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| Global ICT carbon emissions 'unsustainable' - Personal Computer World The global information and communications technology industry accounts for approximately two per cent of global CO2 emissions, new estimates reveal. Gartner stated that the figure, which is equivalent to that of the aviation industry, is "unsustainable". | 30th April 2007 |
Pacific whale decline 'a mystery' - BBC News ![[canaries]](../images/canary.gif) Grey whales along the Pacific coast of North America appear to be in distress, with not enough food available. [most read item] | 30th April 2007 |
| Climate summit opens in Bangkok - BBC News A major conference on what needs to be done to combat climate change opens in Thailand's capital, Bangkok. | 30th April 2007 |
| Coal? Yes, Coal - BusinessWeek Never mind global warming. Peabody Energy CEO Gregory Boyce is betting big on the dirty fuel's durability | 30th April 2007 |
| FACTBOX-Reports by the U.N. climate panel - AlertNet Source: Reuters April 30 (Reuters) - Top climate experts and government officials from around the globe began a five-day meeting in Bangkok on Monday to discuss a draft report on how to fight climate change and how ... | 30th April 2007 |
| Lean times ahead for grizzlies? - Helena Independent Record Climate change likely to affect diet of adaptable bears | 30th April 2007 |
| Oddball schemes to fix global warming get thumb's down - PhysOrg Unconventional schemes for tackling global warming by installing a giant sunshade in orbit, sowing the seas with iron and scattering sulphur into the upper atmosphere are set to be bluntly rejected by UN experts this week. | 30th April 2007 |
| Full IPCC AR4 report now available - RealClimate The complete WG1 IPCC 4th Assessment report (AR4) is now available online. It's missing the index and some supplemental data, but all should be available by May 7. | 30th April 2007 |
| Defra in storm over EU carbon scheme - FT The government department spearheading Britain's effort to reduce carbon output is driving companies and individuals towards paying under a European Union system for emissions cuts that do not take place. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also channelled more than half of �215m paid out under a pilot UK greenhouse gas trading scheme to just four companies which spent considerably less than they received on emissions cuts. | 30th April 2007 |
| Bush Administration 'cool' to European proposal on warming - WWF At a US-European Union summit on Monday 30 April, the is rejecting language committing it to keep global warming below the recognized "danger level" of 2 degrees Celsius. Recent efforts by German Chancellor and current EU Council President Angela Merkel to secure support were rebuffed despite intense diplomatic discussions. | 30th April 2007 |
| Earth's Climate Is Seesawing, According To Climate Researchers - Science Daily During the last 10,000 years climate has been seesawing between the North and South Atlantic Oceans. As revealed by findings presented by Quaternary scientists at Lund University, Sweden, cold periods in the north have corresponded to warmth in the south and vice verse. These results imply that Europe may face a slightly cooler future than predicted by IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. | 30th April 2007 |
| The real scandal at the World Bank - Johann Hari Wolfowitz's World Bank is killing thousands of the poorest people in the world, and knowingly worsening global warming. | 30th April 2007 |
| Germany to Become World's Most Energy-Efficient Country - Deutsche Welle The German Environment Ministry this week unveiled a set of highly ambitious proposals that would lead Germany to become the world's most energy-efficient country in the coming years. | 30th April 2007 |
| The heat is on for greenhouse gas methane BANGKOK (Reuters) - Across the globe, chickens and pigs are doing their bit to curb global warming. But cows and sheep still have some catching up to do. | 30th April 2007 |
| Solar loans light up rural India - BBC News Thousands of people in rural India have used an innovative loan scheme to install solar power units, the UN says. | 30th April 2007 |
| Biofuel push will ravage habitats, say Eurocrats - drive.com.au In March EU leaders agreed to set a binding climate change target to make biofuel - energy sources made from plant material - account for 10 per cent of all Europe's transport fuels by 2020. | 30th April 2007 |
| Germany struggling to save last glacier - Sydney Morning Herald Spreading giant anti-glare shields over the glacier each April after piling tonnes of loose snow upon it, workers at the Zugspitezebahn cable car operator are fighting a losing battle to keep their glacier alive - for business and ecological reasons. | 30th April 2007 |
UN facing a backlash on emissions action plan - Guardian Unlimited ![[essential]](../images/redDot.gif) The world's leading climate change experts will this week outline highly controversial plans to save the world from global warming. Their proposals - which include a major expansion in nuclear power, the use of GM crops to boost biofuel production, and reliance on unproven technologies, including the underground storage of carbon dioxide - will put the UN's climate group on a collision course with a host of environmental groups. [most read item] | 29th April 2007 |
| Gore calls green plan a 'fraud' - Toronto Star Tory proposal 'designed to mislead' Canadians, U.S. lobbyist says See also: Investors cheer, greens jeer Canada emissions plan | 29th April 2007 |
| Pope Benedict XVI Calls for Permanent World Wide Car Boycott - Indymedia Chiapas In a stunning display of unity the world's religious leaders have come together led by Pope Benedict XVI to call for a permanent world wide Car boycott. At yesterday's Vatican Conference on Climate Change Pope Benedict XVI addressed world religious leaders, politicians and scientists. "Imagine that the air is gray and filled with poison caused by cars burning oil, gasoline. Now imagine that your political leaders are oil executives. Is this not like putting the fox in charge of the hen house? Is this not the ultimate conflict of interest? The oil executive political leaders lured by the allmighty dollar are putting their own finacial interests above the right of every person on earth to breathe air free from deadly poison." [..hard to believe this one - wishful thinking surely?] | 29th April 2007 |
| Scorched - Guardian Unlimited As the conflict in Darfur spreads across central Africa, with thousands more displaced and killed, Julian Borger in Chad investigates the origins and contradictions of what is likely to be seen as the first climate change war. | 29th April 2007 |
| Americans say global warming is a problem A new poll says nearly half of all people in the United States view global warming as a serious problem. | 29th April 2007 |
| Carbon-neutral is hip, but is it green? - International Herald Tribune The rush to go on a carbon diet, even if by proxy, is in overdrive. Charles Komanoff, an energy economist in New York, said the commercial market in climate neutrality could have even more harmful effects. It could, by suggesting there's an easy way out, blunt public support for what will really be needed in the long run, he said: a binding limit on emissions or a tax on the fuels that generate greenhouse gases. "There isn't a single American household above the poverty line that couldn't cut their CO2 at least 25 percent in six months through a straightforward series of fairly simple and terrifically cost-effective measures." | 29th April 2007 |
| Grasshoppers give clues to global warming - Vail Daily News Preliminary results seem to show climate change is having an impact. At weather stations that show a degree or two of warming, grasshoppers, which use temperature as a cue to mature, are becoming adults nearly a month earlier than they were in the late 1950s. | 29th April 2007 |
| TABLE-Top 50 countries by greenhouse gas emissions - AlertNet Source: Reuters April 29 (Reuters) - Following is a ranking of the top 50 national emitters of greenhouse gases in 2000, showing huge gaps in the world picture of emissions in recent years. Countries ... | 29th April 2007 |
| Expectations lowered for stopping global-warming - Los Angeles Daily News As scientists' warnings about global warming heat up, climate negotiators are counting down toward make-or-break talks later this year, hoping for progress on a long-term deal to sharply reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Experts are beginning to fear, however, that as time runs down the best that can be hoped for may be an extension of the relatively weak Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012. The alternative is a world without any carbon-reduction rules at all. | 29th April 2007 |
| Leader: Climate change - Guardian Unlimited "I'm not a plastic bag" reads this week's must-have, a designer tote sold by the not-especially-designer Sainsbury's. All 20,000 were gone within hours, sold at a fiver each to shoppers keen to prove that they could consume as fervently as ever and yet be green too. The limits of such an approach was illustrated by reports that some of the bags were handed over in the conventional sunbed-orange carriers. Buying yet another product to demonstrate one's concern for the environment smacks of self-contradiction. The approach that many companies and consumers take, however, fits the same pattern by participating in various schemes to offset their carbon emissions.[most read item] See also: UN: we have the money and know-how to stop global warming - Guardian Unlimited | 28th April 2007 |
 Let's all go to the lobbyPerhaps fearing the coming crunch of climate and energy legislation, oil giant Exxon Mobile more than doubled their reported lobbying expenditures in 2006 to $14.5 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This blows their previous year's total of $7.14 million and next-highest-spender Chevron's $7.5 million out of the water. | 28th April 2007 |
| April weather set to break record - BBC News The UK Met Office figures indicate this month will be the warmest April in England since records began. | 28th April 2007 |
| Suzuki calls emissions strategy an embarrassment - CNews TORONTO (CP) - One of Canada's most respected environmentalists says the government's new plan to fight climate change is an embarrassment. David Suzuki says the federal strategy falls far short of expectations and proves the Conservatives are out of touch with Canadians. See also: Environment Minister Baird on the defensive one day after unveiling emissions plan | 28th April 2007 |
| EU green targets will damage rainforests - Daily Telegraph European union green fuel targets will accelerate the destruction of rainforests in South-East Asia and threaten the habitat of endangered species, such as the orang-utan. | 28th April 2007 |
| The lag between temperature and CO 2 . - Gore's got it right. - RealClimate "Doesn't the relationship between CO2 and temperature in the ice core record show that temperature drives CO2, not the other way round?" On the face of it, it sounds like a reasonable question. It is no surprise that it comes up because it is one of the most popular claims made by the global warming deniers. Of course, those who've been paying attention will recognize that Gore is not wrong at all... | 28th April 2007 |
| Croatia Ratifies Kyoto Protocol - AP via Yahoo! Finance | 28th April 2007 |
| Economists expect scant economic impact from climate plan - CNews OTTAWA (CP) - Consumers are unlikely to notice a significant rise in costs as a result of the climate plan announced this week, economists say. But they also doubt the plan will achieve the targets stated - stabilization of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 and a 20 per cent cut by 2020. | 28th April 2007 |
| World must act soon to slow warming from emissions, report says - International Herald Tribune New efforts will be needed worldwide to stem growth in greenhouse-gas emissions linked to rising temperatures, according to a summary of a report being prepared by scientists and economists. | 28th April 2007 |
| Americans see climate threat, but reluctant to conserve: poll - AFP via Yahoo! News A strong majority of people in the United States see global warming as an imminent danger but not all are ready to make big sacrifices to slow climate change, according to a new poll Friday. | 28th April 2007 |
| China May Penalize Polluters - Time Magazine China's premier pledged Friday to phase out tax breaks and discounts on land and electricity for highly polluting industries, saying that the country's environmental situation was grim | 28th April 2007 |
| The world on the edge - Financial Times If the world's leading climate scientists are correct, by the end of this century the earth will have warmed by about 3C. The scientists, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made it clear in February in a study that took six years to write that they were as certain as it is possible to be that global warming is occurring, and is owed in large part to human actions. | 28th April 2007 |
| PM to push forward with nuclear power - Sydney Morning Herald Australia: According to The Weekend Australian, Mr Howard will promote uranium exports and "climate-friendly" nuclear power as part of a political campaign to cast himself as forward-looking and Labor as being against progress and jobs. | 28th April 2007 |
| The Spreading Epidemic - Forbes We're destroying the web of nature. Can we knit it back together? | 28th April 2007 |
| Baird's 'real' emissions plan misses Kyoto deadline by years - CBC The federal government released Thursday the specifics of its much-anticipated emissions plan, which requires most industries in Canada to reduce greenhouse gases by 18 per cent by 2010. The new plan means Canada will be at least eight years behind meeting its requirements under the Kyoto Protocol. Canada will only reach Kyoto's emissions targets between 2020 and 2025, instead of 2012 as laid out in the international plan to curb climate change. | 27th April 2007 |
| Protect God's creation: Vatican issues green message - Guardian Unlimited The Vatican yesterday added its voice to a rising chorus of warnings from churches around the world that climate change and abuse of the environment is against God's will, and that the one billion-strong Catholic church must become far greener. | 27th April 2007 |
| Can Japan Make Bush Go Green? - Time Magazine On Tuesday, Japan and the U.S. signed a landmark pact that calls for cooperative development on clean coal technology and nuclear power, including Japanese help for the first new atomic power plant in the U.S. in 30 years. Japanese media are also reporting that Abe and President George W. Bush will set a goal to cut half the world's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Tokyo hasn't confirmed the report, but Japanese officials have made it clear that the Abe intends to go green in Washington. "The Prime Minister is deeply interested in climate change," says a senior Japanese foreign ministry official. "As we finish the first phase of the Kyoto [Protocol], the world will have to grapple with climate change in one way or the other." | 27th April 2007 |
| High temperatures, and even higher anxiety, in Europe - International Herald Tribune While few Europeans are complaining about the balmy weather this season, there already are fears that droughts and electricity shortages are just around the corner. "Everywhere looks nice," she said. But "in the back of my mind there is a feeling that it's just not right." [most read item] | 27th April 2007 |
| Ocean gobbles carbon at different rates - New Scientist Automated explorers tracking plankton fall-rate in the ocean's 'twighlight zone' reveal surprise differences with implications for long-term carbon capture | 27th April 2007 |
| Volcanic eruptions, ancient global warming linked - EurekAlert! CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A team of scientists announced today confirmation of a link between massive volcanic eruptions along the east coast of Greenland and in the western British Isles about 55 million years ago and a period of global warming that raised sea surface temperatures by five degrees (Celsius) in the tropics and more than six degrees in the Arctic. | 27th April 2007 |
| Avoiding Self-Organized Extinction: Toward a Co-Evolutionary Economics of Sustainability - RedNova By Gowdy, John Key words: Biodiversity, climate change, co-evolution, collapse, generalized Darwinism, Walrasian economics, well-being, world systems analysis SUMMARY The critical problems that scientists warned about decades ago are now upon us. | 26th April 2007 |
| CO2 needs a price but taxes are the best way to set it - Financial Times The Kyoto protocol to fight climate change expires in 2012. The shape of a successor treaty is still in doubt, but one aspect seems certain: carbon trading will play a major role. A Financial Times investigation today reveals that carbon markets leave much room for unverifiable manipulation. Taxes are better, partly because they are less vulnerable to such improprieties. | 26th April 2007 |
| Leading article, Science: The seeds of a great idea All life depends on plants. This is a truism, but it is one that most of us have forgotten. In modern society we have all become so insulated from the natural world that we now make no connection whatsoever, as we tear open the plastic packaging of a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for a rushed lunch, between the edible contents and the plant universe that is pollination and germination, photosynthesis and flowering. [most read item] | 26th April 2007 |
| INTERVIEW-Means exist to cut emissions, but is there the will? - AlertNet The tools exist to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to meet aggressive global warming caps, but it may take more catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina to forge the political will, a top U.N. expert said. "We have a fair degree of confidence that the technologies exist. The question is: How much cost are we willing to bear?" Mohan Munasinghe, vice-chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said in an interview on Thursday. "The push for greater mitigation will come through catastrophes and other extreme events," he said. | 26th April 2007 |
| Ice shrinks, birds migrate early in warmer Arctic - AlertNet A Norwegian glacier has shrunk on an island 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, a usually frozen fjord is ice-free and snow bunting birds have migrated back early in possible signs of global warming. | 26th April 2007 |
| It's springtime for snifflers - New York Daily News Spring is barely in swing but New York doctors are already getting calls from allergy sufferers miserable from trees pollinating after a short, mild winter. | 26th April 2007 |
| UK vineyards helped by global warming - Sydney Morning Herald English wines, once the butt of mocking jokes by connoisseurs, enjoyed their best harvest for a decade as global warming created ideal conditions for grapes. | 26th April 2007 |
Wave farm passes funding hurdle - BBC News ![[hopeful]](../images/greenDot.gif) | 26th April 2007 |
| Australia: 90% say climate change top issue - Courier Mail | 26th April 2007 |
| Huge 'Green' Boondoggle? - TheTyee.ca "It's a complete scam," says Dogwood Initiative executive director Will Horter. "If the purpose of the power line is to get these people off diesel, there's way better alternatives." "If the purpose is to pretend that you're doing something green while you're basically building a power line that opens the whole northern province up to oil and gas and mining and coal development and you can get away with that, then fine." | 26th April 2007 |
| Dutch consider tough biofuels criteria - Boston Globe It's the new climate change dilemma: finding alternatives for oil and gas without doing more harm than good. See also: Land needed for fuel and food | 26th April 2007 |
| Blown chances - Toronto Star Obsessed with blaming Liberals, the Conservatives, and John Baird, have lost a golden opportunity to put national interest ahead of partisan advantage. | 26th April 2007 |
| Boffin warns of bacteria's affect on global warming - Portsmouth News A VAST stockpile of unreleased carbon dioxide in the oceans could speed up global warming, a Portsmouth scientist has warned. Dr Michelle Hale is coming to the end of a five-year study of how microscopic bacteria release massive stores of carbon dioxide from the ocean into the atmosphere. | 26th April 2007 |
| India's energy dilemma: Coal-powered growth vs climatic disaster - Monsters and Critics.com New Delhi - With its economy on the fast track, India is increasingly turning to coal to fuel its tremendous growth in the coming decades - but the government is doing so at its own peril, warn the growing chorus of climatic experts. | 26th April 2007 |
| Eyes in the sky grow dim - BBC Budget cuts mean Nasa's capacity to monitor our planet is greatly diminishing, a major report has concluded. | 26th April 2007 |
| Satellites Play Vital Role In Understanding The Carbon Cycle - Science Daily The global carbon cycle plays a vital role in climate change and is of intense importance to policy makers, but significant knowledge gaps remain in our understanding of it. | 26th April 2007 |
| Schwarzenegger warns of Calif. suit against EPA LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday threatened to sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it fails to act soon on a state bid to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions from cars. | 26th April 2007 |
| First Successful Demonstration of Carbon Dioxide Air Capture Technology Achieved - PhysOrg Global Research Technologies, LLC (GRT), a technology research and development company, and Klaus Lackner from Columbia University have achieved the successful demonstration of a bold new technology to capture carbon from the air. The "air extraction" prototype has successfully demonstrated that indeed carbon dioxide (CO2 ) can be captured from the atmosphere. [... is this the latest new-yet-never-to-be-perfected technology whose promise will keep our fingers from the 'off' switch?] | 26th April 2007 |
| Feds plan to cut greenhouse gases by 2020 - CNews Canada's Conservative government said Wednesday it will cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and ban inefficient incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 as part of a national environmental initiative. | 26th April 2007 |
| '08 hopefuls tout climate-change plans - The Christian Science Monitor Polls show that most Americans think global warming is a serious problem, and candidates are being pressured on their positions by interest groups. | 26th April 2007 |
| Nepal scientists decry 'frozen' glacier flood measures - SciDev.net Climate scientists in Nepal have warned that poor coordination of research and an inactive early warning system are putting Nepal's people at risk of flooding caused by melting glaciers. | 26th April 2007 |
| Opposition 'flicking' mad over green campaign - Toronto Star A campaign against climate change - launched Wednesday by Environment Minister Laurel Broten and billionaire Richard Branson - encourages youth to "FLICK OFF." | 26th April 2007 |
 Toles again | |
| Our world is finite: Is this a problem? - Energy Bulletin We all know the world is finite. The number of atoms is finite, and these atoms combine to form a finite number of molecules. The mix of molecules may change over time, but in total, the number of molecules is also finite. We also know that growth is central to our way of life. Businesses are expected to grow. Every day new businesses are formed and new products are developed. The world population is also growing, so all this adds up to a huge utilization of resources. At some point, growth in resource utilization must collide with the fact that the world is finite. We have grown up thinking that the world is so large that limits will never be an issue. But now, we are starting to bump up against limits. | 25th April 2007 |
| Fossil Arctic animal tracks point to climate risks - Scientific American Fossils of a hippopotamus-like creature on an Arctic island show the climate was once like that of Florida, giving clues to risks from modern global warming, a scientist said. "It's a worrying scenario for future global warming." [most read item] | 25th April 2007 |
| Democrats want swifter EPA action on emissions standards - Los Angeles Times Senators criticize the agency's leader, saying he lacks a sense of urgency in confronting global warming. WASHINGTON - The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency came under fire Tuesday from congressional Democrats, who said he had failed to respond more aggressively to the Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gas emissions could be federally regulated. | 25th April 2007 |
| A serious blow - Guardian Unlimited Plans for England's first truly community-owned wind farm are under threat as commercial developers muscle in on renewables. | 25th April 2007 |
| Germany Also Faces Extreme Weather Due to Global Warming - Deutsche Welle German meteorologists say that the country must start preparing for extreme weather that could cause numerous deaths due to global warming. Germany has already heated up by 0.9 degrees Celsius in the past century. | 25th April 2007 |
| Wolfowitz deputy under fire over climate - FT One of Paul Wolfowitz's two handpicked deputies, Juan José Daboub, tried to water down references to climate change in one of the World Bank's main environmental strategy papers, the bank's chief scientist has told the Financial Times. | 25th April 2007 |
| Hurricane Spin - RealClimate While increases in wind shear could offset the impact of tropical temperatures in some - maybe even the majority - of storm seasons, one might worry about what happens during those seasons where there is anomalously low shear (e.g., a very strong La Niña event). The warm ocean will still be sitting there, waiting to produce tropical cyclones and Hurricanes--and the prospects for destructive Hurricane activity during those seasons could be especially grim. | 25th April 2007 |
| Move to block emissions 'swindle' DVD - Guardian Unlimited Climate scientists say film misleads public · Wag TV producers reject 'contemptible gag attempt' | 25th April 2007 |
| China to overtake US as polluter - Guardian Unlimited Tipping point for CO2 previously predicted 2010, now this November. | 25th April 2007 |
| Today's Article on Christian Science: God's will: life, not extinction - The Christian Science Monitor The reports on global warming call for prayer to preserve and protect the Earth. | 25th April 2007 |
| EU and US in climate change dispute - Financial Times The European Union and the US are locked in a dispute over climate change, days before a showpiece summit intended to display co-operation between the two. Diplomats say US and European officials have yet to agree the wording for a declaration on energy security and climate change intended to accompany the Washington summit next Monday. One official said 50 per cent of the declaration still had not been agreed. | 25th April 2007 |
| More Swedes would lower living standard to help climate: poll - AFP via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News | 25th April 2007 |
| Greenwashing Fears Raised by Berkeley-BP Initiative - The NewStandard | 25th April 2007 |
Summer in April! German farmers pray for rain - IANS via Yahoo! India News ![[food]](../images/food.gif) With cherry trees and fields of rapeseed in full bloom and the ground dry and dusty, farmers in Germany are worrying about their crop. Midsummer has turned up in mid-April and it's taking its toll on farmers. Because of the hot weather in Germany, more and more farmers are resorting to southern European plants because these can endure hot temperatures and need less water. | 24th April 2007 |
| An island made by global warming - The Independent The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming. [most read item] | 24th April 2007 |
| Higher temperatures slow tropical tree growth - Mongabay.com Climate change may be reducing growth rates of tropical rainforest trees, a development that could have widespread impacts for biodiversity, forest productivity, and even climate change itself, according to new research published in Ecology Letters. | 24th April 2007 |
| Deep sea fish growing slower due to global warming - Mongabay.com Changes in ocean temperature have altered the growth rates of commercially harvested fish over the past century, according to a new study published in this week's early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). | 24th April 2007 |
| Arctic ice nears record low - USA Today Scientists report that the 2007 minimum extent of sea ice across the Arctic could set an all-time record low due to global warming. Based on current data, researchers at the University of Colorado say there's a 33% chance this will happen. See also: Summer arctic sea-ice gone by 2040? | 24th April 2007 |
| Climate change gives rise to weather hedge - Financial Times The first Global Warming index is to be launched this week by UBS, allowing businesses most affected by the uncertainty of climate change - from ice-cream salesmen to makers of winter coats - to hedge their profits against it in a simple and transparent fashion. | 24th April 2007 |
| Mccain: Address Energy Security, Warming - Guardian Unlimited Republican presidential contender John McCain on Monday warned about U.S. reliance on foreign oil and the threat of global warming, dismissing even some in his own party who suggest climate change is a Hollywood-driven notion. The way people in this country use oil is "a serious threat to our security, our economy and the well-being of our planet," the Arizona senator said in a speech. | 24th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Target Global Warming, Target Exxon There's still serious denial about the need to take immediate action on climate change. And to dismantle the architecture of this denial means taking on the key role of ExxonMobil. | 24th April 2007 |
| Easter freeze damaged state's grape, pecan crops - The Brownsville Herald Farmers still recovering from the devastating drought conditions of 2006 are now sizing up their losses from the latest weather calamity to hit Texas: freezing temperatures. | 24th April 2007 |
| EU leader: Bush climate stance flawed - BusinessWeek The Bush administration's policy on climate change is unrealistic because it doesn't do enough to encourage industry to adopt technology that can fight global warming, the European Union's ambassador to the United States said Monday. | 24th April 2007 |
| U.S. Adults Less Likely Than Europeans to Think Humans Are Contributing to the Increase in Global Temperatures | 24th April 2007 |
| EU carbon prices at 4-month highs - Budapest Business Journal | 24th April 2007 |
| Kyoto protocol targets won't be part of Tories' clean air legislation - Canada.com | 24th April 2007 |
| Australian Greens seek 30pc emissions cut - Adelaide Now | 24th April 2007 |
| Mutual fund investors urged to put heat on mutual fund companies to vote responsibly on global warming resolutions | 24th April 2007 |
| China admits climate change dangers - Times Online | 24th April 2007 |
| Carbon Gas Is Explored as a Source of Ethanol - New York Times | 24th April 2007 |
| China flags hard line on climate - The Age THE push for a global consensus on reducing greenhouse gases has been dealt a potentially serious blow, with a major report by the Chinese Government declaring that economic growth must take priority over cuts in emissions. Despite dire warnings about the effects on China of a warming planet, Beijing's first official report on climate change flatly rejects international pressure to impose emission limits on its factories and coal-generated power plants as unfair and economically perilous. See also: China's first climate change steps too small - AlertNet [pretty grim unless the WTO can circumvented and economic pressure be brought to bear in the form of extra duties or tariffs on imports] | 23rd April 2007 |
| The wrong question - GristMill Is climate change the most important global problem we face? | 23rd April 2007 |
| Mark Lynas: Six steps to hell - Guardian Unlimited Will human beings survive if the world is six degrees hotter at the end of the century? Mark Lynas finds out. [most read item] | 23rd April 2007 |
| Thousands of Quebecers march to pressure Tories to honour Kyoto - Canada.com MONTREAL (CP) - Thousands of people marched through the streets Montreal on Sunday in support of the Kyoto environmental agreement. Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe was among the protesters demanding Ottawa cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Kyoto protocol. See also: Copps: PM needs to stop being scared of Kyoto and Canadians ready for a carbon tax: David Suzuki | 23rd April 2007 |
| London holds the answers for NY - Guardian Unlimited New York mayor unveils plans to introduce congestion charge. | 23rd April 2007 |
| Tanzanian coffee farmers go green - BBC News A bio-gas converter that creates gas out of waste water is changing the lives of Tanzanian coffee farmers. | 23rd April 2007 |
| Climate-change law unit formed - Herald News In what could be viewed as a sign of the times, one of New Jersey's leading law firms is seeking to cash in on the growing concern about the environment by creating a unit to focus on climate-change issues. | 23rd April 2007 |
| Karl Rove Gets Thrown Under the Stop Global Warming Bus - Huffington Post "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." | 23rd April 2007 |
| UK must lead on climate - Blair - BBC News | 23rd April 2007 |
| Londoners 'must walk more' - BBC News | 23rd April 2007 |
| Global warming imperils Himalayan glaciers - Reuters | 23rd April 2007 |
| 'We've got to get on with it': 101 ways you can help save Earth - Vancouver Province | 23rd April 2007 |
| Illinois To Plant 2 Million Trees - WHBF-TV Quad Cities | 23rd April 2007 |
| A US Carbon Market Could Learn From Europe - IETA - Planet Ark | 23rd April 2007 |
| Norway Faces Tough Road to Zero Emissions in 2050 - Planet Ark | 23rd April 2007 |
| Astronauts recall view before Earth Day "It was the only color we could see in the universe. ... "We're living on a tiny little dust mote in left field on a rather insignificant galaxy. And basically this is it for humans. It strikes me that it's a shame that we're squabbling over oil and borders." [most read item] | 22nd April 2007 |
| There's only one movement now - Energy Bulletin In honor of International Women's Day, the IUCN has released an extensive report detailing exactly how awful climate change is going to be for women. How bad will it be? Really, really bad. That is, women are going to disproportionately endure the consequences of climate change - the hunger, the drought, the diseases, the economic burden, the poverty, because women make up a majority of the world's poor. And, of course, women are disproportionately under-represented among those people who make climate policy decisions, and poor women even more than rich ones. | 22nd April 2007 |
| Happiness Is a Smaller Eco-Footprint - IPS Today's children will live in a new world of climate change and greatly diminished natural resources, which may give way to a nightmarish reality, or it could give birth to a happier and lighter way of living on the Earth, say environmentalists. | 22nd April 2007 |
| The 'Canaries' Under The Sound - Hartford Courant Microscopic shells shed by single-celled creatures lie deep within the estuary's sediment, and researchers believe they have a lot to tell us about climate change. Foraminifera: Elphidium excavatum ousted by Ammonia beccarii. Causes: A warming Ocean and excess nitrogen. Effects: Dramatic changes to the marine food chain. | 22nd April 2007 |
| Scientists Forecast 1 In 3 Chance Of Record Low Sea Ice In 2007 - Science Daily University of Colorado at Boulder researchers are forecasting a one in three chance that the 2007 minimum extent of sea ice across the Arctic region will set an all-time record low. | 22nd April 2007 |
| Town seeks carbon neutral future - BBC News A town launches an ambitious attempt to become Scotland's first entirely carbon-neutral community. | 22nd April 2007 |
| China says global warming threatens development - AlertNet Global warming could devastate China's development, the nation's first official survey of climate change warns, while insisting economic growth must come before greenhouse gas cuts. | 22nd April 2007 |
| International Divisions Surface Over Nuclear Energy - Infoshop News Several governments are planning new investment in nuclear energy, ignoring opposition by environmental scientists who say that nuclear power is not a solution to providing carbon- free energy. | 22nd April 2007 |
| Ocean Cooling. Not. - RealClimate A lot has been made of a paper (Lyman et al, 2006) that appeared last year that claimed that the oceans had, contrary to expectation, cooled over the period 2003-2005. At the time, we (correctly) pointed out that this result was going to be hard to reconcile with continued increases in sea level rise (driven in large part by thermal expansion effects), and that there may still be issues with way that the new ARGO floats were being incorporated into the ocean measurement network. Now it seems as if there is a problem in the data and in the latest analysis, the cooling has disappeared. | 22nd April 2007 |
| American ruling could put gas guzzlers off the road - Times Online The threat of national limits on carbon dioxide emissions could kill off big macho vehicles like the Hummer and the Corvette, writes Ray Hutton | 22nd April 2007 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below | |
| EnviroHealth: Climate Change: Why We Can't Wait Jim Hansen gives us the five necessary steps we need to take to prevent catastrophic climate change. [most read item] | 21st April 2007 |
| An end-game scenario, supply-side policy, and defining our goal: The solution statement - GristMill A supply-side response -- imposing a cap on extractions in 2015 with 10 percent reductions at 5 year intervals until emissions are stabilized at pre-industrial levels, as shown in the accompanying chart, for example -- is the ideal climate policy. | 21st April 2007 |
| Climate action can be achieved at reasonable cost, says UN report - CNews OTTAWA (CP) - A draft UN report says it's possible to cut global greenhouse emissions in half by 2030 and stave off dangerous climate change at a cost of less than $50 a tonne. | 21st April 2007 |
