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Fri, 31 Oct 08
Australia: Turnbull rolled by climate sceptics: ALP
http://news.theage.com.au/national/turnbull-rolled-by-climate-sceptics-alp- 20081031-5ey8.html
AAP: Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has hit out at federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull for failing to stand up to the "climate change deniers" within his party. Comprehensive economic modelling released by Treasury on Thursday painted a rosy picture of how emissions trading will affect the economy and Australians, forecasting that the average household bill will rise by just $7 a week. The modelling predicted the scheme would barely impact on economic growth and incomes, ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Australia: Drought aid may depend on farmers' viability
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=105502
West Australian: Farmers will have to seek independent advice confirming their business can be viable in the long term before being considered for drought assistance under a radical plan being considered by the Rudd Government. Under the scheme, Federal Government aid to farms worth more than $3 million could be cut, while farmers eligible for drought help would only be able to make a claim for funds three years out of every seven. A draft Productivity Commission report into drought support ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Kevin Rudd's emissions trading scheme: $1 a day to save planet
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24579279-5013404,00.html
Australian: THE Rudd Government has moved to ease fears about the impact of its emissions trading scheme, releasing Treasury modelling showing the scheme is affordable, with households paying up to $7 a week more for electricity and gas, and no industries forced offshore. Long-awaited Treasury modelling released yesterday assumes a modest cut in Australian emissions of between 5and 15 per cent by 2020, and - critically - that next year's UN summit in Copenhagen succeeds in reaching a climate ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
China toughens stance on role of rich nations in climate effort
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e0ea162-a55a-11dd-b4f5-000077b07658.html
Financial Times: China raised the price of its co-operation in the world's climate change talks yesterday by calling for developed countries to spend 1 per cent of their domestic product helping poorer nations cut greenhouse gas emissions. The funding - amounting to more than $300bn (£190bn, 240bn) based on Group of Seven countries - would be spent largely on the transfer of "green" technologies, such as renewable energy, to poorer countries. Gao Guangsheng, head of the climate change office ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Papua New Guinea: World's First Climate Change Refugees to Arrive in Bougainville
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081031/4/3rbcw.html
Asia Pulse: Bougainville expects the first 40 families of Carterets Island to move into their new mainland location by March next year, Administrator Raymond Masono said yesterday., reports Post Courier. They are still negotiating with landowners of Baniu Plantation for the piece of land which they would resettle on as their permanent home under the major climate change resettlement exercise. Mr Masono, however, said that the exercise would cost the Autonomous Bougainville and PNG ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Australia: 'Stand up to climate change deniers'
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/stand-up-to-climate -change-deniers/1348852.aspx
Canberra Times: Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has hit out at federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull for failing to stand up to the "climate change deniers" within his party. Comprehensive economic modelling released by Treasury yesterday painted a rosy picture of how emissions trading will affect the economy and Australians, forecasting that the average household bill will rise by just $7 a week. The modelling predicted the scheme would barely impact on economic growth and incomes, ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Antarctica feeling the heat too - study
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20081031-169457/Antarc tica-feeling-the-heat-too--study
Agence France-Presse: Antarctica, which seemed to have largely escaped the global warming heating up the rest of the planet, is melting too, according to a study. The new research, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, also provides the firmest proof to date that climate change at both poles is not the result of natural fluctuations. "Our results demonstrate that human activities have already caused significant warming in both polar regions," said Alexey Karpechko, a professor at the ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Scientists claim proof humans to blame for polar warming
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/31/2406845.htm?section=world
BBC: Scientists say they have been able to prove for the first time that human activity is contributing to the warming of both the Arctic and Antarctic. British researchers say their analysis shows that increasing temperatures cannot be explained by natural causes alone. The researchers say that they expected this result for the Arctic because of the recent sharp increase in the summer melting of sea ice in the region. But temperature variations in the Antarctic have until ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Mankind Melting Ice Caps
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Antarctica-Ice-Caps-Being-Melte d-By-Human-Impact-Not-Natural-Sources-A-Scientific-Experiment-Reveals/Artic le/200810415136263?lpos=World_News_News_Your_Way_Region_9&lid=NewsYourWay_A RTICLE_15136263_Antarctica_Ice
Sky News: It's official - humans are to blame for melting the ice caps as natural forces are not powerful enough to do it alone, a new experiment has revealed. Giant icebergs are surrounded by drifting ice in Vincennes Bay, Antarctica Scientists have analysed more than 100 years of temperatures from the Arctic and 50 years in the Antarctic and they have discovered without humans the polar temperature would not be rising. It had already been confirmed that our modern way of living ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Australian PM warns against delaying carbon reduction
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200810/s2406922.htm?tab=lates t
Radio Australia: Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has warned that if Australia does not move quickly enough to introduce a carbon reduction scheme then other nations are likely to impose big tariffs as a penalty. The federal opposition says Australia should not introduce a carbon trading scheme in 2010 as the Government intends. Mr Rudd, however, says it is easier to bring down emissions if a scheme starts earlier and he warns there could also be financial penalties if Australia waits ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Electric Cars Are A Big Chance For China - Mckinsey
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50827/newsDate/30-Oct-20 08/story.htm
Reuters: China should push electric cars to curb its dependence on imported oil and foreign automobile technology, although they offer smaller cuts in carbon emissions than alternatives like hybrids, McKinsey and Company said. In two decades it could create a world-leading industry and a domestic market alone worth up to 1.5 trillion yuan (US$219.4 billion), even if less than a third of drivers go electric, the consulting firm said on Wednesday in a report, "China Charges Up". "China ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Four Projects To Save Jobs And Cut Emissions
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50860/story.htm
Reuters: A growing "carbon army" of environmentalists and bankers have seized on political support to boost flagging economies to press for more spending on climate-friendly projects. In times of downturn, spending on infrastructure can prime demand, provide work and avert depression, a lesson learned from US President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. Following are four major projects to cut carbon emissions that would need a large input of funding. 1. OFF-SHORE ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Business Books: US Activist Urges Poor To Think Green
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50858/story.htm
Reuters: Civil rights activist Van Jones for years has fought to keep poor kids in Oakland, California, off the streets and out of jail. Now, he's got a solution he ripped off straight from the West Coast elite -- urging the nation's toughest neighbourhoods to think green. In his book, "The Green Collar Economy" (Harper One, $25.99), Jones argues that the predominantly white and wealthy environmental movement and those living in low-income, mainly black and immigrant communities should ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
UK Aims To Support Small Renewable Power From 2010
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50855/story.htm
Reuters: Britain says it wants to guarantee a price premium for small producers of renewable power, for example from the wind and sun, from 2010. The government included the proposals in amendments tabled on Wednesday to an energy bill being debated and due to pass into law by December this year. The plan would support households and communities which install solar panels or small wind turbines on their property. They would earn a feed-in tariff, which guarantees a price premium ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Australia Carbon Scheme To Cut Growth 0.1 Pct - Govt
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50861/story.htm
Reuters: Australia's plans to introduce carbon trading from July 2010 would cut the country's average gross national product growth by 0.1 percent, the Treasury department said on Thursday. "Average annual GNP growth will be only one tenth of 1 percent less than it would be in a world without action to tackle climate change," Treasurer Wayne Swan and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said while releasing Treasury data for the scheme. The modelling found the cost of curbing greenhouse ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Australia Govt Allays Fears On Carbon Scheme
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50852/story.htm
Reuters: The Australian government sought to ease fears about the impact of its carbon trade scheme on Thursday, saying the coming regime would have a minimal impact on economic growth and exporters amid financial turmoil. Treasurer Wayne Swan and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong released Treasury modelling which found carbon trading would cut average per capita growth by 0.1 percent a year from introduction in 2010 to 2050, with only a small one-off inflation impact. The cost of ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
'Living Fossil' Tree Contains Genetic Imprints Of Rain Forests Under Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081030192853.htm
ScienceDaily: A "living fossil" tree species is helping a University of Michigan researcher understand how tropical forests responded to past climate change and how they may react to global warming in the future. The research appears in the November issue of the journal Evolution. Symphonia globulifera is a widespread tropical tree with a history that goes back some 45 million years in Africa, said Christopher Dick, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who is lead ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Climate change at the poles is man-made
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-at-t he-poles-uisu-manmade-980256.html
Independent: Changes to the climate due to human activity can now be detected on every continent, following a study showing that temperature rises in the Antarctic as well as the Arctic are the result of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. It is the first time scientists have been able to prove the link between the temperature changes in both polar regions are down to human activity and it also undermines climate sceptics who believe the warming trend seen in the Arctic in recent decades is ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
United Kingdom: People-power a step closer in energy bill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/oct/31/renewable-energy-micro-gen eration-national-grid
Guardian: The prospect of households with wind turbines and solar panels being able to sell power back to the national grid has come a step closer after the government tabled an amendment to a bill that would allow people to generate enough power to serve a community of more than 1,000 people. The government said 10 days ago it was keen to get the proposal into the energy bill after facing down opposition from power companies concerned that allowing individuals and communities the chance to ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Climate ideas put under spotlight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7701006.stm
BBC: From the twilight zone of science fiction, the idea of "geo-engineering" is emerging into the harsher daylight of science fact - and I'm going to risk the prediction that we'll hear a lot more about it in the coming years. Only a few years ago, the very notion of planetary-scale projects to tackle climate change was derided by many as too nutty to bother with. Mainstream media coverage tended to gently poke fun at the images of galaxies of mirrors in orbit or fleets of giant ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Morocco invests US$3.2 billion in renewable energy
http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/morocco-invests-us-3-2-b illion-in-renewable-energy.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign =en_climatechangeandenergy
SciDev.Net: Morocco has announced plans for a new campus providing knowledge-based services to strengthen research and training in clean technology. The 'knowledge campus' is part of a US$3.2 billion five-year renewable energy investment plan, prepared by the Moroccan National Electricity Office and scheduled to run between 2009 and 2014. Mouloud Ait Haddou, Morocco's general secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, said his country aims to increase renewable ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Time to bury the 'clean coal' myth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/fossilfuels-carbonemissio ns
Guardian: Who came up with the term "clean coal"? It is the most toxic phrase in the greenwash lexicon. George W Bush, by promising to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the pursuit of advanced "clean" coal technologies, certainly popularised it. But I'd love to know where it came from. Any thoughts out there? It is, of course, oxymoronic. Coal is about acid rain and peasouper smogs, asthma and mercury contamination, radioactive waste emissions and ripping apart mountains, killing trees, ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
New Study: 10 billion tonne saving in CO2 possible with wind energy by 2020
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/global-wind-energy-o utlook-30102008
