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News Archive September to December 2007 back to archive main page |
Graphic Novel Review: As The World Burns - 50 Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial - Blogcritics.org ![[essential]](../images/redDot.gif) This is definitely not a graphic novel for those looking to escape the troubles of the world... As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial is unabashedly radical in its call for change, and provides convincing arguments that we aren't doing enough to prevent the destruction of the natural world. The decision is ours: trust the politicians and the leaders of industry who tell us that everything will be fine, or trust our senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, that tell us the world has changed irrevocably for the worse and that we need to do something about it. |
31st December 2007 |
| The Free Market: A False Idol After All? - NYTimes.com via Yahoo! Finance FOR more than a quarter-century, the dominant idea guiding economic policy in the United States and much of the globe has been that the market is unfailingly wise. So wise that the proper role for government is to steer clear and not mess with the gusher of wealth that will flow, trickling down to the every level of society, if only the market is left to do its magic. That notion has carried the day as industries have been unshackled from regulation, and as taxes have been rolled back, along with the oversight powers of government. Faith in markets has held sway as insurance companies have fended off calls for more government-financed health care, and as banks have engineered webs of finance that have turned houses from mere abodes into assets traded like dot-com stocks. But lately, a striking unease with market forces has entered the conversation. The world confronts problems of staggering complexity and consequence, from a shortage of credit following the mortgage meltdown, to the threat of global warming. Regulation — nasty talk in some quarters, synonymous with pointy-headed bureaucrats choking the market — is suddenly being demanded from unexpected places. |
31st December 2007 |
Japan to back targets for new climate deal - Adelaide Now ![[hopeful]](../images/greenDot.gif) JAPAN will accept numerical targets to cut global warming emissions in a new climate change pact, reversing its stance which came under fire at this month's UN-led talks over the deal, a newspaper reported. |
31st December 2007 |
| ENERGY: German Biodiesel Forced to Compete BERLIN, Dec 29 (IPS/IFEJ) - Until a few months ago, the production of crop-based fuels was the best energy business imaginable in Germany, thanks to growing demand supported by the government. That's no longer the case.As of Jan. 1, 2008, the German government will receive nine cents on the dollar per litre of biodiesel. That tax will increase to more than 65 cents on the dollar in 2012. The tax exemption and subsidies for biofuels represented nearly three billion dollars in 2006. Because the new taxes imply an increase in the price, biodiesel will lose its ability to compete with fossil fuels, prompting predictions of a decline in demand. "Maintaining the tax exemptions for plant-based fuels doesn't make sense," said Dautzenberg in an interview for this article. What's more, the environmental benefits of biofuels compared to petroleum-based fuels are increasingly challenged by scientists and activists. A study by the Hamburg Environmental Institute presented Nov. 26 concludes that the reduction of greenhouse-effect gases from the use of biofuels is negligible. |
31st December 2007 |
Significant decline in monsoon rainfall - The Hindu ![[canaries]](../images/canary.gif) Bangalore: The southwest monsoon, responsible for 80 per cent of the country's annual rainfall and the basis of Indian agriculture, has substantially reduced in the last 50 years, shrinking in duration, spatial distribution and quantum. |
31st December 2007 |
| Terror of the north on the brink - Globe and Mail The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to announce within days whether, in light of the animal's shrinking habitat, it will classify the polar bear as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. |
31st December 2007 |
| US drought spans coast to coast; dancing for rain - EARTHtimes.org The drought gives a glimpse of what climate scientists are predicting for the coming century if global warming continues and greenhouse gasses are not brought under control. |
31st December 2007 |
| Netherlands Has Another Record Warm Year in 2007 - Planet Ark AMSTERDAM - The average temperature in the Netherlands in 2007 matched 2006, the warmest year in 300 years, and the Dutch meteorological institute said it was a sign of global warming. |
31st December 2007 |
Food security hobbles SA biofuel strategy - Mail and Guardian ![[food]](../images/food.gif) Worried that it may be seen as insensitive to the food needs of Africa, the South African government, which is facing a general election in 2009, has chosen food security in framing a biofuel policy. |
31st December 2007 |
| Why the era of cheap food is over - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Food prices worldwide hit record highs in 2006, and all the signs are that they will go on rising this year, and for the foreseeable future. |
31st December 2007 |
| Adelie penguins in Antarctica in danger of extinction within 10 years - TopNews Adelie penguins Ecologists have warned that Adelie penguins in Antarctica face extinction within five to ten years, because of the rapid warming of the region due to climate change. |
31st December 2007 |
| UK species 'need new habitats' - BBC News Climate change will force some UK species of wildlife to find new habitats, the Wildlife Trusts warn. |
31st December 2007 |
| 'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change - Guardian Unlimited British people are now convinced about the dangers of global warming but are either baffled about how to stop it or are ignoring the issue. Analysts say few people are taking action to deal with the threat of climate change, although over the past 12 months the vast majority have come to accept that it poses a real threat to the world. Opinion polls reveal much confusion among the public about what Britain should do to combat the problem. A backlash is now a real threat, said Phil Downing, head of environmental research for Ipsos Mori. 'There's cynicism because on the one hand we're being told [the problem] is very serious and on the other hand we're building runways, mining Alaskan oil; there's a lot going on that appears to be heading in the opposite direction.' |
31st December 2007 |
| Hilary Benn: With the will, we can save the Earth - Guardian Unlimited Hilary Benn: The world now understands that climate change is not just an environmental problem. It's also a security, economic, political and migration problem |
31st December 2007 |
| Bali: An Initial Balance Sheet - International Viewpoint Bali: The compromise is not a win for Bush. Rather, it anticipates the rather predictable shift in the US political climate after Bush leaves. |
31st December 2007 |
| The Forecast in the Streets - RealClimate A new report called The Age of Consequences, just released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security, tries to bring the social sciences, in particular history, geography, and political science, into the forecast of climate change in the coming century. It makes for fascinating if frightening reading. |
29th December 2007 |
| Globalization Is Fueling Global Warming - AlterNet Unfettered global trade will make efforts to reverse global warming and deliver safe products to our country all the more difficult. |
29th December 2007 |
| Australia braced for extreme weather - BBC News BBC's Phil Mercer takes a look at an extreme weather year even by Australian standards. |
29th December 2007 |
| New efficient bulb sees the light - BBC News A new super-efficient light bulb could spell the end of regular ones, Glasgow scientists claim. |
29th December 2007 |
| Panels start solar power revolution - Guardian Unlimited The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity. |
29th December 2007 |
| Sheila Watt-Cloutier - Globe and Mail This week, as a prelude to Saturday's announcement of The Globe's Nation Builder of 2007, we introduce the four other finalists/runners-up who have made a major contribution to Canadian society. Today, we profile Inuit environmentalist Sheila Watt-Cloutier. |
29th December 2007 |
| Cause for alarm - Guardian Unlimited The year that was: Climate change went mainstream in 2007, but there is still a gap between the urgency of the science and our willingness to act |
29th December 2007 |
| Bittersweet gains for Green Party - CNews OTTAWA -- The Green Party is poised to make political history in 2008 by electing its first MPs to the House of Commons, Leader Elizabeth May predicts. |
29th December 2007 |
| The Top 5 YouTube Global Warming Videos of 2007 - DeSmogBlog At DeSmogBlog we monitor Youtube on a daily basis looking for the videos that effectively convey the reality and urgency of global warming.Here's this year's top 5: #5 The Ranting Gryphon on Global WarmingWinner of the moviebakery global warming award.#4 Boxer Tells Inhofe Who the Boss is Now Not a true youtube video, but definitely a highlight of the year. #3 "Arctic Sea Ice Loss 1979 to 2007Courtesy of NASA's Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio #2 "Fox Attacks the Environment"By Robert Greenwald and Bravenew Films #1 "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See"The video is the work of Oregon school science teacher, Greg Craven, who has become a youtube sensation since posting his insightful and humorous reasoning for why we need to act now to reduce our energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. |
29th December 2007 |
| Brit's Eye View: A shift in business attitudes? - GristMill Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe. Forum for the Future recently asked a selection of top business and branding folk to give us the lowdown on the recent trend toward sustainable business. The gurus included Rita Clifton of Interbrand, Stuart Hart of Cornell University, William Kramer of the World Resources Institute, and Jonathon Porritt of Forum for the Future. I have distilled their wisdom into six insights. 1. A real sea change is underway. Looking at the current trends and recent announcements, there are signs of real progress and positive signals of change. |
29th December 2007 |
| The climate threat to Japanese rice - BBC News In Japan government scientists are trying to find ways to reduce the impact of global warming on the country's rice crop. There are fears that the extremes of temperature that some researchers are predicting could affect both the yield and the quality of rice, a staple of the Japanese diet. . |
29th December 2007 |
| The Year in Review: The planet - The Independent The sheer scale of what happened hasn't sunk in, it probably hasn't sunk in at all, with most people. They're not looking back on 2007 and talking about it, in the office, in pubs or over dinner. Listen to them: they're talking about Brown taking over from Blair, or David Cameron's prospects, or England failing to qualify for the European football championships. Or they're talking about getting and spending, or love and hate, as they always have. But what happened in September dwarfs all that. |
28th December 2007 |
| Insured losses from natural disasters nearly double, risks up on global warming - CBC News From winter storms in Europe, flooding in Britain and wildfires in the U.S., losses to insurers from natural disasters nearly doubled this year to just below US$30 billion globally after an unusually quiet 2006, a leading reinsurer said Thursday. Munich Re warned that climate change could mean a growing number of weather-related catastrophes in coming years. "The trend in respect of weather extremes shows that climate change is already taking effect and that more such extremes are to be expected in the future," board member Torsten Jeworrek said in a statement. "We should not be misled by the absence of mega-catastrophes in 2007." |
28th December 2007 |
| Fruit, vegie price up as heat burns crops - The West Australian Australia: Shoppers looking forward to cheaper fresh fruit and vegetables following the Christmas buying frenzy face disappointment after temperatures of up to 45C this week damaged crops from Bunbury to Lancelin. |
28th December 2007 |
| Prince Charles to Work With Norway to Save Forests - Planet Ark OSLO - Britain's Prince Charles has offered to team up with Norway in projects to save forests around the world, Norwegian officials said on Thursday. |
28th December 2007 |
| Manitoba to adopt Calif.-like vehicle emission limits: Doer - CNews Canada: Manitoba will soon set down new vehicle emission standards similar to those in California, Premier Gary Doer said Thursday. |
28th December 2007 |
| Yellowknife looks to old gold mine for new source of energy - CNews Canada: Early in 2008, Yellowknife will begin studying what could eventually become Canada's first large-scale geothermal heat plant. |
28th December 2007 |
| Global warming brings busy year for UN disaster teams - Guardian Unlimited The UN office that helps governments deal with natural disasters was busier than ever in Latin America this year, a fact it at least partially blames on climate change |
28th December 2007 |
| Green energy is the bottomless well - Gristmill Martin Wolf makes what I think is a really bad argument in the Financial Times:We live in a positive-sum world economy and have done so for about two centuries. This, I believe, is why democracy has become a political norm, empires have largely vanished, legal slavery and serfdom have disappeared and measures of well-being have risen almost everywhere. What then do I mean by a positive-sum economy? It is one in which everybody can become better off. It is one in which real incomes per head are able to rise indefinitely ... This is why climate change and energy security are such geopolitically significant issues. |
28th December 2007 |
| Year hottest ever in N. Hemisphere - Toronto Star When the calendar turned to 2007, the heat went on and the weather just got weirder. January was the warmest first month on record worldwide – 0.85 degrees Celsius above normal. It was the first time since record-keeping began in 1880 that the globe's average temperature has been so far above the norm for any month of the year. And as 2007 drew to a close, it was also shaping up to be the hottest year on record in the Northern Hemisphere. See also: Melting Arctic ice cap top weather story: Environment Canada - CNews Weather odds could become the norm - CBC North |
27th December 2007 |
| Climatic Chain Reaction Caused Runaway Greenhouse Effect 55 Million Years Ago - Environmental News Network Analogous to the Earth's current situation, greenhouse warming 55 million years ago was caused by a relatively rapid increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. This phase, known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), was studied using sediments that accumulated 55 million years ago on the ocean floor in what is now New Jersey. The new study shows that a large proportion of the greenhouse gases was released as a result of a chain-reaction of events. Probably due to intense volcanic activity, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere became higher and the ensuing greenhouse effect warmed the Earth. As a result, submarine methane hydrates (ice-like structures in which massive amounts of methane are stored) melted and released large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. |
27th December 2007 |
| Japan Plays Russian Roulette in its Energy Quest - DeSmogBlog Fifty-five million years ago the world's climate was catastrophically changed when volcanoes melted natural gas frozen in the seabed. Now Japan plans to drill for the same icy crystals to end its reliance on imported energy. Billions of tons of methane hydrate, frozen chunks of chemical-laced water buried in sediment some 3,000 feet under the Pacific Ocean floor, may help Japan win energy independence from the Middle East and Indonesia. Japanese engineers have found enough ``flammable ice'' to meet its gas use demands for 14 years. The trick is extracting it without damaging the environment. Ryo Matsumoto Toshiharu Okui Hironori Watanabe |
27th December 2007 |
| Despite EPA, smart carmakers will be green - Times-Standard The bottom line is that the company that acts on the California standards first will be the one that does best for years, maybe decades, afterward. Those that fight hardest against the new reality will become dinosaurs, perhaps even moving into the automotive boneyard now occupied by the likes of Kaiser, Studebaker, NSU and Daihatsu. |
27th December 2007 |
| NY to reduce gas emissions - BBC News New York City begins an ambitious project to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. |
27th December 2007 |
| Government still searching for heir to Kyoto deal - Toronto Star The ghosts of Kyoto treaties past and future haunted the beginning and end of 2007. |
27th December 2007 |
| Donnachadh McCarthy: My carbon-free year - The Independent Donnachadh McCarthy has turned his Victorian house into one of Britain's greenest homes. He explains how he did |
27th December 2007 |
| Julia Stephenson: The Green Goddess The news that retailers have had a poor Christmas and that we're about to slide into recession has been relayed in sombre voices by newscasters and gloomy economics pundits. Perhaps they could cheer themselves up if they had a word with the king of Bhutan, who reckons that gross national happiness is more important than gross national product because "happiness takes precedence over economic prosperity in our national development process". |
27th December 2007 |
| Rich life emerges from nature's freezer - BBC Tiny channels in the Arctic ice support creatures that play a crucial role in climate-affected ecosystems. |
27th December 2007 |
| Climate change adversely affecting predators in world's oceans - TopNews Climate change adversely affecting predators in world's oceansTopNews, India. "Global warming may lead to severe contraction of favorable reproductive zones for some species of tunas that will have larger effects than fisheries on ... |
26th December 2007 |
| Low carbon work boosted by £80m - BBC News A new £80m programme of European funding to support low carbon economic growth in the East of England over the next seven years has been announced.. |
26th December 2007 |
| China to see huge increase in coal consumption - Houston Chronicle China promised today to develop renewable energy for its fast-growing economy but warned that coal consumption will grow dramatically and avoided embracing binding limits on its greenhouse gas emissions. |
26th December 2007 |
| News Anchors Don't Ask Candidates About Global Warming - Daily Green USA: Why aren't they talking about – let alone doing anything tangible – about global warming? Why have we heard more questions about aliens (both the outer space kind and the cross-the-border kind) than climate change? That's the question the League of Conservation Voters is posing, and while its new campaign's ultimate aim is to influence the presidential candidates on both the Democratic and Republican tickets (and by extension the future of the country and world), the LCV campaign is taking aim at the news media. Particularly, the group has singled out the following personalities for the dearth of attention they've paid to the issue when questioning presidential candidates, either in a major interview or during a debate. |
26th December 2007 |
| CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Climate Change Gives Rise to New World Order - IPS Brazil is pushing for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, but enlarging the membership of the Council will not solve anything, he said. Instead, he argued, "its functions and agenda need to be updated to include food security and climate security." |
26th December 2007 |
| MERRY CHRISTMAS! and may we all have many many more to come |
25th December 2007 |
| Big wake-up to global warming - Philadelphia Enquirer An attitude shift as inexorable as climate change itself this year brought world groups together to debate risks.  |
25th December 2007 |
| Population, consumption drive global climate change and environmental degradation - Energy Bulletin The impact of population and consumption is so profound that they may outpace any potential environmental benefits from industrial modernization and improving technologies. |
24th December 2007 |
| Cheney accused of blocking bid to cut car fumes - Guardian Unlimited Dick Cheney behind decision to block California's attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers |
24th December 2007 |
| Scientist Shearer brings odd bedfellows together to save the Earth - San Francisco Chronicle MMA Renewable Ventures, Burning Man and Sierra Pacific Power announced a new 90-kilowatt solar power plant that will save the Nevada school district of Gerlach $20,000 a year in energy costs. Shearer was the man behind the scenes of the project, and it's a role he's obviously warmed to. His approach doesn't rely on graphs or charts or dire studies warning that the planet is dying. Instead, he tells the story through both artistic, new media and entrepreneurial projects. He talks about "messaging" cultural change by making environmental choices hip, like how he helped market Toyota's hybrid Prius car.. |
24th December 2007 |
| Erosion threatens Canada's coastlines - Times Colonist Crumbling coastlines are hardly a problem unique to P.E.I. Bigger storms are eroding Canadian shorelines, particularly throughout the North and the Atlantic region. Scientists identify climate change as one of the culprits. |
24th December 2007 |
| Cereal crop halved by drought - ABC via Yahoo!7 News Australia: Sheep and lamb numbers have fallen to an 80-year low in Victoria and the national cereal crop was halved by the impacts of drought last financial year. |
24th December 2007 |
| UN Sees No Climate Change Solution Without US - Planet Ark NAIROBI - The United States will suffer from global warming along with other nations if there is no broader agreement on cutting carbon emissions, the United Nations environment chief Achim Steiner said. |
24th December 2007 |
| Federal election will be fought over hot air - Prince George Citizen Canada: With a federal election likely in the new year, Canada's two main political parties appear to have picked their issues. For Liberals, it's the environment. For Conservatives, it's Stephane Dion. The two partisan forces are targeting what they perceive to be their opponent's weakest link. And a just-released Angus Reid opinion poll suggests they've chosen wisely. Twenty-six per cent -- the highest percentage -- say the most important issue facing Canada is the environment. And Harper is the preferred prime minister for 33 per cent, Dion for 14 per cent. |
24th December 2007 |
| Earth feels the cost of humanity staying cool - Sydney Morning Herald THE humble air-conditioner, quietly purring away in millions of homes and cars this summer, has become the unknown player in Australia's growing contribution to global warming. |
24th December 2007 |
| Uganda's President Revives Plan to Axe Rainforest - Planet Ark KAMPALA - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Friday revived a controversial plan to hand over a swathe of rainforest to a local company to be destroyed and replaced with a sugarcane plantation. |
24th December 2007 |
| Climate Change Malpractice - Washington Post EPA decision: The larger point is the irrationality of blocking an initiative that would help slow climate change. |
24th December 2007 |
| Loss of Sea Ice Could Harm Walrus (AP) -- Federal marine mammal experts in Alaska studying the effects of global warming on walrus, polar bears and ice seals warn there are limit to the protections they can provide. |
24th December 2007 |
| Britons seek greener Christmas and a planet-friendly new year Britain is embarking on its greenest Christmas, according to an astonishing series of studies. |
23rd December 2007 |
| Group says warming imperils ribbon seals - Seattle Times The Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday filed a 91-page petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service seeking to list ribbon seals as threatened or endangered. The group says the classification is needed because sea ice is disappearing because of climate change brought on by humans. |
23rd December 2007 |
| Grumbling Harper fumbling on warming - Toronto Star Saving the planet has for too long been regarded by the likes of Harper as a strictly environmental issue. Global warming is actually an economic threat, requiring not incrementalism but a sweeping economic transformation. Harper, even though he is a trained economist, has been slow to grasp that. |
23rd December 2007 |
| Wilder parks can tame climate change - Guardian Unlimited National parks must undergo a conservation revolution if they are to meet the challenges of climate change, says expert |
23rd December 2007 |
| Heavy rains not enough to break drought - Perth Now THE recent heavy rains experienced across three states were not drought-breaking but were "very positive", chief executive of the Murray Darling Basin Commission Wendy Craik has said. |
23rd December 2007 |
| Japan's Emperor Akihito voices worry over climate change in birthday comments - International Herald Tribune Japanese Emperor Akihito expressed concern about global warming in comments marking his 74th birthday Sunday, but declined to discuss issues in his family. |
23rd December 2007 |
| For New Orleans, for the survivors of Katrina, for climate justice - It's Getting Hot In Here While I’ve been following this situation go from grave to worse for two years, I reached a breaking point of despair these last 2 days when it got personal. At least 2 people I know in New Orleans, including one close friend, were TASERed by police while loudly, but peacefully, demanding entry into their city council meeting where the approval of the demolitions of these homes. Despite (police initiated) physical strife both inside and outside the chambers, the council approved the demolitions. Dozens more people, public housing residents and supporters alike, were pepper sprayed and beaten by police. 4 people, including my friend, were hospitalized. |
22nd December 2007 |
| Arrogance and Warming - New York Times The Bush administration’s decision to deny California permission to regulate and reduce global warming emissions from cars and trucks is an indefensible act of executive arrogance that can only be explained as the product of ideological blindness and as a political payoff to the automobile industry. |
22nd December 2007 |
| Ministers ordered to assess climate cost of all decisions - Guardian Unlimited Ministers must factor in 'carbon price' for decisions on transport, energy, construction, housing and planning. |
22nd December 2007 |
| Who's the meanest of them all? - GristMill Check out our nominations for the most reprehensible eco-villain of 2007, then vote at the bottom of this post. (And tell us who we missed.) See also: Who's the greenest of them all? - GristMill Check out our nominations for the most ass-kicking hero of 2007 The underground food movement gains force - GristMill Top green food stories of 2007 |
22nd December 2007 |
| Books ‘07 - RealClimate We have a minor tradition of doing a climate-related book review in the lead up to the holidays and this year shouldn't be an exception. So here is a round-up of a number of new books that have crossed our desks, some of which might be interesting to readers here. |
22nd December 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Solar Energy Firm Says Carbon Credits Don't Work BANGALORE, Dec 21 (IPS) - A small but successful solar energy company involved in rural electrification in India is complaining that the Kyoto Protocol's clean development mechanism (CDM) has been of no practical use to it. Selco (Solar Electric Light Company), winner of the 2005 - 2007 London-based Ashden Awards for outstanding achievement in sustainable energy, has found it impossible to harness any benefits from CDM, forcing it to turn to the voluntary emissions market instead. |
22nd December 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE-US: Wildfires Rekindle Global Warming Debate BOSTON, Dec 21 (IPS/IFEJ) - The massive wildfires that roared and twisted their way through southern California in 2007 are a glimpse of what a future of global warming may hold, scientists say. |
22nd December 2007 |
| Farewell from the man who kept Britain on doomwatch - Times Online The UK's departing Chief Scientific Adviser on culls, global warming and pandemics ...worries that Bali was a rerun of Kyoto in 1997, all talk, little action. “We’ve lost ten years, ten crucial years. We can never take them back. We cannot avoid dangerous climate change now. In 1997 we could have. I’m really worried now that people are talking about it and there’s a sense in which talking is all you have to do. Action is required.” |
22nd December 2007 |
| 400 Prominent Scientists Dispute Global Warming - Bunk - DeSmogBlog Climate change denial lives - though not nearly to the extent that Swiftboater Marc Morano would have you believe in his latest overstatement about "prominent scientists" who dispute man-made global warming.Morano's list of "over 400" alleged climate quibblers includes the usual deniers for hire Fred Singer, Tim Ball, Christoper Monckton, PR people who have no credibility on issues scientific and who each have a handsome record of saying things widely and demonstrably at variance with the truth.There is also a group of second-order "scientists," who are not scientists at all. There's "Dr. Richard Courtney, a British coal journal editor whose PhD is rumoured to have issued from a Crackerjack box. |
22nd December 2007 |
| Chocolate fuels a carbon-negative voyage from England to Timbuktu - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News While others eat their way through advent calendars this Christmas season, two Britons are doing something quite different with their chocolate: using it to drive across the Sahara. |
22nd December 2007 |
| Focus On The Corporation - Eat the State "The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard" is an engaging new short film that explains the "materials economy" in 20 fun-filled minutes. Yes, fun-filled. Produced by Free Range Studios, which developed "The Meatrix"--an animated short about factory farming that ranks among the cleverest uses of Internet technologies to deliver a politically progressive message--The Story of Stuff features the wonderful Annie Leonard, amusing graphics, lots of humor, and a complicated analysis presented in an easy-to-understand conversational tone. You can watch the whole thing at www.storyofstuff.com. You'll have to watch the film to enjoy the humor--there's no easy way to convey the playful cartooning with serious purpose. But I guarantee chuckles even for the most austere. |
21st December 2007 |
| A battle Bush's EPA can't win - Salon.com The Terminator and the EPA's own lawyers agree: The decision to deny California's right to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles is indefensible |
21st December 2007 |
| Money falls from the sky in Germany - Reuters In an age of global warming, rising fossil fuel prices and dwindling natural resources, I've learned that in Germany and a growing number of countries, solar power can give you more than just a feeling of "doing something" for the environment. It can also give you a steady stream of income. My roof has been turned into a cash machine, thanks to a state-mandated "feed-in tariff" that requires utilities to pay anyone who installs a photovoltaic system more than double the market rates for the electricity produced for the grid. |
21st December 2007 |
| Al Gore: "Thus Far I Have Failed" - Time Magazine QA: The Nobel Prize winner - and runner-up for TIME Person of the Year - talks about why it's hard to celebrate his honor |
21st December 2007 |
| Hurray! We're Going Backwards! - Monbiot.com Bush trashed the climate talks. But look what Gore did. |
21st December 2007 |
| The Bush administration's hypocrisy on federalism - Gristmill Bushies laud state policies when excusing inaction, shut them down when they threaten contributors |
21st December 2007 |
| EU sets 2012 for air emissions cap - BBC EU environment ministers agree to include airlines in the emissions trading scheme a year later than MEPs wanted. |
21st December 2007 |
| US Tax Credit Expiry Endangers Wind, Solar Expansion - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - Growth of a nascent US industry to build and install clean energy sources, like windmills and solar cells, could be stunted if Congress doesn't extend tax incentives set to expire next year, industry officials and lawmakers said Wednesday. |
21st December 2007 |
| Hotter Than a Britney Video - ABC News On YouTube's all-time list of most-watched news videos -- just behind the sex and flash of Britney Spears -- is the newest online sensation: a decidedly unfunny, perhaps unsexy science teacher from Central High School in Independence, Ore., who wanted to reach a lot of people. So he created a YouTube video called "Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See." So what's so terrifying about a nine-minute video showing Greg Craven with a pen and white board? Craven makes a compelling case that humans need to fight global warming or be prepared to face disastrous consequences. "We only get to play this game once, so ask yourself -- 'How lucky do you feel?'" Craven says in the video. |
21st December 2007 |
| EPA denies California waiver on auto emissions - Los Angeles Times U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson today denied California's long-standing request for a waiver from federal law to be able to implement its own landmark regulations to slash greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. See also: Governor Schwarzenegger Scolds Environmental Protection Agency - Imperial Valley News "While the federal energy bill is a good step toward reducing dependence on foreign oil, the President's approval of it does not constitute grounds for denying our waiver. The energy bill does not reflect a vision, beyond 2020, to address climate change, while California's vehicle greenhouse gas standards are part of a carefully designed, comprehensive program to fight climate change through 2050," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "It is disappointing that the federal government is standing in our way and ignoring the will of tens of millions of people across the nation. We will continue to fight this battle. California sued to compel the agency to act on our waiver, and now we will sue to overturn today's decision and allow Californians to protect our environment." Pelosi Statement on EPA Decision Denying California Waiver Request - PR Newswire via Yahoo! News "What is clear is that the Administration's announcement undermines the ability of the states to protect their citizens from the dangers of global warming. "The Bush Administration has repeatedly blocked federal and international action on global warming. When the states took action, the Administration chose to stifle true progress on preventing global warming and protecting our children's heritage. "The threat of climate change to California's communities, coastline, ecosystems, water supply and health of its citizens is clear and compelling. Two federal courts have ruled that California has the legal right to set its own greenhouse gas standards for vehicles, and other states have the right to follow. |
20th December 2007 |
| Support For Harper Government "Plunges" - Global Warming Seen as Key Facto - DeSmogBlog A Harris-Decima poll released shows that the governing Tory party in Canada, under the leadership of Prime Minister Harper is losing popularity quickly due in large part to their performance at the recent United Nation's global warming conference held in Bali, Indonesia.The Harper government now finds itself in a statistical tie at 30% with the opposition Liberal Party.Support for the Tories has dropped across all regions and demographic groups. The poll conducted by Harris-Decima finds that Tory popularity has dropped 11% in Quebec, 17% in British Columbia and a whopping 20% in Prime Minister Harper's home-province of Alberta.While stating various causes for the recent drop, Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson speculated that the government's reluctance to sign onto global greenhouse gas reduction targets in Bali cost the Tories support among urban, women and Quebec voters, who tend to be more environmentally conscious. |
20th December 2007 |
| EU unveils plans to cut car emissions - Guardian Unlimited The European Commission has proposed new legislation to reduce the average C02 emissions of new cars by nearly 20% by 2012 See also: German ire at EU fine on car CO2 - BBC |
20th December 2007 |
| Being green online: Let's get together - The Independent Being green's more fun when you do it with online 'friends'. Meg Carter meets the men who believe that social networking can save the planet. www.dothegreenthing.com |
20th December 2007 |
| Seabed microbe study leads to low-cost power, light for the poor A Harvard biology professor`s fascination with seafloor microbes has led to the development of a revolutionary, low-cost power system consuming garbage, compost, and other waste that could provide light for the developing world. |
20th December 2007 |
| Grow More Food in Cities, UN Agency Tells Asia - Planet Ark GENEVA - Asian nations, many at risk from climate change, must invest more in urban and indoor farming to help feed the hundreds of millions of people in their growing cities, the World Meteorological Organisation said on Wednesday. |
20th December 2007 |
| What are they waiting for? - Grist Magazine A new site asks political talk show hosts to address climate change. |
20th December 2007 |
| US Congress approves energy bill - BBC News The US Congress passes a "historic" energy bill to improve fuel economy and reduce demand for oil. See also: Have we lost more ground than we gained? - Grist Magazine |
19th December 2007 |
| Ministers 'to reject airline cap' - BBC News EU ministers are poised to agree a deal on aviation that would see aircraft emissions continue to rise. |
19th December 2007 |
| Belated Bali blogging - Gristmill I feel somewhat guilty for not following the goings-on in Bali more closely. A few of you have written to ask why. It's just that every single international meeting on climate since I started covering this stuff has gone down the exact ... same ... way. It's like clockwork: everyone arrives full of hope, because now, finally, there's real momentum, people really get the problem; midway through, everyone's getting more and more pissed at the U.S. for its intransigence; the U.S. works diligently to water down every possible declaration or statement; and finally, the event culminates with everyone making the best of it, signing some weak-ass, vague piece of paper that commits no one to any concrete action. |
19th December 2007 |
| 'Green' plan for new Routemaster - BBC News Plans which could see the iconic Routemaster bus return to regular service are unveiled. |
19th December 2007 |
| Rising seas 'to beat predictions' - BBC News Global sea levels could rise twice as high this century as UN climate scientists had predicted, a study suggests. |
18th December 2007 |
| Environment: Bali: World Suckered by the U.S. Once Again - Altertnet America will keep on wrecking climate talks as long as those with vested interests in oil and gas fund its political system. |
18th December 2007 |
| Many Americans aim to go "green" in 2008: survey - Environmental News Network NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three-quarters of Americans, the world's largest polluters, plan to be more environmentally responsible in 2008 by reducing household energy or recycling more, a survey showed on Monday. Half of those polled said they would make a "green" New Year's resolution, according to the survey by GfK Roper and commissioned by marketing consultancy Tiller LLC. |
