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Sun, 30 Aug 09
Global warming to put heat on Midwest
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2009-08-28-midwest-heat_N.htm
USA Today: The Midwest will see the most dramatic temperature rise in upcoming decades due to global warming, according to a new analysis of U.S. climate data released Thursday by the Nature Conservancy. In just the next 40 years, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at their current rate, average temperatures are expected to rise by more than 5 degrees across much of the USA, with the greatest temperature increases expected in Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois. "The surprise ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Firms in danger of missing emissions targets
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidGN_29082009_10344396/Firms%20in%20danger%20of%20missing%20emissions%20targets
Gulf News: Targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will not be met in time as some of the world's largest companies have only set reduction goals up to 2012, a new study has revealed. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation holding the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. More than 2,000 major corporations around the globe report their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks and opportunities posed by climate change ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
A sometimes lonely trek for global warming awareness
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/science/earth/29trek.html?_r=5
New York Times: On Route 11 north of Tuscaloosa, Ala., last April, a pickup truck pulled up next to Greta Browne, and a young man began lecturing her about global warming. He had seen Ms. Browne's T-shirt announcing that she was "Walking for the Climate," and he wanted to set her straight. Humans, he told her, have nothing to do with heating up the planet. Ms. Browne, 65, a Unitarian minister from Bethlehem, Pa., has encountered more than one global warming naysayer since last March, when she ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Nepal villagers on climate change frontline
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Nepal_villagers_on_climate_change_frontline_999.html
Agence France-Presse: Three years ago Naina Shahi's husband left their small village in rural Nepal to seek work in neighbouring India, leaving her to bring up their three children alone. The dry winters and unpredictable monsoons Nepal has experienced in recent years had hit crop production on the couple's land plot in the foothills of the Himalayas, forcing them to look for other ways to feed their family. For the past two years, their crop has failed entirely and Shahi now buys rice on credit ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
India, China to join hands on studying climate change in Tibet
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/46576.htm
Sindh Today: India and China will jointly conduct research on the impact of climate change on the glaciers in the Himalayan and Tibetan regions, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Saturday. "We discussed institutionalisation of collaboration. The Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and its Chinese counterpart the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research will conduct joint research," said Ramesh, who visited China earlier this month for a ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Quarter of Africa faces water shortage, courtesy global warming: Pachauri
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/46494.htm
Indo-Asian News Service: Twenty five percent of Africa experiences shortage of drinking water due to global warming, which is increasing at a higher rate now than in earlier decades, says noted environmentalist R.K. Pachauri. "Climate changes due to greenhouse gas emissions will only exacerbate. More intense and larger droughts will be there. Twenty five percent of Africa and its population will experience high water stress," Pachauri said while delivering through video clip a lecture on "The environment and ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Methanol fuel cell startup eyes hybrid market
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57S03020090829
Reuters: A fast-growing Silicon Valley start-up firm is aiming to put its methanol-based fuel cells in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars. Oorja Protonics, which sells its fuel cells to Nissan Motor Co, is working to have a product that can be used as a range-extender in pure electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, Chief Executive Sanjiv Malhotra said in an interview on Friday. "We would have something in 18 to 24 months," Malhotra said, adding that the company is working "very ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Recession speeds coal's long-term decline
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57Q43O20090827
Reuters: Declining industrial electricity demand and an abundance of cheap natural gas will threaten coal's status as the dominant U.S. fuel to generate electric power, even after the economic recession ends. Power companies are reducing use of coal plants because of declining demand from heavy industry, the economic sector hardest hit by the recession. The loss of industrial "baseload" looks long term, analysts and executives say. Natural gas-fired plants, easier to stop and start, ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Greece: State of emergency as forest fires reach Athens
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/23/athens-greece-forest-fires
Guardian: Thousands battle to save homes as forest blazes spread out of control on outskirts of Athens Link to this video Thousands of Greeks were battling to save their homes from forest fires raging out of control on the outskirts of Athens as authorities declared a state of emergency and mobilised the army today in the capital. Gale-force winds hampered firefighting efforts for a second day as the flames encroached on the city's outer suburbs. Officials appealed to residents to ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
Indian forests absorb 11 per cent of annual greenhouse gas emissions: Jairam Ramesh
http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/536673
Asian News International: Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, said on Saturday that about 11 per cent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is being absorbed by the country's forests. According to the World Resources Institute, India's total GHG emissions stood at 1,853 million metric tons equivalent of carbon dioxide, about 4.9 percent of global emissions in 2005. During the release of a report in the capital by the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA), ...

Sun, 30 Aug 09
China says greenhouse gases catch up with U.S
http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSPEK127081
Reuters: China's greenhouse gas emissions have caught up with the United States and will not any fall any time soon, a top Chinese official said on Wednesday, while warning of a huge economic blow from global warming. The comments from Xie Zhenhua, a deputy chief of China's National Development and Reform Commission who steers climate change policy, marked a new official acknowledgement that China may be the world's worst offender. Many foreign experts believe China's output of carbon ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
U.N. chief urges world to 'seize day' on climate
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2009-08-28-united-nations-chief_N.htm?csp=34
Associated Press: The U.N. chief is urging the world to "seize the day" on climate change ahead of a major conference on global warming set for December in Copenhagen. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the threat posed by greenhouse gas emissions underscores how the world's nations must all take action. Ban says the outcome of the Copenhagen conference "will impact the planet for generations to come." Ban says he also plans to visit the North Pole soon – and he hopes that will send an ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
United States: Biofuels project gets federal money
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2009/08/28/biofuels_project_gets_federal_money/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: An effort to boost Vermont agriculture by getting farmers to grow and use new biofuels has gotten a boost via a federal grant of $484,300. The grant brings funding to $2.9 million from three federal appropriations bills secured by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. for biofuels research, development and demonstration projects in the state. Leahy says the projects are geared toward the goals of developing new energy sources, economic development and diversifying Vermont ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Nitrous Oxide Depleting Ozone Layer
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1744466/nitrous_oxide_depleting_ozone_layer/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: NOAA has released the first-ever study of the climate impacts of the man-made substance, nitrous oxide. Researchers A.R. Ravishankara, J.S. Daniel and Robert W. Portmann of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), said that nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, has become the largest ozone-depleting substance emitted through human activities. Additionally, the gas is expected to continue its status through the 21st ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Climate Change 'is a Security Issue'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48259
Inter Press Service: Africa is the canary in the mine of global security, as climate change threatens to redraw the maps of the continent and the world. A shift in global climate will reshape coastlines, alter disease prevalence, change where rain falls, and alter where people can find water, grow food and live, says Oli Brown, of the International Institute for Sustainable Development's (IISD). This could force communities and nations into conflict as they struggle to access resources or are forced into ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Poll finds broad support for Obama on energy front
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082703823.html
Washington Post: Most Americans approve of the way President Obama is handling energy issues and support efforts by him and Democrats in Congress to overhaul energy policy -- including the controversial cap-and-trade approach to limiting greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Even as public support has slipped for Obama's health-care proposals, support for ambitious changes in energy policy has been steady. Although the issue of health care arouses more intense ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
United States: Offshore wind farm in Atlantic at least a year away
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-windmill28-2009aug28,0,7107963.story
LA Times: For at least one more summer, vacationers on Martha's Vineyard won't be able to gaze across the water and see, far off on the horizon, the churning blades of offshore wind turbines -- no matter how badly the island's most famous current vacationer would like. President Obama, now summering on the Massachusetts island with his family, is still at least a year away from seeing turbines take root anywhere off the U.S. coast, even though his administration promised to make offshore wind a ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Ky. could become 8Â° hotter by 2100
http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/911143.html
Various: Kentucky's average temperature could be more than 8 degrees higher by the end of the century, according to new analysis of the effects of climate change on each of the 50 states. The analysis is from The Nature Conservancy, the worldwide conservation organization. Terry Cook, director of the organization's Kentucky chapter, said higher temperature caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could mean "the weather and landscapes that have made Kentucky so ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Global warming impacts lives of millions in Mideast
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=31&article_id=105812
Daily Star: Global warming is changing the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the Middle East and neighboring countries, and concrete measures should be taken immediately to combat the effects of climate change on water resources there, a regional meeting hosted by UNDP in the Swedish capital concluded last Thursday. "The most important strategic resource in the Middle East and neighboring countries is neither oil nor gas, but water. With growing populations and increased water ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Renewable energy needs land, lots of land
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112323643
National Public Radio: STEVE INSKEEP, host: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. We've been looking into some of the downsides of green energy. The government has already spent a lot of effort on biofuels. Now, lawmakers are considering how to encourage billions of dollars of investment on alternatives, from ethanol to wind to solar energy. Even as they consider the possibilities, new analysis by environmental experts shows alternative energy comes with stiff costs. Here's NPR's ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Leave population out of climate talks, Indian minister says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/28/india-population-climate-change
Guardian: Western nations are trying to use India's "profligate reproductive behaviour" to force Delhi to accept legally binding emission reduction targets, India's environment minister said today. Speaking at a conference in the Indian capital, organised by Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment, Jairam Ramesh said there was a "move in western countries to bring population into climate change [negotiations]. Influential American thinktanks are asking why should we reward profligate ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Lobbying Group Says Letters Against Climate Change Bill Were Fake
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/29/us/29charity.html?_r=5
New York Times: Lawyers for a Washington lobbying firm have asked federal prosecutors to investigate a former employee who the firm says sent fake letters to members of Congress urging them to oppose climate change legislation. A spokesman for the firm, Bonner & Associates,said the request was dated Aug. 12, adding that the firm's owner, Jack Bonner, "is quite serious about prosecuting this individual and making sure he doesn't do this again." The scandal over the fake letters, which appeared ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
New Culprit Seen in Ozone Depletion
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/science/earth/28nox.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Government scientists who study the depletion of Earth's protective ozone layer are pointing to a previously unheralded culprit: nitrous oxide. Most of the nitrous oxide in the atmosphere emerges naturally, through the action of bacteria in the soil, the researchers say. But the gas is also produced by human activity, through the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, the application of livestock manure to fields, the burning of biofuels and in other ways. Though nitrous oxide is ...

Sat, 29 Aug 09
Annual cost of climate change 'will be Â£190bn'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/annual-cost-of-climate-change-will-be-163190bn-1778391.html
Independent (UK): The true global cost of adapting to climate change is likely to be many times greater than official United Nations' estimates: in 2030 alone, the world could be spending more than three times the annual budget of the NHS, a study has found. A team of British experts has discovered that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has seriously underestimated the expected annual cost of dealing with climate impacts. It suggests that the true cost could be at least two or ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Pipeline Sabotage Blows Image of Stable Canada
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48242
Inter Press Service: North America's largest natural gas corporation hopes a one-million-dollar bounty will take down the saboteur who is blowing up their pipelines in northern Canada. Since October 2008, six controlled explosions have rocked sour gas pipelines operated by EnCana energy around the Tomslake area in the province of British Columbia. EnCana's reward is thought to be the largest in Canadian history. While Calgary-based EnCana is the largest player in the area, a boom in unconventional ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
How to Talk About Climate Change
http://www.reuters.com/article/gwmCarbonEmissions/idUS67089067020090827
Reuters: First, the good news: A vast majority of Americans -- as many 90 percent, depending on how you phrase the question -- think the U.S. should act to curb global warming. Most expect the benefits of a national response to outweigh the costs. Now, the bad news: Very few have acted on those beliefs. Only about 10 to 12 percent have contacted government officials, given money or volunteered with an organization working to reduce global warming. So we're concerned, but ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Nitrous oxide becomes main ozone-damaging gas
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57Q4V720090827?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Nitrous oxide or "laughing gas" has become the main man-made substance damaging the planet's protective ozone layer and is likely to remain so throughout the century, scientists said. The study, by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said tighter limits on emissions of nitrous oxide, which is also a powerful greenhouse gas, would be a "win-win for both ozone and the climate." "Nitrous oxide emission currently is the single most important ozone-depleting ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
U.S. finds water polluted near gas-drilling sites
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57Q4BD20090827?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.S. government scientists have for the first time found chemical contaminants in drinking water wells near natural gas drilling operations, fueling concern that a gas-extraction technique is endangering the health of people who live close to drilling rigs. The Environmental Protection Agency found chemicals that researchers say may cause illnesses including cancer, kidney failure, anemia and fertility problems in water from 11 of 39 wells tested around the Wyoming town of Pavillion ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Canada: Officials: dry weather could elevate BC forest fire risk
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2009/08/25/10597226-cp.html?cid=rssnewsenvironment
Canadian Press: Destructive wildfires that have scorched nearly 2,000 square kilometres in British Columbia and dwarfed the province's firefighting budget could flare up this week with warmer dry weather in the forecast, says the B.C. Forest Service. There are still nearly 150 forest fires burning across the province and at least five of them have prompted evacuation orders keeping residents from their homes. And while the current wildfire situation appears to have eased since July, when ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Australia: Abnormal weather a hot August blight
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/abnormal-weather-a-hot-august-blight-20090826-ezt1.html
Sydney Morning Herald: IF YOU thought it has been unseasonably warm lately, you are correct - the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that this is almost certainly going to be the hottest August on record by a big margin. Temperature records across NSW and Queensland were smashed by three degrees or more this week. The winter heatwave is ''highly abnormal'', according to a special climate statement released by the bureau yesterday. Hot, stagnant air in central Australia, which accumulated over ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Hijacked by climate change?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8223611.stm
BBC: As the UN climate summit in Copenhagen approaches, exhortations that "we must get a deal" and warnings that climate change is "the greatest challenge we face as a species" are to be heard in virtually every political forum. But if you look back to the latest definitive check on the planet's environmental health - the Global Environment Outlook (Geo-4), published by the UN two years ago - what emerges is a picture of decline that goes way, way beyond climate change. Species are ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Mysterious Glaciers That Grew When Asia Heated Up
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090827101207.htm
ScienceDaily: That's why a collection of glaciers in the Southeast Himalayas stymies those who know what they did 9,000 years ago. While most other Central Asian glaciers retreated under hotter summer temperatures, this group of glaciers advanced from one to six kilometers. A new study by BYU geologist Summer Rupper pieces together the chain of events surrounding the unexpected glacial growth. "Stronger monsoons were thought to be responsible,' said Rupper, who reports her findings in the ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Rain Deficit Narrows, Aiding India s Withering Crops
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aL33jzqMVAKY
Bloomberg: India's monsoon rainfall, the main source of irrigation for the nation's 235 million farmers, was above average in most parts of the country, helping crops of rice, sugar cane and soybeans reeling from moisture stress. Excess rain over central, southern and northeastern regions the past week narrowed the deficit in the week ended Aug. 26 to 5 percent, said S. Kaur, director at the India Meteorological Department. Showers since June 1 were 25 percent below the long- period average, ...