| MALAWI: Small farmers hit by changes in the climate - AlertNet Source: IRIN JOHANNESBURG, 20 April 2007 (IRIN) - Small-scale farmers in Malawi are becoming aware that they are bearing the brunt of climate change, which has been adversely affecting productivity, according to a new study by an international aid agency. | 21st April 2007 |
| John Patterson examines the propaganda war waged against several campaigning films - Guardian Unlimited When film-makers take on huge corporations it is rarely a fair fight. John Patterson examines the propaganda war waged against several campaigning films, and their makers. | 21st April 2007 |
| China confronts costs and causes as rivers run dry - The Age Mr Chen has heard of global warming, but he doesn't know whether that - or the gigantic dam - is to blame for the drought and rising temperatures. What he does know is that every year Chongqing, long dubbed one of China's three "furnaces" for its searing summers, is getting warmer. | 21st April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Changing the Social Climate How global warming affects economic justice, the future of the progressive movement and whether your child walks to school. | 21st April 2007 |
| Gangloff Refutes Time Magazine's Tree Facts - American Forests Twice in your global warming issue (April, "Things You Can Do" and "What Now?" you maintain that planting trees in temperate zones could cause global warming. That is an unfortunate misinterpretation of the science. | 21st April 2007 |
| Be My Neighbor - New York Times Book review: Bill McKibben hopes for a localized, communitarian, small-scale world. | 21st April 2007 |
| Will Lemmings Fall Off Climate Change Cliff? - Science Daily | 21st April 2007 |
| High-altitude jet will track Asian dust plumes - New Scientist | 21st April 2007 |
| Annan: Climate Change Threat To Humanity - CBS News | 21st April 2007 |
| More States Joining Emissions Agreement - The Boston Channel | 21st April 2007 |
| Narwhals Aid in Study of Climate Change - RedNova | 21st April 2007 |
| Leading Article: A global warning from the dust bowl of Australia - Independent Australia is in the midst of a crippling drought, the country's worst on record. Many towns and cities have been forced to enact drastic water restrictions as reservoirs have run dry. Rivers have been reduced to a trickle. The drought has severely damaged the agricultural sector. Farmers are raising emaciated cattle and sheep. Cotton-lint production has plummeted. Wine grape and rice output has collapsed. Agricultural production has fallen by almost one-quarter in a year. And it is estimated that the drought has knocked three-quarters to 1 per cent off the country's growth as a whole. See also: Australian drought threatens crop catastrophe - Guardian Unlimited [most read item] | 20th April 2007 |
| Climate threat has plants quivering - BBC News A 2C (3.6F) increase in temperature may be too much for many plants species to survive, scientists warn. | 20th April 2007 |
| Expect another warm Arctic summer - Nunatsiaq News March was cold in the Arctic, but temperatures from elsewhere in the world show 2007 is on its way to becoming the hottest year in recorded history. See also: Warmer weather destroying Arctic treasures | 20th April 2007 |
| Global warming swells federal insurance risk to more than $900 billion - Canton Repository The insurer of last resort, the government faces a potential payout of at least $919 billion under a worst-case scenario of flood and crop losses due to global warming, congressional investigators say. | 20th April 2007 |
| Early sighting of basking shark - BBC News A basking shark is spotted cruising through Irish waters - two months earlier than usual. According to Dr Savidge, the sighting of the shark is extremely unusual for this time of year as there are only a few sightings in the lough each year and these are usually in the high summer months of July and August. However, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of sightings of the coast off the British Isles which is believed to be partially due to climate change as the sharks follow plankton from warmer seas. | 20th April 2007 |
| Global warming blamed for lack of icebergs - StarPhoenix Plenty of icebergs have been produced in Greenland in the last decade, but warming seas are melting them before they get to Canada, according to marine geologist Chris Woodworth-Lynas. | 20th April 2007 |
| Forest fire alert due to warm, dry weather - NZZ The Swiss environment office has put the country on alert, warning of a high risk of forest fires due to the lack of rain and unseasonably warm weather. | 20th April 2007 |
| Hop farm brother plants vineyard - BBC News Warmer weather in the South East has prompted a man to return to his family farm to plant a vineyard. | 20th April 2007 |
| Growing Number of Americans See Warming as Leading Threat - Washington Post A third of Americans say global warming ranks as the world's single largest environmental problem, double the number who gave it top ranking last year, a nationwide poll shows. | 20th April 2007 |
| Norway aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 - USA Today Norway wants to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 in the world's toughest national plan for fighting global warming, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. | 20th April 2007 |
| Indonesia minister proposes new-car ban - AFP via Yahoo! News Indonesia's environment minister defended Thursday his proposal to ban sales of new cars in a bid to slash pollution levels, amid concern from local automakers. | 20th April 2007 |
| Failure to act on environment a crime against future generations: Suzuki - CNews MONTREAL (CP) - Political and business leaders who fail to act on climate change are committing a crime against future generations and the courts may be the way to force them to change, says David Suzuki. | 20th April 2007 |
| 'A small price to pay' for cap on greenhouse gas - The Age A cap on greenhouse gas emissions would cut national growth and on average cost Australia about $5 billion a year every year until 2030, research shows. | 20th April 2007 |
| Pig fat to be turned in to diesel - BBC News US oil firm ConocoPhillips, and Tyson Foods say they will produce diesel from animal fat to cut emissions. | 20th April 2007 |
| This Earth Day, a focus on Earth's warming - The Christian Science Monitor Public awareness about climate change is growing; 83 percent of Americans now call it a 'serious' problem. | 20th April 2007 |
| Global warming a gender bender for lizards - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Scientists in Canberra have evidence to suggest more species of reptiles could be threatened by global warming than first thought. | 20th April 2007 |
| Will China's poverty reduction kill the planet? - Salon.com Number of extreme poor: Down, down, down. Number of coal-fired power plants: Up, up, up. | 20th April 2007 |
| EcoWellness: Climate change and health - UPI Climate change may have already set in motion serious and drastic impacts to public health, a trend that requires swift reactions from governments to adapt, experts said Wednesday. | 20th April 2007 |
| Climate change: Why we don't believe it - The New Statesman What does Britain really think about global warming? We reveal an unreported gulf between the pronouncements of campaigners and politicians and British public opinion | 19th April 2007 |
| The chasm between our agenda and climate science: The problem statement A review of recent climate science findings finds that Jim Hansen's bright-line standard and timeframe for global action [1.0 C limit on further increase in global temperature / 475 ppm cap on atmospheric carbon with <10 years for global action] is, if anything, not conservative enough. A rash of recent reports identify major climate forcings wholly unaccounted for in IPCC models -- such as a five-fold increase in methane releases from Siberian peat bogs -- that support the view of rapid, discontinuous climate change predicted by Hansen. Energy market projections show that current climate policies will barely dent the ramp-up of fossil fuel use and emissions. [most read item] | 19th April 2007 |
| Drought in Australia by Matt Taylor - BBC News Australia's worst drought on record got tougher on Thursday when the prime minister announced there won't be enough water to allow irrigation along the country's largest river system, unless there's significant rainfall over the next month. | 19th April 2007 |
| World needs to axe greenhouse gases by 80pct: report OSLO (Reuters) - The world will have to axe greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, more deeply than planned, to have an even chance of curbing global warming in line with European Union goals, researchers said on Thursday. | 19th April 2007 |
| YEMEN-HORN OF AFRICA: Government combats wheat killer disease - AlertNet Source: IRIN SANAA, 18 April 2007 (IRIN) - Yemen's government has launched a campaign to combat a virulent and potentially devastating wheat disease after the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently warned of its spread to the Arabian Peninsular from east Africa. | 19th April 2007 |
| China creates first artificial snow in Tibet BEIJING (Reuters) - China has created artificial snow for the first time in Tibet, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday, months after experts warned of melting glaciers and drought in the Himalayan region. See also: Artificial snow harms Alpine water system [different kind of artificial] | 19th April 2007 |
| INTERVIEW-No U.S. emissions curbs without China,India - envoy - AlertNet The United States will not join an international regime curbing emissions blamed for global warming until it also applied to China and India, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union said on Wednesday. See also: China about to become biggest carbon emitter | 19th April 2007 |
| Climate reporting 'too balanced' say scientists - SciDev.net [MELBOURNE] Airing the views of climate change sceptics in the media only serves to keep controversy boiling, scientists have told the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia. | 19th April 2007 |
| Boxer: Time for Bush to act on climate change - San Francisco Chronicle Sen. Barbara Boxer promised to pressure the Bush administration to adopt California-style global warming regulations, telling reporters today the Supreme Court "handed us a gift" with its recent landmark decision authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce greenhouse gasses as a pollutant. | 19th April 2007 |
| Canada Mulls Diluting Emissions Targets - Document - Planet Ark OTTAWA - As recently as last week Canadian officials mulled whether to weaken the government's commitment to cut emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, according to a leaked document. | 19th April 2007 |
| Inside IT: Think global, calculate local - Guardian Unlimited Calculating the outcomes of climate change requires a choice between regional and local models, says James Bloom. | 19th April 2007 |
| SAE panel: Many hurdles to alternative fuels - Detroit Free Press A strong movement is forming to help wean U.S. consumers off gasoline, but key challenges must be overcome for alternatives to work, a panel of experts said Wednesday at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in downtown Detroit. | 19th April 2007 |
| Singing the desalination global warming paradox blues - Salon.com Climate change could make California desperately thirsty for desalted water. But powering up the desalination plants could cause more global warming | 19th April 2007 |
| The world is dying and we're all dormant idiots - Talon Marks - subscription If the world's most powerful leaders smoked marijuana at least twice a week then the global warming problem would be well on its way to a solution. It may sound like a joke or even asinine, but it's not nearly as ridiculous as uptight, old white men continually putting money over the future of this planet. How much money do you need in an ice age? What, are the wooly mammoths going on sale? Maybe you are tired of hearing about global warming. Maybe you think it's idealistic to try and stop something that won't even immediately affect you. Maybe you're an idiot. Or maybe we just need to stop thinking in terms of maybes and start acting. The reports are out and it's clear the governments of the world are clearly lagging to save mother earth. | 19th April 2007 |
| Biologist explains changes to Alaska fisheries due to warming sea ... - Kodiak Daily Mirror As the Bering Sea warms, what Kodiak fishermen catch in the next 30 years may be different than anything in the past. | 19th April 2007 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below | |
| Jonathan Freedland: Global warming is a security threat to us all - Guardian Unlimited The debate on climate change at the UN top table is a sign that the big powers are at last beginning to see sense. See also: Beckett feels the heat after debate on climate. | 18th April 2007 |
| Lindzen in Newsweek - RealClimate Lindzen's piece is not a serious discussion. Instead, it is a series of strawman arguments, red-herrings and out and out errors. | 18th April 2007 |
| 'Spring is new summer' - report - BBC News Hawthorns blossoming and swifts returning mean summer has come early thanks to climate change, says a report. | 18th April 2007 |
| Bangladesh: A nation in fear of drowning The once lush island of Aralia is disappearing under rising waters as flooding becomes more frequent, temperatures increase and disease kills four people a month. Shamola Begum will never forget the way her son cried in the last days of his life. Nine-year-old Masuk had always been a sickly child, but before he died he'd pleaded: "Mother, I need food." But Shamola often only had a little rice to feed him; nothing more. | 18th April 2007 |
| 'Fewer leaves' behind frog demise A decline in leaf-litter in forests, not a fungal infection, could be behind the demise of frogs, a study suggests. Scientists, from Florida International University, the University of Costa Rica and San Diego State University, suggested shifts in the area's climate had led to a decline in the habitat needed to sustain the creatures. | 18th April 2007 |
| Ethanol cars may not be healthier - BBC News Ethanol vehicles may have worse effects on human health than conventional fuels, warn US scientists. | 18th April 2007 |
 Consumption made beautiful - New ScientistA picture paints a thousand word: Chris Jordan has taken the ugly truth of our planet-destroying over-consumption and produced beautiful, simple images. [most read item] | 18th April 2007 |
| 'Climate Justice' Demanded in Washington - OneWorld Dubbing the battle against climate change a moral test for the United States, global anti-poverty and religious leaders called on U.S. politicians Monday to take drastic and immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to minimize the country's contributions to global warming. | 18th April 2007 |
| Commentary: Society, not science, must solve global warming - Albuquerque Tribune Al Bartlett, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, calls it "Disney's First Law": Wishing will make it so. It's a particularly appropriate idea for Sunday, Earth Day 2007, as we confront the increasingly stark realities of global warming. | 18th April 2007 |
| Tory climate-change plan not good enough, say environmentalists - CNews Canada: A draft climate plan being considered by the federal government would weaken the long-term goal for cutting greenhouse emissions from what was announced by former environment minister Rona Ambrose last October. | 18th April 2007 |
| French plan green postal service - BBC News The French postal service, La Poste, plans to order 10,000 electric delivery vehicles to cut fuel costs. | 18th April 2007 |
| US 1990-2005 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Up 16 Pct - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday US greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming increased 16 percent over a 15-year period. | 18th April 2007 |
| Global warming may spur wind shear, sap hurricanes - Reuters AlertNet Global warming could increase a climate phenomenon known as wind shear that inhibits Atlantic hurricanes, a potentially positive result of climate change, according to new research released on Tuesday. | 18th April 2007 |
| Exports: World's plants facing mass extinction - Xinhua The world's plants face mass extinction if climate change remains unchecked and more efforts are not taken to encourage plant conservation, warned experts on the second day of the Third Global Botanical Gardens Congress in Wuhan, central China on Tuesday. "About half of the earth's 400,000 plant species and 100,000 unclassified plant species will be threatened with extinction if the temperature rises by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius in the next 100 years," said Dr David Bramwell, director of Jardin Botanical Gardens in Las Palmas, Spain. | 17th April 2007 |
| David Horton: Catch 2020 - HuffingtonPost You all remember Zeno's paradox don't you? How in a race between fast Achilles and slow Tortoise Achilles can never catch up to the tortoise, because every time Achilles covers the distance between himself and the tortoise, the tortoise will have moved a bit further, and by the time Achilles reaches that point the tortoise will have moved again. And so on ad infinitum. So do we say of Zeno's Paradox 'I refute it thus' and send the Hare, powered by solar, wind, geothermal power, and with all the hindrances of poor energy efficiency stripped away, barrelling past the Tortoise in a single bound? Or do we get forced into making more and more changes while never catching up anyway? | 17th April 2007 |
| Out of Africa: diseases could hit animals and crops - The Herald Many different species are relocating their habitats in response to global warming, and diseases are doing much the same. Blue-tongue is one such disease that now poses an imminent threat to the UK. It was first described in South Africa and then spread through the tropics and sub-tropics. | 17th April 2007 |
| Butterfly may be a sign of change - BBC News The rare sighting of a migratory butterfly could be a further indicator of global warming, say conservationists. [most read item] | 17th April 2007 |
| Frogs offer new climate warning - Guardian Unlimited Amphibian and reptile numbers fall by 75% in reserve meant to save them. | 17th April 2007 |
| Catastrophic Climate change very evident for travellers to Argentina - Canadian National Newspaper Global warming is a subject that is never far from the news, and yet there are very few places on the planet where evidence of climate change can be so clearly seen as in the ice fields of the south Andies in Argentina and Chile. The Perito Moreno glacier in southern Argentina is a particularly beautiful and arguably typical example. Until recently this ancient frozen leviathan was still advancing, one of only three in the world to do so. Now, things have changed, as we discovered when we visited the area. | 17th April 2007 |
| How Ashton Hayes is inspiring other green towns and villages - Guardian Unlimited Britain's first carbon-neutral village is inspiring action groups. | 17th April 2007 |
| Green Activists Stepped It Up - TomPaine.com Green Activists Stepped It UpTomPaine.com, DC. ... people worked hard and passionately to get something going about climate change. That's what a movement is, and now there is one around global warming. ... | 17th April 2007 |
| Blog: Former Head of US Central Command on Global Warming: "We Will Pay For This One Way or Another" - Scientific American Yet another report declares that global warming is a "serious threat to America's national security." Those of you who have been paying attention won't find much that's new here, unless you find the fact that the report in question was written by six retired admirals and five retired generals to be of note. While the report cites the usual harms--flooding and rising sea levels causing mass displacement and the like, it is perhaps unique in its focus on water shortages. | 17th April 2007 |
| Security Council takes on global warming - BBC News The BBC's Paul Reynolds looks at the first debate on climate in the Security Council | 17th April 2007 |
| Trade-off looms for arid US regions: water or power? - The Christian Science Monitor Water consumed by electric utilities could account for up to 60 percent of all nonfarm water used in the US by 2030. | 17th April 2007 |
| EXCLUSIVE-China rejects caps, aims to cut "carbon intensity" - AlertNet Source: China aims to nearly halve by 2020 the amount of greenhouse gases it emits for each dollar of its economy, but will reject strict caps for decades, a copy of a national global warming assesment seen by Reuters shows. Beijing has been reticent about what the world's number-two carbon emitter is prepared to do to tackle global warming. While the report shows officials believe it is a serious threat, it suggests they do not want to take preventive steps that could hobble economic growth. | 16th April 2007 |
| The defiant one Exxon - CNNMoney.com Unlike its rivals, Exxon Mobil doesn't much care about alternative fuels and doesn't try to please the greens. Is CEO Rex Tillerson nuts - or shrewd? Exxon is certain that oil, gas and coal will remain the world's dominant energy sources for decades to come. Exxon avoids investment in alternative energy sources for yet another reason, one that reaches deep into the company's experience: Much depends on the future price of oil, and no one knows what it will be. Consider two scenarios. If oil dropped to $25 a barrel - about what it was (in today's dollars) just before 9/11 - alternative energy would look even less attractive economically. Exxon's decision not to invest would look all the wiser, but its oil-related profits would shrink. Conversely, iif oil rose to $100, its profits would rise but many alternative energy sources would become economically viable - and Exxon wouldn't be able to capitalize on them. The company considers low-price oil the greater risk. [ surprise surprise! - 'cos when a commodity gets scarce, profit shoots up ] | 16th April 2007 |
| US generals urge climate action - BBC Former US military leaders have called on the Bush administration to make major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. [most read item] | 16th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: How a PR Firm Helped Establish America's Cigarette Century How the tobacco industry-hired Hill & Knowlton to develop many of the propaganda techniques against science used today to attack climate change and evolution. | 16th April 2007 |
| Storm Spurs Talk of Climate Shift - The New York Sun The greatest storm to hit the city in more than 20 years, providing the plants with a needed drink, causing some challenging commutes, and threatening the Long Island coastline, is escalating the debate about a climate shift. "We can no longer deny the science and bury our heads in the sand. Climate change is real issue with real consequences. And as a coastal city, New York can't just sit back and hope for the best." | 16th April 2007 |
| From Canada's north, a ground-level view of global warming - CNN.com NUNAVUT, Canada (AP) -- Inuit hunters are falling through thinning ice and dying. Dolphins are being spotted for the first time. There's not enough snow to build igloos for shelter during hunts. | 16th April 2007 |
| Billionaires for Coal Personally Thank Manhattan Banks - NYC Independent Media Center Clad in full suits, stockings and fake fur, ten activists-turn-wealthy investors in coal energy brought the message of global warming directly to the front doors of major Manhattan banking institutions April 13. "Coal keeps burning, we keep earning," chanted the group, Billionaires for Coal, in front of the doors of Goldman Sachs at 85 Broad Street. The bank has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in coal-fired power plants around the nation, including NRG Energy, the second largest generator in Texas, and the proposed Longview coal plant in West Virginia. | 16th April 2007 |
| The power of green - Energy Bulletin The article is a long and heartfelt appeal for leadership at all levels of government for a reduction in use of fossil fuels in order to prevent climate disaster and political authoritarianism. Friedman states that climate change resulting from increasing levels of CO2 from the use of fossil fuels legitimately threatens world chaos, that the world requires the leadership of the United States to reduce levels of atmospheric CO2, and that there is enormous economic potential for us in developing and providing the technology to help in that endeavor. He calls for a "Green New Deal" to confront the serious "climate-energy" issues. He uses numerous examples and real-life situations, some familiar, some new. | 16th April 2007 |
| Alarm sounded by 1989 report - Albany Times Union It was harder to draw a crowd in 1989, when New York state joined Vermont and New Jersey to issue a report on the subject -- which reached many of today's conclusions about what is happening and what needs to be done. The 58-page report said emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas released by coal, oil and gas, were causing planetary warming and should be cut 20 percent by 2000. A tax on carbon emissions should be considered as a way to encourage clear alternative energy technology, and average new car mileage should also be increased to 42 miles per gallon by that year, the report recommended. | 16th April 2007 |
| Climate-change language omitted from polar bear report - Concord Monitor "At every single turn, the administration has suppressed science on polar bears and global warming, so while this is incredibly disappointing, it's not surprising. They're deeply afraid the Endangered Species Act will create a clear regulatory requirement to limit greenhouse gas emissions." | 16th April 2007 |
| Lib Dems plan carbon saving kits for homes - Guardian Unlimited Homeowners could face a retrospective rise in stamp duty if they fail to install energy efficiency measures within a year of moving into their home, the Liberal Democrats propose today as they seek to fill "a yawning gap" in the government's climate change policies. | 16th April 2007 |
| UK to raise climate talks as security council issue - Guardian Unlimited British government to raise subject of climate change for the first time within the UN security council. | 16th April 2007 |
| Ministers aim to turn every secondary school 'green' - Independent Every new secondary school will be "green" under a radical initiative being planned by the Government. | 16th April 2007 |
| 'Eco-debt' Britain will have consumed this year's share of resources by tonight - Guardian Unlimited At about bedtime today, Britain will go into ecological debt and will begin eating into nature's 'capital'. | 15th April 2007 |
| Step It Up media coverage I'm moving this to a separate thread. I'm trying to track news coverage of SIU events -- most of which is popping up in local and regional newspapers. If you know of a story I haven't got here, leave it in comments -- I'll be updating. Forthwith: Coverage of Step It Up events in Annapolis, Md., the Hudson Valley, all across Maine, Chicago, Pennsylvania, the Adirondack Mountains, Michigan, Florida, Southern California, Notre Dame, several Conn. towns, Colorado College, Louisville, Ken. and Rapid City, SD. Hm ... this list would render my post completely redundant if any of the links worked. | 15th April 2007 |
| New green ministry could endanger DTI - Guardian Unlimited A new "super ministry" with responsibility for energy and environmental policy could be created in a radical shakeup of Whitehall departments, it was reported today. | 15th April 2007 |
| Don't argue about climate change, plan for it Arctic meltdown creates hot policy issues - Chicago Sun-Times Internecine scientific struggles over defining and measuring global climate change are obscuring more important questions about the policy dimensions of such change. [most read item] | 15th April 2007 |
| Edwards calls for end to coal-fired power plants - FOX 10 Mobile FORT MYERS, Fla. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards delivered a speech in Fort Myers today, urging Americans to ban the construction of new... | 15th April 2007 |
| GUEST VIEW: Sustainability goes far beyond being 'green' - SouthCoastToday.com Sustainability is about cherishing biodiversity and human wellness, equity and freedom. It means maintaining economic security without contaminating the water, soil and air. It means creating economic and social systems that balance human physical needs, such as adequate clothing and shelter, nutritious food, a good job and affordable health care, along with such needs of the spirit as music and laughter, family and friends. A world without plants, animals, birds and fish is not sustainable. Altering the temperature and chemical composition of the oceans destroys fish and fisheries and deprives humans of an important source of food, and is not sustainable. | 15th April 2007 |
| The power of green - International Herald Tribune In America, a new green ideology has the power to mobilize liberals and conservatives, evangelicals and atheists around an agenda that can both pull the country together and propel it forward. | 15th April 2007 |
| Who's cool in the great celebrity green rush? - Independent As the latest climate movers and shakers are named, questions are being asked about just how effective the stars' campaigns are | 15th April 2007 |
| Blair and Merkel lean on Bush to join battle against climate change President George Bush is coming under unprecedented pressure from Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to agree to tough new international measures to stop global warming accelerating out of control. | 15th April 2007 |
| Climate wars - Sydney Morning Herald Experts fear the possibility of a total breakdown in society as climate change takes hold. Tom Allard reports. "Humans fight when they outstrip the carrying capacity of their natural environment," they wrote. "Every time there is a choice between starving and raiding, humans raid." [most read item] | 14th April 2007 |
| As ocean levels swell, an English coast crumbles - International Herald Tribune Erosion on the East Coast of the U.K. has never been so quick - an effect of climate change, according to many scientists. | 14th April 2007 |
| Courageous or disastrous? Liberals mixed about Dion's pact with May - CNews OTTAWA (CP) - Man of principle or political disaster - Liberals were calling Stephane Dion both Friday. Some praised while others derided their leader as they absorbed his unconventional decision to not run a candidate against Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in the next election. [Gadzooks what's going on? is Canadian politics going to put real issues above cross party bickering ?] | 14th April 2007 |
| In U.S. Earth Day prelude, calls for greenhouse gas cuts - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Earth Day seems to have morphed into Earth Week or possibly Earth Season, with more than 1,300 U.S. events that focus on sharp cuts in the greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming. | 14th April 2007 |
| Gambling on Global Warming Goes Mainstream - Live Science Now, an online gambling service is giving the public a chance to do what scientists have been doing among themselves for years. The service, BetUS.com, announced it will give members a chance to wager on various global warming-related issues. But scientists warn the odds are designed to part suckers from their cash. | 14th April 2007 |
| The burning issue - Guardian Unlimited A single chimney at Yorkshire's Drax power station pours out more pollution than entire countries. John Harris reports from the frontline of the global warming battle. | 14th April 2007 |
| Dave Lindorff: Bush's Gravest Impeachable Crime - BuzzFlash At this point, arguably, Bush's greatest crime is not the Iraq War, terrible as that has been. Nor is it his revocation of habeas corpus or his authorization of torture. It is not the usurpation of the legislative power of the Congress. It is not the felonious violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or his obstruction of the investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. His biggest crime is a deliberate campaign of inaction and active obstruction in the face of a clear need for the United States to act decisively to stop or slow catastrophic climate change. | 14th April 2007 |
| Making peace with environment - CNews Climate change has given Al Gore rock-star status. Now the hot topic seems to be bringing Mahatma Gandhi back from the dead. | 14th April 2007 |
| A Terrifying Truth - Atlantic Free Press It wasn't too long ago that the death of socialism, the triumph of capitalism and the end of history were being widely hailed. What a difference a few years and a few fractions of a degree in world temperature change makes! We may still be contemplating the end of history, but of a different sort. It is suddenly becoming painfully obvious that the pursuit of profit and the philosophy of growth for growth's sake and of dog eat dog is about to kill us all off. [most read item] | 13th April 2007 |
| Heated reply to Stern's fire and brimstone alarm - Sydney Morning Herald OIL companies were reportedly offering $US10,000 ($12,120) to anyone who could show where experts got it wrong in his prediction that the world is about to cook. Here's ten thousand dollars' worth. Nicholas Stern got it wrong in The Economics of Climate Change because he didn't think hard enough about how fast the world economy would grow. The omission is surprising, given Stern was chief economist at the World Bank. If a more realistic world growth number is inserted into the climate-change equation, and his other assumptions prove correct, then the world is in for more of a roasting than even he imagined - if sensible policy makers do not intervene. See also: The instant legacy of the Stern Review - Salon.com | 13th April 2007 |
| Britons Would Swap Planes for Trains - Angus Reid Global Monitor Many people in Britain would be willing to change their travel habits in order to help the environment. 58 per cent of respondents would travel by train instead of by plane if the price was the same, even if it took longer. | 13th April 2007 |
| Free electricity monitors will help cut household bills and global warming - eGov monitor Labour's Alistair Darling and David Miliband have proposed a new plan to make real-time electricity monitors available free of charge to all households in Britain to help combat climate change. | 13th April 2007 |
| Insurers starting to balk in climate-threatened Florida United Services Automobile Association (USAA), a "most-admired" company in many different rankings, has decided not to insure multiple homes in FL for one policyholder -- the first step in what will eventually be the revolt of the insurance companies against climate denialists (and against Florida legislators who want policyholders in other states to share the costs of insuring the damages from more intense and frequent hurricane strikes). This is great news (unless you own multiple Florida homes). The insurance industry has long been the sleeping giant of climate policy response. A lot of very red states have a lot to lose from climate disruption, and the threat of finding your property uninsurable gives you a whole new perspective on whether we need to do something on climate before the tipping points are reached. | 13th April 2007 |
| Britons set for a warm weekend - Guardian Unlimited Large parts of Britain to enjoying temperatures of up to 25C, around 10 degrees above the seasonal average and warmer even than the south of Spain. Looking ahead to this summer, the Met Office warned yesterday there was a "high probability" that temperatures would exceed the averages of the last 30 years. Bookmakers William Hill said today they were cutting the odds on the UK seeing a temperature of 100F (37.8C) this year from 8-1 to 4-1 following heavy betting. "The sums of money we are taking on the temperatures reaching 100F are unprecedented," a spokesman said. "We have already taken several four-figure bets and we are now the shortest price we have ever been in April." | 13th April 2007 |
| Study confirms mechanism for current shutdowns, European cooling - Bend Weekly A new study by paleoclimatologists at Oregon State University adds credence to the theory that the ocean current patterns, which keep Europe warm, may be forced to slow or stop - victims of a surge of fresh water and reduced salinity in the North Atlantic Ocean. Research just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal, provides new data that indicate why these current patterns changed in the distant past, sometimes in the remarkably short period of time of a decade or less. The issue is of significant concern in Europe, where this phenomenon could cause substantial cooling. | 13th April 2007 |
| Security Council Accused of Overstepping Bounds - IPS The 130-member Group of 77, the largest single coalition of developing countries, has lashed out at the Security Council, accusing the U.N.'s most powerful political body of violating the organisation's charter by planning an open debate next week on energy, security and climate. | 13th April 2007 |
| Germany in push to set G8 emissions target - FT Germany, this year's chair of the Group of Eight rich countries, has pushed the group to set a tough target for reducing carbon emissions, the first time it has been asked to commit to an explicit reduction. But environmentalists said the World Bank, which the G8 has asked to finance the shift away from carbon use in the developing world, was continuing to ramp up lending for oil and gas. See also: World Bank must lead on climate change, says Benn - Guardian Unlimited | 13th April 2007 |
| Transport Seen Surging, Damaging Climate - UN Draft - Planet Ark OSLO - Surging use of cars and planes will push up greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades, making the transport sector a black spot in a fight against global warming, according to a draft UN report. | 13th April 2007 |
