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Sat, 31 Jan 09
Ocean islands fuel productivity and carbon sequestration through natural iron fertilization
http://www.physorg.com/news152538900.html
Physorg: An experiment to study the effects of naturally deposited iron in the Southern Ocean has filled in a key piece of the puzzle surrounding iron's role in locking atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ocean. The research, conducted by an international team led by Raymond Pollard of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, and included Matthew Charette, a marine chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), found that natural iron fertilization enhanced the export of carbon ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Batteries drive everything
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013003741.html
Washington Post: Two big batteries stand side by side at the General Motors testing lab in Warren, Mich. One is an artifact, built a dozen years ago. Weighing 1,200 pounds, it could fill the back of a large pickup truck. Standing on one end, it towers over GM's Robert A. Kruse, executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids and electric vehicles. The other battery is new and produces the same amount of energy but is a relatively trim 400 pounds. It comes up just past Kruse's ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Australia: Activists push 'people power' on climate
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=547875
AAP: Hundreds of activists have gathered in Canberra to organise some "people power" on climate change. More than 500 people turned up on Saturday for a four-day summit to set out what Australia should be doing on climate change, and how to force more action from governments. "This is about the people taking the power back into their own hands on climate change," said summit co-organiser Louise Morris. "In lieu of any real action on climate change, the people of Australia are ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Indo-German 'ocean fertilisation' draws flak
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15709225
Merinews: A JOINT experiment by German and Indian scientists called 'ocean fertilisation' or LOHAFEX is underway at the southern ocean to mitigate climate change. In the experiment, Germany's Alfred Wagener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Goa, India are involved. Under the experiment an area of 300 sq km of the ocean is being 'fertilised' with 20 tonnes of dissolved iron sulphate. The experiment will verify hypothesis that ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Global Warming Affecting U.S. From Coast To Coast
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-faqman0201-ylif.artfeb01,0,5607610.story
Hartford Courant: Q: Which parts of the United States are or will be hardest hit by global warming? A: It's difficult to predict which areas of the U.S. will suffer the most from global warming, but it's safe to say no regions will be unaffected. Scientists already point to increased severity of hurricanes on the East Coast, major Midwest floods and shrinking glaciers in the West as proof of global warming's onset. Of course, America couldn't have asked for a better poster child in the ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
California's 'Green Jobs' Experiment Isn't Going Well
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123336500319935517.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was all smiles in 2006 when he signed into law the toughest anti-global-warming regulations of any state. Mr. Schwarzenegger and his green supporters boasted that the regulations would steer California into a prosperous era of green jobs, renewable energy, and technological leadership. Instead, since 2007 -- in anticipation of the new mandates -- California has led the nation in job losses. The regulations created a cap-and-trade system, similar to proposed ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
The Next Step on Warming
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=117006
New York Times: It seemed that every chance he got, President Bush ignored or flat out refused to address the problem of climate change. So we were greatly encouraged by President Obama`s swift announcement that he is likely to approve California`s request to regulate greenhouse gases from vehicles -- a request the Bush administration denied. The logical next step would be for Mr. Obama to quickly address the Supreme Court`s 2007 decision ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to examine the ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Rising Acidity Is Threatening Food Web of Oceans, Science Panel Says
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=117005
New York Times: The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing a substantial portion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. But this benefit has a catch: as the gas dissolves, it makes seawater more acidic. Now an international panel of marine scientists says this acidity is accelerating so fast it threatens the survival of coral reefs, shellfish and the marine food web generally. The panel, comprising 155 scientists from 26 countries and other international groups, is not ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Once-in-century Australian heatwave claims lives, homes
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5igDwCvuj1O5hieNg__8-ipmESs-g
Agence France-Presse: Australia's second-largest city Melbourne was struggling to cope Saturday with a once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed dozens of lives and sparked wildfires that have razed up to 20 homes. More than 500,000 houses and businesses in the city of five million were left without power on Friday night after an electrical substation exploded in the heat. Emergency services were stretched to breaking point as dozens of people succumbed to heat-induced ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Japan to set new reduction target for greenhouse gases by June
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090131p2a00m0na021000c.html
Mainichi Daily News: Japan will set a new reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 sometime by June, Prime Minister Taro Aso was to announce at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The government has never specified a deadline for setting the reduction target until now. In his 30-minute speech, Aso was to announce Japan's intention to set a medium-term target for emissions reductions by June for the first time, along with three measures to address the global finance and ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Giant Antarctic ice sheet hangs by an icy thread
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Global_Warming/Giant_Antarctic_ice_sheet_hangs_by_an_icy_thread/articleshow/4056972.cms
Asian News International: The Wilkins Ice Shelf, a giant Antarctic ice sheet, is literally hanging by an icy thread, and can break-off anytime. According to a report in stuff.co.nz, if it goes, the Wilkins Ice Shelf, which is the size of Jamaica, would become the 10th Antarctic ice shelf to recede or vanish into the sea since 1950. Scientists think the loss of Antarctic ice shelves such as Wilkins will let inland glaciers slide to the ocean faster, pumping vast quantities of ice into the sea and ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Why climate change matters in the downturn
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5625676.ece
Times (UK): I've been at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week and there has been much talk of leadership and what we need to do to get out of this economic crisis. Oxfam's solution, at first glance, may seem kind of counter-intuitive. Because, at a time when many people are worrying about whether they will be able to pay next month's rent and governments are focused on bailing out the banks, Oxfam is advocating massive investment in strategies to combat climate change and calling for billions of ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
What Is to Be Done About Global Warming? McKinsey Has an Answer
http://www.climatebiz.com/blog/2009/01/30/what-is-be-done-about-global-warming
ClimateBiz: The very brainy people at McKinsey & Co. have figured out how we can to cope with global warming. All we have to do is: 1. Make buildings, cars, trucks, trains planes and factories a whole lot more energy efficient. 2. Generate 70 percent of global electricity from low-carbon fuels, including wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and so-called clean coal which doesn't (yet) exist. 3. Avoid the deforestation of 170 million hectares of forest, equivalent to twice the ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Davos experts call for multilateral linking of economy, climate
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/davos-experts-call-multilateral-linking-economy-climate/article-179008?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: 2009 presents a diplomatic opportunity for governments of major economies to mobilise "unprecedented public-private collaboration" to address climate change as part of a wider economic growth agenda, participants in the World Economic Forum stated yesterday (29 January). Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Lord Nicholas Stern and many senior business and NGO representatives issued a statement at the forum's annual meeting in ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Australia heatwave eases a little, fires burning
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50S0OA20090131?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A heatwave blamed for raging bushfires and a spate of deaths eased a little in Australia's densely populated southeast on Saturday, but a ban on lighting fires in the open remained in force. Temperatures slipped below 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in most major centers for the first time in several days, but parts of Melbourne and Adelaide still recorded temperatures above that mark. Although the bushfires had subsided somewhat, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United States: Utilities turn their customers green, with envy
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=116993
New York Times: A frowny face is not what most electric customers expect to see on their utility statements, but Greg Dyer got one. He earned it, the utility said, by using a lot more energy than his neighbors. "I have four daughters; none of my neighbors has that many children," said Mr. Dyer, 49, a lawyer who lives in Sacramento. He wrote back to the utility and gave it his own rating: four frowny faces. Two other Sacramento residents, however, Paul Geisert and his wife, Mynga ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Help wanted for green jobs
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090216/featherstone
Nation: "I said, 'I see windmills,' and everyone kind of gave me a strange look." Vicky Sloan, a humanities professor at Clinton Community College, which serves a rural region in upstate New York, is describing a "visualization" session with a touchy-feely outside consultant, forced on the faculty several years ago by the administration. The consultant had asked the professors to close their eyes and picture their institution's future. "It was so Dilbert," interjects Sloan's close friend June Foley, ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Green on green
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13032525
Economist: FOR all its stirring rhetoric, the government's record on renewable energy is poor. Geographically, Britain is ideally placed, enjoying (or enduring) some of the windiest weather and heaviest seas of any European country. Yet in 2005 (believe it or not, the most recent year for which comparable figures are available) Britain got less than 2% of its energy from renewable sources (mostly wind). This was considerably below the European average of 6.7% and far behind countries such as Denmark ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United States: What's emitted in Tahoe, stays in Tahoe
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20090130/NEWS/901309978/1066&ParentProfile=1051&title=What%92s%20emitted%20in%20Tahoe,%20stays%20in%20Tahoe
Sierra Sun: It's like they say, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." The same is true for pollutants in the Tahoe Basin, says Thomas Cahill, the air quality expert for the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 9 Sierra Nevada Public Land Management Association, and member of the University of California at Davis "Delta Group" that regularly audits Tahoe's most challenging environmental issues. During the winter months, an inversion layer traps a pocket of warm air in valley areas ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
New nuclear reactor's waste is seven times more hazardous, Greenpeace exposes
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/new-nuclear-reactor-s-waste-is
Greenpeace: Greenpeace has uncovered evidence that nuclear waste from the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), the flagship of the nuclear industry, will be up to seven times more hazardous than waste produced by existing nuclear reactors, increasing costs and the danger to health and the environment. The revelation comes soon after President Sarkozy's decision to build a second EPR in France. The alarming evidence was buried in the environmental impact assessment report from Posiva, the ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Malaysia: Worst dengue outbreak
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_332549.html
Straits Times: Malaysia is going through its worst dengue outbreak ever, health officials said yesterday, with higher rainfall and public apathy being blamed for encouraging the widespread breeding of the Aedes mosquito. In the first 28 days of this year alone, 14 people have died and 5,062 cases have been recorded. This compares with five deaths and 2,855 cases in the same period last year. 'This is the worst outbreak ever,' Health Ministry director-general Ismail Merican told reporters ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Disease, aided by global warming, threatens coral reefs
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2009/01/30/title-186?blog=53
Cape Cod Today: The coral reefs of the Caribbean, an underwater paradise of life and color, are legendary for their beauty around the world. Scientist James Cervino, who does research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, sees global warming as a key culprit in an environmental crime that's turning the paradise of coral reefs into a dead zone. But there's trouble in paradise. And a scientist who does research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution sees global warming as a key ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Wind: Embracing America's Fastest-Growing Form of Renewable Energy
http://www.alternet.org/environment/118047/wind:_embracing_america%27s_fastest-growing_form_of_renewable_energy/
E Magazine: Using the wind to produce electricity has, for many decades, been little more than a footnote to energy production in the U.S. Wind turbines were something one dreamed about building while flipping through the back pages of Popular Mechanics. Even a few years back, wind was considered a minor power source, despite success stories in several European countries. But that's all changed. In 2007, 35 percent of all the new electricity generation installed in the U.S. -- over 5,200 ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Brazil: Rainforest razed so cattle can graze
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/rainforest-razed-so-cattle-can-graze-1521677.html
Independent: Scenes like this, with vast tracts of Amazonian rainforest razed to make way for cattle, are to become more common in Brazil as it continues its drive to expand its beef export industry, according to environmentalists. Green activists say that country's determination to double its share of the world beef market is likely to undermine its new targets for halting Amazon rainforest destruction and reducing carbon emissions. The South American country has the world's largest cattle ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United States: Iowa's green energy policy struggle
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7861686.stm
BBC: The presence of prairie winds and rich soil makes Iowa literally fertile ground for developing alternative energy sources from wind turbines and biofuels. Iowa invested $6m in wind turbine manufacturing But the landscape is also a reminder that achieving energy independence is a formidable challenge and making an agricultural economy green is not easy. Farm workers cannot take subways to work, farmers have to drive long distances into the fields to sow and harvest their ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Brazil: Amazonians Make Plea for Forest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20090130/wl_oneworld/world3598451233354476
OneWorld: Indigenous leaders from the Amazon basin are calling for intense international scrutiny of the massive abuse of their land, including deforestation, which is making them increasingly vulnerable to the devastating effects of global warming. "We are the custodians of the forest," said Marco Apurina, an indigenous activist associated with COIAB, an umbrella group representing an array of native rights organizations in South America. "The Amazon rainforest needs everyone to work together ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Canada: Harper must act on climate, Charest says
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090130.wPOLcharest0130/BNStory/politics/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090130.wPOLcharest0130
Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government must catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to environmental policy, Quebec Premier Jean Charest said Friday. Mr. Charest said the federal government will have to take a more aggressive approach to climate change. Environment Minister Jim Prentice, however, said Canada is doing that. Mr. Charest said the Prime Minister has no choice, given the determination of U.S. President Barack Obama and a number of countries to ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Indonesia aims to wrap up forest-carbon rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-BusinessofGreen/idUSTRE50T0Y220090130
Reuters: Indonesia hopes to lay out a clear set of regulations before June on using carbon credits to protect rainforests so the rules can be discussed in upcoming international talks, a top climate official said. The United Nations has backed a scheme called REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, in which developing nations could potentially earn billions of dollars from selling carbon credits in return for saving their forests. Investors from banks to forestry ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
5 coal-fired power plants studying carbon capture
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28910695/
Associated Press: Five coal-fired power plants in the U.S. and Canada, including one in central North Dakota, are studying the feasibility of retrofits to capture and store carbon dioxide, a nonprofit industry research group says. Electric Power Research Institute said studies are being done at Great River Energy's Coal Creek Station near Underwood, and at plants in Illinois, Utah, Ohio and Nova Scotia. The group said the research could help guide development of future power plants and how they deal ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Climate change may drain American Great Lakes in future
http://www.dailyindia.com/show/294442.php
Asian News International: A new study has opened up the possibility that climate change may lead to the Great Lakes in the US getting all dried up in the future. The Great Lakes have long been a bastion of stability, with water hovering at about the same level for as long as anyone can remember. But, according to a report in Discovery News, a new study shows that climate change once pushed lake levels far below where they are now. That opens up the possibility that future climate change might do the ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Indonesia: Govt may give subsidy for biofuels
http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailbusiness.asp?fileid=20090130.L01&irec=0
Jakarta Post: The government is proposing a subsidy for biofuel in an attempt to promote the use and distribution of this form of renewable energy. Energy Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro submitted this plan in a hearing on Thursday with the House of Representative commission VII, which oversees energy and mineral resources. Under the plan, the government will give the subsidy to state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina as the sole distributor of the fuel. Pertamina ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United States: Gregoire says emissions plan would also create jobs
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008687632_carbon30m.html
Seattle Times: As Washington's economy reels, Gov. Chris Gregoire sent state lawmakers a plan she said would create new high-tech jobs while clamping down on greenhouse-gas pollution. The proposal, in bills introduced in the state House and Senate, would make Washington one of the first states to embrace broad limits on carbon dioxide and other emissions linked to global warming. Gregoire said forcing businesses to confront greenhouse-gas pollution would help propel the state's economy toward ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Rainforest finance - Valuing trees not timber
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=6306
Ethical Corporation: Valuing trees not timber Including forests in global carbon markets could save tropical regions, providing local people are on board The idea that markets can save the planet remains a controversial one. But support for market-based mechanisms that put a price on harming the environment, and so create value for protecting it, is rightly growing worldwide. This logic underpins the carbon markets. One of the most exciting developments in this area is the move to unlock the value ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Global warming on agenda in Davos
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iEo-ELz7-ZRus6HiN6hzfpQH5g3A
Press Association: The World Economic Forum settled back into even-tempered discussion of global warming, help for Africa and the faltering world economy, a day after Middle East tensions ruffled the elite gathering. An outburst by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had shocked the business and political leaders in Davos on Thursday night. Erdogan walked off the stage after trading accusations with Israeli President Shimon Peres about the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza that left 1,300 ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Isle greenhouse gas emissions up 23%
http://www.starbulletin.com/business/20090130_Isle_greenhouse_gas_emissions_up_23.html
Honolulu Star-Bulletin: Greenhouse gas emissions in Hawaii have jumped by nearly a quarter between 1990 and 2005, primarily from the use of fossil fuels, according to a report released today by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. Electrical power production and vehicle use have pushed the state's greenhouse gas emissions up by 23 percent in the 15 years ending in 2005 - the period of the organization's studies - with 91.4 percent of the emissions coming from the combustion of fossil ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Wind power 'key' benefit to isles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7860488.stm
BBC: Onshore wind projects offer the best economic and community benefit to the Western Isles, according to a Scottish Government report. It identifies potential for a 150 megawatt (MW) wind farm on North Lewis. Last year, Scottish ministers rejected a plan for a 181-turbine scheme on Barvas Moor, Lewis, designed to generate 651 MW of electricity. Angus Campbell, leader of the isles' council, said a target of 150 MW was "disappointing". The report's authors said there ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Norway plans $750 mln carbon technology centre
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSLU62914620090130
Reuters: The Norwegian government proposed on Friday to spend $750 million to build a centre for development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at oil and gas group StatoilHydro's (STL.OL) Mongstad refinery. Policymakers and industry have big hopes for CCS, which involves burying carbon dioxide (CO2) underground or below the seabed, as a means of fighting climate change. The government estimated investment costs of the new centre at 5.2 billion Norwegian crowns ($750.2 ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Ocean acidification is accelerating and severe damages are imminent
http://www.physorg.com/news152527254.html
Physorg: Urgent action is needed to limit damages to marine ecosystems, including coral reefs and fisheries, due to increasing ocean acidity, according to 155 of the world's scientific experts who will release the Monaco Declaration this Friday. The Declaration is based on results from the Second International Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2 World, held at the Oceanography Museum in Monaco last October and organised by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), UNESCO's ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Australia scorched by heat as 22 people die in just ONE city - with heatwave set to be worst in 100 years
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1132336/Australia-scorched-heat-22-people-die-just-ONE-city--heatwave-set-worst-100-years.html
Daily Mail: A record-breaking heat wave sweeping across southern Australia - with temperatures reaching 114F - is being blamed for the 'sudden deaths' of at least 22 people in one city alone. Authorities admit they have not seen so many deaths in one area associated with the heat in living memory, with medical experts fearing that those who died had probably succumbed to heart attacks and strokes. Fourteen pensioners are among 22 people who have died suddenly in the space of just 24 hours ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Preparing For Climate Change: Analyzing Genome Of Heat And Drought Resistant Cereal Plant
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090130084122.htm
ScienceDaily: The global climate is changing, and this change is already impacting food supply and security. People living in regions already affected by aridity need plants that can thrive / grow under dry conditions. One example is sorghum: Also known as milo, durra, or broomcorn, sorghum is a grass species that can grow up to five meters in height and is extremely resistant to aridity and hot conditions. The grass, which originates from Africa, can thrive under conditions and locations where ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Al Gore urges global action on climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/30/content_10738607.htm
Xinhua: Climate change is an urgent issue that needs a global solution, former U.S. vice president Al Gore said here Friday. "We are running out of time...we must have a planetary solution to a planetary crisis," the Nobel laureate told a session of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. His call for urgency came as world leaders prepare to meet at a United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of this year to set a global framework for tackling the ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Alberta's Tar Sands causes environment and public health havoc
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2009/01/30/03088.html
Canadian: The Tar Sands "Gigaproject" is the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive. The tar sands mining procedure releases at least three times the CO2 emissions as regular oil production and is slated to become the single largest industrial contributor in North America to Climate Change. The Tar Sands are already the cause of the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin. Currently approved projects will ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Oil price slump a challenge to Obama energy agenda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8335247
Reuters: A slide in oil prices may be good for consumers battered by the U.S. economic slowdown, but it could pose a challenge for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to revolutionize America's energy use. Obama's plan -- outlined during the campaign last year when oil prices hit a record $147 a barrel -- calls for doubling U.S. alternative energy use within three years while easing reliance on foreign oil. (To see a factbox on Obama's energy proposals, click ID:nN30365069) Oil ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Norway plans carbon capture project
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/01/30/business/EU-Norway-Carbon-Capture.php
Associated Press: Norway plans to build a 5.2 billion-kroner ($812 million) research center for developing technology to capture carbon dioxide from burned fossil fuels as a way of combating global warming, the oil minister announced Friday. "This is a milestone in developing technology for CO2 capture," said Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Riis-Johansen. "It is a difficult project, but it is crucial that we succeed because handling CO2 is a critical tool in fighting global warming." The ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Ocean acidification threatens NZ paua, mussels
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/41509/ocean-acidification-threatens-nz-paua-mussels
New Zealand Press Association: Global warming's evil twin, the increasing acidification of carbon dioxide-saturated oceans is threatening New Zealand's corals, crustaceans and shellfish. "Ocean acidification is accelerating, " Dunedin researcher Christina McGraw said. Dr McGraw said this rapid change in ocean chemistry meant that severe damage was imminent. Some of New Zealand's vulnerable organisms include economically important species such as mussels, oysters, and paua. "These all have ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Australia, Tasmania Swelter Under Record Heat, Burning Sands
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=azhijukc.hkU&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia, including its island state of Tasmania, sweltered under temperatures as high as 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit), even emptying Melbourne beaches after lifeguards said the sand was so hot it burned bathers' feet. Tennis players at the Australian Open in Melbourne endured the hottest stretch in recorded history, with the Victoria regional office reporting three straight days of 43-degree-plus heat. Tasmania, home to the endangered Tasmanian devil marsupial, ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Third of new homes failing to meet energy standards, warns expert
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/4402224/Third-of-new-homes-failing-to-meet-energy-standards-warns-expert.html
Telegraph: Philip Sellwood, the chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust, said the Government's sustainable buildings code - which sets gradually tightening limits on carbon dioxide emissions from new properties - was not being adequately enforced. He described the situation as a cause for "real concern" and said extra investment and action was needed. Gordon Brown has said that by 2016 every new home built in Britain will be carbon neutral, through improved energy efficiency and use of ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Ex-Tory adviser: UK politicians failing on climate change
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/foreign-policy/environment-and-rural-affairs/ex-tory-adviser-uk-politicians-failing-on-climate-change-$1260558.htm
Politics.co.uk: A former adviser to David Cameron has said none of Britain's leading politicians seem able to push through the changes in society needed to "radically decarbonise" the economy. Sustainability expert Jules Peck told politics.co.uk a "paradigm shift in society" is required to "radically decarbonise" the economy. "Right now the responses from politicians are looking really really poor on that challenge," he said. "At the moment... there's a very, very poor political discourse ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Push for climate deal as Obama lifts hopes
http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUKTRE50T2JY20090130
Reuters: Denmark's prime minister called on rich and poor countries alike to commit to big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of key year-end talks on a new climate treaty he will host in Copenhagen. Hopes that a deal may be possible have increased since the election of what many see as a "green" U.S. president and business is increasingly enthusiastic about the opportunities thrown up by climate change. "It is essential to engage heads of state and government stronger in the whole ...

Sat, 31 Jan 09
Davos plea: Don't forget poor during crisis
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ih7ekzGzHleDVPZdrK-i3cqG7sowD961MTEG0
Associated Press: The world's poor didn't have seats at the elite World Economic Forum, but the political and corporate leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland heard fervent appeals on their behalf -- to not forget the "bottom billion" even as governments strain budgets to bail out their financial systems. "Last year, we gathered here to declare 2008 the year of the bottom billion," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "These are the poorest people who live on less than a dollar a day, who are ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
EDPR upbeat about wind power under Obama
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINLN58135220090123
Reuters: Portugal's EDPR (EDPR.LS: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's fourth-biggest wind power company, with a big presence in the United States, sees "enormous political will" in President Barack Obama's administration to boost renewable power. Chief Executive Ana Maria Fernandes told Reuters in an interview on Friday, that EDP Renewables, a unit of Energias de Portugal (EDP.LS: Quote, Profile, Research), has been in touch with Obama's team, and recent discussions made it more optimistic ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
US state-level greenhouse gas reduction targets
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50M54B20090123
Reuters: U.S. states have taken the lead in setting greenhouse gas reduction targets in the absence of federal leadership on mandatory limits on the emissions scientists link to global warming. In stark contrast to the previous U.S. administration, President Barack Obama has said he favors cutting national emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Some of the state targets were passed through state legislatures and penalize the state if they are not ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Tree Deaths Double in Pine Forests in Western US, Canada
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=awISWUdE.YSA&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Old-growth forests once studded with pine, hemlock and fir trees are dying across the western U.S. and Canada at double the rate of a half-century ago in what scientists are blaming on climate change. Hobbled by rising temperatures, more frequent drought and a bark beetle infestation, 200-year-old forests from California to British Columbia are becoming more sparse, losing trees faster than they are replacing them, U.S. Geological Survey researcher Phillip van Mantgem said. The ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Japan launches orbiter to probe greenhouse gases
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i8SEG81tZR548fDRwrx_hTHF4z-wD95T1H2G0
Associated Press: Japan on Friday launched the first satellite to monitor greenhouse gases worldwide, a tool to help scientists better judge where global warming emissions are coming from, and how much is being absorbed by the oceans and forests. The orbiter, together with a similar U.S. satellite to be launched next month, will represent an enormous leap in available data on carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, now drawn from scattered ground stations. "I'm saying Christmas is here," ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
A Clean Coal Confrontation
http://www.newsweek.com/id/181143
Newsweek: Summary On the campaign trail, President Obama embraced the coal industry's vision of "clean coal" technology. But even before he took office, a coalition of environmental groups (including Al Gore's) launched ads ridiculing the idea as a myth: "In reality, there's no such thing as clean coal." We're sure to hear more of this debate in coming months. Burning coal creates large quantities of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent of the "greenhouse gases" that scientists say is ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Maryland governor to push bill cutting global warming pollution
http://baltimore.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2009/01/19/daily56.html?surround=lfn
Baltimore Business Journal: Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to reintroduce a bill to aggressively cut the state's greenhouse gas emissions. The bill -- sponsored by Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George's County and Del. Kumar Barve, D-Montgomery County -- would seek to cut the state's emissions, created by cars and industrial businesses and manufacturing plants, by 25 percent by 2020. 'In the current economic climate, under the new Obama administration, Maryland cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
United States: Atlanta claims nation's first 'carbon-neutral zone'
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/01/23/carbon_neutral_zone.html
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Think of it as the intersection of good times and good intentions. A new sign at the corner of Virginia and North Highland avenues proclaims the intown Atlanta shopping and dining district a 'carbon-neutral zone.' What it doesn`t say is that Virginia-Highland also claims to be the nation`s first such zone. While this could be seen as the latest chapter in the annals of green marketing -- another emission in all the talk about global warming -- there`s actually substance behind ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Europe to Ask Wealthy Nations to Adopt Carbon Trading System
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=116156
New York Times: The European Commission was preparing an appeal on Friday to wealthy countries -- and to the United States in particular -- to adopt carbon trading as one of the main mechanisms for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The Europeans are drafting their proposal as the United States enters a period of intense debate over the wisdom of adopting such market-based systems following the inauguration of President Obama. Mr. Obama endorsed a similar system to cap and trade carbon dioxide, ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Global warming tied to trees in west dying faster than ever
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/40322
San Francisco Chronicle: Trees are dying faster than ever in the old-growth forests of California and the mountains of the West, a phenomenon scientists say is linked to rising regional temperatures and the destructive forces of early snowmelt, drought, forest fires and deadly insect infestations brought on by global warming. Over the past 17 years in some regions -- and 25 to 37 years in others -- the death rates of mature trees have doubled, the scientists said, raising concerns that the problem goes well ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Obama's EPA Raises Objections to South Dakota Coal Power Plant
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZTtfqEwJpHQ&refer=home
Bloomberg: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed a hold on approval of a coal-fired power plant in South Dakota, a move environmental groups say indicates increased scrutiny under President Barack Obama. "This is a signal that the Obama administration is taking a much harder look at coal power from the previous administration," said Darrell Gerber, a program coordinator at Washington-based Clean Water Action, which along with the Sierra Club opposed the plant. The EPA said in a ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Australia: Turnbull promises better, cheaper plan to tackle climate change
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/turnbull-promises-better-cheaper-plan-to-tackle-climate-change/1415416.aspx
Canberra Times: Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull will today unveil a three-pronged plan to tackle climate change, which goes ''well beyond the Rudd Government's narrow, costly and overly complex'' emissions trading scheme. Incentives to improve energy efficiency in buildings, investment in new clean technology and ''biosequestration'' are cornerstones of the strategy that will also deliver ''large gains in agricultural productivity, environmental quality and energy security''. ''It is a plan ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Former London mayor expresses dismay at decision to back expansion of Heathrow airport
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/24/ken-livingstone-climate-change
Guardian: The former London mayor Ken Livingstone has rounded on the government over its "abysmal" record on climate change. Livingstone expressed his dismay at a decision by the transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, last week to back the expansion of Heathrow airport despite widespread protest from environmentalists and Labour MPs representing local constituencies opposed to the move. Speaking to the Guardian prior to a conference organised for his Progressive London alliance, Livingstone ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
EPA objects to coal plant,Sierra Club claims new day
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN23498088
Reuters: Environmentalists claimed on Friday that a new era regarding coal-fired power plants had arrived with the Obama administration after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency turned back South Dakota's approval of a big coal-fired power plant in that state because of pollution concerns. "EPA is signaling that it is back to enforcing long-standing legal requirements fairly and consistently nationwide," said Bruce Nilles, head of the Sierra Club's effort to stop coal power ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
World faces risks from climate change to China slump
http://in.reuters.com/article/globalCoverage3/idINIndia-37631320090124
Reuters: Deteriorating government finances, a plunge in China's economy and threats to food and health from climate change are among the major risks facing the world today, the World Economic Forum said on Tuesday. It also said there is great danger in the world's varied approaches to global governance -- essentially uncoordinated responses by governments to globally entwined problems. The report -- Global Risks 2009* -- was released by the WEF, a business and academic think tank, ahead ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Australia: Turnbull unveils climate change policy
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/global-warming/turnbull-unveils-climate-change-policy/2009/01/24/1232471644804.html
AAP: Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has unveiled a three-stage climate change policy saying an emissions trading scheme on its own is not enough. Mr Turnbull told a Young Liberals Federation conference in Canberra on Saturday the aim was to achieve annual reductions of carbon pollution of equivalent of at least 150 million tonnes by 2020. The Coalitions Green Carbon Initiative would offset greenhouse gases by biosequestration capturing and storing large quantities of ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
NASA study links severe storm increases, global warming
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_11539060
Pasadena Star-News: The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics - the type associated with severe storms and rainfall - is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. In a recent presentation at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, JPL Senior Research Scientist Hartmut Aumann outlined the results of a study based on five years of data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Europe Wants US to Join Carbon Trading Market
http://www.ajc.com/biz/content/shared-gen/nyt/business/c9b24aaf-8ae8-445c-8c96-8bef358d43d7.html
New York Times: The European Commission will call on the United States to create a trans-Atlantic system of carbon trading to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to press for the establishment of similar markets in developed countries, according to a draft document seen Friday by The International Herald Tribune. Under President Obama, the United States is entering a period of debate over whether to adopt such market-based systems or use a more straightforward tax to limit planet-warming gases from ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Australia: Turnbull reveals storage-focused climate change plan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/24/2473619.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has unveiled the Liberals' new climate change strategy which focuses on the potential of carbon capture and storage. Mr Turnbull has told the Young Liberals conference in Canberra that the Federal Government's climate change strategy has focused too narrowly on the emissions trading scheme and ignores other methods of reducing emissions. He says human involvement in climate changes is not a matter of ideology or belief but risk ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Raising the Bar on Fighting Climate Change
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1872497,00.html?xid=rss-health
Time Magazine: The Bush White House was so profoundly hostile to action on global warming that during its eight-year tenure, one could have qualified as a "green progressive" simply by asserting that climate change was real. In 2007, under these circumstances -- perhaps because of them -- was born an unlikely alliance between Duke Energy, a North Carolina-based utility that depends heavily on coal, and the Environmental Defense Fund, which together with 30 other green groups and major corporations, formed ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Biomass-burning 'behind Asian brown clouds'
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/biomass-burning-behind-asian-brown-clouds-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Burning biomass is the main cause of the dense 'brown clouds' that plague South Asia each winter, and both biomass and fossil fuel burning should be targeted to combat climate change and improve air quality. These are the conclusions of a study published today (23 January) in Science. The study, conducted at two sites in South Asia, attempted to find the main source of the carbon soot particles that comprise much of the clouds. While the brown cloud acts as a 'global dimmer' by ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Examining Climate Change On The Air
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99800039&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: What is the media's role in shaping public opinion on global warming and the environment? New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin talks with Ira Flatow about the changing climate of science reporting, and why local meteorologists may be delivering more than just the forecast.