Fri, 28 Aug 09
Texas heat sends energy bills soaring
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/27/am-texas-heat-wave/
Marketplace: Steve Chiotakis: If you think you're dealing with a long, hot summer, try this number on for size: "57." That's how many days the temperature's climbed above 100 degrees in San Antonio, Texas, this year. And that record-breaking heatwave is cooking up some high-energy bills. From Texas Public Radio, David Martin Davies reports. David Martin Davies: In Texas, the summer of 2009 will be remembered for high temperatures and high-power bills. RANDY CHAPMAN: We're seeing record ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
UN's Ban to see climate change effects on North Pole trip
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gEW-RnogTZwzTbimtbMBGhZMe9Ww
Agence France-Presse: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit a Norwegian island deep inside the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole, to see firsthand the effects of climate change, his spokeswoman said. Ban is scheduled to arrive in Oslo on August 31 for an official visit where he will be received by Norway's King Harald V, and hold meetings with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. He will also place a wreath on the tomb of Trygve Lie, the first secretary ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Q&A: Climate Camp
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/25/climate-camp-protest
Guardian: What is Climate Camp? Climate Camp is a movement that organises temporary camps for environmental protesters. Its website describes it as "a place for anyone who wants to take action on climate change; for anyone who's fed up with empty government rhetoric and corporate spin; for anyone who's worried that the small steps they're taking aren't enough". At the camps it is possible to learn more about sustainable living and the legal rights of protesters. Camps often culminate in a day ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Global Warming Threatens Tropical Species, The Ecosystem and Its By-Products
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1742435/global_warming_threatens_tropical_species_the_ecosystem_and_its_byproducts/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Tropical lizards detect the effects of global warming in a climate where the smallest change makes a big difference, according to herpetologist Laurie Vitt, curator of reptiles and George Lynn Cross Research Professor at the University of Oklahoma's Sam Noble Museum of Natural History. Climate change caused by global warming threatens the very existence of these and other tropical species, the ecosystem and its by-products, Vitt maintains. Vitt has studied the ecology of lizards in ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Canada: Ozone Treaty May Hold Key to Halting Climate Change
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48211
Inter Press Service: Will the world take the easy step to phase out "super" greenhouse gases – hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) - using the existing Montreal Protocol ozone treaty? Doing so would be equivalent to preventing the release of 118 to 224 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050, according to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency. That's vitally important. The latest science shows humanity cannot put more than another 700 billion tonnes into the atmosphere over the next 40 years ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Australia: Sea level rises prompt planning overhaul
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/sea-level-rises-prompt-planning-overhaul-20090825-ey1m.html
AAP: The Queensland government expects sea levels to rise by nearly one centimetre a year over the next 90 years, forcing an overhaul of coastal development rules. Climate Change Minister Kate Jones on Tuesday released a draft plan to guide development along Queensland's coastline. "We need to be ready for climate change, sea level rises and inundation," Ms Jones told reporters. The plan projects a sea level rise figure of 30 centimetres by 2050, increasing to 80 centimetres ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Climate protesters play cat and mouse with police
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE57O22C20090825
Reuters: Climate change campaigners will pitch their tents in a still-secret location in London on Wednesday at the start of a week of protests against financial institutions, multi-national companies and the government. Organisers say more than 1,000 people will protest against what they see as the "green posturing" of politicians and firms who talk about saving the environment while expanding airports and coal-fired power stations. The event will be one of the biggest tests for ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Farmers protecting and growing significant amount of world's trees
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/berichte/studien/farmers_protecting_growing_significant_amount_world_138283.html
Innovations report: Although agriculture, particularly in the developing world, is often associated with massive deforestation, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre demonstrated today, in a study using detailed satellite imagery, that almost half of all farmed landscapes worldwide include significant tree cover. The findings were announced at the opening of the 2nd World Congress of Agroforestry, which is being held in Nairobi, Kenya this week. The World Agroforestry Centre is one of 15 centers ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Africa Builds United Position for Copenhagen
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48204
Inter Press Service: An African Union proposal demanding billions of dollars in compensation for the impacts of climate change is taking shape. It is time for Africa to aggressively engage with climate change negotiations to ensure its interests are met in the designing of global responses, said African Union Commission chair Jean Ping. AU officials say the lack of a coordinated stance on global warming by African governments has placed serious limitations on Africa's ability to negotiate in the past. To ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
China mulls practical, effective measures to combat climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/25/content_11942567.htm
Xinhua: Chinese lawmakers are considering practical and effective measures to combat climate change in a draft resolution being deliberated by the country's top legislature on Tuesday. The draft resolution on climate change, submitted to the 10th session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), puts forward five guidelines to practical action to better deal with climate change. It says the country must commit to energy saving and emissions reductions by ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
U.S. Chamber of Commerce seeks trial on global warming
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-climate-trial25-2009aug25,0,901567.story
LA Times: The nation's largest business lobby wants to put the science of global warming on trial. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trying to ward off potentially sweeping federal emissions regulations, is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a rare public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change. Chamber officials say it would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" -- complete with witnesses, cross-examinations and a judge who would rule, ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
The Big Question: Should Africa be generating much of Europe's power?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/the-big-question-should-africa-be-generating-much-of-europes-power-1776802.html
Independent (UK): Why are we asking this now? Two hugely ambitious power-generating schemes have been launched in recent weeks, one offering to create the world's largest solar farm and the other to create the biggest hydroelectric dam on the planet. In both cases the location for the mega-projects is Africa: the solar-power scheme envisages harnessing the sun in the Moroccan and/or Algerian Sahara; while the hydroelectric plan centres on damming the mighty Congo River. What the two projects have in ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Warmer seas mean more food for fish
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17670-warmer-seas-mean-more-food-for-fish.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: The sheer diversity of ocean food webs has made experts fear it would be impossible to predict how climate change will affect marine ecology. But Mary O'Connor and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, may have solved the problem. They have found that plankton, the basis of marine food webs, might react predictably to ocean warming. The team warmed 4-litre "microcosms" of seawater. They found that phytoplankton grew slightly faster with every degree of ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Coal subsidies outstrip support for marine energy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2248336/coal-subsidies-outstrip-support
Business Green: The Conservative party yesterday accused the government of undermining its pledge to deliver a lower-carbon energy mix, by spending 20 times more on subsidising UK coal mines than it has on the emerging marine energy sector over the past six years, despite initially promising similar sums to both industries. Answers to Parliamentary questions have revealed that more than Â£50m of the government's Â£60m Coal Investment Aid fund have already been distributed, while to date just Â£2.3m of ...

Wed, 26 Aug 09
Africa seeks climate change cash
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8217449.stm
BBC: Ministers from 10 African countries have met in Ethiopia to try to agree a common position on climate change, months before a crucial UN meeting. They were expected to renew demands for billions of dollars in compensation for Africa because of damage caused by global warming. And they are likely to ask rich nations to cut emissions by 40% by 2012. African nations are among the lightest polluters but analysts say they will suffer the most from climate change. BBC ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
China says climate talks stymied by political interests
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/08/24/world/international-uk-china-climate-copenhagen.html?_r=5
Reuters: Little progress has been made so far on a new pact to combat global warming, with "commercial and political interests" continuing to prevail, China's senior climate change official said on Monday. The vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, said industrialised countries were still attempting to persuade the developing world to accept quantifiable targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report by Xinhua news ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
Offsetters predict end to the downturn as customers return
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2248349/voluntary-carbon-market-sees
Business Green: The world's leading offset providers have begun to see early signs of a recovery in sales over the past few months, according to the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) industry group, as corporate customers have begun to show a renewed interest in the concept of carbon offsetting. Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Edward Hanrahan, executive director at JP Morgan Environmental Markets and a founder of ICROA, said the organisation's members had seen clear signs of ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
Germany approves Â€500m electric car investment plan
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2248348/germany-approves-500-million
Business Green: She may have previously angered environmentalists by lobbying for a relaxation in the EU's vehicle emission standards, but German chancellor Angela Merkel went some way to rebuilding bridges with green car enthusiasts last week with the unveiling of one of the world's most ambitious electric car strategies. According to a version of the new National Development Plan on Electric Mobility seen by Bloomberg News, the German government is to invest EUR500m (Â£434m) in electric car ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
Africa wants $67 billion a year to fight climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57N26M20090824?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: African leaders will ask rich nations for $67 billion per year to mitigate the impact of global warming on the world's poorest continent, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters on Monday. Ten leaders are holding talks at African Union (AU) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital to try to agree a common stance ahead of a U.N. summit on climate change in Copenhagen in December. Experts say Africa contributes little to the pollution blamed for warming, but is likely to be ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
United States: Aggravation Mounts in Minn. Over Governor's Shift on Climate
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/08/24/24climatewire-aggravation-mounts-in-minn-over-governors-sh-45611.html
ClimateWire: Minnesota's Republican governor used to make soaring speeches about defusing climate change. Now he's making jokes, and some environmentalists are wondering whether his gone-missing support amounts to "bait and switch" politics. Gov. Tim Pawlenty is stoking frustration among Democratic state lawmakers and prominent climate thinkers for becoming "totally silent" on two major efforts to stem greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota and in a strip of states stretching from Canada to ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Government mulls potential wind farm payout scheme
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2248344/government-mulls-potential-wind
Business Green: The government has confirmed that it is considering introducing a conservation scheme that could make it easier for wind farm developers to secure support for new developments from local residents. The Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) is pushing ahead with research into so-called conservation banking schemes, where developers who affect wildlife habitats are obliged to help fund alternative biodiversity projects through the purchase of conservation ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
Alternative energy powerhouse Brazil finds big oil
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/23/AR2009082301246.html
Washington Post: Brazil, long proud of its push to develop renewable energy and wean itself off oil, has a bad case of fossil-fuel fever. An enormous offshore field in territorial waters - the biggest Western Hemisphere oil discovery in 30 years - has Brazilians saying, "Drill, baby, drill," while environmentalists fear the nation will take a big leap backward in its hunt for crude. There has been virtually no public debate on the potential environmental costs of retrieving the billions of ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
China, US near climate-change deal over fuel efficiency
http://www.businessday.com.au/business/china-us-near-climatechange-deal-over-fuel-efficiency-20090824-evcv.html
Bloomberg: China and the US, the biggest sources of the greenhouse gas emissions heating the planet, have stood in the way of an international climate treaty for almost as long as there have been efforts to craft one. The US never ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol partly because the pact didn't compel China and other developing economies to lower emissions. Now, the two countries may be moving toward agreement on how to rein in the 40 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide pollution that comes ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
'Green goo' biofuel gets a boost
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/21/eco.algaebiofuel/
CNN: Three years ago many would have dismissed the notion that a significant supply of the world's automotive fuel could come from algae. But today the idea, while still an adventurous one, is getting much harder to ignore. Making green from green: Biofuel from algae has been given a boost in investment in recent years. Back then there were only a handful of companies seriously focused on producing algae fuel. Now there are well over 50, according to Samhitha Udupa, a research ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
Russian airlines face EU ban from 2012 over CO2 emissions
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090824/155907720.html
RIA Novosti: The European Union has placed some 100 Russian air carriers, including Aeroflot, on a list of airlines that could be banned from European airports unless they reduce their environmental impact from 2012. The full list of nearly 4,000 airlines was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Saturday. In accordance with a newly-introduced EU law, from January 1, 2012 all airlines operating in Europe will have to limit their carbon dioxide emissions or face ...

Tue, 25 Aug 09
Easterly Wind Picks Up
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48191
Inter Press Service: The natural conditions in Romania and Bulgaria make these countries some of the best placed in Europe for producing wind energy. Interest in investing in wind power is high in both countries, but legislative ambiguity and the limited capacity of national electricity grids are delaying the building of new wind parks. Romania has the largest wind potential in south-east Europe, according to a study by Erste Bank last year. Its geographical and climatic conditions could eventually ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
Brazil's 'Obama' weighs presidential bid
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0819-marina_silva.html
Mongabay: Marina Silva, the charismatic rubber tapper who went on to become senator and Environment Minister, is weighing a presidential bid in Brazil's 2010 election, according to multiple reports. Political observers say that while her chances are long, Silva's entrance and focus on the environment could spur interest among Brazilians disenchanted by the Workers' Party, the dominant part which has been tarnished lately by corruption scandals. "Marina excites young people, those who are ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
United States: Denver airport plans solar power for its fuel farm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090819/ap_on_bi_ge/us_denver_airport_solar
Associated Press: Denver International Airport wants to build a $7 million solar electric-generating system to power its fuel storage and distribution system. Airport officials said Wednesday they will ask the City Council for approval to sign a contract with two companies to develop the 1.6-megawatt project on about 9 acres north of the airfield. It would provide almost all the electricity needed to power the airport's fuel farm. The airport would buy electricity from the solar companies for ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
US unions, green groups unleash climate change campaign
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090819/ts_alt_afp/climateusenergypoliticscongresslabor
Agence France-Presse: A coalition of US environmental groups and major labor unions on Wednesday unveiled a national campaign to refute charges that legislation to battle climate change would cost US jobs in a recession. "The fact of the matter is, you're either going to have both, or you'll have neither," Leo Gerard, the head of the United Steelworkers union, told reporters on a conference call to announce the 50-stop, 22-state push. "This is about creating good family-supporting jobs as we do the ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
Green groups sue Chevron Phillips over pollution
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57I50220090819?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Chevron Phillips Chemical Co LP over alleged violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act at its Cedar Bayou plant, located east of Houston, representatives of the groups said on Wednesday. The Sierra Club and Environment Texas allege the 50-50 petrochemical joint-venture between energy giants Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips repeatedly violated limits for pollution set in operating permits issued by regulators for the plant. The ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
United States: Vilsack defends climate change bill
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090819/NEWS/90819028/-1/NEWS04
Des Moines Register: In an appearance today at the Iowa State Fair, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack defended efforts by the Obama administration and Democrats in congress to pass climate change legislation, saying "I start from the proposition that climate change is real. I know some disagree." Vilsack said the rest of the world is looking for leadership from the U.S. on climate change. "If we don't lead, international cooperation on a whole host of other issues, such as trade and ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
Lower temperatures grist for global warming debate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090819/sc_mcclatchy/3295216
McClatchy Newspapers: Has Earth's fever broken? Official government measurements show that the world's temperature has cooled a bit since reaching its most recent peak in 1998. That's given global warming skeptics new ammunition to attack the prevailing theory of climate change. The skeptics argue that the current stretch of slightly cooler temperatures means that costly measures to limit carbon dioxide emissions are ill-founded and unnecessary. Proposals to combat global warming are "crazy" ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
Are Candles Making You Sick?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090819/hl_hsn/arecandlesmakingyousick
HealthDay: Paraffin wax candles, used mainly for romantic ambiance, fragrance and light, may also contribute to air pollution inside your home. The candles, which are made from petroleum, are a source of known human carcinogens and indoor pollution, researchers said in a study to be presented Wednesday at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Washington, D.C. In the study, R. Massoudi and Amid Hamidi found that candles made from beeswax or soy, although more expensive, ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
Heatwave attracts an unwelcome visitor
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/heatwave-attracts-an-unwelcome-visitor-1774566.html
Independent (UK): A combination of calm, sunny weather and high concentrations of nitrate pollutants running into the sea from local farms and sewage works has caused thick mats of green algae to form at a dozen sites on the south coast. The Environment Agency said yesterday that it was concerned that the seaweed could cause long-term damage to the unique wildlife of some of the most important coastal mudflats which are being slowly starved of oxygen by the algae as it spreads over wide areas of the ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
New gov't study shows mercury in fish widespread
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090819/ap_on_go_ot/us_mercury_contamination
Associated Press: No fish can escape mercury pollution. That's the take-home message from a federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday that tested fish from nearly 300 streams across the country. The toxic substance was found in every fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become. But while all fish had traces of contamination, only about a quarter had mercury levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe for people ...

Thu, 20 Aug 09
Mercury-tainted fish found widely in U.S. streams
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57J01420090820?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Scientists have detected mercury contamination in every one of hundreds of fish sampled from 291 freshwater streams, according to a U.S. government study released on Wednesday. More than a quarter of those fish contained concentrations of mercury exceeding levels set by the Environmental Protection Agency for the protection of people who eat average amounts of fish, the U.S. Geological Survey report said. More than two-thirds exceeded the EPA-set level of concern for ...

Wed, 19 Aug 09
Australia: Signs of thaw in climate bills stand-off
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/18/2658787.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned the business community to expect punitive tariffs and missed investment opportunities if the Government's emissions trading scheme is not passed by Parliament this year. But the Government has adopted a more conciliatory tone when it comes to its other key climate change policy, with the target for 20 per cent renewable energy use by 2020 passing the House of Representatives last night. The Government and Opposition agreed on a set of ...