18th December 2007 |
| Sweden Beats Kyoto Targets On CO2 Emissions By Almost 9% -AFP - Nasdaq STOCKHOLM (AFP)--Sweden reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by almost 9% from 1990 to 2006, largely exceeding the target set by the Kyoto Protocol, the Swedish environment ministry said Tuesday. |
18th December 2007 |
| UN warns on soaring food prices - BBC News Dramatic increases in international food prices are threatening millions of people in poor countries, the UN warns. |
18th December 2007 |
| Rising CO2 might mean wetter storms - Moldova.org A U.S. study suggested that wetter Arctic and Northern Hemisphere storms due to global warming but whether there are more such storms depends on the latitude.Scientists at the University of Colorado-Boulder's Institute for Research in Environment Sciences said two studies suggest the wetter storms will be caused by rising carbon dioxide levels.Global climate model predictions for the 21st ... |
18th December 2007 |
| All new schools to be zero-carbon by 2016 - Guardian Unlimited Schools will install wind turbines and solar power systems in a multi-million pound drive to reduce carbon emissions |
18th December 2007 |
| Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning? - PhysOrg The solar physics community is abuzz this week. No, there haven't been any great eruptions or solar storms. The source of the excitement is a modest knot of magnetism that popped over the sun's eastern limb on Dec. 11th, pictured below in a pair of images from the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). |
18th December 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Measuring Bali by a Scientific Yardstick - IPS BROOKLIN, Canada, Dec 17 (IPS) - A tiny step was taken Saturday in meeting the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. |
18th December 2007 |
| EU eyes phasing in CO2 fines for carmakers: source - Environmental News Network BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is considering phasing in fees it charges to carmakers who fail to meet ambitious targets to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2012, a European Union source said on Monday. Amid fierce lobbying, the EU executive is due to announce on Wednesday how it will share out cuts in the main gas blamed for global warming between makers of light and ... |
18th December 2007 |
| DEVELOPMENT: NGOs Regroup Around Climate Change After Bali - IPS BALI, Indonesia, Dec 18 (IPS) - This resort island, better known for drawing foreign tourists due to its tropical splendour and its deep spiritual traditions, is poised to enter the vocabulary of another international set -- the rapidly expanding global civil society movement. |
18th December 2007 |
| Deep thought - Energy Bulletin Staff, Energy Bulletin. Interview with Ronald Cooke (Cultural Economist) Albert Bartlett interview (population) Some convenient truths 2007: The Great Unraveling begins Astyk: The best books about nearly everything Monbiot: Leave fossil fuels in the ground |
18th December 2007 |
| Britain's carbon strategy 'up in smoke' - The Independent Britain's plans to build new coal-fired power stations as part of the country's efforts to address its looming energy crisis will completely undermine the Bali agreement on climate change and discredit Gordon Brown's commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, according to one of the world's leading climate scientists. |
17th December 2007 |
| Season's greetings: Oregon Peaceworks starts on a 5% solution A long-established statewide peace organization in Oregon has initiated a new project called "The 5% Solution" as a way to give people a SMART (specific, measurable, appropriate, realistic, and timed) goal for climate action. It asks people to pledge to reduce their own carbon footprint 5% a year, each year, and to spread that commitment through their communities, and then states, and then country.As the material here notes, if the developed world stops increasing emissions and makes 5% cuts per year from 2008 to 2050, its emissions will go down about 88% and the developing world will have some flexibility to increase emissions for a few more years before joining the rich countries on the glide path to an overall drop of about 80%. |
17th December 2007 |
| South China in the midst of its worst drought in 50 years - BBC News More than one million people in south China are now without water as the country suffers from its worst drought in over 50 years. |
17th December 2007 |
| IEA urges bold steps to cut CO2 emissions - report - Reuters via Yahoo! India News BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of the International Energy Agency urged world politicians to take bolder, if unpopular, action to curb CO2 emissions to fight climate change in an interview with a German magazine on Sunday. |
17th December 2007 |
| Bali roadmap full of blind corners- News Analysis - EARTHtimes.org Bali, Dec 16 - Almost a full day after schedule, the seminal UN conference on climate change has come up with a roadmap that satisfies most governments because it is vague on all major issues in the fight against global warming that is already having a huge adverse impact on the world. |
17th December 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Forward, Hopefully Past the Hurdles - IPS BONN, Dec 17 (IPS) - Despite scepticism about the 'Bali roadmap', the international community has come a long way in hammering out a truly global response to the serious threat posed by climate change. |
17th December 2007 |
| Carbon Cuts a Must to Halt Warming - US Scientists - Planet Ark SAN FRANCISCO - There is already enough carbon in Earth's atmosphere to ensure that sea levels will rise several feet (meters) in coming decades and summertime ice will vanish from the North Pole, scientists warned on Thursday. To mitigate global warming's worst effects, including severe drought and flooding, people must not only cut current carbon emissions but also remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, they said. |
17th December 2007 |
| EU emissions row may stall green campaign - Guardian Unlimited EU plans to slash carbon dioxide emissions from all new cars and impose savage penalties on manufacturers failing to meet binding targets are in disarray |
17th December 2007 |
| At a glance: Bali climate deal - BBC News What are the key points emerging from the UN climate meeting in Bali? See also: Winners and Losers at Bali - Time Magazine |
16th December 2007 |
| A Carbon Tide: Past, Present and Future - New York Times Global emissions of carbon dioxide, measured by the weight of carbon it contains. |
16th December 2007 |
| Low turnout for fuel price demos - BBC News Nationwide protests against the rising cost of fuel have failed to attract as many demonstrators as organisers hoped. |
16th December 2007 |
| US sets terms for climate talks - BBC The US insists developing states must take their fair share of cuts under the Bali climate change process. |
16th December 2007 |
| A Carbon Cap That Starts in Washington - New York Times While a binding global agreement would be the best way to cut back on carbon emissions, a more limited approach is wending its way through Congress. |
16th December 2007 |
| Bali's crying shame - Times Online The drama of the UN climate change talks caught the world's attention. But are they a meaningful step in securing its future? |
16th December 2007 |
| Letter from Bali: A tragic truth - Gristmill By Guest author Professor Andrew Light laments the unnecessary line in the sand the U.S. has drawn in Bali |
16th December 2007 |
| German ship fights climate change with high-tech kite - Reuters via Yahoo! News Turning ocean winds into gold while cutting greenhouse emissions in the process might sound like some sort of alchemy for the 21st century. |
16th December 2007 |
| The big picture - Gristmill The Worldwatch Institute has produced an interesting summary of what's happening in the world of grain supplies. They also just published a book called Biofuels for Transport. Along with all of the positive potential for biofuels, I'm sure it also discusses the "potential" problems with "first generation" biofuels. These are some of the latest buzzwords being used to support industrial agrofuels. The word "potential" suggests that there are not yet any actual problems. The words "first generation" suggest that all of these "potential" problems will fail to materialize thanks to the timely arrival of "second generation" fuels.The reality, of course, is that these fuels (i.e., industrially grown food monocrops) are already wreaking all kinds of havoc and are likely to remain the only commercially viable biofuels for the foreseeable future (i.e., forever). |
16th December 2007 |
| It's Too Late for Later - New York Times If there is one change in global consciousness on climate change that seems to have settled in the past couple of years, it is the notion that later is over. |
16th December 2007 |
| Climate deal sealed by US U-turn - BBC News Delegates at the UN summit in Bali agree a deal on curbing climate change after days of bitter wrangling. |
15th December 2007 |
| Environment: The Top Ten Best Environment Stories of 2007 From the top 100 ways global warming with change your life to anti-environmental homeowners associations to the biofuel hoax, read this year's best. |
15th December 2007 |
| Acidic seas may kill 98% of world's reefs by 2050 - Guardian Unlimited The majority of the world's coral reefs are in danger of being killed off by rising levels of greenhouse gases, scientists warned yesterday |
15th December 2007 |
| Live - almost from AGU–Dispatch #6 Today was the all-Union session on Tipping Points, and several people have asked for comments on what went on there. I suppose this session might have been useful for people who had to miss the more detailed discussion in specialized sections, but I don't have much to say about most of the talks, since they for the most part went over issues like ice sheet dynamics and rapid arctic sea ice loss, which I've discussed in earlier dispatches. Myself, I never found the notion of "tipping points" to be a very useful contribution to public discourse. The concept is ill-defined and very prone to be misunderstood - as in ... |
15th December 2007 |
| Research: The New Economics of Global Warming - DeSmogBlog Economists no longer debate the realities of anthropomorphic climate change--that's so 1993! Instead, they squabble over how much we should be spending today to lessen the sting of the much bigger invoices that will inevitably come due tomorrow, should we insist on carrying on with all this fossil-fuel nonsense. To do their apocalyptic calculus, they attach hard--and rather large--numbers to phenomena such as rainforest loss, and plug them into cost-benefit analysis models. In the end, the bean counters determine a so-called social cost of carbon, and recommend a percentage of GDP for present-day investments in clean-energy research and the like.Until now, the economic models have not included "unlikely but extreme events," such as a global temperature rise of--gulp!--six degrees, mostly because Sir Nicholas Stern and friends have dismissed them as simply too ... |
15th December 2007 |
| Q&A: "Where Has All the Water Gone?" - IPS HALIFAX, Canada, Dec 14 (IPS) - Imagine a planet where nuclear-powered desalination plants ring the world's oceans; corporate nanotechnology cleans up sewage water so private utilities can sell it back to consumers in plastic bottles at huge profit; and the poor who lack access to clean water die in increased numbers. |
15th December 2007 |
| Festivities 'raise carbon output' - BBC News Hi-tech gadgets and mindless consumerism is exacting a high carbon cost at Christmas. |
15th December 2007 |
| Waiting for America - Guardian Unlimited While Tony Blair has been passing his time sending Christmas wishes to George Bush's pet dog, the rest of the world has been attempting to persuade his administration that it must act to limit climate change. |
15th December 2007 |
| Europe Blinks; U.S., Canada Win Lame Bali Compromise - DeSmogBlog Honoring the will of the lowest common denominator - the worst polluters and most resistant policy makers in the world - 191 countries negotiating global greenhouse emission limits in Bali have come to a "compromise" that doesn't mention actual limits.Canada can take much of the credit for this non-result. With the United States and Japan, Canada was one of the most enthusiastic holdouts against making binding commitments. But having refused to sign the original Kyoto Accord, the U.S. was not allowed to attend some of the Bali meetings, leaving it to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minions to run interference for the Americans.Job well done, apparently. See also:Baird regrets 'watered down' climate deal - CTV.ca [I'm not calling you a liar, Mr. Baird, but I don't want anybody here to think I believe you] |
15th December 2007 |
| 12 cities, including Toronto, to darken skylines in global warming initiative - CNews SYDNEY, Australia - Twelve cities around the world, including Toronto, have agreed to darken their skylines for an hour as part of an Australian initiative to raise awareness about climate change, organizers said Friday. |
15th December 2007 |
| Glaciers in West China shrink by up to 18% - China Daily Lanzhou -- Glaciers in China's high-altitude western areas have shrunk seven to 18 percent over the past five years, according to a new survey by Chinese scientists. |
15th December 2007 |
| Carbon dioxide levels at 650,000-year high - Denver Post More than two miles above the Pacific surf, at the summit of the world's largest volcano, the evidence of human influence on global warming is in the air. |
15th December 2007 |
| Measuring the human cost of climate change - Guardian Unlimited Rich countries are inching towards an acceptance that they must pay to climate-proof people living in the developing world, but money must first be spent to find out what is really needed. Katherine Demopoulos reports from Bali |
15th December 2007 |
| China to reach limits of available water by 2030 - The Globe and Mail Government warns officials to prepare for the worst as global warming and economic expansion exhausts water supplies |
15th December 2007 |
| Hydrogen Dream Not Adding Up - in News - The Tyee BC's new buses aren't 'zero-emission solution' as claimed. |
15th December 2007 |
| 100000 Canadians Call on Harper to Stop Opposing UN Climate Targets - PR Newswire 100000 Canadians Call on Harper to Stop Opposing UN Climate TargetsPR Newswire (press release), NY. "By cynically blocking the un's sincere and desperate efforts to address climate change, Mr. Harper's misleadership is devastating Canada's global ... |
15th December 2007 |
| Q&A: "Where Has All the Water Gone?" - IPS HALIFAX, Canada, Dec 14 (IPS) - Imagine a planet where nuclear-powered desalination plants ring the world's oceans; corporate nanotechnology cleans up sewage water so private utilities can sell it back to consumers in plastic bottles at huge profit; and the poor who lack access to clean water die in increased numbers. |
15th December 2007 |
| Twisting the Pope's words on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Ben Goldacre: 'The Pope condemns the climate change prophets of doom,' roared the headline on Thursday. Basically, if the Daily Mail goes out of business, I'll have to give up this column |
15th December 2007 |
| Points of no return ahead - Gristmill For the last few years, James Hansen, the man who first warned Congress of global warming in testimony last century, and the man considered NASA's "top scientist" on climate questions, has been giving talks around the country asking can we avoid dangerous climate change(PDF)? But Hansen has changed his tune: no longer does he ask if we have passed the tipping points of climate change. In a press conference Thursday morning at the American Geophysical Union, he stated that we have passed several tipping points. He said scientists now know that soon the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer, that huge ice sheets will melt, and the climactic zones will shift towards the poles of the earth, among other consequences. |
15th December 2007 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below |
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| Notes from The Gathering #5: Arctic sea ice: is it tipped yet? - RealClimate The summer of 2007 was apocalyptic for Arctic sea ice. The coverage and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic has been declining steadily over the past few decades, but this year the ice lost an area about the size of Texas, reaching its minimum on about the 16th of September. Arctic sea ice seems to me the best and more imminent example of a tipping point in the climate system. A series of talks aimed to explain the reason for the meltdown. Sea surface temperatures were warmer this past summer also; I forget how many standard deviations the temperature was off the trend, but it was definitely anomalous. |
14th December 2007 |
| 2007 data confirms warming trend - BBC News This year has been one of the warmest since 1850, despite the cooling influence of La Nina conditions, according to scientists.. |
14th December 2007 |
| Al Gore: The world can't wait for George Bush - The Independent We, the human species, face a planetary emergency. That phrase still sounds shrill to some ears but it is deadly accurate as a description of the situation that we now confront. |
14th December 2007 |
| Banks Finance Climate Change, Need New Policies - NGO - Planet Ark SINGAPORE - Banks are contributing to global warming by funding coal and oil exploration, and should adopt policies that cut their negative impact on the environment, according to a report by a network of NGOs. |
14th December 2007 |
| EU leads last-gasp effort to salvage climate-change deal - The Independent Deadlocked UN talks on a timetable for an ambitious global climate change deal went to the wire last night in Bali. With only 24 hours left to secure an agreement, the EU led an unprecedented assault on the US delegation and its refusal to commit to binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions. The Europeans were joined by the Nobel Prize-winner Al Gore in heaping pressure on the US. He appealed to delegates to sign up to the timetable in the belief that a new administration would be in place in Washington in time to complete the process in two years' time. |
14th December 2007 |
| Ban Ki-moon issues climate warning - Guardian Unlimited UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon issues a warning to the world (video). |
14th December 2007 |
| Automakers Lose California Global Warming Lawsuit - A Short-Lived Victory? - DeSmogBlog And just like that it's over, kind of. After years of effectively blocking California's 2002 law calling for strict new greenhouse gas emissions standards for all new vehicles, a lawsuit filed against the State by major automakers was thrown out of court yesterday. Federal district court Judge Anthony Ishii issued a strong rebuke to the automobile industry's attempt to derail the California Clean Car program that would reduce global warming pollution from motor vehicles.At the heart of the lawsuit was whether the State of California has the legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas as a pollutant, and if considered a pollutant whether California was superseding the authority of the federal government's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).For a comprehensive backgrounder on this lawsuit go here. |
14th December 2007 |
| Coral Reefs Unlikely to Survive in Acid Oceans - PhysOrg Carbon emissions from human activities are not just heating up the globe, they are changing the ocean`s chemistry. This could soon be fatal to coral reefs, which are havens for marine biodiversity and underpin the economies of many coastal communities. |
14th December 2007 |
| China, U.S. intransigence over climate policy hijacks Bali talks - DeSmogBlog Instead of mandatory cuts, the Bush administration wants individual countries to set their own goals. It also favors private-sector initiatives to develop energy-saving technology and alternative sources such as ethanol, and says industry should devise ways to burn coal and other fossil fuels more cleanly. The U.S. rejected Kyoto, which commits three dozen industrialized countries to cut their greenhouse gases an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels between next year and 2012, largely because developing countries such as China, India and Brazil were not required to cut emissions. Though it also rejects binding cuts, China has expressed support for a post-Kyoto agreement and used the Bali conference to show it is doing something to address climate change, like boosting renewable energy use to 10 percent by 2010 and improving efficiency by 20 percent. |
14th December 2007 |
| Coal likely to boost U.S. 2007 carbon emissions - Environmental News Network NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. emissions of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide will likely rise this year as power plants turn to cheap and plentiful coal, which could add pressure on the government to regulate the gases scientists blame for global warming. |
14th December 2007 |
| Q&A: 'Melting Himalayan Glaciers Threaten India, China' - IPS NEW DELHI, Dec 12 (IPS) - Precious little is expected to emerge from the ongoing United Nations climate change conference in Bali, but climatologists and scientific experts warn that time is rapidly running out for planet earth. |
14th December 2007 |
| Arctic summers ice-free 'by 2013' - BBC News Scientists present one of the most dramatic forecasts for the disappearance of Arctic summer sea-ice. |
13th December 2007 |
| Do we see a trend here? By Joseph RommAccording to NASA scientists (PDF): Through the first 11 months, 2007 is the second warmest year in the period of instrumental data, behind the record warmth of 2005, in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) analysis. The unusual warmth in 2007 is noteworthy because it occurs at a time when solar irradiance is at a minimum and the equatorial Pacific Ocean has entered the cool phase of its natural El Niño -- La Niña cycle. ... barring the unlikely event of a large volcanic eruption, a record global temperature exceeding that of 2005 can be expected within the next 2-3 years. |
13th December 2007 |
| Quebec adopts California's stringent emissions controls - CNews BALI, Indonesia - Quebec is the first Canadian province to adopt California's stringent auto-emissions standards. Environment Minister Line Beauchamp made the announcement early Wednesday at a UN climate-change summit in Indonesia. |
13th December 2007 |
| Without its insulating ice cap, Arctic surface waters warm to as much as 5 C above average - PhysOrg Record-breaking amounts of ice-free water have deprived the Arctic of more of its natural "sunscreen" than ever in recent summers. The effect is so pronounced that sea surface temperatures rose to 5 C above average in one place this year, a high never before observed, says the oceanographer who has compiled the first-ever look at average sea surface temperatures for the region. |
13th December 2007 |
| Live - almost from AGU–Dispatch #2 Before I get started with a few hasty remarks on today's events, let me remind you that Lonnie Thompson's Frontiers in Geophysics lecture will be webcast live on Wednesday at 1815 Pacific time. A link to the webcast can be found here. The lecture is entitled "Abrupt Climate Change and Our Future". At the same page you'll find links to Arvidson's Whipple lecture on Mars exploration, which will be webcast at 14:20. Enjoy! Wish you were here. Now, let me say at once how inspiring it is to see so much first-rate innovative science arrayed here. There are a lot of geophysicists in the world, and most of them are very, very good. |
13th December 2007 |
| After centuries of keeping water out, the Dutch now letting it in - PhysOrg For centuries the low-lying Netherlands has fought to reclaim land from water by creating polders. Now, with flood risk increasing thanks to climate change, it is giving the land back. |
13th December 2007 |
| The winds of climate change - Guardian Unlimited Bangladesh has always suffered more than its share of natural disasters, but the recent cyclone is only part of worsening climatic instability that is threatening ordinary people's ability to survive. Annie Kelly reports |
13th December 2007 |
| 'Crunch time' for climate change - BBC The head of the UN opens high-level talks at the climate change conference in Bali with a call to action. |
13th December 2007 |
| TEXT-Ban Ki-moon's speech at U.N. Bali climate talks - AlertNet Source: Reuters NUSA DUA, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Following are highlights of a speech by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the opening of a meeting of more than 120 environment ministers in Bali laying the groundwork ... |
13th December 2007 |
| Anglican Head Urges 'Moral Vision' on Climate Change - Christian Post Anglican Head Urges 'Moral Vision' on Climate ChangeChristian Post. ... Tuesday at an ecumenical gathering that a clear moral vision is needed to deal with global warming. “Ultimately the control of climate change, ... |
13th December 2007 |
| Seven Questions: Planning for a Climate Catastrophe - Foreign Policy Passport Seven Questions: Planning for a Climate CatastropheForeign Policy Passport. With a key climate-change conference wrapping up this week in Bali, Indonesia, esteemed judge and public intellectual Richard Posner says we must confront ... |
13th December 2007 |
| Pricing the Indonesian forests - BBC News Tucked into the Borneo rainforest, a community is getting involved in a carbon trading project focusing on protecting the area's trees. |
13th December 2007 |
| Hot off the projector #3: Atmospheric CO2 to 800 kyr ago Just a few minutes ago Chappellaz et al presented the deepest dregs of greenhouse gas concentration data from the EPICA ice core in Antarctica, extending the data back to 800,000 years ago. In Al Gore's movie you saw what was at that time the longest record of atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, back to 650 kyr, and their astonishing correlation with Antarctic temperature. This iconic superstar record has probably consumed as many eyeball-hours as any in climate science, alongside other classics such as the Jones et al. global temperature trends, the Moana Loa recent CO2 record, and the hockey stick. |
13th December 2007 |
| Judge throws out automaker's suit, say California can regulate emissions - CNews SACRAMENTO - A U.S. federal judge has rejected an automakers' lawsuit against California, saying the state has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. |
13th December 2007 |
| Getting to know our planet - CNews We know that our planet is heating up. And we know that international climate negotiations like the ones that are winding down in Bali this week are critical steps towards a global action plan to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gases. But how will we be able to gauge if such a plan actually works? |
13th December 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: World Bank Touts Funds, Critics Smell Hot Air WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (IPS) - The World Bank is seeking money for a scheme aimed at making it more lucrative to preserve the world's forests than to fell them. |
13th December 2007 |
| A worrisome forecast for the world's crops - The Christian Science Monitor Studies on rising ozone pollution, shorter winters, and an expanding tropical belt do not bode well for agriculture. |
13th December 2007 |
| Climate costs 'fiddled' for third runway at Heathrow - The Independent A "bogus accounting trick" has been used to justify building a third runway at Heathrow and ministers have seriously underestimated the environmental impact of the development, it was claimed yesterday. |
13th December 2007 |
| Beyond the point of no return - Grist Magazine As the pace of global warming kicks into overdrive, the hollow optimism of climate activists, along with the desperate responses of some of the world's most prominent climate scientists, is preventing us from focusing on the survival requirements of the human enterprise. The environmental establishment continues to peddle the notion that we can solve the climate problem. We can't. We have failed to meet nature's deadline. In the next few years, this world will experience progressively more ominous and destabilizing changes. These will happen either incrementally -- or in sudden, abrupt jumps. |
12th December 2007 |
| Live - almost from AGU–Dispatch #1 And there was ample evidence presented of startling change going on in Greenland — changes in the ice that could raise sea level far beyond the projections given in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report. J.E. Box and collaborators presented new work on Greenland outlet glacier sensitivity to surface melting. Outlet glaciers are the very dynamic "drains" through which Greenland loses much of its ice. Earlier work by Zwally et al documented the rapid sensitivity of surges in such glaciers to melt water forming on the surface and penetrating to the base. Box and company documented how ubiquitous the melt ponds are, and how every one, basically, is pouring water through a moulin down to the base. Valliant graduate students have waded chest-deep in the melt ponds to measure the rate of drainage. The work documented much more broadly than ever before how outlet glacier speed responds to warming of the environment. Leigh Stearns and collaborators point out that the Greenland Ice Sheet's contribution to sea level has doubled in the past five years, due largely to factors connected with ice dynamics (and not incorporated in the IPCC estimates). They showed satellite data which indicates that just two glaciers — Helheim and Kangerdlugssuaq — might account for 10% of this increase. Ominously, more glaciers are primed to pop as climate continues to warm. About the increased flow speeds in this region, they suggest the system has entered a new state: "We speculate that these faster flow speeds represent a new long-term state of behavior which, while not as dramatic as the short-lived periods of peak speeds, have important implications for the rate of sea level rise." See also:Greenland Ice Sheet Melting at Record Rate - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - The Greenland ice sheet melted at a record rate this year, the largest ever since satellite measurements began in 1979, a top climate scientist reported on Monday. |
12th December 2007 |
| Norway's Arctic islands at their hottest since Viking era: scientists Norway's Arctic archipelago of Svalbard recently experienced its highest temperatures since the end of the Viking Age around 800 years ago, the Norwegian Polar Institute said Tuesday. |
12th December 2007 |
| Scientist: 'Arctic is screaming' - CNN.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years. |
12th December 2007 |
| 2007's weather extremes: 263 all-time high temps broken in US ... - UI The Daily Iowan 2007's weather extremes: When the calendar turned to 2007, the heat went on and the weather just got weirder. January was the warmest first month on record worldwide - 1.53 degrees above normal. It was the first time since record-keeping began in 1880 that the globe's average temperature has been so far above the norm for any month of the year. And as 2007 drew to a close, it was also shaping up to be the hottest year on record in the Northern Hemisphere. U.S. weather stations broke or tied 263 all-time high temperature records, according to an Associated Press analysis of U.S. weather data. England had the warmest April in 348 years of record-keeping there, shattering the record set in 1865 by more than 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit. It wasn't just the temperature. There were other oddball weather events. A tornado struck New York City in August, inspiring the tabloid headline: "This ain't Kansas!" In the Middle East, an equally rare cyclone spun up in June, hitting Oman and Iran. Major U.S. lakes shrank; Atlanta had to worry about its drinking water supply. South Africa got its first significant snowfall in 25 years. And on Reunion Island, 400 miles east of Africa, nearly 155 inches of rain fell in three days - a world record for the most rain in 72 hours. |
12th December 2007 |
| New Tibetan ice cores missing A-bomb blast markers; Suggest Himalayan ice fields haven't grown in last 50 years Ice cores drilled last year from the summit of a Himalayan ice field lack the distinctive radioactive signals that mark virtually every other ice core retrieved worldwide. Scientists believe that the missing signal means that this Tibetan ice field has been shrinking at least since the A-bomb test half a century ago. If true, this could foreshadow a future when the stockpiles of freshwater will dwindle and vanish, seriously affecting the lives of more than 500 million people on the Indian subcontinent. |
12th December 2007 |
| Penguins in decline due to global warming - Times Online The Emperor penguins which won the hearts of millions of children in the film Happy Feet have suffered a devastating population slump in the last 50 years, according to a report. Many colonies have fallen in size by 50 per cent as the penguins have been squeezed by the effects of climate change and overfishing, the WWF said in its report, Antarctic Penguins and Climate Change. |
12th December 2007 |
| Climate change tops list of concerns, poll finds - CTV.ca More than one in three Canadians says that climate change is the biggest threat facing the world today, according to a new poll conducted for CTV and The Globe and Mail. |
12th December 2007 |
| What is a fair solution to climate change? - BBC News Our lifestyles produce vastly different amounts of CO2 depending on how we live and how rich we are. So who should take responsibility for cutting emissions? See also: Five carbon lives - BBC News How much of a country's emissions are down to the way its people live? We asked five families from around the world for a glimpse of their carbon lives. |
12th December 2007 |
| U.N. chief: Deal with warming or face 'oblivion' - MSNBC BALI, Indonesia - The human race faces oblivion if it fails to confront global warming, the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday, as delegates to the U.N. climate conference haggled over a new document strengthening a call for deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by rich nations. |
12th December 2007 |
| Halt the geo-engineering tide - BBC News Geo-engineering schemes, such as ocean fertilisation, to curb climate change will do more harm than good. |
12th December 2007 |
| Climate change goal 'unreachable' - BBC News The climate change goal of stabilising greenhouse gas emissions is unreachable, say two leading scientists. |
11th December 2007 |
| Warming climate triples northern fire frequency - CNET Black spruce forests in Alaska and Canada have burning more often and more deeply since 1987--and releasing more carbon dioxide as a result. |
11th December 2007 |
| Dear Prime Minister, Dear Chancellor - Gristmill A letter from James Hansen pleads for action on coal-fired power plants. |
11th December 2007 |
| Redefining ‘positive': collapse from beyond the human-centric perspective - Carolyn Baker The addiction to a "positive attitude" in the face of the end of the world as we have known it is beyond irrational-even beyond insane. It's an obsession that could only be cherished by humans; it is, indeed human-centric, as if human beings are the only species that matter and as if the most crucial issue is that those humans are able to feel good about themselves as the world burns. |
11th December 2007 |
| US balks at Bali targets for cutting carbon - Guardian Unlimited US negotiators say call for wealthy nations to cut emissions by up to 40% 'unhelpful' See also: CLIMATE CHANGE: No Deal in Sight at Bali - IPS |
11th December 2007 |
| 10% of global CO2 emissions result from swamp destruction - Mongabay.com More than 10 percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions result from the degradation and destruction of peat swamps, reports the first comprehensive global assessment on the links between peatland degradation and climate change. |
11th December 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Who Should Pay the Carbon Bill? - IPS BROOKLIN, Canada, Dec 10 (IPS) - The family has just finished up an expensive seven-course restaurant meal, and the late-arriving cousins can only snack on bread sticks. When the bill arrives, the truculent, rich uncles -- Canada, Japan and the United States -- insist that the cousins, although poor and still very hungry, ought to pay a full share. |
11th December 2007 |
| George Monbiot: The real answer to climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: All the talk in Bali about cutting carbon means nothing while ever more oil and coal is being extracted and burned |
11th December 2007 |
| Congress Committee Releases In-Depth Report on White House Climate Science Manipulation - DeSmogBlog The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming."The report, Political Interference With Climate Change Science Under the Bush Administration, details a 16-month investigation into allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. |
11th December 2007 |
| U.S. Energy Industry Lobbies for Bush Do-Nothing Plan - DeSmogBlog In a Dec. 7, 2007 letter to Members of the U.S. Senate (below), a cabal of energy producers and big polluters have attacked the State-level efforts to toughen global warming regulations, supporting instead the almost irrelevant measures currently in place at the national level.Rather than deal with California-driven emission limits that would actually limit emissions, the lobbyists said: "The vehicle efficiency improvement standard and the alternative fuels provisions in the President Bush's energy proposals and in the energy legislation are preferred approaches."If he was capable of embarrassment, this would be a moment for President George Bush to blush.As in Canada, U.S. |
11th December 2007 |
| Climate Missing from US Election - Gore - Planet Ark OSLO - Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore said on Monday the US presidential election campaign had paid insufficient attention to the environment and climate change. |
11th December 2007 |
| An Eco-Activist in Bali - TheTyee.ca Sparring with Minister Baird, and more blogging from the climate talks. |
11th December 2007 |
| In the short term, there'll be no major action against climate change - Guardian Unlimited To tackle global warming we need a shift in attitudes unprecedented in peace time, says Thomas Crowley |
11th December 2007 |
| Environment: We Are What We Eat - AlterNet Mass production of food is ruining our health, environment, and taste buds. How did this happen? |
11th December 2007 |
| UN calls for 40 per cent cut in emissions by rich countries A draft United Nations plan to save the world from catastrophic climate change has called on rich nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 per cent by 2020. |
11th December 2007 |
| NASA satellite reveals unprecedented view of mysterious 'night-shining' clouds NASA's AIM satellite has provided the first global-scale, full-season view of iridescent polar clouds that form 50 miles above Earth`s surface. |
11th December 2007 |
| Timber today, or climate tomorrow - BBC News The dilemma rainforest nations are facing - timber today or protect for tomorrow's climate? |
11th December 2007 |
| Business lobby demands emissions goals - Financial Times Businesses on Monday told negotiators at international talks on climate change that they needed firm targets to encourage investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. |
11th December 2007 |
| Big Oil lets sun set on renewables - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Shell, which has trumpeted its commitment to a low carbon future, has sold off most of its solar business |
