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Mon, 30 Nov 09
Factfile on UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen talks
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/factfile-on-unfccc-kyoto-protocol-copenhagen-talks-1831331.html
Independent (UK): The December 7-18 UN climate conference in Copenhagen is tasked with framing a new deal for tackling global warming and its impacts beyond 2012. Here is a factfile on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol and the talks. UNFCCC The offshoot of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the UNFCCC provides a planetary arena for tackling climate change. It came into force on March 21 1994. The treaty has been ratified by 192 countries. Governments swap ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
UN climate talks: The key players
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/un-climate-talks-the-key-players-1831330.html
Independent (UK): Following is a snapshot of the main players in the global climate talks, ahead of the December 7-18 conference in Copenhagen. GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA The bloc of developing nations insist rich countries - deemed responsible for today's warming and best placed to tackle it - commit to legally-binding reductions of their emissions by at least 40 percent annually by 2020 over 1990 levels. They refuse to make binding emissions targets of their own, arguing that they need to ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Denmark: The activists' circus comes to Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/30/copenhagen-activists-circus
Guardian: In two weeks' time, seven-year-old Gabriel Anderson will be in the centre of Copenhagen, climbing on to a step to address the crowds at the end of another Performance Family Picnic. Gabriel, his brothers Sid (the family's two-year-old "head of research") and Neal, nine, plus his parents, artists and lecturers Gary Anderson and Lena Simic, make up the Institute of the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, a one-family protest unit from Liverpool who take their picnic rugs and perform at ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Latest attempt to question climate change is junk
http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/412728_joel30.html
Seattle Post Intelligencer: Computer hackers recently penetrated the server at the University of East Anglia in Britain, and caught academics in the Climate Research Unit in gossipy conversation about how to discredit global warming critics. Right-wing media have extracted quotes, cried "Junk Science," jazzed up a buzzword -- "Climategate" -- with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times headlining an editorial: "Hiding evidence of global cooling." It's a classic example of Junk Propaganda. The klutzy ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Dalai Lama urges world to act on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBBp45g1p01J3NMKvil6IShSX0YwD9C9LLH80
Associated Press: The world's leaders must prioritize the issue of global warming above all else, the Dalai Lama said Monday, adding that he feels encouraged by next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen. The revered Buddhist figure and Nobel Peace Prize winner, in Australia for a series of lectures on universal responsibility and the environment, said politicians must focus their energy on finding a solution to climate change. "Sometimes their number one importance is national interest, ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
French watchdog concerned over nuclear skills
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254122/french-watchdog-concerned
Business Green: France's nuclear watchdog has expressed concern over the loss of skills in the atomic energy industry after a near 20-year gap in building reactors. In an interview with the Financial Times, AndrÃ©-Claude Lacoste, head of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, said: "The relaunch of construction, and monitoring that relaunch, are not simple. We have to regain experience. We have not built reactors for more than 15 years.' Lacoste said this issue was preoccupying all ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Leaked emails won't harm UN climate body, says chairman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/29/ipcc-climate-change-leaked-emails
Guardian: There is "virtually no possibility" of a few scientists biasing the advice given to governments by the UN's top global warming body, its chair said today. Rajendra Pachauri defended the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the wake of apparent suggestions in emails between climate scientists at the University of East Anglia that they had prevented work they did not agree with from being included in the panel's fourth assessment report, which was published in ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Europe's post-Soviet greening ? gains and failures
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091129/ap_on_sc/eu_the_polluted_east
Associated Press: Twenty years ago, when the Iron Curtain came down, the world gagged in horror as it witnessed firsthand the ravages inflicted on nature by the Soviet industrial machine. Throughout the crumbling communist empire, sewage and chemicals clogged rivers; industrial smog choked cities; radiation seeped through the soil; open pit mines scarred green valleys. It was hard to measure how bad it was and still is: The focus was more on production quotas than environmental data. Today, ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Australian wildfire scheme said model to cut CO2
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AS1HD20091129?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: An Australian project tapping Aborigines' knowledge to avert devastating wildfires that stoke climate change is the world's best example of linking indigenous peoples to carbon markets, the U.N. University said on Sunday. Other parts of the world, especially Africa, could also tap centuries-old local practices to help slow deforestation that releases heat-trapping carbon dioxide. In return, local peoples could get jobs and cash from carbon markets, it said. A project backed by ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Indian climate envoy resists emission targets
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091129/wl_sthasia_afp/unclimatewarmingindia
Agence France-Presse: India's chief climate change negotiator has flatly rejected taking on emission reduction targets a day after Premier Manmohan Singh said the country would commit to cuts conditionally. India, one of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters, has yet to offer figures on reining in its carbon output, with just over a week to go until UN climate talks start in Copenhagen. Singh said on Saturday that India was "willing to sign on to an ambitious global target for emissions reductions ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Emerging nations unite on climate change: China state media
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091129/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingworldchina
Agence France-Presse: A group of developing nations has agreed a common position in a bid to pressure rich countries during crunch climate talks in Copenhagen after low-key talks in China, state media said Sunday. Representatives from China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Sudan, which currently chairs the Group of 77 developing countries, met in Beijing Friday and Saturday, the official People's Daily newspaper reported. They agreed to ask "developed countries to assume responsibility for emissions ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
United Kingdom: McCartney makes meat CO2 appeal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8385465.stm
BBC: Cutting out meat consumption on one day a week can have a major impact on reducing CO2 emissions, Sir Paul McCartney has said. In an interview with Parliament Magazine he appealed for "people power" to make the difference in the fight against global warming. He says halving UK meat consumption would do more to reduce emissions than halving the use of private transport. Sir Paul will take his "Meat-free Monday" campaign to Brussels this week. The estimated effect ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
EU's Barroso: countries must offer more in Copenhagen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091129/sc_afp/euchinasummitclimate
Agence France-Presse: European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday the international community must do more to ensure a climate change agreement can be reached next week in Copenhagen. Barroso said he and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed China's offer to curb emissions per unit of gross domestic product in 2020 by between 40 and 45 percent, based on 2005 levels. The two leaders spoke over dinner on the eve of the 12th EU-China summit where concerns over greenhouse gas emissions ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Traditional Indigenous Fire Management Deployed Against Climate Change
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1791833/traditional_indigenous_fire_management_deployed_against_climate_change/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Carbon credits bring millions for new jobs in indigenous communities; Australian project a model of opportunity, especially for Africa A landmark Australian project that mitigates the extent and severity of natural savannah blazes by deploying traditional Indigenous fire management techniques is being hailed as a model with vast global potential in the fights against climate change and biodiversity loss, and for protecting Indigenous lands and culture. The enterprise is ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Australian PM heads for key US talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091129/pl_afp/afghanistanunrestusmilitaryaustralia
Agence France-Presse: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was heading to Washington Sunday for key talks with US President Barack Obama to be dominated by climate change and the conflict in Afghanistan. Rudd will arrive fresh from a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad where he helped steer a landmark declaration backing moves to draw up a legally binding pact to fight global warming at climate talks in Copenhagen. Obama will host the Australian prime minister, whose country is a key member of the ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
United Kingdom: U-turn on climate change 'cover up' as university says it will publish leaked email data
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231788/U-turn-climate-change-cover-university-says-publish-leaked-email-data.html
Daily Mail: British scientists accused of manipulating figures to strengthen the case for man-made global warming have bowed to international pressure and will publish their raw figures, it emerged today. The U-turn by the University of East Anglia follows a week of controversy over hundreds of leaked emails which appear to show global warming academics 'spinning' research to the media and discussing how to dodge requests under the Freedom of Information Act. The change of heart was forced ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
EU: Nations must do more for climate change pact
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hlFHlfH4ch0M4bTr15oijjInyyPgD9C99KD80
Associated Press: European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is urging China and other countries to make more ambitious commitments on curbing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Barroso welcomed fresh emission pledges by China and plans by both Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and U.S. President Barack Obama to attend next month's U.N. conference on climate change in Copenhagen. "Everyone is committing," Barroso told reporters after dining Sunday with Wen. "We have to see at the end if all ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Canada offers 'minor adjustments' to fight climate change
http://www.canada.com/technology/Canada+offers+minor+adjustments+fight+climate+change/2282866/story.html
Canwest News Service: Canada is prepared to make only "minor adjustments" to its greenhouse-gas emission targets, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday. Speaking to reporters at the end of the Commonwealth leaders' summit, Harper said Canada will emerge from the international climate-change conference in the Danish capital Copenhagen next month with identical targets to those of the United States. "It's important that whatever targets we set be realistic, achievable and are actually achieved," ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Commonwealth heads of gov't meeting closes, with declaration on climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/30/content_12561498.htm
Xinhua: Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning Sunday formally declared closed the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on Sunday in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. He said that Australia would be the next nation to host the CHOGM, which will take place in 2011, then Sri Lanka in 2013 and finally African nation Mauritius in 2015. Manning said that the meeting had managed to reach agreement on six documents: a communiqu, agreements on the four key ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Despite momentum, no smooth path to climate deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN29363680
Reuters: Commonwealth states representing a third of the world's people said on Sunday momentum was growing towards a global climate deal, but nagging doubts remained over funding levels and degrees of commitment. Seeking to successfully tip the outcome of U.N. climate talks on Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, the group of more than 50 nations from across the world made the climate change issue the centerpiece of a three-day summit in Trinidad and Tobago. They declared firm support for an ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Paper Mill Is Reborn, Sans Fossil Fuels
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49466
Inter Press Service: A paper mill that runs without fossil fuels and has a neutral carbon footprint? That's the goal for Flambeau River Papers in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and the company is already on its way, thanks to a switch to biomass fuel, plus a biorefinery in the works. In timber-rich Wisconsin, paper mills have been a major industry since the 1800s. Small mills, suffering from the recession and high energy costs, are now shutting down, creating economic devastation for towns like Park Falls, where ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Indian nuclear plant leak probed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8384894.stm
BBC: Indian officials are investigating the leak of a radioactive substance into drinking water at an atomic power plant in the south of the country. Fifty-five workers at the Kaiga plant needed medical treatment for excessive exposure to radiation after tritium contaminated a water cooler. Officials said the leak might have been deliberate. "Mischief is not ruled out. Investigations are on," plant director J P Gupta told Reuters news agency. The 55 workers had ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Climate change may weaken El NiÃ±o's hurricane buffering effect
http://www.miamiherald.com/573/story/1355155.html
Miami Herald: Despite underwater mortgages, failed Ponzi schemes and jailed politicians, the beleaguered citizenry of South Florida does have a few things to be thankful for this holiday season. The Dolphins beat the Jets, twice. Hurricane season is about to end, meekly. If only both would remain long-term trends. Unfortunately, experts see this year's quieter-than-normal hurricane season, which officially ends Monday, as a fortunate break owed largely to the weather pattern known as ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Is there any real chance of averting the climate crisis?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/29/copenhagen-summit-climate-change
Guardian: Absolutely. It is possible – if we give politicians a cold, hard slap in the face. The fraudulence of the Copenhagen approach – "goals" for emission reductions, "offsets" that render ironclad goals almost meaningless, the ineffectual "cap-and-trade" mechanism – must be exposed. We must rebel against such politics as usual. Science reveals that climate is close to tipping points. It is a dead certainty that continued high emissions will create a chaotic dynamic situation for young ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Western lifestyle unsustainable, says climate expert Rajendra Pachauri
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/29/rajendra-pachauri-climate-warning-copenhagen
Guardian: Hotel guests should have their electricity monitored; hefty aviation taxes should be introduced to deter people from flying; and iced water in restaurants should be curtailed, the world's leading climate scientist has told the Observer. Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned that western society must undergo a radical value shift if the worst effects of climate change were to be avoided. A new value system of "sustainable ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
The knock-on effects of peak oil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/29/peak-oil-prices-rise
Observer: IF OIL really is running out faster than is generally realised then the real price of crude should be well over double the current already high price of about $75 a barrel, experts believe. A level of $200 a barrel was predicted as recently as last year by the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the price did hit nearly $150 just 18 months ago, at the height of the global trade boom. The sub-prime crisis, collapse of Lehman Brothers and subsequent recession have led to trauma in ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Peak oil: the summit that dominates the horizon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/29/peak-oil
Guardian: Massive new oil finds off the southern states of America and Brazil plus exciting discoveries in currently non-producing countries such as Ghana and Uganda sit uneasily with claims the world is running out of crude. BP recently boasted about a "giant" strike on the Tiber field in the Gulf of Mexico and BG, the former exploration arm of British Gas, talked of its "supergiant" at the GuarÃ¡ prospect off South America, yet critics argue they cannot make up for the fast depletion of ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Climate change: Gulf stream collapse could be like a disaster movie
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/29/climate-change-gulf-stream-hollywood
Guardian: The next Ice Age could take only weeks to engulf Britain. Scientists say the last great disruption to the Gulf Stream 12,800 years ago took only a couple of months to trigger a massive plunge in temperatures across Europe. "It was as if Europe had been shifted 20 degrees north and Ireland moved to Svalbard," said Bill Patterson of Saskatchewan University. In the Hollywood blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow, an Ice Age was set off in a single day when the Gulf Stream was ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Sir Paul to tell EU: 'Less meat means less heat'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/sir-paul-to-tell-eu-less-meat-means-less-heat-1830669.html
Independent (UK): Sir Paul McCartney will this week throw his weight behind a growing campaign to address global warming by reducing the amount of meat we eat, lobbying EU politicians for their backing. The former Beatle will interrupt a European tour to fly to Brussels on Thursday, where he will make his case at a special hearing of the European Parliament. Sir Paul said yesterday: "The message that I am taking to the European Parliament is -- less meat equals less heat. I will appeal to world leaders ...

Mon, 30 Nov 09
Global climate talks remain alive, but details are far from settled
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/28/AR2009112802453.html?wprss=rss_world
Washington Post: By offering concrete emission targets last week, the United States and China have resuscitated global climate talks that were headed toward an impasse. But the details that have yet to be resolved -- including the money that industrialized countries would offer poorer ones as part of an agreement -- suggest a political deal remains a heavy lift for the 192 countries set to convene in Copenhagen in little more than a week. Negotiators aim to produce a blueprint for a legally binding ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Ecuador: the Amazon's dirty war
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6931573.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Torrential rain has washed away the blood where the family fell under a hail of wooden spears. But memories of what happened this summer are still fresh in the minds of those who live and work here. At first the security guard inside the perimeter fence of the oil drilling station is nervous and warns us to keep our distance as we approach. Darkness is falling and he is alone on duty. But he slowly opens up and describes how, on a morning in August, a 12-year-old girl, run through ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Carbon trading: One burning question, no easy answers
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6932179.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): A few weeks ago, in central Mozambique, I stood in a clearing of blackened tree stumps in a landscape of weeds. This was a classic example of "slash-and-burn' agriculture, in which dirt-poor farmers constantly move on from depleted fields to hack new ones out of virgin forest. A few miles away, thanks to a carbon-trading scheme, another community of farmers was working differently. Through a few simple agricultural techniques they were able to go on cropping the same land year after ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Taking the private jet to Copenhagen
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/celebrity/article6931572.ece
Times (UK): Hypocrisy is the vice we find hardest to forgive, but it's also the one we most enjoy discovering in others. And nothing piques our interest more than eco-hypocrisy as practised by the "green' celebrities who have been spouting green virtue but spewing out hundreds of tons of carbon from their private jets or multiple holiday homes around the globe. There was Sheryl Crow, who had called upon the public to refrain from using more than one square of toilet paper per visit ("except on ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Solar power from your windows, awnings, even clothing?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090805150530.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: On a 104-degree Friday in July when sunlight bathed The University of Arizona campus, doctoral student Dio Placencia sat before a noisy vacuum chamber in the Chemical Sciences Building trying to advance the renewable energy revolution. As a member of UA professor Neal R. Armstrong's research group, Placencia conducts research aimed at creating a thin, flexible organic solar cell that could power a tent or keep a car charged between trips to work and back home again. He's ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Peat fires drive temperatures up: Burning rainforests release huge amounts of greenhouse gases
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091127132838.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Peatlands, especially those in tropical regions, sequester gigantic amounts of organic carbon. Human activities are now having a considerable impact on these wetlands. For example, drainage projects, in combination with the effects of periodic droughts, can lead to large-scale fires, which release enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, and thus contribute to global warming. Using laser-based measurements, Professor Florian Siegert and his research group at ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Radioactive leak probed at Indian atomic plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AS09220091129?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Indian officials are investigating the leak of a radioactive substance into drinking water at an atomic power plant in the south of the country, they said on Sunday. Local police have been asked to help probe how tritium seeped into a water cooler, after which 55 workers underwent medical treatment for excessive exposure to radiation. Officials at the highly protected plant in Kaiga on the west coast, 450 km (280 miles) from Bangalore, said the leak may have been ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Climate Change Bill Faces Delays In Senate
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120828193
National Public Radio: In early December, world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to begin talks on a new treaty to curb greenhouse gases and global warming. President Obama will attend the summit. In urging action on climate change, the president says it's essential "that all countries do what is necessary to reach a strong operational agreement that will confront the threat of climate change while serving as a stepping stone to a legally binding treaty." White House officials say the U.S. will ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
India: Time to act on arresting climate change, not argue about level playing fields: PM
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world/Time-to-act-on-arresting-climate-change-not-argue-about-level-playing-fields-PM/481233/H1-Article1-481087.aspx
Asian News International: Warning that climate change was posing "existential" threat to several small countries, the 53-nation Commonwealth today said the upcoming Copenhagen meet should come out with an ambitious mitigation outcome as there was a need for an "urgent and substantial" action to reduce global emissions. Emerging powers of the world join hands China sets green goal, puts India in a hot spot Time to act on arresting climate changes: PM India warns against protectionism under a green label ANIPort of ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Climate change: How global warming is having an impact
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091129012207.wdrqeoz7.html
Agence France-Presse: From cautiously advising that man-made, heat-trapping carbon gases would disrupt Earth's climate system, mainstream scientists are increasingly convinced that the first signs of change are already here. Following are the main indicators, reported in the scientific press over past three years: RISING SEAS: Sea levels have risen in tandem with global warming, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The global average sea level has risen since 1961 ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Big developing countries form climate change front
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK20047
Reuters: A clutch of major emerging economies including China and India have forged a united front to put pressure on developed countries at next month's climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. Over two days of quietly arranged talks in Beijing, the countries said they had reached agreement on major issues, including the need for the West to provide finance and technology to help developing nations combat global warming. The meeting was attended by senior officials from China, India, ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Scientists turn trees into carbon banks
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120849322
National Public Radio: There's an experiment going on in the redwood forests of northern California: people are trying to turn trees into "carbon banks." The idea is to manage forests so they absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slow down global warming. Carbon banking will be a hot topic at next month's big climate conference in Copenhagen, especially if negotiators can't agree on how to get industrialized countries to lower their own emissions. Carbon banking could be a way to cut those ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Pitchfork revolt punctures the carbon bubble
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/pitchfork-revolt-punctures-the-carbon-bubble/story-e6frg6zo-1225804740435
Australian: THE Rudd-Turnbull greenhouse gas emissions deal is supposed to give business the certainty it needs to pour billions of dollars into transforming Australia into a low-carbon economy. But, like the conservative political revolt it has triggered, the course of Australia's biggest policy upheaval in a generation is anything but certain. As Penny Wong yesterday told the Senate, the politically constructed emissions trading market needs broad community support to provide business with ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Rising sea level poses risk to Qatar, neighbours
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&month=November2009&file=Local_News200911281256.xml
Peninsual: Sea Level Rise (SLR) is posing big risk to Qatar. Like most other Arab countries, the bulk of Qatar's economic activity, agriculture and population centres are in the coastal zone, making the country highly vulnerable to a possible rise in the SLR. A remote sensing study 'On the impacts of Global warming on the Arab region', released by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) revealed that a sea level rise of mere 1 meter would directly impact 41,500km2 of the Arab ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Starving polar bears turn to cannibalism
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/environment/article/732010--starving-polar-bears-turn-to-cannibalism
Canadian Press: Scientists say shrinking Arctic sea ice may be forcing some polar bears into cannibalizing young cubs. "When (bears) are very hungry, they go looking for something to eat," biologist Ian Stirling said Friday. "There's nothing much to eat along the Hudson Bay coast in the fall other than other bears." So far this fall, tour operators and scientists have reported at least four and up to eight cases of mature males eating cubs and other bears in the population around Churchill, ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Ski resorts fight global warming; Utah gov unsure
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iAkyA533wvI43cgpW80y4OMpRRFQD9C8LSC81
Associated Press: Ski resorts across the country are using the Thanksgiving weekend to jump start their winter seasons, but with every passing year comes a frightening realization: If global temperatures continue to rise, fewer and fewer resorts will be able to open for the traditional beginning of ski season. Warmer temperatures at night are making it more difficult to make snow and the snow that falls naturally is melting earlier in the spring. In few places is this a bigger concern than the ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Climate change will hit Africa hardest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/28/africa-climate-change
Meles Zenawi: Climate change will hit Africa – a continent that has contributed virtually nothing to bring it about – first and hardest. Aside from Antarctica, Africa is the only continent that has not industrialised. Indeed, since the 1980s the industrialisation that had taken place in Africa has by and large been reversed. Africa has thus contributed nothing to the historical accumulation of greenhouse gases through carbon-based industrialisation. Moreover, its current contribution is also ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Commonwealth backs $10 bln climate adaptation fund
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091128/india_nm/india443106
Reuters: Commonwealth leaders will lobby for an international climate deal that includes $10 billion for next year to help poor and vulnerable states fight the effects of global warming, the Maldives president said on Saturday. Mohamed Nasheed, whose small Indian Ocean state risks being swamped by rising sea levels caused by climate change, said the proposal for such funding was part of a draft climate statement to be issued on Saturday by Commonwealth leaders meeting in Trinidad and ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Leaders say momentum building on climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091128/ap_on_sc/cb_climate_trinidad
Associated Press: Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called Saturday for a legally binding international agreement on climate change and a global fund with billions of dollars to help poorer countries meet its mandates. The 53-nation meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders before next month's global climate summit in Copenhagen. The leaders said a deal should be adopted no later than next year and the support money should be available simultaneously, providing up to $10 billion a ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
As Copenhagen summit nears, 'Climategate' dogs global warming debate
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/28/as-copenhagen-summit-nears-climategate-dogs-global-warming-debate/
Christian Science Monitor: As major Western powers rush to break a deadlock over a new global emissions treaty ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit in 10 days, world leaders face another problem: Waning public concern over man-made global warming. The leak of embarrassing, and in some cases troubling, emails from a major global climate center, East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), has given fuel to skeptics of human-caused global warming, putting even more pressure on leaders to get a deal (or at least ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Criminal gangs plunder Madagascar forests
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AR12R20091128?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Criminal gangs are stripping Madagascar's poorly-protected national parks every day of precious hardwood worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, two environmental campaign groups have said. In a report issued this week, Global Witness and the Environmental Investigation Agency said between 100 and 200 rare rosewood trees were cut down each day with only a fraction, about 1,000 cubic meters, being exported each month. Much of the wood was being stored until further export ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Commonwealth backs climate fund
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8384523.stm
BBC: Commonwealth leaders have backed a multi-billion-dollar plan to help developing nations to deal with climate change and cut greenhouse gases. The fund, proposed by UK and French leaders at the Commonwealth summit on Friday, would start next year and build to $10bn annually by 2012. Many Commonwealth members are island states threatened by rising sea levels. The meeting also called for a "legally binding" agreement on climate change to be reached in Copenhagen next ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Commonwealth builds momentum for climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091128/ts_nm/us_commonwealth_climate
Reuters: Commonwealth nations representing one-third of the world's population threw their weight behind accelerating efforts to clinch an "operationally binding" U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen next month, their leaders said on Saturday. Leaders of the 53-nation Commonwealth meeting in Trinidad and Tobago used their summit to bolster a diplomatic offensive seeking wide consensus on how to fight global warming ahead of December 7-18 U.N. climate talks in the Danish capital. "We believe ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
Hacked E-Mail Data Prompts Calls for Changes in Climate Research
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/science/earth/28hack.html?_r=5
New York Times: Some prominent climate scientists are calling for changes in the way research on global warming is conducted after a British university said thousands of private e-mail messages and documents had been stolen from its climate center. The scientists say that the e-mail messages, which have circulated on the Internet and which disclose the inner workings of a small network of climatologists who chart the planet's temperature, have damaged the public's trust in the evidence that humans ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
US, China emission cut promises are a smokescreen: CSE
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/us-china-emission-cut-promises-aresmokescreen-cse/377982/
Business Standard: The announcements made by the US and China, ahead of the Copenhagen conference on Climate Change to be held in December, are "sheer hype and hyperbole', according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The US spoke of an absolute emission reduction target of 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020, while China said it would reduce its energy intensity per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 40-45 per cent by 2020. Also Read Related Stories News Now -A healthy ...

Sun, 29 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6679082/Climate-change-this-is-the-worst-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation.html
Telegraph: A week after my colleague James Delingpole, on his Telegraph blog, coined the term "Climategate" to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, Google was showing that the word now appears across the internet more than nine million times. But in all these acres of electronic coverage, one hugely relevant point about these thousands of documents has largely been missed. The reason why even the Guardian's George Monbiot ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Momentum grows for Copenhagen climate deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AQ4W720091128?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: World leaders on Friday rallied to a diplomatic offensive to forge a U.N. climate deal in Copenhagen next month and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said an agreement was "within reach". Ban, and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen who will host the December 7-18 U.N. climate talks, hailed what they portrayed as a growing international momentum toward a pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. "Our common goal is to achieve a firm foundation for ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Britain, France back global fund for climate ills
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091128/ap_on_sc/climate_trinidad
Associated Press: The leaders of Britain and France gave their backing Friday to a global fund that would provide billions of dollars to poor countries to help them reduce the output of greenhouse gases linked to climate change. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the wealthiest nations should set aside the money as part of a climate agreement at next month's U.N. summit on the issue in Copenhagen. Sarkozy told reporters at a Commonwealth heads of ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
New Zealand: Climate change hardly moves us
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10612076
New Zealand Herald: There is one reason I would like to believe climate change is a serious problem. Native trees. If ever we see a global market in carbon dioxide it will be a bonanza for trees that grow too slowly to be a commercial milling proposition. The Maori Party's deal with National this week was a taste of what could happen. Shameless special pleading it may have been, but it means iwi owning pine plantations can earn carbon credits by planting permanent forests on Crown land as compensation ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Legal treaty for climate change wanted
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/28/nation/20091128100714&sec=nation
Malaysia Star: Commonwealth countries, including Malaysia, have agreed to press for a legally binding treaty to be implemented during the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen. The decision was made at a special session on climate change held after the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here, said Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, were ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Stephen Harper's climate change challenge
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/11/27/f-vp-newman.html
CBC: Stephen Harper has changed his mind, reversed his field and is now going to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. He didn't want to do it. Climate change is becoming the most divisive issue in this country since the fight over energy pricing in the 1970s and '80s. But he had no choice. The man the prime minister has been counting on to shape a climate change policy that Canada would have to accept is now going to Copenhagen himself on Dec. 9. So when U.S. ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
No double dissolution election on climate change legislation: Rudd
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/no-double-dissolution-election-on-climate-change-legislation-rudd/story-e6frgczf-1225804843605
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has ruled out using a Coalition block on climate change legislation as the trigger for an early federal election. The Prime Minister said today he intended that the government serve a full three-year term, and would not attempt to break a potential deadlock on the climate bill in the Senate with a double dissolution election. The Weekend Australian reported that the Coalition would face an electoral wipe out at next year's federal election if the rebel Coalition ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Climate talks should launch 10-bln-dlr fund: Brown
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091127/wl_uk_afp/commonwealthsummitunclimatebritain
Agence France-Presse: Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday called for upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen to launch a 10-billion-dollar fund to help developing countries tackle global warming. Brown, who outlined the proposal in broadcast interviews with British journalists ahead of a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad, was "optimistic" it would be adopted, according to his official government website. Britain would contribute 1.3 billion dollars to the fund over three years, he said. The plan ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Climate email hackers had access for more than a month
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/27/climate-email-hackers-access-month
Guardian: Computer hackers who broke into the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) server at the University of East Anglia had access to its systems for more than a month. The full data – covering 1,000 emails and 3,000 documents in which the most recent document and email is dated 12 November – came to wider notice when a copy was posted on a web server in Russia on 19 November. But a month earlier a BBC weatherman who had expressed doubts about climate change on his blog was sent a sample of ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
World is watching China's climate progress: U.S
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSGEE5AO1RB20091127?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The United States gave a guarded welcome on Friday to China's first firm targets to curb its carbon emissions, saying the world would watch progress by the world's top greenhouse gas emitter. However, Beijing said it would refuse to allow foreign checks on its progress in curbing emissions, despite past U.S. pressure for it to be open about the process. China proposed on Thursday to cut its carbon emissions per unit of industrial output, called carbon intensity, after ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
China says no emissions checks without foreign funds
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AQ2JD20091127?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A top Chinese climate envoy said Friday only emissions curbs carried out under its newly announced carbon intensity targets that have international financial support will be open to outside scrutiny. Yu Qingtai, China's climate change ambassador, added that most of the country's emissions-curbing plans would likely not fall into the category of "measurable, reportable and verifiable." The phrase, agreed in international talks three years ago, implies third-party checks would be ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
No-shows among South American leaders at Amazon summit
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1127-brazil.html
Mongabay: A summit between South American leaders to devise a plan to save the Amazon, failed to come up with a "common stance" on deforestation, as five of the eight invited leaders failed to show up to the meeting, reports Al Jazeera. Guyana's president Bharrat Jagdeo and France's Nicolas Sarkozy attended the meeting in Manaus, which was hosted by Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Colombian's Alvaro Uribe pulled out of the meeting over a ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Over 85 leaders to attend climate talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AQ4OS20091127?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month can be a turning point in the world's fight against global warming, Denmark's prime minister said on Friday, adding that more than 85 heads of state and government had already said they would attend. Addressing a summit of Commonwealth leaders in Trinidad and Tobago, Lars Lokke Rasmussen urged major developed countries to deliver firm commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to "put figures on the table" for "up-front" financing ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
India to reveal climate change goals soon: Sarkozy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091127/wl_sthasia_afp/commonwealthsummitunclimatefranceindia
Agence France-Presse: India will reveal in the coming days its goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday after face-to-face talks here with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sarkozy told journalists gathered at a summit of Commonwealth nations that he had a very productive meeting with Singh, and said he believed India would attend the UN climate talks in Copenhagen which begin on December 7. As a result of the talks, "I believe it is in India's ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Britain, France push for 10 billion dollar climate fund
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091127/wl_uk_afp/unclimatefundeubritainfrancecommonwealth
Agence France-Presse: Britain and France on Friday committed to paying developing nations to combat global warming by calling for a 10-billion-dollar climate fund financed by rich countries. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Nicolas Sarkozy, attending a closed-door Commonwealth summit in Trinidad, urged that the fund be adopted at climate talks to be held in Copenhagen December 7-18. Brown said Britain would contribute 1.3 billion dollars over three years. Sarkozy, in a speech to ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
US and China to reduce emissions, but not enough
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091127/ap_on_re_us/climate
Associated Press: Even after the U.S. and China set targets this week for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the world's combined pledges ahead of next month's climate summit fall far short of what experts say is needed to avert dangerous global warming. Still, emission promises by the two countries, the world's biggest polluters, added much-needed momentum as governments began final preparations for the 192-nation conference in Copenhagen, where parameters will be set for a new climate change ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Rudd talks climate change with Denmark, France
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/28/2756162.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has met other world leaders to discuss climate change on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in the Caribbean. The issue of climate change is expected to dominate the three-day summit in Trinidad and Tobago. The United Nations secretary-general, the French President and the Danish Prime Minister have joined 53 Commonwealth leaders to work on the issue ahead of next month's conference in Copenhagen. The need to ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
EU and US differ on climate change
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2166&Itemid=594
Asia Sentinel: With the United Nations Conference on Climate Change opening in a week in Copenhagen, the business communities of the European Union and the United States are taking two distinct approaches to tackling the climate issue and seizing the new business opportunities it has offered. While the EU has sought to address the causes of global warming by promoting clean technology, as a late entrant to this emerging market the US has put its thrust on 'adaptation strategy' to reduce the adverse impact ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Capital markets gear up for climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5AQ2XU20091127
Reuters: As the world wrangles over how to fight climate change, with national leaders to meet in Copenhagen early next month, capital markets are gearing up to handle the consequences if the effort fails. The insurance industry, including reinsurers, who distribute risk around the sector, has traditionally been the main way to hedge against hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. But climate change could increase the scale and frequency of these disasters so drastically in ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Slow Climate Change, Improve Health, Says New Group
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/decapua-climate-change-doctors-27nov09-76161512.html
Voice of America: Senior doctors and health professionals from around the world say major health improvements would result if world leaders tackle climate change. They've formed the International Climate and Health Council to present their case for going green. Members say while politicians may fear to push for radical changes in greenhouse gas emissions, doctors are under no such constraints. The council includes colleagues from Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas and was formed in ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Obama, Australia's Rudd to discuss climate, Afghan
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersComService_2_MOLT/idUSTRE5AQ3W120091127
Reuters: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and U.S. President Barack Obama will discuss next week issues including Afghanistan and climate change, the White House said on Friday. The two leaders will meet at the White House on Monday, a day before Obama is to outline a revised war strategy for Afghanistan. The centerpiece of his plan is expected to be the gradual deployment of about 30,000 more U.S. troops to secure population centers and train Afghan security ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Angry Greenhouse Gas Victims Demand Action
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49450
Inter Press Service: 'Angry' is not the adjective that comes to mind when you first meet Nelly Damaris Chepkoskei. The immaculately dressed 53-year-old Kenyan is generous with her time and with the smiles that light up her beautiful face and never misses a chance to crack a joke before punctuating it with hearty chuckles. But the rage wells up when she speaks about how her life as a farmer in the Kericho District of Western Kenya has changed over the last 20 years. She is angry because ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Cumbria floods: Motorists risk lives driving over damaged bridge
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/6664267/Cumbria-floods-Motorists-risk-lives-driving-over-damaged-bridge.html
Telegraph: The drivers of two vans and a car were caught on CCTV getting out of their vehicles, removing barriers and warning signs, then driving across the Calva Bridge in Workington - which engineers has declared as unsafe. The incidents are just a mile downstream from the Northside Bridge which collapsed taking the life of Pc Bill Barker last Friday. Calva Bridge was then blocked off by police on Sunday and declared in danger of imminent collapse, as it appeared part of the structure ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
India may be more flexible on climate talks - report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/india442823
Reuters: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh said the country may have to be more flexible over climate change talks after China unveiled its first firm targets to cut carbon emissions, a newspaper reported on Friday. On Thursday, China pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each yuan of national income by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels, a move hailed as a vital to rekindling U.N. talks to tackle global warming. "China has given us a wake-up call," ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
China Joins U.S. in Pledge of Hard Targets on Emissions
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/science/earth/27climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The Chinese government announced Thursday that it had set a target to slow the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, a day after the Obama administration set a provisional target for reducing United States emissions. The Chinese offer, which focuses on energy efficiency, contrasts with the strategy of the United States and most other nations to reduce total emissions. China has resisted demands from American and European negotiators to adopt binding limits on its emissions, ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Brazil Seeks West's Aid on Amazon
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/world/americas/27amazon.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
Associated Press: President Luiz InÃ¡cio Lula da Silva of Brazil said Thursday that rich Western nations should pay to prevent deforestation in the Amazon rain forest because those countries have caused much more past environmental destruction than the local loggers and farmers. Mr. da Silva made the comments just before a conference on the Amazon in which delegates signed a declaration calling for financial help from the industrial world to halt deforestation. He said he did not want rich ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
A fair deal for forest people: working to ensure that REDD forests bear fruit for local communities
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1127-redd_commentary_ffi.html
Mongabay: As world leaders meet to thrash out the next incarnation of the Kyoto climate agreement, the world waits with baited breath to see how greenhouse gas emissions from forests might be included. Despite the high powered nature of these important global decisions, the success of REDD will ultimately be decided by humble forest dependent communities, living in developing countries and perhaps currently oblivious to the negotiations taking place. Dr Julie Fischer, Communities Specialist on Fauna & ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Australia carbon vote delay raises snap poll prospect
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSYD290289
Reuters: Australia's parliament delayed a final vote on a government carbon trade plan on Friday, missing a key deadline, throwing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's climate change policy into doubt and raising the possibility of a snap election. Rudd wanted the carbon scheme, central to his promise to cut emissions by between 5 and 25 percent, passed by Friday and ahead of December's global climate talks in Copenhagen, where he will play a key negotiating role. But the upper house Senate ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
China to put 2010 economic stress on climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5AQ0PT20091127
Reuters: China will step up construction of major projects related to energy conservation and environmental protection next year, the ruling Communist Party agreed on Friday. The party's decision-making Politburo, at a meeting to set guidelines for economic policy in 2010, pledged to deal actively with climate change by implementing measures to cut carbon intensity, the official Xinhua news agency reported. The meeting came a day after China announced it was aiming to reduce the amount ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
China's Carbon CommitmentÂ—Low But Sure
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49442
Inter Press Service: China and the United States are wrestling to claim leadership during the upcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen, unveiling proposals to cut greenhouse gases one after the other this week and setting the stage for some tough negotiations. But gauntlets thrown, both face challenges in achieving their pledged targets. China--the world's third largest economic power and its largest carbon polluter--unveiled its first specific targets to slow carbon emissions. It also announced that ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
China announces planned emissions cuts
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/26/AR2009112600519.html?wprss=rss_world
Washington Post: China announced Thursday that it will lower its carbon emissions relative to the size of its economy by as much as 45 percent by 2020, the official New China News Agency reported, and that Premier Wen Jiabao will participate in international climate negotiations in Copenhagen next month. The move by the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter to announce a near-term target of a 40 to 45 percent reduction, coming a day after President Obama set U.S. climate goals for the talks, suggests ...

