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Experts agree on a universal drought index to combat climate risks
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/dec09/dec28/1222UNLuniversialdroughtko.cfm
High Plains Journal: In the "Lincoln Declaration on Drought Indices," 54 experts from all regions of the world agreed this month on the use of a universal meteorological drought index for more effective drought monitoring and climate risk management. A World Meteorological Organization official presented the declaration Dec. 15 at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, because scientists predict that more drought will be one of the results of climate change. The experts considered the three main ...
Wed, 30 Dec 09
Dismantling the Infrastructure: A Scientific Approach
http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=584&Itemid=66
Culture Change: I have always been wary about technologies, despite the fact that I graduated as an electrical engineer, and defended two dissertations. The Chernobyl disaster put an end to my infatuation with science, and revived my interest in poetry, philosophy and nature. Since the late '80s, I was gradually converted into the Luddite type of a scientist and stepped onto a shaky path of techno-criticism. I remember my enthusiasm when, in the mid-'90s, I found in the America House Library a book ...
Wed, 30 Dec 09
Solar Trend Catches Fire among Households
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49839
Inter Press Service: The global community may have been dismayed by the outcome of the recently concluded climate change talks in Copenhagen, but Mami Naito, 42, is not about to put off dealing with this global phenomenon in her own small way. "We very much like the idea of joining the efforts to prevent global warming," says the mother of two. Soon she hopes to have a solar energy-producing device installed on the roof of her house, having obtained estimates from a home appliance chain store in her ...
Wed, 30 Dec 09
More Carbon Dioxide May Create a Racket in the Seas
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/science/earth/29obsound.html?_r=5
New York Times: Here is another consequence of rising carbon dioxide emissions: the oceans are getting louder. It has long been known that chemical compounds in seawater, including boric acid, absorb sound, as energy from sound waves stimulates certain reactions. As the oceans grow more acidic, a result of increasing absorption of atmospheric CO2, the seawater chemistry changes, resulting in fewer reactions and less acoustic energy used. That means sounds will travel farther and be louder at a given ...
Wed, 30 Dec 09
James Hoggan talks about global warming
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2009/1228/James-Hoggan-talks-about-global-warming
Christian Science Monitor: In the book "Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming," authors James Hoggan, co-founder of DeSmogBlog.com, and Richard Littlemore detail an extensive public relations campaign that, they say, aims to sow doubt in the public mind about the science of human-induced climate change. The goal of this PR campaign: to forestall meaningful action on curbing fossil fuel use, a major contributor to the buildup of heat-trapping gases, and to allow oil and coal companies to continue ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Brazil aims to prevent land grabs in Amazon
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/world/americas/27brazil.html?_r=5
New York Times: Raimundo Teixeira de Souza came to this sweltering Amazon outpost 15 years ago, looking for land. He bought 20 acres, he said, but more powerful farmers, who roam this Wild West territory with rifles strapped to their backs, forced him to sell much of it for a pittance. Then someone shot and killed Mr. de Souza's 23-year-old stepson in the middle of a village road two years ago, residents said. No one has been arrested. In fact, the new police chief has no record that the crime was ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Ocean noise pollution turns up with greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20091227_Ocean_noise_pollution_turns_up_with_greenhouse_gas_emissions.html
Star Bulletin: The ocean is becoming a noisier place due to increased greenhouse gas emissions, California and Hawaii scientists report. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans not only has increased seawater acidity but has affected its acoustics--making it more transparent to low-frequency sound, the scientists said in a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Scientists said seawater sound absorption will drop by up to 70 percent this century. "It was ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Air quality guidelines face unexpected critics
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/us/27sfpolitics.html?_r=5
New York Times: California's battle against greenhouse gases is likely to come to the Bay Area soon – with rules designed to reduce the carbon footprint of new housing and commercial development. That is a concept you might expect to be welcome in a region known for its environmental advocacy and hostility to growth. But some environmentalists and city planners fear that the new set of guidelines being considered by the region's air quality regulators could have an unintended consequence, ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Midwest hurt by energy dithering
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/80027727.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUqEiaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
startribune:
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Solar savings
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/26/RERH1B6B7G.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: When San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting looked into solar-powering his own family home, he saw firsthand the hurdles - and the daunting price tag. HOT PROPERTY / Alamo Square Queen Anne home restored, updated 12.27.09 MORTGAGES / Refinancers may get hit by rising home loan rates 12.27.09 WHAT YOU CAN BUY: Price Point: $2,000,000 12.27.09 The List / Median Sale Price, San Francisco condo developments 12.27.09 "The city and the industry were not matching their rhetoric," he ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Regional lake study points to faster warming
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2422319.html
Sacramento Bee: Lake Tahoe, Clear Lake and four other large lakes in Northern California and Nevada are warming faster than the surrounding atmosphere, suggesting climate change may affect aquatic environments faster and sooner. The findings are reported in a new study led by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. They used 18 years of temperature data from satellite sensors. It is believed to be the first time data have been dissected to reveal lake surface temperature ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
China introduces law to boost renewable energy
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BQ08Q20091227
Reuters: A new Chinese law requires power grid operators to buy all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators, in a move that will increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources in coal-dependent China. The amendment to the 2006 renewable energy law was adopted on Saturday by the standing committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, the Xinhua news agency said. The amendment also gives authority to the State Council energy ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Canada: Lawyers to dominate carbon storage work in 2010
http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/Canada---World/Business/2009-12-26/article-305269/Lawyers,-not-engineers,-to-dominate-work-on-carbon-storage-in-2010/1
Moose Jaws times: Before you start putting carbon in the ground, you first have to put lawyers in a room. After a year that saw billions of dollars in public funds sprayed around a variety of carbon capture and storage pilot projects, the focus in 2010 will shift from splashy press conferences to quiet boardrooms where officials will work out exactly how all that money will be spent. "We're currently working on grant agreements," says Karen Karbashewski of Alberta Energy. "We expect to have them ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Canada will follow U.S. lead on climate
http://www.financialpost.com/working/story.html?id=2372590
Financial Post: As confirmed at last week's climate conference in Copenhagen, Canada is not prepared to go it alone on climate change legislation. Rather, our policy will closely parallel U.S. law. When push comes to shove, we have little choice. "It's hard to imagine Canada not following on the U.S. lead because we desperately need to get inside their carbon market and we desperately need to ensure that their laws don't work against the interests of our exporters," said Gray Taylor of Bennett Jones ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
S.Korean-led group wins $20.4-bln UAE nuclear deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091227/bs_afp/uaeskoreaenergynucleardeal
Agence France-Presse: The United Arab Emirates has awarded a 20.4-billion-dollar contract to build four nuclear power plants to a South Korean-led consortium, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation said Sunday. The UAE "has determined that the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) team is best equipped to fulfill the government's partnership requirements in this ambitious programme," ENEC chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak said in a statement. The deal is expected to lead to additional contracts worth ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Acting Alone on Climate Change
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/opinion/28iht-edbowring.html?_r=5
New York Times: This was a good, if distant, vantage point to view the proceedings in Copenhagen. Good because Australia has one of the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world and has been suffering from an extended drought, probably related to global warming. Good, too, because, despite those unpleasant facts just days before Copenhagen, the Australian Senate rejected an ambitious emission-trading scheme designed to cut pollution by making emitters pay. Its vote on Dec. 2 proved a fitting ...
Mon, 28 Dec 09
Climate change solution must be mutually satisfactory: PM
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Climate-change-solution-must-be-mutually-satisfactory-PM-/articleshow/5385266.cms
Indo-Asian News Service: Just days after the Copenhagen summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said any solution to climate change should be "mutually satisfactory". "An optimal solution to the climatic change challenge is only possible if the world can find ways to reach a mutually satisfactory collective solution," Manmohan Singh said while addressing the 92nd annual conference of the Indian Economic Association here. Linking it to development, he said: "Issues arising out of climate change ...
Fri, 25 Dec 09
Greenpeace will keep up pressure on global warming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091224/ap_on_bi_ge/af_climate_greenpeace
Associated Press: Greenpeace will keep up the pressure on leaders it believes let the world down on global warming, the head of the international environmental group said Thursday. Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace's executive director, spoke in an Associated Press interview in Johannesburg on a visit to his home country after last week's U.N. climate change summit in Copenhagen. Back in Copenhagen, four Greenpeace activists will spend Christmas in a Danish jail facing trespassing charges because of a summit ...
Fri, 25 Dec 09
Gauging Climate Change: How Fast Is the Earth Shifting?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1949869,00.html
Time Magazine: There are many units by which to measure the impact of climate change: degrees of increasing temperature, feet of rising sea level, dollars needed to adapt to a warming world. But a group of scientists in California have put forth an intriguing new unit of measurement: kilometers per year. Writing in a paper published Wednesday in Nature, scientists describe what they call the velocity of climate change, or more specifically, the speed of Earth's shifting climatic zones. As global ...
Fri, 25 Dec 09
Global warming will cause plants and animals to migrate
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2009/1224/Global-warming-will-cause-plants-and-animals-to-migrate
Christian Science Monitor: One upon a time, adaptation to global warming was dubbed a cop-out, a way to duck the challenge of reducing, and ultimately eliminating, greenhouse-gas emissions from cars, factories, and power plants. Now, however, the issue is front and center – a necessary adjunct to reducing emissions. One significant adaptation challenge involves protecting as much of Earth's biodiversity as possible in what is projected to be a prolonged period of rapid – if sometimes erratic – ...
Fri, 25 Dec 09
Impasse on climate change at Copenhagen divides the world
http://www.chronicle.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=4591&cat=10
Chronicle: THE crush of the huge, world conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, last week, was inevitable. For like the fall of a jumbo jet, it was overloaded in "first class" with pius but redundant rhetoric which caused a loss of vision in the cockpit and, a dispassionate postmortem may not fail to reveal a widening gulf between the rich and poor countries -- the obese and the skeletal whose vital statistics are unlike poles. Indeed, Canadian Marshal McLuhan's "global village" was ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Velocity of Climate Change Varies from Mountain to Marsh
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=velocity-climate-change
Scientific American: Reports of maples on the march northward and butterflies flitting far afield are already flooding in, and climate scientists predict that with escalating temperature changes more species will need to either get out of dodge, or hope for emissions reductions that will help the planet dodge the climate bullet. Much of Earth's life forms are fine-tuned for specific ecosystems and their associated climates. Plunk a tree frog down in a harsh habitat it is not well adapted for, and it will ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Ecuador to be paid to leave oil in the ground
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1223-ecuador.html
Mongabay: Ecuador will establish a trust fund for receiving payments to leave oil reserves unexploited in Yasuni National Park, one of the world's most biodiverse rainforest reserves, reports the UN Development Programme, the agency that will administer the fund. The Yasuni Trust Fund, announced by UNDP Administrator Helen Clark, Ecuador's Foreign Minister Fander Falconi, and Minister of Natural and Cultural Heritage Marie Ferdinand Espinosa in Copenhagen on December 16, 2009, will prevent the ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Queen urges Commonwealth to lead on climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091224/wl_uk_afp/britaincommonwealthroyalschristmasclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Queen Elizabeth II will urge the Commonwealth to keep taking the lead on global issues such as the environment in her Christmas message, according to extracts released Thursday. The 83-year-old sovereign will call on young people from across the Commonwealth to keep debating the important issues facing its members, after the group held important pre-Copenhagen talks at its biennial gathering in November. "It is important to keep discussing issues that concern us all -- there ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Disappointment at Copenhagen deal 'justified': Obama
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091224/pl_afp/unclimatewarminguspolitics
Agence France-Presse: Disappointment at the outcome of a United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Copenhagen is "justified," US President Barack Obama said in a US television interview on Wednesday. "I think that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome in Copenhagen," he told the PBS Newshour program. "What I said was essentially that rather than see a complete collapse in Copenhagen, in which nothing at all got done and would have been a huge backward step, at ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Copenhagen blame game not helpful - U.N. climate chief
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091224/india_nm/india449579
Reuters: Countries should stop blaming each other for the weak outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks and sit down together to move the process forward, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday. It is still possible to reach a legally binding global treaty, and bickering among countries like China and Britain is unproductive, Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN's climate change secretariat, told Reuters. Britain accused a handful of states including China on Monday of ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
NYC says Catskill gas drilling risks are too great
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091224/ap_on_bi_ge/ny_gas_drilling_ny
Associated Press: New York City's Department of Environmental Protection called on state officials Wednesday to ban natural gas drilling in the Catskills watershed, saying it would pose too great a risk to the city's upstate drinking water system. The DEP took that position in response to the state Department of Environmental Conservation's draft regulations on gas drilling in New York's portion of the Marcellus Shale region, which includes parts of the Catskills where reservoirs supply drinking water ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
The Copenhagen climate hand shake
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/edcetera/2010581945_thecopenhagenclimatehandshake.html
Seattle Times: Don`t let the water run. Turn off the lights when you leave a room. Close the door behind you so you don`t let the heat out -- All things most of us have heard from our parents (in my family, my dad was the Therm-o-stat hall monitor) since an early age. So if these common energy-savings tips were engraved into our malleable young minds, why is it still so difficult for most of us to grasp the urgency of a major climate consensus? President Obama just returned from Copenhagen, ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Ecosystems strain to keep pace with climate
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BN04L20091224?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Earth's various ecosystems, with all their plants and animals, will need to shift about a quarter-mile per year on average to keep pace with global climate change, scientists said in a study released on Wednesday. How well particular species can survive rising worldwide temperatures attributed to excess levels of heat-trapping "greenhouse" gases emitted by human activity hinges on those species' ability to migrate or adapt in place. The farther individual species -- from shrubs ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Climate change puts ecosystems on run: US study
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/24/content_12697931.htm
Xinhua: Global warming is causing climate belts to shift toward the poles and to higher elevations, to keep pace with which, the average ecosystem will need to shift about a quarter mile each year, said a new study led by scientists at the Carnegie Institution. For some habitats, such as low-lying areas, climate belts are moving even faster, putting many species in jeopardy, especially where human development has blocked migration paths, said the report in the Dec. 24 issue of journal ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Lessons from Copenhagen: Has the UN played its last card?
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1789
Carbon Positive: Welcome to the future. Like the Security Council, at the UN there is now a 'climate council' of two, the US and China with a veto over global action on climate change. The Copenhagen climate conference outcomes, or lack of them, leave open a range of questions over when and how the world will move forward on climate action. But perhaps the biggest of them is about where any major decisions on tackling global warming in future are now likely to be taken. That is, inside or outside the ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
NYC urges ban on shale gas drilling in watershed
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BM1XF20091223?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: New York City urged the state to ban natural gas drilling in its watershed on Wednesday, becoming the most powerful opponent to date of a process that critics say is poisoning drinking water. Shale gas trapped deep underground is considered one of the most promising sources of U.S. energy, but environmentalists and small-town neighbors of drilling operations -- and now the biggest city in the United States -- are seeking to limit its exploitation. The drilling process known as ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Slop buckets are popular, according to survey
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6873999/Slop-buckets-are-popular-according-to-survey.html
Telegraph: One in four councils have already introduced separate food waste collections. A survey of more than 4,000 people in six local authorities by the Department for the Environment (Defra) showed that 78 per cent of people welcome the scheme. However seven per cent are against having to collect food waste in a kitchen caddie and leave it out for weekly collections. Separate food waste collections are expected to be rolled out across the country next year, as it could become ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Animals 'on the run' from climate change
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6874398/Animals-on-the-run-from-climate-change.html
Telegraph: For species in flatter, low-lying regions such as deserts, grasslands, and coastal areas, the pace of the retreat could exceed more than half a mile a year, it is claimed. Creatures and plants only able to tolerate a narrow range of temperatures will be most vulnerable, said the researchers. Those unable to match the migration speeds needed to escape the effects of global warming could vanish into extinction. Plants in almost a third of the habitats studied were thought ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Dirty air may raise pneumonia risk: study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091223/hl_nm/us_dirty_air
Reuters: Air pollution may double the risk that an elderly person will be hospitalized for pneumonia, according to a new study. "We have shown that air pollution exerts a strong effect on hospital admissions for pneumonia," Michael Jerrett, of the University of California, Berkeley, who was involved in the study, noted in an interview with Reuters Health. About 600,000 people are hospitalized for pneumonia in the United States each year. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in the ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Plants and animals race for survival as climate change creeps across the globe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/23/global-warming-spreading-quarter-mile-year
Guardian: Global warming creeps across the world at a speed of a quarter of a mile each year, according to a new study that highlights the problems that rising temperatures pose to plants and animals. Species that can tolerate only a narrow range of temperatures will need to move as quickly if they are to survive. Wildlife in lowland tropics, mangroves and desert areas are at greater risk than species in mountainous areas, the study suggests. "These are the conditions that will set the stage, ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
On the move: Species face race against climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091223/sc_afp/climatewarmingbiodiversity
Agence France-Presse: Land ecosystems will have to move hundreds of metres each year in order to cope with global warming, according to a letter published on Thursday in Nature, the British-based science journal. On average, ecosystems will need to shift 420 metres (about a quarter of a mile) per year to cooler areas this century if the species that inhabit them are to keep within their comfort zones, scientists in the US believe. Flat ecosystems such as mangroves, wetlands and deserts face the ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Manure, Fertilizer Part Of Chesapeake's Problem
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121565792&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: After two decades of raising chickens at her farm on Maryland's eastern shore, Carole Morison quit last year, in part because she was tired of polluting the Chesapeake Bay. "I'll be the first one to say that I'm part of the problem," Morison says. "My only wish is that other people would own up and quit the denial and finger-pointing and say, 'We have a problem. Let's fix it.' " More than 25 years ago, the federal government and several states pledged to restore the Chesapeake ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
UN climate chief urges avoiding blame over summit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091223/ap_on_sc/climate
Associated Press: =The top U.N. climate official said Wednesday that though the Copenhagen global warming summit went sour, countries should avoid blaming each other and get down to work on a better deal next year. Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. climate change secretariat, also said it could take months before poor countries begin receiving billions of dollars in emergency funds to adapt to climate change and begin controlling their emissions of greenhouse gases. A $30 billion fund over the next ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
United States: City Agency Warns Against Gas Drilling Plan
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/science/earth/24drill.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: New York City environmental officials said Wednesday that months of scientific research had indicated that hydraulic drilling for natural gas would contaminate the watershed serving the city. The study, undertaken by the city's Department of Environmental Protection, also showed that the drilling would damage infrastructure, including aqueducts, the officials told the city's water board at a briefing. In a forceful letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation on ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Brazil establishes 20,000 sq mi of new indigenous reserves in the Amazon
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1223-brazil.html
Mongabay: On Monday, Brazil decreed nine new indigenous reserves covering 51,000 square kilometers (19,700 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest, an areas larger than Denmark or Switzerland, reports the AFP. "We will never be able to do enough for the indigenous people," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a speech announcing the decree. "The debt is historic and we can never reimburse through money, we can only make concrete gestures." Five of the reserves are located ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
India, China stronger from climate meet: Pachauri
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BM3QL20091223?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The grouping of China, India, Brazil and South Africa has emerged as a significant force in Copenhagen and they could lead the way in future negotiations, the head of the U.N. climate panel said on Wednesday. A climate change meeting ended last week in Copenhagen with a non-legally binding political agreement at the last moment between the United States and the big developing countries -- China, India, Brazil and South Africa that forms the BASIC group. The next climate change ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
China says Britain sowing discord in climate politics
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BM3PH20091223?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: China condemned claims ascribed to Britain's climate change minister that it had "hijacked" negotiations in Copenhagen, saying on Tuesday the accusations were an attempt to sow discord among poor countries. The sharp words from Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu were the latest baring of diplomatic bad blood after the talks in Copenhagen ended on Saturday with a broad, non-binding accord that fell short of hopes for a robust global agreement on how to curb greenhouse gas ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
United States: No sign of 'major' commercial biofuels investment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091223/ap_on_bi_ge/us_biofuels_initiative_tennessee
Associated Press: Gov. Phil Bredesen's timetable is about to run out for what he has billed as a "major" commercial investment related to Tennessee's biofuels program. Bredesen had touted the potential investment after a Republican-controlled legislative panel raised concerns about Tennessee's involvement in the biofuel initiative last month. The Democratic governor warned that the panel's hesitation over an $11 million contract could jeopardize the related investment. Lawmakers relented a week ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
U.S. agencies responsible for nuclear data leak : GAO
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091223/ts_nm/us_nuclear_data_gao
Reuters: Several federal agencies share responsibility for the inadvertent publishing by a government office of sensitive U.S. nuclear power information on the Web last May, Congressional investigators said on Wednesday. The Government Printing Office published the 266-page document, which gave details on nuclear power sites, locations, facilities and activities, on the Web on May 7. It included 14 diagrams of buildings or facilities at U.S. nuclear sites, two of which were marked ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
UN climate chief appeals for calm after Copenhagen bustup
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hhbem82Ej9-q6rsJ2_ftK11xj7Pw
Agence France-Presse: The UN's pointman on climate change pleaded for calm on Wednesday after angry spats erupted over the outcome of the much-trumpeted world climate summit in Copenhagen. Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), warned "all this finger-pointing and recrimination" could cloud negotiations next year for sealing a post-2012 pact on tackling global warming. "We need to work together constructively, whereas countries are in the media ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Africa is on its own on climate change
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/-/440804/830220/-/oh6o4nz/-/
Daily Nation: The outcome of the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen last week was not entirely unexpected, with Africa having expressed its misgivings long before the summit kicked off. The long and short of it all is that the world failed to cap carbon emissions to levels that could start healing the earth, or make significant financial commitments to help poor countries cope with the effects of climate change. This means that things will only get worse, especially for poor ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Russia to curb carbon dioxide emissions despite Copenhagen Climate Change summit
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/politics/6873810/Russia-to-curb-carbon-dioxide-emissions-despite-Copenhagen-Climate-Change-summit.html
Telegraph: Despite ambivalent results at the Copenhagen summit, Russia still plans to commit to lower CO2 targets and reduce harmful emissions. This comes as part of a broader plan to improve energy efficiency and spur economic growth through green technologies. On the heels of the summit, president Dmitry Medvedev had pledged to cut Russia's harmful emissions to 25pc less than the 1990 level if other leaders follow. Mr Medvedev also promised to make Russian industry 40pc more energy efficient ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Madagascar: Worrying Lapse in Forest Management
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49808
Inter Press Service: The illegal logging of precious wood rose sharply during the political crisis that gripped Madagascar during 2009. Forest communities, who could be part of the preservation of these resources, have been swept up in the rush for rosewood. Rosewood, or Dalbergia baroni, is a very valuable hardwood, in great demand worldwide. Along with related species from Latin America and Asia, it has been over-exploited, and is a protected species in Madgascar. Sipping a beer in a bar in the ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
E.U. Blames Others for 'Great Failure' on Climate
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/europe/23iht-climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: European Union leaders on Tuesday sought to deflect criticism that they had fumbled their strategy at the Copenhagen climate summit meeting, just as a feud between the British and the Chinese over whom to blame for the outcome worsened. Andreas Carlgren, the environment minister of Sweden, the country holding the rotating E.U. presidency, said that the summit meeting had been a "great failure" partly because other nations had rejected targets and a timetable for the rest of the world ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Canadians cool to Harper's climate change stand
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Canadians+cool+Harper+climate+change+stand/2371025/story.html
Montreal Gazette: The Harper government might not lose many votes over its controversial stance on climate change even though half of Canadians disapprove of its policies, says a new poll. The survey, conducted over the past few days by Innovative Research Group for Canwest News Service, found 49 per cent of respondents disapproved of the government's position at the Copenhagen climate conference, but 44 per cent said it would not make a difference on whether they were more or less likely to vote for ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Leadership on climate change should begin in Washington
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-copenhagen23-2009dec23,0,2588247.story
LA Times: We've been reserving judgment on last week's United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen because we're still trying to figure out what, exactly, happened. An acrimonious two-week negotiations marathon ended Saturday with a raucous final session in which delegates "noted" (but didn't exactly approve) an agreement seemingly thrown together at the last minute by representatives of the United States and four other big greenhouse-gas emitters. The pact, if you can call it that, has no binding ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
US must begin fight against climate change at home
http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005129330
Idaho Mountain Express: For those with high hopes of an unprecedented worldwide breakthrough on reducing climate change, the United Nations Copenhagen summit was an "unprecedented breakdown," as New York Times columnist Tom Friedman described the results. For those willing to proclaim victory with even a shard of achievement, the outcome was what diplomats might charitably call "a start." This much is certain: With more than 190 United Nations members unable to agree on any firm plan for attacking climate ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Climate change grips North Pole
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_north/terracestandard/news/79861677.html
Terrace Standard: THE NEED to turn green has become a focal point for the man in red who lives at the North Pole. With the Copenhagen climate change talks now concluded, Santa Claus has come forward with a comprehensive list of projects and changes that will make the North Pole far more environmentally-friendly than it is now. And, in the process, Santa expects to save money or perhaps even generate revenue which he would then use to retrofit his workshop so that it contains the latest in energy ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
Ford to roll out plug-ins, battery electric vehicles in coming years
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255414/ford-roll-plug-ins-battery
Business Green: Over the coming years Ford will introduce a range of electric vehicles, from continuing its work with hybrids to releasing plug-in and battery electric vehicles, all of which will use lithium-ion batteries, said Sherif Marakby, director of sustainability mobility technology and chief engineer for Ford global hybrid core engineering. Marakby gave an update to Ford's electric plans at a press event Ford held last week. [Full disclosure: Ford paid for my travel to Michigan and lodging ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
With military precision, MoD hits emissions target two years early
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255413/mod-hits-government-emissions
Business Green: Soldiers may not be seen as the most likely of tree huggers, but the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has this week emerged as one of Whitehall's greener departments, announcing that it has reached its target to cut carbon emissions from its estate by 12.5 per cent two years ahead of schedule. The government updated its emissions targets in 2007, requiring Whitehall departments to reduce carbon emissions by 12.5 per cent on 2000 levels by 2011, and by 30 per cent by 2020. At the time, ...
Thu, 24 Dec 09
India: Tata unveils plans to cut emissions by a quarter
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255411/tata-unveils-plans-cut
Business Green: The Tata Steel Group is aiming to reduce its carbon emissions by 10 per cent by 2012 and 25 per cent by 2020, according to the company's managing director. HM Nerurkar told the Reuters news agency that the company had set itself a target of cutting carbon emissions from two tonnes per tonne of steel to 1.8 tonnes by 2012 and 1.5 tonnes in about eight years. Speaking to reporters at an industry conference in Kolkata, Nerurkar said that the firm's carbon emissions were already ...
Wed, 23 Dec 09
Australia pledges 'no more, no less' on climate
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i0FVYue_kdlVdQgr2FRIv9RMdU1w
Agence France-Presse: Australia will do "no more and no less" than other nations to fight climate change, the government said Tuesday, as it prepared to set its greenhouse gas pollution targets after talks in Copenhagen. The centre-left Labor government wants to introduce a carbon trading emissions scheme which could reduce the pollution responsible for global warming by up to 25 percent of 2000 levels by 2020. But following the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, it will consider the ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Treasure trove of nearly 300 new plants discovered by Kew experts
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/treasure-trove-of-nearly-300-new-plants-discovered-by-kew-experts-1847215.html
Independent (UK): A massive tree that is a relative of the pea yet rises more than 135ft above the ground is among a treasure trove of plants and fungi discovered by botanists. It is one of a "bumper crop" of almost 300 new species discovered in the past 12 months by scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. They include colourful blooms such as orchids and passion flowers, giant trees, a yam reputed to cure cancer and a range of plants that have the potential to be cultivated as valuable ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Brown: we must learn lessons of Copenhagen
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/brown-we-must-learn-lessons-of-copenhagen-1847217.html
Independent (UK): The way world leaders negotiate climate change needs to be reformed, Gordon Brown said last night in the wake of the UN's Copenhagen Climate Conference, where the failure to produce a strong agreement to tackle global warming has disappointed millions around the world. The unbreakable deadlock that "threatened to pull down the talks" must not be allowed to happen again, the Prime Minister said in a podcast on the Downing Street website -- he added that there must be reform of the ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Copenhagen Fizzled, California Forges Ahead
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49776
Inter Press Service: As countries failed to reach a substantive climate change pact at Copenhagen last week, action at the subnational level has emerged as one of the likeliest paths toward significant climate action. The U.S. state of California – always a trend-setter and the largest regional economy of the largest national economy – may have some templates for action that circumvents both Copenhagen and Washington. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up in Denmark on Tuesday, then, it was not ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
California senator acts to widen desert protection
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BL06620091222?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill on Monday to set aside over one million acres of California desert for wildlife and scenic conservation, closing those areas to renewable energy companies hungry for sunny, wide-open spaces. The measure marks the latest move by the California Democrat to protect ecologically fragile tracts of the Mojave Desert, putting conservation interests at odds with the search for large swaths of land suitable for solar power arrays and wind ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Alaska coast erosion threat to oil, wildlife
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BL07B20091222?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A portion of Alaska's North Slope coastline is eroding at a rate of up to 45 feet a year, posing a threat to oil operations and wildlife in the area, according to a new report issued by scientists at the University of Colorado. Warmer ocean water has thawed the base of frozen bluffs and destroyed natural ice barriers protecting the coast, causing large earth chunks to fall each summer, the scientists said. "What we are seeing now is a triple whammy effect," study co-author ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Low carbon price threatens investment crucial to meet UK green goals
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/low-carbon-price-threatens-investment-crucial-to-meet-uk-green-goals-1847397.html
Independent (UK): Copenhagen turned out to be a damp squib -- derided by the Prime Minister yesterday as "at best flawed, at worst chaotic". But the failure to reach a global deal also left UK electricity generators calling for the Government to guarantee the carbon price, or face missing its ambitious green targets. Few dispute that the key to cutting Britain's emissions by 34 per cent by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2050, is to clean up electricity generation. But the economics are tricky at best. And ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
India: PM for informed, rational debate on climate change
http://www.ptinews.com/news/434474_PM-for-informed--rational-debate-on-climate-change
Press Trust of India: Amid mixed reactions to the Copenhagen Accord to tackle climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said there was a need for an "informed and rational" debate to understand effects of global warming which has far greater consequences in India. "Ecological devastation of whatever cause or origin will have far greater consequences in India than in the West. "We need to recognize our own reality and have an informed and rational debate on what is in our enlightened ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Government promises loans for energy efficient farmers
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255371/farmers-loans-energy-efficient
Business Green: The Carbon Trust is to extend its interest-free business loan scheme to the farming community in an attempt to encourage the agricultural sector to invest in more energy efficient equipment. The government-backed company announced yesterday that from February 1 next year British farmers will be eligible for unsecured, interest-free loans of between £3,000 and £20,000. The Carbon Trust said the loans will pay for themselves through direct energy savings over four years. It ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
New wave of funding moves UK's first tidal farm a step nearer
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255370/uk-first-tidal-farm-years-away
Business Green: British tidal energy company Marine Current Turbines (MCT) announced yesterday that it has raised £3.5m in a new funding round that will allow it to move forward with plans to deploy the UK's first commercial tidal energy farm over the next two years. The funding round - which included investment from the Carbon Trust, Bank Invest, EDF Energy, High Tide and a group of private investors - represents a major breakthrough for MCT, which has been looking for the investment it needs to ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Spanish wind firm to receive €185m from EU bank
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255369/spanish-wind-firm-receive-185m
Business Green: Spanish energy giant Acciona is to receive a EUR185m loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help accelerate its development of environmental technologies. The loan will be use to research new renewable energy technologies, environmentally sustainable construction techniques, and water treatment and desalination systems, the company said. EIB Vice-President Carlos da Silva Costa said the company's track record of investing in low carbon technologies had helped it to ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Records: Planes ordered but canceled in CA fire
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091221/ap_on_re_us/us_california_wildfire
Associated Press: The U.S. Forest Service summoned several powerful firefighting airplanes in the early stages of the largest wildfire in Los Angeles County history, then canceled and reordered them, causing a two-hour delay in their arrival, according to government records. The records renewed questions about agency decision-making in the critical early hours of the blaze and whether enough was done to stop it. When the arson fire began on the afternoon of Aug. 26, the Forest Service brought in ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Australia: Abbott taps into a climate of confusion
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/abbott-taps-into-a-climate-of-confusion/story-e6frg6zo-1225812552415
Australian: I DOUBT whether I've witnessed such unalloyed joy among Labor supporters as when the news broke that Tony Abbott had been elected Opposition Leader. They thought it a real side-slapper. I don't wish to be a killjoy but methinks they were a tad premature. That was confirmed by the unexpectedly good Liberal vote in the Bradfield and Higgins by-elections. Considering they had just experienced their worst week since Robert Menzies formed the party in 1944, it was an extraordinary result. ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
We're all eco-warriors now after world leaders failed us at Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/dec/21/copenhagen-climate-change
Guardian: What did the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen achieve? Our governments failed to agree a deal which might have avoided a global catastrophe. They did nothing but take yet another "important first step". We've had nearly two decades of those. It's likely that Copenhagen is a long-term disaster for the planet and its people, but it might have another, more immediate consequence for you right now. Your moral obligations might have just changed dramatically. In situations like the ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
EPA, USDA push farmers to use coal waste on fields
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091221/ap_on_bi_ge/us_farm_scene_coal_waste
Associated Press: The federal government is encouraging farmers to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil even as it considers regulating coal wastes for the first time. The material is produced by power plant "scrubbers" that remove acid rain causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. A synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Into the heart of the climate debate
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091221073725.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the world's largest scientific society, has published a major analysis of the divisive issues at the heart of the debate over global warming and climate change. The article appears at the conclusion of the much-publicized United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which sought to seal a comprehensive international agreement on dealing with global warming. An embargoed text is available to journalists upon ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
An air of frustration for Europe at climate talks
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/world/europe/21scene.html?_r=5
New York Times: By early Saturday morning, the atmosphere at the European Union pavilion at the Bella Center had turned funereal. A group of ashen-faced European negotiators sipped beer from bottles in dim light as crews began dismantling food stalls, television monitors and giant displays of the Union's blue and gold flags. Not far away, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, and Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of Sweden, which holds the bloc's rotating ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Copenhagen's one real accomplishment: getting some money flowing
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/business/energy-environment/21iht-green21.html?_r=5
New York Times: The most tangible outcome of the climate agreement announced here Friday turned out to be cash. The Copenhagen Accord set no goal for conclusion of a binding international treaty, leaving months, and perhaps years, of additional negotiations before it emerges in any internationally enforceable form. But money in notable quantities should, in principle, start flowing next year. The accord was "a big step forward" since talks on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007, ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Anger at tax relief cut for climate levy
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/tax/article6963434.ece
Times (UK): Alistair Darling will come under increasing pressure from British industry this week to reverse what has been described as a secret tax rise on climate change initiatives. The car, steel, chemical, brick, glass and food manufacturers are angry at the cut in tax relief of the climate change levy (CCL) from 80 per cent to 65 per cent, which will come into place over the next 16 months The move is expected to cost manufacturers millions of pounds and discourage manufacturers from ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Australia: Rising Tide protest stops coal trains near Sandgate
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/rising-tide-protest-stops-coal-trains-near-sandgate/1710185.aspx
Herald: HUNDREDS of thousands of tonnes of coal worth millions of dollars was stopped dead in its tracks yesterday as environmental group Rising Tide vented its anger at the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen. Twenty-three protesters, including Newcastle Greens councillor Michael Osborne, were arrested and charged after blocking the line near Sandgate from 9am until 3pm. The train driver saw the protesters on the track and stopped the slow-moving train before it crossed the ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Polluting pets: The devastating impact of man's best friend
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Polluting_pets_the_devastating_impact_of_mans_best_friend_999.html
Agence France-Presse: Man's best friend could be one of the environment's worst enemies, according to a new study which says the carbon pawprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a gas-guzzling sports utility vehicle. But the revelation in the book "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living" by New Zealanders Robert and Brenda Vale has angered pet owners who feel they are being singled out as troublemakers. The Vales, specialists in sustainable living at Victoria University of ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Mexico's conch shells yield clues into effects of warming
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091221024033.miktrgqd.html
Agence France-Presse: Divers plumb the turquoise depths of ocean waters some 100 kilometers south of this vacation paradise, in search of the distinctive queen conch shell prized by vacationers and souvenir-seekers. These divers were not searching for a Mexican holiday keepsake however. They were scientists conducting vital research into the reach of global warming over the centuries in this fragile aquatic ecosystem. The researchers were attaching electronic probes to about 60 specimen of ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Do climate talks need world leaders at the table?