11th December 2007 |
| Leading article: The wheels are in motion - and time is running out - The Independent The United Nations' climate-change conference in Bali has reached its halfway point. But the most encouraging moves in the struggle against catastrophic global warming seem to be taking place far from the conference hall. |
10th December 2007 |
| Canada says no climate deal without U.S., as stalemate looms at UN talks - CJAD BALI, Indonesia - Canada's environment minister has dismissed the notion of signing a climate-change treaty without the United States, saying it would handicap the economy without reversing greenhouse gases. |
10th December 2007 |
| Market forces essential to halting global - France24 Al Gore: "The problem is CO2 is completely invisible to the economy. The economists call it an externality which means 'forget about it' and yet what we're forgetting about is posing a great unprecedented threat to the future of our civilization," Gore cautioned, pointing out that "more money is allocated by markets in one hour than by all governments in the world in one year." "I am strongly in favour of a CO2 tax," he said, adding that he would also like to see global caps on pollutants and a worldwide emissions trading market. |
10th December 2007 |
| UK's CO2 figures an illusion - study - Guardian Unlimited Britain is responsible for hundreds of millions more tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions than official figures admit, according to a new report that undermines UK claims to lead the world on action against global warming. The analysis says pollution from aviation, shipping, overseas trade and tourism, which are not measured in the official figures, means that UK carbon consumption has risen significantly over the past decade, and that the government's claims to have tackled global warming are an "illusion". |
10th December 2007 |
| Giant rainforest in Sierre Leone wins protection - The Independent A rainforest in Sierra Leone has won protection from the country's government for an indefinite period in a move heralded as one of the first examples of a state using forest conservation to cut its carbon emissions. |
10th December 2007 |
| At Bali climate change meeting, a hard look at Kyoto - The Christian Science Monitor Old climate change standards offer lessons as diplomats consider a successor pact. |
10th December 2007 |
| Barroso Seeks to End EU Row Over Car Emissions - Planet Ark BRUSSELS - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has stepped in to try to resolve a row between industry and environment commissioners over fining carmakers who fail to meet EU pollution limits. |
10th December 2007 |
| Companies leap onto green bandwagon - BBC News The climate change debate is seen as a threat by some firms, though others see it as an opportunity to rake in some more profits. For corporate America, the issue no longer seems to be whether climate change is real. The issue now is how to deal with the political and consumer forces that have been unleashed by the climate change debate. Insiders say there is still a big club that is fighting any change, though there is also a growing number that will look at the climate crisis as an opportunity. Vinod Khosla, one of the founding chiefs of Sun Microsystems and now a big investor in clean energy, is a firm believer in the theory that the debate offers a real opportunity. |
10th December 2007 |
| Climate conference directs fire at US and EU - Financial Times Proposals by rich nations that poor countries should remove their trade barriers on environmental goods to combat global warming on Sunday raised a storm at the United Nations' climate change talks in Bali. |
10th December 2007 |
| UN Climate Chief Says Science Clear, Move On - Planet Ark OSLO - The science on climate change is indisputable so the world must now act to limit greenhouse gas emissions or face "abrupt and irreversible" change, the head of the Nobel prize-winning UN climate panel said on Sunday. |
10th December 2007 |
| Carbon-taxing the rich - Guardian Unlmited Jooseph Stiglitz: Countries generating emissions must pay the cost, and the fairest and simplest way of forcing them to do so is through tax. Principles do matter. The Bali meeting's participants should bear this in mind: global warming is too important to be held hostage to another attempt at squeezing the poor. |
9th December 2007 |
| Thoughts from the Bali COP before the Day of Global Action - Campaign against Climate Change One week at the Bali Climate Conference has cured me of any illusion that UNFCCC will solve the climate crisis, or that the annual gatherings of governments, industry and some NGOs will even remotely move us in the right direction. This is not about saving the planet. It's quite simply a trade show, and all the different proposals are about making carbon trading more efficient or getting this or that industry or government to profit a bit more whilst we move ever faster towards mass extinction. I wonder if, in years to come, we'll look back on UNFCCC meetings as climate change profiteering conferences. |
9th December 2007 |
| Britain's wind power revolution - The Independent The Independent on Sunday has learnt that, in an astonishing U-turn, the Secretary of State for Business, John Hutton, will announce that he is opening up the seas around Britain to wind farms in the biggest ever renewable energy initiative. Only weeks ago he was resisting a major expansion of renewable sources, on the grounds that it would interfere with plans to build new nuclear power stations. Hutton's dramatic policy shift signals less reliance on nuclear energy Offshore farms could provide all UK homes with electricity within 13 years. See also: India's wind power increase world's third largest - Deccan Herald |
9th December 2007 |
| CLIMATE PROTESTS Marchers highlight climate fears - BBC News Campaigners take to the streets of Scotland's largest city over the issue of climate change. Mass rallies focus on Bali talks - BBC News Mass demonstrations are taking place across the world as campaigners demand action at key UN climate change talks. Protesters across the world call for action to stop climate change catastrophe - CNews LONDON - Skiers, fire-eaters and environmental campaigners joined in demonstrations worldwide Saturday to draw attention to climate change and push leaders to take robust action. Mock funeral for Mother Earth - Edmonton Sun Edmonton: Dozens of “mourners” gathered outside Canada Place today and marched to the legislature in a mock funeral procession aimed at urging governments to take stronger action to curb global warming. Global rallies: Act now on warming - CNN International Global rallies: From costume parades in the Philippines to a cyclist's protest in London, marches were held in more than 50 cities around the world to coincide with the two-week U.N. Climate Change Conference, which runs through Friday in Bali, Indonesia. |
9th December 2007 |
| Drought taking toll on Florida's agriculture - Sarasota Herald-Tribune A slow hurricane season left farmers facing a crippling drought and fearing the worst for the growing season. The drought is costing Florida agriculture $100 million a month and, if it persists, next year's losses will mount to more than $1 billion. |
9th December 2007 |
| China, U.S. reject binding caps on emissions - USA Today China and the United States told a U.N. conference they would not commit to mandatory caps on greenhouse gases. See also: US plan to cut greenhouse gases by 70 per cent signals change of heart on climate change - The Independent |
9th December 2007 |
| Water becomes the new oil as world runs dry - Guardian Unlimited Western companies have the know-how - and the financial incentive - to supply water to poor nations. But, as Richard Wachman reports, their involvement is already provoking unrest. Asia looks vulnerable, with China planning to syphon off Tibet's water supply to make up for shortages in the parched north. Elsewhere, the Israel-Palestine conflict is at least partly about securing supplies from the River Jordan; similarly, water is a major feature of the strife in Sudan that has left Darfur devastated. When it comes to this most basic of commodities, the stakes could hardly be higher. |
9th December 2007 |
| Business runs out of green energy - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Surge in demand from businesses has outstripped electricity by wind farms, hydropower and waste gas burning |
9th December 2007 |
| Why the Himalayas might not look like this for much longer - The Observer China's economic growth, underpinned by a lack of political accountability, will have a devastating environmental impact |
9th December 2007 |
| Academic seeks 100% greenhouse target - The West Australian Nations need to cut greenhouse pollution by 50 per cent by 2025 and 100 per cent by 2050 to avoid climatic disaster, an academic says. Climate change researcher Ian McGregor said the kind of emissions cuts being discussed at the UN conference on Bali would fail to avert catastrophic climate change. |
8th December 2007 |
| Global carbon emissions, per person - BBC News The figures are from the United States Energy Department's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, dated 2004. |
8th December 2007 |
| Demonstrations across the globe mark Bali summit - The Independent Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are expected to take part in a global protest today to highlight the effects of climate change. |
8th December 2007 |
| US Congress passes global warming bill - Guardian Unlimited Congress yesterday defied the threat of a presidential veto and passed the first legislation aimed at curbing global warming, voting to impose higher automobile fuel standards for the first time in three decades. |
8th December 2007 |
| Carbon traders bet on Bali climate talks' success - Reuters via Yahoo! Malaysia News NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 7 - Traders are already betting on a new global climate deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, as talks in Bali on Friday inched towards a two-year negotiating agenda for an expanded global climate pact. |
8th December 2007 |
| China suffers worst drought in 10 years - China Daily China experienced serious drought this year, which was the worst for a decade, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Friday. |
8th December 2007 |
| Environment: Will the U.S. Impede World's Progress on Global Warming Again? Scientists and world leaders are meeting in Bali, but will the U.S. hold back the world's progress on fighting climate change like it did in Kyoto? |
8th December 2007 |
| China says western countries should be less extravagant for sake of climate - CBC.ca China says western countries should be less extravagant for sake ...CBC.ca, Canada. ... the information to create an overall climate change performance target. After years of dodging the issue and appearing defensive on global warming, ... |
8th December 2007 |
| Past reconstructions: problems, pitfalls and progress Many people hold the mistaken belief that reconstructions of past climate are the sole evidence for current and future climate change. They are not. However, they are very interesting and useful for all sorts of reasons: for modellers to test out theories of climate change, for geographers, archaeologists and historians to examine the impact of climate on past civilizations and ecosystems, and for everyone to get a sense of what climate is capable of doing, how fast it does it and why. As a small part of that enterprise, the climate of the medieval period has received a very high (and sometimes disproportionate) profile in the public discourse - due in no small part to the mistaken notion that it is an important factor for the attribution of current climate change. |
8th December 2007 |
| The Global Warming Playbook - Time Magazine The new Presidential Climate Action Plan sets forth a straightforward plan: To curb global warming, the White House -- and the U.S. -- must first go green at home at home |
8th December 2007 |
| Boreal Forest is World's Carbon Vault - Canada NewsWire Boreal Forest is World's Carbon VaultCanada NewsWire (press release), Canada. 7 /CNW Telbec/ - Breakthrough maps released today at the United Nations conference on climate change illustrate the vastly important role of Canada's Boreal ... |
8th December 2007 |
| Carbon Prohibition Hurts PM Harper's Backyard Distillery - DeSmogBlog If you owned a distillery, you would probably not be in favour of prohibition. So it is little wonder why Harper is apposed to binding emission targets at the UN climate negotiations in Bali. Harper's adopted province of Alberta is home to the second largest oil reserves in the world, and the good times are just starting to roll. For decades, the tar sands have been far too expensive and energy intensive to make sense. But with crude oil prices pushing $100 a barrel, the oil patch boys are looking at some serious returns on their investment. The tar sands have about 175 billion barrels of extractable reserves based on oil prices from 2005 – already long out of date. |
8th December 2007 |
| A New DeSmog Investigation: Operation ecoTRUTH - DeSmogBlog This is the first in a DeSmogBlog exclusive investigative series we're calling, "Operation ecoTRUTH."One of the Canadian government's banner climate change funds could easily go toward subsidies that actually make the problem worse - and officials in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's administration would neither know, nor care.Canada's Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, recently reported to the government's Public Accounts Committee that she is investigating concerns about the Conservative government's $1.5-billion Eco-Trust for Clean Air and Climate Change.The stated purpose of the Eco-Trust is: "To provide support to those provinces and territories that identify major projects that will result in real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants. |
8th December 2007 |
| Most of Amazon 'lost by 2030' - Guardian Unlimited Climate change could speed up the large-scale destruction of the Amazon rainforest and bring the "point of no return" much closer than previously thought, conservationists warned today. Almost 60% of the region's forests could be wiped out or severely damaged by 2030, as a result of climate change and deforestation, according to a report published today by WWF. The damage could release somewhere between 55.5bn-96.9bn tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the Amazon's forests and speed up global warming, according to the report, Amazon's Vicious Cycles: Drought and Fire. |
7th December 2007 |
| The Syllogism of Doom [dum dum duuum] Andy Revkin has a great op-ed over on NYT, laying out our collective coal dilemma and the difficulty in communicating effectively about it. I've been pondering why clean coal -- a climate solution that does not yet so much as, um, exist -- has taken on such talismanic quality in energy discussions, like a crucifix that gets waved around to ward off ghouls. The root of the problem is what I shall take to calling the Syllogism of Doom (try to imagine ominous music, heavy on timpani). It goes: 1. If we (that is, humanity) increase our use of coal, the atmosphere will likely tip over into irreversible, catastrophic warming. |
7th December 2007 |
| "Green jobs" to outweigh losses from climate change - Guardian Unlimited Climate change is creating millions of "green jobs" in sectors from solar power to biofuels that will slightly exceed layoffs elsewhere in the economy, a U.N. report said on Thursday. Union experts at U.N. climate talks in Bali, Indonesia, said the findings might ease worries among many workers that tougher environmental standards could mean an overall loss of jobs for many countries. "Millions of new jobs are among the many silver, if not indeed gold-plated, linings on the cloud of climate change," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a statement. |
7th December 2007 |
| Statscan trims Canada '07 wheat and barley crops - Reuters via Yahoo! News Canadian farmers harvested slightly less grain than earlier projected because hot, dry weather slashed yields in the south and wet conditions hurt crops in the north, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. |
7th December 2007 |
| British Climate Impact Report Sets Scene For Future - Planet Ark LONDON - Land and sea temperatures around Britain have risen sharply under the influence of climate change and more is on the way, a government report said on Friday. |
7th December 2007 |
| SA fire danger reaches 'extreme' level - The Australian SA fire danger reaches 'extreme' levelThe Australian, Australia. FIREFIGHTERS fear South Australia is "breaking new ground" as climate change brings days of extreme fire danger earlier in the summer. |
7th December 2007 |
| Japan Sees CO2 Credit Supply Far Outweighing Demand - Planet Ark TOKYO - Tradable surplus allowances for greenhouse gas emissions between 2008 and 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol will likely far outweigh demand by industrialised countries, a Japanese study shows, a finding that could dim the long-term outlook for emissions credits markets. |
7th December 2007 |
| Tracking Lieberman-Warner By Brian BeutlerIt took nine and a half hours of chipping away at a seemingly infinite stream of amendments -- some positive, some poison-pills -- but the Senate Environment and Public Works committee favorably reported Joe Lieberman and John Warner's greenhouse gas bill, America's Climate Security Act, today. The process wasn't easy. Republicans came armed with about 150 amendments, some of which were so toxic and clearly non-passable that it appeared they were simply trying to obstruct or derail the proceedings altogether. Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, aware that the amendment avalanche would take hours to overcome, called the Senate floor to order at noon, two and a half hours later than usual, to help the bill along. |
6th December 2007 |
| Scientists beg for climate action - ABCmoney.co.uk A petition from at least 215 climate scientists calls for the world to cut in half greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It is directed at a conference of diplomats meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate the next global warming treaty. The petition, obtained by The Associated Press, is to be announced at a press conference there Wednesday night. The appeal from scientists follows a petition last week from more than 150 global business leaders also demanding the 50 percent cut in greenhouse gases. That is the estimate that scientists calculate would hold future global warming to a little more than a 3-degree Fahrenheit increase and is in line with what the European Union has adopted. |
6th December 2007 |
| Global warming wreaks havoc with nature - Seattle Post Intelligencer While humans debate at U.N. climate change talks in Bali, global warming is already wreaking havoc with nature. Most plants and animals are affected, and the change is occurring too quickly for them to evolve. |
6th December 2007 |
| Soil carbon, climate among global changes impacting agriculture - Seattle Times More carbon in the air means less in the ground, and for farmers, that's bad news, said a local researcher studying how climate change is impacting agriculture. |
6th December 2007 |
| Bali Conference: Diplomats warned that climate change is security issue, not a green dilemma - The Independent Foreign policy-makers are waking up to the impact of climate change on conflict zones worldwide, and will add their voice to those calling on governments at the UN conference in Bali to act urgently. |
6th December 2007 |
| Thunder, Hail, Fire: What Does Climate Change Mean for the US? - Scientific American The regional effects range from more wildfires in the west to stronger storms in the east. |
6th December 2007 |
| FIT for Britain, healthy for the world - Guardian Unlimited The introduction of feed-in tariffs would be a cheap and ecologically sound element of energy policy. So why the reluctance to adopt them? |
6th December 2007 |
| Rising food prices upset China's shoppers - BBC News Rising food prices could put both prosperity and political stability at risk in China. |
6th December 2007 |
| Can you reduce your carbon footprint with a vegan diet? The first week was the hardest. As winter set in, the usual ports of call for comfort eating (the chocolate counter of the newsagents and the Jewish bakery at the end of my street) became no-go zones. Instead of dreaming the things that normal 30-year-old women dream of (shoes, obviously), I began fantasising about buttery scrambled eggs and crumbly feta. One night I cracked, leaping out of bed to raid the biscuit tin. But next morning, reality bit ? or rather, I bit reality, and it tasted like cornflakes with soya milk, followed by toast and dairy-free spread (hold the honey because collecting honey kills bees). |
6th December 2007 |
| BP to pump billions into oil sands - Guardian Unlimited Business money: Strong demand and high crude price tempt UK firm despite green worries and costs |
6th December 2007 |
| A Climactic Scandal? Harper Government Cannot Account for $1.5 billion in Climate Change Funds Yesterday at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, Canada's Minister of the Environment waffled about heavily and refused to provide a full accounting of the government's $1.519 billion Canada Eco Trust Fund for Clean Air and Climate Change.This follows on criticism two weeks ago of the Eco Trust by the government's Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, who stated: We are deeply concerned about very large transfers being made purportedly for certain purposes. But when you look at the actual agreements there are absolutely no conditions requiring the recipient to use the moneys for the purposes being announced."Lacking the oversight guaranteeing that monies provided to the provinces will be spent appropriately is bad enough, but even worse it appears the government cannot even account for monies spent to date. |
6th December 2007 |
| DSCOVR'ing the Earth's Albedo NASA's resistance to launching the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is certainly puzzling. They spent $100 million on the spacecraft. It's finished. Two other countries and another US government agency have offered to launch it at no cost to NASA. Yet it still remains in a box. (Go here for background on DeSmogBlog's exclusive investigation into "Who Killed the DSCOVR satellite) Maybe NASA is simply cash-strapped because they have been forced to spend billions on pet political projects like the International Space Station or Bush's manned mission to Mars. Or maybe the Whitehouse and their oil industry backers didn't want the climate “debate” resolved just yet. |
6th December 2007 |
| This crisis demands a reappraisal of who we are and what progress means - Guardian Unlimited Outdated figures have been hiding the full extent of climate change. But I am still advocating action, and not despair |
5th December 2007 |
| Disguising Environmental Harm Eases Only Our Conscience - Science Daily We can disguise environmentally harmful practices and dress them up in words to help ease our consciences, argues one psychologist, but such practices will have a negative impact on the planet and the quality of life of future generations, no matter how we label them. Moreover, many of us pursue practices that are detrimental to the environment but which we justify by a kind of moral disengagement. This frees us from the constraints of self-censure and we defend our actions on the basis that such practices are somehow fulfilling worthy social, national, or economic causes and, as such, offset their harmful effects on the future of our planet. Moral disengagement equates to switching off one's conscience and there is nothing like self righteousness to exonerate and sanitize malpractice in the name of worthy causes. Convoluted language helps disguise what is being done and reduces accountability, and also ignores and disputes harmful effects. Learning about moral disengagement shines the light not only on the malpractices of others but on ourselves, argues Bandura, after all morally disengaged or not the conscience will still prick. |
5th December 2007 |
| Coffee and Tea may Become a Thing of Past, Thanks to Global Warming - MedIndia A new study, by a leading coffee company, has warned that international tea and coffee production is in danger, thanks to climate change. |
5th December 2007 |
| Global warming could flood 150 million people, cost $35 trillion, says report - BizJournals A report co-authored by the East Bay's Risk Management Solutions predicts that global climate change and urban development could put 150 million people at risk for major flooding by 2070, including many in Miami and New York. |
5th December 2007 |
| Law To Ban Fossil Fuel Energy For 10 Years Introduced In New Zealand's Parliament - Nasdaq (RTTNews) - The New Zealand government introduced a bill in its parliament on Tuesday seeking a ban on new fossil fuel energy production and consumption for 10 years. |
5th December 2007 |
| U.S.- China intransigence imperils climate-change breakthrough in Bali With China and the U.S. at loggerheads, Bali delegates have discounted the possibility of real progress and are using the talks to set the stage for a new treaty by the end of 2009. Currently, The Kyoto Protocol binds 36 nations to cut gases by a combined 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. U.S. President George W. Bush has refused to ratify Kyoto, which doesn't set goals for China. Each country says they want the other to take on binding commitments to limit emissions in a new accord. China's officials say the country needs to expand its economy, while the Bush administration says it is concerned that emissions caps will harm economic competitiveness. |
5th December 2007 |
| Ray of hope: Can the sun save us from global warming? - Independent Something is happening to our Sun. It has to do with sunspots, or rather the activity cycle their coming and going signifies. After a period of exceptionally high activity in the 20th century, our Sun has suddenly gone exceptionally quiet. Months have passed with no spots visible on its disc. We are at the end of one cycle of activity and astronomers are waiting for the sunspots to return and ... |
5th December 2007 |
| Climate change could mean more massive downpours - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Scientists say climate change could bring more rain, and more of these massive deluges, to the Pacific Northwest. |
5th December 2007 |
| FOOD | |
| Toll of climate change on world food supply could be worse than thought - Physorg Global agriculture, already predicted to be stressed by climate change in coming decades, could go into steep, unanticipated declines in some regions due to complications that scientists have so far inadequately considered, say three new scientific reports. Progressive changes predicted to stem from 1- to 5-degree C temperature rises in coming decades fail to account for seasonal extremes of heat, drought or rain, multiplier effects of spreading diseases or weeds, and other ecological upsets. All are believed more likely in the future. See also: |
4th December 2007 |
| Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring - Guardian Unlimited The risks of food riots and malnutrition will surge in the next two years as the global supply of grain comes under more pressure than at any time in 50 years, according to one of the world's leading agricultural researchers. |
4th December 2007 |
| What will we eat as the oil runs out? - Energy Bulletin Our global food system faces a crisis of unprecedented scope. This crisis, which threatens to imperil the lives of hundreds of millions and possibly billions of human beings, consists of four simultaneously colliding dilemmas, all arising from our relatively recent pattern of dependence on depleting fossil fuels. The first dilemma consists of the direct impacts on agriculture of higher oil prices: increased costs for tractor fuel, agricultural chemicals, and the transport of farm inputs and outputs. The second is an indirect consequence of high oil prices - the increased demand for biofuels, which is resulting in farmland being turned from food production to fuel production, thus making food more costly. The third dilemma consists of the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events caused by fuel-based greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the greatest environmental crisis of our time; however, fossil fuel depletion complicates the situation enormously, and if we fail to address either problem properly the consequences will be dire. Finally comes the degradation or loss of basic natural resources (principally, topsoil and fresh water supplies) as a result of high rates, and unsustainable methods, of production stimulated by decades of cheap energy. |
4th December 2007 |
| Environment: Ditch Green Industries, Invest in Guns -- a Deadly Market Gospel In the world of venture capitalism, there has been a race going on between greens on the one hand and guns and garrisons on the other -- and the guns are winning. |
4th December 2007 |
| It's the Tar Sands, Stupid - in Views - The Tyee Canada home to global warming's new ground zero. The average production and downstream emissions of Alberta synthetic crude add up to around 638 kg of carbon per barrel. Multiply that by the total extractable oil reserves and you get a rather large number. When all the Alberta oil sands have been extracted, upgraded and burned, they will result in the release into the Earth's atmosphere of around 112 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. That is equivalent to all fossil fuel and industrial emissions worldwide combined over a period of more than four years. |
4th December 2007 |
| Expanding Tropics Could Spur Storms – Study - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - Earth's tropical belt is expanding much faster than expected, and that could bring more storms to the temperate zone and drier weather to parts of the world that are already dry, climate scientists reported on Sunday. |
4th December 2007 |
| Climate change predicted to drive trees northward - Physorg The most extensive and detailed study to date of 130 North American tree species concludes that expected climate change this century could shift their ranges northward by hundreds of kilometers and shrink the ranges by more than half. The study, by Daniel W. McKenney of the Canadian Forest Service and his colleagues, is reported in the December issue of BioScience. |
4th December 2007 |
| Time to stop the climate blame game - BBC News All nations must stop playing the blame game and start working together to tackle climate change. As a key UN climate change conference gets underway in Bali, Malini Mehra says the current global political system is "abysmally unfit for purpose". In this week's Green Room, she calls for nations to stop playing the blame game, and work together to deliver a low carbon global economy. |
4th December 2007 |
| Bali Can We Save the World by 2015? - Time Magazine With time dwindling, delegates from 185 countries will convene the most critical talks on climate change in a decade -- and start hashing out a new, post-Kyoto protocol. The whole process can seem frustratingly slow, considering how dire the threat of climate change is — as if we were convening a town hall meeting to decide to put out a fire that is already raging. "Getting 185 countries around a negotiating table is a difficult way to run the world," says Andrew Deutz, who heads the Nature Conservancy's International Institutions and Agreements team. "But the advantage of the UN process is that it's about the process. It can continue to evolve." That's already begun to happen in recent years, as consensus on global warming has grown in every corner of the world, as businesses have turned to alternative power and governments have begun to set their own caps on carbon. But we're in a race and we're already behind. If we can't get off to a good start at Bali, we may never catch up. Bali's road map for planet's survival - Guardian Unlimited World leaders will meet in Bali this week for the start of negotiations which experts say could be the last chance to save the Earth from climate change Hopes of a successful conference are high, partly because countries are not expected to sign up to any specific commitments. The Bali meeting follows a spate of high-profile reports in the past year warning of the impacts of climate change . 'Bali could be the last chance for humankind to avoid the worst effect of global warming,' said Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth. 'The politics of this are changing very quickly. One should be cautiously optimistic about the prospects for getting the outline of the deal because we're stuffed if we don't.' Rich countries blamed as greenhouse gas emissions hit record - The Independent Bali conference is the world's last chance to avoid 'catastrophic' global warming, experts warn. Rich countries are rapidly increasing the pollution that causes global warming to record levels – despite having solemnly undertaken to reduce it, three devastating new official reports reveal. Emissions of greenhouse gases and their accumulation in the atmosphere are higher than they have ever been, and unless policies are urgently reversed "catastrophic" climate change is inevitable, they warn. Nations gather for climate talks - BBC News World governments meet for a key UN summit to thrash out a deal on the future shape of a global climate agreement. "Nobody wants to understate the very real long-term ecological challenges that climate change will bring to rich countries," said lead author Kevin Watkins. "But the near-term vulnerabilities are not concentrated in lower Manhattan and London, but in flood-prone areas of Bangladesh and drought-prone parts of sub-Saharan Africa. "Allowing the window of opportunity to close would represent a moral and political failure without precedent in human history." UN says USA must be part of climate change agreement - USA Today Any agreement hammered out by a massive United Nations climate change conference starting in Indonesia this week would not make sense without the participation of the United States, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, the U.N.'s climate chief said Sunday. Wen's Challenge on Climate Change Raises Stakes for Bali Talks - Bloomberg.com Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's complaint that developed nations must do more to combat climate change highlights a central conflict confronting delegates at Bali talks on global warming that begin today. "It's a game of hide and seek now,'' said Lo Sze Ping, campaign director of Greenpeace China. "The U.S. is trying to hide behind China and China is trying to hide behind the U.S. This kind of attitude is not going to help us avoid disastrous climate change.'' |
3rd December 2007 |
| Why America is Becoming a Second-World Nation and California is in the Crosshairs - California Progress Report The United States’ inevitable slide from first-world status is because of an anti-innovation trend playing out within the state and the nation. This is so despite California being an industry leader and at the leading edge of many kinds of innovation. This anti-innovation trend subtracts from the “big science, great policy” innovation it will take to combat global warming’s direct and indirect effects, worsening natural disasters, and the decline side of oil. These are the big guns pitted against human survival. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Expected Drop In Nitrogen Deposition May Hamper Kyoto Targets - Science Daily Researchers in the Netherlands, have shown that a drop in atmospheric nitrogen deposition will slow down forest growth. At the same time they expect that a lower tree growth implies less carbon sequestration and thus a decrease in the sequestration of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. This may have a significant impact on the targets set in the Kyoto protocol. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Greenhouse robs rainfall in farm belt - Sydney Morning Herald GLOBAL warming has caused the world's tropical regions to expand much more rapidly than predicted, raising the prospect of an even drier farm belt in southern Australia, and the spread south of diseases such as dengue fever. As talks on climate change begin at a United Nations meeting in Bali today, research reveals the tropical zone has widened by more than two degrees of latitude over the past 25 years.. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Global warming resulting in an increased similarity of plants in Alps - The Cheers New research by environmentalists indicates that global warming has resulted in an increased similarity of vegetation in mountain summits in the Alps. The findings indicate that as a result of climate change, an upward shift of flora is taking place in the area. This is not only increasing the number of species on the mountain summits studied, but also leading to an increasing homogenization of the species composition of Alpine summit vegetation. This means that species diversity within individual areas is increasing, but that species diversity across ecosystems is declining. According to biologists, the resulting homogenization of the flora could lead to a reduction in regional biodiversity, as more and more species are now forced to share the summits. |
3rd December 2007 |
| How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power - Guardian Unlimited A £5bn solar power plan, backed by a Jordanian prince, could provide the EU with a sixth of its electricity needs - and cut carbon emissions |
3rd December 2007 |
| Emission cut won't hit economy - The Australian AUSTRALIA can take an aggressive approach to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions with minimal impact on economic growth, according to new research released to coincide with the start of international negotiations in Bali today. |
3rd December 2007 |
| World's largest mangrove badly hit by cyclone: official - PhysOrg A quarter of Bangladesh's Sunderbans forest has been damaged by a deadly cyclone that left a trail of devastation in the vast mangrove swamp, a top forestry official said Saturday. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Alaska island, residents, losing ground to global warming - Boston Globe From the air, Kivalina looks like a giant tadpole, less than 600 feet across at its widest. Most of the island's 400 residents want to move, but the questions of where and how loom large. Relocation of the population could cost $250 million. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Harper 'sabotaged' climate change efforts: Dion - Globe and Mail Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion accuses the Conservative government of a campaign to sabotage international efforts to combat global warming. In a speech Saturday morning to Liberal riding presidents from across the country meeting in Montreal, Mr. Dion said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper turned his back on fighting climate change in his first year in office, and has falsely claimed to be renewing efforts since he shuffled John Baird into the environment minister's job in January. |
3rd December 2007 |
| B.C. professor advocates low-carbon diet - Canada.com Canada is overweight and needs to go on a low-carb diet -- low in carbon emissions, that is. Mark Jaccard, an economics professor at Simon Fraser University and author of a number of books on policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has outlined his arguments for a carbon tax in a slim book titled Designing Canada's Low-Carb Diet: Options for Effective Climate Policy, published by the C.D. Howe Institute last week. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Japan to propose satellite monitoring of rain forests at Bali conference - Japan Today NUSA DUA, Indonesia - The Japanese government is planning to propose at an upcoming international conference a system to monitor rain forest destruction on a major scale by employing Japan's satellite technology as part of efforts to fight global warming, government sources said Sunday. |