Sat, 24 Jan 09
World's toughest wind turbines set to make debut off Germany's coast
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/23/wind-turbines
Guardian: After a decade in development, the toughest wind turbines ever built are ready to make their debut. The machines are the world's first designed specifically for the harsh and remote conditions of the sea and have been developed in Germany, by the French energy company Areva. The turbines have a new waterproofing system and a simplified and lighter design, which should mean they require fewer expensive maintenance visits and are cheaper and easier to install and maintain. The turbines ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
United States: Boise Region Grapples With Smog
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=116135
New York Times: The Caldwell Express sprints between this high-desert capital and its outermost exurb. The express bus seats 40 people, but sometimes it is standing room only for the 23-mile trip. And there is no reason to wait for the next bus: the Caldwell Express runs each way just once a day. 'If you don`t make it,' said Sonia Johnson, waiting at one of the main downtown bus stops on a recent day after work, 'you`re toast.' Despite the limited system, public transportation is taking on a ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
London mayor Boris Johnson dismisses environmental fears over Thames estuary airport plan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/23/boris-johnson-thames-airport
Guardian: Boris Johnson today urged political parties to look "seriously" at the option of a new airport in the Thames estuary. The London mayor made his appeal after taking a boat trip to the potential site earlier today. During the visit, he claimed the project would be "absolutely fantastic" from an environmental point of view. Johnson – accompanied by Nick Raynsford, the MP for Greenwich and Woolwich who chairs a new cross-party parliamentary group on the proposal - travelled ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Brown welcomes announcement of new nuclear sites
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234958/nuclear-sites-announced
Business Green: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) today announced that it is willing to provide land for new nuclear plants at Sellafield, Wylfa, Oldbury and Bradwell, removing another of the potential barriers to government plans for a new fleet of nuclear reactors. Speaking on a visit to the Sellafield plant in west Cumbria, prime minister Gordon Brown welcomed the NDA's decision arguing that a new generation of nuclear plants would provide a multi-billion pound boost to the UK economy ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
New Process Can Cut the Cost of Making Cellulosic Biofuels
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1627614/new_process_can_cut_the_cost_of_making_cellulosic_biofuels/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: A patented Michigan State University process to pretreat corn-crop waste before conversion into ethanol means extra nutrients don't have to be added, cutting the cost of making biofuels from cellulose. The AFEX (ammonia fiber expansion) pretreatment process, developed by Bruce Dale, University Distinguished Professor of chemical engineering and materials science, uses ammonia to make the breakdown of cellulose and hemicellulose in plants 75 percent more efficient than when ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
In Antarctica, Too, Temperatures On The Rise
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99800029&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Researchers report in the journal Nature that temperatures across Antarctica rose an average of 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. The study looked at 50 years of temperature data. Researcher Eric Steig explains why the warming trend wasn't detected until recently.

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Trees Dying In The Western U.S
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99800034&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Reporting in the journal Science, researchers say trees in the old forests in western America have been dying at greater rates in recent decades. Research ecologist Phillip van Mantgem explains why scientists believe the increase in tree death is linked to climate change.

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Five Tidal-Power Proposals for U.K. River to Head Off Surfers
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/%22climate+change%22+or+%22global+warming%22+or+%22renewable+energy%22/SIG=1243mehuv/*http%3A//www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aW7i4yY.jnjM
Bloomberg: The U.K. will narrow by half the number of proposals to generate 5 percent of its energy from tides that sweep up the Severn River, the country's longest waterway. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband on Jan. 26 will cut the list of technologies and locations for a possible project to five from the 10 announced in July and put them out for public review, a Department of Energy and Climate Change spokeswoman said today in an interview. Atlantic Ocean tides that push ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
As old-growth trees die at faster rate, scientists blame climate change
http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/1567101.html
Sacramento Bee: Tree mortality rates have doubled in old-growth forests across the Sierra Nevada and western United States because of rising temperatures associated with climate change, a new study has found. The study, published today in the journal Science, suggests that if the trend continues, the region's majestic conifer forests may become younger, smaller and less healthy – making them vulnerable to massive die-offs. "Everywhere we looked, we saw mortality rates increasing," said Nathan ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Canada: Trees dying off faster as temperatures rise, scientists find
http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Trees%20dying%20faster%20temperatures%20rise%20scientists%20find/1207260/story.html
Vancouver Sun: On seven plots of ancient forest deep in the Capilano and Seymour watersheds, University of B.C. biogeography professor Lori Daniels has made an alarming discovery: The trees she is monitoring are dying off. The death rate of the forest giants has, in fact, doubled since she first started studying them as a graduate student 17 years ago. Now her finding is part of a comprehensive study of forests across western North American that links an increase in tree mortality to climate ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Study suggests trees dying due to global warming
http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/575537
Canadian Press: An extensive new study has found that trees in old-growth forests across western North America are dying faster than they can grow back and that climate change is probably the cause. The conclusion raises questions about how forests are responding to global warming and raises fears that decomposing trees could become another source of greenhouse gases, said Lori Daniels, one of the co-authors of the paper that appeared Thursday in the journal Science. "This study is providing, ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Trees dying in the West at record rate
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/23/MNO215D7DF.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Trees are dying faster than ever in the old-growth forests of California and the mountains of the West, a phenomenon scientists say is linked to rising regional temperatures and the destructive forces of early snowmelt, drought, forest fires and deadly insect infestations brought on by global warming. Over the past 17 years in some regions - and 25 to 37 years in others - the death rates of mature trees have doubled, the scientists said, raising concerns that the problem goes well ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Everyday tree deaths have doubled
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/40147/title/Everyday_tree_deaths_have_doubled_
ScienceNews: Those trees falling in the forest with no one listening -- in the changing climate of the West, they're falling about twice as fast as they were 50 years ago, says a new study. These background, or noncatastrophic, mortalities aren't the result of wildfires or the huge outbreaks of pine beetles. The recent increase in temperature is likely to blame, the researchers suggest. Records from 76 plots of apparently healthy, old-growth temperate forest in the western United States and ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Sources Of Climate- And Health-afflicting Soot Pollution Over South Asia Identified
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090123075628.htm
ScienceDaily: A gigantic brownish haze from various burning and combustion processes is blanketing India and surrounding land and oceans during the winter season. This soot-laden Brown Cloud is affecting South Asian climate as much or more than carbon dioxide and cause premature deaths of 100 000s annually, yet its sources have been poorly understood. In the journal Science Ã–rjan Gustafsson and colleagues at Stockholm University and in India use a novel carbon-14 method to determine that two-thirds ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
97% of climatologists say global warming is occurring and caused by humans
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0122-climate.html
Various: A new poll among 3,146 earth scientists found that 90 percent believe global warming is real, while 82 percent agree that human activity been a significant factor in changing mean global temperatures. The survey, conducted among researchers listed in the American Geological Institute's Directory of Geoscience Departments, "found that climatologists who are active in research showed the strongest consensus on the causes of global warming, with 97 percent agreeing humans play a role". ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Plankton experiment may create new hazards
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=4803784
Business Report: A polar icebreaker, the Polarstern, is reportedly heading for the Antarctic on the chance that the German government gives the go-ahead to the world's first large-scale experiment to stimulate plankton growth. Germany suspended the project last week, once the vessel had left Cape Town, to allow scientists time to review its effect. The review will determine whether those on board the icebreaker get to toss about 20 tons of iron sulphate into a vast swathe of the Southern ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Why Nuclear Weapons Are - Still Bad for the Planet
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1873164,00.html
Time Magazine: In the 1980s, climate scientists in Russia and the U.S. theorized that all-out nuclear war between the superpowers would result in a "nuclear winter," as smoke from the atomic explosions blackened the sky and sent summer temperatures plummeting below freezing – killing crops and eventually starving all those who survived the initial explosions. Now that the risks of an all-out U.S.-Russian exchange have diminished, scientists are looking at the climactic effects of regional nuclear war – and ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Shifting sink
http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0902/full/climate.2009.1.html
Nature: Over the past decade, the North Atlantic Ocean has been absorbing less and less atmospheric carbon dioxide. Now scientists report that blame may lie with changes in the region's dominant climate pattern, known as the North Atlantic Oscillation, rather than anthropogenic warming. The time series of carbon dioxide observations in the North Atlantic extends back only as far as 1995. To reconstruct the patterns of carbon dioxide uptake back through 1979, Helmuth Thomas at Dalhousie ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Factoring in fish
http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0902/full/climate.2009.6.html
Nature: Fish may contribute to the ocean carbon cycle in a previously unsuspected way. Traditionally, scientists have attributed the production of calcium carbonate in surface waters to marine plankton. But a study led by Rod Wilson at the University of Exeter, UK, now shows that fish excrete the mineral as a by-product of drinking seawater. Wilson and his colleagues measured the rate at which fish excrete calcium carbonate from their intestines and then combined this with two independent ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Bangladesh: Where warming hits hard
http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0902/full/climate.2009.3.html
Nature: Threatened with encroaching seas, dwindling water supplies and fiercer storms, Bangladesh is already suffering the ill effects of rising global greenhouse gas emissions. Mason Inman reports on how the region is coping with climate change. Ali Akbar Adi takes a break from steering his ox-driven plow across his small plot of land, digging furrows for a crop of lentils and beans. "When salt water comes in, the yields are very low," he says. Storm surges push this salty water up ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Calif farmers slash planting to cope with drought
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/1148547.html
Associated Press: Some of the nation's largest farms plan to cut back on planting crops this spring over concerns that the drought plaguing California will cause federal water supplies to dry up. Farmers in the Central Valley said they would forego planting thousands of acres of canning tomatoes and already have started slashing acreage for lettuce and melons. As growers in Fresno and Kings counties prepared to sow their dry fields with tomato seeds this week, the giant water district that ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Treeline Advances In Canada's Arctic
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090122162332.htm
ScienceDaily: In a widely recognized painting by Tom Thomson, a bent and lonely tree hunches on a rocky ledge overlooking a windswept lake and distant snowy peaks. The misshapen tree remains so emblematic of the beauty and harshness of Canada's climate that it is part of the permanent collection at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa. Fast forward 100 years after the tree first sparked the painter's imagination and climate change is a global concern. It's timely to consider how trees are faring on ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Global Warming: Tree Deaths Have Doubled Across The Western US
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090122141222.htm
ScienceDaily: A new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey and involving the University of Colorado at Boulder and Oregon State University as well as other research institutes indicates tree deaths in the West's old-growth forests have more than doubled in recent decades, likely from regional warming and related drought conditions. The study, published in the Jan. 23 issue of Science, documented tree deaths in all tree sizes in the West located at varying elevations, including tree types such as ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
EU urged to reconsider strategic energy goals
http://www.euractiv.com/en/energy/eu-urged-reconsider-strategic-energy-goals/article-178733
EurActiv: Lawmakers in the European Parliament have urged the EU to adopt more ambitious long-term energy and climate goals for 2050, citing supply worries in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute and calling for more investment in nuclear power. Background: The EU's Second Strategic Energy Review was proposed by the European Commission in November 2008. It seeks to address security of energy supply and set out policy priorities in the field of energy for the next ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Switzerland: Zurich unveils carbon capture and storage insurance
http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/0122zur.html
Environmental Finance: Zurich Financial Services has launched insurance products to cover capturing and storing carbon underground, in a bid to address a major barrier to the uptake of the technology. Many believe that carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be an invaluable weapon in the fight against climate change -- and governments around the world are promising billions in subsidies and incentives to develop the technology, particularly to capture carbon from fossil-fuelled power ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Economic woes lead carbon to historic lows
http://www.carbon-financeonline.com/index.cfm?section=lead&id=11793&action=view&return=home
Carbon Finance: Recessionary pressures have led carbon prices to record lows this week, threatening the viability of the Clean Development Mechanism. EU allowances (EUAs) have traded as low as Â€10.81 ($14), on 20 January on the European Climate Exchange, while secondary certified emission reduction (CER) prices have touched Â€9.50 – on a par with primary CER prices. Market participants point to industrial selling in the spot market as being the main factor, as industrial players offload unneeded EUAs ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Study ties tree deaths to change in climate
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012202473.html
Washington Post: The death rates of trees in Western U.S. forests have doubled over the past two to three decades, according to a new study spearheaded by the U.S. Geological Survey, driven in large part by higher temperatures and water scarcity linked to climate change. The findings, being published today in the online journal Science, examined changes in 76 long-term forest plots in three broad regions across the West, and found similar shifts regardless of the areas' elevations, fire histories, ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Western tree deaths rise with temperatures
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/01/tree_death_rates_up_across_the.html
Oregonian: Tree death rates are rising in established old-growth forests across the West, scientists say. This shot is from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. A small increase in temperatures during the past three decades probably contributed to a doubling of tree death rates in undisturbed old-growth forests across the West, a team of researchers reported in the journal Science today, with the increase in mortality highest in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers ruled out insect ...

Sat, 24 Jan 09
Rising sea levels threaten North Carolina coast
http://www.news14.com/content/local_news/coastal/603951/rising-sea-levels-threaten-n-c--coast/Default.aspx
News14: A report by the Environmental Protection Agency shows North Carolina is among the states that could be hurt the most by rising sea levels. The report said it's a result of global warming. The study shows if the sea level rises three feet this century, some barrier islands, like the outer banks, could break apart. "The Outer Banks is the most vulnerable as you are already seeing more and more frequently is that you are losing houses to the ocean. Where if you were to go ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Gore to make climate change case to US Senate
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iFIsEYJNj6Ef2Q_vwNoBQWtxp9ww
Agence France-Presse: Former US vice president and Nobel prize winner Al Gore will testify on climate change to the US Senate next week ahead of a critical December UN meeting, a leading lawmakers said Thursday. Democratic Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry said in a statement that Gore, who also won an Oscar for his green documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," would come before his panel on January 28. "Al Gore has been sounding the alarm on climate change for over three decades, ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Study: Chile Is Losing Its Glaciers
http://www.patagoniatimes.cl/index.php/20090122728/News/Environment/STUDY-CHILE-IS-LOSING-ITS-GLACIERS.html
Patagonia Times: Environmental authorities are beginning to worry more about fresh water resources after a government study released this week determined that 92 percent of the country's glaciers -- Chile's principal fresh water suppliers -- are receding. The study, performed by Chile's National Water Directorate (DGA), looked at 100 of the nation's 1,720 registered glaciers spanning from northern Region III to Puerto Williams at the far southern tip of the country. Researchers found that only seven ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Climate warming termed sharpest
http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/01/23/news0368.htm
New Nation: RESEARCH on Arctic and North Atlantic ecosystems shows the recent warming trend counts as the most dramatic climate change since the onset of recorded human civilisation 5,000 years ago, according to studies published recently as AFP news agency reported from Washington. Researchers from Cornell University studied the increased introduction of fresh water from glacial melt, oceanic circulation and the change in geographic range migration of oceanic plant animal species. The team led by ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
New study suggests massive tree die-off likely due to global warming
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5g7uUf_OZpUUSf1FGapB4RjoiffHg
Canadian Press: A new study has found that trees in old-growth forests are dying at twice their former rate and that climate change is the likely cause. The study, published today in the journal Science, examined 76 different forest plots in the western U.S. and Canada to find out what they have in common. Scientists found they've all experienced warming temperatures and are now losing trees faster than they're gaining them. Researchers suggest that while the temperature rise is slight, ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Old-Growth Forests Dying Off in US West
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012202203.html
Washington Post: Trees in old-growth forests in the Western United States are dying at twice the rate they were a few decades ago, and experts suspect regional warming is to blame. The report, led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), found that the increase in tree deaths has included trees in a variety of forests, elevations and sizes. Species have included pine, fir, hemlock and other coniferous trees. In addition, the rate of new tree growth has not changed, according to the report in the Jan. 23 ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Antarctica warming, study says
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/antarctica-warming-study-says-20090123-7o34.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Antarctica is warming, despite the recent scientific consensus that the southernmost continent was not being impacted by global warming, a study published in the journal Nature said. Scientists had observed warming in the Antarctic Peninsula that extends north from the icy continent, but the rest of the continent was believed to be stable or even cooling as the rest of Earth's continents saw temperatures increase. But researchers using a complex model combining weather station ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
US Old-Growth Forests Withering With Warming
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090122-old-growth-warming.html
National Geographic: The U.S. West's old-growth forests may look quite a bit thinner in the future. A new study suggests these forests could feature fewer and smaller trees, and global warming may be driving the change. (Learn about global warming.) "[Tree] death rates have doubled over the last two decades in old-growth stands across the Western U.S.," said Phillip van Mantgem, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and co-leader of the research team. Forests are losing trees faster than new ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
US forests hold new evidence of global warming
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/01/22/us-forests-hold-new-evidence-of-global-warming/
Christian Science Monitor: Old-growth forests in the Western United States appear to be losing ground to the regional effects of global warming. That's the conclusion a team of federal and university-based forest ecologists have reached after looking at long-term trends in patches of relatively pristine old-growth forests. The study sites range from northern Arizona and north central Colorado to the Olympic Peninsula and southern British Columbia. Over the past 50 years, trees large and small in these ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Lawmakers okay energy tax breaks in Obama plan
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE50L7BC20090122
Reuters: The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee on Thursday approved $20 billion in energy tax credits and related financial incentives that are part of the Obama administration's plan to revive the American economy. The legislation's energy tax breaks would benefit the wind and solar energy industries, encourage energy-efficiency improvements to existing homes and help service stations recoup their costs for installing alternative energy pumps. The economic stimulus package would ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Climate change killing forests in the western US
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0123-forests_climate.html
Mongabay: Tree death rates in old-growth forests of the western United States have more more than doubled in recent decades likely because of regional climate warming, report researchers writing in the journal Science. Analyzing records from undisturbed 200-year-old forests in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico) and southern British Columbia, Phillip van Mantgem and colleagues found that trees are dying at ever greater rates. Worryingly, ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Sceptics, scientists and global warming
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-connor-sceptics-scientists-and-global-warming-1513375.html
Independent: The cable news network CNN has sacked its science team, and one of the consequences has been a number of embarrassing programmes about how the exceptionally cold weather in North America this winter contradicts global warming and supports the idea that we are actually due for or a period of global cooling, if not a full-blown ice age. "And tonight, last year, one of the coldest years in American history. Is it evidence that global warming is being overstated? Or are we headed toward a ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Mexico turns toward alternative energy
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jd3mPcugrB4UD1PdN8ptcpFUr6pwD95SI1LO0
Associated Press: Mexico inaugurated one of the world's largest wind farm projects Thursday as the nation looks for alternative energy, in part to compensate for falling oil production. Mexico is trying to exploit its rich wind and solar potential after relying almost exclusively on petroleum for decades. With oil production down by 9.2 percent in 2008, Mexico now is turning to foreign companies, mainly Spanish, to tap its renewable riches. "If we don't do something about this problem of climate ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
West's trees dying faster as temperatures rise
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-trees23-2009jan23,0,7385012.story
LA Times: More trees are dying in the West's forests as the region warms, a trend that could ultimately spell widespread change for mountain landscapes from the Sierra Nevada to the Rockies. Scientists who examined decades of tree mortality data from research plots around the West found the death rate had risen as average temperatures in the region increased by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit. "Tree death rates have more than doubled over the last few decades in old-growth forests across ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Indonesia: Jakarta 'most at risk' of climate change
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/23/jakarta-%E2%80%98most-risk%E2%80%99-climate-change.html
Jakarta Post: Of all cities in Southeast Asia, Jakarta is the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, a study reveals. The Singapore-based Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) ranked Central, North and West Jakarta at the top of a list of administrative regions prone to climate change, followed by Mondol Kiri province in Cambodia and East Jakarta. The report, prepared by economists Arief Anshory Yusuf and Herminia A. Francisco, reveals Jakarta is vulnerable ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
India: Goa to be worst affected by climate change, says IYCN
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Goa/Goa_to_be_worst_affected_by_climate_change_says_IYCN_/articleshow/4019220.cms
Times of India: A tourism dependent state like Goa will be the worst affected when climatic changes begin to impact the globe, young members of the Indian Youth Climate Network travelling across India in electric cars told students, stressing on the need for climate change solutions. Yale University graduate, Alexis Ringwald, and Yale engineering graduate, Caroline Howe, Abhishekh Bhardwaj and Deepanjali Gupta members of the Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN), were speaking at the Goa Architecture ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
UAE fund to invest in Japan renewable energy firms
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUST3441920090123
Reuters: Abu Dhabi's Masdar, a clean energy venture, and Japan's SBI Holdings Inc (8473.T) may invest up to $300 million in Japanese alternative energy start-ups through a joint investment fund, SBI said on Friday. Masdar's investment vehicle, the Masdar Clean Tech Fund, and SBI have agreed to each put up $10 million to create a first fund to invest in firms involved in solar, wind and other alternative energy, SBI officials said. Each firm would receive around $2 million. The ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Scientists say global warming may be killing trees in West twice as fast as usual
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11532237
San Jose Mercury News: Trees in old-growth forests of the western United States are dying at twice the usual rate, and scientists say climate change may be to blame. In one of the largest-ever surveys of U.S. forests, ecologists analyzed data on nearly 60,000 trees in 76 old-growth forests. Set to be published todayin the journal Science, the study reported a startling increase in the past few decades: regardless of type, size or elevation, twice as many trees are dying each year. And while death ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Climate shift 'killing US trees'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/green_room/7841030.stm
BBC: Old growth trees in western parts of the US are probably being killed as a result of regional changes to the climate, a study has suggested. Analysis of undisturbed forests showed that the trees' mortality rate had doubled since 1955, researchers said. They warned that the loss of old growth trees could have implications for the areas' ecology and for the amount of carbon that the forests could store. The findings have been published in the journal Science. "Data ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Out on a Limb: Global Warming May Be Killing Old-Growth Forests
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=out-on-a-limb-global-warm
Scientific American: The majestic old-growth forests of western North America, greening patches of the landscape from Arizona to British Columbia, may be far more vulnerable to subtle climate change than scientists previously believed. A study published today in the journal Science reveals that these western forests are dying at faster rates as regional average temperatures climb more rapidly than the global average. "Tree death rates have more than doubled," says study co-author Phillip van Mantgem, a ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Spring Coming Earlier, Study Says
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090121-earlier-spring.html?source=rss
National Geographic: Tired of winter? Good news: Spring arrives an average of 1.7 days earlier now than it did in the first half of the 20th century, according to a new study. Summer, fall, and winter are also starting 1.7 days earlier. And there is less of a temperature difference between winter and summer. The shifts, which are occurring over land (seasonal shifts are different over oceans), appear to stem from as-yet-to-be determined changes in the physics of the Earth's climate system, said ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Climate change is killing forests, scientists say
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/trees/climate-change-has-doubled-forest-mortality
Daily Climate: The death rate of the most stable and resilient forests in western North America has doubled during the past few decades as the climate has warmed, according to research to be published Friday. The increased mortality suggests future landscapes will be thinner, sparser and far more susceptible to widespread diebacks. The new data from a team of 11 scientists provide more evidence that climate change is having a broad and significant impact, independent of other human activities ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Government accused of undermining EU emissions plan
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234893/government-accused-undermining
Business Green: Environmental campaigners have this week accused the government of attempting to curb proposed EU legislation aimed at limiting the emissions from power plants. Both Greenpeace and green business group the Green Alliance reported yesterday that they had received a leaked memo detailing government objections to the EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) directive, which is being voted on by European legislators this week. According to the memo, the government is ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
EU to propose $200 billion climate tax on rich nations
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L4O520090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Rich nations could raise $200 billion in climate funds through a levy on their greenhouse gases from 2013-2020 to help poor countries prepare for global warming, the European Union will say next week. The plan is set out in an EU paper outlining the bloc's position ahead of U.N.-led climate talks in Copenhagen in December, meant to agree a new, global climate treaty. The fund-raising idea is the most specific yet from any rich country or bloc on how to persuade developing ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
New US report details effects of rising sea levels
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/22/sea-level-rise-environment-usa
Guardian: A new US report concludes that Florida and Louisiana are the states most vulnerable to sea-level rise, followed by North Carolina and Texas. The new report focuses on the coastal states from North Carolina to New York where the rates of sea-level rise are moderately high. The region has extensive coastal development, a high population and is likely to be at increased risk. "You're vulnerable," said Jim Titus, project manager for sea-level rise for the US Environmental ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Natural disasters cost China $110 billion in 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L50020090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Natural disasters caused nearly $110 billion of damage in China last year, a warning to other emerging economies ill-prepared for potential hazards, the United Nations said on Thursday. A May earthquake in Sichuan and extreme weather made China the most disaster-affected country in economic terms in 2008, said the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). The U.N. body said the world economy suffered a $181 billion blow from naturally-occurring events such as ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
One last chance to save mankind
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: With his 90th birthday in July, a trip into space scheduled for later in the year and a new book out next month, 2009 promises to be an exciting time for James Lovelock. But the originator of the Gaia theory, which describes Earth as a self-regulating planet, has a stark view of the future of humanity. He tells Gaia Vince we have one last chance to save ourselves - and it has nothing to do with nuclear power Your work on atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons led eventually to a global CFC ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
GM foods 'could feed growing population during climate change'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/4315387/GM-foods-could-feed-growing-population-during-climate-change.html
Telegraph: In a passionate outburst in The Daily Telegraph last year, Prince Charles warned millions of small farmers would be put out of business and land would be degraded if GM crops were introduced around the world. However in a debate at the Science Museum, Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the technology must be investigated in light of global food security. "People are asking how we will be able to feed the ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Tree deaths double across western US
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16469-tree-deaths-double-across-western-us.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: The majestic old trees of the western US are disappearing twice as fast as they were three decades ago, and climate change is most likely to blame, say scientists. Philip van Mantgem of the US Geological Survey and colleagues collected data from 76 plots on the west coast -- from California up to British Columbia, Canada -- and in Idaho, Arizona and Colorado. These are plots without any direct human management, so any tree loss is not due to logging. The team focused on old ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Drought, heat killing trees in western N.America
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L5UQ20090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Trees in the western United States and Canada are dying twice as quickly as they did just 30 years ago, with rising average temperatures almost certainly to blame, researchers reported on Thursday. These thinner and weaker forests will become more vulnerable to wildfires and may soak up less carbon dioxide, in turn speeding up global warming, they said. The U.S. and Canadian researchers from a variety of agencies and universities studied trees in old-growth forests for more ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Wood and dung fires feed Asia's brown cloud
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L5YO20090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Wood and dung burned for home heating and cooking makes up most of a huge brown cloud of pollution that hangs over South Asia and the Indian Ocean during the winter months, researchers said on Thursday. The study in the journal Science solves the mystery of what makes up the soot in the brown haze linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths -- mainly from lung and heart disease -- each year in the region, they said. "Doing something about this brown cloud has been difficult ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
California Asks Obama To Review Emissions Regulations
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1627179/california_asks_obama_to_review_emissions_regulations/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: It is likely that President Barack Obama's administration will let the state of California impose its own tough limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars by May, California's top climate change official predicted on Wednesday. Granting California a waiver that allows it to set its own emissions regulations would be a big victory for environmentalists and a positive sign towards Obama's commitment to tackling climate change. The new Environmental Protection Agency chief was ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Global warming: Rate of tree deaths in western US rising due to climate change, study warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/22/trees-death-global-warming
Guardian: Trees in the western United States are dying twice as quickly as they did three decades ago and scientists think global warming is to blame. In their surveys, ecologists found that a wide range of tree species were dying including pines, firs and hemlocks and at a variety of altitudes. The changes can have serious long-term effects including reducing biodiversity and turning western forests into a source of carbon dioxide as they die and decompose. That could lead to a runaway effect ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Time to abolish Gag Rule says population agency
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3484
People and Planet: In a well-timed report, a leading US pressure group has called for a radical change in US funding for reproductive health and family planning in the 15 focus countries now receiving help with HIV/AIDS under the President's Emergency Relief for AIDS Plan (PEPFAR). Since 2004, this plan has more than doubled foreign assistance to fight HIV/AIDS in the programme's fifteen focus countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, says Population Action International. But at the same time the ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
North American Trees Dying Twice as Fast
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45511
Inter Press Service: Our trees are dying. Throughout the western United States, cherished and protected forests are dying twice as fast as they did 20 years ago because of climate change, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science. Fire did not kill these trees, nor did some massive insect outbreak. The trees in this wide-ranging study were "undisturbed stands of old growth forests", said Jerry Franklin, a professor of forest resources at the University of Washington and one of 11 co-authors of ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
E. Maine wind farm dedicated
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2009/01/22/e_maine_wind_farm_dedicated/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: Gov. John Baldacci joined First Wind officials and builders Thursday to mark the start of commercial energy generation at the Stetson Wind project, which becomes the largest wind-power facility in New England. First Wind said the 38 General Electric turbines on Stetson Mountain in eastern Maine's Washington County will generate about 167 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity every year, the equivalent power needs of 23,500 homes. With Thursday's dedication, the project ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Study: Global warming decimating old-growth forests at stunning rate
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090122.wtrees0122/BNStory/Science/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090122.wtrees0122
Globe and Mail: The death of old-growth forests in the western United States and Canada is increasing at a stunning rate, a troubling trend linked directly to global warming that could soon transform forests into carbon dioxide emitters rather than much-needed carbon sinks, a new study warns. Scientists have found that tree mortality has more than doubled in the last few decades regardless of elevation, forest type or tree size as pines, firs, hemlocks and other species are dying faster than new ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Lawmakers consider energy measures in stimulus
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50L7NZ20090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday was set to approve energy measures included in Democrats' economic recovery package, even though a leading Republican criticized the bill as too narrow. The $825 billion plan would spend about $25 billion on renewable energy, energy efficiency and electricity transmission. The package would also promote the development of so called smart power grid technology to support alternative energy use, plug-in hybrid vehicles and ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=116021
New York Times: Rising temperatures and the resulting drought are causing trees in the West to die at more than twice the pace they did a few decades ago, a new study has found. The combination of temperature and drought has also reduced the ability of the forests to absorb carbon dioxide, which traps heat and thus contributes to global warming, the authors of the study said, and has made forests sparser and more susceptible to fires and pests. The scientists, who analyzed tree census data ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Termite Insecticide A Potent Greenhouse Gas
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1626956/termite_insecticide_a_potent_greenhouse_gas/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: An insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought, UC Irvine research has found. Sulfuryl fluoride, UCI chemists discovered, stays in the atmosphere at least 30-40 years and perhaps as long as 100 years. Prior studies estimated its atmospheric lifetime at as low as five years, grossly underestimating the global warming potential. The fact that sulfuryl fluoride exists ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Cleaner Air Extending Lives, Study Shows
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=116019
New York Times: The cleaner the air you breathe, the longer you will live. But how much longer? Researchers at Brigham Young University examined changes in life expectancy in 51 metropolitan areas, comparing those figures with improvements in air quality in each region from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. After controlling for smoking, socioeconomic factors and other variables, the scientists found that each decrease of 10 micrograms of pollutant particles per cubic meter of air was ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Cleaner air equals 21 more weeks of life
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K74220090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Dramatic improvements in U.S. air quality over the last two decades have added 21 weeks to the life of the average American, researchers reported on Wednesday. Reducing fine particles given off by automobiles, diesel engines, steel mills and coal-fired power plants have added as much as 15 percent of the 2.72 years of extra longevity seen in the United States since the early 1980s, they wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine. Changes in smoking habits are the biggest ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Offshore drilling plan to go ahead: Interior Dept
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K68520090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A proposal issued in the final days of the Bush administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas will move forward under the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, an Interior Department spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. Shortly after being sworn in on Tuesday, Obama ordered all federal agencies and departments to halt pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff. Hugh Vickery, a department spokesman, said the department has ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Scotland to host one of world's biggest wave stations
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/climate_change/news/?uNewsID=154841
WWF: One of the world's largest wave stations is to be constructed in the Western Isles of Scotland. Scottish ministers have granted consent for npower renewables application to operate a wave farm with a 4MW capacity at Siadar on the Isle of Lewis. It is one of the first marine renewable energy projects to be approved in the UK and follows the recent launch of the Â£10 million Saltire Prize. "These kind of near-shore wave machines will be important for many of Scotland's coastal ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Canada: Group urges $41B 'green' stimulus package
http://www.thestar.com/article/574379
Toronto Star: Borrowing a page from U.S. President Barack Obama's ambitious energy playbook, a diverse coalition representing more than 850,000 Canadians is calling on the federal government to work with provinces to create a $41 billion "green" stimulus package. The proposed five-year Green Energy Action Fund would be a combination of loans and direct spending, funded largely by the creation of "green bonds" and from government revenues raised through the auction of carbon cap-and-trade credits to ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
All Earth's Seasons Now Arrive Two Days Earlier, Researchers Report
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121144053.htm
ScienceDaily: Not only has the average global temperature increased in the past 50 years, but the hottest day of the year has shifted nearly two days earlier, according to a new study by scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University. Just as human-generated greenhouse gases appear to the be the cause of global warming, human activity may also be the cause of the shift in the cycle of seasons, according to Alexander R. Stine, a graduate student in UC Berkeley's ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Much Of Antarctica Is Warming More Than Previously Thought
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121144049.htm
ScienceDaily: Scientists studying climate change have long believed that while most of the rest of the globe has been getting steadily warmer, a large part of Antarctica -- the East Antarctic Ice Sheet -- has actually been getting colder. But new research shows that for the last 50 years, much of Antarctica has been warming at a rate comparable to the rest of the world. In fact, the warming in West Antarctica is greater than the cooling in East Antarctica, meaning that on average the continent has ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
The Climate Group to Develop Low Carbon Cities in China
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/01/21/low-carbon-cities-china
GreenBiz: The Climate Group plans to develop 15 to 20 low carbon cities in China as part of the organization's drive to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and battle climate change. In addition to working with large cities, the group seeks to engage what it described as "second" and "third-tier" cities and views the smaller municipalities as greater opportunities for development. According to Wu Changhua, the director for Greater China of The Climate Group, the organization is already ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Schwarzenegger Petitions Obama to Terminate EPA Emissions Ruling
http://www.climatebiz.com/blog/2009/01/21/california-seeks-clean-air-act-waiver
ClimateBiz: With President Barack Obama barely a day in office, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lost no time in writing the nation's new chief executive to ask that he direct the EPA to favorably reconsider the Golden State's request for a Clean Air Act waiver. Granting the waiver would enable California and 13 other states, whose governors were sent a copy of Schwarzenegger's letter today, to enforce tougher laws to reduce auto emissions. The 14 states sought to launch programs ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
Cleaner air 'adds months to life'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7839336.stm
BBC: Cuts in air pollution in US cities over recent decades have added an average of five months of life to their inhabitants, research suggests. The New England Journal of Medicine study matched air pollution and life expectancy statistics from 51 cities between 1980 and 2000. Scientists found people living 2.72 years longer by 2000 - 15% of which they attributed to falls in pollution. Studies have found poor air quality can worsen lung and heart disease. In the UK, ...