Wed, 19 Aug 09
World Bank violated environmental rules in lending to palm oil companies, finds internal audit
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0817-world_bank_ifc.html
Mongabay: A coalition of indigenous rights' organizations and green groups is calling on the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) to suspend lending to oil palm plantation developers over revelations by its own internal auditors that the loan-making entity failed to follow its own procedures for protecting against social and environmental abuses. "IFC staff knew of the environmental and social risks in the palm oil sector, including unresolved land disputes and non-compliance ...

Wed, 19 Aug 09
Emissions to peak at 2030: report
http://en.ce.cn/National/Politics/200908/18/t20090818_19805900.shtml
China Daily: China's carbon emissions output could peak around 2030 if the government continues to be serious about "strengthened measures" to improve energy efficiency and if it accelerates exploration of renewable energy, a panel of experts says. In 2050 China Energy and C02 Emissions Report, the panel from the National Development and Reform Commission and the Development Research Center of the State Council, says that with the right policies, emissions growth could slow after 2020, with a peak ...

Tue, 18 Aug 09
Australia: Climate change set to 'affect tourism'
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/climate-change-set-to-affect-tourism-20090817-en18.html
AAP: The tourism industry will face a massive cost shock from climate change as coral bleaching increases, species are threatened, national parks are closed, wetlands are lost and insurance bills grow, a tourism conference has been told. CSIRO principal research scientist Kevin Hennessy used climate change modelling to predict what may be in store by 2020, 2050 and 2070 for some of Australia's top tourism destinations: Kakadu, Cairns, the Blue Mountains and the Victorian ...

Tue, 18 Aug 09
US ambassador snubs Â£3.5m congestion fines
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/us-ambassador-snubs-16335m-congestion-fines-1773102.html
Press Association: A new US ambassador to the UK will not mean a new policy over the congestion charge, the US State Department has said. President Barack Obama's new man in London, Louis Susman, was sworn in two weeks ago, raising hope that more than Â£3m in fines may soon be paid off. But despite the new administration's "greener" stance, and recent overtures to environmental campaigners, Washington has ruled that the penalties will continue to be ignored. As of June 3, the US embassy owed Transport ...

Tue, 18 Aug 09
GM starts work on $43m Volt battery plant
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247901/gm-starts-work-43m-volt-battery
Business Green: General Motors last week became the first US auto manufacturer to begin work on its own electric car battery plant as it continues to lay the groundwork for next year's launch of its Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. The company announced that it is to invest $43m (Â£26m) to lease and renovate a new factory in Browntown, Michigan that will be dedicated to manufacturing Lithium-ion batteries for the Volt and future GM plug-in hybrids. Installation of new equipment at the site is already ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
'Cash For Clunkers' Program Is Expensive Way To Cut Carbon Emissions, Expert Argues
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090814100109.htm
ScienceDaily: New UC Davis estimates say the federal government's "Cash for Clunkers" program is paying at least 10 times the "sticker price" to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. While carbon credits are projected to sell in the U.S. for about $28 per ton (today's price in Europe was $20), even the best-case calculation of the cost of the clunkers rebate is $237 per ton, said UC Davis transportation economist Christopher Knittel. "When burned, a gallon of gasoline ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
China: Air Pollution Changes Rainfall Patterns
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/world/asia/15web-briefs-China.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Air pollution in eastern China is altering rainfall patterns there, resulting in fewer days of light rain, American and Chinese researchers report in an article to be published Saturday. The researchers, who based their conclusions on mathematical models and rainfall data from scores of weather stations in the region, attributed the change to high levels of particulate pollution. It has long been known that particles in the atmosphere, including pollutants, encourage the formation of water ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
Ocean Temperatures Are Highest on Record
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/15/science/earth/15brfs-OCEANTEMPERA_BRF.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Average temperatures of waters at the oceans' surface in July were the highest ever recorded, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The agency said the average sea surface temperature was 1.06 degrees higher than the 20th-century average of 61.5 degrees. Though July was unusually cool in some areas, like the eastern United States, analysts at the NOAA Climate Data Center said the combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.03 degrees higher than the ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
UN climate talks: time, money in short supply
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jsi8zhEABZcOAJwUwdHk8i-rtCkw
Agence France-Presse: Developing countries will need billions to curb carbon pollution and cope with its consequences and who will foot the bill emerged as a major hurdle at UN climate talks that ended in Bonn on Friday. The five-day negotiating session made scant progress with only four months until the Copenhagen conference slated to deliver a planet-saving treaty, prompting the UN's climate chief to warn that time was running out. "If we continue at this rate we are not going to make it," Yvo de ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
Glacier is melting four times faster than decade ago
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/environment/display.var.2525564.0.Glacier_is_melting_four_times_faster_than_decade_ago.php
Herald: An antarctic glacier twice the size of Scotland is losing ice more quickly than it was a decade ago, scientists warned yesterday. Satellite records show the Pine Island Glacier in west Antarctica is thinning four times as quickly as it was 10 years ago. And researchers believe that if melting carries on accelerating at current rates, the main section of the glacier will have disappeared in 100 years - six times faster than was previously estimated by scientists. The ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
Giant glacier in Antarctic is melting four times faster than thought
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6797162.ece
Times: One of Antarctica's largest glaciers is thinning four times faster than thought ten years ago, it has been found. Satellite records show that if the melting of the Pine Island Glacier in west Antarctica goes on accelerating at current rates, the main section will have disappeared in 100 years, 500 years sooner than previously thought. The research showed that the ice surface is dropping at a rate of 16m a year.The faster melting affects 5,400sq km of the glacier, containing ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
China to start cutting carbon emissions in 2050: FT
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g9j6dHV4QCz9VPt8ECkOvU26zUHw
Agence France-Presse: China will start cutting its carbon emissions by 2050, its top climate change policymaker was quoted as saying in the Financial Times Saturday, the first time the nation has given a timeframe. "China?s emissions will not continue to rise beyond 2050," said Su Wei, director general of the National Development and Reform Commission's climate change department, according to the paper. China competes with the United States for the spot as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
Dire predictions for climate treaty
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1072846/Dire-predictions-for-climate-treaty
Special Broadcasting Service: United Nations talks tasked with delivering a planet-saving climate treaty by year's end will fail unless the pace picks up, the UN's top climate official said yesterday. Pacific islands seek low - cost storm protection Warming could exceed EU's "dangerous" threshold Add your comment "If we continue at this rate we are not going to make it," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said at the end of a five-day negotiating ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
Japan should reduce energy consumption to make it less vulnerable to global crises
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20090815p2a00m0na014000c.html
Mainichi Daily News: It may seem odd to take the opportunity on the anniversary of the end of World War II to insist that Japan should reduce energy consumption. However, it is indispensable for peace and safety in Japan. It is impossible to completely eradicate the threats posed by climate change, uncertainties in the demand and supply of energy and potential food crises. However, Japan can at least make itself less vulnerable to these threats by transforming itself into a society that relies less on ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
China won't start cutting emissions till 2050
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/08/15/1245c1e6162e
Radio New Zealand: China has for the first time given a timeframe for reducing its carbon emissions. The world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases says it will begin dropping emissions in 2050. The comments by top policy-maker Su Wei have been carried in the Financial Times newspaper, but they did not indicate at what level emissions would top out. At a G8 meeting in July, China and India resisted calls to agree to a 50% cut in global emissions by 2050. Mr Su has restated ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
Climate Change Behind Future Ravaging Fires
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=433111
Bernama: Wildfires will be more and more devastating in the future because of the climate change, mainly in the south of Europe and in other semiarid areas, Greenpeace Spain warned Saturday. "Forest fires are becoming more intense and out of control in Spain, in the rest of southern Europe and in other semiarid regions like California (United States) and Australia," Algerian news agency (APS) quoted Miguel Soto, the forest expert at the ecological organisation in Spain, as saying while ...

Sun, 16 Aug 09
India: Dry rivers if no steps taken to tackle climate change: PM
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/dry-rivers-if-no-steps-taken-to-tackle-climate-change-pm/70880/on
Press Trust of India: Glaciers will melt and rivers will go dry if timely steps are not taken to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today. Addressing the nation on its 63rd Independence Day, he said the climate change had become an issue of global concern in recent years and India wished to tackle it in partnership with other countries of the world. Declaring that the government was committed to deal with the challenge of climate change, Singh said a decision was taken to set ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Funding Disputes Slow UN Climate Negotiations
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1737769/funding_disputes_slow_un_climate_negotiations/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: The issue of who will provide funding to assist developing nations in reducing carbon emissions has emerged as a significant challenge during a five-day U.N. climate meeting concluding Friday in Bonn. The negotiations had many participants frustrated with the lack of progress just four months ahead of an upcoming U.N. conference in Copenhagen to agree upon a successor treaty to the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. Some say the best that can be expected from the December ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Climate talks risk failure unless they accelerate: U.N
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57926O20090814?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: U.N. talks on a new climate treaty due to be agreed in December risk failure unless negotiations accelerate, a senior U.N. official said on Friday after a sluggish week-long session involving 180 countries. Many nations also bemoaned scant progress at the Aug 10-14 talks that failed to break deadlocks on issues such as sharing out curbs on greenhouse gases among rich and poor, and raising funds to help developing nations cope with global warming. "If we continue at this rate ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Opencast coalmine surge 'weakens UK's authority at climate change talks'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/14/coal-energy
Guardian: Coal production in Britain has increased sharply after a surge in new opencast coal mines, undermining the government's claim to be a world leader on combating climate change. Dozens of opencast coal mines have been authorised by ministers and local councils across the UK, reversing a decade-long decline in coal production in Britain and often against intense local opposition. As a result, mining companies are now sitting on 71m tonnes of coal in licensed opencast mines, ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
UN climate change chief: "If we continue at this rate, we won't make it"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247886/un-climate-change-chief
Business Green: Yvo de Boer, the UN's top climate change official, has today closed the latest round of talks in Bonn with the stark warning that a deal will not be reached at the Copenhagen meeting this December unless the pace of negotiations increases significantly. Speaking at a press conference following the week-long talks, de Boer said that while some progress had been made to consolidate the 200-page negotiating text, "if we continue at this rate, we're not going to make it". Appearing ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Senate climate bill to include permit giveaways
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57D2UG20090814?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A climate control bill that Democratic leaders hope to move through the U.S. Senate will seek to give companies a substantial number of pollution permits, potentially worth billions of dollars, rather than sell them, an aide to a key Democratic senator said on Friday. There will be a "significant role" for allocations -- or free permits -- in the Senate bill, similar to the approach taken by the global warming legislation recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the aide ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
UN's climate chief warns of risk of failure at Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/14/bonn-climate-change-talks
Guardian: A new global treaty on climate change is unlikely unless negotiations accelerate, the UN's top climate change official warned today. Speaking at the close of another meeting intended to lay the ground for a new deal, Yvo de Boer, head of the UN climate secretariat said there was a real risk of failure. According to Reuters, he said: "If we continue at this rate we're not going to make it." De Boer said the week-long meeting in Bonn had made only "selective progress" towards trimming a ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Climate warming may have given Incas helping hand
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57D3LG20090814?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: A period of global warming contributed to the rise of the Inca empire, allowing it to increase food production by planting at higher altitudes on farmland irrigated with water from melting glaciers, a team of European and American scientists say. The rise of the Inca empire -- which was centered in what is now Peru and reached into present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia -- usually is attributed to sophisticated organization, a large labor force and a big army. But new ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Climate Activists Push the Limits
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0814-ryking_protest.html
Mongabay: As major polluters and industrial countries continually postpone commitments to reduce carbon emissions, climate change activists are stepping up their efforts. The increased direct and disobedient activism is a reflection of the growing frustration and disillusion with policy makers to confront climate change. A poll taken by the Guardian in April of 2009 reveals, "Almost nine out of 10 climate scientists do not believe political efforts to restrict global warming to 2C will ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Oil lobby to fund phoney campaign against US climate change strategy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/14/us-lobbying
Guardian: The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama's climate change strategy, according to campaigners. A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 ''energy citizen'' rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace, Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a "sensitive" plan to stage events during the ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
The Tipping Point in Civilizational Collapse
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0814-ryking_collapse.html
Mongabay: Just as biological systems exhibit tipping points which once passed catalyze irreversible and often unpredictable patterns of change, so do civilizations and social structures. In past civilizational collapses, these tipping points were generally catalyzed by soil depletion, resource shortages, environmental degradation, and social upheaval. The Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown identifies many global factors which may be pushing industrial civilization beyond a tipping point of ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Gloomy Negotiators End Bonn Climate Talks
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/08/14/14greenwire-gloomy-negotiators-end-bonn-climate-talks-90249.html
Greenwire: The latest round of preparatory talks for the U.N. climate conference concluded today with negotiators lamenting that the languid pace of talks could mean there won't be a deal on emissions in Copenhagen this December. "It would be incomprehensible if this opportunity were lost," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. For any hope of a deal, he said, "the speed of the negotiations must be considerably accelerated at the [next] meeting ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
UN chief warns the world 'will not make it' to agreement on climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6030718/UN-chief-warns-the-world-will-not-make-it-to-agreement-on-climate-change.html
Telegraph: More than 90 countries are due to meet in Copenhagen at the end of the year to decide a new agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. However Mr Boer, head of the UN climate change secretariat, said only "selective progress" had been made at the latest round of negotiations in Bonn. A deal would most likely see richer countries reduce carbon emissions while poorer countries are given more help to switch to a green economy. "If we continue at this rate we are not going to make ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Vulnerable states team up for tougher climate pact
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57D41F20090814?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The world's poorest nations joined small island states on Friday to urge far tougher global goals for fighting climate change, saying their people were at risk from everything from droughts to rising sea levels. The two groups, representing some 80 nations, formed a joint bloc to push for a goal of limiting world temperature rises to as far below 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) as possible as part of a new climate treaty due to be agreed in December in Copenhagen. "Climate change ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Australian Senate Kills Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2009/2009-08-14-02.asp
Environment News Service: The Australian Senate Thursday defeated the Rudd Government's attempt to limit climate change with a carbon emissions trading scheme and 10 related bills. Green Party members voted down the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme because they said it was too easy on polluters. The Green Party crowed in a statement, "The CPRS bill, which was a prescription for failure in tackling climate change and included $16 billion compensation for polluters, has been rejected by the ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Chronic exposure to polluted air hard on the lungs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090814/hl_nm/us_polluted_air
Reuters: Chronic exposure to outdoor air pollution seems to reduce lung function in otherwise healthy adults, a study suggests. "We know that very high levels of air pollution (such as those in the smogs of the 1950s) harm health, but until now the evidence that lower levels reduce lung function over the long term has been scanty because it requires such complex analysis," Dr. Lindsay J. L. Forbes, of the University of London, UK, told Reuters Health. Using survey data on a cross ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
At risk from rising seas, Tuvalu seeks clean power
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57D4AC20090814?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The Pacific island state of Tuvalu set a goal on Sunday of a 100 percent shift to renewable energy by 2020, hoping to set an example to industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gases it blames for rising sea levels. Tuvalu, a string of coral atolls whose highest point is 4.5 meters (15 ft) above sea level, estimates it would cost just over $20 million to generate all electricity for its 12,000 people from solar and wind power and end dependence on diesel. "We look forward to ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Vilsack calls for renewed emphasis on forests
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_on_re_us/us_vilsack_forests
Associated Press: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday outlined a vision for managing the nation's forests that placed a high priority on restoration to protect water resources and combat climate change. "Conserving our forests is not a luxury," but a necessity, the former Iowa governor said at Seward Park in Seattle in his first major address on the Forest Service. Vilsack stressed the importance of forests and rural lands in supplying much of America's clean drinking water, ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Beijing sets date for emissions cut
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d11ae554-88fd-11de-b50f-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1
Financial Times: China's carbon emissions will start falling by 2050, its top climate change policymaker said, the first time the world's largest emitter has given such a time-frame. Whether China will agree to some kind of cap on its emissions is a critical question ahead of global climate change talks in December in Copenhagen. Beijing argues, as do most developing countries, that developed nations should take responsibility for cutting emissions first, since global warming originated with their ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Toyota planning to push Prius into China
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247834/toyota-planning-prius-push
Business Green: Toyota is to start selling its third-generation Prius hybrid cars in China next year, company executives said this week. The car could go on sale as early as March, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The previous version of Toyota's hybrid fuel-efficient vehicle went on sale in China in 2005 though sales since have been disappointing with only 550 sold last year, in part because of the high price tag due to import taxes. The first third-generation Toyota Prius ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
China says rich up pressure on poor over climate
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20090813/tsc-environment-us-climate-011ccfa.html
Reuters: China accused rich nations at U.N. climate talks on Thursday of increasing pressure on the poor to do more to combat global warming while shirking their own responsibility to lead. Skip related content "There has been a general feeling of unhappiness about the level of efforts that (developed nations) say they will take," China's climate ambassador Yu Qingtai told Reuters on the sidelines of August 10-14 climate talks in Bonn. "What is even more worrying is a continuation and ...