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091221012412.zgn08xfq.html
Agence France-Presse: As the world takes stock of the 11th-hour climate deal hammered out in the Danish capital, many diplomats and experts are asking if injecting leaders into the negotiating process was, on balance, a boon or a blunder. The question is pertinent, because it is now all too clear that the Copenhagen Accord was not the planet-saving end point once advertised. Rather, it has become just another way station on the long and winding road toward what most countries claim to want: a ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
China: Shanghai tackles climate change
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200912/20091221/article_423269.htm
Shanghai Daily: FOR bank employee Kathy Tan, a two-week visit to the Regional Climate Change Center in Zhejiang Province's Gutianshan Nature Reserve gave her a unique opportunity to sharpen her understanding of climate change. Tan was one of 11 Climate Champions selected by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) from across Asia and the Pacific. Tan learned about the impact of climate change on the deteriorating environment and frequent extreme weather around Shanghai. In the ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United States: Bioethanol plant foes line up
http://www.post-trib.com/news/lake/1949778,bioethanol1220.article
Post-Tribune: The town of Schneider will conduct a public hearing Wednesday on the proposed annexation of property intended for the location of a $280 million bioethanol plant. Rhonda Remesnik, a nearby Lake Village resident who grew up in the area, said she is gathering forces to protest the plant, which she fears will pollute the Kankakee River. "I grew up on the river," Remesnik said. "That's where my war is being waged. I'll do everything in my power to keep it from being ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Obama negotiates 'Copenhagen Accord' with senate climate fight in mind
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/12/21/21climatewire-obama-negotiates-copenhagen-accord-with-senat-6121.html
ClimateWire: President Obama may have improved his chances for passing global warming legislation in the Senate by forging an interim international agreement here that puts both rich and poor countries on a path to curtail greenhouse gas emissions. During the round-the-clock, raucous negotiations that ended Saturday, Obama and his team worked with the leaders of China, India, Brazil, South Africa and about 20 other countries to commit to emission cuts that will be open to international ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Canada: Heated debate in Nova Scotia over proposal to harvest trees and burn wood for energy
http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/canada/article/402385--heated-debate-in-nova-scotia-over-proposal-to-harvest-trees-and-burn-wood-for-energy
Canadian Press: A debate is brewing between the Nova Scotia government, focus groups and environmentalists over the sustainability of harvesting trees and burning low-grade wood to meet the province's energy needs. This energy source, known as biomass, has been used for heat and electricity in Europe for years and, on a small scale, in many Canadian provinces. It is being recommended by a government-commissioned consultation team as a component of a provincewide renewable energy strategy, but ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
'Tree men' hold key to climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2009-12/21/content_9205836.htm
China Daily: Lai Zhenglin, a 43-year-old farmer in East China's Zhejiang province, is proud of his new skill - identifying tree species. Despite his limited primary school education, Lai can distinguish more than 200 tree species in the nature reserve of his hometown, Gutianshan. By observing the leaves and feeling the bark, he can tell the tree's local as well as scientific name. Lai was once a migrant worker who worked in cities as a welder. But since 2005, he has been helping rangers in ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Switched-on Prince Charles wants solar panels on Clarence House roof
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237393/Switched-Prince-Charles-wants-solar-panels-Clarence-House-roof.html
Daily Mail: Prince Charles is planning to install solar panels on the roof of Clarence House. It is hoped they will be able to generate enough power to run the heating and lighting inside his London residence. But officials say the panels will only be fitted if they do not compromise the appearance of the 180-year-old mansion. 'Green hypocrite': Prince Charles used his private jet to fly to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen Renewable energy technicians have ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Australia: Cairns to bear brunt of climate change
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/12/21/83535_local-news.html
Cairns Post: CAIRNS residents will have to cope with more intense and frequent extreme weather events because of the failure of world leaders to do more about climate change. The warning comes from James Cook University disaster expert Prof Jon Nott. The professor of physical geography said extreme weather such as floods, cyclones, erosion, landslides, king tides and droughts would hit the Far North harder than the southern states. "We will see an increase in the magnitude and size ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United States: Solar power car guy is just waiting for customers
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/51/32_51_sb_solar_powered_filling_station.html
Brooklyn Paper: Finally, there`s a way to get around town without polluting or burning anything (or walking!). The Beautiful Earth Group, a Columbia Street "green" energy company, has set up Brooklyn`s first solar power array for the express purpose of charging electric cars. Too bad there aren`t many electric cars to take advantage of the cost-free, pollution-free, guilt-free service. "I spend a lot of time [in the charging station] thinking about the sun," said Lex Heslin, president ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Japan eyes methane hydrate as energy savior
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/KL22Dh01.html
Asia Times: Japan, the world's second-largest economy, may have found a way to reduce its almost total dependence on other countries for the oil that drives the industries on which the country's wealth is built. Betting that Japan can extract and commercially exploit methane hydrate, the hoped-for alternative to oil, investors last week drove up the price of Japan Drilling, a company established in 1968 but only this month raising money by selling shares to the public. Japan Drilling won ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Japan: COP15 'failure' a reprieve for business sector
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200912210078.html
Asahi Shimbun: The Japanese business sector received a reprieve with the failure of the climate-change conference in Copenhagen to establish legally binding reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions. Business leaders will likely use the time before the next round of international negotiations to lobby the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to reduce the announced objective of cutting emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Climate summit 'held to ransom'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8423831.stm
BBC: The prime minister will say in his podcast: "Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down these talks. "Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries." He said lessons must be learned from the "tough negotiations" that took place in Copenhagen. Ahead of the podcast being placed on the Downing Street website Mr Brown used a video link from his Kirkcaldy constituency to tell ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Gordon Brown says "handful" of states wrecked climate talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BK1YF20091221?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A handful of countries blocked a legally binding deal on climate change in Copenhagen and the talks process needs urgent reform to prevent something similar happening again, Britain's prime minister said on Monday. Gordon Brown said the non-binding agreement achieved after rounds of talks in the Danish capital were "at best flawed, at worst chaotic." "We will not allow a few countries to hold us back," he told an environmental meeting in London via a videolink from Scotland. He ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Copenhagen was horribly disappointing, but it was not an unmitigated failure
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/comment/2255360/copenhagen-horribly
Business Green: So how was it for you? Disappointing, frustrating, more than a little upsetting? Join the club. In keeping with the somewhat sordid seasonal traditions of the office Christmas Party, world leaders will find themselves waking up this week feeling secretly ashamed at their behaviour, while trying to convince themselves that no one noticed and everything will turn out all right in the end. The sad truth is that almost all the epithets thrown at the Copenhagen Summit in the past 48 ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
REDD may yet survive Copenhagen failures
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1786
Carbon Positive: There is confusion on climate change as to what happens now given the narrow Copenhagen Accord leaves most areas of the UN negotiations up in the air. But amid the failure in Copenhagen to get agreement on all manner of issues needed for a new global climate agreement, the area that arguably saw the most progress towards a final outcome was REDD. Around 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide come from the clearing of forests for their timber and for agricultural ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
EPA holds public meeting on proposed uranium mine
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091221/ap_on_bi_ge/co_colorado_uranium_mine
Associated Press: Residents will get a chance to voice their concerns about a proposed uranium mine in northern Colorado. The Environmental Protection Agency is set to hold a public meeting on the subject Monday evening in Nunn. Denver-based Powertech wants to mine uranium using technology that injects a solution underground to dissolve and extract the mineral. The company needs permission to reinject groundwater from an aquifer pump test. Activists have accused the EPA of working behind ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Britain blames China for climate talks' failure
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5BB07F20091221?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Britain accused China and a handful of others on Monday of holding the world to ransom by blocking a legal treaty to fight global warming as countries traded blame for the deadlock in Copenhagen. Describing the climate change summit as "at best flawed and at worst chaotic," Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded urgent reform of the process to try to reach a legal treaty when the talks resume in Germany next June. The summit ended with a underwhelming agreement on Saturday when ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Copenhagen treaty was 'held to ransom', says Gordon Brown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/21/copenhagen-treaty-gordon-brown
Guardian: Gordon Brown today said a new global treaty on climate change had been "held to ransom" by some countries opposed to a deal in Copenhagen, and called for reform of the way such negotiations take place, including an international body to handle environmental stewardship. The prime minister said the weak agreement reached in Copenhagen at the weekend after all-night deliberations was a "first step towards a new alliance to overcome the enormous challenges of climate change". He called ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
UN Chief Declares Climate Accord 'Significant Achievement'
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/12/21/21greenwire-un-chief-declares-climate-accord-significant-a-24845.html
Greenwire: The U.N. secretary-general tried today to put a positive spin on a controversial accord that came out of climate change talks in Copenhagen last week. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon insisted that the Copenhagen Accord fulfills the parameters he had sought, even though the end result fell far short of even the most modest expectations voiced before the meeting. "This was quite a significant achievement which we were able to make in Copenhagen," Ban told reporters. "We should be ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate conference: Who is going to save the planet now?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6854131/Copenhagen-climate-conference-Who-is-going-to-save-the-planet-now.html
Telegraph: The summit was supposed to halt temperature rise by cutting greenhouse gases. But after two weeks of negotiating it ended in a weak political accord that does not force any country to reduce emissions and has no legal standing anyway. As a result the world is "one step closer to a humanitarian crisis', according to the Royal Society. Al Gore: World cares more about Paris Hilton than saving the planet So, who is going to save the planet now? President Barack Obama? ...
Tue, 22 Dec 09
Opposition 'barracking for climate failure'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/21/2777886.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, has vowed to press ahead with the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS) in the aftermath of the Copenhagen conference. Senator Wong says the non-legally binding Copenhagen accord is not perfect but a crucial step forward. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has branded the talks "a disappointment", claiming vindication for voting against the Government's ETS. But Senator Wong says Australia must take action to build on the outcome ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Brazil: king of conservation, deforestation for the 2000s
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1220-conservation.html
Mongabay: Brazil set aside more land in protected areas than any other country during the 2000s, accounting for nearly 60 percent of total terrestrial conservation during the decade, according to mongabay.com's analysis of data from the U.N Environment Program and the World Conservation Monitoring Center. Between 2000 and 2008 (the most recent year for which data is available) Brazil established 869,360 square kilometers in new protected areas, an increase of 53 percent over 2000. Second on the ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Canada defends climate deal as 'turning point'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-defends-climate-deal-as-turning-point/article1407011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Globe and Mail: Canada's Environment Minister is defending the Copenhagen Accord as an historic accomplishment for bringing the world's largest polluters -- including China, India and the United States -- into the global-warming battle. Facing widespread disappointment and condemnation from the international environmental community, political leaders around the world spent the weekend putting a positive spin on the agreement. Canada bore a significant brunt of that criticism last week in Copenhagen ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Obama on climate and healthcare: master of compromise or sellout?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/1220/Obama-on-climate-and-healthcare-master-of-compromise-or-sellout
Christian Science Monitor: The president who came to office vowing change instead has enshrined compromise as the hallmark of his administration. President Obama's most constant refrain in word and action has been "the perfect is the enemy of the good," and this weekend has been a case in point. The conclusions of both the Senate healthcare reform negotiations and the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday could be counted disappointments. But Mr. Obama's incremental approach to ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate deal draw mixed reactions in New Zealand
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/21/content_12680016.htm
Xinhua: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said on Monday that from an overall perspective, the climate change talks in Copenhagen fell well short of the hopes and aspirations that people went there with, but New Zealand's negotiators were seeking changes to forestry rules, and good progress was made in that regard. Key, who returned New Zealand on Monday morning, said while the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks may not please everyone, the conference was a success for New Zealand, ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Despite Failed Climate Talks, More Green Awareness
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49761
Inter Press Service:
Mon, 21 Dec 09
California approves renewable energy grid extension
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255324/california-approves-grid
Business Green: California's electricity regulator last week approved a proposal to build another 173 miles of new transmission line in order to connect new renewable energy systems to the grid. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said the new infrastructure would represent the first major transmission project in California built for the specific purpose of accessing renewable sources in remote areas. Under the plans, Southern California Edison will build the $1.96bn grid ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Vehicle technology firm claims driving data can cut fuel bills 20 per cent
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255322/accurate-save-per-cent-fuel
Business Green: UK companies could save a total of £3.3bn a year through better driving techniques that reduce the fuel consumption and carbon emissions from vans and lorries, according to research to be released later today by vehicle technology firm Lysanda. The research found that access to accurate driving data can encourage the least efficient motorists to improve their driving techniques, cutting firms' fuel bills by up to 20 per cent a year. "Better fleet monitoring offers an easy win ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Global warming hike may be steeper: research
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/sc_afp/climatewarmingscience
AFP: Global temperatures could rise substantially more because of increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than previously thought, according to a new study by US and Chinese scientists released Sunday. The researchers used a long-term model for assessing climate change, confirming a similar British study released this month that said calculations for man-made global warming may be underestimated by between 30 and 50 percent. The new study published online by Nature Geoscience ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Climate change minister blames China for opposing Copenhagen deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/wl_uk_afp/unclimatewarmingbritain
AFP: Climate change minister Ed Miliband Sunday blamed China for blocking an accord on legally-binding emissions targets and a 50 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2050 at the Copenhagen summit. Miliband admitted the results of the Copenhagen conference were "disappointing" but insisted that important progress was made in the fight against global warming. "We got a lot of commitments, not just from developed countries, but developing countries like China and India as well," he told ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Gas 'gold rush' ignites in rural New York
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/ts_alt_afp/environmentusenergygas
AFP: After a lifetime struggling to make money from the land, New York farmer Bill Graby has discovered he's sitting on treasure -- possibly the biggest natural gas deposit in America. "It's like winning the lottery," says the 6.6-foot (two-meter) dairy farmer from the picturesque town of Callicoon in the Catskills hills. The deposit, called the Marcellus shale, stretches all the way from New York to Tennessee, containing 168 to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Ed Miliband: China tried to hijack Copenhagen climate deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/ed-miliband-china-copenhagen-summit
Guardian: The climate secretary, Ed Miliband, today accuses China, Sudan, Bolivia and other leftwing Latin American countries of trying to hijack the UN climate summit and "hold the world to ransom" to prevent a deal being reached. In an article in the Guardian, Miliband says the UK will make clear to those countries holding out against a binding legal treaty that "we will not allow them to block global progress". "We cannot again allow negotiations on real points of substance to be ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
BOSTON.COM: China: Climate talks yielded 'positive' results
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/12/20/china_climate_talks_yielded_positive_results/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
BOSTON online: BEIJING--China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, lauded Sunday the outcome of a historic U.N. climate conference that ended with a nonbinding agreement that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts -- but does not require it. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the international climate talks that brought more than 110 leaders together in Copenhagen produced "significant and positive" results. The Obama administration on Sunday also defended the ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Gas could be the cavalry in global warming fight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091220/ap_on_bi_ge/us_us_energy_shift
Assiociated Press: An unlikely source of energy has emerged to meet international demands that the United States do more to fight global warming: It's cleaner than coal, cheaper than oil and a 90-year supply is under our feet. It's natural gas, the same fossil fuel that was in such short supply a decade ago that it was deemed unreliable. It's now being uncovered at such a rapid pace that its price is near a seven-year low. Long used to heat half the nation's homes, it's becoming the fuel of choice when ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: A great step forward: Obama's verdict on climate change pact
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-summit-pact-obama-verdict
Guardian: Barack Obama returned to a snowbound Washington at the weekend clutching a deal that was cast as a step forward by his administration but decried as a waste of paper by critics on both sides of the climate change debate. At the end of another of his interventions on the world stage that are becoming a hallmark of his presidency, Obama said the Copenhagen talks amounted to an "important breakthrough" and they had laid the foundation for international action "in the years to ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Copenhagen summit: 'First step' to a new order - or a 'betrayal of our grandchildren'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-climate-summit-deal-reactions
Guardian: With India involved in the last minute negotiations that produced the compromise accord, its environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, called it "a good deal and satisfactory solution". But another parliamentary delegate, Sitaram Yechury, complained that the final draft was "well short of expectations". The Hindu newspaper called it an "important beginning" but noted that it contained few specific figures, commitments or timelines. The Hindustan Times felt that "without a legally binding ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
SCIENCEDAILY.COM: Global warming likely to be amplified by slow changes to Earth systems
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091220143921.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: The team demonstrated that only a relatively small rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) was associated with a period of substantial warming in the mid- and early-Pliocene era, between three to five million years ago, when temperatures were approximately 3 to 4 degrees Celsius warmer than they are today. Climate sensitivity -- the mean global temperature response to a doubling of the concentration of atmospheric CO2 -- is estimated to be 1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius, using current ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit: China's quiet satisfaction at tough tactics and goalless draw
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-climate-summit-china-reaction
Guardian: The Chinese government expressed quiet satisfaction at the outcome of the Copenhagen talks despite European accusations that it had systematically wrecked the negotiating process. China's foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, described the outcome as "significant and positive". Among the achievements, he said, was the setting of binding emissions cuts for rich nations and voluntary mitigation actions by developing nations, such as China. "It is not a destination, but a new ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Big deal, say India, US; not true, claim NGOs
http://www.dailypioneer.com/224171/Big-deal-say-India-US;-not-true-claim-NGOs.html
Press Trust of India: Fresh from the world climate change talks which reached a last-minute non-binding deal, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will make a statement in the Rajya Sabha on Monday where he is expected to say that India's sovereignty has been well protected. Ramesh on his return home after attending the nearly two-week long 193-nation conference in Copenhagen met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday and briefed her on the provisional deal cobbled together by a small group of countries, ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
New Zealand: PM: Climate accord process must change
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10616714
New Zealand Herald: Prime Minister John Key returns home this morning from the Copenhagen climate change conference saying a binding agreement could be concluded in Mexico next year but that the negotiating process has to change. "It's progress, but there is a lot more to be done if we are going to achieve the outcome that we need," he said last night from Los Angeles. "There is a lesson to come out of Copenhagen and that is that trying to build uniform consensus across 193 countries on such a ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
US press cool over Obama-backed climate deal
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j9Tex87oXT8h1dGGJr3h3olP7Nyw
Agence France-Presse: US editorial pages gave a cool response Sunday to what President Barack Obama called an "unprecedented" 11th-hour, non-binding deal on climate change during talks in Copenhagen. The Washington Times lambasted what it called "flop" proceedings between world leaders during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in the Danish capital, calling Friday "Obama's cold day in Denmark." "The promised treaty -- billed with the characteristic understatement of the alarmist community ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
United States: EPA targets coal industry
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/business/local/article_5f90d466-ed25-11de-9ba3-001cc4c002e0.html
Bismarck Tribune: Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., center, along with Public Service Commissioners Tony Clark, left, and Kevin Cramer, attended a Monday meeting on the Environmental Protection Agency at Basin Electric with members of the energy industry Monday morning. North Dakota energy interests felt pressured by pending federal climate laws. Now a recent move by the Environmental Protection Agency toward the regulation of carbon emissions has put them in a vise. "It's an all-out frontal assault," ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Australia: Protesters dragged off coal train tracks
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/20/2776820.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Police have started dragging climate change protesters from the rail line leading to Australia's biggest coal export facility. A single protester from the local activist group Rising Tide Newcastle walked onto the train tracks early this morning and stopped a fully laden coal train. Dozens more protesters quickly chained themselves to an 8,000-tonne coal train and the main line leading to the Newcastle export facility. About a dozen protesters, including an 86-year-old ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
India's wettest place 'lacks water'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8378327.stm
BBC: Once the world's wettest places, Cherrapunji is getting up to 20% less rain every year - and is suffering water shortages. Residents say their heavenly abode in the clouds is hotter and drier than ever before - and they blame it on global warming. Cherrapunji - or Sohra in the local Khasi language - is located in the West Khasi Hills of India's north-eastern state of Meghalaya. "Never were there very big forests around Cherrapunji and many of those that are there are ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Mexico next stop to salvage U.N. climate talks
http://in.reuters.com/article/specialEvents1/idINIndia-44871020091220
Reuters: The world will find it hard to get U.N.-led climate talks back on track in Mexico in 2010 after an unambitious deal agreed in Copenhagen set no firm deadline for a legally binding treaty. Mexico will host the next annual U.N. ministerial talks from Nov. 29 to Dec. 10, 2010 to build on a "Copenhagen Accord" that seeks to limit temperatures rising to no more than 2 Celsius above those recorded in pre-industrial times. But it does not spell out how to achieve that goal. For ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Obama raced clock, chaos, comedy for climate deal
http://cbs4denver.com/wireappolitics/As.clock.ticked.2.1380876.html
Associated Press: It was almost unthinkable. The president of the United States walked into a meeting of fellow world leaders and there wasn't a chair for him, a sure sign he was not expected, maybe not even wanted. Barack Obama didn't pause, however. "I'm going to sit by my friend Lula," he said, moving toward Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A Brazilian aide gave the U.S. president his chair, and Obama spent the next 80 minutes helping craft new requirements for disclosing ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit ends in blood, sweat and recrimination
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6845892/Copenhagen-summit-ends-in-blood-sweat-and-recrimination.html
Telegraph: Just after midnight, Copenhagen time, Gordon Brown appeared in front of the Sky News camera. "I feel I've played a part in bringing countries together," said the Prime Minister, in a line clearly prepared long before the disaster unfolding around him. Mr Brown had, in fact, played little part in the final deal that emerged in the early hours of Saturday, and would be well advised to make that abundantly clear. For even as he spoke, international unity was falling apart -- and ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
World leaders hammered over climate accord
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/sc_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: World leaders on Sunday insisted that the climate deal clinched in desperation at the UN summit was the best that could be done as they returned home to a lashing from critics. Newspapers widely branded the accord a failure and experts such as the head of a Nobel Peace prize-winning climate panel said "urgent" action was now needed. US President Barack Obama acknowledged that all of the world's polluters would quickly have to do more, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Sea rose eight metres in warmer age: study
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/sea-rose-eight-metres-in-warmer-age-study-1846161.html
Independent (UK): Sea levels were likely eight metres higher around 125,000 years ago when polar temperatures were 3-5 degrees C warmer, says a new study published Wednesday to show the effects of global warming. The research by the US universities of Harvard and Princeton was released in the journal Nature as the world's nations met in Denmark to forge a strategy to head off harmful effects of global warming blamed on greenhouse gases. To understand the potential effects of a rise in ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Climate Change Could Wipe Out African Leaf-Eating Primates
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1801795/climate_change_could_wipe_out_african_leafeating_primates/index.html?source=r_science
Various: Monkey species will become 'increasingly at risk of extinction' because of global warming, according to new research. It reveals that populations of monkeys and apes in Africa that depend largely on a diet of leaves may be wiped out by a rise in annual temperatures of two degrees Celsius. The study by researchers from Bournemouth University, Roehampton University and the University of Oxford suggests that the species most at risk are the already endangered gorillas and colobine ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Can nuclear solve the global water crisis?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/6851983/Can-nuclear-solve-the-global-water-crisis.html
Telegraph: As the global population expands, demand for water for agriculture and personal use will increase dramatically, but there could be a solution that will produce clean drinking water and help reduce carbon emissions as well. That process is nuclear desalination. Many areas of the world are suffering from a water crisis -- and it's not just arid, developing countries that are suffering. The Western US is particularly vulnerable and its water crisis is getting more severe by the ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Dead REDD? Not quite, but plan to protect forests suffers set back in Copenhagen
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1220-redd.html
Mongabay: A plan to reduce tropical deforestation by paying developing countries to protect forests was postponed Saturday after world leaders failed to produce a binding climate agreement, reports the Associated Press. Progress on the proposed REDD+ mechanism, which would compensate poor countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, had been seen as one of the only bright spots during climate negotiations in Copenhagen, but it is now unclear whether the draft ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Full Text of the Copenhagen Accord
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1220-copenhagen_accord.html
Mongabay: Advance unedited version of the Copenhagen Accord signed December 18, 2009. The Heads of State, Heads of Government, Ministers, and other heads of delegation present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, In pursuit of the ultimate objective of the Convention as stated in its Article 2, Being guided by the principles and provisions of the Convention, Noting the results of work done by the two Ad hoc Working Groups, Endorsing ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Momentum must be maintained on climate change
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/momentum-must-be-maintained-on-climate-change/story-e6frfhqf-1225812241178
Herald Sun: WHAT now? The somewhat confused end to the Copenhagen talks has at best maintained some momentum towards unified action on climate change. For Australian business, a global agreement was important because it would have created a framework that addressed climate change in a way that did not disadvantage our trade-exposed industries and that preserved jobs. If countries took action together, the competitive pressures on Australian businesses would be more manageable because more ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Australia: 'Extreme views' of some nations cannot derail Copenhagen: Wong
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/extreme-views-of-some-nations-cannot-derail-copenhagen-wong-20091220-l778.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says Australia had hoped to achieve more from the Copenhagen conference, but must now move forward and implement the accord. She said the "extreme views" of some nations cannot be allowed to derail the process, but that Australia would do "no more, but no less" than the rest of the world on climate change. After 13 days of tortuous talks the representatives of 192 nations on Sunday set a goal of limiting warming to 2C and earmarked $US10 ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Warming climate chills Sonoran Desert's spring flowers
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091216144145.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Global warming is giving a boost to Sonoran Desert plants that have an edge during cold weather, according to new research. Although the overall numbers of winter annuals have declined since 1982, species that germinate and grow better at low temperatures are becoming more common. "It's an unexpected result -- that global warming has led to an increase in cold-adapted species," said lead author Sarah Kimball, a research associate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "Because ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
China: Climate talks yielded 'positive' results
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_CLIMATE_CHINA?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Associated Press: China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, lauded Sunday the outcome of a historic U.N. climate conference that ended with a nonbinding agreement that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts - but does not require it. The international climate talks that brought more than 110 leaders together in Copenhagen produced "significant and positive" results, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said. Disputes between rich and poor countries and between the world's ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
23 arrested in Australia climate action: activists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarmingaustraliaprotest
Agence France-Presse: Dozens of protesters shut down the railway line leading to Australia's biggest coal export facility on Sunday, in protest over what they said was the failure of global climate change talks in Copenhagen. Some 40 activists with the environmental group Rising Tide Newcastle stopped a coal train and chained themselves to it and the rail tracks to effectively close the line at Newcastle north of Sydney. "A number of arrests have been made," a police spokesman told ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Climate summit rams through plan, amid criticism
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: A UN climate summit rammed through a battle plan against global warming forged by US President Barack Obama and other top leaders, sidelining smaller states which lashed the deal as betrayal. After toxic exchanges, the conference chair forced through a deal using an unusual procedural tool that effectively dropped all obstacles to the new-born Copenhagen Accord. UN chief General Ban Ki-moon admitted the agreement had failed to win global consensus and would disappoint many who ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Worst-hit Bangladesh 'pleased' with climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/wl_sthasia_afp/unclimatewarmingbangladesh
Agence France-Presse: The prime minister of Bangladesh, one of the nations worst-hit by global warming, said she was satisfied with the Copenhagen summit's outcome, and hoped rows over thorny issues would be ironed out soon. "I am pleased to say that we have been successful in arriving at a reasonable conclusion," Sheikh Hasina said, while speaking at Lund University in Denmark on Saturday, hours after the world leaders hammered out a deal. "An agreement has been agreed upon taking in most of all ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
'We wanted more' Wong admits
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/we-wanted-more-says-wong/story-e6frf7jo-1225812213740
Herald Sun: Australia wanted more from the Copenhagen summit but will just have to make the best of it, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says. Key nations at the troubled summit agreed to a deal that aims to limit global warming to two degrees. The deal has been widely panned because it includes no targets on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming. It's also not binding. The troubled two-week summit of 192 nations was plagued by arguments and ended in ...