Greenpeace: Wind power could produce 12 percent of the world's energy needs and save 10 billion tones of CO2 within 12 years, according to a new report published today. The 'Global Wind Energy Outlook 2008', published by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace International, looks at the global potential of wind power up to 2050 and found that it could play a key part in achieving a decline in emissions by 2020, which the IPCC indicates is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Royal Society to look at planetary intervention
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229446/royal-society-look -planetary
Business Green: The Royal Society is launching a major new study into planetary scale geo-engineering projects amid fears that it may already be too late to prevent runaway climate change. Geo-engineering projects are large-scale interventions in the Earth's natural climate system designed to reduce CO2 and prevent global warming. Any such scheme would be a last resort, said Professor John Shepherd, chair of the working group that will undertake the study. "Whatever solutions technology ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Financial crisis has lessons for climate fight:expert
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49T1M420081030?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The world still has the funds and ability to fight climate change and nations should not use the financial crisis to delay policies on tackling global warming, a top carbon expert said on Thursday. James Cameron, vice-chairman of London-based Climate Change Capital, said the mobilization of trillions of dollars over recent months had demonstrated the strength and scale of cooperation in tackling a global crisis. "We run the risk that governments will choose to focus on the ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
E-ON forces Greenpeace armada to leave Kingsnorth
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229454/forces-greenpeace- armada-leave
Business Green: A group of ships led by environmental group Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior have been forced to abandon protests against an E.ON-owned coal plant in Kent following legal action by the power company. According to statements released by Greenpeace on Thursday, campaigners from the group were forced to move on from the controversial facility in Kingsnorth after a high court injunction was issued on behalf of E.ON. "In the early hours of this morning, after bailiffs served us a high ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Government accused of breaking rules over Sellafield decommissioning plans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/30/edmiliband-nuclear
Guardian: The government was last night under pressure from parliament's most powerful watchdog committee to re-open consultations on the deal which has landed taxpayers with the bill for nuclear accidents and leaks when a private consortium takes over the decommissioning of Sellafield next month. Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, has written to Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, telling him that his ministry had broken Treasury rules and failed ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Carbon market could supply cheap debt -bankers
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49S7I720081030?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European energy companies struggling to raise cash from banks to fund projects could turn to the European carbon market, say bankers. Energy infrastructure projects are typically 70 or 80 percent debt-financed, but following the financial crisis many banks are closed for any new lending for the remainder of 2008 and possibly into 2009, developers say. One tactic to raise cash could be for energy companies with installations participating in the Europoean Union's emissions ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Thin film giant First Solar targets residential market in $25m deal
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229466/thin-film-giant-fi rst-solar
Business Green: In a groundbreaking move for the embryonic thin film solar sector, leading US manufacturer First Solar has signalled its intention to crack the residential market announcing a $25m (£15m) investment in solar panel installation firm SolarCity. Under the terms of the deal, which forms part of a $30m funding round for SolarCity, First Solar will provide 100MW of solar modules to the company over the next five years, with the first batch being delivered early next year. The move is ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Exclusive: GE bets big on waste heat recovery
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229469/ge-bets-waste-heat -recovery
Business Green: General Electric's clean tech division has identified waste heat recovery systems as one of its most promising upcoming product lines, according to its head of research in Europe. Harnessing the waste heat produced by industrial processes and internal combustion engines for re-use has long been touted by environmentalists as an area that could deliver huge energy efficiency gains. However, adoption of such systems have been hampered by high up front costs and technical challenges ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Global-warming methane spiked in 2007
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn15079-gl obalwarming-methane-spiked-in-2007-.html?feedId=climate-change_rss20
New Scientist: Levels of climate-warming methane – a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide – rose abruptly in Earth's atmosphere last year, and we don't know why. The concentration of methane, the primary component of natural gas, in the atmosphere has more than doubled since pre-industrial times, but remained largely stable over the last decade or so before rising in 2007, researchers said. This stability in methane levels had led scientists to believe that emissions of the gas ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Aviation industry defies environmental pressure
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229472/aviation-industry- defies
Business Green: The results of a government survey into consumer attitudes to flying shows that nearly half of consumers would be happy to pay more to offset environmental impacts. The survey, released today by the Department for Transport (DFT), revealed that despite growing publicity around the impact of aviation on climate change, consumers ranked cost as a significantly more important factor than environmental damage when it comes to reasons not to fly. Only one per cent of the 1,000-plus ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Climate change to help short-lived creatures: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49T8O420081030?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Climate change is likely to disrupt food chains by favoring animals with short lifespans over often bigger rivals that are worse at tolerating temperature swings, scientists said on Thursday. The researchers in Germany and Canada said that studies of the physical characteristics of animals showed that all have widely differing "thermal windows" -- a range of temperatures in which they best feed, grow and reproduce. That meant that climate change would not affect all ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Obama's potential green team
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/network
Guardian: So what exactly does change look like? Barack Obama has ambitious energy and environmental plans. If he wins on November 4, who will he recruit to carry them out? Will he rely more heavily on Washington newcomers or on Clinton administration veterans who know their way around the White House? (See who John McCain might choose to green his White House here) Obama's choice for a transition team leader -- John Podesta, former Clinton chief of staff -- suggests he's willing to look back ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Follow Cuba's emissions standard
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/30/carbonemissions-cuba
Guardian: The difference between before and after New Labour is that time has been wasted and the world is nearer the brink of environmental disaster. Either we reduce carbon emissions by 90% over the next 40 years, or we face the consequences of runaway climate change and the conflict and disruption caused by growing scarcities of oil and other resources. Consumerism is the biggest obstacle to sustainability and the pressure to consume is stoked by greater inequality. Inequality amplifies ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
United Kingdom: "Grotesque" oil profits prompt renewables demands
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229486/grotesque-oil-prof its-prompt
Business Green: As Royal Dutch Shell today announced third quarter profits of £6.6bn, environmental groups added their voices to those of Labour backbench MPs and unions calling for a windfall tax on the profits of oil giants to fund investment in carbon emission reduction initiatives. The calls began yesterday after BP announced record profits of £6.4bn incensing MPs such as John Mcdonnell, who branded the results "grotesquely obscene profiteering". His criticism was echoed today by Friends ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
NY sets code to axe dirty business in clean energy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49T7A920081030?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: New York's Attorney General launched an ethics code on Thursday that seeks to fight dirty business in the state's emerging wind power farm business. "Clean energy requires clean government," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told reporters. Wind power is a bustling business in upstate New York offering jobs in poor regions. About 450 wind turbines have been installed, and another 900 are planned. But residents have charged that wind power companies have intimidated them and ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
UK firms urged to wake up to peak oil risk
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229490/uk-firms-urged-wak e-peak-oil
Business Green: UK business leaders were today urged to undertake an assessment of the risks posed by the so-called peak oil phenomenon and join in efforts to lobby the government to take the threat more seriously, following the publication yesterday warning global oil supplies could peak within five years. The report from the newly-formed Peak Oil Group -- a coalition of eight UK firms including Scottish and Southern Energy, Solarcentury, and transport giants, FirstGroup, Stagecoach and Virgin -- ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
United States: Pickens delays world's biggest wind farm project
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/windpower-energy
Guardian: The multibillion dollar project to build the world's biggest wind farm in Texas has been delayed because of the fall-out from the credit crunch and the drop in the price of natural gas, it emerged today. T Boone Pickens, a renowned Texan oilman who is raising the capital for the wind farm, told a US television station today that the twofold problem was slowing down his ambitious plan. Pickens, who made a fortune from the oil industry but has been converted to renewable energy as a ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Man-made climate change seen in Antarctica, Arctic
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49T81020081030?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Both Antarctica and the Arctic are getting less icy because of global warming, scientists said on Thursday in a study that extends evidence of man-made climate change to every continent. Detection of a human cause of warming at both ends of the earth also strengthens a need to understand ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland that would raise world sea levels by about 70 meters (230 ft) if they all melted, they said. "We're able for the first time to directly attribute warming ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Manmade global warming evident on every continent, polar report finds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/climatechange-poles
Guardian: No corner of the Earth is immune from the effects of global warming, according to a new study that confirms manmade temperature rises in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Temperature records over the last century show that warming in the planet's coldest and most remote wildernesses is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. The study, published today in Nature Geoscience, is the first to find the fingerprints of manmade global warming on the Antarctic, where a shortage of ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Polar warming 'caused by humans'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7700387.stm
BBC: The rise in temperatures at Earth's poles has for the first time been attributed directly to human activities, according to a study. The work, by an international team, is published in Nature Geoscience journal. In 2007, the UN's climate change body presented strong scientific evidence the rise in average global temperature is mostly due to human activities. This contradicted ideas that it was not a result of natural processes such as an increase in the Sun's ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Methane Gas Levels Begin To Increase Again
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081029141043.htm
ScienceDaily: The amount of methane in Earth's atmosphere shot up in 2007, bringing to an end a period of about a decade in which atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas were essentially stable, according to a team led by MIT researchers. Methane levels in the atmosphere have more than doubled since pre-industrial times, accounting for around one-fifth of the human contribution to greenhouse gas-driven global warming. Until recently, the leveling off of methane levels had suggested that the ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Global business backs UN efforts to clinch climate change deal
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5guIQfD0EWtRmdIEYDjrzgG1RfAYw
Agence France-Presse: Global business leaders meeting Wednesday in Warsaw endorsed the United Nations' drive to clinch a new global framework to curb climate change at its December 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen. "Business is a solution to the climate change crisis," Lars G. Josefsson, president and CEO of European power giant Vattenfall, told reporters after roundtable talks of business leaders on climate change. Josefsson is also the coordinator of the Combat Climate Change 3C initiative ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Brazil: Expert: Amazon may lose 50 pct of tree species
http://www.pr-inside.com/expert-amazon-may-lose-50-pct-r887617.htm
Associated Press: Global warming could kill off half of the tree species in Brazil's vast Amazon jungle by 2050, a leading international climate change expert said Wednesday. A worst-case rise of 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) would wipe out half of the region's tree species by making the Amazon much drier and causing increased humidity in Brazil's non-Amazon southern region, said Martin Parry of the U.N's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A lower rise of 2 degrees Celsius ...