Fri, 23 Jan 09
California expects fast Obama move on car pollution
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K7IY20090122?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: California's top climate change official on Wednesday predicted President Barack Obama's administration would let the state impose its own tough limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars by May, in what would be a victory for environmentalists. California asked the new Environmental Protection Agency chief to revisit the Bush administration's 2007 decision that denied the state's request to impose its own regulations. "We think we should have our decision in hand by late ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Is Reducing Carbon Emissions Worth The Cost?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97998613&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: With awareness of global warming rising, going "green" and reducing one's "carbon footprint" have become pop culture catchphrases. But addressing climate change on a global, governmental level is still a matter of heated debate. With potentially staggering costs involved, are efforts to make major reductions in carbon emissions even worth it? Would the money be better spent elsewhere? Or, does the amount of money involved become less important when considering the possible ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Spring arriving earlier: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K6JC20090121?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Looking forward to spring? The good news is that it is coming two days earlier on average, but so are summer, autumn and winter, researchers said on Wednesday. They found that on average, the hottest day of the year in temperate regions has moved forward by just under two days, and so has the coldest day of the year. While the consequences of this shift are not clear, it is worrying, Alexander Stine of the University of California, Berkeley and colleagues said. "All of ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Canada: Alta. scientists to track greenhouse gases from space
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1203112
Edmonton Journal: Canadian scientists are taking part in a worldwide research project that will, for the first time, use a satellite to measure greenhouse-gas emissions. Specifically, University of Alberta researchers Petr Musilek and Arturo Sanchez plan to focus their eye in the sky on Alberta's controversial oilsands projects, providing information that could prove valuable to industry, government and environmentalists. University of Alberta researchers Petr Musilek and Arturo Sanchez plan to ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Canada: Ontario backs converting coal plants for biomass: Smitherman
http://www.thestar.com/article/574951
Canadian Press: Ontario Power Generation is looking into replacing coal with biomass at a power-generating plant in a move the province's energy minister says could keep such plants from being torn down. OPG plans to convert a power plant near Thunder Bay to burn wood pellets by 2012 and possibly convert three other coal-fired plants as well. Energy Minister George Smitherman says the results he has seen so far are encouraging. The shift would allow the province to use an ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Antarctica Heating Up, "Ignored" Satellite Data Shows
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090121-antarctica-warming.html?source=rss
National Geographic: Temperatures are warming throughout Antarctica, especially in winter and spring, according to new weather station and satellite data. The evidence contradicts previous studies showing that only the Antarctic Peninsula was warming while the rest of the continent has cooled. Such data has, in a least one case, fueled skepticism about global warming. The new study also reveals that western Antarctica may actually be warming faster than the Antarctic Peninsula, "the biggest ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
White House may put offshore drilling plan on hold
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K68520090121?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: An order from President Barack Obama may put on hold a proposal issued in final days of Bush Administration to expand offshore drilling in previously banned areas, an Interior Department official told Reuters on Wednesday. Shortly after being sworn in on Tuesday, Obama ordered all federal agencies and departments to halt pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff. An Interior official said the department are waiting for clarification from the White House ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Japan: Climate satellite set for launch
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7839772.stm
BBC: A Japanese spacecraft is due to launch on a mission to help scientists understand and monitor how the Earth's climate is changing. Gosat is a two-metric-tonne Earth-orbiting satellite which will map the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and where they are. The probe will lift off from the Tanegashima launch site in southern Japan early on Thursday. It will orbit the planet at an altitude of 666km during its five-year mission. Japan's Space Agency ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Crunch-hit consumers restricted by price of green products, report says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/17/food.organics
Guardian: British consumers are likely to cut spending on expensive fair trade and organic items in response to the credit crunch amid widespread dissatisfaction over the variety of green products offered by retailers, new research has warned. Almost half of 4,000 consumers questioned said they were unwilling or unable to pay more for environmentally sustainable food and consumer goods, a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found. A comparison of 75 food, clothing, household and personal care ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Australia: Ice age maps predict change in Australian climate
http://www.australiannews.net/story/455943
Indo-Asian News Service: New maps of the earth's surface during the peak of the last Ice Age points to northern Australia become wetter and southern Australia drier due to climate change in future. 'During the last Ice Age - around 20,000 years ago - sea surface temperature was as much as 10 degrees colder than present and icebergs would have been regular visitors to the southern coastline of Australia,' Timothy Barrows of the Research School of Earth Sciences at Australian National University (ANC) ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Even Antarctica is now feeling the heat of climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16460-even-antarctica-is-now-feeling-the-heat-of-climate-change.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: It's official: there is nowhere left to hide from global warming. The notion that Antarctica is the last continent not to be heating up because of climate change is dead, according to a new study. The results suggest that the southernmost continent is warming roughly as fast as the rest of the planet. They overturn previous suggestions that only the Antarctic peninsula, which stretches points north towards South America, was heating up while the continent's interior ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
British government schemes to undermine European emissions law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/21/europe-energy
Guardian: The UK government is lobbying to water down proposed EU legislation to impose tough new emission limits on power plants in order to guarantee Britain's energy security and keep down electricity prices. Whitehall is warning, according a briefing document leaked to green campaigners and seen by the Guardian, that electricity prices would increase by 20% if the proposed legislation isn't changed. It is also concerned that the new rules would threaten the security of the UK's electricity ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
New evidence on Antarctic warming
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7843186.stm
BBC: The continent of Antarctica is warming up in step with the rest of the world, according to a new analysis. Scientists say data from satellites and weather stations indicate a warming of about 0.6C over the last 50 years. Writing in the journal Nature, they say the trend is "difficult to explain" without the effect of rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Meanwhile, scientists in Antarctica say a major ice shelf is about to break away from the ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Antarctica is warming, not cooling: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K5BM20090121?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Antarctica is getting warmer rather than cooling as widely believed, according to a study that fits the icy continent into a trend of global warming. A review by U.S. scientists of satellite and weather records for Antarctica, which contains 90 percent of the world's ice and would raise world sea levels if it thaws, showed that freezing temperatures had risen by about 0.5 Celsius (0.8 Fahrenheit) since the 1950s. "The thing you hear all the time is that Antarctica is cooling ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Launch green economic revolution now, says Stern
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16433-launch-green-economic-revolution-now-says-stern.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: Never mind the downturn, a green economic revolution must be launched within months, one of the world's top economists has told New Scientist. "You do hear voices saying now is not the moment," says Nicholas Stern, former head of the World Bank, in an exclusive interview. "Now is precisely the moment to make the change" to a low-carbon economy. Stern believes low-carbon technologies have the potential to bring nations out of the recession and fuel economic growth that will be ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Warming in Antarctica Now Looks Certain
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=115924
New York Times: Antarctica is warming. That is the conclusion of scientists analyzing half a century of temperatures on the continent, and the findings may help resolve a climate enigma at the bottom of the planet. While some regions of Antarctica, particularly the peninsula the stretches toward South America, have warmed rapidly in recent decades, weather stations including the one at the South Pole have recorded a cooling trend. That ran counter to the forecasts of computer climate models, ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Antarctica is warming faster according to scientists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4307829/Antarctica-is-warming-faster-according-to-scientists.html
Telegraph: Previously it had been thought that the South Pole was actually getting colder because the hole in the ozone layer was letting heat out. However new satellite technology that allows temperature readings to be taken from the interior of the massive continent shows that, overall, Antarctica is warming. Although the slight increase in temperature will not affect the world in the short term, in the long term it could lead to a rise in sea levels threatening coastal communities and ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Floods devastate Asia-Pacific islands
http://www.upiasia.com/Society_Culture/2009/01/21/floods_devastate_asia-pacific_islands/7122/
United Press International: The first great natural disaster of the year in the Asia-Pacific region was the series of flooding disasters which struck Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines during the early weeks of January. A minor flooding calamity also hit Brunei. The Western Division of Fiji's Viti Levu, the country's largest island, was badly affected by the flooding. At least 10,000 people were housed in schools used as temporary shelters. Water and electricity services were scarce in some parts of ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Australia: Governor-General urges climate action
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/governorgeneral-urges-climate-action-20090122-7mu0.html
AAP: Governor-General Quentin Bryce has issued a rallying call for the world to act swiftly on climate change, in a sign that she intends to take an activist approach to her role. While some governors-general steer clear of hot political topics, Ms Bryce has waded into the climate change debate at a major conference on renewable energy in the Middle East. Climate change was a "huge challenge facing humanity", Australia's first female governor-general said on Wednesday. "We ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Could engineering rainforests save the planet from global warming?
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0121-hance_reforestation.html
Mongabay: Scientists argue that reforestation in the tropics is key to combating climate change At the Smithsonian symposium entitled "Will the Rainforests Survive?", leading tropical biologists vigorously debated current threats to the rainforest and what the future may hold. While climate change was identified as a leading threat to rainforests, many of the scientists argued that the tropics may also be the key to mitigating the impact of global warming. The scientists overwhelmingly ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Global Impact Of Climate Change On Biodiversity
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121091239.htm
ScienceDaily: When three undergraduates set off on an expedition in 1965 to trap moths on Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, little did they realise that they were establishing the groundwork for a study of the impacts of climate change. New research led by the University of York has repeated the survey 42 years later, and found that, on average, species had moved uphill by about 67 metres over the intervening years to cope with changes in climate. This is the first demonstration that climate change ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
States Hope Obama Will Boost Funds For Renewable Energy
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2009-01-21-voa29.cfm
Voice of America: Wind, solar and biofuels. These are the so-called renewable energy sectors President Barack Obama wants to use to create green jobs to stimulate the battered U.S. economy. But renewable energy projects already have been successfully launched, with less fanfare, in a handful of states over the past several years. The states' political and business leaders are hoping the new administration will pump additional funding into these job-creating green projects. Dairy farm power example of ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Global warming hitting all of Antarctica: scientists
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2009/01/22/2003434343
Agence France-Presse: Scientists unveiled evidence yesterday to suggest global warming is affecting all of Antarctica, home to the world's mightiest store of ice. The average temperature across the White Continent has been rising for the last half century and the finger of blame points at the greenhouse effect, they said. The research, published in the British journal Nature, takes a fresh look at one of the great unknowns – and dreads – in climate science. Any significant thaw of Antarctica ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Obama: US will 'roll back the specter of a warming planet'
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Global_Warming/Obama_US_will_roll_back_the_specter_of_a_warming_planet/articleshow/4011957.cms
Agence France-Presse: The United States will "roll back the specter of a warming planet" and "restore science to its rightful place," President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday in his inaugural address. "With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet," Obama said, vowing to pioneer a green revolution in renewable energy. Obama's remarks were a stark departure from the stance of his predecessor, George W. Bush, ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
EU climate cash windfall for industry in downturn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8298644
Reuters: European factories are cashing in on an unexpected benefit from wilting output, selling surplus carbon emissions permits worth about 1 billion euros ($1.29 billion) to raise funds on the carbon market. A recession in Europe will dent industrial output this year and this will sap energy demand and carbon emissions, leading to a surplus of permits among big polluters including steel and cement makers. Companies from some of the European Union's most polluting industries are now ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
The cost of the biofuel boom on Indonesia's forests
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/21/network-biofuels
Guardian: As a child, Matt Aman grew up in the lush tropical lowland rain forest of Sumatra. Tigers padded through the underbrush, rarely seen and silent as shadows. "It made my skin prickle," the indigenous leader recalled recently as he sat on the floor of a stick hut surrounded by fellow villagers. "When I was young, it was easy to find the mouse deer, monitor lizard, and wild pigs," Aman said. The birds were majestic, too, he said, as he nodded and lit a cigarette. They filled the ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Industrialization of China increases fragility of global food supply
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/uol-ioc012109.php
EurekAlert: Global grain markets are facing breaking point according to new research by the University of Leeds into the agricultural stability of China. Experts predict that if China's recent urbanisation trends continue, and the country imports just 5% more of its grain, the entire world's grain export would be swallowed whole. The knock-on effect on the food supply - and on prices - to developing nations could be huge. Sustainability researchers have conducted a major study into ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Climate fight will cost 175 billion euros a year by 2020: EU
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/090121165009.o0cvudyi.html
Agence France-Presse: The global cost of tackling climate change will reach 175 billion euros annually by 2020, according to European Commission estimates, an EU source said Wednesday. The annual figure will rise progressively to that amount, the EU's executive arm estimates in an internal report prepared for international climate change negotiations to be held in Copenhagen in December. Last month European leaders approved a climate change action plan which it hopes will become a model for the ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
EU wants air, shipping in post-Kyoto pact
http://uk.reuters.com/article/behindTheScenes/idUKTRE50K4FQ20090121
Reuters: The European Union will call next week for airlines and shipping to be included in a planned successor to the Kyoto pact, together with major worldwide investment to tackle climate change, a draft document shows. The document lays out the European Commission's stance as it prepares for international talks in December in Copenhagen on a successor to the Kyoto protocol from 2013. "Global net incremental investments to reduce global emissions need to increase gradually to around ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Bee hive collapse under scrutiny in multimillion boost for honey industry
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4306972/Bee-hive-collapse-under-scrutiny-in-multi-million-boost-for-honey-industry.html
Telegraph: Over last winter bee keepers lost up to a third of their hives as a mystery disease wiped out hives across the world. The collapse not only has serious implications for the honey industry but could ultimately threaten food production as bees are essential to the pollination of staple crops. Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said the situation was so serious that Â£4.3 million extra funding will be put towards the problem. Some Â£2 million over the next five years ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Blair calls for 2020 carbon targets for developed world
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234752/blair-calls-carbon-targets
Business Green: Former Prime Minister Tony Blair today closed the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi by calling on the developed world to agree to tough "interim" carbon emission targets for 2020 at climate change talks in Copenhagen later this year. Blair said that while all countries the bulk of the obligation for ensuring that target is met should fall on developed economies, and as such they should demonstrate their commitment to tackling climate change by signing up to a separate interim ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Europe's Aquatic Birds Will Seek New Nesting Sites In Face Of Global Warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090121092357.htm
ScienceDaily: Scientists from the University of Malaga (UMA) have produced a break-down of 152 aquatic bird species with a similar level of distribution throughout continental Europe. The study shows that environmental energy, in other words temperature, is the driving factor behind birds' mobility, above all in relation to global warming. A joint analysis of all aquatic bird species would give only a hazy picture of biogeographical trends. For this reason, the research team from Malaga divided up ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Congo rainforest given hope as deals cancelled
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congo-rainforest-given-hope-as-deals-cancelled-1482768.html
Independent: The Congo rainforest, the second largest tropical forest in the world, has been handed a temporary lifeline after two-thirds of timber concessions were cancelled this week. The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has ripped up 91 contracts after a review of the notoriously corrupt and damaging logging sector in a country the size of Western Europe. Greenpeace's Africa forest expert Rene Ngongo gave a cautious welcome to the decision: "This is good news," he said by ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Seas to rise at varying rates due to warming: expert
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50F42X20090121?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Sea levels will rise at widely varying rates around the world because of a quirk of the earth's gravity linked to global warming, a leading glaciologist said. "Everyone thinks sea level rises the same around the world," David Vaughan, of the British Antarctic Survey, told Reuters on Tuesday at the Rothera Base on the Antarctic Peninsula. "But it doesn't". Rises could vary by tens of centimeters (inches) from region to region if seas gained by an average of one meter by 2100 as ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Global warming experiment risky: WWF
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/global-warming-experiment-risky-wwf-20090121-7mso.html
Brisbane Times: A Sydney University proposal to produce a plankton bloom in the Tasman Sea, as part of a trial to combat global warming, has drawn criticism from environmental groups. Under the proposal, nitrate fertiliser would be sprinkled over a 1,600 square kilometre area of the sea to stimulate the bloom that researchers hope will sequester carbon at the bottom of the ocean for up to a century. The UN's International Panel for Climate Change has described such a method of carbon ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Ocean project vs global conventions
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=vn20090121023018916C479241
Cape Times: Scientists on board the German research ship Polarstern in the Southern Ocean will have to wait until Monday to hear if they are to be allowed to carry out their ocean fertilisation climate-change experiments. Lead scientist Victor Smetacek said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the German government's legal advisers were trying to ascertain the international legal implications of the experiment and how far conventions were binding. "There are so many issues ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Australia: Electric dream car won me: Evan Thornley
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24941094-11949,00.html
Australian: FORMER dotcom mogul and ministerial hopeful Evan Thornley has apologised to his enraged ALP colleagues but says he does not regret his sudden shift to the private sector, citing the immense potential of electric cars. Mr Thornley -- whose decision on December 28 stunned the political establishment -- admitted he was approached to head electric car venture Better Place last June but denied any conflict of interest with his role as parliamentary secretary for innovation. In an ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
United States: Project's solar panels could power apartments
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/01/21/projects_solar_panels_could_power_apartments/
Boston Globe: Developer John Rosenthal wants to build what would be the state's largest solar installation atop one of the buildings in his sprawling development along the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park. The solar farm would be installed on the roof of a parking garage that Rosenthal would build over the turnpike by Brookline Avenue. Altogether, Rosenthal's proposed One Kenmore development is a five-building complex that includes a 27-story residential tower, 367,000 square feet of ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
U.S. court temporarily blocks Utah energy leases
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2042360620090120
Reuters: A U.S. district court has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the U.S. Interior Department from finalizing the sales of controversial oil and gas energy exploration leases in Utah following a lawsuit by environmental groups. The groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit last month with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, contesting the department's December lease sale of 100,000 acres of Utah land, ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
United States: Gregoire pushes cap-and-trade bill
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/396852_cap20.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Companies that emit high greenhouse gases may need to change their ways or pay for it. A bill called the Climate Action Plan has been requested by Gov. Chris Gregoire that places a cap on companies' emissions. The process, known as cap and trade, is nothing new and the bill has yet to be introduced this legislative session. But having the governor's backing gives it a better chance of becoming reality than ever before. Though details of the program -- which wouldn't be ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
United States: Weber county makes cash by selling carbon credits
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UT_CARBON_CREDITS_UTOL-?SITE=CODEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Associated Press: Weber County is using garbage dumped in landfills to make some extra cash. The county and Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District already turn methane gas generated in trash heaps into electricity. Now they're also making money by selling carbon offset credits they've been awarded for reducing greenhouse gases. Last spring the county made $102,000 selling credits at the Chicago Climate Exchange, said Gary Laird, the county's solid waste manager. The credits ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Prices plummet on carbon market
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090120/full/457365a.html
Nature: The price of European Union (EU) allowances for carbon dioxide emissions has reached an all-time low, hit by falling oil and gas prices, and expectations that economic recession will lead to reduced energy demand. Under the EU's mandatory emission trading system -- set up in 2005 and still by far the largest such scheme in the world -- power plants and other CO2-intensive industries can buy emission allowances that allow them to exceed their government-allocated CO2 caps. In 2008, the ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Oil price fall hits green energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/20/bp-oil-green-energy
Guardian: BP's green energy arm is under pressure from plunging oil prices and the credit crunch, its chief executive admitted yesterday. Vivienne Cox, chief executive of BP Alternative Energy, said it would be "foolish" to deny it was harder to get cash for projects in the current climate. "Like everyone else, we are looking at our total capital budget and we will tell you in February how we are placed," she said. "It would be foolish to say there are no limits on capital ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Energy neglect hurting poverty fight: U.N. climate chief
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50K36G20090121?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Giving energy to the poor should have been a Millennium Development Goal and a "glaring neglect" of the sector is holding back the world's fight against poverty, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Wednesday. Rajendra Pachauri said developing countries such as his native India need to confront the "huge gap" in energy supply to the poor even as those nations must prepare for the acute effects of climate change. Pachauri, whose panel shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
New Tool Improves Reliability Of Climate Models
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090120091421.htm
ScienceDaily: An international team of researchers, including Antoni Rosell, ICREA researcher at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and professor of the Department of Geology, Universitat AutÃ²noma de Barcelona, who participated as a member of the direction team, have created MARGO (Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean Surface), a new quantitative tool which reconstructs the sea surface temperature during the Last Glacial Maximum. Project MARGO ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Bacterial Pathogens And Rising Temperatures Threaten Coral Health
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090120074629.htm
ScienceDaily: Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble from pollution, over-fishing, climate change and more. The last thing they need is an infection. But that's exactly what yellow band disease (YBD) is -- a bacterial infection that sickens coral colonies. Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and colleagues have found that YBD seems to be getting worse with global warming and announced that they've identified the bacteria responsible for the ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Wind Power, Generating Jobs
http://www.climatebiz.com/blog/2009/01/20/wind-power-generating-jobs
ClimateBiz: Last week, Ditlev Engel, the CEO of Vestas, the world's biggest wind power company, got an emergency call at the company's headquarters in Randers, Denmark. Could he get to a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, the next day? Engel couldn't, so he missed the chance to meet Barack Obama. On his way from Chicago to Washington, Obama stopped in a town called Bedford Heights to visit Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co., a supplier to Vestas that makes bolts for wind turbines. "Renewable ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
United Arab Emirates: An Enviro Utopia -- in the Abu Dhabi Desert
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1872646,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Time Magazine: Sami Khoreibi couldn't stop beaming at his company's work. The baby-faced CEO of Enviromena Power Systems, Khoreibi started his business just a little over a year ago. Now he was standing over a 10-megawatt solar farm in the desert outside Abu Dhabi, with row after row of solar panels angled to the Middle East sun like bathers lying poolside. The solar farm was the first tangible evidence of Abu Dhabi's Masdar City, a $22 billion project that is planned to be the first zero-carbon footprint, ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Canada: Tar sands smog seen worsening
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/574514
Toronto Star: Pollution will continue to plague Alberta's oil sands despite plans to pipe harmful greenhouse gases deep underground, according to documents obtained by the Toronto Star. Part of the task of cleaning up the oil sands involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions and storing them in geological reservoirs in western Canada. But chemicals linked to acid rain, respiratory problems and ozone depletion could escape into the atmosphere at an even faster rate, thanks to an estimated ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Report: N.C. among most at risk to rising seas
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/485417.html
Charlotte Observer: With its long low coastline and large land area less than two feet above sea level, North Carolina is among the states most vulnerable to sea-level rise, a new federal report warns. The new report focuses on the coastal states from North Carolina to New York where the rates of sea level rise are moderately high. The region has extensive coastal development, a high population and is likely to be at increased risk. After Florida and Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas have the ...

Thu, 22 Jan 09
Khosla shuns CCS in favour of coal-to-cement
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234700/khosla-shuns-ccs-favour-coal
Business Green: A new breed of carbon capture technologies capable of turning CO2 emissions into cement could soon provide a cost effective alternative to high profile, but as yet unproven, carbon capture and storage (CCS) systems, according to one of the world's leading clean tech venture capitalist. Speaking at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi today, Vinod Khosla, a leading silicon valley venture capitalist who in recent years has become a major investor in clean technologies, said that ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
GM To Spend $30 Million On Volt Battery Plant
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51297
Reuters: General Motors Corp will invest $30 million in its planned U.S. plant that will build next-generation batteries for its all-electric Chevrolet Volt, the head of GM's flagship Chevrolet brand said on Tuesday. The facility, scheduled to open in Michigan in 2010, will assemble lithium-ion battery cells manufactured by South Korea's LG Chem Ltd into 400-pound packs, which will power the heavily touted Volt plug-in car. "We chose Chevy because we can't be niche with the Volt. We ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Wind Power Jobs To Double In EU By 2020
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51299
Reuters: Employment in the wind power industry will more than double in the European Union to around 330,000 in 2020, according to a report issued on Tuesday. The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) also called for greater investment in the renewable energy sector as governments seek to stimulate economic recovery. "Wind power not only has the potential to satisfy the increasing electricity demand in a sustainable manner, it is also a significant and vital stimulus to economies," ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Broker CantorCO2e To Slow CO2 Project Origination
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51301
Reuters: CantorCO2e will scale back origination of clean energy projects under the Kyoto Protocol as a result of falling demand for carbon offsets, a vice president at the London-based brokers said on Tuesday. "We will certainly downsize our (Clean Development Mechanism project) origination, but that's more demand-driven," said James Emanuel, referring to the impact of the global recession and falling carbon prices. He added the brokerage had no immediate plans to cut any of its 40 or ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
African Carbon Trading Advisory Firm Launched
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51302
Reuters: A new advisory firm launched on Monday seeks to boost carbon emissions trading in sub-Saharan Africa and raise the continent's lagging profile in the $120 billion global carbon market. CarbonStream Africa, a joint venture between South African state-owned CEF Carbon SA (Pty) and Nordic company GreenStream Network Plc, offers advisory services for firms seeking to trade greenhouse gas offsets in Africa under the Kyoto Protocol. "Africa is really lagging behind, but I really ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Australia Cuts Carbon Credit Amount After UN Review
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aEFlITb5cLHY&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Australia reduced its estimate of assigned emission credits under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol by 1.1 percent after a review by a team of United Nations experts, giving the nation the sixth most generous allocation. The nation's so-called assigned amount was cut to 2.958 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent through 2012 from 2.99 billion tons, according to a document on the Web site of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The difference, about 32.8 million ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Australia: Emissions trading plan too 'cumbersome'
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/emissions-trading-plan-too-cumbersome/1412209.aspx
Canberra Times: A key senator's concerns about the Federal Government's emissions trading scheme have strengthened during his self-funded visit to North America. Independent senator Nick Xenophon, who shares the balance of power in the upper house, fears the scheme is poorly designed. ''In its current form ... I'm not convinced that this design is the way to go and we should also go for more ambitious targets,'' he said. ''The big concern I've had is ... that unless we get the design of ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
'Solar energy can light up India's villages'
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articlelist/articleshow/4009426.cms
Times of India: Stuart Irvine, director, Centre for Solar Energy Research, North Wales, tells Narayani Ganesh that efficient and affordable third generation solar technology could help reduce our dependence on polluting fuels: What is third generation solar technology? The I-Gen cells were of crystalline silicon, fairly high-cost, manufactured in relatively small volumes. The II-Gen cells had higher efficiency, whether made of thin wafers or silicon. The III-Gen has more complex, integrated ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
'World's greatest techno challenge'
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gVI08LvRegVrK5A5Tt1ZG1CBcQEg
Press Association: Finding enough food and energy to sustain the Earth's population is the greatest technological challenge facing humanity, an expert panel of chemists and engineers have said. The world is heading for a food crisis caused by climate change and competition for land use, according to the working party's report "The Vital Ingredient - Chemical Science and Engineering for Sustainable Food". In the long term, only technology could guarantee global food sustainability, it ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Exclusive: UK government poised to set out CCS rules
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/2d44abe/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0Cbusiness0Egreen0Cnews0C22346790Cexclusive0Euk0Egovernment0Epoised/story01.htm
Business Green: The UK government will make an announcement in the next few weeks on what power companies must do to ensure their plants are ready to be fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the future, completing the groundwork for the long-anticipated decision on whether to approve plans for a new generation of coal-fired power stations. Speaking to BusinessGreen.com on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, Bronwen Northmore, director of cleaner fossil fuels policy ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
US ethanol credits rise 9 pct on shutdown worries
http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN2042917520090120
Reuters: Prices for credits that ethanol blenders can buy to meet U.S. biofuel requirements have risen about 9 percent since late last week on worries that producers may not be making enough of the alternative fuel to meet U.S. mandates, Rinxchange said on Tuesday. The credits are up amid shutdowns of plants owned by VeraSun Energy Corp (VSUNQ.OB) and other U.S. ethanol producers. VeraSun said on Tuesday that 12 of its 16 plants are in "hot idle," or shut but not currently making ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Renewable energy sources industry growing steadily in Greece
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/21/content_10692921.htm
Xinhua: Greece's renewable energy sources sector is steadily growing, with power production from the industry totaling 878 MW at the end of 2006, an average annual growth rate of 23 percent in the period 1990-2006, a survey by Hellastat SA revealed on Tuesday. In the survey, Hellastat said by the end of 2007 total electricity energy power production totaled 1,039 MW (up 18 percent from 2006), while total power production including large hydroelectric projects totaled 4,060 ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Mayors: Green Jobs Will Grow From Obama's Stimulus Plan
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-19-091.asp
Environment News Service: Climate protection and green jobs will top the agenda for the nation's mayors in 2009. Climate champion Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has been elected incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, an influential organization of more than 1,000 major cities, which today wrapped up its winter meeting in Washington. Nickels launched the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2005, pledging to meet or beat the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of the ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Canadian, U.S. energy policy to be inextricably linked: Prentice
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090120.wprentice0120/BNStory/energy/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090120.wprentice0120
Globe and Mail: Canada's environmental and energy policy will be inextricably linked to that of the new Obama administration in the United States, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Tuesday. In a speech to a group of CEOs in Toronto, Mr. Prentice said there must be a bilateral approach to North American energy and environment policy. That means a common cap and trade system for carbon emissions, a shared target for low-carbon power generation, a common mandate for producing bio-fuels, and ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Obama: US will 'roll back the specter of a warming planet'
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/090120190813.0qhwzheb.html
Agence France-Presse: The United States will "roll back the specter of a warming planet" and "restore science to its rightful place," President Barack Obama pledged Tuesday in his inaugural address. "With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet," Obama said, vowing to pioneer a green revolution in renewable energy. Obama's remarks marked a stark departure from the stance of his predecessor, George W. Bush, whose ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
9 Ways NASA Can Tackle Climate Change
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=nasa-and-climate-change
Scientific American: NASA could be one of the nation's most potent weapons in battling climate change. The space agency has conducted decades of research into weather, life-support systems and the atmospheres of other planets providing it with unique skills to address this problem. It would be easy for policymakers to overlook NASA as they map out a strategy for solving Earth's biggest environmental woes. But here are some important reasons why they shouldn't. NASA has 21 Earth-observing spacecraft ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Mitsubishi unveils first mass-market electric car from a major car maker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/20/greentech-travelandtransport
Guardian: Mitsubishi has unveiled the first mass-market electric car from a mainstream car maker. Slightly bigger than the Smart ForTwo but with a similar design, the i-MiEV -- which goes on sale in the UK later this year -- is based on the i, Mitsubishi's existing city car. With room for four adults, it has a top speed of 87mph and produces the equivalent of 57 horsepower. Its lithium-ion battery has a range of 100 miles and can be charged from flat to 80% in 20 minutes using Mitsubishi's ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Forget "peak oil", West's demand growth peaking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8290979
Reuters: Oil demand may never return to growth in the United States, Europe and parts of Asia, easing the strain on long-term supplies and prices as emerging countries burn ever more fuel. The surge in oil to a record near $150 a barrel last year heightened concern the world will run out of crude and supply will start to dwindle -- a theory known as "peak oil". Now a deepening recession and oil price collapse have raised the issue of whether demand, not supply, is nearing its ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Sea-level threat from melting ice
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4824845a7693.html
Dominion Post: Scientists fear a giant Antarctic ice shelf threatened by global warming will help spark a rise in sea levels if it collapses. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is being held together by a rapidly shrinking strip of ice, now just 500 metres wide at its narrowest point. Experts say it could break up at any time. Ice shelves are floating extensions of ice sheets, formed as a sheet hits the coast and spreads on top of the sea. As the ice hits an island or bay it becomes trapped. The Wilkins ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Sun 'could supply Gulf's day-time energy needs'
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h7FydWGRxbXDY8rXHmTq5Iz2-Auw
Agence France-Presse: Oil-rich Gulf Arab states enjoy year-round sunshine but they remain slow in adopting environmental technologies to let them harvest their abundant solar power, industrialists said Tuesday. "They should act, instead of talking about it," said Stefan Muller, the managing director of Asia Pacific region at Conergy, the German producer of solar and wind power technologies, who is promoting his company's products in the World Future Energy Summit and Exhibition in Abu Dhabi. "These ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
India: Climate change impact 'dependent on policies'
http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/climate-change-impact-dependent-on-policies-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_climatechangeandenergy
SciDev.Net: The damage inflicted on health and livelihoods by climate change could be deeply influenced by the way in which sustainable development policies are built, according to a new study. Using the predicted climate-related rise in malaria in India as a case study, scientists found that they could either reduce or exacerbate its adverse impact -- depending on how policies are put together. Writing in Environmental Management this month (6 January), they call for a more comprehensive ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Japan to launch satellite to measure global warming
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a6XUxZ2f1HEA&refer=japan
Bloomberg: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans to launch a satellite in two days to measure greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere as nations seek better data on the evolution of global warming. The Greenhouse-Gases Observing Satellite, or Gosat, will be lofted from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan shortly after noon local time on Jan. 22, the agency said today in a statement on its Web site. Scientists are increasingly called upon by governments to predict ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
In Canada, a Push for Obama-style Green Stimulus
http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/01/20/GreenStim/
The Tyee: A new proposal for a sweeping green economic stimulus plan is landing with a loud thump on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's desk days before he unveils his federal budget. Why a loud thump? The proposal for a Green Economy Action Fund is backed by unions, environmental organizations and other Canadian civil society groups with a combined membership of over 850,000 people. The plan calls for federal investments and low-interest loans to stimulate the green economy and catalyze ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
'One million jobs in wind power' by 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/20/one-million-jobs-wind-power-2010
Guardian: One million people will be employed in the world wind-power industry by the end of the decade, despite the impact of the financial crisis, it was forecast today. Amid predictions that the world would need to install one new turbine every 25 minutes to reach global renewables targets, energy experts at a green summit in Abu Dhabi said the sector had maintained a near 30% annual growth rate in 2008 and was heading for further success. "It has been another record year for the ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Australia: Climate scientists seek a urea moment
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-scientists-seek-a-urea-moment/2009/01/20/1232213646774.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SYDNEY researchers are pushing ahead with controversial plans to fertilise the ocean off Australia's coast and use plankton to slow climate change. The director of the University of Sydney's Ocean Technology Group, Professor Ian Jones, said sprinkling nitrate fertiliser across an area of ocean just 40 kilometres by 40 kilometres would stimulate the growth of carbon-absorbing plankton on a scale big enough to meet the Federal Government's total greenhouse gas reduction target for ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Canada: Harper urged to follow Obama's green lead
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Technology/Harper%20urged%20follow%20Obama%20green%20lead/1197495/story.html
Canwest News Service: The Harper government is being urged to follow Barack Obama's lead and inject billions of dollars into green jobs and green energy. Leading environmental, union and forest groups called Tuesday for the Conservatives to include a Green Economy Action Fund in their upcoming budget to "supercharge growth in the green economy." The groups are pushing for a $41-billion stimulus package over five years to make Canadian homes and buildings more energy efficient, ramp up renewable ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
UN-backed body confirms plans for global aviation emissions cap
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234641/un-confirms-plans-global
Business Green: The UN-backed International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) last week confirmed it is pressing ahead with plans for an international carbon emissions cap-and-trade scheme for the aviation industry, despite the emergence of a growing number of potentially rival regional schemes. Speaking at a meeting of global transport ministers in Tokyo, Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez, president of the ICAO's Council, told news agency Reuters that EU proposals to include aviation in its regional emissions ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Greenland and Climate Change: 'The Arctic Has Taught Us to Be Stubborn'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,602340,00.html#ref=rss
Spiegel: SPIEGEL ONLINE: Minister Berthelsen, do you consider Greenland to be a winner or a loser of climate change? Berthelsen: Right now we are losers. Just take a look at the hunters and especially the fishermen in northern Greenland. Formerly, they were able to fish on thick ice for four months, now it is only one month. In the other three months the ice is too thick for boats and too thin for dog teams. That creates a lot of problems both socially and financially. But I am hopeful and ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow's expansion: a new kind of blitz in England
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1872417,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Time Magazine: Thursday's decision has thrust Sipson into the frontline of the epic fight between economic development and environmental concerns, which is intensifying as the global economy stutters. Across the world, politicians are asking themselves how best to balance their green agendas against their struggles to stimulate growth. Such questions are anything but abstract for Sipson's elderly residents, many of whom have spent their entire lives in the village. "I got married in the local church. My ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Harper wants joint Canada-U.S. policies on energy, ecology
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090120.CLIMATE20//TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: Canada will propose a series of common environmental standards and energy-development plans to new U.S. President Barack Obama beyond a North American cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions, government sources say. The Harper government is planning to propose the harmonization of goals for using bio-fuels such as ethanol, fuel-efficiency standards for cars, and targets for so-called "low-carbon" power plants - which, over time, might push the United States into buying more ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Canada: Cabinet shuffle moves climate agenda further from Premier's reach
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090120.BCCABINET20//TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: The climate-action agenda was formally removed from Premier Gordon Campbell's sights in a cabinet shuffle yesterday. Just a year ago, Mr. Campbell's government introduced the Green Budget. Now, on the eve of what is shaping up to be the Recession Budget, a change - buried in the background notes of a cabinet shuffle announcement - shows that the Climate Action Secretariat will no longer report to the Premier's Office. It is now an arm of the Environment Ministry. "It's ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Bill would offer tax credits to promote clean coal plants in Texas
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/1152179.html
Star-Telegram: State lawmakers are preparing to debate whether there is such a thing as clean coal. Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, has filed a bill offering up to $300 million in tax credits to companies interested in building so-called clean coal plants in Texas. The plants, the first of their kind in the nation, would be designed to sequester at least 60 percent of the carbon dioxide they produce. Under those guidelines, the plants would meet the emission standards of California and Washington, ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Australia: Darwin tipped as cooler place to be
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/global-warming/darwin-tipped-as-cooler-place-to-be/2009/01/19/1232213540919.html
Sydney Morning Herald: TRAVELLING north may soon mean more than just a comfortable Queensland retirement - it could be a way to dodge the worst effects of climate change. A global study that combed fossil records dating back to the last ice age suggests northern Australia is relatively well placed to resist the scorching temperature predicted for the coming decades and beyond. But Sydney's position, in a temperate zone not far south of the tropics, meant it was highly sensitive to slight changes in ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
United States: Berkeley nudging residents to cut the carbon
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/20/BA3J15C3EC.DTL&type=science
San Francisco Chronicle: Some cities urge residents to go on citywide exercise kicks. Others promote municipal book clubs. Berkeley wants its citizens to go on a collective low-carbon diet. To meet its ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Berkeley is encouraging all 100,000 residents to join support groups to help individuals fight global warming. Like Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers, the groups are part social, part confessional and partly about accountability. "It does ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
United States: Consumer Energy to spend $500 million on smart meters
http://www.mlive.com/news/citpat/index.ssf?/base/news-27/1232276711195410.xml&coll=3
Jackson Citizen Patriot: Consumers of the future will have more control over their energy costs. When prices peak, special thermostats could automatically dial down or shut off air conditioning. Lights, appliances and electronics could also be controlled through display panels or connections to home computers that show energy usage or notify customers of high energy costs. In the coming months, Consumers Energy will take the first steps toward a system that promises to make all of that a ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Abandoning FutureGen may be Bush's legacy to Illinois
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2009/01/19/news/doc4975533c69e09289174695.txt
JG-TC: President Bush's departure after eight years in the White House has prompted discussions of his legacy, including reflections on his time spent in Illinois. Few of his policies or actions moved the Land of Lincoln any more than other states, but observers can point to a few moments and plans that hit locally. For example, Bush proposed building a coal-fired power plant that reduced pollution by pumping carbon dioxide and other gases into the ground instead of into the ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
South Africa: Deloitte warns on carbon tax
http://allafrica.com/stories/200901190024.html
Business Day: THE government's plan to introduce a carbon tax is not the best way to reduce carbon emissions in SA, professional services firm Deloitte says. Research recently carried out by the firm into potential emission reduction methods indicated that the best way to reduce emissions in the country was by way of a cap-and-trade system. Duane Newman, lead director of the firm's climate change solutions group, last week said : "We welcome the fact that the government is taking steps to ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
New Zealand: Insurance expected to rise after stormy 2008
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/413551/2448036
TV News Zealand: Insurance can be costly, and it's about to get more expensive as the risk from climate related disasters increases due to global warming. In 2008, five storms cost insurers more than $86 million with July seeing the highest number of storm related claims for a single month ever. The first event was windstorms and flooding that affected nearly all parts of the North Island, costing $26 million. It was followed three days later by another storm that caused even more damage ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Updated: Sell-off forces EU carbon to record lows
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234299/sell-forces-eu-carbon-record
Business Green: The price of carbon credits in the EU's emissions trading scheme reached a record low for the current phase of the scheme of just Â€11.60 as many of the large scale emitters covered by the scheme continued to offload their EUA carbon credits. The price of EUAs has been on a steady slide since the start of the year when they stood just shy of Â€16 a tonne and market watchers are concerned that the price of carbon is no longer tracking oil prices. Rising oil prices typically lead ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Green Ball: Eco-Friendly Glamour
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99570710&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Besides becoming the first black president, Barack Obama may well be the greenest. He says he wants to "green up" the energy economy. Some people who want to help him do that came to the Green Inaugural Ball Monday night which was one of four environmentally-themed events scheduled for inauguration weekend.

