, a United Nations-sponsored conference will hear this week. The circumpolar world needs a global treaty to ensure high standards of environmental protection, shipping safety and resource development, says a report by the World Wildlife Fund's international office. "We need a holistic approach," said Tatiana Saksina, Arctic governance officer for the fund. "We need some basic ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
Eat less red meat to help the environment, UN climate expert says
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2699173/Eat-less-red-meat-to-help-the-environment-UN-climate-expert-says.html
Telegraph (UK): Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said people should have one meat-free day to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The economist, who is vegetarian, said diet change was important in reducing environmental problems associated with rearing cattle and other animals. Dr Pachauri is due to give a speech in London on Monday under the title: "Global Warning: the impact of meat production and consumption on climate change". The ...

Mon, 8 Sep 08
New laws needed in changing polar regions: experts
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnTq2a4zaRtQl2hW-lMEc8nCtiig
Agence France-Presse: Some 40 legal experts from around the world gathered in Iceland on Sunday for a three-day conference aimed at staking out a new legal framework for the fragile and changing polar regions. "A new coordinated international set of rules to govern commercial and research activities in both of the Earth's polar regions is urgently needed to reflect new environmental realities and to temper pressure building in these highly fragile ecosystems," organisers said in a statement. The ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Arctic Ice Hints at Warming, Specialists Say
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106059
New York Times: Leading ice specialists in Europe and the United States for the first time have agreed that a ring of navigable waters has opened all around the fringes of the cap of sea ice drifting on the warming Arctic Ocean. By many expert accounts, this is the first time the Northwest Passage over North America and the Northern Sea Route over Europe and Asia have been open simultaneously in at least half a century, if not longer. While currents and winds play a role, experts say, the ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Calif. Aims to Concentrate Growth to Cut Use of Cars
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/06/AR2008090602744.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: California is poised to pass the first law in the nation linking greenhouse gas emissions to urban planning, a departure from the growth approach that spawned the state's car culture and urban sprawl. The measure, known as SB375, aims to give existing and new high-density centers where people live, work and shop top priority in receiving local, state and federal transportation funds. The idea is that such developments check sprawl and ease commutes, in turn cutting the car pollution ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Is our taste for Sunday roast killing the planet?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.meat
Guardian: Your Sunday roast stands accused. According to the United Nation's chief climate expert, Rajendra Pachauri, that tasty piece of top rump resting on your dining table is the source of many of the world's environmental woes, in particular those involved in the dangerous warming of the planet's climate. Our appetite for animal flesh is boosting fertiliser production, pollution and emission of greenhouse gases to dangerous levels, Pachauri has told The Observer. Give up meat - at least ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Mt Kenya rivers disappear
http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143994340&cid=4
East Standard: Ever since she settled in Mutiriri village in Laikipia East in 1984, Esther Njeri, 49, has depended on Ontulili River. However, around 1992, the river that flows from Mt Kenya became unpredictable. Water levels would go down drastically, sometimes slowing down to a trickle. Other times, it would flow downstream with gusto as if with a newfound will to keep going. "At the time I was clearing bushes to build a house, it had enough water for everyone," Njeri said ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Shun meat, says UN climate chief
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7600005.stm
BBC: People should consider eating less meat as a way of combating global warming, says the UN's top climate scientist. Rajendra Pachauri, who chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will make the call at a speech in London on Monday evening. UN figures suggest that meat production puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than transport. But a spokeswoman for the UK's National Farmers' Union (NFU) said methane emissions from farms were ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
UN says eat less meat to curb global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink
Guardian: People should have one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, the world's leading authority on global warming has told The Observer Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that people should then go on to reduce their meat consumption even further. His comments are the most ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Papua New Guinea: Armed Police End Peaceful Greenpeace Protest
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0809/S00098.htm
Greenpeace: Greenpeace's successful crane-top protest on the logging ship Harbour Gemini ended peacefully when six police armed with M16 rifles removed the activists. Other Greenpeace activists were painting "Moratorium Now" and "Stop Illegal Logging" on log transfer barges beside the Harbour Gemini when the armed police arrived. Pressure had been mounting on Turama Forest Industries (TFI), a group company of Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau, after hundreds of indigenous resource owners ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Dynasties back green giant
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/investment/article4692623.ece
Times (UK): SOME of Britain's most prominent business families have led a £57m fundraising to set up Europe's largest venture-capital fund dedicated to clean technology and renewable energy. Lord (Jacob) Rothschild of the banking dynasty, Sir Anthony Bamford and family, of the JCB empire, the Goldsmiths, and Simon Robertson, Rolls-Royce chairman and former head of Goldman Sachs Europe, have all ploughed money into the new fund from WHEB Ventures. The firm, set up in 2002 by Ben Goldsmith, ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Is Global Warming Worsening Hurricanes?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839281,00.html
Time Magazine: It could be a sign of just how traumatic 2005's Hurricane Katrina was that when Hurricane Gustav failed last week to fully pulverize New Orleans, it was news. The fallout from Gustav was relatively limited, but it was still a major storm, with maximum sustained winds of 110 m.p.h. when it made landfall in Louisiana -- strong enough to cause an estimated $20 billion in damages. And Gustav won't be the last this season. Hurricane Hanna gathered strength in the Atlantic last week, and Ike is ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
John McCain's Energy Follies
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106058
New York Times: The industries that create energy – coal, wind, nuclear, ethanol, and, of course, oil and gas – all clamored to be heard at the Republican convention. At cocktail receptions and in hundreds of ads, each claimed to welcome the challenge of creating a cleaner, greener energy future. A lot of that was corporate boilerplate. But one advertisement, from Chevron, seemed strikingly on point. "It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil," it said. "We'll use the next ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Australia: Qld tree-clearing causing animals' death
http://news.smh.com.au/national/qld-treeclearing-causing-animals-death-20080907-4b8l.html
AAP: The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says forest clearing in Queensland is wiping out tens of millions of animals and driving threatened wildlife to the brink of extinction. In a statement on National Threatened Species Day on Sunday, WWF said the annual Statewide Landcover and Trees Study (SLATS) reveals 375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06, killing two million mammals, about 9,000 koalas and millions of birds and reptiles. The group is calling for a clearing moratorium ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Science: Glaciers facing massive meltdown, says UN report
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Focus/20080907090130/Article/index_html
Agence France-Presse: THE United Nations says swathes of mountain ranges worldwide risk losing their glaciers by the end of the century if global warming continues at its projected rate. The UN Environment Programme said in a report that while nature has always observed a certain periodic rate of deglaciation, the current trends observed from the Arctic to Central Europe and South America are of a different order. "The ongoing trend of worldwide and rapid, if not accelerating, glacier shrinkage on ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
A Call to Action, for Earth and Profit
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=106048
New York Times: IN his role as a cheerleader for globalization, Thomas L. Friedman has always been aware that there are environmental consequences. But now, with "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.95), he embraces going green not just as a national security imperative but also as an economic El Dorado. Lacerating the ubiquitous, feel-good, magaziney "205 easy ways to save the earth," Mr. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, exhorts sacrifice to stem rapidly ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Butterflies fight losing battle with climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/06/eabutterflies106.xml
Telegraph (UK): Butterflies are declining because they have become trapped in small pockets of countryside, unable to escape the effects of climate change, writes Richard Gray. Dr Rob Wilson, an ecologist at Exeter University, will tell a conference on climate change there this month that the break-up of suitable butterfly habitats by urban spread and agriculture is driving the "staggering" declines. He will say that while rising temperatures should in theory benefit butterflies by allowing species ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
45-nation group OKs landmark US-India nuke deal
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jfsmyTI61jxHn8eL4VMUO9w_mu_wD93176080
Associated Press: Nations that supply nuclear material and technology overcame fierce obstacles Saturday and approved a landmark U.S. plan to engage in atomic trade with India -- a deal that reverses more than three decades of American policy. The Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs the legal world trade in nuclear components and know-how, signed off on the deal after three days of contentious talks and some concessions to countries fearful it could set a dangerous precedent. "Today we have ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Britain hails landmark US-India nuclear deal
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_W2NyrBzDRaCnMi5-HFUuzjLG0g
Agence France-Presse: Britain welcomed Saturday a deal to lift a 34-year-old embargo on nuclear trade with India, saying it will make a "significant contribution" to global energy and climate security. The comment came after the United States finally secured approval in Vienna for a one-off waiver for India by the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology. "It is very welcome that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) has reached agreement on civil nuclear ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Bush: Congress should allow more offshore drilling
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j057jBReERcsF-FcZRSWe0h1gaXQD931AMCG0