| Satellite to study source of 'night shining' clouds - New Scientist Iridescent, silvery blue clouds at the edge of space that may be connected to global warming will be studied by a NASA spacecraft set to launch on 25 April. The Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission will be the first satellite dedicated to studying the enigmatic phenomenon of "noctilucent", or night-shining clouds. The shimmering clouds can be seen glowing just before sunrise or just after sunset because they are so high up - forming at an altitude of about 80 kilometres - that the Sun illuminates them from below the horizon. | 13th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Newsweek Hides Global Warming Denier's Financial Ties to Big Oil A recent Newsweek op-ed by global warming denier Richard Lindzen claims the meteorologist has no industry ties, but his bio is as misleading as his writing. | 13th April 2007 |
| Report: U.S. carbon dioxide emissions up 18% since 1990 - USA Today Emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide rose 18% in the USA from 1990 to 2004, with Texas and Nevada leading the way, an environmental group reported Thursday. | 13th April 2007 |
| Key climate question: What's the cost of carbon? - CS Monitor Current offset prices vary from 50 cents to $30 a ton. But the US Congress will have to find the optimum rate. | 13th April 2007 |
| Beware those bearing intensity targets - Canoe A smiling politician will often stand up and proudly proclaim new intensity-based greenhouse gas targets as the foundation of that government's plan to fight global warming. Unfortunately, intensity-based targets will do no such thing. | 13th April 2007 |
| Street crime 'to rise with temperatures' experts warn - The Scotsman as Britain warms over the next century, law enforcement experts are beginning to worry that they will soon lose the help of two of their key winter allies - Frost and Snow. There are also concerns that warmer summers will encourage increased alcohol consumption, which is strongly linked to criminal activity. Ken Pease, visiting professor of crime science at University College London and one of Britain's leading criminologists, said: "We know that more people on the streets, larger crowds, and alcohol consumption are all linked to increases in crime. And it stands to reason that warmer weather will encourage all three. "The question really is not whether global warming will lead to an increase in street crime, but by how much?" | 12th April 2007 |
| Cold Reality in the High Arctic - TheTyee.ca North of Greenland, climate apocalypse glimpsed. First hand account of global warming in the high Arctic. [most read item] | 12th April 2007 |
| Coal makes a dirty comeback - The New Statesman How can we keep the lights on in an era of mounting concern about global warming? A few months ago I made the prediction that, thanks to the high level of concern about climate change, no new coal-fired power stations could ever be built in this country. I was wrong. | 12th April 2007 |
| Stand by for some home truths about power consumption - Guardian Unlimited By focusing their efforts on TVs left in standby mode, writes Ron West, environmentalists might just be missing the point. | 12th April 2007 |
| Well-grounded fear of flying The estimable Bart A.'s Energy Bulletin unearths yet another gem amidst the rising tide of dreck pouring out of the Series of Tubes: A must read interview with George Monbiot. | 12th April 2007 |
| Climate research funding agency out of cash - CTV.ca OTTAWA -- Even as a UN report calls for better research on adaptation to climate change, Canada's most important funding agency for climate research says it has run out of money. See also: Feds clueless on global warming impacts: experts - National Post | 12th April 2007 |
| Warming could damage Arctic, release frozen waste OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming will damage the hunting cultures of Arctic peoples, thaw polar ice and could release toxic wastes now trapped in permafrost dumps, a U.N. study showed on Wednesday. | 12th April 2007 |
| Climate Panel: More Heat Waves in Europe - Houston Chronicle Dying dolphins in the Mediterranean, reduced livestock in Britain, the extinction of plants in the Alps and frequent heat waves across the continent - this is what is awaiting Europe in the next decades due to climate change, according to a report released Wednesday. | 12th April 2007 |
| 'Protected' Congo forest is logged regardless - New Scientist The world's second largest forest is being traded away for a few bars of soap and bottles of beer, a Greenpeace report reveals | 12th April 2007 |
| Clocks go forward, cars come out The US set its clocks forward three weeks early this year, to save power and reduce carbon emissions - but did extra car use cancel the benefit? | 12th April 2007 |
| Global warming has hefty price tag - Canada.com ANALYSIS. Left unchecked, global warming could cost British Columbia's economy from $8 billion to $35 billion a year. | 12th April 2007 |
| Summary of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, part II And now for the IPCC report's regional assessments, continued from yesterday:Africa By 2020, between 75 and 250 million people are projected to be exposed to an increase of water stress due to climate change. The area suitable for agriculture, the length of growing seasons, and yield potential, particularly along the margins of semi-arid and arid areas, are expected to decrease. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition in the continent. In some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 percent by 2020. Toward the end of the 21st century, projected sea-level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas with large populations. See also: Summary of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, part I and Summary of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, part III | 12th April 2007 |
| Warming could spark water scramble: experts NEW YORK (Reuters) - Climate change could diminish North American water supplies and trigger disputes between the United States and Canada over water reserves already stressed by industry and agriculture, U.N. experts said on Wednesday. | 12th April 2007 |
| Schwarzenegger: Make climate hip The environmental movement must become "sexy" to succeed, says Arnold Schwarzenegger. | 12th April 2007 |
| World Bank 'must act on climate' - BBC News The World Bank must lead the climate change fight, says UK International Development Secretary Hilary Benn. | 12th April 2007 |
| Pioneering Welsh town begins the transition to a life without oil - Guardian Unlimited There is, as the ads say, no Plan B. The age of cheap oil is drawing to a close, climate change already threatens, and politicians dither. But the people of Lampeter, a small community in the middle of rural Wales, gathered together earlier this week to mobilise for a new war effort. | 11th April 2007 |
| Gerald McEntee: If They Win - HuffingtonPost Make no mistake about it: the Republicans have a clear objective. They want to win the 2008 presidential and congressional elections to roll back our recent gains and advance their ruthless program for America. We ignore their plans at our peril. Their agenda is clear, and it is extreme. They would extend the occupation of Iraq, ignore the nation's health care needs, destroy Social Security through privatization, end the federal enforcement of civil rights, undermine public schools and public higher education, bust unions, overturn Roe v. Wade, ignore the devastating effects of global warming, demonize immigrants, eviscerate public services, cut taxes for the wealthy, free private companies from environmental regulations and continue the trade deals that send U.S. jobs overseas. | 11th April 2007 |
| Arctic fox failed to move north at end of ice age - Nature Even the fast-moving arctic fox, used to trekking long distances, failed to retreat to cooler climes when global temperatures rose in the past, a new study suggests. The find dampens hopes that species will be able to adapt to climate change by moving towards the poles. | 11th April 2007 |
| Bush cited for free-speech violations - Sydney Morning Herald The Bush administration and the US Department of Defence are among the winners of the 2007 Jefferson Muzzle awards, given by a free-speech group to those it considers the most egregious violators of free speech rights in the past year. The Bush administration appears on the list compiled by the Thomas Jefferson Centre for the Protection of Free Expression for its efforts to discourage and sometimes censor government scientists' reports, notably on global warming, the centre said. | 11th April 2007 |
| Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips - Guardian Unlimited The world in 30 years' time, as envisaged by the Ministry of Defence, is a grim place. [Not totally about climate change but interesting nevertheless - check out the future Marxist middle-class revolutionaries] [surprisingly, this is today's most read item] | 11th April 2007 |
| Protest is held at power station - BBC News Campaigners break into a power station as part of a protest against the coal-fired facility at Ratcliffe-on-Soar. | 11th April 2007 |
| Warming to bring drought, floods and hunger to Asia - Reuters NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Food shortages, water scarcity, heatwaves, floods and migration of millions of people will occur across Asia as a result of climate change, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. climate panel, said on Tuesday. See also: Living on the edge: Indians watch their islands wash away - International Herald Tribune | 11th April 2007 |
| FACTBOX-Potential curbs on greenhouse gases by 2030-UN - AlertNet A draft U.N. report on the economics of global warming outlines a potential for big curbs in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The study, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is due for release in Bangkok on May 4 after approval by scientists and more than 100 governments: SECTOR 2030 POTENTIAL CUTS (billions of tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent) Energy supply 2.4 -- 4.7 Transport 1.6 -- 2.5 Buildings 5.7 -- 6.0 Industry 2.5 -- 5.5 Agriculture 2.3 -- 6.4 Forestry 1.3 -- 4.2 Waste 0.4 -- 1.0 TOTAL 16.2 -- 30.3 | 11th April 2007 |
| Little time to avert big temperature rise-UN study - AlertNet Fighting global warming will be inexpensive but governments have little time left to avert big, damaging temperature rises, a draft United Nations report shows. The draft, due for release in Bangkok on May 4, indicates warming is on track to exceed a 2 Celsius (3.6 F) rise over pre-industrial times, regarded by the European Union as a threshold for "dangerous" change to nature. | 11th April 2007 |
| Security Council to Take Up Climate Change - Inter Press Service The U.N. Security Council, whose primary mandate is to prevent wars and preserve world peace, will once again break tradition next week when it debates the newest threat to international security: climate change. | 11th April 2007 |
| Tropical forests: Earth's air conditioner - PhysOrg How effective are new trees in offsetting the carbon footprint? A new study suggests that the location of the new trees is an important factor when considering such carbon offset projects. Planting and preserving forests in the tropics is more likely to slow down global warming. | 11th April 2007 |
| Food Shortage from Climate Change? - Time Magazine Warming temperatures could result in food shortages for 130 million people across Asia by 2050 and cause potentially catastrophic problems in Africa, wiping out one of the continent's staple crops altogether, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday. | 11th April 2007 |
| China launches tax to curb energy use - Financial Times China will start imposing consumption taxes on heavy transport and jet oil, lubricants and naphtha, the finance ministry said on Wednesday, as part of its effort to increase the cost of energy and make its use more efficient. | 11th April 2007 |
| Study: NYC Emits Nearly 1% of U.S. Greenhouse Gases - 1010 WINS New York New York City produces nearly 1 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the nation, equal to the level of countries including Ireland and Portugal, officials said Tuesday after releasing a study of the city's output. | 11th April 2007 |
| Summary of the IPCC Summary for Policymakers, part I The summary for policymakers (PDF) of the report by the IPCC Second Working Group is out! A summary of the summary: Where does the information come from? The IPCC, WGI's 4AR on the Scientific Basis of climate change. 29,000 observational data series crossed with expected changes to physical and biological systems based on those observations, with 89% consistency between the two. Models, some of which account for non-anthropogenic sources of warming (solar and volcanic activity) and others that do not. The results show that, "models with combined natural and anthropogenic forcings simulate observed responses significantly better than models with natural forcing only." What are some of the major conclusions? | 11th April 2007 |
| George Monbiot: There is climate change censorship - and it's the deniers who dish it out - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: Global warming scientists are under intense pressure from deniers to water down findings. [most read item] | 10th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Earth Jurisprudence: Making a Legal System to Protect the Planet It is now beyond dispute that our culture is damaging the world. The only way to stop us ruining our planet is to give it legal rights. | 10th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: How Corporations Are Trying to Cheat Environmental Law It looks like the president's friends at the EPA intend to ignore one of last week's big environmental rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. | 10th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: It's Time to Fight Population Growth, Which Exacerbates Global Warming and Sprawl It's ridiculous that we don't fight attempts to promote population growth while we wring our hands over global warming, species loss and suburban sprawl. | 10th April 2007 |
| Acidic Oceans Threatening Sea Life, UN Panel Says - Planet Ark SYDNEY - Rising carbon dioxide emissions are making the world's oceans more acidic, particularly closer to the poles, heralding disaster for marine life, a major UN report on climate change impacts says. | 10th April 2007 |
| The global carbon budget -- proper accounting means paying attention to inland waters - Earth Observatory As global carbon budget models move from static boxes to dynamic flows, future models should take into account the myriad of ways that inland waters contribute to the carbon cycle. In many cases, these aquatic systems are biogeochemical "hot spots" within the terrestrial landscape with contributions that are significant at regional to global scales. | 10th April 2007 |
| Could global deforestation fight climate change? - Mongabay.com While many climate change mitigation schemes rely on reforestation schemes to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, those located in temperate regions may actually be warming the planet, worsening global change, reports a new study published in the April 9-13 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. | 10th April 2007 |
| Changing Climes: Global Warming Impacts Appearing Around the Globe - Scientific American From space, climate change is obvious. For more than 20 years satellite images have shown springtime greenery bursting forth earlier and earlier in that season. Thanks to global warming, the growing season is lengthening in many parts of the world. And though this may boost crop yields in some areas, it will have a host of other, less benign impacts, such as transforming the eastern Amazon from rain forest to savanna, according to the second report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). | 10th April 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Grasping the Geopolitics of Warming - Inter Press Service - subscription The Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, the Pentagon and the Federal Bureau of Investigation should pool data and offer a comprehensive review of the national security threat posed by global warming, say U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Hagel. | 10th April 2007 |
| Bus shelters to be powered by sun - BBC News Bus shelters are to be revamped and fitted with solar-powered panels to improve passenger safety and energy efficiency. | 10th April 2007 |
| It's Not Just Climate Change - Climate Ark Climate change is the collapse of the global atmospheric system's processes and patterns and represents a massive environmental challenge to maintaining a habitable Earth. Yet climate is but one of several planetary scale ecological crises that threaten existence and are occurring now concurrently. [most read item] | 9th April 2007 |
| Europe's Problems Color U.S. Plans to Curb Carbon Gases - Washington Post As U.S. lawmakers work on the details of their greenhouse-gas legislation, they are looking carefully at Europe's experience. Five Senate proposals all use the same basic approach, known as "cap and trade," that Europe has used for the past two years. But what the snappy name "cap and trade" means is that the market will put a price on something that's always been free: the right of a factory to emit carbon gases. That could affect the cost of everything from windowpanes to airline tickets to electricity. Europe has already hit a few bumps with its program. There's the Dutch silicon carbide maker that calls itself the greenest such plant in the world, but now can't afford to run full-time; the French cement workers who fear they're going to lose jobs to Morocco, which doesn't have to meet the European guidelines; and the German homeowners who pay 25 percent more for electricity than they did before -- even as their utility companies earn record profits. See also Contraction & Convergence. | 9th April 2007 |
| Arnie to deliver climate change speech in Tory conference - EARTHtimes.org LONDON - Conservative leader David Cameron has revealed that California Governor and former Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger will be present during the Conservative Party conference later this year. | 9th April 2007 |
| Australians to store CO2 underground - UPI Australian scientists are pushing ahead with plans to store thousands of tons of carbon dioxide in an underground reservoir. Known as the Otway Geosequestration Project, thousands of tons of carbon dioxide captured in the state of Victoria will be stored deep underground at a site about 155 miles from Melbourne over the next few months. | 9th April 2007 |
| Will global warming threaten national security? - Salon.com Forget WMD -- Sens. Dick Durbin and Chuck Hagel want a National Intelligence Estimate on the security challenges posed by climate change. | 9th April 2007 |
| Worshippers are urged to go green - BBC News The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Nicholas Reade calls on Christians to become "God's green disciples". See also: Cardinal makes environment plea - BBC News | 9th April 2007 |
| Change economic climate in response to global warming: CSIRO - Sydney Morning Herald The success of Earth Hour in Sydney last month has inspired communities across the nation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but the jury is still out on the economic benefits. | 9th April 2007 |
| Next task: 'Repairing' the climate - USA Today Now comes the hard part of global warming fixing it say scientists looking ahead to the release of the next major climate-change report. | 9th April 2007 |
| Stop shopping ... or the planet will go pop - Guardian Unlimited UK Government's green guru says consumerism is a lethal disease. [most read item] | 8th April 2007 |
| Hot summer on the way, predicts Met - Guardian Unlimited Forecasters expect above-average temperatures and warn that weather changes will grow worse. | 8th April 2007 |
| Falling rice yields viewed as an early sign global warming in Japan - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer Rice harvests in the Kyushu region have been poor for the past four years, while the quality of much of this rice also has fallen. An increasing number of rice harvests are being rated second- and third-grade, which is worth 1,000 to 2,000 yen less per 60 kilograms than first-grade rice. Harvesting first-grade rice of Hinohikari is almost impossible when temperatures exceed 26.5 C during the period. In recent years it had not been unusual for temperatures in the city to exceed this level at that time of year. | 8th April 2007 |
| Unicorns of the sea: Dying in the depths Narwhals, the "unicorns" of the sea, are in particular danger as whales and dolphins, already depleted by centuries of hunting, are driven towards extinction by global warming, a new report reveals. | 8th April 2007 |
| Loons face threat from global warming - Battle Creek Enquirer Washington, DC -- The red-throated loon population in Alaska declined by 53 percent from the 1970s to the 1990s. | 8th April 2007 |
| Climbers Witnessing Global Warming - San Francisco Chronicle Mountaineers are bringing back firsthand accounts of vanishing glaciers, melting ice routes, crumbling rock formations and flood-prone lakes where glaciers once rose. The observations are transforming a growing number of alpine and ice climbers, some... | 8th April 2007 |
Newsweek Special:
| 8th April 2007 |
| Wind farm project dealt setback by US agency - Boston Globe A week after receiving a blessing from Massachusetts environmental regulators, the long-delayed wind farm proposed off Cape Cod has been dealt an apparent setback by the federal agency that will make the final decision on the controversial project. | 7th April 2007 |
| Climate situation critical - Sydney Morning Herald Home from UN Panel on Climate Change, Bureau of Meteorology director says water scarcity is our biggest threat. | 7th April 2007 |
| Most Russians Believe in Global Warming - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many people in Russia believe climate change is a reality, according to a poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. | 7th April 2007 |
| Dion challenges PM to back clean air bill - Winnipeg Free Press Canada: Federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said Prime Minister Stephen Harper should take immediate steps to combat climate change by endorsing a revised version of the Clean Air Act. | 7th April 2007 |
| Like water in the bank - National Post Where there's a crisis, there are investment opportunities. Due to global warming, water has become an exotic commodity. Analysts have dubbed it the "new oil" and "liquid gold." "Fresh water shortages have been on our radar screen since March, 2006," says Julie Hudson, who worked on UBS's water report published in October, 2006. "If you think climate change is important, then inevitably you are going to think water is important." | 7th April 2007 |
| Stark picture of a warming world - BBC ... there is little evidence to believe that a report painting severe consequences ahead for the poor of the world, however detailed and bought into by governments, will be enough to bring unprecedented change from all the well-off members of the community of nations. [most read item] | 7th April 2007 |
| Climate change gives Dutch water worries - Boston Globe Too much water or not enough. Either way, the Dutch are going to have to spend billions of dollars in coming decades to adapt their low-lying nation to the effects of climate change, experts said Friday. | 7th April 2007 |
| Cuba and Venezuela turn against ethanol - Guardian Unlimited ·Castro and Chávez attack US backing for biofuels· Leaders say diverting crops for fuel starves poor | 7th April 2007 |
| Welsh town begins the transition to a life without oil - Guardian Unlimited As the supply of cheap fuel dwindles, rural Lampeter embarks on 'energy descent'. | 7th April 2007 |
| Ban Ki-moon urges States to act decisively to mitigate worst effects of climate change - UN News Centre United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has called climate change one of his top priorities, today hailed a new report on the subject, urging nations to make decisive efforts to alleviate the worst consequences brought on by global warming. | 7th April 2007 |
| Things far from rosy as climate change hits traditional British gardens - Daily Telegraph Gardeners in Britain are abandoning their lush green lawns and burgeoning flowerbeds in favour of Mediterranean-style planting because of global warming, it is being claimed. | 7th April 2007 |
| Study: Many salmon plans didn't consider global warming - The Columbian SEATTLE (AP) -- Many of the multibillion dollar plans to restore salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest didn't consider the impact of global warming, a new study has found. | 7th April 2007 |
| Report: Future is grim for Venice - ImediNews A United Nations climatologist in Brussels says current climate trends indicate Venice could be under water within a few decades. | 7th April 2007 |
| Ottawa set to announce 'mandatory' pollution - Focus News Ottawa is set to announce stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions following the release of a UN report that warned climate change will have a grim impact this century, the environment minister said Friday. "In the coming weeks, for the first time in Canadian history, our government will be announcing targets for mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases and air pollution," Environment Minister John Baird said in a statement. | 7th April 2007 |
| China to take part in post-Kyoto talks: report TOKYO (Reuters) - China, the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will take part in negotiations on a framework for limiting global warming after 2012, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun said on Saturday. | 7th April 2007 |
| Did politics trump science - USA Today "Patricia Romero Lankao, a sociologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., confirmed that delegates from the United States, China and Saudi Arabia forced the writers of the report summary to "downplay" the level of certainly about the damage to the environment and species by human-caused warming. �That was a really hard discussion,� Romero Lankao told O'Driscoll in a telephone conference call from Brussels. Stanford University biologist Terry Root, whose own chapter in the report was the one in dispute, told O'Driscoll: �It is really of concern if governments are allowed to rewrite some of the science, changing some of what we know at a very high confidence level. I�m concerned. We�re jeopardizing the power that the IPCC report carries.� Some scientists were so upset by that action that they have vowed not to participate in the conference any more, the AP reported. The conference is scheduled to release two more reports this year. | 6th April 2007 |
| Global warming report weakens warning about extinctions - International Herald Tribune A major report on how global warming will dramatically change life on Earth will likely have weaker wording about massive extinctions than what scientists originally wrote. Participants in marathon negotiations over an authoritative climate change report, due out Friday, said government delegates have weakened the original language in the report. A final draft of the report - written by scientists before government officials edit it - says "roughly 20-30 percent of species are likely to be at high risk of irreversible extinction" if global average temperature rises by 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit. That part has been "diluted," said retired scientist Ian Burton attending the session on behalf of the Stockholm Environment Institute. Another delegate said the amended version hedged on the sweep of the original text, inserting a reference to species "assessed so far." [most read item] | 6th April 2007 |
| Bleakest warning issued on climate BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Top climate experts issued their bleakest forecasts yet about global warming on Friday, ranging from hunger in Africa to a thaw of Himalayan glaciers in a study that may add pressure on governments to act. More on the IPCC 4th Assessment: Climate change 'to hit poor hard' - BBC Sea life threatened by acidic oceans: UN panel - Sydney Morning Herald Children bear brunt of climate warming Warming 'already changing world' Africa: water shortage for up to 250 million people by 2020 Climate change around the world - BBC News Clickable map showing the impact of climate change around the world, according to latest IPCC report. | 6th April 2007 |
| Mexicans worry over drying lake - BBC News The BBC's Duncan Kennedy visits a cherished Mexican lake which may be drying up from global warming effects. | 6th April 2007 |
| What will it cost us if we do nothing? - The Age What we don't know, but a local Stern report could determine, is how much unchecked global warming would cost Australia. Some estimates suggest it is already costing us over $1 billion this year in lost agricultural production, increased costs of water supply and the costs of extreme events. Any serious study will confirm that the costs of taking responsible action are small and the costs of continued inaction very large. So setting serious targets makes economic sense. It is also our moral duty to future generations of Australians. | 6th April 2007 |
| Cool heads missing in the pressure cooker - Sydney Morning Herald The first thing that strikes you on reading the latest consensus report from the world's climate scientists about the effect of global warming is that it is like the plot of an Armageddon movie. | 6th April 2007 |
| Holidays trump climate change - The Age Public concern about climate change is growing in Britain but that will not stop a record Easter exodus from the world's busiest international airport. | 6th April 2007 |
| Lake Superior's warming accelerates - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune For the past generation, Lake Superior has been warming even faster than the climate around it, according to a study by several professors at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Attributed to reduced ice cover because of milder winters, the warming has caused the lake's "summer season" to begin about two weeks earlier than it did 27 years ago. "It's a remarkably rapid rate of change," said Jay ... | 6th April 2007 |
| Reef could be dead in 20 years - Sydney Morning Herald The Great Barrier Reef could be dead in 20 years unless there is a drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a marine biology expert said today. Rising sea temperatures were bleaching the coral and causing it to die, said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. | 6th April 2007 |
| New Study Shows Climate Change Likely to Lead to Periods of Extreme Drought in Southwest North America - Columbia Earth Institute How anthropogenic climate change will impact the arid regions of Southwestern North America has implications for the allocation of water resources and the course of regional development. See also: Serious drought may strike western US - New Scientist | 6th April 2007 |
| Climate change fruitful for fungi - BBC News An extraordinary amateur nature diary shows that UK fungi are fruiting more as the climate warms. | 6th April 2007 |
| Warming may not spark tree growth - Harvard University Gazette A bright spot in the gloomy global warming picture has been scientists' predictions that at least some carbon dioxide will be removed from the atmosphere by a burst of growth from tropical forests. New research from the Arnold Arboretum, however, questions that prediction, finding that trees in two forests on opposite sides of the world have been growing dramatically slower, not faster, as temperatures have risen over the past 20 years. | 6th April 2007 |
| Climate warning for Scots farmers - BBC News Scientists warn farmers to change the way they operate as their research shows climate change taking place. | 6th April 2007 |
| Which biofuels reduce greenhouse emissions - CNET Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Colorado State University think they've found a better way to power your car. They used computer models to figure out which biofuel sources are best at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That would help, they say, reduce global warming. | 6th April 2007 |
| Time to tax the carbon dodgers - BBC News How taxes and incentives on trade could be used to make Kyoto naysayers pay for their emissions. "BTAs (Border tax Adjustments)... are a justifiable threat to irresponsible governments like those of the US and Australia, the only rich countries which refuse to implement Kyoto" [most read item] | 5th April 2007 |
| UN Security Council to Debate Climate Change - Planet Ark UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council will debate climate change for the first time on April 17, the result of a British campaign to force it onto the agenda of a body that deals with matters of war and peace. | 5th April 2007 |
| Climate change threatens world natural wonders-WWF - AlertNet Climate change threatens to destroy the Great Barrier Reef and other natural wonders of the world if nations fail to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, environmental group WWF said on Thursday. | 5th April 2007 |
| Lloyd's warns insurers to model climate losses - Business Insurance Lloyd' s of London is urging insurers to begin modeling for higher worldwide losses from such threats as global warming, while at the same time acknowledging that there is much uncertainty around the actual impact of climate change. In its latest climate change report, Rapid Climate Change, Lloyd' s claims that waiting on "definitive scientific pronouncements" on the impact of climate change "seems like an increasingly risky strategy." See also Risk Managers on Climate Change Solutions - Canadian Underwriter | 5th April 2007 |
| Contraction and convergence - Ecologist You've watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, now here is the sequel - An Incontestable Truth. Launched by Colin Challen MP of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change yesterday, the DVD and online video explains the simpler and more equitable way forward in determining global use of carbon emissions in an equitable and just manner. Supported by the likes of eminent environmentalists, such as Sir Oliver Tickell, writers such as Mark Lynas and the insurance industry. Here the simple theory is explained and various individuals talking as to why they believe the Contraction and Convergence is the just, equitable and necessary way forward for Post Kyoto Protocol negotiations. Campaign for Contraction & Convergence - Take Part in the Climate Change Bill Consultation Find out more about the most important concept of Contraction & Convergence. | 5th April 2007 |
| Wyevale to stop selling environmentally unfriendly patio heaters - Guardian Unlimited Wyevale is to stop selling some of its most popular products, including patio heaters and peat, over concerns about their impact on the environment. | 5th April 2007 |
| Arctic sea ice is shrinking in 'downward spiral' Winter sea ice in the Arctic has failed to reform fully for the third year in a row. Scientists said yesterday that the area of ocean covered by Arctic ice at the end of the winter months was lower only in March 2006. | 5th April 2007 |
| Key report to say global warming already happening - New Scientist Key report to say global warming already happeningNew Scientist (subscription), UK. Climate Change - Want to know more about global warming – the science, impacts and political debate? Visit our continually updated special report. | 5th April 2007 |
| Climate change could eliminate up to 30 per cent of life forms - Canada.com Climate change is rearranging the global landscape, threatening to wipe out 20 to 30 per cent all the life forms on earth and flood hundreds of millions people out of their homes, according to the authors of an international report to be released Friday. | 5th April 2007 |
| Welcome to Mediterranean Scotland in 5 years' time? - The Scotsman WHILE the international community readies itself for gradual global warming over the next century, a growing number of scientists are beginning to worry that climate change might come much sooner - and be much more catastrophic - than previously thought. | 5th April 2007 |
| Seas Could Rise Dramatically in Rapid Ice Melt - LiveScience.com Something is missing from the estimates of future sea level rise in the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: the potentially catastrophic impact of a rapid melt of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. | 5th April 2007 |
| China, US, Russia Looking To Tone Down UN Climate Report - Playfuls.com Some of the world's biggest polluters have threatened to derail a new UN-backed global climate report, questioning its scientific basis and working to tone down its language before the report is released later this week, according to delegates at the climate conference in Brussels Wednesday. | 5th April 2007 |
| IPPR: 'Put green warnings on adverts for flights' Ads for flights, holidays and cars should carry tobacco-style health warnings to combat the public's "addiction" to polluting transport and reduce climate change, a think-tank recommended yesterday. | 5th April 2007 |
| Judge rejects state's request that he throw out emissions suit - WOOD TV 8 Grand Rapids BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A federal judge Wednesday refused to throw out a suit by automakers aimed at blocking states from regulating emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. | 5th April 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: We Must Imagine a Future Without Cars - AlterNet Kunstler argues that the coming age of energy scarcity will change everything about how we live in this country -- most of all our dependency on automobiles. Some won't agree - see also:Next X Prize: Build a practical, hyperefficient car - The CS Monitor | 4th April 2007 |
| What if coal is running out too? - Grist Magazine what if our core beliefs about coal are wrong? What if coal isn't as abundant as we thought? What if we're rapidly approaching peak coal? That, apparently, is the conclusion of a forthcoming report from the Energy Watch Group in Germany. Putting aside the technical details, the report's blockbuster finding is that the world will hit peak coal energy around 2025. Check your calendar. Yup -- that's 18 years from now. Not very long. After we cross the peak, coal energy will get inexorably more and more expensive, until it costs more to get the coal than it pays to burn it. If this turns out to be true, it completely changes the game. It will mean that all three primary fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) are heading for decline. No alternative source of energy, under any realistic scenario, can hope to compensate for this loss of energy. [most read item] | 4th April 2007 |
