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German scientists suggest per-person carbon emission quotas
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320856,german-scientists-suggest-per-person-carbon-emission-quotas.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: German scientists called Tuesday for the world to accept per-person quotas for carbon dioxide emissions to kick-start a global trading scheme where poor nations will benefit. The Potsdam Institute for Research on Climate Effects said everyone on the globe should be allowed 5 tons of carbon per year. That is just one quarter of the average per-person emissions for a US citizen, but still far above emissions in poor nations. The government-funded institute said the current ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
United States: Beetle-Kill Trees May Be Converted Into Fuel
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/23276012/detail.html
Denver Channel: Colorado State University is getting ready to test a California company's technology that converts trees killed by bark beetles into fuel for cars. CSU's Engines and Energy Conversion Lab will measure the power and pollution from the fuel developed by Cobalt Technologies Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. Cobalt's process turns lodge pole pines into butanol. Ethanol, a more common biofuel, usually uses corn or other food crops. Tom Foust of the National Renewable Energy ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
Sustainable Biofuels From Forests, Grasslands And Rangelands
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1857297/sustainable_biofuels_from_forests_grasslands_and_rangelands/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: The promise of switchgrass, the challenges for forests and the costs of corn-based ethanol production: Ecological scientists review the many factors surrounding biofuel crop production and its implications on ecosystem health in three new Biofuels and Sustainability Reports. Produced by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the nation's largest organization of ecological scientists, and sponsored by the Energy Foundation, these reports explore the production and use of biofuels from an ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
Oil spill off US coast is worse than we thought, BP admits
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7111262.ece
Times (UK): BP has conceded that the extent of an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico may be much worse than originally thought. The oil giant was responding to a warning from US officials that the amount of crude leaking from the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig could be five times greater than early estimates. "I would say the range is 1,000 to 5,000 barrels a day,' Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production, said. His remarks followed the discovery of a ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
Study gives green light to plants' role in global warming
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100429111021.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Plants remain an effective way of tackling global warming despite emitting small amounts of an important greenhouse gas, a study has shown. Research led by the University of Edinburgh suggests that plant leaves account for less than one per cent of the Earth's emissions of methane -which is considered to be about 25 times more effective than carbon dioxide at global warming. The results contrast with a previous scientific study which had suggested that plants were responsible ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
BP shares plunge over oil spill in Gulf of Mexico
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/29/bp-shares-plummet-after-oil-spill
Guardian: Shares in BP plunged 7% today as investors panicked about speculation that the blowout on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico could create an even bigger environmental disaster than the Exxon Valdez tanker spill. Fund managers and analysts in the City said they were deeply worried about the financial cost to BP of the kind of legal action that could be taken in the US by those damaged by the accident. Over £13bn has so far been knocked off the oil company's stock market value since the ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
China will undertake greater global role: Wen
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100429/wl_asia_afp/chinaeudiplomacy
Agence France-Presse: China pledged to take a greater role in global issues Thursday as it vowed to work with the European Union on nuclear non-proliferation, energy security and climate change. In wide-ranging talks between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the two sides also agreed to to fight protectionism and tear down trade barriers. "China will undertake greater international responsibilities," Wen said in a joint media appearance with Barroso ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
Ecuador: Chevron oil demands Crude filmmaker hand over unseen footage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/29/chevron-court-crude-footage-amazon
Guardian: The oil giant Chevron is trying to force a filmmaker to hand over hundreds of hours of documentary footage about pollution in the Amazon in the latest twist in a multibillion dollar lawsuit. The company wants to view unused material from the award-winning documentary Crude, about an environmental catastrophe in Ecuador's oil-producing Amazon region, to bolster its defence in one of the biggest lawsuits in history. The 105-minute film sympathises with alleged victims of oil ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
Iceland: Study at sea assesses ash impacts
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10091568.stm
BBC: Scientists are looking at what impact volcanic ash from the recent eruption in Iceland has had on marine biology. A team of researchers will spend a month at sea, studying a region of water in the North Atlantic. They say the information will provide "unique data" on how the dust affects the chemistry and biology of seawater. The eruption under a glacier in south-west Iceland created a vast ash cloud that spread across northern Europe. "It is a very interesting ...
Fri, 30 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Eco cleaning products are greenwashing customers, Which? warns
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2262271/eco-cleaning-products
Business Green: Household brands selling "eco" products may need to rethink their marketing strategies following a study from Which? magazine highlighting how easy it is to "greenwash" customers with exaggerated environmental claims. A study released by consumer rights magazine earlier today accused a number of household names including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Ecover of failing to adequately substantiate the claims made on green product labels. The report also criticised independent ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Crews try setting fire to oil leaking in Gulf
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_bi_ge/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion
Associated Press: It's a hellish scene: Giant sheets of flame racing across the Gulf of Mexico as thick, black smoke billows high into the sky. This, though, is no Hollywood action movie. It's the real-life plan to be deployed just 20 miles from the Gulf Coast in a last-ditch effort to burn up an oil spill before it could wash ashore and wreak environmental havoc. Crews late Wednesday afternoon started a test burn to see how the technique was working. Rig operator BP PLC had planned to continue ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Why eco-friendly products are not as green as they appear
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/why-ecofriendly-products-are-not-as-green-as-they-appear-1957289.html
Independent (UK): Faced with a choice between normal cleaning products and more expensive "green" alternatives, many shoppers pay more to do their bit for the environment. But store chains and specialist manufacturers may be exaggerating some of their claims for "eco" cleaners and washing powders, a process dubbed "greenwashing". according to a survey by a consumer group today. The claims of 14 "green" household cleaners, laundry tablets, nappies and baby wipes were put to the test by a panel of ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Study: Most In U.S. Exposed To Dangerous Pollution
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126366926&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: While air quality is improving in many U.S. cities, 175 million people -- more than half the population -- are still living in areas where the air is often too dangerous to breathe, a new report finds. The study from the American Lung Association looked at the two biggest air pollution threats in the U.S.: ozone and particle pollution. The Los Angeles area had the worst levels of ozone, while Bismarck, N.D., had the best. Bakersfield, Calif., had the worst particle ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Crews Try Setting Fire To Oil Leaking In Gulf
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126373753&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: The Coast Guard Wednesday started a test burn of an area about 30 miles east of the delta of the Mississippi River to see how a plan to burn up an oil spill before it could wash ashore and wreak environmental havoc was working. Crews turned to the plan after failing to stop a 1,000-barrel-a-day leak at the spot where a deepwater oil platform exploded and sank. A 500-foot boom was to be used to corral several thousand gallons of the thickest oil on the surface, which will then be towed ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Offshore Wind Power: Is It Worth the Tradeoffs?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100428/hl_time/08599198561300
Time Magazine: Capping nearly a decade of legal disputes, regulatory review and p.r. battles, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has given the go-ahead to what will be the U.S.'s first offshore wind farm, off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The project, called Cape Wind, will supply an average of 183 megawatts - or up to three-quarters of the electricity needs for Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket - without producing carbon or any other pollutant. More important, the approval ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Canada: British Columbia sets out new clean energy plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100428/wl_canada_nm/canada_us_energy_britishcolumbia
Reuters: British Columbia unveiled a new clean energy plan on Wednesday that calls for increased efficiency and reduces the ability of rate regulators to spurn potentially costlier renewable energy projects. Canada's westernmost province, which already generates most of its electricity from hydroelectric dams, has decreed that 93 percent of its electricity must come from clean or renewable sources, up from 90 percent. The British Columbia Utility Commission, which sparred with the ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Russia's Putin voices fears for polar bears
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100428/sc_afp/russiapoliticsanimalsputin
Agence France-Presse: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, better known in the West for his tough-guy image, expressed concern Thursday for the fate of Arctic polar bears threatened by climate change. "The polar bear is under threat. Their population is currently only 25,000 individuals," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying after a recent trip to an island in the Arctic Ocean. Although Putin is better known in the West for pushing a muscular foreign policy and tightening control ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Oil spill: Gulf of Mexico burn is last-ditch effort to stop landfall
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100428/ts_csm/297445
Christian Science Monitor: The decision by the Coast Guard to set fire to parts of the Jamaica-sized Gulf of Mexico oil spill spreading toward the Gulf Coast is a sign of mounting desperation in efforts to prevent oil from the sunken Deepwater Horizon oil rig from reaching American shores. Though burning crude oil has been done experimentally, most notably off the coast of Newfoundland in 1993, it's a last resort, and indicates that dogged attempts to both contain the spill and stanch the 42,000 gallons of ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Mexico City air pollution adversely affects the hearts of young people
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428153256.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: A post-mortem study of the hearts of 21 young people in Mexico City has found that the heart begins to show the adverse effects of air pollution at a young age and that tiny bits of inactivated bacteria that hitch a ride on pollutants may make the problem worse. The study is part of a growing body of research showing that air pollution can damage the heart and lead to increased risk of heart disease and heart attacks. But this study contrasted two different areas of the same city, ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Australia: Voters want climate action now: Brown
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/29/2885340.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A new opinion poll released by the Greens shows the majority of voters support a carbon levy to cut emissions. About 70 per cent of those surveyed want the Federal Government to negotiate with the Greens and other Senators to introduce a levy. Greens leader Bob Brown says it is clear Australians want immediate action to tackle climate change. He says a carbon levy is the best option following the Government's decision to shelve its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Washington Approves Wind Farm Off Cape Cod
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/science/earth/29wind.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: After nine years of regulatory review, the federal government gave the green light Wednesday to the nation's first offshore wind farm, a highly contested project off the coast of Cape Cod. The approval of the 130-turbine farm gives a significant boost to the nascent offshore wind industry in the United States, which has lagged far behind Europe and China in harnessing the strong and steady power of ocean breezes to provide electricity to homes and businesses. With Gov. Deval ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Obama touts renewable energy at Missouri plant
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama
Associated Press: President Barack Obama on Wednesday pleaded for commonsense financial reforms to prevent some of the risky Wall Street behavior that contributed to the economic near-meltdown. His appeal came as Senate Democratic leaders failed for the third time in three days to get the necessary votes to move ahead on regulatory legislation in the face of unified Republican opposition. Obama's remarks also came one day after lawmakers excoriated Goldman Sachs executives for "unbridled greed" for ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United States: First U.S. Offshore Wind Power Project Approved
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100428-energy-first-offshore-wind-project-approved/
National Geographic: Even with the Obama administration's approval of the nation's first offshore wind energy project--the long-disputed Cape Wind farm in Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound--experts still see one major barrier to harnessing coastal renewable power in the United States. This time, it's not Ted Kennedy. It's the cost. Primarily because of the need for more robust turbine parts to withstand tough weather conditions and salty water, offshore wind energy costs about twice per kilowatt-hour ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Senator Reid to push climate bill before immigration
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100428/pl_nm/us_climate_usa
Reuters: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Wednesday he would work to pass energy legislation before tackling immigration reform, a strategy that might restore the bipartisan coalition behind the climate change bill push. "I am going to move forward on energy first," Reid told reporters at a press conference. "The bill's ready. I don't see why we can't do that." Republican Senator Lindsey Graham pulled out of the effort to craft legislation addressing global warming with ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Video: Madagascar could become "Haiti-like"
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0428-hance_carteblanche.html
Mongabay: Niall O'Connor from the World Wildlife Fund warns in a Carte Blanche production that if the ecological destruction of Madagascar continues, the poor island country could become "Haiti-like", where he says, "most of the biodiversity, most of the forests are gone". Carte Blanche, an African investigative journalism show, went to Madagascar to look into the current environmental crisis where rosewood is being logged in National Parks threatening Madagascar's unique ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Australia: Kevin Rudd's Department of Hot Air costing taxpayers $90m
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/money/kevin-rudds-department-of-hot-air-costing-taxpayers-90m/story-e6frfh5f-1225859701357
Daily Telegraph: TAXPAYERS will fork out $90 million a year to keep more than 400 public servants employed within the Federal Climate Change Department - despite most of them now having nothing to do until 2013. More than 60 of them are classified as senior executive staff on salaries between $168,000 and $298,000 a year. Their salary bill alone will cost an estimated $12 million every year. A further $8 million will also be paid in rent for plush offices at Canberra's Constitution Place until ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
World tribunal would police climate 'crimes'
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/world-tribunal-would-police-climate-crimes-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Demands for a world tribunal with the power to punish climate 'crimes' were presented to the United Nations on Monday (26 April). The Climate and Environmental Justice Tribunal emerged as a key proposal of the summit -- the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth -- held in Bolivia last week (19-22 April), said to have been attended by more than 31, 000 people (see Bolivian alternative climate conference begins). The tribunal would have the ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Melting sea ice would cause sea levels to rise by 'hair's breadth'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7645112/Melting-sea-ice-would-cause-sea-levels-to-rise-by-hairs-breadth.html
Telegraph: Researchers at the University of Leeds calculate that around 1.5 million Titanic-sized icebergs each year are melting into the sea every year in the Arctic and Antarctic. This is causing sea level to rise by just 49 micrometers per year - around a hair's breadth. At that rate it would take 200 years for the oceans to rise by 1cm as a result of melting sea ice. If all the floating ice in the world melted it would cause sea levels to rise by just 4cm. In comparison if all the ice on ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United States: First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Gets Government OK
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126363616&ft=1&f=1025
Associated Press: The Obama administration has approved what would be the nation's first offshore wind farm, off Cape Cod, inching the U.S. closer to harvesting an untapped domestic energy source - the steady breezes blowing along its vast coasts. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced his decision Wednesday in Boston, clearing the way for a 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was in its ninth year of federal review, and Salazar stepped in early this year to bring what he called ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Romania to launch carbon trading scheme
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100428/sc_afp/romaniaclimateenergywarmingenvironment
Agence France-Presse: The Romanian government on Wednesday gave its go ahead to a carbon trading scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions, hoping to earn up to 2.5 billion euros (3.3 billion dollars) until 2012. "Romania can trade about 300 million credits, divided into one-million-ton packages," economy minister Adriean Videanu said during a press conference. The money is set to go to environmental projects, including the closure of polluting companies and investments in renewable energy ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United States: First offshore wind farm for US
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8649925.stm
BBC: US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has approved controversial plans for the country's first offshore wind farm to operate off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. "This project fits with the tradition of sustainable development in the area," he told reporters in Boston. State Governor Deval Patrick has argued the farm is key to local efforts to increase the use of renewable energy. But the late Senator Edward Kennedy strongly opposed the idea, which some fear would spoil the ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Lib Dem plans for the environment
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7646944/Lib-Dem-plans-for-the-environment.html
Telegraph: CLIMATE CHANGE :: The only party to increase the target on cutting carbon emissions to 100 per cent by 2050, although 10 per cent will come from carbon offsets. :: Reduce carbon greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40 per cent by 2020 with no offsets. :: Unilaterally move towards 30 per cent reductions by 2020 and move for the whole of Europe to do likewise. :: Push for international deal that limits temperature rise to 1.7C by boosting by asking rich countries ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Cape Wind to become America's first offshore windfarm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/28/cape-wind-america-offshore-approved
Guardian: The Obama administration gave the go-ahead today to America's first offshore windfarm in the Nantucket Sound, overcoming nearly a decade of resistance from the Kennedy clan and other famous denizens of the favourite holiday destination of America's liberal elite. The announcement provides a much-needed boost for President Obama's green energy credentials in the week that his proposed climate change laws were relegated down the agenda and the Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster highlighted ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Coast Guard says to set leaking oil ablaze
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100428/ts_nm/us_usa_rig_leak
Reuters: The U.S. Coast Guard said on Wednesday it will use a "controlled burn" to battle a giant oil slick from last week's deadly offshore drilling rig explosion, as the spill threatened wide-scale coastal damage for four U.S. Gulf Coast states. The leaking well, 5,000 feet under the sea off Louisiana's coast, has created an oil sheen and emulsified crude slick slightly bigger than the U.S. state of West Virginia, the Coast Guard said. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United States: First offshore wind farm gets green light
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100428/us_nm/us_usa_windfarm
Reuters: The first U.S. offshore wind farm, a giant project 5 miles/8 km off the Massachusetts coast, was approved on Wednesday after years of opposition involving everyone from local Indian tribes to the Kennedy family. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave the green light for the historic 130-turbine, 420-megawatt Cape Wind project in Horseshoe Shoal, Nantucket Sound, in what supporters considered a huge step forward for renewable energy in the United States. "This project fits ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Media blast Rudd's retreat
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10641470
New Zealand Herald: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's decision to jam his proposed greenhouse emissions trading scheme into the back of the darkest cupboard he could find has unleashed his worst demons. The media that had once admired his resolve and energy have turned on him with a vengeance, attacking him as a weakling lacking the courage of his convictions and scrambling back in panic from the attacks of Opposition leader Tony Abbott. Not the kind of picture you want painted of you as you count down ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Global floating ice in "constant retreat": study
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63R49220100428?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's floating ice is in "constant retreat," showing an instability which will increase global sea levels, according to a report published in Geophysical Research Letters on Wednesday. Floating ice had disappeared at a steady rate over the past 10 years, according to the first measurement of its kind. "It's a large number," said Professor Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds, lead author of the paper, estimating the net loss of floating sea ice and ice shelves in ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Sea ice loss driving Arctic warming cycle, scientists confirm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/28/arctic-sea-ice-loss-warming
Guardian: The Arctic is locked into a destructive cycle that could see its icy cover rapidly disappear, scientists have confirmed. A new analysis shows that dwindling levels of sea ice are responsible for unusual levels of global warming in the region. The findings reinforce suggestions that a positive feedback between ice loss and temperature rise has emerged in the Arctic, which increases the chances of further rapid ice loss and warming. The study could re-ignite claims that the Arctic has ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
List of areas with worst, best air quality
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_sc/us_polluted_cities_glance
Associated Press: The U.S. areas with the best and worst air quality, according to the latest American Lung Association "State of the Air" pollution report: OZONE POLLUTION WORST: 1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif. 2. Bakersfield, Calif. 3. Visalia-Porterville, Calif. BEST: 1. Bismarck, N.D. 2. Brownsville-Harlingen-Raymondville, Texas 3. Coeur d'Alene, Idaho SHORT-TERM PARTICLE POLLUTION WORST: 1. Bakersfield, ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Large-scale soy farming in Brazil pushes ranchers into the Amazon rainforest
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0428-amazon_soy.html
Mongabay: Industrial soy expansion in the Brazilian Amazon has contributed to deforestation by pushing cattle ranchers further north into rainforest zones, reports a new study published the journal Environmental Research Letters. The research, which looked at soy and cattle dynamics in the southern Amazon stats of Mato Grosso and Par&aacte;, supports the claim that soy is an important indirect driver of deforestation in the world's largest rainforest. The authors -- including Elizabeth ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
A day to celebrate (and save) the world's amphibians: the 2nd Annual Save the Frogs Day
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0428-hance_frogday.html
Mongabay: Friday, April 30th is for the frogs: educational programs, conservation walks with experts, frog leaping races, and the world's first protest to save frogs are all planned for the world's 2nd Annual Save the Frogs Day. Organized by the non-profit SAVE THE FROGS!, events are so far planned in 15 countries on every continent besides Antarctica--fittingly the only continent that lacks amphibians. "[This] will be the largest day of amphibian education and conservation action in the ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
World needs clean energy revolution: UN chief
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100428/sc_afp/unenergyclimate
Agence France-Presse: Rich and poor nations need a "clean energy revolution" in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said here Wednesday. "We cannot achieve the (poverty-reduction) Millennium Development Goals without providing access to affordable modern energy," he said as he opened a day-long energy conference. Noting that 1.6 billion people around the world lack access to electricity while two to three billion still rely on traditional energy ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Report: Most Americans still live in unclean air
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_re_us/us_polluted_cities
Associated Press: A new report says more than half of Americans still live in areas with unhealthy air, despite progress in reducing smog. The report released Wednesday by the American Lung Association is based on 2006-2008 figures. It says progress has been made in reducing particle pollution such as soot and dust, thanks to cleaner diesel engines and controls on coal-fired power plants. The Los Angeles area continued to have the nation's worst ozone pollution while Bakersfield had the worst ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Coast Guard chief sees big risk from oil spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100428/us_nm/us_usa_rig_coastguard
Reuters: The Coast Guard is scrambling to prevent a giant slick from an oil rig blowout from reaching the U.S. Gulf of Mexico shoreline, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad W. Allen said on Wednesday. "This is potentially a very serious issue ... We are under no illusion of the risk that's involved here," Allen said. He told reporters in Miami the Coast Guard, working with federal and local authorities, had activated contingency measures aimed at protecting at-risk areas of the coast ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Australia: Politics trumps a moral challenge
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/politics-trumps-a-moral-challenge/story-e6frg6z6-1225859592923
Australian: KEVIN Rudd's credibility-sapping decision on Tuesday to delay the introduction of his carbon pollution reduction scheme until 2013 at the earliest, means that he goes into this year's election with a less crystallised climate change policy than John Howard took to the 2007 election. At that time Rudd mocked Howard as a climate change sceptic, someone unwilling to even ratify the Kyoto Protocol; someone who didn't take the profound effects of global warming seriously. Now, when ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Firms urged to show respect to green employees, or risk legal action
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2262187/firms-urged-show-respect-green
Business Green: Managers will have to tread increasingly carefully when dealing with employees who put forward green proposals, or risk becoming embroiled in embarassing legal battles that could result in hefty compensation payouts. That is the advice of a leading employment lawyer following the conclusion last week of a landmark legal battle, which centred on a ruling that environmentalism or strong views on climate change are protected by UK discrimination law. The case dates back to last ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
General election poses 'last chance parliament' for dealing with climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/apr/28/general-election-climate-change
Guardian: What is most striking about the election campaign to date is the fudging of the really big issues by the party leaders. There has been very little policy detail about the things that really matter, such as tackling the UK's huge budget deficit. Yet even if that were forthcoming, any proposed solution to our financial deficit is doomed to failure if it does not address our environmental deficit. Ignoring environmental concerns simply isn't an option if we want sustainable ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
United States: Graham has backing at home, but not on climate
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/28/28climatewire-sen-graham-has-backing-at-home-but-not-on-cl-24716.html
ClimateWire: The Lindsey Graham from small town Seneca, a leafy place in the South Carolina's piedmont dotted on the edges by places named Retreat, Hicks Store and Singing Pines, has no business siding with Democrats. He is not seen as a centrist Republican, nor one who needs moderate issues to gladden an electorate that straddles political divisions. This is Graham the southern conservative, whose state sought Sarah Palin as vice president and which yields some Democrats that are redder than many ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Buh-bye East Coast beaches
http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/04/climate-desk-sea-level-rise-epa
Mother Jones: For most of the 20th century, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, was known for its boardwalk, amusement park, and wide, sandy beaches, popular with daytrippers from Washington, DC. "The bathing beach has a frontage of three miles," boasted a tourist brochure from about 1900, "and is equal, if not superior, to any beach on the Atlantic Coast." [2]Today, on a cloudless spring afternoon, the resort town's sweeping view of Chesapeake Bay is no less stunning. But there's no longer any beach in ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Two paths to profits
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/04/utilities-see-two-paths-to-profits-on-the-smart
Daily Climate: Beyond installing advanced meters and sensors, utilities may use the smart grid's capabilities in very different ways. Energy consultant Peter Fox-Penner sees two contrasting business models for the utility of the future - one focused on selling power, the other on selling high-value "energy services." In what he calls the 'smart integrator' model, utilities concentrate on operating the power grid and delivering electricity reliably to customers. Their profit incentive remains ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Budget trimmers target ethanol
http://www.environmentreport.org/story.php?story_id=4984
Environment Report: President Obama's visit to the Corn Belt is highlighting a tough debate about the future of corn-based ethanol used in our cars.
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Natural gas supply, jobs and technique debate booming
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-04-28-naturalgas28_CV_N.htm
USA Today: Robert Myers spends a lot of time hiking and fishing in state forests, "places where my grandfather went hunting," he says. But the hiking grounds for this Lock Haven, Pa., English professor and local activist are changing with what some critics say is the threat to the environment that comes as part of the latest boom: the hunt for natural gas. And Myers hates what it's doing to the Eastern forests. "It sickens me what the gas wells are doing to the places I love." Energy ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
U.S. investors say climate law unlikely this year
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2712004820100427
Reuters: Leading investors are skeptical a climate change bill will pass the U.S. Senate this year, though they say it is needed to provide stability and boost spending in the clean-tech energy sector. The bill's future was thrown into question over the weekend when Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he was dropping out of the effort with Democratic Senator John Kerry and Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman. Kerry, who on Tuesday said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
US government pledges support for Masdar City plan
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2262181/government-inks-masdar-deal
Business Green: The ambitious Masdar City project has secured arguably its highest profile backer to date, after the US government signed a deal with the Abu Dhabi state-owned company behind plans to build one of the world's premier clean tech hubs. Masdar was set up by the Abu Dhabi government in 2006 to advance the development, commercialisation and deployment of renewable energy and clean technologies. The company has since secured a raft of high profile corporate partners and investors, keen to ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
US considers burning off oil leak
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8648290.stm
BBC: Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer for exploration and production at BP, said it had not yet given up on engaging the valve, but was considering other possible solutions. These include placing a dome directly over the leaks to catch the oil and send it up to the surface, where it could be collected by ships. This has only been done in shallow water before and is still two to four weeks from being operational. BP will also begin drilling a "relief well" intersecting the ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
India announces SAARC climate change fund
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article413918.ece
Hindu: India on Wednesday announced setting up of a fund that would help South Asia effectively meet urgent adaptation and capacity building needs posed by the climate change and also proposed establishment of innovation centres in the region to develop sustainable energy technologies. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made the announcement at the 16th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit that began here with an apt theme - `Towards a Green and Happy South ...
Thu, 29 Apr 10
Can Global Warming Give You Kidney Stones?