Sat, 15 Aug 09
Australia: Ruthless Rudd sets Turnbull's clock ticking
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25925628-7583,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has set the political clock ticking once more on Malcolm Turnbull over climate change and the emissions trading scheme. With the Senate's rejection yesterday of Labor's carbon pollution reduction scheme, there isnow a three-month deadline -- until the second week in November -- for the Coalition to determine its revised position on an emissions trading scheme. While the Prime Minister has been acting from a ruthless position of political strength and policy unity in ...

Fri, 14 Aug 09
China signals long-term plans to curb greenhouse gases
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57C05L20090813?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: China will make "controlling greenhouse gas emissions" an important part of its development plans, the government said, as pressure on the world's top emitter grows ahead of global talks on tackling climate change. The broad intentions set down in a report from a cabinet meeting on Wednesday were made public as Beijing proceeds with negotiations seeking a new global pact to fight climate change. The meeting, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, bluntly said global warming threatened ...

Fri, 14 Aug 09
Australian parliament rejects carbon emission scheme
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57B62720090813?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Australia's parliament rejected a plan for the world's most ambitious emissions trade regime as expected on Thursday, bringing the nation closer to a snap election and prolonging financial uncertainty for major emitters. Conservative lawmakers holding the largest block of votes in the Senate joined with Greens and independents to defeat the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme set to start in July, 2011 and aimed at reducing emissions in the biggest per-capita emitter in the developed ...

Fri, 14 Aug 09
Australia emissions plan rejected
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8198690.stm
BBC: The Australian parliament has rejected government plans to introduce an ambitious carbon trading scheme to tackle global warming. The measure was the centrepiece of the government's environment plans, and would have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% over the next 10 years. But opposition senators who control the upper house feared the legislation would harm the country's mining sector. The government can re-introduce the legislation after three months. Climate ...

Fri, 14 Aug 09
India's water use 'unsustainable'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8197287.stm
BBC: Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites. The Grace mission discovered that in the country's north-west - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year. Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming. The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water ...

Fri, 14 Aug 09
Australian Senate Rejects Rudd's Cap and Trade Emissions Plan
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fnews%3Fpid%3D20601081%26sid%3DaHo_TW08Y3to&usg=AFQjCNG7cxje2p5Yxz2A36rVWou8eirAoA
Bloomberg: Australia's Senate rejected the government's climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to amend the bill or call an early election. Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade. Rudd, who needs support from seven senators outside ...

Fri, 14 Aug 09
Exclusive: Rainforest Nations hopeful over Copenhagen deal
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247764/rainforest-nations-hopeful
Business Green: The stand-off over emission reduction targets may remain stuck in deadlock, but UN climate change talks in Bonn this week are delivering progress towards a deal on how best to halt tropical deforestation. Speaking to BusinessGreen.com, Federica Bietta, deputy director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN), said that talks to condense the 20 pages of draft negotiating text that cover the so-called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Selling Americans on a 'Green-Collar' Economy
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/10/AR2009081002676.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Washington Post: Van Jones may have one of the hottest assignments in the Obama administration -- selling the notion of a new "green-collar" economy -- but in a country burdened with a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, it's not easy. How do you tell an unemployed construction worker that it's time to start thinking about installing solar panels instead of aluminum siding? "I think some of these ideas are complicated for people when they first hear them," said Jones, senior green jobs adviser to the White ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
United States: Hoosier Senators Feeling Heat, May Be Hard Sell on Climate
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/08/11/11climatewire-hoosier-senators-feeling-heat-may-be-hard-se-92096.html
Climatewire: Indiana's two U.S. senators are considered critical fence sitters on major climate legislation moving through Congress. But should they be? In interviews last week, Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.) and his Democratic colleague Evan Bayh (Ind.) expressed serious concerns about a mandatory cap on greenhouse gases, with unease about China, the economy and state utilities prevalent in their minds. Both did not rule out eventually voting for a bill, but each voiced the need for ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
The end of the 'cheap food' era
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1070857/The-end-of-the-%27cheap-food%27-era
Special Broadcasting Service: Scientists say food production is heading for big trouble, as global warming makes farming more difficult, and a worldwide population explosion increases demand. For decades, people in wealthy nations have become used to shopping in supermarkets brimming with huge amounts of food - but the days of such plentiful supply could be numbered. Experts say climate change - leading to wild weather and more droughts - and increasing demand because of population growth will all impact on ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Australia: A carbon tax makes sense
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/A-carbon-tax-makes-sense-pd20090811-UT5JD?OpenDocument
Business Spectator: In a well-timed piece of publishing, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) has released a 150-page commentary this week on other options for delivering carbon price signals, transparency for consumers and certainty for investors in national policy. (By way of disclosure, I have been involved with CEDA as a trustee going back to the early 1980s and think highly of it as a non-partisan marketplace for issues debate.) In the new commentary, CEDA has ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
U.S. plans roadless forests guideline
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13033924
Denver Post: Swinging through Colorado to promote legislation aimed at adapting to climate change, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared Monday that there will be a national plan for managing roadless forests. But he stopped short of squelching Colorado's efforts to develop its own plan, lauding Gov. Bill Ritter's efforts to build consensus. "You obviously want input. You obviously want a national roadless rule that has as much broad-based support as possible," Vilsack said, ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
United Kingdom: A farming revolution is needed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/6008480/A-farming-revolution-is-needed.html
Telegraph: The key issues of food production divide the present Labour government just as they divided the last Tory one, and -- who knows -- they may well divide the next. Do we feed ourselves or do we allow others to do so? Do we need farmers or do we assume that we are rich enough to buy on open markets? Is the priority to keep food cheap or to lower its carbon footprint and the cost of diet-related health care? Are consumers modern gods, or should they have their choices restricted before ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Australia: Kevin Rudd exploits Coalition's emissions trading 'disunity'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25915387-5013871,00.html
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has accused the Coalition of trying to buy time over the emissions trading scheme. The Coalition will vote against the Government's ETS in the Senate this week but it is no closer to finalising an alternative policy position of its own. This is despite a briefing at the start of a marathon meeting of the joint partyroom today on Frontier Economics modelling of an alternative ETS proposal and its big bang release by Malcolm Turnbull yesterday. The Frontier ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
UN chief warns of dire future without climate deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSSEO349082
Reuters: Failure to act quickly on climate change could eventually lead to violence and mass unrest as global weather patterns drastically change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. "If we fail to act, climate change will intensify droughts, floods and other natural disasters," Ban said at a forum near Seoul that came weeks ahead of his own conference on climate change in September. "Water shortages will affect hundreds of millions of people. Malnutrition will engulf ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Trading Emissions' carbon credit portfolio shrinks
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINLB63269020090811
Reuters: Trading Emissions Plc (TREM.L: Quote, Profile, Research), a British company specialising in renewable energy projects and emissions instruments, said its risk-adjusted carbon credit portfolio had dropped due to project delays and revaluations. In a trading update on Tuesday the company said its risk-adjusted carbon credits -- a key measure which represents how many carbon dioxide reductions the company plans to make -- fell by 3.682 million tonnes between March 27 and Aug. ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Australia: Prime Minister Rudd uses blackout to his advantage in climate change debate
http://livenews.com.au/news/prime-minister-rudd-uses-blackout-to-his-advantage-in-climate-change-debate/2009/8/11/215846
LIVENEWS.com.au: Climate change continues to dominate debate in Parliament, with the Prime Minister even using a blackout to further his attack on the opposition. The opposition came out firing with Liberal frontbenchers asking a barrage of questions of the Prime Minister demanding he explain why he wouldn't consider a proposal to cut pollution emissions while saving money. Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull told Parliament about research which shows an alternative emissions trading scheme ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
India says developing world not split in climate talks
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-41681920090811
Reuters: Bilateral climate agreements are no solution to fighting global warming and could trigger unwelcome competitive pressures, India's top climate change negotiator said on Tuesday. The United States and China last month signed a memorandum of understanding that promised more cooperation on climate change while India and the United States also agreed last month to set up a strategic dialogue, with climate change as a component. But some analysts fear Washington could be trying to ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Brazil's environment minister Minc to step down
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0810-minc.html
Mongabay: Brazil's environment minister Carlos Minc will step down in March to run for deputy in the Rio de Janeiro state legislature in general elections next October, reports Reuters. Brazilian law requires a public official seeking office to step down six months before an election. Minc has publicly clashed with development interests over environmental laws in the Amazon rainforest. Since taking over the position vacated by former rubber tapper Marina Silva in May 2008, Minc has ...

Wed, 12 Aug 09
Leaders pledge to fight climate change, flu
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g7V5dmZ-TFK6E9BkZ9EereFdnD1wD9A0530G2
Associated Press: North American leaders say they will work together to fight swine flu and climate change. In a joint statement, U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper say they will work to promote global competitiveness in the region. Obama made a quick stop to meet with the leaders of Mexico and Canada. The leaders say they are committed to fighting a swine flu epidemic that started in Mexico. The trio also calls ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Ethanol industry wants US cars alt-fuel ready
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5790RT20090810
Reuters: The ethanol industry called for requirements that all vehicles sold in the United States accept the renewable gasoline substitute as part of a push to slow global warming and provide jobs at home. A low-carbon fuel standard, which would spur use of alternative fuels, more ethanol pumping stations and construction of biofuel pipelines would also help wean the country from gasoline, Growth Energy, the ethanol industry trade group said in a "biofuels roadmap" ahead of a renewable energy ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
A 'no coal' campaign in China
http://english.cctv.com/20090810/103952.shtml
China Daily: On a hot, humid day in Beijing, the environmental group Greenpeace released a report challenging China's largest power-generation plants. In front of a coal-fired power plant, campaigners and volunteers stood at the dry riverbed of Yongding River on the western outskirts of the capital. They held a huge banner with a symbol for "No Coal". The country's top power companies are being asked to help move China away from coal and to cut carbon dioxide emissions by ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
UN delegates continue battle over climate commitments
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4553451,00.html
Deutsche Welle: Delegates are meeting in Bonn for the latest round of climate talks in the lead-up to a major conference in Copenhagen in December. However environmentalists warn that previous climate commitments are way off the mark. Delegations from 192 countries are meeting in Bonn to continue negotiations towards a global climate deal, which is to be finalised at a much-anticipated UN meeting in Copenhagen in December. At the recent G-8 summit in the earthquake-devastated Italian town of ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Electric car future may power a charging industry
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN3019860320090810
Reuters: As makers from Tesla to Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) jockey to dominate the next generation electric-powered cars, a fight on which companies will control the lucrative market to fuel them is just getting started. U.S. President Barack Obama aims to put a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 as part of the new U.S. effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming. Cars are sexier than gas pumps or charging stations, but as the history of the oil industry ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Australia opposition proposes rival carbon scheme
http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINTRE5790QQ20090810
Reuters: Australia's opposition rolled out what it said was a cheaper and greener plan to cut carbon emissions on Monday, just days before it was expected to vote down the government's stalled carbon trade legislation. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong dismissed the scheme as a "mongrel" offshoot of a failed Canadian plan, and said the government was determined to pass its own emissions trading scheme (ETS), which is being watched around the world in the lead up to December's global climate ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Global Warming Jeopardizes World's Most Diverse Marine Ecosystem
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2009/2009-08-10-01.asp
Environment News Service: Global Warming Jeopardizes World's Most Diverse Marine Ecosystem Environment News Service (ENS) Global Warming Jeopardizes World's Most Diverse Marine Ecosystem WASHINGTON, DC, August 10, 2009 (ENS) - The Verde Island Passage, a narrow corridor of tropical waters in the Philippines that is considered the most diverse marine ecosystem in the world, is at risk of climate change and needs immediate protective action, scientists are warning. The scientists gathered last ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
UN chief says climate change biggest challenge
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iD-Q9xM8KDYJ5QsdbxchAkGCMtgQD99VTG300
Associated Press: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that climate change is the greatest challenge facing a world beset by crises and called on governments to reach a deal on the environment at a meeting in Denmark later this year. Ban said the world has "less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet." "It is, simply, the greatest collective challenge we face as a human family," Ban ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Australia: Wong savages 'mongrel' carbon plan
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/10/2651679.htm?section=business
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Government and Opposition are still at loggerheads over an emissions trading scheme despite the release of Coalition modelling today proposing changes that could make it cheaper and greener. And the Greens have also criticised the changes put forward, accusing the Opposition of "cobbling together" an alternative scheme. The Government has dismissed a report released by the Coalition and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon which has proposed several changes to the ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
India says to roll out solar power plan by Dec
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-41648220090810
Reuters: India will roll out a 20 gigawatt solar power plan by the end of December, the country's renewable energy secretary said on Monday. "We expect to be able to roll out the plan by the end of this calender year," Deepak Gupta said. "It is in the cabinet and should be okayed in the next couple of months."