Wed, 21 Jan 09
The Mecca of Renewable Energy
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/01/19/the-mecca-of-renewable-energy
GreenBiz: In these dismal economic times, it's remarkable that 15,000 to 20,000 people traveled to Abu Dhabi, of all places, for a clean-energy conference. The renewable energy business, after all, is reeling from the global recession, the credit crunch and the precipitous drop in the price of oil. Signs of distress are not hard to find. There hasn't been a successful clean tech IPO since First Solar went public in 2006. Wind power and solar energy companies are laying off workers, according to ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Survey: Scientists agree human-induced global warming is real
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/uoia-ssa011609.php
EurekAlert: While the harsh winter pounding many areas of North America and Europe seemingly contradicts the fact that global warming continues unabated, a new survey finds consensus among scientists about the reality of climate change and its likely cause. A group of 3,146 earth scientists surveyed around the world overwhelmingly agree that in the past 200-plus years, mean global temperatures have been rising, and that human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Ireland: Dundalk scientists to explore green energy potential of seaweed
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15867
Edie: Ireland is to take part in a multi-million Euro project aimed at assessing the feasibility of harvesting seaweed and turning it into a green energy source. Under the European Union initiative, experts from the country will join forces with their counterparts in Northern Ireland and Scotland to see how energy sources can be created from the marine algae and seaweed found in areas of sea the three countries share. Specifically, specialists at the Institute of Technology in ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Plans to extend biggest wind farm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7838293.stm
BBC: Plans for a major expansion of Scotland's largest wind farm development have been unveiled. Scottish Power Renewables, the company behind the Whitelee wind farm on Eaglesham Moor, wants to build 45 additional turbines. The aim is to produce 614 megawatts of electricity - enough to power every home in Glasgow. The extension plans will be presented to local residents at a series of public open days this week. The Whitelee development is the biggest onshore windfarm ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Surveyed scientists agree global warming is real
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/01/19/eco.globalwarmingsurvey/index.html#cnnSTCText
CNN: Human-induced global warming is real, according to a recent U.S. survey based on the opinions of 3,146 scientists. However there remains divisions between climatologists and scientists from other areas of earth sciences as to the extent of human responsibility. A survey of more than 3,000 scientists found that the vast majority believe humans cause global warming. Against a backdrop of harsh winter weather across much of North America and Europe, the concept of rising global ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
United States: Boulder carbon watchers watch Obama
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jan/20/boulder-carbon-watchers-obama-inauguration/?partner=yahoo_headlines
Boulder Daily Camera: Long before George W. Bush admitted that global warming is likely caused by humans and Al Gore swept the nation with his inconvenient truths, people in Boulder County were already battling greenhouse gases. Blame it on the dense concentration of climate scientists or the overflow of renewable-energy startups. Whatever the reason, a lot of people in Boulder spend a lot of time thinking about the perils of carbon. So when Barack Obama declared his intentions to reduce carbon ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Antarctic bases turn to renewables - even solar
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50J1X120090120?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Renewable energies are gaining a foothold in Antarctica, curbing fossil fuel use despite problems in designing installations to survive bone-chilling cold and winter darkness. Wind and even solar power are catching on -- solar panels on the Antarctic Peninsula can collect as much energy in a year as many places in Europe. Although there is little sunlight in the winter, the summer sun shines through crystal clear air and reflects off snow. "Antarctica is the windiest ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
United States: Struggling Schwarzenegger eyes enviro rule roll back
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234282/struggling-schwarzenegger-eyes
Business Green: Tensions are rising between environmental groups and California's Governor Schwarzenegger as he seeks to rein in environmental protection measures in an attempt to kickstart the economy. Schwarzenegger has built himself a reputation as a world leader on tackling climate change and has imposed some of the most stringent green regulations anywhere in the US since he took office. However, his state's budget crisis is now so severe that some reports claim the government will run ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Attempt to sell off land for oil and gas drilling halted by federal judge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/oil-gas-land-utah-usa
Guardian: An attempt to sell off more than 100,000 acres of land near national parks in Utah for oil and gas drilling has been halted by a federal judge. The ruling, in response to a lawsuit filed by several environmental groups, suspends the sale of 77 parcels of land at an auction held in December. The auction was seen by activists as an attempt by the outgoing Bush administration to deliver a last-minute gift to its allies in the oil and gas industry. The sale on 19 December in Salt ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Better grazing practices could boost CO2 trade
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50J22020090120?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Simple changes in grazing practices could soak up millions of tonnes of carbon a year, helping fight climate change, improving farm productivity and earning farmers carbon credits, a scientist said on Tuesday. But such measures needed to spread globally to more than 120 million farmers working grazing lands, such as savannah and shrubland, Andreas Wilkes of the World Agroforestry Center in Beijing, said. The measures also needed to be backed by the United Nations in a broader ...

Wed, 21 Jan 09
Exclusive: Global bankers slam "expensive and inefficient" CDM
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234286/exclusive-deutsche-bank-exec
Business Green: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is not fit for purpose and must be reformed if global emissions reduction targets are to be met, according to senior banking leaders gathered at this week's World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. Caio Koch Weser, vice chairman of Deutsche Bank group and a former German minister, led the criticism of the UN-backed carbon trading scheme, which allows businesses and governments in developed countries to invest in emissions reduction schemes in the ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Australia Emission Trade Gives Price Indication
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51284
Reuters: The first trade in Australian Emissions Units (AEU) since the government released its blueprint for a carbon trading scheme was carried out on Monday, providing an indication of the future cost of polluting in Australia. Newedge senior energy trader Donovan Marsh said his firm handled a transaction of 10,000 AEUs expiring on June 20, 2012 at A$22.25 ($15.14) each, helping to establish a price for carbon trading in Australia ahead of the start-up of the government's ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
More German Biodiesel Plants Face Closure In 2009
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51285
Reuters: More German biodiesel plants face closure in 2009 following government's decision to raise taxes on green fuels and to scale back an increase in biofuel blending in fossil fuels, a biofuels industry leader said on Monday. Germany's biodiesel industry, Europe's largest, was working at considerably under 60 percent of its five million-ton annual capacity, Johannes Lackmann, chief executive of German biofuels industry association VDB, said. "Many medium and small size plants will ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Brazil Landless Peasants Aim To Extend Fight To Oil
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51288
Reuters: Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement marked its 25th anniversary on Monday by pledging to extend its fight against capitalism to ensuring the country's new oil wealth remains in state hands. Since state energy company Petrobras announced in 2007 it had discovered massive light oil reserves off Brazil's southern coast, talk has swirled that the government would take greater control over the oil wealth. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is considering whether to create a new ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi to keep investing in solar energy despite crisis
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gdIplA7E51oNGs9xEBUEa1j-kYTQ
Agence France-Presse: Oil-rich Abu Dhabi said Monday it will press ahead with plans to develop solar energy, shrugging off a huge drop in oil prices which is cutting the emirate's revenues. "The current economic situation has no impact on Masdar's intended and planned projects," said Sultan al-Jaber, chief executive of Masdar, the government-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company charged with developing clean energy. The company's most prestigious project is developing Masdar City in Abu Dhabi -- a ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Fish poop fights climate change
http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/science/story.html?id=1194702
Canwest News Service: Scientists have discovered that fish play a major role in the marine carbon cycle, making them unexpected allies against climate change. Previously, UN scientists have warned that when the ocean absorbs more carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere, it also becomes more acidic, threatening coral reefs and other sea life. This new study, to be published today in the journal Science, shows fish excretions of calcium carbonate can offset this acidity. A school of ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Environmentalists cheer shelving of Enbridge oilsands pipeline
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iR1DFPnM9lCdgvVnh6wJy7WFyz7w
Canadian Press: Environmental groups say they will keep leaning on Ontario to curb its reliance on oilsands crude, even though Calgary-based pipeline company Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) is shelving a project that would have brought more of that oil into the province. A report by Environmental Defence and Forest Ethics Monday said Enbridge's $346-million Trailbreaker project would have effectively choked off Ontario's supply of light sweet crude oil from overseas, which they believe has fewer ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Obama expected to allow some states to enforce tough emission rules
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-01/20/content_10686191.htm
Xinhua: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is expected to grant a waiver allowing California and some other states to enforce their own greenhouse-gas emission standards on autos, it was reported on Monday. "That would completely change the landscape for vehicle regulation and obligate automakers to produce cars that are far more efficient than those called for under current federal standards," the Los Angeles Times noted. The move would help reduce emissions from cars which are ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Wilkins Ice Shelf On Borrowed Time
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1625240/wilkins_ice_shelf_on_borrowed_time/
redOrbit: A large ice shelf is near collapse in Antarctica, held together only by a small strip of ice as global warming continues to alter the map of the frozen continent. "We've come to the Wilkins Ice Shelf to see its final death throes," glaciologist David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) told Reuters after his red Twin Otter plane landed near the shelf's narrowest section. "It really could go at any minute," he said, adding that the ice bridge could linger weeks or ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Scientists say global warming real
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/01/19/Scientists_say_global_warming_real/UPI-73711232403834/
United Press International: A wide range of Earth scientists say humans contribute significantly to global warming, suggests a poll conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago. The poll should dispel doubts by some that a consensus about global warming exists among scientists, said Peter Doran, a University of Illinois professor who conducted the poll with students last year. The 3,146 Earth scientists interviewed around the world overwhelmingly agreed that global temperatures have risen in the ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Solar incentive opens energy window
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/19/pm_states_model/
Marketplace: Financing green projects can be expensive, so cities are rethinking the economic model to fund renewable energy. A pilot project in Berkeley, Calif., will use city bonds to pay for the costs of installing solar panels, with money being recouped later through a surcharge on property taxes. Sam Eaton reports. TEXT OF STORY Bob Moon: Even before the new administration's economic stimulus plan is finalized, some environmental advocates are complaining it doesn't go far enough ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Gore, enviros celebrate changing of the guard
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ghCCX5tFoH4Ciudd_9Oi6IrODWVgD95QK4AO0
Associated Press: Green is suddenly glamorous again. After chafing under eight years of President George W. Bush's environmental policies, advocates supporting renewable energy and conservation gathered Monday night at a glitzy ball to celebrate the greening of the White House. President-elect Barack Obama, unlike his predecessor, supports stiff, mandatory reductions in the gases blamed for global warming and he wants to create millions of new "green" jobs. Environmental groups that have ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Observatory: More-Reflective Crops May Have Cooling Effect
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=115762
New York Times: Some of the most imaginative solutions to the problem of global climate change involve planetary-scale geoengineering projects to reduce the sunlight reaching the Earth`s surface. But proposals like building a huge sunshade in space or seeding the atmosphere with sulfate particles would cost enormous sums and require a degree of international cooperation that is difficult to achieve. Andy Ridgwell and colleagues at the University of Bristol in England have another idea, one they call ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Tesco's latest store cuts carbon footprint 70 per cent
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234280/tesco-latest-store-cuts-carbon
Business Green: The rapid emergence of green construction techniques and low carbon building technologies was underlined last week after supermarket giant Tesco opened a major new store that it claims has a carbon footprint 70 per cent lower than an equivalent sized store built just over two years ago. The company said its new 52,000sq ft Cheetham Hill store in Manchester would provide a "low carbon blueprint" for all future stores built in the UK. According to Tesco, a raft of energy ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
'Comeback' forests rich in biodiversity, say scientists
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/-comeback-forests-rich-in-biodiversity-say-scienti.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Tropical forests that have regrown after deforestation are proving more significant havens of biodiversity than previously thought, scientists said last week (12 January). A meeting convened to highlight the controversy about tropical rainforest "comeback" heard that secondary regrowth of forests is widespread and is leading to areas rich in plant and animal life that can play an important role in conservation efforts in the tropics. Robin Chazdon, from the University of ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
DR Congo cancels timber contracts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7838659.stm
BBC: The Democratic Republic of Congo government has cancelled nearly 60% of timber contracts in the world's second-largest tropical rainforest. It follows a six-month review of 156 logging deals aimed at stamping out corruption in the sector and enforcing legal and environmental standards. At the end of the World Bank-backed process, government ministers found that only 65 timber deals were viable. New contracts will be issued for 90,000 sq km (35,000 square miles) of ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Setting out Obama's green agenda
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7837791.stm
BBC: Barack Obama will become the 44th president of the US as the world is engulfed in a global economic crisis, says Peter Seligmann. He calls on the new president not to ignore the environment, which is "rapidly reaching a tipping point". What an odd juxtaposition of almost giddy anticipation and deep anxiety as we prepare for a US presidential inauguration that will be celebrated worldwide. Hopes for a new year and a new global leader of vision and courage collide with a ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Pork producers sue EPA over new emissions rule
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/01/19/pork_producers_sue_epa_over_new_emissions_rule/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: The National Pork Producers Council said Monday it is suing to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's requirement that livestock farms inform communities about estimated emissions. The rule is scheduled to take effect Tuesday. It requires livestock producers to call state and local emergency response authorities to inform them of estimated emissions and to notify them in writing. Farms that fail to comply face penalties of up to $25,000 per day. The council, ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Britain under fire for not committing to renewable energy agency
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/19/renewable-energy-agency
Guardian: Britain's attempts to position itself as a centre for the green power industry suffered a blow today when it emerged that ministers have refused to commit the country to a new international body set up to promote renewable power. The German environment secretary, who came up with the idea for the International Renewable Energy Agency, said he was disappointed countries such as the UK and America were dragging their feet. "Please join the club. It's a club for the future," said ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Antarctic ice shelf set to collapse due to warming
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50I4G520090119?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A huge Antarctic ice shelf is on the brink of collapse with just a sliver of ice holding it in place, the latest victim of global warming that is altering maps of the frozen continent. "We've come to the Wilkins Ice Shelf to see its final death throes," David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told Reuters after the first -- and probably last -- plane landed near the narrowest part of the ice. The flat-topped shelf has an area of thousands of square ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Europe's lost mist 'boosts heat'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7838358.stm
BBC: The number of foggy, misty and hazy days is diminishing across the continent, say scientists who have analysed the meteorological data. The researchers found this clearing of the air in the past 30 years may have amplified the warming of Europe. They report their findings in the journal Nature Geoscience. The research was led by Robert Vautard at the Atomic Energy Commission, Gif sur Yvette, France. Since the 1970s, European temperatures have risen by about ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
What Obama's innaugaration means for green energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/19/obama-green-energy-economy
Guardian: Even in this era of costly crisis and even more expensive rescue, $50 billion is still a lot of money. That sum -- perhaps even more -- is what Congressional leaders and aides to President-elect Barack Obama say he will propose to build new transit lines, weatherise buildings, manufacture clean next-generation vehicles, and create new "green collar" jobs. Even more crucial than the scale of the spending on clean energy is what the President-elect says it represents to his overall ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Congo set to halt most logging
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50I3WI20090119?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Logging must stop on nearly 13 million hectares of forest in Democratic Republic of Congo after a government review canceled nearly 60 percent of the vast country's timber contracts, the government said on Monday. Congo, home to the second largest tropical forest in the world after the Amazon, has completed a long-delayed review of 156 logging deals aimed at stamping out corruption in the sector and enforcing minimum legal and environmental standards. Logging, mining, and land ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Greenpeace calls for urgent action to enforce decisions and protect Congo's remaining forests
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/greenpeace-calls-for-urgent-ac-2
Greenpeace: Releasing the final results of a World Bank-sponsored review of logging contracts, the Congolese government today announced that 65 contracts covering almost 10 million hectares will be converted into long-term logging concessions. The results contradict the conclusions of a government-appointed technical working group, which previously recommended a reduction to 4.4 million hectares. Today's announcement comes after the government examined a series of appeals from logging companies ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Ten of the best ... ethical investment tips
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/may/21/ethicalmoney.investmentfunds
Guardian: 1. Consider what you mean by ethical There are scores of different ethical funds to choose from, all with slightly different criteria. Many screen out businesses involved in alcohol, tobacco, pornography, nuclear energy and animal testing. But are you against animal testing for medical purposes, or only for cosmetics? Or if you're an environmentalist do you think nuclear energy is the work of the devil, or a practical solution to global warming? And why snub alcohol when you like a ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Stern: "While the economic crisis is big, the planetary crisis is still bigger"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234261/world-future-energy-summit
Business Green: Leading politicians, academics, economists and business leaders attending the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi today called for firms around the world to accelerate efforts to address their carbon footprint, despite the short term financial pressures arising from the global economic downturn. Delegates and speakers at the conference admitted that the financial crisis had undoubtedly hit efforts to curb carbon emissions in recent months, primarily as a result of the drying up of ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Carbon-Capture Projects Become Viable at $50 a Ton
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/%22climate+change%22+or+%22global+warming%22+or+%22renewable+energy%22/SIG=12hojeeb1/*http%3A//www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aUo_Qlim9aC0&refer=energy
Bloomberg: Permits to release a ton of carbon dioxide into the air need to cost about $50 each, or three times Europe's current price, for companies to invest in experimental technology to trap the greenhouse gas, Nicholas Stern said. At that price, projects that capture and safely bury CO2 underground can be developed to help stem emissions of the global-warming gas during the next 20 to 30 years, the London School of Economics professor said today in televised remarks at the World Future ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United Kingdom: London Fog Clears in European Phenomenon That Adds to Warming
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aPCrSRgkmEFs&refer=europe
Bloomberg: London's fog, a fixture in the U.K. capital that led to the deaths of 4,000 people in 1952, may be on the wane, contributing to warmer temperatures. Why? Cleaner air. French-led scientists studied three decades of data from 342 weather stations across Europe and found that on average, the number of days where London visibility was lower than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) has halved since 1980. The trend correlates with a fall in emissions of sulfur dioxide, a gas associated with burning ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
White House Directive Guides Policy on Arctic
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/18/AR2009011802085.html
Washington Post: The White House last week issued a new policy directive to guide government decisions involving the Arctic, a document that outlines an array of challenges the incoming administration will face as rising temperatures spark a surge in economic and military activity there -- along with new environmental concerns. The 10-page directive signed by President Bush, which took two years to write and is meant to guide 10 Cabinet departments along with the Environmental Protection Agency, ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Australia: Canberra to be hit hardest by climate change
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/19/2469461.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Canberra will be hit harder by climate change than any other capital city according to new research from the Australian National University (ANU). The study which maps global warming trends suggests that the ACT will become drier and warmer than previous estimates. ANU researcher Timothy Barrows says because Canberra is inland it is more exposed than other capital cities. "What it'll mean is that we'll experience a greater than average temperature warming," he ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
'Green bank' suggestion to Obama could pay off
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/printedition/2009/01/19/natvoices0119.html
Washington Post: Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) have sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama outlining two promising ideas for inclusion in the stimulus package that would help get renewable energy companies off life support and encourage homeowners to make dwellings more energy-efficient. The Home Energy Savings Revolving Fund would provide zero-interest loans to help homeowners pay for energy-efficient lighting, windows and other improvements. It could create jobs in ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Obama's climate goals lack ambition, says IPCC chief
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/obama-climate-goals-lack-ambition-ipcc-chief/article-178574
EurActiv: If the world is to tackle the climate threat, the US President-elect must beef up his country's emissions targets, the head of the leading intergovernmental organisation of climate scientists said last week (15 January). "President-elect Obama's goal of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 falls short of the response needed by world leaders to meet the challenge of reducing emissions to levels that will actually spare us the worst effects of climate change," said Dr. Rajendra ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
US may provide aid after waves pummel Marshalls
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g8bZlaPcQZvph8w9NP-hwUBcY7nA
Agence France-Presse: The United States may provide emergency aid to two former Pacific territories after high waves hit low lying areas of the two atoll nations late last month, officials said. US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials are touring the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia this week assessing damage from the high waves that hit homes and crops and displaced hundreds of people. Two FEMA inspectors left late Sunday with Marshall Islands Disaster Office ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Canada: Environmentalists hail shelving of Enbridge "Trailbreaker" project
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hh1NIsRZaZ9x9Ar-KJH9YyAU-7dQ
Canadian Press: Environmental groups are hailing celebrating a decision by oil and gas giant Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB) to shelve its $346-million "Trailbreaker" pipeline expansion. They say the pipeline would have increased dependence on oil from the tar sands, which they describe as the "most destructive project on earth." The group of assorted environmental activists says in a statement the decision gives central Canadian provinces time to pursue alternative energy strategies that are less ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Carbon problem 'worse than we thought' - think tank
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15865&channel=0&title=Carbon+problem+%27worse+than+we+thought%27+-+think+tank
Edie: When it comes to cutting carbon the scale of the problem is even greater than widely believed and humankind has just 40 years to go carbon neutral or face catastrophic consequences, according to a US think tank. The apocalyptic predictions put forward in the latest offering from the Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World aren't the rantings of a militant fringe organisation but the studied findings of a relatively moderate Washington-based think ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
U.N. scheme aims to use carbon credits to save forests
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE50I1WN20090119
Reuters: The United Nations hopes to include a market-based scheme aimed at using carbon credits to save rainforests as part of a broader pact to fight climate change. Called REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, the scheme won backing at last year's U.N.-led climate talks in Bali and trial schemes are now being developed, a number of them in Asia. The idea is to refine the pay-and-preserve scheme for inclusion into the Kyoto Protocol's successor from ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
World Bank is unfit to manage new global climate funds, say 142 organisations
http://www.theecologist.org/pages/archive_detail.asp?content_id=2045
Ecologist: Environmental groups were pleased at the end 2007 when the UN announced that its under-resourced adaptation funds - established to help less-industrialised nations adapt to the effects of climate change - were to receive a cash injection. But they were dismayed to discover in 2008 that the organisation holding the purse-strings would be none other than the World Bank - not renowned for its track record in sustainable development. Now, 142 organisations have signed a statement ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Climate change will take place over decades, not years
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=15869&channel=0&title=Climate+change+will+take+place+over+decades%2C+not+years+
Edie: Unseasonable weather is set to be on the increase, with colder winters and warmer summers, and some surprises in between, an expert has suggested. Mayo News journalist Anton McNulty suggested that in some areas of Ireland, significant changes have already occurred, highlighting Belmullet Met station which has recorded only 0.3mm of rain so far this year, in an area that usually has 123.7mm in January alone, although a scientist has suggested that it will take decades rather than years ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United Arab Emirates: Oil-rich Abu Dhabi outlines green energy target
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jc1g2957NL0gQKMYnmKPHVX6I38gD95Q8M4G2
Associated Press: The head of a green-energy project in Abu Dhabi says the oil-rich emirate plans to generate 7 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. Sultan al-Jaber says the initiative will create a renewable energy market worth $6 billion to $8 billion in Abu Dhabi. Most, if not all, of the energy will come from solar power, another official involved with the project says. Al-Jaber is chief executive of Abu Dhabi's Masdar alternative energy initiative. He made the ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Glaciers melting so fast some could disappear by middle of the century
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4290208/Glaciers-melting-so-fast-some-could-disappear-by-middle-of-the-century.html
Telegraph: The World Glacier Monitoring Service in Switzerland collected measurements on the thickness of ice on mountain ranges from New Zealand to the Alps. Heavy snowfall in Scandinavia meant the average loss in thickness in 2007 was 24 inches (0.6m) compared to a record 47 inches (1.2m) the year previously. However, it is still the third biggest fall on record and after 18 years of uninterrupted loss around the world means the total mass of glaciers is thought to be at its lowest for ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
EU Palm Oil Demand Hit
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/article/6769.html
Jakarta Globe: The European Union's increasing demand for crude palm oil, or CPO, is evidence of its inconsistent stance on climate change, an environmentalist said on Monday. '[The developed world] has criticized Indonesia for destroying its forests, but its increasing demand for Indonesian CPO sends a different message,' said Elfian Effendi, the executive director of Greenomics Indonesia. According to Greenomics, CPO exports to 10 European Union countries rose 166 percent from $320 million ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United States: Inupiat hunter's heirs strike blow against BP
http://www.adn.com/money/industries/oil/story/659429.html
Anchorage Daily News: For many years, a Native family suspected a major oil company was shortchanging them for using a strategic piece of North Slope land to pump billions of dollars worth of oil. The company, BP, as well as the federal agency that oversees Indian land holdings, had long rejected the claims of the heirs of Andrew Oenga, an Inupiat who held the 40-acre allotment on the edge of the rich Prudhoe Bay oil field. Recently, however, the family struck what could be a costly blow against ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Will Obama outgreen Europe?
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/obama-outgreen-europe/article-178601
EurActiv: While the EU 27 worked towards the adoption of groundbreaking climate change legislation in 2008, US President-elect Barack Obama made ambitious commitments to tackle global warming during his presidential campaign. Ahead of international talks on a post-Kyoto climate deal, EurActiv asked experts whether Obama will outgreen Europe. The question provoked mixed responses, with some interviewees confident that Obama can and will outdo the EU's climate and energy policies, and others ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Green-collar economy taking root in Chicago
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-green-jobsjan19,0,6762937.story
Chicago Tribune: The lot where Isaac Wright Jr., ex-con, tends vegetables next to abandoned railroad tracks and across the street from a boarded-up house is the intersection of social justice, environmental righteousness and economic prosperity. He is part foot soldier, part guinea pig in a movement that starts in the Englewood garden and may reach all the way to the Oval Office, although he may not fully appreciate it. "I'm not going to lie to you," Wright said one crisp morning while working a row ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Investment confidence grows in renewable energy sector
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/economicnews/view/403511/1/.html
Channel News Asia: Incoming US president Barack Obama could give the renewable energy sector the push it needs to move forward. He has already announced plans for a US$150 billion boost over the next 10 years. And this is expected to have spillover benefits for the sector in Asia. President-elect Obama is calling for change - and that includes cutting the American dependence on fossil fuels. He plans to pump in US$150 billion into the renewable energy sector over the next 10 years, and has ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
German researchers break solar record
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234252/german-researchers-break-solar
Business Green: A German research team last week announced they had broken the conversion efficiency record for a photovoltaic solar cell, in a move scientists claimed represented a "big step" towards delivering solar energy at a lower cost than conventional energy sources. The team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE said that they had managed to achieve a record efficiency of 41.1 per cent for the conversion of sunlight into electricity, breaking the Institute's previous record ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Carbon-Capture Projects Are Viable at $50 a Ton, Stern Says
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/%22climate+change%22+or+%22global+warming%22+or+%22renewable+energy%22/SIG=12h6023ra/*http%3A//www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=a3rBWTQyCF6A&refer=energy
Bloomberg: Permits to release a ton of carbon dioxide into the sky need to cost about $50 each, or three times Europe's current price, for companies to invest in experimental technology to trap the greenhouse gas, Nicholas Stern said. Projects that capture and safely bury CO2 underground must be developed to play a role in controlling global emissions of the global-warming gas during the next 20 to 30 years, the London School of Economics professor said today in televised remarks at the World ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Canada: Activist train to protest oilsands development in Saskatchewan
http://www.timescolonist.com/Technology/Activist%20train%20protest%20oilsands%20development%20Saskatchewan/1191940/story.html
Canwest News Service: Twenty aspiring activists received a lesson on how to create a human blockade as part of an oilsands protest training conference held during the weekend in Saskatoon. They sat on the floor of a small classroom on the University of Saskatchewan campus with their arms and legs intertwined as Greenpeace activist Mike Hudema and his helpers attempted to break them apart. The class was one of many seminars offered as part of the conference hosted by such organizations as Greenpeace, ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
United States: City worries about mining on watershed
http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/coal_22491___article.html/county_mining.html
Telegraph: Although Madison County has no applications from coal companies seeking permits to do mining, Highland officials worry about longwall mining in Bond County. "The watershed area for Silver Lake is very large and encompasses the northeast portion of Madison County, as well as the northwest portion of Bond County," Highland City Manager Mark Latham said. "The city started looking at the impact it would have on our water supply. Not knowing much, our biggest concern is the impact on not ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Australia: Move north to escape climate change
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24930470-12377,00.html
AAP: WORRIED about climate change? Move to Darwin. New research shows the top half of Australia will be little affected by climate change, while from Brisbane south the effects will get stronger and stronger. Dr Tim Barrows, from the Australian National University, has prepared a hit-list of the cities which will be most affected as the climate warms up. Canberra tops the list because it doesn't have the ocean to moderate temperatures. Next come Melbourne, Hobart, ...