http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/the-climate-report/archive/2010/04/can-global-warming-give-you-kidney-stones/39594/
Mother Jones: The 1995 Chicago heat wave was one of the most brutal weather events the United States has ever experienced. On July 13, the thermostat hit 106 degrees. Many of the city's poor and elderly residents had no air conditioning; many of those who did lost power as blackouts swept the city. Soon, thousands were suffering from dehydration, kidney failure, and respiratory distress. The hospitals were overloaded; the city couldn't cope with the flood of 911 calls. Over the following days, more than ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
EU parliament leader: US 'not very helpful' on climate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100427/sc_afp/usclimatepoliticseuropeeu
Agence France-Presse: The United States is "not very helpful" when it comes to fighting climate change, EU parliament president Jerzy Buzek said Tuesday during a visit to the US Capitol. "In climate issue, Europe is a leader and we would like to save our planet," he said before talks with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We think it (climate change) is very dangerous. And Americans are not very helpful." Buzek, a former Polish prime minister, said Washington thinks "Europe is not very ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Kerry: Action on climate bill remains likely
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_bi_ge/us_climate_bill
Associated Press: The Democratic sponsor of climate change legislation say he is working to address Republican concerns that led him to delay the bill's introduction. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts says Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and others are discussing how to revive the climate bill. Kerry postponed the bill Saturday after Graham threatened to withhold support if Reid pushes ahead first with an immigration bill. Kerry said ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Obama pushes wind power in Iowa visit
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/27/obama.main.street.tour/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29
CNN: President Obama took his renewable energy push to the heartland Tuesday, trumpeting the merits of wind power during a visit to the state that launched him on the road to the White House a little over two years ago. Obama's visit to the Siemens wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, was the latest stop in his "White House to Main Street" tour -- part of the president's pitch to middle-class workers hurt by the economic downturn. "Lately, we've been able to ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Reid committed to both climate, immigration bills
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q4T820100427?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. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday he is committed to passing both climate-change and immigration-reform legislation this year. While the two efforts are widely seen as election-year long-shots, Reid, a Democrat, said, "I am committed to doing both this session of Congress. "Others may have given up on immigration reform," Reid told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I haven't." Bipartisan talks aimed at reaching a compromise agreement on a climate-change ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Reid Says He's Committed to Climate Change, Immigration Measures
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.5XvAXM_gG0&pos=9
Bloomberg: Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he's ready to move forward with a climate-change bill before taking up the issue of overhauling U.S. immigration laws. "The energy bill is ready, we will move that more quickly than a bill we don't have," Reid told reporters today in Washington. "I don't have an immigration bill." Reid said he told Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina last week that he wanted to proceed with climate- change legislation before taking up ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Indonesia harnessing volcano power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20100427/sc_ygreen/indonesiaharnessingvolcanopower
Agence France-Presse: Indonesia's 17,000 islands are home to hundreds of volcanoes and approximately 40 percent of the earth's geothermal energy potential and the nation's government is ready to harness that hot, clean energy. The country has set a goal of bringing online 4GW of geothermal capacity by 2014, which will almost quadruple the current capacity of 1,189 MW. If you think that sounds ambitious, you're right. It generally takes three to five years just to complete field exploration and then another ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Tory plans for the environment
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7640624/Tory-plans-for-the-environment.html
Telegraph: CLIMATE CHANGE * Stick to European target to generate 15 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020. * Deliver a 10 per cent reduction in central Government's carbon emissions within 12 months of coming to office. * Support international negotiations to stop global warming, including money to cut deforestation in developing countries. * Prosecute those who trade illegal timber in the UK unless the law is reformed by Europe. ENERGY * Set up a Green ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
NJ environmentalist: Coastal drilling wrong answer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_bi_ge/us_offshore_drilling
Associated Press: A New Jersey environmentalist says President Barack Obama's administration is "going in the wrong direction" by promoting oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic Ocean. Jeff Tittel of the New Jersey Sierra Club says the government should be promoting clean energy and green jobs, not oil drilling off the coast. He was among the first to testify at a federal Minerals Management Service hearing in Newark on Tuesday. Obama last month announced an expansive new policy that ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
In Iowa, Obama touts wind energy, stimulus help
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama
Associated Press: President Barack Obama has made a surprise stop at a family-run organic farm in Iowa as he continues a Midwest tour on jobs and the economy. The visit to MojoOrganic Farm Tuesday was the president's second stop on the two-day, three-state tour. The farm supplies food for local schools and businesses. Touting his administration's economic policies in a region still hit by high unemployment, Obama acknowledged in a speech earlier in the day at a wind energy plant that times are ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Environmental Groups Praise BASIC Meeting on Climate Change
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/africa/southern/Environmental-Groups-Praise-BASIC-Meeting-on-Climate-Change-92184379.html
Voice of America: Environmental groups are giving qualified praise to a conference on climate change by four major nations in the developing world. During a meeting in South Africa, they made recommendations aimed at boosting talks on reducing carbon emissions. Activists have welcomed the call by Brazil, South Africa, India and China, known as the BASIC countries, for a global, legally binding agreement on climate change by the end of next year. A political advisor for Greenpeace Africa, Themba ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Indonesian palm oil giant broke commitments: Greenpeace
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100427/sc_afp/indonesiaenvironmentsinarmassingaporepalmoil
Agence France-Presse: Greenpeace on Tuesday disclosed what it said was new evidence showing Indonesia's biggest palm oil producer Sinar Mas broke a pledge not to destroy forest rich in carbon and wildlife. Activists from the environmental group said they had discovered recently that a Sinar Mas subsidiary, PT BAT, was still clearing rainforest near a habitat of orangutans, an endangered species, in Central Kalimantan. Two weeks ago, Greenpeace unveiled what it said was evidence that another Sinar ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Froome among riders targeted for water-bottle pollution
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100427/od_afp/cyclingbelflecheoffbeat
Agence France-Presse: Britain's Chris Froome is among a trio of riders who have been targeted by an environmental group -- for throwing empty water bottles into the Belgian countryside during a top race. According to the Vers l'Avenir newspaper 'Coalition Nature' has lodged an official complaint with a court in Namur following last week's Fleche-Wallonne semi-classic, won by Australia's world champion Cadel Evans. Bike racers can drink several litres of fluids during one-day races and stages, and ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Gulf oil spill gives Fla. gov pause over drilling
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_re_us/us_offshore_drilling_florida
Associated Press: Florida's governor says an oil leak fouling the Gulf of Mexico has him rethinking whether drilling off his state's coast is a good idea. Tens of thousands of gallons a day are leaking from the site of a drilling platform that exploded last week off Louisiana. Republicans in Florida have been pushing the idea of drilling within 10 miles of the coast. GOP Gov. Charlie Crist has said he's willing to listen as long as drilling is far enough, clean enough and safe enough to protect ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Experts call for hike in global water price
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/27/water-price-rise
Guardian: Major economies are pushing for substantial increases in the price of water around the world as concern mounts about dwindling supplies and rising population. With official UN figures showing that 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water and more than double that number do not have proper sanitation, increases in prices will be – and in some countries are already proving to be – hugely controversial. However experts argue that as long as most countries provide huge ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Beauty in Black and White: Alaska Before the Effects of Global Warming
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=alaska-before-global-warming
Scientific American: Toward the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy began mapping an area of northern Alaska extending south from the Arctic Sea across the North Slope and down to the forested valleys south of the Brooks Range. In an effort lasting a number of years, surveyors flew low in a small plane, snapping thousands of photographs with a large-format K-18 camera pointed out the craft's open door. About 10 years ago, Matthew Sturm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and his colleagues obtained the ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia puts carbon trading scheme on hold
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/27/australia-carbon-trading
Guardian: The Australian government has shelved plans for an ambitious carbon trading scheme that was the cornerstone of a pledge to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by up to a quarter by 2020. Kevin Rudd, Australian prime minister, said the start of the scheme would be delayed to 2013 because of parliamentary opposition and slow progress on a new global climate change pact. Rudd said the government would wait until the first phase of the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012 ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Green groups divided over US climate bill stand off
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2262115/green-groups-divided-climate
Business Green: Environmental groups have delivered a mixed reaction to Senator Lindsey Graham's controversial decision to withdraw support for the proposed climate change bill he had been working on, with campaigners arguing over whether or not the bill should be saved. Senator Graham effectively abandoned his support for the bill over the weekend following a row over Democrat Senate Leader Harry Reid's determination to push for an immigration bill ahead of the mid-term elections. The climate change ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Arctic explorers get nasty surprise: rain
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q47820100427?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: In what looks to be another sign the Arctic is heating up quickly, British explorers in Canada's Far North reported on Tuesday that they had been hit by a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The rain fell on the team's ice base off Ellef Rignes island, about 3,900 km (2,420 miles) north of the Canadian capital, Ottawa. "It's definitely a shocker ... the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event," ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Green transport losing share to polluters: EU study
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q41E20100427?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Europe's greenest modes of transport are falling behind the biggest polluters, which is contributing to a steep rise in climate-warming emissions, the European Environment Agency said on Tuesday. Road and air freight, which both have a large carbon footprint, grew slightly faster than the economy, at around 43 percent and 35 percent respectively between 1997 and 2007, the European Union agency added in its annual review of transport's environmental impact. The market share of ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Sen. Kerry says EPA to start climate bill analysis
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q3V220100427
Reuters: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin analyzing a compromise climate change bill Senator John Kerry hopes to move through the Senate this year, despite a significant setback his effort has suffered, Kerry said on Tuesday. The EPA will examine the economic impact the bill would have from provisions aimed at reducing pollution blamed for global warming. "We are sending the bill to be modeled now with Lindsey Graham's consent," the Democratic senator told ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
United Kingdom: How good is Ukip's science policy?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/apr/27/ukip-science-policy-election
Guardian: Ukip, the self-styled "party of the pub", is fielding 500 candidates in next week's general election in an attempt to capitalise on gains made at elections for the European parliament last year, although polling suggests the Eurosceptic party is unlikely to make a breakthrough in Westminster. Not particularly noted for its progressive views, the party performed badly in our European election assessment last year, having adopted a policy of climate change denial that puts it at odds ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia: Kevin Rudd delays emissions trading scheme until Kyoto expires in 2012
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/kevin-rudd-delays-emissions-trading-scheme-until-kyoto-expires-in-2012/story-e6frg6xf-1225858894753
Australian: KEVIN Rudd has delayed the government's carbon pollution reduction scheme until the end of 2012, backing away from his biggest election promise. The Prime Minister said that by 2012, when the current Kyoto deal expires, governments around the world would need to make clear their new carbon reduction commitments. "That will provide the Australian government at the time with a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change,' he said. Mr Rudd cited ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia shelves climate scheme
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8645767.stm
BBC: The Australian government has put plans for a flagship emissions trading scheme on hold until 2013 at the earliest. The move comes after the scheme was rejected twice by the Senate, where Prime Minster Kevin Rudd's government does not have a majority. Mr Rudd, who came to power promising tough climate action, blamed opposition obstruction and slow global progress on emissions cuts for the plan's delay. Australia is one of the highest per capita carbon emitters in the ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
BP profits jump after oil price rise
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/27/bp-profits-jump-oil-prices-rise
Guardian: BP has smashed City forecasts with a 135% jump in profits, thanks to rising oil prices. The energy giant reported profits of $5.6bn (£3.6bn) in the first three months of 2010, up from $2.4bn a year ago. Analysts had expected a figure of around $4.8bn on a replacement cost profit basis, which strips out fluctuations in the value of oil inventories. The unexpectedly large jump in earnings was mainly thanks to BP's exploration and production arm, which benefited from oil prices of ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia postpones carbon pollution curbs
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_re_as/climate_australia
Associated Press: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Tuesday a two-year delay in government plans to tax Australia's worst industrial polluters -- a move that puts legislative efforts to curb gases blamed for climate change on hold until after national elections. The government had proposed annual limits on the amount of carbon that major polluters can emit and supported a system whereby companies could exceed their limits if they agreed to buy carbon trading permits. Rudd said he had no choice ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
BP profits soar, investors eye oil spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100427/bs_nm/us_bp
Reuters: BP Plc (BP.L) failed to reassure investors with a more than doubling of first-quarter net profits on Tuesday, as the oil major's shares fell on growing fears about the impact of a worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP said replacement cost net profit, which strips out unrealized gains related to rises in the value of inventories, was $5.60 billion in the quarter, up from $2.39 billion in the same period of 2009, thanks to higher oil and gas prices. The underlying ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia delays carbon trading scheme
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100427/sc_afp/australiapoliticsclimate
Agence France-Presse: Australia on Tuesday shelved plans for a carbon trading scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions until at least 2013, blaming the slow pace of global action and an obstructive opposition. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has described climate change as "the great moral challenge of our generation", said plans for a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) were on hold after they failed to pass through parliament. "The opposition decided to back-flip on its historical commitment to ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia ditches carbon cap-and-trade plans
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2262064/australia-ditches-carbon-cap
Business Green: The Australian government has ditched its controversial plans for a national carbon trading scheme in the face of mounting political and public opposition to the proposals. According to reports in the Australian newspaper, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has finally dropped plans for an emissions trading scheme, confirming that the proposals will not be revisited until 2013 at the earliest. "That [delay] will provide the Australian government at the time with a better position to ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia Suspends Emissions Trading Proposal
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/world/asia/28australia.html
New York Times: After two years of deadlock, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Tuesday that his Labor government had put its carbon emissions trading plan on hold. The proposed emissions trading system had aimed to cut Australia's emissions by 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, while giving significant concessions to energy-intensive industries. The plan was twice rejected by a bloc of conservative and Green Party lawmakers in the Senate last year and faced almost certain defeat were it to go before ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Cuba: Fidel Castro warns of aftermath of climate change
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article411275.ece
Xinhua: Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro warned of the aftermath of uncontrollable climate change and the side effect of scientific progress in an article published on Monday. "Science created the ability to destroy ourselves and the planet several times in a matter of hours," said Mr. Castro in an editorial published by local media. "The greatest contradiction in our age is the ability of our species to destroy itself and its inability to govern itself at the same time." In the editorial ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Reviving the spirit of Rio
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8645486.stm
BBC: Following the near collapse of the UN climate negotiations in December and the seeming paralysis of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in March, the whole idea of solving the world's environmental problems through multilateral negotiations seems to be in crisis. But, argue Maurice Strong and Felix Dodds, another recent development holds out the promise of reversing the trend. In two years' time, Rio de Janeiro will host another Earth Summit - 20 years ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Oil spill growing in Gulf of Mexico off La. coast
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100427/ap_on_re_us/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion
Associated Press: The Coast Guard says a sheen of oil that's been covering an area in the Gulf of Mexico since an oil rig exploded off the Louisiana coast is growing. Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson says that as of Tuesday morning, the sheen has grown to about 48 miles long and 80 miles wide at its widest. At the moment, the wind has been blowing the oil away from the shore. But Swanson says the winds could shift later in the week and there's concern about oil reaching the ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Can the Sahara light up Europe with solar power?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/27/sahara-europe-solar-power
Guardian: Desertification is a dirty word, but deserts are not entirely without their uses. Plans are underway to transform swathes of the Sahara into a glimmering sea of mirrors, with the goal of piping cheap, clean and efficient solar energy into the heart of Europe. Dubbed the Desertec Industrial Initiative, it will create vast fields of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants – arrays of mirrors which focus the sun's energy to turn water into steam, and so drive electrical turbines. From ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Why don't we hear about toxic household items any more?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/27/toxic-household-items
Guardian: The recent headlines about compensation payments to victims of "toxic sofa" burns have reminded me of all those stories we used to hear about brominated fire retardents and other toxic chemicals that were supposedly in many of our household items. Why don't we hear about these so much any more? Have they all now been eliminated? P Grenville, by email It's certainly a good observation: you're right, we don't hear that much now about the threat of toxic chemicals in everyday ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Is climate change South Asia's deadliest threat?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8646289.stm
BBC: "Intense floods, droughts and cyclones have impacted on the economic performances of South Asian countries and the lives of millions of poor, it also puts at risk infrastructure, agriculture, human health, water resources and the environment," it says. This is not the first time that Saarc summit has discussed the issue. The declaration of the 14th summit in Delhi in 2007, for instance, said leaders had agreed "to commission a team of regional experts to identify collective ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
In Land of the Rising Sun, solar firms eye China threat
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63P28D20100426
Reuters: Squeezed by aggressive Chinese and U.S. rivals globally, Japanese makers of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems need to boost their technological edge if they are to stay ahead in their near-$1 billion home market. Asia's biggest economy is the world's third-largest market for solar energy, and state support for the sector has attracted investments from among the region's biggest solar firms. China's Suntech Power is the fourth-largest supplier of solar PV systems in Japan -- a ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Electric cars: Hub of the matter
http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15949099
Economist: THERE are many innovations turning up in the latest experimental and production electric cars, affecting everything from batteries to motors to control systems. The need to make them all work together is prompting a complete rethink about the way cars should be designed and manufactured, and it is unclear which technologies will dominate as the constraints imposed by internal combustion engines give way to the new limits and possibilities associated with electric propulsion. But one group of ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
An electric motorcycle meets a Harley woman
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126264432&ps=cprs
National Public Radio: You probably recognize the sound of a Harley motorcycle. If you don't, try roaring "potato-potato-potato" into a microphone, and you'll be close. But today there's a much quieter motorcycle sneaking up behind the Harley, the 2010 Zero S street motorcycle. And if you don't love the sound, your neighbors sure will. It's a completely silent, pollution-free motorcycle created by the California-based company Zero Motorcycles. The founder, Neal Saiki, designed world-class mountain bikes for ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
'Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get'
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=105192
Malta Independent: People are often heard linking an unusually hot day to global warming, but as American science fiction author Robert Heinlein once said, "Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get". Climate and weather should not be confused, explained Meteorological Office manager Charles Galdies. A similar quotation to Heinlein's is one by another American author, Mark Twain, who had noted that "Climate lasts all the time, and weather only a few days". "Both quotations embrace the ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Australia delays carbon plan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471204575209353762420206.html
Wall Street Journal: Australia will shelve a plan to curb the nation's greenhouse-gas emissions until after the current Kyoto Protocol on global emissions expires at the end of 2012, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday. The decision marks the latest setback for government efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emission. World leaders failed to reach a binding agreement on curbing them in Copenhagen in December. U.S efforts have bogged amid opposition from some lawmakers as well as their preoccupation with ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
United States: Massey official 'mystified' by mine disaster
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201004260728
Charleston Gazette: Massey Energy officials said Monday that safety checks revealed no methane buildup or ventilation problems at the company's Upper Big Branch Mine just prior to the explosion that killed 29 miners three weeks ago. "There was no evidence of a dangerous condition," said Massey board member Stanley C. Suboleski. "I'm mystified at what occurred at the mine on April 5." Suboleski joined Massey CEO Don Blankenship and two other company board members, Bobby Inman and Robert Foglesong, ...
Wed, 28 Apr 10
Visible from space, deadly on Earth: The gas flares of Nigeria
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/visible-from-space-deadly-on-earth-the-gas-flares-of-nigeria-1955108.html
Independent (UK): There is an ominous new arrival in the tropical forest outside Yenagoa in the southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa. It travels on black metal stilts above the green canopy before sinking into a concrete bunker where, when the bulldozers and cranes have finished work, millions of cubic feet of natural gas will be pumped before going up in smoke. Shell's Opolo-Epie facility is the newest gas flare in the Niger Delta. And it gives the lie to claims from oil multinationals and the Nigerian ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Climate debate gets ugly as world moves to curb CO2
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63P00A20100426?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: TRUTH AND TRUST Skeptics also accused the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of supporting flawed science after several errors in a major 2007 report surfaced. The errors, including a reference to a non-peer reviewed study that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035, represent a fraction of the conclusions in the report, the main climate policy guide for governments, which is based on the work of thousands of scientists. The IPCC has defended its work and ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Oil Spill From Sunken Rig Site May Be Serious
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100425-energy-oil-spill-sunken-rig-serious/
National Geographic: Response teams were deploying remote-operated submarines in an urgent effort Sunday to stop the flow of oil from the site of the accident in the Gulf of Mexico that destroyed the BP-leased rig, the Deepwater Horizon. If the gambit fails, it could take months to stop the leak--now estimated at 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons/160,000 liters) per day of crude oil, according to the joint U.S. government and oil industry task force. That means the scene about 50 miles (80 kilometers) ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Obama's climate-change bill stymied by bipartisan quarrel
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obamas-climatechange-bill-stymied-by-bipartisan-quarrel-1954231.html
Independent (UK): Prospects for an early international agreement to tackle climate change have suffered a major setback, as a US plan to cut carbon emissions descended into partisan bickering. Senior American political figures had promised to introduce a "cap and trade" energy bill today, paving the way for the kind of substantial international talks that failed to materialise at last year's Copenhagen summit, but the launch has been called off at the last minute. Green groups expressed ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
U.S. backs plan to stop leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63O27L20100425?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. agencies on Sunday approved a plan to use remote-controlled underwater vehicles to seal a leaking oil well beneath a drilling rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week. The well, 5,000 feet under the ocean surface off Louisiana's coast, is leaking about 1,000 barrels of oil a day. The spill, which the U.S. Coast Guard has called "very serious," could threaten the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem if not contained. Four underwater vehicles have been deployed ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
BP struggles to cap leak as US oil slick spreads
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/ts_alt_afp/usblastoilenergypollution
Agence France-Presse: British oil giant BP used robotic underwater vehicles Sunday to try to cap a leaking well and prevent a growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico from developing into an environmental disaster. Satellite images showed the slick had spread by 50 percent in a day to cover an area of 600 square miles (1,550 square kilometers), although officials said some 97 percent of the pollution was just a thin veneer on the sea's surface. BP has dispatched skimming vessels to mop up the oil ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Obama climate agenda in turmoil after political setback
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/usclimatepoliticscongress
Agence France-Presse: President Barack Obama's climate change agenda was thrown into turmoil Sunday after a key Republican abruptly pulled his support for a compromise energy and climate bill in a blow to Democrats. Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican, abandoned what Democrats said was a painstakingly negotiated climate bill in outrage over a decision by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to move an immigration bill in the Senate ahead of it. White House officials appeared to be taken ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Developing nations want global climate accord by 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/safricaclimateenvironment
Agence France-Presse: Four major developing countries meeting in South Africa on Sunday called for a global, legally binding agreement on climate change to be finalised by next year at the latest. Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China met in Cape Town to discuss on how to speed up a process of finalising a global agreement that would require rich nations to cut carbon emissions and reduce global warming. "Ministers felt that a legally binding outcome should be concluded at ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Lieberman encouraged energy bill will be on track
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100426/ap_on_bi_ge/us_senate_agenda
Associated Press: A day after bipartisan support for an energy and climate change bill appeared to crumble, a Senate sponsor said Sunday he was optimistic the coalition would regroup and lawmakers would consider the measure this year. Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he was encouraged after talking to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who were at odds over Reid's suggestion that an immigration overhaul ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Environmental fears over US spill
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8642518.stm
BBC: There are fears of an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, as efforts to clear up an oil spill have been suspended because of bad weather. A drilling rig leased by the oil company BP exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast last week. Some 1,000 barrels of oil a day are leaking into the sea from the damaged well, officials say. They say the oil leak has the potential to damage beaches, barrier islands and wetlands across the coastline. Eleven workers are ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
Powerful ocean currents off Antarctica factor in climate change
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/powerful-ocean-currents-off-antarctica-factor-in-climate-change-20100426-tmwz.html
Agence France-Presse: Oceanographers said on Sunday they had measured a system of mighty currents off Antarctica that are a newly-discovered factor in the equation of climate change. The system, known as Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), is generated in clockwise movement in four big sea shelves that abut Antarctica - the Weddell Sea, Prydz Bay, Adelie Land and Ross Sea. Extremely cold water sinks to the bottom of these shelves and slides out northwards along the continental shelf. At the edge ...
Mon, 26 Apr 10
UK wind industry rejects reports of speedy planning system
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261963/uk-wind-industry-rejects
Business Green: The UK wind industry has rejected suggestions that its criticism of the UK's planning system are unfounded, after a report from the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) found that the UK had one of the faster planning systems in Europe when it came to delivering a decision on new wind farm applications. The report, which looked at the average amount of time that wind farm developers had to wait to receive a planning decision, found that the average wait in the UK of 27 months was ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Climate bill placed on hold over Senate dispute
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100424/ap_on_go_co/us_climate_bill_congress
Associated Press: Sen. John Kerry says he's placing his long-awaited climate-change bill on hold after immigration politics threatened to unravel his bipartisan coalition. The Massachusetts Democrat said Saturday the delay is only temporary and he remains fully committed to passing comprehensive energy and climate change legislation this year. But the last-minute political problem is forcing Kerry to postpone a much anticipated unveiling of the legislation that had been scheduled for ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Cuts jeopardise solar utility IPO
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/25/engyco-spain-solar-power-projects
Guardian: A plan to set up an innovative "green" utility with a £1bn flotation on the London stock market risks being blown off course due to financial problems in the eurozone. Engyco, led by former United Utilities boss John Roberts, has admitted that expected cutbacks to subsidies on renewable power projects in Spain would threaten its plan for an initial public offering (IPO). The company was formed as a vehicle for investing in the Spanish solar market with the hope of creating a pure ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Green surge as main parties try to attract eco-vote
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-surge-as-main-parties-try-to-attract-ecovote-1953737.html
Independent (UK): Environmental issues will be pushed up the agenda in the last 10 days of the election campaign, as Britain's major parties scuffle to attract the eco-vote, and the Greens remain on course to return their first MP to Parliament. A poll for The IoS today reveals that almost six out of 10 voters believe green issues have been ignored by the main parties during the campaign. Amid frustration at the sidelining of environmental issues, a growing list of well-known figures from the world of ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Major solar panel firms 'are misleading consumers'
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/major-solar-panel-firms-are-misleading-consumers-1953587.html
Independent (UK): Solar power installers are bamboozling householders with high pressure sales tactics and misleading financial statistics, an undercover investigation by a consumer group has found. Which? condemned most of the companies it came across as "cowboys" and cautioned that the Government would have to clean up the taxpayer-backed industry, vital for the battle against climate change, unless it improved its performance. The consumer group launched its investigation after a rise in ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Last chance for climate change legislation?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0424/Last-chance-for-climate-change-legislation
Christian Science Monitor: It's crunch time for climate change legislation on Capitol Hill, and the bill to be introduced Monday could be the last chance for passage before lawmakers face voters this fall. The bill coauthored by Sens. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts, Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina, and Joseph Lieberman (I) of Connecticut has as its main goal a 17 percent reduction in US greenhouse gas emissions (mainly carbon dioxide) from 2005 levels in 10 years and 80 percent by 2050. It has ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Rain, choppy seas halt cleanup near sunken oil rig
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_louisiana_oil_rig_explosion
Associated Press: Choppy seas, strong winds and rain halted Saturday's cleanup of an oil spill around the massive oil drilling rig that exploded and toppled into the ocean off the Louisiana coast. Eleven workers are still missing from the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank Thursday about 50 miles from Louisiana's coast. They are presumed dead. The bad weather rolled in Friday, bringing with it strong wind, clouds and rain that interrupted efforts to contain the oil spill. Petty Officer Erik Swanson ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Climate bill gives polluter and nuclear breaks
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63M3YK20100424?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The U.S. climate change bill expected to be unveiled on Monday contains incentives to spur development of a dozen nuclear power plants, but delays emissions caps on plants that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, industry sources said on Friday. The draft bill, led by Democratic Senator John Kerry, has loan guarantees, protection against regulatory delays and other incentives to help companies finance nuclear plants, which can cost $5 billion to $10 billion to build, the sources ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
German nuclear protesters form 75-mile human chain
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63N13Q20100424?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Opponents of nuclear power formed a 120-km (75-mile) human chain between reactor sites in Germany Saturday to protest against government plans to extend the power plants' operation. Around 120,000 peaceful demonstrators, according to police and organizers, linked arms in a chain running between the northern towns of Brunsbuettel and Kruemmel that passed through the city of Hamburg. "Today will spark a countrywide chain reaction of protests and resistance if the government does ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Nine-bin recycling system introduced
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenerliving/7627055/Nine-bin-recycling-system-introduced.html
Telegraph: Households have been told to separate cardboard from paper, and plastic bottles from glass, tins and aerosols. The regulations have prompted fierce criticism, with people complaining that the scheme is too confusing and their homes do not have space for the various different bins and bags. The new bin system by Newcastle-under-Lyme Council, north Staffordshire, includes a silver slop bucket for food waste, which is then emptied into a larger, green outdoor bin. There is ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Britain reaches milestone for renewable energy
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/britain-reaches-milestone-for-renewable-energy-1952990.html
Independent (UK): The UK has reached a milestone of installing 1 gigawatt (GW) of offshore wind farms -- enough to power 700,000 homes. It was achieved this week as two new wind farms off the coast began generating electricity. The UK now has 11 offshore wind farms, with a total of 336 installed turbines, according to the industry body Renewables UK. A further 4GW of offshore wind farms are being constructed or have planning consent and a total of 40GW are at various stages of development. She ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Climate: Copenhagen pledges set Earth for +3 C warming - study
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-copenhagen-pledges-set-earth-for-3-c-warming--study-1953350.html
Agence France-Presse: Carbon-curbing pledges under the Copenhagen Accord are likely to doom Earth to warming of three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) or more, compared to the deal's target of 2 C (3.6 F), scientists said on Wednesday. In an analysis published by the journal Nature, researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) near Berlin said the promises fell very short of the headline-making mark. "It's amazing how unambitious these pledges are," they ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
United States: City eyes carbon footprint
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/24/na-city-eyes-carbon-footprint/
Tampa Bay Online: The city plans to measure its carbon footprint to look for ways to reduce its energy bills and protect the environment. Energy usage - natural gas, electricity, and petroleum - for the city-owned facilities and utility accounts will be measured to determine Tampa's greenhouse gas emissions. Money for the $70,000 study comes from a federal energy conservation grant. Bids went out Thursday and the study is expected to take four to six months. Thomas Snelling, the city's ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Three oil giants to support climate legislation
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/breaking/6973900.html
Houston Chronicle: U.S. senators unveiling energy and climate change legislation Monday are expected to be joined by three major oil companies -- a significant show of support from an industry whose endorsement could be key to winning Republican backing for the proposal. Leaders of Shell Oil Co., BP and ConocoPhillips are expected to support the measure, following months of negotiations on such issues as offshore drilling, the treatment of natural gas and the handling of greenhouse gas emissions from ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
All the fun of the fair ... but no carbon
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201004/20100424/article_435093.htm
Shanghai Daily: EDIBLE plates, cups made of ice, tables made with tires and bar stools made of water pipes: not a scene from a science fiction movie but a real-world low-carbon restaurant. The restaurant is one of London's two zero-carbon buildings in the Shanghai World Expo's Urban Best Practices Area where more than 50 low-carbon exhibits are on display. On the roof of both buildings, there is special equipment to collect both solar and wind energy. The collected energy guarantees the two ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
Seattle to upgrade nearly half its street lights
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/418896_lights24.html?source=mypi
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: If you're watching for more energy conservation in the coming four years, you might look no farther than down your street. There'll be a different kind of glow on the pavement. Seattle plans to spend an estimated $23 million to upgrade 40,000 of its 84,000 street lights over by replacing their high-pressure sodium lights with state-of-the-art light-emitting diodes (LEDs). It's a big up-front investment, one that city officials say will eventually be paid back because the LEDs ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
UK reaches landmark billion watts
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/UK-reaches-landmark-billion-watts.6250952.jp
Scotsman: THE UK has reached a landmark one gigawatt – or a billion watts – of installed offshore wind farms with the completion of a giant Scottish project in the Solway Firth. The milestone firmly makes the UK world leader in terms of the amount of offshore wind farms built off the coast. There are now 11 wind farms around the coast of Britain, made up of 336 giant turbines. The installed capacity is 1.041 gigawatts, which green energy association RenewableUK calculated is ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
SAfrica hosts developing countries on climate talk
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jxHqW44PnoWf47_7zwEufoyoferAD9F9EHQO0
Associated Press: As the world struggles to break a deadlock in climate change negotiations, South Africa and three other influential developing nations are gathering for a strategy session to ensure poor countries are heard. Brazil, South Africa, India and China began to coalesce as a bloc at U.N. climate talks in December in Copenhagen. The group, known as BASIC, plans a high-level meeting Sunday and Monday in Cape Town. The size of their economies means India and China can't be ignored, and ...
Sun, 25 Apr 10
A Watershed Month For The Truth About Peak Oil
http://www.countercurrents.org/wild200410.htm
Counter Currents: Recent weeks have seen an explosion of information on peak oil -- everywhere it seems except in the mainstream media. It may be in the business sections, but not the news pages. Within the last two months, a variety of sources have come out with warnings about both the immediacy of peak oil and the implications of what happens when demand of such a vital resource becomes greater than supply. What's more, these various an unconnected sources are presenting this as an immediate problem, ...
Sat, 24 Apr 10
New whaling plan draws fire from all sides
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100423/sc_afp/environmentwhalingiwc
Agence France-Presse: A "peace plan" by the International Whaling Commission to legitimise but reduce whaling drew fire Friday as Japan demanded higher quotas and environmentalists warned of serious harm to the ocean giants. The chairman of the 88-nation commission, seeking to end decades of bitter conflict between its pro- and anti-whaling members, unveiled Thursday the compromise proposal to be voted on at a June meeting in Morocco. Under the draft proposal, Japan, Iceland and Norway would reduce ...
Sat, 24 Apr 10
Wanted: World Referendum, Climate Justice Tribunal
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51164
Inter Press Service: A world people's referendum on climate change will be held in April 2011 for the earth's peoples to decide how to address this global problem. Although it is hoped that some states will cooperate, the participation of governments will not be essential to the referendum, as civil society organisations are to plan it according to their own lights and the traditions and customs of each local area. This was one of the final resolutions Thursday at the close of the World People's ...
Sat, 24 Apr 10
Grassroots summit calls for international climate court
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/23/cochabamba-climate-court
Guardian: Link to this video Rich countries should reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and set up a court to punish climate crimes, according to an international conference of grassroots climate groups and social movements in Bolivia. President Evo Morales, who organised the gathering, also announced plans to mount a referendum of 2 billion people on solutions to the climate crisis within a year. Speaking at the close of the four-day World People's Conference on Climate Change ...
Sat, 24 Apr 10
United States: Deepwater Horizon oil rig sinks, sparking pollution fears
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/23/deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-pollution
Associated Press: Eleven US workers who are missing after a fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off Louisiana are feared dead Link to this video A deepwater oil platform that burned for more than a day after an explosion has sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as hopes faded of finding 11 missing workers. The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon could release more than 1,135,600 litres of crude oil a day into the water. The environmental hazards would be greatest if the spill were to reach the Louisiana ...
Sat, 24 Apr 10
Like Sept.11, volcano plane ban may hold climate clue
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63M1PH20100423
Reuters: Plane-free skies over Europe during Iceland's volcanic eruption may yield rare clues about how flights stoke climate change, adding to evidence from a closure of U.S. airspace after September 11, 2001, experts say. The climate effects of jet fuel burned at high altitude are poorly understood, partly because scientists cannot often compare plane-free skies with days when many regions are criss-crossed by white vapor trails. Scientists will pore over European temperature records, ...
Sat, 24 Apr 10
Tokyo's green goal
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-green-tokyo-20100423,0,4896892,full.story
LA Times: Reporting from Tokyo On a man-made island in Tokyo Bay, garbage is getting a makeover. Tons of waste are trucked here daily to a large industrial building. What can't be recycled is burned and filtered for toxins. The ash is turned into building material, and the heat is converted into electricity -- enough to power 55,000 homes. The process saves landfill space. Air pollution is minimal. The 4-year-old firm, Tokyo Waterfront Recycle Power Co., will turn its first profit this ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
'Avatar' star Weaver fights for oceans on Earth Day
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/avatar-star-weaver-fights-for-oceans-on-earth-day-1951934.html
Agence France-Presse: US actress Sigourney Weaver marked Earth Day on Thursday by taking on the role of a real-life environmentalist, urging lawmakers to take action to stop the world's oceans from turning into deadly acid baths. "I've done enough science fiction to know that our Earth will survive through various nightmare scenarios," Weaver, who played a feisty environmentalist in James Cameron's blockbuster movie "Avatar," said at a Senate hearing on ocean acidification, which is caused by carbon ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Robot battles to stem Deepwater Horizon oil spill 5,000ft under sea
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7105649.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): A team of engineers using an underwater robot was struggling last night to control one of the world's most challenging oil spills after an explosion ripped apart and sank a rig leased by BP in the Gulf of Mexico. As fears grew for the safety of 11 workers still missing, BP and US officials were tackling what could be a major pollution incident using booms and dispersant chemicals. The spill is being fed by an estimated 13,000 gallons of oil and gas that were pumping every hour ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Wind farm planning applications 'dealt with speedily in Britain'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7105710.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Wind farms are much easier to build in Britain than in most of the rest of Europe, according to a study that contradicts claims by the turbine industry that the planning system is too slow and needs to be reformed. It takes an average of 26 months to win permission for a wind farm in Britain, compared with an average of 42 months across the EU. In France, it takes 29 months, Germany 30 and Spain 57, according to the EU-funded study by the European Wind Energy Association. Wind farm ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Conservationists hope fake nests will see ospreys stay
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/conservationists-hope-fake-nests-will-see-ospreys-stay-1951952.html
Independent (UK): Ospreys, the majestic fish hawks which are spreading in the wilder parts of Scotland, the Lake District and Wales, are being offered the chance to set up home in the gentler landscape of Dorset -- in fake nests. Conservationists are using man-made nests in an attempt to tempt the birds to stay and breed in the Poole Harbour area, which they pass through every year on their migratory journeys to and from Africa. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has put up five of ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Most UK farmers say not feeling climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L6CX20100422?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: An increasing number of British farmers say they are unaffected by climate change, a survey found on Friday. British public belief in climate change in general has sagged in the aftermath of disclosure of errors made by a U.N. climate panel report. Some 62 percent of a poll of 414 farmers said they were unaffected by climate change, up from nearly 50 percent who said last year that they had not felt its effects. "For farming there's been a very tough winter, a lot of ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
United States: Study: Cow feed may be causing Valley air problem
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_ge/ca_ozone_cattle_feed
Associated Press: Air officials for years have blamed dairy cow emissions for the unusually high ozone levels in California's San Joaquin Valley, but a new study points more to what goes into the animals than what comes out. The study -- funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Air Resources Board and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District -- initially was intended to measure the impact of animal manure, urine and flatulence on ozone levels. University of ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Wis. renewable energy bill dies on Earth Day
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_ge/wi_wisconsin_clean_energy
Associated Press: As outdoor lovers celebrated Earth Day's 40th anniversary, state lawmakers pulled the plug on a bill that would have set aggressive new renewable energy standards. The state Senate finished its two-year session Thursday without voting on the bill after Democratic leaders balked at reports that the measure would drive up utility rates. Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, has signaled for days the measure had little support. "We just don't have the votes," Decker said. ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
City dwellers cite climate as top concern: poll
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100422/lf_nm_life/us_climate_survey
Reuters: Residents of major world cities cite climate change as the most pressing global issue, except residents of large U.S. cities who list the economy as the bigger problem, according to a survey by HSBC Bank. Climate change topped the list of concerns by some two-thirds of Hong Kong residents polled as well as majorities of residents of London, Paris, Sao Paolo, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney, according to the poll of 2,044 urban residents around the world. Residents of U.S. cities, ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Bolivia opens "people's" summit on climate change
http://www.fsrn.org/audio/bolivia-opens-peoples-summit-climate-change/6594
Free Speech Radio News: This morning marked the official inauguration of the People's World Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Tiqupaya, Bolivia. Organizers are calling it an alternative to last year's failed Copenhagen talks - one that puts front and center the needs and concerns of poorer nations many of which are expected to be hit hardest by climate change. FSRN's Jessica Camille Aguirre and Aldo Orellana report.