Tue, 11 Aug 09
New Zealand sets greenhouse gas emissions target
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h8O5c5ZfgwgBBo_oHYcJhofLiokQD99VTVQO0
Associated Press: New Zealand announced on Monday that it will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the country's climate change minister said. The target, confirmed by the Cabinet, will be presented later Monday at an international climate change meeting in Bonn, Germany, Nick Smith said. The target was "a big ask" for New Zealand because gross emissions were already 24 percent above 1990 levels, Smith warned. "This target means we're going to ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
New Zealand sets 10-20 pct CO2 cut target by 2020
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP418333
Reuters: New Zealand set itself a goal on Monday to cut carbon emissions by between 10 and 20 percent by 2020, holding off setting a hard target until a broader global climate pact now under negotiation takes shape. Business groups said it was a sensible range -- broadly in line with major emitters like Japan and the United States, as well as neighbouring Australia -- but environmentalists said it was not tough enough to tackle climate change. While New Zealand's emissions comprise less ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
India Likely to Invest 1 Trillion Rupees in Renewable Energy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124989578272318973.html
Wall Street Journal: India expects 1 trillion rupees ($21 billion) of investments over a five-year period ending March 2012 for renewable-power generation, the chairman of Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. said Monday. "An investment of 150 billion rupees has already been made in the first two years of the five-year plan period that runs from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2012," Debashish Majumdar told reporters. India plans to add 14.5 gigawatts of capacity to generate renewable power ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Third round of UN climate talks opens in Bonn
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/10/content_11858254.htm
Xinhua: The third session of UN climate talks opened in Bonn on Monday, focusing on the negotiating text that was drafted at the second round of UN climate talks. "We are at an exciting point in the negotiations which can lead us to the turning point in the fight against climate change at Copenhagen," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). "At the UNFCCC Bonn session in June, the negotiating text was enriched and expanded. At ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Himalayas rich habitat in danger
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25910376-5012747,00.html
Herald Sun: A FLYING frog, the world's smallest deer and the first new monkey to be found in more than a century are among 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade, the WWF says. But the environmental group said the vital habitats of the mountain range were facing growing pressures from unsustainable development in the region, which spans Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Burma. In a report released in Kathmandu today, it said climate change, deforestation, ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Climate-Change Cooperation Goes Global
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/07/climate-cap-trade-business-oxford.html
Forbes: As the climate change summit planned for December in Copenhagen draws nearer, grander and grander emission goals and reduction targets are floated in the press. Nevertheless, crucial details are mostly missing and will be fiercely debated given the nature of the problem at hand. Cap, trade and protect? Different policy instruments can be used to deal with climate change. Prominent among these are carbon taxes, direct regulation and a cap-and-trade system, whereby emission permits are ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
Possible outcomes for Australian carbon trade laws
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5791AP20090810
Reuters: Australia's carbon trading laws are set to be defeated in the Senate this week, with conservatives, Greens and two independent lawmakers in rare agreement to oppose it. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government needs seven more votes to pass the 11 bills through the Senate. If the laws are rejected twice, Rudd could call a snap election. Here are some possible outcomes for the government. HOLD FIRM, SET UP ELECTION TRIGGER (Likely) If the government forces a vote in ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
World's poorest women will bear brunt of climate change
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=336033
Dispatch: PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has identified climate change and its impact on women as a critical area of concern. "Natural disasters affect women directly and severely because of their social roles and the impacts of poverty. When there are floods, cyclones, or drought, women bear the brunt," he said recently. In December this year, leaders from around the world will gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a new global climate deal. If a fair and effective deal is not reached, the poorest ...

Tue, 11 Aug 09
eSolar flicks switch on first US solar tower
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247544/esolar-flicks-switch-first
Business Green: The US solar industry ticked off a major milestone last week with the unveiling of the country's first solar thermal tower in southern California. The 5MW Sierra SunTower solar plant features 24,000 mirrors that have been positioned to concentrate the sun's rays on two 160-foot towers containing water that is then turned into steam to drive turbines. The resulting energy is expected to provide power for more than 4,000 homes in California's Antelope Valley. The plant has been ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Digging for victory: Britain's food revolution
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-and-home/gardening/digging-for-victory-britains-food-revolution-1769697.html
Independent: Britain is to commit itself to a massive increase in domestic food production to feed the population in the next 40 years, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. The UK will announce tomorrow that it intends to "play a full part" in meeting a United Nations target of raising food production by 70 per cent by 2050. The surge in homegrown crops and meat -- which has echoes of the Dig for Victory campaign of the Second World War -- is needed to cope with rising global population levels ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Sir Richard Branson raises $400m in funds for renewable energy venture
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sir-richard-branson-raises-400m-in-funds-for-renewable-energy-venture-1769389.html
Independent: Billionaire Richard Branson is set to defy the downturn by completing the $400m (Â£240m) fundraising for his energy venture in renewables within two months. The Virgin Green Fund, based in London and San Francisco, will be one of the few private-equity style funds to raise its target amount this year when it reaches its final close in September. The fund ploughs $5m-$100m into growing renewable energy sectors such as biomass and solar power in the US and western Europe. Several ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Seabirds Could Be Wiped Out, Says RSPB
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/RSPB-Says-Seabird-Population-Is-Under-Threat-Of-Being-Wiped-Out-Because-Of-Climate-Change/Article/200908215357093
Sky News: The UK's seabird population could be all but wiped out unless new marine legislation is toughened up, according to the RSPB. The Kittiwake population has been hit hard by climate change 600,000 birds have died in the last decade and some breeds have vanished from our coasts, the charity said. The plummeting numbers are the most dramatic evidence of climate change on wildlife in the UK. The vast Fowlsheugh reserve in Scotland has lost 30% of its birds since ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Australia: Penny Wong says Greens rejection of ETS aimed at double dissolution
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25904749-2702,00.html
AAP: CLIMATE Change Minister Penny Wong has accused the Greens of rejecting the federal government's emissions trading scheme (ETS) to improve their prospects at a possible double dissolution election. Greens deputy leader Christine Milne says the minor party would pick up Senate seats if Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called a double dissolution election on climate change. "If they chose to go to an election on climate change, I think the Australian community would surprise the ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Climate change to challenge US military: report
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iw2v2ZcAYL-sTGq-tViuYBaskbjQ
Agence France-Presse: Climate change will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, The New York Times reported. Citing military and intelligence analysts, the newspaper said climate-induced crises could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions. Analysts, experts at the Pentagon and intelligence agencies ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Australian Carbon Emissions Will Increase, Wong Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aun.WtTEjilE
Bloomberg: Australia's government said the nation's greenhouse gas emissions will continue to increase unless its proposed trading system aimed at reducing them is adopted. By 2020, emissions will grow to 120 percent of the 2000 level without a carbon pollution reduction plan, Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. television, citing a report released today. Australian lawmakers will this week vote in the upper house on the government's Carbon ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Pollution to rise without action: report
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/pollution-to-rise-without-action-report-20090809-ee0o.html
AAP: Carbon pollution in Australia will rise by 20 per cent if an emissions trading scheme is not introduced, a government report says. Greenhouse gases rose by an average of 1.6 per cent annually between September 1998 and March 2009, the Department of Climate Change report, released on Sunday, said. Without an emissions trading scheme, emissions would rise by 20 per cent above 2000 levels by 2020. The Senate is almost certain to vote down the government's plan for emissions ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Australia: Pressure mounts on coalition to back ETS
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/pressure-mounts-on-coalition-to-back-ets-20090809-edwo.html
AAP: The coalition has come under fresh pressure to back away from opposition to the Rudd government's plan for emissions trading just days before the Senate appears certain to reject Labor legislation. A coalition of welfare, union and environmental groups want Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull to follow the line of other conservative parties around the world. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, a conservative, said last week that nations needed to set up emissions trading ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Pacific nations say cut emissions 45% by 2020
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/806/41483
Green Left Weekly: Seven of the lowest-lying pacific nations have called for global emissions cuts of 45% by 2020 to save their homelands from rising sea levels caused by global warming. The call was made on August 5 in the lead-up to the Pacific Island Forum, held in Cairns. The nations urged Australia to do more to cut greenhouse gas emissions. AAP said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told forum delegates: "Pacific island nations are among the least responsible for the causes of climate change, but ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Report: Climate Change Could Warrant US Military Action
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/09/report-climate-change-warrant-military-action/
FOX News: Climate change will pose profound challenges to the United States in the coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with its effects, The New York Times reported, citing military and intelligence analysts. Crises such as drought, violent storms, mass migration and pandemics could topple governments, feed terrorist movements or destabilize entire regions. The Times reported that for the first time, intelligence agencies and the Pentagon are taking a ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
India: Climate change disaster impending, warns Kakodkar
http://www.ptinews.com/news/220323_Climate-change-disaster-impending--warns-Kakodkar
Press Trust of India: To pay for the air you breathe? Well, Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission Anil Kakodkar believes it is a possibility in the not too distant future. "The rapidly depleting Earth resources, the impending climate change disaster and such other phenomenon would soon lead to a shift in terms of things that we take for granted as a free gift of nature," he said. "The day is not far off when they, water, air and so on will get priced," Kakodkar, also Secretary in the Department of ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
Wish you weren't here: The devastating effects of the new colonialists
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/wish-you-werent-here-the-devastating-effects-of-the-new-colonialists-1767725.html
Independent (UK): Thousand of protesters took to the streets, waving the orange flags of the opposition. Before long, looting began. Buildings were set on fire. But the turning point came when a crowd moved from the main square towards the presidential palace. Amid the confusion, someone panicked and gave the order to the troops guarding the palace to open fire. Scores died. The leaders of the army decided they'd had enough and stormed the palace, causing the president to flee. A typical African coup ...

Mon, 10 Aug 09
A Missed Opportunity on Climate Change
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/business/economy/09view.html?_r=5
New York Times: DURING the presidential campaign of 2008, Barack Obama distinguished himself on the economics of climate change, speaking far more sensibly about the issue than most of his rivals. Unfortunately, now that he is president, Mr. Obama may sign a climate bill that falls far short of his aspirations. Indeed, the legislation making its way to his desk could well be worse than nothing at all. Let's start with the basics. The essential problem of climate change, scientists tell us, is that ...

Sun, 9 Aug 09
Doing the 'clunker' calculus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/business/08clunker.html?_r=5
New York Times: THE "cash for clunkers" program will be back in full swing this weekend after President Obama signed a program extension on Friday. The $2 billion infusion should help dealers sell thousands of cars to customers who can reap a bounty of $3,500 to $4,500 for trading in an old vehicle. The short-term effect will be obvious, but the program's longer-term value – either as a method of stimulating the economy or saving energy – is less clear. Economists say that most buyers simply moved up ...

Sun, 9 Aug 09
Green suasion or mind control?
http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/678162
Toronto Star: We know climate change is going to be really, really bad for us and the planet. So why do we still drive to the corner store, buy a house in the suburbs and fly to Bermuda for a weekend getaway? Settle into a couch. The answer is in our minds. And the solution is often in the message. "If you want to make a change, you have to know your audience," says Janet Swim, a Pennsylvania State University professor of psychology who was in town yesterday to give a lecture at the annual ...

Sun, 9 Aug 09
Oil spill tarnishes French nature reserve
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090808/sc_afp/franceenvironmentoilindustryspill
Agence France-Presse: Experts on Sunday will begin taking stock of the impact of an oil spill from a pipeline that runs through a nature reserve in the south of France, officials said Saturday. Some 4,000 cubic metres of crude oil spilled from the pipeline that runs from Fos-sur-Mer, northwest of the French Mediterranean port of Marseille, to Karlsruhe, Germany via the Coussoulis de Crau reserve. Efforts to clean up the oil were completed on Saturday, but the Societe du Pipeline Sud-Europeen said a ...

