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Italy: Thinking Small, and Still Smaller, on Wind Power
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/thinking-small-and-still-smaller-on-wind-power/
NYT: An article in The New York Times on Wednesday centers on Tocco da Casauria, a small, traditional town in Italy whose four wind turbines, installed over the past four years, produce 30 percent more energy than its residents use. In fact, money made from the production of clean energy has brought the town back from the brink of insolvency and allowed to renovate its school and perform other much-needed municipal repairs. Tocco is near L'Aquila, the site of a devastating earthquake in ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
In Search of Lasting Farming Solutions to Climate Change
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53006
Inter Press Service: In the semi-arid Laikipia district of Kenya's Rift Valley province, research scientist Sarah Ogalleh Ayeri travels from one village to another, documenting methods used by peasant farmers as they attempt to adapt to changing climatic conditions. Laikipia district, found on a high plateau north-west of Mount Kenya, is divided into two ecological regions. The side closer to Mount Kenya receives some seasonal rains, while the northern part of the plateau is arid. "Farmers in this ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Nuclear power to remain in Germany's energy equation
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100929/wl_csm/327994
Christian Science Monitor: When Germany pledged a "comprehensive and irreversible" end to nuclear power barely a decade ago, antinuclear activist Erhard Renz thought he'd won. Reassured that the Biblis nuclear power plant near his home would be turned off within years, Mr. Renz turned his green passions to installing solar panels. "We were convinced it was over," he says. But Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to extend the life span of Germany's 17 plants an average of 10 years beyond 2021, the date the ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Green outcry as EU blesses Spanish support of coal
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68S53220100929?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Spain gained approval from Europe's competition watchdog on Wednesday to support unprofitable coal mining until 2015, which critics said would prop up an ailing sector to the detriment of the environment. The decision coincides with a wave of strikes by Spanish coal miners demanding unpaid wages. Under a decree passed by the Spanish government, 10 power generators will have to burn some domestic coal instead of cheaper imports. "I am satisfied that the planned ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Pennsylvania GOP rejects natural gas tax plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68S52920100929?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A top Pennsylvania Republican rejected a Democratic-sponsored plan for taxing natural gas production on Wednesday, vowing to stop a bill that he said would drive energy companies out of the state. The opposition will force Governor Ed Rendell, a Democrat, to seek a compromise between Democratic and Republic plans. Sen. Joseph Scarnati said a bill proposing to tax gas drillers 39 cents per 1,000 cubic feet of gas produced was "totally unacceptable" and that it would not even go ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
U.S. government to unveil new drilling rules by Thursday
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68S57K20100929?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Obama administration was set to release its latest set of requirements for offshore oil drillers by Thursday as the government moves toward lifting its contested ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The Interior Department has said it will release new drilling regulations by the end of September aimed at increasing safety in the industry, which was rocked by the BP oil spill disaster. The new rules are one of the conditions the department said must be in place ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Free availability of satellite imagery has boosted deforestation monitoring applications, but risk of data gap looms
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0929-hansen_interview.html
Mongabay: In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of satellite-based monitoring applications and technologies, which is perhaps best exemplified in the eyes of the public by Google Earth, which allows anyone with a decent internet connection to view overhead images of nearly any place on Earth. But these new applications are also helping scientists more effectively monitor environmental change, including the fluctuations in polar sea ice, shifts in oceanic plankton, and ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Germany: Greens See Red Over Nuclear Power Extension
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100929/wl_time/08599202233300
Time Magazine: Going against massive public opposition, the German cabinet on Tuesday gave the green light to extend the nation's use of nuclear power. Hailing the move earlier as a "revolution," Chancellor Angela Merkel claimed that nuclear power will serve as a "bridge technology," in order to give Germany more time to expand its production of renewable energy sources. But it could also give Merkel a headache, as the proposed extension sets the government on a collision course with political parties, ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Rivers worldwide in peril: society treats symptoms, ignores causes
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0929-hance_river_crisis.html
Mongabay: Dams, agricultural runoff, pesticides, sewage, mercury pollution from coal plants, invasive species, overconsumption, irrigation, erosion from deforestation, wetland destruction, overfishing, aquaculture: it's clear that the world's rivers are facing a barrage of unprecedented impacts from humans, but just how bad is the situation? A new global analysis of the world's rivers is not comforting: the comprehensive report, published in Nature, finds that our waterways are in a deep crisis which ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Water map shows billions at risk of 'water insecurity'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11435522
BBC: About 80% of the world's population lives in areas where the fresh water supply is not secure, according to a new global analysis. Researchers compiled a composite index of "water threats" that includes issues such as scarcity and pollution. The most severe threat category encompasses 3.4 billion people. Writing in the journal Nature, they say that in western countries, conserving water for people through reservoirs and dams works for people, but not nature. They ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Extreme Weather: Heat engines
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827802.800-extreme-weather-heat-engines.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=magcontents
New Scientist: Typhoon or hurricane? A tropical cyclone starts life as a tropical depression - an organised, spinning storm system with wind speeds of less than 63 kilometres per hour. When the winds grow faster, the system is given a name and classified as a tropical storm. When the winds reach 119 km/h, a ring of intense thunderstorms called the "eyewall" forms around the storm's centre. Within the eyewall is the "eye" of the storm, a clear, calm region of sinking air. Once the sustained ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Glaciers May Have Soggier Bottoms Than Thought
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100929/sc_livescience/glaciersmayhavesoggierbottomsthanthought
LiveScience.com): Glaciers may seem to be all ice, but it turns out they can be soggy with water, a finding that should help researchers understand how glaciers slide toward the sea, and improve their predictions about rising sea levels in the face of climate change. "Adding water to the base of glaciers and ice sheets can make them speed up," said glacialogist Joel Harper of the University of Montana at Missoula, who with his colleagues discovered an unexpected amount of water near the bottom of a ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
'River crisis' worsens threat of water scarcity - study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/sc_afp/environmentwaterrivers
AFP: The vast majority of the world's rivers are reeling from pollution, over-development and excessive extraction, and billions of dollars of investment by rich countries to avert water stress have damaged biodiversity, a study released on Wednesday said. "Rivers around the world really are in a crisis state," said one of its authors, Peter McIntyre, a professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The investigation, published by the journal Nature, looked at the ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
India holds important stake in success of international negotiations on climate change, says Krishna
http://sify.com/news/india-holds-important-stake-in-success-of-international-negotiations-on-climate-change-says-krishna-news-international-kj3vOdbegdc.html
Asian News International: External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Wednesday said that India has an important stake in the success of ongoing international negotiations to address climate change. Addressing the United Nation General Assembly, Krishna while speaking on the issue of climate change in his speech said: "As a country vulnerable to and already suffering from the impacts of climate change, India has an important stake in the success of ongoing international negotiations to address climate ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
2100, end of coral reefs?
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article802931.ece
Hindu: If national targets are not revised in the Copenhagen Accord, the international pledge which was agreed at last year's Copenhagen's COP15 climate change conference, a global temperature increase of up to 4.2º C and the end of coral reefs could become reality by 2100. Just ahead of the next United Nations Climate Change Conference, which starts on 4 October in Tianjin, China, a new report published yesterday (September 29), in Environmental Research Letters describes how, due to lack ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Abbott attacks PM over changing carbon tax policy
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abbott-attacks-pm-over-changing-carbon-tax-policy/story-fn59niix-1225931993190
Australian: JULIA Gillard has again declined to commit to a timetable for introducing a carbon price. The Prime Minister said yesterday she will allow the government's multi-party climate change committee to finish its deliberations at the end of next year before making a final decision, and would not play "rule-in rule-out games" before the committee had even met. "The committee will start, the committee will work, it'll do it diligently and we'll see where it gets to and what the ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Study: World's 'Peak Coal' Moment Has Arrived
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/29/29greenwire-study-worlds-peak-coal-moment-has-arrived-70121.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: Is the world about to begin running out of coal? Two researchers say so. In a peer-reviewed article published in the journal Energy, they write that the world will hit "peak coal" production next year or shortly thereafter, and then mining would begin a long, steep decline. Bottom line, say the paper's co-authors, Tadeusz Patzek, a University of Texas engineering professor, and Greg Croft, a St. Mary's College of California earth science professor, is that the 7 billion tons of ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Sen. Graham's Plan for Clean-Energy Bill Could Drain RES Support
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/29/29greenwire-sen-grahams-plan-for-clean-energy-bill-could-d-63814.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Backers of bipartisan Senate legislation establishing a renewable electricity standard hit a stumbling block today as Sen. Lindsey Graham made plans to introduce an alternative energy measure that could draw Republican supporters. The South Carolina Republican plans to float a new bill today that would establish a mandate requiring utilities to source a percentage of their electricity from clean energy sources, including renewables, nuclear and "clean coal." The measure could ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Fears over Sri Lanka nuclear plan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11435779
BBC: Environmentalists in Sri Lanka have expressed concern over government plans to build a nuclear power plant by 2025. Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka announced that the government intends to build the plant to fulfil increasing demands for energy. The minister has said the country needs to ensure that there will be no power cuts in the future. But the campaigners say that the island is full of natural sources of energy. Observers are also sceptical as to whether ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
NYC to curb water runoff with blue and green roofs
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R67F20100929?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: New York City wants to catch and store rainwater temporarily in new roof systems to stop heavy storms sending sewage spilling into city waterways. The catchment systems would consist of "blue" roofs that have a series of drainage pools and "green" or grass- or ivy-covered roofs, under a plan unveiled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg estimates the city could save $2.4 billion over 20 years if the state allows it to use this kind of green technology instead of relying on ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
UN environment chief urges recycling of rare metals
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100929/sc_afp/unenvironmentclimatetechnologymetalsjapanchina
AFP: The UN's environment chief on Wednesday called for a global drive to recycle rare metals that have hit the headlines in a spat between Japan and China, warning that they are crucial for green technologies. Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said that demand for "rare earth metals" such as lithium and neodymium -- used in batteries for hybrid cars or components in wind and solar power -- was accelerating fast. Rare earths are available in only ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
EU clampdown on gas-guzzling vans suffers setback
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R2A720100928
Reuters: Europe's efforts to wean itself off costly oil imports suffered a setback on Tuesday when a European Parliament panel threw out plans for speed-limiters on vans and light trucks. In the finely balanced vote, the parliament's environment committee approved the main goal of the regulation -- cutting van emissions by around 14 percent to an average of 175 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer by 2016. But that target is widely seen as unambitious, given rapid gains in efficiency ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Liberia's sea level rises
http://www.liberianobserver.com/node/8520
Daily Observer: Liberia's ecosystem is under serious threats and will have devastating consequences if nothing is done to tackle the situation, the newly appointed Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned. Madam Anyaa Vohiri named changing rainfall patterns, coastal erosion and flooding and the rise of the country's sea level as three 'climatic hazards' that have been recorded. According to her, some of the effects of these problems include potential loss of ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
New Zealand: Recession offers chance to re-think coastal development
http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/local/news/recession-offers-chance-to-re-think-coastal-develo/3924406/
NZPA: Every cloud has a silver lining and environmental advocates say the recession-driven hiatus in sub-divisions and development offers a chance for a major overhaul of coastal management. The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) today called for re-writing of the Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) set down in 1994 to provide councils with national direction on coastal management. ``Those policies are now out of synch with public sentiment and need changing,'' said EDS policy analyst ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
'We want to stay': Islanders plea to Parliament
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/29/3024563.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Torres Strait Islanders are taking their appeal for urgent action on climate change to Parliament House today. A group of 40 islanders from Poruma Island - representing a fifth of the population - will meet with Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin in Canberra. The islanders will perform traditional dances and song cycles in the Great Hall of Parliament House ahead of the meeting. Located between the far north Queensland coastline and Papua New Guinea, the 3 ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Coral reefs 'could disappear by 2100.'
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/614395/coral_reefs_could_disappear_by_2100.html
Ecologist: Weak climate change targets could mean the end of coral reefs by 2100 if 'urgent action' isn't taken. A new report by the Institute of Physics (IOP) suggests nations have failed to commit to high enough targets to reduce emissions, and warns, unless these are raised, CO2 levels leading to ocean acidification could destroy coral reefs by the end of the century. The IOP's analysis of the Copenhagen Accord, the international pledge agreed at last year's Copenhagen climate change ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
China Vows to Continue to Reduce Carbon Emissions
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/China-Vows-to-Continue-to-Reduce-Carbon-Emissions-103995043.html
Voice of America: One of China's top energy officials vows the country will continue working to reduce the growth of its carbon emissions - a promise made ahead of last year's United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen. The vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua, says the government has so far mainly tried to raise public awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection issues. Speaking in Beijing Wednesday, he said China will incorporate ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Senators Predict Energy Victories Next Year
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/29/29greenwire-gop-senators-predict-energy-victories-next-year-9886.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: Even though the Senate failed to approve energy legislation over the past two years, Republicans say Congress is more likely to pass some energy measures next session because with major GOP gains forecast in November the balance of power is certain to be more even -- regardless of which party actually has control. "I think it's going to help, because I think what we've got now is we've such an imbalance between the parties that there's a great temptation by the majority party to say, ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Obama Promises to Push Climate Policies 'in Chunks' Next Year
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/29/29climatewire-obama-promises-to-push-climate-policies-in-ch-2269.html
ClimateWire: President Obama's newest pledge to resume an "urgent priority" on climate change next year could mark a new direction by Democrats that veers away from the politically hazardous effort to cut the bulk of national carbon emissions in one sprawling measure. An umbrella carbon policy failed despite a two-year attempt by the Democratic majority. Bite-size bills on electric cars, natural gas trucks and utility carbon caps might be reflective of a new strategy by Obama as he approaches ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Bonaire's Resilient Reefs Offer Hope for Dying Corals
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53001
Inter Press Service: Scientists are closely examining the reefs of this island just north of Venezuela to determine why it has escaped the devastation that wiped out 85 percent of the Caribbean's corals since the 1970s. Just in the past 30 years, coral cover in the Caribbean has gone from a healthy 65 percent to perhaps 20 percent. New diseases and algae invasions have wiped out much of the corals that stretch from the southeastern U.S. state of Florida, where the coral cover is tiny, to Bonaire, where a ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
How human water security is threatened across the world's rivers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/picture/2010/sep/29/water-pollution
Guardian: X
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Health advocates urge EPA regulation of greenhouse gases
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/121453-health-advocates-urge-epa-regulation-of-greenhouse-gases
Hill: Labeling climate change "a serious public health issue," more than 100 leading health advocates called on Washington policymakers this week to allow the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The advocates -- including 18 national public health organizations, 66 state-based groups and dozens of individual medical experts -- urged lawmakers to "recognize the threat to public health posed by climate change and to support measures that will reduce ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Australian fish moving with climate change
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/09/28/Australian-fish-moving-with-climate-change/UPI-88951285723956/
United Press International: Australian researchers report they're seeing significant changes in the distribution of coastal fish species they say are partly due to climate change. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization scientists have identified 43 species, representing about 30 percent of the inshore fish families occurring in Australia's southeast coastal waters, that exhibited shifts thought to be climate-related, the group said in a release. These include species such as silver ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Greenpeace ends Scots oil rig blockade
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-11429417
BBC: Greenpeace has ended its three day blockade of a drilling ship 100 miles off Shetland, after oil company Chevron won a second court order. Protesters had brought drill ship Stena Carron to a standstill north of Shetland, by swimming in front of it. Earlier they spent five days in a pod which they had attached to the ship's anchor chain, before Chevron took legal action to remove it. Greenpeace said its ship the Esperanza was continuing to watch ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
China says emissions goal already tough, no cap for now
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68S0V720100929?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: China's goals to slow greenhouse gas growth will be tough and costly, the nation's top climate change official said on Wednesday, presenting an absolute cap and major carbon market in the world's top emitter as distant plans. China's key policy for fighting global warming is to reduce its "carbon intensity" -- the amount of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, emitted for each dollar of economic activity -- by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared to the 2005 level. That domestic ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
China says climate talks to focus on differences
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_on_re_as/as_china_climate
AP: China's top climate change official said Wednesday that countries have little expectation of reaching a binding climate treaty this year but instead will focus on narrowing their differences ahead of the year-end summit in Cancun. Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission and China's lead climate official, said China aims to bring countries closer together when it hosts a weeklong U.N. climate meeting in the port city of Tianjin, the last formal ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Sharing the Pain of Climate Change
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ips/b7074fa9bb91a7fdf4a538a47ec3bd50.htm
Reuters: With a recent study warning that the Caribbean could lose six percent of its Gross Domestic Product annually to the ravages of climate change, some experts say that a combination of adaptation funding and risk pooling is the region's best hope for the future. "Climate risk insurance is already considered a critical tool in any comprehensive framework aimed at effectively adapting to the changing, and more changeable, climate," Milo Pearson, chair of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Richest nations criticised over aid
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ggcI6NtvBMDA34WyhcTAdhxH1wxg?docId=N0021201285722607614A
Press Association: Developing countries attacked the world's richest nations for failing to fulfil commitments to increase financial aid. Members of the Group of 77 said developed countries were responsible for challenges such as global warming that the poorer nations were now grappling with. The group called for better co-operation among the developing nations and joint action on global challenges such as climate change, food security and poverty to promote their own interests. Egyptian ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Obama Says Energy Policy A Top Priority Next Year
http://www10.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/09/28/us/politics/politics-us-climate-obama.html?_r=5&scp=2&sq=climate%2bchange&st=nyt
Reuters: President Barack Obama said revamping U.S. energy policy would be a top priority next year and may have to be done "in chunks" rather than through one piece of legislation, according to Rolling Stone magazine. In an interview published on Tuesday, Obama lamented that more progress to fight climate change had not been made since he took office, and blamed the economy for that failure. "One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
China to host working group meeting of UN Climate Change Conference
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-09/29/c_13535244.htm
Xinhua: The working group meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in north China's coastal city of Tianjin from Oct. 4 to 9, Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate change negotiator, said at a press conference on Wednesday. It is the final meeting before the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Cancun at the end of this year, and the first time that such formal meeting has been convened in China. About 3,000 delegates from party and observer ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Carbon price timing up in the air
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/carbon-price-timing-up-in-the-air-20100928-15vvr.html
Sydney Morning Herald: THE Gillard government has left open the timing for the establishment of a carbon price, with Climate Change Minister Greg Combet confirming it will be discussed by the new multiparty climate change committee. The decision to leave timing on the table means the government has left itself room to walk away from its pre-election position not to establish a carbon price until 2013. Mr Combet said: ''It's too early at this stage to be talking about timing, just as it is too early ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Policy on energy might change
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR2010092806474.html
Washington Post: President Obama hasn't given up on climate and energy legislation, according to a new Rolling Stone interview. He's just going to try for base hits. In an Oval Office interview with the magazine's editor, Jann Wenner, Obama said he would make passing "an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our over-reliance on fossil fuels" one of his "top priorities" for 2011. "We may end up having to do it in chunks, as opposed to some sort of comprehensive omnibus ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Half of shoppers support carbon tax on harmful products
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270615/half-shoppers-favour-taxing
Business Green: A carbon tax on environmentally damaging products could have popular support, a survey released today indicates. According to the survey of 2,000 people from environmental consultancy AEA, 51 per cent agreed that products that cause particular harm to the environment, either directly or through emissions associated with long-distance transport, should carry an additional green levy. Public backing for a carbon tax could represent good news for the coalition government, which ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Asian Development Bank raises $232m in green bond sale
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270617/adb-raises-230m-green-bond-sale
Business Green: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today sold $232.2m (£146.7m) in Clean Energy Bonds to support its renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in Asia and the Pacific. The bonds were primarily issued to Japanese retail investors, according to Thierry de Longuemar, ADB's treasurer. "The healthy sale of the Clean Energy Bonds shows a clear desire among Japanese investors to see funds committed to clean energy projects that will help improve the environment but ensure ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Forestry gains momentum in voluntary carbon market
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68R3IR20100928
Reuters: Voluntary carbon market players could increase demand for carbon credits from the forestry sector after the first forestry investment was issued credits under an industry-backed standard last week. "It could trigger a boom. Everyone has been waiting forever so hopefully we finally see some forestry credits come to market," said a market player, who declined to be named. The voluntary carbon market, which operates outside mandatory emissions cutting schemes, has been waiting for ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Sustainable Forestry: In Honduras, REDD Projects Hold Real Potential for Communities and the Environment
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/forestry.cfm?id=honduras_redd_project_meeting
Rainforest Alliance: In July, Honduras held its first national workshop on climate change and forests, called "Opportunities for Honduras to Participate in the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) Mechanism," with support from the Rainforest Alliance, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and a coalition of allied organizations and donors. One key outcome of the workshop: a promising new commitment to begin building a platform for REDD -- a commitment that ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Obama vows to make energy top priority for 2011
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270620/obama-vows-energy-top-priority
Business Green: After a chastening few months that have seen his efforts to pass a climate change bill defeated and his commitment to environmental protection questioned in the wake of the BP oil spill, Barack Obama has publicly pledged to make energy and climate change policy one of his top priorities for the coming year. In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone magazine published yesterday, the president expressed frustration over his failure to deliver on campaign pledges to drive the ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Wind will power fossil fuel-free Denmark in 2050, report predicts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/29/wind-fossil-fuel-denmark-2050
Guardian: The falling cost of renewable energy and rising cost of oil and gas will allow Denmark to develop an energy network entirely free of fossil fuels by 2050, according to a report published by the government's climate commission. The committee predicted that wind and biomass energy could meet the bulk of the country's energy requirements. It also argued that switching to renewables would be cheaper than continuing to use fossil fuels, particularly if predictions of soaring oil and ...
Thu, 30 Sep 10
Islanders leave Canberra without climate change funds
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/29/3025340.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: A group of Torres Strait Islanders say they are disappointed to be leaving Canberra without the assurance of new funding to save their homelands from rising tides. The Poruma Islanders visited Parliament House today to raise awareness of the threat to their small coral atoll. They are calling for urgent funding for sand dredging and the construction of sea walls. Joseph Elu, the mayor of the Northern Peninsular Area Regional Council, says there is great alarm among ...
Wed, 29 Sep 10
Australian PM sets up multi-party climate committee
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201009/s3023733.htm
Radio Australia: Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a multi-party climate change committee, tasked with looking at how the country should use carbon prices to drive lower emissions. The group will include three Government MPs, two Greens representatives, and an independent MP. Ms Gillard invited the Opposition Coalition to nominate two members of the committee, but it's made it clear it won't be involved, calling the committee "repugnant". Presenter: Liam ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Scotland to get 100 pct green energy by 2025
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68Q61X20100927?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Scotland should produce enough renewable electricity to meet all its power demand by 2025, First Minister Alex Salmond said Tuesday. "Scotland has unrivalled green energy resources and our new national target to generate 80 percent of electricity needs from renewables by 2020 will be exceeded by delivering current plans for wind, wave and tidal generation," Salmond said. "I'm confident that by 2025 we will produce at least 100 percent of our electricity needs from renewables ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Barack Obama under fire for grossly underestimating Gulf oil spill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/28/barack-obama-gulf-oil-spill
Guardian: The Obama administration lost the public trust and may have sabotaged clean-up operations in the Gulf of Mexico by grossly underestimating the amount of oil gushing from BP's broken Macondo well, according to a White House commission appointed to investigate the spill. In a scathing critique of the administration's handling of the disaster, the two co-chairs of the commission yesterday said government officials made a serious blunder by releasing early estimates of the spill that were ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Salmond: Renewables to supply all Scottish electricity by 2025
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270510/salmond-renewables-supply-100
Business Green: Scotland will produce enough renewable energy to supply "at least" 100 per cent of the country's electricity needs by 2025, first minister Alex Salmond will tell an industry conference later today. The forecast will be made at the Scottish Low Carbon Investment conference in Edinburgh, a two-day event designed to boost private finance investment in low-carbon projects. "I'm confident that by 2025 we will produce at least 100 per cent of our electricity needs from renewables ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Greening the high-street: big brands and the eco-revolution
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100927/sc_afp/lifestylefashiontextileenvironmentretail
AFP: Poisonous pesticides, soil pollution and water waste: high-street fashion has a lot to answer for in the environmental game. But can big brands use their global clout to drive the green revolution? If green is the new black on the high-street, then global retailers are lining up to parade their eco-credentials, from Marks and Spencers in Britain, to sportswear behemoth Nike or the fashion giant H&M. "There's a paradigm shift in the textile sector," John Mowbray, editor of ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Panel: Lowballing oil spill number akin to Custer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_custer
AP: The head of a White House-appointed panel examining the BP oil spill compared the federal government's underestimate of the spill's size to Gen. George Custer's fatal lowballing the number of Indians at Little Big Horn. The two co-chairmen of the national oil spill commission on Monday said early government estimates caused the public to lose trust in what it was being told. The spill was about 60 times bigger than first estimated. Incident Commander Thad Allen told ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Ugandan forest being stripped for fuel wood
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0927-hance_tcs_kasagala.html
Mongabay: A new study in the open access journal of Tropical Conservation Science finds that the Kasagala forest reserve in central Uganda is losing important tree species and suffering from low diversity of species. Researchers believe that forest degradation for charcoal and firewood has put heavy pressure on this ecosystem. The Kasagala forest reserve, according to the authors, was "previously set aside to provide ecosystem services and offer catchment protection to Lake Kyoga, an inland ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Scientist blasts official estimates on oil spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100927/ts_alt_afp/usoilpollutionenvironmentspill
AFP: A top scientist Monday contradicted US government claims that most of the oil that flooded into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's busted well has degraded, insisting that more than half remains. Much of the spilled oil was dispersed, evaporated or removed by burning and skimming, but the "remaining fraction -- over 50 percent of the total discharge -- is a highly durable material that resists further dissipation," Oceanographer Ian MacDonald told a presidential panel looking into the ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Drilling ban analysis due out a month early
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_drilling_ban
AP: The government agency in charge of offshore drilling will weigh in ahead of schedule on whether a ban on new deepwater wells should be lifted. The chief of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Michael Bromwich, told an investigative panel Monday that he is a month ahead of schedule in issuing a report on the ban. It's due to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in late October. President Barack Obama imposed the drilling moratorium following the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf of ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Oil companies must show can clean up spills: panel
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100927/ts_nm/us_oil_spill_commission
Reuters: Oil companies should be required to prove they can respond to major oil spills before they are allowed to acquire leases for offshore oil and gas development, White House oil spill commission co-chair Bill Reilly said on Monday. Reilly said such a requirement would help place some of the responsibility for improving oil spill response technology on oil companies, although he said the government should lead this effort. "The way to approach this is to make a condition of a grant ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
US commission told 50 percent of oil spill remains in Gulf
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100927/ts_afp/usoilpollutionenvironment
AFP: More than half the oil released from a busted BP well remains in the Gulf of Mexico, a presidential panel was told Monday, as the US pointman lamented a "dysfunctional" response to the disaster. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar meanwhile told the bipartisan commission that the spill had bolstered a drive to reform federal regulations for offshore drilling, promising that lessons were learnt. In an ominous sign for Gulf residents, however, oceanographer Ian MacDonald told the ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Could industrial interests ruin payments for environmental services?