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Oil Rig Explosion Could Cause Ecological Disaster
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126200485&ft=1&f=1025
Associated Press: Coast Guard officials say an oil rig that exploded Tuesday off the coast of Louisiana could be spilling thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Officials previously had said the environmental damage appeared minimal, but when the rig sank Thursday that changed. The Coast Guard says the Deepwater Horizon carried 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel and could spill as much as 8,000 barrels of crude a day. Meanwhile, crews continued to search by air and water for 11 ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
EU lawmakers raise pressure on Canadian oil sands
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE63L1IC20100422?rpc=60
Reuters: European parliamentarians are raising the pressure on the Canadian oil sands industry, which they accuse of destroying forests and polluting the air and waterways. Seventeen members of the European Parliament wrote to European climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard on Tuesday, urging her to maintain barriers to oil sands in draft EU standards to promote greener fuels. "The extraction and refining of tar sand oil is around three times more carbon intensive than conventional oil," ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Calif. considers delaying diesel-emission rules
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_ge/us_calif_diesel_rules
SAMANTHA YOUNG: California air regulators on Thursday considered whether to delay the nation's toughest rules to slash emissions from diesel-powered construction equipment, saying the poor economy has left many of the vehicles sitting idle. Members of the California Air Resources Board said they might give companies more time to comply because construction activity in California is down about 50 percent since the regulations were adopted three years ago, and that has significantly reduced harmful ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Choosing the next UN climate change chief
http://tribune.com.pk/story/8383/choosing-the-next-un-climate-change-chief/
Express Tribune: The United Nations is seeking a new climate chief to head the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Pakistan has made an excellent choice by nominating a noted environmentalist, Dr Tariq Banuri, as its candidate. The United Nations Secretary General has the responsibility to find someone who can help put global climate negotiations that are now in utter disarray back on tracks. He also has the opportunity to give real direction to ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Canada: Climate scientist sues newspaper for 'poisoning' global warming debate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/22/climate-change-libel-action-canada-national-post
Guardian: One of the world's leading climate scientists has launched a libel lawsuit against a Canadian newspaper for publishing articles that he says "poison" the debate on global warming. In a case with potentially huge consequences for online publishers, lawyers acting for Andrew Weaver, a climate modeller at the University of Victoria, Canada, have demanded the National Post removes the articles not only from its own websites, but also from the numerous blogs and sites where they were ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Rig Explosion Shows Risks in Key Oil Frontier
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100422-oil-rig-explosion-shows-risks/
National Geographic: Just last September, the operator of the semisubmersible rig known as the Deepwater Horizon announced it had succeeded in drilling the deepest oil well in history. Operating in 4,130 feet (1,260 meters) of water, the rig had drilled six miles (10 km) beneath the sea floor to reveal a major petroleum find, the Tiber Prospect, for the giant oil company BP. Now, authorities are trying to learn what went wrong on the platform, where an explosion left at least three people critically ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Half a trillion spent on fossil fuel subsidies mostly "a complete waste of money"
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0422-hance_subsidies.html
Mongabay: Despite a warming planet linked to the burning of fossil fuels, governments around the world still spend 500 billion US dollars a year subsidizing fossil fuel industries. A new study from the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development looks at the difficult political situation behind ending fossil fuel subsidies. "Fossil fuels are often the most cost-effective way to provide useful energy, especially in poor households living on ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
CO2 Emissions Causing Rapid Ocean Acidification
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1853988/co2_emissions_causing_rapid_ocean_acidification/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: The changing chemistry of the world's oceans is a growing global problem, says the summary of a congressionally requested study by the National Research Council, which adds that unless man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are substantially curbed, or atmospheric CO2 is controlled by some other means, the ocean will continue to become more acidic. The long-term consequences of ocean acidification on marine life are unknown, but many ecosystem changes are expected to result. The federal ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Lightning Shows How Pollution Alters Thunderstorm Intensity
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1853987/lightning_shows_how_pollution_alters_thunderstorm_intensity/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Native Americans used smoke signals to indicate danger, and a white plume is sent up by the Vatican when a new Pope is chosen. Now, a new research project by Tel Aviv University researchers and their colleagues shows that where there's "smoke" there may be significant consequences for local weather patterns, rainfall and thunderstorms. In a new study, Prof. Colin Price, head of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geophysics and Planetary Science, researched data on lightning patterns ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Climate change and human health studied
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/04/22/Climate-change-and-human-health-studied/UPI-74711271956325/
United Press International: The U.S. National Institutes of Health says it has identified specific medical consequences of climate change that require further research. The NIH report highlights key disease categories and other health consequences researchers say are occurring or will occur due to climate change. The scientists said their study provides a starting point for coordination of federal research to better understand climate's impact on human health and identify who will be most vulnerable and what ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Ocean chemistry changing at 'unprecedented rate'
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L4XP20100422?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported Thursday. "The chemistry of the ocean is changing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions," the council said. "The rate of change exceeds any known to have occurred for at least the past hundreds of thousands of years." Ocean acidification eats ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Hong Kong pollution expert leaves to seek clean air
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/hong-kong-pollution-expert-leaves-to-seek-clean-air-1951714.html
Independent (UK): Hong Kong's leading authority on air quality said Thursday he is leaving the city to avoid its polluted air and keep his respiratory problems under control. Anthony Hedley, who created the Hedley Environmental Index, which tracks the public health and economic costs of Hong Kong air pollution in real time, is relocating to the Isle of Man off the west coast of Britain. "I need to reduce my exposure to polluted air because I know from experience that my respiratory symptoms ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Inspections found no violations at sunken oil rig
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_ge/us_louisiana_oil_rig_inspections
Associated Press: Three recent federal inspections turned up no violations at an offshore drilling rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The Minerals Management Service said it inspected the Deepwater Horizon in February, March and on April 1. Spokeswoman Eileen Angelico says the rig moved to the site about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast in January. It was inspected three times as part of the agency's regular drilling program. The Coast Guard is still searching for ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Senators struggling over climate compromise
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K5YX20100422?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. senators writing a massive climate-change bill struggled on Thursday over how to reduce carbon dioxide pollution in the transportation sector, Senator Lindsey Graham said, adding that he did not yet know whether a measure would be ready by Monday. "The transportation sector is a problem," Graham told reporters. "We're just dealing with that." Graham, a Republican, has been collaborating with Democratic Senator John Kerry and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman on a bill ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
People's climate summit seeks to halve emissions by 2020
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100422/sc_afp/boliviaenvironmentclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: A "people's conference" on climate change agreed in Bolivia Thursday to call for the halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 at the next UN climate meeting in Mexico in December. Some 20,000 environmental activists, indigenous leaders and unionists called for "collective, then individual, obligations for the reduction of greenhouse gases," instead of the non-binding accord adopted at the end of last year in Copenhagen, which the group dubbed a "failure." The UN Ambassador ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Sigourney Weaver urges action to protect oceans
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_en_ot/us_sigourney_weaver_congress
Associated Press: Actress Sigourney Weaver is making her second trip to Congress in as many weeks, urging lawmakers to help oceans by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. She made her pitch Thursday as a new report found that ocean chemistry is changing because more carbon is being absorbed into the seas from the atmosphere. The resulting increased acidity of the oceans poses a serious threat to shellfish and other marine life. Weaver urged senators at a hearing to pass climate change legislation ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Emissions often underestimated, EPA standards old
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_bi_ge/us_underestimated_emissions
Associated Press: The nation's oil and chemical plants are spewing a lot more pollution than they report to the Environmental Protection Agency -- and the EPA knows it. But the federal agency has yet to adopt more accurate, higher-tech measuring methods that have been available for years. Significant changes will not be seen for at least two more years, even though an internal EPA watchdog called for improvements in 2006 and some of the more sophisticated measuring devices have been used in ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Obama uses executive power to reverse Bush environmental policies
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100422/UPDATES01/100422023/1005/NEWS01/Obama+uses+executive+power+to+reverse+Bush+environmental+policies+
Gannett: For eight years, environmentalists cried foul as President George W. Bush used his executive power to weaken clean air and water regulations, open public lands to increased oil and gas drilling and block action to fight climate change. Now, President Barack Obama is exercising that same authority to reverse course, and business groups are the ones yelling. Obama has moved to improve the fuel efficiency of cars, halt uranium mines near the Grand Canyon, strengthen anti-smog ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Global biofuel drive raises risk of eviction for African farmers
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100422093534.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: African farmers risk being forced from their lands by investors or government projects as global demand for biofuels encourages changes in crop cultivation. Research from the University of Edinburgh has found that livelihoods may be put at risk if African farmland is turned over to growing crops for biofuel. With growing pressure to find alternatives to oil, global biofuel production trebled between 2003 and 2007 and is forecast to double again by next year. In Africa, ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Study challenges IPCC's Bangladesh climate predictions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100422/wl_asia_afp/environmentwarmingunbangladesh
Agence France-Presse: Scientists in Bangladesh posed a fresh challenge to the UN's top climate change panel Thursday, saying its doomsday forecasts for the country in the body's landmark 2007 report were overblown. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), already under fire for errors in the 2007 report, had said a one-metre (three-foot) rise in sea levels would flood 17 percent of Bangladesh and create 20 million refugees by 2050. The warning helped create a widespread consensus that ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
From rebellious roots, Earth Day now mainstream
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100422/ap_on_go_ot/us_earth_day_evolution
Associated Press: There was no "Green Movement" yet and little talk of global warming. Instead, the original Earth Day 40 years ago emphasized "ecology" and goals like cleaning up pollution and litter -- along with a more anti-establishment vibe than today. "Welcome, sulfur dioxide, hello, carbon monoxide," a woman sang from the 1968 countercultural Broadway hit, "Hair," at a rally in Philadelphia that day. Across the country, activists donned gas masks or spread out in grassy parks to hear speeches ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Film Fetes Small Steps to Address Climate Change
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10447427
ABC News: If "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's Oscar-winning 2006 film on global warming, left audiences depressed about the planet's future, a new film from the same executive producers is designed to lift spirits. "Climate of Change" premieres at New York's Tribeca Film Festival Thursday -- Earth Day -- and focuses on the efforts by individuals from around the world to reduce their personal carbon footprint while fighting business interests they say threaten the environment. "I ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Earth Day at 40: How it Began, Where It's Going
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100422-earth-day-40-40th-anniversary/
National Geographic: From grassroots beginnings in 1970, Earth Day--which celebrates its 40th anniversary today--has blossomed into a global tradition. Organizers expect more than a billion to honor Earth Day in 2010--but many will do so with Facebook rather than megaphones. As part of the Billion Acts of Green, an initiative organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network's Green Generation campaign, more than 30 million people will use social media to encourage green activities. One ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Canada: RBS faces climate change protests
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/22/rbs-climate-camp-protest
Guardian: Royal Bank of Scotland will be the target of a series of direct action protests this summer, the organisers of Climate Camp have announced today. The environmental group wants to broaden its campaign to target banks which fund the oil industry, particularly controversial tar sands developments, and engage in carbon trading, which they say is exacerbating climate change. The bank, following its £20bn taxpayer funded bailout, is a crucial link between government and the oil ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Climate debate: green politics has grown up
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/apr/22/climate-debate-miliband-clark-hughes
Guardian: Here's something I didn't expect to write: I found all three of the politicians at last night's green hustings quite impressive. I was struck by the maturity of their debate, in two senses. They tried to answer the questions they were given, rarely sought to fob us off and mostly refrained from cheap point-scoring. And they all had the kind of detailed knowledge of green issues that just a few years ago would have been perceived as superfluous to a political career. The bumbling ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
United States: State needs clean energy goal
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/editorial/article_a35fa8ca-4d9c-11df-97dd-001cc4c03286.html
Wall Street Journal: Wisconsin needs an ambitious goal for boosting clean energy and efficiency. Our state leaders also need to let the private sector find the best ways to achieve the higher standard. Thursday is Earth Day. It also is the final day of session before the Legislature adjourns for the year. State lawmakers should find a way to pass a clean energy bill with more buy-in and flexibility. Both sides in this important debate are guilty of overheated debate. Supporters sell ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Green investments spur growth, emissions cuts
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/04/green-investments-spurring-growth-emissions-cuts
Daily Climate: Green investments are spurring significant growth across the U.S economy while decreasing industry's overall emissions per dollar of goods and services, according to two reports released Wednesday by the federal government. Meanwhile households have replaced industry as the country's largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, according to government data. The first report defines and measures the size of the domestic green economy; the other assesses how America's greenhouse ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Colorado River water policy faces an age of limits
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_14921852
Salt Lake Tribune: Change comes hard to Western water policy. The Prior Appropriation Doctrine, interstate compacts, groundwater law, the "law of the river" -- all of these seem set in stone in the minds of the region's policymakers. Of course, the West's rivers aren't bound by such a static existence. Indeed, they are changing in fundamental ways, opening a wide chasm between our water policy and our water sources. This is particularly true for the Colorado River Basin. Climate scientists are ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
United States: For Earth Day's 40th anniversary, colleges vow to be climate neutral
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/ucf-goes-climate-green-20100421,0,3647103.story
Orlando Sentinel: An electric car that David Norvell drives for errands at the University of Central Florida has an enormous solar panel bolted to its roof and is meant to draw a lot of attention. The university-owned car earns an A for getting students to look up from their laptops or one another to take in a rolling symbol of the profound environmental remake getting under way at the school. As of today, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, UCF and more than 600 other colleges and universities ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
On 40th Anniversary, Earth Day Is Big Business
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/business/energy-environment/22earth.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: So strong was the antibusiness sentiment for the first Earth Day in 1970 that organizers took no money from corporations and held teach-ins "to challenge corporate and government leaders.' Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry. For this year's celebration, Bahama Umbrella is advertising a specially designed umbrella, with a drain so that water "can ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Biofuels cause four times more carbon emissions
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7614934/Biofuels-cause-four-times-more-carbon-emissions.html
Telegraph: The European Union, including the UK, has set a goal of obtaining 10 per cent of its road fuels from renewable sources by 2020. But a new report commissioned in Brussels found some biofuels can lead to four times more carbon dioxide polluting the atmosphere than equivalent fossil fuels. Biofuels have already been criticised for causing food shortages in countries where land for rice or wheat has been displaced by fields of soy beans or sugarcane for fuel. Environmental ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
China embraces booming electric car industry
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261809/china-embraces-booming-electric
Business Green: A record 95 electric cars will be unveiled at the Auto China show in Beijing tomorrow as foreign and domestic automakers hope to gain a foothold in the fast-emerging Chinese green-vehicle market. The show is now one of the biggest in the world, after China overtook the US in 2009 to become the world's top auto market. Many of the world's leading car firms are expected to unveil some of their latest green-vehicle developments. For example, Toyota said earlier this month that it ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
This Earth Day, go vegan
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/apr/22/earth-day-vegan
Guardian: Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Approximately 1 billion people will participate in Earth Day celebrations this month, and today alone countless people will plant trees, clean up rivers, pledge not to use plastic bags and decide to walk rather than drive. All of this helps, of course, but it's not going to save the planet. To be truly "green", we've got to make our diets more environmentally friendly by kicking the meat habit and going vegan. An apple a day can help keep ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Earth Day at 40: From culture change to climate change
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20100422_Earth_Day_at_40__From_culture_change_to_climate_change.html
Philadelphia Inquirer: Forty years ago, throngs of flower children frolicked in Fairmount Park, playing kazoos and tossing streamers. Ira Einhorn, the city's self-styled hippie guru who later gained notoriety for murdering his girlfriend, hogged the stage, and poet Allen Ginsberg chanted, "Merrily, merrily, we welcome, we welcome the end of the earth." The first Earth Day was a party, a polemic, a protest. This year, Earth Day has no regional signature event. Instead, Earth Day seems to ...
Fri, 23 Apr 10
Study warns of climate health threats
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gd4xBpvGREPTYCTKGiII30DhNsPQD9F7MSA01
Associated Press: Climate change poses a growing threat to health, from heart disease to heatstroke and from illness carried by water to bug-borne sickness. A group of federal agencies issued a report on the threat Wednesday, looking at what areas need to be studied. "To mitigate and adapt to the health effects of climate change, we must first understand them. This report is a vital new roadmap for doing that," said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Empty skies proved that airports cause pollution, say researchers
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/empty-skies-proved-that-airports-cause-pollution-say-researchers-1950672.html
Independent (UK): Scientists have used the no-flying period caused by the ash cloud to show for the first time that airports are themselves significant causes of pollution. Although long suspected, the fact that mass take-offs and landings are large pollution sources could never be proved before, because aircraft pollution could not be measured as separate from the pollution caused by vehicles operating near by. But an analysis of the first three days of the unprecedented closure of UK airspace, at ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Canada: Environmentalists to target RBS over investments
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K68720100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Part-nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland is to be the target of a mass protest by thousands of environmentalists over its involvement in financing fossil fuel companies, a campaign group said Thursday. Camp for Climate Action said it was taking action against RBS because the British government, which owns 84 percent of the bank after a taxpayer-funded bailout at the height of the banking crisis, had failed to do so. "The government refuses to do anything to prevent RBS from ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Enviro group sues Interior over Wyo. coal leasing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100421/ap_on_bi_ge/us_coal_mines_climate
Associated Press: An environmental group is suing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to try to get the government to increase its regulation of mining in the nation's top-coal producing region. The federal lawsuit WildEarth Guardians filed in Denver this week also seeks to open competition for coal leases in northeast Wyoming's Powder River Basin, instead of letting the government follow the guidance of mining companies that express interest. The Santa Fe, N.M.-based group petitioned Salazar in ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Congress may push immigration over climate bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K5YX20100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Democratic leaders in the Congress may try to win passage of contentious immigration reform legislation this year in a move that could further harm prospects for a climate-change bill, congressional aides said on Wednesday. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other Democratic leaders huddled in the Capitol on Tuesday to discuss legislative priorities in what is rapidly becoming a tight schedule this election year. During the ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Awarding of Brazilian dam contract prompts warning of bloodshed
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/21/contract-belo-monte-dam
Guardian: Brazil awards a domestic consortium the massive Belo Monte Amazon dam amid protests from environmental and indigenous rights activists Link to this video Indigenous leaders in Brazil are warning of imminent violence after a successful tender for the rights to construct a giant hydro-electric plant in the Brazilian Amazon which opponents claim will wreak havoc on the rainforest and its inhabitants. The tender for the Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu river in the state of Pará, was ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Military supports wind power despite radar worries
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100421/ap_on_re_us/us_wind_farms_radar
Associated Press: A U.S. general is trying to reassure the public the military supports wind power and other alternative energy, despite his concerns that turbines may block radar that detects threats to North America. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, head of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, wrote on his official blog this week that both commands are committed to homeland defense and clean energy. Construction of a 338-turbine wind farm in Oregon has been put ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Pakistan to impose wedding curfew as power shortages cause civil unrest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/pakistan-energy-shortages-wedding-curfew
Guardian: Pakistan is expected to announce a series of drastic power-saving measures this week, including a shorter working week and restrictions on wedding celebrations at night, as a severe energy shortfall threatens to set off riots. The blackouts have plagued cities and the countryside for up to 20 hours a day in some places, bringing industry and even farming to a halt. There have already been street protests over the stoppages this year, which have resulted in at least one ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Got milk: 3 percent of greenhouse gases from milk production
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0421-hance_milk.html
Mongabay: Just less than 3 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from the production of milk, according to a new study by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Covering dairy producing animals from small nomadic herds to massive industrialized dairy operations, the FAO study factors in the production, processing, and transportation of milk as well as the fertilizer, pesticides, and feed used in the dairy industry. The total rises 4 percent if using dairy animals for meat is ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Iceland ash emissions at 'insignificant' level: expert
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/iceland-ash-emissions-at-insignificant-level-expert-1950465.html
Agence France-Presse: Only an "insignificant" amount of ash is erupting from Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano, one of the country's leading seismologists said Wednesday, as European skies finally began to clear, allowing air traffic to resume. "Explosive activity has diminished. Ash production has gone down. It's really insignificant right now," Pall Einarsson, from Iceland's Institute of Earth Sciences, told journalists at the government's Civil Protection Agency. Sigurdur Gislason, also from the ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
'Paltry' carbon curbs point to 3C
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8635765.stm
BBC: Pledges made at December's UN summit in Copenhagen are unlikely to keep global warming below 2C, a study concludes. Writing in the journal Nature, analysts at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany say a rise of at least 3C by 2100 is likely. The team also says many countries, including EU members and China, have pledged slower carbon curbs than they have been achieving anyway. They say a new global deal is needed if deeper cuts are to ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Military leads fight against climate change: Pew
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K5C020100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The U.S. military, the government's largest fuel buyer, is leading the fight against climate change by investing in the "Great Green Fleet" and other ways of cutting dependence on oil and coal, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts report released on Tuesday. "They're not having long and protracted debates about whether or not we can afford it ... they are marching" into investments in everything from electric vehicles to forming strike groups that run on alternative fuels, said ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Iceland volcano: why we were lucky we weren't wiped out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/21/iceland-volcano-ash-extinction-human-race
Guardian: The map is almost uncannily similar to today's: a spray of black dots showing the recorded sightings of a foul grey haze spreading across Europe, from Helsinki to Naples, from Heligoland to Mallorca, and reaching eventually to Aleppo and Damascus – and all of it caused by clouds of ash from an immense volcano erupting far across the sea in Iceland. But this was a map made from data collected in 1783. The volcano was called Laki, it erupted for eight dismal months without cease, ruined ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
States fear devil in details of U.S. climate bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K5HT20100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: California and other states with aggressive environmental agendas said on Wednesday they fear a federal climate bill may unacceptably weaken their power, in a new sign of uncertainty over compromise legislation being crafted by U.S. Senator John Kerry and his allies. Democrat Kerry, independent Senator Joseph Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham are expected to unveil a bill next week to cut greenhouse gas emissions that navigates among competing interests groups, after a ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Online Vt. atlas aims to promote renewable energy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100421/ap_on_bi_ge/vt_energy_atlas
Associated Press: Anyone wanting to know where in Vermont the likely spots are for wind-power generators or good sources for biodiesel fuel has a powerful new tool to use. The Vermont Energy Atlas is an online, interactive, multilayered mapping system with a wealth of information for renewable energy developers, government officials and the curious. A project of the nonprofit Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, the atlas allows anyone with access to a computer to see what's happening in their ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Big business support for climate bill elusive
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K5IL20100421?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. senators crafting a compromise climate change bill have held months of meetings with oil, coal and manufacturing interests, but so far have failed to gain the ironclad words of support many think will be necessary for passing legislation. Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, Lindsey Graham, a Republican, and Joseph Lieberman, an independent, are set to release the bill on Monday after collaborating with industry groups, companies, and environmentalists to find a workable ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Industrialized nations' CO2 falls 2.2 pct in 2008
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K2V920100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Industrialized nations' greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.2 percent in 2008, the steepest decline since the break-up of the Soviet Union as economies slowed, a Reuters compilation showed Wednesday. Emissions are likely to have fallen more sharply in 2009 due to recession that analysts said was a bigger brake than government policies meant to shift from use of fossil fuels toward cleaner energies such as wind or solar power. Final government data sent to the United Nations in ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Iceland: Green groups point to ash cloud silver lining
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=green-groups-point-to-ash
Reuters: 's erupting volcano has spewed plenty of ash but far less greenhouse gas than Europe's grounded aircraft would have generated. Carbon dioxide emissions totaled 150,000 tonnes a day in the early days of the eruption, according to Durham University. That compares with 510,000 tonnes per day emitted when planes are flying as normal over the continent. But experts cautioned it was hard to draw conclusions about the overall impact of pollution because more cars and buses were on the ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
China-led bloc to consider Kyoto climate pact future
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=china-led-bloc-to-conside
Reuters: A bloc of the world's fastest growing carbon emitters, seen as key to a global deal on climate change, appears for the first time willing to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol to get the United States on board. Kyoto binds about 40 rich nations to cut emissions by 2008-12 and developing countries want a tougher second commitment period. That demand is opposed by many developed nations that want to jettison Kyoto to include emerging markets like India and China. Next ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Australia: Grounded ships: Just one threat to the Great Barrier Reef
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1983213,00.html
Time Magazine: Environmentalists and politicians alike went wild this month when a Chinese shipping vessel plowed at full speed into the delicate corals of Australia's protected Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Damage to the Douglas Shoal, one of the 2,900 reefs in the 133,000-sq.-mi. (350,000 sq km) marine park, covered an area equivalent to five football fields, leaving a vast, empty plain of sand where a healthy coral community had hosted a variety of unique plants and animals. But marine ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Will global warming make Iceland's volcanoes angry?
http://news.discovery.com/earth/will-global-warming-make-icelands-volcanoes-angry.html
Discovery: You drop a bottle of soda on the floor. You pick it up and without thinking crack the cap. Woosh, Fizzz! The cap goes flying, and the contents of the bottle erupt all over you and your kitchen. Pretty predictable outcome for an overcharged carbonated beverage, right? It shouldn't be too much surprise, then, that volcanologists think that as icecaps melt on volcanoes all over the world, explosions like the ongoing eruption at Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano will become more common, ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Military leads march to shrink US carbon 'boot print:' Study
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jPdRV7PRiMe7_6B62jWw5hp5M4IA
Agence France-Presse: From solar-powered water purification systems in Afghanistan to a Navy jet fueled in part by biofuel, the US military is taking a lead role in shrinking the US carbon "boot print," an independent report said Tuesday. The US Department of Defense accounts for 80 percent of the US government's total energy consumption energy needs, and most of the energy it uses currently comes from fossil fuels, the report by the Pew Research think tank's Project on National Security, Energy and ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Global warming evidence all around us
http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/418757_joel21.html?source=rss
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Amply underwritten by Big Oil and the coal industry, armed with "research" from right-thinking think tanks, amplified by the right's media machine, global warming deniers are working off a basic game plan: Use doubt and discord to create chaos, and then conquer. They've manufactured "Climategate" out of e-mails purloined from academics at one English university. No East Coast cold spell or snowstorm goes by without a full-blast headline on The Drudge Report. Sarah Palin calls ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Volcanic Ash Cloud Stops Exotic Food Imports to Britain
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100421/wl_time/08599198330800
Time Magazine: David Leroy, owner of one of London's hottest sushi restaurants, Chisou, is on his last tuna and when that goes he has no way of getting any more. "One of our tuna suppliers just called and said they have no more until flights resume," Leroy says, shaking his head. He's already run out of sea urchin, monkfish liver and scallops. Mike Elgin, one of 54 fish sellers at London's massive Billingsgate fish market, which usually moves nearly 100 tons of fish a day, would love to sell Leroy a ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Brazil awards dam tender despite environmental protests
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/brazil-awards-dam-tender-despite-environmental-protests-1949933.html
Agence France-Presse: Brazil on Tuesday speedily awarded the tender for a controversial hydro-electric dam projected to be the world's third-largest, despite fierce opposition from environmentalists. The government pushed ahead with the bidding process to begin construction of the giant Belo Monte dam after beating back a last-minute suspension order with a rushed appeal. The tender was awarded to Norte Energia, a consortium led by a subsidiary of the state electricity company Electrobras, after a ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Japan sets out domestic-focused low carbon action plan
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261713/japan-sets-low-carbon-action
Business Green: The Japanese government will begin discussions with business leaders tomorrow in an attempt to drum up support for its climate change strategy ahead of this summer's election. The nation's Democratic Party-led government issued a new draft action plan on energy usage up to 2030 earlier this week, that retained the country's target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. However, after delaying controversial proposals to introduce an emissions ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Senator Kerry rejects reports of climate bill fuel tax
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261716/senator-kerry-rejects-reports
Business Green: Senator John Kerry said yesterday that the compromise US climate bill that is due to be unveiled next week will not include controversial proposals for some form of levy on road fuel. Business leaders and environmental groups that had received briefings from the bi-partisan group of senators working on the bill had said that earlier drafts included plans for a "fee" on oil products. They said that the "fee" would be "linked" to the price of carbon established through the ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
US State Department report makes case for climate action
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261728/state-department-report
Business Green: A draft report from the US State Department has emphasised the urgent need to take action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that human activity is unequivocally leading to global warming and that rising temperatures pose a grave threat to the global economy. The 193-page draft report is the fifth study to be produced for the US for submission to the UN's climate change secretariat and was released to little fanfare earlier this month. However, a group of environmental ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Some fear dams could spoil Montenegro's green image
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63K2KV20100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: With its scenic Adriatic coastline, pristine waters and rugged mountains, Montenegro has presented itself as a green paradise for holidaymakers and investors. Yet plans to award a 30-year concession for the construction of four hydropower plants could risk harming that image as environmentalists mount a campaign warning about the impact on a local lake, birds and greenery. The planned dams in Moraca River with the total capacity of 242 megawatts would reduce the country's ...
Thu, 22 Apr 10
Ecuador goes to Cannes with forest carbon bonds
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1969
Carbon Positive: Ecuador is taking its innovative forest carbon financing initiative to the Cannes Film Festival in May in the hope of showcasing the project to prospective investors. The Yasuni-ITT Initiative aims to create 'carbon bonds' to preserve a tract of in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest that also holds a lucrative oil resource ripe for exploitation. The carbon bonds would be issued over a government guarantee that oil won't be extracted from the Yasuni National Park and the forest, its ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
For U.S. Forests, REDD Begins at Home
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/04/20/us-forests-redd-begins-home
ClimateBiz: Four months after the Copenhagen Accord, the interest and discussions about reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries -- colloquially known as REDD plus -- continues. Clearly, helping developing countries implement comprehensive initiatives to protect their forests is a sensible investment; however, new satellite mapping technologies, such as those highlighted on SeeSouthernForests.org, the World Resources Institute's new web-based mapping ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Japan sushi dealers feel heat from Iceland volcano
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100421/lf_afp/icelandvolcanoaviationjapansalmon
Agence France-Presse: The flight chaos brought by Iceland's volcanic eruption has impacted Japan's sushi industry, with seafood traders looking as far as New Zealand to make up a shortfall in imports of Norwegian salmon. Japan usually sources 90 percent of the prized Atlantic salmon from the Scandinavian country, much of it by air cargo, but stocks have run low since flights have been grounded because of the massive volcanic ash cloud. "Absolutely nothing is coming our way. I'm praying that the ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Sen. Kerry hints at changes in climate bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J5Z020100421?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Senator John Kerry, leading the drive for compromise climate change legislation, said on Tuesday his proposal would not contain any sort of motor fuels tax and could scrap an oil sector "fee" that has been discussed. In recent weeks, government and industry sources have said the bill that Kerry and Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham plan to unveil next Monday would contain a "linked fee" in the transportation sector. Such a fee, they said, would be linked to a ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Cash For Appliances Program Takes Off
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126143909&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Think of it as a knock-off of the Cash for Clunkers program. The federal government is giving rebates to Americans who buy energy-efficient appliances. Each state got to design its own program, and some states still have lots of rebates left. But in a few other states, the program was so popular, all the rebates were claimed in less than a day.