Mon, 21 Dec 09
Philippines: Green groups lament 'dismal' climate change pact
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20091220-243106/Green-groups-lament-dismal-climate-change-pact
Philippine Inquirer: Environmental groups lamented what they called the dismal end of the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen and issued a challenge to the Philippines. "It was a major disappointment and it has stopped the momentum of efforts to push for a concerted global effort to address climate change by reducing carbon emission," Von Hernandez, executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview on Sunday. Hernandez said the ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate Accord In Hand, Obama Turns To Senate
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121669686&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio:
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate Summit Recognizes U.S. Deal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126121757461498569.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular
Wall Street Journal: The United Nations-sponsored climate summit ended after a lengthy debate early Saturday with a tepid acknowledgement for a nonbinding agreement negotiated among the U.S., China and other large nations. A delegate sleeps during a break in an all-night plenary meeting at the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 19, 2009. Full text of the accord "noted" by the conference Businesses Face Uncertainty in Pact Opinion: Global Warming and an Odd Bull Moose Vote: Did ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
AP Poll: Most see climate change as serious
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gox9Zdh0GPPNR0NlWXqEskdhSUiwD9CMJE3O0
Associated Press: Three of every four Americans view climate change as a serious problem that will harm future generations if not addressed, according to an Associated Press-Stanford University poll. The survey also said that about the same number of people say the Earth probably already is warming, slightly fewer than the percentage expressing that view when asked the same question a year ago. The AP-Stanford poll of 1,005 adults contacted by telephone in November suggests that people's ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Australia: Rudd fails on climate change: Abbott - Sydney Morning Herald
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/rudd-fails-on-climate-change-abbott-20091220-l73s.html
Sydney Morning Herald: The Copenhagen conference on climate change has been a "comprehensive failure" for the prime minister, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says. After 13 days of tortuous talks, the representatives of 192 nations on Sunday set a goal of limiting warming to 2C and earmarked $US10 billion ($A11.28 billion) in early funding for poor countries most at risk from climate change. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd threw his support behind the deal as "a significant global agreement on climate change ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate reality: Voluntary efforts not enough
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJCA2jlifc0v3BYsH42f7mctse6AD9CMKK7O0
Assiociated Press: Around the world, countries and capitalism are already working to curb global warming on their own, with or without a global treaty. In Brazil more rainforests are being saved, and in Chicago there's a voluntary carbon pollution trading system. People recycle, buy smaller and newer cars, and change lightbulbs. But the impact of such piecemeal, voluntary efforts is small. Experts say it will never be enough without the kind of strong global agreement that eluded negotiators at ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK: World media highlights disappointment at climate deal
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/world-media-highlights-disappointment-at-climate-deal-1845936.html
Independent (UK): The world's media on Saturday highlighted the bitter taste left by the provisional climate change deal struck by the major powers at the UN summit in Copenhagen. With the wrangling unfinished, editorials spoke of "failure", "disappointment" and face-saving measures by the leaders at the summit with their deal which failed to set targets to cut the carbon emissions blamed for global warming. "Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure," said a headline in the online ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
CLIMATE CHANGE: "We're Not Finished Yet," Civil Society Warns
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49757
Inter Press Service: The climate change summit proved to be a "spectacular failure even according to its own terms," but civil society had "some successes," such as the inclusion of certain issues on the climate agenda, and making the voice of the South heard loud and clear. That was how activists assessed their efforts at 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as the climate change talks came to an agonising end Saturday in ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Copenhagen: The key players and how they rated
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-obama-brown-climate
Guardian: Barack Obama The last time Barack Obama took a chance on Copenhagen it ended in abject humiliation. The president hopped on a flight to the Danish capital to join a campaign by Oprah Winfrey and his wife, Michelle, to try to win Chicago the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games. But the Obamas' reliance on their high-voltage star power fell flat. The International Olympic Committee eliminated Chicago in the first round of voting. When Obama returned to Washington, ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Copenhagen: The last-ditch drama that saved the deal from collapse
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/copenhagen-climate-global-warming
Guardian: The Copenhagen accord was gavelled through in the early hours of yesterday morning after a night of extraordinary drama and two weeks of subterfuge. It is a document that will shape the world, the climate and the balance of power for decades to come, but the story of how it came into existence is one of high drama and low politics. Amid leaks, suspicion, recriminations and exhaustion, the world's leaders abandoned ordinary negotiating protocol to haggle line-for-line with mid-level ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: China blamed as anger mounts over climate deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/20/china-blamed-copenhagen-climate-failure
Guardian: An outbreak of bitter recrimination has erupted among politicians and delegates following the drawing up of the Copenhagen accord for tackling climate change. The deal, finally hammered out early yesterday, had been expected to commit countries to deep cuts in carbon emissions. In the end, it fell short of this goal after China fought hard against strong US pressure to submit to a regime of international monitoring. The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, walked out of the ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: The outcome at Copenhagen was disappointing. But if we work hard, there is still a way forward
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/20/leader-copenhagen-accord
Guardian: The world needed a climate treaty from the Copenhagen summit last week. All it got was an accord. There was no hiding the disappointment. The deal that emerged after more than a year of pre-summit negotiations and two weeks of face-to-face talks was merely, in Gordon Brown's terms, "a first step". According to Barack Obama, it was "meaningful". Given the scientific case for urgent action to mitigate the impact of manmade climate change, it was reasonable to expect something ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
So, what does this accord add up to? Key issues explained
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/so-what-does-this-accord-add-up-to-key-issues-explained-1845912.html
Independent (UK): Is it true that the world has a new agreement to fight climate change? Yes -- the Copenhagen accord, signed at the UN climate conference in the Danish capital late on Friday night. What does it do? For the first time it enshrines the recognition of all the world's countries that we should work together to keep the global temperature from rising more than two degrees Centigrade above the level pertaining before the industrial revolution about 200 years ago, when we began ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
China stands accused of wrecking global deal
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/china-stands-accused-of-wrecking-global-deal-1845911.html
Independent (UK): China "systematically wrecked" the Copenhagen climate summit because it feared being presented with a legally binding target to cut the country's soaring carbon emissions, a senior official from an EU country, present during the negotiations, told The Independent on Sunday yesterday. The accusation, backed up by a separate eye-witness account from the heart of the talks of obstructive Chinese behaviour, reflected widespread anger among many delegations about the nation's actions at ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
White House in PR mode over Copenhagen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091220/pl_afp/unclimatewarmingus
Agence France-Presse: The White House Saturday sought to rally support for the contentious deal brokered by President Barack Obama at UN climate talks by listing prominent Americans who back the plan against global warming, though opponents also spoke up. A statement released by the White House included quotes from environmentalists, captains of industry and leading elected officials from Obama's Democratic Party praising the "breakthrough" that will "lay the foundation for international action in the ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Coal plant could damage rainforest reserves, coal reefs, palm oil plantations in Malaysian Borneo
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1220-sabah_coal.html
Mongabay: A proposed coal-fired power plant in Malaysian Borneo could damage the region's world-renowned coral reefs, pollute air and water supplies, open Sabah's biodiverse rainforests to mining, and undermine the state's effort to promote itself as a destination for "green" investment and ecotourism, warn environmentalists leading an effort to block the project. The scheme, which is backed by the federal Tenaga Nasional Berhad and state energy company, Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd, has faced ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
UN climate talks end with bare minimum agreement
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5BB07F20091220
Reuters: U.N. climate talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement on Saturday when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that falls far short of the conference's original goals. "Finally we sealed a deal," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "The 'Copenhagen Accord' may not be everything everyone had hoped for, but this ... is an important beginning." A long road lies ahead. The accord -- weaker than a legally binding treaty and ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Copenhagen failures strike at heart of UN system
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091220013520.nxirvhka.html
Agence France-Presse: For the past decade, the effort to muster an alliance of nations to fight climate change has seemed at times like a train wreck in slow motion. In Copenhagen last week, there were moments when that crash finally -- horribly -- appeared to have happened. The United Nations had billed December 18 2009 as the day when all countries would rally under its banner, forging a strategy to combat the greatest threat facing humanity this century. Instead, the day will be recalled ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Obama, Denied Full Victory on 2 Issues, Takes Validation
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html?_r=5
New York Times: President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, likes to say that the only thing that is not negotiable is success. The last 48 hours offered a case study in how the president applies that maxim to governing. After weeks of frustrating delays and falling poll numbers, Mr. Obama decided to take what he could get, declare victory and claim momentum on some of the administration's biggest priorities, even if the details did not always match the lofty vision that underlined ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Canada: Battle for the oil sands
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/battle-for-the-oil-sands/article1406051/
Globe and Mail: Inside a small garage-like laboratory in a north-east Calgary industrial park, there sits a box. It's small, less than a metre to a side, with 72 wires attached to its top in a dense snarl. Two exposed stove elements are stuck vertically to the outside of one of its side walls, which are made of metal. The elements are on, and hot. On the opposite side, a thin metal pipe descends to the floor and into a small vessel that looks like a steel bowling pin. But if the exterior of ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Indonesia gets serious about nuclear energy
http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesia-gets-serious-about-nuclear-energy-20091218-l5ot.html
Sydney Morning Herald: JAKARTA: Indonesia could formally embrace nuclear power as early as next year as senior Government members push to revive a proposal to build up to four reactors just 30 kilometres from a volcano in Central Java. Indonesia is beset by regular blackouts that are crimping industrial production and deterring investors, and nuclear energy is being resurrected as a means to meet the country's growing electricity needs while also capping carbon emissions. But serious concerns remain ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Earth on track for epic die-off, scientists say
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/12/19/MNVS1B6E4C.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: The study of the fossil and archaeological record over the past 30 million years by UC Berkeley and Penn State University researchers shows that between 15 and 42 percent of the mammals in North America disappeared after humans arrived. That means North American mammals are well on the way - perhaps as much as half way - to a level of extinction comparable to other epic die-offs, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. Anthony Barnosky, a UC Berkeley professor of integrative ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Louisiana tells EPA that it should let Congress handle greenhouse gas regulation
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/12/louisiana_tells_epa_that_it_sh.html
Times-Picayune: The state Department of Environmental Quality has demanded that the federal Environmental Protection Agency rescind its recent finding that greenhouse gases endanger present and future generations, and take no action to require industries and small businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ellis Lucia/ The Times-Picayune archiveHarold Leggett is secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Instead, Congress should be allowed to address any need for new ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Copenhagen closes with weak deal that poor threaten to reject
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-closes-weak-deal
Guardian: Guardian Environment editor John Vidal examines the final frantic hours of Copenhagen's climate summit Link to this video The UN climate summit in Copenhagen has formally closed with a deal many countries admit falls far short of the action needed to tackle global warming. The non-binding accord, which the US reached with key nations including China and Brazil, "recognises" the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but does not contain ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
U.N. climate meeting aims to agree new pact by the end of 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BI1B120091219?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A U.N. climate meeting in Copenhagen committed on Saturday to try and complete its work on agreeing a new global pact by the end of 2010. "I have been given a note which I understand is the agreed text from the drafting group which looked at ... outcome of the work of the ad hoc working group on long-term cooperative action under the convention (on climate change)." That was code for the work of climate negotiators to agree a new climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate scientists underwhelmed by Copenhagen Accord
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091219/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingscience
Agence France-Presse: Top climate scientists said Saturday that the eleventh-hour political deal hammered out at UN talks in Copenhagen falls perilously short of what is needed to stave off catastrophic global warming. What many had hoped would be a planet-saving treaty locking major economies into strong commitments to shrink their carbon footprints came out as a three-page political accord with key numbers yet to be filled in. "The easiest yardstick to evaluate is the two degree target," said ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate deal 'comprehensive and realistic,' says Canada
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091219/wl_canada_afp/unclimatewarmingcanada
Agence France-Presse: The draft agreement on climate change reached in Copenhagen is "comprehensive and realistic," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. Now, he added, "all countries must commit to taking concrete action to address climate change as part of a new treaty -- actions which are measurable, verifiable and reportable." "Canada is prepared to contribute our fair share of financial support, particularly to the poorest and most vulnerable nations," Harper said, adding ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate deal passed amid condemnation, disappointment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091219/wl_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: A UN conference on Saturday rammed through a battle plan against climate change forged by US President Barack Obama and other top leaders, sidelining smaller states which lashed the deal as betrayal. After toxic exchanges, the summit chair forced through a deal using an unusual procedural tool that effectively dropped all obstacles to the new-born Copenhagen Accord. Related article: Climate scientists underwhelmed UN chief General Ban Ki-moon admitted the agreement had failed ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Forest plan gets the ax at UN climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091219/ap_on_sc/climate_forests
Associated Press: A plan to protect the world's biologically rich tropical forests by paying poor nations to protect them was shelved Saturday after world leaders failed to agree on a binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Burning trees to clear land for plantations or cattle ranches and logging forests for wood is blamed for about 20 percent of the world's emissions. That's as much carbon dioxide as all the world's cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships combined. About 32 million ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
UN says Copenhagen deal 'a start'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8422133.stm
BBC: After an all-night negotiating marathon, the 193-nation two-week conference ended at 1426 GMT on Saturday. "The conference decides to take note of the Copenhagen Accord of December 18, 2009," the chairman of the plenary session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) declared earlier in the day, swiftly banging down his gavel. Environmental campaigners and aid agencies branded the deal toothless and a failure. Robert Bailey, of Oxfam International, ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit: This marked a turning point in human nature
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-summit-colin-blakemore
Guardian: Until this year, if you had said "Copenhagen" to the average scientist, they would probably have responded: "Bohr". Niels, of that name, was the father of the Copenhagen school of quantum mechanics – a fairy-tale land in which things could be in two places at the same time, things changed when you looked at them and cats could be both alive and dead. Now, the significance of "Copenhagen" might have changed for ever – like an electron that's been peeked at. The headlines are screaming ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Failure at such a grand level means we have to act locally
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-climate-change-comment-julian-hunt
Guardian: Post-Copenhagen, we may be heading towards a future in which no comprehensive successor to the Kyoto regime is politically possible. It is therefore crucial that the centre of gravity of decision-making on how we respond to climate change moves towards the sub-national level. The need for such a shift from "top down" to "bottom up" is becoming clearer by the day. Over the last decade, records of weather and climate trends have revealed larger and more unusual regional and local ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
The Copenhagen Accord: a deal far from perfect
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/the-copenhagen-accord-a-deal-far-from-perfect-20091219-l6oi.html
Sydney Morning Herald: PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd will announce on February 1 if Australia will try to achieve an ambitious 2020 target to cut its greenhouse gas emissions as part of the new global agreement on climate change. A cut in emissions of this size would have a major effect on Australia's use of coal-fired electricity and force a faster move to clean energy. Yesterday – as the Copenhagen climate summit lurched into its 13th day, and four hours after its scheduled close – representatives of ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Getting Ready for Mexico
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49753
Inter Press Service: Before the outcome of COP 15 has even emerged, Latin American social organisations are already discussing their strategies for the next climate summit, to be held in a year's time in Mexico. The primary challenge is to broaden and strengthen the links between the different civil society movements and networks in the region, the international coordinator of Jubilee South, Beverly Keene, told TerraViva. Jubilee South is a network of social movements and people's organisations in ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Climate deal falls short of expectations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-deal
Guardian: The UN climate summit reached a weak outline of a global agreement last night in Copenhagen, falling far short of what Britain and many poor countries were seeking and leaving months of tough negotiations to come. After eight draft texts and all-day talks between 115 world leaders, it was left to Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to broker a political agreement. The so-called Copenhagen accord "recognises" the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate conference: The grim meaning of 'meaningful'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-climate-change-conference-obama
Guardian: Like businessmen who insist a deal is legit, politicians protesting they have done something "meaningful" arouse suspicions that the opposite is in fact true. And "meaningful" was about the best word the spin doctors could muster in respect of the agreement of sorts that was brokered in Copenhagen late last night. The climate change summit had three big tickets on its agenda: emissions, financial assistance and the process going ahead. And on each of these counts the accord – which ...
Sun, 20 Dec 09
Obama's climate accord fails the test
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/obamas-climate-accord-fails-the-test-1845090.html
Independent (UK): World leaders late last night agreed a hugely watered-down version of a new global pact on climate change, after an astonishing day of deadlock, disagreement, misunderstandings, walkouts and insults at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen. The agreement, patched together after massive and rancorous divisions between the rich nations and the developing countries, especially America and China, was described as a "meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough" by the US President Barack ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Merkel, Brown accept Copenhagen deal, wanted more
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH5IW20091219?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accepted a Copenhagen climate deal on Saturday, but said they had wanted more. Merkel said she would support the compromise despite mixed feelings. "The decision has been very difficult for me. We have done one step, we have hoped for several more," she said. She added that the deal was not ambitious enough for the European Union to increase its commitment to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2020 from ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Climate deal won't cap warming, big gaps
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091219/india_nm/india448541
Reuters: A climate deal among world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama puts off many tough decisions until 2010 and sets the planet on track to overshoot goals for limiting global warming. Obama spoke of "the beginning of a new era of international action" but many other leaders said it was "imperfect", "not sufficient" and at best a "modest success" if it gets formally adopted by all 193 nations in Copenhagen on Saturday. Problems faced by China and the United States -- the ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Obama emerges from climate talks with slender pact and bruised stature
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/19/barack-obama-copenhagen-climate-change-us
Guardian: Barack Obama emerged from the chaotic final hours of the Copenhagen summit last night having salvaged an agreement for action on global warming – and his own reputation as a politician who can bridge the most challenging of political divides. After 15 hours of negotiations, an exhausted looking Obama said he managed to secure a deal on climate change incorporating America's three main goals of emissions cuts, financial aid for the poorest countries, and a measure of accountability for ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
United Kingdom: A flawed deal, but credit to Brown for his efforts
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/a-flawed-deal-but-credit-to-brown-for-his-efforts-1845207.html
Independent (UK): Gordon Brown can't claim to have sealed the Copenhagen deal, but he can say that he had a hand in avoiding the catastrophe of "no deal". The Prime Minister worked in his usual Stakhanovite way in Copenhagen, sometimes from early morning until 3am the next day, trying to broker deals and trade-offs. He was in a good position to be a bridge-builder, trusted by both the African countries for his long track record on aid and by industrialised nations for his lead role in tackling last ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Copenhagen summiteers talked for two weeks - then the deadline passed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-summit-talks-deadline
Guardian: The world leaders invited to dine by Queen Margrethe supped on turkey and mushy peas, and were serenaded by the Danish Royal Life Guards bands playing George Harrison's Here Comes the Sun. But the bands also played Here's That Rainy Day – which, by the end, began to seem more apt. By 10pm on Thursday, leaders from about two dozen of the world's biggest economies had left the dinner to return to the hangar-like convention centre to try to strike a deal on climate change which ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Copenhagen deadlock wrapped up as emissions deal
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6962344.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): The United Nations climate change summit ended last night without setting any emission reduction targets. President Obama forged a non-binding agreement with his counterparts in China, India, Brazil and South Africa but it was unclear whether all 192 countries would accept the compromise text. Mr Obama said that a "fundamental deadlock in perspectives' had overshadowed the negotiations. He described the deal as "meaningful' but admitted that it would not be enough to prevent ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Rich and poor countries blame each other for failure of Copenhagen deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/19/copenhagen-blame-game
Guardian: The blame game over the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks started last night with countries accusing each other of a complete lack of willingness to compromise. The G77 group of 130 developing nations blamed Obama for "locking the poor into permanent poverty by refusing to reduce US emissions further." "Today's events are the worst development for climate change in history," said a spokesperson. Pablo Solon, Bolivian ambassador to the UN, blamed the Danish hosts ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Climate deal meets furious reception
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091219/ts_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Fury erupted Saturday at a gruelling summit in Copenhagen on rolling back climate change as poor nations took to task a draft deal whose supporters even said was less than they sought. US President Barack Obama said an "unprecedented breakthrough" had been reached among day-long meetings involving about two dozen presidents and prime ministers gathered in Copenhagen. Obama admitted the so-called Copenhagen Accord did not go far enough, but characterised its provisions as ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Developing nations slam U.S.-led climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091219/ts_nm/us_climate_copenhagen
Reuters: Several developing nations rejected on Saturday a climate deal worked out by President Barack Obama and four major emerging economies, saying it could not become a U.N. blueprint for fighting global warming. Earlier, European Union nations reluctantly agreed to sign up for the accord worked out at a summit of 120 leaders by the United States, China, India, South Africa and Brazil -- meant as the first U.N. climate pact since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. "I regret to inform you that ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Key powers in climate compromise
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8421935.stm
BBC: Mr Fry said his country could not accept the deal, as did Venezuelan delegate Claudia Salerno Caldera. "Mr President, I ask whether - under the eye of the UN secretary general - you are going to endorse this coup d'etat against the authority of the United Nations." Nicaragua submitted new documents to the meeting calling for the resumption of negotiations on new legal agreements, including emission reductions from developed nations. To be accepted as a official UN ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Brown vows to campaign for legally binding climate deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8421945.stm
BBC: US President Barack Obama said the deal would be a foundation for global action but there was "much further to go". He said the US, China, Brazil, India and South Africa had "agreed to set a mitigation target to limit warming to no more than 2C and, importantly, to take action to meet this objective". As details emerged of the agreement, Mr Brown said there had been progress, although he added that "it is not enough" and he wants "to go further quickly". Mr Brown said: ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Climate deal falls short of expectations
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091218/pl_politico/30794
Politico: The climate deal reached between U.S, China and other great powers on Friday night is so vague, hastily hatched and non-binding President Obama isn`t even sure he`ll be required to sign it. "You know, it raises an interesting question as to whether technically there's actually a signature... It's not a legally binding agreement, I don't know what the protocols are,' said a bleary-eyed Obama, before hopping in Air Force One for the trip back to Washington. Even as he left, it ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Agreement reached in Copenhagen, although 'not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change'
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1218-hance_agreement.html
Mongabay: On late Friday, US President Barack Obama reached an agreement described as "meaningful" during a meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma at the last day of the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. "No country is entirely satisfied with each element but this is a meaningful and historic step forward and a foundation from which to make further progress," an American official said. "It's not sufficient to ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
US, 4 other nations reach climate pact
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/12/18/ap_source_us_4_other_nations_reach_climate_pact_1261172496/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: The United States and four other countries, including China, have reached a climate agreement that includes a way to verify reductions of heat-trapping gases. A senior administration official says the agreement between the countries also requires each country to list the actions they will take to cut global warming pollution by specific amounts. The deal reiterates a goal set earlier this year on long-term emissions cuts and provides a mechanism to be help poor countries prepare for climate ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Obama hails climate pact, says more work to be done
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091218/india_nm/india448519
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama hailed a non-binding climate agreement between developed and developing nations he helped broker on Friday as a foundation for fighting global warming in the future. "We have much further to go," he said, adding that more trust would have to be built between rich and poor nations to reach a legally-binding pact.
Sat, 19 Dec 09
US Senate will act on climate law next year: Kerry
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091218/pl_afp/unclimatewarminguspoliticssenate
Agence France-Presse: The climate accord reached by world leaders in Copenhagen will drive the US Senate to pass its own blueprint to fight global warming in early 2010, key senator John Kerry said Friday. "This can be a catalyzing moment," the Democratic lawmaker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement after President Barack Obama announced a deal on the sidelines of global talks in Denmark's capital. "President Obama?s hands-on engagement broke through the bickering ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Obama reaches climate deal with emerging powers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091218/india_nm/india448522
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama forged a climate deal with emerging economic powers on Friday, breaking a deadlock at U.N.-led talks, but said the world still had "much further to go" in the fight against global warming. All sides conceded the agreement, which fell far short of United Nations ambitions for the Dec. 7-18 talks, was imperfect but said it was a starting point for a coordinated international effort to avert the catastrophic impacts of climate change. "This progress did ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Climate summit clinches deal: Obama
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091218/sc_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama on Friday announced a climate deal with other major world leaders calling it "unprecedented" but still not enough to beat global warming. More than four hours after the scheduled close of the summit and an exhaustive round of diplomacy between the world's most powerful leaders, Obama said an agreement had been reached but acknowledged it was limited and would not be legally binding. The pact includes an agreement to put off until next month a decision ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit: 'meaningful agreement' hailed by leaders
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6841696/Copenhagen-climate-summit-meaningful-agreement-hailed-by-leaders.html
Telegraph: US President Barack Obama reached a "meaningful' agreement with the leaders of China, India and South Africa at the Copenhagen climate conference. The shift was described as an "historic step forward' but US officials made clear that it was not enough to stop the world warming up. As details began to emerge, officials stressed that no country was "entirely satisfied' with what had been agreed. It followed a superpower showdown between the US and China over American calls ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Sen. Kerry says climate deal will help bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH53C20091218?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: An international deal to control global warming announced on Friday by President Barack Obama will propel the passage of a domestic climate change bill through the Senate, Senator John Kerry said. "With this in hand, we can work to pass domestic legislation early next year to bring us across the finish line," Kerry said. Legislation to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollutants narrowly passed the House of Representatives in June, but has been ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Canada says ready to provide share of climate aid
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH54J20091218?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Prime Minister Stephen Harper brushed off criticism on Friday that Canada would act on climate change only in parallel with the United States, saying this was crucial because of North America's economic integration. "If the Americans don't act, it will severely limit our ability to act, but if the Americans do act, it is absolutely essential that we act in concert with them," Harper told a news conference in Copenhagen at the end of a U.N. climate summit. He said the ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
China sees positive result at U.N. summit
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH54420091218?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 negotiator Xie Zhenhua said that a U.N. climate summit on Friday had a positive result and that all should be happy. "After negotiations both sides have managed to preserve their bottom line, for the Chinese this was our sovereignty and our national interest," he told reporters.
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Leaders try to rescue Copenhagen climate talks as Obama rebukes China
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6961666.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): World leaders ditched their advisers and tried to thrash out a compromise between themselves at the UN climate change summit today as Barack Obama came under for failing to bring anything new to the negotiating table in Copenhagen. Twenty-five heads of state or government, including both President Obama and Gordon Brown, were trying to salvage the bare bones of an agreement after negotiations overnight went "backwards" and the first set-piece meeting of the day made little progress ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Obama says 'unprecedented' deal reached on climate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_re_eu/climate_obama
Associated Press: President Barack Obama declared Friday a "meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough" had been reached among the U.S., China and three other countries on a global effort to curb climate change but said much work was still be needed to reach a legally binding treaty. "It is going to be very hard, and it's going to take some time," he said near the conclusion of a 193-nation global warming summit. "We have come a long way, but we have much further to go." The president said there ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
No Real Deal, and No Exit
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49750
Inter Press Service: The roof of our house is on fire but our leaders, our economic system and we ourselves are ignoring the alarms and continuing to add more fuel. There are no exit doors in our house; there is nowhere else to go. Dangerous climate change is already here. Coral reefs are dying, the Arctic is melting and rising sea levels threaten the homes of millions. And we're on our way to a planet-transforming four-degree C rise in global average temperatures in as soon as 50 ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
President Obama warns leaders over climate summit deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8420714.stm
BBC: BBC environment correspondent Richard Black said this was a clear indication that things are not proceeding towards the kind of deal that the EU had wanted. Addressing the summit on Friday, President Obama said: "While the science of climate change is not in doubt, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now, and it hangs in the balance." He said he had come to Copenhagen "not to talk, but to act". Unchecked, he said, climate change would pose ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Leaked Copenhagen draft suggests a win for China
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18302
New Scientist: New Scientist has seen a leaked draft of the agreement that the 115 heads of state at the Copenhagen climate talks are expected to sign before they leave here tonight. The document is circulating among Danish delegates. It shows that the conference will end with a deal, including money and quantified cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. It is a political statement and leaves it to negotiators to create the legal framework, including the final fate of the Kyoto Protocol. The text suggests ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Acid oceans: the 'evil twin' of climate change
http://www.physorg.com/news180344477.html
Associated Press: Far from Copenhagen's turbulent climate talks, the sea lions, harbor seals and sea otters reposing along the shoreline and kelp forests of this protected marine area stand to gain from any global deal to cut greenhouse gases. These foragers of the sanctuary's frigid waters, flipping in and out of sight of California's coastal kayakers, may not seem like obvious beneficiaries of a climate treaty crafted in the Danish capital. But reducing carbon emissions worldwide also would help mend ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Tuvalu says won't sign climate deal with 2 degree cap
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE5BG1MH.htm
Reuters: Tiny Tuvalu, which fears being wiped off the map by global warming, appealed on Thursday for a legally binding outcome at U.N. climate talks in Denmark and demanded a tough cap on temperature rises. Prime Minister Apisai Ielemia said he would not sign an agreement at the end of the Dec 7-18 talks in Copenhagen that supported a 2 degree Celsius cap on a global average temperature rise, saying this would doom his country. "We are talking about the survival of our nation," Ielemia ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Draft Accord Weak on Cuts, Funding
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49747
Inter Press Service: Heads of state and government are working fervently Friday to complete an agreement at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, but texts coming out of their midst so far lack details on emissions cuts and long-term funding. Negotiations - resumed after U.S. President Barack Obama's speech failed to deliver any tangible targets - are likely to continue into tomorrow. "While the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest, as the world watches us today, I ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
"The Intelligence We Lacked"*
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49746
Inter Press Service: World leaders speaking in Copenhagen on Friday, the last day of negotiations for a deal on climate change, retreated into their national positions. US President Barack Obama and his peers could not have been further from the call to "cooperate internationally to ensure respect for human rights everywhere in the world" contained in the People's Declaration issued by NGOs working at the KlimaForum09 alternative summit. While leaders of a group of several hundred NGOs were trying ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Norway Is Trying
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49745
Inter Press Service: Norway is the world's third largest donor in terms of development aid as a percentage of GDP. Norwegian Minister of Environment and International Development Erik Solheim spoke to TerraViva about the initiatives promoted by his country on environmental protection and its role during the Copenhagen negotiations. Like most participants in the 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Solheim declared himself not very optimistic ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Copenhagen Talks Create Hardly a Ripple in Malaysia
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49744
Inter Press Service: Even if Prime Minister Najib Razak is in Copenhagen for the high-level segment of the U.N. conference on climate change, there has been precious little meaningful debate on the subject here in Malaysia. Few Malaysians really understand the issues at stake, in part due to the lack of much meaningful analysis in the media apart from the odd commentary. Not many politicians, whether from the ruling coalition or opposition ranks, have also really discussed climate change and its ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
On environment, Obama and scientists take hit in poll
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/18/AR2009121800002.html?wprss=rss_nation
Washington Post: As President Obama arrives in Copenhagen hoping to seal an elusive deal on climate change, his approval rating on dealing with global warming has crumbled at home and there is broad opposition to spending taxpayer money to encourage developing nations to curtail their energy use, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. There's also rising public doubt and growing political polarization about what scientists have to say on the environment, and a widespread perception that ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Obama hopes to seal the climate deal in Copenhagen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_re_us/climate_obama
Associated Press: President Barack Obama joined scores of fellow world leaders Friday for the final day of an international climate conference, hoping his personal intervention would help seal a broad agreement to combat global warming. Arriving after an overnight flight from Washington, Obama brought little new beyond pleas for other nations to step up and earnest promises of U.S. seriousness. Hours ahead of his arrival, a European Union spokesman said an agreement had not yet emerged to present to ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Uncertainty over Copenhagen deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8420016.stm
BBC: Ministers cancelled morning press engagements, reportedly to engage in further last-minute diplomacy. Late on Thursday there was optimism about an agreement, despite fears it might not prevent a "catastrophic" 3C (5.4F) temperature rise. Denmark's prime minister had spoken of "very fruitful" talks just before US President Barack Obama arrived in Copenhagen for talks with 118 other world leaders. Both the US and China, the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Obama Arrives at Climate Talks, Seeking to Wrest a Deal
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/science/earth/19climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: President Obama arrived here on Friday morning bent on applying a combination of muscle and personal charm to secure a climate change agreement involving nearly 200 countries. He injects himself into a multilayered negotiation that has been far more chaotic and contentious than anticipated – frozen by longstanding divisions between rich and poor nations and a legacy of mistrust of the United States, which has long refused to accept any binding limits on its greenhouse gas ...
Sat, 19 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate change conference: Gordon Brown dines with Robert Mugabe
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6835323/Copenhagen-climate-change-conference-Gordon-Brown-dines-with-Robert-Mugabe.html
Telegraph:
Fri, 18 Dec 09
U.N. climate negotiators hammer out initial draft
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091218/ts_nm/us_climate_copenhagen
Reuters: Negotiators facing a Friday deadline hammered out an initial draft U.N. climate pact overnight that calls for a two degree Celsius cap on global temperatures and billions in aid for poor nations, sources said. U.S. President Barack Obama will join more than 120 other world leaders on the final day of the climate talks, designed to strike a deal to boost international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions widely blamed for heating up the planet. The draft still under ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Climate talks near political accord for summit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091218/ap_on_sc/climate
Associated Press: World leaders worked into the early morning hours to forge a political declaration for Friday's summit on climate change, a document expected to envision emissions-cutting targets for rich nations and billions for poor countries but to fall well short of the goal of a legally binding pact. A political deal would be seen by many as a setback, following two years of intense negotiations to agree on deeper reductions in the emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases largely blamed for ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Climate deal is very close says Brown
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/12/18/getting-warm-115875-21905674/
Mirror: A historic deal to combat climate change was close to being hammered out at the world summit in Copenhagen last night. After 11 days of often deadlocked and difficult talks, Gordon Brown said he was optimistic there would be an agreement to limit the rise in global temperatures to two degrees celcius. He said last night: "Today has been an important day. We are making progress. No doubt we'll be working through the night. There's no doubt there's a great deal of work to be ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Government departments cut CO2 emissions by 10%
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/carbon-emissions-climate-change
Guardian: The government estate emitted 10% less carbon dioxide in the last financial year than in 1999, according to a report published today. Environmentalists welcomed the improvement but argued that government departments had to be much more ambitious if they were to play a significant part in meeting the UK's overall carbon reduction targets. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which tracks sustainability across government buildings, said the improvements across Whitehall have come ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Temperature warning as Copenhagen climate deal emerges
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8419769.stm
BBC: China signalled concessions on the monitoring of emission curbs while the US said it would commit money for developing countries. Denmark's Lars Lokke Rasmussen called late-night talks with a group of 26 influential world leaders on how to unblock negotiations. "We discussed how we can make progress and we had a very fruitful, constructive dialogue... for almost two hours," he told reporters. After the leaders left, their aides continued working on a political agreement ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Draft climate text pledges 2 degree cap: sources
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH0IL20091218?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Global temperature rises must be kept to a 2 degrees Celsius cap and billions of dollars of climate funds must be given to poor countries, sources reported an early draft declaration at the Copenhagen talks as saying. Two sources at the talks, who asked not to be identified, said on Friday the draft pledged rich countries to donate $100 billion dollars annually by 2020 to poor nations to help them adapt their economies and cope with climate change. The draft said global ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
China holds the world to ransom
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/china-holds-the-world-to-ransom-1844247.html
Independent (UK): China was under intense diplomatic pressure last night to abandon key demands which risk scuppering an international treaty on climate change in Copenhagen. Today President Barack Obama is due to arrive in the Danish capital after Hillary Clinton electrified the faltering conference by announcing that America would back the setting-up of a climate fund for poor countries which would have $100bn to give away annually by 2020. But at the same time she issued a blunt challenge to ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Republicans work to block EPA carbon rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH05M20091218?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Republican lawmakers said on Thursday they would try to block a Environmental Protection Agency proposal that opens the door to federal regulation of planet-warming gases. Last week, the EPA issued a ruling that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health, clearing the way for the agency to regulate carbon without congressional legislation. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is leading an effort in the chamber to ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Leaders to agree to climate change deal - but it will fall short of UN minimum
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6961143.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): A global deal to address climate change is likely to be agreed today but the commitments it contains on cutting greenhouse gases will fall short of the minimum target set by the UN's science body. The European Union is preparing to increase its commitment on cutting emissions as part of an endgame at the Copenhagen summit which will see other countries making similar concessions. A pledge yesterday by the United States to contribute to a $100 billion (£60 billion) annual ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Copenhagen sketch: Epic standoff clears the air
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-climate-talks-sketch
Guardian: So, deal or no deal? As 120 presidents and prime ministers sat down to eat at the Queen of Denmark's palace in Copenhagen tonight, the chances of both appeared equally high. Or low. Depending on your temperament, within 24 hours or so, the world will have a climate change agreement that should limit carbon emissions and restrict temperatures to a 2C rise; or the talks will fall apart and the chance of an agreement will be lost for ever. Gordon Brown was upbeat, while the ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Obama heads to Copenhagen, sees progress with China
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BG0MU20091218?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 is making progress with China on outstanding issues overshadowing U.N. climate talks but cannot say whether a deal will result after President Barack Obama arrives in Copenhagen, officials said. Obama left Washington later on Thursday and is due to arrive in Denmark around 8:30 a.m. local time on Friday, U.S. officials told reporters on a conference call. He will give a brief address at a plenary session with other world leaders and emphasize the renewed U.S. ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
With One Space Observatory Down, NASA Uses Another to Map CO2
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=space-observatory-co2-nasa
Various: The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, was designed to monitor the movement of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere starting this year, but instead it plunged into the ocean in February due to a launch malfunction. Now an instrument on another NASA probe is enabling researchers to map atmospheric CO2, and revealing that its global distribution is surprisingly uneven, with regional variations of up to 5 percent. A team of scientists presented the new CO2 data--courtesy of the ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
U.S. pledges billions; China says climate pact is doubtful
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121700165.html?wprss=rss_nation
Washington Post: With an offer of significant new aid to help poor nations cope with the effects of global warming, the Obama administration began a major diplomatic effort Thursday aimed at saving the troubled climate talks before the president's expected arrival Friday morning. The United States is pressuring developing countries to agree to emissions cuts along with the industrialized world for the first time, and insisting on transparent monitoring of those reductions. High-ranking U.S. officials ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Vague Pledges Put Onus on Congress to Make the Next Move on Climate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20091218/pl_cq_politics/politics3269971
CQPolitics.com: Delegates from around the world have spent the past two weeks wrangling with the hundreds of complex details that go into writing a new global agreement on fighting climate change. But when President Obama arrives in Copenhagen on Friday morning, his hopes for closing a deal may boil down to two basic issues: trust and money. By linking the two as part of a grand bargain, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to break an impasse between the United States and China. She said ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Kenya REDD project becomes first in Africa to win gold-level validation
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1217-kenya.html
Mongabay: A Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) project in Kenya has become the first in Africa to win GOLD level validation under the Climate Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Alliance's REDD Standard, a certification program to ensure that communities and biodiversity benefit from such projects. The Kasigau Corridor REDD Project aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5 million tons over its 20-year lifetime, generating carbon credits that may receive a ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Leaders meet into night to beat climate deadline
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5BB07F20091218?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 worked through the early hours to try and beat a Friday deadline for a deal on cutting emissions and helping poor countries cope with the costly impact of global warming. After days of stalemate, the United States revived the 193-nation talks on Thursday by backing a $100 billion climate fund to help poor nations adapt their economies and tackle threats such as failing crops and dwindling water supplies. A group of about 25 influential world leaders had ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Danes see progress towards climate breakthrough
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH0FB20091218?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A group of 26 influential world leaders had constructive talks overnight on how to unblock climate negotiations on the last day of a summit in Copenhagen, the talks' host said on Friday. "We discussed how we can make progress, and we had a very fruitful, constructive dialogue ... for almost two hours," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters. Rasmussen called the late-night talks to overcome the main obstacles and work on a short political declaration in the ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Can Obama deliver a surge at Copenhagen?