3rd December 2007 |
| Power firms accused of emissions trade cheating - Guardian Unlimited Global exchange system designed to cut greenhouse gases via traded carbon credits is being gatecrashed by projects that increase the net amount of carbon going into the atmosphere |
3rd December 2007 |
 50 years on: The Keeling Curve legacy - BBC News How one of the most famous graphs in science - showing how carbon dioxide has risen in the atmosphere - has become a scientific icon. [The graph seems to be curving up - can emissions be reduced before the line points straight up?] |
1st December 2007 |
| CCS: Always almost ready, but never quite By David RobertsOver at Earth2Tech, reflecting on Washington's recent rejection of a coal plant application, Alexix Madrigal stumbles across the essence of the carbon capture and sequestration issue: It highlights an interesting aspect of the CCS debate. Fossil-fuel energy companies are well-served by having the technology remain on the drawing board, devoid of any "industrial-scale" field deployments. It lets them point to technology that will eventually make them clean -- forestalling complaints that coal should be done away with completely -- while allowing the companies to claim they can't build something that hasn't already been built. |
1st December 2007 |
| Deforestation and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions - Foreign Relations Loss of forests contributes as much as 30 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions each year-rivaling emissions from the global transportation sector. |
1st December 2007 |
| Business call for plan on climate - BBC News Firms such as Nike, Tesco and Nokia call for a legally binding international deal on climate change. 150 top global companies have called for a legally binding and comprehensive international deal on climate change. The interesting thing is that they recognise that the old argument that CO2 reducing schemes would hurt economies is false and that the converse is true, "As business leaders, it is our belief that the benefits of strong, early action on climate change outweigh the costs of not acting:" Read the communiqué here. |
1st December 2007 |
| BANGLADESH: Fear of Famine Follows Cyclone Havoc - IPS DHAKA, Nov 30 (IPS) - With its grain crops wiped out, Bangladesh has appealed to the world community for half a million tonnes of rice or wheat to immediately feed thousands of starving survivors of the Nov. 15 cyclone and stave of a possible famine. |
1st December 2007 |
| Q&A: 'Emissions Trading Can Raise Billions To Combat Climate Change' BERLIN, Nov 30 (IPS) - Developed countries have a "moral duty" to help the world's poorest countries combat the consequences of climate change to which they have contributed the least, says German Development Cooperation Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul. |
1st December 2007 |
| Energy-hungry India eyes role as "wind superpower" - AlertNet Years of tax incentives have helped make India one of the fastest-growing markets for wind power, a major component of renewable energy that will be high on the agenda of the Dec. 3-14 UN climate change meeting in Bali, Indonesia. |
1st December 2007 |
| Agreement doesn't ensure action - Tallahassee Democrat The good news on climate change is that the world wants to do something. It's no longer just the Europeans and a few fellow travelers; a recent survey suggested that 96 percent of South Koreans and 66 percent of Ukrainians regard global warming as an important threat. The latest report from the Nobel-anointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change got the blanket media coverage it warranted. In the United States, business and congressional leaders have decided action is inevitable. ADVERTISEMENT Then there is the bad news: None of these fine sentiments will matter unless a critical mass of countries unites around a real policy. And unity is miles away. |
1st December 2007 |
| UN in favour of compensating developing countries for reduced emissions. - TopNews A new plan to compensate developing countries for reduced emissions and saving their forests and woodlands, is going to be discussed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Bali (3-14 December 2007). If this suggestion is agreed upon, it would mean the realization of a unique goal – solving climate change, reducing poverty and saving biodiversity at a single stroke. |
1st December 2007 |
| Cut greenhouse gases: raise hydro rates, economist says - Montreal Gazette A Montreal economics professor has come up with a simple way to reduce Canada's greenhouse- gas emissions substantially. |
1st December 2007 |
| Australians want more than Kyoto: survey - AFP via Yahoo! News Australians want their new government to do more than just sign up to the Kyoto Protocol with over 80 percent supporting a reversal in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, a survey released Friday showed. |
1st December 2007 |
| Carbon trading shakes off early troubles - Financial Times Carbon trading has always been one of the key planks of the global strategy to arrest the amount of greenhouse gases we pump into the atmosphere. |
1st December 2007 |
| Carbon counter, coming to a phone near you - Guardian Unlimited The ultimate accessory for the carbon conscious was unveiled in Brussels yesterday: a personal carbon counter allowing mobile phone users to track their daily carbon footprint |
1st December 2007 |
| Options for saving the Amazon forest in the face of climate change A review, led by an Oxford University scientist, claims that intact parts of the Amazon forest are resilient to climatic drying and are unlikely to disappear if they can be sufficiently protected. |
1st December 2007 |
| Lifeboat time - Energy Bulletin John Michael Greer, The Archdruid Report. Recent news stories point to the real possibility that a wave of crises of the kind predicted by the theory of catabolic collapse may be imminent. Can we afford to wait until the window of opportunity for constructive action closes? |
30th November 2007 |
| Climate chief calls for 80% cuts in greenhouse gas - Guardian Unlimited An adviser on the economics of climate change has urged nations to agree on reductions in greenhouse gas emissions Also: Stern raps 'market failure' on climate - Guardian Unlimited |
30th November 2007 |
| Forget the green technology - the hot money is in guns - Guardian Unlimited Comment is free: Naomi Klein: Far from saving us from catastrophe, the market is developing fortresses to shield the haves from the victims of the future |
30th November 2007 |
| What comes next for the IPCC? - Nature Now their fourth assessment is complete, should this climate-science advisory panel change? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced four massive assessments of climate-change science since 1990. Its efforts culminated this year in a summary report that many argue delivers solid answers to the biggest questions — whether and to what extent humans are contributing to global warming — while laying a strong foundation for dealing with the possible dangers and finding potential solutions. Now, some are beginning to argue, it's time for the IPCC to change gear and alter the way it works. |
30th November 2007 |
| Daffodils blooming early at Eden - BBC News Gardeners at Cornwall's Eden Project are delighted by the early arrival of two daffodil varieties. |
30th November 2007 |
| Canada Under Fire for Flouting Federal Global Warming Law - Common Dreams Just days before Canadian Environment Minister John Baird leaves for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Canada is facing a second legal challenge for missing a key deadline under global warming legislation passed into law earlier this year. The government was served late yesterday with a second Application for Judicial Review for violating the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act (KPIA), the Canadian federal law that requires reductions in greenhouse gas emissions according to the Kyoto Protocol commitment. |
30th November 2007 |
| A Fifth of UN Carbon Credits May be Bogus - WWF - Planet Ark LONDON - One in five carbon credits issued by the United Nations are going to support clean energy projects that may in fact have helped to increase greenhouse gas emissions, environmental group WWF said on Thursday. |
30th November 2007 |
| Liberal Leader Stephane Dion to crash Bali climate-change conference - CNews OTTAWA - Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is going to crash next month's crucial climate-change talks in Bali, Indonesia. |
30th November 2007 |
| Micro-wind turbines 'increase CO2' - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Erecting a wind turbine could create more carbon dioxide than it actually saves, a study has found. After the energy used in manufacture from aluminium, steel, copper and fibreglass, the carbon footprint of the turbine is exacerbated by transportation to the site and the need for regular maintenance to moving parts which bear the strain of rapidly changing loads during heavy winds, the report found. |
30th November 2007 |
| Japan, Spain, Italy Face $33 Billion in Kyoto Pollution Fines - Bloomberg.com Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Japan, Italy and Spain face fines of as much as $33 billion combined for failing to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions as promised under the Kyoto treaty. |
30th November 2007 |
| Environment: Lois Gibbs: How to Be a Citizen-Activist Lois Gibbs, who put Love Canal on the map and ignited the movement against toxics, shares the secrets of organizing work learned on the fly. |
30th November 2007 |
| ‘Averting Our Eyes': James Hansen's New Call for Climate Action - New York Times Blogs 'Averting Our Eyes': James E. Hansen of NASA, brushing off coal-industry criticisms but acknowledging the need to be sensitive to people still haunted by the Holocaust, has elaborated on what he meant when he recently described continued coal burning as akin to sending untold species to their destruction in “death trains” and crematoria. He posted a long note on the matter, titled “Averting Our Eyes,” on his Columbia University home page tonight. I asked if we could publish excerpts. “I prefer that you post it in toto,” he said in an e-mail message. “Somehow I have trouble with things out of context. Also my aim is to educate on the broader problem, not just the narrow things that seem to get picked up on.” |
30th November 2007 |
| Bali Climate Talks: Campaigns & Lobbying; Leed Up; Blogs and Live Coverage - Climate Change Action All the information about the upcoming UN climate talks |
29th November 2007 |
| Leading article: A potentially dangerous legacy - The Independent We have said that, when it comes to policies on climate change, Gordon Brown is all bag and no shopping. Now the UN has said the same thing. Its Human Development Report yesterday warned that, if other nations follow the policies the UK has set for itself, the world will soon enter the climate change danger zone. What Britain, and the world, need is action, not words. And the report suggested what some of those actions should be. Binding emissions-cutting targets. A tax on carbon. An EU cap-and-trade scheme that auctions allowances instead of granting them. The rapid retirement of old-style, highly polluting, coal-fired power stations. |
29th November 2007 |
| Venus offers Earth climate clues - BBC Observations of Venus might assist efforts to tackle the threat of climate change here on Earth. |
29th November 2007 |
| Ice, ice, maybe - not - Grist Do you want the latest data -- some not yet published -- and the best post-IPCC scientific predictions on the stunning collapse of Arctic ice and unexpected shrinking of the Greenland (and Antarctic) ice sheets? Then you should definitely watch this C-SPAN video of yesterday's American Meteorological Society seminar (see note on link below). The seminar is by three of the world's top cryosphere experts: Dr. Mark Serreze (NOAA), Scott Luthcke (NASA), and Dr. Konrad Steffen (CIRES) -- full bios and program summary available here. I will post their presentations when AMS puts them online (which will be here). |
29th November 2007 |
| 2007 cools, set to be 6th warmest year on record - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Nov 28 (Reuters) - This year is set to be the sixth warmest since records began 150 years ago, cooler than earlier predicted which means a slight respite for European ski resorts or bears trying to hibernate. "2007 will likely be near equal with 2006, so joint sixth warmest year," Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia, told Reuters. |
29th November 2007 |
| Australia GrainCorp posts A$20 mln loss on drought - Reuters via Yahoo! Singapore News SYDNEY, Nov 29 - Eastern Australian grain handler and trader GrainCorp Ltd on Thursday reported a loss of A$19.8 million for the year to Sept. 30 due to a drought which cut grain volumes. |
29th November 2007 |
| Quebec to stand up for Kyoto even if Ottawa won't - CBC Quebec has distanced itself from the Harper government's anti-Kyoto stance and will voice its dissent at an international climate-change summit next week, the province said. |
29th November 2007 |
| The job-creating answer to global warming - Grist A major new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) provides a detailed roadmap for avoiding catastrophic global warming and restoring our energy security, while maintaining economic development. The report, "Capturing the Energy Opportunity: Creating a Low Carbon Economy," is by CAP's John Podesta, Kitt Batten, and Todd Stern. It is well worth reading, and I say that not because I am a senior fellow at CAP, but because the 88-page report lays out the most comprehensive set of plausible job-creating climate/energy policies I have seen. The authors understand the scale of the problem ... |
29th November 2007 |
| World's Sunniest Spots Hint at Energy Bonanza - Planet Ark OSLO - Southern California is sunny, the French Riviera is sunny, but NASA says the middle of the Pacific Ocean and the Sahara Desert in Niger are the sunniest -- and the information could be worth money. |
29th November 2007 |
| Water: the impending apocalypse - Energy Bulletin Sarah Meyer, index research. I try to show the effects of fire, floods and drought on those living in impossible circumstances. Poor media coverage makes it difficult to understand the overall enormity of the crisis. (Comprehensive compilation of articles and commentary.) |
29th November 2007 |
| Deforestation on the agenda at climate meeting? - Nature Environmentalists urge policy-makers to include forestry issues at Bali talks. Deforestation issues must be included in global talks on carbon-emissions control, experts say. European companies seeking to offset their greenhouse-gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol are pumping billions of dollars into clean-energy projects in the developing world. But the protocol does not include funding initiatives to prevent deforestation, which is responsible for some 20% of global carbon emissions. |
29th November 2007 |
| Report from the World Meteorological Organization - Grist The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in its new 2006 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, reports: In 2006, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded ... 381.2 parts per million (ppm), up 0.53 per cent from 379.2 ppm in 2005. Note this is a one-year rise of 2.0 ppm, continuing the accelerated trend of the past decade, which is due to increases in global economic activity and carbon intensity, together with decreased efficiency of natural sinks, like the ocean. |
29th November 2007 |
| Global Warming: The Rich Opt Out - The Nation. The rich have decided to opt out of global warming and its effects. The American Southeast has been suffering from one of its worst droughts in years. But you wouldn't know it from looking at the emerald-green estates of Palm Beach. There, despite water restrictions and low reservoirs, lush lawns and verdant hedges line the Florida island's biggest mansions, awaiting the start of the annual winter "season" after Thanksgiving. |
29th November 2007 |
| More Than 1/4 of US Birds Threatened - Report - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - More than a quarter of all US bird species are vulnerable to extinction, according to a comprehensive list compiled by two conservation groups released on Wednesday. Global warming may be partially to blame. |
29th November 2007 |
| How solar power could become organic - and cheap - Guardian Unlimited A £5m project backed by the Carbon Trust aims to develop solar cells that could produce energy more efficiently. Michael Pollitt reports |
29th November 2007 |
| Climate change may cost Florida $345 billion a year: study - Environmental News Network TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - If nothing is done to combat global warming, two of Florida's nuclear power plants, three of its prisons and 1,362 hotels, motels and inns will be under water by 2100, a study released on Wednesday said. In all, Florida could stand to lose $345 billion a year in projected economic activity by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce emissions that are viewed as the main human contribution to rising global temperatures, according to the Tufts University study. |
29th November 2007 |
| Drought worsened greenhouse gases - Colorado Daily A new NOAA study, appearing in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how a prolonged drought in North America in 2002 cut the continent's natural uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) in half, leaving more than 360 million tons (330 million metric tons) more of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere. |
28th November 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Today, the Poor - Tomorrow, the Next Generation - IPS GENEVA, Nov 27 (IPS) - Although climate change threatens the international community as a whole, the heaviest human costs are borne by the poor, who have contributed least to the problem, according to the United Nations. |
28th November 2007 |
| Environment: The Dirty Energy Solution - AlterNet Wasted heat, one of the country's largest potential sources of power, is pouring out of smokestacks every day. |
28th November 2007 |
| Google's cheaper-than-coal target - BBC News Search giant Google is to spend tens of millions on renewable energy technologies. |
28th November 2007 |
| Indonesia losing crops, fish stocks to global warming - AlertNet Source: Reuters JAKARTA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia is losing tonnes of crop production each year and its fish stock is dwindling as a result of global warming, a UN report said on Tuesday, putting the greatest pressure on the nation's poor. |
28th November 2007 |
| UK plan to cut carbon emissions is flawed, says UN - Guardian Unlimited Annual report into climate change warns temperatures would rise 5C if the world followed the UK's lead |
28th November 2007 |
| FEATURE-Indonesia's corals threatened by climate change - AlertNet It is a country with some of the world's richest coral reefs. But scientists fear many of Indonesia's pyschedelic reefs, already significantly damaged by blast fishing and pollution, now face an even graver threat: global warming. |
28th November 2007 |
| Global warming sends salamanders packing - PhysOrg A genetic study of the salamander family that encompasses two-thirds of the world's salamander species shows that periods of global warming helped the amphibians diversify and expand their range from North America into Europe and Asia, where pockets of them are still found today. |
28th November 2007 |
| Flying foxes fall prey to Earth's rising temperature - Times Online Flying foxes have been dropping off trees and dying in droves because of the effects of climate change, researchers say. More than 30,000 of the fruit bats are estimated to have died since 1994 in heat waves associated with global warming. Mass deaths from heat stress have occurred at least 19 times since 1994, as opposed to only three anecdotal reports of similar flying fox deaths before then. The bats started to die as temperatures approached 42C, the study in Australia found. They are the first large mammal other than humans to be shown to suffer mass mortality during a heat wave. |
28th November 2007 |
| From floating houses to rafts of hyacinths - Guardian Unlimited The brightly painted homes that line the waterfront in Maasbommel, in the Dutch province of Gelderland, are eye-catching. They are also leading the way in the fight against climate change. In a country where more than half the land lies below sea level, these homes are built to be able to float. |
28th November 2007 |
| 10 years to change our ways, warns UN report - Guardian Unlimited The world has less than a decade to change course to avoid irreversible ecological catastrophe, the UN warned today. The stark warning from the UN's Human Development report came just ahead of next month's climate summit in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto protocol. In a repeat of previous warnings from scientific panels, the 400-page report said that simply ignoring climate change would lead to unprecedented reversal in human development in our lifetime, and acute risks for our children and their grandchildren. |
28th November 2007 |
| The cash nexus - Gristmill In the Nov. 12 New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert published an article (unavailable online; abstract here) typical of her style: spare, restrained, vivid, cogent, devastating. The topic was Canada's tar sands, now being profitably exploited by the major oil companies: Shell, Conoco-Phillips, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. And they've only just begun. According to Kolbert, the oil majors intend to invest more than $75 billion over the next five years in building infrastructure to transform a little bit of Canada into fuel for our cars. "Thanks in large part to what's happening in the tar sands," Kolbert reports, "Canada has become America's No. 1 source of imported oil; the country supplies the United States with more petroleum than all of the nations of the Persian Gulf combined." |
27th November 2007 |
| Homes 'can cut CO2 by up to 80%' - BBC News Carbon dioxide emissions from UK homes could be cut by up to 80% by 2050, a report by Oxford University suggests. [...so now it's your fault again...] |
27th November 2007 |
| Melting Ice Displaces Walruses In The Russian Arctic - Science Daily Some 40,000 walruses have appeared on the Russian Arctic coast, a phenomenon that scientists believe is a result of global warming melting Arctic sea ice. According to WWF, this is the largest walrus haul out - areas where walruses rest when they are out of the water - registered in the Russian Arctic. |
27th November 2007 |
| This winter may be warmest ever - WZZM 13 Grand Rapids The Northern Hemisphere is the warmest this year since record-keeping started 127 years ago, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Temperatures for January through October averaged 1.3 degrees above the norm. |
27th November 2007 |
| Climate change leads to decline in wheat production - Livemint |
27th November 2007 |
| Opposition parties pile on Harper over his climate-change stand - CNews OTTAWA - Opposition parties are slamming Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his refusal to sign on to a climate change deal at the Commonwealth meeting in Africa. |
27th November 2007 |
| Rising sea level should be issue of concern at Bali: UN panel chief - Earthtimes New Delhi - Rising sea levels due to global warming and defining what is a dangerous degree of climate change should be among critical issues for debate at next month's climate conference in Bali, RK Pachauri, chairman of the United Nations panel on climate change, said Monday. Pachauri, at a press briefing in New Delhi, said the latest synthesis report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected a very high increase of sea level due to thermal expansion and melting of ice cover caused by global warming.. |
27th November 2007 |
| US may face environment fallout - The Age THE United States could follow Australia in witnessing the political consequences of climate change, a visiting American academic said yesterday. David Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner and professor of history at Stanford University in California, said that just as Australia elected a Government that was committed to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, so might the increasing electoral power of the arid western regions of the US exert an influence over next year's presidential campaign. |
27th November 2007 |
| Environment: Promoting the Common Good: There's Only One Reason to Grant a Corporate Charter It's time we step back and consider the concept of the private-benefit corporation. |
27th November 2007 |
| Emission Permits Rise as Australia Says It Will Ratify Kyoto - Bloomberg.com Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- European Union emission permits rose after Australia said it will ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, possibly boosting demand for United Nations credits that can be used in Europe. |
27th November 2007 |
| Researching death to save life - Guardian Unlimited A new centre for the study of genocide will tackle an evil that may be exacerbated by climate change. Droughts in Africa, hurricanes in America, floods in Bangladesh - the dramatic images of climate change. However, according to Dr Juergen Zimmerer, if world temperatures continue to rise, there could worse in store: genocide. As Zimmerer, director of the new Centre for the Study of Genocide and Mass Violence at Sheffield University, explains: globalisation has intensified the competition for resources: "Climate change will increase the scarcity of resources, be it habitable land or drinkable water, amid the already existing shortage of fossil energy such as oil. "Genocide and competition over resources are definitely related and my fear is that the 21st century, rather than the 20th, will turn out to be the century of genocides." |
27th November 2007 |
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26th November 2007 |
| Environment: We Face Worldwide Drought With No Contingency Plan - Alternet As droughts reach record levels from Atlanta to Australia, no one is asking the tough question: What happens when there is not enough water to go around? |
26th November 2007 |
| Six Degrees - RealClimate "Alarmism" is a term that gets bandied about a lot. It is often said that one should not call out "fire" in a crowded building. But it really depends, one might say, on whether the "calling out" is done in such a way as to simultaneously prevent a stampede and prevent anyone getting burned. This riddle was very much on my mind as I sat down to write my thoughts on Mark Lynas's book, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet (London: Fourth Estate, 2007). I don't read much popular science literature, and I doubt I would have read this book if I hadn't made the mistake of referring to it (in a negative manner) in the comments section of a RealClimate post. |
26th November 2007 |
| Environmentalists fear Bush has Harper's ear in coming fuel efficiency rules - CNews The everyday act of filling a gas tank is at the centre of a tug-of-war between Canada's auto industry and environmentalists as the deadline approaches for the federal government to write strict new fuel efficiency regulations to help combat climate change. |
26th November 2007 |
| British employers' body seeks to combat climate change - Raw Story Britain's top employers' organisation pledged Monday to help combat climate change, saying the issue was an urgent priority for business, government and consumers alike. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has placed global warming at the heart of its agenda at the start of its annual two-day conference in London. Reporting the findings of its climate change task force, the CBI called Monday for fundamental change in British business and issued a series of pledges to help companies adopt greener practices. See also: Emissions cuts to cost £100 a home, says CBI - The Independent Britain is now almost certain to miss its 2020 targets for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, but getting the country back on track for its 2050 commitments could cost just £100 per household, a CBI report will say today. |
26th November 2007 |
| Rudd moves quickly on Kyoto, IR - Perth Now KEVIN Rudd has told world leaders he will sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change within weeks and has ordered senior bureaucrats to act quickly to draft new industrial relations laws. |
26th November 2007 |
| As the Price of Oil Soars, Many Turn to Renewables - Washington Post New Business Models, Technology Tap Into Trend At its core, the business of climate change -- at least the really big business of climate change -- is an energy business. The United States in 2006 produced 5.9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning oil, natural gas and coal for energy. Finding ways to use those sources more efficiently or to replace them with energy generated by solar, wind or other renewables is the key to bringing greenhouse-gas emissions down to a level that will slow global warming. |
26th November 2007 |
| China's Hunger - Australasian Investment Review via Yahoo!7 Finance AA couple of weeks ago we looked at the forecasts from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation's latest commentary on the outlook for food. It made gloomy reading. "As has become evident in recent months, high international prices for food crops such as grains continue to ripple through the food value/supply chain, contributing to a rise in retail prices of such basic foods as bread or pasta, meat and milk," The FAO said. Rarely has the world witnessed such a widespread and commonly shared concern on food price inflation, a fear which is fuelling debates about the future direction of agricultural commodity prices in importing as well as exporting countries, be they rich or poor. |
26th November 2007 |
| EU president backs Brown over CO2 target - Guardian Unlimited Portugal, the current EU president, is urging Europe to adopt the ultra-ambitious targets of Gordon Brown for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to lead the world in developing clean, low-cost energy |
26th November 2007 |
| Years of living dangerously: the wild, wild world It has been unmistakable to the millions caught up in the biblical downpours that cut off an entire region of Mexico this year. Many Australians have been sufficiently convinced of it to change the way they vote. It has been obvious to the home owners of middle England who have stood knee deep in their flooded sitting rooms. And it can't have escaped the notice of the millionaire's on Malibu beach who have watched their luxury beach homes burn like matchsticks. |
26th November 2007 |
| Weather disasters 'getting worse' - BBC News Aid agency Oxfam says the number of weather-related disasters has quadrupled since the 1980s. |
25th November 2007 |
| Canada gets its way: Commonwealth climate deal drops binding targets - CNews MUNYONYO, Uganda - Canada appears to have got its way at Commonwealth talks on climate change. The 53-member organization has produced an agreement stripped of any reference to binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions. See also: Dion condemns PM's climate change position at Commonwealth - Canada.com |
25th November 2007 |
| Q&A: Bali Conference "Very Much A Make Or A Break" - IPS BONN, Nov 24 (IPS) - International negotiations beginning Dec. 3 in Bali are crucial for saving our planet from the devastating effects of global warming, says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). |
25th November 2007 |
| Scientists warn of agrarian - rice – crisis due to climate change - Sunday Times.lk Scientists warn of agrarian - rice – crisis due to climate changeSunday Times.lk, Sri Lanka. Rice, the staple for billions of people, is most vulnerable to global warming, said Dyno Keatinge, deputy director general of research at the International ... |
25th November 2007 |
| Meat, poultry, vegetables feel heat from global warming - AFP via Yahoo! News From meat, poultry and milk to potatoes, onions and leafy greens, everything consumed on the world's dining tables is feeling the heat from climate change, scientists say. |
25th November 2007 |
| Wind-fuelled 'supergrid' offers clean power to Europe - The Independent An audacious proposal to build a 5,000-mile electricity supergrid, stretching from Siberia to Morocco and Egypt to Iceland, would slash Europe's CO2 emissions by a quarter, scientists say. |
25th November 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: EU Leaders Fail Planet - Mary Robinson BRUSSELS, Nov 24 (IPS) - Europe is not displaying sufficient leadership ahead of the Bali conference on climate change, according to Mary Robinson, the former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). |
25th November 2007 |
| Hello Big Carbon, this is cowardly Kelly – you're cleared for takeoff - Times Online Sunday Those worried by the current state of British politics will not be calmed by Ruth Kelly's decision last week on a third Heathrow runway. She let Big Carbon walk all over her. British Airways (BA) and the British Airports Authority (BAA) have long been among our most fearsome lobbyists. |
25th November 2007 |
| The horse: Is this the secret weapon to beat global warming? - The Independent They may previously have appreciated it more for its culinary value, but the French are discovering a new green form of transport: the humble horse, using it in more than 70 towns to pull schoolbuses and to collect refuse. |
25th November 2007 |
| Just because you're paranoid ... - Grist This 47 minute video on the essence of debt currency briefly touches on perhaps the critical environmental issue of the time: can anything be done about our deficits in the real world (in carbon sinks, fisheries, clean water, etc.) if we have no way to think about public policy except through the language of "what it will do to the economy"?Despite the paranoid tone, the fundamental question asked in this video is the right one: is a sustainable world even plausible if we continue to accept a monetary system that must grow without end? |
25th November 2007 |
| Auto polluters must pay in Europe: Barroso Car makers that fail to respect planned new EU emissions limits will have to pay "damages," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said in an interview to be published Sunday. |
25th November 2007 |
| Blue, Blue Canada - Montreal Gazette Your country is crisscrossed by innumerable rivers, some of which flow into three oceans. Yet Canada's fresh water isn't as abundant as you may think. And it's facing serious challenges and the looming menace of climate change, which is expected to exacerbate Canada's water problems and leave more of the world thirsting after our precious liquid resource. |
25th November 2007 |
| Polar bears dying in years of early ice melt - Nature A census of polar bears in Canada’s Hudson Bay has lent some hard numbers to the long-held fear that retreating sea ice is causing some bears to starve or drown. Now, looking at 20 years of data from bears captured along the coast of Hudson Bay, a team of scientists from the United States and Canada has found that fewer of the youngest and oldest bears survived in years when the ice broke early. |
24th November 2007 |
| Howard's reign in Australia is over - Seattle PI Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd swept to power in Australian elections Saturday, ending an 11-year conservative era and promising major changes to policies on global warming and his country's role in the Iraq war. |
24th November 2007 |
| UN: Carbon dioxide levels reach new high - EARTHtimes.org Geneva - Global concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded in 2006, according to the latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin published Friday by the UN weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Concentrations of nitrous oxide also reached a new high while methane remained almost unchanged. |
24th November 2007 |
| Is the oil-palm industry using global warming to mislead the public? - Mongabay.com Members of the Indonesian Palm Oil Commission are distributing materials that misrepresent the carbon balance of oil-palm plantations, according to accounts from people who have seen presentations by commission members. These officials are apparently arguing that oil-palm plantations store and sequester many times the amount of CO2 as natural forests, and therefore that converting forests for plantations is the best way to fight climate change. In making such claims, these Indonesian representatives evidently are ignoring data that show the opposite, putting the credibility of the oil-palm industry at risk, and undermining efforts to slow deforestation and rein in greenhouse gas emissions. . |
24th November 2007 |
| Canada holding up climate-change deal at Commonwealth: sources - CNews KAMPALA, Uganda - The Commonwealth summit in Uganda is close to a resolution calling on binding climate change targets. But sources say a few countries are holding things up and that one of them is Canada. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband refuses to point the finger at Canada directly. |
24th November 2007 |
| Take over our rainforest - The Independent Guyana's extraordinary offer to Britain to save one of the world's most important carbon sinks. Man-made climate change is a clear and present danger. Decision-makers from around the globe will converge on Bali in a fortnight in an attempt to do something about it. And the call has gone out for the world's leaders to take bold action to avoid a catastrophe. |
24th November 2007 |
| Early climate change victim: Andes water - Las Cruces Sun-News Bolivia: El Alto and its sister city of La Paz, the world's highest capital, depend on glaciers for at least a third of their water—more than any other urban sprawl. And those glaciers are rapidly melting because of global warming.. |
24th November 2007 |
| Killer jellyfish hit Irish salmon farm for the second time A massive invasion of deadly jellyfish threatened Northern Ireland's only salmon farm for a second time in two weeks yesterday. |
24th November 2007 |
| Kyoto Not Enough To Curb Climate Change - Science Daily Kyoto was a valiant first attempt to tackle global carbon emissions, and support for the Kyoto Protocol is still needed in the international community, but it will not be enough to make a breakthrough with climate change. |
24th November 2007 |
| Rich nations fail to honour climate pledge - Guardian Unlimited A group of rich countries including Britain has broken a promise to pay more than a billion dollars to help the developing world cope with the effects of climate change. The group agreed in 2001 to pay $1.2bn (£600m) to help poor and vulnerable countries predict and plan for the effects of global warming, as well as fund flood defences, conservation and thousands of other projects. But new figures show less than £90m of the promised money has been delivered. Britain has so far paid just £10m. |
24th November 2007 |
| For more news, click here >> News from previous days is below |
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| All About: Food and the environment - CNN.com According to the UK's Soil Association, 50 percent of the increase in global CO2 emissions between 1850 and 1990 has been tied to changes in land use --mainly because of farming practices. Today, the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) estimates that as much as 31 percent of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions come from the food chain. More than half of that amount -- 18 percent of total emissions -- comes from meat production, leading to growing calls for people to cut back on their meat consumption, or to eliminate meat from their diets completely. (The "average burger man...emits the equivalent of 1.5 tons more CO2 every year than the standard vegan," reports The Guardian, for example). |