Sun, 9 Aug 09
Mountain Critter A Candidate For Endangered List
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111583873&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: The American pika could become the first animal in the continental U.S. listed under the Endangered Species Act because of climate change. The cute relative of the rabbit lives in the mountain West, and researchers say warmer temperatures put it at risk for extinction. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides to list the pika, that could prompt new restrictions on the activities that create greenhouse gases. Temperature Extremes Pikas, which look like 6-inch ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Panel gives mixed review to U.S. biofuel rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5765WQ20090807?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did a reasonable job in estimating the U.S. biofuel industry's role in causing greenhouse gas emissions overseas, but some of the work was problematic, a scientific review panel concluded on Friday. EPA ordered the independent review in May, when it proposed regulations for expansion of U.S. biofuel output. They would require biofuels to show an overall reduction in greenhouse gases, including land that may be converted to crops ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Extinction hits 'whole families'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8188166.stm
BBC: Whole "chunks of life" are lost in extinction events, as related species vanish together, say scientists. A study in the journal Science shows that extinctions tend to "cluster" on evolutionary lineages - wiping out species with a common ancestor. The finding is based on an examination of past extinctions, but could help current conservation efforts. Researchers say that this phenomenon can result in the loss of an entire branch of the "tree of life". The message ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Mongolia: Green grass of steppes falls victim to West's stampede for cashmere
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6788012.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Fly over Mongolia in summer and the steppes look as green as they must have done when Genghis Khan and his armies galloped across the land -- but the switch is startling as the flight crosses the border into China's Inner Mongolian region. The ground suddenly turns brown. The danger facing Mongolia is that its steppes may be transformed into a desert similar to the one eating away at neighbouring China. The culprit is the humble goat -- and the fascination of fashionistas for ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
UN climate change deal needs more sacrifices by West, John Prescott warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/08/copenhagen-kyoto-climate-change-talks
Guardian: Vital UN climate change talks in Copenhagen are likely to collapse unless rich nations agree a "social justice deal" built around equalising emissions per head in each country, according to the former deputy prime minister John Prescott. Speaking to the Guardian, Prescott admitted that the formula would require far greater sacrifices by rich nations, especially the US. Prescott, one of three politicians to broker the original UN climate change deal in December 1997, is to become ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
German Clunkers Get Second Life, Polluting in Foreign Lands
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/world/europe/08germany.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: When the German government developed its pioneering cash-for-clunkers program, it neglected one small detail: making sure the clunkers no longer clunked. Police investigators have concluded that the alluring premise of the program – providing generous incentives to people who replace aging, pollutant-spewing vehicles with environmentally friendly models – is being undermined as cars that were supposed to have been junked are finding their way to markets in Africa and Eastern ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Psychological Factors Help Explain Slow Reaction To Global Warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090807154404.htm
ScienceDaily: While most Americans think climate change is an important issue, they don't see it as an immediate threat, so getting people to "go green" requires policymakers, scientists and marketers to look at psychological barriers to change and what leads people to action, according to a task force of the American Psychological Association. Scientific evidence shows the main influences of climate change are behavioral -- population growth and energy consumption. "What is unique about current ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Some California Amphibians May Need a Lift to Survive Climate Change
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=california-amphibians-need-a-lift
Scientific American: As temperatures rise over the next century, three California amphibian species could be pushed to the cusp of extinction because the warming climate will effectively block their migration to more suitable habitats. Interventions by humans who physically relocate the animals may be the only way to help them survive. Managed relocation, or assisted migration, for climate change is a controversial topic because of the challenges of moving an endangered species and the potential harm it ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Tri-State Water Fight Spurs Questions On Growth
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111639702&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been bickering over water for nearly two decades. The focus: a reservoir at Lake Lanier, north of Atlanta. Georgia believes it deserves the water. Alabama and Florida say it is needed downstream. A federal judge recently ruled that Georgia doesn't have the right to take drinking water from the reservoir, but that is where 3.5 million Atlanta residents get their water. Now, some wonder whether the area can continue to grow without it. Some 35 ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Isle of Wight: occupation of Vestas wind turbine factory ends
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/5988852/Isle-of-Wight-occupation-of-Vestas-wind-turbine-factory-ends.html
Telegraph: The six men were greeted with cheers and applause by hundreds of supporters outside the plant in Newport on the Isle of Wight on Friday. One of the workers jumped 20 feet from a balcony before being led away by security guards, waving and smiling at the climate change activists and trade unionists. The factory's owner obtained a court order earlier this week and bailiffs gave the workers until noon on Friday to leave. The final six workers complied with the ultimatum, ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Sit-in at Vestas wind turbine factory ends
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/07/vestas-protest
Guardian: The sit-in at the Vestas wind turbine plant has ended after 18 days with bailiffs arriving to evict the six workers still barricaded in the building on the Isle of Wight. Two of the men abseiled from the balcony before the bailiffs arrived today, while another leapt into the bushes below to gasps and cheers from the crowd of several hundred supporters. Moments earlier, one of the men had described the progress of the officials through the offices. As they approached the ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Culling the gas hogs
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/opinion/07fri1.html?_r=5
New York Times: The "cash for clunkers" program seems to be doing its job: people flocked to dealerships to use the rebates and trade in their old vehicles for new, more efficient ones. Dealers estimate they sold nearly a quarter million cars under the plan, almost exhausting the program's $1 billion budget in about 10 days. The new cars achieved 10 miles per gallon more, on average, than the trade-ins. This was an encouraging sign that incentives can persuade drivers to ditch gas hogs for smaller ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Sit-in workers leave Vestas site
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/8189278.stm
BBC: Workers who have been staging a sit-in protest at a wind turbine blade factory on the Isle of Wight have left the building. Bailiffs entered the offices of Vestas in Newport at 1200 BST after the firm was granted a possession order. One man jumped from a balcony after the men barricaded themselves inside the office and two abseiled down a wall. The workers have occupied an office inside the plant since 20 July in protest at plans to axe 625 jobs. Bailiffs were ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Burning issues
http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14164491
Economist: THIS month Jennifer Balch will head into the Amazon rainforest of Mato Grosso state, in Brazil. She intends to set fire to it and find out what happens. When Dr Balch, who is based at Woods Hole Research Centre, in Massachusetts, and her 30 helpers have finished their weeklong task, 50 hectares will have been torched. "It's pretty darn exciting, and a bit crazy', she says, "to see a bunch of researchers running around burning down a forest.' The questions that prompt all this ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Long Debate Ended Over Cause, Demise Of Ice Ages? Research Into Earth's Wobble
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806141512.htm
ScienceDaily: Researchers have largely put to rest a long debate on the underlying mechanism that has caused periodic ice ages on Earth for the past 2.5 million years -- they are ultimately linked to slight shifts in solar radiation caused by predictable changes in Earth's rotation and axis. In a publication to be released Friday in the journal Science, researchers from Oregon State University and other institutions conclude that the known wobbles in Earth's rotation caused global ice levels to ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Climate Bill Is Threatened by Senators
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/us/politics/07climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Ten moderate Senate Democrats from states dependent on coal and manufacturing sent a letter to President Obama on Thursday saying they would not support any climate change bill that did not protect American industries from competition from countries that did not impose similar restraints on climate-altering gases. The letter warned that strong actions to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases would add to the cost of goods like steel, cement, paper and ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
China nuclear chief in graft probe: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090807/wl_asia_afp/chinacorruptionenergynuclear
Agence France-Presse: China's top nuclear power official is being investigated for allegedly squandering public funds and accepting bribes valued at up to 1.8 billion yuan (260 million dollars), state press said Friday. Authorities are probing the possibility that Kang Rixin took bribes from French nuclear power giant Areva to win a contract for a nuclear power project in southern China's Guangdong province, the Chongqing Times reported. Kang also allegedly traded large amounts of public funds ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
United Kingdom: The fast and the furious - why new rail link will be controversial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/06/london-birmingham-chilterns-rail-link
Guardian: The exact route for the new high-speed rail line from London to Birmingham is being planned in secret to within a few metres, officials behind the project have told the Guardian. Details of the controversial line, which would run from London through protected countryside in the Chilterns, will be made public in December, handing thousands of homeowners an unwelcome Christmas present. "We will meet our deadline and produce route alignment with options. In urban areas and pinch ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Full steam ahead for Australian coal gasification project
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247476/full-steam-ahead-australian
Business Green: Plans for Australia's first commercial coal gasification project have moved forward with an A$40m (US$33.6m) investment from South Korean conglomerate Samsung Corp. The funding completes the A$500m in total equity sought for the coal-to-fertiliser plant in Western Australia state by Perdaman Industries -- a Perth-based company headed by Indian industrialist Vikas Rambal, which is also investigating installing carbon capture technologies at the "clean coal" facility. Perdeman is ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
US report warns carbon price could hit $191 by 2030
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247480/report-warns-carbon-price-hit
Business Green: The price of a tonne of carbon under the proposed US cap-and-trade scheme could reach as high as $191 by 2030 if the country does not start employing large scale, cost-effective clean technologies and exploiting available international offsets. That is the conclusion of a draft report published this week by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which modelled six possible scenarios when evaluating the potential impact of climate legislation. The Bill, which was introduced by ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Vestas six face eviction by bailiffs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/07/vestas-protest-eviction
Guardian: A group of sacked workers barricaded inside the Vestas wind turbine factory are set to be evicted today. The six men inside the plant, outside Newport on the Isle of Wight, were warned yesterday that bailiffs would remove them if they had not left by noon today. The men have been holding out inside Britain's only major wind turbine factory for more than two weeks trying to prevent its closure. Climate campaigners are travelling to the island to join those who have been camped ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
United States: Crist may cancel summit on climate change
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/story/1175173.html
Miami Herald: Gov. Charlie Crist is cooling to global warming. Under mounting criticism from fellow Republicans, Crist looks ready to cancel his climate-change summit and is backing away from advocating a ``cap-and-trade'' energy policy. At his well-publicized climate summit last summer, Crist pushed a number of energy plans to encourage renewable energy development and establish a cap-and-trade market that would penalize fossil-fuel use. But Crist's plans were shredded by the ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Ecuador wants 'carbon bonds' to save forest
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1636
Carbon Positive: While the UN, World Bank and NGOs work away at creating a new international carbon payments mechanism to save the world's remaining rainforests, Ecuador has been trying a variation on theme – carbon bonds. The bonds would be issued over a government guarantee that oil won't be extracted from the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon and its forest and biodiversity preserved. The project would deliver a total of 407 million tonnes of emissions reduction savings, ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
More Accurate Weather Forecasts Coming Soon
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090806191938.htm
ScienceDaily: More accurate global weather forecasts and a better understanding of climate change are in prospect, thanks to a breakthrough by engineers at Queen's University Belfast's Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT). The ECIT team has developed a high performance electronic device -- known as a dual polarized Frequency Selective Surface filter -- that is to be used in future European Space Agency (ESA) missions. The filters will be installed in ...

Sat, 8 Aug 09
Peru to proceed with oil and gas auctions in the Amazon despite indigenous protests
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0807-peru.html
Mongabay: Despite violent protests by indigenous groups over plans to expand oil and gas exploration in the Peru's Amazon rainforest, energy investments in the South American country are expected to increase to $1.5 billion in both 2009 and 2010, reports Reuters. Daniel Saba, president of Perupetro, Peru's energy agency, told Reuters that the government will auction more than a dozen lots in October of November. Most of the 17 blocks are located in the country's Amazon region, 70 percent of ...

Fri, 7 Aug 09
US climate bill on uncertain Senate road
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1634
Carbon Positive: US climate policy has come along way in 2009 under an Obama White House and a Democrat-controlled Congress. But there is still a way to go before proactive, nationwide climate laws are in place in America and the US offers a substantive positive lead on efforts to secure a new international climate accord required in a few short months. A US cap-and-trade bill has passed the House of Representatives and is now being considered in the Senate. As such, its biggest obstacle still lies in ...

Fri, 7 Aug 09
Egypt: Polluters See Green in Carbon Market
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47981
Inter Press Service: Egypt's pollution problem is a potential goldmine of foreign revenue - if the country can tap into the lucrative international carbon trading market. A 130-billion dollar market for so-called carbon credits has grown out of the idea that when it comes to global climate control, where carbon dioxide comes from is less important than the total amount produced. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a component of the UN's global programme to address climate change, permits ...

Fri, 7 Aug 09
Report estimates Japan's carbon reduction policy will cost $515bn over 10 years
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247412/japan-carbon-reduction-policy
Business Green: Japan's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 will cost $515bn over the next decade, according to a government panel report released yesterday. In June, the nation set a target to cut emissions by 15 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. The largest outlay of the estimated $515bn lies in the $126bn needed to promote electric and other eco-friendly cars, according to the report from a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and ...

Fri, 7 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Environment Agency cracks down on organised crime in waste industry
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6740662.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Guns, ammunition, stashes of cash and luxury cars are being seized as environment authorities try to stop organised criminals muscling in on Britain's Â£9 billion waste industry, The Times can reveal. Investigations by the Environment Agency have found that gangs are illegally dumping, burying and burning commercial rubbish and setting up waste businesses as a legitimate front for illegal activities, including drug trafficking. The agency is examining 36 waste businesses across ...

Fri, 7 Aug 09
$2.4 Billion in Grants to Make Cars a Bit Greener
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/business/06battery.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Seeking to put the nation back in the lead on an important technology, the Obama administration awarded more than $2 billion in grants on Wednesday for manufacturing advanced batteries and other components for electric cars. The president and four members of his cabinet fanned out across the nation's industrial heartland, hit hard by the recession, to announce the grants, meant to help companies bolster large-scale manufacturing lines for modern batteries of the sort now mostly made ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Government unveils high-speed rail plan to ground short flights
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247289/government-unveils-speed-rail
Guardian: The government has made the demise of domestic air travel an explicit policy target for the first time by aiming to replace short-haul flights with a new 250mph high-speed rail network. The transport secretary, Lord Adonis, said switching 46 million domestic air passengers a year to a multibillion-pound north-south rail line was "manifestly in the public interest". Marking a government shift against aviation, Adonis added that rail journeys should be preferred to plane ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Obama stop to include climate change demonstration
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-obama-climatechan,0,2385938.story
Associated Press: Environmental activists are planning a demonstration in support of climate change legislation during President Barack Obama's Wednesday visit to northern Indiana. Members of the Hoosier Environmental Council and supporters will wear green hardhats and wave signs reading "Make our energy clean" when Obama visits a recreational vehicle plant in the Elkhart County town of Wakarusa. Their demonstration will come a day before Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to testify ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Australia: Climate change deal crucial for Pacific: Rudd
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hxdYYZ45EnE-sJLPO8OlHS6Oixwg
Agence France-Presse: Striking a new global deal to reduce the impact of climate change is crucial to the future of vulnerable Pacific island nations, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday. Rudd was speaking in the northeastern Australian city of Cairns at the opening of the Pacific Islands Forum summit of regional leaders, where climate change has emerged as a key issue. Leaders from Australia, New Zealand and 13 Pacific Island nations will also tackle the impact of the global ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Forgery scandal throws spotlight on anti-climate bill lobbying tactics
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247316/forged-letters-opposing-climate
Business Green: Lobbyists campaigning against US carbon legislation may be well used to accusations of underhand tactics, but it seems that one firm has now gone too far in its attempts to torpedo the climate bill working its way through the Senate, and is now facing Congressional investigation after admitting to forging letters arguing against the bill. According to reports, Washington-based lobbying firm Bonner & Associates sent at least 12 forged letters to House Representatives in the run-up ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Australia: Greenpeace coal activists arrested
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/846170/greenpeace-coal-activists-arrested
AAP: Four Greenpeace activists have been charged with unregulated high-risk activity after climbing onto a section of Australia's northernmost coal terminal. The Greenpeace vessel Esperanza on Tuesday stationed itself near the Xstrata Coal operated Abbot Point terminal, 25km north of Bowen in north Queensland. Activists then climbed onto a section of the terminal, which is undergoing an expansion to double its capacity, but were unable to unfurl a massive banner due to high ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
A Different Take on the U.S.-India Climate Change "Spat"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124944699955607103.html
Wall Street Journal: The battle lines between India and the U.S. on climate change seem to be clearly drawn ahead of December's key summit in Copenhagen that will try to craft a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Simply put, the U.S. wants India and others to agree to CO2 emissions caps if the process is to move forward. India is the stand-out developing country for refusing to accept caps, saying they may endanger development and the West is responsible for all that pollution anyway. Jairam Ramesh, ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Australia to help Pacific with climate change
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25887072-12377,00.html
AAP: PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has committed Australia to help Pacific island nations deal with the effects of climate change. Speaking at the 40th annual Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns today, Mr Rudd said Australia needed to help its Pacific neighbours incorporate climate change into national development strategies. Flanked by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Vanuatu Prime Minister Edward Natapei, Mr Rudd said Australia needed to take practical measures to help Pacific ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Small Pacific islands call for big carbon cuts
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hDFK72jdmHcrrft7EQOcdklRnc_wD99SHG700
Associated Press: Island nations are the least responsible for climate change but will bear the brunt of its ill effects, Australia's leader said Wednesday, as a group of small Pacific states called for a 45 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. The seven smallest island nations in the Pacific Islands Forum said deep cuts in emissions are vital as they seek to protect their low-lying countries from rising sea levels, which are eating away coastlines, polluting freshwater sources and killing ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Wind turbine protest draws to close
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/5972937/Wind-turbine-protest-draws-to-close.html
Telegraph: Danish turbine company Vestas, which owns the factory in Newport on the Isle of Wight, won a repossession order at Newport County Court. Last month 10 workers barricaded themselves inside in protest at the company's decision to close it, with the loss of up to 625 jobs. But almost half the protesters left the premises after Judge Graham White yesterday ruled bailiffs could move in to evict them, after saying he was satisfied that legal papers had been correctly ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
Brazil: Amazon deforestation speeds up
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/amazon-deforestation-speeds-up-20090805-e9rs.html
Agence France-Presse: Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest in June was four times more devastating than the month before, further depleting what is seen as one of the biggest buffers against global warming. Satellite imagery analysed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research showed 578 square kilometres of Amazon woodland was burnt or cut down. That was more than four times the devastation recorded in May and roughly equivalent to the size of Switzerland's Lake Geneva, or half the ...

Thu, 6 Aug 09
'Clunkers' rebates look likely for another month
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_J2CDMBIZhobnHhGIYFCzqvR52wD99SIU580
Associated Press: The Senate has cleared the way for a vote extending the "cash-for-clunkers" program, which offers car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 for trading in their gas-guzzlers for new, higher-mileage models, setting aside Republican opposition to the plan. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he had the votes to pass a $2 billion extension already approved by the House. The funding would triple the cost of $1 billion rebate program and give as many as a half-million more Americans ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Government 'set to miss its own emissions targets'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/government-set-to-miss-its-own-emissions-targets-1767361.html
Independent (UK): The Government is still producing 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and is not doing enough to meet its own targets on emissions, MPs will warn today. The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said the Government had cut emissions from its offices -- by far the biggest source -- by 6.3 per cent on 1999 levels -- just half of its target of a 12.5 per cent cut by 2010-11. The report welcomed improvements in some areas, such as government road vehicles, ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
US climate bill to raise energy costs: study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090805/ts_alt_afp/climateusenergypoliticscongress
Agence France-Presse: A key climate change bill now being considered by US Congress would only modestly raise annual energy costs for families, far less than some industry estimates, a federal study said. The bill for a typical household's energy costs would increase 83 dollars per year by 2030, or an average of 23 cents per day, according to the estimate by the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA said the bill "increases energy prices, but effects on electricity and ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
World Bank to buy carbon credit from Congo project
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57409I20090805?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: The World Bank said on Tuesday it will buy 500,000 tons of carbon credits from a forest project replanting about 4,120 hectares destroyed by deforestation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Replanting forests, which have been cut or burned, is central to the reduction in global greenhouse case emissions because they soak up vast amounts of carbon dioxide. The World Bank said it had signed an Emission Reductions Purchase Agreement with Congolese firm Novacel, the first of its ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Tesco accused of massaging plastic bag figures
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247278/tesco-accused-massaging-carrier
Business Green: Tesco has been accused of releasing figures which could give the misleading impression that it met an industry target to halve its use of plastic bags. Seven supermarket chains -- Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Co-op, Marks & Spencer, Somerfield and Waitrose -- signed an agreement last year committing them to reducing the number of bags by 50 per cent over the three years to May 2009. This month the supermarkets collectively reported, via figures released through recycling ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
United Kingdom: London mayor to review congestion charge exemptions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/04/congestion-charge-cars
Guardian:

Wed, 5 Aug 09
SAfrica: Rich nations must pay on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jxHqW44PnoWf47_7zwEufoyoferAD99S53H00
Associated Press: Developing countries won't consider the next round of climate change talks successful unless rich nations set aside money to help them address global warming, South African officials said Tuesday. The officials, who are expected to lead the African bloc at the negotiations, met to discuss strategy ahead of the December climate change talks in Copenhagen. They said at least 1 percent of global GDP should be set aside by rich nations. That money would help developing countries ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Activists occupy Australian coal terminal in climate stunt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090804/sc_afp/pacificforumdiplomacyclimateprotest
Agence France-Presse: Environmental activists said they occupied part of Australia's northernmost coal export terminal Tuesday in a stunt directed at a nearby meeting of Pacific island leaders on climate change. Greenpeace said a group of its protesters climbed atop Xstrata Coal's Abbot Point terminal, in northern Queensland state, to unfurl a banner calling for decisive action on emissions cuts. "Greenpeace activists have occupied Abbott Point coal export terminal in Queensland to demand ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Developed world must slash greenhouse gases: Pacific
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090804/sc_afp/pacificforumdiplomacyclimate
Agence France-Presse: Developed countries must slash their greenhouse gas emissions to ensure the survival of vulnerable island states, Pacific island leaders said Tuesday. Leaders of seven tiny Pacific island states met ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum summit starting Wednesday. They include some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, including the atoll archipelagos of Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, which include land just two to three metres (six to nine feet) above sea ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Fall in power demand 'unprecedented' says Drax
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/04/drax-electricity-demand-falls
Guardian: Electricity demand from British industry has fallen by an unprecedented 8% this year as factories have shut down in droves, power station operator Drax said today. Household demand has also declined – by 2% – but that was due to mild weather rather than economic reasons, the company's chief executive, Dorothy Thompson, said, as she unveiled half-year results. Overall demand for the power station's electricity fell by 6% in the first six months of 2009, compared with the same ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
India sets out ambitious solar power plan to be paid for by rich nations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/04/india-solar-power
Guardian: India has decided to push ahead with a vastly ambitious plan to tap the power of the sun to generate clean electricity, and after a meeting chaired by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, it wants rich nations to pay the bill. Although India has virtually no solar power now, the plan envisages the country generating 20GW from sunlight by 2020. Global solar capacity is predicted to be 27GW by then, according to the International Energy Agency, meaning India expects to be producing 75% ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Voyage to study plastic 'island'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8184397.stm
BBC: The second of two research ships bound for a huge "island" of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean leaves San Francisco today. Ocean currents have pushed the refuse together in an area estimated to be larger than the State of Texas. The expedition, named Project Kaisei, will study the impact of the waste on marine life. Ultimately the organisers hope to clear the plastic and recycle it for use as fuel and new products. Speaking from the quayside in San Francisco, ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
South Korea unveils CO2 target plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5734VW20090804?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: South Korea pledged for the first time on Tuesday to set a 2020 emissions reduction target, as the OECD's fastest-growing carbon polluter voluntarily joined richer nations in setting hard goals to roll back climate change. By committing itself to one of three options, all of which are relatively modest compared to the cut-backs pledged by developed economies, Seoul is establishing a precedent that might encourage much bigger emitters like China and India to agree to targets of their ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Amazon deforestation speeds up: Brazil space agency
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090804/sc_afp/environmentbrazilamazon
Agence France-Presse: Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest in June was four times more devastating than the month before, further depleting what is seen as one of the biggest buffers against global warming, official data revealed Tuesday. Satellite imagery analyzed by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research showed 578 square kilometers (223 square miles) of Amazon woodland was burned or cut down. That was more than four times the devastation recorded in May, and roughly equivalent to ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
US, China And Climate Change
http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2009-08-04-voa1.cfm
Voice of America: United States Special Envoy for Climate Change Issues Todd Stern told senior visiting Chinese government officials that under the administration of President Barack Obama, climate change has "risen to the top of the U.S. national security set of priorities." Speaking in a teleconference with U.S. officials July 27, after the first day of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Special Envoy Stern said that "this issue is of high importance to the President, the Secretary of ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
U.S. climate bill costs low for households: EIA
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090804/us_nm/us_climate_costs_eia
Reuters: The climate change bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would raise annual energy costs for U.S. households less than $150 in 10 years, significantly lower than some industry estimates, according to a draft report from the Energy Information Administration. The EIA's analysis of the House climate legislation says the average U.S. family would pay $142 more in energy expenses in 2020, and $583 more in 2030, if it were enacted. The projection from the EIA is in line ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Maldives: Q&A: 'We Do Not Want to See The Blame Game'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47958
Inter Press Service: Developing economies are vulnerable to climate change and need funds to implement much needed adaptation and mitigation measures. This is one of the key points that needs to be addressed during the next round of U.N.-led negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen, according to Mohamed Aslam, Maldives Minister of Housing, Transport and Environment. Government negotiators - meeting in Copenhagen Dec. 7-18 - are expected to argue over emissions targets. Industrialised countries like ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Kenya reaps the wind
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5735OR20090804?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: From a distance the highlands look like a giant fist resting on the landscape, a series of knuckles forming the peaks of the Ngong Hills. From the top of the escarpment Kenya's capital Nairobi spreads out to the east, the breathtaking Great Rift Valley to the west. Maasai herdsmen shepherd their cattle across the hilltop pastures, some dressed in traditional colorful red tartan-print blankets, beads round their necks, earlobes hung with heavy rings, a stick in one hand and leather ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Carbon Cuts Require Broad Array of Electricity Generating Technologies
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-climate-electric-power-alternative-energy-epri
Scientific American: The electric power industry can achieve deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by building new nuclear plants, sequestering coal-plant emissions, boosting wind energy and improving efficiency, the industry's top research group said yesterday. The Electric Power Research Institute's report on decarbonizing electricity generation said an "aggressive" push on new technologies could lower 2005-level carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 41 percent in ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Vestas wins court order to end sit-in
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247226/vestas-wins-sit-court-order
Business Green: The stand off between Vestas and staff staging a sit in at a factory on the Isle of Wight which the wind turbine manufacturer is to close appears to have entered its end game, after the company this morning secured a court order allowing it to evict the protestors. Around 20 employees have been staging a high profile sit in at the plant in Newport for the past two weeks, in protest at the closure of the facility and resulting loss of 600 jobs. The company had a previous ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
For Senate, a climate of competing interests
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/03/AR2009080302982.html
Washington Post: Environmentalists want a tighter cap on emissions. Electric utilities want a looser one. The nuclear industry wants loan guarantees for new reactors. The AARP wants low electric bills for seniors. Even God, apparently, wants something from the Senate's climate change bill. The National Religious Partnership for the Environment has pressed for billions to help poor people made worse off by climate change. The body of the bill hasn't been written, and the health-care debate is ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
CERs recover early 2009 losses
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1631
Carbon Positive: Prices for Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) are hovering around their highest levels this year after a recovery since mid-June. Rises have been greatest in the 2009 vintage of the UN carbon offsets amid question marks over short-term supply. In the secondary market, for the trading of issued CERs, the Dec 2009 futures price closed at EUR12.68 on the European Climate Exchange on August 3. Prices in this benchmark CER contract have risen almost 20 per cent since a low-point in ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Water crisis in parched northern China
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/214255/water-crisis-parched-northern-china
Agence France-Presse: The river has dried up, the well yields only dust, and Li Yunxi is hard pressed to irrigate his plot of land, even though he lives right next to the largest water project in history. The elderly farmer watches in despair as his corn crop wilts under the scorching northern China sun, knowing that a fresh, abundant stream is only a stone's throw away. "We ordinary people don't dare use that water," Li told AFP as he nodded toward the fenced-in canal, part of China's hugely ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Australia: Privatise urban water supplies: report
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/privatise-urban-water-supplies-report-20090804-e8be.html
AAP: Australia has been told to embrace privatisation, water trading and cost transparency if household tap supplies are to remain plentiful, affordable and safe well into the future. A new report has taken a close look at Australia's urban water system and recommended a range of reforms to safeguard supply. Based on the study's vision for the future, all water users one day will be able to choose from a wide range of suppliers, plucked out of a fully privatised sector. Water ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Earth's biogeochemical cycles, once in concert, falling out of sync
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/nsf-ebc072309.php
EurekAlert: Climate change, land-use patterns are culprits, scientists to report at Ecological Society of America conference What do the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone," global climate change, and acid rain have in common? They're all a result of human impacts to Earth's biology, chemistry and geology, and the natural cycles that involve all three. On August 4-5, 2009, scientists who study such cycles--biogeochemists--will convene at a special series of sessions at the Ecological Society of ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Sub-Arctic time bomb waits
http://lifestyle.iafrica.com/content_feed/telkom/1833781.htm
Agence France-Presse: Climate change is speeding up the release of carbon dioxide from frigid peatlands in the sub-Arctic, fuelling a vicious circle of global warming, according to a study to be published recently. An increase of just 1Â°C over current average temperatures would more than double the CO2 escaping from the peatlands. Northern peatlands contain one-third of the planet's soil-bound organic carbon, the equivalent of half of all the CO2 in the atmosphere. Peat is an accumulation of ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Gap Shrinks Carbon Footprint by 20 Percent
http://www.reuters.com/article/gwmCarbonEmissions/idUS86069247220090803
ClimateBiz: Gap Inc. shrunk its carbon footprint by 20 percent over the past five years through lighting retrofits, sourcing renewable energy and an energy management program that targets energy-intensive stores. Its performance helped the San Francisco-based company exceed the goal it set as a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders Program. Gap planned to reduce emissions by 11 percent between 2003 and 2008. The company has focused on its energy use as part ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Vestas protest spreads to second factory
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/04/vestas-cowes-protest
Guardian: Environmental activists staged a protest at a second wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight today as part of a campaign to save hundreds of jobs in the green energy sector. They occupied the roof of the Vestas factory in Cowes and vowed to stay there until workers sacked for their continuing sit-in at a plant in nearby Newport were reinstated. Three activists could be seen on the roof of the Cowes building, which faces the waterfront. A fourth protester appeared to be ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
White House pushes 'cash for clunkers' funding
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25762.html
Politico: Fearing an embarrassing public relations episode, the White House launched a behind-the-scenes offensive Monday to eliminate defections in the Senate over a last-minute cash infusion to save the cash-for-clunkers program. But Democratic leaders are hesitant; although they're willing to help the White House by approving more money for the program, they don't want their carefully planned pre-recess voting schedule to fall victim to procedural delays the Republicans may impose to protest ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Pacific warned climate change will make global economic crisis worse
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200908/2645776.htm?desktop
Radio Australia: The Pacific has been warned that the effects of the global economic crisis will be exacerbated by climate change. The Secretary General of the Pacific Forum, Tuiloma Neroni Slade told a conference in Brisbane that the Pacific's recovery from the economic crisis will be protracted and made more difficult by existing problems including climate change. Australia's Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong said the response to the global economic crisis in the Pacific must be ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Pacific Islands concerned over flow of climate change aid
http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/200908/2645841.htm?desktop
Radio Australia News: A group of Pacific island nations have expressed concerns that bureaucratic problems are blocking the flow of aid money directed at tackling climate change. The Premier of Niue, Toke Talagi, told the Pacific Islands Forum in Cairns he's happy with the level of support, but the transfer of funds needs to be better managed. "We're having problems and a lot of us are having problems trying to access those funds so that's one point," he said. "The second point is...to make ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
France to boost renewable energy funding
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE57325Y20090804
Reuters: France plans to raise electricity prices by an average of 2.3 percent for households and businesses from August 15 to fund investment including in renewable energy sources, the Economy Ministry said on Tuesday. France plans to raise prices for households by 1.9 percent from August 15, the ministry said. It did not give a separate figure for businesses.

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Indonesia: Greenpeace urges Susilo to stop forest fires
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/34193-greenpeace-urges-susilo-to-stop-forest-fires
Bernama: Greenpeace has urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take significant measures in overcoming the spreading of forest fires in Riau, Central and West Kalimantan, as well as parts of Sulawesi. "President Susilo needs to immediately become aware of the coming climatic crisis, and take immediate steps by declaring a moratorium on forest felling activities," Greenpeace forest campaigner for Southeast Asia Zulfahmi was quoted by Antara news agency as saying here on Sunday. He ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
British official talks climate change with Brazilians
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hHdGNLJ24ZHQMi6EBeQBovvjkkPA
Agence France-Presse: Britain's secretary of state for energy and climate change, Ed Miliband, met with Brazilian officials on Monday to prepare for a world climate change conference in Denmark in December. The talks with Brazilian lawmakers in Brasilia came in the middle of a five-day trip to get a look at Brazil's biofuel industry and to take part in debates. "I'm optimistic that Brazil and the UK -- along with other countries -- can work together to ensure that in less than five months' time, the ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
United Kingdom: Tesco hides figures after missing target to reduce plastic bag usage
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6737868.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Britain's biggest supermarket chain has published misleading figures giving the impression that it had met an industry target to halve the use of plastic bags. The Times has learnt that Tesco, which claims to be one of the greenest retailers, missed the target and tried to conceal its actual performance. Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, called on Tesco and other supermarkets to be more honest with customers about how many plastic bags they were issuing. He urged them to ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
U.S., Canadian forests fall to beetle outbreak
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE57300N20090804?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: From the vantage point of an 80-foot (25 meter) tower rising above the trees, the Wyoming vista seems idyllic: snow-capped peaks in the distance give way to shimmering green spruce. But this is a forest under siege. Among the green foliage of the healthy spruce are the orange-red needles of the sick and the dead, victims of a beetle infestation closely related to one that has already laid waste to millions of acres (hectares) of pine forest in North America. "The gravity of the ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
China: Beijing's smog is back year after Olympics
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090804/sc_afp/oly2008chn1yearenvironment
Agence France-Presse: One year after staging a mostly pollution-free Olympics, Beijing has seen its skies shrouded in haze again, highlighting what observers call a mixed Olympic legacy on the environment. Amid fears the city's chronic smog could damage athlete's health, Beijing took drastic steps to prevent that last August, moving or cleaning up polluting factories, curbing traffic, and ordering a halt to all construction work. State-of-the-art facilities like the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium and ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Nobel Halo Fades Fast for Panel on Climate
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/science/earth/04clima.html?_r=5&hpw
New York Times: Two years ago, an international scientific panel seized worldwide attention by reporting that human activity was warming the planet in ways that could greatly disrupt human affairs and nature. The work of the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. After two decades of delivering climate reports to the world without fanfare, it suddenly had a wide following. But as the panel gears up for its ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
75 Million Environmental Refugees to Plague Asia-Pacific
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47944
Inter Press Service: Pacific Islanders, aiming to secure their very survival, are calling for immediate commitments from the developed world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 45 percent by 2020. "For us, climate change is a reality. We have been experiencing high tidal waves, which has not been the case earlier," Pelenise Alofa Pilitati, Chairperson of the Church Education Director's Association in Kiribati, told IPS. "High tides and sea level rise will submerge our homeland. We don't want to ...