Sat, 28 Nov 09
Amazon 'rescue' summit in Brazil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8380915.stm
BBC: Nine nations in the Amazon region have called on rich countries to provide poorer nations with the funds to preserve forests. The nations, meeting in Manaus, Brazil, also discussed supporting a 40% reduction in global emissions by 2020. The meeting comes shortly before the key global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Amazon nations agreed on broad principles rather than concrete steps, correspondents said. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Exposure to both traffic, indoor pollutants puts some kids at higher risk for asthma later
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091124082753.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: New research presents strong evidence that the "synergistic" effect of early-life exposure to both outdoor traffic-related pollution and indoor endotoxin causes more harm to developing lungs than one or the other exposure alone. Environmental health scientists at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine have shown that children exposed to both high levels of traffic-related particles and indoor endotoxin during early life are six times more likely to experience persistent ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Rich must aid poor more on climate: Brazil, France
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP46320091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The presidents of France and Brazil said on Thursday that rich countries must immediately boost aid for developing nations to fight global warming if they want to reach a climate accord in Copenhagen next month. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who hosted a climate summit of leaders from the Amazon region in Manaus, said progress had been made with pledges by China and the United States this week to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But he said poor countries needed ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China sets goal to reduce emissions
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-11-26-copenhagen_N.htm?csp=34&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29
USA Today: China set a firm target to control its emissions of greenhouse gases Thursday, an unprecedented step that bolsters the momentum of climate change talks at next month's United Nations summit in Copenhagen. The decision by the Chinese government follows a similar announcement by the White House. Taken together, the world's two biggest polluting nations have defined their plans for controlling the carbon emissions most scientists say cause global warming. China's goal came with a ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China sets ambitious target on emissions
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-sets-ambitious-target-on-emissions-1828773.html
Independent (UK): China has galvanised the run-up to the climate change talks in Copenhagen by announcing an ambitious target to reduce its carbon footprint. It is the first time the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases has committed itself to a reduction, and comes one day after the US announced its own target. Taken together, these signals of intent by the world's two biggest producers give a powerful boost to the prospects for the talks. China said it will cut emissions of carbon relative to ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Designs for new UK nuclear reactors are unsafe - claim
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/27/nuclear-power-reactor-design
Guardian: Britain's main safety regulator threw the government's energy plans into chaos tonight by damning the nuclear industry's leading designs for new plants. The Health and Safety Executive said it could not recommend plans for new reactors because of wide-ranging concerns about their safety. The leading French and American reactors are central to plans for a nuclear renaissance aimed at keeping the lights on and helping to cut carbon emissions. The government needs to build a number of ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
United Kingdom: In praise of... planting trees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/27/in-praise-of-planting-trees
Guardian: There is hope that next month's Copenhagen climate conference will reach agreement on deforestation, slowing the chainsaw massacre of the rainforests. But the issue is not just one for the developing world. The fact that Britain cut down most of its woodland centuries ago is a reason for more action here, not less. A scientific study for the Forestry Commission, published on Wednesday, called for the mass planting of trees as a reliable and cheap way of soaking up carbon dioxide. If Britain ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China announces first greenhouse gas target
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6933127.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): China has unveiled its first firm target to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and said that the Premier, Wen Jiabao, will attend climate change talks in Copenhagen next month. The State Council, or Cabinet, pledged yesterday to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 per cent by 2020 compared with 2005 levels. It said: "This is a voluntary action taken by the Chinese Government based on its own national conditions and is a major contribution to ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Brazil: 'Gringos' must pay to stop Amazon razing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_amazon_summit
Associated Press: Brazil's president said Thursday that "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more past environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rain forest. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made the comments just before an Amazon summit in which delegates signed a declaration calling for financial help from the industrial world to halt the deforestation that ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Competitive, trade-friendly nations weather volatile crop yields best
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123132637.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Richer nations with competitive crop production and few trade barriers would fare the best if climate change, weather events or other factors cause yields of grain and oilseed crops to become more volatile, a new study has found. By these criteria, the United States is poised to do well, but France would come out on top, according to the study of 21 countries conducted by economists at Oregon State University. "It's important to know this because yields of most rain-fed grains ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
How key countries are cutting carbon emissions
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/how-key-countries-are-cutting-carbon-emissions-1828907.html
Independent (UK): World's number two polluter says it will offer to cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, deepening to 30 percent by 2025, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050. The offer "is in the context of an overall deal in Copenhagen that includes robust mitigation contributions from China and the other emerging economies." The US target for 2020 means only a fall of four percentage points compared to 1990, the benchmark year widely used as the interim target in the UN ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Climate science untarnished by hacked emails-IPCC
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSGEE5AP1Y5
Reuters: The head of the U.N.'s panel of climate experts rejected accusations of bias on Thursday, saying a "Climategate" row in no way undermined evidence that humans are to blame for global warming. Climate change sceptics have seized on a series of e-mails written by specialists in the field, accusing them of colluding to suppress data which might have undermined their arguments. The e-mails, some written as long as 13 years ago, were stolen from a British university by unknown ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Canada: 3000 scientists tell federal government to 'act now' on climate change
http://www.canada.com/technology/scientists+tell+federal+government+climate+change/2272707/story.html
Canwest News Service: Scientists have turned up the heat on the Harper government and are calling for urgent action on climate change. "We must act responsibly. We must act now. We must act in concert with other industrialized nations," leaders of organizations representing more than 3,000 scientists said in an open letter to parliamentarians Thursday. They note that the "eyes of the world will be on Canada" at the international climate talks in Copenhagen and "urge the government to negotiate an ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Amazon basin countries, France Summit on climate change ends in Brazil
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/27/content_12547218.htm
Xinhua: A summit on climate change held by countries straddling the Amazon basin and France ended Thursday in Brazil's northwestern city of Manaus, with participants urging developed nations to implement their commitments to environmental protection. In a declaration released after the summit, representatives from Brazil, France, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia and Guyana called on all developed countries, including those that have not signed the Kyoto Protocol, to implement their ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Summit may help climate change deal
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5izXgAku--4-O8mmX_vKBRuQ_aZLw
Press Association: This weekend's summit of Commonwealth leaders beginning in Trinidad will act as an "important springboard" to an international deal on global warming, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said. Climate change will dominate the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which marks the organisation's 60th anniversary. It comes just 10 days before the United Nations-sponsored Copenhagen conference to thrash out plans to halt global warming. US President Barack Obama gave ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Brazil: Development Bank Funds Destructive Projects, Say Activists
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49439
Inter Press Service: Public money in Brazil is being used by the state development bank to finance deforestation projects and others that trample rights, concentrate wealth, and encourage "imperialist" expansion of large national companies, according to activists at a three-day meeting in this southeastern city. The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) promotes "a deadly kind of progress," complained indigenous leader Toninho GuaranÃ, describing what he regards as the abuses of the ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China plans dramatic emissions reduction
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/china-plans-dramatic-emissions-reduction/article1378329/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Globe and Mail: China has announced plans to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 per cent as measured against its economic output -- a commitment from the world's largest polluter that builds momentum ahead of a widely anticipated climate conference in Copenhagen next month. The announcement comes a day after U.S. President Barack Obama promised to lay out plans at the summit to substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions. China announced earlier today that Premier Wen Jiabao will take part in ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China says carbon "sinks" not covered by target
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP2WR20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: China's top climate envoy said on Thursday emissions absorbed by carbon "sinks" will not be covered by the country's carbon intensity target, which will be calculated using energy consumption and "production processes." Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, said that China's newly announced target would be calculated on a more narrow basis than the emissions goals of developed nations. "China's reductions are all the emissions ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
The world's looming "water gap"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/analysis/2254035/world-looming-water-gap
Business Green: There's good and bad news from a sweeping new report on the world's water scarcity out this week from McKinsey & Co., and commissioned by such water-dependent companies as Coca-Cola, Nestle, SAB Miller and Syngenta, along with the World Bank/International Finance Corp. The bad: Global demand for water already exceeds supply - about 1.1 billion people don't have access to clean water - and the so-called water gap is increasing at an accelerating rate. The good: ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
What do the US and China's targets mean?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/nov/26/us-china-targets-mean
Guardian: So we finally have the long-awaited emissions reduction offers from the US and China: a 17% reduction from 2005 levels from the US and a 40-45% reduction in "the carbon intensity of the economy" by 2020 from China. The momentum towards the UN climate talks in Copenhagen seems to be gaining by the hour and these developments must be welcomed. The EU's initial offer of a 20% cut on 1990 levels over the same time period – finalised last month – is the third important part of the jigsaw. ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Organic farming may help meet climate goals: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP30M20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The conversion of all UK farmland to organic farming would achieve the equivalent carbon savings to taking nearly one million cars off the road, the Soil Association said on Thursday. Britain's largest organic certification body, issuing results of a research project, said on average organic farming produces 28 percent higher levels of soil carbon compared with non-organic farming in northern Europe. "The widespread adoption of organic farming practices in the UK would offset ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Brazil renews tax breaks for "green" vehicles
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP31A20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega confirmed on Tuesday that the government will extend tax breaks to certain vehicles deemed environmentally friendly. The government will keep a tax break on flex-fuel cars with up to 1-liter engines until the end of March 2010 and extend tax breaks for trucks until June 2010. Flex-fuel cars can run on any mixture of gasoline and ethanol, which emits fewer greenhouse gases. Taxes on traditional gasoline-run cars will rise from ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China Announces Plans To Cut Carbon Emissions
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120869841&ft=1&f=1025
Associated Press: China announced plans Thursday to cut its carbon emissions by up to 45 percent as measured against its economic output -- a commitment from the world's largest polluter that builds momentum ahead of a widely anticipated climate conference in Copenhagen next month. The announcement comes a day after President Obama promised the U.S. would lay out plans to substantially cut its greenhouse gas emissions at the summit. China announced earlier Thursday that Premier Wen Jiabao will ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Forest area bigger than Canada can be restored
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP3AG20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Only one fifth of the world's forests remain but an area bigger than Canada could be restored without harming food production, a global alliance dedicated to restoring forests said on Thursday. A study by the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration (GPFLR), which includes the WWF, Britain's Forestry Commission and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said a billion hectares of former forests, equivalent to six percent of the world's total land area, could ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
The ultimate Christmas gift? Buy nothing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/nov/26/buy-nothing-day
Guardian: Tomorrow is Buy Nothing day in the United States. A group of people including myself will preach and sing at the front door of Macy's department store in New York. We do this every year. We'll be there at 5am, when shoppers who have been up all night wait in line rush the glass doors. This is the human comedy at its most sad, and it is an environmental "shopocalypse". Buy Nothing day is an old idea – that we should drop out of consumerism for 24 hours on Black Friday, the day when we ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Perry leads Texas fight against climate bill
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6740529.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Ftopheadlines+%28chron.com+-+Top+Stories%29
Houston Chronicle: While the U.S. Senate considers a climate bill aiming to dramatically slash air pollution linked to global warming, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other Republican leaders in the state that leads the nation in greenhouse gas production are watching closely -- and objecting loudly. Perry, backed by powerful business and industry groups, for months has been denouncing the measure, saying it would cripple the vibrant Texas economy and the heavy-polluting oil, gas and chemical industries it ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Denmark approves new police powers ahead of Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/26/denmark-police-powers-copenhagen
Guardian: The Danish parliament today passed legislation which will give police sweeping powers of "pre-emptive" arrest and extend custodial sentences for acts of civil disobedience. The "deeply worrying" law comes ahead of the UN climate talks which start on 7 December and are expected to attract thousands of activists from next week. Under the new powers, Danish police will be able to detain people for up to 12 hours whom they suspect might break the law in the near future. Protesters could ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Under pressure, Canada PM to attend climate talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP3EW20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose government is often criticized for dragging its feet on global warming, will attend U.N. talks next month in Copenhagen designed to find a successor to the Kyoto climate change protocol. Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas said on Thursday that no date for the prime minister's visit had yet been set. U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he would be in Copenhagen for the start of the meeting on December 9. "We will be attending ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
EU bio industry complains over U.S. duty evaders
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP3MA20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Europe's biofuels industry said on Thursday it would lodge a complaint with EU trade authorities against companies they say are evading duties slapped on U.S. biodiesel imports. The European Commission, which oversees trade policy for the 27-nation bloc, imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties of up to five years on imports of biodiesel from the United States in May. But the Brussels-based European Biodiesel Board (EBB) said it had strong indications subsidized and dumped ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
What Explains Past Climate Change?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=what-explains-past-climate-change-09-11-26
Scientific American: Roughly 1,000 years ago, Europe enjoyed several centuries of balmier average temperatures. Dubbed the "Medieval Warm Period," it was the last time before the present that agriculture could flourish in Greenland. This era also shows yet again that changes to natural systems can drive local climate change--and provided fodder for countless misunderstandings about the nature of present day global warming. But new research shows that the MWP, as it is affectionately known in acronym-happy ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Cumbria floods: Soldiers to start building bridge over Derwent in Workington
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/26/cumbria-floods-workington-derwent-bridge
Guardian: Two hundred soldiers start work in Workington tomorrow on round-the-clock building of a footbridge to end two weeks of misery for 30,000 people in the Cumbrian town, which has been sliced in two by floods. The lightweight Mabey span – successor to the military Bailey bridge – will end Ron Graham's squashed commute by train, restoring the 11-mile cycle ride which costs nothing and keeps him fit. Next Friday should be the last day that Alisha Smith's alarm goes off nearly two ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China: Beijing has seen the future and knows it must be green
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/26/copenhagen-china-us-climate-change
Guardian: China has finally put some numbers to its climate plans, a significant move in the multidimensional elaborate game of the Copenhagen climate summit. China, Hu Jintao promised yesterday, will deliver a 45% reduction in carbon intensity by 2020. The announcement was greeted with a muted sigh of disappointment. The target will not bring a reduction in China's emissions: reducing carbon intensity means only that carbon emissions will grow at a slower pace than the economy – in theory ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Past climate anomalies explained
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8381317.stm
BBC: Unusually warm and cold periods in Earth's pre-industrial climate history are linked to how the oceans responded to temperature changes, say scientists. The researchers focused particularly on intervals known as the "little ice age" and "medieval warm period". In the journal Science, they report that these climate "anomalies" were likely caused by changes to El Nino and the North Atlantic Oscillation. They say studying the past in this way could help refine climate ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Commonwealth sees island states on climate frontline
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP3VC20091126?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Commonwealth leaders will put the world's small island states at the frontline of the climate debate when they meet on Friday to press for an effective international pact against global warming. Around half of the 53-nation Commonwealth group, mainly former British colonies, are island nations scattered across the world's oceans. Some of these fear they could be swamped or even literally wiped off the map in coming decades if sea levels rise as a result of worsening climate ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Commonwealth tries to influence climate change talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091126/wl_uk_afp/commonwealthsummitunclimate
Agence France-Presse: The Commonwealth is trying to shape the direction of upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen by inviting top outside leaders to a weekend summit here, host Trinidad said on Thursday. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen have all been invited because "there was some concern about the way negotiations were going ahead of Copenhagen next month," Prime Minister Patrick Manning said. He told a news conference he put the ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
China's climate pledge to meet a quarter of global needs: IEA
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091126/sc_afp/unclimatewarminguschinaiea
Agence France-Presse: China's pledge on greenhouse gases means it would shoulder more than a quarter of the CO2 emissions cuts needed to avoid dangerous global warming, a top economist said Thursday. "China alone would be responsible for more than 25 percent of the reductions the world needs" to limit planetary warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), said Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA). "The world needs to decrease the emissions by 3.8 ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Sarkozy, Amazon leaders to issue rainforest plea
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091126/sc_afp/unclimatewarminglatamfrance
Agence France-Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in Brazil Thursday for a one-day meeting on climate change and Amazon forest conservation, hailed new US and Chinese proposals on combating global warming as "extremely encouraging." At a press conference, Sarkozy praised US President Barack Obama's "courage" for setting goals that would reduce US carbon emissions by 17 percent by 2020, while also offering positive words for China's proposed moves to reduce carbon emissions. "The latest ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Canada PM to attend Copenhagen climate meeting
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091126/ap_on_re_us/climate_canada_copenhagen
Associated Press: Canada's prime minister is reversing his position and will attend a United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen next month, Stephen Harper's spokesman said Thursday. Dimitri Soudas announced Harper decided to attend one day after U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced their attendance at the U.N. talks. Soudas said Harper's decision was based on the fact that now "a critical mass of world leaders will be attending." Soudas did not ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
New climate targets may not change daily life much
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZoCWGwSidNxoQ20t0YjwqjNHf7QD9C7G3A01
Associated Press: Americans' day-to-day lives won't change noticeably if President Barack Obama achieves his newly announced goal of slashing carbon dioxide pollution by one-sixth in the next decade, experts say. Except for rising energy bills. And how much they'll go up depends on who's doing the calculating. The White House will commit the U.S. to a goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 to about 17 percent below 2005 levels at a U.N.-sponsored climate change summit in Copenhagen ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Hacked emails denying climate change are skewed: scientists
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/11/26/climate-change-hack.html
CBC: Climate change scientists are on the defensive after hackers broke into a server of a British climate research centre over the weekend and posted hundreds of private emails that appear to show scientists have overstated the threat of man-made global warming. On Saturday, the University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said in a statement the hackers had entered the server and stolen data at its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research centre on climate change. The ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Scientists target Canada over climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/26/canada-criticised-over-climate-change
Guardian: Prominent campaigners, politicians and scientists have called for Canada to be suspended from the Commonwealth over its climate change policies. The coalition's demand came before this weekend's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Trinidad and Tobago, at which global warming will top the agenda, and next month's UN climate conference in Copenhagen. Despite criticism of Canada's environmental policies, the prime minister, Stephen Harper, is to attend the Copenhagen summit. His ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Climate change to hit Pacific islands food security
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AP2VD20091126
Reuters: Rising sea levels, ocean warming, cyclones and droughts caused by climate change is set to hit hard food security in the Pacific islands, the United Nations' food agency said, urging governments to take immediate actions. Climate change is expected to act as a "threat multiplier" in the Pacific region, home to 14 Pacific island countries and five territories (PICT), the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a special report issued ahead of U.N. climate change talks in ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Amazon, France summit on climate change begins in Brazil
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/27/content_12546749.htm
Xinhua: The Amazon basin and France Summit on climate change started on Thursday in Manaus with the presence of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Guyana leader Jean-Pierre Laflaquire and Brazilian President Lula da Silva, who has proposed the meeting. Representatives of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Bolivia also attend the summit. The Brazilian Minister of External Relations Celso Amorim said that French President Sarkozy's presence is very meaningful and bringing together ...

Fri, 27 Nov 09
Fears Forest Proposals Are 'Human Rights Disaster'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49425
Inter Press Service: The clean, ultra-modern chrome and glass lines of the Bella Centre, in the Danish capital Copenhagen, is a world away from the thronging canopy suspended over the tropical forests of Uganda, or the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Cameroon. But it's here in Scandinavia, in the shadow of the spinning blades of the convention centre's wind turbine, that the foundation for an international law governing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution will be thrashed out this December. The agreement, if ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
U.S. to propose 17 percent emissions cut in Copenhagen
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AO38C20091125?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The United States will pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020 at a U.N. climate change meeting in December, the White House said on Wednesday. Obama's negotiating position for the talks in Copenhagen has been hampered by slow progress on a climate bill in the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that sets a 17 percent reduction target for emissions by 2020 from 2005 levels. A Senate version aims for a 20 percent cut. The ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama To Outline U.S. Goals At Climate Summit
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120825417&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Obama will speak at the Copenhagen conference on Dec. 9, one day before claiming his Nobel Peace Prize in nearby Oslo. In a statement, the White House called Obama's decision "a sign of his continuing commitment and leadership to find a global solution to the global threat of climate change, and to lay the foundation for a new, sustainable and prosperous clean energy future." His attendance is designed to give positive momentum to international climate talks. Leaders are hoping ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Mass. moves to streamline renewable energy efforts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_renewable_energy_massachusetts
Associated Press: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill designed to streamline the state's push for renewable energy. The new law transfers the state's Renewable Energy Trust to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, creating a single agency responsible for encouraging the development of renewable energy technologies. The Clean Energy Center was created by the state's 2008 Green Jobs Act. Its main job is to support research, entrepreneurship, and job training using money from the ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Norway: Power of osmosis used to deliver eco-friendly energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/25/osmosis-plant-emission-free-energy
Guardian: The world's first test plant to harness osmotic power, a new emission-free source of energy, opened on Tuesday, in Norway. Nestled amid pine-covered hills on the banks of the Oslo fjord, 60km south of the Norwegian capital, the facility will exploit the energy produced when fresh water meets seawater. Statkraft, the Norwegian energy firm behind the test plant, says osmotic power could produce up to 1,600–1,700 terawatt hours worldwide – the equivalent of half of the energy generated ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Researchers must stay on the moral high ground
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427363.200-researchers-must-stay-on-the-moral-high-ground.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: The disclosure of personal emails can be embarrassing. And so it proved this week when hundreds of them, accumulated over more than a decade in the files of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, UK, tumbled into the public domain as a result of an illegal hack. Climate change deniers claim that the emails expose a conspiracy at work to make human-induced global warming a fact. A columnist for the Guardian newspaper in London said that the emails could ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama to Go to Copenhagen With Pledge of Emissions Cuts
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/us/politics/26climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: President Obama is pledging a provisional target for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, the first time in more than a decade that an American administration has offered even a tentative promise to reduce production of climate-altering gases, the White House announced Wednesday. At the international climate meetings in Copenhagen next month, Mr. Obama will tell the delegates that the United States intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions "in the range ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
America's increasing food waste is laying waste to the environment
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091124204314.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Food waste contributes to excess consumption of freshwater and fossil fuels which, along with methane and carbon dioxide emissions from decomposing food, impacts global climate change. In a new paper published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal PLoS One, Kevin Hall and colleagues at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases calculate the energy content of nationwide food waste from the difference between the US food supply and the food eaten by the ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Land of plenty: 50 percent rise in the amount of food wasted in America worsens global warming, consumes freshwater
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1125-hance_foodwaste.html
Mongabay: Just before Thanksgiving a new study shows that Americans are throwing away more food than ever. Since 1974 the amount of food Americans water per capita has risen by approximately 50 percent, according to a new study in PLoS ONE. Researchers found that food waste is adding to America's greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for over one quarter of the nation's freshwater consumption every year. Today Americans waste 1400 calories of food per person every day: 150 trillion calories per ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama offers fixed targets for US emissions cuts
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18198-obama-offers-fixed-targets-for-us-emissions-cuts.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: President Barack Obama has given a major boost to next month's UN climate change negotiations in Copenhagen by offering firm targets for cuts in US greenhouse gas emissions. The move, announced today, has been widely welcomed by climate change campaigners. But although they may seem generous, the proposed targets are in fact far from what developing nations and climate scientists have called for. Obama said the US was prepared to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 17 per cent by ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
'Icebergs heading to New Zealand'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8379690.stm
BBC: A warning has been issued to ships in the southern Pacific Ocean after more than 100 icebergs were spotted drifting towards New Zealand. The icebergs, some of which are 200m (650ft) in size, are believed to have broken from an Antarctic ice floe. Many scientists have said they believe these segments will break up long before reaching the New Zealand coastline. The last time such a large flotilla was spotted so nearby was in 2006. Maritime New Zealand has issued ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
New Zealand passes carbon law through key stage
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AO3UJ20091125?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: New Zealand's revised emissions trading plan is set to become law after parliament on Wednesday approved details of the scheme. A formal parliamentary vote is expected later today. The governing minority National Party with the backing of the small Maori Party saw the legislation pass a detailed clause-by-clause examination, without amendments, making its final passage into law a foregone conclusion. "It is a critical and important first step in our nation's effort to do ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
New Zealand: Rare iceberg flotilla in southern Pacific poses threat to shipping
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/25/iceberg-warning-shipping-new-zealand
Associated Press: A flotilla of hundreds of icebergs that have broken away from Antarctic ice shelves is drifting toward New Zealand and poses a risk to ships in the south Pacific Ocean, maritime authorities have warned. The area is not a major shipping lane and few sailors are out in November – spring in the southern hemisphere – but ships that traverse the area have little hull protection. An official navigation warning for the area south of New Zealand is "an alert to shipping to be aware ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
China: Rich nations must cap pollution emissions
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2009/11/25/china_rich_nations_must_cap_pollution_emissions/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: China will seek binding pollution targets for developed countries and reject similar requirements for itself at an international climate summit next month, China's top climate envoy said Wednesday. Yu Qingtai said it is unfair that all countries be required to play a role combating global warming since most of the environmental damage was caused by developed nations during their industrialization over the last 100 to 200 years. "Developed countries should not make requirements ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Curbing global warming saves lives, studies say
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091125/ap_on_sc/sci_climate_health
Associated Press: Cutting global warming pollution would not only make the planet healthier, it would make people healthier too, new research suggests. Slashing carbon dioxide emissions could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, according to studies released Wednesday and published in a special issue of The Lancet British medical journal. Global and U.S. health officials unveiled the results as they pushed for health issues to take a more ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama offers U.S. climate cut, to attend Copenhagen
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSGEE5AO1RB20091125?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The United States unveiled its proposal to cut greenhouse gases by 2020 on Wednesday and said President Barack Obama will attend U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next month -- before other world leaders show up. Obama will go to the December 7-18 talks in Denmark on December 9, the eve of a ceremony in nearby Oslo, Norway, where he will collect the Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. He is not scheduled to return, however, for the final days when most of the hard ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Group's Video Equates Flying And Polar Bears
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120846009&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: A British environmental group has produced a video that shows falling polar bears slamming into the sides of buildings, onto the sidewalk or into the top of a parked car. The group, Plane Stupid, equates the weight of each bear, 400 kilograms, to the amount of greenhouse gases produced by an average European flight for each passenger it carries. Andrew Revkin, a New York Times reporter who covers the environment, looks at the facts.

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Gore praises Obama for plans to attend climate change talks
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091125/NEWS01/91125093/1001/NEWS
Tennessean: An announcement from President Obama that he will attend the global warming treaty talks in Copenhagen is bringing praise from former Vice President Al Gore. "This action is another example of the significant change in policy on the climate crisis," he said in a statement released today. "It began in February with the inclusion of huge new provisions in the stimulus package, which are helping to jumpstart green jobs, energy efficiency, the building of a US supergrid and new ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Small island states lobby Canada for deeper CO2 cuts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091125/wl_canada_afp/unclimatewarmingcanadaaosis
Agence France-Presse: An Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) representative on Wednesday appealed to Canada to aim for deeper cuts in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at upcoming international climate talks in Copenhagen. Al Binger, an advisor from Jamaica to the AOSIS met with opposition Liberal and New Democratic Party MPs, and was scheduled to speak later to Ottawa's diplomatic corps. "For many in developed countries this is an intellectual exercise," he told a press conference. "For us in ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Stolen E-Mails Raise Questions On Climate Research
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120846593&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: A huge pile of e-mails were stolen from a British climate laboratory and posted on the Internet last week. The correspondence shows that some climate scientists are resorting to bare-knuckle tactics to defend the orthodoxy of global warming. In particular, a group of scientists who support the consensus view of climate change have been working together to influence what gets published in science journals. Journals are supposed to be impartial filters that let good ideas rise to ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Reforestation effort would lower Britain's greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1125-hance_britain.html
Mongabay: A study by Britain's Forestry Commission found that planting 23,000 hectares of forest every year for the next 40 years would lower the island nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent, according to reporting by the BBC. The tree-planting effort would also raise Britain's total amount of forest cover from 12 percent to 16 percent by 2050, provide habitat for wildlife, and add new flood protections to increasingly vulnerable areas. In the past century, Britain has already raised ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
W.Va. seeks more comment on coal-to-gas plant
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_coal_to_gasoline_west_virginia
Associated Press: The West Virginia Division of Air Quality is giving the public more time to weigh in on an air pollution permit for a planned coal-to-gasoline plant in the southern coalfields. The public comment period was originally slated to end on Nov. 30. The division said Wednesday it's pushed the decision to Dec. 18 for written comments. New York-based TransGas Development LLC announced last year it planned to build the plant in Mingo County near Wharncliffe. The facility is ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama to Offer 17% Emissions-Cut Goal in Copenhagen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20091125/pl_bloomberg/adgl9i_sxug
Bloomberg: President Barack Obama will attend climate-change talks in Copenhagen next month, offering an emissions-cut goal of about 17 percent by 2020 after legislation to reduce greenhouse gases stalled in Congress. The president will travel to the Danish capital on Dec. 9 during the first week of negotiations for a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters today. Obama will then accept the Nobel Peace prize in nearby ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
U.S. heating oil prices up this Thanksgiving
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AO4HZ20091125?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Americans are paying slightly higher prices this Thanksgiving to warm their homes with heating oil than they did last year, the Energy Department said on Wednesday. The nationwide heating oil price of $2.75 a gallon was up 3.4 cents a gallon from a year ago and up 0.3 cent from the previous week, according to the Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of U.S. heating fuel costs. EIA, the Energy Department's analytical arm, said District of Columbia residents again ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Kenya: Ecotourism Seen as Best Bet Against Climate Change
http://allafrica.com/stories/200911251020.html
Business Daily: The tourism sector is seeking sustainable ways of doing business in the face of growing concerns over environmental degradation. Climate change is one of the major challenges the sector is facing and has to contend with in order to survive. This has spurred industry players into looking at innovative ways as means to effectively respond to these concerns and priorities that have been the subjects of debate across the globe. "We cannot continue how we use to, we need to ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama to vow greenhouse emissions cuts in Denmark
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_copenhagen
Associated Press: Putting his prestige on the line, President Barack Obama will personally commit the U.S. to a goal of substantially cutting greenhouse gases at next month's Copenhagen climate summit. He will insist America is ready to tackle global warming despite resistance in Congress over higher costs for businesses and homeowners. Obama will attend the start of the conference Dec. 9, a week from next Wednesday, before heading to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. He will "put on the table" a ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Agencies call for more aid to fight climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iVOXF1JVSNRSV4zsYgapEAC8lWDgD9C6NARO0
Associated Press: A global network of aid agencies on Wednesday called on governments to do more to reduce the impact natural disasters caused by climate change will have on poor countries. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said governments can do this by tackling food shortages, supplying clean water and increasing awareness among citizens about how to cope with disasters. "We cannot stop climate change, we can only slow down the speed of climate change," said ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
NZ can hold head high at climate talks - minister
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/11/26/1245d46f0fc4
Radio New Zealand: The Minister of Climate Change says New Zealand can attend an international conference on climate change with its head held high. The National-led Government's amended Emissions Trading Scheme passed its final reading in Parliament by 63 votes to 58 on Wednesday night, with the support of the Maori Party and United Future. Climate Change Issues Minister Nick Smith, who will lead the delegation to the climate change conference in Copenhagen next month, says this country has had ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Avista joins climate change lobbying group
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_avista_climate_change.html
Associated Press: Spokane-based utility Avista Corp. has joined 19 other companies in a lobbying group to back federal cap-and-trade legislation, which would limit carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. The group, called American Businesses for Clean Energy, started up earlier this month. Much of Avista's electricity comes from hydropower. But company executive Tom Paine tells The Spokesman-Review that it doesn't want to be penalized for having a low carbon footprint while heavily ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Australia: Canberra Carbon 'Leadership'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574556883319744094.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: The Copenhagen climate-change deal is crumbling, but no matter: Australia's Labor government wants to pass its very own cap-and-trade bill this week, even though it won't curb global warming but will raise energy prices and cost thousands of jobs. That's the crux of the Carbon Reduction Pollution Scheme that the Senate could vote on as early as today. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has framed the vote in moral terms, calling it Tuesday "a fundamental existential question for the future," ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Climate change will lead to civil wars in Africa, says research
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6653298/Climate-change-will-lead-to-civil-wars-in-Africa-says-research.html
Telegraph: A rise of as little as 1C could make civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa more than 50 per cent more likely, according to the study. Marshall Burke, a University of California economist and the study's lead author, said: "Our study finds that climate change could increase the risk of African civil war by over 50 percent in 2030 relative to 1990, with huge potential costs to human livelihoods." Small changes to temperature will affect crop growth, and most of sub-Saharan ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Obama to Visit Copenhagen with U.S. Targets
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49418
Inter Press Service: After weeks of speculation, the White House announced Wednesday that President Barack Obama will stop by the climate talks to be held in Copenhagen next month en route to Oslo, where he will receive his Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10. The announcement comes after Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen sent invitations to the leaders of 191 countries last week requesting their attendance at the Dec. 7–18 U.N.-led summit. Sunday, he announced over 60 had confirmed so far. But ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
"No Politics in the Melting of the Ice Sheet"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49409
Inter Press Service: As climate scientists defend their work from sceptics in the aftermath of researchers' emails being stolen over the weekend, a new report hopes to provide an update on science's latest climate-related findings. "The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science" is intended to fill the gap between the last assessment of climate research by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in 2007, and the climate summit in Copenhagen less than two ...

