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Can carbon credits from REDD compete with palm oil?
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0330-palm_oil_vs_redd.html
Mongabay: Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) is increasingly seen as a compelling way to conserve tropical forests while simultaneously helping mitigate climate change, preserving biodiversity, and providing sustainable livelihoods for rural people. But to become a reality REDD still faces a number of challenges, not least of which is economic competition from other forms of land use. In Indonesia and Malaysia, the biggest competitor is likely oil palm, which is presently one ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Canada: Global warming could melt winter sport industry: report
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/amateur/story/2009/03/30/winter-sport-warming.html?ref=rss
Various: Global warming could cripple winter sports and winter tourism in Canada, according to a report published Monday by the David Suzuki Foundation. "If heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions are not significantly cut, global warming stands to wipe out more than half of Canada's ski season later this century with few exceptions," said the study. Entitled On Thin Ice, it was released Monday in Vancouver on the opening day of the 8th annual world conference on sport and the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
EPA Unveils New Ports Emissions Plan
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102524660&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced a proposal Monday to tackle harmful emissions from cargo ships. A recent EPA Inspector General's report criticized the agency for regulating only one pollutant coming from U.S.-flagged ships though foreign-flagged vessels account for 90 percent of ships calling at U.S. ports.
Tue, 31 Mar 09
EPA Announces New Restrictions on Pollution at Ports
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033001343.html?wprss=rss_nation
Washington Post: The United States and Canada plan to establish new air pollution control zones for ports along their coasts to force domestic and foreign ships alike to curb emissions linked to thousands of illnesses and premature deaths each year. The restrictions announced yesterday, which the Environmental Protection Agency outlined in a request Friday to the International Maritime Organization, would require tankers, cruise ships, cargo ships and other large vessels to use low-sulfur fuel or new ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
G20 Leaders Wrangle Over Kyoto Successor
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46325
Inter Press Service: Senior legislators from the G20 bloc of the world's biggest economies launched an international commission in Washington Monday to help lay the political groundwork for a global deal on climate change in Copenhagen this December. The International Commission on Climate Change and Energy Security was established by the Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE), an international alliance of legislators calling for "ambitious leadership" on environmental issues. The commission brings ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Carbon credits from forest conservation would crash carbon market, says Greenpeace
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0330-greenpeace_redd.html
Mongabay: Inclusion of forest conservation in a market-based mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions would crash carbon prices by swamping the market with cheap credits, claims a new report from Greenpeace. The environmental group said low carbon prices would "derail global efforts to tackle global warming" and cause "developing countries losing out on billions of dollars a year for investment in clean energy technologies". "If these countries don't get incentives for a switch to ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Climate Change - Threat to MDGs
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903301801.html
Herald: THE threat posed by climate change is growing by the day. It is made even worse by the global economic recession. However, the developing world is likely to bear the brunt of the problems. At the beginning of 2008, the Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change published a report warning of rising sea levels, expanding deserts, more intense storms and the extinction of about 30 percent of animal and plant species. According to research, the recurrent and often debilitating ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Canada: 2010 Games officials eye global warming costs
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T76H20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Organizers of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games said on Monday they are confident they can find sponsors to help with the estimated C$4.5 million ($3.6 million) cost of keeping the event from adding to global warming. The Winter Games in Vancouver are expected to create about 300,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, including those from airplanes bringing thousands of athletes and spectators to the western Canadian city. The Vancouver Organizing Committee said it is in talks with carbon ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Concrete Is Remixed With Environment in Mind
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=123004
New York Times: Soaring above the Mississippi River just east of downtown Minneapolis is one remarkable concrete job. There on Interstate 35W, the St. Anthony Falls Bridge carries 10 lanes of traffic on box girders borne by massive arching piers, which are supported, in turn, by footings and deep pilings. The bridge, built to replace one that collapsed in 2007, killing 13 people, is constructed almost entirely of concrete embedded with steel reinforcing bars, or rebar. But it is hardly a ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Climate change experts call on G20 members to commit to action
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/31/g20-summit-climate-change
Guardian: A last-ditch effort is being made to insert clearer green commitments into the global economic recovery package. The move comes amid fears amongst some British government officials that the G20 summit is in danger of missing a unique opportunity to prevent the world from being locked into irreversible and catastrophic climate change. Gordon Brown yesterday promised that a commitment to tackle the environment will be one of the five tests of the communique due to be released following ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Stern: 'Kingsnorth should be shelved'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/stern-kingsnorth-should-be-shelved-1658035.html
Independent (UK): Britain's latest coal-fired power station should not be built, according to Lord Stern of Brentford, the economist who led the Government's review into the financial cost of climate change. Lord Stern called on the Government to halt the planning process and said that the new coal-fired power station proposed for Kingsnorth in Kent cannot be justified until the technology is developed to capture and store its huge carbon dioxide emissions. It is the first time that the author of the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
U.S. Rep. Waxman sets carbon emission reduction goal
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52U04Q20090331?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The chairman of a key committee in the House of Representatives will propose climate change legislation that would cut greenhouse gas emissions at a rate that is somewhat more aggressive than proposals by President Barack Obama, sources said on Monday. The legislation by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman would require that U.S. carbon emissions be reduced by 20 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2020, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050, according to ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
New Portable Energy Source Utilizes Microbes To Turn Electricity Directly To Methane
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090330111257.htm
ScienceDaily: A tiny microbe can take electricity and directly convert carbon dioxide and water to methane, producing a portable energy source with a potentially neutral carbon footprint, according to a team of Penn State engineers. "We were studying making hydrogen in microbial electrolysis cells and we kept getting all this methane," said Bruce E. Logan, Kappe Professor of Environmental Engineering, Penn State. "We may now understand why." Methanogenic microorganisms do produce methane in ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Forests could undermine carbon market: Greenpeace
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T5CX20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Carbon market prices could tumble by 75 percent if credits for safeguarding forests are added to markets for industrial emissions, environmental group Greenpeace said on Monday. A report issued on the sidelines of U.N. talks in Bonn working on a climate treaty said that a flood of forest carbon credits could also slow the fight against global warming and divert billions of dollars from investments in clean technology. "Cheap forest credits sound attractive but a closer ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Around the world on bike and sailboat
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090330/lf_afp/lifestylewarmingtravelusfranceoffbeat
Agence France-Presse: Charles Brigham was 28 when he straddled his bike to embark on an ecological tour of the world but could be 33 by the time he returns home to Madison, in Wisconsin. "I love bikes and wanted to travel," he told AFP during a Paris stopover. "I don't think it's natural to fly in a plane or even travel by car. People weren't meant to travel so quickly." So Brigham, who studied electrical and computer engineering but hates technology and wound up working in a bike shop, set off in ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
EPA head announces new port emissions proposal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090330/ap_on_bi_ge/port_emissions
Associated Press: The creation of a pollution-control zone around the U.S. coastline will ensure that large ships do their part to improve the air quality of major seaport communities, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said Monday that the United States has applied to the International Maritime Organization to create a 230-mile emissions control zone around the nation's coastline. Ships operating in that zone ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Living walls and green roofs pave way for biodiversity in new building
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/30/green-building-biodiversity
Guardian: What do the Westfield shopping centre, Canary Wharf and a Victorian museum have in common? They are all at the vanguard of a move to encourage biodiversity in buildings that could take on an unprecedented scale if guidelines published today are adopted. Under recommendations from the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) for developers, planners and policy-makers, Otters could return to urban rivers, bats could roost under bridges, swifts could flock to office blocks and peregrine falcons ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: 'Kettled' anarchists increase worry for G20 demonstrators
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/blog/2009/mar/30/kettling-policing-protests-g20-climate-camp
Guardian: News that police have stopped a plan to set off explosives during the G20 summit this week is going to make everyone concerned even more twitchy -- and frankly I wouldn't have thought that was possible. Police have been warning for weeks that serious disruption is planned. Protesters have been warning for weeks that police are coming down too heavily. Some protesters are trying to disown other protesters. Nerves are fraying everywhere you look in the countdown to the demonstrations planned ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
US must do more on climate change: Germany
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hYXQkSNyHUR4MgbNztHaaD_De_dw
Agence France-Presse: The United States must step up its efforts to combat climate change, Germany's environment minister said Monday, accusing the Obama administration of lacking ambition in its environmental goals. "Even under Barack Obama, the US has insufficient climate protection goals, at least as far as the international community is concerned," Sigmar Gabriel told Berlin radio station RBB. Gabriel called on Obama to commit to "significantly more ambitious targets than has so far been the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Tropical Tree-Saving Credits Will Crash Carbon-Emission Prices
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/%22climate+change%22+or+%22global+warming%22+or+%22renewable+energy%22/SIG=124ktf07l/*http%3A//www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=a1Vb6ldbVoO0
Bloomberg: Rewarding rain forest nations with tradable credits for not cutting down trees will cause carbon prices to crash and may exacerbate global warming by drawing funds away from renewable energy, an economic study found. Inclusion of forestry credits in carbon markets could push prices as much as 76 percent lower by 2020, the New Zealand- based economic modelers KEA 3 said today in a study for Greenpeace International. That would remove the incentive to invest in renewable energy in ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
U.S. asks IMO to create coastal emission control area
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T5AJ20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The United States has asked the United Nation's International Maritime Organization to create an emissions control area around the U.S. coastline to cut emissions from ocean-going ships, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday. "This is an important and long overdue step in our efforts to protect the air and the water along our shores and the health of the people in our coastal communities," said EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Tidal-powered datacentre gets funding boost
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239462/shore-centre-plan-gets-funding
Business Green: Plans for the world's largest tidal energy project to be built off the coast of Scotland received a major boost yesterday after Europe's largest renewable firm, Norwegian energy company Statkraft, ploughed £4.6m into the company behind the proposals. Statkraft has acquired a minority holding in tidal energy specialist Atlantis Resources Corporation as part of a deal that will also see the company become a partner in the Atlantis' flagship project to build a 700 MW off-grid data centre ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Poland may get CO2 permits from EU mid-April: source
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T49J20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Poland may receive long-awaited permits for its 2008 carbon dioxide emissions around the middle of next month, a source close to the matter said on Monday. Warsaw and Brussels recently reached agreement after months of negotiations on Poland's 2008 European Union allowances (EUAs) to industry. Asked by Reuters when the permits would arrive, the source said: "From what I am hearing, this should happen around mid-April." Up to 10,000 industrial installations around the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Tech sector should outpace EU climate goals: Reding
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T49220090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The European Union's technology sector should outpace the rest of the bloc on cutting climate-warming emissions, said Viviane Reding, EU commissioner in charge of information and communication technology (ICT). In a video posted on her website on Monday, Reding urged the ICT sector to cut its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2015 -- roughly five years earlier than the bloc's overall target of cutting CO2 to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. As part of the plan, the EU aims ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Dirty past, hazy future
http://www.glrc.org/transcript.php3?story_id=4413
The Environment Report: You are being targeted by lobbyists. The coal industry and environmentalists are both trying to influence what you think. In the first part of our series on the future of coal, Lester Graham looks at the campaigns for-and-against coal: You probably don't buy coal directly. But you pay for it when you pay your power bill. 50% of the nation's electricity comes from coal-burning power plants. The problem with that is, coal pollutes. Not as much as it used to. Some ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Hottest electric cars soon to hit the roads
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/18/electric-cars-new-lifestyle-vehicles-electric-cars.html
Forbes: America's roads could get a whole lot quieter in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to unprecedented tax incentives included in Obama's $787 billion stimulus package, plug-in electric vehicles are getting closer to the road than you might expect. Tax credits ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 for buyers of electric cars, the largest of which start in 2010, mean the race is on for automakers to produce moderately priced plug-ins for eager, eco-conscious consumers. "There is a lot of ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United States: State's national parks seek to reduce carbon footprint of workers, visitors
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/255/story/846916.html
Tacoma News Tribune: Thousands of cars, pickup trucks and minivans carry visitors to Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic national parks. They leave behind tons of plastic water bottles, granola bar wrappers and banana peels. Mount Rainier staff have a two-hour, 60-mile drive just to get from one area of the park to another. Heating the Hurricane Ridge visitor center at Olympic costs almost $12,000 a year for diesel fuel. Carbon footprint for a trip to Mount ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
New power plan rewards solar home owners
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200903300047.html
Asahi Shimbun: Power companies will be obliged to pay a higher price for excess energy generated by solar-equipped households under a new renewable energy policy. A bill to implement the "Japanese Feed-in Tariff (FIT) system" is expected to be passed during the current Diet session. The system marks a new direction in the nation's renewable energy policies. The new purchase price for excess power will be twice the current rate and implemented for about 10 years, likely to start in the first ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Canada: Environmentalists say oilsands slowdown perfect time for new legislation
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2009/03/29/8927951-cp.html
Canadian Press: With the pace of oilsands development in Alberta slowed to a trickle, governments are uniquely situated to take a sober second look at environmental policies before another boom sweeps the opportunity away, say environmentalists. "I think that the slowdown we're experiencing now is an opportunity for us to take that step back and say do we have it right?" said Lindsay Telfer, prairie director of the Sierra Club. As the economy heads south around the globe, energy prices have ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Six scientists on the cutting edge of energy and environmental research
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/27/6-scientists-on-the-cutting-edge-of-energy-and-environmental-research.html
U.S. News and World Report: Don Hammerstrom: Making Appliances Smarter Donald J. Hammerstrom envisions a day when every electrical appliance is wise to what's happening on the far side of the wall socket. The inexpensive device he and his Pacific Northwest National Laboratory colleagues in Richland, Wash., have developed, dubbed the Grid Friendly Appliance Controller, is designed to reduce reliance on backup generators and prevent power outages that can occur when the electrical grid suffers momentary capacity ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Computers adding to global warming
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/03/30/stories/2009033050440300.htm
Hindu Business Line: Greenhouse gases produced by big computer warehouses, including those powering the Internet, threaten to overtake those by the airline industry by year 2012-2015, adding significantly to global warming/climate change. The best energy management practices demand data centre energy efficiency and sustained interface between the IT professionals and energy management professionals, according to Mr S. Kumar Deepa, a member of the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM) and an ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United States: San Francisco's hybrid taxis prove their worth
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-green-cabs30-2009mar30,0,3523990.story
LA Times: Reporting from San Francisco -- Even here, in the capital of true believers in one thing or another, Paul Gillespie stands out. The veteran cabby and former president of the San Francisco Taxicab Commission is one of the reasons this city's taxi fleet is vying to be the most environmentally correct in the country. After years of advocating for hybrid taxis, Gillespie, who says he has "the carbon footprint of an Ethiopian child," now has proof that they are green in more ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Giving trees some credit
http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/742976.html
Lexington Herald Leader: Because the trees must be in forests that are well-managed, a side benefit is that the region's long-abused forests could finally get some respect. That, in turn, is good news for wildlife and water quality. No money has changed hands yet, mostly because the program is voluntary and the recession has lowered the amount of money that companies are willing to spend. But legislation is looming that could limit CO2 emissions and push up prices. Maxson is executive director of the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
In South Africa, manmade housing helps penguins beat the heat and predators
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-af-penguins-in-peril,0,1357159.story
Associated Press: Nesting in the sparkling sand, preening on the rocks and darting through the waters, the penguins on the southern tip of Africa are the ultimate crowd-pleaser. But crisis looms. Short of food, exposed to predators and the African sun, their numbers are plummeting. But salvation may rest in a simple manmade solution -- housing for penguins. Dotting the shore of this penguin colony near the Cape of Good Hope are 200 nesting boxes, each big enough to house a happy family of ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Call for widespread water meters
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7971257.stm
BBC: "Near universal" water metering should be introduced in England and Wales to help protect supplies, the Environment Agency has recommended. Metering should start in areas that are particularly vulnerable to water shortages in the future, it adds. But the Campaign for Water Justice called the plans a "travesty", saying the poor would be hit hardest. The agency also says there should be rewards for water companies that reduce the amount of water they provide. Its ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Global warming could cripple winter sports in B.C.: report
http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Report%20warns%20warming%20could%20cripple%20winter%20sports%20Canada/1442508/story.html
Vancouver Sun: As Canada prepares to host the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, a new report warns global warming poses a real threat to the continuance of winter sports and Canada's cultural identity. The David Suzuki Foundation says such iconic winter activities at risk include downhill skiing at Whistler, B.C., pond hockey on the Prairies, cross-country skiing in the forests of Quebec and skating on Ottawa's Rideau canal. "These are just some of the images that define the Canadian identity," ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Hard to keep a roof over your head
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/wdp/news/Hard-roof-head/article-854392-detail/article.html
Western Daily Press: Britons have been roofing houses with straw for at least 2,500 years and there are currently about 30,000 homes in the country protected by that most quintessential feature of the countryside -- thatch. But the first signs of climate change are now threatening even the thatcher's ancient art. A succession of weather-ravaged harvests has reduced the supply of suitable wheat, pushing prices up. And experts believe increased humidity and lower sunshine levels are behind the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Government accused of neglecting research on climate change health impacts
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/EnvironmentalHealth/13469
MedPage Today: Federal research efforts to pin down the likely health effects of climate change are virtually nonexistent, a group of environment science researchers charged. Action Points Explain to interested patients that most climate researchers believe that weather and temperature patterns around the world are changing, at least partly because of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" released through human activities. Explain that climate change is likely to alter individuals' exposures ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Climate change triggering allergies, says expert
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=/data/theuae/2009/March/theuae_March708.xml§ion=theuae
Khaleej Times: Climate change has affected the health of millions around the world including those who suffer from allergy and asthma, according to the World Allergy Organisation (WAO). "There is growing scientific evidence that global climate change is linked to the dramatic rise in allergies and asthma worldwide,' says Professor Ruby Pawankar, treasurer of the WAO and chair of Middle East-Asia Allergy Asthma Immunology Congress (MEAAAIC) that is currently under way at the Intercontinental Hotel at ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Government slammed over paltry Green New Deal
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239443/government-slammed-paltry-green
Business Green: The government was today accused of failing to deliver on its promise of a Green New Deal after new research suggested that just 0.6 per cent of the country's economic stimulus package will be focused on new green measures. Speaking to the Commons liaison committee earlier this year, prime minister Gordon Brown said that the UK would match the US commitment to invest around 10 per cent of its stimulus package in green technologies. Ministers have subsequently talked repeatedly about a ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Antarctic 'ice dust' reveals climate change secrets
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5073083/Antarctic-ice-dust-reveals-climate-change-secrets.html
Telegraph: Researchers have found that dust blown south from Patagonia and deposited in the ice over 80,000 years is providing vital information about glacier activity. It is hoped the findings from the past will help scientists predict environmental changes in the future. The study, carried out by the universities of Edinburgh, Stirling and Lille, shows that the very coldest periods of the last ice age correspond with the dustiest periods in the Antarctic region's past. During ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Brown accused over green spending
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7971183.stm
BBC: Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been accused by a think tank of failing to harness his economic stimulus for the benefit of the environment. The New Economics Foundation says that among rich nations, the UK has invested the least in clean technology. It called UK performance pathetic, but the Treasury said the fiscal stimulus could not be looked at in isolation. It said it expected to drive over £50bn of investment in the low-carbon sector between 2008 and ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United States: U.S. school swamped by flood river, weather helps
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P6KA20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A dike holding back the swollen Red River failed early on Sunday and swamped a school in Fargo, North Dakota, but a backup dike contained the spill as cold weather favored flood fighting and evacuation efforts. No one was injured when the earth dike near the private Oak Grove Lutheran School gave way, and other barriers have held, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Frank Worley said. The Corps is overseeing efforts by hundreds of National Guard troops, local residents and ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Fish Oils Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Flatulent Cows
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090329205457.htm
ScienceDaily: The benefits to animals of omega 3 fatty acids in fish oils have been well documented -- helping the heart and circulatory system, improving meat quality and reducing methane emissions. These last two benefits may only apply to cows but lowering emissions is important for the environment, as methane given off by farm animals is a major contribution to greenhouse gas levels. Researchers from University College Dublin reported that by including 2% fish oil in the diet of cattle, they ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Consensus Could Be a Conundrum for Climate-Change Bill
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003087581
CQPolitics.com: When Henry A. Waxman tries to get a global warming bill out of his House Energy and Commerce Committee this spring, much will depend on the views of moderate and conservative Democrats whose votes could be critical in moving the legislation forward. After Waxman, D-Calif., took over the committee chairmanship this year, environmentalists welcomed what they hoped would be a major shift in outlook compared to the former chairman, John D. Dingell , D-Mich. Dingell, who has close ties to ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Bumpy ride ahead for UN climate talks
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/bumpy-ride-ahead-un-climate-talks/article-180762?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: As hundreds of delegates gathered in Bonn on Sunday (29 March) for the first official round of UN talks in view of preparing the ground for a post-Kyoto climate deal in December, most experts concurred that a detailed agreement is unlikely to emerge by the end of the year. Background: Next December in Copenhagen, the global community must decide upon a new international climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The United Nations Framework ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Booming climate-change lobby in D.C. attracts Texans
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/6349271.html
Houston Chronicle: The nation`s economy is in the tank, and companies in Houston and elsewhere have been shedding jobs. But in Washington, there`s a growth industry that`s putting some Texans to work: climate change lobbying. The climate change business has spiked in the last year, especially after Barack Obama was elected president as a strong supporter of legislation to drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions. Roughly 2,340 lobbyists dealing with climate issues were hired in 2008, according to a ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
U.S. to push for U.N. climate deal but no "magic wand"
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52Q2CK20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama's administration promised to push for a new United Nations climate treaty on Sunday but said Washington had no magic wand and that all countries had to help. "The United States is going to be powerfully and fully engaged," U.S. special envoy for climate change Todd Stern said at the opening of 175-nation U.N. talks in Bonn, the first since Obama took office in January speaking of a "planet in peril." "But we are all going to have to do this together, ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Nuclear reactor plans spread fear and fission along the Energy Coast
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/30/nuclear-plant-lake-district
Guardian: The unmarked white van at an isolated farm on the fringes of the Lake District National Park attracted no attention among locals. And when a metal tripod drill was spotted, it was presumed the farmer wanted to set up a water bore hole. But as a string of vans bearing the names of soil analysis companies and then a host of Portakabins turned up at the tiny hamlet of Kirksanton, questions began to be asked. When those living on the farm said they could not talk about it and ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
'We're the first generation that has had the power to destroy the planet. Ignoring that risk can only be described as re
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/30/climate-change-nicholas-stern-interview
Guardian: If you were casting for a film about a policy academic in Whitehall, and Nicholas Stern auditioned, you would reject him on the grounds that he looked so much like a cliche that he would be a caricature. If you were casting for the rock star of the modern climate change movement, on the other hand, he would be the last man in the world you would choose. Middle-aged, soberly suited, grey and compact, he speaks softly in the fastidious register of academia, comprised of paragraphs constructed ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Brazil: Green aims in the Amazon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/climate-change-amazon-forests-brazil
Guardian: No country has a larger stake in reversing the impact of global warming than Brazil. That is why it is at the forefront of efforts to come up with solutions that preserve our common future, without jeopardising the livelihood of millions of impoverished people who live off the land. Brazil has policies aimed at conserving the Amazon forest and its priceless natural heritage. But the forest is also home to a culturally diverse population of 25 million, including some 170 indigenous ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Renewable energy to get boost in India
http://southasia.oneworld.net/todaysheadlines/renewable-energy-to-get-boost-in-india
WorldWatch Institute: India's joining of the International Renewable Energy Agency is going to help the country in bringing down the cost of solar energy and develop technologies to produce biomass-based energy from plant and animal waste. The multilateral agency has now 77 members. India is the 77th member of IRENA, a multinational agency that formed in January to help governments and private industries expand renewable energy installments worldwide. The inclusion of India, the world's fifth ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Government to increase support for offshore wind
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239404/government-support-offshore
Business Green: The long-awaited increase in financial support for offshore wind and marine energy kicks in this week, in a move that will lead to improved financial returns for many renewable energy projects. From 1 April, the Renewables Obligation (RO) financial support mechanism will be reformed to introduce "banding" that ensures more costly offshore wind, wave and tidal projects, as well as advanced biomass technologies, receive more generous incentives. Currently, all renewable energy ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: London targets 15,000 green collar jobs
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239411/london-right-policies-attract
Business Green: The Mayor of London's plans to cut energy and tackle climate change could bring up to 15,000 jobs and contribute £600m a year to the capital's economy by 2025, but only if City Hall continues to create the right incentives for green businesses. That is the conclusion of a major new study published yesterday by Ernst and Young, which warns that while London has the potential to establish itself as the "Low Carbon Capital", it will face fierce competition from other world cities ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
EU exec clears temporary Spain plan for green cars
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T2AS20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A plan by Spain to grant interest rate subsidies for green cars has won approval from the European Commission, the European Union executive said on Monday. "This (measure) will allow important investments for the future low carbon economy which could have been put on hold due to the financial and economic crisis," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement. Under the temporary scheme, Spanish authorities may provide subsidized loans until the end of 2009 with a ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
EU sets C02 emission target for IT
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/03/30/eu_sets_c02_emission_target_for_it/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: Information technology and telecoms companies should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth by 2015, the EU's top IT official said Monday. EU Commissioner Viviane Reding said the IT industry should go further than an existing EU push for more energy efficient products that aims to reduce power consumption -- and as a result greenhouse gas emissions -- by 13 percent by 2020. A bigger effort could see the sector offering smarter technology to cut energy use in buildings and ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Nuclear auction hots up as energy giants fight for sites
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239424/nuclear-auction-hots-energy
Business Green: Several of Europe's leading utilities appear to remain fully committed to the government's low carbon nuclear programme after it emerged bids for three potential reactor sites are running far higher than expected. Energy companies' confidence in renewable energy projects might have taken a blow in recent weeks, but according to reports in yesterday's Sunday Times, power companies have agreed to pay at least £200m for sites at Oldbury in Gloucestershire, Wylfa in North Wales, and ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Carbon Trust launches new guide to overcoming board resistance
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/30/carbon-trust-guide
Guardian: Anyone who has spent any length of time working as a sustainability exec knows that if a green project is going to die a death it is most likely to do so on the altar of board resistance. Now the Carbon Trust is seeking to aid executives struggling to convince senior management to support green investments with the launch of a new guide detailing how facilities managers, works engineers, and environmental managers should go about making an effective business case for low carbon ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
China hails U.S. climate promises, says to act
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52T2Q820090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Beijing welcomed U.S. promises of more action to slow global warming on Monday and said China would also do its share while ensuring that its people were not "left in the dark" without electricity. "We welcome this positive change in attitude and approach by President (Barack) Obama and his team," China's climate ambassador Yu Qingtai said on the sidelines of 175-nation U.N. climate talks from March 29-April 8 in Bonn. The Obama administration made its U.N. climate debut at the ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
All eyes on US as UN climate talks resume in Bonn
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239435/eyes-un-climate-talks-resume
Business Green: The latest round of UN climate talks opened in Bonn, Germany yesterday amidst optimism that the Obama administration's first attendance at the negotiating table would provide renewed impetus to the stalling process. Speaking at the opening of the conference, which is the latest in a series of talks attended by 175 nations and intended to lay the ground work for an international climate change deal in Copenhagen in December, the US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern struck a ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
US climate envoy vows commitment to talks but seeks to lower expectations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/29/AR2009032901932.html
Washington Post: President Obama's chief climate-change negotiator said Sunday that the United States would be "powerfully, fervently engaged" in global talks to reduce carbon emissions but warned that a difficult path lay ahead. Todd Stern, a Washington lawyer and former Clinton White House official, said at a U.N. conference in Bonn, Germany, that despite high expectations, Obama did not have a magic solution for fashioning a global climate-change treaty by the end of the year. "We all have ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Gauging the prospects for nuclear power in the Obama era
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/27/gauging-the-prospects-for-nuclear-power-in-the-obama-era.html
U.S. News and World Report: When asked about their views on nuclear power, President Obama and his advisers say they support it. "I believe in nuclear power as a central part of our energy mix," Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently told Congress. The phrase, both inclusive and relatively vague, has its advantages. But now on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, there are growing doubts over just how much the Obama administration really means it. The first telling sign came in the stimulus debate, when a push to ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
James Lovelock attacks climate change minister's 'preaching' on wind power
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/29/lovelock-wind
Guardian: The scientist and veteran environmental campaigner James Lovelock has launched a blistering riposte to the UK climate change minister's suggestion that opposing wind farms should become as socially unacceptable as failing to wear a seatbelt. In a piece entitled Facism in the Wind, Lovelock described Ed Miliband's pronouncement as "hectoring" and an attempt to use "the social rejection of political correctness" to remove democratic rights from those who oppose wind ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Obama invites India to major economies forum on climate change
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-12102.html
Indo-Asian News Service: US President Barack Obama has invited the leaders of 16 major economies including India to Washington for a forum on energy and climate next month to prepare ground for a new global climate change regime. The forum, scheduled for April 27-28, seeks to 'generate the political leadership necessary' for a successful outcome at the UN climate change negotiation to be held in Copenhagen in December, the White House said in a statement Saturday. Obama, who recently turned his ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Obama envoy: Time to act on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jpokgFJzTVqBUWoSV4Qm3bXiDWlAD977QTVG0
Associated Press: Once booed at international climate talks, the United States won sustained applause Sunday when President Barack Obama's envoy pledged to "make up for lost time" in reaching a global agreement on climate change. Todd Stern also praised efforts by countries like China to reign in their carbon emissions, but said global warming "requires a global response" and that rapidly developing economies like China "must join together" with the industrial world to solve the problem. The ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
United Kingdom: G20 summit: the groups behind the protests
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5066026/G20-summit-the-groups-behind-the-protests.html
Telegraph: A coalition of more than 100 trades unions, charities, churches and pressure groups that marched in London yesterday under the banner of "Jobs, justice and climate." The groups include the TUC, the Salvation Army, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Tear Fund, the National Pensioners Convention, Stop Climate Chaos, Action Aid and the Muslim Council of Britain. Their message to the G20 summit is that "only just, fair and sustainable policies can lead the world out of ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Two months to save the world
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2498516.0.two_months_to_save_the_world.php
Sunday Herald: THE WORLD is heading for an unparalleled climate catastrophe unless rich and poor nations agree drastic cuts in pollution in just the next few months, the head of the European Environment Agency (EEA) is warning. Even if all the current promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions are honoured, the world will still see global temperatures rise by an average of four degrees centigrade by the end of the century, according to Professor Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA executive director. This is ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Japan: Options outlined for carbon cuts
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20090328a2.html
Kyodo News: Six options for the country's greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020, ranging from a 4 percent increase to a 25 percent reduction from 1990 levels, were outlined Friday by a government study panel. The panel, chaired by former Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui, will further study the options -- which also include a 7 percent reduction and a decrease of 15 percent to 16 percent -- before the government sets a national midterm emissions reduction target by June. The 2020 ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Philippines: Climate change felt in richest fishing ground
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20090329-196860/Climate-change-felt-in-richest-fishing-ground
Philippine Daily Inquirer: Ariel Domiguez, 42, has been fishing for 16 years in waters off Verde Island in Batangas province, considered to have the most diverse marine life on the planet. But because of climate change and its threat of rising sea levels and lower fish yields, Dominguez is thinking about the possibility that he might eventually have to quit his job, pack up his belongings and transfer to higher ground. "The ice [caps] in the North Pole are melting. If there's an opportunity, we would ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
Global warming sparks new ice-cold war
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1165318/Global-warming-sparks-new-ice-cold-war-Russia-plans-elite-army-unit-race-Arctic-resources.html
Daily Mail: The race to militarise the Arctic began in earnest yesterday as Russia announced that it will deploy a dedicated military force to protect its interests in the oil and gas-rich polar region. The operation to gain control of vast mineral resources under the ice cap is being put in the direct control of Moscow's intelligence services - the former KGB. Its Arctic strategy document said the creation of a group of forces there must 'ensure military security under various ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
U.S. pledges work for climate deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52Q2CK20090329?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama's administration promised to push for a new global treaty to fight global warming at United Nations climate talks on Sunday but cautioned it had no magic wand. "The United States is going to be powerfully and fully engaged," U.S. special envoy for climate change Todd Stern said at the opening of 175-nation U.N. talks in Bonn. "But we are all going to have to do this together, we don't have a magic wand," he told a news conference at the March ...
Tue, 31 Mar 09
: Climate bills on table this session
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/6103230.html
Portland Press Herald: Maine's Legislature will soon take up some landmark proposals to combat climate change, starting with a public hearing Tuesday. If the bills pass, developers could face new anti-sprawl limits on construction in rural areas and fees for the right to cut down trees. Passage also would ensure that Maine's Legislature remains one of the most aggressive in the nation when it comes to addressing climate change. The bills, coming in the midst of a deep recession, are sure to test the state's ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
Leading adviser's warning to ministers: the problem's not bankers, it's society
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2498508.0.leading_advisers_warning_to_ministers_the_problems_not_bankers_its_society.php
Sunday Herald: THE ECONOMIC system is broken, and attempts by governments to fix it by kick-starting growth and consumerism are "delusional" and "pathological", the Westminster and Holyrood governments will be warned by their own advisers this week. A ground-breaking report by the leading environmental advisers to First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will deliver a damning verdict on capitalism and demand a radical shift to a fairer, more sustainable society. The report ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
Boost for huge Scots tide-power plan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/29/utilities-scotland
Observer: Scotland plan's to host the world's largest tidal energy project have moved a step closer after Norwegian renewables giant Statkraft joined the consortium backing the £250m scheme. The project, which will create over 700 jobs, is to build a large data centre powered by tidal energy, in a remote area on the north Scotland coast dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of tidal energy". Data centres - warehouses containing powerful computers - consume vast amounts of energy. Because they require ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
US in spotlight as UN climate talks resume
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hk0zpvrDOHIEGusKYxfzfx8Dm-Fw
Agence France-Presse: UN talks tasked with forging a global climate treaty by year's end were set to resume here on Sunday, with all eyes on the debut appearance of US negotiators from the administration of US President Barack Obama. Some 190 countries are struggling to find a common accord on how to slash greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2012, when Kyoto Protocol provisions expire. Many are banking on Obama to breathe new life into the troubled process. In Washington, meanwhile, the US president on ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
Report: Sea level rising faster than predicted
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/179/story/441541.html
Press of Atlantic City: Global seas are rising faster than was predicted even a couple of years ago, and scientists are warning that everything from coastal creatures and habitat to cities and towns need to prepare for the consequences. The International Scientific Congress on Climate Change recently concluded that sea levels might rise by 3 feet or more over the next 100 years, about twice as much as scientists had predicted previously. The numbers are based on new data that melting ice sheets in the ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
From Broadway to Empire State, New York goes dark
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090329/ts_alt_afp/climatewarmingearthhourus
Agence France-Presse: From Broadway theaters to the Empire State Building, New York turned off its lights to play its part in "Earth Hour," a global call for action to combat climate change. At 8:30 pm (0030 GMT), some of the most famous and most brightly lit buildings and landmarks in the world were plunged in darkness for an hour. Skyscrapers like Empire State and the Chrysler Building were joined by the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensboro and Williamsburg bridges for the operation. Gigantic lighted ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
US to Host Forum on Climate Change
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123828535955066243.html
Wall Street Journal: The U.S. will host a meeting of major economies in late April to lay the diplomatic foundation for an international agreement on climate change and energy later in the year, the White House said Saturday. By convening a meeting of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, President Barack Obama will be able to help create political momentum for an agreement to be signed at the December United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. Though few international climate ...