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/18/can_obama_deliver_a_surge_at_copenhagen/
Boston Globe: WHILE PRESIDENT Obama and other world leaders will proclaim victory in the war against climate change at the end of the Copenhagen meetings, surrender is by far the more likely outcome. The last best hope is that Obama advances a surprise climate initiative surge that goes beyond short-term politics. It must include an embrace of serious emission targets for the United States and other developed nations, as demanded by the poor nations walking out. But, more broadly, it must reflect a ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Food Security in Great Peril from Climate Change
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49740
Inter Press Service: Unless the world comes to its aid, Bangladesh says the vulnerability of its agriculture sector to climate change could spell severe consequences for its millions of people, who stand to lose their main source of livelihood. "As a poverty-stricken and densely populated country, we cannot cope with these challenges unless we have a proper financial and technological support from the developed world," said Sabir Hassan Chowdhary, one of the delegates from Bangladesh to the Copenhagen ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
New York plugs in first electric car solar charging station
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255226/york-gets-first-electric-car
Business Green: Sustainable energy company Beautiful Earth Group has this week unveiled New York's first solar-powered electric vehicle (EV) charging station, which will allow the firm to recharge its electric MINI E using zero carbon energy making it one of the few cars in the world to run exclusively on solar power. The off-grid station features solar photovoltaic panels and has been built using recycled, decommissioned steel shipping containers. "It never ceases to amaze me, when I get ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Whitehall insists it is on track to meet emissions targets
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255225/whitehall-insists-track-meet
Business Green: The government will today release new data indicating that after a significant improvement in its performance over the past 12 months, Whitehall is largely on track to meet its environmental targets over the next few years. Reports from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) and the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) show that last year saw a 10 per cent cut in carbon emissions from government offices relative to a 1999/2000 base line, a step up on the 6.3 per cent cuts ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
New Report Underlines Multiple Benefits But Also New Challenges To Biodiversity-Rich Sites
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1801131/new_report_underlines_multiple_benefits_but_also_new_challenges_to/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: An agreement in Copenhagen to fund reduced emissions from deforestation may generate multiple environmental and economic benefits if investments simultaneously target sites that are both carbon and biodiversity-rich. But the new report, published today in the journal Conservation Letters, also warns of challenges in countries such as Brazil and parts of East Africa unless safeguards are followed. This is because funding Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
French company CMA-CGM facilitating destruction of Madagascar's rainforests, undermining France's position in Copenhagen
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1217-rosewood.html
Mongabay: Delmas, a Belgian subsidiary of French shipping giant CMA-CGM, is facilitating the destruction of Madagascar's endangered rainforests by providing transport services for timber illegally logged from the country's national parks, report multiple sources that have been investigating the illegal rosewood trade on the Indian Ocean island nation. The accusations put Delmas directly in conflict with the French government's push at climate talks in Copenhagen to establish stronger safeguards ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Loving Electric Cars in Spite of the Climate Change Debate
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/12/loving-the-electric-car-in-spite-climate-debat/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29
Wired News: When I first learned about Tesla Motors in 2006, I wasn't looking for an opportunity in clean tech. Having spent too much time working in the financial services industry, I decided it was time to pursue a career in something that I was passionate about: cars. Moving to Detroit was not an option, so I set out to see what automotive opportunities existed in the San Francisco Bay Area. After seeing a story about Tesla in The New York Times, I was intrigued. I had lived in the Bay Area ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Global warming a tough sell for the human psyche
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hXwHs4QbTdAi4NuwzwJFYPYiu5eAD9CLB1EG0
Associated Press: The Copenhagen talks on climate change were convened with a sense of urgency that many ordinary folks don't share. Why is that? One big reason: It's hard for people to get excited about a threat that seems far away in space and time, psychologists say. "It's not in people's faces," said psychologist Robert Gifford of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. "It is in the media, but not in their everyday experience. That's quite a different thing." The consequences of ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
UN document shows Copenhagen summit falling short
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlGHAdFJT08vITVmmhI0OwHKl8ZgD9CLA77O2
Associated Press: Carbon emissions cuts pledged at U.N. climate talks would put the world on "an unsustainable pathway" toward average global warming 50 percent higher than industrial countries want, a confidential U.N. draft document showed Thursday. The document, obtained by The Associated Press, forecast that the average global temperature would rise in coming decades by 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial levels. The world has already warmed a bit, so that ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
No Water in Copenhagen Talks
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49733
Inter Press Service: In the last two years, the conclusion among decision-makers has been that the only way to solve the climate crisis is to turn carbon into a commodity and privatise the atmosphere. Similar market-based solutions will be used to "solve" the growing water crisis, warned experts at the Klimaforum09, a parallel meeting a few kilometres away from the official 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held Dec. 7-18 in ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Lawmakers Push for a Deal
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49732
Inter Press Service: With only one day to go to the end of the climate change talks and no agreement in sight, it looks like it will ultimately be up to national legislators to effectively implement whatever agreement is forged here in the Danish capital. That is the view taken at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by representatives of GLOBE (Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment) International. "It is clear that a ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
U.S. making progress with China on climate: official
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BG4JH20091217?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 is making progress with China on the issue of Beijing's emissions curbs being transparent but cannot predict whether an agreement will result from the Copenhagen talks, a U.S. official said on Thursday. President Barack Obama will also underscore the intention of the United States to lead on climate change during brief remarks he will make at the U.N. summit on Friday, another U.S. official told reporters on a conference call.
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Climate summit solves key issues
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8419578.stm
BBC: A deal at the UN climate summit looks more likely following a frantic day of behind the scenes diplomacy. China signalled concessions on monitoring of emission curbs, and the US said it would commit money for developing countries. Leaders are likely to have big choices to make when they meet on Friday. However, a leaked document from the UN climate convention indicates the best deal likely here will not keep the temperature rise below 2C (3.6F). Even if countries ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Obama's arrival expected to inject fresh momentum into Copenhagen talks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/barack-obama-copenhagen-hillary-clinton
Guardian: Barack Obama is poised to arrive in Copenhagen tomorrow with additional pledges of cash for poor countries which will suffer the most from global warming, a day after America's promise to support a $100bn a year climate fund. Obama's arrival has been the most anticipated event of the 10-day summit, which has lurched between optimism and rank despair. He will seek to make a decisive impact, building on the announcement today by Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, who said for the ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Obama won't be specific on climate finance - official
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091217/india_nm/india448145
Reuters: President Barack Obama is unlikely to be more specific about U.S. commitments to help provide financing for poor countries dealing with climate change when he arrives in Copenhagen, a U.S. official said. Obama arrives at the U.N. climate talks in Denmark on Friday morning. The U.S. official, speaking to reporters on a conference call on Thursday, said he could not predict whether world leaders would reach a deal at the conference but said Obama would stay committed to working ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
GUARDIAN.CO.UK: Gordon Brown hopes for climate financing deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/gordon-brown-climate-financing-deal
Guardian: Environment editor John Vidal at Copenhagen Link to this video Gordon Brown now believes deals on financing to cope with the short and long term effects of climate change are possible tomorrow, as the summit enters a fraught last 24 hours. In briefings tonight,two days after the prime minister arrived at the talks aiming to break the deadlock, he told reporters he believed world leaders were "absolutely" more than halfway towards a deal but that they would be "working through ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Danger to Free Trade Seen in Climate Talks
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/earth/15tariffs.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Could a legacy of the Copenhagen climate conference turn out to be higher tariffs? With little prospect of an agreement at the talks this week bringing immediate and binding emissions limits on the developing world, pressures are mounting in Europe and the United States to impose restrictions, called border adjustments, on imports from low-cost producers like China and India that are resisting cutting greenhouse gases. "The shadow of border adjustments hangs over these talks," ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
China moves to meet US demand for transparency on carbon emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-china-carbon-emissions-transparency
Guardian: China rebuffed efforts to prod it towards major climate concessions today, but nudged closer to meeting US demands that it open its carbon accounts to the world. As talks moved into the final day, China pledged more flexibility on the vexed issue of how its pledges to curb pollution will be internationally verified. The world's biggest carbon emitter also confirmed it wants to set a 2C rise as the maximum temperature target. But it accused developed nations of failing to set ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Emissions pledges fall way short: leaked UN memo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091217/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingunfccc
Agence France-Presse: Pledges tabled so far at the UN climate talks for curbing greenhouse-gas emissions would doom the world to warming of as much as three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), an internal UN memo showed Thursday. Nations most at risk from rising sea levels have been pushing for commitments to limit the rise to no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) over pre-industrial levels while many other countries endorse a maximum of 2.0 C (3.6 F). But the memo seen by AFP concludes that even the ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Climate Envoy: China, India Remain Stumbling Blocks
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121576370&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: The point of the climate negotiations is to replace the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty. The U.S. never ratified that treaty, because it doesn't require rapidly industrializing countries such as China to cut emissions. The head of the American negotiating team in Copenhagen, Todd Stern, tells NPR's Richard Harris that China and India's reluctance to make binding commitments remains a stumbling block.
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Malaysia to allow logging in indigenous 'peace park' to proceed
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1216-penan.html
Mongabay: Malaysia, the country with the fastest rate of greenhouse gas emissions growth since 1990 among middle and upper income countries, will allow logging to proceed in a contested rainforest area in Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. The government of Sarawak said it will not recognize the status of a rainforest "peace park" established last month by Penan tribesmen. The park was declared by the Penan as a means to draw attention to their complaints that logging companies continue to ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
China can't be cool to Obama demands on global warming
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2009/1217/China-can-t-be-cool-to-Obama-demands-on-global-warming
Christian Science Monitor: The world will hardly know if global warming is being curbed if the largest emitter of carbon – China – isn't releasing accurate data about its pollution. That's why it was correct for the United States to insist Thursday at the climate-change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, that Beijing must be transparent about any claims of success in reducing greenhouse gases. Without outside verification of carbon cuts in big polluting nations such as China and India, the US Senate is ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
EPA delays announcement on regulating coal ash
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091217/ap_on_bi_ge/us_epa_coal_ash
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed a decision on regulating coal ash waste from power plants. The agency said in a statement Thursday that it's extending a Dec. 31 deadline because it is "still actively clarifying and refining parts of the proposal." It did not set a new deadline. A massive spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant last year brought attention to how coal ash produced by generating electricity is stored. Some environmental ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Putting A Price On Emissions Presents Challenges
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121577362&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: At the climate conference in Copenhagen, there's been considerable discussion over how to put a price on reducing carbon emissions. Generally, placing a price on a commodity – corn or soy or a car – is a fairly easy matter in an established marketplace. But carbon is not a commodity, and there's no established marketplace for carbon, so the effort presents particular challenges.
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Obama heads to high-risk, uncertain climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091217/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_climate_talks
Associated Press: With global climate change talks at a critical juncture, President Barack Obama is dashing to Copenhagen on Thursday to join more than 110 other world leaders looking to push an interim agreement across the finish line. Obama will be on hand for the final day of the two-week, 193-nation U.N. climate conference. But U.S.-China acrimony, a bitter divide between rich and poor nations and dissatisfaction with the U.S. emissions-reduction pledge clouded prospects for any ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
President Obama to Push for Climate Change Agreement
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-barack-obama-copenhagen-push-climate-change-deal/story?id=9364741
ABC News: With the clock ticking, President Obama will travel to Copenhagen tonight in a last-minute attempt to finalize a global climate change agreement that has become mired in debate in recent days. Share World's small island nations stir things up in Copenhagen. After an overnight flight from Washington, Obama will join more than 100 world leaders who are gathered on the last day of the United Nations conference to try and reach a deal . German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Obama foes warn he can't bind US on climate
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gxtcLoOEOkd7aQDLIWq0e_QVC7Xw
Agence France-Presse: Republican US lawmakers sharply assailed President Barack Obama's approach to climate change on Thursday, warning that Congress could derail any treaty pledges he makes at global talks in Denmark. "Our purpose here is to remind the president and his representatives to make clear to the international community that the president does not have authority to bind the United States in any international agreement, in Copenhagen or anywhere else," said Republican Senator Jon Kyl of ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Clinton arrives in Copenhagen to stake US claim in deal of the century
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-hillary-clinton-emissions-monitoring
Guardian: With Hillary Clinton's sudden appearance at the Copenhagen summit at its moment of crisis – and the prospect of billions in cash – America today lays claim to the role of lead broker in what could be the deal of the century. Clinton's intervention, on a day that began with the Danish hosts of the talks saying they had given up hope of a deal, allows the US to claim a role in helping to unite countries that were turning on each other. "It is no secret that we have lost time," ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Indonesia: Climate change reduces areas of rainfall in West Java
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/17/climate-change-reduces-areas-rainfall-west-java.html
Jakarta Post: Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) have linked climate change to the gradually diminishing areas of rainfall in a number of regions across West Java over the last 100 years. LAPAN's Atmosphere and Climate Applied Science Center head Thomas Djamaluddin said scientists had compared data in the first 30 years of the 20th century (1900-1930) and the last 30 years of the 20th century (1973-2002). Based on the data, heavy annual rainfall of about 3,200 ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
How effective are renewables, really?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,667443,00.html
Spiegel: The last 10 years have seen massive amounts of taxpayer money invested in renewable energies in Germany. Growth in the industry has been rapid. But has the development been universally good? SPIEGEL ONLINE takes a look at those renewables with promise -- and those which might flop. It was all very small when it began. A couple liters of biodiesel here, a small wind turbine there. Maybe a few solar panels with an output just enough to run a pocket calculator. But then April 1, ...
Fri, 18 Dec 09
Climate deal on ships and planes seen slipping away
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BF3X320091216
Reuters: Climate negotiators warned on Wednesday they may miss the opportunity to cap emissions from shipping and aviation and so miss out on billions of dollars in taxation to help poor countries cope with climate change. With just two days left to reach a new U.N. climate change deal, negotiators say they are still a long way from agreeing targets for shipping and aviation, which together produce as much as 8 percent of the world's climate-warming emissions. Japan, Saudi Arabia, China ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Obama sees climate deal as summit deadline nears
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5BB07F20091216?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: President Barack Obama has expressed confidence a climate deal can be clinched as dozens of world leaders gather on Wednesday to try to break a deadlock at U.N. climate talks. "The president believes that we can get an operational agreement that makes sense in Copenhagen," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a briefing in Washington on Tuesday, three days before a deadline on a new U.N. deal to combat climate change. Leaders including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Major international banks, shipping companies, and consumers play key role in Madagascar's logging crisis
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1215-rowan_madagascar.html
Mongabay: In the midst of cyclone season, a 'dead' period for tourism to Madagascar's east coast, Vohémar, a sleepy town dominated by the vanilla trade, is abuzz. Vanilla prices have scarcely been lower, but the hotels are full and the port is busy. "This afternoon, it was like a 4 wheel drive show in front of the Direction Regionale des Eaux & Forets," one source wrote in an email on November 29th: "Many new 4x4, latest model, new plane at the airport, Chinese everywhere." Loggers in ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Ministers take over climate talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8415307.stm
BBC: Environment ministers are holding talks at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen amid threats of large-scale protests by environmental groups. Activists, angered by logistical issues and a lack of progress on a deal, have vowed to disrupt proceedings. The White House said President Barack Obama, who will join world leaders in Copenhagen later in the week, is confident of reaching a deal. Talks are deadlocked over emission cuts and financial aid for poorer ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Climate change blamed for Great Lakes decline
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/climate-change/climate-change-blamed-for-great-lakes-decline/article1401784/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Globe and Mail: The water levels of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have been falling steadily compared with those on Lake Erie, and no one knew why. But a major report financed by the U.S. and Canadian governments suggests an answer: The fingerprints of climate change are starting to be found in the Great Lakes, the world's largest body of fresh water, causing a discernible drop in their levels. The report, released Tuesday, estimated that Lake Huron and Lake Michigan have fallen about a quarter ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Brown warns sealing climate deal 'very difficult'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091216/wl_uk_afp/unclimatewarmingbritainbrown
Agence France-Presse: Prime Minister Gordon Brown said securing a deal on climate change was going to be "very difficult," as he arrived in Copenhagen late Tuesday for the crunch talks. But Brown said he was determined to work with all countries to get the job done, despite the "many issues to be sorted out" at the UN summit in the Danish capital ahead of the Friday deadline. "I accept it?s very difficult for ... there are a number of problems that still have got to be sorted out, but we will be ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Forests and indigenous peoples 'left vulnerable in final text'
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/1215/1224260713051.html
Irish Times: THE FINAL draft of a deal on curbing carbon emissions from deforestation has been stripped of any real protection for natural forests or indigenous peoples who have looked after them for centuries, environmentalists claimed yesterday. The Accra Caucus on Forests and Climate Change said the REDD (reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation) agreement had been "stripped" of these safeguards, "as developing country governments react to lack of commitment by rich ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Obama pushes 'sexy' home insulation
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/obama-pushes-sexy-home-insulation-1842129.html
Independent (UK): US President Barack Obama on Tuesday told Americans that insulating their homes to save energy might sound dull and boring, but it was really a sexy subject. Two days before heading to Denmark for the UN climate summit, Obama traveled to a Home Depot hardware store in Virginia to tout government incentives for making homes more energy efficient. "In our nation's buildings, our homes and our offices consume almost 40 percent of the energy we use and contribute almost 40 percent ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
NASA outlines recent breakthroughs in greenhouse gas research
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091215194218.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Researchers studying carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas and a key driver of global climate change, now have a new tool at their disposal: daily global measurements of carbon dioxide in a key part of our atmosphere. The data are courtesy of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. Moustafa Chahine, the instrument's science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., unveiled the new product at a briefing on recent ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
REDD deal now close: Reports
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1780
Carbon Positive: The UN climate talks on forestry are on the verge of agreeing a deal on a global programme to reduce deforestation, known as REDD, according to various reports from the Copenhagen conference. A deal would pave the way for the preservation of vital carbon-storing native tropical forests, absent from the Kyoto Protocol, to be included in a global climate accord for the first time. Significantly the evolving agreement text appears now to include carbon-rich peatlands as well. Latest ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
The Road: A film that every one of us needs to see
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-road-a-film-that-every-one-of-us-needs-to-see-1841829.html
Independent (UK): As the credits roll and we fall stricken and tear-stained out onto the dark streets of Soho, it seems fitting that I am accompanied by the director of the second bleakest film ever made -- Franny Armstrong, creator of the The Age of Stupid. The bleakest film ever made we have just endured together, over two relentless, harrowing hours, and are now so emotionally raw that we know not where we are going, nor do we much care. It doesn't seem to matter. "Oh my God," moans Franny, repeatedly, ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Climate conference: 'Make bankers pay for deal'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-conference-make-bankers-pay-for-deal-1841970.html
Independent (UK): Ethiopia, one of Africa's poorest countries, last night put forward a radical multibillion-dollar plan to break the continuing deadlock at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen -- which was immediately taken up by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy. The proposal, from Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's long-standing ruler who is now one of Africa's elder statesmen, concerned one of the crucial sticking points in the negotiations for a new treaty to fight global warming, which have to end on Friday ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Copenhagen 'could fail' to reach a deal says Brown
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6958078.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Gordon Brown last night raised the possibility of the Copenhagen summit failing to reach a deal as the US said that it would not improve its weak offer on cutting emissions. President Obama is expected to make a significant financial commitment to a global climate protection fund when he joins the conference on Friday rather than improve on his provisional offer of cutting emissions by 4 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. The EU has committed to cutting its emissions by 20 per cent over ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Californians flock to the 'Disneyland' of climate change
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-climate-california16-2009dec16,0,3765536.story
LA Times: Jake Mackenzie, a city councilman from Rohnert Park, Calif., is looking forward to telling the world about Sonoma County's efforts to combat climate change -- he even has an appointment with a Scottish official to talk about harnessing energy from waves. So what if a few local critics have raised eyebrows about the $22,500 cost of sending a seven-person delegation from Sonoma County to Copenhagen? "Our message is, 'Hey U.N., we deserve a place at the table,' " Mackenzie ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Rudd's climate change strategy under fire as leaders converge on Copenhagen
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/rudds-climate-change-strategy-under-fire-as-leaders-converge-on-copenhagen/story-e6frg6xf-1225810878333
Australian: KEVIN Rudd's climate change agenda is under fire from three fronts this morning with India, the G77-China bloc and former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton attacking Australia's approach. Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator for China and G77 group of developing nations at Copenhagen, said today that what Australia had done so far was "simply not good enough'. "The message Kevin Rudd is giving to his people, his citizens, is a fabrication, it's fiction,' he told ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Vatican City: Pope calls for action on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iv7joqzVERKtLHhTEcibT9YLAlZwD9CJNIHO1
Associated Press: Pope Benedict XVI called for urgent action to protect the environment, saying Tuesday that climate change and natural catastrophes threaten the rights to life, food, health -- and ultimately peace. In his annual message on the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Peace, the pope argued that the world's economic, social, and environmental problems are moral crises that require mankind to rethink its way of living. "We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
The Push for 350: Contradictions and Carbon Levels
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/12/13/the-push-for-350-contradictions-and-carbon-levels.html?s_cid=rss:the-push-for-350-contradictions-and-carbon-levels
U.S. News and World Report: As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions. Conference negotiators, meanwhile, went behind closed doors in talks to pin down an elusive new pact on climate, talks in which the figure 350 looms as a goal for true believers, but one that appears impossible based on progress so far. It refers to 350 parts per million of ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Australia accused of cooking the carbon books
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6581697/australia-accused-of-cooking-the-carbon-books/
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Australian Government has been accused of accounting fraud in the reporting of its carbon emissions. By ignoring a massive rise in polluting gases from the agricultural and forestry industries, Australia has managed to make its overall emissions seem much lower than they actually are. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia is allowed to increase carbon emissions by 8 per cent compared to 1990 levels. But figures supplied to the United Nations earlier this year show that ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Double blow for 'hot rock' geothermal power
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/12/double-blow-for-hot-rock-geoth.html
New Scientist: It's been a difficult week for geothermal power. A US firm scuttled its plans to tap heat locked in northern California, The New York Times reports. A day earlier, Associated Press reports, concerns about setting off earthquakes prompted the cancellation of a Swiss geothermal project linked to small tremors in Basel in 2006 and 2007. Such plants work by pumping water into hot rocks several kilometres down, forcing small cracks in the rock to expand. Steam escapes through the ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Portions of Arctic coastline eroding, no end in sight, says new study
http://www.physorg.com/news180039688.html
Physorg: A new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder indicates part of the northern Alaska coastline is eroding by up to 45 feet annually due to declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity. Credit: Robert S. Anderson, University of Colorado The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a "triple whammy" of declining sea ice, warming seawater and ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Under the icy north lurks a carbon bomb
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2009/12/13/under_the_icy_north_lurks_a_carbon_bomb/
Boston Globe: North of Canada`s capital, underneath an endless expanse of spruce, pine, and birch, ticks what some scientists are calling a carbon bomb: Peat. A thick layer of the black spongy soil, the remnants of ancient forests, wraps the globe`s northern tier. Deeper than 15 feet in places, the peat layer extends over more than 6 million square miles across Russia, Scandinavia, China, Canada, and the United States. Carbon that those forests absorbed from the air over thousands of years ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
U.S. Business Interests Suspected in 'Fabricated' Climate Scandal
http://www.alternet.org/environment/144540/u.s._business_interests_suspected_in_'fabricated'_climate_scandal___/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_environment
AlterNet: Business interests and US partisan politics are behind the furor over leaked emails that have whipped up a controversy at the Copenhagen climate talks, Canadian experts say. The global talks to hammer out a deal on curbing greenhouse gas emissions are being derailed by public attention on the so-called "Climategate," scientist Andrew Weaver and author James Hoggan told AFP. Intercepted from scientists at Britain's University of East Anglia, a top center for climate research, ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Adapting fisheries and aquaculture to climate change
http://www.scidev.net/en/policy-briefs/adapting-fisheries-and-aquaculture-to-climate-change-1.html
SciDev.Net: This policy brief, compiled by 16 international agencies, considers what policymakers can do to help fisheries and aquaculture cope with climate change. Fish and shellfish provide essential nutrition to three billion people worldwide and livelihoods to more than 500 million in developing countries. But climate change is modifying key environmental factors -- including air and sea surface temperatures, rainfall, sea level and ocean acidity -- that will change the distribution ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
US-China showdown looms over climate talks at Copenhagen
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091215/world/climate_3
Canadian Press: A showdown between the world's two largest polluters loomed over the United Nations climate talks Tuesday as China accused the United States and other rich countries of backsliding on their commitments to fight global warming. Trying to ease the tension, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said rich and poor countries must "stop pointing fingers" and should increase their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions to salvage the faltering talks on a climate pact. The 27-member ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
At Copenhagen global warming conference, alarms on ocean acidification
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2009/1215/At-Copenhagen-global-warming-conference-alarms-on-ocean-acidification
Christian Science Monitor: Walk the halls at the cavernous Bella Conference center and it's no surprise that global warming gets all the buzz, all the time. Carbon dioxide's other effect, to increase the acidity of sea water, is a bit like the toddler constantly tugging at the trouser legs of its elders, asking: "What about me?" On Monday, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity attempted to strengthen that tug by releasing a "synthesis report" on ocean acidification. The oceans' acidity has increased 30 ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
A Copenhagen activist speaks: 'I was afraid I would go back to the cages'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/15/copenhagen-activist-speaks
Guardian: I came to Copenhagen to protest against the undemocratic and ineffective climate talks and to stand up for climate justice. On Saturday, I joined together with 100,000 other people to march to the Bella centre. I was in a section of the march calling for "System Change Not Climate Change", together with people from all over the world who are sick of fake corporate solutions like carbon trading, and want to see real climate solutions that deliver justice to the global south. Not long ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Copenhagen loopholes could mean rise in emissions, report warns
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/15/copenhagen-rise-in-emissions
Guardian: Four major loopholes in the Copenhagen draft texts could see carbon emissions increase by 2020, rather than plunge as scientists say must happen to avert dangerous global warming. That is the conclusion of a new analysis by Friends of the Earth, who argue the loopholes would cause greenhouse gases to rise by 10% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, if they are not closed in the final four days of negotiations at the UN summit. The most serious loophole is known as "hot air". Countries ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
China's booming clean tech sector drives stellar growth for GE
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2255087/china-booming-clean-tech-sector
Business Green: As US and Chinese diplomats face off in Copenhagen, one company is serving to highlight the huge environmental and economic benefits that could accrue from improved collaboration between the two economic giants. Engineering giant General Electric (GE) reported earlier this week that its Ecomagination clean tech products and services generated sales in China of $656m (£404m) during the first half of the year, an improvement of 50 per cent on the same period in 2008. The company ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
In One Brazilian Farm Town, Reviving The Forest
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121095308&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: For years, environmentalists have accused Brazil of putting development ahead of the environment. Unrestrained deforestation, they say, made Brazil a major producer of greenhouse gases. But in one town, farmers are now replanting native vegetation in a new initiative that could become a model for the rest of the country. Darci Eichelt cleared and plowed as much land as he could when he first arrived in Lucas do Rio Verde in central Mato Grosso state more than 20 years ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Germany: Merkel says nervous about slow pace in Copenhagen
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE33420091215?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that she was growing nervous about the lack of progress at the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen. "I can't conceal the fact that I've become a bit nervous about whether we'll be able to do it," Merkel told a news conference with Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "We all know time is running out and we need to get serious." Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Copenhagen for the talks to hammer out a deal ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Emissions rights could negate new climate pact: EU
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE32G20091215?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Trade in controversial carbon rights under the Kyoto Protocol after 2012 could undermine emissions targets agreed under a new global climate pact, the European Union environment commissioner said on Tuesday. Under the Kyoto treaty, which expires in 2012, nations that are comfortably below their greenhouse gas emissions targets can sell the difference in the form of rights called Assigned Amount Units (AAUs) to countries struggling to meet their own targets. "If we have this ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Boris Johnson tells Copenhagen delegates to stop being gloomy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/15/boris-johnson-copenhagen
Guardian: The UN climate summit in Copenhagen may be struggling to break an impasse while the world warms, but Boris Johnson delivered a simple message today to delegates at Copenhagen: cheer up. The London mayor told a gathering of municipal leaders that misery, restraint and self-flagellation would only make matters worse. "We have to stop being so unremittingly negative and gloomy. We need to warn people and be realistic about the peril we face. But we must also mobilise people's ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Three in four UK voters believe climate change is important problem - poll
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/15/guardian-icm-poll-climate-change-problem
Guardian: Three in four British voters believe Gordon Brown and world leaders are on an important mission at the climate change conference in Copenhagen, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll. Voters overwhelmingly reject the view of climate change sceptics that world leaders "are panicking about an exaggerated threat". But close to half of the electorate believes that the leaders – including Brown, who arrives at the summit today – need to worry about economic growth, too. When ICM asked ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Poll: Action on climate will heat up economy, jobs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_bi_ge/climate_ap_poll
Associated Press: More Americans believe steps taken to reduce global warming pollution will help the U.S. economy than say such measures will hurt it. It's a sign the public is showing more faith in President Barack Obama's economic arguments for limiting heat-trapping gases than in Republican claims that the actions would kill jobs. In an Associated Press-Stanford University poll, 40 percent said U.S. action to slow global warming in the future would create jobs. Slightly more, 46 percent, said it ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Well-known climate change denialist labels activists in Copenhagen 'Hitler Youth'
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1216-hance_monckton.html
Mongabay: Prominent climate change denialist and past advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Viscount Christopher Monckton, has persisted in labeling protestors in Copenhagen 'Hitler Youth' despite little historical connection. The initial exchange between Monckton and climate change activists occurred when activists with the nonprofit group SustainUS and other organizations briefly gate-crashed a meeting of the global warming skeptical group Americans for Prosperity last week. Monckton later ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
U.N. climate talks like "childrens' homework"
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE3AV20091215?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters:
Wed, 16 Dec 09
High-profile activist's arrest fuels fears of police crackdown in Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/15/danish-police-mass-protest-copenhagen
Guardian: A high-profile climate activist was arrested ahead of tomorrow's major protests planned outside the Copenhagen climate summit, fuelling anxiety about how the Danish authorities are policing demonstrations. Tadzio Mueller, a spokesman for the umbrella group Climate Justice Action (CJA), was arrested today by plainclothes police as he left the Bella centre, where the official climate talks are taking place. The police are holding him at the Retorvej detention centre, and he will be ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Congress should back energy incentives soon: Obama
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE3NI20091215?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged U.S. lawmakers to create incentives for American households to weatherize their homes and said the program would essentially pay for itself. "I am calling on Congress to provide new temporary incentives for Americans to make energy efficiency retrofit investments in their homes and we want them to do it soon," he said. "Insulation is sexy stuff," he told workers and employers at a Home Depot home supplies store near Washington. Obama's ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Global warming could significantly impact US wine and corn production, scientists say
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214143730.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: When it comes to nature, timing is everything. Spring flowers depend on birds and insects for pollination. But if spring-like weather arrives earlier than usual, and flowers bloom and wither before the pollinators appear, the consequences could be devastating for both the plants and the animals that feed on them. Global warming has made the early arrival of spring commonplace across the planet, say climate scientists. Plants are blooming earlier, birds are nesting sooner and mammals ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Ministers struggle to shore up climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091215/india_nm/india447417
Reuters: Ministers struggled to break deadlock in global climate talks on Tuesday, three days before world leaders are meant to agree a new U.N. pact aimed at averting dangerous climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin that she was "a bit nervous" about the lack of progress at the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Organisers of the talks said environment ministers would work deep into night on Tuesday to narrow wide differences, saying the bulk of ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Rich logging countries open logging loophole in plan to reduce deforestation
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1215-logging.html
Mongabay: While one tropical forest policy group saw hopeful signs emerging in the most recent revision of the negotiating text on the reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) mechanism at climate talks in Copenhagen, activist groups are warning that there remains a substantial logging loophole for developed countries. "The latest proposal from Annex 1 parties would not only allow countries to conceal large quantities of emissions from forestry using complicated accounting ...