Thu, 26 Nov 09
Latin America's Perpetual Fever
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49408
Inter Press Service: "To use a soccer metaphor, which Brazilian politicians like so much, the Kyoto Protocol was the 10-minute warm-up before the real game begins," said scientist Carlos Nobre in reference to global climate change treaties. "The real game should begin now, although there are many who would rather remain in the warm-up phase indefinitely," added the Brazilian expert, who was among the authors of the 1990, 2001 and 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Shame companies into using sustainable palm oil, says minister
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/shame-companies-into-using-sustainable-palm-oil-says-minister-1826276.html
Independent (UK): Multinational companies should be "named and shamed' into sourcing sustainable palm oil to protect the world's tropical rainforests, says Britain's Energy Minister, Joan Ruddock. In an interview with the The Independent, Ms Ruddock, who saw the devastation of virgin rainforest first hand on a trip to Indonesia last week, urged companies to improve their sourcing of the world's cheapest vegetable oil. She backed the new league rankings introduced by the World Wide Fund for ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Oceans absorbing carbon dioxide more slowly, scientist finds
http://www.physorg.com/news178293345.html
Physorg: The world's oceans are absorbing less carbon dioxide (CO2), a Yale geophysicist has found after pooling data taken over the past 50 years. With the oceans currently absorbing over 40 percent of the CO2 emitted by human activity, this could quicken the pace of climate change, according to the study, which appears in the November 25 issue of Geophysical Research Letters. Jeffrey Park, professor of geology and geophysics and director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, used ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Key scientist says politics behind stolen e-mails
http://www.physorg.com/news178269251.html
Associated Press: A leading climate change scientist said hackers breaking into a university's computer server and then posting documents online show the nasty politics of global warming. Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said the hackers' intentions may have been to influence discussions in an upcoming global climate change summit in Denmark. "It comes down to politics at sort of all levels, and some of it's ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Intensive land management leaves Europe without carbon sinks
http://www.physorg.com/news178200670.html
Physorg: A new calculation of Europe's greenhouse gas balance shows that emissions of methane and nitrous oxide tip the balance and eliminate Europe's terrestrial sink of greenhouse gases. Of all global carbon dioxide emissions, less than half accumulate in the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming. The remainder is hidden away in oceans and terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, grasslands and peat-lands. Stimulating this "free service" of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems is ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Society faces 'grim' post-fossil fuel energy crisis, report warns
http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=17305
Edie: Society faces a future energy crisis because renewable energy will not be enough to replace dwindling fossil fuel supplies, a new US study warns. Industrial society cannot be maintained at present levels in a future where renewable resources take over from fossil fuels, according to the report by two leading California-based think tanks. Jerry Mander, founder of the International Forum on Globalisation, which published the report this month, writes in the foreword: "With fossil ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Mankind using Earth's resources at alarming rate
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091124/tsc-mankind-using-earth-s-resources-at-a-e123fef.html
Agence France-Presse: Humanity would need five Earths to produce the resources needed if everyone lived as profligately as Americans, according to a report issued Tuesday. As it is, humanity each year uses resources equivalent to nearly one-and-a-half Earths to meet its needs, said the report by Global Footprint Network, an international think tank. "We are demanding nature's services -- using resources and creating CO2 emissions -- at a rate 44 percent faster than what nature can regenerate and ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
NASA Releases Climate Change Multimedia Resource Reel
http://www.physorg.com/news178302542.html
Physorg: In advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, NASA has released a new multimedia climate change "resource reel" showcasing free downloadable videos, data visualizations, animations, and still images that illustrate key climate change concepts and discoveries. NASA created the reel to provide journalists, educators, and the general public with copyright-free media content in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which begins ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
NSW drought conditions worsening: govt
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/drought-worsening-in-nsw-govt-data-20091123-itun.html
Brisbane Times: Farmers will battle through the drought because they believe current dry conditions are mostly cyclical and not the effect of climate change, the NSW Farmers Association says. Latest figures released on Monday show that drought in NSW is worsening, with 73.6 per cent of the state now affected, compared with the October figure of 67.7 per cent. A further 24.5 per cent of the state is marginal, meaning just 1.9 per cent of NSW is considered to be satisfactory. The figures, ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Faster sea-ice melt disputes email 'stop in a teacup'
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/faster-sea-ice-melt-disputes-email-storm-in-a-teacup/story-e6frg8y6-1225803490728?from=public_rss
Australian: THE impact of global warming on the world's oceans and ice is happening faster than expected, 26 international climate scientists have warned in a report ahead of next month's Copenhagen conference. The group based the findings of "The Copenhagen Diagnosis", released today, on a synthesis of relevant climate science published since the close-off of inclusion in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007. "In a nutshell, all the ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
65 leaders confirm attendance at climate talks amid worries about outcome
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4917171,00.html?maca=en-en_nr-1893-xml-atom
Deutsche Welle: Chancellor Merkel will attend the talks Hoping to provide some momentum ahead of December's UN climate conference in Copenhagen, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen announced that more than 60 leaders would be attending the talks. Among those who confirmed their attendance were the leaders of Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan and Spain, a Danish government official told Reuters on Sunday. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Billions in Canadian assets at risk from global warming: report
http://www.canada.com/business/fp/Billions+Canadian+assets+risk+from+global+warming+report/2257427/story.html
Financial Post: More than $200-billion worth of Canadian assets are at risk from global warming, says an international report released Monday. The report, released jointly by a major insurance firm and an environmental group, ranked Canada as 12th in the world in terms of assets in jeopardy because of rising sea levels predicted by climate scientists. But overall, it warned that the planet's atmosphere and ecosystems were close to dangerous "tipping points" that could cause see level rises of ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Planet approaching point of no return, experts warn
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/planet-approaching-point-of-no-return-experts-warn-20091124-jhes.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE Earth's temperature is continuing to rise, the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass at an increasing rate and the global warming could reach as high as 7 degrees by the turn of the century if greenhouse gases grow unabated, a r review of climate science over the past three years has found. A temperature rise on this scale would wipe out much of the agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin, cause thousands of heat-related deaths and bring sea level rises that would ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Pressure mounts for IT inclusion in Copenhagen agreement
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253904/top-level-pressure-grows-ict
Business Green: The IT industry will be mentioned in the draft climate treaty that will form the basis for negotiations at next month's UN summit in Copenhagen, following a successful lobbying campaign from the international body that regulates the IT and telecommunications industry. The International Telecommunications Union said that the main aim of its push to have IT included in the treaty is to see energy-efficient IT projects included in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) offsetting scheme, ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Norway debuts world's first osmotic power plant
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253903/norway-debuts-world-first
Business Green: In what is being hailed as a world first, Norwegian energy giant Statkraft yesterday formally opened a prototype plant capable of generating zero-carbon energy through the power of osmosis. The plant at Tofte, outside Oslo, was opened by Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and will be used for further testing and development research with a view to launching a commercial-scale demonstration plant within the next few years. The prototype power plant employs a semi-permeable ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
EU: US should spell out long-term climate goal
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/11/24/eu_climate_deal_hinges_on_us_china/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: The United States should be ready to spell out its long-term vision for reducing carbon emissions over the next two decades, not just until 2020, the European Union said Tuesday. With two weeks to go before a global climate conference, the EU urged Washington and Beijing to come to the Copenhagen event with meaningful bids to check their greenhouse gas emissions. All countries are being asked to report to the summit on what actions they will take over the next decade to reduce ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Report: UK firms guilty of ignoring climate risks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253843/report-uk-firms-ignoring
Business Green: UK firms and investors are failing to take the effects of climate change properly into account when making investment decisions, according to a major new report released today. The report, produced by investment firms Henderson Global Investors, Insight Investment and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), alongside environmental risk consultancy Acclimatise, argues that changes of temperature brought about by climate change have not been included in many firms' medium- to ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Norway opens world's first osmotic power plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AN20Q20091124?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Norway opened on Tuesday the world's first osmotic power plant, which produces emissions-free electricity by mixing fresh water and sea water through a special membrane. State-owned utility Statkraft's prototype plant, which for now will produce a tiny 2-4 kilowatts of power or enough to run a coffee machine, will enable Statkraft to test and develop the technology needed to drive down production costs. The plant is driven by osmosis that naturally draws fresh water across a ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Australia's climate legislation reform looms with compromise carbon deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/24/australia-climate-reform-deal
Associated Press: Australia's government today took a key step toward passing legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions by negotiating a compromise deal with the opposition Liberal Party. The prime minister, Kevin Rudd, also urged lawmakers to support the bill. The Senate rejected similar legislation in a vote in August with only the governing Labor party's 32 senators supporting the bills in the 76-seat Senate. The government today released details of a compromise deal negotiated with the ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Australian PM urges parliament to approve carbon cuts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091124/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingaustralia
Agence France-Presse: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged parliament Tuesday to approve legislation aiming to slash carbon pollution by up to 25 percent by 2020 ahead of next month's global talks on climate change. Rudd said Australia had to get "real" about climate change by introducing the cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions, as the opposition coalition agonised over supporting the bill being debated in the Senate. "Climate change and our action on it will go way beyond any of ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
US ponders climate talks target
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091124/sc_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: The United States is to announce concrete targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions as pressure mounts on polluters to find a formula for success two weeks ahead of a crucial climate summit. China has put the issue on the agenda of a summit meeting with the European Union next week and leaders of the 53 members of the Commonwealth, representing around two billion people, are set to address it at their weekend gathering in Trinidad. And Australia, the world's heaviest per ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
EU welcomes U.S. pledge to set emissions target
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AN2CX20091124?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The European Union said on Tuesday a U.S. pledge to propose an emissions target at U.N climate change talks in Copenhagen in December could improve the chances of success at the meeting. But the 27-country bloc's senior environment official also said there could be delays in putting the pledge into law and cautioned that the Copenhagen talks would be a failure if there was no agreement on funding. A senior U.S. official said on Monday U.S. negotiators would propose an emissions ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
What makes this bird so special?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112003726.html
Washington Post: The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds -- a rehabilitation center complete with small swimming pools and medical files on all of its patients -- is where African penguins come to get better. There are penguins that have been soiled by oil tanker spills and ones that have inadvertently gotten on a freighter and ended up out of their natural range. The staff and volunteers here lovingly restore them to health and, when possible, release these feathered ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Brazil: Amazon forest schemes await strong climate pact
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AN05S20091124?sp=true
Reuters: The boat plows on through the brackish green river, taking Jose de Oliveira Quadro on a journey that may have been futile a few years ago. Strangers have been fishing in his village's lake and Quadro is on a two-hour ride to recruit help from the nearest police post in Brazil's vast Amazon forest. He admits he probably wouldn't have bothered before his river-side community was made part of a pioneering scheme that pays each family about $30 a month to act as forest ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
A final warning from the Arctic
http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/the-future-of-the-arctic
New Scientist: The Greenland ice sheet is five kilometres thick and melting fast. The effect of adding all that water to the oceans may become terrifyingly apparent around the world in the coming decades, but the effects of climate warming are already clear in the Arctic itself. Here's the evidence, in words and pictures by Alun Anderson, former editor-in-chief of New Scientist and author of After the Ice: Life, death and politics in the new Arctic (published this month by HarperCollins-Smithsonian in the ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Australia: Coal industry given concessions under ETS deal
http://www.businessday.com.au/business/coal-industry-scores-sweetener-in-ets-deal-20091124-jejg.html
Business Day: The coal industry, electricity generators and farmers are the big winners from an emissions trading deal struck between the Rudd government and the opposition leadership. As expected, agriculture has been excluded from the government's carbon pollution reduction scheme, the coal industry will get $1.5 billion over the next five years and total assistance to electricity generators will be worth $7.3 billion. "This no doubt makes it easier for some of those large companies, but ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
CO2 curve ticks upward as key climate talks loom
http://www.3news.co.nz/CO2-curve-ticks-upward-as-key-climate-talks-loom/tabid/417/articleID/131074/cat/772/Default.aspx
Associated Press: The readings at this 3 km high station show an upward curve as the world counts down to climate talks: Global warming gases have built up to record levels in the atmosphere, from emissions that match scientists' worst-case scenarios. Carbon dioxide concentrations this autumn are hovering at around 385 parts per million, on their way to a near-certain record high above 390 in the first half of next year, at the annual peak. "For the past million years we've never seen 390. You ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Arctic ice volume lowest ever as globe warms: U.N
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/55612
Reuters: Ice volume around the Arctic region hit the lowest level ever recorded this year as climate extremes brought death and devastation to many parts of the world, the U.N. weather agency WMO said on Tuesday. Although the world's average temperature in 2008 was, at 14.3 degrees Celsius (57.7 degrees Fahrenheit), by a fraction of a degree the coolest so far this century, the direction toward a warmer climate remained steady, it reported. "What is happening in the Arctic is one of the ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Lawmakers probe climate emails
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125902685372961609.html
Wall Street Journal: Congressional Republicans have started investigating climate scientists whose hacked emails suggest they tried to squelch dissenting views about global warming. An aide to Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said investigators are studying the documents, which unknown hackers stole last week from the computer of a prominent British climate-research center. Investigators are focusing on the correspondence ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand
http://www.denverpost.com/rawnews/ci_13856621
Associated Press: Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that hundreds of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday. The nearest one, measuring about 30 yards (meters) tall, was 160 miles (260 kilometers) southeast of New Zealand's Stewart Island and was part of a "flotilla" of icebergs that can be seen on satellite images, Australian glaciologist Neal Young said. The alert comes three years after cold ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Dispelling myths about India and climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/24/india-climate-change-barack-obama-copenhagen
Guardian: Today, President Obama will host the first state visit of his presidency, rolling out the red carpet for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India. Climate change will be high on the agenda for the leaders of the world's two biggest democracies. And the timing is auspicious, coming only two weeks before the start of the high stakes global climate summit in Copenhagen. With some trying to dampen expectations that the world will seal a new climate agreement in the Danish capital, a ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Opposition backs Australian carbon reduction bill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_bi_ge/as_australia_climate
Associated Press: Australia's opposition leader Tuesday pledged his party's support for contentious legislation proposed by the government aimed at curbing the country's greenhouse gas emissions. Australia is one of the world's worst carbon dioxide polluters per capita because of its heavy reliance on its abundant coal reserves. As the driest continent after Antarctica, it is also considered one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. Malcolm Turnbull said his Liberal Party senators ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Obama welcomes Indian PM at start of state visit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_india
Associated Press: President Barack Obama showered praise on India and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an elaborate welcoming ceremony Tuesday, declaring it was only fitting the Indian leader should be the first state visitor of his administration. Obama said the United States and India share the "bold experiments" of becoming democracies after breaking from rule by a colonial power, and in modern times both have known the pain of international terrorism. "Our nations are two global leaders, ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Quebec sets 2020 greenhouse gas emission targets
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091124/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_quebec
Reuters: The Canadian province of Quebec said on Monday it aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the same target as that set by the European Union. "It is a very ambitious target for the government, given that 48 percent of Quebec's total energy currently comes from renewable energy sources," Quebec Premier Jean Charest said in a statement. Much of Quebec's power comes from massive hydroelectric projects. Quebecers emit approximately 11 ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Climate Change Could Boost Incidence of Civil War in Africa
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123152224.htm
ScienceDaily: Climate change could increase the likelihood of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa by over 50 percent within the next two decades, according to a new study led by a team of researchers at University of California, Berkeley, and published in the Nov. 23 online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, conducted by researchers at UC Berkeley as well as at Stanford University, New York University and Harvard University, provides the first ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
China, EU to discuss protectionism, climate change
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9C5ST681.htm
Associated Press: China hopes to forge a common stance with Europe against protectionism and discuss ways to tackle climate change at a summit next week, a senior diplomat said Tuesday. Leaders also will discuss macroeconomic policy and the value of the Chinese yuan at the meeting Monday in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told reporters. "China is an open market and we want to work with our European counterparts to oppose protectionism," said Sun Yongfu, a ...

Wed, 25 Nov 09
Australian carbon scheme set to pass
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1746
Carbon Positive: The Australian government appears to have secured the Senate numbers it needs to pass its proposed emissions trading scheme in a vote this week after reaching agreement with the main opposition party's leadership over amendments to ease the burden on industry. A near month-long negotiation between climate change minister Penny Wong and opposition climate spokesman Ian MacFarlane wound up today when the opposition's shadow cabinet accepted a package of amendments that significantly ...

Tue, 24 Nov 09
Australia: Heatwaves an ominous sign
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/819/42103
Green Left Magazine: Adelaide's Central Bus Station is an austere but pleasing building built recently near the middle of town. No longer merely for coach travellers, the structure is now to be Adelaide's version of the New Orleans Superdome -- a place of public refuge from what threatens, in time, to be another full-scale natural catastrophe. The air-conditioned bus station is now kept open 24 hours a day, with cold water supplied, to give relief to city residents at risk from the latest of Adelaide's ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
In Germany, going green gets expensive
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112002893.html
Washington Post: In this nation that embraced one of the world's most aggressive campaigns against global warming, the Pokropp family can almost hear the cha-ching when switching off their lights. A kilowatt of electricity costs three times as much here as it does in the United States, supercharged with high taxes to discourage use and to help fund renewable energy development. Meanwhile, a 50 percent "eco-tax" has sent the price of gasoline soaring to $8 a gallon. To manage costs, the family of three ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Pakistan: Rural poor more vulnerable to climate change
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=209819
The News: Poverty stricken people, living in the rural and coastal areas of Pakistan, are more prone to the devastating effects of climate change. It has been noted in various studies and researches that people linked to agriculture and fishing may be the worst hit by global warming and food security issues. The rising temperature and non-consistent precipitation are feared to affect them, resulting in falling agricultural produce and rising sea levels. Cognisant of the situation arising ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Australia: Extremes back climate experts' warnings
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/extremes-back-climate-experts-warnings/story-e6frg6nf-1225801855190
Australian: IT was a weekend of extremes. Melbourne copped a month's worth of rain in just 17 hours, NSW grappled with "catastrophic" bushfire conditions and record November temperatures -- and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong linked the unpredictable weather patterns to the effects of global warming. Sydney's average maximum temperature was a little more than 40C yesterday, making it the city's hottest November day in 27 years, while crews in Melbourne were still mopping up last night after a ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Chinese coalmine death toll soars to 87
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/china-coalmine-death-toll
Guardian: Hundreds of rescuers in northern China are battling to reach 21 miners trapped after a huge gas explosion early yesterday killed at least 87 of their colleagues. But the prospects of finding more survivors of the deadliest blast in almost two years are rapidly diminishing. The workers are thought to be about a third of a mile underground in the pit in Heilongjiang province, near the Russian border. China's mining industry is the deadliest in the world, with more than 3,000 ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Britain poised to lose jobs as Â£10bn nuclear power plant contract goes to US
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/22/britain-loses-jobs-as-nuclear-building-programme-contract-goes-to-america
Guardian: Thousands of jobs that were to have been created in Britain to build the next generation of nuclear power plants could be heading overseas instead, after Westinghouse, the nuclear company sold by the government three years ago to Toshiba, chose one of its largest shareholders as the lead contractor to build reactors. Westinghouse is expected to confirm this week that it has appointed US-based Shaw Group to head up its Â£10bn nuclear programme, passing over the favourite for the ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
United States: Radiation detected at Three Mile Island; public OK
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091122/ap_on_bi_ge/us_three_mile_island_radiation
Associated Press: A small amount of radiation has been detected in a reactor building at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in central Pennsylvania. Officials say there is no public health risk. About 150 employees were sent home after the radiation was detected Saturday afternoon. Exelon Nuclear spokeswoman Beth Archer says investigators are searching for the cause. She says the radiation was quickly contained. Radiological surveys showed the contamination was confined to surfaces ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
'Climate change fueling conflict'
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2009/11/20091122135135472602.html
Al Jazeera: Billions of people around the world are facing political instability as a result of climate change, and international negotiations are failing to address the issue, a prominent peace-building organisation has said. In a report entitled Climate Change, Conflict and Fragility due to be released this week, International Alert says that poorer, badly governed countries are at risk of falling victim to climate related conflict. "Effects of climate change such as more frequent ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Indian climate guru hopes to steer world away from steak
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/indian-climate-guru-hopes-to-steer-world-away-from-steak-20091122-issc.html
Sydney Morning Herald: As the world struggles to come up with a climate change deal, India's Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, has challenged it to follow the example of millions in his country and refuse to eat beef in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Mr Ramesh, a vegetarian, says those who refrain from eating beef are helping to fight climate change. "The single most important measure that can be taken in the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to stop eating beef," he ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Philippines: GMA seeks binding deal in Denmark
http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/top-news/18830-gma-seeks-binding-deal-in-denmark.html
Business Mirror: PRESIDENT Arroyo plans to push for a "binding and legal" agreement that would save the world from catastrophic climate change should she attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) next month, MalacaÃ±ang announced on Sunday. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said, "She doesn't want mere promises without any commitments. So that is the Philippine and personal position." It may just be a forlorn effort. He added the President's possible participation in ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Security 'cover-up' at nuclear plants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/22/security-cover-up-nuclear-plants
Guardian: The government is refusing to provide details on five separate security breaches at Britain's nuclear power stations last year. The breaches have prompted accusations that ministers are suppressing damaging information at a time when they are attempting to sell the idea of more nuclear power stations. Earlier this month, 10 new sites in England and Wales were approved. The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, told MPs that nuclear was a "proven and reliable" energy source. But the ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
After the deluge, Ireland's sodden south and west mop up
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/22/ireland-deluge-mop-up-begins
Guardian: Large tracts of the south and west of Ireland stood submerged last night as 300 Irish troops, backed up by helicopters and boats, were on standby to rescue more people caught up in floods. As more than 18,000 homes in Cork prepared to start the week without water supplies after flooding damaged a pumping station in the city, the overall cost of the damage was being calculated. Experts were estimating the extreme weather could cost the country up to EUR100m, breaking the EUR98m record ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Obama ready to offer target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/22/obama-greenhouse-gas-cut-target
Guardian: President Barack Obama is considering setting a provisional target for cutting America's huge greenhouse gas emissions, removing the greatest single obstacle to a landmark global agreement to fight climate change. The Observer has learnt that administration officials have been consulting international negotiators and key players on Capitol Hill about signing up to a provisional target at the UN global warming summit in Copenhagen, now less than three weeks away. Todd Stern, the ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
United Kingdom: After the deluge, a sodden Cumbria begins to clear up
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/22/cumbria-flood-cleanup-begins
Guardian: They began the search at midday, just as the new rains came. Teams of RAF personnel were ordered to search flood-hit Cockermouth and check its streets for signs of life. The men knocked loudly on the doors of homes whose ground floors had hours earlier been under water and shouted for replies at empty buildings. Early reports indicated that some residents were still stranded at the Old Mill homes just outside the town, but that a police boat team had managed to feed them the night ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Emissions increase despite financial crisis
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091111114910.htm
ScienceDaily: A new study from Norwegian and New Zealand scientists provides updated numbers for CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. While the global financial crisis may have slowed down the emission growth, it has not been sufficient to stop it: From 2007 to 2008 global emissions from fossil fuels increased by 2.2 percent. From 2003 to 2007, the average fossil emissions increased by 3.7 percent a year. "The financial crisis started in the latter part of 2008, so the full effect of the financial ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
China harnesses mountain wind power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091122/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingchinaenergywind
Various: In the mountains above the southwestern Chinese town of Dali, dozens of new wind turbines dot the landscape -- a symbol of the country's sky-high ambitions for clean, green energy. At an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,800 feet), Dali Zhemoshan is the highest wind farm in China, where renewable energy has become a priority for a government keen to reduce its carbon emissions and which has taken full advantage of the global trade in carbon credits. "Wind resources in Yunnan province ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
In the trenches on climate change, hostility among foes
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/21/AR2009112102186.html?wprss=rss_technology
Washington Post: Electronic files that were stolen from a prominent climate research center and made public last week provide a rare glimpse into the behind-the-scenes battle to shape the public perception of global warming. While few U.S. politicians bother to question whether humans are changing the world's climate -- nearly three years ago the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded the evidence was unequivocal -- public debate persists. And the newly disclosed private exchanges ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
United Kingdom: A climate change dust-up
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-climate-hacker22-2009nov22,0,913036.story
LA Times:

Mon, 23 Nov 09
India challenges Western data linking climate change, Himalayan melt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/21/AR2009112102010.html
Washington Post: As countries around the world prepare to flex their negotiating muscles at next month's climate-change summit in Copenhagen, India has begun to question the Western model of computing global warming statistics. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh released a report last week that says there is no conclusive evidence that climate change has caused the melting of the Himalayan glaciers. The report says that not all of the glaciers are receding at alarming rates and that a few are even ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Copenhagen conference holds hope for climate change progress
http://durangoherald.com/sections/Opinion/Editorial/2009/11/22/Copenhagen_conference_holds_hope_for_climate_change_progress/
Durango Herald: "I refuse to believe that it is too late, and that we cannot do anything about [global climate change]. Copenhagen is our date with destiny." - Mohamed Nasheed, president of Maldives Good news! We in the United States can decrease carbon emissions. In just two years we have cut our greenhouse gas generation by 9 percent. Last month's column outlined the goals of the United Nation's Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen next month. We are pinning our hopes on ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Denmark says 65 leaders to attend climate talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSGEE5AL05X
Reuters: Denmark said on Sunday 65 world leaders had agreed to attend a U.N. conference in Copenhagen in December that will try to clinch a new global climate deal. Facing splits in the climate talks, Denmark 10 days ago formally invited the heads of state and government of 191 U.N. member states to come for the final two days of the Dec. 7-18 conference to push for a deal at the meeting, originally meant for environment ministers. Danish officials declined to provide a full list of ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
India: 'Creating Artificial Glaciers Is Simple, Easy and Replicable'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49369
Inter Press Service: His is a classic case of a man's fight against nature in this trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, as he battles climate change. In this region that seldom sees rains, the glaciers--for ages the fountainheads of water for this arid region--are receding at a rapid rate. Farmers find it difficult to grow crops in their agricultural lands, with water in extremely short supply when it is most needed to irrigate the fields. But 74-year-old Chewang Norphel, a former government civil ...

Mon, 23 Nov 09
Glacier Man' Vows to Build More Artificial Glaciers
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49368
Inter Press Service: He is well known as India's 'glacier man', but for 74-year-old retired government civil engineer, Chewang Norphel, accolades have made little dent in his quiet determination to build more high-altitude water conservation systems, or 'artificial glaciers', to beat the lack of water from receding Himalayan glaciers. Over 70 percent of water in Ladakh district, India's northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir, is sourced in springtime from the melting snows off glaciers, and is the sole ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Hacked Emails Show Climate Science Ridden with Rancor
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125883405294859215.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: The picture that emerges of prominent climate-change scientists from the more than 3,000 documents and emails accessed by hackers and put on the Internet this week is one of professional backbiting and questionable scientific practices. It could undermine the idea that the science of man-made global warming is entirely settled just weeks before a crucial climate-change summit. Researchers at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, England, were victims of a ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Climate change to lash Britain with tropical storms
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6927001.ece
Times (UK): BRITAIN should brace itself for more tropical-style deluges of the kind that wreaked havoc on Cockermouth, according to climate experts. They warn that, although no single event can be attributed to climate change, the warming of the atmosphere caused by greenhouse gases means such disasters will become more frequent. "We need to follow the example of tropical cities like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore where flooding is a regular event,' said Roger Falconer, professor of water ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Permafrost thaw threatens Russia oil and gas complex: study
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/permafrost-thaw-threatens-russia-oil-and-gas-complex-study-1825137.html
Independent (UK): Thawing permafrost caused by global warming is costing Russian energy firms billions of dollars annually in damage control and shrinking Russia's territory, Greenpeace warned in a new study Friday. According to the report by the environmental watchdog, up to 55 billion roubles (1.9 billion dollars) a year is spent on repairs to infrastructure and pipelines damaged by changes in the permafrost in western Siberia. "For Russia, the biggest threat of the permafrost melt is to oil ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Greenland ice loss behind a sixth of sea-level rise
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427354.100-greenland-ice-loss-behind-a-sixth-of-sealevel-rise.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: GREENLAND lost 1500 cubic kilometres of ice between 2000 and 2008, making it responsible for one-sixth of global sea-level rise. Even worse, there are signs that the rate of ice loss is increasing. Michiel van den Broeke of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and colleagues began by modelling the difference in annual snowfall and snowmelt in Greenland between 2003 and 2008 to reveal the net ice loss for each year. They then compared each year's loss with that calculated from ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Turkey sticks to nuclear power plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091121/bs_afp/turkeyenergynuclear
Agence France-Presse: Turkey is determined to build a nuclear power plant and will launch a new project to replace a failed tender, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted as saying Saturday. "The fact that the tender was scrapped does not mean that the process is scrapped. Our determination on nuclear power plants is persisting," Yildiz said in Kizilcahamam town, near Ankara, Anatolia news agency reported. Energy authorities Friday cancelled a 2008 tender won by a Russian-led consortium to build ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
The scary math of warming
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/728319--the-scary-new-math-of-warming
Toronto Star: If new environmental campaigns take hold, you'll hear a lot about two numbers during the next few months. If they succeed, you could find yourself living, and thinking, differently. The numbers are 350 and 50. The first is a target for reducing the carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. The second refers to the minimum percentage of land and ocean that must be protected from development to ward off climate change and prevent the extinction of many plants and animals. Both ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Carbon saturated ocean
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00047&segmentID=1
Living on Earth: YOUNG: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts - this is Living on Earth. I'm Jeff Young. Developments in both science and politics on climate change: The US and China agreed to cooperate on cleaner and more efficient forms of energy. But world leaders downplayed expectations about next month's climate summit in Copenhagen. So political leaders sent mixed messages, but climate science sent a clear signal. The international scientists of the Global Carbon ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Children starve in parched southern Madagascar
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-climate-madagascar21-2009nov21,0,3695358.story
LA Times: Foreigners have come to Anjandobo village, a cluster of wooden huts on the desolate red dust of southern Madagascar. They're vaza -- outsiders. The vaza are sweating. They wear hats and carry cameras and plastic bottles of water. The sun exhausts the vaza: four journalists and a group of aid workers from UNICEF and the World Food Program. Scorpions bristle under rocks. There's little shade. A small Anjandobo child watches the vaza with their water bottles. "I'm ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Rainfall gets more severe as climate heats up
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/rainfall-gets-more-severe-as-climate-heats-up-1950091.html
Irish Independent: The record rainfall that caused yesterday's devastating floods cannot be blamed directly on climate change, experts said. But they warned we were likely to see more extreme weather of this kind in the coming years as a result of global warming. Climate change models suggest that the proportion of intense rainfall will increase as warmer air from rising temperatures means the atmosphere can carry more moisture. Roger Street, Oxford-based technical director of the UK ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Canada: Momentum returning to oilsands
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Momentum%20returning%20oilsands/2249557/story.html
Edmonton Journal: Oh, don't get too excited -- or aggravated, depending on how you feel about North America's biggest, messiest industrial project. The oilsands boom isn't coming back anytime soon. At least, not in its original, chaotic form. No one is predicting a sudden gusher of overlapping, poorly planned megaprojects, a brand new influx of tens of thousands of foreign temporary workers, or a rapid rebound to $147-US-a-barrel oil prices. In fact, another spike in prices(however ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Middle East coastline faces devastation if climate warms by a single degree
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=108983
Daily Star: Lebanon may see parts of its coastline vanish if climate change continues unabated, according to a landmark report on the evolving environment of the Arab world. The Impact of Climate Change on Arab Countries -- a document assembled by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development -- warns that an increase in global temperature of just a single degree "would directly impact 41,500 square-kilometers of the Arab coastal lands.' Sea level rise is a big risk, according to the report, ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Shoppers going green despite struggling economy
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-GreenBusiness/idUSTRE5AJ2HL20091120
Reuters: Despite the worst U.S. recession in decades, sales of organic and sustainable products have continued to grow, experts say, with shoppers willing to spend a few more dollars in a bid to become more green. U.S. supermarket sales of environmentally sustainable or "ethical" products -- from energy-efficient light bulbs to organic produce -- will rise about 8.7 percent in 2009 to nearly $38 billion, according to a recent study by Packaged Facts, a market research ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Curbs to ship pollution would stoke global warming, study says
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AJ2ZY20091120
Reuters: Shipping is slowing climate change by spewing out sunlight-dimming pollution but a clean-up needed to safeguard human health will stoke global warming, experts said Friday. "So far shipping has caused a cooling effect that has slowed down global warming," Jan Fuglestvedt, of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research Oslo (CICERO), told Reuters. "After some decades the net climate effect of shipping will shift from cooling to warming" because of cleaner ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Clean-Energy programs booming at community colleges
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/20/20greenwire-clean-energy-programs-booming-at-community-col-94796.html
Greenwire: For many students enrolling in alternative energy programs at community colleges, it's not about some greater environmental ethos. It's about jobs. That message has resounded at Lansing Community College, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, where some students are former employees of now-shuttered General Motors Co. plants. Enrollment in the school's alternative energy programs has spiked this year, accounting for the campus's largest growth area. Over the last year alone, the ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
The wind may carry a solution for Kenya
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112004313.html
Washington Post: Kenya's Chalbi Desert is a bleak, forbidding stretch of coarse sand and ash-gray ridges broken by clusters of tiny huts. It is also one of the windiest places on Earth, experts say, and it soon will be the site of Africa's largest wind farm. In January, a consortium of Dutch and Kenyan investors will begin construction on the $760 million project, which envisions more than 350 wind turbines towering over desert expanses near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. When completed in 2012, the ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Expedition Investigates Climate Change, Alternative Fuels In Arctic
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1789792/expedition_investigates_climate_change_alternative_fuels_in_arctic/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Scientists from the Marine Biogeochemistry and Geology and Geophysics sections of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) organized and led a team of university and government scientists on an Arctic expedition to initiate methane hydrate exploration in the Beaufort Sea and determine the spatial variation of sediment contribution to Arctic climate change. Utilizing the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea as a research platform, three cross-shelf transects were surveyed and sampled off ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Fish 'at risk' in acidified ocean
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8369453.stm
BBC: Ocean acidification could cause fish to become "fatally attracted" to their predators, according to scientists. A team studying the effects of acidification - caused by dissolved CO2 - on ocean reefs found that it leaves fish unable to "smell danger". Young clownfish that were reared in the acidified water became attracted to rather than repelled by the chemical signals released by predatory fish. The findings were published in the journal Ecology ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Greenpeace rallies to stop deforestation in Indonesia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091121/sc_afp/indonesiaenvironmentforestsprotest
Agence France-Presse: 26 mins ago JAKARTA (AFP) -- Hundreds of Greenpeace activists rallied Saturday in support of a commitment by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation. About 200 people rallied in the capital displaying banners that said "Enough, stop destroying our forests" and "Stop talking, start acting". "We urge SBY to keep his promise in reducing emissions, especially from deforestation," Greenpeace Southeast Asia ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Australia: Defiant Turnbull to face climate backlash
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/defiant-turnbull-to-face-climate-backlash/story-e6freuy9-1225801628954
Daily Telegraph: MALCOLM Turnbull is preparing to stare down more than a dozen Liberal Party opponents who are threatening to destroy his leadership over his backing of Kevin Rudd's proposed climate-change laws. A defiant Mr Turnbull may strike a deal with the Government on its emissions trading scheme as early as tonight, setting up a spectacular showdown between Liberal heavyweights over the next few days. In the biggest test of his leadership to date, Mr Turnbull will tomorrow and on Tuesday ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Solar water heating systems save electricity
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-154999.html
New Kerala: Haryana has installed Solar Water Heating Systems (SWHS) of about 13 lakh litres per day capacity in the state resulting in the peak load saving of 13 MW and reduction of Carbon Dioxide emission by 19,500 tonnes thus reducing the global warming and climate change. This was disclosed by Director of Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) Sumita Mishra while speaking in the 'Half-Day Workshop-cum-Exhibition on Promoting of Solar Water Heating Systems' for hospitals, hotels, ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Obama and Jintao focus net attention on the environment
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/obama-and-jintao-focus-net-attention-on-the-environment-1825129.html
Independent (UK): President Barack Obama's November 17 meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao ahead of December's UN Climate Change Conference drove an increased worldwide interest in environmental topics, according to the Nielsen Company's Blogpulse analysis. Interest in the topic of 'Obama' rose by 50% between November 14 and 16, as did the buzz surrounding the word 'China'. Mentions of the word 'environment' followed the same upward motion with generated interest increasing by a third. All ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Obama must step up on climate change
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=338589&src=
Chicago Daily Herald: This December the whole world will be watching the United Nations in Copenhagen as world leaders build the framework for an international treaty to fight climate change. The Obama administration must take a firm stand in moving climate negotiations forward. The United States has shown that it wants to fight climate change by electing a president who is deeply committed to the same goal. President Obama has shown he wants to meet that goal by placing highly knowledgeable and equally ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
UN climate chief holds out hope for global pact
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5izFgB958wuatPvubW1_IPAXKBUtwD9C2RCRO3
Associated Press: The U.N. climate chief has a message for naysayers about the Copenhagen climate conference next month: It will succeed. Yvo De Boer, the U.N. official who is shepherding the talks, sought to assure reporters Thursday that the long-anticipated United Nations-led meeting Dec. 7-19 isn't a failure even before it's started. In large part, he said he was responding to news coverage that increasingly emphasized the long-shot odds for a deal, particularly given the lack of U.S. commitment to ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Turnbull quiet on talk he'll sack dissenters
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/21/2749559.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is refusing to comment on reports that he will dump climate change dissenters from his front bench. The Federal Government wants the Liberals to agree to amended emissions trading legislation by Friday, but the party's divisions on the scheme are only growing. Mr Turnbull says he is very close to finalising negotiations but will not say whether he thinks his leadership will survive the division among his colleagues. "Running a ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Hacked E-Mails Fuel Climate Change Skeptics
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html?_r=5
New York Times: Hundreds of private e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who say they show that climate scientists conspired to overstate the case for a human influence on climate change. The e-mails, attributed to prominent American and British climate researchers, include discussions of scientific data and whether it should be released, exchanges about how best to combat the arguments of skeptics, and casual ...