Fri, 31 Oct 08
Global warming, soil decomposition studied
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/10/29/Global_warming_soil_decompositio n_studied/UPI-99151225314734/
United Press International: U.S. scientists say they've found elevated temperatures created by global warming don't result in persistent elevated levels of decomposing organic matter. University of Georgia researchers say current models of global climate change predict warmer conditions will increase the rate by which bacteria and other microbes decompose organic matter -- a scenario that pumps even more heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere. But the scientists say their new findings show that while ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Russian leaders downplay tensions over arctic resources
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=109410
United Press International: Russian officials have tried to play down tensions with the United States, Norway and other nations over possible conflicts in the Arctic Ocean. "Media assessments of possible aggression in the arctic, even a third world war, are seen as extremely alarmist and provocative. In my opinion, there are no grounds for such alarmism," Anton Vasilyev said Oct. 15, according to a report from the RIA Novosti news agency. RIA Novosti described Vasilyev as "a high-ranking official on the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australia: Seal levels tipped to rise 1m this century
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24561491-24331,00.html
AAP: SEA levels will rise by 1m this century, according to German scientists who warn global warming is happening faster than previously predicted. Citing UN data on climate change, two senior German scientists say that previous predictions were far too cautious and optimistic. Earlier estimates predicted a rise of 18cm to 59cm in sea levels this century. But that estimate is woefully understated, according to Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Research ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australians resist acting on climate
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/australians- resist-acting-on-climate/1347480.aspx
Canberra Times: There was both good and bad news for climate change activists from the results of an ANU poll conducted last month into the environmental attitudes of Australians. The poll confirmed what has now become accepted wisdom in Australia that most of us believe global warming to be the most important problem facing the nation today and, encouragingly, it found a majority of people would be prepared to accept a lower standard of living, or pay higher prices in order to protect the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Palin calls for break from Bush energy policy
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h21ZbzgPbTVRftcJPT5vkHkonY5QD944EG7G1
Associated Press: Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin called Wednesday for a "clean break" from the Bush administration's energy policies, which she says rely too much on importing foreign oil. In her second policy speech in a week, the Alaska governor said the recent drop in gas and oil prices shouldn't deter consumers and lawmakers from seeking alternative energy sources. She cast energy independence as a national security issue and said dependence on Middle East oil leaves the U.S. ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australia: Emissions trading scheme costings due today
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/2-0&fp=49093042b72c35b5&ei=lBoJS d_vAYOYgwOsqPm4Aw&url=http%3A//www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/10/30/Emis sions_trading_scheme_costings_due_today&cid=1263846623&usg=AFQjCNEht9I9YTWm Jpxg0-yEmWv-pjEW8g
LiveNews: The costs of an emissions trading scheme will be made clearer when treasury modelling is released later today. Businesses claim that the introduction of an emissions trading would be damaging to local companies, and could result in job losses. But the long-awaited economic advice is expected to show local companies won't be forced offshore to remain competitive. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the government is working to get the balance right. "We can ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Living - rather than dealing - with dryness/drought
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/30/2405262.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: For some time, there has been a general recognition that existing drought policy, prepared in the late 1980s and tweaked occasionally since then, is no longer able to respond either to the changing weather patterns or the changing social conditions of rural Australia. As the Bureau of Meteorology recently reminded us: this is an event "without historical precedent". A unique review of policy is enabling a reconsideration of our responses to climate variability and rural Australia. The ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
China issues post-Kyoto plans on climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-10/30/content_7156216.htm
China Daily: The clean development mechanism (CDM) should continue to be implemented even after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires, says a white paper on China's policies on climate change. But the CDM, the carbon trading system established under the Kyoto Protocol, needs to be amended to encourage more technology transfer to developing countries, says the paper, issued by the State Council Information Office Wednesday. "China will continue to play an active and constructive role at UN ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Fears methane spike will fuel warming
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/environment/fears-methane-s pike-will-fuel-warming/1347255.aspx
Canberra Times: Global methane levels have jumped by almost 28 million tonnes in the past two years, and could accelerate the rate of climate change, according to new research. The methane spike, which began in mid-2006, appears to be generated by the rapid melting of ice across the Arctic circle, driven by hotter than average summer temperatures. ''It's not good news for future global warming. It's a big jump and we don't know if it will continue,'' CSIRO senior climate scientist Paul Fraser ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Another potent greenhouse gas on the rise
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/2279/another-potent-greenhouse-gas-rise
: The amount of methane in Earth's atmosphere shot up in 2007. This brings to an end a decade in which levels of the potent greenhouse gas were relatively stable says a report in the journal Geophysical Review Letters. Methane levels in the atmosphere have more than tripled since pre-industrial times. Though much less methane is generated than carbon dioxide, it is more effective at trapping heat from the Sun, meaning that it accounts for around 20 per cent of the human contribution to ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Seabirds are hit hard by a disastrous breeding season
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/environment/display.var.2464279.0.Seabirds_ are_hit_hard_by_a_disastrous_breeding_season.php
Herald: Many of Scotland's seabirds have had a terrible breeding season with virtually no chicks reared to fledging in the far north, the RSPB said yesterday. The charity believes that changes in food supply, which may be linked to climate change, could threaten the future of three species - kittiwakes, Arctic terns and Arctic skuas - in the UK. Declines of up to 90% have already been recorded. RSPB Scotland is calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that it puts the environment ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Sea birds in danger of dying out in UK, warns RSPB
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/30/easeabird 130.xml
Telegraph: The RSPB blamed changes in food supply, which may be linked to climate change, and could ultimately threaten the future of these species in the UK. However other seabird species seem to be weathering the storm. Great skuas, gannets and cormorants have experienced modest increases in their numbers, while herring gulls have remained stable. Earlier this year, the RSPB predicted a bad breeding season, after noticing abandoned nests and empty cliffs during the spring where there ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Eastern Europe looks to nuclear revival to meet its power needs
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/29/business/renuk.php
International Herald Tribune: From the Baltic to Bulgaria, governments in Eastern Europe are increasingly looking toward a revival of nuclear power generation to meet growing energy demand. The renewed interest in nuclear energy in a region that has been under intense pressure from the European Union to close unsafe older-generation plants coincides with a lively debate in several West European countries, in which governments seek cleaner energy options to combat climate change. Even in Germany, where ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Report indicates climate change to affect water supply planning
http://www.alamosanews.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=75&story_id= 10081
Valley Courier: The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) recently released a report, "Colorado Climate Change: A Synthesis to Support Water Resource Management and Adaptation." The report focuses on observed trends and projections of temperature, precipitation, snow and runoff. "This report provides the physical science basis to support Governor Ritter's Climate Action Plan and state efforts to develop water adaptation plans to respond to changes in climate that cannot be avoided," said ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
United States: Climate change wrecking Walden's flowers
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/10/29/climate-change-wreckin g-waldens-flowers/
Christian Science Monitor: Some 27 percent of the flowers around Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. have vanished since the mid 19th century, and another 36 percent are on the brink of disappearing. We know this because we have meticulous records of Walden`s plant species and birds, taken by none other than Henry David Thoreau. On nearly every spring morning from 1851 to 1858, the transcendentalist writer explored the woods around the pond, noting the first seasonal blooms of 465 species of flowers. Since ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Climate damage science studied
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7698805.stm
BBC: The UK's Royal Society is to investigate whether ambitious engineering schemes could reduce the impact of global warming. Several "geo-engineering" schemes have been proposed including putting mirrors into space and iron filings in oceans. The society says these must be properly assessed - however fantastical. But environmental groups warn that technological solutions should not divert attention away from reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses. I do think that ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Climate-warming methane levels rose fast in 2007
http://news.stv.tv/environment/36859-climatewarming-methane-levels-rose-fas t-in-2007/
Reuters: Levels of climate-warming methane -- a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide -- rose abruptly in Earth's atmosphere last year, and scientists who reported the change don't know why it occurred. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, has more than doubled in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times, but stayed largely stable over the last decade or so before rising in 2007, researchers said on Wednesday. This stability led scientists to believe that the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
United Kingdom: "Carbon army" hopes to grab slice of New Deal cash
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE49T0AZ20081030
Reuters: A growing "carbon army" of environmentalists, bankers and investors has seized on official backing last week for major public spending announced in Britain and the United States. They see it not just as a way to boost flagging economies, but also as an opportunity to promote investment in green energy projects. In times of downturn, spending on infrastructure can prime demand, provide work and avert depression, a lesson learned from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australia: Acting now on climate change will cost less: Swan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/30/2405497.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Treasurer Wayne Swan says Treasury modelling proves that acting now to reduce carbon emissions will be cheaper than taking no action. Speaking in Brisbane today, Mr Swan said the newly-released Treasury modelling suggested that costs for countries who act now to reduce emissions will be 15 per cent less over the next 40 years compared to those countries who wait. "The message is clear - acting early is an economic imperative," he said. "The modelling proves that the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australia Won't Delay Carbon Plan on Credit Crisis, Wong Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aj6vdX7HJVaw&refer=aust ralia
Bloomberg: Australia won't delay its planned introduction of carbon trading because of the global financial crisis, said Climate Change minister Penny Wong. Delaying carbon trading would only increase the cost of tackling greenhouse gas emissions and harm investment, Wong said today at a conference on the Gold Coast, Australia. The government will consider economic conditions when setting targets for greenhouse gas reductions, she said. The Australian government plans to start the carbon ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Time to rank the best ideas to engineer the climate?