Mon, 30 Mar 09
Obama starts climate change forum for big economies
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52R26O20090329?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: President Barack Obama on Saturday invited 16 "major economies" including the European Union and the United Nations to take part in a forum on climate change to facilitate a U.N. pact on global warming. Obama, a Democrat who has taken a more aggressive stance on climate change than his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, invited the group to a preparatory session on April 27 and 28 in Washington. The White House made clear that Obama's new initiative would aim to augment ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
China solar subsidy chases cleantech jobs
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-38749020090327
Reuters: A surprise China solar power subsidy will prop up domestic factories and shows how a hunt for jobs is leading climate change diplomacy. Recession is fuelling government support for green collar jobs, which contrasts with slow negotiations on how to split the cost of cutting carbon emissions in U.N.-led climate talks. President Barack Obama has embraced the clean energy sector as a key area of growth for the U.S. economy, in sharp contrast to former president George W. ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Obama Says US 'Must Respond' to Flood Potential in Midwest
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/28/obama_says_us_must_respond_to.html?wprss=44
Washington Post: President Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address today to reach out to the people of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota whose homes and livelihoods are threatened by the rising of the Red River. "Even as we face an economic crisis which demands our constant focus, forces of nature can also intervene in ways that create other crises to which we must respond - and respond urgently," the president said. Obama on Tuesday declared a major disaster in North Dakota, ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Bonn Climate Talks Give Obama's Green Team First Chance to Impress
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4134716,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Europe has high hopes for Obama's environmental policies The Obama administration will enter the complex world of global climate talks this weekend in Bonn amid a furious domestic debate about whether the US should be placing limits on the pollutants that cause global warming. As government negotiators begin a two-week meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Sunday, Obama's team will be pointing to some immediate policy shifts by the administration that environmentalists have hailed as a ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
'Extreme Ice': Seeing is believing on glacial melting
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090328/NEWS/903279928/1077&ParentProfile=1058&title=Seeing%20is%20believing%20on%20glacial%20melting
Aspen Times: Probably no bit of information presented at the Aspen Environment Forum was as sobering as the screening of the film "Extreme Ice" at the Wheeler Opera House Thursday night. The documentary used time-lapse photography to show how the biggest glaciers in the world are disappearing because of global warming. "Seeing is believing" is the motto for the film and for the Extreme Ice Survey, a research project sponsored by National Geographic. Photojournalist James Balog and the ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
The real action will be at the G2: China and the US
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5993143.ece?openComment=true
Times (UK): The American president heads into the G20 meeting having been told by his top advisers that the US economy is showing signs of recovery. Sales of new homes rose 4.7% last month, durable-goods orders were up, the stock market is at least sitting up in its sick bed, and applications for mortgages soared as mortgage rates fell to a low of about 4.5% for 30-year fixed-rate loans. Many of these applications are aimed at refinancing existing, higher-rate mortgages, but as one administration ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Three arrested over power plant protest
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/28/2528768.htm?site=gippsland
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Three people are expected to be charged over a protest at the Hazelwood power station near Morwell in Victoria this morning. The protesters were part of a group of around 30 people who took part in the protest ahead of tonight's Earth Hour, calling for the nation to reduce its reliance on non-renewable energy. Two protesters chained themselves to a conveyor belt, briefly disrupting the supply of coal between the Hazelwood mine and the power plant. Lights in buildings ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Scotland 'ahead of the game' on renewables
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/29/scotland-renewable-energy
Guardian: Plans to make Scotland 50% reliant on renewable energy sources are ahead of schedule, new figures released by the Scottish Parliament today suggest. Current targets are to meet half the country's electricity demand from renewables by 2020 with an interim target of 31% by 2011. "The government has determined 26 energy applications since May 2007, including consenting to 20 renewables projects, totalling more than 1.5 gigawatts," said a spokesman for First Minister Alex ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Cost Works Against Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources in Time of Recession
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122857
New York Times: Windmills and solar panel arrays have become symbols of America's growing interest in alternative energy. Yet as Congress begins debating new rules to restrict carbon dioxide emissions and promote electricity produced from renewable sources, an underlying question is how much more Americans will be willing to pay to harness the wind and the sun. Curbing carbon dioxide emissions – a central part of tackling climate change – will almost certainly raise electricity prices, experts say. ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Dem senators want special rule for climate change
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dem-senators-want-special-rule-for-climate-change-2009-03-28.html
The Hill: A group of junior Democratic senators are pressing their more senior colleagues to push through a controversial climate change bill by attaching it to a special budget legislative maneuver. Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have said that the budget reconciliation process should be used to get a climate change bill past a GOP filibuster. Reconciliation bills need only a simple majority to move through the Senate, ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Species to be relocated as rivers dry up
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5065845/Species-to-be-relocated-as-rivers-dry-up.html
Telegraph: Low levels of summer rainfall and increasing demand for fresh water from towns and cities will leave rivers, reservoirs and underground aquifers unable to cope, the Environment Agency will warn in its Water Resources Strategy. Officials claim that many rivers in England and Wales will reduce in length by several miles during the summer months by 2050 as whole sections dry up. River flows across the country will be cut in half, while the west of the country could lose up to 80 ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Carbon storage site identified off NT coast
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/29/2528994.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: An area off the Northern Territory coast has been identified as a potential underground storage site for greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists say five areas off the coast of the Territory, South Australia and Western Australia contain 10 sites stable enough to store emissions underneath the seabed. Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says the scheme will guarantee the Territory's economy and jobs if it is successful. "It's about trying to guarantee the future of ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Leaders to meet in summer for special climate change talks
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/leaders-to-meet-in-summer-for-special-climate-change-talks-1656630.html
Independent: Leaders attending the G20 meeting in London plan to gather again in the summer for a special summit on tackling climate change, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. The new summit -- which is being called on the initiative of President Barack Obama as part of a US drive to get a new international agreement on tackling global warming -- is to take place alongside the annual G8 gathering of world leaders on the island of La Maddalena off Sardinia. Scientists and ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Water meters in all homes by 2030 to ease shortages
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/29/environment-agency-water-household-bills
Guardian: Many parts of the country face crippling water shortages in the near future unless immediate action is taken to protect precious supplies, according to an Environment Agency (EA) report to be published this week. Measures include compulsory water meters in every home. The EA warns in the Water Resources Strategy document that many rivers, particularly those in south-east England, could be reduced to a trickle in summer by the middle of the century because of climate change. On ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Grow own food, families urged
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article5993255.ece
Times (UK): Seventy years after wartime Britain was told to dig for victory, thousands of plots are once again to be turned into allotments to promote national self-sufficiency. In a new project, masterminded by the National Trust, some of Britain's biggest landowners have been enlisted to give up spare land for families to grow their own fruit and veg. This time, however, the enemies are climate change and the credit crunch rather than German U-boats. The British "grow your own' campaign ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: What we need to get the low-carbon revolution going
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5992469.ece
Times (UK): There is one question I am asked a lot these days: why is a low-carbon revolution not happening? The answer is certainly not lack of intent. A remarkable political consensus now exists in support of moving to a low-carbon economy. Ambitious targets are in place. The chorus of people saying the same thing in conferences around the world is deafening. Nor do we lack a blueprint for what needs to happen. The answer is fourfold: - Take energy out of global GDP by ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Obama praised for climate change policy
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/28/Obama_praised_for_climate_change_policy/UPI-71621238261438/
United Press International: U.S. President Barack Obama has drawn praise from his European counterparts for his commitment to fight global climate change. Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, said Europe "has gained a strong partner" in fighting global warming. "Barack Obama is quickly implementing what he has promised. He acts efficiently," Bursik was quoted Saturday by Deutsche Welle as saying. On Monday, the Obama administration ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Landmarks go dark for world climate campaign
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090328/wl_afp/climatewarmingearthhourworld2ndleadwrap
Agence France-Presse: Major cities and world landmarks plunged into darkness Saturday as a symbolic energy-saving exercise unfolded across the globe, calling for action to avert potentially devastating climate change. The Egyptian pyramids at Giza, the Acropolis in Athens, Niagara Falls and the Eiffel Tower were set to switch off the electricity as countries worldwide prepared to join in "Earth Hour." In London, demonstrators protesting in their thousands on poverty and environmental issues said ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Taking Logging Into the 21st Century
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122839
New York Times: Booming timber towns with three-shift lumber mills are a distant memory in the densely forested Northwest. Now, with the housing market and the economy in crisis, some rural areas have never been more raw. Mills keep closing. People keep leaving. Unemployment in some counties is near 20 percent. Yet in parts of the region, the decline is being met by an unlikely optimism. Some people who have long fought to clear-cut the region's verdant slopes are trying to reposition themselves for ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Europe Greens unveil EU 'new deal' plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090328/sc_afp/eupoliticspartiesenvironment
Agence France-Presse: European Green parties on Saturday called for an environment-friendly overhaul of the EU, attacking European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso's record and saying he should not be reappointed. About 450 delegates from the 27 European Union states, meeting since Friday at the European Parliament in Brussels, adopted a manifesto for European elections on June 7, titled "a green new deal for a new Europe." The plan aims to respond to the global crisis that is hitting Europe ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Among Climate Scientists, a Dispute Over 'Tipping Points'
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122837
New York Times: The language was apocalyptic. Last month, a leading climate scientist warned that Earth's rising temperatures were poised to set off irreversible disasters if steps were not taken quickly to stop global warming. "The climate is nearing tipping points," the NASA climate scientist James E. Hansen wrote in The Observer newspaper of London. "If we do not change course, we'll hand our children a situation that is out of their control." The resulting calamities, Dr. Hansen and other ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Belgian firm appeals nuclear tax: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090328/bs_afp/belgiumfranceenergynuclearcompanyelectrabel
Agence France-Presse: Belgian energy firm Electrabel launched a court challenge against a bid to levy hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in windfall tax on nuclear power companies, a report said on Saturday. "The appeal was launched this week" in a Belgian constitutional court by Electrabel, a subsidiary of the French energy giant GDF Suez, the Belgian firm's spokesman Fernand Grifnee was quoted as saying by the newspaper l'Echo. GDF Suez's chief executive Gerard Mestrallet has described the ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Obama calls major economies climate change meeting
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/28/obama_calls_major_economies_climate_change_meeting/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama is launching a "Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate" to help facilitate a U.N. agreement on global warming, the White House said on Saturday. Leaders from 16 major economies have been invited to a "preparatory session" on April 27-28 in Washington to "help generate the political leadership necessary" to achieve an international pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions later this year, it said in a statement. It said the meeting would spur ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Obama launches major economies climate forum
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090328/pl_afp/usclimateenvironmentobama3rdlead
Agence France-Presse: President Barack Obama Saturday launched a Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate to give a boost to a historic agreement on climate change facilitated by the UN. Leaders from the 16 major economies are to participate in a "preparatory session" on April 27-28 in Washington to "help generate the political leadership" for successful climate change negotiations December in Copenhagen, the White House said in a statement. The forum, the White House added, would encourage "a ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United States: Cold weather eases flood threat in Fargo
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P6KA20090328?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Residents of the flood-swollen Red River Valley got a break from the weather on Saturday as cold temperatures prevented more winter thaw from swamping the city and flood barriers held, officials said. Hundreds of National Guard troops, local residents and volunteers continued to reinforce and raise sandbagged barriers and floodwalls. They had been bracing for a record crest on Saturday but awoke instead to a slightly lower water level. "The river is cresting. That's good news," ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
British eco-migrants flee to New Zealand
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5993046.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): NEW ZEALAND is seeing its first influx of British eco-migrants, environmental refugees who have quit the UK because they fear the long-term impacts of climate change. The country's islands, renowned for their temperate climate, clean environment and low population, have often been put forward by greens as potential "lifeboats' for a world suffering serious warming. Recently, James Lovelock, the scientist and creator of the Gaia theory, said in his new book, The Vanishing Face ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Consumers beware the costly spin of wind turbines
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5992864.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): The view from the top could not be clearer: Ed Miliband, the minister for energy and climate change, said last week that opposing the onward march of wind turbines -- on which the government is pinning its hopes of meeting its targets on renewable energy -- should be as "socially unacceptable' as not wearing a seatbelt or failing to stop at a zebra crossing. Hmm. Tell that to the people who believe the view over Britain's last remaining wildernesses is about to be destroyed for ever ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Antarctica to Pyramids ? lights dim for Earth Hour
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090328/ap_on_re_as/earth_hour
Associated Press: The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed Saturday as Sydney became the world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change. From the Great Pyramids to the Acropolis, the London Eye to the Las Vegas strip, nearly 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries planned to join in the World Wildlife Fund-sponsored event, a time zone-by-time zone plan to dim nonessential lights ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Earth Hour for Climate Change Darkens World Landmarks
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-28-voa14.cfm
Voice of America: Australia's Sydney Harbor went dark as lights were turned off at the iconic Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge as part of Earth Hour, a global event calling attention to climate change. First organized in Sydney in 2007, at least 3,929 communities around the world are shutting off lights this year in the event rolling through the world's time zones. Hundreds of landmarks around the world are expected to go dark for an hour as nightfall circles the globe Saturday ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
G20 protest: Thousands march for 'jobs, justice and climate'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/28/g20-protest-police-rainbow-alliance
Guardian: Thousands of protesters from around the country marched for "jobs, justice and climate" today in London ahead of next week's G20 summit. It was the start of a series of demonstrations planned to mark the meeting of world leaders in the capital on Wednesday. Today's march, organised by a "rainbow alliance" of more than 150 unions, environment, charity, faith and development groups called Put People First (PPF), started on Victoria Embankment, with protesters waving a range of flags and ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
New fuel economy standards to be announced
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102416432
National Public Radio: The Obama administration is expected to announce, as early as Friday, new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. For cars, it will be 30.2 mpg, up from the current 27.5. For trucks, it'll be just over 24 mpg. The administration was required by law to come up with the standards, which go into effect two years from now. Automakers haven't voiced any objections. Some environmentalists say the bump in fuel efficiency standards isn't enough. An administration official told Bloomberg News ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Canada: Carbon projects get $140M
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Technology/Carbon%20projects%20140M/1434462/story.html
Edmonton Journal: Ottawa will pump as much as $140 million into eight demonstration projects in Western Canada which aim to capture and store carbon dioxide produced by power plants and the fertilizer and petroleum industries. Projects in the Edmonton region include Epcor and Enbridge's Genesee project and TransAlta's Pioneer project, both in the Lake Wabamun area and both aimed at removing carbon dioxide from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants and injecting it into deep saline aquifers. In ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
New fuel rules to cost autos $1.5B
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090328/AUTO01/903280386/1148/New%20fuel%20rules%20to%20cost%20autos%20$1.5B
Detroit News: Stricter fuel economy standards outlined Friday by the federal government for the 2011 model year will cost struggling auto companies nearly $1.5 billion and boost the cost of passenger vehicles an average of $64 for cars and $126 for light trucks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the additional vehicle cost will be recouped by buyers of pickups, SUVs and minivans, through fuel savings, in an average of 7.7 years. Passenger car buyers will recover that cost in ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Energy studies get a jolt
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-energy-studentmar29,0,5034113.story
Chicago Tribune: In what could be an encouraging sign of change in America's long-standing shortage of graduates prepared for high-tech careers, the hottest subject on college campuses across the nation right now seems to be renewable energy--a surge of interest driven largely by the specter of global warming. Concern about climate change is apparently galvanizing more students to turn toward a subject involving science and engineering, educators suggest, in much the way that Moscow's launching of the ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Brunei: Imams call for green awareness
http://www.brunei-online.com/weekend/news/mar28h4.htm
Bulletin Borneo: Shrinking pristine forests, which bring catastrophe to mankind, came under the spotlight by imams yesterday. In a Friday sermon, imams said Islam stresses the importance of preserving the environment, which has come under assault. Humans should not destroy pristine forests and create pollution, they said, adding that Allah dislikes those who bring about destruction to Earth. Destruction to the environment is now becoming more rampant, perpetrated by irresponsible ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Australia: Environment centre warns power costs will rise
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/28/2528824.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Northern Territory Environment Centre says Territorians will pay significantly more for power in the future because of the carbon emissions trading scheme. Coordinator Stuart Blanch says Territorians will pay a lot more for energy in the future under the emissions trading scheme, due to the Territory's heavy reliance on gas and diesel. "Gas and diesel are just going to be more and more expensive because governments around the world are putting a cost on carbon," he ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Bristol cows 'as damaging as airports'
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/Vegans-claim-council-beef-herd-damaging-environment-airport-runway/article-852150-detail/article.html
Evening Post: Plans to graze cattle in a Bristol park to provide beef for city schools have come under fire from vegans and environmental campaigners. One opponent of the city council plan to produce its own meat supply claims it would be "like opening a new runway at an airport" -- because of the greenhouse gas emissions caused when cows break wind and burp. The council announced it wanted to acquire Stoke Park, the 200-acre parkland in front of the landmark Dower House alongside the M32 ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Warming world too hot for the cold-blooded?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=warming-world-too-hot-for
Scientific American: A new study warns that cold-blooded land animals like lizards and insects in the tropics may wither as the world warms. "Cold-blooded" is the layman's term for ectotherms--animals whose body temperature is contingent on the surrounding environment, rather than internally regulated like that of warm-blooded creatures. They thrive in temperatures ranging from 68 degrees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 40 degrees Celsius), above which they overheat. As the globe warms, researchers warn they ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Trading Emissions pays first dividend despite loss
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE52Q1SQ20090327
Reuters: Renewable energy investment company Trading Emissions Plc fell deep into the red in the first half due to falling carbon prices but dug into growing cash reserves in order to promise its first dividend. The clean energy project developer also predicted a recovery in carbon prices from 2010 and therefore attractive returns for investors, helping lift its shares 4 percent. Trading Emissions posted a pretax loss of 126.7 million pounds ($183.1 million) for the six months to the ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Asia dims the lights for Earth Hour
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090328/wl_nm/us_climate_earthhour
Reuters: Lights went out at Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark for an hour to highlight the threat from climate change. In Asia, lights at landmarks in China, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines also dimmed as people celebrated with candle-lit picnics and concerts. "It's been a great success. I wasn't expecting so many people to come down and witness the blackout of the CBD," Carine Seror, ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
US steelmakers want EU-style derogations from climate rules
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/us-steelmakers-want-eu-style-derogations-climate-rules/article-180710?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: As US lawmakers prepare to draft the country's emerging climate policy, fears have been expressed by steelmakers and other energy-intensive industries about competitive disadvantage, echoing a debate that has been raging in Europe since the adoption of the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS). Background: The global community is closely watching the emerging climate policy of the United States as it will play a huge role in the success or failure of the international climate ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Dimas: Europe awaits details of US climate bill
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/dimas-europe-awaits-details-us-climate-bill/article-180751?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: Stavros Dimas, the EU's environment commissioner, says Europe is looking forward to seeing the details of US climate change legislation in order to assess whether it meets the "comparability test" with the EU. He spoke to EurActiv on the sidelines of this week's European Business Summit in Brussels. Europe has high expectations of the new US administration in helping to forge a global climate change deal in Copenhagen later this year. According to Environment Commissioner ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
UK should be leading Europe on wind power
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=16190
Edie: Britain is the windiest country in Europe yet lags behind some of its more progressive neighbours when it comes to tapping into the energy potential of this resource. That needs to change, according to the chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association Maria McCaffrey. Speaking at Energy & Environment 2009 in London this week she said: "The bulk of our energy generation is still coming from fossil fuels but the good news is that the entire energy sector has bought into ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Carbon capture must be part of climate change solution - Lord Oxburgh
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=16189
Edie: Large-scale adoption of carbon capture and storage will be the only way to prevent a huge rise in emissions as developing economies turn to coal to drive their industrial growth. This was the central message of Lord Ron Oxburgh, president of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and former scientific advisor to Government, when he spoke at Energy & environment 2009 in London this week. He said that the USA, China and India, three of the world's biggest energy importers, ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Renewable energy rules putting off investors say businesses
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=16188
Edie: 27 March 2009 Renewable energy rules putting off investors say businesses A consortium of leading businesses and NGOs has hit out at government regulations on renewable energy generation saying they are discouraging investment in this field. The Aldersgate Group, whose membership includes corporate giants such as BT, Ikea and Microsoft, says that the Government's carbon reporting rules are undermining the business case for on-site renewable energy projects. In an ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Local citizens to help catalog climate change
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1110817.html
Kansas City Star: Two years ago, while the rest of Lawrence basked in a beautiful warm spring day, University of Kansas professor Chip Taylor fretted. It was April 2, and the ornamental crabapples on campus were in full bloom. Taylor`s work in phenology -- the study of the life cycles of plants and animals -- showed that the blossoms came 12 days earlier than ever in Lawrence. Two days later, an arctic blast come through and pushed the ground temperature to 14 degrees. "It was below ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Do New Bulbs Save Energy if They Don't Work?
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122804
New York Times: It sounds like such a simple thing to do: buy some new light bulbs, screw them in, save the planet. But a lot of people these days are finding the new compact fluorescent bulbs anything but simple. Consumers who are trying them say they sometimes fail to work, or wear out early. At best, people discover that using the bulbs requires learning a long list of dos and don'ts. Take the case of Karen Zuercher and her husband, in San Francisco. Inspired by watching the movie "An ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Can Earth Hour Galvanize the Fight Against Global Warming?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090328/hl_time/08599188823900
Time Magazine: Every successful social movement has its defining images. Think of the civil rights movement, and the photos of protesters being attacked by police dogs and pummeled by high-pressure fire hoses. Or the Vietnam anti-war movement, and the video of body bags being beamed back to America's living rooms. Even environmentalism has its iconic images, like Cleveland's heavily polluted Cuyahoga River catching fire in the 1960s, smog wreathing Los Angeles's skyline during the next decade and even the ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Australia turns the lights out for Earth Hour
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52Q28V20090328?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event designed to highlight the threat from climate change. From the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and London's Houses of Parliament, lights were dimmed as part of a campaign to encourage people to cut energy use and curb greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Organizers said the action showed millions of people wanted governments ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
World cities begin big switch-off
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7969515.stm
BBC: Hours later, Beijing's most prominent Olympic venues, the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, went dark. China is taking part for the first time, with major cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou also dimming their lights. Other locations due to take part this time include Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Paris' Eiffel Tower, the Egyptian Pyramids and New York's Empire State Building. Fast-food giant McDonald's has pledged to dim its "golden arches" at ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
US takes new climate change agenda to global talks
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gLLmOyoZLG2OOtxyAfES5qCV4RBgD9770BPG0
Associated Press: Joining climate change negotiations for the first time, the Obama administration is trying to convince other countries that the U.S. does care about global warming and wants to shape an international accord. After eight years on the sidelines, the U.S. says it is ready for a central role in developing a new agreement to slash greenhouse gases. But whether the U.S, which is the second largest source of heat-trapping pollution, is ready to sign onto a deal by year's end could depend on ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
United Kingdom: G20 march begins week of protests in London
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090328/wl_nm/us_g20_britain_march
Reuters: Tens of thousands of people marched in capital cities across Europe on Saturday to protest about the economic crisis and urge world leaders to act on poverty, jobs and climate change at a G20 summit next week. Chanting "tax the rich, make them pay," protesters marched through London waving banners saying "People before Profit," at the start of a week of protests that reflected growing public anger over bankers' pay and their role in the crisis. Leaders from the world's 20 ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Australia kicks off Earth Hour climate campaign
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090328/wl_asia_afp/climatewarmingearthhourworldleadwrap
Agence France-Presse: The waters of Sydney Harbour plunged into darkness on Saturday night, with the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge killing their lights for an hour in a global call for swift action on climate change. Chatham Island, the largest of a tiny group of Pacific islands 800 kilometres (500 miles) southeast of New Zealand, unofficially began Earth Hour by switching off its diesel generators at 0645 GMT, or 8:30 pm local time. The 25-hour energy-saving marathon officially began in ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Greenhouse gas goals proposed at UN climate talks
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LP412117.htm
Reuters: Following are proposals for greenhouse gas targets to be considered at U.N talks on a new climate treaty in Bonn, Germany, from March 29-April 8. The talks are the first this year in a two-year push to agree a new U.N. climate treaty in Copenhagen in December 2009. The following factbox is based on ideas submitted to the United Nations. LONG-TERM GOALS "There is broad support by Parties for a science-based indicative goal for the reduction of global emissions of ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Concern over Climate Camp police
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/7968884.stm
BBC: Public concern about the policing of the Kingsnorth Climate Camp must be addressed, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has said. Complaints about the actions of the Kent force at the camp near Hoo last August were made but the IPCC said the areas were outside its jurisdiction. The complaints will now be dealt with by Kent Police and the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). IPCC Commissioner Mike Franklin said there was significant public ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Canada: Earth Hour: Let there be darkness
http://www.vancouversun.com/Technology/Earth%20Hour%20there%20darkness/1436411/story.html
Vancouver Sun: Earth Hour may be a symbolic gesture on Saturday night, a time when people around the world are asked to turn off their lights and power down their appliances and computers from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. in an effort to reduce our footprint. But organizers are expecting much more, hopeful that individuals will pause to consider their impact on the planet and how they can continue to make a difference. Globally, the goal is participation by one billion people. More than 2,700 ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Forget the lights - shut down the friggin' computer
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090327.wpower28/BNStory/National/home
Globe and Mail: As people turn off the lights for Earth Hour this evening and ponder their electricity use, one of the world's most rapidly growing power guzzlers -- for which nearly everyone carries responsibility -- is largely hidden from view. It's the network of data centres and their servers that are the invisible backbone of the Internet. The popularity of all the twittering, blogging, music downloading, and Facebooking has had a little-known environmental downside, by boosting the demand for ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Sixty minutes of darkness could blaze path of future conservation
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090328.EARTH28ART2115/TPStory/Environment
Globe and Mail: When Earth Hour arrives at 8:30 tonight, Jack Gibbons will be turning off his lights to save electricity, like millions of other people across Canada. The head of the Clean Air Alliance, an Ontario group that has gained prominence by trying to have coal-fired generating stations shuttered, says he already has low power bills because he's switched to energy-sipping appliances. "But we'll try to keep it even lower on Earth Hour," he said. From almost out of nowhere, Earth ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Australia: Scientists follow the dusty trails
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/scientists-follow-the-dusty-trails-20090327-9e75.html
Sydney Morning Herald: IN SYDNEY it is rarely noticed, a silent cloud that most often steals through the city at night. Occasionally, when rain falls, a record of its passing is visible in the morning as reddy-brown splotches on the car bonnet. But fine dust from the hot dry west of the state that is sucked out to sea by vacuum cleaner-like cold fronts is much more than a nuisance for car owners. It plays an important role in climate change, and can contribute to warming and cooling of the ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Australia: Greenhouse gas burial sites found
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/greenhouse-gas-burial-sites-found-20090327-9e76.html
Sydney Morning Herald: TEN underground storage sites have been identified by scientific advisers as suitable for burying greenhouse gas emissions. The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, said burying greenhouse emissions was "a key component of the Government's response to climate change". Geoscience Australia has confirmed that five areas off the coast of Victoria, South Australia, the Northern Territory and West Australia containing the 10 sites are sufficiently stable to allow ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Nuclear industry's new burst of energy
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/health_science/daily/20090328_Nuclear_industry_s_new_burst_of_energy.html?viewAll=y
Philadelphia Inquirer: Thirty years ago, the nuclear energy industry in the United States seemed all but headed for the scrapyard. Now it's poised for a rebirth. The impetus is climate change. Nuclear power is touted as the one major electricity source that's emission-free and reliable, able to generate massive amounts of power night and day, in wind and calm. But hovering over nuclear's new dawn is an incident that began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. Deep within Reactor 2 at the Three Mile ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Key House Democrats warn against climate maneuver in budget
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122779
Greenwire: Four powerful House Democrats warned President Obama today against using a fast-track budget process for climate legislation. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman of California and Reps. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, John Dingell of Michigan and Rick Boucher of Virginia insist in a letter (pdf) that Obama's climate agenda has a better chance of success if it is done through regular order. "Energy and environment issues have a unique regional component," the lawmakers ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Ample evidence Florida's feeling effects of climate change
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/issues_ideas/v-fullstory/story/971605.html
Miami Herald: Maybe the fish are on to something. Don Hammond, who catches, tags and releases dolphin-fish (also known as mahi-mahi), says those Florida natives are being hooked in some unusual places. Like Massachusetts and Canada. People who study South Florida's environment say global warming is starting to have a significant impact on Florida's fish, fowl and flora. Among those beginning to see the signs is Hammond, a private researcher in Charleston, S.C., who retired after 35 ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Macau's temperature to rise 2.7 degrees
http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24853&Itemid=28
Macau Daily Times: The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau of Macao projected that the average temperature of Macau will probably increase by 2.7 Celsius degrees and the annual rainfall by 4 percent, according to the data released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). As a result of the rising sea levels in nearby areas due to melting glaciers, Macau will experience a lack of rainfall in winter and spring, while the torrential rainfall in summer and fall will be ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Dueling coal ads
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00013&segmentID=4
Living on Earth: GELLERMAN: The controversy over coal is playing out not only in the courts and government agencies, but on television screens as well. This commercial, by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity features a familiar voice to support its cause. OBAMA: This is America. We figured out how to put a man on the moon in ten years. You can't tell me we can't figure out how to burn coal that we mine right here in the United States of America and make it work. We can do ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
EPA eyes mountaintop removal mining
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00013&segmentID=3
Living on Earth: GELLERMAN: It's Living on Earth, I'm Bruce Gellerman. Valley fill is the debris that's dumped into rivers and streams from a method of extracting coal called "mountaintop removal". It's done largely in Kentucky and West Virginia, and it's at the center of an intense political, legal, and scientific debate. When the EPA recently announced it was going to review two mountain top removal permits, environmental groups cheered. Then, the very next day, when the agency issued a ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Big Ben and Houses of Parliament to switch off the lights for Earth Hour
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/27/earth-hour-climate-change-wwf
Guardian: At 8:30pm today the luminous face of Big Ben will go dark. Next door, the houses of parliament will switch off all its lights too, along with thousands of landmarks, buildings and people around the world in a global gesture of solidarity in the fight against climate change. From the international dateline, Earth Hour starts in New Zealand's Chatham Islands and will conclude in Honolulu. Passed like a baton around the planet, cities including Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Moscow, ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Wyoming unsure about fed's 'cap and trade' effect
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/27/ap6223620.html
Associated Press: State officials say it's difficult to tell how a federal "cap and trade" system of selling credits to companies that emit greenhouse gases might affect Wyoming and its fossil fuel industries. The Obama administration says such a system would raise $646 million over 10 years while curtailing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Obama included the proposal in his 2010 budget bill but it's facing opposition from members of both parties. Under the system, companies ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
India: No small achievement
http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13381480
Economist: THE cacophonous capillaries of India's infrastructure may be about to get a lot more clogged. By the end of 2010 there could be as many as 300,000 Tata Nanos on India's roads. Well before its launch, the tiny car had become an object of loathing for environmentalists (unfairly--it is one of the cleanest vehicles around). But for potential buyers, what matters is whether it is any good. Despite the Nano's size (it is a bit over ten feet, or three metres long) its interior is ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Emissions-reduction bill passed by Md. House
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-global-warming0326,0,7603670.story
Baltimore Sun: Maryland would become one of a handful of states to commit on its own to reducing global-warming pollution under legislation approved in both chambers of the General Assembly. The House of Delegates voted, 107-31, Friday for the measure, which would require the state to cut greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020; the Senate approved its version earlier this month. Lawmakers said they expect to easily resolve differences between the two versions and send the bill to Gov. Martin ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
Third-World women hit by climate change
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/133482
Aspen Daily News: In ski towns like Aspen the conversation about global warming's local effect focuses around the threat of shorter winters, less skiing, and the possibility of our resort economy crumbling as a result. On the other end of the spectrum in poor, developing nations it's more about fighting wild animals for clean water and spending your waking hours searching for firewood on an eroding landscape. And the hardships wrought by global warming in these countries are disproportionately ...
Sun, 29 Mar 09
G20 protesters to march in London
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7968721.stm
BBC: Families with children in pushchairs were among those marching along the 4.2-mile route under banners with slogans including 'capitalists - you are the crisis' and 'justice for the world's poor'. As protesters passed the heavily-policed gates of Downing Street, there were chants and jeers with one person shouting "enjoy the overtime". BBC News reporter Mario Cacciottolo said people were clearly angry, but the atmosphere was not tense. Milton McKenzie, 73, from Essex, ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Australia wants forest CO2 trade in Copenhagen pact
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN2737787120090327
Reuters: Australia has submitted a proposal to U.N. climate negotiators that outlines a scheme to use carbon credits to protect rain forests, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Friday. The submission will be circulated to negotiators meeting next week in Bonn, Germany, to discuss a new U.N. climate treaty that world leaders hope to agree to in Copenhagen in December 2009. "We think a post-2012 agreement will need to include forests in some way," Wong told Reuters in an interview ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Renewable energy will boost software demand, says Greenpeace
http://www.reuters.com/article/idgGreenComputing/idUS389974836820090327
Reuters: As countries restructure their electricity sector to include more renewable resources, there will be a higher demand for management software, throwing up opportunities for software and services companies worldwide, according to a Greenpeace spokesman. Managing a single point supply like a coal plant involves fewer challenges than managing a distributed energy supply system consisting of conventional power stations and renewable energy systems spread across a number of locations, said ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Australia: Climate action rises above hot air
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/climate-action-rises-above-hot-air-20090327-9e6z.html
Sydney Morning Herald: An earnest young scientist this week stood at the podium of the nation's most important climate change conference, flicking through a presentation of rising temperatures off Australia's north-west. She then moved on to global predictions out to 2060 showing the temperature rising steadily and dangerously. The scientist was no academic, CSIRO boffin or environmentalist. Elena Mavrofridis is a chemical engineer with Woodside Energy, the company that recently went toe-to-toe with the ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United States: Carbon tax proposal heats up
http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/03/23/daily50.html
Portland Business Journal: An influential team of state legislators is mulling a proposal that would initially take the trade out of cap-and-trade. Led by State Sen. Vicki Walker, a Eugene Democrat, the so-called Oregon Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act would make now-aspirational greenhouse gas reduction goals a requirement. The draft bill was finished late Wednesday. Walker said efforts to work with industry representatives began in earnest Thursday afternoon. Rather than creating a market-based ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Southern Africa hit by worst floods in years
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i8IZT0UAjQcp29zy217ZGb2ZhFDg
Agence France-Presse: Southern African countries have been hit by the worst floods in years, killing more than 100 people and displacing thousands, as a tropical storm threatened to bring more pain on Saturday. As Mozambique braced for the arrival of a strengthening tropical storm Izilda, record river levels across the region threatened to exacerbate floods which have already affected hundreds of thousands of people. Namibia's government declared a state of emergency last week in areas where floods ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Md. House approves greenhouse gas bill
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/27/ap6224644.html
Associated Press: The Maryland House of Delegates voted Friday to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020, a move hailed by Democrats and environmentalists but criticized as costly by Republicans. The measure, approved 107-31, seeks to reduce greenhouse gas with renewable energy and recycling. Business and labor organizations support the bill because the current proposal specifically requires the state to ensure there will be no loss of manufacturing jobs as a result of the ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Australia: Climate change protesters march against emissions scheme
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/28/2528685.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Climate Emergency Action Network of South Australia says the Federal Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme needs to be altered to cut carbon emissions further. The network's John Rice says about 200 people dressed in red marched in Adelaide's CBD yesterday evening to rally against the plan, which is set to cut emissions by at least 5 per cent by 2020. Mr Rice says the scheme is fatally flawed because it rewards Australia's major pollution industries. "Coal burning power ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
India asks US for climate-change help
http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/03/27/India_asks_US_for_climate-change_help/UPI-73561238167588/
United Press International: The Indian prime minister's special envoy on climate change is seeking a partnership with the United States. The envoy, Shyam Saran, said the partnership was prompted by the focus the Obama administration has put on clean and renewable energy, Press Trust of India reports. With the passage of the civilian nuclear deal, the partnership is even more important, Saran said during a recent meeting of U.S. corporate leaders organized by the U.S.-India Business Council. "The ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
A green future where you can borrow cars and drink rainwater
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/28/green-future-carbon-emissions-climate
Guardian: A low-carbon economy will be the culmination of thousands of decisions by governments, businesses and individuals about how we choose to balance environment and economy. There isn't one correct future but many, with each detail in each country dependent on the will of its people. One thing is certain, though. Anyone concerned about having to give up their modern lifestyle for an austere existence can rest easy. The big differences between now and the low-carbon future will not be the ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Australia: Climate change won't go away: Rudd
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Climate-change-wont-go-away-Rudd-QJQHQ?OpenDocument
AAP: Climate change is an economic problem as well as an environmental one and the current financial crisis is making agreement on global warming more difficult, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. While he was confident of a positive outcome on how to deal with the global economic crisis at next week's G20 summit in London, Mr Rudd said failure would condemn nations to slow economic recovery. And he said the ongoing crisis would make it harder to achieve an agreement on reducing ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Urban heat Cities sizzle as more people move in
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/42196/title/Urban_heat
Science News: A one-day, round-the-clock thermal study of Phoenix buildings, including the U.S. Bank Center, tracked how concrete and glass absorb heat by day and release it by night. Deep purple is 9°C, deep orange is 17°C and white is at least 25°C. Throughout the night, the building, especially near street level, remained warmer than the surrounding air. Di Sabatino et al./Arizona State University In life, as in boxing, the combined effects of a one-two punch are often more devastating than ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Russia plans military force to patrol Arctic as 'cold rush' intensifies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/28/russia-gas-oil-arctic-nato
Guardian: Russia has released plans to create a dedicated military force to patrol the Arctic, where it is laying claim to billions of tonnes of hydrocarbons. Countries in the northern hemisphere are vying for control of the polar region, which is thought to contain up to a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas. The presidential security council issued a strategy document which outlined Russia's plans for defending its vast swath of polar territory up until 2020. A major ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: G20 protests: Cry havoc - and let slip a rainbow alliance of summit protesters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/28/g20-protests-london
Guardian: They could not have chosen a better venue to concoct a plan to bring London's financial heart to a halt. A band of anti-capitalists, environmentalists, radical academics and resurgent anarchists from the 1980s sat in a disused Barclays Bank vault last month and removed their mobile phone sim cards to avoid police detection. Gathered around a former 1930s gold bullion turntable in the cellar of the Foundry pub in Shoreditch, east London, representatives from protest groups from ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
G20: Thousands Begin Protests Before Summit
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/G20-First-Protests-In-London-Begin-Ahead-Of-Summit-On-Thursday/Article/200903415250615?lpos=UK_News_First_Poilitics_Article_Teaser_Regi_1&lid=ARTICLE_15250615_G20%3A_First_Protests_In_London_Begin_Ahead_Of_Summit_O
Sky News: As many as 10,000 protesters are gathering in London for the first in a series of demonstrations ahead of Thursday's G20 summit in the capital. Workmen board up The Ritz hotel in London ahead of a week of protests It has been organised by an unprecedented alliance of more than 150 unions, environment and faith groups under an umbrella calling itself Put People First. The organisation says: "Our future depends on creating an economy based on fair distribution of wealth, ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Irish farms can be used for biofuels, event told
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0328/1224243617249.html
Irish Times: LARGE TRACTS of Irish farmland could be reassigned for biofuel production without causing a rise in food prices or a reduction in agricultural production, a seminar on climate change has heard. Irish beef and dairy farmers could switch up to 20 per cent of their grassland to biofuel production without affecting agricultural output, Dr Kevin McDonnell of UCD`s school of food science said. There was "huge potential" in biofuel production in Ireland, and locally produced fuel ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United States: Tree beetles threaten forests and enhance fire danger
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10086082&nav=menu113_3
KRNV: A natural disaster is looming in Northern Nevada's forests. Twenty-two million acres of forest land across the west are threatened by several tiny "pine beetles," and forestry officials are warning residents about the dangers they face. If you look carefully, you can see them, dotted among the green trees in the Galena area: brown trees that have fallen prey to a variety of pine beetles that burrow into the bark and lay their eggs. "It's like putting a string ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Something new to worry about - a world water crisis
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20090327T200000-0500_148256_OBS_SOMETHING_NEW_TO_WORRY_ABOUT___A_WORLD_WATER_CRISIS.asp
Jamaica Observer: Nearly everyone is familiar with that line by the 18th century English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge from his famous fantasy, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In it the dastardly sea captain with a dead albatross around his neck after killing it can't slake his thirst because the only water available is the salty stuff of which the ocean is made. In a way, it describes the quandary facing the human population of the world today. Our world is unique in the universe, so far as we know. ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Earth Hour May See 1 Billion Turn Off Lights, Organizers Say
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a17n6FGS4Dug&refer=asia
Bloomberg: Earth Hour, an event created in Sydney two years ago by environmentalists keen to cut energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may prompt 1 billion power users worldwide to turn lights off tonight, organizers say. Lights at 829 iconic landmarks including the Empire State Building in New York, London's Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Las Vegas Strip will be cut from 8:30 p.m. local time, according to an Earth Hour statement. A total of 83 countries and 2,848 cities ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
A Geek's Guide to the Earth Hour Challenge
http://www.reuters.com/article/idgGreenComputing/idUS100986284320090328
Reuters: The World Wildlife Fund wants you to power down your electronic life for one full hour this weekend: no lights, no TVs, no computers -- basically, nothing that actively uses electricity. Think you're up for the Earth Hour challenge? Earth Hour: What It's All About Earth Hour is scheduled for 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. in your local time zone this Saturday, March 28. The goal is send a message to governments everywhere that more should be done to combat climate change. Leaving your ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Protesters head for London G20 march
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/4241228.Protesters_head_for_London_G20_march/
Daily Echo: CLIMATE change activists, trade unionists and charity workers from Dorset will be among thousands of protesters taking part in a London march today in the run-up to the G20 summit. A series of events to coincide with the summit will get under way with a rally at Hyde Park which will hear calls for action to save jobs, support a low-carbon economy and stricter controls of the finance sector. More than 150 unions, environment, faith and development groups will take part in a ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
New Tool Differentiates Artificial From Natural Nitrogen-oxide Pollution
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325155829.htm
ScienceDaily: Nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere, which are produced by lightning, biomass burning, and soil outgassing, are converted into atmospheric nitrate through oxidation reactions. Nitrogen oxide, itself a pollutant, controls the production of ozone, which in turn is a greenhouse gas and a pollutant at ground levels. Atmospheric nitrate contributes to the load of atmospheric particulate matter and, along with sulfate, to acid rain. Despite efforts to regulate and monitor emissions, nitrogen ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Tourism Ministry, Comesa to Embark on Climate Awareness Campaigns
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903270680.html
Times of Zambia: THE Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), have agreed to collaborate in scaling up information and awareness campaigns on climate change. Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Catherine Namugala said she was concerned that most African countries including Zambia were still not fully aware of the serious threats that climate change posed to people's livelihoods and sustainable ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Dairies Strive To Go Green: Turning Waste To Watts
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102449522&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Cows are big, they eat a lot, and, well, they produce a lot of manure. All this waste can have a negative impact on water and the environment, and some industrial dairies are working to make their facilities greener. One way to keep cow manure from polluting the environment is to use a system called a digestor, in which the manure is funneled into a big vat, where it decomposes, producing methane that's then used to create electricity. The digestor at Holsum Elm Dairy in Wisconsin ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Huge Man-Made Algae Swarm Devoured--Bad for Climate?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090327-iron-seeding.html?source=rss
National Geographic: A giant experiment went awry at sea this month. Shrimplike animals devoured 159 square miles (300 square kilometers) of artificially stimulated algae meant to fight global warming–casting serious doubt on ocean fertilization as a climate-control tool. For years, scientists have proposed supercharging algae growth by dumping tons of iron into the ocean. Iron is a necessary element for algae photosynthesis--the process by which the plants convert sunlight into energy--but ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United States: Three Mile Island at 30: Nuclear Power's Squandered Potential
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090327/us_time/08599188811900
Time Magazine: If the Three Mile Island atomic reactor near Harrisburg hadn't melted down 30 years ago this Saturday...well, there probably would have been an accident somewhere else. The entire U.S. nuclear industry was melting down in the 1970s, irradiated by spectacular cost overruns, interminable delays and public outrage. Forbes later called its collapse "the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale." The TMI fiasco was a scary cultural moment, coming ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Climate change will be costly for Washington state
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008936572_opinc28baird.html
Seattle Times: MOST people would not be very happy if they had to devote a bigger chunk of their household income every year to a problem that could have been mitigated years earlier for a fraction of the cost. Yet, that scenario seems likely if the global society fails to adopt policies to reduce emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases. A number of bills have been introduced in the current legislative session intended to reduce the state's carbon emissions. These bills have, understandably, ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Climate change: The economics of energy and water
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/%22climate+change%22+or+%22global+warming%22+or+%22renewable+energy%22/SIG=12msrahjq/*http%3A//www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=100415
Daily Star Lebanon: Sustainability of the global environmental as an integral part of a sustainable economic development policy and strategy is gaining prominence and attention of world leaders and economic development policy advisers and strategists. The high and the more frequent incidents of the devastating impacts of natural disasters due to the changing climatic conditions has become the wake-up call that we should not expect the global environment to sustain us, as an independent world, if we continue the ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Russia to boost Arctic troops to defend resources
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P5NS20090327?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Russia plans to boost its military presence in the Arctic to ensure security in the vast mineral-rich region, the Kremlin said in a strategy document published this week. Russia, whose economy depends on exports of oil, gas and metals, has previously staked its claim to part of the Arctic shelf which experts say has huge mineral reserves. The document said Moscow would create new troop formations in the Arctic zone "capable of ensuring military security in different military ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
The Future of Climate Change: How to Teach Children to Conserve
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/27/the-future-of-climate-change-how-to-teach-children-to-conserve.html
U.S. News and World Report: Sadie Louise Bernier of Seattle is 7 months old, but her parents are already showing her little things everyone can do to protect the environment. "We're leaving your room now, darling, and we're turning off the lights," says her mother, Kim Rakow Bernier. Then she'll point out the window and say, "There's Daddy getting on his bicycle to go to the office." As outreach director for Facing the Future, a sustainability education organization, Kim says that modeling ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Obama Negotiators Enter Climate Talks Amidst Recession Concerns
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1661517/obama_negotiators_enter_climate_talks_amidst_recession_concerns/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: The recession may slow proceedings of President Barack Obama's negotiators at the U.N. climate talks on Sunday, Reuters reported. The meeting in Bonn from March 29-April 8 will host up to 190 nations working towards an emissions cutting pact due to be agreed upon in December. Japan, Russia, Ukraine and many other nations have not even set goals for key 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The mood in Bonn would be helped by U.S. plans for stronger action, according to ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Obama told keep climate change out of budget bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52Q5MO20090327?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Four key U.S. House panel chairmen on Friday told President Barack Obama that energy and climate legislation should not be attached to a huge budget bill in order to avoid a possible Senate filibuster, because such a move would make it harder to reach a final agreement. The Obama administration wants Congress to pass legislation that sets a limit on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and then allow power plants, oil refineries and other industrial ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow third runway plans rest on Labour victory
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239379/heathrow-third-runway-plans
Business Green: The government has warned that airport operator BAA will not be able to lodge a planning application for a third runway at Heathrow before the next election, dealing a major blow to the chances of the controversial project ever being completed. Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to block plans to expand Heathrow, and with the Tories enjoying a substantial poll lead environmental campaigners are convinced that the chances of the project going ahead are ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Can Obama rev up climate talks?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090327/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingadvancer
Agence France-Presse: UN talks on delivering a historic deal on climate change resume in Bonn on Sunday with many hoping that US President Barack Obama's untested negotiators can breathe life into a troubled process. Some 190 nations will launch a marathon of meetings designed to culminate in Copenhagen in December with a new pact for curbing greenhouse gases beyond 2012, when provisions under the Kyoto Protocol expire. "The real negotiations are beginning here in Bonn this weekend," the UN's top ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
20 Years Since Exxon Valdez, New Ocean Threats?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102428942&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Two decades since the catastrophic oil spill in Prince William Sound, today's threats to the ocean – from acidification to dead zones – are harder to see. Philippe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International, and Peter Seligmann, chairman of Conservation International, discuss the ocean environment.