Sun, 22 Nov 09
Australia: Disunity damages deal on ETS: Combet
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/turnbull-quiet-on-ets-leadership-threat-20091121-irwc.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Disunity within the coalition is hobbling efforts by both sides of politics to achieve a deal on emissions trading, Labor's junior climate change minister Greg Combet says. Mr Combet says a lot of progress has been made in the negotiations between Labor and the opposition on an agreement to secure the passage of the government's emissions trading scheme (ETS) by next Thursday's deadline. However "one of the major complicating factors we're facing is the disunity of the ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Copenhagen might be a flop, but India must cut carbon: Ramesh
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-153810.html
New Kerala: Expressing apprehension that the coming Copenhagen meet for hammering out a Climate Change agreement was heading towards a flop, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh today said India must take aggressive and proactive domestic measures to cut its greenhouse gas emissions irrespective of what happened at international fora. ''These are the paradigm shift I have been calling for during the last few months,'' Mr Ramesh said speaking after releasing the UN's State ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Australia: Bushfires rage as country swelters through heatwave
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/bushfires-rage-as-country-swelters-through-heatwave/story-e6frf7l6-1225799857721
Herald Sun:

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Australia: Heatwave 'connected to climate change'
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1135622/Heatwave-'connected-to-climate-change'
Special Broadcasting Service: There's a 'high chance' a heatwave sweeping Australia's southern and eastern states is related to climate change, a scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology says. Climate Meteorologist Harvey Stern says the scorching weather effecting parts of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales at this time of the year is rare. "This (the heatwave) is a truly extreme event," Dr Stern says. "Many places have established all-time records for the first half of November." The ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Wildfires Spreading as Temperatures Rise
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49341
Inter Press Service: Future firefighters have their work cut out for them. Perhaps nowhere does this hit home harder than in Australia, where in early 2009 a persistent drought, high winds, and record high temperatures set the stage for the worst wildfire in the country's history. On Feb. 9, now known as "Black Saturday", the mercury in Melbourne topped 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.4 degrees Celsius) as fires burned over one million acres in the state of Victoria - destroying more than 2,000 homes and ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Are the Earth's Oceans Hitting Their Carbon Cap?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1940391,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
Time Magazine: But a new paper published in the Nov. 19 issue of Nature demonstrates that the oceans' ability to absorb man-made carbon may be dwindling -- and that has worrying ramifications for future climate change. While the ocean is now absorbing more carbon in total than ever before, the waters are sucking up a smaller percentage of the CO2 emitted by humans. That could mean that there's a limit to the ocean's capacity -- and that we might be hitting it. (See the top 10 green ideas of ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Listen to the Earth, Say Indigenous Peoples
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49334
Inter Press Service: The idea of wilderness is "an interesting concept; it is a Western concept. Our people have always lived and interacted in the environment," said Illion Merculieff, an environmental activist from the Aleut community in the north-western U.S. state of Alaska. The Aleuts have inhabited the islands and coastal areas of the Bering Sea, in the northern Pacific, for more than 10,000 years, having adapted to the extreme climate. "Adaptation is absolutely essential," according to ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Vietnam: Water, Water All AroundÂ—Plus All the Risks It Brings
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49330
Inter Press Service: As Vietnam's big cities are increasingly deluged by floods, the infrastructure cannot keep up. At the end of October last year Hanoi suffered the worst floods in over 50 years. Some streets were under more than two metres of water, resulting in a death toll of 20, many as a result of electrocution from makeshift wiring; others from drowning. Photos of people fishing in the streets made headlines, but after the waters receded, people began to question their city's underperforming ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Terrorists don't install disabled toilets
http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2009/11/climate-activists-terrorism
New Statesman: In 1996, when you travelled through the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico, soldiers would get on the buses every half an hour or so to check on the passengers. They'd look at papers, search random bags and occasionally take people off for a chat. Some did not get back on. There was an ongoing guerra sucia in Chiapas. Two years earlier, when the Zapatista armies had risen up out of the jungle, there had been hundreds of casualties in the ensuing conflict. In the seven months I was there, ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Households will pay extra for green electricity
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6598432/Households-will-pay-extra-for-green-electricity.html
Telegraph: The Energy Bill will introduce a Â£9.5 billion levy on electricity suppliers to fund the building of coal-fired power stations fitted with a new technology that takes carbon dioxide and stores it underground. The Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Incentive is likely to be passed onto customers, adding up 2-3 per cent or Â£17 per annum onto the average annual bill from 2020. Consumers already pay extra to help electricity companies build wind farms and other forms of renewable ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Oceans' Uptake of Human-Made Carbon May Be Slowing
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091118143211.htm
ScienceDaily: The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions -- a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in the November 19 issue of the journal Nature. The researchers estimate that the oceans last year took up a record 2.3 ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
New Zealand's 'Kyoto forests' sow seeds for emissions surge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/19/new-zealand-kyoto-forests
Guardian: The government of New Zealand responded with some irritation to my column last week, which castigated a national strategy for meeting its Kyoto climate targets by allowing greenhouse gas emissions to rise by 22% from 1990 to 2007. All was well, it said. The 600,000 hectares of forests that were planted in the 1990s would soak up all the excess CO2 – around 90m tonnes of it between 2008 and 2012. In fact, the country was likely to be ahead of its Kyoto target of stabilising emissions ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Renewables take the lead in Australia's new power developments
http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/73d1ad0/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0Cbusiness0Egreen0Cnews0C22535450Crenewables0Elead0Eaustralian/story01.htm
Business Green: Wind farms will account for 20 per cent of Australian power projects coming online in the next few years, according to a government report thast credits the introduction renewable energy laws as the main driver by the recent surge in new low carbon energy projects. The study found that nine out of 18 new power developments that were either committed or under construction as of 31 October were renewable energy projects. Eight were wind farms, while one was a hydroelectricity scheme, ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
India PM heads to U.S. in test of ties with Obama
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091119/wl_nm/us_india_usa
Reuters: ndia's prime minister and U.S. President Barack Obama meet next week to strengthen ties, with the emerging Asian power increasingly playing a bigger role on global issues such as climate change and trade. Manmohan Singh's three-day state visit starting on November 23 is seen by New Delhi as a touchstone of Obama's intention of sustaining a relationship that deepened under his predecessor George W. Bush. India is also widely seen as a key geopolitical player in helping bring ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Australian heatwave in carbon trade battle
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSYD210619
Reuters: Australia's government demanded on Thursday that conservative rivals stop opposing carbon trade laws, citing a heatwave searing the country's biggest cities as evidence of Australia's vulnerability to climate change. With Australia on bushfire alert, the government said record temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) across three states this week showed the need to act urgently against climate change. "November this year has seen a long and intense heatwave across ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
U.S. to help China develop inventory of its greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111803058.html?wprss=rss_nation
Washington Post: The United States and China have agreed to cooperate on developing an inventory of China's greenhouse gas emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday, an initiative that appears be a response to criticism of Beijing's data collection. Several senators whose votes are key to passage of domestic climate legislation, including Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), have questioned whether they will be able to trust any greenhouse gas reductions China reports to the international ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
'Climate change pushes poor women to prostitution, dangerous work'
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/177346/climate-change-pushes-poor-women-to-prostitution-dangerous-work
GMA: Effects of climate change have driven women in communities in coastal areas in poor countries like the Philippines to risk dangerous jobs, and sometimes even into the flesh trade. Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country. "Climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing possibly driving some women into sex work ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
A carbon target for Copenhagen
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/18/AR2009111803318.html
Washington Post: CLIMATE CHANGE was at the top of President Obama's agenda in China Tuesday, just three weeks before representatives from 192 countries meet in Copenhagen for a much-anticipated international climate conference. And he came tantalizingly close to saying what the rest of the world has been waiting years to hear: that next month the United States, the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases, will finally come to the table with a specific carbon reduction target. In a news ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
US Senate postpones climate bill
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/us-senatepostponesclimate-bill/story-e6frg6so-1225799485344
Australian: BARACK Obama will attend climate-change talks in Copenhagen next month with no domestic US laws in place to back his position, after Senate leaders confirmed yesterday that debate on legislation would be delayed until next year. The decision to put off debate on a climate-change bill that has already passed the US House of Representatives reflects a lack of time after congress has been sidetracked for weeks on far-reaching health reforms. But the delay until March - a blow to ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Seas Are Struggling to Absorb Emissions
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/science/earth/19oceans.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The Earth's oceans, which have absorbed carbon dioxide from fuel emissions since the dawn of the industrial era, have recently grown less efficient at sopping it up, new research suggests. Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels began soaring in the 1950s, and oceans largely kept up, scientists say. But the growth in the intake rate has slowed since the 1980s, and markedly so since 2000, the authors of a study write in a report in Thursday's issue of Nature. The research ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Birth control: the most effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6922245.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Investing in birth control to reduce population growth could be more effective in cutting greenhouse gas emissions than building wind turbines or nuclear power stations, according to a United Nations report. Taking action to prevent one billion births by 2050 would save as much carbon dioxide as constructing 2 million giant wind turbines. The UN Population Fund report predicts that the global population could reach 10.5 billion by 2050, up from 6.8 billion today, unless urgent action ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Little hope for Copenhagen climate talks
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Little-hope-for-Copenhagen-climate-talks/articleshow/5245133.cms
Times of India: Leave aside a binding agreement on climate change, the 190-country Copenhagen conference on December 7 is unlikely to throw up even a political statement of high-sounding sentiments on the need to save the planet -- a statement, which countries were hoping, would give the direction for hammering out an agreement next year. The setback came in the just-concluded two-day ministerial meeting at Copenhagen on November 16-17, where persistent schisms on even most basic things such as a ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Indigenous groups key in climate change debate: Zoellick
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j7Wp6o19Hl1ARiSMehh4c0j9ijIw
Agence France-Presse: World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Wednesday it was critical for indigenous people to be included in climate change talks, saying they were among groups most affected by global warming. Two weeks before the opening of a major United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Zoellick said indigenous peoples carried a "disproportionate share of the burden of climate change effects." He spoke at a Washington roundtable that brought together native and tribal group ...

Fri, 20 Nov 09
Population link to climate change: UN report
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/population-link-to-climate-change-un-report-20091119-ims1.html
Agence France-Presse: Braking the rise in Earth's population would be a major help in the fight against global warming, according to an unprecedented UN report published on Wednesday that draws a link between demographic pressure and climate change. "Slower population growth... would help build social resilience to climate change's impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the future," the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says. Its 104-page document emphasises that ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Forest Service says trees can slow climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iKYvXWA3EOF-6Nw8QcN-CKr5Mv-QD9C289IG0
Associated Press: National forests can be used as a carbon "sink" with vast numbers of trees absorbing carbon dioxide to help slow global warming, the Forest Service chief said Wednesday, but that goal must be balanced. He's also concerned about the risk of catastrophic wildfires that produce massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said his agency is trying to manage forests to combat climate change while still easing the risk of wildfires that have increased in ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Women neglected by debate on climate change
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/1119/1224259107173.html
Irish Times: WOMEN IN developing countries are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but their plight has been largely overlooked in the debate over how to tackle the issue, according to a United Nations report published yesterday. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) report, Facing a Changing World: Women, Population and Climate Change, details how climate change threatens to widen the gap between rich and poor and amplify gender inequalities. Slower population growth in both developed ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
No Plan B for planet if climate deal not agreed
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/1119/1224259112561.html
Irish Times: NEVER WAS a global conference so hyped up as a make-or-break event as the UN climate summit due to take place next month in Copenhagen. As 15,000 participants, plus many more observers, made their travel arrangements, the stage seemed set for a historic agreement that would start the recovery for a world staring into the abyss of dangerous climate change. Responsible groups throughout all 192 countries participating in the event had done their bit to sensitise those in authority as to ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Climate change seen turning deadly by 2100
http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/sci-edu/world/2009-11/486230.html
Global Times: Global temperatures will increase by an average of 6 degrees C by the end of the century as CO2 emissions continue to outstrip the ability of the world's natural "sinks" to absorb carbon, a group of scientists said Tuesday in calling for drastic action to combat such emissions. By studying 50 years of data on carbon emissions, an international team of 30 climate specialists with the Global Carbon Project deduced that the natural sinks soaking up dangerous greenhouse gases are becoming ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Women Central to Adaptation, Mitigation
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49323
Inter Press Service: Poor women will bear the greatest 'climate burden', says the United Nations Population Fund in its 2009 State of the World Population report, released today. The report emphasises that climate change is more than an issue of energy efficiency or industrial carbon emissions; it is also an issue of population dynamics, poverty and gender equity. Poor and vulnerable populations the world over are the ones who will be hardest hit by climate change, despite their comparatively ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Report: UK skills inadequate for low-carbon economy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253534/uk-skills-inadequate-low-carbon
Business Green: The UK does not have the necessary skills to transition to a low-carbon economy without the help of foreign companies, according to a major new report from the Aldersgate Group to be released later today at an event in Westminster. The green business think-tank will warn that the UK's emerging low-carbon industries are facing severe skills shortages and recommend that all major environmental policies, such as increased subsidies for offshore wind or the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Emulating Western lifestyles: Consumption and carbon footprints in less industrialized countries
http://www.physorg.com/news177703931.html
Physorg: In recent decades, a new global middle class has exploded, with a total population exceeding one billion people. A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research explores the consumption attitudes of some of these members of the "new class." "Our primary interest with this new class concerns climate change," write authors Tuba ÃœstÃ¼ner (Colorado State University) and Douglas B. Holt (University of Oxford). "Many pundits and marketing experts claim that these consumers seek to emulate ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Africa agrees climate demand bill
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8365561.stm
BBC: African leaders meeting in Ethiopia say they have agreed on an amount of money to demand as compensation for the impact of climate change. However, they say they are keeping the figure secret ahead of December's international talks in Copenhagen. The announcement came as a panel of 10 African nations met in Addis Ababa to finalise a common stance. The Ethiopian leader said Africa should be compensated for the damage caused by developed countries to its growth. "We ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Carbon market clouded by uncertainty
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8364397.stm
BBC: The offices of London's carbon trading companies are a little quieter than usual. The firms - many based in the City - buy and sell one of the world's newest commodities: carbon dioxide. The trade in such permits allows polluters to pay for emissions reductions made elsewhere. The market could be huge, but its future is now uncertain. It depends on how governments decide to tackle climate change beyond 2012. The trade was first created by the Kyoto protocol in ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
UN: Fight climate change with free condoms
http://www.physorg.com/news177759813.html
Associated Press: The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday. The agency did not recommend countries set limits on how many children people should have, but said: "Women with access to reproductive health services ... have lower fertility rates that contribute to slower growth in greenhouse gas emissions." "As the growth of population, ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
Climate Change Likely to Increase African Hunger Woes
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49321
Inter Press Service: Africa, the continent already most affected by hunger and food scarcity, is likely to see its woes increased due to climate change and the changing rain patterns it provokes, experts and scientists say. According to data gathered by the German Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, variability in the rain patterns in Africa, especially in the Western region, has substantially increased since the early 1980s. Harald Kunstmann, director of the institute, says that while ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
UNFPA Puts Human Face on Climate Blowback
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49320
Inter Press Service: A new U.N. report on the hazards of climate change brings a fresh human perspective to an ongoing wide-ranging debate that has focused primarily on energy efficiency and industrial carbon emissions. Climate change is much more than greenhouse-gas emissions, says the study by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), it is also population dynamics, poverty and gender equity. "As the growth of population, economies and consumption outpaces the earth's capacity to adjust, climate change ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
To Grab, Or To Invest
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49317
Inter Press Service: The World Food Security Summit in Rome this week opened up a dispute between what may be investment in farmland to some, but is seen as land grab by others. There has been widespread alarm at a recent acceleration in purchases of farmland in developing countries, above all Africa, primarily by investors from the Middle and Far East. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the summit's host, said it is estimated that up to 20 million hectares of African land have ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
India: A Famed Region's Triple Whammy of Environmental Bane
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49316
Inter Press Service: The combined impact of tourism, climate change and changing lifestyle in this internationally renowned adventure haven has raised serious concerns among environmental groups. A booming tourism is depleting scarce water resource that has already borne the brunt of changing climate patterns. This, while a growing number of people--influenced by a steady of influx of tourists whose lifestyles are manifest to all--are shifting to a consumerist way of living that is causing further ...

Thu, 19 Nov 09
US Senate to act on climate bill in 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jZGGri3gfRHlWacyqVc25eFjgjPw
Agence France-Presse: The US Senate will act in early 2010 on legislation to battle climate change, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday, ending hopes of a breakthrough by next month's global talks. "We are going to try to do that sometime in the spring," Reid told reporters, with a White House-backed push to remake US health care still dominating the Senate agenda just weeks before the congressional session ends. The decision confirms that the US Congress will not adopt ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Led by China, carbon pollution up despite economy
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SCI_CARBON_POLLUTION?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Associated Press: Pollution typically declines during a recession. Not this time. Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon dioxide pollution jumped 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study published online Tuesday. "The growth in emissions since 2000 is almost entirely driven by the growth in China," said study lead author Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia. "It's China and India and all the developing countries together." Carbon ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Obama, Hu vow cooperation but produce few deals
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama
Associated Press: President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao promised a determined, joint effort to tackle climate change, nuclear disarmament and other global troubles yet emerged from their first full-blown summit Tuesday with scant progress beyond goodwill. After two hours of talks and a separate meeting over dinner the night before, the presidents spoke of moving beyond the divisiveness over human rights, trade and military tensions that have bedeviled relations in past ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
World on course for catastrophic 6Â° rise, reveal scientists
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/world-on-course-for-catastrophic-6deg-rise-reveal-scientists-1822396.html
Independent (UK): The world is now firmly on course for the worst-case scenario in terms of climate change, with average global temperatures rising by up to 6C by the end of the century, leading scientists said yesterday. Such a rise -- which would be much higher nearer the poles -- would have cataclysmic and irreversible consequences for the Earth, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable and threatening the basis of human civilisation. We are headed for it, the scientists said, because the ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Obama aims for Copenhagen agreement that can take immediate effect
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6920968.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): President Obama has attempted to restore confidence in international negotiations on climate change by saying that next month's UN summit in Copenhagen should deliver an agreement on emissions with "immediate operational effect'. The US President was speaking yesterday in Beijing two days after his officials had ruled out signing a legally binding treaty in Copenhagen. "Our aim is not a partial accord or a political declaration but rather an accord that covers all of the issues in the ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
United Kingdom: John Healey unveils proposal to do away with planning permission for wind turbines
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6920909.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Wind turbines standing as high as 15 metres (50ft) will be allowed on farmland and industrial estates without planning permission, under proposals to boost renewable energy. The turbines will be approved across large areas of the countryside, provided they meet noise and impact restrictions. John Healey, the housing minister, also announced plans to fast-track applications for solar panels on stadiums, schools, railway stations and offices, as part of proposals to achieve ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
US should follow France, boost nuclear power: senator
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091117232737.0cm9rmb4.html
Agence France-Presse: The United States should consider following France's lead and ramping up use of nuclear power in an effort to contain global warming, a senior US senator helping craft climate change legislation said Tuesday. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is working with Democrat John Kerry on the bill, highlighted how France now derives 80 percent of its energy from nuclear power and is presently constructing a next-generation reactor, said to be the most advanced in the ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Food seed banks need $250 million, experts warn
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AH03620091118?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Seed banks need a further $250 million to preserve all varieties of food crops including those which may best survive future climate changes, the Global Crop Diversity Trust said Wednesday. The crop trust is the main supporter of a seed vault in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, intended as a global back-up for food crops, and says it needs more money to complete that project and support other, more accessible seed banks worldwide. "The reality is that this is a resource ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Obama: Rally the world for climate deal next month
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091118/ap_on_bi_ge/climate
Associated Press: President Barack Obama, with China's leader at his side, lifted his sights Tuesday for a broad interim accord at next month's climate conference that he said will lead to immediate action and "rally the world" toward a solution on global warming. Obama and President Hu Jintao talked of a joint desire to tackle climate change, but failed to move off differing positions on an root issue that could block a deal at the 192-nation conference in Copenhagen: how much each country can ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Copenhagen climate change talks stall as CO2 emissions rise
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1118/p06s01-wogi.html
Christian Science Monitor: Even as the Copenhagen climate change negotiations have moved into the slow lane, greenhouse gas emissions are accelerating, according to new evidence released today. Negotiators at a preparatory meeting for the December climate summit said on Tuesday that firm commitments from the US and other industrial heavyweights to curb greenhouse gas emissions at the meeting are now looking unlikely. A binding global treaty on emissions was the initial aim of the conference. Meanwhile, ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
U.S., China make progress in tackling climate change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/17/AR2009111702931.html
Washington Post: Buried in the text of Tuesday's joint declaration between President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao was a hopeful clause about climate talks: The Obama administration is likely to offer emission-reduction targets at next month's climate summit, as long as the Chinese offer a proposal of their own. U.S. reluctance to set a short-term emissions goal has been a sticking point in the U.N.-sponsored talks for nearly a year. Almost all industrialized nations, and many developing ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Small Islands Fear Going the Way of Atlantis
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49302
Inter Press Service: The world's small island states, most of which are painfully vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, have put the United Nations on notice. Dramatising the plight of Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS), Ambassador Stuart Beck of Palau warns that the 192-nation world body, which progressively kept growing from its original membership of 51 in 1945, is in danger of shrinking because some of its members may be wiped off the face of the earth. "This chilling ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Brazil to Recover Leadership Role with CO2 Limits
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49301
Inter Press Service: Brazil's decision to adopt voluntary reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions is an indication that the planet's climate change emergency has joined strategic, economic and ideological issues as a new factor on the global political agenda. At the World Climate Change Conference to be held Dec. 7-18 in Copenhagen, the Brazilian government will table its commitment to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 36.1 percent and 38.9 percent of their business-as-usual levels by ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
Save Half the Planet, or Lose It All
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49300
Inter Press Service: At least half the planet must be protected if humanity is to survive the next century, declared conservationists at the conclusion of 9th World Wilderness Congress on Friday, Nov. 13. "That is what the science said, this is what many aboriginal people say," said Harvey Locke, the Wild Foundation's vice president of conservation strategy. "It's time to speak the simple truth: The whole thing unravels without protecting at least half of the planet," said Locke. A leading ...

Wed, 18 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Biomass plants face wood supply risks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253352/biomass-plants-face-wood-supply
Business Green: The rapid expansion of the UK's biomass energy sector could be undermined unless businesses move to resolve the supply chain issues that could leave them struggling to find the wood supplies necessary to keep plants running. That is the stark warning contained in a report from analyst Verdantix, which predicts the expansion of large-scale biomass plants will leave generators largely reliant on biomass from overseas such as wood chips, elephant grass, palm kernels and olive ...

Tue, 17 Nov 09
Conservationists do 'deal with the devil' to save orang-utans
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/conservationists-do-deal-with-the-devil-to-save-orangutans-1821251.html
Independent (UK): Wildlife campaigners have made "a deal with the devil" in a bid to save the orang-utan from being driven into extinction. They have teamed up with the palm-oil industry, widely condemned by conservationists for causing devastation to orang-utans. But palm-oil companies and the Sabah state government in Borneo have agreed to a project to create wildlife corridors that will link forest areas and create a network of safe havens. They signed up to the pilot scheme last month in Kota ...

Tue, 17 Nov 09
Countdown to Copenhagen: The President's lonely dilemma
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/countdown-to-copenhagen-the-presidents-lonely-dilemma-1821266.html
Independent (UK): Can the world reach a new deal to combat climate change without the world's richest country, the world's sole superpower? Such is the question looming over the Copenhagen climate change summit, now only three weeks away, as the international community waits anxiously to see if President Barack Obama can publicly commit the United States to action on global warming. If he does, it may bring a global agreement in its train. If he does not, the chances of a worthwhile deal in Denmark are ...

Tue, 17 Nov 09
Copenhagen summit: Change we can't yet believe in
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/16/obama-copenhagen-climate-change
Guardian: Confirming yesterday what had already been apparent for some months, Barack Obama and other leaders yesterday said that time had run out to secure a legally binding climate deal at Copenhagen. They said the 22 remaining days were just too few in number to secure binding emissions targets and overcome the divisions between the developed and developing world. This could be viewed as a realistic assessment. Mr Obama said that we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. The British ...

Tue, 17 Nov 09
Pests on move worldwide as climate warms
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091116/ap_on_re_us/jellyfish_menace_climate_pests
Associated Press: A look at some other pests that are benefiting or could benefit from global warming: _Ticks that transmit Lyme disease are spreading northward into Sweden and Canada, once too cold for them. _Giant Humboldt squid have reached waters as far north as British Columbia, threatening fisheries along much of the western North American coast. _Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are now found in South Korea, the Papua New Guinea highlands, and other places previously not warm enough for ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Obama Hobbled in Fight Against Global Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/science/earth/16climate.html?_r=5
New York Times: President Obama came into office pledging to end eight years of American inaction on climate change under President George W. Bush, and all year he has promised that the United States would lead the way toward a global agreement in Copenhagen next month to address the warming planet. But this weekend in Singapore, Mr. Obama was forced to acknowledge that a comprehensive climate deal was beyond reach this year. Instead, he and other world leaders agreed that they would work toward a ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
How can China, US address climate change?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/15/ED7K1AK0MD.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: President Obama will make his first visit to China this week. This is probably the most important bilateral talk before the climate negotiations in Copenhagen, where the world will be pressing both the United States and China to act. California, the world's eighth-largest economy, is seen as a model of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. China is seen as the world's largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Yet we note striking parallels between California and China: ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Australia: Report details coastal climate change risks
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/16/2744033.htm?site=northcoast
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government has released a new report titled Climate Change Risks to Australia's coasts. It is the first risk assessment done by the Commonwealth to gauge which areas on the eastern seaboard are most at risk from a sea level rise. Professor Bruce Thom worked on the report and says parts of the New South Wales north coast face an uncertain future. "There's more and more properties that are low-lying around our estuaries and our lakes, of course we do have some ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Climate Change: Yar'Adua Backs Nigeria's Negotiating Team
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=159873
This Day: President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has pledged Federal Government's strong support to the team of experts and government officials going to Copenhegan in Denmark to represent the country at the climate change conference taking place in December, 2009. The President's word of assurance was conveyed to the negotiators during a round-table meeting in Abuja by the Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey. Odey quoted the President as having appealled to negotiators who will be ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
World Leaders Put Off a Climate Change Treaty
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1939573,00.html
Time Magazine: It's fitting, then, that some of the most significant diplomatic news coming out of APEC in Singapore was an agreement not to do something. Confirming doubts that had been growing for months, the world leaders in attendance at APEC -- along with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen -- announced on Sunday morning that a legally binding deal on climate change would be impossible to achieve at the U.N. summit on global warming in Copenhagen next month. (Read "On the Copenhagen Agenda, ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Sheer Political Will Is Needed for Climate Fix
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/16/business/energy-environment/16green.html?_r=5
New York Times: "Severe mental health problems are likely to surge, in the U.S. and elsewhere, unless Congress exerts dramatic leadership to help slow climate change – and soon," began an e-mail message that found its way into my in-box last week. It came from a group called Psychologists for Social Responsibility. (I get a lot of e-mail messages.) "Many Americans are already anxious about what climate change portends," the group wrote in a letter it had apparently sent to Congress. ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Canada: Harper will only go to climate conference if other leaders do: aides
http://www.canada.com/Harper+will+only+climate+conference+other+leaders+aides/2225751/story.html
Various:

Mon, 16 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Gordon Brown must overcome public scepticism before Copenhagen
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6916450.ece
Times (UK): With the most important meeting on man-made climate change starting in about three weeks, the last thing the Government needs is a survey showing that more the half the population is reluctant to believe that there is a problem. Gordon Brown will go to Copenhagen next month and make painful pledges on our behalf. He will promise to give an extra Â£1 billion a year to poor countries to help them to cope with climate change. He will also commit Britain to making savage cuts in carbon ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Leaders go cold on greenhouse gases commitment
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/leaders-go-cold-on-greenhouse-gases-commitment-20091115-igdl.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Any last chance of the Copenhagen climate change conference producing a binding target for the world to cut greenhouse gases has evaporated following a lack of collective resolve by the members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit. The Prime Minister and Copenhagen deal broker Kevin Rudd convened a breakfast meeting of 20 world leaders in Singapore yesterday, but the APEC nations refused to commit to halve emissions by 2050. The 50 per cent target was contained in ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
UN 'Hunger Summit' starved for attention
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091115101801.gsmuljhr.html
Agence France-Presse: The leaders of the world's wealthiest nations will be conspicuous by their absence as more than 60 heads of state and government gather in Rome this week for a UN summit on the plight of the planet's billion hungry. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader from the Group of Eight industrialised countries expected to attend the "Hunger Summit" from Monday through Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI will be among the inaugural speakers at meeting at the Rome ...

Mon, 16 Nov 09
Denmark: SamsÃ¸ Island, Beyond Fantasy
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49273
Inter Press Service: On the Danish island of SamsÃ¸, a model of energy self-sufficiency, even cow's milk helps reduce emissions of climate changing gases. SamsÃ¸ has an area of 114 square kilometres with just over 4,000 people, located in the Bay of Kattegat, in the North Sea, some 120 km west of Copenhagen. ts reputation as a model of sustainability is due to the fact that it uses wind turbines and solar panels to generate all of the electricity consumed by local residents. Since 1997, when ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
APEC drops 50 percent emission cut target: China
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091114/sc_afp/apecsummitclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Asia-Pacific leaders will drop a fixed target for halving greenhouse gas emissions in a final summit statement, a Chinese official said Saturday. "On the 50 percent reduction target (from 1990 levels) by 2050, yes, it did appear in the draft," said Yi Xianliang, a Chinese foreign ministry official who is part of the country's negotiating team at world climate talks. "However, it is a very controversial issue in the world community... if we put it in this (final) statement, I ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Climate change not man-made, say majority of Britons: poll
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091114/sc_afp/britainunclimatewarmingpoll
Agence France-Presse: Less than half of Britons believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to a poll carried out for The Times newspaper and published on Saturday. Only 41 percent accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is taking place and is largely man-made. Almost a third, or 32 percent, believe that the link is not yet proved; eight percent say it is environmentalist propaganda to blame man and 15 percent believe the world is not ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Canada: Harper talks climate change
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/harper-talks-climate-change/article1363674/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Various: Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it is important that a global arrangement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions leaves a level playing field for all economies. Harper is in Singapore attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit.