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg20026803 .100-time-to-rank-the-best-ideas-to-engineer-the-climate.html?feedId=climat e-change_rss20
New Scientist: IT'S time to stop churning out ideas for repairing Earth's climate and start working out which show the most promise so they can be tested. So says a researcher who is calling for an international organisation to rank all ideas to geoengineer the climate. Various proposals have been put forward, from putting "sunshades" in space to burying carbon dioxide. "The ideas for how to change our climate keep getting pumped out. They get lots of column inches," says Philip Boyd of the National ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Royal Society to research geo-engineering potential to limit global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/climatechange-carbonemiss ions
Guardian: The Royal Society has announced plans today to study which planetary-scale geo-engineering techniques might play a practical role in stemming the worst impacts of climate change. Geo-engineering includes everything from placing mirrors in space that reflect sunlight from the Earth to seeding the oceans with iron to encourage the growth of algae that can soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide. The Royal Society study will look at which techniques might be feasible to carry out and what ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Brussels backs scrapping older cars to promote fuel-efficient models
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/30/automotive-regulators-fuel-e fficiency
Guardian: The European commission yesterday threw its political weight behind industry calls for an EU-wide scheme to offer motorists incentives to take their old cars off the road and buy new fuel-efficient, cleaner models. The commission also urged the European Investment Bank (EIB) to offer up to 40bn (£32bn) in soft loans to help the car industry design new green technologies. The push emerged from a meeting of commissioners, motor industry chief executives, ministers and MEPs to ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Tanis Taylor on precycling - cutting out packaging and buying only what you need
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/30/ethicalliving-waste
Guardian: Every Tuesday, as a house, we put out two big green boxes of recycling. I say green because a) they literally are and b) the presumption is that by using them, so are we. But wouldn't it be greener not to put out the recycling - to generate so little waste that, come Tuesday, there is nothing to put in the green box? It is an idealistic notion, but is it practical? I decided to try it for a month to find out. And in doing so, I inadvertently discovered that I'd joined a ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Challenges dog nuclear option, despite low carbon benefits
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2229349/carbon-concern s-put-nuclear
Business Green: The world is choking on carbon. We're entering an energy-constrained economy as consumers and businesses alike begin to wonder where their next electron is coming from. No wonder, then, that French company EDF recently agreed to take over the British nuclear industry by purchasing British Energy for £12.5bn. The purchase gives it access to all but two of the country's nuclear power plants, which will in any case shut down in 2010. The government has touted the purchase as part ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Earthworms affect forest carbon chemistry
http://it.moldova.org/stiri/eng/161009/
United Press International: U.S. scientists say they've determined earthworms can change the chemical nature of the carbon in North American forest litter and soils. Purdue University scientists, along with researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University, studied the effect of earthworms on forest chemistry by comparing carbon composition in forests that vary in earthworm activity. They found forests with greater numbers of invasive earthworms tend to have litter and soil organic ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Conservationists Warn of Ecological Credit Crunch
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-29-voa38.cfm
Voice of America: A report by a number of leading conservation groups warns that unless prompt corrective measures are taken, the planet is heading toward an ecological credit crunch. For VOA, Tom Rivers reports from London. Cover of the Living Planet ReportThe report is simple and stark. Our demands on natural resources overreach what the Earth can sustain by almost a third. The World Wildlife Fund, the Zoological Society of London and Global Footprint Network all worked jointly on what is ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Supreme Court Rules Logging Rights In PNG Illegal
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0810/S00583.htm
Scoop: The Supreme Court has quashed a decision granting logging rights over the huge Kamula Doso forest area in Western Province to Rimbunan Hijau (RH) in a court case brought by the PNG Eco-Forestry Forum, and ordered the company to pay costs to the Forum. SEARCH NZ JOBS Search Businesses FindA Find the property for you For all your PROPERTY needs BUY RENT INVEST today! "This is a major victory for good governance," said Kenn Mondiai, Chairperson of the Forum. "This decision ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Environment, Economy Weigh On Bottled Water Sector
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50826/story.htm
Reuters: The world's top sellers of bottled water are trying to stop western consumers turning back to the tap by addressing environmental issues and trumpeting health benefits, while expanding aggressively in emerging markets. Nestle, the world's biggest bottler of water with brands like Perrier and Poland Spring, said last week the economic slowdown and environmental concerns were hurting sales in western Europe and North America. PepsiCo saw double-digit declines in the third quarter ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
EU Carmakers To Press Call For 40 Bln Euro EU Loan
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50830/story.htm
Reuters: European carmakers will press their call for an EU loan of 40 billion euros (US$50.98 billion) to help develop greener cars in a meeting with the bloc's executive on Wednesday, their industry association chief said. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) says the economic crisis and sliding consumer confidence has made it increasingly difficult to achieve EU targets to curb carbon dioxide emissions from cars by 18 percent by 2012. Asked on arrival at the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
EU Ready To Help Car Industry Develop Greener Cars
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50828/story.htm
Reuters: The European Commission is ready to support the car industry and help it achieve EU targets to curb CO2 emissions despite the economic crisis, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday. "We are open to the possibility of providing support for the development of low emission cars, high tech cars that could help the European motor industry maintain its global competitiveness," Barroso told a news conference. He added that any aid to the car sector should ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Pickens Plan Reality Check: Energy Freedom or Farce?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081029-pickens-plan-energy- facts.html?source=rss
National Geographic: "I'm T. Boone Pickens. I've been an oilman all my life, but this is one emergency we can't drill our way out of. And I have a plan. ... " The twangy entreaties of a Texas tycoon have been filling the pre-election airwaves in the U.S. TV ads for the so-called Pickens Plan have gotten many Americans thinking about wind power and natural gas-fueled cars as ways to reduce dependence on foreign oil. The plan's environmental claims have even won the conservative oilman some strange ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
First Solar enters U.S. residential market
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49S7GH20081029?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: First Solar is entering the U.S. residential market with a five-year deal to supply 100 megawatts of thin-film solar modules to installer SolarCity, the manufacturer said on Wednesday. First Solar, which produces the lowest-cost solar cells in the industry, will also take a minority stake in SolarCity with a $25 million equity investment in the privately held company, which installs clean-power systems in California, Arizona and Oregon. Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar has ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Hunger hotspots of the future revealed
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg20026803 .600-hunger-hotspots-of-the-future-revealed.html?feedId=climate-change_rss2 0
New Scientist: Where in sub-Saharan Africa will climate change hit hardest? When it comes to food supply, prospects for much of the centre and east of the region are looking grim. Reduced crop yields along with a rising population mean that Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are likely to face serious shortages by 2030, according to a comprehensive new study. A team from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Dübendorf led by Junguo Liu ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Greenhouse gas from flat-screen TV makers soars
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/mg20026803 .500-greenhouse-gas-from-flatscreen-tv-makers-soars.html?feedId=climate-cha nge_rss20
New Scientist: OUR new-found love of flat-screen TVs could come back to haunt us. Levels of a potent greenhouse gas, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), released in their manufacture are four times as high as estimates in 2006, and rising, reveals the first study measuring atmospheric levels of the gas. Researchers warned earlier this year that the growing popularity of LCD technology was releasing increasing amounts of NF3 into the atmosphere. Though it is 17,000 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Ecological credit crunch: we cannot bank on nature
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3413
People and Planet: The world is heading for an ecological credit crunch as human demands on the world's natural resources reach nearly a third more than earth can sustain. That is the stark warning contained in the latest edition of WWF's Living Planet Report, the leading statement of the planet's health. It shows that species and wildlife continue to decline, and around 50 countries are slipping into a state of permanent or seasonal water stress. Ecological Footprint by country. Growth of the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
China warns more extreme weather to come
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-10/29/content_10274950.htm
Xinhua: China warned on Wednesday that it faces more warmer weather, more extreme climate events and more severe drought in the future. "Extreme climate phenomena, such as high temperatures, heavy rain and snow and severe droughts, have increased in frequency and intensity," it said in a white paper released Wednesday. The average temperature of Earth's surface in China had risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius from 1908 to 2007, according to the white paper. But China admitted that it ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Yellowstones amphibians declining fast due to climate change
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/yellowstones-amphibians-decl ining-fast-due-to-climate-change-re-issue_100112767.html
Asian News International: A research has determined that despite being protected longer than anywhere else on Earth, Yellowstone National Parks amphibians are declining fast, all due to climate change. Yellowstone National Park, founded in 1872, has been protected by law longer than anywhere else in the world. In 1992 and 1993, researchers in Elizabeth Hadlys group at Stanford University surveyed amphibians dwelling in ponds left behind by glaciers in northern Yellowstone National Park. Over the ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
China predict 'climate phenomena' from global warming
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/29/2405083.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Chinese Government has made dire predictions of increased disasters due to global warming. In releasing a major policy document on climate change, the Chinese Government has warned that global warming has already had massive adverse effects on China. A major policy paper on climate change has warned of the difficulty of reducing the country's reliance on coal and the potential devastation that this could cause According to the so-called White Paper, "Extreme climate ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Ireland: Warmer seas to blame as our cod vanish
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/warmer-seas-to-blame-as-our-cod-vanish-1 512262.html
Herald: COD, salmon and eels could soon become a rare sight in Irish waters, scientists warned today. And it is not necessarily because of overfishing, pollution or habitat destruction. Studies carried out by teams of scientists in Maynooth, Galway and Mayo suggest another culprit -- climate change. Long term changes in the temperature and salt content of our seas may force cold water species, like salmon, into deeper colder waters. It may see them replaced with warm water fish ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
China's emission now equals that of the US
http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/B14E76AD9649E1FC652574F100439C75 ?OpenDocument
Press Trust of India: China, dubbed as the "the factory of the world," today said its emissions almost equalled that of the US, the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for the bulk of global warming. China's emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas from fossil fuel burning, accounted for eight per cent of the world total from 1904 to 2004. "According to our data, China's current total emissions are almost as the same as that of the United States," Xie ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
China says coal addiction makes climate change fight hard
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gs4IUSInbVEyv5W2NmI-MsdsORqw
Agence France-Presse: China warned Wednesday its heavy dependence on coal to fuel its fast-growing economy made it difficult to control greenhouse gas emissions, but said fighting global warming remained imperative. Releasing a policy paper on climate change, the Chinese government acknowledged the deep impact global warming had already made on the world's most populous nation -- and warned of much worse to come. "Extreme climate phenomena, such as high temperatures, heavy precipitation and severe ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Bligh embarrassed by leaked email on reef rescue plan
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,27574,24572946-3102,00.html
Courier-Mail: PLANS to abandon water monitoring in coastal Queensland were afoot when Premier Anna Bligh unveiled her campaign to save the Great Barrier Reef. An email leaked to Greens MP Ronan Lee has revealed the Environmental Protection Agency was planning to slash funding to its water science division. The October 7 email warned that EPA budget cuts would mean monthly monitoring of estuaries between Noosa and north Queensland would have to be abandoned. The revelation is a major ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Climate change felt at Walden Pond
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/29/america/walden.php
Boston Globe: In the 1850s, a few years after he had gone to "live deliberately" in a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau began to compile detailed records on hundreds of species of plants in his beloved Concord, Massachusetts. That same data are now being used to measure the effect of climate change, and the news is not good, researchers announced Monday. Scientists from Boston University and Harvard reported that 27 percent of the species documented by Thoreau have ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australia: Kevin Rudd is firm on carbon cut plan
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24573905-11949,00.html
Australian: THE Rudd Government will press ahead with its emissions trading scheme, arguing that modelling to be released today proves it is pro-growth and good for the nation's long-term economic competitiveness. In a strongly worded speech to be delivered today, Wayne Swan will make it clear the Government will stare down critics who argue that the introduction of the emissions trading scheme should be put on the backburner during the global economic crisis. Instead, the Government will ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Forest preservation-carbon credit schemes in Asia
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE49S0NA20081029?sp=t rue
Reuters: U.N. climate change talks in Bali last December formally launched pilot projects for a pay-and-preserve scheme that would allow developing nations to potentially earn billions of dollars by keeping their rainforests standing. Under the U.N.-backed process, called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), rich nations would meet some of their emissions reduction targets by buying carbon credits from developing nations, whose forests soak up vast amounts of ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Australia carbon plan no company killer: Government
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE49S0NL20081029
Reuters: Australia's plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions through carbon trade will not be the "company killer" feared by business and no major polluters will be forced to move offshore, the government said on Wednesday. Treasury department modeling of the impact of the scheme after its mid-2010 introduction showed that even if the center-left government adopted a tougher-than-expected 25 percent emissions cut, no major companies would be forced to close. "The modeling shows that ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
China Firm on Climate Change Policy ahead of International Negotiations
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-29-voa16.cfm
Voice of America: China, one of the world's top polluters, has again said that developed nations should help it, and other developing economies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Chinese officials say they will have trouble cutting the country's use of polluting coal without cash and technology from rich countries. Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing. Visitors walk through the polluted air at Beijing's Tiananmen Square (File)A new policy paper released Wednesday repeats China's stance that developed ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Experts call for better data on climate change migrants
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/20316/2008/09/29-144726-1.htm
Reuters: There's no shortage of researchers lining up to tell us that climate change poses a big threat to coastal cities and their populations - from Dhaka to New Orleans to Mombasa. At the recent launch of the U.N.'s State of the World's Cities 2008/2009 report, lead author Eduardo Lopez Moreno noted that 3,351 of the world's cities are located in what's known as the "low elevation coastal zone" - less than 10 metres above sea level. "In case there is an increase in sea level, there will be ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Japan's prime minister and Prince Charles agree on environment
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ihLfMr6hE8Hp-NyMAFk5s_J1pf1w
Canadian Press: Britain's Prince Charles and Japan's prime minister Wednesday celebrated 150 years of diplomatic ties between their countries, pledging to strengthen friendship and co-operation on environmental issues, officials said. Prime Minister Taro Aso expressed hopes to co-operate with Britain in taking initiative in climate change issues, as Prince Charles renewed his commitments to environmental protection, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the talks, held at a Tokyo ...