| Briny future for vulnerable Malta - BBC News The BBC's Matt McGrath investigates how rising sea levels are making life more difficult on the island of Malta. | 4th April 2007 |
| Drought forces bulldozing of fruit trees - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Thousands of dead fruit trees are being bulldozed in north-east Victoria because of the drought. | 4th April 2007 |
| Farmers Warming Warning - RedNova GLOBAL warming has been blamed for a breeding boom among snowgeese that is causing havoc for US farmers. | 4th April 2007 |
| Farewell to a melting glacier - BBC News James Painter returns to the Chacaltaya glacier in Bolivia for the first time in 15 years to find it is melting fast. | 4th April 2007 |
| How climate change affects you - BBC News The BBC News website asked users for their views on how climate change was affecting their lives. | 4th April 2007 |
| Global Harming -- Climate Change Threatens Ecosystems Worldwide - RedNova The frogs went silent SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Back in the Puerto Rican rain forest for the first time in five years, biologist Rafael Joglar sensed something was wrong. He wasn't hearing the frogs whose nocturnal calls he had long recorded in the misty highlands. | 4th April 2007 |
| Warming sea to hit commercial fisheries: CSIRO - ABC Online A new CSIRO report has warned that climate change is causing a significant change in the make-up of Australia's oceans. The first major study into the impact of global warming on Australia's marine ecosystem reveals that ocean temperatures on the east coast of Tasmania have increased by up to two degrees Celsius in the last 20 years. That is sparking a significant shift in fish species, with tropical fish migrating south into temperate waters. | 4th April 2007 |
| Crops threatened by heat, drought - China Daily Warm winter weather combined with the prolonged drought that has gripped a wide swathe of China have put crops at risk across the country, officials have said. | 4th April 2007 |
| Carbon tax 'has merit' - The Age Key government advisory body contradicts Prime Minister's opposition to using taxes to curb greenhouse gas emissions. | 4th April 2007 |
| Carbon tax catching on? - GristMill I never thought it would happen, but it looks like a carbon tax might actually become a viable policy option in the U.S. In the Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson discuss growing support for a tax over a cap-and-trade system. If you read between the lines, it basically breaks down like this: economists and policy wonks prefer a tax, because it would provide a predictable price trajectory and would be less subject to gaming and manipulation. Legislators, on the other hand, prefer a cap-and-trade system precisely because of its complexity -- that complexity will serve to hide price increases from customers. | 4th April 2007 |
| Business backs emissions targets - The Age Australia's top companies undercut PM, saying the country must set concrete targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. | 4th April 2007 |
| Buildings Play a Key Role in Climate Change Fight - GreenBiz OSLO, April 3, 2007 -- The right mix of appropriate government regulation, greater use of energy saving technologies and behavioral change can substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the building sector, which accounts for 30-40 percent of global energy use, says a new report from the United Nations Environment Program Sustainable Building and Construction Initiative. | 4th April 2007 |
| Palm oil is not a failure as a biofuel - Mongabay.com Palm oil is the best biofuel so long as its cultivation is 'green'. See also: Palm oil: An ecological disaster now - Guardian Unlimited | 4th April 2007 |
| Two-Thirds of World Worried by Warming, US Lags - Planet Ark OSLO - More than two-thirds of the world's people are worried by global warming with Americans among the least anxious even though their nation is the top source of greenhouse gases, an opinion poll showed on Tuesday. | 4th April 2007 |
| Penguins join climate change investigation - InTheNews.co.uk Scientists are taking the unorthodox step of using king penguins to help determine the true extent of climate change. The University of Birmingham says that mapping the behaviour of the Antarctic birds to better understand global warming is the reverse of the standard practice of measuring the effects of climate change upon fish patterns or avian migration. "If penguins are travelling further or diving deeper for food, that tells us something about the availability of particular fish in regions of the Antarctic," explains Dr Lewis Halsey. | 4th April 2007 |
| Will Climate Change Kill The Amazon? - Science Daily Scientists showed key research of a profound impact of global warming. Although intact forests are fairly resistant to climate change, with partial deforestation the entire landscape could become drier and a domino effect could occur producing a 'tipping point' affecting the whole forest. | 4th April 2007 |
| The Great Depletion - CounterPunch How Will Our Grandchildren See Us? They'll see that what fueled the "free market" was humanity's biggest free lunch: We exploited energy accumulated over millions of years -- coal, oil and natural gas. And we did it even though we knew we'd run out. They'll see that burning these fossil fuels raised temperatures and sea levels to drive tens of millions from coastal cities and drown rich delta soils, turned rich midcontinent farmland into desert, and made storms in wetter regions destructively stronger and erratic. | 4th April 2007 |
| Denial in the Desert - The Nation. Conservative politics in Arizona and Texas will become even more envenomed and ethnically charged, if that is possible. The Southwest is already sown everywhere with violent nativism and what can only be described as proto-fascism: In the droughts to come, they may be the only seeds to germinate. As Jared Diamond points out in his recent bestseller Collapse, the ancient Anasazi did not succumb simply to drought but rather to the impact of unexpected aridity upon an over-exploited landscape inhabited by people little prepared to make sacrifices in their "expensive lifestyle." In the last instance, they preferred to eat one another. | 4th April 2007 |
| Is Ottawa warming to emissions trading? - CBC The federal government may be on the verge of allowing some kind of national trading in greenhouse gas emissions as part of its climate change strategy, observers say. | 4th April 2007 |
| Bush holds line on global warming despite ruling - AlertNet President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he planned no new action to impose caps on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate U.S. emissions. | 4th April 2007 |
| EU shows carbon trading is not cutting emissions - Guardian Unlimited Some US states want their own 'cap and trade' scheme but the evidence is proving that permits fail to curb industry. [most read item] | 3rd April 2007 |
| Humans fiddle while the planet heats up - CNET Author of upcoming report on global warming, Stanford scientist Terry Root pulls no punches about what she says is happening before our eyes. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Reports From Four Fronts in the War on Warming - New York Times A growing array of officials in developing countries and experts on climate, law and diplomacy insist that the first world owes the third world a climate debt. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Kite power generates clean energy - Independent Online An Italian company hopes to generate huge amounts of energy from 'carousels' linked to kites in the upper atmosphere, writes Popular Mechanics. | 3rd April 2007 |
| War-like plan needed to tackle climate change, summit told - Australian Broadcasting Corporation An American weather expert has told a water summit in Sydney that global warming is such an enormous problem the world needs to go on a war footing to fight it. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Warmest March ever - The Norway Post The Met Office has never recorded as high a mean temperature for March as this year. The average temperature for the month was 4.1 degrees higher than normal. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Oil firms' renewable investments lag image - Reuters Oil majors love to boast about their renewable energy activities but the glossy advertisements showing windmills and solar panels often mask modest investments and even skepticism. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Faith teaches us to be stewards of the earth - Indianapolis Star While the modern scientific data are complex and often confusing, environmental or ecological awareness has ancient biblical roots. The Book of Genesis tells us that Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden "to work and to tend the earth" (2:15). The Bible sees humans as having an intimate relationship with the earth and all of creation. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Psalm 24). We are not the earth's "masters." We are its "stewards." The ancient rabbis imagine God taking Adam on a tour of creation: ". . . God showed Adam all the trees in the Garden of Eden and said: 'See how beautiful and perfect are my works! All that I created, for you I have created. 'Do not abuse or destroy my world. For if you do, there is no one to repair it after you' " (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28). | 3rd April 2007 |
| The Court Rules on Warming - New York Times It would be hard to overstate the importance of the Supreme Court's ruling that the federal government has the authority to regulate the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases produced by motor vehicles. See also: David Roberts: Supreme Court rules against Bush admin. in global warming case - HuffingtonPost Carl Pope: Reality Prevails at the High Court: 5-4 - HuffingtonPost Auto industry reacts to court decision - BusinessWeek White House responds to SCOTUS case | 3rd April 2007 |
| Cape Wind Moves on to Federal Review - RedNova The developer of a Nantucket Sound wind energy project hopes to begin producing clean energy by 2010, after winning final state environmental approval yesterday, but the project still faces a major remaining hurdle: an expansive federal government review. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Power tower reflects well on sunny Spain - Guardian Unlimited Europe has gained a new source of renewable energy with the inauguration of the continent's first-ever 'power tower'. | 3rd April 2007 |
| UN-Backed Carbon Trading Plan on Track - Scoop.co.nz An essential tool in efforts to reduce global warming gas emissions is on track for completion with testing in the coming months of a mechanism allowing countries that cut emissions below their targets to sell surplus allowances to others that have deficits, the United Nations body overseeing the project announced today. | 3rd April 2007 |
| EU slams United States, Australia on climate change BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union accused the United States and Australia on Monday of hampering international efforts to tackle climate change. | 3rd April 2007 |
| Is Offsetting Emissions A Carbon Con? - GreenBiz It is now the done thing for climate-conscious companies and consumers, but carbon offsetting is by no means straightforward and its effectiveness is far from certain. | 3rd April 2007 |
| The Age Of Warming - CBS News If you were waiting for the day global warming would change the world, that day is here. It's happening, far from civilization's notice, in a place about as remote as you can get. Scientists believed Antarctica, at the bottom of the world, was too vast, too remote, to be bothered by climate change any time soon. But now glaciers are setting speed records for melting. Whole colonies of penguins are disappearing. Why does it matter? Antarctica is a climate giant, driving ocean and wind currents worldwide, with enormous potential to raise sea levels. [most read item] | 2nd April 2007 |
| Court rules Bush administration can regulate emissions from cars - International Herald Tribune The U.S Supreme Court ordered the federal government Monday to take a fresh look at regulating carbon dioxide emissions from cars, a rebuke to Bush administration policy on global warming. In a 5-4 decision, the court said the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Russia Sees Ill Effects of 'General Winter's' Retreat - Washington Post Experts have long feared that Earth's warming climate would cause tropical diseases such as malaria to spread into more temperate zones, but a dramatic example of an apparently climate-related disease outbreak cropped up this winter in a cold place -- Russia. Warmer winters are allowing virus carrying mice that would normally perish to survive and infect humans. The viruses can cause a serious, and sometimes deadly, disease known as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, or HFRS. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Climate change: Canada's cruel harvest - Independent The authorities in Ottawa announced last week a sharp reduction in the numbers of pups that hunters will be allowed to kill this spring in a first official acknowledgement of the impact the melting ice is having on the seal population. Conservationists, however, are demanding that the harvest be cancelled. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Emissions-linked parking in force - BBC News A parking scheme charging residents in one London borough according to how polluting their vehicle is comes into force. | 2nd April 2007 |
| It's a plug-in hybrid - and it's a school bus - CS Monitor Bus manufacturers are already rolling out the environmentally friendly vehicles - years before major automakers say they will. | 2nd April 2007 |
| EU: UK 2006 CO2 Emissions 250 Million Tons Vs Allocation 206 Million Tons - Nasdaq LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission released preliminary carbon dioxide emissions data for 2006 Monday, which showed all countries, with the exception of Spain and the U.K., emitted less carbon dioxide during the year than they were allocated under the E.U. emissions trading scheme. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Warmer waters could spin the Earth faster - Nature The warming of the world's oceans is going to shorten the day, say German researchers. But there's no need to adjust your watch: the shortening will be by only 0.12 milliseconds over the next 200 years, they estimate. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Scientists Weigh Downside of Palm Oil - Hartford Courant Only a few years ago, oil from palm trees was viewed as an ideal biofuel: a cheap, renewable alternative to petroleum that would fight global warming. Energy companies began converting generators and production soared. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Britons Aware but Inactive on Climate Change - Survey - Planet Ark LONDON - The British government, which prides itself on its green credentials, will have trouble hitting its carbon-cutting targets judging by a survey highlighting the deep gap between public awareness and actions. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Climate change could carry huge, hidden costs: UN report - AFP via Yahoo! News Climate change will inflict steadily rising costs that could become astronomical if greenhouse gas emissions rise unabated and countries delay preparations for the likely impacts, UN experts will say next week. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Food Vs. Fuel: Corn Can't Solve Our Climate and Energy Problems - RedNova By David Tilman and Jason Hill The Washington Post The world has come full circle. A century ago our first transportation biofuels -- the hay and oats fed to our horses -- were replaced by gasoline. | 2nd April 2007 |
| It's the economy that matters - Sydney Morning Herald To repeat the obvious, you just can't put the economy in one box and the environment in another. The economy exists in the environment. So if we stuff the environment, we stuff the economy. It's the planet, stupid. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Tropical losers, northern winners from warming? OSLO (Reuters) - Northern nations such as Russia or Canada may be celebrating better harvests and less icy winters in coming decades even as rising seas, also caused by global warming, are washing away Pacific island states. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Global warming could bring hunger, melt Himalayas OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft U.N. report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most. | 2nd April 2007 |
| Wars of the world: how global warming puts 60 nations at risk Scores of countries face war for scarce land, food and water as global warming increases. This is the conclusion of the most devastating report yet on the effects of climate change that scientists and governments prepare to issue this week. [most read item] | 1st April 2007 |
| Tax on Carbon Emissions Gains Support - Washington Post As lawmakers on Capitol Hill push for a cap-and-trade system to rein in the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, an unlikely alternative has emerged from a ideologically diverse group of economists and industry leaders: a carbon tax. | 1st April 2007 |
| Climate change ‘could create 200m refugees' - Times Online EQUATORIAL lands that are home to hundreds of millions of people will become uninhabitable as food and water run out due to climate change, scientists will warn this week. | 1st April 2007 |
| Scientist: Warming Will End Some Species - The San Francisco Examiner From the micro to the macro, from plankton in the oceans to polar bears in the far north and seals in the far south, global warming has begun changing life on Earth, international scientists will report next Friday. | 1st April 2007 |
| Federal judge allows global warming lawsuit to advance - The San Francisco Examiner SAN FRANCISCO ( Map , News ) - Citing Al Gore's movie on global warming, a federal judge has advanced a lawsuit against the government for its financing of overseas projects that may contribute to climate change. | 1st April 2007 |
| Sydney switch-off for climate change - BBC News A mass switch-off in Sydney to raise awareness of climate change is an important, if symbolic, event, says the BBC's Phil Mercer. | 1st April 2007 |
| Firms fail to adapt to climate change - Guardian Unlimited Companies are not adapting infrastructure and business plans to the threat of climate change, the government has warned. | 1st April 2007 |
| Council inspectors to demand £5 'carbon offset' for barbecues - Evening Standard It is one of the timeless rituals of the new globally-warmed great British summer: firing up the barbecue and slinging on a steak. | 1st April 2007 |
| Humble trainer's carbon footprint joins power plants and jets on Green blacklist - Scotland on Sunday CLIMATE change audit for the nation reveals surprising comparisons | 1st April 2007 |
| Rising temperature in UAE blamed on climate change - Gulf News Dubai: The top meteorologist in Dubai has said climate change is likely to have contributed to the rise in temperatures in the UAE. | 1st April 2007 |
| The Age Of Warming - CBS News Global warming is showing its greatest effects in Antarctica, reports Scott Pelley , where rising temperatures threaten the drinking-water supply of the future and are hurting the penguin population right now. | 1st April 2007 |
| Hot Times in the Holy Land: The Effects of Global Climate Change ... - Zeek Hot Times in the Holy Land: The Effects of Global Climate Change ...Zeek, NY. The scientific community generally agrees that climate change will produce “winners” and “losers.” In some parts of the world, global warming may actually ... | 1st April 2007 |
| Sydney in climate change blackout - BBC Lights have been turned off across Australia's largest city, Sydney, in a hour-long event aimed at raising awareness of global warming. | 31st March 2007 |
| The IPCC sea level numbers - RealClimate The sea level rise numbers published in the new IPCC report (the Fourth Assessment Report, AR4) have already caused considerable confusion. Many media articles and weblogs suggested there is good news on the sea level issue, with future sea level rise expected to be a lot less compared to the previous IPCC report (the Third Assessment Report, TAR). Some articles reported that IPCC had reduced its sea level projection from 88 cm to 59 cm (35 inches to 23 inches) , some even said it was reduced from 88 cm to 43 cm (17 inches), and there were several other versions as well (see "Broad Irony"). These statements are not correct and the new range up to 59 cm is not the full story. Here I will try to clarify what IPCC actually said and how these numbers were derived. | 31st March 2007 |
| Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet' by Mark Lynas - Johann Hari During the Cold War, every person on earth knew what the worst end-game would look like: the three-minute warning, the futile scrambling under desks, and universal incineration. With the just-as-real, just-as-dangerous threat of global warming, there is a vague sense of doom, but no clear mental picture of what meltdown would look like - until now. Mark Lynas is, along with George Monbiot and Bill McKibben, the best writer about global warming working today. In Six Degrees, he does something so obvious and so necessary it is hard to believe nobody has done it before. He pores through the peer-reviewed scientific literature and describes, calmly and plainly, what scientists say will happen on earth as each degree of global warming occurs. | 31st March 2007 |
| Climate change 'threatens infrastructure' - FT Climate change is threatening vital infrastructure such as road and rail networks, water and energy systems, and healthcare, and the damage is set to worsen, the world's leading climate scientists will warn next week. | 31st March 2007 |
| Will your house flood? - New Scientist Wondering how your property will fare in a world with higher sea-levels? Here's a tool that could help. Use your mouse to drag the map around and find the area you live in, the slider at top left to zoom in and out, and then choose between 1 metre and 14 metres of sea-level rise. | 31st March 2007 |
| Gwynne Dyer: The Climate Wars - Vive Le Canada Dyer argues that the effect of uncontrolled global warming will be: - mass starvation - mass population movement - war | 31st March 2007 |
| Dengue Surging In Mexico, Latin America - CBS News The deadly hemorrhagic form of dengue fever is increasing dramatically in Mexico, and experts predict a surge throughout Latin America fueled by climate change, migration and faltering mosquito eradication efforts. | 31st March 2007 |
| Special detective team wades in when Florida sea creatures die in droves - Seattle Times The federal working group's members say marine die-offs are on the rise, due largely to algae blooms and viruses from environmental pressures such as farming runoff, warming oceans and discarded waste. | 31st March 2007 |
| The moose mystery - Minnesota Public Radio Is the heat or the humidity hurting Minnesota moose? | 31st March 2007 |
| Ontario looking to join with southern states to fight climate change - CNews TORONTO (CP) - Premier Dalton McGuinty says Ontario is looking at joining forces with the southern states to fight climate change. McGuinty says Ontario is interested in joining several American climate change partnerships which include California, New Mexico and Arizona. | 31st March 2007 |
| Climate Change: Scientists Work To Refine Global Climate Models - Science Daily Researchers from Sandia and around the world are working in the cold tundra in northern Alaska to help transform scientists' understanding of what the future may hold for Earth's climate. | 31st March 2007 |
| UK Consumers in the Dark About Carbon Emissions and Energy Efficiency - Market Wire via Yahoo! Finance With environmental scare stories hitting the headlines on a daily basis, UK consumers are facing increasing pressure to be 'green.' But a new survey released today reveals that worryingly, most UK consumers still don't know which activities are the worst CO2 offenders, with 93% failing to rank everyday appliances correctly -- making it difficult for them to effectively reduce their own carbon ... | 31st March 2007 |
| Ethanol Investments Won't Do Much to Cut Emissions - Resource Investor A study by Frederic Forge of the library's science and technology division says regulations to promote biofuels will have ''relatively minor impact'' on reducing greenhouse emissions across Canada. | 31st March 2007 |
| Europe faces global warming double - France24 Global warming will hit Europe hard but unevenly this century, causing drought, reduced harvests and deadly heatwaves in the south but inflicting more floods and severe winter storms farther north, UN experts say in a report to be unveiled next week. In Alpine regions, reduced snow cover imperils a multi-billion-dollar ski industry while rising temperatures could wipe out up to 60 percent of plant and animal species, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns. | 31st March 2007 |
| Eco-Apartheid - Common Ground Why is the green movement so lily white? If the mostly-white global warming activists join forces with people of color, the United States can avoid both eco-apocalypse and eco-apartheid. | 31st March 2007 |
| Conversations: Bill McKibben - Common Ground Bill McKibben tells the stories that we wish weren't true - but still need to hear. A best-selling writer and activist, whose byline frequently appears in The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, Outside and Grist, McKibben is best known for his work on global warming and climate change issues. | 31st March 2007 |
| Climate Criminals & Climate Genocide - MWC News Climate Genocide driven by First World Climate Criminals has become a harsh reality with the recent disappearance into the Bay of Bengal of the Indian Bengali island of Lohachara (former population 10,000). Bengal including West Bengal (population 85 million) and Bangladesh (population 153 million) is a densely populated part of the world that is acutely threatened (like Louisiana and New Orleans) by First World greenhouse gas pollution, global warming and consequent sea level rises and storm surges. | 31st March 2007 |
| When it's right to be reticent - Nature Ever since the 1980s james Hansen has been much more outspoken about the existence and perils of human-induced climate change than most of his scientific colleagues. Now he thinks it's time for them to speak up. [I'm on Hansen's side...] | 30th March 2007 |
| Hot and bothered - Sydney Morning Herald Uncertainty has been used by climate change sceptics to argue against reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but the opposite should be the case, says Professor Nicholls. It is the remaining unknowns that are particularly worrying. We are like the driver of a car with poor brakes, "heading into a fog of uncertainty with the accelerator flat to the floor", he says. Some obstacles, such as more deadly heatwaves, can no longer be avoided. But there could also be unknown cliffs - tipping points to a much hotter world - lying ahead. A sensible driver would slow down, Nicholls says. "They would take their foot off the accelerator, fix the brakes and buy some fog lights." | 30th March 2007 |
| Green Room - BBC News When the oil supply begins to run down, carbon emissions may actually rise, argues David Strahan in the Green Room. See also: US Auditor: Energy Dept Should Develop Plan For Peak Oil Era | 30th March 2007 |
| INTERVIEW-Expert sees China, India global warming change - AlertNet Britain's outgoing government adviser on global warming said on Thursday that officials in China and India are becoming more sensitive to the problem of global warming. "It's quite remarkable how intense this discussion is becoming around the world. And I believe quietly opinions are changing in India and China as well," said Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist. | 30th March 2007 |
| Canada govt says key environment bill in trouble - Reuters Canada Canada's minority Conservative government is unhappy that opposition parliamentarians have totally rewritten its draft clean air legislation and will now consider what to do with the bill. The House committee rewrote the bill from top to bottom, committing Ottawa to sticking to emissions cuts outlined in the Kyoto protocol on climate change. [good!] | 30th March 2007 |
| Some corals may survive acidification caused by rising CO2 - Mongabay.com A study published in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, suggests that some corals may weather acidification better than others. | 30th March 2007 |
| U.S. spies urged to assess global warming - UPI Senators of both parties are pushing for U.S. intelligence agencies to assess the danger to the nation's security posed by global warming. | 30th March 2007 |
| Green energy output 'lags demand' - BBC News Insufficient renewable energy is being produced to meet demand for "green fuel", a report claims. | 30th March 2007 |
| Non-CO2 gases also cause global warming - Mongabay.com While most of the focus in developing a policy to fight global warming has been on carbon dioxide, other gases also contribute to climate change. The effect of these gases is still poorly understood and should be the subject of further research say two climate scientists writing in the March 30 issue of the journal Science. | 30th March 2007 |
| US Sees Ample Room to Bury CO2 But Costs Unknown - Planet Ark NEW YORK - The United States and Canada have enough storage capacity deep underground to bury greenhouse gas from power plants for 900 years, but the costs are not yet known, an office of the US Department of Energy said. | 30th March 2007 |
| UK greenhouse emissions show rise - BBC News The UK's net carbon dioxide emissions rose by 1.25%, to 560.60 million tonnes in 2006, according to the government. See also: Miliband: emissions figures support need for increased action on climate change | 29th March 2007 |
| The limits of a Green Revolution? - BBC News The second in Mark Doyle's series looking at global food production and consumption | 29th March 2007 |
| 132 Million Asians May Starve With Climate Change - Daily Yomiuri Grain harvests in the Asian region will drop by as much as 30 percent, leading to skyrocketing food prices and the starvation of 132 million people in Asia in the 2050s, if fossil fuels continue to be consumed at the current rate, according to a report of the Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. | 29th March 2007 |
| Where have all the cuckoos gone? Reseacher David Glue believes that the main reason why the cuckoo is in crisis is to be found not in the UK but thousands of miles away in Africa. "We know that the cuckoo overwinters in East Africa, which is increasingly being hit by drought as a result of climate change and which is making conditions very difficult for both wildlife and people in the region," | 29th March 2007 |
| GAP Report Details Climate Science Politicization - Whistleblower Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) is releasing a comprehensive report detailing the findings of a year-long investigation into political interference at federal climate science agencies. The report demonstrates how policies and practices have increasingly restricted the flow of scientific information emerging from publicly-funded climate change research. This has negatively affected the media's ability to report objectively on scientific issues, public officials' capacity to respond with appropriate policies, and full public understanding of environmental concerns. | 29th March 2007 |
| Norwegian ocean waters are warmest ever recorded - USA Today Winter ice cover in the Arctic Barents Sea in 2006 was the lowest ever recorded, and waters all along the Norwegian coast were hitting record high average temperatures, the national Institute of Marine Research said Wednesday. | 29th March 2007 |
| Scientists say Antarctic ice sheet is thinning HOUSTON (Reuters) - A Texas-sized piece of the Antarctic ice sheet is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts said on Wednesday. | 29th March 2007 |
| NASA Data Shows Golden State Heating Up - RedNova Average temperatures in California rose almost one degree Celsius (nearly two degrees Fahrenheit) during the second half of the 20th century, with urban areas blazing the way to warmer conditions, according to a new study by scientists at NASA and California State University, Los Angeles. | 29th March 2007 |
| Food, Water Security Threatened by Warming, UN Panel Chief Says - Bloomberg.com March 28 (Bloomberg) -- The loss of food and water security is one of the most immediate threats posed by global warming, the head of a United Nations panel said before publication of the most detailed report ever on the subject. | 29th March 2007 |
| China adapts to climate change at the local level - SciDev.net China's provincial governments will take action to adapt to and reduce the effects of climate change with funds and technology provided by Norway and the UN. | 29th March 2007 |
| Mercury, the downside of energy-saving bulbs - New Scientist Every upside, almost by definition, has a downside. For example...Upside: The western world is increasingly switching to fluorescent, energy-saving lightbulbs. Downside: They contain mercury, while traditional incandescent bulbs do not.The bulbs emit the mercury when they're disposed of in dumps. | 29th March 2007 |
| Australia urged to ratify Kyoto pact - International Herald Tribune Australia needs to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and slash its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 60 percent by 2050 to help fight global warming. See also: Australia pledges A$200 million to climate change reforestation | 29th March 2007 |
| A German vision: greening globalisation - Open Democracy A plan to link climate-change policy with biodiversity loss renews the twenty-year-old idea of sustainable development, says Ehsan Masood. | 29th March 2007 |
| Carbon tax or trade? It's all academic - The Age Global warming controls will only work if all countries agree on the need, writes Alan Moran. | 29th March 2007 |
| International Biofuels Part II - Green Options blog A four-year study completed late last year reviewed the impacts of Asian biodiesel plantations being seeded on drained peat swamps. Since peat swamps act as a reservoir for stored carbon (in decomposing plants and animals), exposing them emits an enormous amount of CO2. Researchers from Wetlands, Delft Hydraulics and the Alterra Research Center of Wageningen University, all who contributed to the report, put the number at 600 million tons of additional carbon emitted into the atmosphere due to these plantations. Add to that the carbon emissions from burning rainforest for new palm oil plantations, an estimated 1.4 billion tons of CO2, and you have just accounted for 8% of global CO2 emissions. | 29th March 2007 |
| Greenhouse gas effect consistent over 420 million years - EurekAlert! New calculations show that sensitivity of Earth's climate to changes in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) has been consistent for the last 420 million years, according to an article in Nature by geologists at Yale and Wesleyan Universities. | 29th March 2007 |
| Reading peat's carbon contribution - BBC News Our correspondent David Shukman looks at how peat bogs also have an impact on climate. | 29th March 2007 |
| Climate Change: Strategic national security threat? - Climate Change Action "Usually I`m pleased to hear of a new sector of society taking climate change seriously, but in this case no comfort is brought to me by the fact that the military are starting to see an emerging global threat. This is perticularly the case since that threat is drawn from the expectation of hundereds of millions of newly dispossesed and poverty stricken environmental refugees." | 28th March 2007 |
| Mercury in energy-saving bulbs worries scientists NEW YORK (Reuters) - There's an old joke about the number of people it takes to change a light bulb. But because the newer energy-efficient kinds contain tiny amounts of mercury, the hard part is getting rid of them when they burn out. | 28th March 2007 |
| Cities at Risk of Rising Sea Levels - The Daily Comet More than two-thirds of the world's large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday. | 28th March 2007 |
| Tiny island with a global warning - BBC News In the first of a series of reports, BBC World Affairs Correspondent Mark Doyle analyses the state of food production and consumption across the globe. "This island and that piece of land over there used to be separated by just a narrow channel of water", says Mr Patra. "All the land which is now underwater used to be rice paddies". Experts in food production say Ghoramara is a symbol of the dramatic combination of factors which mean the world is heading for extreme food shortages in the coming decades. | 28th March 2007 |
| Green labels may transform food consumption - The New Zealand Herald Green labelling of food to show the impact of its production on the environment could lead to major changes in consumption, Lucy Neville-Rolfe of British retailer Tesco's said today. | 28th March 2007 |
| Gone With The Wind - Spiegel Online The rich may be moaning about wind turbines ruining their coastal views on Cape Cod, but in Delaware, citizens are ardently battling politicians, and the coal industry, to build the nation's largest offshore wind park. | 28th March 2007 |
| UK generator emissions soar - BBC News Carbon emissions from generating electricity have grown markedly in recent years, a report concludes. | 28th March 2007 |
| Eon seeks to bypass debate on nuclear power - Guardian Unlimited The nuclear lobby yesterday stepped up its rhetoric in favour of new plants by urging the government to proceed with pre-licensing of power station designs despite Greenpeace's court victory forcing more consultation on the government's energy white paper. | 28th March 2007 |
| Gone With The Wind - Spiegel Online The rich may be moaning about wind turbines ruining their coastal views on Cape Cod, but in Delaware, citizens are ardently battling politicians, and the coal industry, to build the nation's largest offshore wind park. | 28th March 2007 |