Wed, 5 Aug 09
Cameroon: Fears for Forest as Dam Construction Begins
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47946
Inter Press Service: Crouched on a low, wooden stool in front of his mud hut in the village of Pangar, Alain Selembe puffs away at his clay pipe, his gaze lost in the surrounding forest, quite oblivious to the noise made by his two playing daughters. All he hears is the rumbling of bulldozers opening up a 30 kilometre road from Deng Deng village to the confluence of the Lom and Pangar rivers, where the government plans to construct a new dam. "This is bad news for us," Selembe tells IPS."The construction ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
Will a warmer world make us sicker?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/03/climate-change-disease
Guardian: In the late 1990s, a set of alarming maps created a stir in the scientific community. Based on predictions by a team of Dutch and Australian researchers and initially published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the maps charted how global warming could increase the risk of malaria in seemingly unlikely locales: northern countries such as Poland, the Netherlands, and Russia. Over the next several years, versions of the maps continued to appear in journals and at ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
Australia: No sign of climate change consensus
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/03/2644965.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government is sharpening its attack on Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull ahead of next week's parliamentary vote on an emissions trading scheme. But a leading environmental group says the latest science means the Government should be focusing on strengthening its scheme. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has delivered a frontal attack on the Opposition's climate change policy. "There is no policy coherence, no framework, no understanding of the task at ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
Q&A: 'Time to De-Grow'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47939
Inter Press Service: Serge Latouche, professor emeritus of economic science at the University of Paris-Sud, is one of the main proponents of "the society of de-growth". He calls for "abandoning the objective of growth for growth's sake, an insane objective, with disastrous consequences for the environment." The need for a 'de-growth' society stems from the certainty, he says, that the earth's resources and natural cycles cannot sustain the economic growth which is the essence of capitalism and ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
US opens multi-billion dollar renewable energy treasure chest
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247150/opens-multi-billion-dollar
Business Green: The US Treasury and Department of Energy formally launched a flagship renewable energy funding programme on Friday, announcing that project developers could now apply for direct payments from a new fund worth over $3bn (Â£1.8bn). Under the scheme - which is expected to see funds distributed to around 5,000 biomass, solar, wind and other types of renewable energy projects - firms can agree to forgo existing tax credits in return for a direct payment from the government. Treasury ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
Australia to Push China, US for Ambition on Climate
http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fnews%3Fpid%3D20601081%26sid%3DaVhUCYMIBdOU&usg=AFQjCNHfPbxXLdLO2CybC2_mqeRXCxZauQ
Bloomberg: Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, will push the U.S. and China to show more "ambition" in this year's global warming talks, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said. We will "use our relationship with key nations to encourage political will and to encourage more ambition in the agreement," Wong said in an interview in Sydney on July 31. China, the U.S. and India are "key" to success, she said. China and the U.S., the world's largest polluters, have yet to commit to ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
New El Nino increases drought threat
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5964108/New-El-Nino-increases-drought-threat.html
Telegraph: The phenomenon, which happens every two to seven years, occurs when the surface ocean waters of the Eastern Pacific are unusually warm. Officially known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, it affects wind patterns around the world and can cause drought and heavy rains. The latest El Nino brings fears of drought in Australia and the prospect of floods in South America. Robert Stefanski, from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), warned that El Nino could disrupt ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
California must prepare for climate change, official report warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/03/california-climate-change
Guardian: Even if the world is successful in cutting carbon emissions in the future, California needs to start preparing for rising sea levels, hotter weather and other effects of climate change, a new state report recommends. It encourages local communities to rethink future development in low-lying coastal areas, reinforce levees that protect flood-prone areas and conserve already strapped water supplies in the most populous US state. "We still have to adapt, no matter what we do, ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
Indian CDM applications fall 30 per cent as carbon credit prices slump
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2247144/indian-cdm-applications-fall
Business Green: The number of Indian carbon offset projects seeking approval under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme has fallen by 30 per cent due to the global recession, according to an industry consultant. "Project financing is not available, so people are postponing CDM investment decisions," Chaitanya Kalia of Ernst & Young's climate change and sustainability services told Reuters news agency last week. India's National CDM Authority used to receive an average of about ...

Tue, 4 Aug 09
United Kingdom: First climate change camp unveiled
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iq1-ByUkpSoP_TOuE6Dy3Ai7VzDQ
Press Association: Scotland's first climate change camp is to be unveiled at the site of an open-cast mine protest. Campaigners say the camp at Mainshill Wood in South Lanarkshire will follow the tradition of climate change camps in England and around Europe. Future events on the site will include workshops on strategies for dealing with climate change, how to take effective, radical direct action and share skills for low-impact living.

Tue, 4 Aug 09
Aviation industry prepares biofuels for take off
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2247123/aviation-industry-prepares
Business Green: BusinessGreen.com: As vice president technology and environment at one of the world's largest developers of aviation engines, you must be well used to the charge that the sector is environmentally unsustainable and has not done enough to cut carbon emissions Dr Alan H Epstein: It's true that aviation was the bad boy of the environment, but it now has one of the most coherent approaches to environmental issues. From the companies such as Pratt and Witney that make the equipment, to ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Canadians want oil sands production cut
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadians-want-oil-sands-production-cut/article1239504/
Globe and Mail: Provincial premiers will meet in Regina this week amid new poll results that show a majority of Canadians think oil sands production should be cut as Canada grapples with reducing greenhouse gases. The poll, conducted for the group Environmental Defence, finds that 52 per cent of those surveyed want to slow down oil sands development and invest instead in clean-energy job creation. The poll, provided to The Globe and Mail, found that another 29 per cent believe oil sands production ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Towards a global climate deal
http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2009/8/3/columnists/globaltrends/4444476&sec=globaltrends
Malaysian Star: High-polluting developed countries have already used up much of the world's "carbon space", and should pay up their carbon debt to facilitate in fair global deal on climate change. Next week, climate negotiations resume in Bonn in an attempt to reach a global deal in Copenhagen in December. There are intense pressures to get developing nations like China, India, Brazil and Asean countries to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the promised financial and technology ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Sahara desert goes green, thanks to warming
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4849759.cms
Asian News International: Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall, all thanks to the rising temperatures due to climate change. According to National Geographic News, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities. This trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna 12,000 years ago. The green shoots of ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
India looks to the sun for ambitious surge in green power
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6736726.ece
Times (UK): For centuries Hindus have revered the sun god, Surya, as a source of health and prosperity, building lavish temples and holding festivals in his honour across a country with more than 300 days of sunshine a year. Now India is putting its faith in the sun in a more literal sense by revealing what experts describe as the world's most ambitious plan to develop solar energy over the next three or four decades. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, will chair a meeting today to decide ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Uganda's climate change
http://media.smh.com.au/national/breaking-news/ugandas-climate-change-661138.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Lack of rain over 4 years has brought the northern Karamajong pastoralists community to the brink of starvation.

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Asian giants put the West's targets for solar energy in the shade
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6736744.ece
Times (UK): For years India and China have been cast in the West as the biggest obstacles to international agreement on how to tackle climate change. Now the two emerging economic giants of Asia have challenged the West to match their bold plans to develop solar power. India's unveiling of a National Solar Mission comes soon after China revised its solar energy targets upwards to 2 gigawatts (2 billion watts) installed capacity by 201 and 20GW by 2020. India now aims to produce 10 per cent ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Warning: oil supplies are running out fast
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/warning-oil-supplies-are-running-out-fast-1766585.html
Independent: The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned. Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
New El NiÃ±o threatens world with weather woe
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/new-el-ni241o-threatens-world-with-weather-woe-1766555.html
Independent: A new El NiÃ±o has begun. The sporadic Pacific Ocean warming, which can disrupt weather patterns across the world, is intensifying, say meteorologists. So, over the next few months, there may be increased drought in Africa, India and Australia, heavier rainfall in South America and increased extremes in Britain, of warm and cold. It may make 2010 one of the hottest years on record. The cyclical phenomenon, which happens every two to seven years, is a major determinant of global weather ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Climate Change: It's Worse Than We Feared
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/CLIMATE-CHANGE--IT-S-WORSE-THAN-WE-FEARED/496989
Indian Express: The shock came when the International Polar Year, a global consortium studying the Arctic, froze a small vessel into the sea ice off eastern Siberia in September 2006. Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen had done the same thing a century before, and his Fram, carried by the drifting ice, emerged off eastern Greenland 34 months later. IPY scientists thought their Tara would take 24 to 36 months. But it reached Greenland in just 14 months, stark evidence that the sea ice found a more open, ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Brazil: Amazon tribe feels the heat of change
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/world/Amazon-tribe-feels-the-heat.5515714.jp
Scotsman: AS THE naked, painted young men of the Kamayura tribe prepare for the ritualised war games of a festival, they end their haunting fireside chant with a blowing sound – "whoosh, whoosh" – a symbolic attempt to eliminate the scent of fish so they will not be detected by enemies. For centuries, fish from jungle lakes and rivers have been a staple of the Kamayura diet, the tribe's primary source of protein. But fish smells are not a problem for the warriors any more. Deforestation and, some ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Unabated use of groundwater threatens Arizona's future
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/08/02/20090802bucket-groundwater.html
Arizona Republic: Thirty years after Arizona tried to stop cities and towns from using up their groundwater, the state still can't shake its thirst for one of its most finite resources. The steady drain on underground reserves grows out of two realities: Canals and pipelines don't reach far enough to deliver surface water to everyone, and laws don't reach far enough to stop people from drilling. If the groundwater addiction continues unabated and under-regulated, the effects will be broad and ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Sahara desert becoming green due to climate change
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/sahara-desert-becoming-green-due-to-climate-change_100226415.html
Asian News International: Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall, all thanks to the rising temperatures due to climate change. According to a report in National Geographic News, if sustained, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.This desert-shrinking trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna some 12,000 ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
China's big energy suppliers still pollute
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/01/MNIV1909M5.DTL
Associated Press: China's three largest energy suppliers emitted more greenhouse gases than all of Britain last year, environmental watchdog Greenpeace China said in a report issued Tuesday. The report reflects the heavy reliance on coal that is hampering China's efforts to tackle climate change. The country's 10 largest power companies supply nearly 60 percent of China's energy. They burned a fifth of all of China's coal in 2008 and emitted about 1.44 billion tons of carbon dioxide, which ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Biodiesel, next big thing in Malaysia
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/08/03/200908030010.asp
Korea Herald: "Malaysia Truly Asia" is probably the most recognized national slogan in the marketing world of tourism. But Malaysia is also known for something else that not only benefits their national agenda but can also help with the environment. "Biodiesel has a very promising prospect for the future as an alternative energy source and it's renewable," Malaysian Ambassador Dato' Ramlan Bin Ibrahim told The Korea Herald. Malaysia currently accounts for 41 percent of world palm oil ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
China energy efficiency 'improves in first half'
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkF47BV82cLIrLKZO-4TpmWo90wg
Agence France-Presse: China cut its average energy consumption by 3.53 percent in the first half of 2009 from a year ago, helped by massive stimulus spending on green projects, the government said Sunday. The figure compared with a decline of 2.89 percent in the first quarter of the year, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its website. At the end of 2008, China unveiled a four-trillion-yuan (580-billion-dollar) fiscal package aimed at mitigating the impact of the ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
China's installed wind power capacity doubles in H1
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/02/content_11814332.htm
Xinhua: China's installed wind power capacity that transmits power into the national electricity grid rose 11.81 million kilowatts in the first half of this year, doubling the figure of a year earlier, an industry expert told Xinhua over the weekend. Shu Yinbiao, vice general manager of the State Grid Corporation, said the installed wind power capacity soared by 101 percent year on year by the end of June, showing the country's strengthened efforts on using renewable energy. Shu ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
China energy intensity down 3.35 pct in first half
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK133146
Reuters: A decline in China's energy intensity, or the amount of energy it uses to produce each unit of national income, picked up pace in the first half of 2009, the country's top economic planner said on Sunday. The country used 3.35 percent less energy to generate each dollar of gross domestic product (GDP) in the six months through June 2009 than a year earlier, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its Website. This was a speedier fall than the 2.89 ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Australia: CSIRO says carbon price cap may hit power supply
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/csiro-says-carbon-price-cap-may-hit-power-supply-20090802-e5v5.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIA'S chief scientific body, the CSIRO, says price caps on carbon in Australia's emissions trading scheme may stifle investment in renewable technologies and threaten Australia's power supply. In a submission to the Government's energy review, CSIRO researchers write that price caps in a carbon market may cause Australia to increase its reliance on high emissions energy, such as coal, as demand for electricity increases. The Rudd Government has proposed price caps in its ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Australia: Climate threat to heritage sites
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-threat-to-heritage-sites-20090801-e592.html
Age: THE Federal Government has warned that Australian icons such as the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park, the Tasmanian wilderness, Carlton Gardens and the Sydney Opera House could be damaged irreparably if the Coalition fails to support Labor's emissions trading scheme. Less than two weeks before a Senate vote on the Government's climate change legislation, a government report to be released today has found Australia's 17 world heritage sites could be devastated by lower ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Weak economy makes solar panels more affordable to homeowners
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cover-solar2-2009aug02,0,6336500.story
LA Times: If you're searching for a bright spot in a dismal economic climate, look no farther than your roof. The downturn is helping to make solar panels more affordable. Manufacturers are cutting prices to move inventory. Uncle Sam is helping too. As part of the economic stimulus package, the federal government this year boosted tax credits to homeowners who switch to solar power. Together with state incentives, those subsidies could slash the cost of some systems in California by 50% or ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Coal fires up India farmers against power plants
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gHfAV4sw5q3I2dlBLhJ3tX_mdYWA
Agence France-Presse: Rajni Ramakan Patil has a message for the energy companies that want to build coal-based power stations on the land that she and two generations of her family have farmed for more than 50 years. "Even if you give us gold, we won't leave this place. This is our land," she said. Rajni and five other families from the village of Poinad cultivate a small parcel of land on the flat and fertile plains near the coastal town of Alibag, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Scientists claim planet is heading for 'irreversible' climate change by 2040
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Scientists-claim-planet-is-heading.5515749.jp
Scotsman: CARBON dioxide levels are rising at a faster rate than the worst-case scenario envisaged by United Nations experts, with the planet heading for "catastrophic" and "irreversible" climate change by 2040, a new report claims. The rise of greenhouse gases will trigger an unprecedented rate of global warming that will result in the loss of the ice-covered polar seas by 2020, much of our coral reefs by 2040 and see a 1.4-metre rise in the sea level by 2100. The apocalyptic vision has been ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Australia: Govt seizes on ANU climate change report
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/02/2643473.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government says a study backs its warning World Heritage-listed sites including the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park and the Sydney Opera House are threatened by climate change. The Australian National University's study, commissioned by the Government, looks at the impact of climate change on 17 World Heritage-listed sites. It finds rising sea levels caused by global warming could affect the Opera House's structure, while higher sea temperatures could ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Nissan unveils zero-emission hatchback "Leaf"
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5710IH20090802?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Nissan Motor Co took the wraps off its much-awaited electric car on Sunday, naming the hatchback "Leaf" and taking a step toward its goal of leading the industry in the zero-emissions field. Japan's No.3 automaker and its French partner, Renault SA, have been the most aggressive proponents of pure electric vehicles in the auto industry, announcing plans to mass-market the clean but expensive cars globally in 2012. Nissan will begin selling the first Leaf cars in the United ...

Mon, 3 Aug 09
Climate change protest at ALP conference
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/global-warming/climate-change-protest-at-alp-conference-20090801-e4zl.html
AAP: Protesters have taken to the floor at Labor's national state conference during the debate on climate change, angry at what they see as the Federal Government's soft response to tackling the issue. As Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told the conference the ALP was the party that was prepared to look to the future and face the challenges that lie ahead, 12 protesters stood in front of the stage. Each had masking tape across their mouths and held signs, including "silenced by ...

Sun, 2 Aug 09
Australia: Climate change poised to feed on itself
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/climate-change-poised-to-feed-on-itself-20090731-e4gi.html?page=-1
Herald: Around the world, thousands of scientists have devoted their professional lives to studying the climate. Not centrally organised, they sometimes build temporary affiliations but they remain scientists throughout – that is, they are independent, constantly challenge each other and are committed to searching for truth through objective, independently verifiable evidence. Overwhelmingly, this evidence has led to four conclusions. The first is that the world is warming. The global average ...

Sun, 2 Aug 09
United States: Forged letters to congressman anger local groups
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/letters_sent_to_perriello_called_fakes._area_advocates_names_forged_by_d.c/43439/
Charlottesville Daily Progress: As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman`s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure. The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries. "They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our ...