Thu, 30 Oct 08
Rainbow Warrior activists reach Kingsnorth
http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news/Rainbow-Warrior-activists-reach-Kingsno rth-newsinkent17470.aspx?news=local
Kent News: Climate campaigners are trying to breach Kingsnorth power station's security in a bid to hold a peaceful protest against E.ON's coal plans for the plant. Dozens of eco-activists set foot on the station's river-facing jetty earlier today, having reached the plant in a nine-boat flotilla led by the Greenpeace's iconic Rainbow Warrior vessel. The group aims to reach the site of the proposed coal-units to hold 'a sombre and dignified ceremony for the victims of climate ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
True cost of China's coal: $250 billion in pollution, environmental damage, and social ills
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1028-hance_china_coal.html
Mongabay: Every year China is spends 250 billion in hidden costs due to its reliance on coal, according to a report compiled over three years by top Chinese economists. These hidden costs are in the form of both environmental degradation and social ills. Commissioned by Greenpeace China, WWF, and the Energy Foundation, the report shows that the hidden cost of coal is present in almost every aspect of Chinese life, including air pollution, water shortages, polluted soil, ecosystem degradation, ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Italy repeats opposition to EU climate plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49R7Y420081028?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The Italian government on Tuesday said it would stick to its opposition to an EU climate plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth by 2020, saying it would be too harmful for industry. A statement said the plan was not acceptable because it would cost Italian companies 40 percent more than other EU countries. "This would be untenable for our production, particularly in light of the current global economic crisis," it said. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi shocked ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Massive Shift to Clean Energy Could Start Tomorrow
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44479
Inter Press Service: An aggressive shift towards renewable power generation and energy effiency could save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change, and at the same time create a multi-billion-dollar industry and save trillions of dollars in future fuel costs, experts say. A report released Monday by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace International entitled "Energy [R]Evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook", estimates that investments meant to create a ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Mass. AG settles pollution case for $2.3 million
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/10/28/mass_ag_ settles_pollution_case_for_23_million/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: An Attleboro manufacturer will pay $2.3 million to settle allegations it broke state pollution laws in the second largest environmental protection settlement in Massachusetts history, Attorney General Martha Coakley's office announced Tuesday. The chemical plant, owned by Somerset, N.J.-based Zinsser Co. Inc., makes a range of materials used in the production of everything from pharmaceuticals to varnish. The state accused it of inaccurately reporting its emissions of certain ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Can U.S. Go 'Green' Even When Oil Prices Drop?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96185899&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Like clockwork, it seems like every time oil prices skyrocket in the United States, the country takes a step toward energy independence. Then the price of oil recedes and American energy consumers revert to their profligate ways. It happened in 1973 when Middle East countries imposed an oil embargo. It happened in 1979 in the aftermath of the revolution in Iran. And it has happened again in the past few years as fuel prices spiked and a flush economy combined to propel the nation ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Charles warns of 'climate crunch'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7695881.stm
BBC: Prince Charles has warned that the financial crisis should not distract from the longer-term problem of the "climate crunch". Speaking during a visit to Tokyo, the Prince of Wales said the global economy was "rightly a preoccupation of vast significance and importance". "But we take our eye off the climate crunch at our peril," he added. Prince Charles, along with his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, is visiting Japan for the first time since 1970. Their arrival was ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
United Kingdom: London on track to become "car club capital of the world"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229266/london-track-becom e-car-club
Business Green: Local councils and transport planners across London are working on plans for a huge expansion of car club initiatives that could take up to 60,000 cars off the capital's roads by 2020. Transport for London (TfL) last year provided £500,000 in funding for local authorities to help them provide parking spaces for car clubs and is to provide a further £550,000 this year as part of a programme that could ultimately see about 3,000 cars made available to car club members. A ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
EU urged to prepare to tackle "carbon leakage"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229268/eu-ready-stop-carb on-leakage
Business Green: The EU must develop a comprehensive set of policies in readiness to tackle carbon leakage, the loss of business to companies in regions unconstrained by emissions trading schemes or carbon taxes, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The report claims that while the first phase of the emissions trading scheme neither hampered the competitiveness of European firms nor prompted any to relocate, that could change, as the EU begins to impose tighter emission caps -- a move ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Heathrow: MPs plot revolt against third runway
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23578849-details/Heathrow:+M Ps+plot+revolt+against+third+runway/article.do
Evening Standard: PLANS for a third runway at Heathrow were threatened today by a Cabinet revolt. Ministers were said to be secretly fuelling a Commons rebellion against expansion of the airport. Dozens of MPs were joining a campaign to scupper the proposed runway amid doubts over whether it would be needed if aviation traffic slows in a global economic slowdown. By lunchtime, at least 48 Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs had signed a Commons motion urging the Government to ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
China in global warming cash call
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2KFg30vEZBckhmREnzC6h4YgHzw
Press Association: China demanded richer countries set aside a fixed amount of their national income to help poorer nations fight global warming. The country has long called on developed countries to shoulder what it says is their historic burden to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for a rise in global temperatures. But the latest remarks by a senior Chinese climate official were the first to propose specific demands on rich countries. "The funds that developed countries provide ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
China defends energy policy after scathing report
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6KTiMsgaylQNAIetaCrEv4LqNJg
Agence France-Presse: China on Tuesday defended its energy policy a day after three influential green organisations criticised its dependence on coal. "The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development and exploration of clean energy," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters. "It has been making great efforts to increase the share of clean energy in the energy mix." A report commissioned by Greenpeace, the Energy Foundation and WWF on Monday said China's ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Keep up climate change fight amid financial crisis: wind group
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5je5OzNsJIc0uLvx2QHKbkowT7Dzw
Agence France-Presse: The head of the Global Wind Energy Council warned Tuesday of dire consequences if governments weakened their fight against climate change due to the global financial crisis. "Don't take your eyes off the big picture, it's irresponsible," said Steve Sawyer, the council's secretary general, ahead of a major wind power conference starting Wednesday in Beijing. "In the next two, three decades, it's critical for the survival of human civilisation as we know it," he said. "The ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Buyers amped about renewable energy
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_10831421
Denver Post: The market for renewable energy -- driven by big corporate buyers like Pepsico and Intel Corp. -- has tripled since 2004, according to a analysis by the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In 2007, 18.1 billion kilowatts of green power -- such as wind, hydro, landfill methane gas -- were sold and business customers made up three-quarters of those sales, the report says. There were a total of 860,000 electricity customers across the country purchasing green power ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
World expert: Climate sceptics embarrassing
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24566557-5005961,00.html
AAP: AUSTRALIANS have been told they have nothing to fear from emissions trading from one place that knows first-hand – Europe. The European Union has had emissions trading since 2005. Simon Marr, a senior EU official who is on a fact-finding visit to Australia, said the scheme worked well. "There's no reason to be afraid of it, certainly not," Dr Marr told AAP. He gave the thumbs up to Australia's draft plan for emissions trading, due to start in 2010. "I think ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Major EU cities pledge to fight climate change
http://www.euractiv.com/en/sustainability/major-eu-cities-pledge-fight-clim ate-change/article-176720
EurActiv: Published: Tuesday 28 October 2008 Some 130 major European cities yesterday committed to bringing climate change into citizens' hearts and minds by adopting ambitious sustainable public procurement policies. But they stressed that results would only be achieved if central governments gave them more power. Background: The European Commission considers cities to be at the heart of EU sustainable development efforts. In January 2006, it launched a Thematic Strategy on the ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Prince gives 'climate crunch' talk
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iL0WYaG2AFzjBuHiJBb6KByFVnhg
Press Association: The Prince of Wales warned Governments around the world not to let concerns with the global "credit crunch" distract them from the growing problem of the "climate crunch". In a speech to businessmen and government officials in Japan, Charles said the financial turmoil reinforced the idea that tackling the major environmental problem could stimulate economic activity. The Prince made the comments during a visit to the Miraikan Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Philippines: NGO calls for stop to agrofuel dev't
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/topstories/topstories/view/20081028-168930/NGO -calls-for-stop-to-agrofuel-devt
Philippine Daily Inquirer: An international non-government organization has urged a moratorium on agrofuel development, saying this is not the solution to the worsening food situation or the ill-effects of climate change. The Southeast Asia Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (Searice) accused the government of recklessly jumping into the global frenzy for agrofuel without setting clear parameters or considering its implications on the growing demand for food. "The government has to stop ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Scientists probe Antarctic glaciers for clues to past and future sea level
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/uota-spa102708.php
EurekAlert: International team exploring two of the last uncharted regions of Earth, the Aurora and Wilkes Subglacial Basins, to learn about past climate change and future impacts on global sea level Scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Australia have teamed up to explore two of the last uncharted regions of Earth, the Aurora and Wilkes Subglacial Basins, immense ice-buried lowlands in Antarctica with a combined area the size of Mexico. The research could show how Earth's climate changed in the ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Climate change keeps swans in Siberia
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/28/easwans12 8.xml
Telegraph: Hundreds of swans due to spend winter in the UK are staying put in Siberia because climate change has made the region warm enough to remain, bird experts have said. Bewick's swans are usually expected in wetlands around England in late October but flocks have been arriving later every year. This year it is feared the endangered birds, which are the smallest species of swan to be found in the UK, will fail to turn up at all since it is now warm enough to stay in Siberia. At ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Yellowstone's amphibians declining fast due to climate change
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/279324.php
Asian News International: A research has determined that despite being protected longer than anywhere else on Earth, Yellowstone National Park's amphibians are declining fast, all due to climate change. Yellowstone National Park, founded in 1872, has been protected by law longer than anywhere else in the world. In 1992 and 1993, researchers in Elizabeth Hadly's group at Stanford University surveyed amphibians dwelling in ponds left behind by glaciers in northern Yellowstone National Park. Over ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Councils' carbon footprints revealed for first time