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0927-hance_tcs_pes.html
Mongabay: One of the biggest ideas in the conservation world over the past decade is Payments for Environmental Services, known as PES, whereby governments, corporations, or the public pays for the environmental services that benefit them (and to date have been free), i.e. carbon, biodiversity, freshwater, etc. For example, Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is the largest such proposed PES concept, yet many others are emerging. However, a new study in ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Schwarzenegger blasts big oil, defends climate law
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/ca_schwarzenegger_climate_law
AP: SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday blasted the out-of-state oil companies that are trying to undermine California's global warming law, saying they are motivated purely by greed. Companies such as Valero Energy Corp., Tesoro Corp. and Koch Industries are spending millions of dollars to manipulate the will of Californians and "buy votes," the Republican governor told the Commonwealth Club. Their motivation, he said, is "self-serving greed." The ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
U.S. set to propose new auto fuel, emissions rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68Q5TN20100927?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Obama administration this week will propose new fuel efficiency and emissions requirements for cars and light trucks for model years 2017 and beyond. The plan, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's energy agenda geared toward reducing oil imports, is under review by the White House budget office. It is due on Thursday, but could be released sooner, Leading environmental groups have called on the administration to set a target of 60 miles per gallon by 2025 but officials ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
About 100 arrested in mountaintop mining protest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_mountaintop_mining_protest
AP: About 100 people were arrested Monday outside the White House while protesting against mountaintop removal mining, temporarily trading their freedom for a chance to highlight what they consider an environmental calamity. The protesters, arrested after refusing orders from U.S. Park Police to leave the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, were taken to a waiting city bus. As police escorted them one-by-one, hundreds of their supporters screamed encouragement ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Enbridge gradually restarts Michigan oil pipeline
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_michigan_river_oil_spill
AP: After a two-month shutdown, oil flowed Monday through a pipeline that leaked more than 800,000 gallons of oil in southern Michigan this summer, with some of it polluting a major river. Enbridge Inc. confirmed the gradual restart of the pipeline running between Griffith, Ind., and Sarnia, Ontario, was under way in a short statement released Monday evening. The pipeline had been shut down since the company reported a massive oil leak July 26. An estimated 820,000 to 1 million gallons ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
UN sees funds threat to climate campaign
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/318a65f4-ca52-11df-a860-00144feab49a,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F318a65f4-ca52-11df-a860-00144feab49a.html&_i_referer=
Financial Times: International agreements to fight the threat of climate change will not make any further progress unless rich countries deliver on their promises of almost $30bn in short-term funding for developing economies, the UN's senior climate official has warned. Christiana Figueres, who took over as executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change in July, said the climate talks in Cancún in November could make progress on practical measures for tackling global warming, ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
London links climate to foreign policy
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/09/27/London-links-climate-to-foreign-policy/UPI-56561285602155/
United Press International: British foreign policy is inextricably linked to tackling the challenges of climate change, the British foreign secretary said in New York. British Foreign Secretary William Hague delivers a speech Monday on climate change at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. Hague's speech focuses on the need to take action to preserve access to clean water, arable land and scarce resources. Acting now, he says, will prevent disputes over limited resources from turning into ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Asia begins embracing solar power
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/energy-environment/27green.html?_r=5
New York Times: Developing nations in Asia, it seems, are finally seeing the light. In May, the Asian Development Bank started a major drive to promote solar power across the region. Last year, the Indian government approved an ambitious National Solar Mission, which seeks a huge increase in the country's solar-energy capabilities. Bangladesh, with the support of the World Bank, is aiming to have one million remote rural homes supplied with solar panels by the end of 2012. And in India, ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Chain gang in coal blackout
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=103260&sid=29720197&con_type=1
AFP: Climate-change activists paralyzed the world's largest coal-exporting port for five hours when they chained themselves to machinery in the Australian city of Newcastle. Seven men and two women from action group Rising Tide sneaked into the port north of Sydney before dawn and attached themselves to loaders in what it said was "an emergency intervention." "There was a total shutdown for a period of about five hours and a disruption for a period of about eight hours," a port ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Climate change mars achievements in water, sanitation: Hasan Mahmud
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=156121
Daily Star: Climate change is threatening to bring down all the previous achievements of Bangladesh in water and sanitary sectors and making it harder to meet the millennium development goal. State Minister for Environment and Forest Dr Hasan Mahumud said it yesterday at a dialogue calling to integrate climate change issues with relevant sectors including water and sanitary, agriculture, health, education and industry for sustainable water resource management stating Bangladesh as the most ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Australia: PM seeking 'certainty' on carbon
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/pm-seeking-certainty-on-carbon/story-fn59niix-1225929714105
Australian: JULIA Gillard and Wayne Swan have appealed to the new parliament to let them put a price on carbon in this term to deliver certainty for business. As politicians travel to Canberra ahead of the return of parliament tomorrow -- and as Alcoa warned that a $3 billion alumina project was on hold pending a resolution of the carbon issue -- the Treasurer said yesterday he looked "forward to the new parliament adopting a more co-operative approach to tackling the key issues for our ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Greg Combet makes 'national interest' plea to Tony Abbott over climate change
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/greg-combet-makes-national-interest-plea-to-tony-abbott-over-climate-change/story-fn59niix-1225929834911
Australian: CLIMATE Change Minister Greg Combet has ramped up pressure on Tony Abbott to take part in the climate change committee negotiated with the Greens. Mr Combet today made a "national interest' appeal to the Coalition to take a more constructive approach to climate change, saying the Opposition Leader had his "head in the sand' and was trying to wreck the new parliament. The attack follows the release of the Treasury brief for an incoming government on Friday which warned that ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
PM unveils climate change committee
http://www.theage.com.au/national/pm-unveils-climate-change-committee-20100927-15tk0.html
Age: Two Greens, one independent MP and four experts from outside Parliament will join a multi-party committee to help shape the federal government's climate change policy. And Prime Minister Julia Gillard has offered Coalition leader Tony Abbott the chance to nominate two MPs for the climate change committee - provided he backs a price on carbon. Ms Gillard today named the 10-member committee that will be set up to advise Cabinet as part of a deal between Labor and the Greens ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
New Orleans homeowners saving on solar energy
http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/09/brad_pitts_make_it_right_house.html
Nola: Before settling back on Tennessee Street, Ann Parfaite heard from neighbors that her future home, loaded with green building features like solar panels and rain-water collectors, would help cut her electricity bills by a third or more. The Times-PicayuneSolar panels on the roof of Make It Right houses in the 9th Ward significantly reduce energy bills. "I was hoping they were telling me the truth," said Parfaite, who purchased a three-bedroom, two-bath home last year in Brad ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Aussie activists shut down coal port
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Aussie%20activists%20shut%20down%20coal%20port/3583586/story.html
Reuters: Australian environmental activists closed down operations at the world's largest coal port yesterday after entering three terminals and attaching themselves to loaders, the terminal operator and the protesters said. The action by climate change group Rising Tide in Newcastle stopped operations at all three terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services, which normally run continuously, a company spokesman said. Rising Tide said about 50 people were involved in the protest, ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Ohio farms more at risk as world warms, expert says
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/ohio-farms-more-at-risk-as-world-warms-expert-says--946048.html
Dayton Daily News: Ohio should start preparing now for a hotter planet that puts a top industry, agriculture, at risk, according to the state's climatologist. Ohio State University geography professor and State Climatologist Jeffrey Rogers said weather extremes that already have hit Ohio are leading indicators of climate change. The state climatologist, an unpaid position, is designated by the federal government as the person to keep track of the state's climate data. Agriculture is estimated to be ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Palau, at risk from rising seas, aims to drill for oil
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/60167/2010/08/27-102239-1.htm
Reuters: The low-lying Pacific island nation is threatened by climate change but may soon be drilling for oil. Seismic tests in the 1970s indicated the presence of petroleum but exploratory wells were never dug. Now, President Johnson Toribiong is pushing for exploration, hopeful oil will bring cheaper fuel, revenue and jobs. "Right now we are importing fossil fuel and that is very, very expensive," Toribiong said in a telephone interview. "If we find oil we will use the proceeds to ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Obsession with growth is asset stripping the planet
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/obsession-with-growth-is-asset-stripping-the-planet-2090422.html
Independent: Obsession with economic growth and the greed of financial speculators are destroying efforts to conserve the world's diminishing resources. British and French speakers from radically different backgrounds, and with sharply contrasting styles, found themselves singing an unlikely political duet at the Lyon environment forum. Big business, they said, must be stopped from "asset stripping" a failing planet. Andrews Simms, the policy director of the New Economics Foundation, said ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Financial crisis pummels wildlife and people in the Congo rainforest
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0927-hance_tcs_congo_financial.html
Mongabay: Spreading over three central African nations--Cameroon, Central African Republic, and Republic of Congo--the Sangha tri-national landscape is home to a variety of actors: over 150,000 Bantu people and nearly 20,000 pygmies; endangered species including forest elephants and gorillas; and, not least, the Congo rainforest ecosystem itself, which here remains largely intact. Given its interplay of species-richness, primary rainforest, and people--many of whom are among the poorest in the ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Hague urges diplomats to "up our game" on climate change
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270475/hague-urges-diplomats-game
Business Green: British Foreign Secretary William Hague has today made impassioned plea to the UN for foreign policy circles to play a more constructive role in shaping the global response to climate change. In his first speech at the UN headquarters in New York, Hague told the Council on Foreign Relations that foreign policy practitioners, needed "to up our game in building a credible and effective response to climate change", warning that diplomatic failures were to blame for the lack of progress ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Wind turbine price 'could fall 25% by 2025'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/27/wind-turbine-costs-fall-2025
Guardian: The UK's efforts to hit its renewable energy target are likely to be boosted by a near-25% fall in the cost of offshore wind turbines by 2025, engineers claimed today. But they warned that the prices may not fall – or could even rise – if the government cuts its financing of research and development, or if competition between wind turbine makers or improvements in technology do not materialise. Last week the Carbon Trust, which has an offshore wind accelerator R&D fund, was named ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Big renewables pledge for Northern Ireland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11416418
BBC: NI's new energy strategy sets a target of 40% of electricity to come from alternative energy sources by 2020. The strategy aims to reduce reliance on fuels such as coal, gas and oil. Less than 10% of NI's electricity is currently generated from alternative energy, mainly land-based wind farms. Reaching the target will need large offshore wind farms, tidal turbines like Seagen in Strangford Lough and even using energy from controversial sources including waste ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Government to boost voluntary deals
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/27/government-boost-voluntary-deals.html
Jakarta Post: Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said he saw no promising future for any deal regarding REDD ahead of the upcoming climate talks in Mexico, prompting his office to aim to forge voluntary pacts with rich nations. As of September, the ministry has signed voluntary agreements with several countries for a total of 45 projects dealing with reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), which in the end aimed to slash emissions from the forestry sector. From these 45 ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
No carbon price in sight for Australia before 2012
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68Q13B20100927?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Australia will not put a price on carbon emissions until at least 2012, after Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that a committee examining the issue would not finish its deliberations until end-2011. Australia, one of the worst per-capita greenhouse gas polluters, is reviewing its policy to tackle climate change after elections last month left the ruling Labor party relying on a Greens MP and three independents to retain power. The multi-party committee will meet monthly ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
How small - and green - can a Mini get?
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270428/small-mini
Business Green: Just when you thought modern Minis were getting far too big for their name, the company's design team has unveiled its smallest version yet, in the shape of a brightly coloured electric scooter. Mini unveiled one version of the Scooter E-Concept in London last week, with a further two designs slated to be showcased in Paris later this week. The company said the zero-emission vehicles will be powered by an electric motor integrated in the rear wheel and a lithium-ion battery ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Australia's PM launches new bid to price pollution
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100927/wl_asia_afp/australiapoliticsclimatewarming
AFP: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Monday launched a new push to charge for carbon pollution after being punished for a perceived failure to tackle environmental issues during recent elections. Gillard, whose fragile coalition government will sit in parliament for the first time on Tuesday, said she would personally chair a cross-party committee to study ways of slashing greenhouse gases. "As a government we have consistently said that in order to tackle climate change, in ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Japan to drill for frozen methane
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/27/energy-industry-energy
Guardian: In a bid to shore up its precarious energy security Japan is to start commercial test drilling for controversial frozen methane gas along its coast next year. The gas is methane hydrate, a sherbet-like substance consisting of methane trapped in water ice – sometimes called fire ice or MH – that is locked deep underwater or under permafrost by the cold and under pressure 23 times that of normal atmosphere. A consortium led by the Japanese government and the Japan Oil, Gas and ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Business leaders call for more incentives to invest in renewables
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/27/alex-salmond-offshore-windfarms-conference
Guardian: Ministers are being urged to give guarantees that tax breaks and subsidies for new renewable power projects will remain in place for the long-term by senior figures in the business world. Leading figures in the City also warn that the UK still lacks the port facilities, fabrication yards and grid connections that are essential if the country is to build the vast offshore windfarms needed to meet ambitious climate change targets. Susan Rice, managing director of the Lloyds ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Green Ed set to drive climate change up the political agenda
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270431/green-ed-set-drive-climate
Business Green: The press may have already dubbed him "Red Ed", but environmental groups are today hoping that new Labour leader Ed Miliband will quickly earn himself a different-coloured moniker as "Green Ed". The former energy and climate change secretary failed to make environmental policy a central part of his leadership campaign, but has launched repeated attacks on the coalition's green record over the past few months and is widely expected to establish support for environmental issues as a key ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Gillard debuts Australian climate change committee
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270432/gillard-debuts-australian
Business Green: Australia's prime minister Julia Gillard today unveiled the details for the new multi-party climate change committee that will investigate ways to put a price on carbon. Gillard revealed she will chair the 10-member committee herself, with climate change minister Greg Combet and Greens senator Christine Milne serving as co-deputy chairs. Other members include treasurer Wayne Swan, Greens leader Bob Brown and independent Tony Windsor. They will be joined by four experts ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Panel probes decisions made after Gulf spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_response
AP: How well did the White House react to the Gulf oil spill disaster? A federal panel appointed by President Barack Obama starts its investigation Monday. The two-day meeting of the presidential oil spill commission will look at the controversial use of chemical dispersants, a moratorium on deep-water drilling and Obama's plans to make the Gulf's environment better than it was before the huge spill. It will also examine who was in charge of making critical decisions -- BP PLC or the ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Experts call for global support for Nepal's mountain initiative
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Experts+call+for+global+support+for+Nepal%27s+mountain+initiative&NewsID=259314
Himalayan Times: Experts have pointed out the need for the greater global support and partnership to protect the mountain ecosystems and their services from the growing impact of climate and associated global changes. They expressed their views in the two day seminar jointly organised by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) on International Expert Consultation Meeting: Mountain Initiative on Climate Change from 23-24 ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
PM unveils climate committee
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Gillard-unveils-climate-committee-pd20100927-9P75N?OpenDocument&src=hp2
Business Spectator: Prime Minister Julia Gillard has unveiled the government's new climate change committee, which will canvass options for setting a price on carbon. The committee, to be chaired by Ms Gillard, will include Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet (deputy chair) as government representatives. Greens leader Bob Brown and fellow party member, Senator Christine Milne, will also be members -- the latter as co-deputy chair -- along with independent Tony ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Climate change: Jairam slams US 'commitment'
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/114174/World/climate-change-jairam-slams-us-commitment.html
India Today: Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday made a scathing attack on the United States' "commitment to climate change". Ramesh criticises US on climate change on commitmentsSpeaking to Headlines Today Ramesh said that the US has failed to provide political leadership on climate change. He said the US commitment on the issue was not up to the mark. "The real problem is the United States. It's not in a position to provide political leadership. It does not have the ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Pacific Islands raise climate change concerns at UN
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201009/s3023185.htm
Radio Australia: A group of Pacific Island nations has pushed to put tackling climate change back on the global agenda, when they raised the issue at the latest meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The next meeting of the UN Forum on Climate Change will take place in Cancun, Mexico later this year. Many Pacific Island nations believe this could be their last chance to get the world's biggest polluters to commit to reducing emissions. Their demands haven't changed ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
E-Gen gets £50m to help take small-scale wind to Scotland
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270455/gen-gets-50m-cover-scotland
Business Green: The Scottish wind energy start-up behind a new mapping tool for identifying areas of land most likely to benefit from feed-in tariff subsidies has secured £50m in private investment. E-Gen Energy confirmed last week that it has secured funding from specialist energy investor Rockfield Energy Investments in a deal that will see the two firms form a partnership to deploy hundreds of small-scale wind farms across rural Scotland within the next two years. E-Gen already has four ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Are human actions making natural disasters more destructive?
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/23/eco.flood.pakistan/
CNN: As Pakistan struggles to recover after one of the worst floods in its history, questions are already being asked about how human decisions may have exacerbated the effects of this natural disaster. "Human activities have made the impacts of disasters more destructive," Claire Seaward, Oxfam, told CNN. In Pakistan, as in many countries around the world, a growing population has forced more and more people to live in vulnerable coastal areas and floodplains. "Increasingly, ...
Tue, 28 Sep 10
Biomass project meeting draws a skeptical throng
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_16181885
Bennington Banner: About 100 people gathered for three hours on Saturday in the grandstand of the former Green Mountain Race Track to hear from developers of a proposed 29-megawatt biomass power generation and wood pellet manufacturing facility, and to ask questions of their own. The developers, Beaver Wood Energy, LLC, a Delaware company with officers based in Maine, have said the facility will use low-quality wood from existing logging operations within a 50-mile radius to burn for electricity and to ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Indonesia: Sinar Mas hopes to show public it “cares” about environment
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/09/25/sinar-mas-hopes-show-public-it-%E2%80%9Ccares%E2%80%9D-about-environment.html
Jakarta Post: The Forestry Ministry is joining forces with private companies to support the government's forest preservation program as it strives to achieve Indonesia's pledge to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2020. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan recently signed a memorandum of understanding with PT Putra Riau Perkasa, a subsidiary of Sinar Mas Forestry, which agreed to spare its 15,640-hectare concession in Semenanjung Kampar, Riau, for a giant carbon storage facility. "Twelve ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Fresh Colorado air helps standardize pollution measurements globally
http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_16169056?source=commented-
Denver Post: In a forest just off the Continental Divide, Duane Kitzis runs a federal government air-collecting operation -- trapping the relatively fresh air here at 10,000 feet and storing it in hundreds of aluminum cans. The 4-foot-tall cans, called "standards," are used to calibrate machines that measure the pollution people put into the atmosphere. The lab has been designated by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization as the Central Calibration Laboratory for ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Electric cars finally making headways
http://www.torontosun.com/life/greenplanet/2010/09/23/15452231.html
Toronto Sun: Growing concerns about climate change and peak oil have car manufacturers scrambling to find greener and more sustainable ways to fuel the world`s estimated 750 million automobiles. If trends continue, that number is expected to double in the next 30 years. Hydrogen was once considered to be the forerunner to replace gasoline as a primary fuel, but most auto manufacturers have dropped plans to develop a hydrogen vehicle because the costs are simply too high. General Motors CEO ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
The cost of wind: power when we don't need it
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/866129--the-cost-of-wind-power-when-we-don-t-need-it?bn=1
Toronto Star: On a blustery Labour Day weekend this year, the wind turbines sprinkled across Ontario's landscape set a record. That Saturday, they pumped an average of 1,000 megawatts of power into the province's grid over a seven-hour stretch, the biggest sustained wind output on record. It amounted to about 7 per cent of the power demand at the time. That was the good news. The sobering news was that the power flowed into the grid on a cool Saturday afternoon during a holiday ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Oil, gas reserves in Arctic comparable to Gulf, Western Siberia - scientist
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=530250
Bernama: The amount of identified hydrocarbon reserves in the Arctic is the world's third largest after the Persian Gulf and Western Siberia, Russian news agency, Itar-Tass, reported Saturday. To this day, six major oil and gas provinces and two oil and gas fields have been discovered, and the most likely estimate of the initial resources in them is 51 billion tonnes of oil and 87 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, the deputy director of the Institute of Oceanology for geological matters, ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Safe drinking water is the issue that affects us all
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201009240233.html
Asahi Shimbun: One major environmental question facing humanity is whether and how it can avoid conflict over water resources. The Asahi World Environmental Forum 2010, a public discussion forum organized by The Asahi Shimbun, which focused on issues concerning water, was held Sept. 13 and 14 at Hotel Okura in Tokyo. On the first day, a team of international experts discussed ways to solve the growing problem of water scarcity due to the surge in the world's population and global warming. * * ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Prop. 23 poll shows a dead heat among Calif. voters
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/proposition-23-poll-global-warming-california.html
LA Times: California voters believe global warming is a significant issue and are inclined to trust scientific views on the subject, but they remain closely divided on a November ballot measure that would suspend the state's global warming statute, according to a new Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll. California's global warming law, passed in 2006, is aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions by power plants, factories and vehicles. The ballot initiative, ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
California's largest solar photovoltaic plant to start construction
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/californias-largest-solar-photovoltaic-plant-to-start-construction.html
LA Times: Southern California has gotten the bulk of the solar industry's attention lately as a group of solar thermal projects weave their way through state regulatory agencies. But photovoltaic activity is about to kick up farther north as a project set to become the largest of its kind in California readies for construction next week in the Central Valley. NRG Solar, partnering with Eurus Energy America Corp., is about to launch on a 45-megawatt project in Kings County. Split into ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Bill Clinton raises billions to tackle poverty
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100925/ap_on_re_us/us_clinton_global_initiative
AP: Former President Bill Clinton's three-day conference for VIPs with deep pockets generated nearly 300 new commitments valued at $6 billion to tackle major global issues from poverty and disease to climate change. The sixth Clinton Global Initiative, which wrapped up late Thursday, brought together 67 current and former heads of state, more than 600 business leaders, and more than 500 leaders from non-governmental and philanthropic organizations. The VIP attendees included President ...
Sun, 26 Sep 10
Kilimanjaro's vanishing ice due to tree-felling
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727794.400-kilimanjaros-vanishing-ice-due-to-treefelling.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: AGGRESSIVE tree-felling on mount Kilimanjaro could be partly to blame for its vanishing ice cap. The ice on Kilimanjaro's summit has shrunk to just 15 per cent of its extent in 1912, leading campaigners to hold it up as a symbol of climate change. But other factors are also at play. For instance, the air at the summit is getting drier, reducing the snowfall that replenishes the ice and reflects solar radiation. Now Nicholas Pepin from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Seven things you didn't know about light bulbs (but should)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20100924/sc_ygreen/seventhingsyoudidntknowaboutlightbulbsbutshould
Y! Green: Lighting is a significant expense for many of us, and it also affects how we work, play, and feel. The good news is that new advances in technology are providing more comfort, flexibility and efficiency, as we learned in our new book Green Lighting. 1. $1 invested in efficient lighting pays back $6 in energy savings The standard incandescent bulb -- what we typically think of as a "basic light bulb" -- is a pretty inefficient piece of technology, wasting 90% to 98% of its ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Air Pollution Raises Risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest: Study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20100924/hl_hsn/airpollutionraisesriskofsuddencardiacarreststudy
HealthDay: Fine particles of pollution that linger in the air can increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, warns a new study. Researchers compared data about air pollution levels in New York City and 8,216 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occurred in the city between 2002 and 2006. They found that a rise of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air in small-particle air pollution was associated with a 4 to 10 percent increase in the number of out-of-hospital cardiac ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Criminal-Enforcement Roster Will Swell Next Week, EPA Division Chief Vows
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/24/24greenwire-criminal-enforcement-roster-will-swell-next-we-51330.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: U.S. EPA will achieve its goal of bulking up its criminal division by the end of next week, the agency's top cop said yesterday, one week after an environmental watchdog group released a report claiming that EPA's team of agents and docket of criminal cases had both shrunk under the Obama administration. As part of a budget request submitted earlier this year, EPA said it planned to keep more than 200 criminal investigators on staff. But a Freedom of Information Act inquiry by Public ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Calif. Raises Renewable Portfolio Standard to 33%
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/24/24greenwire-calif-raises-renewable-portfolio-standard-to-3-24989.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: California regulators raised the state's renewable portfolio standard to 33 percent by 2020 in a unanimous vote yesterday that extends the mandate to public power and opens the door to more clean power imported from other states. The California Air Resources Board approved the rule as directed by an executive order that was signed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to increase the RPS from a 20 percent requirement that sunsets at the end of this year. The approach ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Third-party panel to study Canada oil sands impact
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68N4KT20100924?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Alberta is forming an independent panel of scientists to study data on water pollution near the Canadian province's oil sands after a report by a noted ecologist concluded the industry's operations were contaminating a northern river system. The move, announced by Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner on Friday, is aimed at ending an emotional debate over the impact of oil sands activity on the Athabasca River, which flows north through the massive industrial ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Chevron wins court order in bid to end Greenpeace oil protest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/24/chevron-court-order-greenpeace-oil-protest
Guardian: Greenpeace faces hefty fines or the arrest of its activists after the US oil giant Chevron won a court order demanding that the environmentalists abandon their occupation of a drilling ship off Shetland. Greenpeace has occupied the Stena Carron drilling ship since Tuesday morning, attaching a "survival pod" to one of the vessel's anchors to prevent it leaving Bressay Sound for exploratory drilling in water about 500m deep 150km north of the islands. In contrast to the swift ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Will the meeting in Rome result in action against food speculation?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/24/food-speculation-olivier-de-schutter
Guardian: Momentum is building to get some really tough action on the speculation pushing up food prices. At a conference today in London organised by the UK Food Group, Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, warned that a food crisis is inevitable unless we tighten up regulations on markets. "The problem with the current system is when there is one [bit of] bad news, such as wildfires in Russia... speculators bet on higher prices, which leads those holding the ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Business could be hit by new green tax
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8020510/Business-could-be-hit-by-new-green-tax.html
Telegraph: three years about 4,000 large businesses could have to pay tens of thousands of pounds in extra tax, depending on how much electricity they use. This is one of the options outlined by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which has been given the task of simplifying the "very complex" carbon reduction commitment, which is due to come into force at the end of this month. The scheme involves Britain's biggest companies and all public sector organisations, if they consume more ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Germany: An ailing shipyard finds new life with renewable energies
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,718704,00.html
Spiegel: The German wind energy sector is expanding, opening up fresh business opportunities -- even for unlikely candidates like warship makers. The Nordseewerke shipyard has rejiggered its business model and decided to go green. Someday the last swords really will be beaten into plowshares, or perhaps it is the warships that will transform into wind turbines -- precisely what is taking place at the Nordseewerke shipyard in Emden on Germany's North Sea coast. At the moment, a gray ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
United Kingdom: World's biggest offshore wind park goes live in UK
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,719170,00.html
Spiegel: Vattenfall's Thanet Offshore Wind Farm, off the southeast coast of England, currently the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Swedish energy giant Vattenfall on Thursday opened Thanet, the world's biggest offshore energy park, off the British coast. It is seen as a forerunner for a new generation of huge wind farms in northern Europe. But the British government's cost-cutting plans may yet jeopardize some of those plans. For a politician proud of his green credentials, it ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
United States: State air board OKs 33% renewable energy rule
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/24/MNJD1FIMTQ.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: The California Air Resources Board approved one of the strictest renewable energy regulations in the nation Thursday, requiring utilities to get a third of their energy from renewable resources by 2020. The action came after the Legislature failed last month to pass a bill that would have put such a standard into law and the board and other groups said they will continue to press for that to happen. The board also approved greenhouse gas reduction targets for different regions ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Milk's effect on climate tallied
http://www.modbee.com/2010/09/24/1352785/milks-effect-on-climate-tallied.html
Modesto Bee: How much does a cold glass of milk contribute to global warming? It turns out that producing and consuming milk in the United States accounts for 2 percent of the nation's climate-changing emissions, according to a new report from the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy. The industry-backed group tracked milk from farm to processing plant to grocery store to consumer. The report deals with emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases believed to be building up in the atmosphere and ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Debating the need for petroleum subsidies
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/22/pm-debating-the-need-for-petroleum-subsidies/
Marketplace: Kai Ryssdal: Even though Senate Democrats decided a couple of months ago they don't have the votes to pass a comprehensive energy bill this year, Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman is still fighting the good fight. He introduced a bill yesterday that would force energy companies to generate a certain minimum percentage of green power. Where it gets sticky is in this evaluation of the bill's chances from one energy analyst, and this is a quote: "We give near zero odds," they said, ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A troubling decline in the caribou herds of the Arctic
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_troubling_decline_in_the_caribou_herds_of_the_arctic_/2321/
Environment 360: In late July, a group of Inuit hunters set off by boat along the west coast of Banks Island to search for Peary caribou, which inhabit the Arctic archipelago of Canada. Roger Kuptana, a 62-year-old Inuit who had grown up on the island, didn't give his fellow hunters much chance of success in their hunt for the animals, the smallest caribou sub-species in North America. "I think it's a waste of gas," Kuptana told me when I visited his modest home in Sachs Harbour, a traditional ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Something stirs
http://www.economist.com/node/17062727
Economist: WHEN Michael Williams, a British geographer, sat down in 1994 to write a chronicle of deforestation, "Deforesting the Earth", he had a useful aide-memoire. Flashing near his study, outside the Los Angeles branch of the Hard Rock Café, was an ever-diminishing neon number, representing the remaining area of rainforest. It counted down at about 20 hectares a minute, at which rate no rainforest would be left by the end of this century. Despite a faddish Western concern for tropical ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Two metre sea levels predicted by coastal geologist
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201009/s3020604.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: An American coastal geologist describes rising sea levels is going to be the first major negative impact of global warming. Described as America's most outspoken coastal geologist Professor Orrin Pilkey assumes sea levels will rise by 2 metres by 2100. This is far beyond the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who claim levels will rise to half a metre. He says more needs to be done to prepare coastal communities from climate change ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
The Charge of California's Light Brigade
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/the-charge-of-californias-light-brigade/?partner=rss&emc=rss
NYT: It`s not that the California Public Utilities Commission doesn`t like the curlicue lights, which are significantly more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs. It`s just that they think that compact fluorescents have gone mainstream, and that incentives to buy more energy-efficient lighting should be focused on newer technologies. Think bulbs using light-emitting diodes, or the latest generation of halogen bulbs, or even so-called specialty compact fluorescents. "We need to ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
CLIMATE CHANGE: Adaptation Fund starts delivering
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90571
IRINnews: In what is being hailed as a breakthrough for a "collective effort" by developed and developing countries, the Adaptation Fund set up by the UN to help poor countries cope with the unfolding impact of climate change has finally become operational. Last week, the Fund's board approved two adaptation projects, one in Senegal - threatened by sea-level rise, less rainfall and high temperatures - and the other in Honduras, which faces increasing water shortages. The two projects ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Is the UK prepared for an oil spill?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11406376
BBC: In the wake of the massive BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil industry is reviewing contingency plans and boosting the numbers being trained to cope with another disaster amid criticism that it cannot cope with blowouts in deep water. Our environment correspondent David Shukman joined an exercise off Southampton.
Sat, 25 Sep 10
When a Drug Battle Spells Extinction
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/when-a-drug-battle-spells-extinction/
NYT: The drug trade and other domestic strife are wreaking havoc on Colombia`s dwindling population of indigenous peoples while also threatening the integrity of the country`s biologically diverse forests, the United Nations High Council on Refugees reported this week. More than 40 percent of the country's 84 distinct indigenous groups are now at risk of extinction, the United Nations said, because of the pressures of the country's long-running internal armed conflict, which is fueled ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Climate Change Climbs the Boardroom Agenda
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS142269825620100924
Reuters: Carbon management is becoming a strategic business priority and competitive driver for the largest global companies, despite the lack of global agreement on climate change. These are among the findings of the 2010 Global 500 report and leadership index released today by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), produced by PwC. Carbon performance leaders are forging ahead of competitors--85 percent of these leading global companies surveyed reported having board or senior executive level ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Shipping growth threatens climate change targets - report
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/609655/shipping_growth_threatens_climate_change_targets_report.html
Ecologist: Shipping, considered one of the most carbon friendly modes of transport, is now a growing threat in the battle against climate change. A new report, published by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, suggests 'the global shipping industry's carbon emissions could account for almost all of the worlds' emissions by 2050 if current rates of growth continue.' This would put the UK's target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, and other nations' ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
United Kingdom: How heating our homes could help reduce climate change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100924095819.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: A radical new heating system where homes would be heated by district centres rather than in individual households could dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions. In a series of reports to be presented at a major conference this week, scientists at The University of Manchester claim using sustainable wood and other biofuels could hold the key to lowering harmful greenhouse gases. Building district heating schemes which would provide heat and hot water for a neighbourhood or ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
China attempts to breathe life into faltering climate talks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270381/china-attempts-breathe-life
Business Green: China today attempted to restore some much needed confidence to the UN climate change negotiations when a senior official said the government wants to sign a binding climate treaty by late 2011. The failure of last year's UN climate change summit in Copenhagen coupled with a fractious meeting in Bonn earlier this summer has fuelled speculation that the talks will not only fail to deliver a treaty at this year's summit in Cancun, but could implode altogether. Privately diplomats ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Scotland scales up renewable energy ambitions
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270385/scotland-scales-renewable
Business Green: Scotland's bid to lead a "renewable energy revolution" took a further leap forward yesterday with the Scottish government's adoption of ambitious targets to meet 80 per cent of electricity demand with renewable sources by 2020. The country's budding renewable energy sector already has more than 7GW of renewable capacity installed, in construction or consented, prompting the government to increase its previous target for 2020 from 50 per cent in an attempt to further accelerate ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Why History Has Climate Scientists Hot and Bothered
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/climate-scientists-looking-to-history-for-clues-to-global-warming/19644295
AOL: In England, researchers are using some unusual tools to learn how to adapt to change: pressed flowers collected during the Victorian era. Flowers bloom largely based on spring temperatures, Anthony Davy, a professor of the University of East Anglia who co-authored a study on pressed flowers, explained to Reuters. If researchers know the exact day that flowers were picked, they can use that to put together a picture about global temperatures long before accurate recording existed. By ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Europe agrees on review of offshore drilling
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100924/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_norway_deepwater_drilling
AP: European coastal nations agreed Friday to review rules for offshore drilling, but said each country should decide individually on how to improve safety oil rig safety to avoid disasters like the Gulf of Mexico spill. Amid opposition from Norway, Britain and Denmark, a German proposal suggesting a suspension of some deep-water drilling operations was rejected at a meeting of 15 European nations and the European Union in the west coast city of Bergen. A compromise text adopted at ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
UK's shipping emissions six times higher than expected, says new report
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100924095817.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: Carbon dioxide emissions produced by UK shipping could be up to six times higher than currently calculated, according to new research from The University of Manchester. As the shipping industry's emissions are predicted to continue to grow in the future, the UK will fail to meet its commitment to avoid dangerous climate change if additional cuts are not made to other sectors. According to a University of Manchester study, the global shipping industry, despite being ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Senators See Renewable Energy Bill as Christmas Tree for Pet Projects
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/24/24greenwire-senators-see-renewable-energy-bill-as-christmas-2170.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: With a renewable energy bill gaining legs in the Senate, lawmakers are increasingly eyeing the measure for their own pet projects. Because the bill to implement a renewable electricity standard is probably the Senate's last chance at tackling energy issues this year, lawmakers also see it as a prime opportunity to advance other energy measures, including proposals to stall U.S. EPA climate regulations and advance nuclear energy and biofuel tax credits, among others. A ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
China Wants Binding Climate-Change Agreement in 2011, Economic Times Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-24/china-wants-binding-climate-change-agreement-in-2011-economic-times-says.html
Bloomberg: China wants a binding global climate-change agreement by late 2011, the China Economic Times reported today, citing Li Gao, a Chinese negotiator. China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, hopes definite measures for the next decade will be implemented after the United Nations conference in South Africa scheduled for the end of next year, Li told the newspaper. The biggest obstacle to reaching an accord is the U.S., he said. Without domestic legislation, the U.S. can't ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A source of sea-level rise to rival glaciers
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2010/09/irrigation
Daily Mail: Melting glaciers aren't the only reason coastal cities need to worry about sea-level rise. Agriculture is pumping groundwater for irrigation at such a rate that the runoff equals the contribution from melting of glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and Antarctica, according to a new study looking at groundwater depletion. It also exceeds or falls into the high-end of previous estimates of groundwater's contribution to sea-level rise, the researchers found. Most ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
How much energy does that device use?