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: God 'will not give happy ending'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7964880.stm
BBC: God will not intervene to prevent humanity from wreaking disastrous damage to the environment, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. In a lecture, Dr Rowan Williams urged a "radical change of heart" to prevent runaway climate change. At York Minster he said humanity should turn away from the selfishness and greed that leads it to ignore its interdependence with the natural world. And God would not guarantee a "happy ending", he warned. Dr Williams has often ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Climate Plan May Not Tackle Free Credits, Waxman Says
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090327/pl_bloomberg/agpcpy8ec12c
Bloomberg: A draft of climate-change legislation to be made public next week isn't likely to take a stand on whether some emissions credits should be free, according to the chairman of the committee writing the measure. "We probably will not be making those decisions next week," when the Energy and Commerce Committee may release its initial proposal, panel Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said in an interview yesterday. President Barack Obama proposed in his 2010 budget ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Bracing for global climate change is a local challenge by Michel Jarraud
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/42214/title/Bracing_for_global_climate_change_is_a_local_challenge_by_Michel_Jarraud
Science News: Weather and climate extremes have been affecting people around the world, from recent droughts in China and Australia to strong storms in Asia to a cold wave in large parts of Europe and the United States -- all within a month of the World Meteorological Organization reporting 2008 would likely rank among the 10 warmest years on record. The cold wave sparked significant discussion, and the year 2008 ended up slightly colder than the previous year, partially because of the La Niña phenomenon. ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
US DOE guarantees first loan to solar energy firm
http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/0326loa.html
Environmental Finance: The US Department of Energy (DOE) has kick started its loan guarantee programme for renewable energy projects and provided a welcome boost to the solar industry, which is facing weak first-quarter sales. Energy Secretary Steven Chu offered the first loan guarantee, valued at $535 million, to Fremont, California-based Solyndra, which designs and manufactures solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The guarantee covers a loan which would provide debt financing for about 73% of the project ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Carbon capture policy inadequate in most US states - RAP
http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/0326ccs.html
Environmental Finance: Significant policy changes will be needed before carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects can be developed in most US states, according to Richard Cowart, director of the Regulator Assistance Project (RAP), a non-profit that advises electricity sector regulators. At a conference in London on CCS regulation and financing in the US, Lewes Gilles, chief executive of Hydrogen Energy outlined how the firm is hoping to build a 390MW hydrogen-powered plant in Kern County, California, which ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Danish pension giant launches $900m clean energy, forestry bet
http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/0326atp.html
Environmental Finance: Danish pension fund ATP has announced a $400 million investment in renewable energy private equity firm Hudson Clean Energy, and has made its first investment out of a $500 million pot for sustainable forestry. The $900 million is part of "an increased focus on climate-related investments', according to ATP's vice-chief investment officer Henrik Gade Jepsen. He is also to head up a new subsidiary, ATP Timberland Invest, which will manage up to Dkr3 billion ($547 million) of ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
PwC calls for carbon tax and trading hybrid
http://www.carbon-financeonline.com/index.cfm?section=global&id=11948&action=view&return=home
Carbon Finance: A "hybrid' trading system with ceiling and floor prices to control carbon prices would stimulate more investment in cutting emissions, according to a white paper by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The consultancy proposes that governments could set a price floor and ceiling on trading systems. Although the trading system could have a 'cap' on total emissions in usual circumstances, if the price of allowances in the system reached the ceiling, governments would sell unlimited allowances ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Somalia: Disaster Warning As Drought Worsens in Puntland
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903260659.html
IRIN: More and more people in Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland are relying on water trucking as the drought that has gripped the region worsens, with officials warning the situation could become a "full-blown" disaster within months. "Some of the population has reached the stage where they are no longer able to cope," Warsame Abdi, Puntland's information minister, told IRIN on 25 March. Abdi said at least 133 localities in Puntland were now dependent on water ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
East Africa: Experts Warn of Climate Change Effects on the EAC
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903260211.html
New Times: The third annual East African Health and Scientific conference got underway, yesterday, with officials warning of food insecurity and deterioration of peace in the region if climate change effects are not immediately checked. The three-day conference taking place in the Kenyan capital Nairobi aims at addressing the challenges, and charting a way forward for EAC partner states in curbing the after effects of climate change. Health Minister Dr Richard Sezibera called for more ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Leading global corporations announce 50 million tons of emissions reductions
http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_deal/news/?uNewsID=160503
WWF: Some of the world's leading companies and most recognizable brands gathered on Capitol Hill in Washington today to announce that cutting greenhouse emissions makes business sense. The companies, all partners in WWF's Climate Savers Program, announced an estimated 50 million tons of voluntary emissions reductions by 2010 since the program's inception in 1999. The independently estimated reductions are equivalent to the annual emissions of Switzerland. Companies in the WWF ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United States: Panel Enacts Incentives for Hybrids in Cab Fleets
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122701
New York Times: The Bloomberg administration moved forward on Thursday with its latest attempt to get taxicab owners to replace their old gas guzzlers with hybrid or other low-emission vehicles. Toward that end, the Taxi and Limousine Commission enacted a set of incentives that allows taxi fleet owners to charge drivers more to drive hybrid or clean diesel cabs. The new rules, which take effect May 1, will also penalize fleet owners by lowering the amount they can charge to lease cabs that use ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
We need a grand bargain on climate change
http://nhbr.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090327/NEWS0102/903269927/-1/NEWS
New Hampshire Business Review: It's time for Barack Obama to seize the day and give bipartisanship a chance to help solve the climate change dilemma. The stakes are huge. Fail, and we may have forfeited our last realistic chance to act soon enough and effectively enough to avoid global climate catastrophe. Succeed and the way becomes open for a global carbon tax that can get the job done. Time's running out. We can't just dial back global temperature as if we had control of a thermostat by reducing our ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
New signs of climate change: shifting seasons, warmer Antarctica
http://www.wqad.com/lifestyle/sns-green-climate-change-shift,0,7209358.story
Chicago: The news might seem welcome in the middle of a long, cold winter: Scientists have shown that the start of spring has moved almost two days earlier in the last 50 years. But scientists say the finding, one of two papers released today on climate change, is actually a warning sign. Together, the studies bolster the argument that the planet's temperatures have shifted significantly in the last half-century, with many of the potential consequences likely to be negative. Reporting ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Is California planning to ban black cars?
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239332/california-planning-ban-black
Business Green: Legislators in California are considering proposals that could result in black cars being banned as part of efforts to curb air conditioning use and improve fuel efficiency. The California Air Resources Board (Carb) has set out proposals for consultation that would require all car paints and coatings to achieve 20 per cent solar reflectivity. In a presentation delivered earlier this month, Carb said that the legislation - which would also require car windshields to reflect at ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Transport civil servants met aviation chiefs over Heathrow third runway
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/27/heathrow-third-runway
Guardian: Department for Transport civil servants repeatedly met aviation industry chiefs in advance of the decision to back a third runway at Heathrow, even though they told environmental groups there was a blanket ban on meetings with external bodies. The disclosure comes in documents the civil service was directed to release to Greenpeace by the information commissioner after nearly nine months of stonewalling by civil servants. The documents, in the form of a risk register produced ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Workers signal support for energy saving efforts
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239346/workers-signal-support-energy
Business Green: Employees want to save energy in the workplace, but many are unclear about how they should go about the task, according to research. A major YouGov survey of over 4,300 UK adults found that contrary to popular belief, the vast majority were willing to help their employer save money by reducing energy use. The survey, which was commissioned by the Carbon Trust as part of its campaign to help save UK businesses £1m a day, found that 78 per cent of employees want to help their ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Japan: Toshiba and Sharp confirm solar talks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239356/toshiba-sharp-confirm-solar
Business Green: Japanese electronics giants Toshiba and Sharp have today confirmed that they are discussing a possible tie-up of their solar energy operations which could underpin the two companies' ambitious plans to expand into the booming global solar market. According to AFP reports, Sharp spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said that reports the company was engaged in talks with Toshiba as well as other firms about the future of its solar cell business were accurate. She said that the company was ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Report calls for shift in climate research
http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0904/full/climate.2009.29.html
Nature: The US government's climate research needs a radical refocus to make its results more relevant to policymakers and other stakeholders. That will require more interdisciplinary research and better understanding of the effects of climate change on local scales, says a new report1 released 26 February by the National Research Council (NRC), the policy-advice arm of the US National Academy of Sciences. "Robust and effective responses to climate change demand a vastly improved body of ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Your footprint won't vanish when the lights go out
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Technology/Lights%20Earth/1433939/story.html
Montreal Gazette: Candles? Check. Flashlight? Check. All set to celebrate Earth Hour? Great. While you're sitting in the dark, let's shine a light on how much of the planet's resources you've been using up. At 8:30 Saturday night, some city streets will fade to black as thousands of Montrealers switch off the lights for 60 minutes to call attention to climate change. Darkness will envelop city hall, the revolving beam on Place Ville Marie will go out and even métro employees will dim ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Global warming hits Superfund sites
http://www.montevistajournal.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=1724
Monte Vista Journal: Extreme weather, caused in part by global warming, is increasing the health threat posed by the country's most toxic waste sites, known as Superfund sites. Superfund: In the Eye of the Storm, a new report from The Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ) and released by Environment Colorado profiles the cleanup efforts at numerous Superfund sites across the nation, which have been affected by extreme weather events and hampered by funding shortfalls. The Summitville ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Ethanol investors try to derail California's carbon-emissions proposal
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ethanol27-2009mar27,0,6273025.story
LA Times: Ethanol investors met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week in an effort to derail California's far-reaching proposal to slash carbon emissions from transportation fuels. The meeting, the latest volley in a national campaign against the regulation, was attended by Silicon Valley mogul Vinod Khosla and former Secretary of State Bill Jones, chairman of the board of Sacramento-based Pacific Ethanol Inc. One participant, New Fuels Alliance lobbyist Brooke Coleman, said the proposal is ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
India: NAU to study effects of climate change on crops; educate farmers
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nau-to-study-effects-of-climate-change-on-cro/439709/
Indian Express: While the rise in temperature has affected mango flowering this season, Navsari Agriculture University (NAU) has embarked on a project where it will be studying the effect of climate change and pollutants on crops in the most polluted areas -- Vapi, Sachin, Ankleshwar and Surat. The project is funded by the Government of Gujarat. It would be taken up in a phased manner. The study will serve as research material as well help Government bodies such as Gujarat Pollution Control Board ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Energiser money
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13376103
Economist: IN THE dark hours of the second world war, scientists of the Manhattan Project worked secretly in the hills of Tennessee. This month, tucked in those same hills, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory sat listening to their new mission. Thomas Mason, Oak Ridge's director, stood beside a slide show, letting its contents sink in. The budget for the Department of Energy (DoE), a chart showed, was $24.2 billion in 2008. This year Congress gave the DoE $38.7 billion in the stimulus package ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Australia opens bidding for undersea carbon plan
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKSYD37612020090327?sp=true
Reuters: Australia opened the bidding on Friday for ten offshore areas that will be used to store carbon dioxide, bringing its pioneering plan to reduce emissions by pumping the greenhouse gas beneath the ocean floor a step closer to reality. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the release of greenhouse gas storage areas for commercial development was the world's first and part of the government's strategy to reduce its carbon emissions while maintaining economic growth. "Advancing ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Experts: US lacks leadership credibility on climate change
http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/133460
Aspen Daily News: The United States will not be in a position to be a global leader on greenhouse gas reduction strategies in Copenhagen this December unless it adopts a significant new policy at home, experts said Thursday. "For the U.S. to lead, we have to be able to control our own emissions," said Rafe Pomerance, president of the Climate Policy Center and chairman of Americans for Equitable Climate Solutions, at an Aspen Institute panel yesterday. "We have proclaimed our desire to lead but have not ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
Charleaders must cool enthusiasm for settting fire to the planet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/mar/27/biochar-monbiot-global-warming
Guardian: Well that got 'em going. So far James Lovelock, Jim Hansen and Pushker Kharecha, Chris Goodall and Peter Read have all responded in the Guardian to my column on biochar. Reading their responses, I realise that it was unfair of me to include James Lovelock and Jim Hansen on the list of those who have been suckered by the charleaders. Their position is more nuanced than I made out. Chris Goodall, to his credit, has accepted that he was too bullish about the technology. The points he ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United States: Tesla unveils the electric 'family car of the future'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/27/tesla-electric-cars-model-s
Associated Press: Tesla Motors yesterday unveiled a pair of prototype all-electric cars that the fledgling automaker hopes will be the family friendly, mid-sized car of the future. "Welcome to Model S," said designer Franz von Holzhausen as he pulled the covers off the cars, which will seat seven people and travel 300 miles (483km) on a single charge. Tesla hopes to begin producing the flashy, five-door car at a yet-to-be-disclosed location in Southern California by the final quarter of ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United States: Tesla Rolls Out Electric Sedan For Less Than $50K
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102416417&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: California's Tesla Motors made a name for itself with its sleek but very expensive all-electric sports car. But the company always planned to build a more affordable, family-style sedan. Now it's debuting the Model S, with a price tag under $50,000.
Sat, 28 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Government throws more than £300m worth of PFI cash at waste projects
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239349/government-throws-300m-pfi-cash
Business Green: The government today announced plans for more than £300m worth of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) investment to help fund three flagship waste management projects intended to cut the amount of organic waste sent to landfill. A total of £319m worth of PFI credits are to be awarded to biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) management projects currently being planned by Hertfordshire County Council, Norfolk County Council and the South London Waste Partnership, which includes Croydon, ...
Sat, 28 Mar 09
U.N. 'Climate Change' Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510937,00.html
Fox News: A United Nations document on "climate change" that will be distributed to a major environmental conclave next week envisions a huge reordering of the world economy, likely involving trillions of dollars in wealth transfer, millions of job losses and gains, new taxes, industrial relocations, new tariffs and subsidies, and complicated payments for greenhouse gas abatement schemes and carbon taxes -- all under the supervision of the world body. Those and other results are blandly ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Earth Hour: Turning out the lights plays into the hands of our critics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/mar/27/climate-change-carbon-emissions
Guardian: In my 25 years of environmental campaigning I have seen lots of inspired protests and lots of daft or pointless ones. But the WWF Earth Hour campaign has to be one of the most misguided and counterproductive actions I have ever seen. On the face of it, this seems like a rather neat idea, which ticks every box for a mass action. Turning your lights off for an hour this Saturday from 8.30pm is a small, simple act that is easy to publicise. It is highly visible. It's something ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
South Africa: Centre Opened to Reduce Greenhouse Gasses
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903270827.html
BuaNews: A Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere in South Africa, was unveiled in Johannesburg on Friday. The centre is currently the only technology available to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, while still using fossil fuels and much of current energy infrastructure. The centre will capture the carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere and store it in deep geological formations. The ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Alaska's Coast Disappearing At Record Rates
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102428951&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Reporting in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers find that a portion of the Alaskan coast is eroding at a rate of 45 feet per year. Chris Arp, a research ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage, explains why the coast is crumbling faster than before.
Fri, 27 Mar 09
NOAA Head Jane Lubchenco On Ocean Policy
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102428947&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: What is on the horizon for the U.S. role in ocean management? Jane Lubchenco, newly-confirmed administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), discusses her top priorities for ocean policy -- from forming a National Climate Service to ending overfishing.
Fri, 27 Mar 09
China pulls out of Earth Hour to celebrate Tibet 'liberation' day
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/27/china-earth-hour-tibet
Guardian: The Chinese government has been turned off this Saturday's "Earth Hour" after officials realised the event falls on a newly created holiday to commemorate the ousting of the Dalai Lama from Tibet. Chinese journalists and student groups have been told to scale back their participation because images of cities and campuses turning dark do not fit the upbeat propaganda message that the authorities wanted to convey by declaring 28 March "Serf Liberation Day" in Tibet. The United ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
US hopes to avoid repeat of Kyoto Protocol
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_us_climate_talks
Associated Press: President Barack Obama's administration will be guided by a mix of "science and pragmatism" as it helps craft a global deal on climate change, the top U.S. climate official said Friday. Todd Stern said that would help the administration avoid a repeat of what happened with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, when U.S. officials negotiated a deal in Japan that failed to win domestic support. The U.S. refusal to join the program to reduce emissions drew sharp international rebuke, and ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Carbon Offsets: Fact or Fiction?
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=carbon-offsets-fact-or-fiction-09-03-05
Scientific American: The producers of the Fox TV show 24 are going carbon neutral. They're helping to fund a wind farm in India and burning some biodiesel in the production trucks to try to precisely balance the carbon dioxide emitted from all those klieg lights with the amount avoided by generating Indian electricity from the breeze rather than burning coal. Only problem? The accounting doesn't quite work. To truly offset CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, a project like a wind farm must be in addition to ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
U.S. fuel efficiency for cars up for first time
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52Q3J820090327?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The Obama administration on Friday imposed the first increase in fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars, requiring model year 2011 vehicles to average 30.2 miles per gallon. A copy of the fuel efficiency rule obtained by Reuters would require sport utilities, vans, and pickups -- the light truck class -- to achieve 24.1 mpg. The standard is estimated to save nearly 900 million gallons of fuel and to cost the industry $1.4 billion, the regulation said. Congress has ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
US Senators try to cut ethanol import tariffs
http://www.bioenergy-business.com/index.cfm?section=lead&id=11941&action=view&return=home
Bioenergy Business: A bipartisan group of US Senators has introduced a bill to lower tariffs on imported ethanol, a proposal that US ethanol supporters have fiercely resisted in the past. The proposal is designed to ensure parity between the ethanol blending subsidy and two tariffs on imported ethanol, by requiring US President Barack Obama to lower the tariffs by at least $0.11/gallon ($0.03/litre) within 30 days of enactment. The 2008 Farm Bill lowered the ethanol blender subsidy from ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Federal Funding Gap Cited For Research On Human Health Impacts Due To Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326150554.htm
ScienceDaily: Climate change will seriously impact public health, but the United States has yet to allocate adequate research funding to understand and prepare for these impacts, according to a report published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The report suggests that the current knowledge gap regarding climate change and public health is putting multitudes at risk and calls for a major expansion of research to tackle ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Dust Plays Larger Than Expected Role In Determining Atlantic Temperature
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090326141553.htm
ScienceDaily: The recent warming trend in the Atlantic Ocean is largely due to reductions in airborne dust and volcanic emissions during the past 30 years, according to a new study. Since 1980, the tropical North Atlantic has been warming by an average of a quarter-degree Celsius (a half-degree Fahrenheit) per decade. Though this number sounds small, it can translate to big impacts on hurricanes, which thrive on warmer water, says Amato Evan, a researcher with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Japan: Toshiba, Sharp mull solar power tie-up: companies
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090327/ts_afp/japanenergysolarcompanytoshibasharp
Agence France-Presse: Japanese consumer electronics giants Toshiba and Sharp are in talks on a possible tie-up in the solar power generation field, the companies said Friday. "It is true that we are holding talks on the solar cell business with other companies, including Toshiba," Sharp Corp. spokeswoman Miyuki Nakayama said, declining to give further details. Sharp wants to enhance its solar business further, with its solar cell revenue expected to reach 170 billion yen (1.7 billion dollars) ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
This gift of nature is the best way to save us from climate catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/27/biochar
Guardian: I believe that George Monbiot, in rubbishing the concept of biochar, misrepresents my work (Woodchips with everything. It's the Atkins plan of the low-carbon world, 24 March). "The great green miracle works like this: we turn the planet's surface into charcoal. Sorry, not charcoal ... Now we say biochar." I coined the word about four years ago. It doesn't mean charcoal like you burn on the barbecue, but finely divided pyrolysed (OK, George, "cooked" if you like) biomass prepared for soil ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow third runway plans dealt massive blow
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/27/heathrow-third-runway-threat
Guardian: The chances of a third runway being built at Heathrow airport have been dealt a serious blow after a government document warned that BAA cannot lodge a planning application for the project before the next general election. The Conservatives -- who are well ahead of Labour in the polls -- have pledged to block a new landing strip at the UK's busiest international airport. The admission gives a Tory administration ample time to draft a new aviation policy that will block BAA's ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Italy: Students give up wheels for their own two feet
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122689
New York Times: Each morning, about 450 students travel along 17 school bus routes to 10 elementary schools in this lakeside city at the southern tip of Lake Como. There are zero school buses. In 2003, to confront the triple threats of childhood obesity, local traffic jams and – most important – a rise in global greenhouse gases abetted by car emissions, an environmental group here proposed a retro-radical concept: children should walk to school. They set up a piedibus (literally foot-bus in ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Trying to make nuclear power less risky
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/25/trying-to-make-nuclear-power-less-risky.html
U.S. News and World Report: Thorium is a slightly radioactive element, a cousin of uranium. For the past four decades, in fits and starts, researchers have been testing it as a potentially attractive competitor to uranium as a source of nuclear fuel. Within the nuclear community, it's won a small, devoted following. Up to now, it's had little commercial impact. Today, however, thorium is getting a serious second look from some powerful global players. With interest in nuclear power soaring, thorium is being ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
The truth about all those green jobs
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/careers/2009/03/25/the-truth-about-all-those-green-jobs.html
U.S. News and World Report: It's no wonder that the "green jobs" chant has become a chorus. What's not to like about the prospect of millions of newly created and hard-to-outsource positions? Particularly if they are filled by people hard at work designing and building and installing the very equipment that will overhaul the nation's energy habit--replacing, or at least diminishing, the nation's addiction to oil with plentiful, renewable, made-in-America energy. This idyllic vision is being trumpeted in newly ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Hotter days ahead to change farming, greenhouse conference told
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25248856-30417,00.html
Australian: AUSTRALIA is hotter than ever and is expected to get hotter, with huge consequences for the nation's farming industry. CSIRO scientist Mark Howden has warned that changes in climate, even though only slight, meant the nation needed to re-think approaches to agriculture. Dr Howden, from the CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship, told the Greenhouse 2009 conference yesterday that agriculture practices could look quite different in future decades. He believes Australian ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
New cars and trucks will need to reach 27.3 miles per gallon in 2011 model year
http://www.startribune.com/nation/41942722.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ
Associated Press: The Obama administration plans to raise fuel efficiency standards by 2 miles per gallon to 27.3 mpg for new cars and trucks in the 2011 model year, marking the first increase in passenger car standards in more than two decades. Under the changes, which are slightly less stringent than those proposed by the Bush administration, new passenger cars will need to meet 30.2 mpg for the 2011 model year and pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, and minivans will need to reach 24.1 mpg, an ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Drought in Kenya ravages Maasai cattle
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLQ617029
Reuters: Isaac Deka and his three exhausted cows cluster under a thorny acacia tree that provides little shelter from the midday sun. They are all that is left of a proud herd of 55 Borana cattle that were the wealth and livelihood of the 45-year-old Maasai pastoralist, his two wives and five children. "One of them is already lying down and it will not be able to stand again. By tomorrow or the day after I am not sure any of them will still be alive," said Deka. Cattle are the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Oregon legislature weighs ethanol bills
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/oregon_legislature_weighs_etha.html
Oregonian: The backlash against ethanol hit Oregon's Legislature on Thursday, with five bills up for consideration that would scale back the state's commitment to the largely corn-based fuel. Legislators from both sides of the aisle complained about reduced mileage, potential engine and fuel system damage and increased food and livestock feed prices. Ethanol is a favorite of Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who helped push biofuel tax breaks through the previous Legislature, along with a requirement ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Climate changes Europe's borders - and the world's
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16854-climate-changes-europes-borders--and-the-worlds.html
New Scientist: Italy and Switzerland are planning to redraw their shared alpine border, as global warming is melting the glaciers that originally guided the line. Although peaceful, the move raises fears of future conflicts over shifting borders and resources. Glaciers and ice fields around the world are melting as temperatures rise, with Europe's high mountains particularly hard hit. The original proposal to move the Swiss-Italian border comes from Franco Narducci, a member of Italy's ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Financial crisis, price hike and climate change decelerating growth in Asia-Pacific: UN
http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2009/mar/mar27/news06.php
Nepal News: A new report by the United Nations has pointed out three simultaneous threats in Asia and Pacific region - financial crisis, food-fuel price rise and climate change, which have decelerated the development process. The report 'Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2009: Addressing triple threats to Development' by Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) made public on Friday in Kathmandu underlines the need of addressing these issues together to ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Destroying the glacier to save it
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1789&Itemid=189
Asia Sentinel: The Siachen glacier, at 19,000 feet in elevation, has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan and is the world's highest battlefield, with intermittent exchanges of fire. However, there may not be much left to fight over as the ice mass is disappearing due to global warming caused by emissions by industry and transport sectors. Recent studies have found that the length of the glacier has dwindled to half from 150 km to 74 km. Dr Rajeev Upadhayay, of the geology department at ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: The gaunt, skeletal beauty of pylons
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/26/pylons-beauty-spender
Guardian: Our desire for ever more electricity is fuelling a fresh row over pylons - and where to place them. Bill Bryson, president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, calls plans for new pylons to be stretched across 170 miles of British countryside "crazy". And given that the countryside in question includes sublime swathes of Snowdonia, Kent and Somerset, he has a point. Yet the electricity pylon itself is all too often an object of hate, when not only does it perform an invaluable ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Farmers Want Obama to Make Carbon a Cash Crop Under Climate Law
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aFYk4zIrQRms
Bloomberg: Rex Woollen grows corn and soybeans. In 2007, the Wilcox, Nebraska, farmer started cultivating a new commodity: carbon. By not tilling his 800 acres, Woollen by some estimates keeps 470 tons of carbon per year in the ground and out of the atmosphere. Because of that, Woollen gets carbon credits he can sell on the Chicago Climate Exchange. At first, neighboring farmers were skeptical. "They called me a tree-hugger," Woollen said. "Then I showed them my first ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Last chance to change
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/earth-hour/last-chance-to-change-20090326-9buq.html
Age: It's Copenhagen or bust. Ben Cubby reports on a meeting that may be our only hope of doing the right thing for the planet. World leaders will meet in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in December to design a new global plan to combat climate change. The negotiations are the best chance to start reducing the world's spiralling greenhouse gas emissions. The next 20 years are proving to be a crucial period, when scientists believe it is still possible to ward off the worst effects ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
U.K. Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Declined 2% Last Year
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aXTe6bqtOjRo
Bloomberg: U.K. emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming fell 2 percent last year as the country took steps to meet its international treaty obligations. Output of six heat-trapping gases dropped to 623.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, from 636.6 million tons a year earlier, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, or DECC. Reduced fossil-fuel consumption by transport and manufacturing and lower use of coal to generate power led to ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Kirk Asked to Explain Obama's Position on U.S. Climate Tariffs
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aHe3Qq7ckwkA
Bloomberg: Republican lawmakers asked U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to explain the Obama administration's position on imposing tariffs on imports from countries that aren't limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Representative Joe Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and three other Republicans questioned the policy in a letter to Kirk today that was posted on the committee Web site. The lawmakers said their concerns stem from statements ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Climate change will cause 'untold upheaval' to wine industry
http://www.decanter.com/news/279469.html?aff=rss
Decanter.com: One of Australia's leading voices in the wine industry has warned producers that they face untold upheaval if they are to combat the effects of global warming. Dr Tony Jordan, formerly the head of Moet Hennessy's Australasian portfolio, including Cape Mentelle and Cloudy Bay, and now a high profile consultant, claimed that producers 'are in denial about climate change'. Speaking at last week's inaugural International Sparkling Wine Symposium, Jordan predicted that 'vineyards ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Canada: Harper government announces funding for eight carbon capture projects
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2009/03/26/8897146-cp.html
Canadian Press: The Harper government has given the "green" light to eight projects aimed at developing carbon capture and storage technologies. Funding was announced last April but it took the Natural Resources Department a year to choose from almost 40 proposals it received. "I don't think it's possible to overstate the importance of this technology," Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said Thursday at an announcement in Calgary. "These companies span B.C., Alberta and ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Japan Panel's Emissions Targets May Shrink GDP by as Much as 6%
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aJ.jsQZzIhzI
Bloomberg: A panel advising Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on climate change has proposed mid-term targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that could shrink the country's gross domestic product by as much as 6 percent. The five proposals range from a 25 percent cut in carbon emissions from 1990 levels by 2020 to a 4 percent increase, according to a document released today in Tokyo. The panel's subcommittee, chaired by former Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui, is due to make a final ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Earth Hour more than a symbolic gesture
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/live/article/203331
Metro Canada: On Saturday, hundreds of millions of people will take part in what could be the biggest global movement ever. Earth Hour -- at 8.30 p.m. local time -- is a unique opportunity for us all to demand action to combat climate change. From London to Beijing, from Cape Town to New York, in more than a thousand towns and cities, citizens will send a clear signal to the world's leaders that they want to keep the lid on global warming. Earth Hour is far more than a symbolic gesture. By ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Greenhouse gas goals for major nations
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LP489336.htm
Reuters: The following factbox compares goals for curbs on greenhouse gas emissions by major nations ahead of U.N. climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, from March 29-April 8. China, the United States, the European Union, Russia and India are top world emitters. Targets they set will go a long way to decide the ambition of a new U.N. deal to fight global warming due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December. Rich nations' plans cluster around cuts of roughly 15 percent below current ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Clampdown on 'Easy' China Carbon Deals to Cost Firms
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=a6d8cFe.XkIM
Bloomberg: The European Union, frustrated that its 11,000 factories and power plants are failing to adequately reduce greenhouse-gas pollution, will seek tighter emission rules that may raise the price of burning fossil fuels. The 27-nation bloc wants to curb access to a program run by the United Nations that rewards companies more for funding emission-reduction projects in China and India than for decreasing their own gas output in Europe. New limits are needed to force extra pollution cuts at ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Recession dampens Obama negotiators' climate debut
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52Q2CK20090327?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: President Barack Obama's negotiators make their debut at U.N. climate talks on Sunday but U.S. promises of tougher action are unlikely to brighten prospects for strong treaty now overshadowed by recession. Up to 190 nations meet in Bonn from March 29-April 8 to work on plugging huge gaps in a pact due to be agreed in December. Some industrial nations -- Japan, Russia and Ukraine -- have not even set goals for key 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The U.N.'s climate chief ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Millions to flick the switch for climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090327/sc_afp/climatewarmingaustraliaearthhouradvancer
Agence France-Presse: Millions of people across the globe will kill their lights for one hour this Saturday, in what organisers hope will be a resounding call for tough action on climate change. The waters of Sydney Harbour will be plunged into darkness for an hour from 8:30 pm (0930 GMT) as the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge dim their lights. The pyramids of Giza, Niagara Falls, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Acropolis and Beijing's "Birds Nest" Olympic stadium are among ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Australia: Farmers Face Challenges To Curb Greenhouse Gas Emissions
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1660966/farmers_face_challenges_to_curb_greenhouse_gas_emissions/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: An Australian scientist said Thursday that farmers of the future will have to use sheep and cattle that produce less methane, and crops that emit less nitrous oxide. They must also become experts in reporting their greenhouse gas emissions to governments, said University of Melbourne scientist Richard John Eckard on Thursday. Agriculture represents a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions, and is only expected to rise as an increasing human population demands more and ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
CO2 treaty must not spark "trade war": U.S. lawmaker
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P67120090326?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: As the world tries to forge a new treaty to slow global warming, care must be taken not to spark trade conflicts between rich and developing countries, a key U.S. lawmaker said on Thursday. "We clearly we do not want to trigger a trade war," Ed Markey, a Democrat who heads the House climate change committee, told reporters in a teleconference. Already a trade spat has been brewing between interests in China and the United States, the world's two biggest emitters of ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Climate change targets will not be met unless Government invests in renewables
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5056073/Climate-change-targets-will-not-be-met-unless-Government-invests-in-renewables.html
Telegraph: The Department for the Environment said greenhouse gases have fallen by two per cent in the last year. But environmentalists pointed out overall emissions have actually risen under the Labour Government and the recent fall is only as a consequence of the recession and the switch from coal to gas. In order to meet ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gases by 80 per cent by 2050, they claimed the country will have to make much larger cuts in emissions in the next few decades ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Global Climate Efforts Await New US Input
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123810453832651911.html
Wall Street Journal: When the Obama administration makes its debut in the international climate-change debate at talks next week, expectations will be high: Europe hopes the U.S. can help end a standoff between rich and poor countries over how to share the burden of cutting carbon emissions. "The arrival of the new U.S. administration will have a huge and positive effect on the negotiations," said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, which is overseeing the talks. "This will ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Holyrood hosts climate conference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7967043.stm
BBC: The Scottish Parliament's environment committee is to host a special climate change conference at Holyrood. Experts from across the world have been brought together to give their views on Scotland's own climate change bill, which is now going through parliament. Among them will be representatives from low lying countries like Bangladesh and the Maldives, which fear catastrophic flooding. Delegates will also discuss the key climate-change issues around the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Key Senate panel backs Obama's budget blueprint
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_go_co/congress_budget
Associated Press: A key Senate panel stacked with allies of President Barack Obama approved his ambitious budget blueprint Thursday, giving the president a symbolic endorsement of efforts to boost clean energy, fight global warming and improve access to health care. Senate Budget Committee approval by a party-line vote sets the stage for floor debate next week, where moderate Democrats unhappy with deficits wield more influence. The Senate measure is a nonbinding road map for major legislation later ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Ministers pore over incentives to save growth of green energy
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article5983602.ece
Times (UK): Ministers were last night considering fresh incentives designed to spur investment in renewable energy amid evidence that the credit crunch is threatening government energy targets. The Energy Minister hit back at claims that the Government was failing to deliver on an ambitious plan to foster a green energy revolution by building thousands of onshore and offshore wind turbines. Mike O'Brien told a meeting of renewable-energy chiefs that he was determined that Britain would meet its ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Toyota poised to join hybrid price war
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239324/toyota-poised-join-hybrid-price
Business Green: Toyota has this week confirmed that it is developing a low-cost hybrid version of its Yaris model, designed to take on Honda's new Insight hybrid model. Honda is preparing to roll out the latest version of its hybrid Insight in the US and Europe and is expected to significantly undercut Toyota's market-leading Prius. The current Prius model sells for about $22,000 (£15,000), while the Insight will be priced from $19,800. Speaking at the unveiling of the next version of the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: MPs call for government geo-engineering strategy
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/3936d55/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0Cbusiness0Egreen0Cnews0C22393220Cmps0Ecall0Egovernment0Egeo/story01.htm
Business Green: The government's failure to invest in engineering skills could seriously undermine its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, according to a highly critical MPs report which also calls on ministers to establish a clear strategy for investing in geo-engineering projects capable of minimising the effects of climate change. The report from the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee concludes that the UK has "no clear strategy" for the engineering sector and is facing a "lack ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
A timeline of major events in nuclear power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_bi_ge/nuclear_s_green_sheen_timeline
Associated Press: * 1955: A U.S. government reactor makes Arco, Idaho, the world's first town electrified by nuclear power. * 1957: The U.S.' first commercial nuclear power plant becomes operational in Shippingport, Pa. (Nuclear reactors were already in service in the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom). It was retired in 1982. * March 29, 1979: Three Mile Island Unit 2 in Middletown, Pa., melts down. No one was killed or seriously injured that day, but the public relations disaster sets back ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Canada offers to fund carbon-capture projects
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P5KL20090326?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Eight carbon capture and storage projects in Western Canada will share C$140 million ($114 million) in funding from the Canadian government, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said on Thursday. The projects, whose backers include TransCanada Corp Spectra Energy, TransAlta Corp, Husky Energy Inc, Enbridge Inc and others, will cut emissions of carbon dioxide from electricity and oil and gas production The eight proposals are early stage projects that will reduce emissions into ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Less dusty air warms Atlantic, may spur hurricanes
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P5T520090326?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A decline in sun-dimming airborne dust has caused a fast warming of the tropical North Atlantic in recent decades, according to a study that might help predict hurricanes on the other side of the ocean. About 70 percent of the warming of the Atlantic since the early 1980s was caused by less dust, blown from Saharan sandstorms or caused by volcanic eruptions, U.S.-based scientists wrote in the journal Science. Clouds of dust can be blown thousands of kilometers (miles) and ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Climate Change Capital cuts staff in US, Britain
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLQ93744220090326
Reuters: Clean energy project investment manager Climate Change Capital said on Thursday it was reducing the headcount at its offices in the U.S. and Britain. "We have reduced some of the support and administrative activities. It's not a significant number for us," chief executive Mark Woodall told Reuters, declining to disclose exactly how many staff were reduced. "The core activities of the company are unaffected by the changes we have made," he added. Climate Change Capital ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Government fails to plug renewables funding gap
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239305/government-fails-plug-renewable
Business Green: Climate change minister Mike O'Brien sought to defend the government's policy on feed-in tariffs for renewable energy earlier today, in the face of mounting anger from industry leaders who fear many renewables will go under before the tariffs are introduced next year. At a summit organised by the Renewable Energy Association (REA) to discuss how the proposed feed-in tariffs should be structured, O'Brien faced repeated criticism from the floor that the current consultation on feed-in ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Billion people invited to switch off lights
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090326/sc_afp/environmentwarmingearth
Agence France-Presse: Around a billion people living in the world's major cities are being invited to turn off their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday for "Earth Hour," described as the biggest mass campaign to demand action on climate change. The Empire State Building, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Acropolis in Athens and the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan are among the buildings whose illuminations will be switched off for an hour, the organisers said on ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
G20 summit will test resolve on greener economy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P4NA20090326?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A G20 summit next week will test leading countries' appetite to fight climate change after spending trillions bailing out banks and shoring up the global economy. The April 2 meeting in London of leaders of major developed and emerging economies aims to battle a financial crisis. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, hosting the meeting, also wants to coordinate economic stimulus spending on a global response to climate change. If the summit fails to widen its agenda to ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Budget reconciliation talk for climate bill refuses to die
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122620
ClimateWire: Even as the House and Senate move ahead with budget resolutions that leaves little room for the use of the budget reconciliation process to move climate change legislation, Republicans and even some liberal Democrats are unwilling to close the door on the possible use of the filibuster-proof tactic. The House Budget Committee late last night cleared a budget resolution that contained reconciliation instructions for health care and education but not for cap-and-trade legislation. The ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Mind the gap: Reducing climate-related health risks
http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/mind-the-gap-reducing-climate-related-health-risks.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_climatechangeandenergy
SciDev.Net: We must bridge the research--policy gap and use existing information to reduce the health risks caused by climate change, says Dziedzom De Souza. He argues that although much research has focused on predicting climate change's impact on health, little has actually been applied to controlling or preventing diseases. For example, studies have shown that a malaria epidemic is five times more likely in the year following an El Niño event -- but this information is not being used to ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Clean fuels are a social panacea - EPA
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/aspen/clean-fuels-to-the-rescue
Daily Climate: Shifting the United States to clean-burning renewable fuels has the potential to cut through a thicket of thorny social ills and solve long-standing problems across the entire spectrum of American life, from manufacturing to national security to clean water, the country's top environmental cop said on Wednesday. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson spoke before 150 scientists, lawyers, industry executives, activists and others gathered at this alpine town ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
The growing case against red meat
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1887266,00.html
Time Magazine: In more news that has steak lovers feeling deflated, a study published in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine finds that people who indulge in high amounts of red meat and processed meats, including steak, bacon, sausage and cold cuts, have an increased risk of death from cancer and heart disease. The findings add power to the growing push -- by health officials, environmentalists and even some chefs -- to cool America's love affair with meat. The analysis of more ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Will the military lead the way to greener technology?