http://www.24dash.com/news/Housing/2008-10-28-Councils-carbon-footprints-re vealed-for-first-time
24dash: New research has revealed detailed breakdowns of local authorities' carbon footprints for the first time. The latest data released from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) measures CO2 emissions at district level, and categorises the amounts produced through different aspects of people's lifestyles including transport, housing, and consumption of food and other goods. The information shows great variation between local authorities, namely a marked tendency for more ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
United Kingdom: People power can beat climate change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7693973.stm
BBC: If it becomes law, the UK's climate change legislation will be the toughest of its kind in the world, says Lord Puttnam. However, in this week's Green Room, he says the government is still failing to make the most of an untapped resource - local communities. There is a pressing need to understand how we can draw on the drive of local communities to reduce CO2 emissions Ed Miliband's appointment as the first Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is testament to what has ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Climate Change Devastates Flora, Fauna in Walden Pond and Yellowstone
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Climate_Change_Devastates_Flora_Fauna_in_Wal den_Pond_and_Yellowstone_27583.html
eFluxMedia: Humanity can no longer deny the manifestation of climate change on our planet, and with every new season, we witness more and more dramatic alterations in the lives of plants and animals around us. Plants have changed the timing of their seasonal flowering; animals are suffering from habitat degradation in natural ecosystems, and humans watch hopelessly how the planet changes before their eyes. Thanks to naturalist Henry David Thoreau's 150-year-old observations in Concorde on the ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Climate is the real crisis: Britain's Prince Charles
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMravVh-i5DstEKNc4xATwfIMniw
Agence France-Presse: Britain's Prince Charles urged the world Tuesday to fight climate change, saying that while the global credit crunch may be temporary, the effects of the "climate crunch" were irreversible. The heir to the British throne issued his appeal on a visit to Tokyo, where he and his wife Camilla are marking the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Britain. "Given the current turbulence in the international financial system and the immediate and damaging effect ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Rich nations need to increase climate fight: China
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/28/2403958.htm?section=world
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: China wants rich countries like Australia to contribute 1 per cent of their economic worth to fight global warming. A senior Chinese official says that the current financial crisis should not stop wealthy nations like Australia from making a big contribution to fixing climate change. Chief of the National Development and Reform Commission's Climate Change Office, Gao Guangsheng, says that rich countries should hand over 1 per cent of their economic worth to help poorer ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Australia: Sea-level rise threat to coast
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/sealevel-rise-threat-to-coast/2008/1 0/28/1224956039688.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SYDNEY'S iconic beaches, coastal houses, commercial property and roads will be threatened by rising sea levels by 2050, while the city's temperature is expected to rise by at least 2 degrees, a new scientific study, launched by the Premier, Nathan Rees, reveals. "Today, the science is in for Sydney," Mr Rees said yesterday as he proclaimed the influence of the climate sceptic and former treasurer Michael Costa at an end in NSW. "The Costa era of ambiguity around this issue is ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Financial crisis must not derail environmental efforts
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/financial-crisis-must-not-derail-env ironmental-efforts/2008/10/28/1224956011814.html
: Both the environmental and the economic crises are caused by the same disease - running up debt that we and future generations can't afford. Throw in short-termism - the focus on getting more and bigger things faster - and we have the perfect ethical storm. The environmental crisis of global warming and the retreat of the natural world are taking place more slowly than the financial storm, and are less pressing in the minds of decision makers. But it did not take ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
New Global Warming Warnings, From Tropics to the North Pole
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/global-warming-47102 801
Daily Green: Two new reports from dramatically different climate zones on the face of the Earth both have the same conclusion: Global warming is being felt more intensely, and earlier, than expected. From the Arctic, in what is now familiar-sounding finding, we find that sea ice is not only receding to record and near-record extents each summer, but thinning to a degree unprecedented since modern measurements began decades ago. The report, detailed by the BBC, shows that after five years of ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Arab nations must do more on environment
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15526&channel=0&title=Arab+natio ns+must+do+more+on+environment
Edie: Arab nations are not doing enough to control pollution and manage waste responsibly and need to invest more in the development of clean technologies. This is the damning conclusion of a report, Arab Environment : Future Challenges, published by Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED), an NGO active in the region. The report looks at a number of key areas including water supply, energy generation, pollution and waste management and outlines where governments and ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
How US candidates differ on energy policy
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/28/business/renus2.php?WT.mc_id=glob_mr ktg_lnk2&WT.mc_ev=click
International Herald Tribune: High energy prices and growing awareness of climate change have made energy policy a major issue in the U.S. presidential election, closely tied to voters' main concern: the staggering economy. The platform of the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain, leans toward traditional energy supplies and market-based solutions, while the plan of the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, would change course on energy sourcing and require greater government participation. The ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Reducing carbon emissions no easy task for Europe
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/28/business/rencarbon2.php?WT.mc_id=glo b_mrktg_lnk1&WT.mc_ev=click
International Herald Tribune: Weakening growth, huge investment needs and a highly contentious policy framework are just a few of the reasons why European Union member states may not get close to their goals for reducing carbon emissions in the next decade or so. As industrialization worsens pollution across the planet - the International Energy Agency, in Paris, forecasts a 50 percent rise in emissions by 2030 - Europe has laudably tried to take a lead in finding a solution. In March 2007, months before ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Australia: Cost of carbon regime 'modest'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24569272-5013871,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIAN iron ore production will soar and domestic steel production will remain internationally competitive under an emissions trading regime, the Rudd Government's long-awaited Treasury modelling has found. The Australian has learned that - contrary to dire predictions by the industry - the modelling concludes that the output from emissions-intensive steel-makers would be unaffected by a domestic carbon price. The finding suggests Treasury has made generous assumptions ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Transport Experts Spark Global Electric Car Industry
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2008/2008-10-27-02.asp
Environment News Service: Cars around the world will one day be propelled by electric motors, transportation expert Daniel Sperling told a meeting of international transportation experts and policymakers in London today. Sperling said the transformation of automobiles and the entire automotive industry has begun with gasoline-electric hybrids, and will continue in the next decades with the wide adoption of plug-in electric hybrids, battery-only electric cars, and fuel cell electric vehicles. Director of ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
China's crush on coal costs economy $250bn a year
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229245/china-crush-coal-c osts-economy
Business Green: There is a strong economic case for China to curb its reliance on coal according to a major new report which argues that the country's reliance on the fossil fuel costs the country $250bn a year in social and environmental impacts. The report from a coalition of Chinese academics and environmentalists including green groups Greenpeace, The WWF and The Energy Foundation, found that the wider impacts of coal mining and energy generation such as mining deaths, water and air pollution, ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
China coal 'true cost' at $250bn
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7694014.stm
BBC: China's coal industry has hidden annual costs of $250bn (Â£159bn) in terms of damage to health and the environment, a report by Chinese experts says. The report said pollution affected water, land and air around mines. It also said the burning of coal led to emissions of mercury and acid rain, and mining accidents killed nearly 3,800 people and injured many more in 2007. The report said coal prices would have to rise by around 25% to reflect the true cost to Chinese ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Climate bill 'to include planes'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7693875.stm
BBC: Aviation and shipping look set to be included in a government bill targeting cuts in greenhouse gases, to head off a rebellion by backbench MPs. MPs will vote later on a bill to enforce an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. More than 50 Labour MPs have backed an amendment calling for the law to cover emissions from planes and tankers. Ministers said the bill would "take into account" the two sectors, a move welcomed by environmental ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Climate inaction 'will worsen credit crisis'
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24559933-5009760,00.html?from=public_r ss
News.com.au: NICHOLAS Stern, one of the world's leading environmental economists, said today that the global economy will face a more severe downturn than the current crisis if it fails to halt climate change. Lord Stern, the author of a key climate change report and a former World Bank chief economist, said moves towards a low carbon economy should not be stifled by the fallout from the current economic downturn. "One thing we should have learned from this experience of the financial ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Asia, EU back 2009 climate deal
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/asia-eu-back-2009-climate-deal/ar ticle-176677?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: China, the EU and 23 other Asian nations have signed a declaration pledging to tackle climate change within the framework of UN-led negotiations that will wrap up at a major summit in Copenhagen in December 2009. "We call upon the international community to consider the most ambitious set of targets" for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reads a joint declaration signed in Beijing over the weekend (24-25 October) by the 45 nations that take part in regular summits organised ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Global airlines blast EU ETS decision
http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/global-airlines-blast-eu-ets-decision/ article-176679
EurActiv: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has condemned a decision by EU ministers to ignore the current economic downturn and approve a compromise deal on including aviation activities in the bloc's emission trading scheme (EU ETS). Background: In an effort to tackle aviation's small but fast-growing contribution to climate change, the Commission issued a legislative proposal in December 2006 to include the sector in the EU's emission trading scheme (EU ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
MEPs advance climate vote
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/meps-advance-climate-vote/article -176694?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: The Parliament has brought forward the date of a plenary vote on the EU's climate and energy proposals in what is widely seen as a strategic move to avoid being handed a fragile compromise between national governments that leaves MEPs little room for manoeuvre. On 3 and 4 December 2008, the full Parliament will vote on a package of four proposals, tabled by the Commission on 23 January this year to reduce the EU's CO2 emissions by 2020 while boosting the share of renewable energies to ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Economic impacts of alternative climate policy architectures