Wed, 16 Dec 09
Airlines seek to boost market for biofuels
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_bi_ge/us_airlines_biofuels
Associated Press: Fifteen airlines and air cargo carriers said Tuesday they've signed memorandums of understandings that could lead to the purchase of hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel made from either coal or camelina, a weed that's a cousin to canola. The Air Transport Association said airlines from the United States, Canada, Germany and Mexico have signed memorandums with AltAir Fuels LLC of Seattle, which contemplates producing about 75 million gallons of fuel a year from camelina or similar ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Steven Chu pledges $350m clean tech fund to sweeten deal at Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/14/copenhagen-steven-chu-us
Guardian: The Obama administration tried to sweeten a climate change deal for developing countries today with the promise of a $350m fund for the development of new clean energy technologies. The fund will be used to encourage the development of renewable energy projects such as wind and solar power and more energy efficient appliances in the developing world. In an appearance at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, the energy secretary Steven Chu likened the initiative to the ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Billion people's water at risk from melting ice
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091214/ts_alt_afp/unclimatewarminggore
Agence France-Presse: Climate guru Al Gore warned UN climate talks Monday that the record melting of glaciers worldwide could deprive more than a billion people of access to fresh water. "There are more than a billion people on the planet who get more than half of their drinking water -- many of them all of their drinking water -- from the seasonal melting of snow melt and glacier ice," Gore said at the release of a report he co-sponsored. A triple threat from crumbling ice sheets, disappearing ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit carbon footprint biggest ever
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BD4D020091214?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Copenhagen climate talks will generate more carbon emissions than any previous climate conference, equivalent to the annual output of over half a million Ethiopians, figures commissioned by hosts Denmark show. Delegates, journalists, activists and observers from almost 200 countries have gathered at the Dec 7-18 summit and their travel and work will create 46,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it from their flights. This would fill nearly 10,000 Olympic swimming pools, ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Large White House Contingent in Copenhagen Raises Expectations, Sparks Debate
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/12/14/14greenwire-large-white-house-contingent-in-copenhagen-rai-51037.html
Greenwire: President Obama isn't scheduled to arrive at U.N. climate talks until Friday, but he has already made history by sending the largest U.S. team in the nearly two decades that these negotiations have been going on. Obama's representatives started arriving in force more than a week ago, including dozens of senior-level White House and agency officials and a steady flow of Cabinet members. "What it says is this administration is committed to solving this problem, to meeting this ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Australia's Rudd Looks for Success in Copenhagen
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/earth/15australiaclimate.html?_r=5
New York Times: Fresh from failing – twice – to pass his widely contested plan to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd headed to Copenhagen on Monday hoping to succeed internationally where his domestic agenda has thus far fallen short. Mr. Rudd is expected to play a key, behind-the-scenes role in the negotiations. He accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen of Denmark to join the U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and President Felipe Calderón of ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Microsoft Offers Climate Change Tools
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222001938
Information Week: Microsoft has introduced two new tools designed to help individuals understand the climate debate and manage their carbon footprints. The Environmental Atlas of Europe is "a digital platform for educating citizens about climate change," Microsoft said. Meanwhile, the company's new Bend The Trend app is "an online global program that helps people make pledges to reduce their carbon emissions." The programs were introduced Sunday at the United Nations 15th Climate Change ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
World's mayors tackle climate change on their own
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5htoZO0bHJP7fE7nlhLjpfHFazcIAD9CJ0E5G0
Associated Press: It isn't easy getting Italy's city dwellers out of their Fiats, off their Vespa scooters and onto bicycles to ride to work, "like here in Copenhagen," says an Italian environmental official. "It isn't a matter of painting a right lane and saying, 'This is a bike lane,'" explained Emanuele Burgin, a Bologna provincial councilor. "We realize we're far away from this." But Copenhagen's lord mayor has her problems, too. Finding enough parking space for all those bikes is just the ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Ten Climate Change "Flagship" Species Named - National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091214-copenhagen-climate-talks-specijavascript:WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new%20WebForm_PostBackOptions("btnStatusMore",%20"",%20true,%20"",%20"",%20false,%20true))es-list.html
National Geographic: Starving koalas and homeless clownfish are among ten species likely to suffer huge losses due to global warming, according to a report released today at the Copenhagen climate change conference by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Although the ten species aren't those most at risk, IUCN selected them because they are well-researched "flagship" species that are being affected by a spectrum of climate change impacts, from melting sea ice to beach ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
'Cut Fossil Fuel Subsidies but Compensate the Poor'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49680
Inter Press Service: Cutting governmental subsidies for fossil energy could lead to a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as compared to 1990 levels, says a recent study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. That represents a fifth of the maximum global commitment of emission reductions envisaged by negotiators meeting during the 15th Conference of Parties (CoP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, underway in the Danish capital. It ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Water Is the Missing Link in Copenhagen
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49679
Inter Press Service: When the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced the grim news that 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record, the U.N. agency also stressed last week the widespread water-related calamities caused by global warming. China has suffered its worst drought in five decades. In East Africa, a drought has led to massive food shortages. In North America, Mexico experienced severe-to-exceptional drought conditions in September. And in central Argentina, a drought caused ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Developing Countries Insist Kyoto Stays
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49678
Inter Press Service: The U.N. Climate Change Conference enters its final week under a cloud of uncertainty as the Africa Group led a protest of the developing world against a perceived attempt to abandon the Kyoto Protocol. Monday found long lines of delegates and observers waiting to clear security at the Bella Center's entrance. The now-familiar invitations to this or that side event in the background, you could hear people discussing the fate of precious clauses over the weekend, and murmurings of ...
Tue, 15 Dec 09
Sri Lanka: Local Climate Efforts: Too Little, Too Slow, Too Late?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49671
Inter Press Service: Sri Lankan experts do not seem to be pinning their hopes on the ongoing climate talks in Copenhagen, saying greenhouse gas emissions will continue to torment the world as long as western lifestyles remain the same. The key, therefore, is for the island state--and other developing countries for that matter--to tackle climate change right in their own backyards. That is, through applicable mitigation and adaptation measures. But that is easier said than done. Kusum Athukorala, ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
How 19 wind turbines change the life of Fujian abolone farmer
http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news9036.html
Xinhua: Yang Qingshan understands the benefits of renewable energy -- for rich and poor alike. The east China abalone farmer has become a millionaire supplying the luxury seafood to wealthy diners. But it would never have been possible without the row of 19 massive wind turbines that sit alongside his fish farm off Putian city, Fujian Province. Wind power has provided a stable electricity supply to Yang and more than 50,000 other people living on the island of Nanri ("the sun in ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Acidification threatens the world's fish species
http://www.theprovince.com/technology/Acidification%20threatens%20world%20fish%20species/2335729/story.html
Province: While in Copenhagen the world debates its response to global warming, a related but little-known menace is threatening B.C.'s salmon and other fish species. Delegates to the international climate summit in Copenhagen are focused on the climatic effects of carbon-dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels. But those emissions cause another effect that scientists believe may significantly damage the world's fisheries. Oceans absorb an estimated 30 per cent of carbon dioxide. ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Australia: Carbon emissions soar
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/carbon-emissions-soar-20091213-kqi2.html
Age: SAUSTRALIA's annual greenhouse gas emissions have soared by more than four-fifths since 1990 - far exceeding the 8 per cent permitted by the Kyoto Protocol. The revelation comes as developed countries - led by Australia, Canada and the United States - are being accused by the Greens and other environmentalists of "cooking the books" on their emissions in a row that threatens to disrupt the Copenhagen climate talks. The row is creating major divisions between developed and ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Huge subsidies stimulate worldwide carbon emissions
http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/world-stimulates-co2-emissions-huge-subsidies
Radio Netherlands: The use of fossil fuels is being subsidised worldwide to the tune of billions of euros. Huge government support is encouraging carbon emissions and therefore climate change. The Netherlands alone pays out more than seven billion euros in subsidies each year. At the same time, world leaders in Copenhagen are complaining about global warming. Fossil fuel subsidies are generally introduced with the best intentions. In developing countries, they are introduced to make energy, such as ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Protesters Mostly Quiet After Day of Action
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/science/earth/14climateweb.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Scattered protests continued on Sunday, but climate activists in Copenhagen were largely quiet after a day of mass demonstrations resulted in nearly 1,000 arrests. Per Larsen, coordinator for the Danish police, said that officers arrested about 230 people by midday Sunday, most in an illegal protest in the northern part of the city. The Bella Center, where representatives of nearly 200 countries have been meeting to craft a global strategy to combat climate change, was closed for the ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Fury at Copenhagen police tactics
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8410414.stm
BBC: BThe World Development Movement's director, Deborah Doane, condemned the authorities for what she said was a "complete violation of the right to protest and a step towards the breakdown of democracy". In a statement, Copenhagen police said a large group of protesters had organised themselves in a so-called "black bloc", in which they put on masks - an illegal action at a demonstration in Denmark. Officers then decided to "seal off" the group from the march. The force said the ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Forest communities said key to climate fight
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BC14Z20091213?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Saving tropical forests is crucial to fighting climate change but efforts to halt deforestation could go awry without safeguards to protect and compensate local communities, officials and academics said on Sunday. Forests act like "lungs" of the atmosphere, soaking up large amounts of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions. Billions of people also rely on them for food and livelihoods. Paying developing nations to preserve forests is a central issue at U.N. climate talks in the ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit: How major blocs have fared and what they want
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/13/copenhagen-summit-eu-us-china
Guardian: European Union Last week: The EU ended the week with a bang, upping its offer of climate aid to poorer nations to EUR2.4bn a year from next month. But the bloc's trump card – an upgrade from a 20% to a 30% cut to its emissions by 2020 – remained unplayed. Despite the stir it caused, chief negotiator Artur Runge-Metzger said the "Danish text" was "just a piece of paper". This week: The EU will certainly need to table the 30% offer if the talks are to progress. It will also have ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Climate talks shift into high gear amid fresh protests
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091213/wl_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Environment ministers haggled behind closed doors in their first major get-together of the UN climate summit, as they were warned Sunday of the catastrophic consequences of failure to reach a deal. Danish police detained around 200 protesters at another demonstration on the sidelines of the talks, a day after the first mass protest of the gathering. Sunday's informal meeting gathered four dozen environment ministers representing countries with varied economies and interests in ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Protests in Copenhagen: Rights groups press for inquiry into police tactics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/13/copenhagen-protests-police-tactics
Guardian: Denmark may be breaching European law, Danish human rights groups claimed tonight as they called for their government to launch an immediate inquiry after police in Copenhagen used controversial kettling and mass preventative arrest tactics for the third day running. Following the arrest of 68 people on Friday, and 958 yesterday on Saturday, police today arrested 257 demonstrators, "kettling" a section of a march near Osterport station, and as they had done on Saturday, cuffed the ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Climate progress eludes ministers, protesters held
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091213/ts_nm/us_copenhagen_climate
Reuters: Environment ministers struggled to nudge forward climate talks in Copenhagen on Sunday, and police detained more than 250 protesters on a second day of mass action. Church leaders handed a petition with half a million signatures to the United Nations and prayed for climate justice, while hundreds of demonstrators marched through the city center for a second day to remind world leaders of the huge public pressure for a successful deal at the Dec 7-18 talks. "We are telling them: ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
The push for 350: Contradictions and carbon levels
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091213/ap_on_sc/climate
Associated Press: As police cracked down on climate protesters, church bells tolled 350 times Sunday to impress on the U.N. global warming conference a number that is gaining a following, but is also awash in contradictions. Conference negotiators went behind closed doors in talks to pin down an elusive new pact on climate, talks in which the figure 350 looms as a goal for true believers, but one that appears impossible based on progress so far. It refers to 350 parts per million of carbon ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Poor nations threaten summit showdown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/13/copenhagen-climate-summit-poor-nations
Guardian: The Copenhagen climate talks hit trouble tonight as a number of African countries indicated their leaders would refuse to take part in the final summit unless significant progress was made in the next three days. The showdown between rich and poor countries came as ministers began arriving in Copenhagen to take over negotiations. However, negotiators failed to reach agreement in key areas such as emission cuts, long-term finance and when poor countries should start to reduce ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Hopes of global emissions deal at Copenhagen begin to fade
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/hopes-of-global-emissions-deal-at-copenhagen-begin-to-fade-1839874.html
Independent (UK): Gordon Brown will travel to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen tomorrow, two days ahead of most other world leaders, in an attempt to to break the deadlock over a new global-warming agreement. Any accord looks a long way off, with substantial differences remaining between developed and developing countries about what the world needs to do in the face of rising global temperatures, and how to pay for it. Meanwhile outside the conference hall, police were taking a tough ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Sunspots do not cause climate change, say scientists
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/sunspots-do-not-cause-climate-change-say-scientists-1839867.html
Independent (UK): Leading scientists, including a Nobel Prize-winner, have rounded on studies used by climate sceptics to show that global warming is a natural phenomenon connected with sunspots, rather than the result of the man-made emissions of carbon dioxide. The researchers -- all experts in climate or solar science -- have told The Independent that the scientific evidence continually cited by sceptics to promote the idea of sunspots being the cause of global warming is deeply ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Arrests, rattled nerves in Copenhagen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091214/pl_politico/30547
Politico: Black police vans, with sirens screaming and occupants clutching semiautomatic rifles, barreled past the iconic Marble Church here Sunday, rattling the nerves of climate change conferees trying to enjoy a final break before this week's intense finale. That collective flinch -- after a weekend of mass protests and arrests -- summed up the unsettled mood heading into an unpredictable week of negotiations, demonstrations and speeches by a diverse group of leaders including Al Gore, ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Canada: Quebec and Ontario take aim at Ottawa on climate change
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/climate-change/quebec-and-ontario-take-aim-at-ottawa-on-climate-change/article1398935/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Globe and Mail: Ottawa is under fire from Quebec and Ontario for its modest greenhouse gas emission reduction targets at the Copenhagen climate talks. In Denmark on Sunday for the United Nations climate convention, Quebec Premier Jean Charest condemned the federal government for the potential economic consequences of its anemic fight against climate change. "Commercial sanctions are a real danger for countries refusing to put in place tough targets,' he said. "We could be ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Cap and Trade: An Unserious Policy Framework for Humanity's Most Serious Challenge
http://greenthoughts.us/policy/serious/part1/
Green Thoughts: 1. Cap and Trade: An Unserious Policy Framework for Humanity's Most Serious Challenge In a few days in Copenhagen, world leaders will debate and, we hope, agree upon aggressive targets for humanity's greatest challenge to date: to avert devastating man-made climate change by transforming our economies' use of energy and of land while maintaining and improving social welfare for the world's peoples. We have in the past 250 years proceeded on a course of development which has used ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Climate change talks 'not on track'
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5h59LX8mIWz6NDNYuAh5a1mqjNsig
Press Association: International talks to tackle global warming are not on track to deliver the ambitious agreement needed to protect the planet, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has warned. The crunch UN negotiations on a new climate deal are entering their second week. With world leaders arriving at the talks in Copenhagen later in the week, the pressure is on negotiators to come up with a political agreement that heads of state and government, including Prime Minster Gordon Brown and US ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Nobel laureate lashes out at climate change skeptics
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/14/content_9167547.htm
China Daily: All the scientific data has established the fact that we are moving towards the global warming, check the data against the skeptics' figures and the truth will prevail, he told China Daily on Sunday. "It is a free world so let them believe they want to believe," he said. "Whenever the new knowledge comes, there will always be skeptics who will find that the knowledge will blow in their face." He highlighted his hope for a legally-binding climate deal with substantial ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
US Lawmakers Spar on Climate Change
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/environment/US-Lawmakers-Spar-on-Climate-Change-79180872.html
Voice of America: As U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to head to Copenhagen and the international climate change conference, members of Congress are weighing in with advice. There are deep differences over the right approach to global warming. On a Sunday when the climate conference officially was on a break, the debate raged on in the United States. On the Fox News Sunday television program, opposing views came to the fore. On the one side: James Inhofe, a Republican Senator from ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Wen on whirlwind phone diplomacy for climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-12/14/content_9167478.htm
China Daily: In the days leading up to his flight this week to Copenhagen, Premier Wen Jiabao has been on a marathon telephone diplomacy with major global leaders, a key indicator that the nation is "vigorously" pushing for a climate change treaty at the United Nations conference. With the Chinese delegation negotiating at the Danish capital, the premier's last-ditch efforts make up China's two-front push to coordinate stances between international players and gain consensus on global ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Is "Clean Coal" a Dead End?
http://energybulletin.net/node/50953
Energy Bulletin: Many energy experts, politicians on both sides of the aisle, and representatives of the coal industry agree on the need to spend billions to develop technologies to capture and store the carbon from burning coal, thus making coal "clean" from a climate standpoint. President Obama has repeatedly endorsed the development of "clean coal," and in July Department of Energy Secretary Stephen Chu announced that $1 billion of stimulus package funds would go toward re-launching FutureGen, a stalled ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Cuba: "Energy is an Instrument of Power"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49669
Inter Press Service: "Energy is an instrument of power. Whoever has energy, controls the world," Cuban expert Luis Bérriz said in an address to Klimaforum, the civil society meeting being held in parallel to the UN conference on climate change in the Danish capital. Cuba ditched the pursuit of nuclear energy, not at the behest of countries like the United States, but because it discovered that the sun "is the energy of socialism," Bérriz said Sunday. He was referring to an abandoned project, dating from ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Scientists Turn to Inuit for Clues
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49668
Inter Press Service: The Inuit people who live in and around the Arctic are among the worst victims of global warming, and scientists are now turning to their experience and indigenous knowledge to understand the staggering effects of climate change. "The Arctic is at the epicentre of climate change. Inuit traditions and subsistence practices have already been assaulted," stated the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) in a call for action at the 15th Conference of Parties (CoP15) to the United Nations ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Solar Villages Light Up the Andes
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49665
Inter Press Service: The residents of the Puna, the dry Andean highlands in northern Argentina, are cut off from everything - except the sun. Living on arid land thousands of metres above sea level, they are on their way to becoming "solar villages." In the north and northwest of Jujuy province, people are finding that solar energy, a clean and inexhaustible source, can replace firewood, which is increasingly scarce. The EcoAndina Foundation is showing the way through a series of projects. The ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Hope in 100,000 Flavours
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49664
Inter Press Service: The midpoint of a conference on climate change in which tremendous hope has been invested; unsurprising then that demonstrations of popular desire for decisive action against global warming took place around the world. Candlelight vigils were held in 139 countries Saturday, halfway through the Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In Copenhagen itself, in Halmtorvet near the site of a parallel conference organised by civil ...
Mon, 14 Dec 09
Chinese solar giant Suntech inks European mega-deal
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254945/chinese-solar-giant-inks
Business Green: Chinese solar energy giant Suntech Power announced late last week that it has signed three long-term deals with European clients to provide solar panels with a total of 490MW of capacity. The names of the mystery firms have not been disclosed, but reports claimed that they include a reseller; an engineering, procurement and construction firm and a solar project developer. Under the terms of the agreements, 115MW of panels will be supplied next year, with a further 155MW ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
India: Farmers outsmart nature, adapt to weather shifts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091211/india_nm/india446404
Reuters: As world leaders and top scientists in Copenhagen debate how to deal with climate change, farmers a world away in flood-prone areas of northern India are taking it into their own hands to adapt to shifts in the weather. For decades, inhabitants of Uttar Pradesh state have been witnessing erratic weather, including increasingly intense rainfall over short periods of time. The rain, combined with heavy mountain runoff from nearby Nepal, which is also seeing heavier-than-usual ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
American Climate Envoy's Good Cop, Bad Cop Roles
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/science/earth/11stern.html?_r=5
New York Times: As the United States' chief climate change negotiator, Todd Stern sometimes plays the bad cop, and seems to rather enjoy it. He arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, took a quick shower, then called a news conference, where he blasted the Chinese for not doing enough to reduce climate-altering emissions, the Europeans for demanding too much of the United States and the tiniest and poorest nations for demanding "reparations" from rich countries for their part in polluting the ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Senators outline compromise U.S. climate bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B94F120091210?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Three U.S. senators outlined a compromise climate bill Thursday that aims to win the votes needed for passage next year and could boost President Barack Obama's position at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen next week. Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, independent Joseph Lieberman and Republican Lindsey Graham believe the compromise will win votes from Republican and moderate Democratic senators by offering additional incentives for nuclear power, offshore drilling and clean ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
How much EU countries committing to climate fund
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091210/ap_on_re_eu/eu_eu_summit_glance
Associated Press: European Union leaders worked at a summit Thursday to come up with money to help pay developing nations to cut emissions and adapt to climate change. Here are some of the pledges made by the 27 EU members so far, to cover the next three years until a new climate pact being negotiated in Copenhagen comes into effect in 2012: Britain: $1.3 billion Sweden: euro800 million ($1.2 billion) Netherlands: euro300 million ($442 million) Denmark: euro160 million ($235 ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Bacteria engineered to turn carbon dioxide into liquid fuel
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210162222.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Global climate change has prompted efforts to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas produced by burning fossil fuels. In a new approach, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have genetically modified a cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide and produce the liquid fuel isobutanol, which holds great potential as a gasoline alternative. The reaction is powered directly by energy from sunlight, through ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Obama calls for climate deal, U.S. target under fire
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B953Y20091210?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Thursday to break the deadlock at climate change talks in Copenhagen, although many nations accused the United States of lacking ambition. In a move that could boost Obama's position when world leaders join the U.N. talks next week, three U.S. senators outlined a compromise climate bill on Thursday that aims to win the votes needed for passage next year. Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize in neighbouring Norway, Obama warned of dire ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
US provides 3 billion in subsidies for Exxon-mobil natural gas project in Papua New Guinea
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1210-hance_pnglng.html
Mongabay: While officials from around their world are working night-and-day to come up with an international agreement to combat climate change in Copenhagen, the US Export-Import Bank confirmed it will subsidize a natural gas project in Papua New Guinea to the tune of 3 billion dollars--a record for the bank. Critics say the project will clear over a thousand hectares of primary rainforest while pumping over 3 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year. Natural gas is considered far ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
U.S. forests and soils store equivalent of 50 years of nation's CO2 emissions, new estimate
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210173613.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: The first phase of a groundbreaking national assessment estimates that U.S. forests and soils could remove additional quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere as a means to mitigate climate change. The lower 48 states in the U.S. hypothetically have the potential to store an additional 3-7 billion metric tons of carbon in forests, if agricultural lands were to be used for planting forests. This potential is equivalent to 2 to 4 years of America's current CO2 emissions ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
US senators rally behind Obama on climate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091210/pl_afp/unclimatewarmingus
Agence France-Presse: Senators Thursday unveiled a framework for US action on climate change in line with President Barack Obama, hoping to show US commitment to the success of the global summit in Copenhagen. The Senate has yet to finalize plans for the first US nationwide cuts in carbon emissions blamed for global warming, but three senators across party lines offered an outline of what they hope will eventually become law. "This indicates to folks in Copenhagen that we're serious," Senator John ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
11 Greenpeace protesters held after EU summit stunt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091211/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingeugreenpeace
Agence France-Presse: Eleven Greenpeace activists were arrested after breaching EU security and carrying out a climate protest as European heads of state and government arrived for a Brussels summit, the group said Friday. The protesters surprised arriving VIPs, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as they jumped out of vehicles in a "Greenpeace motorcade" before the summit got underway on Thursday. Wearing fake access badges, the protesters chanted slogans, handed out tracts and unfurled ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Eat less meat and dairy: official recipe to help health of consumers - and the planet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/11/eat-less-meat-dairy-diet
Guardian: Sustainable development commissioner Professor Tim Lang explains to Felicity Lawrence why we need to change what we eat Link to this video The first official recommendations for a diet that is both healthy and good for the environment are published today, and they are likely to be seen as an assault on the UK's current food system. To fight climate change and tackle the growing crisis of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, British consumers must ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
EU split over size of emissions cut
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-split-over-size-of-emissions-cut-1838178.html
Independent (UK): A damaging east-west split has opened up among EU countries over how quickly and deeply they should cut their carbon emissions to combat climate change. At a two-day summit in Brussels which began last night, EU leaders were also divided about how much they should contribute to a global fund to help developing countries slow the growth in their emissions and switch to low-carbon industries. Gordon Brown wants the EU to raise its commitment to reduce its emissions by 20 per cent ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Next year forecast to be hottest on record
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/next-year-forecast-to-be-hottest-on-record-1838184.html
Independent (UK): Global warming will resume its upward climb again next year, the UK Met Office predicted yesterday at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen -- forecasting that 2010 will be the hottest year ever recorded for the world. The coming 12 months will be hotter than 1998, currently the hottest year in the 160-year-old instrumental record, Met Office officials said at the meeting in the Danish capital. The "central estimate" of their forecast is that the global average surface ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Senators revise climate bill to court GOP support
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_bi_ge/climate_congress
Associated Press: Senators trying to craft bipartisan climate legislation offered a revised proposal Thursday that would add incentives for building nuclear power plants and open the way for expanded oil and gas drilling off the nation's coastlines in hopes of attracting wider support. The new framework for a Senate climate bill would ease back requirements for early reductions of greenhouse gases. It calls for cuts in the range of 17 percent by 2020, instead of 20 percent, similar to reductions ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
EU leaders to pledge billions in climate aid
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091211/wl_sthasia_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Europe sought to put itself at the head of the global climate debate on Thursday with a landmark aid pledge worth billions of euros to help the developing world tackle the effects of global warming. But leaders struggled to find immediate agreement on a total offer worth around six billion euros (nine-billion-dollars) intended to help assuage poorer nations' concerns about a deal at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. At the first day of a two-day European Union summit in ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Next year to be the world's warmest on record, Met Office predicts
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6952470.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Next year is "more likely than not' to be the world's warmest year on record and man-made climate change will be a factor, according to the Met Office. It said that natural weather patterns would contribute less to next year's temperature than they did in 1998, the current warmest year in the 160-year record. El Niño effect, the cyclical heating of the Pacific Ocean, is much weaker than it was in 1998 but the Met Office expects the warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions to ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Illegal palm oil from forests taints household brands
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6952288.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): A company that produces many of Britain's best-known household brands has been exposed as contributing to the destruction of rainforests by buying thousands of tonnes of illegal palm oil. Unilever, which uses palm oil in its Flora and Stork margarines, Dove toiletries and Persil washing powder among many other products, will today announce that it is cutting links with Sinar Mas, Indonesia's largest palm oil company. Unilever is acting after being shown photographic evidence of ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Nations seek climate financing for poor countries
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_sc/climate
Associated Press: European nations pressed former East bloc neighbors Thursday to help create a multibillion-dollar fund for poor countries suffering the most from global warming, while key U.S. senators signaled progress on legislation in line with what President Barack Obama will pledge at the U.N. climate conference next week. The release of the legislative blueprint was timed to bolster the argument by U.S. delegates in Copenhagen that Washington is taking climate change seriously and that Congress ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Global forest map moves forward
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1210-global_forest_map.html
Mongabay: A plan to create a pan-tropical map of forest cover and carbon stocks is moving ahead with data now available on Google Earth, reports the Woods Hole Research Center. The project, which uses cloud-penetrating radar to assess forest cover and structure, is part of an effort to provide a means to monitor and report deforestation, a critical component of the REDD mechanism, which aims to compensate tropical countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation. The ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
US Senators Agree On A Framework For A Climate Change Bill
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Senators-Agree-On-A-Framework-For-A-Climate-Change-Bill-79007052.html
Voice of America: A bipartisan group of senators have agreed on a framework for climate change legislation and sent it to President Obama ahead of his trip to the UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. The senators say they want to send a message to the world leaders meeting there that the U.S. Senate is committed to reducing pollution and creating new jobs. Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, Lindsey Graham, a Republican and Joseph Lieberman, an Independent Democrat, have been working for weeks ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
UN official warns of climate change's human costs
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iA97TfuJ7-HoWzrSQXlH-bXpCynAD9CGN27O0
Associated Press: The U.N.'s Emergency Relief Coordinator says the effects of climate change are already being felt across the developing world and he hopes much of the money devoted to the problem will go toward helping it adapt. John Holmes said Thursday that regardless of what is decided at the climate conference in Copenhagen, the effects, including more intense rains and longer droughts, will be with us for at least 50 years. He said changing weather patterns threaten food security, with ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Climate change fears may worsen depression
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34369734/ns/health-mental_health/
Discovery Channel: Deadly heat waves, home-wrecking hurricanes, neighborhood-scorching wildfires: When you stop to think about it, global warming can be downright depressing. Now, scientists are starting to validate that feeling. According to accumulating evidence, climate change won't just trigger new cases of stress, anxiety and depression. People who already have schizophrenia and other serious psychological problems will probably suffer most in the aftermath of natural disasters and extreme weather ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Wen calls PM to 'harmonise' positions on climate change
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Wen-calls-PM-to-harmonise-positions-on-climate-change/articleshow/5324725.cms
Times of India: NEW DELHI: developing countries through the `draft' Danish text and other manoeuvres gather momentum, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday to "harmonise" positions of both countries on climate change. The two leaders agreed to work together at the Copenhagen conference to present a more unified picture, against the developed countries taking positions that could push both India and China into taking legally binding emission cuts. India ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Q&A: "We're Here to Insert Some Reality into an Unreal Situation"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49628
Inter Press Service: Bill McKibben is a U.S. writer, environmentalist and the founder of 350.org, an international climate campaign. His first book, "The End of Nature", was published in 1989 and is regarded as the first book written for a general audience about climate change. 350.org is credited with organising the most widespread political action in history when more than 5,200 public demonstrations were held on Oct. 24 in 181 countries. The organisation's goal is to raise public awareness about ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
US Senators offer climate bill plan
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1773
Carbon Positive: A cross-party group of US senators has come up with a framework for a US climate bill that might pass Congress, attempting to send a positive signal to UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Their proposal identifies broad principles that might underpin a unified and politically-viable energy and carbon emissions bill that could pass the Senate next year. The three Senators, Democrat John Kerry, Republican Lindsey Graham, and Independent Joseph Lieberman, have been quietly working away on ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Police claim EU carbon credit fraud has topped €5bn
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254865/police-claim-eu-carbon-credit
Business Green: The European police agency Europol has today revealed that the fraudulent trade in carbon credits that affected a number of countries over the past few months is far more widespread than previously thought and could have cost EU taxpayers up to EUR5bn in lost revenue over the past 18 months. The agency said in a statement that it believed that in some countries up to 90 per cent of the trading of EU emissions allowances (EUAs) was subject to fraudulent activity. EUA's which are ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Europe to promise billions in climate battle aid
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091210/ts_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: European leaders met Thursday to discuss billions of dollars of aid for developing countries to battle global warming in a bid to increase pressure for a deal at the UN climate summit. Europe has sought to establish itself at the forefront of the climate campaign and a summit of EU leaders was expected to produce a promise of six billion euros (nine billion dollars) to help poorer nations between 2010-2012. Britain has offered 800 million pounds (885 million euros) while ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Kyoto Protocol seen extended in U.N. climate draft
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B84B820091210?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: An enhanced version of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol is set to be part of the fight against global warming until 2020, according to a draft text by Denmark which is hosting talks on a new climate agreement. "Parties to the Kyoto Protocol ... decide that further commitments for developed countries should take the form of quantified (greenhouse gas) emission limitation and reduction objectives," according to the text, intended as the possible basis for an agreement at the Copenhagen talks, ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Soros: Use IMF Funds to Help Fight Climate Change
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126044605972885237.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop
Wall Street Journal: Financier George Soros proposed that rich nations tap into special currency reserves issued by the International Monetary Fund to finance developing nations' efforts to combat climate change. Making the proposal, Mr. Soros waded into the key dispute between rich and poor nations at the United Nations climate summit here. Mr. Soros suggested that rich nations finance climate subsidies for developing nations by tapping into some of the $283 billion in special drawing rights that ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
China, India helped draft controversial 'Copenhagen Agreement,' insider says
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-danish-text11-2009dec11,0,2614638.story
LA Times: In public at least, the early days of the climate summit here have been dominated by developing nations' furor over a proposed " Copenhagen Agreement" that leaked to environmentalists and reporters Tuesday. But many developing nations -- including China and India -- in fact had a hand in drafting the "Danish text," a person with deep knowledge of the negotiations said today. Developing countries including China, India, Brazil, Algeria, Ethiopia and Bangladesh had "input into ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Stolen e-mails embolden climate change skeptics
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9MrjlmXzORMlHNvYfE9yAlgtiBwD9CGLSJG1
Associated Press: At a critical time, the uproar over stolen e-mails suggesting scientists suppressed contrary views about climate change has emboldened skeptics -- including congressional Republicans looking to scuttle President Barack Obama's push for mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases. The e-mail brouhaha dubbed "Climategate" by doubters comes as U.S. delegates to the international climate conference in Copenhagen are trying to convince the world the United States is determined to move ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Ocean acidification rates pose disaster for marine life, major study shows
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/10/ocean-acidification-epoca
Guardian: The world's oceans are becoming acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the last 55m years, threatening disaster for marine life and food supplies across the globe, delegates at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen have been warned. A report by more than 100 of Europe's leading marine scientists, released at the climate talks this morning, states that the seas are absorbing dangerous levels of carbon dioxide as a direct result of human activity. This is already affecting marine ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Russia: Climate change in Yakutsk: The big man in the shrinking house
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/10/faces-from-climate-frontline-yakutsk
Guardian: Jonathan Watts reports from Yakutsk, where climate change is slowly melting Siberia's permafrost, forcing local people like Avetik and Ludmila Nasarian to rebuild their houses to deal with the regular flooding. For the full story about how photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Ficher put a human face to climate change, read Weekend magazine on Saturday
Fri, 11 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Climate change turns up heat on mushrooms
http://www.physorg.com/news179599392.html
Physorg: Scientists have discovered that spring-fruiting fungi, including the morel and St George's mushroom are fruiting nearly three weeks earlier than they did 50 years ago. The study, carried out by an international team of scientists, including a biologist from Royal Holloway, University of London, examines the changes in the time of spring fruiting in Norway and the UK between 1960 - 2007. The findings are being published in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' this week and ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Climate pressures cloud EU summit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8405099.stm
BBC: EU leaders meeting in Brussels are under pressure to give the UN climate talks in Copenhagen a firm signal of their commitment to tackling global warming. The EU sees itself as a world leader in this area, having pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. A higher target of 30% has been suggested - but only if similar pledges are made by other industrialised powers. Sweden, chairing its last EU summit, has dismissed speculation ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Flooding, crop failures and drought " even if we cut back on emissions
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Flooding-crop--failures-and.5899070.jp
Scotsman: THE most stringent measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will still leave hundreds of millions of people suffering crop failures, flooding and water shortages by the end of the century, according to research by British scientists. Research presented to the Copenhagen climate summit yesterday showed that a deal to keep global temperature rises at 2C could reduce by between half and two thirds the impacts of global warming. However, this meant there would still be a ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
France: Sarkozy wants 30 percent Europe emissions cut: minister
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091210130312.56y31gbi.html
Agence France-Presse: French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to set a European target of a 30 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels "as soon as possible", his environment minister said Thursday. Sarkozy told a meeting with non-government groups that France was pushing for "one of the biggest possible commitments" by European countries, cuts of "up to 30 percent as soon as possible," Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters. Sarkozy will head to Copenhagen next week to join other ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Soros: Finance gap could 'wreck' climate talks
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Nations-grapple-with-climate-apf-3266338076.html?x=0&.v=7
Associated Press: European nations struggled to pin down their joint contribution to a $10 billion climate fund for poor nations as debate over financing heated up Thursday in global warming talks. AP - George Soros, businessman and philanthropist, announces during a press conference a plan to generate an additional 100 billion ... How to distribute money for poor nations to deal with climate change is one of the key stumbling blocks at the U.N. conference in Copenhagen, where 192 countries are ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Snow at Highest Elevations No Longer Pure
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091210/sc_livescience/snowathighestelevationsnolongerpure
LiveScience: The pure white snow atop the Andes Mountains may not be so pure after all. Scientists have found traces of toxic pollutants called PCBs in snow samples taken from Aconcagua Mountain, the highest peak in the Americas. While the overall PCB levels were quite low, the results show that these long-lasting contaminants, notorious for causing myriad health problems, can end up at altitudes as high as 20,340 feet (6,200 meters), making their way through the atmosphere to these remote ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Forested Nations Seek Favorable Accounting Rules in Copenhagen
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/12/10/10climatewire-forested-nations-seek-favorable-accounting-r-75605.html
ClimateWire: At this week's global climate talks, some rich nations are prepared to urge more lenient accounting practices to hide a portion of their fossil fuel carbon emissions using their trees, environmentalists say. The problem arises as Kyoto Protocol-signing nations now seek to change the rules governing how they gauge their large forest carbon stocks, a complicated issue that has stalled wide-ranging climate talks in the past. Forests are a major portion of the world's carbon ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
China blows toward wind power
http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=145521
Reuters
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate change summit: Scientists say planet only has twenty years to stop catastrophic global warming - Dail
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/12/10/copenhagen-climate-change-summit-scientists-say-planet-only-has-twenty-years-to-stop-catastrophic-global-warming-115875-21886693/
Mirror: The deadline for going green and and saving the planet from dangerous warming was dramatically spelled out at the Copenhagen climate conference yesterday. If we are not making drastic cuts in pollution by 2020, costing everybody on the planet up to £150-a-year, we have virtually no chance of limiting temperature rises to 2C. Only geo-engineering solutions such as covering the planet in artificial trees or reflecting sunlight back into space with mirrors could save us. They are ...