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1886116,00.html
Time Magazine: On Feb. 26, the British Ministry of Defense (MOD) published a "Defense Technology Plan" that laid out the British military's long-term research needs. The document was designed to guide arms and defense manufacturers on where to direct their research and development budgets. It highlighted five "capability visions" which it hoped would "stimulate new technologies." One of those visions was "Reduce dependency on fossil fuels." (See pictures of technological advances in the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Australia: More aged deaths predicted due to increase in extreme heat
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/global-warming/more-aged-deaths-predicted-due-to-increase-in-extreme-heat-20090325-9amn.html
Age: THE number of elderly Melburnians dying due to extreme heat is expected to rise dramatically as climate change takes hold this century, research suggests. Heat stress is also projected to hit workplaces, with more regular oppressive days affecting productivity. A separate study found the projected increase in bushfires would reduce air quality, leading to more cases of potentially fatal respiratory illness. Nicole Joffe from consultants Net Balance found the number of ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Are the ice caps in trouble? Disappearing? You're getting warmer
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/earth-hour/are-the-ice-caps-in-trouble-disappearing-youre-getting-warmer-20090326-9bv3.html
Age: Polar ice is melting at such an alarming rate the rest of the world can't help but feel the heat, reports Marian Wilkinson. Before the summer heatwave hit Australia in January, climate scientists around the world were already turning their attention in our direction. The popular belief that Antarctica might be resistant to global warming was punctured with new research based on data from satellites and weather stations, confirming that for the past 50 years, much of the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Why the Copenhagen climate change cliffhanger could drag on a little longer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/25/copenhagen-climate-change-summit
Guardian: After nearly a decade of George Bush's denial and obstruction, Barack Obama could hold the key to a new global deal to tackle global warming. Which is why anyone who knows anything about climate change has been waiting for 2009 for a long time. Obama, as they see it, has arrived in the nick of time. The UN negotiations most likely to broker an international treaty have crawled into the home straight and the finishing line is in sight. A deadline of December has been set, ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Australia: More heat-related deaths 'likely'
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/more-heatrelated-deaths-likely-20090326-9aqo.html
AAP: Australia's big cities need to guard against a surge in heat-related deaths as they suffer more days with temperatures topping 30 degrees, scientists warn. Two independent studies looking at projected atmospheric conditions in Sydney and Melbourne have concluded that deaths of older people from heat stress and air pollution could double. The Sydney study, by Dr Martin Cope of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, sought to forecast the number of days when the maximum ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Compressed natural gas clears the air in Bangladesh
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/03/25/compressed-natural-gas-clears-the-air-in-bangladesh/
Christian Science Monitor: Muhammad Mokles plies the busy Dhaka streets in his green-painted auto-rickshaw. But when it's time to refuel, he skips the traditional gas pump and goes straight to a compressed natural gas (CNG) station. It's not only much cheaper than gasoline but it's also much better for the environment. Here in Bangladesh's capital, the streets overflow with thousands of noisy honking vehicles, pedestrians, beggar children, food vendors, and stray animals. Millions of people need to move around ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Australia: Carbon neutral farming a furphy
http://sj.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/carbon-neutral-farming-a-furphy/1466974.aspx
Stock Journal: The winner of last year's national 'Raising the Baa' competition has concluded carbon farming to offset a farm's own emissions cannot work under the present rules. Western Victorian sheep producer Andrew Dufty won the competition after being judged as one of the best adopters of technology and labour efficiency in the sheep industry, together with his innovative management and environmental awareness. On farm carbon neutrality a pipe-dream without including soil ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Coal hard facts: cleaning it won't be dirt cheap
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123751110892790871.html
Wall Street Journal: Big industry calls it the future. Al Gore suggests it's a fantasy. Whatever the truth about "clean coal," consumers will be paying for it one way or another. Coal, more than any other fuel, powers the planet. It is the primary source of electricity in dominant economies from the U.S. to China to Germany. In all those places, coal is cheap and, unlike oil, domestically plentiful. Its use is rising, particularly in developing countries that soon will consume more energy than the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United States: Poor ocean conditions hurt Sacramento River salmon runs
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/03/poor_ocean_conditions_hurt_sac.html
Oregonian: The collapse of Sacramento River salmon runs that led to the close of coastal fisheries in Oregon in recent years can be largely traced to poor ocean conditions. That is the conclusion of a recent report (PDF) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. But the report points out that the salmon who were hurt by warm sea-surface temperatures and low food supply were already suffering from declining freshwater conditions in the Sacramento River basin, where water ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Ice loss on Great Lakes shows complexity of climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/03/ice-on-the-great-lakes---what.html
New Scientist: Glaciers and the polar caps aren't the only places to be feeling the heat. The ice cover on America's Great Lakes has apparently dropped by 30% since the 1970s, and there are all sorts of possible consequences. What's interesting is that the loss of ice could actually lead to feedback effects which could make it easier for ice to form. Quite what will happen as a result of all these competing effects is still anybody's guess. It's a nice example of just how difficult it can be ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Maldives' carbon neutral plan is not greenwash, just imperfect progress
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/mar/26/maldives-carbon-neutral-greenwash
Guardian: Mark Lynas's book Six Degrees strongly affects those who read it. It is a powerful but quietly voiced assessment of how the world will change as temperatures rise. The people of the Maldives, only too aware that their low-lying coral atolls are likely to disappear before the end of the century, are particularly interested in climate change and Lynas's book has been widely read in government circles in the capital Malé. Last month the Maldives asked him for a plan to make the country ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
New Enzymes Created For Biofuel Production
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323212023.htm
ScienceDaily: Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and world-leading gene-synthesis company DNA2.0 have taken an important step toward the development of a cost-efficient process to extract sugars from cellulose--the world's most abundant organic material and cheapest form of solar-energy storage. Plant sugars are easily converted into a variety of renewable fuels such as ethanol or butanol. In a paper published this week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Global warming giving nuclear new claim to clean
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_bi_ge/nuclear_s_green_sheen
Associated Press: The nation's worst nuclear power plant accident was unfolding on Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island when an industry economist took the rostrum at a nearby business luncheon. It did not go well. Those in the standing-room-only crowd listened to economist Doug Biden's thoughts about cheap, reliable nuclear power, but Biden could not calm their nerves or answer their pointed questions: Should they join the tens of thousands of people fleeing south-central Pennsylvania? Should they ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Don't hold the US to climate standards it cannot achieve
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/26/climate-change-europe-us
Guardian: Europe is inadvertently undermining President Obama on global warming, with potentially damaging consequences for climate co-operation and transatlantic relations. Consider these troubling developments. First, many European policymakers have unrealistic expectations about how quickly Obama can reduce US emissions. Europe expects all developed countries to cut their emissions to 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. This may be reasonable for Europe, which expects to be 8% below 1990 ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Ice that burns could be a green fossil fuel
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16848-ice-that-burns-could-be-a-green-fossil-fuel.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: Natural gas locked up in water crystals could be a source of enormous amounts of energy âEUR" and if a new technology delivers what scientists are claiming, then it could be even be emissions-free too. To the naked eye, clathrate hydrate looks like regular ice. However, while it is made up partly of water, the water molecules are organised into "cages", which trap individual molecules of methane inside them. Compared to other fossil fuels, methane âEUR" also known as natural ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
NRC finds violation at Conn. nuclear power plant
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_re_us/nuclear_plant_violation
Associated Press: Federal regulators are calling a piping system problem at a southeastern Connecticut nuclear power plant a "more than minor" safety violation. But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says there are no public safety issues, because the owner of the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford fixed the problem during routine maintenance in October. NRC officials say some gas got trapped in pipes designed to deliver cooling water to one of two operating reactors at the plant. ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Can NEPA pass tests posed by climate-related projects?
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122594
ClimateWire: The "magna carta" of U.S. environmental law is having growing pains as federal agencies grapple with how it will incorporate climate change and whether it will invite lawsuits that could send streams of climate-related issues into the courts. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is the ambitious statute requiring that federal agencies publicly evaluate the environmental impacts of their decisions -- from building a highway to permitting wetland development. It also requires ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Iberdrola to slash UK wind investment 40 per cent
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239287/iberdrola-slash-uk-wind
Business Green: The government's wind energy plans have received a major blow after the world's biggest investor in wind power, Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, announced it was to cut its investment in the UK by £300m. According to Times reports, the company is to cut its budget in the UK by 40 per cent, equivalent to the investment required to build a wind farm capable of powering 200,000 homes. Xabier Viteri, chief of Iberdrola Renewables, whose Spanish parent company owns ScottishPower, ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Understanding Sea Temperature-atmospheric Pressure Links In North Atlantic
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325155634.htm
ScienceDaily: Feedback effects between the ocean and atmosphere are important to understanding the mechanisms affecting climate variations. Previous studies have found that atmospheric anomalies associated with a variation in atmospheric pressure above the North Atlantic Ocean called the North Atlantic Oscillation produce a three-part pattern (tripole) of sea surface temperature anomalies at midlatitudes. Scientists refer to such anomalies as the North Atlantic sea surface temperature tripole, and ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Environmental and economic crises threaten 'perfect storm'
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=16182
Edie: Time is running out to address climate change and build a new kind of economics that will not damage the environment, according to green thinker Jonathon Porritt. Writing in his new book, Living Within Our Means, Mr Porritt argues that politicians now have a unique opportunity to rebuild economies in a more sustainable way. But, he continues, if the problems are ignored it could lead to a 'perfect storm' as accelerating climate change and financial meltdown ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Virtual Meetings and Climate Innovation in the 21st Century
http://www.climatebiz.com/resources/resource/virtual-meetings-and-climate-innovation-21st-century
World Wildlife Fund: Due to technological improvements, an increasing number of business trips can now be substituted by 'virtual meetings' and therefore help to minimize aviation-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. For example, an Australian study has estimated that video-conferencing could avoid 2.4 million tonnes of national CO2 emissions, equivalent to 0.43 percent of the country's total. However, despite improved quality and reliability, and the qualitative change arising from new high definition ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Melting permafrost could trigger 'unstoppable' climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5049214/Melting-permafrost-could-trigger-unstoppable-climate-change.html
Telegraph: A range of studies have found that Arctic ice is melting faster, with some scientists predicting there will be no summer ice in the Arctic at all by 2030. This not only has consequences for the human population and wildlife but could release a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions stored in the ground under the ice. The release of methane or carbon causes "positive feedback" where the warming temperature causes more gas to be released and therefore a spiralling increase in global ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Climate change debunkers take stage in US Congress
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jHm-RxNO07RCipnASPBI9hdSiCuQ
Agence France-Presse: As President Barack Obama tries to green the United States by slapping limits on carbon emissions, Congress has been was told to ignore his plan because climate change does not exist. "The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing," said British aristocrat Lord Christopher Walter Monckton, a leading proponent of the "climate change is myth" movement. The Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, who was an advisor to former British ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Climate speeds Japan's cherry blossom season
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090326/wl_asia_afp/japanclimateweatherculture
Agence France-Presse: Japan's celebrated cherry blossom, which for millions heralds the start of spring, is under threat from climate change, according to experts, who say warmer weather is causing early flowering. Cherry blossom season officially began in Tokyo this year on March 21 -- five days ahead of schedule and a full week earlier than the average for the last 30 years of the 20th century. Far from being a freak occurrence, the phenomenon of early blossoming has been happening for several ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
IEA chief calls for 'clean energy new deal'
http://www.euractiv.com/en/energy/iea-chief-calls-clean-energy-new-deal/article-180655
EurActiv: Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), urged world governments to ensure that stimulus packages aimed at restoring growth also embrace low-carbon technologies. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview ahead of the European Business Summit, which opens today (26 March) in Brussels. As the financial crisis dries up funding for energy projects, Tanaka called on governments across the world not to overlook the energy and climate crisis when ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Las Vegas to go dark to shine light on climate change
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar/25/las-vegas-go-dark-shine-light-climate-change/
Las Vegas Sun: Scores of casino-hotels and other businesses and organizations on and off the Las Vegas Strip have committed to show their support for the environment by participating in "Earth Hour'' on Saturday night, when they'll dim or turn off their signs and decorative lighting for an hour to raise awareness about climate change. The event, organized worldwide by the World Wildlife Fund, lasts for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. Some 2,500 cities globally are participating. Among the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Greenpeace accuses Sinar Mas corporation of violence toward its protestors
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0325-hance_sinarmas.html
Mongabay: In a press release issued by Greenpeace the organization states that Sinar Mas corporation security guards "brutally kicked and punched" peaceful protestors in Jakarta, Indonesia on March 19th. Greenpeace activists had chained themselves to the entrance of Sinar Mas headquarters and hung a banner labeling the corporation a 'Forest and Climate Criminal'. "The excessive violence today by Sinar Mas security is testament to the way this company does business. Sinar Mas may think they are ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Active efforts to cope with global warming
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/6622300.html
People's Daily: Global warming is an irrefutable fact to date, and the pace of global warming has sped up in the past 50 years. Latest observation data show that the average temperature of the Earth's surface has risen by 0.74 degrees Celsius in a century between 1906 and 2005, and the average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century was likely the warmest in the 50-year period of the last 1300 years, according to Dr. Liu Hongbin from China's National Climate ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
IT solutions offer cost and climate benefits
http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_deal/news/?uNewsID=160342
WWF: Existing information technologies (IT) can produce dramatic reductions in harmful CO2 emissions while fully meeting the demands of today's corporations, two new WWF reports are demonstrating. Virtual Meetings and Climate Innovation in the 21st Century highlights the significant impact employee travel makes on a company's total carbon footprint – accounting for 50% or more among non-manufacturing companies. "Creating a global network of more than 4,000 high quality ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Asia-Pacific poor face triple crisis - U.N. agency
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090326/india_nm/india387164
Reuters: Asian and Pacific countries are particularly vulnerable to the triple threat of food and fuel price volatility, climate change and the global economic crisis, a United Nations agency said on Thursday. This is because the region has almost two thirds of the world's poor and half of its natural disasters, the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said in a regional survey. The emergence of all three crises at the same time has "hit the world's poor ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Toyota to sell 2 Prius models in hot hybrid battle
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_toyota
Associated Press: Toyota will continue to sell the current Prius when the revamped version goes on sale in May in an unusual move likely to help the top-selling hybrid ride out a threat from rival Honda. Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe said Thursday there is demand in the Japanese market for both the third-generation Prius and the smaller model that's already on sale. He declined to give details, including overseas plans. But his comment is the first from Toyota confirming recent ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Taking the wind out of Miliband's sails
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/mar/25/wind-climate-change
Guardian: In his oh-so-earnest style Ed Miliband has spoken out at a screening of the climate change documentary The Age of Stupid. "The government needs to be saying, 'It is socially unacceptable to be against wind turbines in your area – like not wearing your seatbelt or driving past a zebra crossing,'" the climate change secretary said. Of course it should be socially unacceptable to drive across a zebra crossing when someone is intending to cross. That's logical. Blindly supporting the ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Test-driving the Honda Insight: 'like a little environmental videogame'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/26/honda-insight-hybrid-car
Guardian: The new Honda Insight is not shy about publicising its green credentials. It shouts them from the rooftops - make that the treetops, the tops of the trees that will live so much longer because you have bought one of these cars instead of a filthy gas-guzzler. The little booklet that tells me all about the car is covered in paper that has seeds embedded in it. Presumably, when I have finished reading it, I will toss it into an urban wasteland and a meadow will spring up, and we Insight ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
EPA presses ahead with CO2 regulation
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239256/epa-presses-ahead-co2
Business Green: Nine months after delaying its decision, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent a proposal to the White House, asking to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The Agency reportedly sent the proposal on Friday. The Office Of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget, is now considering the document. The proposal for an endangerment finding would clear the way for the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide, which could have significant ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Greenwash: Shell betrays 'new energy future' promises
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/26/fred-pearce-greenwash-shell-exxon
Guardian: Shell, I have to report, is the new Exxon. The company that back in December was filling this and other newspapers with double-page adverts promoting its conversion to a "new energy future" of wind farms, hydrogen fuels, fuel made from marine algae and much else, has pulled the plug. In the 1990s Royal Dutch Shell set its boffins on finding new green fuels, such as forest plantations to make biofuels. I remember them at the Earth Summit in Rio back in 1992. Not long after, Shell was ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Lawsuit by a father in Indiana targets polluters
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090326/ap_on_re_us/pollution_lawsuit
Associated Press: Ron Kurth, who grew up in Gary and worked in the steel mills, raised his family in the region near the outskirts of Chicago. He always wondered about the smoke and smog that overcast the Lake Michigan shoreline. "It's just a horrible atmosphere," he said. Kurth, who has a 16-year-old daughter attending school in the Lake County city of Crown Point, decided someone ought to do something about the pollution. On Wednesday, he did. He filed a lawsuit on behalf of his ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Regulators move to strengthen green advertising codes
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239259/regulators-move-strengthen
Business Green: The UK's advertising regulators have today released new codes of practice that, if adopted, will lead to a significant tightening of the rules governing firms environmental claims. Following an 18-month review of the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP), the regulators have published updated versions of the codes for broadcast and non-broadcast advertising designed to increase protection for children, crack down on ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
The Obamas Kick Off a Victory Garden Movement -- Who Will Join Them?
http://www.alternet.org/environment/133201/the_obamas_kick_off_a_victory_garden_movement_--_who_will_join_them/
Huffington Post: Faithful followers of Obama Foodorama, the food politics blog whose house specialty is a perfect blend of substance and froth, were treated to an especially tasty scoop yesterday -- the news that there will, indeed, be a vegetable garden at the White House. As they say in my native San Fernando Valley, OMG. This turn of events is not just epic, it's biblical: ask, and ye shall receive. I'm not talking about the slacktivists who sit around railing and wailing, "why bother?" I ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Barack Obama's pledges in peril as Blue Dogs take a bite at budget
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5977433.ece
Times (UK): President Obama was huddled in talks yesterday with congressional Democrats over proposals that would pare his $3.6 trillion budget, raising question marks over how he would fund promises on healthcare, climate change and tax cuts. Although the President was braced for ferocious opposition from Republicans, who warn that his spending plans will bankrupt America, he also faces growing hostility from a group of fiscally conservative Democrats alarmed by forecasts of a $9.3 trillion ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Barack Obama may delay signing up to Copenhagen climate change deal
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239262/barack-obama-delay-signing
Guardian: Barack Obama may be forced to delay signing up to a new international agreement on climate change in Copenhagen at the end of the year because of the scale of opposition in the US Congress, it emerged yesterday. Senior figures in the Obama administration have been warning Labour counterparts that the president may need at least another six months to win domestic support for any proposal. Such a delay could derail the securing of a tough global agreement in time for countries ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Australia: Farmers face growing climate change dilemma: scientist
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52P2GI20090326?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Farmers of the future will have to use cattle and sheep that belch less methane, crops that emit far less planet-warming nitrous oxide and become experts in reporting their greenhouse gas emissions to the government. Agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gases and globally that share will rise as demand for food from growing human populations also increases, scientist Richard John Eckard of the University of Melbourne said on Thursday. But farmers are facing a ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
Deforestation Prevention Vital To Curb Greenhouse Gases
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1660564/deforestation_prevention_vital_to_curb_greenhouse_gases/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Attempts to moderate the world's climate change could be hindered if nations do not band together to safeguard the world's forests by the end of 2009, researchers from Earthwatch announced Wednesday. Earthwatch says it is incredibly important for UN leaders to create a way to stop continued deforestation. Deforestation is the cause for 20% of the carbon emissions ensuing from human activities, UN data states. Earthwatch will outline their worries during a public forum in London ...
Fri, 27 Mar 09
UN outlines plan for CDM crackdown
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239281/un-outlines-plan-cdm-crackdown
Business Green: The Executive Board of the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has this week agreed to strengthen many of the standards and procedures that govern the controversial carbon offset scheme in an attempt to better ensure that only credible emission reduction projects are allowed to take part. Following a scandal late last year that saw the CDM's top project verifier, Det Norske Veritas (DNV), suspended from checking emission reduction initiatives after it uncovered flaws in its ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Exclusive: GE plans smart metered London Olympics
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239206/exclusive-ge-wants-demonstrate
Business Green: General Electric (GE) is planning to provide a range of smart meter systems to the London 2012 Olympic Village as part of a project that the company hopes will become a showcase for the technology. The engineering giant is one of the key suppliers to the London Olympics and has set out a number of proposals for projects designed to act as forerunners for the wider deployment of environmental technologies. Central to the proposals is one project, currently being discussed with ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Daddy longlegs decline could spell extinction for golden plover
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5050177/Daddy-longlegs-decline-could-spell-extinction-for-golden-plover.html
Telegraph: Previous studies have warned that global warming may have a negative affect on many of the UK's native birds due to habitat loss. However in a rare study into the direct impact of climate change on wildlife, it was found warming temperatures are already having an impact on bird populations because of the loss of certain types of insects. The study looked at the effects of increasing late summer temperatures on daddy longlegs or cranefly larvae in peatland soils in Scotland. It ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Key Obama Nominee Pessimistic about Climate Change
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/23224/
MIT Technology Review: President Obama's nominee for a key post at the Department of Energy isn't optimistic that we'll be able to stabilize carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. This week President Obama nominated Steven Koonin for the post of Under Secretary for Science, Department of Energy. He'll head the DOE's Office of Science, which will receive $1.2 billion under this year's stimulus bill, in addition to its regular budget. The funding includes hundreds of millions for research related to ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
US And China On Climate Change
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-03-25-voa1.cfm
Voice of America: President Barack Obama has made combating climate change a priority for his administration. Shortly after his election, he described the urgency of the situation in no uncertain terms: "Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious." In order to meet this enormous challenge, the United States and the People's Republic of China will need ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Rackable Systems brings green datacentre push to Europe
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239235/rackable-systems-brings-green
Business Green: One of the leading providers of green datacentre technologies in the US, Rackable Systems, has revealed plans to launch operations in Europe as it seeks to tap into expanding demand for energy efficient server systems. Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Rackable Systems' recently appointed managing director for the region, Rod Evans, said that the company would open an office in the UK in the next few months and then look to open a second office in northern Europe in late 2009 or early ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
W.H. putting best face on budget fight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090325/pl_politico/20498
Politico: The White House is trying to put the best face on budget plans from congressional Democrats that drop President Obama's cap-and-trade climate-change proposal, and his suggestion to use funds from the program to pay for tax cuts for lower and middle income taxpayers. "Clearly, the approach that we adopted in our budget overview to link cap and trade revenue to 'Make Work Pay' [tax cuts] is something that both the House and Senate decided to approach in a different way,' Office of ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Governor's Climate Change Task Force Releases Plan
http://www.nhpr.org/node/24135
New Hampshire Public Radio: The Governor's Climate Change Task Force released their final plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy use in the state. It includes 67 different recommendations with the long term goal of achieving an 80-percent reduction in emissions below 1990 levels by the year 2050. As New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton reports, the Governor also announced a new committee to implement the recommendations. The 82-page action plan involved more than 125 ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Brazil: Malaysian palm oil targets the Amazon
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0325-felda.html
Mongabay: Malaysia's Land Development Authority FELDA will soon break ground on a joint venture with a Brazilian firm to establish 30,000-100,000 hectares (75,000 - 250,000 acres) of oil palm plantations in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, reports the Malaysian Star. Brazil's Ambassador to Malaysia, Sergio Arruda, said the venture will start with 30,000 hectares cultivated near Tefe and Manuas. He said the land will be cultivated by 500 families. FELDA has a 70 percent stake in the ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Danish prince celebrates new Colo. wind plants
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090325/ap_on_re_us/vestas_colorado
Associated Press: Danish Crown Prince Frederik said Wednesday that expanding a country's renewable energy sources and recovering from a recession didn't have to be mutually exclusive. "Denmark is economically competitive not in spite of these efforts, but because of them," he said at a Brighton plant groundbreaking for Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas Wind System. "Opening a manufacturing plant, unfortunately, is not very common these days." The prince, his wife Crown Princess Mary and Colorado ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Clean Energy Plays Dirty in Mexico
http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20090325/wl_oneworld/world3612801238016921
OneWorld US: Despite promises to the contrary, a monumental new wind-power project in Oaxaca, Mexico is encroaching on the lands and livelihoods of local farmers and indigenous people, writes Latin America expert Zach Dyer. The $550 million project, launched by the Mexican government in cohort with private developers this January, is "converting more than 6,000 acres of local campesino and indigenous lands into Latin America's largest wind farm," says Dyer (see the full story ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
'Crunch year' for world's forests
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7963489.stm
BBC: Efforts to mitigate climate change could be hampered if nations do not agree to protect the world's forests by the end of the year, warn researchers. Earthwatch says it is vital for leaders attending a key UN summit in December to find a way to halt deforestation. Deforestation accounts for about 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities, UN data shows. The environmental charity will outline its concerns during a public lecture in central London ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Arctic meltdown is a threat to humanity
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127011.500-arctic-meltdown-is-a-threat-to-humanity.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: I AM shocked, truly shocked," says Katey Walter, an ecologist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. "I was in Siberia a few weeks ago, and I am now just back in from the field in Alaska. The permafrost is melting fast all over the Arctic, lakes are forming everywhere and methane is bubbling up out of them." Back in 2006, in a paper in Nature, Walter warned that as the permafrost in Siberia melted, growing methane emissions could accelerate climate change. But even she was not ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Ocean engineering won't cool the planet, trial suggests
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16842-ocean-engineering-wont-cool-the-planet-trial-suggests.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: It is another nail in the coffin of using ocean fertilisation to cool the planet. Early results from the latest field experiment suggest the technique will fail. "I think we are seeing the last gasps of ocean iron fertilisation as a carbon storage strategy," says Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University. Earlier this month, the controversial Indian-German Lohafex expedition fertilised 300 square kilometres of the Southern Atlantic with six tonnes of ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Affordable homes to be built on greenbelt in countryside
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/5049924/Affordable-homes-to-be-built-on-greenbelt-in-countryside.html
Telegraph: The shortage of affordable homes in beautiful areas is causing anger among local communities, with second homes coming under attack. In a report on housing in rural communities, Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor warned dozens of picturesque villages are in danger of dying out because of the problem. However the Government response published yesterday stopped short of restricting the growth of second homes and holiday lets in rural areas. Instead Margaret Beckett, the ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Idled U.S. farmland may be large carbon sink: USDA
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52O5H020090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The Conservation Reserve, which pays owners to idle fragile U.S. farmland, could become one of the largest carbon sequestration programs on private land, an Agriculture Department official said on Wednesday. Some farm-state lawmakers say efforts to reduce greenhouse gases could result in a pay-off in rural America because some agricultural practices, such as reduced tillage, can lock carbon into the soil. USDA official Robert Stephenson pointed during a U.S. House of ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Obama cites North Dakota floods in call for climate change action
http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=obama-cites-north-dakota-floods-in-2009-03-25
Scientific American: President Obama says potentially historic flood levels in North Dakota are a clear example of why steps need to be taken to stop global warming. Heavy rain and blizzards have caused eight rivers in the state to swell to flood levels and emergency management officials are warily watching the Red River, which could surpass record levels late this week. "If you look at the flooding that's going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, 'If you see an increase of two degrees, ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Search on for best climate biosolutions
http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/climate_deal/news/?uNewsID=160281
WWF: Global environment organization WWF and leading enzyme biotechnology company Novozymes today announced an initiative which will map how and where low carbon biosolutions can eliminate the first strategic billion tonnes of CO2. "Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easily overlooked by policymakers, investors and companies," said Kim Carstensen, Director of WWF's Global Climate ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Chinese try to curb 'plague of desert rats' in Tibet with contraceptives
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/25/china-gerbils-deserts
Guardian: China's authorities have scattered 200kg of rodent contraceptive pellets across the Tibetan plateau to control what they describe as a "plague of desert rats". The growing number of rodents have been blamed for destroying fragile high-altitude grasslands and accelerating the spread of deserts. Biodiversity experts warn, however, that the extermination campaign could worsen the problem of soil degradation and the poisons could damage other parts of the plateau ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
The popular myth of 'water wars'
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/the-popular-myth-of-water-wars-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
Nature: Earlier this month the UN warned that climate change could spark conflicts over water. But the idea of future 'water wars' is a myth, says Wendy Barnaby. Neither Egypt, Israel nor Jordon produce enough water for their needs. But while they have fought wars with each other, it has not been over water, says Barnaby. Instead, areas in need of water import food as a 'virtual' boost to water supplies. Tony Allan, a scientist at Kings College London, says more water flows into the Middle ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Blue whales may get boost from fertilization program
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aJqCgOHcwskM&refer=asia
Bloomberg: The blue whale, the largest animal on Earth, may be saved from extinction with help from an ocean- fertilization experiment in the seas off Antarctica that has sparked growth of its main food source. Dumping a by-product of metal processing, iron sulfate, into the ocean stimulates the growth of plankton, which is consumed by krill, said Victor Smetacek of Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Adult blue whales eat about 4 tons of the shrimp-like animal ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
We never said biochar is a miracle cure
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/25/hansen-biochar-monbiot-response
Guardian: It is unfortunate that George Monbiot has insinuated that one of us (Jim Hansen) is a believer in biochar as a "miracle" solution for the climate crisis. If he is basing this on our published papers, then he has grossly misunderstood them. An attentive reader would know his insinuation is false by simply examining our land use-related assumptions in our recently published peer-reviewed paper, Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? Broadly speaking, our climate change ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
EU moves to straighten air routes, cut fuel burn
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52O4FL20090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European lawmakers approved a plan on Wednesday aimed at straightening commercial air routes to cut fuel costs and carbon dioxide emissions growth from increasing numbers of aircraft. Airlines, which contribute about 3 percent of Europe's CO2 output, waste millions of tonnes of fuel as they zig-zag between national airspaces in the 27-country European Union. The Single European Sky II plan could cut billions of euros from airlines' annual costs as they head into a recession ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
E.P.A. Plans Closer Review of Mountaintop Mining Permits
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122506
New York Times: In a sharp reversal of Bush administration policies, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that the agency planned an aggressive review of permit requests for mountaintop coal mining, citing serious concerns about potential harm to water quality. The administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said her agency had sent two letters to the Army Corps of Engineers on Monday in which it expressed concern about two proposed mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Deep-sea Corals May Be Oldest Living Marine Organism
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090324091209.htm
ScienceDaily: Deep-sea corals from about 400 meters off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands are much older than once believed and some may be the oldest living marine organisms known to man. Researchers from Lawrence Livermore, Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Cruz have determined that two groups of Hawaiian deep-sea corals are far older than previously recorded. Using the Lab's Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, LLNL researchers Tom Guilderson and Stewart ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Welcome visitor: Long-tailed tit flies into RSPB's top 10
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7962676.stm
BBC: Mild winters and a new diet have helped the long-tailed tit make it into the top 10 birds spotted in UK gardens, says conservation charity the RSPB. More frequent visits meant it reached the highest ranks of the Big Garden Birdwatch poll for the first time. The RSPB said the bird had benefited from a series of mild winters and from adapting to visiting garden feeders. The survey, done in January, recorded almost twice as many long-tailed tits compared with last ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Top China think tank proposes greenhouse gas plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52O1IZ20090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A top Chinese state think tank has proposed a global greenhouse gas trading plan to reflect the different historic emissions of rich and poor nations, indicating deepening discussion in Beijing about climate change policy. Researchers from the State Council Development Research Center, which advises China's leaders, laid out the plan in the March issue of the Economic Research Journal, a Chinese-language journal published on March 20 that reached subscribers this week. The ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Activist or terrorist? Mild-mannered eco-militant serving 22 years for arson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/24/marie-mason-speaks-from-jail
Guardian: She is, in the eyes of the law, America's most dangerous eco-terrorist: a self-confessed serial arsonist who resorted to fire and destruction to register her opposition to the fur industry and genetically modified crops. But to those who know her and to some legal experts, the 22-year jail term handed to Marie Mason, 47, is a consequence of America's preoccupation with terrorism in the post-9/11 world. She is serving the longest sentence of any convicted animal rights or ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Bill Bryson warns more pylons will ruin landscape
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5043622/Bill-Bryson-warns-more-pylons-will-ruin-landscape.html
Telegraph: High voltage power lines are planned for Snowdonia National Park, and four Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in Anglesey, Kent, Lincolnshire and Somerset, campaigners say. Green belt land in the home counties and Yorkshire has also been identified as suitable for an expansion of the electricity network, according to a coalition of countryside groups which has joined forces to fight Government plans. Mr Bryson said it was "crazy" to be building more pylons, rather than ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Sydney summers by 2060 could be deadly: scientist
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52O24020090325
Reuters: The forecast for Sydney in summer 2060 is hot, polluted and deadly to the elderly. Rising summer temperatures due to global warming, drier weather and smog from transport and bushfires will make Australia's lifestyle capital a health hazard, a scientist told a major climate change conference on Wednesday. Most at risk will be the increasing number of elderly from heat stress and anyone with asthma or heart complaints, said Martin Cope of the state-funded Commonwealth Scientific ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Sunoco CEO calls for federal gasoline tax increase
http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2434379520090324
Reuters: Sunoco Inc (SUN.N) Chairman and Chief Executive Lynn Elsenhans on Tuesday called on U.S. refiners to support a "sizable" increase in the federal gasoline tax to pay for investments in the national infrastructure. "We should support a sizable increase in the federal gasoline tax for the express purpose of funding much needed infrastructure investment," Elsenhans said in a speech to the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association annual meeting in San Antonio. Elsenshans ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Some see daylight at last for U.S. feed-in tariffs
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122491
Greenwire: With Congress and President Obama championing green energy, the solar industry sees an opening to pursue a goal it long considered unattainable: European-style subsidies for sun-generated power. The national trade group for solar manufacturers is discussing whether it should push for a national feed-in tariff, a funding mechanism that forces utilities to buy green power at premium prices. Popular in Germany and Spain, feed-in tariffs have gained little traction in the United ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Canada: Man says Canola is 'energy future'
http://www.gtherald.com/local/local_story_084065208.html
Grand Traverse Herald: Can a simple plant fuel a sustainable local economy? Provide a clean renewable alternative to gasoline? Bill Koucky believes humble Canola oil can lead the win-win charge by providing both a green fuel and a vibrant cash crop for farmers while also grounding source and production in the community. Passionate about the environment and intrigued by ethanol fuels for more than three decades, Koucky (pronounced Kooski) envisions that this edible oil -- a variant of rapeseed bred by ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Cellulosic ethanol suffers in down economy
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090325/BUSINESS01/903250355/1001/NEWS
Des Moines Register: The economic downturn that has slowed the ethanol industry also is putting the brakes on the next generation of biofuels. Making ethanol from plant cellulose - such as crop residue and wood chips - could help reduce the nation's use of gasoline. Refiners are required by law next year to start using at least 100 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol. But industry officials acknowledge they will not come close to providing enough of the fuel to meet that target or the targets for ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Australia: Cyclone menace worsening off Queensland: experts
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/qld-news/path-of-destruction-20090325-99hk.html
Brisbane Times: Climate change experts say the chance of a category five tropical cyclone crossing the Queensland coast is higher than ever, due to rising sea surface temperatures associated with global warming. Tropical cyclones are increasing in intensity, but not in number, according to one faction of Australia's scientific community. The trend has been recognised worldwide, with climatologists from the University of Colorado in the United States recording a 100 per cent increase in the ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Report puts Birmingham top of flood risk table
http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2009/03/24/report-puts-birmingham-top-of-flood-risk-table-97319-23220747/
Birmingham Mail: BIRMINGHAM heads a list of cities and towns likely to be increasingly at risk of acute flooding over the next 20 years. The impact of climate change and freak summer storms will be made worse by plans to build up to 445,600 new homes across the West Midlands -- with many of the suggested development sites already having a history of groundwater flooding. The worrying forecast is contained in an in-depth analysis for the Regional Assembly. Birmingham, Herefordshire, ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Australia: Crisis point: coastal erosion
http://taree.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/crisis-point-coastal-erosion/1468977.aspx
Manning River Times: Continuing an analysis of the Land and Environment Court's decision on a development approval for a property in Lewis Street, Old Bar, reported in last Friday's Manning River Times. Greater Taree City Council says it will workshop its approvals process following the results of the case... THE ongoing saga of coastal erosion which has resulted in the loss of two houses already at Old Bar was played out in great detail during the Land and Environment Court hearing involving Greater ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United Kingdom: RSPB calls for more onshore wind turbines
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=News&itemid=NOED24%20Mar%202009%2019%3A51%3A26%3A163
EDP24: A wildlife charity yesterday fuelled the controversy surrounding wind farms by urging the government to erect more giant turbines in the countryside. Wildlife has been a key factor in objections to wind farm schemes across the country including in East Anglia, where communities have rallied against both onshore and offshore projects, and even Natural England has raised concerns about their impact on rare species and their habitats. But the RSPB yesterday called for a large ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Carbon Calendar to offer carbon market heads up
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239156/carbon-calendar-offer-carbon
Business Green: Participants in the carbon market should from today find it easier to keep track of many of the key events influencing the price of carbon allowances, following the expansion of a new service designed to keep them abreast of the key conferences and deadlines that shape the market. Analyst IDEAcarbon yesterday launched a new partner programme designed to extend the reach of its online Carbon Calendar, which details a wide range of forthcoming events that may influence the market for ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Europe warned about looming food import surge
http://www.euractiv.com/en/cap/europe-warned-looming-food-import-surge/article-180580?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: Former EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler last week called on Europe to significantly contribute to world food security by fulfilling its "production potential", as the continent moves from being a net exporter of foodstuffs to become a net importer. Background: As the world's population approaches ten billion, issues like climate change, growing scarcity of oil and availability of quality land and water are challenging the planet's capacity to produce enough food for ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Scientist warns that palm oil development may threaten Amazon
http://www.physorg.com/news157115219.html
Physorg: Oil palm cultivation is a significant driver of tropical forest destruction across Southeast Asia. It could easily become a threat to the Amazon rainforest because of a proposed change in Brazil's legislation, new infrastructure and the influence of foreign agro-industrial firms in the region, according to William F. Laurance, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Laurance and Rhett A. Butler, founder of environmental science Web site Mongabay.com, ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Texas insurers suffer record losses, officials seek climate answers
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122468
New York Times: Hurricanes clobbered Texas insurers last year, draining reserve accounts and igniting a full-blown debate in the Legislature about the state's ability to address rising risks related to climate change. Two storms besieged the state's curved coastline, including one of the costliest in Texas history, Hurricane Ike. That sent damage claims soaring and resulted in $6.6 billion in losses for state insurers, which had collected record-high premium revenue totaling $5.17 billion last year, ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Catlin Arctic Survey: Images from the ice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/mar/24/catlin-arctic-survey-arctic?picture=344981586
Guardian: The Catlin Arctic Survey, led by explorer Pen Hadow, is trekking on foot to the North Pole. The team were dropped on the ice on 2 March and are collecting data about the sea ice en route
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Global warming 37 percent to blame for droughts: scientist
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52O3EJ20090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Global warming is more than a third to blame for a major drop in rainfall that includes a decade-long drought in Australia and a lengthy dry spell in the United States, a scientist said on Wednesday. Peter Baines of Melbourne University in Australia analyzed global rainfall observations, sea surface temperature data as well as a reconstruction of how the atmosphere has behaved over the past 50 years to reveal rainfall winners and losers. What he found was an underlying trend ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Latest solar data reveals sunny 2008
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239181/latest-solar-reveals-sunny-2008
Business Green: Concerns may be mounting about the ability to find financing for large-scale projects, but that has not stopped the solar energy industry on both sides of the Atlantic painting an upbeat picture of the sector this week. New figures from both the US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) confirmed that the industry enjoyed a record year during 2008 and remains confident that it can continue to expand this year despite the ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Global warming creates world's first climate change refugees
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/global-warming-creates-worldrsquos-first-climate-change-refugees-1653863.html
France 24: With sea levels rising, residents of the islands which comprise the Carteret atoll off the coast of Papau New Guinea are fast becoming some of the first refugees of global warming.
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Fake Punt: Obama's Energy Plans Mean Climate Plans, Too
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/03/25/fake-punt-obamas-energy-plans-mean-climate-plans-too/
Wall Street Journal: President Obama spoke plenty about energy and the environment in last night's press conference. So, did the president punt on plans to tackle climate change? The Washington Post edit page thinks so. Asked twice if including a cap-and-trade plan was a pre-condition for signing any congressional budget, "Mr. Obama demurred," the Post says. Did he? While he didn't straight out say that cap-and-trade is a deal breaker for his budget, he made clear two things: Climate legislation is ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
Australia: Suffocated by smog and heat
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/suffocated-by-smog-and-heat-20090324-98wp.html
Sydney Morning Herald: DEATHS from heat stress among the elderly are likely to double in Sydney by the middle of the century because of climate change, and the number of people hospitalised because of air pollution is likely to treble, scientists from the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology are predicting. Modelling by Dr Martin Cope and his team has confirmed reports that heat-related deaths in Sydney will increase significantly, rising from about 150 to 200 to between 300 and 400 by 2060. That is ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
United States: Feinstein wants desert swath off-limits to solar, wind
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-desert25-2009mar25,0,6168582.story
LA Times: Reporting from Washington -- While President Obama has made development of cleaner energy sources a priority, an effort is underway to close off a large swath of the Southern California desert to solar and wind energy projects. In a move that could pit usual allies -- environmentalists and the solar and wind industries -- against each other, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is preparing legislation that would permanently put hundreds of thousands of acres of desert land off limits to ...
Thu, 26 Mar 09
The T. Boone Pickens alt-energy show rolls across America
http://www.citypages.com/2009-03-25/news/the-t-boone-pickens-alt-energy-show-rolls-across-america/
City Pages: T. Boone Pickens looks tired. Standing in the sunken pit of a packed lecture hall at Houston's Rice University, he's hawking his Pickens Plan for energy independence from foreign oil by using more wind power and natural gas. The 80-year-old, with flesh-colored hearing aids set deep inside his ears and tanned bags drooping under his eyes, looks confused and momentarily loses track of what he's saying. He pauses, takes his gold Rolex off, slumps down on a stool, and announces in his ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Britain facing hard slog to 2020 renewable energy targets
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122490
New York Times: Beset by an outdated grid, escalating costs and delays at massive offshore wind farms, and a domestic biofuels industry priced out by U.S. imports, the United Kingdom will struggle toward its 2020 renewable energy targets. Old coal, gas and nuclear power plants generating a quarter of the country's energy will need to be shut by 2020, so massive investments are needed to secure both conventional and renewable supplies. And the credit crisis could not have come at a worse ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Reducing deforestation is cheapest way to arrest global warming: Expert
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/77961
Indo-Asian News Service: Minimising the cutting of wood and its use as fuel can go a long way to fight global warming, and do so in an affordable way, an expert asserts. 'Forest clearance and wood burning have emerged as a major cause of global warming over the last few decades. Deforestation alone contributes over 25 percent gases responsible for global warming,' Michael Kleine of International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) told IANS. Kleine added: 'Reduction in number of trees as a ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Air Pollution Linked to Higher Heart Attack Risk
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-23-092.asp
Environment News Service: Scientific evidence is mounting that connects an increase in particulate air pollution with an increase in heart attacks and deaths. Research from the relatively new field of environmental cardiology includes a 16-year-long Harvard University study of six U.S. cities that found fine particulate pollution, even at levels below the federal health standard, can shorten lifespans by two years. A majority of these earlier deaths were due to heart disease. A study in Salt Lake City ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
20 Years After Valdez Oil Spill, Exxon Still Owes $92M
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-24-01.asp
Environment News Service: Today is the 20th anniversary of the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, but the federal and state governments have yet to collect millions of dollars that the oil company agreed to pay. A final $92 million claim for harm to wildlife, habitat and subsistence users filed in 2006 has gone unanswered by the Exxon Corporation, now ExxonMobil. Early in the morning on March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound spilling more than 11 million ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Climate Change Is A Trade Issue, Too
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/24/carbon-emissions-wto-opinions-contributors-trade-war.html
Forbes: As part of his sweeping agenda for change, President Obama is seeking limits on carbon emissions. Rightly so. Even in these times of economic peril, there is no more imperative issue facing humanity than climate change. But largely ignored thus far in the debate over climate change is the fact that climate change is not only an energy and environmental issue. It is also a trade issue. Any action on climate change will affect international trade obligations that bind the U.S. and more ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Response: The Czech president's climate change denial is irrelevant
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/25/climate-change-eu-czech-republic
Guardian: Your leader column expressed widely held views towards climate change deniers, but made the mistake of believing that the extreme personal opinions of the Czech president, Václav Klaus, are relevant to the official views of the Czech Republic or its current presidency of the EU council (Václav Klaus: The dud Czech, 10 March). It is true that, "faced with growing evidence that scientists have understated climate change, Mr Klaus told a conference of climate change deniers at the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Triumph of the bumbarrel (aka the long-tailed tit)
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/triumph-of-the-bumbarrel-aka-the-longtailed-tit-1653316.html
Independent: One of Britain's most charming small birds, once known as the bumbarrel, has entered the garden birdwatch top 10 for the first time. The tiny long-tailed tit is so small -- the tail is longer than the body -- that it is very vulnerable to cold weather. In harsh periods as many as 90 per cent may die. However, the recent run of mild winters (with the exception of 2009) has produced a population boom, and in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch, run by the Royal Society for the Protection ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
U.S. carbon cap to raise power prices: Moody's
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52O02420090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.S. electricity prices are likely to rise 15 to 30 percent if a national cap on carbon dioxide emissions is instituted, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service. And "the vast majority" of the burden of those higher costs will be borne by residents as large industrial users are likely to be successful in lobbying U.S. lawmakers for special rates and tariffs, the report dated March showed. If carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are priced at $20 per metric ton, it would ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Obama says need cap and trade for clean energy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52O04M20090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that a cap and trade system limiting greenhouse gases is the best way for the country to move to cleaner energy sources. Obama said in a news conference that Congress must adopt A "serious" energy plan.