Tue, 20 Jan 09
Barack Obama 'must act now' to tackle climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4286006/Barack-Obama-must-act-now-to-tackle-climate-change.html
Telegraph: Nasa scientist Jim Hansen has warned that the President-elect needs to take decisive action in his first administration as soaring carbon emissions threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species loss and major weather disruption. Mr Hansen said: "We cannot afford to put off change any longer. We have to get on a new path within this new administration. We have only four years left for Obama to set an example to the rest of the world. America must take the lead." Mr ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
First Solar To Help Power UAE
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51246
Reuters: Abu Dhabi's Masdar said on Thursday it is building the Middle East's largest solar power plant for the carbon-neutral Masdar City. Half of the 10 megawatt photovoltaic plant's solar panels will be supplied by First Solar Inc, the U.S.-based company said in a statement. Its shares rose 6.5 percent following the announcement. The $22 billion Masdar City -- the green city in the desert -- will be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. No cars will be allowed. First ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Air Pollution May Prompt Abnormal Heart Rhythm
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/51248
Reuters: Patients with heart rhythm disturbances who have an implantable heart defibrillator are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, a Swedish study indicates. In patients with these devices, known as implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs, exposure to air pollution may rapidly (within 2 hours) prompt ventricular arrhythmia -- a potentially life-threatening condition in which the heart rhythm becomes irregular, the study shows. Previous studies have documented an ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Sun is setting on China's solar industry
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-01/19/content_7408525.htm
China Daily: The solar industry will be suffering more than other renewable energy sectors, as large manufacturers expect a drop in solar module prices in 2009 and solar startups that grew too fast are squeezed in the tighter market. Last week, the word's largest solar module maker Suntech Power said it laid off 10 percent of its workforce and last quarter the company's CEO Shi Zhengrong predicted low gross margins for the fourth quarter. The company is expected to report its fourth-quarter ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Biofuel Carbon Footprint Not As Big As Feared, New Analysis Finds
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090115164641.htm
ScienceDaily: Publications ranging from the journal Science to Time magazine have blasted biofuels for significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, calling into question the environmental benefits of making fuel from plant material. But a new analysis by Michigan State University scientists says these dire predictions are based on a set of assumptions that may not be correct. "Greenhouse gas release from changes in land use -- growing crops that could be used for biofuels on previously ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Indonesia: Palm Oil Frenzy Threatens To Wipe Out Orangutans
http://www.myfoxlakecharles.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=8272140&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1
Associated Press: Hoping to unravel the mysteries of human origin, anthropologist Louis Leakey sent three young women to Africa and Asia to study our closest relatives: It was chimpanzees for Jane Goodall, mountain gorillas for Dian Fossey and the elusive, solitary orangutans for Birute Mary Galdikas. Nearly four decades later, 62-year-old Galdikas, the least famous of his "angels," is the only one still at it. And the red apes she studies in Indonesia are on the verge of extinction because forests are ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Clean coal project 'will fail' under emissions trading scheme
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/19/2468820.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says a major clean coal project in central Queensland will fail unless the Federal Government changes its emissions trading scheme. ZeroGen is working to develop a low emissions plant but says under the proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme it may be forced to buy permits. In a letter to Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson the company said it should be exempted from buying carbon permits as it is a research and ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Labor all spin on clean coal: Turnbull
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/720335/labor-all-spin-on-clean-coal-turnbull
AAP: The federal opposition says the Rudd government is all spin and no action on clean coal technology. A Queensland clean coal power station project could stall because its proponent will be forced to pay for pollution permits under the government's planned carbon emissions trading scheme, it has been reported. The ZeroGen project, near Rockhampton, is an advanced feasibility study into the capture and storage of up to 75 per cent of carbon emissions from coal to generate ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Most glaciers will disappear by middle of century and add to rising sea levels, expert warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/19/glacier-rising-sea-levels
Guardian: Most of the planet's glaciers are melting so fast that they will disappear by the middle of the century, a leading expert has warned. Figures from the World Glacier Monitoring Service show that although melt rates for 2007 fell substantially from record levels the previous year, the loss of ice was still the third worst on record. The total mass left in the glaciers is now thought to be at the lowest level for "thousands of years". Even under moderate predictions of global ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Ministers quietly adopt 'pay-as-you-throw' bin tax power
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4284203/Ministers-quietly-adopt-pay-as-you-throw-bin-tax-power.html
Telegraph: Councils will soon be free to charge households extra fees dictated by the weight of the non-recyclable waste they throw away, which would be disclosed to authorities by microchips in their wheelie bins. They will also be able to charge extra if families require a weekly collection and to refuse to collect any rubbish not placed in special bags, which households would have to pay for. Government departments are anticipating that almost two-thirds of homes will face the new fees ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Canada: Economic downturn shuts down oil pipeline proposal
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Technology/Economic+downturn+shuts+down+pipeline+proposal/1191629/story.html
Canwest News Service: Environmental activists are relieved by the indefinite shelving of an oil pipeline proposal that they say would make Ontario too dependent on "dirty oil" from Alberta and bring it to Quebec for the first time. However, activists with Environmental Defence and ForestEthics are concerned the project put on hold by Calgary-based Enbridge could be resurrected in the future. So they will go ahead Monday with the release of a joint report asserting the project would soon make Ontario ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Struggle over climate change on the horizon
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e6ca1070-e405-11dd-8274-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=d8e9ac2a-30dc-11da-ac1b-00000e2511c8.html
Financial Times: Wasn't all that warm fuzziness over the election of Obama just so . . . so . . . warm and fuzzy? Now for cold and hard-edged. That describes the emotions over the intragovernmental fights that get going in earnest this week. The most immediate are over the nature of the economic stimulus, or who has the longest reach. When that is settled within the next couple of months, the struggle moves on to harder issues, such as the massive rework of environmental law and regulation. he ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Make skilled migration cut for environment
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/18/2468629.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has urged the Federal Government to make a "substantial reduction" to its skilled migration program in this year's Budget. In its Budget submission to Treasury, the ACF says that if current migration levels continue they would contribute to a tripling of Australia's population by the end of the century. The ACF argues that the projected population growth would make it more costly for the country to meet its emissions reduction ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Environmental pragmatist?
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/politics/story/7adb1b4540b3897186257541000fb533?OpenDocument
St. Louis Today: In confirmation hearings last week for her new job as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted that President-elect Barack Obama would lead "a global and coordinated response" to climate change. But will the incoming president dip early into his reservoir of political capital to try to restrict carbon emissions, the linchpin in controlling the growth of global warming? Will environmental agencies under his control seek to prevent building more coal-fired ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Comedian Alistair McGowan fights Heathrow expansion plans
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5537085.ece
Times (UK): He's come to the end of a tough six weeks playing Baron Hard-up in Cinderella at the New Wimbledon theatre, but the comedian, impressionist and eco-warrior Alistair McGowan has clearly not allowed the role to distort his priorities: last week, he slammed down an undisclosed sum to buy part of a small field running along the perimeter of Heathrow. The field is important, for it lies across Heathrow's proposed third runway, which last week was approved for construction. 'There is a ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow rebel alliance is cleared for take-off
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5537023.ece
Times (UK): At 11.49am yesterday, the departures lounge at Heathrow terminal 5 seemed unusually swollen with travellers shuffling around in the check-in area. A clue to what was up was the number of people staring guiltily at the ceiling, of eyes meeting darting eyes, and an atmosphere prickling with a sense of expectation. Precisely a minute later, a shout went up as overcoats were wrenched off and thrown into the air. A Japanese couple looked on bemused as the terminal erupted around them. ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Clean coal plan dirtied by emissions trading scheme
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24929818-601,00.html
Various: THE Rudd Government's climate change strategy has been thrown into disarray by a warning that clean coal will not be viable under the proposed emissions trading scheme. Clean coal is crucial to the Government's plans to tackle climate change, but the chief executive of the flagship ZeroGen project has told Resources Minister Martin Ferguson the carbon pollution reduction scheme will be a "significant barrier" to the development of clean coal technology. "Australia's 5 per cent ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Less fog explains warming Europe, study says
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50H1XD20090118?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Fewer foggy, misty and hazy days help explain why Europe's temperatures have risen so fast over the past 30 years, a finding that could help predict future climate change, researchers said on Sunday. Clearer skies due to changing weather patterns and less air pollution have contributed on average to about 5 to 10 percent of the region's warmer temperatures during this period, said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. "The ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Clearer skies over Europe as fog halved in 30 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/16/pollution-climatechange
Guardian: Europe has become less foggy over the past three decades, according to scientists who have examined weather records across the continent. Fog, mist and haze have become less frequent and have contributed, they calculate, to between 10% and 20% of the warming trend during that period. The change is down to reduced air pollution, the scientists think. Robert Vautard at the Atomic Energy Commission in Gif sur Yvette, France, and colleagues, looked at the number of "low-visibility" ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United Kingdom: 'Environmental revolution' promised by David Cameron
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4272196/Environmental-revolution-promised-by-David-Cameron.html
Telegraph: The Conservatives outlined plans to modernise the national grid to deliver power more cheaply, subsidise home insulation projects, and make more use of green technologies including electric cars and off-shore windfarms. Publishing his party's "Plan for a Low Carbon Economy," Mr Cameron said that changes in the way that Britain generates, distributes and consumes electricity will save families significant amounts of money as well as benefiting the environment. The centrepiece of ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Jim Hansen warns of threat of climate catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/18/obama-climate-change
Observer: Along one wall of Jim Hansen's wood-panelled office in upper Manhattan, the distinguished climatologist has pinned 10 A4-sized photographs of his three grandchildren: Sophie, Connor and Jake. They are the only personal items on display in an office otherwise dominated by stacks of manila folders, bundles of papers and cardboard boxes filled with reports on climate variations and atmospheric measurements. The director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York is clearly ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Clearer skies in Europe added to warming
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20090118-115481.html
Agence France-Presse: Fog, mist and haze in Europe have declined over the last three decades, a trend that may have stoked regional warming and ironically could be linked to better air quality, a study published on Sunday says. From 1978-2006, temperatures in parts of Europe rose above the global land average, with prominent increases in the north, centre and eastern parts of the continent. As much as 20 percent of Europe's warming during this time, according to the study, can be pinned on a ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Global Warming Linked To European Viral Epidemic
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/265456
Digital Journal: An epidemic of the viral disease nephropathia epidemica (NE) has been linked to increases in the vole population. The outbreaks of this disease have been connecetd to the effects of global warming. Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com An epidemic of the viral disease nephropathia epidemica (NE) has been linked to increases in the vole population caused by hotter summers, milder winters and increased seedcrop production by broadleaf trees. New research links outbreaks of this rodent-borne disease ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Canada to talk about oil sands with Obama
http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2009/01/18/ap/regional/canada/d95mlt5g0.txt
Associated Press: Canada's prime minister said Tuesday that energy and the environmental impact of Alberta's massive oil sands operations will be priorities when Barack Obama visits Canada on his first foreign trip as U.S. president. The timing of the trip has not been announced but Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a Calgary radio station he's been in touch with members of Obama's incoming government as the president-elect prepares to officially take office Tuesday. "We want to work together with ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Scientists find new creatures of Australian deep
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iO9FLxGW9R2pNwHngAaCGvHJxI8g
Agence France-Presse: Scientists said Sunday they had uncovered new marine animals in their search of previously unexplored Australian waters, along with a bizarre carnivorous sea squirt and ocean-dwelling spiders. A joint US-Australian team spent a month in deep waters off the coast of the southern island of Tasmania to "search for life deeper than any previous voyage in Australian waters," lead researcher Ron Thresher said. What they found were not only species new to science -- including ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Slight changes in climate may trigger abrupt ecosystem responses
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200901180923.htm
Hindu: Some of these responses, including insect outbreaks, wildfire, and forest dieback, may adversely affect people as well as ecosystems and their plants and animals. According to a press release issued by EurekAlert, the U.S. Geological Survey led a new assessment of the implications of a warming world on "ecological thresholds" in North America. The report, which was commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and authored by a team of federal and academic climate ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
States reduce incentives for installing solar panels
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/01/18/bus_508050.shtml
Associated Press: Homeowners who waited until this year to install rooftop solar panels and take advantage of a hefty new government subsidy might not get the payback they anticipated. As federal subsidies are rolled out, states under severe economic strain and utilities have slashed their own solar incentives, and as a result, cut the expected discount by thousands of dollars in some cases. "It's two steps forward, one step back," said Jeff Wolfe, the CEO of Vermont-based solar installer ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Genetic model that predicts how plants respond to climate change
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/genetic-model-that-predicts-how-plants-respond-to-climate-change_100143878.html
Asian News International: Scientists have created a genetic model that can predict how plants respond to climate change and flower in different environments. It has been known for some time that plants respond to environmental cues that guide their flowering. Chief among these signals are light, temperature and vernalization, when flowering is promoted by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. In some plants, scientists have identified particular genes that deal with each of these environmental ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Climate change: new science, same old politics
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/779/40156
Green Left: If authoritative, peer-reviewed science suddenly found obesity or smoking to be twice as lethal as earlier believed, would the news be all over the media? Of course it would. But a doubling of the likely impacts of greenhouse gas emissions? That, it seems, is not important enough for mainstream media outlets to bother reporting in much detail. Arguably the biggest climate science news of 2008 was the finding, by a group of researchers under renowned US climatologist James ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia Â— world's biggest climate vandal
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/779/40184
Green Left: Australia is already the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases per capita in the world. Even more worrying is that the nation's emissions continue to spiral out of control. The Greenhouse Indicator Report was released by the Climate Group on January 13. It found that Australia's greenhouse gas emissions in Queensland, NSW and Victoria increased by 1.3% on 2007 levels; that's an increase of approximately 3.6 million tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) pumped into the ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United States: Global warming: As climate change turns up the heat, how can our gardens survive?
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/top-stories/story/855066.html
Miami Herald: Climate change promises hotter temperatures, heavier downpours and more intense hurricanes -- and changes in our gardens. Scientists predict that in the near future the southeastern United States will be wetter, but Florida may be drier. That could mean more wildfires and more stress on the water supply even though water restrictions are already in place. We can help our gardens adapt by modifiying the design as well as changing our practices. We've already seen our warm ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Garrett gives mill go ahead
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/779/40168
Green Left: On January 5, federal environment minister Peter Garrett delayed final approval for the Gunns' Tamar Valley pulp mill in Tasmania, rejecting three modules of the environmental assessment while approving nine others. Garrett said that it would have been "entirely inappropriate" to approve the mill without undertaking further environmental studies. However, deputy prime minister Julia Gillard made it clear at the same time that Gunns is now legally able to begin construction of the ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Climate change to most affect Indigenous people
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/779/40167
Green Left: Indigenous people living in remote communities in northern and central Australia will be among the hardest hit by climate change, according to an article in the Medical Journal of Australia on January 5. "Elevated temperatures and increases in hot spells are expected to be a major problem for indigenous health in remote areas", the article states. The authors of the article, Donna Green, Ursula King and Joe Morrison, call on the government to recognise the impact of ecology and ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Crowded city concerned about congestion pricing
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.traffic18jan18,0,6400794.story
LA Times: You've just driven from Oakland to San Francisco across the Bay Bridge and shelled out $4 for the toll. You'll be dinged upward of $30 to park for the day in the city. And, if city officials have their way, motorists could be charged $3 to drive into downtown San Francisco during peak commute hours and another $3 to leave. America's second-most-congested city could become the first to institute congestion pricing to reduce downtown traffic, improve the environment and raise money for ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Coal-ash disposal a "toxic" issue
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008641942_coalash18.html
Washington Post: In less than a month, the question of how to dispose of coal-combustion waste has gone from a largely ignored issue to a pressing national environmental concern that has sparked legislative proposals and the prospect of new regulation. Since the Dec. 22 coal-ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant, which poured a billion gallons of toxic material over 300 acres, lawmakers and regulators have said the federal government should revisit an issue it has ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Global warming could stifle economic, political stability
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/global-warming-could-stifle-economic-political-stability_100143942.html
Asian News International: Global warming will damage economic and political stability to a far greater extent than previously imagined, according to new study. Benjamin Olken, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that global warming is not just going to devastate agriculture in developing countries, the link between 'high temperatures and poor growth is much stronger than we'd realised. Olken said that his team``s study is the first to link climate change with economic growth, ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Signs of alarm among fauna at bottom of the sea
http://www.theage.com.au/national/signs-of-alarm-among-fauna-at-bottom-of-the-sea-20090118-7jyz.html
Age: CURIOUSER and curiouser. The latest bizarre finds have surfaced from the surreal world of the deep ocean south of Tasmania, and with them comes a warning. Investigations in this sunless sea life hot spot have regularly yielded finds in recent years. Only last October, CSIRO marine scientists announced the discovery of 274 species living among 80 new sea mountains in the depths. Isolated perhaps to a single seamount, species evolve separately over eons, like animals on islands ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Advanced car battery makers seek juice from stimulus plan
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/859469.html
McClatchy Newspapers: The U.S. is struggling to catch up with China, Japan and Korea in a race to build the advanced batteries needed to power the electric cars of the future. The latest setback came last week, when General Motors picked a Korean company over an American rival to build lithium ion batteries for GM's Chevy Volt, which is due on the market late next year. Lithium ion is the current hot technology to replace the familiar lead-acid batteries used in most cars today, and the newer ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Endangered list grows as slow and steady lose the race
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/endangered-list-grows-as-slow-and-steady-lose-the-race/2009/01/18/1232213448820.html
Deborah Smith: AFTER surviving for more than 100 million years, the world's largest sea turtle has been placed on the national threatened species. Leatherback turtles, which are found in waters off NSW as well as south Queensland and Western Australia, can grow up to 1.6 metres in length and 700 kilograms. The Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, said yesterday that the turtles, which had previously been classified as vulnerable, were now considered an endangered species. "The ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Mid-Atlantic not ready for sea-level rise
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2009/01_18-37/TOP
Annapolis Capital: Maryland and other Mid-Atlantic states need to do a better job of preparing for sea-level rise if climate change is as intense as scientists think it will be, according to a new federal report. On the last business day of the Bush Administration on Friday, the federal government issued the report, "Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region." The lengthy report - it is 784 pages long - assesses the possible effects of sea-level rise and offers ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Aerosol Research Key To Improving Climate Predictions, Experts Say
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090117082850.htm
ScienceDaily: Scientists need a more detailed understanding of how human-produced atmospheric particles, called aerosols, affect climate in order to produce better predictions of Earth's future climate, according to a NASA-led report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program on January 16. "Atmospheric Aerosol Properties and Climate Impacts," is the latest in a series of Climate Change Science Program reports that addresses various aspects of the country's highest priority climate research, ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Obama is Canada's best hope for green energy
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=404eb07f-7619-49b7-ae58-c74825482b06
Times Colonist: There is little doubt what will top Prime Minister Stephen Harper's agenda when he meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in coming weeks: Saving the Alberta oilsands. The question is whether Harper will successfully blunt the new president's plans for a tough approach to climate change -- specifically, with special breaks for the oilsands. You can already see the outline of Harper's strategy. He has signalled that he will impress on the new president the importance of Alberta's tarry ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United States: Utility asks for delay at plant
http://www.ohio.com/news/37785674.html
Beacon Journal: FirstEnergy Corp. is seeking approval from a federal judge to delay a decision on what it will do with an aging coal-burning power plant in Southeast Ohio. The Akron-based utility is seeking a 105-day extension for the R.E. Burger Power Plant on the Ohio River at Shadyside in Belmont County. The utility's two main choices are to spend more than $300 million to install scrubbers to reduce air pollution from the plant or to close it and eliminate 102 jobs, said company spokesman ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Obama's Latin American priority: energy
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/andres-oppenheimer/story/859217.html
Miami Herald: Here's my bet: The Obama administration's top priority in Latin America will be signing a hemispheric energy cooperation deal that -- if carried out -- would reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil, bolster U.S. ties with Brazil, and undermine Venezuela's petrodollar-fueled radicalism in the region. It's almost official, although they won't frame it that explicitly. Obama first proposed an ''Energy Partnership of the Americas'' in a May 2008 campaign speech and later advanced the idea ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Helping the prez, greening the rez
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00003&segmentID=3
Living on Earth: LArmed with big potential for wind and solar generation, Native America says it's ready to help Barack Obama build a green economy. A policy statement, signed by 250 tribes and tribal organizations and submitted to the new administration, outlines ways to tackle global warming while addressing unemployment and fuel poverty on tribal lands. Economist Winona LaDuke, director of Honor the Earth, talks with host Steve Curwood about the need to develop tribal economies without degrading tribal ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Are costly energy bills draining your wallet? Win the power struggle
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cover18-2009jan18,0,4632484.story
LA Times: You can go broke going green. Solar panels cost tens of thousands of dollars. And who's got the money to buy all new appliances? Don't despair. There is a lot you can do, right now, with very little cash outlay, to make your home energy efficient and cheaper to run. Go fluorescent. You'll save as much as 75% on the lighting portion of your electric bill by losing those incandescent bulbs. Your old pool pump sucks. Energy, that is. You can save an average of $50 a ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Australia: Clearing the air
http://business.smh.com.au/business/clearing-the-air-20090116-7j4b.html
Sydney Morning Herald: WHEN Sydneysiders flick on the power, there's every chance some of the electricity has come from a couple of coal-guzzling power plants in the Hunter Valley. Eraring power station's 200-metre-high chimneys tower over Lake Macquarie, while further west, the Bayswater station is set against beef and dairy country near Muswellbrook. Drawing on the region's vast coal fields, these state-government owned giants share the title of biggest stations in the country, and supply about ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United States: Study: electricity usage is down
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/17/AR2009011702460.html
Washington Post: Last year, as gas prices broke $4 a gallon and the U.S. economy put a wheel in the ditch, the Washington region did something improbable. It became slightly friendlier toward the climate. Slightly. A new Washington Post analysis shows that local homes and businesses used about 2 percent less electricity in the first nine months of 2008 than they did in 2007. That's a small drop, but for Washington, any drop is significant: Electric power is the region's largest single ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Climate warming 'highly unusual' says new study
http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Climate%20warming%20highly%20unusual%20says%20study/1189018/story.html
Canwest News Service: A major U.S. government report on Arctic climate, prepared with information from eight Canadian scientists, has concluded that the recent rapid warming of polar temperatures and shrinking of multi-year Arctic sea ice are "highly unusual compared to events from previous thousands of years." The findings, released Friday, counter suggestions from skeptics that such recent events as the opening of the Northwest Passage and collapse of ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic are predictable ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
Florida considering options for renewable energy targets
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-flzrenewableqa0118sbjan18,0,6785033.story?track=rss
Sun-Sentinel: The Florida Public Service Commission recommended last week that one-fifth of Florida's energy supply come from solar and wind power and other renewable power sources by 2020. More than half of all states already have renewable energy requirements for utilities. In a sweeping energy law passed last year, the state Legislature asked the commission to develop recommendations by February for quotas on how much power generated in this state must be from alternative ...

Mon, 19 Jan 09
United Kingdom: 'Flash mob' lands at Terminal 5
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5536034.ece
Times (UK): Hundreds of activists opposed to a third runway at Heathrow staged a "flash mob" protest at Terminal 5 today in what is the first major demonstration since the Government gave the go-ahead for the expansion on Thursday. Environmentalists gathered with local residents and climate change groups in a show of solidarity and support for the village of Sipson, which faces demolition when the Â£9bn project commences. More than 2,000 people will lose their homes and thousands more will ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Polar bears facing increasingly grim future
http://www.vancouversun.com/Polar+bears+facing+increasingly+grim+future/1122733/story.html
Canwest News Service: One polar bear bolted past a pair of teenage girls heading home from school. Another helped itself to caribou behind a pickup truck. People peering out their windows found the bears wandering in their yards. "No one likes to see that," says Joe Savikataaq, the conservation officer in the Nunavut community of Arviat, on the west coast of Hudson Bay, which has never had a bear season quite like this winter's. For the first time ever, hunters in Arviat were asked not to ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Catching the Currents: Tidal Power
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1871604,00.html
Time Magazine: Tidal power isn't for the faint-hearted, as Verdant Power CEO William Taylor knows from experience. The first time Taylor's company sank an experimental turbine into New York City's East River, in late 2006, the powerful tidal currents -- they can run up to 6 m.p.h. (almost 10 km/h) on a good day -- smashed the device's fiberglass blades. Next they tried a turbine with rotors made of aluminum and magnesium, but after a couple of months the river won again. Finally, in the summer of 2008, ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Fish Guts May Shed Light on Mystery of Upper Ocean's Chemistry
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=afdz.vK9on0s&refer=australia
Bloomberg: Fish guts may hold the answer to a mystery that's puzzled ocean chemists for decades: Why seawater becomes more alkaline the deeper you go. Ocean waters become more alkaline, or less acidic, as carbonates produced by plankton dissolve. The chemical compounds typically don't break down until a depth of several kilometers where the pressure is enough, said Rod Wilson, lead author of a study today in the journal Science. The ocean's alkalinity increases by about 4 percent in the first ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Senator to push energy issues as Interior chief
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5grcJnIKu5yGU1TFl5SHLh330ZqogD95NP0VG1
Associated Press: Sen. Ken Salazar said Thursday he would help wean the U.S. off foreign oil if he leads the Interior Department, telling lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that he would seek to expand renewable energy on public lands and promote the "wise use" of traditional energy sources. Salazar, D-Colo., appeared before a Senate energy panel considering his nomination to head the agency that manages 500 million acres of public lands, protects wildlife and endangered species, and also oversees ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Companies lay out wishes for US carbon law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8263081
Reuters: A group of large U.S. companies, including the troubled Big Three automakers, on Thursday offered Congress a blueprint for greenhouse gas regulation with looser limits than President-elect Barack Obama has called for. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a group of 26 big companies and several environmental organizations, proposed reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050 through an economy-wide cap-and-trade program. "It will not be cheap and it ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Anti-Heathrow groups vow to fight on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7831450.stm
BBC: The coalition of groups opposed to the expansion of Heathrow Airport may appear to be unlikely bedfellows. They include hardened campaigners and direct action backers Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth as well as middle-England favourites the National Trust, the RSPB and WWF. Also joining them in the anti-camp are groups representing local councils and the residents of Heathrow's neighbouring village of Sipson. But while each has their own reason for opposing a third ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Report: Canada needs new energy strategy to deal with oilsands concerns
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gXXqRRdl2wxpyNwHcPZggrfOhMwA
Canadian Press: Canada needs to devise a new national energy strategy, particularly to help fend off concerns in the United States about the environmental impact of Alberta's oilsands industry, says a report by the Canadian International Council. The Toronto-based think-tank, founded by Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM), says Canada has an opportunity to leverage the current economic downturn to promote its energy interests. "Canada can use ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Study suggests fish waste helping neutralize carbon dioxide levels in oceans
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hK0nPCxswxaSdstb6MVwzST12BOg
Canadian Press: The world's oceans are getting help controlling harmful acid levels from an unseemly source, according to a new study that found fish waste plays a key role in neutralizing carbon dioxide in the marine environment. Canadian scientists discovered that when fish drink seawater they excrete calcium as calcium carbonate - a chalky substance that can make seawater more alkaline and diminish the carbon dioxide in the water. The unusual finding is helping researchers understand the ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Fish poop helps balance ocean's acid levels
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hMJ-mJbylZTHyjblrei7RpdUnaqwD95NPKUG2
Associated Press: The ocean's delicate acid balance may be getting help from an unexpected source, fish poop. The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not only drives global warming, but also raises the amount of CO2 dissolved in ocean water, tending to make it more acid, potentially a threat to sea life. Alkaline chemicals like calcium carbonate can help balance this acid. Scientists had thought the main source for this balancing chemical was the shells of marine plankton, but they were ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Salazar goal: craft 'energy moon shot'
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17501.html
Politico: Sen. Ken Salazar made clear during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday to be interior secretary that he'll play a key role in developing President-elect Barack Obama's energy policy. 'I work for him. That means I will play a keystone role in helping to craft the energy agenda,' Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 'I would not have taken this job if I was not given the assignment to help to craft the energy moon shot that we will ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Salazar touts renewable energy in Interior confirmation hearings
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_11460118
Denver Post: Interior secretary-designate Ken Salazar vowed Thursday to reorient the Department of the Interior from a hive of special interests that marked the Bush administration to one based on integrity and the rule of science. Sen. Salazar, a Denver Democrat, hit a laundry list of priorities in the opening statement of his confirmation hearing: reorienting Interior from a focus on fossil fuel toward alternative energy; improving relations with American Indians; and creating a new youth ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Fish Guts Explain Marine Carbon Cycle Mystery
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090115164607.htm
ScienceDaily: New research reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life. The discovery, made by a team of scientists from the UK, US and Canada, could help solve a mystery that has puzzled marine chemists for decades. Published 16 January 2009 in Science, the study provides new insights into the marine carbon cycle, which is undergoing rapid change as a result of global CO2 emissions. Until ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Mission to dump iron off Antarctica suspended
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Mission_to_dump_iron_off_Antarctica_suspended_/articleshow/3985348.cms
Times of India: In a major setback to the Indo-German Antarctic expedition, LOHAFEX, the German science ministry has bowed to pressure from environmental NGOs and suspended permission to the mission's proposed ocean fertilization experiment till its impact is independently reviewed. The expedition's of 48 international scientists, including 29 from India, is currently cruising in the South Atlantic Ocean and is just days away from the proposed experiment site in Scotia Sea near the Antarctic ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Gas prices are down Â— time for $1/gallon tax
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008633310_opinb16sher.html
Seattle Times: DURING the past several months, gas prices rose dramatically to more than $4 per gallon, and then fell below $2 -- even lower than before the rise. Our total cost of gas is now only 40 percent of the tax on gas in Europe. Meanwhile, our state is looking at a projected budget deficit of almost $6 billion. A price of $2 per gallon is far too low a price for gas, especially when one includes all the costs to our society implicit in the burning of fossil fuels, such as global warming, air ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Cameron: we will build Â£1bn 'smart grid' to green Britain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/16/conservatives-low-carbon-plan-heathrow
Guardian: David Cameron will set out his vision today for a low carbon Britain built around a Â£1bn investment in a hi-tech National Grid that would include putting "smart meters" in every home in the UK. The network would allow energy companies to tell people when it is cheapest to use electricity, cutting bills and making the system more efficient. The Conservative leader's intervention will attempt to rub salt into Labour's wounds, opened yesterday by the its decision to press ahead ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
'To deliver a low-carbon economy you have got to have a vision'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/16/conservatives-green-politics
Guardian: Sniffy neighbours dismissed it as an eyesore, but David and Samantha Cameron believed that a wind turbine on the roof of their west London home would symbolise their commitment to the environment. As Britain freezes this winter, Cameron has been forced to admit that he has abandoned his plan to generate electricity at home after deciding reluctantly that it will never really work. "I haven't, tragically," Cameron told the Guardian yesterday when asked whether he had a turbine ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Britain's economy does not need an expanded Heathrow
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-britains-economy-does-not-need-an-expanded-heathrow-1380361.html
Independent: No one was more pleased by the Government's confirmation yesterday that it will give the go-ahead for a third Heathrow runway than the business lobby. According to the CBI's director general, Richard Lambert, expanding Heathrow's capacity "makes real sense". Jo Valentine, the head of London First, said the decision would help London "fight for global business in a post-recession world". In fact, the argument that the British economy will benefit from a third runway for Heathrow has ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: British govt OKs 3rd runway for Heathrow
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_JsY45seGLULqfvYyu-b-7e3dCgD95NT1F00
Associated Press: Don't expect the congestion in the skies above Heathrow Airport to magically clear up anytime soon. The British government on Thursday approved the construction of a controversial third runway for Heathrow -- Europe's busiest airport -- but that doesn't mean it will be built in the next year or two. Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon told Parliament the new runway and a new passenger terminal should be ready between 2015 and 2020. But that optimistic timetable may be delayed if a ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Global Warming Linked To European Viral Epidemic
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090115190453.htm
ScienceDaily: An epidemic of the viral disease nephropathia epidemica (NE) has been linked to increases in the vole population caused by hotter summers, milder winters and increased seedcrop production by broadleaf trees. New research links outbreaks of this rodent-borne disease to known effects of global warming. Dr Jan Clement from the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Belgium's Rega Institute (University of Leuven) worked with a team of medical researchers and bioscience-engineers ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Third runway won't be built. Get used to it
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/jeremy-warner/jeremy-warner-third-runway-wont-be-built-get-used-to-it-1380472.html
Independent: Outlook Let's not get into the rights and wrongs of a third runway at Heathrow. Whatever the commercial case for and against, it is as plain as a pike staff it's not going to happen. Only Gordon "I've saved the world" Brown could believe the Government still capable of bulldozing through a proposal that seems to be opposed by just about everyone other than the big airlines, American investment banks and the virtually bust owners of Heathrow itself. Never mind that virtually all those ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Australia: More Coalition dischord over climate change policy
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/16/2467569.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: There have been more public disagreements between members of the Federal Coalition about how they should respond to the Government's climate change policies. Earlier this week Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce labelled the Government's emissions trading scheme as rubbish and questioned the causes of climate change. It put the Nationals at odds with their coalition partner, with the Liberals' Christopher Pyne calling for a more progressive approach to environmental ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow runway ready by 2015 under new laws
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article5527512.ece
Times (UK): The new runway at Heathrow could be built five years earlier than expected as the Government rushes the planning process to prevent opponents from blocking the expansion. Ministers yesterday asked BAA to submit a planning application as soon as possible with a view to opening the new runway and terminal as early as 2015. Previously, the Government had suggested the runway would not open until 2020. The Â£9 billion expansion, which will increase Heathrow's capacity by almost 50 ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
New Method Accelerates Stability Testing Of Soy-based Biofuel
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090113174537.htm
ScienceDaily: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a method to accelerate stability testing of biodiesel fuel made from soybeans and also identified additives that enhance stability at high temperatures. The results, described in a new paper, could help overcome a key barrier to practical use of biofuels. Both oxidation and heating can cause biodiesel to break down, adversely affecting performance. These two effects usually are analyzed separately, but NIST ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
European virus linked to global warming
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1624171/european_virus_linked_to_global_warming/
United Press International: A sometimes deadly rodent-borne viral disease has become an epidemic in parts of Europe due to global warming, Belgian researchers said Thursday. The disease nephropathia epidemica was "scarcely known before 1990," but is now an epidemic in Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Luxembourg, said viral epidemiologist Dr Jan Clement of the University of Leuven's Rega Institute near Brussels. Thirty-eight percent of known cases occurred between 2005 and 2007, Clement said in ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
UBC researcher gives first-ever estimate of worldwide fish biomass and impact on climate change
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/uobc-urg011309.php
EurekAlert: UBC researcher gives first-ever estimate of worldwide fish biomass and impact on climate change Are there really plenty of fish in the sea? University of British Columbia fisheries researcher Villy Christensen gives the first-ever estimate of total fish biomass in our oceans: Two billion tonnes. And fish play a previously unrecognized but significant role in mitigating climate change by maintaining the delicate pH balance of the oceans, according to a study published in ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Automakers press for stronger Canadian fuel regulations
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1179899
Canwest News Service: A group of Canadian automakers is pressing the federal government to tighten fuel regulations as a means of cutting down on the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada (AIAMC), which represents more than a dozen companies including Toyota, Honda and Porsche, says Canada has one of the weakest sets of regulations in the world when it comes to fuel quality and is among the weakest when it comes to enforcing ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Secrecy surrounds Winnipeg round table about polar bears
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=1178011
Winnipeg Free Press: The poster species for climate change will be in the spotlight Friday at a Winnipeg gathering of government officials, researchers and Inuit groups to discuss the future of the polar bear. But the potentially heated gathering will happen behind closed doors, with media barred from attending and the official list of speakers under wraps. It's estimated that declines in the sea ice needed for polar bears to hunt could cause populations in the Arctic to drop by two thirds by ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Australia: Carbon storage search underway
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/15/2466692.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The New South Wales Government has begun searching across the state to try and find sites suitable for carbon storage. Drilling has begun near the Lake Munmorah power station on the state's central coast. The NSW Minister for Mineral Resources, Ian Macdonald, says the success of the project is critical in reducing greenhouse emissions, while maintaining strong mining and energy sectors. He says despite misconceptions, NSW does have the capacity for carbon storage.