http://www.climatecentral.org/breaking/blog/how_much_energy_does_that_device_use
Climate Central: Energy is invisible to the naked eye, but it is a part of every facet of our lives. In a new study, my coauthors and I investigated public perceptions of energy consumption to see how accurate people are in judging how much energy a variety of different activities and devices use. In an online nationwide survey, participants were asked about the energy used and saved by household and transportation activities, among other behaviors. When asked about the most effective thing they can ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Tropical Storm Matthew strengthens off Nicaragua
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68N0GZ20100924?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Tropical Storm Matthew strengthened over the western Caribbean on Friday and was expected to hit Nicaragua and Honduras later in the day, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The storm, which had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, could disrupt the coffee harvest due to begin early next month in major regional exporters Honduras and Guatemala. Nicaragua has already slashed its estimate for the 2010/2011 season after months of heavy rains battered crops and ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Haste needed on climate deals, UN warns
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/09/24/Haste-needed-on-climate-deals-UN-warns/UPI-69121285327666/
United Press International: There is an urgent need to tackle key climate change issues as the next major summit is barely two months away, the U.N.'s chief environmental czar said. Global climate negotiations remain deadlocked after the Copenhagen climate summit last year ended without a binding climate protection agreement. Developing nations have resisted a legally binding treaty because they claim rich nations that have benefited from emitting greenhouse gases during the past decades should shoulder ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Lib Dems use time in the spotlight to start shaping green policy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270366/green-schemes-drum-business
Business Green: For the first time in several generations, this year's Lib Dem conference actually mattered. To the surprise of almost everyone, not least the Party's loyal members, the Liberal Democrat's are a party of government. As such ministers responsible for real government departments delivered the week's keynote speeches and the debates in the fringe meetings and bars had a genuine chance of shaping coalition policy. Nowhere was this clearer than in the area of green policy, where the ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Solar power subsidy under review
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/339acf30-c757-11df-aeb1-00144feab49a,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F339acf30-c757-11df-aeb1-00144feab49a.html&_i_referer=
Financial Times: The recent mini-boom in solar power could be in jeopardy, as the government has privately indicated that new feed-in tariffs that have fuelled the industry could be slashed. If such cuts are adopted, renewable energy experts fear that it will scare off investors – with repercussions throughout the industry. "To change the subsidy system just when you can see the success it has had beggars belief," said one. "Renewable energy investors?.?.?.?will lose faith in this ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Renewable Electricity Standard Bill Stands Alone or Dies, Senate Sponsors Vow
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/23/23greenwire-renewable-electricity-standard-bill-stands-alo-16736.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: A Senate bill to implement a national renewable electricity standard should be brought to the floor this session as a stand-alone measure or not at all, a leading co-sponsor of the legislation said today. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said the point of introducing the stand-alone RES bill is to get enough co-sponsors to show the bill can pass without amendments. "If we aren't able to do that, then I think it will make a lot of sense for Senator [Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] not to bring ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Climate Change Commission won't be Abolished — Lacierda
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/278761/climate-change-commission-wont-be-abolished-lacierda
Manila Bulletin: Malacañang clarified on Friday that President Benigno S.Aquino III will retain the Climate Change Commission (CCC) but will abolish the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Global Warming and Climate Change (PAGWCC). Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda told the Philippines News Agency (PNA) that President Aquino will not abolish the CCC headed by former Senator and Environment Secretary Heherson Alvarez. Secretary Lacierda said the PAGWCC, along with the Presidential ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A special report on forests: Less smoke, less ire
http://www.economist.com/node/17062681?story_id=17062681&fsrc=rss
Economist: THE Amazon's dry season, from July to September, is when the grileiros cut and burn the rainforest. The smoke is so thick it can be seen from space. It also stops rainclouds forming, so the flames burn higher. But on a recent surveillance flight over the forest frontier in Brazil's state of Pará, there was hardly a wisp of smoke in the sky. Even the people from Greenpeace, whose flight this was, were impressed. They can take some credit, thanks to their Amazon beef campaign. But even ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A special report on forests: The long road to sustainability
http://www.economist.com/node/17062671
Economist: IN JUNE last year Daniel Avelino, the public prosecutor of Brazil's state of Pará, the home of most of the Amazon cattle-herd, probably saved more rainforest than many conservation groups ever will. He identified 20 big ranches operating on illegally cleared land and traced the slaughterhouses buying their cattle. He then established that some of the world's best-known retailers, including Wal-Mart and Carrefour, were buying meat from them. He fined the ranchers and abattoirs 2 billion reais ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A special report on forests: Not a small problem
http://www.economist.com/node/17062693?story_id=17062693&fsrc=rss
Economist: ON A scrubby hillside in southern Uganda sit waist-high mounds of grass and twigs. They are the huts of Twa pygmies, the oldest residents of the Great Lakes region. Until recently they inhabited the nearby Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, but around 4,000 were expelled in 1991 after the forest was turned into a national park to protect its population of mountain gorillas. Now the pygmies languish outside it, unskilled at cultivating crops and often inebriated. For longer than history ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A special report on forests: Keeping it in the community
http://www.economist.com/node/17062703
Economist: AT A sawmill in the misty hills of Michoacán in central Mexico, loggers sporting damp sombreros and droopy moustaches are working through a drizzle, hauling pine logs. With iron spikes they lever them into position, hack out any stones embedded in the pungent orange flesh and heave the logs on to a runner. A bullnecked lumberman guides them through a buzzing circular saw, slicing them into rough boards. Another cuts them into planks, which his mate tosses onto a rising stack. It barely takes ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A special report on forests: Seeing the wood
http://www.economist.com/node/17062713
Economist: DAYBREAK is a heavenly time to look on the Amazonian canopy. From a Brazilian research tower high above it, a fuzzy grey sylvan view emerges from the thinning gloom, vastly undulating, more granular than a cloud. It is mind-bendingly beautiful. Chirruping and squawking, a few early risers--collared puffbirds, chestnut-rumped woodcreepers and the tautologous curve-billed scythebill--open up for the planet's biggest avian choir. In a slick of molten gold, dawn breaks and the trees ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
A special report on forests: Better REDD than dead
http://www.economist.com/node/17062737?story_id=17062737&fsrc=rss
Economist: NORTH of East Kalimantan's scarified waste is an area where the extractive juggernaut has not yet reached. Beneath the helicopter's blades, the woods thicken and the terrain rises to a seam of limestone crag, dripping with trees. Beyond it is the district of Berau, 70% of which is still covered in forest. It is lovely to behold, its multi-greened canopy like a vast head of broccoli, speckled with orange and yellow where an ironwood tree or a liana has forced itself up to the light. ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
BNP Paribas and Wildlife Works Ink $50 million REDD Deal
http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=7717§ion=news_articles&eod=1
Ecosystem Marketplace: BNP Paribas Corporate & Investment Banking (BNP Paribas) has announced an agreement between its Commodity Derivatives business and Wildlife Works Carbon LLC, in which BNP Paribas will provide up to US$50 million in finance to combat tropical deforestation and climate change. The bank's Carbon Finance business and Wildlife Works will develop a portfolio of large scale Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) carbon projects in Africa. BNP Paribas will have the option ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
The world's lungs
http://www.economist.com/node/17093495?story_id=17093495&fsrc=rss
Economist: THE summer dry-season, now drawing to an end, is when the Amazon rainforest gets cut and burned. The smoke this causes can often be seen from space. But not this year. Brazil's deforestation rate has dropped astoundingly fast. In 2004 some 2.8m hectares (10,700 square miles) of the Amazon were razed; last year only around 750,000 hectares were. This progress is not isolated. Many of the world's biggest clearers of trees have started to hug them. Over the past decade, the UN records, ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Climate change, global crises retarding small island nations? development ? UN
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36104&Cr=&Cr1=
UN News Centre: Climate change, natural disaster and the triple crises of food, finance and fuel jeopardize sustainable development gains made by small island developing States (SIDS), according to a new United Nations report. Such developments exacerbate the vulnerability of the SIDS due to their small size, remoteness, susceptibility to shocks and narrow resource bases, the publication says. In some instances, it points out, improved economic and governance capacity in SIDS has been offset ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
Deadlock Risk is Significant at Climate Talks, UN Envoy Says
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-23/deadlock-risk-is-significant-at-climate-talks-un-envoy-says.html
Business Week: Deadlock remains a "significant' risk at United Nations climate talks that start in November in Mexico, a year after a summit in Copenhagen failed to produce a binding global treaty, a top UN official said. Proponents of a deal "seem to have accepted' that no treaty will be written during two weeks of talks in the Mexican resort, and that bodes well for the prospects of taking smaller steps, said Halldor Thorgeirsson, a director at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which ...
Sat, 25 Sep 10
U.N. official plays down climate deal prospects
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE68M31O20100923
Reuters: U.N. climate talks must set aside hopes of a treaty to curb global warming and, to avoid failure, must accept rich country emissions targets which many scientists say are inadequate, a U.N. official said on Thursday. The U.N.-led process failed at a conference in Copenhagen last December to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. Countries and experts have widely dismissed hopes for a full treaty at the next major meeting in Cancun, Mexico at the end of this ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Flooding Forces Evacuations In Wisconsin
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130082292&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: A powerful storm drenched parts of the upper Midwest on Thursday, flooding creeks and rivers and forcing more than half the residents of one Wisconsin town to evacuate their homes for higher ground. Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency and ordered the National Guard to Trempealeau County. Heavy rains there sparked mandatory evacuations for as many as 1,500 residents of Arcadia, a town of around 2,400 people 100 miles southeast of Minneapolis. Police officers in Arcadia ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Climate change and the Great Lakes
http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-4868-climate-change-and-the-great-lakes.html
City Pulse: Climate change research done on the Great Lakes region is a hodgepodge and in most cases not very useful for policymakers. Researchers from Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Ohio State University seek to change that, thanks to a $4.2 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "There is a lot of climate research going on in the (Great Lakes) area that hasn't been very well coordinated,' said David Bidwell, program manager for the ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
California's Whitman against climate law challenge
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2317665220100923
Reuters: Republican candidate for California governor Meg Whitman said on Thursday she would vote against a challenge to the state's vanguard climate change law, although she would still suspend it for a year if elected. In a good sign for the renewable energy and clean technology industries, both candidates for governor, Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown, have now come out against the measure known as Proposition 23. Brown in particular has been calling on Whitman to set out her ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
BP spill released 4.4m barrels of oil into the ocean, study finds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/bp-oil-spill-bp
Guardian: The starting up of the hype machine for Donald Rumsfeld's upcoming memoir has got me thinking about his famous line before the US invasion of Iraq. There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know. In Rumsfeld's case, the former Pentagon chief was basically admitting, albeit in an extremely ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Gulf Oil Spill 10 Times Size of Exxon Valdez, Study Confirms
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100923/sc_livescience/gulfoilspill10timessizeofexxonvaldezstudyconfirms
LiveScience: A seafloor experiment designed to monitor deep-sea vents turned into the perfect tool for gauging the amount of oil that escaped the Macondo Well into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Researchers looked at almost all the high-resolution video of the spewing oil released by BP and the government. They then applied their technique to assess the oil's billowy movement in short clips and estimate the volume of oil that leaked out. Their analysis shows that ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Investments in climate change solutions can break the global logjam
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/120591-investments-in-climate-change-solutions-can-break-the-global-logjam
Hill: While a comprehensive climate and energy bill remains stalled in Congress, there is still an area in which Congress and the administration can work together to make important progress: innovative mechanisms for investing in climate change solutions. One of the keys to breaking the current deadlock is to invest in green development for the developing world. Such investments can help bring on board the developing countries for future global climate deals -- a key requirement for ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Scientists give fresh estimate of Gulf oil spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100923/sc_nm/us_oil_spill_flow
Reuters: Researchers weighed in on the controversial question of how much oil poured into the Gulf of Mexico during the BP Plc spill and said on Thursday the total amount was around 4.4 million barrels. The figure, derived using a technique called optical plume velocimetry, represents the first independent peer-reviewed study of the worst oil spill in U.S. history and conforms closely to the most recent estimate by government scientists. The spill began in April when a deepwater rig ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
New Map Offers Global View Of Health-Sapping Air Pollution
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1922027/new_map_offers_global_view_of_healthsapping_air_pollution/index.html?source=r_science
REDORBIT: In many developing countries, the absence of surface-based air pollution sensors makes it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to get even a rough estimate of the abundance of a subcategory of airborne particles that epidemiologists suspect contributes to millions of premature deaths each year. The problematic particles, called fine particulate matter (PM2.5), are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, about a tenth the fraction of human hair. These small particles can get past the body's ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Rep. Issa Would Lead 'Climategate' Probe if House Goes to GOP
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/23/23climatewire-rep-issa-would-lead-climategate-probe-if-hou-44766.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ClimateWire: The House's top Republican watchdog is planning to launch an investigation into international climate data if he takes the helm of the chamber's oversight panel next year.
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Breaking Out of a Wind Ghetto
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/breaking-out-of-a-wind-ghetto/
NYT: Saturated with too much energy from wind and water, the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency based in the Pacific Northwest, has been forced to look for outside help. For the moment its problems represent an extreme, but experts predict that other systems will find themselves in the same pickle as utilities build more wind machines in an effort to reach state-mandated quotas for renewable energy. Bonneville, which issued a report this month on its rough patch, went ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
March of the wind farm: World's biggest offshore turbine site is switched on today
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1314440/March-wind-farm-Worlds-biggest-offshore-turbine-site-switched-today.html?ITO=1490
Daily Mail: Britain today became the biggest offshore wind generator in the world with the opening of Thanet wind farm, which is capable of powering over 200,000 homes. The array of more than 100 giant turbines spread over 35 square kilometers in the North Sea were switched on today. The Thanet farm off the coast of Kent will be able to generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power a small city -- but only if the wind is strong enough. It means that Britain is ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Eco-friendly palm oil initiative censures company linked to deforestation
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0923-rspo_smart_palm_oil.html
Mongabay: The Roundtable On Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a body the sets standards for eco-friendly palm oil production, on Thursday said Indonesian palm oil producer Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) breached its sustainability criteria and faces expulsion, reports AFP. "The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil takes all infringements of its Code of Conduct and Principles and Criteria very seriously," the group said in a statement on its website. "Members who have been found ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
UK opens world's biggest offshore windfarm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/thanet-windfarm-bright-future-green-industry
Guardian: It is a very rare thing for the UK to claim pre-eminence in the much-touted global green economy, so the assembled local dignitaries, industry folk and one cabinet minister were not letting the dismal maritime backdrop put a downer on proceedings. The official opening of the Thanet windfarm off the coast of Kent – the biggest offshore project in the world – means that Britain generates more power from offshore wind than the rest of the world put together. Launching the project ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
UM, MSU to create center to study climate of Great Lakes
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20100923/FREE/100929925
Crain's Detroit Business: The University of Michigan and Michigan State University announced today a joint effort to study how climate change is affecting the Great Lakes. Funded by a five-year, $4.2 million grant from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the universities will create the Great Lakes Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Center. The center will initially focus on the watersheds of Lake Erie and Lake Huron and how climate impacts agriculture, watershed ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Why we shouldn't buy into geoengineering fantasies
http://www.slate.com/id/2268034/
Slate: When, in late 1965, the problem of climate change first arrived on the desk of the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson's advisers presented him with only one possible solution: geoengineering. They suggested that scattering small reflective particles over millions of square miles of ocean might reflect enough sunlight away from Earth to moderate the warming. After lying dormant for more than a generation, geoengineering is back with a vengeance. A rush of new books and ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
UK shipping emissions 'up to six times higher than calculated'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/carbon-emissions-shipping
Guardian: Carbon emissions produced by UK shipping could be up to six times higher than calculated, says a report into the world's fleet of 30,000 commercial vessels. The report published today by the Tyndall centre for climate change says that Britain has consistently calculated its emissions incorrectly by only including bunker fuel sold at UK ports. This is misleading, say the scientists, because the majority of vessels sailing to and from Britain refuel in places like Rotterdam in ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
UK opens world's largest wind farm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11395824
BBC: The world's largest offshore wind farm off Thanet in Kent is to start producing electricity. Construction started a year ago at the £780m wind farm, which can be seen from the coast on a clear day, and is expected to generate enough electricity for 240,000 homes. Richard Westcott reports.
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Manufacturing a car creates as much carbon as driving it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2010/sep/23/carbon-footprint-new-car
Guardian: The carbon footprint of making a car is immensely complex. Ores have to be dug out of the ground and the metals extracted. These have to be turned into parts. Other components have to be brought together: rubber tyres, plastic dashboards, paint, and so on. All of this involves transporting things around the world. The whole lot then has to be assembled, and every stage in the process requires energy. The companies that make cars have offices and other infrastructure with their own carbon ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
World's biggest offshore wind farm to be switched on today off Kent coast
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1314440/Worlds-biggest-offshore-wind-farm-switched-today-Kent-coast.html?ITO=1490
Daily Mail: Arranged in formation like an advancing army, this is the world`s biggest offshore wind farm. The array of more than 100 giant turbines towering over the North Sea will be switched on today off the coast of Kent. The Thanet farm will be able to generate up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power a small city -- but only if the wind is strong enough. It means that Britain is now the biggest offshore wind generator in the world, producing more electricity ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
World's largest wind farm opens off Kent
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/worlds-largest-wind-farm-opens-off-kent-2087352.html
Press Association: The UK is determined to get out of the "dunce corner" on renewables, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said today as he officially opened the world's largest offshore wind farm off the UK coast. The 100-turbine Thanet wind farm off the coast of Kent will produce enough electricity to supply the equivalent of more than 200,000 homes a year, and brings the UK's total power from onshore and offshore wind to more than 5GW - enough to power all the homes in Scotland. At a ceremony at sea ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Greenpeace plan month-long stay on North Sea drill ship
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100923/wl_uk_afp/britainusoilenvironmentprotest
AFP: Greenpeace campaigners who boarded an oil drilling ship near the Shetland Isles in protest at exploration in the North Sea have enough food and drink to stay for a month, the group said. Two activists from the environmental lobby group spent Tuesday night in a tent suspended by ropes from the anchor chain of the Stena Carron drill ship, which is owned by US oil giant Chevron. The group has attached a purpose-built, two-metre-wide "survival pod" containing two more activists. ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Seychelles Sinks As Climate Change Advances
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130049417
National Public Radio: NEAL CONAN, host: In some places, climate change is not some abstract, far-off concept. The future has arrived. The Seychelles, for example, is sinking. The country consists of about 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Kenya - so beautiful, it's been compared with the Garden of Eden. But its already seen the world's worst coral die-off. Some believe the rising sea levels will put most of the archipelago underwater in 50 to 100 years, and leave the rest of it ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Renewable Electricity Promotion Act of 2010 Introduced into Senate
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS186715931120100922
Reuters: If the winds blow the way Sen. Jeff Bingaman is predicting, it will mean Congress has the fortitude, gumption–and most importantly the Republican votes–to make a 15 percent renewable electricity standard a reality during the lame-duck session after the midterm election. Though the New Mexico Democrat was flanked by just one Republican co-sponsor, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, when he announced the introduction of the measure at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday afternoon, he told reporters he ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Legally binding carbon cuts for India and China too: US
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Legally-binding-carbon-cuts-for-India-and-China-too-US/686232/
Press Trust of India: If the international negotiations were to move in the direction of legally binding carbon emission cuts then all major economies, including India and China should be under an obligation to do so, the US said on Wednesday. "If we are in the world of legally binding...where the negotiation on the table is for legally binding commitments... then it would be legally binding for China and India and other major developing countries," America's top climate change negotiator, Todd Stern said. ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Who Will Become the Masters of the 'Smart Grid'?
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/23/23climatewire-who-will-become-the-masters-of-the-smart-grid-4691.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ClimateWire: If there is a consensus within the smart grid sector, it's on the necessity of getting consumers to use new digital meters, energy displays, appliance controls and pricing innovation to reduce their use of electricity. This has been the mantra of the GridWise Global Forum in Washington this week, a convention of utilities, smart grid vendors, consultants and regulators. Theodore Craver Jr., president and CEO of Edison International, said the task involves providing essential ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Putin Calls for 'Trust' in Developing a Thawing Arctic
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/23/23climatewire-putin-calls-for-trust-in-developing-a-thawin-21915.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: "Mutual trust" will be the key to developing the vast resources of the Arctic and protecting its fragile ecosystems, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today. "In the final analysis, the future of the Arctic will be resolved by our willingness to look together for responses to joint challenges," Putin told attendees at an international Arctic conference hosted by the Russian Geographical Society. Putin's speech came days after Russia settled a 40-year dispute with ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Colossal coral bleaching kills up to 95 percent of corals in the Philippines
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0923-fidenci_coralbleach.html
Mongabay: It is one of the most worrisome observations: fast massive death of coral reefs. A severe wide-scale bleaching occurred in the Philippines leaving 95 percent of the corals dead. The bleaching happened as the result of the 2009-2010 El Niño, with the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia waters experiencing significant thermal increase especially since the beginning of 2010. In one of our conservation sites prior to the bleaching event, dead coral represented only 20 percent of all corals, ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
World's largest offshore wind farm opened in UK
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100923/sc_afp/britainenergyenvironmentsweden
AFP: The world's largest offshore wind farm opened in Britain on Thursday, as part of the government's bid to reduce the carbon emissions that drive climate change. The project received a qualified welcome from environmental campaigners. The site, a forest of giant turbines in the North Sea off the east Kent coast, has 100 turbines installed so far with a total of 341 planned. Swedish energy company Vattenfall, which built the farm, says it has the potential to power 200,000 ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
European nations reject ban on deep-sea drilling
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100923/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_norway_deepwater_drilling
AP: Oil-producing countries on Thursday rejected a German proposal for a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Northeast Atlantic that reflected environmental concerns after the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. At a meeting of environment ministers and officials from 15 European countries and the European Union, Germany suggested that offshore nations consider a temporary halt to the "drilling of new complex deep-water oil exploration wells." Greenpeace activists said offshore oil ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Oceans divide over 1970s warming
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11391238
BBC: The surfaces of the oceans went through a short period of rapid temperature change 40 years ago, scientists have found - but the cause is unknown. Top layers of Northern Hemisphere water cooled by about 0.3C; the south saw roughly the same degree of warming. Writing in the journal Nature, the team suggests that air pollution cannot be responsible for the changes, as has been suggested for mid-century cooling. They do not suggest a cause. It is not clear what could link ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Could an obscure treaty protect developing countries from geoengineering gone ...
http://www.slate.com/id/2268123/
Slate Magazine: Feed one set of assumptions into a climate model, and filling the Earth's upper atmosphere with levitating nano-particles seems like a reasonable way to rein in the worst effects of climate change. Feed in other assumptions, and the Asian and African monsoons falter, wiping out food and water security for 2 billion people. Of course, if climate change continues unfettered, the monsoon, increasingly chaotic, may tip into havoc, anyway–in Bangladesh, India, and other places that are especially ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
UK winning fight to soften international scrutiny of offshore drilling
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/government-soften-scrutiny-offshore-oil-drilling
Guardian: The British government was today successfully fending off an attempt to introduce international scrutiny of offshore drilling that was proposed by Germany in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Richard Benyon, a minister at Defra dispatched to Bergen, Norway, for a meeting of signatories to the Convention of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, appears to have won the support of other oil producers such as Denmark and Holland. The meeting is still under ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
World's largest wind farm opens off UK coast
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100923/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_britain_wind_farm
AP: The world's largest offshore wind farm opened off the southeast coast of England on Thursday, as part of the British government's push to boost renewable energy. Swedish energy company Vattenfall, which constructed the wind farm, said the 100 turbines off the coast of Thanet could, at their peak, produce enough electricity a year to power the equivalent of more than 200,000 homes. The huge site on the North Sea, built seven miles (12 kilometers) off the coast, will boost the ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Reverse Combustion: Can CO2 Be Turned Back into Fuel?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=turning-carbon-dioxide-back-into-fuel
Scientific American: In the 1990s a graduate student named Lin Chao at Princeton University decided to bubble carbon dioxide into an electrochemical cell. Using cathodes made from the element palladium and a catalyst known as pyridinium–a garden variety organic chemical that is a by-product of oil refining–he discovered that applying an electric current would assemble methanol from the CO2. He published his findings in 1994–and no one cared. But by 2003, Chao's successor in the Princeton lab of chemist ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Some North Atlantic pollution falls, new threats loom
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68M3R220100923?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Efforts to clean up and protect the North East Atlantic have made some progress since 2000 but new threats are looming such as ocean acidification linked to climate change, a study said on Thursday. The report, by the OSPAR Commission that groups 15 European nations and covers an area from the North Pole to the Azores, said there had been advances in reducing oil spills, discharges from nuclear installations and some hazardous wastes. But many goals set in 2000 such as stopping ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Kremlin adviser says Kyoto can't stop climate change
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/9/23/worldupdates/2010-09-22T224016Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-516749-1&sec=Worldupdates
Star: The Kyoto Protocol will have virtually no impact on slowing global warming unless it expands to take in the United States, China and more developing countries, Russia's chief climate negotiator said on Wednesday. Russia is the world's fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide and a key player in United Nations talks about whether to extend Kyoto when its first phase lapses in 2013, or replace it with a wider treaty that brings in poorer nations. President Dmitry Medvedev's top ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
The evidence on climate change is in
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100923/OPINION01/709239987/1038/OPINION01
Rutland Herald: In a lecture at Middlebury College earlier this week, journalist David Goodman noted that on some factual questions there is little dispute. Everyone knows that the New York Jets defeated the New England Patriots on Sunday. Why is it that on the question of climate change, about which the facts are piling up all around us, as many as half of Americans don`t believe it is a serious problem? The reasons for popular resistance to the reality of climate change are many, but that ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Abbott slams Gillard on Carbon backflip
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/abbott-slams-gillard-on-carbon-backflip-20100923-15of4.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Fresh plans for a carbon tax point to a secret deal between Labor and the Greens, says Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. On the eve of the election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard ruled out adopting a carbon price. But Climate Change Minister Greg Combet on Wednesday announced the development of a carbon price would be his focus during this term of government. Mr Abbott criticised the backflip, saying it meant the current government was based on a lie. "The carbon tax ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Pressure mounting for Rajendra Pachauri to resign as IPCC head
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8019691/Pressure-mounting-for-Rajendra-Pachauri-to-resign-as-IPCC-head.html
Telegraph: The Indian chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been dogged by controversy since he was forced to admit a serious error in a landmark report arguing the case for man-made global warming earlier this year. Climate sceptics have long been vocal critics of Dr Pachauri, but environmentalists and politicians have now joined a chorus of voices calling for his resignation after eight years in the job. An independent report last month recommended chairmen of ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
China's great green wall grows in climate fight
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/china-great-green-wall-climate
Guardian: Dubbed "The Great Green Wall," a human-made ecological barrier designed to stop rapidly encroaching deserts and combat climate change is coming up across China. By 2050, the artificial forest is to stretch 400 million hectares – covering more than 42 percent of China's landmass. China already has the largest human-made forest in the world, covering more than 500,000 square kilometres, and the Communist Party this year announced it had reached its stated goal of 20 percent forest cover ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Ofgem to investigate claims that grid charges penalise Scottish renewables
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270263/ofgem-investigate-claims-grid
Business Green: Ofgem is to investigate complaints that green energy projects in Scotland and at sea are being unfairly penalised by its system for charging power companies to send electricity across the grid. The charges are seen as a significant barrier to the development of renewable energy projects. The energy regulator said today it would review the way it charges power companies different amounts based on how far the power station or windfarm is from London. Ofgem, which announced the ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
United States: New Energy Technologies aims to turn windows into solar panels
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270264/energy-technologies-aims-turn
Business Green: A Maryland-based firm has developed a technology that it says can turn windows into solar panels. New Energy Technologies says that its new SolarWindow product can be directly sprayed on to windows at room temperature to turn them into solar energy generators. Currently in the prototype stage, it has been demonstrated powering LED lights and the blades of a small model helicopter from the energy generated, say executives. The product adheres to glass while keeping it ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Australian government weighs up carbon tax move
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270267/australian-government-weighs
Business Green: Australia's climate change minister Greg Combet has indicated for the first time that the government would consider introducing a carbon tax, despite previously indicating that it opposes a direct levy on emissions. Prior to this summer's election prime minister Julia Gillard ruled out any form of carbon tax, emphasising repeatedly that she considers emissions trading the only viable way to price carbon in Australia. But, in an interview last night on ABC News, Combet ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
British firms miss out as world's biggest windfarm opens off UK coast
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/23/british-firms-worlds-biggest-windfarm
Guardian: The world's biggest offshore windfarm opened officially today off the UK coast but the company behind the project said that less than 20% of the £900m investment in the project has gone to British firms. The low figure will concern ministers who have portrayed green technology as a growth sector that will help drive a recovery in the UK economy. In his speech to the Liberal Democrat conference on Tuesday, the energy and climate change minister, Chris Huhne, promised a "third ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Indian floods wash away thousands of homes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/23/india-floods-wash-away-thousands-homes
AP: Floods triggered by heavy rain in northern India have killed at least 17 people, washed away thousands of homes and forced the evacuation of some 2 million people in a 24-hour period. A swath of Uttar Pradesh state has been covered by floodwaters spilling over the banks of several rivers that crisscross the region, the state spokesman Diwakar Tripathi said. Soldiers and paramilitary troops were working to evacuate people from marooned villages and move them to relief camps. "At ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Scotland's marine energy sector surges ahead with latest leasing round
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270277/scotland-marine-energy-sector
Business Green: Marine energy developers will get another opportunity to further demonstrate Scotland's self-proclaimed "global lead" in wave and tidal technology after the Crown Estate yesterday announced further testing opportunities would be opened up in Scottish waters. The latest leasing round, which comes on top of 10 wave and tidal tenders awarded in March, will support developers competing for the Scottish government's Saltire Prize, which will see £10m awarded to one successful marine energy ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Texas Leads Resistance to EPA Climate Action
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/attorney-generals-office/texas-leads-resistance-to-epa-climate-action/
Texas Tribune: Come January, the Environmental Protection Agency will -- in theory -- begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions around the country for the first time. Large polluters planning expansions must include carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change on their permit applications, with broader regulations coming into force over time. But not if Texas can help it. Attorney General Greg Abbott last week lodged legal challenges in a federal court against EPA actions on multiple ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
Bingaman: Climate bill dead for Obama's first term
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270281/bingaman-climate-bill-dead
Business Green: President Barack Obama will be unable to pass a comprehensive climate bill during his first term of office, according to a senior Democrat senator. Speaking at a conference in Washington hosted by news agency Reuters, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman Jeff Bingaman said that the failure to pass climate legislation while the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress meant that the plans would have to be shelved for the rest of Obama's first term in ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
World's largest offshore wind farm opens in UK
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/23/uk.largest.wind.farm/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29
CNN: The world's largest offshore wind farm opened Thursday off the British coast, with 100 wind turbines capable of supplying enough electricity for 200,000 homes a year. The farm, off the coast of Kent in southern England, is part of a major renewable energy initiative spearheaded by the previous British government. Swedish energy company Vattenfall will operate the farm after having invested around 880 million pounds ($1.38 billion). British waters are an attractive place ...