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Urgent rethink of UK's energy policy vital
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/25/clean-energy-uk-browne
Guardian: Britain must revert to greater state control of energy markets to hit ambitious targets on renewable energy and climate change, according to the former head of BP. Lord Browne of Madingley warns that market mechanisms are failing to deliver the necessary growth in clean energy. Crucial offshore wind projects could be cancelled unless there is an urgent rethink of energy policy, he says. In a speech tonight at Cardiff University, Browne will say: "Competition has been the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Always-on PCs cost UK Plc £300m a year
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239130/always-pcs-cost-uk-plc-300m
Business Green: On any given night an estimated 30 per cent of workplace PCs are left on, according a major new survey which calculated that the practice is costing UK firms more than £300m a year. The survey of more than 2,000 UK adults found that 30 per cent of respondents admit to not turning off their PC overnight and at weekends, increasing corporate energy bills by an estimated £17 per PC. The findings from polling company Harris Interactive mark an improvement on the last survey, ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Government launches new green charity task force
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239129/government-launches-green
Business Green: The government has this week launched a new joint task force with not-for-profit organisations, designed to increase the involvement of the third sector in the UK's climate change strategy. The group will be jointly chaired by Defra, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and ministers from the Cabinet Office and will aim to identify specific initiatives where the government and the third sector can work together to help communities, businesses and individuals reduce their carbon ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
AT&T's Driving Ambition
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2239128/driving-ambition
Business Green: Earlier this month, AT&T made a major announcement: It will invest more than a half-billion dollars over the next decade to purchase more than 15,000 alternative-fueled vehicles, 8,000 vans powered by compressed natural gas, and another 7,100 hybrid passenger cars. The telecommunications giant estimates that the new vehicles will save 49 million gallons of gasoline and reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons over the 10-year deployment period - equivalent to removing the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA says global warming is dangerous
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1659621/epa_says_global_warming_is_dangerous/index.html?source=r_science
United Press International: An U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finding on the dangers of global warming could force a change in national policy, environmental groups said. The conclusion that greenhouse gas emissions are dangerous was sent to the White House on Friday, The Washington Post reported. The newspaper said the finding could have major implications for the U.S. economy and environment. "This is historic news," Frank O'Donnell of the public watchdog group Clean Air Watch told the Post. "It ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
U.S. Interior Chief touts renewable energy zones
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N7EX20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The Obama Administration is carving out renewable energy zones across the country and offshore, and is preparing to work with critics who object to wind turbines or solar farms near wilderness or tourist areas, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Tuesday. "You have a map that starts out as a very huge map that shows you have the huge potential for solar energy in the Southwest but then you have to overlay that with areas such as national parks and national monuments, where we won't ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Gore to pen new book on climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090324/en_afp/usenvironmentclimategore
Agence France-Presse: Former vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore Wednesday announced the November release of "Our Choice," his new book on climate change that proposes solutions to global warming and our present climate crisis. The follow-up to Gore's first book in 2006 on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," will be published on recycled paper by Rodale Books. "An Inconvenient Truth reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Twenty years after Valdez spill, Exxon grows in Alaska
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N7IH20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Twenty years ago, when crude oil was gushing out of the wrecked Exxon Valdez supertanker and Prince William Sound was being blackened by what would become the nation's worst tanker spill, oil giant Exxon Corp was vilified in Alaska. Bumper stickers said the corporation's name was the "sign of the double-cross." A sarcastic T-shirt took jabs at the company's perceived arrogance, proclaiming: "Exxon: We Don't Care. We Don't Have to Care." Today, Exxon Mobil Corp, as the company ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Carbon trade could fund high-speed U.S. trains: CCX
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N7G620090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Carbon markets could one day help support the development of U.S. high-speed commuter rail lines, the head of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) said on Tuesday. The United States has lagged many countries in building high-speed trains that emit a smaller volume of planet-warming gases per passenger than auto or jet travel while also dramatically cutting down on travel time compared to cars and regular trains. China, for instance, unveiled last summer a new "bullet" train from ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Gore to publish new global warming book in November
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N7RL20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will publish a follow-up to his global warming awareness bestseller "An Inconvenient Truth" on November 3. The book will be called "Our Choice" and will describe solutions to global warming, the environmental crusader and U.S. publisher Rodale Inc. said in a statement on Tuesday. "'An Inconvenient Truth' reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Can Ecotourism Be More Than an Illusion?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46255
Inter Press Service: More than ever before, global tourism must play its part in sustainable development and poverty alleviation, stated experts at an international symposium in this Canadian city. But others wonder if tourism can be truly sustainable when it involves flying thousands of kilometres to reach some "carbon-neutral" eco-lodge in the jungle. Climate change is a major concern and air transport makes a significant contribution, sustainable tourism expert Costas Christ told more than 500 ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA says it could block mountaintop coal permits
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N6WV20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday it has the legal power to block permits for so-called mountaintop coal mines, a move that could affect hundreds of mining operations. The EPA voiced concerns about the controversial mining practice and said it could veto permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers if the mines would permanently impair water quality by fouling valley streams. This could affect hundreds of operations where mining permits have been ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA Puts Mountaintop Mining Projects On Hold
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102311669&ft=1&f=1025
Associated Press: In a move that took the coal industry by surprise, the Environmental Protection Agency put hundreds of mountaintop coal-mining permits on hold Tuesday to evaluate the projects' impact on streams and wetlands. The decision by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson targets a controversial practice that allows coal mining companies to dump waste from mountaintop mining into streams and wetlands. Between 150 and 200 applications for new or expanded surface coal mines, many mountaintop ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
NOAA Chief Believes in Science as Social Contract
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122423
New York Times: The marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco has long urged scientists to abandon the habitual reticence of the research community and spend more time engaging the public and public officials about scientific and technical issues. Now Dr. Lubchenco, a professor at Oregon State University, is following her own advice all the way to Washington to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the government`s premier science agencies. This is only the latest step in a ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United States: Exxon Valdez Anniversary: 20 Years Later, Oil Remains
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090323-exxon-anniversary.html?source=rss
National Geographic: Two decades after the worst oil spill in U.S. history, huge quantities of oil still coat Alaska's shores with a toxic glaze, experts say. More than 21,000 gallons of crude oil remain of the 11 million gallons of crude oil that bled from the stranded tanker Exxon Valdez on the night of March 23, 1989. The oil--which has been detected as far as 450 miles (724 kilometers) away from the spill site in Prince William Sound--continues to harm wildlife and the livelihoods of local ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
UN plans guide to fighting climate-change disasters
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLO963530
Reuters: A proposed U.N. study of climate extremes will be a practical guide for tackling natural disasters and fill a gap in past reports focused on the gradual effects of global warming, experts said. Floods, mudslides, droughts, heatwaves or storms are often the main causes of destruction and human suffering tied to climate change, rather than the creeping rise in average temperatures blamed on a build-up of greenhouse gases. "We are saying a lot about changes in mean temperatures ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Disappointing Results In Climate Change Ocean Experiment
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1659580/disappointing_results_in_climate_change_ocean_experiment/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Scientists in Germany and India said an experiment to determine whether depositing hundreds of tons of dissolved iron in the Southern Ocean can diminish global warming has produced disappointing results. In conducting the research, scientists "fertilized" a 115 square mile area of ocean by placing six tons of dissolved iron inside the core of an eddy -- a large, rotating column of water. The researchers hoped the iron would stimulate the growth of tiny planktonic algae known as ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA's 2009 SO2 auction proceeds slump to $9.6 million
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N6PQ20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The proceeds from the U.S. Environmental Agency's 2009 sulfur dioxide (SO2) auction fell more than 80 percent to $9.6 million, the lowest since 1998 and possibly the lowest since the EPA started auctioning SO2 allowances in 1993. The EPA released the results of the Monday auction on Tuesday showing the proceeds fell from $65.8 million last year. Officials at the EPA could not comment on the proceeds of past auctions. The EPA holds the auction each year for the current ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Internet Can Warn Of Ecological Changes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090319104033.htm
ScienceDaily: The Internet could be used as an early warning system for potential ecological disasters, according to researchers from Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and the University of East Anglia. Ecosystem services such as water purification and food production are of fundamental importance for all planetary life. However, these are threatened by sudden changes in ecosystems caused by various pressures like climate change and global markets. Collapsing fisheries and the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
World wants tough 2050 climate cuts
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-03-23-world-wants-tough-2050-climate-cuts
Reuters: Governments broadly support tough 2050 goals for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions but are split on how to share out the reductions, according to a new guide to negotiators of a new United Nations climate pact. A document, which was put together late year and is to be presented to UN climate talks in Bonn from March 29 to April 8, narrows down a list of ideas for fighting global warming in a new treaty due to be agreed in December to about 30 pages from 120. "It shows that ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Lawmaker: Global warming plan won't be in budget
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090324/ap_on_go_co/congress_budget
Associated Press: House Democrats won't advance President Obama's controversial global warming initiative under fast-track rules that could effectively cut Senate Republicans out of the debate, a top Democratic lawmaker said Tuesday. The House will try to use special budget procedures to remake the health care system, Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt Jr., D-S.C., said Tuesday. Such procedures are the only way to pass bills with a simple majority in the Senate. If they are used, Republicans ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Melting snow prompts border change between Switzerland and Italy
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/melting-snow-prompts-border-change-between-switzerland-and-italy-1653181.html
Independent: Global warming is dissolving the Alpine glaciers so rapidly that Italy and Switzerland have decided they must re-draw their national borders to take account of the new realities. The border has been fixed since 1861, when Italy became a unified state. But for the past century the surface area of the "cryosphere', the zone of glaciers, permanent snow cover and permafrost, has been shrinking steadily, with dramatic acceleration in the past five years. This is the area over which the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
India warns against 'green protectionism'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090324/sc_afp/usindiaclimatewarmingeconomy
Agence France-Presse: India on Tuesday warned against rich nations using climate change as a pretext for protectionism, saying it would hurt efforts to reach a new treaty by the end of the year. India's chief climate negotiator, Shyam Saran, was in Washington for talks with the new administration of US President Barack Obama, whom he praised for putting a new emphasis on halting the warming of the planet. Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- hoping to ease concerns that climate action would worsen the US ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA halts hundreds of mountaintop mining permits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090324/ap_on_bi_ge/epa_mountaintop_mining
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency put hundreds of mountaintop coal-mining permits on hold Tuesday, saying it wants to evaluate the projects' impact on streams and wetlands. The decision, announced by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, targets a controversial practice that allows coal mining companies to dump waste from mountaintop mining into streams and wetlands. It could delay 150-250 permits being sought by companies wanting to begin blasting mountaintops to access ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Al Gore To Writes Book On Climate Change
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/03/24/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4889487.shtml
CBS News: Environmental activist and former Vice President Al Gore plans to release a new book, "Our Choice," in November of 2009. The book will "answer the call" for "urgent action" on a "comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis," according to a press release. Gore hopes that the book will "unquestionably inspire and rally those ready to fight for solutions that were deemed impossible only a short time ago." He plans to lay out the conclusions he has reached ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Can Ed Miliband stop the lights going out?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/5045154/Can-Ed-Miliband-stop-the-lights-going-out.html
Telegraph: Ed Miliband must be the bravest man in Gordon Brown's Cabinet. Anyone who would agree to serve as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has to be either very dull or very brave. And no one has ever accused this Miliband of lacking brain power. Miliband's first problem is the contradictory nature of his mission, which he describes as "sustainability, security and affordability". Sustainability means reducing the carbon content of the fuels Britons use to heat their homes, ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Arctic trek team pushes forward
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7961957.stm
BBC: The Catlin Arctic Survey team is using a novel mobile radar dragged behind one of its sledge to record the thickness of the sea ice. The data will be used to calibrate satellite observations of the Arctic ice, and to constrain the computer models that are used to forecast its likely response to climate change. The endeavour came very close to a premature end last week when re-supply flights were grounded and the team got down to its last 12,000 calories of rations. Pen ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Anglican Head Blames Floods On Climate Change
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903240852.html
Catholic Information Service for Africa: The floods ravaging Angola and Namibia are a further illustration of the urgent need to tackle global warming, the head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, said on Tuesday. "We have had enough of talking. The international community cannot continue to prevaricate while countries like ours are increasingly suffering inestimable human cost, in deaths, displacement, and the destruction of livelihoods." Northern Namibia is experiencing ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Italy: Venice seaport eyes algae to fuel energy needs
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N59E20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Venice's seaport plans to become self-sufficient in its energy needs by building a power plant fueled by algae, in what would be the first facility of its kind in Italy, the port authority said. The plant will be operative in two years and produce 40 megawatts of electricity, Venice's port authority said, adding that an emissions-free energy source would help preserve the historic lagoon city's delicate ecological balance. The plant -- only the third of its kind being planned ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Two 'New' Greenhouse Gases Growing
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1659358/two_new_greenhouse_gases_growing/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Two new greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere, according to an international research team led by scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US and CSIRO scientist, Dr Paul Fraser, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research. Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) and sulfuryl fluoride (SO2F2) are powerful greenhouse gases that have recently been discovered to be growing quickly in the global background atmosphere. These gases are used in ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Greenpeace urges China's Hu on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPpOKVVT2gZieoyeByc8AvfrcwJQ
Agence France-Presse: The environmental campaign group Greenpeace China called Tuesday on President Hu Jintao to push China to the forefront of the fight against global warming. It urged Hu to attend a key conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen in December at which nations are hoping to draw up a new agreement on minimising climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol. "As the largest global greenhouse (gas) emitter, China can and must take a leadership role in tackling global warming," the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Go green, move to a city
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239062/green-move-city
Business Green: They may be widely regarded as the perfect symbol of carbon-intensive, unsustainable consumption, but the world's mega-cities in fact provide their residents with lower carbon footprints than their rural counterparts. That is the conclusion of a new study from the International Institute for Environment and Development to be published next month, which found that per capita emissions in many of the world's largest cities are often just a fraction of the national average. The ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Explorers break free from harsh weather and 'volatile' ice
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/explorers-break-free-from-harsh-weather-and-volatile-ice-1652969.html
Independent: 23 days into their arduous journey across the frozen ice of the Arctic Ocean, the three polar explorers of the Catlin Arctic Survey are making the most of improved conditions to hasten their progress north. Pen Hadow, Martin Hartley and Ann Daniels embarked on their scientific survey to measure the state of the ice in late February, in the Arctic winter, in order to capture direct physical surface readings that is of particular interest to scientists researching what is happening to ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Climate lobbyists look far beyond cap and trade
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122381
ClimateWire: Climate lobbyists are flooding Capitol Hill, and they're not showing up in all the likely places. As uncertainty hovers over passage of an economywide cap on greenhouse gases, advocates are pushing for climate provisions in less obvious spots, like legislation funding the Federal Aviation Administration. There are also opportunities for hired guns to shape global-warming language in measures about livestock management and waste disposal, among other issues. "Climate change is ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United States: Scientists Create New Enzymes For Biofuel Production
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1659071/scientists_create_new_enzymes_for_biofuel_production/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and world-leading gene-synthesis company DNA2.0 have taken an important step toward the development of a cost-efficient process to extract sugars from cellulose--the world's most abundant organic material and cheapest form of solar-energy storage. Plant sugars are easily converted into a variety of renewable fuels such as ethanol or butanol. In a paper published this week in the early edition of the Proceedings of the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Billion people face famine by mid-century, says top US scientist
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5962238.ece
Times (UK): Famines affecting a billion people will threaten global food security during the 21st century, according to a leading US scientist. Nina Fedoroff, the US State Department chief scientist, is convinced that food shortages will be the biggest challenge facing the world as temperatures and population levels rise. Food security in the coming years, she said, is "a huge problem' that has been met with little more than complacency. "We are asleep at the switch,' she said. Her warning ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Canada: City dwellers pollute less, study says
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/607161
Toronto Star: When it comes to climate change pollutants, Toronto residents are among the greenest in Canada, says a new study. The report, published in the April issue of the journal Environment and Urbanization, says metropolises, commonly denigrated as big, dirty places, are in fact spewing fewer greenhouse gases per capita than the rest of their countries. "Blaming cities for climate change is far too simplistic," said author David Dodman, a researcher at the International Institute for ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Unfashionable flowers in danger of dying out
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/5023101/Unfashionable-flowers-in-danger-of-dying-out.html
Telegraph: Plant Heritage said thousands of species of flowers have been lost in the last hundred years without anyone noticing because there is no official register of British garden plants - despite some of the most famous collections in the world. The charity fears thousands more will be lost unless action is taken to draw up the world's first "red list" of endangered garden plants. At particular risk are varieties of garden favourites including geraniums, rhododendrons and heather ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Bridesmaid travelled to Australia wedding without flying to protect environment
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenertransport/5022546/Bridesmaid-travelled-to-Australia-wedding-without-flying-to-protect-environment.html
Telegraph: Using buses, trains, bicycles, boats, and a horse drawn cart, Barbara Haddrill carried her bridesmaid's dress in her rucksack across 18 countries. The 30-year-old ecology worker lives in a 12ft caravan on a farm in the foothills of Snowdonia National Park, in mid-Wales. Her home is "totally off-grid" with power coming from a small hydro-turbine in a nearby river. Heating comes from the wood in the surrounding forest. Because of her commitment to the environment, Miss ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Australia: Rise of the carbon cops
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/rise-of-the-carbon-cops-20090324-983z.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Sydney Morning Herald: Andy Best threw out a challenge to his students to save electricity around the school, promising he would plough any savings into the school's Eco Kids organisation. "And why don't you be a light monitor at home and ask Mum and Dad for a raise in your pocket money if you save money on power?" the school principal added for good measure. "The next day a parent stopped me and said, `Last night we were only allowed to have one light on at home because of you,' " Best ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Australia: Balance of power
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/balance-of-power-20090324-9842.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia emits more greenhouse gas a person than almost anywhere else with a similar population. Although most of us have a hefty carbon footprint by world standards, this doesn't mean each individual carries equal weight. Australia is a nation with cheap electricity and an abundance of coal and this combination means a large slab of our emissions comes from generating power. Altogether, Australians release about 580 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent a year and about ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Ice cover on Great Lakes during winter has declined
http://www.newsday.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-sci-great-lakes-less-ice,0,7773903.story
Associated Press: Ice cover on the Great Lakes has declined more than 30 percent since the 1970s, leaving the world's largest system of freshwater lakes open to evaporation and lower water levels, according to scientists associated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They're concerned about how the milder winter freeze may affect the environment. But they're also trying to come to terms with a contradiction -- the same climate factors that might keep lake ice from freezing might ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Coral colony as old as the pyramids
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16825-coral-colony-as-old-as-the-pyramids.html
New Scientist: Giant deep-sea corals don't get around much, but what they lack in mobility they make up for in longevity. A new study has discovered that some coral colonies can "live" for more than 4000 years, showing that the animals grow far more slowly than was thought. It is this extremely slow growth that is the secret of the corals' long life, says Brendan Roark, at Texas A&M University. The finding may have grave implications for the conservation of the corals' ecosystems. "Because ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Experiment suggests more measures to tackle global warming
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/008200903241440.htm
Hindu: The results of the Indo-German Iron Fertilization Experiment (LOHAFEX) in ocean near Antartica has indicated that the seeding the oceans with iron might not help to suck up carbon dioxide from the environment in sufficient quantities as to check global warming. Though the addition of four tones of iron into an eddy in the oceanstimulated growth of the planktonic algae (phytoplankton) which could take in carbon dioxide, small crustacean zooplankton (copepods) soonate them all up. The ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Pledge to reduce carbon footprint
http://www.guideandgazette.co.uk/latest-scottish-news/Pledge-to-reduce-carbon-footprint.5101042.jp
Press Association: Police, a fire service and a health board are among organisations which pledged to reduce the carbon footprint of Scotland's biggest city. They have teamed up to form a Climate Change Partnership for Glasgow, the only such alliance in Scotland to commit its members to specific carbon reduction targets. The partners have pledged to cut their combined CO2 emissions by more than 32,000 tonnes over the next five years. If successful, the benefit to the environment will be similar ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
City dwellers 'harm climate less'
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16819-city-dwellers-harm-climate-less.html
New Scientist: City lights may burn bright, but overall the greenhouse gas emissions of large cities are far below those of rural areas, a new report finds. David Dodman at the International Institute for Environment and Development in London, who led the study, says previous claims that cities contribute disproportionately to global climate change are unfounded. "Historically, people have associated pollution and environmental damage with cities and, as far as climate warming goes, it is ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Coral may live for thousands of years
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090323/full/news.2009.185.html
Nature: Radiocarbon dating suggests some deep-sea coral may live for thousands of years.Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory Some species of coral can live for over 4,000 years -- longer than any other animal that lives in the ocean, a study has found. Uncertainty over how to date coral makes estimates of their lifespan contentious. A radiocarbon-dating study published in 2006 by Brendan Roark, then at Stanford University in California, suggested that living colonies of Gerardia corals ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Pancake ice takes over the Arctic
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090323/full/news.2009.183.html
Nature: Climate change is not only making Arctic sea ice disappear -- it's also changing the type of ice that forms. Researchers are now trying to determine how an increase in 'pancake ice' is affecting the far north, including whether it's accelerating local warming. In the past, Arctic waters have been dominated by thick slabs of sea ice that last from one year to the next. But sea-ice cover is diminishing and thick ice that lasts for several years is disappearing fast, with researchers ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Researchers find 4,000-year-old coral species off Hawaii
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29842632/
LiveScience: Deep-sea corals are the oldest living animals with a skeleton in the seas, claims new research that found a 4,265-year-old coral species off the coast of Hawaii. Deep-sea corals , which are threatened by climate change and pollution like shallow water corals are, grow on seamounts (mountains rising from the seafloor that don't reach the ocean's surface) and continental margins at depths of about 1,000 to 10,000 feet (300 to 3,000 meters). These corals play host to many other ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Climate scientists defeated in ocean experiment
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLkK_2d0XWE2KVPhWaE0fZPeycnA
Agence France-Presse: Indian and German scientists have said that a controversial experiment has "dampened hopes" that dumping hundreds of tonnes of dissolved iron in the Southern Ocean can lessen global warming. The experiment involved "fertilising" a 300-square-kilometre (115-sqare-mile) area of ocean inside the core of an eddy -- an immense rotating column of water -- with six tonnes of dissolved iron. As expected, this stimulated growth of tiny planktonic algae or phytoplankton, which it was ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Taiwan: Environmental agency offers tips for cutting carbon emissions
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=901272&lang=eng_news
Central News Agency: The Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has come up with 14 tips to help the public reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least one kilogram per person per day, an EPA official said Tuesday. These measures were devised in conjunction with the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Taiwan Water Corp. and the Taiwan Power Co., according to the official. One of the means of reducing carbon emissions is for commuters to do less ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Scientists using New England lobster traps for ocean data-gathering
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/sns-ap-lobster-traps-science,0,1692737.story
Associated Press: Skip Ryan has worked the same channel into Boston Harbor for 50 years, setting and hauling his lobster traps so often that he is certain of one thing. "You just cannot figure these animals out," Ryan says. "They're not predictable." To help science try to solve that riddle and others, Ryan and several other lobstermen have allowed the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration to tag their traps with devices that measure temperature and currents. The project is known as ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Antarctic ocean test fails to get desired results
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Antarctic-ocean-test-fails-to-get-desired-results/articleshow/4306725.cms
Times of India: LOHAFEX, the Indo-German Antarctic scientific expedition that had triggered a storm of protests when it set sail in January this year to test a controversial method of fighting global warming by getting a huge amount of CO2 to sink deep into the ocean, has returned with disappointing results. The team found that the amount of CO2 a greenhouse gas chiefly responsible for global warming eliminated from the atmosphere as a result of the experiment turned out to be far less then expected. ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Scots forests at risk from blight and killer moths
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Scots-forests-at-risk-from.5100884.jp
Scotsman: PESTS and diseases are set to spread through Scotland's forests as a result of climate change, with potentially devastating impacts, a report has warned. Diseases likely to take greater hold in the trees in Scotland's woodlands include a needle blight that attacks about 60 species of pine. In order to tackle it, Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) has banned planting of Corsican pine, and has warneADVERTISEMENTd a moratorium might be needed on other species. And a moth called ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Rising CO2 prices boost project developers' shares
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE52M39C20090323
Reuters: Rising carbon prices are helping boost shares in clean energy project developers, weeks after bearish sentiment in the carbon market forced them to record lows. UK-based project developers EcoSecurities and Camco have seen their shares more than double in the past six weeks, supported also by increased institutional investment and favorable analyst recommendations. "Elements of optimism are creeping in," said Gus Hochschild, equity analyst at Mirabaud Securities. Under the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
The fight plan for clean air
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122357
New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency, about to declare heat-trapping gases to be dangerous pollutants, has embarked on one of the most ambitious regulatory challenges in history. The move is likely to have a profound effect across the economic spectrum, affecting transportation, power plants, oil refineries, cement plants and other manufacturers. It sets the agency on a collision course with carmakers, coal plants and other businesses that rely on fossil fuels, which fear that ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Australian scientists to track Pacific climate change
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200903/2524264.htm?desktop
Radio Australia: Australia has announced it will fund a program to combat climate change in the Pacific. The Climate Change Science Program in the Pacific and East Timor aims to track climate trends and what drives them. It also intends to improve understanding of key ocean issues, including acidification and sea level rise. Australia has allocated $20 million for the program. The funds come from an existing $150 million climate change adaptation initiative. Australia's ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Climate Change Could Have Paradoxical Effects In Coastal Wetlands
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1659073/climate_change_could_have_paradoxical_effects_in_coastal_wetlands/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is largely responsible for recent global warming and the rise in sea levels. However, a team of scientists, including two Smithsonian ecologists, have found that this same increase in CO2 may ironically counterbalance some of its negative effects on one of the planet's most valuable ecosystems--wetlands. The team's findings are being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 23. The team conducted their study ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Talk is cheap
http://www.pionline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090324/REG/903249997/1007
Pensions and Investments: The financial crisis and negative returns have sidelined many superannuation funds' plans to combat the risks of climate change, but commitments to factor these risks into investment portfolios is still strong, a survey from the Climate Institute and the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees has found. The majority of survey respondents (70%) did not have risk management methods in place to calculate their exposures to carbon prices, and 78% did not know the value of the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Ocean fertilization will not help reduce CO2 levels, concludes experiment
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0324-oceans.html
Mongabay: A controversial 'ocean fertilization' experiment suggests seeding the seas with iron to boost carbon-absorbing phytoplantkon will not sequester much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Some -- including researchers and private companies -- had hoped iron fertilization might be an easy fix for climate change. The Lohafex experiment, conducted by Indo-German team of scientists from the National Institute of Oceaonography and the Alfred Wegener Institute earlier this year, dumped 20 tons ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: New lithium-ion G-Wiz extends range to 75 miles
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239090/lithium-ion-g-wiz-extends-range
Business Green: GoinGreen, the UK distributor of the G-Wiz, has today revealed it is to increase its focus on corporate customers as it prepares to launch a new version of the iconic electric vehicle that will have almost double the range of previous models. The company announced today that it has started taking orders for the new G-Wiz L-ion and will begin delivering the car to UK customers in May. The car is said to be the first mainstream electric vehicle to be powered by Lithium-ion batteries and ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United States: Exxon Valdez case gives Arctic oil lessons: witness
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N4CA20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: "A thick pancake of shiny black" covered the still waters of Prince William Sound in the hours after the Exxon Valdez split open in an ecological disaster that offers lessons for any future forays for Arctic oil, eyewitness and conservationist Dennis Kelso recalled. As Alaska's environment conservation chief 20 years ago, it was Kelso's job to enforce clean-up standards around the supertanker on March 24, 1989, as it leaked oil into prime fishing grounds. The Valdez ultimately ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Environmentalist uproar at EU climate cash failure
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=16173
Edie: Green campaigners have criticised European leaders after they failed to commit cash to help developing countries cut carbon emissions, at a meeting last week. The European Council put off a decision on how much money it will offer poorer countries at its Brussels summit last week. Many fear the move undermines the chance of a global deal on emissions cuts to replace the Kyoto Protocol at the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark in December. Joris den Blanken, ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA: Despite emissions drop, Texas still a big polluter
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/6334669.html
Houston Chronicle: Texas industries released fewer toxic chemicals into the environment in 2007 than the year before, according to newly released federal data. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency`s latest statistics show that the state`s emissions dropped 7 percent, outpacing the reductions of the nation as a whole. Still, Texas remained one of the biggest polluters among states, behind Alaska, Ohio and Indiana in the release of chemicals that cause cancer, neurological damage or other ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
'Ice That Burns' May Yield Clean, Sustainable Bridge To Global Energy Future
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323143858.htm
ScienceDaily: In the future, natural gas derived from chunks of ice that workers collect from beneath the ocean floor and beneath the arctic permafrost may fuel cars, heat homes, and power factories. Government researchers are reporting that these so-called "gas hydrates," a frozen form of natural gas that bursts into flames at the touch of a match, show increasing promise as an abundant, untapped source of clean, sustainable energy. The icy chunks could supplement traditional energy sources that ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Study of 1918 El Nino challenges warming intensity link
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52N0UN20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Research showing an El Nino event in 1918 was far stronger than previously thought is challenging the notion climate change is making El Nino episodes more intense, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday. El Nino causes global climate chaos such as droughts and floods. The events of 1982/83 and 1997/98 were the strongest of the 20th Century, causing loss of life and economic havoc through lost crops and damage to infrastructure. But Ben Giese of Texas A&M University said complex ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
EPA finds greenhouse gases endanger health
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52M4JB20090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that climate-warming greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, pose a danger to human health and welfare, a White House website showed on Monday. EPA's proposed "endangerment finding," sent to the Obama administration on Friday, could pave the way for U.S. limits on emissions that spur climate change. The substance of the proposal was not immediately made public, but the White House Office of Management and Budget showed EPA sent ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Obama pledges billions for renewable energy projects
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/barack-obama-environmental-spending-budget
Guardian: Barack Obama today declared the billions of dollars he is planning to spend on renewable energy projects off-limits to the usual bartering over the next few weeks with Congress. The president, on the first day of a week-long blitz aimed at selling his ambitious $3tn (£2tn) spending budget, said the $129bn allocated for encouraging the use of solar power, hybrid cars and renewable energy projects would not be subject to any of the usual wheeling and dealing between the White House and ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Woodchips with everything. It's the Atkins plan of the low-carbon world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/24/george-monbiot-climate-change-biochar
Guardian: Whenever you hear the word miracle, you know there's trouble just around the corner. But no matter many times they lead to disappointment or disaster, the newspapers never tire of promoting miracle cures, miracle crops, miracle fuels and miracle financial instruments. We have a limitless ability to disregard the laws of economics, biology and thermodynamics when we encounter a simple solution to complex problems. So welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the new miracle. It's a low-carbon regime ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Solar Power May Be Eco-Friendly. But Some in California Call It a Blight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090324/us_time/08599188712000
Time Magazine: California wants to run on sunshine. The state is forcing utility companies to provide 20% of their output by way of solar power and other forms of renewable electricity by 2010. Last November, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he wanted the ratio to be a third by 2020. Now the feds are bringing the money to help fund all this sunny energy, with the Obama administration's stimulus package promising to pay for 30% of solar power projects that begin by the end of 2010. But could this ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Clean coal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7958891.stm
BBC: While the government's decision over a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent still seems as far away as ever, on mainland Europe work is progressing towards a more advanced wave of coal fired plants. Developers of the so-called carbon capture and storage, or CCS, stations say they are far more environmentally friendly because they release very little carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, meaning coal could become a more acceptable fuel of the future. Along with a ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Jerry Hall joins Heathrow protest
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7959792.stm
BBC: Actress Jerry Hall has joined the ranks of celebrity protestors who oppose runway expansion at Heathrow airport. Ms Hall, the former wife of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, joined a group of mothers and their children at a climate change rally outside Parliament. Some of the children were dressed up as animals that organisers say are at risk of extinction caused by climate change. In January, the government approved a controversial plan to add a third runway at the west ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
China, India Asked to Adopt First-Ever Emissions Cuts
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_gbomauaCD0
Bloomberg: China, the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases, and dozens of developing nations will be asked to consider accepting their first binding targets for reducing global-warming pollution. The cuts, to be made by 2050, are highlighted by the United Nations in a document guiding negotiations that start in six days in Bonn. The UN will supervise talks among 192 countries through December and is leading efforts to find common ground to stem climate change. The UN whittled down ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Climate pact needs flexible deadline-agency chief
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLN704421
Reuters: The deadline for a new global accord on climate change should be extended if Washington is not ready to make commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by December, the head of a major environmental funding agency said on Monday. More than 190 governments agreed in 2007 to forge a climate treaty by the end of 2009 at U.N. talks in Copenhagen, after scientists warned that rising emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, would bring more droughts, floods and rising ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Scientists find climate change to have paradoxical effects in coastal wetlands
http://www.physorg.com/news157050125.html
Physorg: Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is largely responsible for recent global warming and the rise in sea levels. However, a team of scientists, including two Smithsonian ecologists, have found that this same increase in CO2 may ironically counterbalance some of its negative effects on one of the planet's most valuable ecosystems--wetlands. The team's findings are being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of March 23. The team conducted their study ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
White House reviewing greenhouse gas dangers: report
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/090324015653.a7dxrt1b.html
Agence France-Presse: The White House is reviewing a report outlining the dangers to health and the environment posed by global warming, which could pave the way to the United States regulating greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Monday. A draft proposal outlining the dangers posed to public health and welfare by global warming was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In a statement, EPA press secretary Adora Andy said: ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
US to review global warming health threat
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/24/global-warming-public-health-america
Associated Press: The White House is reviewing a suggestion by the US environmental agency that global warming is a threat to public health and welfare. Such a declaration by the Environmental Protection Agency would be the first step to regulating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the US Clean Air Act and could have broad economic and environmental ramifications. The Supreme Court two years ago directed the EPA to decide whether greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide from ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Environmentalists in a clash of goals
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122298
New York Times: As David Myers scans the rocky slopes of this desert canyon, looking vainly past clumps of brittlebush for bighorn sheep, he imagines an enemy advancing across the crags. That specter is of an army of mirrors, generators and transmission towers transforming Mojave Desert vistas like this one. While Whitewater Canyon is privately owned and protected, others that Mr. Myers, as head of the Wildlands Conservancy, has fought to preserve are not. To his chagrin, some of Mr. Myers's ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Regulating carbon
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032302024.html
Washington Post: THE ENVIRONMENTAL Protection Agency has told the White House that global warming is endangering public health and welfare, The Post's Juliet Eilperin reported yesterday. This "finding" under the Clean Air Act may seem like a no-brainer, given the potential ill effects of climate change. But that law, enacted in 1970, was never intended to deal with greenhouse gases and is not suited to that task. The Bush administration's failure to tackle climate change directly drove states and ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Australia: It's not easy being green
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/its-not-easy--being-green-20090324-9848.html
Sydney Morning Herald: The GreenPower scheme was initiated by the NSW Government in 1997, when concern about climate change was only just starting to permeate the public and political consciousness. The scheme became national in 2000 and by then there were 15 products from 14 electricity companies and almost 57,000 customers. Most of the "green" electrons were from "biomass" sources, such as landfills with rotting organic matter, which produce methane that can be captured and used to generate electricity. ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Facing the climate challenge
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/facing-the-climate-challenge-20090324-984g.html
Sydney Morning Herald: What started out here three years ago is now a global movement. Thanks to Sydney, Earth Hour is a force to be reckoned with, a people's movement with influence, appeal and a simple aim. And in 2009 your collective switch-off will be seen around the world and, most importantly, in the halls of political power. Later this year, world leaders, Australian included, will gather in Copenhagen, Denmark, to set targets for greenhouse gas emissions post-2010. Against the backdrop of the ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
The Price Of Being Green
http://www.newsweek.com/id/190710
Newsweek: After eight years of receiving George W. Bush's cold shoulder, environmentalists are undoubtedly feeling more hopeful under an Obama presidency. Of the $787 billion in the stimulus bill, signed into law by the president on Feb. 17, $32.7 billion was allocated to green initiatives that will mean more environmentally friendly homes and more emphasis on renewable energy like solar and wind. But is the money enough? And at a time when the nation struggles to find its way out of an economic ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
The price of greenhouse gases
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-epa24-2009mar24,0,4601428.story
LA Times: President Bush's greatest crime against the environment was his refusal to regulate greenhouse gases. The Obama administration is reportedly wasting little time righting that wrong. Quoting unnamed sources, the Washington Post reported Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency has sent the White House a preliminary finding that climate change is endangering public health and welfare. If this is cleared by the Office of Management and Budget and finalized by EPA administrator ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Australia: Carbon trading must balance environmental, economic and legal needs
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/24/2524394.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The overwhelming allure of finding a cost-effective approach to solving the critical global environmental problem of climate change led to the adoption of market mechanisms under the international Kyoto Protocol. The Commonwealth Government, in turn, has elected to harness the legal innovation of the tradeable emissions unit, within a capped carbon trading system, to reduce our national emissions and avoid dangerous climate change. Such an approach promises to send a price ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Carbon caps are the best policy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123785178691219381.html
Wall Street Journal: Curbing carbon emissions will spur a new generation of competition for the old ways of generating energy, especially from Big Oil. So when Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson says he favors a carbon tax over a cap-and-trade system, it's worth asking why the energy giant would want to put a government levy on its own product. Perhaps Exxon has concluded what many analysts already know: That the best chance to overhaul our oil-addicted economy is through a cap on fossil-fuel pollution. And ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
China: Fueling cooperation, not protectionism
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123783916841017201.html
Wall Street Journal: In the midst of the global economic downturn, there's one industry that's expanding rapidly: China's state-owned energy companies. Over the past few months, these companies have launched major multibillion-dollar oil deals from Russia to Brazil to Iraq. There's a good lesson here for policy makers in Washington who think protectionism is costless. China is eager to secure a reliable and long-term supply of oil. The country is the second-largest oil consumer and importer in the world, ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Licensing overhaul moves offshore wind connections a step closer
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2239022/offshore-grid-license-regime
Business Green: The government yesterday firmed up plans to allow companies to bid for the right to build new electricity grids to connect offshore wind farms to the mainland, as part of a move designed to accelerate the installation the next generation of offshore turbines. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Ofgem announced a final opportunity to comment on the new regulatory framework, which will allow firms to bid for offshore grid connection licences. The government and ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Nations Start to Agree on Paying for Climate Pledges
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/0-0&fd=R&url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news%3Fpid%3D20601081%26sid%3Dam7VV7A6uFbY%26refer%3Daustralia&cid=1318994762&ei=b_jHSdnvBYWE7AOev7D6Dg&usg=AFQjCNH2bIWLOTbrycUsrMmJNC-X1sGwpg
Bloomberg: Nations are starting to agree on how rich countries could help pay for greenhouse-gas reduction and climate-change adaptation in developing markets, the United Nations said. A proposed registry would list "nationally appropriate mitigation actions" by developing countries such as China and India and match them with pledges of financial and technological support by developed nations, the UN said in a document on the Web site of the UN Framework Convention on Climate ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
U.S. Big Steel pushes for carbon fees on China
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52M70S20090323?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: China's steel industry should face fees on its exports into the United States if Washington adopts greenhouse gas cuts and Beijing does not, U.S. steel industry officials and advocates said. As President Barack Obama begins to form plants to regulate greenhouse gases, U.S. steelmakers are nervous they will lose market share if rapidly developing steelmaking countries, like China and India, do not commit to similar emissions goals. U.S. steelmakers say they have already invested ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Greenpeace: China should attend UN climate talks
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gn6_NsZ76B49sX3z9mH8lewW0obwD973QP200
Associated Press: Greenpeace China is calling on Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend December's climate change conference in Copenhagen. As the world's most populous developing nation and, by some estimates, its biggest producer of greenhouse gasses, China is obliged to take a major role in the talks, said climate change specialist Li Yan of Greenpeace's Chinese branch. "Copenhagen is the best, maybe the last, chance to avoid catastrophe," Li said Monday at the launch of a clock counting down ...
Wed, 25 Mar 09
Perfect storm of environmental and economic collapse closer than you think
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/23/jonathon-porritt-recession-climate-crisis
Guardian: A "perfect storm" of food shortages, scarce water and high-cost energy will hit the global economy before 2030, said the government's chief scientific adviser, John Beddington, last week. Factor in accelerating climate change and this lethal cocktail leads to public unrest, cross-border conflict and mass migration – in other words, an economic and political collapse that will make today's economic recession seem very tame indeed. But though I totally agree with John Beddington's analysis, I ...
Tue, 24 Mar 09
The next generation of biofuels
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-next-generation-of-biofuels
Scientific American: Americans burn through 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year. And even if drivers switch to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, the nation's fuel needs are expected to increase by a fifth over the next 20 years, thanks to dramatic increases in car and airplane use. Which is why, in addition to developing solar, wind and geothermal energy, policy makers, including President Barack Obama, are advocating biofuels to transform the transportation culture. They're not talking about ...