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Australia excluding farms from emission scheme: minister
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AD1L520091114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Australia's government has agreed to exclude agriculture from its emissions trading scheme in a bid to get the scheme through parliament, a minister said on Sunday. The much-watched scheme has been held up in the upper house Senate where the Labour government does not have a majority. The decision to exclude agriculture is a major concession to the conservative opposition. Speaking on national television, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner said the government had agreed to the ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Will carbon dioxide give Miliband the slip?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/will-carbon-dioxide-give-miliband-the-slip-1820823.html
Independent (UK): For once, Miliband the younger grabbed the headlines. Brother and cabinet colleague David had for weeks dominated the news pages over speculation that he would snaffl e the position of the European Union's first foreign secretary. But last week it was the turn of Ed Miliband, the Climate Change Secretary, who took centre stage after drafting one of the most comprehensive energy statements by this or any modern government. The son of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament co-founder and ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Copenhagen in the balance
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/copenhagen-in-the-balance-1820824.html
Independent (UK): The UN is to hold a conference in Copenhagen next month that it hopes will lead to a dramatic shift in the world's attitude to climate change. The UN is to hold a conference in Copenhagen next month that it hopes will lead to a dramatic shift in the world's attitude to climate change. More than 15,000 officials are expected to attend the two-week conference from 7-18 December. Delegates from 192 countries will seek to reach an agreement on what industrialised and developing ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Green jobs: Meet the movers and shakers at the vanguard of the eco revolution
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/green-jobs-meet-the-movers-and-shakers-at-the-vanguard-of-the-eco-revolution-1818804.html
Independent (UK): Green jobs. They sound good, don't they? First off, any job in a recession is welcome. Then you get the satisfaction of, well, let's not be shy about it, getting paid to save the planet. And finally there's the prospect of meeting all sorts of like-minded people and comparing tips on composting. Reality, of course, hits like a blast of biomass. "We are on the edge of a low-carbon industrial revolution," claimed the Business Secretary Peter Mandelson in March -- although he did scale ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Scientists hope to turn coal into clean energy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/15/coal-into-clean-energy-gasification
Guardian: Millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be prevented from entering the atmosphere following the discovery of a way to turn coal, grass or municipal waste more efficiently into clean fuels. Scientists have adapted a process called "gasification" which is already used to clean up dirty materials before they are used to generate electricity or to make renewable fuels. The technique involves heating organic matter to produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, called ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Is it possible to avoid unsustainable palm oil?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/15/lucy-siegle-sustainable-palm-oil
Guardian: A couple of years ago I met a nonplussed father whose eight-year-old daughter refused to allow him to eat mayonnaise because of the orangutans. As he was struggling to make the connection, I explained how orangutan habitats in Sumatra and Borneo were being clear-felled at an incredible rate for conversion to oil palm plantations. I wonder if his now-10-year-old is on a permanent protest rota between the kitchen and the bathroom, refusing to let her poor dad chew gum, use shampoo or ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Scientists find key to creating clean fuel from coal and waste
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/15/clean-coal-power-gasification
Guardian: Millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide could be prevented from entering the atmosphere following the discovery of a way to turn coal, grass or municipal waste more efficiently into clean fuels. Scientists have adapted a process called "gasification" which is already used to clean up dirty materials before they are used to generate electricity or to make renewable fuels. The technique involves heating organic matter to produce a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, called ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
US Official: Climate agreement will take time
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091115/ap_on_bi_ge/obama_climate
Associatd Press: A senior Obama administration official says world leaders agree that next month's much-anticipated international summit on climate change will be a preliminary step that will require subsequent efforts to tackle global warming. National security aide Michael Froman said Sunday that President Barack Obama and other leaders agreed that the December summit in Copenhagen will try to keep nations on track for steps to reduce heat-trapping gasses. But he said the summit will be followed by ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
APEC leaders believe final climate deal unlikely in December
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AE07E20091115?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Many Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Sunday that it was unlikely they would clinch a legally binding deal at next month's climate change talks in Copenhagen, a U.S. official said. "I don't think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that many of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen," a top U.S. negotiator, Michael Froman, told reporters. "And yet they thought it was important that Copenhagen be an important step ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Obama backs two-step plan to reach climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091115/india_nm/india439519
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama has backed a plan by the host of next month's climate change talks in Copenhagen to seek a political deal and leave legally binding decisions for later, a U.S. official said on Sunday. "There was an assessment by the leaders that it was unrealistic to expect a full internationally legally binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days," a top U.S. negotiator, Michael Froman, told reporters. With Kyoto's first ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
APEC to vow stimulus; tries to push climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091115/india_nm/india439525
Reuters: Asia-Pacific leaders will pledge on Sunday to keep stimulus policies in place to stop the world from sliding back into recession, wrapping up a summit that has been dogged by accusations of U.S. trade protectionism. President Barack Obama arrived in Singapore late on Saturday, missing most of the day's formal talks and speeches where several leaders suggested the world's largest economy was hampering free trade through policies such as "Buy America" campaigns. Speaking in Tokyo ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Barack Obama will make or break deal on climate change
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6917075.ece
Times (UK): In a few weeks some 20,000 United Nations bureaucrats, representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), world leaders and accompanying experts from 192 nations will descend on Copenhagen for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They aim to devise a substitute for the expiring Kyoto Protocol, the agreement among several nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global warming -- and at the same time redistribute ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Warming brings early demise to Bolivian glacier
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/warming-brings-early-demise-to-bolivian-glacier-1821088.html
Independent (UK): Once home to the highest ski resort in the world and now reduced to a rocky mountainside, Bolivia's Chacaltaya range bears powerful witness to the precipitous melting of glaciers. The rusting remains of a ski lift now dominate what was once the highest ski-run in the world perched on the Chacaltaya glacier at some 5,300 meters (17,390 feet) high. Only a snowy ice cap of some 50 square meters (538 square feet) remains of the magnificent Chacaltaya glacier which spread over 1,600 ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
In Asia, Obama talking climate, arms control
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091115/ap_on_re_us/obama
Associated Press: President Barack Obama and nearly two dozen fellow leaders from Europe and the Asia-Pacific region agreed Sunday that next month's much-anticipated international climate change meetings will be merely a way station -- not the once hoped-for end point -- in the difficult search for a worldwide global warming treaty. The 192-nation climate conference beginning in three weeks in Copenhagen had originally been intended to produce a new global climate-change treaty. Hopes for that have ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Hu reiterates China's climate change stance
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/15/content_8973571.htm
China Daily: Denmark was not an economy of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), but Danish Prime Minister could not help attending the gathering. Lars Lokke Rasmussen flew to Singapore for an "informal breakfast meeting" with 18 leaders of the APEC economies, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, early Sunday morning, before the two-day APEC summit concludes in the afternoon. In less than a month, Copenhagen, the Danish capital, will host global negotiators to try to ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Climate-Change Targets Dropped Ahead of APEC Summit
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125824854430448905.html
Wall Street Journal: World leaders have all but given up on reaching a binding international climate change agreement in Copenhagen next month, settling instead for a "binding" political framework for keeping negotiations going, officials here said Sunday morning. The consensus among leaders of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum governments at a breakfast meeting was that, "From what we have so far, it looks like it's almost impossible" to achieve a legally binding agreement at Copenhagen, said one ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
France, Brazil set common goals for Copenhagen climate change summit
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/France-Brazil-set-common-goals-for-Copenhagen-climate-change-summit/articleshow/5231865.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said they have adopted a common position for the Copenhagen climate change summit that suggests, among other measures, the creation of a World Environmental Organisation. The document that both will take to the Danish capital next month is "our climate bible", the Brazilian president told a press conference after his meeting with Sarkozy in the Elysee Palace Saturday. The two nations ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Climate-vulnerable countries send SOS over climate change
http://www.afriquejet.com/news/africa-news/climate-vulnerable-countries-send-sos-over-climate-change-2009111438203.html
Afrique en Ligue: Ahead of the forthcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the world's most climate-vulnerable countries have called on the developed countries to provide money amounting to at least 1.5 per cent of their gross domestic product to assist developing countries make their transition to a climate resilient low-carbon economy. Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, The Maldive Island, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania, popularly known as the V11, are the ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
United States: Gore's presentation on climate change draws 800 as 200 protestors gather outside
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/gore-s-presentation-on-climate-change-draws-800-59205.html
Palm Beach Post: Confused Palm Beach County voters helped thwart Al Gore's 2000 bid to become president of the United States, but he was introduced as "president of the planet" when he returned here Saturday night to deliver an environmental lecture. The former vice president spoke on climate change at the Mizner Park Amphitheater to a crowd of about 800. More than 200 protesters gathered across the street from the event, and their boos and chants could be heard inside the amphitheater as Gore began ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
British voters unsure on climate change
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/11/14/British-voters-unsure-on-climate-change/UPI-26221258251028/
United Press International: Fewer than half of British voters believe human activity is responsible for global warming, a poll released Saturday by The Times of London said. Only 41 percent of those surveyed said they think climate change is underway and human activity is to blame, while 32 percent said they were unsure. Another 15 percent say the world is not getting warmer, while 8 percent said climate change is environmentalist propaganda. Conservative voters are less likely to say human activity is ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Zambia: Worries Ahead of Flood Season
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49269
Inter Press Service:  The Zambezi is home to the fishing community on Mbeta Island. But after the river rose and swallowed their homes last year, they have learned to fear it as well.  Mulemwa Kalaluka is a renowned fisherman on the island. He says he prefers catching fish the traditional way, using a spear and fish trap as he expertly navigates the river in his fishing boat. He is happy and says this season the fish is plentiful as he has managed to catch enough to feed his family and sell ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
APEC retreats from C02 target, Brazil pledges cut
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091114/ts_nm/us_apec_climate
Reuters: Asia Pacific leaders backed away on Saturday from supporting a global halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, even as Brazil pledged deep cuts of its own over the next decade. An initial draft leaders' statement from an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Singapore had said that "global emissions will need to ... be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050." But a later, watered-down version stated: "We believe that global emissions will need to peak ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Global warming a growing threat to Arctic reindeer
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/global-warming-a-growing-threat-to-arctic-reindeer-1820791.html
Independent (UK):

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Climate change compounds Ethiopia's food crisis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091114/wl_africa_afp/faosummitethiopiaclimatedrought
Agence France-Presse: Standing amidst a group of scrawny fellow Ethiopian farmers, Tuke Shika points to the scorching sun when asked why his food reserves have dwindled this year. "The weather has changed, it's not as it used to be before," he laments. "The rains are increasingly erratic, and we are getting less and less yields." In Loke, 350 kilometres (215 miles) south of Addis Ababa, massive expanses of land that were once lush with healthy maize stalks are now replaced with burnt out twigs, ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
EU optimistic on climate deal after Brazil pledge
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AD17B20091114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters:

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Brazil and France call for climate concessions
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AD1AG20091114?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: France and Brazil joined forces on Saturday to press the United States and China to make significant concessions at next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen. In a joint document, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil urged rich industrialized countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 80 percent from their 1990 levels by 2050. They called on emerging countries to seek low carbon growth and to take steps to ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
France, Brazil unite behind common climate change position ahead of Copenhagen
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i7hSVQ4Q0_wkhT_uNw2dCpvz_esg
Associated Press: Brazil and France endorsed a common position on fighting global warming Saturday before next month's U.N. climate change conference, pledging to pursue the goal of reducing emissions to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, also urged the United States and China to get behind strong measures at the Dec. 7-18 meeting in Denmark's capital. The Copenhagen conference is aimed at hammering ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
China tipped as global leader in green tech
http://www.physorg.com/news177394676.html
Agence France-Presse: Wind power turbines in Dali, in China's southwestern Yunnan province. China can become the world's top exporter of "green technology" if it carries out crucial energy and ecological reforms, leading environmental campaigners said here Saturday. China can become the world's top exporter of "green technology" if it carries out crucial energy and ecological reforms, leading environmental campaigners said here Saturday. "For China, I am absolutely convinced that it will become the ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
US, Japan 'aspire' to cut emissions 80 pct by 2050
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ap/20091113/tap-as-obama-japan-climate-change-4cec4ac.html
Associated Press: The leaders of the United States and Japan say they "aspire" to reduce their countries' greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama issued a joint statement after their meeting in Tokyo on Friday saying they "affirmed their commitment to continuing to work together to usher in a new era in the global fight against climate change." They said they agreed that shifting to low-carbon growth is indispensable to the ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Australia: Earth, wind or fire
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/earth-wind-or-fire-20091114-ifob.html
Age: MARGARET Thatcher was an unlikely hero for a climate change movement that's sometimes accused of left-wing, quasi-religious crusading. The day before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the Tory British prime minister stood in the United Nations General Assembly and, acknowledging that Cold War hostilities were receding, declared a new war against ''another insidious danger'' - global warming. Fine words, but her more practical contribution was to spend a bloody year grinding ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Australia: ETS scheme 'in the bag'
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/carbon-scheme-in-the-bag-20091114-ifnt.html
Age: AUSTRALIA is likely to have an emissions trading scheme locked in by the end of next week, with the Government caving in to a key Coalition demand to permanently exclude the farming sector. In a significant concession, and a huge win for the powerful farming lobby, a senior Government source revealed Labor will this week agree to exclude agriculture from the scheme ''indefinitely'' - knocking out a key sticking point in negotiations with the Opposition. In a further concession, ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Widespread scepticism on climate change undermines Copenhagen summit
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6916510.ece
Times (UK): Only a quarter of people believe that climate change is the most serious problem that the world faces, according to a poll for The Times. The finding suggests that the public is unconvinced by the Government's message that climate change is "the moral issue of our times' and that we must embrace urgently a low-carbon lifestyle. The poll, undertaken last weekend, found that only two in five people in Britain accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is largely ...

Sun, 15 Nov 09
Greenpeace demands US action on deforestation
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/americas/2009/11/14/232752/Greenpeace-demands.htm
China Post: Greenpeace activists from around the world chained themselves to excavators in a logged peatland forest in Indonesia on Thursday to demand more U.S. action to stop deforestation. Fifty activists from a dozen countries, including major greenhouse gas emitters the United States and China, also unfurled a massive yellow banner with a message for U.S. President Barack Obama. "Obama: you can stop this," it read, ahead of the U.S. president's visit to the region at the weekend for a ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Brazil deforestation drops to lowest level since 1980s
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6564351/Brazil-deforestation-drops-to-lowest-level-since-1980s.html
Telegraph: Some 7,008 square kilometres of trees were cut down in the year to July, 45.7 per cent down on the previous year's figure and a quarter of the 2004 level, according to government figures. The number was the lowest annual figure since 1988 when Brazil started measuring annual deforestation. It is a hugely significant figure because tropical deforestation accounts for more carbon dioxide emissions than all the emissions from cars, planes, boats and planes combined. "The new ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Global Warming Hits Reindeer Of Norway Hard
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1785678/global_warming_hits_reindeer_of_norway_hard/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: The penalty of the global climate change has hit Norway's reindeer populace as warming temperatures harm food stocks and industry expansion gobbles up grazing land for the creatures. "Over the past three years, I've had to give some hay to my 800 reindeer during the coldest months. It's more expensive and it gives me more work," Jan Egil Trasti, a Norwegian reindeer herder, told AFP. This occurs because the lichen the animals feed on is becoming scarce as winter temperatures ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Canada wants U.S. on board on climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AC4HP20091113?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Friday that the United States and other big greenhouse gas emitters will need to agree on steps to cut emissions, and said Canada would harmonize its policies with its big southern neighbor. In the prepared text of a speech delivered in Edmonton, Alberta, Prentice said Canada still hopes to reach a climate change agreement at international talks slated for Copenhagen next month. However, he expects no deal can be reached ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Finnish paper company to sever ties with logging firm linked to rainforest destruction in Indonesia
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1113-april_greenpeace.html
Mongabay: Finnish paper company UPM-Kymmene will stop buying paper pulp from Asia Pacific Resources International Holding Limited (APRIL) due to concerns over the company's poor environmental record, reports Greenpeace. UPM-Kymmene contact's represents 4 percent of APRIL's total pulp production, worth over US$55 million annually, according to the environmental group. Environmentalists have linked APRIL to destructive logging practices in Indonesia, including destruction of carbon-dense ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Greenland ice cap melting faster than thought
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/greenland-ice-cap-melting-faster-than-thought-1820356.html
Independent (UK): Greenland's ice sheet has melted faster previously thought, according to the results of a two-year study published by the US journal Science. Scientists reported that warmer than usual summers accelerated ice loss to 273 cubic kilometers (65 cubic miles) of a year between 2006 and 2008, amounting to a 0.75 millimeter (0.02 inch) rise in global sea levels per year, "It is clear from these results that mass loss from Greenland has been accelerating since the late 1990s and the ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Netherlands to levy 'green' road tax by the kilometre
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091113/sc_afp/netherlandstransportenvironment
Agence France-Presse: The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion. "Each vehicle will be equipped with a GPS device that tracks how many kilometres are driven and when and where. This data will be then be sent to a collection agency that will send out the bill," the transport ministry said in a statement. Ownership and sales taxes, about a quarter of the cost of a ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Brazil to offer 39 percent carbon cuts at UN climate meet
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091113/sc_afp/unclimatebrazilenvironment
Agence France-Presse: Brazil said Friday it will offer a "voluntary" cut of 39 percent of greenhouse gas emissions at the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen next month. The goal, set against Brazil's forecast level of emissions in 2020, was presented by Environment Minister Carlos Minc and government chief minister Dilma Rousseff at a news conference in Sao Paulo following talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Brazil is considered the fourth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Global warming is not our fault, say most voters in Times poll
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6916648.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Less than half the population believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to an exclusive poll for The Times. The revelation that ministers have failed in their campaign to persuade the public that the greenhouse effect is a serious threat requiring urgent action will make uncomfortable reading for the Government as it prepares for next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen. Only 41 per cent accept as an established scientific fact that global ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Brazil proposes carbon cut target
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8360072.stm
BBC: The Brazilian government has announced that it aims to achieve a reduction of at least 36% on its carbon emissions by the year 2020. If it meets its pledge, greenhouse gas emissions would be near 1994 levels. The proposal, which is not a binding target, was revealed in advance of the major UN summit on climate change to be held in Copenhagen in December. Brazil hopes to put pressure on richer nations to declare their intentions and break the deadlock in the ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Conservation Group Sees a Win for Obama on Climate Change
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2009/11/13/conservation-group-sees-a-win-for-obama-on-climate-change.html
U.S. News and World Report: Despite pessimistic signs on Capitol Hill and internationally regarding action by the United States on climate change initiatives, the head of the World Wildlife Fund today predicted that the December climate summit in Copenhagen will draw up a framework for action that will prompt Congress to move on the critical issue. "It's time for us step up and play a leadership role," says Carter Roberts, CEO of the WWF, one of the first conservation groups in the nation to begin pushing for action to ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Obama urges all nations to fight climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFsbs1_gTgmjU1GJaCo_lsoFAkXgD9BV09J00
Associated Press: President Barack Obama is calling on all nations to accept responsibility for fighting climate change. But he says he's not expecting that it will be easy to reach an agreement at a climate change summit next month in Copenhagen. Speaking in Tokyo, Obama said nations that are the biggest emitters must set clear targets for reducing those emissions. And he said developing countries will need to take substantial actions of their own. Obama said that since he took office, ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
US, Japan commit to fight climate change
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/13/US-Japan-commit-to-fight-climate-change/UPI-35561258140573/
United Press International: U.S. President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama recommitted to reduce their countries' emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the White House said. Obama and Hatoyama, meeting in Tokyo, issued a joint message about climate change negotiations and also recognized each country's achievements in attaining the shared goal, the statement said. The two leaders also reaffirmed moving to low-carbon growth is key to the planet's health and would play a vital role in reviving ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Changing the climate
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6916347.ece
Times (UK): A large proportion of the British public does not yet believe that climate change is made by man. It is a stark political failure that they have not been convinced Five years ago researchers on the island of Flores in Indonesia found bones of a miniature human species, the Homo floresiensis. The hobbit, as it came to be known, had such a tiny brain for its period that scientists dared to cast doubt on the veracity of the theory of evolution. The paleoanthropological community was ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
"Green" Jobs Should Be Black and Brown Too
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49260
Inter Press Service:

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Rich nations' climate cash offers still not clear
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AC0Y820091113
Reuters: Just weeks from a major U.N. climate summit, rich nations have yet to unveil specific amounts to help poor countries fight global warming, Canada's finance minister said on Friday. Funding to help poorer nations adapt to rising seas and more chaotic weather is a make-or-break issue for talks to try to seal a broader climate pact in Copenhagen next month. The U.N. climate chief has called for an initial $10 billion in funding to be offered by rich nations in Copenhagen. EU ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Global warming a growing threat to Arctic reindeer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarmingnorwayanimals
Agence France-Presse: On Norway's border with Russia, the consequences of climate change are affecting the reindeer population as rising temperatures hit food stocks and industry growth eats into vital grazing land. "Over the past three years, I've had to give some hay to my 800 reindeer during the coldest months. It's more expensive and it gives me more work," said Jan Egil Trasti, a reindeer herder from the native Sami people. The reason: the lichen his animals graze on has become tougher to find ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Japanese utility eyes wood waste as fuel for coal-burning power plant
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253118/japanese-utility-eyes-wood
Business Green: Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) has said that it plans to use wood waste as a biomass fuel source for one of its coal-fired plants. TEPCO announced this week that starting in 2012, its power station in the Japanese village of Tokai, Ibaraki prefecture, will use wood waste alongside coal. Wood from forest thinning and waste from lumber mills will be made into pellets, which will then be crushed and mixed with coal. TEPCO said the process, which will use about ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Invest in nature now, save trillions later: study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/environmentclimatewarmingbiodiversity
Agence France-Presse: Investing billions today to protect threatened ecosystems and dwindling biodiversity would reap trillions in savings over the long haul, according to a UN-backed report issued Friday. More than a billion of Earth's poorest denizens depend directly on coral reefs, forests, mangroves, aquifers and other forms of "natural capital" to eke out a living. Unless world leaders take swift action to halt the accelerating depletion of these resources, the result could be hunger, conflict ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
UN aims to finalise Copenhagen by summer 2010
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253144/un-aims-finalise-copenhagen
Business Green: The UN is hoping to see an international climate change treaty completed by summer next year, following the growing consensus that next month's Copenhagen climate summit will deliver only a non-binding political agreement. Some commentators had suggested that expected failure to finalise a deal next month will result in a year's delay, with a successor to the Kyoto Treaty not signed until the UN's next global climate change meeting in Mexico in December 2010. However, speaking ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Indian climate envoy plays down Copenhagen hopes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarmingindia
Agence France-Presse: India's chief climate negotiator Shyam Saran played down Friday the chances of sealing a new UN treaty on global warming at next month's crunch climate conference in Copenhagen. "It's difficult to sound optimistic on the basis of where we have reached so far," Saran said, citing a lack of progress at high-level talks in Barcelona last week aimed at agreeing a negotiation blueprint for the December 7-18 summit in the Danish capital. "There are some very important issues that ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Investment in ecosystems will reap rewards: UNEP
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AC21120091113?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Nations that take into account natural resources in their investment strategies will have higher rates of return and stronger economies, a report backed by the United Nations' Environment Programme said on Friday. With less than one month until a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, the report urges policymakers to reform their economic policies to stop the destruction of natural resources such as forests and oceans. "Repairing the ecosystem by replanting forests, restoring ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Cow dung to power more Dutch homes
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AC22Z20091113?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A plant that converts cow dung into energy for homes opened in the Netherlands on Friday. Manure from cows at a nearby dairy farm will be fermented along with grass and food industry residues, and the biogas released during the process will be used as fuel for the thermal plant's gas turbines. The heat generated will be distributed to around 1,100 homes in the area around Leeuwarden in the north of the Netherlands, the plant's operator Essent said in a statement. Firms ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Report: Texas greenhouse gas emissions down
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091113/ap_on_bi_ge/us_texas_air_quality
Associated Press: While Texas maintains a firm grip on the dubious title of the nation's most prolific industrial polluter, an environmental group's report Thursday found that wind power and other cleaner energy sources have helped cut emissions linked to global warming in the state. Environment Texas analyzed the most recent U.S. Department of Energy statistics that show the state is still the leader in carbon-dioxide emissions but cut such pollution by 2 percent between 2004 and 2007. In that same ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
CO2 and Carbon Sinks: How Nature Helps Cancel Out Humanity's Sins
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,660902,00.html#ref=rss
Spiegel: The Earth may have a greater capacity for absorbing CO2 than previously thought. Carbon dioxide is the primary perpetrator of climate change and most efforts to slow global warming go into preventing CO2 production and aiding CO2 absorption. But a new study suggests that the more CO2 we make, the more nature absorbs. So do we really need all those rainforests? Many scientists now look to carbon capture-and-storage technology as a way to ward off the worst effects of climate ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Canada: Trees in far north provide biggest climate benefit
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427343.900-trees-in-far-north-provide-biggest-climate-benefit.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: CHAMPIONS of carbon offsetting may have been barking up the wrong tree. It is generally assumed that the tropics are the best place to plant forests in order to sequester carbon and cool the planet, but a study of the effects of tree planting is casting doubt on this idea. To maximise climate benefits we should be planting trees at higher latitudes, the study suggests. Alvaro Montenegro at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and colleagues used high-resolution ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Black Carbon May Be Key to Global Warming
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1938379,00.html
Time Magazine: That soupy brown air is the result of so-called black carbon expelled into the atmosphere in and around the Indian capital, from the burning of biomass for cookstoves and of black coal for electricity, and the incomplete combustion in the old diesel engines that propel most of the cars and trucks in the city. Breathing here isn't all that good for you -- there's a reason the city is home to the "Delhi cough" -- and now scientists are discovering that the sooty air isn't good for the climate ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
United States: Coal star state
http://www.texasobserver.org/features/coal-star-state
Texas Observer: One February night in 2007, a boisterous crowd from all around Texas--old-school ranchers and farmers, fresh-faced Baylor students, environmentalists new and old, big-city Democrats, and rural Republicans--packed a Waco auditorium to discuss the next round of an epic fight. The gathering would turn out to be the high-water mark of a campaign to halt a tsunami of new coal-fired power plants. A staggering 18 plants were on the table statewide, 11 proposed by one unpopular company, Dallas-based ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Australia: Threats looming fast for vital facilities
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/threats-looming-fast-for-vital-facilities-20091113-iepx.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SYDNEY Airport, the nation's busiest, sits surrounded almost entirely by waterways. Botany Bay lies on the south, Botany Wetlands to the east, Alexandra Canal to the north, and Cooks River to the west. It is among the most critical and vulnerable pieces of infrastructure at risk from sea-level rise, the latest report on Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coast finds. A sea-level rise of 1.1 metres, combined with a storm surge, would inundate parts of the northern runways and taxiways ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Maine tops nation in reducing carbon footprint, report claims
http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/9758/Default.aspx
Main Public Broadcasting Network: Maine has come in first in the race to reduce its carbon footprint, according to a report released today. Between 2004 and 2007 Maine reduced carbon emissions by a greater proportion than any other state. "Maine's pollution reduced by 15 percent since 2004, which is the year that in most states, pollution levels began to peak," said Katie Kokkinos of the advocacy group Environment Maine at a news conference this morning outside Portland City Hall. Maine, however, is still going ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Canada's tar sands are the future of oil production: Total
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gH3xEC_IFR8TagMeV2YsEf8-gMiA
Agence France-Presse: The era of oil gushing from ground wells is over and can only be replaced by costly and complex refining of deposits such as Canada's oil sands to satisfy rising global energy needs, said a senior oil executive. Pressed about the high cost of oil sands extraction and attacks by environmentalists worried about its contribution to global warming, Jean-Michel Gires, president of French-based Total's Canadian subsidiary, told AFP he is optimistic specifically about the future of Canada's ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Farmers v greens
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14844977
Economist: AMERICA will not pass a cap-and-trade law in time for the global climate-change summit in Copenhagen next month. To understand why, it helps to ask a farmer. Take Bruce Wright, for example, who grows wheat and other crops on a couple of thousand acres near Bozeman, Montana. His family has tilled these fields for four generations. His great-grandfather built the local church. He loves his job and the rural way of life. But he fears that higher energy prices will endanger both. To grow ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
'Super greenhouse gas' deal fails
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/55468
Reuters: do running start. But the annual meeting of the 198 nations of the Montreal Protocol began on a note of contention that five days of discussions could not overcome. The 22-year-old Montreal Protocol has delivered an unbroken string of successes in the battle against ozone depletion, accomplished with comity and cooperation, but now observers say it has caught the climate virus. Rhetoric trumped getting down to business, as an agreement to rid the world of HFCs, enormously potent ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Peak oil: Terry Macalister on what the data says
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/nov/13/peak-oil-iea-uppsala
Guardian: The question is not if the world is running out of oil, it's when. There are finite quantities of crude even if the oil companies get the chance to dig up the Arctic as they are desperate to do. The Peak Oil debate is about how soon we will find resources depleted with the pessimists believing that time has pretty much arrived while the optimists insist that point will not be reached for decades. The International Energy Agency is now saying it could be 2020 but clearly much depends ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
African dream of a 'green wall' to prevent desertification
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/6560329/African-dream-of-a-green-wall-to-prevent-desertification.html
Telegraph: The project, begun in 2005, was meant to involve nations from Senegal on the Atlantic ocean to Djibouti on the Red sea. But four years later, the "green wall" has barely emerged from the dust, and its supporters are hoping it will get a boost at the Copenhagen conference on climate change next month. "Africa won't go empty-handed to the Copenhagen summit," vowed Senegal's environment minister, Djibo Ka, at a ceremony in the northern village of Labgar recently. He said ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Clinton: No binding climate deal at Denmark talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/climate_change
Associated Press: Next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen is not likely to produce a legally binding treaty to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are widely blamed for global warming, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday. Speaking to a town hall meeting of students at a university in the Philippine capital, Clinton said the Obama administration would push instead for a strong "framework agreement" that could become a template for an eventual enforceable ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
'Let them eat vegetables', Bardot tells EU
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/lifestyleclimateeufoodpeoplebardot
Agence France-Presse: Brigitte Bardot, one-time French screen goddess turned animal rights activist, wants the European Union to institute a "Vegetarian Day" as part of the battle against global warming. In a letter this week to European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barrosoa, Bardot said "a few weeks before the Copenhagen climate summit, I would like to draw your attention to the need to question cattle-farming, whose effects on the environment are of concern." Quoting studies by the World Bank and ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Brazil releases official Amazon deforestation figures for 2009
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1113-brazil_amazon_deforestation.html
Mongabay: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell nearly 46 percent to the lowest annual loss on record in 2009, reported the Brazilian government Thursday. INPE, the country's space agency, found that 7,008 square kilometers (2,705 square miles) of forest were cleared during the 12-month period ended July 2009, the lowest extent since annual record-keeping began in 1988. "The new deforestation data represents an extraordinary and significant reduction for Brazil," President Luiz ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Indonesia: "Responsible" palm oil producers pledge not to develop endangered Sumatra rainforest
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1113-rspo.html
Mongabay: Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an initiative developing criteria to improve the environmental performance of palm oil, agreed to declare the Bukit Tigapuluh Ecosystem in Sumatra a 'high conservation value area'. The decision, voted on by RSPO General Assembly members at the group's annual meeting earlier this month in Kuala Lumpur, effectively bans oil palm development of the endangered forest ecosystem by RSPO members. Bukit Tigapuluh Ecosystem has been ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Green energy vs. food security in Mozambique biofuels debate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091113/sc_afp/faosummitfoodmozambiquebiofuels
Agence France-Presse: Nico Strydom probably knows as much as anyone about jatropha, the poisonous tree whose oily black seeds just might sprout a green energy revolution. But, as the soft-spoken forester admits during a tour of his jatropha fields in central Mozambique, that's not saying much. "There's a lot of research that needs to be done. Jatropha is a relatively new plant," says Strydom. He looks out over the 10-month-old, 1,000-hectare farm he runs for Sun Biofuels, a British-based ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Countries that invest in conservation will see higher financial returns, argues report
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1113-teeb.html
Mongabay: A new report issued by the The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative makes a strong case for valuing the planet's ecosystem services. The report calls for investments in "ecological infrastructure" to protect wildlands and the services they provide; market-based valuation of ecosystem services; reductions in environmentally harmful subsidies; recognition of the link between environmental degradation and poverty; and a strong climate deal that includes forest ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Hope for Copenhagen: Campaign inspires public to call for climate action
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=hope-for-copenhagen-campaign-inspir-2009-11-13
Scientific American: Politicians and journalists tend to be jaded about international agreements aimed at improving society. And already too many commentators are saying the global climate summit that begins December 7 in Copenhagen will not produce tangible instruments that limit greenhouse gas emissions. Disgusted by the pessimism, the global advertising industry has started a grassroots campaign to encourage citizens worldwide to sound out a message of hope...in an effort to pressure each country's leaders ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
World leaders 'must not use recession to delay action on climate change'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/13/recession-climate-change
Guardian: World leaders cannot use the global recession as an excuse to delay action on climate change, according to leading economists. In a new analysis they predict that the economic downturn will cut carbon emissions by 9% by 2012 and delay the onset of "dangerous" climate change by just 21 months. The report, published today by the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, compared economic forecasts made before the recession with revised estimates that incorporate the ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
UK climate target seen too optimistic by decades
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AC48420091113?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Britain will miss its ambitious 2050 target for an emissions cut by decades unless it reassesses its course, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said on Friday. Last year, Britain passed the Climate Change Act, aimed at cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 from the 1990 level to help mitigate global warming. "A realistic date to achieve the 2050 targets, based on current policy, is 2100 at the earliest -- some 50 years later than targeted," said the ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Health Care Accounts For Eight Percent Of US Carbon Footprint, Calculation Finds
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110171647.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: The American health care sector accounts for 8 percent of the country's carbon dioxide emissions, according to a first-of-its-kind calculation of health care's carbon footprint. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, University of Chicago researchers used expenditures from different parts of the health care sector to measure the industry's potential effect upon global warming through the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Health care in ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Barack Obama's trip to China expected to set the tone for talks in Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/13/barack-obama-hu-jintao-china-us
Guardian: The leaders of the world's two biggest greenhouse gas emitters – Barack Obama and Hu Jintao – are to meet on Tuesday in Beijing, in one of the most significant moments leading up to the world summit on climate change in Copenhagen next month. Agreement between the US and China on key issues would breathe new life into the moribund negotiations towards a global climate deal. But sources are downplaying the chances of a breakthrough, suggesting another blow to the talks. Instead, ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
New visualisations: how green could our cities be?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/nov/13/green-cities-cabe-visualisations
Guardian: You may never have seen Liverpool or Hackney look exactly like this. Instead of houses, there are gardens; instead of roads, there are parks. The images – produced for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) – show what happens when everything made of concrete, brick and tarmac is removed from an urban environment. Published today, the not-to-scale aerial shots of Liverpool, Gloucester and the inner London boroughs of Hackney and Islington have been ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Rainforest money doesn't grow on trees
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/13/deforestation-rainforest-brazil
Guardian: My colleagues in the Amazon office of Greenpeace like to characterise deforestation as a lion, oscillating between periods of slumber and bouts of frenetic and violent activity. New figures released by Brazil's government yesterday suggest that over the past year the lion has slept a little more soundly than usual. This is very good news, but we must not take our eyes off him. The reported fall in the rate of Amazon deforestation should be kept in perspective. Over the past year ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
India defends its climate-change strategy while calling for room to develop
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-india-climate14-2009nov14,0,691165.story
LA Times: India remains flexible and its national climate-change plans are not the window dressing some critics charge, said the nation's lead negotiator today. But any agreement that might emerge from global negotiations must give the South Asian powerhouse ample room to grow and develop economically. "Climate change shouldn't become a mechanism for the perpetuation of poverty," said Shyam Saran, the prime minister's special envoy on climate change, in a meeting with ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Climate change causing increased number of record high temperatures
http://www.examiner.com/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2009m11d13-Climate-change-causing-increased-number-of-record-high-temperatures
Examiner: A new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) determined that the number of record high temperatures over the last decade was much greater than the number of record low temperatures. The study authors said that the results were evidence of climate change's effect in our weather. Analyzing millions of readings from surface stations across the country, the record highs outnumbered the lows by two to one. From January 1, 2000 to September 30, 2009, there were ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Japan, US pledge 'new era' in fight against climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hQnUOi5KXnPCvFHBA9theY0hgKEA
Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama and Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama agreed Friday to work together in combating climate change, at a meeting ahead of a key UN summit in Copenhagen next month. Obama and Hatoyama said they "aspire to reduce" each nation's greenhouse emissions by 80 percent by 2050, and to seek a global cut of 50 percent by then -- matching a goal set by the Group of Eight rich nations. As Obama visited Japan on his Asia tour, the leaders in a joint statement ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Climate change bill to backburner
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29491.html
Politico: An aggressive White House push on jobs and deficit reduction in 2010 may be yet another sign that climate-change legislation will stay on the back burner next year. "There is a growing chorus in the party that thinks we should be doing more to spur job creation and not necessarily tackle cap and trade right now,' said a moderate Democratic Senate aide. White House officials told POLITICO on Friday that President Barack Obama plans curb new domestic spending beyond jobs programs ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
US considers interim climate change plan
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/13/UPI-NewsTrack-TopNews/UPI-23861258131961/
United Press International: U.S. officials are considering an interim climate change pact before next month's summit in Denmark, tackling a more ambitious plan next year, officials said. The two-pronged, scaled-back strategy is being driven by lack of action on climate legislation in Congress, hampering the Obama administration's efforts to strike an international deal this year, The Washington Post reported Friday Backing an interim agreement would be an attempt to keep the U.N.-sponsored talks in ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Obama must be more engaged on climate change: Greenpeace
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jNMfXsHXJLi8JA_qKMNg92S0pDFQ
Agence France-Presse: Greenpeace, the global environmental group, called Friday on US President Barack Obama to become more engaged on climate change at home and abroad, just two days ahead of his visit to China. "The main thing he needs to do is improve the public debate (domestically)," Kyle Ash, the group's senior legislative director on climate change, told reporters in Beijing. "Internationally, it would be more about demonstrating what the US is doing, what they are willing to do, to show that ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Wen: China committed to fully tackling climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/13/content_8970086.htm
Xinhua: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said here Friday that China is committed to fully tackling climate change and pledged contribution to the international cooperation in this regard. Wen made the remarks while meeting with the foreign representatives who attended the 9th annual conference of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED). While tackling the global financial crisis, the Chinese government has never relaxed its requirements for energy ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Deforestation Down 45 Percent
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49257
Inter Press Service: Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon jungle was reduced more than expected between August 2008 and July 2009 - 45 percent compared to the previous 12 months, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported. During that period, 7,008 square kilometres of forest were cleared, according to the Deforestation Monitoring Project, which uses satellite images. In the previous 12-month period, 12,911 square kilometres of jungle were lost. The results announced Thursday, which ...