23rd November 2007 |
| Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change - TODAYonline A farmer inspects a cob of maize in his flooded field in Nasia, northern Ghana. Scientists have warned that an agrarian crisis is brewing because of climate change that could jeopardise global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for a billion poorest of the poor. |
23rd November 2007 |
| MP says airport plans are 'absolute betrayal' - Guardian Unlimited The environmental impact of government plans to build a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow have been slammed by a coalition of Labour backbenchers, Conservatives and environmentalists See also: Reaction: Heathrow expansion plan - BBC News |
23rd November 2007 |
| Rivers exhale CO2 unlocked by clearing - The Australian LAND clearing might be adding vast amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, but not just by the loss of plants that trap the gas. Dr Pollard says land-clearing allows greater run-off of organic matter that would otherwise be locked up in anaerobic soils. The organics are then eaten up in oxygen-rich fresh water and respired into the atmosphere as CO2. He has already established through his studies of southeast Queensland waterways that every kilometre of river produces half a tonne of CO2 a day from the breaking down of organic matter, such as leaves, by bacteria and viruses in the water. “The most astonishing thing is how fast the bacteria take organic matter and turn it into CO2 ... it is almost instantaneous,” the microbial ecologist told The Australian. |
23rd November 2007 |
| Palm oil industry signs up to green labelling scheme - Guardian Unlimited A certification process designed to allow palm oil producers that meet environmental standards to label their products as eco-friendly has been launched See also: Target set to expand palm-tree plots by 50% - Bangkok Post |
23rd November 2007 |
| Carbon savings 'not enough' - ePolitix.com The body charged with reducing CO2 emissions has only had a limited impact, a new report has said. The Carbon Trust has engaged with just 12 per cent of large businesses and has failed to make even half of the savings it envisaged, according to the National Audit Office. |
23rd November 2007 |
| Is Atlanta at risk of running dry? - BBC News Drought is badly affecting the US state of Georgia, prompting serious questions about water use, the BBC's Jamie Coomarasamy finds. |
23rd November 2007 |
| Greenhouse gas must be cut despite growth - Eastday.com China must cut greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming, even while the world's fourth largest economy tries to maintain its rapid economic growth, a senior official said. |
23rd November 2007 |
| The next Australian election could be the first decided on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Julian Glover: Australia scorned global warming. Now trees are dying |
23rd November 2007 |
| No food, no clothes, no home. Bangladesh's poor who have lost everything - Guardian Unlimited Appeals for aid as country tries to recover from storm that has left 2m destitute |
23rd November 2007 |
| Scientists warn of agrarian crisis from climate change - TODAYonline A farmer inspects a cob of maize in his flooded field in Nasia, northern Ghana. Scientists have warned that an agrarian crisis is brewing because of climate change that could jeopardise global food supplies and increase the risk of hunger for a billion poorest of the poor. |
23rd November 2007 |
| A Cold Look at Warming Mixes Pep and Despair - New York Times Here is an idea worth pondering from “Everything’s Cool,” a breezy polemic about the politics of global warming: The fossil fuel industry doesn’t care who wins or loses the debate about the reality of global warming, as long as the public continues to feel that it is debatable. To put it differently, doubt means delay. See also: The debate: Can it change minds or is it just a big waste of time? |
23rd November 2007 |
| Tories bar opposition from delegation to Bali climate talks - CNews OTTAWA - The Conservative government is barring opposition MPs from joining the Canadian delegation to a major United Nations climate-change conference next month. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Dream of hydrogen car goes down in flames By Joseph RommBallard -- the Canadian fuel-cell company that once hoped to be the "Intel Inside of the hydrogen car revolution -- has sold off its automotive fuel-cell business to Daimler and Ford. You can listen to a good CBC radio story on it, which includes an interview of me (click on "Listen to the Current," Part 2). You can read Toronto Star columnist Tyler Hamilton on the story here. A Financial Post post piece headlines the story bluntly: "Hydrogen highway hits dead end: Ballard's talks with potential buyers is admission that dream of hydrogen fuel car is dead ..." |
22nd November 2007 |
| Climate change a growing threat in Tibet, media report - Phayul Climate change is causing more weather-related disasters than ever in the Himalayan region of Tibet, where the temperature is rising faster than the rest of China, state press reported Wednesday. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Snowdonia shows signs of global warming - Daily Post Welsh environment minister Jane Davidson said last night she was shocked by photographs taken ten years apart, one showing Snowdon covered in snow and the other more recent picture, without its white peaks. They are part of an exhibition by the National Trust entitled Exposed – Climate Change in Britain’s Backyard, which opened in the Senedd building in Cardiff Bay last night. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Billions of jellyfish wipe out N. Irish salmon farm - CNN.com DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth $2 million, to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners said Wednesday. |
22nd November 2007 |
| New scheme to rate green energy - BBC News A new rating system will make it easier for customers to compare energy companies' green tariffs, says the regulator. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Easier to be green - BBC News Meters that show in pence how much you save by switching the TV off standby. |
22nd November 2007 |
| China to freeze emissions at 2005 levels - The Australian CHINA will seek to increase cooperation with Asian nations on climate change and will try to freeze its key pollution emissions at 2005 levels, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Environment: Giving Thanks For Oil and OPEC We should acknowledge that our food production system and every other aspect of our lives are utterly dependent on fossil fuels. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Food bowl dries, prices stay high - Melbourne Herald Sun Australia. IGHER food prices will stay because of more frequent and severe drought due to global warming, a report has found. Prices for fresh fruit and vegetables will rise sharply every two to four years instead of once a decade if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, it says. |
22nd November 2007 |
| New research shows climate change triggers wars and population decline Climate change may be one of the most significant threats facing humankind. A new study shows that long-term climate change may ultimately lead to wars and population decline. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Ann Carlson: Where's the Press? - HuffingtonPost Why is the press largely ignoring how presidential candidates would confront climate change, the most important environmental issue the world has ever faced? |
22nd November 2007 |
| Spy comes in from cold to save planet - Daily Telegraph Australia: He is the spy who came in from the cold, endured the heat, experienced the chill and was burned in the process. Little wonder Lance Collins is pushing the cause of climate change. Lt-Col Collins, head of intelligence operations for General Peter Cosgrove during the East Timor conflict, triggered a series of high-level Government inquiries three years ago with explosive claims about a series of failures by Australia's spy agencies. Now he is forecasting that unless global warming and the effects of climate change are addressed, Australia and the Asian region face a bleak future in which countries will go to war over dwindling resources, including the nation's most precious commodity - water. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Car Crazy - Energy Bulletin I'm gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the roadEnergy Bulletin. “Just consider the scale of the potential problem-for instance, the effect on global warming of seven hundred and fifty million more cars in India and China ... |
22nd November 2007 |
| Florida energy panel backs emissions cuts - EARTHtimes.org The Florida Energy Commission Monday voted to advise the state Legislature to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050. |
22nd November 2007 |
| Leading article: An immense challenge, but a tepid response - The Independent Gordon Brown made his first major speech on climate change as Prime Minister yesterday. It has been a long time coming. That fact is all the more strange considering what he had to say. Global warming, he said, constituted "an immense challenge to the world". The cost of doing nothing would be an economic crisis as bad as the Great Depression plus a world war rolled into one. Nothing less was needed than a fourth industrial revolution, on a par with those provoked by the steam engine, the internal combustion engine and the microprocessor in turn. The rhetoric is strong but the actions are puny. If green speeches by political leaders were enough, said Friends of the Earth, climate change would have been solved many years ago. The sad truth is that on the really big issues, Britain is taking a lead only in the production of hot air rather than in its reduction. |
21st November 2007 |
| NASA stonewalls another US agency that wants to launch DSCOVR - DeSmogBlog It has now been several months since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) formally requested that NASA transfer to them all DSVOVR assets - including of course the spacecraft itself. The response from NASA? Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Incredibly, NASA has so far completely ignored colleagues from another US government agency that want to make use of a $100 million spacecraft that NASA themselves stated last year they have no intention of launching. For those new to this Desmog Blog investigative series, the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR )is a fully completed spacecraft, that if launched, would almost immediately lay to rest any remaining legitimate debate regarding the origins of global climate change. |
21st November 2007 |
| Cranberries are headed north - The Christian Science Monitor Farmers see signs that the climate-sensitive cold-loving berries are shifting their range into Canada. Blueberries, too. What's to be done? |
21st November 2007 |
| Primroses flower in warm autumn - BBC News BBC Scotland continues to record unusual weather events to illustrate possible climate change. |
21st November 2007 |
| Autumn Rain Down 90 Percent in China Rice Belt - Planet Ark BEIJING - Large areas of south China are suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows, state media said on Tuesday. |
21st November 2007 |
| Income to dwarf energy price rises - Sydney Morning Herald Australia: A coming report on economic modelling undertaken by the Centre for Policy Studies at Monash University and others for the Climate Institute estimates the likely rises in energy prices needed to help us achieve a 60 per cent decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It finds that, by 2050, the price of petrol may need to rise by 56 per cent more than prices in general. Most of this increase would occur before 2020. The retail price of electricity may need to rise by 46 per cent more than prices generally by 2050. And the price of natural gas to households may need to rise by 72 per cent above prices generally over the same period. That's the kind of bad news no pollie has wanted to touch before the election. But here, paradoxically, is the good news: even so, the cost of energy to households is expected to become more affordable over the years, not less. At present, the cost of the energy it buys - mainly electricity, gas and petrol - accounts for more than 6 per cent of the average household's income. It's projected that, by 2050, this will have fallen to a bit less than 4 per cent. How is this possible? It's possible because, over the period to 2050, the average household's income is expected to grow by about 155 per cent more than general inflation. And people do not tend to use a lot more energy as their incomes rise over time. The modelling suggests that, should no action be taken to fight climate change, the share of households' income devoted to buying energy would fall from more than 6 per cent to just 2.5 per cent by 2050. Instead, action to halt climate change would mean it fell only to a bit less than 4 per cent. |
21st November 2007 |
| Proposal: Suck Carbon Dioxide Out of the Air - LiveScience.com Emerging technologies could pull carbon dioxide straight from the air to potentially attack global warming directly. |
21st November 2007 |
| Carbonrally: My carbon footprint's smaller than yours - CNET Go tribal on global warming. New Web site offers way for individuals or teams to track how small changes affect greenhouse gas emissions. Here's how it works. The company behind Carbonrally, Carbon Challenge, regularly posts a "challenge" that translates into a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing filtered tap water over bottled water, for example, translates into reducing 3 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a week. (No plastic bottles involved.) Individuals or teams can take up the challenge. |
21st November 2007 |
| A cause to diet for - Guardian Unlimited Tea, coffee, wine and soya are off the menu but cabbage pie is on as residents in the ancient kingdom of Fife take part in an experiment to reduce their carbon footprint by eating only local produce. By Gordon Cairns |
21st November 2007 |
| Environment: How a Community Is Saving Itself and the Environment - AlterNet Our current economic model has created nothing but poverty and pollution for the South Bronx. But the visionary folks there have a different model that will change all that. |
21st November 2007 |
| OPEC joins Bush, Gingrich, and Lomborg in climate technology strategy - Gristmill Yes, OPEC is now "pledging $750 million for research into climate change technology" (while opposing a cap-and-trade system). [Note to President Bush, Newt Gingrich, and Bjørn Lomborg -- it ain't a good sign when your climate strategy is the same as OPEC's.] OPEC, however, seems a tad confused on just what a technology-based strategy could do for oil: OPEC is worried that a new international accord could cramp fast-growing Middle East economies, where oil use is rising more than 4 percent a year. And the oil cartel is concerned that a broader cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions could place heavy costs of petroleum products and reduce consumption. |
21st November 2007 |
| U.N. climate recap adds heat to '08 race - The Christian Science Monitor The US presidential candidates are focusing their position on global warming, the second-most-important issue for independent voters. |
21st November 2007 |
| Environment: Climate Change: The Worst Can Still Be Avoided - AlterNet The latest news from the IPCC gives us hope, but only if we act now. |
21st November 2007 |
| Australia's Rudd will sign Kyoto pact if wins vote - AlertNet Australia's Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd said on Monday he would lead his country's delegation to December's Bali climate summit and sign the Kyoto pact if he wins power at this weekend's parliamentary elections. Rudd, strongly leading conservative prime minister and Kyoto critic John Howard in polls, said the fight against catastrophic climate shift would be his top priority if he won on Nov. 24. |
20th November 2007 |
| Britain to study carbon cuts as deep as 80 percent - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Jeremy Lovell LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Britain will study whether it can commit to cutting its carbon emissions by as much as 80 percent by 2050, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday in ... See also: Climate change speech: reaction - BBC News Environmental campaigners give their reaction to Gordon Brown's first speech on the environment as prime minister. |
20th November 2007 |
| Oil Officials See Limit Looming on Production - Rigzone A growing number of oil-industry chieftains are endorsing an idea long deemed fringe: The world is approaching a practical limit to the number of barrels of crude oil that can be pumped every day. |
20th November 2007 |
| Majority of drivers don't think speeding increases emissions: poll - CNews TORONTO - A new report finds that most Canadians admit to speeding, but don't believe their driving habits contribute to climate change. Almost half of the drivers that were polled for the Transport Canada study said they didn't think speeding had a harmful impact on the environment. |
20th November 2007 |
| Food & agriculture - Nov 19 - Energy Bulletin Staff, . More will be asked of us: Revisiting 100 million farmers Forbes: Food vs fuel Fuel costs give ag a chill Farmer of the Year candidate doesn't use muck Climate a threat to farming and food supply Africa: Food production to halve by 2020 |
20th November 2007 |
| Climate Report Revives "Dangerous" Change Dispute - Planet Ark OSLO - Governments have promised to try to avert "dangerous" climate change expected to bring about rising seas, droughts and floods, but have yet to agree on a common definition of where the danger starts. |
20th November 2007 |
| A litmus test for good economic policy - Gristmill Much of the debate around the big issues of our day -- from energy to healthcare -- hinges on whether one is "pro-market" or "pro-government," with Cato and the Wall Street Journal op-ed page lining up on one side and any number of PIRGs on the other. Unfortunately, neither side appears to understand the pro-market position. Herewith, my attempt to add a bit more rigor to the debate. So what does a market look like? At the most basic level, a market is defined by its characteristics. There are various definitions out there, but they all come down to the same basic tests ... |
20th November 2007 |
| MIT sees acceleration in US greenhouse emissions - PhysOrg U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could grow more quickly in the next 50 years than in the previous half-century, and technological change may cause increased emissions rather than control them, according to a new study by an MIT economist and his colleague. |
20th November 2007 |
| State defends global-warming law from automakers - San Francisco Chronicle The legal battle over global warming moved Monday to the Central Valley, where the auto industry tried to persuade a federal judge that California's attempt to limit car emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is beyond its authority. |
20th November 2007 |
| Africa "Forgotten Continent" in Climate Fight - Planet Ark OSLO - Africa is the "forgotten continent" in the fight against climate change and needs help to cope with projected water shortages and declining crop yields, the UN's top climate change official said on Sunday. |
20th November 2007 |
| Climate Report Revives "Dangerous" Change Dispute - Planet Ark OSLO - Governments have promised to try to avert "dangerous" climate change expected to bring about rising seas, droughts and floods, but have yet to agree on a common definition of where the danger starts. |
20th November 2007 |
| Germany at Odds With UK on Renewable Goals - Planet Ark LONDON - Germany wants European states to meet their own renewable energy targets as much as possible, rather than pay other countries to do it for them, deputy environment minister Matthias Machnig said. |
20th November 2007 |
| Top Quotes from the UN's Global Warming Report - DeSmogBlog With everyone being so busy all the time, I thought I would give a quick snapshot of the key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) final report that was released on Saturday after a week of negotiations by government officials from around the world. This is the final report of the IPCC and probably the most valuable, as it will be used as a key reference documents at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting that will be held in Bali, Indonesia at the beginning of December. At the meeting in Bali government leaders will begin negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. |
20th November 2007 |
| A world dying, but can we unite to save it? - The Independent Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world's governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process - thought to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years - is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change worse. |
19th November 2007 |
| Rich nations quarrel ahead of new Kyoto bid - Financial Times Rich countries are already squabbling over the conclusions to be drawn from the latest international report summarising the key scientific messages on climate change ahead of a critical meeting to discuss a successor to the Kyoto treaty. |
19th November 2007 |
| Tackling the fossil fuel juggernaut - BBC News The BBC's Richard Black examines ways societies could adapt to future climate change impacts, as well as curbing emissions. |
19th November 2007 |
| B.C. set to introduce first laws to ensure emissions will be cut as promised - CNews VICTORIA - British Columbians will see legislation tabled this week legally enshrining Premier Gordon Campbell's ambitious commitment to combat climate change, which he touts as a first in Canada. |
19th November 2007 |
| Groundwater lost to rising sea levels greater than thought: study - Raw Story Rising sea levels could swallow up to 40 percent more potable groundwater than previously thought because of tricks of topography, a new study has found. Many current predictions about the impact of global warming look at how much land would be lost to rising sea levels. But researchers at Ohio State University have found that in many coastal regions sea water will leach into the water table and contaminate groundwater well beyond the shoreline. |
19th November 2007 |
| Climate 'will undo Asian success' - BBC News A warmer world will reverse decades of social and economic progress across Asia, a report claims. |
19th November 2007 |
| PM sets carbon emissions cut at 60% by 2050 - Guardian Unlimited Gordon Brown will today make his first environment speech as prime minister, promising that he is willing to raise the British target to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050 |
19th November 2007 |
| We'll fight you all the way, airlines warn EU over carbon-trading plans - Guardian Unlimited · Aviation industry says 170 countries oppose move · US threatens trade dispute and backs role of UN body |
19th November 2007 |
| US Midwest Governors Sign Climate Change Accord - Planet Ark MILWAUKEE - Midwest US states signed agreements on Thursday designed to cut greenhouse gases, promote energy conservation and fight global warming. |
19th November 2007 |
| Here it is: the future of the world, in 23 pages - The Independent It is about the size and weight of a theatre programme and when it was published in Valencia, Spain, at the weekend, the first eagerly grabbed copies were held together by a hastily punched staple. Yet these 23 pages are crucial for the future of the world. |
19th November 2007 |
| Edwards derides lobbyists in blocking action on climate change - International Herald Tribune LOS ANGELES: On a day when a U.N. panel warned of growing peril from climate change, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards accused the oil and gas industry of deploying hundreds of lobbyists to Washington to resist efforts to free the nation from its dependence on fossil fuels. |
19th November 2007 |
| JOHN HOWARD has always been shrewd but, famously, he has also had ... - Sydney Morning Herald Australia. JOHN HOWARD has always been shrewd but, famously, he has also had luck on his side at critical moments. His luck seems to have finally exhausted itself. Today's Herald/Nielsen poll shows the Liberal Party is likely to lose a jewel that has been clutched close to the breast of Australian conservative politics since it was created - Malcolm Turnbull's seat of Wentworth. Why? Because of an extraordinarily strong performance by the Greens, whose share of the primary vote of 17 per cent makes them kingmakers in Wentworth. |
19th November 2007 |
| IPCC Synthesis Report Download the Summary for Policymakers of the AR4 Synthesis Report UN calls for joint climate effort - BBC United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says a new report on climate change has set the stage for a real breakthrough in tackling the issue. IPCC to warn of 'abrupt' warming - BBC News Climate change may bring "abrupt and irreversible" impacts, the UN's climate advisory panel is set to announce. World on the verge of climate 'catastrophe': UN chief - The Times of India PARIS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on Saturday for urgent action on global warming, warning the world is on the verge of a catastrophe, as top scientists were due to issue a new report on climate change for policymakers. UN says new report must spur climate change action - Guardian Unlimited Governments must do more to fight global warming, spurred by a new U.N. scientific report and damage to nature that is already as frightening as science fiction, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday. |
17th November 2007 |
| 'Help save us from global warming disaster' Science fiction now science prediction? - Tenerife News London lies devastated. Many thousands are dead and millions are homeless after a freak storm floods the city. The Millenium Wheel no longer turns as it is half submerged under water. Big Ben can only peep its head above the deluge. Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, the Docklands. All have fallen victim to the biggest natural catastrophe the earth has ever seen. Fortunately for us, this is not reality but a dramatic scene from the latest disaster movie Flood. Yet two Tenerife-based entrepreneurs have absolutely no doubt that one day, this will really happen - and they fear that day will come much sooner than many people think. | 17th November 2007 |
| CO2 emissions may affect flowering plants - University Daily Kansan It's basic, junior-high science. Carbon dioxide plus water, plus sunlight equals healthy, happy plants. So theoretically, increased amounts of CO2 in the air would yield super plants. Researchers in the department of geography are concerned now. Nate Brunsell, assistant professor of geography, said that plants would have to take in more water to counter the increased amounts of CO2. “You also have a food security issue. If we heat things up and lose more water, what are farmers going to do?” Brunsell said. “Change crops? Use more water? When you use more water for agriculture, then there is less for municipal and recreation uses.” | 17th November 2007 |
| Environment: We Can't Shop Our Way to Safety - Alternet Concerned with toxic chemicals, more people are buying products with labels like "organic," "green," and "natural." But a consumerist response to environmental threats is not only inadequate, it is dangerous. | 17th November 2007 |
| Americans Want U.S. to Lead Climate Change Battle - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The vast majority of people in the United States believe climate change is a reality and want their government to act in order to curb pollution, according to a poll by Harris Interactive. 71 per cent of respondents believe the theory explaining global warming is true, and 81 per cent think the U.S.—as the world’s leading industrial country—needs to set the lead when it comes to controlling greenhouse gases. | 17th November 2007 |
| Canada's Harper and White House Soon All Alone in anti-Kyoto Land - DeSmogBlog With Australian PM John Howard set to be dethroned in the Nov. 24th Australian election, Canada's Conservative Government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and President George W Bush will lose their last key ally in their anti-Kyoto Protocol battle.The United States and Australia never ratified the Kyoto agreement in the first place and picked up a key ally in Canada when the right-wing Conservative government took power 2 years ago. The Conservative party quickly joined ranks with the US and Australia stating that Kyoto targets could never be met and they preferred a "Made in Canada" approach to climate change.Such sentiments were not surprising considering that it was only five years ago that Prime Minister Harper claimed Kyoto was a "job-killing," "economy destroying" "socialist scheme."Finding themselves all alone on the world stage is bad news, but its the timing of the loss ... [...perhaps they read this? Global warming winner? Bet on Canada - Washington Times - now let's be sure that we understand that 'winner' is a relative term meaning only that you did better than the next guy - it's not an absolute term - the last inhabitant of Easter Island was supposedly 'the winner' for all the good it did him...] | 17th November 2007 |
| 1,100 feared dead as cyclone cuts trail of destruction through Bangladesh - Guardian Unlimited Powerful cyclone kills more than 1,000 and causes hundreds of thousands to flee as homes destroyed See also: In pictures: Cyclone's aftermath - BBC News | 17th November 2007 |
| Big Tobacco then, Global Warming Now - DeSmogBlog Here's an October 1995 internal memo I came across written by someone at tobacco giant Philip Morris outlining all the "public policy grants" and the totals received by US think tanks and associations. More than a few of the familiar names involved in the industry-funded war on climate science appear on this list, including:Competitive Enterprise Institute - $200,000Frontiers of Freedom - $10,000Heartland Institute - $65,000Heritage Foundation - $50,000Hudson Institute - $25,000National Center for Policy Analysis - $60,000National Center for Public Policy Research - $50,000 National Association of Manufacturers - $130,000 Reason Foundation - $25,000 Who wants to bet this money wasn't for anti-smoking campaigns? | 16th November 2007 |
| Greenpeace blocks shipment of Indonesian palm oil - AlertNet Greenpeace has blocked a tanker carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of palm oil from leaving an Indonesian port to protest against forest destruction blamed on plantations, the environmental group said on Thursday. | 16th November 2007 |
| Biofuels bonanza facing 'crash' - BBC News The biofuels bonanza will crash unless producers show their crops have been produced responsibly, a UN chief warns. | 16th November 2007 |
| The heat is on - Nature At December's climate-change meeting, everyone can agree on one thing: it is make-or-break time. Next month's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, is charged with drawing up a clear and convincing road map that will lead to a robust international climate-change agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. That is a momentous challenge but, given the right approach from participants, not an insurmountable one. | 16th November 2007 |
| Traffic control systems - PhysOrg Traffic flow accounts for as much as one-third of global energy consumption. However, unconventional changes in managing traffic flow could significantly reduce harmful CO2 emissions. ETH Zurich Professor for Sociology, Dirk Helbing, has developed a self-organised control system for traffic lights that could improve vehicular traffic flow by up to 95 percent. | 16th November 2007 |
| Can Bangladesh cope with cyclone? - BBC News As Bangladesh braces itself for one of the biggest cyclones in years, Alastair Lawson asks whether the country is prepared. | 16th November 2007 |
| Act now on climate change, says UN official - Guardian Unlimited · 'Deep trouble' will follow any failure to agree in Bali · Negotiator sees continued role for all forms of energy | 16th November 2007 |
| Forests damaged by Hurricane Katrina become major carbon source - PhysOrg Researchers led by biologist Jeffrey Chambers of Tulane University have determined that the losses inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on Gulf Coast forest trees are enough to cancel out a year`s worth of new tree biomass (trunks, branches and foliage) growth in other parts of the country. | 16th November 2007 |
| BBC - Climate science: Sceptical about bias - DeSmogBlog Great article by the BBC today on the so-called climate change "skeptics."Environmental correspondent, Richard Black invited sceptics to put their cards on the table, and to send him documentation or other firm evidence of "research bias" that is so often a complaint by the flat-earthers. As Black explains, he ...anticipated drowning in a torrent of accusations of research grants turned down, membership of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) denied, scientific papers refused by journals, job applications refused, and invitations to speak at conferences drying up."The resulting claims Black received were less than impressive ... | 16th November 2007 |
| Climate Change Evident Near Conference - Los Angeles Times VALENCIA, Spain -- Negotiators working on a landmark global warming report don't need to go far to see the effects of climate change: The evidence is all around the Mediterranean resort where they are meeting. Sea water threatens to inundate rice paddies in use since Spain was an Arab kingdom in the eighth century. Seashore hotels dredge sand from the seabed to fill in eroding beaches. Stinging jellyfish are proliferating in the warmer water, plaguing swimmers. Bird migrations have altered. | 16th November 2007 |
| UN Climate Talks Make Slow Progress - Planet Ark VALENCIA, Spain - Delegates at crucial UN talks on the causes and effects of global climate change are making slow progress with an agreement still some way off, sources close to the discussions said on Thursday. | 16th November 2007 |
| US Appeals Court Orders New Fuel Economy Standards - Planet Ark LOS ANGELES - A US appeals court Thursday ordered the federal highway commission to formulate new fuel economy standards for upcoming models of light trucks to take into account the environmental impact of their emissions. | 16th November 2007 |
| Why Aren't We Panicking? - Across the Aisle After reading the new report on global climate change just released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security one might be inclined to ask, am I afraid? But afraid is such an insufficient word. A better question is, am I panicked? And if your answer is no, then you need to ask why not? | 15th November 2007 |
| UN Foundation Report: Leading Industrial Countries Could Reduce Global Warming Carbon Levels to Near What is Needed, ... - Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance Improvements would pay for themselves in just three to five years, get close to a carbon level that would avert most serious climate effects; new business and non-profit partnership will work to promote implementation. | 15th November 2007 |
| First-ever 'State of the Carbon Cycle Report' finds troubling imbalance The first State of the Carbon Cycle Report for North America, released online this week by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, finds the continent`s carbon budget increasingly overwhelmed by human-caused emissions. North American sources release nearly 2 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year, mostly as carbon dioxide. | 15th November 2007 |
| Panel negotiates climate 'synthesis report' - Nature.com The IPCC has issued three scientific reports in the past year, and its fourth 'synthesis report' is scheduled for release on Saturday. The report aims to condense the three volumes � nearly 2,800 pages � into roughly 100 pages for policy-makers and government delegates who will be gathering in Bali, Indonesia, next month for the latest round of global-warming treaty talks. See also: Scientists: IPCC Research Thorough but Dated - TechNewsWorld | 15th November 2007 |
| Power plants' CO2 levels revealed - BBC News A website offering the first global inventory of CO2 emissions from 50,000 power stations goes online. | 15th November 2007 |
| Soybean prices jump along with oil - AP via Yahoo! News Soybean prices surged Wednesday as crude oil and gasoline prices climbed, making fuels such as soybean oil-based biodiesel more attractive as an alternative. | 15th November 2007 |
| Why bother going green? - New Scientist Surely, reducing your personal carbon footprint won't help save the planet. | 15th November 2007 |
| Flocks of 'lost' auks spark climate change fears - The Independent Record-breaking sightings of vast flocks of little auks in Britain have prompted new concerns over the impact of climate change on the migration patterns of bird species. The record for the size of flock has been broken twice in four days, according to the National Trust, with 18,000 of the tiny black-and-white seabirds recorded around the Farne Islands off Northumberland last week - 7,000 more than the previous record set off Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, in 1995. But even this vast gathering was dwarfed by the flock spotted there on Sunday when 29,000 little auks were seen. | 15th November 2007 |
| How climate change will impact the Earth - USA Today How climate change is expected to affect the Earth in the 21st century. | 15th November 2007 |
| Climate change accelerating, top scientists warn - ABC Online Two eminent scientists are sounding dire warnings about the intensity and speed of climate change. A former head of the CSIRO's atmospheric research unit is warning that it will only be a couple of years before we will see stark evidence of global warming. |
15th November 2007 |
| The big thirst: The great American water crisis - Independent The US drought is now so acute that, in some southern communities, the water supply is cut off for 21 hours a day. Leonard Doyle reports from Chattanooga, Tennessee, on a once-lush region where the American dream has been reduced to a single four-letter word: rain. | 15th November 2007 |
| The IPCC: As good as it gets - BBC News How well does the global climate panel work? A viewpoint from Professor Martin Parry, Co-chair of IPCC Working Group II. | 14th November 2007 |
| Sowing the seeds of farming's future - BBC News Global food stocks are running low and rich nations should not take security of supplies for granted. | 14th November 2007 |
| Americans believe US must lead fight - France24 About three-quarters of Americans believe the United States must lead the way in controlling greenhouse gases and pollution to fight global warming, a poll showed Tuesday. Seventy-one percent of 1,052 adults surveyed by the Harris Interactive polling service said global warming was already affecting the planet. And eight in 10 of those polled said that as the world's leading industrial nation, the United States should take the lead in combatting the problem. | 14th November 2007 |
| Study sees potential for acceleration in U.S. emissions - PhysOrg U.S. greenhouse gas emissions could grow more quickly in the next 50 years than in the previous half-century, even with technological advances and current energy-saving efforts, according to a new study by MIT's Richard Eckaus, the Ford International Professor of Economics, emeritus, and his co-author, Ian Sue Wing (Ph.D. 2001). | 14th November 2007 |
| EU wants tougher plane laws - BBC News The EU parliament wants to tighten emissions targets for planes, as part of plans to cut greenhouse gases. | 14th November 2007 |