Fri, 11 Dec 09
Canadian youth protest tarsands in Copenhagen
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/12/09/copenhagen-oilsands-protest.html?ref=rss
CBC: Canadian youth delegates, including Amber Church of Whitehorse, centre, hold up the oilsands report in Copenhagen on Wednesday. (Patricia Bell/CBC) Dozens of Canadian youth at the United Nations' climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, led a protest against the Alberta oilands on Wednesday, calling for a moratorium on further oilsands development. Around 50 youth rallied at Copenhagen's Bella Center, where the summit is taking place, shouting slogans such as "Shut down ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
UK Met Office warns carbon emissions must peak by 2020
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8405025.stm
BBC: Keeping global temperature rise under 2C (3.7F) will be almost impossible unless carbon emissions begin to fall within a decade, analysis suggests. The conclusion comes from a study by the UK Met Office (UKMO). Even if emissions peaked in 2020, there would be a 50% chance of temperatures rising by more than 2C, the target adopted by the G8 at its July summit. Meeting the lower target of 1.5C favoured by some developing countries is virtually impossible, the UKMO ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Copenhagen, U.S. pushes for emissions cuts from China, developing nations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/09/AR2009120904596.html?wprss=rss_world
Washington Post: Two top Obama administration officials arrived Wednesday at the U.N.-sponsored climate talks that opened this week offering both diplomacy and a tough line: The United States is willing to be a full partner in fighting climate change, but the real problem is with China and the developing world. The day began with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson detailing the many measures President Obama has taken to cut greenhouse gases in the United States, telling a ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Solar power coming to a store near you
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091210/ap_on_bi_ge/us_diy_solar
Associated Press: Solar technology is going where it has never gone before: onto the shelves at retail stores where do-it-yourselfers can now plunk a panel into a shopping cart and bring it home to install. Lowe's has begun stocking solar panels at its California stores and plans to roll them out across the country next year. This shows how far the highest of the high-tech alternative energy technologies has come. Solar power is now accessible to anyone with a ladder, a power drill, and the ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Guyana Offers a Model to Save Rain Forest
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/global/08iht-rbogeco.html?_r=5&pagewanted=1&sq=REDD&st=cse&scp=5
New York Times: In Guyana, where pristine rain forest still covers 75 percent of the land, and barely 750,000 people live in a country roughly the size of Britain, a young economist-turned-president is pushing a development model based on conservation that has earned his government international recognition in the United Nations talks on a climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Faced with the possibility of climate change, the international community is starting to talk about paying for the ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
U.K.-Based Financier Invests in Guyana's Rain Forest
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/business/global/08iht-rbogguy1.html?_r=5&scp=8&sq=REDD&st=cse
New York Times: Approaching the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen, Guyana has offered to conserve all of its pristine rain forests – 75 percent of its territory – as part of a national economic development plan. It hopes to earn income from the international community for carbon storage under a section of the treaty called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD. But Guyana is also thinking beyond carbon storage, to all the other ecosystem benefits that healthy ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Air fares to rise on carbon taxes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8401864.stm
BBC: Including the aviation sector in the European Emissions Trading Scheme in 2012 will drive up prices - according to a new report by the Carbon Trust. The report's author, Bruce Duguid, estimates that fares will increase by an initial 3% to 7%. His analysis also suggests carbon pricing may give some airlines a competitive advantage. Entering the scheme will have the biggest impact on budget tickets which will see proportionally higher rises. "At a typical carbon ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
UN report singles out Australian weather
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/un-report-singles-out-australian-weather-20091208-khtd.html
Sydney Morning Herald: This past decade is likely to be the world's hottest since records began - apparent proof that global warming is real. And Australia is leading the trend, with 2009 on track to be the third-warmest year since 1850. The UN's weather bureau, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), has issued a preliminary summary of 2009's weather and the decade leading up to it. "The decade 2000-2009 is very likely to be the warmest on record," WMO secretary general Michel Jarraud ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
E.U. Leaders Play Catch-Up on Climate Strategy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/europe/10iht-union.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Most nations seeking to negotiate a new accord on climate change in Copenhagen worked out their negotiating tactics in advance. Embarrassingly for the European Union, which claims to be the in the vanguard of environmental issues, its leaders are still figuring out their game plan for the United Nations climate summit meeting that began on Monday in the Danish capital. As the first week of talks draw to a close, heads of state and government from the E.U. will meet for their ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Danish Police Seize Protest Equipment
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/science/earth/10protest.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Nearly 200 makeshift shields, scores of paint bombs and other equipment, including nine platforms with crude staircases, were seized early Wednesday in a police raid on a building that city officials had provided as free housing for activists visiting Copenhagen during international climate talks here. Per Larson, chief coordinator for the Copenhagen police, confirmed that equipment had been seized and said that it was likely meant to "be used to cause trouble" during a large-scale ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
'Only 50/50' chance that 2C climate target will be met
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/only-5050-chance-that-2c-climate-target-will-be-met-1837373.html
Independent (UK): Keeping the global temperature rise caused by climate change to C, which is widely regarded as the limit of what the Earth can safely stand, is going to be extremely difficult and will involve an enormous effort by the world, new research by British scientists indicates. The C target, first proposed by the European Union in 1996 and now seen as a norm, is likely to be adopted by the international community as a whole next week at the end of the UN climate conference in ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Global board to control emissions payments
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/global-board-to-control-emissions-payments-1837375.html
Independent (UK): Britain has attempted to supply an answer to a key question exercising all the participants at the Copenhagen climate conference: who will hold the purse-strings for the new Climate Fund? The Fund will be a truly colossal pot of finance likely to be established by the meeting, out of which huge new sums of aid will be distributed to developing countries to help them counteract global warming. Gordon Brown has already proposed that the fund should be disbursing $100bn a year by ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Tres Amigas applies for federal approvals
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091210/ap_on_bi_ge/us_renewable_energy_hub
Associated Press: A company that wants to connect the nation's three massive power grids at a facility in Clovis, N.M., has applied for regulatory approvals needed to move forward with the project. Tres Amigas LLC's attorney Dave Raskin of Steptoe & Johnson said Wednesday the company has submitted two filings to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The company is asking to sell transmission rights through the eastern New Mexico facility based on market rates. Raskin says Tres ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Brazil allocates first funds under plan to save the Amazon
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1209-brazil.html
Mongabay: Summary: Brazil's Amazon Fund to reduce deforestation distributes $40M to 5 NGOs Projects focus on monitoring, environmentally-responsible land use, forest protection, and payments for avoiding deforestation 20% of Amazon Fund will go towards monitoring of non-rainforest ecosystems and forests outside Brazil Brazil's development bank BNDES has announced the first five recipients of grants under the South American country's ambitious Amazon Fund, which aims to reduce deforestation by ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Giant oil spill in Alaska likely caused by ice
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091210/ap_on_re_us/us_north_slope_spill
Associated Press: Officials believe that ice plugged up a pipeline and likely caused a rupture that sent 46,000 gallons of crude oil and water gushing onto snow-covered tundra on Alaska's North Slope late last month. The spill is one of the worst by volume since the March 2006 spill of 200,000 gallons of crude at Prudhoe Bay, the biggest spill ever on the North Slope, according to Department of Environmental Conservation figures. BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said Wednesday that an ice buildup is ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
China climate envoy criticises rich nations
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091210/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarningchinaenvoy
Agence France-Presse: China's envoy to the world climate change talks in Copenhagen has criticised rich countries for failing to fulfil commitments to curb carbon emissions and provide aid to developing nations. The comments from the envoy, Yu Qingtai, came after another official said a Chinese government minister had been blocked several times from entering the venue for the marathon UN talks in the Danish capital. "You will find a huge gap if you make a comparison between their pledges and the ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Hacked E-Mails Reveal Controversial Climate Change Memos
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/hacked-mails-reveal-controversial-climate-change-memos/story?id=9294927
ABC News: A collection of e-mails, dating back more than a dozen years, is giving climate change skeptics plenty of new fodder -- just as international officials are gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss the issue of climate change. The e-mails, stolen last month from a top climate research center in Britain and posted on the Internet, are dismissive of naysayers and discuss manipulating information to exaggerate the findings about global warming. In one, Penn State's Michael Mann ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Australia: SA crop yields slashed by extreme weather
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/09/2765834.htm?section=australia
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Extreme weather back in November has cut the expected crop yields of some South Australian farms by half. A record heatwave for the month wiped off between 40 and 60 per cent of yields in areas including the state's south-east and mid-north. Farmers who were fortunate enough to begin harvesting earlier have had one of the best seasons in a long time. President of the South Australian Farmers Federation Peter White says crops that were still green when the heatwave struck ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
We can afford to reduce our emissions now
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/we-can-afford-to-reduce-our-emissions-now-20091208-khiv.html
Age: Maybe I'm naive, but I'm feeling optimistic about the climate talks that started in Copenhagen on Monday. US President Barack Obama now plans to address the conference on its last day, which suggests that the White House expects real progress. It's also encouraging to see developing countries - including China, the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide - agreeing, at least in principle, that they need to be part of the solution. Of course, if things go well in Copenhagen, ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Warming or not, we must end global oil economy
http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?id=8988&sec=3&t=
China Post: This month, leaders from all across the globe are in the Danish capital of Copenhagen for a conference on climate change that may end in a new treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto accord. Of course, the effectiveness of this latest attempt at getting the world to set aside its differences in order to present a common front against climate change will be debated, especially considering that the Kyoto Treaty was never ratified by one of the planet's most active first-world carbon emitters: the ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Latin American Women Want Modified Trade Rules
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49611
Inter Press Service: "We don't need to change the climate, we need to change trade," said Brazilian activist Marta Lago at Klimaforum, the civil society meeting held in parallel with the climate change summit in the Danish capital. Lago and Norma Maldonado from Guatemala, who belong to the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN), criticised the free trade treaties signed by Latin American countries with the United States and the European Union in a panel Tuesday. They said free trade ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
World Bank Touts Carbon Market
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49602
Inter Press Service: The World Bank proudly defended the global carbon market in the Danish capital Tuesday for its "contribution" to efforts to mitigate climate change, in spite of criticism from civil society. The multilateral lender presented its publication titled "10 Years of Experience in Carbon Finance: Insights from working with carbon markets for development and global greenhouse gas mitigation", at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Biodiesel Breakthrough or Environmental Nightmare?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49599
Inter Press Service: As Finnish energy major Neste Oil scales up production of its 'green' diesel NExBTL, environmental activists fear that more land will go under palm oil plantations at the expense of Southeast Asia's threatened rainforests. Palm oil is the main feedstock that goes into the production of NExBTL of which Neste Oil expects to use 50,000 tonnes this year and scale up that figure in subsequent years. Neste Oil claims that its NExBTL diesel is effective in reducing carbon dioxide ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Nuclear option in Copenhagen?
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1208-hance_nuclear.html
Mongabay: On the first day of talks at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Kevin Conrad, Papua New Guinea's Special Envoy and Ambassador for Environment and Climate Change, surprised many by calling for a 'nuclear option'. The option would allow a document to be ratified by 75 percent of the conference's nations, rather than the usual consensus required. It is thought the nuclear option would give more power to developing countries, since they far outnumber wealthy nations at the ...
Thu, 10 Dec 09
Copenhagen: Leaked draft deal widens rift between rich and poor nations
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/09/copenhagen-summit-danish-text-leak
Guardian: Three hours after the "Danish text" had been leaked to the Guardian, Lumumba Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the group of 132 developing countries known as G77 plus China, spelt out exactly why the poor countries he represents were so incensed. "The text robs developing countries of their just and equitable and fair share of the atmospheric space. It tries to treat rich and poor countries as equal," said the diplomat. The text is a draft proposal for the final political agreement ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Brazilian tribe owns carbon rights to Amazon rainforest land
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1208-surui_carbon.html
Mongabay: A rainforest tribe fighting to save their territory from loggers owns the carbon-trading rights to their land, according to a legal opinion released today by Baker & McKenzie, one of the world's largest law firms. The opinion, which was commissioned by Forest Trends, a Washington, D.C.-based forest conservation group, could boost the efforts of indigenous groups seeking compensation for preserving forest on their lands, effectively paving the way for large-scale indigenous-led ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Met Office reveals last decade was the hottest ever recorded
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/met-office-reveals-last-decade-was-the-hottest-ever-recorded-1836778.html
Independent (UK): The first decade of this century has been by far the warmest on record, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UK Met Office announced yesterday - and this year is likely to have been the fifth hottest. At the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, officials from both organisations said the new figures showed that the world was not in a cooling phase, as some sceptics have asserted, but that the warming trend seen for the past 40 years was continuing. The 10 years up ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Climate change ' forcing polar bears to become cannibals'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6949625.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): A male polar bear dragged the grisly remains of a cub that it caught and killed in the Hudson Bay area, Canada, after separating it from its mother -- one of a growing number of instances of cannibalism on record, according to climate change campaigners. The bears may be forced into eating their own kind when the slower formation of Arctic ice leaves them with a shrinking platform from which to hunt seals, according to a study by American and Canadian scientists in 2006. The World ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Bedouins delve into solar power
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/bedouins-delve-into-solar-power/article1393495/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Agence France-Presse: A Bedouin village in Israel's Negev Desert is tapping into the one natural resource it has in abundance -- the sun. Twenty of its 80 houses and the local school run on solar energy, marking a technological revolution for the Bedouin community
Wed, 9 Dec 09
EPA uses its power on climate change, finally
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2010456662_edit09regs.html
Seattle Times: The Environmental Protection Agency's announcement that greenhouse-gas emissions are a public health hazard is part of an orderly regulatory process that sets the stage for action. Congress has the power, and legislation before it, that can direct what happens next. THE Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse-gas emissions pose a threat to public health is hardly a radical leap. The U.S. Supreme Court would say the agency is doing its job. Certainly, EPA ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Bangladesh tops list of most vulnerable countries to climate change
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1208-hance_bangladesh.html
Mongabay: According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Bangladesh is the most vulnerable nation to extreme weather events, which many scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change. From 1990 to 2008, Bangladesh has lost 8,241 lives on average every year due to natural disasters. In addition, rising sea levels also threaten millions of Bangladeshis. The report was released today at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. After Bangladesh--rounding out the top ten--comes Myanmar, ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Denmark: No Closed Doors at Parallel Summit
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49594
Inter Press Service: Two blocks from the Metro station on the busy M-1 Line, the first indication that pedestrians are slipping into the space-time continuum known as the "Free City" is the ubiquitous graffiti and occasional "boom!" of small explosive devices like M-80s echoing through the cobbled streets. Hippies, bikers and freethinkers rule here, in the largest autonomous - and what many would argue unruliest - neighbourhood in all of Scandinavia. Located on 85 acres on the grounds of a ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Temperature records released to debunk climate change claims
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/temperature-records-released-to-debunk-climate-change-claims-1836391.html
Press Association: The Met Office today released temperature records from more than 1,500 climate monitoring stations around the world in the latest efforts to debunk claims by sceptics that global warming data was manipulated by scientists. The raw data comes from a network of individual stations which have been used by the World Meteorological Organisation to monitor global surface temperatures. According to the Met Office, the records from the 1,500 sites show that temperatures have risen over ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Tibetans come to climate talks to plead for action
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarmingtibet
Agence France-Presse: An unofficial delegation of Tibetans, the first to attend UN climate talks, said Tuesday that global warming and China's environmental policies threatened Himalayan glaciers providing water to more than a billion Asians. Tibet, the world?s largest and highest plateau, is often called the "third pole" because it stores more freshwater in the form of glaciers than any region on Earth except the North and South poles. The region is warming at twice the global average, leading to ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Last decade 'the warmest on record'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/last-decade-the-warmest-on-record-1836397.html
Press Association: The past 10 years have been the warmest decade on record and this year has been one of the five hottest, scientists revealed today as negotiators attempt to make progress on a new international deal to combat climate change. While 1998 remains the hottest single year since records began, the past decade has been the warmest period in the 160-year record of global surface temperatures, the Met Office announced. And 2009 is another of the warmest years, according to the UN's ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
This decade 'warmest on record'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8400905.stm
BBC: The first decade of this century is "by far" the warmest since instrumental records began, say the UK Met Office and World Meteorological Organization. Their analyses also show that 2009 will almost certainly be the fifth warmest in the 160-year record. Burgeoning El Nino conditions, adding to man-made greenhouse warming, have pushed 2009 into the "top 10" years. The US space agency Nasa suggests that a new global temperature record will be set "in the next one or two ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow third runway fits with UK emission target
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/12/08/heathrow_third_runway_fits_with_uk_emission_target/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: A government-commissioned report has suggested that expansion of London's overcrowded Heathrow Airport won't break Britain's commitment to cut carbon emissions -- despite warning that an unchecked flying boom fueled by budget airlines would break those targets. The report from the influential Committee on Climate Change was seized on by airline and airport bosses as qualified backing for further growth of the industry -- to the dismay of environmental lobbyists, who have targeted air ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Noughties are warmest decade in recorded history
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/met-office-warmest-decade
Guardian: The past 10 years have been the warmest in recorded history, according to the UK Met Office. Figures released today at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen show that despite 1998 being the warmest year on record, the noughties has been the warmest decade recorded in 160 years. The Met Office also released the raw data from around 1,500 global monitoring stations in an effort to satisfy critics who have demanded that researchers be more transparent with their data in the wake of ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit: decade is world's warmest on record
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6948629.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): This decade has been the warmest on record and this year is likely to be the fifth warmest, according to the World Meteorological Organisations's (WMO) assessment of global average temperatures. The WMO released the preliminary data at the Copenhagen climate summit in what the Met Office, which contributed to the figures, admitted was an attempt to influence the negotiations over cutting greenhouse gases. The Times has also learnt that the Met Office will announce later this ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Tanzania: Deforestation threatens Kilimanjaro ice cap
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B72AQ20091208?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: At the foot of Africa's snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, images of the mountain adorn the sides of rusting zinc shacks and beer bottle labels, but the fate of the real version hangs in the balance. As politicians and lobbyists try to thrash out a new climate deal in Copenhagen, experts in Tanzania say local land practices must increasingly take their share of the blame for the rapid shrinkage of the ice on Kilimanjaro's peak. According to one recent U.S. scientific study, the cap ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Climate change to drive up to 1 bln from homes: IOM
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B72A020091208?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Climate change stands to drive as many as one billion people from their homes over the next four decades, the International Organization for Migration said in a study Tuesday. The IOM report, launched on the second day of international climate talks in Copenhagen, estimated 20 million people were made homeless last year by sudden-onset environmental disasters that are set to amplify as global warming increases. But it found that few of the "climate refugees" are able to leave ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
In or Out of Office, They Focus on Climate Change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/cq/20091208/pl_cq_politics/politics3261265
CQPolitics.com: Former Vice President Al Gore is not the only ex-politician who believes climate change is this generation's chance to change the future. In fact, a persistent group of former members -- who no longer have to worry about re-election and are free to work on issues they truly care about -- are hard at work, both in the United States and in Copenhagen, trying to find a solution for climate change. They are tackling the subject much the same way they focused on it when they served ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
East Africa: Mabira to Mau - Let's Protect the Environment
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912080584.html
Monitor: The UN Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark that kicked off yesterday is a significant occasion in environmental diplomacy as the international community commits itself to new strategies to combat global warming. The Summit comes at a time when severity of climate change is being felt in all corners of the world. Global warming is already affecting biodiversity, water resources, rain-fed agriculture, food security, public health and coastal systems, among others. Effects of ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Met data shows global warming over 150 years
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/wl_uk_afp/unclimatewarmingbritain
Agence France-Presse: The Met Office on Tuesday released data from hundreds of monitoring stations worldwide showing that the global surface temperature has risen significantly over the last 150 years. The statistics are being made public as countries from around the world are locked in UN climate change talks in Copenhagen which could lead to a new deal to cut emissions blamed for global warming. Perhaps the most striking finding is that the rise in global surface temperature has averaged more than ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-disarray-danish-text
Guardian: The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations. The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
United Kingdom: World's largest wheat-based biofuel refinery opens on Teeside
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254625/biofuel-refinery-open-teeside
Business Green: The world's biggest refinery for making biofuels from wheat was unveiled at Wilton on Teeside yesterday, as the company behind the giant facility confirmed production will begin before Christmas. The £250m Ensus plant will turn wheat into transport fuel, animal feed and usable carbon dioxide for the food and beverage sector. The company said it has already struck a 10-year deal with Shell, which has seen the oil giant agree to purchase 400 million litres of bioethanol a year to ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Wastepickers of the world unite at climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingrecycling
Agence France-Presse: Ignored, marginalised or despised in many countries, wastepickers from Asia, Latin America and Africa have come together in Copenhagen to lobby for recognition as unsung heroes in the fight against climate change. An estimated 15 million people around the world survive by sifting through trash, rooting out plastic packaging, glass bottles, scrap metal, paper and other tossed-out goods that are then resold for recycling. In some places, the recycling rate reaches more than 80 ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
UN scientists defend 'targeted' colleagues
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingscience
Agence France-Presse: Members of the Nobel-winning panel of climate scientists rose on Tuesday to defend colleagues that they said had been "targeted" for email hacking to sway the outcome of the UN global warming talks. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said he believed the email intercept was a calculated act. "The persons who have worked on this report, and those who unfortunately have been victims of this terrible and illegal act, are ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Human role in climate change not in doubt: U.N.'s Ban
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B735X20091208?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. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that emails leaked from a British university have done nothing to undermine the United Nations' view that climate change is accelerating due to humans. "Nothing that has come out in the public as a result of the recent email hackings has cast doubt on the basic scientific message on climate change and that message is quite clear -- that climate change is happening much, much faster than we realized and we human beings are the primary ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
10 million sign petition for climate action
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/10-million-sign-petition-for-climate-action-1836507.html
Independent (UK): Ten million people around the world have signed an online petition demanding that leaders sign up to a "fair, ambitious and binding" climate treaty, organisers of the initiative said on Monday. The petition, staged by TckTckTck, an umbrella organisation of 226 green groups, was handed to UN climate chief Yvo de Boer, Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen and conference chairwoman Hedegaard. Over the next 12 days, members of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
2009 set to be fifth warmest year on record
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B71SO20091208?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: This year is likely to be the fifth warmest on record and the first decade of this century the hottest since records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. Speaking on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, WMO head Michel Jarraud pointed to extreme hotspots this year -- Australia had its third warmest year since record dating began in 1850, "with three exceptional heatwaves." "I could go on. There was the worst drought in five decades ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
UK and US temperature changes, by weather station, for the last century
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/2009/dec/08/uk-us-temperature-change-global-met
Guardian: The UK Met Office has released records from nearly measuring stations showing a rise in global average land temperatures around the world - in a move that may help dampen the row over the hacked climate science emails between scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In the emails, the scientists at UEA's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) apparently discussed attempts to inhibit access to emails and data that had been requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The CRU has ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
New Orleans a test case for global warming
http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/07/darden.katrina.lessons/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29
CNN: Copenhagen, Denmark, is 5,000 miles away from New Orleans, Louisiana. But representatives of the 192 nations gathering this week at the climate change conference need to keep the memory of a flooded New Orleans in mind. Two years ago this month, the Make It Right Foundation was launched to help the families of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward rebuild their lives and community. That was already two years after Katrina, and the once-vibrant neighborhood was still in ruins, failed by ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Bangladesh, Myanmar 'worst-hit' by extreme weather
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingriskweather
Agence France-Presse: Bangladesh, Myanmar and Honduras were the countries most severely affected by extreme weather events from 1990 to 2008, according to a climate change risk study published on Tuesday. When only 2008 is considered, the top three worst-hit countries were Myanmar, Yemen and Vietnam, said the paper which was published on the sidelines of the ongoing UN talks in the Danish capital. The so-called Global Climate Risk Index aims at giving a pointer of a country's vulnerability to ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
World climate anomalies
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2009/dec/02/world-climate-anomalies-map
Guardian: CTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Interactive: A changing pattern - world climate anomalies | Environment | guardian.co.uk Turn autoplay off Turn autoplay on Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off Jump to content [s] Jump to site navigation [0] Jump to search [4] Terms and conditions [8] Sign in Register Mobile version Text largersmaller ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Ghana: Climate Change Adaptation to Cost U.S.$300-400 Million Annually
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912080852.html
Public Agenda: The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Hon. Sherry Ayitey has said that a preliminary draft analysis yet to be reviewed by the World Bank suggests that annual cost of adaptation programmes under climate change for Ghana in the areas of Agriculture, Coastal Zone ,Energy , Transport(Roads), social and regional integration is between US$300 to US$400 million per year from 2010 to 2050. Hon Ayitey expressed concern that it is not only deforestation and soil degradation which ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Tory block on third Heathrow runway a big mistake, says British Airways chief
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/08/tory-block-heathrow-runway-ba
Guardian: The British Airways chief executive, Willie Walsh, has rounded on the Conservative party in the wake of the Committee on Climate Change report into aviation and warned that it will make the "biggest mistake ever" if it blocks a third runway at Heathrow. In a tirade at one of David Cameron's flagship policies, the boss of Heathrow's largest airline said the party's line on airport expansion was incoherent and "seriously undermined" the opposition's environmental ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit: scientists rally against climate change sceptics
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6763414/Copenhagen-climate-summit-scientists-rally-against-climate-change-sceptics.html
Telegraph: One after the other, the British Met Office and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) went public with their latest measurements, showing that 2009 is shaping up to be the fifth hottest year on record and -- more importantly -- that the 'noughties' are set to be much the warmest decade ever. But just a few miles away from the cavernous Bella Centre, climate sceptics were saying exactly the opposite at an alternative conference. They claim, as a central part of their case, that ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Ban adds to weight of expectation at climate summit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091208/sc_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: A Danish draft proposal for a political agreement "threatens the success" of UN climate talks in Copenhagen, the head of the G77 group of countries said Tuesday at the summit aimed at sealing a historic deal on cutting carbon emissions. The text, which has not been officially released, is a "serious violation that threatens the success of the Copenhagen negotiating process," said Sudan's Lumumba Stanislas Dia Ping, who heads the G77 group. "The G77 members will not walk out of ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Russia urges developing countries to cut carbon emissions
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20091208/157160725.html
RIA Novosti: A treaty due to replace the Kyoto Protocol will not satisfy Russia if it obliges only developed countries to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. The 15th UN climate change conference, a result of two-year international talks on a binding treaty to cut global carbon emission, began in the Danish capital of Copenhagen on Monday. Oleg Shamanov, who heads the ministry's department of global environmental problems, said although ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Top 5 Issues at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20091208/ts_usnews/top5issuesatthecopenhagenclimateconference
U.S. News and World Report: For the next two weeks, until December 18, officials from more than 190 countries will be gathering in Copenhagen to write a new treaty on climate change. For much of the year, there have been questions about whether the conference would come together and, if so, what it could accomplish at a time when much of the world is preoccupied with the global recession. In recent weeks, however, many of the world's economic powerhouses and biggest polluters, including the United States and China, ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
EPA reports decrease in toxic chemical pollution
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091208/ap_on_bi_ge/us_toxic_chemicals
Associated Press: When it comes to pollution, the economic downturn could have an upside. The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday reported that toxic chemical pollution from the nation's industrial plants, mines and factories declined by 6 percent in 2008, the second year in a row that companies have reported releasing less pollution. Companies put 3.86 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into the air and water and onto land in 2008, down from 4.1 billion pounds in 2007 and 4.26 billion ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
UN: 2000-2009 likely warmest decade on record
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091208/ap_on_sc/climate
Associated Press: This decade is on track to become the warmest since records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference. Only the United States and Canada experienced cooler conditions than average, the World Meteorological Organization said, although Alaska had the second-warmest July on record. In central Africa and southern Asia, this will probably be the warmest ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Global Warming "Marches On"; Past Decade Hottest Known
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091208-copenhagen-climate-conference-global-warming-climategate.html
National Geographic: The past decade has been the hottest on record, according to new global warming data released today at the Copenhagen climate conference by the World Meteorological Organization. What's more, 2009 is shaping up to be the fifth warmest year since coordinated record keeping began in 1850, according to preliminary figures released by the Geneva-based UN organization. The final report, including December climate data, will be released in March 2010. The new data, collected from ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Climate change: Scientists say this decade likely hottest on record
http://features.csmonitor.com/globalnews/2009/12/08/climate-change-scientists-say-this-decade-likely-hottest-on-record/
Christian Science Monitor: The first decade of the 21st century is shaping up to be the warmest decade on record globally, while 2009 is likely to crack the Top 10 list of warmest years, perhaps rising as high as No. 5. That`s based on a preliminary look at global climate trends released today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at global climate change talks here in the Danish capital. The WMO`s data stretches back to 1850. The numbers are subject to revision, cautions Michel Jarraud, the ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Latin America Between Hope and Realism
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49590
Inter Press Service: Latin America has come to Copenhagen with the goal that the wealthy nations of the North pay their climate debt by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing resources to developing nations. But facing the risk that this strategy could fail, the Latin American representatives are also willing to accept some compromises. The ideal outcome for the region is for a legally binding agreement to be adopted in the Danish capital. But delegates to the 15th Conference of Parties (COP-15) ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
South Africa: Poor Vendors in Swaziland Worried by 'Flora Protection Law'
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49588
Inter Press Service: For close to three decades, Jeremiah Mkhonta has earned a living by selling firewood by the roadside. It's not exactly lucrative: the father of 15 often goes for a fortnight without even selling a single four dollar bundle of firewood. But slow business is not what is bothering this ex-miner right now. He lives in fear that one day soon, he and his peers across the country, could be arrested. "I've learnt from the radio and from some of my customers that the Minister of Tourism ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Deal On Forests Likely, But..
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49587
Inter Press Service: As debate ratchets up ahead of working out a climate change deal, a Dutch study says emissions from deforestation and land degradation are far lower than has been assumed. Will this have an impact on a deal to protect forests in Africa? Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation had been assumed by parties in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be around 20 percent of global CO2 output. A team of Dutch researchers from the Vrije Universiteit ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
"We Are Moving Towards Modest Cooperation"
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49583
Inter Press Service: Vested interests in fossil fuels have blocked major steps against global warming so far, according to José Goldemberg, who has played a leading role at key times in the climate crisis facing humanity. One of the driving forces behind the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, when he was the Brazilian interim environment minister, Goldemberg says Brazil today lacks the leadership it exercised at the Earth Summit and in the ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Beware of Carbon Trading Trap Warn Activists
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49581
Inter Press Service: As the climate change summit in the Danish capital moves into a second day, environmental groups warn that by pushing carbon offsetting and trade, governments of developed countries are bypassing their responsibility to significantly reduce domestic emissions and provide aid to developing countries. Activists think that even if the best possible deal is achieved at the end of the two-week talks, aimed at drafting a new agreement on how to limit global warming, the outcome will not ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit: Gordon Brown wants EU to cut emissions by 30pc
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6756467/Copenhagen-climate-summit-Gordon-Brown-wants-EU-to-cut-emissions-by-30pc.html
Telegraph: The Prime Minister wants EU countries to promise to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent, rather than the 20 per cent they are currently offering. European negotiators at the conference have said they will sign up to the 30 per cent target if other major polluting nations -- including the US and China -- consent to radical cuts. But Mr Brown is calling for EU members to step-up their efforts to combat global warming whatever the rest of the world decides. "We've got to ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Critics start fast in Copenhagen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091208/pl_politico/30322
Agence France-Presse: The 20,000 or so participants in the international climate change conference here begin Day 2 of their proceedings with clarity about just one thing. This is still going to be hard. For all of the clock-is-ticking rhetoric, for all the pleas to stop "restating well-known positions,' for all the gauzy good feeling that comes with the coming together of old friends and foes, the difficulties of Day 1 showed that negotiators will need to work overtime to get even a treaty-lite ...