| 'Preserve peat bogs' for climate - BBC News The UK government should conserve peat bogs and the carbon they contain, urges the National Trust. | 28th March 2007 |
| Most Canadians Unwilling to Cut Driving by 50% - Angus Reid Global Monitor Many adults in Canada say they will implement changes in the way they use electricity at home, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 57 per cent of respondents will definitely use energy efficient light bulbs in their homes over the next year. In addition, 40 per cent of respondents say they would spend less than five minutes in the shower and refrain from taking baths. Canadians were more reticent to embrace two proposals that deal with transportation. Only 19 per cent of respondents would definitely cut their driving in half, and just 17 per cent are certain to take public transit every day. | 28th March 2007 |
| Mabira forest loss to cost $890m - New Vision THE damage of cutting away part of Mabira Forest in terms of carbon credit is estimated at $316m. The value of the land is estimated at about $5m and the value of the wood at another $568m. That means the Ugandan public stands to lose almost $890m (about 1.5 trillion shillings) as a result of the Government's plan to degazette part of the forest. | 28th March 2007 |
| European Union's climate change goals will cost €1 trillion - Guardian Unlimited Report outlines daunting task of CO2 targets. Insulation more effective than new power stations | 28th March 2007 |
| CO2 emissions targets at risk from 'the roll to coal' - Independent Soaring greenhouse gas emissions from power stations are seriously threatening Britain's new climate-change targets, launched in a blaze of publicity only two weeks ago, according to a new report. | 28th March 2007 |
| Senate bill on climate change hitting political problems - Boston Globe A Senate bill at the heart of the Legislature's global climate change initiative has been engulfed in a political firestorm because it would be paid for by tacking a surcharge on to home heating fuel bills. | 28th March 2007 |
| Climate focus 'brings security' - BBC News Dealing with climate change could bring a "peace dividend", Environment Secretary David Miliband says. | 27th March 2007 |
| Lack of ice set to kill start of Canada seal hunt OTTAWA (Reuters) - The first stage of Canada's controversial annual harp seal hunt is likely to be scrapped because the ice floes where pups are born have broken up and many animals have drowned, officials and animal rights activists said on Tuesday. | 27th March 2007 |
| 'Global warming' riddle of dead baby porpoise discovered miles upstream - The Scotsman A HARBOUR porpoise has been found dead miles from the sea in another possible sign of how global warming is affecting our sea creatures, The Scotsman can reveal. | 27th March 2007 |
| SA begins to import maize after drought ravages crops - Independent Online South Africa, generally a net exporter of maize, had started to import the staple grain as the worst drought in 15 years had devastated crops, John Purchase, the general manager of Grain SA, said yesterday. | 27th March 2007 |
| Czechs and Poles hit at carbon cut - Financial Times Brussels yesterday sparked a confrontation with the Czech Republic and Poland by slashing proposed limits on industrial carbon dioxide emissions. | 27th March 2007 |
| Global warming a threat to Texas water supply - Houston Chronicle With a dozen bills addressing global warming before the Legislature, lawmakers on Monday had a chance to hear from experts about what a rise in the Earth's temperature means for Texas. | 27th March 2007 |
| Global warming study warns of vanishing climates - Guardian Unlimited Scientists warn of disaster in biodiversity hotspots · Species 'must evolve or migrate' to survive | 27th March 2007 |
| Ministers to drive forward European push on climate change - Government News Network The UK Government today (Tuesday) starts a series of joint Ministerial visits to key European capitals to drive forward EU action on climate change. | 27th March 2007 |
| Global Warming: Heat Invades Cool Hights Above Arizona Desert - Free Internet Press "A lot of people think climate change and the ecological repercussions are 50 years away, said Thomas W. Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in Tucson. But it's happening now in the West. The data is telling us that we are in the middle of one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States." | 27th March 2007 |
| Exclusive Interview - David Suzuki: Environmentalist insists on ... - McGill Tribune Canadians are ready to pay the price for sustainability. | 27th March 2007 |
| Israeli Discovery Converts Dangerous Radioactive Waste into Clean Energy - New York Jewish Times [Too good to be true? ...or just what the nuclear industry needed?] An Israeli firm has taken the laws of science and turned them into a useful invention for mankind - a reactor that converts radioactive, hazardous and municipal waste into inert byproducts such as glass and clean energy. | 27th March 2007 |
| George Monbiot: If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: Oil from plants sets up competition for food between cars and people. People will lose. | 27th March 2007 |
| Study warns of vanishing climates - Guardian Unlimited Scientists warn of disaster in biodiversity hotspots. | 27th March 2007 |
| SUVs as Cliche - Huffington Post If we're going to act decisively, we're going to need to do the smartest, cheapest things first, the things that deliver the deepest greenhouse gas cuts for the buck. And hybrids don't fit the bill. - if we're going to do the most efficient things first, then let's start where the green option is cheaper than not only the other green option, but the conventional option as well. Then the savings can fund the next step. | 27th March 2007 |
| Britons Reject Additional Air Travel Tax - Angus Reid Global Monitor Many adults in Britain are opposed to extra levies for air travellers, according to a poll by ICM Research published in The Guardian. 62 per cent of respondents disapprove of additional taxes in this area to help protect the environment. | 27th March 2007 |
| Drought wipes out crops in southern Zim - Mail and Guardian Drought has wiped out 95% of maize crops in a province of southern Zimbabwe, reports said on Monday. | 27th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: The Plan for Replacing Fossil Fuels In order to win on climate change we are going to have to play the "wedges game" -- a plan to use a variety of technologies to replace fossil fuels. | 27th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: EarthTalk: Which Countries Will Meet Kyoto Requirements? When it comes to reducing carbon emissions, some countries have their acts together, while others have a long way to go. | 27th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Polluters Are Working Overtime to Woo Congress Al Gore may bring the glamor to Capitol Hill, but polluting industries still bring the bucks. | 27th March 2007 |
| Coal is the enemy of the human race An extensive Christian Science Monitor analysis reveals that "nations will add enough coal-fired capacity in the next five years to create an extra 1.2 billion tons of CO2 per year." In all, at least 37 nations plan to add coal-fired capacity in the next five years -- up from the 26 nations that added capacity during the past five years. With Sri Lanka, Laos, and even oil-producing nations like Iran getting set to join the coal-power pack, the world faces the prospect five years from now of having 7,474 coal-fired power plants in 79 countries pumping out 9 billion tons of CO2 emissions annually -- out of 31 billion tons from all sources in 2012. | 27th March 2007 |
| The World This Week: Gas Bags - Hartford Advocate Exxon's Experts Are Killing Us Softly With Their Lies | 27th March 2007 |
| British Energy reportedly in nuclear power station talks with Centrica and SSE - Energy Business Review British Energy is reportedly holding secret talks with Scottish and Southern Energy and Centrica regarding plans to build nuclear power stations in the UK, according to the Sunday Telegraph. | 27th March 2007 |
| China provides half of world's carbon credits under Kyoto Protocol - People's Daily China has provided half of the world's carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol after developing 279 foreign-invested carbon reduction projects, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Monday. | 27th March 2007 |
| EU Aid Backs Tax Breaks for Low-Energy Appliances - Planet Ark VILNIUS - European Union Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said on Monday he was in favour of tax breaks for energy-efficient household appliances as part of a "green tax" effort to cut greenhouse gases and lower energy consumption. | 27th March 2007 |
| Tanks on the White House lawn The bosses of America's big car manufacturers asked President George Bush yesterday to help boost the number of petrol stations offering ethanol-based alternative fuels. | 27th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Seize the Momentum Bill McKibben StepItUp2007: Where does a new consensus come from? How does the zeitgeist suddenly start to shift? | 27th March 2007 |
| Report queries nuclear role in beating global warming - Reuters via Yahoo! Asia News LONDON (Reuters) - The surge in political popularity of nuclear power as a quick-fix, zero-carbon solution to global warming is misguided and potentially highly dangerous, a group of academics and scientists said on Monday. | 26th March 2007 |
| Greens release polluter-pays climate change policy - The New Zealand Herald The Green Party has unveiled a climate change policy that would charge polluters for their greenhouse gas emissions. In late 2004 the Government dumped a proposed carbon tax, due to political opposition. | 26th March 2007 |
| Fighting for air: frontline of war on global warming - Guardian Unlimited Progress comes at a high price for China and India, but there are grounds for hope. | 26th March 2007 |
| EC approves Polish, Czech plans for CO2 allowances at 26.7%, 14.8% lowerthan proposed - Interfax PRAGUE. MARCH 26. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - The European Commission (EC) announced Monday it has accepted the national plans of the Czech Republic and Poland for allocating CO2 emission allowances for the 2008- 2012 trading period of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), conditional on a number of changes, including a significant reduction in the total number of emission allowances. | 26th March 2007 |
| Global Warming in Polar Regions: Is the Canary Singing - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Dr. Homer-Dixon is one of the leading experts on issues related to climate change and was a top advisor to Vice President Al Gore during the making of An ... | 26th March 2007 |
| Investors call for government to take on climate change - InvestmentNews “Through their actions, they are demonstrating that preventing climate change isn't just good for the planet; it is an opportunity to bolster the bottom ... | 26th March 2007 |
| Province too timid on environment - Toronto Star Canada, Ontario: "We have the premier saying this is one of his Top 2 priorities, but this wasn't really reflected in this budget," says Keith Stewart of WWF-Canada. "They're spending more on expanding highways than on the climate plan. The carbon math just doesn't add up." | 26th March 2007 |
| Greens hail landmark victory in fight to save Amazon rainforests One of the world's largest agribusiness giants was forced to close a soy export terminal in Brazil's Amazon region this weekend, marking a major victory for environmentalists who have argued for years that the plant was built illegally and became a significant cause of rainforest depletion. | 26th March 2007 |
| World Must Pay Poorer Nations to Keep Forests - Stern - Planet Ark JAKARTA - A major UN conference on global warming in December should target setting up a system to pay developing nations such as Indonesia and Brazil to keep their forests, an influential climate change expert said on Friday. | 26th March 2007 |
| Flowering patterns hit by global warming - The Times of India This year, tulip tree and shimdo have failed to flower. | 26th March 2007 |
| Songbirds shun gardens thanks to mild winter - Guardian Unlimited This year's mild winter meant fewer songbirds visited gardens in Britain, according to a survey by the RSPB. | 26th March 2007 |
| Al Gore's 'Climate Project' comes to Britain - CNews LONDON (AP) - Former U.S. vice president Al Gore is to hold training sessions on Monday and Tuesday to educate British volunteers about climate change, a news release from Cambridge University said. | 26th March 2007 |
| Report recommends decentralising energy - The Herald Creating a network of local power stations would be far more efficient and lead to lower carbon emissions than building new nuclear power stations, according to a report commissioned by Greenpeace. | 26th March 2007 |
| Business urges City to lead carbon battle - FT.com via Yahoo! News Leading banks, insurers and professional services firms are calling for the City to follow their example in declaring an intention to become carbon neutral. | 26th March 2007 |
| Tough Task as Britain Bids for Steep Carbon Cut - Planet Ark LONDON - Judging by past performance Britain will struggle to meet ambitious "green" targets of slicing a third off climate warming carbon dioxide emissions within 12 years, risking international embarrassment. | 26th March 2007 |
| Carbon trading vs. carbon taxes on Science Friday The question of climate change has finally moved on from is it happening? to what should we do about it?. There has been some great discussion here at Grist on carbon trading vs. carbon taxes (e.g., here or here). For those who want more, Bill Chameides, chief scientist of Environmental Defense, was on Science Friday to talk about carbon trading. Check out the mp3 here. Bill basically reiterates the points he made here on Gristmill a while back. But it's still worth listening to. | 26th March 2007 |
| Energy credits: a new solution? - ScienceAlert ... “The core of the global warming problem: energy”, Dr Eric Hu presents a case for using energy credits to address the problem of climate change. ... | 26th March 2007 |
| State governments lend weight to efforts to reduce global warming - USA Today As more and more states band together to fight global warming, their efforts are moving beyond mere symbolism and becoming big enough to make a real dent in the problem, analysts and environmental groups say. | 25th March 2007 |
| Climate action must carry social cost - The Age Climate response has barely scratched the surface on social inequity, according to James Norman. | 25th March 2007 |
| Pulling Power From Wood - Hartford Courant Beyond The Fireplace, An Electric Idea For Old-School Fuel Fuel cells, windmills and solar panels are usually considered the way of the future for meeting the ever-growing demand for electricity. | 25th March 2007 |
| Australian city aims for world first climate change blackout - AFP via Yahoo! News Australia's largest city will be plunged into darkness for an hour on Saturday in an attempt at a world first blackout to raise awareness of global warming, organisers say. | 25th March 2007 |
| Anti-global warming law not exactly new in Texas - Houston Chronicle Climate change may be getting more attention at the Texas Capitol than ever before, but for more than 15 years state law has recognized the emissions that cause global warming. | 25th March 2007 |
| Smart meters may help reduce energy prices - The Daily Times Wait! Before you turn on that dishwasher, break out the calculator. That's a snapshot of a new energy-conserving future in the United States, one that Trina Camping and Mike Lewis are already living. | 25th March 2007 |
| India must help reduce climate change: British economists - New Kerala Chennai, March 25: British economists have urged India to help mitigate climate change, saying vulnerability to the phenomenon went hand in hand with poverty. | 25th March 2007 |
| EcoFocus: There's no time to waste to stem warming trend - Poughkeepsie Journal Like it or not, global warming is upon us. The real questions we face are: is this warming unusual and does it result from human activities? As a global change scientist, I am often asked these questions, and I believe the answer to both of them is "yes." |
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| Expert View: A cleaner world demands a new way of working - Independent The Climate Change Bill will oblige the UK to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by hundreds of millions of tons a year. The 60 per cent reduction proposed for 2050 would be the same as all the emissions from electricity generation and from vehicles on the road today. | 25th March 2007 |
| Tim Webb: Britain's green goals are over the hills and far away - Independent Gerry Spindler, the chief executive of UK Coal, makes clear in our interview that he is no Arthur Scargill firebrand socialist: he believes in free markets. The trouble, as he points out, is letting the market dictate energy policy is a recipe for disaster. | 25th March 2007 |
| El Niño Has Bigger Bite with Climate Change - Inter Press Service "As a consequence of global warming, in the past few years rainfall has been more constant and heavier," Carlos Céspedes, head of planning for the National Naval Hydrology Service | 25th March 2007 |
| Greenpeace finds common ground with Inhofe Virgin Blue, the Australian extension of Richard Branson's airline empire, recently launched a program to allow passengers to purchase carbon offsets when they book a flight. That's nice. But what struck me was this quote from Greenpeace's energy campaigner, Ben Pearson: Virgin should not be criticized out of hand for this scheme, but it promotes the idea that dealing with climate change is easy and cheap rather than being about the difficult task of changing consumer behavior, government policy and investment.Let's take the Pepsi Challenge. Pretend I just told you that I have a problem that I'd like your help in fixing. | 25th March 2007 |
| Vermont Maple Syrup Hard Hit by Climate Change - ABC News Warmer Temperatures, Shorter Winters Could Move Industry North to Canada | 25th March 2007 |
| Warming, anti-war protests converge on Boston - WPRI 12 Providence BOSTON Hundreds of protesters converged today at two separate protests in downtown Boston -- one a demonstration against the war in Iraq, the other to call attention to global warming. | 25th March 2007 |
| BP claims it has than cut more CO2 than whole of Britain - Times Online THE oil giant BP has been accused of creative accounting after declaring a cut of 830m tons in its annual carbon dioxide emissions — roughly equivalent to the entire output of Britain and the Netherlands combined. | 25th March 2007 |
| Green giants join forces to fight carbon emissions - Independent Forty top British companies will next week launch an unprecedented campaign to shrink Britain's carbon footprint, by cutting their own energy use and trying to turn "green consumerism into a mass movement". | 25th March 2007 |
| Daylight saving won't help Qld carbon emissions, conservationists say - ABC via Yahoo!7 News Conservationists say daylight saving in Queensland would not cut greenhouse gas emissions. | 25th March 2007 |
| Build river barrage for tidal power, MPs told - Guardian Unlimited MPs will be urged to consider building a barrage across the Severn estuary to generate 'carbon-free' electricity. | 25th March 2007 |
| Orang utans face extinction by 2012 - Guardian Unlimited As a vegetable oil it can enhance a healthy diet, and as a biofuel it can reduce carbon emissions which contribute to climate change. ... | 25th March 2007 |
| 100pc in drought declared in Victoria - Stuff SYDNEY: Australia's lingering drought, one of the worst on record, has produced a first-ever official declaration that all agricultural land in the southeastern state of Victoria is in drought. | 24th March 2007 |
| Millions face drought in China - BBC News Very low levels of rainfall in south-western China have left 5.5 million people short of water, officials say. | 24th March 2007 |
| Open Skies 'will undo CO2 curbs' - Guardian Unlimited Environmental groups warned yesterday that the open skies treaty to liberalise transatlantic flights could undermine efforts to combat climate change. | 24th March 2007 |
| CO2 being pushed deep into the oceans The good news is that this might absorb more emissions of the greenhouse gas - the bad news is that it may harm marine organisms | 24th March 2007 |
| Amazon 'faces more deadly droughts' - BBC News The more alarming predictions for the Amazon say the combination of forest fires, drought, deforestation, changes in land use (such as soya production) and global warming will combine to push the Amazon over a "tipping point" into a cycle of destruction. | 24th March 2007 |
| Deforestation puts Indonesia as 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter - Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News Deforestation, which releases a significant number of carbon dioxide, has put Indonesia as the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after the United States and China, a report released Friday said. | 24th March 2007 |
| Hungry for water - Reuters AlertNet With global warming, a ballooning world population and rapid urbanisation, the stakes are getting higher. By 2025, experts say 3.4 billion people will be ... | 24th March 2007 |
| China seen topping U.S. carbon emissions in 2007 BEIJING/LONDON (Reuters) - China is on course to overtake the United States this year as the world's biggest carbon emitter, estimates based on Chinese energy data show, potentially pressuring Beijing to take more action on climate change. | 24th March 2007 |
| The Ungreening of America: Dirty Secrets - Mother Jones No president has gone after the nation's environmental laws with the same fury as George W. Bush -- and none has been so adept at staying under the radar. | 24th March 2007 |
| Engineer urges assets rethink - Sydney Morning Herald THE nation's building stock and infrastructure need to be adapted to the challenges of global warming, says a leading engineer. | 24th March 2007 |
| Sydney faces soaring heat and vanishing rain Global warming will lead to big changes in climate in Australia's biggest city, says a new report, renewing calls for carbon trading to reduce emissions | 24th March 2007 |
| Top UK companies do not declare all carbon emissions - New Scientist A lack of mandatory standards regulating the way companies report their greenhouse gas emissions has led to massive underestimation, report claims | 24th March 2007 |
| Using Microalgae To Try To Eliminate Carbon Dioxide Emissions - Science Daily Scientists of the University of Almeria are carrying out a research project on the development of new systems to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions using microalgae photosynthetic activity. | 24th March 2007 |
| Antarctic melting may be speeding up - Reuters Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centers already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyze latest satellite data. A United Nations report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in February projected sea level gains of 18-59 centimeters (7-23 inches) this century from temperature rises of 1.8-4.0 Celsius (3.2-7.8 Farenheit). "Observations are in the very upper edge of the projections," leading Australian marine scientist John Church told Reuters. "I feel that we're getting uncomfortably close to threshold," said Church, of Australia's CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research said. Past this level, parts of the Antarctic and Greenland would approach a virtually irreversible melting that would produce sea level rises of meters, he said. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Worlds Of Possibility - Scienceline A look at the emissions scenarios climate scientists use to predict the future. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Budget deficit disorder - The Daily Targum How do you measure a society's values? A good place to start is how its democratically elected government spends tax money. In this respect the United States is the most militaristic nation on earth. In 2005, military spending made up 28 percent of our budget or $428 billion (not including veteran's benefits) and has continued to grow since. The Bush administration devotes just $3 billion a year to research crucial new technologies that could help cut global warming and $2 billion on climate research. That paltry $5 billion is just 1/84 the size of the defense budget. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Scientist: Climate Panel Must Do Better Getting The Word Out - New London Day Storrs - The science behind the sobering conclusions of the world's leading panel on climate change would pass the most stringent test. But that panel's record on communicating its findings and answering its critics would rate no better than "a gentleman's 'C'." | 23rd March 2007 |
| Bill McKibben says we're stuffed - Salon Bill McKibben says we're stuffedSalon: We've eaten, developed and drilled to near oblivion, says the environmental writer. It's time to realize that having more stuff is not the road to paradise. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Permanent Summer - Scienceline Global warming will raise temperatures year round, but the biggest changes will come in the dog days of summer, according to a recent report which predicts that the hottest days will get even hotter, and that there will be more of them. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Biofuel demand makes food expensive - BBC News Demand for biofuel, which is made from plants, is sending global food commodity prices soaring. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Moscow enjoys warmest start to spring by Steph Ball - BBC News Wednesday saw Moscow experiencing its warmest 21st March as spring officially got under way. Although it seems that winter is proving reluctant to release its grip on the UK and parts of Europe, Muscovites have instead been shedding their winter clothes as temperatures pushed well above the average. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Study: Lake Superior summer temps rising - Science Daily - press release U.S. scientists have determined Lake Superior's summer surface temperatures have increased by approximately 2.5 degrees Celsius since 1979. The researchers, led by Jay Austin and Steven Colman of the University of Minnesota, said the increase is about twice the rate of regional atmospheric warming. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Global warming puts Canada's hunted seals on thin ice - AFP via Yahoo! News Global warming is threatening Canada's harp seals, protesters warned Thursday, calling for this year's annual cull to be cancelled to spare seals already in peril from retreating ice. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Source of hot European summers determined - Science Daily - press release French-led research suggests shortages of winter rainfall over southern Europe precede hot summers further north on the European continent. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Study: Oceans acidify from CO2 buildup - UPI A U.S. study suggests ocean acidification changes from CO2 emissions are mostly independent of any temperature increase caused by the emissions. | 23rd March 2007 |
| DTI rethinks green home subsidies - BBC News The DTI suspends a popular subsidy for households wanting to install small scale generation such as solar panels. | 23rd March 2007 |
| EU OKs "open skies" deal to boost air traffic to US - Seattle Times Environmentalists called the deal a move backward in efforts to fight global warming. The European Federation for Transport and Environment said more flights could completely negate other efforts to curb climate change and cut the amount of carbon dioxide released by aviation in coming years. The EU, however, has said the deal would reduce the cost of tickets, putting an extra 25 million people on trans-Atlantic flights within five years. Just under 50 million travelers now fly those routes. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Southern Ocean current faces slowdown threat HOBART (Reuters) - The impact of global warming on the vast Southern Ocean around Antarctica is starting to pose a threat to ocean currents that distribute heat around the world, Australian scientists say, citing new deep-water data. | 23rd March 2007 |
| U.S. developing system to track global warming gas - AlertNet The United States is developing a system to track atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, which could help scientists project future climate ... | 23rd March 2007 |
| Green GDP shown the red signal - China Daily China: The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has asked the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) not to release the latest results of Green GDP to the public and keep them only as a reference for policymakers. The country's first Green GDP report showed pollution caused losses of 511.8 billion yuan ($64 billion) in 2004, or 3.05 per cent of the 16 trillion yuan ($2 trillion) GDP that year. At the news conference marking the release of the report, Pan Yue, vice-minister of SEPA, said the figures marked "only the beginning of our efforts in calculating Green GDP". But soon after the report was released, some of the 10 provinces and municipalities in the pilot project were reluctant to continue their participation and wanted to pull out because of concerns that regional economic growth could be hit... | 23rd March 2007 |
| The CO2 Challenge - GE Global Research GE: CO2 capture causes substantial penalties on the power plant efficiency, and significant costs. To find the most efficient and most economical solution is therefore the highest priority of our research. | 23rd March 2007 |
| ANALYSIS - EU Biodiesel Slumps Despite Global Warming Fear - Planet Ark HAMBURG - The European Union biodiesel industry is working well under capacity despite top-level political moves to increase biofuels use to combat global warming, industry executives said. | 23rd March 2007 |
| Biofuels Boom Spurring Deforestation - IPS Nearly 40,000 hectares of forest vanish every day, driven by the world's growing hunger for timber, pulp and paper, and ironically, new biofuels and carbon credits designed to protect the environment. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Global boom in coal power – and emissions - CS Monitor A Monitor analysis shows the potential for an extra 1.2 billion tons of carbon released into the atmosphere per year. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Really short haul versus the train: a carbon comparison - New Scientist London-Newquay: If I were to fly, I would leave from Gatwick and the flight would take 1 hour. My total financial cost is £68.80 ($134), and the cost to the environment is 135 kg of CO2 for the round trip. The flight only takes one hour, but including travel to and from the airports and check-in time, I'm looking at a total travel time of 6 hours. Now the train. It leaves from Paddington, and arrives in the centre of Newquay. The actual train journey takes 5 hours, so including travel to and from the train stations, the journey time is roughly the same as the flight. The ticket is only marginally more at £74. According to the DEFRA numbers mentioned above, rail journeys in the UK typically emit 0.04 kg of CO2 per person for each kilometre travelled. So 450 x 2 x 0.04 = 36 kg for my round trip on the train. Or 99 kg less than the plane. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Uganda PM Approves Clearing of Rainforest - Planet Ark Uganda's prime minister has approved a plan for thousands of hectares of a rainforest nature reserve to be replaced by a sugarcane plantation, the state-owned New Vision daily said on Wednesday. | 22nd March 2007 |
| EU confirms looking at extending carbon emission caps to shipping sector - Sharewatch "One of the issues that we are looking at is extending the emissions trading system on to maritime transport," commission spokeswoman Barbara Helfferich said. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Effort Afoot to Start US Climate Registry - Planet Ark Thirty-three states have informally agreed to create a registry for companies and organizations to log early actions on cutting output of gases linked to global warming -- and possibly get credit for them if future limits on the gases are passed -- state officials said. | 22nd March 2007 |
| David Adam: Green action was promised 10 years ago - Guardian Unlimited David Adam: Has Gordon Brown truly gone green, or was the prominence of the environment in yesterday's budget merely a political riposte to David Cameron's new-found love of glaciers? | 22nd March 2007 |
| Global Warming Real, Worrying for Canadians - Angus Reid Most Canadian adults believe climate change is a reality, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Greens' bid on climate change fails - AAP via Yahoo!7 News The federal government has rejected an attempt by the Australian Greens to introduce measures to slash greenhouse gas emissions. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Step It Up passes 1000 actions! - It's Getting Hot In Here Step It Up 2007 is organizing a National Day of Climate Action for April 14. The goal: uniting hundreds of communities nationwide in a call for immediate, bold action from congress on climate change: cutting carbon at least 80% by 2050. Below is a post from Bill McKibben, environmental writer, activist, and coordinator of Step It Up, on passing the 1,000 mark | 22nd March 2007 |
| Web-exclusive comment: Water, water, everywhere – Not - Globe and Mail The media coverage on climate change in Canada has focused almost exclusively on greenhouse-gas emissions, as have most politicians and commentators. While we do not want to underestimate the serious nature of these emissions, we wish to bring attention to another important cause of global warming: the global water crisis. The world is running out of water. Humans are polluting, depleting and diverting its finite freshwater supplies so quickly, we are creating massive new deserts and generating global warming from below. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Off standby: How manufacturers are making it easier to turn off gadgets It has become something of an endangered species in recent years. Once, the on/off button was the only way to switch on the living room's box of delights, but recently it has been banished to a hidden corner of the television set, all but forgotten, thanks to the remote-control stand-by facility. On some televisions, the on/off button has disappeared completely. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Julia Stephenson: The Green Goddess Preaching to the converted is soothing, and it's valuable to forge links with those with similar opinions. However, it's the unconverted and unconcerned that we need to reach, but until we're faced with the sort of environmental disasters less fortunate parts of the world are experiencing, there seems little chance that the UK will begin to conserve instead of consume. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Rethinking the bottom line The old thinking, as author and thinker Bill McKibben explains in today's LA Times, goes like this: bigger is always better, growth is good no matter what, and a booming stock market is the ultimate measure of our success. McKibben illustrates the kind of lopsided priorities that naturally flow when we're ruled by the bottom line, pointing to a scarcely-reported White House report that said the U.S. would be pumping out almost 20 percent more greenhouse gases in 2020 than we did in 2000, our contribution to climate change going steadily up -- against all warnings to the contrary. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Open skies pact 'will worsen climate change' Plans to open up transatlantic aviation and generate an extra 26 million air passengers over five years will undermine Europe's push to combat climate change, campaigners warned yesterday. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Why Are Coho Salmon Disappearing? - KGO-TV Bay Area The fight to save an endangered salmon run. Is global warming a factor? A special effort to spare this troubled species. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Lower CO2 Emissions From Coal-fueled Power Plants Possible With Technology Development - Science Daily A more economical technology for a 90 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fueled power plants is being developed by a chemical engineer and his colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin as part of the TXU Carbon Management Program. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Gore makes global warming plea - BBC News Former US Vice-President Al Gore testifies in Congress about the need to counter global warming. See also: Gore Senate testimony: final thoughts - GristMill | 22nd March 2007 |
| Energy: A technology competition that could save the planet It's the technology that may do more than any other to save the planet - and Britain may be first to bring it on stream, Gordon Brown announced. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Disappointment at level of energy saving subsidies - Guardian Unlimited UK: Environmental groups express themselves to be 'hugely disappointed' with the chancellor's measures. | 22nd March 2007 |
| Injunction stops power protest - Channel4 UK: Electricity giant Npower has obtained an injunction to stop protests and filming at the site of a proposed ash dump. What began as a local environmental battle has now escalated into something a lot more serious. When the people of Radley village took on the electricity giant Npower because of its decision to destroy a local beauty spot, they little expected what would follow. It is a cautionary tale of how large corporations are now able to suspend some basic freedoms we all thought we enjoyed. | 21st March 2007 |
| Gore warns Congress of impending 'planetary emergency' - CNN.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore, a Democratic favorite for the presidency despite pronouncements that he's not running, spoke out on his signature issue Wednesday, warning of a "true planetary emergency" if Congress fails to act on global warming. In a return he described as emotional, Gore testified before House panels that it is not too late to deal with climate change "and we have everything we need to get started." By turns folksy and prescriptive, he urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to adopt an immediate freeze on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. See also Al Gore's testimony to the House - GristMill | 21st March 2007 |