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Australia: Climate expert urges larger emissions cuts
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/15/2466602.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Climate change expert Warwick McKibbin has criticised the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme as flawed, and says much bigger carbon cuts are needed. Professor McKibbin, who is also on the Reserve Bank of Australia board, has described the scheme as "predictable and disappointing" and vulnerable to change under future governments through industry lobbying. The Government has pledged to cut Australia's emissions by between 5 and 15 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 but ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Waxman promises quick action on climate change
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2009-01-15-waxman-legislation_N.htm?csp=34
USA Today: The chairman of a key House committee said Thursday he will move "quickly and decisively" to push legislation curbing greenhouse gases with a goal of passing climate legislation out of his committee before Memorial Day. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., opening the new Congress' first hearing on the threats from global warming, said inaction on the climate issue is causing uncertainties that make it more difficult to emerge from the recession. "Our environment and our economy depend ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Fish digestions help keep the oceans healthy
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE50E6Q720090115?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews
Reuters: The digestive systems of fish play a vital role in maintaining the health of the oceans and moderating climate change, researchers said on Thursday. Computer models showed how bony fish produced a large portion of the inorganic carbon that helps maintain the oceans' acidity balance and was vital for marine life, they said. The world's bony fish population, estimated at between 812 million and 2 billion tons, helped to limit the consequences of climate change through its effect ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Economic stimulus bill pushes renewable energy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50E7W620090115?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The $825 billion economic stimulus package unveiled by Democrats in the House of Representatives on Thursday contains billions of dollars in tax breaks for renewable energy as well as spending for energy efficiency and transmission. The legislation aimed at reinvigorating the U.S. economy, which is currently in a recession, would provide $20 billion in tax cuts for alternative energy including a multiyear extension of the production tax credit for wind, geothermal, hydro power and ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
U.S. ethanol plant files for Chapter 11
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090115.wethanol0115/BNStory/energy/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090115.wethanol0115
Associated Press: Just five months after making the first sale from its new $200-million (U.S.) Oswego County ethanol plant, Northeast Biofuels is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Company officials say construction delays and design flaws set the project about a year behind schedule and led to the filing Wednesday. Northeast Biofuels is hoping to hold off its creditors long enough to resolve some operational problems and get back in business. The plant is located in the former Miller ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Opponents vow to fight plan for third runway
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/opponents-vow-to-fight-plan-for-third-runway-1380390.html
Independent: The Government was warned last night that it faced a long and bitter struggle to secure the expansion of Heathrow after giving the go-ahead to controversial plans for a third runway. Environmental groups dismissed a string of last-minute concessions won by cabinet ministers who had doubts about the Â£9bn project. Opponents said Gordon Brown's reputation on green issues was in tatters. He has personally forced through the scheme, despite warnings from some allies that it could cost ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Can a bigger Heathrow be green?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7831462.stm
BBC: The government's decision to expand Heathrow has provoked fury from green groups, climate scientists, local MPs, local people and opposition parties. The long list of concessions to protect the environment involves genuinely new initiatives, but opponents of the expansion don't trust they'll be upheld and say they don't go far enough anyway. In the Commons, the scheme was dismissed as an environmental disaster. The Liberal Democrats said it had driven a jumbo jet through ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
As Politicians Stall, Grassroots Fills Void
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45427
Inter Press Service: Global emissions of carbon dioxide must reach a peak in less than 10 years and then begin a rapid decline to nearly zero by 2050 to avoid catastrophic disruption to the world's climate, according to a new report. Emissions of carbon dioxide will actually need to "go negative" -- with more being absorbed than emitted -- during the second half of this century, according to "State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World" released by the U.S.-based Worldwatch Institute this ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Global Transport Sector Meets To Discuss Greenhouse Gas
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1623956/global_transport_sector_meets_to_discuss_greenhouse_gas/index.html?source=r_science
Various: The transport sector is facing strong pressure to launch aggressive initiatives aimed at drastically reducing carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming. Representatives of twenty-two nations met in Tokyo on Thursday to take part in a discussion on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – over 20 percent of which are caused by the transportation sector. Transport ministers, including those from large polluters in the United States, China and India, took part ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Farms to take heat out of warming
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7831939.stm
BBC: Farmers could help curb rising global temperatures by selecting crop varieties that reflect solar energy back into space, researchers say. Scientists at Bristol University calculate that switching crops in North America and Europe could reduce global temperatures by about 0.1C. Temperatures have risen by about 0.7C since the dawn of the industrial age. Other experts say the idea is feasible but could not cool the world enough to combat rising greenhouse gas ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
E.P.A. Pick Vows to Put Science First
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=115384
New York Times: Lisa P. Jackson, chosen to head the Environmental Protection Agency, said at her confirmation hearing Wednesday morning that her first task would be to restore scientific and legal integrity to an agency battered by charges of political interference and coziness with industry. But she evaded questions on whether as administrator of the E.P.A. she would immediately grant authority to California and 16 other states to regulate vehicle tailpipe emissions, promising only a speedy review ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Computing industry CO2 emissions in the spotlight
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50E5QO20090115?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The global computing industry is starting to rival aviation in its contribution to global warming, but not yet equaling its criticism as Britain gave the green light to expand London's Heathrow airport on Thursday. The computing sector has come under increasing scrutiny over energy consumption and carbon emissions of data centers, in particular, as a climate debate widens beyond traditional targets including coal plants, heavy industry and planes. The information and ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Sun-reflecting crops could ease global warming
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50E5P920090115?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Farmers could help produce cooler temperatures and limit global warming if they grow crop varieties that reflect more sunlight into space, British researchers said on Thursday. Using a global climate model, they found this strategy could cool much of Europe, North America and parts of North Asia by up to one degree Celsius during the summer growing season, enough to make a difference in easing heat waves and drought. It would also translate into a 20 percent reduction in a ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Climate change could be slowed by planting crop varieties that reflect more sunlight, claim food scienti
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/15/climatechange-scienceofclimatechange
Guardian: Food crops could be used to keep the Earth's temperatures down and slow global warming, say scientists. By growing plants that can reflect more of the sun's radiation back into space, parts of Europe and North America could be cooled by 1Â°C in the summer, the equivalent of stopping billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere over the next century. Growing agricultural plants such as maize or barley already cools the climate because they reflect more sunlight back ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
UK government's Heathrow expansion threatens global climate change fight
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/uk-government-s-heathrow-expan
Greenpeace: The UK government's decision to expand Heathrow airport, announced today, is a serious threat to the fight against global climate change. At full capacity, an expanded Heathrow airport would become the biggest single source of carbon emissions in the UK. Developed countries must take steps to ensure their carbon emissions are cut by the upper end of 25-40%, by 2020, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. Already ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow decision galvanises coalition from Hello! celebs to Sipson villagers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/15/heathrow-third-runway2
Guardian: With the decision to approve plans for a third runway at Heathrow, Gordon Brown has managed to unify Britain and made the Tory party look quite modern. Apart from a few large concrete manufacturers, and the business and aviation lobby groups whipped in by government to support the cause, it was hard to find anyone today who thinks that knocking down the village of Sipson to bolt an airport the size of Gatwick on to Heathrow made any sense. The coalition that has emerged against the runway ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
One Billion Cars And Counting
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99375553&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Transportation expert Daniel Sperling estimates that the world's car population – which currently stands at one billion vehicles – is likely to double in the next 20 years. Sperling is the co-author (with Deborah Gordon) of Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability, a book that considers the environmental impact of so many automobiles and suggests ways that politicians, car companies and the general public can curb car-ownership and reduce climate change. Sperling is a ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Cramped Quarters: UN Climate Secretariat Complains about German Office
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,601488,00.html#ref=rss
Spiegel: A climate protection treaty meant to succeed Kyoto will be negotiated at a summit in Copenhagen this December. But the UN says it's having serious trouble preparing for the event -- because the body has outgrown the office space provided to its Bonn headquarters by the German government. It's unlikely Wilhelm Adolf von Carstenjen ever could have imagined his palace might one day be the place where plans were hatched to save the Earth's climate. At the end of the 19th century ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
US business giants demand emissions cap
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234095/business-giants-demand
Business Green: A coalition of some of the world's largest companies has thrown its weight behind president-elect Barack Obama's plans for an emissions cap-and-trade scheme, with the publication of a blueprint detailing how the US can cut emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The US Climate Action Partnership -- which features more than 30 of the world's largest businesses and NGOs including BP, Dow Chemical, Ford, GE, General Motors, PepsiCo and Shell -- today unveiled A Blueprint for Legislative ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Ice explorers start 5-day test ahead of North Pole quest
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aHIL4Dxx3nhs&refer=canada
Bloomberg: Three British explorers are testing radar that measures ice thickness and communications equipment ahead of a 100-day scientific mission to the North Pole, where they aim to collect the biggest set of sea-ice data ever recorded. During their polar quest, the adventurers will carry out 50 types of measurements to help scientists understand the effect global warming is having on Arctic sea ice, expedition leader Pen Hadow said in a telephone interview from Broughton Island in the ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Solar to power UAE "green" city
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50E41T20090115?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Abu Dhabi's Masdar said on Thursday that a solar power plant under construction will provide first electricity to the planned carbon-neutral Masdar City late in 2009. The 10 megawatt photovoltaic plant, the first of its kind in the region, will supply any excess energy to the Abu Dhabi power grid, Masdar said in a statement. The $22-billion Masdar City will be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. No cars will be allowed in the green city in the desert. The $50 ...

Fri, 16 Jan 09
Homeowners tap earth for geothermal energy
http://www.straight.com/article-194112/homeowners-tap-earth-geothermal-energy
Straights: With concern about energy costs and environmental sustainability now widespread, people are less likely to snicker when others talk about "green living". Whether the intent is to reduce their ecological footprint or to seek greater value for money, more and more people are harnessing the power of renewable energy sources at home. Solar, water, and wind power are well-known forms of clean energy but aren't necessarily easy to use in one's humble abode. A prohibitively high installation ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Germans to invest Â£20bn in new UK nuclear plants
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article5519752.ece
Times (UK): Germany's two largest power companies joined forces yesterday and announced an ambitious plan to build at least four nuclear reactors in the UK at an estimated cost of Â£20 billion. The plants, the first of which is set to enter service within ten years, will provide at least six gigawatts of new generating capacity, the equivalent of 10 per cent of the generating capacity of all Britain's existing power plants. E.ON and RWE, which jointly operate three nuclear stations in ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Obama energy goal hard to meet: energy secretary
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50D63X20090115?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: President-elect Barack Obama will have a hard time significantly increasing America's alternative energy production, outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Wednesday. As part of his economic stimulus plan, Obama wants to double output of alternative energy over the next three years. "I think it's going to be extremely difficult to get there in three years," Bodman said in a final briefing with reporters before he leaves office next week. Renewable energy ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Government accused of "blackmailing" firms over emissions trading scheme
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234025/uk-goverment-accused
Business Green: A number of the UK's leading firms have accused the government of blackmailing them into accepting conditions within the forthcoming Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) carbon trading scheme that will effectively punish those firms that procure green energy. A BusinessGreen.com investigation has learned that a number of the UK's most high-profile firms, including Asda, BT, B&Q, the Co-operative Group and Morrisons, are concerned about rules introduced as part of the CRC that will ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Flawed emissions trading rules leave UK firms stuck in Catch 22
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2234026/leading-uk-firms-stuck-catch-22
Business Green: The failure of the government's upcoming emissions trading scheme to recognise investments business have already made in renewable energy is threatening to alienate some of the UK's most high profile green business pioneers, with critics accusing the government of "blackmailing" businesses into accepting carbon accounting rules that will downplay their support for green energy. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) is due to start in April 2010 and is at the centre of the government's ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Obama's EPA pick must restore integrity: senators
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50D6PK20090114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, needs to restore integrity to a department that fallen into disrepute, Democratic senators said on Wednesday. Jackson, commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection and a 15-year veteran of the federal environment agency, vowed to be guided by science and the rule of law if confirmed as U.S. EPA administrator. "If I am confirmed, I will administer with science ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
New Study Challenges Theory Behind Methane Production In Plants
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1623285/new_study_challenges_theory_behind_methane_production_in_plants/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: New research is challenging the recent finding that plants could be a major source of the atmosphere's methane levels. A study from 2006 suggested plants could account for almost half of the global production of the greenhouse gas, yet a UK-based team has found that under normal conditions, plants just convey methane from the soil to the air without actually producing it. The research suggests identifying sources of methane is key for climate control, as the gas is about 20 ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Lawmakers push "clunker" plan to spur auto sales
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50D7TK20090114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Congressional lawmakers proposed a consumer incentive on Wednesday to help revive slumping auto sales and get the oldest, most polluting and less fuel efficient vehicles off U.S. roads. Industry executives and automaker lobbyists believe bipartisan "Cash for Clunkers" initiatives introduced in the House of Representatives and Senate offering up to $4,500 toward the purchase of a new vehicle is likely destined for economic stimulus legislation now taking shape. "We face real ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Heathrow third runway and sixth terminal to be approved
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5520025.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): The biggest airport expansion for sixty years will be approved today when the Government gives the go ahead to a Â£9 billion third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow. Ministers will attempt to appease environmental groups by pledging that the extra runway capacity will be linked to tough new emissions standards for aircraft. Only airlines which buy the most fuel efficient aircraft will be granted additional slots. However, the aviation industry is already committed to ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Green I.T.: how many Google searches does it take to boil a kettle?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/google/4241791/Green-I.T.-how-many-Google-searches-does-it-take-to-boil-a-kettle.html
Telegraph: Recent claims that two internet searches may increase your carbon footprint by as much as boiling a kettle are just a lot of hot air, says Matt Warman What is the environmental impact of computing? How much CO2 is emitted every time you search Google? And how many people even realise that the global information technology industry as a whole is as big, in carbon dioxide terms, as global aviation? That comparison would make Google the Heathrow or JFK of the internet -- its ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Australians 'in denial over rising population'
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3478
People and Planet: The United Nation's Population Fund is concerned that population growth in Asia averages 1.1 per cent a year. Australia, as a First World country, should have a much lower growth rate. It does not. By the end of the Howard era, our annual population growth had risen to a stunning 1.5 per cent: almost off the First World scale and high even for Third World countries. (Indonesia's, by contrast, was then 1.3 per cent, but has recently come down, with much effort, to 1.2 per cent.) Under ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Rainmaker ritual helps date ancient droughts
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126915.100-rainmaker-ritual-helps-date-ancient-droughts.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: CHARRED remains of ancient rainmaking fires are helping to date droughts in Iron Age Africa to within 20 years. After a several years of little or no rainfall, the Bantu people near modern-day Zimbabwe would send a rainmaker to nearby hills. "They'd burn fires with dark smoke to call black rain clouds from the mountains," says Thomas Huffman at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Villagers were also made to burn grain bins if they had planted "unlucky" ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Climate change to stifle developing nations' growth
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126914.000-climate-change-to-stifle-developing-nations-growth.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: GlOBAL warming will not only devastate agriculture in developing countries, it will undermine economic and political stability to a far greater extent than previously imagined, according to new study. The link between "high temperatures and poor growth is much stronger than we'd realised", says Benjamin Olken, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Crucially, says Olken, his team's study is the first to link climate change with economic growth - as opposed to ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Climate Committee amongst worst energy efficiency performers
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2234001/climate-committee-under-fire
Business Green: The government's newly formed panel on climate change has come under fire after it was revealed that its own offices were the least energy efficient of all Whitehall departments. Inspectors graded the premises of the Committee on Climate Change with the lowest possible energy score, which was described as "one of the worst ratings yet recorded". Ironically, the expert body was set up last year to advise prime minister Gordon Brown and his cabinet on the best ways to reduce ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Top 7 alternative energies listed
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16419-top-7-alternative-energies-listed.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: The US could replace all its cars and trucks with electric cars powered by wind turbines taking up less than 3 square kilometres -- in theory, at least. That's the conclusion of a detailed study ranking 11 types of non-fossil fuels according to their total ecological footprint and their benefit to human health. The study, carried out by Mark Jacobson of the atmosphere and energy programme at Stanford University, found wind power to be by far the most desirable source of energy. ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Move over, Thoreau
http://www.slate.com/id/2207168/pagenum/all/#p2
Slate: I have just swallowed my greens--1,000 pages of them--and I am torn. If the planet warms by 6 degrees in my lifetime, as the climatologists say it really could, we will face vast and violent weather of mass destruction. The last time the world warmed so much, so fast, was 251 million years ago--and almost everything on Earth died. So I have no doubt environmentalism is the most urgent ideology left standing, reducing every other disagreement to a second-rank squabble. Yet it is--as an ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Warming world will be even hotter than we thought, say scientists
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10551751
New Zealand Herald: The world will be hotter than we think if no action is taken to cut greenhouse emissions, a Wellington conference will hear today. United States climate modelling expert Matthew Huber - who is speaking at the Greenhouse Earth Symposium at Te Papa today - says at least one climate model used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produces temperatures that are cooler than the real world. Dr Huber is one of several visiting scientists who use a dramatic period of warming 55 ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Vietnam earmarks $115 million for global warming
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=837196&lang=eng_news
Associated Press: Vietnam will spend $115 million over the next six years to prepare for the impact of global warming, which international studies have shown could severely damage the country's long coast and low-lying river deltas. The money will be used to "assess the impact of global warming on Vietnam and map out a plan of action," Tuesday's Youth newspaper quoted Nguyen Van Duc, the vice minister of natural resources and environment, as saying. Authorities will use the money to devise plans ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Let's Get Get Those Freight Trucks Off the Road and Put America Back on Tracks
http://www.alternet.org/environment/119359/let's_get_get_those_freight_trucks_off_the_road_and_put_america_back_on_tracks/
Washington Monthly: Six days before Thanksgiving, a truck driver heading south on Interstate 81 through Shenandoah County, Virginia, ploughed his tractor trailer into a knot of cars that had slowed on the rain-slicked highway. The collision killed an eighty-year-old woman and her one- and four-year-old grandchildren, and brought traffic to a standstill along a ten-mile stretch of road for the better part of the afternoon. It was a tragedy, but not an unusual one. Semis account for roughly one out of ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Giving up on climate change?
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/opinions/20091501-18678.html
ScienceAlert: Scientists warn that unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly and rapidly reduced by 2020, by at least 25 per cent below 1990 levels, global warming and climate change will become irreversible and uncontrollable. As a consequence, large areas of the planet may be unable to sustain their present population or become uninhabitable. Massive population movements will be caused by an increasingly severe climate producing flooding, draughts and crop failures, compounded by hunger and ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Australia: It's a scorcher, but 70-year record stands
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24914441-5006785,00.html
Australian: MUCH of inland Australia sweltered as towns from Ivanhoe and Pooncarie in far-western NSW to Onslow in the Pilbara, Kerang in Victoria and Marree in South Australia hit 45C yesterday. But even those temperatures can't beat the searing conditions of 70 years ago, when records were broken over a period of four days through NSW, Victoria, the ACT and South Australia. State record highs of 49.7C in Menindee in NSW and 47.2C in Mildura in Victoria, set in January 1939, still stand ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Analyst: World carbon market doubles in 2008
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2233973/carbon-markets-doubles-2008
Business Green: Further evidence emerged today backing up predictions that the carbon market will shrug off the worst of the economic downturn, as Point Carbon became the latest analyst firm to confirm that the global carbon market enjoyed record growth throughout 2008. According to the latest figures from the company, the global carbon market doubled in size to Â€92bn (US$125bn) last year, while traded volumes soared 83 per cent year-on-year to 4.9 giga tonnes of carbon. The release of the ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Government's climate change watchdog has one of least energy efficient buildings
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/4240277/Governments-climate-change-watchdog-has-one-of-least-energy-efficient-buildings.html
Telegraph: The Committee on Climate Change was set up last year to advise Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, and his cabinet on the best ways to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions. But an energy performance certificate proudly displayed in the foyer of the Department of Energy and Climate Change at Number 3, Whitehall Place, where the committee is based, reveals the building has the lowest possible energy score. Energy performance certificates assess a building's fuel consumption as ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United States: New I-5 bridge design includes wind turbines
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/01/i5_wind_turbines.html
Oregonian: Combine river, wind, eco-friendliness and smooth sailing across the Columbia River and what do you have? A new Interstate 5 bridge with wind turbines generating electricity. You read that right: The latest bridge design features vertically spinning turbines that would generate an unknown amount of juice while proclaiming loudly that the Portland-Vancouver area is the sustainability center of the world. Or so says the Florida firm that did the design, now winning the affections ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Can Fisker save American cars?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99296737
National Public Radio: Fisker Automotive, based in Irvine, Calif., aims to revolutionize the U.S. auto industry with beautiful environmental cars. The CEO says that his startup has a great advantage because it's comfortable with change.

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Mass. governor unveils big push for wind power
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6210197.html
Associated Press: Wind turbines would increasingly dot the Massachusetts landscape under a plan unveiled by Gov. Deval Patrick to ramp up the state's reliance on wind power over the next dozen years. Patrick said Tuesday he wants the state to be producing 2,000 megawatts of wind electricity annually by 2020, enough to power 800,000 homes – or about 10 percent of the state's current energy needs. The state has just nine major wind turbines now, producing less than seven megawatts of power ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Proponents say large corn crop shows ethanol not driving up food costs
http://theindependent.com/articles/2009/01/12/news/ag/doc496bb559d1951051503870.txt
Grand Island Independent: The sun rises over the Verasun Ethanol plant near Central City. Last year 21 percent of the nation's corn went towards ethanol production. According to Bob Dinneen, Renewable Fuels Association president, last year's 12.1 billion bushel corn crop 'dispels the misconception that ethanol is at the root of higher corn and food prices.' 'With an expected surplus of nearly two billion bushels at the end of this marketing year, it is clear that farmers can supply ample feedstock for ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Watchdog calls for cleaning up solar industry
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/13/BUI8159KV1.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Despite its reputation, solar power isn't completely clean. Most solar cells are made of silicon, and the process of refining it produces waste that can damage the environment. Some newer solar cells use other materials that are themselves toxic and require proper handling. Now an environmental watchdog group wants to make the industry cleaner. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition will release a report today detailing the potential environmental problems facing the solar ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United States: Financial incentives mean home solar is hot
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/1540220.html
Sacramento Bee: While many in this troubled economy worry about making investments, Doris Dobkins didn't think twice about sticking her money on her roof. "Instead of paying PG&E, I'm paying myself," said Dobkins, a Placer County homeowner who recently spent $36,000 for an electricity-generating solar system. Based on projected savings in her electricity bills, a state rebate and a new federal tax credit, Dobkins expects to recoup her investment in six years. The family anticipates ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Obama's USDA nominee says will promote biofuels
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50D3OC20090114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he will promote renewable energy like biofuels and work for "more nutritious food produced in a sustainable way" if confirmed as U.S. agriculture secretary. In a statement prepared for his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Vilsack said he would "leverage the financial commitment of the stimulus bill" being developed by the Obama administration to boost economic growth in rural America. The Senate Agriculture Committee was expected to ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Meteorologists: global warming and cold weather go hand-in-hand
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-01-14-voa5.cfm
Voice of America: The World Meteorological Organization says cold weather does not mean that global warming has abated. WMO says people should not confuse weather with climate. People in Europe are shivering, while people in North Asia and parts of Australia are sweltering. Scientists say these weather extremes are to be expected and neither phenomenon can be used as a case for or against global warming. Michel Jarraud Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, Michel Jarraud, ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Why global warming portends a food crisis
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1870766,00.html?xid=rss-health
Time Magazine: It can be difficult in the middle of winter -- especially if you live in the frigid Northeastern U.S., as I do -- to remain convinced that global warming will be such a bad thing. Beyond the fact that people prefer warmth to cold, there's a reason the world's population is clustered in the Tropics and subtropics: warmer climates usually mean longer and richer growing seasons. So it's easy to imagine that on a warmer globe, the damage inflicted by more frequent and severe heat waves would be ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
'What are we going to do about the bears?'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090114.POLARBEARS14//TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: As a species, the polar bear is a relatively simple animal. It spends half its time hunting. It feasts on seals for nearly 100 per cent of its calories. And it has no predators but humans. As a political issue, however, the big bears are the Iraq of the animal world. A hodgepodge of federal, provincial and territorial governments, Inuit groups, researchers and environmental organizations all perform some jumbled role in the well-being of the world's largest ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Climate change to adversely impact Pakistan: Pachauri
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/climate-change-to-adversely-impact-pakistan-pachauri_100142331.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Challenges and opportunities for South Asia' here, Pachauri said Pakistan was witnessing severe pressures on its natural resources and environment. 'Climatic changes are likely to exacerbate this trend. Water supply, already a serious concern in many parts of the country, will decline dramatically, affecting food production. Export industries such as fisheries will also be affected, while coastal areas risk being inundated, flooding the homes of millions of people living in low-lying ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Australia: Coal-fired power blamed for rise in emissions
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/global-warming/coalfired-power-blamed-for-rise-in-emissions/2009/01/12/1231608600431.html
AAP: Queensland's dependency on coal-fired power stations is to blame for a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, a new report has found. Emissions in Queensland and Victoria rose in 2008 by 2.2 and 2 million tonnes respectively, according to a Greenhouse Indicator Report for Australia's eastern states released by The Climate Group. NSW's emissions fell by 0.5 million tonnes. Group director Rupert Posner said most of the increase in emissions was from coal-fired generators with ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
In Antarctica, bugs are kings
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50C0B020090113?sp=true
Reuters: Lurking among rocks on the Antarctic Peninsula, the most aggressive land predator on the frozen continent is on the prowl -- for microscopic prey. Animals such as lions, crocodiles or snakes thrive elsewhere on the planet, but Antarctica's most fearsome land predator is a reddish bug. The continent is best known for penguins, seals and whales, but all rely on the sea for food, unlike its Lilliputian land-based creatures and plants -- so far almost unaffected by ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Study fails to catch plants making methane
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090114/full/news.2009.25.html
Nature: Plants cannot make methane, say researchers seeking to resolve a mystery that has puzzled biologists for several years. Instead, they believe, plants simply take up the gas dissolved in water from the soil, and pass it back out through their leaves. Three years ago, a European team reported that 10–30% of Earth's methane emissions come from plants1. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and, if true, the finding would require a major rethink of the planet's carbon budget. But ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Solar energy's darker side stirs concern
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-fi-notsogreen14-2009jan14,0,1155706.story
LA Times: Everybody loves solar, the shiny superstar of renewable energy. But scratch the surface of the manufacturing process and the green sheen disappears. Vast amounts of fossil fuels are used to produce and transport panels. Solar cells contain toxic materials. Some components can't be easily recycled. That has some environmentalists worried about a new tidal wave of hazardous waste headed for the nation's landfills when panels eventually wear out. A report to be released today by ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Va. environmental group touts green investments
http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/national/national_govtpolitics/article/va._environmental_group_touts_green_investments/34076/
Daily Progress: The country`s environment and employment could be given a huge boost by investing in clean, green infrastructure, a report by a state environmental advocacy group suggests. 'Fossil fuels have run our environment and economy into the ground,' said J.R. Tolbert, an advocate for Environment Virginia. The Richmond-based environmental group released a 34-page report Tuesday outlining how much it says pollution could be reduced if energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Bangor scientists' global warming warning
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2009/01/14/bangor-scientists-global-warming-warning-55578-22686934/
Daily Post: SCIENTISTS at Bangor University yesterday warned that the ocean`s ability to absorb harmful greenhouse gases could be ebbing away. The UK`s climate is facing an uncertain future, fresh research carried out at the university shows. The full destructive impact of greenhouse gases has been shielded by rising sea levels, the scientists believe. Their research has revealed that the ocean waters have absorbed half of all man`s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions but claim nature`s ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Survey shows that Americans are eager to conserve energy
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/hc-energysurvey0114.artjan14,0,3321982.story
Hartford Courant: Most Americans already have taken steps to conserve energy, from turning off lights to riding a bicycle to work, and many would like to do more -- if they could afford it, according to a survey by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities. The survey suggests that many people already have made the easier and less expensive changes in their homes and lifestyles, but that the nation's broader goals of energy independence and fighting global warming are going to be costly and ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Antarctic mission runs into protest
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Antarctic_mission_runs_into_protest/articleshow/3974980.cms
Times of India: An Indo-German expedition, currently sailing to Antartica with 29 Indian researchers to conduct a two-month mega experiment to test a controversial technique that may help fight climate change, has run into protests from environmental activists who want the experiment stopped. Scientists leading the LOHAFEX expedition that involves sprinkling 20 tonnes of iron on a 300-sq-km area in the Southern Ocean, are particularly concerned about a signature campaign launched by NGO, ETC Group, ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
In California, hot and dry conditions stir drought concerns
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123190380534180339.html
Wall Street Journal: The past two days have felt like summer in California, as unseasonable warmth sweeps the state -- possibly presaging a third straight year of drought, a worrisome possibility for a state already hit hard by the economic downturn. Another dry year could mean water rationing for businesses and individuals. It could also slow business expansion and affect the agricultural industry, ski resorts and efforts to keep firefighting costs down, after a year in which state and federal officials ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Gas engines get upgrade in challenge to hybrids
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123189601997879691.html
Wall Street Journal: Hybrids and electric cars are generating the buzz this week at Detroit's North American International Auto Show. But thanks to new technology, the century-old internal-combustion engine appears poised to make a significant leap in fuel efficiency. While car makers are showcasing gas-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids and concept cars powered by fuel-cell batteries, they also are rolling out vehicles with advanced gasoline engines that rely on a technology known as direct fuel ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Lockhead: 'Oil at $150 a barrel is one way to beat climate change'
http://news.scotsman.com/climatechange/Lockhead-39Oil-at-150-a.4859148.jp
Scotsman: Speaking in the run-up to FirstGroup's 20th anniversary, Lockhead said higher crude prices would encourage the public to consider alternative modes of transport to car. He added that Aberdeen-based FirstGroup "can't afford not to" consider ways of reducing its emissions. His comments were dismissed by motoring groups, which said lowered fuel prices were helping hard-pressed families during the recession. Lockhead explained: "I personally would like to see prices at $150 ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Greenhouse gases 'will have to go into reverse by 2050'
http://news.scotsman.com/climatechange/Greenhouse--gases-39will-have.4871998.jp
Scotsman: CARBON dioxide emissions will need to become "negative" in the second half of this century, with more of the greenhouse gas absorbed than is put into the atmosphere, a report warned yesterday. Drastic reductions in greenhouse gases of 85 per cent by 2050, and more in the following years are needed to avoid temperature rises which would lead to dangerous climate change, the State of the World annual report from the Worldwatch Institute said. The study warned that temperature ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Watchdog warns inadequate recycling capacity puts UK at risk of EU fines
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2233963/watchdog-warns-inadequate
Business Green: The government has today urged businesses and householders to continue to step up their recycling efforts, despite the release of a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) raising fears that a shortfall in UK recycling and waste-to-energy capacity could result in recyclable waste being sent to landfill. The report - which follows news that falling demand for recyclate from Asia has forced some waste handling firms to stockpile recyclable material - concludes that the ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
United Kingdom: From floating turbines to "washing line" designs, offshore projects get funding boost
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2233966/innovative-offshore-projects
Business Green: An innovative new wind turbine design that resembles a giant washing line is one of four new technologies to receive development funding yesterday from the recently established Energy Technologies Institute (ETI). The 144-metre high V-shaped structure would be mounted offshore and is expected to generate up to nine megawatts of electricity, roughly three times more power than a conventional turbine of equivalent size. It works by rotating on a vertical axis, like a garden ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Swings In North Atlantic Oscillation Variability Linked To Climate Warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090113101200.htm
ScienceDaily: Using a 218-year-long temperature record from a Bermuda brain coral, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have created the first marine-based reconstruction showing the long-term behavior of one of the most important drivers of climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a wide-ranging pressure seesaw that drives winter climate over much of North America, Europe and North Africa. Past reconstructions of the NAO have ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
Great Lakes Water Level Sensitive To Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090113101122.htm
ScienceDaily: The water level in the Great Lakes has varied by only about two meters during the last century, helping them to play a vital role in the region's shipping, fishing, recreation and power generation industries. But new evidence by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and colleagues in the U.S. and Canada, published recently in the journal Eos, indicates that the water level in the lake system is highly sensitive to climate changes. "In the distant past, there were great ...