Wed, 9 Dec 09
Self-destructing bacteria improve renewable biofuel production
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091207173624.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: An Arizona State University research team has developed a process that removes a key obstacle to producing lower-cost, renewable biofuels. The team has programmed a photosynthetic microbe to self-destruct, making the recovery of high-energy fats--and their biofuel byproducts--easier and potentially less costly. "The real costs involved in any biofuel production are harvesting the goodies and turning them into fuel," said Roy Curtiss, director of the Biodesign Institute's Center for ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Public worldwide wants action on climate change: poll
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091207/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingpoll
Agence France-Presse: Most people worldwide believe climate change is a very serious problem that their governments must tackle, a poll said Monday, as the landmark Copenhagen summit on the issue was set to get under way. However the poll of more than 24,000 people also showed concern about rising global temperatures from man-made emissions has dropped in the United States and China -- the world's two biggest polluters. Sixty-four percent of people think climate change is a "very serious" problem, ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Email scandal may be turning against climate change deniers
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1206-hance_email.html
Mongabay: It may be that climate change scientists and policymakers have simply had enough, and it may be that the emails which were hacked did not reveal the massive conspiracy that they were supposed to, either way climatologists and politicians have gone on the offensive against claims that the hacked emails from the East Anglia's Climate Research Unit are evidence that climate change is a conspiracy or hoax. Showing perhaps how frustrated world leaders are with the situation, the Prime ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
United Kingdom: MPs back third runway at Heathrow airport
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/07/mps-third-runway-heathrow-report
Guardian: The government's approval of a third runway at Heathrow has been endorsed by MPs, ahead of the publication tomorrow of an independent report on aviation's contribution to climate change. The House of Commons transport committee backs the expansion of Britain's largest airport in a report published today, adding that airline passengers would be better served by a second runway at Gatwick rather than Stansted. "In view of the economic benefits to the UK, we endorse the government's ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
The express? More like a crawl to Copenhagen
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/michael-mccarthy-the-express-more-like-a-crawl-to-copenhagen-1835498.html
Independent (UK): It was worthy. It was green. In fact, it was carbon-neutral. But it was a tad on the slow side. The Climate Express, a special one-off train put together by the combined efforts of Europe's railways, took environmental campaigners from all over the continent to Copenhagen at the weekend, for the UN climate conference which begins this morning -- and your correspondent joined them. There is no high-speed continuous rail link to the Danish capital from Brussels, where the journey ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Greenhouse gas cuts just 'token gestures'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/greenhouse-gas-cuts-just-token-gestures-1835499.html
Independent (UK): The cuts in greenhouse gas emissions being proposed at the Copenhagen climate conference, which opens today, are completely inadequate to stop dangerous climate change, one of Britain's leading climate scientists warns. Current proposals, including recent ones from major emitting nations such as the US, China and India, are "little more than token gestures', compared to what the science deems necessary to give even a 50-50 chance of staying below the danger threshold, says Professor ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Was Russian secret service behind leak of climate-change emails?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/was-russian-secret-service-behind-leak-of-climatechange-emails-1835502.html
Independent (UK): The news that a leaked set of emails appeared to show senior climate scientists had manipulated data was shocking enough. Now the story has become more remarkable still. The computer hack, said a senior member of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, was not an amateur job, but a highly sophisticated, politically motivated operation. And others went further. The guiding hand behind the leaks, the allegation went, was that of the Russian secret services. The leaked ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Earth more sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091206162955.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience. The results show that components of the Earth's climate system that vary over long timescales -- such as land-ice and vegetation -- have an important effect on this temperature sensitivity, but these factors are often neglected in current climate models. Dan Lunt, from the University of ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Copenhagen emissions targets 'not enough to avert catastrophic warming'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6946675.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Emissions cuts proposed by the world's leading countries fall far short of what is needed to prevent catastrophic global warming, according to a study released on the eve of the Copenhagen climate change summit. Even if countries adopted the most ambitious targets that each has put forward, the global average temperature would still rise by 3.5C by the end of the century and make large parts of the world uninhabitable. The UN's top climate change official appealed to the 192 ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Following the effects of climate change from glaciers to the sea
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/07/copenhagen-nepal-bangladesh
Guardian: X
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Copenhagen summit poised to open
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8398510.stm
BBC: Delegates from 192 countries are gathering in the Danish capital Copenhagen for the opening of the long-awaited UN summit on climate change. The conference has been described by some scientists as the most important the world has ever seen. Security is tight as organisers expect 15,000 delegates and 100 world leaders to attend over the next two weeks. On the eve of the summit, the UN's chief climate negotiator Yvo de Boer said the talks were in excellent shape. He ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
High stakes for Obama at climate summit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091207/pl_afp/unclimatewarmingusobama
Agence France-Presse: As marathon talks open in Copenhagen on climate change, US President Barack Obama is investing heavily in their success but is walking a tightrope as he weathers criticism both at home and abroad. Obama abruptly changed his plans and will head to the Danish capital in the finale of the December 7-18 conference, hoping to add his prestige to push through a deal to fight what he sees as a top threat to the planet. But the US Congress has not finished legislation to cut emissions ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
U.N. talks on climate "turning point" set to start
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B517O20091207?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. talks billed as a "turning point" in a bid to slow global warming open on Monday seeking to agree curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and raise billions of dollars for the poor in aid and clean technology. The two-week talks, ending with a summit of 105 world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama on December 18, will have to overcome deep distrust between rich and poor nations about sharing out the burden of costly curbs on emissions. The planned attendance of the ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
China minister eyes carbon emissions peak: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091207/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingchina
Agence France-Presse: China's greenhouse gas emissions will peak between 2030 and 2040, the country's science and technology minister said Monday, as crunch talks on climate change were set to get under way in Copenhagen. Wan Gang said the precise timing of the level would depend on China's economic growth, rate of urbanisation and level of scientific development. "There are some uncertainties here, so it is difficult to say whether it will be in the beginning, the end or the middle, but I can say ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Coal throbs at the heart of India growth engine
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091207/india_nm/india445144
Reuters: A thin coat of coal dust covers everything from trees to houses in Korba, a coal mining town which lies at the heart of the country's struggle to balance economic growth with climate change concerns. The air is heavy with smoke and dust spewing out of numerous mines and power plants in a region that powers hundreds of factories in the country's industrial west and lights up millions of homes. Although government has announced a new climate plan which identifies renewable energy ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Alternative packaging from biodegradable farm waste
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091207/ts_alt_afp/environmentuseconomyfarmclimate
Agence France-Presse: Two young American businessmen have developed a green alternative to ubiquitous polystyrene packaging -- made from farm waste and mushrooms -- that uses 10 times less energy to produce, and biodegrades into a natural fertilizer. Called EcoCradle, the product can also be used as insulation and is grown, not manufactured, with no greenhouse gas emissions, such as CO2, as a byproduct, co-inventor Eben Bayer, 24, told AFP in an interview. "We have developed a platform that we think ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
World's press urges action on climate change
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5B609F20091207
Reuters: Humanity faces a profound emergency and unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, a joint editorial published in newspapers in 45 countries said on Monday. The 56 newspapers said they were taking the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice to implore world leaders to "make the right choice" at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen. "The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Two-thirds of people in Scotland 'fear climate change'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8397853.stm
BBC: Almost two-thirds of Scots believe climate change is an immediate and urgent problem, according to a poll commissioned by BBC Scotland. The survey suggested that a clear majority (63%) of people in Scotland believed immediate action was required. A further 20% described climate change as more of a problem for the future. Another 11% said they were not convinced climate change was happening while 4% thought it was not really a problem at all. The research, ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Australia: Liberal victories, Labor cowardice and Greens' failure
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/contributors/liberal-victories-labor-cowardice-and-greens-failure-20091207-ke03.html
Sydney Morning Herald: The results of the byelections in the safe Liberal seats of Bradfield and Higgins are a disaster for the Greens and for the Rudd Labor Government. The swing to the Greens in Higgins, according to Antony Green on the ABC election site, was about 24 per cent. The figure in Bradfield it was 14 per cent. Despite superficial appearances, this is a massive setback for them. Labor did not stand a candidate in either seat. At the last election the ALP won 31.5 per cent of the ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Exclusive: Emissions trading to drive up price of long-haul flights
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254482/exclusive-emissions-trading
Business Green: The inclusion of aviation in the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) will have a wide range of impacts, harming the profitability of some operators while providing a sizable windfall for the most fuel-efficient airlines. That is the conclusion of a major new report from the Carbon Trust to be released tomorrow, which will argue that investors need to be more aware of the potential impact of the extension of the ETS from 2011 on airlines' financial performance. The ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Expect temperatures to rise in Copenhagen
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/weekinreview/06zeller.html?_r=5&ref=earth
New York Times: With the scientific consensus more or less settled that human activity – the burning of fossil fuels, torching of forests, and so forth – is contributing to a warmer and less hospitable planet, one might reasonably ask, why is it so hard to agree on a plan to curb those activities? The answer lies with the many fault lines that cut through the debate over climate change. Those deep divisions will be on display beginning this week as representatives of 192 nations gather in Copenhagen ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Dutch defense against climate disaster: Adapt to the change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/05/AR2009120502186.html
Washington Post: With the Copenhagen summit starting Monday, chances remain uncertain for a historic breakthrough in the fight to prevent climate change, but the Netherlands is leading a fight of a different kind: How to live with global warming. As sea levels swell and storms intensify, the Dutch are spending billions of euros on "floating communities" that can rise with surging flood waters, on cavernous garages that double as urban floodplains and on re-engineering parts of a coastline as long as ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
India: Meltdown maladies
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091206/spectrum/main1.htm
Sunday Tribune: The SuAT 92, Phuntchok Namgyal is still sprightly enough to guide visiting journalists through his fields in Ladakh's Stakmo village that are in lockdown mode for the harsh winter ahead. "We grow barley, green peas, potatoes and vegetables here," says Namgyal, pointing out to the patches of farmland that dot this stretch of the barren mountainside. The farming season is short: from mid-April till mid-October, after which the entire region begins to be carpeted by snow. Typical of this ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Indonesia: A plan to save a forest from an unlikely source
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/30/world/20091130-CLIMATE_index.html
New York Times
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Half of Britons deny climate change man-made: poll
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarmingbritain
Agence France-Presse: Almost half of Britons do not believe human behaviour is the main cause of global warming, a new poll showed Sunday, a day before world leaders begin crunch climate talks in Copenhagen. The ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper found 52 percent of respondents thought humans were largely responsible for modern day rises in temperatures, but 39 percent said climate change had not yet been proven to be man-made. A further seven percent did not believe climate change was ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit: UN warns of damage over hacked emails
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6743819/Copenhagen-climate-summit-UN-warns-of-damage-over-hacked-emails.html
Telegraph: Mr de Boer insists that the evidence the planet is warming remains solid despite the "climategate" affair at the University of East Anglia. In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the Copenhagen climate summit starting on Monday, Mr de Boer said the emails hacked from the British university fuelled scepticism among those who believe the science is manipulated to exaggerate global warming. "I think a lot of people are sceptical about this issue in any case," he said. ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
The internet's dirty carbon secret
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/06/internet-dirty-secret-emissions-data
Guardian: We've been told about the environmental costs of motoring, industrial farming, long-haul flights, big oil, deforestation in the Amazon and buying sweat-shop produced, throwaway fashion. Some of us have taken this advice on board, cycling more, flying less, choosing renewable energy schemes, and seeking out ethical, organic products. We can make these choices because appliances and cars are rated according to their energy consumption, and Fairtrade or organic products have prominently ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Group to start project to cut indoor fuel burning
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091206/hl_nm/us_pollution_indoor
Reuters: An advocacy group on lung health plans to work with health authorities in 12 countries from 2010 to reduce indoor fuel burning, which causes respiratory diseases and lung cancer and kills 2 million people a year. More than 3 billion people, or half of the world's population, still use biomass fuels like wood, dung and coal for cooking and heating in poorly ventilated homes and this results in severe indoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution caused more than 1.6 million deaths ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Climate emails row does not affect US position: ambassador
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarmingusbritaindiplomacy
Agence France-Presse: The US ambassador to Britain told the BBC in an interview Sunday that the row over leaked emails from a key English climate research unit had had no effect on Washington's position on global warming. Louis Susman said US President Barack Obama was committed to reforms at the Copenhagen summit on climate change. Leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, a world leader in the field, sparked claims that scientists were trying to suppress data which ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Forests recover faster from slash-and-burn when near intact forest reserves
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1207-forest_recovery_tcs.html
Mongabay: Areas cleared for slash-and-burn agriculture recover faster when adjacent to a large block of untouched forest, but may take decades to regain a majority of their biodiversity after tree-felling, according to a new review of ecological studies, published in the December issue of Tropical Conservation Science, an open access journal. Teegalapalli Karthik of Nature Conservation Foundation in Mysore, India and colleagues synthesized a collection of studies that have examined recovery of ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
How tree communities respond to distance to edges and canopy openness
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1207-edge_effects_costa_rica_tcs.html
Mongabay: Tropical forests frequently experience the opening and closing of canopy gaps as part of their natural dynamics. When an edge is created, and the area outside the boundary is a disturbed or unnatural system, forests can be seriously affected even at some distance from the fragmented edge, since sunlight and wind penetrate to a much greater extent. This increases tree mortality and, consequently, canopy openness close to the edge. Thus, canopy openness can be both part of a natural ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Eco-label for rainforest products could boost sustainability
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1207-seed_dispersal_tcs.html
Mongabay: Tropical forests around the world continue to fall, largely the result of logging and conversion to agriculture. But new hope for forests has emerged under a scheme that would reward countries for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation. Some variations of the concept, which is known as REDD, would allow for "sustainable forest management" (SFM), that is, reduced impact logging of forests, as well as harvesting of non-wood forest products (NWFPs) like seeds, ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Chinese wind power companies target global markets
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091206/ap_on_bi_ge/as_climate_china_wind_ambitions
Associated Press: China's Goldwind Science & Technology Ltd. is one of the world's biggest makers of wind turbines -- a cornerstone of the booming clean power business -- but is unknown outside its home country. Goldwind aims to change that. In a Minnesota farmer's cornfield, the company is erecting three 20-story-tall windmills in its first American project and hopes it will help to woo other buyers. "There are a lot of leads and we are following them up," said Kerry Zhou, Goldwind's ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
U.N. climate summit in close range of a deal: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B516420091206?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The world is within striking distance of a U.N. deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid the worst effects of global warming, a U.N. report said on Sunday as delegates gathered for climate talks in Copenhagen. "For those who claim that a deal in Copenhagen is impossible: they are simply wrong," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), said as delegates gathered for December 7-18 talks on a new deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. "We are in ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
U.N. says biggest climate talks in history must deliver
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091206/india_nm/india445113
Reuters: The biggest climate talks in history must deliver an ambitious, sweeping agreement to capitalise on pledges by countries to fight global warming, the United Nations said on Sunday. A day before the two-week talks in the Danish capital formally begin, the U.N. climate chief said time was up to agree on the outlines of a tougher climate deal after troubled negotiations have deepened splits between rich and poor nations. "I believe that negotiators now have the clearest signal ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Tough times force OPEC members to close ranks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/energyoilopec
Agence France-Presse: Divisions within OPEC have eased as the dual threat of the global economic crisis and climate change talks force oil producers to be pragmatic and unified, analysts said on Sunday. Two years ago, when oil prices soared to nearly 100 dollars a barrel, the oil exporters cartel, which includes both allies and foes of the United States, was severely tested. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries was then torn between price hawks like Algeria, Iran, Libya and Venezuela on ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-editorial
Guardian: Today 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. We do so because humanity faces a profound emergency. Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
More than 50 papers join in front-page leader article on climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/06/50-papers-leader-climate-change
Guardian: The Guardian has teamed up with more 50 papers worldwide to run the same front-page leader article calling for action at the climate summit in Copenhagen, which begins tomorrow. This unprecedented project is the result of months of negotiations between the papers to agree on a final text, in a process that mirrors the kind of diplomatic wrangling among the world's governments that is likely to precede any potential deal on climate change. Fifty-six papers in 45 countries ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
UN upbeat on global climate deal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8397742.stm
BBC: The UN's top climate official has given an upbeat assessment on the prospects of a global deal at a climate summit which opens in Copenhagen on Monday. Yvo de Boer told the BBC things were in "excellent shape" as officials from 192 nations began gathering in Denmark. Any agreement is intended to supplant the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The UN official panel on climate change says emissions must be limited to avoid dangerous global ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Drive for geothermal power heats up on US campuses
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091206/ap_on_bi_ge/us_geothermal_campuses
Associated Press: While solar and wind power get most of the headlines, geothermal power is quietly gaining traction on college campuses where energy costs can siphon millions each year from the budget. Schools from Wisconsin to New Mexico have geothermal projects in the works. There are 46 schools divvying up millions in federal stimulus dollars to advance technology that uses the temperature of the Earth, rather than coal-fired power plants, to heat and cool buildings. So far this year, the ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
UN climate science head hopes for more US action
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091206/ap_on_re_eu/climate_un_scientist
Associated Press: By executive action, the Obama administration can boost the U.S. target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond levels envisioned in legislation working its way through Congress, the head of the U.N. climate science network said Sunday. "There is scope for going above what is going to be legislated," Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told The Associated Press on the eve of the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. Senate and ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit: the big questions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-climate-summit-key-questions
Guardian: What's the bottom line? To have a chance of keeping warming under the dangerous 2C mark, a global 50% emissions cut is needed by 2050, compared with 1990 levels. Copenhagen must put the world on a clear course towards this, with firm 2020 targets. Who should make the cuts? Industrialised countries such as the US and UK have emitted by far the most carbon and still emit vast amounts per person, so they have a responsibility to make deep cuts. Emissions from China and ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
China's carbon emissions will peak between 2030 and 2040, says minister
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/06/china-carbon-emissions-copenhagen-climate
Guardian: China's carbon emissions will peak between 2030 and 2040, the country's science and technology minister told the Guardian as the global climate change summit began in Copenhagen. In an exclusive interview, Wan Gang said he hoped the maximum output of Chinese greenhouse gases would come as soon as possible within that range, and spelled out the steps that needed to be taken to achieve this. His comment, while not official policy, is the closest the world's biggest emitter has come to ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
UN says climate finale may have happy ending
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091206/ap_on_bi_ge/climate
Associated Press: Delegates converged Sunday for the grand finale of two years of tough, sometimes bitter negotiations on a climate change treaty, as U.N. officials calculated that pledges offered in the last few weeks to reduce greenhouse gases put the world within reach of keeping global warming under control. Yvo de Boer, the U.N.'s top climate official, said on the eve of the 192-nation conference that despite unprecedented unity and concessions, industrial countries and emerging nations need to ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Climategate controversy has echoes of Watergate, UN says
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6946281.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK):
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Security tightens ahead of key UN climate meet
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091206/wl_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Final preparations were underway here Sunday for a marathon UN conference on climate change, amid beefed-up security, activists' clamour and warnings that a hothouse planet loomed if the talks failed. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued an upbeat note on the eve of the landmark conference, predicting mankind would strike a blow against the 21st century's great peril. The climax on December 18 -- to be attended by more than 100 heads of state and government -- should deliver ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit timetable
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/06/copenhagen-climate-summit-timetable
Guardian: Negotiating teams from 192 countries will meet tomorrow in large halls at the giant Bella centre in Copenhagen. Their mission is, in six days and nights, to try to reduce a draft agreement from 176 pages down to a manageable few pages in time for the three days of high-level political talks, which start on 15 December. Because the talks are deadlocked in so many areas, there is no chance now of the negotiators reaching this point. So the only option is to leave it to the politicians ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Climate: CO2 unleashes more warming than thought: study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091206/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingscience
Agence France-Presse: Carbon dioxide indirectly causes up to 50 percent more global warming than originally thought, a finding that raises questions over targets for stabilising carbon emissions over the long term, a study said on Sunday. In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, British scientists said a tool commonly used in climate modelling may have badly underlooked the sensitivity of key natural processes to the warming caused by CO2. As a result, calculations for man-made global ...
Mon, 7 Dec 09
Youth See Their Future in the Balance
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49559
Inter Press Service: Young people from 44 countries are demanding that world leaders take decisive action on climate change. The time for talk is over, they declared at the end of a weeklong Children's Climate Forum here. "Our plates are empty due to drought. Our future is at risk, and we demand that something be done," they wrote in a declaration titled "Our World, Our Future" signed by 164 participants aged 14 to 17 at the conclusion of the forum. "I don't want my future compromised by inaction ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Protests add pressure for Copenhagen climate deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5B409620091205?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: In the Danish capital, delegates from 190 nations were gathering for the start of the December 7-18 meeting. The biggest U.N. climate talks in history are aimed at working out a new pact to curb global warming, replacing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Among protests, activists in Berlin, posing as world leaders, sat inside a giant aquarium that was gradually filled with water to highlight the risks of rising sea levels from melting glaciers and ice sheets on Greenland and ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
United States: Destroyed US town a model of eco-living as it rebuilds
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091205/ts_alt_afp/unclimatewarmingusenvironmentenergy
Agence France-Presse: With all eyes on US efforts to combat climate change at next week's UN summit in Copenhagen, one Kansas town is going green in a big way -- and setting an example for American communities. On the evening of May 4, 2007, a category-five tornado swept through the rural midwestern town of Greensburg, killing nine people and obliterating 95 percent of the urban landscape, including the school, the hospital and more than 900 houses. But this community of 1,400 is rebuilding stronger ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Climate deal certain, but won't be enough: IPCC scientist
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091205/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingeuropetransportscientist
Agence France-Presse: The flood of world leaders heading for next week's UN climate summit make an accord certain -- but the new deal will not be enough to truly fight global warming, a top climate scientist said Saturday. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said more top-level politicians would attend Copenhagen than previous talks in Kyoto, where the current climate treaty was agreed. "In Kyoto, there was Al Gore, US vice president, and two ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
European protests demand tough Copenhagen climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091205/sc_afp/unclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Tens of thousands of people across Europe demonstrated for action on climate change on Saturday, two days before world leaders gather in Copenhagen for landmark talks on tackling global warming. Protesters in London, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm and Dublin took to the streets to call for a far-reaching international agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the UN-led talks starting on Monday. As about 20,000 people marched through central London, British Prime Minister ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Climate change protesters take to London streets
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iGdJNm3ihqxD_WlL3l5VsFn57wLAD9CDA8600
Associated Press: Thousands of people calling for a deal on climate change at next week's United Nations conference in Copenhagen marched through central London on Saturday, encircling the Houses of Parliament in a human wave of blue-clad demonstrators. London's Metropolitan Police said about 20,000 people joined the Stop Climate Chaos march, which began at Grosvenor Square and wound its way to the Parliament building on the River Thames. Organizers put the turnout at 40,000. "We wanted to make ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
United Kingdom: 'Climategate' professor Phil Jones awarded £13 million in research grants
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6735846/Climategate-professor-Phil-Jones-awarded-13-million-in-research-grants.html
Telegraph: The figure is disclosed in a leaked, internal document posted on the internet by climate change sceptics who have seized upon it as evidence of a funding "gravy train" for scientists conducting research into the area. The grants were awarded following successful applications made by Professor Phil Jones, who headed up the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. The money is largely for research into the effects of global warming and is in addition to the ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
The Copenhagen Communiqué on Climate Change
http://www.newsweek.com/id/225812
Newsweek: This communiqué calls for an ambitious, robust, and equitable global deal on climate change that responds credibly to the scale and urgency of the crises facing the world today. Economic development will not be sustained in the long term unless the climate is stabilized. It is critical that we exit this recession in a way that lays the foundation for low-carbon growth and avoids locking us into a high-carbon future. These are difficult and challenging times for the ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
United States: Doyle's smart approach to climate change
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/article_040c3772-a432-5177-b525-feacd9c17061.html
Capital Times: Gov. Jim Doyle will jet off to Copenhagen later this month to join in the wrangling over how to save the planet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Doyle's role is an important one. He will highlight the ways in which states and regions can innovate and lead, especially at times when national governments and international groupings are slow to move. The governor has a story to tell. Though he wrangled in the early years of his tenure with the environmental ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate conference: Miliband warns against 'flat-Earthers'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6727892/Copenhagen-climate-conference-Miliband-warns-against-flat-Earthers.html
Telegraph: Critics of the scientific consensus on climate change claim emails, stolen from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) and posted online, show researchers manipulated evidence to support their theory. Phil Jones, the director of the CRU, has dismissed the claims as "complete rubbish" but the scandal has thrown the scientific world into turmoil and is already the subject of an independent investigation by the UEA. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Copenhagen climate summit: what is global warming?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6716309/Copenhagen-climate-summit-what-is-global-warming.html
Telegraph: Early in the twentieth century the prevailing notion was that people could alter climates locally, for example cutting down forests and ploughing fields, but not on a global scale. A few pioneering thinkers suggested the increasing amount of pollution produced by Industrial revolution could cause global warming. But it was not until the world started taking precise measurements of carbon dioxide from a mountain in Hawaii in the late 1950s that it was possible to confirm the ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Met Office to re-examine 160 years of climate data
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6945445.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails. The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012. The Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UN's main climate ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Met Office to reveal climate data
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8396696.stm
BBC: The Met Office (MO) is to announce it will publish the raw data it uses to analyse man-made global warming. It follows a row about the reliability of data from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia which has been dubbed "Climategate". The MO has written to 188 countries for permission to publish the historic data it says proves that the world is warming up due to man-made emissions. A spokesman denied reports ministers had tried to block the ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Obama Shifts His Visit to Last Day of Climate Conference
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/science/earth/05climate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Citing progress on many issues, the White House said Friday that President Obama had shifted the date he would appear at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen to Dec. 18, the last scheduled day. In a written statement, it said the president believed that he could have a more decisive impact by appearing at the end of the 12-day conference, when as many as 100 other heads of state are scheduled to show up, rather than next Wednesday as originally ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Bloomberg Drops Key Initiative to Cut Greenhouse Gases
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/science/earth/05bloomberg.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: After intense opposition from building owners, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has dropped the most far-reaching initiative of his plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan, which the owners said was too costly, called for all buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to undergo audits to determine which renovations would make them more energy efficient, and for owners to then pay for many of those changes. The mayor wants to go forward with the proposal to require energy ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Beware the great 'greenwashing' con, experts warn
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091205/ts_alt_afp/environmentusclimateconsumer
Agence France-Presse: Eco-conscious customers who flock to one Washington store say they have chosen the environmentally friendly living shop because they know they are in little danger of being "greenwashed." "I can give you a ton of words that mean absolutely, positively nothing," said Daniel Velez, owner of Greater Goods, where the shelves are stocked only after careful, painstaking research. "The word natural. The word earth-friendly. It means nothing since it's not legally defined. ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Forest-saving deal could lift climate summit hopes
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hJRXG3SQimB5tlxVY1Oqmqc6x1ZgD9CCVTV01
Associated Press: In a potentially valuable boost to fighting climate change, rich and poor countries are close to an agreement to end the destruction of the world's forests in 20 years, government negotiators said. It depends, however, on whether consensus on an overarching climate accord is reached by the 192 countries at the U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen starting Monday. But governments and environmentalists hope the forest plan will embolden delegates to overcome their differences and set ...