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/economic-impacts-alternative-clim ate-policy-architectures/article-176693?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: None of the currently proposed models for a global climate agreement are strong enough to keep global warming below the temperature target of two degrees envisaged by the EU, but they differ greatly in respect of their environmental, economic and distributional consequences, argue researchers from the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in a new CESifo Working Paper. Warning of the dire consequences of climate change and the need for international cooperation, the October paper by Valentina ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Cap and trade in America: US climate policy at a crossroads
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/cap-trade-america-us-climate-poli cy-crossroads/article-176710?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: "The EU has been the sole leader in climate protection so far, but the US should soon join in," says Klaus Deutsch in a July paper for Deutsche Bank Research, pointing out that the Senate has begun preparations for a wide-ranging climate bill. Deutsch claims that the US Senate initiated an unprecedented debate on a "radical" climate protection policy, explaining how it has been working on a Climate Security Act, which would represent a significant US contribution to fighting global ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Arctic Sea Ice Is Getting Thinner As Well As Receding
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081027200309.htm
ScienceDaily: Last winter, the thickness of sea ice in large parts of the Arctic fell by nearly half a metre (19 per cent) compared with the average thickness of the previous five winters. This followed the dramatic 2007 summer low when Arctic ice extent dropped to its lowest level since records began. Up until last winter, the thickness of Arctic sea ice showed a slow downward trend during the previous five winters, but after the summer 2007 record low extent, the thickness of the ice also ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
The rules governing green energy need to be tightened up. But the smaller end of the m
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/28/renewableenergy-utiliti es
Guardian: In "The great green electricity con" Fred Pearce is right to point out the greenwashing going on among many of the UK's large electricity suppliers. However, by deliberately ignoring the independent generation and supply sectors, he tars all renewable electricity suppliers with the same brush and taints the whole sector. The electricity industry in this country is dominated by a handful of large players. As his article shows, the percentage of renewable electricity offered in ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Duke scales back solar ambitions amidst monopoly fears
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229203/duke-scales-back-s olar
Business Green: US utility Duke Energy has been forced to scale back its $100,000 plan for distributed solar energy generation on rooftops following negative reactions from the North Carolina Public Utilities Commission and local businesses including Wal-Mart. The utility, which announced plans in June to install $100,000 of solar panels on residential and commercial rooftops, has now proposed a scaled-down version of the plan, after concerns were raised about the cost of the proposals and the ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Prince Charles says climate crisis trumps economy
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2008/10/28/prince_charles_sa ys_climate_crisis_trumps_economy/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: Britain's Prince Charles said Tuesday the current financial crisis should not distract from the larger issue of global warming. "The credit crunch is rightly a preoccupation of vast significance and importance. But we take our eye off the climate crunch at our peril," he said in a speech at a science museum in Tokyo. The heir to the British throne is visiting the world's second-largest economy for the first time since 1970, and his arrival coincides with plunging global markets ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Oregon governor outlines climate change agenda
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/10/28/oregon_governor_outli nes_climate_change_agenda/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: Oregon's governor unwrapped an ambitious 2009 legislative climate change package with proposals for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for homes and buildings by 2030, with benchmarks to be sure the goal is reached. Gov. Ted Kulongoski also wants to replace the $1,500 tax credit on hybrid vehicles with a $5,000 credit on all-electric cars and to fund energy efficiency for 800 low-income homes a year. Oregon already is the highest per-capita user of hybrid cars in the nation, he ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Report - zero carbon global economy possible by 2090
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229215/report-global-zero -carbon
Business Green: The world's energy needs could be met entirely from renewable sources by 2090, according to a major new study from Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC). The 210-page report, entitled Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook, argues that improvements in energy efficiency could slash energy requirements in half compared to business as usual scenarios, enabling renewable technologies to meet the remaining energy requirements. The study says ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
GDF Suez snaps up Econergy as offset market consolidation continues
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2229218/gdf-suez-snaps-eco nergy-offset
Business Green: The consolidation of the global carbon offset market stepped up a notch yesterday, after Goldman Sachs' purchase of a stake in US offset specialist Blue Source was followed by news that French energy giant GDF SUEZ Energy International has all but completed its long-running takeover of carbon reduction project operator Econergy International. Suez tabled a £39m bid for UK-listed Econergy back in June, gazumping a £27m bid from carbon trading specialist Trading Emissions ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Australia: Emissions kill off coral larvae: study
http://news.theage.com.au/national/emissions-kill-off-coral-larvae-study-20 081028-5a5i.html
AAP: Carbon dioxide emissions have the potential to kill off coral larvae used to build the Great Barrier Reef, a new study has found. The research, conducted by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the University of Queensland, has concluded that earlier studies may underestimate the likely damage to coral reefs caused by man-made change to the atmosphere. In an experiment conducted on Heron Island, off the coast of Queensland, researchers simulated CO2 and temperature ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Australia: Green group wants stop to more Qld coal mines
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/28/2403301.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The environmental group Friends of the Earth says no more coal mines should be approved in Queensland. Spokeswoman Emma Brindal says Queensland coal produces about 378 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, more than double the state's total emissions for energy, transport and agriculture. Ms Brindal says the coal mined by the proposed Hancock project in the Galilee Basin would be used to fuel coal-fired power stations. "The burning of coal is actually the ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Indonesia: Don't let the financial crisis cause environmental catastrophe
http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailfeatures.asp?fileid=20081028.R03&irec=2
Jakarta Post: The media bombardment on the global economic crisis has left us in no doubt that the impacts will be deep and far reaching. Newspapers, radio and television are hammering home the dismal details of how the situation is going to affect jobs, pensions, savings and the like. But there's all too little mention of what this might mean for the environment. My fear is that we are going to allow a financial crisis to turn into a ecological catastrophe. With an election looming, ...

Wed, 29 Oct 08
Google looking to invest in energy sector: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE49R0QX20081028
Reuters: Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc is increasingly looking at the energy sector as a potential business opportunity, the New York Times reported. Engineers at Google are hoping to soon unveil tools that could help consumers make better decisions about their energy use, the paper said. To support these efforts, Google has hired engineers who are conducting research in renewable energy, former government energy officials, scientists and even a former NASA ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Vietnam: Mekong nations save forests to help fight climate change
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=08SOC281008
Viet Nam News: Experts from six Mekong River nations yesterday agreed that preserving forests was one of the most effective measures to fight the impacts of global climate change. The representatives from Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, China, Laos and Myanmar discussed ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation at a workshop that opened in Ha Noi. The workshop, co-hosted by Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the University of Queensland ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Finland: Endangered Saimaa seal threatened by fishing, climate change
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hBlvbVl8nNwetbTuAnCuyhCdgALg
Agence France-Presse: The rare Saimaa ringed seal, which lives only in Finland and whose population is estimated at just 260, is increasingly threatened by fishermen's nets and the melting of its icy habitat due to climate change, experts say. The seal lives only in Finland's biggest lake, Lake Saimaa, in the eastern part of the country. It is a subspecies of the ringed seal that became a fresh water mammal some 9,500 years ago when ice melted after the ice age and it became trapped in the lake. It ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Climate change laws to force companies to reveal pollution levels
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3270430/Climate-change-laws-to-force -companies-to-reveal-pollution-levels.html
Telegraph: The Climate Change Bill to be debated in the House of Commons on Tuesday will commit the UK to cutting greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050. An amendment put down by the government will also require all companies to publicly reveal their greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. Joan Ruddock, climate change minister, said the measure would ensure business goes green. "This will allow companies to demonstrate their green credentials and provide transparency for investors and ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
United Kingdom: MPs set to back climate change Bill
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV-MaOIT0w-jTFO9jxWeaKeW_IBw
Press Association: MPs are expected to give their support to a "world class" climate change law which will make the UK the first country to bring in legally-binding targets to cut emissions. The Government is expected to table measures to include international aviation and shipping in the Climate Change Bill when MPs vote on a series of amendments to the legislation. Ministers have already agreed to strengthen the long-term target for the Bill, which will now commit the UK to cutting its ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
United States: Troubling toll in Thoreau's backyard
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/10/28/troubling_toll_in _thoreaus_backyard/
Boston Globe: In the 1850s, a few years after he had gone to "live deliberately" in a cabin in the woods at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau began to compile detailed records on hundreds of species of plants in his beloved Concord. Those same data now are being used to measure the effect of climate change, and the news is not good, researchers said yesterday. Scientists from Boston University and Harvard reported that 27 percent of the species documented by Thoreau have disappeared, and another 36 ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Group To Cut Spending, Wind Power Growth
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50785/story.htm
Reuters: FPL Group, the largest operator of wind-power generation in the United States, said Monday it would slash its 2009 spending because of the economic slump, reducing its wind turbine additions. The company said it would cut 2009 planned capital expenditures nearly 25 percent to $5.3 billion and add 1,100 megawatts in new wind-power generation rather than the 1,500 megawatts it originally had planned. "Current planning allows the flexibility to quickly ramp plans up or down as ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Nuclear Power No Panacea For Poor Nations - IAEA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50783/story.htm
Reuters: Nuclear energy is undergoing a worldwide renaissance, but poor nations yearning to develop need to realize that it is no panacea to profound poverty, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday. After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, many governments questioned the value of nuclear power. Some European countries, like Austria and Germany, decided to wean themselves off nuclear energy. But issues like global warming and the ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Spain Probes Wind, Solar Power Subsidy Claims
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50777/story.htm
Reuters: Spain's energy watchdog, the National Energy Commission (CNE) will inspect solar parks in the renewables energy-dependent country to verify they met deadlines that entitle them to subsidies, the CNE said. Spain has boosted renewable energy in recent years to cut its heavy dependence on oil and gas imports, but has scaled down "feed-in" tariffs designed to gradually make wind and solar competitive with conventional generators. An Industry Ministry official said the energy ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