Wed, 21 Apr 10
India: Irrigation interfering with monsoons, says study
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/irrigation-interfering-with-monsoons-says-study.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Agricultural intensification and irrigation may decrease the Indian monsoon rains over the long term, a Purdue University and Indian Space Research Organisation study has found -- suggesting regional land surface feedbacks play an important role in climate change. The study analysed Indian Meteorological Department rainfall data of more than 50 years and tracked land use change using satellite imagery. Using a set of statistical tools, the researchers attempted to co-relate and then ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Global agricultural alliance sets its research agenda
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/global-agricultural-alliance-sets-its-research-agenda.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: A global research alliance that aims to produce more food for the world's growing population while reducing carbon emissions from agriculture has laid out its plans. The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases -- launched at the Copenhagen climate summit in December 2009 (see Agricultural alliance vows to grow more and emit less) -- held its first meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, earlier this month (7--9 April) with 28 of the 29 member states in ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
New bat species found in Britain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8632121.stm
BBC: A species of bat never seen before in the UK has been discovered in caves in Yorkshire and Sussex. Myotis alcathoe, or Alcathoe's bat, was found in woodland in Rydedale in the North York Moors National Park and the South Downs of Sussex. The bats, which are about the size of the end of a thumb, were identified by researchers from Leeds and Sheffield universities. It is believed they could be present in other parts of Britain. The bats were found during a ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Volcanic ash cloud 'to move towards Arctic'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100420/sc_afp/icelandvolcanoweatherwmoun
Agence France-Presse: The volcanic ash cloud from Iceland is expected to change directions and head towards the Arctic when the weather changes later in the week, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Tuesday. "The current high pressure system with weak winds and slowly descending air in the centre of the high does not help very much to disperse the ash cloud," the UN weather agency said in a fact-sheet. "This situation is expected to change towards the end of the week, when a stronger low ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Brazil opens controversial Amazon dam auction
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J41G20100420?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Brazil awarded a domestic consortium on Tuesday rights to build the world's third-largest hydroelectric dam in the Amazon rain forest in a chaotic auction amid criticism the dam is an environmentally hazardous money loser. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva likely faces a prolonged battle over the 11,000 megawatt Belo Monte dam that he has heavily promoted despite opposition from a range of critics including Hollywood director James Cameron. Government leaders say the project, ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Senate Republicans Move to Bar NEPA Analysis of Climate Change Impacts
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/20/20greenwire-senate-republicans-move-to-bar-nepa-analysis-o-53404.html
Greenwire: Republican senators introduced legislation today that would block White House efforts to require federal agencies to consider climate change in environmental analyses of proposed projects. The bill says the National Environmental Policy Act should not be used to document, predict or mitigate the climate effects of specific federal actions. Under the measure, NEPA reviews could not consider the greenhouse gas emissions of a proposed federal project nor climate change effects as related ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
UK university ordered to give data to climate sceptic
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18801-uk-university-ordered-to-give-data-to-climate-sceptic.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: The climate data wars have taken a new turn. A leading British university has been told it must release data on tree rings dating back more than 7000 years to an amateur climate analyst and climate sceptic. The ruling, which could have important repercussions for environmental research in the UK, comes from the government's deputy information commissioner Graham Smith. In January he caused consternation at the height of the "climategate" affair by criticising the way that the ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Lightning Creates Particle Accelerators Above Earth
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100419-lightning-natural-particle-accelerators-lhc/
National Geographic: The most intense flashes of lightning can do more than just light up the sky: Lightning sometimes acts as a natural particle accelerator, firing beams of electrons at high speeds toward space, a new study says. To start the accelerator, a powerful lightning strike needs to coincide with a burst of cosmic rays--high-energy particles coming from space. ee recent pictures of lightning created in the ash plume of an Iceland volcano.) When cosmic rays enter our atmosphere, they ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Greenpeace not LOL over Facebook footprint
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100420/ap_on_bi_ge/us_greenpeace_vs_facebook
Associated Press: After an emotional breakup with the timber industry, Prineville, Ore., was thrilled to get friended by Facebook. The social networking site chose the high-desert timber town of 10,000 to take advantage of its cool nights and dry air in hopes of making its first-ever data center an energy efficiency landmark. But the concept failed to impress Greenpeace. In a report posted on the Internet last month, the environmental group praised Google and Yahoo for tapping hydro power ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Finnish government agrees to fund renewable energy growth
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J4O620100420?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Finland's government has agreed on "hundreds of millions of euros" to fund the growth of renewable energy, Finnish media reported late on Tuesday, as the Nordic country seeks to cut its carbon emissions. National broadcaster YLE said on its website the package of measures, which would include tax breaks and be focused on the wood industry, would run until 2020. National news agency STT quoted Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen as saying the scope of the package covered the power ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Off and on again: Belo Monte dam goes forward, protests planned
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0419-hance_belomonte.html
Mongabay: An auction to build the Belo Monte dam, a massive hydroelectric project in Brazil, is going ahead despite two court-ordered suspensions, both of which have been overturned. The dam, which would be the world's third-largest, has been criticized by indigenous groups, environmental organizations, and most recently filmmaker James Cameron who created the wildly popular Avatar. Diverting the flow of Xingu River--a tributary of the Amazon River--the dam will flood 500 square kilometers of ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Prius minivan may debut in 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20100420/sc_ygreen/priusminivanmaydebutin2011
Y! Green: Imagine the Toyota Prius. Now imagine it stretched a little longer and taller, perhaps a "Baby on Board" sticker attached to the back, and that may just be what's in store for a new version of the hybrid vehicle. Japanese news source Nikkei is reporting that Toyota will be releasing a Prius minivan sometime next year. The minivan would be the first expansion of the Prius brand by the automaker. Beyond being the first hybrid minivan on the market, the vehicle may also be the ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Climate treaty 'some way off': Australia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100420/wl_asia_afp/unclimatewarmingusaustralia
Agence France-Presse: A legally binding treaty on climate change remains "some way off," Australia's negotiator said Tuesday, as hopes ebb for a breakthrough before December's summit in Cancun, Mexico. Penny Wong, Australia's minister for climate change, was in Washington for talks among major economies on whether a treaty was possible in the wake of the turbulent last climate summit in Copenhagen in December. "I think we all know after Copenhagen that the objective of getting a legally binding ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Spring comes 10 days earlier in changed US climate
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J4RF20100420
Reuters: Spring comes about 10 days earlier in the United States than it did two decades ago, a consequence of climate change that favors invasive species over indigenous ones, scientists said on Tuesday. The phenomenon known as "spring creep" has put various species of U.S. wildlife out of balance with their traditional habitats, from the rabbit-like American pika in the West to the roses and lilies in New England, the environmental experts said in a telephone news briefing. "The ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Children's cognitive ability can be affected by mother's exposure to urban air pollutants
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100420132841.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: A study by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) carried out in Krakow, Poland has found that prenatal exposure to pollutants can adversely affect children's cognitive development at age 5, confirming previous findings in a New York City (NYC) study. Researchers report that children exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Krakow had a significant reduction in scores on a standardized test of reasoning ability and intelligence at ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Advance made in thin-film solar cell technology
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100420132835.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Researchers have made an important breakthrough in the use of continuous flow microreactors to produce thin film absorbers for solar cells -- an innovative technology that could significantly reduce the cost of solar energy devices and reduce material waste. The advance was just reported in Current Applied Physics, a professional journal, by engineers from Oregon State University and Yeungnam University in Korea. This is one of the first demonstrations that this type of ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Finland plans 'massive' renewable energy boost
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100420/sc_afp/finlandclimateenergy
Agence France-Presse: Finland's government on Tuesday outlined a plan to massively boost renewable energy production to meet European Union requirements on slashing greenhouse gas emissions. "This addition of renewable energy is equivalent in scale to three big nuclear power plants," Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said in comments broadcast by YLE. "In terms of scale, this is a massive solution," Vanhanen said after a ministerial working group on climate and energy policy agreed on the ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Environmental books suggest save-the-Earth climate may be entering a new phase
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041903186.html
Washington Post: We have arrived at a strange moment in the history of the environmental movement, caught as we are between the political stagnation of Copenhagen in December and the celebration of Earth Day's 40th anniversary this week. It is a time, if three books now being published are any indication, for reassessment. But if the tenor is contemplative, it is anything but resigned. And if there's consensus, it seems to be that the era of easy fixes -- eat organic, drive a Prius, think about installing ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Calculating Water Use, Direct and Indirect
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/science/20obwater.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Your household water meter only tells part of the story -- what was directly used for washing, cooking and other tasks. But what about the water that was used to grow the food you ate for dinner? Or to manufacture the book you bought or the gasoline your car burned? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have estimated this kind of direct and indirect water use -- not for households, but for American industries. Their goal was to create a tool for better assessing the impact on ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Iceland volcano: imagine a world without planes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/20/iceland-volcano-world-without-planes
Guardian: For the first time in my life, one of my favourite London walks has become the bucolic idyll it always should have been. I'm walking down Syon Vista in Kew Gardens on a lovely spring morning amid flowering magnolias, snake's head fritillaries and, unless I mistake my guess, Chinese witch hazel. The grass is still dewy, but I lie on my back and look up. The sky is filled with good news. One of the world's busiest flight paths, that normally sullies Kew and much of west London with howling jet ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Bolivia hosts 'people's' climate change event
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100420/sc_afp/boliviaenvironmentclimatewarming
Agence France-Presse: Bolivian President Evo Morales opened a "people's conference" on climate change on Tuesday with an attack on capitalism's debt to global warming, before participants booed a UN envoy. Environmental activists, indigenous leaders and Hollywood celebrities were scheduled to take part in the three-day summit focusing on the world's poorest, which they say were largely ignored at official United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen last December. "Either capitalism dies, or ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Obama causes contrast with Bush-era policies on climate change
http://www.sctimes.com/article/20100420/NEWS01/104200024/1009/news01
Gannett: For eight years, environmentalists cried foul as President George W. Bush used executive power to weaken air and water regulations, open public lands to increased oil drilling and block action to fight climate change. Now, President Barack Obama is using the same authority to reverse course. "Under the Bush administration, it was good news for polluters, bad news for the public," said Anna Aurilio of Environment America. "Under the Obama administration, it is good news for ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Heathrow aiport expansion will result in £5 billion loss
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/20/heathrow-expansion-loss
Ecologist: Calculations on the cost of building a third runway at Heathrow are outdated and do not make economic sense says a new report Expanding Heathrow airport will result in a loss to the economy of £5 billion and lock the UK into a high carbon future, says a report from an independent thinktank. The Government gave the green light for a third runway in January 2009, saying the economic benefit of the expansion to the economy would be £5.5 billion. However, a report by the New ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Frogspawn study revels climate change dangers
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/frogspawn-study-revels-climate-change-dangers-1949040.html
Press Association: A study of thousands of records of when UK frogs spawn revealed the amphibians are closely adapted to local conditions - which could put them at risk as the climate changes. More than 50,000 records of frogspawn, including contributions from the public and BBC Springwatch viewers, were used to see how common frogs responded to temperature across different parts of the UK. Frogs spawn earlier in warmer years, which provides a longer period for tadpoles to develop, potentially ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Updated factfile on Icelandic volcano
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/updated-factfile-on-icelandic-volcano-1949249.html
Independent (UK): Following is an updated factfile on Eyjafjoell, the volcano in southern Iceland that began to disrupt air traffic in Europe last Wednesday. WHAT'S THE LATEST ON ITS ACTIVITY? The volcano is emitting less ash, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and Icelandic experts. "We have received information that the eruptions had changed recently, with more molten lava flow and the remaining plume is now only reaching less than 3,000 metres" (10,000 feet), the ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
New bat species found in Britain
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/20/alcathoes-bat-new-species-britain
Guardian: Alcathoe's bat: has defied experts predictions by crossing the Channel. Photograph: PA A bat the size of a thumbprint has been found for the first time in Britain, after crossing the Channel in defiance of experts' predictions. Alcathoe's bat is the smallest of Europe's whiskered bats and the most recently discovered. It was identified as a separate species in Greece only in 2001, after tests on the frequency of its radar call, which is used by all bats to navigate and catch ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
New Bi-Partisan Climate Change Bill
http://www.environmentreport.org/story.php?story_id=4972
Environment Report
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Where do forest carbon markets go from here?
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0420-thoumi_forest_carbon_market.html
Mongabay: Will Forest Carbon Markets Thrive, or Get Lost in the Woods? For thousands of years, we have been planting and growing trees without difficulty. It's simple, and forest carbon business strategy can be, too. In fact, it's core to what I'm trying to teach the MBA/MS students in my course at the Erb Institute this semester: If the world's best available technology for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is employing the natural photosynthetic capacity of natural forest ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Judge again halts Belo Monte dam auction in Brazil
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8631711.stm
BBC: Bidding for contracts to build a huge hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon in Brazil has been stopped for a second time. A court granted an injunction halting the auction due later in the day. The government says the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River is crucial for economic development. Indigenous groups and environmentalists oppose the dam, saying thousands of people will be displaced and a sensitive ecosystem damaged. The latest development came just a ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory 'for price of a stamp'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/20/climate-sceptic-wins-data-victory
Guardian: An arch-critic of climate scientists has won a major victory in his campaign to win access to British university data that could reveal details of Europe's past climate. In a landmark ruling, the UK Information Commissioner's Office has ruled that Queen's University Belfast must hand over data obtained during 40 years of research into 7,000 years of Irish tree rings to a City banker and part-time climate analyst, Doug Keenan. This week, the Belfast ecologist who collected most ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Volcanic ash poses little health threat so far: WHO
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100420/hl_nm/us_europe_air_health
Reuters: Ash particles from Iceland's still-erupting volcano remain high in the atmosphere and do not pose a health risk so far to people in Europe, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Toning down its guidance from Friday, when it said the ash cloud that has grounded flights could be "very dangerous" for those with asthma and respiratory problems, the WHO said there was no cause for public health alarm so far. "There are no effects on health at the moment, except in the ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Starbucks tackles green goals except one: recycling
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261630/starbucks-tackles-green-goals
Business Green: From buying green power to reducing the amount of water it uses, Starbucks is on track to meet the majority of its long-term environmental goals, the coffee giant said yesterday. Starbucks made gains in green building, water and energy use, ethical sourcing and helping farmers reduce deforestation, the company said in its 2009 Global Responsibility Report. It lagged, however, in one high-profile area: recycling. The company rated its progress on three recycling goals as "Needs ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Optimism for a clean energy future
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36031.html
Politico: Even before the Senate starts debating clean energy and climate legislation, the professional pessimists are saying it will never happen. Some political analysts say it's just not possible this year to squeeze in legislation that aims to limit carbon pollution that is warming our planet or to invest in U.S. sources of clean energy. But the good news is that, behind all the daily political turmoil, the Senate is working on an agreement to forge a new energy future that will help ...
Wed, 21 Apr 10
Iceland: Living With Volcanic Eruptions
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51112
Inter Press Service: Incredible as it may seem, daily life for the vast majority of Icelanders is completely unaffected by the volcanic eruption under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, that has left thousands of air passengers around the world stranded due to flight cancellations. The westerly and northerly winds that have prevailed since the eruption began have sent the massive ash column away from Iceland, out to sea and over to Europe. But for the Icelandic community of about 700 or so people living ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Airlines, scientists split over impact of ash
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100419/sc_nm/us_europe_air_facts
Reuters: Experts disagree over how to measure the dispersal of volcanic ash and who should decide when it is safe to fly, as millions of travelers remain grounded and revenue losses top $1 billion due to the Icelandic ash crisis. "I would call it a European mess because we did not focus on figures and facts," Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday. "Europe was using a theoretical mathematical approach and this is not ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
U.S. unveils climate report in runup to Senate bill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63F2Q520100419?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 released a new draft report on climate change on Monday, one week before the expected unveiling of a compromise U.S. Senate bill that aims to curb heat-trapping greenhouse emissions. The report, a draft of the Fifth U.S. Climate Action Report that will be sent to the United Nations, says bluntly: "Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced ... Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Volcano emitting 150-300,000 tonnes of CO2 daily: experts
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/volcano-emitting-150300000-tonnes-of-co2-daily-experts-1948708.html
Independent (UK): Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano is emitting between 150,000 and 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per day, a figure placing it in the same emissions league as a small-to-medium European economy, experts said on Monday. Assuming the composition of gas to be the same as in an earlier eruption on an adjacent volcano, "the CO2 flux of Eyjafjoell would be 150,000 tonnes per day," Colin Macpherson, an Earth scientist at Britain's University of Durham, said in an email. Patrick ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Bolivian alternative climate conference begins
http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/bolivian-alternative-climate-conference-begins.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_climatechangeandenergy
SciDev.Net: The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth began today, attracting more than 15,000 participants who hope it will prove to be an alternative to the "failed" negotiations in Copenhagen last year. The conference -- which aims to bring together governments, social movements and non-governmental organisations -- will analyse the structural causes of climate change and propose actions for addressing them. It also aims to generate a "big world ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Bolivia stirs up politics of climate change
http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20100419/wl_oneworld/98061649991271686522
OneWorld.net: nable to fly, it's now impossible to escape the boredom of the UK general election. It's this timing that convinces me. The revenge motif of the ancient Icelandic sagas lives on in the molten sulphur of the volcano. Hell hath no fury like a Viking spurned by British creditors. So little divides the UK political parties on policy that the contest has been dumbed down to a leadership personality trial by television. We'll get the president we deserve. Flickr Let's be ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Maine's Republican Senators, critical to climate bill, approach the debate coolly
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/19/19climatewire-maines-republican-senators-critical-to-clima-58591.html
ClimateWire: A small group of lawmakers could help scrap or spare Congress' pending effort to impose a price on carbon emissions, but only two of them, the senators from Maine, appear to hold the "balance of power." Their support in any effort to stem global warming might seem almost automatic. Sen. Susan Collins stomached a lurching helicopter ride between mountains and slept in an Antarctic hut to get a firsthand view of evidence of abrupt climate shifts of the past. Sen. Olympia Snowe ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
It's not the weather
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/04/its-not-the-weather
Daily Climate: The climate-denying machine had scored yet another undeserved point in what has become a strangely combative and, quite frankly, unbalanced public debate over what most experts believe is now confirmed: Specifically, our planet is under unsustainable stress and its recovery can only begin when public attitudes toward energy generation, consumption, and conservation advance. The latest distraction came after researchers at George Mason University and the University of Texas at Austin ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Iceland volcano causes fall in carbon emissions as eruption grounds aircraft
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/19/eyjafjallajokull-volcano-climate-carbon-emissions
Guardian: The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano is unlikely to have any significant impact on climate but has caused a small fall in carbon emissions, experts say. Although large eruptions such as Mount Pinatubo in 1991 can spew out enough material to shade and cool the planet, recent activity in Iceland is very small in comparison. The ash cloud has not reached the high atmosphere, where it would have the most effect, and it contains little sulphur, which forms reflective droplets of ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Blame the volcano trouble on sun and global warming
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18794-blame-the-volcano-trouble-on-sun-and-global-warming.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: Altered weather patterns may have made the disruption caused by volcanic ash from Iceland worse "" and climate change could be partly to blame. Ash-laden Arctic air is blowing over Europe because the usual westerly winds are being "blocked" by a high-pressure weather system, and such blockages may be more common now than they used to be. "We predict that the frequency and length of blocking events will increase in a warmer climate," says Christophe Cassou of the European Centre for ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Volcano observation for beginners
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/volcano-observation-for-beginners-1948584.html
Independent (UK): The eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano has prompted a renewed interest in geology from many people who hadn't considered volcanic activity since science lessons at school - helped, no doubt, by thousands of stranded travelers with little else to do but wait. Volcanology watching is as spectacular as it is dangerous, but experiencing a Dante's Peak-esque flee from lava doesn't have to be part of the activity. Introducing: The Volcano First off, some basic science on ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Obama Wants Senate to Tackle Climate Bill After Wall St. Reforms
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/19/19climatewire-obama-wants-senate-to-tackle-climate-bill-af-37578.html
ClimateWire: President Obama expects the Senate to move on to comprehensive energy and climate change legislation once it finishes work over the next few weeks on Wall Street regulatory reform. "This is one of these foundational priorities from my perspective that has to be done soon," Obama said of the climate bill Friday during a White House meeting of outside experts helping the administration on economic recovery plans. Obama predicted several weeks of Senate debate on the financial ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Report: Heathrow expansion would deliver £5bn blow to UK economy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261568/report-heathrow-expansion
Business Green: With the Lib Dems and Conservatives both riding high in the polls and planning to block expansion plans at Heathrow airport as one of their first acts if elected to government, the chances of a third runway being built at the airport are receding fast. But that has not stopped the plans receiving yet another blow, after new research from the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think tank today suggested that expanding the airport would result in a new cost to the UK economy of ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
US solar start up secures backing from South Korean blue chips
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261574/solar-start-secures-backing
Business Green: US renewable energy start up Matinee Energy has emerged from stealth mode with the announcement of a new alliance with South Korean heavyweights Hyundai and LG Electronics that will see the three firms work together to invest up to $1bn in new US solar energy power plants. Hyundai Heavy Industries and LG yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Matinee as part of a deal that also saw them accept an invitation to become lead partners in the first 240MW phase of a planned ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Hazy Ash Cloud Forecast Complicates Air Travel
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126094135&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Forecasters can see the volcanic ash cloud on satellite images, and they can forecast which way it's going. But they can't tell exactly how much ash is in the air -- or at what point it poses a hazard to airplanes. That's complicating efforts to decide how much of Europe's airspace can be reopened to travel. Weather services around the world are geared up to detect volcanic eruptions and to figure out where a potentially hazardous cloud of ash might spread. In most cases, volcanoes ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Volcanic ash cloud: Global warming may trigger more volcanoes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7604188/Volcanic-ash-cloud-Global-warming-may-trigger-more-volcanoes.html
Telegraph: In papers published by the Royal Society, researchers warned that melting ice, sea level rises and even increasingly heavy storms and rainfall - predicted consequences of rising temperatures - could affect the Earth's crust. Even small changes in the environment could trigger activity such as earthquakes and tsunamis. And some evidence suggests the consequences of climate change were already having an impact on geological activity in places such as Alaska, researchers writing ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
UK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone countries, says report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/19/uk-virtual-water
Guardian: Britain and other rich countries depend heavily on importing hidden "virtual" water from places that regularly experience droughts and shortages, according a report published today by the Royal Society of Engineers. Although the UK is notoriously wet, it is estimated that two-thirds of all the water that its population of 60 million people needs comes embedded in imported food, clothes and industrial goods. The result is that when people buy flowers from Kenya, beef from Botswana, or ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
Scientists call for research on climate link to geological hazards
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/19/climate-change-geological-hazards
Guardian: Scientists today called for wide-ranging research into whether more volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis could be triggered by rising global temperatures under global warming. Significant warming of the atmosphere in the distant past can be linked to changes in geological activity, they say. Suggestions that climate change predicted for coming decades could bring similar changes remain speculative, but the scientists say there is enough evidence to take the threat ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
'Tiny' climate changes may trigger quakes
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/tiny-climate-changes-may-trigger-quakes-1948432.html
Independent (UK): Climate change could spark more "hazardous" geological events such as volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides, scientists warned today. In papers published by the Royal Society, researchers warned that melting ice, sea level rises and even increasingly heavy storms and rainfall - predicted consequences of rising temperatures - could affect the Earth's crust. Even small changes in the environment could trigger activity such as earthquakes and tsunamis. And some evidence ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
President Obama confirms climate bill is next on his to do list
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261557/obama-confirms-climate-bill
Business Green: President Barack Obama has confirmed for the first time that passing climate change and energy legislation will become his top priority as soon as new financial regulatory reforms are passed. According to Reuters' reports, Obama told a meeting of his economic advisory board on Friday that he expected his banking reforms to be finalised within the next few weeks, at which point the administration's focus will turn to the proposed climate and energy bill that is expected to be unveiled ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
CFC ban might save the ozone, but what about the climate?
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201004/s2876212.htm
Radio Australia: BRONWYN HERBERT: Most refrigerators and air-conditioners rely on hydroflurocarbons for the process of transferring heat. HFCs, as they're known, were seen as a good alternative to CFCs, which were creating a hole in the ozone layer. But while hydroflurocarbons might help fix one problem, environmental advocates say they have their own destructive potential. MARC CHASSEROT: We were dealing with the ozone depletion issue under Montreal and then weren't really following what was ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
China, East Asia can halt emissions growth
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1966
Carbon Positive: Some of the biggest nations of East and South-East Asia, including China, could stabilise their greenhouse gas emissions within 15 years at a price of $80 billion a year, the World Bank says. China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam could make a concerted switch to renewable energy and greater energy efficiency at modest cost in order to stop carbon emissions growing by 2025, the bank says in a report. China is now the world's biggest emitter and among those ...
Tue, 20 Apr 10
REDD rush risks failure: Study
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1967
Carbon Positive: The development of a global REDD scheme to halt deforestation risks reversing positive reforms in developing countries that are already helping to tackle the problem, a new study finds. The study published in the issue of the journal Science by Edward Webb and Jacob Phelps at the National University of Singapore and Arun Agrawal from the University of Michigan, warns that the rush to REDD could see forest governance re-centralised in the hands of national governments. They say, ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Q&A: How long will chaos last - and what has it cost?
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/qampa-how-long-will-chaos-last-ndash-and-what-has-it-cost-1948188.html
Independent (UK): Q When is the Icelandic volcano chaos likely to end, and when is air traffic likely to resume? A Perhaps not before mid-week, or even later. All UK flights are grounded until at least this morning, and some airlines have already cancelled all today's flights. But the situation may not improve before Wednesday at the earliest, because the situation depends on the amount of volcanic ash coming from the eruption of the volcano, Eyjafjallajoekull, and the strength and direction of the ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Heathrow shows clear air between parties
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/heathrow-shows-clear-air-between-parties-1948202.html
Independent (UK): At six minutes past one last Monday afternoon, Linda McCutcheon answered her mobile phone in Sipson, Middlesex, and the environment, the forgotten issue of this election, suddenly became a live concern. She listened, scowled, and then pronounced: "That's put the stopper on it. I'm voting Tory." Mrs McCutcheon had just been informed of the passage in the Labour manifesto -- section 1:8, if you're interested -- in which the party pledges it will allow no new runways to be built at ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Avatar director vows to fight on for Amazon
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/avatar-director-vows-to-fight-on-for-amazon-1948288.html
Agence France-Presse: Avatar director James Cameron vowed Friday to fight on for the indigenous people of the Amazon after a Brazilian court overturned a ruling that would have halted construction of a huge dam that would flood tribal lands. "We are disappointed but we knew this would be a long battle," Cameron told AFP by phone during a brief visit to Washington. "If Brazil lets me back in, I would love to come back down and work with the indigenous people I met" during several visits to the vast ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Will we ever achieve the paperless office?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/apr/18/paperless-office
Guardian: So many printouts of emails and statements. Photograph: 20407.000000/Getty Images Imagine a world where you can "call up documents from files on the screen, or by pressing a button", or get "mail or any messages" from a "TV-display terminal with keyboard". These were the thoughts – in 1975 – of George E Pake, the head of Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center, when quizzed by BusinessWeek on what the office of the future would look like. Predicting "a revolution in the ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Skoll Foundation Awards $2.2 millon to avoided deforestation and the ecosystem services market
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0418-skoll_augustine.html
Mongabay: This week the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship awarded its annual Awards for Social Entrepreneurship and three of the seven prizes went to individuals and organizations focused on tropical forests and ecosystem services, including Forest Trends, Imazon, and Telapak. Each award is worth $765,000, which amounts to over $2.2 million for this space. The awards were presented at the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, United Kingdom. "As we've grown the cadre of global social ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Bangladesh to sign nuclear plant deal with Russia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100418/wl_sthasia_afp/bangladeshrussiaenergynuclear
Agence France-Presse: Bangladesh will sign a deal with Russia to build two nuclear power plants at a cost of at least three billion dollars in the electricity-starved Asian nation, Dhaka's atomic energy chief said Sunday. The two sides would sign the agreement when Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits Russia later this year, said Mosharraf Hossain. "We have finalised the deal. The cabinet early this week approved the draft," he said. Russia will build the 1,000-megawatt plants near ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Iceland: Volcanic ash relentless as new tremors rock Iceland
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100418/ts_nm/us_iceland_volcano
Reuters: Powerful tremors from an Icelandic volcano that has been a menace for thousands of travelers worldwide rocked the countryside on Sunday as eruptions hurled a steady stream of ash into the sky. Ash from the volcano drifted southeast toward Europe, sparing the capital Reykjavik and other more populated centers but forcing farmers and their livestock indoors as a blanket of ash fell on the surrounding areas. Iceland's Meterological Office said tremors from the volcano had grown ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Iceland: This is just the beginning, warn scientists
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/earth-environment/article7100906.ece
Times (UK): THE clash between molten rock and ice on the surface of the Iceland volcano has produced ash so fine that radar and other aircraft instruments are unable to detect it. The near-invisibility of the ash swirling in vast clouds over Britain and Europe has magnified the confusion and trepidation brought about by the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull. Now the uncertainty is set to increase still further, with scientists warning that, based on the volcano's historic behaviour, the ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Obama will focus on energy bill after bank reform
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63F5TQ20100416
Reuters: President Barack Obama said on Friday his administration would shift its focus to climate and energy legislation after finishing financial regulatory reform, which he said would take a few more weeks. "This is one of these foundational priorities from my perspective that has to be done soon," Obama said, referring to energy legislation at a meeting of chief executives and other officials who make up part of his outside economic advisory board. The House of Representatives ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Unplugged
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/17/AR2010041702499.html
Washington Post: PRESIDENT OBAMA has called for 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on U.S. roads by the year 2015. This sounds ambitious, until you consider that there are 241 million vehicles in operation, according to the R.L. Polk automotive information service. Yet even Mr. Obama's modest goal -- boosting plug-ins' share from zero to less than half a percent of the huge U.S. auto fleet in five years -- is looking increasingly impractical and, for taxpayers, expensive. At least that's how we ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Feds weigh leasing changes over climate worries
http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/apArticle/id/D9F4TMEG2/
Associated Press: Climate change is prompting the federal government to increase its scrutiny of oil and gas lease sales on public lands _ a potential first step toward reining in greenhouse gas emissions from drilling. Under pressure from environmentalists, the Bureau of Land Management in recent weeks suspended or postponed the sale of almost 130,000 acres of leases in Montana and neighboring states. The agency plans over the next several months to craft a first-of-its kind analysis of ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
North Dakota steps up on energy
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/editorial/article_5dcb7364-4975-11df-bc4a-001cc4c002e0.html
Bismarck Tribune: If North Dakota expects carbon-based energy to continue to drive the state's economy, it needs to be aggressive in dealing with the national political and legal agendas of environmental groups. Along those lines, the North Dakota Industrial Commission made the right move in January when it gave Blaise Energy $375,000 in state research funds to figure out how to make better use of excess natural gas that surfaces in the drilling process. The obvious waste of energy in the flaring off ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Is deforestation rising or falling in the Amazon?