Fri, 24 Sep 10
UN climate chief resignation call
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11395194
BBC: Several environmentalists, UK MPs and scientists has called for the resignation of Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN's climate science body. Dr Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has in the past been criticised by climate "sceptics". They have claimed that some of his comments had become politicised. Pressure increased recently when a report recommended that IPCC chairs serve only a single term of office. Dr Pachauri has yet to ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Oil and Gas Pipeline Disasters Fail to Spur Bill Bolstering Oversight
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/22/22greenwire-oil-and-gas-pipeline-disasters-fail-to-spur-bi-18304.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: The Obama administration's bid to strengthen federal pipeline oversight is raising questions from environmental groups as well as industry, suggesting that safety reforms could fail to reach a legislative fast track despite three recent high-profile ruptures along the 2.3 million miles of U.S. oil and gas lines. The White House proposal unveiled last week would reauthorize the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) while hiking the maximum fine for companies ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Obama Admin Rejects Timeout for Natural Gas Drilling in N.Y., Pa
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/22/22greenwire-obama-admin-rejects-timeout-for-natural-gas-dr-60467.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The Obama administration has decided against pressing for a temporary halt to Marcellus Shale drilling in Pennsylvania and New York, a key federal official said. Brig. Gen. Peter "Duke" DeLuca, commander of the North Atlantic Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, last week declined a request from Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) to use the federal government's vote on the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to seek a temporary ban on gas production in the Delaware ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
U.S. seen loosing renewable energy race to Asia
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68L54J20100922?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Several Asian countries in addition to China could soon challenge the United States in the race to build a renewable energy industry if Washington doesn't provide more incentives for its domestic business, venture capitalists and others told a Congressional hearing on Wednesday. The United States, once the world's leader in energy innovation, is now also "challenged and threatened" by India, South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, because it is not providing enough incentives to ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Will Brazil Change its Forest Code - and Kill the Amazon rainforest?
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0922-ecosystem_marketplace_forest_cost.html
Mongabay: Many credit Brazil's 75-year old Forest Code with helping to slow destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, but an unlikely amalgamation of right-wing and left-wing politicians are trying to gut the law. In this first of two articles, Ecosystem Marketplace examines the state of the debate. In the second part, Ecosystem Marketplace takes a look at the law's implications for the Amazon -- and for the forest-carbon marketplace in Brazil. "Farms Here, Forests There!' It's a catchphrase ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Dim the lights, save the birds: US conservationists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100922/ts_alt_afp/environmentusanimalsoffbeat
AFP: New York's lit-up skyline, which brightens the nocturnal cityscape delighting residents and tourists alike, is a menace to migrating birds, say ornithologists calling for the lights to be dimmed. Bird lovers said illuminated buildings confuse migrating birds, who find it hard at night to distinguish between bright electric lights and those of the celestial variety. During their spring and fall migrations, birds are mostly nocturnal travelers and tall buildings make it difficult ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Peru weighs deporting rainforest defender after 20 years in the Amazon
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0922-mulligan_peru_mcauley.html
Mongabay: There are very few times in life that you get to see a priest on a motorcycle. Fewer still that same-said priest zips off from a training session on REDD and forestry law back to his school for Indigenous youths located in the heartland of the Amazon, next to a prison and down the road from the rapidly growing city-center of Iquitos, Peru. Meet Brother Paul McAuley. Striped button-down shirt neatly tucked in, ropes of semilla (seeds, for the grigos) necklaces laced around his neck, ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Kremlin adviser says Kyoto can't stop climate change
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68L3V920100922?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Kyoto Protocol will have virtually no impact on slowing global warming unless it expands to take in the United States, China and more developing countries, Russia's chief climate negotiator said on Wednesday. Russia is the world's fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide and a key player in United Nations talks about whether to extend Kyoto when its first phase lapses in 2013, or replace it with a wider treaty that brings in poorer nations. President Dmitry Medvedev's top ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Averting the Grimmest Scenarios
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52933
Inter Press Service: The catastrophic floods in Pakistan have added urgency to a high-level United Nations summit this week, with delegates from mostly South Asian nations convening Tuesday to call for increased technology transfer from richer countries and to compare strategies to avert the worst effects of climate change. "Climate change is a reality," said Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed at a side event of the Millennium Development Goals Summit, which concludes Wednesday. "We in South ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Ecuador looks to its own people in the battle against climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/22/vidal-equador-climate-change
Guardian: We left thirsty Peru and have reached Quito in Ecuador on the great Oxfam/Guardian Andean climate journey. First stop is to meet the government and community leaders of a state that stretches from the Pacific coast, over the mountains, and deep into the Amazon forest. The environment minister is the redoubtable Maria Fernanda Espinoza, who is grappling with the contradictions of having a revolutionary new constitution that guarantees the rights of nature and all living entities, yet ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Ocean cold snap paused global warming in 70s: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68L3ZF20100922?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A cold snap in northern oceans around 1970 may have caused a dip in world temperatures that briefly interrupted a trend of global warming, scientists said on Wednesday. Many experts had previously explained a slight global cooling around 1970 as a side-effect of a slow build-up of sun-dimming air pollution from factories, power plants and cars that cleared up in later years with stricter air pollution laws. But scientists in the United States and Britain said an examination of ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Greenpeace plan month-long protest on North Sea drill ship
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100922/sc_afp/britainusoilenvironmentprotest
AFP: Greenpeace campaigners who boarded an oil drilling ship near the Shetland Isles in protest at exploration in the North Sea have enough food and drink to stay for a month, the group said Wednesday. Two activists from the environmental lobby group spent Tuesday night in a tent suspended by ropes from the anchor chain of the Stena Carron drill ship, which is owned by US oil giant Chevron. The group has attached a purpose-built, two-metre-wide "survival pod" containing two more ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Pollution not to blame for rapid ocean cooling, says Phil Jones paper
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/22/climate-science-ocean-temperatures-phil-jones
Guardian: Scientists studying a rapid cooling of the oceans around four decades ago have found that the traditional explanation for the phenomenon, which involved pollution in the atmosphere, does not stack up. The discovery does not cast doubt on the overall science of human-caused climate change. But the study will receive more scrutiny than normal because it is the first scientific paper co-authored by Prof Phil Jones since he was cleared of accusations of manipulating data in the row over ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Senate Momentum Builds for Clean Energy and Jobs, but Not Climate
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/22/22climatewire-senate-momentum-builds-for-clean-energy-and-54130.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ClimateWire: Call it climate-lite. The renewable electricity standard introduced in the Senate yesterday is a key element in most sprawling measures to address climate change. It's designed to rev up renewable electricity -- 15 percent by 2021, including efficiency -- resulting in less fossil fuel use and fewer emissions. That would help utilities cut their carbon output to comply with an emissions cap -- if Congress ever enacts one. Yet the bill offered by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Australia: Combet admits carbon tax an option
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/23/3019409.htm?section=justin
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has given a clear sign the Government is prepared to consider introducing a carbon tax. Before the election Prime Minister Julia Gillard ruled out using a tax to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the Greens advocate a tax as an interim measure and the chief of BHP has also endorsed the idea. Mr Combet says the Government is determined to put a price on carbon and the new parliamentary committee on climate change will consider ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
German Greens hit record, pull level with SPD: poll
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68L27F20100922?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Germany's Green Party has drawn level for the first time with the main opposition Social Democrats, a leading poll showed, propelled by its campaign against government plans to extend the use of nuclear energy. Support for the environmentalist party hit a record high of 24 percent, up to two percentage points from last week, in the Forsa survey published on Wednesday by Stern magazine. The Greens were junior coalition partners to the Social Democrats (SPD), traditionally ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Greenpeace claims activists could occupy Shetland oil-drilling ship for up to a month
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/22/greenpeace-shetland-chevron-oil-drilling
Guardian: The protest group Greenpeace claims it could occupy a deepwater drilling ship off Shetland for up to a month after two activists attached a "survival pod" to the vessel's anchor. In the latest stage of its campaign against deep sea drilling, Greenpeace has targeted a 228m long ship owned by the US oil giant Chevron which had been preparing to set sail to drill in about 500m of water some 150km north of Shetland. The campaigners, based on the Greenpeace protest ship Esperanza, ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Bike-sharing programs spin across U.S. campuses
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-09-21-college-bike-sharing_N.htm
USA Today: Drury University junior Garret Shelenhamer ditched his car and gets to his classes and volunteer commitments using a shiny, new bike provided by the school. Shelenhamer, 20, is one of a number of students across the USA taking advantage of free or low-cost bike sharing programs, which have become increasingly popular. Drury students agreed to pay a $20-a-year sustainability fee, which funds the bike program. The Springfield, Mo., school purchased 40 new bikes for use by students in ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Kuwait's coral is dying as sea warms up
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100922/FOREIGN/709219863/1011/NEWS
National: A group of Kuwaiti divers has reported bleaching in more than 90 per cent of the country's coral reefs -- a sign that the coral is either sick or dead. "This is really bad," Dari al Huwail, a member of Kuwait Dive Team, said. "Before Ramadan, it seemed normal; there were signs of bleaching, but they were not unusual, at least to me." After the holy month, "we went diving for a conservation project and were shocked to discover how massive the bleaching was". When team members ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Melting ice opens up potential for Arctic exploitation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11381971
BBC: Climate change has focused attention on the economic potential of the Arctic. Parts of the region which have been frozen over for millennia have now become accessible as a result of melting ice. The Arctic is undoubtedly one of the planet's natural treasures - its size is similar to that of Europe and it is home to many rare species of wildlife such as Beluga whales. The whales survive in a fragile ecosystem but below the waters in which they fish, deep beneath the ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Experts: Caribbean corals could face record bleach
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jHrZiDLEjVUVzs9bNLh-WYcXVZKAD9ICIV2O0
AP: Caribbean corals are being exposed to water temperatures higher than those reported during a record bleaching period five years ago and could start dying in the coming weeks, scientists said Tuesday. The warning comes after islands entered the warmest month of the year for water temperatures, which means the problem is just starting, said C. Mark Eakin, coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch network. "I would love for the forecast ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Disasters mirror climate models: US environment chief
http://www.france24.com/en/20100921-disasters-mirror-climate-models-us-environment-chief
AFP: The flurry of exceptional weather disasters in recent years is completely consistent with scenarios about an aspect of climate change, the head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Tuesday. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the top US agency for meteorology and environmental science, said extreme weather events, when viewed individually, should not be considered as firm evidence that climate change was under way. "At the same time, (what) we ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
California wants 1 million electric vehicles on roads by 2020
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100921/UPDATE/9210432/1361/California-wants-1-million-electric-vehicles-on-roads-by-2020
Detroit News: California wants 1 million battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the Golden State's roadways in a decade. The nation's largest state unveiled a new plan for its energy future two days in advance of the Air Resources Board considering a first-in-the-nation rule requiring that a third of electricity come from clean, green sources by 2020. That will ensure that vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, Chevrolet Volt, electric Ford Focus and plug-in electric Toyota Prius have lower ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
U.S. Plans to Try Again on HFC With The `Biggest Climate Deal' This Year
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-21/u-s-plans-to-try-again-on-hfc-with-this-year-s-biggest-climate-deal-.html
Bloomberg: The U.S. plans a second stab at a greenhouse-gas proposal, arguing that carbon trading isn't the best way to eliminate hydrofluorocarbon-23, an industrial waste product that traps 11,700 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987 after scientists discovered a hole in the earth's ozone, could be a vehicle for saving hundreds of millions of dollars now spent via emissions trading, said Dan Reifsnyder, the official responsible for ozone protection at the ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
US says binding carbon cuts for India, China
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/US-says-binding-carbon-cuts-for-India-China/articleshow/6607523.cms
Economic Times: If the international negotiations were to move in the direction of legally binding carbon emission cuts then all major economies, including India and China should be under an obligation to do so, the US said on Wednesday. "If we are in the world of legally binding...where the negotiation on the table is for legally binding commitments... then it would be legally binding for China and India and other major developing countries," America's top climate change negotiator, Todd Stern ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Renewable energy bill faces battle in 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K52220100921
Reuters: A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require utilities to generate minimum levels of renewable power which environmentalists welcomed but analysts said had slim chances of passing this year. Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat and chair of the Senate's energy committee, and Sam Brownback, a Republican, introduced the bill which would create a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) requiring utilities to generate 15 percent renewable power by 2021. Senate ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Think or swim: Can we hold back the oceans?
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727781.600-think-or-swim-can-we-hold-back-the-oceans.html
New Scientist: Not even massive geoengineering projects will stop the seas' relentless rise. Maybe it's time we found somewhere to put all that excess water FOR some, the end may come slowly, as the seas creep a little higher each year. That was the fate of the ancient cities of Herakleion and Eastern Canopus, which took centuries to be swallowed up. Elsewhere, the land may be eroded by waves and swept away by currents, as happened to the medieval English port of Dunwich. Or disaster could strike ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
World eyes Arctic oil reserves
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11389043
BBC: Climate change has focussed attention on the economic potential of the Arctic. Parts of the region that have been frozen for centuries have become accessible as the ice melts. Oil companies say there is now a chance to explore there, but that leaves the politicians with the challenge of balancing development with environmental risks. The BBC's Duncan Bartlett spoke to Prof Julian Dowdeswell of the Scott Polar Institute and Manouchehr Takin of the Centre for Global Energy ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Vulnerable Arab world lags on climate change action
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68L2TL20100922?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Arab world will be one of the regions worst hit by climate change but still lacks any coordinated response to its potentially devastating effects, experts said at a conference this week. With hotter, drier and less predictable climates, the amount of water running into the region's streams and rivers is set to fall 20 to 30 percent by 2050, worsening desertification and food insecurity, the United Nations Development Programme says. Arab states, many rich in petroleum and ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
150 Year Old Plants Could Aid Climate Change Research
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1921100/150_year_old_plants_could_aid_climate_change_research/
redOrbit: Vital information about climate change could be contained in plants that were picked more than a century ago by Victorian-era collectors and are currently housed in herbariums worldwide, according to a new study published this week in the Journal of Ecology. In the study, researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), the University of Kent, the University of Sussex and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew looked at 77 specimens of the early spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes), which ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Philippines digs in for climate change meeting
http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=18158
Business World: THE PHILIPPINES will resist pressures for it to commit to greenhouse gas emission cuts and will demand damages from large industrial economies at next month`s talks for a global deal to fight climate change, a ranking official said late last week. Otherwise, binding this developing country to targets would stunt local farming which already accounts for roughly a third of the country`s emissions, Agriculture Undersecretary Segfredo R. Serrano said ahead of technical working group ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
India pessimistic about climate summit
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/09/21/India-pessimistic-about-climate-summit/UPI-80631285099734/
United Press International: India's environment minister painted a pessimistic picture of the December U.N. climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico. "I think frankly Cancun is headed nowhere because the financial commitments made by the developed countries at Copenhagen have not been fulfilled and are unlikely to be fulfilled in any substantial measure," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told the Press Trust of India on the sidelines of the Major Economies Forum meeting in New York Monday. Delegates from ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
U.S. Stands By Greenhouse Emissions Pledge for Cancun Talks, Stern Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-21/u-s-stands-by-greenhouse-emissions-pledge-for-cancun-talks-stern-says.html
Bloomberg: The Obama administration will stand by a pledge to cut greenhouse gases and doesn't plan to provide details about how the goal will be met for climate talks in Mexico this year, U.S. negotiator Todd Stern said. The U.S. at the Cancun negotiations will reaffirm its plan to reduce emissions tied to global warming about 17 percent by 2020, Stern told reporters today after a meeting of the world's largest polluting nations in New York. More than 190 nations are to meet in Mexico in ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Climate Shift: Republicans, Some Dems Push Legislation To Curb EPA Authority
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ibd/20100921/bs_ibd_ibd/548014
Investor's Business Daily: After months of trying to pass a greenhouse gas regulation bill, Congress may finally see some action. To the greens' chagrin, though, the bills being considered would limit, not expand, the Environmental Protection Agency's authority. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has repeatedly said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised him a vote on his bill to prevent the EPA from making greenhouse gas regulations for two years. Reid spokesman Jim Manley indicated the vote ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
India Poised to Take Top Spot for Indonesian Coal Exports
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/india-poised-to-take-top-spot-for-indonesian-coal-exports/397362
Jakarta Globe: As its economy surges, India grows ever more hungry for Indonesian commodities, especially coal and palm oil, and is likely to surpass Japan as the biggest buyer of Indonesian coal within the next two years, the Indonesian Coal Mining Association has said. Bob Kamandanu, chairman of the association, also known as Apbi, on Tuesday said India's coal imports from Indonesia were likely to rise to 70 million metric tons by 2012, up from 40 million tons this year. "In the past, India ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
NM enviro panel rebuts conflict-of-interest claims
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100921/ap_on_bi_ge/nm_emissions_battle
AP: The chairwoman of the state's Environmental Improvement Board took issue Tuesday with allegations that some members of the panel have a conflict of interest in considering a state proposal for the regulations of greenhouse gas emissions. Gay Dillingham addressed the allegations after a break in a hearing on the state's cap-and-trade proposal, which would give companies economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions. She told the crowd -- mostly experts and lawyers for the state ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
America's policy paralysis
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/CLIMATE-SPECTATOR-Americas-policy-paralysis-pd20100922-9J27B?opendocument&src=rss
Business Spectator: The United States this week received a lesson in climate change policy 101 from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. As the American political class struggles with the issue of climate change and the need to act -- none of the Republican Senate candidates support action, and most do not believe the science -- the OECD, in its regular economic survey of the world`s largest economy, has called for the US to take action on the domestic front and take a pivotal role ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Spain's largest biomass plant gets go-ahead
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270175/spain-largest-biomass-plant
Business Green: Ambitious plans for Spain's largest biomass plant have been approved by the Spanish government. Renewable energy group Ence required governmental permission as the EUR100m (£84.4m) plant near the town of Huelva was to be funded using public money specifically set aside for renewable energy projects. Ence has drawn up a shortlist of three companies -- Tecnicas Reunidas, OHL and Acciona-Idom -- to build the plant, which when completed will increase the firm's current 68MW ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Experts search Egypt's pharaonic past for climate change fix
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100921/sc_afp/egyptarchaeologygeographyenvironment
AFP: As world experts grapple with ways to contain global warming, researchers gathered in Egypt are seeking answers from the country's pharaonic past to help tackle environmental problems of the present. Blessed with incomparable archaeological wealth, Egypt is the most populous Arab nation and the number of inhabitants is expected to more than double by 2050 to 160 million, according to estimates. The effects of climate change have long been neglected in this large North African ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Climate scientists respond
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2010/sep/21/climate-scientists-respond-lord-monckton
Guardian
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Not many takers for BP Gulf rig worker fund
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100921/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_rig_workers
Associated Press: Fewer people than expected have applied for money from a $100 million fund BP PLC set up to help deepwater rig workers after a federal moratorium on drilling prompted by the massive oil spill. With nine days left to apply, a spokesman for the charity running the program told The Associated Press on Tuesday that only 356 people have come forward. Up to 9,000 people had been expected to seek grants of $3,000 to $30,000. The charity said many rig workers are being kept on the job ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Peru: Have the climate wars begun?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/21/climate-wars-machu-picchu-irrigation
Guardian: The plan was to go from the Four Lakes district in Peru's Cusco province up to the communities in the Espinar region, another three hours and 600m up the Andes mountainsides into the high pastures. These villages are more than 4,300m high (14,000ft), some of the remotest and highest inhabited in the world. But we nearly didn't get there because the city of Yauri, where we were to stay, was in lockdown over water. The following day, we were told, there would be a total strike. No one ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Bill Clinton: Economy, disasters imperil millions
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100921/ap_on_re_us/us_clinton_global_initiative
AP: Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday warned of the growing devastation of the global economic downturn and said the dangers posed by natural disasters around the world had been increased by the effects of climate change. The former president spoke in New York on the first day of the annual Clinton Global Initiative. The conference brings together leaders from government, business and philanthropy, who make financial commitments aimed at tackling poverty and disease around the ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Huhne pledges “green revolution” to combat “challenge of a generation”
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2270167/huhne-promises-green-revolution
Business Green: Energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne used his keynote speech at the Liberal Democrat conference today to outline a "revolutionary' Green Deal to insulate homes which he said could create 250,000 jobs by 2030. In bullish form, he declared climate change to be "the challenge not of a parliament but of a generation', promising "green spending for a green economy set fair for green growth' to usher in a low-carbon age and cut the gaping budget deficit. On top of the plan ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
GM rice trials in the Philippines 'will go ahead'
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/gm-rice-trials-in-the-philippines-will-go-ahead-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: Scientists researching genetically modified (GM) rice in the Philippines have insisted that field trials will go ahead in December, despite the new agriculture secretary, Proceso Alcala, making strong anti-GM statements since taking office two months ago. In particular, Alcala told SciDev.Net that he will not permit the production of GM rice unless it is proved safe for human consumption. Researchers at the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) are developing a version ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
US envoy plays down expectations for climate talks
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g4N_XXYIRyQEJ2S4IG_n7c4fcp1g
AFP: The top US climate negotiator warned Tuesday against expectations of any binding deals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the next UN conference on the issue in Mexico later this year. Climate change special envoy Todd Stern also insisted the United States still had a major role to play in the battle against global warming, despite its failure to get a bill cutting greenhouse gas emissions through Congress. Stern said after a high-level international meeting on climate ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Big powers talk climate, but no grand deal sighted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100921/ap_on_re_us/us_climate_talks
Associated Press: In two days of talks, major economic powers discussed ways to move ahead in slowing and coping with climate change, but no one sees a grand global deal anywhere on the horizon, a lead U.S. negotiator said Tuesday. "This was a very constructive meeting," special climate envoy Todd Stern said of the 17-nation session. But "no one is expecting or anticipating in any way a legal treaty to be done at Cancun this year." The Mexican resort will host the annual U.N. climate conference ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Australia: Shareholders to grill firms on climate
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/shareholders-to-grill-firms-on-climate-risk-plans/story-fn59niix-1225927540330
Australian: MAJOR Australian companies such as Woodside Petroleum face a raft of shareholder resolutions at annual general meetings. The resolutions will force them to reveal their carbon emissions and their plans to tackle climate change. Australian Ethical Investment and The Climate Institute have spearheaded the move by preparing resolutions aimed at establishing whether companies are preparing for the risks of climate change and a price on emissions. The resolutions will demand ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
EPA Issues Final Plan for Auditing Rejected Texas Permits
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/21/21greenwire-epa-issues-final-plan-for-auditing-rejected-te-41113.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: For the roughly 130 power plants, refineries and other facilities embroiled in the air permitting dispute between U.S. EPA and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a new program being finalized by EPA could allow them to get on with business as usual. The world's two largest environmental agencies have been scrapping for months over "flexible permitting," a 16-year-old system used by Texas to craft permits for some of the state's largest industrial facilities. Rather than ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
Big economies don't see climate pact this year: U.S
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K47A20100921?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: World powers are not aiming for a legally binding pact to fight global warming at a U.N. meeting in Mexico this year and are trying to stop backsliding from a 2009 agreement, the United States said on Tuesday. U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern, speaking after a meeting of the Major Economies Forum in New York, reiterated the U.S. pledge to cut its emissions some 17 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels but declined to outline how that would be done in the absence of U.S. climate ...
Thu, 23 Sep 10
U.S. government: No sign of undersea plume from BP spill
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68K4UD20100921?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The government is unable to confirm reports of a miles-long plume of oil lurking beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico from BP Plc's giant oil spill, a government scientist said on Tuesday. The government confirmed on Sunday that BP had permanently "killed" its deep-sea well that ruptured in April and unleashed the worst spill in U.S. history. Some private scientists and academic groups say sizable amounts of oil remain trapped deep beneath the ocean surface, after a ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Reid Promises Vote On Blocking EPA From Addressing Climate Change
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/14/reid-climate-change-blocking-epa-vote_n_716970.html
Huffington Post: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will allow a vote on legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases for two years, he told reporters in the Capitol today. Following his weekly press briefing, Reid (D-Nev.) was asked if the Senate wold vote on EPA preemption. "Not before we leave here," said Reid, referring to the three-week congressional schedule ahead. "This year." Reid's commitment to give preemption a vote this year means ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
A Modest Plan to Save the Tigers
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/a-modest-plan-to-save-the-tigers/
NYT: A new study says tigers have been squeezed to less than 7 percent of their historical range. Most of the estimated 3,500 tigers that still roam the wild live in 42 relatively contained enclaves in India, Sumatra and Far Eastern Russia, with a smattering in Malaysia, Thailand and Laos. But those so-called source sites are losing ground to development, forestry and poaching and must be protected to save the tigers from extinction, according to a new paper from a group of ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Study: To save tigers, protect key breeding areas
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_sc/as_tigers__last_stand
AP: Conservationists must protect tiger populations in a few concentrated breeding grounds in Asia instead of trying to safeguard vast, surrounding landscapes, if they want to save the big cats from extinction, scientists said Tuesday. Only about 3,500 tigers are left in the wild worldwide, less than one third of them breeding females, according to one of the authors of a new study, John Robinson of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Much has been done to try to save the world's ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Greenhouse Gas Emission Cuts Promise Health Benefits
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=greenhouse-gas-emission-cuts
Scientific American: Upping the European Union's emissions reduction target from 20 percent to 30 percent would reap EUR30.5 billion a year in health savings by 2020, according to an analysis released Tuesday by two health groups. The savings come as the air pollutants associated with transportation and power generation - soot, smog and sulfur dioxide - decrease amid efforts to improve efficiency and abandon fossil fuels, according to the analysis. If Europe were to move to a 30 percent target, the ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
U.S. to host major economies climate forum in New York
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68D5F920100914?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The United States will host a meeting of the world's biggest economies in New York to discuss climate change on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said. The Major Economies Forum will bring together 16 of the world's biggest economies next week with the 27-nation European Union to haggle over ways to fight global warming. It was formed to augment U.N. climate change talks. A deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions has so far eluded negotiators within the U.N. ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
U.S. drilling ban "unlikely" to be extended: official
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68D52E20100914?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Obama administration is unlikely to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling because of the progress the industry has shown since the massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April, an Interior Department official said on Tuesday. Michael Bromwich, head of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said he has been impressed with strides the oil and gas industry has made on spill response and containment since the drilling ban was imposed. "I think we're in a quite ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Major climate change talks set for next week in New York
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100914/sc_afp/environmentusclimatewarming
AFP: Representatives from the 17 nations responsible for 80 percent of the emissions thought responsible for global warming will meet in New York next week, a US envoy said Tuesday. US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern said the meeting would take place September 20-21, as part of ongoing global talks on reducing harmful emissions that cause climate change. The talks fall under the aegis of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, launched by US President Barack ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Official: EPA, Texas working on permit solution
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_bi_ge/tx_epa_vs_texas
AP: The Environmental Protection Agency will soon help Texas petrochemical companies comply with the Clean Air Act after it rejected the state's industrial permitting program, the agency's regional director said Tuesday. The federal audit program, however, is only a first step toward resolving the environmental dispute that gained steam in June when the EPA determined Texas' so-called flexible permits violated federal law. That move put in operational limbo more than 120 petrochemical ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Major climate change talks set for next week in New York
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iPD_kE8rfqIlXb4uZj3Ngw8ffF_Q
AFP: Representatives from the 17 nations responsible for 80 percent of the emissions thought responsible for global warming will meet in New York next week, a US envoy said Tuesday. US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern said the meeting would take place September 20-21, as part of ongoing global talks on reducing harmful emissions that cause climate change. The talks fall under the aegis of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, launched by US President Barack ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Climate change could make Canada's a major world power: geographer
http://www.vancouversun.com/Climate+change+could+make+Canada+major+world+power+geographer/3524690/story.html
Vancouver Sun: A top U.S. geographer says Canada will emerge as a major world power within 40 years as part of a climate-driven transformation of global trade, agriculture and geopolitics highlighted by the rise of the "Northern Rim" nations. UCLA scientist Laurence Smith, whose previous studies have documented the toll that climate change is taking on Arctic ecosystems and communities, examines the full range of effects of global warming -- many of them positive for places such as Canada -- in his ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
BP's Hayward to testify to UK lawmakers on spill)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_bp_oil_spill
AP: Outgoing BP CEO Tony Hayward will come under scrutiny from British lawmakers Wednesday over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, months after he offered few explanations for the accident at a testy hearing in Washington. Hayward is scheduled to give evidence to a British parliamentary committee studying the fallout of the spill and the future of deep water drilling. The British executive, who will be replaced by chief executive Bob Dudley, an American, on Oct. 1, will appear alongside ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Is E-Commerce Truly Good for the Planet?