Thu, 15 Jan 09
EU environment agency outlines challenges for 2009
http://www.euractiv.com/en/environment/eu-environment-agency-outlines-challenges-2009/article-178459
EurActiv: Tackling climate change and its consequences, reforming the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, improving air quality and reducing the environmental impact of biofuels will top the bloc's environmental policy debates in the coming year, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA). The agency's 'snapshot' of key environmental policy debates in 2009 singles out "global diplomacy and the search for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol" as the main topic to be discussed, followed by ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Tropical rain forests can fight climate change better than biofuel plantations
http://www.entertainmentandshowbiz.com/tropical-rain-forests-can-fight-climate-change-better-than-biofuel-plantations-200901038423
Asian News International: A new study has determined that keeping tropical rain forests intact is a better way to combat climate change than replacing them with biofuel plantations. It was undertaken by an international research team of botanists, ecologists and engineers from seven nations. The study revealed that it would take at least 75 years for the carbon emissions saved through the use of biofuels to compensate for the carbon lost through forest conversion. If the original habitat was ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Dirty Coal is Winning
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177684
Newsdesk: Saving the planet was never going to be easy. Avoiding the most catastrophic effects of climate changes will require cutting carbon emissions by 50 to 80 percent over the next four decades, scientists say. After years of deadlock, 2009 was shaping up to be the year the world got its environmental act together. Now it's looking like the global environment may be one of the biggest losers in the current financial crisis. Lower prices for oil--which some analysts predict will hit $25 a ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
War passes: the climate is for ever
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/tom-burke-war-passes-the-climate-is-for-ever-1224210.html
Independent: This is arguably the first week of the most important year in human history. The grandiose invites suspicion so that sentence was written reluctantly. Ideas do not seek permission before they enter your mind, nor are they always the most welcome of guests. This idea was prompted by the new year headlines. War and recession, tragically familiar sources of human misery, dominated. Yet it was what was missing from them that provoked my unwelcome thought. In December, a meeting on an ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Soot reduction 'could help to stop global warming'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/soot-reduction-could-help-to-stop-global-warming-1224481.html
Independent: Governments could slow global warming dramatically, and buy time to avert disastrous climate change, by slashing emissions of one of humanity's most familiar pollutants -- soot -- according to Nasa scientists. A study by the space agency shows that cutting down on the pollutant, which has so far been largely ignored by climate scientists, can have an immediate cooling effect -- and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from air pollution at the same time. At the beginning of the ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Heathrow train plan to allay environmental fears
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5439472.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): AN international rail interchange could be built at Heathrow to compensate for the environmental harm caused by a new third runway at the airport, the transport minister Lord Adonis has indicated. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Adonis said the government was enthusiastic about proposals for a Â£4.5 billion station called the Heathrow hub, which could slash more than two hours off train journeys from some British cities to European destinations. Supporters of the scheme ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Mozambique: EU denounces socialite's carbon offset project
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5439366.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): A PIONEERING climate change project in Africa run by Robin Birley, the socialite, has been accused by the European commission, its main donor, of making unsubstantiated claims about its environmental impact. The project has received more than Â£1m in public grants and money from celebrities in the music and film business. They include Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones and Brad Pitt, the actor. The project attempts to offset an individual's carbon footprint by paying poor farmers ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
United Kingdom: IoS Investigation: Officials plotted Sellafield cover-up
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ios-investigation-officials-plotted-sellafield-coverup-1224473.html
Independent: Top civil servants and nuclear administrators colluded to prevent MPs from challenging a massive sweetener to a private business taking over the running of Sellafield, internal documents in the hands of The Independent on Sunday reveal. The documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, also disclose that the Government pushed through the handover at breakneck speed because it feared that the "unstable management arrangements" of the controversial Cumbrian nuclear complex ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Melting at the top of the world
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00001&segmentID=7
Living on Earth: CURWOOD: Nowhere is climate disruption more dramatically apparent than on the roof of the world – where some experts predict Himalayan glaciers may be gone in as few as 40 years. The snows of the Himalayas feed the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze, Ganges and Mekong Rivers and provide drinking water for billions throughout Asia. Now local residents in Nepal who depend on tourists and climbers are starting to speak out about the dangers and demanding action – among them Dawa ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Why tropical forests fall
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00001&segmentID=3
Living on Earth: CURWOOD: Just ahead – Tropical forests and climate disruption. Keep listening to Living on Earth! CURWOOD: It's Living on Earth, I'm Steve Curwood. Tropical forests cover about seven percent of the Earth, but the widespread cutting and burning of these forests causes some twenty percent of all global warming gas emissions worldwide. So experts in deforestation, rural development, and climate are all working together to make sure that the next international treaty on climate ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Climate change and the new Congress
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00001&segmentID=2
Living on Earth: CURWOOD: This New Year brings a new president and new congress to Washington, and perhaps a new federal approach to global warming. President-elect Barack Obama made climate change a high priority in his campaign. Many of his fellow Democrats in Congress want to act as well, and other nations are waiting for the U.S. to lead the way to an international climate agreement this year. But even though there's a new lineup in Washington, there are still plenty of nay-sayers on climate ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Flat-screen TVs to face energy-efficiency rules in California
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tv3-2009jan03,0,2869589.story
LA Times: That 52-inch, flat-screen television on the family room wall may have a terrific picture, but there's a big drawback: It's an energy hog. State regulators are getting ready to curb the growing power gluttony of TV sets by drafting the nation's first rules requiring retailers to sell only the most energy-efficient models, starting in 2011. The consumer electronics industry opposes the regulations, expected to pass in mid-2009, and claims that they could remove some TVs from ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Panel outlines greenhouse gas reduction options for Iowa
http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090102/NEWS/901029989/1006
Gazette: A state panel appointed to study ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today outlined 56 options for state lawmakers and Gov. Chet Culver to consider for Iowa to minimize its impact on global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions are rising by more than 1 percent each year in Iowa, said Jerry Schnoor, a University of Iowa professor who served as the council's chairman. The Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council formally unveiled its final report at a news conference this ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Arkansas Gov. Beebe: Global warming not a 'hoax,' can't be solved through state-by-state approach
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/market_news/article.jsp?content=D95F46A82
Associated Press: Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said Friday he doesn't believe that global warming is a "hoax," but said he doesn't think it can be solved through state-by-state approaches. "I've read some pundits lately who say, 'oh, this is just a hoax, global warming's not really a serious threat.' I don't subscribe to that theory," Beebe said on his monthly call-in radio show. "I think it is a threat, and I think global warming is occurring." Beebe, however, said he doesn't think the problem can ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Cars soon will come with 'green' score
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090103/NEWS02/901030306/-1/NEWS05
Burlington Free Press: Automobile comparison shoppers who want to reduce their contribution to air pollution and global warming will have some help later this year. A California rule adopted by Vermont will require each new car and light truck to display an Environmental Performance sticker with separate ratings of its greenhouse gas emissions and its contribution to smog. The mandate begins with the 2010 model year. Vehicles will be rated on a 1-10 scale; the cleaner the car, the higher the ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Canada: Speed limiters get mixed reviews from truck drivers
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/466557
Record: Ontario's efforts to prevent truck drivers from speeding got mixed reviews yesterday from those behind the wheel. Speed-limiters that force drivers to travel at 105 km/h or less became mandatory on transport trucks Thursday. The government says the limiters will reduce greenhouse gases, save diesel fuel and make the roads safer. But not all transport drivers like the idea of having 105 km/h programmed into their engine-control computers, which is what the law ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Oregon looks at taxing mileage instead of gasoline
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MILEAGE_TAX?SITE=OHCIN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Associated Press: Oregon is among a growing number of states exploring ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, even going so far as to install GPS monitoring devices in 300 vehicles. The idea first emerged nearly 10 years ago as Oregon lawmakers worried that fuel-efficient cars such as gas-electric hybrids could pose a threat to road upkeep, which is paid for largely with gasoline taxes. "I'm glad we're taking a look at it before the potholes get so ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
New bill would cut greenhouse gases emitted from Texas refineries
http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/txcn/houston/stories/khou090102_tnt_greenhouse-gas-refinery.30ec9fe1.html
TXCN: If Texas were a country, the refineries lining the Gulf would make it the eighth-largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world. 'Texas is a major emitter of carbon, in part because we fuel the rest of the country,' State Sen. Rodney Ellis said. Ellis wants the state to lead the way in cutting back. He`s filed a bill to give state regulators the authority to force energy companies to slash their greenhouse gas production. 'In Texas, we have pretty much put our head in ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
County sees forests as source of future clean-air funds
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/5167190-35/story.csp
Register-Guard: The public forest lands in Lane County and across Oregon have long been measured in terms of their value to lumber, recreation and natural habitat. Now the county board is considering a new role for them: Battling global warming. The commissioners are considering the monetary value of public forests for carbon sequestration, which is the absorption of 'greenhouse gases' such as carbon dioxide that cause climate change. The county wants to be positioned to benefit if the federal ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
New Chinese Solar Plant Could Become World's Largest
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1617325/new_chinese_solar_plant_could_become_worlds_largest/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: China Technology Development Group Corp and privately held Qinghai New Energy Group announced Friday their plans to construct a solar power plant in northwestern China that could become the world's largest photovoltaic solar project. Shares of China Technology Development rose 29 percent to $2.61 on Nasdaq following the announcement. Shares of most solar power companies were also up on the news, bolstered by higher oil prices and an upswing in the broader market. Construction ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Coal in your stocking? Fuel up the Cadillac!
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=114506
New York Times: ELECTRIC-CAR doubters often say that a vehicle like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, intended to drive most of its miles on batteries charged from the power grid, is effectively powered by coal. While that is a vast oversimplification, it contains a germ of truth: half of the electricity generated in the United States comes from coal-fired power plants. That is not to say the Volt and a slew of coming plug-in hybrids proposed by General Motors and other automakers will be belching smoke like ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
United States: Another dirty side of coal
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00001&segmentID=1
Living on Earth: CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts - this is Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood. Since three days before Christmas we've been learning more and more about the massive spill of toxic coal power plant waste that has made well waters in part of Kingston, Tennessee unsafe to drink. Arsenic and other poisons have now gotten into two nearby rivers. Local resident Sarah McCoin describes the sludge that's inundated dozens of homes close to ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Cause Of Glacial Earthquakes In Greenland Clarified
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090102101455.htm
ScienceDaily: Satellite observations during the past decade have shown dramatic changes in flow speed on year-to-year timescales at Greenland's outlet glaciers. Seismic events traced back to glaciers during the same time period have been interpreted to have resulted from calving events at the glacier terminus or surging events lubricated by subglacial meltwater. To learn more, Nettles et al. conducted geodetic studies at Helheim Glacier, one of Greenland's largest outlet glaciers, during ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Surprise Drop In Carbon Dioxide Absorbed By East/Japan Sea
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090102101045.htm
ScienceDaily: The East/Japan Sea in the western North Pacific is ventilated from the surface to the bottom of the ocean over decades. Such short overturning circulation indicates that carbon dioxide (CO2) from human emissions is able to pervade the East/Japan Sea on similarly short timescales. Three surveys of the East/Japan Sea (conducted in 1992, 1999, and 2007, respectively) have allowed scientists to measure changes in the sea accumulation rate of CO2 emitted by humans in response to changes in ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Sea Rise Over Continental Shelves Significantly Affected Past Global Carbon Cycle
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090102100236.htm
ScienceDaily: Since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; about 21,000 years ago) sea level has risen by 130 meters (430 feet), resulting in continental shelf submergence and a massive expansion of the surface area of shelf seas. Although shelf seas only account for 7 percent of the oceanic surface area, recent observations demonstrate that they host significant fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) between the ocean and atmosphere. Further, dissolved and particulate carbon are thought to be transported ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Germany beats US in renewable energy investment
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Germany-beats-US-in-renewable-energy-investment-13811-3-1.html
Commodity Online: Germany has over taken USA as the most attractive destination for investment in renewable energy. The economic situation in USA has restricted to finance and slowed the recycling of Production Tax Credits (PTC) and Investment Tax Credits (ITC), which allow corporates to gain tax breaks by purchasing credits from renewables developers This was revealed in Ernst & Young's latest Renewable energy country attractiveness indices released recently. The indices - which track and score ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Ocean acidification, global warming, and the Great Barrier Reef
http://features.csmonitor.com/discoveries/2009/01/01/ocean-acidification-global-warming-and-the-great-barrier-reef/
Christian Science Monitor: Perhaps it`s time to begin talking about global warming and acidifying oceans in the same breath, rather than as related-but-separate issues. In mid-December, The Monitor ran a story on research showing that some areas of the world`s oceans are acidifying faster than marine scientists had predicted even three years ago. The culprit: the excess carbon dioxide that human industrial activity and deforestation are pumping into the atmosphere -- and that the oceans are absorbing. (That ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Philippines: 'Whale's death in Manila Bay indicates grim problem'
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/142303/Whales-death-in-Manila-Bay-indicates-grim-problem
GMA News: The death of a whale in Manila Bay earlier this week may not be an isolated case but a sign of serious environmental problems, according to a leader of an ecological group. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Philippines vice chairman Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan said the death shows the urgency to address climate change that was blamed for the whale's death. "Uncommon as it may seem, the event may not be an isolated occurrence ... The world is changing. Maybe, these dead whales in Manila Bay ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
United States: Death of corals is oceanographer's murder mystery
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/39640
Scripps News: Marine scientist John Bruno became interested in coral reefs as a boy snorkeling in the turquoise waters off the Florida Keys above reefs of golden corals the size of football fields. "It just went on for acres and acres," recalls Bruno, 43, an associate professor at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "They were just full of fish. We'd see hammerhead sharks on the reef and big critters. That is all gone. "The corals are gone and the big fish are gone," he says. "That's ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Motorists' habits spur call for tax increases
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0jhIdk5jvjtf5bEpyAbXQNZJpxAD95F5EK80
Associated Press: Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs. A federal commission created by Congress to find a way to make up the growing revenue shortfall in the program that funds highway repairs and construction is talking about increasing federal gas and diesel taxes. A roughly 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
EarthTalk: How threatened are US old-growth forests?
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/01/02/earthtalk-how-threatened-are-us-old-growth-forests/
Christian Science Monitor: Q: How much "old growth" forest is left in the United States, and is it all protected from logging at this point? – John Foye, via e-mail A: As crazy as it sounds, no one really knows how much old-growth forest is left in America, mainly because various agencies and scientists define it differently. Generally speaking, "old growth" refers to forests containing trees often hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old. But even when there is agreement on a specific definition, ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Lack of a national climate policy nothing to sneeze at
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_11357130
Salt Lake Tribune: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu each year. Of those, about 200,000 people require hospitalization and 36,000 ultimately die. But imagine if, in addition to the stresses of cold and flu season, American health providers were annually confronted with widespread outbreaks of malaria or a host of other diseases that could spread into the United States due to global warming. If this sounds like a ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Australia: Warming could kill reef in 40 years
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/warming-could-kill-reef-in-40-years/1399076.aspx
Canberra Times: Australia's iconic and beloved Great Barrier Reef will be destroyed by erosion and swamped by invading algal slime within 40 years if current global warming trends continue, new research suggests. The research shows climate change has dramatically slowed growth rates of Porites or brain corals one of the biggest corals forming the reef's structure sparking fears the reef will ''stop growing altogether'' by 2050. Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science in ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
New California Cars Display Smog, Global Warming Scores
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-02-092.asp
Environment News Service: As of January 1, every 2009 model year and newer car built for sale in California will be required to carry a label that clearly ranks the vehicle's environmental impact. A vehicle's certification level can be found under the hood on the vehicle emissions control information label. The label will show a simple ranking system that provides consumers with practical information that can help them choose the most environmentally friendly vehicle that still meets their transportation ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
United States: Planning the Fate of a Nuclear Plant's Lan
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=114490
New York Times: TWO decades after the $6 billion Shoreham nuclear power plant was closed, the Long Island Power Authority has announced plans to hire a consultant to advise it on what to do with a 58-acre waterfront property where the plant`s decommissioned remains are located. The authority`s 1.1 million customers have never received energy from the Shoreham plant, the only fully licensed nuclear power reactor never to go into commercial operation, and are still paying off its remaining debt -- now ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Global Warming Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010202280.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Washington Post: The Cold War shaped world politics for half a century. But global warming may shape the patterns of global conflict for much longer than that -- and help spark clashes that will be, in every sense of the word, hot wars. We're used to thinking of climate change as an environmental problem, not a military one, but it's long past time to alter that mindset. Climate change may mean changes in Western lifestyles, but in some parts of the world, it will mean far more. Living in Washington, ...

Sun, 4 Jan 09
Minn. lawmakers going to the source of dirty car emissions: fuel
http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/37027844.html?elr=KArks:DCiUo3PD:3D_V_qD3L:c7cQKUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
Star Tribune: Move over, coal plants. The new targets in the campaign against carbon pollution are the tailpipes of our cars and trucks. When Minnesota legislators open their new session next week, they will be greeted with a bill that proposes to assign petroleum producers and refiners a new responsibility in the campaign to reduce greenhouse gases. Much as automakers are expected to build ever-more-efficient cars, the petroleum industry would be expected to produce ever-cleaner fuel -- ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Oregon is exceptionally generous with green-energy subsidies
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/oregon_is_exceptionally_genero.html
Oregonian: Oregon taxpayers are shelling out tens of millions of dollars to subsidize green energy projects, making the state a magnet for solar and wind companies. But an investigation by The Oregonian shows that the money also is going to risky ventures with questionable environmental benefits and to prosperous companies that need no incentives but are cashing in anyway. When the Legislature convenes next week, Gov. Ted Kulongoski will call on lawmakers to raise taxes and fees as the ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Mass. launches effort to protect coast residents
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/03/mass_launches_effort_to_protect_coast_residents/
Boston Globe: Massachusetts is kicking off an innovative pilot program to defend the state's 78 coastal communities against rising sea levels and fiercer storms brought on by global warming. The state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced yesterday that seven communities have been selected to learn how best to adapt to climate change, by doing such things as elevating buildings in flood-prone areas, developing disaster plans for more frequent storms, and prohibiting ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Solar-power industry remains hot in California
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11358068
Mercury News: Despite the turbulent economy, or perhaps because of it, solar energy remains a growth industry in California. The amount of electricity generated in the state by solar energy soared in 2008, and applications for rebates under the state's Million Solar Roofs program reached record levels in the last five months of the year. "While we don't have the final numbers yet, it appears we nearly doubled the amount of solar installed in 2008 versus 2007," said Molly Tirpak Sterkel, ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
United States: Houston company pulls out of coal-powered plant project
http://www.lvrj.com/business/37036324.html
Las Vegas Review-Journal: A key backer for one of three coal-fired power projects in Nevada announced Friday that it was ending its participation in the project. Dynegy Inc. of Houston said that it and LS Power Associates of East Brunswick, N.J., are dissolving their development joint venture for the Nevada generation plant and other new projects. The joint venture was developing the 1,600-megawatt White Pine Energy Station near Ely and the Southwest Intertie Project, a transmission line that could ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Cold Carbon Sink: Slowing Global Warming with Antarctic Iron
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,599213,00.html#ref=rss
Spiegel: Recent research shows that melting icebergs in the ocean around Antarctica may actually slow global warming. The iron particles they carry feed algae blooms that suck up CO2. Could man-made algae blooms in the frigid waters help combat climate change? The catch was cold and lifeless, there wasn't a single fish flopping in the net. When the haul came to rest on the deck of the HMS Endurance in southern Atlantic off the coast of Antarctica, the only sound was a dull creak. Then ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Metals pollute waters near U.S. coal ash spill: group
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5013BO20090102?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Preliminary water tests from rivers near a huge coal ash spill in Tennessee show elevated levels of pollutants such as mercury and lead, a environmental group said on Friday. "We're concerned that the water poses a greater risk to residents in the area than has been revealed so far," said Matt Wasson, a program director at Appalachian Voices, a environmental group that coordinated the testing of the water with scientists from Appalachian State University. An earthen dike ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
United States: Conflicted Emotions Follow Tennessee Coal Ash Spill
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98959566&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: As cleanup continues near Kingston, Tenn., 11 days after a massive coal-ash spill, conflicting information about the safety of the air and water has caused a rift in the delicate relationship between the Tennessee Valley Authority and one of its communities. The spill at the TVA's Kingston Fossil Plant released more than 1 billion gallons of gray, toxic sludge, inundating hundreds of acres after an earthen dam collapsed. The twin smokestacks of the plant loom like monstrous ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Big solar power plant planned for northwest China
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50140W20090102?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Two Chinese companies on Friday announced plans to build a solar power plant in northwestern China that could one day be the largest photovoltaic solar project in the world. The news helped spur a rally in shares of solar power companies that was also underpinned by higher oil prices and a strong rise the broader market. China Technology Development Group Corp and privately held Qinghai New Energy Group will begin building a 30 megawatt solar power station in China's Qaidam ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
In Obama's Team, 2 Camps on Climate
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=114465
New York Times: In the fall of 1997, when the Clinton administration was forming its position for the Kyoto climate treaty talks, Lawrence H. Summers argued that the United States would risk damaging the domestic economy if it set overly ambitious goals for reducing carbon emissions. Mr. Summers, then the deputy Treasury secretary, said at the time that there was a compelling scientific case for action on global warming but that a too-rapid move against emissions of greenhouse gases risked dire and ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Signs of Another California Drought Year
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=114462
New York Times: California, just finished with its second consecutive year of drought, might well be facing a third. If so, state authorities may be forced to impose water rationing on farmers, homes and businesses. With the rainy season well under way, early partial measurements indicate that the amount of water stored in the Sierra snowpack, the state`s natural reservoir, is higher than the amount at this time last year but well below average, said the state`s meteorologist, Elissa Lynn. The ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
United States: Metal Levels Found High in Tributary After Spill
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=114461
New York Times: An environmental advocacy group`s tests of river water and ash near the site of a huge coal ash spill in East Tennessee showed levels of arsenic, lead, chromium and other metals at 2 to 300 times higher than drinking water standards, the group said Thursday. The findings far exceed levels reported by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Environmental Protection Agency or the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Those agencies have reported elevated levels of thallium, ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Biophysical economics: In the future, economists will return to earth
http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2009/01/01/Economics/
The Tyee: The year 2009 will witness a tsunami of economic appeals to fix, as disgraced Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan put it, the "flaw" in their thinking. Most will get it wrong. The proposals for bailouts, regulations and government spending sprees all share one tragic flaw: they assume no physical or biological limits to human growth. Most economists cling to an 18th century mechanical universe that conjured an "invisible hand" of God, that would allegedly convert private greed ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Canada: The carbon tax conundrum
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090102.BCYEARENDERCARBON02//TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: Then, in December, the cost of a fill-up got another, even bigger, boost as gasoline companies quietly did away with the long-standing discount of 3.5 cents from their posted prices. Not only was there no uproar - no one even seemed to notice the increase, perhaps overcome with the prospect of gas prices hitting their lowest level in nearly three years. British Columbia Finance Minister Colin Hansen says much of the negative reaction was simply the result of his government's bad luck ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Indonesia: Indonesia's coral reefs return to life
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24863933-30417,00.html
Australian: CORAL reefs devastated by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that struck coastal regions around the Indian Ocean are recovering rapidly in parts of Indonesia. Surveys at 60 sites along 800km of hard-hit Aceh coastline found that high densities of "baby corals" were thriving. The good news comes from researchers with the multi-institution Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the Indonesian arm of the Wildlife Conservation Society. They ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
United States: Salt Lake sunshine: Solar power plan a very bright idea
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_11346241
Editorial: Salt Lake County's solar power initiative is a ray of sunshine in a dark, gloomy and rapidly warming world. There's nothing unique about the technology. But the funding mechanism merits more than a mention. If all goes according to plan, the roofs of 50 county-owned buildings will soon be covered with arrays of solar panels producing clean, renewable electricity, and they won't cost taxpayers a dime. Private firms will install the panels, utilizing state and federal tax credits ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
United States: Many delta islands may be lost
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/02/MNK5151SE4.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Two decades ago, water breached a levee on Tyler Island, 8,800 acres along the northeastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, wiping out crops, damaging buildings and nearly destroying the Mello family's farming business. Steve Mello worries the same thing may happen again - with the approval of state policymakers who are considering whether to save some islands if increasingly fragile levees fail. It's a familiar scenario for Mello, who has heard proposals in the past to flood ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
'Reggie' is a hit for environment
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090102/OPINION01/901020317
Poughkeepsie Journal: OK, we admit it: The term "Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative'' can make your eyes glaze over and conjures images of another vague government program. Until you discover polluters are going to have to pay for the damage they cause through an online-trading program. Until you discover less pollution will be spewed into the air overall. Until you discover New York state, needing money from just about any source possible, recently netted $41.9 million from participating in ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
As red gum forests turn green
http://business.theage.com.au/business/as-red-gum-forests-turn-green-20090101-78ku.html?page=-1
Age: THIS week, Premier John Brumby announced that his Government had "taken action to protect the Murray and the ancient red gum forests that exist along its stretches" by creating four new national parks in northern Victoria. Mr Brumby said climate change and drought meant the river red gums were in trouble and "we have to take action to protect this precious heritage". To put this announcement into perspective, it is impossible to "protect" either the Murray or its associated ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Strangers on our shores this year
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-strangers-on-our-shores-this-year-1221008.html
Independent: Since many people this weekend will doubtless be thinking about what 2009 may bring, as they prepare to return to work on Monday, perhaps we may ask the same question for the natural world, not least because one of the fascinating aspects of living in a time of changing climate in Britain is changing wildlife. Of course, it may soon seem more damaging than fascinating, as the changes brought about by global warming may by no means all be beneficial: species may disappear, and other ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Lending woes push alternative energy to back burner
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6190611.html
Houston Chronicle: According to U.S. renewable energy statistics from 2007, the most recent year available: * It met about 7 percent of U.S. energy needs. * Electric power production used 51 percent of all renewable output * Hydroelectric sources comprised 71 percent of renewable power production, followed by biomass (16 percent), wind (9 percent), geothermal (4 percent) and solar (0.2 percent) Source: Energy Information Administration Never mind the fall in oil prices. ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Lagos: Still tackling the mega city challenges
http://www.businessdayonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2182:lagos-still-tackling-the-mega-city-challenges-&catid=117:news&Itemid=298
Business Day: With the recent commissioning of four developmental projects in one day, Lagos State government seems to have made the statement that it is determined to confront the multifaceted challenges of the mega city. December 18 is particularly a date to note, as the governor and members of the state executive council suspended other commitments for the commissioning of projects which included the Lagos Bar Beach shoreline defence (phase 2), upgraded 900 metre Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Glover Leaf ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Australia: Barrier Reef coral growth 'will stop.'
http://news.smh.com.au/national/barrier-reef-coral-growth-will-stop-20090102-78yo.html
AAP: Scientists fear the already declining growth rate of the Great Barrier Reef's corals will stop completely by 2050, killing off the reef and making way for algae. A new report shows the most robust corals on the reef have slowed in growth by more than 14 per cent since the "tipping point" in 1990. The paper, published in the international journal Science and written by scientists Dr Glenn De'ath, Dr Janice Lough and Dr Katharina Fabricius, shows evidence of a decline in the ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Looking for Carbon in Renewable Energy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2233192/looking-carbon-renewable-energy
Business Green: Back in the mid-1990s, Rob Harmon wanted to develop wind farms. Like other aspiring developers, he identified promising locations and then talked to local utilities about buying the power. He encountered a common response. "They told me they'd pay me what they paid for commodity electricity," Harmon recalls. The commodity price for electricity was often determined by coal plants. Unlike new wind farms, these plants had often paid off their capital costs years ago. They also ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Recycle those unwanted Christmas gifts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jan/02/recycle-festive-christmas-newyear
Guardian: For many of us, it's back to work on Monday. All that's left of the festivities is a hangover and bulging bin-liners piled at the back door. According to environmental charity Wasteonline, we generate about 3m tonnes of rubbish in less than two weeks of partying and some of that could be heading to a landfill near you. But whether it's food, the tree or those unwanted presents, there is a better way than dumping it all in the bin. Food, foil and plastics As a nation, we waste ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Australia: Coral reef growth is slowest ever
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7807943.stm
BBC: Coral growth in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has slowed to its most sluggish rate in the past 400 years. The decline endangers the species the reef supports, say researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. They studied massive porites corals, which are several hundred years old, and found that calcification has declined by 13.3% since 1990. Global warming and the increasing acidity of seawater are to blame, they write in Science journal. Coral ...