Associated Press: President Bush says if Congress doesn't permit offshore drilling to increase U.S. oil supplies and possibly ease gasoline prices, lawmakers should not expect voters to support them in November. In his Saturday radio address, Bush said experts claim the Outer Continental Shelf could eventually produce nearly 10 years' worth of U.S. oil production. Yet while record fuel prices have focused more attention on increasing domestic energy production, experts also note that lifting the ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Climate-change measure warms outlook for cities
http://www.redding.com/news/2008/sep/06/climate-change-measure-warms-outlook-cities/
Redding Record: Senate Bill 375, which the Legislature has passed and the governor is expected to sign, is a repackaging of familiar "smart growth" ideas: denser cities, with more ways of getting around than the automobile. The difference is the legal urgency. The state has committed itself to cutting its greenhouse gases, and one-third of those emissions come from our tailpipes. That means cities where residents don't need a car for every single errand and outing -- or where their trips can be ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Dry cleaning is getting greener, but some efforts are spotty
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2008160889_ecoconsumer06.html
Seattle Times: Though still largely dependent on a hazardous chemical, the dry-cleaning industry has worked hard to clean up its act. Of the more than 300 dry cleaners in King County, at least a third promote themselves as green in some way. But just as dry cleaning isn't totally dry (it uses liquid solvents), "eco-friendly dry cleaning" is not always what it seems. Perchloroethylene, or perc, has been the solvent of choice for dry cleaners since the 1940s. It cleans clothes effectively and ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
United States: Formerly revered trees get bad rap after wildfires
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080906-9999-1n6trees.html
San Diego Union-Tribune: Eucalyptuses are nothing more than multistory matchsticks ready to burst into flames when Santa Ana winds strike. The neighbor's pine? Pretty. Pretty dangerous, that is. And that sycamore sucks up a zillion gallons of costly water. In fire-and drought-ravaged San Diego County, such half-truths and myths have put formerly revered trees in a new light. Yanking out any healthy tree, once seen as almost sinful, now is being viewed by some as prudent. Chuck Eckels cut ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Freak hailstorm in tropical Kenya 'a foretaste' of climate change, says ecologist and theologian
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/freak-hailstorm-in-tropical-kenya-a-foretaste-of-climate-change-says-ecologist-and-theologian/4243.htm
Ecumenical News International: Unusual weather conditions that led to a blanket of hail resembling snow falling on the Nyahururu area in central Kenya are the result of the plunder and pollution of the planet, says a Kenyan theologian and ecologist. "As a consequence of human-induced rapid climate change there will be extreme weather and ecological conditions," Professor Jesse Mugambi told Ecumenical News International on Sept.4. "This happened in Nyahururu, and it has also happened elsewhere, in southern Africa, ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Hansen: Coal plant vandals actions 'justified' because of 'emergency situation'
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/4864
Canada Free Press: Excerpt: Q So do you think that these activists were justified in doing what they did? Hansen: The activists drawing attention to the issue seems to me as justified. You should try to do things through the democratic process, but we really are getting to an emergency situation. We can`t continue to build more coal-fired power plants that do not capture CO2 if we hope to solve the problem. James Hansen, the director of NASA`s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
United States: Never too late for water plan in Northwest
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=75&SubSectionID=767&ArticleID=44295&TM=29579.66
Capital Press: Back in that big drought of the 1990s, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave away windshield shades that said, "Don't let the next drought get you, plan ahead." When your livelihood depends on water, that's good advice. Farmers, cities, industrial water users and a host of fish and waterfowl have common interest in dependable and clean water supplies. That interest exists in times of plenty and in times of drought. Planning makes it easier to manage when the water becomes ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Oldest sheep make larger contributions to population growth when conditions are harsh
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/oldest-sheep-make-larger-contributions-to-population-growth-when-conditions-are-harsh_10092938.html
Asian News International: A new research has shown that the oldest individuals in a group of sheep contribute most to population growth when climate changes makes conditions harsh. Carried out by researchers at Imperial College London and Universite Claude Bernard Lyon, the research has shown how a sheep population on a remote island off the west coast of Scotland responds to two consequences of climate change: altered food availability and the unpredictability of winter storms. According to Dr. Thomas ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Orangutans under threat of extinction in Indonesia
http://www.newkerala.com/fs/b/ai-1645.htm
Asian News International: A news report by Jakarta Post has suggested that the population of Orangutans in Kalimantan or Borneo Island of Indonesia remained under threat of extinction, despite claims by palm oil firms of applying eco-friendly work practices. Deforestation for palm oil plantation was blamed for the killing the protected apes, particularly those living outside conservation areas, according to Novi Hardianto, the habitat program manager of the Center for Orangutan Protection (COP). "The ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Preserving buildings is greener than building them
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/realestate/2008161432_teardowns07.html
Associated Press: Americans love tearing down buildings. We rip up our homes to the studs, scrape them down to their foundations and are riveted by the ultimate demolitions: imploding skyscrapers. It's all part of a cultural need to make way for the new and improved. But the construction and operation of buildings send up twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as the entire U.S. transportation sector, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. (Analysts with the federal Energy ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Revegetation project greens Sahara
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/06/2357361.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: While climate change scientists warn of the increased desert in Africa in the future, researchers working with communities near the Sahara have managed to turn parts of the massive desert green. Australians are part of the project which has seen hundreds of millions of new trees take root over the last couple of decades. Project managers say it is no surprise that the West African region is capable of being revegetated, but even they are surprised by the scale of their ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Role of aerosols in climate change under fresh scrutiny
http://www.sindhtoday.net/world/18415.htm
Indo-Asian News Service: Scientists have proposed a new framework to gauge the effect of aerosols more accurately on precipitation in climate models. Man-made aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the air - from such sources as transportation, industry, agriculture and urban land use - not only posing serious health problems, but also impacting climate. Recent studies suggest that increased aerosol loading may have changed the energy balance in the atmosphere and on the earth`s surface, altering the ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Sustainability is not a sprint but a marathon
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=73445§ion=Opinion
Duluth News Tribune: Everyone, it seems, is jumping on the sustainability bandwagon. Politicians are engaging in the debate about long-term energy acquisition and locally produced goods while cameras are snapping pictures of them standing in front of wind turbines. Groups promoting renewable energy and locally harvested foods are popping up all over. Businesses and residents are erecting wind turbines and solar power. And vegetables are replacing flowers in gardens. Achieving true sustainability will be a ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Climate change could stop corals fixing themselves
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/climate-change-could-stop-corals-fixing-themselves_10092866.html
Asian News International: A new research has indicated that climate change is depriving coral reefs across the globe of the building materials used to make their shells. The daily life of corals is a constant battle against erosion. The reef builders patch up holes in their shells, left by nibbling sea creatures, using a mineral called calcium carbonate. To keep up with repairs, corals in the wild usually require three times as much of the mineral as sheltered corals grown in laboratories. Before ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Ice shelf breaks away in Canadian Arctic
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-briefs6-2008sep06,0,7058537.story
LA Times: A massive 19-square-mile ice shelf in Canada's northern Arctic has broken away and is floating in the Arctic Ocean, the latest sign of rapid climate change in the remote region, a team of scientists said Tuesday. They said the Markham Ice Shelf -- one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Arctic -- split away from Ellesmere Island in early August. They also said two large chunks totaling 47 square miles had broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it in size by ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Mowing down high emissions
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_10393484?source=commented-opinion
Denver Post: Requiring cleaner-running lawn mowers -- as the federal government did this past week -- might seem to be a small step toward reducing air pollution. But it's one of the many kinds of changes -- both small and large -- that must be undertaken if this country is to make significant gains in the areas of ozone pollution, global warming and fossil-fuel dependency. The need for continued reductions in air pollution came into sharp focus here in recent days. While the Denver metro region ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Spanish wine makers fight climate change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7547610.stm
BBC: In Spain, the country with more land under vines than any other, it is harvest time for wine growers. Ten years ago, most wineries would start gathering in their grapes during September. However, climate change has caused the temperature to rise and now grape varieties are ripening up to a month earlier. Climate change is now a threat to the industry in Spain and a challenge for wine makers worldwide. "More merlot?" shouts a guide - almost an order rather than a question ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
United States: Ultimately, nature will be the winner of battle of the coastline
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/090608/nes_328646685.shtml
Florida Times-Union: The recent visit by Tropical Storm Fay reminds us that the First Coast is subject to change at any time. Nature doesn't care where we place property boundaries or homes and may change the landscape without notice. What we view as permanent is just one frame in the story of the coastal environment. Beaches erode and rebuild in predictable ways, never when or where we wish. In this era of global climate change and rising sea levels, we should expect that natural beaches will erode. We ...