| Analysis: Poll finds energy tax support - EARTHtimes.org Not only does the world's population feel increasingly concerned about climate change, but a recent survey finds a majority of individuals, both in and out of developed countries, say they are willing to lighten their wallets to stop the warming trend. The results demonstrate an increasing willingness to support clean-energy initiatives, even if it means forking over extra cash. The majority of individuals polled in every country said they would support a tax on greenhouse-gas emitting energy sources, like oil or coal, if the revenue went to the development of more efficient and environmentally friendly energy technologies. Overall, more than three out of four, 77 percent, of those polled said they would back such a proposal. | 14th November 2007 |
| Environment: Democratic Leaders Poised to Sabotage Hope for Renewable Energy Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid said that they would jettison the renewable energy provisions in both the House and Senate versions of the 2007 energy bill in the interest of passing a bill before the Thanksgiving. | 14th November 2007 |
| Car industry balks at emission targets - BBC News The automotive industry and drivers must all do all they can to reduce emissions from cars, says European policy makers. | 14th November 2007 |
| Population control 'needs debate' - BBC News A Lib Dem Euro MP warns that mankind is "swamping" the earth like a "virus" and calls for talks on population control. | 14th November 2007 |
| The road to enlightenment - Guardian Unlimited 70% of cuts in emissions will need to be made at local level. Have councils woken up to the challenges ahead? | 14th November 2007 |
| Ice age imprint found on cod DNA - EurekAlert! An international team of researchers, led by the University of Sheffield, has demonstrated how Atlantic cod responded to past natural climate extremes. The new research could help in determining cods vulnerability to future global warming. | 14th November 2007 |
| Climate Change Ups War Risk in Many States - Report - Planet Ark LONDON - Climate change will put half the world's countries at risk of conflict or serious political instability, a report said on Tuesday, making the world more unstable unless nations and communities consider problems now. | 14th November 2007 |
| Winter Warmth to Hit Much of US Mid-Dec - Planet Ark NEW YORK - Temperatures in the main US heating markets in the Midwest and the Northeast will rise to above normal from mid-December after a brief time of lower-than-normal readings, private weather forecaster AccuWeather predicted Tuesday. | 14th November 2007 |
| Environment: How the Environmental Movement Can Redefine Globalization - Alternet We need to promote the globalization of mass movements and the globalization of sharing ideas so that communities can help each other achieve self-reliance. | 14th November 2007 |
| NASA Sees Arctic Ocean Circulation Do an About-Face - PhysOrg A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming. | 14th November 2007 |
| Independent Québec - Gristmill The big news north of the (U.S.) border is that Québec's government has decided that there is no future in corn ethanol. As explained in an article posted on Canada's Cyberpresse website, back in May 2005 Québec's then Minister for Agriculture, Yvon Vallières, gave a green light, "for obvious economic and ecological reasons," to the construction of the first plant to manufacture ethanol from corn kernels, in the town of Varennes. However, during an emission of the Enquête television program (click to view) on Radio-Canada last Thursday evening, Québec's Minister for Natural Resources, Claude Béchard, promised that the 120-million-litre-per year Varennes plant would be the first and the last of its kind. See also: No More German Biodiesel Plants Likely to be Built - Planet Ark | 14th November 2007 |
| Drought bites hard at Aussie rice crop - UPI Drought has all but ruined the Australian rice crop in the main growing area of New South Wales. "We expect about 15,000 metric tons to be grown this year, against the usual 1.2 million tons," said Gary Helou, chief executive of the Sunrice company. | 13th November 2007 |
| Unravelling the sceptics - BBC News What exactly do "climate sceptics" believe? See also: Climate scepticism: The top 10 - BBC News | 13th November 2007 |
| China 'will agree to cut its carbon emissions' - Independent China, now the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitter, will eventually agree to cut its soaring carbon dioxide emissions, one of the country's leading environmentalists forecast yesterday ? but only on the basis of a deal with the United States and the rest of the developed world. |
13th November 2007 |
| Couple kick off walk from Vancouver to San Diego with climate change message - CNews VANCOUVER - A couple from Vermont kicked off a trek to San Diego on Sunday, surrounded by a dozen supporters, in a quest to raise awareness of climate change. | 13th November 2007 |
| A green wave lifts all boats - Gristmill Will the burgeoning "green" economy have a place in it for everyone? To a packed auditorium in Seattle last Wednesday, Van Jones said: It can. And to be successful, it has to. In the chorus of voices against climate change, his message rings true and clear: "We have a chance to connect the people who most need work with the work that most needs to be done." Van Jones is a civil-rights lawyer and founder and executive director of an innovative nonprofit working to ensure that low-income, working poor, and minority youth have access to the coming wave of "green-collar" jobs. | 13th November 2007 |
| World body warns over ocean 'fertilisation' to fix climate change - AFP via Yahoo! News Countries gathered under an international accord on maritime pollution have warned against offbeat experiments to tackle climate change by sowing the sea with chemicals to help soak up airborne carbon dioxide (CO2). | 13th November 2007 |
| Top UN official warns against inaction on climate - Guardian Unlimited The United Nations' top climate official on Monday warned scientists and government officials from some 130 countries that failure to act on climate change while there was time would be "criminally irresponsible." Addressing the U.N.'s climate panel, joint winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, said the message to world leaders was clear. | 13th November 2007 |
| Climate change could threaten a third of the world's wildlife - New Kerala London, Nov.12 : The continuing rise in greenhouse gas emissions could threaten the survival of almost a third of the world's wildlife species, a United Nations report will say this week. | 13th November 2007 |
| The power games that threaten world's last pristine wilderness - Times Online Rival nations are extending their territorial claims as retreating glaciers make Antarctic oil exploration feasible | 13th November 2007 |
| How 'bout investing in Chinese coal? - Gristmill Now that the U.S. housing market has cooled off, American investors are looking to the Chinese coal industry. Another risky proposition, but for different reasons. As China's appetite for coal is booming, American investors and businesses are cashing in. American pension and mutual fund money is being invested in the Chinese coal industry ... "In general, they're doing a very smart thing," said Mike Tian, an analyst with independent investment research company Morningstar. "That's where the money is." |
13th November 2007 |
| Setback for carbon plan - Adelaide Now A SANTOS proposal to build the world's largest carbon storage project in Outback South Australia is likely to be shelved unless it gets $270 million federal funding. | 12th November 2007 |
| Simple carbon tax call - The Australian THE next federal government has been called on to reconsider the option of imposing a simple revenue-neutral carbon tax, rather than creating a complex emissions trading scheme. | 12th November 2007 |
| UN panel to set new path on climate - International Herald Tribune Delegations and scientists from about 145 nations meet Monday in Valencia, Spain, and are expected to draft a report that could increase pressure on countries like the United States and China to make binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. | 12th November 2007 |
| Wind turbine and tidal power in £20m green plan for Westminster - Guardian Unlimited Heritage concern as MPs look at scheme to cut their carbon footprint | 12th November 2007 |
| FEATURE-Scientists strive for pinpoint warming forecasts - AlertNet Source: Reuters By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Moving on from the risk of global warming, scientists are now looking for ways to pinpoint the areas set to be affected by climate change, to help countries plan everything from new crops to hydropower dams. Billion-dollar investments, ranging from irrigation and flood defences to the site of wind farms or ski resorts, could hinge on assessments about how much drier, wetter, windier or warmer a particular area will become. | 12th November 2007 |
| Seas to Absorb Greenhouse Gas, But Food Chain Hit - Planet Ark OSLO - Tiny ocean plankton can reduce global warming by soaking up unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide but their carbon-bloated cells might damage marine food chains, scientists said on Sunday. Experiments in a Norwegian fjord showed that plankton -- small drifting plants or creatures -- could absorb up to 39 percent more carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, in seawater pens mimicking projected climate conditions to 2150. | 12th November 2007 |
| Former Gore advisor warns that global warming could sound death knell for globalization - DeSmogBlog Leon Fuerth of George Washington University in Washington, DC, one of the CSIS report's authors and former national security advisor to Vice-president Al Gore, said globalization could end by 2040 due to climate change, causing nations to abandon the drive toward open borders and lower trade barriers and raise the drawbridge to conserve resources. Elsewhere, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said a 50 per cent rise in energy demand would threaten security and accelerate climate change. But that's okay as it will contribute to “improvement in the quality of life for more than two billion people” in China and India. | 12th November 2007 |
| No choice on tough greenhouse targets: Flannery - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Scientist and conservationist Tim Flannery says Australia will have no choice but to slash greenhouse gas emissions over the next four decades. | 12th November 2007 |
| 100,000 march for climate change action - Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australians in 60 cities and towns have taken to the streets today to ask the major political parties to make a stronger commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. See also: Climate rallies across Australia - BBC News |
11th November 2007 |
| Eating less meat could cut warming - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: What you choose to have for dinner can have a huge impact on the planet, reports Juliette Jowit | 11th November 2007 |
| Three's a crowd - Guardian Unlimited Life style: The more children we have, the more stress we put on an overburdened planet, say campaigners. | 11th November 2007 |
| World Bank calls for more National Happiness - France24 Other countries need to follow Bhutan's lead in promoting Gross National Happiness as a gauge of national wellbeing, a World Bank official told the Himalayan nation's state newspaper. "Bhutan would play an important role in the global effort to address climate change in terms of the way it has thought about the use of forestry and how the constitution protects land use for forestry," the official said. Bhutan has decreed that forest cover should never drop beneath 60 percent of its total land area. |
11th November 2007 |
| Peak Oil - Nov 11 Staff, Energy Bulletin. Megadisasters: Oil Apocalypse on History Channel Nov 13 Independent: peak oil in sight Irish Times: Peak oil meets climate change Gwynne Dyer: After peak oil Connecticut peak oil caucus | 11th November 2007 |
| How China is eating the world - The Independent China's remarkable economic growth is powering the global economy, but can the world afford to keep on supplying its ever-growing demands for food and raw materials? So the outlook is for agricultural, commodity and oil prices to carry on rising. The $100 barrel of oil could be just the start. Bad news for Britain and the West – but worse for poorer peoples. Countries such as Bangladesh with large and growing populations but who are net importers of food will feel the effects badly (on top of dealing with rising sea levels in the Ganges delta). The less developed the economy, the greater the share of food prices in the shopping basket, and thus the bigger the impact on standards of living. In the West, food accounted for about 18 per cent of headline inflation in 2007; in eastern Europe it was 33 per cent, and in the Middle East 52 per cent. Everywhere, and especially in the least-developed regions, there will be a regressive redistribution of income, from the very poorest to the relatively well off, as food accounts for such an overwhelming proportion of the living costs of those at the bottom of the heap. In China that means the rural poor, already a source of anxiety of Beijing as it seeks "balanced" growth. Everywhere, pressure on water supplies and migration will inevitably follow. |
10th November 2007 |
| UN climate report: already out of date? - Inquirer.net Fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize, the UN's top scientific panel on climate change will meet in the Spanish port city of Valencia Monday to finalize a landmark report on global warming and how to avoid its worst ravages. But beneath its newly-won fame, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is under intensifying scrutiny about some of its key processes. Some voices, including from within the IPCC itself, fear the panel's grand report will be badly out of date before it is even printed. Others quietly criticize the organization as being too conservative in its appreciation of the climate threat. See also: IPCC: Brace yourselves for a hotter planet - Montreal Gazette |
10th November 2007 |
| Clumsy Media Bias Dwindling, But U.S. Still Behind the U.K. - DeSmogBlog A new paper (attached) by Oxford Research Fellow Max Boykoff (obtained exclusively by DeSmogBlog) shows that phony media balance has almost disappeared in U.S. climate change coverage. But Boykoff's paper also shows an embarrassing difference in the extent and quality of climate change coverage in the United States, compared to coverage in the United Kingdom. For example, he found that between 2003 and 2006, UK papers covered the story three times as often as U.S. papers and were significantly more likely to present it accurately. |
10th November 2007 |
| UN chief makes Antarctica visit - BBC News Ban Ki-moon becomes the first UN head to visit Antarctica, and sees for himself the impact of climate change. |
10th November 2007 |
| Environment: Global Warming After Gore - Alternet It is time for global warming activists to leave behind their focus on the "planetary crisis" and the regulatory-centered agenda and embrace an energetic and inspiring vision that captures people's minds, hearts and votes. |
10th November 2007 |
| Green tax puts extra £1000 on family cars - Times Online Green tax puts extra £1000 on family carsTimes Online, UK. These propositions will have an infinitesmal effect on global warming but will significantly add to costs for the people of our country. ... |
10th November 2007 |
| Chile's San Rafael glacier fast disappearing - PhysOrg Chunks of glacial ice tinkled in whisky glasses as chilled tourists gazed in wonder from their boat at the massive San Rafael glacier and the markers tallying its losing battle against global warming. |
10th November 2007 |
| Global Warming Behind Water Crisis in Northeast China - DeSmog Blog Government officials in China are claiming global warming as the culprit behind massive water shortages in Northeast China. The famous Crescent Moon lake used to be over 10 meters deep, but is now only 1 meter deep as the encroaching desert sucks up the water. The disappearing lake at this point of the Silk Road is the most powerful symbol of an emerging water crisis. China's Water Resources minister, Chen Lei, said recently that an annual water shortage of nearly 40 billion cubic meters in China can be blamed on global warming. "The changes have led to a combination of both frequent drought and flooding." water shortage water crisis china global warming climate change crescent moon lake |
10th November 2007 |
| Mexico Flood Wipes Out Crops - AP via Yahoo! Finance Massive flooding in the southern state of Tabasco practically wiped agricultural crops from citrus to chocolate, threatening the main source of income for about one-third of the state's 2 million people, officials said on Thursday. |
10th November 2007 |
| Unprecedented Obstructionism: EPA Blocks Progress on Global Warming - Center For American Progress Unprecedented Obstructionism: The lengthy delay in ruling on California’s pending waiver request is clearly exceptional. The EPA claimed at first that it lacked the jurisdiction to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, arguing that greenhouse gases did not qualify as air pollutants. The Supreme Court removed this excuse on April 2, 2007, when it ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that the EPA does indeed have the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Despite a clear decision from the nation’s highest court, the EPA continues to stall. See also: New Mexico joins lawsuit against EPA - BizJournals Maine joins Calif. lawsuit over tough auto emission standards - Boston Globe |
10th November 2007 |
| Renewable energy on the ropes - Gristmill If the crushing of expectations were a renewable resource, this Congress is truly on the cutting edge of the clean energy revolution. Apparently, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi met on Thursday morning and decided to move an energy bill that does not include an RPS [see this post]. Or a tax title. No tax title means no extension of the investment tax credit for solar, and no extension of the production tax credit for wind. See also:No coal? OK, then what?: Beware the allure of liquefied natural gas |
10th November 2007 |
| Environment: Biofuels Could Kill More People Than the Iraq War - Alternet If the governments promoting biofuels do not reverse their policies, the humanitarian impact will be greater than that of the Iraq war. |
10th November 2007 |
| Hoax Bacteria Study Tricks Climate Sceptics - Planet Ark OSLO(Reuters Life!) - A hoax scientific study pointing to ocean bacteria as the overwhelming cause of global warming fooled some sceptics on Thursday who doubt growing evidence that human activities are to blame. See also: INTERVIEW: author of spoof paper speaks - Nature |
9th November 2007 |
| Carbon Intervention - Change College The UK Government's draft Climate Change Bill proposes a 60% cut in national net Carbon Dioxide emissions by the year 2050. The big question is: how are we going to do that ? |
9th November 2007 |
| How to stop climate change: the easy way - New Statesman Changing your light bulbs may not be enough to save a single polar bear, but there are things we can do collectively - and easily - that will really make a measurable difference in the battle against global warming. Mark Lynas has a three-part plan. |
9th November 2007 |
| Californians support tax on carbon output - The Sacramento Bee In a sign that Californians may be open to funding the global warming fight, a majority of residents support a carbon tax on businesses and individuals, according to a Field Poll released Thursday. |
9th November 2007 |
| Energy From Hot Rocks - PhysOrg Two UC Davis geologists are taking part in the Iceland Deep Drilling Project, an international effort to learn more about the potential of geothermal energy, or extracting heat from rocks. |
9th November 2007 |
| Israeli researchers say desalinated water harms crops: report - AFP via Yahoo! News Desalinated water can adversely affect crops because of its low mineral content, Israeli researchers were quoted as finding by the Haaretz newspaper on Friday. |
9th November 2007 |
| Farming losses near $1 billion, with no end to drought on way - Miami Herald Florida's record drought has led to nearly $1 billion in agricultural losses, wiping out jobs and diminishing the food supply from Florida to Canada, state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Monday. |
9th November 2007 |
| Surprised gardener grows strawberries in November - UKTV Gardens Signs that the climate is becoming warmer continue as a Suffolk gardener grows strawberries in the winter. |
9th November 2007 |
| Palm oil warning for Indonesia - BBC News Land clearances in Indonesia to cultivate palm oil threaten a "climate bomb", Greenpeace warns. |
9th November 2007 |
| Environment: Preparing for Life After Oil Welcome to the Age of Insuffiency: As oil prices hit new highs and supplies sink, our way of life will drastically change. |
9th November 2007 |
| United States - Nov 8 Staff, Energy Bulletin. Stocks tumble on weak dollar and oil prices (and fear of Chinese shift away from dollar) Seven countries considering abandoning the US dollar In big U.S. energy bill, who will pay? The carbon calculus - if US puts a price tag on carbon Higher pump prices could take $15 billion out of shoppers' wallets |
9th November 2007 |
| Campaign to stop Heathrow expansion - Guardian Unlimited Local Heathrow residents and green campaigners talk about why a third runway at the airport would be an environmental disaster. |
9th November 2007 |
| State sues Bush administration over greenhouse-gas limits - San Francisco Chronicle California took its global-warming dispute with the Bush administration to court Thursday, demanding that the federal government act on a request filed nearly two years ago to let the state limit motor vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases. "California is ready to implement the nation's cleanest standards for vehicle emissions, but we cannot do that until the federal government grants us a waiver allowing us to enforce those standards," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a Sacramento news conference. See also: Ariz., joining Calif. suit, seeks to limit vehicle CO2 emissions - Arizona Daily Star |
9th November 2007 |
| WTF happened to a 'new direction'? - Gristmill By David RobertsBarack Obama is ticking me off. First he opportunistically attacks Clinton for not being enthusiastic enough in her support for corn ethanol -- which he knows perfectly well is an environmental dead end. Then ... this: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he does not support mining reform legislation that recently passed the House of Representatives and would work to find a compromise that is more friendly to the mining industry. "The legislation that has been proposed places a significant burden on the mining industry and could have a significant impact on jobs (in rural Nevada) given the difficulties the industry is already facing in maintaining its operations," Obama said during a conference call with Nevada reporters discussing his platform for rural Nevada. |
9th November 2007 |
| Did we call it or what - RealClimate Steve Milloy has let fly with the results of his twisted survey of climate scientists, pretty much as we expected. It's not worth analyzing in any great depth, I'm sure we all have better ways to spend our time, but one tidbit jumped out at me. The first question of the survey was Which best describes the reason(s) for climate change?. The survey offered a choice between human activity or natural variation, or some combination of the two. How to answer this? Before a few decades ago, natural variability was the right answer, but since about 1970, human activity has taken over. |
9th November 2007 |
| Study says Arctic lakes source of prehistoric methane - Arctic Sounder A team of scientists led by a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has identified a new likely source of a spike in atmospheric methane coming out of the North during the end of the last Ice Age. Methane bubbling from Arctic lakes could have been responsible for up to 87 percent of that methane spike, said researcher Katey Walter, lead author of a report printed in the Oct. 26 issue of Science magazine. |
9th November 2007 |
| Brown faces battle on emissions targets - The Independent Gordon Brown is facing a tough parliamentary battle over the Government's ground-breaking Climate Change Bill amid growing pressure to strengthen planned targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. |
9th November 2007 |
| In Search of a New Kyoto - BBC News In a special BBC WS One Planet debate, we bring together four people at the heart of their governments¿ response to climate change ¿ from the USA, Indonesia, Brazil and the UK. |
9th November 2007 |
| Environment: Can Green Jobs Save the American Middle Class? - AlterNet While the traditional economic outlook is bleak, the green economy is taking shape. |
9th November 2007 |
| Doctors sick of inaction - Melbourne Herald Sun A GROUP of doctors is calling on voters to consider global warming on election day because of the health threat it poses. Doctors for Environment Australia accuse politicians of ignoring the health effects of climate change. They are paying for a campaign to raise awareness of the subject, and are taking out a half-page advertisement in a national newspaper today. |
9th November 2007 |
| Energy outlook puts China in pole position - Guardian Unlimited China will overtake the US as the world's top energy consumer after 2010 as global energy demand is set to jump by 55% over the next 23 years, the International Energy Agency said today. By Angela Balakrishnan . See also: China 'to be largest energy user' - BBC News Energy needs 'to grow inexorably' - BBC News Switch to coal threatens to worsen global warming - New Scientist |
8th November 2007 |
| Health toll of climate change seen as ethical crisis - PhysOrg The public health costs of global climate change are likely to be the greatest in those parts of the world that have contributed least to the problem, posing a significant ethical dilemma for the developed world, according to a new study. |
8th November 2007 |
| The western appetite for biofuels is causing starvation in the poor world - Guardian Developing nations are being pushed to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to political expediency |
8th November 2007 |
| Scientists enhance Mother Nature's carbon handling mechanism - PhysOrg Taking a page from Nature herself, a team of researchers developed a method to enhance removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and place it in the Earth's oceans for storage. |
8th November 2007 |
| Climate change is delaying spring in some areas - New Scientist Contrary to expectations, plants in the southern US are blooming later in the year as the climate warms |
8th November 2007 |
| EcoSecurities dives on delayed carbon credits - Financial Times Shares in the carbon trading specialist EcoSecurities lost nearly half their value on Tuesday as the company admitted a large proportion of its planned carbon credits would not materialise. |
8th November 2007 |
| China opposes binding emissions targets - Financial Times China is firmly opposed to any inclusion of binding targets for reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions in a planned new international pact to fight global warming, the European parliament's climate change committee said on Wednesday. |
8th November 2007 |
| Germany defeats EU Commission in landmark emissions ruling - EARTHtimes.org The European Union's second-highest court ruled Wednesday that member states are allowed under current rules to change their national greenhouse-gas emissions quotas. In a landmark verdict that could trigger further legal challenges to the system, the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance (CFI) ruled that the European Commission - the EU executive - had no reason to block a German law allowing the state to redistribute emissions quotas for carbon dioxide (CO2) after they had been allocated. |
8th November 2007 |
| Big food companies accused of risking climate catastrophe - Guardian Unlimited The rush to palm oil and biofuels threatens to release 14 billion tonnes of carbon from Indonesia's peatlands |
8th November 2007 |
| Humpback whales seen in Arctic - The West Australian Endangered humpback and fin whales swam hundreds of kilometres north of their usual habitat this northern summer. Environmentalists say it is another sign of the effects of global warming and the shifting Arctic ecosystem. |
7th November 2007 |
| Humanity is the greatest challenge - BBC News It is time to take radical action to curb rising population and consumption levels, or face "unspeakable consequences". |
7th November 2007 |
| Drought adds to pressure on beer price - The West Australian The drought and world barley prices are adding further pressure on the cost of beer, as breweries brace for further production cost increases early next year. |
7th November 2007 |
| Britain Sets Out Climate Bills, Deemed Conflicting - Planet Ark LONDON - The British government, a major advocate of international climate change action, will bring forward within weeks three climate related pieces of legislation that environmentalists say are contradictory. See also: Bills pave way for nuclear power - BBC News UK needs 80% emissions cuts report warns - Environmental Data Interactive |
7th November 2007 |
| Environment: How to Hold Corporations Accountable - Alternet When the system doesn't allow people to protect themselves from corporate harm to their communities, it is time to change the system. Thomas Linzey thinks of himself as more than just a lawyer. A co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), Linzey is a practicing attorney, committed to the idea that change happens at the grassroots. Much of his activism occurs through CELDF's "Democracy Schools," an innovative curriculum that encourages people to go beyond the single issue they are working on to think of their struggle as part of a larger fight against corporate power. The schools prompt citizens to question basic assumptions behind our legal system. Linzey and his colleagues encourage communities to create local constitutions, or "home-rule charters," enumerating the rights of local citizens and backing up those rights with enforceable laws. |
7th November 2007 |
| The political climate is changing: Part I - Gristmill This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. In addition to his Oscar and Nobel Prize, Al Gore may be in line for the title of Prognosticator of the Year. Last January while I was attending his training program in Nashville, Gore predicted that by the time of the 2008 presidential election, climate change would be the hottest issue in the race. That prediction hasn't come true yet, but things are moving that way. Climate change is emerging like a tropical storm building to Category 5. It may become the issue that most clearly defines the candidates' courage, vision, ability to unify the nation, and willingness to be honest with the American people. |
7th November 2007 |
| Inside the Climate Change Talks - BBC News Mike Williams explores the complex web of negotiations to find a successor to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. |
7th November 2007 |
| Is the impact of climate change underestimated? - BBC News Have climate scientists failed to tell us how bad the situation is to avoid being branded "alarmists"? |
7th November 2007 |
| To Slow Amazon Fires, Scientists Light Their Own - NPR A few months ago, a team of scientists walked into a stretch of Amazon forest and purposely burned it. The researchers want to understand how burning forests contribute to climate change -- and they want to know how to slow or stop the fires. |
7th November 2007 |
| Coal conversion dilemma for US - BBC News Coal conversion dilemma for USBBC News, UK. As global warming campaigners increase pressure on the White House to cut emissions, policymakers in the US have other concerns: they say there is a threat ... |
7th November 2007 |
| 'Global Warning: The Security Challenges of Climate Change' - Gristmill John Podesta and Peter Ogden of the Center for American Progress have written a chapter titled "Global Warning: The Security Challenges of Climate Change," for a report called "The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change." They describe their work as follows: During the course of the past year, a high-level working group of foreign policy experts, climate scientists, historians, and other specialists has met regularly to investigate the national security and foreign policy implications of climate change. Many of the key findings of this task force, which was directed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security, are presented in a new report entitled "The Age of Consequences." |
7th November 2007 |
| Amazon Fire Wars Exacerbate Global Warming - NPR In Brazil, people use fire as a weapon in range wars to push other ranchers off their land. Scientists say these fires, along with the seasonal fires to clear land, is not just destroying parts of the Amazon's southern forests, but altering the climate as well. |
6th November 2007 |
| Spectre of Global Warming Haunts Japanese Rice Farms - Planet Ark MINAMI-UONUMA, Japan - It produces the most prized rice in a country that prides itself on its rice. But summer heat waves have sent temperatures soaring in Japan's Uonuma region, resulting in lower quality rice grains, and making farmers worried that global warming might have reached their rice fields in northwestern Japan. |
6th November 2007 |
| Drought a $1 billion drain on agriculture - Miami Herald Drought a $1 billion drain on agriculture Florida's record drought has led to nearly $1 billion in agricultural losses, wiping out jobs and diminishing the food supply from Florida to Canada, state Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said Monday. What's worse, Bronson's economist warned, the numbers are going to get more bleak next year because the dry spell is expected to continue. ''We are beginning to see some of the initial signs of collapse,'' Nelson Mongiovi, director of the division of marketing at the Florida Department of Agriculture, told a state legislative committee. "If you're a farmer, you're going into the spring season with a greater than 50 percent chance you're not going to have enough water to make a crop." |
6th November 2007 |
| Tibetans wake up to nosebleeds in super-dry autumn BEIJING (Reuters) - Moisture has become a luxury in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa where many locals are waking up to nosebleeds in the dry autumn, state media said on Monday as the Himalayan region faces growing threat of global warming. |
6th November 2007 |
| Feds cutting climate studies: Nobel winners - Montreal Gazette Nobel Prize-winning scientists from Canada say the Harper government has shut down a federal climate change research network and blocked new studies on the impact of rising greenhouse-gas emissions. The scientists, among a few dozen Canadians on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize for its report on global warming, say the atmosphere is changing faster than anticipated. But without adequate research, Harper and other world leaders won't know what policies or targets to adopt. |
6th November 2007 |
| Ken Livingstone on climate change - Guardian Unlimited Video: The London mayor, speaking at the Guardian's climate change summit, outlines his plans for reducing the capital's emissions. |
6th November 2007 |
| CLIMATE CHANGE: Rich Must Cut GHGs Fast, Deep - UN Experts - Inter Press Service The world's richest countries must drastically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate climate change impacts, says the lead author of a United Nations report, due for release later this month, that focuses on impacts of global warming on the developing world. To have a realistic chance of avoiding dangerous climate change, rich countries need to make cuts of at least 80 percent by 2050, said Kevin Watkins, an author of the UN's Human Development Report 2007, during a climate change workshop for Asian journalists in the Indian capital, last week. |
6th November 2007 |
| Confronting worldwide disaster losses - Physorg In the current edition of leading journal Science, an international team of experts argues that governments and policymakers worldwide need to take swift action now to minimise mounting losses due to future natural disasters - regardless of the effect of climate change on our global weather patterns. |
6th November 2007 |
| China Blames Warming for Growing Water Shortages - Planet Ark BEIJING - China suffers a water shortage of nearly 40 billion cubic metres a year which Water Resources Minister Chen Lei blamed largely on global warming, state media reported on Monday. |
6th November 2007 |
| Most ready for 'green sacrifices' - BBC News A global poll suggests that people are prepared to make tough lifestyle changes to combat global warming. |
5th November 2007 |
| Australian Town to Run on Solar Power in 2 Years - Planet Ark SYDNEY - A sun-drenched town in Australia's north hopes to use only solar power in two years after being chosen as the site for a solar thermal power station. |
5th November 2007 |
| Cirrus Disappearance: Warming Might Thin Heat-trapping Clouds - Science Daily The widely accepted (albeit unproven) theory that manmade global warming will accelerate itself by creating more heat-trapping clouds is challenged by new research. Instead of creating more clouds, individual tropical warming cycles that served as proxies for global warming saw a decrease in the coverage of heat-trapping cirrus clouds. |
5th November 2007 |
| 'Mideast Oil Forever?': Part III After the introduction and an explanation of "The Coming Oil Crisis," the next part of "MidEast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) begins the discussion of the technology-based solution - and how the Congress is working to block it. Yes, long before Shellenberger & Nordhaus claim to have pioneered the positive technology message that everyone else supposedly never tried, many of us were waging a public death-match (without their help) to save those technologies -- especially since the Gingrich Congress was dead set against a regulatory approach, such as tougher fuel economy standards. |
5th November 2007 |
| The Real Climate Debate: To Cap or to Tax? - New York Times To fight climate change, the winners of 2008 contests might have to choose between cap-and-trade and the possibly more effective but politically unpleasant carbon tax. |
5th November 2007 |
| Big melt meets big empty: Rethinking the implications of climate change and peak oil - Energy Bulletin Richard Heinberg, Museletter / Global Public Media. The central question facing us is not whether the world will move away from fossil fuels, but how. The primary dispute will be between those who look for short-term solutions to energy supply shocks ... and policy advocates with a long-range plan for dealing effectively and peacefully with climate change, adaptation to scarcity, and global inequity. |
5th November 2007 |
| Ice under fire - Hindustan Times Ice under fireHindustan Times, India. “That's why they are called indicators of global warming.'' This year, Thayyen has been clambering over 10 glaciers that are retreating higher up the ... |
5th November 2007 |
| Report calls for larger carbon cuts - Epolitix via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News Britain's target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 can and should be increased to 80 per cent, according to a new study. |
5th November 2007 |
| Warm water, winds affect Lake Superior U.S. researchers say warmer water and higher wind speeds have contributed to Lake Superior's near record low-water levels. |
5th November 2007 |