Sat, 3 Jan 09
Global warming affecting migratory birds, says Indian ornithologist
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/54820
Asian News International: Indian ornithologist has said that global warming and the rising temperatures have brought about an imbalance in the timing of the winter arrival of migratory birds and the food stock available to them. World over experts have been saying that rising temperatures could wipe out more than half of the earth's species in the next few centuries, linking climate change to past mass extinctions. Unchecked climate change could force up to 72 per cent of bird species in some areas into ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Turkey should promote wind, solar investment -IEA
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8172404
Reuters: Turkey, dependent on Russia for 65 percent of its gas supply, should boost wind and solar energy investments as part of efforts to diversify energy resources, the International Energy Agency's (IEA) chief economist said. Fatih Birol said the country was also dependent on Russia for power as half of Turkey's electricity was produced from natural gas. "This dependence will increase further if Russia is preferred for nuclear (energy production). A variety of fuel is needed as an ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Available water many not meet Oregon's needs
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_or_water_shortages.html
Associated Press: The words "Oregon" and "rain" often appear together, but results of round-table talks indicate Oregonians doubt there will be enough water for everyone as the state's population grows and summers become drier with climate change. The five sessions were held in September and October. Two-thirds of those surveyed at the roundtables across the state doubt whether Oregon will have enough water to cover all its needs 20 years from now. Oregon and Alaska are the only two Western ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Climate change increases problems for Florida reefs
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/environment/story/793897.html
Miami Herald: The last, largest stands of ancient elkhorn coral survive in shallow waters off North Key Largo, where rough seas sometimes expose thick golden branches reaching toward the sunlit surface. Forty years ago, elkhorn grew in dense forests that would cover parking lots. Now, the biggest clump would barely fill one space. In another 40 years, elkhorn could disappear altogether -- along with just about every other hard coral forming South Florida's once-vibrant barrier ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Obama's big oil decision
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0102/p08s01-comv.html
Christian Science Monitor: Despite his hopes for renewable energy, Barack Obama faces tough choices early in his term on whether to extract more oil within the US. Americans are still years, maybe decades, from kicking the oil habit. One reserve – with at least a century of supply – lies below the Rockies. Will a "green" president ignore this black ooze? This immense reserve is called oil shale, although the "oil" is not ready for refineries nor is the surface rock that traps it really shale. Rather, the ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
China: Bacteria In Ice May Record Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081231131813.htm
ScienceDaily: To many people, bacteria and climate change are like chalk and cheese: the smallest creature versus one of the biggest phenomena on earth. Not really. Scientists with the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP), Chinese Academy of Sciences and coworkers recently reported that small bugs deposited in ice and snow might tell how our climate has been changing. The discovery might bring about a new indicator for climate change, which is by nature different from all previous physical ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Coal-Ash Spill May Cost Utilities Billions in Rules
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJvY7sO2X0oo&refer=home
Bloomberg: U.S. power companies may face billions of dollars a year in new costs after last week's coal- sludge spill in east Tennessee if the accident results in regulating their wastes as toxic. The accident that unleashed a billion-gallon outpouring from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant on Dec. 22 may revive efforts in Washington to tighten rules on so-called fly ash that's laden with heavy metals, and other waste from coal- fired generators. The proposals stalled during the eight ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Oak tree deaths herald new pest threat to traditional plants, Kew curator warns
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/conservation/4045774/Oak-tree-deaths-herald-new-pest-threat-to-traditional-plants-Kew-curator-warns.html
Telegraph: Dozens of oaks, many of them as old as 150 years, have had to be cut down at Kew in the last few years because of a beetle infestation which leaves the inside of the trunk looking "like honeycomb". Outdoor vegetable patches have been under attack all year round from pests previously only found in greenhouses. Meanwhile new invaders, such as a fingernail-sized insect which attacks wisteria, have been spreading as a result of milder winters and a looser controls on plants coming ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Indonesia: One million trees planted in Aceh in 2008
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2009/1/1/one-million-trees-planted-in-aceh-in-2008/
Antara: Around one million trees were planted in Aceh Province during 2008 to help mitigate the impact of climate change, a local official said. "Various regreening programs were carried out in 2008, and about one million trees have been planted," Hanifah Affan, head of the Aceh forestry and plantation office, said here on Wednesday. The central government provided 500,000 tree seedlings to support the tree planting program, she said. Each district and city in Aceh Province got ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Official figures mask true state of environment
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/official-figures-mask-true-state-of-environment/2009/01/01/1230681664239.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE rate of land clearing is much higher than Australia's environmental accounting methods may suggest, a study by researchers at the University of Queensland shows. It says traditional bookkeeping methods are misleading because they usually record positive and negative environmental outcomes separately, and that lack of context means big net losses of forested land can be wrongly reported as a win for conservation. In other words, the creation of new national parks in one ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Panel wants fuel taxes hiked to fund highways
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0jhIdk5jvjtf5bEpyAbXQNZJpxAD95EDS6O0
Associated Press: A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by a federal commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads. The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for higher fuel taxes. With motorists driving less and buying less fuel, the current 18.4 cents a gallon ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Greenhouse gases could have caused an ice age, claim scientists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/4061092/Greenhouse-gases-could-have-caused-an-ice-age-claim-scientists.html
Telegraph: Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that 630 million years ago the earth had a warm atmosphere full of carbon dioxide but was completely covered with ice. The scientists studied limestone rocks and found evidence that large amounts of greenhouse gas coincided with a prolonged period of freezing temperatures. Such glaciation could happen again if global warming is not curbed, the university's school of geography, earth and environmental sciences ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Ocean Acidification Hits Great Barrier Reef
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=ocean-acidification-hits-great-barrier-reef
Scientfic American: Massive Porites coral, like the one pictured here, in the Great Barrier Reef are not growing as much anymore, most likely because of warmer and more acidic seawater. The largest coral reef system in the world--and the biggest sign of life on Earth, visible from space--is not growing like it used to. A sampling of 328 massive Porites coral (large structures resembling brains that are formed by tiny polyps) from across the 133,000-square-mile (344,000-square-kilometer) reef reveals that ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Coral growth slows sharply on Great Barrier Reef
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLV526362
Reuters: Coral growth since 1990 in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has fallen to its lowest rate for 400 years, in a troubling sign for the world's oceans, researchers said on Thursday. This could threaten a variety of marine ecosystems that rely on the reef and signal similar problems for other similar organisms worldwide, Glen De'ath and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral expanse, and like similar reefs ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Great Barrier Reef decline blamed on global warming
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,27574,24863703-3102,00.html
Courier-Mail: CORALS on the Great Barrier Reef are growing slower than at any time in at least 400 years and leading scientists are blaming climate change. As a major study is being published in the US, scientists fear the reef is showing signs of mass coral bleaching, last seen in 2002. Glenn De'ath, co-author of the research published in Science magazine, said the corals would stop growing altogether by 2050 if the trend identified in the study continued. "When you disturb an ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Canada's forests, once absorbers of greenhouse gas, now add to it
http://www.courant.com/news/nationworld/chi-canada-trees_wittjan02,0,431604.story
Hartford Courant: As relentlessly bad as the news about global warming seems to be, with ice at the poles melting faster than scientists had predicted and world temperatures rising higher than expected, there was at least a reservoir of hope stored here in Canada's vast forests. The country's 1.2 million square miles of trees have been dubbed the "lungs of the planet" by ecologists because they account for more than 7 percent of Earth's total forest lands. They could always be depended upon to suck in ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Coral study finds slowest growth in 400 years
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2457912.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: ELEANOR HALL: The tipping point for catastrophic climate change is an issue of dispute between politicians and environmentalists. But on the climate vulnerable Great Barrier Reef, researchers have been surprised to discover that a tipping point for coral growth has already been reached. In the journal Science this morning they reveal that it was reached 18 years ago, as Nonee Walsh reports. NONEE WALSH: At The Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Slowing coral growth may spell disaster for Great Barrier Reef
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5429677.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times: Growth rates among corals on the Great Barrier Reef have slumped to their slowest in at least four centuries and growth is expected to cease within 26 years. The process of calcification, which gives the reefs their structure and strength, has slowed by 14.2 per cent in less than 20 years, researchers in Australia have discovered. The slowdown is so abrupt that they fear the natural process of reef-building will stop by 2050 and perhaps as early as 2035, when the Great Barrier ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Coral decline warns of ocean changes: Australian scientists
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hUl2SROGnvFxq7bgNjPHYME_TJOw
Agence France-Presse: A sharp slowdown in coral growth on Australia's Great Barrier Reef since 1990 is a warning sign that precipitous changes in the world's oceans may be imminent, scientists said Friday. Strong evidence points to the cause being a combination of warmer seas and higher acidity from increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers reported. "The data suggest that this severe and sudden decline in calcification is unprecedented in at ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Stunted Coral Highlights Troubling Ocean Trends
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98937604&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Coral in the Great Barrier Reef is showing significant signs of trouble, apparently the result of human activities. Scientists say one species of coral is growing much more slowly than it was 15 years ago. If current trends continue, this species of coral could stop growing altogether by the middle of the century. Scientists suspect that coral growth is being stunted by warmer ocean waters, as well as increasing acidity caused by carbon dioxide that's entering the ocean as a ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
United Kingdom: 'Pay as you throw' household waste trial shunned by councils
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/02/recycling-incentive-scheme
Guardian: Councils are intending to shun a "pay-as-you-throw" trial for household waste that would see residents rewarded for recycling or charged for producing too much rubbish, according to research released yesterday. None of more than 100 councils in England that responded to a survey said they were planning to apply to take part in a pilot of incentive schemes, which forms part of the Climate Change Act. Many were worried about the impact of bin charges while others believed it would ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
UK faces court case over air pollution breaches
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/02/air-pollution-laws-britain-eu
Guardian: The European Union is planning to take Britain to court for consistently breaching air pollution laws, which could result in unlimited daily fines. Air pollution near many roads averages well over twice the UN's World Health Organisation maximum recommended level, which has led to constant infringements of EU air quality laws. In particular, diesel engines emit large quantities of minute, sooty particles known as PM10s which are linked to asthma and heart disease. The ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Rubbish answers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/02/recycling-companies-raw-materials-prices
Guardian: A fortnight's drinking, eating, unwrapping and discarding - the squander and pleasure of the holidays - is ending. Bottle banks brim and bin bags pile up. "Christmas means rubbish," wrote Margaret Drabble in a Guardian essay last week. "Piles of rubbish ... the withering leaves of sprouts and the scraggy bones of poultry ... and the indestructible shreds of tinsel." What happens to it all? Once, the answer was simple: burial or incineration, but now the government must meet an EU ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Nasa climate expert makes personal appeal to Obama
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/02/obama-climate-change-james-hansen
Guardian: One of the world's top climate scientists has written a personal new year appeal to Barack and Michelle Obama, warning of the "profound disconnect" between public policy on climate change and the magnitude of the problem. With less than three weeks to go until Obama's inauguration, Professor James Hansen, who heads Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, asked the recently appointed White House science adviser Professor John Holdren to pass the missive directly to the ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
What can we do to save our planet?
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/what-can-we-do-to-save-our-planet-1221097.html
Independent (UK): Jim Lovelock, author of the Gaia theory I never thought that the Kyoto agreement would lead to any useful cut back in greenhouse gas emissions so I am neither more nor less optimistic now about prospect of curbing CO2 compared to 10 years ago. I am, however, less optimistic now about the ability of the Earth's climate system to cope with expected increases in atmospheric carbon levels compared with 10 years ago. I disagree that geoengineering the climate is a dangerous distraction and ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-scientists-its-time-for-plan-b-1221092.html
Independent: An emergency "Plan B" using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions may become necessary. The plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Australia: Great Barrier Reef growing at slowest rate for 400 years
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4060204/Great-Barrier-Reef-growing-at-slowest-rate-for-400-years.html
Telegraph: But now tropical coral reefs are facing a renewed - and hidden - threat from environmental change which is stunting their growth, claim scientists. Researchers looking at the world's biggest and best preserved reef - the Great Barrier Reef - found that it is growing at its slowest rate for at least 400 years. While the damage is not visible to the naked eye scientists believe it is a "very worrying" indicator which could spell disaster for the biodiversity of the ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Slowdown of coral growth extremely worrying, say scientists
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/01/1
Guardian: Coral growth across the Great Barrier Reef has suffered a "severe and sudden" slowdown since 1990 that is unprecedented in the last four centuries, according to scientists. The researchers analysed the growth rates of 328 coral colonies on 69 individual reefs that make up the 1,250 mile-long Great Barrier Reef, off north-east Australia. They found that the rate at which the corals were laying down calcium in their skeletons dropped by 14.2% between 1990 and 2005. Corals around ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Nasa's James Hansen warns Barack Obama on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/01/scentist-letter-hansen-barack-obama
Guardian: Current approaches to deal with climate change are ineffectual, one of the world's top climate scientists said today in a personal new year appeal to Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on the urgent need to tackle global warming. With less than three weeks to go until Obama's inauguration, Prof James Hansen, head of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, asked the recently appointed White House science adviser Prof John Holdren to pass the missive directly to the ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Electricity study embraces energy efficiency for state
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/6189695.html
Houston Chronicle: Texas could reduce its peak electric usage by more than 23 percent in the next seven years if utilities would invest more in efficiency programs, according to a study released recently by the Public Utility Commission. The efficiency efforts, which would funnel through existing programs administered by the electric transmission companies in the parts of Texas open to competition, would save consumers as much as $2 for every $1 invested, according to the study. 'There is a ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Kansas governor dissolves energy policy group
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20081231&id=9481809
Associated Press: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius dissolved a state energy group Wednesday, following months of criticism from even some members that its unwieldy size made it ineffective in influencing policy. Sebelius said the Kansas Energy Council had provided a "solid foundation" for others' discussions and noted that four other task forces or committees are studying various issues. "This decision was made because the KEC was given a charge and has completed it," Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Energy demand is down sharply -- and could stay that way
http://www.star-telegram.com/855/story/1118598.html
Star-Telegram: Less gasoline. Less jet fuel. Less crude oil. Less natural gas falling 7 percent and October 4.5 percent. The result? Gasoline consumption plunged 8.5 percent in September and was down 4 percent in mid-December, the latest figure available from the federal Energy Information Administration. It's a similar story in the skies. U.S. air travel in November was the slowest since 9-11. American, United and Continental airlines all said traffic was down at least 10 ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
California's OriginOil seeks better way to grow algae
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4BU0PM20081231
Reuters: One could say they are working on the green slime that could change the world. In an unassuming converted warehouse in Los Angeles, the 10 employees of OriginOil are working to perfect the way microscopic algae is grown and refined. They hope that within a few years the methods they use to make small batches of greenish-colored algae mixtures in the laboratory will be imitated in 2,500-gallon (9,460 liter) tanks around the world. And that the oil extracted from the algae will ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Toyota developing solar powered green car
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20090101_ap_reporttoyotadevelopingsolarpoweredgreencar.html
Associated Press: Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday. The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota's offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment. According to The Nikkei, Toyota is working on an ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
United States: Local green energy advocates say they're ready and waiting
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/36955829.html
Express-News: What's a 'green economy' look like? No one is precisely sure what President-elect Barack Obama has in mind for January's anticipated $500 billion economic stimulus package, but it's expected to include billions in spending for green energy initiatives -- part of his campaign promise to create a new generation of jobs. But even with the uncertainty over what the package would fund, San Antonio utility officials, green energy advocates and members of the construction industry ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Climate deal possible under Obama presidency, says Lord Stern
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4044147/Global-warming-climate-deal-possible-under-Obama-presidency-says-Lord-Stern.html
Telegraph: The author of the Government's 2006 report on the economic impact of climate change said that Mr Obama, the US President-Elect, would revolutionise Washington's approach to the subject. He said an Obama administration gives hope that a new global agreement could be formulated to take over after the expiration of the Kyoto protocol in 2012. "He's night and day on this issue relative to his prehistoric predecessor George Bush," Lord Stern told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "That ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
2009 to be one of warmest ever
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/4032349/2009-to-be-one-of-warmest-ever.html
Telegraph: Next year is forecast to be one of the five warmest on record. As Brtain shivered in frosty conditions, climate change scientists said 2009 will be a record breaker. The average global temperature for 2009 is expected to be more than 0.4C above the long term average, making next year warmer than this year and the hottest since 2005, the Met Office and University of East Anglia researchers said. Next year is expected to be in the top five warmest on record despite the ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
United States: Climate change action plan to be revealed in 2009
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20090101/NEWS/812319964/1066&ParentProfile=1051&title=Climate%20Change%20Action%20Plan%20to%20be%20revealed%20in%202009
Sierra Sun: As California Attorney General and climate change crusader Jerry Brown increases the pressure on local planners to consider future projections for the effects of global warming, more and more government agencies in the Tahoe Basin are integrating climate change into their agendas for the coming years. "The bottom line of climate change for the Lake Tahoe region," says Dennis Oliver, community Affairs Officer for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, "means more precipitation of rain ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Clean air for the New Year
http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2009/01/01/opinion/doc495c01ab6fdbc429560923.txt
Saratogian: As of today, we can all breathe a little easier than we have in a very long time but it almost didn't happen. Take note, because it's yet another small sign that things are changing for the better for the average taxpayer. We have finally begun to stand up for ourselves. This time the benefits cover not only our wallets but the well-being of every family member. The first phase of the 2005 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Interstate Rule, or CAIR, goes into effect on ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
President Bush may be giving Obama breathing room to fight global warming
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-co2-1-2009jan01,0,823260.story
LA Times: President Bush could be forcing President-elect Barack Obama to act almost immediately to curb global warming, after years of the Bush administration fighting attempts to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions. Or, depending on which interpretation prevails, Bush could be giving his successor much-needed breathing room on a volatile issue. In its final weeks, his administration has moved to close what it calls "back doors" to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Report: Overall Utah environment improving
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5202524
KSL: An inversion intensifies on the Wasatch Front as we wait for wind to clean out the air. Despite the smog today, a new report from the Department of Environmental Quality shows improvement in the environment for 2008. It's a yellow-air alert today, but there are improvements in the forecast and signs that the overall environment in Utah will measure up to new, tougher standards. Public awareness is growing, too. Bill Sinclair, acting executive director of the Utah Department of ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
France: Belly of the beast
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12832060&CFID=37075681&CFTOKEN=44314852
Economist: MY FIRST planned trip to France's new nuclear-power plant, under construction at Flamanville in Normandy, was cancelled at the last moment. The organisers gave two contradictory reasons: one was that a group of VIPs had taken precedence, the other was that the site had to be closed suddenly for two days. Naturally, I assumed the worst–that something dreadful had happened up there on the French coast. A bit paranoid, perhaps, but even two decades on from Chernobyl it is hard to forget ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Japan: Tracking greenhouse gases from space
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200901010068.html
Asahi Shimbun: In a world first, Japan will attempt to monitor the Earth's "breathing" from space, via satellite, as part of efforts to better understand the greenhouse effect. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)--working in conjunction with the Environment Ministry and the National Institute for Environmental Studies--will launch the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) Ibuki using the H-2A rocket on Jan. 21. The name of the satellite derives from the Japanese word for ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
How underground 'hot rocks' could power America's future
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2008/12/31/how-underground-hot-rocks-could-power-america%E2%80%99s-future/
Christian Science Monitor: Could hot rocks miles below the earth's surface be the "killer app" of the energy industry? Google thinks so. It's investing more than $10 million to develop new technology that would make this subterranean resource a widespread, economically viable competitor to fossil fuels. Geothermal heat could meet 10 percent of America's energy needs by mid-century, according to the US Department of Energy. What's more, it would not generate the climate-warming carbon emissions associated ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Bush Interior Department is giving itself a pat on the back
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/31/AR2008123102833.html
Washington Post: As President Bush's tenure comes to a close, independent experts and administration insiders are delivering their assessments of his government's performance over the past eight years. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has posted his own verdict on his department's Web site, and the upshot is that he did great. Under the heading "Bush Administration Accomplishments at the Department of the Interior," the agency lists 26 achievements it has made since 2001. Some of the policies and ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Environmentalists challenge SC power plant permit
http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/636643.html
Associated Press: A coalition of environmental groups is challenging a state-issued air pollution permit for a coal-fired power plant in Florence County, the organization said Wednesday. Lawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center don't think a permit should've been issued earlier this month for state-owned utility Santee Cooper to build a power plant on the banks of the Pee Dee River. The waterway is one of dozens in South Carolina that have advisories warning against eating fish caught there ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Guns, butter and petroleum
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/560397
Toronto Star: I recall a little tale told by a U.S. general to illustrate the importance of oil. Speaking to a military gathering at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto in January 2006, Lt.-Gen. Thomas Metz described how a man operating a chainsaw with a mere pint of gasoline could cut a great deal of wood in very little time. By comparison, that same man could eat a large breakfast the next morning and head out to cut wood -- using only a hand saw. The general noted that the man could ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
Pay as you throw plans under threat as town hall shun idea
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4060065/Pay-as-you-throw-plans-under-threat-as-town-hall-shun-idea.html
Telegraph: More than 100 councils in England have said they will not take part in a pilot scheme planned by the Government over fears it will damage public confidence. The deepening recession has also left some arguing hard-up households should not be hit with further costs. But the survey did reveal almost Â£60,000 was handed out in fines and costs to residents last year for not complying with rules on rubbish such as putting bins out too early. Five councils said they were using ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
U.S. Traders Head to EU for Carbon Market Work Experience
http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2008/12/31/us-traders-head-eu-carbon-market-work-experience
ClimateBiz: Growing numbers of U.S. financial firms have started to play on the European Climate Exchange (ECX) as they seek to gain experience of how carbon markets operate ahead of the launch of a U.S. cap-and-trade scheme. Sara Stahl, business development director for the ECX, said the second half of the year had seen an influx of U.S. firms joining the exchange, helping to drive traded volumes of carbon credits up to record levels. "A lot of new players have joined the market this year ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
95 months and counting to save the planet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/01/climatechange
Guardian: From today, based on the best estimates available, we have eight years to head-off potentially uncontrollable climatic upheaval. What can happen in eight years? Quite a lot, actually. A world war can begin, and end. Two, in fact. Last month there was a lacklustre meeting on climate change in Poznan, Poland. It was talks about more talks set to come later this year in Copenhagen. But that's all it was, talks. Now, on New Year's Day, hangovers and environmental ennui could prove a ...

Fri, 2 Jan 09
United Kingdom: On yer bike: Why there's never been a better time to saddle up
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/healthy-living/on-yer-bike-why-theres-never-been-a-better-time-to-saddle-up-1219882.html
Independent: 1. Everyone's at it If you thought there were more cyclists on the roads recently, you'd be right -- biking is booming. In London alone there has been a 91 per cent increase in the number of cycle journeys since 2000, with more than 500,000 trips a day. And, nationwide, Sport England's latest survey, for the 12 months to October 2008, showed 1.8 million of us cycle at least once a week, a significant increase on last year -- and that doesn't include commuters. The survey showed ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Revealed: The cement that eats carbon dioxide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/dec/31/cement-carbon-emissions
Guardian: Cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide, could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, thanks to an innovation from British engineers. The new environmentally formulation means the cement industry could change from being a "significant emitter to a significant absorber of CO2," says Nikolaos Vlasopoulos, chief scientist at London-based Novacem, whose invention has garnered support and funding from industry and ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Japan won't join int'l eco-agency
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20081231TDY02306.htm
Yomiuri Shimbun: The government has decided not to join the International Renewable Energy Agency, a multinational organization tasked with the promotion of solar, wind and other forms of bioenergy to be launched next month, according to government sources. The government said it would not be joining the body because the functions of IRENA overlap those of the International Energy Agency, in which Japan currently holds the seat of executive director. Some observers have voiced concern, however, ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Oregonians foresee future water shortages
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2008/12/oregonians_foresee_future_wate.html
Oregonian: Oregon may be known for the rain that feeds its rivers, but Oregonians are pessimistic there will be enough water to go around as the state's population grows and climate change possibly makes summers even drier. That was the take-home message from five "Water Roundtables" held throughout the state in September and October as an initial step toward developing a strategy for how the state will meet rising demand on its limited water supplies. Two-thirds of those surveyed at the ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Coping with climate
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177251
Newsweek: Even if the world were to take steps to quickly and dramatically limit greenhouse-gas emissions, the levels already in the atmosphere will continue to alter our climate in the coming decades. As the focus of the debate on global warming shifts to assessing the impact of rises in temperature and coping with their effects, it has become increasingly clear that the developing world will face some of the greatest challenges. Dealing with this problem will require broad partnerships between ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Ireland: Is electric the road ahead?
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/articles/1/34520
Meath Chronicle: The Opel-General Motors HydroGen4's fuel cell stack uses 440 single cells which combine hydrogen and oxygen from the air to produce electricity, with water vapour as the only by-product, and therefore zero emissions. The Irish Government's recently announced target of having 10 per cent of all registered vehicles running on electric power by 2020 seems a little far-fetched. This means converting more than 250,000+ vehicles from being run on petrol or diesel currently to being ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Report says Ohio has lots to lose from global warming
http://www.mariettaregister.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=759&Itemid=1
Marietta Register: A report released by Environment Ohio finds that serious environmental and economic harms to Ohio may result from global warming in the twenty-first century. The report, "What's at Stake: How Global Warming Threatens the Buckeye State," was released this December. It finds Ohio at risk of losing both money and jobs in shipping, industry, recreation, and agriculture. Ohio could even lose its state tree, the Ohio Buckeye, as its range shifts northward to areas including Michigan, ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
United States: Malibu's vanishing Broad Beach a sign of rising sea levels, experts say
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beach31-2008dec31,0,7928541.story
LA Times: Broad Beach has long been a scenic backdrop to Malibu's public access wars. The tranquil rhythm of surf has been routinely shattered by security guards and sheriff's deputies bouncing beachgoers who spread towels on the confusing mosaic of public and private sand. Today, Broad Beach has shrunk into a narrow sliver of its former self. And like other skinny Malibu icons, its slenderness qualified the beach for a different kind of trend-setting role: How California will deal with rising ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
United States: Sebelius, legislators battle over coal plants
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/958907.html
Kansas City Star: Look for state lawmakers to renew their fight over two proposed coal plants in western Kansas when the Kansas Legislature kicks off its 2009 session in two weeks. Three times last year, a majority of lawmakers passed bills to resurrect Sunflower Electric Power Corp.`s project after the state`s top regulator rejected the two plants, citing potential carbon emissions. Each time Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, vetoed the legislation and lawmakers couldn`t muster the votes to overrule ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Air New Zealand hails biofuel trial as 'significant milestone.'
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iVCeWW5BgFoyXIVnsM-STcHxDvnw
Agence France-Presse: Air New Zealand on Tuesday successfully flew a test flight powered by second-generation biofuel, and hailed it as a "significant milestone" in the development of sustainable fuels for aircraft. The airline used a 50-50 blend of standard jet fuel and synthetic fuel made from the oil of jatropha plant seeds to power one of the engines on a Boeing 747 during a two-hour test flight. It was the world's first test flight using jatropha biofuel and followed a Virgin Atlantic test ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Iowa family taps into wind energy with own turbine
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081231/NEWS/812310357/1001
Various: First the couple bought a Toyota Prius hybrid car -- then a 50-foot-tall backyard wind turbine. Husband and wife Tom Skadow and Kim Hagemann figure it will take 20 to 25 years for their $14,000 Skystream to pay for itself, based on current utility rates. But that's not the point. It's a statement, a call to action to fellow Iowans. Little by little, the couple said, they are doing their part to reduce humans' carbon footprint on the planet -- green-speak for using energy ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
United States: Solar-panel incentives lure customers
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_11339744
Denver Post: Ilan Caplan took the plunge last December and had 14 solar panels installed on the roof of his 2,900-square- foot home in Lowry. The 2.87-kilowatt photovoltaic system -- enough to generate about 75 percent of his family's power needs -- cost about $9,000 after rebates from Xcel Energy. He also received a $2,000 tax credit from the federal government. Caplan has saved nearly $1,000 on utility bills and estimates that the cost of the system will be recovered in just more than ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Climate Change Forcing Penguins North?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45273
Inter Press Service: Warm ocean currents may have confused some 2,500 penguins from Argentina's Patagonia region that washed up -- dead and alive -- on Brazil's northern coast. About half the penguins that were found on Brazilian beaches in October were dead, and the others were starving and in very bad shape, said Valeria Ruoppolo, an emergency veterinarian with the International Federation for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in Sao Paulo, who coordinated the rescue of many of the penguins. "Of the live ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Minnesota Lists Car Air Conditioning GHG Leakage Rates
http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2008/12/30/car-air-conditioning-ghg-leakage
ClimateBiz: A new Minnesota law that goes into effect Jan. 1 requires automobile manufacturers to publicly report how much of a greenhouse gas their vehicle air conditioners leak. Car makers are required to report the leakage rate for the refrigerant HFC-134a for every 2009 vehicle they sell in Minnesota, and the list is available on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency website. HFC-134a is about 1,400 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The list includes more than 370 vehicles, and ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Bad Economy Leads to Slimmer Climate Change Plan in Washington State
http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2008/12/30/bad-economy-leads-slimmer-climate-change-plan-washington-state
ClimateBiz: The state of Washington is reportedly planning on a watered-down climate change action plan in light of the economic recession and a multi-billion dollar state budget deficit. Gov. Chris Gregoire released a slimmer budget proposal two weeks ago that calls for spending roughly $25 million to address climate change but won't pursue other steps recommended by the state's task force, such as compact urban development, improved recycling and incentives for energy efficient buildings, the ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
New Zealand: Airline Flies a 747 on Fuel From a Plant
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=114328
New York Times: Air New Zealand tested a jet fuel made from the jatropha plant on Tuesday as the airline searches for an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to crude oil. For two hours, pilots tested the oil, in a 50-50 blend with conventional jet fuel in one of the four Rolls-Royce engines powering a Boeing 747-400 aircraft -- the first test flight by a commercial airline using jatropha oil. Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand`s chief executive, called the flight a milestone in commercial ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Tennessee Spill The Exxon Valdez Of Coal Ash?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98857483&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: There aren't a lot of answers yet about what caused the catastrophic Dec. 22 spill of coal ash from a Tennessee Valley Authority plant near Knoxville. But the disaster has raised lots of questions about whether regulations of coal ash are strict enough. Coal ash is the stuff that's left over after coal-fired power plants generate electricity and strip out pollutants. Plants produce about 130 million tons of it every year. "That's enough to fill a line of railroad boxcars ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Stern hope over US climate deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7805595.stm
BBC: Economist Lord Stern has said he is optimistic that a global deal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will be struck under the US presidency of Barak Obama. Lord Stern, who was behind the first detailed economic assessment of the impact of climate change, said US and Chinese agreement to a cut was crucial. President George W Bush's climate views were "prehistoric" and had been seen as an obstacle, Lord Stern told the BBC. But many now believed the new president could take ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
China: Beijing's New Year resolution: scrap polluting cars
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4BU19Y20081231?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Beijing, beset by choking traffic and heavy air pollution, will take more than 350,000 high-polluting vehicles off inner city streets from Thursday, local media reported. China's capital has banned cars from the roads on one out of five weekdays based on the number of license plates as part of a six-month trial in the wake of broader restrictions during the Olympic Games in August that cleared skies and eased congestion. Drivers of high-emissions vehicles, known as ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
United Kingdom: Plants 'more important than ever'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7805804.stm
BBC: Plants have never been as important to the environment, the director of Kew Gardens has said, ahead of the London conservation site's 250th anniversary. They were vital to reduce the impact of climate change and "vast numbers of humans" needed them for medicine and food, Professor Stephen Hopper added. Several major events will be held in 2009 to celebrate Kew's role as a world leader in plant science. The first of these sees free public entry to the gardens on New ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
The absurd persistence of domination: Of speciesism, capitalism, and shaking their foundations
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-absurd-persistence-of-by-Jason-Miller-081229-234.html
OpEdNews: Even the most ardent reactionaries, deluded 'patriots,' and apathetic cynics, whose myopic, Panglossian perspectives ensure that they continue to reflexively genuflect to the deeply criminal enterprise of American Capitalism and rationalize the savage imperialism of US foreign policy, are beginning to concede that we are in the midst of a crisis of epic proportions. So lack of awareness, which is usually the first obstacle to solving a problem, isn't the real enemy here. Our chief foe ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
The end of oil: U.S. consumption will fall fast, soon
http://kingscorecord.canadaeast.com/newswithaview/article/524758
Kings County Record: Worried about "peak oil?" The International Energy Agency's annual report, The World Energy Outlook 2008, admits for the first time that "although global oil production in total is not expected to peak before 2030, production of conventional oil...is projected to level off towards the end of the projection period." When The Guardian's environmental columnist, George Monbiot, pressed Birol on that opaque phrase, the actual date turned out to be 2020. The IEA's previous reports, which ...

Thu, 1 Jan 09
Natural disaster costs rising on back of climate change: reinsurer
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/30/2456752.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: One of the world's biggest re-insurance companies, Munich RE, says this year has been among the worst for losses from natural disasters. While it says there were fewer disasters than last year, their impact was greater - in both human and material terms. The material losses from events such as the earthquake in China and Cyclone Nargis in Burma totalled $290 billion. Munich RE says climate change is boosting the destructive power of natural disasters.