Sun, 6 Dec 09
Scientist's Himalayan mission provides unwelcome proof: glaciers are dying
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6945249.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Inching over the treacherous surface of the Rathong glacier, almost 5,000 metres (16,400ft) high in the eastern Himalayas, Dr Shresth Tayal stooped to inspect a 7m steel rod he buried vertically in the ice six months ago. After a decade studying Himalayan glaciers, he had expected to find at least half the rod exposed -- an alarming enough indication of how fast the Rathong is melting -- but even he was surprised by what he found last week. "Six metres in six months,' he cried, ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Obama changes plans, will attend climax of climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091204/pl_afp/unclimatewarmingusobama
Agence France-Presse: US President Barack Obama Friday delivered a boost to UN climate talks in Copenhagen, agreeing to delay his visit until the end of the meeting, when the drive for a global warming pact will climax. Obama had been due to fly into the talks on Wednesday, and then head on to Oslo to receive his Nobel peace prize, but progress before the summit and talks with fellow world leaders seem to have convinced him to change his plans. "The president believes that continued US leadership ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Russian Claim To Carbon Credits May Bedevil Copenhagen Talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20091205/bs_ibd_ibd/20091204general
Investor's Business Daily: Hot air and high-minded speeches might be the most obvious emissions from the Copenhagen climate talks, skeptics say. But behind the scenes Russia will play an old card from communism's fall that could tip the odds even higher against ever meeting the summit's goals. Russia's greenhouse gas emissions plunged in the 1990s as its economy collapsed. Moscow now sits on a potential treasure trove of unused carbon emission permits it could sell to other countries. Those permits ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
The greenest show on Earth
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-greenest-show-on-earth-1834633.html
Independent (UK): Who's going? It is not for nothing that the pithily-entitled 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP15 for short, has been described as "the most difficult talks ever embarked upon by humanity". Some 17,000 delegates, campaigners and journalists will all be attempting to make their voices heard. A total of 98 leaders and heads of state will be in Copenhagen at some point during the two-week summit with most, including ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Obama surprises with Copenhagen summit decision
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B34XT20091205?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama will attend the end of the Copenhagen climate change summit, a late change of plan the White House attributed on Friday to growing momentum toward a new global accord. Obama was originally scheduled to attend the December 7-18 summit in Denmark on Wednesday before traveling to nearby Oslo to collect his Nobel Peace Prize. Some European officials and environmentalists had expressed surprise at the initial decision, pointing out most of the hard ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Rich/poor rift dents hopes for U.N. climate talks
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B322R20091205?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: After two years of work, and 12 years after their last attempt, 190 nations gather in Copenhagen from Monday to try to avert dramatic climate change -- what one minister called "the most difficult talks ever embarked upon by humanity." Already the sheer size of the measures needed, and splits between rich and poor about who should pay, mean that a historic U.N. pact to fight global warming and ease dependence on fossil fuels may be put off in favor of a less binding ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Obama shifts Copejavascript:WebForm_DoPostBackWithOptions(new%20WebForm_PostBackOptions("btnDateMore",%20"",%20true,%20"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/05/obama-copenhagen-climate-change-global-warming
Guardian: Barack Obama has bowed to international appeals for America to demonstrate commitment to action on global warming, and said he will join other world leaders for the crunch negotiating sessions of the Copenhagen climate change summit. The White House, in a statement from the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, last night said Obama would adjust his original travel schedule, under which he would have dropped in on the summit on 9 December, en route to receiving his Nobel peace prize in ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
GOP cautions Obama against climate commitment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091205/ap_on_go_co/republicans_climate
Associated Press: Even as he prepares to argue for action at the international climate conference, President Barack Obama is getting some reminders of the domestic political divide -- and anxiety -- over climate change. Twenty congressional Republicans, including the top House GOP leadership, sent a letter to the president Friday expressing their "grave concern" that the U.S. delegation might commit to mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reductions. "Only a treaty ratified by the United States ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
W.H. raises climate summit stakes
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091205/pl_politico/30227
Politico: President Barack Obama is heating up his efforts on climate change, with decisions that have some Democrats in Congress starting to sweat. The announcement Friday that Obama is pushing back his appearance at the Copenhagen summit to its final weekend, the critical negotiating period, signals a willingness to pour significant political capital into his climate agenda -- and raises expectations that the White House will reach agreements both internationally and at home. The ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Breach in global-warming bunker shakes foundations of climate science
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/breach-in-global-warming-bunker-shakes-foundations-of-climate-science/article1389842/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Globe and Mail: A short drive from the windswept North Sea coast of England, the Climatic Research Unit occupies a squat, weather-beaten grey concrete building on the campus of the University of East Anglia. This scientific bunker holds the world's largest trove of climate-change data, gleaned from Siberian tree-ring counts, Greenland ice-layer measurements and centuries-old thermometer readings. Now the pirating of thousands of e-mail messages from within its walls has revealed a dangerous ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
UN Panel to Probe Claims on Manipulating Climate Data
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125997765265677671.html
Wall Street Journal:
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Obama shifts schedule, will attend end of climate change summit
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/04/obama.copenhagen/
CNN:
Sat, 5 Dec 09
The last chance until the next chance
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6935211.ece
Times (UK): When politicians say there is no Plan B, it usually means that they have given up on Plan A and are unsure what to do next. The UN climate summit in Copenhagen has been portrayed as the last chance to save the planet by those keen to bounce the world into agreeing a treaty on cutting greenhouse gases. Copenhagen is, of course, merely the last chance until the next chance. The key players are already preparing for another summit next November, when the real deal may be ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
How do we convince our inner caveman to be greener?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6933791.ece
Times (UK): The road to climate hell is paved with our good intentions. Politicians may tackle polluters while scientists do battle with carbon emissions. But the most pervasive problem is less tangible: our own behaviour. We get distracted before we can turn down the heating. We break our promise not to fly after hearing about a neighbour's jaunt to India. Ultimately, we can't be bothered to change our attitude. Fortunately for the planet, social science and behavioural economics may be able to do that ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
British bird's rapid evolution signals human impact
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/british-birds-rapid-evolution-signals-human-impact/article1387804/
Globe and Mail: Feeding the birds is the most innocuous of pastimes, but it could have a unintended effect: changing the course of evolution. Researchers have discovered that the enthusiasm of many Britons for feeding birds in winter and the gradual warming of the British Isles due to climate change have helped change the appearance of the blackcap, a warbler as commonly recognized in European gardens as robins are in North America. The differences have been modest, involving a slightly ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Study: Aspen warm to extra CO2 in air
http://www.startribune.com/local/78486102.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr
Star Tribune: Aspen trees, the backbone of Minnesota's paper industry, are liking the extra carbon dioxide in the air linked to global warming. New research published Friday found that aspen growth rates increased by 53 percent during the past half-century, as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased about 20 percent. "Trees eat carbon dioxide for a living," said Don Waller, study author and University of Wisconsin-Madison botany professor. As carbon dioxide increases in the air, he ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
United States: Byrd chides coal industry for 'fear mongering'
http://www.dailymail.com/News/200912030584
Charleston Daily Mail: Sen. Robert Byrd on Thursday issued a long statement with an unusually stern message for the coal industry and its attempts to counter opposition to mountaintop removal mining. Byrd, D-W.Va., says the coal industry needs to stop using "fear mongering, grandstanding and outrage as a strategy" and instead help stave off global climate change and curb the mountaintop method. "As your United States Senator, I must represent the opinions and the best interests of the entire Mountain ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Rollout of smart meters could turn Britain into a nation of power stations
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6943586.ece
Times (UK): Rooftop solar panels, wind turbines and other home energy-production devices could generate almost one sixth of Britain's electricity supplies within ten years, according to the chief executive of National Grid. Steve Holliday, who runs the UK's largest utility company, said that 15 per cent of the country's electricity production would come from so called "embedded generation' in homes and offices by 2020. "That is an enormous part of the mix,' he said ahead of a speech on the future ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
The rich have the biggest carbon footprints in the UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8393081.stm
BBC: Nearly all of us talk a good game about global warming and climate change - who doesn't want to save the world? And most people think reducing our carbon footprint is a Good Thing. Politicians tell us it is one of their top priorities and, with the focus on next week's gathering of world leaders in Copenhagen, expect climate change to accelerate as waves of warm words are emitted about our duty to the environment. But as the chill winds of recession bite, are we the ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Big costs are hurdle to climate pact
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125988268007875549.html
Wall Street Journal: In the weeks leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference, countries from China to Singapore have pledged cuts to their greenhouse-gas emissions. One question still lurks unanswered: Who is going to pay for it? Cutting carbon costs money. Factories must be retrofit and industries must be prodded to buy more-expensive green technology. Estimates for the annual tab in developing countries vary widely, but could reach EUR100 billion ($150 billion) by 2020, and poorer nations ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Supermarkets get slippery over green palm oil promises
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/04/sustainable-palm-oil-failure-greenwash
Guardian: Deep in the rainforest, a squawk fills the air, discordant but strangely familiar. It is the sound of sanctimonious humbug from Europe's food industry. For European food retailers stand accused of hypocrisy over buying palm oil from tropical countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, where the widely used edible oil is often grown on land that once was rainforest. Many of them promised to buy sustainable palm oil if it became available. Now, though, their bluff has been called – ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Study measures ocean's CO2 uptake
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/green_room/8390388.stm
BBC: There are substantial variations in the amount of carbon being absorbed by the North Atlantic Ocean, a study shows. Writing in Science, an international team of researchers said the ocean's uptake of carbon varied by as much as 10% over the space of a few years. The data set, described as the largest of its kind, was gathered by devices fitted to a fleet of commercial ships. The world's oceans are believed to absorb about half of the total carbon emissions from human ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Coca-Cola machines to be HFC-free by 2015
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254467/coca-cola-machines-hfc-free
Business Green: The Coca-Cola Company has announced that it will have switched entirely to hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)-free vending machines by 2015, in a move designed to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions from the equipment by 99 per cent. The announcement, made jointly with Greenpeace, is the culmination of work between the two organisations designed to identify an alternative to the potent HFC greenhouse gas. The company said it will now use hydrocarbons to refrigerate smaller equipment, ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
European financiers launch infrastructure fund
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091204/bs_afp/eufinanceinvestmentbankingwarmingenergytransport
Agence France-Presse: Major European public financial institutions launched a pan-European equity fund on Friday to boost key EU policies in areas such as climate change, energy security and transport networks. The "Marguerite Fund" -- a pan-European equity fund -- was launched with initial capital of 600 million euros (900 million dollars) by the European Investment banks and five national public investors. These include France's Caisse des Depots and Germany's KfW Bankengruppe. Marguerite, ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Copenhagen must deliver, as this uncertainty is killing us
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/comment/2254479/copenhagen-deliver-uncertainty
Business Green: On Wednesday night, more than 100 senior executives from a wide range of sectors braved torrential rain and puddles you could get lost in to attend BusinessGreen.com's evening of lectures on the impact of the Copenhagen summit. Delivered in association with Citrix GoToMeeting, it was a hugely successful and engaging evening featuring presentations from some of the UK's leading green business experts and providing a great example of how significant the business community regards the ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
The science still points to Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/04/climate-change-uea-email
Guardian: It is about time that some sanity is brought to bear on the issue of the illegally hacked temperature data and emails from the University of East Anglia (UEA). There is no doubt that the language in the emails could suggest that the scientists may have inappropriately manipulated the data to support the theory of human-induced climate change and attempted to suppress other data that contradicts this theory, which is why I applaud UEA for rapidly establishing an independent review of the ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Expert slams 'tabloid' e-mail row
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8396035.stm
BBC: A colleague of the UK professor at the centre of the climate e-mails row says "sceptics" have embarked on a "tabloid-style character assassination". Professor Andrew Watson rallied to the defence of climate scientist Phil Jones, whose e-mail exchanges prompted claims that data had been manipulated. There was no evidence of attempting to mislead people, Professor Watson added. The University of East Anglia has commissioned an independent inquiry into the ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Wish we weren't here: postcards to Copenhagen
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B32O720091204?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: "This is not air -- this is a horror," says Natalya Maksymenko, a 25-year-old mother, screwing up her nose at the smoke belching out of factory chimneys in Dniprodzerzhynsk. Dirt-encrusted shop fronts stretch out along Lenin Avenue in the industrial city of 250,000 people, birthplace of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. They end in a haze at a gigantic steel complex surrounded by swirling fumes. Ukraine has halved carbon dioxide output from 1990 levels to 345 million tonnes a ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Rich nations must show sensitivity on climate: World Bank
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091204/bs_afp/indiaasiaeconomyworldbankwarming
Agence France-Presse: Rich nations will have to be sensitive to the needs of developing economies to reach agreement on tackling climate change, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick warned Friday, days ahead of a key summit. Zoellick's statement came as the high-stakes climate meeting was due to open Monday in the Danish capital Copenhagen aimed at forging a new pact to tackle greenhouse gas emissions after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. "My primary message is that one will not be able to address ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Action, caution needed on climate: IMF experts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091204/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingimf
Agence France-Presse: IMF experts said Friday the global economy stood to benefit from action against climate change but warned that aggressive curbs on emissions could jeopardize the recovery without careful planning. Days before a major climate summit gets underway in Copenhagen, the experts at the International Monetary Fund said a global pact would help the world's poorest who face the worst effects of rising temperatures. "Greater climate resilience can promote macroeconomic stability and ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Top 10 Craziest Solutions to Global Warming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091204/sc_livescience/top10craziestsolutionstoglobalwarming
Live Science: World politicians will toss around the best ideas they have to get us out of the climate change mess we're in when they meet at the U.N. Copenhagen summit next week. Many people have suggested novel ways to combat the water pollution, smog, mounds of trash and global warming facing Earth. Here are some of the wackier (or at least, wackier-sounding) solutions ever proposed to solve Earth's problems. 10. Ban Plastic Bags and Light Bulbs It may sound like a rash decision, but San ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Copenhagen calls for innovative journalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/dec/04/climate-change-journalism-innovative
Guardian: The UN climate summit, COP15 for short, is coming up in Copenhagen. The global decision makers will hopefully agree on a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol from 1997. As this doesn't just interest some probing NGOs but all of us, there will be several examples of crowd-sourced journalism. Climate Camp has trained its activists in citizen journalism; Indymedia is actually handing out mobile phone numbers to report to; the Open University will use Audioboo as a media ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Sellafield fined £75,000 for exposing staff to nuclear contamination
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/04/sellafield-nuclear-contamination-fine
Guardian: The operator of Sellafield, Britain's biggest nuclear complex, was today handed a fine and legal costs totalling more than £100,000 following safety lapses which led to the radioactive contamination of staff. The successful prosecution of Sellafield Ltd by the Health and Safety Executive will tarnish the reputation of an industry trying to win public confidence for a new generation of power plants. The business, controlled by state-owned British Nuclear Group when the incident ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Cataloging Earth's Carbon Content
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121092279&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: JOE PALCA, host: A new project dubbed the deep carbon observatory is just getting underway. It's really more of a plan than an actual observatory at this point, but the idea is to catalogue and quantify all the carbon that's under Earth's surface. Why do scientists want this information and what might it be useful for? Well, here to answer that question is my guest. Robert Hazen is the principal investigator for the deep carbon observatory. He's a senior staff scientist at the ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
China, India oppose foreign climate oversight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091204/india_nm/india444765
Reuters: China and other major emerging economies will not allow international supervision of their actions to slow climate change to be part of a deal at U.N. talks in Copenhagen, a top Indian delegate said on Friday. Giving details of a common front by China, India, Brazil and South Africa at the meeting beginning next Monday, he also said the four opposed global goals for limiting climate change, except for the target of curbing warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
U.N. panel rejects China windfarms, lifts suspension
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B33WU20091204?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A United Nations climate panel has blocked carbon financing for around ten Chinese wind farms on Friday over concerns that they are financially viable without receiving carbon offsets, the panel said. The panel, meeting in Copenhagen ahead of U.N.-backed climate talks, also lifted a suspension on emissions verifier SGS UK, one of the biggest players in the $6.5 billion carbon offset market, the panel's chairman Lex de Jonge told Reuters. SGS UK was suspended in September for ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
At climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the energy is in renewables
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1204/p08s01-comv.html
Christian Science Monitor: A funny thing happened on the way to the global warming summit that opens Monday in Copenhagen, Denmark. Even though the outlook is bleak for a legally binding agreement on climate change coming out of the 12-day meeting, the world's two largest countries, China and India, nonetheless announced targets beforehand to slow their carbon emissions – after years of resisting such a step. Why this late-minute flash of a red light on greenhouse gases by two of the world's biggest ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Heathrow owner presses on with third runway despite warning over flying curbs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/04/baa-third-runway-plans-emissions
Guardian: BAA is pushing ahead with a planning application for a third runway at Heathrow despite a warning from the government-backed Carbon Trust that airport expansion might have to be curbed to meet emission reduction targets. Britain's largest airport owner has told the transport secretary, Lord Adonis, that it expects to launch a consultation on its plans after next spring. That could coincide with a general election, when the government's backing for a third runway is expected to cost it ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Study: Slowdown in warming last year not permanent
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091204/ap_on_bi_ge/us_climate2008
Associated Press: Climate researchers say cooler temperatures in North America last year do not mean global warming is easing. Their report comes just days before President Barack Obama goes to Copenhagen, Denmark, to speak at a United Nations conference on climate change. Rising temperatures over decades have prompted scientific concern, and the last decade has been the hottest in thousands of years, according to climate records. However, the warming eased a bit last year over North America, ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Ecosia search engine fights climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091204/sc_afp/usitinternetenvironmentecosia
Associated Press: An Ecosia search engine launching Monday is counting on the world's fascination with the Internet to help save Brazilian rainforests and battle global warming. A brain child of "green-minded friends" in Berlin, ecosia.org is powered by Bing and Yahoo! search technology but gives at least 80 percent of its revenue to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to protect rainforests. Ecosia has timed its official launch for Monday to coincide with the start of world climate talks in ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
AEP to get DOE funds for carbon capture project
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091204/ap_on_bi_ge/us_american_electric_power_doe_funds
Associated Press: American Electric Power Co., one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., on Friday said it was selected by the Department of Energy to receive funding to cover some costs of installing a commercial-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage system in West Virginia. The company is requesting $334 million, which will cover about half of the estimated cost of the project, which will be located on its Mountaineer coal-fired power plant in New Haven, West Virginia. The system ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Migration is the only escape from rising tides of climate change in Bangladesh
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/04/bangladesh-climate-refugees
Guardian: At an impromptu meeting in Moura village on the south-eastern coast of Bangladesh last week, 30 families said that their only hope of survival was to become climate refugees. "The tides come into the village every two weeks. Twenty years ago the sea was far away. Now it's a few yards and we fear that our children will die. We have lost our farmland and more than 50 people have already lost their homes to the rising sea. The drinking water is salty and there are no fish in the river. ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Gordon Brown attacks 'flat-earth' climate change sceptics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/04/flat-earth-climate-change-copenhagen
Guardian: Gordon Brown tonight led a chorus of condemnation against "flat-earth" climate change sceptics who have tried to derail the Copenhagen summit by casting doubt on the evidence for global warming. Sceptics in the UK and the US have moved to capitalise on a series of hacked emails from climate change scientists at the University of East Anglia, claiming they show attempts to hide information that does not support the case for human activity causing rising temperatures. On the eve ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
UK should open borders to climate refugees, says Bangladeshi minister
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/30/rich-west-climate-change
Guardian: Bangladesh's finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith Link to this video Up to 20 million Bangladeshis may be forced to leave the country in the next 40 years because of climate change, one of the country's most senior politicians has said. Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Bangladesh's finance minister, called on Britain and other wealthy countries to accept millions of displaced people. In a clear signal to the US and Europe that developing countries are not prepared to accept a weak ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
Bangladesh's climate migration trail: 'Our village is still underwater'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/04/bangladesh-climate-migration-trail
Guardian: "The first two or three days it was crazy. We don't have cars in our village, so when I saw a car I had to jump this way and that. And my head is full of a terrible buzzing sound." Haran Mondols, 53, was forced to move his extended family of 17 to Dhaka to look for work, after cyclone Aila drowned their village in southern Bangladesh in May. Haran used to be a wealthy man with five houses for his clan - all are now gone. Now they live in a group of huts on the perimeter of the ...
Sat, 5 Dec 09
DOE provides grants for carbon capture
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091204/ap_on_bi_ge/us_carbon_capture
Associated Press: The Energy Department is awarding grants totaling nearly $1 billion to speed up the development of commercial-scale projects to capture carbon dioxide at three coal-burning power plants. The department said Friday that the money from the economic recovery program will generate $2.2 billion in private capital for the programs. The grants include $334 million to Ohio-based American Electric Power for carbon capture at its coal plant near New Haven, W.Va.; $295 million to ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
'Mad Monk' Tony Abbott dooms Kevin Rudd's Australian climate change bill
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/6703542/Mad-Monk-Tony-Abbott-dooms-Kevin-Rudds-Australian-climate-change-bill.html
Telegraph: The maverick, known for his conservative Catholic views and nicknamed the "Mad Monk", seized the reins of the Liberal Party in an emergency party ballot on Tuesday, ousting Malcolm Turnbull in a narrow 42-41 vote. His victory threatens to doom climate legislation championed by the Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. Mr Abbott, a former senior minister in the former Howard government, has been a fierce critic of the government's cap-and-trade scheme to cut emmissions which he ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
No Australia poll in wake of emission laws failure
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091202/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarmingaustraliapolitics
Agence France-Presse: Australia's government on Wednesday said it will introduce defeated climate change legislation to parliament for a third time, passing up the opportunity to call a snap election. News of the political decision follows the outcome of a key vote in the country's upper house, or Senate, where the scheme to limit carbon emissions was voted down 33 to 41 after days of tumultuous debate which saw the opposition Coalition leader deposed by a maverick climate-change sceptic. "We will ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
U.S., Chinese pledges to cut emissions put pressure on India
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/01/AR2009120102591.html?wprss=rss_world
Washington Post: Recent announcements by the United States and China to cut carbon dioxide emissions are propelling India to make its own commitment to slow greenhouse gas emissions and go to the upcoming Copenhagen climate summit with a firm proposal on reductions. The move marks a significant shift for India, which until recently had insisted that wealthier nations should bear the brunt of carbon cuts rather than emerging nations, whose economies are less developed. But President Obama's ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
No Australia poll in wake of climate law defeat
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091202/ts_afp/unclimatewarmingaustraliapoliticslaw
Agence France-Presse: Australia's government on Wednesday said it will introduce defeated climate change legislation to parliament for a third time, passing up the opportunity to call snap elections. "We will come to parliament again, we will seek passage of the bill," Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters. "All options are on the table as to what happens next." The statement follows the upper house's second rejection of a carbon trading scheme, giving the government powers to dissolve ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Ozone hole 'protecting Antarctica'
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/ozone-hole-protecting-antarctica-from-global-warning/story-e6frg8y6-1225806099928
Australian: THE ozone hole may be boosting the risk of skin cancer, but it's also protecting Antarctica from global warming, international researchers claim in an assessment of Antarctic climate change from the geological past to the present. But as the ozone layer gradually heals - through a global protocol to cut the use of ozone-depleting compounds - the continent will warm rapidly, scientists claim in the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment report, released yesterday by the ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Argentina urges nations to assume respective duties against climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/02/content_12573149.htm
Xinhua: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez on Tuesday called on emerging countries to set humbler but more feasible goals of combating climate change and developed countries to shoulder their obligations. "The fundamental problem to be discussed in Copenhagen presents two issues: on the one hand, the issue that developed countries must assume their responsibility for the planet's pollution, and on the other hand, the goals that must be met," said the Argentinian ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Australia: A nation for heads in the sand
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/01/australia-climate-deniers-fred-pearce
Guardian: Australia is the hottest and, bar Antartica, driest continent on Earth. Parts have been embroiled in record drought for the past decade, leaving reservoirs empty and agriculture decimated. Things got so bad that thousands of camels besieged a Northern Territory town last week in search of water. Even the "ships of the desert" couldn't cope. Yet something in the frontier ethic of the "big country" still leads many of its residents to grab a cold beer, peer at the horizon and declare: ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
World leaders falling over themselves to show up at Copenhagen
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1201-hance_leaders.html
Mongabay: If you're a world leader and you won't be in Copenhagen next week you might feel out of the loop. Currently 98 heads of state have agreed to attend the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen--nearly half of the 192 member nations of the UN. "It gives me a strong feeling that we are on the right track," Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told a news conference today. Invitations were sent out last month and the first count was 65 heads of state. But just last week the ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Melting Antarctic Ice Likely To Cause Major Rise In Sea Levels
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1793225/melting_antarctic_ice_likely_to_cause_major_rise_in_sea/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: A major scientific report released on Tuesday showed that rapid ice loss in West Antarctica will likely contribute heavily to a projected sea level rise of up to 4.5 feet by 2100, AFP reported. For years scientists believed that most of Antarctica's continent-sized ice sheet was highly resistant to global warming, and that the more vulnerable West Antarctic ice block would remain intact for thousands of years to come. But according to the review by more than 100 experts on the ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Canada: Ontario inches closer to cap and trade plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091201/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_environment
Reuters: The Canadian province of Ontario took steps toward a cap and trade program on Tuesday that will allow the country's manufacturing heartland to cut industrial emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Starting in 2010, Ontario said industrial facilities that release 25,000 tonnes or more of greenhouse gases will have to report their emission data to the government and public. The province said about 200 to 300 facilities will be affected by the rule. They will ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Not just the polar bear: ten American species that are feeling the heat from global warming
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1201-hance_gwus.html
Mongabay:
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Mexico to pledge halving emissions by 2050
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091201/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingmexico
Agence France-Presse: During crunch talks in Copenhagen next week, Mexico will propose to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050 so long as it receives international aid, officials said Tuesday. The second-largest economy in Latin America after Brazil also aims to reduce emissions from the heat-trapping gases by six to seven percent by 2012 "if we have the necessary technology and financing," Environment Minister Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada told reporters. "If we had the budget, ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Kerry seeks more U.S. climate funds for poor nations
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5B04OT20091201?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Two senators on Tuesday gave a boost to next week's global environmental summit in Copenhagen, with a senior Democrat advocating more U.S. funding of climate change efforts by poor nations and a key Republican calling for quick action on a U.S. climate bill. Democratic Senator John Kerry, a leading advocate of climate control legislation in Congress, recommended that the Obama administration include $3 billion in next year's budget to help fund efforts to address global warming. This ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Time to confront the invisible enemy that threatens us all
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/time-to-confront-the-invisible-enemy-that-threatens-us-all-1832081.html
Independent (UK): You could be forgiven for thinking it's not happening -- and there, in fact, is the heart of the problem. Climate change, according to one view the greatest threat that human civilisation has ever faced, may seem a particularly nebulous danger to many people who look around them and see no evidence whatsoever of it taking place. If you gazed out of your window last July -- or in July 2008, or July 2007, for that matter -- what did you see? Rain, most of the time. People in raincoats. ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Can we fix it? Perhaps, but it depends who you ask
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/can-we-fix-it-perhaps-but-it-depends-who-you-ask-1832080.html
Independent (UK): Cosmologist and astrophysicist, president of the Royal Society, Astronomer Royal, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge There are two key facts relating to our future climate -- neither controversial. First, the measured CO2 concentration is rising: it's already higher than it's been for millions of years, and "business as usual" will lift it to twice the pre-industrial level by 2050. Second, it's also uncontroversial that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas -- this was recognised by ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Welcome to the age of extremes
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/welcome-to-the-age-of-extremes-1832082.html
Independent (UK): The difference between climate and weather is one of scale. Climate is what happens over decades, centuries and millennia, whereas weather occurs on the human timescale of hours, days and weeks. Climate is what you expect, and weather is what we get, and this is the rub when attributing any single extreme event, such as a flooding or a drought, to global warming. As events in Cumbria have shown, with its record 24-hour rainfall, the weather is full of surprises. This is because it is ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Europe Gets Bypassed on Road to Copenhagen
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/science/earth/02iht-euclimate.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: No political entity has pushed harder for the Copenhagen conference on climate change to succeed than the European Union. But just days before the opening of the United Nations-sponsored meeting, the Europeans have been largely pushed to the sidelines, watching as the world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, China and the United States, seek to set the rules of the game. "That's of course the unfortunate situation for Copenhagen," said Jo Leinen, a German member of the ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Project to combat fuel poverty runs out of money
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/02/fuel-poverty-warm-front
Guardian: Tens of thousands of vulnerable households will not receive help to fit insulation and cut their fuel bills this winter after the government's programme to redress fuel poverty ran out of money. Last week, Eaga, the company which runs the Warm Front programme, warned households who had applied for help that they would have to wait close to six months. The company, which said the scheme had seen very high levels of demand, also wrote to local insulation suppliers telling them not to ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Australia and climate change: The pitiless blue sky
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/02/australia-politics-climate-change-copenhagen
Guardian: The natural world is at the heart of Australian identity. "I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains," runs a famous poem, but that attachment to the environment does not count for much in national political life. Under John Howard, Australia's former prime minister, the country was notoriously sceptical of international efforts to fight climate change, even though, as a hot dry continent with a growing population, ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Climatologist Leaves Post in Inquiry Over E-Mail Leaks
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/science/earth/02scientist.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The head of the British research unit at the center of a controversy over the disclosure of thousands of e-mail messages among climate-change scientists has stepped down pending the outcome of an investigation. Phil Jones, the director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England, said that he would leave his post while the university conducted a review of the release of the e-mail messages. The university has called the release and publication of the ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
California water allocation hits record-low level
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5B105D20091202?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: California officials said on Tuesday that drought and environmental restrictions have forced them to cut planned water deliveries to irrigation districts and cities statewide to just 5 percent of their contracted allotments. Although the state Water Resources Department typically ends up supplying more water than first projected for an upcoming year, its 5 percent initial allocation for 2010 marks the smallest on record since the agency began delivering water in 1967. Drastic ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Global warming measures will cost 'twice as much as predicted'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6939942.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
Times (UK): Preventing runaway global warming may be twice as expensive as previously thought and Britain will have to incur billions of pounds of additional debt to cover its share of the cost, according to the world's most influential climate change economist. Lord Stern of Brentford said that future generations would find it easier to pay off the debt than to cope with the consequences of climate change. He called for air passengers to pay a significant proportion of the cost through a ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Climate change special: Twelve days to save the world
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-special-twelve-days-to-save-the-world-1832067.html
Independent (UK): Mohammed Nasheed knows what global warming means, because he sees it every day. He survived years of imprisonment and torture to lead his country -- the Maldives -- to democracy. But now, as its President, he is being forced to watch as his homeland is wiped from the map. With each year that passes, the rising sea claims more land, and at the current rate it will claim everything. He knows why. We know why. It is because we have released massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Australia: Australia's Parliament defeats global warming bill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091202/ap_on_re_as/climate_australia
Associated Press: Australia's Parliament defeated legislation to set up a greenhouse gas emissions trading system on Wednesday, throwing a central plank of the government's plans to combat global warming into disarray. The Senate, where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government does not hold a majority, rejected his administration's proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Scientist in climate change data row steps down
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/8389727.stm
BBC: The research director at the centre of a row over climate change data said he would stand down from the post while there is an independent review. Professor Phil Jones, director of the Norwich-based University of East Anglia's (UEA) Climatic Research Unit (CRU), has said he stands by his data. Sceptics claim the e-mails, leaked after a UEA server was hacked into, showed data was being manipulated. The hacking of the computer is being investigated by Norfolk ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Growing Scientific Consensus on Climate Change Ahead of Copenhagen Conference
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Growing-Scientific-Consensus-Climate-Change-Copenhagen-Conference-78239692.html
Voice of America: This month's UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen comes amid growing scientific consensus that global temperatures are rising, and that the warming trend is having a measurable impact on life on the planet. According to a 2007 UN intergovernmental panel report on climate change, 11 of the previous 12 years were the warmest on record. Although disagreements persist on the extent to which human activity is responsible for climate change, the Earth's warming no longer appears in doubt, ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Australia's Carbon-Emissions Plan Faces Derailment
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125966285925471075.html?mod=article-outset-box
Wall Street Journal: The Australian government's closely watched plan to reduce carbon emissions is likely to be stalled until February, and possibly beyond, after the opposition's newly elected leader vowed to block it in the Australian Senate this week. The almost certain defeat or delay of the plan in Australia's upper house means Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be without a long-coveted domestic emissions-trading program ahead of global climate talks in Copenhagen this month. The failure would ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
America's 11 Hottest Species Stressed by Climate Change
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2009/2009-12-01-091.asp
Environment News Service: This section is optional, if it is not set, the defaults from tophtml.txt will be used --> America's 11 Hottest Species Stressed by Climate Change Environment News Service (ENS) America's 11 Hottest Species Stressed by Climate Change WASHINGTON, DC, December 1, 2009 (ENS) – Honeycreepers that sing in Hawaii's mountain forests, the lynx that inhabit the snowy Rocky Mountains and New England, and the grizzly bears of the Rocky mountains are among America's top 10 threatened ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
First Comprehensive Review of the State of Antarctica's Climate
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091130192921.htm
ScienceDaily: The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published Dec. 1, 2009 by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The review -- Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment -- presents the latest research from the icy continent, identifies areas for future scientific research, and addresses the urgent questions that policy makers have about Antarctic melting, sea-level rise and biodiversity. Based ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Organic solar firm enjoys growing financial support
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2254288/organic-solar-firm-enjoys
Business Green: German solar cell start-up Heliatek GmbH has announced that it has secured EUR18m (£16m) through a second round of financing that will allow it to begin work on a manufacturing facility near its Dresden headquarters. The company, which was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from the Universities of Dresden and Ulm, specialises in the development of so-called organic solar cells that use carbon and other organic materials to create dyes that convert sunlight to electricity. Advocates ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Why do climate deniers hold sway in Australia?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/01/climate-change-climate-change-scepticism
Guardian: Australia is the hottest and driest continent on Earth. Parts have been embroiled in record drought for the past decade, leaving reservoirs empty and agriculture decimated. Things got so bad last week that thousands of camels besieged a small town in the Northern Territory in search of water. Even the "ships of the desert" couldn't cope. Yet, while many Aussies embrace a love of the outdoors both in body and spirit, something in the frontier ethic of the "lucky country" still leads ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Developing countries present climate proposal
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2009/12/01/developing_countries_present_climate_proposal/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Associated Press: A South African climate negotiator says four major developing nations have presented a joint climate proposal ahead of a U.N. conference on global warming. Alf Wills says the document by China, India, Brazil and South Africa represents "different positions" compared to a separate outline for the global climate talks by Denmark, which will host the Dec. 7-18 conference. Wills said the joint document was presented at a preparatory meeting between negotiators in Copenhagen on ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
UK climate scientist to temporarily step down
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_climate_hacked_e_mails
Associated Press: Britain's University of East Anglia says the director of its prestigious Climatic Research Unit is stepping down pending an investigation into allegations that he overstated the case for man-made climate change. The university says Phil Jones will relinquish his position until the completion of an independent review into allegations that he worked to alter the way in which global temperature data was presented. The allegations were made after more than a decade of ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
United Kingdom: Prince Charles to attend Copenhagen climate change summit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/01/prince-charles-copenhagen
Guardian: Prince Charles will join at least 65 world leaders in Copenhagen later this month, it was announced today. In an unexpected move by Denmark, the prince has been invited by the host country to address the UN summit during the opening ceremony of the second "high-level" week of the conference, when political leaders arrive. But the Prince of Wales, who will only be in the Danish capital city for four hours on 15 December, will not take part in any formal negotiations. It is ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
EU to play 'key role' at climate summit: EU Pres
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091201/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingsummiteu
Agence France-Presse: The European Union is committed to playing a key role at the UN's global warming summit later this month in Copenhagen, the bloc's new president Herman Van Rompuy said Tuesday. "On climate change, the (European) Union is determined to continue playing a key role, a constructive role which could lead to an ambitious global agreement," Van Rompuy said in French during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "But our action in the EU will not be ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
S.Korea in dilemma over gas emissions cut: minister
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091201/sc_afp/climatewarmingskorea
Agence France-Presse: South Korea is caught in a dilemma between its promise to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions and mounting concerns that the move will only benefit business rival China, a minister said Tuesday. Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung-Hwan also said there were fears that energy-intensive local companies such as steel firms and automakers would relocate overseas to avoid tougher curbs on emissions. South Korea last month set an ambitious target for its voluntary cut in ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
First Comprehensive Review Of The State Of Antarctica's Climate
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1792939/first_comprehensive_review_of_the_state_of_antarcticas_climate/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: 'Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment' The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published this week (Tuesday 1 December) by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The review - Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment – presents the latest research from the icy continent, identifies areas for future scientific research, and addresses the urgent questions that policy makers have ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
EPA: More engine tests needed on ethanol blends
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/ap_on_bi_ge/us_epa_ethanol
Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it wants more tests to determine if car engines can handle higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline before it decides whether to increase the maximum blend from 10 to 15 percent. Still, the agency appeared to be favoring a higher ethanol concentration in gasoline, saying that the congressional mandate for increased ethanol use can't be achieved without allowing higher blends of the renewable fuel, most of which comes from ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Farmers could fight climate change: UN food body
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091201/sc_afp/unclimatewarmingfao
Agence France-Presse: The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Tuesday farming could offer a cost-effective way of cutting greenhouse emissions, but had been "largely excluded" from next week's Copenhagen summit. Agriculture contributes 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gases and is in a position to make a significant contribution to reducing emissions, particularly in developing nations, the FAO said in a statement. "Yet agriculture has been largely excluded from the main climate ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Climate sceptics get it wrong
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6703841/Climate-sceptics-get-it-wrong.html
Telegraph: The Global Warming Polilcy Foundation (GWPF) was launched by Lord Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, last week to "help restore balance and trust" in the climate change debate. The think tank was set up in the wake of the 'climategate scandal' that saw scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) accused of manipulating climate change data. However it has now emerged that a graph used by the GWPF on its website was ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Climate-change skeptics are barking up the wrong smokestack
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/11/24/DI2009112402360.html
Washington Post: Eugene Robinson: Hi, everybody. We have the Afghanistan speech tonight, the climate change conference in Copenhagen next week, and the health care debate (apparently) for the rest of our lives. Let's get started. _______________________ Atlanta: I'm far from an expert on climate change - but I am getting the feeling that we are over-reacting here. The complexity of the world atmosphere is obvious, and at this point I just don't by the alarm. Look here in Atlanta - 3 years ago ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Most World Leaders to Attend UN Climate Summit
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/01/news/news-us-climate-copenhagen.html?_r=5
Reuters: Most world leaders plan to attend a climate summit in Copenhagen this month, boosting chances that a new U.N. deal to fight climate change will be reached, host Denmark said on Tuesday. The number of leaders planning to come to the December 7-18 talks had risen to 98 out of the 192 members of the United Nations, Denmark said. The number was up from 65 in a first count after invitations were sent last month. "It gives me a strong feeling that we are on the right track," Danish ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Dalai Lama Encouraged by Upcoming UN Climate Change Summit
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2009/2009-12-01-01.asp
Environment News Service: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama said Monday that the world's leaders must give the highest priority to the issue of global warming. Speaking in Sydney on the first day of his 11-day tour of Australia and New Zealand, the Dalai Lama told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. he is encouraged that governments are taking a greater interest in climate change ahead of the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen, which opens Monday. "I think it's very, very ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Kerry pushes for more climate change aid
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/12/kerry_pushes_fo.html
Boston Globe: Senator John F. Kerry today urged the State Department to consider increasing the US financial commitment to support international climate change priorities as officials prepare for the Copenhagen summit starting next week. President Obama's 2009-10 budget includes about $1.2 billion, but Kerry wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that $3 billion in 2010-11 is needed. A Senate bill, like the bill passed by the House in June, sets aside about 7 percent of proceeds from ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
EU leaders want details on China emissions plan
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9TuMrvrknh-ZXwqmZ2N-48kff3wD9CAGGQO1
Associated Press: European leaders called on China to provide details on how it plans to curb its greenhouse gas emissions, saying Tuesday that Beijing's status as the world's largest polluter gives it a special responsibility to combat global warming. India, meanwhile, is under growing pressure to offer up a plan of any kind with less than week to go before 192 nations gather in Copenhagen to try to craft an international agreement for controlling emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Climate change may be dire for Nigeria: minister
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i2FtcvJg3ZNW8Oj81wd1GxDyWktg
Agence France-Presse: The impacts of climate change on Nigeria could be dire for the economy and ecology, and this could lead to civil unrest, Environment Minister John Odey warned on Tuesday in Abuja. Although climate change is a global issue, "Nigeria is one of the countries that would be most impacted... because of its size, population, rain-fed agriculture and variable climatic zones," Odey told a public forum. "The impacts on our society and the economy will be huge and cross-cutting," Odey ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
UK Economist: Climate Skeptics are Confused
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/12/01/uk-economist-climate-skeptics-are-confused.html
U.S. News and World Report: A leading British climate change economist warned Tuesday that those who doubt the science of global warming are confused--and said their skepticism should not derail efforts to strike a climate deal in Denmark. Nicholas Stern, who wrote a British government report on global warming, said hackers who posted documents snatched from the climate research unit at the University of East Anglia had muddled the debate at a critical moment. Critics of the science behind global warming ...
Wed, 2 Dec 09
Tree Plantations Are Not Forests, Women Activists Say
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49489
Inter Press Service: Touted as "harvested forests," single-crop tree plantations are fast encroaching on the native forests and grasslands of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, affecting the environment and the lives of local communities, rural women say. According to critics, corporations are logging natural forests in these South American countries and transforming their grasslands to plant eucalyptus, pine and other non-indigenous fast-growing trees - which consume enormous quantities of water and degrade ...