| Scooter Company Suggests Global Warming Solution - The Auto Channel NEW YORK, March 21 -- An overwhelming majority of Americans -- 70% -- say they are concerned about global warming, according to results from a new national survey. | 21st March 2007 |
| Put 'eco' back in economics, expert urges - The Capital Times Global warming is a threat second only to all-out nuclear war and America has to act now, a famed environmentalist and geneticist told a Madison audience Tuesday night. | 21st March 2007 |
| Hydrogen cars face technological hurdles: experts SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Hydrogen is being touted as an environmentally friendly fuel of the future, but the road to hydrogen-powered vehicles will not be easy, industry experts said on Tuesday. | 21st March 2007 |
| Brown delivers greenest budget yet to pre-empt Tory policies - Guardian Unlimited UK Budget in detail: Gordon Brown attempted today to seize the environmental high ground from David Cameron's Conservatives with a series of tax incentives to encourage more energy-efficient cars and houses. See also: Zero carbon homes exempt from stamp duty Cars bear brunt of green taxation | 21st March 2007 |
| A New Twist on Tree Rings - Scienceline By analyzing rings found in cross sections of trees, a team of researchers has found new evidence that the climate is hotter today than it was in the so-called medieval warming period, a discovery that some scientists say rebuts a key argument of global warming skeptics. | 21st March 2007 |
| Is solar UV frying fish? - innovations report Marine and freshwater organisms could be facing damage due to increasing levels of ultraviolet radiation, according to a United Nations commissioned review. There could also be wider implications for climate change, since if UV damage cuts marine ecosystem productivity, the oceans’ capacity to mop up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide would fall. This extra atmospheric CO2 could then add to global warming. Additionally, the annual phytoplankton boom, which supports the entire Antarctic aquatic food chain, is currently protected from UV damage by a layer of sea-ice. Warmer climates would mean sea-ice melts earlier, increasing UV exposure. These plankton are particularly vulnerable to UV damage as the low temperatures slow their repair mechanisms. | 21st March 2007 |
| Bush, Edwards, Activists Focus on Global Warming - Environmental News Network Environmentalists rallied on Capitol Hill, President Bush pushed fuel economy and White House hopeful John Edwards unveiled a new energy plan Tuesday, focusing on global warming a day before Al Gore was to testify to Congress on the hot political topic. | 21st March 2007 |
| 'Cap and trade' gaining favor: Congress taking up business-friendly proposals to reduce global warming - SF Gate As environmental activists and politicians, including Al Gore, descend on Capitol Hill this week to urge action on global warming, nearly all are touting a business-friendly solution -- as are California regulators who are drawing up the state's new system to curb greenhouse gas emissions. | 21st March 2007 |
| Long-haul flights leaving their mark - ic Wales Satellite images show that so many long-haul flights cross Wales at high altitude the country can be almost completely obscured by vapour trails. The high-altitude trails over Wales prevent heat escaping at night and narrow the temperature gap between night and day | 21st March 2007 |
| Safe Climate Act Best Chance to Avert Dangerous Climate Change - All American Patriots USA: More than 120 House members today will reintroduce the Safe Climate Act, which offers the best opportunity to protect future generations from the worst effects of global warming, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The bipartisan bill, spearheaded by Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), calls for an 80 percent reduction of global warming pollution from 1990 levels by 2050, a cut that UCS scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. | 21st March 2007 |
| House Republicans stack climate change committee with skeptics - Grist Magazine House Republicans stack climate change committee with skepticsGrist Magazine, WA. ... on Energy Independence and Global Warming -- but only if the Maryland Republican would say humans are not causing climate change, Gilchrest said. ... | 21st March 2007 |
| Marshall Islands declares emergency as water runs out - Yahoo / AFP he government of the Marshall Islands dispatched a ship to supply drinking water to outlying islands Wednesday after declaring a state of emergency amid a prolonged drought. Many islands in the western Pacific island nation of 60,000 people have had little rain since January and earlier this week the former US territory declared an emergency for six islands and appealed for international help. | 21st March 2007 |
| Germany aims to capitalise on climate fears - Financial Times Germany wants to mobilise public concern over climate change to resolve another of the European Union's trickiest problems: the relaunch of the bloc's draft constitutional treaty. | 21st March 2007 |
| Keeping up appearances - Guardian Unlimited UK: The government pledge to help individuals install renewable energy sources is being strangled by the planning system's red tape | 21st March 2007 |
| EU action on emissions cuts useless without global support, say business leaders - EARTHtimes.org While leaders of European Union have taken a bold initiative by setting a target of cutting down greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, provided some of the other major polluters, including the U.S., China and India, too agree on similar reductions, many feel it will be an onerous task to convince these countries on the telling need to slash emissions. | 21st March 2007 |
| Japan aims to lead post-Kyoto climate change fight - AFP via Yahoo! News Japan aims to play a leading role in the post-Kyoto battle on global warming and will seek the full engagement of the United States and China, the world's top two polluters, officials said Tuesday. | 21st March 2007 |
| Flowers, animals signal spring arrived long ago OSLO (Reuters) - Early flowers, migrating swallows and sleepless bears are among signs that spring has arrived long ago in the northern hemisphere even as a record mild winter formally ends on Tuesday with a rare chill. | 21st March 2007 |
| Winter 2006-07 ties for second-warmest on record - CBC As spring officially begins Tuesday night, Canadians can bid farewell to one of the warmest winters ever recorded. | 21st March 2007 |
| Utility chiefs wary of emission limits - ABCmoney.co.uk USA: Top executives of some of the country's largest electric utilities gave guarded support Tuesday -- or at least said they were not opposed -- to mandatory carbon emission limits to deal with global warming. | 21st March 2007 |
| World Bank to manage European emissions reduction fund - Eu Business (BRUSSELS ) - The World Bank is to manage a new 50-million-euro (66-million-dollar) European fund to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in emerging economies, it said Tuesday. | 21st March 2007 |
| Van Jones I hope that everyone will take some time and head over to read my interview with Van Jones, civil rights lawyer, founder and director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and rising star of progressive activism. His message is that largely white, affluent "eco-elites" need to broaden their coalition by reaching out to low-income and minority youth, promising them training and jobs in the new clean energy economy. As he says: "For people with a bunch of opportunity, you tell them about the crisis. For people with a bunch of crisis, you tell about the opportunities." ... | 21st March 2007 |
| Climate change winners and losers Interesting piece from Makower on some recent articles moving the climate conversation to more ... prosaic concerns. That is to say: who's gonna make out? The first is in the Harvard Business Review, and outlines these risks to businesses: ... regulatory risk (the impact of emissions caps or carbon taxes); supply chain risk (disruptions or price hikes in materials or energy, in many cases because of the huge distances such supplies are shipped); product and technology risk (companies' varying ability to identify ways to exploit new market opportunities for climate-friendly products and services) ... | 21st March 2007 |
| Living the green life in 'Low Carb Lane' experiment - Blyth and Wansbeck Today LIFE at No 1 Low Carb Lane promises to be anything but humdrum for the tenants of the terrace house in Ashington when they move into their new home. | 21st March 2007 |
| Conservative Climate - Scientific Amercian Is the fourth assessment report from the IPCC a conservative document? David Biello makes the case. "The signs of global climate change are clear: melting glaciers, earlier blooms and rising temperatures. In fact, 11 of the past 12 years rank among the hottest ever recorded. After some debate, the scientists and diplomats of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued their long-anticipated summary report in February. The summary describes the existence of global warming as "unequivocal" but leaves out a reference to an accelerated trend in this warming. By excluding statements that provoked disagreement and adhering strictly to data published in peer-reviewed journals, the IPCC has generated a conservative document that may underestimate the changes that will result from a warming world, much as its 2001 report did." | 20th March 2007 |
| Wolfgang Ischinger: A European moment - Guardian Unlimited With the US crippled by a crisis of international credibility, the EU must take the lead. "On climate change, the critical question is who can - and will - lead the international debate about a post-Kyoto regime. If a deal can be hammered out in 2007, and if it has any chance of endorsement in the US, China and India, it will most likely be the result of the EU's ongoing efforts to move ahead with ambitious goals on CO2 emissions and energy saving. But would a European moment in 2007 not be interpreted as a challenge to the global leadership role of the US? Let's not get carried away: without active American support, political and military, none of these major challenges can be resolved. Europeans should beware the hubris of challenging the US. But the European moment could actually enhance the transatlantic relationship by offering, at a crucial juncture, elements that America currently lacks: legitimacy and credibility. That is why our American friends should encourage European initiatives, embrace a European willingness to lead, and welcome the European moment." | 20th March 2007 |
| Putting hope into law - Guardian Unlimited Something of the spirit of 1997 surrounded yesterday's publication of the climate-change bill, a sense that politics can still hope to change the world for the better. | 20th March 2007 |
| First greenhouse gas animations produced using Envisat SCIAMACHY data - European Space Agency Further illustrating the urgency to combat global warming, Britain became the first country last week to propose legislation for cutting the gases. ... | 20th March 2007 |
| Gas guzzlers could cost up to $4000 more - Montreal Gazette People who buy or lease fuel-efficient vehicles could benefit from rebates of up to $2,000 and motorists who buy gas guzzlers could see the price tag increase by $1,000 to $4,000 because of a new "green levy on fuel-inefficient vehicles." | 20th March 2007 |
| Global warming author says cities can do plenty - Houston Chronicle Tim Flannery, author of the popular global warming book The Weather Makers, visited Houston Monday and spoke at The Progressive Forum. Before the speech, he sat down with Eric Berger to discuss the scope of global warming and outline why governments should be taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and recapture carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. | 20th March 2007 |
| Global warming knocking at your door - Boston Globe "If you take global warming seriously, for instance, the prospect of using 36 calories of energy to grow and transport one calorie of California lettuce east doesn't make much sense. Peak oil and climate change alone may mean that the economy will grow gradually less national and global, and more regional and local." - Bill McKibben | 20th March 2007 |
| Has Pacific Northwest snowpack declined? Yes. - RealClimate Clearing up confusion over the "50 percent decline". | 20th March 2007 |
| Lightning and Climate Change - New York Times Measuring lightning's role in climate change, the color of fertile soil and more. | 20th March 2007 |
| Top NASA Scientist: Bush is Politicizing and Screening Global Warming Science - BuzzFlash The House Oversight and Reform Committee held a hearing Monday on the Bush Administration's control over scientific findings regarding climate change. The hearing centered around claims of censorship by Dr. James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "There is little doubt that the Administration’s downplaying of evidence about global warming has had some effect on public perception of the climate change issue," Dr. Hansen said. "The impact is to confuse the public about the reality of global warming, and about whether that warming can be reliably attributed to human-made greenhouse gases." See also: Material Shows Weakening of Climate Reports - New York Times Climate change expert slates US 'interference' in research - Guardian Unlimited | 20th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Are Big Enviro Groups 'Holding Back' Anti-Warming Movement? While the U.S. government and some corporations are finally acknowledging global climate change, some critics say partnering with such forces may "tame" the movement's goals and strategies. | 20th March 2007 |
| Up on the roof - Huffington Post Global Warming needs a global response. Not just global in the sense of involving all the countries of the world, but global in the sense of involving all elements of society, all parts of the political spectrum, in recognizing the problem and agreeing on permanent solutions. That possibility is as far away as ever. And that is an even more inconvenient truth than the one that Al Gore is bringing to the public. | 20th March 2007 |
| Why fake morality is the best kind - On Line opinion Rather, the existence of God or the seriousness of global warming are, I think, questions of belief, not differences between right and wrong. ... | 20th March 2007 |
| 'Green' budget falls short for environmental groups - CBC The federal budget's $4.5 billion in environmental spending on green cars, clean water and renewable fuels didn't impress opposition parties and did little to ease the concerns of environmental groups. | 20th March 2007 |
| Drought helps cut Hunter grape tonnage - Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Hunter Valley Vineyard Association says this year's grape tonnage is down an estimated 40 per cent on previous years, mainly due to the drought. | 20th March 2007 |
| Rivers run towards 'crisis point' Dams, shipping, pollution and climate change are among the threats to major rivers, a report concludes. | 20th March 2007 |
| The latest debate on 'overselling' climate science Two meteorologists say that climate scientists are "overplaying" the climate threat (which they concede is real and urgent). Another scientist responds that, yeah, we shouldn't overplay the threat, but the threat is real and urgent. As so often with this immeasurably vapid debate, the slightest bit of scrutiny reveals that there is very little substantive difference in what the scientists in question believe. Two larger points: The disagreement is almost entirely over tone -- whether the appropriate number of caveats and hedges are attached, whether the adjectives are overly emotive, whether the precise degree of probability is made clear. | 20th March 2007 |
| Call for new energy rating labels - BBC News Retailers are failing to tell shoppers about the energy consumption of electrical goods like TVs, a report claims. | 19th March 2007 |
| Budget plans 'not green enough' - BBC News UK: The chancellor's pre-Budget report fell far short of measures needed to tackle global warming seriously, an influential committee of MPs has said. | 19th March 2007 |
| Climate change: who is swindling who? - New Scientist Those of you outside the UK - that's most of you - might have missed the fuss caused by a TV program called The Great Global Warming Swindle, shown on 8 March. We were pretty tempted to ignore it, but we've had a few emails from you, so here's our take (but watch this space for more). The programme claimed to lay bare all the fallacies that have created the "great myth" that is man-made global warming. However, the programme itself was riddled with holes. We mention a few of these issues below, and provide links to other websites that have done a good job of outlining the programme's flaws. See also: Channel 4 : Great Global Warming Swindle | 19th March 2007 |
| Natural disasters will increase - UN meteorologists - Reuters AlertNet Global warming is likely to bring more tidal waves, floods and hurricanes, leading meteorologists said on Monday. | 19th March 2007 |
| Ideas should trump personalities All social movements are susceptible to the "cult of personality." This is always dangerous. Not only are individuals invariably fallible, and never live up to the "purity standards" often imposed on them, but it is their message that is most important, not the messengers.Within the environmental community, I have witnessed this personality frenzy at work in a variety of settings, which usually leads to a debasing of the dialogue. I fear that the recent uproar over Al Gore's personal life, which I regrettably waded into, has the makings of just this sort of distraction. Gore should be judged solely on the merits of his ideas and the prescriptions and policies that he proposes to address climate change. | 19th March 2007 |
| Ex-CIA chief says U.S. must act on climate - Reuters BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States must act to cap its emissions of greenhouse gases and join the fight against climate change or risk losing global leadership, a former CIA director said in a report released on Monday. | 19th March 2007 |
| Global warming action could curb nightmare impacts - AlertNet Cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases can mute the worst impacts of global warming, such as water shortages for billions of ... | 19th March 2007 |
| Birds shift north instead of flying south for winter - The Ithaca Journal More bird species in the United States are ranging farther north and even staying there for the winter in a possible sign of adaptation to global warming, ornithologists and conservation groups say. | 19th March 2007 |
| Poster child of climate change: Polar bear - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Global warming has found its photogenic, endangered symbol -- the polar bear. | 19th March 2007 |
| Spreading A Message With Video Games - Hartford Courant A growing movement of "activist" video-game designers is showing that not only can you make good games about problems like global warming, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the childhood obesity epidemic but that gaming itself can be a powerful medium for spreading awareness and getting people involved. These game makers are not offering the escapist trances so many of today's mega-budget games provide. On the contrary, they want to wake you up. | 19th March 2007 |
| BC premier stuns critics with plans to go green - Seattle Times VANCOUVER, B.C. — The premier of British Columbia wanted to bring coal-burning plants and offshore oil rigs to this lush province, so environmental groups were ready for a fight as he prepared his government's annual policy speech last month. They were stunned when Premier Gordon Campbell delivered a list of green promises that surpassed their most ambitious dreams. He would not only stop the growth in greenhouse gases in the province, he said, but also slash them by one-third. He would gut the coal-plant plans. Embrace wind power. Lease hybrid cars for the government. Squelch environmental pollution by the powerful oil and gas industry. Toughen car-emission regulations. | 19th March 2007 |
| Ceres wrangles some big financial guns behind carbon limits This is promising: Eager to pour billions of dollars into clean energy and low-carbon investments, some of the largest institutional investors in the world will urge the U.S. Congress next week to accelerate passage of climate-change legislation that would clarify an investment framework. Companies such as Merrill Lynch, the $230 (U.S.) billion California Public Employees Retirement System, and Allianz, Europe's largest insurance firm, will demand immediate action by the government, said Adam McDaniel, spokesman for CERES, a national network of investors, environmental organizations and public interest groups. It's also mentioned in the middle of this (credibly optimistic) New York Times editorial. | 19th March 2007 |
| Review: Book warns of economic collision course - USA Today We have more stuff, we live longer and our houses keep getting bigger. Every second of every day, the world's economic machinery churns out a continuously growing stream of wealth. So, what's the problem? According to Bill McKibben, author of the new book Deep Economy, the process of accumulating "more stuff" is putting our happiness on the chopping block. If that wasn't enough, we seem to be endangering the planet's ability to sustain human life. See also: Early critic of warming steps up activist role | 19th March 2007 |
| Greenpeace puts Harper under house arrest for climate crimes - Canada NewsWire - press release Acting on global warming will put people to work. Delay will have huge economic and environmental costs," Martin added. To prevent dangerous climate change, ... | 19th March 2007 |
| BP chairman warns EU on emissions fight - Financial Times Europe's low-carbon revolution to fight global warming was in danger of being no more than hot air, the European Commission's top energy adviser warned. | 19th March 2007 |
| U.S. Decries Key Points At Climate Talks - CBS News The United States objected to key parts of a discussion on climate change at a meeting between G-8 environmental officials and representatives from five influential developing nations, Germany's environment minister said. | 19th March 2007 |
| Plague of beetles raises climate change fears for American beauty - Guardian Unlimited Beetle infestation could destroy 90% of Colorado's distinctive lodgepole pine forests. | 19th March 2007 |
| Ivorian Cocoa Growers Say Drought Worst in Memory - Planet Ark A harsh spell of dry weather in Ivory Coast's central Daloa region which has lasted several months is the worst in living memory and is killing off young cocoa trees, farmers and cooperatives said on Friday. | 19th March 2007 |
| Canada Says to Move Toward Kyoto Target - Planet Ark OTTAWA - Canada's government, criticized by environmentalists for saying its Kyoto target on greenhouse gases is unreachable, said on Saturday it would nonetheless move substantially towards that goal. | 19th March 2007 |
| Climate-change cures may be worse than the disease - Globe and Mail In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change looked at geoengineering as part of its report on how to lessen global warming. ... | 19th March 2007 |
| Poll: 63% of Americans say global warming threat equal to terrorism - It's Getting Hot In Here Two of three Americans (67%) say that, if they had to, they could explain global warming or climate change "to someone I meet in passing". | 18th March 2007 |
| Curbing global warming can be realized at low economic cost: IPCC report - Kyodo via Yahoo! Asia News The cost to prevent global temperatures from rising further by some 2 C will only be around 0.6 percent of the world's gross domestic product in 2030, thanks to increasing low-cost measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to a final draft report of a multilateral panel on climate change. | 18th March 2007 |
| Trident plan "puts climate change research at risk" - Sunday Herald A GENERATION of scientists will be diverted from fighting climate change because the Trident weapons system is being replaced, an expert has warned. Thousands of highly trained scientists and engineers will be required to develop a new nuclear deterrent after a majority of MPs last week backed the government's controversial plans to renew the UK's ageing Trident missiles. | 18th March 2007 |
| Global warming is a 'weapon of mass destruction' Climate experts hit back after being accused of overstating the problem. Global warming is a "weapon of mass destruction", one of Britain and the world's top climatologists said yesterday. Sir John Houghton, former director-general of the Meteorological Office and chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, entered the debate over the seriousness of climate change after two meteorologists were reported as saying that "some scientists have been guilty of overplaying the available evidence". He said he agreed with the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, that it posed a greater threat than terrorism. | 18th March 2007 |
| Emissions row divides carmakers - Times Online Bernd Gottschalk, former head of the Mercedes-Benz truck division, quit last weekend as president of the VDA, the German association of the motor industry, after claims that it had failed to defend the carmakers’ position on global warming as the European Union proposed stiff limits on carbon-dioxide emission. Gottschalk, who is also the head of the international association of motor vehicle manufacturers, resigned under pressure from Mercedes, BMW and Porsche. | 18th March 2007 |
| Liberals propose "absolute cap" on pollution - Canada.com OTTAWA - Stephane Dion unveiled on Friday a toughened Liberal environment policy that would require strict reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from 700 large industrial companies and impose hefty penalties on those who do not comply. | 18th March 2007 |
| Carbon emissions: Footprints in the sky - Independent Airlines have belatedly realised that they're losing the PR battle on climate change. Now they're scrambling for the moral high ground. | 18th March 2007 |
| Woodstock Journal: A Legend of the '60s Points the Way, Again - New York Times The new countercultural project in Woodstock is environmental: a resolution to reduce net carbon emissions to zero within a decade. | 18th March 2007 |
| Thirstier World Likely to See More Violence - IPS A strong link between droughts and violent civil conflicts in the developing world bodes ill for an increasingly thirsty world, say scientists, who warn that drought-related conflicts are expected to multiply with advancing climate change. | 17th March 2007 |
| A climate of fear - The Age Apocalyptic talk about global warming has stirred the sediment of old fears - the mushroom cloud has returned to haunt us. But, Thornton McCamish writes, ... Nuclear weapons just got more meaningless the closer you looked at them. But the risks of climate change related to human activity will only become clearer, despite attempts to muddy the science. The ambient fear those dangers produce is real, but it's not mind-emptying. It's actually a humane and energising anxiety. The risk of disastrous climate change makes us worry not just for ourselves, but for others; for animals and plants, too. What's really cheering about climate change anxiety is that it's about the deep future, a place the Bomb managed to obliterate without a single missile leaving its silo. This time, our fear means something because we can act on it. | 17th March 2007 |
| Half of Britons support "green" air tax - Telegraph.co.uk A "green tax" on air travel would be supported by nearly half of Britons even if it pushed up the cost of flights, according to research released this week. | 17th March 2007 |
| NASA Climatologist Predicts Disastrous Sea Level Rise - Bay Area Indymedia "I'd say the major force involved in these changes is human-induced climate change, global warming," he said. "I consider this data very serious and that ... | 17th March 2007 |
| Shorter winters in Asia due to global warming: scientists - Taipei Times Shorter winters in Asia due to global warming: scientistsTaipei Times, Taiwan. Winter is under threat in many parts of Asia, and most scientists say global climate change is the cause. "Winter is becoming shorter," said Benjamin ... | 17th March 2007 |
| G8 climate consensus emerging, U.S. odd man out - AlertNet Source: Reuters (Recasts with German minister, U.N. official, end of meeting) By Louis Charbonneau POTSDAM, Germany, March 17 (Reuters) - A consensus on the need to protect the world's environment is emerging ... | 17th March 2007 |
| Climate change shifts sheep shape - BBC News Climate change could have an impact on animal evolution and population sizes, scientists believe. | 17th March 2007 |
| Greenpeace protest at BA flights - BBC News Environmentalists are trying to get passengers to boycott a new BA service from Gatwick to Newquay. | 17th March 2007 |
| G8 climate consensus emerging, U.S. odd man out - AlertNet Source: Reuters (Recasts with German minister, U.N. official, end of meeting) By Louis Charbonneau POTSDAM, Germany, March 17 (Reuters) - A consensus on the need to protect the world's environment is emerging ... | 17th March 2007 |
| Arctic ocean may lose all its ice by 2040, disrupting global weather - Guardian Rapidly thinning Arctic sea ice may have reached a tipping point that threatens to disrupt global weather patterns, bringing intense winter storms and heavier rainfall to western Europe, scientists warn today. | 17th March 2007 |
| A long rant about facts, persuasion, and global warming I want to tear my %$#@! hair out. On Wed. night in New York City, there was a formal debate. At issue was the statement, "global warming is not a crisis." David Biello sets the scene: Arguing for the motion were the folksy (and tall) Michael Crichton, the soft-spoken Richard Lindzen and the passionate Philip Stott. Arrayed against were the moderate Brenda Ekwurzel, the skeptical Gavin Schmidt and the perplexed Richard Somerville. (Note: all the adjectives are mine.) The hosts took a poll of attendees before and after the debate. | 17th March 2007 |
| G8 assesses cost of species loss - BBC News G8 environment ministers agree to study the economic impact of the loss of biodiversity due to climate change. | 17th March 2007 |
| Cut CO2 or pay, Canada Liberals demand of industry OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's energy industry would have to cut its carbon emissions by up to 46 percent or pay billions of dollars a year in penalties under a climate change plan by the opposition Liberal Party. | 17th March 2007 |
| EU's Piebalgs wants global emissions deal in 2009 BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The international community should seek to reach a deal in 2009 on cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said on Friday. | 17th March 2007 |
| Save the world? Save your energy - Guardian Unlimited The prime minister-in-waiting, Gordon Brown, and the environment minister, David Miliband, this week set ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions from Britain's homes. | 17th March 2007 |
| £25 fridge gadget that could slash greenhouse emissions - Guardian Unlimited Tiny black box could save more emissions than taxes on gas guzzling cars and low energy light bulbs combined. | 17th March 2007 |
| Interview: Sir Nicholas Stern, economist - Guardian Unlimited Interview: This week's ambitious climate change bill demands big cuts in carbon emissions. David Adam meets Sir Nicholas Stern, the globetrotting economist who seems reluctant to take the credit. | 17th March 2007 |
| US scuppers hope of limits on emissions - Financial Times The US on Friday poured scorn on hopes that it would be pushed into adopting binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions by the new international political momentum on curbing climate change. | 17th March 2007 |
| Carbon dioxide 'released, not stored' by soil - SciDev.net Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may turn soil from a potential carbon sink into a carbon source by stimulating microbial communities to release, not store, carbon dioxide, according to a study. | 17th March 2007 |
| Dion proposes hard caps, carbon levies - CNews OTTAWA (CP) - The federal Liberals are promising a carrot-and-stick approach to industrial polluters, laying out a program that would set hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions and reward or penalize companies based on their performance. | 16th March 2007 |
| U.S. seen joining climate fight - Reuters.co.uk POTSDAM, Germany (Reuters) - The United States will inevitably fall in step with the rest of the world in the push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change, several G8 environment ministers said on Friday. | 16th March 2007 |
| The devil in the retail - BBC News Andrew Simms, in this week's Green Room, argues that the environment is paying the price for the rise of supermarkets. | 16th March 2007 |
| New hybrid double-decker bus - BBC News London's first hybrid double-decker bus goes into service on the city's streets. | 16th March 2007 |
| No, no -- I'll cap, you trade ... GristMill Because there is always a short end of the cap-and-trade stick, the concern about concentrating emissions is not theoretical: Michael Toth, who lives less than a mile downwind from the Clawiter Road site where Tierra wants to build the plant, said the credit exchange means his neighborhood will bear an unfair level of pollution."The purchase of credit essentially allows a company to move pollution from one part of the Bay Area to another," Toth said. "I don't think the laws in this state have recognized the problems that can be created as an abuse of the credit system."Gerard Clum, president of Life Chiropractic College West, located directly across the railroad tracks from the site, is also skeptical."I think the biggest thing from where I sit is with the particulate matter discharge," ... | 16th March 2007 |
| Report finds drought massive eel kill cause - Australian Broadcasting Corporation A final report on the death of tens of thousands of eels in western Victoria confirms the effects of the drought as the main cause. | 16th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: Will King Coal Be Deposed? Coal-bashing is a hot new trend in Congress, science circles, and the business world. Are we nearing the overthrow of mighty King Coal? | 16th March 2007 |
| Balloon camera seeks out hotspots - BBC News A hot air balloon carrying a council planning officer with a heat camera, checks Gloucester's carbon footprint. | 16th March 2007 |
| EnviroHealth: How Reporters Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Front Groups We're having a lopsided discussion on energy issues in America because the nuclear industry has funded it that way. | 16th March 2007 |
| Global warming affecting crop yields adversely, study finds - Inside Bay Area Global warming affecting crop yields adversely, study findsInside Bay Area, CA. "Climate change impacts aren't something that might happen in the future. They're something we're seeing now," said Field. "We are already seeing real, ... | 16th March 2007 |
| Stuart Jeffries meets renowned scientist James Lovelock - Guardian Unlimited Renowned scientist James Lovelock thinks mainland Europe will soon be desert - and millions of people will start moving north to Britain. Stuart Jeffries meets him "I think people forget that the whole world is going to be affected," he goes on. "Climate change will affect China and the US." Indeed, Lovelock envisages that the Chinese people will press to live in a newly lush Siberia before the century is out. "No wonder Putin is arming like mad. In fact, Putin is one of the more far-sighted of global leaders." In the US, even now, distinguished academics are contemplating moving north, Lovelock says. "I gave a talk at Stanford [the Californian Ivy League university] a few months ago. Professors, including Nobel prize winners, were coming up to me asking where in Canada they should buy real estate because they believed me when I said much of the US will be uninhabitable." | 16th March 2007 |
| Arctic Sea Ice Decline May Trigger Climate Change Cascade - PhysOrg Arctic sea ice that has been dwindling for several decades may have reached a tipping point that could trigger a cascade of climate change reaching into Earth's temperate regions, says a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. | 16th March 2007 |
| Climate change 'destroying glaciers' in Argentina - SciDev.net [BUENOS AIRES] The glaciers of the Argentinian Patagonia are being destroyed by climate change with most of them gone by 2030, says a scientist. | 16th March 2007 |
| Ocean heat blamed for the mysterious disappearance of glaciers A mysterious phenomenon is causing four major glaciers in the Antarctic to shrink in unison, causing a significant increase in sea levels, scientists have found. | 16th March 2007 |
| Winter warmth breaks all records - BBC News This year's winter in the northern hemisphere was the warmest since records began in 1880, US experts say. | 16th March 2007 |
| Carbon labelling scheme launched - BBC News A labelling scheme is to show products' carbon footprint and help people make green shopping decisions. | 16th March 2007 |
| Germany: Progress on climate change with developing countries key ... - International Herald Tribune Germany's environment minister said Thursday that making progress in talks on climate change with developing countries is key to winning over the United States for international action. | 16th March 2007 |
| Biofuels and the Green Resistance - CounterPunch Now that Al Gore has his "green" Oscar and George W. Bush has closed a deal in Brazil by which American will burn up the cane fields in the name of environmental salvation, it is time to get serious about the realities of biofuel. Clearly research into biofuels is necessary, but few people are aware yet how this research will be carried out, how constrained ideologically it will be, how corrupting an influence it might become on American universities, and how dangerous its products might be to the ecology of the planet. Fortunately, a movement is a foot on the campus of UC Berkeley that may create a wave of resistance to and awareness about consequences of a biofuel economy, especially one governed by oil companies. | 16th March 2007 |