Tue, 24 Mar 09
United Kingdom: MPs call for every product to carry carbon labels
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238946/mps-call-every-product-carry
Business Green: Everything companies buy and sell could soon carry green labels detailing their products' environmental impact, if proposals to be put forward today by an influential committee of MPs are adopted. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) of MPs will release a report calling on the government to deliver sector-based universal environmental labelling similar to emerging standards for food labels and a huge expansion of carbon labelling. The report argues that a standardised ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
City-dwellers emit less CO2 than countryfolk-study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52M0E120090323?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Major cities are getting a bad rap for the disproportionately high greenhouse gases they emit even though their per capita emissions are often a fraction of the national average, a new report said on Monday. Published by the International Institute for Environment and Development, the report found that urban residents generate substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists blame for global warming, than people elsewhere in the country. "Although the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Coal emissions protest blocks Hunter harbour
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/22/2522712.htm?site=newcastle
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Protesters say they shut down a coal port in the Hunter region of New South Wales, stopping all ships from entering and leaving the harbour. About 500 people in kayaks and home-made rafts took part in the 11-hour blockade at Newcastle to protest against greenhouse emissions caused by the coal industry. Port Waratah Coal Services says the operations were barely affected and it was business as usual. But protest spokeswoman Carly Phillips says restricting coal ship ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Renewable energy in for a bumpy ride
http://www.sundayherald.com/business/businessnews/display.var.2497022.0.renewable_energy_in_for_a_bumpy_ride.php
Sunday Herald: IF YOU wanted a flavour of the mood in UK renewables at the moment, it was worth visiting Bilbao last week. This was where Ignacio Galàn, the charismatic chairman and chief executive of Iberdrola, owner of ScottishPower, was holding a press conference ahead of the company's annual meeting. Both there and at an interview with the Sunday Herald beforehand, he raised concerns about ScottishPower's ability to invest in the UK electricity network. These feed into several other troubling ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
China's Pollution and the Threat to Domestic and Regional Stability
http://japanfocus.org/-Nathan-Nankivell/1799
Japan Focus: China's economic boom has an environmental dark side. While China's economy continues to grow at a rate of more than 8% annually, as it has for more than two decades, the country's environment and the Chinese people are paying a steep price. China now boasts five of the ten most polluted cities in the world; 70% of the water that flows through China's urban areas is unfit for drinking or fishing; and severely degraded land or desert, which now claims 1/4 of China's land, is advancing at a ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Portugal: Wave power project hits the rocks
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article5949978.ece
Times (UK): A pioneering £8m British green energy project has been halted because of a series of setbacks, including malfunctioning of the innovative equipment designed to turn wave energy into electricity and the financial collapse of one of the scheme's backers. Pelamis Wave Power, based in Edinburgh, said its equipment had been towed back to shore in Portugal after it broke down. It will not be repaired immediately. Pelamis's wave-energy converters are considered to be the most advanced of ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Polluters could shift greenhouse burden to poor
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/polluters-could-shift-greenhouse-burden-to-poor-20090319-93cv.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIA'S biggest greenhouse polluters will be given carte blanche to shift the burden of cutting their emissions to poorer countries under the Federal Government's proposed climate change laws. Lawyers examining the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme say it allows any big Australian polluter to buy unlimited "offset" pollution credits in developing countries under a United Nations scheme, the Clean Development Mechanism, which encourages rich nations to invest in clean energy in ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Dams are making a comeback
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13349220
Economist: IT WAS political theatre as usual. Two demonstrators from a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called International Rivers disrupted the opening ceremony of the fifth World Water Forum, a week-long gathering in Istanbul of the great and good who work on matters watery which concludes on Sunday March 22nd. The demonstrators unfurled a banner saying "No Risky Dams' in metre-high letters. They were detained and thrown out of the country. It might have happened at any international ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Drought threatens water supplies and river's delicate bio-diversity
http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/sevenoaks/Drought-threatens-water-supplies-river-s-delicate-bio-diversity/article-785002-detail/article.html
thisiskent.co.uk: IN THE scorching summer of 1994 the River Darent ran dry in places. The environmental impacts of such an event occurring again are said to be far-reaching. Not only could hosepipe bans become a more common sight and, in extreme circumstances, domestic water turned off completely in favour of standpipes, the delicate bio-diversity of the Darent could be placed under huge threat. Drought is the other side of the coin to flooding brought about by climate change. But ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Labor's dirty coal dependency
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/labors-dirty-coal-dependency-20090322-95ke.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Why is the Federal Government failing to live up to its promise to do something credible on climate change? The recent essay by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, in The Monthly gives a solid clue to the general problem: old school political economy. It focused on ideological division between his party and the Opposition, and spoke to the past, not the future. Neither of the old approaches is going to get us out of the mess we have created for ourselves. Symptomatic of the problem ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
How enormous batteries could safeguard the power grid
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/03/22/how-enormous-batteries-could-safeguard-the-power-grid/
Christian Science Monitor: One evening in late February 2008, the famously steady winds of west Texas began to wane until, at last, hundreds of giant wind turbines were becalmed – their enormous blades slowed or stilled. In just three hours, grid operators at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas watched wind power output fall by 1,400 megawatts – power needed to supply roughly 600,000 homes. Following emergency procedures, a blackout was avoided by quickly cutting power to several industrial ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Emissions trading at centre of high-stakes game
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/emissions-trading-at-centre-of-highstakes-game-20090322-95ox.html
Age: "NO JOBS on a dead planet." Those words used to adorn a smokestack on the Lonsdale Street power station. They appeared in 2003, spray-painted on by environmental activists. The best place to have seen them from was from a train heading into Southern Cross Station from Melbourne's north or west. The power plant is no more. It lay dormant and asbestos-ridden for 25 years, and has been slowly demolished from 2007 for redevelopment. Those words weren't lost, reappearing last week, ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Warming to force retreat from coast
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/warming-to-force-retreat-from-coast-20090322-95q9.html
Age: THE top government scientist leading Australia's efforts to adapt to climate change has warned that some coastal communities will have to be abandoned in a "planned retreat" because of global warming. Dr Andrew Ash, who directs the CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship program, said while some vulnerable coastal communities could be protected by sea walls and levees, "there are going to be areas where that is not physically possible, or it's not cost effective to introduce any ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Why carbon trading targets matter
http://www.theage.com.au/national/why-carbon-trading-targets-matter-20090322-95oh.html
Age: IF CARBON trading gets up, the Federal Government will "cap" or put a limit on how much greenhouse gas can be emitted in a given year. That much is reasonably widely understood. What remains less well understood is that, in doing so, that cap will also put a limit on the cuts to emissions possible that year too. Let's take a hypothetical example to see how it is all supposed to work. Fast forward to 2011, and pretend that the Rudd Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Water tensions remain in the pipeline
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Water_tensions_remain_in_the_pipeline.html?siteSect=105&sid=10477869&cKey=1237731636000&ty=st
Swissinfo: NGOs demand treaty to ensure right to water Water wars do not exist, but conflicts certainly do, and climate change will make the problem more acute, expert Kurt Spillmann tells swissinfo. As United Nations World Water Day is marked, Spillmann says that water education from governments to households is key for tackling water shortages, as is global political action. This year the UN day's theme is "Shared Water - Shared Opportunities", with a focus on transboundary water ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Warmer temperatures threaten Colorado's farm water
http://durangoherald.com/sections/Opinion/2009/03/22/Warmer_temperatures_threaten_Colorados_farm_water/
Durango Herald: My great-grandfather moved to Kiowa County from Illinois and began our family's ties to rural Colorado in the late 1800s. Modern technology has changed our lives and most certainly how we work the land. That earlier snow melt, increased evaporation and drier soils will reduce runoff for most of the Colorado's water basins, with a 5 percent to 20 percent loss just in the Colorado River Basin by 2050 alone. One thing that hasn't changed is how critical water is to making a living ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Nations move to save dwindling habitat
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10562969
Independent: An international action plan is to be drawn up to save the polar bear, now threatened with extinction because climate change is melting its Arctic sea ice habitat. The five countries with polar bear populations, the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Greenland, agreed in principle on a circumpolar scheme to protect the animal's dwindling living space. The plan, to be drawn up by a team of polar bear experts, is likely to call for protected areas for denning in winter and ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Water shortage grips Korean Peninsula
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/03/23/200903230043.asp
Korea Herald: The worst drought in 12 years has forced some to lose patience and stage a fight against those responsible for the water supply. Residents in heavily affected areas are currently protesting what they call the government's failed water management policies. Provincial entities near a polluted southern river have waged a "war of water" to secure a reliable supply. Over the weekend, activists and citizens called for greater efforts to deal with the threat from scarce and ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
The Age of Stupid
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/21/the-age-of-stupid-review
Guardian: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was a quietly persuasive documentary on global warming that probably made many converts. The Age of Stupid, starting with its in-your-face title, is what might be called "a hecture", a hectoring lecture on the same subject which, like a hell-fire sermon, might go beyond fire and brimstone and dismiss the very thought of hell altogether. The movie has a semi-fictional framework with a future archivist, played by Pete Postlethwaite, sitting in a giant concrete ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Salem area may get biodiesel campus
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/03/salem_area_may_get_biodiesel_c.html
Associated Press: A Willamette Valley consortium plans to turn the area's only commercial biodiesel plant into a research and education campus. With the new emphasis on renewable energy and economic stimulus, backers feel the time is right. Chemeketa Community College, Pacific Biodiesel Technologies and developer Wildwood Inc. submitted a proposal for $10 million in funding to Oregon's congressional delegation. The project would be built over three years and could create 450 jobs, said Travis ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Even with solar, power-line battles loom
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2009/03/21/20090321maceachern0322.html
Arizona Republic: For three years, environmentalists in California fought a battle some might find curious: They opposed a proposal to link San Diego with power to be generated by a huge solar-power plant planned for the middle of the Mohave Desert. Actually, that's a bit of an oversimplification. They fought against the route of the power lines that would extend 150 miles from the enormous plant, projected to account for up to half the electricity used by San Diego consumers. The transmission ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Is Antarctica getting too popular?
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090322/LIFE/903220316/-1/NEWS
New York Times: Last month, on its next-to-last day of a 15-day Antarctic tour, the Ocean Nova, carrying 65 passengers and a crew of 41, ran aground in Antarctica and was stalled for more than a day. Damage was minor (some flaking paint and dents to the hull), and all passengers on the cruise, run by Connecticut-based Quark Expeditions, were safely transferred to another ship. But the incident, the fourth maritime accident in three years involving excursion vessels in Antarctica, is raising concerns about ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Will palm oil drive deforestation in the Amazon?
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0323-butler-laurance_tcs.html
Mongabay: Already a significant driver of tropical forest conversion across southeast Asia, oil palm expansion could emerge as threat to the Amazon rainforest due to a proposed change in Brazil's forest law, new infrastructure, and the influence of foreign companies in the region, according to researchers writing in the open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science. William F. Laurance, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama City, Panama, and ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Water Week being observed in Nepal
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/23/content_11054166.htm
Xinhua: The Himalayan nation of Nepal, which is rich in water resources, celebrated "National Water Week-2009" on Sunday to mark the World Water Day. Realizing the fact that the country has currently undergone the crucial refractory water flow, Nepal is observing a week-long celebration for the first time with focus on the World Water Day and the World Meteorological Day. "To address the ever-growing water stress and changing climate, the Nepali government along with several ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Opportunity for 2 degrees lost
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/opportunity-for-2-degrees-lost/1466204.aspx
Canberra Times: Quietly in public, loudly in private, climate scientists everywhere are saying the same thing: it's over. The years in which more than 2degrees of global warming could have been prevented have passed, the opportunities squandered by denial and delay. On current trajectories we'll be lucky to get away with 4degrees. Mitigation (limiting greenhouse gas pollution) has failed, now we must adapt to what nature sends our way. If we can. This was the repeated whisper at ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Vic carbon cuts 'no help to targets'
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/vic-carbon-cuts-no-help-to-targets-20090323-95xj.html
AAP: The Victorian government's policies to cut carbon emissions will make no difference in achieving national greenhouse targets, a confidential ministerial brief reveals. The leaked brief, obtained by The Age newspaper, says the government must rethink policies including subsidising solar farms and buying hybrid cars for its fleet because they will not assist in meeting targets in the proposed federal Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). The brief said the government should ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Cash shortage hinders climate battle
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/68717a04-171a-11de-9a72-0000779fd2ac.html
Financial Times: At the end of their two-day summit in Brussels last week, European leaders pledged to pay a "fair share" to developing nations to help them fight global warming and adapt to its consequences. Yet they failed to deliver the one thing that environmentalists most desired: money. The omission of a specific contribution, as well as unresolved questions about how the EU would pay for it, has become the latest stumbling block along the path to a global climate deal that world leaders will ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
US stimulus money fuels 'smart' power grid surge
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hK0op_hIAdo92qfQhQTzediFgNcA
Agence France-Presse: Electric grids are getting smarter in an IBM lab in Texas as the promise of billions of US economic stimulus dollars fuels a drive to make power delivery more efficient and greener. A chunk of stimulus cash aimed at promoting a "smart grid" designed to foster renewable energy generation and let people and utilities better manage electricity use has IBM in alliances with a growing host of startups. "Smart grid was starting to get hotter, but post-stimulus it is dead center at ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Wind turbines to ward off bat killings
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/23/wind-turbine-advocates-test-a-solution-to-explodin/
Washington Times: Researchers think they are close to solving a problem that has slowed progress in meeting America's future electricity needs - The giant wind turbines that constitute one of the most promising alternative energy technologies also cause bats to explode. The problem is troubling to nature lovers, who have complained bitterly and delayed projects. The small, airborne creatures help maintain an ecological balance and make neighborhoods more livable by eating large numbers of ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Troubled Waters Hard to Bridge Over
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46227
Inter Press Service: The fifth World Water Forum (WWF) held in Istanbul ended Sunday with wide- ranging differences among governments and groups with an interest in water. The forum adopted a declaration calling for "new and adequate resources" for the water sector. It also stressed the need for increased vigilance against corruption, and for preparedness for climate change. But the final declaration by close to 100 ministers made no mention of the hotly contested issue whether water is a human ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Carbon trading 'undermined by boom and bust'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/23/carbon-emissions-ets
Guardian: A shake-up in the way the "boom and bust" carbon markets are working in Europe is being urged ahead of tomorrow's auction of new emission certificates by the UK government. The Carbon Trust, which is sponsored by government money, and the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers argue that controls might have to be put in place to prevent the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) being discredited by a further collapse in prices, which have already slumped from EUR30 per tonne to just over ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
As climate changes, is water the new oil?
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/22/as_climate_changes_is_water_the_new_oil/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Reuters: If water is the new oil, is blue the new green? Translation: if water is now the kind of precious commodity that oil became in the 20th century, can delivery of clean water to those who need it be the same sort of powerful force as the environmental movement in an age of climate change? And, in another sense of green, is there money to be made in a time of water scarcity? The answer to both questions, according to environmental activists watching a global forum on water, ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Philippines: 'RP government needs to do more on climate change'
http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/science/7817-rp-government-needs-to-do-more-on-climate-change.html
Business Mirror: Despite observations worldwide showing a significant increase in global temperature, developing countries, like the Philippines, are bearing the brunt of high costs of climate change and the majority of Filipinos seem to remain complacent about it. Dr. Leoncio Amadore, former director of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), said unless the government takes urgent action to address climate change, socioeconomic and environmental ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Prince Charles blue over green crusade
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090322/wl_uk_afp/britainclimateenvironmentroyals
Agence France-Presse: Prince Charles admitted in an interview published Sunday that he found it "depressing" that his frequent warnings over climate change had not been heeded. The Prince of Wales added, though, that he was "delighted" that it seemed people had begun to realise that he had in fact been ringing the alarm over a serious issue and not "complete nonsense". "All I have been trying to do is remind people that we have to live and work in harmony with nature if we are to have any chance of ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Lethal air pollution booms in emerging nations
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090322/sc_afp/unenvironmentpollutionweather
Agence France: International experts are warning that potentially lethal air pollution has boomed in fast-growing big cities in Asia and South America in recent decades. While Europe has managed to drastically cut some, but not all, of the most noxious pollutants over the past 20 years, emerging nations experienced the opposite trend with their fast economic growth, scientists at the UN's meteorological agency said. Their comments came ahead of World Meteorological Day on Monday, which this ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Super funds in dark over costs of climate change
http://business.theage.com.au/business/super-funds-in-dark-over-costs-of-climate-change-20090322-95pg.html
Age: SUPER funds want to review their investments in light of climate change, but are in the dark when it comes to evaluation methods. A survey of 31 funds, each managing about $1 billion, found that 85 per cent planned to improve their ability to assess the financial risks of climate change by hiring expert staff or through training. However, only 9 per cent had attempted to measure their exposure to the phenomenon. John Connor of the Climate Institute, which conducted the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Climate change comes to your backyard
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/usda/climate-change-comes-to-your-backyard
Daily Climate: As winter retreats northward across the nation, gardeners are cleaning tools and turning attention to spring planting. But climate change is adding a new wrinkle, and now a standard reference – the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plant Hardiness Zone Map – is about to make very clear how much rising temperatures have shifted planting zones northward. Hopefully the new map will clear up a lot of confusion about what's happening to the climate. - Charlie Nardozzi, National ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Himalayan glaciers first victims of global warming: Study
http://www.zeenews.com/sci-tech/eco-news/2009-03-22/516980news.html
Zee News: Himalayan glaciers were probably the first to bear the brunt of climatic changes and began to melt during early to mid-18th century, claims a new study. Researchers studied composite organisms developed on the loops of the moraines formed by the Chorabari glacier near the famous Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand to arrive at the conclusion. A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of soil and rock. The study, carried out by Ravinder Kumar Chaujar of the Wadia ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United States: New breed of activists shine light on ash spill
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090322/NEWS01/903220388/1006/NEWS01
Tennessean: Matt Landon pulls a respirator over his longish hair, snugging the facepiece down over his nose and mouth. He's riding shotgun in a car on Intestate 40 headed east, 10 miles out from Harriman, Tenn., where millions of cubic yards of Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash lie in fields, yards and the Emory River. Landon explains that he wears a respirator whenever he gets this close. "The thing about fine particulates is, you don't know it's there," he said, his voice ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Coal-to-gas system could bring 10,000 new jobs to Fife
http://www.sundayherald.com/business/businessnews/display.var.2497028.0.coaltogas_system_could_bring_10_000_new_jobs_to_fife.php
Sunday Herald: TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED in the North Sea oil fields could create around 10,000 new jobs in Fife and transform the kingdom into a global centre of excellence, according to the company granted the UK's first underground coal gasification licence. Underground coal gasification (UCG) does exactly what the name suggests - it turns coal into a gas while still underground. The gas is then brought to the surface and can be processed to provide fuels for power generation, ultra-clean diesel, and ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Beautiful one year, flooded the next
http://www.smh.com.au/national/beautiful-one-year-flooded-the-next-20090322-95mg.html?page=-1
Sydney Morning Herald: THE top government scientist advising on how to adapt the nation to climate change warns that Australia will be forced to abandon some coastal communities in a "planned retreat" because of rising sea levels caused by global warming. Andrew Ash, who leads the CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship program, told the Herald that while some vulnerable coastal places could be protected by sea walls and levees, "there are going to be areas where that is not physically possible or it's not ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Rubber ducks dropped into Greenland's Jakobshavn Glacier to track ice flow
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/2009/03/21/lyons_0322.html
Palm Beach Daily News: To keep track of climate change, scientists around the world employ some of the most sophisticated devices and machines found in the 21st century. Advanced theoretical models run on huge number-crunching computers, while thousands of miles up in space complex satellites examine every nook and cranny of our atmosphere. Still, sometimes scientists just need a rubber ducky. At least, that's what Alberto Behar, a researcher from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, used ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Spoiled on cheap energy, Florida homes among highest energy consumers
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-energy-wasted-florida-homes-032109,0,4960169.story
Orlando Sentinel: Floridians give little thought to running up their power bills. They leave lights on, set thermostats on chilly and shower until the hot water is gone. Many have no clue whether their homes are energy gluttons. Energy ignorance, however, is starting to hurt. Electricity prices are on a climb that could last for years because of environmental regulations to address global warming and because of jumps in prices for power-plant fuels. In the span of six months, Orlando Utilities ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Australia: Changing investment climate
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25224779-664,00.html
Herald Sun: SUPERANNUATION investors beware: climate change could be about to melt your retirement nest egg. Not only are investors dodging billion-dollar losses from the global financial crisis, share market slump, looming recession and loss of faith in the industry - but now climate change is putting super returns at further risk. According to a survey of Australia's biggest superannuation funds, environmental impacts on super could be significant. The amount of carbon emissions ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
CO2 allowances for utilities sold out for '09
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090321/NEWS01/303219982/-1/XML15
Nashua Telegraph: The price of "allowances" that let New England utilities release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is holding steady, even though the recession has reduced the amount of power being generated. The third quarterly auction of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative produced a price of $3.51 per allowance, each of which allows the release of a ton of CO2 into the atmosphere. This is slightly higher than the $3.38 price from the auction in December. Some observers had thought the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Carbon, climate and cooperation
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2009/03/21/news/wyoming/1ccd968eaf0b8da587257580002683af.txt
Casper Star Tribune: Just as coal fueled the steam engines that settled the American West and electrified our cities around the turn of 20th century, coal is building a new China. Much of the world got its first glimpse of a Las Vegas-style new megalopolis via television during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, now home to nearly 18 million people. But what couldn't be conveyed on TV was the choking air pollution that rings Beijing and many other Chinese cities. The air here ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Arab Emirates: Oil-rich, high-living gulf nation creating first carbon-neutral city
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2009/03/22/zerocarbon0322.html
Atlanta Journal Constitution: This oil-rich swath of desert is better known for its carbon-emitting excesses. In Dubai, an indoor ski slope makes snow year-round, even during the sweltering summer. But amid all of the air-conditioned SUVs and mega-malls, the ruling sheikhs have taken an environmental turn. Construction is under way on what is being called the world`s first carbon-neutral city, rising from a featureless sandy expanse near the Abu Dhabi airport. Green as the city is intended to be, some ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Prince Charles says losing 'talking nonsense' tag
http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE52L01X20090322
Reuters: Prince Charles said in a interview published on Sunday people now realised he had not been "talking nonsense" during his many years of campaigning for action on environmental issues. Charles, 60, whose warnings of the danger of climate change have sometimes brought scathing comments from critics, said even sceptics were beginning to take his views seriously. "If now people are beginning to realise perhaps, after all, I wasn't talking complete nonsense, then I am delighted," he ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Biodiversity study to assess carbon storage in Malaysian forests
http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2009/3/22/education/3507406&sec=education
Malaysian Star: THE Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP) of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has joined hands with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Malaysia (MOSTI) in a programme called Brain Gain Malaysia, with a project called Control of Diversity and the Carbon Balance of Tropical Forest. INTROP director Assoc Prof Dr Jalaluddin Harun said the RM477,000 project aimed to assess future carbon storage in Malaysian forests. The project wil be under the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Critics question safety of storing coal slurry
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/nation/story/638314.html
Associated Press: Regulators in a handful of Appalachian states that let coal companies inject slurry into abandoned mines say they're confident the practice is safe, but an Associated Press survey shows they lack scientific data to answer citizens who believe aquifers, water wells and their own health are at risk. None of the five states contacted by AP has studied the chemical composition of slurry, a byproduct left when clay, sulfur and other impurities are removed from coal to make it burn more ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Indian auto industry on verge of new dawn-break
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200903221651.htm
Press Trust of India: History will be created in Mumbai on Monday when Tata Motors launches the world's least expensive car, Nano -- a car that can redefine personal transportation in modern India. Described as "People's Car" by Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, Nano's commercial launch will mark a milestone in a journey, which was replete with controversies, hurdles and criticism from competitors. As far as customers are concerned, they can expect to own a car coming at a price between Rs 1.20 lakh ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Scandal sullies Spain's clean energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/22/la-muela-renewables-spain-corruption
Guardian: Powerful wind turbines churned the air above La Muela last week but the stir in this small Aragonese town was caused by the arrest of the mayor and 18 other people on charges that reveal a new phenomenon in Spain: eco-corruption. Windswept La Muela, with its 500 giant windmills, has become one of Spain's richest towns on the back of what is the new gold for rural communities - renewable energy. Eight years ago, the wind energy companies that provide up to 40% of Spain's electricity on ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Britain to become the most populous country in EU
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/22/environment-population-conference-britain
Guardian: Britain will become one of the world's major destinations for immigrants as the world heats up and populations continue to soar. Statistics from the United Nations show that, on average, every year more than 174,000 people will be added to the numbers in the UK and that this trend will continue for the next four decades. By then, only the United States and Canada will be receiving more overseas settlers, says the UN. This increase in British numbers is likely to put considerable ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Office staff warned of confrontation as City braces for mass G20 protests
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/22/g20-anti-globalisation-protests
Guardian: Office workers face chaos next week with swaths of London in security lockdown for the G20 summit and warnings that bankers will be targeted in a series of protests aimed at causing maximum disruption. Staff in the City are being advised to dress down and postpone non-essential meetings amid fears that they will be forced to run the gauntlet of protesters. Thousands of G20 Meltdown campaign posters show a mannequin wearing a suit being hanged, while an anarchist website has the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Cow gas tax calls put at a peep
http://www.gallowaygazette.co.uk/latest-scottish-news/Cow-gas-tax-calls-put.5096826.jp
Press Association: The Scottish Government said it had no plans to introduce a new tax on farmers linked to the amount of methane their animals produce. Tory MEP Struan Stevenson had demanded to know of Holyrood ministers were considering the move as part of measures to combat climate change. Mr Stevenson said other countries in Europe were considering bringing in such a scheme. The Conservative Scottish MEP said: "It is estimated that a single cow can emit up to 4 tons of methane every year, ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United States: Going solar? Option more affordable these days
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090322/ARTICLES/903221002/1002?Title=Going-solar-Option-more-affordable-these-days
Gainesville Sun: Hernan Vera has become obsessed with his carbon footprint - the measure of the impact our activities have on the environment and especially climate change. In the past year, he has had solar panels installed on his northwest Gainesville home, refitted his house with low-energy light bulbs and hired an air conditioning contractor to come out to his 2,700-square-foot residence to plug leaks. "Once you get going in this thing, you want to save energy in everything you can," said ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
After Yucca Mountain: America's homeless nuclear waste
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11967458
Salt Lake Tribune: Every year, the nation's 104 nuclear plants create about 2,200 tons of nuclear waste and stow it in storage containers beside cooling towers across America. In Idaho. In Massachusetts. In Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana, California, New Mexico -- at 120 locations in 39 states a total of 66,000 tons of used but still dangerously radioactive fuel are stored in concrete containers under the open sky. And now it has nowhere else to go. The plan for two decades was to bury ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Our mantra of continuous growth has left us on ecological brink
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fe20090322sh.html
Japan Times: If print media are any indication, change is in the air. Readers are sourcing news in new ways, and newspaper sales are declining as a result. But there is also a change in how writers are covering environmental and economic issues and the interplay of the two. A perfect storm is brewing and it's finally getting thoughtful coverage. Critics, of course, would argue that journalists simply generate crises to stay employed. No bad news; no job. However, at their best, ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Texas is taking a greater interest in global warming
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/032209dnproglobalwarming.36990b9.html
Dallas Morning News: Despite leading the nation in climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions -- and facing the prospect of a drowned coastline and a Dust Bowl interior in a warmer future -- Texas doesn't regulate its share of the world's greenhouse gases. The state's reluctance to address global warming may be fading, however, due to the likelihood of federal action under the Obama administration and the chance for Texas to become a money-making repository for unwanted CO2. Nearly two dozen bills ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Kerry focuses on global warming
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1451913.html
News and Observer: Americans should treat the fight against global warming as this generation's civil rights movement, rising up against companies that are planning a massive lobbying campaign to block efforts to reduce carbon emissions, Sen. John Kerry said Friday. "I believe we have staring us in the face a moment of remarkable opportunity and we need to seize it," Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said. The test, he said, is whether the nation will find the political will, and whether people ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Tokyo declares cherry blossom season open
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090321/wl_asia_afp/climatewarmingjapancherryweather
Agence France-Presse: Japanese authorities on Saturday declared the cherry blossom season open in Tokyo, with the blooming date getting earlier due to what some experts say is the effect of global warming. Millions of Japanese wine and dine each year at parties under the cherry trees, whose delicate but short-lived blossoms have left centuries worth of poets pondering the ephemeral nature of beauty. A meteorological agency official confirmed that more than 10 buds on a designated Somei-Yoshino ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United States: $46M to cut global peril
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=782217&category=REGION
Albany Times Union: The state raised another $46 million for clean energy efforts at this week's auction under a northeastern program to fight global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Combined with the proceeds from the state's first auction in December under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the state now has about $88 million available for programs to cut emissions, said Peter Iwanowicz, climate change director at the State Department of Environmental ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
EU fails to commit to climate change aid
http://www.terradaily.com/2007/090320160954.x8jpyvhj.html
Agence France-Presse: EU leaders refused Friday to put a figure on aid for developing nations to cut greenhouse gases, saying they wanted to wait to see what the United States, China and others have to offer. The European Commission had mooted 30 billion euros (41 billion dollars) but no figure was agreed at a two-day summit that ended Friday, with the EU not keen to show its hand before other major polluters had outlined theirs. "We are talking about between 20 billion and 40 billion euros as the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Scilly Isles could have to be abandoned because of global warming
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5024580/Scilly-Isles-could-have-to-be-abandoned-because-of-global-warming.html
Telegraph: The Scilly Isles is so exposed that a combination of rising sea levels and more frequent and violent storms could mean it becomes inundated. A conference of global scientific experts has predicted a one metre-plus rise in sea levels this century and, according to experts, because the Scillies are perched precariously 28 miles out in the Atlantic they could be the worse affected place in Britan The combination of the two factors could spell disaster for the islands which feel ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Eastern states raise $117 mln in carbon auction
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE52J3D720090320
Reuters: Ten states in the U.S. East said on Friday they raised more than $117 million in a third auction of permits for power plants to emit the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, about $10 million more than the last sale. Washington is closely watching the auctions. President Barack Obama hopes to launch a cap-and-trade market on emissions of planet-warming gases and raise hundreds of billions of dollars through similar auctions starting in 2012. The states, which formed a coalition known ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
EU aims to release 2008 emissions data on April 1
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE52J2TI20090320
Reuters: The European Commission expects to publish European energy-intensive industry's preliminary 2008 carbon emissions data on Wednesday, April 1, the Commission said on Friday. Although an exact time has not been set, a Commission spokeswoman told Reuters it will appear on the EC's website -- here -- once 80 percent of the data has been collected from the nearly 12,000 participating installations. Under the 27-nation bloc's Emissions Trading Scheme, greenhouse gas emissions from ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
EU urges swifter action on climate, pledges funds
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I6ZL20090320
Reuters: The European Union will surmount internal disputes and honor pledges to help poor states tackle climate change, the bloc's environment chief said Friday, urging other rich regions to make clear their goals. The call by Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas echoed a warning this week by United Nations climate chief Yvo de Boer, who expressed concern over the slow progress being made before climate talks in Copenhagen in December. Success at the meeting hinges on whether rich ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
EPA, DOE oppose Senate plan for Energy Star program
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122074
Greenwire: Senators should cut language from pending energy efficiency legislation that requires a revised cooperation agreement between the Energy Department and U.S. EPA on the Energy Star labeling program and new requirements, Obama administration officials said yesterday. Instead, the agencies say they are working together to resolve problems with the program without legislation, and that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu have already met to discuss the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Is the clean development mechanism slumping toward extinction?
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122072
ClimateWire: A perfect storm of bad economic and political trends could spell doom for the Clean Development Mechanism, the often criticized yet also lauded U.N. program created by the Kyoto Protocol that allows developed countries and their corporations to offset greenhouse gas emissions by making reductions in the developing world. The serious threat that the CDM is facing so far doesn't appear in the most visible statistics. The number of new projects entering the validation process of the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United States: Feds give initial approval for Crow coal plant
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/plains/41566787.html
Associated Press: A Crow official says the federal government has given preliminary approval to the American Indian tribe's plan to build one of the first coal-to-liquid fuel plants in the nation. The $7.4 billion plant would produce an initial 50,000 barrels a day of diesel, jet fuel, fertilizer or other products. The fuel would be produced from coal mined on the Crow's southeastern Montana reservation. The BIA has told the tribe it can move forward with a plant development agreement signed ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Canada: Energy future bright: deputy minister
http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1488407
Fort McMurray Today: Though Alberta is stepping up its game when it comes to renewables as part of the energy mix, Alberta's deputy minister of energy, Peter Watson, says reliance on the controversial oilsands will continue for quite some time. "We want and we will facilitate more renewable and alternative energy," Watson told the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce yesterday. However, he added, hydrocarbons and fossil fuels will continue to be the centrepiece of the province's energy mix for some time to ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Lebanon's cedars threatened by global warming
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-lebanon-cedars_slymar22,0,3089840.story
Chicago Tribune: There's no escaping the cedar tree in Lebanon. A cedar is emblazoned on the country's flag, and another on the planes of the national airline. It is on the currency, on passports and on all official documents. It is proudly worn on the uniforms of soldiers and crudely plastered on tourist knickknacks from ashtrays to fridge magnets. Cedars also have played an integral part in Lebanon's volatile political life. Several Christian factions in the country's civil war adopted the ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
Financial crisis can lead to modest lifestyles
http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-38633420090321?sp=true
Reuters: The financial crisis is a timely warning of much greater risks the planet faces from excessive focus on profit and growth, veteran British environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt said on Saturday. Environmentalists have linked the present recession with wider threats such as climate change, blaming credit-fuelled economic growth for the reckless consumption of natural resources including fossil fuels. Governments, companies and regulators must reduce the rewards for growth ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
United States: Jack Bauer tackles global warming
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/03/20/jack-bauer-tackles-global-warming/
Christian Science Monitor: Fox`s political action thriller "24" has long pushed the boundaries of prime-time television with its graphic depictions of violence and torture. Now, the series, in its seventh season, is breaking ground in what may seem an unlikely frontier. Earlier this month, show producers announced that it is the first television program to become "carbon neutral." The show reduced its overall carbon emissions to zero through a combination of "better practices," and the purchase of carbon ...
Mon, 23 Mar 09
UN offers $18 mln to five countries for less emissions, more jobs
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90856/6617468.html
Xinhua: Five pilot countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are set to receive 18 million U.S. dollars in funding from a United Nations program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from forests while boosting local livelihoods, UN officials said here on Wednesday. The UN Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) was launched last UN September by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a way of combating climate change through creating incentives to reverse the ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Case against climate change melting away
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/world/Case-against-climate-change-melting.5096564.jp
Scotland on Sunday: MORE than 600 self-confessed climate sceptics met in a Times Square hotel in New York this month to challenge what has become a broad scientific and political consensus: that without big changes in energy choices, humans will dangerously heat up the planet. The three-day International Conference on Climate Change – organised by the Heartland Institute, a nonprofit group seeking deregulation and unfettered markets – brought together political figures, conservative campaigners, scientists, an ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Cameron fury at 'climate change Taliban' jibe
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-fury-at-climate-change-taliban-jibe-1651310.html
Independent: David Cameron yesterday slapped down a senior Tory who compared climate change activists to the Taliban, as he continued his attempt to green his party, despite the recession and opposition from sceptics. Sources close to the Conservative leader described as "inappropriate" a website entry by Roger Evans, a London Assembly member, describing anti-airport campaigners as "the climate change Taliban". And a spokesman for Boris Johnson, London's Mayor -- who once compared concern ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
The incredible shrinking polar bear
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/the-incredible-shrinking-polar-bear-1651315.html
Independent: Polar bears are shrinking, along with the ice on which they live -- and are turning to cannibalism -- as global warming increasingly stops them getting enough to eat. Scientists say the animals are now only two-thirds as big as they were 30 years ago as melting ice makes it harder for them to catch seals, and that they have begun to hunt each other instead. The news comes as Arctic nations agreed at a special summit in Norway last week to draw up an action plan to try to save ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Carbonated Oceans
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320164659.htm
ScienceDaily: Like a sinkful of hard water deposits suddenly doused with vinegar, the shells of tiny marine snails in Victoria Fabry's test tanks don't stand a chance. Fabry, a biological oceanographer and visiting researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, studies the effects of ocean acidification on the molluscs known as pteropods. In one experiment, only 48 hours of exposure to slightly corrosive seawater caused normally smooth shells to become frayed at the edges on ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
One Quarter Of The World's Population Depends On Degrading Land
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320092249.htm
ScienceDaily: A new study published in the journal Soil Use and Management attempts for the first time to measure the extent and severity of land degradation across the globe and concludes that 24% of the land area is degrading -- often in very productive areas. Land degradation - the decline in the quality of soil, water and vegetation -- is of profound importance but until now there have been no consistent global data by which to assess its extent and severity. For nearly thirty years the world ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
World leaders urged to link water to climate negotiations
http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/world-leaders-urged-link-water-climate-negotiations/article-180496?Ref=RSS
EurActiv: Business leaders attending this week's World Water Forum called on the international community to acknowledge the link between water, energy and climate change, encouraging them to take these up in global climate negotiations that are expected to be concluded this December in Copenhagen. Background: The World Water Forum forum is the world's largest international gathering on water policy. It has been organised by the World Water Council (WWC) every three years since ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Canada: Climate Change Initiative already producing results
http://www2.canada.com/deltaoptimist/news/story.html?id=558248ed-72a1-4006-8833-a55eb65f5842
Delta Optimist: Delta's Climate Change Initiative has entered its second full year of implementation and tangible results of the aim to reduce the corporation's contribution to climate change can already be seen. Delta council approved the plan in July 2007. One of its big goals is to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the corporation by 20 per cent below the 2006 level by 2015. In 2006, a baseline reading of the municipality's greenhouse gas emissions was taken. It showed that the ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Aid for solar firm is first from 4-year-old program
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122083
New York Times: The Energy Department has tentatively awarded its first alternative-energy loan guarantee, breaking a four-year logjam in the federal loan program. The $535 million guarantee will go to Solyndra Inc., which said it would use the money to expand its production of photovoltaic panels at its facilities in Fremont, Calif. The company said the guarantee would cover about 75 percent of the project costs and would ultimately produce thousands of construction, manufacturing and installation ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
U.S. installed solar capacity up 17 percent in 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-BusinessofGreen/idUSTRE52J5VW20090320
Reuters: Installed solar power capacity in the United States rose by 17 percent to 8,775 megawatts in 2008, the strongest growth in a single year, solar advocate Solar Energy Industries Association said in an annual review issued on Friday. It was the third straight year of record growth for the solar industry. It is widely expected that 2009 will be another record year. There are more than 6 gigawatts of concentrating solar power plants in the development pipeline, SEIA said. "Despite ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Calif. solar effort flags in frozen housing market
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122073
Greenwire: California's ambitious solar-energy rebate program is slumping in the state's deep, prolonged housing crisis. Builders of new homes filed 139 rebate applications in January and 159 in February, according to California Energy Commission data. That is down from 709 in December and 485 in November last year. The solar program's slide reflects the mood in the economy and the downturn in the housing market, in which new-home construction fell to a record low last year as banks ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
EU delays decision on aid to cut emissions
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0321/1224243196286.html
Irish Times: EU LEADERS have refused to declare how much money they will give developing countries to help cut greenhouse gas emissions. Member states would discuss the issue again in June but were unlikely to decide even then since the contribution of the US, Japan and others had to be looked at first, Mirek Topolanek, the Czech prime minister, said yesterday after talks with other leaders. "We haven`t come forward with concrete proposals because there are other global partners who have ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Prince of Wales: 'If people now realise I wasn't talking complete nonsense then I'm delighted'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/5028498/Prince-of-Wales-If-people-now-realise-I-wasnt-talking-complete-nonsense-then-Im-delighted.html
Telegraph: The sun is setting over the Galápagos Islands as the Prince of Wales, clad in a cream suit, emerges from a villa where he's just freshened up and greets me warmly. Soon he is leaning forward in a low-slung chair, talking enthusiastically about everything from his position as Prince to his fondness for the Galápagos, which he and the Duchess of Cornwall, his wife of nearly four years, are visiting for the first time. So does the heir to the throne feel he has finally found a fulfilling ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Chicago's 'green' promise fades
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-daley-green-power-bd22-mar22,0,6177898.story
Chicago Tribune: Mayor Richard Daley promised long ago that his administration would start fighting global warming by buying 20 percent of its electricity from wind farms and other sources of green energy. But more than two years after the deadline he set, the city continues to get nearly all of its power from coal, natural gas and nuclear plants, according to records obtained by the Tribune. Daley administration officials contend they have kept the mayor's promise by buying carbon credits, a ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
US, China face tough choices on climate change
http://www.statesman.com/insight/content/editorial/stories/insight/03/22/0322chinaclimate.html
Austin American-Statesman: To some observers, the Three Gorges Dam shows how the United States and China could cooperate to slow global warming. When the dam's reservoir reaches its maximum height this fall, 26 huge turbines will produce enough electricity to power most of Shanghai, China's largest city, without releasing any gases that contribute to climate change. To others, however, the Yangtze River dam -- the world's largest at five times the width of America's Hoover Dam -- highlights the difficulties ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
NOAA Set for Larger Policy Role Under First Female Chief
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/20/AR2009032003295.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: Jane Lubchenco, the newly confirmed head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, decided to dedicate her life to the sea 40 years ago when she became fascinated with a tiny species of mud-burrowing clam. Lubchenco, then an undergraduate at Colorado College, was taking a summer course on invertebrates at Marine Biological Laboratories with a group of graduate students. She was given a chance to study why the Yoldia had a small, mysterious structure attached to the edge ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Action on Climate Change Is 'A Big Priority' for FERC Chief
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/20/AR2009032003194.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: Add a new name to the list of Obama appointees devoted to aggressive action on climate change. President Obama yesterday named Jon Wellinghoff -- a lawyer who once served as Nevada's consumer advocate and a believer that electric-car owners could someday get paid to provide backup battery power to the electricity grid -- as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Wellinghoff joined the commission in 2006 and has been serving as acting chairman since January. He ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Warning over renewables as recession leaves funding gap
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/21/renewable-energy-economic-crisis
Guardian: Green power companies are heading for "crisis" and Britain should no longer rely on them to meet its energy security and climate change obligations, some industry experts are warning. The difficulties - triggered by the credit crunch, recession and a collapse in the carbon price - have led to new demands this weekend to ministers from companies warning that their renewables schemes are at risk without more financial aid. Over the past week alone, the previously fast-growing ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
U.S. Birds Struggling to Survive Habitat Loss, Climate Change
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-19-01.asp
Environment News Service: Nearly one-third of the more than 800 bird species in the United States are endangered, threatened or in decline due to climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species, finds the first comprehensive report ever produced on U.S. bird populations. At a news conference in Washington today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released the report, which was developed by a partnership among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, state government wildlife ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Climate Change Myths and Facts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/03/20/ST2009032003115.html
Washington Post: A recent controversy over claims about climate science by Post op-ed columnist George F. Will raises a critical question: Can we ever know, on any contentious or politicized topic, how to recognize the real conclusions of science and how to distinguish them from scientific-sounding spin or misinformation? Congress will soon consider global-warming legislation, and the debate comes as contradictory claims about climate science abound. Partisans of this issue often wield vastly ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
States anxious as Obama shapes climate policy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52J53J20090320?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.S. states have spearheaded moves to curb global warming and are not ready to pass the leadership baton to President Barack Obama. Regional markets to trade air pollution credits, aimed at cutting emissions that heat the planet, could be overshadowed by a federal system Obama sees as central to his environmental policy. But states plan to proceed with their own emission control programs until the White House and Congress pass a credible federal market mechanism such as ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Chinese hold US feet to fire on global warming
http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/403999_joel18ww.html
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Although his country now leads the world in greenhouse gas emissions, a top Chinese official on Wednesday sought to turn up the heat on the United States for talking a good line on global warming -- but not acting. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., responded by preaching cooperation, or what she called "co-opetition" -- cooperation in bringing on line some energy technologies, but competition in other fields. She proposed establishing special "clean energy free trade zones" in both ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Developing countries need climate change support
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/200903/s2521582.htm
Radio Australia: Australia's government has angrily dismissed claims that it's determined on a low, five percent cut in greenhouse gases. It comes as two Australian climate experts say that climate change is the moral issue of our time, requiring action, above all else. Climate scientist Will Steffan and climate change economist Frank Jotzo also say financial support for developed nations' responses to climate change is vital. Professor Steffan and Doctor Jotzo were among two-thousand-five-hundred ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Liquid gas
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7881388.stm
BBC: Special terminals are required to accept the large tankers. Two such terminals have been built in Milford Haven, which is a large deep water anchorage. They will be run by different consortia. The LNG will be offloaded at a jetty through pipes and stored in giant tanks where it remains at cryogenic temperatures. It is then re-gasified in a vapourising plant before leaving the terminal as gas in a pipeline. The South Hook terminal is the largest operation and is a joint venture between ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
EU leaders unlikely to agree on climate aid
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/19/ap6190211.html
Associated Press: EU leaders will probably delay a decision on how much money the 27-nation bloc is willing to spend to persuade poor, mostly African countries to sign up to a new U.N.-sponsored climate change pact, diplomats said Thursday. The European Union leaders are under increased pressure from environmental groups and the U.N. to set a specific figure now, as detailed and sensitive negotiations enter their last nine months ahead of the year-end climate change conference in Copenhagen. That ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Spacewalkers hook up station's new solar power wings
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090320/sc_nm/us_space_shuttle
Reuters: Visiting shuttle Discovery astronauts on Friday unfurled the new solar panel wings they installed onto the International Space Station, allowing it to generate full power after a decade of construction. Working inside the station's Destiny laboratory, the astronauts extended two sets of panels that had been folded up like accordions inside flat metal boxes. The 31,000-pound (13,950-kg) girder containing the boxes was installed during the Discovery crew's first spacewalk on ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
What to do about Coal?