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0418-amazon_aug09-feb10.html
Mongabay: Last week Brazil's National Space Agency INPE reported a 51 percent drop in Amazon deforestation in the six months ended February 2010 compared with the year earlier period. But the seemingly happy news for environmentalists may be premature. Data from Imazon, an independent organization that aims to improve forest transparency through advanced analysis of satellite imagery and other tools, reveals a 23 percent increase during the period. Why does the data conflict? Carlos ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Microbes galore in seas; "spaghetti" mats Pacific
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63H1X520100418?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The ocean depths are home to myriad species of microbes, mostly hard to see but including spaghetti-like bacteria that form whitish mats the size of Greece on the floor of the Pacific, scientists said on Sunday. The survey, part of a 10-year Census of Marine Life, turned up hosts of unknown microbes, tiny zooplankton, crustaceans, worms, burrowers and larvae, some of them looking like extras in a science fiction movie and underpinning all life in the seas. "In no other realm of ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
British Airways launches volcanic ash test flight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100418/wl_uk_afp/icelandvolcanoaviationbritaincompanyba
Agence France-Presse: British Airways launched a test flight Sunday, with chief executive Willie Walsh on board, to check the volcanic ash cloud's impact on its planes, a spokeswoman told AFP. The plane took off from London Heathrow Airport for a two to three hour sortie westwards over Ireland and the Atlantic Ocean before returning to land at Cardiff, where there BA has an engineering and maintenance base. "The aircraft was airborne at 5:58 pm," the spokeswoman said. "The purpose of the ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Bolivia climate change talks to give poor a voice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/18/bolivia-climate-change-talks-cochabamba
Guardian: Rafael Quispe is gearing up for his trip. He packs a small leather bag, puts on his black poncho, an alpaca scarf sporting the rainbow-coloured, chequered Andean indigenous flag and his black hat. "This will be an important gathering, a very important gathering. It is about saving our Mother Earth, about saving nature," he says. Quispe, an Aymara indigenous leader, is heading for Bolivia's central city of Cochabamba for the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Kenya's farmers losing $1.3m a day in flights chaos
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/iceland-volcano-kenya-farmers
Guardian: Farmers in Kenya are dumping tonnes of vegetables and flowers destined for the UK, four days after the volcanic ash cloud over Europe grounded cargo shipments from Africa. Kenyan farms have laid off 5,000 staff, and growers have warned thousands more workers could be told to stay at home if flights did not resume by Tuesday, which would deal a serious blow to the country's economy. "We usually ship 10-15 tonnes of produce every day to different parts of the world and that's ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Major economies to delve into climate impasse
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100418/ts_alt_afp/unclimatewarmingus
Agence France-Presse: Representatives from the world's leading economies were to meet here Sunday to see if they can find common ground on climate change, as wide gaps divide the United States, China and other key nations. The US-led Major Economies Forum includes 17 countries responsible for the bulk of global emissions -- and excludes smaller nations such as Sudan whose firebrand negotiators held up sessions at December's much criticized Copenhagen summit. Most European delegations, who were to ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Australia: Nuclear power: no solution to climate change
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2010/834/42902
Green Left Weekly: On March 4, the first IQ² debate was held in Melbourne on the topic "Should Australia embrace nuclear power?". Arguing the pro-nuclear case, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation chair Ziggy Switzkowski and Erica Smyth, chair of uranium mining company Toro Energy were joined by NASA climate scientist James Hansen. One of the most outspoken voices on the dangers of human-induced climate change, Hansen argued for nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Feel free to doubt climate change: just don't deny it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/18/climate-change-east-anglia-report
Guardian: It was, by many accounts, the worst academic outrage of modern times. A host of emails, illegally obtained from the climate research unit at the University of East Anglia, "revealed" that researchers were manipulating data about global warming and were guilty of perpetrating "the worst scientific scandal of a generation". At least that is how many writers reacted to the news of the leaking of emails between unit leader Phil Jones and fellow researchers. Last week, however, they ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
The Future History of the Arctic by Charles Emmerson; After the Ice by Alun Anderson; True North by Gavi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/apr/18/future-history-arctic-true-north
Guardian: In his account of his travels to the far north, the ancient Greek explorer Pytheas recalled encountering a wall of ice and dense fog, probably in waters around Iceland. "There was no longer land or sea or air but a kind of substance concreted from all of these elements," he wrote, adding that the water now resembled a "sea-lung". The Future History of the Arctic by Charles Emmerson 432pp, The Bodley Head Ltd, £20.00 Buy The Future History of the Arctic at the Guardian ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
White honey grows scarce as bees abandon Ethiopia's parched peaks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/ethiopia-white-honey-shortage
Observer: The truffle of the apiary world – rare white honey from Ethiopia's highest peaks – is in danger of disappearing, according to beekeepers in the Tigray region. "No rain for the flowers,'' said Ashenaf Abera as he stood on his rocky, parched slope in the northern Ethiopian region whose famine inspired Bob Geldof to stage Live Aid in 1985. "The bees need high-altitude flowers for the white honey. When they cannot find them, they go to other plants and produce yellow honey.'' Abera is ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Avatar director James Cameron joins Amazon tribe's fight to halt giant dam
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/avatar-james-cameron-brazil-dam
Guardian: One by one, the tribal leaders of the Brazilian Xingu took to their feet, wearing yellow and red feather headdresses and clutching thick wooden clubs and spears. Having travelled for days to reach the gathering in the isolated village of Mrotidjam, the Xikrin Kayapó elders stepped forward to address their visitor, a man they knew simply as Camerón. "If they build this dam, our children will die," said one, his eyes painted a fiery red with seeds from the urucum tree. "There will be no ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
'No deliberate malpractice' in British climate row: review
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/no-deliberate-malpractice-in-british-climate-row-review-1947373.html
Agence France-Presse: A review of the work of one of the world's leading climate research centres, launched after a major scandal last year, concluded Wednesday there had been no deliberate scientific malpractice. The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) became embroiled in a worldwide row after more than 1,000 emails were hacked from the university's server and posted online. Sceptics claimed the messages showed evidence scientists were trying to exaggerate the case for global ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Bolivia: In Defence of Pachamama
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51070
Inter Press Service: Through their ancestral knowledge and traditions, indigenous peoples will make a unique and invaluable contribution to the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, which begins Monday, Apr. 19 in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba. Julio Quette of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB) told IPS that the 74 different indigenous groups who inhabit South America's Amazon region "have traditionally coexisted with nature ...
Mon, 19 Apr 10
Scientists Keep Close Eye On Volcano In Iceland
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126069561&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: SCOTT SIMON, host: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Travel across Europe is at a standstill for a third day after a volcanic eruption in Iceland has clouded the skies. Flights have been cancelled, airports closed, thousands of passengers stranded. Scientists in Iceland are keeping a close eye on a volcano that began erupting on Wednesday. Not only does the ash pose a risk for aircraft, but as NPR's Joe Palca reports, the eruption can cause serious ...
Sun, 18 Apr 10
Bunker mentality: the ultimate underground shelter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/apr/18/bunker-mentality-ultimate-underground-shelter
Guardian: Abandon any notion of surviving the apocalypse by doing anything as boringly obvious as running for the highest hill, or eating cockroaches. The American firm Vivos is now offering you the chance to meet global catastrophe (caused by terrorism, tsunami, earthquake, volcano, pole shift, Iran, "social anarchy", solar flare – a staggering list of potential world-murderers are considered) in style. Vivos is building 20 underground "assurance of life" resorts across the US, capable of ...
Sun, 18 Apr 10
Gore takes cash for water campaign from chemical firm
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gore-takes-cash-for-water-campaign-from-chemical-firm-1947723.html
Independent (UK): Al Gore, the self-styled squeakiest-clean and deepest-green politician in American history, has some explaining to do this weekend. His environmental organisation has taken money to raise awareness about the need for clean water from a controversial chemicals company involved in the aftermath of one of the world's worst pollution disasters. Dow Chemical, the US firm which now owns the leaking pesticides factory responsible for thousands of deaths in Bhopal, India, is sponsoring Life ...
Sun, 18 Apr 10
Is this the end of migration?
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/is-this-the-end-of-migration-1947724.html
Independent (UK): It's rained three times as much as usual this winter in Andalusia, and almost every day unemployed amateur ornithologist Javier Caracuel has walked past a disused mining tower in the decaying industrial town of Linares and looked up, expecting the pair of white storks that nest there to have migrated south. Yet despite the surrounding high noise levels -- the tower, some 10 metres high, is jammed between a school and a street clogged with traffic -- and Andalusia's wettest winter in ...
Sun, 18 Apr 10
US, China to see if climate gap can be bridged
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100417/pl_afp/unclimatewarminguschina
Agence France-Presse: Four months after the widely criticized Copenhagen summit, key nations including the United States and China are trying to find out if they can bridge wide gaps on climate change. Representatives of 17 major economies making up more than 80 percent of global emissions gather in Washington on Sunday to try to grope forward amid disputes on the shape of a future treaty on fighting climate change. It is not the first meeting since Copenhagen -- representatives in the nearly ...
Sun, 18 Apr 10
Reduction Arctic summer ice is source of great concern
http://www.nwcn.com/news/Reduction-Arctic-summer-ice-is-source-of-great-concern-91132679.html
Northwest Cable News: The University of Washington is one of the key institutions looking at what's happening to the Arctic, global warming and the rise in the oceans. When we think of NASA, we often think about space, but NASA is also behind the flights over the poles. It's called Operation IceBridge and the news this spring near the North Pole is not good. "The ice mass is decreasing. Both the Arctic sea-ice appears to be shrinking and thinning and the ice sheets are dropping in elevation," said ...
Sun, 18 Apr 10
Nuclear's fall - and rise
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303411604575168171976855444.html
Wall Street Journal: The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 confirmed many people's fears about the danger of nuclear power and led to expensive safety upgrades for planned and existing plants. A recession slashed demand for electricity, inflation made new nuclear plants more expensive and falling energy prices made nuclear power less competitive with other power sources. Then, in 1986, the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine killed at least 56 people directly and spread radiation throughout much of Europe. ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
United States: Ithaca College Dorms Deemed Energy Efficient
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/nyregion/17ithaca.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The Energy Star label, the federal government's nod of approval for energy-efficient products, usually calls to mind household appliances like refrigerators and air-conditioners. But at Ithaca College, a campus known for its embrace of all things sustainable, two dormitories proudly wear the Energy Star label, too. The Energy Star label, hanging here in Clarke Hall, represents the federal government's nod of approval for energy efficiency. The residence halls, Clarke and Hood, ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Amazon Dam Project Pits Economic Benefit Against Protection of Indigenous Lands
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/17/world/americas/17brazil.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The indigenous leaders had a plan. They would unite for a last, desperate stand against the mammoth dam threatening their lands in the Amazon, vowing to give their lives, if necessary, to prevent it from being built. "This will be our last cry for help,' said the chief of the Arara tribe, José Carlos Arara, after a meeting of leaders from 13 tribes last month. "We are not here to kill. We are here to defend our rights.' For a moment this week, it looked as if they had won an ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Iceland: Volcanic ash grounds flights across much of Europe
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E1TM20100417?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano spreading out across Europe is causing air travel chaos on a scale unseen since the September 11 attacks and costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars. The plume that floated through the upper atmosphere, where it could wreak havoc on jet engines and airframes, threw travel plans into disarray on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday Severe disruption of European air traffic was expected on Saturday, aviation officials said. ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Volcanic ash spreads high over Europe, Russia
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iceland_volcano_ash_cloud
Associated Press: A huge yet invisible cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland spread southward over Europe and eastward into Russia on Friday at the speed of a car in city traffic, meteorologists said. How far the volcanic ash spreads and when the microscopic dust will begin to disperse or settle on the ground depends entirely on two unpredictable events: How long the volcano beneath Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH'-plah-yer-kuh-duhl) glacier keeps pumping tons of dust into the air and what wind ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Experts differ on health risk of volcanic ash
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_he_me/eu_iceland_volcano_health
Associated Press: Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash from Iceland's volcano starts settling, the World Health Organization warned Friday as small amounts fell in Iceland, Scotland and Norway. WHO spokesman Daniel Epstein said the microscopic ash is potentially dangerous for people when it starts to reach the Earth because inhaled particles can enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems. "We're very concerned about it," Epstein said. "These particles when inhaled can reach the ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Iceland: Impact of volcanic ash surfacing for US businesses
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_bi_ge/us_volcano_business_impact
Associated Press: Overnight shipping, airlines and tourism were just some of the businesses that faced a second day of disruptions as a cloud of volcanic ash emanating from Iceland grounded thousands of flights to and from Europe. The airline industry is losing an estimated $200 million a day and delays and cancellations are expected to last at least through the weekend. The impact on businesses that depend on air freight to ship products to and from Europe was harder to quantify, but the world's two ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Flight disruptions in Europe get even worse
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_iceland_volcano
Associated Press: Thick drifts of volcanic ash blanketed parts of rural Iceland on Friday as a vast, invisible plume of grit drifted over Europe, emptying the skies of planes and sending hundreds of thousands in search of hotel rooms, train tickets or rental cars. Polish officials worried that the ash cloud could threaten the arrival of world leaders for Sunday's state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria in the southern city of Krakow. So far, President Barack Obama, Russian ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Factbox: Impact of volcanic ash cloud on Europe
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100416/ts_nm/us_europe_air_impact_standalone
Reuters: The volcanic ash cloud making much of northern Europe a no-fly zone has hurt the prices of airline stocks, paralyzed air cargo delivery and disrupted business and leisure travel. But analysts expect the overall economic impact to be minor, since the disruption appears unlikely to last continuously over a long period. HOW LONG WILL THE DISRUPTION LAST? This depends on how long the volcano under Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull glacier keeps erupting, whether it continues ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Road tax to reflect carbon emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/apr/17/road-tax-carbon-emissions
Guardian: Motorists already struggling with the highest ever petrol prices face increases in road tax this month that will see many buyers of new family cars paying £425 in car tax. Drivers of some two- to three-year-old petrol cars will now also have to pay significantly more to tax their car. Some luxury car buyers will pay £950. In 2008 Alistair Darling announced a radical overhaul of the vehicle excise duty regime to encourage the use of cars with low CO2 emissions. The changes came ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Best UK politician: Caroline Lucas
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/best-uk-politician-caroline-lucas-1945182.html
Independent (UK): Since 1997, Britain's emissions of warming gases have actually risen -- and if you factor in the emissions from goods now manufactured for us in China, they have risen dramatically. Very few politicians have been honest about the crisis we face, or demanded the swift transition to an economy powered by the power of the sun, the wind and the waves. Working on the inside, the Environment Secretary Ed Miliband has a strong claim to this award, often trying to drag other government departments ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Green house effect: Today's eco-homes not only have impeccable credentials - they look beautiful too
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/green-house-effect-todays-ecohomes-not-only-have-impeccable-credentials-ndash-they-look-beautiful-too-1944613.html
Independent (UK): For many architects, a rugged rock face might not seem like the perfect location for an energy-efficient, stylish house. Yet the architects of Villa Astrid, near Gothenburg in Sweden, have managed to create a striking two-storey family house which not only interacts dramatically with its surroundings but which also has impeccable eco-credentials. It was a challenge that the architects Wingardhs relished. They had to squeeze the house between two existing buildings at the same time as ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Malaysia: The need to switch to renewable energy
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/17/business/6064381&sec=business
Malaysian Star: Climate scientists have long warned us that global warming is accelerating due to the continuous rise of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide into the earth's atmosphere. Unless quick action is taken to reduce or stop such emissions, global temperatures will continue to rise, resulting in irreversible damage to our natural habitat. Josef-Fell ... 'There's a need to switch fast to renewable energy to mitigate the impact of rising fossil-fuel cost.' Many ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Iceland: Greens shouldn't blow their top over Eyjafjallajökull
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthcomment/geoffrey-lean/7599176/Greens-shouldnt-blow-their-top-over-Eyjafjallajokull.html
Telegraph: Radical greens -- who long ago picked on flying as the ultimate green sin -- may be raising a glass of organic elderberry wine to Eyjafjallajökull, if they can pronounce the Icelandic volcano's name on so heady a brew. But even if it has realised their dreams by grounding thousands of flights, they would be unwise to celebrate. Let's leave aside how counter-productive it has been to demonise air travel; most measures to save energy and combat global warming, such as insulating homes, ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Wyo. OK'ing uranium permits despite EPA concerns
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_bi_ge/wy_wyoming_uranium
Associated Press: The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is proceeding with permits to allow uranium developers to inject wastewater underground despite federal regulators' concerns. The department recently issued a draft permit to allow Ur Energy Inc. to operate five underground injection wells at the company's proposed Lost Creek uranium mine in Sweetwater County. The agency is accepting public comments on the draft permit through April 26. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Brazil: Judge overturns Amazon dam decision
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/7599000/Judge-overturns-Amazon-dam-decision.html
Telegraph: The judge in the capital of Brasilia reversed a decision to suspend contract bidding scheduled for next week and also overturned the suspension of the environmental license for the 11,000-megawatt Belo Monte dam, according to a statement from Brazil's solicitor general. A spokesman for Brazil's electricity regulator, known as Aneel, said that plans were being made to hold the auction as planned for Tuesday but that the latest decision could be appealed. She spoke on condition of ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Senate leader says no agreement on clean energy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_bi_ge/wi_xgr_wisconsin_clean_energy
Associated Press: A massive bill laying out sweeping renewable energy goals for Wisconsin could be in serious trouble as the legislative session winds down. Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said Friday he doesn't support the measure because he thinks it will raise utility rates. He said Senate leaders are still trying to reach a compromise, but he can't support anything that would raise people's electric bills. Rep. Spencer Black, a Madison Democrat and one of the bill's chief ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Google climate change chief wants price on carbon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/16/google-climate-chief-price-carbon
Grist: Google wants a price on carbon and wants it now -- both for lofty reasons like combating global warming, but also because it could be good for business. As the Senate inches closer to climate legislation that could give the Internet giant what it wants, I checked in with Dan Reicher, the director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google, to see what surfing the web had to do with reining in greenhouse gases. Turns out, the answer is technology. Reicher -- a former ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Solar-powered geese to tackle offshore wind risks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261451/tagged-geese-tackle-offshore
Business Green: Migrating geese at risk of crashing into offshore wind turbines have been tagged as part of a project designed to help guide the positioning of the UK's next wave of offshore wind farms. The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) has fitted five migrating barnacle geese with solar-powered GPS backpacks, which can store enough battery power to keep the device running at night. The data will show the birds' altitude and whether they spend time resting on the sea. It will then be used ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
How the volcano took out our fruit salad
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/16/fruit-salad-air-travel-volcano
Guardian: On the outskirts of Heathrow there is a multistorey warehouse that plays a remarkable role in the eating habits of millions of people. The British Airways perishables handling centre is the arrival point for 90,000 tonnes of airfreighted fresh produce a year: everything from chopped melon and pineapple fruit salads to baby sweetcorn and asparagus. Every day these once exotic items arrive in the belly of passenger jets from Africa and Asia, destined for the chilled aisles of supermarkets such ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
US climate bill to launch April 26
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261458/climate-bill-launch-april-26
Business Green: Hopes have been raised that the US could yet pass sweeping climate change legislation by the summer, after Capitol Hill sources yesterday revealed that the long-awaited compromise climate bill will be formally launched on April 26. The bill, which has been developed by Democrat senator John Kerry, Republican senator Lindsey Graham and independent senator Joseph Lieberman, has been expected for months and has faced repeated delays. However, in recent days there had been signs ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
World Bank issues latest round of green bonds
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261470/world-bank-releases-200m-green
Business Green: The World Bank yesterday issued its latest round of "green bonds", releasing a $200m fixed-rate bond designed to raise funds for investment in low carbon projects in developing countries. The four year bond were issued for the first time through the bank's subsidiary, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and will be managed by financial group SEB, which has worked closely with the World Bank on previous green bond issues. IFC vice president for Business Advisory ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
U.S. seeks climate ideas after Copenhagen fell short
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63F2Q520100416?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 asking for ideas about how to tackle global warming without raising expectations of breakthroughs in 2010 ahead of climate talks among the world's top emitters in Washington on Sunday. A document obtained by Reuters on Friday listing U.S. questions to delegates from 16 other major economies shows the two-day talks will focus on the fate of U.N. climate talks, the non-binding Copenhagen Accord and the Kyoto Protocol. It does not answer key questions such as ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
'Off-the-Charts' Pollen Counts Bring Misery to Millions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100416/hl_hsn/offthechartspollencountsbringmiserytomillions
HealthDay: A cold winter followed by a sudden and sustained warming trend, not to mention the botanical blossoming that global warming has brought, has boosted pollen counts to near-record highs across the United States this spring, experts say. All of that has led to one of the most miserable allergy seasons in recent memory for the 50 million Americans who find themselves suffering itchy eyes, runny noses and scratchy throats this time of year. "In Atlanta, we recently saw the second ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Peak Wood
http://www.independent.com/news/2010/apr/16/peak-wood/
Santa Barbara Independent: Today's sustainable energy advocates could learn a lot from studying the way ancient societies had to deal with the first global energy crisis: Peak Wood. The oil of its day, wood served as the principal fuel of our ancestors, who scoured the planet, fought wars, and exhausted their wealth to obtain it. The Romans, for example, delayed Peak Wood by expanding their empire into wood-rich areas like France, Spain, and Germany. The English did the same by colonizing North America. ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Canada's greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2008: official
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100416/sc_afp/climatewarmingcanadaenvironment
Agence France-Presse: Canada's greenhouse gas emissions fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2008, amid a global economic slump, the government said Thursday in a report to the United Nations. Canada's annual submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) showed CO2 emission fell 2.1 percent to 734 megatonnes, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said. He attributed the drop to the "slow-down in economic growth at the end of 2008," as well as greater "clean energy" ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E3Y220100416?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A thaw of Iceland's ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, scientists said on Friday. They said there was no sign that the current eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier that has paralysed flights over northern Europe was linked to global warming. The glacier is too small and light to affect local geology. "Our work suggests that eventually there will ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
United States: Symposium looks at coastal effects of climate change
http://www.theday.com/article/20100416/NWS01/304169901/1019&town=
The Day: Adapting to rising sea levels, more frequent and intense rainstorms, warmer temperatures and other effects of climate change would be costly, but inaction would be costlier. That was the point made by the panelists for "Staying Dry and Paying for It," a symposium Tuesday at the Avery Point campus of the University of Connecticut on the costs of coastal living in a changing climate. "It's pretty hard to armor the coast" against sea levels rising an average of 2.5 mm per year, ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
A radical climate solution goes mainstream
http://washingtonindependent.com/82450/a-radical-climate-solution-goes-mainstream
Washington Independent: The scientific consensus on geoengineering -- a manipulation of the environment to counteract climate change -- has come a long way in the past few years. As recently as 2006, it was unthinkable to many climate scientists that leaders in their field would seriously consider the idea of shooting reflective particles into the atmosphere or dumping massive quantities of iron into the oceans. "When I first started looking into this in 2006, it was like talking to an insurance salesman ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Philippines: Catastrophic aftermaths of climate change feared
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/252993/catastrophic-aftermaths-climate-change-feared
Manila Bulletin: An Australian executive has warned that climate change is a critical signal that every human being on Earth "must act now.' He raised this during the two-day "2010 Environment Building Community Resilience, Sustaining Development' meeting that ended Friday at a downtown hotel and convention center here. "We now live in the era known as the Anthropocene -- a word that clearly indicates that the primary factor affecting the Earth and all that is are the seven billion human beings ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Rush for REDD could undermine local forest rights
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE63F0SC20100416?sp=true
Reuters: A U.N.-backed forest preservation scheme could become too valuable and complex, raising the risk local communities, the very people seen as key to the scheme's success, could be shut out, scientists say. Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, or REDD, has already attracted billion of dollars of funding pledges from rich nations keen to see the scheme established as part of a broader global climate pact from 2013. REDD would allow developing nations to earn ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Carbon market to thrive despite political failings: EU
http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/57603
Reuters: The global carbon market will still have enough momentum to survive even if the international community fails to come up with a new deal to combat greenhouse gas emissions, a European policy coordinator said on Thursday. Jurgen Lefevere told a conference in Beijing the European Union was pushing forward with plans for an international carbon trading platform that could exist independently of any new global climate accord. "Even after the failure of Copenhagen, the EU is moving ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Canada: Protect us, not polar bears: Inuit officials
http://www.kelowna.com/2010/04/15/protect-us-not-polar-bears-inuit-officials/
CBC: Nunavut Inuit who do not want polar bears listed under Canada's Species at Risk Act say they should be the ones being protected from the Arctic bears. Speaking Wednesday before the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board (NWMB) in Iqaluit, Inuit elders and officials voiced their opposition to a proposal by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) to have the polar bear listed as a species of special concern in Canada. "We have to listen to our ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
United States: Tackle air pollution with greenhouse gases, report urges
http://www.insidebayarea.com/green-living/ci_14892673
Contra Costa Times: When Rachel Morello-Frosch, a UC Berkeley researcher, takes air samples inside homes near the Chevron refinery in Richmond, she finds significant levels of outdoor air pollutants. Some of the worst examples are tiny particles invisible to the naked eye, called particulate matter, which can embed in people's airways and cause a number of respiratory diseases linked to premature death. That's why she's pushing hard to make sure that the state's landmark climate law, Assembly Bill ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Australia: Saving $35 worth of carbon cost $104,000
http://www.smh.com.au/national/saving-35-worth-of-carbon-cost-104000-20100415-shsr.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE NSW government spent $104,000 from its Climate Change Fund to save a single tonne of carbon dioxide - worth about $35 under international carbon prices - the fund's annual report shows. The money, to renovate a building at Sylvania Public School so it used less electricity, was spent on one in a series of projects that appear not to match the Climate Change Fund's main objective: cutting carbon emissions. More than half the 26 public projects funded in the 2008-09 financial ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
United States: Governor urges climate consensus
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/24688757-57/climate-kulongoski-oregon-energy-governor.csp
Register-Guard: At a Eugene lecture on climate change on Wednesday, Gov. Ted Kulongoski sought to sidestep skeptics by framing the discussion around energy independence and social equity. If there`s consensus on anything, the governor said, it`s that ending the country`s reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels is good for the economy and the environment. The two-term Democrat spoke at the University of Oregon as part of an ongoing lecture series sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Oceans' saltiness reaching extremes
http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans-saltier-salinity-warming.html
Discovery News: The supercharging of weather patterns by global warming is making some parts of Earth's oceans much saltier while others parts are getting fresher. Global warming has ramped up the planetary water cycle since records began in 1950. The salinity of different parts of the oceans serves as a rain gauge for researchers. An army of 3,200 autonomous ARGO buoys gathered data used in this study. The supercharging of Earth's water cycle by global warming is already making ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Iceland volcano unlikely to slow global warming: Scientists
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Volcano%20unlikely%20slow%20global%20warming/2914585/story.html
Agence France-Presse: Big volcanic eruptions have had a cooling effect on Earth's climate, but the Icelandic event is too small to provide any such respite from manmade global warming, scientists said on Friday. The benchmark cooling event of the past 20 years was in 1991, when Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines. It cooled Earth's surface by 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) over the next year, enough to offset the impact of greenhouse gases from 1991 to 1993. A smaller ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Sun shines on US renewable energy industry
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261492/sun-shines-renewable-energy
Business Green: The US solar energy industry has become the latest renewable energy sector to report impressive growth figures for 2009, further underlining the extent to which clean tech industries have defied the economic downturn. According to new figures from the Solar Energies Industry Association (SEIA) released yesterday as part of the trade association's annual report, the amount of installed solar capacity in the US grew 37 per cent last year to 2,108MW. Solar industry revenue ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
"Missing" Heat May Affect Future Climate Change
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/04/16/missing-heat-may-affect-future-climate-change.html
U.S. News and World Report: Current observational tools cannot account for roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on Earth in recent years, according to a "Perspectives' article in this week's issue of Science. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) warn in the new study that satellite sensors, ocean floats, and other instruments are inadequate to track this "missing' heat, which may be building up in the deep oceans or elsewhere in the climate system. "The heat ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Brazilian judge halts Amazon dam construction
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/brazilian-judge-halts-amazon-dam-construction-1947001.html
Agence France-Presse: A Brazilian judge has cancelled the tender process for construction of the world's third biggest hydroelectric dam in the Amazon jungle and suspended a preliminary license issued for the site. In his decision, handed down late Wednesday, Judge Antonio Almeida Campel upheld a request from the Federal Public Ministry in Para state seeking to have authorizations to build the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River withdrawn. The dam's hydroelectric production capacity of 11,000 ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Sigourney Weaver takes fighting spirit from Avatar to Amazon
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100416/en_afp/environmentusbrazilpeopleavatarweaver
Agence France-Presse: When Sigourney Weaver wrapped up her role as a feisty environmentalist in James Cameron's blockbuster movie "Avatar," the US actress teamed up with Cameron again -- to save the Amazon. Once the movie was out in cinemas, Cameron, Weaver, and actor Joel David Moore -- who played Norm in "Avatar" -- travelled to Brazil on a fact-finding mission to see for themselves exactly what the impact of a project to build a massive dam on a tributary of the Amazon River would be. They ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
Congress worked out health care. Is climate change next?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041505755.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post: Six weeks ago, it looked as if there was no chance that Congress would approve climate change legislation this year. The bill that had passed the House was so long, so complicated, so punitive to the coal-dependent Midwest economy, involved so many political compromises and so much money to be redistributed by the federal government, that it became the whipping boy of choice for conservative politicians and commentators. Passage of health-care legislation, however, may have ...
Sat, 17 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Green manifesto shifts Lucas to left
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-manifesto-shifts-lucas-to-left-1946383.html
Independent (UK): Well, you can't say they're not different. The Green Party launched a manifesto yesterday, openly promising to take quite enormous sums from the rich and hand them over to the poor. The party that for the past 20 years has put the planet first has found a fierce new focus to sit alongside its environmental concern: social justice and inequality. Yesterday it set out an eye-popping programme of redistributive taxation that would have been considered radical even by Old Labour at its ...
Fri, 16 Apr 10
China shift to low-carbon model vital for future: U.N
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E0M320100415
Reuters: China should step up its drive to a low-carbon growth model to maintain economic development and preserve achievements that have made it the world's third largest economy, a United Nations report says. The report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released on Thursday says China's current growth model will be hard to sustain as the nation becomes more urbanized and the economy keeps expanding, consuming ever more amounts of energy. China is already the world's ...
Fri, 16 Apr 10
Indonesia to revise REDD profit shares
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1964
Carbon Positive: The regulation of the emerging REDD+ carbon market in Indonesia is in limbo amid an internal government disagreement, while controversial plans to loosen the country's definition of a forest in favour of palm oil have been dropped. REDD+ is the acronym given to a global initiative that would see developed countries pay developing nations to preserve and restore their forests, the loss of which is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions said to be driving global ...
Fri, 16 Apr 10
EU carbon allowances break €14 price barrier
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261350/eu-carbon-allowances-break-14
Business Green: The price of carbon in the EU emissions trading scheme hit a record high for the year yesterday, breaking through the EUR14 (£12.36) a tonne mark for the first time since the week before December's Copenhagen summit. The failure of the summit to deliver an international deal led the price of carbon to fall back and prices have been locked in a narrow range of between EUR12 and EUR13.50 a tonne since the start of the year. However, the price of EU allowances (EUAs) for delivery ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Allergies Worse Than Ever? Blame Global Warming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100414/hl_time/08599198203300
Time Magazine: Allergy sufferers like to claim - in between sniffles - that each spring's allergy season is worse than the last. But this year, they might actually be right. Thanks to an unusually cold and snowy winter, followed by an early and warm spring, pollen counts are through the roof in much of the U.S., especially in the Southeast, which is already home to some of the most allergenic cities in the country. A pollen count - the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air - of 120 is ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
West Virginia Governor Orders All Mines Inspected
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125998771&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin on Wednesday ordered the immediate inspection of all underground coal mines in the state after an explosion last week killed 29 miners and injured two. Manchin also asked for the state's more than 200 underground coal mines to cease production Friday to mourn the victims of the nation's worst coal mining disaster in 40 years. "I don't know any better way to honor the miners we've lost and the families who are grieving so much," Manchin said. The ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Sun's magnetic field may have caused freezing winter
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/suns-magnetic-field-may-have-caused-freezing-winter-1945362.html
Independent (UK): It was the coldest winter in England since 1963 -- the coldest in Scotland since 1914 -- and weeks of ice, snow and sub-zero temperatures from last December to March defied predictions by climate-change scientists of milder, wetter winters. So what happened? One theory suggests that last winter's cold temperatures were part of a pattern that is set to continue because of a complex interaction between the Sun's magnetic field and the high-altitude jet stream which dominates Britain's ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Climate row: backing for scientists
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-row-backing-for-scientists-1945360.html
Independent (UK): A distinguished panel of independent scientists has given a resounding vote of confidence in the credibility and integrity of the key studies into climate change that have emerged over the past 20 years from the embattled Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. The panel, chaired by Lord Oxburgh, a geologist and former rector of Imperial College London, was asked to review the scientific papers and methodology of the CRU following the theft of university emails, ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: 'I hope I go back to prison': Meet Britain's most arrested anti-nuclear weapons activist
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/i-hope-i-go-back-to-prison-meet-britains-most-arrested-antinuclear-weapons-activist-1945247.html
Independent (UK): Softly spoken, unassuming and contemplative, Marcus Armstrong doesn't look like an ex-convict. And the father-of-three certainly doesn't appear the type of man to execute daring waterborne night-time nuclear base infiltrations. As for spray painting graffiti on the side of heavily armed Trident submarines -- surely not? In fact, Armstrong, 49, is one of the country's most prolific anti-nuclear protesters. A member of the pressure group Trident Ploughshares, he has spent 22 years as a ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Sun activity link to cold winters
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8615789.stm
BBC: The UK and continental Europe could be gripped by more frequent cold winters in the future as a result of low solar activity, say researchers. They identified a link between fewer sunspots and atmospheric conditions that "block" warm, westerly winds reaching Europe during winter months. But they added that the phenomenon only affected a limited region and would not alter the overall global warming trend. The findings appear in the journal Environmental Research ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
While US breaks ground on CCS demonstration plant, World Bank shocks globe with huge loan to carbon emitter
http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2010/US_CCS_and_World_Bank
Bellona: The US Department of Energy, in cooperation with Alabama Power and Southern Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., the Electric Power Research Institute and other institutes will finally break ground today after several delays on a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration unit in the United States. Charles Digges, 14/04-2010 The demonstration unit will capture CO2 emissions from the Barry Electric Generating Plant, or Plant Barry, and will be the largest such demonstration ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Greens launch NAFTA action on Canada oil sands
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63D3BN20100414?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Environmental groups launched a complaint against Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement Wednesday, saying the country has failed to enforce anti-pollution rules governing its vast oil sands. In the latest move in a long-running campaign to highlight the impact of oil sands development, the submission by Environmental Defense Canada, Natural Resources Defense Council and three citizens charges that toxic tailings ponds are being allowed to leak and contaminate ground ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Climate scientists at East Anglia University cleared by inquiry
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7097234.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): Climate scientists at the centre of the row over stolen e-mails acted with integrity and made no attempt to manipulate their research on global temperatures, an external inquiry has found. Their research was, however, misrepresented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which failed to reflect uncertainties the scientists had reported concerning the raw temperature data. An inquiry panel of leading scientists, nominated by the Royal Society, said that the University ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Farmers on Fringe of Intl Agriculture Policy?