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS195166423820100914
Reuters: I'm not much of a shopper, but when I buy stuff, I prefer to do it online. I don't like shopping malls, driving in traffic, crowded stores or dealing with "customer service" people. I do enjoy getting packages at home. Now, it turns out, there may be another reason to shop online: E-commerce is a way to help fight climate change. So, at least, says eBay and a carbon-footprint consulting firm called Cooler, in a report due out today. In particular, the report argues, eBay's ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Every building should flaunt energy performance says NG Bailey
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269769/every-building-should-flaunt
Business Green: The government should launch a policy forcing all landlords to hang giant Display Energy Certificates (DEC) inside their buildings to help kick start a low carbon retrofitting revolution of the UK's building stock. That was the stark message from leading green construction firm NG Bailey at the CBI today, which warned the UK is ill equipped to meet its carbon cutting 2020 and 2050 targets. "Our current policies won't deliver the goals," said NG Bailey sustainability director ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Women More Likely To Accept Global Warming
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1916796/women_more_likely_to_accept_global_warming/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Women tend to believe the scientific consensus on global warming more than men, according to a study by a Michigan State University researcher. The findings, published in the September issue of the journal Population and Environment, challenge common perceptions that men are more scientifically literate, said sociologist Aaron M. McCright. "Men still claim they have a better understanding of global warming than women, even though women's beliefs align much more closely with the ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Energy Express Focus Issue: Thin-Film Photovoltaic Materials And Devices
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1917010/energy_express_focus_issue_thinfilm_photovoltaic_materials_and_devices/index.html?source=r_science
REDORBIT: Developing renewable energy sources has never been more important, and solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies show great potential in this field. They convert direct sunlight into electricity with little impact on the environment. This field is constantly advancing, developing technologies that can convert power more efficiently and at a lower cost. To highlight breakthroughs in this area, the editors of Energy Express, a bi-monthly supplement to Optics Express, the open-access journal of the ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Call to replace UN climate chiefs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11303686
BBC: Lord Turnbull, the former head of the UK civil service, says the government must push for new leadership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He says new leaders are needed to re-build trust in climate science following the "Climategate" e-mails affair and the IPCC's glacier mistake. Lord Turnbull made his comments in a report on Climategate published by the climate-sceptic think-tank the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), of which he is a ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Fears £9bn clean coal programme could be drastically scaled back
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/14/clean-coal-programme-fears-scaled-back
Guardian: The Treasury is reviewing the government's £9bn clean coal programme amid growing fears in the energy department that it will be drastically scaled back. Senior sources within the energy department believe the plan for four new clean coal pilot plants – funded by a £9bn levy on consumer electricity bills – are the most vulnerable to cuts. The number of plants could be halved or staggered so that the third and fourth projects are not up and running for more than a ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
CEO: No easy fix to Maine wind turbine complaints
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_bi_ge/me_wind_turbine_noise
AP: The top executive of the company that installed wind turbines on Vinalhaven island said his experts disagree with a Maine Department of Environmental Protection consultant who concluded the turbines violate nighttime noise limits. Fox Islands Wind CEO George Baker said his experts reviewed the same data and concluded that the three turbines do not violate state standards. State law sets a 45-decibel limit. Fox Islands believes the discrepancy lies with naturally occurring ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Pace of EPA's Clean Air Act Rulemakings Turns Heads, Draws Lawsuits
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/14/14greenwire-pace-of-epas-clean-air-act-rulemakings-turns-h-75200.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: The Obama administration is in the midst of a landmark series of Clean Air Act rulemakings. In 18 months, U.S. EPA has -- among other things -- stiffened standards for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide for the first time in decades, revamped the George W. Bush administration's smog regulations and issued the first climate rules under the Clean Air Act. And that is just the beginning. EPA is expected to lay out additional plans for the Clean Air Act today as it marks the ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
New Map Shows Measuring Carbon in Amazon Is Feasible
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/14/14greenwire-new-map-shows-measuring-carbon-in-amazon-is-fe-47577.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Calculating how many acres of Amazon forest are cleared each year is relatively easy thanks to satellite imaging. Determining how much carbon is stored in that forest is another matter. Unlike forest cover, carbon cannot be seen from satellites in space. Scientists have to physically measure tree trunks in order to calculate how much of the greenhouse gas is stored in their woody limbs and green leaves. Measuring every tree on the planet is clearly impractical, and this has ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Calif. Initiative Lets Low-Income Homes Bask in Solar Power
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/14/14greenwire-calif-initiative-lets-low-income-homes-bask-in-17335.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Hacienda Townhomes apartment complex sits in a struggling section of this city's downtown, steps from an intersection previously known as "Crack Alley." The building's beige, boxy walls house some of the region's poorest residents. Locked gates and thick bars separate tenants from a homeless shelter, liquor store and tattoo parlor. But on the rooftop, 96 solar panels glint in the afternoon sun. Solar power arrived at Hacienda Townhomes this summer, changing this building's ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Republican hopefuls deny global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/14/republican-hopefuls-deny-global-warming
Guardian: All but one of the 48 Republican hopefuls for the Senate mid-term elections in November deny the existence of climate change or oppose action on global warming, according to a report released today. The strong Republican front against established science includes entrenched Senate leaders as well as the new wave of radical conservatives endorsed by the Tea Party activists, says a report by the Centre for American Progress. As election season gets under way, Tea Party favourites ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Thursday Shaping Up as a Senate Showdown Over EPA's Greenhouse Gas Regs
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/09/14/14greenwire-thursday-shaping-up-as-a-senate-showdown-over-e-2565.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Greenwire: Two Senate Democrats yesterday said they may support an amendment to block U.S. EPA climate rules, increasing the odds of its success when the Senate Appropriations Committee votes Thursday on EPA's budget. The potential supporters of an appropriations rider are Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), both of whom are co-sponsors of a bill from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) that would freeze EPA's ability to regulate emissions from stationary sources for two ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Japan slams Canada's green energy regulations
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100914/wl_canada_afp/wtotradedisputejapancanada
AFP: Japan has complained to the World Trade Organisation that a renewable energy programme operated by Ontario, Canada, violates WTO rules and is protectionist, officials said Tuesday. Canada's Ontario province has launched a "Feed-in Tariff" (FIT) Programme that requires the use of Ontario-made products in manufacturing power-generating facilities, Japan's foreign ministry said in a statement. "Japan considers that this requirement for the use of locally made products violates" ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
EU and African leaders launch renewables cooperation programme
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269749/eu-african-leaders-kick-launch
Business Green: At a meeting of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) in Vienna today, EU commissioners launched the Renewable Energy Cooperation Programme (RECP) with EUR5 million funding. This programme aims to bring relevant renewable energy technologies to Africa to contribute to the African renewable energy targets for 2020. During the conference, commissioner for development Andris Piebalgs and commissioner for energy, Gunther Oettinger, presented a road map developed by the EU and ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Metro adds 48 diesel-electric hybrid buses to improve fleet reliability
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091306129.html
Washington Post: Metro's bus fleet reached a high level of reliability this summer as the arrival of scores of new buses reduced mechanical breakdowns, Metro officials said Monday. Metro has added 48 New Flyer diesel-electric hybrid buses to its fleet of more than 1,500 buses in recent months, helping reduce the average age of vehicles in the fleet from eight to seven years, officials said. In June and July, the bus fleet achieved its "highest reliability ever" when measured by the number of ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Arctic ice melting quickly, report says
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Resource-Wars/2010/09/13/Arctic-ice-melting-quickly-report-says/UPI-26991284409438/
United Press International: The ice around the North Pole has experienced another severe meltdown this year, German scientists said. Around 1.9 million square miles of the Arctic Ocean will be covered by ice by the end of this summer, the third-lowest figure since satellite monitoring began in the 1970s, scientists from the University of Hamburg and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research said Monday. In the past four years, the average ice coverage in mid-September was around 2 million ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Environment watchdog warns against logging in West Australian forest
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/environment-watchdog-warns-against-logging-in-west-australian-forest/story-fn59niix-1225921457023
Australian: CLIMATE change is causing major problems in Western Australia's iconic southwest forest area. For that reason, the state's environmental watchdog yesterday warned the Barnett government against continued logging in some parts. In a major report, the Environmental Protection Authority said declining rainfall and rising temperatures were taking a heavy toll on parts of the 1.2 million hectare state forest area south of Perth, which is internationally renowned as a biodiversity ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Germany: Resistance to Merkel's Plan: A multi-trillion-euro price tag for energy efficiency
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,717156,00.html
Spiegel: The German government's new energy plan would require most houses in the country to be modernized and made more energy-efficient. Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to make Germany's residential buildings the most energy-efficient in the world has run into resistance within her cabinet. The project's price tag could be as high as 2.4 trillion euros -- and the minister responsible told SPIEGEL it is impracticable. It was Berlin's decision to extend the lifespans of the country's ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
United States: Combined heat and power slowly picks up steam
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/10/0913/2113/
NJ Spotlight: The Christie administration has come up with partial funding for a half-dozen clean-power projects that have been held up since it diverted money targeted to the effort because of the state's budget crisis. The money, available from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, will provide up to $18 million in a competitive grant program that will be jointly administered by the authority and state Board of Public Utilities (BPU). It is expected to fund at least six or seven combined ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Warming Arctic pushes wildlife to the edge
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/warming-arctic-pushes-wildlife-to-the-edge/1940663.aspx
Canberra Times: The Arctic is warming at a rate almost twice the global average, triggering mass starvation of wildlife and a doubling of coastal erosion in some areas, a new report says. An estimated 20,000 muskoxen starved to death in one year in northern Greenland and Canada as a result of a 50 per cent increase in ''rain-on-snow events'', according to a study by the Washington-based Centre for Biological Diversity and Care for the Wild International. Because of warming temperatures, ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
U.S. Military may lead the way to energy independence
http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/science_tech/u.s.-military-may-lead-the-way-to-energy-independence
ABC: When you think of environmental activists, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace may come to mind. But some argue the U.S. Military is doing more to lead us toward energy independence than any other institution in America. A new breed of so-called "greenhawks" may be leading the way toward energy independence. Colonel Dan Nolan remembers the day in 2006 when the Marines, fighting a bloody insurgency in Al Anbar province, requested a hybrid electric power station. "I looked at the ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Trade groups wants lax plane CO2 rules
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/09/14/am-us-wants-lax-plane-co2-emission-rules/
Public Radio: BILL RADKE: Airplanes, we know, are big polluters. How to regulate them is a worldwide conundum. The United Nations is about to consider a global standard for airline carbon emissions. Marketplace's Eve Troeh reports, American trade groups are pushing for a standard that's less tough than the one coming out of Europe. EVE TROEH: Unlike, say, a bricks-and-mortar factory, airplanes pollute while circling the globe. Steve Lott is with the International Air Transport Association. ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Australia's 'rainbow coalition' focuses on climate
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100914/full/news.2010.466.html
Nature: Australia's minority Labor Party government -- forged through an unusual alliance with the Greens and independents -- could be a good thing for science and climate-change policy, observers suggest. Left with a hung parliament after national elections, prime minister Julia Gillard finally secured enough support to form a government last week, when two conservative independent members of parliament (MPs) from rural New South Wales gave her their support in addition to backing from ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Melting Ice Turns 10,000 Walruses Into Landlubbers
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/14/14climatewire-melting-ice-turns-10000-walruses-into-landlu-39557.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ClimateWire: For the third time in four years, a dearth of sea ice has forced walruses ashore in Alaska. The lumbering marine mammals normally spend their summers resting on the ice as it floats north, making periodic dives to the ocean floor to forage for food. But this year, as in 2007 and 2009, a lack of ice in the eastern Chukchi Sea has driven thousands of walruses to congregate on land instead. Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimate that ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Amid Trade Tensions, U.S. Creates More Clean Tech Research Partnerships With China
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/14/14climatewire-amid-trade-tensions-us-creates-more-clean-te-79928.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: The number of clean energy partnerships between the United States and China reached a new peak when the U.S. Energy Department announced two new consortia aimed at tackling clean vehicles and 'clean' coal technology earlier this month. Along with a substantial funding pool totaling $100 million, split evenly among the two countries, the new consortia have put universities arm-in-arm with car companies, national laboratories, electric utilities and think tanks. Dennis Assanis, ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
WORLD BANK COAL FUNDING HITS RECORD HIGH AS IT SEEKS CLIMATE FINANCE CONTROL
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/218275/128447887335.htm
Reuters: Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone. World Bank funding for coal power stations has soared 40-fold over the last five years to hit a record high of $4.4 billion in 2010, new figures reveal. Bank lending to coal-fuelled power projects significantly exceeds its financing of new renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, which stood at $3,128 billion in 2009 ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Indigenous tribes, ranchers team to battle Amazon fires
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0914-indigenous_amazon_firefighters.html
Mongabay: Facing the worst outbreak of forest fires in three years, cattle ranchers and indigenous tribesmen in the southern Amazon have teamed up to extinguish nearly two dozen blazes over the past three months, offering hope that new alliances between long-time adversaries could help keep deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon on a downward trajectory. The voluntary fire brigades, which have now spent more than 400 hours battling fires, are the product of partnership between Aliança da ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
LA signs with Chinese battery giant to store power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_hi_te/us_la_wind_farm_battery
AP: The city of Los Angeles has signed a deal with a major Chinese manufacturing firm to develop a battery project that would store renewable energy and release it to the power grid. City officials on Monday signed the agreement with BYD Co. Ltd that would see the company work with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to create an electric storage facility at a wind farm in the Tehachapi Mountains northwest of the city. The facility would store between five and 10 ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
'Climategate' inquiries were 'highly defective', report for sceptic thinktank rules
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/14/climategate-inquiries-lawson-report
Guardian: None of the three official inquiries into the illegal release of climate emails from the University of East Anglia (UEA) showed a "serious concern for the truth", according to a report commissioned by Lord Lawson's sceptical thinktank. The report, which has been criticised for "bias", contends that none of the inquiries were objective and comprehensive and that public confidence in climate science would not be restored until a thorough investigation is carried out. Lord Lawson ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Nottingham named England's least car-dependent city
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/14/nottingham-named-least-car-dependent
Guardian: Nottingham has been named as England's least car-dependent city in a survey that exposes inconsistent planning across the country with one of the nation's newest conurbations, Milton Keynes, labelled the worst for cyclists and bus users. Award-winning bus services, a European-style embrace of the tram and a bias against out-of-town shopping centres were cited as powerful incentives for residents of Nottingham to leave their cars at home, according to a report by the Campaign for ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Biofuels in hunger dock again
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269611/biofuels-hunger-dock-again
Business Green: Biofuel production again stands accused of depriving the world's poorest of arable land for growing food. This time the j'accuse comes in the form of a report published today by ActionAid. The charity claims the EU's biofuels policies are costing poor countries $450 billion a year, more than 10 times the amount needed to halve hunger by 2015. The report, Who's Really Fighting Hunger?, is published just before the UN meets on 20 September in New York to discuss progress on the ...
Wed, 15 Sep 10
Climate bill's comeback chances in Congress still slim after summer of severe ...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/091410dnmetclimate.2afca27.html
Dallas Morning News: Record-high temperatures across the country. Massive flooding in Pakistan. Devastating drought and wildfires in Russia. The summer has been marked by severe weather worldwide, a phenomenon that some scientists say matches the expected outcomes of global warming. But few who follow climate change legislation think recent events will revive the bill, which was declared effectively dead in the Senate in July. "The type of extreme weather we've been seeing -- which is entirely ...
Tue, 14 Sep 10
CBI: Businesses need better warning of climate risks
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269625/cbi-businesses-better-warning
Business Green: Climate scientists and the government must improve the way in which they communicate the risks associated with climate change if they want businesses to make the adaptations necessary to cope with rising temperatures and extreme weather. That is the stark warning contained in a major new report released today by business lobby group the CBI, which also recommends that all firms should provide information on the climate risks they face as part of their corporate reports. The ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
World's largest offshore facility set to open amid fears over spending cuts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/12/thanet-wind-farm-energy
Guardian: The world's largest offshore windfarm, which cost over £750m to build, is poised to open off the coast of Kent, with 100 turbines producing enough electricity to supply heat and light for 200,000 homes. The Thanet facility, which is going through final testing by Vattenfall, its Swedish power company operator, arrives as the National Grid revealed that at one stage last week 10% of the UK's electricity came from windfarms. But industry experts claim that the wider green ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Most_New_Farmland_Comes_From_Cutting_Tropical_Forest_999.html
Agence France-Presse: Global agricultural expansion cut a wide swath through tropical forests during the 1980s and 1990s. More than half a million square miles of new farmland - an area roughly the size of Alaska - was created in the developing world between 1980 and 2000, of which over 80 percent was carved out of tropical forests, according to Stanford researcher Holly Gibbs. "This has huge implications for global warming, if we continue to expand our farmland into tropical forests at that rate," said ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Enviros back Gunns native forestry exit
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/enviros-back-gunns-native-forestry-exit-20100910-154nf.html
AAP: Environmentalists have welcomed a suggestion from Gunns' CEO that the timber company might stop logging native forests in Tasmania. Gunns CEO Greg L'Estrange told an industry conference in Melbourne on Thursday that loggers had lost the public battle for the right to log native forests. "We will find joint solutions to age-old conflicts and move beyond a real, sustainable forest industry," Mr L'Estrange said. The Wilderness Society (TWS) on Friday welcomed the move, ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Improved forest governance required for REDD+ success
http://www.new-ag.info/news/newsitem.php?a=1752
New Agriculturalist: The wealthy and powerful could benefit most from new climate mitigation schemes if forest governance is not improved, warn experts gathering at the Oaxaca workshop on forest governance decentralisation and REDD+* in Latin America and the Caribbean. "Good forest governance - involving transparent and inclusive relationships between government, forests and the people who depend on them - is fundamental for ensuring that REDD+ helps forest-dependent communities move out of poverty, instead of ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Indonesia: Shell funding of REDD forest protection scheme could result in 'largest land grab of all time'
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/589136/shell_funding_of_forest_protection_scheme_could_result_in_largest_land_grab_of_all_time.html
Ecologist: Oil giant's investment in Indonesian REDD conservation project is a crude attempt to increase profit and gloss over its expanding oil drilling operations, say campaigners Indigenous Peoples and environmental groups have accused oil giant Shell of funding a forest protection scheme for profit and to help 'greenwash' its destructive oil drilling operations. The corporation, along with the Russian energy giant Gazprom, is helping a company calling itself InfiniteEARTH to buy ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
With No New Permits in Indonesia, Sinar Mas to Enter Liberia
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/naturalresources/with-no-new-permits-in-indonesia-sinar-mas-to-enter-liberia/394464
Jakarta Globe: Singapore palm oil producer Golden Agri-Resources, part of Indonesia's Sinar Mas Group, said on Friday that its subsidiary Golden VerOleum would form a $1.6 billion partnership with the government of Liberia in a palm oil project. The move comes just months after Indonesia announced plans to impose a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear forest for oil palm cultivation from 2011. Golden Agri-Resources said last month that the partnership would control 220,000 hectares of ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
New detailed map shows carbon in Peru's Amazon
http://af.reuters.com/article/cameroonNews/idAFN0311677520100906?sp=true
Reuters: A new, highly detailed map of part of Peru's Amazon shows how much climate-warming carbon is stored there, and where cutting down vegetation has sent this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, scientists said on Monday. The three-dimensional map could help clear the way for an international agreement to curb deforestation and forest degradation, which account for up to one-fifth of all greenhouse gases released by human activities, according to United Nations estimates. Climate ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
More clarity and flexibilty needed for carbon trade
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/enviornment/more-clarity-and-flexibilty-needed-for-carbon-trade_100425396.html
Thaindian: India Inc and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Wednesday said there should be more clarity and flexibility in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for carbon trading. "The global carbon market is dogged by uncertainties arising out of the lack of clarity on how CDM would evolve," said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary, UNFCCC, on the sidelines of India Carbon market conclave 2010, organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Carbon credit prices shoot up after probe constricts supply
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/carbon-credit-prices-shootafter-probe-constricts-supply/407315/
Business Standard: Market pricing becomes uncertain after UN probe into data laundering. Prices of carbon credit certificates on the European climate exchange have risen after the regulator disallowed credits from greenhouse gas HFC-23 from a number of projects. Credits from such projects account for around 10 per cent of total carbon emission certificates (CERs). Click here to visit SME Buzz Also Read Related Stories News Now -Carbon credit prices rise 20%-RPG flagship eyes Rs 2,000-cr solar ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Latin America Accounts for 65% of Forest Loss in the Last Five Years, says CIFOR
http://www.forestcarbonportal.com/news/latin-america-accounts-65-forest-loss-last-five-years-says-cifor
Forest Carbon Portal: Specialists from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) reported that Latin America accounts for "65 percent of the net loss of forests in the world", which continues despite isolated cases of success. Representatives from CIFOR, various NGOs, the Swiss Government and the Mexican National Forestry Commission (Conafor) are meeting from 31 August to 3 September in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, to discuss what mechanisms may be proposed in next Conference of the Parties to the ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Development of Carbon Markets in Agriculture and Forestry Have Potential to Address Climate Change, Save Landowners Mone
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4470894.htm
PR Web: Development of Carbon Markets in Agriculture and Forestry Have Potential to Address Climate Change, Save Landowners Money Carbon sequestration through agriculture could potentially take the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of cars off the road and provide farmers with a new revenue stream worth billions of dollars. What is exciting is that while farmers and forest owners are increasing their carbon storage, or reducing their production of greenhouse gasses, they can also be ...
Mon, 13 Sep 10
Strengthening rural communities and improving conservation: an interview with David Kaimowitz
http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=28754&codi=193122
Worldwatch Institute: In July, the Ford Foundation announced a five-year, US$85 million initiative to address climate change through the inclusion and empowerment of rural and indigenous people. David Kaimowitz, the foundation's director of sustainable development, talks with Research Fellow Molly Theobald about the new initiative and what he hopes it will accomplish. In developing the new initiative, the Ford Foundation referenced a Rights and Resources Initiative study on community rights to forest land ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Earth, wind and fire: How tapping into the natural world is going mainstream
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/earth-wind-and-fire-how-tapping-into-the-natural-world-is-going-mainstream-2077176.html
Independent: Water In short supply in many parts of the world, water will be come even more scarce as demand grows. Average consumption in the UK, at 146 litres per person a day, is only slightly less than the 152 litres used daily 15 years ago. The heatwaves and water restrictions of recent years have, however, encouraged some, such as 34-year-old Neil McNiven, an electronics engineer from Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, to do more to save water. "I started collecting rain in various ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Britain must adapt to 'inevitable' climate change, warns minister
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/britain-must-adapt-to-inevitable-climate-change-warns-minister-2077175.html
Independent: Britons must radically change the way they live and work to adapt to being "stuck with unavoidable climate change" the Government will caution this week, as it unveils a dramatic vision of how society will be altered by floods, droughts and rising temperatures. The coalition will signal a major switch towards adapting to the impact of existing climate change, away from Labour's heavy emphasis on cutting carbon emissions to reverse global temperature rises. Caroline Spelman, the Tory ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Kew Gardens Herbarium: 'Plants are not just beautiful. They help us to survive'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/12/kew-gardens-herbarium-research-collection
Guardian: The label is scrawled and inky, but it unmistakably says "Nyassa. Dr Livingston." Despite the spelling mistake, it's the Doctor Livingstone, I presume (quite rightly). Suddenly we are transported back to tropical central Africa in the early 1860s. David Livingstone was in what is modern-day Malawi, where it is hot and dry or hot and humid, except in the freezing night-time highlands. Livingstone's wife Mary had recently died, and members of his expedition were starving by the end of a long ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Igor poised to become hurricane in Atlantic
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68A0CO20100911?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Tropical Storm Igor was close to becoming a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday as it spun westward, but posed no immediate threat to land or energy interests. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Igor had top sustained winds of 70 miles per hour as it swirled in the open sea, with its center about 1,140 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. "Igor is expected to become a hurricane later tonight or early on Sunday, and could reach major hurricane strength by late ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Climate Change Education Partnership Program Is Launched
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1915601/climate_change_education_partnership_program_is_launched/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Introducing cutting-edge science topics can be a challenge, due to the constantly evolving nature of scientific research. But an innovative new science education program aims to meet that challenge when educating students, teachers, and the public about global climate change and its impacts. Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced 15 awardees who will take the lead in planning collaborations across the United States as part of the Climate Change Education Partnership ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
The Oil Spill Endgame at Last?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100911/hl_time/08599201764000
Time: Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen doesn't like to give deadlines for operations on BP's blown Macondo well anymore - and you can't really blame him. Almost every estimate Allen has given on how long it will take to finally kill BP's well has proven overly optimistic. The final bottom kill - which was supposed to be completed by mid-August - has dragged on and on, as BP and its government counterparts have struggled to deal with one unexpected obstacle after another. Those problems ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
New Report Seeks To Improve Climate Forecasts
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1915594/new_report_seeks_to_improve_climate_forecasts/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: From farmers to government officials in charge of efficiently managing Earth's precious water and energy resources, people all over the world rely on accurate short-term climate forecasts on timescales ranging from a few weeks to a few years to make more informed decisions. But today's climate forecast systems have limited ability to operate on such timescales. That's because it's difficult to realistically represent the complex interactions between Earth's ocean, atmosphere and land surface ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Lumbering along, barely
http://www.hcn.org/issues/42.16/lumbering-along-barely
HCN: Brad Siegel can clear 6 to 10 acres of beetle-killed timber in a day with a full crew. This summer, however, he's settling for a single acre per day, as he removes topple-prone trees from campsites and insulates Keystone, Colo., from wildfire. There's just not a market for the wood. When Siegel calculated the per-acre rate he would charge the White River National Forest for this stewardship contract back in 2008, he anticipated offsetting costs by selling the timber to a local stove ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Rising sea levels - how will Washington cope?
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/426490_sealevels10.html
Sealttle PI: Sea levels around Washington are expected to be six inches higher by 2050, perhaps 13 inches higher by 2100. Is the impact of of a six-inch rise a little or a lot? What should the state do in the meantime to prepare? State experts say a six-inch rise in sea level will be significant ecologically. Meanwhile, the Washington Department of Ecology has begun an effort to contact business, local governments and others that would likley be affected of those ecological changes. The ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Power struggles: Charging tomorrow's cars
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6891Y520100910
Reuters: Imagine driving across America using a fuel so new you have to carry your own supply wherever you go. At the start of the 20th century, before the era of ubiquitous gas stations, drivers did just that as they tested the limits of cars like the Ford Model T, which ran on gasoline, kerosene or ethanol and could, if driven carefully, travel more than 150 miles on a full tank. Now a new generation of drivers is set to embark on a similar kind of experiment. Until recently, most ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
UK government told to cut 2020 biofuels target
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6890RX20100910
Reuters: Britain should cut its target for biofuels use by 2020 so that tropical forests are not cut down to make way for biofuel crops, government climate advisors said Friday. Energy and climate minister Chris Huhne asked the Committee on Climate Change in July to advise on the country's renewable energy target. Under wider European Union goals, Britain has agreed a legally binding target to get 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, compared with 3 percent now, and ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
New Jersey makes $10 million in RGGI cap-and-trade auction
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/09/post_110.html
New Jersey: New Jersey made $10 million today from selling pollution rights to power plants in the latest quarterly auction held by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. It was the largest sum New Jersey has gotten from the nation`s first mandatory cap-and-trade program in a year and a half. Not that the quarterly auction, the ninth since the program started, was considered a success. For the first time, the auction was under-subscribed, only 75 percent of the carbon dioxide permits were ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Arctic ice 'continuing down in a death spiral'
http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Arctic%20continuing%20down%20death%20spiral/3509174/story.html
Montreal Gazette: Arctic Ocean sea ice has experienced another severe meltdown this year, with the approaching end-of-summer minimum representing the third-biggest thaw since satellite monitoring began about 30 years ago. This year's retreat from a winter maximum of about 15 million square kilometres to a September coverage area of just five million square kilometres also means that the four greatest melts since satellite measurements began in the late 1970s have occurred in the past four ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Little light bulbs make big impact on energy crises
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Little%20light%20bulbs%20make%20impact%20energy%20crises/3509245/story.html
Montreal Gazette: Energy efficiency is seen as the low-hanging fruit in the global quest for clean, reliable energy and nations, rich or poor, want to partake in that harvest. This summer, Bangladesh managed to break a world record related to energy efficiency set by Britain in 2008. In the course of a single day, people in 27 districts of the developing nation exchanged incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescent light bulbs, one light bulb at a time until five million CFLs were ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Air Force, fossil fans seek to block NV power line
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/11/air-force-fossil-fans-seek-to-block-nv-power-line/
AP: Civilization is steadily creeping toward the fossilized remains of animals that once roamed what is now the Mojave Desert during long-ago ice ages. The bones poke silently from chalky, beige soil where they died. Today, instead of lush plants that Columbian mammoths would munch while standing knee-deep in bubbling springs, the landscape is dotted with shrubs: creosote, buckwheat and bearpoppy plants. Helicopters routinely thunder overhead on training missions from Nellis Air ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
A wild idea to help our green infrastructure grow
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0911/1224278603717.html
IrishTimes: ANOTHER LIFE:THISTLEDOWN drifts through gaping doorways; grass springs up on unpaved roads; brambles lean in from the fences with this autumn`s rich abundance of fruit. Thus nature haunts Ireland`s ghost estates with memories of lost meadows, hedgerows and leafy neighbourhoods. But landscape, once changed, is soon forgotten, and in the sullen aftermath all talk of "greener" planning can seem mere blackberry pie in the sky. Still, national life grinds on, and Brussels keeps up ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Bacteria and climate change: Invisible carbon pumps
http://www.economist.com/node/16990766
Economist: UNDERSTANDING how the oceans absorb carbon dioxide is crucial to understanding the role of that gas in the climate. It is rather worrying, then, that something profound may be missing from that understanding. But if Jiao Nianzhi of Xiamen University in China is right, it is. For he suggests there is a lot of carbon floating in the oceans that has not previously been noticed. It is in the form of what is known as refractory dissolved organic matter and it has been put there by a hitherto ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Nuclear strides vital for goals
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2010-09/10/content_11284501.htm
Chian Daily: China needs to build a more comprehensive industry chain to boost the development of nuclear energy, which will play an important part in the country's total energy mix. Besides the construction and operation of nuclear plants, China also needs to pay equal attention to areas such as uranium exploration and development and nuclear waste treatment, Du Xiangwan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told a seminar in Beijing on Thursday. Nuclear power, which only ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
Climate change threatens livelihood, nutrition losses for Asia Pacific fishermen
http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/52132/2010/08/10-163824-1.htm
Reuters: Climate change could lead to livelihood loss, increased poverty and malnutrition, and conflict over fish stocks in the Asia Pacific region's fisheries and aquaculture sector, which employ at least 32 million people, the United Nations said on Friday. According to the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the Asia Pacific region is the world's largest producer of aquatic products. The region accounts for some 51 percent of global fisheries production and close to 90 percent ...
Sun, 12 Sep 10
BP Report on Oil Spill Disaster Met with Scepticism
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52791
IPS: The report released Wednesday by energy giant BP of its internal investigation into the catastrophic explosion in April of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the subsequent spill from the Macondo oil well has been met with criticism by watchdog groups who question the company's motives. "BP is distributing the blame and deflecting responsibility for the incident so they can justify their continued operation in the Gulf," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, told ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Prince Charles calls for massive rainforest protection project in Africa
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0910-prince_charles_africa.html
Mongabay: Prince Charles announced plans to protect an area of African rainforest the size of Wales, reports The Telegraph. The "Size of Wales" project, which would include protecting forest areas and replanting deforested ones across African countries, would be funded through public donations. Other details weren't immediately available. "Two million hectares – or more usefully – 2 million rugby pitches will be a significant achievement and importantly, will show great leadership to ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Non-radioactive leak shuts down NY nuclear reactor
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100910/ap_on_bi_ge/us_indian_point
AP: One of the reactors at New York's Indian Point nuclear power plant has been shut down because of a leak of non-radioactive water. The plant's other reactor was already offline for repairs. Plant owner Entergy Nuclear says Indian Point 3 was safely shut down Thursday night by operators who saw the leak in a generator. Entergy says there was no release of radioactivity and no danger to workers or the public. The other reactor, Indian Point 2, was closed Sept. 3 for ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Civil war in Africa has no link to climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727774.200-civil-war-in-africa-has-no-link-to-climate-change.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change
New Scientist: THE idea that global warming will increase the incidence of civil conflict in Africa is wrong, according to a new study. What's more, the researchers who previously made the claim now concede that civil conflict has been on the wane in Africa since 2002, as prosperity has increased. If the trend continues, a more peaceful future may be in store. A link between climate change and conflict was discovered last year, when a team led by Marshall Burke of the University of California at ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Obama urged to pump up fuel efficiency standard
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269596/obama-urged-pump-fuel
Business Green: A coalition of 19 environmental groups has written to US president Barack Obama urging him to push through ambitious fuel efficiency standards that could at least partly make up for his failure to pass climate change legislation. The group, which includes Environment America, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Union of Concerned Scientists, said increasing fleet-wide average fuel efficiency standards to at least 60 miles per gallon (mpg) would save 49 ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Steelworkers Accuse China of Unfair Trade Practices in Clean Technologies
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/10/10climatewire-steelworkers-accuse-china-of-unfair-trade-pr-10450.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ClimateWire: The largest American industrial union is accusing China of using unfair trade practices to create jobs in its clean energy technology sector and get a permanent edge on U.S. manufacturers. The United Steelworkers yesterday filed a 5,000-page complaint with the U.S. Trade Representative that asserts China aims to control the global clean energy market at the expense of U.S. jobs. China's tactics for accelerating green technology development and securing big shares of the wind turbine ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Cape Wind Proposal Faces a Renewed Political Storm
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/10/10climatewire-cape-wind-proposal-faces-a-renewed-political-25840.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
ClimateWire: Political candidates in Massachusetts are attacking Cape Wind, making the nation's first federally approved offshore wind project a target of liberals and conservatives seeking seats in Congress and the governor's office. Complaints are centered on the cost of power to be produced by the 130 turbines planned for construction 5 miles off the sandy shores of Cape Cod. It is an argument echoed in elections around the country that warn voters of climate policies that might raise the cost ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
White House Spurns Solar Panel
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/white-house-spurns-solar-panel/
NYT: Bill McKibben, an environmental campaigner from Vermont with a flair for showmanship, was rebuffed Friday morning in his effort to get the White House to reinstall one of the solar panels that President Jimmy Carter had placed on the White House roof. Associated Press The environmental activist Bill McKibben and others signed a solar panel on Tuesday in Unity, Me., before heading to Washington to offer it to the White House. They were removed by the Reagan administration, and ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Fireball tragedy in California suburb brings gas industry under scrutiny
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/fireball-gas-industry-scrutiny
Guardian: The natural gas industry is coming under intense scrutiny today, after a massive fireball ripped through a ruptured pipeline in a suburban town near San Francisco, killing at least four people, injuring dozens more, and burning more than 50 homes to the ground. The cause of the fire, traced to a pipeline operated by the Pacific Gas & Electric company in the town of San Bruno, was under investigation today. But it ramps up public pressure for the Obama administration to take a hard ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Does The 'Energy Star' Label Need An Update?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129777527&ft=1&f=1025
National Public Radio: A review in Consumer Reports says it's good news so many products have become energy efficient but calls for strengthening Energy Star standards to guide consumers to truly efficient products. Ira Flatow and guests discuss that report and overlooked ways people can save energy at home.