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=what-to-do-about-coal-2006
Scientific American: Editor's Note: We are posting this feature from our September 2006 issue in light of the Obama administration's renewed focus on how to use the most abundant--and dirtiest--fossil fuel, coal, without overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. More than most people realize, dealing with climate change means addressing the problems posed by emissions from coal-fired power plants. Unless humanity takes prompt action to strictly limit the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
A high-tech solution to the landfill problem
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/public_sector/article5940345.ece
Times (UK): In a giant green shed on the site of a former steelworks in South Yorkshire, two rocket-shaped cylinders twist and steam like colossal pressure cookers as they churn through hopper-loads of household rubbish. Council lorries arrive, loaded with stinking black bin liners. Others leave with gleaming piles of recyclable tins and plastics. But this is not a conventional recycling plant; all the waste here is the unsorted black-bag variety. Nor is it a mass burn incinerator, the ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Food and energy shortages will create 'perfect storm' says Prof John Beddington
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5015051/Food-and-energy-shortages-will-create-perfect-storm-says-Prof-John-Beddington.html
Telegraph: The demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences, Prof Beddington predicts. Demand for food and energy will jump 50 per cent by 2030 and for fresh water by 30 per cent, as the global population tops 8.3 billion, he is due to tell a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he will add. "It's a perfect storm," Prof Beddington will tell the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference. "There's not going to ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
United Kingdom: MPs launch inquiry into adequacy of current carbon targets
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238791/mps-launch-inquiry-adequacy
Business Green: Just a week after climate scientists warned that the impacts of climate change will be more severe and felt earlier than previously expected, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) of MPs has announced an inquiry into whether UK carbon targets are stringent enough given the latest scientific findings. The inquiry, which was officially launched yesterday, will assess the government's planned carbon budgets and ask how consistent they are with the emissions reductions now required by ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Greenwash: Disney's green intentions are pure fantasy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/19/disney-greenwash-fred-pearce
Guardian: Walt Disney is going green. Fantasy world? You might think so, what with headlines declaring "Disney no Dumbo when it comes to the environment" and sober-minded business journalists reporting their ambitions to be "as green as Jiminy Cricket". Anyhow, the company with an unerring ability to persuade people to cross oceans to visit its theme park is now taking the well-worn path to corporate environmentalism. Its journey is being charted by Conservation International, one of the ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
European utility CEOs aim for carbon-neutral power by 2050
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238796/european-utility-ceos-aim
Business Green: Sixty European electricity company chief executives have handed over a declaration to EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs in which they pledge to supply carbon-neutral power by 2050. The declaration also commits to an integrated European electricity market and the promotion of energy efficiency technologies. The chief executives represent power companies in 27 countries, jointly producing 2,500TWh electricity per year, equivalent to more than 70 per cent of total European power ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Survey says Americans still in favor of efforts to combat global warming
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/03/19/news/a3-neclimate.txt
New Haven Register: Even as the economy was deteriorating, more than 90 percent of Americans still wanted the U.S. to take action to forestall global warning, according to a national survey. Researchers at Yale and George Mason universities released results Tuesday that showed two-thirds of Americans want the country to reduce its greenhouse emissions, even if other countries fail to do so. The survey of 2,164 Americans, age 18 and over, taken last fall, found high levels of support for a variety ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Global crisis 'to strike by 2030'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7951838.stm
BBC: Growing world population will cause a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned. By 2030 the demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences, Prof John Beddington said. Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he told a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he ...
Sun, 22 Mar 09
Europe's energy chiefs aim for carbon-neutral electricity by 2050
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/19/europe-energy-power-climate
Guardian: The heads of 61 power groups in the EU tonight have committed to achieving carbon-neutral electricity within an integrated power market by 2050. Their declaration, handed to Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner, comes as Europe is under attack for lowering its ambitions to combat climate change, handing over leadership to the US and China and reneging on efforts to help the poorest developing countries adapt to a low-carbon economy. The chief executives, including from the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Diplomacy key to defusing row over 'Blue Gold'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090320/sc_afp/environmentwaterforumconflict
Agence France-Presse: From South Asia and to the Middle East, from Australia to California, rivers and aquifers that cross boundaries have become potent sources of friction. Farmers squabble with city dwellers over irrigation rights while countries in river basins complain about pollution or water theft from upstream, as their neighbours build dams to siphon off flow from the watershed. "Conflicts about water can occur at all scales," the UN warned ahead of the World Water Forum, which winds up in ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Is the UK's first electric car plant heading to the North East?
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238921/nissan-look-low-carbon-vehicles
Business Green: Auto giant Nissan has today announced it is to team up with regional development agency One North East to promote adoption of electric vehicles in the region. The initiative will feature a series of incentives and educational programmes designed to help create the first major UK market for electric cars outside of London. The manufacturer said it will also conduct a feasibility study into manufacturing electric vehicles in the region and installing a charging infrastructure in ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
'Hearts and minds' approach needed in green tech drive
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16812-hearts-and-minds-approach-needed-in-green-tech-drive.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: There is no shortage of research into the alternative energy technology that could eventually force the internal combustion engine from the highway. However, addressing technical problems alone is not enough, says a senior scientist Robert Carling at the US government Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. He says if engineers collaborated with social scientists they would have a better chance of convincing people to help break the polluting rut our civilisation is ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
'Right to water' at centre of world forum debate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090320/sc_afp/environmentwaterforum
Agence France-Presse: Ministerial-level talks on the world's worsening problems of water scarcity, pollution and sanitation began here Friday amid discord over whether water should be considered a fundamental "right" or a "need." More than 100 ministers or their stand-ins from around the globe are meeting at the World Water Forum until Sunday, which is World Water Day. They are due to issue a non-binding statement, acknowledging the target of providing clean water and sewerage for the world's 6.5 ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
EU accused of jeopardising fight against climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/20/eu-climate-developing-nations-fundings
Guardian: Green campaigners today accused EU leaders of jeopardising the global fight against climate change by refusing to commit funds to the least developed countries. At a two-day summit, which ended today, the EU's 27 leaders decided to put off making any concrete offer until October – just two months before a crucial UN summit in Copenhagen on a post-Kyoto deal to curb global warming. Privately, Europe's leaders insisted that the US, and China and other emerging economies would ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Nobody Is Predicting Cleaner Air for Santiago
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46212
Inter Press Service: Olivia González has been a schoolteacher for 30 years in Cerro Navia, one of the districts in the Chilean capital with the highest concentration of air pollution between April and August. A first-hand witness to its effects on health, she is pessimistic about the air she'll breathe this coming southern hemisphere winter. "Every year, the students in the municipal school where I work come down with many headaches and respiratory problems. As a result, they are constantly missing class ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Future looks bright for US carbon capture project
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127003.600-future-looks-bright-for-us-carbon-capture-project.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: THE future looks a little brighter for one of the world's most ambitious carbon capture projects - so long as its backers can avoid more embarrassing arithmetic blunders. The $1.8 billion US-led FutureGen project was supposed to demonstrate the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from a coal power plant. But last year the US Department of Energy (DOE) cancelled its commitment to the project, citing spiralling costs. Now that decision may be reconsidered. A report by the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Opposition grows to Norway's Arctic oil search
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/20/oil-exploration-polar-circle-norway
Guardian: Perched 200km north of the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten islands in Norway paint a picture-perfect image of serenity. High mountains plunge into the sea, villages of brightly painted wooden houses nestle on the shores of sheltered bays, while fishing boats pull gently on their anchors. But underneath the surface, the Lofoten islands are the latest battleground for the right to exploit the polar region's oil and gas resources, with local fishermen and environmentalists hoping to defeat a ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Climate And Habitat Diversity Affect Variety Of Animal Species In Spain
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090320092245.htm
ScienceDaily: The Iberian Peninsula is one of the richest regions of Europe in terms of animal biodiversity. In this context, Spanish researchers have shown that the variation in terrestrial vertebrate diversity in Spain is influenced above all by climate. In addition to habitat diversity, the study concludes that, when all other factors are taken into consideration, this wealth is higher in the north (Pyrenees) and the south (Straits of Gibraltar), and is relatively less in the centre of the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Hong Kong calls for transparency on eco impact of planned oil refinery
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/20/guangdong-nansha-oil-refinery-hong-kong
Guardian: Hong Kong lawmakers are demanding greater transparency on the environmental impact of a huge new petrochemical project that is allegedly being protected from scrutiny by Chinese government censors. The Guangdong Nansha refinery will be one of the biggest oil plants in Asia if it goes ahead, but Hong Kong is being kept in the dark about the approval process despite its close proximity. Unease in the territory and surrounding regions has been heightened by reports that mainland ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
EU leaders agree to repay carbon debt but fail to put cash on the table
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/releases/eu-leaders-fail-to-put-cash-on-table-200309
Greenpeace: European leaders agreed to raise money for developing countries to tackle climate change at the EU Spring Summit in Brussels today, but failed to put any money on the table to support their plans. Greenpeace believes the lack of concrete financial commitments does not bring the world any closer to a global climate deal at the end of this year. "The EU is waiting for Godot. We have now wasted three months until the next EU Summit in June. The EU has agreed it must repay its carbon ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Action on climate to harm Gulf economies: Saudi official
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090319/twl-environment-us-saudi-environment-1202b49.html
Reuters: Strict measures across the world to act against climate change could seriously affect the economies of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations, a Saudi official said on Thursday. Skip related content "Countries talking about reducing dependence on oil could impact our economy," Mohammad al-Sabban of the Saudi ministry of petroleum told an OPEC energy conference. OPEC has committed to reducing harmful emissions and Saudi Arabia has invested in carbon capture and storage technology ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Global deal threatened by "climate apartheid"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8411839
Guardian: * Developing countries should adopt emissions targets * Global deal threatened by "climate apartheid" * China "hiding behind" other developing countries By Raymond Colitt BRASILIA, March 19 (Reuters) - Work on a new U.N. deal on global warming is threatened by a "climate apartheid" between rich and poor countries, and emerging economies must do their part by setting emissions targets, Brazil's environment minister said. Carlos Minc told Reuters developing ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Toxic Emissions Fell in 2007, E.P.A. Says
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=122000
New York Times: The volume of toxic chemicals that were released into the environment or sent for disposal in 2007 dropped 5 percent compared with 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. But concealed within the overall numbers was good and bad news. For example, the volume of released or disposed "persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic chemicals," substances like lead, dioxin, mercury and PCBs, was up slightly, the agency said. Most of those releases were not to air or water, the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Smart metering firms get ready to roll
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238882/smart-metering-firms-ready-roll
Business Green: With smart meters set to make up a key component of President Obama's stimulus package some of the biggest players in the market are putting the finishing touches to their technologies and business models in preparation for large scale roll outs. Telco giant AT &T this week became the latest technology firm to step up its interest in the sector, announcing a partnership with smart metering manufacturer SmartSynch to offer a service plan for utilities trying to establish smart grid ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
When the ship comes in
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/20/liquid-natural-gas
Guardian: The Rough Guide to Wales describes Milford Haven as "one of the world's greatest natural harbours", and quotes lines from Shakespeare's Cymbeline: "How far it is/To this same blessed Milford; and by the way/Tell me how Wales was made so happy as/To inherit such a haven." The bard had a point - though since the late 1950s, such beauty has been rather sullied by the arrival of big industry: specifically, two massive oil refineries and an oil storage plant, serviced by a regular stream ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Credit crunch threatens to sink Portuguese wave energy project
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238890/wave-project-state-limbo
Business Green: The world's first commercial wave energy project is on the brink of collapse after its main backer went into administration last week, casting doubt over the future of a project that has already been dogged by technical problems. The Aguçadoura project was a joint venture between Edinburgh-based Pelamis Wave Power, Australian energy developer Babcock & Brown, Energias de Portugal (EdP) and Portuguese electrical engineering firm Efacec. But Australian-listed ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
The US cannot drill its way out of energy dependence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/mar/20/oil-america-energy-independence
Guardian: The chant "Drill Baby Drill!", commonly heard at Republican rallies last autumn, became one of the most memorable slogans of the 2008 US presidential election. Oil prices had skyrocketed, with prices running to almost $150 a barrel. While John McCain suggested ratcheting up domestic oil production as the solution, Barack Obama promised a technological revolution that would allow the development of green alternatives to petrol within 10 years. Energy independence became the watchword of the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
EU fails to commit to climate change aid
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090320/sc_afp/eusummitenviromentclimate
Agence France-Presse: A European Union summit refused Friday to put a figure on aid for developing nations to cut greenhouse gases, waiting to see what United States and others offer. The European Commission has proposed 30 billion euros and EU leaders, ending a two-day summit in Brussels, have been working on that basis, officials said. However no figure was included in draft conclusions drawn up for the summit, with the EU not keen to show its hand before the United States, China and others had ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
One-third of US birds endangered
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/20/america-endangered-birds
Associated Press: Nearly one-third of US birds are endangered, threatened or in significant decline, according to a government conservation report. It says the findings are "a warning signal of the failing health of our ecosystems" and reports that birds in Hawaii, the most bird-rich state, are "in crisis". The authors say that energy production deriving from wind, ethanol and mountain-top coal mining is contributing to steep drops in bird populations. The State of the Birds report ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
United States: Obama tours electric car facility and announces $2.4bn grant for industry
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238905/obama-tours-electric-car
Guardian: President Barack Obama yesterday toured a California electric car plant and announced a $2.4bn grant programme to develop plug-in vehicles. Obama visited the Southern California Edison electric vehicle technical centre, one of two test sites approved by the US Department of Energy to investigate electric car performance. Managed by one of the largest electric utilities in the country, the 16-year-old facility researches battery-powered and hybrid engines, and studies the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Protesters await first liquid gas delivery to giant new terminal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/20/protests-gas-tanker
Press Association: The first giant tanker carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a major new terminal is to be met by the sound of a second world war air raid siren today, protesters said. The South Hook terminal is the larger of two new plants at Milford Haven, west Wales, which are expected meet up to 25% of the UK's gas requirements once fully operational. But protesters have fought the £13bn project on safety and environmental grounds. Gordon Main, founder of campaign group Safe ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Changing climate increases West Nile threat in U.S
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/west-nile/Changing-climate-increases-West-Nile-threat-in-U.S
Daily Climate: The higher temperatures, humidity and rainfall associated with climate change have led to increased outbreaks of West Nile Virus infections across the United States in recent years, according to a study published this week. One of the largest surveys of West Nile Virus cases to date links warming weather patterns and increasing rainfall – both projected to accelerate with global warming – to outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease across 17 states from 2001 to 2005. The authors ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
In silt, Bangladesh sees potential shield against sea level rise
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121979
New York Times: The rivers that course down from the Himalayas and into this crowded delta bring an annual tide of gift and curse. They flood low-lying paddies for several months, sometimes years, at a time. And they ferry mountains of silt and sand from far away upstream. Most of that sediment washes out into the roiling Bay of Bengal. But an accidental discovery by desperate delta folk here may hold clues to how Bangladesh, one of the world's most vulnerable countries to climate change, could ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Maryland emissions bill heads to House
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031903532.html
Washington Post: A bill to cut Maryland's greenhouse gas emissions -- on the verge of passage in Annapolis -- would put the hardest decisions off until 2012, make smaller reductions than scientists have called for and exempt the state's entire manufacturing sector from its rules. But it's enough to make Maryland one of the most ambitious states tackling climate change, environmental experts say. The bill, which has passed the Senate, is expected to win approval in the House of Delegates next ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
NASA: Environmental disaster avoided on ozone loss
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2009-03-19-nasa-ozone_N.htm
Associated Press: A NASA study about ozone-munching chemicals from aerosol sprays and refrigeration used a computer model to play a game of what-if. What if the world 22 years ago didn't agree to cut back on chlorofluorocarbons which cause a seasonal ozone hole to form near the South Pole? NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman said the answer is a "bizarre world." By 2065, two-thirds of the protective ozone layer would have vanished and "the ozone hole covers the Earth." And the CFCs, which are ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Australia: Green power solution at hand for little cost: Experts
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/green-power-solution-at-hand-for-little-cost-experts-20090319-93fa.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIA could build a low-carbon economy based on solar, wind and geothermal power by the middle of the century for less than half the cost of the Federal Government's economic stimulus package, says a report commissioned by WWF Australia. As Earth Hour approaches, the event's organiser, WWF, is trying to shift debate back to what it sees as the modest cost of turning Australia into a society based on renewable power. Many industry groups argue that moving away from cheap ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Australia: Will a perfect storm destroy all this?
http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/news/perfect-storm-destroy/article-784301-detail/article.html
Western Morning News: IT could be the perfect storm -- and the Westcountry coast is right in the firing line. The region already has nearly 15,000 homes at risk from coastal flooding, but with climate change scientists at the recent Copenhagen conference predicting a one metre-plus rise in sea levels this century, that number could massively increase and many parts of the region, like the Isles of Scilly, could be inundated sooner rather than later. The reason, according to experts, is that the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
United States: Buda cement kiln turning to alternate fuels
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/20/0320kiln__.html
Austin American-Statesman: From the ninth-floor catwalk of the cement kiln facility in Buda, a person can see the past and possibly the future of industrial manufacturing. At the terminus of a rail spur sit piles of coal and petroleum coke, old-school combustibles used to heat the kiln, a metal furnace 13.5 feet in diameter and 190 feet long. Inside the furnace, limestone rock melts at temperatures up to 2,700 degrees, or nearly a quarter of that of the outermost part of the sun. On the other side of the ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
With Temperatures Rising, Here Comes 'Global Weirding'
http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2132
Yale Environment 360: The concept of "global weirding" is emerging as a notable complement to its cause, global warming. Coined by Hunter Lovins, a founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute, it describes the consequences of the rise in average global temperatures, which are expected to amplify the abnormal: hotter heat spells, longer and sharper droughts, more violent storms, and more intense flooding. Given anticipated warming trajectories, many of these physical changes are statistically predictable and ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
The critical issue of nuclear safety
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13325552
Economist: FILMS do not often cause diplomatic incidents. But in November last year the Czech Republic's ambassador to Austria protested against "The First Day', a fictional account of the aftermath of a nuclear accident at Dukovany, a real-life Czech plant near Austria's border. Austria voted in 1978 to ban nuclear power, and its public-service broadcaster showed the film to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the referendum. Not only is the Czech plant portrayed as a menace to Austrians, but the Czech ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Australia: The sludge coast
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13334062
Economist: THE beaches near Brisbane are usually among the world's most pristine, helping to generate tourism revenue of about A$1.3 billion ($850m) a year for Queensland's capital and Australia's third-largest city. But more than a week after oil gushed from a cargo ship off the city's shoreline, many were still covered in black sludge. Apart from turning into one of Australia's worst environmental disasters, the spillage swamped a state election campaign in Queensland where the economic policies of ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Crisis could boost emissions long term: IEA
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE52J1BV20090320
Reuters: The economic crisis may lower carbon emissions in the short term but will raise them over the long term by crimping investment in cleaner energy sources, the International Energy Agency's chief economist said on Thursday. The impact of the financial crisis and the ensuing economic slump on energy investments had been "stronger than anyone expected" and significant enough to have an impact on climate change and the whole energy supply chain, warned Fatih Birol. "To think that ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
United States: Increased frequency of landslides remains largely ignored despite risks
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121966
Greenwire: When a series of powerful January storms dumped huge volumes of rain across the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Washington's top geologist, Dave Norman, knew to expect landslides. During the first two weeks of the month, the intense storms pelted the already saturated ground in western Washington, triggering at least 1,500 landslides that damaged or destroyed an estimated 200 homes, buried sections of 150 roadways and contributed to thousands of people seeking safety in emergency ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Power companies bring fragile coalition to climate debate
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121965
ClimateWire: The electric utility industry is clinging to an agreement for global warming legislation that puts 60 of the country's biggest investor-owned companies on record supporting a complex credit allocation system that bridges the historic divide between generators of coal, natural gas and nuclear power. It is a fragile coalition with a steady supply of skepticism among its members as they gear up for a high-stakes political battle with Congress and the Obama White House. "I think ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
United States: Solar energy proposal goes down to defeat
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-measure-b-count20-2009mar20,0,6685936.story
LA Times: The solar energy ballot measure known as Measure B went down to defeat Thursday as Los Angeles election officials finished their count of the remaining 49,000 mail-in, provisional and damaged ballots. Sixteen days after the election, city officials announced that Measure B had fallen short of a majority -- with 50.5% of voters opposing the plan and 49.5% in favor of it. The final count left Measure B trailing by 2,644 votes. The defeat dealt a blow to the hopes of Mayor ...
Sat, 21 Mar 09
Senate confirms scientific research positions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_ot/senate_scientific_posts
Associated Press: The Senate confirmed on Thursday two leading experts on climate change to represent top scientific positions in the government. John Holdren became the president's science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Jane Lubchenco will lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both have advocated sharp government action on climate change policy and are former presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Predators will get room to roam in their fight for life
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/predators-will-get-room-to-roam-in-their-fight-for-life-1649548.html
Independent: An international action plan is to be drawn up to save the polar bear, now threatened with extinction because climate change is melting its Arctic sea ice habitat. The five countries with polar bear populations, the US, Canada, Russia, Norway and Greenland, agreed in principle yesterday on a circumpolar scheme to protect the animal's dwindling living space all around its range. The plan, to be drawn up by a team of polar bear experts, is likely to call for protected areas for ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
New head of NOAA says science will guide policy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_ot/sci_lubchenco
Associated Press: The new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will not only be talking the talk on global warming, she will be walking the walk -- eight blocks from the Metro station to her office. Former Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco had planned to rent a small apartment close enough to walk to her offices in the nation's capital, but got sticker shock when she saw the prices -- $5,000 for a one-bedroom apartment -- enough to finance a large house back ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Carbon market poised for first wave of post-2013 trading
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238870/carbon-market-poised-first-wave
Business Green: The first wave of trading in EU carbon allowances (EUAs) for the next phase of the scheme starting in 2013 is expected to take off within the next few months, in a sign that many participants in the market remain confident in its long term prospects. The EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) has been heavily criticised in recent months after falling industrial output led to reduced demand for carbon allowances. Consequently, the price of carbon allowances has collapsed from a high of ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
United States: McKnight to join international battle on climate change
http://www.startribune.com/local/41470207.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUT
Minneapolis Star Tribune: The McKnight Foundation is announcing today that it will spend an unprecedented $100 million over the next five years to attack global warming worldwide. The state's largest private foundation, McKnight is joining forces with other large U.S. foundations, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, in pledging more than $1 billion to prevent climate change. McKnight's President Kate Wolford said the highly coordinated strategy ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Climate change No. 1 threat to polar bears: Arctic nations
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03/19/polar-bear-agreement.html
CBC: Canada joined four other Arctic countries in declaring climate change the single greatest threat to polar bears, a move that could pressure the government to take further action to curb global warming. Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States made the declaration after a three-day meeting week in the Norwegian town of Tromsoe, a month before a meeting of the Arctic Council in the same town. "The parties agreed that long-term conservation of polar bears depends upon ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Over 90 percent of Americans support action on climate change in midst of financial crisis
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-hance_poll.html
Mongabay: A new poll released today by Yale and George Mason Universities finds that Americans overwhelmingly--92 percent--support action to reduce global warming. However opinions vary as to how much effort should be put into reducing CO2 emissions and what actions are appropriate. For example, 92 percent of American supported funding for renewable energy, 85 percent supported tax breaks for people who buy fuel-efficient vehicles or solar panels, and 80 percent supported regulating carbon ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
When it comes to global warming Americans trust scientists most, family and friends second
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-hance_americanstrust.html
Mongabay: A new poll released today by Yale and George Mason Universities finds that Americans trust scientists most when it comes to information on climate change. Second to scientists is family and friends, which beat out environmental organizations, religious leaders, mainstream media, and President Obama. According to the poll, 82 percent of Americans trust scientists on climate change with 28 percent saying that they strongly trust scientists. Americans also trust those close to them: 77 ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Climate Change Seen as Top Threat to Polar Bears
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121944
New York Times: Five countries that created a treaty nearly four decades ago to protect polar bears through limits on hunting issued a joint statement on Thursday identifying climate change as "the most important long-term threat" to the bears. The statement came at the end of a three-day meeting in Tromso, Norway, of scientists and officials from the United States, Norway, Canada, Russia and Denmark, all with territory abutting the Arctic Ocean that serves as habitat for the bears. (Denmark was ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Trees of life
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7949053.stm
BBC: "In the absence of trees, our communities would simply collapse," states Andrew Dokurugu, a project officer for Tree Aid. Speaking from the charity's West Africa offices in Burkina Faso, he explains how trees are vital for poor rural villages to survive in the long-term. "We are looking at ways to promote sustainable agriculture and agroforestry," he tells BBC News. "This will help ensure that the remaining trees are well looked after and that communities have access to ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Germany: Solar panel maker Q-Cells' 2008 profit up 28 pct
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_germany_earns_q_cells
Associated Press: German solar technology company Q-Cells SE said Thursday its 2008 net profit rose 28 percent as the growing appetite for renewable energy boosted sales for its solar panels. Q-Cells -- the world's largest producer of solar cells -- said its full year net profit rose to euro191 million ($258 million) from euro148 million in 2007. The company, based in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, said sales rose 46 percent to euro1.3 billion from euro859 million in 2007 and would grow further this year. ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Report: Alternative energy quest endangering birds
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_re_us/energy_birds
Associated Press: As the Obama administration pursues more homegrown energy sources, a new government report faults energy production of all types -- wind, ethanol and mountaintop coal mining -- for contributing to steep drops in bird populations. The first-of-its-kind government report chronicles a four-decade decline in many of the country's bird populations and provides many reasons for it, from suburban sprawl to the spread of exotic species to global warming. In almost every case, energy ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Copenhagen aims to be carbon neutral by 2025
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090319/sc_afp/denmarkclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: The city of Copenhagen, which will host a UN climate conference in December, aims to become the world's first carbon neutral capital in 2025, city officials said on Thursday. Copenhagen aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2015 and be carbon neutral by 2025 by increasing the use of renewable energies. "It's an ambitious plan, but we want to accomplish our goal in order to help stop global warming by significantly reducing CO2 emissions," the deputy mayor in ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Obama puts up $2.4 bln for electric vehicles
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090319/sc_afp/useconomypoliticsobamaenergy
Agence France-Presse: President Barack Obama Thursday unveiled a 2.4 billion dollar boost for electric vehicle development, vowing to compete with foreign nations in the race to be world leader on renewable energy. "We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad or we can create them here in America and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity," Obama said on the second day of a campaign-style swing in California. Obama said the money would be used to develop next generation plug-in hybrid ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
United States: Sustainable Eating--The Low-Carbon Diet
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sustainable-eating-the-low-carbon-diet
Scientific American: Can we save the earth one stir-fry at a time? I was certainly dubious when I first saw the book, Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming. Still, the lush cover photography of a verdant table setting and a bowl of farm-fresh eggs drew me in. As I flipped through the pages, I was a bit surprised to see they were packed with clean, colorful graphics and sidebars explaining everything from the atmospheric carbon cycle to the role of bees in agriculture and step-by-step instructions ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Polar bears' greatest peril: Global warming
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/19/europe/polar.php
International Herald Tribune: Five countries that created a treaty nearly four decades ago to protect polar bears through controlled hunting issued a statement Thursday that called climate change "the most important long-term threat" to the bears. The statement came in Tromso, Norway, at the end of a three-day meeting of scientists and officials from Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States, all with territory abutting the Arctic Ocean that serves as habitat for the bears. (Denmark was represented ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Norway emerges as champion of rainforest conservation
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-norway_forests.html
Mongabay: Scandinavian country with population 1.5 percent that of the United States is the biggest international funder of rainforest conservation. While citizens in western countries have long paid lip service to saving rainforests, Norway has quietly emerged as the largest and most important international force in tropical forest conservation. The small Scandinavian country has committed 3 billion krone ($440 million) a year to the effort, a figure vastly greater than the $100M pledged -- ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
EU states in downturn think twice on climate fund
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I6ZL20090319?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European Union member states hit by the global economic crisis urged the bloc Thursday not to promise the developing world more money to combat climate change than they can afford. The comments could worry organizers of a conference in Copenhagen on finding a successor to the Kyoto protocol against global warming because its success hangs on whether enough money can be found to persuade poor nations to tackle the problem. EU member states including Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
An army of lobbyists readies for battle on the climate bill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/18/lobbyists-washington-climate-bill
Guardian: Climate action advocates found the sign they had been waiting for in Summary Table 4 of President Obama's budget plan: The administration intends to place a price on carbon dioxide emissions that would cost fossil fuel industries $646 billion through 2019 -- creating a new pot of federal money in the process. That stark row of numbers also gave opponents of climate legislation what they had been waiting for: a call to arms. "The Obama budget did more to help us consolidate and ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Talks on 35-year-old treaty force Canada to link climate change, polar bears
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5j-fznIyvHP5QVYy-1Rnw6Zr0U3aQ
Canadian Press: Canada has conceded that a polar bear treaty signed more than 35 years ago is pushing the government to take action against climate change. Talks this week in Norway on the 1973 conservation agreement have ended with all five countries that signed it concurring that melting sea ice is now the biggest single threat to the future survival of the bears. "The parties agreed that long-term conservation of polar bears depends on the successful mitigation of climate change," says the signed ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Climate change deniers have media outlets 'everywhere' now
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Climate_change_deniers_still_going_strong_0319.html
Raw Story: Despite the success of public awareness efforts on the dangers of climate change by the likes of Al Gore and others, the global warming denial lobby is still going strong, as can be seen by recent polling numbers that show fewer Americans believe climate change is a serious threat. A poll released last week by Gallup says that while a majority of Americans still believe the seriousness of global warming is "either correctly portrayed in the news or underestimated," an all-time high of ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Brazil: Making Eco-History in a Southern Beach Town
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46195
Inter Press Service: In the city of Garopaba, a tourist destination on Brazil's southern coast, leftover food from restaurants will be turned into fertiliser to be used by farmers, who in turn will grow pesticide-free fruits and vegetables for snacks in the local schools. Garopaba, whose green hills run down to the white sands of its Atlantic coast beaches, is already a "Transition Town", a model being followed in more than 100 towns, neighbourhoods, islands and forests of Australia, Brazil, Britain, ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Sacked executive can sue for unfair dismissal over his green beliefs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5016185/Sacked-executive-can-sue-for-unfair-dismissal-over-his-green-beliefs.html
Telegraph: Tim Nicholson's commitment to green causes was enshrined in law by an employment tribunal as a "philosophical belief" under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations. The landmark ruling could now pave the way for hundreds more discrimination claims against companies who have ridden roughshod over employees' support for climate change. Mr Nicholson, 41, was made redundant while head of sustainability at Grainger, Britain's biggest residential property investment ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Odds Of Tipping: Better Than Even Chance Of Major Changes In Global Climate System, Experts Predict
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090317095450.htm
ScienceDaily: An international team of researchers, led by Elmar Kriegler of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), elicited the opinions of 52 climate scientists about the sensitivity of five so-called tipping elements. Tipping elements are parts of the climate system which, through human interference, can change quickly and irreversibly. In the current study, the sensitivity of the following tipping elements is evaluated: Atlantic thermohaline circulation, El Niño phenomenon, Amazon ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Climate Warming Affects Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090318140522.htm
ScienceDaily: A five-nation scientific team has published new evidence that even a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that drives global warming, affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The massive WAIS covers the continent on the Pacific side of the Transantarctic Mountains. Any substantial melting of the ice sheet would cause a rise in global sea levels. The research, which was published in the March 19 issue of the journal Nature, ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Global warming leaving its mark on polar bears
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090319/sc_afp/arcticclimatewarminganimal
Agence France-Presse: Potentially fatal to the polar bear, global warming has already left its mark on the species with smaller, less robust bears that are increasingly showing cannibalistic tendencies. Top experts who gathered this week in Tromsoe in northern Norway to discuss ways of protecting the species sounded alarm bells over the dramatic consequences of the melting ice. "We don't have hard evidence about climate change but we have evidence about the numerous symptoms of climate change on ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Brazil: 37,000 sq km of Amazon rainforest destroyed or damaged in 2008
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0319-brazil_inpe_degrad.html
Mongabay: New satellite system provides a more detailed look at forest degradation and may help Brazil stop deforestation before it occurs. Logging and fires damaged nearly 25,000 square kilometers (9,650 square miles) of Amazon rainforest in the August 2007-July 2008 period, an increase of 67 percent over the prior year period, according to a new mapping system developed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). The damage comes on top of the nearly 12,000 sq km (4,600 sq mi) ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
World faces 'perfect storm' of problems by 2030, chief scientist to warn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/18/perfect-storm-john-beddington-energy-food-climate
Guardian: A "perfect storm" of food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration as people flee from the worst-affected regions, the UK government's chief scientist will warn tomorrow. In a major speech to environmental groups and politicians, Professor John Beddington, who took up the position of chief scientific adviser last year, will say that the world is heading for major upheavals which are due to ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
UN accuses EU of backsliding on climate change funding
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238793/un-accuses-eu-backsliding
Business Green: EU countries must stick to existing promises to fund climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in developing countries or risk derailing any potential international deal in Copenhagen later this year, the UN's climate change chief has warned this week. In a clear sign that the global recession is putting strain on the EU's commitment to play a leading role at the forthcoming talks, EU politicians are now reportedly asking developing countries to produce plans on how they cut ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Indonesia: Violence at Indonesian Greenpeace protest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090319/wl_asia_afp/indonesiaenvironmentforestsdemocompanysinarmas
Agence France-Presse: Greenpeace activists and security guards clashed outside the headquarters of Indonesia's biggest logging and palm oil company, the Sinar Mas Group, in Jakarta Thursday, environmentalists said. Activists said they were punched and kicked by guards and police as they tried to protest against alleged illegal land-clearing in Indonesia's vast eastern Papua region and on Borneo island. "The excessive violence today by Sinar Mas security is testament to the way this company does ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Global warming greatest threat to polar bears
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h44r-GZp04KfHxJZXtS67n7bmegA
Agence France-Presse: The five countries that ring the Arctic on Thursday declared climate change the single greatest threat to polar bears, calling for urgent action to curb global warming. Months ahead of a crucial global climate conference, the five countries -- Canada, Denmark (with Greenland), Norway, Russia and the United States -- expressed their "deep concern" at the end of a three-day meeting in the northern Norwegian town of Tromsoe. "The parties agreed that long-term conservation of polar ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Eco-bills come due at Chesapeake Bay's beaches
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031804178.html
Washington Post: While the nation debates the cost of climate change -- whether the price of electricity and gasoline should increase because of their greenhouse gas emissions -- the problem already has a price tag on the Chesapeake Bay. Sea levels are rising almost twice as fast in the Chesapeake region as in most of the world, and waterside communities are spending millions to keep the water from eroding yards, marshes and sandy beaches. The area's beaches are dealing with the same bad luck: ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
How the U.S. military is trying to cut its enormous energy appetite
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/16/how-the-us-military-is-trying-to-cut-its-enormous-energy-appetite.html
U.S. News and World Report: It was a blunt message that came a little more than a year ago from an influential Pentagon task force. Charged with looking into the Department of Defense's strategy for saving energy, the Defense Science Board concluded that the DOD didn't seem to have one. The report further noted that the department was rather too nonchalant about its "unnecessarily high, and growing" fuel use. A Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) is driven by Maj. Greg Orell at Fort Myer, Virginia. That ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Rising CO2 to trigger ice sheet collapse
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25209167-12377,00.html
AAP: SLIGHT changes in sea temperature and carbon dioxide levels could trigger the total collapse of Antarctica's vulnerable western ice sheet, scientists said. The massive land mass known as western Antarctica was thought to be unstable, but a study by New Zealand, American and European researchers published today reveals details about just how volatile it is. The team drilled deep through the ice into the rock below and discovered a worrying historic pattern of global warming and ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Green buildings show how to build better
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-magnificent-seven
Scientific American: Our homes and offices account for more than one third of all greenhouse gases emitted by human activity--the bulk of it for heating in winter and air-conditioning in summer, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Taking simple steps such as caulking windows, installing thicker insulation and double-paned windows, and using energy-efficient appliances can cut the energy used in a given building by as much as 50 percent. In fact, such energy-saving ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Surf battle generates fear of ocean squatting
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121865
New York Times: The oceans might not be big enough for sharp-elbowed renewable energy developers. Aspiring power producers are claiming sweeping stretches of sea along the East Coast, sometimes overlapping each other and igniting modern-day allegations of "claim jumping." Open water miles from shore is the newest frontier for prospectors, as vague notions persist about who in the federal government presides over the ocean depths. A jurisdictional dispute between two federal agencies -- the Department ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
New government brochure explains climate science
http://www.physorg.com/news156597611.html
Associated Press: Day after day, reports of the dangers of climate and climate change circulate in the news, often filled with confusing data and debate. In an effort to improve understanding of climate science, a group of government agencies has combined efforts to produce "Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science." "There is so much misinformation about climate," said Tom Karl, director of the government's National Climatic Data Center. "We want to provide an easily ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
United Kingdom: The Age of Stupid
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article5932304.ece
Times (UK): The terrifying documentary about climate change The Age of Stupid is the most imaginative and dramatic assault on the institutional complacency shrouding the issue. Pete Postlethwaite is our guide to the near future. The year is 2055. Most of London is under water. Sydney is in flames. Las Vegas is being gently swallowed by the desert. The Archivist (Postlethwaite) lives alone in a concrete tower in the middle of the oily ocean somewhere around Norway with a museum collection of ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
The Age of Stupid: New Film Gives Us a Painfully Realistic Look at Life in 2055
http://www.alternet.org/environment/132317/the_age_of_stupid:_new_film_gives_us_a_painfully_realistic_look_at_life_in_2055/
AlterNet: London is underwater, New Orleans won't be rebuilt a third time, the arctic is ice free, and agriculture is failing, which leads to global food riots and ultimately the collapse of civilization.... This is the premise of the new crowd-funded British independent film The Age of Stupid. Set in 2055, the film portrays a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by the worst impacts of climate change, and looks back at the critical period between 2005 and 2015 to examine why we didn't save ourselves ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Methane map
http://www.nature.com/climate/2009/0904/full/climate.2009.27.html
Nature: Methane emissions from rice paddies may have been previously overestimated, according to a new study. The concentration of atmospheric methane -- a major greenhouse gas -- has nearly tripled since the industrial revolution, but the contribution from individual sources has remained unclear. Now Xiaoyuan Yan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues have generated a global map of methane emissions from rice paddies for the year 2000, using country-specific estimates of rice ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Australian Parliament Committee Urges Deeper Carbon Cuts
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=apotXp06hrcg
Bloomberg: An Australian parliamentary committee urged the government to commit to deeper cuts in carbon gas pollution as a "matter of urgency." The government should target an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas levels by 2050, rather than its 60 percent goal, the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties said in a report submitted to parliament in Canberra today. Australia uses 2000 levels as its base. "This is very onerous for Australia," Kelvin Thomson, chair of the committee, which can ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Is access to clean water a basic human right?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090319/wl_csm/owater_1
Christian Science Monitor: With fresh water resources becoming scarcer worldwide due to population growth and climate change, a growing movement is working to make access to clean water a basic universal human right. But it's a contentious issue, experts say. Especially difficult is how to safely mesh public-sector interests with public ownership of resources -- and determine the legal and economic ramifications of enshrining the right to water by law. "It's an issue that is snowballing," says Tobias ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Nasa man's 'extinction' warning
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7951833.stm
BBC: Carbon emissions from new coal-fired power stations could contribute to mass extinctions, a leading climate scientist has warned. Nasa scientist James Hansen said the only way to prevent a "disaster" for future generations was to phase out use of the dirtiest fossil fuel. He was speaking ahead of a protest in Coventry against energy firm E.ON's plans for a plant at Kingsnorth, Kent. E.ON said it had urged the government to fund technology to capture carbon. Dr ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Tim Nicholson: A green martyr
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/tim-nicholson-a-green-martyr-1648388.html
Independent: An executive sacked from a giant property company can claim he was unfairly dismissed because of his "philosophical belief in climate change", a judge ruled yesterday. In the first case of its kind, employment judge David Sneath said Tim Nicholson, a former environmental policy officer, could invoke employment law for protection from discrimination against him for his conviction that climate change was the world's most important environmental problem. That conviction amounted ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Taiwan takes step to move controversial nuke dump
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H0Y420090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Taiwan authorities have taken a first step toward moving a nuclear waste dump after nearly three decades of health and environmental complaints about its current site on a remote island, a government official said on Wednesday. The government has picked two possible new locations elsewhere in Taiwan for the Lan Yu Storage Site, which contains 97,672 barrels of semi-solid nuclear power plant waste on the rocky coast of outlying Orchid Island. A final site for the T$200 billion ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Common Soil Bacteria Could Clean Up Nuclear Contamination
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-17-092.asp
Environment News Service: An international team of scientists has found a common soil bacterium that might one day be used to clean up radioactive toxics left from nuclear weapons production decades ago. The bacteria's cleaning power comes from their ability to "inhale" toxic metals and "exhale" them in a non-toxic form, explains team member Brian Lower, assistant professor in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University. Using a unique combination of microscopes, researchers ...