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51036
Inter Press Service: How's this for short-sighted: A billion people go hungry every day, food prices have climbed 30 to 40 percent, climate change is reducing agricultural production - and for the past two decades, the world has slashed investments in publicly-funded agriculture until it is a pittance in most countries. "Moral outrage is needed. We must abolish this... It can be done. It must be done," Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt and a former World Bank economist, told ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Canada: Environmental groups launch oil sands trade complaint
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100414/wl_canada_afp/canadausoilenergyenvironmentnaftamexico
Agence France-Presse: Canadian and US environmental groups, as well as citizens, on Wednesday launched a NAFTA complaint alleging Ottawa is not enforcing its own rules by allowing oil sands miners to pollute area waterways. Their submission calls for Ottawa to enforce its fisheries act, which prohibits leaking "deleterious substances" into fish habitats. Failure to enforce environmental regulations, they argue, is equivalent to a subsidy, which is prohibited under the North American Free Trade ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Review panel clears researchers in 'Climategate' controversy
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-climate-data15-2010apr15,0,2362878.story?track=rss
LA Times: Reporting from London Climate change researchers accused of manipulating or hiding data in last year's "Climategate" affair were guilty of sloppy record-keeping but not bad science, an independent panel in Britain concluded Wednesday. Allegations that the researchers deliberately misrepresented data to promote the idea of human-caused global warming rocked the scientific community in November, just as world leaders were preparing for an international environmental summit. The ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Sinking Island Highlights Effects of Climate Change
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/environment/Sinking-Island-Highlights-Effects-of-Climate-Change--90848704.html
Voice of America: Our planet is warming. Average global temperatures have climbed about one degree Celsius since the last century, and at an accelerated rate in recent decades. And scientists believe the global warming trend is responsible for an increased severity of droughts, floods, and storms across the globe, and slowly rising ocean levels. The serious consequences of earth's changing climate are the subject of three new documentary films, funded in part by the Pulitzer Center on ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Liberia to Submit REDD Readiness Plans
http://www.liberianobserver.com/node/5683
Liberian Observer: On Friday, April 3, 2010, several Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and donor partners including the World Bank and the United Sates Agency for International Development (USAID) gathered at a workshop organized by the Action Against Climate Change (AACC) Liberia. It was organized under the theme, Building Capacity within Civil Society to Participate in Policy Dialogue on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in Liberia. The Government of Liberia is now ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Climate change could raise cost of U.S. allergies
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100414/hl_nm/us_cost_allergies
Reuters: Climate change could push the cost of U.S. allergies and asthma beyond the current $32 billion annual price tag, conservation and health groups reported on Wednesday. A warming planet makes for longer growing seasons that would produce more allergy-provoking pollen in much of the heavily populated eastern two-thirds of the United States, the National Wildlife Federation and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America said in their report. The cost of coping with allergies and ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
UK inquiry clears climate scientists in email row
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63D2S920100414?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: An inquiry cleared British climate researchers of wrongdoing on Wednesday after their emails were hacked, leaked and held up by skeptics as evidence they had exaggerated the case for man-made global warming. Former government adviser Ronald Oxburgh, who chaired the panel, said he had found no evidence of scientific malpractice or attempts to distort the facts to support the mainstream view that manmade CO2 emissions contribute to rising temperatures. The affair stoked the ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Climategate scientists chastised over statistics
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18776-climategate-scientists-chastised-over-statistics.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: If the beleaguered climate scientists of the University of East Anglia have a weakness, it is in their statistics "" yet their conclusions that the planet is warming stands on solid ground. That's the conclusion of the third independent inquiry into "climategate" "" the fallout from last November's release of hundreds of emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the university, which is located in Norwich, UK. Crucially for the scientists who work at the CRU, the inquiry ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Report assesses impact of South Dakota pipeline
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100414/ap_on_bi_ge/sd_transcanada_pipeline
Associated Press: A federal report concludes there would be limited impact to the environment if the TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline is built and operated according to existing regulations and the company's written plan. The buried 36-inch-diameter pipeline across six states would carry crude oil from tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta to refineries in Oklahoma and Texas. The draft environmental impact statement issued by the U.S. State Department will be subject to a 45-day comment period ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Chinese solar firms underpin expansion with multibillion dollar loans
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261332/chinese-solar-firms-underpin
Business Green: Two of China's leading solar panel manfacturers have reportedly signed deals with the government-backed China Development Bank that could give them access to a total of 80bn yuan ($11.72bn). Citing comments from company officials, Reuters reported earlier today that Suntech Power Holdings and Trina Solar have both signed framework agreements with the bank that will allow them to take out multibillion dollar loans over the next five years. Rory Macpherson, Suntech's director for ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
New Zealand: To stay and fight, or retreat
http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/dunedin/101552/to-stay-and-fight-or-retreat
Otago Daily Times: Differing views have emerged on the possibility of saving low-lying areas in southern Dunedin from sea-level rise. Consulting engineer Dave Tucker yesterday said engineering solutions were available to deal with the issue, while Sustainable Dunedin co-chairman Phillip Cole, also an engineer, said a retreat from the area was inevitable. A report released on Monday identified South Dunedin, St Kilda and St Clair as "hot spots" vulnerable to what could be a 1.6m rise in sea levels ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Senators consider gasoline tax as part of climate bill
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gas-tax14-2010apr14,0,5207349.story
LA Times: Reporting from Washington Leading voices in the Senate are considering a new tax on gasoline as part of an effort to win Republican and oil industry support for the energy and climate bill now idling in Congress. The tax, which according to early estimates would be in the range of 15 cents a gallon, was conceived with the input of several oil companies, including Shell, BP and ConocoPhillips, and is being championed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It is ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
UN climate project to help Kenya control malaria spread
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/60167/2010/03/14-082606-1.htm
Reuters: As rising temperatures encourage the spread of malaria to Kenya's highland regions, the east African nation is taking part in the first international project to help public health systems cope with the impacts of climate change. Rising cases of malaria in areas where it used to be rare are causing alarm among health officials, according to Kepha Ombacho, head of Kenya's Division of Environmental Health. He says the incidence of vector-borne diseases like malaria, leishmaniasis ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Calif. climate law could help poor, minority areas
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/14/financial/f050017D69.DTL&type=business
San Francisco Chronicle: California's attempt to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions can have additional benefits for poor and minority communities long plagued by dirty air if state regulators take their needs into account, according to a report released Wednesday. The findings by professors at three California universities found that oil refineries, power plants and cement kilns, which are among the state's most prolific emitters of greenhouse gases, also release other chemicals that threaten public ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Voluntary CO2 offset market lift depends on firms
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63C3NB20100413
Reuters: The voluntary carbon credit market could experience another quiet quarter if corporate spending on social responsibility does not pick up. Traditionally, the second quarter is stronger than the first but the voluntary market has suffered in the past year from the economic downturn as corporates cut spending on social responsibility. The market relies on businesses to self-regulate their carbon emissions in the absence of a legally-binding climate pact and individual consumers ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Nuclear ambitions pose company risk, public costs
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63C2YG20100413
Reuters: European investors and consumers take note: plans by power companies to cut carbon emissions with a new range of nuclear power stations are a big gamble for companies and joe public will have to foot the bill. Britain, Italy and Finland plan to decide this year on strategies to rebuild their collection of nuclear reactors, while Sweden will decide after its general election whether to allow new nuclear power plants. But claims such as the British government's that companies ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Wal-Mart pulls a long supply chain toward sustainability
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/14/14climatewire-wal-marts-chairman-pulls-a-long-supply-chain-93984.html
ClimateWire: If a single executive at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. deserves the lion's share of credit for the company's recent drift into corporate sustainability, most agree it is Lee Scott, CEO of the largest retailer on the planet from 2000 to 2009. Scott, now the chairman of Wal-Mart, has been praised by many for sparking a cultural overhaul at the big-box chain that resulted most recently in a voluntary commitment to slash 20 million metric tons of carbon emissions from its global supply chain by ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United States: Climate change blamed as coastal whale migration dwindles
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/apr/13/climate-change-blamed-as-coastal-whale-migration/
Ventura County Star: Michael Smith scanned the horizon, searching for the telltale sign that a whale and her youngster were near. With his powerful binoculars trained on the sea, Smith stood atop a cliff and looked up and down the Santa Barbara coast, hoping to spot a plume of water rising up from the diamonds of sun bouncing off the ocean. This is the time of year that mother gray whales shepherd their young up the coastline as they make their long journey from the birth waters in Mexico to the feeding ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: 'Climategate' scientists criticised for not using best statistical tools
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7589715/Climategate-scientists-criticised-for-not-using-best-statistical-tools.html
Telegraph: An independent inquiry said the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia was "ill prepared for being the focus of public attention" when sceptics began to question their figures on climate change. As well as taking issue with the researchers' record keeping, the panel of experts said better statistical methods should have been used to interpret the "messy" data on world temperatures. "We found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganised researchers ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Australia: Two Chinese merchant officers charged with damaging Great Barrier Reef
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/14/great-barrier-reef-ship-charges
Guardian: The captain and a senior officer of a Chinese coal carrier that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef nearly two weeks ago have been arrested and charged with damaging the protected site. They are expected to appear in court in Gladstone, Queensland, tomorrow. The 47-year-old master of the Shen Neng 1 is charged with liability for damage and could face a maximum fine of A$55,000 (£33,250). The 44-year-old chief officer is accused of being in charge of the vessel during the grounding ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Some 'Energy Star' Appliances May Not Be That Green
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125912545&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: At tax time, many consumers are cashing in on tax credits and rebates that come from making their homes more energy-efficient. One key tactic: Buy an appliance approved by the government's Energy Star program. But there is evidence that products with the Energy Star seal don't always live up to their billing. "We find that not all of the products are as efficient as they claim to be," says Celia Kuperszmid-Lehrman, deputy home editor for Consumer Reports. The tax benefits are ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Australia: Great Barrier Reef oil spill hits nature sanctuary
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100414/wl_asia_afp/australiachinashippingenvironment
Agence France-Presse: Oil from a huge Chinese ship which ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef has washed up at a famed nature sanctuary, officials said Wednesday, raising fears for birds and baby turtles. Clean-up crews and environmental experts were helicoptered to North West Island, a breeding site for hundreds of thousands of seabirds and turtles, where small clumps of oil were found on a beach. The 230-metre (750-foot) Shen Neng 1 leaked about two tonnes of oil after blundering into the reef on ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
United Kingdom: 'No malpractice' by climate unit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8618024.stm
BBC: There was no scientific malpractice at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, which was at the centre of the "Climategate" affair. This is according to an independent panel chaired by Lord Oxburgh, which was convened to examine the research published by the unit. It began its review after e-mails from CRU scientists were published online. The panel said it might be helpful if researchers worked more closely with professional statisticians. This ...
Thu, 15 Apr 10
Indonesia: Govt drops designating plantations as forests
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/14/govt-drops-designating-plantations-forests.html
Jakarta Post: The forestry ministry dropped its controversial initiative to classify oil palm plantations as forests after strong protests from environmental activists on fears that it would speed up deforestation. The statement was made by the ministry's head of research and development Tachrir Fathoni on the sidelines of a seminar on Indonesian forestry following the Copenhagen climate talks. "We have dropped it. No more talk about it," he told reporters on Tuesday. He said the ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Australia: Great Barrier Reef could take 20 years to recover from grounding
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/great-barrier-reef-could-take-20-years-to-recover-from-grounding-1944008.html
Independent (UK): A coal carrier, which ran aground and leaked oil on the Great Barrier Reef, cut a two-mile-long scar into the shoal and may have smeared paint which will prevent marine life from growing back, it was revealed yesterday. Even if severe toxic contamination is not found at the site, initial assessments by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority indicate it could take 20 years for the world's largest coral reef to recover. The marine park authority's chief scientist, David ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Some Republicans say open to climate bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/13/AR2010041303673.html
Reuters: Some prominent Republican senators expressed openness on Tuesday to a U.S. climate change bill that might be introduced next week and that would need bipartisan support to have any chance of advancing. Senator Lamar Alexander, a member of the Republican leadership in the Senate, praised the sector-by-sector approach in a compromise bill aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. "I think a sector-by-sector approach makes ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
India: 'Only serving government officials on climate talks team'
http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/14/stories/2010041465321500.htm
Hindu: India's climate change negotiating team will consist of only serving government officials from now on, if Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has his way. In recent years, retired civil servants have been key negotiators in international climate change talks, with the former diplomat, Chandrasekhar Dasgupta, and the former Environment Secretary, Prodipto Ghosh, seen as the most experienced members of the team. Mr. Ramesh has made no secret of his ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
US Senators to unveil climate bill next week
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100413/pl_afp/usclimatepoliticssenate
Agence France-Presse: The US Senate's two principal authors of legislation to battle climate change said Tuesday they were putting the last touches on their bill and hoped to unveil it next week. "I feel very optimistic about the progress that we're making. I think that folks are coming together, but there are still some hurdles," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry, a Democrat. Asked when he and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham would make the measure public, Kerry replied: ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Salazar unveils Arctic drilling research plan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_bi_ge/us_arctic_offshore_drilling
Associated Press: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says government scientists have until Oct. 1 to determine what research gaps remain in determining the effects of offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic Ocean. Salazar said Tuesday that the U.S. Geological Survey will examine research already done on the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Then they'll decide what still needs to be studied to better determine the environmental effects of drilling and challenges from the climate change that has stressed ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
$6B forest conservation plan lacking in transparency, indigenous participation, say activists
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0413-paris-oslo_process.html
Mongabay: The process to establish REDD+, a proposed climate change mitigation mechanism that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by funding conservation and sustainable management of tropical forests (REDD+), is lacking in transparency and failing to include civil society organizations and indigenous peoples, say activists across forty NGOs. On Tuesday, organizations led by the Rainforest Foundation UK, Friends of the Earth (USA & France), Global Witness and The Wilderness Society issued a ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Norway, UAE to explore renewable energy sources
http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-88807.html
Indo-Asian News Service: Norway and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will work jointly in the field of renewable energy to achieve sustainable development. Norwegian Deputy Petroleum and Energy Minister Robin Kass made the remarks during an interview with WAM on the occasion of the visit of Crown Prince of Norway to UAE. UAE has taken a very important step to generate electricity through nuclear power, Kass said, adding that this strategic decision will help meet the rapidly growing demand for energy in ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
EU Climate Plan Is Achievable, Can Cut Energy Bills
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aI9HMuolOcaQ&pid=20601087
Bloomberg: Europe can cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent and reduce its energy bill by 350 billion euros ($476 billion) a year by 2050 if it acts within five years, according to the European Climate Foundation. The 27-nation European Union is poised to lower carbon- dioxide discharges by 20 percent in this decade from 1990 levels and aims to reduce pollution by 80 percent to 95 percent in the next four decades. The goal is reachable, and zero-carbon electricity can be provided as ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Report: 'green economy' to save EU households 2,000 dollars a year
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/318448,report-green-economy-to-save-eu-households-2000-dollars-a-year.html
Deutsche Presse-Agentur: Households in the European Union are set to save around 2,000 dollars a year each if targets to reduce greenhouse emissions by 80-95 per cent by 2050 are met, an environmental think tank claimed Tuesday. In a report launched in Brussels, the European Climate Foundation (ECF) said that "achieving at least 80-per-cent reduction in 2050 based on zero carbon power generation in Europe is technically feasible and makes compelling economic sense." The paper found that by investing in ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Hollywood stars join politicians at Bolivia's 'cool' global warming summit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/13/bolivia-climate-summit
Guardian: In what is becoming the hippest environment meeting of the year, presidents, politicians, intellectuals, scientists and Hollywood stars will join more than 15,000 indigenous people and thousands of grass roots groups from more than 100 countries to debate climate change in one of the world's poorest nations. The World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth which opens next week in the small Bolivian town of Cochabamba, will have no direct bearing on the ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
United Kingdom: At least 10% of new homes fail energy efficiency test
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/13/homes-fail-energy-efficiency-standards
Guardian: At least one in 10 new homes in Britain do not meet legal requirements for energy efficiency, condemning tens of thousands of householders to higher energy bills, and exacerbating climate change. The government has identified improving households' energy efficiency as the best way to reduce carbon emissions at the same time as keeping a lid on rising utility bills. Since April 2008, all new homes have had to meet tough standards on draught proofing, lighting and heating. All ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Ethanol doubles its efforts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100413/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ethanol_s_changing_clout
Associated Press: Is corn-based ethanol fuel the wave of the future, creating domestic jobs and vital to the nation's energy supply? Or is it a taxpayer boondoggle responsible for higher food prices? For some in Washington, the answers to those questions have changed. For years, ethanol fuel derived from corn was almost politically untouchable, thanks to powerful advocates on Capitol Hill. The ethanol industry has consequently exploded over the last decade, thanks to government subsidies and ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Peruvian glacier split triggers deadly tsunami
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/13/peru-glacier-ice-lake-tsunami
Guardian: A massive ice block broke from a glacier and crashed into a lake in the Peruvian Andes, unleashing a 23-metre tsunami and sending muddy torrents through nearby towns, killing at least one person. The chunk of ice, estimated at the size of four football pitches, detached from the Hualcan glacier near Carhuaz, about 200 miles north of the capital, Lima, on Sunday. It plunged into a lagoon known as lake 513, triggering a tsunami that breached 23 metre (75ft) high levees and damaged ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
China plans to curb foreign investment in polluting sectors
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100413/sc_afp/chinabusinessinvestmentenvironment
Agence France-Presse: China said Tuesday it planned to curb foreign investment in polluting sectors and instead direct it into high technology and new energy. The State Council, the nation's cabinet, said in guidelines on its website that it aimed to "seriously restrict (foreign investment) in high energy, highly polluting... projects". It added that foreign investment in "high-end manufacturing, high-technology and service industries, and new energy and energy-saving environmental sectors" should ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
UK faces court action over planning law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/13/eu-environment-commissioner-janez-potocnik
Guardian: Europe's new environment commissioner is threatening to take Britain to court over its allegedly undemocratic system for challenging planning decisions. Janez Potocnik said he had issued a "final warning" to Britain, which had agreed to new rules but not implemented them. "All national governments signed up to these regulations and it is in everyone's interests that the quality of life in a country is preserved. If anyone thinks we are happy with infringements then they are terribly ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Quick fix for coal mine methane emissions
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413122617.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: A new methane burner, developed at the University of Sydney and under consideration by mining companies, has potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from underground coal mines by almost 90 per cent. The process of mining coal accounts for about six per cent of methane emissions caused by human activity, says Associate Professor Andrew Harris from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the University's Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies. If ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Water Shortage Calls for Second Look at Indus Treaty
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51020
Inter Press Service: Climate change and the probability that a current water shortage would worsen may make constantly bickering neighbours, India and Pakistan, take a closer look at a 50-year-old treaty under which they share rivers originating from the Himalayas. And while the latest official annual meeting regarding the treaty ended inconclusively in Lahore in March, experts say the two countries would do well to keep talking about the water resources they share. Danish Mustafa, a water ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
U.S. to host Western Hemisphere clean energy meet
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63C4IC20100413?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Government ministers from more than 30 countries in the Americas will meet in Washington this week for a two-day conference as part of an Obama administration effort to boost cooperation on energy security and climate change. The conference is supposed to build on the goals of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas that was launched by President Barack Obama and leaders of other countries one year ago. "We are looking for action, not just talk," said David Sandalow, ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Guyana: Illegality in forestry sector significant -study finds
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/stories/04/12/illegality-in-forestry-sector-significant-study-finds/
Stabroeck News: There is a "significant" level of illegality in Guyana's forestry sector though it is lower than in several other major tropical timber producing countries in South America and around the world, according to a study commissioned by Norway's Ministry of the Environment. The study, 'Forest Law Enforcement and Governance and Forest Practices in Guyana,' was done by Iwokrama and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). It said that Guyana, like many less-developed ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Biomass boom threatens UK wood chip shortage
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261205/biomass-boom-threatens-fuel
Business Green: The rising demand for fuel from large-scale biomass energy plants could leave the UK reliant on imports of wood chips and pellets for the first time, according to a new report from the Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor) released late last week. The study, titled Wood Fibre Availability and Demand in Britain 2007-2025, predicts that plans to build a new wave of biomass power plants means that demand for wood chips and pellets is likely to exceed domestic supply by ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
India: 'Rising temperatures can set Bangalore on fire'
http://www.ndtv.com/news/cities/rising-temperatures-can-set-bangalore-on-fire-19886.php
NDTV: If experts from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) are to be believed, the soaring temperature in Bangalore can result some more sweltering days in the near future. The rising heat may lead to natural fire breakouts, thus adding to the incessant fire accidents in Bangalore, cautioned IISc experts during the recently concluded study on climate change in city. Dr T A Ramachandra, a member of Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, IISc, said, ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
India: Agartala to be solar city
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=apr1310/oth05
Press Trust of India: Aiming at making the State capital a solar city, the Tripura Government is preparing a report to make mandatory the use of this alternate form of energy. "We have decided to make solar energy provision mandatory in buildings to make Agartala a solar city to keep it free from environmental pollution," Tripura Science, Technology and Environment Minister, Joy Gobinda Debroy said. The present building rules would be changed to make use of solar energy mandatory in buildings to ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
India: Climate change debate hots up
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Climate-change-debate-hots-up/articleshow/5790026.cms
Times of India: For the second day in a row, Delhi continued to sizzle under a sweltering 41.6 degree Celsius, six degrees above normal, making Monday the hottest April 12 in the past five years. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claims that a rising trend in temperatures not only in the country but across the world "" in India, 2009 was the warmest year ever recorded while March 2010 was the second hottest March since 1900 "" strongly suggested that this was the influence of climate ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Arctic oil drilling threatens Norway government
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63C2S820100413?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A classic battle pitting the oil industry against environmentalists and fishermen in Norway's Arctic seas is set to intensify on Thursday when the most thorough environmental study of the project to date is released. Extracting oil from the chilly waters off the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands is so divisive it could wreck the ruling Labour Party's coalition in this Nordic state that is the world's fifth largest oil and third largest gas exporter but also sees itself as a leader in ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
White House hints that it is gearing up for climate bill fight
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261242/white-house-hints-gearing
Business Green: In a clear signal that the White House is preparing to turn its attention from healthcare reform to climate change legislation, one of president Obama's top advisors launched an impassioned call for the US to embrace low-carbon policies last week. Speaking at a Washington energy conference, Larry Summers, head of the White House's National Economic Council, warned the long-term economic health of the US would be jeopardised if it failed to pass ambitious climate change ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Europe Is Urged to Share Clean Power Across Borders
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/business/global/13grid.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Renewable energy in Europe should be generated and distributed on a continental scale to make the greatest contribution toward reducing greenhouse gases, according to a report that raises significant challenges for a fragmented region. The report, to be released Tuesday, was compiled by the European Climate Foundation, a group financed by philanthropic organizations, using studies carried out by McKinsey, a consulting firm. Among its recommendations is a gigantic power cable ...
Wed, 14 Apr 10
Climate treaty realities push leaders to trim priority lists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041203822.html?wprss=rss_world
Washington Post: As prospects for a binding global climate treaty this year have evaporated, leaders and environmental advocates have focused their efforts on reaching agreement on a few top priorities, including preserving tropical forests and helping developing countries cope with climate change. The U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, in December are increasingly viewed as an interim step to a final deal. Many heads of state and activists had hoped that they could produce a successor ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Glacier breaks in Peru, causing tsunami in Andes
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B69Y20100412?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A huge glacier broke off and plunged into a lake in Peru, causing a 75-foot (23-meter) tsunami wave that swept away at least three people and destroyed a water processing plant serving 60,000 local residents, government officials said on Monday. The ice block tumbled into a lake in the Andes on Sunday near the town of Carhuaz, some 200 miles north of the capital, Lima. Three people were feared buried in debris. Investigators said the chunk of ice from the Hualcan glacier ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
7,500 due for alternate climate conference in Bolivia
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/7500-due-for-alternate-climate-conference-in-bolivia-1943169.html
Agence France-Presse: The alternative "people's conference" on climate change called by socialist Bolivian President Evo Morales is expecting 7,500 delegates from more than 100 countries, officials said Monday. Among those set to attend the gathering in Cochabamba April 20-22 include Presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, according to Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca. Named the People's World Conference on Climate Change and Mother ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Connectivity Could Be a Stabilizing Force in Wind Power
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/13obwind.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Like most other sources of alternative energy, the wind can be intermittent. It does not blow uniformly, so power output from wind turbines rises and falls. And when the wind doesn't blow at all, output drops to zero. Intermittency is not much of a problem now in the United States, since there are relatively few wind farms and plenty of interconnected conventional power plants to pick up the slack when wind output falls, keeping the power supply stable. But if the proportion of ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Brazil: Amazon facing 'real-life Avatar' says James Cameron
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/7583732/Amazon-facing-real-life-Avatar-says-James-Cameron.html
Telegraph: Cameron said he was in Brazil to support Indian and environmental groups as they stage protests against the Belo Monte dam project. The Titanic director attended an environmental summit in the Amazon last month with former US Vice President Al Gore. He returned this week to Sao Paulo to promote the DVD version of his blockbuster movie Avatar, in which the fictitious Na'vi race fights to protect its homeland, the forest-covered moon, Pandora, from plans to extract oil. He said he came ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Green policies lack detail
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/12/labour-election-manifesto-2010
Guardian: Disappointment greeted the Labour environment manifesto today as experts from all quarters suggested there was nothing new, it was too cautious about cutting climate change emissions, and there was not enough detail about policies they liked. Buried in section 8 of the party's manifesto, however, was a radical statement which might also herald a very different time ahead if Labour is elected to government for a fourth term. Introducing the Green Growth chapter, it says: "Only ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Canada: Shell fights shareholders' campaign for oil sands review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/12/shell-oil-sands-shareholders-review-campaign
Guardian: Shell has dismissed shareholder calls for a review of its controversial oil sands developments. A group of institutional investors, led by campaign group FairPensions, had tabled a special resolution ahead of the Anglo-Dutch company's annual meeting next month. They want Shell to review the commercial and environmental viability of going ahead with its new projects in Canada's boreal forests. But the Anglo-Dutch oil company today urged other investors to vote down the ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Cameron: Amazon dam dispute a real-life 'Avatar'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/ap_en_ot/lt_brazil_people_james_cameron
Associated Press: Director James Cameron said Monday that a real-life "Avatar" battle is playing out in Brazil's Amazon rain forest, where indigenous groups are trying to halt the construction of a huge hydroelectric project. In an interview with The Associated Press, Cameron said he was in Brazil's capital to support Indian and environmental groups as they stage protests against the Belo Monte dam project. Cameron attended an environmental summit in the Amazon last month with former U.S. Vice ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Neighborhoods often slow to accept solar panels on homes
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100412/GREEN/4120312/1001/NEWS
Statesman Journal: Larry Lohrman didn't imagine his quest for some energy from the sun would launch a green movement within his homeowners' association. But nine months later, he not only has gotten the association to write architectural guidelines for solar panel installation, he's also formed a community group called Sustainable Creekside. Sustainable Creekside intends to promote the use of renewable energy and sustainable residential practices within the 500-home community. It's not ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Organic sales slump for first time as recession takes a bite out of market
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/12/organic-food-recession-shopping
Guardian: Sales of organic food, drink and other products slumped by 12.9% in the UK last year as producers battled against a downturn in consumer demand and the worst trading climate for 20 years, new figures reveal today. Cost-conscious shoppers turned their backs most decisively on organic fruit, vegetables, meat and bread, where the price differential with the non-organic equivalent has traditionally been the biggest. Home delivery organic vegetable and fruit boxes also fell out of favour, ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
UN climate treaty still years away
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=1959
Carbon Positive: The first UN climate talks since the Copenhagen summit in December have agreed steps to get the talks back on track this year but have only strengthened the view that a new comprehensive global climate treaty remains some years off. The UN climate convention talks in Bonn concluded on Sunday with agreement to schedule two extra negotiating sessions later this year in the lead-up to the annual summit in Cancun, Mexico. In the meantime, it appears negotiations will continue on the ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Going carbon neutral: California pours a foundation for cities to build on
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/12/carbon-neutral-california-cities
Guardian: State governments are beginning to set the stage for widespread climate action with emissions laws, energy efficiency rules and renewable energy standards, but the hands-on work of actually achieving carbon-neutral status is happening in cities. Let's look at California as an example. The state is leading the nation down the green path overall, adopting statewide policies that encourage residents to reduce their carbon footprints and change their wasteful ways. It is ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
China: Record Drought Exposes Water Woes
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50996
Inter Press Service: A once-in-a-century drought in south-west China has sparked concern over how China, which has one-fifth of the world's population but just 7 percent of its water, has managed its water supply and growing network of hydroelectric dams. In South-east Asia, where a number of countries have also been hit by the drought, the blame has fallen squarely the thirsty neighbour to the north, where many areas have not seen rain since October. Around 24 million people in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Copenhagen destroyed by Danish draft leak, says India's environment minister
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/12/copenhagen-destroyed-danish-draft-leak
Guardian: The Copenhagen conference was destroyed from the start by the leak of the "Danish draft" negotiating text to The Guardian, the Indian environment minister said this weekend in a warning that the breakdown of international trust would continue to undermine climate talks this year. In an interview with The Guardian ahead of a new round of meetings, Jairam Ramesh shed new light on last December's fraught summit and highlighted the continuing gulf between rich nations and the Basic block ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Court Fight Adds Confusion to Senate Climate Effort
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/12/12climatewire-court-fight-adds-confusion-to-senate-climate-84270.html
ClimateWire: The departure of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens adds a crucial task to the Senate schedule, at a minimum, and could peel momentum from looming climate legislation if his successor triggers a searing political fight. Stevens' announcement arrived more than a week before the anticipated release of a Senate bill restricting greenhouse gases. That timing clouds the chamber's legislative horizon by handing senators a top White House priority in the months leading to contentious ...