| Half of UK's top firms fail to publish plans to cut carbon emissions - Guardian Unlimited · Green List reveals mixed reaction to climate change · Voluntary action too little, says Friends of the Earth |
5th November 2007 |
| Climate wars threaten billions - Guardian Unlimited More than 100 countries face political chaos and mass migration in global warming catastrophe. |
4th November 2007 |
| New 'disaster' movie warns world of oil apocalypse - Guardian Unlimited The latest gloves-off documentary to hit screens predicts a global meltdown as vital fuel runs out. See also: 'MidEast Oil Forever?': Part II After the introduction, the next part of "MidEast Oil Forever?" (subs. req'd) predicted in 1996 that we would have an oil crisis in ten years, and that we would be in a weak position to respond if Congress succeeded in gutting our clean energy programs. That may seem obvious now, but oil prices were low in the mid-1990s -- in the previous three years, oil prices had averaged about $16 a barrel -- and only a few oil/security analysts (whom we cite) were raising alarms. This prediction proved to be right in the main, and I am especially proud of the final paragraph in this section, where we made what was, at the time, a fairly original geostrategic argument that has been proven all-too-true. |
4th November 2007 |
| Mass exodus from Mexico flooding - BBC News Hundreds of thousands of people flee severe flooding in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco. |
4th November 2007 |
| Lake Huron water levels spell deep trouble - Toronto Star When Julie Woodyear was a kid, she and her brother raced each other around their family's Georgian Bay island in dinghies. Thirty years later, a dinghy race would involve dragging the boats over land because her island is no longer an island. It's become part of the mainland. |
4th November 2007 |
| Poll: British Public Positive on the Environment - Environment News Service LONDON, UK , November 2, 2007 (ENS) - Most people claimed that being "green" is now the socially acceptable norm, rather being an alternative lifestyle, a new survey into public attitudes and behaviors has found. |
4th November 2007 |
| Reducing vehicle emissions could save lives and lower health-care costs, study finds - 680 News Toronto - A 30 per cent reduction in vehicle emissions could save nearly 200 lives a year and $1-billion in health costs, according to a new study on the health effects of air pollution from traffic in Toronto. |
4th November 2007 |
| Govt trying to offset drought: Vaile - The West Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile says the government is doing all it can to offset the effect of the drought on consumer prices. He says a scarcity of some items due to the severe drought in many parts of Australia means food prices are on the rise. |
4th November 2007 |
| Watchdog sees red over claims - The Age Companies have jumped on the 'green' bandwagon. But are customers getting what they pay for? The competition watchdog has put companies on notice that they face prosecution if they make unsubstantiated environmental claims in their marketing. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has confirmed it is investigating "a number of matters" that could soon lead to prosecutions under the Trade Practices Act. |
4th November 2007 |
| Human cost - CNews YELLOWKNIFE -- There is something melancholy in Bill Erasmus' conversation. It's a sad reverence for the loss of all that's familiar and dependable for the aboriginals -- predictable animal behaviour, land and weather patterns. |
4th November 2007 |
| U.S. mayors find it's not easy to be green - Los Angeles Times Assessing progress is difficult for 728 cities in a Kyoto-like pact. America's mayors, responding to a growing sense of urgency over climate change, are rapidly stepping up programs to weatherize buildings, capture methane gas from landfills, switch municipal fleets to hybrids, promote mass transit and buy cleaner electricity. |
4th November 2007 |
| Climate-induced food crisis looms - Guardian Unlimited Soaring crop prices and demand for biofuels raise fears of political instability. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Climate change is one of history's the greatest security challenges - International Herald Tribune Over the last two decades, climate scientists have underestimated how quickly the Earth is changing perhaps to avoid being branded as "alarmists," the study said. But policy planners should count on climate-induced instability in critical parts of the world within 30 years, it said. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Warming temperatures will lower water levels: experts - CNews If the Great Lakes basin were a country, it would be the third richest in the world. The region generates 50% of Canada's gross domestic product and is home to 40 million people - 30% of Canada's population and 10% of the U.S. population. See also:Drought anxiety rises as water levels fall - USA Today |
3rd November 2007 |
| Spaniards Say Climate Change is Global Problem - Angus Reid (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The vast majority of people in Spain think global warming is a major international issue, according to a poll by Instituto Opina released by Cadena Ser. 86.2 per cent of respondents disagree with opposition leader Mariano Rajoy, who recently said jokingly that climate change is not a global problem. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Bloomberg Calls for Tax on Carbon Emissions - New York Times Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced today his support for a national carbon tax. In what his aides called one of the most significant policy addresses of his second and final term, the mayor argued that directly taxing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change will slow global warming, promote economic growth and stimulate technological innovation - even if it results in higher gasoline prices in the short term. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Google Starts UK Carbon Footprint Project - DesignTechnica Google has begun a new project to let UK users and schools see how they're reducing their carbon footprint. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Environment: The Nation's Breadbasket Is Poisoning Its Own Water Supply - AlterNet There are many threats to drinking water in the Heartland, but the biggest one is agriculture. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Shrinking ice means Greenland is rising fast - New Scientist The country's landmass has become surprisingly buoyant - accelerating upwards as its ice cap reduces in size, say scientists |
3rd November 2007 |
| Flooding traps 300,000 in Mexico - BBC News Rescue workers battle to help those trapped by flooding in Mexico's Tabasco state, with more rains forecast. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Calif. - Still Seeks Curbs On Emissions - Washington Post The Bush administration and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) may be in the midst of a standoff over whether to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, but at least the State Department likes the idea. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Vote change of climate - The Australian A variation of the argument Pascal applied to belief in God can be applied to climate change. Pascal's "wager" says it's better to bet on God's existence than against it. If he exists, you'll be an eternal winner; if not, you've lost nothing. On the other hand, Pascal argued, to bet against God and to lose means you've lost everything. For years John Howard joined George Bush in betting against the reality of climate change. On this issue these Christian gentlemen were effectively atheists. And they've been proved disastrously wrong. Now they're being politically punished. Trouble is, so are the rest of us. |
3rd November 2007 |
| It's going to get very hot - much earlier than expected - The Nation Thailand is likely to see the mercury rise to unprecedented levels - beyond 46 degrees Celsius - within the next 15 to 20 years, decades sooner than the previous projection, according to the latest climate model released yesterday. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Evangelical Powerhouses Ignoring God's Green Earth - DeSmogBlog A voting statistic recently aired on CNN's Situation Room that reminded me of the massive power held by the leaders of the US Evangelical Christian movement. Of the 126 million votes cast in the last presidential election, 24% of voters identified themselves as white/born again Christians, and 78% of that demographic voted Republican.That's a lot of people, and many (not all) are being fed a constant stream of climate change denial rhetoric. And nobody does this better than the grand pooba of Evangelicals, James Dobson, head of the powerhouse Christian lobby group, Focus on the Family. To say Dobson holds sway, is an understatement - over $250 million in annual revenue, a daily syndicated radio show reaching 220 million a day in 164 countries and a monthly magazine with over 2 million subscribers. |
3rd November 2007 |
| Energy bill for dummies he following is a guest essay from Julia Bovey, federal communications director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and blogger at NRDC's Switchboard. ----- When I left my native Boston for Washington, D.C., I bought several new things, including navy-blue closed-toed pumps and a copy of Congress for Dummies. While more women than I was led to believe wear open-toes in the Capitol, I have been making excellent use of Congress for Dummies as I try to interpret what the heck is going on with the energy bill up there. |
3rd November 2007 |
| US takes step towards climate law - Guardian Unlimited Mandatory controls on green house gas emissions would be in direct opposition to administration's policy. |
2nd November 2007 |
| Environment: What It Will Take to Build a Sustainable U.S. - AlterNet The visionary founder of the Bioneers conference, where important ideas were exchanged last week, talks about how we can ignite the revolution we need to survive. |
2nd November 2007 |
| The Fire of the Century . . . of the Year - OC Weekly Hellish fires now, Sahara Desert later, says UCI doom prophet Mike Davis . |
2nd November 2007 |
| McKibben on waste-heat recovery - Gristmill A very promising climate change solution with an image problem. Bill McKibben's new column in Orion magazine reports on one of the most effective ways to cut carbon emissions that we've got, a mature technology which stands ready to recycle enormous amounts of waste heat into electricity. It boggles my mind that we're not doing this everywhere, instead of discussing new coal plants or nukes. Talk about low-hanging fruit! The article centers on the fine work of the Chicago company Recycled Energy Development, piloted by frequent Gristmill contributor Sean Casten, and discusses the technology's image problem: it's not as sexy as wind or solar. Here's an excerpt, but the article is so short, I encourage a quick visit to the link above:From his desk in an office in Chicago, Jeff Smith ... |
2nd November 2007 |
| Is the ocean carbon sink sinking? - RealClimate The past few weeks and years have seen a bushel of papers finding that the natural world, in particular perhaps the ocean, is getting fed up with absorbing our CO2. There are uncertainties and caveats associated with each study, but taken as a whole, they provide convincing evidence that the hypothesized carbon cycle positive feedback has begun. Of the new carbon released to the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, some remains in the atmosphere, while some is taken up into the land biosphere (in places other than those which are being cut) and into the ocean. The natural uptake has been taking up more than half of the carbon emission. |
2nd November 2007 |
| Britain's colossal food waste is stoking climate change - The Independent Britons must swap their wasteful habits with food for the thrifty approach of previous generations by buying less and eating leftovers if the UK is to play its part in averting climate change, shoppers were warned yesterday. |
2nd November 2007 |
| China's immoral energy policy: Part I By Joseph RommYes, America's climate policy is immoral. But that doesn't make China's rapacious coal-plant building moral. The N.Y. Times has published the sobering numbers, which bear repeating: The country built 114,000 megawatts of fossil-fuel-based generating capacity last year alone, almost all coal-fired, and is on course to complete 95,000 megawatts more this year. For comparison, Britain has 75,000 megawatts in operation, built over a span of decades. China is now the main reason the world is recarbonizing -- the carbon content of the average unit of energy produced has stopped its multi-decade decline, as noted. |
2nd November 2007 |
| Washington diary: Oil shock - BBC News Matt Frei, presenter of BBC World News America, considers what the rising price of oil means for the US, as it approaches $100 a barrel. Last year Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, said he welcomed the doomsday scenario of $100 a barrel, because only this would provide the necessary shock treatment. It would finally concentrate minds on the strategic price of oil, on the way oil distorts America's political interests, especially in the Middle East. It would force us to develop alternative sources of fuel, which in turn would force the unelected Princes of Arabia to change their ways. It would encourage us to change our lavish life styles, say goodbye to the Hummer once and for all and diminish our carbon footprint. I hate to say it, Tom, but we're only a fistful of dollars short and the world continues to slide, even glide towards the abyss. California burns, Georgia is dying of thirst, the Dominican Republic is drowning and I'm driving around in my beaten-up convertible with the roof down at the end of October in Washington DC. Mother Nature is acting weird and virtually every scientist you speak to says it's not just a cyclical phase or a freakish fit but a fact of science, which should give us sleepless nights. The Weather Channel is no longer just for climate geeks and it costs more and more to fill my car with petrol - and yet, the real shock about today's oil shock is that it isn't a shock. Yet. |
1st November 2007 |
| Billions for Coal and Cars, Silence on Solar and Wind - All American Patriots A global warming bill that a Senate panel is scheduled to take up on Thursday carves out $324 billion for the coal industry and $232 billion for car makers. There’s not a nickel carved out for solar power, wind energy, geothermal or other alternative energy sources. “This is a rather extraordinary omission,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, a member of the subcommittee that will consider compromise legislation drafted by Senators Joseph Lieberman and John Warner. |
1st November 2007 |
| Bali burning - Gristmill In the lead-up to the international Bali Climate summit, Greenpeace has launched a major direct action in Sumatra, Indonesia, to stop the nefarious PT Duta Palma corporation from destroying a pristine tropical forest (and the habitat for highly endangered Sumatran rhinos, tigers, and oh-so-cute orangutans) and replacing it with a palm oil plantation. Click on the picture to the right to watch the extraordinary video of their action, including amazing helicopter footage of both the glorious and denuded Indonesian landscape. Torching tropical forests is bad enough, but this one lies atop a peat bog and the Duta Palma's henchmen are trying to drain it and burn it to grow the palms -- releasing thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the process. |
1st November 2007 |
| The Role of Civil Disobedience in the Climate Movement. - It's Getting Hot In Here First off - the most important thing is to realize just how serious the climate crisis is. We've got a short time frame to completely revolutionize our entire economy and our industry. This will take a huge diversity of tactics from all corners of the globe - but no major social movement has won it's demands without strategic use of civil disobedience. The climate movement will be no different - in fact I'd argue that we need to put our bodies on the line more than ever. If not you - who? Inspiring actions are happening all around us - from last week's No War No Warming mobilization in DC, to the tireless efforts of Dooda Desert Rock, to the growth of Rising Tide around the globe - people are saying enough is enough. We can't wait for politicians to come around, or just cross our fingers that the next Congress will save us. We are starting to reframe the climate movement to be people-led - rather than dictated by the very corporations, politicians, and systems that created this mess. But enough with waxing philosophical. Here's two things you can do right now. And I hope other readers will contribute their action ideas as well. Get involved! Step it Up! Do what you can - where you can! |
1st November 2007 |
| How to save the planet - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: A panel of experts has compiled the ultimate to-do list. Leo Hickman assesses it. |
1st November 2007 |
| Glacier melting: Pandora's Box? - China Internet Information Center As global warming continues, glacier recession on the Tibetan Plateau has quickened, triggering a series of environmental calamities. |
1st November 2007 |
| Forests losing the ability to absorb man-made carbon - PhysOrg The sprawling forests of the northern hemisphere which extend from China and Siberia to Canada and Alaska are in danger of becoming a gigantic source of carbon dioxide rather than being a major "sink" that helps to offset man-made emissions of the greenhouse gas. |
1st November 2007 |
| Drought May Force Australian Livestock Industry To Import Grain - Asia Pulse via Yahoo!7 News Australia's livestock industry will be forced for the first time to import grain from overseas if local supplies continue to dwindle in the crippling drought, producers have warned. |
1st November 2007 |
| Japan greenhouse emissions fell 1.3 pct last yr-paper - AlertNet Japan's greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.3 percent in the year ended in March partly due to a warm winter, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, but a rebound this year threatens to make Tokyo's Kyoto goal still harder to reach. |
1st November 2007 |
| Green plan has commissioner seeing red - CNews Federal strategies to green up government remain a major disappointment for lack of progress 15 years after promising a plan, Canada's environment commissioner and auditor general both charged yesterday. |
1st November 2007 |
| UK energy savings 'miscalculated' - BBC News Energy savings in UK homes could be up to 30% lower than previously thought, threatening CO2 targets, a study warns. |
1st November 2007 |
| Power from the final frontier - Guardian Unlimited Giant collectors in space that beam solar energy back to Earth could soon be a reality. And, as James Bloom reports, it could be a bigger moneyspinner than space tourism. |
1st November 2007 |
| Global warming 'causing more floods' - The Jakarta Post Global warming is altering ocean tides, meaning more homes will be inundated with floodwater in the years to come, an official from the City Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) said. |
1st November 2007 |
| Threat to mankind - The Telegraph It's now or never, warns British environment journalist Paul Brown. “If we don't act quickly, cities like London, Miami, Mumbai and Calcutta may be submerged in another 40 years… and it is a science-based finding. |
1st November 2007 |
| Time is right to turn up the heat on global warming, activists say - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Fluorescent bulbs were climate change activism on training wheels. For the next generation, it's time for a green revolution, for overthrowing the old order and issuing in the new, say environmental and local elected leaders. |
1st November 2007 |
| Why 70 Economists Urge BC Carbon Tax - in Views - The Tyee Premier asked for support, we supplied some. |
1st November 2007 |
| Zogby: Al Gore Leads Blind Poll - NewsMax.com A Zogby International "blind bio" telephone poll shows that former Vice President Al Gore is favored over the current Democratic front-runners by likely Democratic Party voters nationwide - particularly among liberal Democrats. |
1st November 2007 |
| George Monbiot: Civilisation ends with a shutdown of human concern. Are we there already? - Guardian Unlimited George Monbiot: A novel's vision of a dystopian future shines a cold light on the consequences of our apathy. |
31st October 2007 |
| Mud, sweat and tears - Guardian Unlimited Mud, sweat and tearsGuardian Unlimited, UK. ... that Fort McMurray and the Athabasca oil sands will soon be Canada's biggest contributor to global warming; nearly as much as the whole of Denmark. ... |
31st October 2007 |
| Industry's plan for us - GristMill The following is a guest essay from Peter Montague, executive director of the Environmental Research Foundation. ----- It now seems clear that the coal and oil industries are not going to allow the United States to curb global warming by making major investments in renewable sources of energy. These fossil fuel corporations simply have too much at stake to allow it. Simple physics tells us that the way to minimize the human contribution to global warming is to leave the remaining fossil fuels in the ground -- stop mining them as soon as humanly possible. |
31st October 2007 |
| Drought slashes Australian wheat crop - TODAYonline Australia's wheat, barley and canola winter crops were again revised lower Tuesday due to the severity of the long-running drought, the country's official forecaster said. |
31st October 2007 |
| Norway govt to spend 130 mln nkr to protect Amazon rainforest - FinanzNachrichten OSLO (Thomson Financial) - Norway will grant 130 mln nkr towards the protection of the Amazon ( Nachrichten / Aktienkurs ) rainforest, the destruction of which is increasing greenhouse gas emissions, the government said. |
31st October 2007 |
| Environment: How to Build a Local Energy Economy Is it possible to get our power from local sources? Yes, and an interview with one expert explains how. |
31st October 2007 |
| Germany to Use CO2 Funds to Help Developing Nations - Planet Ark LUXEMBOURG - Germany will use part of the proceeds it gets from selling carbon permits to industry from 2008 to help support the fight against climate change in developing nations, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. |
31st October 2007 |
| Western Canada's Glaciers Hit 7000-Year Low Tree stumps at the feet of Western Canadian glaciers are providing new insights into the accelerated rates at which the rivers of ice have been shrinking due to human-aided global warming. |
31st October 2007 |
| More astounding NASA video: Arctic Sea Ice Loss 1979 to 2007 For some of our readers, the video we posted last week of the startling loss of Arctic sea-ice as recorded by NASA this summer just wasn't enough to convince them that the planet is in serious trouble. So here's a new NASA video showing the massive Arctic sea ice loss over the last 28 years. Look at the difference between 2005 and 2007 alone. Startled now? This animation is from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center. This animation compares the 2005 annual Arctic minimum sea ice from 09/21/2005 (shown in orange) with the 2007 minimum sea ice from 09/14/2007. |
31st October 2007 |
| Government accused over emissions bill - Guardian Unlimited Green groups rounded on the government yesterday for not imposing tighter limits on carbon emissions. · Plans do not take aviation and shipping into account · Benn's 60% cut in CO2 too low, say campaigners |
31st October 2007 |
| From Conservation to Population, a New Look at Planet Earth - New York Times Can nine billion humans survive and try to improve their lives without depleting the planet? | 31st October 2007 |
| Bill McKibben Says It's Time to “Organize, Organize, Organize” for ... - It's Getting Hot In Here Bill McKibben has three pieces of advice for people who want to make a difference in the fight against global warming: “1: Organize. 2. Organize. 3. Organize,” says the well-beloved author, educator, climate activist and co-founder of Step It Up. Only then does he add his fourth piece of advice: “After that, if they have some energy left, by all means change the light-bulbs.” | 31st October 2007 |
| Has John Howard 'done his dash'? - BBC News The BBC's Nick Bryant visits Prime Minister John Howard's home constituency, where some residents say change is in the air. | 31st October 2007 |
| Leading article: Does the left hand know what the right is doing? - The Independent The Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, yesterday revealed how the Government's Climate Change Bill, unveiled in March, could be modified as a result of a period of public consultation. We are informed that new features of the legislation might include the incorporation of greenhouse gases from aviation and shipping into emission-reduction targets. The Bill might also make the target of cutting emissions by 60 per cent from 1990 levels by 2050 more ambitious. | 31st October 2007 |
| Dream of a Low-Carbon, Rural Idyll Getting Closer? - Planet Ark LONDON - The falling cost of renewable energy could fuel a city stampede for the country to exchange clean air for carbon emissions, says Nick Rosen, author of a new book, "How to live Off-Grid". | 31st October 2007 |
| 'Stronger' climate bill announced - Guardian Unlimited The government today announced a 'stronger, more effective and more transparent' climate change bill. See also: Emissions cuts not enough, say campaigners - Guardian Unlimited |
30th October 2007 |
| B.C. Premier signs treaty to fight climate change - CNews B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has signed on to an international effort to create a carbon emission trading system. | 30th October 2007 |
| Changes to environment mean local pests go global - CNews There are potentially hundreds of sleeper cells living among us. They live discreetly, waiting patiently for conditions to be ripe before they strike and terrorize the very nature of Canadiana. | 30th October 2007 |
| World's addiction to coal growing, despite worries about global warming - CNews Almost nonstop, gargantuan 145-metric tonne trucks rumble through China's biggest open-pit coal mine, sending up clouds of soot as they dump their loads into mechanized sorters. | 30th October 2007 |
| N.J. joins international global warming effort - Herald News TRENTON -- New Jersey on Monday joined with European countries, other states, Canadian provinces and New Zealand in a new international effort to try to cut greenhouse gas emissions. | 30th October 2007 |
| Let us pay By Ryan AventA week of intense wildfires in southern California displaced the news from front pages, but the drought in the southeastern states rages on, despite a few welcome but too-brief rain events. As sources of drinking water slowly exhaust themselves, under pressure from growing demand and lagging supply, one wonders why governments in the region don't raise water prices to encourage conservation. Instead, most areas have chosen to ration supplies with top-down orders, which protect consumers from rate increases but force governments to spend time and energy enforcing the rules, and which all too often prove unequal to the task of conservation. | 30th October 2007 |
| Ozone set to harm world vegetation, economy: study - Reuters UK Ozone set to harm world vegetation, economy: studyReuters UK, UK. ... plants and affects their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, another global warming gas whose release into the atmosphere accelerates climate change. ... | 30th October 2007 |
| Seattle surpassing global warming emission standards - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Seattle has reduced its emissions of gases that contribute to global warming to 8 percent below what they were in 1990, according to a study released Monday. | 30th October 2007 |
| Melting ice prompts navigation warning The U.S.-based International Ice Charting Working Group predicted significant navigation hazards will develop as Arctic sea ice diminishes. | 30th October 2007 |
| Carbon Partnership Hopes to Go Global - Planet Ark LISBON - A coalition of European countries, US states, Canadian provinces and New Zealand signed a partnership on Monday to slow global warming through an international carbon trading market, officials said on Monday. | 30th October 2007 |
| Canada's 'black gold' is mixed blessing - Guardian Unlimited Aida Edemariam reports from Alberta where the social and environmental toll mounts | 30th October 2007 |
| Revenue-neutral emission reduction for cities By David RobertsImagine if more cities started doing this -- neutralizing the upfront costs of solar. It would stimulate competition and innovation in the solar industry (more than there already are). Pretty soon there would be large economies of scale for solar power and the price would drop (faster than it already is). More cities would be lured into the program, stimulating yet more innovation and lower prices. So on and so on, the cycle of smart long-term investment. Tell me again why we think tackling global warming has to be expensive? |
30th October 2007 |
| Human-generated Ozone Will Damage Crops, Reduce Production - Science Daily Increasing levels of ozone due to the growing use of fossil fuels will damage global vegetation, resulting in serious costs to the world's economy. The analysis focused on how three environmental changes (increases in temperature, carbon dioxide and ozone) associated with human activity will affect crops, pastures and forests. |
29th October 2007 |
| Members of German governing party back speed limit on the autobahn - CNews HAMBURG, Germany - Members of one of Germany's governing parties on Saturday backed a proposal to introduce a speed limit on highways, but it appeared likely to face resistance. | 29th October 2007 |
| Call to use leftovers and cut food waste - Guardian Unlimited Return to wartime values and reduce emissions, say campaigners. | 29th October 2007 |
| UK seeks lower green energy targets - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: Britain will lobby for a lower national target for renewable energy, John Hutton has indicated. | 29th October 2007 |
| Drought in southeast US fuels battle over water resources - PhysOrg An extreme drought in the southeastern United States has fueled a bitter tri-state battle over dwindling water resources that pits man against mussels. | 29th October 2007 |
| Coal Use Grows Despite Warming Worries - PhysOrg (AP) -- Almost nonstop, gargantuan 145-ton trucks rumble through China's biggest open-pit coal mine, sending up clouds of soot as they dump their loads into mechanized sorters. | 29th October 2007 |
| Drying up - GristMill A few months ago, I reported on the decade-long drought that's bedeviling Australia. In it I predicted -- with the help of experts such as Tim Flannery -- that climate skeptic John Howard would lose his seat to the Labor Party leader, Kevin Rudd, in this October's national elections. Rudd is running on a platform that includes $50 million for geothermal energy, $50 million for an Australian Solar Institute, and a 60 percent cut in CO2 emissions by 2050. And according to Flannery, the election will in large part be a referendum on climate change. | 29th October 2007 |
| Hot nights 'leading to poor sleep' - The Nation Narrowing daily temperature range causes urban stress, warns scientist | 29th October 2007 |
| US Air Force Eyes Alternative Fuel, Slashing CO2 - Planet Ark WASHINGTON - The world's most powerful air force is seeking to wean itself from foreign oil and nearly zero out its carbon dioxide output as part of a sweeping alternative energy drive, a senior Pentagon official said on Friday. | 29th October 2007 |
| We should pressure US on Kyoto: Rudd - Adelaide Now AUSTRALIA should pressure the US to ratify the Kyoto Protocol so that major developing countries like China have no option but to accept binding emission cuts, Labor says. | 29th October 2007 |
| Rapid global warming will create famine and drought, Lovelock warns - The Independent Climate change is happening faster than anyone predicted and its consequences could be dire for the survival of civilisation in the 21st century because of the chaos it will cause in terms of famine, drought and mass migration, according to a leading scientist. | 29th October 2007 |
| MPs in call for new climate body - BBC A powerful new body must drive climate change policy after a decade of failure by the government, MPs warn. | 29th October 2007 |
| It's too late for greenhouse gas cuts, says scientist - Guardian Unlimited Cutting greenhouse gases and switching to sustainable development are unlikely to prevent disasters caused by climate change, one of the world's most respected environmentalists warns today. | 29th October 2007 |
| Australian country life riven by drought, isolation - Environmental News Network CARAGABAL, Australia (Reuters) - In drought-hit lands of eastern Australia, the population of Caragabal is just 38, every shop is closed, water is trucked in, and a synthetic lawn at a bowling club is the last hope of survival for a dying town. The town dam, which can store two years' supply, dried up years ago with the return of drought. As crops die for hundreds of miles around, the ... | 29th October 2007 |
| Politicians cannot combat climate change by themselves, says Benn - Guardian Unlimited Benn says politicians cannot combat climate change by themselves. | 29th October 2007 |
| Don't bargain with climate change - Guardian Unlimited There has been nothing over the past 12 months since the Stern report was published to suggest that the need for action is less pressing. Far from it. The floods in the UK in the summer and the forest fires in Greece and now California have added to the weight of evidence about the dangers of climate change. The government has a choice, a very stark choice. It should be aware, though, that when it comes to climate change appeasement makes no more long-term sense than it did at Munich in 1938. | 29th October 2007 |
| The other side of global warming Today the dominant view of global warming is that it's a technical problem. The burning of fossil fuels -- often regarded as the lifeblood of modern economies -- puts greenhouse gases into the air, mainly carbon dioxide, trapping more solar energy, which heats the planet and alters weather patterns. Methane and nitrous oxide also contribute. The solution is defined as reducing greenhouse gas emissions (pollution). The political, social, and moral campaign is directed at technological change, and at using our technology less. But if everyone stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, global warming will continue for decades. | 29th October 2007 |
| The certainty of uncertainty - RealClimate A paper on climate sensitivity today in Science will no doubt see a great deal of press in the next few weeks. In "Why is climate sensitivity so unpredictable?", Gerard Roe and Marcia Baker explore the origin of the range of climate sensitivities typically cited in the literature. In particular they seek to explain the characteristic shape of the distribution of estimated climate sensitivities. This distribution includes a long tail towards values much higher than the standard 2-4.5 degrees C change in temperature (for a doubling of CO2) commonly referred to. In essence, what Roe and Baker show is that this characteristic shape arises from the non-linear relationship between the strength of climate feedbacks (f) and the resulting temperature response (deltaT), which is proportional to 1/(1-f). | 27th October 2007 |
| Much of U.S. Could See a Water Shortage - PhysOrg (AP) -- An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. | 27th October 2007 |
| Forest fire risk on rise - CNews The catastrophic wildfires blowing through tinder-dry southern California may be attributed to global warming trends that Ontario is not immune to, experts say. | 27th October 2007 |
| Tread lightly and make a difference - Guardian Unlimited Science environment: The Guardian launches a unique website to help readers to reduce carbon footprint. | 27th October 2007 |
| Environment: Who Are the Real Leaders on Climate Change? Young people are leading the way and they need the rest of us to join them. | 27th October 2007 |
| Brussels gets tough on CO2 emissions - Financial Times Tougher limits on carbon emissions were set on Friday by the European Commission in an effort to strengthen its efforts to combat climate change. |
27th October 2007 |
| Wave power firm in plans to float - BBC News A company which harnesses wave power to produce electricity has unveiled plans to float in London. |
27th October 2007 |
| A sneak attack on humanity - Toronto Star What, ultimately, is Cool It all about? On the surface, it's a cry from a compassionate conservative not to waste money on combating climate change when that money could be better spent helping the poor. But why climate change rather than military spending? By empathizing with those who are concerned about climate change and poverty, and trying to persuade them to divert their energies, Cool It is a stealth attack on humanity's future. | 27th October 2007 |
| Prophets of doom are ten a penny but this time it's serious - Times Online Though the report’s language might sound extreme, with talk of “humanity’s very survival” at risk, the structure of the WEO actually lends itself to conservatism. Its findings deserve to be taken very seriously as a result – this is not scaremongering to make a point. See also: Humans failing the sustainability audit - BBC Humanity's very survival' is at risk, says - Times Online |
26th October 2007 |
 Methane Bubbling From Arctic Lakes, Now And At End Of Last Ice Age - Science Daily A team of scientists led by a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has identified a new likely source of a spike in atmospheric methane coming out of the North during the end of the last ice age. |
26th October 2007 |
| Like it or not, uncertainty and climate change go hand in hand - PhysOrg Despite decades of ever more-exacting science projecting Earth's warming climate, there remains large uncertainty about just how much warming will actually occur. Two University of Washington scientists believe the uncertainty remains so high because the climate system itself is very sensitive to a variety of factors, such as increased greenhouse gases or a higher concentration of atmospheric particles that reflect sunlight back into space. Free White Papers! In essence, the scientists found that the more likely it is that conditions will cause climate to warm, the more uncertainty exists about how much warming there will be. |
26th October 2007 |
| The Big Question: Is the Kyoto treaty an outdated failure based on the wrong premises? Who suggests that? From the outset, Kyoto was an interim measure. It was a radical departure from the previous model of inevitable exponential growth. It was always recognised that two further phases were needed, the second bringing drastic cuts in emissions and the third including far more countries. The insistence of the US and Australia on not ratifying Kyoto – and the failure of other nations to honour their commitments – is the problem. "Just because many countries will not meet their targets doesn't mean Kyoto is a failure," says Ben McNeil of the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. "Establishing a carbon emissions market, increasing public R&D into clean technologies, focussing on large emitters and adaptation funds are all consistent within the over-arching Kyoto framework." |
26th October 2007 |
| Cap-and-trade bill is second-rate - Los Angeles Times Cap-and-trade bill is second-rateLos Angeles Times, CA. A Senate global warming measure takes the wrong approach, although some of its problems can be fixed. The landmark global warming bill introduced last week ... | 26th October 2007 |