| A New Golden Age: Russia Looks Forward to Global Warming - World Politics Watch For the northern giant with millions of cubic kilometers of permafrost soil, global warming could bring enormous national benefit. ... | 16th March 2007 |
| Ron Dembo: Kyoto as Cliche - HuffingtonPost Tim Flannery nailed it when he reflected that one of the obstacles to decisive action on climate change is that the whole idea of global warming has become a cliche even before it has been understood. There are many ways to interpret this, as global warming means different things to different people. To some it's a looming catastrophe , to others it's a business opportunity , to many of us ... | 16th March 2007 |
| Climate summit for G8 ministers - BBC News Ministers from G8 nations meet in Germany to discuss a global response to climate change. | 16th March 2007 |
| ANALYSIS-Traders left guessing at future carbon prices - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Gerard Wynn LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - Permits to emit greenhouse gases could be the hottest new commodity among city traders, speculators and investment bankers -- if only someone ... | |
| World may get greener, then wilt, due warming - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, March 15 (Reuters) - Global warming is expected to turn the planet a bit greener by spurring plant growth but crops and forests may wilt beyond mid- ... | 15th March 2007 |
| SA must lead movement for climate change: Stern - SABC News Nicholas Stern, the author of Stern review on the Economic of Climate Change , has called on South Africa to take the lead in Africa in pushing climate change to the top of the international agenda. | 15th March 2007 |
| Ireland facing 'dangerous' climate changes - RTE News Ireland's climate could suffer the effects of dangerous climate change if global temperatures increase by more than 2%, an environmental report has forecast. | 15th March 2007 |
| Wave energy set to turn the tide - BBC News Wave energy could one day produce a fifth of the UK's energy needs, business reporter Brian Milligan hears. | 15th March 2007 |
| George Monbiot: The target wreckers - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: Two ministries appear to be set on scuppering plans to combat global warming. | 15th March 2007 |
| Outback camels 'mad with thirst' - BBC Australia's worst drought for a century is sending feral camels "mad with thirst", making a cull of the animals a necessity, officials say. | 15th March 2007 |
| Author of 'Guns, Germs and Steel' - Eco-suicide is the new danger; writer finds a warning in failures of past civilizations - Echoes Sentinel Developed nations consume 32 times more of the world's natural resources on a per capita basis than the rest of the world. If those nations continue to live like gated communities, heedless of looming environmental catastrophe, we all risk falling prey to the dire fate of failed civilizations. That was the message delivered by Jared Diamond, noted author, professor and the speaker on Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Thomas H. Kean lecture series at Drew University in Madison. | 15th March 2007 |
| Around the world, people are worried about climate change - IHT A survey on climate change conducted in more than a dozen countries revealed that a majority of people in nations including South Korea, Australia, Iran and Mexico view global warming as a critical threat. | 15th March 2007 |
| Only a carbon tax can stop global warming - Winona Daily News The global warming train finally is leaving the station with almost everyone onboard — except for a few die-hard deniers from ultra-conservative groups and the Flat Earth Society. | 15th March 2007 |
| Renewing a Call to Act Against Climate Change - The Ledger Some are born earnest, some achieve earnestness, and some have earnestness thrust upon them. Bill McKibben qualifies for inclusion in at least two of these wedges of humanity. | 15th March 2007 |
| Ontario's boreal forest critical in fight against global warming: report - Canoe A report released Tuesday that suggests Ontario has to change its logging practices if it's serious about cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions is "laughable," Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay said. | 15th March 2007 |
| Green campaigner backs £2K a year tax - Guardian UK: Road tax for people buying Britain's biggest gas-guzzling cars should increase almost 10-fold to £2,000 in next week's Budget in order to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases, Friends of the Earth said today. | 15th March 2007 |
| MIT provides blueprint for future use of coal - PhysOrg.com Because of coal's high carbon content, increasing use will exacerbate the problem of climate change unless coal plants are deployed with very high ... | 15th March 2007 |
| Green taxes that won't frighten the voters - Guardian Unlimited The press releases which surfaced after publication of the government's draft climate change bill told yesterday's story: "Could Be More Ambitious" (Unison); "A Missed Opportunity" (leftwing MP John McDonnell); "Bill Strikes Right Balance" (CBI). The Tories, who wittily claimed that Gordon Brown is at least recycling his old green policies, joined the left and Friends of the Earth in demanding ... | 15th March 2007 |
| Climate Crisis Action Day - Common Dreams - press release Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report demonstrating that human emissions of heat-trapping gases are the primary cause of global warming. ... | 15th March 2007 |
| Dangers from global warming locked up in tracts of moorland - Yorkshire Post Today Dangers from global warming locked up in tracts of moorlandYorkshire Post Today, UK. "It could lead to a vicious circle with global warming causing more carbon emissions, which in turn cause increasing climate change." ... | 15th March 2007 |
| A Bill which makes reducing carbon emissions a legal duty - The Independent Yesterday the Government unveiled the world's first delivery system for the targets involved in radically cutting back the gases that are causing global warming. It is based on two simple principles: make the targets legally binding, and map out the road towards them in detail. The system is enshrined in the Climate Change Bill, unveiled by the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, which proposes to set into law the crucial aim of cutting the UK's CO2 emissions by 60 per cent, on 1990 levels, by 2050, and lays out a statutory path towards that from which it will be very hard, if not impossible, for any future government to stray. See more on this legislation from The Independent:- Leading article: A turning point for Britain Global warming: The climate has changed Hamish McRae: Tax is better than regulation if you want results Mark Lynas: This could mean a transition to a truly low-carbon economy Deborah Orr: Face the facts: if we want to reduce our carbon emissions, it is going to hurt us Tony Juniper: This paper is not perfect but I congratulate David Miliband Alan Simpson: A welcome development - but it barely scratches the surface Also: BBC: New law in the climate jungle Guardian: Britain could be first country to put legal limits on carbon emissions The Times: hey re getting warmer . . . how the penny dropped for politicians | 14th March 2007 |
| Warming may cause food shortages: UN - Sydney Morning Herald Global warming could cause severe food and water shortages for millions of people by 2100 and trigger a melt of polar ice that could keep ocean levels rising for centuries, a draft UN report shows. | 14th March 2007 |
| Wheat crop worth billions destroyed in rains in Punjab, Haryana - New Kerala India: Wheat crop in thousands of acres in Punjab and Haryana has been destroyed in untimely rains. Agriculture ministry officials Tuesday said the losses to farmers could run into billions of rupees. Wheat crop in over 50,000 acres of land has been flattened in Punjab itself, the officials said. | 14th March 2007 |
| Climate change has parched Aussie farmers looking north - CS Monitor Scientists predict that rainfall in Australia's agrarian south may reduce by 15 percent in the coming decades. | 14th March 2007 |
| PM says Canada set to announce greenhouse gas targets within next month - Canada.com Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada is set to announce new regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an aggressive plan to combat climate change. That will be a compulsory regulatory requirement for industry across this country, he said Tuesday of the program to be unveiled within the next month. | 14th March 2007 |
| Carbon wars may pit province against province - Globe and Mail Canada: A get-tough strategy to combat global warming could produce multibillion-dollar transfers from coal-fired provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan to provinces like Quebec and Manitoba that rely on hydroelectric power, says a new study from CIBC World Markets Inc. See also: Canada emissions trade seen worth C$12 bln: CIBC | 14th March 2007 |
| White House Seeks to Cut Geothermal Research Funds - Planet Ark The Bush administration wants to eliminate federal support for geothermal power just as many US states are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise renewable power output. | 14th March 2007 |
| Global warming may kill off oak and bluebell - Guardian British gardeners could be left tending pomegranates and figs instead of apples and runner beans if climate change continues at the current rate, according to an academic model of likely conditions by 2050. Traditional seasons will merge into a constant, largely warm climate by the middle of the century, says the study from the University of East Anglia, which also foresees year-round weeds, giant wasps and an end to the bluebell. | 14th March 2007 |
| World's forests disappearing but at slower rate - AlertNet An area of forest twice the size of Paris disappears every day although the rate of global deforestation has started to slow, according to a United Nations report issued on Tuesday. | 14th March 2007 |
| Warm Tokyo expects cherry blossoms soon - MSNBC When the cherry trees come alive in their explosion of pink, millions of Japanese hit the parks for one of this country's biggest outpourings of merrymaking. So, Japanese are impatiently asking, when will it all start? Very soon, officials say thanks to global warming, the Tokyo area is having one of its earliest cherry seasons ever. | 14th March 2007 |
| Canadian tundra is rapidly disappearing - UPI Canadian scientists say much of their nation's northern tundra is rapidly disappearing, being replaced by trees and shrubs, forcing wildlife from the region. A University of Alberta study shows the climate shift is occurring at a rate much faster than scientists had predicted, adding to a growing body of evidence concerning effects of global climate change. | 14th March 2007 |
| Capitalism Put on Trial, Buffett Eats: New Nonfiction - Bloomberg [Short book reviews] | 14th March 2007 |
| Al Gore Seeks Earlier Start to Kyoto Pact Successor - ENN Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore called on Tuesday for Kyoto countries to bring forward by two years the start date of a new global warming treaty, to 2010, given the urgency of the global warming problem. | 14th March 2007 |
| BA green scheme fails to take off - BBC British Airways has been accused of failing to properly market a scheme to "offset" emissions by planting trees. | 14th March 2007 |
| Miliband launches landmark climate change bill (on YouTube) - Guardian Britain's first ever climate change bill is published today, setting legally binding targets on the reduction of carbon emissions for the first time. | 13th March 2007 |
| Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Stimulates Soils To Release, Not Store, CO2 - Science Daily Researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center report the results of a six-year experiment in which doubling the atmospheric greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in a scrub oak ecosystem caused a reduction in carbon storage in the soil. | 13th March 2007 |
| Cows feel the heat - Ararat Climate change can cut milk production by 280 litres of milk annually for each cow. | 13th March 2007 |
| Climate change will affect world's forests, FAO report warns - EarthTimes The world is continuing to lose forests and there is mounting evidence to suggest they will be adversely affected by climate change in spite of global efforts to cut down greenhouse gas emissions, a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned Tuesday. | 13th March 2007 |
| Global Warming Is a Crisis - ABC Time to Sound the Alarm Bells? | 13th March 2007 |
| Don't let truth stand in the way of a red-hot debunking of climate change - Guardian The science might be bunkum, the research discredited. But all that counts for Channel 4 is generating controversy. | 13th March 2007 |
| Color Analysis Rapidly Predicts Carbon Content Of Soil - Science Daily Scientists at Iowa Sate University recently discovered that simply looking at soil color is reasonably as accurate as time-consuming and expensive laboratory tests. Soil color can be used as a simple, inexpensive method to predict measurements of soil organic content (SOC). These measurements provide a lens through which researchers can assess soil quality and better understand global carbon cycles. Proper modeling of global carbon cycles and monitoring of carbon sequestration require wide-spread, accurate assessments of soil carbon contents. | 13th March 2007 |
| Swindled: Carl Wunsch responds - RealClimate The following letter from Carl Wunsch is intended to clarify his views on global warming in general, and the The Great Global Warming Swindle which misrepresented them. | 13th March 2007 |
| Fliers Ready to Pay More Tax for Less Carbon - Planet Ark Nearly 80 percent of travellers in Britain are prepared to pay double the amount of the new flight tax if the money goes on tackling carbon emissions, according to a travel group. | 13th March 2007 |
| Icy Nordics Doubt Net Gains From Global Warming - Planet Ark Global warming could mean Scandinavia's farmers will be able to grow sweeter fruit but the consequences for herring fishermen could be dire, Norway's environment minister said. | 13th March 2007 |
| Ireland Sets 33 Pct Green Electricity Goal by 2020 - Planet Ark A third of electricity used in Ireland will come from renewable sources by 2020, the government said on Monday as it unveiled plans to reduce dependence on imported fuels and protect itself against supply disruptions. | 13th March 2007 |
| India's Coal Demand May Quadruple by 2031 - Planet Ark India's demand for coal may exceed two billion tonnes a year by 2031-32, up from about 460 million tonnes a year now according to the country's minister for coal, Dasari Rao. | 13th March 2007 |
| Democratizing Blame - Counter Currents "While epistemological impoverishment obscures the basic reasons for the predicament, convenient collectivism provides justifications to distribute the blame amongst the entire humanity. There are solutions and alternatives available in the world, but not in the hyper-industrialised parts of it. There still are many societies in Asia, Africa and Latin America living closer to nature with capacities to evaluate the costs in their entirety; societies that have defined progress and pursue happiness in more benign and sustainable ways. Instead of pushing them to the margins, the developed world should be learning from them. | 13th March 2007 |
| Which political party is the greenest? - The Independent UK: Ahead of tomorrow's Climate Change Bill, the main parties are battling to convince voters of their environmental credentials See also: Politicians step up the battle to secure the green vote and Tony Juniper: This new political battleground is welcome | 12th March 2007 |
| Canadians rally to support Kyoto Protocol - CTV Environmental activists gathered across Canada to hold grassroots rallies in support of the Kyoto Protocol. One of the biggest rallies on Sunday was held in Toronto, where people demanded that Prime Minister Stephen Harper not renege on the global climate change-fighting treaty. | 12th March 2007 |
| Austrians Back High Taxes for Big Fuel Users - Angus Reid Many adults in Austria believe the owners of cars with higher fuel consumption should pay a special tax, according to a poll by OGM. 56 per cent of respondents are in favour of this idea. Support is lower, at 44 per cent, for a plan that would compel Austrians to stop using their cars once a week. | 12th March 2007 |
| Transport has been a terrible failure - but it can be fixed - Guardian UK: At the heart of an integrated transport system must be road pricing, but we will only get this if ministers hold their nerve and persuade us that traffic growth is unsustainable. Even then, pricing will only work if there is a hugely expanded public transport system. So high are traffic volumes that a modest 5% shift away from cars may require a massive 50% increase in public transport capacity. But the Department for Transport (DfT) is well adrift from its 2010 target to increase public transport by 12% (compared with 2000 levels) in every region of England, which the transport committee, anyway, says lacks ambition. When it comes to delivering better public services, transport is a litmus test. It is more straightforward than crime or education, and there are few other factors, such as inequality, to affect outcomes. If a government can't fix transport, what can it fix? | 12th March 2007 |
| Clean coal a lie, say Greens - Adelaide Now INVESTING in clean coal is like putting money into low-tar cigarettes and claiming it as a breakthrough, the Australian Greens say. Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane today launched a $100 million clean coal project in Victoria's La Trobe Valley, which he says will halve greenhouse gas emissions generated by coal-fired power stations. But Greens leader Bob Brown said the $100 million would be better spent on solar, wind, solar-thermal and geothermal energy alternatives. | 12th March 2007 |
| Special interests are the one big obstacle - The Times The best hope for the planet is a grass roots movement. People concerned about climate change and the legacy that we will leave should consider having a date with the planet. Until the public indicates sufficient interest, and puts pressure on political systems, special interests will continue to rule. - Jim Hansen | 12th March 2007 |
| Climate change increases risk of megafires, experts warn - ABC Fire experts are warning to expect larger fires in the future as a result of more extreme weather conditions. | 12th March 2007 |
| U.S. needs national energy, climate policy: GE CEO - Washington Post The United States needs to develop a national climate change policy, but also recognize that coal and other fossil fuels will remain an important energy source for decades, the chairman and chief executive of General Electric Co. said on Saturday. | 12th March 2007 |
| It's expensive to ignore global warming - Seattle PI Some leaders -- notably President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -- have stated they will do nothing to stem global warming if it will harm our economy. Let's examine two examples of what would happen to our economy if we follow their advice and do nothing. | 12th March 2007 |
| Nationals aim to store carbon in soil - The Age Australia: The NSW National Party will spend $3.6 million developing methods to store atmospheric carbon in soil if the coalition wins government at the March 24 election, Nationals leader Andrew Stoner says. | 12th March 2007 |
| Wolves, Moose Struggling On Isle Royale National Park, USA - Science Daily USA: A plague of ticks, stifling hot summers and relentless pressure from wolves have driven the moose population on Isle Royale National Park to its lowest ebb in at least 50 years. | 12th March 2007 |
| To the end of the earth - The Times This is our future - famous cities are submerged, a third of the world is desert, the rest struggling for food and fresh water. Richard Girling investigates the reality behind the science of climate change | 10th March 2007 |
| Climate Report Warns of Drought, Disease - PhysOrg The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up, and within a couple of decades hundreds of millions of people won't have enough water, top scientists will say next month at a meeting in Belgium. | 10th March 2007 |
| In a world of climate change, New Yorkers ask how safe their homes are - IHT With no obvious savior in the wings, there is a growing urgency that global warming be understood at a local level, right down to the block, starting with: How could a rising sea level and pummeling storms affect the trillion dollars' worth of property New Yorkers call home? | 10th March 2007 |
| Youth adopt MPs in campaign challenging politicians to act on climate change - CBC A new campaign will see some of Canada's younger constituents calling the shots by challenging members of Parliament to take action on climate change - once they decide which MP they plan to adopt. | 10th March 2007 |
| Climate scientist 'duped to deny global warming' - Guardian A Leading US climate scientist is considering legal action after he says he was duped into appearing in a Channel 4 documentary that claimed man-made global warming is a myth. Carl Wunsch, professor of physical oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the film, The Great Global Warming Swindle, was 'grossly distorted' and 'as close to pure propaganda as anything since World War Two'. | 10th March 2007 |
| Harper's green pandering - Toronto Sun Canada: The Tory environment strategy was do nothing -- until climate change heated up in the polls | 10th March 2007 |
| How Europe can save the world - Guardian The EU's landmark deal on carbon controls must be the model for a new Kyoto agreement | 10th March 2007 |
| Palm-oil frenzy taking toll - Seattle Times America's drive for energy independence and clean air could threaten orangutans, Sumatran tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses and the world's largest butterflies. All could be hurt as the rainforests of Southeast Asia are cleared to produce palm oil for use in biodiesel. | 10th March 2007 |
| US States Undercharge Polluters By US$50 Mln - Planet Ark States from Alabama to Wyoming collected such low fees from major polluters that they may have shortchanged efforts to fight air pollution by up to US$50 million, an environmental group reported on Wednesday. | 10th March 2007 |
| It's springtime - but one month early - Norwich Evening News UK: Spring has sprung almost a month early and the unseasonably warm weather has upset the body clocks of animals and birds. But animal lovers fear one cold snap could wipe out all the premature baby birds and are praying spring is here to stay. | 10th March 2007 |
| Study says warming will cost Alaska billions - The Olympian As temperatures rise in Alaska, so will damage to roads, runways, public buildings and utility lines, according to a new study. Replacement cost of Alaska's public infrastructure due to warming will be measured in billions of dollars over the next 75 years, according to the report from the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage. | 10th March 2007 |
| EU can be green model for US, India, China-Merkel - Reuters The European Union's adoption of measures to fight climate change this week could set an example for the United States, China and India, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday. | 10th March 2007 |
| Prognosis looks increasingly grim for the health of nations - The Times Threats to the water supply, crop failure and mass migration are all looming | 10th March 2007 |
| 'Coal Rush' Pits Utilities Against Congress - Washington Post USA, Coal: Demand Collides With Desire to Cut Pollution Levels | 10th March 2007 |
| Surprising New Arctic Inhabitants: Trees - LiveScience Rising temperatures fueled by global warming are causing forests of spruce trees to invade Arctic tundra faster than scientists originally thought, evicting and endangering the species that dwell there and only there, a new study concludes. | 10th March 2007 |
| Not-So-Perma Frost - Science News Warming climate is taking its toll on subterranean ice | 10th March 2007 |
| The Real Riddle of Changing Weather: How Safe Is My Home? - NY TImes USA, NY: With no obvious savior in the wings, there is a growing urgency that global warming be understood at a local level, right down to the block, starting with: How could a rising sea level and pummeling storms affect the trillion dollars worth of property New Yorkers call home? | 10th March 2007 |
| Ethanol-driven feed costs cut US meat output-USDA - Reuters High feed costs, created by the explosive growth of the fuel ethanol industry, will lower U.S. beef and broiler chicken output this year by a quarter billion lbs from earlier forecasts, the U.S. government said on Friday. The Agriculture Department also said freeze damage would cut the Florida orange crop by 6 percent and California's by 20 percent from a month ago. A drop-off in cotton exports will create the largest year-end surplus in 21 years, 8.8 million bales weighing 480 lbs each. | 10th March 2007 |
| Climate change pushes diseases north: expert - Reuters Global warming is pushing northwards diseases more commonly found in developing countries, posing a risk to the financial and physical health of rich nations, the head of a livestock herders' charity said. | 10th March 2007 |
| Swindled! - RealClimate On Thursday the 8th, the UK TV Channel 4 aired a programme titled "The Great Global Warming Swindle". We were hoping for important revelations and final proof that we have all been hornswoggled by the climate Illuminati, but it just repeated the usual specious claims we hear all the time. We feel swindled. | 10th March 2007 |
| Europe sets benchmark for tackling climate change - Guardian Europe became the world leader in tackling climate change yesterday when 27 governments agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and commit the EU to generating a fifth of its energy from renewable sources, within 13 years. The European commission is starting work immediately on a summit demand to produce proposals to trigger a wholesale switch to modern low-energy fluorescent light bulbs. | 10th March 2007 |
| High-earning men blamed over climate changing emissions - Guardian Working men earning more than ?40,000 a year are responsible for the lion's share of climate change emissions from personal travel, according to a Oxford University survey. It found that one in five people are responsible for 61% of climate change emissions from private transport and that most of these are well-off men. | 10th March 2007 |
| Frogs Fading Into Silence - IPS Frogs and other amphibians are rapidly becoming extinct around the world and in Latin American countries in particular. In the Caribbean as many as 80 percent of these species are endangered, while in Colombia there are 209 and in Mexico 198 amphibians may soon disappear. Environmental degradation along with habitat loss, ultraviolet radiation, disease and climate change are all factors involved in these unprecedented losses. | 10th March 2007 |
| EU agrees renewable energy target - BBC European Union leaders have agreed to adopt a binding target on the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, officials say. The 27 EU states will each decide how they contribute to meeting a 20% boost overall in renewable fuel use by 2020. | 9th March 2007 |
| EU agrees on carbon dioxide cuts - BBC European Union leaders at a climate change summit in Brussels have agreed to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by the year 2020. But a consensus on a binding target for the use of renewable fuels, like wind and solar power, has yet to be reached. See also:? Split on nuclear power threatens agreement on global warming and Chirac backs revolution on green energy | 9th March 2007 |
| Biodiversity 'fundamental' to economics - BBC Germany has put biodiversity, alongside climate change, at the top the agenda for its G8 presidency. In this week's Green Room, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel says failure to address the loss of species will make the world a poorer place - both naturally and economically. | 9th March 2007 |
| UK 'will miss' renewables target - BBC The UK government's target of generating 10% of Britain's electricity from renewable sources by 2010 is unlikely to be met, a report has concluded. | 9th March 2007 |
| Regardless of Global Warming, Rising CO2 Levels Threaten Marine Life - Carnegie Institution Ocean acidity is rising as sea water absorbs more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from power plants and automobiles. The higher acidity threatens marine life, including corals and shellfish, which may become extinct later this century from the chemical effects of carbon dioxide, even if the planet warms less than expected. A new study by University of Illinois atmospheric scientist Atul Jain, graduate student Long Cao and Carnegie Institution scientist Ken Caldeira suggests that future changes in ocean acidification are largely independent of climate change. The researchers report their findings in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, and posted on its Web site. | 9th March 2007 |
| Climate is Big Issue for US Hunters, Anglers - Planet Ark As the snow melts from the towering peaks in the distance, Culebra Creek runs fast and the trout are biting. But Van Beecham, a fourth generation fishing guide, is uneasy. | 9th March 2007 |
| Statistical Analysis Debunks Climate Change Naysayers - Newswise In a thought-provoking statistical analysis, Dr. Peter Tsigaris of Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada, concludes that whether or not climate change can be wholly attributed to human factors, it makes strong economic and environmental sense to treat it as human-caused and take action now. | 9th March 2007 |
| "Don't discuss polar bears": memo to scientists - Reuters Polar bears, sea ice and global warming are taboo subjects, at least in public, for some U.S. scientists attending meetings abroad, environmental groups and a top federal wildlife official said on Thursday. Environmental activists called this scientific censorship, which they said was in line with the Bush administration's history of muzzling dissent over global climate change. | 9th March 2007 |
| TD Bank economists recommend trading system, taxes to address climate change - CBC Economists from one of Canada's big banks have thrown their support behind taxing industries and consumers who contribute to global warming, saying government needs to attach a cost to pollution if any fundamental progress is to be made. | 9th March 2007 |
| Climate change insurance warning - BBC Climate change will lead to heftier insurance claims in the long term, insurer Swiss Re has warned. | 9th March 2007 |
| Q and A: EU energy plans - BBC The European Union is developing policies to tackle climate change, which European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso describes as "the most ambitious ever made". | 9th March 2007 |
| Prime minister announces $156M in climate change dollars for Alberta - CBC Canada: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced $155.9 million in federal funding for Alberta projects he said would result in real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but environmentalists remain skeptical. | 9th March 2007 |
| Energy chief wants sharp rise in carbon permit prices - FT Permits to emit carbon dioxide should be priced at about ? 20-? 30 a tonne in phase three of the European Union's emissions trading scheme from 2012, the EU's energy commissioner has said. | 9th March 2007 |
| Unpolluted planet is in public interest - Seattle PI Five forward-thinking U.S. governors have joined together to form a regional alliance to attack greenhouse gas emissions. The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative is made up of Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Ted Kulongoski of Oregon and Chris Gregoire of Washington. | 9th March 2007 |
| Outdoor ice rink company winds up - FT The company that pioneered temporary outdoor winter ice rinks in the UK has ceased trading and is being wound up. Tim Cantle-Jones, founder and managing director of Polar Productions, warned before Christmas that rising temperatures because of global warming had cast doubts over the economic viability of the temporary rinks. | 9th March 2007 |
| Drax comes under fire for boosting emissions along with profits - Guardian UK: The Drax coal-fired power station in Yorkshire, the biggest single source of carbon emissions in Britain, yesterday admitted it had increased its greenhouse gas output year on year as it increased profits by nearly 150% and announced a special dividend bringing the total handout to investors to nearly ?500m. But the company of the same name promised to clean up its act a little by burning up to 10% biomass alongside coal by 2009 in a move it claimed would help towards saving 3m tonnes of CO2 a year - the equivalent of 700 wind turbines. The announcement did little to deflect criticism from green campaigners who are angry that Drax has reported pre-tax profits of ?634m, up from ?264m, while allowing CO2 emissions to rise from 21m tonnes in 2005 to 22.7m tonnes in 2006. | 9th March 2007 |
| Brazil's ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable energy boom - Guardian This is Palmares Paulista, a rural town 230 miles from Sao Paulo and the centre of a South American renewable energy boom that is transforming Brazil into a global reference point on how to cut carbon emissions and oil imports at the same time. Inside the prison-like construction are the cortadores de cana - sugar cane cutters - part of a destitute migrant workforce of about 200,000 men who help prop up Brazil's ethanol industry. | 9th March 2007 |
| Greenhouse Gas Threat From Tropical Peatland Under Investigation - Science Daily A leading environmental researcher at the University of Leicester is to head an international team to protect an area that stores up to 70 billion tonnes of carbon. | 9th March 2007 |
| Born to die: Climate change disrupting life cycles with fatal results - Independent The behaviour of Britain's wildlife is raising alarm about the seriousness of climate change as animals' breeding patterns are thrown into confusion. The second mildest winter on record has resulted in mammals, reptiles, birds and insects emerging from shelter far too early. They are getting caught out by cold snaps or wet weather and the young of many species are dying. Baby hedgehogs, baby squirrels, even baby grass snakes are being found in distress in many places. | 8th March 2007 |
| Gore calls on EU to take critical role in cutting gas emissions - Independent Europe's commitment to tackle global warming faces a key test today as EU leaders seek to overcome deep divisions over a pledge to boost the use of renewable energy such as wind and solar power. However, Germany, which holds the EU presidency, faces a rebellion over its plan to insist that the EU generate a fifth of its energy from renewables. Around a dozen nations have objections, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia are among those who will press for any target to be non-binding. The dispute has also revived the debate about the role of nuclear power in meeting climate change objectives. The importance of the issues at stake were underlined by Al Gore, the former American vice-president and environmental activist, who said on a visit to Brussels that the EU had an "absolutely critical leadership role to play". Mr Gore argued: "I'm trying to get my country to change its policies but in the meantime the European Union is absolutely key to helping the world make the changes it must." | 8th March 2007 |
| Miliband to make new emissions pledge - Independent UK: David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will try to restore Britain's place as world leader in the battle against climate change next week, with undertakings to cut the country's carbon output by the year 2020. He will promise to put the UK on course to reduce emissions by between 15 and 25 million tonnes over the next 13 years, equivalent to the output of up to 15 million homes. | 8th March 2007 |
| Rah-rah renewables - CNN Despite a shaky investment climate, alternative energy industry leaders point to a series of successes in 2006, and see bright times ahead. | 8th March 2007 |
| Climate Change Impact More Extensive than Thought - Der Spiegel Global climate change is happening faster than previously believed and its impact is worse than expected, information from an as-yet unpublished draft of the long-awaited second part of a United Nations report obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE reveals. No region of the planet will be spared and some will be hit especially hard. [found vis Gristmill] | 8th March 2007 |
| EU leaders face climate challenge - BBC European leaders are expected to commit their countries to tough new emissions targets at a European Union summit focused on tackling global warming. See also: Europe's green summit is seeking to bury the carbon past | 8th March 2007 |
| Climate change brews ocean trouble - CS Monitor Scientists tie global warming to increased upwelling of deep ocean water, which can create crippling aquatic dead zones. | 8th March 2007 |
| British push on CO2 at security council - Guardian The British government is considering putting climate change on to the agenda of the UN security council for the first time to underline the urgency of the issue. | 8th March 2007 |
| Action stations - Guardian Whether it's global warming, the planned expansion of Heathrow or ancient woods threatened by the bulldozer, new causes are inspiring a new breed of activist, as Bibi van der Zee reports | 8th March 2007 |
| Scientists Uncover Link Between Ocean's Chemical Processes and Microscopic Floating Plants - PhysOrg Scientists have discovered that increased levels of ocean acidity and carbon dioxide concentrations have resulted in unexpected changes in oceanic chemical processes. Their research results are published in the March 7, 2007, issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters. | 8th March 2007 |