EU Moves To Crack Down On Illegal Logging Trade
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50768/story.htm
Reuters: EU farm ministers on Monday broadly welcomed plans to crack down on the lucrative illegal timber trade by making exporters obtain licences to prove their wood does not come from endangered rainforests. Ministers will negotiate the proposals in detail over the next few months, after a discussion in which some voiced concern over the plan's costs for business and others said the scheme was long overdue. The proposals, drafted by the EU's executive Commission, would oblige ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
China sets price for cooperation on climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49R10T20081028?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: China wants rich countries to commit 1 percent of their economic worth to help poor nations fight global warming, and will press for a new international mechanism to spread "green" technology worldwide. Unveiling the demands on Tuesday, a senior Chinese official for climate change policy, Gao Guangsheng, said the financial turmoil rattling the global economy should not deter a big increase in funds and technology to poor nations. "Developing countries should take action, but a ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Rising CO2 accelerates coral bleaching: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49R0YE20081028?feedTy pe=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Rising carbon dioxide levels in the world's oceans due to climate change, combined with rising sea temperatures, could accelerate coral bleaching, destroying some reefs before 2050, says a new Australian study. The study says earlier research may have significantly understated the likely damage to the world's reefs caused by man-made change to the Earth's atmosphere. "Previous predictions of coral bleaching have been far too conservative, because they didn't factor in the ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Air travel may be powered by biofuels in 3-5 years
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1027-aviation.html
Mongabay: Boeing says biofuel-powered planes are only three-to-five years away from being a reality, reports The Guardian. "The certification will happen much sooner than anybody thought," Darrin Morgan, Boeing's director of environmental business analysis, told the newspaper. "We are thinking that within three to five years we are going to see approval for commercial use of biofuels - and possibly sooner." Morgan said that while future jets will be capable of running on biofuels, supply ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
United States: Amphibians in US park 'in decline'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7693381.stm
BBC: Amphibian populations at Yellowstone - the world's oldest national park - are in steep decline, a major study shows. The authors link this to the drying out of wetlands where the animals live and breed, which is in turn being driven by long-term climate change. The results, reported in the journal PNAS, suggest that climate warming has already disrupted one of the best-protected ecosystems on Earth. The park covers some 9,000 sq km (3,500 sq miles) in the western United ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
United Kingdom: More than 30 arrests at Aldermaston anti-nuclear protest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/28/anti-nuclear-aldermaston-protes t-disarmament
Guardian: More than 30 people were arrested yesterday during one of the biggest anti-nuclear protests at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston for 10 years. The gates of the site were blocked as people attached themselves to concrete blocks which had to be broken apart by police. Others climbed scaffolding or lay in the road at the demonstration by about 400 people to mark the start of the UN World Disarmament Week. They were protesting against a decision to modernise the Aldermaston ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Guatamala: Could climate change and economic collapse consign us to the same fate as the Mayans?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/28/climatechange-population
Guardian: The ruins lie silent and abandoned in the heart of the jungle; blocks of stone surrendered to the vines, which twist and writhe over temples, plazas and pyramids. Weeds and forest creatures have colonised the inner sanctums; mahogany and cedar trees swallow what once were roads, blotting out the sun. This is Tikal, the ancient Mayan city of northern Guatemala. There was a time when tens of thousands of people lived here. The architecture and urban planning - there are epic monuments, ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Big decline in depth of Arctic winter sea ice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/28/arctic-ice-climate-change -thinning
Guardian: The thickness of sea ice in the Arctic dramatically declined last winter for the first time since records began in the early 1990s. The research by British scientists shows a significant loss in the thickness of the northern ice cap after the record loss of ice in the summer of 2007, although the weather was not abnormally warm. The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, raise the possibility that the loss of the Arctic sea ice could accelerate, because as ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Reviled firms lead European corporate responsibility list
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/28/corporate-responsibility-bri tish-american-tobacco
Guardian: Some of Europe's most commonly criticised companies, including British American Tobacco and Royal Dutch Shell, have been named as leaders in the field of corporate responsibility reporting. Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the banks bailed out by the government, Nestlé, which was boycotted for years over the marketing of its baby milk, and mining groups BHP Billiton and Xstrata are also among 11 companies named as the best of the 50 biggest publicly listed firms in Europe. The ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Models Help Assess Biofuels' Sustainability
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081013195322.htm
ScienceDaily: Many agricultural products can be converted into feedstocks for alternative fuel. Now analysis from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) suggests that they can be used this way without reducing the nation's food supply, soil production capacity or environmental quality. ARS scientists are collaborating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and USDA's Natural Resources ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Swans stay in 'warm' Siberia
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/swans-stay-in-warm- siberia-975515.html
Independent: The arrival of thousands of swans fleeing plunging temperatures in their breeding grounds in western Siberia is usually one of the first signs that winter is on its way in Britain. But wildlife experts are reporting that the swans' 1,800-mile mid-October migration has so far failed tomaterialise, with climate change turning the once famously harsh Russian region into a more inviting winter haven for the majestic birds. Some 300 Bewick's swans -- of the 8,000 or so which usually ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
United Kingdom: Families sought for new trial of electric cars
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5027579.ece#cid=OT C-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Families willing to exchange their petrol or diesel car for one that plugs into the mains are being sought to take part in a Government trial of electric vehicles. They will have to be prepared to run the risk that the car's battery will run flat during a journey and then take several hours to recharge. In return, they will enjoy running costs of about 2p a mile, discounts on congestion charges and the satisfaction of knowing that their electric cars will be emitting less than ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Financial Aspect to Google's Environmental Goals Grows
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=109191
New York Times: Google, the Internet search and advertising giant, is increasingly looking to the energy sector as a potential business opportunity. From its beginning, the company has invested millions of dollars in making its own power-hungry data centers more efficient. Its philanthropic arm has made small investments in clean energy technologies. But in recent weeks, Eric E. Schmidt, Google`s chief executive, has hinted at the company`s broad interest in the energy business. He also joined ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Thoreau Is Rediscovered as a Climatologist
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=109190
New York Times: Henry David Thoreau endorsed civil disobedience, opposed slavery and lived for two years in a hut in the woods here, an experience he described in 'Walden.' Now he turns out to have another line in his résumé: climate researcher. He did not realize it, of course. Thoreau died in 1862, when the industrial revolution was just beginning to pump climate-changing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In 1851, when he started recording when and where plants flowered in Concord, he was ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Arctic ice thickness 'plummets'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7692963.stm
BBC: The thickness of Arctic sea ice "plummeted" last winter, thinning by as much as 49 centimetres (1.6ft) in some regions, satellite data has revealed. A study by UK researchers showed that the ice thickness had been fairly constant for the previous five winters. The team from University College London added that the results provided the first definitive proof that the overall volume of Arctic ice was decreasing. The findings have been published in the journal Geophysical ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Yellowstone amphibians in decline due to climate change
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1026-yellowstone.html
Mongabay: Climate change appears to be responsible for a "marked drop" in the population of three of four species of amphibian once common to Yellowstone National Park, the world's oldest national park, report researchers writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using surveys and remote sensing to monitor and record changes in wetlands in northern Yellowstone National Park, Sarah McMenamin of Stanford University and colleagues linked declining amphibian populations to drier ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Biofuels or Food?: Can Crops Feed Our Cars--And the Hungry?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=biofuels-or-food
Scientific American: Humanity has enjoyed an unusual streak of food surplus since the green revolution began in the mid-1960s. These trends sustained economic development and a significant reduction in global hunger and poverty. A sharp reversal is now possible, however, given strong economic growth in the world's most populous countries and loss of suitable cropland. People with rising incomes consume more meat and livestock products, which in turn requires more grain per unit of food produced. The rapid ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
We did it, we can undo it
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/27/opinion/edlovejoy.php
International Herald Tribune: In the course of Earth's history, life collectively has had a strong influence on atmosphere and climate. It has helped shape both, and has been shaped by both. Today atmospheric and climate changes are driven by a single species - ourselves - and they are happening very rapidly. One of the principal elements in this is carbon, the most basic of the building blocks of living organisms. When we burn fossil fuels, we release solar energy captured by ancient green plants and ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
The Clean Air Act: Jump-starting climate action
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/27/network
Guardian: The urgency of the current situation cannot be overemphasized: The latest scientific research tells us that global warming is accelerating at a rate beyond previous expectations, and that the window for a timely response is closing quickly. Despite some political efforts to muddy the waters, there is scientific agreement that greenhouse gas emissions must now be stabilized within seven years or the world will face unpredictable climate-related catastrophes -- far beyond the serious impacts ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
'Ambitious' climate change bill
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hF6W1OJPPN4bUZG88G4scUPme6KQ
Press Association: New legislation will put Scotland at the forefront of global action on climate change, the Scottish Government said. Finance secretary John Swinney set out a plan to strengthen the forthcoming climate change bill. It will include international aviation and shipping within its targets, as well as emissions from all six greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide. The measures were first announced at the recent SNP conference. Ministers claim it will be the most ambitious ...

Tue, 28 Oct 08
Microbiology has much to offer climate change science
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/microbiology-has-much- to-offer-climate-change-scie.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campai gn=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Rising temperatures, which promote algal blooms and the spread of pathogens, are setting a new agenda for microbiologists, says Bernard Dixon. In reporting and debating climate change impacts and solutions, the popular media tends to focus on researchin climatology, ecology, meteorology, and computer modelling. But given that microorganisms play diverse roles in driving some of the largest-scale phenomena on the planet -- from photosynthesis and n