Sun, 7 Sep 08
Arctic Meltdown Signals Long-Term Trend
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43803
Inter Press Service: Soaring temperatures have led to the collapse of several huge ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic over the past few weeks. One 50 sq km ice shelf on the northern coast of Canada's Ellesmere Island simply "vanished" over three days, exposing a coast that lay buried under ice for at least 4,000 years. At the same time, the Arctic's thick, year-round sea ice cover has declined to near the 2007 record of 2.6 million square kilometres less ice than the summer average minimum. This ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia: No time to lose on climate change
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/no-time-to-lose-on-climate-change-20080905-4ani.html
Age: THERE are moments in history when fateful choices are made. The decision on whether to take strong action to mitigate human-induced climate change is one such moment. Is it possible to secure effective international action to reduce the risks of dangerous climate change to acceptable levels? If so, what targets and trajectories for emissions reduction would produce the best possible outcome for Australia, and what would be an appropriate Australian contribution? What ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia urged to aim for 10% emissions cut
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a42f20d0-7b5e-11dd-b839-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: Australia should target a 10 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2020, the country's leading adviser on climate change said on Friday, calling the minimum 25 per cent level agreed at a global climate change conference last December in Bali "not immediately feasible". Australia's carbon dioxide emissions are equal to those of the US on a per capita basis and among the highest in the world, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Australia, which ranks 15th in overall ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
US Congress faces big offshore drilling push
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/US-Congress-faces-big-push-on-offshore-drilling-J7PUQ?OpenDocument
Reuters: America's pain at the gasoline pump has been years in the making, but there will be a big push in Congress next week, when lawmakers return from summer break, to fix the problem by expanding offshore oil drilling. Gasoline prices, down sharply since July, remain high by historical standards, a major issue in the presidential election. Allowing more offshore drilling is seen as the solution by many Americans and politicians. "Drill, baby, drill!" was the chant from the crowd at ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut opts for modest greenhouse gas targets
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=96418
West Australian: Climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has recommended a modest plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions that will push up power prices by 40 per cent and petrol by 5¢ a litre by 2020 but which he concedes will not be enough to save Ningaloo Reef from the ravages of global warming. Launching his economic modelling of the impact of climate change yesterday, Professor Garnaut said Australia should aim for a 10 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions below 2000 levels by 2020 as part of an ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia: Report on climate is a hot topic
http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/report-on-climate-is-a-hot-topic/1264572.aspx
Bendigo Advertiser: CLIMATE change interest groups have given Ross Garnaut's latest report into global warming a resounding thumbs down. Organisations seeking more dramatic cuts in Australia's greenhouse gas emissions claim recommendations in the environmental blueprint fall well short of what is needed. Professor Garnaut has recommended an emissions reduction of 10 per cent by the year 2020, but opponents say this is too little, too late. They want more ambitious targets and higher prices for ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
United Kingdom: Revealed: Brown's £1bn power windfall
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/06/economy.energy
Guardian: The disclosure of the profits comes as Gordon Brown has been pressuring power companies to help cash-strapped consumers. Photograph: Murdo Macleod Rising energy prices are on course to net the government a windfall of over £1bn thanks to a little-known scheme designed to promote the development of renewable energy. The disclosure of the substantial sums made through the scheme comes as Gordon Brown has been piling pressure on power companies to plough some of the profits they ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Spain: Scientists warn Pyrenees will melt by 2050
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/06/2357213.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Leading global warming scientists say the 21 remaining glaciers in the Pyrenees mountains in Europe will melt by the year 2050. The researchers say high mountains are particularly sensitive to climate change and there has been a steady increase in temperature since 1890. Their calculations show that since 1990, a rapid thawing has caused the largest glaciers to shrink by 50 to 60 per cent and the smallest ones have completely disappeared. The glaciers in Spain were ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia: 'Weak' Garnaut carbon target under fire
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/05/2356828.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Australia's climate change adviser Professor Ross Garnaut has been criticised for recommending a soft pollution reduction target. Professor Garnaut today called for a 10 per cent cut of Australia's 2000 pollution levels by 2020, conditional on the next international global agreement. He admitted that he would prefer a cut of 25 per cent but said that it would not be achievable. Steve Campbell of Greenpeace Australia Pacific says Professor Garnaut's 10 per cent target ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia adviser urges cautious carbon targets
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSSYD6703720080905
Reuters: Australia's top climate adviser on Friday recommended carbon be sold for an initial A$20 ($16) a ton from 2010, with only marginal increases for the first two years, to help business adjust to carbon trading in Australia. In an updated report on targets for a trading scheme, academic Ross Garnaut said Australia should also aim to cut emissions by at least 10 percent by 2020, or up to 25 percent if the government adopts a tougher target. Environment groups condemned the new ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Bad sign for global warming: Thawing permafrost holds vast carbon pool
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/geowissenschaften/bad_sign_global_warming_thawing_permafrost_holds_117569.html
Innovations Report: Permafrost blanketing the northern hemisphere contains more than twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, making it a potentially mammoth contributor to global climate change depending on how quickly it thaws. So concludes a group of nearly two dozen scientists in a paper appearing this week in the journal Bioscience. The lead author is Ted Schuur, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Florida. Previous studies by Schuur and his colleagues elsewhere ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Deforestation Escalates in Brazilian Amazon
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/38100
World Watch Institute: Satellite imagery released earlier this week provided further evidence that deforestation in Brazil's Amazon region accelerated dramatically this year. Between August 2007 and July 2008, 8,147 square kilometers of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared, according to the country's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). This is an area more than twice the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The expanse of deforested land is about 69 percent greater than last year, when ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut targets laughable, say Greens
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24299108-26103,00.html
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: THE Australian Greens say economist Ross Garnaut's proposed greenhouse targets are weak and based on outdated science. Professor Garnaut has recommended a 10 per cent cut in emissions by 2020. The Greens are urging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to instead pursue a target of 40 per cent. "This is a weak outcome that is not defensible when you look at catastrophic implications for global environment, lifestyle and economy by mid-century let alone next century," party leader ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Increasing plant diversity: the answer to climate change adaptation?
http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=8819&codi=36784&idproducttype=8&level=0
Environmental Export: Extreme weather events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude as the global climate changes. The effect of this on plant productivity in Europe is largely unknown. Researchers have recreated extreme weather conditions in isolated plots to assess the impact on plant productivity. They found that the response of plants to the conditions depended on the diversity within a plant community. Grassland conservation is a key theme in the EU's LIFE+ programme1. Extreme weather events, ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
The wages of deforestation
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080905/cleisure/cleisure2.html
Jamaica Gleaner: The rain which fell during the passage of Tropical Storm Gustav was not extraordinary for Jamaica as far as rain goes; but the damage certainly was. And this is not the first time damage to infrastructure seems disproportionate. After every one of these episodes, the question keeps coming back: are we looking at a purely natural disaster, or is the hand of humanity heavy in there? Certainly, it begins as a natural event - a tropical storm - and putting aside the role of human-induced ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
World's first carbon capture pilot fires up clean-coal advocates
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/05/carboncapturestorage.carbonemissions
Guardian: The world's first complete demonstration of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will begin next week at a coal-fired power station in Germany. Built alongside the 1,600MW Schwarze Pumpe power plant in north Germany, the demonstration experiment will capture up to 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, compress it and bury it 3,000m below the surface of the depleted Altmark gas field, about 200km from the site. The 70m (£57m) project has an output of around 12MW of electricity ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
A Deep Thaw: How Much Will Vanishing Glaciers Raise Sea Levels?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-much-will-global-warming-raise-sea-levels
Scientific American: Greenland, the world's largest island, holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by 23 feet (seven meters). Add the ice sheets of Antarctica and the oceans would deepen more than 200 feet (60 meters). Satellite measurements from space and speed measurements on land confirm that Greenland's glaciers are melting and on the move. And although the picture is less clear in Antarctica, the global warming seems to be having an impact there, too. So the question is: How much--and how ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
United States: Almost half of oil released during last month's crude oil spill on Allegheny National Forest has been recovered
http://www.bradfordera.com/articles/2008/09/05/news/doc48c0996b1ecbf255346185.txt
Bradford Era: After more than two weeks of clean-up, Weavertown Environmental Group has recovered almost half the oil released during mid-August's 45,000-gallon crude oil spill in the Allegheny National Forest. According to Kathy Mohney, forest spokeswoman, Weavertown, a group that specializes in the clean-up of hazardous releases, has recovered 19,000 gallons of oil as of Thursday and are continuing their clean-up efforts. The assessment of the spill's damage also continues. Mohney ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australia told to cut greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/05/asia/AS-Australia-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: A government pledge to slash Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by midcentury would not stop dangerous global warming and should be extended to an 80 percent target, a report recommended Friday. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was elected to power last year on a promise to aim for 60 percent cuts in emissions by 2050 -- a more ambitious goal than the 50 percent agreed on by leaders at the Group of Eight industrial countries in July. But Ross Garnaut, an economist ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Australian climate advisor urges 10 percent emissions cuts
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j7DPOuH8Wy8sxm9N7znIsYoZOmEw