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Feds: Drilling moratorium depends on industry
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100910/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
Associated Press: A key U.S. government official said Friday the moratorium on deepwater oil drilling likely won't be extended past Nov. 30, but whether it is cut short will be entirely up to the industry. Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, told The Associated Press during a break in a public forum in coastal Mississippi that the industry must comply with current and soon-to-be-imposed safety regulations. He said the government is ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Climate data-sharing 'will be long, expensive process'
http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/climate-data-sharing-will-be-long-expensive-process-.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_climatechangeandenergy
SciDev.Net: Persuading nations to release data for an international climate database will take years and millions of dollars, meteorologists admitted this week at a meeting aiming to explore how to move such an enterprise forwards. For nations to understand the effects that climate change will have on their locality, it is essential to gather local data into an internationally coordinated database, the meeting, organised by the UK's Meteorological Office, agreed. But many countries could ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Climate scientists must engage openly with the media
http://www.scidev.net/en/climate-change-and-energy/climate-scientists-must-engage-openly-with-the-media-1.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_climatechangeandenergy
SciDev.Net: Poor communications, not science, caused the IPCC's 'Climategate' debacle. Despite this, it must keep doors open between journalists and researchers. Two months ago, climate researchers working on the next global assessment for the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) received a letter from the panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, outlining how to deal with the media. He acknowledged that after the recent media interest in the work of the IPCC, researchers are likely to ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Kenya: Harvesting Water to Save Crops and Lives
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52785
Inter Press Service: Peter Kivuti, a 51-year-old farmer from Eastern Kenya, never relied on meteorological weather predictions all his life - until three years ago. It was then that rainfall in the region become less predictable. Like other farmers from Rwanguondu village, Kivuti trusted the traditional methods of weather prediction, which had been used by his forefathers for ages. "Since I was a small boy, I knew that it was going to rain heavily on March 25, every year. This meant that all farms ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Australia: Tasmanian Timber Giant Retreats from Old Growth Logging
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2010/2010-09-10-01.html
Environment News Service: Tasmanian Timber Giant Retreats from Old Growth Logging Environment News Service (ENS) Tasmanian Timber Giant Retreats from Old Growth Logging MELBOURNE, Australia, September 10, 2010 (ENS) - Australian environmental groups are rejoicing as the new head of Tasmanian timber company Gunns Limited announced the company will move away from logging native forests and develop plantation-based products. At an industry conference in Melbourne Thursday, Gunns chief executive ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Thousands of green energy jobs under threat from end of US grant
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/green-energy-jobs-us-grant
Guardian: Last August, when state energy regulators in California green-lighted the first large-scale solar thermal power plant in two decades, they kicked off what renewable energy backers said would be a solar boom, bringing jobs and revenue to the fiscally troubled state. The California Energy Commission's approval of the Beacon Solar Energy project wasn't the only development milestone for big solar development this summer. Five other projects have reached the home stretch of approval by ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
E.P.A. Meeting Stalled by Security and Cost
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/e-p-a-meeting-stalled-by-security-and-cost/
NYT: The Environmental Protection Agency has been on something of a listening tour lately, holding public meetings around the country where stakeholders concerned about hydraulic fracturing can share their thoughts with the agency. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an increasingly contentious practice in which drilling companies blast a cocktail of sand, water and chemicals deep underground to break up rock formations and release hard-to-reach oil and gas deposits. It's an issue ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Startup planning $200M plant to manufacture 'green' cement
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2010/09/13/story1.html?b=1284350400%5E3919751
Atlanta Business Chronicle: A sustainable materials startup plans to develop an up to $200 million manufacturing plant that would make "green cement.' Marietta-based Sriya Green Materials Inc. has developed technology that it claims will slash the cost of manufacturing cement by about a third. Sriya claims its cement-making process can reduce capital equipment costs by up to 45 percent. The technology also promises to cut carbon dioxide emissions in the manufacturing process by nearly 30 percent, CEO ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Whalers chart change
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1911695?UserKey=
Press and Journal: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may be best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, the world`s most iconic detective, but his legions of fans may be less familiar with his early life in the north-east of Scotland. During the 1880s, he sailed out of Peterhead as a medic on board Hope, one of Scotland`s biggest whaling ships. Many of his earlier novels are based on his experiences in the whaling industry. Now it has emerged that the renowned author -- and other north-east whale ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Forthcoming study finds gap between expectations and reality of electric cars
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/09/09climatewire-forthcoming-study-finds-gap-between-expectat-75101.html?ref=earth
New York Times: As the roll-out of plug-in electric vehicles approaches, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) is preparing a report that challenges hopes for a rapid deployment of the plug-in models. It argues that they will be held back, in part, by shortages of recharging stations for urban motorists. CERA Vice President Larry Makovich said the report, to be released in November, also takes issue with a scenario that foresees millions of plug-in electric vehicles being recharged at night ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Fight over bid to suspend California's global warming law gets ugly
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prop-23-20100910,0,75571.story
LA Times: The fight over Proposition 23, a November ballot initiative to suspend California's global warming law, turned ugly this week, with personal attacks and emotionally charged rhetoric on both sides. In a conference call with the news media Thursday, former Secretary of State George Shultz, co-chairman of the campaign against the initiative, warned of the danger to national security from dependence on oil imports, noting that part of "this money is undoubtedly slopping over into the ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
As supply shrinks, ex-UN climate chief says water should be expensive - like carbon emissions
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iNsLJgHLpUsuvJQQ0hzgXtULm8RA
Canadian Press: The former U.N. climate chief who has advocated putting a price on carbon emissions says water also should carry an appropriate cost. In a world of shrinking fresh water supplies, nations, companies and individuals should be aware of the value of water, Yvo de Boer told a water seminar Thursday. Accounting for the entire supply chain, it takes 75 litres (20 gallons) to make a glass of beer; 2,700 litres (713 gallons) to manufacture a T-shirt; and 16,000 litres to produce a ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Sea temperatures around Japan hit record high
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gDBjhbDHJK5v1WVJpOS_7COijJbQ
AFP: Japan, which has just endured its hottest summer on record, said Friday it had also last month recorded the warmest sea temperatures since it started gathering comparable data 25 years ago. Ocean surface temperatures in much of the archipelago's Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan waters reached more than 25 degrees centigrade (77 degrees Fahrenheit) in August, said the Japan Meteorological Agency. The average sea temperature was the hottest recorded since 1985 when the agency ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Developer says biomass facility won't pollute
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/ci_16037192
Bennington Banner: The developer of a proposed biomass facility spoke to the Banner Wednesday about the project, providing more detail on emissions the project will likely produce as well as other impacts. "This plant will have by far the most sophisticated pollution control equipment of any wood fired power plant in New England," said Thomas Emero, managing director of development and operations for Beaver Wood Energy, LLC. "It will meet and exceed all of the state's standards for air ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Jimmy Carter's solar panel returns to DC
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/09/carters-solar-panel-returns-dc
Mother Jones: Whether Obama wants them or not, Jimmy Carter's solar panels will soon arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The group 350.org started a campaign in July urging the Obama administration to install solar on the White House. Today the group plans to deliver one of the original panels that the Carter administration erected in 1979 to Obama's doorstep. The panels, which eventually found a new home at Unity College in Maine after Ronald Reagan booted them from the West Wing in 1986, are dated ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
U.S. climate action faces tough odds after fall election
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-51396520100909
Reuters: Comprehensive climate control efforts, already in serious trouble in the U.S. Congress, could suffer more setbacks if Republicans take control of the House of Representatives or Senate in November's congressional elections. Most Republicans are dead-set against legislation imposing mandatory reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes. They also oppose pending Environmental Protection Agency regulations to cut carbon dioxide pollution, which is blamed for ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Coastal erosion may force some communities in Wales further inland
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Coastal-erosion-force-communities-inland/article-2627736-detail/article.html
South Wales: COASTAL erosion may force some communities in Wales further inland, a new report has said. The risks are being investigated in new shoreline management plans for Wales. Experts were at Swansea's Grand Theatre on Wednesday to explain to the public the draft plan for South Wales, which covers the coastline from Barry to St Ann's Head, Pembrokeshire. The summary said: "Sea level rise and more extreme weather may mean it is no longer sustainable to continue to defend against ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Canada's oil exports threatened by U.S. boycott
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/858985--canada-s-oil-exports-threatened-by-u-s-boycott
Star: U.S. concerns about Alberta's oilsands highlight the federal Conservative government's "laughable" approach to global warming and environmental protection, Liberal critics say. "The Harper Conservatives have failed completely," MP Frank Valeriote said Thursday. "After almost four and a half years and three environment ministers, the Conservatives have nothing to show" on those fronts, he added. Valeriote and MP David McGuinty, the Liberal environment critic, timed a news ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
U.S. Speaker calls for cut in oil imports
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/us-speaker-calls-for-cut-in-oil-imports/article1701317/
Globe and Mail: Nancy Pelosi would like to see the United States buy less of what Canada is selling. At a luncheon at the U.S. ambassador's Ottawa residence on Thursday, the powerful Speaker of the House of Representatives said she is committed to reducing her country's dependence on fossil fuels -- and that includes Canadian crude oil and natural gas. In a casual post-meal conversation with a group that included Laureen Harper, the wife of the Prime Minister, Ms. Pelosi remarked pointedly ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Climate change law's suspension slammed by UC Berkeley study
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/10/3017897/climate-change-laws-suspension.html
Sacramento Bee: Suspending California's landmark climate change law would result in the loss of millions of dollars in state revenue and hurt the state's growing clean-tech industry, a new report says. The Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at the University of California, Berkeley Law School also said the rollback initiative, Proposition 23, would benefit oil and power companies while increasing regulatory burdens to real estate developers and auto makers. "It adds significant ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
EU cuts emissions for sixth year, mulls forestry
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6892RB20100910?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: European Union climate experts launched a consultation on Friday into the complex issue of accounting for greenhouse emissions from forestry, and new data showed 2009 emissions fell for the sixth year running. About 410 million tonnes of greenhouse gases were removed from the atmosphere in 2008 by the EU forestry sector, equal to 8 percent of emissions from the EU's 27 member states, the European Commission said as it launched the consultation. Some countries include the ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
EU emissions trading scheme on course to make tiny savings, says report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/eu-emissions-trading-savings
Guardian: The entire five-year period of the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) that ends in 2012 is set to deliver carbon savings of less than a third of 1% of total emissions, according to a new report. The analysis by emissions trading campaign group Sandbag predicts that only 32m tonnes of pollution permits will need to be surrendered to meet the cap on greenhouse gas emissions – a tiny fraction of the 1.9bn tonnes of carbon emissions covered by the ETS each year. The ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Illegal redwood logging in Madagascar
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2010/sep/10/toby-smith-logging-madagascar
Guardian: Photographer Toby Smith talks about his pictures documenting the illegal logging trade in Madagascar, which he helped bring to the world's attention by going undercover with environmental groups. The US Environmental Investigation Agency intends to use Smith's pictures, along with other evidence gathered, to prosecute those responsible for creating the international market outside of Madagascar. This summer, the rainforests of Atsinanana in Madagascar were placed on Unesco's list of world ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
UK climate watchdog warns against raising renewables targets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/renewable-energy-targets-lord-turner
Guardian: The government's climate watchdog today urged the coalition to focus on hitting the UK's renewable energy targets rather than raising them higher. In a letter to energy secretary Chris Huhne, the Committee on Climate Change said a "step change" was needed for the UK to hit its legally binding EU target of producing 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. Currently the UK sources just 3% of its energy for electricity, heating and transport from renewable sources such as wind ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
BP delays Q3 results due oil spill complexities
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6871GC20100910?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: BP Plc said it would delay the release of its third quarter results by a week because of added complexities in its accounts due to costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP said in a statement that its third quarter results, normally reported on the last Tuesday of the month after the end of a calendar quarter, would now be released on November 2, rather than October 26. A spokesman said the decision followed the company finding the preparation of its previous ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
The scale of the low-carbon task is immense
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/sep/10/low-carbon-energy
Guardian: If we were starting afresh, we probably wouldn't chose to build an energy infrastructure based around fossil fuels. But like it or not, we are stuck with power stations, cars and homes that use carbon-based energy sources. The problem is that almost all these buildings and vehicles last a long time. If they stay in use, we are committed to large-scale future production of greenhouse gases. But how large? A new paper in Science by Dr Steve Davis and colleagues at Carnegie Institution ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Prince Charles baffled by 'extraordinary' climate change scepticism
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/7993756/Prince-Charles-baffled-by-extraordinary-climate-change-scepticism.html
Telegraph: He also made an impassioned plea for the country to adopt greener ways as he gave a breakfast television interview. He warned that living on the planet would be ''no fun at all'' for future generations unless people took action to combat climate change. Charles has spent the week touring eco-projects across the country and emphasised how some local people were taking up the challenge of adopting more sustainable lives. The heir to the throne's comments were made in a ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Green groups press Barack Obama for 60MPG fuel efficiency standard
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/barack-obama-us-cars-fuel-efficiency
Guardian: America's environmental groups have given up on getting climate change legislation through Congress at a time of Republican ascendancy, and have downsized to a series of more modest goals like fuel economy. In a sign of that strategy reshift, 20 environmental groups launched a new campaign yesterday to press Barack Obama to propose far more ambitious fuel efficiency and pollution standards for cars of 60mpg by 2025. Meanwhile, Clean Energy Works, a coalition of 80 grassroots ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
One-Third of Americans Back Ban on Synthetic Biology
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100910/sc_livescience/onethirdofamericansbackbanonsyntheticbiology
LiveScience: Engineering new synthetic organisms offers promise of fighting disease and even global warming, but also comes with risk. Now two-thirds of Americans surveyed in a new poll say the field should move forward, while one-third supports a ban until researchers better understand the possible consequences. The field, called synthetic biology, worries some due to its possible impacts related to biological weapons and potentially harmful health effects on humans. President Obama has ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
UN climate chief urges flexibility in talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100910/ap_on_sc/as_china_climate_change
AP: The United Nations' climate chief on Friday urged countries to be flexible in order to make progress at weeklong climate talks in China next month, the last formal negotiations on climate change ahead of a major year-end meeting in Cancun, Mexico. Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, said countries need to be willing to negotiate with each other in order to pave the way toward consensus on a global climate deal. "It is in their ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
EPA Wants To Know Chemicals Used In Gas Drilling
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129771879&ft=1&f=1025
AP: The Environmental Protection Agency is asking nine natural gas companies to voluntarily disclose the chemical components used in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. The agency said Thursday that the information is important to its study of the controversial drilling practice, also known as "fracking." Crews inject vast quantities of water, sand and chemicals underground to force open channels in sand and rock formations so oil and natural gas will flow. The EPA is ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
How Big Oil will stop my children from driving electric cars
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/10/children-electric-cars
Guardian: I would like an electric car. It would be quieter, nicer to drive and cheaper to run than my petrol car, and it could produce up to 75% less CO2. But the chances are I am not going to get one, and nor will my children when they grow up. One reason is that the Department for Transport can no longer afford to help me buy one. The government has allocated £43m to subsidise ultra-low-carbon cars, but at £5,000 a car that's only enough to help the first few thousand of us who switch over. ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Greenpeace: Renewables could make tar sands defunct
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269572/greenpeace-renewables-tar-sands
Business Green: Greenpeace has attempted to map out a viable alternative to Canada's controversial plans to expand its tar sand projects, arguing that oil production from tar sands will be unnecessary by 2030 if the country accelerates the rollout of renewable energy technologies. The document, called Energy [R]evolution: a sustainable energy outlook for Canada, predicts one quarter of Canada's primary energy demand could be met by renewable resources within 10 years, rising to three quarters by ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
World Bank boosts green credentials by appointing clean tech "czar"
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269580/world-bank-boosts-green-creds
Business Green: The World Bank announced yesterday that it has appointed an influential Californian professor as its first clean tech "czar" as it attempts to meet growing demand for financing from low-carbon projects in developing countries. Daniel M Kammen, the professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley, will take up the position as the organisation's first chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency from 4 October, and will be tasked with shaping the ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
China calls for int'l cooperation in tackling climate change
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-09/10/c_13489591.htm
Xinhua: Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Friday said the international community should work together to overcome the challenges of climate change. Li made the remarks when meeting with Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Li said all countries should join together in the struggle against climate change with concerted efforts based on the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as the principle of "common but ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
Still unchecked, Boulder fire sparks climate change, beetle kill debate
http://coloradoindependent.com/61501/still-unchecked-boulder-fire-sparks-climate-change-beetle-kill-debate
Colorado Independent: As strong winds whipped up again overnight in the Boulder area, where a Colorado record 169 homes have already been destroyed in the ongoing Fourmile Canyon Fire, there's also a growing firestorm of debate over how climate change contributes to wildfires across the West. Charred school buses in the wake of Boulder County's Fourmile Canyon Fire. (Photo by Eric Peter Abramson, area resident) Touting a new Environment Colorado report entitled "Global Warming and Extreme Weather: ...
Sat, 11 Sep 10
More wind turbines needed to meet climate change target
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7992681/More-wind-turbines-needed-to-meet-climate-change-target.html
Telegraph: The UK is committed to generating 15 per cent of energy from green sources like wind and solar by 2020. But at the moment only 3 per cent of energy comes from renewables. Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), said the UK is likely to miss the target unless there is massive investment in wind, wave and solar. In a strongly-worded letter to Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Change Minister, he called for the Government to "ramp up' efforts ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
The Deal Is Simple. Australia Gets Money, China Gets Australia
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_37/b4194044972388.htm
BusinessWeek: Every third Wednesday, Michael Box gets up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a flight out of Perth. Isolated in the south-west of Australia, Perth (pop. 1.6 million) is 1,700 miles from the next large city, Adelaide, which isn't even that big. Box and about a dozen co-workers fly two hours north to a yet more remote section of Australia, the Pilbara, a 193,000-square-mile hump of territory arcing into the Indian Ocean. They will land on this patch of iron-rich red earth and spend the next two ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
Emission reductions slowed down by heavier and more powerful cars
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100909074329.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
ScienceDaily: The potential for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from cars is not being fully realized. The average Swedish car buyer still purchases a heavier and thirstier car than the average European, even though the difference has decreased in recent years. Over the last thirty years cars sold in Sweden have become larger, and what's more they accelerate ever faster. This has entailed that some of the cars' technical improvements have not led to lower fuel use. If cars had not become ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
Arctic melt extreme in 2010, again
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/arctic-sea-ice-melt-0908
Daily Green: Through early summer, the extent of Arctic sea ice seemed to be melting to another record-low, but late summer moderation in temperatures and Arctic wind patterns mean the annual melt is likely to result in the third-lowest extent of sea ice ever recorded, according to the latest report from the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Ice is expected to continue melting for about another two weeks. Already, the center reports, "the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route are largely ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
Beijing's iron fist on emissions has industry gasping
http://www.smh.com.au/business/beijings-iron-fist-on-emissions-has-industry-gasping-20100908-151ew.html
Sydney Morning Herald: AN ABRUPT command from Beijing to follow through with ''iron-fisted'' energy and carbon emission cuts has thrown China's industrial heartlands into chaos. Steel factories across the country are slashing production, implying a rocky outlook for Australian commodities such as iron ore, while smaller Chinese industrialists have been arbitrarily plunged into darkness. ''We had no water to flush the toilet, we couldn't use the fridge and, of course, production stopped,'' said an ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
EPA seeks chemical info on hydraulic fracturing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100909/ap_on_bi_ge/us_natural_gas_drilling
AP: The Environmental Protection Agency is asking nine natural gas companies to voluntarily disclose the chemical components used in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. The agency says the information is important as it conducts a study of the controversial drilling practice, also known as "fracking." Crews inject vast quantities of water, sand and chemicals underground to force open channels in sand and rock formations so oil and natural gas will flow. The EPA is ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
World Bank's Climate Change Envoy Steers Around Hot-Button Issues
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/09/09/09climatewire-world-banks-climate-change-envoy-steers-arou-12297.html
New York Times: Ask Andrew Steer, the World Bank's new climate change envoy, what he thinks of his institution's controversial recent decision to help build the world's fourth-dirtiest coal plant in South Africa, and he hedges. "My job is not to give a personal opinion on things," Steer finally says. His thoughts on a sensitive proposal to calculate the environmental and social costs of carbon emissions in all new project assessments? That's for World Bank shareholders to decide, Steer maintains. And to ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
On Clean Energy, China Skirts Rules
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/business/global/09trade.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
NYT: Until very recently, Hunan Province was known mainly for lip-searing spicy food, smoggy cities and destitute pig farmers. Mao was born in a village on the outskirts of Changsha, the provincial capital here in south-central China. Now, Changsha and two adjacent cities are emerging as a center of clean energy manufacturing. They are churning out solar panels for the American and European markets, developing new equipment to manufacture the panels and branching into turbines that ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
India: Buoyed by Growing Market, More Farmers Go Organic
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52768
Inter Press Service: He had decided to grow watermelons this summer on his one-acre (.405 hectare) plot, and so Veera Narayana went about preparing the arid red earth by first ploughing it and then lighting fires in the furrows. He explains that ploughing the earth thoroughly exposes pests' larvae to the heat of the sun, while ash in the furrows will act as pesticide. But Narayana says that at some point he would also be mixing neem seeds, green chili, garlic paste, and kerosene as yet another ...
Fri, 10 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Defra wants public to help shape water strategy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269464/defra-seeks-public-guidance
Business Green: In a move apparently taken straight from David Cameron's vision for more open government, Defra has today launched an online survey calling on the public to help shape its up-coming overhaul of the UK's water policy. The department, which is currently working on a major Water White Paper designed to address rising climate change risks and fears over water supplies and affordability, will ask for ideas from the public on how to improve the UK's water industry. "There's a growing ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Interior: More changes needed at drilling agency
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100908/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_interior
AP: The Obama administration says it will reinforce and expand reforms being carried out by the beleaguered agency that oversees offshore drilling. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says a report issued Wednesday provides a blueprint to solve problems at the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. The report recommends that the agency -- now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement -- should increase the number and training of ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Turkey's Mount Ararat glaciers shrink: scientist
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100908/sc_afp/climatewarmingturkeyglacier
AFP: The glaciers atop Mount Ararat, the peak in eastern Turkey where Noah's Ark is believed by devotees to have settled after the biblical flood, have shrunk by 30 percent in surface area over the last 30 years, a researcher said Wednesday. "We used satellite images to analyse the response of glaciers at the summit of Mount Ararat to climate change," geologist Mehmet Akif Sarikaya told AFP. "The glacier surface area decreased from eight square kilometres (3.04 square miles) in 1976 ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
BP probe to spread blame for spill: report
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100908/bs_nm/us_oil_spill_probe
Reuters: BP Plc's internal probe of the deadly April 20 blowout that unleashed the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill will assign blame to BP as well as other companies involved in the well's operations, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The BP probe, which will be released on Wednesday, is one of many launched after the blowout led to an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that killed 11 men and caused the worst offshore oil spill in history. The Journal said ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Town's aim to become self sufficient
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11225370
BBC: Todmorden, in West Yorkshire, is striving to become self sufficient by growing fruit and vegetables and keeping livestock. Some unusual spaces have been taken over to producing food, with a group of gardeners working to cultivate enough for the whole community. Jenny Hill reports.
Thu, 9 Sep 10
BP due to publish oil leak report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11225623
BBC: An investigation carried out by BP said it was responsible in part for the disaster, but it also blamed other companies working on the well. BP faces billions of dollars worth of legal claims for compensation over the spill, the worst in recent US history. An estimated 4.9m barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf after the blast. The well was capped on 15 July, and an operation to permanently seal it is due to take place in the next few weeks. In the 193-page internal ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
United States: Global warming bill a lose-lose issue for GOP candidates
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/la-me-0908-gop-global-20100908,0,2762779.story?track=rss
LA Times: A November ballot measure that would rescind California's landmark global warming bill until unemployment drops significantly has become an albatross for the Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate. For months, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina have struggled with competing imperatives: appeasing members of their party who want to suspend the global warming bill while wooing environmentally-conscious independent voters who could carry them to victory in ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
All eyes on BP report on Gulf oil spill disaster
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100908/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
Associated Press: In an internal report released Wednesday, BP blames itself, other companies' workers and a complex series of failures for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded it. The 193-page report was posted on the company's website even though investigators have not yet begun to fully analyze a key piece of equipment, the blowout preventer, that should have cut off the flow of oil from the ruptured well but did not. That means BP's report is far ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
BP report on Gulf oil disaster to accept 'some blame'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100908/ts_alt_afp/usoilenvironmentpollutioncompanybpbritain
AFP: A string of failures by BP and other companies led to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the British energy giant concluded Wednesday as it sought to head off possible multi-billion-dollar US lawsuits. As expected in the findings of its own inquiry, BP did not admit "gross negligence" for the rig explosion in late April that killed 11 people and caused the worst ever US environmental disaster. It put a share of the blame contractors Transocean and Halliburton, but it also ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
BP Issues Report On Gulf Oil Spill Disaster
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129717468&ft=1&f=1025
NPR: BP is releasing a 200-page assessment Wednesday, detailing the cause of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill ultimately put more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf. In addition, a new federal study finds that oil is gradually disappearing, as bacteria continue to gobble it up.
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Australia: Climate's right for change to carbon debate
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/08/3006435.htm?section=justin
ABC: Greens MP Adam Bandt and the independents who threw their lot in with Labor have made it clear they would like to see the Federal Government take action to address climate change. In its negotiations to form government, Labor agreed to convene a climate change committee made up of MPs and experts that would work towards putting a price on carbon. The Climate Institute says it is hopeful the new Government will act more promptly and decisively than the previous Labor government, ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Record Hong Kong air pollution sparks protest
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68719M20100908?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Roadside air pollution in Hong Kong hit record highs in the first six months of the year, hurting public health and economic competitiveness compared with Asian rivals, activists and lawmakers said Tuesday. The city's air quality hit "unhealthy" levels about 10 percent of the time between January and June, the highest level in five years, said environmental group Friends of the Earth. The government advises people with heart or respiratory problems to avoid lingering in ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Australia: Wong tipped to move from climate
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/wong-tipped-to-move-from-climate-20100908-1515z.html
Sydney Morning Herald: A new face may become the federal climate change minister, with Penny Wong tipped to stand aside after a difficult tenure. Her replacement faces the tough task of crafting a new climate policy - possibly involving a carbon price - out of a hung parliament. It will be an important decision for Prime Minister Julia Gillard; climate change became Labor's Achilles heel as the party struggled to come up with a policy. Senator Wong was one of Labor's most promising MPs when it ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Irrigation may offset climate change effects in some regions: Study
http://sify.com/news/irrigation-may-offset-climate-change-effects-in-some-regions-study-news-international-kjinEgjjbif.html
ANI: Expanded irrigation might mitigate the effects of climate change in some areas, a new study has revealed. But some major groundwater aquifers, a source of irrigation water, are projected to dry up in coming decades from continuing overuse, and when they do, people may face the double whammy of food shortages and higher temperatures. "An important question for the future is what happens to the climate if the water goes dry and the cooling disappears? How much warming is being ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
China trumps US in race for renewable energy investors
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269397/report-china-flirts-better
Business Green: China has surged ahead of the United States in the race to become the most attractive place for renewable energy investment, according to a report today from Ernst & Young. Last year, China and the US tied for first place in the consultancy giant's annual Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indicies. However, this year's report shows the US has dropped two points in the official league table allowing China to top the list. The US fell back after it failed to incorporate ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
BP set to publish report on oil spill rig blast
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100908/bs_nm/us_bp
Reuters: A BP Plc investigation of the Gulf of Mexico disaster played down the company's role in the world's worst offshore oil spill, seeking to share the blame with its contractors. The 193-page internal report made public on Wednesday drew fire from U.S. lawmakers and one of the contractors, Transocean, called it a "self-serving" attempt by the British energy giant to escape responsibility for the "fatally flawed" design of its deepsea Macondo well. The report threatened to reignite ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
US and China team up to fund clean tech university research
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269404/china-team-fund-clean-tech
Business Green: The agreement between the US and China to co-operate on the development of critical clean technologies has delivered some of its first tangible results this week after US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a $125m joint US-Chinese research programme that will provide funding to two academic consortia. The funding, awarded as part the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Centre initiative, will focus on advances in clean vehicles, along with developments in clean coal, including carbon ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
Australia to reconsider emissions trading
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=2100
Carbon Positive: Australia's confused climate policy and approach to carbon pricing has taken another turn with the formation of a new minority government on Tuesday. Following a general election on August 21 that delivered a hung parliament, a government has now been formed by an alliance between the incumbent Labor Party, the Green Party and independents including two conservative rural MPs, all of whom support to varying degrees action on climate change. Just what this means, however, for the ...
Thu, 9 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Solar panel pioneers at risk of missing feed-in tariff deadlines
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269384/solar-panel-pioneers-risk
Business Green: Over 4,500 pioneering early adopters of solar and other forms of micro-generation technology could be in danger of missing out on the government's new feed-in tariff incentive scheme. An analysis of the official register of feed-in tariff installations undertaken by the Renewable Energy Association has revealed that of the 6,900 installations entering the scheme since its launch in April, an estimated 1,390 were pre-existing installations that have simply transferred into the new ...
Tue, 7 Sep 10
Energy-harvesting technology lets the train take the strain
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269227/energy-harvesting-technology
Business Green: One of the oldest rail lines in the US will soon become home to a cutting-edge energy-harvesting technology that promises to recover the energy lost by braking trains and feed it into the grid. Philadelphia-based smart grid firm Viridity Energy and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) announced last week that they have been awarded a $900,000 (£583,000) grant by the State of Pennsylvania that will allow them to complete an ambitious pilot ...
Tue, 7 Sep 10
China aims to increase hydropower 50 per cent by 2015
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269224/china-aiming-increase
Business Green: The Chinese government has reportedly pledged to increase its hydroelectric power capacity 50 per cent by 2015 as it continues to accelerate efforts to boost its low-carbon energy supplies. According to local reports, officials said they were aiming to increase hydropower capacity from 200 million kilowatts currently to 300 million kW by 2015. The announcement came as China's largest hydropower station, the Xiaowan dam in Yunnan province, came online. State-backed news ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
'Heavy price' on climate inaction
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11181330
BBC: World leaders may pay a heavy price in history if they fail to tackle global warming, Tony Blair has warned. He said politicians did not have to wait for chaotic climate change in order for them to act. The risks of not cutting emissions, given the potentially massive consequences, was enough to justify action, he told BBC Radio 4. The former prime minister added that it had always been a struggle to explain the uncertainties in climate science. He told Radio 4's ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
A carbon border tax can curb climate change
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a68bfc80-b915-11df-99be-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fa68bfc80-b915-11df-99be-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=
Financial Times: As global growth picks up after the economic crisis, carbon emissions are going back up too. With China and India back on track to double their gross domestic product every decade, and with coal providing nearly 30 per cent of global energy, the chances of stabilising and reducing emissions are low. Indeed, little progress has been made in the last two decades. Only recessions lower emissions – and then only for a short time. This is partly due to the failed strategy for carbon ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Facing moratorium and criticism in Indonesia, Sinar Mas looks to Liberia for new palm oil opportunities
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0905-sinar_mas_liberia.html
Mongabay: Singapore's Golden Agri-Resources, a holding of the embattled Sinar Mas Group, said it will form a partnership with the government of Liberia to establish a 220,000-hectare plantation in the West African nation, reports the Jakarta Globe. The 25-year $1.6 billion joint venture will establish oil palm estates in southeastern Liberia. Golden VerOleum, a subsidiary of Golden Agri-Resources, is leading the project, which is seeking additional outside investors. The announcement ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Voice From the Next Offshore Oil Frontier
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/a-voice-from-the-next-offshore-oil-frontier/?partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: A bone from a bowhead whale skull rests on the Arctic shore near Barrow, whose Inupiat residents center their culture around whaling and their livelihoods, often, around the oil industry. On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had a meeting with the only people outside the gulf region whose waters had been opened to offshore oil exploration. He was in Barrow, Alaska, the capital of the North Slope Borough, where people have the same conflicted feelings about the oil industry as ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
U.S. Plays Catch-Up on High-Speed Rail
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/business/energy-environment/06green.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
New York Times: Spanish trains whisk passengers from Madrid to Barcelona in little more than two and one-half hours. Japan has bullet trains. China is building a vast network of high-speed rail routes, including the recently opened line between Guangzhou and Wuhan, which covers 1,070 kilometers at the world's fastest average speed. Soon, perhaps, the United States, with the world's largest economy will also clamber on board. So far, the United States – in spite of or perhaps because of its vast ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Is carbon protection the same as biodiversity protection?