Sat, 14 Nov 09
Uganda: "Mount Elgon Eviction Has Reduced Us to Beggars"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49253
Inter Press Service: "We have been reduced to begging from relatives and to migrate to urban areas where life is not safe. We were living in the mountain for more than 200 years. Transferring us means burying us, completely. We want to stay in our area and develop." These are the words of Mejje Christopher, a former parish chief who now lives as a squatter in Kisitu, almost 30 km from Kapchorwa district in eastern Uganda. He finds it hard to cope with life in the lowlands after his people, the Benet, were ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Record-high U.S. temps outpace record lows: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AB4GU20091112?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: In another sign of a warming planet, there were twice as many record-high temperatures in the United States as record lows over the last decade, climate scientists reported on Thursday. This does not mean there are no record lows, just that there are fewer of them, said Gerald Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. A parallel study of temperatures in Australia showed about the same results over the same period, Meehl said in a telephone ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Greenland ice loss accelerating: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AB4FM20091112?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Greenland's ice losses are accelerating and nudging up sea levels, according to a study showing that icebergs breaking away and meltwater runoff are equally to blame for the shrinking ice sheet. The report, using computer models to confirm satellite readings, indicated that ice losses quickened in 2006-08 to the equivalent of 0.75 mm (0.03 inch) of world sea level rise per year from an average 0.46 mm a year for 2000-08. "Mass loss has accelerated," said Michiel van den Broeke, ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Oil running out far faster than predicted: report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/12/oil-shortage-uppsala-aleklett
Guardian: A leading academic institute has urged European governments to review global oil supplies for themselves because of the "politicisation" of the International Energy Agency's figures. Uppsala University in Sweden today published a scathing assessment of the IEA's annual World Energy Outlook, saying some assumptions drastically underplayed the scale of future oil shortages. Kjell Aleklett, professor of physics at Uppsala and co-author of a new report "The Peak of the Oil Age", ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Greenland ice loss 'accelerating'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8357537.stm
BBC: The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed. Published in the journal Science, it has also given scientists a clearer view of why the sheet is shrinking. The team used weather data, satellite readings and models of ice sheet behaviour to analyse the annual loss of 273 thousand million tonnes of ice. Melting of the entire sheet would raise sea levels globally by ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
The Seattle activists' coming of age in Cophenhagen will be very disobedient
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/nov/12/seattle-coming-age-disobedient-copenhagen
Guardian: The other day I received a pre-publication copy of The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle, by David and Rebecca Solnit. It's set to come out 10 years after a historic coalition of activists shut down the World Trade Organisation summit in Seattle – the spark that ignited a global anti-corporate movement. The book is a fascinating account of what really happened in Seattle; but when I spoke to David Solnit, the direct-action guru who helped engineer the shutdown, I found him ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
United States: Groups sue to make rare flying squirrel endangered
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091112/ap_on_re_us/us_rare_flying_squirrels
Associated Press: Environmental groups are suing the federal government to return a type of flying squirrel to the endangered species list. The small nocturnal squirrel is only found in higher elevations of West Virginia and one county in Virginia. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed it from the list under the Bush Administration after a count found 1,200 of the animals. That was up from 10 animals spotted in 1985. The groups say they filed the lawsuit because they claim the agency did ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Deforestation sees biggest drop in 20 yrs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091112/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_amazon
Associated Press: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped nearly 46 percent from August 2008 to July 2009 -- the biggest annual decline in two decades, the government said Thursday. Analysis of satellite imagery by the National Institute for Space Research shows an estimated 7,008 square kilometers (2,705 square miles) of forest were cleared during the 12-month period, the lowest rate since the government started monitoring deforestation in 1988. "The new deforestation data represents an ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Bolivia: Lake Titicaca at dangerously low levels
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091112/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_bolivia_lake_titicaca
Associated Press: Evaporation blamed on global warming has reduced Lake Titicaca, one of the world's highest navigable lakes, to its lowest level since 1949, authorities said Thursday. Diminished rainfall and a rise in solar radiation have in the past four years led to critically low water levels that now threaten fish spawning areas and plant life, the Lake Titicaca Authority said in a statement. Titicaca's waters have dropped 81 centimeters (2.65 feet) since April and flora and fauna are apt ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Fewer tress cut down in Brazil's Amazon jungle
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091113/sc_afp/brazilenvironmentforests
Agence France-Presse: Brazil's sprawling Amazon jungle this year lost 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles) of rain forest, a huge area but also a whopping 45 percent drop from 2008 losses, an official reported Thursday. "It's by far the best result we've seen since INPE began its study in 1988," the director of Brazil's National Institute of Space Research, Gilberto Camara, told President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his environment minister at a meeting here. Camara said deforestation in ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Senators seek tweaks in carbon permit plans
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AB5Y220091112?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: In the latest obstacle to proposed U.S. climate legislation, key lawmakers on Thursday urged Senate Democrats to change distribution plans for carbon permits to offer more protection for coal-dependent utilities. The lawmakers said the allocation scheme in the current Senate bill does not apportion permits in an equitable manner and will result in higher electricity rates for consumers in regions that rely mostly on coal for power generation. The 14 lawmakers who signed the ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Brazil celebrates 45% reduction in Amazon deforestation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/brazil-amazon-deforestation-climate-change-copenhagen
Guardian: The Brazilian government yesterday announced a "historic" drop in the deforestation of the Amazon, weeks before world leaders meet in Copenhagen for climate change talks. Brazilian authorities said that between August 2008 and July this year, deforestation in the world's largest tropical rainforest fell by the largest amount in more than 20 years, dropping by 45% from nearly 13,000 square kilometres to around 7,000 square kilometres (5,000 square miles to 2,700 square ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
'Big drop' in Amazon deforestation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8358094.stm
BBC: The level of deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by 45% and is the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago, Brazil's government says. According to the latest annual figures, just over 7,000 sq km was destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009. The drop is welcome news for the government in advance of the Copenhagen summit on climate change. But Greenpeace says there is still too much deforestation and the government's targets are not ambitious ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
United States: 'Cool Globes' offers climate change solutions for everyday life
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/lsquocool-globesrsquo-offers-climate-change-solutions-for-everyday-life-1820012.html
Independent (UK): A month before world political leaders gather in Copenhagen for the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference, the "Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet" art exhibit takes to the streets of the city. The traveling exhibit, which begins in Copenhagen on November 13, offers suggestions for what ordinary citizens can do to combat global climate change. Cool Globes is a public art exhibition featuring more than 25 "Cool Globes," each seven feet tall and five feet in diameter and conveying ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Seychelles struggles to adapt to climate change in a losing battle
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/13/content_12445956.htm
Xinhua: This season Jacques Matombehad to burn 14,300 U.S. dollars worth of pumpkin that he spent months growing on his farm in Seychelles. There was no other way to stop the disease spreading to his crop. "It was out of control," he said, standing in a field of crispy pumpkin plants. "You have to burn it." Disease and pests have become a problem for Matombe and other locals who farm the Aseroyale Plateau on Mahe, Seychelles' main island. Once cool, trade winds are now warmer, ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Study Links Climate Change to California Droughts
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2009/11/12/study-links-climate-change-to-california-droughts.html
U.S. News and World Report: California experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic, according to a new study by UC Davis doctoral student Jessica Oster and geology professor Isabel MontaÃ±ez. The finding, which comes from analyzing stalagmites from Moaning Cavern in the central Sierra Nevada, was published online Nov. 5 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The sometimes spectacular mineral formations in caves such as ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Africa Told 'Stop Playing the Victim'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49240
Inter Press Service: Critics of carbon trading, a strategy meant to combat global warming, say the buying and selling of carbon credits is being exploited. "CDM (the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism) was never meant to be a cash cow, but meant for developed countries to reduce their emissions. "But this is now being abused. They changed the original intention of CDM. Now it's business against environment," lamented Margaret Mukahanana, permanent secretary of national resources ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Africa In the Global Carbon Trade
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49239
Inter Press Service: Carbon trading, as promoted by the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), has become a key global strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on what some experts call "free market environmentalism", Kyoto signatories, who have agreed to a specific emission limits, can purchase carbon credits in exchange for additional greenhouse gas emissions. "Developing countries should not make the same mistakes as developed countries by creating high carbon economies ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Argentina: Desperately Dry
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49238
Inter Press Service: The persistent drought affecting some 90 percent of Argentine territory has slain cattle in the hundreds of thousands and caused forest fires, drastic restrictions on water use and local disputes over water. The area around Tostado, a town in the northeastern province of Santa Fe, is one of the worst hit. Over the last two years, heat and drought have silently killed off cattle and bankrupted farmers on small and medium sized ranches. "This area normally gets between 800 and ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Canada: Signs and Portents of a Hostile New World
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49236
Inter Press Service: Lawrence Amos travelled from the Arctic at the top of the world to the tropical middle to recite in a soft voice the ongoing destruction of his home by climate change. The ice is rougher and not as thick, and melts in May instead of June. There is less snow, more coastal erosion, and permafrost is melting, threatening to swallow homes, said Amos, an Inuit who lives in Sachs Harbour in Canada's High Arctic, one of the remotest communities on the planet. Amos was speaking here on ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
US green builders to number almost eight million
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253095/construction-industry-building
Business Green: The US green building industry will support 7.9m and contribute over $550bn (Â£332bn) to the US economy over the next four years, according to a report this week from the US Green Building Council. The study found that green construction spending currently supports more than two million US jobs and generates more than $100bn in gross domestic product, but it predicted that the sector is poised for rapid growth as a result of economic stimulus funding and increased demand for ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Accenture predicts low-carbon technologies will reshape oil industry
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253094/accenture-predicts-low-carbon
Business Green: The global oil sector will face unprecedented levels of disruption within the next five years as a result of the emergence of commercially viable biofuels and electric vehicle technologies. That is the conclusion of a major new report from management consultancy Accenture, which argues that demand for conventional transport fuels such as petrol and diesel could prove to be significantly lower than anticipated by 2015. The study, titled Betting on Science -- Disruptive ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
New EU register to keep tabs on dangerous pollutants
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253093/pollutants-tracked-eu-register
Business Green: The contamination of air, water and land by industrial pollutants in the EU will face closer scrutiny from this week, following the launch of a new register from the European Commission and the European Environment Agency. The register will collate annual data for 91 substances and covers more than 24,000 facilities operating across 65 different industrial sectors. Under the rules of the register, any pollutants transferred offsite have to be reported on and tracked. "The ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Gordon Brown to attend climate change talks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6555852/Gordon-Brown-to-attend-climate-change-talks.html
Telegraph: Gordon Brown confirmed today that he will attend the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month after Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen issued invitations to 191 world leaders. Mr Brown was the first world leader to announce in September that he was ready to go to Copenhagen to help secure a deal. He will be hoping that other prime ministers and presidents - particularly the US's Barack Obama - follow his lead and go to the Danish capital. The Prime ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
China to push for "fair" Copenhagen outcome on climate change: FM
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/12/content_12440808.htm
Xinhua: China is willing to work with other participants at the U.N.-sponsored climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen next month to reach a "fair and reasonable" outcome, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said here Thursday. Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting, Yang said China hopes to see balanced and positive results on climate change mitigation, adaptation, financing and technology support, four aspects of coordinated efforts outlined by ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Church bells to ring out warning on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ie8V7Taxuv0Vu3HZxT-6qoSXRRxA
Agence France-Presse: The World Council of Churches on Thursday called on churches around the world to ring their bells 350 times during the Copenhagen climate change summit on December 13 as a call to action on global warming. The leading council of Christian and Orthodox churches also invited places of worship for other faiths to join a symbolic "chain of chimes and prayers" stretching around the world from the international date line in the South Pacific. "On that Sunday, midway through the UN ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
El Salvador facing food shortage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8352463.stm
BBC: About 10,000 people in El Salvador are in need of food aid after devastating floods washed away crops. Three days of national mourning are being held following the deaths of at least 140 people in the floods. Thousands are living in shelters as a result of the disaster and large parts of the country are without electricity and clean water. The areas around the capital, San Salvador, and the central province of San Vicente were hit hardest. President Mauricio Funes ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Terrestrial ecosystems and oceans can absorb much more CO2 than expected
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-148660.html
Asian News International: A new study by researchers from the Bristol University, UK, has suggested that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 (carbon dioxide) than had been previously expected. The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket. Dr Wolfgang Knorr at the ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
The Links Between Food Security And Climate Change
http://www.countercurrents.org/nwanze111109.htm
Countercurrents: Recent reports indicate that the rains have failed once again across vast swathes of Eastern Africa, putting millions of people at risk. This current regional crisis is a stark reminder to all of us that the global food security crisis of 2007 and 2008, which was marked by a sharp contraction in food supplies and food price spikes, is far from over. Food prices have come down from their peaks of 2008, but they are still at historically high levels. They have become more volatile, indicating ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
World leaders 'must act on climate change'
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/83101
Morning Star: A group of 11 countries vulnerable to the adverse effects of global warming called on world leaders on Tuesday to reach a binding agreement at next month's Copenhagen conference on the issue. A group of 11 countries vulnerable to the adverse effects of global warming called on world leaders on Tuesday to reach a binding agreement at next month's Copenhagen conference on the issue. At the Climate Vulnerable Forum in the Maldives, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Oil rise 'could derail recovery'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8356332.stm
BBC: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that the recent rise in the price of oil "risks derailing the recovery" if it continues. The IEA says that oil demand itself will also rebound much more slowly if price rises continue in 2010. The oil price has risen more than 70% this year and is trading at about $77 a barrel, after falling on Thursday. The IEA also warned that signs of renewed economic growth around the world remained "tentative". The price of oil ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
Major Asian cities face climate disaster: WWF
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091112/tsc-major-asian-cities-face-climate-disa-c2ff8aa.html
Agence France-Presse: Low-lying and impoverished Asian coastal cities such as Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta are vulnerable to "brutal" damage from climate change without global action, environmental group WWF warned Thursday. Skip related content Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions must be curtailed in "mega-cities" where global warming will affect everything from national security to health and water availability, the influential campaign group said. "Climate change is already shattering ...

Fri, 13 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Boris kick starts 200,000 green home makeover plan
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2253006/boris-kick-starts-200-green
Business Green: London Mayor Boris Johnson and the coalition of London Councils have this week officially commenced plans to curb energy use from at least 200,000 by 2012 with the launch of a series of trials designed to help up to 10,000 homes save energy. Under the scheme, residents in nine boroughs will be offered a free green home advisory service, including access to low carbon energy saving technologies such as more efficient light bulbs. Households in areas selected to take part in the trials ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Copenhagen climate talks: Time to change, no time to waste
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/10/copenhagen-climate-change-summit-2c
Guardian: The world's first global treaty to combat climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, was agreed in December 1997 after exhausting, all-night negotiations in Japan that saw arguments, desperate phone calls back to leaders in capital cities and inspired diplomacy. The Guardian reported: "A more bizarre way of reaching agreement to tackle global warming cannot be imagined. Half of those involved were asleep on the floor, unaware that history was being made." The final text of the ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Kerry, U.N.'s Ban upbeat on climate prospects
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091110/pl_nm/us_climate_usa
Reuters: U.S. Senator John Kerry said on Tuesday he will try to "outline" a compromise climate control bill before December's international global warming conference and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave an upbeat assessment of Washington's intentions. "From what I heard today, there is great support in the Senate for action on climate change," Ban told reporters following a meeting with a small group of senators in the U.S. Capitol to encourage them on. Ban repeated a prediction ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
UN chief prods Senate to tackle climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_bi_ge/climate_bill
Associated Press: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed the Senate Tuesday to take action on climate change, but key senators made it clear that a bill is unlikely to pass this year. The U.N. chief met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of negotiations on a new international pact to slow global warming before 192 nations meet in Copenhagen next month. The meeting came a day after President Barack Obama said he was willing to go to ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Low-carbon energy sources need $10.5trn investment, warns IEA
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lowcarbon-energy-sources-need-105trn-investment-warns-iea-1818246.html
Independent (UK): The world's energy systems will need an extra $10.5 trillion (Â£6.3trn) in investment between now and 2030 to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and avoid "irreparable damage to the planet", the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned yesterday. In the run-up to next month's climate summit in Copenhagen, the IEA's annual global outlook outlined parallel forecasts -- one based on the current trajectory of global energy consumption, the other a lower-carbon model requiring major ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
What Would Failure at Copenhagen Mean for Climate Change?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=copenhagen-climate-talks-consequences
Scientific American: This is the consequence of failure at Copenhagen: A marked shift in scientific effort from solving global warming to adapting to its consequences, a hodge-podge of uncoordinated local efforts to trim emissions - none of which deliver the necessary cuts - and an altered climate. Climate experts, scientists and negotiators say that, absent international agreement, the children and grandchildren of those living today will negotiate a world where planetary geo-engineering is a part of ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Al Gore pushes for more renewable energy
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/10/BAFP1AI2FB.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: Al Gore and his crusade against global warming landed in the Bay Area this week with a call to arms and a message for those who still think the former vice president is tilting at windmills. The solution to climate change includes windmills, along with solar and geothermal energy, Gore told The Chronicle in an interview Monday. He also defended himself against attacks by critics who accuse him of pushing the green agenda so that he can personally benefit from investments he has made ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Japan greenhouse emissions fell 6.4% last year: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5AA08120091111?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Japanese greenhouse gas emissions fell 6.4 percent to 1.286 billion tons on CO2 equivalent in the year to March 2009 from a year earlier, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said on Wednesday, quoting a survey by the environment ministry. The figure is in line with expectations for a preliminary figure to be announced by the ministry at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT) on Wednesday for the global-warming gases in the first year of Japan's Kyoto Protocol obligations. For a graphic tracking Japan's ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Kerry vows US climate outline for Copenhagen
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j1phRVuAf4HA_9_Gws_d7C-HNOTA
Agence France-Presse: Senator John Kerry has pledged to complete a framework of an elusive US climate change deal in time for next month's high-stakes summit in Copenhagen, vowing not to let the world down. President Barack Obama's election returned the United States to active global efforts to fight climate change, but a year later Congress has yet to make good on promises to set the first-ever US caps on carbon emissions. After a lobbying mission in the US Capitol by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Kerry ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
China: Yangtze basin faces climate disasters
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/11/content_8946606.htm
China Daily: The basin, home to 400 million people, is an economic powerhouse and the site of the country's largest port and city, Shanghai. In a report released yesterday, environmental group WWF said climate change over the next 50 years would inflict more potentially disastrous weather on the affluent area. "Extreme climate events such as storms and drought will increase as climate change continues to alter our planet," said Xu Ming, the lead researcher of the report. Other ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
No time to waste on climate change, report declares
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-climate11-2009nov11,0,1243042.story
LA Times: Governments must act now to ward off catastrophic climate change or face additional costs of $500 billion per year of delay, according to a report released Tuesday by the International Energy Agency. "Saving the planet cannot wait," said the report by the 28-nation intergovernmental organization. "For every year that passes, the window for action on emissions . . . becomes narrower, and the costs of transforming the energy sector increase." Officials from around the globe will ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Can the World Reach an Agreement on Climate Change?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/11/10/business/energy-environment/20091110_COPENHAGEN_VOICES.html
New York Times

Wed, 11 Nov 09
UK wind energy sector receives Â£1.4bn injection
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252907/uk-wind-energy-sector-receives
Business Green: Wind energy projects in the UK can now apply for Â£1.4bn funding from a combination of the European Investment Bank and commercial sources. The EIB has made around Â£700m available with the remainder matched by RBS, Lloyds Banking Group and BNP Paribas Fortis. The loans will be available to eligible onshore wind projects with a total project cost of between Â£20m and Â£100m. Chancellor Alistair Darling welcomed the investment. "The money that is being made available ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
UK Government imposes 'carbon capture levy' to fund coal-fired power plants
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6910275.ece
Times (UK): Families will pay a new levy on electricity bills for at least the next 20 years to fund technology designed to capture the carbon from coal-fired power stations. The Government is planning to raise Â£9.5 billion from the levy to subsidise up to four carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration plants. Details of the first plant will be announced early next year. The Department for Energy and Climate Change said yesterday that uncertainty over the commercial viability of CCS meant ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Climate deal to prevent doubling of energy bills-IEA
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL9416172
Reuters: A climate change deal is needed not just to ward off global warming, but to ensure a shift from increasingly costly fossil fuels that could lead to a doubling of energy bills, the IEA's chief economist said on Tuesday. In the absence of an agreement, the ratio of energy spending to Gross Domestic Product for the largest consumer countries would double by 2030, Fatih Birol, author of the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook (WEO) told Reuters in an interview. "The ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Uganda: Climate change threatens region's most traded crops
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/business_power/Climate_change_threatens_region_s_most_traded_crops_94351.shtml
Daily Monitor: Maize and beans, East Africa's most traded and consumed commodities, are being threatened by climate changes. A new study published in the peer-review journal on Agricultural Systems, projects that climate change will have highly variable impacts on East Africa's vital maize and bean harvests over the next two to four decades. This is presenting growers and livestock keepers with threats since maize is a raw material used in the production of animal feeds. Previous ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
India's environment minister under fire over glaciers
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i2Jp7LViQoA3_uVnK3OfKfABsCww
Agence France-Presse: India's environment minister came under fire Tuesday from scientists for denying climate change was causing Himalayan glaciers to melt and disputing the work of the UN's top global warming body. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Monday there was no "conclusive scientific evidence" linking global warming to the melting of the glaciers and questioned work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC, a UN body regarded as the world's top authority on ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Australia: Rudd govt queries ETS negotiations
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/rudd-govt-queries-ets-negotiations-20091110-i5y4.html
AAP: The Rudd government has questioned whether there's any point to negotiating on emissions trading when the coalition remains unmoved on the science behind man-made global warming. Labor has also taken another crack at Malcolm Turnbull and his shaky grasp on the leadership, this time blaming him for thwarting good faith negotiations by having failed to earn the backing of his party room. Negotiations plunged to a new low on Monday after Opposition Senate Leader Nick Minchin ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Merkel wants climate action from US, China, India
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_merkel_s_agenda
Associated Press: German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday for the U.S., China and India to make substantive pledges of action against global warming in order to prevent the failure of next month's climate summit in Copenhagen. "A failure of the world climate conference in Copenhagen would set back international climate policy by years," Merkel said in a speech to parliament outlining her new government's agenda. "We cannot afford that." Merkel said the European Union has put forward a ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Germany: Merkel aims go to U.N. climate talks; IEA urges deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A92LS20091110?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel signaled on Tuesday she would visit Copenhagen to push for a U.N. climate deal with other leaders next month, saying failure would set back climate cooperation by years. In Paris, the International Energy Agency (IEA) argued strongly for a U.N. carbon-capping deal, projecting that world use of fossil fuels would otherwise surge by 2030 and push up both energy prices and greenhouse gas emissions. "A failure of the climate conference in Copenhagen ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Too fearful to publicise peak oil reality
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/nov/10/peak-oil-fear-economic-establishment
Guardian: It is very hard for the average person in the street to come to a sensible conclusion on peak oil. It's a subject that prompts a passionate polarisation of views. The peak oilists sometimes sound like those extraordinary Christians with sandwich boards proclaiming that the end of the world is nigh. In contrast, the the international economic establishment – including the International Energy Agency (IEA) – has one very clear purpose in mind at all times: don't panic. Their mission seems to ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Spain acquires Â€25m carbon credits from Poland
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252870/spain-acquires-25m-carbon
Business Green: Shortly after successfully lobbying against having its carbon cap tightened, Poland has agreed to sell around EUR25m worth of carbon credits to Spain in a move allowed under the Kyoto Protocol. Managed by the European Bank For Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the deal is the first of its kind for Poland and should help Spain meets its Kyoto targets, according to the banking groups. For its part, Poland will direct some of the money ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
U.S. EPA sticks Energy Star label on millionth home
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A934E20091110?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Most U.S. consumers recognize the Environmental Protection Agency's blue Energy Star label when it is posted on an energy-saving refrigerator, water heater or other appliance. But the program reached a major milestone on Tuesday when the agency marked the one millionth home to be built with the Energy Star label. Energy Star homes are least 15 percent more efficient than traditional houses and have thick insulation, usually double-paned windows, tight construction and ducts and ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Indonesia: Palm oil developers push into Indonesia's last frontier: Papua
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1110-palm_oil_eia.html
Mongabay: Oil palm developers in the Indonesian half of New Guinea are signing questionable deals that exploit local communities and put important forest ecosystems at risk, alleges a new report from Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Telapak. The report, "Up for Grabs", warns that five million hectares of land in Papua and West Papua are being targeted by powerful agroindustrial companies. The report alleges that developers are using deceptive tactics in signing land deals with local ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
China: Yangtze delta warned to prepare for effects of climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/10/yangtze-delta-climate-change
Guardian: China's most populous river needs massive investment and careful planning to ease the impact of climate change, which is causing floods, droughts and storms to intensify, a new report (pdf) said today. The Yangtze delta, which is home to about 400 million people, has been warming far faster than the global average for more than a decade and the implications for food security and biodiversity will worsen without remedial action, according to the study led by WWF China. The ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Brazil pledges deep emission cuts in 'political gesture' to rich nations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/10/brazil-emissions
Guardian: The Brazilian government is preparing to pledge a big curb in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as a "political gesture" aimed at pressing rich nations into agreeing to large cuts in carbon. The country's chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, said Brazil would take proposals for voluntary reductions of 38-42% by 2020 to the Copenhagen climate change summit next month. The reductions are from projected 2020 emissions levels if no action was taken. "What Brazil is doing is a ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Kenya's wind power project snagged
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091110/sc_afp/kenyaenergyalternativewind
Agence France-Presse: A Kenyan wind power project aiming to be the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa suffered a setback Tuesday after talks with one of the key investors foundered, an official said. Consortium chief of the Lake Turkana Wind Project in northern Kenya said British energy firm Globeleq pegged its participation on the building of a transmission line from the remote region. "We did not agree on that because the project would have been delayed by 12 to 20 months," Carlo Van Wageningen told ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Carbon storage? Not under my house!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Carbon-storage-Not-under-my-apf-234534773.html?x=0&.v=7
Various: The people of this small Dutch town are not against pumping tons of carbon dioxide into the ground to fight global warming. They just wish it wasn't right beneath their houses. "Who wants to live in Barendrecht if one of these CO2 things is built?" said retiree Marianne van Heugten. The carbon dioxide storage experiment by Royal Dutch Shell and the Dutch government is only one of a dozen such projects across Europe to test a technology that could potentially slash emissions of ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Vulnerable countries urge world to cut emissions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_re_as/climate_maldives_summit
Associated Press: A group of 11 countries vulnerable to adverse effects of global warming urged world leaders Tuesday to reach a binding agreement at the next month's global conference on the issue. The countries called President Barack Obama and the leaders of emerging economies such as India and China, to personally attend the talks in Copenhagen. Officials from Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, the Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam -- calling themselves the V11 ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
U.S. eyes deal with China on climate change monitoring
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A91OD20091110
Reuters: The United States hopes to reach agreement with China during President Barack Obama's visit on how to record and monitor countries' efforts to fight global warming, a top State Department official said on Tuesday. The comments by Robert Hormats, undersecretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs, offered some insight into the types of deals Obama will be hoping to strike when he visits China next week. Obama told Reuters in an interview on Monday that Washington and ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Making climate change finance work for India
http://www.livemint.com/2009/11/10203909/Making-climate-change-finance.html?h=B
Livemint: Investment in energy is critical for India. The World Energy Council estimates that about 56% of rural households in India have no access to electricity. The World Bank calculates that energy poverty levels such as these can reduce gross domestic product (GDP) growth by as much as 4% annually. India is rightly striving for a step change in energy infrastructure investment over the next two decades to sustain and accelerate its economic growth. The International Energy Agency (IEA) ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
US climate bill needs strong border measures-Baucus
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN10310396
Reuters: The United States must include a tariff or some other "border measure" to protect U.S. manufacturers from unfair foreign competition as part of legislation to address climate change, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said on Tuesday. "We can not allow our manufacturing industries to fade as result of trade with countries that refuse to negotiate global solutions to global concerns," Baucus said in a speech. "We must push our trading partners to do their part to curb ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Australia: Row over sceptics hits climate ETS talks
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/row-over-sceptics-hits-climate-ets-talks/story-e6frgczf-1225796290183
Australian: AN escalating political row over the views of outspoken Coalition climate change sceptics is threatening ongoing negotiations between the government and opposition over Labor's emissions trading legislation. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong yesterday accused Malcolm Turnbull of a failure of leadership after Coalition Senate leader Nick Minchin claimed a majority of opposition party members did not believe in man-made global warming, which he called the new "religion" of the Left ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Brazil: Towards Carbon-Free Chimneys
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49206
Inter Press Service: Scientists in Brazil are developing a technique for absorbing industry-produced carbon dioxide before it ever reaches the atmosphere. The secret lies in half-centimetre ceramic spheres. The low-cost approach is the brainchild of a chemistry department team at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in south-eastern Brazil. The inventors told TierramÃ©rica that they believe this method is far better than the existing techniques for sequestering carbon in gas form, as CO2, ...

Wed, 11 Nov 09
Land-based offsets stay central to US climate bill
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1725
Carbon Positive: Recent proposals to the emerging US cap-and-trade draft legislation suggest that the Senate intends to keep domestic forestry and agriculture offsets as a major component of the climate bill. Senator Debbie Stabenow led the release of a bill that would create a domestic offset program within the federal cap-and-trade legislation. The bill provides some clarity on eligible project types and the use of temporary credits as a mechanism to balance land-use flexibility with offset permanence. On ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
A Hunt for Seeds to Save Species, Perhaps by Helping Them Move
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/earth/10plant.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Pitcher's thistle, whose fuzzy leaves and creamy pink puffs once thrived in the sand dunes along several of the Great Lakes, was driven by development, drought and weevils into virtual extinction from the shores of Lake Michigan decades ago. But in the 1990s, seeds collected from different parts of the thistle's range were grown at the Chicago Botanic Garden and planted with the help of the Morton Arboretum along the lake, in Illinois State Beach Park, north of Chicago near the ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Ten nuclear stations to be built in bid to prevent energy shortage
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6910307.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Ten nuclear power stations are to be built in Britain at a cost of up to Â£50 billion as the Government tries to prevent the threat of regular power cuts by the middle of the coming decade. The nuclear industry welcomed the plans, but critics said that ministers had acted too late to avoid an energy crunch caused by the closure of ageing coal-fired stations. Although the sites were known to be in line for development, the announcement signals the Government's increasing ambition ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Britain unveils plans for new nuclear power stations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/09/AR2009110902195.html
Washington Post: The British government unveiled plans Monday to launch one of the world's most ambitious expansions of nuclear-power capacity, calling for the construction of 10 plants to help meet surging energy demands in the era of global warming. After years of resistance to construction of nuclear-power plants, the British plan underscored how nations around the world are scrambling to find ways to generate more energy while slashing the emissions that cause climate change. To do that, nations ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Guarded Optimism for New Climate Change Law
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49199
Inter Press Service: While pessimism continues to dog the lead-up to next month's climate change talks in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, a new Philippine law aimed at streamlining the country's efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of global warming has received a guarded welcome by environmental groups here. Brother Martin Francisco, chairperson of the Sagip (Save) Sierra Madre Environmental Society Inc., told IPS that the Philippine Congress had made a positive move in passing the legislation ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Spain: Windfall for the Grid
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49197
Inter Press Service: Wind energy notched up a new record in Spain on Sunday, when it generated 53 percent of total electricity demand nationwide for part of the day, according to official figures announced Monday. Powering the grid at up to 10,170 megawatts, wind turbines supplied over half the country's demand for five-and-a-half hours, a timespan similar to windpower output on Nov. 4 and 5, when for five hours each day they provided over 40 percent of demand. JosÃ© Donoso, head of the Spanish Wind ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
UK workers waste 4.6 million hours a day commuting
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252808/uk-workers-waste-million-hours
Business Green: As well as contributing to transport emissions that account for over a fifth of the UK's carbon footprint, workers are collectively wasting 4.6 million hours a day commuting, according to new research released yesterday to coincide with the launch of National Commute Smart Week. The survey of 2,000 workers found that 62 per cent of respondents want to reduce the amount of time travelling to and from work, while just under a third would like to be given the option to work more ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Copenhagen failure would be 'suicide': Maldives
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091109/wl_sthasia_afp/maldivesenergyclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: The president of the Maldives has warned that a failure to agree a deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen next month would be an act of "collective suicide". "At the moment every country arrives at climate negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible," President Mohamed Nasheed said here. "This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. "We don't want a global suicide pact. We want a global survival pact." More ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Environment Agency to propose individual carbon ration cards
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252771/environment-agency-propose
Business Green: The Environment Agency will argue today that carbon rationing is the fairest and most effective way for the UK to meet its legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Agency's chairman, Lord Smith, will propose at the organisation's annual conference in London that every citizen be provided with a "carbon account" and unique number that they submit when buying carbon-intensive items such as petrol, electricity or airline tickets. Individuals would then ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Experts dispute glacier fear in Himalayas
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091109/jsp/nation/story_11717164.jsp
Telegraph (India): Glaciers in the Himalayas are shrinking, but there is no evidence to suggest that global warming has enhanced the loss of glacial ice in this region, a review paper to be released by the government tomorrow has said. The paper has combined archived data from the Geological Survey of India from the early 20th century with a series of observations from academic institutions to question grim forecasts predicting the looming demise of Himalayan glaciers. "The Himalayan glaciers are ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
India: Home footprint on carbon map
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091109/jsp/calcutta/story_11717137.jsp
Telegraph (India): Residential houses and commercial establishments in Calcutta are responsible for more than one-fourth of its carbon dioxide emission, an international study has found out. Industrial units and vehicles together contribute close to three-fourth of the city's emission. The study by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (South Asia), supported by the British high commission in India, is the first attempt in the country to quantify households' contribution ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
High-tech companies face shortages as China hoards metals
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,658977,00.html
Spiegel: Germany is pinning its economic hopes on future-oriented industries such as solar panel manufacturing. But high-tech companies are facing shortages of essential metals as China, which dominates the world market in so-called rare earths, begins stockpiling the highly sought-after resources. A massive gray mountain rises from the vast plains of Inner Mongolia. The artificial hill is the pride of the Chinese and the envy of the world -- at least the world of commodities ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Coral reef scientist slams Brumby over 'reckless vandalism'
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coral-reef-scientist-slams-brumby-over-reckless-vandalism-20091109-i4th.html
Sydney Morning Herald: One of the world's leading coral reef scientists has slammed the Brumby Government's proposal to export Victoria's brown coal to India as "reckless vandalism". John "Charlie" Veron, who discovered a quarter of the world's identified coral species, said any move to export the state's vast reserves of brown coal would only further endanger the Great Barrier Reef. "It's reckless vandalism. Brown coal would have to be the dirtiest, nastiest form of energy there is. It is absolutely ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
The new dust bowl
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/11/new-dust-bowl
Mother Jones: When I meet Javier Vaca on a dusty strip of blacktop, he's been walking for three days. The skinny 18-year-old is being carried along in a procession of 7,000 farmworkers and farmers as it crosses California's Central Valley, his baggy jeans and hoodie standing out amid the work boots and button-downs. He's been told only one thing that matters: Marching 50 miles might earn him a job. "I don't want to jack nobody," Vaca says, as though the thought had crossed his mind. When the ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Temperature rise guaranteed, thanks to brown clouds
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49188
Inter Press Service: Regardless of success at the upcoming climate talks at Copenhagen this December, there will still be a 2.5 degree rise in temperatures. Dr Veerabhadra Ramanathan, director of the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California-Berkeley, has predicted that an "incredibly complex blanket" of greenhouse gases called the 'Atmospheric Brown Cloud' (ABC) will ensure such a temperature rise. At an international gathering of ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
As nations haggle over CO2 cuts, measurement is tough
http://www.forexyard.com/en/reuters_inner.tpl?action=2009-11-09T000439Z_01_SP495232_RTRIDST_0_CLIMATE-COPENHAGEN-CARBON-FEATURE-PIX-GRAPHIC
Reuters: Targets and trust. These are at the heart of a tougher new global climate pact possibly just weeks away. The bigger the pledged emissions cuts or reductions in growth in carbon dioxide pollution, the greater the need to prove nations meet those targets and curb the pace of climate change. And proof of emissions reductions over time will help unlock billions of dollars in climate funds for poor nations. The problem, though, is that it is not yet possible to independently ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
The pursuit of new ways to boost solar development
http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2208
Environment 360: California is the number one U.S. state for solar power generation -- not a surprise. The country's most populous state, with an inclination for progressive environmental policies also happens to enjoy sun in abundance. What state might be number two? Surely some other large southerly state. Arizona? Maybe sunshine-state Florida? Not even close. Number two for solar electric power, and number one in total solar installations on a per capita basis, is small and not-so-sunny New ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
United States: As seas rise, planning starts
http://savannahnow.com/news/2009-11-09/seas-rise-planning-starts
Savannah Now: Sea level rise could put as much as 50-100 square miles of currently dry land - an area about 20-40 times the size of Tybee Island - under water in Georgia this century, a new report points out. But the study, published in Environmental Research Letters, indicates Georgia is in a better position than many states to plan for this inundation. That's because Georgia has a good portion of its low lying land - including most of the state's barrier islands - in conservation. In fact, ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
G20 makes little progress on climate financing
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A60QQ20091109?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Rich countries and developing nations fought over climate change on Saturday, failing to make progress on financing ahead of a major environmental summit in Copenhagen next month. Britain, which was hosting a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Scotland, was determined to push toward a $100 billion deal to cover the costs of climate change by 2020. But talks got bogged down in a row with large developing countries about who should foot the bill. "There was a heated ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
India 'arrogant' to deny global warming link to melting glaciers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/india-pachauri-climate-glaciers
Guardian: A leading climate scientist today accused the Indian environment ministry of "arrogance" after the release of a government report claiming that there is no evidence climate change has caused "abnormal" shrinking of Himalayan glaciers. Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, released the controversial report in Delhi, saying it would "challenge the conventional wisdom" about melting ice in the mountains. Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Britain to fund four clean coal trials
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A83E020091109?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Britain will fund up to four large-scale demonstration projects to limit climate-warming carbon emissions from coal plants, through a levy on electricity bills, the government said on Monday. The statement filled out details on plans announced in April, saying no new coal plants could be built in Britain without fitting technology to trap and bury carbon emissions from coal plants -- called carbon capture and storage (CCS). Britain would fund up to four CCS demonstrations: two ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Spain's windfarms set new national record for electricity generation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/spain-national-record-power-windfarms
Guardian: Wind energy provided more than half of Spain's total electricity needs for several hours over the weekend as the country set a new national record for wind-generated power. With high winds gusting across much of the country, Spain's huge network of windfarms jointly poured the equivalent of 11 nuclear power stations' worth of electricity into the national grid. At one stage on Sunday morning, the country's wind farms were able to cover 53% of total electricity demand – a new ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
China eyes closing coal-fired power plants in capital
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A83GG20091109?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: China is considering moving the last four coal-fired power and heating plants out of Beijing's municipal area, replacing them with gas-fired stations, state media reported on Monday, in an effort to improve air quality in the capital. "The existence of a number of coal-fired power plants in urban Beijing does not conform with the city's positioning as a metropolis," Zhang Guobao, head of the China's National Energy Administration (NEA), was quoted as saying in the China Energy ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Miliband paves way for most ambitious fleet of new nuclear reactors in Europe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/energy-policy-nuclear-coal
Guardian: A new fleet of nuclear power stations was today backed by the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, as he outlined the UK government's plans to fast-track major energy infrastructure projects, also including "clean coal" power stations and windfarms. Six draft "national policy statements" would secure the UK's energy supply as ageing plants close, reduce carbon emissions in generating power and create jobs, he said. He also called for an overhaul of the planning system to encourage new ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Path to good health, less pollution is the sidewalk: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091109/ts_alt_afp/healthustransportationurbanwalking
Agence France-Presse: US pressure groups joined forces Monday to urge authorities to spend more to improve Americans' health and cut greenhouse gas emissions. But it was neither health care reform nor cap-and-trade that they were talking about, but a call for state and local authorities to spend more to make US streets safe for pedestrians and cyclists. Designing towns and cities to make it more appealing and safer to walk or ride a bike would not only help fight the US obesity epidemic and improve ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Go-ahead for 10 nuclear stations
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8349715.stm
BBC: The government has approved 10 sites in England and Wales for new nuclear power stations, most of them in locations where there are already plants. It has rejected only one proposed site - in Dungeness, Kent - as being unsuitable on environmental grounds. A new planning commission will make decisions on the proposals "within a year" of receiving them, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told MPs. Nuclear was a "proven and reliable" energy source, he said. Proposed ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
United Kingdom: The government announces new nuclear sites, plans shake-up
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091109/wl_uk_afp/britainnuclearenergyenvironment
Agence France-Presse: The government named 10 sites where new nuclear power stations could be built Monday, while unveiling changes to planning rules aimed at speeding up approval for energy projects. Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said the move would help secure a new generation of low carbon energy for British homes in coming decades, as part of the fight against climate change. The 10 nuclear sites -- many of which are near existing nuclear facilities -- include three in Cumbria near the ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Climate-Change Panic Down Under
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574525031879821944.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Wall Street Journal: Tough economic times have a way of clarifying political priorities and forcing people to distinguish among needs, wishes--and fantasies. So you might think a politician as canny as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would know better than to blame his country's new-found skepticism about the risks of global warming on something other than an evil conspiracy. In a speech in Sydney on Friday, Mr. Rudd claimed "climate-change skeptics, the climate-change deniers, the opponents of ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
World youth will have to lead the way to climate change
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/World+youth+will+have+lead+climate+change/2201215/story.html
Vancouver Sun: One of the challenges in addressing climate change is that the folks being asked to do most of the sacrificing constitute a different group from those who ultimately will reap most of the benefit. As University of B.C. forestry prof George Hoberg points out, "in a nutshell ... the costs of action are here, now, and relatively certain. But the benefits of action are global, distant in time and highly uncertain." Hoberg, who blogs on climate change (Greenpolicyprof.org), believes ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Is cap and trade world's largest Ponzi scheme?
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/trade+world+largest+Ponzi+scheme/2200478/story.html
Calgary Herald: In a world obsessed with global warming and climate change, the rhetoric rose to a fever pitch with Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, claiming that Manhattan Island would be under water if the ice on the poles melted. He claims the oceans would rise by seven metres, flooding coastal countries. Canadian climate studies in 2008 stated the ocean might rise up to half a metre. Media embrace disaster. The reason for alarm was blamed on the millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide gas ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
New climate change treaty could be ready in 2010, UN official says
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/11/06/spain.climate.treaty/
CNN: A new international treaty to combat climate change will not be ready when 40 world leaders meet next month in Copenhagen but may be finished next year, a top United Nations official said Friday in Barcelona. "What we will need after Copenhagen is a little time," said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations climate change secretariat. "I don't know how much time to turn that operational language into a treaty, if that is what governments decide." De Boer told a news conference ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
Threatened Maldives urges joint action at climate talks
http://in.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idINTRE5A83R020091109
Reuters: The Maldives, threatened by rising sea levels because of global warming, on Monday pleaded with developed nations to reduce carbon emissions and said developing nations could change the outcome at climate talks in Copenhagen. The appeal by the Indian ocean archipelago came at a climate change summit grouping Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania before next month's global climate change summit in Copenhagen. Despite being ...