Agence France-Presse: Australia's chief climate advisor Friday urged a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 but conceded this may not save the country's natural assets such as the Great Barrier Reef. In an assessment of the targets required to manage the harmful effects of air pollution on climate, Professor Ross Garnaut said Australia should cut its emissions by 10 percent of 2000 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050. This would be Australia's share of the burden if ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Canada: Fall ad blitz to tout BC Premier's carbon tax - again
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080905.wbccampbell05/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080905.wbccampbell05
Globe and Mail: As the federal parties clash this fall over Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's proposed carbon tax, Premier Gordon Campbell is preparing a campaign to defend his own version of the toll on greenhouse-gas emissions. A fresh provincial government advertising blitz starting this month will aim to persuade taxpayers that Mr. Campbell's carbon tax is putting more money into their pockets through matching income-tax cuts. The ads will likely be vying for attention with a federal ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Garnaut target too low: green groups
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24298865-11949,00.html
AAP: CLIMATE and conservation groups have criticised the 10 per cent greenhouse emissions target suggested by Ross Garnaut as too low. Greenpeace said Professor Garnaut's recommended target would ensure that Australia and the world would be heading for "catastrophic" climate change. "It's giving up on the struggle to create a safe climate globally," Steve Campbell, head of campaigns at Greenpeace Australia Pacific told reporters in Canberra. "If the prime minister takes the ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
McCain has forfeited any claim to being a green candidate
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_10385796
Salt Lake Tribune: College students are gathering back on campuses not only to start the fall semester, but also, in some cases, to vote for the first time in a presidential election. There is no bigger issue on campuses these days than environment/energy. Going into this election, I thought that - for the first time - we would have a choice between two "green'' candidates. That view is no longer operative - and college students (and everyone else) need to understand that. With his choice of ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Sea level rise limited to two metres
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn14671-sea-level-rise-limited-to-two-metres.html
New Scientist: What is the maximum amount that sea levels could rise by 2100? Much attention has been given to the numbers issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, and the fact that they are absolute minimums. Now, a team of researchers has said that there may be a way of nailing the fixed upper limit – a rate of sea-level rise which physically could not be surpassed by the end of the century. That level, they say, is 2 metres: sea levels are unlikely to rise more than 2 ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Seas to Rise Faster This Century
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/904/1
ScienceNOW: Hot on the heels of findings that tropical cyclones have been intensifying over the past few decades (ScienceNOW, 3 September), researchers report tomorrow in Science that global warming will cause sea levels to rise much faster by the end of the century than officially projected. The rising temperatures will cause the oceans to swell with melted glacial ice, the study finds, likely flooding substantial portions of Florida and Bangladesh, as well as many other low-lying, densely populated ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
State gets serious about deepening drought
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/05/BAJT12OAMA.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Anticipating another bone-dry winter, California is preparing to act as a water go-between next year, buying from water-rich districts in the north and selling to cities and farmers hit hard by drought. The initiative, known as the 2009 Drought Water Bank, harkens back to measures taken during the long dry spell of the late 1980s and early 1990s and underscores the state's efforts to squeeze every drop out of a system strained by climate change, a booming population and environmental ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens wants to change how the nation generates energy and he just happens to be build
http://www.twincities.com/ci_10384181
Pioneer Press: Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens brought his call for a new national energy policy to the Twin Cities and the Republican National Convention on Thursday, saying America needs wind energy and natural gas to free itself from its dependence on foreign oil, not more drilling. He also picked up an ally in Twin Cities businessman Irwin Jacobs, an old friend who hinted that he and the Texan are partners in a new venture that involves wind energy. "Let's just say we have ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
Explorer highlights melting Arctic ice cap
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0R6-SCkRRVgz6mLH50wyh_5DWnQ
Agence France-Presse: British explorer Lewis Gordon Pugh declared Friday he had kayaked further to the top of the world than anyone else ever has, as his bid to reach the North Pole failed -- much to his delight. But the renowned extreme swimmer, dubbed the human polar bear, nonetheless warned the Arctic ice pack was thinning and urged world leaders to take immediate action to halt it. Pugh, 38, made it to 81 degrees north latitude before hitting solid pack ice. He temporarily planted the flags of ...

Sat, 6 Sep 08
The EU adds up climate change
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/95959ef0-7ae1-11dd-adbe-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: How much will it cost the European Union to fight global climate change? Clearly the answer depends on what your target is, how you propose to get there and the size of the EU's contribution compared with those of the US, China and so on. But a new report from the Centre for European Policy Studies offers some useful estimates. It assesses six recent studies, from the UK's Stern review of the economic impact of climate change and a World Bank analysis to research prepared by ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Analysis: Ross Garnaut's climate change blueprint
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/05/2356473.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government's climate change adviser Ross Garnaut has outlined the path he believes Australia should take in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. The latest instalment of his review of climate change options outlines a number of different scenarios. But the one he prefers would see Australia reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent by the year 2020. On the way to that goal, he recommends an interim arrangement which would put a cost on carbon at $20 ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia adviser urges cautious carbon targets
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKSYU00507720080905
Reuters: Australia's top climate adviser on Friday recommended cautious targets for the country's carbon emissions trading scheme, with carbon to be priced at A$20 ($16) a tonne from 2010 and overall emissions to be cut between 10 and 25 percent by 2020. In an updated report on targets for a trading scheme, academic Ross Garnaut said the new emissions targets would cut Australia's gross domestic product by between 1.1 and 1.6 percent by 2020. Australia is the world's 16th biggest carbon ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
California "Water Bank" in Works Amid Drought
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50105/story.htm
Reuters: California's state government is forming a "water bank" to buy water for local water agencies at risk of shortages next year should a current drought persist, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday. Schwarzenegger in June declared the most populous US state to officially be in drought and declared nine counties in its farm-rich Central Valley to be in a state of emergency because water supplies were so low after two years of below-average rainfall. California's water ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
California revives program to buy water from farmers
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-water5-2008sep05,0,481931.story
LA Times: Saying California's water reserves are all but gone, state officials on Thursday announced the revival of a dormant 17-year-old program to buy water from Sacramento Valley farmers and sell it to the thirstiest Southern California agencies in case this winter brings a third year of skimpy precipitation. "We're hoping for the best, that we're going to have a good storm season and be able to meet the needs of California," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow. ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut II to split debate on climate
http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,24297851-3462,00.html
Mercury: CONSERVATIONISTS and the forest industry are split over what Professor Ross Garnaut's supplementary report on climate change will mean for the Tasmania's forests. The report, to be presented at the National Press Club in Canberra today, is expected to urge Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to increase Australia's native forest reserves as part of the Federal Government's response to climate change. Prof Garnaut's draft report, released in June, did not say much about the role of ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Greenpeace still blocking PNG logging ship
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/05/2356086.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Environmental group Greenpeace says it has no intention of allowing an export ship on the Papua New Guinea south coast to start loading logs bound for China. Four activists are still at the top of the ship's crane after climbing up three days ago and forcing the loading operations to shut down. The joint protest between Greenpeace and local landowners in the Gulf province is to highlight illegal logging practices in Papua New Guinea. Greenpeace says the TFI logging ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Power prices up 40% under climate plan
http://news.smh.com.au/national/power-prices-up-40-under-climate-plan-20080905-4a2d.html
AAP: Electricity prices will increase by 40 per cent by 2020 under economist Ross Garnaut's greenhouse target. Professor Garnaut has recommended the nation cut emissions by 10 per cent in 12 years' time, in his latest report. While a 40 per cent price increase would be a "big hit" for households, government revenue from emissions trading could compensate for that. Petrol would rise by five cents a litre in 2010 if it was included in the trading scheme as he ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Qld forest clearing out of control: WWF
http://news.theage.com.au/national/garnaut-opts-for-modest-pollution-cut-20080905-4a2d.html
AAP: Australia should try to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent by 2020, top climate adviser Ross Garnaut says, with immigration ruling out any greater reduction. In a major report released on Friday, Professor Garnaut says Australia is a special case and its emissions should be reduced by less than any other developed country. Australia's high level of immigration, he says, meant it cannot realistically cut emissions as much as other wealthy nations. Prof Garnaut ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia can lead way on climate
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/australia-can-lead-way-on-climate/1264140.aspx
Canberra Times: Professor Garnaut's original review released in early July was clear that Australia's interests lay in the most ambitious targets for reducing global pollution levels. When the Garnaut Review recommends targets today it is important to bear in mind the political realities of the global negotiations which are walking on eggshells toward the deadline for an agreement at the end of next year. At the 2007 Bali climate talks, Australia shrugged off a reputation as a climate laggard and ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Canada Opposition Liberals Adjust Carbon Tax Plan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50109/story.htm
Reuters: Canada's opposition Liberal Party responded to criticism of its carbon tax plan on Wednesday, ahead of a looming election call, promising a total of C$900 million (US$849 million) in tax breaks and subsidies to farmers, loggers, fishermen and truckers. The "green shift" carbon tax plan, the central election plank for the Liberals, will include tax breaks worth C$400 million for farmers and loggers who buy environmentally friendly machinery, said party leader Stephane Dion. Dion ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Cat 4 Hurricane Ike Fiercer, Hanna Strengthens
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50112/story.htm
Reuters: Hurricane Ike strengthened rapidly into an fiercely dangerous Category 4 hurricane in the open Atlantic on Wednesday and Tropical Storm Hanna intensified to a lesser degree as it swirled over the Bahamas toward the southeast US Coast. Ike posed no immediate threat to land but strengthened explosively, growing in the space of a few hours from a tropical storm to an intense Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale. Ike had top sustained winds near 145 ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Emissions Standards Tightened