Tue, 13 Apr 10
Arab environment report to be released this month
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=OTI4NDc5NTc0
Kuwaiti Times: A first of its kind report assessing the environment and future expectations of the Arab world will be released later this month. The commission of Arab Environment Ministers and the Arab League asked a number of scientific centers in various Arab countries to carry out the assessment. The announcement was made yesterday morning during a press conference held at the premises of the Kuwait Journalists Association in Shuwaikh. Khaled Al-Hajiri, chairman of the Kuwaiti based Greenline ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Extra U.N. climate talks agreed after Copenhagen
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63A21620100411?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: About 175 nations agreed a plan on Sunday to revive climate talks after the Copenhagen summit but the U.N.'s top climate official predicted a full new treaty would be out of reach for 2010. Delegates at the three-day talks, which were held up for hours by bitter splits between rich and poor nations, agreed to hold two extra meetings, each at least a week long, in the second half of 2010 after the Copenhagen summit last December failed to reach a binding deal. The extra ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Bolivia: Cochabamba Climate Conference: the Coca Contradiction
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0411-kozloff_cochabamba.html
Mongabay: In the high stakes game of geopolitics, the small and economically disadvantaged Andean nation of Bolivia has little clout. Now, however, the country's indigenous president Evo Morales wants to establish more of a significant voice on the world stage. Recently, he has turned himself into something of a spokesperson on the issue of climate change. Decrying the failure of world leaders to come to a satisfactory agreement on global warming, he is intent on shaming the Global North into ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Glacier National Park loses 2 more glaciers due to climate change
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/glacier-national-park-loses-2-more-glaciers-due-to-climate-change_100346459.html
Thaindian News: The US Geological Survey has said that the Glacier National Park has lost 2 more glaciers, due to climatic changes. The US Geological Survey also hinted that by the end of the decade, the Park might lose all of its glaciers too. The glaciers are being lost, as the increase in the temperatures in the park, were in reality twice as that of the rest of the globe. These findings were made public, when the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) and Natural Resources Defense Council ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Hope for survival as isolated orangutans joined by rope bridge
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0411-hance_ropebridge.html
Mongabay: Researchers in the Malaysian state of Sabah in Borneo are joyful after receiving confirmation that a young male orangutan used a rope bridge to cross a river, which has separated one orangutan population from another. Due to logging and clearing forests for oil palm plantations, which cover 18 percent of land in Sabah, orangutans on the Kinabantangan River have been cut into fragmented populations. "Over the years we have received numerous local eye witness reports of the orangutans ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
UN official: Climate deal unlikely this year
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100411/ap_on_re_eu/climate
Associated Press: The top U.N. climate official says negotiators are likely to hold at least four conferences this year, but without much expectation of concluding a binding agreement on global warming. Yvo de Boer says the main elements of a deal should be in place by the yearend conference in Mexico, but technical issues may wait until 2011. The goal is an agreement to control greenhouse gases and protect poor countries from the impacts of climate change. De Boer said two previously ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Buy an energy-efficient appliance, get a rebate
http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/ct-mre-0411-energy-rebate-20100408,0,3840064.story
Chicago Tribune: If you've been thinking about replacing that energy-hogging refrigerator or outdated dishwasher, now might be the time. A nationwide program that gives rebates for consumers purchasing Energy Star appliances will soon be in full force. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy has doled out $300 million for rebate programs in the U.S. and its territories aimed at reducing home energy usage. The rebates can mean hundreds of dollars off ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Abu Dhabi faces climate change flood threat
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/585709-abu-dhabi-faces-climate-change-flood-threat---expert
Arabian Business: A report earlier this year said that 85 percent of the population and 90 percent of the infrastructure of the UAE was located close to shore. A leading US academic will tonight warn that Abu Dhabi must invest in research and infrastructure if it is to combat the risk of flooding due to climate change. David Holland, director of the Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science at New York University, told Arabian Business that the rise in sea levels is "accelerating" and that the UAE ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
East China province builds first large electric car charging station
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/6946563.html
Xinhua: The first large electric car charging station in east China's Shandong Province, capable of charging 45 cars at a time, is being built in Linyi City, as part of a program to promote the development of new-energy vehicles. The project, costing 23 million yuan (3.37 million U.S. dollars), would be completed by May, said Li Guohua, deputy director of the sales department of Shandong Electric Power Corporation, which is developing the station. Shandong is one of China's biggest ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
South Africa: Counting the cost of Medupi
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-04-11-counting-the-cost-of-medupi
Inter Press Service: As the World Bank approved a controversial $3-billion loan for the Medupi coal-fired power plant in South Africa on Thursday, both the details and the broader impacts of the loan continue to be criticised by community and environmental groups. The United States, Britain, The Netherlands, Norway and Italy abstained from voting on the loan, thus showing their opposition without taking the stronger, less-diplomatic action of voting "no". Their concerns were largely environment or ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Philippines: Philexport calls for urgent government response on brewing power, water supply crisis
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/252079/philexport-calls-urgent-gov-t-response-brewing-power-water-supply-crisis
Manilla Bulletin: The Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) has called for an urgent government response to address issues arising from rapidly changing climate patterns like the brewing power and fresh water supply crises in the country. "The intermittent power outages in Luzon and crippling brownouts in Mindanao, coupled with long dry spell drying lakes, killing plants, fowls and animals in the Cagayan Valley and some regions in Mindanao stare us on the face today,' said Philexport ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Scourge of the rainforests
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/utilities/article7094214.ece
Sunday Times: The renewable-energy industry faces new controversy after a Northamptonshire firm became the latest to win planning permission to burn tropical palm oil to make electricity. Chelveston Renewable Energy has been told it can build a bio-oil power station on a disused RAF bomber base near Wellingborough. Such projects have infuriated environmentalists who say the burgeoning market for such oils is accelerating the destruction of tropical rainforests as they are cleared for biofuel ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Senators prepare compromise climate change bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/11/AR2010041101511.html
Reuters: Six months after introducing a sweeping climate change bill that flopped in the Senate, Democrat John Kerry is preparing to offer a compromise measure that seeks to reel in reluctant senators. Kerry, collaborating with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman, might introduce a new bill promoting clean energy early next week, just days before the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, environmental sources said. Despite Kerry's consistently upbeat ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Don't Think That Cap-and-Trade Is Over
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/business/energy-environment/12iht-green12.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Profiteering, tax fraud, theft and dubious claims of emissions reductions are just some of the problems plaguing carbon trading. That litany of woes has helped prompt many commentators to proclaim that carbon trading is imminently headed for the scrap heap of history. Such predictions are almost certainly wrong. Carbon trading, also known as cap and trade, is on the cusp of generating mammoth amounts of money for governments -- money that could start flowing just in time to ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Almost all Austrian glaciers shrank in 2009: report
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/almost-all-austrian-glaciers-shrank-in-2009-report-1941787.html
Agence France-Presse: Almost 90 percent of Austrian glaciers shrank in 2009, some by as much as 46 metres (150 feet), the Austrian Alpine Association (OeAV) said Friday. In a report, the OeAV said 85 out of 96 glaciers had shrunk over the past year. The biggest changes were seen in the Oetz valley in western Tyrol province, where three glaciers retreated by over 40 metres, and eight by over 20 metres. "The ice is very thin over large areas, so the glaciers are retreating very quickly," noted ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Global climate deal impossible in 2010: U.N
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6372AT20100411?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 will be unable to agree a full deal in 2010 to fight global warming, the U.N.'s top climate official said Sunday, as 175 nations struggled to revive talks after the antagonistic Copenhagen summit. Yvo de Boer said governments should focus on practical steps in 2010, such as aid to help poor nations cope with the impacts of climate change or to promote clean technologies, after Copenhagen fell short of a full, over-arching treaty. Many delegates at the April 9-11 Bonn ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Skirmishes renewed at UN climate conference
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100411/ap_on_bi_ge/climate
Associated Press: Climate negotiators renewed their skirmishes this weekend at their first conference since the acrimonious summit in Copenhagen, split over how to continue efforts to reach an all-encompassing agreement to control greenhouse gases and help poor countries deal with global warming. After the letdown of Copenhagen, delegates and officials appeared determine to dampen expectations of a final deal this year, and said negotiations are almost certain to stretch past the next major conference ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Is climate change a moral issue? What would God say?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/04/is-climate-change-a-moral-issue-what-would-god-say/1
USA Today: What would God do? A rising chorus of voices is framing efforts to fight climate change in moral and religious terms -- from the pope to a leading climatologist. "The predominant moral issue of the 21st century, almost surely, will be climate change, comparable to Nazism faced by Churchill in the 20th century and slavery faced by Lincoln in the 19th century," writes James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies since 1981, recently in The Huffington ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Climate change talks yield small chance of global treaty
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/11/climate-change-talks-deal-treaty
Guardian: A global agreement on climate change is unlikely this year and it may need two separate legal treaties to bring together the US and developing countries, the UN's top climate official has predicted. In an interview with the Guardian, the outgoing head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, said that there was no chance of reaching a final deal by November in Cancun, Mexico – the next time that world leaders will meet to hammer out the a follow-up to ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Tribes of Amazon Find an Ally Out of 'Avatar'
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/americas/11brazil.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: They came from the far reaches of the Amazon, traveling in small boats and canoes for up to three days to discuss their fate. James Cameron, the Hollywood titan, stood before them with orange warrior streaks painted on his face, comparing the threats on their lands to a snake eating its prey. "The snake kills by squeezing very slowly,' Mr. Cameron said to more than 70 indigenous people, some holding spears and bows and arrows, under a tree here along the Xingu River. "This is how the ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Muslim leaders told to confront climate crisis
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/04/11/muslim-leaders-told-confront-climate-crisis.html
Jakarta Post: Muslims should become agents of change to protect the environment with the help of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which should set up a special council to take the lead on climate change issues, a conference said. The conference on Muslim action on climate change ended on Saturday and said that the OIC needed to promote climate change policies, including on society's lifestyle in accordance with the Islamic values. It said that Muslim communities should start ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
The fight against eco-imperialism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/apr/11/eco-imperialism-climate-change-carbon
Guardian: Last Thursday the World Bank approved a £2.4bn loan to build a huge new coal-fired power station in South Africa. The issue has exposed the rift between two central international goals – alleviating poverty and preventing global warming. South African ministers claimed that the project was essential for their country's development, while a concerted environmental campaign lobbied international governments to block the scheme. Amid concerns about global warming, this question of development ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
UN warns as climate talks enter final day in Bonn
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iVLhn0V2jy8xcWiAfWsSzZ5fxnBw
Agence France-Presse: Rich and poor nations squabbled here on Sunday over the controversial Copenhagen climate accord amid warnings the battered UN system could not afford another failure in its quest to tackle global warming. As countries struggled to rebuild trust after the stormy summit in Copenhagen last December, UN climate pointman Yvo de Boer said the key to the worldwide process lay with a November 29-December 10 meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Cancun had to yield a "functioning architecture" on ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Australia: Arrests as ship is sailed into protected waters around Great Barrier Reef
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/11/arrests-ship-great-barrier-reef
Guardian: Three people have been charged with steering a ship through protected waters in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, police said today. The men, from Vietnam and South Korea, were arrested after taking the coal ship MV Mimosa out of an official shipping lane and into the marine reserve last Sunday. The arrests came a day after another coal ship ran aground and leaked oil into protected waters at Douglas Shoals when it took an unauthorised route through the reserve. The 230-metre ...
Mon, 12 Apr 10
Climate aid threat to countries that refuse to back Copenhagen accord
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/11/climate-aid-threats-copenhagen-accord
Guardian: Rich countries have threatened to cut vital aid to the developing nations if they do not back the deal agreed at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, it has emerged. The pressure on poor countries to support the US, EU and UK-brokered Copenhagen accord came as 190 countries resumed UN climate talks in Bonn in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion. "The pressure to back the west has been intense," said a senior African diplomat. "It was done at a very high level and nothing was ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Canada: Black gold in Alberta sands
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0410/1224268016067.html
Irish Times: The process of extracting oil from the vast Canadian sands is a messy one, and with enormous profits at stake, what chance does the environment have? TO MOST environmentalists, the oil sands of Alberta are "Canada`s dirty secret". Described by Tar Sands 101 as "the largest industrial project in human history", the extraction of oil from bitumen (tar, in plain language) buried in the ground is blamed by them for causing air pollution, widespread deforestation and prodigious carbon ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
United States: Climatologist warns of epic drought
http://www.koco.com/news/23107665/detail.html
KOCO: A local scientist said climate change could create the type of drought that Oklahoma hasn't seen since the Dust Bowl. The comments come as the state is about to mark the 75th anniversary of the worst dust storm in history, brutal conditions that led to a mass exodus out of parts of Oklahoma during the 1930s. "Drought happened and what caused it was poor farming practices," said climatologist Gary McManus. "We plowed up entire plains, soil was bare for the wind. There was ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Post-Copenhagen climate talks begin amid discord
http://www.bnd.com/2010/04/09/1208628/post-copenhagen-climate-talks.html
Associated Press: The United States gave a spirited defense Friday of the threadbare agreement reached in Copenhagen against a barrage of criticism that the deal was struck by "a select few" that cast doubt on its legitimacy. Differences were striking as countries began the first round of climate talks since the disappointing summit in the Danish capital in December, which yielded a result far short of the goal set two years earlier of a new agreement to control greenhouse gases blamed for raising the ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Canada: Ontario green power plan sparks cost concerns
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/ontario-green-power-plan-sparks-cost-concerns/article1529704/
Globe and Mail: Erco Worldwide shut down its chemical plant in Thunder Bay four years ago after blaming rising power costs for making the factory uneconomic, and now president Paul Timmons worries a similar fate may be in store for his customers in the pulp and paper industry. While Premier Dalton McGuinty touts the "green jobs' that will result from unprecedented investments in renewable energy, Mr. Timmons echoes critics who are more focused on the rising price of electricity, which they fear is ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Shell gets key Alaska permit for Beaufort drilling
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63920620100410?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Royal Dutch Shell Plc has been granted a long-awaited federal air-quality permit the oil company needs to conduct exploratory drilling this year in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, government officials said late on Friday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the permit to Shell to cover air pollutants emitted from the drill ship and fleet of support vessels that the company plans to mobilize to drill two exploratory wells on leases 16 to 22 miles offshore from Alaska's northern ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Keep trains out of my 5,000-acre back yard
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7094237.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178
Times (UK): LORD ROTHSCHILD, the financier and a friend of Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, is leading a revolt against government plans for a 250mph railway line that will cut through swathes of the countryside. The £30 billion scheme from London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds -- the biggest rail project in Britain for more than 100 years -- will crash through the Chilterns, passing via the back yards of a string of rich and famous residents. Thousands of homeowners have ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Australia charges crew with taking ship via reef
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63A01720100411?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Three foreign men have been charged with steering a cargo ship through a restricted part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, police said on Sunday, days after another bulk carrier ran aground in the same marine park. The men allegedly took Panama-registered bulk carrier MV Mimosa through the reef marine park on April 4 using an unauthorized shipping route, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement. Last Sunday the China-registered Shen Neng 1 foundered on the reef ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Giving up climate treaty may unblock U.N. deal
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/11/worldupdates/2010-04-10T211450Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-475931-1&sec=Worldupdates
Reuters: The prospect of a global climate treaty is fading as the world's top two carbon emitters, China and the United States, avoid legally binding action. Experts say a shift to a less ambitious goal might help. Less focus on a new treaty might resolve a tangle of disputes over the legal framework and drive concrete action, for example to preserve rainforests or to help developing nations cope with droughts, heatwaves, floods or rising seas. U.N. climate talks to try to agree a ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Bolivia protests US suspension of climate aid
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i9TuMrvrknh-ZXwqmZ2N-48kff3wD9F095HG1
Associated Press: Bolivia has protested the suspension of U.S. climate aid as "a very bad practice," but says it won't change its policies on global warming. Bolivian delegate Pablo Solon confirms that the U.S. reduced aid after it opposed the adoption of the Copenhagen Accord brokered at the U.N. climate summit last December in the Danish capital. Speaking to reporters Saturday, Salon questioned the value of negotiation when financial pressure is applied to those who disagree. The ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
U.S., Denmark cut climate aid after summit: Bolivia
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6372AT20100410?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Bolivia accused the United States and Denmark on Saturday of cutting aid to the South American country as punishment for its fierce opposition to the Copenhagen Accord for fighting global warming. Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and Sudan were among the strongest opponents at the summit in Denmark of the Copenhagen Accord, now backed by about 120 nations and which sets a goal of limiting global warming to below 2 Celsius (3.6 F). "Some concrete projects have been canceled," Bolivia's ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
UN chief says "time to deliver" on climate change
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jZad_wMZjK6XvlOrreOJhjaw234g
Agence France-Presse: UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for more political will to tackle climate change and urged Israel once again to freeze settlements to revive Middle East peace talks, in an interview with AFP Saturday. After a disastrous summit in Copenhagen in December, where states failed to agree on a deadline to reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming, a legally-binding agreement on climate change still appeared far off. "I take climate change as a high priority... (but) when we will ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
Ecuador: Environmental Inspection in Yasuni Park
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50986
Inter Press Service: Representatives of Ecuador's ombudsman's office and environmental groups are visiting the Yasuni National Park on Saturday, home to some of the world's last indigenous people still living in voluntary isolation, in order to verify reports of illegal activity by oil companies. Ecuador's new constitution bans oil drilling in the "untouchable zone" declared by the government in the southern part of the park to ensure the survival of the Tagaeri and Taromenane indigenous communities, who ...
Sun, 11 Apr 10
UN process under fire at climate change talks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7572765/UN-process-under-fire-at-climate-change-talks.html
Telegraph: More than 180 countries are gathered in Bonn to discuss a way forward after the last United Nations meeting in the Danish capital ended in chaos. But initial talks ended in recriminations and there was little progress on deciding the best way to stop global warming. All countries agree greenhouse gases must be cut in order to stop catastrophic climate change, the question is how to do it. At the heart of the problem is the failure to even agree the best way to draw up an ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Xi: China active, serious in tackling climate change
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010bfa/2010-04/10/content_9711377.htm
China Daily: China has been working "actively and seriously" to tackle climate change and build capacity to respond to it, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said Saturday. "Every country has a stake in dealing with climate change and every country has a responsibility for the safety of our planet," Xi told the opening ceremony of the annual Boao Forum for Asia meeting in Boao in south China's island province of Hainan. "We have joined global actions to tackle climate change with the utmost ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
United States: Documents Reveal Extensive Violations At Mine
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125788709&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has released hundreds of pages of documents detailing its last three quarterly inspections of a Massey Energy Co.-owned mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where families grieved the deaths of 25 miners. President Obama, speaking in the White House on Friday, said what miners' families know: Coal mining is dangerous work. "Their government and their employers know that they owe it to these families to do everything possible to ensure their ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Avoiding Sun Burn: Rooftop Solar Panel Safety Tests
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-ensure-solar-photovoltaics-are-safe
Scientific American: A new 2,100-square-meter building outside Frankfurt, Germany, houses a series of chambers that can simulate a hot, humid day or temperatures so frigid that metals crack, and every punishing weather scenario in between. It's all for testing one product--solar photovoltaic panels--and it's the third such facility opened since 2008. Underwriters Laboratories, perhaps most recognizable for the ubiquitous "UL" in a circle that is printed on many gadgets, was founded back in the late 19th ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Google Searches For Key To Energy Savings
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100409-energy-google-powermeter/
National Geographic: Deep in the dark of the Minnesota night, some appliance was kicking on to rob Ed Kohler of hard-earned cash. He'd look later and see nighttime energy spikes reported by PowerMeter, Google software that monitors home electrical use. "All the lights were out, but something's cycling," said the 36-year-old Kohler, marketing manager at a Minneapolis web-development firm. "So I think about it and, aha, figure out it's the refrigerator." A 19-year-old refrigerator, a real energy hog ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Green party targets disaffected Labour voters with pledge to fill 'gap on left'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/09/green-left-labour-gap
Guardian: The Greens will unveil their manifesto next week with a pitch to voters highlighting the "yawning gap" on the left they say has been made vacant by New Labour. Caroline Lucas, the Greens leader, said the party planned to shake off its single-issue image by emphasising policies on social justice and the economy. The Greens are redoubling their efforts to enter parliament by fielding 316 candidates across the UK – an increase of more than 50% on the 202 members who stood at the ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Climate change as art
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Pioneers/2010/0409/Climate-change-as-art
Christian Science Monitor: Nathalie Miebach, at first impression, could almost be mistaken for a toymaker. Her studio in Boston's South End is a swirl of beads, tiny whales, flags, origami birds, and spokes of bright colors. Musical scores line the walls. Reedy sculptures sprout from the floor and dangle from the ceiling. Tinkertoys come to mind – as does the Mad Hatter. But behind the joyful chaos is a precise order, one of surprising complexity and magnitude. Ms. Miebach creates art by translating weather ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
ASEAN seek binding global climate change pact
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5htfHL885AOt-1zkfN7mk3evIcUoQ
Agence France-Presse: Southeast Asian leaders called Friday for a legally binding global pact on climate change and urged richer nations to provide them with "scaled-up" financial help to combat its effects. In a joint summit statement, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Vietnam said a new deal should go further than the non-binding 11th-hour pact reached in Copenhagen in December. All parties under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change should "work ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Indoor chemicals may affect elderly's lung function
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100409/hl_nm/us_indoor_chemicals
Reuters: Exposure to certain common indoor air pollutants may impair older adults' lung function, a small study suggests. Researchers say the findings raise concerns that the chemicals, known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), might exacerbate lung or heart disease symptoms in older adults. VOCs are chemicals emitted from a range of products, including paints, varnishes, household cleaning agents, glue, inks and building materials. Because concentrations of the chemicals are up to ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
US denies climate aid to countries opposing Copenhagen accord
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/us-climate-aid
Guardian: The US State Department is denying climate change assistance to countries opposing the Copenhagen accord, it emerged today. The new policy, first reported by The Washington Post, suggests the Obama administration is ready to play hardball, using aid as well as diplomacy, to bring developing countries into conformity with its efforts to reach an international deal to tackle global warming. The Post reported today that Bolivia and Ecuador would now be denied aid after both ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
BLM Suspends Some Oil and Gas Lease Sales to Review Warming Impacts
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/09/09greenwire-blm-suspends-some-oil-and-gas-lease-sales-to-r-83918.html
Greenwire: The Bureau of Land Management yesterday delayed all oil and gas lease sales in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota while the agency studies their potential impact on climate change. The next sale had been scheduled for April 13 and included about 91,000 acres. Sales had also been planned for June and August. BLM's Montana office said it decided to delay those sales "in order to bring more certainty to industry and in light of expected litigation." The decision comes in the ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
How Climate Change May Further Irritate Future Generations
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wkms/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1634487/WKMS.Local.Features/How.Climate.Change.May.Further.Irritate.Future.Generations
WKMS: A National Wildlife Federation report finds climate change will impact two notoriously unpopular species found in the Four Rivers Region. Both poison ivy and deer ticks can leave you itching for relief, but for some the reaction can be much more serious. Chris Taylor speaks to one man about his experience contracting Lyme Disease and gets some scientific perspective for what's on the horizon. Jimmy Keel lives in rural Stewart County, Tennessee. He's an avid outdoorsman and gets out of ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Schools Near High-Traffic Areas Increase Kids' Asthma Risks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100409/hl_hsn/schoolsnearhightrafficareasincreasekidsasthmarisks
HealthDay: Air pollution from high-traffic roads increases the risk of asthma in children who attend nearby schools, new research suggests. In a study that looked at statistics on children's health in Southern California communities, researchers found that those who attend schools near high-traffic areas are 45 percent more likely to develop asthma, although the number of students in the study who developed asthma was small. "Exposure to pollution at locations other than home, especially ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
British campaigner urges UN to accept 'ecocide' as international crime
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/ecocide-crime-genocide-un-environmental-damage
Guardian: A campaign to declare the mass destruction of ecosystems an international crime against peace - alongside genocide and crimes against humanity - is being launched in the UK. The proposal for the United Nations to accept "ecocide" as a fifth "crime against peace", which could be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC), is the brainchild of British lawyer-turned-campaigner Polly Higgins. The radical idea would have a profound effect on industries blamed for widespread ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Splits reopen as Bonn climate talks get underway
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261086/splits-reappear-bonn-climate
Business Green: Any hope that the first round of international climate talks since the Copenhagen Summit ended in recriminations and disappointment would mark a turning point in the long running negotiations barely lasted the first hour of today's meeting as the splits that dominated last year's negotiations became immediately apparent. Speaking during the opening session of the three day meeting in Bonn diplomats from a number of developing nations expressed anger at the failure of the Copenhagen ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
What would Reagan do about climate change?
http://www.norwalkreflector.com/articles/2010/04/09/front/doc4bb9fc21cc8b8628997180.txt
LA Times: Supporters of climate-change legislation are using a surprising figure to promote their cause: Ronald Reagan. Radio ads asking "What would Reagan do?' are airing during the conservative talk shows of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck on stations in New Hampshire and are planned in other states in the drive to get Congress to act on global warming legislation. The ads, which include clips from Reagan speeches, are the work of Republicans for Environmental Protection. They come as a ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
US breaks wind energy record during 2009
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261047/breaks-wind-energy-records
Business Green: The US retained its pole position in the global race for wind power supremacy last year, achieving a record number of wind turbine installations, according to new figures from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). The trade association released its annual report yesterday, revealing that a record-breaking 5,700 turbines were installed during 2009 providing 10,000MW of new capacity. Last year's installations bring the total capacity in the US to 35,000MW, ensuring the US ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Climate change: Key influencers in the debate
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7564065/Climate-change-Key-influencers-in-the-debate.html
Telegraph: Rajendra Pachauri -- Chairman of the IPCC As Chairman of UN science body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCCC) he received a Nobel Prize. But the admission this year that the IPCC wrongly claimed the Himalayas could melt by 2035 damaged his reputation. Further allegations about the quality of research and the release of steamy novels penned by Dr Pachuari have not helped and some environmentalists have called for him to resign. However the former engineer is a fighter ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Climate talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_re_eu/eu_climate_talks
Associated Press: Differences have emerged at the outset of the first U.N. climate conference since the disappointing Copenhagen climate summit, as delegates from 175 countries begin afresh on a new global warming agreement. The delegates hope to have the main elements of a deal in place by the end of this year. But they disagreed Friday on the document brokered by President Barack Obama at the December summit, which set out general goals for controlling greenhouse gases causing the rise of the ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Soaring US wind power industry stalls on offshore
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/wind-power-industry
Guardian: The American Wind Energy Association released its annual report on the industry Thursday, highlighting impressive growth of wind installations and manufacturing in 2009 despite the economic slowdown. More than 10,000 megawatts of wind power was installed across the United States last year, raising the total installed capacity to over 35,000 MW -- about 1.8 percent of all electricity generated in the country. Manufacturing of wind turbines is also picking up steam, with the industry ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Research alone won't drive agricultural development
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/research-alone-won-t-drive-agricultural-development-1.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Even focused research will not deliver agricultural progress unless donors also help join up links in the development chain. When international development aid funds science, donors increasingly ask potential grant recipients what benefits they will achieve with the money. And there may be many good answers! Ask 1,000 donors, policymakers, private innovators, farmers and development workers how science can best serve development, and you're likely to come up with 1,000 ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
GE flicks switch on LED that will last 17 years
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261059/ge-flicks-switch-era-energy
Business Green: Ever since they first entered the market, some consumers have complained that energy efficient bulbs provide a lower quality of light than energy guzzling incandescent bulbs. But now US engineering giant General Electric (GE) thinks it may have solved the problem with the launch this week of a low wattage LED bulb that provides the same light output as a traditional incandescent bulb but uses less energy while lasting 25 times longer. The new GE Energy Smart LED bulb is ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Austrian glaciers melting due to warm weather
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_sc/climate_melting_glaciers
Associated Press: Experts say that a majority of Austria's glaciers in the Alps are melting due to warm weather. The Austrian Alpine Association says 85 of the 93 glaciers it monitored between the fall of 2008 and the fall of 2009 had receded, while seven stayed the same and one grew. The Innsbruck-based group says in its annual report released Friday that the Niederjochferner glacier in the Oetztal Alps melted the most and shrank by 46 meters (151 feet). It says the average loss among ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
U.N. climate talks split over way forward in 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6372AT20100409?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Rifts opened Friday at the first U.N. climate meeting since the acrimonious Copenhagen summit about how to revive U.N. negotiations with few delegates predicting a breakthrough to combat global warming in 2010. Government negotiators at the 175-nation talks urged efforts to restore trust between rich and poor nations after the December summit in Copenhagen fell short of a full legal treaty. But none announced new concessions to help. Outside the conference center, ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
US lawmaker goes after oil firms in royalty dispute
http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN0820402820100408?sp=true
Reuters: A U.S. lawmaker wants to make oil companies that he says owe the government billions of dollars in past royalty fees pay up if they want to explore for oil or natural gas in new offshore areas. Democratic Representative Edward Markey plans to introduce legislation next week requiring oil companies to pay the disputed royalties or be charged a special fee for drilling in Atlantic waters from Delaware to central Florida, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico, that the Obama ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Nuclear waste may get a second life
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125740818
National Public Radio: The Obama administration is promoting nuclear power, but at the same time it has put an end to plans to bury nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, Nev. Now, a blue-ribbon committee is pondering what to do with the waste. One option under consideration is a process that would dramatically reduce its radioactive lifetime. Less than 1 percent of spent reactor fuel is made up of the nasty radioactive elements that last hundreds of thousands of years. And Sherrell Greene at the ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Canada: Ontario electricity bills to rise under $8 billion green energy plan
http://www.trurodaily.com/Canada---World/Business/2010-04-08/article-995894/Ontario-electricity-bills-to-rise,-again,-under-$8-billion-plan-for-green-energy/1
Canadian Press: Consumers will face higher electricity bills as part of an unprecedented $8-billion plan announced Thursday to create more renewable energy in Ontario. People can expect an additional $5 per month on their hydro bills by 2012 - the latest in a series of incremental increases to taxpayers' electricity rates. Still, Premier Dalton McGuinty said it's a small price to pay for clean power and the creation of thousands of jobs. "We're talking about an increase of one per cent, ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Canada: Electricity bills in Ontario set to rise $300 a year by the end of 201
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/electricity-bills-in-ontario-set-to-rise-300-a-year-by-the-end-of-2011/article1527805/
Globe and Mail: Ontario is about to rival Prince Edward Island as the province with the highest electricity prices in Canada, and rates will, for the first time, exceed the average cost of keeping the lights on in the United States Residential customers in Ontario will pay $300 more a year on average for electricity by the end of 2011, an increase of 25 per cent, according to energy consultants. And the rate increases won't end there. Investments of more than $8-billion in green energy projects ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Climate change linked to health issues
http://www.watoday.com.au/breaking-news-world/climate-change-linked-to-health-issues-20100409-rvrt.html
AAP: The effects of climate change are causing health problems for people living in some South Pacific islands, a conference has heard. Climate change is causing drought, frequent storms and increasingly warm weather in the Marshall Islands, that country's acting secretary for health was quoted as saying on Radio New Zealand. Dwight Heine says consequently, residents of Marshall Island have an unreliable power supply and a shortage of safe drinking water. "The health impact ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
US climate bill weak for N.E., critics say
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/09/us_climate_bill_weak_for_ne_critics_say/
Boston Globe: Climate and energy legislation being crafted in Washington could dismantle a landmark program to curb greenhouse gases in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states and replace it with a less flexible and weaker federal plan, according to New England officials. Groups of state environmental chiefs, attorneys general, and US senators wrote the drafters of the federal bill in recent weeks, expressing concern that it could undo gains made under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Conference to probe impact of industry on environment
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2010040968857
Saudi Gazette: Leading environmentalists from Saudi Arabia, Gulf countries, Asia, the Americas and Europe will meet in a conference on April 18-21 in Manama, Bahrain to discuss the impact of industries on the environment, particularly in the Middle East. The conference, called ENVIROARABIA 2010, is organized by the Environmental Technology and Management Association (ETMA) and the Saudi Arabian Section of the Air and Waste Management Association, both Dhahran-based environmental groups, in ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Is Texas writing the book on wind power?
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/08/08climatewire-is-texas-writing-the-book-on-wind-power-35036.html
New York Times: Feb. 28, 2010, was a banner day for Texas wind to set the clouds -- and electrons -- flying. In the Panhandle, gusts reached 47 miles per hour and wind generators delivered a record 6,242 megawatts of power to Dallas, Austin and other population centers. At 1 p.m., 22 percent of all the electricity consumed in the Texas grid was coming from wind. To proud Texans like Public Utility Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman, such records document the state's position as the ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Molten metal batteries to be clean energy reservoirs
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627555.500-molten-metal-batteries-to-be-clean-energy-reservoirs.html
New Scientist: A BATTERY able to match the output of those used in cellphones from 1/20th of their electrode area may have you dreaming of more talk time. But putting it in your pocket would be a bad idea - it's full of molten metal. Instead, its inventors hope it will provide much-needed storage capacity for electricity grids. Grid-scale batteries would boost efficiency by allowing solar energy to be used at night, for example, or excess power from a nuclear plant to be stored for ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Australia: Councils act on rising sea levels
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/09/2868581.htm?site=gippsland§ion=news
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The South Gippsland Council has adopted planning measures that will require some landowners to acknowledge their properties are at risk of coastal inundation. The council had put on hold all building applications on land that could be threatened by rising sea levels, after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal blocked a subdivision on the Waratah Bay foreshore. Any owner of potentially vulnerable land that applies for a planning permit will now have to sign an ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Negotiators aim to reinvigorate UN climate change talks
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/09/c_13244541.htm
Xinhua: Negotiators gathered for a new round of United Nations climate change talks here Friday, trying to reinvigorate talks after last year's Copenhagen conference failed to produce a binding agreement. The talks were conducted as usual in two working groups -- the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). Richard Kinley, the deputy executive secreatry of ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Eco-centre sets sights on carbon-free Britain
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63831H20100409?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: In a remote, rain-soaked former quarry in Wales, environmentalists are putting the finishing touches to a plan to tackle climate change by weaning Britain off fossil fuels within 20 years. The Center for Alternative Technology (CAT), a sprawling eco-complex set up during the 1974 oil crisis, will publish proposals in June to eliminate emissions from oil, gas and coal. While Britain was the first country to set legally-binding targets to cut emissions, by 80 percent from 1990 ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Climate negotiators urged to meet monthly to reach binding deal
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/climate-talks-bonn-monthly-meeting
Guardian: Developing countries today called for climate talks to be stepped up in order to each a global deal at a crucial meeting in Mexico in November - even if it means negotiators getting together once a month. Countries were setting out their positions at the re-opening of climate talks in Bonn in Germany, the first time countries have met after the UN climate summit in Copenhagen failed to reach a legally binding deal in December. But rich countries were noticeably cool on their ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Climate change treaty 'more urgent than ever'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8611811.stm
BBC: The need for a new global climate deal is "greater than ever", according to developing country delegates speaking at the opening of UN climate talks. Blocs representing the poorest nations called for intensive talks during the year, leading to agreement on a legally binding treaty in December. The EU backed the call, re-stating that the conclusion of December's Copenhagen summit had not met its ambitions. But other industrialised countries do not appear so keen for a new ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Norway: Combustion residue lowers carbon dioxide emissions in concrete
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100329082011.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: The cement used in Oslo's new Bjørvika tunnel kept 8,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the environment -- the equivalent of 60 million vehicle trips through the tunnel. The more environment-friendly concrete is the result of intensive research collaboration. The Norwegian concrete industry won worldwide acclaim for its gigantic North Sea constructions. Its best-known achievement was the Troll A platform in 1995 -- the largest structure ever moved by man. Today the concrete ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Geese tagged to examine threat posed by wind farms
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/geese-tagged-to-examine-threat-posed-by-wind-farms-1940152.html
Press Association: Barnacle geese heading to the Arctic for the summer were tagged with satellite trackers to find out more about their migration amid concern planned wind farms could get in their way. The Svalbard barnacle goose, which overwinters in the Solway Firth, saw numbers plummet to just 300 by the 1940s but the population recovered to some 30,000 today. But now experts at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) are concerned planned offshore wind farms in the Firth of Forth and off the UK ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
Is the Sun Finally Setting on Climate Change Skepticism?