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0905-redd_biodiversity_ffi.html
Mongabay: Protection of forests for their carbon value through Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) schemes has been increasing in recent years. These schemes concentrate on preserving forest cover, and thus have great potential for the conservation of natural biodiversity. Some (REDD+) initiatives already specifically take biodiversity protection into account. There has been debate about the potential impacts of REDD schemes on biodiversity, given its potential to ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Sceptical green urges smart billions to fight warming
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100905/sc_afp/environmentwarmingdenmarkeu
AFP: Bjoern Lomborg, the bad boy of the climate debate who has rejected for years "alarmist" prophecies from environmentalists, stresses in a new book the need to invest billions to fight global warming. In "Smart Solutions to Climate Change," Lomborg lashes out at current policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions but also highlights the need to spend 100 billion dollars a year on intelligent research and green technologies. By spending billions in a smart way, the world could ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
United Kingdom: US rig owner Transocean accused of compromising safety in North Sea
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/05/transocean-oil-rig-safety
Guardian: Transocean, the American rig owner at the centre of BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, has been accused of compromising safety in the North Sea by "bullying, harassment and intimidation" of its staff. The allegations, in a damning report by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) seen by the Guardian, will deeply embarrass Transocean, which on Tuesday appears before a House of Commons investigation into the lessons to be learnt from the Deepwater Horizon spill. The offshore and ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Prince Charles blasted for using £100K Royal Train for just nine people - to promote cycling
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2010/09/05/prince-charles-blasted-for-using-s100k-royal-train-for-just-nine-people-to-promote-cycling-86908-22538945/
Sunday Mail: PRINCE Charles faced ridicule yesterday for taking the Royal train on a week-long nationwide tour to promote cycling. The prince has ordered the nine carriage train for a five-day, 1300-mile "green tour" of Britain, starting from Glasgow tomorrow. His trip is aimed at promoting environmentally friendly lifestyles and ethical modes of transport and he has boasted that the train will run on biofuels. But yesterday experts accused Charles of hypocrisy after it emerged the ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Australia's 'Greenslide' may not help ease pollution
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/australias-greenslide-may-not-help-ease-pollution-2071007.html
AFP: Australia's environmental lobby is celebrating an unprecedented "Greenslide" in national elections, but it remains unclear whether new political power will translate into action on climate change. The Greens, a left-wing minority party, emerged as the big winners from the country's cliffhanger polls, doubling their share of the national vote to a record 11.5 percent and taking a critical seat in the deadlocked lower house. Jubilant leader Bob Brown called it a "Greenslide", ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Italy: Mafia cash in on lucrative EU wind farm handouts - especially in Sicily
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/renewableenergy/7981737/Mafia-cash-in-on-lucrative-EU-wind-farm-handouts-especially-in-Sicily.html
Telegraph: They rise up high above the sun-scorched countryside, looking out over hilltop villages, palm trees, neatly-tended vineyards and olive groves. But for all their promises of a clean, green future, Italy's windfarms have now acquired a somewhat dirtier whiff - as the latest industry to be infiltrated by the country's mobsters. Attracted by the prospect of generous grants designed to boost the use of alternative energies, the so-called "eco Mafia" has begun fraudulently creaming ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Disasters show need for action: UN climate chief
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=384014&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21
AFP: UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has warned that a string of weather calamities showed the deepening urgency to forge a breakthrough deal on global warming this year. Speaking on Thursday before some 40 countries were to address finance, an issue that has helped hamstring UN climate talks, Figueres said that floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia and other weather disasters had been a shocking wakeup call. "The news has been screaming that a future of intense, global climate ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Coal a 'driving factor' in U.S. Senate race
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/05/1421634/coal-a-driving-factor-in-us-senate.html
Lexington Herald Leader: The landscapes of Eastern and Western Kentucky have little in common, but the areas share at least two things: an abundance of coal and a pivotal role in the U.S. Senate race. That means coal policies, such as the controversial "cap and trade" approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, are a key issue in the contest between Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Jack Conway. In Western Kentucky, one concern is that cap and trade would cause higher rates for electricity produced ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Indian Ocean rising faster than others
http://www.asianage.com/india/indian-ocean-rising-faster-others-394
Asian Age: Newly detected rising sea levels in parts of the Indian Ocean have led Indian scientists to conclude that the Indian Ocean is rising faster than other oceans. Dr Satheesh C. Shenoi, director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Infor-mation Services, speaking at a workshop on "Coasts, Coastal Populations and their Concerns" o rganised by the Centre for Science and Environment, warned that sea surface measurements and satellite observations confirm that an anthropogenic climate ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Tiny solar cells fix themselves
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11181753
BBC: Researchers have demonstrated tiny solar cells just billionths of a metre across that can repair themselves, extending their useful lifetime. The cells make use of proteins from the machinery of plants, turning sunlight into electric charges that can do work. The cells simply assemble themselves from a mixture of the proteins, minute tubes of carbon and other materials. The self-repairing mechanism, reported in Nature Chemistry, could lead to much longer-lasting solar ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
BRAZIL: Laws No Help to Amazon Animals, or People
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52729
Inter Press Service: Every year, more than a million Amazonian turtle eggs do not make it to the hatching period, nor do they serve as food for humans in the Tabuleiro de Embaubal, a series of beaches along the final stretch of Brazil's Xingú River. Thousands of turtles lay 1.8 million eggs each year in Embaubal, in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. But about 70 percent are destroyed by flooding or by the mothers themselves, which dig up sand where eggs have already been laid, explained biologist Juarez ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
His Corporate Strategy: The Scientific Method
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/business/05venter.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss
NYT: THE scientific rebel J. Craig Venter created headlines – and drew comparisons to Dr. Frankenstein – when he announced in May that his team had created what, with a bit of stretching, could be called the first synthetic living creature. Two months later, only a smattering of reporters and local dignitaries bothered to show up at a news conference to hear Dr. Venter talk about a new greenhouse that his company, Synthetic Genomics, had built outside its headquarters here to conduct ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Mozambique's food riots - the true face of global warming
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/05/mozambique-food-riots-patel
Guardian: It has been a summer of record temperatures – Japan had its hottest summer on record, as did South Florida and New York. Meanwhile, Pakistan and Niger are flooded and the eastern US is mopping up after hurricane Earl. None of these individual events can definitively be attributed to global warming. But to see how climate change will play out in the 21st century, you needn't look to the Met Office. Look, instead, to the deaths and burning tyres in Mozambique's "food riots" to see what happens ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Google and Galaxy Zoo could aid global climate project
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/05/google-galaxy-zoo-climate-project
Guardian: Climate scientists meeting in Britain this week hope to build a database to predict natural disasters precisely. And records of the voyages of the Bounty and Beagle will assist them in their task Leading climate scientists will gather in the UK this week to finalise plans for a revolutionary project aimed at transforming their ability to predict meteorological disasters. The goal is to create an international databank that would generate forecasts of unprecedented ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Rising wheat prices raise fears over UK commitment to biofuels
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/05/wheat-price-fears-over-biofuels
Guardian: The soaring price of wheat has raised questions about the UK's commitment to biofuels as it attempts to wean itself from its dependence on oil. A network of biorefineries that convert wheat and other crops into bioethanol that can then be blended with petrol are being developed as the UK looks to meet its EU renewable transport fuels obligations. But the huge amounts of wheat that will be used in the process – up to a fifth of the UK's current annual production within four ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Tide goes out for Severn barrage energy project
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/05/severn-green-energy-project-loses-funding
Guardian: The government will this month sound the death knell for the world's largest tidal energy project – to be built across the Severn estuary between Somerset and south Wales – when it rules out public funding for the controversial £20bn plan. The announcement will please some environmentalists, who were worried about the impact on bird life in the estuary, but others say such spending cuts will make a mockery of David Cameron's pledge to be the "greenest government ever". The ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
United Kingdom: Miliband accuses coalition of 'greenwash' over North Sea oil
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/miliband-accuses-coalition-of-greenwash-over-north-sea-oil-2070837.html
Independent: David Cameron's claim to lead the "greenest government ever" was thrown into the heart of the Labour leadership contest last night, amid concern about plans for a deep-sea drilling operation in the North Sea. David Miliband, one of the candidates to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour leader, said the coalition's refusal to impose a moratorium on deep-sea drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster exposed its commitment to the environment as "nothing but spin". He said: ...
Mon, 6 Sep 10
Key oil spill evidence raised to Gulf's surface
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100905/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
AP: A crane hoisted a key piece of oil spill evidence to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, giving investigators their first chance to personally scrutinize the blowout preventer, the massive piece of equipment that failed to stop the gusher four months ago. It took 29 1/2 hours to lift the 50-foot, 300-ton blowout preventer from a mile beneath the sea to the surface. The five-story high device breached the water's surface at 6:54 p.m. CDT, and looked largely intact with black ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
What now for Gulf? Fire complicates drill debate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100903/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_what_now
AP: What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling. Just when it seemed the Obama administration might be ready to lift the unpopular ban, the fire raises new questions about the dangers of offshore drilling, leaving the industry wondering when it can get back to work. "Anything ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/un-mozambique-food-prices
Guardian: The UN has called an urgent meeting on rising global food prices in an attempt to head off a repeat of the 2008 crisis that sparked riots around the world. Seven people, including two children, were killed in Mozambique this week during three days of protests triggered by a rise in the cost of bread. There has also been anger over increasing prices in Egypt, Serbia and Pakistan, where floods destroyed a fifth of the country's crops. The UN's announcement came after Russian ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Why Hurricane Earl Weakened on Path to Cape Cod
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100903-hurricane-earl-update-cape-cod-new-england-weather-science/
National Geographic: Changes in the towering wall of vertical clouds surrounding the storm's eye helped diminish Hurricane Earl's intensity as it roared toward North Carolina's Outer Banks (map) Thursday morning, meteorologists say. Earl was a very intense storm with winds exceeding 140 miles (225 kilometers) an hour as it moved northward along the U.S. East Coast. But as of Friday morning, Earl had diminished to a Category 1 hurricane with peak winds of about 85 miles (137 kilometers) an ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Interior chief Salazar voices doubt on Arctic drilling
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68258U20100903?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Friday he cannot predict whether Royal Dutch Shell, which has invested $3.5 billion in an offshore Arctic oil-development program, will be allowed to drill the five wells it plans next year in Alaska's Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. "We will be making that decision in the several months ahead," he said at an Anchorage news conference, citing pending reports on offshore drilling safety and the results of an investigation into the Deepwater Horizon ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Brazil: Amazon may be headed for another bad drought
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6825EU20100903?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: Drought has cut Peru's Amazon River to its lowest level in 40 years and it is already below the minimum set in 2005, when a devastating dry spell damaged vast swaths of South American rainforest in the worst drought in decades. Scientists in Peru and Brazil say the lack of rainfall, which is typical for this time of year, should continue for a few more weeks until the start of the rainy season. But there is some concern that the dryness could persist as what is shaping up to be ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Could solar cells harm the environment?
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/could-solar-cells-harm-the-environment-2069368.html
Independent: Photovoltaic cells provide environmental benefits but unless properly disposed of they could amount to over 600,000 tons of un-recycled waste per year. The rapidly expanding market for photovoltaic (solar) cells brings obvious environmental benefits, encouraging the use of alternative energy resources and reducing the world's reliance on oil. Yet despite these advantages, the disposal of photovoltaic cells creates an environmental problem: it is estimated that 1.4 million tons ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
New England braces for Hurricane Earl's wind, rain
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2010/09/03/new_england_braces_for_hurricane_earls_wind_rain/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
AP: A weakening Hurricane Earl swiped past North Carolina on Friday on its way to New England, where officials urged residents to stay vigilant even as the area threatened by storm's full force was shrinking. The storm blew sustained winds of 85 mph, a Category 1 storm, and was 350 miles south-southwest of Nantucket as of 11 a.m., according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The storm was expected to pass about 50 to 75 miles southeast of Nantucket on Friday ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
BP: Deepwater Horizon oil well will be permanently sealed 'in two weeks'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/03/oil-well-sealed-bp
Guardian: BP said today it is a fortnight away from sealing the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico for good, as it revealed that the bill for containing and cleaning up the oil spill – the largest in American history – has reached $8bn. Depending on the weather, the oil giant hopes to seal the well for good in mid-September. Since 15 July, no new oil had flowed into the gulf from the ruptured well, BP said. It continues to search for oil on the surface. The bill has steadily risen ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
East Europe Takes to Too Many Cars
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52711
IPS: Quality of life in Eastern European cities will continue to fall unless outdated systems of city life dominated by cars are abandoned, NGOs in the region say. At a meeting in Prague last week environmental groups from countries from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said city authorities were failing to address growing traffic problems and lagging far behind the West in approaches to what has become a serious problem in some parts of the region. They said that ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Oil platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2010/sep/03/oil-platform-explosion
Guardian
Sat, 4 Sep 10
US government pumps fresh cash into biofuel research
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269155/government-pumps-fresh-cash
Business Green: The US government has announced almost $9m (£5.8m) of fresh funding to support research into second-generation cellulosic biofuels that do not affect food supplies. The research grants, to be administered by the Departments of Agriculture and Energy, will help to increase US independence from foreign oil, officials said. The two departments will award $8.9m in grants to teams researching how to generate energy from lignocellulosic material. Researchers claim lignocellulosic ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
BP spill costs 5.8 billion pounds as crews unearth clues
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100903/wl_uk_afp/usoilenvironmentpollutionbp
AFP: Oil giant BP revealed Friday it has so far spent 5.1 billion pounds to battle the Gulf of Mexico disaster, as its crews worked to retrieve key evidence from the seabed. Robotic submarines recorded the delicate operation as engineers sought to raise a failed blowout preventer from the sunken rig to the surface and hand it over to the US Justice Department. The US government is conducting what could be a criminal investigation into the April 20 explosion and subsequent oil spill ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
UK urged to be more open about greenhouse gas emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/03/uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-bob-watson
Press Association: The UK's greenhouse gas emissions have risen in the past two decades rather than declined, because of the carbon "embedded" in imported goods, the government's chief environment scientist has said. Speaking in a documentary to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 next week, Professor Bob Watson said there was a need to be more open about the rises in emissions generated by-products made in places such as China but destined for the UK market. Under the current system of counting ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Are solar panels the next e-waste?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/03/solar-panels-ewaste
Guardian: In recent years the electronics industry has gained notoriety for creating an endless stream of disposable products that make their way at life's end to developing countries, where poor people without safety gear cut and burn out valuable materials, spilling contaminants into their water, air, and lungs. Solar modules contain some of the same potentially dangerous materials as electronics, including silicon tetrachloride, cadmium, selenium, and sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
BP says offshore oil limits could hurt payouts in spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100903/ts_alt_afp/usoilenvironmentpollutionbpban
AFP: Proposed US limits on offshore oil drilling could hurt BP's ability to pay for damages stemming from the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a company executive said in an interview Friday. David Nagle, executive vice president for BP America, told the New York Times that legislation pending before Congress could have an impact on the company's ability to compensate losses from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Of particular concern is a bill passed by the House of Representatives on ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Brazil: Amazon deforestation rate slashed
http://www.carbonpositive.net/viewarticle.aspx?articleID=2096
Carbon Positive: The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen by almost half over the past year, according to government data. The figures are only preliminary and need to be confirmed with satellite data, but indications are that the estimate of a 47.5 per cent decline in lost forest area in the period August 2009 and August 2010 is close to the mark. Deforestation of tropical forests is a major contributor to greenhouse emissions worldwide. Forest loss adds billions of tonnes of ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
U.S. reiterates commitment to 2020 climate goal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100903/us_nm/us_climate_us
Reuters: The United States reiterated on Friday that it was committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 even though the Senate has failed to pass legislation. "I am in no sense writing off legislation over time. And I'm quite sure the president isn't," U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern told a news conference during two days of talks in Geneva among about 45 nations reviewing climate finance. He said Washington would rely on a combination of regulation by the Environmental ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
New website to track climate aid, key to UN talks
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100903/india_nm/india512693
Reuters: A website launched on Friday will help track whether rich countries are keeping a pledge to come up with $30 billion in climate aid for the poor, seen by the U.N. as a "golden key" to progress in talks on global warming. The United Nations-backed site (www.faststartfinance.org) so far lists cash promises by 6 European donors including Germany and Britain and 27 recipients from Bangladesh to the Marshall Islands. Many of the developing nations have blank entries on the amount of aid ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Canada: Electric car upswing would crash grid: Toronto Hydro chief
http://www.wheels.ca/newsandfeatures/consumernews/article/791537--electric-car-upswing-would-crash-grid-toronto-hydro-chief
Wheels: Anthony Haines looks toward the imminent arrival of the electric car with enthusiasm and apprehension. Why? As chief executive of Toronto Hydro, he has to run the wires that, in a few years, will charge up the batteries of thousands of cars across the city. And he knows that right now, he can't do it. "If you connect about 10 per cent of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails," Haines told an audience at Ryerson University ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Few B.C. homeowners eager to convert to solar power
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/homeowners%20eager%20convert%20solar%20power/3475485/story.html
Vancouver Sun: British Columbians may know that green power is good power, but homeowners are shying away from alternative sources such as solar panels because of high installation costs and the inexpensive option of hydro electricity. The head of a Victoria alternative energy company says that at current energy prices, it makes little sense for homeowners served by the BC Hydro grid to convert to solar power for their home electricity. "You're looking at between 60 and 80 years for a return ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
More CO2 means more poison ivy
http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/More_CO2_means_more_poison_ivy_999.html
UPI: Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may threaten climate change and be bad news for humans but poison ivy likes it, U.S. researchers say. A report in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives last year said the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has grown by 22 percent since 1960, not so good for humans but great for poison ivy and other vines, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. In a study in Durham, N.C., a researcher simulated the carbon dioxide content in the air 50 ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Earth 'facing mass extinction'
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/world-facing-mass-extinction/story-e6frg15u-1225913659680
AAP: THE world is facing a mass extinction event that could be greater than that of the dinosaurs, new Australian research shows. Macquarie University palaeobiologist Dr John Alroy used fossils to track the fate of major groups of marine animals throughout the Earth's history. He compiled data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, tracking the fate of marine animals during extreme extinction events some 250 million years ago. The findings, published this week in ...
Sat, 4 Sep 10
Exclusive: WWF issues call for green business game-changers
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269137/exclusive-wwf-issues-call-green
Business Green: Has your company developed a genuinely innovative solution to an environmental challenge? Then WWF wants to hear from you. The global environmental group will next week launch a major new initiative, dubbed Green Game-Changers, which is designed to identify and promote the best sustainable business case studies from around the world. The crowd-sourcing exercise will invite firms to submit examples of green products, business models and government policies that have demonstrably ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
80% of tropical agricultural expansion between 1980-2000 came at expense of forests
http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0902-tropical_agriculture.html
Mongabay: More than 80 percent of agricultural expansion in the tropics between 1980 and 2000 came at the expense of forests, reports research published last week in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, based on analysis satellite images collected by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and led by Holly Gibbs of Stanford University, found that 55 percent of new agricultural land came at the expense of intact ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
EPA to issue more rules in climate fight
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6814Y620100902?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: The Environmental Protection Agency will roll out more regulations on greenhouse gases and other pollution to help fight climate change, but they will not be as strong as action by Congress, a senior administration official said. The agency "has a huge role to play in continuing the work to move from where we are now to lower carbon emissions," said the official, who did not want to be named as the EPA policies are still being formed. President Barack Obama, looking to play a ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Mass Extinction Threat: Earth on Verge of Huge Reset Button?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100902/sc_livescience/massextinctionthreatearthonvergeofhugeresetbutton
Live Science: Mass extinctions have served as huge reset buttons that dramatically changed the diversity of species found in oceans all over the world, according to a comprehensive study of fossil records. The findings suggest humans will live in a very different future if they drive animals to extinction, because the loss of each species can alter entire ecosystems. Some scientists have speculated that effects of humans - from hunting to climate change - are fueling another great mass extinction. ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Money Key To Tackling Climate Change
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Money-Key-To-Tackling-Climate-Change-102071958.html
Voice of America: Ministers from 45 countries are meeting to discuss the long-term financing of mitigation and adaptation measures needed to tackle climate change. The two-day meeting, which is jointly hosted by the governments of Switzerland and Mexico, hopes to come up with a plan to advance climate negotiations at the forthcoming talks in Cancun, Mexico, in December. The new executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change has been on the job for only two months. But, in that ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Electric cars will have fewer gadgets -- here's why
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20100902/sc_ygreen/electriccarswillhavefewergadgetshereswhy
Y! Green: What high-tech feature would you want to see in your car that's not there now? Autobytel.com asked that question as part of its "What's Hot Now?" report, and the results indicate that people must get lost a lot -- 30 percent, by far the largest number, would like to have an in-dash GPS navigation device. Me, I can live without one. In fact, just as cars are connecting big time, we're electrifying them, and many of the early EVs will be kind of skimpy on personal tech, trying to ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Disasters show 'screaming' need for action - climate chief
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100902/sc_afp/climatewarmingfinance
AFP: UN climate chief Christiana Figueres on Thursday warned that a string of weather calamities showed the deepening urgency to forge a breakthrough deal on global warming this year. Speaking before some 40 countries were to address finance, an issue that has helped hamstring UN climate talks, Figueres said floods in Pakistan, fires in Russia and other weather disasters had been a shocking wakeup call. "The news has been screaming that a future of intense, global climate disasters ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Greenpeace Activists Held After Leaving Arctic Oil Rig
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129604786&ft=1&f=1025
AP: Four Greenpeace activists who had clung to an oil rig off western Greenland with rock-climbing gear were arrested Thursday after an Arctic storm forced them to abandon their environmental protest. Police spokesman Morten Nielsen said the four men -- from the U.S., Finland, Poland and Germany -- faced preliminary charges of violating a 1,650-feet security perimeter around the Stena Don rig and trespassing by climbing onto the installation. The activists had been suspended under ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Tibetan nomads struggle as grasslands disappear from the roof of the world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/tibetan-plateau-climate-change
Guardian: Like generations of Tibetan nomads before him, Phuntsok Dorje makes a living raising yaks and other livestock on the vast alpine grasslands that provide a thatch on the roof of the world. But in recent years the vegetation around his home, the Tibetan plateau, has been destroyed by rising temperatures, excess livestock and plagues of insects and rodents. The high-altitude meadows are rarely mentioned in discussions of global warming, but the changes to this ground have a ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
New maize could prepare farmers for climate change
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/new-maize-could-prepare-farmers-for-climate-change.html?utm_source=link&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=en_agricultureandenvironment
SciDev.Net: New varieties of drought-tolerant maize could deliver a US$1.5 billion gain in food and income in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping smallholders cope with the effects of climate change, according to a study carried out in 13 countries in the region. Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, said the varieties produce yields up to 50 per cent higher than commercial ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
World cannot afford worsening disasters, warns UN climate change chief
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35807&Cr=climate+change&Cr1=
UN News Centre: The world cannot afford escalating disasters of the kind recently witnessed in Pakistan and Russia, the top United Nations climate change official said today, underscoring the need for governments to take swift action to lead the world towards a low-carbon future. Flooding in Pakistan and wildfires in Russia were ?so dramatic? that many other major weather disasters in other parts of the world ?were relegated as secondary news,? Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Amazon at lowest level in over 40 years in Peru: experts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100902/sc_afp/environmentperuclimateamazon
AFP: The Amazon, the world's biggest river, is at its lowest level in over 40 years near its source in northeastern Peru, causing havoc in a region where it is used as the only form of travel, authorities said. According to officials in Loreto province, the Amazon on Tuesday in the northeast city of Iquitos fell to 105.97 meters (347.67 feet) above sea level, 50 cm (1.6 feet) lower than it was in 2005, so far the lowest reference point in four decades. Low levels have brought ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Open letter to Chris Huhne on feed-in tariffs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/feed-in-tariffs
Guardian: Dear secretary of state [for energy], A recent newspaper article based on an interview with Charles Hendry (Minister with the energy to bat for Britain, 23 August) suggested that funding "may be slashed" for feed-in tariff technologies such as solar PV and the forthcoming renewable heat incentive. As you know, heat is responsible for 47% of UK emissions and 49% of UK energy demand, so no government serious about climate change or energy security can ignore half the ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Energy secretary Chris Huhne warned not to cut subsidies for green electricity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/chris-huhne-green-electricity
Guardian: A coalition of green, countryside and housing groups has warned energy secretary Chris Huhne not to cut subsidies for green electricity and heating as part of the government's spending review. The 22 groups, including green energy trade body the Renewable Energy Association, the National Farmers Union and the Federation of Master Builders, said in a letter to Huhne that cutting schemes that subsidise household generation of renewable energy would jeopardise job creation, energy security and ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Mich., Wis. to cooperate on climate change issues
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HVSH0G0.htm
AP: Michigan and Wisconsin plan to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and determine the best strategies to adapt to climate change as part of an effort to protect the Great Lakes region. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment announced the agreement Thursday. Michigan DNRE Director Rebecca Humphries in July asked Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank to formalize plans to work together, and a memorandum of understanding ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change must keep its eye on the ball
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/sep/02/intergovernmental-panel-climate-change
Guardian: If the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change didn't exist, would we need to invent it? Many people find it helpful to have a single point of reference on the big, global questions that everyone is interested in: can we detect human influence on climate, how large are changes expected to be in future, what are the main impacts likely to be and what can (not should) be done about it? These are questions on which the level of scientific consensus is far higher than most non-scientists ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Coast Guard responding to possible rig blast in Gulf
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100902/us_nm/us_rig_explosion
Reuters: The U.S. Coast Guard was flying helicopters to a possible offshore drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Helicopters were an hour away from the site of the possible explosion, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Prentice Danner.