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090403373.html
Washington Post: The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday tightened emissions standards for new gasoline-powered lawn mowers, weed trimmers and boat engines, reducing the amount of smog-causing pollution these motors will be allowed to emit. In adopting long-delayed rules that will require small gas engines to have catalytic converters like those that have been installed in cars since 1975, the Bush administration overruled the initial objections of both engine manufacturers and their GOP allies ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut report to unveil gas targets
http://news.smh.com.au/national/garnaut-report-to-unveil-gas-targets-20080905-4a2d.html
AAP: Economist Ross Garnaut will fuel the debate about short-term greenhouse gas targets when he releases the latest stage of his climate change report. His presentation to the National Press Club at lunch time on Friday will also provide the first glimpse of Treasury modelling on the economic impact of emissions reductions. Environmentalists are urging Prof Garnaut to back deep emissions cuts by 2020 to be part of a global effort to avoid catastrophic climate ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Garnaut to advise per capita measure of greenhouse gases
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/garnaut-to-advise-per-capita-measure-of-greenhouse-gases-20080904-4a0a.html
Age: GOVERNMENT climate change adviser Ross Garnaut will today argue the case for measuring greenhouse emissions on a per capita basis as he advises how much Australia should cut its atmospheric pollution by 2020. Professor Garnaut will release the first modelling of the economic impact of climate change, and give the Government recommendations on emissions cuts during a speech at the National Press Club in Canberra. "We have tried to come up with something that would set out ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut wants 10pc emissions cut by 2020
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/05/2356450.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Government's climate change adviser has recommended Australia cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020, but the cut will be conditional on the next international agreement on climate change. The cut would take just more than 1 per cent off Australia's GDP and would put a price on carbon of around $35 a tonne in 2020. Professor Ross Garnaut, who today released his supplementary draft report on climate change at the National Press Club, says it ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Greens agree native veg savings should count in carbon scheme
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/200809/s2356417.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Greens are backing Professor Ross Garnaut's call for better management of native vegetation on farms and in forests, to be credited in Australia's carbon trading scheme. The Federal Government's climate change advisor is delivering his second draft report today on how quickly Australia should cut greenhouse gas emissions, and by how much. At the moment the Government says carbon stored on farms - apart from in tree plantations - can't be included in the scheme. But ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
UK Approves Building of Major Offshore Wind Farm
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50113/story.htm
Reuters: The British government has approved construction of a 500-megawatt offshore wind farm in Cumbria, northwest England, the government said on Thursday. It said the Duddon Sands farm, planned near Walney Island off the coast of Barrow-in-Furness, was one of the country's three largest offshore wind farms approved so far. It would comprise up to 139 turbines. Morecambe Wind Ltd, a consortium of Scottish Power, Eurus Energy from Japan and Denmark's state-controlled DONG Energy, is ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australian Climate Adviser to Back Cautious Cuts, Herald Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aSKhNyv6TFmM&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia's climate-change adviser Ross Garnaut will today recommend the government adopts ``proportionate'' rather than aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The costs of the targets for emission cuts should be manageable and proportionate to other countries, the newspaper reported, citing an interview with Garnaut. He wouldn't comment on speculation he will recommend a 2020 reduction target of between zero and 15 percent from 1990 emission ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut pushes 10pc cut in emissions
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24298361-601,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA should pledge to cut its greenhouse emissions by 10 per cent by 2020 if the world clinches a climate change agreement at Copenhagen. It should pledge to cut by 5 per cent even if the international community only manages a partial deal, the Rudd Government's chief climate change advisor Professor Ross Garnaut says. The first publicly available results from the Treasury's emissions trading modelling reveal that a 10 per cent emission reduction would reduce Australia's ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Garnaut to outline emissions targets for 2020
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=96292
West Australian: Australia should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10 per cent of year 2000 levels by 2020, the Federal Government's chief adviser on the issue has proposed. But Professor Ross Garnaut, in a report on the targets and trajectories for greenhouse emission cuts released today, said if key parts of WA including the Ningaloo Reef were to be saved much deeper cuts that had international support would be needed. The report proposed that under a global agreement that sought ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Australia: Garnaut warns against compensating high-emitting sectors
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Garnaut-warns-against-compensating-high-emitting-s-J74UQ?OpenDocument
Business Spectator: Professor Ross Garnaut has warned against handing out compensation to high carbon emitting industries, saying anything but a 'highly principled' approach would undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of an emissions trading. Professor Garnaut says all the models currently being proposed to shield and compensate trade-exposed, emissions-intensive industries, are predicated on the belief that nothing is happening elsewhere in the world, that nothing will happen elsewhere in the ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Garnaut's Australian climate change targets released today
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200809/s2356117.htm?tab=australia
Radio Australia: Ross Garnaut is helping shape the Australian Government's climate change policy. [ABC] The Australian Government's climate change adviser will report on how fast he believes Australia should cut its greenhouse gas emissions. The climate economist, Professor Ross Garnaut, will release the latest instalment of his advice to the Federal Government. Friday's report will set out Professor Garnaut's opinion on what targets should be set to reduce carbon emissions and how ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
New Australian climate change report due out
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200809/s2356160.htm
Radio Australia: The next step in Australia's response to handling climate change will be released later today. Economist Ross Garnaut will reveal targets Australia should set to lower its carbon emissions and help ease the problem of climate change. His report will be anticipated as much around the region as in Australia. It comes as Indonesia's policy of planting palm oil plantations for bio-fuel comes in for renewed scientific criticism and a claim that the environmental damage would take 800 years to ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Zac Goldsmith backs environmental protesters at trial
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4678339.ece
Times: One of David Cameron's key climate change advisers said that direct action protests could be justified in the minds of many people to prevent 'much larger crimes' being committed. Zac Goldsmith, the multimillionaire environmentalist and Conservative parliamentary candidate, appeared as a defence witness in the trial of six Greenpeace activists charged with causing £30,000 of criminal damage to a power station. Five of the six scaled a 600ft (180-metre) chimney at the Kingsnorth ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Asian pollution could spur US, European warming
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0438977220080904
Reuters: Asian pollution from Asian power plants, cooking and heating could create summer hot spots in the central United States and southern Europe by mid-century, U.S. climate scientists reported on Thursday. Unlike the long-lived greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, the particle and gas pollution cited in this report only stays in the air for a few days or weeks but its warming effect on the climate half a world away could last for decades, the scientists said. "We found that these ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Asian soot, smog may boost global warming in US
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gWNJH78cojUEqorJdugcQbpCn_LwD9305PKO1
Associated Press: Smog, soot and other particles like the kind often seen hanging over Beijing add to global warming and may raise summer temperatures in the American heartland by three degrees in about 50 years, says a new federal science report released Thursday. These overlooked, shorter-term pollutants -- mostly from burning wood and kerosene and from driving trucks and cars -- cause more localized warming than once thought, the authors of the report say. They contend there should be a greater ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Canadian Arctic Ice Sheet Nearly Size of Manhattan Breaks Off
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aAouw4NZSHH4&refer=canada
Bloomberg: A 19-square-mile (50 kilometers) ice shelf attached to an island in Canada's northern arctic for thousands of years has broken from land, another sign of the effect of global warming, scientists said. Nearly the size of Manhattan, the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separated from Ellesmere Island in early August and is now floating in the Arctic Ocean, said Luke Copeland, director of the Laboratory for Cryospheric Research at the University of Ottawa. Copeland and ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Environmentalists can't corral Palin
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3EH5jd_uyWAFtvLAUaky_bDGBhgD93011S81
Associated Press: At the National Governors Association conference where she first met John McCain, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had other business: making her case to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne against classifying the polar bear as a threatened species. Months later she sued Kempthorne, arguing that the Bush administration didn't use the best science in concluding that without further protection, the polar bear faces eventual extinction because of disappearing sea ice as the result of global ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
EU Takes a Weak Step Against Logging
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43790
Inter Press Service: The European Union has reached a new agreement aimed at preventing import of illegal timber from Africa, but environmental campaigners believe bolder action is needed to curb deforestation across the globe. Under a deal reached with Ghana Sep. 3, the EU has undertaken to establish border controls to prevent unlicensed wood from the West African state entering the Union's 27 countries. Known as a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), the deal also commits the EU to aiding the Accra ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Papua New Guinea: Greenpeace highlights illegal logging as EU prepares to vote on new laws
http://www.diariodelweb.it/Articolo/Mondo/?d=20080903&id=42553
Diario: Activists from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza have today stopped the loading of timber, from a logging concession riddled with illegalities, onto the log ship Harbour Gemini in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The timber was bound for China, a key re-exporter to the EU. The action comes ahead of the European Commission`s proposal of a new law to exclude illegally-harvested timber products from the EU market. The activists locked themselves to a loading crane and unveiled a banner reading ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Honda to show new hybrid car at Paris auto show
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKT15981320080904
Reuters: Honda Motor Co will unveil a prototype of its eagerly awaited low-cost hybrid car due for launch in early 2009 at the Paris auto show next month, Japan's No.2 automaker said on Thursday. The five-door, five-seater compact hatchback -- Honda's second attempt at a dedicated hybrid car after it discontinued production of the two-seater Insight in 2006 -- will also be called Insight. Honda is looking to close the gap with pioneer Toyota Motor Corp with a new family of cheaper, more ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Is California on the Brink of Environmental Collapse?