| British Village Looks Down the Loo to Cut Carbon - Planet Ark ASHTON HAYES, England - A small community in northwest England is hoping to become the country's first carbon-neutral village and considering the power of poop to help make it happen. Project chief Garry Charnock has enlisted help from local water provider United Utilities, which spent 22 million pounds (US$45.11 million) last year developing a technology which generates electricity by capturing and burning methane released by decomposing sewage. |
26th October 2007 |
| Climate change: Sarkozy backs carbon tax, EU levy on non-Kyoto imports - AFP via Yahoo! News French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday called for a national "carbon tax" on global-warming pollutants and a European levy on imports from countries outside the Kyoto Protocol. |
26th October 2007 |
| Nearly 7000-Mile Global Warming Walk Hits Arizona - Emediawire "GoLite on the Planet" trek to cross desert sands in final leg; finish set for November 3 at Grand Canyon. | 26th October 2007 |
| Environment: 15 Reasons To Stop Hiding from Vegetarianism Live longer, lower your weight, slash pollution and twelve other good reasons to start cutting meat out of your diet. | 26th October 2007 |
| Free trees to help global warming - BBC News Free trees are offered to people in Gloucester to help towards reducing global warming. | 26th October 2007 |
| New Scientist slamming the "skeptic scam" - DeSmogBlog Here's a New Scientist editorial pointing out the absurdity of Dr. S Fred Singer and Dennis Avery's recent PR campaign attacking the science of global warming. It's behind a pay-per-view wall, so I've pulled a few quotes for those who don't have access to the whole article:We need climate change sceptics. Not because they are right - at least not on the big issue of human culpability in recent warming - but because they ask hard questions that lead to deeper knowledge. What we do not need from them is misrepresentation and cynical trashing of scientists' work."Once research findings are published they, of course, become public property, available to be contested and reinterpreted by all. | 26th October 2007 |
| Car adverts to carry CO2 emissions warnings - ANI via Yahoo! India News London, Oct 26 (ANI): Advertisements for cars could soon be forced to carry health warnings, with the European Parliament ruling in favour of plans for CO2 warning messages detailing vehicles' carbon emissions to be included in car adverts. The new plans propose that a minimum of 20 per cent of adverts and marketing material should be given to facts about a vehicle's carbon emissions ... | 26th October 2007 |
| Third of primates 'under threat' - BBC News Almost a third of all primates face extinction because of damage to their habitats, a report warns. | 26th October 2007 |
| Coal to Make Germany Miss CO2 Target - Green Group - Planet Ark BERLIN - Germany has no chance of achieving its reduced CO2 emissions' targets if it keeps building coal-burning power plants, an environmental group said on Thursday. | 26th October 2007 |
| Scientists Publicly Denounce Latest White House Climate Change Muzzling Today, scientists are publicly denouncing the White House for the "censoring of science," after it was uncovered earlier this week that significant edits were made to testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on the impact of climate change on health. White House officials deleted key portions citing diseases that could flourish in a warmer climate. "Dr. Gerberding is the lead of the premiere public health agency in the U.S.," said Kim Knowlton, a science fellow on global warming and health at the National Resources Defense Council in New York. "It's shocking that she was not allowed to say in a public discussion some of these vital details. | 26th October 2007 |
| Rio Tinto Alcan warns Ottawa - The Globe and Mail MONTREAL -- Rio Tinto Alcan , the world's largest aluminum producer, warned yesterday it would consider moving production offshore if Ottawa opts to impose absolute reductions on greenhouse gas emissions. [...so much for 'green' Alcan...] | 26th October 2007 |
| China's Green Energy Gap - New York Times In China, where coal is king, the government's push to increase the use of alternative energy faces obstacles, from bureaucracy to bottlenecks in manufacturing. |
25th October 2007 |
| Climate threat to biodiversity - BBC News Global temperatures predicted for the coming centuries could trigger a mass extinction, warn scientists. | 25th October 2007 |
| Younger Dry-as dust? The Younger Dryas is so called because it corresponds, in the pollen record from Europe, to the latest (i.e. youngest) appearance of the Dryas octopetala pollen, an alpine flower in regions that are now far from alpine. It marks a clear period towards the end of the last ice age when the warming trend of the deglaciation in Europe particularly was interrupted for a period of about 1300 years before it got going again. There were clear glacier advances during this time and the moraines can be seen very clearly all around Europe and Scandinavia. The clues to what caused this remarkable, if temporary, turnaround have always lain in assessing its spatial extent, the exact timing and correspondence with other events. | 25th October 2007 |
| The time for green roofs - International Herald Tribune Creating a green roof, or living roof, involves putting down soil and plants on top of buildings - apartment blocks, corporate headquarters, even private homes - a practice that has multiple benefits for the environment. | 25th October 2007 |
| White House 'eviscerated' climate testimony - MSNBC WASHINGTON - The White House severely edited congressional testimony given Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks, according to two sources familiar with the documents. | 25th October 2007 |
| Report warns of climate change's hidden costs - Personal Computer World US research predicts droughts and increased storm damage will lead to soaring prices, job losses and major impacts to agriculture and other industries | 25th October 2007 |
| Could Warmer Oceans Make Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Rise Faster ... - Science Daily Could the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rise more drastically than previously assumed? The air contains greenhouse gases such as CO2, which are now known to be responsible for global warming because their concentration has risen continuously for a number of years. In contrast to the atmosphere, the concentration of CO2 in the oceans is sixty times higher. | 25th October 2007 |
| Green groups fume as European Parliament cuts clean-car targets - EARTHtimes.org Brussels - Environmental groups reacted with fury Wednesday as the European Parliament voted to cut reduction targets for vehicle carbon-dioxide emissions, the gas most linked to global warming. "Making cars more fuel efficient is one of the most important steps Europe can take to cut emissions, reduce oil dependency and cut fuel costs, yet MEPs seem to have lost their nerve," Aat Peterse of environmental think-tank Transport and Environment (T&E) said. | 25th October 2007 |
| Massive California fires consistent with climate change - PhysOrg The catastrophic fires that are sweeping Southern California are consistent with what climate change models have been predicting for years, experts say, and they may be just a prelude to many more such events in the future - as vegetation grows heavier than usual and then ignites during prolonged drought periods. | 25th October 2007 |
| OUR CHILDHOOD'S END --- THE NEXT GREAT EVOLUTION - American Chronicle "The age of nations has passed. It remains for us now, if we do not wish to perish, to set aside the ancient prejudices and build the earth." | 25th October 2007 |
| Energy storage, anyone? For those who have long been frustrated with the pace of progress in energy storage for electricity, we are happy to finally report a bit of good news. Two weeks ago, Jason moderated a panel at "Investing in Energy Storage Technologies," a conference in New York City sponsored by Financial Research Associates, LLC. Unlike most industry conferences on storage (meetings where we all sit around preaching to the already converted), bona-fide, real-life energy tech investors attended this one. Plus -- and here's where it gets exciting -- there were actually two presentations that together could very well signal the increase in interest and investment needed to commercialize energy storage technologies for our electricity grid. | 25th October 2007 |
| The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock - Rolling Stone One of the most eminent scientists of our time says that global warming is irreversible - and that more than 6 billion people will perish by the end of the century. | 24th October 2007 |
| The Globalization of Hunger - Infoshop News The good news is that our global food systems may be on the verge of a great transition. Although agribusiness has unprecedented control over the world's farmers and food supply, the realities of climate change, resource depletion, and the human suffering caused by industrialized farming have led more people to start thinking about the links between food, the environment, and social justice. Around the world, demands for food sovereignty—peoples' right to control their own food systems—is at an all-time high. Even in the US, where much of the population thinks of farming as a quaint and remote activity, more and more people are realizing that if you eat, you're involved in agriculture. | 24th October 2007 |
| 'Unexpected growth' in CO2 found - BBC News Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have grown more quickly than expected, say scientists. | 24th October 2007 |
| Climate change threat to peace, says German foreign minister - Globe and Mail Climate change is a growing threat to world peace and has led to rival territorial claims in the Arctic that could turn into a Cold War, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday. | 24th October 2007 |
| What is James Inhofe trying to keep secret? - Salon Fans of open access to government-funded research have been pinning their hopes on an appropriations bill currently under consideration by the Senate. The bill, already passed by the House, would require that any manuscripts by researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health must be made publicly available "no later than 12 months after the official date of publication." Late last Friday, a Republican senator introduced two amendments aiming to sabotage the open access provision. One would eliminate it entirely, the other would simply gut it. | 24th October 2007 |
| Planet in Peril Beginning tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT, CNN will air a two-part documentary that takes viewers to the front lines of environmental change. Hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (above), chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Animal Planet host/wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin, Planet in Peril will focus on four main issues: climate change, deforestation, species loss, and overpopulation. The four-hour documentary was filmed across four continents and 13 countries (see Corwin with an Arctic cutie). Check out the film's interactive website, including a trailer for the documentary that features a new song from R.E.M. | 24th October 2007 |
| California's age of megafires - The Christian Science Monitor Drought, housing expansion, and oversupply of tinder make for bigger, hotter fires. | 24th October 2007 |
| Minister confirms retreat from 20% renewable energy target - Guardian Unlimited The government signalled last night that it is pulling back from its aspiration to source 20% of Britain's energy supply from renewables by 2020. | 24th October 2007 |
| Warming could wipe out half species - Guardian Unlimited Rising global temperatures caused by climate change could trigger a huge extinction of plants and animals, according to a study. Though humans would probably survive such an event, half of the world's species could be wiped out. Scientists at the University of York and the University of Leeds examined the relationship between climate and biodiversity over the past 520m years - almost the entire fossil record - and uncovered an association between the two for the first time. When the Earth's temperatures are in a "greenhouse" climate phase, they found that extinctions rates were relatively high. Conversely, during cooler "icehouse" conditions, biodiversity increased. | 24th October 2007 |
| Climate policy - Oct 23 Staff, Energy Bulletin. Climate change is a war that we must fight (Australia) New Zealand aims to be world's first carbon neutral nation Swiss vote goes green with climate change | 24th October 2007 |
| DC Statehood Greens Deliver 'No War, No Warming' Letter To House ... - Common Dreams DC Statehood Greens Deliver 'No War, No Warming' Letter To House ...Common Dreams (press release), ME. ... persuade the Democratic-controlled Congress to reverse the Bush agenda, end the Iraq War and US oil dependence, and address catastrophic climate change. ... | 24th October 2007 |
| Earth to PETA - Salon How can you combat global warming with your fork? Simply by consuming less beef, pork and dairy. Choose beef products produced in the U.S. rather than in Latin America. And generally speaking, pick grass-fed meats and those produced on small, local farms rather than in industrial operations. Beef eaters might also want to keep an eye out for the USDA's forthcoming "grass-fed" label, which has received high marks from a number of environmentalists and small-farm advocates. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Seeing the carbon for the trees - BBC News A scheme to offer nations an economic incentive to protect tropical forests is vital in the battle against climate change. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Changes to hosepipe bans unveiled - BBC News Washing windows in a drought could be forbidden under plans for tougher hosepipe bans due to be announced. | 23rd October 2007 |
| South struggles to cope with drought - The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News Kids in Jefferson, Ga., are shutting the tap off as they brush their teeth. Adults are doing bigger, but fewer, laundry loads. And just about everybody is glancing nervously at the puddle passing for the town's reservoir. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Coral Reefs On Brink Of Disaster, Scientists Urge Action Now - Science Daily Over 50 scientists of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies have declared the following statements unanimously. We call on all societies and governments to immediately and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Without targeted reductions, the ongoing damage to coral reefs from global warming will soon be irreversible. | 23rd October 2007 |
| A pioneering 'clean' city - Los Angeles Times Vaxjo, Sweden, cut its carbon dioxide output 30%. Its success is getting global attention. When this quiet city in southern Sweden decided in 1996 to wean itself off fossil fuels, most people doubted the ambitious goal would have any effect beyond the town limits. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Alaska villages caught in slow-motion disaster - Anchorage Daily News The cost of relocating villages that face extinction in the next decade or so -- sooner if the wrong storm hits the wrong place at the wrong time -- is staggering. Even by Alaska standards. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Sweatin' the Mediterranean Heat - RealClimate Guest Commentary from Figen Mekik This quote from Drew Shindell (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York) hit me very close to home: "Much of the Mediterranean area, North Africa and the Middle East rapidly are becoming drier. If the trend continues as expected, the consequences may be severe in only a couple of decades. These changes could pose significant water resource challenges to large segments of the population" (February, 2007-NASA, Science Daily). I live in Michigan, but Turkey is my home where I go for vacation on the Med. This year's drought was especially noteworthy, so I would like to share some of my observations with you, and then explore the links between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Mediterranean drought and anthropogenic global warming (AGW). | 23rd October 2007 |
| Inch By Inch, Great Lakes Are Getting Smaller, And Cargo Carriers Face Losses - Free Internet Press Water levels in the Great Lakes are falling; Lake Ontario, for example, is about seven inches below where it was a year ago. And for every inch of water that the lakes lose, the ships that ferry bulk materials across them must lighten their loads by 270 tons - or 540,000 pounds - or risk running aground, according to the Lake Carriers' Association, a trade group for United States-flag cargo companies. | 23rd October 2007 |
| India, China must strive to get low-carbon economy: Pachauri - Hindu India and China need to chart a different path to develop low carbon economies to combat global warming, Chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri said. | 23rd October 2007 |
| CNN takes environmental stock in 'Planet in Peril' - CNews NEW YORK - It's a tough world, all right. Too bad it's not tougher. Right now Earth is looking pretty fragile as it suffers from increasing human punishment. | 23rd October 2007 |
| UK will not use emission funds to go green - Independent Online Britain will not use money the government gets from auctioning carbon emissions permits to help it in the fight against climate change, it said on Monday. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Scientists see coal as key challenge - CNNMoney.com The proliferation of coal-burning power plants around the world may pose 'the single greatest challenge' to averting dangerous climate change, an international panel of scientists reported Monday. | 23rd October 2007 |
| UK Says Will Not Use Carbon Revenues for Climate - Planet Ark LONDON - Britain will not use money the government gets from auctioning carbon emissions permits to help it in the fight against climate change, it said on Monday. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Did Bush's Mars Plan Scuttle DSCOVR? - DeSmogBlog When the now-Nobel Laureate Al Gore proposed the DSCOVR mission way back in 1998, he was widely jeered by Republicans for interfering in the scientific business of NASA. “Gore-sat”, “Gore-cam”, and “the multi-million dollar screen saver” were all quips trotted out on the floor of the Senate and Congress in opposition to the mission. DSCOVR was a victim of such partisan politics. Even though it is fully completed at a cost of $100 million, this unique spacecraft remains in a storage box in Maryland, rather than providing critical data on the progress of climate change. | 23rd October 2007 |
| United States - Oct 22 - Energy Bulletin Staff, Energy Bulletin. Friedman: Save the planet: vote smart Historic bill in Senate to fight warming House Inteligence Committee urged to support global warming threat assessment | 23rd October 2007 |
| Unexpected growth in atmospheric CO2 - EurekAlert! A team of scientists has found that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) growth has increased 35 percent faster than expected since 2000. The findings are published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). | 23rd October 2007 |
| China's drive for wealth means end of our low-carbon dreams - Times Online Sunday Hu Jintao wants to make every Chinese twice as rich by 2020. He has done it once – in just five years, income per capita doubled to $2,000 (£983) - and the only obstacle in the Chinese President's path is the fuel needed to stoke the boiler in China's locomotive. | 23rd October 2007 |
| It Was All Hot Air - British Government Plans To Abandon Rewewable ... - Free Internet Press Leaked documents detail strategy for U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change. Government ministers are planning a U-turn on Britain's pledges to combat climate change that "effectively abolishes" its targets to rapidly expand the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. | 23rd October 2007 |
| Generation Anything-But-Quiet: Just Wait for the Noise at Power Shift 2007! - It's Getting Hot In Here More than 3,300 young people will explode off of their campuses and away from the internet, descending - in person and in droves - on the nation's capitol for Power Shift 2007, the first-ever national youth summit on global warming, November 2nd-5th. Power Shift will bring together thousands of students and youth from all 50 states to wrestle with our generation's greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity: The climate crisis. At the conference, attendees will learn new skills, share ideas, connect with fellow activists and ultimately use their collective experience, enthusiasm and commitment to forge a powerful movement to end the climate crisis and make their innovative and inspiring new vision of a sustainable, just, and prosperous future a reality. |
23rd October 2007 |
| At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate - Washington Post Fourth in a monthly series For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it's not fiction. |
22nd October 2007 |
| Steep decline in oil production brings risk of war and unrest, says new study - Guardian Unlimited Output peaked in 2006 and will fall 7% a year while a decline in gas, coal and uranium is also predicted. |
22nd October 2007 |
| Is economic development in danger of drying up? - International Herald Tribune Is economic development in danger of drying up?International Herald Tribune, France. By Jon Gertner Scientists sometimes refer to the effect a hotter world will have on fresh water as the other water problem, because global warming more ... |
22nd October 2007 |
| The Tar Sands and Canada's Food System - The Dominion North American agriculture is deeply dependent on natural gas. Nitrogen fertilizer is chemically produced using a process that -- currently -- cannot be conducted efficiently without large amounts of natural gas. This fertilizer, in turn, is an essential nutrient in North America's food production system. "In a fairly direct way," says Darrin Qualman, Director of Research at the National Farmers Union, "natural gas is a primary feedstock for our food supply." While "peak oil," the point at which global production of oil begins to decline, is subject to speculation, natural gas peaked in North America in 2003. Since then, more wells have been added, but production has declined slowly, while prices have increased sharply. |
22nd October 2007 |
| EU row delays plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions - Guardian It has emerged that the European Commission, due to announce on December 5 its proposals on how to cut CO2 emissions by 20% and use renewables for 20% of its energy consumption by 2020, has put off the plans until the new year. | 22nd October 2007 |
| State of emergency declared in Georgia as drought worsens by Kirsty McCabe - BBC News Governors in Georgia yesterday declared a state of emergency across the northern half of the state as the drought continued to worsen. | 22nd October 2007 |
| Rising Seas Threaten 21 Mega-Cities (AP) -- Cities around the world are facing the danger of rising seas and other disasters related to climate change. | 22nd October 2007 |
| Poll shows Americans getting more concerned about global warming - CNN.com Most Americans blame emissions from cars and industrial plants as the primary cause of global warming and believe the United States should reduce levels even if other countries don't, a survey shows. | 22nd October 2007 |
| I am pretty sure you are not aware of this October is Energy Awareness Month. What's more, October first got this designation from the first President Bush in 1991. Why do I know this? Because the only people I have ever met who know about Energy Awareness Month are people who have worked at the Department of Energy. I'm going to change all that with this blog post, which will probably double the number of people aware of Energy Awareness Month. Don't worry, though, the DOE has made it easy to take action: To help you customize your energy awareness program, You Have the Power campaign artwork is available for you to download from the images [on this website]. | 22nd October 2007 |
| In Australia, Howard's campaign lags - The Christian Science Monitor Poll's indicate that labor leader Kevin Rudd won Sunday's live debate with Prime Minister John Howard. | 22nd October 2007 |
| Drought and water wars - Oct 21 - Energy Bulletin Georgia governor declares state of emergency due to drought Drought-stricken Georgia says it will sue Alabama's long-running water war with Georgia heats up NYT: The future is drying up | 22nd October 2007 |
| Oceans 'soaking up less CO2' - BBC News Scientists say there has been a worrying drop in the amount of CO2 soaked up by the world's oceans. |
20th October 2007 |
| Public Opinion Snapshot: - Center For American Progress The public believes by more than 3:1, or 68 percent to 21 percent, that the Bush administration hasn’t “done as much as it should to address climate change and reduce global warming. |
20th October 2007 |
| Protesters picket biofuel event - BBC News Protesters have targeted a Europe's largest conference on biofuels, which was being held in Nottinghamshire. |
20th October 2007 |
| Ships' CO2 'twice that of planes' - BBC News Global emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping are twice the level of aviation, new maritime research says. |
20th October 2007 |
| Exports fuel China's CO2 output - BBC News A quarter of China's CO2 emissions are produced making goods exported to the West, a report finds. | 20th October 2007 |
| Car emissions endanger EU climate goals, Greens say - Euro Observer 19.10.2007 - 08:00 CET | By Helena Spongenberg EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The EU needs more ambitious greenhouse-gas reducing targets if it is to reach its international environment commitments, a new study by green euro-deputies says. | 20th October 2007 |
| How green is my car? - The Globe and Mail Not very, if you're Canadian | 20th October 2007 |
| Warming is called a threat to forests - Arizona Daily Star Our crystal ball is filled with more smoke and fewer forests. | 20th October 2007 |
| Climate Change is Investment "Megatrend" - Deutsche - Planet Ark BEIJING - Government efforts to tackle climate change are creating a "megatrend" investment opportunity that should tempt even those sceptical about the nature and pace of global warming, Deutsche Bank analysts said on Thursday. | 20th October 2007 |
| California ready to sue EPA to enact greenhouse-gas rules - Contra Costa Times California ready to sue EPA to enact greenhouse-gas rulesContra Costa Times, CA. In April the Supreme Court acknowledged that global warming has real impact and ruled that the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant. ... | 20th October 2007 |
| Little Green Lies - BusinessWeek The sweet notion that making a company environmentally friendly can be not just cost-effective but profitable is going up in smoke. Meet the man wielding the torch . | 20th October 2007 |
| New climate in banking - Guardian Unlimited HSBC decides there's a profit in global warming. Tony Levene reports. HSBC is to set up a fund aimed at investors who believe that initiatives to deal with global warming will be profitable. | 20th October 2007 |
| No formal withdrawal from Kyoto, even though targets unattainable: Baird - CNews OTTAWA - Environment Minister John Baird says Canada will not formally withdraw from the Kyoto protocol, even though the Conservative government's latest throne speech declared the objectives in the global climate change treaty are unattainable. | 20th October 2007 |
| UN climate chief looks for Bali breakthrough - Reuters AlertNet UN climate chief looks for Bali breakthroughReuters AlertNet, UK. "(The Bali meeting) doesn't have to deliver the perfect climate change regime, it doesn't have to answer all the questions, it doesn't have to solve all the ... | 20th October 2007 |
| What Will Turn the Tide Towards Sustainability? - WorldChanging How much of that brain power is harnessed, would you guess, to solving the problem of global climate change, or improving the future prospects of the world's p[oorest children?. | 20th October 2007 |
| The Big Melt - Energy Bulletin David Spratt, Carbon Equity: Ration the future. The Arctic sea ice is disintegrating "100 years ahead of schedule", having dropped 22% this year below the previous minimum low, and it may completely disappear as early as the northern summer of 2013. This is far beyond the predictions of the International Panel on Climate Change and is an example of global warming impacts happening at lower temperature increases and more quickly than projected. (Recommended by several peak oil writers). |
19th October 2007 |
| Hidden costs of climate change - Energy Bulletin Staff, University of Maryland. The total economic cost of climate change in the United States will be major and nationwide in scope, but remains uncounted, unplanned for and largely hidden in public debate, says a new study from the University of Maryland. |
19th October 2007 |
| Global Warming Delusions at the Wall Street Journal - RealClimate Daniel Botkin, emeritus professor of ecology at UC Santa Barbara, argues in the Wall Street Journal (Oct 17, page A19) that global warming will not have much impact on life on Earth. We'll summarize some of his points and then take our turn: 1. The warm climates in the past 2.5 million years did not lead to extinctions. For the past 2.5 million years the climate has oscillated between interglacials which were (at most) a little warmer than today and glacials which were considerably colder than today. There is no precedent in the past 2.5 million years for so much warming so fast. |
19th October 2007 |
| Higher sea level may come sooner than expected - innovations report By studying 120,000-year-old layers in the ice of Greenland, researchers have determined that the ice cover seems to be able to survive a warmer climate better than was previously believed. But at the same time they have found signs that the changes that are nevertheless happening will occur at an unexpectedly rapid rate. The level of the global seas may therefore rise faster than was previously thought. |
19th October 2007 |
| Tapping into NI's steaming asset - BBC A source of geothermal energy found in County Antrim could have the potential to provide heat and electricity for Northern Ireland's towns and cities. | 19th October 2007 |
| Consumers worldwide would switch to energy providers that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions - CRM Today Nearly nine out of 10 consumers worldwide said they would switch to energy providers that offer products and services that help reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study on climate change released today by Accenture (NYSE: ACN). | 19th October 2007 |
| Senate considers new greenhouse gas caps - The San Luis Obispo Tribune A Senate blueprint for tackling global warming would require power plants and vehicles to reduce their greenhouse gases by 70 percent. A chief sponsor said President Bush's approach of voluntary action will not meet the goal. The proposal Thursday by Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, was seen as a compromise that could get the 60 votes needed to pass, perhaps next year. |
19th October 2007 |
| Tesco turns to barges to cut emissions - Guardian Unlimited Supermarket claims to be first big British retailer to transport freight by canal. |
19th October 2007 |
| Crops burning under blue skies - Salisbury Post It's apparently good weather to pick cotton, but that's the only good news on the farm scene. As the drought worsens, farming operations have virtually stopped. | 19th October 2007 |
| Warning over pollution c-charge - BBC News A proposed emission-related congestion charge will increase pollution and traffic, a report says. The Land Rover-commissioned reviews said the £25 toll on the highest CO2 polluters was "a risky white elephant". | 19th October 2007 |
| Congress to Consider Global Warming Wildlife Survival Bill - Environment News Service WASHINGTON, DC , October 17, 2007 (ENS) - Calling global warming the single greatest threat to the world's natural environment, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, today announced new legislation laying the groundwork for a national strategy to address the impacts of climate change on America's wildlife. | 19th October 2007 |
| Energy firms urge 'smart' meters - BBC News Power companies tell AMs they need a clear lead from the UK government to invest in new-style energy meters. | 19th October 2007 |
| Flood-hit N Korea 'faces famine' - BBC News North Korea could face famine after floods destroy crops, worsening food shortages, a study says. | 19th October 2007 |
| Local groups use peer pressure - and fines - to cut carbon emissions - International Herald Tribune But it's difficult to find an effective personal carbon reduction system that also could become accepted by the general public. |
18th October 2007 |
| Seven Questions: Ted Turner on the Future of the Planet - Foreign Policy Passport Nearly three decades ago, he pioneered 24-hour news. Now he's trying to save the world - and make money doing it. In this week's Seven Questions, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner talks about the United Nations, the death of newspapers, and why climate change offers "the greatest business opportunity that has ever come along." | 18th October 2007 |
| Data centres hike CO2 levels - Computing.co.uk The world's data centres are responsible for the same volume of carbon emissions as the average European country, and more than double those of Finland and Portugal. Data centres account for almost a quarter (23 per cent) of the 580 million tonnes of CO2 released annually by the production and use of computer systems, according to the latest research from analyst Gartner. And despite the development of more environmentally-friendly technology, the situation will only get worse, according to Gartner analyst Rakesh Kumar. | 18th October 2007 |
| Warming causing stress in Arctic, threats to caribou, sea ice, permafrost - CNews WASHINGTON - The Arctic is under increasing stress with warming temperatures changing wildlife habitat and local climate conditions, researchers said Wednesday. | 18th October 2007 |
| Racking up climate debt - GristMill The United States is an awfully wealthy nation, as is the United Kingdom. It shows in our lifestyles and it shows in our carbon dioxide emissions -- we are energy rich, not necessarily in production but in consumption. The BBC recently ran an article (opening paragraphs below) highlighting some research from a development organization, and the numbers tell a stunning yet very real story: Bristol International Airport produces the same amount of CO2 from flying each year as the African nation of Malawi, an anti-poverty group said. The World Development Movement claimed the overall UK-wide growth in aviation was undermining efforts to control climate change. | 18th October 2007 |
| The Global Warming Learning Curve - Time Magazine Al Gore may have won the Nobel Peace Prize, but Internet data shows that the public still has a lot to learn about climate change | 18th October 2007 |
| Ex-UN Boss Launches Forum for Climate Change Fight - Planet Ark GENEVA - Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday launched a "Global Humanitarian Forum" which he said would focus on coordinating international efforts to counter the effects of climate change. | 18th October 2007 |
| Concern for Scotland's rare bugs - BBC News Unusual insects are clinging to survival against threats from pollution and climate change, say conservationists. | 18th October 2007 |
| Climate change costs outweigh benefits - Earthtimes COLLEGE PARK, Md., Oct. 17 A University of Maryland study has concluded that the negative economic impact of climate change on the United States will outweigh any possible benefits. | 18th October 2007 |
| King of fish threatened - Scotsman Prof Todd, a marine ecologist at St Andrews University who was speaking at an Atlantic Salmon Trust conference on the fate of salmon at sea in Edinburgh yesterday, told The Scotsman: "Our analyses indicate that this is closely linked to ocean climate warming in the north-east Atlantic. Probably we are seeing the effects of a lack of feeding for salmon at sea, arising from temperature-driven shifts in the distribution of the plankton communities upon which salmon depend. "It is likely that the salmon still are migrating to the correct part of the ocean, but when they get there the food simply is not available to them." | 18th October 2007 |
| Bush, Harper, Howard: Lies, damn lies and statistics - DeSmogBlog The three "world leaders" who are working hardest these days to kill the Kyoto Accord are also asking their public to believe numbers that are, at best, misleading. | 18th October 2007 |
| More on the new Lieberman-Warner bill - GristMill By David RobertsHere's a document from the Senate offices of Lieberman and Warner, forwarded along by multiple folks top-secret sources. It shows the differences between the August draft version of their bill and the version that will be released tomorrow. I pass it along for your edification. (You'll see that the improvements in allocation were somewhat more than I thought, but still woefully short of the 100% auction that's needed.) ----- Main Ways That America's Climate Security Act (ACSA) Differs From the Draft Table of Contents That Senators Lieberman and Warner Released on August 2 Emissions Cap ACSA's year 2020 emissions cap is tighter (15% below the year 2005 level) than the August 2 document's year 2020 emissions cap (10% below the year 2005 level). | 18th October 2007 |
| Energy Bulletin: Climate - Oct 17 Staff, Energy Bulletin. Warming prompts California water regulators Rhode Island planners ready for sea-level rise Rob Hopkins: The single most depressing thing I have ever read Sharon Astyk: Have we hit the critical climate tipping point? |
18th October 2007 |
| Drought-Stricken South Facing Tough Choices - New York Times A drought in the Southeastern United States has become so severe that some cities are just months away from running out of water. |
17th October 2007 |
| Convenient Untruths - RealClimate Convenient UntruthsRealClimate. In the movie, the retreat of Kilimanjaro is not claimed to be purely due to global warming , but it is a legitimate example of the sort of thing one expects ... |
17th October 2007 |
| What Should We Really Be Doing About Global Warming? A Freakonomics Quorum - New York Times we thought it would be a good idea to host a Freakonomics Quorum in which we asked a few smart people a very straightforward two-part question: What should the U.S. government be doing about global warming, and what should individuals be doing? Here are their answers; many thanks for their time and thoughtfulness. |
17th October 2007 |
| [Bonkers article ...or the reason so many leaders seem bent on destroying the planet?] Worsening Global Warming Catastrophe suggests intrusion from Manipulative Extraterrestrials - Canadian National Newspaper If one acknowledges that the elites who prevail over worsening climate change, as intelligent sentient beings, are also survival-seekers, only an "off-world" context can explain the apparent illogical course of elites who are perpetrating the destruction of our planet Earth. Human beings need to wake themselves up to the numerous testimonies of individuals that have been in contact with various species of Extraterrestrials, and must also wake up to the experience of millions of people that have, at least witnessed apparent alien spacecraft. |
17th October 2007 |
| Energy Bulletin: Renewables - Oct 16 A carbon-negative fuel (gasification and terra preta) High hopes for renewable power from Earth's depths Lovins: Global warming and peak oil are irrelevant (efficiency) |
17th October 2007 |
| THREATENED SEABIRDS THRIVE IN CORNWALL - The Cornishman Global warming has led to the waters and cliffs of Cornwall increasingly becoming a haven for Europe's most t |