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Oil Rig Explodes In Gulf Of Mexico
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129603017&ft=1&f=1025
AP: An offshore petroleum rig exploded and was burning Friday in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay. The Coast Guard says no one was killed in the explosion, which was reported by a commercial helicopter flying over the site around 9 a.m. CDT. All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent of the injury was not known. Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau says seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Climate-change assessment: Must try harder
http://www.economist.com/node/16941153?story_id=16941153&fsrc=rss
Economist: IF THIS week's report into the workings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by a council of national academies of science were the sort of report children take home from school, its main themes would be expressed as "could do better" and "needs to show workings". Stern parents might read it as calling for a Gradgrind-like clampdown; more indulgent ones as an inducement for the little darlings to try a little harder. At a meeting in Busan, South Korea, this October, ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Gulf oil rig explodes off La. coast
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100902/ap_on_re_us/us_gulf_rig_explosion
AP: An offshore oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, west of the site of the April blast that caused the massive oil spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer Casey Ranel says the blast was reported by a commercial helicopter company about 9:30 a.m. CDT Thursday. Seven helicopters, two airplanes and four boats are en route to the site, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay along the central Louisiana coast. Ranel says it hasn't been determined whether the structure is a production ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Changing Weather Depletes Fish Stocks
http://allafrica.com/stories/201009020743.html
New Era: The decline in Namibia's fish resources is a result of environmental conditions and failed recovery of the resources despite conservative management strategies, says Beau Tjizoo of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. "Warm events" that have occurred since 1995 have increased along the coast in recent years. This has led to the displacement and mortality of fish species. Reporting to the ongoing meeting of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Report confirms rapid glacier melting
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Report%20confirms%20rapid%20glacier%20melting%20&NewsID=256176
Himalayan: The United States Geological Survey in its report -- published in collaboration with 39 international scientists -- says that glaciers throughout the Asia region -- Russia, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan -- are retreating. However, the report says the time period for the retreat is different among the glaciers. "In Bhutan, 66 glaciers have decreased by 8.1 per cent over the last 30 years. Rapid changes in the Himalaya ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Australia: PM Julia Gillard's high-risk Greens embrace
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/pm-julia-gillards-high-risk-greens-embrace/story-fn59niix-1225913033761
Australian: JULIA Gillard has agreed to a historic pact with the Australian Greens in a bid to end the nation's parliamentary deadlock, promising action on climate change in return for guaranteed support to govern. The deal includes the establishment of a climate change committee to consider a price on carbon, big changes to the rules on political donations and a major parliamentary debate on the war in Afghanistan. The Greens will, in effect, have more power than Labor backbenchers, with ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Researchers study link between climate, wildfire
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2010/09/researchers_study_link_between_climate_wildfire.html
AP: Scientists from universities in Montana, Colorado and Idaho announced today the start of a 5-year, $3.85 million research project into how a changing climate will influence wildfires. The project is being pursued in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and researchers in Australia and New Zealand. The goal is to identify how human activities and climate change drive fires. "One thing is clear: The frequency and severity of fires have increased around and world and this is ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Ecologists fear Antarctic krill crisis
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100901/full/467015a.html
Nature: The humble Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) bears a heavy burden. It may be just a small, shrimp-like crustacean, but its sheer abundance makes it one of the largest protein sources on Earth, eagerly sought by fish, penguins, whales -- and man. Ecologists are now warning that the rapid growth in krill fishing is adding to the pressure of environmental changes threatening the creatures, and are calling for better monitoring and precautionary management of krill fisheries. The ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Pakistan: Dr Samar warns of devastating floods every year
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/02-Sep-2010/Dr-Samar-warns-of-devastating-floods-every-year
APP: Dr Samar Mubarakmand Wed-nesday warned that the country might experience unprecedented floods every year because of global warming, saying in case of not building more dams and adopting precautionary measures, it could prove more disastrous. In an exclusive interview, he said global warming and melting of glaciers was a main reason for the weather system, which forced heavy rains. Industrialised nations were responsible for environmental pollution as they burnt natural fuels in ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
'Red list' alert for tiny crayfish
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/02/3000524.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Several species of southern Australian crayfish have been named on a threatened species list. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included more than a dozen burrowing crayfish species on its updated Red List, released today. The crayfish are only found in southern Australia and the United States. Tasmanian scientist Dr Niall Doran, who was involved in the assessment, says the tiny species plays an important role in the environment. "They ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Charleston has hottest summer in 67 years
http://wvgazette.com/News/201009010996
Charleston Gazette: Think it's been awfully hot in Charleston this summer? You're right. West Virginia's capital city has recorded what appears to be the hottest summer in 67 years, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the National Weather Service. Ken Batty, meteorologist with the Charleston weather service office, said Charleston's average temperature for the period from June through August was 76.8 degrees. That's the sixth hottest summer on record, based on data going back to ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Climate change report says a meter of water would completely over Jamestown Island
http://www.dailypress.com/news/weather/stormguide/dp-nws-jamestown-underwater-20100901,0,1267126.story
Daily Press: As Virginia braces for a possible bashing by Hurricane Earl, two environmental groups on Wednesday released a report that suggests things may only get worse for low-lying areas in Hampton Roads, especially area National Parks. The report -- issued jointly by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization -- details the effects of climate change on Colonial National Historical Park, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and Shenandoah National Park. ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Nanaimo Estuary has strong potential for carbon storage
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_central/nanaimonewsbulletin/news/101922948.html
Nanaimo News Bulletin: The Nanaimo Estuary is one of the most important estuaries in the province for carbon storage, deemed critical for slowing climate change and absorbing spent carbon. In a report titled Blue Carbon – British Columbia, authored by Colin Campbell, science advisor for Sierra Club B.C., the Nanaimo Estuary is ranked in the top seven of 442 B.C. estuaries for effective sea burial of carbon because of its high concentration of eelgrass and salt marshes. "Eelgrass and salt marshes bury ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Nations meet on climate cash, U.N. sees long haul
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100902/wl_nm/us_climate_ministers
Reuters: About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul to slow global warming. Environment ministers and senior officials in Geneva were reviewing whether rich nations, hit by austerity cuts, are keeping a promise of $30 billion in "new and additional" climate aid for 2010-12 made at the U.N.'s Copenhagen summit. "The funds are critical" to build trust between rich ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Legal challenge to drilling ban scores court victory
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269117/legal-challenge-drilling-ban
Business Green: The US ban on deep water oil and gas drilling could be overturned for a second time after a federal judge yesterday rejected the Obama administration's request to dismiss an oil industry lawsuit challenging the six-month moratorium. US district judge Martin Feldman, who controversially overturned the administration's first ban, yesterday ruled that a second ban imposed by the Interior Department in July "arguably fashions no substantial changes from the first moratorium" and as such ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Report: Over 3 million electric vehicles to be sold by 2015
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269065/million-electric-vehicles-sold
Business Green: By 2015 the auto industry will have put 3.2 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the world's roads, according to research released this week. The study from analyst Pike Research, entitled Plug-in electric vehicles, predicts a 106 per cent compound annual growth rate for the vehicles over the next five years, initially driven by demand in the small consumer vehicle category. Dave Hurst, senior analyst at the organisation, predicted that small electric cars will act ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Green roofs offer antidote to urban heat island effect, say researchers
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/green-roof-urban-heat-island
Guardian: Green roofs, like the one pictured above, benefit more than just their owners, according to Stuart Gaffin, a researcher at Columbia University. "They are a win-win on so many fronts," he said. Perhaps the greatest overall benefit of green roofs comes in tackling the "urban heat island" effect, which Gaffin suggests is responsible for two-thirds of New York's localized warming over the last century. The conventional black rooftops that he calls "tar beaches" are major contributors to ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Nigeria: Minister Warns On Climate Change-Induced Disasters
http://allafrica.com/stories/201009020235.html
Daily Trust: Nigeria is susceptible to climate change-induced disasters, Minister of Environment, Mr. John Odey has warned. Odey said yesterday in Minna that climate induced disasters may soon affect the country as he maintained that research had revealed that Nigeria would succumb to the adverse effects of climate change. The minister's representative, Mrs. Olabisi Jaji, who was speaking at the commencement of the visit of Task Force members of the West African Science Service Centre on Climate ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Nigeria: 'Nation Not Prepared to Tackle Climate Change'
http://allafrica.com/stories/201009020210.html
AllAfrica: Nigeria is not prepared in any way to tackle environmental health challenges despite the grave danger it poses to the nation's human resources and economy, says Professor Celestine Onwuliri. Onwuliri made this statement at an annual public lecture on 'the Role of Environmental Health in the Management of Climate Change in Nigeria', an award ceremony organized by the Society for Environmental Health of Nigeria (SEHON), where he was the guest lecturer. He said Nigeria should be ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Green groups urge next Australian government to deliver carbon price
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269072/australian-firms-urge
Business Green: A group of trade unions, environmental and religious groups have today released a joint statement calling for Australia to put a price on carbon. The group, which includes the Australian Council of Trade Unions, The Climate Institute, the Mining and Energy Union, The Uniting Church, Greenpeace and WWF, said introducing carbon pricing represents the "most cost-effective way to reduce our greenhouse pollution and its impacts on our climate, health, environment and ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Facebook faces campaign to switch to renewable energy
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269075/facebook-faces-campaign-switch
Business Green: Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing environmental campaigns, Greenpeace International says at least 500,000 people have now protested at the organisation's intention to run its giant new data centre mainly on electricity produced by burning coal power. Facebook will not say how much electricity it uses to stream video, store information and connect its 500m users but ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Greenpeace activists arrested after abandoning occupation of Arctic oil rig
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/greenpeace-abandons-oil-rig
Guardian: Four Greenpeace activists who halted drilling by a British-owned oil exploration rig off Greenland have been arrested after they abandoned their occupation because of severe weather. Greenlandic police arrested the four after high winds buffeted the Stena Don drilling rig overnight, forcing them to abandon mountaineering-style platforms they had suspended by ropes underneath the platform less than 48 hours earlier. Morten Nielsen, deputy head of Greenland police, said the four ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
UN: Climate funds shouldn't divert poverty aid
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100902/ap_on_sc/un_un_climate_financing
AP: The U.N.'s climate chief says poor countries are right to expect that any funding they receive to combat global warming be kept separate from development aid or poverty relief. Christiana Figueres says developing countries taking part in two days of talks on climate change financing this week expect the $30 billion "fast-track" package they have been promised by rich nations to be "new and additional." The head of the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change says that is ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Soaring water risks spell opportunity for investors
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269084/soaring-water-risks-spell
Business Green: Ahead of the launch of World Water Week on Monday, new research suggests rising water risks around the world are presenting huge commercial opportunities for water infrastructure firms and investors. The latest results from Standard & Poor's Global Water Index, released yesterday, reveal that utilities and other water-related firms are outperforming the wider stock market as demand for water infrastructure continues to rise. Over the past five years, the total return from ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Centrosolar joins UK feed-in tariff gold rush
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269089/centrosolar-joins-uk-feed
Business Green: The gold rush sparked by the launch of the UK's renewable energy feed-in tariff stepped up a notch this week after German solar specialist Centrosolar launched a UK subsidiary and obtained product UK certification for its solar panels. The Hamburg-based Centrosolar is looking to tap into increased demand across both the commercial and private sectors for photovoltaic systems in the UK following the introduction of attractive feed-in tariffs in April. The company has recruited ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Burger King drops Indonesian palm oil company
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100902/ts_alt_afp/indonesiausenvironmentcompanysinarmasburgerking
AFP: US fast food giant Burger King said Thursday it would no longer buy palm oil from Sinar Mas or its subsidiaries after Greenpeace campaigned against the Indonesian group's land-clearing practices. Burger King joins the likes of Unilever, Nestle and Kraft in shunning Sinar Mas in a move that will increase pressure on other corporate buyers of its palm oil products, such as Pizza Hut, KFC, and Dunkin' Donuts. Indonesia is the biggest producer of palm oil which is used in ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Cairn says Greenland ops resume after protest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100902/bs_afp/britaingreenlandoilenergycompanycairngreenpeace
AFP: Scottish oil exploration group Cairn Energy said Thursday it had resumed operations on a rig off the coast of Greenland after Greenpeace ended a protest. "Cairn can confirm that operations have started again on the Stena Don (oil rig), where safety remains Cairn's priority in this drilling exploration activity," the group said in a statement. "The actions taken by Greenpeace remain a matter for the Greenlandic authorities." Four Greenpeace activists had climbed on to the ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Feds fail to use land for solar power
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h9pEOTZycFJI6HebIzK_Lm7z6IKwD9HV6H100
AP: Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground. Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle. An Associated Press examination of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records and interviews with agency officials shows that the BLM operated a first-come, ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Barbara Boxer and Carly Fiorina battle hard in first Senate debate
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-senate-20100902,0,5476053.story
LA Times: Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and her Republican opponent Carly Fiorina met in a contentious first debate Wednesday that seethed with disputes over their records and covered a broad range of issues from the economy to climate change to abortion rights. For much of the hourlong debate, Boxer kept her opponent on the defensive by steering her answers into scathing critiques of Fiorina's record as chief executive at Hewlett-Packard, where she fired more than 30,000 workers before she was ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
'Climate migrants' projected to flood US
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/1/global-warming-will-increase-migration-report-says/
Washington Times: Climate change in Latin America – and the accompanying drought, flooding and desertification – is likely to drive increased illegal migration across the Mexico-U.S. border in coming years, according to a report. Worsening economic conditions, spiraling social tensions and growing political instability will drive greater numbers to make the dangerous journey to the United States in the long term, according to the American Security Project, a bipartisan nonprofit research group focused ...
Fri, 3 Sep 10
Hurricane threatens US holiday islands
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hurricane-threatens-us-holiday-islands-2067870.html
Reuters: Visitors and some residents were evacuated from low-lying holiday islands off the North Carolina coast yesterday as Hurricane Earl bore down on the US eastern seaboard, churning up dangerous swells. Earl, still a major (Category 3) hurricane, weakened slightly overnight as it swept across the Atlantic east of the Bahamas. It was on track to approach North Carolina's coast early tomorrow, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said. The second major hurricane of the season was ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Environmental Protester Takes Hostages in Discovery Channel Building
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2010/2010-09-01-04.html
ENS: Environmental Protester Takes Hostages in Discovery Channel Building Environment News Service (ENS) Environmental Protester Takes Hostages in Discovery Channel Building SILVER SPRING, Maryland, September 1, 2010 (ENS) - A man protesting the nature of the Discovery Channel's environmental programming is holding hostages inside the Discovery Building in Silver Spring. Montgomergy County Police have shut down all traffic in the surrounding area and are negotiating with ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
All Eyes Fixed On Hurricane Earl
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1911054/all_eyes_fixed_on_hurricane_earl/index.html?source=r_science
redOrbit: Mandatory evacuations have gone up for visitors along parts of North Carolina's coastal islands on Wednesday as Hurricane Earl continues its path toward the eastern seaboard of the United States, churning up dangerous swells. Earl weakened slightly overnight as it moved across the Atlantic east of the Bahamas. It is still a strong Category 3 hurricane and is on track to approach the North Carolina coast early Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). Earl had ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Greenpeace wants Facebook center off coal fuel
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_hi_te/eu_climate_facebook
AP: Greenpeace said about 500,000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a coal-based energy company for its new data center in the U.S. Greenpeace Executive Director Kumi Naidoo sent a letter Wednesday to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg warning that the company risked its reputation and financial health if it ignored the environmental impacts of its actions. "Facebook is really out of step with the trend" among ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Judge refuses to toss suit vs federal drilling ban
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_moratorium
AP: A federal judge who overturned the Obama administration's initial six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling has rejected the government's bid to have the court challenge thrown out. Government lawyers argued that a lawsuit filed by several offshore service companies over the May 28 moratorium was moot because the Interior Department imposed a new, temporary drilling ban on July 12. But U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman rejected that argument Wednesday, saying the second ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Climate: Risks loom for China: study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100901/wl_asia_afp/climatewarmingchinafarm
AFP: Climate change could reduce key harvests in China by a fifth if the gloomiest scenarios prove true, according to a study on Wednesday. Publishing in the journal Nature, a team of Chinese scientists say China's climate "has clearly warmed" over the past half century, gaining 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1960. The hotspots were northeastern China with a warming trend of 0.36 C (0.65 F) per decade, and Inner Mongolia, with a warming of 0.4 C (0.7 F) per ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Warmer temperatures in China to reduce crop yields
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68056320100901?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: With the climate set to get warmer from greenhouse gases, Chinese scientists predicted on Thursday that freshwater for agriculture will shrink further in China, reducing crop yields in the years ahead. In a paper published in Nature, they said the temperature in China had gone up by 1.2 degrees Celsius since 1960 and will increase by another 1 to 5 degrees Celsius by 2100. "Such a pronounced summer warming would inevitably enhance evapo-transpiration, increasing the risk of ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
China: Fresh Air for Sale in Hong Kong
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/01/fresh-air-for-sale-in-hong-kong/?partner=rss&emc=rss
NYT: ''Do your feeble breathing skills let you down? Does standing up tire you out?'' The answer: Buy a breath or two of ''Fresh Air'' -- the ''revolutionary new product'' that lets you experience breathing ''like the rest of the world does.'' It comes in a baby-blue canister complete with breathing mask, and in a variety of ''flavors,'' including vanilla and beach. And it can be yours for only 2 Hong Kong dollars, or about 25 cents. Hey, you can even get six for the price of one, and ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Report: Climate change threatens historic Jamestown, Va
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/09/climate-change-threatens-historic-jamestown-va/1
USA Today: Human-caused climate change threatens to flood Jamestown, the first permanent European settlement in what became the American colonies and the United States, says a report Wednesday by environmental groups. Jamestown Island, the site of the original 1607 settlement, is low enough to be inundated by rising seas and tidal waters -- even if the waters do not rise as much by 2100 as scientists predict, according to the report by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Judge rules against government on drilling halt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100901/us_nm/us_oil_spill_moratorium
Reuter: A federal judge in New Orleans rejected on Wednesday the U.S. government's request to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its original 6-month deepwater drilling moratorium. Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc and other oil companies sued the government when it first ordered a halt to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in May after BP Plc's well rupture that killed 11 workers and caused the world's worst offshore spill. The drilling halt was subsequently amended, so the government ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
BP ad spending tripled after spill: US lawmakers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100901/ts_alt_afp/usoilenvironmentpollutionadvertisingpolitics
AFP: Energy giant BP spent more than 93 million dollars on advertising in the three months after the April 20 Gulf oil spill, triple what it spent over the same period in 2009, US lawmakers said Wednesday. Leaders of a key US House of Representatives Committee said the embattled firm, still reeling from the disaster's impact, told them Monday that it had shelled out 93.4 million dollars on ads from the spill through July 2010. "This is more than three times the amount the company ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
6 global warming skeptics who changed their minds
http://theweek.com/article/index/206686/6-global-warming-skeptics-who-changed-their-minds
The Week Magazine: With 2010 shaping up as the warmest year on record and unprecedented heat waves gripping the planet, global warming skeptics have suffered another blow with the defection of the "most high-profile" member of their camp, author Bjorn Lomborg. But Lomborg isn't the first doubter to accept the scientific consensus that human carbon emissions are warming the planet and need to be curtailed. Here, a review of several prominent cases: 1. Bjorn Lomborg, Danish academic Lomborg made ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Financing said vital for world climate change deal
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6803YP20100901?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
Reuters: A global fund to help poorer countries switch to green industrial technology is vital in any new international pact to battle global warming, Switzerland's top climate change negotiator said on Wednesday. The official, Franz Perrez, was speaking at a news conference on the eve of a two-day gathering of environmental ministers and experts from some 45 countries to discuss how to reach agreement on a funding deal. "An agreement on viable long-term financing is one of the very ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Feds fail to use land for solar power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100901/ap_on_bi_ge/us_solar_public_lands
AP: Not a light bulb's worth of solar electricity has been produced on the millions of acres of public desert set aside for it. Not one project to build glimmering solar farms has even broken ground. Instead, five years after federal land managers opened up stretches of the Southwest to developers, vast tracts still sit idle. An Associated Press examination of U.S. Bureau of Land Management records and interviews with agency officials shows that the BLM operated a first-come, ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Climate Change Implicated in Decline of Horseshoe Crabs
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/09/01/climate-change-implicated-in-decline-of-horseshoe-crabs.html
U.S. News and World Report: A distinct decline in horseshoe crab numbers has occurred that parallels climate change associated with the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study that used genomics to assess historical trends in population sizes. The new research also indicates that horseshoe crabs numbers may continue to decline in the future because of predicted climate change, said Tim King, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a lead author on the new study published in Molecular ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
India among 40 countries to attend Swiss climate change meet
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_india-among-40-countries-to-attend-swiss-climate-change-meet_1432168
Daily News & Analysis: Switzerland will host an informal summit of 40 countries, including India, on global warming on Friday to discuss modalities for a new Climate Fund that is expected to unblock the stalled negotiations on the issue. Since the Copenhagen Climate Change meeting in December last year, the ongoing negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) have made little progress on a range of issues, including the emission-reduction targets as well as financing for ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Adapt to climate change needs 'or face trade barriers'
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/adapt-to-climate-change-needs-or-face-trade-barriers/story-fn59niix-1225913015456
Australian: Climate change adviser Lord Stern said yesterday the two MPs were thinking seriously about the future of the planet as they weighed up their decision on whether to support Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott. The former World Bank chief economist this week met Mr Oakeshott and Mr Windsor, who will play a key role in helping either Labor or the Coalition form government, to brief them on climate change. However, the third rural independent, Bob Katter, dismissed Lord Stern as a quot;lightweightquot; ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Tazzari Zero electric car comes to the UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/01/tazzari-zero-electric-car
Guardian: Specialist electric vehicle retailer EVStores has announced it will begin selling the Tazzari Zero electric vehicle in the UK from later this month. The company said the Zero, a compact two-seat vehicle, purpose built for battery electric propulsion, will be available from its London showroom from 12 September. The Zero is powered by lithium-ion batteries that boast a range between charges of around 140km or about 87 miles. The car is also expected to reach an electronically ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
NH GOP Senate candidates debate on Iraq, climate
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HV6D500.htm
BusinessWeek: Republican U.S. Senate candidates largely agreed on major issues during a debate Tuesday, but they spared no opportunity to criticize nuanced differences in how they finance their campaigns. Former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, businessmen Bill Binnie and Jim Bender, attorney Ovide Lamontagne and former stockbroker Dennis Lamare participated in the debate at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge. The candidates all called for repealing what's left of federal stimulus funds, ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Lighting industry takes on mercury menace with recycling campaign
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269039/lighting-industry-takes-mercury
Business Green: The lighting industry has today launched a major campaign designed to accelerate the rollout of recycling infrastructure ahead of an anticipated glut of old energy-efficient light bulbs. Recolight, a not-for-profit organisation set up by the lighting industry, has teamed up with the Community Bulb Recycling Alliance (CoBRA) to launch a new recycling collection point designed to safely store Compact Florescent Lamps (CFLs) and other energy-efficient lights, many of which contain toxic ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
EPA rejects Texas approach to new plant emissions
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7180414.html?utm_source=feedburnerutm_medium=feedutm_campaign=Feed%3A+houstonchronicle%2Ftopheadlines+%28chron.com+-+Top+Stories%29
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: Federal environmental regulators took aim at Texas' rules for air pollution for the third time in five months Tuesday, saying some aspects violate the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rejected pieces of a program known as New Source Review, which dictates when industrial plants must implement additional pollution controls. Under federal guidelines, expanding industrial plants calculate their emissions to determine whether they need new pollution ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
75 months and counting
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/sep/01/75-months-counting-climate-change
Guardian: Twenty five months ago, working with my colleague, a climate scientist, Dr Victoria Johnson, and others, I decided to find out how long it would take before, on the best data available, we would begin to cross red lines where climatic instability and extremes were concerned. A quarter of that time has now passed. To minimise the danger of alarmism, but without hiding from the facts, we set our parameters to assume that humanity would be on the lucky end of the spectrum of ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
India backs embattled IPCC chief Pachauri
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100901/wl_sthasia_afp/unclimatewarmingipccindia
AFP: India's government said it remained fully supportive of IPCC chief Rajendra Pachauri after a damning UN-ordered review called for changes to the Nobel Prize-winning climate change body's leadership. quot;Pachauri has the full support of the government,quot; Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said late Tuesday after a report on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for major reforms in its functioning. The UN-ordered probe said a major overhaul was required of ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Overhaul of UN climate change body 'could lead to more mistakes'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7974052/Overhaul-of-UN-climate-change-body-could-lead-to-more-mistakes.html
Telegraph: In a damning report out earlier this week, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was criticised for making a number of errors about the potential impacts of global warming. The most notable mistake was wrongly predicting that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. The IPCC was also told to stick to the science rather than straying into the politics of climate change. The review, by the InterAcademy Council, called for quot;fundamental reform', including a more ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Greenies hail cross-party climate body
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/greenies-hail-crossparty-climate-body-20100901-14mpp.html
Sydney Morning Herald: Environmental groups have welcomed the formation of a cross-party climate change committee as part of a governance agreement struck between Labor and the Greens. Greens leader Bob Brown announced the deal on Wednesday, under which his party would ensure supply, and oppose any motion of no-confidence in a Labor government from other parties or MPs. Part of the deal is a climate change committee resourced as a cabinet committee, but there is no carbon price at this ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Calif. Lawmakers Reject Plastic Shopping Bag Ban
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129570458ft=1f=1025
National Public Radio: California lawmakers have rejected a bill seeking to ban plastic shopping bags after a contentious debate over whether the state was going too far in trying to regulate personal choice. The Democratic bill, which failed late Tuesday, would have been the first statewide ban, although a few California cities already prohibit their use. The measure offered California an opportunity to emerge at the forefront of a global trend, said Sen. Gil Cedillo, who carried the measure on the ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Gillard gets Greens on-board as post-election talks enter end game
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2268992/gillard-gest-greens-board-post
Business Green: Australia's Green Party today signed a deal formalising their support for Julia Gillard's Labor Party should the prime minister form the next government - in exchange for the creation of a dedicated climate change committee tasked with establishing a price on carbon. The deal gives Labor 73 seats in the 150 member lower house, bringing the party level with the Liberal-led coalition, but still three short of the majority required to form a government. Greens leader Bob Brown ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
UL acquires Terrachoice in green standard consolidation
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2268995/ul-acquires-terrachoice-green
Business Green: The messy world of environmental claims certification just got a little less messy with the acquisition by ULC Standards, a unit of Underwriters Laboratories (UL), of Ottawa-based TerraChoice, a green marketing consultancy and the managers of Canada's EcoLogo program. While the acquisition was conducted by ULC Standards, the move serves to bring TerraChoice together with UL Environment (ULE) in a partnership that will expand and enhance both groups' capacities and ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Australian Leader Wins Support From Greens
http://www10.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/world/asia/02australia.html?_r=5
New York Times: Prime Minister Julia Gillard scored the first victory in the contest to end Australia's parliamentary deadlock on Wednesday, winning a formal assurance from the Greens Party that it will support her bid for a further three-year term. Adam Bandt, the lone Greens legislator in the House of Representatives, agreed to support Ms. Gillard in exchange for a host of demands, including a renewed focus on climate change, a referendum on recognizing aboriginal Australians in the Constitution ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Climate scientists should not write their own software, says researcher
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2268997/climate-scientists-should-write
Business Green: A study by a computer scientist at the University of Toronto suggests that the computer models used to predict climate change may be undermined due to a lack of programming expertise. Steve Easterbrook, of the University's Department of Computer Science, has had his paper, Climate Change: A Grand Software Challenge, accepted by the 2010 FSE/SDP Workshop on the Future of Software Engineering Research. In the pape he suggests that, because many climate prediction software modelling ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Australian PM Julia Gillard signs pact with Greens
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/01/julia-gillard-australia-greens-deal
Guardian: Australia's caretaker prime minister, Julia Gillard, has signed a deal with the Greens that will ensure their support for Labor in the country's hung parliament. Two and a half weeks after the election, both Gillard's Labor and the conservative opposition are still three seats short of an overall majority, with four independent MPs yet to decide whom they will support. In return for the Greens' backing, Labor has agreed to a number of concessions on policies and parliamentary ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Democrats to revive climate bill during election season
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269004/democrats-revive-climate-bill
Business Green: Senate majority leader Harry Reid said yesterday that he will attempt to revive the stalled climate and energy bill ahead of November's mid-term elections and is looking to secure Republican support in order to add a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) to the controversial legislation. Speaking in a teleconference with reporters, Reid said he remained committed to salvaging energy legislation this year and was keen to beef up the version of the bill currently before the ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
India's Solar Mission prepares for liftoff
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269010/india-solar-mission-prepares
Business Green: The Indian government has this week confirmed that it will kick off its high-profile Solar Mission project next month, inviting bids for solar photovoltaic (PV) projects totalling 500MW of capacity. New and renewable energy minister Farooq Abdullah said the initial phase of the programme will see the government deliver 500MW of solar PV and 500MW of solar thermal power by 2013. It is hoped that the initial wave of projects will prove the viability of the technology and allow ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Press continue to hound Rajendra Pachauri despite his innocence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/sep/01/rajendra-pachauri-ipcc
Guardian: If ever you need evidence that a smear can keep spreading after it has been discredited, look no further. Last week I showed that the Sunday Telegraph's claims that Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has been quot;making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companiesquot;, profiting to the tune of quot;millions of dollarsquot;, were entirely false. A review by the auditors KPMG, of Pachauri's full financial records and the accounts of the ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Geneva talks aim to maintain climate finance momentum
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2269017/geneva-talks-aim-maintain
Business Green: Environment ministers from over 30 countries will meet in Geneva tomorrow at an informal two-day meeting designed to lay the ground work for a breakthrough climate financing agreement at the up-coming UN summit in Mexico. The meeting is expected to focus on both short term climate financing commitments, such as the pledge to provide $30bn of funding for developing countries over the next three years, and longer term financing mechanisms, such as the carbon and aviation levies being ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Poultry waste to power California egg farm
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-poultry-power-20100901,0,3816049.story
LA Times: An egg farm just south of Stockton is planning to use methane gas from more than 1 million pounds of poultry waste a week to help power its operations, reducing both its electricity bills and waste disposal costs. The Olivera Egg Ranch in French Camp will install a 1.4-megawatt fuel cell that will produce enough power to run the facility. The system may also help ease relations with neighbors who have sued over noxious ammonia emissions from Olivera's manure lagoons, which the farm ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Solar power traveling from Maine to Washington
http://www.kjonline.com/news/solar-power-traveling-from-maine-to-washington_2010-08-31.html
Kennebec Journal: That's the plan of environmental author and activist Bill McKibben, who said Tuesday that he and a group of Unity College students would travel with the panel as part of an effort to get President Barack Obama to put solar panels on the White House. McKibben was expected to take his announcement to a national audience during an appearance Tuesday night on quot;The Late Show with David Letterman.quot; The panels were installed on the White House roof in 1979, removed in 1986 during the ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Mass. court rejects challenge to Cape Wind permit
http://www.centredaily.com/2010/08/31/2180060/mass-court-rejects-challenge-to.html
AP: Developers of a proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm were cleared to move forward Tuesday when Massachusetts' high court rejected a claim that the project sidestepped local opposition to win a key permit. Cape Wind project, a 130-turbine proposal that would be the nation's first offshore wind farm, was given permission last year by a state board to build power transmission lines through state waters. The Supreme Judicial Court backed that decision in a 4-2 ruling. Cape Wind had ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Clean-coal group backs new carbon capture and storage project
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/08/31/clean-coal-group-backs-new-carbon-capture-storage-project/
Fox Business: A group of coal and power companies said Tuesday that it has decided to stick with a government-backed project to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant despite a significant change in plan. The FutureGen Alliance said that it would like to build and operate a pipeline and underground storage facility where carbon dioxide emissions from an Illinois coal-fired power plant would be shipped and stored. The group said it will need to find a location for the storage ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
State agency hears opposition to cap and trade petition
http://www.currentargus.com/ci_15956681
Current Argus: Words such as quot;utmost foolishness,quot; quot;an abomination,quot; quot;greed,quot; quot;stupidity,quot; quot;nonsensequot; and quot;grossly unfair,quot; were fired at representatives from the New Mexico Environment Department who were in Carlsbad Tuesday to gather comments on the department's cap and trade petition and cap-only petition. The quot;capquot; is a legal limit on the quantity of greenhouse gases that a region can emit each year and quot;tradequot; means that companies may swap among themselves the permission -- or permits -- to ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
ADB to issue bond to raise funds to finance clean energy projects in Asia
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/market_news/article.jsp?content=D9HUU1IO0
AP: The Asian Development Bank said Wednesday it plans to issue its first clean energy bond to raise funds for renewable energy projects in Asia. The development lender said it would match the amount raised by the bond, which is expected to be issued later this month and would target Japanese retail investors. The bond issuance will be arranged through HSBC Securities (Japan) Ltd. and will be sold throughout Japan by more than 20 securities companies. The bond will have four ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Drilling for shale gas unearths environmental risks, Ottawa warned
http://www.canadaeast.com/wellness/article/1198345
Canada East: The risks are outlined in briefing notes prepared last spring for Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis. The documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, focus on the potential of shale-gas development in Quebec. They also highlight the promise and perils of tapping the many large reserves found across Canada. quot;Canada has significant shale gas resources and industry is aggressively exploring and developing them,quot; the briefing ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Countries that spurn climate remedies face barriers on trade, Stern says
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-01/countries-that-spurn-climate-remedies-to-face-export-barriers-stern-says.html
Bloomberg: Countries that fail to adapt their economies to quot;cleanerquot; technologies are likely to lose export markets to those that do, said Nicholas Stern, former chief adviser on climate change to the U.K. government. quot;Ten or 15 years from now, those that produce in dirty ways are likely to face trade barriers,quot; Stern told an audience at Australia's National Press Club in Canberra today. Stern, who favors a market mechanism for the price of carbon, said innovations include addressing the ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
New talks aim for push on finance
http://news.malaysia.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4308593
MSN: Ministers from nearly four dozen countries meet in Geneva on Thursday and Friday, bidding for progress on climate finance, an issue that has bedevilled the quest to roll back global warming. The meeting will signal how far negotiations have progressed -- or not -- since the UN climate summit in Copenhagen last December, a near-fiasco overseen by more than 120 heads of state and government. In the nightmarish thicket of climate talks, finance is an issue that instils dread in ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Climate change to hit Africa
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2010/09/01/climate-change-to-hit-africa
Sowetan Live: With food security at risk worldwide, the unprecedented effects of climate change will result in a 20percent increase in malnourished children in Africa by 2050. This grim picture emerged at the Food Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (Farnpan) regional food security network in Windhoek, Namibia. The dialogue is being attended by 200 delegates ranging from policymakers and researchers to farmers seeking to address food security and minimise the effect of ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Environmental group says EU biofuel targets create land-grab in Africa
http://www.sofiaecho.com/2010/09/01/954286_environmental-group-says-eu-biofuel-targets-create-land-grab-in-africa
Sofia Echo: An international coalition of environmental groups says European demand for biofuels has driven local communities off their land in Africa and curbed the production of staple foods. In an effort to protect communal land in Africa,Friends of the Earth, an international network of environmental groups, is criticizing the European Union for driving land acquisition by foreign companies across sub-Saharan Africa. Report: Africa land for sale According to a report released by ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
The changing climate for environmental legislation
http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/08/31/the-changing-climate-for-environmental-legislation.html
News Week: The crashing demise of climate and energy legislation in the Senate last month spelled significant defeat for the environmental movement. Not even the most sympathetic Congress in decades, an ecofriendly advocate in the White House, and a debate fueled by a disaster in the gulf and rising energy prices could turn stormy gray clouds into rain. But with several weeks to reflect on what happened, and as Congress prepares to return from its summer recess, environmentalists are wondering: what ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Green machine: Perfecting the plant way to power
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19383-green-machine-perfecting-the-plant-way-to-power.html
New Scientist: Take sunlight, add water, and there you have it: free energy. Plants have been doing this for quite some time, splitting water's hydrogen apart from its oxygen, but our efforts to turn water into a source of free hydrogen fuel by mimicking them have borne no fruit. The problem is that splitting water takes more energy than conventional solar-cell technology can realistically deliver. But now we may be tantalisingly close to having economically viable sun-powered water splitters, and with it ...
Thu, 2 Sep 10
Environmentalists Push For Coal-ash Regulation
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52683
Inter Press Service: In what promises to be a contentious, high-profile series of debates, the forces of environmental protection will be lining up against those of the electric power industry over the future status of coal-ash. Environmentalists are urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today to regulate toxic ash from coal-fired power plants as a hazardous waste. Industry spokespeople are claiming that Federal enforcement of coal- ash disposal rules would mean classifying the waste as ...