http://www.alternet.org/water/97610/is_california_on_the_brink_of_environmental_collapse/
AlterNet: There is no landmass on Earth quite like California. Here one finds the world's most ancient trees, bristlecone pines, more than 4,700 years old, in the White Mountains; the tallest and largest trees, the coast redwood and giant sequoia, respectively; the highest point in the lower 48 states, Mount Whitney; the lowest and hottest place in the Western Hemisphere, Death Valley; the largest western hemisphere estuary, the Bay Delta; an 800-mile coastline; the most irrigated acres; the most ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Nasa scientist appears in court to fan the flames of coal power station row
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/nasa-scientist-appears-in-court-to-fan-the-flames-of-coal-power-station-row-918057.html
Independent: The Nasa scientist who first drew attention to global warming 20 years ago appeared in a British court yesterday as a key witness in support of climate change activists charged with damaging a power station. Professor James Hansen gave evidence at Maidstone Crown Court in the case of six Greenpeace members who scaled a 630ft chimney at the Kingsnorth plant in Hoo, Kent, last October in protest against plans to build new coal-fired units there. The activists planned to paint the ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Nasa scientist to meet opponents to Kingsnorth power station
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/04/eakingsnorth104.xml
Telegraph (UK): A Nasa scientist is meeting activists who are opposing plans to build Britain's first coal-fired power station for a generation. James Hansen, who heads Nasa's noted Goddard Institute for Space Studies and is a science adviser to Al Gore, will hear local concerns about the proposed plant at Kingsnorth, Kent. He has been a vocal opponent against both the Clinton and Bush administrations' stance on global warming and last year wrote to Gordon Brown urging him to reject ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Canada: Old-growth B.C. forests worth more standing: study
http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080904/bc_forests_080904/20080904?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
Canadian Press: Leaving British Columbia's old-growth forests standing may make more economic sense than cutting them down for timber, especially as the province looks to strategies to cut global warming, a new B.C. study suggests. The report from Simon Fraser University challenges the status quo and uses Ministry of Forest data to show conservation wins out over logging when forests are valued for their role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere, protecting endangered species and providing ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Indonesia: Palm oil firms' moratorium rejection threatens orangutans: activists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080904/sc_afp/indonesiaenvironmentspeciesorangutancommodities_080904160056
Agence France-Presse: A decision by Indonesian palm oil companies to reject a moratorium on land clearing is threatening to wipe out more than 8,000 orangutans in the next three years, activists said Thursday. The decision last week to reject the moratorium call by Greenpeace means there is no effective mechanism for protecting thousands of orangutans living outside conservation areas, said Novi Hardianto from the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP). COP teams have observed land clearing by two ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
UNEP launches mapping goal for eco-monitoring service
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/04/content_9771564.htm
Xinhua: The UN environmental agency, UNEP has teamed up with the world's leading search engine, Google, to develop popular mapping goal, Google Earth to enable people to "fly" to some of the world's most dramatic environmental hotspots. A statement from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said here Thursday the new computer service allows armchair environmentalists as well as politicians, researchers and business executives to zoom in, whizz past and monitor close to 200 ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Assessing the Value of Small Wind Turbines
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=105898
New York Times: With the California blackouts of 2001 still a painful memory, Chris Beaudoin wants to generate some of his own electricity. He marveled the other day at how close he is to that goal, gazing at two new wind turbines atop his garage roof. They will soon be hooked to the power grid. "I don't care about how much it costs," said Mr. Beaudoin, a flight attendant with United Airlines. That would be $5,000 a turbine, an expense Mr. Beaudoin is unlikely to recoup in electricity savings anytime ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Canada's artic ice shelf has 'massively' shrunk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/04/eaice104.xml
Telegraph (UK): The ice shelves in Canada's northern Arctic have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, with huge tracts breaking off and floating away, say scientists. In what researchers say is the latest evidence of accelerating climate change, 83 square miles of ice attached to Ellesmere Island – more than three times the area of Manhattan island - have broken away this summer. Their disappearance after thousands of years has been blamed on warmer air temperatures. One of the ice ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Climate Change Causes Global Wheat Shortage, Food Price Hikes
http://www.naturalnews.com/024066.html
Natural News: Droughts caused by global climate change have led to a drop in wheat production, a worldwide shortage and high food prices around the world. The global wheat supply is at its lowest point in 50 years, with only an estimated 10 weeks of supply left. This has been one factor pushing the prices of bread, beer and other wheat-containing foods steadily higher. According to Hilton Dinner, a bakery owner from Edmonton, Canada, the price of flour has more than doubled over the past eight ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Climate change could reclassify drought
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=14&art_id=vn20080904054134647C220506
Cape Times: The national department of agriculture has warned farmers in the central Karoo that with the onset of climate change, drought "may no longer be regarded as a disaster" and has called on farmers to adapt to increasingly variable and possibly drier conditions rather than relying on department funds to bail them out. A local climate change researcher has echoed the department's statement, saying that while scientists cannot establish a "clear-cut climate change forecast" for the central ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
United States: Deal to Double Wind Power in the State
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=105896
New York Times: State regulators approved a deal on Wednesday that will allow the construction of hundreds of new wind turbines in New York, doubling the amount of wind power capacity within a few years. The Public Service Commission voted unanimously to allow Iberdrola S.A., a Spanish energy conglomerate, to acquire Energy East, a Maine-based utility with operations in five states. Iberdrola said earlier this summer that it would invest at least $2 billion in wind turbines across upstate New ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
United States: Feds warn climate change could harm giant sequoias
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_10382287
San Jose Mercury News: Federal researchers warned Thursday that warming temperatures could soon cause California's beloved giant sequoia trees to die off more quickly, so forest managers must start considering the impacts of climate change and a longer, harsher wildfire season. Hot, dry weather over the last two decades already has helped to kill an unusual number of old-growth pine and fir trees growing in Yosemite and Sequoia national parks, according to recent research from the U.S. Geological ...

Fri, 5 Sep 08
Garnaut recommends 5-10% cut in carbon emissions by 2020
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Garnaut-recommends-5-10-cut-in-carbon-emissions-by-J74GL?OpenDocument
Business Spectator: Professor Ross Garnaut has recommended Australia seek to cut its carbon emissions by between five and 10 per cent from 2000 levels by 2020, and to fix a carbon price -- at least in the early years of an emissions trading scheme -- at $20/tonne. The recommendation in the long-awaited supplementary draft of his Climate Change Review translates into a cut in emissions of 25-30 per cent per capita, but they go a long way short of calls by the environmental movement and some business ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Arctic Melting Shows Global Warming Serious - Expert
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50081/story.htm
Reuters: The incredibly rapid rate at which Canada's Arctic ice shelves are disappearing is an early indicator of the "very substantial changes" that global warming will impose on all mankind, a top scientist said on Wednesday. Researchers announced late on Tuesday that the five ice shelves along Ellesmere Island in the Far North, which are more than 4,000 years old, had shrunk by 23 percent this summer alone. The largest shelf is disintegrating and one of the smaller shelves, covering ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Australia: Carbon scheme putting forests at logging risk: academics
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/04/2354909.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Two Canberra academics are warning the inclusion of plantation forests in an emissions trading scheme could drive emissions up not down, by encouraging the logging of native forests. The latest warning is from Dr Judith Ajani a forest economist at the Australian National University. "The effect of the emissions trading scheme, with respect to the forestry sector both native forests and plantations, is potentially to be quite negative from a climate change mitigation ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Australia: Forests to the rescue on climate
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24290893-5013871,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd will be asked to dramatically lift Australia's reserves of natural forests and grasslands as part of its climate change solution in a bid to ease emissions cuts on industry as part of the transition to a low-carbon economy. The Prime Minister's climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, yesterday urged Australia to lift its focus on retaining natural forests and grasslands in northern Australia as part of its climate change response. The Australian understands the concept ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Africa Must Grasp Carbon Funds for Development - UN
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50080/story.htm
Reuters: Africa must grasp funds generated by carbon credit trading to pay for cleaner, cheaper energy and help fight climate change that threatens to undo years of economic development, the UN climate chief said on Wednesday. Yvo de Boer, attending the first pan-African carbon-trading forum designed in part to match specialist investors with low-emission projects in Africa, said African countries had been discouraged by low carbon investment relative to other regions. "If you look at ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Australia: Campaigners push for forest protection
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/04/2354881.htm?site=midnorthcoast
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Wilderness Society campaigners are on the New South Wales mid-north coast today to push for more local forests to be protected. The society says new research from the Australian National University shows untouched native forests store at least three times more carbon than previously thought. Organiser Gemma Tillack says they are holding workshops to highlight the important role forests play in fighting climate change. "If we do leave these forests to grow essentially ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Dutch Brewers Say Enthusiasm for Biofuels Waning
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50094/story.htm
Reuters: Enthusiasm for biofuels is receding and European legislators have become more sensitive to the needs of the food industry, hit by soaring commodities prices, the head of the Dutch brewers' association (CBK) says. "I am not as afraid as last year that vast areas will be planted with rape seed, replacing grain crops," Jack Verhoek told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. "I think wisdom has returned." Lawmakers and scientists are warning of problems with large-scale planting of ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Garnaut: take the lead on emissions