Tue, 10 Nov 09
India shouldn't be seen wanting in climate change action
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/70098/India/India+shouldn't+be+seen+wanting+in+climate+change+action.html
Press Trust of India: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said India should not be seen "wanting" in the climate change action and quantify its greenhouse gas emission targets at the domestic level to be accountable to its parliament. "We should take aggressive targets for emission cuts on the domestic front but there is no question of taking commitments at the global level," Ramesh said at the lecture on 'Equitable Agreement on Climate Change', which was delivered by US economist Nicholas ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Gore's book a toolbox for fixing climate crises
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2009-11-05-algore_N.htm?csp=34
USA Today: With global warming taking center stage in world affairs, Al Gore can't be far behind: The Nobel-Prize-winning former-vice president-turned-energy entrepreneur is releasing his plan to crack the climate conundrum. "The clock is ticking with respect to solving the crisis," Gore, 59, said Thursday as he sat in pinstripes and black cowboy boots in an environmentally certified conference room, with glass walls and white surfaces. Our Choice, A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, which ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Is There any Hope for Agreement at Copenhagen?
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070,00.html?iid=tsmodule
Time Magazine: If you want to give a U.N. climate change negotiator indigestion, which isn't terribly hard to do these days, mention three letters: W-T-O. That stands for the World Trade Organization, the global body charged with supervising and liberalizing international commerce – and a whopper of a cautionary tale. Back in November 2001, in Doha, Qatar, the WTO launched what is known as the Doha Development Round of negotiations, an effort to increase global trade by reducing trade barriers. Eight years ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Big polluters put on notice
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/big-polluters-put-on-notice-20091107-i2ty.html
Sydney Morning Herald: In the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate summit, Al Gore says non-violent civil disobedience is justified, writes Oliver Burkeman. CLIMATE-CHANGE activist Al Gore predicts a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic action is taken over global warming. The former US vice-president has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen summit, saying he is certain President Barack Obama will attend. Amid increasing incidents of climate ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Desalination plant: cost keeps rising
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/817/42016
Green Left Weekly: The price tag for the desalination plant planned for Wonthaggi has increased from $3.5 billion to $4.8 billion. On the July 31 ABC Stateline program, Tony Shepherd, then chairperson of AquaSure, the consortium building the plant, said: "I think the total funding will be $4.8 billion, so the difference between the $3.5 and the $4.8 is associated with the financing of the project." He said the extra was for "things like interest during construction and company costs". He ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Don t be hoodwinked on climate change
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/817/41992
Green Left Weekly: Climate change presents an enormous challenge. We have to overhaul our economy, energy, agriculture, transport, consumption and entire social system to have a chance of avoiding its worst impacts. The science of climate change is scary. The potential for a 21st century wracked by dangerous global warming is already leading some to give up on hope for the future. The barriers to rapid, widespread and sustainable change are not technical -- the technical means to cut greenhouse ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Copenhagen 'unlikely' to solve global warming
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20091108/tuk-copenhagen-unlikely-to-solve-global-dba1618.html
ITN: The head of the Environment Agency is set to claim that the Copenhagen summit is unlikely to produce a "signed and sealed" climate change solution, because leading countries are not ready to commit. Skip related content Lord Smith is calling for a reality check on the UN gathering, saying a treaty with "clear targets and measurable rapid reductions in emissions" is doubtful this year. In his keynote address at the Environment Agency's annual conference in central London, he ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
The abuse of scepticism
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-abuse-of-scepticism-20091108-i3gs.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SCEPTICISM, honest doubt about the truth of a particular fact or theory, can be a healthy thing. But the term becomes debased when used as a euphemism for self-interested denial, or wilful ignorance, of evidence that is strong enough to convince an overwhelming global majority of the scientists who are qualified to make a judgment. Just this sort of false scepticism, born of short-term greed and fear, now threatens the United Nations climate change summit in Copenhagen next month. The ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Small steps on climate change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/07/AR2009110702651.html
Washington Post: FOR TWO YEARS, the Danish capital of Copenhagen has been a beacon for environmentalists seeking a breakthrough international treaty on climate change. But with the long-awaited Copenhagen conference now just weeks away, it has become clear that the talks will not produce a grand, new accord mandating global reductions in carbon emissions. The United Nations' envoy conceded as much last week in Barcelona, the site of the last formal talks before Copenhagen. According to some, the ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Climate change bill is in troubles
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-climate8-2009nov08,0,2966561.story
LA Times: If you think the partisan divide over healthcare reform is ugly, take a look at the animus in the Senate as debate continues on a key climate change bill. So wide is the gulf that long-held Senate traditions on decorum are breaking down. And as Washington fiddles, the Earth burns. The Senate version of a House bill aimed at capping greenhouse gas emissions was stalled last week by Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee, who boycotted the discussion, demanding that ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
China lower risk than UK for green investors, claims Deutsche Bank
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/08/green-energy-strategy-report
Observer: Britain's claim to be a world leader in green energy investment has been called into question by an authoritative new study that will embarrass ministers as they prepare to launch an important climate change initiative tomorrow. A report from Deutsche Bank says that the UK does not have the right climate change strategy to attract international investment and is lagging behind other countries, such as Germany, France and China. Britain's energy strategy lacks the level of ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Is man on course to cause the sixth extinction?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/08/humans-sixth-extinction
Guardian: At first sight it seems an unlikely topic for a landmark publishing deal: a fee of about half a million dollars for a book about dead animals – or, to be more precise, extinct animals. Nevertheless the subject of eradicated species has become publishing hot property after a bidding battle in the US saw Henry Holt, a publisher, beat its rivals to buy The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert last week. According to the New York Times, a "mid-six-figure advance" has now been agreed ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Britain's nuclear strategy threatens destruction of Kalahari
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/08/nuclear-power-namibia-mining
Guardian: The hidden cost of Britain's new generation of nuclear power could be the destruction of the Kalahari desert in Namibia and millions of tonnes of extra greenhouse gas emissions a year, the Observer has discovered.= The desert, with its towering sand dunes and spectacular lunar-like landscapes, is at the centre of an international uranium rush led by RÃ¶ssing Uranium, a subsidiary of the British mining giant Rio Tinto, and the French state-owned company, Areva, which part-manages the ...

Mon, 9 Nov 09
Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil by Peter Maass | Book review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/08/crude-world-peter-maass-review
Guardian: Plunder, Rot, Fear, Greed and Desire. Laconic chapter headings tell the story. This brilliant, dismaying book by a reporter who delivers fact, analysis and eloquent anger with equal aplomb is designed to make you shudder the next time you drive on to a garage forecourt. Where did my last 20 litres come from? How many sickened and died in Africa or South America to keep the pumps I depend on full? And what will happen to me when, more swiftly than I can possibly realise, those pumps run ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Efforts to stem global warming moving at a glacial pace
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/07/efforts-to-stem-global-warming-moving-at-a-glacial-pace/
Christian Science Monito: Political and diplomatic advances on global climate change are proceeding at a snail's pace. Or to use a better metaphor, like the drip-drip-drip of glaciers melting in the heat of a warming planet. Which is to say, slowly – very slowly. That's true in Washington, where lawmakers are trying to craft a climate bill. And it's also true abroad, where diplomats are preparing for a 192-nation conference in Copenhagen next month. As the Associated Press reports: "At U.N. ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Canada signs on to continent-wide wilderness protection deal
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gMxeE3vmmTAq4qru_10Rtkm2-5kw
Canadian Press: The federal government has agreed to what's being billed as an unprecedented commitment to wilderness conservation in North America. Enviroment Minister Jim Prentice today announced he's signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States and Mexico that binds the three countries together in defending uninhabited spaces. Much of the recent debate over the environment has been framed around climate change and Prentice says the Conservative government and Canada as a ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Climate change may push migrants to cooler Britain
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6908002.ece
Times (UK): THE government's chief scientific adviser has warned that climate change could destabilise populations across Europe, potentially triggering a wave of migrants heading for cooler regions such as the British Isles and Scandinavia. Professor John Beddington believes that, without deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, average temperatures could rise by about 6C by 2060 in countries including Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey. This would make most cities unbearably hot in summer, ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Kenya plans nuclear plant in next five years: PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091107/wl_africa_afp/kenyafranceenergynuclear
Agence France-Presse: Kenya hopes to build its first nuclear power plant in the next five years with help from France, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Saturday. "We want to establish a nuclear plant. We want to start with a plant of the average of between 1,000 and 2,000 Megawatts (output) and we are looking at five years from now," Odinga said in an interview with AFP. Odinga said nuclear power was one option Kenya was considering as it looked for ways to reduce its greenhouse gas ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Kenya PM blasts African tactics at climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091107/wl_africa_afp/environmentclimatewarmingafricakenya
Agence France-Presse: Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga Saturday criticised a walkout by African states during climate talks in Barcelona as "grandstanding," and said it did not help developing countries' case. "I believe for example that grandstanding ... like walking out of meetings like African delegations did in Barcelona just doesn't help. You cannot just run away from this problem," Odinga told AFP in an interview. African countries staged a show of force during a five-day meeting in ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
G20 wants 'ambitious' Copenhagen talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091107/ts_afp/financeeconomyg20britain
Agence France-Presse: G20 countries committed to work towards an "ambitious outcome" at next month's vital UN climate change conference after meeting on Saturday, but fell short of agreeing a figure on climate funding. Finance ministers from leading developed and emerging economies also said they would keep economic policy support in place in the face of "uneven" recovery, in a communique released after they met in St Andrews. "We are not out of the woods yet and we need to maintain the measures we ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
British treasury chief urges climate agreement
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g73QMj16h78aBYok6WXBc811LKswD9BQK0B80
Associated Press: British Treasury chief Alistair Darling has urged the world's top finance officials to reach an agreement on bearing the cost of fighting climate change before a UN summit on global warming next month. Addressing finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 rich and developing nations on Saturday, Darling said that tackling climate change is an "urgent problem." Darling wants officials to agree on a finance package to help poorer nations develop green industries ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Obama set to announce US target for cutting emissions at summit
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6907200.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): President Obama is preparing to break the deadlock in negotiations on a global deal on climate change by announcing a target for cutting US greenhouse gas emissions. The US is the only developed country yet to propose an emissions target. Poorer nations, including most of Africa, are threatening to walk out of a UN summit in Copenhagen next month unless Mr Obama commits to an ambitious reduction. Mr Obama may wait until the final stages of the negotiations in Copenhagen in ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Lifting the lid on climate change talks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/07/climate-change-talks-2009
Guardian: At 8am on Wednesday 7 October, a smartly dressed fiftysomething Filipino woman took the escalator to the first floor of the UN building in Bangkok and merged into a throng of diplomats, civil servants and environmentalists arriving for the eighth day of the ninth session of the global climate talks. She was met with a few respectful nods. Bernarditas de Castro Muller – "Ditas" to her chums – chatted to a journalist and a colleague, and then went to work in conference room 1. She ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Govt in push for new nuclear plants
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091107/wl_uk_afp/britainenergynuclearpolitics
Agence France-Presse: The country could face a serious energy crisis unless plans to build new nuclear power stations are implemented, the energy secretary revealed in an interview Saturday. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband told The Daily Telegraph that new planning guidelines due out on Monday would reduce the time it would take to get a new generation of nuclear power plants into operation. The new planning proposals are designed to stop nuclear proposals getting bogged down for ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Al Gore: 'Civil disobedience has a role to play'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/07/al-gore-interview-climate-change
Guardian: Perhaps the best way to understand the extraordinary transformation of Al Gore is to study the changing rhetoric of his enemies. A mere nine years ago, back when George Bush was just a cheeky rogue with an adorable line in malapropisms, presidential candidate Gore was famously derided as wooden and dull. Having failed to win the presidency – though of course that depends, as ever, on your definition of the word "win" – he next became a pitiable loser, then a laughable climate-change wonk, ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Darling urges action on climate change
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/darling-urges-action-on-climate-change-1816749.html
Independent (UK): Chancellor Alistair Darling today urged the world's most powerful finance ministers to treat climate change with the same urgency they gave to the world economic turmoil. He issued his plea at the start of a meeting of G20 finance ministers gathered in St Andrews, Fife. The Chancellor also urged them not to hold back on efforts to put economies back on a growth track. As he delivered his climate change warning, protesters gathered in St Andrews. Mr Darling told ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
REUTERS.COM: Genetic tests help track food web, climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A60MZ20091107?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: New uses of genetic testing can help track how animal diets may change due to global warming and are helping crack down on wildlife smuggling, experts said on Saturday. "There's been an extraordinary growth in the use of the technology," said David Schindel, executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) at the U.S. Smithsonian Institution of a system for identifying plants or animals by their genes. The database had more than doubled since 2007, with over ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
S Korea to plant trees in China to reduce 'yellow dust'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/skorea-to-plant-trees-in-china-to-reduce-yellow-dust-1816758.html
Independent (UK): The Seoul city government will help fund a tree-planting project in a Chinese desert to reduce the amount of harmful "yellow dust" blowing over South Korea, officials said Wednesday. The city government signed an accord Tuesday to invest 50 million won (42,000 dollars) in the planting project led by Future Forest, a South Korean environmental group operating in China for the past 10 years. The investment will be used to purchase and plant some 72,000 poplar and desert willow ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Britain urges steps to insure financial system
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091107/ap_on_bi_ge/g20_finance_ministers
Associated Press: Finance officials from rich and developing countries pledged Saturday to maintain emergency support for their economies until recovery is assured and committed themselves to urgent action on tackling climate change. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the "process of growth is now beginning" but warned that ending stimulus measures too early would be damaging to the economy. He said U.S. jobs figures out Friday showing unemployment at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Australia: Old king coal
http://www.theage.com.au/national/old-king-coal-20091107-i2w7.html
Age: The single biggest contributor to global warming is also one of Australia's biggest money earners. So can Australia wean itself off coal? And what would the implications be if it did? "COAL,'' says mining union chief Tony Maher, the hint of a smirk in his voice, ''is vegetable matter. It's organic. It's not toxic, it's not radioactive. It has a waste problem. And that waste is carbon dioxide.'' Maher's 20,000 members rely for their jobs on digging up coal. But he knows that ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
UK joins G20 push for world levy on banks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091107/ts_nm/us_g20
Reuters: Britain threw its weight on Saturday behind proposals to impose a global levy on banks to fund future bailouts and called on the G20 to work toward a $100 billion deal to meet the cost of climate change. A draft end-of-meeting statement from the group of rich and developing nations obtained by Reuters said the economy had improved but cautioned recovery was still dependent on the official support given to it since the financial crisis erupted last year. Policymakers also ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Chris Smith - the respectable radical who is plotting a green revolution
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6906852.ece
Times (UK): Chris Smith is the respectable radical. He was the first openly gay MP. As the Culture Secretary in Tony Blair's Government, he pioneered free admissions to museums. Later, from the back benches, he masterminded opposition in the House of Commons to the war in Iraq. Now Lord Smith of Finsbury wants to start a green revolution -- and the mild-mannered rambler might just succeed. As chairman of the Environment Agency, his job is to persuade a sceptical public that, despite the ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Is environmentalism a religion? A British court fight
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1936074,00.html
Time Magazine: The case involved Tim Nicholson, 42, who was laid off last year from his job as head of sustainability at Grainger Plc, Britain's largest residential-property company. Nicholson contended he was laid off because his views on the environment were not shared by Grainger executives, and he sued the company for unfair dismissal under Britain's six-year-old Religion and Belief Regulations, which make it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the grounds of their religious or philosophical ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Indonesia: Yogyakarta groundwater surface dropping 30cm a year
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/11/07/yogyakarta-groundwater-surface-dropping-30cm-a-year.html
Jakarta Post: Since 2000, groundwater levels in Yogyakarta province have dropped by an average 30 centimeters a year because of climate change, Gadjah Mada University hydro-geologist Heru Hendrayana says. Speaking at a discussion on groundwater resources here on Thursday, Heru said there was a common misunderstanding among the local community who often associated water scarcities with uncontrolled usage of water resources. "But it's not *caused by that*. It has more to do with prolonged ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Jets' trails suggest role in global warming
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091107/NEWS08/911070322/2067/Jets%20%20trails%20suggest%20role%20in%20global%20%20warming
Tennessean: Jet trails that spread out across the skies have more implications than just marring a nice view. They are drawing increasing attention in climate change discussions for their heat-trapping potential. Planes already are blamed for 13 percent of the transportation sector's human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, which act as insulation, holding warmth around the planet, according to a report this summer from the General Accountability Office. Condensation trails, or ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Australia: Meters set to drive up power bills
http://www.smh.com.au/national/meters-set-to-drive-up-power-bills-20091107-i2t0.html
Sydney Morning Herald: SOME households face an annual increase of $320 in electricity bills with the installation of smart meters and implementation of the Federal Government's climate change laws. A study by the St Vincent De Paul Society, due for release this week, found that low-income earners could pay as much as 40 per cent of their fortnightly income on electricity. The report says smart meters will increase the average domestic electricity bill by an average of $80 a year by changing billing ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Gone with the wind
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/gone-with-the-wind-rare-flora-and-fauna-force-change-of-plan-20091106-i24r.html
Sydney Morning Herald: A COLLECTION of humble plants clinging to 600 million-year-old rocks on a distant mountain range and a small dragon given to promiscuous sex under a hot sun have forced planners to redraw the map for the southern hemisphere's biggest wind farm. The discovery that spinifex - normally an inhabitant of the red dirt plains below - is living on sediment probably deposited in the last Ice Age and has red mallee and gum coolibah trees for neighbours is so strange and rare that the Silverton ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Australia: Climate war gets personal for Rudd
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-war-gets-personal-for-rudd-20091106-i24u.html
Sydney Morning Herald: KEVIN RUDD has launched a blistering attack on climate change sceptics and deniers in Australia and abroad, accusing them of a systematic campaign to sabotage global talks in Copenhagen and of being contemptuous towards the interests of the world's children. An angry Prime Minister lashed out at politicians and commentators around the world, including US congressmen, and labelled his domestic political opponents cowards for repeatedly seeking reasons to delay the emissions trading ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Australian agency denies gagging researchers
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091106/full/news.2009.1068.html
Nature: Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has this week denied accusations that it is preventing researchers from publishing work on politically-sensitive issues such as climate change. Clive Spash, an ecological economist, had a paper on emissions trading schemes accepted for publication in the journal New Political Economy earlier this year. In it, he reportedly argues that carbon trading is ineffective in reducing ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
China a big winner in carbon credit game
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ja_TCzOtLDpoPdjsgEW4flGiBbZQ
Agence France-Presse: In energy-hungry China's southwestern Yunnan province, power is being produced at wind farms, dams and garbage dumps as the Asian giant adopts more "green" technology thanks to carbon trading. The UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows rich countries to fulfil part of their greenhouse gas reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol by investing in projects that help reduce emissions in developing countries. The arrangement is one of the key features of the Kyoto pact ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
U.K. urges divided G20 to reach climate finance deal
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/urges%20divided%20reach%20climate%20finance%20deal/2197346/story.html
Reuters: British finance minister Alistair Darling urged his G20 counterparts on Saturday to work toward a $100 billion deal on tackling climate change as developing nations held firm they did not want to talk about it. Darling is hosting the third meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers this year in St Andrews, Scotland, to discuss the progress of the global economy and come up with a framework to ensure future crises did not happen. Britain is also determined to ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Will talking change anyone's mind about climate change?
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/11/06/will-talking-change-anyones-mind-about-climate-change/
Christian Science Monitor: On Wednesday, Columbia University`s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions released a guide titled "The Psychology of Climate Change Communication." Freely available online [pdf], the manual endeavors to describe the various biases and barriers that lurk in the minds of the general public, and that, as the authors see it, confound an accurate comprehension of climate science and its ramifications. In concept, at least, the manual`s arrival is timely. In case you ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Britain rallies G20 on climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091107/wl_uk_afp/financeeconomyg20britain
Agence France-Presse: Hosts Britain urged G20 finance ministers to put aside their differences and strike a deal on climate funding on Saturday despite fading hopes for an accord at key UN talks next month. As ministers and central bankers also debated how best to firm up the world economic recovery, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged them to consider a tax on global financial transactions, known as a Tobin Tax. The move would be one way of reflecting the "global responsibilities" which financial ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Britain urges divided G20 to reach climate deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A60QQ20091107?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: British finance minister Alistair Darling urged his G20 counterparts on Saturday to work toward a $100 billion deal to tackle climate change but developing nations insisted they did not want to talk about it. Britain is hosting the third meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers this year in St Andrews, Scotland, and is determined to push forward on an ambitious target to meet the costs of climate change by 2020, ahead of a major environmental summit in Copenhagen ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Clouds gather over climate talks
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Clouds+gather+over+climate+talks/2195365/story.html
Montreal Gazette: A sense of pessimism and pending defeat has created a scramble to get world leaders to Copenhagen next month for the final negotiations on climate change - but Canada's negotiator says it's already too late. "We are clearly a long way from a treaty," Michael Martin, Canada's climate change ambassador and chief negotiator, said in an interview as the Barcelona talks drew to a close yesterday. Martin said the best that can be expected now is a political agreement to spend 2010 ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
For a climate of security
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20091107_For_a_climate_of_security.html
Philadelphia Inquirer: Al Gore made 'em laugh yesterday when he brought his climate-change road show to Philadelphia. Criticized by some observers for being too serious, too eggheaded, during his 2000 campaign for the presidency, Gore introduced himself during his Foreign Affairs Council keynote address with "I'm Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States." When the audience cracked up, he deadpanned, "I don't think that's particularly funny." He then pronounced himself "a ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Climate sceptics persist against Turnbull
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-sceptics-persist-against-turnbull-20091107-i2vs.html
Age: CLIMATE change sceptics in the Liberal Party will not be silenced despite Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's contention there is ''overwhelming support ... right across the board'' within party ranks for a carbon trading scheme. The sceptics dominated debate on climate change in a meeting of the Victorian division of the Liberal Party yesterday. One rank-and-file Liberal member was given rousing applause when he said global warming was a natural phenomenon and the theory that ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Further cooperation needed on climate change, economic growth: British Chancellor Darling
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/07/content_12402833.htm
Xinhua: British Chancellor Alistair Darling called for further cooperation in securing more balanced global economic growth and combating climate change in the future here on Friday during the G20 Finance Minister and Central Bank Governor Meeting. He said that though complete consensus could not be achieved overnight, "but we can start to build that consensus by recognizing that our common interest need not contradict each other's self-interest." "We need international action to ...

Sun, 8 Nov 09
Couple's book tackles evangelicals' questions on climate change
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/78475.html
McClatchy: As an evangelical Christian living in Texas, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe found that many conservatives had questions about climate change based on things they'd heard on talk radio. So Hayhoe and her husband, Andrew Farley, the pastor of a nondenominational church in Lubbock, Texas, decided to answer the questions in a new book from religious publisher FaithWords, "A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-based Decisions." "The observed increase in greenhouse ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Al Gore urges Philly group to fight climate change
http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20091106_ap_algoreurgesphillygrouptofightclimatechange.html
Philadelphia Inquirer:

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Study says dogs have larger carbon footprint than SUV
http://www.physorg.com/news176582720.html
Physorg: Thanks for killing the planet, dog owners. Well, that's a rough paraphrase of a New Zealand study that claims a medium-size dog leaves a larger ecological footprint than an SUV. In "Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living," authors Robert and Brenda Vale argue that resources required to feed a dog -- including the amount of land needed to feed the animals that go into its food -- give it about twice the eco-footprint of, say, building and fueling a Toyota Land ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
GOP Boycotts Senate Panel On Climate Change
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120066031
National Public Radio: MICHELE NORRIS, host: And over in the Senate, a feud over climate change legislation prompted a rare move by Republicans. They boycotted the final drafting of a major bill on global warming. Two Republicans were needed for a quorum in the Environment and Public Works Committee, only one showed up. NPR's David Welna explains what happened. DAVID WELNA: Chairwoman Barbara Boxer wants her environment committee to be the first of six Senate panels to finish cap-and-trade ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Climate Change, Nitrogen Loss Threaten Plant Life in Arid Desert Soils
http://www.physorg.com/news176660557.html
Physorg: In the Mojave Desert winds howl across this hottest place in North America, blowing sands across Death Valley and through empty ghost towns, swirling across treeless land for hundreds of miles. But even in the otherworldly Mojave, life thrives. The Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia), an indicator species for this desert, defines the Mojave's boundaries. In spring when the rains come, brightly colored flowers bloom in profusion--nature's paintbrush on an otherwise monotone landscape. Now ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Ecuador: Researchers hail innovative plan to save rainforest, reduce greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.physorg.com/news176652576.html
Physorg: An innovative proposal by the Ecuadorian government to protect an untouched, oil rich region of Amazon rainforest is a precedent-setting and potentially economically viable approach, says a team of environmental researchers from the University of Maryland, the World Resources Institute and Save America's Forests. The Ecuadorian proposal, known as the YasunÃ-ITT Initiative, would protect a large area of pristine Amazon rainforest, by leaving untouched nearly one billion barrels of oil ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Painful death of the American dream
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/nov/02/globalisation-financial-markets-reforms
Guardian: It wasn't really supposed to end up like this. When the Berlin Wall came crashing down 20 years ago, the cold war ended with triumph for the west. Instead of two superpowers, there was one. Instead of competing ideologies, there was capitalism, and a particularly brash form of capitalism at that. The elder George Bush said the world should learn how to do things the American way. "We know what works," he said. "Free markets work." The reach of the market grew longer for two ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
China's Climate Change Plan: The Debate Goes On
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49166
Inter Press Service: For China choosing to act on climate change is not simply agreeing to effect changes in the way its robust economy is being run. Chinese leaders have to choose between two equally unattractive options--put the brakes on growth to choke off pollution and face an array of scary scenarios, from unemployment swell to social unrest. The alternative, though, is to continue with their rapid economic expansion at the risk of achieving a result that defeats its purpose. With four weeks ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Permafrost's future in Alaska looks poor, but the forecast isn t all bad
http://newsminer.com/bookmark/4354319
Fairbanks Daily News-Miners: Alaska will probably see most of its surface permafrost vanish by the end of this century, but researchers believe vast areas of frozen soil will remain deeper underground even as air temperatures increase. The future of Alaska's permafrost is being closely watched by scientists because of the implications it may have on the climate as a whole. Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, discussed evolving permafrost research this week ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Divide Before You Add
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49171
Inter Press Service: You could almost begin to divide the figures before you add them up. The numbers being advertised by way of aid to the developing world to contain carbon emissions do not quite add up. What is more certain is the division to follow. The divisions are coming in many kinds, and at many levels, the last of which surfaced with the African delegate's walkout at the pre-Copenhagen talks in Barcelona this week. The hope of overcoming such divisions, now redirected at the northern end of ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Democrats Push Climate Bill Through Panel Without G.O.P. Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/06/us/politics/06climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: In a step that reflected deep partisan divisions in the Senate over the issue of global warming, Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee pushed through a climate bill on Thursday without any debate or participation by Republicans. The measure passed by an 11-to-1 vote with the support of all the Democratic committee members except Senator Max Baucus of Montana. The seven Republicans boycotted the committee meetings this week, saying they had not had sufficient time to ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Lightning's 'NOx-ious' Impact On Pollution, Climate
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091030100022.htm
ScienceDaily: Every year, scientists learn something new about the inner workings of lightning. With satellites, they have discovered that more than 1.2 billion lightning flashes occur around the world every year. (Rwanda has the most flashes per square kilometer, while flashes are rare in polar regions.) Laboratory and field experiments have revealed that the core of some lightning bolts reaches 30,000 Kelvin (53,540 ºF), a temperature hot enough to instantly melt sand and break oxygen and ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Chemists Describe Solar Energy Progress And Challenges, Including The 'Artificial Leaf'
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105132454.htm
ScienceDaily: Scientists are making progress toward development of an "artificial leaf" that mimics a real leaf's chemical magic with photosynthesis -- but instead converts sunlight and water into a liquid fuel such as methanol for cars and trucks. That is among the conclusions in a newly-available report from top authorities on solar energy who met at the 1st Annual Chemical Sciences and Society Symposium. The gathering launched a new effort to initiate international cooperation and innovative thinking ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
APEC seeks to slash emissions by 2050
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091106/sc_afp/apecsummitclimatewarmingeconomy
Agence France-Presse: Asia-Pacific powers including the United States, China and Russia are expected to call next week for sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a crunch climate meeting in Copenhagen. US President Barack Obama and 20 other regional leaders will also say it is too early to wean their economies off stimulus spending, according to a draft summit communique obtained by AFP on Friday. At their November 14-15 summit in Singapore, the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Australia attacks Copenhagen critics
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A50Z320091106?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched a spirited attack on climate skeptics on Friday, saying a vocal minority is powerful enough to threaten a global deal at next month's Copenhagen climate summit. Rudd said climate skeptics, deniers and opponents of climate action are active in every country, had limited the ambition of national climate change commitments and slowed progress of carbon trade laws in the United States and Australia. "They are a minority. They are ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Climate talks 'not going well': Ed Miliband
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091106/wl_uk_afp/climatewarmingunbritain
Agence France-Presse: Negotiations ahead of the crucial UN climate talks in Copenhagen are "not going well", Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has warned. Miliband indicated that December's meeting to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, could be the precursor to a legally binding treaty, rather than yielding one itself. Hopes of an accord has faded in recent days -- earlier this week, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said it was "obvious" a "full-fledged binding treaty, ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
UK's Miliband: There's no Plan B for climate talks
http://www.mysanantonio.com/livinggreensa/69356282.html
Associated Press: British Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband on Thursday urged nations to aim for meaningful progress on a global climate change pact in talks next month -- despite fading hopes that a deal will be struck. Miliband told the House of Commons on Thursday that prospects are fading that a legally binding agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions will be finalized at talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. He said countries "shouldn't be in Plan B territory," and urged negotiators to strive ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
G20 talks to tackle climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hxIGLrhUhy2-8EpeZiy12ACgaOWg
Press Association: Chancellor Alistair Darling has urged finance ministers from the world's leading economies to "get on" with tackling climate change. Speaking ahead of the G20 meeting which begins in Scotland on Friday, Mr Darling said climate change was a "present problem" which needs billions of pounds in order to be tackled. He said: "We either take action and stop those problems happening or we fail to take action and we face bigger costs down the line." Mr Darling continued: "My ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
IPI Survey Economists Agree Climate Change Puts Economy at Risk
http://eponline.com/articles/2009/11/06/ipi-survey-economists-agree-climate-change-puts-economy-at-risk.aspx
EP Magazine: Respondents agree at a rate of 81 percent that a cap-and-trade system should auction permits to polluters and only 9 percent prefer the United States to give them away for free. Most expert economists agree that reducing greenhouse gas emissions can help avoid a major economic malfunction, according to a survey conducted by New York University's Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI). The institute released its findings Wednesday in a report called Economists and Climate Change: ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Carbon Trading Welcomed, Criticised
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49156
Inter Press Service: A visit from Dutch contractors to Niassa Province, in northwestern Mozambique has got communities excited about the prospect of a carbon credit scheme in the area. Gathered under a large mango tree in a lakeside village, a community is deep in discussion. We have many problems here, says an elder. We have no health centre, says another. There is a lack of employment. Everyone has their say: Water is a problem. The wood and fish supplies are shrinking. Transport is very ...