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/is_the_sun_finally_setting_on_climate_change_skepticism/C37/L37/
New West: Over the last few years I`ve noticed something interesting about our ongoing climate change discussions. It used to be that logic and knowledge were the keys. We looked at the best available science, weighed the predicted costs of action versus the predicted costs of inaction, and then considered the most appropriate alternatives. Businesses use this kind of approach all the time. It`s called a "cost-benefit analysis." Recently, though, our climate discussions have slowed and even ...
Sat, 10 Apr 10
China: low carbon sources to supply quarter of electricity by end of 2010
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261031/chinese-government-renewables
Business Green: Low carbon energy sources will account for over a quarter of China's electricity supply by the end of 2010, according to official statistics released yesterday to the state-backed Xinhua news agency. The figures revealed that hydro, nuclear and wind power are expected to provide 250 GW of capacity by the end of the year, accounting for 26 per cent of national electricity generation. The statistics also confirmed that China's energy infrastructure remains highly carbon intensive ...
Fri, 9 Apr 10
EU satellite to check climate impact on ice
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100408/ap_on_sc/eu_climate_satellite
Associated Press: The European Space Agency launched a new high-tech satellite Thursday to measure the effects of global warming on Earth's polar ice and gather data on rising sea levels, information that could prove crucial to millions on the globe's coasts and islands. ESA said at its European Space Operations Center in Germany Thursday it received a signal from CryoSat 2 after it took off on a Russian launcher rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, meaning lift-off was ...
Fri, 9 Apr 10
Half a million Ontario homes to get solar, wind power
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/half-a-million-ontario-homes-to-get-solar-wind-power/article1527805/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29
Globe and Mail: More than half a million homes in Ontario will be powered by solar panels and wind turbines with the awarding of 2,500 megawatts of renewable energy projects announced today. The 184 large-scale green energy projects will be located across the province, said Ontario Energy Minister Brad Duguid. The McGuinty government is counting on green energy to create jobs in the province's battered manufacturing sector. Developing wind and solar sources of electricity will also support the ...
Fri, 9 Apr 10
Climate talks could pick up from failed summit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100408/ap_on_re_eu/climate
Associated Press: Climate change negotiators convening this weekend are hoping to renew momentum on a new global warming treaty after setbacks at the Copenhagen summit four months ago -- but the talks could easily turn into a round of recriminations. Delegates from 175 countries begin a three-day meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Friday with an open session meant to be a stocktaking. But it could turn bitter over blame for the failure to deliver a firm agreement in the Danish capital on limiting manmade ...
Fri, 9 Apr 10
Satellite blasts off on mission to map the Earth's melting ice
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/satellite-blasts-off-on-mission-to-map-the-earths-melting-ice-1939864.html
Independent (UK): A hi-tech European satellite designed to measure how fast the Earth's polar ice caps are melting was successfully launched into orbit yesterday, nearly five years after the first attempt at such a mission ended in spectacular failure. CryoSat-2, which was designed and built in France and Germany but masterminded by British scientists, blasted off on a Russian launcher rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan shortly before 3pm yesterday afternoon. Some time later, a tracking ...
Fri, 9 Apr 10
South Africa: World Bank's $3.75bn coal plant loan defies environment criticism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/09/world-bank-criticised-over-power-station
Guardian: The World Bank approved a controversial $3.75bn loan to build one of the world's largest coal plants in South Africa yesterday, defying international protests and sharp criticism from the Obama administration that the project would fuel climate change. The proposed Medupi station, operated by South Africa's state-owned Eskom company, was fiercely opposed by an international coalition of grassroots, church and environmental activists who said it would hurt the environment and do little ...
Fri, 9 Apr 10
Post-Copenhagen clear-the-air summit kicks off in Bonn
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2261023/post-copenhagen-clear-air
Business Green: Negotiators from more than 170 nations meet in the German city of Bonn today at the first round of international climate change talks since last year's Copenhagen Summit ended in diplomatic recriminations and widespread disappointment. The hastily convened meeting was organized after a number of countries, including the UK, called on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat to organise an extra summit ahead of the next scheduled round of talks in ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
About 18,000 gallons of crude spill in La. refuge
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_spill
Associated Press: Authorities say a pipeline has spilled 18,000 gallons of crude oil into a canal in a wildlife refuge about 60 miles southeast of New Orleans. There was no immediate word about the extent of damage at the Delta National Wildlife Refuge. The Coast Guard says Chevron Pipe Line Co. has closed off the leaking section and investigators are evaluating the spill from a plane. The Coast Guard says it learned about the spill about 1 a.m. Tuesday and is investigating the ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Australia: Stranded ship "time bomb" to Great Barrier Reef
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63302920100406?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A stranded Chinese coal ship leaking oil onto Australia's Great Barrier Reef is an environmental time bomb with the potential to devastate large protected areas of the reef, activists said on Monday. The ship was a "ticking environmental time bomb," Gilly Llewellyn, director of conservation for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Australia, told Reuters. She said this was the third major international incident involving its owners in four years. Australian government ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Nevada tree plantation to help fight deforestation
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tree_plantation_nevada
Associated Press: An international forestry company embarking on a global effort to accumulate carbon credits while slowing deforestation has picked an unlikely site for the first of up to 100,000 acres of tree plantations it intends to grow on U.S. soil in the coming years. ECO2 Forests Inc. announced plans Tuesday to plant up to 3 million trees over the next seven years at irrigated tree farms in northern Nevada's high desert covering a total of up to 21 square miles north of Reno, an area about the ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Chaos and the Accord: Climate Change, Tropical Forests and REDD+ after Copenhagen
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0406-niles_copenhagen_accord.html
Mongabay: This is the second in a series of tropical forest policy commentaries John-O Niles will be writing for Mongabay.com. John-O is the Director of the Tropical Forest Group. The Copenhagen Accord, forged at COP15 upended international efforts to confront climate change. Never before have 115 Heads of State gathered together at one time, let alone for the singular purpose of crafting a new climate change agreement. Even though the new Accord is still in intensive care, two things are ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Chevron oil line leaks oil into Louisiana refuge
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6354Z620100406?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: An oil pipeline operated by Chevron Pipe Line Co leaked at least 18,000 gallons of oil into the Delta National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Tuesday. The leak discovered by a contractor shortly after midnight discharged into a canal 10 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, and investigative and cleanup teams were on scene, the Coast Guard said in a news release.
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Massey Energy has litany of critics, violations
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/06/AR2010040601531.html?id=10293691&hpid=topnews
Washington Post: Massey Energy, owner of the coal mine where at least 25 miners died this week, and its outspoken chief executive, Don Blankenship, have long been lightning rods for critics of the coal industry. And although the company says that its safety record is better than the industry average, Massey has frequently been cited for safety violations, including about 50 citations at the Upper Big Branch mine in March alone. Many of those 50 citations were for poor ventilation of dust and methane, ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
United States: Wind power: Schools look to wind farm to help budget
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-0330-wind-farm-schools-20100403,0,7014636.story
Chicago Tribune: With state budget cuts forcing them to lay off dozens of teachers, three school districts in Chicago's suburbs are moving forward on a unique joint venture that could help secure their long-term financial future: a wind farm in central Illinois. With help from Milwaukee-based Heston Wind, Keeneyville School District 20, Carpentersville School District 300 and Prospect Heights School District 23 are looking to build and operate a 10-turbine, 20-megawatt wind farm in Stark County, about ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Britain may block World Bank loan for coal plant in South Africa
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7088297.ece
Times (UK): The Government is considering blocking an aid project to provide reliable coal-fired electricity for millions of South Africans after coming under intense pressure from green groups in the run-up to the election. On Thursday, Britain will cast the deciding vote on whether the World Bank should grant a $3.7 billion (£2.4 billion) loan to allow South Africa to build the Medupi coal plant. It would be bigger than Drax, Britain's largest coal plant, and pump out an estimated 25 ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
British firm vows to use software and satellites to track down illegal timber shipments
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2260859/british-firm-vows-track-illegal
Business Green: An Oxford-based firm is to open a new front in the fight to tackle illegal logging with the development of software designed to track timber shipments through their complex supply chain and provide purchasers with the ability to verify where timber has come from. Helveta announced today that it is to accelerate the development and deployment of the technology after closing a £1m funding round involving Carbon Trust Investments, Oxford Capital Partners, Albion Venture and Success ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Public supports energy over environment: poll
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63536B20100406?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: For the first time in 10 years Americans are more likely to say the United States should give more priority to developing oil, natural gas and coal than to protecting the environment, according to a poll on Tuesday. The poll was conducted a few weeks before President Barack Obama announced he would open offshore oil drilling in some parts the U.S. East Coast, Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. Half of 1,014 U.S. adults, who were surveyed March 4-7 by Gallup, said the country should ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Proposed grid could make offshore wind power more reliable
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100405152547.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: The energy needs of the entire human population could potentially be met by converting wind energy to electricity. While offshore wind power resources are abundant, wind turbines are currently unable to provide steady power due to natural fluctuations in wind direction and strength. Offshore wind power output can be made more consistent by choosing project development locations that take advantage of regional weather patterns and by connecting wind power generators with a shared power ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
Barrier Reef route 'outrageous'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8604250.stm
BBC: "From where I sit, it is outrageous that any vessel could find itself 12km off course, it seems, in the Great Barrier Reef," he said, after inspecting the site of the grounding by helicopter. "The practical challenge is to deal with this situation now, then is to bring to account those who are responsible." The Chinese-registered ship is balanced precariously on Douglas Shoals, off the east coast of Great Keppel Island and well outside the authorised shipping ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
We need birth control, not geoengineering
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/06/geoengineering-carbon-emissions
Grist: I've written about my choice not to have children. What's all too easy to forget is that many women still don't have any reasonable choice about their fertility. An estimated 200 million women around the world don't have access to family-planning tools. If they did, 52 million unwanted pregnancies could be averted every year, according to the Guttmacher Institute [PDF]. I'm not talking government mandates or coercion or heavy-handed tactics -- those approaches aren't just ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
South African coal plant proposal strains 'culture' of World Bank
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/04/05/05climatewire-south-african-coal-plant-proposal-strains-cu-41781.html
ClimateWire: "No" isn't a word the World Bank hears often from the United States. In the past five years, the United States has opposed less than 3 percent of more than 3,400 World Bank Group loans and grants, a ClimateWire analysis has found. Despite the country's being the largest shareholder, American opposition failed to stop any of the $183 billion worth of roads, dams, hospitals, irrigation systems or other projects that came before the bank's executive directors for approval. ...
Wed, 7 Apr 10
US Air Force declares war on carbon emissions
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2260807/air-force-declares-war-carbon
Business Green: The US Air Force's green credentials really took off last week after it completed a successful test flight of a military aircraft using a 50:50 blend of biofuel and conventional jet fuel. The 90-minute flight in an A-10C Thunderbolt II out of Eglin Air Force Base in Florida marked the first time that any aircraft has been powered using a biofuel blend in all engines. Up to now test flights undertaken by commercial operators have tended to run only one or two engines using ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
United States: After a 20-Year Mapping Effort, Hoping to Save Dozens of Native Plants
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/nyregion/03flora.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: American colonists once watched for the spring bloom of the Nantucket shadbush, a sign that it was warm enough to bury the winter's dead. Today, that shadbush and dozens of other flora native to the New York region face extinction, a result of urban development and the encroachment of invasive plants from foreign lands, scientists from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden report. Hoping to revive the plants, the scientists recently completed a 20-year project mapping species in every ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
United States: Panel advises against Cape Cod wind project
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63208M20100403?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A federal advisory panel urged the U.S. Interior Department on Friday to block a $1 billion wind project off Cape Cod opposed by local business leaders and politicians but seen as helpful to the Obama administration's energy strategy. Cape Wind Associates LLC has proposed building 130 wind towers that would soar 440 feet above the surface of Nantucket Sound near the popular Massachusetts tourist areas of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Island. The proposed wind farm ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Arch Coal sues EPA over veto of W.Va. mine permit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100402/ap_on_bi_ge/wv_epa_coal_lawsuit
Associated Press: A subsidiary of mining giant Arch Coal Inc. sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday over the planned veto of a water quality permit for West Virginia's largest surface mine. St. Louis-based Arch argues in the federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., that the EPA doesn't have the authority to revoke a Clean Water Act permit once it has been issued. The permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine was issued to Arch's Mingo Logan Coal three years ago. The EPA announced the veto ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Obama's Offshore Drilling Pitch Sways Few Fence-Sitters on Climate Bill
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/02/02greenwire-obamas-offshore-drilling-pitch-sways-few-fence-21861.html
Greenwire: It's often said in Washington that if you anger both liberals and conservatives, you must be doing something right. By that measure, President Obama may have done something right with his offshore drilling plan, but he does not appear to have advanced his higher priority -- passing a comprehensive climate and energy bill. Obama has not moved many GOP votes, if any. The Republicans who did praise his plan called it too little, too late. And any goodwill he has won from centrist ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Africa looks to nuclear power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100402/wl_csm/291721
Christian Science Monitor: Last month, Senegalese Energy Minister Samuel Sarr slipped off to a conference in Paris for an extraordinary announcement: His country is hoping to enrich uranium and build shimmering Homer Simpson-style cooling towers over a landscape where erratic power outages have long forced homes and businesses to rely on generators and candles. Senegal is hoping to do it by 2020. And the former French colony has company. Today, South Africa's two nuclear power reactors stand alone on the ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Radical green
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1977138,00.html
Time Magazine: Towering 88 m above frigid waters, scarcely 5 m from the seawall south of the industrial area of Avedore Holme, near Copenhagen, stand two prototypes of the largest and latest generation of offshore wind turbines. With blades stretching 59 m, nearly 10% longer than those of some of the biggest turbines now running, these two white giants have the capacity to generate 7.2 MW of electricity -- equal to the annual power consumption of about 4,900 Danish homes. Constructed and operated by Dong ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
U.S. may be setting new course for handling climate change, energy supply
http://www.oilweek.com/news.asp?ID=27601
Canadian Press: Signals from the White House that it´s moving away from so-called cap-and-trade initiatives _ a cornerstone of the Democrats´ stalled climate legislation _ amounts to a respite for Canada in its own efforts to combat greenhouse gases, experts say. "It means Canada has been given a very long breathing space," Michal Moore, a professor of energy economics at the University of Calgary, said Thursday. "Until we get to the point that we are willing to say that carbon is an issue ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Canada: Mild winter saves Canadian seal pups from hunters, but brings other dangers
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/world/americas/02seal.html
New York Times: The annual hunt for harp seals off the coast of eastern Canada will barely take place this year. But this is not good news for the seals. An exceptionally mild winter in the usually frigid Gulf of St. Lawrence has combined with several related factors to discourage Canadian hunters from pursuing the seal pups, whose pelts are prized by the fur industry. The grim spectacle of pups being bludgeoned on the ice by hunters has long been cited by animal rights activists seeking to curtail ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Southern California beach erosion is worst in a decade
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-vanishing-beaches2-2010apr02,0,2223726.story
LA Times: Jeremy and Fernando Gutierrez descended a staircase to a cove in Laguna Beach for a nighttime lobster dive and almost fell into the ocean. Even in the darkness, the brothers could see what the problem was -- the sand at Treasure Island Beach had all but disappeared, leaving a rugged landscape of rock and a sudden drop-off where the staircase once led gently to the strand. "I couldn't believe it," said Fernando Gutierrez, 26, of Costa Mesa. "There was no beach and a 20-foot ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Deer ticks, poison ivy could thrive as the climate changes
http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/164682/
Duluth News Tribune: Nasty species such as deer ticks and poison ivy may proliferate inside their current range and spread into new areas as carbon dioxide levels increase and climate change continues into the future. That's the finding of a new report released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation -- just in time to push support for climate-change legislation expected soon in the U.S. Senate. The U.S. House already has passed climate legislation. While climate-change skeptics say the ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
EPA toughens tailpipe rules in national greenhouse gas limits
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6940780.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Ftopheadlines+%28chron.com+-+Top+Stories%29
Houston Chronicle: The federal government imposed the first national limits on greenhouse gas emissions Thursday with the tightening of fuel efficiency standards for cars and light-duty trucks. The new rules, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department, require a fleet average of 35.5 miles a gallon by 2016 -- up from an average 27.5 miles per gallon today. Officials said the tougher tailpipe standards would save consumers money at the gas pump, reduce the ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Countries Blame China, Not Nature, for Water Shortage
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/world/asia/02drought.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: In southern China, the worst drought in at least 50 years has dried up farmers' fields and left tens of millions of people short of water. But the drought has also created a major public relations problem for the Chinese government in neighboring countries, where in recent years China has tried to project an image of benevolence and brotherhood. Farmers and fishermen in countries that share the Mekong River with China, especially Thailand, have lashed out at China over four ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
In Europe, a Call for Tighter Caps on Emissions
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/business/energy-environment/02carbon.html
New York Times: Climate advocates called for tighter caps on greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union after figures released on Thursday showed that some of the dirtiest industries benefited from a surplus of permits. The figures from the European Commission showed the largest annual decline in emissions from industries covered by the bloc's carbon trading program since it began in 2005, a drop that was largely a result of the global economic slowdown. Many of the companies that were ...
Sat, 3 Apr 10
Wrong to think that climate is forgotten
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/wrong-to-think-that-climate-is-forgotten-20100401-ri1h.html
Sydney Morning Herald: FROM the newspaper headlines, you would think that the past four months have been a time of drift in the fight against climate change. Yes, the Copenhagen summit was disappointing. Many countries had high ambitions and we certainly didn't achieve them all. But we did make progress, and a growing number of nations are taking real action. More than 100 countries, including Australia, have signed the Copenhagen Accord. Seventy-nine of them - accounting for more than 80 per cent of global ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Emissions limits, greater fuel efficiency for cars, light trucks made official
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040101412.html?wprss=rss_world
Washington Post: Consumers will pay more for cars upfront but may save money in the long term under new rules finalized Thursday by the Obama administration that will increase fuel efficiency and for the first time set greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks. The new fuel efficiency standards, issued by the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency as the result of a May 2009 deal with the auto industry, represent a peaceful end to a contentious legal ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Auto emissions: New greenhouse gas caps raise gas mileage standards
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100401/ts_csm/291914
Christian Science Monitor: The nation's first-ever law requiring a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions goes into effect today, mandating that automakers progressively chop the amount of tail-pipe gases emitted from US cars. The first cars to be affected by the law will be automakers' 2012 lines. By 2016, model year greenhouse gas emissions must not exceed an average of 8.8 ounces per mile – a 21 percent reduction from today's levels. To get there, vehicles' gas mileage will need to achieve on average 35.5 ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Arctic ice makes surprising, if temporary, comeback
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/arctic-ice-makes-surprising-comeback-nearly-back-to-average-level-for-first-time-in-10-years/article1520931/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Gl
Canadian Press: Arctic sea ice is nearly back to average global levels for the first time in at least a decade after years of spectacular declines. The surprise growth at a time of year when ice is normally melting has triggered a blizzard of I-told-you-sos among online climate-change skeptics. But the man whose data is behind the furor says a few weeks of cold weather in one part of the Arctic -- not the end of climate change -- has skewed the numbers. "It is not the end of global warming,' ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Tokyo launches Asia's first carbon trade scheme
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100401/sc_afp/japanwarmingclimatecarbontrade
Agence France-Presse: The city of Tokyo on Thursday launched Asia's first scheme to trade carbon credits, aiming to lead Japan in the battle against greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change. The mega-city of 13 million mandated that the 1,400 top-polluting factories and office buildings reduce emissions, with the aim of slashing Tokyo's total output of carbon dioxide by 25 percent from 2000 levels by 2020. "We want to be a model for the Japanese government," Yuki Arata, the director for ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Carbon edges up as EU confirms emissions fell 11% last year
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/01/emissionstrading-climate-change
Business Green: The price of carbon credits in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) edged up around 2% today after the European Commission released preliminary figures suggesting emissions from companies covered by the scheme fell 11.2% in 2009. The drop in emissions was largely the result of last year's economic downturn and was in line with analyst expectations. "The fall in emissions is exactly as expected," said Kjersti Ulset from analyst firm Point Carbon. "But prices have increased this ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
James Cameron, in real life, fights to save indigenous groups from massive dam construction in Brazil
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0401-hance_cameron.html
Mongabay: After creating a hugely successful science-fiction film about a mega-corporation destroying the indigenous culture of another planet, James Cameron has become a surprisingly noteworthy voice on environmental issues, especially those dealing with the very non-fantastical situation of indigenous cultures fighting exploitation. This week Cameron traveled to Brazil for a three-day visit to the Big Bend (Volta Grande) region of the Xingu River to see the people and rainforests that would ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
U.S. Issues Limits on Greenhouse Gases From Cars
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/science/earth/02emit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The federal government took its first formal step to regulate global warming pollution on Thursday by issuing final rules for greenhouse gas emissions for automobiles and light trucks. The move ends a 30-year battle between regulators and automakers but sets the stage for what may be a bigger fight over climate-altering emissions from stationary sources like power plants, steel mills and refineries. The new tailpipe rules, jointly written by the Transportation Department and ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Mobile phone barcode app to help ethical shoppers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/01/mobile-phone-app-barcoo-ethical
Guardian: An innovative mobile phone app could create a new generation of ethical shoppers by allowing them to check a company's social responsibility rating and environmental credentials. Barcoo, developed by a group of young Germans, allows customers to point their phones at the barcode on products in shops and find out information such as how environmentally friendly a company is and even how it treats its staff. Its makers say the app is intended to motivate the world to shop more ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
EPA: New mining policy would protect water quality
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100401/ap_on_bi_ge/us_mountaintop_mining
Associated Press: The Obama administration Thursday spelled out tighter water quality standards for surface coal mines in Appalachia in a move that could curtail mountaintop removal mining. The policy will sharply reduce the practice of filling valleys with waste from mountaintop removal and other types of surface mines in a six-state region, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said. The policy met with immediate praise from opponents who consider mountaintop mining ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
New path to solar energy via solid-state photovoltaics
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100331091147.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: A newly discovered path for the conversion of sunlight to electricity could brighten the future for photovoltaic technology. Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new route to energy production overcomes the bandgap voltage limitation that continues to plague conventional solid-state solar cells. Working with bismuth ferrite, a ceramic made from ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Desert spreading like 'cancer,' Egypt conference told
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100401/wl_africa_afp/environmentdesertmideast
Agence France-Presse: The desert is making a comeback in the Middle East, with fertile lands turning into barren wastes that could further destabilise the region, experts said at a water conference on Thursday. "Desertification spreads like cancer, it can't be noticed immediately," said Wadid Erian, a soil expert with the Arab League, at a conference on Thursday in the Egyptian coastal town of Alexandria. Its effect can be seen in Syria, where drought has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Arab states urged to be open on water scarcity
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6303QQ20100401?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: People in the Arab world need fuller and freer information about shrinking water supplies but their governments are withholding it for fear of fuelling unrest, a United Nations expert said on Thursday. Arable land makes up just 4.2 percent of the Middle East and North Africa and is expected to shrink due to climate change -- a potential source of political instability, analysts say, in a region where economic privation has sometimes sparked conflict. "Arab countries do not ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
EPA unveils new pollution limits that could curtail 'mountaintop' mining
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040102312.html?wprss=rss_nation
Washington Post: The Obama administration on Thursday imposed strict new environmental guidelines that are expected to sharply curtail "mountaintop" coal mining, a controversial practice that has enriched Appalachia's economy while rearranging its topography. The announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency ended months of bureaucratic limbo on the issue. It was hailed by environmentalists but condemned by coal industry officials, who said it would render a technique that generates about 10 ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
U.S., Canada crack down on vehicle emissions
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6304GT20100401?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 on Thursday finalized its first greenhouse gas emissions rules on automobiles and hiked fuel efficiency standards for the first time since the 1970s, measures Canada imposed as well. The U.S. rules will first apply to 2012 model cars, rolling off production lines next year. They are part of President Barack Obama's goal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by about 17 percent under 2005 levels by the year 2020. Obama wants Congress to pass a long-delayed ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
E.P.A. Rules to Limit Water Pollution From Mining
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/science/earth/02coal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The Environmental Protection Agency issued tough new water quality guidelines on Thursday that could curtail some of the most contentious coal mining techniques used across Appalachia. In announcing the guidelines, Lisa P. Jackson, the agency's administrator, cited evolving science on the effects of mountaintop removal mining, an aggressive form of coal extraction that uses explosives and vast machinery to tear off hilltops to expose coal seams, dumping the resulting rubble into ...
Fri, 2 Apr 10
Feed in tariff promises solar surge
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2260582/feed-tariff-promises-solar
Business Green: The UK's renewable energy industry is expecting to see a surge in sales following the launch today of the government's long-anticipated feed in tariff incentive scheme. Dubbed the Clean Energy Cashback scheme, the new initiative modeled on Germany's highly popular feed-in tariff will provide businesses, households and communities guaranteed payments in return for the energy they generate onsite using renewable technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines. The Department ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
China spends big to counter severe weather caused by climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/31/china-announces-extreme-weather-measures
Guardian: China will tomorrow start ramping up preparations for typhoons, dust storms and other extreme weather disasters as part of a 10-year plan to predict and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Improved warning systems, new emergency drills and bolstered infrastructure will form the backbone of the new regulations, which are the country's most advanced measures yet to deal with natural disaster. China has a long history of devastating floods and droughts, but officials said ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Climate: 75 countries set carbon emission targets for 2020 - UN
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-75-countries-set-carbon-emission-targets-for-2020--un-1932391.html
Agence France-Presse: Seventy-five countries accounting for more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases from energy use have filed pledges to cut or limit carbon emissions by 2020, the UN climate convention said Wednesday. The promises, made under the Copenhagen Accord, are only a step towards wider action to tackle global warming, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said in its official report on December's world climate summit. A total of 111 countries plus the European Union (EU) ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
UK 'Climategate' inquiry largely clears scientists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033003472.html
Associated Press: The first of several British investigations into the e-mails leaked from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved. The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee said Wednesday that they'd seen no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming - two ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Water poverty a vital issue for Egypt
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100331/FOREIGN/703309875/1002
National: A conference on environmental security in the Arab world opens in Alexandria today, just days after an Egyptian minister warned that his country has fallen below the water poverty line and amid a government campaign to educate citizens on the economical use of water. The conference, titled Scarce Water, Rising Water: Between Draughts and Flooding -- Arab Policies to Meet Environmental Challenges, will address challenges ranging from rising sea levels to desertification, with a warning ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
United States: MID says 'yes' to wood for power
http://www.modbee.com/2010/03/31/1109021/mid-says-yes-to-wood-for-power.html
Modesto Bee: A plant that would turn orchard wood into electricity won initial support Tuesday from the Modesto Irrigation District board. Directors voted 5-0 to launch the state-required environmental study of the plant, which would be built in the Beard Industrial District in southeast Modesto. The plant would burn wood removed from nut and fruit orchards during pruning or replacement of the trees. It would provide a service to growers facing an end to open burning and supply the ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
U.K. Backs Extending Kyoto Pact to Spur Climate Talks
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/03/30/bloomberg1376-L05FDN1A1I4I-2.DTL
Bloomberg: The U.K. government backed maintaining limits for carbon emissions beyond 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol when the current targets expire, an effort to spur global negotiations aimed at limiting climate change. Britain is prepared to agree to new goals under Kyoto so long as legally-binding limits are also imposed on countries including China and the U.S., Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband told reporters today. The initiative comes three months after some 190 ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Climate researchers 'secrecy' criticised - but MPs say science remains intact
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/31/climate-mails-inquiry-jones-cleared
Guardian: MPs today strongly criticised the University of East Anglia for not tackling a "culture of withholding information" among the climate change scientists whose private emails caused a furore after being leaked online in November. The parliamentary science and technology select committee was scathing about the "standard practice" among the climate science community of not routinely releasing all its raw data and computer codes – something the committee's chair, Phil Willis MP, described ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
United Kingdom: Climate change scandal: MPs exonerate professor
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-change-scandal-mps-exonerate-professor-1931631.html
Independent (UK): Professor Phil Jones, the climate scientist at the centre of the scandal over the leak of sensitive emails from a university computer, has been largely exonerated by a powerful cross-party committee of MPs who said his scientific reputation remains intact. There was no evidence that Professor Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA), deliberately withheld or manipulated data in order to support the idea that global warming was real and that it ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Coal fuels much of internet 'data cloud', warns Greenpeace
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coal-fuels-much-of-internet-data-cloud-warns-greenpeace-1931581.html
Independent (UK): The digital photos, shared videos, tweets and Facebook chatter that make up our online lives may appear to have no physical form, but they contribute to some very real environmental damage, the campaign group Greenpeace warns. The vast amount of digital data that we upload and access via social networks and on websites such as YouTube is stored in what the internet industry calls the "cloud", by which it means a vast numbers of computers owned by the likes of Google, Yahoo and ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling for First Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, officials said Tuesday. The proposal -- a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations -- would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Obama Proposes Massive Offshore Drilling Expansion
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125378223&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: President Obama is expected to lift a decades-old ban on oil and gas drilling along much of the U.S. Atlantic coast and northern Alaska as part of an effort to reduce foreign imports and win support for an energy and climate bill. The changes would allow drilling on tracts as close as 50 miles to the Virginia shore, and end a longstanding moratorium on drilling from Delaware to Florida. Exploration in the Gulf of Mexico would be expanded eastward, and swaths north of Alaska would be ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Over 110 nations back Copenhagen climate deal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100331/india_nm/india473493
Reuters: More than 110 nations including top greenhouse gas emitters led by China and the United States back the non-binding Copenhagen Accord for combating climate change, according to a first formal U.N. list on Wednesday. The list, of countries from Albania to Zambia, helps end weeks of uncertainty about support for the deal, agreed at an acrimonious summit in the Danish capital in December. The list was compiled by the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat. The accord, falling short of a ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Copenhagen Accord climate pledges too weak: U.N.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62U13M20100331?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Reuters: More than 110 countries have signed up to the Copenhagen Accord on fighting global warming but the United Nations said on Wednesday that their pledges for cutting greenhouse gas emissions were insufficient. The first formal U.N. list of backers of the deal, compiled since the text was agreed at an acrimonious 194-nation summit in December, showed support from all top emitters led by China, the United States, the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. It also includes smaller ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
German film offers answers to Gore climate concerns
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62U1TR20100331?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Al Gore raised some alarming questions about climate change in his Oscar-winning 2006 film "An Inconvenient Truth" that a German filmmaker has now tried to provide some answers for in a new documentary. Carl Fechner's "The Fourth Revolution - Energy Autonomy" is an attempt to show how the world could be getting all its energy from renewable sources in 30 years -- and help slow the climate change that Gore warned about in his blockbuster film. An unabashedly provocative look at ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Solar power lights up Bangladesh central bank
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62U1U520100331?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Bangladesh's central bank has switched over to solar-powered lighting, in a move to encourage green energy in a country drastically short of electricity, bank officials said. The bank has spent around 13.5 million taka ($195,000) on a solar power plant that will generate 8 KW of electricity a day. "It is not possible to meet the country's fast-growing power demand only using gas and coal. So we have to go for alternative energy resources," central bank governor Atiur Rahman ...
Thu, 1 Apr 10
Lovelock: Humans Can't Fix Global Warming
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1843600/lovelock_humans_cant_fix_global_warming/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: A scientist and environmentalist who gained notoriety for proposing that the Earth behaved like an organism now claims that mankind isn't smart enough to deal with global climate change. British researcher James Lovelock--the man who four decades ago formulated the Gaia hypothesis, which asserts that the living and nonliving systems of the Earth work together like the various parts of a living organism--told Leo Hickman of The Guardian, "I don't think we're yet evolved to the point ...