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/garnaut-take-the-lead-on-emissions-20080903-48ya.html
Age: GOVERNMENT climate change adviser Ross Garnaut is set to recommend that Australia make deep cuts in its greenhouse emissions only after a strong global commitment. In a speech tomorrow to the National Press Club in Canberra, Professor Garnaut will argue that the Federal Government should take a lead in climate change negotiations but ultimately decide how much it will cut its emissions by 2020 based on the level of international agreement. He will set out several emissions ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Australia: Managing drought
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24289458-16382,00.html
Australian: CLIMATE change is so inexact a science that debate over how much, if at all, it is responsible for the crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin will produce little but hot air. While politically inept to open up the debate, Brendan Nelson is correct that water management is one problem we can address immediately. Regardless of whether manmade greenhouse emissions are exacerbating the problem by warming the basin and increasing evaporation, drought has been part of the Australian landscape for ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Strongest Hurricanes May Be Getting Stronger
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=105854
New York Times: A new study finds that the strongest of hurricanes and typhoons have become even stronger over the last two and a half decades, adding grist to the contentious debate over whether global warming has already made storms more destructive. "I think we do see a climate signal here," said James B. Elsner, a professor of geography at Florida State University who is the lead author of the paper, being published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The study, which also found ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Australia: Climate tax may end up in court, says French
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/climate-tax-may-end-up-in-court-says-french/1262598.aspx
Canberra Times: NEW laws to impose taxes to tackle climate change are likely to end up before the High Court, the new Chief Justice, Robert French, predicted yesterday. Justice French, who walks to work and has a hybrid electric car, said there was "a very powerful body of evidence about climate change issues" and he observed a lot of the debate. "It may be that some of those responses will lead to cases that will in one form or another ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Eco-Sellers Gaining Momentum With Mainstream Buyers
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50075/story.htm
Reuters: The move to more sustainable, earth-friendly clothing, shoes and other consumer goods may be at a "tipping point" of mainstream acceptance, and major companies like Nike Inc and eBay Inc are recognizing their growing importance among global shoppers. Green is now a major marketing tool, with companies from British Petroleum advertising alternative energy to Wal-Mart Stores Inc's offering more organic goods. Moreover, the green movement is no longer the exclusive domain of the ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
EU Lawmakers Approve Rules for Hydrogen Cars
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50083/story.htm
Reuters: The European Parliament voted in favour of new rules for hydrogen-powered cars, buses and lorries on Wednesday, seeking rigid standards for approving the controversial new technology when it is rolled out. Cars contribute about 14 percent of the European Union's CO2 emissions and hydrogen is seen helping the EU meet its ambitious goals of curbing emissions by a fifth by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. But environmentalists warn that the technology is still many years from being ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
EU Lawmakers Delay Vote to Get Tough on Car CO2
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50079/story.htm
Reuters: EU lawmakers have delayed a key vote on curbing carbon dioxide emissions from cars, allowing themselves time to make tougher demands on the car industry, they said on Wednesday. They aim to reverse a weakening of the legislation at the hands of the European Parliament's influential industry committee on Monday, which outraged environmentalists and many politicians. The European Commission, the EU's executive body, had originally proposed capping carbon dioxide emissions from ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Floating shelf in the Arctic of climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2008-09/04/content_6996015.htm
China Daily: In the latest sign of the accelerating climate change, a huge ice shelf has broken away in Canada's northern Arctic, and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate. The 55-sq-km Markham Ice Shelf, one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic, split away from Ellesmere Island in early August, Canadian scientists said on Tuesday. Two large chunks totaling 76 sq km have broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, too, reducing it by 60 ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Italy Not Enough to Plug Gap in Solar Power Demand
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50093/story.htm
Reuters: Growth in solar power installations in Italy may not be enough to plug a gap in global demand as Spain prepares to slash subsidies, say Italian industry experts. Solar power firms face a drastic slowdown in the Spanish market next year and some are pinning their hopes on Italy, but Italian officials and manufacturers are cautious over growth prospects. Gerardo Montanino, operations director at GSE, the Italian government department overseeing feed-in tariffs, said he expected ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Signs of climate change in Murray-Darling Basin
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24290672-5013871,00.html
Australian: THE head of the Federal Government's Murray-Darling Basin management agency says the crisis in the nation's key river system has the "fingerprints all over it" of climate change, further isolating Brendan Nelson. Murray-Darling Basin Commission chief executive Wendy Craik said scientific evidence showed that climate change was playing out in the drought gripping the lower basin. The Opposition Leader, under criticism from the Government over his declaration that the Murray ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Warming Oceans Make Strongest Storms Stronger - Study
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50078/story.htm
Reuters: As the world's oceans get warmer, the strongest tropical storms get stronger, climate scientists reported on Wednesday as the remnants of Hurricane Gustav spun out over the central United States. "If the seas continue to warm, we can expect to see stronger storms in the future," James Elsner of Florida State University said. "As far as this year goes, as a season, we did see the oceans warm and I think there's some reason to believe that that's the reason we're seeing the ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
As Arctic Melts, US Scrambles to Claim Territory
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/arctic-sea-ice-47090304
Daily Green: The only question on September's plate, when it comes to climate milestones, is whether the Arctic will settle for the second-greatest melt in history, or go ahead and overtake 2008 as the meltiest year on record. Already, loss of sea ice has exceeded the extreme seen in 2005, which at the time was seen as a shocking sign of global warming. That record fell in 2007, by a long stretch. While melting has leveled off somewhat in the last week, there's still a chance that this summer's ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Climate must be heart of foreign policy: EU official
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL368654120080903
Reuters: Climate change represents such a threat to global security it must be at the heart of European Union foreign policy, much as energy security is now, a top EU bureaucrat said on Wednesday. The issue must also feature on the agenda in all contacts between the 27-nation bloc and other countries, said Helga Schmid, director of the policy unit of the European Council. "Climate change has to move to center stage of thinking about foreign policy," she told a meeting at the Royal ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Seas Will Rise Much Faster Than Thought, Study Says
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080903-greenland-ice.html
National Geographic: Melting Greenland ice could cause oceans to rise by more than a foot (30 centimeters) over the next hundred years. The resulting sea level rise, spurred by global warming, may also happen three times faster than previously predicted. When all other sources of melting ice are also factored in--such as the Antarctic ice sheet and smaller glaciers--the sea level has been predicted to increase by several more feet by 2100, according to previous studies. The new estimates are ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Study: Warmer oceans strengthen hurricanes
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/09/03/study-warmer-oceans-strengthen-hurricanes/
Christian Science Monitor: As the oceans warm, the strongest tropical storms get even stronger, climate scientists reported Wednesday. A study led by Florida State University researcher James B. Elsner suggests that the strongest storms have gotten stronger over the past quarter century, partly thanks to rising ocean temperatures. The study found that, over the same time, the intensity of weaker tropical storms has not increased. The study will be published in the Sept. 4 edition of the journal ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
UK diplomat compares climate change to Cold War
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/03/europe/EU-Britain-Military-Climate-Change.php
Associated Press: The United States and Europe should treat the challenge of fighting climate change even more seriously than they responded to the threat from the Cold War, a British diplomat said Wednesday. John Ashton, the British foreign secretary's special representative for climate change, said industrialized countries should essentially put their economies on a war footing to tackle the problem of man-made global warming. "What's needed is a greater and more urgent mobilization of ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
19-square-mile chunk of ice breaks loose from Arctic ice shelf in Canada's far north
http://www.startribune.com/world/27812394.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU7EaDiaMDCiUZ
Associated Press: A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday. Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, told The Associated Press that the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separated in early August and the 19-square-mile shelf is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean. "The Markham ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
A Field Report from Slow Food Nation
http://www.counterpunch.org/bliss09032008.html
CounterPunch: "Come to the table,' Slow Food Nation invited. And come to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend they did–around 50,000 people, making it perhaps the largest food celebration in American history. Tables and straw bales appeared in the heart of the city's Civic Center around a victory garden on about a quarter of an acre that was formerly a lawn. It was surrounded by a huge marketplace, which was like an old-fashioned farmers' market that gets food directly from the farm to the ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Africa's "green" potential needs foreign cash: World Bank
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSL334720320080903
Reuters: Investor ignorance, unskilled local labor and a lack of cash are contributing to a huge shortfall in clean energy investment in Sub-Saharan Africa, a World Bank report said on Wednesday. Sub-Saharan Africa has only a tiny fraction of clean energy and other projects which rich countries pay for in developing countries to cut carbon emissions under a U.N. scheme, at 1.4 percent, or 53 out of nearly 4,000 proposed projects. The region represents an untapped mine of such projects ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
British military reacting to climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7771784
Associated Press: Climate change is forcing the British military to tailor its strategy and equipment for more extreme weather, a junior defense minister said Wednesday. Under-Secretary of State for Defense Derek Twigg said the British military was working on heat-resistant medical supplies and ways to reduce the weight carried by its soldiers in anticipation of hotter battlefields. ``We've moved beyond merely theorizing whether climate change has ramifications for defense. We know it will,'' ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Canada's Arctic ice shelves break apart, drift away