Sat, 7 Nov 09
Huge emitter lobby undercuts climate efforts
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1718
Carbon Positive: Moves by governments to regulate carbon emissions and efforts to secure a new international climate change treaty are being successfully thwarted by the sheer number of lobbyists and amount of funding being brought to bear by heavy greenhouse emitting companies, a study by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) claims. The study examined lobbying efforts and campaign contributions in the United States, European Union, Japan, China, India, Australia, Brazil ...

Fri, 6 Nov 09
Final round for UN climate talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8334985.stm
BBC: The latest round of UN climate talks opens in Barcelona on Monday with major divisions remaining between countries. The week's session is the final chance for negotiators to hammer out a text before December's Copenhagen summit In recent weeks, UN officials have declared there is no chance of agreeing all elements of a new legally-binding UN treaty before the end of the year. But they are still hoping to agree major elements of a treaty to supplant the Kyoto ...

Fri, 6 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Wood pellets lead biomass energy rise
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1716
Carbon Positive: Europe is leading rapid growth in the wood biomass energy sector with demand for wood pellets seen growing at 8 to 10 per cent annually in coming years, according to Wood Resources Quarterly. Wood pellets are made mainly from wood waste – bark, sawdust and wood chips – from forestry operations. Compressing wood waste into pellets creates a more efficient-burning fuel than wood chips. Wood biomass fuel is seen as a valuable source of renewable energy and, if produced sustainably, ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Australia launches inquiry into major oil spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091105/wl_asia_afp/australiathailandenvironmentpollutionoil
Agence France-Presse: Australia launched an inquiry on Thursday into a major oil spill off its coast which has been described as one of the country's worst environmental disasters. Retired senior civil servant David Borthwick was appointed to probe the leak, which gushed from a damaged oil well in the Timor Sea for some 10 weeks and then burst into flames before finally being contained on Tuesday. "I simply say that we aspire to learn from this incident and take any necessary steps to stop similar ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Gucci joins other fashion players in committing to protect rainforests
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/gucci-joins-other-fashion-players-in-committing-to-protect-rainforests-1815115.html
Independent (UK): The Rainforest Action Network announced on November 3 that the Gucci Group--which includes fashion houses Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Balenciaga--has joined a growing list of major companies who are pledging to change their paper policies. Since the beginning of fall 2009, the Rainforest Action Network has been encouraging fashion industry players to examine their paper supply chains, avoiding suppliers who use resources from endangered rainforests, ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Is the World Outsourcing Its Greenhouse Emissions to China?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=earth-talks-outsourcing-greenhouse-china
Scientific American: Dear EarthTalk: Has China been making any progress reducing its output of global warming gases, and/or in tackling other environmental problems? --Bill W., Saugus, MA Decades of rapid-fire development and lack of government oversight has meant that China now faces some serious environmental challenges. According to research by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China surpassed the United States as the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases in 2006--and hasn't ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Indonesia Debates Benefits, Risks of Carbon-Trading Plans
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-11-04-voa29.cfm
Voice of America: Rangers confiscate woods after a raid at an illegal logging site at Seulawah mountains, Aceh Besar, Aceh province, Indonesia, 14 May 2009Palm oil plantations spanning tens of thousands of hectares have changed the landscape of Indonesia, a country that suffers from one of the world's highest deforestation rates thanks to illegal logging, forest fires and land conversion. Deforestation's contribution to global carbon emissions is at the heart of debates on cutting global ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
California Water Overhaul Caps Use
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/us/05water.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: California lawmakers on Wednesday approved a series of bills that would vastly overhaul the state's troubled water system. The water package is the most comprehensive to emerge from the state since the 1960s, when California last upgraded its system for what was a far smaller population of users. Prompted by a protracted drought – which has reduced water supply, harmed the fishing industry and contributed to crop loss – environmentalists and agricultural interests have agreed to broad ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Paleoecologists Offer New Insight Into How Climate Change Will Affect Organisms
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1780687/paleoecologists_offer_new_insight_into_how_climate_change_will_affect/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science written by a team of ecologists, including Robert Booth, assistant professor of earth and environmental science at Lehigh University, examines some of the potential problems with current prediction methods and calls for the use of a range of approaches when predicting the impact of climate change on organisms. According to Booth and his colleagues, one of the biggest challenges facing ecologists today is trying to ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
3 senators join forces to rescue climate bill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_bi_ge/us_climate_bill
Associated Press: A trio of senators with differing political views is working behind-the-scenes to rescue troubled climate legislation. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said Wednesday they would work in conjunction with the White House to patch together a bill that could pass the U.S. Senate. The three senators met individually with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the president's ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Mining for Algae: Could Abandoned Mines Help Grow Biofuel?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=underground-algae-growth-light-emitting-diodes
Greenwire: Backers of algae-based biofuels tout the simplicity of their feedstock. Sunlight and water are all that's needed to convert carbon dioxide into fuel. Now, some scientists are testing the notion that sunlight might be optional. Researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology are planning to grow algae for fuel in abandoned mines using light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. "About this time in the conversation, someone usually raises their hand and says, 'But ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
US scales down hopes of global climate change treaty in Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/04/us-climate-change-copenhagen-treaty
Guardian: The US has given up hope of reaching a global climate change treaty at Copenhagen and is working towards a deal late next year, the Obama administration said today. The decision ends hopes of a legally binding deal being sealed next month. "We have to be honest in the process and deal with the realities that we don't have time in these four weeks to put the language together and flesh out every crossed t and dotted i of a treaty," said John Kerry, who chairs the Senate foreign ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Climate change ministry signs up to campaign
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/04/climate-change-ministry-join-1010
Guardian: The Department of Energy and Climate Change, responsible for promoting energy efficiency, is to sign up tomorrow to the 10:10 campaign to cut carbon emissions. Its pledge to cut its carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 comes after it emerged that the department's headquarters in Whitehall had the worst possible energy efficiency rating on the government's own seven-point scale. It is the second government department to sign up to the campaign, which is supported by the Guardian, after the ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Farmers have been told to go green or face the financial consequences
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6903606.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): English farmers have been given a last chance to adopt greener practices that benefit wildlife and help to combat climate change or face deductions from their state hand-outs of cash. The Government has set a tough new target which requires that the area of arable fields covered by environmental schemes should double within three years. Every farmer has also been told that he or she should fund some environmental improvements on their land without any financial support from ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/05/friends-of-the-earth-attacks-carbon-trading
Guardian: The government's reliance on carbon trading schemes is inefficient and could cause a financial crisis similar to that seen with sub-prime mortgages, says Friends of the Earth Link to this video The world's carbon trading markets growing complexity threatens another "sub-prime" style financial crisis that could again destabilise the global economy, campaigners warn today. In a new report, Friends of the Earth says that to date "cap and trade" carbon markets have done almost ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
California water plan aims change Gold Rush thinking
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A406F20091105?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: California legislators on Wednesday struck a truce in their water wars that could set off the biggest spending spree on water in half a century and aims to satisfy environmentalists, unemployed farmers and the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. The theme of the package is that human and environmental uses of water are equal priorities. But critics, including the environmental group the Sierra Club, have called the bills and an $11 billion bond a pricey sham that left a ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Campaigners warn carbon markets will trigger next sub-prime crisis
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252571/campaigners-warn-carbon-markets
Business Green: Carbon cap-and-trade schemes are a dangerous distraction and could trigger the next sub-prime financial crisis, according to environmental campaigners and academics. In a report released today, Friends of The Earth says that carbon markets have been hijacked by financial organisations that are creating ever more complex products which echo the mismanagement and greed which initiated the banking and credit crisis. According to the report, A Dangerous Obsession, the trade in ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Economists see threat in climate change
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2009-11-03-economist-climate_N.htm
USA Today: Researchers who deal in cold numbers rather than warming climates believe the "significant benefits from curbing greenhouse-gas emissions would justify the costs of action," a new survey finds. In fact, the survey of economists finds 94% believe the U.S. should join climate agreements to limit global warming. The survey results to be released today come as debate over the economics of global warming moves center stage in Washington, D.C. Republican senators boycotted a hearing ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
China pushes CO2 capture, storage questions loom
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/article179092.ece
Reuters:

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Study finds vital peatlands neglected
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A33AN20091104?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Draining and burning of the world's peat bogs accounts for about 5.5 percent of global carbon emissions but are currently excluded from governments' climate targets and U.N. talks, a study found on Wednesday. Peat stores around twice as much carbon as all the world's trees, but compared with the well-publicized issues of fossil fuels and forests, the sector was the "Cinderella" of climate change policies, said Hans Joosten at Germany's Greifswald University, co-author of the ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
UK biomass plans heat up with Peterborough Energy Park
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252557/uk-biomass-plan-rolls
Business Green: Construction of a new 80MW biomass facility near Peterborough has been given the go-ahead. Located in Storey's Bar Gate area of the city, the facility will be operated by Peterborough Renewable Energy (PREL), which plans to set up a network of similar sites across the UK. As well as burning waste biomass to generate energy, the facility will also sort through the waste and "remanufacture" the materials to produce renewable energy, glass, building blocks and other compounds, the ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Climate talks resume but Copenhagen hopes fade
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091104/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingunfccc
Agence France-Presse: Climate talks in Barcelona resumed on Wednesday after an angry spat but negotiators admitted chances for sealing a hoped-for UN treaty on global warming by year's end had almost vanished. "The impasse that we had yesterday seems to have been overcome and we are indeed content with that," said Anders Turesson, chief negotiator for Sweden, which holds the European Union (EU) presidency. Work on one of the twin tracks under negotiation slammed to a halt on Tuesday after African ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Conservation and Carbon in Borneo's Heart and Ours
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1104-obrien_katingan.html
Mongabay: My friend Rezal Kusumaatmadja contacted me in July to ask if I could join him and some of his associates for a couple of days in the village Mendawai, located along the Katingan River in south central Kalimantan. The purpose of the gathering was to bring everyone in the group up to date on progress and challenges related to the Katingan Peat Conservation Project, as well as to give the group an opportunity to meet one another. The Katingan Project aims to create a forest-based carbon ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Palm oil threatens Borneo's rarest cats
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1104-hance_borneo_cats.html
Mongabay: Oil palm expansion is threatening Borneo's rarest wild cats, reports a new study based on three years of fieldwork and more than 17,000 camera trap nights. Studying cats in five locations--each with different environments--in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, researchers found that four of five cat species are threatened by habitat loss due to palm oil plantations. The groundbreaking study, undertaken by Jo Ross and Andrew Hearn with the UK's Global Canopy Program's Bornean Wild Cat and ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Rich countries call on African bloc to keep climate talks on track
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/04/africa-walk-out-climate-talks-barcelona
Guardian: Rich countries today piled pressure on Africa not to derail climate talks after the poorest countries in the world shocked the UN by walking out of the official negotiations, demanding that their concerns be met. The chair of the Africa group of nations, Kamel Djemouai, was recalled from Barcelona by the Algerian government and other African delegations reportedly received "strong" phone calls from their capitals urging them not to imperil the last negotiations before Copenhagen. ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
EU parliamentary nod for free emissions permits
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091104/sc_afp/euclimatewarmingindustry
Agence France-Presse: The European Parliament's environment committee on Wednesday approved a list of 164 industrial sectors that will win free carbon emissions permits for the next five years if no global deal on climate change is negotiated next month. Members of the powerful committee voted 39 for and 19 against, with one abstention, the parliament said. A European Union action plan adopted in December 2008 to fight global warming places serious constraints on industry, which must reduce harmful ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Bangladesh: Combating climate change impacts
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=112668
Daily Star: THE European Union (EU) parliamentary delegation's commitment that the EU will be on Bangladesh's side in spite of the outcome of the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen is a hope giving one. Especially, we are reassured at the concern and empathy it expressed for us in the event of any catastrophe befalling the country, for example, in the form of triggering an exodus of climate refugees. As a frontline state in the fight for survival against the impact of global ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
U.S. climate envoy takes aim at developing nations
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A349S20091104?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: As a top American diplomat accused developing countries of inaction on global warming, a coalition of senators on Wednesday stepped up efforts to break a political deadlock that has choked U.S. steps on climate change. Todd Stern, President Barack Obama's top climate negotiator and envoy to next month's international climate summit in Copenhagen, used blunt language in testimony to Congress when he zeroed in on developing countries' participation in talks. Some developing ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Forests in the desert: the answer to climate change?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/04/forests-desert-answer-climate-change
Guardian: Some talk of hoisting mirrors into space to reflect sunlight, while others want to cloud the high atmosphere with millions of tonnes of shiny sulphur dust. Now, scientists could have dreamed up the most ambitious geoengineering plan to deal with climate change yet: converting the parched Sahara desert to a lush forest. The scale of the ambition is matched only by the promised rewards – the scientists behind the plan say it could "end global warming". The scheme has been thought up by ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Poor urge deep climate cuts; U.N. says out of reach
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091104/india_nm/india436871
Reuters:

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Can geoengineering schemes fix climate change?
http://www.thehindu.com/seta/2009/11/05/stories/2009110551731200.htm
Hindu: Whatever remedial measure that we undertake now will not affect the climate for the next 20-30 years but will influence the climate only after 2040. The most promising solutions that Prof J Srinivasan, Chairperson of the Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IISc, Bangalore, and Prof Dr. Govindswamy Bala, Associate Professor, Divecha Centre for Climate Change, IISc, Bangalore, suggest to fix our troubled climate are the renewable energy and geoengineering ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Amazon deforestation slows: Brazil
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091104/sc_afp/brazilenvironmentamazon
Agence France-Presse: Brazil lost 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) of Amazon jungle in September, but deforestation slowed by a third compared with the same month last year, according to official data released Wednesday. Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the speed at which the vast Amazon rain forest was being stripped was down 32 percent, based on satellite imagery from the government's National Space Research Institute. Brazil's government has made the fight against Amazon ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Al Gore follow-up to 'An Inconvenient Truth' published
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/al-gore-followup-to-an-inconvenient-truth-published-1814710.html
Independent (UK):

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Calm Before The Spawn: Climate Change And Coral Spawning
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1780674/calm_before_the_spawn_climate_change_and_coral_spawning/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: What's the point of setting up marine reserves to protect coral reefs from pollution, ship groundings and overfishing if climate change could cause far more damage? A study published this week in London in Proceedings of the Royal Society B provides the answer. For decades researchers have known that corals synchronize their release of eggs and sperm into the water but were unsure of how and why. Robert van Woesik, a biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, explains why ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Insurance sector can't cope with climate change: trade group
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-BusinessofGreen/idUSTRE5A34BC20091104
Reuters: The general insurance industry may not be able to cope with the increased frequency and severity of floods and typhoons brought about by climate change, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said on Wednesday. ABI research, commissioned from Britain's Met Office and catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide, examined the implications of 2 Celsius, 4C and 6C increases in global mean temperature on inland flooding and windstorms in Great Britain, and typhoons in China. The ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Lindsey Graham, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman crafting new climate change bill
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20091104/NEWS/91104004/1004/NEWS01/Lindsey-Graham--John-Kerry--Joe-Lieberman-crafting-new-climate-change-bill
Associated Press: Sen. Lindsey Graham is part of a new effort to find common ground on climate change legislation. The South Carolina Republican and two of his colleagues from the Northeast, Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, said this afternoon they're beginning work to craft a bill palatable to all. It was an unspoken acknowledgement that the bill introduced by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Kerry is too controversial and wouldn't win broad support. The ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Clean-Energy Cause Shouldn't Void Patents, Senators Tell Obama
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20091104/pl_bloomberg/aug9aycq0ljw
Bloomberg: The U.S. must "stand fast" on patent protection and resist calls from developing nations to share energy-efficient technologies to combat climate change, 42 senators told President Barack Obama. The administration shouldn't waver in its "support of American intellectual property, American workers, and American innovators" during climate-change talks next month in Copenhagen, the lawmakers said in the letter to Obama yesterday that was circulated by Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Peat emissions data by country
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1104_peat_emissions_data.html
Mongabay: A new study by Wetlands International and Greifswald University (The Global Peatland CO2 Picture [PDF]) provides country-by-country data on peat stocks and emissions. Overall the assessment found that drainage of wetlands for agriculture, forestry and peat extraction causes 1.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Emissions from fires and peat mining (for horticulture and fuel) amount to another 700,000 million tons per year.

Thu, 5 Nov 09
UN climate talks focus on how to cut emissions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091104/ap_on_re_eu/climate_talks
Associated Press: Negotiators at a U.N. climate conference in Spain further defined plans for reducing greenhouse emissions and continued work on a draft climate change treaty, with next month's deadline for a legal document increasingly in doubt. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the European Union presidency, said the holdup in the U.S. Senate of a climate bill made it impossible to meet a deadline next month for adopting a binding agreement regulating the world's ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Poor urge deep climate cuts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091104/ts_nm/us_climate
Reuters: Developing countries said on Wednesday they risked "total destruction" unless the rich stepped up the fight against climate change to a level that even the United Nations says is out of reach. The top U.S. climate diplomat Todd Stern blamed a "17-year divide" between rich and poor nations for slow progress at the U.N. talks meant to agree a global climate deal in Copenhagen in December, and slammed "debating society" pranks. Keeping up pressure in Barcelona, the final ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Nicholas Stern sees good chance for deal in Copenhagen
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A337Z20091104?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: World powers have a "very good chance" of reaching a political deal to target global curbs in carbon emissions at a U.N. conference in Copenhagen next month, British climate change expert Nicholas Stern said on Wednesday. Stern, author of an influential 2006 report for the British government on the impact of global warming, said he did not expect a "formal treaty" to be signed in Copenhagen, partly due to resistance in the United States. "But we can and should put together a ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Climate change 'will raise bills'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8342120.stm
BBC: Property insurance could become more expensive and harder to obtain as a result of climate change, an insurance body has said. The Association of British Insurers said the cost of flood and windstorm damage would rise for insurers as global temperatures increased. This would lead to higher premiums for consumers and a restriction of cover as insurers would need more reserves. Wales and the south-west of England would be worst hit, the report said. Financial ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
Russia Still Dragging Its Feet on Climate Change
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1934785,00.html
Time Magazine: ussia doesn't seem to care two bits about global warming, and it's not hard to see why. Most Russians would probably be happy if the country was a little warmer. Officials even joke that once climate change has run its course, people may start pouring into Siberia instead of trying to escape it. If the polar ice caps melt any further, Russia would be able to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic Ocean, where it's believed to have huge fossil-fuel reserves. For the rest of the planet, however, ...

Thu, 5 Nov 09
United Biscuits signs sustainable palm oil deal
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252498/united-biscuits-signs
Business Green: In a major coup for the campaign to promote adoption of sustainably certified palm oil, Europe's biggest biscuit manufacturer United Biscuits has this week signed a deal to purchase certified palm oil from New Britain Palm Oil for a minimum of two years. Studies by the WWF have shown that increased demand for palm oil for use in consumer products and biofuels is leading to severe deforestation in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where palm oil plantations have been found to ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
We have months, not years, to save world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/nov/03/lester-brown-copenhagen
Guardian: For those concerned about global warming, all eyes are on December's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The stakes could not be higher. Almost every new report shows that the climate is changing even faster than the most dire projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in their 2007 report. Yet from my vantage point, internationally negotiated climate agreements are fast becoming obsolete for two reasons. First, since no government wants to concede too ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
German leader urges US Congress on climate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091103/sc_afp/climatewarmingungermanyus
Agence France-Presse: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday urged the US Congress to take action on climate change, likening the struggle against global warming to the Berlin Wall. In a rare address to a joint session of Congress marking the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, Merkel said next month's high-stakes climate summit in Copenhagen hinged on strong US and European commitments. "I'm convinced, just as we found the strength in the 20th century to bring about the fall of a wall made of ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
EU presses China and US to act on climate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091103/sc_afp/euusachinaclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, urged Tuesday the United States and China to undertake more efforts to fight climate change. "My message to President Obama as well as to the (American) Senate and Congress is: we need to prioritise climate, with the two degrees (of global temperature rise) objective as our guiding principle," he said in an op-ed published in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's newspaper of reference. Reinfeldt's ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Giant climate deal is too little says UN chief
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/giant-climate-deal-is-too-little-says-un-chief-1814039.html
Independent (UK): The giant cash deal to save the planet -- proposed by Europe for the forthcoming Copenhagen climate conference -- will not be enough, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, said today. The public-money fund of up to EUR50bn annually, which the European Union suggested would be adequate to help developing nations protect themselves from global warming, and cut back on their own carbon emissions, would need to be "scaled up', Mr Ban said. His remarks threw into sharp relief the ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Ban Ki-moon urges religious leaders to 'act boldly' in protecting people and the planet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/ban-ki-moon-religious-climate-change
Guardian: The UN secretary-general today urged religious leaders to "set an example for the lifestyle of billions" by establishing green places of worship, purchasing environmentally friendly goods and investing ethically in sustainable products. Ban Ki-moon made the rallying cry in Windsor Castle, where members of faith-based and secular groups were attending a three-day climate change summit. He told delegates they could encourage governments to "act more boldly" in protecting people and the ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
UN secretary general calls for increase in pledged funding for climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/ban-ki-moon-climate-funding
Guardian: Money paid by rich countries to fight global warming will have to "be scaled up" from the $100bn a year on offer, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said today. Finance is the key, said Ban, to successful negotations on a global treaty to fight climate change, due to conclude at UN talks next month in Copenhagen. Ban also revealed that he will next week meet all the US Senators involved in deliberations over the energy and climate bill. Agreement on that bill is seen as vital ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Kilimanjaro ice could vanish within 20 years, study suggests
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/kilimanjaro-melting-ice-climate-change
Press Association: The famous Snows of Kilimanjaro that cap Africa's highest mountain are melting so fast they could be gone within two decades, according to a study of the mountain's ice fields that used data going back nearly a century. Scientists believe global warming rather than local weather changes is chiefly to blame for the rapid loss of ice from the Tanzanian peak. A study comparing new measurements with those taken in 2000 show that a layer of ice between six and 17 feet thick has ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Ban Ki-moon on preparations for the Copenhagen climate change summit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/audio/2009/nov/03/copenhagen-climate-change
Guardian

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Climate change threatens lives of millions of children, says charity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/02/save-the-children-climate-change
Guardian: A quarter of a million children could die next year due to the effects of climate change, Save the Children warned today. The charity said the figure could rise to more than 400,000 per year by 2030. Its report Feeling the Heat, which is launched today, claims that climate change is the biggest global health threat to children in the 21st century. The charity predicts that 175 million children a year - equivalent to almost three times the population of Great Britain - ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
CO2 from forest destruction overestimated - study
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/forest-destruction-co2-overestimated
Guardian: The carbon dioxide emissions caused by the destruction of tropical forests have been significantly overestimated, according to a new study. The work could undermine attempts to pay poor countries to protect forests as a cost-effective way to tackle global warming. The loss of forests in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia is widely assumed to account for about 20% of all carbon dioxide produced by human activity – more than the world's transport system. The 20% figure was published ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Angela Merkel presses U.S. on climate in speech to Congress
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A20NR20091103?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the United States Tuesday to agree to binding climate goals, telling U.S. lawmakers in a speech to Congress there was "no time to lose" in the fight against global warming. Speaking to a joint session of Congress days before the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, Merkel said it was time for the United States and Europe to unite to confront new barriers, from the economic crisis, to security and the ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
United Kingdom: Judge rules activist's beliefs on climate change akin to religion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/tim-nicholson-climate-change-belief
Guardian: When Rupert Dickinson, the chief executive of one of Britain's biggest property firms, left his BlackBerry behind in London while on a business trip to Ireland, he simply ordered one of his staff to get on a plane and deliver the device to him. For Dickinson's then head of sustainability, Tim Nicholson, the errand was much more than an executive indulgence: it embodied the contempt with which his boss treated his deep philosophical beliefs about climate change. In a significant ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
US puts climate debate on hold for five weeks despite plea by Merkel
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/merkel-senate-delay-climate-debate
Guardian: International negotiators lost one of the key elements to a successful deal on global warming today after Democratic leaders in the US Congress ruled out passing a climate change law before 2010. In the latest obstacle on the road to the UN summit in Copenhagen next month, Senate leaders ordered a five-week pause to review the costs of the legislation. The delay, which would push a Senate vote on a climate change bill into next year, frustrates a last-minute push by the German ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
GOP Boycotts Senate Panel On Climate Change
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120066031&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Only one Republican attended the start of a Senate committee debate on a bill to limit greenhouse gases. Republicans say the measure's economic costs have not been fully examined. The Environment and Public Works Committee needs two Republicans for a quorum.

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102171559.htm
ScienceDaily:

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Obama urges stepped up efforts on climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091103/pl_afp/climatewarmingusobama
Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said it was "imperative to redouble our efforts" to combat global warming ahead of key climate change talks in Copenhagen next month. He was speaking as European leaders urged the US Congress to take action on climate change ahead of next month's high-stakes summit. Obama said they discussed climate change "extensively and all of us agreed that it is imperative for us to redouble our efforts in the weeks between now and the Copenhagen ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Obama: US, Europe must push hard for climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091103/ap_on_bi_ge/us_us_eu
Associated Press: President Barack Obama says he and European leaders agree it is imperative that they redouble efforts to reach a climate deal in Copenhagen in December. The president spoke Tuesday with European Union leaders at the White House on global warming, Afghanistan, Iran, economic recovery and other matters. The White House meeting came just a month ahead of a global meeting on climate change in Copenhagen as world leaders negotiate a follow-on agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. Obama ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Germany: Merkel calls for strong deal on climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091103/ap_on_go_co/us_us_germany
Associated Press: German Chancellor Angela Merkel marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by exhorting the world in a speech to Congress on Tuesday to "tear down the walls of today" and reach a deal to combat global warming. Frequently interrupted by robust applause, Merkel reiterated her country's commitment to fostering security in Afghanistan and also said that a nuclear bomb in the hands of Iran "is not acceptable." In the first address by a German chancellor to Congress ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Forest protection hinges on 10-word phrase
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A25G620091103?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Developing nations could end up being paid billions of dollars to raze rainforests and build palm oil plantations in their place if the current text of the Copenhagen climate treaty sticks, a group of advocates warned at the United Nations climate talks on Tuesday. It's not set in stone. Negotiators could still reinsert a 10-word phrase that was sliced from the treaty language, but that would have to happen by Friday, the last day of the U.N. talks in Barcelona. Barcelona is ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Climate debate has rocky start for US Senate panel
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091103/ap_on_bi_ge/us_climate_bill
Associated Press: European leaders pressed Congress and the White House on Tuesday to unite on a plan to combat global warming, even as a Republican boycott forced a delay of votes in a key Senate committee, demonstrating the deep partisan rift. An emotional plea for action by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an address before Congress was met with silence from most Republicans, while Democrats stood and applauded. The Europeans as well as the U.S. were pressured in turn by African nations to ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Why African countries are boycotting climate change talks
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/11/03/why-african-countries-are-boycotting-climate-change-talks/
Christian Science Monitor: Talks over how to cut back global carbon emissions to ease the effects of climate change have broken down, with African nations arguing that rich nations are not doing their fair share. The latest round of talks, scheduled for Nov. 2-6 in Barcelona, are aimed at looking into a number of natural remedies that might help manage the rise in global emissions of carbon dioxide, one of the main by products from the burning of oil, coal, and other fossil fuels in electrical power plants and ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Obama urges stepped up efforts on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g17tQ_8GOTcPhzoYjRdqhDITpoFw
Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said it was "imperative to redouble our efforts" to combat global warming, as European leaders pressed Washington to take action on climate change ahead of next month's summit. Obama met top European leaders for an EU-US summit here, shortly after German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered a heart-felt appeal for a climate protocol in a rare address to a joint session of the US Congress. "All of us agreed that it is imperative for us to ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Republican Senators boycott debate of climate change bill
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/11/03/republican-senators-boycott-debate-of-climate-change-bill/
Christian Science Monitor: Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) ended the morning today shuffling papers in silence at the head of an empty table, as Republican senators boycotted Day 1 of her panel's markup of historic climate legislation. "This is an opportunity. I ask my colleagues to show up. We're going to be extremely patient. We're going to be here. We'll take some time to wait for our friends," said Chairwoman Boxer, at the end of the aborted morning session of the Environment and Public Works Committee. But ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Al Gore 'profiting' from climate change agenda
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6496196/Al-Gore-profiting-from-climate-change-agenda.html
Telegraph: The former US vice president is in line to make a large profit from a firm producing smart meters which monitor household electricity use. He is a partner in a Silicon Valley venture capital firm which invested Â£45 million in Silver Spring Networks, a small California company which has been developing technology to monitor household power use to make the electricity grid more efficient. Last week the US Energy Department announced Â£2 billion in grants and a proportion of that, ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Turnbull has doubts on Copenhagen deal
http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-national/turnbull-has-doubts-on-copenhagen-deal-20091102-hsdp.html
Brisbane Times: Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says there is little hope of world leaders agreeing on critical climate change limits in Copenhagen. "The fact is the treaty won't be signed in Copenhagen," Mr Turnbull told Macquarie Radio on Monday. However, he did say he believed climate change was a serious threat. "I believe the world should take effective global action. "I believe Australia should be part of it and we have to do so in an effective and economically ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
IEA official downbeat on Copenhagen climate talks
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1195457.htm
Reuters: Delegates to climate talks in Copenhagen may not be able to agree even a partial solution to the problem of how to tackle global warming by December, a top international climate change official said. The head of energy efficiency and environment at the International Energy Agency, Richard Bradley, said he sensed delegates were not interested in half-way measures because they feared that might tie their hands in other areas later. "It looks like negotiators from the major ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Australia's climate 'get-out' clause on bushfire slammed
http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/australias-climate-getout-clause-on-bushfire-slammed/1665106.aspx?src=rss
North Queensland Register: AUSTRALIA has been accused of pushing for a "get-out clause" on climate change that would grant it unlimited carbon credits from new forestry plantations while pretending that enormous greenhouse gas emissions from bushfire did not exist. The Federal Government wants a Copenhagen climate deal to allow countries to opt to include forestry and crop lands that draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in their national greenhouse accounts. Most land and forestry emissions, including ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Climate worries to send Nepal cabinet to Everest base
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5A11OZ20091102?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews
Reuters: Nepal's cabinet plans to meet at the base camp of Mount Everest this month to highlight the impact of global warming on the Himalayas ahead of next month's U.N. negotiations on climate change, a minister said on Monday. The base camp is located about 5,300 meters (17,400 feet) up the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) mountain and is the point from where climbers to the Everest summit begin their ascent. "The cabinet meeting is meant to draw the attention to the adverse impact of ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Britons least concerned about climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/6470183/Britons-least-concerned-about-climate-change.html
Telegraph: The annual Climate Confidence Monitor found the number of people worrying about global warming worldwide has fallen by eight per cent to just over a third in the last year as the economic downturn kicked in. Just fifteen per cent of people in Britain worry about climate change and how the world responds to the problem, the lowest figure for any of the 12 countries surveyed. The figure is down from 26 per cent last year. In the US 18 per cent of people said global warming was one of ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Higher temperatures will harm many crops, report says
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/1311374.html
Associated Press: Global warming would be bad news for all those amber waves of grain, and for the corn and soybeans that are plentiful throughout the Midwest. "The grain-filling period" - the time when the seed grows and matures - "of wheat and other small grains shortens dramatically with rising temperatures. Analysis of crop responses suggests that even moderate increases in temperature will decrease yields of corn, wheat, sorghum, bean, rice, cotton and peanut crops," according to "Global Climate ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Kenya: Climate change will melt snows of Kilimanjaro 'within 20 years'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-will-melt-snows-of-kilimanjaro-within-20-years-1813631.html
Independent (UK): The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro -- the highest mountain in Africa -- may soon be falling on bare ground following a study showing that its ice cap is destined to disappear entirely within 20 years, due largely to climate change. The vast ice fields of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania are melting at a faster pace than at any time over the past 100 years and at this rate they will be gone completely within two decades or even earlier according to one of the world's leading glaciologists. A ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Ecuador: Pay us oil money, or the rainforest gets it
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427323.200-pay-us-oil-money-or-the-rainforest-gets-it.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: ECUADOR's unprecedented offer to accept payment for not extracting oil from beneath the Amazon rainforest is beginning to draw interest. The move could usher in a new way to both combat climate change and prevent damage to ecologically diverse and sensitive regions. More than two years ago, Ecuador said it would abandon plans for drilling in Yasuni National Park, one of the few pristine regions of Amazon rainforest remaining, if it was paid half of the $7 billion that it expected to ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
A Rosy View on Climate Talks Persists in Copenhagen -- 'A Lot Can Be Achieved'
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/11/03/03climatewire-a-rosy-view-on-climate-talks-persists-in-cope-3952.html
ClimateWire: The job of Denmark's Connie Hedegaard, as chairwoman of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December, is to lead negotiators from some 190 countries toward a deal that would replace the Kyoto Protocol. With only three weeks before the conference begins, there is a crescendo of voices around the world declaring that her job is impossible. Hedegaard disagrees. A former journalist who has a master's degree in literature and history, she is a skilled communicator who ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Warming could create 150 million 'climate refugees'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/03/global-warming-climate-refugees
Guardian: Global warming will force up to 150 million "climate refugees" to move to other countries in the next 40 years, a new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns. In 2008 alone, more than 20 million people were displaced by climate-related natural disasters, including 800,000 people by cyclone Nargis in Asia, and almost 80,000 by heavy floods and rains in Brazil, the NGO said. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, who presented testimony to the EJF, said ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Palm Project Accused of Environmental Destruction
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49113
Inter Press Service: It is a public-private partnership intended to reduce Uganda's dependence on imported vegetable oil while creating sustainable jobs and income for several thousand people. Its critics say it's destroying forests with no regard for environmental regulations. The Ugandan government entered into an agreement with BIDCO, the largest manufacturer of vegetable oil in Uganda, and Malaysian palm oil giants Wilmar to set up a plantation and refinery in the Kalangala islands in Lake Victoria. ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Venezuela rations water in response to drought
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/11/02/venezuela.water.rationing/index.html?section=cnn_latest
CNN: Residents of the Venezuelan capital on Monday began to experience water rationing as part of a government preservation measure during a drought. The rolling cuts to water service will affect the capital of Caracas and some nearby areas for periods of up to 48 hours, the state-owned water utility Hidrocapital announced. The rationing will continue through the first quarter of 2010, the government said. President Hugo Chavez has urged citizens to take extra steps to reduce water ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Democrats won't delay climate bill
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6699898.html
Houston Chronicle: Democratic leaders of a key Senate committee on Monday vowed to forge ahead with climate change legislation despite a planned boycott by Republicans on the panel. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee she heads would begin working on the global warming bill today -- with or without the Republicans. "We look forward to working with them if they decide to participate," Boxer said. "But if they do not, we will move forward in ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Overturn of CO2 transportation ban promises North Sea CCS boost
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252401/co2-transportation-ban
Business Green: The prospect of depleted North Sea oil and gas fields continuing to generate revenue for the UK as storage facilities for capture carbon emissions moved a step closer last week after International Maritime Organisation (IMO) voted in favour of the international ban on the cross-boundary transport of CO2 being lifted. The repeal of the ban could still take several years to ratify, but experts said it would provide a major boost to the development of international carbon capture and ...

Wed, 4 Nov 09
Oil and gas firms accused of failing to address physical climate risks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2252400/oil-gas-companies-accused
Business Green: Oil and gas companies are not only major contributors to climate change, they are also uniquely at risk from the impacts of global warming. But despite the dual legislative and operational risks they face, many are burying their heads in the sand and failing to properly assess climate change risks. That is the stark conclusion of a major report from environmental consultancy Acclimatise, which assessed oil and gas companies' responses to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and found ...