Fri, 20 Mar 09
Gallup Poll: Americans Want Both Renewables and Fossil Fuels
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-17-094.asp
Environment News Service: More than 75 percent of Americans polled in Gallup's annual Environment Survey for 2009 say they are in favor of increased government financial support and incentives to produce energy from alternative sources, while just eight percent say the government should do less. The government has it exactly right, 13 percent told pollsters. Simultaneously, the majority of respondents said the government should not reduce its financial support for the production of energy from oil and gas. ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
China says US could hold up climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090318/wl_asia_afp/uschinaclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: China pressed Wednesday for the US Congress to pass legislation to fight global warming, warning that inaction could hold up a new treaty slated for Copenhagen in December. China's chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua held talks in Washington with the administration of President Barack Obama, who has vowed action to slow the planet's warming in a sharp reversal from his predecessor George W. Bush. A UN-led conference in the Danish capital in December is meant to approve a new ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Wind of change: How environmental jobs can help boost the economy
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planning/getting-job/wind-of-change-how-environmental-jobs-can-help-boost-the-economy-1647957.html
Independent: Amid the hanging gloom of recession there are occasional shafts of optimism. One of these is the evidence that careers in the environmental sector are showing some resilience in the downturn. This is due in part to an acknowledgment of the business case for healthy environmental practices. Senior figures in the sector also point out a clear political lead coming from Whitehall, which is consistent with their own optimistic view. "The Government's low-carbon strategy sends the message ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Melting of Antarctic ice becoming unstoppable
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/melting-of-antarctic-ice-becoming-unstoppable-1648405.html
Independent: The good news is that it would take more than 1,000 years to melt the massive ice sheet in west Antarctica that could raise sea levels by 16 feet. The bad news is this event could become unstoppable this century if carbon dioxide concentrations keep rising as predicted, a study has found. An investigation into the stability of the ice sheet has found it has collapsed before when carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have reached about 400 parts per million, a level ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Soil neglected asset in greenhouse gas fight
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I05O20090319?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: John Ibbett and pigs go back a long way. "The pig manager pushed me round in a pram," recalls Ibbett, whose family have been farming on the same site since 1939. Now he's proud his family farm can turn muck into electricity, using new technology paid for by a multi-million pound windfall. His Bedfordia Group is one of only a handful of companies with farm-based biogas plants in Britain. Scientists complain that the world has so far failed to support agriculture in the fight ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Internet could become environmental watchdog: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I04I20090319?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The Internet could provide an early warning system for environmental damage, imitating an online watchdog that gives alerts about outbreaks of disease, scientists said on Thursday. An automated trawl of blogs, videos, online news and other sources could yield bits of information to fill in a bigger picture of problems such as global warming, pollution, deforestation or over-fishing, they said. "We're facing huge environmental challenges ... But we don't have good monitoring ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Shift to greener economy seen costing $750 billion: U.N
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I09T20090319?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Investments of $750 billion could create a "Green New Deal" to revive the world economy and protect the environment, perhaps aided by a tax on oil, the head of the U.N. environment agency said Thursday. Achim Steiner said spending should focus on five environmental sectors including improved energy efficiency for buildings and solar or wind power to create jobs, curb poverty and fight climate change. "The opportunity must not be lost," Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Could Eastern Europe blow away established wind rivals?
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238760/eastern-europe-blow-away
Business Green: Eastern Europe is fast emerging as an attractive location for wind energy investors increasingly concerned about returns from more established markets in the West. A combination of good wind resources, generous subsidy schemes improving energy infrastructure, and limited local opposition will ensure that the Eastern European wind energy industry will enjoy significantly faster growth than more established markets such as Germany and Spain over the coming years, according to industry ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Government lays groundwork for CRC expansion
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238759/crc-legislation-clarified
Business Green: It might not even come into full effect until next year, but the government is already laying the groundwork for the extension of its Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) legislation to include far more organisations than the 5,000 companies and public sector bodies currently expecting to join the cap-and-trade scheme. In a move that suggests the government is keen to extend the reach of the scheme, new draft regulations released last week confirm that even businesses who are not large ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Coal plant emissions can be cut: German lobby
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090318/twl-environment-us-germany-coal-co2-1202b49.html
Reuters: Modern power plant technology will be able to curb carbon dioxide emissions from German hard coal-fired power stations by 81 percent by 2050, a study from the country's coal importers association said. Skip related content The group said carbon capture and storage (CCS) and efficiency upgrades by that date would reduce usage of coal -- which when burned emits climate-harming CO2 -- in the power generation process, or heavily cut the pollution. "Coal-to-power burning does have ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Warming to speed icesheet collapse
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090318/sc_afp/scienceclimatewarmingantarcticaoceans
Agence France-Presse: Manmade climate change is set to hasten the disintegration of a massive ice sheet in Antarctica by 100,000 years, boosting sea levels some five metres (16 feet), according to a pair of studies published Thursday. The research, which matches new ice core data with a simulation of past and future changes in the West Antarctica Ice Sheet (WAIS), reveals for the first time regular cycles of "catastrophic collapse" and reformation reaching back five million years. Cycles lasted ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
United States: Palin defends natural-gas pipeline strategy
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H7SV20090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Amid economic jitters and worries about diminished investor interest in a massive North Slope natural gas pipeline, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday defended her efforts to secure the mega-project that has been pursued for decades and that has been a centerpiece of her political career. Palin said her administration's competitive-bidding process, under a law called the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act, or AGIA, has produced concrete results. "There had been no progress in the ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Antarctic ice sheet could collapse due to global warming scientists warn
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/5011121/Antarctic-ice-sheet-could-collapse-due-to-global-warming-scientists-warn.html
Telegraph: Scientists have known for a long time that a rise in temperature in the oceans could cause the South Pole to start melting. However two studies published in the journal Nature have found new evidence of the Antarctic ice sheets collapsing in relatively short periods of time in the past. They predict that if there is a rise in temperature of five degrees Celsius or more in the oceans by the end of the century, the huge West Antarctic Ice Sheet would begin melting. This could ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
In Search of the Climate's Tipping Point
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1885804,00.html
Time Magazine: That is the threat to the planet that many scientists can agree is posed by climate change. Yet the global response to global warming -- one of fits and starts, with more hot air than real focus -- doesn't exactly resemble the mobilizing opening scenes of disaster flicks like Armageddon or Deep Impact. Quite the opposite, as fears over the recession grow, climate change may be receding from the public consciousness. A Gallup poll released last week found that a record-high 41% of Americans ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Temperature rise may trigger West Antarctic thaw
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H5F620090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The West Antarctic ice sheet may start to collapse if sea temperatures rise by 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), triggering a thaw that would raise world ocean levels by 5 meters (16 ft), U.S. scientists said. Such a rise in sea levels -- taking thousands of years -- would swamp many coasts and cities and wipe some low-lying Pacific islands off the map. West Antarctica, the part of the frozen continent most vulnerable to climate change, has thawed several times in the ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Boris urged to rethink low emission zone
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/18/boris-johnson-low-emission-zone
Guardian: Boris Johnson was today urged by a cross-party coalition to revoke the "reckless and irresponsible decision" to suspend the next phase of London's low emission zone (LEZ) amid fears that British taxpayers could be forced to pay a £300m fine for the capital's poor air quality. Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green party members on the London assembly passed a motion by 12 votes to eight calling on the mayor to proceed with the next phase of the scheme, which aims to reduce air pollution, ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
EU plans puts climate finance at risk: industry
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H5W320090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: European Union plans to re-write the rules of a $6 billion scheme that pays developing nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions risks stalling climate investment, policymakers and industry leaders said on Wednesday. The EU's executive Commission this week detailed plans to force industry in advanced emerging economies such as China to meet efficiency or other standards before they qualify for carbon offsets from cutting carbon emissions. Commission officials want the new rules ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Complex path for climate bills in Congress
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H5X020090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Congress is expected to tackle climate change this year with bills aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging cleaner alternative energy and more efficient delivery of electricity. Climate change legislation is complicated and so is the path it could take in the Democratic-controlled Congress. Here is a rundown of key committees that would have a say in shaping the bills: *HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE: This committee, led by liberal Democratic Representative Henry ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Leading climate scientist: 'democratic process isn't working'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/18/nasa-climate-change-james-hansen
Guardian: Protest and direct action could be the only way to tackle soaring carbon emissions, a leading climate scientist has said. James Hansen, a climate modeller with Nasa, told the Guardian today that corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. "The democratic process doesn't quite seem to be working," he said. Speaking on the eve of joining a protest against the headquarters of power firm E.ON in Coventry, Hansen said: "The first action that ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Shell's subtle switch from renewables to the murky world of 'alternative' energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/mar/18/shell-renewable-energy-biofuels1
Guardian: So at last we have an explanation. During my video interview with Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Shell, I asked the same question 15 times: "What is the value of your annual investments in renewable energy?" After several attempts to change the subject, he admitted that he knew the figure, then flatly refused to reveal it. Nor could he give me a convincing explanation of why he wouldn't tell me, claiming only that "those figures are misused and people say it is too small" ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Climate change messes with the food chain
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/03/18/climate-change-messes-with-the-food-chain/
Christian Science Monitor: Scientists concerned with the biological effects of climate change are focusing on what some call "the grass of the sea." These are tiny water plants known technically as phytoplankton. Like the green grass on which cattle feed, these little plants are at the base of many food chains in lakes and the ocean. Other tiny animals feed on them and, in turn, become food for larger critters. Knowing how phytoplankton's abundance is changing in different locations is crucial to understanding what ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Antarctic ice sheet could melt - again
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/18/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-melt
Guardian: The giant West Antarctic ice sheet has melted several times in the past, and will do so again if temperatures continue to rise, new research shows. Such a change would raise sea levels by some five metres around the world, but scientists have struggled to predict when it might happen. The new study suggests a 5C local rise in ocean temperatures could be enough to trigger a collapse. David Pollard of Pennsylvania State University, and Robert DeConto of the University of ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Did climate conference just confuse the politicians?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127004.200-did-climate-conference-just-confuse-the-politicians.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: HAVE scientists muddied the waters over what needs to be done to stave off dangerous climate change? Have they caused confusion instead of telling politicians how to save the world? That's what many are asking in the wake of a major meeting intended to inform politicians before vitally important negotiations later this year. This December, the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, will play host to thousands of politicians, policy-makers and their entourage as they try to agree on ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
In The Arctic, A Time-Lapse View Of Climate Change
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102041024&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Intent on documenting the effects of climate change, nature photographer James Balog ventured into ice-bound regions with 26 time-lapse cameras, which he programmed to shoot a frame every daylight hour for three years. The resulting images -- which make up Balog's "Extreme Ice Survey" project -- show ice sheets and glaciers breaking apart and disappearing. Balog calls the melting of glaciers "the most visible, tangible manifestations of climate change on the planet ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Shipping industry mulls miles-per-gallon-style efficiency metrics
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238734/shipping-industry-mulls-miles
Business Green: The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is putting the finishing touches to proposals that could see all shipping operators sign up to mandatory fuel efficiency metrics that would require them to disclose how efficient their fleets are. The proposals, which will be put before the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in July, were discussed at a meeting of the organisation's greenhouse gas (GHG) working group in London last week and are widely expected to be ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Americans support action on global warming despite economic crisis
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/yu-asa031809.php
EurekAlert: Even in the midst of a growing economic crisis last fall, over 90 percent of Americans said that the United States should act to reduce global warming, according to a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason Universities. The results included 34 percent who said the United States should make a large-scale effort, even if it has large economic costs. Two-thirds of Americans said that the United States should reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Global carbon price unlikely for 10-15 years: analysts
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H4S920090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A single global price for carbon emissions is not likely for another 10 to 15 years because governments are dragging their heels on legislation, market analysts said on Wednesday. "By 2025, we could have one single currency," orbeo carbon analyst Emmanuel Fages said at a Point Carbon emissions trading conference in Copenhagen. The European Union's executive Commission hopes to have a global carbon market in which emissions trading schemes are linked by 2020. It wants to see ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Wash. gov testifies on her climate change bill
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/18/ap6181855.html
Associated Press: Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire made a rare appearance before a state legislative committee to urge a stronger climate change measure aimed at cutting pollution. Gregoire, testifying Tuesday before the House Ecology and Parks Committee, said Washington needs to lead in shaping a cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate passed the bill last week, but gutted much of the governor's initial proposal for such a system. It doesn't set a cap on emissions and ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Global Climate Feedback From Microscopic Algae
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1656243/global_climate_feedback_from_microscopic_algae/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Tiny creatures at the bottom of the food chain called diatoms suck up nearly a quarter of the atmosphere's carbon dioxide, yet research by Michigan State University scientists suggests they could become less able to "sequester" that greenhouse gas as the climate warms. The microscopic algae are a major component of plankton living in puddles, lakes and oceans. Zoology professor Elena Litchman, with MSU colleague Christopher Klausmeier and Kohei Yoshiyama of the University of Tokyo, ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Solar module prices on the slide
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238730/solar-module-prices-slide
Business Green: The installed capacity of photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies more than doubled during 2008, despite the onset of global recession in the second half of the year. That is the conclusion of a major new report from US solar industry consultancy Solarbuzz, which also confirmed that increased supplies of polysilicon combined with the impact of the recession has led to a significant fall in the price of solar cells during the first few months of this year. The report found that the ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
A Development Mechanism That Cleans Little
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46177
Inter Press Service: The clean development mechanism, the Kyoto Protocol instrument that allows industries in rich countries to earn emission reduction credits by financing environment-friendly projects in developing countries, is a perverse but at the moment necessary tool to fight global warming, says a German environmental expert. Lambert Schneider, expert on climate change policies at the German Institute for Applied Ecology, and who has been researching the impact of CDM since its inception, says ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
UK climate change targets 'not tough enough
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/5007668/UK-climate-change-targets-not-tough-enough.html
Telegraph: At the end of last year Government advisers recommended the country cuts emissions by at least a third by 2020 to stop climate change. However scientists at the Tyndall Centre of Climate Change have warned that the evidence used to calculate the targets needed is "misleading" and the cuts will have to be much larger to stop temperatures rising above a level that causes extreme weather events, droughts and food shortages. This would mean the UK would have to commit to further ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
UN: Financial Crisis Puts Pressure on World's Forests
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2009/2009-03-17-01.asp
Environment News Service: The global economic turmoil has resulted in reduced demand for wood, shrinking investments in forest industries and forest management, finds the United Nations "State of the World's Forests" report released Monday. Stronger forest management and greater investments in science and technology are needed to handle the dual challenges posed by the financial crisis and climate change, advises the report, which is issued by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization once every two ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Despair as California's Central Valley dries up
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090318/sc_afp/environmentwaterusdrought
Agence France-Presse: "Now we know how the Indians felt," sighed Jim Diedrich, a farmer who said he was betrayed by the government as California's Central Valley reels from a serious drought. Diedrich, whose family has farmed in the western US state since 1882, bitterly surveyed their 640-acre (260-hectare) stretch of land. What would usually be a tomato field has now been reduced to a dusty expanse dotted with weeds. "We've got zero water this year," explained Diedrich, 66, who has spent 50 ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Shell dumps wind, solar and hydro power in favour of biofuels
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/17/royaldutchshell-energy
Guardian: Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation. Executives at its annual strategy presentation said Shell, already the world's largest buyer and blender of crop-based biofuels, would also invest an unspecified amount in developing a new generation of biofuels ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Without commercial carbon capture, it's 'game over', E.ON boss tells government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/17/eon-carbon-capture-kingsnorth
Guardian: Leading energy industry executives today called on the government to ensure the development of carbon capture and storage becomes commercially viable. Paul Golby, chief executive of E.ON UK said the commercial development of the technology, which stops the carbon dioxide produced through burning fossil fuels being released into the atmosphere, was vital if the world was to meet the growing demand for energy and still tackle climate change. "For me it is clear there will be ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
EPA scraps Bush's Performance Track scheme
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238700/epa-cranks-environmental
Business Green: The Environmental Protection Agency has got rid of a controversial Bush-era environmental programme designed to reward companies that signed up to voluntary pollution reduction with a less-rigorous inspection regime. Lisa Jackson, the Obama-appointed administrator of the EPA, published a statement this week on the web site for the Performance Track programme, confirming it was to be halted. "Performance Track was developed in a different era and may not speak to today's ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Japan court rules nuke plant is quake-proof
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090318/wl_asia_afp/japanjusticenuclearquake
Agence France-Presse: A Japanese court on Wednesday ruled that the country's second largest nuclear power plant meets earthquake safety standards and can legally operate, backing the government over a residents' group. Three years ago a lower court ordered a shutdown of one reactor at the Shiga nuclear plant, handing a victory to campaigners who argued that government safety rules underestimated the size of a quake that could hit the plant. Japan's government the following year raised the minimum ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Shell halts wind and solar spending in favour of biofuels
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238704/shell-halts-wind-solar-spending
Business Green: Oil giant Shell has announced it is to focus its future renewable energy strategy on biofuels and halt investment in technologies such as wind and solar, which it maintains are failing to offer sufficient economic returns. Executives at its annual strategy presentation said that the company remained committed to building a "material business in alternative energy", but would take a more targeted approach to investment and primarily focus on biofuels. Shell currently operates ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Can Minnesota trees help control climate change?
http://www.morrissuntribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=16755§ion=Regional%20News
Duluth News Tribune: Kent Scheer got his first check last summer for the red and white pines he planted on his land. The Wadena landowner didn't cut them. He didn't even sell the trees. Scheer simply agreed to leave them standing so they can soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Scheer became one of Minnesota's first forest landowners to cash in on photosynthesis, the process by which plants take in carbon dioxide from the air, store it and give off oxygen. "I wanted to show people ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
UK road traffic up 25% in 15 years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/18/road-emissions-traffic
Guardian: Road traffic has increased nearly 25% in the last 15 years despite government attempts to get people to drive less, legal targets to slash carbon emissions and a major increase in rail use, new figures show. Department for Transport statistics show that London marginally reduced its road traffic levels between 1993 and 2007 but Lincolnshire increased by 65%, North Yorkshire 44% and Oxfordshire by 46%. Overall, Britons drove an estimated 512bn km in 2007 compared to 412bn in 1993. The ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
UN accuses EU over climate change
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7950211.stm
BBC: The UN's climate change chief has accused Europe's politicians of shifting the goalposts in global talks on climate change. The EU agreed at the Bali climate summit last December to bankroll clean technology in developing countries if they agreed to take appropriate actions to curb emissions growth. The fragile deal was reached after marathon talks. But EU politicians are now asking for more action for their money. They want developing countries to produce plans to cut ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
EU declares an end to inefficient bulbs
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238713/eu-declares-inefficient-bulbs
Business Green: The end of inefficient incandescent light bulbs in Europe moved a step closer today as the European Commission (EC) formally adopted regulations that will see traditional light bulbs phased out over the next three years. Under the legislation, inefficient incandescent light bulbs will be progressively replaced by more efficient alternatives up to the end of 2012. The EC said households would have a choice between compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs that typically deliver energy ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Japan plans measures to boost solar cell output
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H13320090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Japan's trade ministry said on Wednesday it aims to lift Japan's global share in solar cell production to over one third from the current 25 percent by 2020. A report prepared by a panel of officials from the ministry, and companies including Sharp Corp, Sanyo Electric Co Ltd and Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc is expected to be presented to a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy.
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Europe 'living beyond its means' when it comes to water use
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121752
ClimateWire: Don't expect the future to look much like the past, at least when it comes to the Earth's fresh water supplies. That's the message emerging from a major international meeting being held here this week. More than 27,000 people -- including government ministers from more than 120 countries -- have gathered for the 5th World Water Forum. But in this ancient city, where the thin ribbon of the Bosporus divides Europe and Asia and massive Roman waterworks still dot the landscape, it's the ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Why clean coal is years away
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/03/17/why-clean-coal-is-years-away.html
U.S. News and World Report: America runs on coal. It's cheap, plentiful (at least for another 100 years or so), and comfortingly domestic. Two hundred years ago, it powered the industrial revolution. Today, it spits out nearly half of the country's electricity. Coal's problems, however, are getting to be so big and serious that they are not just overshadowing the industry but threatening to render it obsolete. About 80 percent of the electricity sector's carbon dioxide emissions come from burning coal. A price ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Exxon vs. the Obama Administration
http://www.portfolio.com/business-news/portfolio/2009/03/18/Exxon-vs-the-Obama-Administration
Portfolio: One afternoon earlier this year, Rex Tillerson, the chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp., and Barack Obama, then president-elect, laid out very different visions of America's energy future. With the days counting down to his inauguration, Obama told a crowd at George Mason University of his plan to double U.S. production of renewable energy by 2012–"to finally spark the creation of a clean-energy economy,' he said, to screams from the students in the audience. That pledge was a small part ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Japan: What jellyfish can tell us about climate change
http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090318/FEATURES/903180310/-1/NEWS
Pocono Record: An East Stroudsburg University professor has studied a delicate sea creature off Japan's coast, and shed new light on how climate change is disrupting the ocean's food chain. "This is the first clear link between an animal we know is threatened by ocean acidification and a variety of deep-sea species," said Jay Hunt, assistant professor of biology at ESU, describing his research. The work of his team was published late last year in the Journal of the Marine Biological ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Obama pressed for mountaintop removal ban
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200903170785
Gazette Mail: Environmental groups and coalfield residents are pushing the Obama administration this week to take action to block new mountaintop removal mining permits in Appalachia. Leaders of several citizens groups met with administration officials Monday and Tuesday in Washington to ask for a moratorium on new permits until federal regulators can come up with a plan to ban mountaintop removal permanently. Read more in Coal Tattoo. The push comes a month after a federal appeals ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Shell goes cold on wind, solar, hydrogen energy
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/52086
Reuters: Oil Major Royal Dutch Shell Plc doesn't plan to make any more large investments in wind and solar energy in the future and does not expect hydrogen to play an important role in energy supply for some time. "We do not expect material amounts of investment in those areas going forward," Linda Cook, head of Shell's gas and power unit told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday. "They continue to struggle to compete with the other investment opportunities we have in our ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Insurers must disclose climate-change exposure
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123733370641063551.html
Wall Street Journal: Insurance companies must start disclosing how climate change is likely to affect their businesses, state insurance regulators decided Tuesday. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted to require insurers to submit annual "climate-risk" reports, an unusually aggressive stance on the environmental issue from industry regulators. The officials acted after concluding that climate change threatens insurers in two ways. It increases the risk of extreme weather events ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Australia's dry run
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/murray-darling/draper-text
National Geographic: On the side of a road somewhere in southeastern Australia sits a man in a motionless pickup truck, considering the many ways in which his world has dried up. The two most obvious ways are in plain view. Just beyond his truck, his dairy cattle graze on the roadside grass. The heifers are all healthy, thank God. But there are only 70 of them. Five years ago, he had nearly 500. The heifers are feeding along a public road--"not strictly legal," the man concedes, but what choice does he have? ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Australia: River mayor upset by climate refugee tag
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/river-mayor-upset-by-climate-refugee-tag-20090318-91ze.html
AAP: A Victorian country mayor has denounced claims his and other Murray River communities will die amid an exodus of "climate change refugees". Swan Hill mayor Greg Cruickshank has backed Victoria's controversial four per cent cap on water trading, despite a senior government official suggesting northern Victorians are in danger of becoming Australia's first climate change refugees because of fears for the Murray River and ongoing drought. Department of Sustainability and ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Islands disappear in India
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090317-india-erosion-video-ap.html
National Geographic: As islands in eastern India disappear under rising seas, residents are losing land, homes, and farms.
Thu, 19 Mar 09
New York seas to rise twice as much as rest of U.S
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090315-new-york-sea-level.html
National Geographic: Sea levels around New York City and much of the U.S. Northeast will rise twice as much as in other parts of the United States this century, according to new climate models (U.S. Northeast map). Driven by changes in ocean circulation, the rapid sea level rise will bring increased risk of damage from hurricanes and winter storm surges, researchers say. "Some parts of lower Manhattan are only 1.5 meters [5 feet] above sea level," said lead study author Jianjun Yin, a climate ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Climex: Austrian CO2 Auction More Than 8 Times Overbid
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20090316%5CACQDJON200903160959DOWJONESDJONLINE000279.htm&&mypage=newsheadlines&title=UPDATE:Climex:%20Austrian%20CO2%20Auction%20More%20Than%208%20Times%20Overbid
Dow Jones: A competitive CO2 auction of 200,000 European Union allowances, or EUAs, was more than eight times oversubscribed, Climex, the platform provider for the Austrian government's CO2 auction, said Monday. The Austrian government Monday auctioned 300,000 EUAs on a spot basis. Of these, 200,000 EUAs were offered in a competitive auction and 100,000 EUAs were offered via a noncompetitive auction. The competitive auction was only open to bidders that were spot members of Climex and had ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
Arctic nations to discuss polar bear protection
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/16/ap6172028.html
Associated Press: Climate change has emerged as one of the most urgent threats to polar bears as wildlife officials from the five Arctic countries meet in Norway this week to discuss how to protect the vulnerable species. The three-day conference that opens Tuesday in the northern Norway city of Tromsoe is the first since 1981 to bring together Norway, Danish-held Greenland, the United States, Canada and Russia to review a 36-year-old accord on protecting the world's estimated 20,000-25,000 polar ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
UN May Allow Carbon Credits Even as Rules Tightened
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aNK2p6Xv.BM8
Bloomberg: The United Nations may allow greenhouse-gas cutting projects to get credits for as long as 21 years even if developing countries change their policies on emissions. Projects that get credits from the UN-managed clean development mechanism "may continue until the end of their current crediting period," under rules being considered at a meeting later this month in Bonn, according to a March 12 document on the Web site of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Currently, ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
New combustion strategy accelerates hydrogen-engine development
http://www.physorg.com/news156443378.html
Physorg: Car manufacturers aspire to create hydrogen-powered vehicles that could one day allow energy-efficient, cost-effective travel that emits no greenhouse gases or other pollutants. To further that effort, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have devised new combustion strategies for hydrogen engines. Researchers in Argonne's Center for Transportation Research have built the Modular Automotive Technology Testbed (MATT), an Erector Set-like platform ...
Thu, 19 Mar 09
United Kingdom: Have we seen our final big freeze?
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-have-we-seen-our-final-big-freeze-1646477.html
Independent: A curious thought keeps nagging at me and will not go away: have we just seen the last cold winter? Here we are in full daffodil mode, lilacs winding themselves up and getting ready to burst open, the blackthorn blossom already out and the official start of spring only four days away, and although I am as elated as you are at the prospect of life being colour and warmth and light once more, and happily kiss goodbye the freezing winter just gone, still the thought intrudes: was it the ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Netherlands: Anger as Shell reduces renewables investment
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article5927869.ece
Times (UK): Royal Dutch Shell provoked a furious backlash from campaigners yesterday when it announced plans to scale back its renewable energy business and focus purely on oil, gas and biofuels. Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive, said that Shell, the world's second-largest non-state-controlled oil company, was planning to drop all new investment in wind, solar and hydrogen energy. "I don't expect them to grow much at Shell from here, due to portfolio fit and the returns outlook ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Chernobyl animals worse affected than thought: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H09020090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Radiation has affected animals living near the site of Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear disaster far more than was previously thought, a study showed Wednesday, challenging beliefs that local wildlife was on the rebound. The study showed that numbers of bumble-bees, butterflies, spiders, grasshoppers and other invertebrates were lower in contaminated sites than other areas because of high levels of radiation left over from the blast more than 20 years ago. The findings challenge ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Antarctica climate change affects microbes
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1656125/antarctica_climate_change_affects_microbes/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: A U.S.-led study has found climate change on the Antarctic Peninsula -- one of the most rapidly warming spots on Earth -- is now affecting microscopic life. Researchers using detailed satellite data have discovered global warming is not only affecting just the penguins at the top of the food chain, but simultaneously life at the base of the ecosystem. The researchers from the National Science Foundation's LTER -- Long Term Ecological Research program -- led by Hugh Ducklow of ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Out of Thin Air, New Markets
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB123698551696025315.html?mod=googlenews_barrons
Barron's: A KEY PIECE OF CLIMATE-CHANGE legislation is still up in the air, but that's not hindering the rapid expansion of U.S. carbon markets. The extent of the expansion will depend on many factors, but key is the coming legislation for a mandatory U.S. "cap-and-trade" program, essentially a system for trading rights to emit the gases blamed for global warming. Although carbon trading is global, the majority of activity is so far in Europe, which has a four-year-old cap-and-trade ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Biochar: Is the hype justified?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7924373.stm
BBC: Green guru James Lovelock claims that the only hope of mitigating catastrophic climate change is through biochar - biomass "cooked" by pyrolysis. It produces gas for energy generation, and charcoal - a stable form of carbon. The charcoal is then buried in the ground, making the process "carbon negative". Researchers say biochar can also improve farm productivity and cut demand for carbon-intensive fertilisers. There's a flurry of worldwide interest in the ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
'Green New Deal' Fails to Get Funding in Britain, Lawmakers Say
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601207&sid=arJ05GgRfjPU
Bloomberg: Britain's spending on public transportation and home insulation falls short of a "Green New Deal" needed to forge environmentally friendly growth, a committee of lawmakers said. A 535-million-pound ($750 million) "green stimulus" announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling in November includes only 100 million pounds of new funds, the Environmental Audit Committee said in a report today critical of the plan. Most of the funds are merely accelerated spending on railways ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Climate change blues: how scientists cope by Marlowe Hood - France24
http://www.france24.com/en/20090316-climate-change-blues-how-scientists-cope-0
Agence France-Presse: Being a climate scientist these days is not for the faint of heart, asarguably no other area of research yields a sharper contrast between "eureka!" moments, and the sometimes terrifying implications of those discoveries for the future of the planet. "Science is exciting when you make such findings," said Konrad Steffen, who heads the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado. "But if you stop and look at the implications of what ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
People too overwhelmed to act on climate change, say leading scientists
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25195816-954,00.html
Agence France-Presse: SCIENTISTS say they are haunted by the failure to convey to the world just how close Earth is to climate catastrophe. Top researchers who gathered in Copenhagen for a climate change conference said they were worried that people could not psychologically deal with the enormity of the problem and were reverting to doing nothing. French glaciologist Claude Lorius, one of the first scientists to publish in 1987 evidence that global warming was real, said he despaired of getting the ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Global warming, the greatest crisis: Archbishop Tutu
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=15752043
Merinews: Over a thousand cities and half the number of countries of world have already consented to take part in the campaign. Earth Hour 2009 is anticipated to be one of the greatest social movements of the world. ARCHBISHOP DESMOND Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has lent his support to Earth Hour's global campaign for action on climate change. Earth Hour is a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiative that began in Sydney, in 2007, as a one-city campaign, when over two million ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Replacing Social Security With Carbon Taxes
http://biz.yahoo.com/portfolio/090316/blog_2009_6_17367.html?.v=1
Portolio.com: Hendrik Hertzberg gets stuck in to the fiscal-policy debate this week, with a proposal to essentially abolish payroll taxes and replace them with various sorts of carbon and consumption taxes. It's not a bad idea: payroll taxes are horribly regressive, and, as Hertzberg notes, they actually exceed income taxes for three quarters of the US population. Hertzberg does his best to paint this proposal as having bipartisan support, but political realities in Washington mean that ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
The Battle of the Food-based Biofuels
http://www.salon.com/tech/giga_om/clean_tech/2009/03/16/the_battle_of_the_food_based_biofuels/index.html?source=rss&aim=/tech/giga_om/clean_tech
Salon: While we wait for cellulosic ethanol to ramp up to commercial-scale, the corn-based ethanol industry continues to hang on with a little help from Washington -- President Barack Obama indicated over the weekend that import tariffs on Brazilian sugarcane ethanol won`t be ending anytime soon. The issue came up after a meeting between Obama and the president of Brazil at the White House. Calling it a "source of tension" between the two countries, Obama said at a press conference, "It`s ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
UN Emissions Trading Too 'Patchy' for U.S., EU Official Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=a6a8r_XUwols
Bloomberg: United Nations emissions trading needs to be less "patchy" to win U.S. backing, an EU official said today at the Carbon Market Insights conference in Copenhagen. The UN clean development mechanism, the second-biggest emissions trading market, "needs to be administratively less cumbersome" and "more ambitious," said Jos Delbeke, deputy director general of the European Commission's environment unit. The U.S., the world's biggest polluter, didn't ratify the only international ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Carbon sinks losing the battle with rising emissions
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/ca-csl031609.php
EurekAlert: The stabilising influence that land and ocean carbon sinks have on rising carbon emissions is gradually weakening, scientists who attended the international Copenhagen Climate Change Conference."Forests, grasslands and oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere faster than ever but they are not keeping pace with rapidly rising emissions," says CSIRO scientist and co-Chair of the Global Carbon Project, Dr Mike Raupach. "While these natural CO2 sinks are a huge buffer ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Denmark: Copenhagen aims to be first carbon neutral capital
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-4681.html
Indo-Asian News Service: The capital of Denmark has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the world's first carbon-neutral capital by 2025 by bringing its net carbon dioxide emissions down to zero. The target was announced by the seven mayors of Copenhagen here Tuesday, while they launched the city's new climate plan. The plan has 50 specific initiatives to achieve the city's target of a 20 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2015. "We are launching an ambitious plan containing very ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Asia climate policy on track despite recession, polls
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090318/india_nm/india385624
Reuters: Asia's biggest carbon emitters face dual challenges this year that risk undermining their fight against climate change -- a global recession that's crippling domestic business and elections in a pivotal year. For the moment, however, there is little to suggest they've lost their pace in the drive to embrace cleaner energy policies, or a souring of goodwill towards achieving a broader climate pact at the end of the year to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Even in Australia, where ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Thames Estuary expansion could risk billions in flood damage
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238685/thames-estuary-expansion-risk
Business Green: Plans to expand London eastwards into the Thames Estuary could result in more than £500m of annual flood damages even before the prospect of rising sea levels is taken into account, according to a new academic study presented at last week's climate change conference in Copenhagen. Preliminary findings from the study, which was undertaken by Newcastle University and the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, warned that government proposals to build tens of thousands of properties ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
UN: half world's population to face water stress by 2030
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2238684/un-half-world-population-face
Business Green: Almost half the world's population will live in areas of high water stress by 2030 as a result of climate change, according to a new report this week from the UN, which urged political and business leaders to increase investment in water infrastructure or risk economic activity and development goals being seriously undermined. Released at the annual World Water Forum in Istanbul, the World Water Development report warned that the combination of climate change, population growth, and ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Ukraine: Chernobyl 'shows insect decline'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7949314.stm
BBC: Two decades after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, radiation is still causing a reduction in the numbers of insects and spiders. According to researchers working in the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl, there is a "strong signal of decline associated with the contamination". The team found that bumblebees, butterflies, grasshoppers, dragonflies and spiders were affected. They report their findings in the journal Biology Letters. Professor ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Singapore firm aims to make vessel emissions ship-shape
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52H07W20090318?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, the shipping industry is neither lean nor green. Ships carry about 90 percent of global trade, and until recently, such has been the demand for coal, cars and electronics, that there has been little concerted effort to rein in the growth of polluting emissions from ships. But pressure is growing in the United Nations and from the European Union to make ships more efficient and their smokestacks more climate friendly. Just a few ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Brokaw revisits 'Global Warming'
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2009-03-17-brokaw-warming_N.htm
USA Today: "What we're trying to get across in the documentary is that there's a growing consensus that global warming is real and getting worse," Brokaw says in a telephone interview. He says the show presents a "playbook" of the scientific effects of warming. The documentary examines the changes that are expected in the USA and around the world over the next several years and decades, including ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica, extreme weather and species loss. "What I'm ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Climate 'Tipping Point' Seen Likely In Next 200 Years
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1655936/climate_tipping_point_seen_likely_in_next_200_years/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: A poll of experts finds that a dramatic climate shift such as the death of the Amazon forest or the disappearance of Greenland's ice is more than 50 percent likely during the next 200 years under the worst case global warming scenarios. The survey of 52 scientists also revealed concerns that long-term global warming would spur drastic changes such as the disintegration of the ice sheet in West Antarctica, something that would raise world sea levels. "There's concern about the ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Arizona nuke plant shows 'substantial' improvement
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090317/ap_on_re_us/nuclear_palo_verde
Associated Press: The nation's largest nuclear power plant has made "substantial improvements" since a number of safety issues led regulators to downgrade its safety rating three years ago, according to a letter released Tuesday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, 50 miles west of Phoenix, has had the lowest safety rating of any licensed U.S. reactor since 2006, when inspectors found that an emergency backup generator had been inoperative for 18 days ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Loophole gives fodder to offshore drilling foes
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52G6PR20090317?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Oil and gas companies that have leased millions of offshore federal acres are not required to produce the energy supplies those tracts may hold, the Interior Department's Inspector General told Congress on Tuesday. The IG's finding could help support the argument made by environmental groups and many U.S. lawmakers that the government should not open new offshore areas to drilling when companies are not using some 68 million acres they have already leased. "With respect to ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Ghana: Women Lose Their Farms to Biofuel Production
http://allafrica.com/stories/200903161744.html
Public Agenda: Ghanaian small scale farmers, particularly women, are facing displacement from their farm lands. In recent times, the northern parts of Ghana are said to be witnessing an influx of foreign companies engaged in jatropha and sugar-cane plantation for biofuel production. Regrettably, some of these companies that are investing in biofuel production acquire large track of land but only pay the farmers for the portion of the land they utilize, in spite of an existing ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
As Planet Warms, Poor Nations Face Economic Chill
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316173421.htm
ScienceDaily: A rising tide is said to lift all boats. Rising global temperatures, however, may lead to increased disparities between rich and poor countries, according to a recent MIT economic analysis of the impact of climate change on growth. After examining worldwide climate and economic data from 1950 to 2003, Benjamin A. Olken, associate professor in the Department of Economics, concludes that a 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature in a given year reduces economic growth by an average of 1.1 ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Climate Migrants Flock to City in Bangladesh
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=121671
ClimateWire: The towering new orange condominium glistens in the sun, beckoning the city's wealthy to enjoy its luxurious rarities: central air conditioning and a heated pool. In the trash-strewn, sprawling shantytown just below, thousands of the city's poorest live crammed in rows of metal shacks the size of packing crates. There are sharp contrasts here. The newest-model BMW competes for lane space with ancient wooden rickshas. Stylish teenagers flock to the gleaming mega-mall, watched by ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Crisis hampers EU wind power in short-term: lobby
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090316/sc_nm/us_wind_power
Reuters: The economic downturn is delaying wind power projects in the European Union but the negative impact will not last because of strong sector fundamentals, a European wind power lobby said on Monday. "There is a slowdown in the sector, we are seeing some signs, but much less than in other sectors," Arthouros Zervos, president of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), told Reuters on the sidelines of a wind conference. "The impact will be short term because the fundamentals ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
Rise in sea levels due to global warming could imperil New York City
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0316-hance_newyork.html
Mongabay: A new study shows that sea levels along the United States' northeastern coast will rise nearly twice as fast during this century than previous predictions. By 2100 the waters around New York city could rise as much as 18 inches, leaving Manhattan particularly vulnerable to flooding from hurricanes and winter storm surges. Using 10 climate models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) researchers including Jianjun Yin from the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
China appeals to exclude exports in climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090316/sc_afp/uschinaclimatewarmingtrade
Agence France-Presse: China appealed Monday to exclude its giant export sector in the next treaty on climate change, saying rich countries buying its products should bear responsibility for emissions in manufacturing. "It is a very important item to make a fair agreement," senior Chinese climate official Li Gao said during a visit to Washington. Climate envoys from China, Japan and the European Union were holding talks with US President Barack Obama's administration as the clock ticks to a December ...
Wed, 18 Mar 09
8 Dems oppose quick debate on