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gT3x3JoOwwt12fSlVWyCofqaK7qA
Agence France-Presse: Two ice shelves in Canada's far north have lost massive sections since August while a third ice shelf now is adrift in the Arctic Ocean, said researchers Wednesday who blamed climate change. The entire 50 square-kilometer (19 square-mile) Markham Ice Shelf off the coast of Ellesmere Island broke away in early August and is now adrift, while two sections of the nearby Serson Ice Shelf detached, reducing its mass by 60 percent or 122 square kilometers (47 square miles). Ward Hunt ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Climate Change to Turn Up the Heat in Germany
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3615754,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Germany will warm up over the next century, though it isn't all bad news Hotter summers in the south, better harvests, and a tourism boom on the coast. Along with floods, lack of snow and an increase of algae along the coast, this could all be in Germany's climate future. Germany -- like most the world -- is in for some warmer weather. That's the conclusion of a report by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. By the end of the century the average annual temperature in ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Demand seen thin in first US greenhouse auction
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7772440
Guardian: U.S. Northeast power companies likely will not race to buy permits to emit the main greenhouse gas in the country's first carbon auction later this month because the region's emissions of the gas have slipped over the last few years, experts said. The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a group of 10 states in the U.S. Northeast that formed the first U.S. greenhouse market, will regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants starting next year. It will hold its first auction for ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Dutch to take new measures against global warming
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4cWXCIxDX-kEHZtNfpfczujeX8AD92VACD82
Associated Press: The Netherlands needs a massive new building program to strengthen the low-lying country's water defenses against the anticipated effects of global warming for the next 190 years, a key panel advised Wednesday. The plan by the Delta Commission includes more than euro100 billion (US$144 billion) in new spending through the year 2100 to take measures such as broadening coastal dunes and strengthening sea and river dikes. It is expected to be the central reference point for policymakers ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Global warming likely to stoke more powerful hurricanes: study
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwJsEPMCcrS25GkRtALDA-Oc-4vw
Agence France-Presse: Global warming is likely to boost the power of the strongest tropical cyclones, a study released on Wednesday says. An additional one degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) in sea temperatures in tropical regions where cyclones breed could lead to a nearly one-third rise in the number of the most powerful storms, it says. "As the seas warm, the ocean has more energy to convert to tropical cyclone wind," say authors of the paper, released by the London weekly Nature. Previous ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Global warming: Western US feels the heat
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/377472_joel03.html?source=mypi
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: As pilot Bruce Gordon lifts up from the local airport, the distant perspective of the Teton Range raises the spirits, but the unfolding sight of dying forests sears the soul. High-elevation white bark pines, which have endured droughts and lightning and insect attacks in life spans as long as 1,000 years, are being killed by a tiny beetle whose numbers were once limited by a bitter winter climate. "What you are seeing is a natural process on steroids: All these trees will be ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Greenpeace proposes giant North Sea windfarm grid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7771256
Guardian: North Sea nations could link their offshore windfarms via a giant electricity grid on the sea bed and bring huge benefits for Europe, according to a Greenpeace report gaining interest from the European Commission. The environment group said on Wednesday the grid would build on existing infrastructure to link tens of thousands of turbines located offshore, helping to smooth out power fluctuations caused by turbulent weather around the stormy North Sea. "A dip in wind power ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Canada: Large Arctic ice shelf breaks away, now adrift in Arctic Ocean
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080903.wiceshelf0903/BNStory/Science/home
Canadian Press: Canadian scientists are sounding another environmental alarm with word that a massive Arctic ice shelf has broken free and is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean. The 50-square-kilometre Markham Ice Shelf broke away in early August, researchers say, and two large sections representing 60 per cent of the Serson Ice Shelf have also become detached. That means some 214-square-kilometres of Arctic ice shelves have been lost this summer, or about a quarter of what was left. It's the ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Palin questions global warming science
http://www.smh.com.au/news/global-warming/palin-questions-global-warming-science/2008/08/31/1220121106694.html
Associated Press: Senator John McCain's choice of a running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, has questioned the science behind predictions of sea ice loss linked to global warming. She also favours drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Palin has also opposed a state initiative that would have banned metal mines from discharging pollution into salmon streams. The Alaska Governor has said that she has tried to persuade McCain to agree with her on drilling in the ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Rising Sea Levels to Hurt Md. Economy: Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090302306.html
Associated Press: A new University of Maryland report says climate change is expected to cost the state's economy billions of dollars. The report says the biggest impact will be from rising sea levels along the state's coast, although effects will be felt statewide. The report was prepared by the university's Center for Integrative Environmental Research, and was part of the Climate Action Plan delivered to the governor last month by the Maryland Commission on Climate Change. The report ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Severe Storms Getting Stronger, scientists find
http://www.voanews.com/english/Science/2008-09-03-voa31.cfm
Voice of America: Some of the most powerful storms on earth are getting stronger, according to new research published this week. VOA's Art Chimes reports. Jim Elsner of Florida State University and his colleagues based their conclusion on 25 years of satellite data. "If we look over the entire globe, we see that the strongest tropical cyclones are actually getting stronger. And this increase is most notable over the North Atlantic and also the northern Indian Oceans." The ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Solar power companies face end of Spanish subsidies
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/03/business/solar.php
Reuters: Growth in solar power installations in Italy may not be enough to offset shrinking global demand, Italian industry experts say. Part of that reduced demand could come in Spain, where solar power companies face a drastic slowdown next year because the government is preparing to sharply reduce subsidies. Some companies are now pinning their hopes on the Italian market, but manufacturers and government officials in Italy are cautious over growth prospects. Gerardo ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
Warming boosts strongest storms
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7596643.stm
BBC: The strongest tropical storms are becoming even stronger as the world's oceans warm, scientists have confirmed. Analysis of satellite data shows that in the last 25 years, strong cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons have become more frequent in most of the tropics. Writing in the journal Nature, they say the number of weaker storms has not noticeably altered. The idea that climate change might be linked to tropical storms has been highly controversial. A few years ...

Thu, 4 Sep 08
World's strongest hurricanes could be getting stronger
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/research/2008-09-03-hurricanes-warming-oceans_N.htm
USA Today: The strongest hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean have become more intense due to global warming over the past 25 years, according to a new study in Wednesday's edition of the British journal Nature. The findings add fuel to the simmering argument in the meteorological community about the Earth's changing climate, and its relationship to the power of tropical systems worldwide. Scientists from Florida State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed satellite data from ...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Brazil: Amazon Deforestation on the Rise
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1838146,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Associated Press: Amazon deforestation jumped 69% in the past 12 months – the first such increase in three years – as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees, officials said Saturday. Some 8,147 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008 – a 69% increase over the 4,820 square kilometers (1,861 square miles) felled in the previous 12 months, according to the National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, which ...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Arctic meltdown the real barometer of climate change
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/arctic-meltdown-the-real-barometer-of-climate-change/1261334.aspx
Canberra Times: If Hurricane Gustav had struck New Orleans with full force, what would that have told us about the scale and speed of climate change? If more of the sea-ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is lost in this year's summer melting season than last year (which was the worst on record), will that convince people that global warming is a real and present threat? What should people accept as evidence? And what will they accept in practice? For scientists, the most persuasive evidence that ...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Coal plans go up in smoke
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/03/activists.fossilfuels
Guardian: One day, historians might speculate that it was the ambition of the companies that sought to profit by building coal-fired power stations that triggered the beginning of the end for humans' most polluting habit. Four years ago, campaigners in the US raised concerns over plans to build 150 coal-fired power stations nationwide. Today, nearly half those plans have been defeated in the courts or abandoned, while half of the remaining proposals are being actively opposed. Just 14 of the ...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Drought in Australia Food Bowl Worsens
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50062/story.htm
Reuters: Drought in Australia's main food growing region of the Murray-Darling river system has worsened, with water inflows over the past two years at an all-time low, the government's top water official said on Tuesday. The drought will hit irrigated crops such as 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. The rainfall is ...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Australia: Murray-Darling rescue could sacrifice $1b in crops: Wong
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/03/2353977.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government has been told more than $1 billion of crops might be lost as a trade-off to save the Murray-Darling Basin. Water Minister Penny Wong says up to 1,000 gigalitres of water will be required to replenish the lower lakes and Coorong wetlands in South Australia. She says an option is to divert water allocations from irrigators - water which farmers have relied on to maintain their established crops. "My view in terms of temporary carry-over water is that ...

Wed, 3 Sep 08
Solar panels 'take 100 years to pay back installation costs'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/solar-panels-take-100-years-to-pay-back-installation-costs-917202.html
Independent: Solar panels are one of the least cost-effective ways of combating climate change and will take 100 years to pay back their installation costs, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) warned yesterda