| Australia's Longest River is Drying Up - Planet Ark Australia's longest river has lost half its natural water and it is predicted to dry up by a further 20 percent due to climate change by 2030. | 8th March 2007 |
| China Abandons Annual Energy Saving Targets - Planet Ark China has abandoned annual energy saving targets because not all its efforts to boost efficiency will bear fruit immediately, but it is still sticking to a five-year goal, a top official said on Wednesday. | 8th March 2007 |
| Baltic Sea Region to Warm Sharply in 21st Century - Planet Ark The Baltic Sea region is likely to warm faster than the world average this century because of climate change, disrupting fisheries and extending crop growing seasons, a report said on Wednesday. | 8th March 2007 |
| As Biofuels Boom, Will More Go Hungry? - Planet Ark Using plants to feed our fuel needs may be a great idea, and the biofuel goldrush could be a moneyspinner for several poor countries, but some experts warn people may go hungry as food prices rise. | 8th March 2007 |
| Alberta to set greenhouse gas targets for industry - Reuters Canada: Alberta will set greenhouse gas targets for big industrial emitters like oil sands developers and coal-fired power plants this spring as it tries to balance environmental protection with an unprecedented energy boom, it said on Wednesday. But the targets are not expected to be too financially onerous for industry in the oil-rich Canadian province. | 8th March 2007 |
| A cost of climate change that can't be counted in dollars - survival - Sydney Morning Herald Doubts about the reality of human-induced climate change have largely dissipated, so now we must face the challenge. | 8th March 2007 |
| As the Climate Heats Up, Lawyers Sharpen Their Wits - NY Times LAWYERS are looking at climate change and seeing visions of new business. They are showing up at meetings to discuss the legal implications of global warming, and a growing number of law firms are advertising expertise in climate change issues. The subject seems well on its way to becoming the next big thing in environmental law. | 8th March 2007 |
| Friend of Nature? Let s See Those Shoes. - NY Times WHEN thinking about their contribution to global warming, concerned citizens might consider the cars they drive, the air miles they log and the energy they burn in their homes. But few would look at the shoes they wear or the food they eat. | 8th March 2007 |
| Green Roofs: Building for the Future - AlterNet Green roofs have been around for millennia. But as the planet heats up and green space dwindles, they are gaining in popularity in the U.S. and abroad. | 7th March 2007 |
| The Write Stuff - AlterNet Two of America's leading environmental writers join the protest movement against climate change. | 7th March 2007 |
| Shellfish Weakened by Greenhouse Gas - Discovery Oysters and mussels could have a harder time making their shells if projections of thickening carbon dioxide by the year 2100 pan out. A preliminary laboratory study of the two shellfish living in water tanks under a carbon dioxide-enhanced atmosphere showed the increased acidity caused by the greenhouse gas stemmed the shellfishes' abilities to calcify shells by 10 to 25 percent. | 7th March 2007 |
| 'Escape routes' to north planned for wildlife - Scotsman SCOTLAND'S wildlife faces a "long march" north to escape global warming and there will be casualties along the way, Scotland's leading conservation body has warned. Scottish Natural Heritage is to explore ways of helping the country's animals and plants on their epic journey, so they can spread from areas that become too warm, too wet or too dry over the coming years. | 7th March 2007 |
| UK business skirt EU carbon windfall issue - Reuters A joint British government and business statement listed on Tuesday steps needed to improve the European carbon market, but avoided the most contentious issue of how to curb utility windfall profits. British parliamentarians last week cited research estimating that UK power companies, the highest polluting business sector, would earn 800 million pounds ($1.54 billion) a year as a result of participation in the first phase of the scheme from 2005-07. | 7th March 2007 |
| Automakers seek to dismiss warming suit - MSNBC USA: The world s six largest automakers on Tuesday asked a judge to toss out a novel federal lawsuit filed by California that seeks untold millions for future damage caused to the state by global warming. | 7th March 2007 |
| What a Silent Spring Means for Business Risk - GreenBiz The current catastrophic loss of honeybee colonies around the world may mean immediate bad news for agriculture, but it also offers an important lesson for companies that are not looking at their dependence on ecosystem services when examining risk or growth opportunities, Noam Ross argues. | 7th March 2007 |
| Poland main threat to EU sustainable energy future - WWF At the European Council of 8 9 March, European Heads of State and Government are scheduled to establish targets that will push Europe to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and increase the use of renewable energy. The Council should agree to a reduction by 20 30 per cent of the EU s greenhouse gases and aim at a binding target of 20 per cent for energy produced from renewable sources by 2020. However, Poland is a major obstacle to negotiations as it opposes almost all essential parts of the so-called EU energy package , including the unilateral target of 20 per cent greenhouse gas reduction with an upgrade to 30 per cent if other countries will join on the same path. Poland is also opposed to a binding target for renewable energy and is watering down language on energy efficiency and energy savings. | 7th March 2007 |
| Brockovich posts a warning: if Earth dies we all die - Sydney Morning Herald "I am absolutely convinced there is a link between environmental destruction and global warming & If mother Earth dies we all die," Ms Brockovich said yesterday. "My purpose is to come to Australia and create greater awareness that individuals can make a difference." | 7th March 2007 |
| EU Faces Test in Fight to Curb Climate Change - Planet Ark European Union leaders will seek to make history this week with a new pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but a row over renewable energy threatens to taint the bloc's credentials in fighting climate change. | 7th March 2007 |
| The point of no return - Guardian Adaptation and mitigation make uneasy bedfellows: it is difficult to think simultaneously "We must stop this", and "We must prepare for this". Some say contemplating adaptation makes them think harder about how to stop it all, but it is at the same time no surprise if the government prefers to conduct its preparations beneath the radar, to avoid confusing a public who are only just getting the hang of turning the lights off. | 7th March 2007 |
| Merkel warns of climate pain ahead - FT A European deal on cutting carbon emissions will be the first of a number of potentially painful steps for European Union nations in the fight to tackle global warming, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has warned. | 7th March 2007 |
| How green is nuclear power? - CS Monitor Some call it a carbon-free alternative to fossil fuels, but others point to significant environmental costs. | 7th March 2007 |
| Making Biofuels Without Wasting Food - IPS The governments of Cuba and Venezuela are planning to move forward together on biofuels production, but they will rely on producing alcohol from sugarcane, in order to spare food crops. | 7th March 2007 |
| Alberta wants $1.5B pipeline to capture C02 - CBC Canada: Alberta wants Ottawa to help build a $1.5-billion pipeline that would put carbon dioxide emissions from the northern oilsands industry to work in oil wells hundreds of kilometres away. | 7th March 2007 |
| Giving up oil - Guardian Like eternal sunshine or perpetual motion, a world beyond oil is something that sounds delightful but implausible. Society has become so addicted to the black stuff that the habit seems permanent. But if that turns out to be true then all the bold talk about tackling change means little. Technologies such as carbon capture and fuel efficiency may reduce the harm that oil use causes - but any gains will be wiped out by economic growth around the world. As David Miliband argued in a speech yesterday, "the goal could not be clearer: for reasons of energy security and climate security, take the carbon out of our fuel supplies". | 6th March 2007 |
| Big Oil renewables: True green or greenwash? - New Scientist Two of the largest oil producers in the world, Shell and BP, are quickly emerging as leaders in the world of renewable energy. Shell is one of the top five wind power generators in the US, while BP plans to produce 550 megawatts of wind energy in 2007, one-sixth of the total projected US wind energy output, according to the Boston Globe. I m wondering if Big Oil has suddenly found eco-religion or if the recent developments are simply an attempt to "greenwash" away the climate-spoiling sins of their products. | 6th March 2007 |
| Plugging the ozone hole cut global warming too - New Scientist Global warming would be much worse if the world had not put a halt to the destruction of the ozone hole above Antarctica, say researchers. They say the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which restricts the use of CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals, will cut warming by five or six times more than the Kyoto Protocol. | 6th March 2007 |
| Asia smog fuelling Pacific storms 'will melt Arctic ice' - Guardian Smog and air pollution from Asian cities have intensified storms over the Pacific Ocean, which will result in increased warming of the Arctic, scientists have warned. They report that the number of storm clouds in the region has increased by up to a half over the last 20 years as rapidly industrialised cities in countries such as India and China burn more coal as they grow. | 6th March 2007 |
| Industry closes anti-coal website - Sydney Morning Herald Australia: THE mining industry has used copyright laws to close an anti-mining website launched by a small protest group in Newcastle. | 6th March 2007 |
| Coal-to-liquid fuels: Not 'clean coal', not economically viable, and just not cool - GristMill The distinction between coal gasification (that is, producing electricity in IGCC coal plants) and coal-to-liquids (that is, producing liquid diesel fuel from coal via the Fischer-Tropsch process). | 6th March 2007 |
| US target on renewables 'not enough to cut gases' - FT Proposals for a US federal standard of 15 per cent power generation arising from renewable sources will not result in an absolute reduction from current levels of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Wood Mackenzie. | 6th March 2007 |
| Why the TXU Buyout Faces More Opposition - BusinessWeek The environmental groups protesting TXU's "green" pledges carry ample political and legal clout and that could signify changes in the deal | 6th March 2007 |
| Car Owners May Be Required to Trade Emission Permits, U.K. Says - Bloomberg European Union lawmakers will consider forcing motor-vehicle owners and ships to trade carbon-emission permits under new laws to curb greenhouse-gas output, the U.K. Environment Secretary David Miliband is slated to say in a speech later today. | 6th March 2007 |
| Ocean Upwelling Delay Gives Scientists Sneak Preview Of What Future May Hold - Science Daily A one-month delay in the annual spring upwelling of the California current in 2005 provided scientists with a sneak preview of what conditions may be like if global climate change models prove accurate. | 6th March 2007 |
| Global warming threatens species in North - CBC Global warming could rapidly escalate the expansion of forests into tundra landscapes in Canada's North and force out indigenous species such as caribou, according to a group of Canadian researchers. Rising air temperatures and soil temperatures are expected to have an impact on the ecosystem in the North, pushing the treeline, the boundary between white spruce forests and tundra, farther north. And if the expansion of forest in the first-half of the 20th century is any indication, in the future it will occur faster than previously thought, said Ryan Danby, a biology professor at the University of Alberta . See also: Tundra disappearing at rapid rate | 6th March 2007 |
| Merkel risks rift at EU summit over energy - FT Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, on Monday faced the risk that Europe s drive to fight climate change could provoke an east-west split at a European Union summit in Brussels this week. Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary are among seven new EU member states resisting binding targets forcing them to invest heavily in renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Coal remains a vital source of power in many eastern European countries and is cheaper than the alternative energy sources being promoted by Ms Merkel, chair of the summit, which will be held on Thursday and Friday. | 6th March 2007 |
| European Marine Species Displaced by Warming Climate - ENS European marine species are feeling the effects of global warming, new research reveals. Atlantic species are beginning to inhabit the more northern seas where Arctic species have traditionally lived, and subtropical species are moving into southern waters, previously the habitat of temperate species. | 6th March 2007 |
| Germany plans climate tax for aircraft - Deutsche Welle In a further bid to tackle climate warming the German government is planning a new system of airport taxes that will favour low-pollution aircraft. The Transport Ministry says in a test phase landing and take-off fees could be higher for those aircraft that emit larger quantities of climate-damaging gases such as carbon dioxide. Passengers' ticket prices would reflect the efficiency of the aircraft they book. The ministry says it also wants aviation to be included in Europe's system of tradeable carbon-pollution rights. | 6th March 2007 |
| Oilsands-area hamlet supports whistleblower MD - CBC Canada: A small Alberta community is rallying behind a local doctor residents believe is being silenced by Health Canada because he raised concerns about high rates of cancer near the booming oilsands. Health Canada officials have filed a complaint against Dr. John O'Connor. O'Connor alerted the media last year to what he believed was a disproportionately high incidence of colon, liver, blood and bile-duct cancers in patients who live in Fort Chipewyan, a small community downstream from major petroleum refineries. | 6th March 2007 |
| Just a lot of hot air - Guardian Tony Blair talks the talk on climate change. But a new investigation reveals that the government's strategies for cutting carbon dioxide emissions are little more than a sham. By George Monbiot Also: UK plans to cut CO2 doomed to fail | 5th March 2007 |
| Welsh Water s early warning about shortages - icWales UK: The head of Welsh Water today warns Wales can no longer take its plentiful water resources for granted because global warming is reducing supplies and increasing demand. | 5th March 2007 |
| GREEN ETHANOL'S DIRTY FUEL - Pioneer Press USA: The latest trend in the green world of ethanol is a surprising one: coal. Minnesota's first coal-fired ethanol plant soon will begin operation in Heron Lake, and it won't be the last. The high price of natural gas is enticing new plant owners to embrace coal power. But while it may make economic sense, the choice of this fossil fuel to make a renewable one has some people shaking their heads. | 5th March 2007 |
| The Big Green Fuel Lie - Independent George Bush says that ethanol will save the world. But there is evidence that biofuels may bring new problems for the planet | 5th March 2007 |
| Michael Meacher: You ask the questions - Independent UK: Labour leadership contender answers your questions, such as 'Why not sell your flats to help fight against poverty?' and 'What's your guilty pleasure?' | 5th March 2007 |
| Miliband: 'Time for a green industrial revolution' - Independent UK: Britain needs a new industrial revolution to transform itself into the low carbon economy needed to make radical cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will say today. | 5th March 2007 |
| 'Green' options - Toronto Star Canada's main industrial producers of greenhouse gases will be offered a menu of options for how they want to meet the Conservative government's new reduction targets, in a policy paper that insiders say will be announced within weeks. | 5th March 2007 |
| Trade protectionism, biofuels, and the environment - GristMill The United States' increasing reliance on corn ethanol is one of the most convoluted and wasteful government endeavors in the world. First we massively subsidize corn, then we massively subsidize ethanol production, then we massively tax imports of foreign ethanol from sugar. Result: little reduction in CO2 emissions, massive over-production of corn that destroys land and sea, anger from developing countries about our hypocrisy, and billions of dollars thrown down a rat hole. | 5th March 2007 |
| Sydney's Gay Mardi Gras to Paint the Town Green - Planet Ark Australia: Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, one of the biggest of its kind in the world, is going green this year with a message to Australians that they must take action to protect a threatened environment. Centrepiece of the parade on Saturday night will be a giant replica of planet Earth, split into two with one half barren and decaying, and the other bright and colourful to symbolise hope. | 5th March 2007 |
| China to Consider Draft Energy Law This Year - Planet Ark A draft of China's first energy law is likely to be submitted to senior officials later this year, following international consultation on its contents, an official Chinese newspaper reported on Saturday. See also: China Plans Pilot Pollution Emission Trading Scheme | 5th March 2007 |
| Norway Says to Form State CO2 Storage Company - Planet Ark Norway said on Friday that it would establish a state-owned company to manage the government's interests in carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage projects, like one planned for the Mongstad refinery on the west coast. | 5th March 2007 |
| U.N. Climate Talks Stagnate Despite Public Worries - Planet Ark Governments are making scant progress towards extending a U.N. pact to fight global warming despite mounting public concern about climate change and U.N. warnings it poses a threat as great as war, experts say. | 5th March 2007 |
| EU Summit Set to Agree Carbon Capture Projects - Planet Ark European Union leaders will approve a series of carbon capture and storage projects at a summit next week in the search for quick solutions to the global warming crisis, an official said on Friday. | 5th March 2007 |
| US Coal-Fired Power Plant Plans up in Smoke? - Planet Ark USA: The future of coal-fired power plants is seen so tied up by legal challenges from green groups, that it could slow, or even thwart, plans to use America's abundant coal supplies to generate its growing electricity needs. | 5th March 2007 |
| Fuel tax could pave way for electric rail - NZ Herald New Zealand: Backing from the Auckland Regional Council for a road-fuel tax to boost public transport is warming the Government to rail electrification. | 5th March 2007 |
| Gasification may spur ethanol production - Sharewatch USA: Thursday's forecast from the Agriculture Department that half of this year's U.S. corn crop will be consumed by ethanol producers has raised red flags. Critics say surging demand for corn could push up prices of everything from corn-sweetened soft drinks to meats, since corn is a common feed ingredient for livestock. That helps explain why the Energy Department is placing a big bet on a process called gasification. Long hailed as a more environmentally friendly way to turn coal into electricity, the process might also provide a faster and eventually cheaper way to produce ethanol from a variety of renewable sources collectively known as biomass, some scientists say. | 5th March 2007 |
| Would we? - Salt Lake Tribune Letter: "Imagine for a moment that we know for certain climate change is caused by human activity. Imagine that we know for sure in 10-20 years the western United States will have constant, severe droughts. Imagine that in 80-100 years the western U.S. coastal cities will be flooded. Imagine that in 200 years, with continued emissions and the resultant global warming, much of the Earth will be uninhabitable. Then let's ask the most important questions. Even if this were all true, could we, would we, change our lives? Our economy depends upon increasing consumption and increasing population. To stop these consequences, would we have fewer kids (every human consumes)? Could we drive smaller cars, drive less, fly much less? Could we eat more locally grown food and eat less meat? Would we pay more for clothes and toys that are not transported from the other side of the world? Would we pay more for renewable energy? If we would not make such changes, then studying climate change is not important. " | 5th March 2007 |
| Micronesia vanishing as climate warms up - Star Bulletin The seas are rising from global warming and starting to take away islets in Micronesia, a conservation group told leaders of the voyaging canoes Hokule'a and Alingano Maisu. Ben Namakin, an official with the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, said that in the last five years rising ocean levels have taken a sandy islet a couple of miles south of Pohnpei and split another nearby islet. | 4th March 2007 |
| Emissions trading deadline at risk as report battle rages -The Age Australia: A deadline set by Labor premiers to start emissions trading looks set to be missed, unless a long-running battle over how companies should report greenhouse emissions is resolved at a crucial meeting in April. | 4th March 2007 |
| Suzuki says Canadians willing to pay cost of fighting climate change - Ottawa Citizen Canada: After meeting with tens of thousands of Canadians on a cross-country tour, environmentalist David Suzuki says he's convinced that most are willing to pay more out of their own pockets to fight climate change, provided that big industries are forced to do the same. "Maybe we're speaking to the converted, in which case there's a hell of a lot of converted, but certainly the people we encountered are ready to pay higher prices and to sacrifice, because they see this is a great danger," said Suzuki. | 4th March 2007 |
| End preferential oil-sands tax deal, draft recommends - Globe and Mail Canada: The federal government should cancel its generous tax treatment of the Alberta oil-sands industry, putting it on the same footing as the rest of the oil-and-gas sector, says a draft report by a House of Commons committee. | 4th March 2007 |
| When Being Green Puts You in the Black - Washington Post Are America's capitalist titans really going green? By making companies pay for every increment of pollution, society puts a premium on vigorous environmental effort and forces executives to make pollution control and natural resource management a core part of their strategy. So KKR and TPG have most certainly have not gone soft. The masters of the universe have not given in to greenmail in a fit of political correctness. To the contrary, they are super-sophisticated business people who have learned that success in the marketplace now depends on getting corporate environmental strategy right. | 4th March 2007 |
| My Dot-Green Future Is Finally Arriving - Washington Post "It's the Net vs. the 20th-century fossil order in a fight that the cybergreens are winning. Why? Because they're not about spiritual potential, human decency, small is beautiful, peace, justice or anything else unattainable. The cybergreens are about stuff people want, such as health, sex, glamour, hot products, awesome bandwidth, tech innovation and tons of money." [Some truths expressed here, although it's not clear what exactly his point is] | 4th March 2007 |
| The Carbon Folly - Newsweek Policymakers have settled on 'emissions trading' as their favorite global-warming fix. But it isn't working. Current emissions-trading schemes have proved to be little more than a shell game, allowing polluters in the developed world to shift the burden of making cuts onto factories in the developing world. Too often factory owners use the additional profits banked from carbon credits to expand their dirty factories. Even more worrying, emissions trading may have set back the battle against climate change by diverting investment from renewable-energy technology, which arguably is essential to any long-term solution. | 4th March 2007 |
| India's 'wet desert' hit by global climate change - Yahoo / AFP Rainfall in the unique "wet desert" of India's northeast has become unpredictable and the dry season longer in a disturbing sign of major changes in global weather patterns, scientists say. | 4th March 2007 |
| Africa to pay for Europe's "green policies" - afrol In efforts to make quick and symbolic gains in Europe's otherwise failed policies to curb climate gas emissions, environmental and anti-globalisation politicians are aiming at Africa's few economic success stories. Campaigns to buy locally produced food and travel to local destinations particularly hit out against African products. | 4th March 2007 |
| Living on thin ice - Guardian The combination of polar bears and melting ice is a heady mix - so much so that the animal's plight has become a rallying cry in the fight against climate change. | 4th March 2007 |
| Global warming a hot spot for investors - USA Today Wall Street's savviest analysts are devising ways to cash in on crazy weather, just as they did in response to the profound changes brought on by the dawn of the digital age, globalization and the graying of America. Discussions about what interest rates mean for stocks are giving way to chatter about what a 1-degree rise each year in temperature would do to profits at businesses ranging from carmakers to solar companies. | 4th March 2007 |
| Global warming: An inconvenient truth or hot air? - Independent UK: Everyone agrees global warming is a terrible fact of life. Right? Wrong. A film to be screened this week ridicules the Al Gore orthodoxy. | 4th March 2007 |
| A C Grayling: Good men in a mad, bad world - Independent The Prince of Wales and Al Gore may not practise as they preach, but they mean well, and that counts. I would rather have an energy-wasting Al Gore fighting to save the planet than an energy-wasting Al Gore not caring about the planet. People such as Gore and Prince Charles have a platform, and the worst thing they could do is fail to use the platform in support of worthwhile causes, whether or not they are personally no better than the rest of us at doing their individual bit. | 4th March 2007 |
| Global warming threatens Scottish puffin paradise - Independent One of Britain's largest puffin colonies is being wiped out by an invasive plant that is thriving in warmer temperatures brought about by climate change. | 4th March 2007 |
| Expert View: Here we go again: a carbon copy of dot-com fever - Independent A tidal wave of money is chasing low-carbon technologies | 4th March 2007 |
| There's change in the air at Drax - Independent Europe's biggest producer of coal-fired power is out to prove that it can clean up its act | 4th March 2007 |
| South Korea Has Warmest Winter in 100 Years on Global Warming - Bloomberg South Korea had its warmest winter in more than 100 years because of the effects of the El Nino weather pattern and global warming, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration. | 4th March 2007 |
| No Rush On Global Warming - CBS USA: If Democrats in Congress act tomorrow and produce a bill that can pass muster with the White House, they will end up with an inadequate half-measure that could deflate the growing pressure to act meaningfully. | 3rd March 2007 |
| Island people swallowed by the sea - BBC This week saw the launch of International Polar Year, an initiative in which scientists from 60 countries will study the Arctic and Antarctic, with the major focus on climate change. The BBC's David Willis travelled to the remote Alaskan island of Shishmaref, a community that is being destroyed by climate change. | 3rd March 2007 |
| Only 33% in poll favor strict emission controls - SF Gate USA, San Francisco: Nearly 4 out of 5 Bay Area residents believe global warming poses a significant threat to the region, but only about one-third support a strict mandate to force California businesses to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent, according to a poll released today. | 3rd March 2007 |
| U.S. Predicting Steady Increase for Emissions - Herald Tribune The Bush administration estimates that emissions by the United States of gases that contribute to global warming will grow nearly as fast through the next decade as they did the previous decade, according to a long-delayed report being completed for the United Nations. | 3rd March 2007 |
| UCS Vanguard Calls Carmakers' Bluff - Wired Are the automakers bluffing when they say they can't hit California's new emissions targets? If so, the Union of Concerned Scientists is calling their bluff. Yesterday the UCS unveiled a minivan design that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 40 percent while saving consumers money and keeping safety and performance intact. | 3rd March 2007 |
| Green, Efficient Excess - TomPaine.com In the 19th century, inventors and engineers were noticing a peculiar phenomenon: As machines in general became more efficient, they used more fuel, not less. That was because efficiency brought the cost down and more people than ever bought them, and used them more often. There s no reason to believe that this theory is, in the main, any less applicable today. Think not of the individual unit or system, but of the big picture. Material things take energy to produce, to distribute, to operate and to maintain or more likely these days, to replace. In order to halt the descent to environmental disaster, we have to consume much less and the thought is far too frightening for most of us to accept. I suspect that we re terrified of losing our wealth, but that once we discard it, we ll wonder why we ever lugged that stuff around for so many years. | 3rd March 2007 |
| CO2 output from shipping twice as much as airlines - Guardian Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping are double those of aviation and increasing at an alarming rate which will have a serious impact on global warming, according to research by the industry and European academics. 90% of the world s goods are carried by sea and world trade is increasing all the time | 3rd March 2007 |
| Miliband faces calls for tougher carbon target - Guardian David Miliband, the environment secretary, may have to strengthen his proposed target of a 60% cut in CO2 emissions by 2050 in his imminent climate change bill. He is being told by MPs that the target may not be ambitious enough, due to the evidence of quickening climate change. | 3rd March 2007 |
| An OPEC for Ethanol? - IPS U.S. President George W. Bush will visit Latin America next week seeking a strategic alliance with Brazil to develop biofuels -- and Venezuela, the region's main oil exporter, is taking this as a warning sign | 3rd March 2007 |
| Wave farms show energy potential - BBC Proponents of clean energy have long seen the oceans as a great hope for the future. Ocean waves carry tremendous power, and could, in theory at least, provide much of the world's electricity. | 3rd March 2007 |
| Warm Winters Upset Rhythms of Maple Sugar - Herald Tribune USA: Warmer-than-usual winters are throwing things out of kilter, causing confusion among maple syrup producers, called sugar makers, and stoking fears for the survival of New England s maple forests. You might be tempted to say, well that s a bunch of baloney global warming, said Mr. Morse, drilling his first tap holes this season in mid-February, as snow hugged the maples and Vermont braced for a record snowfall. But the way I feel, we get too much warm. How many winters are we going to go with Decembers turning into short-sleeve weather, before the maple trees say, I don t like it here any more? | 3rd March 2007 |
| Towards a carbon neutral death - BBC Even death offers no escape from the global warming debate. But as with most things these days, there are eco-friendly alternatives. Woodland burials and wicker coffins are the among the greenest ways to a carbon neutral end. | 3rd March 2007 |
| The future - hopes and grim visions - Energy Bulletin [Links to recent articles.] | 3rd March 2007 |
| The Climate-Change Precipice - Washington Post Eco systems could quickly pass the tipping point and drag their inhabitants over the line that separates civilized society and anarchy. See Report in pdf format: Impacts of Climate Change - GBN | 2nd March 2007 |
 New Evidence That Global Warming Fuels Stronger Atlantic Hurricanes - Science DailyAtmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh evidence to support the hotly debated theory that global warming has contributed to the emergence of stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. | 2nd March 2007 |
| US CO2 emissions 'violate rights' - BBC A delegation of Inuit has travelled to Washington to argue that the US government's climate change policies violate human rights. | 2nd March 2007 |
| Australia's First Wave Power Plant Ready to Roll - ENN Australia's cities are drought-parched and its desert outback drenched by floods, but climate change has not yet killed the country's famed surf beaches, or their promise of clean eco-power. | 2nd March 2007 |
| Group Says Ocean Harm Should Force U.S. Carbon Regulation - ENN A wildlife conservation, The Center for Biological Diversity, said it is trying to pressure U.S. states to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under federal clean water laws because of harm the gas does to the cycle of life in the ocean. | 2nd March 2007 |
 NASA Data Link Indonesian Wildfire Flare-Up to Recent El Nino - NASAScientists using NASA satellite and rainfall data have linked the recent El Nino to the greatest rise in wildfire activity in Indonesia since the record-breaking 1997-98 El Nino. As rainfall sharply decreased during the last quarter of 2006 across the dense tropical rainforests of Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Malaysia, the land became exceptionally dry. This allowed wildfires to quickly spread, releasing large amounts of soot and tiny dust particles called aerosols that brought unhealthy pollution levels to the area. | 2nd March 2007 |
| Antarctic 'sandbags' may protect ice - Nature Glacial deposits could help to protect against sea-level rise. BUT..."if the ice is less sensitive to sea level than we thought, then it must be more sensitive to temperature than we thought," he explains. "As we expect future changes in temperature, maybe more so than in sea levels, perhaps things are not as optimistic as you might think." | 2nd March 2007 |
| Shanghai has Warmest Winter on Record - Planet Ark Shanghai, China's largest city, has experienced its warmest winter since records began in 1873, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday. | 2nd March 2007 |
| France has Warmest Autumn, Winter for Centuries - Planet Ark France recorded its warmest autumn and winter for several centuries, the meteorological office said on Thursday as the government warned it was worried about water supplies. Meteo France said average temperatures from December to February were 2.1 degrees Celsius (35.78 Fahrenheit) above average -- the highest since it began collating "full and reliable" data from 22 French cities in 1950. | 2nd March 2007 |
| Why Ecosystems Matter to Business - WBCSD Business cannot function if ecosystems and the services they deliver such as water management, biodiversity protection, food provision and climate regulation are degraded or out of balance, says Bj?rn Stigson. | 2nd March 2007 |
| Global Warming, Income Gap, Urban Sprawl, and Debt Reduce America's Economic Welfare - Common Dreams The U.S. economy has actually stagnated since the late 1970s as income inequality, environmental degradation, and our flailing international position take their toll on real economic progress. This is one of the key findings from a new analysis of the United States Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) by the Oakland based policy institute Redefining Progress. The GPI is an alternative economic accounting system that takes into account the benefits associated with volunteering, higher education, housework, and public infrastructure as well as the costs associated with lost forests, farmland, and wetlands, pollution, disappearing family time, and capital exported abroad. Most economists agree that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fails as a true measure of real economic progress, and have endorsed alternative accounting systems such as the GPI. Redefining Progress is the only U.S. group to publish regular updates to the U.S. GPI. | 2nd March 2007 |
| NOAA outlines dangers of coastal living - Sharewatch More than half the U.S. population lives in coastal areas and Lautenbacher said that means "you have a lot less margin of ability to absorb and to mitigate and to adapt to severe weather events." "We need to be much better at our ability to predict and tell you what's going to happen," he said. "We need much better preparation along our coastlines, we need much better building codes, flood insurance, all of the economic issues." Lautenbacher's comments come just months before hurricane season begins in June, with millions of people in coastal areas wondering what the storm season will be like. | 2nd March 2007 |
| Barking up a new tree for renewable energy sources - Guardian Carbon-neutral and cheap, wood pellets look like a good fuel bet - as some schools and businesses are already discovering. [hmm.. not sure about the closing quote, "If you're not burning oil, you're not polluting the environment," and pellets cannot be completely carbon neutral because of the enrgy cost in fabricating and transporting them - however it does seem to have some merit] | 2nd March 2007 |
| UN chief warns on climate change - BBC UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that climate change poses as much of a danger to the world as war. In his first address on the issue |